Chapter 1 – absence of details

Bella's pov

I walked down the halls confidently, in my tatty jeans, converses, t-shirt and hoodie, with my old haggard bag slung over one shoulder. I had my ipod earphones in, although no music was playing. I found that when people assumed you were in a world of your own they tended to relax and speak more openly, even if the conversation is obviously private and you're standing quite near to them. Also, my ipod was actually a state-of-the-art communications device, with built in... extras.

But what would a communications device be without some way to communicate back? Well, that's where the gum came in. Only it wasn't gum. It was the part of my "ipod" which allowed me to communicate back with HQ, or whoever else that I might need to talk to, the "gum", along with my "ipod", gave me the perfect camouflage, the "gum" and the "ipod" gave me and excuse to move my mouth – with out looking suspicious – and if anyone could make out words on my lips? Well, to them I was singing along with whatever song was playing wasn't I?

I sat in the plush leather chair that smelled musty and almost swallowed me whole when I sat down. My eyes scanned the room, taking in the rich wooden shelves filled with myriads of books, some old, some new, some leather-bound, some paper-back, thousands of pages crammed together, hordes of words strung along, all building into knowledge. The black ink the key to understanding and unlocking the imagination, if the right readers let it. But this knowledge was harmless, just conventional histories and scientific theories suitable for general viewing, along with fiction.

I pulled down on my sleeve to cover the scar that I had there, it wasn't huge but it was noticeable, noticeable enough to blow my cover if someone spotted it more than once. My mind wondered back to the mission that got me that scar, driving round, collecting clues to where the bomb was, then when I finally get there, having to go past a guard. Seriously, who guards a bomb? Anyway, once he was unconscious I had to defuse the bomb – naturally, time was short – then and only then did I notice the gash on my forearm.

But the targets were arriving now, I set my "ipod" to record and pulled out a book. A book that just happened to have a microscopic camera mounted into the front cover. The hardest part would be to remember to turn the pages.

We had a good idea of what they were planning, but we needed more details, and I was here to get them. Their operation seemed to consist of stealing – thank god for the library being quiet so I could hear – they wanted something, and they were going to use whatever "the bronze" was to get it. Some medals possibly? I noted down my thoughts in my notebook before I forgot them.

Stealing. That was low priority, non-urgent. But apparently it would be enough to get what they wanted, maybe it was extremely valuable, sentimentally, usually people use kidnapping, but Esme and Carlisle Cullen have no children, they're... unable.

Now the tricky decision, do we let them steal "the bronze" and hope to catch all of the criminals involved, or stop them before? The way blondie and dreads – nicknames I gave them to distinguish between them clearer in my mind – in the corner were talking, it was going to happen soon – and we still had next to no details! So now, all we have left is option one. The one that's most rewarding, but also the most tricky – usually, although I get the feeling that this is going to be harder than all the other cases we've worked on.

They said that if plan A didn't work they would have to go down a more direct route, death threats? We really needed more information, but they were being meticulous in their planning, and it was moving full steam ahead almost before we could catch up. The Cullens might need some protection.

"Hey, Jaz, did you get all of that?" I asked as I walked into our base.

This was not the base you would expect for a secret government security programme, mainly because they recruited Alice. That could be considered a good thing though, the interior was a modern design with lots of bright colours, and behind the walls, stood our ammo and other gadget stores, to get to them, first, you needed to have broken into the secure building, then you need to stand on the exact spot on the floor and touch the exact spot on the wall, then you needed to have both the right fingerprints and the right retinas. If anyone got in here by accident, under the impression that this was in actual fact, a flat, then they wouldn't be disappointed.

"Yep, I sure did Bells," he winked at me.

"Don't let Alice catch you flirting like that, you know its more than your life's worth if her or Em catch you at it," I countered his playful flirting, I guess being stuck in front of computer screens all day made you have a death wish.

"Aww, but you and Rosie know I'm only joking right? You wouldn't tell would you? Lead a good friend to his doom?" he pouted at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Lets just get on with this," I countered returning to business, "It's obvious they're planning to steal something important, but its probably too late to stop it now, so we'll have to grab the bait and set our own trap."

"Yeah, I agree with you there," Jaz nodded seriously agreeing with my assessment.

