Sorry its taken a while but I just had my one and only exam (which went really well by the way) and so I've been understandably a little preoccupied. There's only one more chapter to go so please take the time to review (thanks for the reviews so far) and hopefully I'll get round to posting chapter 24 soon.
Shalimar smiled, her lips curving upward in delight, her eyes sparkling. She had viewed the scene before her so many times over the years but it always made her laugh, even when she was watching from the shadows. The swish of the ball gliding through the hoop followed by the few loud bangs as it hit the floor, bouncing across the ground before being picked up by Jesse.
'Dude,' Brennan crowed, his voice loud and bordering on obnoxious. 'I dare you to try and beat me now.'
'It can be done,' Jesse replied. 'You're only a few points up and trust me, Brennan, you're not that good.'
'The last shot says I am.'
They both turned as Shalimar stepped out from the dark of her hiding place, smirking at the macho posing. They both smiled, the broad grins of two people who were genuinely pleased to see her.
'I hope you two are playing nice,' she said as she came to a halt, hands on hips. 'Cos if not, I am going to have to take you both down.'
'Really?' Jesse replied, throwing the ball at Shalimar, her hands grabbing it just before it reached her chest, fingers wrapping around the orange rubber. Looking at both of them she raised one arm, the ball resting on her outstretched hand and threw. She couldn't help the grin that appeared on her face as she heard the ball slip straight through the hoop.
'Really,' she answered, her eyebrows raised as they both glared halfheartedly at her.
'I thought they had a rule about no powers,' Lexa said as she walked into the room.
'Just proving a point,' Shalimar replied, smiling in greeting at the brunette before returning her eyes to the men in the room. She could feel her mind drifting as she looked at him, her insides beginning the familiar process of melting as soon as he looked into her eyes. Sweat dripped off his chin onto the slightly grubby white vest and he wiped the back of his hand across his forehead. She would never have believed exercise could be quite so sexy.
Her heart trembled in her chest as their eyes met and she swallowed, hoping the lump in her throat would disappear. No such luck.
Suddenly and seemingly without warning pain, sharp and intense ripped through her hand, both her arms aching, the joints jarring against each other.
She looked down, her eyes becoming wide, the memories vanishing into her subconscious once more as she realised the gravity of her current predicament…and gravity was the operative word. The world seemed to be spread out before her, lights twinkling all around, cars driving below her, the rest of the city moving as if nothing extraordinary was taking place. Under any normal circumstances she would have loved the scene in front of her. It was beautiful and the night air had always held a power over her. It made her feel more alive, it caused her heart to beat quicker, her pulse to race, it pushed her to extremes she didn't even know existed. It allowed her the freedom to explore her feral side to the utmost. But these weren't normal circumstances.
She gritted her teeth, feeling them grind together as the pain wore her down. She looked up at her hand, the one that had, by some unbelievable twist of fate managed to grab the edge of the window pane as she fell, the window pane that was now smashed and broken. Blood, deep red in the dim light slid slowly along her arm, covering the pale skin with vibrancy.
She turned her head and saw the man she was holding onto, his legs kicking against air, helpless. It was beyond ironic that she, one of the many that wanted him dead was saving his life. Shalimar felt him twist, his hand slowly slipping from her clammy one, every beat of his legs forcing her to grit her teeth harder.
'If you want me to help you then you have to stop struggling,' she yelled, the pain becoming unbearable.
'And what,' he said between sharp intakes of breath, 'if I don't want your help.'
'You're willing to die?' she asked, tears rolling down her cheeks as she resisted the urge to let go of everything, the window, the man, all of it. It would be so much easier if she could just let it all slide away, leave it behind. Dying would be a release from a world that she had grown to despise. She didn't fit in anywhere. A normal life, the thing she had been trying to achieve since forever hadn't worked out too well and now, more than anything she wanted her team back, she wanted to return to Mutant X, the world that she knew and loved but she couldn't. She was not going to force Taylor to live in a mountain for the rest of her life, to give up school, her friends, the life that she had managed to carve out for herself just so Shalimar could have what she wanted. Letting go would be so easy, she would just lift her fingers away from the glass and then she would fall. It was so simple, all the complications taken out of the equation.
