|
After what seemed like only a few hours, Brennan's fitful sleep grew more restless, prompting Emma to move closer to him and softly stroke his hair. Her touch didn't comfort him and he began tossing. She took his hand when he started to mumble. She couldn't make out the words, but his voice was pained and afraid.
He clung tightly to her hand before screaming for Adam. She quickly placed her other hand on his chest to stop his thrashing. "Brennan, it's okay now. You're safe," she assured him while wondering what horrible things were being done to him in his dreams.
Her voice settled him and he eventually opened his eyes. He stared up at her. "Emma?" he asked before catching his breath.
"Yeah." She smiled at him, delighted that he knew her name. "Yeah, I'm here."
Had she been crying? Sitting up, he glanced around the room in confusion. "Where are we?"
She kept her grip on his hand, not willing to let go yet. "Eckhart is holding us, remember?"
His brow furrowed at that. "Who?"
Her brief happiness disappeared. "Brennan, what's the last thing you remember?"
"Brennan?" he repeated. He was Brennan? He supposed the name seemed familiar. He shook his head. "I think I know who I am, and I know you - I trust you... but other than that, there's nothing."
She refused to panic. "Go back to sleep."
"I want to remember. What happened to me, Em?" His eyes searched hers. "Help me."
"I'm not sure how..." What was she supposed to tell him? That he'd been tortured for the past several days? That when she saw him last he was dead? Answering his question probably wasn't the best way to go about helping him.
"The other men... maybe I know them, I'm not sure - they asked me questions, stupid things." He shrugged, then shifted his attention to picking at his fingernail. "I couldn't answer anything."
"Like what year it is and who the president is? That kind of stuff?" Knowing he was worried, she took his hand once more.
"I didn't really understand much, but in hindsight, I think so." He stared at her hand. She was all he knew, and even she wasn't completely familiar. "I'm pretty sure it's 2002. Still kinda foggy on the president thing. But on the bright side, I now at least know that there is a president, and I think I even know the gist of his job description."
Giving him an encouraging smile, she replied, "Well, that's a start, I guess. I'm still not sure what you want me to do, though."
He rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand before staring into her eyes. "You know me, right? So ask me questions that have something to do with me."
"Okay, how about trying to remember who your favorite president was?" she asked, playing it safe. Personal questions weren't an area she was eager to venture into just yet. Not with him staring at her like that.
Brennan suddenly smiled.
"What? You remembered something?" she asked hopefully.
He gave her a crooked grin. "Yeah. I got a D on my US History final." Not exactly his brightest moment, but it was a memory none the less.
Emma did her best to match his grin. "So what subjects do you like?"
"I'm not sure. English. Creative writing maybe." She squeezed his hand slightly and supposed he'd gotten that answer right.
"How about some English questions then?" He shrugged and she offered him an encouraging look. "What's a verb?"
"A word that expresses an act, occurrence, or mode of being. And I have no idea where that definition just came from." It was too rehearsed for him not to have once memorized it.
"This is still good, though. Things are starting to come back." She aimed for another English question next, something where it wouldn't hurt if he couldn't answer. "So what's a complement?"
He gazed over at her once more. "You have the most incredibly beautiful eyes..."
Emma felt her face flush. "I said complement, not compliment. As in objective or subjective..." Why was he still looking at her like that?
After brushing some hair from her face and tucking it behind her ear, he returned his stare to her eyes. He left his hand on her face. "I know what you meant."
She suddenly felt a bit self-conscious under his intense gaze. "What are you doing?" she asked nervously.
"Remembering what's important..." He kept watching her, studying her expression and memorizing every detail of her face. He definitely had strong feelings for her, although they were still confusing. "Why aren't you asking me any personal questions?"
"Maybe I'm afraid you won't know the answers," she confessed, unable to avoid meeting his eyes. Maybe she was afraid he would.
His mind continued to subconsciously arrange the pieces of his fragmented memories, and he suddenly pulled back from Emma. "Crap."
"What?" she quickly asked, concerned.
"I just recalled why I failed that exam," he explained. "I spent the entire night before in jail."
That had come out of left field. Her curiosity quickly won out. "What for?"
"I got pulled over for speeding," he replied, his tone dull.
Emma frowned. "They don't throw people in jail for that, Brennan."
He stared at the wall. "There was cocaine in the glove box."
That response greatly confused her. She was his best friend; how could he have not ever mentioned this before? "You don't do drugs," she stated firmly.
Suddenly he decided his toes were incredibly interesting and stared at his feet - anything to avoid looking at her. "It wasn't mine."
She bent around so that he was forced to face her. "So they didn't believe you?" There had to be a perfectly reasonable explanation.
"Actually, they did." He ran a hand through his hair and looked away again.
Why was he acting so strangely? "If they understood that the drugs weren't yours, what was the problem?"
"Neither was the car," he blurted guiltily before looking at her again. "I guess I am a criminal after all. I thought earlier that I might be."
"You're not," she said a bit too quickly, wondering why she was so defensive. She knew about his past and had figured he'd "borrowed" a few cars once upon a time. Heck, she'd even caught him and Shalimar teaching Jesse the finer points of hotwiring. Why did it bother her so much that he was recalling it now?
Because she had fallen for the knight in shining armor, not the car thief, she silently answered her own question. That was all behind him. He wasn't a criminal. "Well, not anymore." She gently rested her hand on his leg. "Why don't you try to get some sleep? Things will be more clear when you wake up."
"Do I want them to be more clear?" he asked honestly. "So far I've discovered that my interests include stealing cars and getting tattoos." He pulled up his shirtsleeve, revealing the dragon on the inside of his arm. "What's up with this? And I've got some weird symbol back here..."
