DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters from 'Mutant X'. They're not
my property. They belong to Tribune Entertainment.
***
*********
Jesse stepped off the no.7 bus and stood at that spot while thinking towards which direction he should go. It had been warmer than he expected as he took off his jacket and thought of forming a smile because of the weather.
When he began walking, the Molecular begun to wonder of how close he was to insanity of trusting some mile word from a person he did not even know.
His eyes took a brief glimpse of the clear morning sky and the picture kept, what at first was intended to be a short, smile. Desperation, was the first thought in his mind about it. Then Loneliness followed and shortly after - yearning. Physically he had been surrounded by nice people, starting with the Letterins but inside he was beginning to be absorbed by the feeling that he was trapped in a small dark room. all by himself. This feeling gave him quick shivers and if it hadn't been for the warmth of the day, Jesse would have continued to be subjected to that coldness generating from his thoughts.
Perhaps he should not bother about this at all but his heart would not put him to rest. Jesse rubbed his nose with his fingers as he felt the connection he had with his friends and especially Shalimar after the passing of such long time. Then he stopped. Whether insane or not he was already here. It would be a waste to not use this time and in the very least have a look here and there and if he would return empty-handed, at least the chance of enjoying some of the sites of Wellington on such a day, would remain.
"Gosh, where do I start?" he wondered as his fingers gripped the black surface of his jacket that rested between his hip and his right hand.
"Excuse me," a gentle female voice interrupted his musing.
The Molecular turned around to notice two young women in their early twenties.
"Yes?"
"What time is it?" they asked him.
"Err..." he glanced at his watch. "7:15," he responded.
"Thanks," they smiled and walked passes him.
As he turned around, Jesse watched the women for awhile and threw his jacket on the other hand to serve as a hanger. They appeared as they were from this place and he should have asked *them* for directions... a sigh appeared, if he only knew where he was going. He continued walking forward and after some minutes took a left turn.
He was soon greeted by a wide but darker space surrounded by brick walls of the buildings. Something which barely moved at the darkest corner to the far right caught the attention of his eyes. Jesse heard a quiet moan. He tried to adjust to the fading light as he quickly ran over to the moving, perhaps, person. The moment he stood closely enough, his eyes widened as he crouched on the ground that was giving the smell of stale water and something else not quite recognizable. "Shal?" The words were quickly pulled out of his mouth when he placed his hands softly on the female's small body.
The blonde let out another quiet moan and struggled to summon up enough strength to lift her head to give her eyes the chance to see the person next to her. Unfortunately she did not have good amount of that same strength to let it get to her hands so she could separate her body from the smelly ground. "Ah..." her eyes were fighting against her eyelids that wanted to cover them. "Jess...?" She appeared to be in pain and the traces of the tiny straight bloody lines on her forehead and chin confirmed it even more clearly.
This was not how Jesse had expected to see his dear friend. Of course he had little familiarity to expect but this... this was something completely absent from his mind. Taking her upper body with his hands, he slowly but carefully sat on the ground and placed her on his lap as Shalimar appeared too weak to stand up. He wanted to hug her, kiss her cheek and her forehead, tell her everything, but this unexpected circumstance threw all of that away. Jesse would have to save his greetings for later... much later.
"What happened?" he asked slowly.
"I...ah..." she touched her head and when her small finger accidentally touched one of the tiny traces of blood on her forehead, Shalimar shut her eyes. It stung horribly, more than it normally should. If she hadn't felt so exhausted, she would have questioned the intensity of that pain. The sudden sting increased her need of air while her eyes remained shut. "They surprised me..." her voice seemed rough yet weak as she spoke.
When she lowered her left hand it was then that Jesse noticed her right one was covered in blood entirely. This disturbed him. Perhaps it would have been better if the light had disappeared from this corner right now but unfortunately it was still present there, though feeble, it gave him the opportunity to notice the state of Shalimar's body or at least the most obvious. "Shit..." he whispered and not being able to stand this sad site, he carefully lifted his friend while he stood up. His forelegs could still feel the moisture from the ground and even its stubbornness to remove itself and instead remain close to his skin. Somehow he managed to nest her safely in his arms. Ah, this would have been so much easier for Brennan, he at least was bigger. "Ok, I'm go-..." he began but as his eyes landed on her face he noticed her lost battle to stay awake.
He should get her somewhere warmer and drier.
*********
Emma yawned as the feeling of expected boredom was overtaking her. Tapping her foot on the purple tiled floor she placed her hands behind her back, almost pressing them against her thick brown top with "Wild" written on the front with huge white letters. She hugely disliked empty days like this because of their moments: boring and at times close to murder.
