AN: Massive apologies for the length between updates. There were just a lot of things that happened simultaneously, and I couldn't do any writing for a while. I'm back now, and here's a good sized chapter for y'all.
Chapter 26: Puzzle Pieces
Katie wiped a cool, damp cloth across David's forehead, clearing his brow of the sweat that had appeared suddenly a few moments before. No one had said anything, but from the looks on the others' faces, she knew that they were all concerned when David suddenly began sweating, his body beginning to sway slightly, as if it were having trouble keeping itself upright. Jesse still seemed okay, though his face was tight. Whether it was due to pain or due to concentration, there was no way to tell.
She headed to the medbay's sink to rinse out the cloth. Seconds after she left his side, David's body started to fall. Distressed, Katie lurched back, but Brennan beat her to him. She heard the tall man swear under his breath as he moved to lift David away from Lisa and onto the other bio bed. A hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"No," Adam said simply. "There's no way of knowing what will happen to him or Jesse if he breaks physical contact." He glanced at David's left hand, which rested in Jessica's right. "Just hold him upright. That's all we can do right now."
On her left, Katie heard Lexa cursing as well. Seconds later, the light bending mutant brushed past her and attached biorhythms monitors to both David and Jesse.
"Stupid," Lexa muttered under her breath. "Should have put them on before they went in." She went back to the monitoring station. "Both of their pulses are erratic. David's blood pressure is dropping. If it falls much more we're going to have to take action."
Adam looked over at the display and nodded. "Agreed. But let's hope Jesse's as good as he says he is and can get them both out of there soon. I don't want to fathom the possible consequences if they don't."
"I can't do it! I can't pull out!" David could feel the panic rising up at the realization. Looking away from Jesse's face, he began to see what his friend had already started seeing. The trees had become the centers of swirling vortices. The streets are bending and buckling like the old Tacoma Narrows bridge had before it collapsed, the thought, comparing the sight with video footage from the old Discovery Channel video he'd seen years ago. The sky was no longer a clear blue but an otherworldly blend of gray and neon green. Whirling back to the little girl he had been speaking to only moments ago, she found that she was gone. The boxes for her game of hopscotch were still there though. Only now, they were in 3-D and hoping towards him. The panic began to amplify. A whistling sound caught his attention. Looking up, he found its source: a streaking, swirling band of blue energy charging toward him. Reflexively he ducked to the side, and the energy passed by, crashing into the tree behind him, turning the foliage into bright blue and green flames. The panic edged its way into terror.
"David!" The voice almost broke though the panic and terror of being caught in a surrealistic world over which he had no control.
The voice shouted his name again, and this time it was accompanied by a harsh sting on his cheek. Forcing himself to focus, David saw the stern face of his friend Jesse.
"Jess?" He barely managed to control his voice. "What the hell is going on?"
"Good, you're back! I thought I'd lost you for a bit there. Come on, focus. We can still get out of here. But I need you to focus. David!"
"What?" David turned back to Jesse, realizing that he'd gotten distracted by the terrifying array of colors and objects now surrounding them. "Right, focus. Okay, I'm focusing. But can't you see those energy bolts coming at us? We've got to get away from them."
"No David. I can take care of those." Almost on cue, on streaming bolt headed directly for them. Jesse held his hand out to the sky. Seconds later, the energy was deflected away harmlessly, heading off in another direction. "See. It's a shield. One of the things Emma taught me. Now look. You just concentrate on pulling us out. I won't let anything hurt you. I promise. Now do it!" Jesse's already stern voice was punctuated by a demanding tone.
David felt himself nodding. He was bound and determined to match Jesse's calm. Closing his eyes, he reached for the internal switch that would trigger a pull out. He swore at himself when he reached out and couldn't grasp it. Taking a second breath, he concentrated again. More than just his life was depending on this. He took a moment longer to collect his energy and reached out again. This time he was rewarded with a familiar version of a tilted world and a wall of liquid air.
