Author notes: I failed to 'suspend my disbelief' during a certain scene in the episode Lit Fuse. This story is my revenge on the writers. After all, there are always consequences... I can't thank my beta Lanfear enough for her help, especially with the medical stuff. Any errors still remaining are mine, of course.
ELEMENTAL CHILD
Chapter 1
"Beeeeep." The heart rate monitor in Trauma One of St. John's Hospital's emergency room shrieked in alarm: its patient had flatlined.
"Beeeep. Beeep." In rooms Three and Six the patients went into arrest at the same time--or so their monitors said.
In a fourth room another piece of equipment exploded, showering the bed with sparks. The elderly woman occupying it screamed in shock, although the sparks extinguished before they could do her any harm.
A thin tendril of smoke climbed from the broken machine to the ceiling. When it reached the smoke detector, the fire alarm added its clang to the high-pitched beep of the heart rate monitors. A second later, the security system set off the sprinklers throughout the entire floor. Within seconds, nurses, doctors, and patients alike became drenched.
"What the hell?" the resident doctor on call managed to mutter before two nurses pushed him aside in their attempt to get clear of the downpour. His arms flailed as he tried to keep his balance and stop himself from crashing face-forward upon a ruptured appendix case waiting to be taken upstairs to surgery.
Outside the emergency room, a redheaded woman threaded her way with awkward steps down the incline that led from the hospital doors to the pavement. It should have been an easy walk; the ramp was built for wheelchairs and thus wasn't very steep -- except her belly was swollen so much, and she was top-heavy and hard-pressed to see her feet. She wore a denim overall that provided room for her bulk, and a yellow and white striped shirt. Despite the overcast day, she didn't wear her jacket, but carried it folded over her arms, as if she had just stepped out a moment ago. Once she reached the end of the ramp, she unfolded the coat and tried to shrug into it while casting a weary glance over her shoulder at the hospital's entrance at the same time. Flashing lights and shadowy figures of nurses and aides dashing back and forth were visible through the sliding glass doors.
"Here, let me help you with that."
Startled, the woman turned around to find a paramedic looking down at her. A veteran paramedic, he appeared in his late forties, with a balding pate and gray streaks in his reddish-brown beard. He had just delivered a patient with a broken leg to the ER. His eyes twinkled with kindness, and she relaxed a little. He gestured at the jacket.
"Oh. Yes. Thank you."
She waited for him to hold up the jacket, then wriggled her arms into the sleeves.
"What's going on in there?" he asked while she zippered up.
She shrugged. "Don't know. Equipment failure, I think one of the nurses said. It got pretty crazy so I thought I'd better get out of their way. Thanks." She began to waddle down the sidewalk.
"Hey!" he called and she looked over her shoulder. "Are you sure you want to leave? You look about ready to--" He nodded at her belly.
"To pop?" She offered him a thin smile that never reached her eyes. "Don't worry, I'm fine. It's not my time yet."
She was glad to find she sounded more confident than she felt. She wasn't sure how much time she had left. She didn't think her labor had started yet, although this was her first pregnancy and she wasn't exactly certain of the actual sensations. It would be soon, though. The havoc her presence created in the emergency room of St. John's Hospital was ample proof that her baby was getting ready.
She sighed, blinking back tears and folding her hands protectively around her stomach. She was more scared than ever before in her life. The hospital had been her last hope. She needed help; she couldn't deliver this baby by herself.
There was one other person she could turn to, who would understand what was happening with her baby. The one person she had wanted to avoid at all cost. She really, really, didn't want to tell him the truth. What she had done to him was horrible enough without such long-lasting consequences. But now she didn't think she had any choice left. She needed to go to the father of her child, beg him to help her, if that's what it took.
The woman rounded the corner, heading for an address she had only visited once. Behind her, three black Isuzus with dark, tinted windows, came tearing down the road and squealed to a stop in front of the hospital's entrance. She never noticed as their occupants, all grim-faced men wearing charcoal-colored raincoats and earpieces, jumped out, raced up the incline, and rushed into the emergency room.
