By then the two men were back, bringing Edward with them. He didn't seem to be putting up a fight; in fact he was ahead of them. She realised that he had heard her and was coming to her rescue. He marched in and walked straight to her. "Are you alright?" he asked, holding her gently by her upper arms, vivid green eyes searching her own.
"Yes" she reassured him. "I'm fine". "What's going on?" was his next question. "I've just agreed not to give my presentation," she told him dully. "They've taken my computer but I can have it back after the session I was supposed to be in is over". Edward swung round towards the S&D executive still sitting at the end of the table, still gripping Bella by the arm. "Bastards" he said dramatically. "You can't do this! There are laws against this. I'll see you in court for this."
The S&D executive appeared unimpressed. His eyes flicked to one of the others and he raised his chin briefly. Two of the suits picked up Edward by the arms and slammed him against the wall. For a moment, his tall skinny body was outlined against the tastefully striped wallpaper. Then, with sudden, shocking violence one of the men punched him in the gut. Winded, Edward crumpled over holding his stomach. They pulled him upright and one of them struck him in the jaw. Again he bent over, and then sank to his knees.
Bella could hear the sound of a scream in the air and realised it was her own. The whole sickly display had taken only a few seconds, a minute at the most. She burst into furious remonstrance "That was totally unnecessary! I agreed to do what you say! Why did you have to hurt him?" Taking a deep breath, she walked as firmly as she could past the two suited thugs who stayed standing their expressions unmoved. She bent down over her fallen defender and put an arm around him. "Edward," she said and was overcome by tears.
"I strongly suggest you leave quietly now," said the corporate spokesman. "I don't think I would try any legal action if I were you. Sprague and Dowley has the best lawyers". "They need them," muttered Edward thickly against Bella's shoulder but there was no real resistance in his words. Bella helped Edward to stand up. He was still holding his abdomen. He leaned heavily on her shoulder but because he was so much taller than her it she wasn't sure if it was helping.
"Don't forget your conference bag," said the S&D executive with some irony. One of the suited thugs retrieved it from the floor and handed it to her with exaggerated courtesy. Slowly, without looking back, they left the room.
"Enjoy the rest of the conference" called the S&D exec from behind them.
They made their way back to their hotel. Edward kept his arm around her shoulder although he no longer leant heavily on her. She thought that now he was supporting her more than she was supporting him. For her part, Bella felt as if her world had been ripped apart and remade. It was not the orderly place of laws and rules that she had thought. The rule of brute force was alive and well even in academia. Perhaps the end of the species was a good thing, she thought. Perhaps man was too brutal, too thoughtless, and too ugly to survive.
They reached the safety of the hotel room and threw the chain across. Edward went to lie down on the bed. He tried to pull Bella with him but she broke away briefly. "Something I want to do" she said, dragging the chair in front of the door. Then she came over to the bed where Edward was holding out his arm for her. She cuddled into his side and reached up to stroke his cheek. "I'm so sorry" she whispered. She was thrilled when he reached for her. His arms around her felt so familiar, so right, like something fitting into place. She laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes, drinking in the smell of his skin and the feel of him next to her. She let the outside world fade away while she gently ran her hands over his chest and gradually up his neck to cup his cheek.
He winced.
"Oh God, you're hurt!" exclaimed Bella and got up to get some iced water for his cheek which was still looking red. Edward took the ice-filled face washer and held it against his jaw, screwing his face against the pain. To distract himself, he flicked on the television and turned over to CNN. The bar at the bottom of the screen read "Eminent scientist describes fetal abnormality menace as 'the end of the species'". The news anchor was interviewing Harold Chorley. "Hey" said Edward "Harold's certainly getting some publicity". They watched the interview and some excerpts from his lecture in silence and then Bella reached for the remote control and turned the volume off. 'What if he's right?" she asked in a small voice. "What?" asked Edward. "Well, what if this is the end of our species? Doesn't that mean there's no future? Ultimately, we are driven to do things for the survival of our genes. Even if we personally don't have offspring, that's what it's sort of about. If I try to research something it's for my own intellectual interest, yes, but somewhere I'm thinking of future generations benefitting from it, even if it's only in a very small way. But what if there will soon be no future generations? What if this is all there is? I know we think of all this civilization as enormous and indestructible but the Romans must have felt the same way, and the Egyptians. So, we can't easily be brought down by something like the Ottoman Turks but here is a new end. Dwindling populations inhabiting empty cities. Cleared areas going back to the jungle. The generations becoming smaller and smaller until there are finally not enough to sustain the species and then, the end. With a whimper" she ended on a dramatic note and turned to him with anxious eyes.
