Revolution #9

The One Hour

"Where are you?" Jax let go of her hand just as they walked into the room.

Angela answered with a tired sigh, "The common room." And she didn't need to be told to describe it. "The hometheater unit is to my left. There are two couches to my right and a big, overstuffed chair, facing the hometheater. There's also a coffee table somewhere in the middle, I must be careful of it."

"Not bad, HawkGirl," praised the lioness. "Not bad at all. There are people here. Who are they?"

"One is Donna, I know," the bird woman promptly answered. "I simply know it is Donna. No scent, no sound, no nothing, I know it's her."

Donna chuckled and signaled OK to Jax.

"And who else is here? Use your animal instincts, lass," instructed the feline.

"I don't know..." Angela was tired and starting to feel disoriented. The constant darkness made her dizzy, specially when Jax left her all alone in a room, not knowing where to go, what she'd hit. Then, something, some known scent drifted to her nostrils. "Wait a minute." She concentrated on the familiar aroma, a perfume she knew but couldn't place exactly.

"Come on, ya know who's here, lass," the lioness pressed her on.

"Wait a minute! I know this smell... Adam!" Angela actually smiled. Ocasionally, it felt like a guessing game. "It's an aftershave, a cologne, something you use every day and I associate it with you." The bird woman sighed, tiredly.

Adam nodded, "That was very good, Angela." His voice never wavered, but Donna knew it pained him to see the Avian's situation. She placed her hand on his arm to lend a measure of support and butted in, "How's it going?"

"Jax won't give me a break," Angela answered.

"It's for your own good, HawkGirl," Jax said to the woman.

"Yes, but you don't have to get me killed in the process."

Donna looked at Angela and then at Adam and raised her eyebrows. She hoped that this meant that her feral friend was starting to bounce back. "Jax, give Angela a break for a while, I haven't got to spend time with my sister all day."

Jax looked at Donna, then at Angela. The bird woman had responded well to her first day in darkness. She was stronger than she looked, had an iron will. Most everyone in her place would have freaked out much more than that lass had, would have screamed, thrown tantrums, cursed the gods, fate, the heavens, whatever. The Avian had just complied and tried to learn what Jax taught her as best as she could, counting steps, inserting a finger in a glass to feel if it was full already, using her other senses to compensate for the loss of sight. Many times Jax's feral hearing had picked up Angela's pounding heart, her nose had sensed the stench of fear emanating from the bird, whenever her claustrophobia threatened to take her over. It never did. Jax saw Angela grit her teeth, ball her hands into fists and dominate the panic that made her sweat and pant. Many times Jax had to steady the Avian when the dizziness of constant darkness made her world turn upside down, but the falcon never complained, not once. The feline smiled at the psionic. "Sure, Mainframe, I'll be back later to give her some more lessons."

As the lioness was about to leave, Angela turned back. "Jax, mind if I ask you a question?" And the falcon reached out to Jax. The feline held the bird's hand in hers and drew her closer, wrapping her arm around her shoulders, just above the wings, and helped Angela sit on the couch at Donna's right. The bird woman was tired and slipped to lay on her side, acoomodating her folded wings on her back and resting her head on the psionic's lap. Jax, then, sat on the floor, her back to the couch, holding Angela's hand and caressing her cheek. "Ask away," she said.