A New Age, A New Team
Chapter 53: New Power And Waiting
A couple weeks passed in the mansion and everyone resumed their regular lives. Nights passed quietly and morning rose in the same manner. The fall changed to winter and the bitterness washed over the warm mansion as the members huddled inside for warmth.
Jamal quietly rubbed the sleep from his dark brown eyes as he walked over to Aurora's bedside with his chart in one hand and a warm coffee in the other. The soft color had returned to her pale skin and she genuinely looked healthier and much better. He set his coffee on the table nearby and quietly flipped through the hologram medical records that he had collected over the past couple of months.
He ready over her body weight when she first came in and the gradual increase. He looked up at her sleeping and sighed, She doesn't realize how beautiful she truly is. He quietly sighed as he clicked the hologram chart back to the beginning and continued to quietly stare at her. Her soft red curled were laying perfectly across the pillow and her pale skin glistened underneath the florescent lights of the medical area. He looked away from her sleeping self and started to read the front pages to his medical records.
Aurora quietly murmured in her sleep and then slowly woke up to look at Jamal, "Jamal?"
He looked up from his medical records and softly smiled, "You're awake finally."
She smiled back and pulled herself up into a sitting position, which she wasn't able to do when she was first admitted. "Yeah," she said in her thick Irish accent.
"You ready to be weighed yet, or do you still need some time to wake up?" Jamal asked as he went back to looking over his charts.
"I'm ready," she nodded.
Jamal quietly stood by her bedside in case she needed his help to the scale, while Aurora quietly moved her feet off the side of the bed and let them dangle there for a minute. She took a deep breath in and stepped down onto the cold hospital floor so she was standing by Jamal. "Good," Jamal smiled as he quietly walked along side her towards the scale.
When they reached the scale, he stood on the side of the scale and waited for Aurora to step on. He watched as she stared at the scale in fear and then looked at Jamal with pleading eyes. "It's alright Aurora."
"I wish you didn't have to see it…" she whispered as she quietly placed one foot on the scale, followed by the other. She stood there quietly on the scale with her piercing green eyes closed in fear of the numbers.
Jamal looked down at the numbers, wrote them down on the hologram chart, "Alright Aurora you can step down." He said as he watched her carefully step off the scale, without opening her eyes, and then once she was safely off she opened them again. "You should lay back down while I process this information," he smiled as he ushered her back to her medical bed.
Once Aurora was tucked into her sheets, Jamal walked away from her towards his computer where he began to rapidly type across the keyboard. Different files popped up all over the screen until he found the one he was looking for that was marked 'Aurora' under his medical records file. He clicked it and slowly scrolled down as his dark brown eyes flashed back and forth across the screen until he found her body weight page. He entered the amount and charted it once again.
He stood up from his desk and took a couple steps back to look at the chart displayed on the massive computer screen. He folded his arms in front of his chest as he studied the rises and falls within the chart quietly. He walked back to his keyboard and scrolled some more to bring up her behavioral chart and stood back to study that along side the body weight chart. He nodded his head, went back to the keyboard, pressed one key which closed all the files, and picked up the hologram chart that had updated itself from the computer.
Jamal looked over the different holograms on the chart as he walked back to Aurora's bed. When he reached her bed, she was sitting up waiting to hear the news, "So?"
Jamal flipped the metal cover to the hologram closed and put it under his arm, "You look as though you're ready to leave," he smiled, "Congratulations."
Aurora felt a strange feeling wash over her as she felt as though she had truly accomplished something, "Really?"
"Really," he chuckled, "so what are you going to do your first day back?"
She looked down at the medical ground that she had gotten so used to constantly seeing, "I don't know," she whispered. She looked back at Jamal, "Would you care to join me for some lunch?" she softly smiled.
At first Jamal was caught off guard by the invitation. He never really left the medical area unless he was needed because that had become his role in the team; medical and weaponry genius. He had friends in the mansion and he saw them on a constant bases, but he was so used to eating alone over the years that he was used to it. It didn't bother him because it gave him time to scheme new ideas for weapons or medical procedures that now when others tried to sit with him, it annoyed him if anything. No one sat with him unless they had questions.
