Disclaimer: See Ch. 1 and 2. It's the same.
Dedication: This is dedicated to all those who have kept asking for me to write more or telling me that I wrote too short. Hopefully this is longer.
Author's Note: Due to popular demand (heheh) I have decided to write longer chapters. I should be able to-- I just finished the mother-of-all lab write-ups, and it's clear sailing from here till the end of the year!! However, it might take me longer to update... I'm a diagnosed procrastinator. Moving on....I'll also try to get more S/B romance in, but don't expect any senseless sex. I think I finally know what is going to happen in this story, so I should be able to develop S/B a little more.......And of course, there will be more Brennan-bashing. Sorry, I get a kick out of having the girl comfort the hurting guy, because it allows for soo much romantic development! But don't worry, Shalimar won't be spared any pain. Anyway, on to the story.
BTW: indicated that weird grayish place inside people's minds that Emma sees/goes into when she is meditating or reading someone. For this fic, I'm callin' it a "dreamscape"
You know how it goes... read and review!!!
The first thing Shalimar could feel was her face, pressed uncomfortably against the cool floor. Next she could feel an ache, an ache that was her body. It felt like she'd been flung against a wall. Isn't that ironic....
Slowly she eased herself up from where she lay. Her eyes refocused quickly, a perk of her 'feral-ness'. And the first thing her eyes saw terrified her.
Brennan was laying still, unmoving, a few feet from where she was. He didn't twitch and she couldn't hear him breathing.
Shalimar sprang quickly to her feet, running to his side faster than she had ever ran in her life. Oh god, there has to be a pulse, there's gotta be a heartbeat! Brennan, oh god, no, you can't be.. no...
"Adam!" Shalimar screamed while searching for his pulse. "Emma!"
Adam came racing from the lab, Emma close on his heals. His face was a grim mask of worry for the second time that day. Seeing Brennan on the floor, he rushed to her side and kneeled, feeling for the same nonexistent pulse Shalimar sought.
Shalimar looked to Adam, terror plain on her face. "No, Adam, he's not." She nearly yelled at him, when he looked up at her. The answer was on his tongue. No pulse.
"Shal, it's too late. I don't know why, but his heart just stopped. It's too late..."
"Move." Emma commanded them aside with a word. "I can save him."
Shalimar didn't even question her, but moved from his side in a flash. Not even daring to hope for a second that Emma could save him. Adam, however, had to ask the question.....
"How? He's already...."
"Just move." Emma wouldn't be delayed. Firmly nudging Adam out of the way, she grasped Brennan's limp head in her hands, and brought his closed eyes up to meet hers.
Emma met him in the foggy dreamscape of the mind she had become so used to. Anything was possible here.
Could she save him?
He was sprawled out on a bed, in a peaceful sleep. A sleep he would never wake from if she failed.
Emma approached him. When she was a few feet away, she brought her hands in front of her like she had seen him do so many times, and harnessed the blue bolts of electricity.
Anything was possible.
High voltage. Blue lightning lanced from her fingertips and enveloped the sleeping figure. Brennan's body arched. Still, he did not wake.
Again. His body convulsed in response. Still.... he was asleep.
Dammit, Brennan! Wake up! The last time. This time she willed with all her power that his body thought it was being shocked. It knew it was being shocked. And it would restart its own heart.
One last time. And his eyes flew open
Emma's eyes snapped open and she jumped away from Brennan as if shocked. As soon as she did so, his back arched against the floor and then collapsed, and his eyes flew open.
"Shal. Shal!" Brennan yelped, pushing himself painfully upright.
"Shhh. Sh. Brennan, I'm right here." Emma and Adam stepped back and allowed Shalimar to go to Brennan, and help him up.
"Geez. I feel like someone hit me with some of my own power." He groaned as he stood up.
"Sorry, Brennan. I did." Emma said regretfully.
"Uh, you did? To ask the obvious question.. how?"
"Well, really, I didn't."
"So you did, but you really didn't."
