A/N- I was originally going to do a Brendan growing-up piece but give the reviewers what they want (well that and the idea of doing the other three/four (Adam) grew on me pretty quickly. I did the outside observer pov on this chapter (I just can't crawl in the mind of a three year old tonight). It is a little over a year since the last story.
Inspiration- In a baby book I saw Brennan meant strong and brave even in youth which made me want to do a childhood story for him. After the reviews I looked up Shalimar- ready for battle and Jesse- wealthy and Emma- flirtatious (can't win them all, although in some ways). Anyways it helped with the idea for the next chapters.
Disclaimer (I think I forgot this b4) - I don't own mutant x it belongs to some company somewhere. I don't own the quotes or the shows that they come from. All I own is the story idea. Anyways the short of it is, not mine, never will be, just borrowing the characters and storyline.
Disclaimer (of a different kind)- There is a part of this story where Adam examines a three year girl without a shirt on. There is nothing icky about the scene (you know what I mean, abuse of any kind, I really don't agree with that in anyway) about it but some people have problems with guys and little girls without clothes Please remember 2 points 1) Adam is a doctor examining a patient. 2) the girl is 3
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Bad Guy Hench-man: She just wanted someone to care for her
Jared: Someone already did.
The Pretender
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She stood crouched in a corner. The three-year old had walked at 5 months and since that time always rested by bending her knees but never sitting on the floor. She was a strange child to observe. Anyone who had been around young children would see that she physically stronger and faster than any child her age. Her whole body though didn't communicate youth. Watching her a person could see fear, loneness, need and want through her face and actions but she never seemed to lose the determination and independence that had kept her alive the last years. She didn't speak a look showed you all you needed to know. Her face was expressive despite the years of training and abuse.
The young man, Adam, stood outside the room staring at the young girl. She was one of hundred children he had observed in the past years. But the position she was in reminded him so of the little boy so many years ago. The years and the faces blended. Somehow though he wondered what had happened to this little girl. She had no family. She was one of Genomex's test tube children, made from donated sperm and eggs and grown in an artificial womb. All of the children had then been raised in Genomex for the future use by the military. None of the children spoke much. They tended to cling to the caregivers and socialize with the other children.
This child was different. She played with the other children but she always was on guard. With child being raised for future military use you expected fights to break out, in some weird way they were even quietly encouraged. The young girl never seemed to start the fights; her small size didn't keep her from wining most for them though. What separated her from the other kids was that she would keep going until the guards pulled her away. That only happened when serious injury of one of the children was suspected. It was said she was going to become a prefect soldier. As long as she was breathing she was fighting. But Adam wondered. Her face seemed too old for her three year old body and her eyes held strange wisdom. The young man took a deep breath and stepped into the room.
Some of his co-workers still didn't trust him with the children. Too many had disappeared during his watch. Although none of it could be traced back to him and the closer they guarded him the more children seemed to go missing. Maybe other workers were taking advantage of the situation but his close colleges wondered about him. Even the children knew he was different.
He though he saw the young girl's eyes soften for a moment when he entered the room. In recognition or hope he wondered. The children knew there was a world away from here. They talked of new homes with new parents. It was the friendly doctors who would let you go there if you were good. The adoption program didn't really work like that. The program was there for children who didn't seem to be befitting from the special training Genomex gave them. The children in the program were placed in loving homes to be raised by couples. It kept the workers freer to show extra attention to the gifted children. Or at least that is what the public was told. The kids he moved into the Genomex adoption program were less then normal. If he was trying to remove children from the factory he wasn't doing it through illegal channels which confused the higher ups
No Adam was different and even the young girl knew it. But she didn't just know it from the whispers during the social growth time each day. Adam nodded his head at the girl. "How are you today wild cat?" The little girl tilted her head at Adam's words. He smiled. "Glad to see you like the nickname."
She continued looking at the young man right in the eyes. He kept the smile on his face. He was one of the few doctors that smiled and the only one who smiled with his eyes. Spending her whole three years looking into the faces of the doctors and other research personal the little child always looked at the young man's eyes with wonder. She always seemed to be studying them for some unseen secret.
