Discliamer: See previous chapters
A/N: OKay everyone, I know I ept you waiting for two weeks before an update so I figured I'd make this one longer than the rest AND give you the long awaited return of Shalimar...let me know if it's too sped-up or anti-climactic. Thanks for your patience, review please and thank you.
Shalimar stumbled into the secret door of Sanctuary. It had taken her what she believed to be about eight days, but what was really about eighteen, but she had finally made it. She pressed the concealed opener. "Voice Recognition Code Required." The computer's monotone voice rang out through the desolate cliff side.
"Sh-Shal-imar F-Fox." She rasped weakly, too weak from blood loss to speak any louder. She was lucky she was still standing.
"Voice Recognition Code Accepted." The computer stated and a buzzing noise ensued and a small door opened in the rock face. Shalimar breathed a sigh of relief at the familiar passageway. She was home. She stumbled onward, pulling herself up the flight of stairs and hobbling towards the computer room, hoping that someone was there. She didn't know how much longer she could hold herself up. The sun was just beginning to sink at almost six thirty pm.
Jesse looked up sharply at the strange noise that was coming up the hallway towards him. He leapt up getting into a fighting stance, though he didn't know how well he'd do at taking someone on right now. He was no where near ready for what he saw come stumbling around that corner. His jaw dropped and he fell out of his stance. He gaped in disbelief at the bruised, bloody, familiar woman before him. He knew what he saw, but his heart wouldn't let him believe it. Lexa came into the room, having heard the noise. Jesse heard her gasp sharply and that's when he knew that he wasn't seeing things. Time stood still, grinding to a halt as they stared at each other, the lost and the lovers. Lexa was the first to recover enough to get her voice working and time skidded back into motion.
"BRENNAN!" Lexa screamed, still unmoving. Brennan came running into the room, expecting to see intruders, but he stopped dead in his tracks when he spotted Shalimar. She raised her head weakly and looked him in the eyes.
"J-Jesse...th- that's not funny." Brennan said hoarsely.
"Brennan, I didn't-," Jesse looked at him, eyes wide, shaking his head slowly. Brennan turned back to Shalimar. It couldn't be. It couldn't be possible, could it?
"Brennan," She whispered almost inaudibly, she met his eyes and they were filled with so much pain and love, that Brennan knew. He just knew; his heart flooded with so much emotion that he could barely breathe. How could he have left her to find her way back in the condition that she's in? Why did he believe the word of that bastard? "Bre-," she began and then her knees gave out.
"Shalimar," Brennan breathed and ran over just in time to catch her in his arms as she crumpled to the floor. He knelt on the floor, holding her close to him. "Oh Shal, I thought I lost you." He kissed her forehead gently, tears streaming unchecked down his cheeks. He felt her blood on his arm and looked at her in concern. They had no idea how much blood she'd lost or how long she'd been trying to get home. He picked her up gently and carried her to the med lab with Lexa and Jesse in tow, still staring in utter disbelief.
"Brennan..." She murmured weakly and her eyes fluttered shut.
"It's okay baby." He said through his tears. "I'm right here. You're alive and you're back and I'm going to stay right beside you until you get better. I'm not going anywhere. You're safe now." He laid her down on the white-linen bed and turned to Jesse, who, like Lexa and himself, had joyous tears running down their faces. "Jess, get those computers fired up."
Jesse nodded and ran to the machines. Scanners ran over her body and pinpointed all the places that needed healing. One of the places was in her lower stomach where the finger-shaped bruises and indents Neilson had inflicted upon her still lingered. When the computer flashed those injuries on the screen Brennan cringed and growled viciously.
Shalimar's eyes flickered open and she reached for Brennan's hand. Brennan turned his attention to her, giving her a warm smile. He took her hand and squeezed it gently, concern flooding him as he felt how cold she was and how badly her body was shaking. She tried to speak, but Brennan hushed her gently, "Just rest baby." She didn't even have the strength to nod. She let her eyes close slowly and fell back into painless unconsciousness, knowing, at long last, that she was safe.
"She's in tough shape Brennan." Jesse said after the computers finished its scan. He had already slipped an IV into her hand and a monitor was beeping her hearts' slow, irregular rhythm from close beside her. Brennan came up behind him, laid a hand on his shoulder, and looked at the scan's results. They made no sense to him or Lexa, who was also looking at the computer, so Jesse clarified. "The wounds on her back and stomach are deep and she lost a lot of blood. We have no idea how long she's been trying to get back here. Bleeding...alone," He shuddered. "I'm starting the first transfusion now. It's a special blood that won't mess with her mutation. Adam designed it. It's just the first of several, plus we have to hope that it's not too late to heal those wounds."
