I only got 2 reviews for the last chapter!
Please R&R! I need to know how you're finding the story so i can keep on writing how you like it!
"So what do we do now?" Jesse asked.
"Yeah," Lexa seconded. "We're homeless, without any resources-" she looked at Brennan- "and nearly broke. It's only a matter of time before the Dominion starts hunting us. How can we fight anyone like this?"
"We can't," Shalimar said flatly. She stood, head hung, staring at the pavement underneath her feet. Their helplessness made her want to panic. "Maybe if we went back to Sanctuary-"
Lexa snorted at that, and instantly she regretted opening her mouth.
Brennan's hands squeezed her shoulders, and she leaned into him. Gently he said, "Shal, you know that I breached the power core. When it went up it would have taken everything else with it."
"Not everything," Jesse said. Under one arm he cradled a laptop he'd kept on the Helix. Adam had taken it before the vehicle was destroyed – Jesse had it now. "Adam plugged a drive into here that contains the entire new mutant database and most of his research files."
"But our medical files are missing, right?" Brennan asked.
"Unfortunately, yeah."
"At least that's something," Lexa said, surprisingly without sarcasm. "Which brings us back to square one again."
"We've got to do something to get back on our feet," Brennan thought aloud. "Get some money and a place to stay so that we can get back to work."
Lexa turned on him. "So you're saying that we get nine-to-fives, and in our free time we can save the world riding around in a minivan?" she demanded. "Its not possible, Brennan. You're dreaming."
"That's not what I'm saying, Lex." His words were almost a shout. He got his frustration back under control. "If you've got any ideas, I'd sure like to hear them."
Lexa fell silent.
"Check this out," Brennan said more calmly. "We still have contacts. The new mutant underground still exists. There must be someone in all of that that can help us."
"We don't even know if we can trust any of them anymore," Lexa reminded him. "And how long before the underground breaks down without us?"
"Fine. Even simpler – we need a place to stay. Somewhere safe where we can lay low for a while..."
Shalimar was only half-listening to them. A gust of sharply cold wind assaulted her. She huddled closer to Brennan against the chill. It wasn't exactly summer outside. She wished, not for the first time that day, that she could have dressed more warmly. Only one other time in her life had the city seemed so cold and unforgiving. She couldn't go back to that. She couldn't...
This was going nowhere.
Shalimar found herself speaking before the thought had even fully formed in her head.
"My father."
"I thought you weren't exactly on good terms with him." Brennan had knack for stating the obvious, but this time he had missed the mark somewhat.
"We're not the best of friends." That much was true. But things had started to change between her and her father. "He'll help us. I know he will."
"You don't have to do this, Shal." There was both sympathy and understanding in Jesse's voice.
"Yes," she said, "I do. Where else can we go?"
"Maybe a safehouse-"
"We can't get in without the access codes, and those were in the Sanctuary mainframe. You know that. And who knows how long it would take to get in contact with the underground and have someone let us in. We'd be out on the streets. Easy targets."
"He thinks we're freaks," Brennan argued.
"It isn't like that," she argued back, surprised to find herself defending her father. "At the end he understood. He saw what we were fighting for and why." Her eyes burned into Brennan's. "He'll help us." She hesitated, not totally comfortable with the simple truth. "I'm still his daughter."
"As long as you're sure," Brennan said more softly.
"I'm sure."
The conversation ended there. All of them knew they had nowhere else to go.
There was a payphone just around the corner. Shalimar went to it, leaving her friends behind. Her hand trembled a little as she reached for the receiver. It was hard for her still... She wanted to hate Nicholas Fox for what he had done to her, what he had allowed to be done to her, but she couldn't. She hadn't forgiven him, either. The wounds were too deep. But after NAXCON, in a bizarre twist of fate, she realized that she still loved her father, and he was the only one that she could turn to now.
She pressed the zero key and got the operator, asking to make a collect call. She waited, praying that someone on the other end would pick up. There was a click that average human ears would never have heard, and an automated voice informed her that her call had been accepted. She let out a breath that she hadn't realized she was holding.
There was only silence at first. Then her father's tentative voice came over the line.
"Shalimar?"
"It's me, dad," she answered.
She heard him exhale with... was it relief? No. That wasn't the right word.
"I wondered if I would hear from you again."
There had been so many times after NAXCON that she'd wanted to pick up the phone... It was easy to say that left over bitterness had kept her from it, and it wasn't totally untrue. But she had been protecting him, too, by simply staying away. A quick call to the hospital after the accident had told her that he was going to be okay. It had just been easier that way.
She was reaching out to him now because she didn't have anything else.
"Shalimar, are you all right?" Her silence had tipped him off.
"My friends and I... we're in some trouble."
"What kind of trouble?"
In his voice she heard fear, concern, everything that a father should be feeling, hearing his child say something like that.
"I can't tell you that right now," was all she could say.
"Were are you? I'll come get you - "
"My friends are coming with me."
"Of course. Just tell me where you are, Shalimar."
She did.
"Okay," he said when she was through. "I'll be there as soon as I can."
She hung up, realizing that she hadn't thanked him.
Rejoining her friends, she was numb now from the cold.
"What did he say?" Jesse wanted to know the instant she reappeared.
"He's on his way," she said. "It shouldn't be long."
They all looked as relieved as Shalimar felt, to one degree or another. The cold weather was unforgiving, and none of them relished the idea of spending the night out in it on the street.
Half an hour passed, then half again – still no sign of Nicholas Fox. Brennan was pacing anxiously at the mouth of the alley where they waited, searching.
"He'll be here," Shalimar assured him, coming to stand by his side.
"You seem to have an awful lot of faith. Remember, this is the guy that locked you away in an asylum."
She shook her head. She was trying to put those memories behind her. The last time she had seen her father, he had made her think that maybe there was a chance she could. "He isn't that man anymore, Brennan."
"Are you sure of that?"
No. She wasn't. But her father had proved something to her by destroying NAXCON, almost his entire life's work, rather than let Eckhart carry out his plan. She was inclined to trust him, for now, tenuous as that trust might be.
She glanced down the street and saw it, the black SUV slowing as it came nearer to the alley. Nicholas Fox was behind the wheel. Her hand touched Brennan's arm.
"He's here."
Brennan called to Lexa and Jesse, who had been sitting in virtual silence the entire time they'd been waiting. They were still stunned by what had happened in the last twenty-four hours. Shalimar knew the feeling.
Nicholas pulled his SUV into the alley and killed the engine, getting out the instant he laid eyes on Shalimar. He stopped just short of putting his arms around her. He must have known that she wasn't ready for that yet. His hand touched her arm instead, albeit hesitantly. She didn't stiffen at his touch the way she would have once.
Shalimar noted the protective glare that Brennan was directing at her father. But it was all right – she didn't need protection from this man anymore. She knew that now, looking at him, hard as it was for her to accept.
"Can you tell me what's going on?" Nicholas asked her.
She shook her head. "Not here. I just... I just need your help." It wasn't easy for her, asking that of anyone. It wasn't in her nature.
Her father didn't say anything at first.
"Shalimar, it doesn't matter what it is – "
"I promise we'll explain later. We just need a place to stay for a little while."
"Of course." He opened the passenger door for her. "Get in."