Note : First, I want to thank a lot people who read the first chapter and even more people who posted reviews and send me PM. I love you all.
I'm sorry for making you wait all this time, but I had a lot of work to do beside the translation. I'll try to not do it again.
I forgot to tell in the first chapter that what was in italic was something written or a song, and later you'll see some dialogs written in bold, it means it's in Gaelic. Oh, and here, I let you the passages when Meliell speak French, and of course I put a translation which is between brackets, that - (), just after the French. I should have done that for Mel's notebook because she writes in French in it, but it was too long (and technically impossible for chapter five which is only made of excerpts of her notebook), so if you want to see the French version, click to see my profile, the title is Poursuite too. But keep in mind that she writes in French, it will be important for chapter... Maybe 10 or 11, I've not written it yet. Yes, I know, you'll have time to forget it.

Chapter 2

Rencontres

When Meliell woke up, it was approximately over eight o'clock. It was strange, she hadn't noticed this clock hanging on the wall facing her bed, the day before. Nine hours ? What must lasted just the time of a nap had become an entire night. Good for her, she was so tired. At least, she slept well. It hadn't been happening for a long time. The only problem left was that her stomach was starving, for she had missed a meal. And about the discussion with Manning, if they really had needed to settle this matter at the earliest, they would have woken her up, which had not happened. Well... Now she should think of getting up... In a fit of courage, she pushed the duvet aside and sat down cross-legged on her bed.

As she saw her suitcases had miraculously appeared beside the door, she jumped of her bed. An envelope was stuck with scotch-tape on her belongings. Inside was a letter which said that her suitcases had been brought from the hotel room the B.P.R.D had booked (small detail which explained the how of the why, and that she had forgotten). The note specified also the lunchtimes and that the meals were served in the refectory. Then, she read she had an appointment with Manning at ten. So, she had plenty of time. But time for what ? Maybe she could ask for a breakfast, even if it was served only from six to eight o'clock. However, her stomach growled that it was not "maybe she could ask", but "she had to ask". The only problem was to... No, the problem was solved, there was a map in the envelope. But above all, she had to have a wash : her hair was so tangled that she didn't manage to run her fingers through her morning mane.

Hastened by her hunger, Meliell ripped open her suitcases and scattered their contents on the wooden floor. She slipped into her black baggy pants, a tight red t-shirt, and put on her black leather jacket because the air-conditioning still ran at full throttle. Then, she discovered the too big bathroom : there were a chest of drawers, a bathtub, a shower, a washbasin... In short, all. The vision of the five star hotel came back to her. After another carnage in another suitcase to find her toothbrush, she freshened up quickly.

Then, she prepared her belongings to go out. She nimbly packed into her shoulder bag a pencil case, her notebook of thoughts, her coin purse, her wallet in which the put the key of her room, and of course, the map. Hereupon, Meliell went to seek out her breakfast.

She didn't get lost in the hallways, but she bumped into some agents who were in a hurry. The refectory was huge, but deserted at this hour.

Obviously, the breakfast was self-service, and luckily, there was food left. Meliell hastened to pour herself a bowl of coffee and swallowed a banana within a record time. Then, the real explorations began.

Her map showed several places : most of them were offices, but there also was a garage, a shower room, a library, a gymnasium, a room to train with bladed weapons and another with firearms. The fact that there was a swimming pool surprised her. I reinforced the picture of community center that she had of this place. However, on second thought, the young girl realized that the swimming pool was surely used to train, and not play. Anyway, she loathed swimming pools. Too many bad memories of youth. She didn't like swimming. Without hesitation, she decided on the library, which was by far the most attractive place of all. And at least, she wouldn't feel out of place there : even if there was a horde of agents, she could take a book and read in a corner.

Some turns later, she was facing two huge floor-to-ceiling doors made of carved wood. For one moment, the idea of going back to her room crossed her mind. But it involved a bitter failure against a door, which is not really glorious. She got in theatrically, as in the cartoons. The two doors out of her way, she could admire the splendor of the library. She had never seen a so magnificent room which was not an historical place. It held its own against the most magnificent French castles the Parisian visited. The room was rather large, and richly decorated with golden or red shades as her bedroom. There were leather armchairs near small tables. At the far end, there was a hearth in which crackled a big fire, which warmed up the room despite the air-conditioning. In front of it was a CD player which seemed to be the only touch of technology. Behind, there was a second floor. Books, put away into huge shelfs, covered all the walls. And even from far, one could guess that they were old thanks to their leather binding. All that made a pleasant atmosphere, warm and welcoming. It was without doubt because of that, that no agent was there : they were so cold that they would melt if they opened the doors. Doubtlessly, Meliell would feel good here. Almost like at home. She was already imagining the sleepless nights spent in this library, devouring the tons of books.

