Faith
Rating: PG-13 Summary: When Emma disappears from Sanctuary, Adam vows to get her back. Pairing: Adam/Emma Author's Note: This story breaks continuity with the show after The Future is Revealed.
Disclaimer: I don't own Mutant X or any of its characters. I'm just borrowing them to have some fun with for a little while.
Chapter 3:
November 30, 2002
Jesse, Brennan, and Shalimar sat in stunned silence in the lounge after Adam walked out. Finally, Brennan spoke.
"I can't believe it. Adam and Emma!? How did that happen? And when? And why didn't they tell us?"
"Looks like they didn't trust us," Shalimar said bitterly. "Nice vote of confidence in the team, huh?"
"You guys are assuming we can believe what Adam just told us," Jesse interrupted. "How do we know any of that was real?"
"You think he'd lie to us?" Shal looked at him in surprise.
"I don't know, but none of this makes sense to me. If Emma and Adam were having some kind of affair, why would Emma suddenly run off with Michael? And no offense, but Emma-and Adam??" He held out his hands. "I always thought she saw him as a father figure. I mean, don't we all?"
Brennan sighed. "I'd be lying if I said that didn't freak me out, too. I mean, she's young enough to be his daughter. I know he's a millionaire, but what is he, Hugh Hefner all of a sudden?"
"Hey, wait a minute!" Shalimar got to her feet and stared down at him. "That's not fair, Brennan. How can you think that about Adam, after everything he's done for us?"
"Shal, I think Brennan's just pointing out, a guy like Adam, with his money and influence, and a girl like Emma, who's vulnerable--"
"Vulnerable? Emma?"
"We're all a little vulnerable because of our mutant powers, Shal. Emma especially. Most of the time, she's in control of her powers, but sometimes, they're in control of her. And since her powers are all about emotions, yeah, she can be vulnerable. And because Adam knows more about mutants than anyone else--including us--he's got power over her." He scowled. "I never thought he'd abuse it."
"You, too?" Shal looked at Jesse with a pained expression. "Come on. If he was the kind of guy who would take advantage of his power over a young woman, then I'd know, wouldn't I? I was here long before any of you were. He was never anything but good to me. He didn't expect anything in return. That's not who Adam is."
Brennan got to his feet, too. "Well, how else do you explain this?" he asked. "I mean, they're involved in a secret relationship they don't tell any of us about? Why wouldn't they, if they had nothing to hide?"
"People usually keep relationships a secret when they know there's something wrong with it, or they know it's not going to last." Jesse's lips twisted cynically. "I had this friend, Laurie, years ago, who fell in love with her teacher. He persuaded her he loved her deeply, but they had to keep their relationship secret because of his reputation. Convinced her he was going to leave his wife. Six months later, he dumped Laurie, and she tried to kill herself."
Shalimar looked at him like he was an alien. "How can you even compare the situations? You don't know what's going on here, none of us do. Did it ever occur to either of you that maybe Emma's the one who did the seducing here? Aside from the fact that she is young and beautiful, she's also a telempath. If she couldn't seduce Adam with her body, she could have with her mind. She could get him to do anything."
"Look, I know Adam's a genius, and, I suppose, from a woman's point of view, he's not bad looking, but don't you think Emma would want someone a little closer to her own age?" Brennan argued.
Shal's eyes flashed. "Maybe she's got a daddy complex. Maybe she did it for kicks. Maybe she's interested in his money. Who the hell knows? My theory makes as much sense as yours does!"
"If she was interested in his money, why would she have turned around and run off with Michael?" Jesse interrupted. He finally got to his feet and crossed his arms in front of him, as if he had just checkmated Shalimar at chess.
"Because the Vincents are even richer than Adam," Shalimar replied.
Jesse shook his head. "I had no idea you hated Emma so much."
Shalimar looked as though he'd slapped her. "I don't hate Emma! I'm just saying, there are two sides to every story, and before the two of you decide to lynch Adam for seducing poor innocent Emma, maybe you might want to consider Emma's role in all this."
"Nobody wants to lynch Adam-" Brennan began.
"Really? Because that's what it sounds like to me."
"Look, Shal, we're just saying it's normally the older man who has the power in these relationships-"
"Since when has anything been normal for any of us?" she retorted. "We're mutants!"
"It is pointless to argue with you, you're going to take Adam's side." Brennan waved his hand as if to shut down the conversation.
They all stopped arguing, their emotions spent. Shalimar ran a hand through her hair, thinking.
