if_inconvenient | (no subject)

"No it does not."

The kettle clicks.

That's too bad, she thinks. Technology like that, if it existed, could be tremendously useful.

She puts that aside for a moment, though. Something else to be saved for further exploration later on.

"As far as evidence goes, I suppose that doesn't matter," she admits. "I imagine identifying it would require expertise that I don't possess."

He could show her any piece of technology she wouldn't recognize and claim that it's a cloning device, and she's sure he knows that. The fact that he hasn't tried is, in a way, evidence in itself. It demonstrates a preference not to lie to corroborate his story.

"And I am hardly about to make another of me just to prove that it works, even if I could." Wryly: "One is more than enough."

Bella pauses for a moment to reflect.

"From what you've told me," she says, mostly to hear herself say it and process it, "it wouldn't necessarily be another of you. But I take your point. I certainly wouldn't ask you to."

"It would be another copy of Tony Stark's genes created just to prove it can be done," Sherlock observes. "And you see how well that turned out the first time. I am quite content with my life, but all the same, I wouldn't wish it on anyone."

Children have been born for worse reasons, Bella thinks, but she's hardly in a position to make that argument. She's still thinking it all through.

She needs an hour alone with her notebook. An hour at minimum.

"You've given me a lot to think about," she says.

Unapologetically: "I do that."

Bella smiles wryly.

"I'm starting to get that impression, yes."

"Do you still want your tea?"

She had forgotten all about the tea.

"No, thank you."

Bella goes back to the table to put her notebook back into her backpack.

"I have a process I use for thinking," she says. "I need time and privacy for it, and the sooner I get started, the better. While it's all still fresh."

She glances up at him as she slings her backpack onto her shoulder.

"Not because this is too weird and I can't deal," she says firmly, because she knows that's what it looks like and she doesn't want to leave him with the wrong impression.

On the contrary: It's too weird not to deal with.

He grins a little at that.

"Speaking of privacy," he thinks to mention, "you can assume that someone is listening to anything you say in this house."

This is Bella. He doesn't need to make an obvious gesture to the cameras, or mention explicitly that anything she does here will also be watched.

"I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow. Please do not discuss my origins with Radio Jessica."

Of course. She hadn't forgotten about the cameras, exactly. There had just been much more important things to think about. She makes a mental note to keep them front and center in her mind in the future.

"I'll try to restrain myself," she says, trying to imagine the kinds of faces Jessica would make if Bella did tell her. (Maybe she would just spontaneously combust.)

"Have a nice afternoon," she says, and she leaves.

Well.

That was... well.

"She certainly is a remarkable young lady," Jarvis says when the front door closes behind her.

"She is older than you are," Sherlock points out, pouring himself a cup of tea.

"Granted. I wonder if her interest will wane when she realizes you're chronologically five and a half."

"Don't you bloody start. I get enough of that from Cal."

Speaking of whom, guess who's going to stop by to visit at around suppertime?

Couldn't imagine.

Whoever this mysterious person is, they are going to find Sherlock still in the kitchen, still drinking tea. His fifth cup since Bella left.

He's thinking, all right?

"Hey."

Cal eyes Sherlock a little as he enters the kitchen. He knows that look by now.

"What's up?"

"Bella and I had a lively discussion about ethics."

Cal relaxes and smirks, going over to the fridge to help himself to a soda before he sits at the table.

"Oh yeah?"

"She handed me a copy of Tony's birth announcement and apologized for prying into my affairs. I told her the explanation was more outlandish than the facts and I wasn't inclined to provide it. She said the least outlandish possibility she could think of was cloning. The game was more or less up at that point. I am still not sure whether I regret confirming her theory."

. . . Cal blinks.

"Wow," he says.

"Also, I suspect James Mayer met Howard Stark at Milliways."

When he says it out loud like that, his chain of evidence seems so tenuous. An offhand comment about paternalism. Perhaps he is just getting paranoid.