|
Agitated, Jesse strummed his fingers on the edge of the keyboard. He couldn't think. Hopping out of his chair, he decided to go for a drive. He knew he'd likely end up back at the river. The search was about to be called off completely. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.
He walked past Adam on his way out but decided not to bother him since was in the middle of a call. However, the strained expression on Adam's face made him stop.
"I'll be right down," Adam said before closing the connection. He turned away from the monitor and noticed that he wasn't alone. "How long have you been standing there?"
Jesse shrugged. "Who was that?"
Adam squeezed the bridge of his nose as if trying to ward off a migraine. "A friend of mine with the police. He keeps an eye out when new mutants get into trouble."
"What did he want?" Jesse couldn't believe Adam was willing to abandon the search also in favor of helping some stranger.
"The coast guard might have found Brennan." He pulled on his coat. "I need to go ID the body."
-----
"Male, mid-twenties, dark hair..." Agent Davis shook his head sadly. "I know you've been looking for your boy in that area, Adam."
Adam swallowed before speaking. "I appreciate you calling me."
His friend nodded. "Marcy will take you back."
Adam hardly noticed as he was handed off to the middle-aged blonde. He was too busy concentrating on the task of walking. Placing one foot in front of the other had never required so much thought before.
Marcy gave him a sympathetic little smile. "Are you the father?"
"Yes." The lie was in case it was Brennan. Adam didn't want any trouble because he wasn't legally related. In fact, he didn't even know who Brennan might have listed as next of kin. But the lie had come far too easily, slipping past Adam's lips without conscious thought. If Brennan was dead, he wanted the body to be released to him.
Everything blurred together and Adam merely went through the motions until he standing in front of the body. Somebody unzipped the plastic of the body-bag and pulled it back to reveal the head and shoulders of the corpse.
Adam closed his eyes for a minute before turning and hurriedly leaving the morgue. Then he leaned against the wall and caught his breath. Someone offered to get him a cup of water but he refused. He was emotionally exhausted, but he'd be alright.
It wasn't Brennan.
Somewhere, he was certain Mason was having a long laugh at his expense.
-----
The needle was inside his neck when consciousness returned. This time, Brennan savored the rush of warmth in spite of the pain. His energy was completely gone.
He quickly warned himself not to start liking it. With every injection, his blood seemed to run hotter, and the governor didn't allow him to release the building charge of power through an electrical drain. Once he fully healed, he'd be wired.
Yet it made him stronger. With Eckhart increasing the damage his so-called "tests" inflicted, Brennan needed the step up. And the rush removed the chill left behind from the torture, the blood loss...
He closed his eyes again, waiting for the heat to balance out, and somebody slapped his face just hard enough to make sure he knew he wasn't supposed to go back to sleep.
"Is he ready to proceed?" Eckhart asked.
"He should be allowed to rest longer first," Jordan said. "The strand isn't at full strength yet, so the experiments are taking a toll on him."
Eckhart looked to the other doctor for a second opinion. "He is displaying signs of fatigue; however, I still believe we're able to push forward."
"Do it," Eckhart instructed. The doctor nodded to him as he exited. Jordan left shortly behind Eckhart.
Brennan silently cursed. He'd been hoping to get a chance to talk with Jordan again. He was fairly young and already being forced into the disciplined life of working for Genomex. Brennan doubted he enjoyed the structured atmosphere of always doing as he was told without question.
Which made Jordan the perfect target. Forging a friendship with a member of Mutant X was forbidden. Taking an interest in Brennan would be dangerous. That's why it would be alluring.
-----
Emma carefully slipped off her last article of clothing, making certain to keep her back to the camera. She would have refused the chance to shower, but she needed to get clean. Turning on the water, she stepped just beyond the reach of the spray.
She stared at her palm before washing away the blood. There were smears where Brennan's hand had been. He'd been taken from her that morning before he'd waken. At least she assumed it was morning. It was hard to tell without windows. She wondered if he'd come to by now.
Stepping under the spray, she let the blood be washed clean. She sighed, tired from the sleepless night. Brennan's breathing had returned to normal after a few hours, but she'd still been worried.
She thought the knife wound had healed also, but she hadn't been able to look again before he was taken. A young doctor had promised they'd help him if he didn't wake soon. For some reason, she'd wanted to trust him.
