Life Among the Gorillas - Chapter 3
Just remembered I never really got round to posting this. I may have greatly lost interest in the show, but I'm still enjoying this fic, so, let's see how long it lasts.
Title: Life Among the Gorillas, Chapter 3
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Adam, Elle, appearances from others
Summary: AU from ‘Dying of the Light’ - quite simply, what would have happened if Adam hadn’t died when his power was taken? How do you adjust from 400 years of immortality to being human again? In this chapter, Adam remembers his time in the Company facility, and how he met Elle.
Author's Note: This could almost be standalone, as it's basically one long flashback. But it serves to provide backstory for later plot, so, it gets included as a chapter. Once again, thanks to the awesome nowhack for beta-ing, though it was so long ago when I first sent this to her...
Chapter 1, Chapter 2
insanientis dum sapientis
consultus erro…
I was wandering as an expert of insane wisdom… (Horace Ode 1.34)
Adam’s Cell, Hartsdale NY
1992
Adam Monroe had had just about enough.
It was bad enough that he’d been locked up in this hellhole for the last 15 years. It was bad enough that they didn’t even let him move cells for whatever minor change in surroundings that would allow. It was bad enough that they practically taunted him with the passing of time, as Arthur Petrelli would visit and mention events going on in the outside world that he was missing (he couldn’t believe he’d missed the fall of the Berlin Wall) and show him photos of his growing sons.
But did they have to have a birthday party just upstairs, where the incessantly cheery singing echoed down the pipes into his cell?
He just sat on the edge of his bed, fists clenched, breathing in and out. He was extremely good at breathing exercises. He’d had long enough to practise them. If he could just harness his chi, as that wise old master had tried to teach him - or was it a drunk in a bar in Chicago?...
Oh good lord, they were singing again. He couldn’t take it any more. He had been planning on saving this escape routine for a weekend, when there were less staff around - but it sounded like they were distracted, so why not now?
He went over to his desk chair and took hold of one of the legs - which he had been slowly weakening over the past few weeks - and snapped it off easily. He ran his fingers over the edge, and winced. He may not be able to feel pain, but that didn’t mean the thought of this didn’t turn his stomach.
He looked at himself in the mirror, saying a silent goodbye to the only friend he’d had over the past few decades. He knew they wouldn’t let him die - they even had supplies of his own blood just in case. He knew Arthur was keeping him alive in case he ever had an accident and needed to heal. He knew he was being preserved for all the valuable information tucked away in his brain.
Though, he thought with grim humour as he wedged the broken-off leg between the desk and his bed at a careful angle, he’d better hope they knew all that too.
Then, having positioned himself just the right distance away, he took a deep breath and let himself fall forward onto the broken leg.
“We’ve managed to remove the object from his eye, the brain already seems to be healing itself,” one man was saying professionally.
“Jesus, this man is crazy,” another said, less professionally.
“Crazy or not, orders are to keep him alive. The transfusion of his own blood helped, there shouldn’t be any lasting damage - see, you can see the eye reforming now -”
Adam suddenly jerked upright, slamming his head into the nose of the doctor who had been leaning over him to marvel at his regenerating eye and sending him clattering to the floor. The other doctor only had time for his mouth to fall open in shock - not wasting a second, he swung sideways off his gurney with such force that it toppled over, pinning the doctor to the ground. His head smacked against the floor and he, conveniently, also fell unconscious.
Adam discovered he was in metal handcuffs, and rolled his eyes. Honestly, he’d have expected his requirements to be common knowledge by now. He simply dislocated his thumbs and slid his hands through, popping them back in as he straightened.
The doctors hadn’t managed to sound the alarm, but he’d raised enough of a racket to attract attention. He quickly palmed a scalpel from a tray by the door and slipped out into the hallway.
There were running footsteps echoing down the corridor towards him, so Adam quickly took off in the opposite direction. Seconds later, the alarm sounded - music to his ears - and he slipped down side corridors and shortcuts that he knew. Honestly, hadn’t they thought through the disadvantages of holding him somewhere he knew this well? Would it have killed them to transport him somewhere new and exciting?
He hurried past an empty room still strewn with the detritus of a birthday party and slipped round a corner, where he stopped in surprise. There was a small blonde girl standing about halfway down the corridor. She seemed to be reading some fire safety instructions on the wall, but she quickly turned to stare at him instead. She was wearing a pretty party dress and, he saw, had a big badge pinned to her front with a big number ‘9’ on it. He seemed to have found the birthday girl. And she was staring at him, open-mouthed.
A hostage? Not much point - bullets wouldn’t stop him for long, and as much as he disliked children, he was hardly keen to use one as a helmet. So instead he kept running, smiling politely and waving as he approached her.
“Are you the magician?” she demanded, “Daddy said I was having a magician.”
“Oh yes,” he said as he passed her, and called back over his shoulder, “Watch me disappear!”