"I'd like that," Jamal softly smiled.
Tonya was sitting quietly in the bay window of the living room staring out across the front of the mansion, which was blanketed in white. Her headphones softly thumped against her eardrums as she stared into the stillness of the silence outside. Nothing moved outside and nothing could be heard. The snow was perfectly spread across the ground in silence.
She caught some movement out of the corner of her green eyes, but it was inside the living room. She turned her head and rolled her eyes when she Sean enter the room in jeans and a black turtleneck.
"Just the person I was looking for," he smiled and when he got no response, his smile slowly dissolved and he let out a tiny awkward cough. "It's chilly out," he said to create conversation with the only other person in the room, who was sitting in the window he was looking out of.
"Yup," Tonya said nonchalantly in her thick British accent, as she turned and looked out the window again.
"I had to put on a turtleneck in order to stay warm," he chuckled awkwardly.
"Why don't you go ask your little girlfriend to keep you warm?" She said out of annoyance.
At first Sean was taken back by her attitude, but then sighed as he walked closer towards the bay window to look at it. "It's not like that," he laughed in his thick Australian accent.
Tonya let out a small laugh and pulled her large headphones off of her ears, "What do you mean? You're always all over each other."
Sean let out a small laugh, "No were not."
"Whatever," she huffed before placing her headphones back on her ears.
Sean shook his head softly and then looked up at the sky through the window, "Looks like it's going to snow again," he whispered even though he knew Tonya couldn't hear him through the loud music thumping out of her headphones. He smiled softly as he stood up straight and started to walk out of the living room. Another time…
He reached the doorway to the living room and stopped, I've been saying that for long enough. He sighed and turned back around and walked towards Tonya once again. He carefully moved one of the headphones from her ear and spoke softly, "If you'd shut up for a second you'd know that Grace and I broke up because it was too weird being in a relationship with your best friend," he paused and swallowed the lump in his throat, "Besides, realized that I didn't want to be with anyone I haven't liked for years… So I could only be with you… And I'll continue to wait for you."
Her green eyes stared out into the white abyss as she listened quietly, and then she felt the warmth of his breath against her ear leave as he walked out of the living room. She slowly pulled the other large headphone from around her other ear and let the vibrating headphones rest around her neck. Her heart felt as though it fell through her body as his words echoed in her frozen body.
Sean turned the corner from the living room and stuck his cold hands into his jean pockets while he walked through the large entry way from the front door to the stairs. A weight that had been on his shoulders for years had been lifted and there was nothing more that he could do; he was fine with that. He stopped in the middle of the entryway and sighed as he looked around at the staircase that led to the dormitories and the large chandelier dangling above his head… Everything finally was settling into place.
He heard soft thuds rapidly coming closer towards him, which made him turn around to see Tonya running towards him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her cold lips against his with her piercing green eyes closed. He stood there in the middle of the entryway in complete surprise as he felt the warmth surge through both their lips before closing his brown eyes.
Before he could wrap his arms around her body, she quietly pulled away to look at him. "I got tired of waiting," she said softly. "I've been waiting for you, and I got tired of waiting…" She looked away from him for a minute and then looked back at him, "I'm sorry." She whispered before turning away and walking away from him. She stopped a couple feet away from him and turned around, "Why now, huh? Why?"
Sean stood there staring at her quietly, "I never meant to hurt you…"
Tonya looked down and then slowly walked back towards him, "It's a little late for that now, huh?" She said as her eyes pierced his in pain. She paused for a minute and then turned around to walk away.
Sean grabbed her wrist and turned her around to face him one last time, "Then I'll be the one waiting this time," he sighed before pressing his lips against her once more.
Her knees shook as she felt the passion in the kiss and as much as she wanted to cry, she stayed strong. When he pulled away from her she stared him in the eye and nodded, "Then wait…" she sighed before walking away to leave Sean alone in the entryway.
