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Shalimar listened absently to the muted conversation taking place in the Com room between Adam and Jesse's voice, pleased to know the Double Helix and it's crew would be back soon. The details she would learn at the debrief, there was no point trying to second guess what had happened, it was enough to know they were coming home safe and sound.
She had been sitting cross-legged beside the pool, eyes closed and thoughts as still as the water. If her hearing hadn't been as enhanced as it was, she wouldn't have been disturbed in her meditation at all. But that was the joy of being a child of Genomex, and a smile had to creep onto her lips at that ironic thought. With that, the calm of the last half hour was gone. It was so hard to maintain even at the best of times, and lately the best times had been few and far between. The other's had taken their peace where they could find it, be that working out, clubbing or reading. She liked the water, found comfort in it somehow. It had soothed her when Richard had … gone and she had claimed it as hers from then. The others had been kind, or sensible, enough to give her that space when she needed it.
Adam's footsteps were soft as they came towards her, a touch of hesitance in them at disturbing that could only have been heard, he never let indecision show visibly, not even to the ones that cared for him. Someday perhaps he would let them see the man, but it wouldn't be today. She smiled and opened her eyes, trying clear the last fogged traces of the maudlin train of thought from her mind. He returned her smile as he dropped to an easy crouch beside her.
"They'll be back in a few minutes, everything went just fine."
"But ...?"
He arched an eyebrow and followed her up as her smile became a grin and she stood, stretching in one lithe move that gave no doubt at all to her Feral genes.
"Does there have the be a 'but'?"
"When you have that tone in your voice ... yes. And after that there has to be a moment of guilty soul searching while you try and see how to blame yourself for whatever's happened."
The warmth in her gentle teasing took away any sting that might have accompanied her words, Adam gave a quiet but genuine laugh and ducked his head in a wry nod that admitted on his behalf he had been doing exactly that.
"I'm just ... wary. Since when has an incursion into a Genomex building gone that smoothly before? And Brennan disappeared again." His lips thinned, half in disapproval, half with the customary worry. "Emma keeps trying to talk to him, but he always finds an excuse to be somewhere she isn't when she's looking for him. He hasn't been near the lab in a month to let me take readings. I wish we could afford to let him have the time to deal with whatever his problem is, but something is coming. We don't have that luxury."
Shalimar nodded, the smile fading a touch as she watched him begin to pace, growing more agitated as he talked. She could feel the wild within rising and reacting to that irritation, wanting to pace and worry along with the pack, to chase away the threat from their territory like the big cat that lived so very shallowly under her skin.
Part of the reason for the growing tension had been Adam's conviction a storm was coming for them, a hunch he had first had a month before and increasingly the main topic of conversation until everyone by unspoken accord had stopped mentioning it entirely since there was absolutely nothing they could do except what they always did. But steadily conversations had become brittle and forced, they were snapping at each other and of course Adam was blaming himself for telling them about his fears in the first place. If the storm didn't break soon, one way or the other, she suspected it wouldn't be just Brennan avoiding coming back to Sanctuary.
She chose her words carefully, speaking slowly but with a measure of conviction. "Maybe the Genomex run went well because we're getting more practised. And Brennan is just blowing off steam. He'll be here when he has to be, everything will work out once we know what we're fighting." Her grin was quick and confident, consciously mirroring the male members of the team's smirks when they were winning at anything. "We'll beat whatever it is and back in time for dinner. As long as Jesse didn't cook it."
"Hey, there's nothing wrong with my cooking! Just because I think there's more to fixing up a steak than waving it at a grill..."
Jesse and Emma crossed over towards them, both smiling easily and apparently relaxed. That seemed to calm Adam, in turn calming her. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad for now, she grinned trying to keep the rare lightness in the conversation.
"You cremated it Jesse! It wasn't a steak, it was a cinder block"
Emma nodded, collaborating with a barely straight face. "It's true, we did a taste test on Brennan. He thought we were trying to poison him and didn't speak to us for a couple of days."
A polite, amused, cough cut in before Jesse's faux offended retaliation could take place, Adam holding his hand out expectantly. "The disk please? If I can start decrypting it now we should know what it was they tripled their network security to hide by morning ... which gives you all the evening off." He paused, as if considering something quite serious a moment before nodding solemnly at his decision. "Might I suggest eating out? I have a dark suspicion it's Jesse's turn to cook."
He had been starring at his drink so long he was beginning to wonder when he'd begin to see it staring back. Wasn't that something Nietzsche had said? Except three fingers of JD probably didn't qualify as an abyss. Maybe it would if he drank some more. After all, the same guy had said what wouldn't kill you would make you stronger. Sounded good.
