Emmett, the Bear and the Blonde

by Deaana

In the woods, Emmett finds something and someone he didn't expect.

Title: Emmett, the Bear and the Blonde

Author: by Deaana (deaana . livejournal . com)

Characters/Pairing: Rosalie/Emmett (All others canon)

Rating: T / PG-13 type for a couple questionable words and innuendo

Category: Romance

Spoilers: Various Twilight books

Summary: In the woods, Emmett finds something and someone he didn't expect.

Word count: 2800 words, appx.

Note: This was not beta'd, any errors are entirely my own.

Disclaimer: Twilight and all its related stuff belong to Stephenie Meyer and Summit Entertainment. Rose and Emmett aren't mine, I'm just playing with them, I promise to put them back when I'm done.

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"You're going hunting, again?" the incredulous voice of my co-worker, Bob, drifted over the job site, making me wince.

So yeah, I had been hunting the past 8 weekends and come home with nothing to show for it, but really, I wasn't hunting for deer, or possum, or anything that I'd be willing to actually shoot. I was hunting for a blonde.

"I swear, ever since that first weekend we came back and you had that look in your eye, I don't know what's wrong with you. You okay? for real?" Bob's concern broke through his 'just one of the guys talking' voice.

I nodded grimly.

"You been kinda distracted..." Bob's voice trailed off as he sensed I still didn't want to talk about it. The rhythmic pounding of my hammer helped to drown out his voice. I just loved building things, making something with my own two hands that someone would get years of use out of. I lifted a couple of heavy boards with little comment and apparent ease. Bob swallowed, watching me, and I grinned like a kid. I loved showing off.

We were building a house now, had been for a couple weeks, and it was amazing how good it made me feel. Almost as good as when I saw that blonde...it all came back to the blonde. And I hadn't seen her but a few seconds, certainly nothing to pin my hopes on, nothing I could build on. I didn't even know her name but I was obsessed with finding her.

I thought about that moment, momentarily zoning out as I picked up another nail and began to pound it in.

It had been a quiet day for hunting, the sky was overcast and the woods were quiet. I sat in the hunting blind and sighed. Bob slept on the other side of the blind, it was my turn to watch. We'd both be awake during sunset, keeping an eye out for deer, and then it would be my turn to sleep an hour. The smell of deer musk drifted around us and I cursed myself for spilling it all over my boots. What I'd give for a shower. Shaking myself, I readied my rifle and peered into the scope to take a look around.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing at first as my scope landed on the deer. Huge antlers, skin twitching like it was ready to run, ears up and alert. I'd only have a moment to make the shot, only a moment, but that moment would seal itself forever in my mind. As my finger tightened on the trigger the deer blinked away, it didn't run, it was just gone. Frantically I moved the scope around and saw it, could see the raw fear in its eyes and then I saw her. Blonde hair, golden eyes, beautiful face, like an angel she was, so beyond anything I'd ever experienced. My fascination wasn't dimmed when she leaned down and bit the deer causing it to cease its struggles immediately and become limp in her arms. Like a glorious angel she was. I watched curiously and a minute later she tore a giant gash in the deers throat, to cover her own teeth marks I guessed, and dropped the deer where it lay. Not a hair out of place, not a spot of blood to be found, she was glorious.

I released the breath I didn't know I'd been holding and saw her come alert. She scanned the area a moment, I could see her nose twitching, then she was gone. I dropped the gun and rubbed my eyes, unsure of what I'd really seen, and when I looked she hadn't returned and the deer body was still there, it's throat torn but no blood to be seen. A crow landed on the corpse and started to pick.

I sighed and leaned back, away from the gunsight and Bob stirred beside me. "See anything?"

"No," I'd answered, because I couldn't really explain exactly what I'd seen.

Pain brought me back to the present and I yelled in surprise. I'd missed the nail and got my thumb. Bob snickered and I made a face at him.

"Maybe you should clock out early, take some of that vacation time you've got saved up, you don't really have your mind on your work, bud." Bob's concern was evident. "Get an early start on the hunt..." he added, as if I needed extra encouragement. I grinned with the thought and dropped my hammer into the toolbox.