"I heard that you got into another fight, wild cat. I wanted to see how you were doing." The girl just stayed where she was. Adam didn't seem surprise and moved next to the girl. "Mind if a sit down so I can look at you?" The girl continued her study of Adam's face. He nodded and sat down next to the wall careful to no corner the girl. She had clawed her out of many exams and the nurses were busy with the two five year olds who had attacked her earlier that day. The jury was still out on who was winning when four men had been ordered to pulled the children apart. They had been sent home with a paid vacation and multiple broken bones.
"You want to come with me to the exam room." The girl just looked at Adam. "Come on wild cat." He stood up and walked to the door holding out his hand for the girl. She walked next to him but didn't even move to take his hand. He just let out a small chuckle through his smile, like he wasn't expecting his hand to be taken. "Alright you know the drill wild cat, up on the table." Adam bent to lift up the girl but she shook her head. Adam again let out a short laugh and let the girl climb up on to the table. Once she was up she couched on the balls of her feet. "Sit down wild cat," head shake, "then lay down," another head shake. "Sorry you have to do one or the other, you know this wild cat." She twisted her head to the side and slide her feet out from under her so she was now sitting with he feet hanging over the edge of the table. The young man started to examine the little girl studying her face for any signs of discomfort. He didn't miss the slight flinch as he felt her ribs. "Wild cat I need to take off your gown." The little girl violently started shaking her head. "Wild cat I want to make you feel better. I think you may have bruised or even broken some ribs, I need to see them though. I won't hurt you though; I want to make the pain stop."
"No pain?" The doctor jumped the girl's words. For a moment he saw a new look in her eyes, hope?
"You spoke wild cat."
The girl nodded.
"You never spoken before wild cat."
The girl just nodded again.
"Will you take off the robe for me?"
Again the girl nodded and shifted back looked over her shoulder.
"Do I need to undo the ties?"
Another nod gave him his answer.
Slowly and gently the young man took off the hospital gown that had been the girls only clothing her whole life. As it fell away the young man could see a mess of fresh bruises mixed with older ones. "Wild cat…" the young man muttered at the sight of them all, his smile fading. Regaining some composer Adam gently felt the girl's side. "Can you take a deep breath air for me?" The girl inhaled a but before she could get a lung full of air she let out a gasp. "You ok wild cat?" The girl just looked up at Adam with eyes showing a million emotions. "Let me get this back on your wild cat." Carefully Adam got the girl back into the gown and tied up the back.
"You know wild cat I think you won this fight." The girl tilted her head the other way and lifted her chin slightly. The movements showed off her black eye and the bruises on her neck in the prefect shape of two thumbs where the older of the two had been choking her. "I need you to come with me before we go back to the main room; I want to get you something for the pain." Adam swallowed as he said the last word.
Adam walked to the door and held out his hand. The girl hopped off the table and to Adam's surprise took his hand. Something changed in Adam's eyes. Bending down he gently picked up the girl. She let herself be lifted up. As he walked down the hallway the girl started to squirm in his arms. He bent down and started to place her on the floor when two tiny arms wrapped themselves around his neck. He straighten back up and found the girls face quickly buried into his chest.
Adam quicken his pace and walked down the hallway. He sat down at a computer with the girl still clinging to his neck he start rapidly typing. He stood-up walked across the building with the child. He ignored the questioning looks at the child clutching to his neck.
He continued to walk out of the complex, through security and with proper clearance took the child out of the building. He didn't take his car but road the employee train that ran from Genomex to the near by city. From there he took three more trains and walked through the city. It was two hours before he was standing in front an apartment building. The girl was still stuck to him refusing to move through the whole trip until she had fallen into a restless sleep.
Adam at the door just let him in. When the door was safely shut the man turned to face Adam. "Adam, I thought you said it was too dangerous for more then one kid in a house?"
"It is. I just need a place for right now. I didn't plan this one."
"Then won't they find you?"
"They still can't prove anything, I know the system too well, and have too many quiet supporters helping me out. I don't even know half the people who seem to cover any cracks I leave."
