I'd like to see the gravity where you come from Goldie. He's on the floor, looking at the ceiling. And Redwolf, I was thinking more of the main light, because he's laying on the floor looking up oh dear, I didn't write that very well at all did I. Oh well, onwards and upwards.

Merci à Shadowfox pour son aide avec ce chapitre. ;) Sans vous, cet aurait été plus difficile! Merci pour écouter.

Brennan's turn!

Brennan stood silent outside the door of Adam's room, thinking of the dreadful day long past.

'Fell' Adam had said, though that was no word to describe the events of those few seconds while the rest of Mutant X had felt their own hearts plunge.

They had been fighting their way through a seemingly infinite number of goons which had appeared, trying to get through to the helix which had been left on the roof in preparation for a quick getaway. It took him a moment to remember why exactly they had been there - their original objective had been forgotten as soon as the enemy's reinforcements had appeared. Getting to the helix had become the only goal.

A weapon, it came to him. They had been working on some kind of weapon, selling its prototypes to the powerful and rich men all over the world. They had sneaked in and blown up the computers and destroyed the labs. Most of the technicians and engineers had seemed strangely grateful for the destruction of their place of work and a chance to give themselves over to the authorities - almost as if the threat of prison were better than what they were already facing.

The guards on the other hand had been less ready to give themselves up. And they were undoubtedly the superior force, despite the mutant's 'advantages'. When they reached the roof, thinking themselves home free, another wave of guards had appeared from the opposite exit. They had flooded outwards, blocking their way to the craft. It didn't take them long to show that they were, quite unashamedly, armed to the teeth.

Emma had sent out a wave of coercion, forcing the men to drop their guns, but she couldn't hold it for long enough and before long most had retrieved their weapons.

Shalimar had thrown herself into the fray the moment she had seen the guns go down and several fell in that first unpredicted and energetic attack. A few men, still unarmed, splintered off to take Shalimar on while Jesse fought to mass his was through the threat of the armed men as all three of them edged towards the helix, blots and blasts flying around his impenetrable form. Seeing an opening, Brennan had leapt for the cover of the helix, wincing as bullets hailed off the sides of the craft.

"I'm the one who's going to have to fix those, you bastards!" He had shouted. Because there was no chance that they wouldn't get out of the situation. No possibility that they wouldn't get home safe. It was an every day thing, unchanging. They fought, they won, they went home to a fairly normal life, had dinner, joked around, and went out and did the same the next day.

The scars were still there on the sides of the helix, he knew. He'd never had the energy to fix them. Too much had changed for the world to return to how it had been before.

A soft cry and a solid thump brought him back to the present.

"Hold still a moment." Adam asked, as Emma took a seat in the medical chair. Adam gently moved the shoulder of her wide necked t-shirt to one side, revealing a small puckered mark just below her collarbone. It might have been easier to use the scannner, of course, but Adam always looked first, using his own eyes and his own intuition. If the computer gave the wrong information, it was all to easy to follow it in its mistake, and this led to misdiagnosis and bad treatments. Simply looking first gave him an assurance that he wasn't missing anything.

The tiny wound, almost healed through the treatments he had already administered, seemed insignificant. The remaining scar, so small, could surely not cause such problems. It was only when he moved to the back of her shoulder, asking her to lie on her side, that the true damage could be seen. The bullet had passed unhindered through her shoulder, the exit wound far larger than its partner. The wound was red and angry, the skin around it hot to touch. Adam swore gently.

"What is it?" Emma asked, trying to look over her own shoulder.

"The wound is infected. I thought we'd avoided this, I should have kept a closer eye on it. I must have missed a shard of bone when I cleaned it out."

"I thought you said it had healed."

"The bone is well on its way to being as solid as it began, but even a tiny piece of bone from the original shot can cause an infection like this. I'll need to get it out as soon as possible, or it will weaken the new bone further." Adam frowned.

"Adam." Brennan's voice came across the comm. "Get down here." Adam and Emma shared a questioning glance as the comm. shut off without any further explanation.

"Get changed and I'll see what's going on. I'll be back to sort you out in a moment." Adam instructed, hurrying out of the lab towards his own room.

Her breaths were heavy as she held her left hand close to herself. It had been automatic to hit with her left, not thinking about the pain it might cause her, jarring the injured wrist. She didn't stop to make sure the Other would stay where he was on the floor, moving as quickly as she could drag her argumentative limbs towards the door.

Fear filled her as she realised what she had done. She had ruined everything now. All she had to do was lie still and she could have been safe. They hadn't hurt her, they had even been gentle. And now she had thrown it all away with the rising of her beast's anger. She had to escape, find some way out. She had to find somewhere to hide while they sought vengeance for what she had done to their friend. Maybe the Other would come after her himself.

