A/n: Hi everyone!
Beta'd by: dorothysrubyslippers and loss4words
Preread by: alaskancoppertop
I'd like to thank loss4words for jumping onboard. She's a science fiction goddess.
Reminder: Pay attention to dates
Jacob
Atlanta, GA April 2010
I managed to get Bella an appointment with Dr. Mark Banner at Emory. He was a former military physician turned researcher. His expertise centered around traumatic brain injuries, and he was renowned as one of the best neurosurgeons on the East coast. Banner was on the lookout for new participants in a study he was running, and Bella's symptoms seemed to fit with the patient profile he'd posted on the NIH website.
Bella was nervous. I glanced at her several times during our drive in from her apartment in Decatur. She was chewing on her lip and twisting her fingers in the hem of her blouse. She'd insisted on dressing in better than jeans and a T-shirt for her appointment like it was a job interview. I seriously doubted that Banner would be interested in anything other than what lurked in her skull.
Mentally, Bella seemed somewhat better. She was no longer as depressed as she'd been before. Giving up hope of Edward returning seemed to be the right thing to do. I still felt guilty, because I knew that he was out there, watching her like the stalker that he was. However, if he'd intended on returning, I would think that he would have already done it. I shoved the guilt down again. She didn't need that information.
Physically, Bella was worse. She was still losing consciousness on a regular basis and claimed that she wasn't getting any restful sleep. The bags under her eyes seemed to back up that claim. Bella was tired and making mistakes performing the simplest of tasks. In addition, the injuries to her chest and wrist were going to take some time to heal. Bella was impatient.
I was completely out of my comfort zone. I'd been present for most of Bella's accident prone youth, and her clumsy transition into adulthood. In the past, I could help in some way or another. This time, there was nothing for me to do, not that she'd let me help anyway. The best I could offer was this appointment.
"Breathe, Bella," I muttered as I turned into a parking space outside of the Veteran's hospital where Dr. Banner had his office.
"I thought we were going to Emory." She tilted her head to the side and blinked.
"No, Dr. Banner has an office there, but he works out of the VAMC. Most of his research is government funded." I'd given her the same information about three times.
"Oh, okay," she sighed. "You've told me that before, haven't you?"
"No," I lied.
She knew I was lying. We opened our doors and stepped out into the bright spring sunshine. When Bella closed hers, she left a handprint on the side of the car in the layer of yellow pollen. She unconsciously wiped her hand on her black skirt, leaving a bright yellow smudge.
"Crap!" she squawked.
"It's not a big deal," I said softly. Knowing that she wouldn't listen, I reopened my door and pulled out a wet nap I remembered shoving in the console after picking up hot wings, to clean her skirt.
"Thanks," she said. She allowed me to take her hand and lead her into the center.
Dr. Banner's 'clinic' was more of a research facility than someplace to treat patients. His research assistant, Shannon, greeted us at the door to their suite and led us through a couple of rooms that were crammed with medical equipment I couldn't identify. At the back of the maze, Shannon settled us into chairs in a cluttered office.
"Mark will be back in a few minutes; I'm going to go get some equipment set up if you don't need anything," she said.
"We're fine," I reassured her.
Shannon left. Bella studied the walls. Dr. Banner had his diplomas hung neatly, contrasting the cluttered state of the rest of the office. However, he also had some pictures decorating the small space. Bella stood and walked to one of them with a puzzled look on her face.
"Bells, what's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing, I just thought I recognized someone in this picture, but it's clearly not him," she shook her head and returned to the seat next to mine. "How long do you think he'll be?" she asked suddenly.
"I don't know." Bella was being odd, odder than usual. I really didn't know what to do about it.
The door flew open a few moments later, admitting a short, bald man in his late fifties. He wore a lab coat over scrubs. The man did a double take when he saw us and looked back out in the hallway before closing the door and approaching Bella.
"Sorry, I'm Mark Banner." He stuck out his hand and Bella shook it gingerly.
"Bella Swan."
"Jacob Black, I'm Bella's…" Crap, what was I?
"Friend," Bella supplied. I could tell that Dr. Banner wasn't interested in our relationship. He sat down at his desk and dug out a file.
"Isabella Swan, female, five foot four, reporter by profession, head injury?"
"Yeees?" Bella answered a bit hesitantly.
He quickly flipped through a file on his desk, skimming it. "Dr. Mason reports that you've been ataxic, but he doesn't mention any dissociative episodes or seizures in his notes."
"Dr. Mason wasn't interested in treating her," I huffed.
"Jake," Bella scolded.
"No, babe, we need to be honest." I took her hand before I realized what I was doing. She rather carefully pulled it back.
"Have you had an EEG?" Dr. Mason asked, almost bored.
"No, just a Cat Scan," Bella said.
"Well, let's start with that. Let me just have Shannon set up…" He trailed off as he got up and walked out of the office.
"Should we follow him?" I asked.
"I vote that we stay here," she suggested.
We sat in what turned out to be a very awkward silence until Shannon came in several minutes later. Bella wasn't looking at me, and fearing a fight, I didn't push the issue. Instead, I watched her pensively twist the ring around her left ring finger.
"Follow me," Shannon nodded to Bella.
"Where do I…?"
"You can stay here, Mr. Black," Shannon smiled and led Bella away.
~v258~
Carlisle
Atlanta, GA April 2010
"How do you know these things, Carlisle?" Mark asked, absolutely flabbergasted.