She said nothing. Adam hurried faster as he approached the next corner - just round this one, down a flight of stairs, and there was the emergency exit, and out there -
His body suddenly exploded with electricity. Adam stared, baffled, at the blue crackles running all over his torso and down his limbs - some security system he didn’t know about? - when suddenly it intensified, and he yelled in surprise and fell to the floor, muscles contorting and spasming as it surged through him again, and again, and again -
He turned his head and saw the girl walking towards him, the electricity streaming from her hand to his chest, head tilted to one side and a growing smile on her face.
“You were escaping,” she said.
She finally halted the flow of electricity, and Adam could only lie there on the ground, panting, waiting for his muscles to mend so he could get up. As soon as he could speak, he managed, “Believe me - you would too - just let me -”
The little girl’s eyes were widening at the sight of his mending body. “You get better!” she said in delight, and before Adam could say anything else, she shot him again, a long stream of lightning punctuated by smaller bolts fired at whichever locations seemed to amuse her. “This is fun!” she said in delight.
Under any other situation, that would require some dry sarcastic response from Adam, but right now there was so much voltage coursing through him he could feel his heart skipping erratically. If she kept this up -
There were footsteps coming down the corridor. “Well done, Elle!” he heard a sickeningly familiar voice calling, “You caught him!”
“He was trying to escape!” said Elle gleefully, “And he gets better from my lightning!”
“He’s a very bad man,” agreed Bob, drawing level to Elle and ruffling her hair. He looked down at Adam with a smug smile that immediately became the worst part of this mess. “You’ll make a fine agent one day.”
Elle’s smile widened, and she intensified the electricity surging from her hands into his body. Adam’s back arched violently, and his screams rattled the ceiling tiles. If he could feel pain, this would be unbearable - as it was, it was just extremely, extremely uncomfortable, and his brain was almost short-circuiting with frantic messages from all over his body that something was very wrong.
“That’s enough now, though,” Bob added quickly, “Remember what the doctor said about using your power. Let these men take him back to his room.”
Elle didn’t stop, but she frowned as the steady stream turned instead into distinct blasts, which instantly blackened whichever part of Adam they struck. “I - I can’t turn it off -”
“That’s enough, Elle,” said Bob more firmly, “No more lightning or you won’t get any cake, you hear me?”
“I can’t turn it off!” cried Elle, her face stricken by panic. The blasts were becoming more erratic and more powerful, and she didn’t seem to have any control over where they went any more, as they struck the floor and the walls around her. People who had come with Bob started to back away as Elle turned to him, desperate, as the electricity spread from her hands and crackled all over her. “Help me!” she pleaded.
Bob just took two steps back from her and shouted at an orderly, “Get the doctor in here! She needs to be put back on the lithium drip right away! And get him out of here,” he snapped at another couple of orderlies, pointing at Adam, “Get him back in his cell.”
Adam was too exhausted to resist as they stepped around the crying girl and hauled him to his feet. The injection of a sedative was almost a relief, and he gladly slipped into unconsciousness.
The next few days in his cell were even more agonising than usual, because Adam wasn’t even allowed to get up from his bed. He may be able to heal constantly, but electricity still played havoc with his heartbeat, so he had to rest while they made sure it was returning to normal. Occasionally it would flutter erratically, and while it was no huge emergency - even without oxygenated blood reaching all of his body, cells would regenerate soon enough - he still had to wait for it to settle down.
And it was extremely dull. All he could do was stare up at the ceiling tiles, feel his heart twitching, and try to come up with a new excuse for them to take him out of his room. They were going to be on high alert around him for the next five years, at least.
There was only one distracting moment in the monotony. He wondered what had happened to Elle occasionally - being left alone with his thoughts for so long meant he thought about everything eventually - and was very surprised, one afternoon, to see her wander idly into view outside his observation window.
She looked casual, but it was the exaggerated kind of casualness which small children adopted when they were doing something they knew they shouldn’t. She was looking around, so he guessed she was exploring. She looked down from the ceiling in through the window - and her face lit up.
“Magician!” she yelled.
Adam was startled. She looked happy to see him. But the last time he’d seen her, she’d been happy to zap him with unknown quantities of electricity, before she even knew he could heal.
He shook his head. He would never understand children.
She was banging on the glass. “Magician! Hello!”
Uncertain of what to do, after a moment, Adam waved. “Hello,” he said cautiously.
She beamed. “Are you all better?”
“Yes.”
“I zapped you more than I’ve ever zapped anyone before. Daddy was very impressed.”
Well, that confirmed that theory. He firmly stopped his brain from dwelling on the fact that Bob Bishop had reproduced. “I can imagine he would be.”
“You got better very quickly.”
Adam was being quickly reminded of just why he didn’t like children. Already her voice felt like a drill in his brain. He leaned back on his bed and said to the ceiling, “I can heal. Just like you’ve got the lightning.”
“Daddy said that I’m special.”
“Yes,” said Adam, rolling his eyes. He knew the requisite response here, but it didn’t mean he felt any better about saying it. “We’re all special. In our own ways.”
There was a pause. “Are there other people like us? Am I not that special after all?”
