Collateral Damage: Chapter 3

See Prologue for disclaimer and other story notes.

Searching for Answers

~*~

"Sure thing Adam," Shalimar confirmed into her comm link as Emma parked in the hotel lot.

Adam had called to let them know Brennan had found Jesse and was on his way back to Sanctuary with him. As they climbed from the car the telempath commented, "At least we know he's safe now."

"Yeah, but I still want to know what she did to him." Shalimar's voice had a deadly hint to it. Emma was used to Shalimar's protective, feral attitude, especially when it came to Jesse. She'd hate to be this Fiona girl when Shal caught up to her.

The two of them made their way through the lobby. "You want the room or the desk and cameras?" Emma asked.

Shalimar looked over to the desk. The teenaged boy behind it whose nametag read "Kenny" was looking back at her—staring really, mouth slightly open. She offered him a smile and his eyes widened. "I'll try my luck with the desk."

Emma snickered. "I don't think you'll need much luck." They separated, Emma heading for the elevator and 5th floor and Shalimar for her latest admirer.

Ten minutes later Shalimar knew more about Kenny Thompson than she'd ever wanted to know. She also had him accessing last night's entries, and the eager young man was calling off female names that had been registered in the early morning hours. She stopped him at one.

"Jane Doe?" she asked incredulously.

"That's what it says."

"And nobody thought that was a little suspicious?"

He shrugged. "Hey, she paid ahead in cash. The room is hers through tomorrow morning, no questions asked. My boss would tell you that what she does in there is her business unless someone complains."

"Well, I'm complaining," she groused. "No one else did?" she added, thinking that someone might have noticed a pretty young woman hauling a seemingly drunk man into her hotel room.

He studied the screen, then shook his head. "Nope."

"It was room 512, right?"

He glanced at her, surprised. He likely wasn't supposed to give out that information, but since she already knew all he had to do was confirm it. "Yeah," he admitted.

This was getting her nowhere. She pasted her most seductive smile on her lips and leaned over the counter, brushing his arm lightly. "Hey Kenny, it would really help me out if I could see the surveillance video from last night. A trustworthy guy like you must have access to that kind of thing. Do you suppose you could help me?"

He stared at her, then looked away. "I'm not supposed to…"

"It'll be our little secret," she pushed, practically purring, glad the boys weren't here to watch it. They'd never let her live it down.

Kenny did not need much convincing. A few minutes later he had handed the desk off to another employee, announcing he was going on break, and was leading her to a security room off of the lobby.

When she met Emma in the lobby a half hour later, she had a copy of last night's surveillance tape in hand. Kenny was on cloud nine, though she'd done nothing more that flirt with him. She offered him a small wave as they walked from the hotel.

"What did you find out?" Emma asked in the parking lit.

Shalimar held up the tape. "We've got a blond female, who sometimes likes to go by Fiona or Jane. No sign of Jesse in the lobby; she checks in then goes back outside to go in the south entrance with her 'luggage.' I pulled up the image from that camera, too." She paused, then went on with anger obvious in her voice. "Their faces are blurry and the camera has a bad angle. But it's definitely them. He looks totally out of it; she shouldn't have even been strong enough to maneuver him in that condition."

"So she probably is a mutant," Emma mused.

"Not necessarily, but it would be my guess. At least now we have a digital image. Maybe we can identify her." Shalimar paused to open the car door and climb in beside her friend. "Did you find anything?"

Emma shook her head. "The maid had been through. I caught her down the hall and asked if she'd found anything, but nothing helpful."

They drove in silence for a few minutes. Shalimar gazed out the window, shaking her head. "He had better be okay," she said softly. "If not, this girl is going to wish she'd never screwed with us."

~*~

Adam watched the pupil dilate as he moved the penlight away. The tired blue eyes blinked back at him. "I really think I'm okay now."

Adam studied the young man before him. "No more urges to jump off a balcony?"

"I wasn't trying to jump. I was just confused and…I don't know."

"And scared?" Adam added softly. Jesse looked like he wanted to protest, but Adam didn't wait for a response. "I think you almost gave Brennan a heart attack," he said more lightly, though the situation was anything but light.