"We'll need to get a field agent in for protection, but undercover and ASAP, the Cullens don't even know they're targeted yet, it's better to get someone in and with their trust before anything happens."

"So, whose going to go? And how are we going to place the agent in there?"

"Eh, we can do rock paper scissors," I brushed off the question of who was going to go and started thinking about how we could get someone in there.

"How about a long lost relative? They're probably kind enough to take in someone like that straight away," Jaz suggested.

I shook my head, "Too emotional, we want to protect them, not get their hopes up then crush them once they're no longer in physical danger..." I trailed off, "But you're right about the part about them taking in anyone who needs a place to stay," then an idea hit me, "the husband is a doctor right? So we fake an accident that he treats, then, when I have to go home, I tell him I have nowhere to go then, bam! He invites me to stay, with no strings attached," I said slightly smugly.

"Yeah yeah Tinkerbell, you had the better idea," Jaz said flipping his blonde hair out of his eyes and letting his southern drawl show through.

"Why thank you, Mr Smooth," there was no way I was going to let him get away with calling me Tinkerbell.

The phone rang then and Jaz stretched over the back of his chair to answer it, the ringtone was the superman theme tune so it was Em calling.

"I'll have the king prawn noodles with sweet and sour sauce please," I told Jaz as he was going to answer the phone, Em was just too predictable.

Jaz nodded at me to let me know he had heard and flipped the phone open, "Yeah Bells wants king prawn noodles with sweet and sour sauce, and I'll have the vegetable Singapore," he said before Em could even get a word in, then, after a pause, Jaz laughed, "because you're so transparent," and hung the phone up.

"Rosie is with him and Alice is on her way," he reported.

"Should I leave now?" I asked, I wasn't particularly fond of watching the snogging fest that was definitely going to happen right in front of me, "I'll go work out, I need to make sure I'm still in good shape if I get this mission," I winked.

"Look who's flirting now, and anyway, your our best field agent, you're skills are always fine-tuned."

"Only because I work out so much," I retorted, "let me know when the food arrives."

I worked out for two hours, improving my strength, flexibility and agility, I practised combat a little but I really needed a partner for that. I relished the familiar burn of my muscles as I worked, the increase in my breathing, the release of the frustration I felt at not coming much closer to "cracking the Cullen case". We were not used to failing, we were the best in the business, that's why we were chosen for this case, but this lack of progress was definitely disconcerting, were we losing it?

It felt good to focus on something else, something that was going right for once. And the ritual made it even more comforting. I felt the heated sheen of sweat seep over my body, I felt my clothes stick to me, following every movement of my slick skin. This was what I lived for, putting the criminals behind bars... justice. I always looked up to... him, he always stood up for me, and I wanted to be so much like him, I wanted to stand up for him too... and when I did I felt such satisfaction defending people, I knew that that was what I wanted to do with my life.

I took my anger and frustration out on the punch bag. I just kept hitting it and hitting it, not feeling anything but my emotions and tension flowing out of me with each punch of the bag. But eventually I was completely drained, emotionally and physically. I stood there panting then eventually sat down fingering my faded friendship bracelet that meant so much more than friendship to me.

I pictured his blonde hair that was just beginning to darken when I last saw him, his light eyes and his round cheeks, he had been so cute and adorable as a boy. It didn't matter that he was a year younger than me, he was as tall as me but most of all, he made me feel happy just by being there. Everything seemed so simple back then, not for the first time I longed to be with him, for him to make all my problems to away again, to make everything seem so much brighter.

I ate with everyone once I had finished, and I won the rock, paper, scissors and got to be the lucky, lucky agent assigned to protect the Cullens from death threats that may-or-may-not exist in the near future, which only makes it harder as we cant be certain about anything, there's no clear objective – other than to keep everyone alive – and definitely no plan, it would all – more or less – be thinking on the spot. I think everyone was relieved that Em didn't win, it was obvious that we were dealing with something meticulously organised and they probably had more than one back up plan. Sigh, we would need to make plans then refine them as we got more details, details were the key!

We decided to proceed cautiously, there didn't seem to be any immediate danger and I would be essentially going in blind, when the time came for some intervention. We got almost no more discernible information from them... other than plans to acquire "The Bronze" and also the plans for storage were going to be set in motion very soon.. That meant that the Cullens would receive a message shortly after, meaning that we had already probably left it a little too long.