The bright lights were the first thing Jesse registered after being pulled out of Jessica's dreamscape. They were so bright, and he hadn't even opened is eyes. At least, he didn't think so, because there weren't any shapes, just bright light.
"Ohhh," he groaned. He reached up to the back of his neck, hoping he could massage away part of the headache that way. His fingers encountered a soft plastic node, and he recognized it as a biorhythms monitor. He started to take it off, but a gentle hand stopped him.
"Not yet. Lexa and Adam want to make sure everything's okay with you before that comes off."
Daring to open his eyes, Jesse became aware of the fact that he was still sitting in the chair, leaning up against Jessica's biobed. Daring to turn his head, and pleasantly surprised that the movement didn't cause further pain, he saw that Shalimar stood over his left shoulder. In front of him, across Jessica's still prone form, he could see Brennan lifting David onto the other biobed. Adam stood at the head of the bed, waving some diagnostic device Jesse didn't care to recall at the moment. Katie stood on the other side of the bed, clasping David's hand.
"Is David…?" Jesse's voice was hoarse, as if he hadn't used it in years, as he let the sentence trail off.
"He's fine," Katie said, looking over. "In fact, he's waking up now."
The relief on Jesse's face was evident. Lifting his hands to rub his temples, he then asked, "Have you got any ibuprofen?" He asked the blond standing near him.
Shalimar glanced over to Lexa. Lexa double checked the biorhythm readings before reaching into a nearby drawer. Pulling out a small white bottle with a child proof cap, she tossed it to Shalimar, who was coming back from the medbay sink with a small paper cup of water. Shalimar handed both to Jesse. Jesse fiddled with the child proof cap for a moment, and Shalimar reached over his shoulder to open the bottle for him.
Jesse shook her off. "I got it, Shal. I've always had trouble with these stupid things. It's amazing," he muttered. "Humankind has come up with a billion and one ways to destroy itself, yet it can't make a better version of a child proof cap." After the 5th attempt, Jesse gave in. He phased a small hole in the top of the cap and shook two pills out into his palm. He held up the bottle in a small gesture of victory, and then tossed it back to Lexa, who replaced it in the drawer. Shalimar relaxed. If her 'little brother' was well enough to phase something like that, he was clearly well enough to take care of himself.
Five minutes later, David was in much the same condition as Jesse. Alive, well, and the proud owner of a splitting headache. Finally, Brennan asked the question they had all been wondering since Jesse and David returned.
"Did you guys find anything?"
David sighed and shook his head. "I was right about Jessica being childish. But as far as anything useful, I don't think so. The only thing she told as was about a park with monkey bars."
"Hey, hey. Now, I think we got more than that."
The attention swiveled to Jesse. "What are you talking about, Jesse. You were there. All she would talk about was that playground. Oh, and it was near the water. But there are millions of places like that."
"Yeah, I know, but there were other clues. The street names, for example."
"But how much of that is real? For all we know, she made it all up."
"True, but we knew that going in. It was a risk. But I've been at this a lot longer than you have, Dave, and any lead is a good lead."
Lexa put a hand on Jesse's waist. "Where did this spurt of optimism come from?"
Jesse sent back a half scoff, half smirk. "Let's not call it optimism. Let's call it a second wind. I want this case over with as soon as possible."
"You're not the only one," Katie said. "So what did you find?"
"Well," he said, scooting over to the nearest computer. "From what little I know about her, Jessica strikes me as the type who bends reality to fit her world, rather than creating her own facts, so at least some of what we found in her head has to be true. Let's see… We started at the corner of Cherry St. and Willow Ave. That's a start – we can look for all those intersections. She said it took two busses to get there, which means you'd have to transfer somewhere along the way. I'm willing to bet those are inner-city busses, since long trips would bore someone like Jessica, and she'd stop paying attention. It also lets us concentrate on larger cities. Then she mentioned the park. She said it was little, so we can eliminate the really big parks. And it has a jungle gym. Not all parks have those, so that's another way we can eliminate possibilities."