Edward didn't say anything immediately. "I know what you mean," he finally replied in a low voice. "I've been thinking about it on and off myself all day. It doesn't seem real but the way he presented it … it's very hard to deny the possibility. And what have I done? What is there that I can leave that is lasting? And the answer is, if not my genes then nothing."
"The thought that drives the IVF industry." Bella agreed. "It's amazing what people will do to reproduce their genes."
"It's a shame about your genes" he agreed. 'They're good ones. But my genes don't matter much. I never really wanted to pass on my untidy hair and my big head. But I agree it's a shame if there's no little version of you". He brushed a hand gently over her shoulder pushing her hair back for her. He looked at her intensely in a way she remembered. It was pleasant, it was familiar, it felt comfortable, and it was wrong. She didn't know what to say. She looked away deliberately, trying to break the moment. "Are you hungry?" she asked.
"Not very" he replied. "I don't really want to go out there. My face is still stinging and sore and my gut hurts as well. Let's get room service".
Bella agreed that this was a good idea. They lay on the bed, not touching and continued to flick between the news channels CNN, Fox, BBC World. All of them were running the story. The network ABC was advertising a special feature on 60 minutes for the weekend.
They had agreed that Bella would stay in the bedroom throughout although Bella argued that Edward was still a bit battered and if anything else happened she would not remain hidden. Edward couldn't really argue with her contention that he wasn't very good at physical confrontation. "I never thought I'd have to face down a bunch of hired thugs" he explained. "There aren't many punch ups in the laboratory. If I'd known I was going to run into you, and all the trouble it would cause me, I'd have been working out". "I'm so sorry" Bella said softly. Edward pulled a face. "I'm only joking," he said, "Really, I'm having the time of my life. Wouldn't miss it for the world. The worst thing is that I don't know whether I really won the poster prize or whether they rigged it to get me out of the way". Bella burst out laughing and then abruptly stopped as she considered the possibility that he might be right. "Oh my God" she said. "I would say 'no they wouldn't do that' but then I would also say that no drug company would do any of this so maybe... but I'm sure your poster was really worth it" she added hastily and unconvincingly. Edward stuck out his tongue at her. "Don't stick it out unless you're going to use it" she said which was something she remembered him saying to her years ago when they were going out. Edward roared with laughter to find her memory so accurate. "Oh, I'll use it" he said leaning forward. Bella felt a moment of tension that he was going to take her literally, run his tongue over skin. After all, it had been a provocative thing to say, she thought wildly. To her relief, though, he merely took up a chocolate from the minibar and licked at it ostentatiously. She smiled but at the same time, felt a contradictory twinge of disappointment.
When room service arrived, Edward opened the door with the chain still on. After verifying that it really was room service outside he undid the chain. As it turned out, S&D did not make a surprise attack over the room service delivery and Bella sheepishly put down the lampshade with which she was prepared to dash out and hit someone. Again she had the sense that everything that had happened was ridiculous. She came out quite meekly to eat her dinner. Over the cake and fruit platter dessert, she idly picked up the conference program which was lying on the desk next to where they were eating.
"Look" she said pulling a disgusted face. "Here's an abstract linking MSAS with low calcium, but look here over the page, here's an abstract linking it with high calcium intake! No-one's ever proven anything with dietary studies!"
"Except for folate and spina bifida" he reminded her quickly "And that's all about structural abnormalities too don't forget. As Chorley pointed out this morning".
Bella felt reproved. "Well, look at these" she continued going on to the next page "MSAS and exposure to mobile phone use: A self-report cohort study. MSAS and the use of epoxy floor resin? Oh come on! There are dozens of these! MSAS and 2,3 dioxide pesticides: a study of vegetable intake. These are all nuts! They're all going to be inconclusive and hopelessly confounded".
Looking at the program, Edward was forced to agree with her that the tomorrow's talks might have been diverse but they were also unlikely to reveal any dramatic insights. "Bells?" he asked putting the program down, "Why don't we skip tomorrow's lectures and get away somewhere instead?" Bella stared at him. "You know, that's a brilliant idea," she said. "I'm sick of the topic and I never want to see any of them again, especially Prof Gale. If I see him get up on the platform and make some kind of unctuous speech about the advancement of modern science, I'll throw up. And I'm sick of being bullied by S&D boot boys."
