- JESSE'S ENDING
Liz's mind was buzzing with thoughts as she sat in a hidden corner of one of Sanctuary's corridors. Something she had learned very young was that if you ever wanted to get lost, Sanctuary was the best place to do it. Some of the corridors seemed to go on for miles.
She had so many things that she needed to think about, yet no thought seemed to form fully before she came back to the one that seemed to ring in her ears. Her mother was new mutant. Her grandmother and grandfather and uncle and aunt her whole family was new mutant. SHE was new mutant. There were a few billion people out there in the world who would kill her without thinking. How was she ever going to walk out of the door again? How was she ever going to look Sarah in the eye? Would Sarah turn her in? Jesse had just told her the location of a whole family of new mutants, were they going to be in danger now? Surely he couldn't vouch for every single person in that hall.
The man in question appeared at the end of the corridor and stood there for a moment, observing. After a moment he wandered the distance that separated them, in no hurry. He took a seat beside her with a sigh.
"I'm sorry." He offered eventually. Liz searched herself for any kind of anger or resentment. All she found was regret that she hadn't known earlier.
"Why didn't Mum tell us?" She asked.
"She was scared. She didn't want you to be in danger. She wanted you to be able to meet someone like Sarah without having to hide any part of yourself. She's spent her whole adult life having to hide that from her husband and everyone who meant anything to her."
"Is that why I know when she's crying, and how I can jump so high and run like I do?"
"Yes. And it's why David's as quiet as he is. He feels a lot more of what's going on around him than most people, he just hasn't worked out how to put it into words yet."
"Tell me about Shalimar. I don't know anything about him and Mum won't talk about him. You hardly said anything about him"
"Him" Jesse smiled to himself. "No, Sandra never had a father. She was almost unique in that way." Liz looked up at him, confused.
"But how?"
"Genetic manipulation. She had two mothers and a god father who knew what he was doing with their genes. Shalimar was the same, though we didn't know until after she had died. She knew though. We broke into Adam's lab one night and had a look at our files. I always wondered why she was so shocked by what she read. Do you know that if Adam hadn't have interfered I would have been born with MS? How scary is that? He did something for all of us, even if some of us didn't thank him for it afterwards."
"The red-head." Liz mused. "From the photos in that room. Sarah was right. There were so many photos of them together. That was Shalimar." Jesse smiled.
"Who's 'them'?"
"Sarah found a photo that she was sure was Gramma, because of how much she looked like Mum and me. But in most of the photos she was with a redhead."
"She was nearly right. The blond woman was your grandmother, but not the one you knew. That was Shalimar. Emma was the redhead. I always thought that Kelly looked so much like her when she was younger." Jesse stood slowly. "We have to get back to the others. Sarah wants to talk to you. She has something she really wanted to tell you, but she couldn't find you. You should start to practice standing your ground. You know you're partly feral now, you have to show your pride."
"What if someone finds out, what if someone wants to kill me?"
"Everyone wants to kill you kid, it's the way of the world. But you're stronger and faster and more intelligent than a very large proportion of them. You were born with those skills. Your families gift to you." Liz took his hand and stood, pausing and wavering as Jesse moved away. She shut her eyes tightly, knowing that she wouldn't like what she saw when she opened them again. A faint memory of playing a game of peekaboo with her father came to mind. It hadn't seemed wrong at the time, until he had left and she realised that he had walked through the door without opening it.
"Liz?" Jesse asked tentatively. "Liz are you OK?" She opened her eyes to look at him, focusing only on his face and trying to ignore the others that had appeared around her.
"I'm" A hand on her should drew her attention away. She glanced to one side to find her Gramma stood there, aged and wrinkled hand on her shoulder. Even as she watched, the old bent figure she knew as her Grandmother seemed to change, slipping backwards in time and becoming the youth she had seen in so many of Jesse's photos. She suddenly seemed a lot taller and Liz reached out and ran a hand through her hair as it fell about her shoulders, the colour blood-red.
Emma simply smiled and turned to the others. There were two men with matching black scruffy hair stood up against one wall. One seemed older than the other, though only in his eyes. In appearance alone they could have been the same age. In the middle of the corridor Shalimar stood with Amy and Rachel at her shoulders. As Adam they looked young and the softest of smiles hovered over their lips as they watched their daughter. Together they laid a hand each on Shalimar's shoulder and she turned to them both in turn, offering a smile of thanks. Then the two turned together and, hand in hand, they walked off into nothingness, no fault in either or their strides. Caught up in watching the two women leave Liz didn't see Emma rush from her side and fly into Shalimar's arms. Shalimar took her up in her arms, spinning them both around. When they stopped there were tears in both of their eyes. Brennan and Adam stepped away from their wall and moved to embrace the pair. As one the team that used to be looked up at Jesse who smiled sadly at Liz.
"They're here aren't they. You can see them." She could only nod. "Tell them I'm ready to come and join them." Liz looked up at him sharply, well aware of what he was asking. She looked out at the figures who nearly filled the narrow corridor without seeming to take up any room. They looked back at her and nodded.
"They heard." She whispered. Moving as one they walked towards Jesse and one by one they took him in a tight embrace. Then they all disappeared into the shadows, taking him with them, and Jesse fell. Liz caught him before he reached the ground and guided him that last little bit of the way.
Jesse lay still.
For the want of the child the woman was lost
For the want of the woman the team was lost
And so it was the war was lost
And all for the want of the child
~ based on a 13th century English poem - The Horse Shoe Nail~
(NOT written by Benjamin Franklin, against common belief)