Warning: this chapter has a lot of Elle and Bella interaction, so if you don't like Bella it probably won't be your favorite. Feel free to skip to the scene where Edward discusses evolutionary theory with Elle and gets into a fight with a soda machine. (Yes, you read that right.)

Chapter 34: Untouchable

When Elle entered the cell, she found Bella curled in a fetal position on her bed, staring blankly at a wall. So this is the notorious Bella Swan. She was pretty, Elle thought, but she wasn't doing anything to capitalize on her beauty - her long brown hair was a tangled mess, and her slim figure was swallowed up by Company-issue sweats three sizes too big for her. Well, she doesn't look like anyone I need to watch out for - I don't think she'll attack me, and she sure isn't going to steal my boyfriend.

Bella didn't move or react to Elle's presence at all. Elle almost thought she was sleeping, except she could see that the girl's eyes were open. Her irises were the color of chocolate. "Bella?" When the brunette still refused to acknowledge her, Elle went over to her and tried to brush the hair back from her face.

That finally roused Bella, who jerked away from the hand reaching toward her, scrambled upright, scuttled backward so that her back was pressed to the wall, and drew her legs up as if trying to compress herself into the smallest amount of space possible. Elle noticed that she kept her knees clamped tightly together. "Don't touch me!"

"Whoa, okay, no touching. That's cool. Keeping my hands to myself here, see?" Elle held up her hands, then shoved them in her pockets. "Mind if I sit down?" Bella didn't answer, just watched warily as she sat cross-legged at the end of the bed. "So…I know who you are, but you don't know me. I'm Elle, like the magazine."

Bella looked away. "I don't read magazines." Now that they had established that Elle wasn't to touch her, her interest in continuing the conversation was visibly waning.

"It's actually short for Eleanor, but if you call me that I may have to kill you."

"Go ahead."

Elle's eyebrows shot up. "You want me to kill you?"

As Bella's gaze refocused sharply on her, Elle was struck by the lifeless emptiness in her eyes. "You have no idea what I've been through-"

"Actually, I do. That's why they sent me to talk to you."

"You still don't know how I feel! I can't forget what happened; the memory's been eating away at me every second since I woke up. I can't stand it after only a day - at least I think it's been a day; I can't really keep track of time in here - how am I supposed to live with it? I don't know if I can."

"Bullshit. I know you don't want to die. You've hung on this long, haven't you?"

"I was lucky…I mean, I guess I was lucky. Someone found me and got help. I would have died if I hadn't gotten to the hospital so fast."

"You could've died sooner if you just let that guy kill you."

Bella's breathing sped up, her pupils dilated, and some feeling entered her voice for the first time. "That was a mistake. I just panicked when I saw the knife and I- I-"

Elle leaned in. "You what?"

Bella snapped her mouth shut, eyes flicking nervously around the room. "I shouldn't talk about that."

"Why not?"

"I don't remember what happened."

It was an obvious lie, and Elle called her on it. "Sure you do. You said you remember everything else, so unless you've got a very selective memory I don't believe you."

Bella squirmed. "My memory must be wrong. It couldn't- Things like that just don't happen! I must've been crazy to come up with it… That's why I'm here, right?"

"Where exactly do you think you are?"

"Some kind of psychiatric hospital, I guess. The place has a clinical feel but it's not like any other hospital I've ever been in, and I feel like I'm losing my mind, so it all adds up. They locked me in this room too; why would they do that unless they think I'm crazy?" Her eyes narrowed. "This is a strange hospital, though. There's no medical equipment, and I don't think the man with the horn-rimmed glasses who brought me here is even a doctor."

Elle, who had listened to Bella's theory with a mounting sense of incredulous amusement, laughed. "His name's Noah Bennet, and no, he isn't a doctor. That doesn't mean he isn't trying to help you - maybe you've noticed you're in better shape than you were when you got here?"

"Yes…I can't imagine how that happened."

"We have lots of things in this building you can't imagine."

"'We'?" Bella looked suspicious again. "Who is 'we'? Who are you, and why did 'they' send you in here? You're too young to be a doctor or psychologist… I guess you could be another patient who somehow got her hands on regular clothes-"

"I am not a mental patient," Elle snapped.

Bella recoiled as if expecting to be hit. "I'm sorry! I just… Nothing that's happened since the man with the glasses took me away makes any sense. I just want to go home!"

Elle barely refrained from rolling her eyes, though it wouldn't have mattered since Bella wasn't looking at her face anymore. "You can go home once you tell me what happened after you saw the knife. We just need to make sure nothing's wrong with you before you're released, okay?"

"If I tell, it'll only convince you that there is something wrong with me."

There'll be something wrong with you if you don't! A little shock would probably cure Bella's reticence, and Elle was getting so frustrated with her evasiveness that she was almost itching to give her one. The only thing stopping her was the fact that the last people to hurt Bella Swan were dead. Elle didn't want to end up like them, so she kept her mask of friendly concern in place. "Look, whatever happened, I want to help you deal with it, but I can't do that if you won't be honest with me. I won't judge you or anything. Cross my heart."

Bella still had some doubts about her strange visitor's trustworthiness, but keeping the memory bottled up inside would drive her insane, assuming she wasn't already there. If she tells my doctors I'll probably never get out, but maybe I shouldn't. It might be safer if I just stayed in here. She took a deep breath and started talking. "Like I said, I panicked when I saw the knife. I thought I wanted to die so…so the pain would end…but when he held the blade to my throat all I wanted was to get him away from me… That's when the weird stuff happened. A kind of…solid wall of air formed between us and pushed him off, and then it wrapped around him and his friends and squeezed and squeezed them, and I heard their bones breaking and there was blood everywhere-" She broke off and clapped a hand over her mouth, looking nauseated.

