Old Flame
Chapter 5: In Love's Arms
Brennan walked Jade into the lab after letting Adam know that they were back.
Adam spoke to Emma, Shalimar and Jesse through the comlink. "Leave Krysta and Cole in the training room. Jade and Brennan are back."
Emma answered Adam and looked at the others. "Will you guys be okay?"
Cole and Krysta collapsed into heaps on the floor, panting as Shalimar stopped her kicks and punches at them.
Krysta looked up at Shalimar "ya...we'll be fine...l don't think we'll be able to move from this spot for awile..." she said with a groan of pain as her muscles protested her moving.
Emma laughed softly and shook her head "you two will be just fine. Just rest and we'll be back in a few minutes."
The only response they got were two whimpers, they looked at each other "you just couldn't fight her on your own could you?" Krysta said shaking her head.
Cole looked at his sister "who would of thought she could fight like that? Damn...l think l bruised areas l never knew existed..."
Krysta laughed, wincing and wimpering a little as she got a pain in her side. "Their good...wonder if we will ever be as good as they are?"
Cole just barely shrugged his shoulders, "who knows...depends on if we continue to survive training..."
Adam looked over the file he had on Jade as he heard Brennan's voice. He stood and turned, seeing how pale Jade looked, also the look on Brennan's face. All he wanted to take Jade into his arms and hold her, but he refrained himself from doing so. So he just looked at her in concern as he moved to her side, putting his hand on her shoulder.
Jade looked up at Adam as his hand touched her shoulder. Without thinking she moved forward and leaned against him, her head burying in his chest.
Adam was more then a little surprised at her sudden reaction, but he wrapped his arms around her and looked at Brennan questiongly.
Brennan looked at Adam, tooking a breath "l think Jade should tell you first and then the rest of us if she wants us to help..." he said glancing back at the door as the others walked in, stopping to look at Adam and Jade in surprise.
Adam looked at the others, then at Brennan. "Good idea. Talk to the others about what happened. I'll call you back when were done talking" he said looking down at Jade.
Emma felt such pain and sorrow comming from Jade, she wanted to go over and take her hand to take it away. But she couldn't, Shalimar took a firm hold of her arm as if she knew what was going through Emma's mind.
"I think Adam wants to talk to her alone Emma" Shalimar said quietly, looking at Jade with some concern.
Jesse looked at Brennan as he approached them "what's going on?"
Brennan looked at them "come on...lets leave them to talk. I'll tell you guys all l know."
They looked at each other again and then followed Brennan, after looking back at Adam and Jade once more before walking out of the room and down the hall.
Jade took a few breaths, feeling tears slip down her cheeks. "My friend Erica, she was a mutant to..." she started, stopping as her voice cracked.
Adam sighed and kissed the top of her head. "What happened?" he asked quietly, holding her a little tighter.
She lifted her head and looked around the room for a minute, before turning her eyes back to Adam's kind face. "There is this man, a mutant...his name is Lamont. He is like Eckhart, maybe worse. It just depends on how you look at it." She sighed softly "before l left here for good, he found me. He took me to his lab, l couldn't use my powers. I don't know what it was he did, but l tried but couldn't use them."
Adam sighed softly and ran his hand over her hair gently. "Go on" he said quietly.
Jade sighed softly and leaned her forehead against his chest. "I don't remember much after l got there. I don't even know where they took me, they did tests. Something like you do, but different. It hurt so bad."
Adam sighed, his eyes closed. He couldn't stand the thought of anyone hurting Jade in anyway. He opened his eyes and looked down at her, "it's okay. What else did they do?" he whispered, knowing that he had to know what they did so he was able to help her.
"They put something on the back of my neck, he said that his 'partner' required it" she said with a sigh, she looked up at Adam's face.
Adam got a look of shock and then immedietly turned her around and checked the back of her neck. He ran his fingers over the black device on her neck "l will get this taken off in a minute. Infact why don't you continue to talk, while l get it off?"
Jade nodded her head and took a breath and continued "he made me work for him, gathering other mutants. I tried leaving several times to come back, but l was always caught. But l finally managed to get away after finding a way to disable the device on my neck, but l couldn't get it off."
Adam sighed as he took it off, "well all that is over know. You still have your spot here a member of Mutant X, you know that."
Jade nodded and turned as he spoke and smiled. "Thank you Adam. I might just take you up on that offer" she said her smile fading as she thought of Erica.
"My friend Erica worked for them to...they did the same thing to her and more. They made some new way to increase a mutants powers, they found 6 new mutants as test subjects, my friend Erica was one of them."
Adam listened quietly, he had read rumours of what she was saying, but it had never been anything definate. "What did it do to her?" he asked helping Jade sit back on the chair.
Jade sighed softly and closed her eyes for a minute. "It drove her crazy, they starved her and left her alone till her mind shattered. You should of seen her Adam, she barely knew who l was let alone anything else...she was paranoid, but she saved my life. She knew they were comming, she told me to leave. I tried to get to come with me, but she used her powers to make me leave..."
Adam sighed softly and moved to put his hand comfortingly on her shoulder. "I'm glad that she made you leave. The thought of you being hurt or worse..." for the first time that he could remember he couldn't finish a sentence.
Jade reached up and took his hands in hers. "I know, l feel the same for you...if you ever got hurt. I don't know what l'd do..." She took a soft breath and continued, "l looked back...after l left l saw the mutants go into the room, one of them shot a fireball at me and l just barely got away from it."
"Ok, so what happened? What's going on with Jade?" Shalimar demanded, her hands planted firmly on her hips as they stopped.
Brennan looked at Shalimar and gave her a bit of a smile, then answered her. "I'm not sure exactly what happened. I only know what she told me."
