>>“Run, Gemma! Now! Head for the barn!”

And she ran. She ran past Jorge, and ran past the apples that were still kind of confused by the water that was blocking their way. She could tell how her abilities would affect Jorge; but she had no time to think about it.
And she ran.

Reaching the barn, she looked in, keeping the gun ready to fire at anything that would attack her. She could not see Johnny anywhere. Just how wide his range in anyway, she mused, rounding the barn and running on, following the path. The bay was controlling an army of mutant apples, and he was not even within sight.

"Damn."

Gemma had become little more than a blur to Jorge as she went charging by. He could tell that she tried to keep him out of her nullifying field, but it was of no use. Before he knew it, he felt that waver, that loss of control as she deactivated his abilities, forcing him to lose contact with the water he used to keep the apple creatures at bay. But it didn’t last long. As she went running by, Jorge slouched a little, like someone suddenly having their taunt tether snipped and found himself almost kneeling onto the ground. The walls of water he had put up splashed onto the ground in a cascade as liquid seeped into the grass and soil before him. For that moment…he was completely defenseless…

The sound of a heartbeat thundered in his ears, a drop of sweat tickled agonizingly slow down his forehead…the seconds lasted what seemed like an eon. His connection to the lifesaving waters was completely gone as he stared dumbfounded at the living fruit creatures as they started to once more climb to their feet.

“Come on, Gemma, run faster,” he mumbled as he watched her go. Then, before he knew it, there it was again. That sensation of feeling the water all around him, seeped into the earth and dripping from a leaky garden hose off in the distance, it was all there and waiting for him.

With a resurged feeling, Jorge moved to his feet and began to run after Gemma. She had disappeared into the barn so he would follow. The Orchard was supposed to be on a path somewhere behind it, but just as he ran passed the fallen beasts, then he saw Gemma already on the other side, outside of the barn. She must have found the path already. A smirk of appreciation for her crossed his lips as he leapt over the last of the apples, which tried to claw him mid-air, and kept running. As he did, he reached back and pulled more water to him. It flew up from the ground and swirled to his waiting hand. Forming a tight, swirling globe, Jorge concentrated on keeping it formed as he ran and glanced back to see one of the apples already up and running after him.

Quickly the detective leapt up, spun mid-air and hurled the globe of water with all his might, looking almost like an expert bowler. The water flew and struck the apple hard, once more knocking back onto the soft, grassy floor. This time, it didn’t get up. Breathlessly, Jorge ran past the barn and headed for the back where he last saw Gemma.

He had just stepped onto the path when he saw her up ahead. With relieved look he jogged up to her and saw that she was still armed and indeed, unhurt. He was thankful for that much anyways.

“You alright?” he asked honestly.

Before he could dwell too much on their safety though, a strange smell wafted over his nose. For a moment he was lost, reminded of times when his mother used to bake or come back from the grocery store with fresh fruits. It was so alluring that he had to actually shake his head to make bring his senses back under control. Whatever caused that delicious scent was coming from up ahead. With a glance to Gemma, noted that she must have smelled it too, that could mean only one thing…

“Orchard” he said silently and began to lead the wall, seeking out the birthplace of this monstrous fruit and their controller.

>>“You alright?”

"Yes" she nodded; she was very far from all right, but she was not injured, and that was what he wanted to know. It was all he needed t know, for now. All the rest can come later.
She smelled the air too; they were, hopefully, gettinc close to the source of the problem.

>>“Orchard”

"Let's go." Gemma nodded, letting him lead the way, falling behind a few steps to allow him to use his abilities.

She wondered what the kid was doing all the way out here. She could tell Peggy was not telling them everything - why would suddenly the boy decide to attack the house like that? Maybe he did not like being treated as different. Still, there needed to be a last straw. There was always a last straw.

"Do you see anything?"

>> "Let's go…Do you see anything?"

No. At first Jorge could see nothing at all but it was not his sight that he was following, only his sense of smell. The scent of the apples was so strong in the air that it was extremely hard to ignore. It seeped in through his nostrils, maneuvered into his blood and pumped into the very center of his brain. It was such an intoxicating and alluring scent that he really had a hard time trying to keep his brain focused. If this is what the inn found as a means to sustain themselves in tough times, no wonder they managed to keep open so long. Fresh smelling apples like that were sure to keep most any customer coming back for more.

