Author's note: Hammered this one out real quick, but it's my favorite so far. Elli and Popuri don't get a lot of love from the fanfic community and she's always last on my list when I think about eligible bachelorettes-even though I'm a nurse like her-so I really wanted to write her and this chapter came out really well. Thanks for all the reviews and praise guys. I know its slow going in the beginning, but I really wanted to establish a solid origin story for the girls and their powers. What will those powers be? Read carefully and you might be able to figure them out. :D.

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Volume One: The Flowerbud Five

Chapter Four: Elli

The first thing in the morning, Elli Evers never knew what was going to happen, but she never faltered in the face the unknown. Her entire life was a laundry list of the unpredictable. She arose before the sun even bothered to cast its first light down on Flowerbud. Never one to bother fussing with an unmanageable head of hair, she ran a brush through her short mane of dark brunette, which always seemed to find a way to be just frizzy enough to annoy her, but not enough to justify actually fixing her hair.

If she had an appreciation for the slim build she'd been born with, it was because she wasn't concerned with measuring herself up to someone else's standards. At any rate, it wouldn't have mattered, because she slipped into her long sleeved, long dress and when she ran out the door for work, she would slap her nurses smock and apron on and any appreciation for her build would have to be discovered in another way than by merely looking.

There was no guessing what would happen when she roused her great-grandmother Ellen from her slumber to get her ready for the day. As a very elderly woman Ellen was subject to anything at anytime. Elli was ever watchful, always appraising everything about her from her usual aches to anything new. Any slight sniffle might be the start of something serious. It was difficult to judge what might go wrong from one hour to the next. Constant vigilance was required to maintain her great-grandmother's physical health and well being.

This was before the little terror of the town square would rise out of bed. Stu was nothing short of a walking natural disaster. From the moment he fought getting up to the time he fought going to sleep, he was a whirlwind of activity, talking, and boyish curiosity and destruction. There hadn't been a germ science had discovered that hadn't found its way onto Stu's hands. It would seem a losing battle to tell him to wash his hands. No sooner than they had dried before they were well into something else equally troublesome and germ infested. Elli's ever present mini-bottle of hand sanitizer saw lots of use throughout the day.

She maintained their health, but she also cooked for them, dressed them, bathed them, and saw them away for the day. Sometimes Ellen would accompany Elli to the Clinic where she worked, sometimes other ladies of the community would be with her for a day. Ellen's well being was a source of great pride for the town and everyone, it seemed, chipped in and assisted Elli in the care of both her charges. Pastor Carter was the one she could trust the most, for his schedule was always clear and her was always happy to assist her with Ellen or Stu when Elli was too busy for one or either of them. Of all the people in Flowerbud, she couldn't imagine someone with a bigger, more giving heart than Pastor Carter.

By the time she arrived for work at eight am sharp, she had already done more by that point than many people did all day long. Unlocking the door to the Clinic, she would always be greeted by the smell of warm French vanilla roast drifting down from Dr. Trent's upstairs apartment. Ever the workaholic, Dr. Trent-known merely as Doctor around town-had been up as long as she had and had done more in terms of bookwork than her busywork. The plaques and awards in his office were more for tradition than ceremony. When once asked why he never displayed the standing awards and trophies that occupied a dusty box in the corner, he would shrug nonchalantly and reply:

"Awards are like hemorrhoids: sooner or later every asshole gets one."

When he wasn't tending the various sniffles and injuries of Flowerbud, he was hard at work on an entry for a scientific journal. These he mailed off, having no technological means of sending them. While his awards might have meant little to him, Elli would try and glimpse what he had if for nothing else than to know what he was capable of. To say the least, she worked for a brilliant man who, by all appearances, was content to practice medicine in a corner of the world that everyone had seemed to forget. She was no mental slouch, but neither was she nosy enough to pry. She knew above all else that she worked for a man who could have done anything in the world. That he chose to settle down in this town seemed a mystery, but a glance at Dr. Trent showed a man at ease, comforted by all he had and needing nothing more. She admired that in him.

There was a certain attribute that Elli possessed that many in Flowerbud would likely not have or fail to recognize. Elli took in everything and adapted. Be it minor or an emergency, she adapted to the situation and became as one with it, moving from clam to passive to quick response at a mere glance. She could tell from the Doctor's body language alone what a situation required of her. And perhaps she prided herself on that, but never enough to let her head swell.

Today, of all day's she had taken blood samples from Jeff, the General Store owner, mended a scraped knee on Stu, helped wrap Gotz's sprained ankle, changed the dressing on a nasty gash Zack had received on his hand, and given some antibiotics via IV to Anna, who had gotten a small staph infection on her finger. Ever impassive in the face of the unknown, she adapted to them all with ease and come the end of the day, she had not been phased by any of it. She was very professional and Dr. Trent always complimented her for it.