"I'm gone." I said, the grin still covering my face, and headed for the foreman's trailer.

-=-=-=-=-

I hunkered down in the deer blind and sighed. It had been a long night and my back was stiff from being so tense, looking for her. My nose wrinkled, but I'd had no more deer scent and I felt exposed to all the forest creatures. It was late, the sun had set a bit ago and I had to take a leak. I dropped from the deer stand and walked a bit away from it, not wanting the smell of my piss to give me away to any creatures in the woods. I undid my buckle and started my business and sighed in relief. This would probably be another wasted weekend, no deer, no possum and most importantly, no blonde. Not that I planned to shoot her, but I did want to capture her, perhaps get my heart back. I grinned, imagining how I'd try to explain it to her.

"You've got something of mine..." I muttered and zipped my jeans up.

That was when I saw movement in front of me. My breath caught in my throat and I reached for my rifle...which was up in the deer stand, where I'd left it. I swallowed thickly and tried to peer into the darkness, my poor night vision making me see things that weren't there.

Maybe it was the blonde? That thought stilled my mind and gave me hope at the same time. "Hello?" I said.

The moon broke through the clouds and the shadows in front of me coalesced, I could see the fur, the teeth, the claws...a bear. I yelled and tried to look big, but really, he was 800 pounds or so of pure muscle and I was...me. The bear roared, too and charged, picking me up in a giant bear hug, his claws scraping my back, cutting, crushing. I was going to die. Well, it was a good run, I'd thought.

"No!" the sound of an angels voice broke through my thoughts, I moved, trying to get my face out of his fur, to see the angel, the smell of the bear choking me. I forced the bear's teeth away from my face and managed to get my head around to see her. It was all worth it, for that moment, to see her glorious face one last time. She saw me at the same time and her beautiful face, her golden eyes, turned into a mask of horror and grief. "No!" she yelled again and the bear suddenly noticed her. He growled once, dropped me in a painful heap and made a run for it. He didn't get far. Through my one good eye I saw her grab the bear with one hand and my shocked brain didn't even flinch when the bear stopped dead. She held him and forced him close to her, her expression wicked and glorious, like a destroying angel. She tore into his flesh and he slumped.

The pain seemed far away, I was numb from it, I guess, but I could see her drop the bear and turn back to me. Yes. That's exactly what I need. Just to see her one more time before I die.

She came closer, her eyes a mask of worry as she examined my wounds. I didn't want to know how bad it was. I gurgled when I spoke, but I was determined and finally, I got the noise from my mouth to make words, "Angel...are you an angel?" I'd asked.

Her face lit up into the most gorgeous smile I'd ever seen, then it faded into concern, worry, and finally determination. "I can't let you die, " she'd answered and gathered me, painfully, in her arms. I tried hard but groans escaped me anyway. And then we were moving, flying through the trees, the leaves and foliage whipping by so fast I couldn't distinguish them. It was amazing, glorious, almost made me forget the pain as I watched everything speeding by.

And whenever I took my attention from the view, I was stunned by another view, a blonde angel holding me in her arms, gently, like I was a bag of flour. She wasn't even watching where she was going, I noticed with amusement, her golden eyes watched only me. It was toward the end that I started to cough, the blood erupting from my mouth in a painful spray. She grimaced and somehow ran faster.

Finally a log cabin came into view, but I was beyond seeing it. The pain in my shattered ribs had spread, I felt cold in my feet and hands. Numb.

"Carlise!" my angel yelled and the sound of her voice jolted me back to awareness. I found myself being rushed into the cabin, my body limp and cold. Suddenly another was there, a blonde man with my angel's matching golden eyes. "Save him, please?" my angels voice pleaded.

"His wounds are severe," he said, his voice full of concern.

"No, Carlisle, save him."

There was a moment of silence and I figured anything was better than dead. "Don't want to die..." I managed to groan out before I passed out.

A strange voice woke me moments later.

"A bear?" the strange voice said. I don't think he'd answered anyone, just said it into the silence, because I don't remember anyone telling him anything, but then I was unconscious at the time. Of course, that was before I knew he could read minds.

"Edward, please," the voice of my angel answered and I understood this Edward was someone she knew.