Adam sat up. There was genuine hurt in her voice, and her face had fallen. “Well,” he said slowly, “I’ve never met anyone else who can do what you can do. So you’re special in that respect.”
She looked hopeful. “Really? I’m the only one?”
“The only one.”
Her face broke into a wide, proud smile. “Good.”
Job done, Adam fell back against his bed again.
“Daddy says I have to live here now,” she went on, “Because the doctor thinks I’m dangerous. I think the doctor’s stupid. I wanted to zap him too, but Daddy said no.”
“Isn’t there anyone else you can go talk to?” said Adam exasperatedly, “I’m sure ‘Daddy’ doesn’t want you talking to me.”
“Not really,” she said, “Daddy’s busy and no-one else comes near me unless they have to. They’re scared of me.”
Adam rolled his eyes. Honestly, how many issues was Bob trying to install in his daughter? “Just ignore them,” he called, “They’ll always fear people like us. You’re better than them, never forget it.”
She was quiet for so long Adam thought she might have walked away without him hearing. But then he heard her say, so quietly he almost missed it, “People like us.”
Loud footsteps were approaching, and a voice calling, “Elle? Elle!”
“I have to go,” she whispered, “Thank you!” And she scampered off, before Adam even began to wonder why she was thanking him.
Elle soon became a regular feature of Adam’s life. She couldn’t visit often, she told him, because Daddy got ‘concerned’. However, every week or so, Adam would hear the familiar patter of feet hurrying along the corridor to his cell, and by the time he’d sat up she’d be tapping on his window, smiling brightly as always.
The visits went one of two ways. If Elle was in a good mood, she’d talk at him for an hour or so, about the little things that filled a small girl’s day and how she felt about all of them and what she wanted to do when she was a grown-up. On those days, Adam would sit back and let her chatter wash over him. After a while it even stopped being annoying, and became somehow comforting. It reminded him of the old days, when he could grow bored with his immortality, and would just find somewhere to sit and listen to people’s inane chatter. It reminded him why life was at least better than the alternative; it might be filled with trivialities, but at least it was full.
On other days, when Elle was quieter, she would ask him questions. She asked him for stories from his travels, from his many centuries in the world. She’d sit rapt and wide-eyed as he told of all the things he’d seen and done. Occasionally, she’d gasp in excitement if he mentioned something she’d learned about from her history tutor, and would always be delighted if he pointed out an error the teacher had made.
Those visits always ended the same way. She would sit silently, taking in whatever he’d just told her. And then she’d say, “You could be making it all up.”
He’d shrug and say, “It’s very possible.”
“How can I believe you?”
“I guess you can’t.”
She’d nod, and get to her feet. “I’ll come back next week,” she’d say, “At least you make your stories fun.”
And so this routine carried on for years. Elle became his greatest sign of time passing, as she slowly grew taller, smarter, sharper. She talked less about what people told her, and more about what she herself thought. She started to wear her hair long and choose her own clothes with more care. The first day she turned up wearing make-up really drove home to Adam how much time was passing, and his resentment towards Bob Bishop and the rest of the Company dug a little deeper.
One day, Adam heard the familiar sound of her feet approaching - no longer scampering in trainers, but walking carefully in heeled shoes - and sighed, and put aside the book he was reading, wondering what she might ask him today.
His door opened. He sat upright so quickly his head spun, his eyebrows arched in surprise. Elle - looking smarter than he’d ever seen her - was carrying his usual tray of food, and closing the door behind her.
“This is new,” he said slowly.
She smiled. “Daddy’s finally given me a job. I’m in the agent training program, but for now, it’s errands and paperwork - and this.”
“This?” His eyebrows weren’t coming down. “You know, there’s a slot for my tray in the - ”
“I know.” She set the tray down on his desk, and turned to look sideways at him, a playful smile on her face. “It’s been nine years. I guess I wanted to see you without a sheet of glass in the way.”
Good Lord. She had been doing a lot of growing up. He held out his arms. “Ta-da - here I am.”
Her smile widened. She stepped in between his arms and hugged him tightly. Taken aback, Adam hesitated, but then nervously put his own arms around her. Oh God, her hair smelled really good. He knew he should step back, right this second, or Bob would make his life extremely unpleasant - but Elle was holding him tightly, and for a second, he could imagine he was back with Yaeko, or Angelica, or Diane…
Electricity surged into him, and he yelped in surprise. He looked down to find Elle looking up at him, smirking. “Here you are,” she replied.
Adam pushed her away and walked a little way off, laughing nervously. The smell of the singed fabric of his T-shirt stung his nostrils. “Don’t you have other things you need to be doing?”
Elle’s eyes flashed, and electricity crackled around her fingertips. “Got somewhere you need to be?”
“No, I was just - doesn’t your dad mind you coming in here?”
“He doesn’t need to know.” She took a step towards him, and Adam hastily took two away.
“He’ll probably find out. You should go. Besides, I need to - avail myself of the facilities.” He looked pointedly at the toilet, and then back to her.