"Listen to us. Listen to what's coming out of our mouths about people we care about." She looked at Brennan, then Jesse. "No wonder they didn't tell us. If Emma were here, our emotions would knock her flat on her back."
Both young men looked chagrined. "You've got a point," Jesse admitted. "I guess.. instead of speculating about who did what to whom, maybe we should find out the whole story."
Shalimar laid her hand on his arm. "Let me. Adam might be more comfortable confiding in me."
* * * * *
Adam was in the lab, staring at the GPS images of the Vincent's property on the large screen on the wall in front of him. It was a vast property, with groves of trees, the enormous mansion Jesse had referred to, and several outbuildings, including a guesthouse. Emma was there, somewhere, right now.
"Adam?"
He whirled around to see the blonde feral standing in the doorway. "Shalimar." His tone was cool.
Shalimar came in and sat in a nearby chair. She looked tentative. "We're all confused. That was quite a bombshell you dropped on us, you know."
Adam's shoulders relaxed. "I know."
"How did this happen, I mean. . . you and Emma?"
Adam drew another chair over next to hers and sat, leaning forward. "It was after Ashlocke's followers committed suicide. I was upset, and Emma came to me, to comfort me." He smiled, remembering her calm, her tenderness. "We were talking, and. . .I let my guard down. She read me. I had been feeling some things for her for a long time, but I didn't think it was appropriate, so I shoved those feelings down as far as I could in my subconscious, you know? I didn't want to burden her with whatever hormonal urges I had toward her. She's had enough of that in her life."
He looked at Shalimar pointedly, as if he could read her mind. "I'm well aware of the age difference. But I'm still a man. And she's a beautiful, bright young woman who's sweet and compassionate. . .and she touched me. I would never have acted on my feelings, but I slipped that night, and she read them." His voice grew heavy with emotion. "To my complete surprise, she wasn't angry with me, and she wasn't embarrassed. Things I thought she would be if she ever found out."
"What did she say?" Shal asked, interested in hearing the rest.
"She told me she felt the same way about me. Then she kissed me. And I knew it was all right. Everything was going to be all right from then on. I love her, Shalimar. More than life itself." His voice broke.
Shal's eyes began to tear up. She believed him. "So you guys have been having these feelings for each other for the past month, and we never had a clue."
"Emma and I knew it would be hard for you all. We've been such a family unit here. She and I were shaking up the status quo in a way we thought might be difficult for you to understand. We were going to tell you. We just wanted some time to enjoy what we'd found with each other before we had to face all sorts of questions-"
"And emotions," Shal added quietly. "You should've been out there a few minutes ago. Brennan and Jesse and I almost came to blows." She smiled sheepishly. "That would've been hard on poor Emma."
"So we snatched whatever moments we could. Remember that night we said we needed to go to the library to dig through those old dusty historical archives? That took us about an hour and a half, and then we had a nice dinner out and went to a movie. Just like a normal couple."
"You sneaks! You had us actually feeling sorry for you both, spending the whole evening in that dreary library basement." Shalimar grinned. Then she remembered something. "All those times the guys and I went out clubbing and Emma kept making excuses to stay here--"
Adam grinned back. "We would cook dinner and put on some music and dance or just curl up on the couch and watch a movie." His smile slowly faded. "She loves me, Shalimar. I haven't lived as long as I have and made as many mistakes as I have not to have learned how to read people pretty well. She was not faking it. What we had was real. And whatever Michael is doing to her right now, he's doing it against her will. I can't bear the thought. If we don't get her back soon, I think I'm going to go mad." His dark eyes pleaded with her silently.
"I'm in," Shalimar told him. "Let me go talk to the guys. You come up with a plan. We'll get her back, Adam. I promise." She squeezed his hand.
* * * * *
As Shal left to talk to Adam, Brennan said to Jesse, "Come on, let's go shoot some hoops."
"I'm not dressed for it."
"I've got to do something. I've got all this energy."
Jesse shrugged and followed Brennan down the hallway, shedding his coat and shirt on the way. Brennan grabbed the ball and they took their usual starting positions for a game of one-on-one. "No using your powers," Jesse warned his friend.
Brennan grinned and began dribbling the ball. "I don't have to use my powers. So how was your date with the lovely Kimberly?" He shouldered past Jesse and threw the ball from seven feet away. The ball bounced around the rim and finally went through.
