I Can't Hide From My Mind

[Andrea Kaine]

Andrea's eyes moved to a point on the wall between Alex and Lana. "The boy in the castle hears whispers from the land of dreams," she replied.

[Svetlana Ustinov]

As Andrea moved her gaze, Lana tried to take a deep breath and center herself again, but failed miserably at it. Alex's hand on her arm was about the only thing keeping her anchored, and she turned to bury her face against his shoulder for several moments.

That finally helped, and this time she didn't question the effect he had on her. She was just thankful (for perhaps the hundredth time) that she'd found him. Or rather, that he'd found her...but that was a fairly trivial detail in the moment.

Lana tilted her head back and looked between Alex and Andrea as he spoke, turning her attention fully to Andrea as he asked about Piotr. She'd been worried sick over him lately and if there was anything the girl's gift could tell them, she'd be grateful. "Boy? Castle? Oh thank God...that's present tense. He must be ok. Never thought of our house as a castle though...it is really big, however."

Shifting a little, she paused before continuing. "Anything else about my parents, Andrea? You made it sound very important earlier."

[Andrea Kaine]

Andrea still stared into the distance somewhere beyond the wall, or perhaps into a distance where there were no walls of any kind. Her eyes flickered from side to side as if she were reading something.

"Silence," she whispered. "Silence. Silence where there should be a voice. They took his voice. They took everything. But silence will have its revenge. Silence kills. The reckoning. The reckoning comes!"

[Alex Kaine]

The distress in Andrea's voice was like spears of ice through Alex's chest. He'd heard her speak of the reckoning before. He didn't know what it was, but whenever it came up, it was a bad sign.

Alex caught her hand and pressed it up against his chest. "Andrea... Andrea, it's all right. We're here, nothing's going to happen."

[Andrea Kaine]

A sprinkling of sweat stood out across her peaked brow, and her eyes were wide with desperation.

"Gods and devils marching... streets are burning... the armored ones lay waste to where the children play, with swords of fire and chains of steel. The mother and child... the mother and child..."

Tears burst from the corners of her eyes, and she began to writhe in her bed with her free hand beating against her chest.

"The dragon waits to devour them both... No! No, no, no!"

[Alex Kaine]

"Oh, God!"

It was the same sinking feeling of helplessness every time the visions tormented her. Alex was on the outside, and she was trapped inside her own mind by images he couldn't comprehend or combat in any way.

Desperately, he grabbed her around the back and held her against his chest, trying to stop the convulsions. "Andrea, it's okay, it's okay..."

He turned his head, pressing it against his sister's, and tried to catch Lana's eye. "Lana, get a nurse, they can give her something to make her sleep again. Please!"

[Svetlana Ustinov]

If there was an upside to growing up with a father around whom you had to walk as if on eggshells, it was that you learned control very early.

Lana shifted slightly, lowering the railing so Alex had easier access to hold his sister close. Catching his panicked gaze, she gently shook her head and replied in a soft, measured tone. "Let me try first...I think the drugs might harm her while she's this caught up in her own mind."

Catching Andrea's flailing hand in both of her own, Lana half-closed her eyes and concentrated. Warmth and energy built in her hands, making them glow a soft gold. With a very gentle touch, she pushed the energy into Andrea, reassuring her without words that she was safe, and wrapping her in a comfortable, tender warmth.

It was a trick her mother had taught her, one that worked without fail to calm her little brother and ward off the spirits that often plagued and overwhelmed his still-developing mind. She could only wait and hope it would work similarly for Andrea.

[Andrea Kaine]

Andrea thrashed in Alex's arms with far more strength than she looked like she ought to possess, and her eyes had begun to roll back in her head, a telltale sign of a violent seizure. "The dragon... the draGON... the dragon..."

The light from Lana's hands leeched into Andrea's skin, and she gave one last desperate sob that shook her entire body, but then she was quiet, taking trembling but steady breaths, and she slowly eased back down against her bed.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex gently released his sister and let her sink into the mattress. He looked up at Lana, wide-eyed.

"How... how did you that?"

[Svetlana Ustinov]

Lana managed a gentle smile and a soft sigh as she slowed the rush of warmth from a flood to a gentle trickle, keeping a hold of Andrea's hand for the time being. Blinking as she fully opened her eyes, she blushed a bit and shrugged.

"I'm not entirely sure, to be honest. Its...a trick my mother taught me. It always helps calm Piotr and his nightmares, because the spirits he can see and hear can sometimes be too much for him to deal with. Its just warmth and light energy...sort of saying 'you're ok, you're safe' but without words. That's the best way I can describe it."

[Andrea Kaine]

The tension slowly disappeared from Andrea's gaunt frame, and she sighed deeply. Whatever vision had been tormenting her seemed to have gone.

"Lana..."

Her voice was quiet, almost a whisper. When she spoke again, it was in Russian.

"Your mother is the earth. Your father, the sun. And you are the moon. You turn your face toward your mother, but you reflect your father. When you see him, he will tell you the truth, and you will have to choose your path."

[Svetlana Ustinov]

Freeing one hand, Lana brushed a damp lock of hair away from Andrea's cheek. The words spun around in her mind and forced her heart to feel as if it were going to pound out of her chest.

She didn't want to see her father. She didn't want to talk to him. He hated her...what...what could he possibly have to say that would engender a choice as grave as Andrea's words portended?

