Sanctuary (just before noon)…
The Sanctuary was pretty quiet. Brennen and Emma were on a grocery run and Jesse was doing some routine maintenance on the Helix. Since things were pretty quite, thankfully, Adam saw a great opportunity for beginning Willow's training. He knew, being related to Shalimar and a feral ontop of that, she had the same stubborn streak. Implementing Willow into the Mutant X mould was gonna be a difficult task to say the least. He realized Willow's mutation was unique, however. An arachnid feral was truly rare. He sat back, remembering the only time the team encountered an arachnid, Lorna Templeton. Dangerous and beautiful, a lethal combination Adam thought.
Flashback…
"What did you do to him?" Adam yelled running to Brennen's side.
Lorna slowly backed towards the door, staring at Adam and a lifeless Brennen on the floor. "Guess I was too much woman for him."
Smiling, she turned around towards the door, to meet Shalimar staring right back at her. "This is gonna be worth the pain." Taking her arm out of her sling, she hit Lorna square in the face, knocking her to the floor.
Not even thinking twice, Shalimar ran to Adam and Brennen's side. Kneeling down, she caressed Brennen's face.
"We have to get him back to Sanctuary right away!" Adam said, gently lifting Brennen. Shalimar helped him as they quickly left the apartment.
Present…
He shook his head at the memory, thinking how lucky Brennen was that Emma was there to save him. If it hadn't been for her powers, Brennen would have surely died from Lorna's venom.
Relaxing back in his chair, he took a bite out of his sandwich and glanced back at his book, enjoying a rare moment's peace, when Shalimar and Willow came into the kitchen.
"Damn, you're pretty good. Better than I thought," Shalimar was quiet impressed with Willow's display in the dojo.
"Well, you forget, I did spend my life with the GSA. I was trained to fight by the best the GSA had to offer." Willow went to the fridge and took out a pitcher of ice water waiting for her. "Hey Adam, whatcha reading?"
"Oh just brushing up on my Egyptian mythology." Adam looked at her and showed her the book, Egyptian Myths and Legends.
Willow's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, as she sat down at the table. "Oh wow. I love mythology. I studied it a lot in my spare time at the GSA. This stuff is great."
"Didn't know you liked this stuff." Adam was surprised at Willow's enthusiasm.
"Well, when I wasn't being trained, I was in a cell. When you're in a cell with nothing better to do, you do what you can to pass the time. There were always books they brought to me, I guess to keep me from going crazy. So I started studying mythology and languages," She explained to both of them.
"Did they ever let you out?" Shalimar shook her head at Willow's treatment at Genomex.
"Well, the only time I was ever allowed to leave the compound, was to go to school. But I always had GSA agents following me. I wasn't allowed to have friends or socialize." Willow looked down, fighting a memory of Genomex.
"That's rough. Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore." Adam reassured her. "If you ever wanna borrow this, you're always welcome to. Also, Proxy Blue has a fabulous search engine. I'm sure you could find a lot of stuff on there, too."
"Thanks, I'll remember that." Willow smiled appreciatively.
"So, you also studied languages. How many can you speak?" Shalimar asked curiously.
"I can read, speak and write fluently in five different languages, not including English of course. French, Greek, Latin, Japanese and Egyptian." Willow replied.
"Brainwave," Shalimar joked.
"Jock strap," Willow joked back.
"Okay, smarty. Time to do some basic housecleaning. You get the bathrooms." Shalimar got up from the table.
"What?! Housecleaning?" Willow looked at her, surprised.
"Well, yeah. It's called earning your keep. We all have to do chores and you are definitely no exception." Shalimar motioned Willow to follow her.
"Aw come on. Isn't there any like, missions to go on or people to save or something? I mean, chores. Can't you get a Molly Maid or something?" Willow tried to talk her way out of chores.
Shalimar laughed and gently pushed her out of the kitchen. "Spoken like a true teenager."
About a half hour later… "THIS IS BULLSHIT!" could be heard throughout the Sanctuary, as Willow made no bones about letting everyone know how she felt about cleaning toilets.Shalimar stood there with a broom in her hands as Willow came stomping up to her. "Why do I have to do the toilets?"
"Because I said so, that's why." Shalimar played with the broom, as Willow became rather agitated with her.
"I don't wanna do no god damn chores! First, you getting me out of bed to go for a stupid run, then you kick my ass in the dojo and now I'm cleaning a fuckin' toilet!" Willow ranted.