The Psionic worked as a salesgirl in a small clothes shop at the local mall for these last ten months. She had to have money to pay for the rent somehow and having had previous experience at these places, Emma took the job. It wasn't as bad as she had expected it to be, there were surprisingly a lot of nice customers, most of them of older age.
Looking slowly over to the far right corner where the new colorful summer dresses were placed she saw a young woman with purple hair in a pony tail eyeing up a bright red number while the young man, obviously her boyfriend with almost platinum hair color, was trying to conceal his tremendous boredom. Emma had to giggle. She knew pretty well what agonizing activity this was for the male sex, especially if their companion just happened to be female who would spend hours simply observing one piece of clothing. The Psionic had wanted to feel sorry for the young man but instead she turned around and walked over to the register.
Emma then noticed Brennan walking towards her. "Still nothing?" she asked him.
"No, she still must be out," he responded and leaned on the yellow surface. Brennan had tried to call Shalimar several times that morning but no answer was returned.
They had both overslept, Emma due to her delayed fall to slumber and Brennan as he put it: 'a sudden transformation into a pleasant dream', making him miss his flight. He decided to try a later flight.
"So, err this must be fun for you," he said while observing the shop.
"Oh yeah... I'm having a blast," she sounded less cheerful than she should have had.
Brennan noticed this. "What happened last night?" he asked her.
Emma never told him. She did not feel it had been a wise idea to reveal to him. "It's just stupid," she thought and turned her head. "Ah, I already told you this morning," she said out loud.
"Insomnia?"
"Yep." Emma nodded.
"The entire night?"
"Almost, yeah."
"Huh, ok." He believed her with some reluctance which Emma could sense well.
The Psionic avoided his look for a couple of seconds. She would even have to throw in her strange although brief irritation towards the rain if she was to begin telling him the event of last night. Emma considered this attitude in the direction of such an element of nature as 'stupid'... it would have been of little use to even try and explain it. She did not get as much sleep as she had hoped and she felt too tired to throw blames around. Instead, tonight would be an early night for her.
*********
He finally sat on the chair to let his strength build up once again. It had gotten dark by now with no plain picture of the previous bright sky. The time always passes much more slowly and agonizingly when something is troubling a person. And now he was that victim. Jesse placed the chair in such direction so his eyes would have a clear and und hopefully an undisturbed view of Shalimar who had been resting on the couch for the last hour, still asleep.
Her left hand resting gently on the pillow, close to her face where the required bandages were added; even in her sleep she still appeared tired. "Ah, how many were there?" he asked himself while observing the sleeping Feral. The golden locks settled soundly on her right shoulder and the surface beneath her face; at one point she even inhaled with such depth that the Molecular thought she must've had a temporarily shortage. Apart from that moment, everything else appeared calm and normal and her chest moving slightly to the circulation of the oxygen through her seemed sweet in a way. If only the occasional crude noise of passing vehicles did not appear, this would have been a very settled, peaceful image of his dear friend.
But... even with the thickest silence, his unsettled emotions would not cease. Jesse felt more than relieved that Shalimar was here in some way alright, her health still good but he was curious about what happened. He needed to know.
It had been a year since he had seen her last and except for the visible bruises and some other slight wounds she appeared exactly the same. He had missed her. Jesse missed all of his friends and team mates but Shalimar somehow had always managed to remain in that bigger and perhaps even secret place in his heart. He wished he hadn't seen her like this - wounded and exhausted. He felt angry at her attackers. He always did, every time someone would dare to harm her. Of course Shalimar had always been the sole protector and even at time possessive of everyone but perhaps she could tell how Jesse could get. Selfishness? No. His sensitive nature would sometimes give that impression but it had not been so had events such as this one never appeared.
He did not see Brennan. Perhaps he had to leave somewhere. "It doesn't matter...no, wait. It does matter! Where was he? Sure, Shalimar is more than capable of taking care of herself but he could have helped!" he sighed annoyingly but soon gave rest to this uneasiness. The only wish right now he has was for her to recover quickly. The rest. she would tell him.
He then saw her move her right hand away from her hip as a quiet moan was heard. Her chin was raised an inch and her eyes slowly opened. After blinking a couple of times she stared at the spot on the wall in front of her like a lost little girl. Moving her gaze gradually to the right she stopped at the figure of the young man. She had still felt exhausted but nevertheless she could conjure up at least a faint smile. "Jess." she spoke quietly.