Elle was too intrigued by Bella's story to pay any mind to her discomfort. The brunette had just given a perfect description of a force field; the question was, how had she managed to create one? Her ability was supposed to be repelling telepathy and other mental powers. "Are you sure you caused that?"

"There wasn't anyone else nearby," Bella said shakily, "and I- I wasn't thinking straight, but I'm pretty sure I wanted that to happen." She sniffled and wiped at her eyes. "Oh God, I'm horrible. I killed four people and I'm not even sorry! I feel almost happy about it."

"Good for you."

Bella dropped her hands into her lap and gaped. "How can you say that!"

"Killing those creeps was a public service."

"It wasn't my place to deal with them though. That's what the police are for."

"The police are idiots."

This statement had a profound effect on Bella; her tears disappeared as she stiffened and glared at Elle. "My father is a police officer," she said coldly.

"Oops." Elle slid off the bed and retreated quickly toward the door. "Well, it's been real. I'll leave you to your moping now. Ciao." Keeping one eye on Bella, she tried the door handle - which of course was rigged not to open from the inside. "Hey, you can let me out now." The door was opened, but not by her partner; only Edward was waiting outside for her. "Where's Bennet?"

"Restroom," Edward lied. Noah had left right after being interrogated about Elle's past, and he hadn't come back. Edward suspected the man was avoiding him.

"He just left while I was locked in a cell? How'd he expect me to get out?"

"He gave me the code to open the door."

"Well, I guess there's no danger of you running off for a bathroom break."

As he and Elle left the isolation ward, Edward admitted to having eavesdropped on her conversation with Bella. "I couldn't pass up the opportunity to observe you at work; I was also curious about the effect recent events may have had on Bella's mental shield. Her mind is still protected, if you were wondering."

"That's not all that's protected - she's added force fields to her repertoire. Why don't you put your genius intellect to good use and figure out how she made that leap?"

"Actually, I already have a theory."

"Of course you do. Aren't you worried about making me feel dumb?"

"You're not that insecure."

That was true; Elle knew she wasn't as smart as Edward, but it didn't bother her because she also knew he'd had a lot longer to learn stuff and a lot more storage space in his brain, and in spite of all that she still had him wrapped around her little finger. "So tell me your theory."

"I think she developed a new ability to shield herself from physical harm the way she's always shielded herself mentally. That's evolution in action - in order for a new mutation to be successful, its carriers have to survive."

"Wow. I wouldn't have pegged Bella Swan as the pinnacle of evolution."

"I wouldn't go that far, but she did survive a situation that would have been fatal to someone without her talents. Even more impressive is the fact that she acted on pure instinct. Can you imagine what she might be capable of once she learns to control it?"

"Yeah, the Company might even decide to keep her - train her as an agent."

Elle paused by a vending machine with the intention of purchasing a grape soda. Just as she pushed the button indicating her choice of drink, Edward grabbed her arm and turned her toward him. "You can't let that happen."

"That's not my call. Besides, you really want to release her into the wild?"

"Her father would be devastated if he lost her, and I doubt she would last long in a job like yours. She isn't as strong as you are."

"No kidding. So I should put my ass on the line for her because she can't take care of herself?"

"I'd rather you didn't, but if there's any way you can ensure her release without endangering yourself, I would be grateful."

"I'll see what I can do." Elle turned back to the machine and saw that it had failed to produce her soda. "Hey, this stupid thing ate my quarters!"

Edward smacked it, causing it to dump out twelve cans of soda which overflowed from the delivery slot, hit the floor, and rolled in every direction.

"Thanks, but I only wanted one."

"I must have miscalculated the force required to make this contraption dispense a single can," he grumbled.

Elle snorted as she watched him chase down the scattered sodas. "I take back what I said earlier - you never have to worry about making me feel dumb."

###

She was called back the next day - the Company's scientists wanted to perform tests on Bella, and they wanted Elle there to help because she had 'developed a rapport' with the other girl. Elle wasn't sure how much of a rapport they actually had, but they said she was the only one who'd managed not to send Bella into a complete tailspin…like the one she seemed on the verge of having when Elle tried to take her to a lab.

"I don't want to do this! Please don't make me!"

"Calm down! It's just a couple tests for…uh, research purposes. Then you can go home."

"I don't want strangers poking at me," Bella whined. "What do they want from me anyway?"

Elle looked up and down the hall, checking that they were truly alone. "Remember what you told me you did the night you were…hurt? They're gonna try to make you do it again."

"But I don't know how!"

"Good, because you need to pretend you can't. If they think they can train you to do it on command they'll want to keep you here for more experiments."

"And if not, they'll let me go?" Bella asked hopefully.

"That's the idea. They'll try really hard to make you show them what you can do first, though-"

"Will they hurt me?"

"I don't think so, but they might give you adrenaline to put you in a heightened emotional state. You just have to stay in control no matter what they do, all right?"

"Will they…touch me? I don't like touching. Especially men." She shuddered.

"If there's any touching involved, I'll ask them to let me do it. Would that be okay since I'm not a guy? Whatever happens, I won't let them hurt you." If anyone's gonna hurt you, it'll be me. Before meeting Bella, Elle had thought Edward was high-maintenance and clingy, but he was a piece of cake compared to her, with her constant need for reassurance and timid demeanor that practically screamed 'victimize me!'.

She smiled hesitantly, oblivious to Elle's unkind thoughts about her. "I guess that won't be so bad. Thank you, Elle. I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Well I won't always be around, so you're gonna have to figure that out. For now let's just get you to the lab, 'kay?"

Bella nodded and followed Elle as docilely as a lamb being led to the slaughter.

Next chapter: Bella's part in this story wraps up, and so does Elle's vacation in Forks. What will Edward do when she has to go back to New York?