Disclaimer: As always, 'Mutant X' and its amazing cast of characters = Not mine. Alexis and Isabelle Fox-Mulwray = Mine.
Author's Note: I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed this story. I'll have the next story up as soon as I can. To all my reviewers: Sunstar2, Feline-Feral, Louise Power, canadian-chic14, mutantjel, loveconquers, AquariousF5, Laily, bri, Mari, Feisty Feline Feral, goldstranger, Dictionary, Shadowcat Pryde, mxangel, tigereyes320, K.C. and koalared.
Words in / / = Thoughts.
Chapter 7.
An hour and a half later.
Whatever slender shred of hope Adam and Nicholas had nursed that the twins would relent and release them from their captivity evaporated when the soft noises of movement ceased and the two little girls went to bed.
It would be impossible to say which of the two men was the most stubborn.
They had sat in the storage closet, glaring at each other for a full hour and a half, without saying a word, before the silence was finally broken.
"'Harmless mischief', huh?" Nicholas snorted in derision. "Are you sure you don't want to reconsider your assessment, Kane?"
"What the hell is your problem, Nicholas?" Adam flared. "You'd think that after all these years you'd have given up this stupid grudge of yours! But no! You have to blame me for absolutely everything in your life that isn't one hundred percent perfect! What do you want me to say?" he sighed softly. "We were friends once, do you remember?" He chuckled softly. "You even made me Shalimar's godfather."
"That was a long time ago." Nicholas spoke gruffly. "I thought that you had saved my daughter's life."
"She's still alive, isn't she?"
"You know what I mean – you changed my daughter!"
Adam shook his head sadly. "You're like a broken record, Nicholas. Every time we argue it always comes back to that. Be honest with yourself – do you think that Shalimar would be better off dead than as a mutant?"
Nicholas was genuinely horrified by the thought. "You know that that's not true."
"Does Shalimar?" Adam pressed. "She's the one who matters here. I was the one you were angry with but Shalimar was the one who suffered. You punished her for using her powers when she was even younger than the twins are now – Yes, she can remember that. You and Margaret taught her to think that her abilities, her gifts, were bad. You threw her into that hellish institution when she was ten years old! You let them . . ." Adam trailed off; his face was contorted in anger. "Do you have any idea of the damage you did? Not only physically, but mentally and emotionally! I found her on the evening of her eleventh birthday and she was slowly starving herself to death. She hadn't eaten in five days and there was barely an inch of her skin that wasn't covered in bruises! For weeks, she was so full of self-loathing that I was afraid to take my eyes off her in case she would do something to hurt herself, or worse. I was ready to kill you when I saw the state that she was in! I still have the medical records from the first time I examined Shalimar." Adam continued in an almost conversational tone. "They don't make for very pleasant reading. I wouldn't treat a serial killer the way you treated your child! Nothing Shalimar could have done would ever justify it! I don't care about your hatred off me, I hate to break it to you, but your insults don't keep me up at night. However, I can't forget how much you hurt someone I love as dearly as if she were my own child."
"She's not your child!" Nicholas's face, which had turned ashen pale during Adam's recitation of his wrongs, turned bright red with anger. "Shalimar is my daughter, not yours!"
Adam shook his head, a pitying expression on his face. "Can you hear what you are saying?" He asked gently. "You sound like you are talking about an object, a possession, not a person. Shalimar is a human being. She doesn't belong to anyone but herself! You are her father and she loves you, but you don't own her. It's time that you accepted that."
"Listen, Kane . . ."
"No, you listen!" Adam shouted, cutting off the angry defense the other man was preparing to make. "You made a lot of mistakes with Shalimar, mistakes that she is terrified of repeating with the girls – why do you think she never punishes them? Did you know that she still has nightmares about that institution you dumped her in? The twins pick up on those dream images at times; so all three of them end up upset. Do you honestly think that you can make that right overnight with a few gifts?"
"It's because of you that Shalimar and I can't make things right." Nicholas protested, albeit weakly. "You've been alienating her affections, trying to get her to love you instead of me!"