She didn’t look very happy. “Fine,” she snapped, and stalked past him towards the door. Adam let out a silent sigh of relief - until another bolt of electricity struck him square in the back, making him jump. He turned to see Elle grinning from the door.
“Later, alligator.” She opened it and, with a wink, slipped out through it. Adam listened to her footsteps receding down the hall, then collapsed onto the bed with a heavy exhalation.
God help him, but those 24 years had never seemed longer.
From that day, Elle’s visits took quite a different turn. She visited him every day, morning and night, bringing him food. Even a man who hadn’t had nearly 400 years of experience would be able to see she was flirting with him. She was hardly a master seductress - understandable, considering she hadn’t been outside all her life, and also happened to be a paranoid sociopath - but she didn’t really leave Adam in any doubt of how she saw him.
That was, he knew, as something new and exciting to play with rather than anything serious. She might find him attractive, that was possible, but she had no idea what she was actually doing. So Adam very firmly kept his distance, remaining polite and cordial but nothing more, and he gave her no sign of encouragement. He didn’t particularly want to give Bob any reason to ‘accidentally’ let him die. She seemed undeterred, however, and kept up the flirtatious behaviour - which, strangely enough, included casually electrocuting him every time she saw him.
One evening, she came in with his tray wearing a pretty dress. As soon as she’d set it down, she smiled and twirled. “Nice?”
Adam set his book aside and sat up. “Very nice,” he said politely. “Special occasion?”
“Party with other trainee agents to celebrate end of our first exams. It’s being held in the building, so I can actually go.” A hint of anxiety suddenly flitted across her face. “Are you sure I look all right?”
Adam looked closer. Her dress was lovely - a bit unusual, but he had gotten used to fashions changing while he stayed in here - but not necessarily that flattering on her. Friends would have been able to point that out to her in a shop, but this was probably bought for her by someone who didn’t really care. Her make-up was also a little heavy, while she looked perfectly pretty without much at all.
However, looking into her eyes, he could see that an honest opinion was not what she needed to hear right now. “You look beautiful,” he said.
When her face broke into a smile, she really did.
She bounced out of the room, without even pausing to electrocute him. Adam slowly sat down at his desk and pulled the tray towards him. Perhaps she’d hook up with some male agent at this party and lose interest. Maybe she’d even stop coming to see him. As much as he’d come to look forward to her conversation over the years, it would undoubtedly be for the best.
Because frankly, if she kept up the flirty behaviour, one day he was going to forget that she was only nine years old when he’d met her, and see only the woman she’d become.
That night, he was startled awake from dreams of a particularly wild night in Amsterdam by the all-too-familiar sensation of electricity tearing through him. With a yelp, he fell out of bed away from his burning blankets, but the shocks continued. With a lot of effort, he managed to force his body to obey him again, and looked up.
Elle was standing at his door, lightning surging from her hand, looking more furious than he’d ever seen. Finally she stopped, and stood there, breathing heavily, as Adam hauled himself up onto his knees.
“Something wrong?” he managed to ask.
More lightning hit him, sending him sprawling back, as she growled, “Yes, there is something wrong! There is always something wrong! There is something wrong with me!”
“What -” Adam couldn’t manage any more as the electricity charred his lungs faster than he could heal them, but Elle stopped again. “What happened?”
She lowered her hand. “It went wrong. Of course it went wrong. It always goes wrong!”
“What happened?” repeated Adam, slowly and calmly. He tentatively got to his feet and tried subtly to feel the damage in his shirt.
“Someone spilled a drink on me,” she said, voice breaking with rage, “I wasn’t expecting it. I shorted out, zapped myself - and the guy who was talking to me.” She took a breath in slowly, and let it out. “He’s in the medical ward now.”
There was still lightning crackling around her fingertips. “I’m sorry,” said Adam slowly, “But I’m sure it’s not as bad as you’re imagining.” She didn’t respond, so he turned to his cabinet where he kept his spare clothes, and pulled off his ruined shirt. “I mean, they’re agents, half of them have powers themselves-”
More lightning burst through him, smashing him against the wall. “Not ones they can’t keep control of for one evening! They all think I’m a freak now!”
“It was one accident!” Adam cried when she paused to let him catch breath, “They probably don’t care!”
“Of course they care!” Her eyes were filling with tears, and more electricity shot from her fingertips in erratic blasts. “They hate me! Everyone hates me! You hate me!”
Adam managed to stagger towards her and grab her hands. “They don’t,” he said firmly, “They do not hate you, and I most certainly don’t hate you-”
Elle suddenly leaned in and kissed him.
The moment stretched out till it felt as long as Adam’s entire life so far. He was suddenly very aware of how pretty she was, how soft her lips were against his, how close they were standing, how he happened to be shirtless, and, dear lord, how long it had been…
And over 300 years of carefully learned practice and restraint fell away to nothing. His mind empty of everything but her, Adam kissed her back, sliding his hands up her arms to hold her face, and she was wrapping her arms tightly around him, pressing herself against him, as the kisses grew deeper, more passionate and urgent, as though each were afraid they’d lose their nerve.
