Middle 11

Brennan threw a bolt of electricity, knowing he would miss the fleeing GSA figures, but feeling the need to try. The kid they had come to rescue was safe at least, though her psionic powers were fluctuating wildly after her confrontation with the agents. Emma was keeping an eye on her and trying to get her a little calmer while Jesse brought the helix round to them. Brennan realised that Shalimar had been chasing after the agents with him and now she wasn't beside him. Checking he saw that the agents were still running and Shalimar was nowhere to be seen.

"Jess, Shal didn't go with you did she?"

"No." Came back Jesse's succinct answer. "She stayed down there."

"Are you in the air yet?"

"Yes, I'm not far from you now. I'm going to land in the car park just round the corner, you think Emma can get the girl that far?" Brennan glanced over at where Emma sat with the young girl. "She's looking pretty calm now. She'll make it, but where's Shal?" Emma looked up.

"What do you mean 'where's Shal?' She was with you. You went after the agents." Brennan held out his hands and shrugged.

"She's not with me now, is she." Emma was on her feet.

"Well where is she? Did the GSA take her? Did she take a hit!? Why weren't you watching her!?!" Emma was stopped abruptly by Brennan clasping her shoulders.

"Emma, slow down." He lifted his comm. ring. "Shal, are you out there?" There was no response. Emma's panic stepped up a notch. "Jesse, Shal's disappeared and she's not answering her comm., can you put a search on her?" Brennan continued.

"Sure." There was a moment's silence and then. "She's about ten yards to your right, and" More silence. "Shit, her stats are all over the place. I'm landing the helix down there." Brennan followed Emma as she dashed away and down another side alley to their right. The girl, temporarily forgotten, scampered after them as a roaring filled the skies and the helix descended ponderously, squeezing into the narrow street.

Stopping in the entrance to the alley Emma looked around her self, confused. There didn't seem to be any one there.

"Jesse, am I in the right place?" There was a pause.

"Yes, she's only a few feet to your right as you're standing now." Emma looked up as Brennan joined her.

"Do you think she's in one of the buildings?" He asked, looking around and trying to judge the distance to the wall. Emma put one hand to her mouth in shock, pointing silently with the other. Brennan looked up.

"Shit! How did she get up there?" Shalimar was laid out on her back on a shallow balcony four floors up with no obvious way up other than the way Shalimar had gone - a jump with the feral force behind it. And none of them had the ability do that to get up to her.

"I'm going up the inside." Emma said, already running for the main street where the door into the building was.

"Emma, wait. Take Jesse. You'll need to get through the doors." Brennan took another look. "I'm going to see if I can get up this way." He said, showing a ball of electrical energy formed in his hand. "I don't know if I can get the height, but I can try." Emma nodded and headed for the helix.

Taking another look at the distance Brennan took a measured step back and flexed his fingers out, his hands pointing down. The first burst of power propelled him up about two floors, but not nearly high enough to get to the prone figure. He struggled to control his descent and land lightly so as not to do himself any harm and then rubbed his hands together for the second attempt. He twisted his hands together once or twice, feeling the charge build up between them and as forcefully as he could he threw all he had at the floor, feeling the power crackle downwards towards his feet. Seeing the balcony rise up towards him Brennan risked throwing his hands upwards to catch the barrier pole. He breathed a sigh of relief as it held, knowing he wouldn't be able to control the descent from this height. His plan for taking Shalimar down himself went out the window. Moving to Shalimar's side he pulled her onto her back and did all of the checks he could remember from first aid. Her breathing was hoarse and ragged and her pulse was far from steady. She seemed to wince and pull away when he touched her left shoulder - the one she'd been resting on - though he knew she was unconscious. There was movement from behind the curtains that covered the balcony window and Emma's face appeared. A few moments later Jesse had them all inside the room and minutes later they were on their way back to Sanctuary in the helix - only stopping to pick up the unfortunate new mutant they were there for.

Shalimar blinked and squinted in the harsh lights. Her head felt heavy and it felt like someone was sitting on her chest. A face appeared, haloed in the bright lights and the red tint to the halo identified the owner.

"Hey Angel." She whispered, and then coughed roughly as her throat objected to the vibrations.

"Hush." She whispered in reply. "I'm going to get Adam. I'll be back in a minute, Ok?" She nodded carefully and slipped back into the abyss.

When she woke again it was Adam who was nearby, his hard-soled shoes loud on the floors of Sanctuary.

"Hey." He greeted when he saw her awake. "How do you feel?"

"Sore."

"That's not too surprising. Does your chest feel tight?" She nodded. "OK, I can give you something to loosen that up a little. What about your arm. How does that feel?" She thought about her arm. Her right arm felt fine if a little tingly from pins and needles, but her left arm

"It's kinda numb." She replied.

"But it's not hurting you?"

"If I can't feel it, it can't hurt. What did I do?" She asked, confused.

