Disclaimer: Mutant X and its associated characters, locales, etc. are the property of Tribune Entertainment et al; my thanks to them. No copyright infringement is intended. Non-canon characters are my own, but feel free to use them. :)
Four Mutants and a Baby
by Deichtine
Brennan watched with growing unease as Adam reached down into the baby carrier, scooped up the little girl, and swept her high into the air, wide grins on both their faces. Adam gave the baby a little toss, and almost gave Brennan a heart attack.
"Hey, be careful, Adam," he said, forcing himself not to take a step forward.
Adam cocked an eyebrow at him with a knowing, amused expression. "I know what I'm doing, Brennan."
"That's not a toy, you know." Brennan refused to show the others how irritating their carefully suppressed smiles were becoming.
"Babies really aren't that fragile," Adam said, as Siobhan squealed in delight, the red fuzz on her head lifting gently as the air rushed through it. "Here." He held the baby out to Brennan, who backed away immediately.
"No way. I'm not holding that thing. How long since she's been changed, anyway?"
Shalimar easily took the baby from Adam, hoisted her on her hip. "She doesn't need to be changed. Do you, Siobhan?" Unlike Emma, Shalimar had not yet begun to speak to the baby in that annoyingly high-pitched motherly voice, for which Brennan was thankful, but she did insist on talking to the baby when it obviously couldn't respond beyond drooling. She held out a finger for the baby to grasp, and smiled softly when the little hand gripped tight.
"Maybe not," Adam said, "but she will eventually. So Emma, Jesse, I want you to head out, pick up basic supplies. Diapers, clothes, formula, some toys, that sort of thing. Shalimar, I need you to help me in the lab. Let's get a run on little 'Bhan's DNA started, see what we're dealing with here. Maybe we can get a match on her mother or father in the database."
Jesse looked down at the baby in Shalimar's arms, reached out to tickle her chin. "Name like Siobhan, red hair, green eyes. Irish?"
Brennan gave him a disgusted look. "You think?" he said sarcastically. "So what do I get to do, oh paragon of child-rearing?" he asked Adam.
"Well, since I can't see you being much help in the lab, why don't you search hospital records for baby girls with the first name Siobhan born four to six months ago and cross-reference parents with the New Mutant Database?"
"Here in the city?"
"In the country."
"That'll take hours."
"Better get started, then." Emma and Jesse headed off towards the Helix's hangar, and the group began to disperse. Just before he turned towards the computer station, he looked down one last time at the source of his irritation, and found that those quiet, annoying green eyes were staring back up at him. Somehow they seemed to be laughing at something only she knew about. Siobhan smiled at him, then reached up and grabbed a lock of Shalimar's hair.
Grumbling, Brennan jerked away. Why did life have to be so complicated?
-----
Emma and Jesse entered the baby area in Wal-mart, Emma with excitement, Jesse with amusement at Emma's excitement. She was beautiful to watch when she was like this, he thought: so naturally feminine. She flitted through the aisles, stopping every few steps to give a high-pitched squeal at a particularly cute item. Jesse followed, resolutely pushing the cart with its one jammed wheel, shaking his head at the sheer profusion of things people in Emma's state of mind would put down money for.
And Emma was no exception. The cart filled, slowly but steadily, as they wound their way through the aisles.
"We're never going to need all this," Jesse said doubtfully as he reached into the cart to haul out something pink and soft with a label marking it a "Snugglie". "She won't be with us that long."
"How do you know?" Emma asked, going up on tiptoe to reach for an overstuffed, floppy-eared rabbit that, when you pressed its tummy, played lullabies in electronic tones. "It could be weeks, or months, and babies grow fast. Plus, it's good to have. What if Shalimar or I had a baby?"
The question was so off-hand, so utterly unexpected that Jesse choked on the sip of Coke he'd just taken. "What?"
Emma faced him, one eyebrow raised in that challenging way he knew so well. He'd never have told her out loud, but the way she stood, weight on one foot, hand on hip, chin high, was incredibly sexy. "Shalimar and I are women you know. Or hadn't you noticed?"
He most certainly had, but Jesse thought it safest not to answer that one.
"We're not going to be young forever. Sooner or later, we might start thinking about families. You and Brennan too. Haven't you ever wanted to be a father?"