Turning, he started to show her his lower back but then stopped. "How close of friends did you say we are again?"
She literally laughed out loud at that. She knew exactly which tattoo he was referring to, although she'd never actually gotten a close look at it before considering its placement. "Why Brennan Mulwray, you're not suddenly considering making modesty one of your virtues, are you?" She cast him a wicked grin.
He tugged his clothing back into place. "Maybe I should."
"Hey, come on..." Emma pouted playfully. "You got to make fun of my bra the other day. It's payback time, buddy! And I didn't get a good look at it before, so I'm curious."
Brennan merely gaped at her. "I did what with your bra when? And what before? I don't recall a before. Why and where was there a before?"
Her smile softened at his clueless expression. "Don't worry, it was just an innocent game of drunken dojo double-dare. Hee hee, say that three times fast. Um anyway, we were mainly just picking on Jesse. Adam caught us and broke things up pretty fast. And the bra thing is... a long story."
Leaning back against the wall once more, he sighed. "I'm starting to think my life involves a lot of long stories." He glanced over at her. "And I'm wondering if you're one of them."
She propped herself against the wall beside him. "How so?"
"The whole bra thing, for one." He paused awkwardly. "Was that story innocent also, or something I would've bragged about to my friends the morning after? And am I the kind of guy who boasts afterwards? I don't much think I want there to have been a morning after with you if I am." Chances were that would ruin whatever they might have now.
She smiled faintly. "You actually take relationships very seriously. You've got this cocky exterior, but underneath you're really quite sweet. And the bra story was also innocent, just to clarify."
"Sweet?" he repeated, giving her one of his looks.
She shrugged, and they sat in silence for a minute. "It means 'never give up,' by the way," she eventually said. "Your tattoo. You told me about it later that night."
"Oh." That said, they slipped back into a companionable quiet.
"Why are we being held?" he abruptly asked when the silence stretched.
"That's another long story." She noticed the look in his eyes and knew he was blaming himself. "But it's not because of anything you did."
"Who are you to me?" She was in this with him, whatever that meant. She also seemed hesitant to tell him what was going on, yet he still trusted her. She made him feel safe.
"How do you mean?" she asked nervously, feeling herself melt under his gaze. She was starting to hope she was becoming more than just his friend.
"I just want to know that if when I wake up in the morning and by some miracle things are actually more clear, you'll still be my entire world." Currently, she was his everything. What would he do if his memory returned and all that changed?
Whoa... She swallowed at the lump in her throat. "I know that you'll still be mine." He leaned closer to her and she pulled back before finding out if he'd been about to kiss her. She couldn't let their relationship progress while his thoughts were still fuzzy. She wanted something more, but right now she merely made him feel secure. He didn't know her. Whether or not they were going to take the step beyond friendship was something he needed to decide in the cold light of day when he regained all the facts. "Go to sleep, Brennan," she said softly.
Somewhat hurt by her rejection yet still taking her advice, he stretched out on the floor and tried to get comfortable. For some reason, it didn't seem odd to him when Emma curled up by his side. Instead, he felt relieved.
-----
As Adam walked past the dojo, Jesse hopped down off the steps and stood directly in his path. "So I've been thinking..."
"As have I," replied Adam, completely unfazed by Jesse's abrupt dismount from the stairs.
"What have you got?" Jesse asked, hoping he was ready to make a move. Any move.
"A list that still needs work," he answered honestly before sidestepping his impatient young friend and heading for his room.
Matching his pace, Jesse remained at his side. When Adam entered his room, he only opened the door wide enough for himself. Not taking the hint, Jesse merely strolled straight through the wall. He stared at Adam who sighed.
After typing something on his keyboard, Adam turned the screen toward Jesse. Displayed was a list of companies. "I've narrowed it down to six possibilities," he said.
Jesse pulled his own list from his pocket and tossed it on Adam's desk. "Mine is only four."
"Based upon...?" Adam inquired.
"Unusually suspicious behavior." Jesse shoved his hands into his pockets and tried not to start pacing while Adam read his list. "And yours?"
As he compared the lists, Adam frowned. "Exactly the opposite. I've chosen only businesses that came up perfectly clean in every way." Not a single name on each of their lists matched.
Jesse ran his fingers through his hair, a habit he'd formed when he was overly tense or nervous. "Where do we go from here, Adam?" he demanded. "Tell me what to do, because I honestly don't have anything more to go on."
Adam shut down his computer. "Neither do I." He'd already dug as deeply as was possible. They'd exhausted all their resources and were still empty handed.
"No," Jesse said firmly. "Don't tell me that you don't know."
"Then what would you have me say?" Adam asked. "You'd prefer that I lie to you?"
Jesse met his gaze. "Yes." He waited a moment, and when Adam remained silent, he spun and stormed out. He didn't bother using the door this time either.
Shaking his head, Adam sat on the edge of his bed and closed his eyes. The situation was far more grim than he wanted to admit. Not only had Mutant X lost its two newest members, but now Adam feared he might also lose Jesse if Brennan and Emma weren't found soon.
"Should I go after him?" Shalimar's voice asked from his doorway.
Adam glanced over at her. "Probably. Keep him from doing anything without thinking first."
"Not really sure I'm the best person to lecture on not charging into things." She grinned at Adam. "But I'll talk to him."
Adam nodded and she turned to go before pausing. "Why don't we just march into Genomex and take a few hostages of our own?"
"You're right," Adam agreed. "Looking before you leap isn't a strong point of yours." He walked over to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "I know Mason well enough to know he wouldn't respond to that kind of threat. He's well aware that he has the upper hand. I don't want you or Jesse getting hurt."
"I know," she said softly. Adam was just looking out for them, and he was doing everything in his power to locate their missing teammates.
|
