"What?! You are not becoming one of them! Do you hear me?" Phil shouted at her, shaking her as if it would help him to knock some sense into her. He was terrified for her! The other three people in the room where shocked too. Even Fury. This situation became more complicated by the minute.
Bella nodded:"You don't understand! At that time I wanted to. There was nothing I could think about except that he was gone! I even had horrible nightmares which woke Charlie up every night, had no appetite and no will to live on! It was like a hole had been ripped from my heart or as if something had been missing." Phil resumed a protective stance once again and hugged her.
Fury shared pointed looks with Natasha and Barton. He knew that Phil was too close to Bella to think straight and therefore his opinion about her was biased. He needed her to make tests. He knew that she was not crazy. There was evidence enough, but she had been under the creatures' influence for some time.
"What about now?" he enquired. Bella shook her head. "I don't know! I really don't know. I still love Edward. I really do, but he has changed so much after we came back from Italy. But I still miss him"
"How did he change? Did he become possessive and restricting your contact with other people?" Natasha took over again. Bella nodded again. "He was jealous about Jacob, my best friend from the Rez and his pack. He told me that I could not go to see them because they were dangerous."
Isn't it the other way round? "Why did he think that they are dangerous? Because they are taking steroids?" Barton asked. But Bella bit her lip again:" They are not on steroids, but they have some anger management issues."
"Please don't tell me that they are supernatural too?" Phil sighed and to his relief Bella shook her head. "I would not call them supernatural, because they were born this way and it is in their genome. But they are called protectors by their people because they are the vampires' natural enemies. They are human with additional gifts."
"What are these gifts?" Fury needed to know. There was so much that his agency did not know and that was a dangerous disadvantage. "Please, don't harm the pack or the tribe. There are only a few who have the gene. And if the vampires are gone, then they don't change anymore." she begged. Oh God! I cannot tell the tribe's secret! What if they incarcerate them?
"What change?" Fury stressed. "They are six shape shifters protecting the area around Forks from Vampires before they can attack humans. Most of the time they were successful in preventing an attack. Victoria must have a gift of evasiveness, because she could always slip away before they could kill her. Please! They are no danger for human. They protect them. Without them there would be much more dead bodies". Bella defended them.
"So that's why the man in the wheelchair wanted you in the reservation?" Phil, who had finally recovered himself, asked.
"Because I would have been surrounded by the pack members, but put the other tribe members in danger." Bella confirmed. Fury started to walk around pensively with his right hand rubbing his chin until he seemed to come to a conclusion.
"Ms. Swan. You are now within S.H.I.E.L.D. I want you to sit with a sketch artist immediately on floor 7. We need to know how Victoria looks so that we can check all CCTV for any sign of her. You will write everything you know about them in a file. And I mean everything!" he ordered. Bella nodded hesitantly. Phil had the strong urge to hug her again, because Fury seemed quite frightening again, even for him. "And while you are here you will start basic combat training." he finished.
Bella's eyes almost bulged out. She was extremely clumsy and there was no way that she would survive that without injuring herself or even her trainer. Her uncle seemed to have the same idea: "With all the respect sir, but I don't think that combat training is something for her. She has a tendency for accidents."
But Fury did not want to hear any of it: "Stop mollycoddling her, Agent Coulson! Sooner or later we will have to face the vampires and she will have to be able to fight. There is no time to lose. In the meantime we need to gather intelligence about them."
Phil knew that his director was correct, but it was also the beginning of turning her into an S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. This was something that he had not wanted for her and Fury had always enquired about her. She had not even finished high school, for god's sake!
"Sir, she will also need to finish her exams." he mentioned. She needs something normal in her life at least. Fury nodded:"Can be arranged, but only shortly before the exams start and definitely not in Forks!"
Bella was grateful for that. Mum and Dad would have liked to see me graduate.
"Romanov and Barton, please take Ms. Swan to Agent Smith. He has to start with the sketch of our target, asap." Seeing Bella looking confused at Coulson he said:"Agent Coulson will join you in a few minutes. We need to work out the details of your safety and your … status."
"It's ok, Bella!" he reassured her in a calm voice and she seemed to relax and followed the two other agents, leaving the director and her uncle behind in the spacious office.
"I suppose she does not know!" Fury addressed him again. "No, she does not. And I plan to keep it that way." he answered only to see Fury's raised eyebrow which indicated that he did not agree.
"She may not know at the moment, but she will eventually figure it out. Just make sure that she finds it out from you and not from a third party."
"She is clever yes, but there is no evidence. I erased everything from the database. No one except us knows about it. I did not want her to be in danger, but unfortunately I failed to calculate in other dangers." he answered truthfully and slightly defeated.