Nobody had done anything to harm her yet, and she wondered if that would last. She almost wished Eckhart was interested in her just so he wouldn't be so fixated on Brennan.
She scrubbed her face next, trying not to start crying. She was letting herself become an emotional wreck. She was told she'd be given something to eat again after she'd had a chance to clean herself up. Right now, the very thought of food made her sick to her stomach.
Knowing Brennan hadn't been offered anything the entire time they'd been here wasn't helping her appetite either. She didn't think he could last much longer under these conditions, even with Eckhart's drugs.
Her chest clenched up when she thought that this might continue until they killed him. She'd never noticed when he'd become such a huge part of her life. But looking at the idea of life without him actually hurt.
It ached far more than she thought it should.
-----
Losing his balance as he was tossed into his room, Brennan landed hard on his shoulder and moaned. Pushing himself up, he traced his fingers through the blood on the floor. The room spun as he eventually stood.
He was alone. He didn't allow himself time to wonder where Emma was, instead opting to deal with his immediate problem. He stumbled to the bathroom and held his arms over the sink as he bled. Pulling his shirt over his head, he urgently began to tear the material.
When he managed to get the shirt ripped into two pieces, he needed to stop in order to catch the edge of the counter to steady himself. His hands were no longer bound, but in place of the metal cuffs were two lines of red where his wrists had been slit along the veins. He was fast losing blood.
Wrapping his shirt around his left wrist, he used his other hand to attempt tugging it tight. He wasn't very successful and ended up clenching the shirt in his teeth in order to finally make the knot secure enough.
As he started to bind his other wrist, his vision blurred and he reached out and grabbed for the wall to steady himself. Then he was suddenly on the floor. He gave up on trying to stop the blood flow. His shirt was already completely red. And what use was fighting? Eckhart would just do this experiment again.
He hadn't bled to death from the knife wound, so his wrists had been cut. He wondered what would come next if he didn't die from this.
-----
When he woke, his head was in Emma's lap once more and she was softly stroking his hair. He blinked open his eyes and stared up at her. "Hi."
She instantly dumped him from her lap, then knocked him over as she enveloped him in a massive hug. "Thank god, Brennan, you're awake; you scared me to death."
He carefully freed himself from her crushing grip enough to be able to breathe. "Apparently."
"I was so worried," she blurted.
"I gathered that." He smiled at her as he straightened himself back up with Emma still clinging to him. That's when he noticed a lot of the contact was against bare skin. He finally managed to pull back slightly. Neither of them was wearing a shirt, and hers seemed to be tied around his wrists and stained red. "Is this blood?"
At that, she let him go and turned away.
"Shit." It all suddenly came back to him. That question had definitely been the wrong thing to say. She was stripped down to her bra because she'd done the same thing he had and used her shirt to try to stop the bleeding. She must have found him lying on the floor.
"Emma, I'm sorry," he apologized. He turned her back toward him and saw the unshed tears in her eyes. He'd really frightened her.
"You weren't breathing, Brennan," she said, her voice wavering.
"I'm fine now," he said seriously, attempting to stay calm while letting her words sink in.
"Tell me that when there isn't a pool of your blood on the floor," she snapped back angrily.
"Hey!" He grabbed her arm. For her sake, he couldn't afford to let this phase him. "Stop it, Em. Look at me. I'm fine."
She was still staring past him and he made her face him. "Don't look at it," he said about the blood, not turning around himself but knowing there had to be a lot of it. He cupped her chin in his hand and stared into her eyes. "Look at me."
Trembling, she let herself focus only on him. She'd almost lost him. She started crying, he gaze dropping to her blood-stained shirt that still bound his wrists.
"At me," he said again, then tenderly brushed his lips across her cheek, removing the tear. She closed her eyes and felt the soft touch of lips against her eyelid next, then he placed a trail of kisses in her hair. All the while he was murmuring for her to hush, please don't cry.
"It's okay," he soothed, pulling her closer to him. "I'm alright. It's okay..."
She melted into his embrace, snuggling against his shoulder. She moved her hand to his chest, feeling his warm skin under her fingers. Then she slid her head down to where her hand was, listening to his heartbeat as he comforted her.
"I love you," she told him while wrapped in his arms.
He held her tighter, pressing his cheek against her soft hair. "Always."
-----
|