Oh, what the hell. He could spend the next hundred years being good if he had to, if only to be bad - very bad - right now.
Title: Life Among the Gorillas, Chapter 3
Rating: PG-13
Characters: Adam, Elle, appearances from others
Summary: AU from ‘Dying of the Light’ - quite simply, what would have happened if Adam hadn’t died when his power was taken? How do you adjust from 400 years of immortality to being human again? In this chapter, Adam remembers his time in the Company facility, and how he met Elle.
Author's Note: This could almost be standalone, as it's basically one long flashback. But it serves to provide backstory for later plot, so, it gets included as a chapter. Once again, thanks to the awesome nowhack for beta-ing, though it was so long ago when I first sent this to her...
Chapter 1, Chapter 2
insanientis dum sapientis
consultus erro…
I was wandering as an expert of insane wisdom… (Horace Ode 1.34)
Adam’s Cell, Hartsdale NY
1992
Adam Monroe had had just about enough.
It was bad enough that he’d been locked up in this hellhole for the last 15 years. It was bad enough that they didn’t even let him move cells for whatever minor change in surroundings that would allow. It was bad enough that they practically taunted him with the passing of time, as Arthur Petrelli would visit and mention events going on in the outside world that he was missing (he couldn’t believe he’d missed the fall of the Berlin Wall) and show him photos of his growing sons.
But did they have to have a birthday party just upstairs, where the incessantly cheery singing echoed down the pipes into his cell?
He just sat on the edge of his bed, fists clenched, breathing in and out. He was extremely good at breathing exercises. He’d had long enough to practise them. If he could just harness his chi, as that wise old master had tried to teach him - or was it a drunk in a bar in Chicago?...
Oh good lord, they were singing again. He couldn’t take it any more. He had been planning on saving this escape routine for a weekend, when there were less staff around - but it sounded like they were distracted, so why not now?
He went over to his desk chair and took hold of one of the legs - which he had been slowly weakening over the past few weeks - and snapped it off easily. He ran his fingers over the edge, and winced. He may not be able to feel pain, but that didn’t mean the thought of this didn’t turn his stomach.
He looked at himself in the mirror, saying a silent goodbye to the only friend he’d had over the past few decades. He knew they wouldn’t let him die - they even had supplies of his own blood just in case. He knew Arthur was keeping him alive in case he ever had an accident and needed to heal. He knew he was being preserved for all the valuable information tucked away in his brain.
Though, he thought with grim humour as he wedged the broken-off leg between the desk and his bed at a careful angle, he’d better hope they knew all that too.
Then, having positioned himself just the right distance away, he took a deep breath and let himself fall forward onto the broken leg.
“We’ve managed to remove the object from his eye, the brain already seems to be healing itself,” one man was saying professionally.
“Jesus, this man is crazy,” another said, less professionally.
“Crazy or not, orders are to keep him alive. The transfusion of his own blood helped, there shouldn’t be any lasting damage - see, you can see the eye reforming now -”
Adam suddenly jerked upright, slamming his head into the nose of the doctor who had been leaning over him to marvel at his regenerating eye and sending him clattering to the floor. The other doctor only had time for his mouth to fall open in shock - not wasting a second, he swung sideways off his gurney with such force that it toppled over, pinning the doctor to the ground. His head smacked against the floor and he, conveniently, also fell unconscious.
Adam discovered he was in metal handcuffs, and rolled his eyes. Honestly, he’d have expected his requirements to be common knowledge by now. He simply dislocated his thumbs and slid his hands through, popping them back in as he straightened.
The doctors hadn’t managed to sound the alarm, but he’d raised enough of a racket to attract attention. He quickly palmed a scalpel from a tray by the door and slipped out into the hallway.
There were running footsteps echoing down the corridor towards him, so Adam quickly took off in the opposite direction. Seconds later, the alarm sounded - music to his ears - and he slipped down side corridors and shortcuts that he knew. Honestly, hadn’t they thought through the disadvantages of holding him somewhere he knew this well? Would it have killed them to transport him somewhere new and exciting?
He hurried past an empty room still strewn with the detritus of a birthday party and slipped round a corner, where he stopped in surprise. There was a small blonde girl standing about halfway down the corridor. She seemed to be reading some fire safety instructions on the wall, but she quickly turned to stare at him instead. She was wearing a pretty party dress and, he saw, had a big badge pinned to her front with a big number ‘9’ on it. He seemed to have found the birthday girl. And she was staring at him, open-mouthed.
A hostage? Not much point - bullets wouldn’t stop him for long, and as much as he disliked children, he was hardly keen to use one as a helmet. So instead he kept running, smiling politely and waving as he approached her.
“Are you the magician?” she demanded, “Daddy said I was having a magician.”
“Oh yes,” he said as he passed her, and called back over his shoulder, “Watch me disappear!”