"Nicholas," Adam's voice was gentle. "After all these years, do you know so little about Shalimar as to think that she only has room in her heart for one of us. If that is the case, then you really need to get to know her better. It's not a case of you or me, she loves us both and, in all honesty, our bickering is hurting her far more than us. Do you remember what Emma said at Shalimar and Brennan's wedding?"
Nicholas smiled involuntarily at the memory of the angry psionic. "'Your stupid feud isn't important, the woman you claim to care about is'." He quoted, finally understanding the other man's meaning. He smiled at Adam, a genuine grin of comradeship. "I don't know how Shalimar has put up with us over the past few years!"
"With uncharacteristic patience." Adam smiled wryly. "I know Emma has been prepared to drag us both off in the Double Helix and drop us into the nearest ocean! You and I may never be friends," He continued in a more serious tone. "But do you think that we could call a truce, if only for Shalimar's sake? It's not fair for us to keep putting her in a position of having to choose between us?" Adam extended his hand. "Shake on it?"
Nicholas took the proffered hand. "I don't like you, Kane . . .Adam." He amended. "But if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have my daughter. I thank you for that. I've missed out on a lot of my daughter's life. I have no intention of letting our differences interfere with our future."
* * *
The next morning.
"Anybody home?" Brennan frowned. It was after nine o'clock in the morning. Adam was usually to be found pottering around in the lab and Lexi and Izzy usually had at least two or three pranks to their credit by now.
"Where is everybody?" Emma looked concerned. "Do you think that they've gone out, or something?"
"It's raining." Jesse pointed out, perplexed.
"Ssh." Shalimar waved a hand to silence her teammates. "There's someone in the kitchen." She told them, silently blessing her feral hearing.
"Hi Mommy!" Lexi beamed up at her mother as she entered the kitchen. "Wan' some bweakfas'?"
The two toddlers were sitting side by side at the kitchen counter, finishing off their large bowls of cereal, each sporting a milk moustache.
"We got bweakfas' by oursel'." Izzy announced proudly, helping herself to more orange juice and managing to get at least half the liquid into her glass.
"Where are your grandfathers?" Shalimar asked, perplexed.
Brennan, Emma and Jesse had followed her into the kitchen and were valiantly suppressing their laughter as they surveyed the scene.
The white marble countertop had a river of milk running through it and the floor was covered with a carpet of various cereals that crunched underfoot as the twins, avoiding the question of Adam and Nicholas's whereabouts, hopped down from their stools to give their parents a pair of messy 'welcome back' kisses.
"Girls?" Shalimar raised a suspicious eyebrow, knowing her daughters well enough not to trust their sweetly innocent expressions. "Where are your grandfathers?"
Lexi and Izzy exchanged a sly smile.
"Dey in de cwoset." Lexi informed her mother sweetly.
"In the closet?" Jesse gave an inelegant snort of laughter. "Do you think that Adam and your dad have something to tell us, Shal?"
Ignoring him, Shalimar frowned at her daughter, fighting the urge to laugh. "And do you two have something to do with that?" She asked, already knowing the answer.
"Uh-huh." Lexi nodded enthusiastically. "Dey was fightin' an' me an' Izzy sick ob it an' we know you sick ob it so we twy to get dem to be fwiends an' we pway tea par'y wif dem an' we pway make up. . ."
"Just a second." Shalimar raised a hand to stop Lexi's rapid explanation. She looked over at her chortling teammates. "Did she just say that they got Adam and my dad to put on make up?" She shook her head, as if to dislodge the picture. "Well, that's one image I could have done without! I'm never going to get that picture out of my head!" She turned her attention back to her daughter. "Carry on, Lexi."
Lexi grinned, not at all opposed to the idea of sharing the details of her brilliance. "Make up no wowk so we pway bassetball wif dem but dat no wowk so we lock dem in closet 'till dey be fwiends."
Shalimar groaned, rubbing her temples to rid herself of the migraine that was fast forming. "My father is going to disown me!"
"When did you do this?" Brennan asked fearfully.
"Las' night.' The twins chorused cheerfully.
Shalimar looked up at her teammates, a horrified expression on her pretty face. "They're going to kill us!"
