Author's Notes Part 3:  See part one for disclaimer, etc.  Sorry for the lengthy delay in this, life's been a bit hectic, so I thank you for your patience.  And thank you all for the lovely feedback, it is so much appreciated. 

An Eye For An Eye, Part Three
By Mele



Shalimar leaned back into the comfortable chair, pulling her legs up and folding them under her lean body. The room was darkened with the artificial 'nighttime' that was meant to simulate the natural night that had fallen outside the Sanctuary's mountain hideaway. They had successfully rescued Jesse several hours before, and now the young man slept the sleep of the heartily drugged on his own bed. During the extensive - and often horrifying - physical exam Adam had given the molecular, Shalimar had ably assisted, holding her emotions in check by sheer willpower. Jess's many injuries had been assessed and treated with as much skill and tenderness as was humanly possible even though he'd been kept in a state of deep unconsciousness throughout.

The blonde feral reached out and tenderly ran her hand over the blanket-covered chest of her teammate, a feeling of protective affection filling her being.  Jesse didn't respond to her touch, not that she'd expected him to.  According to Adam he would be out for at least another six hours; even longer if he decided to repeat the dose in the case of Jesse being too distraught upon awakening.  Shalimar had tended to bathing the molecular while Adam had been concentrating on treating his wounds, so now the young man was both clean and medicated.  Only one real point of dissention came up between the feral and her mentor.

Adam had insisted on leaving the sub-dermal governor in.

Shalimar, with a feral's instinctive hatred of confinement of any sort, had been appalled at the idea of leaving that device in Jesse.  All of them hated the governors, hated that they had ever been invented, hated that Adam had been the one to invent them, and above all hated having one used on them.  Jesse just as much, if not more so, than the others. 

But even faced with that, she could not really fault Adam's logic in leaving the device in place for the time being.  If it were her, or Brennan, or even Emma, he would have been inclined to remove it.  But Jesse's powers made it uniquely difficult to contain the young man in the event he wanted to escape.  And in the condition he was currently in, freedom offered much more danger than was acceptable to any of them.  Until Jesse was himself again, or at the very least demonstrating he was capable of reason and behavior other than instinctual, the governor kept the young man safe.  From others, and from himself.

Shal found her mind wandering as she kept her quiet vigil; wandering back through the years to when she first met the molecular... 

Nikki had been gone three weeks by then, and Shalimar was still struggling with the missing her friend, combined with an irrational jealousy of Nikki's now normal life.  Ever since she could remember, Shalimar Fox had wanted to have a 'normal' life with friends and school and parents who loved her and cared for her and accepted her for who and what she was.  Living with Adam and Nikki was the closest she had ever come to that dream…then Adam sent the other girl away.  There was a sense of joy that Adam had chosen her over Nikki, but that wasn't enough to offset the dismay that her 'family' had once again been torn asunder.

Then, barely a week after Nikki had been placed with a new family, Adam brought Jesse to meet Shalimar for the very first time.  The boy that Adam presented far from impressed the fifteen-year-old girl; she thought the thirteen-year-old was scrawny and weak.  He stood in front of her, glancing up timidly from underneath shaggy blond bangs that had been allowed to grow far too long.  Still smarting from the loss of her friend and contemporary, Shalimar just glowered at the youth, taking angry satisfaction from the youngster's look of trepidation.

Adam wisely allowed time to ease the discomfort between his two young charges, watching only to ensure that they did no harm to each other.  One of the many characteristics Shalimar shared with the feline species was an innate curiosity, and almost despite herself she found she was watching Jesse's activities.  The first time she saw him phase – in response to her startling him, in fact – she was fascinated.  She'd heard of other types of mutations, but she'd only spent a lot of time around other ferals, and this glimpse of a new ability intrigued her.

The blonde girl managed to contain her curiosity for two days before breaking her self-imposed vow of silence.

"How did you do that?  Can you walk through anything?  Does it hurt when you do it?  What if you get stuck?" she asked the startled youngster while he sat at his favorite computer console.

Looking up at the girl with a guarded look Jesse seemed to sink further into his chair as he muttered his reply.  "I'm a freak, didn't they tell you?"
"Are you calling me a freak?" Shalimar asked, scowling at the younger mutant.

"N-no," he stammered, glancing up at her with wide eyes.

"Better not be, cause I can kick your ass.  You're a mutant, like I am.  We're special, we are NOT freaks."  

"YOU'RE like me?" the boy asked, obviously doubtful of her claims.

"I can't go around walking through walls, but I can do other things," she explained with some considerable pride.

"Like what?"