* * *
"Okay, Jim, Annalore, these are your new identity cards." Emma gave the young man and woman each a plastic chip card with their picture pasted on it. "And these," she offered them a dark blue envelope, "are your bus tickets. One way to Seattle, Washington. Someone will be waiting when you arrive to help you settle in."
"Thank you." Annalore wrapped her arms around Emma. "Thank you so much, and thanks to Adam for helping us."
"I second that." Jim, Annalore's boyfriend, grinned as he shook Emma's hand. She tried not to wince at the strong grip.
They couldn't have looked more different, Emma thought with a smile. Annalore, a tiny slip of girl with straight black hair and dark, slanted eyes, and Jim, who was a well-built Scandinavian-looking young man, with sandy curls and blue eyes. What the eye didn't see, however, but what she knew lurked below the surface, were their new mutant powers. "So, you're all set to g--"
A knock on the door interrupted her.
"Who's that?" A note of renewed fear crept into Annalore's voice. Her eyes flashed yellow for a moment, and she inched closer to her boyfriend. He took her small hand in his big ones and squeezed gently. Fear of capture by the Genetic Security Agency ran deep with new mutants.
"Don't worry," Emma assured them. "Nobody knows the location of this safe house."
Despite her assurances the brunette's heart was beating in her throat. She didn't believe they were in danger, but any safe house could be compromised by the GSA. After all, it had happened before. Except... GS agents wouldn't knock, would they?
No, they would come barging through the door, guns drawn, coats flapping, faces cold and emotionless.
Emma waved for the others to hide in the other room and tiptoed up the stairwell to the door. "Who is it?" She commended herself for managing to keep the tremor out of her voice.
A woman's voice answered, weakly. "Please, help me."
Emma pulled the door open a bit. In the dim light of the alley, she could make out a single person, a woman. Something was familiar about her. Emma racked her brain, searching for the memory. The red hair was cropped shorter, but the startling azure eyes were the same. They even wore the same haunted look.
"Ashley!" Emma flung the door open wide. She got a better look at the other woman. "Wow..."
Ashley's knees gave way and she crumbled into Emma's arms.
* * *
"Adam? Adam!" Emma raised her voice, like she hoped that speaking louder would help her get through to the Sanctuary. Static hissed from her com-link.
She glanced over at Ashley while waiting for a response. The woman was exhausted and very frightened. It didn't take a tele-empath to know what she was feeling; it was written clear on her face. Jim had helped Emma to get her down the stairs and to the couch. Annalore sat beside her. The younger girl was wringing her hands. She wanted to help Ashley but didn't know what to do.
"Emma? Everyth-- all --ght? You keep break-- up." It was Jesse who responded. He sounded worried.
"I'm fine. I need help, though. Ashley Elliott showed up. And she's pregnant."
"Who is what? Emma, I didn't quite catch that."
The static grew worse until Jesse's words were broken into curt, unconnected syllables, and Emma's brain labored to string the sounds back together to form words and sentences.
"Just get Adam here, all right?" Emma was yelling, as though she thought volume would equal intelligibility. Annalore and Ashley gave her a wary look. Jim frowned. She forced herself to speak in a normal tone. "I'll explain later."
"Okay. Wait--Adam--safe house--careful."
Wait there. I'll get Adam. We'll come to the safe house. Be careful. Her mind filled in the missing pieces, the words that Jesse spoke and that never made it across the airwaves. It was a relief when he signed off and the screech of static died. Silence descended once again over the safe house.
Emma walked over to the other three. "It's going to be all right now, Ashley. Adam's on his way. He'll fix whatever is wrong with you. I mean--" She flushed.
She moved her gaze from the pregnant woman to the other two new mutants. "Hey, you guys. Don't you have a bus to catch?"
"Are you sure?" Annalore's tone belied the doubtful question; she seemed eager to leave. Emma couldn't fault her.
"Yeah. We'll be fine. You heard Jesse. He'll be here with the Double Helix in no time to pick us up. You two go. Have a good life. And stay safe."
