Author's notes: Oh, boy…bad me. Took way too long to update. In fact it's been so long, I'd best remind those just checking back in that this is set early to mid Season Two. Before Emma started displaying her 'darker side' and long before Adam became a psuedo bad guy. Though I'm quite enjoying Season Three, I rather miss the more 'innocent' days of Mutant X.
An Eye for An EyePart Six
By Mele
Using a combination of sheer strength and gentle persuasion, Shalimar had finally managed to maneuver Jesse back into his bed. The young man had seemed to touch - at least briefly - on reality, but had since retreated back into whatever haven he'd found deep within his own mind. Still, at last Shalimar had reason to hope, and renewed optimism led her to contemplate ways she could further reach her oldest friend and teammate.
A fragment of a long ago class wandered through her conscious mind, Adam's calm voice explaining the close correlation between the sense of smell and memory. How scent, more than any other sense, could trigger memories; both good and bad. What could Shalimar provide that had a strong enough smell to trip start Jesse's memory and would have pleasant connotations for the young man?
The answer was so simple she nearly leapt from her perch at Jesse's side in her anxiety to implement her plan. However, logic - and the fear that Jesse would be terrified to wake and find himself alone - led her to pause and take some precautions. Opening her comlink, she set the volume to max and laid the ring on the bedside table, thus assuring her that she would hear if the molecular stirred. Only then did she ease herself from his side and make her stealthy way to the storeroom where the supplies she needed were kept.
Adam kept a very complete and varied larder, including any and all foods that he could store that were particular treats for his young team. Brennan's preferred brand of hi-protein mix shared shelf space with Emma's favorite cookies, made by a small bakery in Minnesota. Shalimar herself had a considerable stash of fruit stuffed pastries, a treat the health conscious woman rarely allowed herself. And down in the corner was a large package of hot apple cider mix, a childhood treat Jesse still loved. He'd told Shalimar once, long ago, that the mere smell of the apple and cinnamon concoction brought up happy memories of his childhood.
Shalimar could just picture a young Jesse-flushed from playing in the snow, bundled in a heavy parka and wearing a bright red knitted hat on his tousled blond hair. His blue eyes would be sparkling with joy as the cook handed over the coveted drink, the heat from the mug chasing the chill from childish fingers. Shaking her head at her flights of fancy, the feral grabbed the necessary ingredients and headed quickly to the kitchen to brew up what she hoped would amount to a bit of benign magic.
~*~
The kitchen was an oasis of softly gleaming silver in the dim lighting of early morning Sanctuary. Knowing her other two teammates were off in search of Thorton, Shalimar expected to find the room deserted. Consequently she was startled by Adam's appearance in the doorway shortly after she'd entered.
"You left Jesse alone?" Kane asked quietly.
Wordlessly the feral held up her right hand, where her comlink gleamed. "I have him patched into mine, so I can hear if he so much as turns over."
"How's he doing? Any significant change?"
While she waited for the water to boil, Shal filled their mentor in on Jesse's condition, ending with her idea to try and stimulate his memory by using the smell of the hot cider.
"That's a great idea," Adam praised her, not adding that after seeing all that was done to the molecular his sense of smell was probably the only one not tortured in some way. Inadvertently the feral had found possibly the most effective way to get through the defenses the young man had erected against Thorton's abuse.
Shalimar smiled at his praise, then sobered as she studied the man's worn features. Though Adam was quite a bit older than the others, he didn't usually look as aged as he did this early morning under the unforgiving glare of the fluorescent lights. Every instinct told the young woman that Adam had suffered some sort of shock beyond that of having a member of his team kidnapped and tortured.
"What's wrong?" she asked, concern evident in her brown eyes.
"It's nothing; just a bad night," he evaded, pouring himself a cup of coffee from the pot that automatically brewed each morning.
Shal gave him a disbelieving look, but a long-standing habit of respect for the older man kept her from arguing. Besides, her main concern was Jesse. If Adam wanted to suffer in silence, she didn't have enough energy to dissuade him. The events of the recent past had been particularly upsetting to Shalimar; her feral instincts of protection and territoriality had been compromised in the most personal way possible. She was growing ever fonder of Brennan, and her friendship with Emma was in a state of constant growth, but Jesse was the brother of her heart. They had been through so much together, had a past and a history that the other two new mutants didn't even know about. Some good, some horrible, but all of it shared.
That Dwayne Thorton had chosen Jesse to carry out his act of revenge upon ate at the young woman's sense of fairness. Shades of gray were not Shal's strong point; she tended to see things as right or wrong with little regard for extenuating circumstances. Especially when it came to acts against someone she cared about. Noah Kilmartin had earned the feral's undying abhorrence when he callously used his son in an attempt to blackmail Eckert. Now Dwayne Thorton had earned her undiluted hatred for his acts of brutality against a young man who had done nothing to deserve it.