Jesse retrieved the basketball. "It was going great until Adam called me back. She probably thinks I had it planned all along. She'll never go out with me again." It was his turn to try to get past Brennan. He faked a left and instead, went right, ran up under the basket and dunked it-a bit more aggressively than was his usual style.
Brennan's eyebrows went up as he noticed Jesse's anger. He caught the ball before the third bounce. "Just send her some flowers and explain. She'll give you another chance."
Jesse shrugged off the suggestion. He didn't make a move to resume the game. "Do you think we were being too hard on Adam?"
Brennan tucked the ball under his right arm. After a moment's pause, he said: "Yeah, I guess."
"I think because of what happened with my friend Laurie, I have this thing about. . . I don't trust men who take up with younger women. I never thought Adam would be like that. It really threw me for a loop. But Shal's right, I can't judge Adam based on what little we know. He's never done anything to make me think he'd use a woman like that. I can't believe that I immediately assumed the worst of him."
"What about me? I accused him of being a Hugh Hefner wannabe. But the guy practically lives like a monk, shut up in his lab all the time."
"How many times has he saved our lives in the last couple of years?"
"I stopped counting." Giving up all pretense that the game was going to continue, Brennan tossed the basketball away from him, into the corner of the room. "I think," he began, "it's the fact that it was Emma. I mean, if Adam came and introduced us to his new 23 year old girlfriend, and it was somebody we didn't know, we might raise an eyebrow or two, and then we'd think 'Lucky dog', right? We wouldn't have gotten this upset, would we?"
Jesse ducked his head, his hands on his hips. "Probably not."
"Exactly. But Emma, you know, she's family. She's like a little sister, or the girl next door. She makes you feel like you have to protect her."
"But she hates when we're protective of her," Jesse added, smiling as he remembered one time when she got mad at him and Brennan for acting like she was a fragile doll and knocked them on their butts with a psionic blast.
"Right, but it doesn't change how we feel, does it? I can't stand the idea of someone taking advantage of her."
"Me neither. So the question remains: Who's been taking advantage of her, Adam or Michael, or both?"
They were quiet for several moments, each lost in his thoughts, struggling with what he knew about Emma and Adam. Slowly, they looked at each other again, each having come to his own conclusion. "We owe Adam an apology," Jesse said.
"Big time." Brennan clapped Jesse on the shoulder, and the two headed back toward the lab.
Rating: PG-13 Summary: When Emma disappears from Sanctuary, Adam vows to get her back. Pairing: Adam/Emma Author's Note: This story breaks continuity with the show after The Future is Revealed.
Disclaimer: I don't own Mutant X or any of its characters. I'm just borrowing them to have some fun with for a little while.
Chapter 3:
November 30, 2002
Jesse, Brennan, and Shalimar sat in stunned silence in the lounge after Adam walked out. Finally, Brennan spoke.
"I can't believe it. Adam and Emma!? How did that happen? And when? And why didn't they tell us?"
"Looks like they didn't trust us," Shalimar said bitterly. "Nice vote of confidence in the team, huh?"
"You guys are assuming we can believe what Adam just told us," Jesse interrupted. "How do we know any of that was real?"
"You think he'd lie to us?" Shal looked at him in surprise.
"I don't know, but none of this makes sense to me. If Emma and Adam were having some kind of affair, why would Emma suddenly run off with Michael? And no offense, but Emma-and Adam??" He held out his hands. "I always thought she saw him as a father figure. I mean, don't we all?"
Brennan sighed. "I'd be lying if I said that didn't freak me out, too. I mean, she's young enough to be his daughter. I know he's a millionaire, but what is he, Hugh Hefner all of a sudden?"
"Hey, wait a minute!" Shalimar got to her feet and stared down at him. "That's not fair, Brennan. How can you think that about Adam, after everything he's done for us?"
"Shal, I think Brennan's just pointing out, a guy like Adam, with his money and influence, and a girl like Emma, who's vulnerable--"
"Vulnerable? Emma?"
"We're all a little vulnerable because of our mutant powers, Shal. Emma especially. Most of the time, she's in control of her powers, but sometimes, they're in control of her. And since her powers are all about emotions, yeah, she can be vulnerable. And because Adam knows more about mutants than anyone else--including us--he's got power over her." He scowled. "I never thought he'd abuse it."
"You, too?" Shal looked at Jesse with a pained expression. "Come on. If he was the kind of guy who would take advantage of his power over a young woman, then I'd know, wouldn't I? I was here long before any of you were. He was never anything but good to me. He didn't expect anything in return. That's not who Adam is."
