********************

"Honey, are you ok?"

"Will you stop calling me honey?!" This was freaking the Psionic out. "I must be in the wrong room," she thought. With this, Emma ran away with only the sheet around her, and into the hallway. She almost slid on the floor when her eyes noticed Jesse climbing the stairs.

"Wow, Emma. New fashion trend?" he teased her when seeing Emma in her 'new outfit'.

He appeared the same as when she last saw him. "Maybe I did get the wrong room," she thought. "Hey… Jesse… you're up early," she said, trying to suppress her earlier shock.

"Yeah, that should happen for a change, don't you think?" he nodded. "What's up with you?"

"I don't know, I think I got the wrong room... sleepwalked or something 'cause I woke up next to Brennan!" and tried to make an eerie expression. She then noticed his baffled gaze.

"Why? You two don't like your room?"

"Us, two?"

"Did Brennan start snoring?" Jesse crossed his arms, wanting to laugh.

"No… I mean how should I know?!"

"Man, married life is getting to you both, eh? Well, of course it would. I know you and Brennan were running away from even the word "marriage" like it was a damn plague."

"Ok, this is a joke, right? A joke you and Bre-…"

"Auntie Emma!" A small child with light blond hair around the age of five ran towards the two mutants.

Emma stared at the little girl, who approached her and Jesse; her little eyes smiling at Emma. 

"Mummy said that you would take me to the zoo today," the little girl took Emma's hand and began to pull her away.

"Wait, wait…" Emma glanced at Jesse.

"Something wrong?" he asked.

"Yeah, for one, who's this little girl?" Emma wanted to ask but she kept her thought to herself and kneeled down instead, stopping the child. "I can't... I... who's…" but Emma didn't have to ask when she heard a voice.

"Mona, I told you, after breakfast!" Shalimar rushed upstairs and toward the child.

"Hey, good morning, Emma." The Feral smiled and picked up Mona.

"She's… she's yours?" Emma was taken by another shock as she got the picture.  

The blond mutant laughed at this and kissed her daughter. "Of course she is." Shalimar watched her daughter placing her small arms around the Feral's neck and kissing her cheek. "Couldn't you wait?" she asked Mona.

"Well you said…" the little girl wanted to start but Shalimar stopped her.

"Not today."

"But mummy!"

"Sorry Mon, but no." The Feral wanted to be serious at this but the playfulness over took her as she smiled at Mona.

Emma immediately looked over at Jesse. "Is she yours, too? Or… or Brennan's?"

Both Shalimar and Jesse showed staggered faces to this question. "Emma, are you ok?" Shalimar asked.

It was now that Emma noticed the Feral having longer hair than that from the last time the Psionic was with her, which should have been yesterday. "What's going on here?" Emma asked herself. "Something's wrong," saying out loud she shook her head.

"Emma?" Brennan soon appeared behind her.

Spinning around in an instant, Emma noticed the tall Elemental standing there with only boxers on. Taking steps back, Emma slowly started distancing herself from the four people.

"Honey?" Brennan called her.

"This isn't real. I'm dreaming. I know I am." But if Emma was dreaming, this had been the most realistic dream she's ever had. She was beginning to have trouble accepting her 'new' surroundings.

Emma ran her hand through her hair when she noticed a tiny scar on Brennan's left arm. "When did he get that?" she wondered inside. "You didn't have that scar," she then told Brennan.

The elemental glanced at the marking and then back at his wife. "Are you ok?" he asked her.

"I asked the same question," Jesse said.

She then noticed a silver ring on her hand. Looking more carefully at it, the Psionic was astonished to see it as she hadn't had this ring before. It had two initials engraved on it: "B. and E.??" she read to herself and then suddenly grabbed Brennan's left hand; the same ring was on his finger.

Emma rushed to the room behind her. It was different, everything was different. She hadn't remembered a room like this being in Sanctuary.

Sanctuary… was this where she really was? Emma walked backwards and out of the room. When she met the others, she asked: "Where am I?"

"Um... home?" Jesse replied.

Emma wanted to run away, but Brennan managed to catch her in time. "This is not Sanctuary." Emma kept moving her eyes.

"Of course it is, Em." Brennan corrected her.

"Mummy, what's wrong with Auntie Emma?" Mona asked her mother.

"I don't know, baby." Shalimar responded, still looking at Emma.

"This isn't Sanctuary; I don't remember this place!" Emma said. She then looked at the others. Maybe this was some experiment from Genomex. Maybe they've kidnapped her and these are not her friends. They couldn't be… at least not in the way she remembered them. "Where am I?" she asked again.

"Honey… you are back home. You're at Sanctuary." Brennan spoke calmly to his wife. 

Emma stared blankly back at him.

"Don't you remember?" he asked her.