"Alice," I responded.
"Can I borrow Alice?"
"She can't get you lottery numbers, Mark. She can only see the outcomes of decisions," I groaned.
"Well, Isabella Swan is in my office with exactly the type of head injury that you look for in an asset."
"Good, will you run the necessary tests? I'd like a full work up including a qEEG on her," I said.
"You owe me, Cullen," he huffed.
I ran a hand through my hair. Owing Banner usually involved smuggling some form of food into the US from a random foreign country. It wasn't really an issue, but he always asked at the worst time.
"Fine Banner, just finish the tests. I'd like to look at them before we approach her." I hung up before he could respond. Mark would have her hooked up to the EEG in no time.
My next problem was approaching her. I couldn't use my usual approach, because that depended on the potential asset having security clearance. Typically, I would take old case files and black out any names and critical information, then I would give them to the potential asset to study, and finally return at a later time to discuss them. A lack of clearance had never been an issue since most people we recruited were active duty military.
Miss Swan, and Alice's insistence that she be trained, were unprecedented. I couldn't figure out why this girl was so important to her. However, another problem presented itself. Isabella Swan had a tail. Someone was watching her in person and in the ether. I attempted a jump to observe her and had the distinct feeling that another viewer was there. He felt familiar; perhaps someone whom I'd trained or had trained under. In addition, there were already jump coordinates assigned to her: 2-5-8.
Each jump target is assigned a set of coordinates. Generally, they're arbitrary. However, once coordinates are assigned, those same numbers apply to that target globally, meaning that anyone using those numbers will end up with the same target.
Isabella Swan was in SpecInt's database, meaning that one of our own was watching her. I rationalized that Alice had made Rosalie observe her. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was wrong, though. The jumper felt male.
I had more success finding the PI who was watching her in the physical world. He turned out to be a friend of Jasper's: Jason Jenks. Jason insisted that he was hired to follow Miss Swan's fiancé. I didn't completely buy the story, but I left it alone, choosing to turn a blind eye since my daughter had told me to leave it alone via text.
Alice was up to something, but as her father, I knew better than to try and figure it out on my own. Even as a little girl, Alice always had her hands in everything, shaping the world around her into what she wanted it to be. If I got in the way, I usually messed things up to a point beyond what was repairable. There were checks and balances in place and there was no way that we wouldn't unearth all of Miss Swan's demons in the recruiting process. We'd tightened up security since the Tanya fiasco, so as requested, I let the PI and the jumper issue slide for the time being.
My phone beeped, indicating a message. I glanced down; it was from Banner.
I'm admitting her to Emory for observation. Brain is a mess. Just like you like them.
Banner had just made my job harder. Getting results from the hospital would require paperwork. The bureaucracy that was the hospital system was difficult to navigate, even for me.
Can you get her to sign a release for me?
Already done, appt originated at VAMC, you have access.
It hadn't occurred to me that Banner would see her at the military hospital. I couldn't fathom how he'd swung that since she didn't have a military record. I didn't want to ask either. Sometimes not knowing is better. Chances were that whatever Banner had done, I didn't want it associated with me. I was content to look the other way.
I called Alice because I needed guidance.
"Hi, Dad!" she chirped. She was still calling me Dad which meant that she still felt the need to butter me up for something.
"You're almost off the hook for destroying my week," I said.
"Your plans will keep," she said, sounding distracted.
"She's been admitted to the hospital for observation. I need a time-frame."
"Two days, then you'll get to see her," she said thoughtfully.
"Since you seem to be the expert on this girl, how should I approach her?" I sighed.
"You know that I can't see outcomes unless you decide on possibilities," she huffed.
"Fine, I'm going to hook her up to a biofeedback machine and coax her into a jump," I decided.
There was a pause.
"That scenario doesn't end very well," Alice responded clinically.
"Do I get details?" I tamped down my temper because although Alice does tend to manipulate situations, she usually gives me some frame of reference to work with, which she wasn't doing.
"Sorry, no, but you won't like where she jumps, and it will freak her out. You'll have to sedate her," she gave me the bare minimum of information to change my mind.
"What if I talk to her and give her some of the civilian research, and a few of our searches that have been done for police departments?" I suggested and then decided.
"Looks good," she agreed. "Dad," she made a point of getting my attention, "be gentle with her, okay?"
"I always am," I defended myself.
"It's just that you can slip into CIA mode, and you want to treat this one more like she's your daughter. You're going to need to build that type of trusting relationship with her," Alice explained somewhat wistfully.
"You're not telling me something."
"True," she chirped, "but it has nothing to do with her ability to perform the job, it won't endanger national security, and right now it's none of your business."
"Fine, I'll allow this for now," I agreed.
"Don't worry, it won't be long before you're in on the loop. You and Jasper will both figure it out on your own soon enough."
"Am I going to be angry?"
"You're never really angry when it comes to me, Daddy. That's Edward's job," she deflected the question into lighthearted banter. I had known that an attempt to gain information that my daughter wanted hidden was pointless, but I tried anyway.
"Bye, Alice, you know where to find me," I sighed and closed my phone.
I opened up my computer and started searching for case files from search and rescue. This wasn't what we'd have Isabella doing, but it was a start. I had to be able to give her something as an introduction.
End Note:
An EEG is a machine but we also refer to the test it performs as an EEG. It involves sticking sensors on the scalp to measure electrical activity in the brain. A qEEG is a more detailed version of the test.