MIDDLE 2

"Why didn't you tell me?" Finding it almost impossible to keep Shalimar in a bed anywhere, Adam had released her, making her promise not to take off her comm. ring and to come back if she needed more pain meds. Emma had found her curled up on a sofa in the living room of Sanctuary and took a seat beside her, watching her face as she uncurled so that she could look at Emma without getting a crick in her neck.

"Tell you what?" She retorted angrily "That I'm so sick in the head I keep trying for a child even when I know I can't have one? Or is it the numbers you wanted? Did you want to know that this was the fifth attempt?" Emma went to retort and paused, struck by what she had said.

"Adam said three." She half-whispered.

"Yeah, well Adam hasn't known me my whole life has he. I'm surprised he saw the two while I was here."

"He didn't at the time, he realised later."

"More like Jesse told him." They sat in silence together for a moment, Emma's hand trailing through Shalimar's hair.

"You were only fifteen when Adam met you Shalimar."

"Yeah, Emma. I know that." Emma wanted to say more. She wanted to say so much more, but she wasn't sure how without breaking down in tears in the sorrow of what she had just discovered. "I just wish he'd stop fussing."

"He's only worried about you Shalimar. I'm worried about you too."

"I don't think he gets it, you know. I think he thinks I'm either stupid and don't understand what he's saying or I'm so full of feral hormones I can't help myself. Well I suppose that doesn't explain this one." Emma winced.

"The others were"

"Yes, the others were natural pregnancies, Emma." She had no reply to that. She wasn't even sure she wanted to reply to that. The way Shalimar had always talked about male partners, she made it sound it like she wouldn't touch a man sexually if he were the last thing on the Earth. Maybe she had been mistaken. Maybe what Shalimar had been hiding from her had been bigger than all of this. "Don't think that." She looked up to find Shalimar had moved and was closer to her, big brown eyes staring straight into hers.

"I'm the psionic on this team."

"It's plastered all over your face, Emma. Please don't think that. I love you more than anything, I do. I have never lied to you except by omission and for that I'm truly sorry. But you have to believe me when I say I love you and I always will. What I've done before now it disgusted me, but I needed it. I needed a child. It's something that's wrong with me, and it makes me do terrible things. For a while I thought I'd gotten over it, I hadn't thought about it for so long I guess I was wrong."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't you dare apologise for something I've done wrong. That's the last thing I want." Emma pulled Shalimar into a hug.

"Oh, Shalimar. How do we sort out this mess?" She smiled wryly.

"I guess we put it behind us and take it as a learning experience." She sighed, laughing softly. "And what have we learned today children?"

"To keep tighter hold of our lovers at night, else they try and sneak away to sate an urge"

"Hey." She swiped at the red-head. "I would never do that to you. I would never do that."

"I know." She kissed her softly. "I know."

Adam shuffled through the draw of folders hoping to find something he could do to. Getting his hand trapped in the slider he swore and tried to remember why he hadn't put these things on the computer along with the rest of the data. 'Oh yes' he said to himself 'because they'll be so much safer here if the system gets hacked' he chuckled to himself. This was a draw full of the things he didn't want any one else to see. The cases that were a little more delicate than any of the others. Just in case anyone wanted to take down Mutant X, they would not find the original case information for the four members on the genomex database because it was all right here in paper form. There were a few other folders as well, but most of those, he had forgotten why he had put them in here anyway. He paused as he saw a file wedged underneath the others. It must have been caught when another had been put in and trapped, unnoticed since. He pulled it out carefully, looking at the names on the spine. Rachel Waiter and Amy Spence. He took a deep breath and sat down, the file still in his hands. Was it fate that he should find this folder - hidden for so long - today of all days? He flipped to the first page where a picture of them stared out at him. It was an old photo from their collage days, folded and crumpled in the corners. They sat side by side on a park bench, hands clasped between them, heads close. Completely wrapped up in each other the look of consternation that seemed always to grace Rachel's face had faded into satisfied calm and Amy's wry smile had been replaced by a soft look of satisfaction. Both were much too far-gone to notice Adam with a camera on his person. He remembered their surprise as the camera had clicked and they had looked up at him, startled out of their joint reverie. They had always seemed perfect for each other, Rachel's calm logic counteracting Amy's hyperactivity and Amy's sense of humour making Rachel's life that little bit more interesting. Amy constantly physical and Rachel sitting out almost all physical activities on account of her leg. He had treasured the friendship that he had retained with them throughout and past their respective degrees but he would never forget the day when they came to him with a proposition.