--------------- Chapter 3 ---------------------
"Good morning!" Jesse greeted Shalimar loudly as he entered Sanctuary's kitchen the next day.
Jesse stepped back as he come face to face with a panicked feral, startled out of her reverie, as she leapt out of her stool and onto the table top, leaving her crouched on the surface at head height, tense and ready to pounce. Jesse raised his hands and backed off slowly, offering muttered nonsense in an attempt to calm the agitated feral.
An almost visible wave of realisation passed over her face as the tension drained out of her body and she slipped gently off the table and back on to her stool, her head in her hands.
Approaching cautiously, Jesse took a stool beside Shalimar and rubbed her back slowly.
"I'm so sorry Jesse." She muttered into her hands.
"Hey, it's OK. No harm done." Looking over his friend he couldn't help but notice her dishevelled appearance and, more worryingly, the shaking in her hands. "Have you slept Shalimar?" She looked up at him quietly before shaking her head. "That nightmare must have hit you pretty hard last night." Realising a nightmare must have been the excuse Emma had given for her behaviour last night, she nodded.
"You could say that."
"I've never seen you react that bad to a nightmare. Are they getting worse? You haven't woken me for a while." She started to explain, but he silenced her. "I know you've been talking to Emma instead, and that's fine. It makes more sense. I'm just worried about you." She smiled and knew she had to tell Jesse at least a little of what was going on.
"I'm just really not enjoying being locked in here like this. It's starting to get to me."
"I expected you'd get a little hyped up about this, but I never thought it would get this bad."
"No," She grinned wryly. "Neither did I."
"Are you going to be OK?" Unable to restrain the urge to move; run, fight, get out, anything to get out; Shalimar had to stand and move away from Jesse's comfort.
"Adam rebooted the system yet?" Jesse frowned at his friend's brush-off.
"I don't know, he said he'd do it later on today and vanished into his lab muttering about virus' and hackers."
"I'm going to check on him."
"No breakfast?" Jesse's question fell on deaf ears as Shalimar disappeared around the corner. "Guess not"
"Adam, when can we get out of here?" Adam looked up from the computer console as Shalimar appeared beside him. He did a double take as he saw how tired and flushed she looked.
"Shalimar, are you okay? You look terrible."
"Way to make a girl feel good about herself, Adam." She grinned. "I'm just a little stir crazy, I need to get outside."
"The guys said you were up with a nightmare last night. Are you sure you're okay?"
"I'm FINE, okay! Just jeez, give me a break."
"Okay, well" He frowned slightly as he turned back to the screen, checking the latest in a line of results. "I've done an internal check, but I need to boot the system before I can tell if any real damage has been done. The doors will be one of the first things to reboot so you'll be out of here in no time." Shalimar sighed softly and found a seat on one of the chairs in the lab. Starting up the next scan Adam turned to his young friend. "Are you sure you're okay Shal?"
"I don't know, I'm tired, but it's probably nothing to be worried about. Just not enough sleep."
"Still, we should check you out. We need you on your game if you're going to help us check out the safe houses this afternoon."
"Adam! Just sort out the Goddamned doors. Then you can prod, poke and scan me to your heart's content, okay?!"
"Okay" Slightly intimidated by the uncharacteristically aggressive behaviour from the feral Adam returned to his console and started up the reboot. "It'll take a few minutes to complete, your first exit will be the emergency one in the garage, okay?"
"Thank you." She growled, dashing out of the door. He stepped to the doorway to watch her but found Emma at his door. She smiled at his worried expression.
"She'll be fine."
"Do you know what's wrong with her?"
"She's just a little stir crazy Adam," She interrupted herself, "What's that red light on your screen?" She winced as Adam swore loudly at his computer, throwing himself back into his chair. "They've corrupted the system, all of the safety programs They've locked us in, we're trapped." Adam sat forward and began to tap on his keyboard, not noticing as Emma ran from his side out of the lab.
Emma found Shalimar in Sanctuary's garage, pacing a hole into the hard concrete floor at the base of the emergency exit shaft. She looked up as Emma entered, her frown immediately softening.
"Hey."
"Hey. Are you okay?"
"I will be as soon as Adam gets these doors open."
"The systems down Shal, it might be a while before the doors are open."
"NoNO!"
"You need to keep it together for a little while longer. Don't worry, we're going to get you out of here."
"I can't I just"
"Hey!" Emma interrupted her. Using one hand to lift her chin, Emma met Shalimar's eyes and smiled softly, offering all the reassurance she could. "You're going to be okay. You're safe here, not trapped, or in danger. I'm here with you and everything is going to be okay." A blond head nodded slowly, not breaking eye contact.
"I know that."
"We're going to have to tell Adam. We need him to help you through this." Expecting an angry response, Emma was glad when she continued to nod, a quiet agreement.
It was mere moments before she felt the tremors begin in the slight hands she held in her own. "It's coming again." Even her voice shook and she could feel her pulse begin to throb erratically, too fast, too strong.
"I know, I feel it, I'm here." Great gasps of air fought to maintain the accelerated speed of her heart. Getting worried as Shalimar showed no signs of easing up, Emma extracted one hand from the embrace and activated her com-ring. "Adam, I need your help."
