Back Step
Legal Disclaimer-The characters are theirs, the ideas are mine. HA!
Author's Note-Brigitta! You're back! I missed you, how was Turkey! The following chapter is for all of you, MX fan, Aniki, BJVision (yep, I answered one of those questions in here for you), and MX Babe. You're new here, and I thank you for your review as well. Oh, and a non-MX side note. I'm actually published in a magazine…Ghost Magazine, under the name Krys Cloud.
Chapter 12
Light became dark and her eyes opened. Strength came from somewhere, and it filled her with the ability to at least get out of bed and look around the room. She did that, stretching as she walked, letting the movement of her body help her center her thoughts and emotions. She was ready for whatever was next.
She turned and looked out the window. The lights of the city were enticing. She saw them not just as pretty lights on the velvet carpet of night. She saw them as the waves they created, and she wanted to put a finger out to them, feel the light, absorb it, and making it part of her.
Her fingers went to the window, the glass bringing her back to the reality that she was alone, it was night, and she wasn't able to touch the light.
Emma jumped and opened her eyes. She realized that she was in her room at Haven instantly; she realized she was alone, and then she realized that she had been connected to Lexa. Emma didn't see light as currents and waves; the only person she knew who could do that was Lexa. This was something she hadn't felt in years. She sat up and rubbed her face. The emotions of Lexa's disappearance had gotten to her, and she had to admit, so had everyone else.
She turned and got out of bed. Almost mirroring the dream, she stretched as she walked, and she knew that she felt more whole doing it. She found her shoes, slipped into them and headed upstairs. She knew Jesse was more than likely in the computer lab, and he needed to know the dream. They all did.
Once she got upstairs, she found Pierce still drawing at their dining table. In the days after they first rescued Pierce, they had discovered his love of drawing, but also knew that his drawing was not what they expected, it was a higher level of drawing. It was more intricate, the depth was unreal, and he loved to do it.
"AUNT EMMA!" Pierce exclaimed when he saw her coming up the stairs, "You're awake!"
Emma smiled. While it wasn't morning, it was still wonderful to be expected. She hugged the blond flash back as he held onto her. Much like Jesse had earlier, she kissed him on top of the head and knelt to get to his level.
"How's my favorite little boy?" she asked, "You feeling better? What you drawing?"
"Good," Pierce took her hand and lead her over to the table, "I'm drawing his for Jesse and Uncle Sparky."
He held up the picture that he had been drawing. Emma inwardly gasped as she looked at it.
"That's amazing Pierce," she said, picking up the paper from him, "Can I show Jesse and the others?"
"Sure," Pierce replied, starting with a fresh sheet of paper, "I'll draw the other stuff that Jesse asked me to."
Emma nodded and headed into the computer lab. Brennan and Shalimar were working on identification badges for themselves as Jesse was typing up even more identification files for both himself and Emma. Adam was hunched over his microscope in the other room, his attention so focused he didn't see her enter the lab. Jesse looked up as she touched the door.
"Hey, you're awake, how you feeling?" he asked, a smile crossing his face for the first time in hours, "You scared me there."
Emma smiled back at him. Whatever happened she knew that she could always trust him. She walked over to him and put her hands on his shoulders.
"I'm okay," she said.
His hand covered hers, and he stopped, turned and looked up at her.
"You remember anything else from your hit?" he asked softly.
"No," she replied, "But I just had a nightmare. Strangely enough, Pierce just drew the nightmare."
She held up his intricate picture. It was a scene of Washington that looked like it was from a hotel room. Jesse grabbed it from her and stared at it.
"That's the Roosevelt," he said, turning back to his computer, "The conference isn't too far from there, and for Pierce to draw this means…"
"He's got a connection to Lexa," Brennan surmised, "You think she's feeding him the image?"
"Consciously, no," Adam replied, "Subconsciously yes. It's amazing what our minds can do when we let them."
"So, something is still in Lexa that wants to communicate with us?" Shalimar asked, "Or is Pierce seeing something that we aren't?"
"I have to think that both are in play," Adam replied, staring at the picture himself, "Jesse, what do you know about this hotel?"
Jesse knew plenty. Part of the service's training detail was to know the layouts of most of the hotels surrounding the White House and have a good working relationship with the staff there. The Roosevelt was one of the hotels on the service's watch list, they knew that the hotel was somewhat legit, but could also function in the world of the non-legit. Such was the way of the hospitality industry.
He also knew the best way to sneak into the hotel was to check in. It wouldn't be that hard. They had the perfect couple in him and Emma.
