Chapter Four
"Failure is not the worst thing in the world. The very worst thing not to try."
-Anonymous
"This is hopeless." Adam threw himself back into the seat of his chair, his hands instantly moving to the top of his head as his fingers dug deep in his dark curly hair. They had been working for four hours straight and every time they would run a search the computers would slap them in their faces with no results. Emma and Doctor Lewis were at computers right next to Adam and they were startled by how easy Adam seemed to throw in the towel. "I can't find anything that is even close to the chemical that is making Jesse sick."
"We just can't give up," Emma practically jumped out of her seat to get closer to Adam as if she was trying to prove her point. "Jesse is counting on us. We can't let him--"
"I know what is at stake Emma." Adam didn't need her to keep reminding him that Jesse's life is on the line. But he couldn't help but feel like there isn't anything he could do to save him.
"But there has to be a cure." Her voice rose higher at the faces of defeat around her.
"We need a disease before we can come up with a cure. And at this point we have nothing." Doctor Lewis grimly pointed out to Emma.
Emma bit her lip as part of her didn't want to ask the next question. "How much longer do we have until Jesse…?" She couldn't bring herself to finish her sentence.
"Four maybe five hours." Adam stated bluntly, already building up callous to the brutal facts. Emma sensed the wall that was beginning to encompass the man which held her hopes. Although, she reckoned she understood why Adam was becoming less personal it was for an altogether more complicated matter. Adam had dealt with this scenario before, one that had ended in failure.
"Adam," Brennan's voice cut thought the thick silence of tension via Adam's ring "we got another problem."
Adam let out a laugh that was formed from the never ending problems that kept getting thrown their way. "What is it now?"
"Our attacker sent us a text message he is blaming Jesse for killing two people. Shalimar believes that he thinks Jesse killed his parents."
"What caused her to come to that conclusion?"
"Seeing how in the text message also said he was planning on killing Noah."
"Okay Brennan, go find Noah and bring him back to Sanctuary. Let's hope that they haven't gotten to him yet. Have Shalimar start back tracing the message to the sender."
"We're already on it." Brennan paused briefly as he took a deep breath, and when he spoke again his voice was lower. "Have you got any closer on finding a cure?"
"We are working as hard as we can." Adam tried to sound hopeful, but to Brennan it sounded like a doctor who tells a family that there isn't anymore that they can do.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Brennan slowly walked back into the lab, but just stopped shy of the door. He just looked though the glass at the scene in front of him. Shalimar was sitting in a chair right by the reclined light blue one that held Jesse's still body. Although he wasn't the leader of Mutant X he always, even from the very beginning, felt that he had to take care of everyone. Being that big brother who was always around to make sure nothing happened to his younger siblings. And at this moment he knew he failed. He wasn't there to protect Jesse from the attacker in the alley that poisoned him, and now is unable to save him from that poison.
Unable to step foot in the lab anymore, he tapped on the glass just loud enough for Shalimar to hear. She turned her head quickly as a reflex but relaxed when she saw Brennan. Looking back at Jesse once more, she got up and headed to the door.
"I'm going to find Noah and bring him back here." Brennan said softly. "Adam wants you to try and back trace that message."
"Okay. Are they having any luck?" Her brown eyes were wide trying to look deep at Brennan as trying to search for good news.
Oh how Brennan wanted to tell her yes, but he just couldn't lie to her giving her false hope. Though after a pause he decided just to repeat Adam's own words "They're working as hard as they could." His heart broke when Shalimar's head fell down with closed eyes as she understood what that meant. He fought the urge to grab her into a hug and to tell her that Jesse will be alright, but his hand barely glazed her shoulder before he turned and walked away.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Jesse slowly started to wake up after the painful abuse that his powers inflicted on him. Part of him wished that had could just stay in the darkness of unconsciousness that way he wouldn't feel all the pain. Yet though the screaming muscles the pounding headache and the fire coursing though his veins, he felt a cool comforting feeling that started on his forehead and slowly moved down his cheek to the back of his neck. He carefully opened his eyes and saw Shalimar with a damp cloth in her hand wiping the feverish sweat from his face.
Shalimar stopped her movements when she saw his blue eyes starting up at her. She smiled at him but they both knew it was forced. "Hey Jesse," she said softly, but even though it was just a whisper she saw the pain on his face, "How are you holding up?"
Jesse opened his mouth to talk but all that came out was a broken rasp, his voice blocked by the phlegm in his lungs. His body naturally started to clear it causing him to cough it up. He would gladly like to keep it in his lungs instead of all the pain that came with clearing the muses. The muscles in his chest burned with fire and each cough was like a sledge hammer to his head. Shalimar helped him sit up and held the cold cloth on his forehead. His stomach muscles, so over worked stated to force its contents up which was nothing but water. So he now was leaning over the chair, tears running down his face coughing and dry heaving.
About five minutes later his body stopped the painful coughing as it had no energy left. He slowly took a small sip of water before falling back into the reclined chair. "I don't know how much more I can take, Shal." His voice was broken as raspy.
"Don't say that Jess, you are one of the strongest people I know." Shalimar used the cloth and wiped the tears that fell down his cheek, "Adam is probably creating the antivirus as we speak."
"We both know that's not the true." The lab became quite as Shalimar didn't know how to respond to that. She wanted to be strong for him, and not let him lose hope but as the hours past bye it was becoming harder to do so. "I, I don't think I'll live though this."
"Jesse Kilmartin, don't you dare say that. You are not going to die." Shalimar said louder causing him to cringe in pain, but she didn't care he needed to hear this loud and clear. "Adam is going to come though and you're going to live."
"Shal, do yourself a favor, start letting me go. The sooner you accept that I'm dying the better it will be for everyone."
"No." Tears started to slide down her tanned face. "I'm not going to give up on you."
"Well, you should."