"It can't be her!"
"Holy shit!"
"But I watched her die!"
"Damn."
"How?"
"Why?"
The questions flew among them. Jesse typed another message, his fingers shaking visibly. Lexa stood behind him, hand pressed on his shoulders. She alone knew about his nightmares about Emma.
"Shalimar, Brennan, why don't you two take the car and head over there. Lexa and I will keep trying to get an answer."
Shalimar looked at Brennan and nodded. They separated, each pondering the possibility that it was really Emma. Which lead to more questions.
Where had she been all these months? Why had she not contacted them before this?
At Safehouse #12
The girl slowly awoke to the insistent beeping of the computer. She stumbled back over to the console, slowly realizing that the beeping meant an answer to her message. The first response was short: "Message received and acknowledged. B." Who was B? She should know that one, as surely as she knew her own name.
A second message popped up while she pondered who "B" was: "Recite a line of Walt Whitman." That clue finally clicked in: Brennan! She quickly typed in: "I wander all night in my vision, stepping with light feet, swiftly and noiselessly stepping and stopping. From the Night poem." She smiled to herself as she typed the answer, as she actually was remembering some more things.
The third message was, "Who is this?" She wiped some tears out of her eyes as she continued on, "Depends on who this is? What happened to Sanctuary? And to Adam? Where is everybody? I've missed you all terribly."
"Is that really you, Emma? We thought you had died in the Naxxcom explosion. What happened? Where have you been? Why didn't you contact us before this?" Jesse rapidly fired the questions back.
By now Emma was crying harder and reaching for some tissues to blow her nose, as she remembered that awful night, "Well, I was badly burned and have been in a burn unit. They told me I was in a coma until about a month ago. I couldn't remember anything, not my name, not my home, until last week. Then the only thing I wanted to do was to come back home. I've hitchhiked and walked my way back home." Emma wanted so much to hug who ever was at the other end.
"Is someone coming for me?" she concluded sadly. "They'll be there shortly, Emma." Jesse smiled as he called Shalimar and Brennan. "Shal, Brennan, it is Emma." "Alright, Jesse, we are just pulling up," Brennan answered.
Shalimar held her hand to her mouth as Brennan unlocked the door. They slipped inside, bypassing the security system. Shal impatiently ran ahead and stopped in disbelief. She couldn't help but gasp when she saw the scars on the girl's face as she searched for her friend's resemblance. "Emma?" she asked tentatively, not trusting her eyes.
The red head spun around at the question, "Shalimar!" she whispered through her tears, frozen to the chair.
Shal crossed the distance between them in a lea and engulfed her long lost friend in a big hug, tears streaming down her face echoing Emma's, "Oh, honey, what happened? Where have you been? I missed you so much." Emma snuggled into Shal's embrace, finally relaxing, not trusting her voice just yet.
Brennan patiently waited his turn. After a few minutes of hugging and crying between the three, Emma wiped her face and launched into what she knew had gone on since the explosion.
"Oh, honey!" was Shal's only words she could manage for several minutes.
Then it was Emma's turn to ask questions about Sanctuary and Adam. Shalimar and Brennan exchanged glances before telling her that Adam was alive too – at least up until the explosion two nights ago.
"Adam's not dead?" Emma was incredulous. At last there was a little spark of hope ahead of her. She absentmindedly scratched her face and regretted it as soon as her hands came back bloody. "Damn!" she muttered under her breath.
Brennan ran for the medical supplies and the dermal debreider that Emma had overlooked earlier. The scratch staunched, Emma asked how Jesse was. Shal looked painfully away trying to mask her emotions. "What is it, Shal?" Emma asked, fearful that Jesse was injured. "Is he badly hurt?"
"No. Jesse's fine. He isn't injured. It's just..." Brennan's voice trailed off. He didn't want to be the one to break the news to Emma about Lexa and Jesse's relationship.
"Just what, Brennan?" Emma searched his face for the answer to his hesitation.
"Oh, nothing, Emma," Shalimar finally said something. "There is a new member of our team though. Part of the first Mutant X team, a chromomolecular named Lexa Pierce."
"Oh," Emma said as she looked from one to the other. Without her telempathy, she was forced to read the body language and was quite confused by what she was observing. They were hiding from her. She'd find out soon enough. They would probably find out soon enough about her secret.
They made their way back to the SUV and loaded the Ninja into the back. Brennan drove while Shal kept an eye on Emma from the front seat. There was an uneasy silence the whole way back.
At the other safe house, Shal watched fearfully as Emma ran ahead of them to see Jesse. She was quite nimble in spite of her stiff muscles. Shalimar exchanged glances with Brennan, hoping that Emma wouldn't see anything untoward with Jesse and Lexa, at least not yet.
Emma rounded the corner and skidded to an abrupt stop just inside the doorway, her hand flying to her mouth to stifle her startled gasp. Shalimar's heart sank when her feral ears picked up the sound.
Lexa looked up when she heard the muffled gasp in the doorway, having been kissing Jesse deeply and ruffling his hair, awaiting their return.
Jesse spun around, "Emma!" he cried, but Emma was already running away in the other direction. "Shit!"