Intellect and instinct were constantly at war in Shalimar's being, as all the lessons she'd been taught about compassion and understanding battled against the feral's more basic nature; you do wrong, you pay. You do wrong to Shalimar or those she cared for, and you pay big. No excuses accepted.
The whistle from the teakettle interrupted Shalimar's thoughts, and she turned to the stove with an unexpected feeling of relief. Adam had surreptitiously watched the play of emotions across the young woman's expressive eyes, knowing from long association the battle within. He couldn't help but admire the tremendous strides she'd taken, remembering the wild youngster he'd first taken in so many years before. Time, patience, and – most importantly – love and stability had shaped that child into a woman of extraordinary strength and courage. The scientist in Kane valued Shalimar for the amazing manifestation of mutation she presented, while the man admired the humanity and spirit she possessed.
He knew their secrets, even if they didn't know he did. He knew what Shalimar's father had sentenced his young daughter to; what the child had endured. He knew from whence Jesse's fears came, understood their power and admired the young man's determined fight against them. Emma's initial reluctance to recognize her mutations? Brennan's descent into a life of crime? Understandable and understood in both cases. A long ago girlfriend of Adam's had complained bitterly of his aloofness, his holier-than-thou attitude. It had puzzled him to be accused of that; he worked hard to be understanding and accepting, why didn't others recognize that?
Couldn't anyone see his pain?
~*~
Brennan settled back into his seat, as the Double Helix made its smooth approach to the hidden entrance to Sanctuary. Emma flashed him a subdued smile from the seat beside him before she glanced back to check on the status of their prisoner. Dwayne Thorton hadn't given them a moment's trouble; she couldn't decide just how much that troubled her.
Thorton didn't flinch when Emma removed the device to temporarily blind him, nor did he respond in any way when Brennan removed his restraints and hauled him to his feet with perhaps a bit too much enthusiasm. A sharp nudge by the elemental got the kidnapper moving to disembark from the craft behind Emma. Despite his obvious attempts at nonchalance, Dwayne couldn't quite hide his interest in the facility Adam had set up. His gaze wandered around the landing bay, his dawning fascination cooling when he saw Adam standing near an entrance.
Fascination was replaced by malicious enjoyment of the other man's obvious distress.
Kane forced himself to ignore the man who years ago he'd called friend; instead he kept his attention on his two team members.
"Any problems?" he asked tersely.
"No. He seemed to be waiting for us, even," Emma reported, stopping by Adam's side and considering their 'guest'.
"Of course I was waiting for you, young lady," Thorton said with quiet scorn. "How else could I expect to find my old friend?" That last word was uttered with obvious contempt. His attention turned to Adam, his tones dripping with false sincerity. "How've you been Adam? Enjoying the tapes I left you?"
Emma and Brennan shot a questioning look at their leader, which Kane ignored. His attention was fully focused on the man who'd kept them in turmoil for over a week. The young man he'd known - short, intense, and nearly delicate in build - had matured into a stocky older man, who's florid complexion gave the impression of a more than casual acquaintance with alcohol. The dark eyes that had once sparked with curiosity and intelligence now gleamed with angry hatred, jarringly at odds with the studiously bland expression he maintained.
That blandness gradually morphed into a new expression; one of smug spite, and in that instant a montage of the scenes Adam had witnessed on the tapes flashed through his mind. Scenes of torture and torment against a young man he considered nearly as a son; and the civilized, logical part of Kane's mind bowed to the primal need for vengeance.
Adam lunged at Thorton, his strong hands closing with lethal intent around the smaller man's throat.
"No, Adam!" Having felt the sudden shift in the mental condition of the older man, Emma was the first to realize what was about to happen and the first to react. Standing at Thorton's side and demanding Adam's attention, she tried to break their mentor's focus and reach the reasonable part of the scientist's mind.
"You can't do this. You are better than this," she insisted, as Brennan took a more direct approach and attempted to pry Kane's fingers from the choking kidnapper's throat. After a few moments effort the elemental turned a worried countenance toward the psionic. Nodding grimly, Emma concentrated briefly, then hit Adam with a fairly mild psi blast, breaking his concentration enough to enable Brennan to free Thorton from Kane's deadly grip.
Gasping and choking, Thorton doubled over, turning away from his attacker, his hands frantically rubbing his abused throat. Brennan kept a close eye on his actions, but made no effort to offer support or assistance. He didn't want Adam to kill the man, but he didn't mind him suffering some.
Adam was also gasping, but at least sanity had returned to his dark eyes, and he turned to the worried Emma with a rueful expression. "Thank you. I shouldn't have let him get to me that way."
"You only did what all of us want to do," she demurred. "If I didn't think it was important for Jesse's recovery to have him alive, I might not have stopped you."
Adam gave the young woman a startled look; he had never heard her sound so uncompromising or cold. Not for the first time he considered there were depths to Emma he could barely guess at. However, now was not the time to be worrying about that.
"Brennan, why don't you take our…guest…and secure him in the isolation room for now. Make sure he has food and water available, and make certain the security fields are set on 'high'. It wouldn't do to underestimate him."