Brennan got to his feet, too. "Well, how else do you explain this?" he asked. "I mean, they're involved in a secret relationship they don't tell any of us about? Why wouldn't they, if they had nothing to hide?"
"People usually keep relationships a secret when they know there's something wrong with it, or they know it's not going to last." Jesse's lips twisted cynically. "I had this friend, Laurie, years ago, who fell in love with her teacher. He persuaded her he loved her deeply, but they had to keep their relationship secret because of his reputation. Convinced her he was going to leave his wife. Six months later, he dumped Laurie, and she tried to kill herself."
Shalimar looked at him like he was an alien. "How can you even compare the situations? You don't know what's going on here, none of us do. Did it ever occur to either of you that maybe Emma's the one who did the seducing here? Aside from the fact that she is young and beautiful, she's also a telempath. If she couldn't seduce Adam with her body, she could have with her mind. She could get him to do anything."
"Look, I know Adam's a genius, and, I suppose, from a woman's point of view, he's not bad looking, but don't you think Emma would want someone a little closer to her own age?" Brennan argued.
Shal's eyes flashed. "Maybe she's got a daddy complex. Maybe she did it for kicks. Maybe she's interested in his money. Who the hell knows? My theory makes as much sense as yours does!"
"If she was interested in his money, why would she have turned around and run off with Michael?" Jesse interrupted. He finally got to his feet and crossed his arms in front of him, as if he had just checkmated Shalimar at chess.
"Because the Vincents are even richer than Adam," Shalimar replied.
Jesse shook his head. "I had no idea you hated Emma so much."
Shalimar looked as though he'd slapped her. "I don't hate Emma! I'm just saying, there are two sides to every story, and before the two of you decide to lynch Adam for seducing poor innocent Emma, maybe you might want to consider Emma's role in all this."
"Nobody wants to lynch Adam-" Brennan began.
"Really? Because that's what it sounds like to me."
"Look, Shal, we're just saying it's normally the older man who has the power in these relationships-"
"Since when has anything been normal for any of us?" she retorted. "We're mutants!"
"It is pointless to argue with you, you're going to take Adam's side." Brennan waved his hand as if to shut down the conversation.
They all stopped arguing, their emotions spent. Shalimar ran a hand through her hair, thinking.
"Listen to us. Listen to what's coming out of our mouths about people we care about." She looked at Brennan, then Jesse. "No wonder they didn't tell us. If Emma were here, our emotions would knock her flat on her back."
Both young men looked chagrined. "You've got a point," Jesse admitted. "I guess.. instead of speculating about who did what to whom, maybe we should find out the whole story."
Shalimar laid her hand on his arm. "Let me. Adam might be more comfortable confiding in me."
* * * * *
Adam was in the lab, staring at the GPS images of the Vincent's property on the large screen on the wall in front of him. It was a vast property, with groves of trees, the enormous mansion Jesse had referred to, and several outbuildings, including a guesthouse. Emma was there, somewhere, right now.
"Adam?"
He whirled around to see the blonde feral standing in the doorway. "Shalimar." His tone was cool.
Shalimar came in and sat in a nearby chair. She looked tentative. "We're all confused. That was quite a bombshell you dropped on us, you know."
Adam's shoulders relaxed. "I know."
"How did this happen, I mean. . . you and Emma?"
Adam drew another chair over next to hers and sat, leaning forward. "It was after Ashlocke's followers committed suicide. I was upset, and Emma came to me, to comfort me." He smiled, remembering her calm, her tenderness. "We were talking, and. . .I let my guard down. She read me. I had been feeling some things for her for a long time, but I didn't think it was appropriate, so I shoved those feelings down as far as I could in my subconscious, you know? I didn't want to burden her with whatever hormonal urges I had toward her. She's had enough of that in her life."
He looked at Shalimar pointedly, as if he could read her mind. "I'm well aware of the age difference. But I'm still a man. And she's a beautiful, bright young woman who's sweet and compassionate. . .and she touched me. I would never have acted on my feelings, but I slipped that night, and she read them." His voice grew heavy with emotion. "To my complete surprise, she wasn't angry with me, and she wasn't embarrassed. Things I thought she would be if she ever found out."
"What did she say?" Shal asked, interested in hearing the rest.
"She told me she felt the same way about me. Then she kissed me. And I knew it was all right. Everything was going to be all right from then on. I love her, Shalimar. More than life itself." His voice broke.
Shal's eyes began to tear up. She believed him. "So you guys have been having these feelings for each other for the past month, and we never had a clue."
