The Serum
Part 7
AN: Don't Panic! Don't Panic! Lol, Thanks for your reviews.
Richard was sat on a chair, the unknown woman beside him. He held her arm in his hand, and in his other hand he held an empty vial of the serum. She felt herself become calm, quieted.
"How many more treatments do you need?" She asked the woman, who was glancing wide-eyed between the two of them. Eliza realised her uniform would make it look like Richard was in serious trouble and she wondered if the woman would try and protect him.
"That was my last one." She replied truthfully.
"How did you get in contact with Richard?" The woman glanced back at Richard. "DON'T look at him." The woman jumped, letting out a little shriek. "Look at me. Did he contact you?"
"No. I talked to someone else who'd been cured. They told me where to find him."
"Get out, quickly, and take your coat." The woman stood up and walked past Eliza, scurrying away as soon as she was around the corner. "How long has this been going on Richard? Did it ever stop?" He looked away. "Adam explained to you, he TOLD you why you needed to stop this. You don't need the money, what is this?"
"I spent most of my life looking for this, Eliza. Most of my life. I've treated myself, and that's great. But that was only my first objective. I wanted to offer this to everyone who needed it. It is a cure, perhaps you don't agree with that, but there are people out there who do. I can't hold this back from them."
"And the GSA? If they get hold of it?"
"I don't see how that could be a bad thing. They want to get rid of all new mutants. Surely by giving out the serum they're only going to be helping everyone get rid of what they don't want, their mutations?"
"And you think it's that simple? Hand over the serum to Genomex and they'll help distribute everyone's saviour. How can you be so naïve? They will use the serum to destroy the mutations and then they'll kill the people while they are unprotected. We know too much. Anyone who's ever been new mutant knows too much. I am not going to let you lead everyone to their deaths!"
"It's always the way, isn't it Ella. You know best. Good and evil, you have it all mapped out. All by Adam's word."
"Because Adam is usually right!"
"Usually?"
"No one is perfect, Richard. Don't make an issue out of this."
"Why do you have to be so uncontrolable all the time?"
"That you want to control me says how badly you know me, Richard."
"You can't live without it can you. You're feral through and through. I could never stop you being feral because it's not just in your genes, it's in your heart and your soul. All the serum did to you was make you a weaker freak." Eliza staggered back as if hit. She hit the doorframe and slid down it, sitting on the floor.
"I gave it all up for you Richard." She whispered. "I gave up my strength because I thought I knew who you were. I thought I could trust you. I gave up my LIFE for you." She was gathering momentum again, standing to face him. "I gave up my family." She stopped for a moment, thinking of Jesse. "I did more than give them up, I hurt them for you. Get out of my house. Do it now before I decide I'd rather let my feral heart do the talking and beat the crap out of you." He looked at her, face soft as if he was about to appeal to her. She had seen it before, she knew it too well. "GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE!" He turned. And he left.
Jesse was tired. He wasn't sure why, because he seemed to be doing less and less each day, sleeping late and spending most of him time on the computers. With Nikki around he wasn't needed as often for missions so Adam allowed him to stay behind offering technical backup. Brennan rarely offered to train with him anymore after he had been turned down so often, preferring to train with Nikki anyway. Emma kept trying to talk to him, but he found himself unconsciously brushing her off, even though he wanted desperately to talk. He was missing Shalimar more than ever having heard her voice the other day and was more than a little worried for her. She had sounded strangely subdued when he had talked to her, especially after he had mentioned Nikki, which seemed strange. Her words had spoken her happiness about her replacement, but her tone had said something completely different.
He picked up the comm. signal immediately as it activated, all of the others being out and Adam locked in his lab.
"Hello?" The voice was quiet and thick with tears.
"Shalimar?" Jesse replied, forgetting again. There was a choked laugh down the line.
"It's a good job it is me, or you might have just blown my cover."
"Eliza." He corrected himself. "What's wrong?"
"So much shit is wrong, Jesse. You wouldn't believe."
"Try me." He offered, setting up a trace on her comm. link as he spoke.
"Richard was selling the serum." Jesse's hand paused over the keys.
"What did you do?"
"I threw him out. It probably wasn't the best thing to do, but his computer is here and I've found a stash of serum too, so it means he can't do anything until he's got a new supply."
"Do you want us to see if we can pick him up? Lock him up here?"
"Can you do that?"
"No problem, I'll get the others on it. How long ago did he leave?"
"About ten, maybe fifteen minutes ago. He has a tracer in his pocket, set to the usual frequency."
"You put a tracer on him?" He asked, incredulous.
"No, I was wearing his coat and I left it in there." She laughed quietly. "My first piece of luck this week."
"That's only just happened, what else has happened to you this week?"
"Well, I met up with June, we tried to kill each other. Thankfully I got there first."
"June, as in feral June." He asked, aghast.
"Yes Jesse. Please break it to Adam gently, and be even gentler when you tell her I was the one who killed her."
"No offence, but how? I can remember you only just taking her down last time you guys fought, and you were feral then."
"I'm not saying I got out without a scratch but I carry a gun now Jesse. It ups my chances a little. And also I think I might be getting feral again."
"What!?" He exclaimed.
"My boss saw my eyes change, which is my third piece of bad luck for the week because now he thinks I'm a freak, and I'm not even sure if I am or not."
"But feral again, that's a good thing surely?"
"I don't know Jesse. I just don't know." The search beeped finished, locating Eliza in her apartment against the south wall as her comm. link disengaged. Jesse quickly contacted the others and got them onto Richard while he grabbed a coat and jumped into one of the cars. He was bringing Shalimar home, no matter what Eliza had to say about it.