"I told your mind that you were being hit with your own power. Because I'm a psionic, your mind believed me, and told your body that it was being hit. Thus, your heart restarted."
"My heart was stopped?"
"Yeah."
"Oh." Brennan looked down at Shalimar. "We were walking down the hallway. Then we were thrown against the wall, by nothing, and my heart stopped." He paused, taking it all in. "Are you okay?" He asked Shal.
"Sore, but fine." She answered. "I'm more worried about you." Her eyes were filled with something. Worry, sympathy, and a little something more... something just for him..
"Can I go to bed?" Brennan asked all of the sudden. All he wanted to do was lay down and sleep. He could feel a nasty headache coming on, and he was still in his wet clothes from when he almost drowned himself.
"I want to check out you and Shalimar to make sure that you aren't injured-- you can't sleep with a concussion, but if everything checks out, yes, you may." Adam replied, ushering them back into the lab.
"Who has it in for you, huh, Brennan? Any old enemies or jealous exes coming back to haunt you?" Shalimar said with a smile as Adam prepared for yet another scan.
"No one that could attack me inside Sanctuary, that's for sure." Brennan answered. "Hey, Emma, did you find out if you're a telekinetic now?"
"No, I'm not mutating. But someone wouldn't have to be telekinetic to get any of us, really." Emma said thoughtfully.
"What?" Shalimar scoffed. "You've got to be kidding me."
"No, Emma's right." Adam said, turning around to look at them all. "Just like Emma was able to start your heart up again without actually doing anything. She just told your mind that your heart was still beating, and your body reacted in kind."
"Okay. So what exactly have we figured out?" Brennan asked confusedly.
"If someone were a strong enough telepath, and I mean, a really strong telepath, a 'way-off-the-charts-I-can-twist-the-whole-world's-mind-around-my-finger' kind of strong, they might be able to attack you from a distance. Make your mind think you got hit in the head or thrown into the wall. Or thatyour heart stopped." Emma shuddered. "Maybe."
"Why me? Why not Shal, Adam, or even you? Or Jesse, who's probably closer to the mysterious telepath dude than we are." Brennan questioned. "What kind of telepath would want to knock me around here, where you guys can just scrape me off the ground again and again and again? What's he getting out of it?"
"And why did he get me this last time?" Shalimar put in, looking at Emma and then Adam.
"I don't know." Adam replied, but something in his eyes shifted. Brennan could tell; Adam knew, or he could make a pretty close guess. Brennan glanced at Emma and Shalimar. They seemed oblivious to the tiny gesture. Adam continued, "We should have Jesse come back here anyway, just in case. Like you said, he could be more vulnerable."
Emma nodded and left to call Jesse over the safe-house phone system. Adam turned back to the wall as the holographic screen displayed their scan results. "Everything checks out. You'll be sore and there'll be bruising, but no injuries. I suggest you, Brennan, go to bed. Shal, you can go to bed too, or watch Brennan."
"Three guesses at what I chose, and none of them count!" She smiled playfully at Brennan, who looked at her plainly shocked, and then smiled.
"Fine, you can watch me, but give me a minute to talk to Adam." Brennan told her, and she scampered off smiling.
"What's with her?" Brennan asked as soon as she was gone. "Maybe she hit her head a little harder than you thought. Wouldn't have guessed that she'd volunteer for 'Brennan watching' duty."
"She's very protective. Especially of those who are close to her." Adam said, eyeing Brennan out of the corner of his eye. Something was going on between those two. They had been pulling closer and closer. This, however, was not the time to be talking about a budding romance between his children.
"What did you want to talk to me about? Without Shalimar?" Adam skipped right to the point.
"You know why this is happening. I could see it in your eyes. And you don't want to tell us." Brennan followed suit, and was blunt.
Adam sighed and shook his head. "One of these days you'll be wrong, and then I will laugh...."
Brennan smiled. "Does this mean I'm right?"
"Right again. Yes. Anyway, I don't know for sure. I just have an educated guess..." Adam tried to avoid telling him exactly, but Brennan wouldn't be deflected.
