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La Femme Bella	By : saritat9 Category: Twilight Series > AU/AR > Het > Het Views: 984 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 1-La Femme Bella
- 2-Chapter 1: Life in Section One
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La Femme Bella

Chapter 1: Life in Section One

I kept on circling the man holding the deadly blade. I wasn’t fooled; as dangerous as the knife was, it was merely an accessory. Maybe what I had been taught was finally sinking in. I had learned that you didn’t assess someone’s danger level by looks alone… not in the usual way at least. You observed their eyes, their face and how they held themselves. In short, you read their body language. On a lesser man, this knife would be the weapon to fear the most and on someone who didn’t have the balls to use it then the knife would be as useful as a butter knife. However, I was well aware that the man who was holding it now would cut me with it if he could and he wouldn’t pull any punches. He’d land me in the medic.

“Focus, Bella!” he warned with his deceptively gentle voice, letting me know that he was far from satisfied by my progress.

I didn’t acknowledge his words in any other way than by focusing my concentration and staring in to his eyes. I told myself as a mantra that I would know a microsecond before he would strike if I kept eye contact. I didn’t really believe myself, but that flimsy hope was all I had.

“You’re not even trying,” he scolded me as he lunged and left me with a long cut down my arm. It started bleeding immediately, but it wasn’t very deep. I guess he wanted to play with me and test my endurance rather than go for the fast kill. And let’s face it - with me the fast kill was still appallingly easy.

It had only taken me a half a second to assess the damage to my arm and I refused to let the pain distract me further. Instead, I used the slightest distraction of his obvious and all too familiar disappointment in me against him. I punched him hard in the face and followed it with a high kick that sent the knife flying. The ache in my knuckles now added to the pain in my arm.

Edward was already poised for another attack and I had lost the little edge that I had obtained. He knocked me in the diaphragm with his elbow and swiped me off my feet. I was down for the count.

“You need to do better,” he said emphatically. He paused before continuing, “Esme wants to see you. Go clean yourself up.”

He had already disappeared by the time I managed to pry myself up off the floor.

Esme. Oh goodie.

He hadn’t needed to tell me to clean myself up before seeing her. You didn’t go to Esme covered in sweat and bleeding. I used a minute to try and assure myself that Edward wasn’t being patronizing and annoying on purpose. He was my trainer and in his own way I knew that he cared for my survival. In the least, my survival reflected on his abilities as a trainer.

I had spent close to a year in this place called Section One and I still didn’t know quite what to think of Esme. As far as I knew, Esme was second in command while Operations was the head of our organization. Esme was in her late thirties, very beautiful and extremely intelligent. She intimidated me quite a bit despite her warm demeanour. If Section One truly was the only family I would ever know again, as she had told me the first time I met her, that made her my mother. And a strict mother at that.

----

After showering and getting myself bandaged I changed into clean clothes and went to Esme’s office, although the word office seemed insufficient. She had her own private area to work in, plus a comfortable seating arrangement for her personnel interviews and reviews.

And then there was the other stuff.

Esme had a fully stocked make-up table and racks full of clothing for both men and women. There were all kinds of shoes, wigs, and jewellery. Among other things, Esme had taught me how to dress and apply my own make-up and be more feminine overall. According to her, there was no weapon more powerful than my femininity and my beauty and when she said it, I believed her. To me, the key was in learning how to fake it with ease and conviction. I wasn’t quite there yet, but I was learning.

“Come in and have a seat, Bella.” Esme said behind her desk and gestured me to sit in the opposing chair.

I followed her request and seated myself opposite her. She smiled at me warmly and I instinctively smiled back. As always, her light brown hair was set in perfect waves and the make-up on her face was immaculate and natural.

“So, how have you been doing?”

“I don’t know. You tell me? I know that Edward isn’t happy with my progress,” I muttered.

Esme looked thoughtful. “And what do you think?”

I shrugged. Esme often sounded like a bad shrink, asking what I thought and how I felt. I didn’t know how genuine her concern was and if it was concern for me or for her precious Section One.

“He’s probably right. I’ve done my best but nothing is good enough for him.”

