A/n: Thanks to the amazing loss4words for betaing.

Alice

SpecInt Office, Maryland May 2010

"I can't do it," Bella shrieked from down the hall. It'd been a week and she still had difficulty relaxing. She was wound so tightly that I had been expecting her to snap. I could see it. This temper tantrum was going to be epic.

I didn't tell Jasper, but he could sense it. Bella and Rose had been working long hours. Emmett started physical training with Bella in the morning and her frustration with that was forcing the situation to come to a head. Emmett made her run and she was forced to stop because of her ribs. He looped back around to her and called her duckling, the nickname was sticking. Bella, being Bella, held in her anger and didn't confront him. It festered and her emotional state was rapidly reaching its boiling point. Jasper had felt her frazzled emotions all morning. It put him on edge.

Bella was capable of doing the job. She was going to be one of the best. Her good looks, charisma, and observant nature all made her an ideal fit for intelligence work. I'd never considered it before her injury, because she was so focused on the news that she'd never consider anything else. The skill set for developing and maintaining an asset was similar. She'd have to get people to talk to her, and people loved talking to Bella. Even without remote viewing she was useful.

Edward was an idiot. It had become clear to me over the course of the past two years that my brother really had no clue what she could do if given the resources and training. He'd convinced me to stop watching her future and not to contact her. Yet, here she was. Granted, she wasn't exactly thriving yet. It was going to be a long road before she got to the point where she could hold her own, but she was going to get there.

A door slammed down the hall.

"I'm going home," Bella announced from the doorway.

She wasn't.

"Come in and sit down," Jasper said, gesturing to a chair across from his desk.

"This isn't going to work. I'm going home to Forks." She flopped down in the chair and covered her face.

She most certainly wasn't going back to Forks.

"Bella," my husband chided. "It's only been a week. You're leaving the rodeo before you've even put on your hat."

"I don't think I own a hat," she sighed.

"You do, little sister, you do."

"Bella, you can do this," I said.

"You've seen it?" she asked.

I'd never really been clear with Bella about my gift but I hadn't hid it either. She'd always seemed to just know. Bella took it in stride.

"I've seen it," I confirmed.

She visibly relaxed.

"You just need to find a way to let go," I said. "You're trying to force it, and this needs to be finessed."

"I still don't think this is a good idea," she sighed. "How am I going to be a spy?"

"The same way the rest of us do it," Jasper drawled.

"I don't think it's going to work…"

"In all the time you've known me, what's the one rule?" I asked.

"Never bet against Alice?" she guessed.

"That's right." I nodded.

Bella nodded in return and plodded out of the office.

Jasper looked at me for a moment, waiting for Bella to be out of earshot.

"Are we gonna have a problem, darlin'?"

"You'll figure something out." I smiled.

"You know what I'm going to do?" He smirked.

"I know exactly what you're going to do?" I crossed the room and sat in front of him on the desk. I raised an eyebrow at him.

He returned the gesture.

"You're going to call Carlisle and get permission to read Bella's father in." I handed him the phone.

"You want me to read in Charlie Swan?" He took the phone cautiously.

"She's tense and homesick," I explained. "You can't call the fiancée, getting Edward involved right now would be complicated, and that leaves the one person she completely trusts – her dad."

"Are we sure she's engaged?" Jasper asked.

"There's a diamond on her left hand. It's small but it's there."

"It doesn't look like an engagement ring to me."

"Bella has a thing about money being spent on her. It wouldn't surprise me if Jacob Black had to talk her into a diamond chip."

"Her emotions aren't right, and she never talks about him," he argued.

"I'm Edward's sister. She's not going to bring him up in front of me."

"Okay." Jasper gave in temporarily.

The truth was that I wasn't sure that things were going well with Jacob. I didn't see her with him. When I closed my eyes and focused on her future, Bella was with Edward.

~V258~

Bella

SpecInt Office, Maryland May 2010

It was the middle of the day, and for the second day in a row Emmett had forced me to run to work, I still had vet wrap around my torso, my brain felt like I'd been smashing my skull against a wall, Ren Cullen was shadowing me, and Rosalie had already lost her patience. Rose and Emmett were in the supply closet rather loudly blowing off steam. Why did they think that was private? I'd threatened to quit the day before. Jasper and Alice didn't accept my resignation. To top it all off, Emmett was still calling me duckling.