That was the irony though. The apple themed was so played out back in the inn that Jorge was sure that if he managed to find a real apple, he would retch. But the smell that came from that distant orchard changed all of that. It was a like some illegal substance that was made from home cooked meals and nights in front of a fireplace.

Shaking his head to get his bearings right, Jorge continued on the path, making sure that Gemma was safely behind him. So far they heard no more from that mutated apples. Maybe they were after the house again, attempting to get inside but what more could they want from those people? Maybe whoever was controlling them just figured that he and Gemma were simply running away and were not worth the trouble. Still, it seemed odd that he couldn’t hear anything in these trees. Then, as he stepped past another large tree, the smell became so strong that it could have bowled him over.

He stepped out into a small clearing and saw the perfectly spaced trees, laden with extremely heavy fruit. No wonder the smell was so strong! He blinked in wonder as he looked around and glanced back to make sure that Gemma was behind him. The only thing he could do was shrug. So far there was no sign of Johnny, just the heavy fruit trees which was sure birthed those terrifying apple creatures. But if those trees were the result of Johnny’s mutant gifts, as Peggy confirmed, then where was the man? Just how far did his abilities spread? There had to be a limit.

With a concentrated sigh he shook his head. “I don’t like this. I can’t see him anywhere out there.” Jorge said to Gemma as he looked around. He did not want to leave her side, but at the same time, if he stayed too close his abilities would be useless. Having no way of using his waters abilities put them both at a serious disadvantage against whoever this fruitmancer was. “Can you see an-“

He immediately paused as his straining eyes focused on a distant tree. There was something slumped down against the trunk. At first he figured it was just the malformation of the tree’s roots, but it was not that. Something just felt wrong about it. Slowly he inched forward, catching sight of a jean clad leg and a tennis shoe. For a moment relief filled him as they had finally found Johnny. After all, who else could it be in this orchard? Then again…why wasn’t he moving?

“Johnny? Johnny this is the NYPD,” he announced as he stepped forward, listening to make sure that Gemma still followed. But as he walked around the tree, he had to cringe and turn away. It was obvious that Johnny was no longer among the living, especially since the human neck doesn’t bend that far down.

>>“I don’t like this. I can’t see him anywhere out there. Can you see an... Johnny? Johnny this is the NYPD,”

Gemma raised the shotgun and followed Jorge carefully; the boy did not seem to move, but one could not be too careful, especially if he was really commanding those apples. They were on his turf, in the middle of the orchard.

And Johnny was dead.

Gemma took a deep breath to calm herself down, and then let the gun down. She'd seen dead people before; but it did not make this any better. It was not digust, even though it was clear what killed him; it was sadness. He was young. And probably innocent. And had a mutation he could not control.

"That's not good." she said with a sigh, leaning down to check. He was really dead. "But if he's not doing it, then who?... Just me standying by him won't make a difference now..."

>> "That's not good…But if he's not doing it, then who?... Just me standying by him won't make a difference now..."

Jorge said nothing. Not out of rudeness but as he stood there, looking at the cold, lifeless eyes of Johnny a strange feeling crept up his spine. He wasn’t one to be easily freaked out. After all he had been a cop for many years and had seen all types of the most grotesque death scenes and the worst murder suicides. So a dead body did not really cause his stomach to turn. No, this was something different. It was the sensation of being watched, of sensing that somebody had turned their eyes upon them and was watching their every move.

The detective watched the dead eyes of Johnny. The feeling was there but he knew it was not Johnny who was gaze he felt. Well, at least not the Johnny was that was lying there in front of them, slumped back against a tree with his neck broken thanks to an over-sized and overly heavy apple. But still, even though he knew the man was dead, that did not change the fact that he still felt himself being watched…

…eyed with malicious intent.

A wary glance was cast about as Jorge turned away from Johnny’s dead body and scanned the rest of the area. The rest of the orchard was quiet as quiet can be. No wind rustled, no birds chirp, not even a leaf seemed to be disturbed. What was it about this place that was so wrong? If Johnny was dead and he was the fruitmancer, then how were those apples still alive? What were they going to do?

