Jesse saw Brennan move away, fighting back behind the helix and shouting out his anger at these people. He would have breathed a sigh of relief if he had been able with his lungs frozen as solid as stone. Now he only had one target to protect and the men's fire was drawn in another direction if only temporarily. But he could see that even as Brennan took shelter the gap in the lines that he had taken advantage of was closing and there was no way that Jesse was going to be able to force his way through and keep Emma safe at the same time. He winced as a ball of some emotion skimmed past him, reminding him quite pointedly that Emma was more than capable of taking care of herself. He dropped the mass for barely long enough to take in air and pulled the shield around himself again. She couldn't deflect bullets though.
Indicating to Emma that he was moving off to the side, behind the part of the building that housed the stairs onto the roof. Taking the cover, he fought to get his breath back for a moment.
"Brennan." He spoke into his comm., "We're not going to be able to get around them. I think we can draw their fire long enough for you to get the helix in the air and round to the other side of the building. Then you can pick us up from here before these guys know what's happening."
"I'll try Jess." Brennan replied, "But I'm going to need all the cover you can give me if I'm going to get the helix off this roof in one piece." He added. Jesse glanced around the corner as there was the whirring noise of the Helix being powered up. Shalimar was all but finished with the men who had originally confronted her, but was being a little more cautious as the armed men became aware of her. There were only half a dozen left standing, but it only needed one shot to kill one of the good guys and they didn't carry weapons save for their own unique skills.
"Emma, can you get them to drop the guns again? We only need a minute." Jesse asked. She nodded briefly and taking a position where she could see the men without being in the way, she shut her eyes. Six handguns hit the floor with a rattle. Shalimar dove right in and two men went flying away from their arms on the floor, two more engaged too quickly to pick up their weapons. Shalimar steered them away from where they had been standing, making sure they couldn't make use of any brief lapse in her attentions to pick up the guns again. Jesse jumped out of his hiding place and headed for the last two men. One picked up his gun faster than he could get there, but the other was still looking stunned from Emma's control. The latter hit the floor quickly and Jesse massed just in time to deflect two bullets. Spotting one of the already felled beginning to right himself, gun already in hand, Jesse span a quick kick to take in both the new man and the gun of the other one. One last kick took down the last man and Jesse turned to see how Shalimar was doing, scanning felled faces as he turned to make sure no more would rise again too quickly.
He span around as Emma cried out Shalimar's name, and he felt his heart drop out of his chest. Someone had got up behind Shalimar, gun in hand as she fought another on the edge of the building's wide expanse of roof, and hit her across the back of the head with the butt. The blow combined with her own momentum threw her forward as she reached the edge of the building, her companions already running to her aid, the man taken down by a psionic blast. The Helix circled over head and in that moment Jesse saw it as she fell, and Brennan's cry echoed across the comm. links. Jesse reached the edge first, though much too late. Shalimar was already on the floor, several floors below him. Then Brennan's voice reached him.
"Oh God. Oh God, she's dead."
"NO! She could have taken that fall! We just have to get down to her!" Jesse bit back. Even the slightest glance revealed that the Helix wouldn't fit into the tiny alleyways that made up this area of the city.
"It's the system her heart's not beating Jess" Brennan trailed off.
Jesse was about to argue further the loud retort of a handgun pulled him around, massing instinctually. But the shot was not meant for him and Emma was spun around with the power of the blow and thrown to the floor. A red flower bloomed on the front of her shirt and Jesse massed as there were further shots, standing over her carefully to shield her, holding her tightly as she gasped and squirmed in her pain.
"Brennan, we need to get out of here how can we get Shalimar out?" He asked.
"Jesse there's no where for the helix down there. The nearest place I could land is twenty minutes walk away. These guys would be waiting for us by then."
"We can't just leave her."
"Emma needs medical attention!"
"We CAN'T leave her!" Jesse cried. Brennan's voice went quiet.
"We can still save Emma."
"NO!"
As Jesse came to, the first thing his eyes focused on was Shalimar sat on the mattress in the corner of the lab, knees tucked up to her chin. His heart fluttered for a moment in the wake of the dream half-remembered. He smiled over at her and she watched him curiously, as he stretched. Sitting up Jesse had to catch himself as a wave of dizziness washed over him. Adam's hand on his shoulder guided him back to horizontal on the medical bed.
"Steady." He advised.
"What happened?" Jesse asked as the room stabilised again.
"Shalimar hit you. I'm not sure she meant to hit you so hard, but she caught you with her cast and that is a little more solid than her hand. If it's any consolation it must have hurt her as much as it hurt you. She was just trying to get away." Jesse shuddered and Adam looked down on him questioningly.
"I just remembered what I was dreaming about."
"That day?" Jesse didn't need to ask which day.
"How did you know?"
"You were talking in your sleep." Jesse sighed, looking back over at Shalimar.
"She looks better." He commenting, noticing the alleviation of the ever-present fear that he had been seeing in Shalimar's eyes and posture.
"I'm not sure if it is because I've offered her some kind of protection that she understands, or because she knocked you out and had a rough and tumble with Brennan without getting any form of reprimand for it."
"That's a bit more like the Shalimar I know." Jesse grinned over at her, but her attention was straying around the room again, as if memorising every detail. "Maybe we're finally getting somewhere." Raising one hand to his check where a welt of a bruise was forming, Jesse winced. "I'm not sure how many more of those I could take though."
AN: There's a comment here that I know is not true, but I've made it because I think it should be true (if you get what I mean.) We have seen Emma deflect bullets. But this is not a psionic ability. A bullet does not have emotions. The only way this would be possible would be if she convinced the person not to shoot it in the first place. Sometimes I despair of the scientific advisors on MX. I want to slap the one who came up with ferals with IR-vision.