Brennan pushed the glass away, the contents untouched, and stood trying to keep his skin from brushing anything conductive. Already the bar was getting a crowd as the offices let out and the suits came in to drown their sorrows and find a date for the lonely weekend. Soon enough the place was going to start getting too packed to avoid touching people and that would get ... shocking.
He avoided looking at anyone as he made his way to the door knowing he was being stared at. A 6'3'' man practically hugging the wall, taking the long way out and so wrapped up in a great coat and gloves that barely any skin showed had to look strange by anyone's standards. Eventually he made it onto the sidewalk, the chill in the air even colder against the sweat on his skin.
There was always sweat now, he was surprised no one on the team had noticed. Too busy waiting for the other boot to drop he guessed, which was fine by him. It had started pretty small, and Elementals were well known for having at best a tenuous control on some facet of their power or other. For some it was flow control, for him it had been building a steady charge. So it hadn't really been much of a surprise at an errant spark here, an action too quick as synapses fired there. And then one day he'd realised his body was slowly super-charging itself out of control.
Now it was all he could do to move at anything close a normal speed when his nerves hummed with the electrical impulses that wanted him to do a lightning impression. He hadn't been able to wash for a week, the water not just short circuiting him any more, but actively reversing his charge back. It had been an unpleasant experience, and it was only getting worse. A shower suddenly seemed like the most divine concept on earth, and there was no way he was even going to consider it.
It was possible he hadn't paid as much attention to rain reports in his entire life as much as he had in the last month.
The most ironic thing of all was that he couldn't throw the electricity anymore and tap himself out that way. Oh no, that'd be too easy. He'd always had to charge up for anything more serious than a static shock before, but now he had to be careful about even looking at things too hard unless they began to take on a suspiciously crackling blue outline. Things ... and people. Work up a charge now and it'd probably take out the block.
He'd considered telling Adam, but then 'The Great Coming Of Something' had appeared and he just couldn't bring himself to make things any worse. But something had to be done now; he just had to figure out what.
Hey! Brennan!
Briefly he considered using his 'don't look back, don't turn around' rule, but Jesse probably wouldn't buy that he hadn't heard him. Especially not when it sound like he was about five feet behind and gaining; so Brennan smiled as he looked back and replied with as much good grace as he could muster.
"Hey Jesse, wassup man?"
Jesse drew even and glanced up, hands stuck in pockets and ambling along at the easy pace the other man had set.
"Well, I wanted to let you know Adam's given us the evening off while the disk decrypts…"
He could practically hear Jesse's next words. They were definitely ringing 'want to talk?' alarm bells. It wasn't polite to cut up, but no one had ever accused him of being polite anyway.
"Shal and Emma went to that club Emma was talking about, yeah?"
"Oh ... yeah … Listen, Brennan …"
"You should probably go with them, make sure Emma doesn't pick up anyone with fangs, or worse. I hear lawyers hang out there."
Jesse gave up with a shake of his head, holding his hands up for a moment in surrender. He could hear some of his frustration in his tone and he hated it, but his team mate was starting to drive him crazy. It was like taking two steps back after he thought they'd maybe come to a kind of understanding after mostly working out the alpha male crap. Well, after Shalimar had pretty much shown that, if there was an alpha, it was her.
"You know what? You don't want to talk about it, fine. But whatever is going on with you, get it dealt with." He waited a moment, looking for any sign of imminent share time on Brennan's poker faced expression and naturally finding none. "You said you had my back, we're meant to have yours too."
Nothing but a shrug and some words muffled behind the coat buttoned up so high it obscured most of the face too. Now he thought about it, he hadn't seen Brennan with anything less on for ... weeks. Something was definitely wrong, but the middle of the sidewalk probably wasn't the place to try and coerce someone capable of flash frying you back to a secret hide out to be prodded in a lab. So Jesse just mustered a slightly more convincing copy of the dull smile he had been greeted with and spun on his heel to rejoin Emma and Shalimar, lurking out of sight around the corner.
"Gotta meet at oh-eight-hundred tomorrow, see ya then"
Brennan watched him walk away for a moment before he felt a drop of rwater hit his coat. Perfect. As he dove into an alcove to wait the rain out, he reflected that all he needed now to round off the night was for Eckhart to lend him an umbrella.
Notes
Hey Shalimar fans, hope this chapter fed the craving
"He who fights with monsters might take care, lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
-Nietzsche (Who said fan fic wasn't educational? ::grins::)