Emma shook her head in response. This wasn't Sanctuary. Sure, it looked like the place but it was still different. She felt Brennan's weak grip on her arms as she looked in his eyes. She got images of them… herself and Brennan… Jesse, Shalimar, Adam… it was him; Emma clearly felt that it was really Brennan. It wasn't a trick, this was really her friend. But they couldn't be, married? How could she not remember? No, she was somewhere else; this wasn't the place Emma remembered before this morning. "Last night I went to bed…" Emma spoke quietly and somewhat afraid, "...in my room, alone. And this morning I woke up in a room I didn't recognize… with you in my bed!" Emma broke away from Brennan. "So, could anyone please explain where am I??"

"Emma, for the last time, you're back at Sanctuary! Just like yesterday... just like every day since you've lived here," Shalimar told her. 

"I'm gonna get Adam," Jesse said to Shalimar and ran downstairs. 

"This is a joke, right… guys? It's a joke," Emma kept nodding her head.

"Why would it be a joke?" Brennan lifted his shoulders.

"Because this isn't where I live!" Emma felt endlessly confused by this.

"Did you hit your head last night? Lost a memory or two?" Shalimar asked with the intention to turn it into a joke.

"No! Shalimar, I'm not…" Emma sighed, covering her face. "God..." her voice vary, "where am I?"

"Emma?" When she uncovered her face, Emma saw Adam approaching her.

"What's going on?" the older man asked.

"She thinks this is not Sanctuary," Shalimar said.

"In fact, she doesn't seem to know where she is," Jesse filled in.

"Maybe you've just had a bad dream," Brennan said softly, placing his hand on her back but Emma only moved away.

"Emma, you don't know this place?" Adam asked her carefully.

"Mummy… I need to pee..." Mona was then heard.

Shalimar glanced at her daughter. "Ok, Mon…" and then looked over at Emma. "Let's go," she said and carrying Mona, Shalimar walked towards the end of the hall.

"It looks like Sanctuary, but it can't be. I don't remember this… I gotta be in some other place," Emma said.

"No, you are back at Sanctuary, Emma." Adam assured her, lifting his hand.

Emma looked over at Brennan. He too was baffled by her behavior. 

"Come to the lab with me," Adam asked her. "I should perhaps do a checkup…"

Emma hesitated but she didn't have much choice. This was a familiar looking but still a strange environment and if anyone could give her an answer it had to be Adam… if he was the same, too.

She nodded.

"You might want to put some clothes on, first," Brennan mentioned and met her gaze.

"Um… yeah…" Emma placed a strain of hair behind her ear. Glancing at him she then slowly started walking towards the bedroom.

"We'll be right down," Brennan told Adam who agreed and went downstairs. As he followed her into the room, the Elemental saw Emma standing close to the bed, looking at the picture on the wall.

There was a big poster over the bed, which primarily caught her attention. It showed a picture of two white swans with their necks almost entwined as if they were caught in a dance of love. At the bottom, Emma could read: "Love is eternal."

"This is a beautiful picture," she had to say.

"Um, yeah … it is."

Turning around Emma unexpectedly glanced at his chest, instead of face. Quickly she looked up at him as the Elemental placed his hand on her cheek. "Sweetie, what's going on?" he asked her softly. "Are you sure you didn't have a bad dream?"

Emma pulled away. "Yeah, I'm sure," she replied quietly and walked behind him.

"Where are… my clothes?" she asked, looking confusingly in front of her.

"To your left," Brennan replied as he kept wondering if something had happened to Emma. She appeared confused in this room, as it had been the first time for her, everything new and unfamiliar while her gentle little hands gripped onto the bed sheet tightly to her chest. He saw her walking slowly and soundlessly; her small feet pressing on the hard floor with each step giving the feeling that she was nearly feline     

Emma noticed that there were some scattered clothes near the drawers. "Oh…" She thought and snatched the white bra and panties, along with a pair of black jeans and a red tee top. Afterwards the Psionic saw the door to the bathroom. She glanced at Brennan and then quickly went inside.

Locking the door behind her, Emma had some time to have a good look at the bathroom. Along with the usual essentials of which one bathroom was equipped, Emma saw two toothbrushes above the sink; turning to the left she saw two bottles of different conditioners and two bottles of shampoos; right next to the shower booth was a long light green robe and a few towels with the same color. Emma shook her head; she didn't want to look for any more 'details' of this room. Taking a step to her left, she felt something softer beneath her foot. Removing the foot, Emma noticed a small square-shaped package. It had a condom inside. Emma bent down, while still holding the bed sheet around her, and picked up the small red package. "Oh please don't tell me we've… I mean, they've... ah!" Emma put the condom on the edge of the sink. "Ah, shit…" she inhaled and turned around where she saw her pile of clothing. Letting go of the sheet, she removed it from her body and right afterwards grabbed the underwear.     

After a while, Emma exited the bathroom, fully clothed, except for her feet which were left bare.

********************

"No, I don't see anything unusual here," Adam replied as he kept looking to find something abnormal.

"That's because there's nothing strange about me." Emma sighed but she was in no way relaxed. When the scanning was finished, she stood up and approached Adam.