I flopped into my desk chair, ignoring the fact that it creaked like it was about to break, and pulled out a stress ball. Instead of squeezing, I threw it at the wall. The ball bounced back and I repeated the process. The cheap cubicle walls made a satisfying thump-thump sound. I threw the ball until I noticed that I was matching my rhythm to Emmett and Rose's door banging down the hall. Disgusted, I chucked the ball at the solid wall on the other side of the room. It thumped and dropped unceremoniously.

The fire door at the end of the hall opened. The unmistakable sound of combat boots announced Ren's arrival. She was rapidly becoming one of my least favorite people, mostly because the more I looked at her, the more Edward I saw in her. They had the same facial expressions, the same bronze hair, she shared all of the features that Carlisle didn't with my ex. She also kept trying to figure out why I looked familiar. It was a guessing game that I didn't care to play.

What was I supposed to say?

'Ren, you know me because I used to date your controlling, obnoxious, overbearing cousin. Maybe you've seen a picture or two?'

It was better to avoid the subject at all costs.

"Bella-roni!"

That was another reason to avoid her. Where did she come up with that nickname? What was it with people in this office needing to give me a freaking nickname. Baby Bell, duckling, Bella-roni… ugh…

"Ren," I acknowledged her through gritted teeth. She probably wasn't that bad. It was most likely the stress and lack of painkillers that made me short tempered when it came to her, but I still wanted her out of my cube.

She pulled a chair away from the wall and settled in on the other side of my desk, propping her feet next to my computer. Thus far, I'd only used the thing for e-mail, and I received very little of that. Just when I thought that I wasn't going to be spared another conversation with her, Alice appeared.

"Bella, Jasper wants to talk to you privately."

Thank you!

"I'll be right there. Sorry I can't hang out, Ren," I apologized, and walked to Jasper's office.

"No problemo. I'll just work on your computer a bit…" Ren said. I stopped with my hand on the door.

"Renesmee…" Alice warned.

"Fine," Ren whined.

"You know that you're only allowed to use your computer."

"But it's monitored…"

"Exactly."

Alice had Ren under control. I opened the door and slipped into the office. Jasper was waiting with his ear to the phone.

"C'mon in." He motioned me up to the desk. I wondered why he'd sent for me if he was going to be on the phone. "Your daddy is on the phone." I stared at him for a moment, completely dumbfounded.

"You called Charlie?" I whispered incredulously at Jasper as he quietly handed me the phone.

"I called your daddy." He smirked.

I took the receiver and covered it with my palm.

"What the hell?"

"You've been stormin' around the office like a five year old who's lost her dolly. I figured that your daddy could handle it."

"He knows?" I asked.

"I read him in as soon as he got to work this mornin'." Jasper nodded and left the office.

I stared at the phone. I could talk to Charlie and I didn't have to lie about my job.

"Dad?"

"Are you done arguing with your boss, Bells? If not, you can call me back later," Charlie said. I listened to the sounds in the background. He was in his office with the door open. I could hear the radio coming from dispatch and the creaking of his chair.

"I think I'm done."

"Good, now what's wrong over there in spook land?"

"Nothing, I just can't seem to do anything right. It's like my clumsiness has spilled over into the rest of my life," I explained. Jasper had a line of plastic army men encamped on his desk. I started moving them around.

"Bells," he sighed. "I don't know where you get the idea that you're not good at things. You're smart like your mother and practical, like your old man. There's not much you can't do."

"Dad…"

"Don't you 'Dad' me, young lady. I might be old and I might be across the country but I still know my daughter."

I didn't respond. Instead, I sat down and listened since Charlie wasn't normally inclined to be quite so verbose.

"You're not a teenager. Do you think we can cut the sulking?"

"I'm not sulking. I'm…"

"Sulking."

"Fine, I'm sulking," I conceded and flicked one of the little plastic men across the room.

"So… you're a spy now?" he asked. I could practically hear the skeptical expression on his face.

"Not exactly, I'm more like a spy in training. I'm supposed to report to The Farm to be trained by the CIA in a couple of months. Until I finish with that, I can't do any fieldwork."

"You're not working for the CIA though?"

"No, Dad."

"Good."

I held back a giggle at his reaction. The CIA ranked below the FBI and "the Feds" weren't high on his list, which left the CIA somewhere below pond scum.

"You're okay with this?" I asked.

"Would it change anything if I wasn't?"

"No."

"Then I supposed I'm okay with it. What are you telling Jacob?"

"About Jacob…"

"You dumped him, "Charlie guessed.

