"What are you talking about?" Brennan insisted. Emma flinched at his tone, but her stare was just as insistent. Jesse sat on Brennan's other side, his gaze aimed at the floor. He understood.

"When she was originally captured she was hit over the head and she fell. You couldn't find a way down to her to help her. You were being shot at, Emma was shot. The remote scanning system was saying she was dead, you left to save yourselves. When you came back..."

"She wasn't there, we know this Adam. We were there." There were tears in Emma's eyes, a bitter tone to her voice.

"If she hadn't been feral that blow would have killed her. As it was, it did some damage."

"Brain damage." It wasn't a question from Jesse. Just a confirmation.

"Yes. I think they took her in and tried to heal her thinking to get something out of it. Information perhaps, about new mutants, about Sanctuary I don't know. When they realised that she wasn't coherent they turned her over to the men we found her with."

"She doesn't remember us she doesn't remember anything before them." Emma's eyes were vacant as she spoke and Adam made a mental note to talk to her alone later.

"Isn't there anything you can do to heal her?" Brennan pushed. "To get her memory back?"

"Her body has already done a lot of healing itself. It won't be able to return everything that was lost, but it has healed the damage as best it can. It's possible she will be able to remember some things over others. Maybe in time she will be able to remember everything and she will be herself again. I'm just warning you of the possibility that she might not know us, might not be able to remember who we are. The abuse will have made some things worse. I'm not completely sure that some of this damage wasn't caused by the blow to the side of her face which is more recent."

"How much more recent?" Brennan pressed.

"Maybe a week ago, maybe less."

"She spent the first three weeks waiting for us to rescue her." Emma voiced one of Adam's own suspicions, closing her eyes and laying her head on the back of the chair as though staring at the ceiling. "The first three weeks knowing"

"I don't know Emma. I really don't." Adam's tone was apologetic. Brennan stood up so suddenly the chair he had been sitting on flew out behind him.

"I'm going to kill those bastards. I should have done it in the first place." He spat, anger consuming everything for a moment. The need for action driving him.

"Brennan you can't go in alone." Jesse spoke, quietly. Adam looked over at him, thankful. "I'm coming with you." He added. Adam stood, anger finally shining through in his own eyes.

"No. You're both staying here. With Shalimar. She needs you here right now, as close as you can be. Believe me, I want to be out there too, I want to make sure they can never, ever hurt her again." Brennan and Jesse looked startled at the venom in Adam's voice. "But right now we all need to be here, because there is a feral upstairs who really needs our help, whether or not she is still the woman we lost a month ago."

"You know that doesn't matter to us Adam." Jesse placated Adam.

"Just because she doesn't remember who she is doesn't make her a different person." Brennan agreed.

"We just have to teach her who she was." The soft smile on Emma's lips lifted Adam's spirits a little. Adam sat back in his chair, relaxing a little. That had been a close one, and Brennan's bravado - a front put on, he suspected, to hide his fear for Shalimar - was getting on his nerves.

He took a moment to look around the room, taking in the body language of the people who sat and stood in it. Emma was huddled into the armchair that she had claimed as her own, knees pulled tight to her chest, face almost hidden. Brennan stood, posture still confrontational - his body hadn't finished the fight, even if he had - arms crossed protectively across his chest. Jesse had one knee tucked up on the chair he sat on, arms balanced on top of it, his other hand gripping the opposite wrist. All protective, submissive gestures. He knew that if he were to reach out and try and touch any one of them right now they would all flinch and shake off his hand, the contact rejected. With that thought, an idea blossomed.

"I have a plan."

"Jesse, you take first watch, Brennan on the door. Emma, I just want to talk to you a moment." Adam watched as the two young men headed back towards his room to begin to put his plan into action. When they were out of earshot he turned back to Emma. After a moment he took a seat beside her.

"Are you sleeping better?" He asked, unsure of what he wanted to say, what he wanted her to say. Looking in an answer for a question he had yet to find.

"I'm sleeping." There was a smile, but her eyes were empty.

"Dreams?"

"Just the normal ones, nothing from Shal."

"I'm sorry we didn't believe you."

"I know you are Adam. But there wasn't anything we could have done any different, I didn't know where she was." No, that wasn't it. Then what was bothering her?

"How are you feeling? In yourself." She looked up, taking a moment to think.

"I'm worried about her. Not knowing us is going to make things harder." He wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't been looking for it. The swallow back of emotion. Here it was. This was the problem.

"It wasn't your fault." She looked up at him once more, eyes wide.

"Yes. It was." She countered, no doubt in her mind. "If it hadn't been for me we would have been there for her, able to get her out of there. We could have brought her home."

"We don't know that would have made it any different. Maybe all that damage was done in the first blow, or in the fall?"

"She's been tortured Adam. That will make a difference. Everything we do scares her. She just doesn't understand. She can't understand us not hurting her. It's making her more scared that we keep offering her kindness. She's waiting for us to punish her for the things we've done. How can we reach her through that?"

"You can't dodge bullets Emma. There was nothing that we could have done any different." She looked away again. "I haven't done a scan on you since Shalimar got back, how is your shoulder?" Adam asked briskly, changing the subject gently.

"A little stiff, but OK." Standing, Adam moved in front of her, holding out his hand as if offering a dance.

"Reach out to me." He ordered. She sighed and rolled her eyes. Lifting her left arm to the height of her shoulder and keeping her elbow straight, she took his hand. Slowly he moved her arm around to the left. She bit her lip as he reached 45 degrees, but said nothing. Watching her face, Adam pushed a little further. Her hand was trembling now, and she cried out as Adam reached parallel with her back, pulling her arm away from him and protectively into her chest. Frowning, Adam stepped back. "Has it been that bad for long?" He asked.

"It was worse after my big sleep."

"Come to the lab. Let's see what we can see."