"Emma and I knew it would be hard for you all. We've been such a family unit here. She and I were shaking up the status quo in a way we thought might be difficult for you to understand. We were going to tell you. We just wanted some time to enjoy what we'd found with each other before we had to face all sorts of questions-"
"And emotions," Shal added quietly. "You should've been out there a few minutes ago. Brennan and Jesse and I almost came to blows." She smiled sheepishly. "That would've been hard on poor Emma."
"So we snatched whatever moments we could. Remember that night we said we needed to go to the library to dig through those old dusty historical archives? That took us about an hour and a half, and then we had a nice dinner out and went to a movie. Just like a normal couple."
"You sneaks! You had us actually feeling sorry for you both, spending the whole evening in that dreary library basement." Shalimar grinned. Then she remembered something. "All those times the guys and I went out clubbing and Emma kept making excuses to stay here--"
Adam grinned back. "We would cook dinner and put on some music and dance or just curl up on the couch and watch a movie." His smile slowly faded. "She loves me, Shalimar. I haven't lived as long as I have and made as many mistakes as I have not to have learned how to read people pretty well. She was not faking it. What we had was real. And whatever Michael is doing to her right now, he's doing it against her will. I can't bear the thought. If we don't get her back soon, I think I'm going to go mad." His dark eyes pleaded with her silently.
"I'm in," Shalimar told him. "Let me go talk to the guys. You come up with a plan. We'll get her back, Adam. I promise." She squeezed his hand.
* * * * *
As Shal left to talk to Adam, Brennan said to Jesse, "Come on, let's go shoot some hoops."
"I'm not dressed for it."
"I've got to do something. I've got all this energy."
Jesse shrugged and followed Brennan down the hallway, shedding his coat and shirt on the way. Brennan grabbed the ball and they took their usual starting positions for a game of one-on-one. "No using your powers," Jesse warned his friend.
Brennan grinned and began dribbling the ball. "I don't have to use my powers. So how was your date with the lovely Kimberly?" He shouldered past Jesse and threw the ball from seven feet away. The ball bounced around the rim and finally went through.
Jesse retrieved the basketball. "It was going great until Adam called me back. She probably thinks I had it planned all along. She'll never go out with me again." It was his turn to try to get past Brennan. He faked a left and instead, went right, ran up under the basket and dunked it-a bit more aggressively than was his usual style.
Brennan's eyebrows went up as he noticed Jesse's anger. He caught the ball before the third bounce. "Just send her some flowers and explain. She'll give you another chance."
Jesse shrugged off the suggestion. He didn't make a move to resume the game. "Do you think we were being too hard on Adam?"
Brennan tucked the ball under his right arm. After a moment's pause, he said: "Yeah, I guess."
"I think because of what happened with my friend Laurie, I have this thing about. . . I don't trust men who take up with younger women. I never thought Adam would be like that. It really threw me for a loop. But Shal's right, I can't judge Adam based on what little we know. He's never done anything to make me think he'd use a woman like that. I can't believe that I immediately assumed the worst of him."
"What about me? I accused him of being a Hugh Hefner wannabe. But the guy practically lives like a monk, shut up in his lab all the time."
"How many times has he saved our lives in the last couple of years?"
"I stopped counting." Giving up all pretense that the game was going to continue, Brennan tossed the basketball away from him, into the corner of the room. "I think," he began, "it's the fact that it was Emma. I mean, if Adam came and introduced us to his new 23 year old girlfriend, and it was somebody we didn't know, we might raise an eyebrow or two, and then we'd think 'Lucky dog', right? We wouldn't have gotten this upset, would we?"
Jesse ducked his head, his hands on his hips. "Probably not."
"Exactly. But Emma, you know, she's family. She's like a little sister, or the girl next door. She makes you feel like you have to protect her."
"But she hates when we're protective of her," Jesse added, smiling as he remembered one time when she got mad at him and Brennan for acting like she was a fragile doll and knocked them on their butts with a psionic blast.
"Right, but it doesn't change how we feel, does it? I can't stand the idea of someone taking advantage of her."
"Me neither. So the question remains: Who's been taking advantage of her, Adam or Michael, or both?"
They were quiet for several moments, each lost in his thoughts, struggling with what he knew about Emma and Adam. Slowly, they looked at each other again, each having come to his own conclusion. "We owe Adam an apology," Jesse said.
"Big time." Brennan clapped Jesse on the shoulder, and the two headed back toward the lab.