Disclaimer: Although a girl can wish, I in no way shape or form own Mutant X or any of the characters.

Part Five: Connection

Making their way through the forest took time, but after fifteen minutes, Emma was able to lead them to the cave entrance. Before they saw either Brennan or Shalimar though they saw the cougar, which caused Emma to jump back. She hadn't been paying attention to her surroundings, but had instead been focusing on Brennan.

"Where are they Adam? I know Brennan is here but all I see is that hideous thing?" Emma said frantically. The stress and the pain from Brennan was really having an affect on her. There was an underlying emotion affecting her too and she couldn't control her emotions anymore.

Instead of saying anything Adam simply pointed towards the cave as him and Jesse got closer to it. Looking inside they hated what they found. They saw both Shalimar and Brennan collapsed on the ground neither moving.

Jesse immediately rushed over to the two while Adam followed behind. "Adam, Brennan is breathing and Shalimar is too but both are breathing very shallowly and Shalimar barely has a pulse."

Hearing this Adam immediately took action and started calling out orders, "Jesse I want you to run back to the helix and get two of the collapsible stretchers and then tell Jeremy we need his help. Go quickly, I think I can stabilize them but I need to get back to Sanctuary."

As Jesse ran out, Adam was glad he had that helicopter. His children were about two hours from dieing and the helicopter could make it back to Sanctuary in forty-five minutes. "Emma hand me some of the gauze from the first-aid kit, I need to patch up some of the cuts on Shalimar. I need you to try and regulate their breathing if you can. I need them breathing steady before I can transport them."

"I'll try, tracking Brennan this far has made me really tired but I think I can do it." Five minutes later Emma spoke up again, "I've got both of their breathing stabilized but I'm going to have to be with them the whole time. Shal's pulse is really erratic, and there was nothing I could do, while Brennan's body kept fighting my attempts at stabilizing his breathing."

As Emma said that, Jesse and Jeremy came running into the cave. Without saying anything they carefully transferred Shalimar and Brennan to the stretchers and began the trip back to the aircraft, Adam and Jesse carrying Brennan and Jeremy and Emma carrying Shalimar.

When they were in sight of the helicopter Emma was overcome by a sense of urgency and as she looked to Shalimar and than Brennan she saw why. "Adam, Brennan isn't breathing. I can stabilize him but I'm going to have to stay connected this time."

Adam looked at Emma concerned, she'd never done anything like that before and he was worried at how much her body could take, but he had to try, "Alright Emma, but be careful."

After reaching the helicopter and putting Brennan and Shalimar in, everyone else climbed in and Adam started back to Sanctuary, "Jesse make sure you keep an eye on Shalimar's breathing and Emma. If either starts having trouble, I want you to tell me."

They made it back to Sanctuary without any further complications and moved everyone to the lab, "Alright Emma I need to stabilize Shalimar and right now she's my biggest priority. She has internal injuries that I need to tend to. If you can, I want you to stabilize Brennan's breathing and then go rest. I should be able to help him by then."

With a quick nod they both set to work on their patients while Jesse and Jeremy watched on. Both felt helpless standing there as the other two worked.

"Emma, I've repaired Shal's internal damage, she broke three ribs and one punctured a lung and she had ruptured her spleen in the crash. She's not out of the woods yet, but she's stable now and breathing on her own so I think I can help you with Brennan now."

"He's not breathing on his own and his arm is severely broken, not to mention second and third degree burns on forty percent of his body." Emma said looking at Adam with a sad a weary look in her eyes.

"Well let's fix those burns first and that should help immensely with his breathing. As they sat in the cold, the burns must have seized up and constricted his lungs." Adam said as he moved over to his desk. He entered a few commands into the computer and then watched as a broad yellow light swept over Brennan. Within minutes the burns were healed, but Adam could see by looking at the monitors that Brennan still wasn't breathing on his own.

"Emma start running tests on his blood glucose, temperature, heart rate, etc. I want to know why he's not able to breathe yet. I'm going to fix his broken arm and then I want you to get those cuts and scratches for me."

"Alright Adam-" Before Emma could continue, she herself collapsed on the ground unconscious.