“Edward is a perfectionist, but that makes him a great operative. He just wants you to reach your full potential.”

I didn’t reply. I fidgeted instead, staring at the points of my shoes. They were new and expensive Italian stilettos, or so I was told. I had left my training sneakers in my room with my sweats.

“Do you have any questions or comments?” Esme asked, inviting me to share my troubles.

“No. Not really. Well, maybe one thing,” I blushed, feeling embarrassed. How was I to become an operative if talking to Esme made me blush like a silly little girl. I thanked the high heavens that I had never had to speak to Operations.

“I just want to know if I’m doing… okay.” And not as horribly as I thought I was doing.

Esme remained silent for a while, considering her answer. Then she smiled again and made me feel as at ease as she possibly could, considering the fact that she terrified me.

“We have had recruits that are quicker and more efficient. However, I stay firm in my belief in Edward’s instincts. He thinks that you will be a great operative and I agree with him. Does this put your worries to rest?”

“Yes. Thank you, Esme.” I made a little bow. I just couldn’t help myself with her and then got the hell out of her office.

----

“Hi Billy. What are you doing?” I asked the elderly Native American man that was crouched over some tech gadgets that I didn’t even pretend to understand. As per usual, he was wearing a red bandana high on his forehead and had his long and greying hair tied in to ponytail with a black leather ribbon. His face was scrunched up in concentration, but then again he was also concentrating on something that blew right over my head so I though it safe enough to at least ask.

“Building a bomb,” he answered casually, uniting two wires with delicate pincers.

“Oh,” I stated. “Should I go?”

“No, Sugar. I’m a professional. Besides, it’s not like anything much worse could happen to me.”

I smiled at him, nodding in understanding. Billy was a paraplegic and confined to a wheelchair. Thankfully, it didn’t interfere with his job description too much. He was in charge of weaponry and technical stuff like communications devices and apparently, he sometimes fiddled with bombs.

“If I’m out of line please tell me so, but… how did it happen?”

Billy kept his eyes on the bomb but smiled crookedly, as if my question amused him.

“The wheelchair?” he raised his eyebrows, still staring at the bomb.

“Yea. What happened?”

Billy paused his work for a while, considering his words carefully. I was just about ready to stop waiting for him to answer when he finally spoke.

“There was this new tech we were testing. Some poor sod had actually come up with a way to make explosives that were impossible to detect and extremely potent. A teaspoonful of that and you could blow up a whole house. Let’s just say I underestimated his description of the potency. I thought he was boasting. I didn’t think that was possible.”

“You blew yourself up?!”

“Just the legs, Sugar. The rest of me works just fine.” he winked, “In fact, I have the age and the experience to see everything through… thoroughly.”

Billy was always mock hitting on me, although sometimes I thought he was being serious. I blushed and before I turned my gaze away from him I could catch him shaking his head, muttering something about lions and lambs.

“Billy… can I ask you about something else?”

“Shoot.”

“It’s about…” I hesitated. I knew by now that this was a harsh place where too much curiosity could certainly end up killing you. When I didn’t continue Billy turned to look at me, his dark brown eyes serious.

“Is it about something you shouldn’t ask?”

“I don’t know, maybe. Probably.” I admitted, “I wanted to know more about…Edward.” I whispered the last word. “What’s the deal with him.”

“He been riding you hard again?”

“I don’t know. I just don’t think that he…likes me very much. And he thinks I’m no good at this. He’s probably right.” I gave a mirthless laugh.

“Don’t concern yourself with him, Bella. He’s your trainer and you need to get along with him, but that’s all.” Billy took a look around and when he was satisfied that we were alone, he leaned in and continued in a low whisper. “You need to toughen up kid if you want to survive here. You’re one of the good ones, I can tell.”

“Yeah.” I muttered, but my thoughts were still on Edward and his emotionless, but dazzling, green eyes. What had this place done to him, or had he always been like that? In fact, what did I really know about anyone here. They thought me a killer and that was the only reason they wanted me. I had stopped telling them I was innocent pretty damn quickly. If they knew the truth I would already be dead one way or the other. In the least, the other recruits would surely have eaten me alive and no one would have cared.
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La Femme Bella