If I'm Gone
By Colorain
Disclaimer: I don't own Mutant X or the characters. I apologize for any inaccuracies in setting up the medical procedures of Sanctuary; I haven't seen the show in ages and this was written at a time when I had. And any medical conditions I've described here, if I am wrong in what I've written about anything, please tell me and I'll do my best to correct them. Thank you.
"Emma, behind you!" Emma barely heard Brennan's shout before she felt the impact of something very hard hitting her head. Oblivion took her.
Brennan lashed out with renewed vigor at Emma's attackers. GS agents, as usual. Did they even fight anybody else these days? Their unconscious bodies littered the ground behind him.
And now, so did Emma's.
~*~
Adam's comm crackled to life. Brennan's voice came onto the speaker.
"Adam." His voice was tense. "It's Emma. She's been hurt. There was no new mutant. It was the GSA."
Adam closed his eyes for a brief moment. Though he knew the GSA would never give up in their quest to control new mutants, he still hated knowing that whenever his team came back from a fight, there were bound to be some cuts and bruises.
"How badly?" he asked Brennan. There was silence for a second before he spoke.
"I don't really know. I didn't think she got hit that hard, but she's not waking up. There's . . . there's blood though. Enough of it to make me worry."
Adam was already out of his seat. "All right, Brennan, bring her in. I'll set up the lab. Try to be careful with her head, okay? And hurry."
~*~
Shalimar paced Sanctuary back and forth, her heel incessantly clicking on the floor below. Adam had informed Jesse and Shalimar about Emma shortly after speaking with Brennan.
"What's taking him so long?" she asked impatiently. Neither Jesse, sitting on the Sanctuary steps, or Adam, leaning against the wall next to him, had an answer for the feral. They were all protective when it came to Emma, but Shalimar couldn't just sit and wait like the others. It simply wasn't in her nature.
The VTOL doors suddenly opened, and Brennan's voice floated out to them. "A little help here?"
Jesse vaulted off the steps and took off at a slow jog to the hangar. Shalimar started to follow him, but Adam's hand placed lightly on her shoulder stopped her dead in her tracks. A low growl started to build in her throat, but she let it die as she turned to face him. His eyes were kind.
"Jesse can handle it, Shalimar. I need you in the lab."
Shalimar could not help but turn her head to stare at the hangar door as she walked with Adam. They were taking their sweet time coming out.
~*~
Adam and Shalimar were busy recalibrating the instruments in the lab when Brennan and Jesse came in with Emma. They carried her between them: Brennan supporting her head and torso, and Jesse holding her legs. Normally only one would have carried her, but it was easier to lower her into the examination chair this way.
When she was set up, Adam interrogated Brennan further about her condition.
"One of the agents must've knocked her on the back of the head with a pipe or something. I was busy fighting the rest of them, otherwise I would have been paying more attention. I mean, I got a chance to warn her but she didn't react in time."
"And how long has she been like this?" Adam asked, carefully brushing Emma's hair back and examining the large lump that had formed there. He hissed as he gently felt the rapid swell.
Brennan was hesitant. "Twenty minutes? Half an hour at most."
Adam turned his head to look at the younger man. "And she hasn't shown any signs of waking up?"
Brennan shrugged. "None that I could tell." Adam nodded and addressed the group. "She's probably got a concussion, otherwise she'd be awake by now. But I'm still going to want to run a full body scan on her — see if there's any internal bleeding. That means," He looked at Jesse and Brennan. "You two can take a load off. But Shalimar, I'd like you to stay and help."
Shalimar glanced at the guys before looking back at Adam. "Sure thing."
~*~
"All right, Shalimar, I'm going to concentrate on the cranial area. I want you to monitor her vitals. Anything that looks abnormal, tell me immediately." Shalimar activated the scanner and read the rapid income of figures.
Adam took a handheld scanner and knelt by Emma's figure. He punched in the appropriate codes and ran it over the back of her head. While Emma's readings showed up on the handheld screen, they were also sent to the main database as an addendum to her health record.
"She's lucky," he announced to the feral. "Any harder and she probably would have had some serious internal bleeding. As it is, one concussion, one nasty bump on the head, and one hell of a headache when she wakes up."
Shalimar was still monitoring Emma's readings. Her brow furrowed. "Hey, Adam, come check this out." Adam stood from his crouch and walked over to Shalimar's side. He looked at where she was pointing. "I don't think I've ever seen Emma's white blood cell count at this level before."
Adam read the numbers in silence. He looked at Emma's other vitals and swore. Shalimar looked at him in confusion. "What's wrong?" she asked.
He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "She's worse than I thought." When he stopped, the feral put her hand on his arm.
"What is it?"
"I'm not sure, but it looks like she might have leukemia."