"Yeah." I twisted the phone cord around my finger, feeling guilty that I hadn't told Charlie.

"Listen, I might not be the relationship guru your mother is, but this job doesn't mean that you can't be with someone, Bells. You don't have to be lonely…"

"It has nothing to do with the job. We… things haven't been working for a while."

"I never thought he was right for you," Charlie confessed.

"Dad! Why did you let me get engaged to him?" I felt my mouth drop open.

"You're an adult. I figured that you could make your own decisions, and I like Jacob. He's a descent, stand up kind of guy. That Edward guy was a better fit for you, but that didn't seem to pan out. I thought that maybe Jacob was a good conciliation prize…"

"Dad!"

"Bells."

"I'm fine on my own," I asserted.

"I just don't want you to end up like me."

"Your life isn't bad, is it?"

"No, Bells, it's good. Sue Clearwater's been bringing me dinner on the weekends. I think she might be sweet on your old man."

"Sue Clearwater, huh?"

"She's nice, and she can cook almost as good as you."

"Almost, huh?" I giggled.

"She doesn't put butter in the potatoes… says it has too much fat."

My Dad had more of a social life than I did. That was sad.

"Good for her, someone needs to keep you healthy." I paused. "I'm fine on my own, dad, really. I don't need anybody."

"Do the job, but don't become the job," Charlie advised, suddenly serious.

"Okay," I agreed.

"You can do this. You're my daughter."

"Okay."

"I need to go, but I love you."

"I love you too, dad." I hung up the phone and glanced around Jasper's office. I needed to figure out where that little army man went. After a quick search I found him entangled in the mini blinds. I placed him back on the desk just in time for Jasper to return with a slightly disheveled Emmett and a flushed Rosalie.

Jasper motioned us all over to the little seating area with the couch where most of our important discussions occurred, including the daily lunchtime meetings. I took a seat on the couch between the lovebirds. Jasper chose to sit on the coffee table rather than one of the perfectly good chairs nearby.

"The three of you can make this work," he said. He radiated confidence, and for a moment I wondered if he was trying to affect our mood.

I nodded.

"Bella, this may take a few more concessions on your part."

My eyes snapped up to Jasper's. "Concessions? I'm already working out and going without pain relief. What else?"

"I'm taking you off caffeine and processed sugar," Emmett said.

"What?" I balked.

"You're too keyed up. I think that the caffeine is part of your issue."

"My morning cup of coffee is the only thing keeping you alive when you knock on my door at six am."

"Bella, you can't relax," Rosalie said. "We need to get you off of stimulants."

"Caffeine and sugar?" I could hear my voice climbing.

"It'll help." Emmett reiterated. "Besides, you'll be healthier."

I opened my mouth to protest and Jasper gave me a look. He was going to tell me that I was, once again, behaving like an adolescent. I gritted my teeth and carefully relaxed my fingers.

"Fine," I sighed. It was going to be a long week.

"'Atta girl!" Jasper patted me on the head and dismissed us.

Instead of going back to the RV room, Emmett led me off to the gym. We stretched and meditated, then we ran home. Emmett followed me into my apartment.

"Cough it up, duckling."

"What?"

"The coffee, and the sweets."

"You're kidding me, right?" I whined.

"Sorry, duck face, it's all gotta go." He pulled a trash bag from under my kitchen sink and started going through my pantry. I watched him fill the bag, refusing to participate.

Duck face was possibly worse than duckling.

"I really really hate you," I said.

"Aw, ducks, that's just the crack talking." He placed a hand over his heart and looked wounded. "If you're a good girl, I'll bring you breakfast."

When he finished, my pantry and fridge were practically empty.

"We need to talk about the rest of this food here, duckling, but I don't want to leave you with nothing to eat."

"You've left me with rice, pasta, veggies, some take-out and a can of tuna!"

"Your salt intake is too high and I'm pretty sure that Chinese food has MSG…"

"Emmett."

"Fine, Bella."

I practically shoved him out the door before collapsing on the couch and debating as to how I was going to procure some contraband without him seeing it. Emmett's apartment was too close to mine, and not being able to drive, I either had to have food delivered or walk past his apartment with my grocery bags. I was totally screwed.

End Note:

One step closer to June 1st aka "D-day" aka "Holy-crap-you-work-here-too day"

Anyone up for occupying Emmett for a little while so that Bella can get some real food?

…Still no island. *sigh*

Until next week, dears!