I'm sorry for the delay, but hopefully this will be worth it…
-----Emma slowly opened her eyes and turned in her bed as silently as she could so she could get a better look at the feral that was still sleeping. She bent over and placed a soft kiss on Shalimar's cheek.
"Good morning."
Shalimar just yawned as an answer and Emma let out a low giggle.
"I thought ferals got up early? Don't you usually train at this time?"
"Mmmm," Shalimar opened her eyes. "Normally I do, but these last few days have been very exhausting and I felt so calm when I was lying next to you." She smiled and locked eyes with Emma.
"Charmer," Emma said and shoved her playfully in the arm, unable to keep the grin of her face.
"You remember what we're supposed to do today right?"
Shalimar carefully sat up.
"Maybe we should wait a little while, I mean, we got together yesterday and don't really know if this is serious."
She saw the hurt look in Emma's eyes and face and quickly added an explanation.
"It's not that I don't think it's serious, it's just that I think we could need some time to adjust to all this before we tell them everything."
The sad expression in Emma's face was gone, but she still saw it in her eyes.
"I need to adjust to it Emma. You can't just expect me to be comfortable with it immediately. First I've been under a spell that made me think that I love you and now I find out that it's true and then you want me to let everyone know it right away when I'm not even sure what has happened myself. Please try to understand."
"I just don't want us to wait too long, because if we're together in secret Brennan's gonna feel embarrassed and fooled. And not just him, but Adam and Jesse will too."
"I promise that we will tell them in a few days. Do you think you can wait that long?"
"Okay, but no more than a few days."
She gave Shalimar a quick kiss on the lips and walked to the bathroom.
-----A few days had passed and Emma had noticed that Shalimar had avoided her as much as possible. Even though she knew Shalimar was just worried because they had to tell the other team members, it hurt that she didn't want to be alone with Emma. Whenever Emma tried to get Shalimar for herself, the feral would find a way around it and Emma was starting to question if Shalimar even wanted to be with her.
Emma sat in her room after another failed attempt to get Shalimar's attention and couldn't help getting tears in her eyes as she thought about this.
A soft knock could be heard from the door and she hurried to try and remove the tears that had yet to spill from her eyes.
"Just hold on a sec," she said trying to keep her voice from breaking.
She stood up and looked herself over in the mirror before she walked towards the door.
When she reached it she took a deep breath before opening it.
She was met by Shalimar who held out a single oxeye daisy.
Emma took the flower and looked at Shalimar with questioning eyes.
"I want to say that I'm really sorry for the way I have treated you the past few days."
"Okay." Emma continued to stare at the feral.
"Um, can I come in or do I have to stand out here and explain why I've been a bitch?"
For a second Emma was tempted to say that the blonde would have to explain it from where they stood, but she decided against it. She knew she never could be really angry at Shalimar, so she moved aside and motioned for the feral to come inside.
As the blonde walked past her, Emma closed the door and turned around.
Shalimar was looking at the ground and the brunette could sense how nervous Shalimar was, and that made the psionic nervous herself.
"Okay, the thing is that I've been avoiding you because of the fact that we have to tell everyone and that freaked me out." Shalimar took a deep breath before continuing. "But I've been thinking a lot about this and I've come to the conclusion that I really like you and think we have a future together and therefore it will be right to be open about it 'cause that way I don't have to hide that I'm in love with you."
Shalimar looked up at Emma who just stared blankly at her.
"Right, I'll let you think about it." Shalimar said, feeling her heart drop at the confused and emotionless expression the psionic had.
She started moving past Emma.
Just as Shalimar reached the door, Emma shook herself out of her daze and turned to the feral.
"Shalimar wait."
The blonde turned slowly around and saw the warm smile on Emma's lips.
"You talked so fast that I had to repeat it to follow, I'm sorry."
"Does that smile mean you forgive me?" Shalimar said hopefully.
"Well, I guess I can manage to forgive you since you just admitted you're in love with me. As long as you promise to not avoid me again because of something like this."