Now was the time for action, we would just have to take the risk... I would just have to take the risk. I inwardly sighed, the things I do for the public. I would leave in the next few days, I would fake car troubles on the road then also fake almost being run-over, I would look scared and sound desperate. I would confess I had nowhere to go. I would plead with them to take me in, for a short while, I would offer to pull my own weight in the house, I would sound terrified of being rejected and – hopefully – they would take me in.

So that was how I came to be driving down a deserted road cutting through the middle of a forest on my way to Forks. I had my new identity printed on the driver's licence in my wallet, Jezebel Sparrow, stupid Jasper and his stupid sense of humour. I didn't even know if Sparrow was a reference to Pirates of the Caribbean or to my own surname, Swan, I didn't even know which I would prefer it to be.

There was a light drizzle misting down on the road, I chose my spot carefully and pulled over. I got out and disabled the car and got back inside to call for help. I looked in the mirror and saw that I was just wet enough to look like a drowned rat – perfect.

I lifted my wet fingers to smudge my mascara a bit and when I was satisfied that I looked bedraggled enough, I picked up my phone. I turned up the heating in the car as the rain started to seep under my skin bringing a chill with it that had me shivering violently. As I listened to the phone ringing in my ear I stared out at the rain that was now pummelling down loudly on the roof of the car. I caught a flash of movement in my peripheral vision. My eyes immediately snapped towards the rear-view mirror and widened. Holy shit! A large truck was hurtling around the bend, swerving around on the wet tarmac and failing to right itself.

Would I survive this? I could only watch as the truck came careering towards the car I was sat in. I was abruptly, painfully aware of the friendship bracelet on my wrist, why had I not found him? Why had I not looked for him, especially once I had the resources to?

"Hello this is the emergency services how may we help y-" CRUNCH.

I heard the metallic shrieking of the frame of the car as the truck collided with it, the protective cage I was in buckling and being shunted off the road. I was hurled through the tiny space in the car and hit the other side – forcefully.

I registered nothing before the blackness took me, maybe pain, but it was fleeting and gone before I got a chance to recognise it. I was out cold on impact. My last conscious thought wondering to the friendship bracelet that was still on my wrist.

Random paramedic's pov

We were on our way to the accident and we had been told that it probably wouldn't be pretty. When we got to the scene of the accident I didn't stop to look at the sight, knowing that I would probably stop and stare, the shock of the total carnage that can happen on the road was not something you could get used to. That wasn't helpful to being a paramedic, especially when time was of the essence. I kept my head down as I ran to where the car was, I focused my mind on the patient, what she would need, what instructions I would have to give, whether we could get her out, if we would need the fire brigade to cut her out of the car. If I only allowed myself to see what was directly in front of my eyes, blocking out the whole picture, then the magnitude of the accident wouldn't break through and I would be able to do my job effectively, and hopefully save the girl's life.

I looked in the window of the car to see a probably pretty brunette – relatively unscathed considering the severity of the crash – unconscious and sprawled across the passenger seat of the car, with a little blood seeping down the back of her neck, now we had to worry about blood-loss too. I sighed, another driver who hadn't been wearing their seatbelt, they were invented for a reason.

But still, I mustn't judge. We worked furiously to pull her from the wreckage safely. We strapped her tightly to the stretcher and wheeled her towards the ambulance where we began working to save her life.

We were at the hospital in record time as there less people on the road, and I sighed and sat down as the doctors and nurses took over. I saw Jeff rest his head in his hands, he always took it hard seeing people unconscious like that.

"It's not your problem, mate," I said clasping him on the shoulder, "she should've worn her seatbelt."

He looked at me with troubled eyes, "That wasn't the problem Chris, her car was completely stationary when the truck driver hit her, they think she had broken down and was waiting in her car out of the rain."

"oh," was all I said, there was nothing else to say, we could now only hope that the girl would survive.

A/N - well, this is my new story, just thought I'd try something a little different, got myself a new beta too, carliecullenx, so, yeah, review if you like it and its worth carrying on, and if i dont get enough reviews (about 5?) well... no more story, simple as. =]