Checking in was the easy part. The hard part was resisting the urge to have the service shut the hotel down. He knew that he would have to act cool, but this was his new home turf. Luckily, he knew that since he wasn't part of the hospitality detail, no one would know who he was, he and Emma could just be a couple on vacation. The reality was much different.
Brennan waited for them in the hotel's main bar. He and Shalimar were set up to be the couple meeting in the bar, then meeting the other couple to look like the locals taking friends to dinner. If they were lucky, no one would recognize them either.
Something didn't feel right to Shalimar. She couldn't place it, but something in the building bothered her. In her opening hug to Brennan she whispered in his ear, as Brennan pointed out the men in the bar who were definitely part of some organization. They didn't look like Dominion, so Brennan had observed them, not trying to bring any attention to himself while he waited.
Shalimar sat with him while they drank and waited for Jesse and Emma. Jesse had taken their luggage to their room, and turned to look at Emma. She had been quiet since they planned this journey, and he knew something was on her mind. It was time she got to it.
"Before we go any further," Jesse said, walking up behind her as she looked out over the city, "What is bothering you?"
"You," she said, taking his hands as he wrapped his arms around her, "You are so confident when it comes to an operation, it's scary. We could wind up killing Lexa tonight. You understand this, but you know that we won't. But, when you use your mutancy, Jesse, you are scared. I want to help you through this, I don't know how to and I don't know if you trust me anymore."
Jesse stopped. She was right, but there was more.
"Yeah, I know," he replied softly, "I know that you are there to back me up, Em."
"Yeah, but what you don't know is actually how powerful I am," Emma continued, "You remember that mission we had to save the pilot?"
"Yes, I do," Jesse stared out the window with her, "I remember it all."
"You do?" Emma turned and looked at him stunned, "You don't remember all of it, how can you?"
"Emma," Jesse looked deep into her eyes, "You broadcast the biggest fears of anything sentient within a ten mile range to protect us from being found. At the time it was the most terrifying experience of my life. You blanked it from my memory, so that I would never remember it. Only problem is, I lived that fear soon afterward. The memory of what you did followed soon afterward."
"When?" Emma's voice was barely a whisper.
"When you vanished over the side at Naxcon," Jesse's voice was hollow, "From that moment until you opened the door at your old apartment, I lived in a hell I don't ever want to go back to. Lexa was a light in my life, yeah, but she didn't hold a candle to you. I remembered what had happened the minute that you blasted me on your front doorstep. I lost you and a life I could have had, Emma, which hurt beyond any mental block that you could put on me. I was pissed at you for about an hour after I realized what you had done to me that day."
"Then you came back," she interrupted, "You knew why I did it."
"You wanted to protect me, and the life that we could have had," Jesse turned from her to look away, "I love that about you Emma. You will always protect those you love. I try so hard to do the same, I swore to do that the moment I met Adam. Losing you and him was something more than I could bear. I saw your face when you "died". Part of me died with you that day, and I swore at that moment to never have that happen again. When Sanctuary blew up, I was in that hell again. It took me getting here and into the service to finally get out of it once again."
Emma nodded.
"Then I found you," he continued, "I love you more than I can possibly put words to. I watch Brennan and Shalimar and realize that we have the same love, but at a deeper level. You understand me more than I understand you sometimes, but I could never hate you or be angry with you for wanting to protect us. You took Lexa into your life, knowing her negatives first, but seeing her positives and showing them to me. You let me see her less as the person who caused me years of pain, and more as the mother of my child, a child that you mother as well. Emma, I love you and trust you with his life and my own."
Emma couldn't speak. His words had found a place in her heart.
"Sure, I'm scared about what we're going to have to do, I always am," he smiled, "But with you, I feel invincible."
Emma knew at that moment that she too loved Jesse Kilmartin more than she could ever explain.
Jesse kissed her, a long, lingering kiss that she couldn't help but return.
He stepped back from the kiss, looked at her, and smiled, his eyes twinkling.
"If Brennan and Shalimar weren't waiting for us," he said, his thoughts filling in everything he wanted to say.
Emma laughed.
"But they are, we'll have to save that for another day," she said, grabbing her purse, "You ready."
"Yep," Jesse grabbed his jacket.
A thought mingled at the back of his brain.
Darkness, the familiar voice cried, I only work in the darkness, no more light. I can't take anymore light.
Emma stopped and looked at him. It sounded like a whisper to her.
"Lexa?" she asked aloud, watching Jesse's face change.
He closed his eyes and calmed himself to focus on her voice. Emma was with him at once, walking into his thoughts like it was a room in her house. Her felt her energy as he tried to listen to the voice, but it faded out.
"Jesse?" Emma asked.
Jesse's eyes opened.
"Call Brennan, get him up here," Jesse said, "She's in this hotel."