The only thing she hadn't been prepared for was for him to walk through the door.

He never visited the Clinic, though she saw him throughout the day. And yet, for him to come into the Clinic was as if he had strolled into her personal mental space. Suddenly, Elli felt somewhat off her game.

Pastor Carter waltzed in, his ever pleasant smile fixed firmly on his face. When she saw him, she froze, eyes lifted up in surprised. But she adapted. "Pastor Carter? Are you ok?"

He smiled, "Hello, Elli. Normally, I am fine, but I feel a little under the weather today. My shoulder, in particular. I was hoping to let Dr. Tent give me a check up."

"Oh." Elli said, smiling back, "Alright, I'll get you signed in. You can have a set at bed number 2."

Carter did as told and allowed Elli to take his medical information, take his vital signs, and prepare the paperwork for Dr. Trent. When she went to his office and handed him the chart, he asked, "What's the problem?"

"Pastor Carter says he's having dull, constant pain in his back, on the right shoulder blade. Pain is usually 5/10, though he says it can reach a 7/10 if he moves it the wrong way, particularly when rotating it or raising it up above his head. It started in the last few months and has been increasing in frequency ever since. All his vitals are normal range."

Dr. Trent scanned the medical file, "Hmm...off hand, it sounds like a bone spur. But he's awfully young for that, unless he was active in sports when he was younger. He's only 28, good health, non-smoker, social drinker, no known drug allergies...alright, I'll give him an exam."

Elli stood by the medical desk as Dr. Trent examined Pastor Carter. Elli restocked their shelves, but it was mere busy work, to make it look like she was working while her eyes were glued to the white sheet that separated her from the two of them. Occasionally, snippets of their voices would carry out past the veil, but little made sense if she couldn't hear the entire conversation. Oh, but her cheeks flushed with shame. There was little she could do. Try as she might, this was one thing she could not adapt to at all. It conflicted with the rational part of her mind and the soft, dull ache she got in her breastbone when she thought about it too much.

After all, how are you supposed to adapt to being desperately in love with the town preacher?

Try as she might, she could not squelch those butterflies in her stomach when she saw him smile. Oh, how she could pretend he smiled just for her, but she knew with reason that he smiled the same way at everyone. His compassion for her ran only as far as the Bible in his pocket, but in spite of it all, she could not control the yearning whenever he was near. When he had stepped into the Clinic, it nearly broke her down. She was not used to being Nurse Elli around him, she was used to being Townsperson Elli, who had no medical obligations to him when she went out of her way to pass him on the street.

Dr. Trent came out of the curtain quickly and approached Elli, handing her the file and paperwork. "Schedule him for an x-ray next week. Draw some bloodwork, just to be sure."

"Yes, Doctor." Elli gave a small bow. Snapping up the manila folder, she grabbed her blood draw supplies and vacuum tubes. As she approached the curtain, beyond which stood the man for whom her greatest affections pined, she caught a glimpse of him pulling a plain white t-shirt back over his head. For a brief instant, her eyes ran down his back, seeing cords of wiry muscles, a much more well defined arm than a pastor of a Christian church should have.

And her admiration for the brief glimpse of his physique was as short lived as a flash of lightning. No sooner than she saw his tone than she saw the intricate designs of black ink across his back, criss-crossing over his biceps. She was unable to tell the designs, but there was no doubt that his back and arms were covered with an elaborate series of tattoos. Her affection was suddenly mixed with feelings of uncertainty-and now questions she would have killed to ask, but knew she could not. The brief glimpse was gone as soon as it happened and his white t-shirt now covered his upper body. He vanished from view and by the time she announced herself to him and went through the curtain, he already had his black smock on and in place.

His smile remained, though. As pleasant as ever, he saw her needle and casually offered his right hand.

"A lot of people are afraid of needles." She commented as she prepared to draw his blood.

Pastor Carter's smile didn't wane, but it transformed into a wry, bitter grimace as he looked away, off to something only he could see in his mind's eye, and said cryptically, "I've learned there's worse things to fear than needles."

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At sunset, Elli felt she had plenty to reflect on. The things she saw, heard, and did throughout the day would only weight on her when she fell into bed and would lie back, staring out her open window as the gentle spring breezes drifted down from Mount Moondrop. It would split the moon until the moon had risen. Many a night she lie in bed, wondering, pondering, dreaming, imagining, all for the eventuality that might come. She had never stayed awake long enough for the moon to rise about the mountain. At some point, her eyes would close and simply not open again.