Then a rustle of leaves grabbed his attention. He shot a look around as he tried to focus on one tree or another, trying to locate the source of that sound but every tree looked exactly the same and in none of them could be find a shaking leaf!

“Come on Gemma,” he said in an urgent whisper. “I don’t think we’re wanted here any more.”

He took a step towards her then…SNAP!! A quick glance up and he saw a similar, large red apple that had broken Johnny’s neck fall for his own head. Suddenly the detective dived aside as the apple PHOOMPED! and struck the ground hard. He rolled into a seating position only to hear another SNAP! then another SNAP!! and yet another SNAP!!. Thankfully the detective was quick on his feet. He may not have been the fastest man alive, but he knew how to duck out of the way of danger! He rolled, dodged and tried to make his way back to Gemma, hoping that she got the hint to run out from under the tree.

Exhausted and perspiring heavily from having to roll and dodge heavy falling apples, the detective grunt as he moved onto his feet.

“Johnny! Whoever you are! Stop this now!!” he screamed as he looked up, eyeing any of the rest of the growing apples from their branches. Then…surprisingly…from their midst he heard…

“Noooooooooo…”

Struck dumb by the fact that he heard what sounded like a tree talk to him, he turned back and forth, seeking out where that sound originated from. He peered high into the thick branches but he could see nothing. Then, one of the heavy apples grew larger and began to take on an odd shape…

Is that a mouth? he thought to himself as he looked closely. Then his fears were confirmed as it spoke again.

“B-Blooooood for….blooooood! Al…killed….now…I killllllllll…”

It was then that several of the apples in the trees began to take on the same shape as the first, forming crude, juice slobbering mouths that all issued out the same chant. Johnny wanted blood…justice for his murder.

Jorge shook his head at this madness as he turned to look back at the tree again. “The tree…you…you somehow…put yourself into the tree…but Johnny…why are you attacking everyone? Why the inn? Why Peggy?”

“No one…have her! Not Al…Not YOU!!”

SNAP!!! Before Jorge knew it, a large apple broke free from its branch and fell like a heavy projectile straight for the top of the detective’s head.

>>“Come on Gemma. I don’t think we’re wanted here any more.”

"And what do you think we should do n..."
She never got to finish that sentence. A huge apple fell, straight for Jorge's head; he dodged and rolled, trying to avoid ending up the same way Johnny did. Gemma did the same; she ran for the safety of the only stop in the orchard where they did not hae apples right above them.

>>“B-Blooooood for….blooooood! Al…killed….now…I killllllllll… No one…have her! Not Al…Not YOU!!”

The pieces of the puzzle were starting to fall into place. Jealousy. Murder? Gemma sighed, not even surprised anymore that a tree was talking to them. Mutant were capable of doing weird things, even after their death.

An apple fell, straight towards Jorge. Gemma jumped, and pushed him out of the way, both of them falling to the ground from the momentum.

"Al is dead!" Gemma yelled "And you are going to kill Peggy too if you don't stop this! She is scared, and sad, and your apples are going to kill her like everyone else!"
It was a shot in the dark, but it was worth a shot .

"We are mutants too, Jonny!" sh continued, talking to the tree "We want to help you."

Jorge heard the missile but had been too slow to look up. By the time that he did and it occurred to his mind that he had to make a run for it, he already felt the impact of Gemma’s body against his. The force of her throwing her weight against him momentarily knocked all the air from his lungs. Jorge saw only a black canvas before his eyes and sparks of white light that accompany nearly blacking out. Gemma had tackled him hard, but it was enough to save his life from the deadly, falling piece of fruit.

A second wave of pain spider-webbed from his back as he hit the ground, flat on his back and took a second to suck in air. As he did this, his detective mind immediately began to put the pieces of this maddening jigsaw puzzle together…

Al and Peggy were a couple, have been for awhile according to Peggy, but also confirmed by her from their last altercation, Johnny was obsessed with Peggy. He was in love with her and love is usually always the motive for the most horrendous of fights. Now they find Johnny’s dead body. More than likely Peggy had confided in Al about what had happened behind the inn and this must have thrown the man into a rage. He seemed like a meathead who could barely control himself, so more than likely his anger drove him to kill Johnny. Now the fruitmancer wanted revenge, having found himself somehow fused with this massive tree, growing an army of apples. But such was his mania that he had no more self-control. Al was did, Jorge and everyone at the inn saw him die, but apparently everyone had to pay now.