They turned quickly when they heard Lexa gasp sharply. She had removed the shirt from Shalimar's stomach and wiped a clean, damp cloth over the wounds, trying to clean away some of the dried blood. The words cut in there were revealed and she stepped back in horror, her hand over her mouth in shock. Jesse and Brennan rushed over and they gasped simultaneously. "Sick bastard," Lexa breathed. Brennan felt sick. His stomach churned with disgust. That nasty pervert had taken a knife to his girlfriend and had carved 'freak' into her beautiful flesh. Jesse gagged and turned quickly back to his computer. He couldn't look at Shalimar's defiled body anymore. How anyone could have done this to someone like her, he couldn't understand. He didn't think he wanted to.
"Okay, the healing process should be starting...now." Jesse said as several laser beams shot down and played over Shalimar's pale skin. Her body began to convulse and her heart rate dropped dangerously. "Hold her down!" Jesse exclaimed, quickly typing things into the computer.
"Jesse, what the hell is going on!?" Brennan exclaimed as he pressed down on Shalimar's shoulders.
"Her body isn't responding well to the healing. She's too weak, but we have to keep it going long enough to stop the bleeding or she'll die!" Jesse shouted over the heart monitor's shrill beeping.
"If she goes too long she'll die anyways!" Lexa screamed, holding down Shalimar's legs.
"Just a few more seconds!"
"Come on Jess, we're losing her!" Brennan shouted in panic.
"Okay! Done!" Jesse exclaimed, punched a few keys and the lasers shot back up into their holsters. Shalimar's body was still, but the monitor kept up its shrill screaming.
"Jesse!?" Brennan yelled.
"Move!" Jesse shoved him out of the way and pulled out two paddles. He rubbed them together quickly. "Clear!" Brennan and Lexa removed their hands and Jesse laid the paddles on either side of Shalimar's chest. Her body lifted from the bed then fell back down. Nothing happened. The monitor continued its shrill keening. "Shit! Come on Shal! Stay with me!" He yelled, beginning to panic.
"Oh God, no, not again, please no...please don't take her again..." Brennan pleaded quietly. He couldn't lose her again, not now that he had finally gotten her back. Tears ran down his cheek and Lexa pulled him into her arms and he watched over her shoulder through tears as Jesse prepared the machine and shocked her again. They waited a few tense second before a slow, irregular blip...blip...blip filled the air. They all breathed sighs of relief.
"That was close Jess... Too close." Brennan said, wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead and disentangling himself from Lexa to go to Shalimar, reaching down and stroking Shalimar's hair out of her face.
"I know, but if we didn't stop the bleeding she would've died. She's lost too much blood as it is. She's already on her second transfusion." Jesse explained apologetically. Brennan laid a hand on his shoulder.
"I know that it was a necessary risk, it's just..." He paused, looking down lovingly at Shalimar, tears filling his eyes again. "I can't lose her again..." Lexa pulled him into a tight hug.
"We're not going to lose her. She'll be okay. She was just too weak to be fully healed, we'll deal. We'll give her a day or so to rebuild her blood cells, then try again when she's stronger." Lexa assured him, sounding much more confident than she felt. Luckily, Brennan believed her. He rubbed his tired, teary eyes and went back to stand beside Shalimar, gripping her hand as if he would never let go.
"I'm going to give her a sedative," Jesse said, taking a pre-filled needle out of a drawer. "That way she'll remain unconscious and won't be able to feel any of the pain that she is undoubtedly in until she's ready to be healed. She's been through enough already; she doesn't need to hurt anymore." Brennan nodded in agreement and watched as his best friend slipped the needle into her arm.
Jesse turned to him. "Now that she's back I want you to eat something. Anything. Then get some sleep. You're exhausted and I know you've lost weight. I can see it. In your ribs and in your face. She's back. I'm not going to let anything happen to her. You can trust me. Now please. Please, go take care of yourself, before you're the next one on this hospital bed in critical condition." His next words were threatening. "If you don't, I'll knock your ass out with a sedative strong enough to sedate a horse and force fed you through an IV. Do you understand?" Jesse glared at him and Brennan cracked his first real smile in almost three weeks. The Elemental knew that Jesse's words came straight from his heart and from concern for his friend.
