THE CHOICES WE MAKE

Continued...

Shalimar blinked. 'Ughh, what happened?' she wondered looking around her. She was lying on the chair in the lab, she realized; Adam was looking at some results on the computer screen with Jesse looking over his shoulder and Brennan leaning on the sideboard looking disgruntled. She frowned,

"What happened? How long have I been out... is Emma okay?"

"Hey Shalimar," Adam came over to her and smiled comfortingly. Brennan and Jesse glanced up upon hearing her speak and wandered over to her side as well.

"One question at a time okay, firstly, how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine Adam, tell me what happened!"

"Okay, okay, calm down, Emma's fine, everything's fine..." Adam gave her brief description of what had happened after she had blacked out. Shalimar couldn't help feeling slightly embarrassed at having allowed herself to become so useless at such a crucial moment in the situation. She looked at the ground sheepishly.

"It wasn't your fault," Jesse said firmly, guessing the direction of her thoughts.

"Jesse's right Shalimar, you couldn't help it any more than Brennan can help being rendered useless by water," there was a grunt and a "Hey!" from Brennan, but Adam ignored him, "Your feral instincts just took over, you have nothing to feel guilty about."

"Where is Emma?" Shalimar asked, still rather feeling the need to apologise personally to her friend for leaving her in the building.

"She's resting, Adam said she checked out fine and she went back to her room," Brennan said, though to Shalimar's ears, he sounded less than convinced at this proclamation. Before she could question him about it though a loud beeping came from the computer. Jesse jumped into the seat and scrolled through the information,

"Adam, Rykes's blood pressure's dropping!"

"What? He's here?" Brennan could have sworn he heard the feral emit a low growl at this prospect. "Did you put a governor on him?"

"There's no need for that," Adam responded,

"What, you're mad, Adam he tried to kill us..."

"No Shalimar,listen, it's okay, I mean, he's not capable of hurting anyone right now... look, why don't you just see for yourself."

Reluctantly, Shalimar climbed off her chair and followed Adam and Jesse into the next room. Brennan hung back,

"I'm going to check on Emma, Glad your okay Shal," he gave her a quick hug and paused for a second. Looking into his eyes she thought he was going to say something else, but he merely turned on his heel and walked out.

"See..."

Shalimar looked down at the still body of Devon Rykes. His face seemed frozen in an expression of pain, his body pale and lifeless. Shalimar didn't care, the very sight of him made her feel sick. Adam was adjusting something on the monitor while Jesse checked some results.

"What happened to him?"

"According to Brennan, Emma hit him with some sort of telempathic blast that seems to have completely knocked out his nervous system. Whatever she did has sent his brain into remission; in short- he's dying.

Shalimar stared in disbelief; Emma had done that, their gentle little Emma. But she wasn't so gentle anymore, Shalimar reminded herself, she had certainly learned how to take care of herself since joining Mutant X. But even so...

Brennan stopped outside Emma's room. He had to admit that going to check on her had just been a spur of the moment excuse; he really didn't want to look at Rykes. That bastard had nearly killed his two best friends! Adam had said he was dying, but in Brennan's opinion his death was not coming nearly fast enough. He paused for a moment trying to quell the fury he felt inside, then raised his hand and knocked lightly on her door. He waited, but no reply came. He knocked again, this time more firmly,

"Emma, it's me, are you okay?"

He heard a small movement from inside the room but otherwise there was no response. She clearly just wanted to be left alone. Her tendency to withdraw into herself after unpleasant events was not altogether different from the others; cutting themselves off so they didn't have to deal with whatever happened was something they were all very good at. Being a psionic, however, Brennan knew Emma's withdrawal had a more deep-rooted effect; she would sometimes go several days, only venturing out of her room to eat. He had had words with her about it before. The conversation had started out of concern, but it had somehow turned into a vicious argument, leaving them both feeling angry and insulted. It had got her talking though. Making up his mind Brennan knocked one final time on the door,

"Emma, I'm coming in so you better not be naked in there," he cursed his traitorous mind, where had that comment come from?

Brennan carefully pushed open the door and walked inside. She had switched out all her lights and was sitting with her knees to her chest in the centre of her bed. As he sat gently on the edge of the bed she sighed, but didn't look at him.

"What do you want Brennan?"

"Hey, you know me, I was hungry and it's your turn to do dinner so... I guess my stomach drove me to your door." His attempt to draw her out had the desired effect. She rolled her eyes but he could see the smile playing on the edge of her lips.

"Is Shal awake yet?"

"Yeah she's fine, she was just worried if you were okay."

