AN: so so so so so sorry about how long this has taken to get out. Climbing has taken over my life completely and without remorse. I am a slave to it. :D Joy.
Jesse looked around the corner into the lounge where Adam had taken Shalimar. Adam sat there alone now, Shalimar nowhere to be seen.
"Adam? Where's Shalimar?" He questioned.
"Somewhere around Sanctuary, don't worry." He answered absently. "We need something with bacon in it for dinner."
"Bacon?" Jesse asked, bemused, looking at Adam as though he was perhaps suffering more than they had thought from fatigue.
"Yes bacon. The smell of it fills Sanctuary."
"But you hate bacon." Jesse objected.
"I'll have something else then. I need to find Emma." And he stood and hurried towards the door. Jesse stood for a moment.
"I'll fix dinner then."
Adam found Emma sat alone in her room, meditating to soft music, the lights low. He paused respectfully in the doorway though he knew she would already know he was there. She opened her eyes slowly, as though waking from a deep sleep and smiled at him.
"Hey Adam. How's Shalimar?" She greeted him.
"We had a confrontation earlier, but I think she's forgiven me. Last time I saw her she was making off with a bar of chocolate." Emma chuckled at this.
"Everything back to normal then?" She smiled.
"I'd like to think we're getting somewhere."
"How can there be any doubt?" Emma exclaimed, Adam simply looked on, sceptical. "Adam, next time you see her, just look for a moment. I wish I could let you feel what I'm feeling but you hardly need it anymore. You can see it in her. The tension is fading. She's letting us be near her without anticipating that we're there for the sole purpose of hurting her. She's beginning to think about protecting herself, not just sitting there." Adam couldn't help but smile, seeing the truth in Emma's words.
"We still have a way to go though. And the person we get back at the end of all this might not be Shalimar." Emma shook her head.
"You're thinking about this in the wrong way. This is Shalimar. This is Shalimar after something so dreadful has happened to her it has altered who she is and how she sees the world. But it's always going to be Shalimar." Adam nodded brusquely, trying to hold back tears.
"I was hoping you'd do something for me. I want Shalimar to sit at the table with us, or at the very least in the room with us while we eat. Just so she's there and listening to us talking. I haven't found a way to get her to repeat after me yet, so subjecting her to a lot of speech is the only way I can think of to begin to make her understand."
"I'm not sure what you want me to do."
"She'll come for food - I hate how much we're treating her like an animal, but if that's what works - I think we can get her up onto the platform where the little table is - it's the least enclosed" Emma nodded, accepting that it was the most sensible choice "But once she's there and she's got hold of the food she's not going to want to stick around, she demonstrated that earlier. If she's bolted the chocolate we might not have to worry, she'll be so sick she's not going to want more food anyway. But something tells me she won't. She'll hide it somewhere, store it for the time when we're not feeling so generous." Emma nodded, agreeing with his estimation. Though Shalimar was beginning to come to trust them she had a long way to go before she truly believed they wanted to help.
"I think you're underestimating the power you hold over her Adam. She will be desperate to keep you happy, to ensure your continued protection" Adam's mind returned to the events earlier in the day and he paled. If Emma noticed she didn't comment. "And now you've given her food - which I don't think she's had much access to over the last monthAdam, I remember - once I'd gotten over all my hang-ups about being labelled as different, as mutant - how utterly grateful I was to you for offering me a new life - not only in safety but in the freedom and happiness of this family. I didn't know how to pay back that debt then - and I don't now, though I know that I couldn't do it in my lifetime. This is why we help you fight your private crusade Adam. It's our way of beginning to repay you.
"Shalimar's coming across this feeling and she can't even begin to understand it. She doesn't have the reasoning behind it. She can't understand the love we have for her." Emma sighed and laughed to herself. "I think, Adam, that if you asked her to stay - in some way she understood - she wouldn't think twice about it."
She hovered in the doorway, tempted by the scents that wafted through to her. There was a warmth in the light of that room, the late evening sun reaching through the low windows. The four were knelt at a low table on the landing above her, up a wide staircase, talking in voices that resounded around the wide empty hall. These echoes were dampened only by the flowing water that drained into the pool beneath the arena in which the Sharp Voice and the Other had been fighting earlier that day.
She moved to the alcove beneath the stairs quickly, listening to the four contrasting voices, the four she was coming to know so well. The Sharp Voice's voice rose in laughter and she flinched back but did not run.
Slowly she began to make her way up the stairs.