The Molecular rushed to kneel next to her, giving his right hand to rest at the end of Shalimar's pillow and the other one on her left hand. "Hi..." he had to smile back. She always managed to make him smile. "How do you feel?"
"Um..." she searched for his eyes with a weak signal but at least they had strength million times bigger than the one of her body. Shalimar took a while to answer. "Better to see you now," was her response and her tone not going to a farther distance to be heard than that of where Jesse was.
Placing his left hand on her hair, Jesse began stroking it gently. He was always the type of person to be sick with worry and that had been the subject of Shalimar's teasing a number of times. Her hair was so soft, he thought while looking in her eyes. "I missed you," he told her, trying to keep his own tone on the same level as her.
"Aww... have you..." the faint smile somehow managed to get slightly bigger as the Feral moved her hand up to his cheek. "You're always too much the worry type, Jesse..." she took in a long breath and an even longer pause before she said: "you're like a girl with that, you know?" she teased him and was on the verge of releasing laughter when her weak condition stopped her. She felt innerved by this temporarily handicap but she did not want to show it... for a while she would feel scared. Yet, it was good that it was he who was here now. The exposure of her vulnerability was safe in front of him. "But I've missed you also, Jesse... so much," she finally said.
He could not help himself. Wrapping his arms around her tightly, he embraced his friend. A year is too long... much too long.
It was perhaps twenty minutes which dragged on like this. There were no words between them and the only thing present was the physical warmth from the embrace. After the separation, he sat down on the floor, not letting go of her hand which just earlier was drenched in red blood. "What happened?" he then asked. He had to know. He would ask about Brennan later.
Shalimar gazed at him with her dark eyes. "They were only four..." she began. "But they were not human... it wasn't agents... they were some sort of mutants. They...ah... yes, they looked human but they weren't. They were too strong..." she closed her eyes. "It was hard, they wanted to kill me. But they were called off... I saw someone standing behind them a meter away." Her eyelids squeezed hard on her eyes, they were preparing for a tear. "I..." her lips were of a doubt whether to remain open or closed as she had wanted to tell. A deep sigh followed. "I think I saw him... if it hadn't been daylight I wouldn't have but I think I saw him."
"Who?"
Shalimar opened her eyes which were now covered with the salty liquid. "Adam," she said.
*********
***
*********
Jesse stepped off the no.7 bus and stood at that spot while thinking towards which direction he should go. It had been warmer than he expected as he took off his jacket and thought of forming a smile because of the weather.
When he began walking, the Molecular begun to wonder of how close he was to insanity of trusting some mile word from a person he did not even know.
His eyes took a brief glimpse of the clear morning sky and the picture kept, what at first was intended to be a short, smile. Desperation, was the first thought in his mind about it. Then Loneliness followed and shortly after - yearning. Physically he had been surrounded by nice people, starting with the Letterins but inside he was beginning to be absorbed by the feeling that he was trapped in a small dark room. all by himself. This feeling gave him quick shivers and if it hadn't been for the warmth of the day, Jesse would have continued to be subjected to that coldness generating from his thoughts.
Perhaps he should not bother about this at all but his heart would not put him to rest. Jesse rubbed his nose with his fingers as he felt the connection he had with his friends and especially Shalimar after the passing of such long time. Then he stopped. Whether insane or not he was already here. It would be a waste to not use this time and in the very least have a look here and there and if he would return empty-handed, at least the chance of enjoying some of the sites of Wellington on such a day, would remain.
"Gosh, where do I start?" he wondered as his fingers gripped the black surface of his jacket that rested between his hip and his right hand.
"Excuse me," a gentle female voice interrupted his musing.
The Molecular turned around to notice two young women in their early twenties.
"Yes?"
"What time is it?" they asked him.
"Err..." he glanced at his watch. "7:15," he responded.
"Thanks," they smiled and walked passes him.
As he turned around, Jesse watched the women for awhile and threw his jacket on the other hand to serve as a hanger. They appeared as they were from this place and he should have asked *them* for directions... a sigh appeared, if he only knew where he was going. He continued walking forward and after some minutes took a left turn.
He was soon greeted by a wide but darker space surrounded by brick walls of the buildings. Something which barely moved at the darkest corner to the far right caught the attention of his eyes. Jesse heard a quiet moan. He tried to adjust to the fading light as he quickly ran over to the moving, perhaps, person. The moment he stood closely enough, his eyes widened as he crouched on the ground that was giving the smell of stale water and something else not quite recognizable. "Shal?" The words were quickly pulled out of his mouth when he placed his hands softly on the female's small body.