She said nothing. Adam hurried faster as he approached the next corner - just round this one, down a flight of stairs, and there was the emergency exit, and out there -
His body suddenly exploded with electricity. Adam stared, baffled, at the blue crackles running all over his torso and down his limbs - some security system he didn’t know about? - when suddenly it intensified, and he yelled in surprise and fell to the floor, muscles contorting and spasming as it surged through him again, and again, and again -
He turned his head and saw the girl walking towards him, the electricity streaming from her hand to his chest, head tilted to one side and a growing smile on her face.
“You were escaping,” she said.
She finally halted the flow of electricity, and Adam could only lie there on the ground, panting, waiting for his muscles to mend so he could get up. As soon as he could speak, he managed, “Believe me - you would too - just let me -”
The little girl’s eyes were widening at the sight of his mending body. “You get better!” she said in delight, and before Adam could say anything else, she shot him again, a long stream of lightning punctuated by smaller bolts fired at whichever locations seemed to amuse her. “This is fun!” she said in delight.
Under any other situation, that would require some dry sarcastic response from Adam, but right now there was so much voltage coursing through him he could feel his heart skipping erratically. If she kept this up -
There were footsteps coming down the corridor. “Well done, Elle!” he heard a sickeningly familiar voice calling, “You caught him!”
“He was trying to escape!” said Elle gleefully, “And he gets better from my lightning!”
“He’s a very bad man,” agreed Bob, drawing level to Elle and ruffling her hair. He looked down at Adam with a smug smile that immediately became the worst part of this mess. “You’ll make a fine agent one day.”
Elle’s smile widened, and she intensified the electricity surging from her hands into his body. Adam’s back arched violently, and his screams rattled the ceiling tiles. If he could feel pain, this would be unbearable - as it was, it was just extremely, extremely uncomfortable, and his brain was almost short-circuiting with frantic messages from all over his body that something was very wrong.
“That’s enough now, though,” Bob added quickly, “Remember what the doctor said about using your power. Let these men take him back to his room.”
Elle didn’t stop, but she frowned as the steady stream turned instead into distinct blasts, which instantly blackened whichever part of Adam they struck. “I - I can’t turn it off -”
“That’s enough, Elle,” said Bob more firmly, “No more lightning or you won’t get any cake, you hear me?”
“I can’t turn it off!” cried Elle, her face stricken by panic. The blasts were becoming more erratic and more powerful, and she didn’t seem to have any control over where they went any more, as they struck the floor and the walls around her. People who had come with Bob started to back away as Elle turned to him, desperate, as the electricity spread from her hands and crackled all over her. “Help me!” she pleaded.
Bob just took two steps back from her and shouted at an orderly, “Get the doctor in here! She needs to be put back on the lithium drip right away! And get him out of here,” he snapped at another couple of orderlies, pointing at Adam, “Get him back in his cell.”
Adam was too exhausted to resist as they stepped around the crying girl and hauled him to his feet. The injection of a sedative was almost a relief, and he gladly slipped into unconsciousness.
The next few days in his cell were even more agonising than usual, because Adam wasn’t even allowed to get up from his bed. He may be able to heal constantly, but electricity still played havoc with his heartbeat, so he had to rest while they made sure it was returning to normal. Occasionally it would flutter erratically, and while it was no huge emergency - even without oxygenated blood reaching all of his body, cells would regenerate soon enough - he still had to wait for it to settle down.
And it was extremely dull. All he could do was stare up at the ceiling tiles, feel his heart twitching, and try to come up with a new excuse for them to take him out of his room. They were going to be on high alert around him for the next five years, at least.
There was only one distracting moment in the monotony. He wondered what had happened to Elle occasionally - being left alone with his thoughts for so long meant he thought about everything eventually - and was very surprised, one afternoon, to see her wander idly into view outside his observation window.
She looked casual, but it was the exaggerated kind of casualness which small children adopted when they were doing something they knew they shouldn’t. She was looking around, so he guessed she was exploring. She looked down from the ceiling in through the window - and her face lit up.
“Magician!” she yelled.
Adam was startled. She looked happy to see him. But the last time he’d seen her, she’d been happy to zap him with unknown quantities of electricity, before she even knew he could heal.
He shook his head. He would never understand children.
She was banging on the glass. “Magician! Hello!”
Uncertain of what to do, after a moment, Adam waved. “Hello,” he said cautiously.
She beamed. “Are you all better?”
“Yes.”
“I zapped you more than I’ve ever zapped anyone before. Daddy was very impressed.”
Well, that confirmed that theory. He firmly stopped his brain from dwelling on the fact that Bob Bishop had reproduced. “I can imagine he would be.”
“You got better very quickly.”
Adam was being quickly reminded of just why he didn’t like children. Already her voice felt like a drill in his brain. He leaned back on his bed and said to the ceiling, “I can heal. Just like you’ve got the lightning.”
“Daddy said that I’m special.”
“Yes,” said Adam, rolling his eyes. He knew the requisite response here, but it didn’t mean he felt any better about saying it. “We’re all special. In our own ways.”
There was a pause. “Are there other people like us? Am I not that special after all?”
Adam sat up. There was genuine hurt in her voice, and her face had fallen. “Well,” he said slowly, “I’ve never met anyone else who can do what you can do. So you’re special in that respect.”