She closed her eyes, the air rippling across her skin. She smiled at the memories which rushed swiftly across her mind, her hand tightening around the ledge, gripping with renewed vigour. Life was difficult, of course it was, and she would never have all the answers. But she had never expected it to be anything less than hard. All her life she had known that she was special for a reason, and it wasn't just because some scientist had picked her out of a multitude of others. She had the powers that she did because she was capable of wielding them. She was stronger than most, and she kinda liked not having all the answers. Life was difficult but she would work it out. And in order to do that she had to hold on.
'I'm not going to be locked away in a cell for the rest of my life.' His words floated to her on the wind. She looked down at his upturned face. Their eyes met and she saw the resolve. It didn't matter if she was the one who let him go. He had already let himself go and sooner rather than later he would end his own life. She couldn't tell if he felt guilt for all the things he had done; she hoped so. She believed so. Human nature had a habit of, on occasion sucking but she had faith in humanity, in its constant ability to surprise her.
Gathering all the strength she could she swung her leg around, slamming her foot into his temple. His head drooped against his chest and his weight dragged on her arm as he lost consciousness. She was not going to allow him to watch his own death.
He felt her wrist in his own strong fingers. It was small, thin, felt so weak within his grasp he found it difficult to believe that she had held onto the window ledge for as long as she had. It had taken him a short while to recover from the shock of seeing the love of his life and the epitome of all evil shatter a window from the inside out. Lexa and Jesse were still on the floor, the breath knocked from their bodies.
Slowly he pulled her up, the slight thrills of fear at the massive drop in front of him shaking his stomach inside his torso. The view would have been beautiful but instead the adrenaline was pumping like crazy. He knew he could lift Shalimar but still, the feeling that he was going to topple over the edge, plummeting to his death and taking her with him wouldn't disperse.
Jesse watched as Brennan hauled Shalimar in through the open window, his heart still beating so fast that a heart attack didn't look too improbable. He could still feel Lexa's hand on his shoulder, her fingers shaking against his skin. After making sure that Shalimar was back in the building he turned to Lexa. He could see the fear in her eyes that only appeared when she was truly terrified. That look didn't appear very often.
Her lip quivered, any effort to stall the motion useless. She had closed her eyes on a friend dying only to open them again and see her bought back to life. Tears sparkled as they were caught up in her eyelashes, held there before spilling across the skin, leaving the faintest trails in their wake. Jesse took her hand in his own, stroking his thumb over and over again against the smoothness of her fingers. They were still shaking, the come down from the high of all that adrenaline was a tough few moments to get through but as she looked at his face, the occasional scratches proof that he had been busy all day she knew it was over. Fat lady or not it was finished. The Dominion was gone, every single one of them. Some were in jail cells where they would most likely rot until they died; the others had already reached that part. She smiled, the first one that day to reach her eyes. After so long the end had appeared, and sooner than she had expected.
Shalimar looked around her, her eyes taking in everything. She really liked the interior of the building. The fact that it was the interior as opposed to exterior of the building made her really, genuinely happy. And, regardless of the deep black marks caused by the fire that had raged not so long ago she had never been happier to have four walls and a floor shutting her in. She brushed her hair out of her eyes, back into the mess of blonde, the lingering pain in her arm reminder of what had just happened.
She looked up and there he was. He looked more scared than she felt, his eyes wide, his hand brushing back his hair, a clear sign that he was nervous. She reached out a tired hand and brushed her fingers against his cheek. It was rough with stubble, shaving not really a priority when you were attempting to save the world. Contact was all that they needed, words too much like hard work and she fell towards him, her other arm looping itself around his neck, pulling him closer as their lips met, his arms wrapping around her waist, lifting her up until she was standing on the balls of her feet. Her eyes slid closed and she shut the world out, all of it, everything fading away. All the death and horrors that they had all faced…none of it mattered because she was kissing the man she loved, the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, the father of her beautiful daughter and the only man for her. The old world had come back and it had been shocking, but she wanted it all, she wanted it all and more.