Tested

Disclaimer: Characters and Premise are borrowed from the Marvel, I'm not making any money.

Part 5

Marius and Singer stood on the docks watching the passengers disembark, married couples old and not so old, a couple of kids, a soon to be college girl, but no Belle. They overheard the horrified and fascinated gossip that was passed back and forth among the tourists.

The news about a slight blonde girl who'd traveled with them and had been taken away for killing a man was all they could speak of even days later.

Singer looked to Marius hopefully, "She'll be a'right won' she?"

Marius wouldn't meet the dark haired girl's eyes. "Belle may be m' daughter, mais Guild law still 'pplies to her," he said.

****** ****** ******

Awareness came slowly and Belle found herself fighting a cloud of drugs for every impression of her surrounding that she managed to grasp. The muted murmur of voices that her befuddled brain wouldn't resolve into words frustrated her. The sterile, medicinal smell of the place spoke of hospitals as did the white wall, white ceiling, stainless steel trim and the beep of monitors.

The soft, steady double beep was the first thing her befuddled mind interpreted: her heartbeat and her baby's. Belle felt a thrill of relief that she hadn't lost it. She wouldn't raise it but Tante Mattie would find someone in the Guilds to do it. She and Remy could visit; play with it when they weren't busy. Once the child grew up some she could act as his or her mentor in the Guild. She'd be old enough for an apprentice by then and it would be fun. Her petite learning from her, looking up to her.

They wouldn't keep her out of the Guild for getting caught. It wasn't her fault. Belle was certain she'd been betrayed somehow; how else could things have gone so disastrously wrong?

Belle pictured a little girl with curly golden hair, like a doll and Remy's angular features refined to elven-like delicacy. Maybe her eyes would be blue on black. Belle imagined her own vivid blue eyes surrounded by black like Remy's and decided the effect would be striking to say the least.

Gradually Belle's musings drifted off into sleep.

****** ****** ******

Delores, Singer, Lapin and Pierre were waiting at the small airport the Thieves used as a quiet exit to from the country when Remy and Henri climbed out of the plane.

"Belle's ride home came back wit'out her several weeks back," Delores said.

"Who's gone after her?" Remy asked.

"No one," Singer said. "We don', it's de rule. Dat way no one realizes dey be part of a Guild."

"Hell wit' dat," Remy said succinctly.

****** ****** ******

Belle's mind was clear this time when she woke, free of both fever and the drugs. She glared at the heavy restraints the bound her to the bed wishing she could do Remy's trick of dispersing them into molecules. Not having that option Belle turned to more traditional methods and started raising a racket.

"Hey! Hey yo'! Somebody!" Belle yelled, then she pursed her lips and let out an ear splitting whistle.

She watched with satisfaction when a few moments later a put out looking man in a white lab coat answered her summons.

" 'M thirsty!" Belle announced demandingly.

"Fine, hold on a minute," the man said.

When the man returned he had a glass of water with a straw which he held to Belle's lips.

Instead of drinking she turned her head away. " 'M no chile to be han' fed. Let m' arm loose," she demanded.

"I can't do that," the man said.

"How 'm I supposed to eat? What 'bout when I got to go to de bathroom?" Belle instantly shot back.

"You've got a catheter in," the man sighed.

Belle's face squelched up in distaste. "Data's gross," she declared.

"Look are you going to drink or not?" the man demanded.

"Non!" Belle declared. " 'M not going in any tube. I'll hold it till I burst firs'."

"Whatever," the man sighed leaving the glass beside the bed as he left.

Belle counted out five minutes, just long enough for him to get involved in something else, then let out another sharp, piercing whistle. When no one came running she repeated it.

"What now?" the man asked.

"Yo' shor I can't go to de bathroom?" Belle asked.

"Yes I'm sure," the man said turning to leave.

" 'M bored," Belle complained. "Can't yo' bring in a TV or something?"