Jamal opened the door to the kitchen for Aurora to walk in. Some of the younger students ran passed them and out of the kitchen, which left them alone. Aurora quietly sat on the counter as she watched Jamal dig through the fridge for some food. There was nothing said between the two of them, until Aurora finally spoke softly, "Thank you."
Jamal glanced over his shoulder, "Don't worry about it," he waved it off as he pulled some chicken from the fridge to cook. It's job to tend to people's medical needs…
"Not for that," Aurora sighed as she heard his thoughts.
Jamal stopped and turned around to look at her for a minute, and then he remembered she was a telepath. "Oh," he chuckled, "then for what?"
"For thinking I'm beautiful," she said as her cheeks turned red in embarrassment, which made her look down at the speckled tile of the kitchen floor.
Jamal softly smiled at her, "You are. You just don't see it, but trust me, you are." He said as he placed a hand on her shoulder and smirked. "So what should we cook?" He joked as he turned away from her and went back to the fridge to find more things to cook.
I can hear your thoughts Jamal, Aurora thought quietly to herself, but there never of anything but medical problems and weapons. She slid off from the counter and stood next to him, "I don't care," she laughed in her Irish accent. You never make time for anything else. You don't want to let anyone else in because you don't want to be hurt.
"Well you peel the rosemary and I'll start the chicken," Jamal nodded before turning back to the cutting block in which the chicken breast was sprawled across.
"Alright," Aurora nodded before quietly peeling the rosemary into a bowl in front of her with a smile on her face. You want a friend… You're hurting but you hide it behind your brains.
…You hide it behind your brains. Jamal stopped cutting the chicken and looked over at Aurora, "What do I hide behind my brains?"
Aurora stopped and looked at him, "What?" How'd he hear me? I'm controlling my thoughts to myself.
…To myself. "What?" Jamal asked again. "What about yourself?"
"You're hearing my thoughts?" Aurora gasped, "But how?"
"Aren't you sending them to me?"
"No," Aurora gasped, and then paused, "You're a telepath…"
"No I'm not," Jamal laughed, "I control sonic energy; that's it."
"It's the only way you could hear my thoughts," Aurora smirked. It's alright. Don't fear it.
It's alright. Don't fear it. "Did you send that one?"
Aurora chuckled, "Yes. You try. I'll break the connection and you try." She blinked her green eyes as she felt the string between their minds break. "Alright."
"But - How?"
"Just think about me, and concentrate on my mind as you speak."
Jamal nodded and quietly thought, Can you hear me? He paused and looked at Aurora as he heard nothing from her, I told you; I'm not a telepath… My brother got the extra power; not me.
…Extra power; not me. "You did it!" Aurora laughed in excitement, "But it's choppy. You need to work, but you're a telepath… And what about an extra power?" She smirked.
Jamal was at first shocked at his new power, but then was embarrassed by his thought, "Nothing," he turned back to cutting the chicken breast.
"No what," You're hurting and I can help… It's the least I could do, she thought to herself.
It's the least I could do… Jamal closed his eyes, "How do I block other's thoughts?" He turned and looked at her.
"It's hard, but I can teach you," Aurora became more excited at the thought of having someone to connect with. "It actually makes you feel a little crazy at first," she chuckled, "But you'll get it." He nodded his head and then went back to the chicken. "So what about an extra power and not you?" She teased.
"My brother, Rashad," he shrugged, "he has the same power as me and the ability to fly. I didn't think I got an extra power," he smiled and then looked back at her, "that's all."
That's never all there is when it comes to family, She thought quietly before going back to peeling the rosemary. She glanced out of the corner of her green eyes as Jamal skillfully sliced through the chicken breast to cut off the fat, but he was so absentmindedly doing it. I'm here for you… She quietly thought to him.
Jamal stopped cutting for a minute and looked at Aurora. A group of younger children ran through the kitchen, but both of them were lost in the gaze they held between each other. They quietly broke it and tended back to their meal they were cooking before Jamal interrupted the silence with his thought. Thank you…