Johnny couldn’t be reasoned with anymore…he was slowly turning to pure instinct…

>> "Al is dead! And you are going to kill Peggy too if you don't stop this! She is scared, and sad, and your apples are going to kill her like everyone else!...We are mutants too, Jonny! We want to help you."


“Peg…Peeeeeggggggggy…” it groaned in a voice that one would expect a tree to speak in. For a second, only a second, Jorge almost believed that maybe there could be some reasoning with him. Maybe there was something inside all that bark and wood and leaves that was still human. Maybe they could still rea- “Nooooooooooooooooooo!!! NO HEELLLLLLP!!”

Maybe not. Jorge thought as he stood up and pulled Gemma away from underneath the tree. Once they got onto steady legs, Jorge ran with Gemma in front of him, making sure that she was dodging and stepping over rising roots and falling apples of various sizes. They could not waste time talking with the mutated fruit tree any more. As she had tried to convince it to stop, Jorge had been watching its branches. Rapidly it began to regrow broken limbs and producing more apples at a quicker rate. At this rate Johnny Appletree was going to have an army that they would be able to do nothing about. They needed a plan…but how were they going to stop a tree that could no longer be reasoned with?

A stay distance away, but still close enough to see the apples grow and hearing the groaning, growling voice, Jorge ground his teeth as he looked around. They were in an orchard…they had to be a water source…right?

With a deep breath he glared at the tree and it’s multi-mouthed, heavy apples. “Johnny! This is your last chance! Stop this now!!”

“Neeeeeeeveeeeeeeeeeeeer…not….EEEEVEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRR!”

“Suit yourself.” Anyone else would have assumed that the detective was bluffing, trying his best to fake out the enraged tree…but he was not. After he made sure that he was a safe distance away from Gemma to be connected with his abilities again, Jorge closed his eyes and ground his teeth as he reached out. It had to be there…it must be there…

A well. he thought to himself as he reached out to his limits and felt a tingle was water far below him and off to the side. A glance over and he saw the well there, an old fashioned one that Johnny must have used who knows how many times to aide in his trees’ growth. His hand shooting off to the side, he closed his eyes tight as he felt out with his abilities and began to seize as much water as he could…then he twitched his hand…

FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!

A surge of churning water surged out of the well’s top. It was so much more than Jorge was ever used to controlling but desperate times called for desperate measures. His feet actually sank into the ground slightly, as if a massive weight had been placed onto his shoulders as water, water, and more water flew to his beckoning, surging and swirling in front of him as he tightened his fists. The droplets and splashes flew about, soaking his clothes and pants but even those did not stay on the material long. As soon as they touched his clothing, they immediately leapt off and rejoined the swirling mass of water in front of him…far more than he has even been seen to control.

And the pain of controlling that was much was evident on his face. The sweat poured down his forehead and face before immediately flying off to join the churning mass of water. His eyes were so tightly closed it looked as if his eyes would burst and his neck and forehead bulged so harshly with veins that anyone standing too close would be terrified to watch the man explode. But he didn’t let that stop him. Despite the dehydration, the sandpaper tongue, the dry throat and the throbbing like a conga drum inside of his brain pan…he kept summoning as much water as he could until he nearly reached the brink of his control…

Ahead of him, the murderous Johnny Appletree dropped more and more apples, each of various colors, forming vicious looking mouths and vine-like claws that looked ready to rend flesh. They stood like a wall ready to charge at Jorge and Gemma…

“Gemma!” he grunted painfully, his eyes squinting as he glanced at her, looking pale and exhausted. He looked like a paper cut out of Jorge rather than an actually man. He may have looked terrible…but he had a plan. “C-cover me…I…I’m going to uproot him! It’s the only way!! I…I have to try!!”

He gave her no choice to say no or argue with him. This was not going to be up for discussion right now. If she wanted to slap him and say he was stupid for putting himself into this much harm, she would have to do it later. For now…there was a tree to pull up.