"Adam…" she said, "I..." but something suddenly caught her attention. There was a smaller glass cube with a blue gem inside. Emma recognized that sapphire; but from where? Observing it for a while she tried to remember but it wasn't coming to her at the moment so she returned her gaze to Adam. "I don't think I belong here. This can't be Sanctuary, at least not the one I know. In the place that I do know… my Sanctuary, Shalimar doesn't have a child and Brennan and I, we just had a stupid heated discussion last night about who was better at reading people and some other crap. I don't even… ok I like him, but we're not… married! Everything here is like so damn weird!"

"You're probably just suffering from some minor memory loss," Adam told her.

"Minor? You didn't detect anything and if it's so minor how in hell can I not remember what would be like… like," she pointed around, "six or seven years maybe??"

"Why that long?" Brennan asked.

"Because I already told you! Before I woke up… here, things were… are different; I mean the only thing which I see that is probably the same is with it Jesse. Everything else is different. Shalimar doesn't have a child! And you and I aren't married! We weren't even dating for god's sake!"

"Wow… ok," Brennan nodded once and approached Emma, placing his hand near her neck. "What else is different?" he asked her.

Emma glanced down. "I, um… the room... where I woke up; these green plants here," she pointed outside at the two small plants, one on each side of the entrance, "you being a jerk from our last talk," and looked up at Brennan, receiving a strange look in return.

"That discussion about?…"

"You kept saying I was a naïve and I was telling you I wasn't."

"Oh," a rounded smile, expressing his soft cheeks, appeared, "I do remember that one." A nod followed.

"You do?"

"Yeah. It ended up undecided," he said.

"Yes, it… did," Emma was surprised by this answer. That was what happened. Was she merely being confused? No, this was only a tiny coincidence, it didn't mean anything. There was no way she couldn't remember so much of her life.

This time Emma didn't pull away from Brennan; she stayed there. "This can't be my life," she then said, "this can't even be my reality! I don't belong here. It doesn't feel right. Bren… Jesse, Adam, you gotta believe me."

From the looks they were giving her, Emma could feel that they didn't believe her.

"It sounds strange to you, but…" she saw the words wouldn't be of any help. Emma closed her eyes for a second and opened them again as she wanted to send her own images to them but a sudden sharp pain in her head prevented her from doing that. "Argghh!" she screamed and grabbed her head, crouching on the floor as the pain intensified.

"Em!" Brennan embraced her before she fell on the floor. A few moments later he saw her starting to breath in as much air as it was possible; the pain had obviously passed. "What happened?" he asked her when the Elemental saw her regain her strength.

"I don't know… ah…" Emma had now only her right hand on her head as she slowly stood up while leaning on Brennan. Her eyes kept closing and opening while she was adjusting herself. The pain was gone. "My head just started stinging inside, almost burning," she responded and slowly parted from Brennan even though she could feel that he would rather have her in his embrace… worrying fellow.

"Are you alright now?" Jesse asked.

"Yeah," Emma nodded. "It passed. Shit, did it hurt… ah…" taking in a deep breath she looked around.

"I should have another look at you," Adam told her.

"No, no…I'm fine," she said. The pain had really disappeared just as swiftly as it had arrived. She didn't have the opportunity to think about it when her attention was soon focused somewhere else.  

Brennan looked at Emma and noticed her absent gaze. "Em?"

Emma was looking at the small glass cube again. "Adam, how did you get that?" she asked.

Adam turned to look at it. "Devin's gem?"

"Yes."

Adam turned to Emma again bemused by her question. "You and Brennan found it in the basement of an abandoned steel factory," he said.

"Before it burned down," Brennan filled in. "You don't remember?"

"No… how can me… eh, I wasn't there…" Emma shook her head and walked towards the cube. "Any value?" Emma opened the cube and brought her hand inside to take the stone, but the minute her fingers touched its rough surface she felt them burning. Quickly pulling out her hand she then held it in her other one. 

"You ok?" Brennan asked when he noticed her reaction.

"Yes, I'm fine," she looked at her fingers where a small burned mark was shown only to disappear a moment after. "It burned."

"You always wore gloves before touching it, Emma." Adam told her.

Emma glanced at him. "Why did you need it?" she referred to the stone.

"I'm not sure yet. It has some energy to it, but I haven't been able to discover what it is, what it does."

"How long have you had it?"

"A month now. Emma, maybe I should examine you again?"

"No. I'm fine." Emma then thought: "A month? No, he had this stone, if it's the same one, for only a few days." Observing its shape she asked Adam: "Are you sure? It was less than that I think."

"No, it has been a month. I should examine you again," Adam then told her.

She hesitated for some seconds, "Maybe there's something outside," she said and quickly exited the lab.

Brennan sighed to this, "Em!" before he rushed after the Psionic.

When the two mutants were gone Jesse asked: "What do you think happened to her?"

"I don't know," Adam crossed his arms. "Did she seem strange to you yesterday?"

"No," Jesse looked towards the entrance.

"She does appear different in her behavior."

"Do you think she might be telling the truth?"

"It's unlikely…" Adam wasn't certain of his answer. The Psionic's behavior developed questions in the scientist's head. Looking at the open cube, Adam walked over to it and carefully closed it.

********************