"I don't think bodybuilding and weight training are the same thing, but the point stands, I guess." Bella shrugs. "Can you think of anything I should've asked and unaccountably haven't?"

"Well, if I were you I'd be wondering why I was so cooperative, but I don't actually have a good answer for that one."

"That occurred to me but I didn't want to jinx it. Do you have bad answers?"

"I have no good reason not to indulge your curiosity. I think that's pretty much it."

"So you don't think I'm asking questions in order to figure out how best to destroy you, mwa-ha-ha? That's good," Bella says, laughing.

"No," she says, also laughing. "Definitely not. I haven't been getting the impression that I am that bad a friend."

"Indeed not," Bella says. "Although I wouldn't be feeling that kindly disposed if you were being cagey. I hate not knowing things."

"I know the feeling," says Bridget.

"Do you have any battery of intrusive questions for me?" Bella asks.

"Not currently. Maybe if you exhibited some obvious magical powers," says Bridget. "Although that's less of a novelty for me, naturally."

"Sorry to disappoint," giggles Bella, all innocence.

"Don't worry about it," Bridget says dryly. "Lots of people don't have magic powers. I'd venture to say most people don't have magic powers, even."

"I don't have a big enough sample size to even begin to make predictions," she says, "especially because most people I meet could have magic powers and I wouldn't know unless they decided to tell me."

"True enough, I suppose. But how many people do you know who you think would tell you, if they did?"

"I couldn't begin to say. How would I know?"

"Other direction then - would you have ever told me, if you hadn't gotten shot right in front of me? Have you told anyone else besides Mystery Power Person? Did they have to see you get mysteriously not-injured first?"

"I might have gotten around to it eventually. The main thing stopping me is the fact that it's hard to demonstrate without unnerving people."

"You have experience with that?" Bella asks.

"I did actually try to tell a couple of my friends in high school. They thought I was kidding and they were creeped out anyway. I didn't ever get to the demonstrating part."

"Huh. So you're not overly worried about the being-whisked-away-to-a-lab thing."

"Well, that is another, somewhat longer story," she says ruefully.

"Storytime!" exclaims Bella. "Do tell."

"Skipping most of the irrelevant details: I have been whisked away to a lab, it is not my favourite memory, and I have reason to believe it won't happen again."

"Please, lay on the irrelevant details," says Bella, finding this explanation unsatisfactory.