"I trust you, Jess. And I'll go eat something. I'm actually feeling kind of hungry." Brennan smiled again, kissed Shalimar's forehead gently, still reluctant to leave her. "If anything happens, you'll Com me right?"
"In a millisecond," Jesse promised.
"Okay," Brennan sighed, squeezed Shalimar's hand and kissed her again before tearing his eyes and hands from her and slowly moving out the door. Once he was out of ear shot, Jesse turned to Lexa.
"Follow him. Make sure he eats, okay? And if he doesn't, let me know immediately. I meant what I said." Lexa nodded, kissed his cheek, then tip-toed after Brennan. Jesse moved over to Shalimar's side and held her hand gently. He was silent for several minutes before rubbing his thumb over her cheek and talking to her quietly.
"You've gotta hang on Shal. He's been an absolute mess without you. I don't think we could handle losing you again. So you better not leave us." He told her quietly. Lexa came back in about an hour later and laid a hand on his arm, kissing his neck gently.
"How's Brennan?" Jesse asked, automatically.
"He ate oh... six sandwiches, two cans of soda, and an entire bag of chips before going into his room, falling into bed and within five minutes, he was snoring so loud I could hear him in the computer room." She said. Jesse laughed and kissed her hand, pulling her around and sitting her on his lap. He kissed her lovingly. "Mm," Lexa murmured, leaning into the kiss and entwining her fingers with his. "How's she holding up?" She asked when they broke their kiss, eyes falling on Shalimar.
"All bleeding has been stopped. She's now on her third and hopefully last transfusion. But her condition is still unstable. She has a high fever, which I'm still trying to get down. Her heart beat hasn't returned to normal and it's still irregular and scarily slow. She'd be a lot better off if we could just get her heart to beat at a steady rhythm. But her body has been through a lot of trauma and stress over the past several weeks. We have no idea what happened to her after the last Com message. All we know is that Neilson somehow faked her death to try and destroy Mutant X. That sick bastard," he said the last word through gritted teeth. Lexa squeezed his hand gently. "I'm scared for her Lexa." He admitted, eyes lingering on Shalimar's pale features. "I'm so afraid she won't make it through the night. She's so weak. I've never seen her like this before. It scares me to death, Lex, it really does."
She look at the fear and pain and remnants of shock in his eyes and pulled him into a tight embrace, wishing that she could will his fears away, wishing that she could make Shalimar better. "She'll be okay, Jess. We all know that Shal's always been stronger than we think. She'll get through this. We all will."
"I know...you're right...I just can't help being afraid for her. It's still terrifyingly possible that she could die tonight, on this bed, in my care. I couldn't live with myself if that happened." A tear fell from his closed eyes at the thought. Lexa cupped his face in her hands and smiled at him comfortingly.
"Hey, everything will be okay."
"How do you know?"
"Because I'm Lexa Pierce and I say that everything will be okay. How's that for an answer?" She smirked. Jesse chuckled at this and held her closer.
"Yeah..." he murmured and kissed her forehead.
"God, I just hope her stomach doesn't scar. She doesn't need a permanent remembrance of her ordeal." She took a deep breath and asked the question that had been eating at her since Shalimar's return to them. "Can she... you know... still have children?"
"Yes," Jesse said, sounding relieved. "I ran the test earlier and there was no permanent internal damage. If she so chooses, she can still have kids. And she and Brennan will have some really cute ones too."
"Yeah, they will." Lexa smiled at the thought of little half-Shal, half-Brennans running around Sanctuary. "They'll have like their own personal scale of stubborn-ness." They laughed. Lexa leaned her forehead against Jesse's. "What about us? I think we'd have some pretty adorable kids." Jesse looked surprised.
"I thought you weren't for mutant procreation?" He said.
"Yeah, well, things change." She kissed him gently.
"Yeah, change is good. Like out relationship change. That was very good." He kissed her again, deeper, more passionate.
"A very good change indeed," She agreed when they came up for air. Shalimar stirred and groaned, her face twisted in pain. Jesse ran over to her bedside. "She's waking up?" Lexa asked in semi-panic. "Should I call Brennan?"