She was too buried in her panic to notice the door open before she reached it, and she collided with the figure there before either of them realised the other's presence. Together they rolled out into the corridor, he fighting only for control as she scratched and struggled, she only trying to escape. Brennan saw a fist flying towards him and, knowing that Shalimar was more than capable of knocking his head off if she willed it enough, he reacted.

Adam couldn't call out in time as he watched Brennan form a small spark on his fingertips and discharge it into Shalimar, causing her to jump back into the wall, yelping with pain.

"Brennan stop!" Adam finally managed, cursing his slowness. Shalimar's eyes shot away from Brennan's hands, wide and dilated, panic oozing from every gesture as she seemed ready to jump in every direction at once to escape. Her eyes met Adam's face only for a second before returning to the more immediate threat, though when Brennan made no further move her eyes flickered back to him. Shuffling warily - almost backwards with her unwillingness to take her eyes from Brennan for long - Shalimar pulled herself behind Adam, taking refuge behind one of his legs as though she could be hidden there. In her current state of emaciation it was almost possible. Brennan was frozen in place, realising his mistake, eyes full of regret as he watched Shalimar back away from him.

Adam looked down on her, twisting to see behind himself so that she wouldn't have to move. She looked up at him, eyes full of silent pleading. It took him only a moment to realise what it was she was asking him to do.

Protection. She was asking him for protection from Brennan. It was the work of several more seconds to realise why, because he was by no means Brennan's superior physically. Then it struck him. He had told Brennan to stop - and he had. He had told Brennan to stop with anger, and now Brennan cringed away, filled with guilt, though to her it might look like fear.

It occurred to him then that she did not see them as any other person might, as friends or family, or even as colleagues, but as a pack, as other ferals with the instincts that she had been born with, and lived with all her life. And of course, what else would she think? This woman would not remember living through years of being told she was different, of being outcast for her abilities. To her they all looked alike, and so must all be as she was. This was what she knew, reduced to the most primal knowledge.

Adam sighed, looking over at Brennan. Stepping forward and crouching at his side, he held up a hand to bid Brennan stay where he was. He heard a scuffle but did not turn as Shalimar stuck to his shadow.

"Brennan, I'm going to let Shalimar hit you. And it's very possible she might hurt you." He held up a hand as Brennan began to object. "But she will only do it once, I'll make sure of that. You have to understand, if she sees you as a threat she is never going to trust you. She will always be scared of you. I've given her my protection and this way she can see that I can make sure you don't hurt her. Do you understand?" Brennan thought about this for a moment and then nodded resolutely.

"Ok."

"Don't tense up." Adam advised, standing back up and drawing Shalimar up behind him by her good hand. "And look away." Brennan found a patch of the wall to look at, fighting with his instincts to tense or turn and fight. If this was what it took to show Shalimar that he was no threat to her then he was willing to bare it. He just hoped he survived the experience.

Adam watched Shalimar's face as Brennan looked away. Even with his advice, Brennan had tensed a little, almost cringing away. He hated to think that Shalimar might hurt Brennan now, but if he left things as he was he knew Shalimar wouldn't be able to be sure that he would offer the protection she had asked for. She watched him with a fearful curiosity as he looked away, still tense herself and still trying to keep as much of Adam between them as possible, one hand wrapped in the folds of his jumper. He guided her around in front of him, a hand on her hip, not restraining, just there. She looked up at him, eyes wide.

"He's not going to hurt you." Adam assured quietly. Shalimar frowned at him for a moment, and Adam was glad to see the fear fall from her eyes, if only for a moment, to be replaced by a soft confusion. Then she settled herself back on the floor, releasing her handhold in Adam's jumper grudgingly. Eyes fixed on Brennan's face, wary of any sudden move he might make to capture her, she moved closer.

Then, very carefully, like someone checking a firework that they weren't sure was lit, she prodded Brennan's hand where it lay beside him with an outstretched finger. He looked up in surprise and she backed away a few steps.

He couldn't help but let a glimmer of humour cross his face. He held out his hand and let a ribbon of electricity skirt across it. She jumped as it first appeared, but settled again as it made no move to jump from his hand to her. The blue glow faded once more.

She was reminded of the sound of electricity close in her cold cell, and wonder appeared in her eyes. She moved closer again, looking to Adam for consent, which he gave, nodding quietly, suppressing the urge to laugh out loud at her curiosity.

This time there was less fear, and she took the hand in hers, turning it over and over as if looking for some mechanism to cause the strange effect. Brennan, relieved to see that she didn't intend to hurt him, lifted his other hand alongside and filled it with electricity at full power, careful to keep it far enough away from her not to hurt her. But she hadn't seen him lift his hand and the sudden burst of power made her jump high and disappear once more behind Adam. Adam could barely suppress his laughter as she leant around his leg, scowling at Brennan like a child at a magician who had made an egg appear from behind her ear.