The blonde let out another quiet moan and struggled to summon up enough strength to lift her head to give her eyes the chance to see the person next to her. Unfortunately she did not have good amount of that same strength to let it get to her hands so she could separate her body from the smelly ground. "Ah..." her eyes were fighting against her eyelids that wanted to cover them. "Jess...?" She appeared to be in pain and the traces of the tiny straight bloody lines on her forehead and chin confirmed it even more clearly.
This was not how Jesse had expected to see his dear friend. Of course he had little familiarity to expect but this... this was something completely absent from his mind. Taking her upper body with his hands, he slowly but carefully sat on the ground and placed her on his lap as Shalimar appeared too weak to stand up. He wanted to hug her, kiss her cheek and her forehead, tell her everything, but this unexpected circumstance threw all of that away. Jesse would have to save his greetings for later... much later.
"What happened?" he asked slowly.
"I...ah..." she touched her head and when her small finger accidentally touched one of the tiny traces of blood on her forehead, Shalimar shut her eyes. It stung horribly, more than it normally should. If she hadn't felt so exhausted, she would have questioned the intensity of that pain. The sudden sting increased her need of air while her eyes remained shut. "They surprised me..." her voice seemed rough yet weak as she spoke.
When she lowered her left hand it was then that Jesse noticed her right one was covered in blood entirely. This disturbed him. Perhaps it would have been better if the light had disappeared from this corner right now but unfortunately it was still present there, though feeble, it gave him the opportunity to notice the state of Shalimar's body or at least the most obvious. "Shit..." he whispered and not being able to stand this sad site, he carefully lifted his friend while he stood up. His forelegs could still feel the moisture from the ground and even its stubbornness to remove itself and instead remain close to his skin. Somehow he managed to nest her safely in his arms. Ah, this would have been so much easier for Brennan, he at least was bigger. "Ok, I'm go-..." he began but as his eyes landed on her face he noticed her lost battle to stay awake.
He should get her somewhere warmer and drier.
*********
Emma yawned as the feeling of expected boredom was overtaking her. Tapping her foot on the purple tiled floor she placed her hands behind her back, almost pressing them against her thick brown top with "Wild" written on the front with huge white letters. She hugely disliked empty days like this because of their moments: boring and at times close to murder.
The Psionic worked as a salesgirl in a small clothes shop at the local mall for these last ten months. She had to have money to pay for the rent somehow and having had previous experience at these places, Emma took the job. It wasn't as bad as she had expected it to be, there were surprisingly a lot of nice customers, most of them of older age.
Looking slowly over to the far right corner where the new colorful summer dresses were placed she saw a young woman with purple hair in a pony tail eyeing up a bright red number while the young man, obviously her boyfriend with almost platinum hair color, was trying to conceal his tremendous boredom. Emma had to giggle. She knew pretty well what agonizing activity this was for the male sex, especially if their companion just happened to be female who would spend hours simply observing one piece of clothing. The Psionic had wanted to feel sorry for the young man but instead she turned around and walked over to the register.
Emma then noticed Brennan walking towards her. "Still nothing?" she asked him.
"No, she still must be out," he responded and leaned on the yellow surface. Brennan had tried to call Shalimar several times that morning but no answer was returned.
They had both overslept, Emma due to her delayed fall to slumber and Brennan as he put it: 'a sudden transformation into a pleasant dream', making him miss his flight. He decided to try a later flight.
"So, err this must be fun for you," he said while observing the shop.
"Oh yeah... I'm having a blast," she sounded less cheerful than she should have had.
Brennan noticed this. "What happened last night?" he asked her.
Emma never told him. She did not feel it had been a wise idea to reveal to him. "It's just stupid," she thought and turned her head. "Ah, I already told you this morning," she said out loud.
"Insomnia?"
"Yep." Emma nodded.
"The entire night?"
"Almost, yeah."
"Huh, ok." He believed her with some reluctance which Emma could sense well.
The Psionic avoided his look for a couple of seconds. She would even have to throw in her strange although brief irritation towards the rain if she was to begin telling him the event of last night. Emma considered this attitude in the direction of such an element of nature as 'stupid'... it would have been of little use to even try and explain it. She did not get as much sleep as she had hoped and she felt too tired to throw blames around. Instead, tonight would be an early night for her.