She looked hopeful. “Really? I’m the only one?”
“The only one.”
Her face broke into a wide, proud smile. “Good.”
Job done, Adam fell back against his bed again.
“Daddy says I have to live here now,” she went on, “Because the doctor thinks I’m dangerous. I think the doctor’s stupid. I wanted to zap him too, but Daddy said no.”
“Isn’t there anyone else you can go talk to?” said Adam exasperatedly, “I’m sure ‘Daddy’ doesn’t want you talking to me.”
“Not really,” she said, “Daddy’s busy and no-one else comes near me unless they have to. They’re scared of me.”
Adam rolled his eyes. Honestly, how many issues was Bob trying to install in his daughter? “Just ignore them,” he called, “They’ll always fear people like us. You’re better than them, never forget it.”
She was quiet for so long Adam thought she might have walked away without him hearing. But then he heard her say, so quietly he almost missed it, “People like us.”
Loud footsteps were approaching, and a voice calling, “Elle? Elle!”
“I have to go,” she whispered, “Thank you!” And she scampered off, before Adam even began to wonder why she was thanking him.
Elle soon became a regular feature of Adam’s life. She couldn’t visit often, she told him, because Daddy got ‘concerned’. However, every week or so, Adam would hear the familiar patter of feet hurrying along the corridor to his cell, and by the time he’d sat up she’d be tapping on his window, smiling brightly as always.
The visits went one of two ways. If Elle was in a good mood, she’d talk at him for an hour or so, about the little things that filled a small girl’s day and how she felt about all of them and what she wanted to do when she was a grown-up. On those days, Adam would sit back and let her chatter wash over him. After a while it even stopped being annoying, and became somehow comforting. It reminded him of the old days, when he could grow bored with his immortality, and would just find somewhere to sit and listen to people’s inane chatter. It reminded him why life was at least better than the alternative; it might be filled with trivialities, but at least it was full.
On other days, when Elle was quieter, she would ask him questions. She asked him for stories from his travels, from his many centuries in the world. She’d sit rapt and wide-eyed as he told of all the things he’d seen and done. Occasionally, she’d gasp in excitement if he mentioned something she’d learned about from her history tutor, and would always be delighted if he pointed out an error the teacher had made.
Those visits always ended the same way. She would sit silently, taking in whatever he’d just told her. And then she’d say, “You could be making it all up.”
He’d shrug and say, “It’s very possible.”
“How can I believe you?”
“I guess you can’t.”
She’d nod, and get to her feet. “I’ll come back next week,” she’d say, “At least you make your stories fun.”
And so this routine carried on for years. Elle became his greatest sign of time passing, as she slowly grew taller, smarter, sharper. She talked less about what people told her, and more about what she herself thought. She started to wear her hair long and choose her own clothes with more care. The first day she turned up wearing make-up really drove home to Adam how much time was passing, and his resentment towards Bob Bishop and the rest of the Company dug a little deeper.
One day, Adam heard the familiar sound of her feet approaching - no longer scampering in trainers, but walking carefully in heeled shoes - and sighed, and put aside the book he was reading, wondering what she might ask him today.
His door opened. He sat upright so quickly his head spun, his eyebrows arched in surprise. Elle - looking smarter than he’d ever seen her - was carrying his usual tray of food, and closing the door behind her.
“This is new,” he said slowly.
She smiled. “Daddy’s finally given me a job. I’m in the agent training program, but for now, it’s errands and paperwork - and this.”
“This?” His eyebrows weren’t coming down. “You know, there’s a slot for my tray in the - ”
“I know.” She set the tray down on his desk, and turned to look sideways at him, a playful smile on her face. “It’s been nine years. I guess I wanted to see you without a sheet of glass in the way.”
Good Lord. She had been doing a lot of growing up. He held out his arms. “Ta-da - here I am.”
Her smile widened. She stepped in between his arms and hugged him tightly. Taken aback, Adam hesitated, but then nervously put his own arms around her. Oh God, her hair smelled really good. He knew he should step back, right this second, or Bob would make his life extremely unpleasant - but Elle was holding him tightly, and for a second, he could imagine he was back with Yaeko, or Angelica, or Diane…
Electricity surged into him, and he yelped in surprise. He looked down to find Elle looking up at him, smirking. “Here you are,” she replied.
Adam pushed her away and walked a little way off, laughing nervously. The smell of the singed fabric of his T-shirt stung his nostrils. “Don’t you have other things you need to be doing?”
Elle’s eyes flashed, and electricity crackled around her fingertips. “Got somewhere you need to be?”
“No, I was just - doesn’t your dad mind you coming in here?”
“He doesn’t need to know.” She took a step towards him, and Adam hastily took two away.
“He’ll probably find out. You should go. Besides, I need to - avail myself of the facilities.” He looked pointedly at the toilet, and then back to her.
She didn’t look very happy. “Fine,” she snapped, and stalked past him towards the door. Adam let out a silent sigh of relief - until another bolt of electricity struck him square in the back, making him jump. He turned to see Elle grinning from the door.