"No. Not yet. Her body isn't ready for her mind to wake up." Jesse replied, he grabbed a needle and slipped it into Shalimar's arm. Her face instantly relaxed and the pained tension left her body. She fell back into a peaceful sleep. "She needs more rest to prepare her body for the healing that we have to do tomorrow. All we need to do is make sure that the pain killers don't wear off. I want her to be as comfortable as possible. If it wears off she'll be in a lot of pain. And I don't think that I can watch her suffer anymore." He laid a hand on the top of Shalimar's head and stroked her hair gently. A tear fell onto his hand as he leaned over her.
"What's wrong?" Lexa asked, putting her arms around him and kissing the back of his neck.
"I really thought...we'd lost her." He whispered through his tears. "It seemed so surreal after you told me. Like, this wasn't really my life. Like I would just wake up and it would be some horrible dream that Neilson gave me through psionics or something. But then as the days wore on...I knew that this was reality. And it hurt so much." He took a deep shuddering breath.
"When she came through that door, I just...froze. My eyes saw but my heart wouldn't let me believe it was real. I didn't want that to be the dream. Then you came in and I heard you scream for Brennan as if you were miles away...It just seemed too good to be true. I missed her so much." Tears ran down his cheeks. "I thought we'd lost her forever." Lexa pulled him into her arms and held him gently, letting him cry on her. After he stopped crying, he looked up at her.
"What about you? How've you been doing with all this? I mean, you've been so strong for us, Brennan and me, throughout these past few weeks, but you seem to be burying a lot in your attempts to stay strong."
"Yeah, I'm real good at burying, in case you hadn't noticed. But, I'm okay. I'm better now that she's back. I think we were actually starting to care about each other. At least I was. And it bothered me that I didn't get a chance to tell her before...But she's back now, so it doesn't matter. As long as she's okay, that's all that really ever mattered." She smiled a little. "Besides, I did my share of crying. Once with you. But most by myself."
"You should never have to cry alone. What'd you cry for, other than Shalimar's death?"
"Selfishly, a little for me. But mostly for you, not knowing if I would ever get the chance to tell you how I feel about you, or kiss you, or hear your voice, or see you smile. I cried for Brennan and what he lost. I cried a lot for Brennan. God, I can't even imagine what he went through after that last COM came in from Neilson. The pain must have been unbearable for him." A tear ran down her cheek. Jesse reached up and wiped it away with his thumb.
"Well, we're back now." He glanced at Shalimar. "All of us. And everything is going to be okay, as you've assured me."
"God, I hope so. If just for the sake of Brennan's sanity," Lexa sighed. Jesse kissed her forehead gently.
"Why don't you go try and get some sleep?" He suggested. "You look tired."
"So do you." She replied.
"Yeah, but I need to stay here. You know, just in case. I'll try to catch a few minutes in here, but you should really go to bed. I'll COM you if anything comes up."
"Okay," she agreed. "But try and get a little sleep. Wouldn't want you to get sick and end up looking like Brennan." She shuddered at the mental picture of her friend's current condition.
"Don't worry. Even if I don't get any sleep, I still eat. I don't think I'll ever look like Brennan."
"You'd better not. I'd have to hurt you." Lexa glared, and then smiled. Jesse grinned at this and kissed her again, then gently nudged her.
"Go on, go get some sleep." He kissed her forehead gently, then her lips. She smiled softly, kissed him, and then left, eyes lingering for a brief moment on his smiling face.
Sometime in the night Jesse woke with a start from his position at the med labs computer desk. For a moment he didn't know what had woken him, but his immediate thought was for Shalimar. He saw her body twitch and them the screeching started as Shalimar's body started to fall apart on her again. "Oh God no!" Jesse exclaimed, rushing to her side and quickly bringing the COM ring to his lips. "LEXA! BRENNAN! GET IN HERE NOW!!!" He shouted as her heart beat dropped lower and lower. "No. No no no no on Shal don't do this to us!" Brennan burst through the infirmary door, a frantic look on his face, closely followed by Lexa.
"What's happening?!" Brennan called over the noise. Jesse was rushing around madly, grabbing tubes and wires, typing on the computer. "Jess!?"
"I'm losing her!" He exclaimed fearfully as he pulled out his paddles again and got them ready, just in case.
TO BE CONTINUED....
A/N: Hehehe...I'm so evil. I give you a nice long chapter and then end it in a cliffhanger. I love doing that...sorry, but I really am one for the drama... Review and I'll update faster...or as soon as I can next get on-line.