As if reading his mind, the apple horde immediately ran for the attack, charging with all their might as they snarled and clawed the air. Jorge finally made his move. Once all the water was collected, his shot his hands forward, the motion causing him to scream out in pain from the throbbing in his head as he pulled the mass of water directly for the base of the heavy fruit tree. The detective yelled as he put more and more pressure behind the massive jet stream he fired forward. It collided with the tree with a deafening roar that drowned out the man’s screams…the creaking of the tree…even the sound of apples being knocked away that got too close. But he didn’t care, he focused only on pushing as much force behind that jet stream as he could. Fairly soon he was greeted with the sound of leaves rustling and branches breaking from Johnny Appletree.

He risked only the briefest of glances as he looked ahead and saw…that the tree began to tilt back, being ripped from its home in the dirt…its only source of life…

>>“Gemma! C-cover me…I…I’m going to uproot him! It’s the only way!! I…I have to try!!”

Everything was taking a dive into complete chaos. Gemma raised the gun; an army of apples was charging at them, more than she could possibly shoot with the ammo she had. Jorge was using his powers to the very last drop, quite literally. He was trying to tear a fully grown tree up from the ground.

Gemma kept a safe distance, and watched the apples close in. She waited for them to get closer. There was no use trying to scare them off by shooting at random. So she waited. She aimed. She shot the one that got closest to them.

"C'mon c'mon c'mon" she murmured, trying to ignore Jorge's cries of pain as he forced himself to the very limits of his abilities. She shot another apple.
They were actually killing someone. Something. Or something that was left from someone. She did not stop to think about that. Later. She'll have time to think later.

"C'mon Jorge, you can do this..."

>> "C'mon Jorge, you can do this..."

Her words fell on deaf ears. All Jorge could hear was his blood pumping in his ears with a thundering roar. The pain was excruciating as his heart raced and tumbled inside of his chest. To anyone else, they would feel as if a heartattack were going to occur, but Jorge had to keep his mind focused. All of it he pushed to the back of his mind: the thundering heart, the throbbing headache, the weakening in his limbs from the oncoming dehydration…all of it he had to simply forget. The tree in front of him was his only target it in mind. If that tree held the essence, soul, spirit, whatever that was controlling that army of murderous apples, the this was his only option. Gemma stood directly underneath that tree and her nullifying field did nothing to halt the attack, and reason only fell on deaf ears.

Uprooting it was the only answer. He didn’t know if that meant he would be killing Johnny, or simply knocking him out, or depowering him, but it was their only course of action. The mutant needed to be stopped and Jorge was going to do everything in his power to get it done.

The water shrieked in front of him as he sent the massive jet stream over and over again, pounding against the trunk of the tipping tree. It creaked in protest against his actions, trying to struggling back against the oncoming water. Apples angrily attempted to charge but many were either getting caught in the flow of water and knocked away, or Gemma was taking them down one shot at a time with the shotgun.

A bestial grunt escaped from the detective’s lips as he pushed himself to the limit. His muscles drying up and shaking for freedom, his skin looking pale as a flop sweat took over his face, the man simply looked terrible. But he could feel it, the tree giving away more and more. He would not stop until it was done. Then…

Ruuuuuumble…CRACKK!!

The tree issued a cry of pain in the form of an ear deafening crack! It shook and shuddered the earth beneath their feet but the end result was exactly what the man had hoped for. He looked through his blurry eyes as the image of the massive tree snapping free from the earth, sending clods of dirt, rock, and splinters of wood up into the air, mixing with the finely misted after-splashes from the detective’s water jet. It looked like a mushroom cloud of water and debris.

One final and exhausted scream and Jorge pushed the last of his strength into knocking that tree over. The water jet pulled the tree out by its roots and knocked it back onto the ground with a thundering shudder that sent leaves into the air. A massive dent was situated directly into the center of the tree’s massive trunk, punched in by the force of all the water that Jorge had sent against it. The second that the man heard the falling tree, he dropped his arms to his side, losing all control of the water that he had just been manipulating. It splashed onto the grass and soil and immediately disappeared from sight, leaving only the puddles and glistening blades of grass. But that was not the only cheery sight to behold…the apples, all the attacking apples, had keeled over and began to shrivel.