"I can only guess you mistimed a jump or was caught unawares by something. The guys found you unconscious on a balcony with a dislocated shoulder. Do you remember what happened?"

"I was trying to get onto the roof to get ahead of the agents we were chasing. My stomach cramped, really badly. Like fold-me-in-half badly in the middle of the jump. I caught the ledge and managed to pull myself back onto the ledge before I passed out." She replied, remembering. She smiled as Emma appeared in the doorway. "The next thing I remember I was being visited by a beautiful angel." Emma laughed.

"You scared me, Shal. Don't do that to me. I don't think my heart will take it."

"I'm sorry Shalimar," Adam continued, "But I'm afraid I'm going to have to take you off the team after this. It's been three months, you've had longer than I'd originally thought prudent, and this has just proved the point."

"I would object, but I just don't have the energy right now." Shalimar smiled wearily.

"And that, more than anything else, tells me that this is the right thing to do." He smiled at her and she nodded her consent.

"When you feel up to it you can go to your own room, but have at least another couple of hours in bed when you get there. I don't want you training or doing anything else strenuous for the next three days, ok? The numbness in your arm will begin to wear off in a few hours, I'll bring you some pain killers. If you need them before then, I'm sure Emma will come and get some for you." He smiled at them both and excused himself.

Jesse's face appeared in the doorway and for a moment his eyes met Shalimar's. For a moment it looked like he might come over, but a cold mask slipped into place and he walked away. Shalimar looked away, hoping that Emma hadn't noticed. She swore internally when she met Emma's eyes and saw the expression there.

"You going to tell me what that was?" Emma asked, eyes full of curiosity.

"What what was?" Emma laughed shortly.

"That, with Jesse?" Her face was stoically blank. "OK then, let's see. What's up with the fact that Jesse has been hiding in the helix through all of our missions for the last hmmm three months? Why he keeps giving you weird looks behind your back? Why he's showing the most twisted spectrum of emotions I have seen for a while."

"I've never heard you refer to it as a spectrum before." Shalimar commented.

"Don't change the subject." Emma warned. "Brennan's been keeping an eye on you, Adam couldn't pay more attention without following you around all day - and I dare say he might resort to that - but Jesse doesn't want to know. Why is that?"

"I have no idea." Shalimar said, quietly, slipping off of the medical bed and taking a moment to get her feet beneath her and in the right order. Emma seemed to think for a moment.

"No, I really want to know."

"I don't know, Emma." Shalimar replied, in a sing-song voice.

"Why was he the one to tell Adam about the miscarriages? You said that, remember?"
"What is this, the inquisition?" Shalimar snapped.

"Shal"

"NO." Emma found herself up against the wall, Shalimar's hand colliding with the wall behind her ear, a flinch of annoyance in her eyes that the other arm refused to follow through, though her eyes didn't leave Emma's. She suddenly seemed so much taller, despite the three inch difference in the wrong direction. Her eyes weren't their feral yellow, but the feral was right up there at the surface, confronting her. "Stop." She hissed. "Leave Jesse out of this. You've gone to far. You've made your point. I don't" She seemed to realise what she was doing, looking at her arm as if it didn't belong to her. She pulled herself back and turned away abruptly. "Jesse doesn't come into this." She said over her shoulder.

"Never again. I promise. Never again." Blue eyes smiling, congratulations. Stomach squirming. 'You liar.' Whispers her conscience.

"Jesse doesn't come into this." She turned and stalked out of the room, leaving Emma to drop to the floor as her knees buckled. She was shaking, Emma noted absently, and almost sadly she realised that she had finally seen Shalimar angry - and she had been the cause.

Jesse what had Jesse done to cause such anger in her feral? She thought carefully of the emotions that Shalimar had thrown at her through that confrontation. No, it wasn't what Jesse had done

She leant her head back against the wall behind her, trying to find some clue in what had been said and felt that might help her see what had happened. A buzz at the back of her mind called her attention and she turned to face that wall, placing both hands where he head had been resting. She smiled softly. Shalimar was sat on the opposite side of the wall. Moving to the door she stepped outside and took a seat with her back against the wall opposite Shalimar, so their feet almost touched across the corridor.

The anger had drained from her face and there was nothing there now but sadness. Opening herself a little to the emotions that surrounded her love she found that the sadness went a lot deeper than just her eyes.

"Shalimar, talk to me." She pleaded. "Tell me what's going on."

"He's not going to forgive me, not after this." The words were a sigh, hardly audible.

"What did you do to need forgiving?"

"Oh, all of this I promised him something, a long time ago, and then I broke that promise and I didn't even go to him to talk about it, or tell him that I was" She trailed off and seemed to pick up her train of thought somewhere else. "I hurt him and he forgave me, and now I've hurt him again, only this time I don't think he's going to forgive me so easily, or even believe me when I say sorry."

"Have you tried to tell him?" She shook her head softly. "Well then?"

"I don't think I can."