"I promise."
"Good." Emma walked closer to the feral.
"And just for the record," Emma said as she leaned closer and closer to Shalimar. "I'm in love with you too."
They both smiled widely at each other before they met in a soft kiss.
It started out innocent, but soon Shalimar let her tongue run over Emma's bottom lip before she sucked lightly at it. Emma answered by opening her mouth more to let their tongues meet.
They explored each other mouths for a while before breaking apart for heavily needed air.
"God, I've missed those lips," Shalimar said softly, followed by a giggle.
"It's only been a few days Shal," Emma giggled back.
"And that was too damn long." She placed her lips on Emma's, tasting her one more time before pulling slightly away. "You want to tell the guys now?"
"Yes, let's get it over with."
-----Emma and Shalimar had gathered the rest of the team in the main room.
"What is it?" Adam asked concerned when he saw both women's serious faces.
"We have something important to tell all of you," Shalimar said and briefly looked at Brennan, who seemed to be getting where this was going. She looked at Emma who was slightly moving beside her, obviously uncomfortable and nervous, so she cleared her throat and continued.
"The last couple of weeks have been hard and difficult and full of questions for all of us and we think that you guys deserve an explanation of what has happened when I was under the influence of Michael and of what has happened after that between Emma and me."
Brennan had started moving in his chair and Shalimar was starting to get very nervous and uncomfortable with the signs she got from everyone. Brennan was obviously angry and suspicious and , Jesse looked like he didn't have a clue about what was about to happen and Adam looked like he was even more in thoughts and even more serious then usually if that was possible.
Shalimar took a deep breath and took Emma's hand in her own for reassurance.
"I'm not really sure where to start," Shalimar said to everyone.
"Why don't you start with telling us when you two got together?" Brennan said with a harsh voice, making everyone look at him.
"Three and a half days ago," Emma said with a low voice, the first thing she had said since they gathered.
"Wait, you guys are together?" Jesse looked confused at Emma, then at Shalimar.
Shalimar nodded at him.
"That's really great. Here I am getting yelled at for everything I do and you two have secretly been banging around."
"Bren, that's not fair-" Shalimar was cut of by Brennan who had stood to his feet.
"Well, you two haven't been fair to me either and you can't just come here and pretend everything will be fine 'cause it's not.
"Brennan we-"
"Shut up Emma. I knew you were using her. This is low, even for you. I can't believe this. What are you doing to Shalimar huh? Are you using your abilities to control her, to make her believe that she wants to be with you? I knew you were just trying to get in her pants. You're such a dyke." Everyone looked shocked at Brennan and Shalimar started to get angry by his behaviour, especially against Emma.
Emma couldn't help the tears that started streaming down her face.
"Brennan, what the fuck are you doing?" Shalimar said in disbelief as she stood up.
"I'm just telling Emma the truth." He looked over at Emma.
"What's the matter Emma? Can't you take the truth? 'Cause even though you pretend to be all nice and innocent you're really a bitch who only think about yourself."
"That's it Brennan, shut the fuck up." Shalimar shoved him backwards and turned to Emma, but she was already running away.
"Emma wait," Shalimar shouted after her, but she didn't listen.
"Shit," She said as she started running after her, leaving an angry Brennan, a shocked Jesse and a sad Adam.
After a while Adam cleared his throat.
"I should get back to the lab."
"Yeah, and I should head to my room."
"What, are you guys just leaving me?"
Both Jesse and Adam looked at each other. "Yeah," they said in unison.
"Why? You guys have to admit that I was right…right?"
Adam sighed. "Maybe you should get some rest and think about all this."
"What? Are you saying I was wrong?"
"I'm saying that you went out of line because you let your anger get the better part of you."
Brennan turned to Jesse.
"Hey man, you're with me right?"
"It was a little harsh Brennan. I think Adam is right, you should get some rest."
"I can't believe this," Brennan said as he walked of to his room.
-----