"I don't think he's out of the woods yet." Jesse's amused gaze tracked his friend, who was currently pacing around like a feral outside of the infirmary. Adam smiled to see some of Jesse's humor coming back. He was acting fairly normal, if a bit exhausted. Whatever had had him so out of sorts at the hotel seemed to be wearing off.

"You had him worried. You had all of us worried," the leader commented as he helped the younger man remove Brennan's coat. He took a closer look at Jesse's right arm. Brennan was right; it looked as if he'd been injected with something. "Do you remember how this happened?"

Jesse glanced at the spot, sighing in frustration. "No."

"All right, it's okay. I'm just going to draw some blood." He moved away to get the needle. "Tell me what you do remember."

Jesse shook his head. "Not much. I remember the club, I remember meeting Fiona. I remember Brennan leaving. After that, I'm just a blank until I woke up in the hotel room."

Adam returned to the table, asking his next question cautiously, "Can you tell me about that?"

Jesse shrugged. "It was probably no more that an hour before Brennan showed up. And it's kind of hazy." He held out his arm expectantly.

"Why don't you lie down," Adam suggested.

"I'm fine." There was that trademark stubbornness. Adam would never have thought he'd be happy to see that.

"It's been almost 20 hours since you've eaten anything," he reminded. "When you start losing blood, you're not going to be so fine."

Jesse rolled his eyes but did as he was told. As Adam performed the motions of drawing blood, he rephrased his last question more directly. "When you woke up, were you wearing anything?"

Jesse looked confused. "What I'm wearing now. I tried to find my shirt and shoes but couldn't…" With a start his eyes dawned with realization. "Adam, what do you think happened?" he asked with a hint of fear.

"Honestly, Jesse? I don't know." He set the filled vial of blood aside and reached to pat Jesse's shoulder comfortingly. "But we'll find out. I promise you that." After a pause he continued, "You think you could eat something?"

Jesse stared at him for a moment, still obviously worried about his missing time. But he managed to push past it and sound fairly normal. "Are you kidding? I'm starving."

Adam chuckled softly. "Good. Hey, Brennan," he called, knowing that the elemental wouldn't have strayed far.

Sure enough, the dark head poked through the door a few seconds later. "Yeah Adam?"

He motioned him forward. "You can come in."

Brennan did, approaching the two of them. "How are we doing?" he asked.

"So far so good," Adam responded. "I'm going to do some blood work. Would you mind getting some food into him?"

"Sure. You want me to bring you something?" he asked Jesse.

"I'm not an invalid," came his slightly peeved response. "I can walk to the kitchen." Brennan and Adam exchanged a smile. This was the Jesse they knew. But Jesse ruined the image a moment later by sitting up too quickly. With a "whoa" he shut his eyes and swayed, and would have fallen over if both the older men hadn't been quick to grab onto him.

Brennan was immediately concerned, but Adam simply shook his head. "I warned you you'd be dizzy, didn't I?" To Brennan he said, "He'll be fine once he eats and raises his blood sugar."

"Okay." Brennan gave Jesse a pat on the back, then started to step away. "I'll be right back with some—"

"No, I can make it," Jesse said stubbornly. "Just give me a hand."

With that he pushed himself off the bed, forcing Brennan to catch him again. Once he was on his feet Jesse started attempting to move forward. Brennan heaved a long-suffering sigh and pulled Jesse's arm over his shoulders, slinging a supportive arm around his friend. He looked back at Adam and rolled his eyes at Jesse's stubbornness.

Adam simply smiled. He knew that Brennan was more relieved that annoyed. For all their bickering, the two were actually quite close. After what Brennan had been through with Jesse earlier, the normalcy of his friend's "little brother" behavior was probably comforting.

He watched the two of them leave, then his smile slowly disappeared. He got the distinct impression this was still far from over. The mystery caller had spoken of her demands. Fighting a sense of foreboding, Adam turned from the door and headed for his instruments to perform an analysis of Jesse's blood.

Ten minutes later he felt his own blood run cold as he stared at his findings. It couldn't be; he had to have made some mistake. It wasn't possible.

But there it was.

And suddenly all of the pieces fell into place. He was shocked that he hadn't recognized her voice.

But why would she seek him out after all this time? And what possible reason could justify this?

~*~

To be continued