Grinning, Shalimar was more than happy to show off her abilities, scaling the nearby wall and leaping across to perch on a tall bookcase.  Numerous flips and leaps found her crouched carefully on the back of Jesse's chair.

"Well, what do you think of that?" she asked with a smirk.

Jesse's blue eyes were full of unfeigned admiration.  "Cool!  How did you do that?" he asked excitedly, standing and looking at her full force in the eyes for the first time.

"I'm a feral.  It's what I do," she shrugged, trying to act cool but the effect was spoiled by her sudden grin.  "I could teach you how to fight.  I love to fight!" she enthused, dragging Jesse by the hand toward the dojo. 

By the end of the day the two young people had forged the beginning of a friendship, and for the first time dinner was punctuated by laughter and - mostly -  good-natured teasing.  It would prove to be a slow process, hampered by the difference in their ages and interests, but gradually they learned to respect and appreciate each other's abilities and aptitudes. 

Not without a few mishaps along the way.

Jesse had never been particularly into sports or other physical activities, preferring the safety of the virtual world for his kicks.  But Shalimar changed all that; encouraging the boy to work out, to learn some martial arts, to hike and swim and run.  Using a combination of teasing, taunting and tormenting, she left him little option but to join her in her activities.

In turn, Jesse managed to get Shalimar intrigued enough in the computers to at least become more proficient in their use.  She had a mind as quick and agile as her body, so she had little difficulty keeping up with their new resident nerd, as she was prone to calling him when teasing.

Unfortunately, Shalimar got too enthusiastic her role as workout bully, and during one particularly energetic sparring match she managed to inflame the younger boy's temper.  Without thinking, Jesse massed as Shalimar attacked, and rather than yielding flesh her blows fell on what felt like solid concrete.  Additionally, Jesse swept up and out with his massed right arm to deflect her blows, striking her left arm sharply.  The blonde feral fell to the dojo mat writhing in pain, her broken forearm held cradled against her body as her opponent unmassed.

The injured feral's shriek of pain brought Adam on the run, to find Jesse anxiously kneeling over the girl who was sitting hunched over, her teeth gritted against the throbbing agony in her lower arm.

"I didn't mean to!" the young molecular cried out in anguish, his frantic gaze switching between Shalimar and Adam.  "I didn't mean to hurt her!"

"We'll talk about that later," Adam replied sternly as he carefully checked the injured girl's arm.  He scooped her gently into his arms, her blonde head resting against his shoulder, her brown eyes squeezed shut at the pain of movement. 

A few hours later Shalimar was resting in her bed, her left arm incased in a bright white cast from fingers to shoulder.  She glanced up to see a single tear filled blue eye peering around the doorjamb at her.

"I'm sorry.  Do you hate me?"

"Yes; you fight dirty!  Why'd you do that?  I never hurt you!" Shalimar informed him, her eyes glowing dangerously.  "Go away, I don't want to see you."

The younger mutant left without reply, ghosting through a nearby wall when he saw Adam approaching with a serious look.  The older man sighed when he saw the boy disappear, and instead turned his attention to his patient.

"Feeling any better?" he asked solicitously as he entered her room and took a seat on the edge of the bed.

"No."

"Want to tell me what happened this afternoon?"  He'd not asked her earlier, concentrating instead on treating her injury.

"We were fighting…you know…practicing.  And he did something and became rock hard, then he hit me," she explained with an aggrieved look.

"And he's never done that before?"

"No.  I didn't even know he could do that," Shal complained.

"It's not that common, but Jesse can both phase and mass.  It's one of the traits I wanted him for.  But what I'm wondering is why.  Why did he do it this time?" Kane pondered, watching the teenager carefully.  Shalimar was passionate and hot-tempered, but not particularly adept at masking her emotions.  Right now she looked both angry and a bit ashamed.

"I…I may have gone a little too far in teasing him," she admitted at last, picking at the edge of the cast with her right hand.

"Hmm…what do you consider 'too far'?" he prompted her.

"I called him a lily livered freakazoid who couldn't even beat a girl," Shalimar muttered.

Adam bit back a startled laugh; that was so Shalimar.  He hadn't bothered to tell her much about her new companion, preferring them to discuss matters on their own, but apparently he'd been remiss in mentioning some things.  Though he could not…would not…condone with Jesse had done, he understood how it had happened.