Yet Jorge did nothing to celebrate their success. Instead the man simply stood there, knees slightly bent as his arms remained limp at his sides and his head hung down, face towards the ground. At first he appeared only to stand there with only the sound of his own breathing echoing in the eerily quiet orchard. It was eerie as he stood there, unmoving, only breathing in an extremely shallow manner…then his knees buckled.

Exhausted…no longer able to support his own weight…might momentarily lost of the blackness of unconsciousness...

Detective Jorge Cervantes tumbled into a heap on the soft grass, all the while a very thin trail of blood seeped out from one of his nostrils.

The tree fell. It hit the ground with a deafening crack, and Gemma couldn't help but feel like they just broke someone, a living person, in half. But, on the plus side, the apples fell too, and started to shrink. It looked like it was finally over.

Jorge collapsed.

In the next moment, Gemma was by his side; she put the gun down to be able to hold him up. Chenking to see how bad he got hurt, she felt worried and scared, even though the fight was over.

"You did it" she muttered "You really did it."

Taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down, she collected her thoughts about what to do next. Reaching into Jorge's pockets, she finally found his cellphone. Now the only thing left to do was to call MRC and tell them they had just been attacked by mutant apples. And won.

Once she made all the calls she needed to make, she put the cellphone down. Now they just had to wait till the ambulance, police, MRC, etc. showed up. The orchard was eerily silent; everything was wet, cold, and unmoving. Gemma wrapped her arms around Jorge, and waited.

(OOC: Hope this is okay Mirror.)

Thundering water. That is the only sound that Jorge Cervantes could hear breaking in through the thick, heavy blackness that weighed down on his head. It was an odd feeling. There were times where he felt lucid, like he was sure people saying just on the brink of his range of hearing, and then there were times where he could hear nothing at all. It was a scary for a moment and left him with the question was whether or not this was death. After all, he could occasionally hear something, but never could he see anything. That was it? This is how Detective Jorge Cervantes died? Uprooting an apple tree?

But then he felt that first sensation of life returning to his body…his toe twitched. If he had been dead, there was no way he could have felt that. Slowly, at least it appeared slowly to him since he had no concept of time, sensations began to erupt all over his body: a toe twitch here, a fist clench there, a muscle following, it only proved that the man was not dead. This was further evident by the plain and simple fact that the man could only feel pain.

This was not just any pain, that the detective felt, it was an exhausted pain. A pain that only comes to a person who has pushed themselves to the absolute, bare bones limit! Had he done any more…well…he feared to think what would have really happened to him.

More time passed and with only the darkness to keep him company, Jorge fell into the last thoughts he remembered having. He could recall the incident that brought him to this point…that apple tree. He was on vacation with Gemma, in some…horrible apple themed place. Apples hung everywhere, the food was all made of apples, the décor was apples, and on top of all that…apples tried to kill him.

That’s right his own voice echoed in the blackness of his mind. Apples tried to kill me. Because…because of Johnny. The spurned fruitmancer mutant…

It was all coming back to him now. The inn they were staying at was attacked by an army of living apples, all working under the orders of a single mutant who wanted revenge for being killed by the boyfriend of the woman he loved. He remembered watching a man be dismembered, then running off to a hidden away orchard with Gemma in order to stop the mutant. They were shocked to find, though, that the man was already dead, his essence trapped inside of a fruit tree. There was no reasoning with the man by then so they had to do the only thing that they could…he had to uproot it. That explained why he felt like this. The amount of water he needed to uproot the tree was massive, much more than he was comfortable moving at one time. But if that were so…what happened? Did he succeed? Was he alive or was he some sort of vegetable now? Was Gemma safe?

The realization of all of came crashing down on his head and seemed almost too much to bear. He wanted answers and he wanted then n-

Gaaaaaaaaaaasp!

Jorge breathed in deep as he suddenly sat up, eyes wide as he tried to focus on where he was and what was going on. His whole body felt like he had gone ten rounds with a boxing kangaroo and was on the losing end. He sucked in air greedily as he clenched his eyes, trying his best to refocus on his surroundings. As the blurriness slowly began to dissipate, he noted that the room he was very plan and looked kind of official. Almost like a doctor’s office of a hospital room. It was then that he noted the steady beeping of a heart monitor and a gleam of the metal bars on the side of his wide bed. So, this was a hospital…

“G-Gem-“ his voice was immediately cut off by a riot of coughing that struck his overly dry throat. It felt like it have been at least a day or two since he last had water pass his lips. But he couldn’t dwell on it. Choking back another coughing attack, he looked around the bare room for any sign that Gemma was there and safe.