Jesse could feel his face turning red. Here, in the baby product aisle, seemed entirely the wrong place to discuss the subject. "Uh, of course. Someday. Maybe. But being a member of -" he eyed another woman turning into the aisle - "...the team, sort of precludes that for now, don't you think? For all of us."
Emma sniffed and turned to cast a critical eye on the large selection of baby formula. "I don't know about you," she said, "but I for one don't intend to let the evildoers of the world interfere with my life and my happiness any more than I have to. When the time comes, I'll take maternity leave, just like any other job."
Jesse searched for a way to change the subject. Thinking about Emma having babies - whose babies he didn't let himself even consider - was just too much for him. "Ah, do you think we should get the pre-mixed kind?" he said weakly.
Emma smiled, enjoying his embarrassment, and hefted a case from the bottom shelf, knowing full well that she was giving him a fine view of her figure as she did so. "Definitely. Iron fortified."
-----
When Brennan entered the lab, it was eerily quiet. Adam was working at a display panel, and Shalimar was standing by an exam bed, blocking his view.
"I've finished searching the-," he began, only to have two furious faces round on him immediately.
"SHHHH!" Adam and Shalimar said together.
"She's sleeping," Shalimar whispered, jerking her chin down at the exam bed, where, Brennan could now see, the baby had fallen asleep, one hand closed gently around the leg of a small teddybear. They had stripped her down to her diaper and Brennan found himself staring at the impossibly tiny, impossibly perfect toenails. Adam pressed a button and a scanning beam flickered down from the ceiling to wash gently over the tiny form.
"Where'd you get the teddybear?" Brennan asked, more quietly. The last thing he wanted was for the baby to start crying.
"One of mine," Shalimar said absently.
"Really?" He forgot to hide his surprise, then shifted uneasily as she narrowed her eyes at him. "I, ah, never would have pegged you for the teddybear type."
"What did you find?" Adam said, quietly breaking up what looked to be a potentially awkward conversation. He draped a thin blanket over the sleeping child and her mouth began to make sucking motions in her sleep.
Brennan realized he was staring, and stopped himself. "Not very much. Three baby girls named Siobhan were born in the time range in three different hospitals with one or both parents in the database. Of these, two are accounted for - I phoned the parents. The third couple, Frances and Robert O'Riley, seem unlikely, but possible. I got the answering machine."
"Doesn't sound promising," Adam murmured.
"No, but it rules out the obvious, anyway. I also took the liberty of checking to see what name that motel room was booked under. The woman paid in cash, in advance, and signed in as Mary Black. There's no one under that name in the database."
"I think it's safe to assume she'd be using an alias," Adam said. "She thought she was being followed, watched. She'll have covered her tracks. Keep digging."
"What about you guys? What have you learned?"
Adam turned back to the display, studied the results scrolling there for a moment. "Not much. Dental and bone development make her approximately seven months old. From the present she left us in her diaper, she seems to have been primarily formula-fed, which is nice - it won't be a big change for her system. She's well-nourished and big for her age. That plus the fact that she's so comfortable with strangers leads me to believe she's been well-loved and looked after. We've got a DNA pattern, and I'm currently running it against the database for a parental match. Oh, and, as we suspected, she is a New Mutant. It looks like she's an elemental -- Electrical," he said, cocking an eye at Brennan with a smile. "Though it's unlikely she'll show any outward manifestations for a couple of years yet."
"Little spark-shooter, eh?" Brennan said, looking down at the baby again. She seemed so small, so helpless. He felt acutely uncomfortable. "Well, best of luck with that, kid. I'm going back to the motel room, see if there's anything we missed."
"I'll go with you," Shalimar said. "You gonna be okay here, Adam?"
He waved them away, not taking his eyes from Siobhan. "Sure. I'll be fine. Go on. And watch your backs. If this Mary Black was being followed, that motel room might be watched."
Brennan watched as Adam gently scooped the baby up from the exam bed and replaced her in the carrier, tucking blankets close around her, with an ease that Brennan envied.
"You coming, Brennan?" Shalimar asked from the doorway, and he turned to follow her, studiously ignoring her bemused expression.
End chapter 2.