Chapter 15

Legal Disclaimer-The rights belong to others. Not me, so, don't sue. It's fanfic. Deal.

Authors Note-Wow. I didn't expect to surpass my page count on other stories; this is becoming its own little monster. Thank the job for this, I have had nights where I could put my mind on idle and let the others take it for a while. Many thanks to friends at work who gave me ideas that you will see spread out in this story. Animiga-thank you for your review...I appreciate your words more than you know. Check your email! Aniki-You want longer? Sorry, I have tried this time, but it's a tad on the short side.

I would also like to thank DVD empire for having the rest of season one on DVD at a great price. You guys can find them on the net....Ah-Blood ties...there's a fic coming from that one. Anyway-Here's Chapter 15....

High above Pennsylvania, Emma Kilmartin felt her husband slip back into oblivion. She was in the back seat of the new craft that Adam had built, and while Shalimar and Brennan piloted in silence, she tried to reach Jesse. Adam sat in a jump seat beside her.

She saw through Jesse's eyes that he was in a pod, his image of a glass coffin sure signal to her that he was in hell. She knew his claustrophobia from them in the past and she was sure he was trying to fight off a panic attack now. She could feel him relax though, his pain fading, but their link had begun to grow and grow quickly. She had a sharp intake of breath as it hit her, his feelings were washing over her and they had begun to actually hurt. Something was very different. It went from a link that was like a bad long distance call to him being right next to her. He felt like he was in her head.

She put her head in her hands. His overwhelming presence hurt.

"Emma?" Adam asked, breaking her concentration, "what is it? Jesse?"

Emma shook her head. The pain was becoming unbearable. A tear rolled down her face.

"Something has happened to him, something I can't put a finger on," Emma said softly, "It's like he's in my head."

Jesse's body twitched at her contact with his mind. The drugs had put his body under but his mind raced. The pain he was in melted from the drugs and he felt an inner power. Foggy hallways became very clear and he found himself sitting in the meadow again. This time, he was not alone. A woman was in the meadow with him.

"Emma?" he called out to the woman he knew was his wife, walking toward him, her eyes shocked to see him.

"Jesse?" she asked, looking at him with a stunned almost non-recognizable look.

He got up, walked toward her and hugged her, the closeness of their bodies fueling his temperature. He stepped back and looked into her eyes.

"God am I glad to see you," he said, "You're on your way, right?"

Emma looked at him. She had been casting for him for hours and the effort was taking its toll. She was tired, but strangely she didn't feel like she had extended herself too long. Jesse was controlling this scene and it felt like he was trying to reenergize her.

"Yes, we are," she said aloud, giving Adam a shock, Emma's eyes glazing as she switched back to telepathy, "Jesse, how can you do this? You aren't psionic."

"I don't know," Jesse admitted, sitting back down in the field of flowers, "I heard the creator say that he fixed the gunshot wound and the other things I would know in the morning..."

"You brought me here, Jesse," Emma said, taking his hand in hers, "I don't know how you did it, but you brought me. I think I just freaked Adam out; he's sitting here asking what I am seeing. Do you know where you are?"

"In a pod, Em," Jesse answered, sighing, "Strangely enough I can handle it. Beats the idea of being buried alive. Oh yeah, there's some child running around in people's heads here and he's actually made it easier."

"I think I met him, that's how I found Lexa," Emma replied, "Jesse, be careful."

"As always," Jesse said, kissing the image that was Emma in front of him.

Emma closed her eyes, turned and looked at Adam. It was going to be hard to explain what just happened, but Jesse had more power now than she imagined. She took a deep breathe and realized that she had more energy than when she began to cast for him.

"That was strange, he was in control that time," Emma said, dumbfounded, "He's never been in control like that."

"He was in control?" Adam asked, as Shalimar turned to look at them.

"Yes," Emma said plainly, "And I have never seen him in control like that before. He's in a stasis pod, Adam. I know he conquered his fear of them with Henry and the dreamscape, but, he still gets claustrophobic. I don't know how he did that."

Adam stopped for a moment. This was a new piece to the puzzle that he dreaded. The thought that the Creator had repaired Jesse's gunshot wound was reassuring, considering that he thought the man might just use Jesse as an experiment and let him die. He had experimented and healed Jesse at the same time, this scared him even more. What he had done to him might be more than Jesse could handle.

Jesse, back in his own mind, had returned to the place he knew was safe. The meadow. He again realized that he wasn't alone. The child with the blond hair and honey color eyes was waiting for him.

"I see you found your way back here," Jesse said sternly, a smile running across his face, "You okay?"

"That's more my question," the child said, "You wanted to see what here looked like, right, Jesse?"

"Yes, I did," Jesse replied, putting his hand out to the child, "Where are you taking me?"

"To see my friends," the child replied, tugging on his hand, "Come with me."

Jesse followed the child, half walking, half being dragged by him to the hallway he dimly remembered being carried down as they separated him from Lexa. God, he hadn't even thought of Lexa in the past few hours. He silently hoped she was still alive. He had passed her the ring in the hopes that the rest of the group could get her out of there. He wanted out as well, but he knew in his soul that his connection to Emma would be his link to the outside world. Creator or not, he had a power that he treasured more than life itself, the love of his wife. Jesse stopped for a moment when the child led him into a huge room that was filled with "boxes".

Jesse took a look around, the bile rising in his throat as he scanned the room. While he had seen grown men and women in pods in Genomax, the site of hundreds of pods of children made him ill. He tried to read the names; they filled his eyes like the scans of the New Mutant database that he had seen in the past. He knew all the last names; these pods had no first names on them. These were the children of the children of Genomax. The name that stopped him in his tracks was the pod that the child pointed to.

"This one is mine," he said, pointing to the tag, "Can you tell me what it says?"

Jesse picked up the tag and his breath caught. It took him a few moments to find his voice.

"It says 'Pierce Kilmartin'," Jesse said softly, "I think we found your name."

"Pierce," the small child now known as Pierce said, "I like it."

"You should," Jesse smiled weakly, trying to reassure himself more than the child that he now knew was his own son in front of him, "Now how do we get you and your friends out of here?"

"You can't, grandpa wouldn't like it," Pierce replied, "He wants us all to grow big as grown ups before we can leave."

Jesse looked around. While his instinct screamed that he needed to grab Pierce and run from the room, logic screamed that he would have to find a way to disable the pods so that he could get all of the children out. That would take years and he knew that he didn't have that kind of time. He started to examine the pods as a searing pain hit him, like a laser point hit the edge of his temples. He was being brought back to consciousness. Sound went from the dreamy quiet that he knew to reality. The sound of regulated breathing filled his ears while the sounds of scared children filled his mind.

"Help us Mister," they whispered, over and over, "help us."