"Ssssshhh, it's okay, it's okay" Gemma had been sitting by the bed; when Jorge woke up and gasped for air, she leaned over to look at him, and let him see her "I'm here, Jorge, everything is fine."

Holding his hand in one hand, she put her palm against his cheek. The doctors said he was getting better; he was exhausted beyond measure, but that was due to how he overused his powers; he hadn't been hurt that badly. Still, she could imagine he'd be confused.

"It's all right now" she murmured, smiling at him "You did great."

He had been out for the night, and most of the next day; it was getting late in the afternoon, and she had spent several hours sitting by him. He was finally awake; Gemma felt as if a great weight had been lifted off her chest. Leaning over, she kissed him gently on the forehead.

"How are you feeling?"

>> "Ssssshhh, it's okay, it's okay…I'm here, Jorge, everything is fine."

For a moment, Jorge had been surprised by the voice since he did not immediately recognize it. After all, waking up from an unknown amount of time tended to make one just a little foggy headed. It was a haze for a moment what had really happened to him and why he was sitting in a hospital bed and felt so utterly parched and beat up. But as the second passed as he saw Gemma’s smiling face, the only thing that occupied his mind now was a tremendous sense of relief. Her voice, that smile, the look in her eye, they all served to anchor him back to reality as his thoughts were flooded with remembering exactly what had happened.

“Gemma,” he whispered hoarsely as he very slowly allowed himself to lie back down in the bed. “I’m…glad that…you’re okay,” he said, swallowing painfully between words.

He needed water. But this was not your normal, just quenching a small first, his whole body ached for something to drink. A tired glance off to the side and he noticed a cup with some glittering liquid inside of it. With a shaky arm, he reached over and picked up the small, plastic cup. The water inside even smelled good to him as he pressed it up his lips and took a very small sip. As much as he wanted to engorge himself in water, he knew better than that. He could end up making himself worse if he drank it too fast.

A gentle sip or two and he already began to look better. He sighed a little contentedly as he turned his attention back to Gemma, smiling back at her a little weakly. From the look in her eyes, he could tell that things must have turned out okay, which could only mean that he had succeeded in uprooting Johnny from the ground. Whatever that meant, whether he simply stopped the man, or had really killed him, Jorge didn’t know. And for now he was not going to dwell on it. Instead he was just going to bask in the fact that the pair of them were alive and well.

Then she smiled and spoke again…

>> "It's all right now…You did great…How are you feeling?"

He grinned a little wearily, his tired eyes looking at her face. Her kiss was still warm on his forehead and he had to admit that it had started to make the rest of his exhausted body feel a hell of a lot better.

“Thanks,” he replied as he slowly tried to pull himself into a sitting position. His arms still felt like noodles, but at least they were slowly getting some strength back. “I feel exhausted. Like I’ve been running a month long marathon.” Reaching up he scratched his rough and coarse stubble, further indication that he must have been about for at least twenty-four hours. He sighed a little as he turned his attention to her, giving her the most well-meaning of looks. “God, our weekend. Gemma, I’m so sorry,” he muttered as he reached up, cupped her face in his hand and ran his thumb over her cheek. “Just seems like we can’t get a moment’s peace, can we?”

>>“Gemma. I’m…glad that…you’re okay,”

"I'm fine" she smiled, handing him the cup of water. Doctors told her he was dehydrated when they brought him in; it was his connection to his powers that had been strained.

>>“Thanks. I feel exhausted. Like I’ve been running a month long marathon. God, our weekend. Gemma, I’m so sorry. Just seems like we can’t get a moment’s peace, can we?”

"It doesn't matter" she smiled, covering his hand with hers "It's not like it was our fault. Things like this just... happen. On the birght side, we were there to stop most of it."

Leaning over, she hugged him, burying her face in his neck. "Once you get better, we can get out of here, and look for another place to hide... one of them's bound to work."