"Unfortunately, I've had about as much defending you as I can stand as well" said Edward, holding his abdomen and pulling a wry face. "No offense Bells, I mean obviously I'd defend you to the death but can I take a break for a bit?"
"My hero" Bella was only half joking. She was aware of a genuine sense of gratitude for the way he had come to her rescue, even if he hadn't actually ended up rescuing her. "Where will we go?"
Edward answered so readily, she wondered if he had been thinking about it for some time. "How 'bout Calistoga? Have a mud bath and a massage? If anyone could use a stress-relieving massage, I think it would be us, don't you?"
Bella regarded him fondly. "You know how much I like massages" she commented. Edward's grin widened. "Hell, yeah" he said.
Bella's grin mirrored his own. One of their favourite things to do when they were going out together was to massage each other with scented warm oils. Bella remembered that Edward had always seemed just as happy massaging her back as having his own massaged. One of the things he commented on was how much he liked to listen to her "oohing" and "aaaaahing" as her back was rubbed. Bella was one of those people who always seemed to have tight back muscles. She used to joke that it was the price of her large breasts and Edward, a self-described breast man used to say either, "Let me help you make that burden easier" or "I can massage them too" which used to make her laugh. Edward always seemed happy to spend hours doing things like that but then again, they had had hours to spend. They were both studying, so late hours and sleep-ins were a normal part of life. Good days, she thought nostalgically.
"How do we get there?" she asked. "We'll have to borrow a car" he replied. "I've got a couple of friends in these parts. Friends from University. We go way back. I'm sure Emmett'd lend me a car for the day. He's a fitness freak anyway, he rides his bike to work all the time". He got out his phone and began flicking through his contacts. "He rides a bike in San Francisco?" Bella asked with exaggerated doubt. "He can't live near any hills". Edward was already on the phone and he put a finger up to his lips to silence her. "Emmett, man, it's Edward, how you been?"
Edward went off into an extended chat with his college friend while Bella lay back on the couch and twirled her hair around her fingers listening to the conversation. From Edward's end of the phone she could tell they talked a bit about themselves and a bit of gossip and then spent a while talking about Grid Iron, not a sport she ever thought Edward was really interested in. She was surprised how much he seemed to know about it and especially how many recent results he seemed to have on instant recall. Eventually she heard him get round to asking about the car, without saying much, he said that he was here on a conference and that for a number of reasons he needed to go somewhere out of town the next day and would he be able to borrow the car? The other end of the phone didn't seem to raise any drastic objections and then they were discussing how to pick up the car. Bella stopped listening for a while, closed her eyes and sank gratefully into the couch. She felt the stress ease already like a great tight knot in her shoulders was releasing. A day out with Edward, which would have sounded like a bad idea before she came on this trip, now sounded fantastic.
Edward got off the phone. "Good old Emmett" he said jubilantly. "I knew he'd come through. We'll have to go and pick up the car in the morning and drop him and his bike off at work but that'll be alright".
"Do you know how to get to this place?" she asked doubtfully but Edward had that all in hand. "He'll lend us the satnav as well. Say, where's that 'what's on' thing that was wandering around in here? They might have something about it".
Bella had never heard of Calistoga but it was listed in the 'guide to local activities' in their room. They rang a place enquiring about massage treatments. It was not yet the peak tourist season so it seemed that there were still plenty of times left available. Edward didn't leave his name.
After making some plans and looking at some maps in the various guidebooks available in the hotel room, Edward announced that being beaten up made him tired and that he needed to go to bed. Bella agreed at once. Edward got into bed almost immediately but when she had finished with her usual bedtime routine she found that he was still awake, evidently waiting for her. When she climbed into bed, he held out his arms and embraced her in the dark. Without any thought on her part, she found herself kissing him, giving in to his evident pleasure in capturing her lips, then releasing them only to find them again. Bella closed her eyes and gave in to the sensation of being so completely wanted until she found herself mildly distracted by the thought that she hadn't sent her husband an SMS tonight. Edward didn't seem to notice. "Bells" he said huskily pulling on her pyjama top. "I think you should lose the shirt".
The thoughts of Jacob and the reality of Edward here, next to her, taking her clothes off, with his beautiful body and seductive touches were too much for her. "No" she said. "Not tonight. Not now." To her relief, he didn't protest or persist. "Tomorrow" she whispered breathing heavily, rolling over to the other side of the bed. "Tomorrow is our escape day".