September 1st as Naomi and Becca arrive
"ok wow, you know what I can't believe" says Naomi
"what's that" asks Becca
"that my girlfriend is here and more beautiful than ever" says Naomi as Hannah Fransisco walks over and kisses her
"where's my bella" asks Becca
"she's napping, she hasn't been sleeping well on account of her being so afraid you'd been abused or shot by the Italian military that held you in isolation" says Maria
"yes they were a little rough around the edges Mrs. Starling but they never touched us, they were actually very respectful, saying things like I wish I had your courage, things like that, most of the Italian forces doing the captivity stuff are General ray's former troops, they don't like it one bit, they say there is a risk of servicemen and women leaving the service to rip the military of it's hold on Prime minister Gustav" says Becca
"that might be what it takes to right the wrongs being done, Becca Bella has her own apartment on the third floor, room three-fifteen, go be with the one you love" says Cat
"why her own apartment" asks Becca
"we felt it was time, you girls may only be sixteen but Bella works for Cat cleaning the pool, cat has a lot of money and very little chemistry skills to make the pool safe, something Bella is very good at" says Maria
"you know you probably made her dreams come true Catarina, she loves chemistry and is absolutely in love with your music" says Becca
"I didn't do it for that reason Becca, I was mainly trying to keep her mind off of you, she was absolutely convinced you would be either seriously wounded or dead when you got here, I figured she was good with chemistry and could easily tell something was off with the pool so I figured I might as well let her fix it, it's done a lot of good for her, though it hasn't helped her sleep" says Cat
"she probably ran out of meds when she was separated from me, Maria why didn't you get her meds filled" says Becca
"I had no idea she was on medication Becca, since you two started doing bed stuff I gave the doctors permission to accept you taking her to the doctors appointments" says Maria
"great so what doctor does she have here" asks Becca
"we don't have one yet, we're still in the process of gaining official citizenship status, Cat's supplying feminine hygiene supplies until we can legally apply for jobs" says Maria
"oh….. so I can't use the money I have to propose to Bella then" asks Becca saddened
"whoa where did you get enough money to get a ring to propose, let alone my consent to do so" asks Maria
"lieutenant Ryan, one of Ray's troops, his sister was gay and killed herself when her girlfriend turned her proposal attempt away because it was too early, apparently her last words to him were 'get this to Henry's oldest's girlfriend, they will need this if things go bad' apparently she was actually referring to bad military action not death, I made a promise not to use the ring for the proposal" says Becca
"what do aspect of Bella do you love the most" asks Maria
"her eyes, they shine like the moon when she smiles" says Becca
"I thought you would ha-" says Maria as Becca stops her short
"imma stop you right there, I didn't fall for her because of her parts, anyone who does that is solely thinking of gratification, that's not how I was raised, I was raised to find something I loved about someone and appreciate it, I loved my moms smile and my dad's jokes and I love Bella's eyes, I want to marry her Maria" says Becca
"ok how about this, you can propose to her but you must wait till you're twenty to get married" says Maria
"are you that sure she will actually want to be my fiancé" asks Becca
"Becca I've never seen her as happy as she is with you, I'm just scared what people will think because she's mute" says Maria
"ok firstly she's not completely mute, it's more anxiety and fear based mutism, though she can speak clearly she doesn't have a big vocabulary, when we started playing around in bed, that first time she pointed at my kitten and said 'can we play', I made sure to explain to her what she was asking for and she consented" says Becca
"how would you describe her slowness or advanced-ness" asks Maria
"the doctor said she's slow with words but normal everywhere else, he said she had the vocabulary of a child but could understand complex concepts" says Becca
"so what has she been afraid of her whole life then" asks Maria
"she's mildly agoraphobic and quite claustrophobic, the first time we kissed she'd believed the room shrunk to the size of the bed and kinda freaked out before deepening the kiss because she liked how it felt and how calm it had made her" says Becca
"has it gotten better recently" asks Henry
"it fluctuates, it was headed worse before we got separated, I feel that being here, close to her idol will help keep it level" says Becca as Bella walks out of the elevator into Cat's apartment
"you here" cries Bella as she runs over to Becca for a big hug
"hopefully here to stay ladybug, why don't you show me this cool new place you got" says Becca
"you bring me kiss" asks Bella
"yes but not in front of your family" says Becca as they move towards the elevator
"ladybug has to be the cutest nickname ever" gushes Cat
"Bella loves insects, that's why she loves chemistry, she's nearly invented three chemicals that are safe for use to repel insects and won't hurt them or you" says Henry
"why didn't she get to invent them, sounds like a massive business opportunity" asks Jade
