becoming luminous

Bella doesn't even remember the drive home, so focused was she on remembering every detail of the conversation with Sherlock until she could pin it all down on paper. (It will occur to her later that she is lucky nothing unexpected happened during the drive; if it had, she would very likely have ended up in an accident.)

It's been a long time since she's recorded a conversation in all its detail instead of counting on the ability she has developed to recall those details when she reads her thoughts on them, but she does so now. It all seems more real once she's written it out, helping her racing thoughts settle enough for her to sort through them more easily.

Sherlock claims to be a clone of Tony Stark. Now to decide whether she believes him.

Most of these are things she has already written about in the past few days, but, with the new information to offer a fresh perspective, she writes them again.

Of the two of them, Tony is the only one for whom the Starks published a birth announcement. Some families can and do get away with hiding the existence of a child. The Starks, however, were too famous: Howard was a well-known physicist and company CEO, and Maria was a social butterfly. They were both smart and would have realized that hiding one child while allowing the other to lead a more ordinary life would be massively complex for people in their situation. If they had intended to do so from the start, then Maria would have given birth in seclusion rather than a hospital, since the latter option would have summarily informed every interested employee that she had given birth to twins. They could not reasonably have bribed or otherwise silenced that many people with any degree of effectiveness. And that is only the first item on a long list of reasons why the idea that they were hiding Sherlock and their deaths set him free, while seemingly the most plausible explanation at hand, makes absolutely no sense at all.

In the end, all the research she has been able to do boils down to three irrefutable facts:

* There is only one birth announcement because only one child was born to Howard and Maria Stark. Sherlock and Tony are not twins.

* Sherlock is physically the same age as Tony - development occurs too rapidly and visibly in adolescence for there to be a substantial difference between them.

* Sherlock and Tony are identical; while Bella has never met Tony, there are enough recent pictures and news clips of him available thanks to his taking over Stark Industries for her to know that for certain.

A fourth fact: Bella has not been able to make these items fit together satisfactorily. If Sherlock's claim is true, then it eliminates the inherent contradictions and creates the perfect fit.

Points against Sherlock's claim being true:

* Science and technology are not yet sufficiently advanced for the creation of a viable human clone.

But what makes her think that is true? The answer: Everyone knows that scientists can't do that yet.

A fifth fact, one that Bella adopted into her way of thinking long ago: "Everyone knows" is never, ever sufficient proof in and of itself. In this case, it is insufficient because "everyone" is not a scientific genius capable of understanding biology and chemistry at the level required for proving that cloning is currently impossible.

Sherlock stated that Tony cloned himself when he was twelve, with equipment he created. If that is true, then "everyone" would certainly not know about it. Tony Stark has repeatedly demonstrated that he is at least as brilliant as his father, whose genius was also thoroughly proven. (Bella found, in the course of her research, statements from a member of Stark Industries' Research and Development department declaring Tony's scientific and engineering aptitude in no uncertain terms.)

There is no reason to believe that a child that brilliant would have been incapable of producing results that adults with vast but still lesser intelligence have not been able to manage. Bella herself knows a thing or two about being advanced beyond one's years - when she had taken up her extensive journaling at thirteen, no one had expected a girl of her age to stick to it. But stick to it she had. Just because common knowledge says a person can't do something doesn't mean they can't. And if the twelve-year-old Tony had indeed invented cloning technology that worked, then clearly he was also able to solve the problem of his clone's being chronologically twelve years younger than he.

In short: The only argument against Sherlock's claim is that "everyone knows" they couldn't possibly be true, and that is not a valid argument.

But the only evidence in favor of Sherlock's claim is Sherlock's claim. The technology Tony used is gone, but even if it weren't, Bella doubts very much that it had something convenient like "Clone-O-Matic" emblazoned across the side. She wouldn't be able to identify cloning technology for herself, and so whether it was destroyed or not makes no difference to her. As Sherlock pointed out, the only way to prove it worked would be to use it, and his own existence is proof enough that that would be a very irresponsible thing to do.

Tony himself could verify Sherlock's claim, but again Bella's own lack of scientific expertise is a problem. Even if he consented to walk her through the process step-by-step, she wouldn't know if any of it were possible or not. Tony's word alone to back up or contradict Sherlock wouldn't do much for the value of Sherlock's claim either way; if Sherlock is lying, or mentally unstable enough to believe his story to be true when it isn't, then Tony has been enabling him since their parents' deaths and is unlikely to stop just because Bella asks politely.

So she cannot prove Sherlock's claim true or false. What she can do is see for herself that it explains very neatly the things she has been able to prove. It also casts a brand-new light on the issue of Sherlock's identity.

She stares at this conclusion for a while, then drops her pen with a sigh and gets to her feet. She has done what she can with the information at hand; chasing it around any longer will not make her conclusions any more solid or provable, and it's getting late. She'll have to get supper started right now if it's going to be ready when Charlie gets home.

Bella Swan's first day at Sunnydale High has been fairly unremarkable so far. She's gotten some attention as a new kid, but not much - Sunnydale isn't as big as Phoenix, but it isn't tiny, either. People move here often enough. It's also the first day of the school year, and students are clearly more interested in catching up on things that happened over the summer and figuring out their schedules. Bella, having never been a new student before, had been uncertain of how much attention she should expect, and this outcome suits her just fine.

(There also haven't been many people making the connection between her last name and their chief of police. Bella is proud of Charlie and the job he does, but to hear him tell it, she's the only one in Sunnydale who is. And she has to admit to herself, in the interest of truth, that she had been apprehensive about the negative social attention that could net her if Charlie isn't exaggerating.

to-hack: prioritize pride in Charlie over social self-interest.

She knows, even if other people don't, that Charlie has done everything he can to address the massive flaws in the Sunnydale police department ever since his promotion. That's an important thing to be proud of.)

She hasn't been wandering the halls alone and awkward, either. She has been to Sunnydale before on previous visits to Charlie, after all, and he'd made a habit of scheduling things for her to do during the day while he was at work. She'd been less interested in scheduled activities the past couple of summers, but she still sees a few familiar faces in the hallways, and their owners recognize her too. In English class, just before lunch, she runs into Jessica Stanley. She and Jessica hadn't exactly been friends last year, but they'd met through a mutual friend (who has moved away since; Bella reminds herself to reply to Angela's last email soon) and liked each other well enough; Bella had noted that Jessica had an excellent ear for gossip and an equally good knack for acquiring and remembering same.

Jessica invites Bella to join her and her friends for lunch. Bella is glad to accept, pleased both for the chance to turn acquaintance into a new friendship and to avoid the classic high school movie image of gripping her lunch tray and looking awkwardly for a place to sit.

Jessica's friends are friendly and welcoming, and Jessica's ability to gossip is exactly as Bella remembers it to be. Bella has never judged this negatively, and doesn't do it now; gossip is information, and sitting with Jessica ensures that Bella will be the best-informed new student in Sunnydale High by the end of lunch.