Magnus noted when she walked into the room; she was the second one there aside from Will and sat in her designated chair in the corner of the yellow sofa. They were waiting for the rest to arrive and for their staff meeting to begin. She wanted to be anywhere but that room and she'd taken a risk showing up without anyone and before anyone other than these two. The two people that she had learned were the most observant and the most forward with what they said and did. They would have no issue telling her exactly what they thought. However, she hoped, sincerely, that not making eye contact with either would encourage them not to speak with her.
And it worked. Neither one spoke to her throughout the entire meeting. Magnus had read her report, worked over it, talked about what had happened and the case was officially closed. Emma wasn't paying attention and didn't notice that everyone else had left the room and Helen was sitting across from her staring at the young woman who had her head face down to the ground. Emma said nothing as she began to stand and move out of the room. She stopped when she heard Helen's voice quietly question. "What is it that I did?"
Emma was standing behind the woman, the door two feet from her and Helen's back was all she could see. The brunette didn't turn when she heard the footsteps stop; she didn't turn and beg for an answer. Simply, she waited. "Nothing."
"Will you talk to me?"
"There is nothing to talk about." Emma brushed an errant strand of behind her ear and left the room to begin her tasks for the day. It was her turn to do the feedings. Helen had given her the task for the week, which meant, barring any major emergencies that she would not be going on any great missions.
Starting with the task that she was given she went through the motions. She made up the cart and filled it with the food, or what some called food. She didn't even grimace at half of the stuff she piled onto the cart. Slowly as possible she started the push the car through the hallways and made her way through the chore.
Helen leaned over her monitor and turned to the cameras in the SHU watching as Emma made her progress. Will had alerted her to something that she had not quite seen in the short conversation she'd had with her. He seemed to be very right in his mention of it to her. The young woman seemed to be as a shell walking from one enclosure to another feeding and then leaving. When she made it to one particular habitat she pulled out a chair and sat it outside the window. Opening the door she slipped in the food and watched, arms crossed over her chest, eyes opening and staring but unseeing as the exhibitionist abnormal ate in front of her. Helen looked down and then at her other monitor beginning some work. She must have been busy for twenty minutes when she saw the sudden move out of the corner of her eye.
Staring at the other monitor she watched Emma pick up a bowl of food and toss it across the room slamming the metal into the stone wall and denting it. She let out an amazon scream before staring and breathing heavily at the floor. Her fingers clenched and unclenched as her breathing continued to be rapid. "Who is like God?" She picked up another bowl and began to chuck it aside. Just as Helen stood to head down Emma stopped mid-motion. The young woman stared down at her hands before setting the bowl aside and drawing in a deep breath. She folded the chair and stuck it in the corner where they always kept it. She left and returned with paper towels and supplies to clean up the mess that she had made.
Magnus sat back down heavily in her chair and watched for a while longer before going back to her own work. She took a deep breath and looked into the results from her own blood test that they had taken shortly after her rescue. She and insisted that Will take the sample and was simply waiting for the results and the time to read them over. Her eyes began to scan the results not seeing much out of the element. Her white blood cell count was up as was her antibody count; however, that could have been indicative of the burning she'd endured from the hot iron rod. The sores on her flesh started to ache when she thought about them and she tried to put them out of her mind. There was nothing else that she could see that was wrong with the results from the test. She would take another one in a week or so to look at the change.
Bringing her body to her phone when it rang she answered quickly ready to get back into the work that she really needed to be focused on. "Hello?"
Helen had watched the young woman carefully for days on end. It had been two weeks since she'd been dropped at the front doors to the Sanctuary by some unknown person and she had seemed to be improving. Improving might have not been a technical term but at least Emma hadn't tossed thrown or screamed in the last four days. She also had missed two staff meetings, hadn't graced Helen's office with her presence in more than twenty-four hours straight and wouldn't look at her directly in the eye. She was closing in on herself and nothing Magnus tried had worked.