"Shalimar, I know you pretty well now, and I know how you love to tease, but Jesse is still learning that.  And it's going to take him a while to understand you don't mean any harm with what you say," he began, taking her uninjured hand into his.  "Jesse's had a pretty hard time of it, in that he's never been able to fit in, that he's been ostracized both at home and at school.  He's not like you, not as strong yet, and the constant verbal abuse was hard for him.  His family is wealthy, and they put a lot of emphasis on fitting in, on being normal.  That Jesse developed…special abilities…they didn't understand that.  Couldn't accept it.  Couldn't accept him.  You know how that is, right?  He became the family's dirty little secret, and he was made well aware of their feeling in this"

He paused, considering, while Shalimar looked up at him with an unreadable expression.

"I'm not saying it's okay, Shal.  And he'll be getting one of my patented 'Adam Kane Special' lectures, to say nothing of hours of exercises to learn to control his abilities, but I would like for you to consider giving him another chance.  I know he feels terrible about hurting you; nothing I read or heard about his past indicates a tendency to strike out at others.  In fact, everything seems to indicate he takes things very much to heart but reacts passively.  I know he hurt you, and I know you didn't deserve a broken arm, but I'm still asking you to give him another chance."

"I'll think about it," the feral agreed at last, a frown marring her forehead.  "Did his parents send him to you to get rid of him?"

"Sort of."

"I'll think about it," she reiterated, lying back down and rolling over onto her uninjured side. 

"Thank you," Adam whispered, patting her shoulder and heading out to round up his newest charge.

He found the young molecular curled up in one of the large chairs in the rec room, bony knees pulled up under his chin.  Adam took a seat across from him and considered the youth with a sigh.

"Are you going to send me back?" Jesse ventured at last.

"Should I?"

"I didn't mean to hurt her, honest." 

"Want to tell me what happened?" Kane requested.

"She called me a freak," the boy murmured, staring at his knees with a frown.  "Just because I wouldn't fight with her because she always wins.  I'm tired of losing every fight with her, and then she called me a freak just like everyone always does and I guess…I guess I thought that going hard was one way I could win.  I didn't mean to hit out at her, I know that's bad, that I should never do that."

"Never do what?" Adam queried.

"Never go hard like that.  It's bad to do, just like going ghost is.  It's bad, and I guess that's why I'm here, so I can learn how not to do that and how to be normal, right?"

"That's not why you're here, Jesse.  I thought you understood.  You're here to learn how to CONTROL your powers, not suppress them.  Your abilities aren't 'bad'.  YOU aren't bad."

"So I'm not here so you can de-freak me?"

"Not at all.  And you are NOT a freak.  Someday, I think you'll be able to do a lot of good with your abilities, and I'm here to help you reach that goal.  And the first part of that training is learning how your abilities work, and what you can…and cannot…do.  AND to teach you the consequences of misuse of your powers…"

Jesse slumped back in his seat as Adam began his lecture with a no-nonsense scolding about the dangers of massing in a fight.  An hour later Adam finally left the teen to contemplate his comments and how he might go about making up with Shalimar….

A slight movement from the silent figure on the bed brought Shalimar back from her contemplations, and she anxiously leaned forward, looking to see if her friend was finally waking up.  But after a couple of restless twitches, Jesse settled back down, still deeply under the influence of the sedative, and his companion went back to her thoughts.

Even now the memory of Jesse's fumbling attempts to grant Shal's every little wish as her arm healed brought a smile to the feral's lips.  He'd been so sincere in his efforts!  And only Adam's intervention had kept her from taking full advantage of it, for which she was grateful in retrospect.

From that point on their friendship grew on a daily basis, and as the days built into months and the months into years, they became all the family either of them wanted or needed.  Just as he had done with the half starved, wild child that Shalimar had been, Adam groomed Jesse into a strong, capable young man, confident of his abilities. 

He learned to use his mutations to provide protection for his teammates, something he took great pride in.  He was their master of the stealth approach, and the mobile armor they could take anywhere.  As his sense of self worth grew, his personality emerged; full of good humor, a dry wit, headstrong courage and gentle affection. 

However, he still had bouts of severe self-doubt, most often aggravated by the addition of a new person into his world.  Shal chuckled to herself at the thought of how Jesse just HAD to resist Brennan's lead, even when he obviously agreed with the older man's suggestions.  It was SO typical of her friend.

Lost in her thoughts again, she was startled when she glanced over at Jesse and found two blue eyes watching her with a look of fear.

"Jesse, it's okay now, you're safe, back in Sanctuary.  No one is going to hurt you.  We've been so worried about you," she told him softly, reaching out to touch his shoulder.

The effect was as immediate as it was unexpected.  The molecular pushed her away then rolled off the far side of the bed, scuttling into the nearest corner where he pulled his knees to his chest and started rocking.  Once more she heard the words she'd hoped to never have to hear again…

"I'm not a freak, I am special and wanted and loved.  I'm not a freak, I am special and…"

TBC