The young girl moved toward the middle of the vast room and noticed a huge fish tank on her right. On front of it were four occupied books support. She neared it, and suddenly, a creature who was at the bottom of the tank put his hand on the window, startling her. He was a kind of of fish-man : man by his general appearance, but also fish by the presence of gills, the blue of his skin, and others details, notably his eyes.

"Ça, c'est du poisson d'aquarium." ("Wow, that's some fish.")

She only managed to articulate that before her mind was fully occupied by his fascination for this being out of the common. Manning had only briefly talked to her about the allied creatures and hadn't even specified that some of them lived here. So it was a good surprise to discover she wasn't going to be the strangest one in this place.

Abe wondered who was this young girl. From the way she was looking at him with her nearly black eyes, it was clear she didn't knew all about the B.P.R.D., and she had never seen him. What's more, she spoke French. He spoke this language too, but had never a real occasion to use this knowledge. This teenager had aroused his curiosity in the same fashion he seemed to have aroused hers.

Meliell tilted her head on the side, while she was loosing herself in her thoughts. However, the creature in front of her imitated her. The human, surprised, tilted her head on the other side, and once again, she was imitated. She would have thought she was in front of a mirror, but which gave a whole different appearance. Yes, she will like it here. Her smile already wide widen even more when an idea occurred to her : would this being understand her if she speak to him ? After all, he was reading books, so why not try ? So Meliell neared him again just a bit and attempted a little :

"Hum... Hello ?"

Then she also spoke English... It was rare that someone came to see him or wasn't scared at first sight by his appearance. The exception touched him. Maybe he could bound with her. Abe could not resist the curiosity which was devouring him.

A couple of seconds later, the creature made for the top of his tank. Had she scared him ? Anyway, this fish man swam in a very graceful way. Her exact contrary. Then she saw that actually he was getting ready to fish out of water. Finally, he was not scared at all and seemed more human than she had imagined. In spite of herself, she showed the typical reaction of a human being confronted to an unknown creature : the human always think he's above all. But of course, this effect of human nature didn't last long, especially when what she thought was a simple fish was in front of her on his two legs and talked.

"Hello, miss… ?"

"Lecomte. Meliell Sîdhdur Lecomte."

"Miss Lecomte. I don't remember having seen you already."

"It's because I'm new here. I just came yesterday in the evening."

"That's why you were curious about me. I'm Abraham Sapien. But you can call me Abe."

She vaguely wondered why he hadn't shake her hand when he introduced himself. She didn't insist, he surely had his reasons. Besides, it was strange to notice that even despite that and his amphibian half, he was more human than the agents.

"So it must be to you that Liz lent some clothes."

"Yes, I've left them in my room and… They're wet, but if she still want them back…"

"Don't worry about that, she told me they were too small for her… May I ask you why you're here ? You look young to work here. And you're not dressed as an agent."

"Hum… If Manning finds me a job I'll work here. But I don't know if he'll manage to do it : I'll come of age only in November and I've just came out of high school. So, I've an appointment with him at ten and… Well, we'll see."

Meliell didn't especially want to tell everyone about her parent's death. She didn't want to get onto this subject. She'd rather want to forget it.

"I'm sure he'll find you something to do. There's a lot of different kind of things you could do : reports to type, creatures to take care of, food to cook… What would you like to do ?"

"I don't know. I really don't know. As long as I can stay here, I would do anything."

"Well, I wish you good luck."

Abe went back into his tank. So, she will work here, without training... Strange. Suddenly, he remembered proceedings which could explain her young age... according to these proceedings, children whose parents died on a mission were offered a job at the B.P.R.D. So, her parents were... ? She hadn't told him about that. And even if it was true, he understood that she didn't want to talk about it. It was because of that, that he hadn't shake her hand. Some refused to touch him, for fear that the intimacy of their mind would be raped.

Anyway, she seemed to be charming, and Abe felt the need to protect her. Was it due to the fact that he suspected the loss of her parents ? Maybe. Maybe was it also simply due to her young age, or to the fact that she was a young woman, and that here, humans saw their life span shorten... Meliell Sîdhdur Lecomte... Lecomte was a very French name, but Meliell and Sîdhdur... Especially Sîdhdur. Strange name for a girl... It reminded him of another language, but which one ?

Meliell settled down in an armchair in front of the tank, she didn't dare settle in the chair behind the imposing desk. She got out her things, and began to write in her notebook of thoughts her firsts lines since her arrival in the United States.

"19 July 2008 – Trenton, B.P.R.D.