“Later, alligator.” She opened it and, with a wink, slipped out through it. Adam listened to her footsteps receding down the hall, then collapsed onto the bed with a heavy exhalation.
God help him, but those 24 years had never seemed longer.
From that day, Elle’s visits took quite a different turn. She visited him every day, morning and night, bringing him food. Even a man who hadn’t had nearly 400 years of experience would be able to see she was flirting with him. She was hardly a master seductress - understandable, considering she hadn’t been outside all her life, and also happened to be a paranoid sociopath - but she didn’t really leave Adam in any doubt of how she saw him.
That was, he knew, as something new and exciting to play with rather than anything serious. She might find him attractive, that was possible, but she had no idea what she was actually doing. So Adam very firmly kept his distance, remaining polite and cordial but nothing more, and he gave her no sign of encouragement. He didn’t particularly want to give Bob any reason to ‘accidentally’ let him die. She seemed undeterred, however, and kept up the flirtatious behaviour - which, strangely enough, included casually electrocuting him every time she saw him.
One evening, she came in with his tray wearing a pretty dress. As soon as she’d set it down, she smiled and twirled. “Nice?”
Adam set his book aside and sat up. “Very nice,” he said politely. “Special occasion?”
“Party with other trainee agents to celebrate end of our first exams. It’s being held in the building, so I can actually go.” A hint of anxiety suddenly flitted across her face. “Are you sure I look all right?”
Adam looked closer. Her dress was lovely - a bit unusual, but he had gotten used to fashions changing while he stayed in here - but not necessarily that flattering on her. Friends would have been able to point that out to her in a shop, but this was probably bought for her by someone who didn’t really care. Her make-up was also a little heavy, while she looked perfectly pretty without much at all.
However, looking into her eyes, he could see that an honest opinion was not what she needed to hear right now. “You look beautiful,” he said.
When her face broke into a smile, she really did.
She bounced out of the room, without even pausing to electrocute him. Adam slowly sat down at his desk and pulled the tray towards him. Perhaps she’d hook up with some male agent at this party and lose interest. Maybe she’d even stop coming to see him. As much as he’d come to look forward to her conversation over the years, it would undoubtedly be for the best.
Because frankly, if she kept up the flirty behaviour, one day he was going to forget that she was only nine years old when he’d met her, and see only the woman she’d become.
That night, he was startled awake from dreams of a particularly wild night in Amsterdam by the all-too-familiar sensation of electricity tearing through him. With a yelp, he fell out of bed away from his burning blankets, but the shocks continued. With a lot of effort, he managed to force his body to obey him again, and looked up.
Elle was standing at his door, lightning surging from her hand, looking more furious than he’d ever seen. Finally she stopped, and stood there, breathing heavily, as Adam hauled himself up onto his knees.
“Something wrong?” he managed to ask.
More lightning hit him, sending him sprawling back, as she growled, “Yes, there is something wrong! There is always something wrong! There is something wrong with me!”
“What -” Adam couldn’t manage any more as the electricity charred his lungs faster than he could heal them, but Elle stopped again. “What happened?”
She lowered her hand. “It went wrong. Of course it went wrong. It always goes wrong!”
“What happened?” repeated Adam, slowly and calmly. He tentatively got to his feet and tried subtly to feel the damage in his shirt.
“Someone spilled a drink on me,” she said, voice breaking with rage, “I wasn’t expecting it. I shorted out, zapped myself - and the guy who was talking to me.” She took a breath in slowly, and let it out. “He’s in the medical ward now.”
There was still lightning crackling around her fingertips. “I’m sorry,” said Adam slowly, “But I’m sure it’s not as bad as you’re imagining.” She didn’t respond, so he turned to his cabinet where he kept his spare clothes, and pulled off his ruined shirt. “I mean, they’re agents, half of them have powers themselves-”
More lightning burst through him, smashing him against the wall. “Not ones they can’t keep control of for one evening! They all think I’m a freak now!”
“It was one accident!” Adam cried when she paused to let him catch breath, “They probably don’t care!”
“Of course they care!” Her eyes were filling with tears, and more electricity shot from her fingertips in erratic blasts. “They hate me! Everyone hates me! You hate me!”
Adam managed to stagger towards her and grab her hands. “They don’t,” he said firmly, “They do not hate you, and I most certainly don’t hate you-”
Elle suddenly leaned in and kissed him.
The moment stretched out till it felt as long as Adam’s entire life so far. He was suddenly very aware of how pretty she was, how soft her lips were against his, how close they were standing, how he happened to be shirtless, and, dear lord, how long it had been…
And over 300 years of carefully learned practice and restraint fell away to nothing. His mind empty of everything but her, Adam kissed her back, sliding his hands up her arms to hold her face, and she was wrapping her arms tightly around him, pressing herself against him, as the kisses grew deeper, more passionate and urgent, as though each were afraid they’d lose their nerve.
Oh, what the hell. He could spend the next hundred years being good if he had to, if only to be bad - very bad - right now.