Thorton looked at his former friend with baleful eyes. "You planning to keep me your prisoner forever, Adam? You never reported the boy missing to the police, so you can't send me to prison. You don't have any 'official' recourse, in fact. Trapped by your own arrogance," he chucked.
"There is more than one kind of prison," Kane countered, his brown eyes hard. "I could make you long for the traditional kind. Get him out of here, Brennan."
Laughing at Kane's threat, Thorton made no attempt to break the elemental's firm hold on his arm. Adam watched the pair until they disappeared around a corner, then turned his attention to the young woman still standing by his side.
"Your control is getting better every day," he noted.
"I'm sorry I did that to you, Adam. But I didn't see any other options," the psionic explained quietly.
"You were right; there weren't any. You made the right decision," he assured her.
"What are we going to do with him?" Emma asked, changing the subject.
"Well, like you said, his presence may prove vital to Jesse's recovery. After that, I guess it will depend on Dwayne himself; how he reacts - whether or not he poses a continued threat to us or to anyone else. He's not an inherently evil person," Adam noted sadly.
"No, I know he isn't," Emma agreed with a troubled frown. "In fact, underneath the tough act, I sense more sorrow from him than anything else. Sorrow, and….confusion. Not regret, exactly, but maybe a hint of misgiving concerning what he's done. When he first saw you, I sensed a malicious sort of joy. But then…even as you were choking him…there was a flash of something different. Doubt, maybe. Like…perhaps seeing your pain didn't give him quite the pleasure he expected," she mused, obviously picking her way through the sensations she'd experienced.
"But even if he's regretting his actions, that doesn't change the fact that he planned this whole thing, and carried it out with singular efficiency," Adam countered with a frown. "What he did to Jesse…what he put him through… There's no excuse for that."
"What did Thorton mean about you enjoying the 'tapes'?" Brennan asked from the doorway, where he'd obviously been listening for a bit.
Kane sighed wearily, debating briefly the option of giving providing a benign lie in place of the truth, then decided honesty would be the best policy in this case.
"Thorton taped his 'sessions' with Jesse. I watched them last night," he confessed.
"He taped it?" Mulwray asked incredulously. "That's sick!"
"You watched them all last night?" Emma queried simultaneously.
"Yes, and yes. Well, I fast forwarded through a lot, but watched enough to know exactly what was done to Jess. I needed to know, so I'd be able to treat it," Adam explained.
"How…how bad is it?" Brennan asked with uncharacteristic tentativeness.
"Bad."
"You don't think Jesse can't come back from this, do you?" Brennan wanted to know.
"I think it will take a lot of time, and he may not come back all the way," Adam explained. "Thorton attacked his sense of worth, his sense of self. Physically, Jess is well on his way to recovery. But mentally…we will have to wait and see." The older man looked ready to expound more on this theory, but a gasp from Emma stopped him.
The psionic had a look of startled expectation on her expressive face as she turned to the two men and uttered a single word.
"Jesse."
~*~
Curiosity is a strange thing; the more one tries to ignore it, the more 'un-ignorable' it becomes. Jesse knew the outside world held many terrible things; that it was no longer safe to venture outside his mental refuge. But…he'd thought perhaps things out there had changed. That maybe he was safe again.
But then he'd remember what he'd experienced the last few times he'd ventured back out of himself, and that fear would override the tentative hope he'd been experiencing. Until he started to wonder again…and the cycle would repeat.
He'd always been the type who couldn't leave things that puzzled him alone. He'd have to pick and prod and study it until he'd figured it out; only then would he be satisfied. For all that Shalimar was the 'cat' on the team, even she couldn't compete with Jesse's curiosity.
This internal debate might have raged on indefinitely, if not for something that tipped the scales. As his sense of self-preservation was winning the argument with his curiosity, leading him to 'disappear' further within himself, a new factor was introduced; the sweet tangy scent of cinnamon apple.
It tickled at his nose, spreading remembered warmth throughout his body; this was a fragrance that meant home and benevolence and comfort. Nothing bad could be associated with this smell, and Jesse felt safe for the first time in far, far too long. This wonderful aroma was all the fortification curiosity needed to win the battle decisively.
Jesse Kilmartin opened his eyes to find the world had indeed straightened itself on its axis. Shalimar's familiar warm eyes gazed back at him with undisguised affection.
"Jesse?" she asked softly.
"Am I home?" he queried, hope filling his blue eyes.
"God, yes, you're home. You're safe now, no one can hurt you again," she assured him, pulling him into a gentle hug.
His arms encircled the young woman as he fought for emotional control. What he'd long since given up hoping for was suddenly a reality; he was back with the family of his heart. Back where he was accepted – and loved, even – for who he was, without regard to what he could do. The nightmare of abuse was ended; he knew Shalimar would never lie to him.
The battle against tears was lost before it had fully begun, and it was several minutes before Jesse realized he wasn't the only one in the room crying.
TBC