*********
He finally sat on the chair to let his strength build up once again. It had gotten dark by now with no plain picture of the previous bright sky. The time always passes much more slowly and agonizingly when something is troubling a person. And now he was that victim. Jesse placed the chair in such direction so his eyes would have a clear and und hopefully an undisturbed view of Shalimar who had been resting on the couch for the last hour, still asleep.
Her left hand resting gently on the pillow, close to her face where the required bandages were added; even in her sleep she still appeared tired. "Ah, how many were there?" he asked himself while observing the sleeping Feral. The golden locks settled soundly on her right shoulder and the surface beneath her face; at one point she even inhaled with such depth that the Molecular thought she must've had a temporarily shortage. Apart from that moment, everything else appeared calm and normal and her chest moving slightly to the circulation of the oxygen through her seemed sweet in a way. If only the occasional crude noise of passing vehicles did not appear, this would have been a very settled, peaceful image of his dear friend.
But... even with the thickest silence, his unsettled emotions would not cease. Jesse felt more than relieved that Shalimar was here in some way alright, her health still good but he was curious about what happened. He needed to know.
It had been a year since he had seen her last and except for the visible bruises and some other slight wounds she appeared exactly the same. He had missed her. Jesse missed all of his friends and team mates but Shalimar somehow had always managed to remain in that bigger and perhaps even secret place in his heart. He wished he hadn't seen her like this - wounded and exhausted. He felt angry at her attackers. He always did, every time someone would dare to harm her. Of course Shalimar had always been the sole protector and even at time possessive of everyone but perhaps she could tell how Jesse could get. Selfishness? No. His sensitive nature would sometimes give that impression but it had not been so had events such as this one never appeared.
He did not see Brennan. Perhaps he had to leave somewhere. "It doesn't matter...no, wait. It does matter! Where was he? Sure, Shalimar is more than capable of taking care of herself but he could have helped!" he sighed annoyingly but soon gave rest to this uneasiness. The only wish right now he has was for her to recover quickly. The rest. she would tell him.
He then saw her move her right hand away from her hip as a quiet moan was heard. Her chin was raised an inch and her eyes slowly opened. After blinking a couple of times she stared at the spot on the wall in front of her like a lost little girl. Moving her gaze gradually to the right she stopped at the figure of the young man. She had still felt exhausted but nevertheless she could conjure up at least a faint smile. "Jess." she spoke quietly.
The Molecular rushed to kneel next to her, giving his right hand to rest at the end of Shalimar's pillow and the other one on her left hand. "Hi..." he had to smile back. She always managed to make him smile. "How do you feel?"
"Um..." she searched for his eyes with a weak signal but at least they had strength million times bigger than the one of her body. Shalimar took a while to answer. "Better to see you now," was her response and her tone not going to a farther distance to be heard than that of where Jesse was.
Placing his left hand on her hair, Jesse began stroking it gently. He was always the type of person to be sick with worry and that had been the subject of Shalimar's teasing a number of times. Her hair was so soft, he thought while looking in her eyes. "I missed you," he told her, trying to keep his own tone on the same level as her.
"Aww... have you..." the faint smile somehow managed to get slightly bigger as the Feral moved her hand up to his cheek. "You're always too much the worry type, Jesse..." she took in a long breath and an even longer pause before she said: "you're like a girl with that, you know?" she teased him and was on the verge of releasing laughter when her weak condition stopped her. She felt innerved by this temporarily handicap but she did not want to show it... for a while she would feel scared. Yet, it was good that it was he who was here now. The exposure of her vulnerability was safe in front of him. "But I've missed you also, Jesse... so much," she finally said.
He could not help himself. Wrapping his arms around her tightly, he embraced his friend. A year is too long... much too long.
It was perhaps twenty minutes which dragged on like this. There were no words between them and the only thing present was the physical warmth from the embrace. After the separation, he sat down on the floor, not letting go of her hand which just earlier was drenched in red blood. "What happened?" he then asked. He had to know. He would ask about Brennan later.
Shalimar gazed at him with her dark eyes. "They were only four..." she began. "But they were not human... it wasn't agents... they were some sort of mutants. They...ah... yes, they looked human but they weren't. They were too strong..." she closed her eyes. "It was hard, they wanted to kill me. But they were called off... I saw someone standing behind them a meter away." Her eyelids squeezed hard on her eyes, they were preparing for a tear. "I..." her lips were of a doubt whether to remain open or closed as she had wanted to tell. A deep sigh followed. "I think I saw him... if it hadn't been daylight I wouldn't have but I think I saw him."
"Who?"
Shalimar opened her eyes which were now covered with the salty liquid. "Adam," she said.
*********