Title: Comfort
Author: Margaret Brown, aka Andromeda Valentine
Fandom: Mutant X
Pairing: Emma/Shal (pre-slash)
Rating: PG
Status: New (07/16/03)
Archive: Yes to list archives, anyone else please ask first.
Feedback: Yes, please!!
E-mail address for feedback: andromeda_valentine@hotmail.com
Series/Sequel: None
Other Websites: Crimson Redd -
Disclaimers: Not mine - Tribune's...

Summary: She hated darkness...

Notes: Written for the second weekly MXFiclets challenge: "This week's challenge is about the five senses. Choose one or two or however many you would like to write about."

The scene I describe is from the pilot ep, 'The Shock Of The New,' when they first have Emma on the Double Helix with the visual cloak on her eyes.

Warnings: None

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

Darkness... She hated darkness. It wasn't that she feared it, as such - it wasn't as if it could hurt her.

But somehow, she'd always had this irrational fear of being blinded. Maybe it was some sort of strange twist on the fact that she could always *see* so much more than others could, and somehow feared losing that.

Either way, she hated darkness, and here she was, stuck in it with no way out until her... captors? saviors? ... chose to free her. Being so panicked, her blindness was total - not even her powers would work - and it took every ounce of strength she had not to dissolve into a screaming, mindless fit of hysteria right then and there.

Then, at random, she felt a hand brush her arm. It was soft, almost furtive, or maybe just very, very casual, but she still nearly jumped out of her seat.

A moment later, everything resolved into place as the physical contact forced her telempathy into focus, relaying all the emotion behind that touch. The impression was feminine, and almost frighteningly primal underneath, but there was also warmth, compassion, and concern, laced with a certain knowing amusement and a somewhat-more-than-friendly interest.

It comforted her, and intrigued her, even as her strong response to it scared her. She'd never reacted to any touch like that before - much less from a stranger *and* another woman - and it was high on the list of reasons she chose to flee rather than accept Adam's offer.

Strangely, though, when Adam asks her, again, to join them - at least long enough to help rescue Brennan - it suddenly becomes one of the many reasons she has to stay...