I come telling myself my life is screwed-up and wasn't worthy to be lived anymore, and finally I find a glimmer of hope. Well, that shows that, regardless, life was well made.

Currently, I'm at the B.P.R.D. (that is to say, the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense) and I've never felt so well being so far from home. I'm here for not even a day, and yet I already feel like a fish in the water... Or like Abe in the Water.

Abe is really amazing : half-man half-fish, he's still more human than animal. He seem to be nice. I think he's someone with whom I could get along with. And that's saying a lot in view of my continuing unsociability. I feel like I'll have a social life here. People I've met until now thought I was too weird to go near me. Well, in fact, it was I who did it on purpose to stand aloof from people I knew just from sight I couldn't get along with them. As a result, those with whom I thought I could get along with avoided me too... Yes, I think my prejudices will get the best of me one day by dint of summoning them too much. But that's another story.

I don't think Abe will bear me grudge if he if he thinks I'm weird. Between strangeness, I think we could manage to get along with each other. Or would I be too normal ? Well, we'll see.

I wonder if there are other people like Abe. It would be great... It would be like a waking dream, being plunged into a fairytale populated of goblins, dwarfs, trolls, fairies, orcs, elves... I'd like to see a real elf. They're always described as good-looking and graceful. I'd like to see how true it is... Ah, and as they are, apparently, very respectful of nature, I'd like to hear their opinion about the question of ecology which is asked nowadays, it could be interesting... That makes a lot of "I'd like...""

Meliell continued to make her pencil run onto the paper, when the doors opened. She winced because of the entrance totally opposed to hers, nearly violent. How she hated unexpected events... In full calm, she never managed to suppress a start. But this time, she didn't have the time to get worked up against herself : a huge red demon came into the room. Waouh... She was more and more fond of this place. What was more impressive after his bright red skin, was his horns, or at least what was left of them. Indeed, they were broken and what exceeded measured only a few centimeter. Lowering her look, she made out that the right hand of the demon was made of stone. Strange, she didn't remember having heard of demons of this kind. Lastly, she could easily imagined the muscles which were hidden underneath his black tight t-shirt. It sadly reminded her the fat which was underneath hers.

The red demon went straight toward Abe, without seeing her or without wanting to see her. The fact that he might have not seen her was quite probable. Since always, Meliell went unnoticed, nobody seemed to notice her presence or simply pay attention to her. How many time had she heard this sentence ? "sorry, I've not seen you" ? Enough to think she was an insignificant being. Not that it disturbed her. No, she was used to it, but it was annoying in the long run.

"Hey, Abe, ready for a shooting practice ?"

"Well, if you want."

"What motivation…"

Hellboy just had another argument with Liz. It was becoming commonplace at this time. It got on his nerves. He needed to take his mind off things. Shoot some bullets would make him feel good. If only Abe didn't need all this time to get out of this dammed tank ! Red heard a noise coming from behind him. Strange, he thought they were only two in here. So he turned around, and and saw a young girl seated in an armchair. Oh, it was just a kid. He transferred his attention on the tank, then... A kid ? He looked back at the intruder and scrutinized her. She wasn't dressed at all like an agent, and she seemed to be so frail. A kid among many. But what the heck was she doing here ?

"Who are you ?"

Meliell, delighted that the demon was interested in her, made her introducing speech again : full name and job opportunity. To which he replied :

"Manning employs kinds now ?"

"I'm not a kid, I'm nearly eighteen." She weakly stand up for herself, a bit surprised to be called a kid by a stranger.

"Anyway it's not very old."

Then Abe came to her rescue :

"Red, don't be rude : she's a newcomer."

"Alright, alright. Let's go, Abe."

Hellboy refused to argue again in a so short time. He put a stop to the discussion, leaving the library.

While the two creatures were leaving, Meliell put away her things messily and ran after them. For the first time for a long while, she felt like showing to someone what she was worth. Which was encouraging her to show sociability :

"Wait ! Can I come with you ?"

Both seemed to be surprised, which was understandable : it surely wasn't all the days that a kid proposed them to come with them to train. It was strange to her, this will of jointing people. She had broken this habit for so long. But she still would like to go, to show to the demon she wasn't just a simple kid who was good for nothing. One must say she had taken her cousins to so many carnivals, that she had reached over the years a level which seemed rather suitable to her at rifle shooting. And it was about time to know what really was this level.

"You know how to shoot ?" The demon inquired, skeptical.

"It must not be that hard, is it ?" She retorted, thinking he wouldn't take her seriously if she admitted how she had learned to shoot.

So, she defied him ? Her, a simple kid, dared defy a demon on an unknown ground ? Red liked that. She was fearless. He smirked at her and accepted the challenge :

"We'll see. Come on, kid."