Shalimar couldn't help it. Seeing the look on Willow's face was just too much. She began to laugh.
Willow looked up at her, curious at her reaction. "What the hell's so funny?"
"I'm sorry, sweetie. It's just the look on your face is priceless." Shalimar tried miserably to stifle a giggle.
Willow tried to remain angry with Shalimar, but a smile slowly crept up her face. Shalimar quickly caught it and began to tease her. "What's that, a smile I see?"
Willow tried to cover up the smile and cleared her throat.
Shalimar stopped laughing and put her hand on Willow's shoulder. "I'll tell you what. Finish up your chores and we'll go for a ride later. Just the two of us."
Willow smiled, satisfied with this deal.
"Hey guys. What's going on?" Brennen and Emma approached them with a good stock of groceries in tow.
"Chores!" Willow looked at all three of them.
"Yeah, well unfortunately, the Sanctuary isn't gonna clean itself," Brennen looked at her.
"Yeah, yeah." Willow turned and left to return to her chores.
Later that day…Shalimar and Willow left to go for a motorcycle ride, leaving a quiet Sanctuary behind. Brennen and Jesse were sitting in the kitchen talking, as Emma entered to join them.
"You coming tonight?" Jesse asked Emma as she sat down next to them.
"Where are you guys going?" Emma asked as she looked at the two of them.
"We're just gonna head out to the club tonight. Just to let off some steam, relax a little," Jesse responded.
"I was hoping Shal would come too," Brennen added, realizing shortly afterwards, how obvious that sounded. Luckily, Jesse just kind of brushed it off. But he knew Emma could see right through him.
"What about Willow? She's under age. That's not really fair to her to be stuck here by herself," Emma looked at them both.
"Yeah and I'm sorry that's the case, but, we can't honestly, put our lives on hold because Willow isn't old enough to go to a bar," Brennen responded, trying not to sound as insensitive as the statement suggested.
"Well, I'm gonna call Sarah, make sure she knows where to meet us," Jesse got up and left the table, leaving Emma and Brennen alone.
"So, are you gonna tell her?" Emma didn't waste any time.
"Am I that obvious?" Brennen looked up at her.
"Well, you forget I am an empath. But honestly, I don't need to be to know that you have strong feelings towards her." Emma kind of knew for a while, she just wanted to wait until Brennen was able to admit it. Little did he know that Emma was aware that Shalimar harbored similar feelings as well.
Brennen looked at her. "I don't know. I don't think it's something you can plan. But it would be nice."
"Well, good luck." Emma said nothing more as she left, leaving Brennen to ponder his move alone.
Late Evening …Shalimar and Emma were getting ready to meet Jesse and Brennen as the four of them were gonna go out.
"Do I look alright?" Shalimar was uncharacteristically nervous. Emma could sense her anxiety, knowing what it was all about.
"You look fine, Shal." Emma reassured her.
"Just fine?" Shalimar looked back at her.
"Alright, you look sexy, Shal," Emma changed her statement.
"That's better." Shalimar turned as she heard at knock at her door. "Come in. Hey Will."
Willow walked into the room and sat down next to Emma on the edge of the bed. "Hey guys, I was just thinking. Why don't we go catch a flick or something."
Shalimar looked at Emma and looked back at Willow. "Ummmm, well that's sounds great sweetie, but we kind of made plans already."
A small hint of disappointment fell across Willow's face. "Oh, where are you guys going?"
"Oh, we're just heading to a club for a little while. Just to let loose for a while," Emma answered.
"I see." Willow tried to mask her disappointment, but Emma sensed a wave of sadness fall over the young feral. "I guess I can't come because I'm under age." Willow swallowed hard and nodded. "Well have fun."
She turned to walk out when Shalimar stopped her. "Hey, we'll do a movie tomorrow night okay?"
"Okay" Willow mustered a fake smile.
"Brainwave," Shalimar said.
"Jock strap," Willow responded. That was kind of a code between the two of them for I love you.
Willow closed the door behind her and walked down the hall towards her room, as she wiped a single tear off her face.
The End
Well, actually just the beginning. This is kind of a prelude to the next story, a small space filler really. The next story focuses more on Brennen and Shalimar, as well as Willow's jealous streak.
So let me know what you think.
Coming up
Part III of the Blood is Thicker series, "Deadly Sin"
Willow becomes jealous of Brennen and Shalimar's developing relationship, creating tension between the two siblings.