Fury did not answer him but handed him a tablet to look at. Phil took it confused and looked at it. "These are Bella's scores in every subject she took in her school career in Phoenix. She is above average intelligence, but has obviously held herself back for reasons unknown."
"How do you know that! You cannot see this just from her scores! We both know that scores do not always reflect everything." he asked him.
"No. If you scroll over, you can see our results. She was tested every three years while residing in Phoenix. Science, Geography, Economy, Language and several other fields of interest. As you probably know she has been a frequent visitor of different libraries to enhance her knowledge."
Phil could not believe it. Why has Fury tested her? When? Who has tested her?
"You want her to become an S.H.I.E.L.D agent? Don't you?" he asked defeated. It was the only logical explanation. But he did not like it. He wanted her to have a good life, without the difficulties of his job, but it seemed that this decision had already been taken out of his hands. At least his mother and he had chosen this job, but she would be thrown into it. He had known that she had a huge appetite for knowledge and books, especially Jane Austen, but never in his boldest dreams had he believed that she was this intelligent. She seemed to come more after his side, but Renee had also been an intelligent one. The numbers on Fury's tablet were clear. She must have been bored to death in Forks. Maybe her scientific curiosity had drawn her to the vampires.
"When she is finished with the sketch artist I want you to fly to our facility in Nevada and we will begin her training there." Fury told him.
"Bright, hot sunshine and the best CCTV of our facilities. She can even prepare for her exams with all the scientists stationed there. Good enough for you, Agent Coulson?"
"Yes, sounds like a plan and I will start her training there." he agreed happily because he knew how impeccably tight the security was there. Most of the scientists stationed in the facility were only a few years older than her and could probably help her a lot. But unfortunately his smile was wiped off his face with Fury's next nugget of information:
"No, you won't train her! I need you in the field. You are going to stay with her at the facility, but someone else will train her." This is not right! I should be the one to train her! I'm her … Arrghh!
"Who is training her?" he wanted to know. Please let it not be Agent Romanov. Not Romanov! Not Romanov!
"Agent Romanov will take over her physical training in combat and I will assign Agent Harkness to take over her introduction to fire arms!" Phil's opened and closed his mouth again in a rapid succession. Natasha Romanov was known for being ruthless in training. Many hard agents were turned into mush by her and have even been seen crying like little girls.
"But Romanov will be too hard on her! It could break her spirit and Harkness jumps everything that moves." he opposed. Now I also have to protect her from my own agency! Great!
"You should give her more credit! I would not assign her to these two if I didn't believe that she was capable of handling it." Fury defended his position. "Romanov will get her in shape and there is no need to worry about Harkness as she is still too young for him. But you will definitely have to worry in a few years time!" Fury chuckled.
In a few years time I will make sure that they are on opposite parts of the world. Phil thought. "You are right!" he grudgingly confirmed: "If anyone can teach her the use of handguns without scaring her. Then it is him. But he better keep his hands to himself!"
The sketch artist called Agent Smith was a small, stocky man with light grey hair and friendly eyes. Bella was fascinated as Victoria's face became more tangible by the second on the screen. She had expected him to draw on a piece of paper, but he surprised her by drawing on a touch pad and together with her descriptions they even created a 3-d-model of her huntress, which seemed very realistic. This man had even congratulated her on her fantastic memory and all the details she could remember. She wondered where her uncle was. What was he talking about with Fury? Her? Looking at Victoria's picture she couldn't help but feel angry at her but she also missed Edward very much. She could feel the slight yearning to be in his embrace again. Unrealised by her, her hands started shaking uncontrollably. Barton and Natasha realized that something was amiss.
"Do you need anything else Agent Smith?" Barton asked.
"No, this should be enough to work with! Good Luck, Ms. Swan!" he added friendly. Bella nodded a thank you and followed the other two to a free room on the same floor. It looked like a very small conference room or a free office surrounded by glass windows, where everyone could see into. Barton put a laptop on the table, tipped something on the computer and told her to write everything she knew about the creatures in the file.
"You have to start with the general descriptions first and then get into more detail." he explained seeing that her tremors began to also affect her arms. There was no way she would be able to tip this into the file.
Oh god I need water! "Could I have some water?" she asked pleadingly, getting a nod from Natasha who went out to get one. In the meantime Barton secretly activated the cameras. Something is not right! She looks like a junky with first signs of withdrawal. Maybe we should run a blood test and see if there is something unusual about it. Pushing the laptop in front of her Bella tried to hold her hands still but realised that she could not hold still because they were trembling.
