Chapter 11: Sunshine and Flowers



Lexa had the feeling she knew what was going on, but kept it to herself. If she was right, it would be better for David and Jesse to tell the story. So she shrugged off the questions the others asked her, instead ushering them out of medbay. She had Katie go up to her room and change into some clean clothes. Then she sent Shalimar and Brennan perform the standard flight maintenance on the Helix.

Les than an hour later, though, Shalimar returned, having completed part of the maintenance and leaving the rest for Brennan. Lexa had been wandering back and forth between the console, where she was researching the list, and the besides of the two men, where she made minute adjustments their monitoring equipment. Noting that David's blood had stained her clothes and the dark circles under her eyes Shalimar had quickly shooed Lexa upstairs for a relaxing hot bath and clean clothes, assuring the dark-haired woman that she would stay and monitor Jesse and David.

It was only two hours after that when Jesse started waking up. Shalimar was surprised. Given the amount of healing he'd done, they had expected him to sleep for another 6 to 8 hours.

"Jesse?" Shalimar shook his shoulder when she heard the change in his breathing. "How're you feeling? You okay?"

Jesse groaned. "Oy. Yeah, I'm fine," he said, blinking against the bright lights overhead.

"Good. If I weren't worried about rattling your skull even more, I'd slap you upside the head for doing that without telling us first."

"Doing what?" he asked innocently.

"Oh, don't play stupid. You've got the worst poker face I've ever seen, and it doesn't suit you. No more playing hero unless you consult us first, you got that?" She jabbed a finger at his chest for emphasis.

He smiled. "Point taken, Shal. How's Peter – er, David?"

"David is fine. In fact, he should be waking up pretty soon. Care to explain who Peter is?"

Jesse sighed. "Might as well get the others in here, tell them all at once."

Shalimar left to retrieve the others, giving a shout, which echoed through the hallways. When she returned, she asked, "Are you sure you're not still tired? You've only slept for two or three hours. Lexa said that healing him would use all your energy. Last time you did that much work, you were out cold for over 10 hours."

"I'm fine. He's a psionic, so I only had to focus on brain cells, rather than the whole body. Plus I managed to get a lot of energy from David himself, so I didn't have to use so much of my own. I don't think I would have passed out at all except his expiry date was really close and there was tons of damage from the bullet." Jesse looked at the timepiece on the diagnostics table and frowned. "Where's Adam? I thought he was planning to be back by now."

Lexa strolled into the room, Brennan and Katie on her heels, and heard Jesse's question. "He's still working with Burstyn. I called him while you were sleeping it off. He says they just might have found something. When I told him what's going on around here, he wanted to come back, but I told him to stay." She shrugged. "There's nothing he can do here that we can't." She moved to Jesse's side and brushed a hand through his hair. "Are you going to tell them about Peter?"

Jesse glanced over to the still sleeping David, stared at his still form for a moment, and then nodded. "I've met David before," he started, earning startled looks from Brennan, Shalimar and Katie.

"When?" Katie asked. "I've been trying to get you two to meet for months. And when I told you his name, you never said anything."

"And what does David have to do with Peter?"

Jesse squared his shoulders. "I didn't recognize the name, Katie, because I'd never met anyone named David Yoltz. When we met, his name was Peter Holecker. David is Peter. I met him at Genomex. He was a test subject, like me. We came to Genomex the same day, and were together for six months."

"I thought you were kept in isolation when you were there," Shalimar said quietly.

"I was. Peter – David," he corrected. " – was a telepath. He could establish telepathic connections with people he touched. When we first got there, we – along with half a dozen other mutants – were tossed in dark holding cells. Somehow, Peter and I connected. We had a telepathic link for my first six months at Genomex. But one day Harrison took me for a test, and when I came back Peter was gone."

"Gone?"

Jesse nodded. "Absolutely gone. I couldn't sense him at all. It was the first time in six months that we were out of contact. We were even connected when we slept; we even used to share dreams. So when I couldn't connect with him, I thought he was dead. Later I heard someone tell Harrison that Peter had gone crazy and that they'd had to kill him."

Katie gasped in shock. Shalimar put a hand on the girl's shoulder. Even though she'd been working with them for three months, Katie was still adjusting to the atrocities Genomex and the Dominion committed against human beings. Shalimar smiled forlornly, saddened by the fact that she herself had already grown accustomed to such things. Just another sin to lay at the feet of the Creator and his ideals. Turning to Jesse, she asked the obvious questioned. "So what really happened? Obviously, David – Peter – wasn't killed since he's right here. And come to think of it," she said, crossing her arms. "How come you didn't recognize him the second we brought him in?"

Jesse shifted on the bed, adjusting it so he could sit up. "I didn't recognize Peter when they brought him in because we've never actually seen each other. We met in the dark, and were kept in pods on opposite sides of the circle from each other. That's how I knew about Jacobs. He was Peter's 'doctor.' As for what really happened, I asked him about that while I was in there. I don't know how, maybe it was something Harrison did, but the link between us was severed, and he thought I was dead. Then when Jacob' assistants took him for a test, he panicked. Somehow, he managed to escape. As for why he was listed as dead, my guess is that some flunky couldn't catch him and then lied to his boss because he didn't want to be punished for it. Or maybe someone else was covering up his mistake, I don't know."

The room was silent as Jesse finished his story.

But a few moments later, Brennan's voice broke the silence. He looked around at the others and his brow was furrowed in thought. "Hey Jess, is telepathy his only power?"

Jesse's eyes widened as he followed Brennan's train of thought. "No," he answered. "Pete – David has the ability to influence others to commit suicide."

Shalimar and Lexa picked up the realization at almost the same time. Shalimar's jaw dropped. "Which would allow him to kill from a distance…Is Peter's name on the –"

"His name is on the list," Lexa responded before Shalimar could finish the question. "But Jesse and I discounted it because he was listed as dead."

Katie's eyebrow quirked. "If he's on the list, then could the people who have been trying to kill those other psionics be the same ones trying to kill David?"

Shalimar nodded. "It's a pretty sure bet. The attacks on David match the MOs of the attacks on the others: hired guns. Makes our job a bit easier now – we only have one crazy on our hands instead of two."

"I think it might be easier than that, Shal," Lexa said. "According to the list, Peter is dead. So if it is the same person, they had to have been on the inside. I mean, only a handful of people close to the project would know that he's alive."

"That makes sense. I mean, it's not all sunshine and flowers, but it's a lead. We can start by – "

"Um, guys?" Jesse interrupted. The conversation stopped, and they looked up at Jesse. "David's waking up, and I think having you all in here will freak him out."

Katie looked down at David's still features. "How can you tell?"

Jesse smiled. "The link is back."