"Adam if you are caught…"
"Then I will be caught, but you and your family is safe."
"You gave us our little boy; I know you wouldn't put Br…"
"No names,"
"It's better if I forget the name if anything happens to me hopefully they will all be safe."
"I understand, is that why you don't use the adoption program?"
"Its better the longer they are unknown and I promise I would take away her pain. I couldn't wait for the right moment. Is there a place for her here, just for a day while I check out the family? I need to be sure she is safe, every one of them needs to be safe..." Adam's voice trailed off lost in thought for a moment.
"We do everything to keep Br… our son safe. Do you really forget the names?"
"Just their names, I could never forget their faces." Adam looked down at sleeping girl in his arms. "Do you have somewhere?"
"Upstairs, he has a bunk bed." The man led Adam to his son room. A young boy around six with dark hair was sleeping peacefully in the top bunk. He didn't stir as Adam place the young girl in the bed below him. As Adam was peeling the girl off of him she awoke.
"Shhh.. Wild Cat, go back to sleep."
The girl shook her head.
"I'll be back soon; I am going to find you a family."
A thousand questions where asked by the little girl's eyes as she looked at him.
"Yes a family, where you will be safe and protected."
The girl held out her arms shaking her head.
"You don't want a family?"
"You" Adam thought the girl's first words were an isolated event so again he jumped when she spoke.
"Me? Be your family?"
The girl nodded.
"I can't be your family, but I can find you a family."
"No pain?"
"Yeah, they will never hurt you; I'll make sure of that."
The girl nodded and started too nodded off. When her deep breathing told Adam she was asleep he turned to the man who was standing at the door. "I'll be back tomorrow morning for her, around dawn if all goes ok." Adam stood up and brushed a hair out of the boy sleeping on the top bunk's eyes.
It was still dark out the next morning when Adam appeared again on the doorstep of the house clearly having been up all night. He took the little girl in his arms careful not to wake her. As he was leaving the room the little boy stirred. "Who are you?" He sleepily asked.
"It's ok Little One, go back to sleep."
"Adam?"
"Back to sleep Little One." The boy nodded and sank back into his bed. The man left the house with a nod to the man. It was another three set of train rides to a neighboring town before they stood in front of an apartment building as the sun was finally starting to rise. The girl started to stir in his arms. The girl looked around questioning Adam with her eyes.
"You are going to have to learn to start talking Wild Cat."
"Where?"
"Where are we?"
The girl nodded.
"At the home of your new family."
Another nod was given.
"Yes you want to meet them."
Another nodded, Adam sigh and readjusted the girl on his hip.
"Come on Wild Cat, you're only going to talk when you want to. I should know that about you by now." They were met at the door by a young woman in a bathrobe. Adam places the girl on the floor. "I have to go now."
The girl shook her head violently holding tight to Adam's arms. "You'll be alright; no one will hurt you here. And I have a gift for you."
The girl stopped her squirming and looked at Adam with her head tipped to the side.
"It's your name." The girl held out her arm showing Adam the number that Genomex had tattoo on her arm. "That's not your name, it's a number. Shalimar, that's your new name. I think it will fit you well Wild Cat." Adam gave the girl at hug and then turned her to look at the women who opened the door. "This is going to be your mom Shalimar. She loves you as much as I do." The women held open her arms for a hug but Shalimar just shook her head and turned back to Adam.
"I can't be your family, but Alex wants to be your mom. I promise no more pain. To do that you can't be with me. Come on Wild Cat, it will be ok, just cause you can't see me doesn't mean I won't be watching over you."
"Bye Adam" Shalimar said as she wrapped her arms around him. "I love you."
"I do too Wild Cat." With that Adam turned and quickly left the apartment.
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Long ago a king wanted to determine the true langue of mankind.
Five orphan children were obtained.
They were kept in small rooms by themselves.
Nurses cared for all their needs
But were just to have short contact with the children
They were not to hold the children
And never talk to them (for it would influence the langue they would speak)
Not a single one of the five ever spoke
Because none of the five live
(Sadly a True Story)
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