She dragged herself to her feet, knowing that the Other wouldn't take long to return, perhaps with another pin to replace the one removed. It had been stupid to follow the Other in the first place. She could have escaped him when he had walked away. But something had held her, some curiosity.
She had to find somewhere to hide before her new-found freedom was taken from her again. The empty and still corridors offered no hint of a possible hiding place but still she fled, dragging her argumentative body along behind her. Somehow she knew where she was going. Some instinct led her.
A doorway in front of her. Her hiding place was through there, her instincts told her. She struggled for a moment with her injured hand on the door handle before collecting herself, taking a deep breath and changing hands. The door swung open silently and she slipped inside.
The room behind the door was hidden in shadows at first, but without thought a yellow glow lit the area, an ability almost forgotten in the darkness of the place behind her eyelids where even feral vision was of no use. Revealed in the reflection of light barely shed was a bedroom, a familiar place that spoke to her of times spent in soft spoken company, of reassurances and the kindness of a loved one. A place to hide when solitude was needed. Too tired to wonder where these memories came from or who it could possibly be that she would trust so much, she dropped into the soft bed, wrestling with the sheets until she was mostly covered and drifting into a quiet sleep.
"I didn't mean it literally when I said she would sit up and walk out of the lab." Adam laughed. "She can't have gone far anyway, and Sanctuary's locked down so she can't get outside." Adam looked at the panic in Jesse's eyes as they searched the seemingly endless hallways. "Don't worry Jesse. This is great, it means she's going to be OK. She's recovered almost all motor functions with hardly any work at all."
"But why doesn't she recognise us Adam!? I thought that when she opened her eyes, when she saw us she'd remember She still thought I was going to hurt her. She was running away from me."
"Jesse, she's been tortured to the point of breaking. And a maybe weeks more on top of that. Her mind has been forced to retreat away to protect herself. She won't recognise us, or know she's safe until she starts to come back out of that. It's going to take time."
"What if" Jesse's voice wavered. "What if we never get her back?" Adam sighed softly.
"Then we take this scared and abused feral and make her see that not all mankind is like those men were. We teach her what humanity is, and we teach her what she needs to know to live. She's survived Jesse. That's the first step. Even if she is no longer Shalimar as we knew her, she still needs us to help her come back out of herself. It just means we have to start again, from the beginning."
The corridor was empty, Jesse knew it would be even before he stepped into it. It was hopeless. There was no way Shalimar was going to stay out in the open as scared as she was. She was going to find a hiding place. Somewhere she felt safe. But there were so many rooms around Sanctuary. Dozens they had never even seen.
He thought for a moment about the places Shalimar might hide when she was scared. But he just couldn't process the thought. He knew of nowhere Shalimar would hide because she had never, in his memory of knowing her, been scared. She had places she would go to brood or sulk. But if she was ever feeling down or unsettled, the place she could be found was with the rest of Mutant X. Making sure she had them all in sight, worrying if anyone was gone for more than a moment.
He was pulled from his thoughts by a soft cry from the room he had just passed. Backtracking quickly to the door at the end of the corridor he pressed his ear against the door. He could hear a sob, and then another. Restraining himself from breaking down the door he took a step back and looked at where he was. He was stood outside Adam's room, he realised. Adam valued his privacy over most other things, he would be annoyed if he knew that Jesse had been in his room. He hesitated. Adam was on the other side of Sanctuary. What if Shalimar was hurt, if she'd fallen if someone had gotten in there with her the thought was dismissed. No one could break through Sanctuary's security net.
Shalimar cried out again from in the room and all thoughts of Adam's privacy were forgotten as he dived through the door. It was dark inside the room, but the lights from the corridor worked their way into the shadows. Guiding his way to the bed where Shalimar lay, entangled with the sheets and fighting with them as they restrained her movement. Jesse took hold of the sheet gently and started untangling it as she continued to fight, oblivious to his presence in her sleeping state.
She was bound. Bound again and on her back on the ground. She kept her eyes firmly shut, not wanting to see the evidence of her recapture, but still the images flowed to her. The Knife was there, and the Fist. And the Other was somewhere in the background. His voice reached her and his eyes were full of anger. She held his eyes as the Knife plied his attention on her wrist, cutting deep as she tried to move away. Somehow holding his eyes she felt a little saner. Like the world might soon end and this would be nothing. There would be nothing. Just the calm comfort of peace.
And suddenly she was cold and the Other was whispering close to her ear. Meaningless comforts as the Knife continued his assault and the warmth, a comfort she knew would be limited, was taken from her again. Slowly one by one, the comforts removed. Because it never lasted. Only the pain would go on.
Jesse watched as the tension slowly drained from Shalimar's face once more, not sure if his whispered words had helped or if the nightmare had simply faded away and left her to sleep once more. He knew he wasn't going to be able to move her back to the lab without waking her, but he hesitated in going for help. Help would mean activity, noise, a break in the peace that surrounded them as Shalimar lay sleeping. He sat silent by the side of the bed, breathing in the peace for a moment. And then the tears started to fall.
Adam stood silent in the doorway once more as his two eldest - if not in years then in time spent at his side - slept side by side. Tears were still visible in Jesse's eyes as he slept and Adam sighed at the impact of this latest catastrophe on his family. So many trials they had lived through, so many fights. He couldn't let himself believe that this would be the one to break them. Emma was turning into a ghost, eyes fixed to the ground, her only words whispered, her face always pale and wan. Brennan was fuming as he marched the corridors. Adam had crossed his path only once and had been cursed for not paying enough attention. For being asleep when she woke. The were all angry in themselves, for loosing her, for believing her gone.
He glanced down at the head scans in his hand, taken while Shalimar had squirmed in the temporary restraints and left with the computer as they slept.
How could he tell them that this could only get worse? There was going to be no realisation from Shalimar. No shock of recognition and instant recovery.
She didn't know who they were.
She couldn't know who they were.