"And she said it was a green house," David added. "Not an office building."
"Right. Which means we can restrict our search to residential areas. And she said it was near water. And while one's concept of 'near' and 'far' differs, I'm guessing that little Jessica meant that you could see the water from the house."
"But there's no way of knowing weather that's an ocean, a lake, a river, or hell, a stupid little backyard creek. Not to mention the fact that with today's technology, even using that information, she could be describing anywhere in the U.S. Anywhere in the world, for that matter."
"Hey, hey. No negative thinking, Brennan. We're trying to get on a roll here," Jesse said, still looking at the computer, on which he was opening several programs.
Brennan shrugged. "Sorry. But you got to admit, all of this is a long shot."
Jesse swiveled in the seat. "Yeah, maybe. But it's kinda all we got right now, Bren." The rancor in both men's statements made it clear that neither Jesse nor Brennan had recovered from their earlier fight.
Shalimar quickly stepped in between the two, sensing the rising conflict. "All right, boys. That's enough. You guys are starting to sound like kindergarteners who need a nap."
"Actually that's not a half-bad idea," Adam said, closing the portable diagnostics computer, removing the biorhythms monitor from David's neck and putting both in a drawer. "You all look exhausted and are starting to get snappy. When's the last time any of you got any sleep?"
Lexa shrugged, remembering that she asked herself the exact same question earlier. "I couldn't tell you, Adam."
"Well, look. It's currently three am on Thursday morning, and we've all had a busy week. I slept on the train back from Burstyn's place eight hours ago. I'm good for another eight hours at the very least. I'm willing to bet none of you have slept in almost twenty four hours."
At their conceding nods, Adam continued. "Look, none of you are going to be any good to anyone else if you're dead on your feet. How about this? Jesse, Lexa, create search parameters, permutations and scenarios for the database to scan through. We'll let it run overnight, and sift through the results in the morning. Shalimar, Brennan, do a security sweep, make sure the place is locked down and all alarms are active. Katie, give me a hand with a few things in here. Then I want you all to go to sleep. You've got one hour. Then I don't want to see any of your faces until noon."
"Adam…" Jesse objected, his tone indicating what he thought of that idea. "There are other mutant's lives at stake. We don't have the luxury –"
"Jesse." Adam interrupted right back. "I'm serious. I don't want to think what might happen if you're too tired to use your powers or can't think fast enough and someone pays the price. If something happens, I'll wake you guys up. But you all need your sleep. Especially you. From what I can tell, you've had to use your healing powers for a broken arm, a bad burn, cuts, bruises, and probably a few broken ribs. Plus you've been traversing through the minds of two different people. Your body, as well as your mind, needs to rest."
Jesse looked as if he was about to protest again, but was stopped when he felt Lexa's hand on his shoulder. "I think Adam's right. We're already showing signs of sleep deprivation."
Brennan and Shalimar spared a quick glance before also agreeing. A few moments later, they were all going about their assigned tasks.
Except David, who was assigned to rest, as the sojourn into Jessica's mind had taken a lot from him. He sat on the biobed, observing the others. He watched Brennan and Shalimar leave the room, heading towards the hanger. Katie was checking the restraints on Jessica's bed and pulling out a quilt for the still unconscious psionic. Adam was at the medical console, running some kind of test or analyzing something, he couldn't tell. Through the glass wall that separated medbay from the computer lab, he could see Jesse and Lexa typing at adjoining computer terminals. He recognized one of Jesse's movements as a furious hacking at the backspace key. David didn't need to be an empath to sense the frustration in Jesse at whatever mistake he had made. But as a telepath, he could hear the thoughts that went along with it.
"Damn him. I hate when he's right. I should have seen the same thing earlier. But still, what the hell gives him the right to tell us what to do?"