But before the moon would even think to rise, the sun was now setting. She waved good-bye to Dr. Trent and she came to the realization that she had an evening to herself. Stu was spending the night at May's house at the Yodel Ranch and Ellen was visiting Anna and Duke and would likely remain there for many hours until they brought her home. Contemplating her free time, she realized that this was an opportunity to build on her experience. That meant checking a medical book out from the Library and spending some time at home reinforcing her education.

She walked briskly down to the Library and approached it just in time to see Mary emerge from the door and rush down the street across from the library. Seeing this, Elli was less concerned about not being able to checked her book out and more concerned that Mary was running. Mary never ran and she was never in a hurry. To see her in a near panicked state, rushing as quickly as her short legs could carry her, unnerved her to her core. Everything instinct she had screamed in warning that something was wrong.

Elli followed Mary, not hard to do given she had longer legs than Mary, but it was still enough to make her move briskly to keep up. When Mary raced down the path to the old abandoned farm, it sent more alarms off in Elli's head. Mary had never gone to the farm even when it was still up and running with the Old Farmer back in the day. Now it lay empty and run down, a decrepit skeleton of a place where nothing and no one lived. It was a hardship for the town, not having that farm, but they managed well enough.

Across the farm and into the woodland trails they went. Mary never slowed, but Elli stopped for a moment near the base of Mount Moondrop to catch her breath, wondering where Mary had come by such endurance.

"Why is she going into the woods?" Elli asked herself, "Doesn't she know the kinds of diseases wild animals can carry? I wonder if she's had all her vaccinations. At least a tetanus shot."

The sound of clucking caught Elli's ear and she looked up at the fork in the road to see Popuri diving into a chicken to catch it. Elli winced, mentally assessing the scraping injuries Popuri would have sustained: abrasions, likely open. Nothing some anti-bacterial soap and a good bandage couldn't fix. At the very thought of grinding face first into the dirt, she reached into her pocket and washed her hands with her alcohol sanitizer.

Before she had a chance to approach Popuri to check on her well being, she saw Mary enter the forest at the base of the mountain. A moment later, Popuri entered. Elli shook her head, "I'm not following those silly-billies in there. Its probably thick with mosquitoes carrying West Nile Virus."

ELLI, YOU HAVE BEEN CHOSEN!

Elli froze on the spot, her arms and legs going numb, tingling as if jolted by electricity. Elli's breath caught in her throat, her body in a state of pause, but her mind working to assess everything. "Auditory hallucinations, loss of feeling to the upper and lower extremities, increased pulse, crushing weight on chest. Oh God, am I having a heart attack! Was I struck by lightning? Am I crazy? Did I hear a voice? I don't see anyone! Only Mary and Popuri!"

Looking in their direction, she saw their silhouettes in between the trees approaching a brilliant green light. Once she saw the light, Elli's every instinct craved finding the Goddess Pond. Yes, there was safety there. A clearing. Mary and Popuri were there, so at least there was safety in numbers. Elli hiked her skirt to her knees and began charging into the woods, running for the light, dashing in between the trees, though ever mindful to dodge branches and brush to avoid cuts and scrapes.

When she burst into the light of the Grove, she noticed the Pond and its heavenly green glow. It seemed to sing with light, the air itself feeling as cool and pristine as the waters of the Goddess Pond. In here, she felt much the same as when she stepped into the Church-a feeling of reverence, as though she stood upon holy ground. The serenity of the moment shattered as Popuri's hands came to her head, she dropped to her knees and screamed, "KAREN! NOOO!"

Elli caught the movement out of the corner of her eye: a flash of purple, blue, and brunette hair plummeting from the sky on a impact course with the ground. Elli's mouth opened wide in a silent scream, the shock too sudden to evoke a proper response. Inches from the ground, Elli's eyes slammed shut, unable to allow the sight of Karen's death to be burned into her memory.

All was silent for the briefest of moments.

Elli dared to open one eye. Mary had not screamed, could not have, for her hands covered her mouth in shock. Popuri's hands still glued to the side of her head, still on her knees, but now she leaned forward. Elli's long blink ended and as she stepped up to stand beside the other two girls, she saw what they saw and the image of it brought her to one knee as her balance faltered.

Karen glanced at them, her chest heaving in fright, eyes darting to them and to the ground over which she hung suspended in mid-air, arms and legs spread out as if to catch something-anything!-to arrest her fall. And there she floated, inches from the ground that had threatened to end her life only seconds before.

She looked up, eyes pleading for help and answers, and Karen weakly said, "What's happening?"