Chapter 9

By frickangel

It was a funny game of "when-I-stare-at-you-you-can-stare-back-or-pretend-you're-looking-away" that was being played between the five of them.

"So let me get this straight..." the almighty brunette stood up, paraded back and forth the hall, hands on the hips and with one sarcastic smile etched on her face. "You're Emma, the god knows how many-eth Emma in this infinite number of worlds and so is Brennan?"

"Just like us, Lexa."

"You know Jesse, you are not helping." She snapped back and plopped herself into one of the couches.

Shrugging, yet quietly satisfied with his own self for having to make Lexa sound bad, Jesse fingered the crystal chess pieces of the board.

Across him, Brennan sat next to Emma, the friend whom he thought they had lost, was sitting there and looking weary. He could see her holding on tightly to Brennan's arm, for what, he didn't know. Maybe she felt she needed to protect him, or maybe it was the other way around.

"I hated science for a reason." Shalimar muttered, she shifted her position just to get more comfortable on the couch's arm rest, she gave a small glance at Jesse and looked up once more. "Scientists could never accept the fact that a sky is blue, they just had to go explain the reason it was blue."

Damn, just when did she become so philosophical? "What?" Jesse eyed the feral and arched both eyebrows.

"Nothing, Jess." She patted his shoulder and balanced herself again, avoiding crashing on him.

"We don't know much either, we were just trying to get home." Emma tried explaining. "We need to get to Adam."

"Where is he?" Lexa asked, actually, ask was an understatement, it was more of an order.

"He mentioned something about a safe house." Brennan offered his help, patting Emma's hand gently, but never breaking his straight ahead gaze. "Just I'm not too sure which."

"Well if he is there, he would've known we were on another reality, the things wouldn't be the same in the safe house." Emma theorised and pondered. Her petite frame seemed to shrink further under a whole load of thought. "Then again, wouldn't that mean he would've return to Sanctuary by now?"

"You know what Emm?" Shalimar swung her leg over the arm rest and planted her two feet on the floor. "Maybe you and Bren better get some rest."

"Whoa..." Lexa interrupted and bolted up. "We need to find Adam."

Shalimar was already mid way helping Emma with Brennan. "Screw Adam. If that bastard can lie to Emma and leave the others behind for his own selfishness, I don't think I want to waste my time looking for his sorry ass existence."

"Shal, he's the only one who can help in this." Trying to slow her down, Brennan tried putting a bit of resistance in his step, it worked on Emma, she stopped. But never try that on a feral, she'll just push, or pull, harder.

"As far as I'm concern, you are home, both you and Emma." She paused, smiling at Emma. "Now shut up before I carry you to your bedroom."

"Shalimar!" Lexa protested once again.

"Lex, shut up before I do something to you to." Jesse threatened, stepping in between her and the three other mutants. "And believe me, I won't be as nice as Shalimar and carry you."

Narrowing her eyes, Lexa tried awarding her best glare at Jesse.

He stood his ground and smiled back. Just a simple smile-- nothing fancy.

"Fine." She grumbled and stormed off in the opposite directions, her hands thrown up in frustration. Jesse was part expecting her to at least punch him. Guess she wasn't in the mood.

Turning behind, Jesse shrugged and sighed, "She'll be fine, probably just PMS."

"Come on; let's get you two to your rooms." Shalimar changed the subject and softly tugged at Brennan's shirt.

Instead of silent obedience, Brennan seemed to have decided he was going to be a rebel, exactly there and then.

"I can handle myself!" He shrugged off Emma and Shalimar before stumbling off into the rough direction of his room, hands outstretched trying to manoeuvre his way.

Emma's hand flew up and caught Shalimar just as she was about to lash at Brennan. Her eyes spoke of softness and understanding. Let him be... she silently and wordlessly told.

Seeing him grasping the world unsurely and searching for his way, Jesse ached within. Just yesterday there was a Brennan he knew, the brother he played basketball with and teased endlessly.

The one he loved to hate sometimes.