"No."

"How 'bout a book?"

"You couldn't turn the pages."

"Yo' could loose one of m' arms."

"No."

"Yo' could turn de pages for me."

"No, I've got things to do."

"I could jus' whistle when I needed yo'."

"NO!"

"How 'bout a radio?"

"Fine, I'll get you a radio."

Belle grinned a little; the first concession was always the hardest one.

The man quickly returned with a battered little boom box, which he set up beside her bed. As a reward Belle waited a half hour before whistling again.

"I don' like dis program," She said when he came back.

With a sigh the man adjusted the dial.

"No borin' news," Belle instructed. "Music, good stuff, not ole people music an' a good DJ."

"My daughter likes this station," The man said setting the dial.

"Merci," Belle replied sweetly. "I t'ink I'll have dat drink now. M' doctor at home said it was good for de baby if I got 'xercise. Yo' t'ink someone let me up jus' to walk 'round a bit?"

Belle let her caretaker get away without answering that.

After he left Belle waited fifteen minutes then squinted until her eyes began to water. With a tear making it's way down her cheek she whistled again.

"Please, please, please can I go to the bathroom?" Belle whimpered. "I really have to go, please?"

"I'm sorry I can't set you loose," the man said.

Belle sulked for the rest of his shift calling him in repeatedly to adjust her bed or change the radio station or just to come up with pretenses for more tears.

When he started his shift the next day he brought Belle a book with a stand to prop it up and promised her he'd stop by every ten minutes to turn the pages for her.

After four hours Belle decided to get to an interesting part and started begging for him to come by more often. Two hours later he released one of her arms.

Belle's hand shot out, fingers stiffened into a blade and struck his throat, crushing his windpipe. As the man collapsed, unable to even scream Belle grabbed him, pulling his dying body on the bed with her. She held him tightly until he stopped thrashing then she snatched up his keys and efficiently searched his pockets in case there were others she might need to free herself. That done she lowered the body to the floor, being careful of making any noise that might be heard over the radio.

When she was free of restraints and monitors she wrapped her drinking glass in the bed sheet to muffle the sound then she smashed it. Belle picked through the shards examining their edges then selected one that would make a passable knife. A scrap of cloth ripped from the sheet became a hilt. A power cord torn from one of the monitors became a strangle cord.

Armed to the best of her ability Belle stepped over the corpse of the man she'd killed and slipped out of the room. Belle exited her room to find herself in what seemed to be an empty intensive care ward.

A pile of papers and books at the central desk marked where her caretaker had been working while he wasn't catering to her whims, other than that the room looked sterile and disserted. Unfortunately it was also window-less.

Belle pressed her ear to the door and heard the faint hum of conversation. Only two guards she estimated. From the reflection in the polished floor that she could see through the crack beneath the door Belle estimated their positions.

Seeing a pair of shoes pause directly in front of the double doors Belle grinned. She backed away from the door. Then she got a running start, leapt and crashed, feet first into the crack between the two doors just above the lock. The latch gave and the doors burst outward taking down one of the guards. Belle regained her feet with a crack flip and found herself facing two remaining soldiers, one of her guards had been the quiet type.

Belle fainted forward the taller of the pair moved to block her. She threw her weight to the side and slashed across his face with her makeshift knife. As the man screamed and clutched at his eyes, Belle turned on his companion. He backed away scrabbling for the tasar gun holstered at his waist. Belle threw herself at him. They hit the floor together a moment later Belle rolled away from the man, leaving her knife embedded in his throat.

She used his tasar on the other two before they could recover then casually broke their necks and continued onward.

She encountered another white-coated doctor-type in the stairwell. A quick kick sent him tumbling down the stairs where he lay groaning until Belle brought her heel down on his nose forcing shards of bone back into his brain.

Six guards with tasars and police batons met her in the lobby. Belle managed to stun two of them with her stolen tasar before they took her down.

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