He paused to take some deep breaths, still seeing it all in his head.
"I found Jade in her car, with her head on the steering wheel. She was extermely upset, she knew that Adam had sent me and she agreed to come back here and talk to us, but she had to check on a friend first."
He took another breath and sighed, Shalimar dropped her hands from her hips as she walked to Brennan.
She gently put her hand on his arm and smiled reassuringly. "Hey, it's alright...whatever happened we can deal with it."
Brennan looked at Shalimar smiling a little again. "Thanks Shal...l appreciate that" he said looking deep into her eyes for a minute.
Emma and Jesse looked at each other almost embarassed.
Jesse finally cleared his throat dramatically.
"Hello? There are some of us, who are very interested in finding out what happened to the poor woman...that is if you want to continue..." he said seeing both Brennan's glare and Shalimar's.
Emma pulled Jesse back away from Brennan and Shalimar. "I'd stop talking now Jesse...it's the safest thing for you to do at this moment."
Brennan grinned at Emma and then at Jesse. "She gives out good advice."
Shalimar stepped almost protectively between Jesse and Brennan and crossed her arms over her chest. "He'll continue, when he feels up to continuing. Now leave him alone...or else..." she said flashing her eyes at Jesse briefly.
Emma stepped forward holding out her hands. "Ok, everyone calm down...we are all worried about Jade and want to know what happened. But there's no need to get upset and angry here."
Brennan sighed, taking hold of Shalimar's arm and pulling her back to his side "it's okay Shal. Calm down...you can beat him in training later."
Shalimar looked back at Brennan and slowly grinned. "True...very true..." she looked back to Jesse, who was begining to look quite nervous.
"Now what happened?" Shalimar asked looking at Brennan again.
"We went into the apartment building where her friend lived and went up to her apartment. The door had a huge hole in it and the apartment itself was a total mess, l went in too make sure it was safe."
Emma and Jesse looked at each other then looked at Shalimar who was looking rather nervous.
"I walked around the apartment, the furniture was overturned. I straightened it up and l found her friend Erica. The mutants that Jade saw enter the apartment as she left, had killed her."
The three looked at each other in shock and then looked towards the lab where they were certain Adam and Jade were still talking.
"I want you to stay here. Your in danger Jade, you know that. Please don't put yourself in danger" Adam said trying to keep reasonably distanced from the situation.
Jade looked at him and gave a silent nod of her head. Then she remembered something that Brennan said "Erica's body...Brennan said that you could get someone to take care of her" she said hopefully.
Adam smiled at her and nodded his head, "of course. I'll get someone to get her right away" he said moving from her side. He made a call, before moving back to Jade.
Jade looked at Adam "so do l get to stay here or is my old room still available?" she asked with an attempt at a happier look on her face.
"Your room is still available. I'll help you there and you should sleep" he said stepping to the side so she could stand up.
Tylena turned to Lamont after 5 hours of pouring through the mutant data base. "I found 7 telepaths, 3 of those are trained and can control their abilities. The rest don't have full or any control over their powers."
Lamont looked over at her thoughtfully "and telempaths?"
Tylena looked back to the computer and pushed a button and the screen changed to another list. "3 telempaths, all have control over their abilities..." she said looking at Lamont.
He leaned forward, resting his elebows on the table. "Well find out all you can on the telempaths first..."
"Will get that done right away sir."
"Good..." Lamont said picking up the phone as it rang, he turned towards the window as he started to talk.
Shalimar looked at the others "come on. Lets get back to Krysta and Cole, we should show them to their rooms."
Brennan nodded his head, slipping a arm around Shalimar's waist. "The lady is right, we should show them to their rooms..."
Jesse smirked and followed behind Brennan and Shalimar, he glanced back at Emma.
"Come on Emma, you can talk to her later."
Emma nodded her head and smiled at Jesse, following the rest.
Brennan suddenly grinned and looked back at Jesse. "I know! Cole can stay with Jesse... so that way he won't try to do anything bad... of course l mean Cole and not Jesse..."
Jesse scowled at Brennan "thanks for that suggestion. But l think that he should be in your room...the smell might knock him out for the night..."
Shalimar and Emma looked at each other and groaned. "Not again..." they said together as they walked beside the guys. Shalimar kept her arm around Brennan's waist, keeping him from moving back to Jesse.
Jade looked around her old room and smiled. "I see that you didn't change a thing in here..."
Adam leaned against the doorframe, watching her look around the room. "Of course l didn't. It was your room, it wouldn't of felt right changing anything in here."
Jade laughed softly, despite the heavy feeling in her heart. "You always were too good to me."
Adam smiled and walked to her and pulled her into his arms. "You always had a place here. You always will. I would be very happy if you would stay and become a Mutant X member again."
She smiled and leaned against him, feeling safe and secure in his arms.
He pulled off her ring that she'd left behind the last time, he pulled back from her a little as he handed it to her.
Jade looked at it and then at Adam "you kept that? All this time?"
He nodded "yes, l had a feeling you would come back one day and that you might want this back."
Jade looked at the ring and then up at Adam. A flickering sadness came into her eyes "there's still so much danger that l don't want you or the others involved in Adam..." She took a breath, letting it out slowly "please keep that for now. If we get through this in one piece, then l'll be more then happy to stay."
Adam sighed, he slipped the ring on his finger. "I'll have it and l will remember you said that" he said with a smile.
Jade nodded and moved into his arms again, her arms wrapping around his waist. She was safe for the moment, safe in the arms of the man she loved more then anything. She wished that it could be like that forever, but she knew that there was more trouble comming and that she had probably pulled Adam and the others head first into a fight that they might not win.