"Well, how 'bout letting your buddy Brennan knowing what's going on since it's his butt that's being kicked all the way around Sanctuary and back." Despite the joking tone of his response, Brennan's face was emotionless. He didn't enjoy getting his ass whooped by someone he couldn't fight. Or couldn't see, for that matter.
Adam sighed again. He might as well give in; Brennan wouldn't drop it now. "Alright, alright. My guess is that your the only one here that this unknown psionic can get at. Shalimar and Jesse don't meditate or work with their minds at all, and Emma is another psionic. She has shields. You, on the other hand, meditate frequently to control your power, and have absolutely no shields. Perfect target."
"Okay. That explains the 'how' and the 'why' I can take a pretty good guess at. Do you think this psionic is working with Eckhart?" Brennan fidgeted uncomfortably. Having a GS agent in his head and knocking him around was far from a pleasant experience. At all.
"I thought he might be at first, but now it doesn't seem so likely. Any psionic that powerful working for Genomex would have already gotten the information from your head on the location of Sanctuary. This place would be swarming with agents already." Both of them took a moment to shudder at the thought. "So they must be some new mutant on the loose, probably on the run from the GSA."
"So why is he after me? Unless he's some sadistic maniac like Henry wa-" Brennan never got to finish the end of his sentence.
This time the attack came with no fanfare and no forewarning. He wasn't even hurt. Adam cursed as he tried to catch Brennan as he crumpled to the floor.
I debated ending it here, but that would be too cruel. I tried to make this longer, but I'm not sure if it is. Sorry if you're getting bored because my writing is pretty much based on dialogue. I had to use this part to explain what is going on. Btw, the reference to 'Henry' was from 'Nothing to Fear' in case you're not up on the show. Well, there's only a little more to go.....
"Damn, three times in one day! Why!" Adam cursed as he tried to keep Brennan from collapsing to the floor. Brennan was entirely limp and was leaning deadweight onto Adam. This was not going to last much longer.
Two seconds later, Adam managed to shove Brennan into the chair. Next - call Emma.
"Emma! It's happening-" Adam didn't even have to say 'again' before Emma was in the lab running to Brennan's side.
"It's happening again, isn't it." Emma said resignedly as she gripped Brennan's head in her hands. Adam stepped back and let her do whatever she was doing, and went back to prep for another scan.
Shalimar burst threw the door a second later. She nearly knocked Emma out of the way before she realized Emma was in a trance with Brennan. Without losing a beat she dodge around Emma and went to Brennan's other side.
"Brennan, Brennan, please. Snap out of it! Fight it! Don't you dare di-well, don't you dare do anything! Fight, you wimp! Come on.." Shalimar grabbed his hand and started yelling senselessly at Brennan, fighting to keep the fear out of her voice. Her hands were shaking, and she was striving to keep herself calm.
Adam looked over and saw Shalimar standing there. Terror was etched into her face. He went to stand beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder, trying to be reassuring. Emma was still locked in the trance, and Shalimar was still screaming at Brennan to wake up. Adam could do nothing, just stand there, frozen, feeling helpless like he had never felt before.
After seconds that felt like hours, Emma blinked and took her hand from Brennan's face. Brennan did not move. No one moved.
"Emma?" Adam said quietly.
"He's sleeping-- deeply."
"What happened?" Shalimar asked, her voice husky and raw.
"I think, the psionic was attacking him on a more personal level. Getting in his mind, making him live a nightmare, if only for a few seconds. As soon as I showed up, the psionic ran, and I made Brennan sleep."
"Were you able to see anything or read anything on the psionic?" Adam asked.
"Only a little. I'm not sure you want to hear it." Emma said, avoiding making eye contact with either of them.
"Emma, I need to know. It's okay." Adam said as he moved to stand closer to Emma.
"It's a psionic. And it's not after us. It's after Elementals." She looked up, and Adam could see horror reflected in her eyes.
"He's collecting them." Shalimar turned away. She didn't want to hear this.
"And killing them."