Swallowing hard, she translated the words for Alex as she looked up at him, her eyes slightly tight around the edges. After several moments, she managed a smile and reached for his hand with her free one.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex could only watch in wonder. He'd never heard Andrea speak another language before, never known it was possible in her trance state. He wanted to ask Lana what she'd said, but he knew that could wait. This was a personal moment between them - Lana had forged that connection, and she deserved to own it.

They formed a triangle now, Andrea's hand in Lana's, Lana's in Alex's, Alex's in Andrea's. There was an eloquence in the silence that filled the room, a poignancy that forced Alex to blink away the stinging in his eyes.

After a few long minutes, Andrea was sleeping again to the mechanical rhythm of the medical monitors.

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

Klaus entered the surveillance room and looked over the shoulder of the woman on duty.

"Get me the feed on D3LPH1."

"We have the feed up until about 10 or 15 minutes ago."

Klaus frowned. "Why?"

"Something shorted the surveillance. We're getting snatches of noise, though. Sounds like the Magic 8 Ball is freaking out her visitors."

Klaus sighed. "I'll head back down there. Get me the feed up until the devices shorted."

He reviewed the situation--Lana turning an odd sort of color and Alex stepping aside and rubbing his nose before it all went black.

"I bet my lab coat he shorted the feed so we wouldn't spy on him. I hope he didn't short out anything else. Why wasn't I notified?"

The security guard shrugged her shoulders. "The Chief has maintenance trying to solve the issue without the guests knowing. Of course, if one of them caused the mess, they know anyway. Boss just knows how you like to play close to the vest."

Klaus nodded. "Very well. I'll see to the visitors personally. Let me know when the surveillance is back online."

The doctor swept out of the room and headed down the hallway towards the room he had only just left. Alex didn't trust him, so he would have to choose his words very very carefully.

[Alex Kaine]

Half an hour hardly seemed like enough time, even while Andrea was sleeping. Alex filled her in on the things going on at the House - that Anna was expecting, that they had a new resident named Julian who could turn into a wolf, that Jamie was having trouble with nightmares again, but apparently Tess and Anna had helped her through it. He also talked about the things he and Lana were doing together, and mention of the zoo reminded Alex about the time he and Andrea had gone there with their foster parents, and Andrea had tried to communicate telepathically with the bonobos and had insisted she'd made contact with one of the little ones who had come right up to her on the other side of the glass, but Alex wasn't sure he believed her...

Time ran fast. Far too fast. And even though their half hour was up, Alex didn't want to leave yet.

[Svetlana Ustinov]

As Alex finally fell silent, sighing deeply as he stared at his watch, she quietly let go of Andrea's hand. With great care, she tucked the sheets and blankets around the young woman as she slept, her breath in perfect rhythm with the machines.

"Aleksanderr..." Lana said softly, slipping her arms around his waist as she came up behind him. Resting her chin on his shoulder, she simply held him for several moments before speaking again.

"...our time is up, love. I know you don't wish to leave, but Andrea needs to rest. We'll come back soon."

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

The Doctor stood in the doorway and cleared his throat.

"Alex, are things all right here?"

Klaus entered the room and took the chart, marking notes as he checked the machines and checking the various data feeds.

"No problems with the equipment? No episodes with Andrea?"

He kept his voice even, but concerned. Nothing about the concern was truly genuine of course--Klaus was much more concerned about potential loss of data than Andrea's comfort--but he reckoned one of the two visitors might be fooled.

[Alex Kaine]

Alex's well-marinated contempt for the man made it easy to look into his face and lie.

"No, no problems at all. Why? Was there a problem on your end?"

[Svetlana Ustinov]

If she'd been a feline of any sort, she'd have hissed at the Doctor's convenient reappearance. She'd have called it strange, perhaps, if Alex had not told her stories, and if she had not grown up with a healthy fear of hospitals instilled in her by her mother.

There was something else, however, that lingered at the fringes of her mind, but Lana just couldn't put a finger on it.

As Alex turned and replied, Lana left an arm around his waist and tucked herself into his side. A perceptible, obvious movement, followed by the flip of her platinum curls back over her shoulder. Her chin lifted as she regarded the Doctor with wide eyes, chestnut irises flecked with gold, her gaze lingering and taking in the details of his appearance.

"Aleksanderr, vee do not wish to tax yourr seesterr. As she ees sleeping peacefully, let us take our leave." Lana purred softly, her accent deliberately thick as she tilted her head back to Alex and did not deign to offer Heidegger another moment of her attention. Slender fingers reached up to trace Alex's jaw as she sighed softly.

[Doktor Klaus Heidegger]

Klaus glanced over at them. "There are never problems on my end. In science, in medicine, in life there are never problems. There is only the continual weeding out of bad solutions, which means the correct one is more visible as the chaff is separated from the wheat."

Klaus finished with the monitors and set the clipboard back in its place at the foot of the bed. He squeezed Andrea's hand, and held it for a moment.

"Andrea's gift makes her situation precarious. We do not know if her psyche allows her to separate reality from the phenomena that occurs due to her power. Curtailing her gift without curtailing her ability to comprehend reality is difficult. It is not impossible. When we can give her the medical advantage to allow her to harness her power, she will be able to do the rest on her own."

He looked at the teenaged couple with hidden interest. He hoped to test a theory before they left his facility.