More hugs and handshakes, and then the two lovers walked up the stairs to disappear into the night. Emma sat down on the edge of the couch. "So, what happened?"
"I went to the hospital for help. But the baby... Everything went berserk. Monitors, scanners, the lights. Even the sprinklers went off in some of the rooms. I got scared, so I ran."
"Are you saying the baby did all that?"
Ashley nodded. "It's picking up on my emotions. When I get upset or afraid, electronics tend to burn out."
"Hmm. That would explain the static on the com-link." Emma watched how Ashley's belly rippled beneath her clothes when the baby shifted. "I better tell Adam when he gets here. If we put you on the Helix and the baby gets upset, we'd end up a splotch on the pavement. I'm surprised, though. I didn't think new mutant children showed any abilities until they are four or five years old. I suppose the baby's father is a new mutant too?"
Ashley looked away. A bright burst of guilt from her mind hit Emma without warning. She flinched at its intensity.
"You weren't planning on telling him."
The redhead shook her head. "The baby's my responsibility. I did a terrible thing, and the consequences are mine to bear."
"I see," Emma said, and realized that she did. Even so: "It's still his child, too." Her voice was soft, her tone gently chiding. "Don't you think he has a right to know?"
"I wanted to tell him, I really did! But I'm so--"
"Scared. I know." Emma reached out and brushed a strand of hair from Ashley's face.
"Please, don't tell him." The startlingly blue eyes glistened.
"I won't. But I think you should. Ashley, I'm sure he'll understand. Okay?"
Ashley sniffled and nodded. "Okay. I'll tell him."
"Good." Emma smiled. "Now, close your eyes and get some rest. It'll be a little while before Jesse gets here."
* * *
"Mr. Eckhart? Sir?"
The door behind Mason Eckhart opened and right hand man number umpteen entered. Eckhart didn't take his eyes off of the stasis pods humming away quietly below. He had forgotten the agent's name and face. He was just another incompetent in an endless string of incompetents. Even the threat of getting locked in one of those pods couldn't get the idiots to deliver.
"Sir, we intercepted a radio transmission from one of the Mutant X safe houses. It was directed at their Sanctuary."
Eckhart turned around. This news was interesting enough to warrant some of his attention.
He raised an eyebrow. "Really? And how, pray tell, do you know that it was a Mutant X call you heard?" Adam's jamming devices prevented any intercepts. If they didn't, this Mutant X nonsense would have been taken care of years ago.
"Well, Sir--" The minion withered beneath the cold stare. "Actually, we only recorded bits and pieces of the conversation. Apparently, some sort of magnetic disturbance interfered with the transmission, which is how we managed to catch it in the first place."
"Ah." It made sense, Eckhart decided. But what use would his plans have for snatches of a conversation among his archenemies? "And?"
"We ran the recording through the computer, had the system fill in the missing parts. If I may?" The minion gestured with a small disk. Eckhart nodded, and he inserted it into the player. Two voices -- one male, one female -- sounded from the speaker.
"The voices have been identified as belonging to Emma DeLauro and Jesse Kilmartin, Sir."
Eckhart gritted his teeth. Mutant X, all right. Adam and his brats. The thorn in his side. "Play it again."
This time, he paid more attention to the words than to the voices. His brow rose. "A pregnant new mutant," he muttered. He wondered if she might be the same woman that those buffoons of his failed to apprehend at the hospital; it would be too much of a coincidence if she weren't. "We don't have any newborns enjoying our hospitality yet." Louder, he added an order: "Find Miss Elliot. And make sure she is in our custody before she gives birth."
The underling grinned. "Yessir. Right away, Sir."
Eckhart glared at him and the smirk dissipated. "Why do I get the feeling there's more you want to tell me?"
"We know the location of the safe house." The minion couldn't stop the grin from blooming back up on his idiotic face.
"Then what are you waiting for?" If Eckhart had been given to raising his voice, he would have screamed the words. As it was, his tone was cold enough to nearly turn his breath visible.
TBC