"her mutism, no investors would take her seriously, that because she has issues speaking that there was no chance in her being able to defend her inventions against critics" says Maria
"is she interested in making money" asks Jade seriously
"you have money" asks Henry
"well Cat doesn't have high up friends for nothing, yes, my family is in the oil business but wants to try and venture out into the renewable energy and Eco friendly products to see if it's a viable alternative to Oil, I'm responsible for the battery business so I have money, I'm willing to put up a hundred grand for her to research and develop eco safe insect repellant and if it is deemed successful by my experts at my company she will get a forty percent cut of all profits of the sales of her repellent as well as any other products she makes" says Jade
"what would that look like" asks Henry
"ok so say her repellent sells really well and people love it and it makes a million dollars, she would get four hundred grand of that money, which she can put towards more research for new products or keep for herself and Becca, I've noticed these very cute anti-slop mats that smell interesting that she puts around the pool, we could sell those too" says Jade
"wait you are the person behind Westside batteries and E-Bikes, those things are amazing, I had an e-bike in Venice that had a westside battery, man that battery was awesome, I could go three days easy without even thinking about charging it" says Maria
"what's crazy is the European Union didn't want the latest and greatest bike, they just wanted something affordable, my engineers are sending over the latest model that pairs to an app on your phone to monitor things, it'll be here in a few days if you want to try it out" says Jade
"can I really" asks Maria
"hey it'll make you some money, they can't seem to narrow down the last few problems it has, maybe you can figure it out, if you figure out the problem or even if Sabine, Bella or Becca figure it out they will come here, fix it and you get to keep it, it's part of San-Francisco's plan to be a little greener, they are setting up spots in the city for solar powered top up spots for scooters and E-Bikes and the like, my company is but one partner, my job is to supply batteries and e-bikes" says Jade
"what kinds of features will the e-bike have" asks Henry
"it has a really nifty anti-theft feature, they can thank Robbie for the idea, it has a as far as we can tell un-hackable location beacon feature, it activates if it is started without the key that came with it and will notify police of the theft, the engineers left two unattended after using them to get to a local café for lunch and both were stolen and recovered successfully" says Jade
"anything cool like music or stuff" asks Maria
"you can control the music or speed with connected gloves, based on finger movement, for safety the helmet has a microphone that can pipe in the outside noise if you make a quick fist with your music hand, it's designed to self drive a certain way, like say you have a seizure while riding it, it will pull over ask for help and call an ambulance then once you're safely in the ambulance the paramedic just has to say go home and it will drive itself home as best it can so when you get out of the hospital you can come home to it parked" says Jade
"that's pretty cool, does the emergency call feature cost anything" asks Maria
"no it's linked to them directly, it's going to be part of their service pay from the city to respond to them, there is even a feature for people who are mute or deaf, for mute people the camera in the helmet translates the sign language of the helmet wearer into words for those around you and for deaf people it does the reverse, it translates words into sign language via a pop down visor screen in the helmet, the one that's coming is aimed at Cat so it has translations to and from Italian and all the features, however since it has a few problems left she won't use it but it is fully paid for" says Jade as Maria's jaw drops
"is this really ok for me to do" asks Maria
"absolutely Maria, my bike actually has a cab like seat on it so I can mount fans on it to stay cool, there are many different dialects of Spanish and Italian based on where you live so I can't always understand them all, though I suspect Sabine may be the one to figure it out" says Cat
"why Sabine of all people, she's very shy" asks Henry
"because the first thing she signed to me was 'you smell like roses', the weird thing is perfume irritates me so there is no way I could possibly smell like roses, even weirder is she could smell burning toast from Carly's apartment while we were in the basement watching a movie, she has a really good nose it would seem" says Cat
"that would explain her excessive showers and baths, must be too many smells here for her" says Henry
"actually that only explains why she might shower, in honesty she's trying to smell pretty" says Cat
"smell pretty for who exactly she's fourteen" asks Maria
"if I had to guess probably the mayor's adopted daughter, they visited me the first week you guys were here for policy advice about funding for those on the autism spectrum and Sabine shook May's hand, sniffed herself, giggled and bolted to shower then came back at the end freshly showered and dressed and gave May the biggest hug" says Cat
"how old is May" asks Maria
"currently fourteen but she'll be fifteen in a week and a half and Sabine wanted me to throw May a party, is that ok" asks Cat
"oh my god they have the same birthday, yes it's ok, I just hope Sabine knows what she's doing" says Maria