Granted everything that she had tried had been extremely subtle in approach, she hadn't wanted to scare the poor woman more than she already was. And fear was something that Magnus was sure that Emma was feeling. Other than that she couldn't quite be sure. An experience of being kidnapped especially at such a young age when one wasn't used to being in such an environment could be extremely detrimental to the livelihood of that person. It would seem that Emma was falling deeper into the depression that Magnus feared would ruin her.
Once again glancing at the monitor that had fast become her best friend and constant companion Helen saw the young woman sitting, yet again, in the chair in front of the Besovite enclosure and watching them eat their food. They were exhibitionists and were smearing food over each other until one of the creatures stopped and looked at Emma. The young woman was seated, legs crossed at the ankles in front of her, arms folded over her stomach and her head down, eyes straight forward almost glaring. It would have been glaring had she actually been looking at something. The creature started banging against the window and soon the others followed suit. They were trying to gain Emma's attention. Helen stood and made her way to the door. It was time for a small chat.
Emma finally noted the noises in front of her, but instead of looking at the creatures she stood with her face to the floor and walked towards down the hall until she reached the security door. The Big Guy was standing there watching her carefully and she didn't stop. She moved right into his body and gripped him around the waist pressing her face into his chest and drawing in a deep breath of his woodsy and fresh scent. She was clinging to that smell.
It was so different from where she had been just moments before. It was musty, sweaty, or dirty. It was clean, wood fresh cut, and damp leaves and dirt. The differences were astounding and exactly what she needed. Drawing in another breath she felt the arms fit around her tightly and she held on as the tears began to stream down her face and soak through the thin shirt that he was wearing. He rested his chin on the top of her head, craning his neck to do so, but he didn't care. He could smell Helen coming, hear the click of her heels on the stone floor underfoot, but he wasn't going to shift if the woman in his arms wasn't going to.
He was sure that Emma had no idea when Helen entered into their presence. She was so lost in her own thoughts that she didn't move when the woman pressed a gently hand to her back and began a soft pace of rubbing up and down in a soothing manner. She exchanged a look with her old friend and glanced back to the woman who still had her face buried in his chest. Helen, Biggie and Emma stood there for minutes on end not moving and not changing pace as the young woman clung to the Sasquatch.
Emma didn't want to move. She knew Helen was standing so close to her side that she could feel the heat from the woman's body but she didn't want to remove her face from the chest it was concealed in. She didn't want to look at the woman's pale blue eyes filled to the brim with concern, curiosity and, most importantly, pity. She didn't want pity. She wanted to fix this, she wanted to get out of whatever the hell it was that was going on all on her own and she didn't want anyone to witness it. It was the longer she remained where she was that she realized Helen wasn't going to leave and she would have to face her.
She drew in one last breath of the cleansing scent that was the man she was clinging to and pulled her face from his body. Her hands left his sides and wiped the remainder of the tears from her cheeks and eyes and she started to move away from the two and down the hall. "Emma?" The woman's voice called and Emma heard her take a step, but stop suddenly.
Risking a look back she saw the large hand on Helen's arm and nodded her thanks to her new found friend. "I'm just going for a run." Turning again she left the vicinity to go for another very long run. She needed to find the man in the Mariner's cap.
Helen waited until she was sure the woman was out of earshot and turned to her old friend. "What was that about?"
He shrugged and knew that his response would be unreasonable and unacceptable in her eyes. "Can't talk about it."
The words left his mouth and hit her full force. She was stunned. He was not one to talk or gossip, no, but to risk the mental health of someone because he refused to talk about issues. That was surprising. Normally he would come to her with concern for someone, but this time he was refusing. "I need to know to help her."
"You cannot help her." He started toward the trays with food and sat in front of the Besovites so that they could continue their feeding ritual. In his mind the conversation that he and Helen were having was over.
She had other plans. "What's that supposed to mean?" His eyes skimmed over to her and the look he gave caused her to pause. "Oh…" She took a deep breath and bit her lip. "Not at all?"
"Not at all."
"Really?" Again he gave her the same look he had just given her and she let out a puff of air looking at her shoes. "I really complicated this didn't I?"
"That's an understatement." The humor was back in his voice and it made her smile. Maybe not all was lost.