Where there had just been just been him and his followers, now there would be a legacy.
He would die knowing the Strand lived.
Gabriel surveys the plans before him, painstakingly put together. He wants the world to know he is the first child of Genomex, wants the world to remember. Almost ten months now, the waiting is almost over.
"Gabriel?"
A tiny voice, man, scientist, doctor...words, images course through him without warning, rip his senses apart...until he gathers his control, pulls himself together again.
The serum...it binds him until he falls apart, Gabriel hates it, loves it even though it is nothing more than a temporary reprieve.
The man, Nathan, afraid of his own shadow jumps back when Gabriel looks at him. There's a brief instant where Gabriel imagines the satisfaction in incinerating the fool. Nathan is a traitor...but Gabriel needs him. He holds out his arm and Nathan springs to life. The needle pierces his skin and Gabriel sighs. It is nectar, exquisite relief. Gabriel leans back in his chair, closes his eyes. Concentrates on the moment when he will rip the child from the mutant, from Genomex. Make it his legacy.
~~~
Days, infinite moments stretch before Jesse. He is afraid of them, of what they will hold. Mutant X is a memory, he has made sure of that.
"Jesse?"
Sam slips in quietly, his unlikely ...friend? Whatever.
He sits up on the couch, cannot help the wince as pain lances through him. He knows it will be soon. His body changes everyday. *He* changes.
"Are you all right?" Sam asks. Crouches at Jesse's side, reaches out for him, but his hand falls just short.
Always short. He cannot remember when that began to bother him.
"Yeah," Jesse lies. He knows Sam doesn't believe him, but it's the only answer he will give. Tentatively, a broad hand settles against his forehead, brushes the wisps of his hair away. Lines at the corner of his eyes, he recognizes as Sam gives him a once over with his x-ray vision. He has never asked what Sam sees.
"I'm fine," he reiterates, Sam's hand falls away immediately.
"Of course."
Cool words, out of his control - mouth, body, words. This time he reaches out, catches Sam's hand in his.
"Can you stay?"
There. He's asked, shown his weakness and there's an old memory of Adam's voice to never show any weaknesses, to push it down and shove it into the darkest recesses of his mind...but.
Adam is not here, in this place that is supposed to be his home, in the darkness on the couch, in the kitchen as he tries to eat without throwing up and when Sam is the one that holds his hair back, is there without him having to ask...
Until now.
Sam's eyes close, the mark of his lashes dark against his skin, until he looks up again.
"Yes."
Sam settles down next to him, their knees touching.
He doesn't hear Adam's voice after that.
~~~