"I'm fine, honestly Brennan, you guys don't need to worry about me, there's nothing wrong."

"I can't help it, i care about you... i mean... you mean a lot.. to all of us..." He trailed off, unable to quell the pounding in his chest.

"I know I'm not Shalimar but you can talk to me Emma, we're friends, right?"

"Of course we are, best friends," she agreed.

"Well?" he encouaged, staring at her intently, his dark eyes boring into her. She caved...

"When I connected to him, I just wanted to stop him, but as the images were passing into him, I don't know Bren, I got this horrible sensation in the back of my throat, I felt like I was drowning... I know, it's stupid." She turned away. Brennan said nothing for a long time, feeling a shift on the bed she thought he had left so was surprised when she felt his hand touch her shoulder.

"I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you, like when Caleb attacked you, I'm sorry I wasn't there when you needed me." Emma was taken aback by his words. Brennan hardly ever admitted openly feelings of remorse like this and she felt touched by the sentiment behind them.

"It's not your fault Brennan," she leant over and put her arms around him, realising as know one else could, that he had suffered from the events of the morning just as much as she and Shalimar. He leant into her and returned the hug. At first, it was just a relief to have it confirmed that she really was alright, but as they remained in each others arms, he couldn't help but notice how warm and inviting her body felt, enveloped in his. It was in his nature to look out for his friends, and to feel responsible for them. She supposed he was used to having the size and strength that people looked up to and respected, it had become part of his character to protect the people he cared about. It was that part of him that had drawn her to him when the GSA had first come after her. Seeing him in the bar, she had sensed it within him. Feeling now more relaxed than she had all day, she closed her eyes and rested her face in the crook of his neck. She could feel his muscles beneath his shirt...he felt warm...safe...

"Hey guys, Adam said to tell you... oh..." Jesse had just entered the room, not bothering to knock as the door had been left ajar. Upon seeing Brennan he stopped, feeling awkward, "Err, sorry guys...am I interrupting anything?"

Emma pulled away quickly, "Of course not!"

Brennan felt an irrational stab of annoyance towards Jesse, but he didn't wish to analyse the feeling too much right now, instead he said, "What did Adam want to tell us?"

"Oh..." Jesse seemed to have lost his thread, still looking curiously between Brennan and Emma, "Err, he just wanted to let you know that... well, Rykes is dead."

"What...how?" Emma sounded shocked.

"Adam said his brain just shut down or something, his body started convulsing and..." he stopped when he noticed Brennan glaring at him. Emma had gone white,

"I didn't... mean to... I didn't mean to murder him...I just meant to stop him." she stuttered.

"Hey, it's okay Emma, he would have killed us. You don't have anything to feel guilty about." Brennan put his hand on her arm but she shrugged it away.

"Err, anyway..." Jesse definitely felt uncomfortable now, like he was intruding in some private affair, "Shalimar also offered to cook dinner for you tonight, if you aren't felling up to doing it." He nodded towards Emma, and she noticed the slight grimace as he relayed Shalimar's offer.

"Its alright Jesse," Emma managed a smile, she knew the boys always dreaded Shalimar's dinners, but were usually too polite (or perhaps too afraid) to mention it to the feral. "I wouldn't want everyone going hungry after all the excitement today, besides, Brennan has offered to help me. So tell her thanks for the offer Jesse but I'm good."

"Okay," said Jesse, "See you at dinner." With one last searching glance at Emma, he left them to it. As he left, he couldn't explain the anxious feeling, gnawing at him in the pit of his stomach.

Emma turned to Brennan smiling, "You don't mind do you?"

"When you look at me with those 'Nala eyes,' how can I refuse," he laughed.

"Nala eyes?" Emma asked, amused.

"Sure, didn't you ever watch the Lion King when you were growing up?"

"You watch Disney films?"

"That's not the point. Do you remember the scene where grown up Nala and Simba have their re-union? There's all that cheesy music playing in the back ground... well he pins her to the ground and she just looks up at him with these big, sexy 'come-to-bed' eyes that no man could say no to!"

"Come to bed eyes?"

"You know what I mean, the look that will make a guy do anything you want." Brennan grinned at her. Emma felt a shiver run up her spine as she tried to pull her thoughts back down to earth. 'This is ridiculous, he makes one joke about my eyes and I'm buzzing like a teenager,' she thought. She had to get out of that room before she did something she'd regret.

"So... dinner then, shall we," she motioned towards the door.

"Lead the way m'lady," and he followed her out of her room.

Continued in Chapter 7... sorry this story has been quite slow moving so far... but thank you so much to all those who have left reviews, they make my day : )