* * *
Five minutes later.
After a game of 'Rock, Scissors, Paper' to decide which unfortunate soul would have to open the door to the closet and bear the brunt of the angry captives' tirades, Shalimar, the not so lucky winner, edged forward, half-afraid of finding one of her father-figures dead and the other insane with rage.
/Maybe I could slip the bolt back quickly and run. / She mused inwardly, wondering why it was that she could take down a dozen GSA agents without breaking a sweat, yet the thought Adam and her father in a temper left her trembling.
Taking a deep breath, she slid the bolt back and pushed the door open a crack.
" . . .And this was taken during Shalimar's thirteenth birthday party, just a few days before Jesse joined us. You can't see him, but Michael was making faces behind me so the poor child could barely keep a straight face. And this . . ." Adam and her father, poring over an old photo album she had once pleaded with Adam to destroy, had not even noticed that the door was open. "This was taken about a year later, before we went to the Father-Daughter dance at Shalimar's school."
"She looks positively angelic." Nicholas murmured softly.
Adam laughed. "Don't let the innocent expression fool you! I remember there was a time when she was twelve that she . . ."
"Adam!" Shalimar interrupted, her cheeks growing warm. "You swore you'd never tell!"
"Shalimar." Adam looked up with a smile. "I did, didn't I? I trust that your mission went well."
"It did. Adam, Dad, I'm sorry about the girls . . ."
"You should be." Her father told her severely. "Those little monkeys put us both through hell!"
"Serve you wight!" Lexi piped up from her hiding place behind her father's leg, sticking out her tongue.
"They meant well." Shalimar ventured.
"An' you fwiends now, wight." Izzy smiled hopefully.
"Maybe not friends," Adam answered honestly. "But we're going to be civil to one another."
"Thank goodness!" Emma exclaimed feelingly.
Nicholas surprised his daughter by pulling her into a tight hug. "I'm sorry, baby, for everything." He kissed the top of her head. "I love you."
Shalimar said nothing, just wrapped her arms around father and hugged him back.
"See." Lexi looked delighted with herself. "Me an' Izzy did good t'ing!"
"Good?" Nicholas released his daughter and glared down at the little girl. "You call this good? I could strangle you girls for everything you put us through! You tormented us all day! You locked us in here overnight! You dressed me up as a woman." Shalimar couldn't help laughing. Nicholas paused in his tirade to glare at her. "Do you think that this is funny, young lady?"
Shalimar tried to look serious but failed miserably. "Yes.' She confessed, dissolving into giggles.
Her three teammates mirrored her example.
Nicholas, ignoring them, continued to scold the twins, who were unaffected by his reproof. "You turned the kitchen upside down. You stole my wallet. I hope that you're both sorry for all the trouble you've caused!"
"Not weally.' Lexi answered honestly.
"But we won' do it adain." Izzy added hastily, wanting to pacify him.
"'Less we hafta." Lexi finished happily.
Try as he might to maintain his righteous indignation, Nicholas was completely disarmed by the twins' angelic smiles.
"Oh, I can't stay mad at you two." He ruffled the hair of the three year old closest to him.
"Hey!" Shalimar protested. "How come that trick never worked for me?"
"I can't believe that they took your wallet!" Brennan chortled. "They're starting young!"
"Did they flush it down the toilet?" Shalimar asked curiously, her grievance forgotten. "I remember doing that when I was small."
"Good idee, Mommy!" Lexi, as swiftly as a wraith, slipped her nimble fingers into her grandfather's pocket and extracted his wallet, tearing off in the direction of the nearest bathroom.
Before any of them had assimilated what had happened, the sound of a toilet flushing and Lexi's gleeful 'Bye-bye walle'!' reached their astonished ears.
"SHALIMAR!"
"What did I do?" Shalimar gave her father an indignant look.
Adam chuckled. "I'll say one thing for the girls – they'll never let us be bored!"
"Yeah." Brennan slipped an arm around Shalimar's shoulders and kissed her gently. "They learned from the master!"
THE END.
I'm kind of busy at the moment but I'll get started on the next story as soon as possible. Thanks again for the reviews.