Emma's back and it seemed, well at least to him, that Brennan was paying for it. Life just isn't fair.

"I'll follow him." Jesse volunteered and left the two women behind.

After all, he couldn't abandon family like that, before moving after Brennan, Jesse reversed a little, lifted one of the chess pawns and dropped it on a black square.

Checkmate

------

"Here you go," Shalimar pushed back the door and revealed Emma's clean room, untouched and unchanged.

"My god, it's still the same." She breathlessly said. With a fragile sense of reality, the Psionic ran her fingers lightly over every photo frame, every ornament—every memory.

"Well, I couldn't stand packing up; I rather brave doing the cleaning once in a while than to do that." She smiled and leaned against the doorway, it's been a while since the room felt this warm and useful. Most of the time Shalimar felt it was a morbid tomb of memories which she couldn't bare to touch.

"Is it just me or do I find it just strange?"

You mean besides seeing a dead friend? "Why?" Shalimar asked instead.

"We're two people who were in the past four months, dead to each other."

'Yes," she grinned, "There is that one thing..."

Falling on the bed, Emma ran her hands over the soft sheets and took in a deep breath and let it out. Stepping over to the bedside, the blonde sat herself next to Emma and leaned her head on her shoulder.

"Shal?" Emma whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Am I really home?"

"I don't know," she looked at her dear friend, her tears flowing down. "Do you feel at home?"

With distant looks in her eyes, Emma nodded.

"Then," Shalimar was finally crying as well, months of anger and sadness built under just hours of joy, crashed through the thick walls that held her emotions behind. "You're home. You belong here."

The two friends hugged. Together they had found the precious thing they had lost.

------

Laughter that escaped from the room felt odd, it's been a while since giggly laughter was heard here. Peeping through the doors, Lexa spied on Shalimar and Emma, both searching through a thick book-- a photo album.

With each page turned, the girls broke out giggling and reminding each other of some silly trivial matter. Trivialness was something that Lexa will never understand.

She knocked, they looked up but she wasn't about to wait for them to give permission. So hey, just push the door, open and enter.

"Lexa?" Shalimar frowned as she saw the other woman walk through the entrance.

She fidgeted a little and forced herself to say it, "I made you guys coffee, Jesse and Brennan's got some already- here." She held out her hands, both holding on to two porcelain mugs of steaming coffee.

Confused, they took a little too long in deciding Lexa's intentions. Only there weren't any intentions, she just made coffee, big deal.

Shalimar half got up to take the mugs, handed one to Emma before accepting the other. "Thanks,"

"Just don't make this a habit."

"So what are you looking at?" The words escaped before she realised she just showed interest in what they were doing.

That wasn't what she had in mind.

"Nothing," Emma answered before Shalimar could, "Just some old pictures,"

"Right," she chewed on her lip and tried thinking of the right words. There weren't any. "I'll go now."

"Wait."

Turning back, Lexa figured it was time, Emma was about to unleash her anger at the molecular for "taking her place". Let's get it done and over with. "Yes?"

"You could stay," she smiled, nothing false or sarcastic, just a plain invitation.

"I..." she shook her head, happy for a small change in things, but not obvious. This deLauro was one smart girl after all. "Thanks, maybe some other time." She declined and stepped out, feeling a little better, but the fact is, her mission still hung heavily on her. It still doesn't change much.

------

Where were there?

Left alone, in this world of emptiness, no one left but his own self.

Jesse Kilmartin, a fallen shadow of what he used to be. Now here he was, sitting in his wheelchair, lost the middle of an empty world, everyone's gone.

No one came back.

Adam lied.

Again.

He should've known by now, never to trust anyone, even if it took 28 years to trust somebody. That was a stupid line.

Well, now he learnt his lesson. But what's the use?

There's no one left.

Pushing his wheelchair down the empty hall, Jesse felt the silence cut through him, deafening him and forced him to hallucinate.

He began to hear voices, the voices that kept calling his name.

It's a dream, no one's there... it's not real. Stop dreaming Jesse, they left you.

Face it.

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