Emmett, I thought, you got yourself in a hell of a pickle here...

Carlisle's voice intruding on my own thoughts, "I'm going to heal you, it's going to take some time and it's going to be very painful. I'm going to try to give you morphine but I don't know if it will have any effect. I'm sorry."

The numbness of my body was moving up from my feet and past my knees. I couldn't feel my arms. I think I gurgled a response, but I'm not sure. A tiny pin prick in my arm, then suddenly I could feel cold on my throat, then liquid fire seemed to be poured into it, and it began to spread. Every wound, painful as it was, became cold and then began to burn, one at a time until my whole body felt the burn flowing through it. I squeezed my eyes shut tight as the pain flowed through my veins.

I wanted to scream, to cry, to yell out, but I could feel a cool hand entwine with mine and I knew it was her. She was here. With me. And I wasn't alone. She whispered to me, quietly, soothingly, and I listened. It helped to keep the pain at bay to listen to her, my angel.

A minute later I heard the door close and then open again. Edward's voice drifted to me. "By the way," he said and I felt my angel's hand stiffen in mine, "His name's Emmett." Then the door closed again.

My angel relaxed then, and I figured we were alone, my angel, my pain and me. She continued to talk and clung to her words as an escape from the pain. I learned her name was Rosalie, and she was a vampire. She told me about her life, fiancée, her death. I was enraptured, and totally in love, but then I had been that since the first moment I saw her in the forest, the deer clutched in her arms, a fierce look of victory on her face.

The pain continued to burn through me, slicing through my concentration as I tried to hear my angel Rosalie. Her voice became clearer and clearer, though, despite the pain, and I realized it was my hearing that was becoming better. She was telling me about her, what she was, what she had to do to live, what I would have to do. I could hear her breathing, softly, hear my own heart, pounding frantically, pulsing the pain through my veins, my own breaths, quick and pained.

It seemed like it would never end, the pain, but I would take it, take it and be happy, to be with my angel, no matter what pain was involved. It was about then that I felt the pain start to fade, first from my fingertips and toes, my heart picked up speed and the pain doubled.

"Carlisle, Edward," my angel said softly and moments later the door opened. I could hear their steps as they came in and took position on either side of my angel.

"It's almost over," Carlisle's musical voice intoned and I could barely believe how different his voice sounded from the first time I'd heard it. And I could hear everything. The insects in the forest, just outside of the cabin, the sound of three pairs of lungs breathing softly near me, the sound of another set of lungs in another room, someone getting up now, coming into the room softly.

"Esme, stay back," Carlisle's voice cautioned and I could almost hear Esme nod.

"I just want to welcome him to the family," a female voice answered, full of love and compassion.

"Just keep your distance," Edward's voice warned and I was suddenly curious, why they would need to keep their distance from me.

I didn't have much time to think about it before the pain forced itself into my attention, draining from my legs and arms, from my head and focusing on my heart, which, incredibly, began to beat faster still as the pain increased there. It fluttered like a hummingbird, and Rosalie's hand, not cold anymore, but still soft, clutched mine desperately.

"Rose, you should back up some," Edward said.

I could hear the wind moving as she shook her head no and her breath coming in excited gasps.

Then my heart thunked a couple more times and was silent. The pain was gone. I opened my eyes to my angel's face starting excitedly into my eyes, and my heart was lost all over again. I thought she was beautiful before, but now her beauty was even more striking because I could see it more completely, more fully. She was gorgeous.

"Emmett?" Carlisle said softly.

I turned to see Carlisle and Edward, both their faces looking concerned and worried, as I took in my surroundings. Esme at the door, he face soft and lit up with a gorgeous smile. My angel, her face anxious and excited at the same time. I could feel my throat burning with thirst, parched and painful. I needed to make them feel at ease as much as I needed to feel like myself again. My arm snaked around Rosalie's waist and I kissed her once, twice, again. My thoughts kinda veered off course as I held her close, closer than I'd ever dreamed, even after that first time I saw her.

"Rose?" Edward's voice broke through my conciousness.

She smiled and broke the kiss. I gazed at her like she was my savior, and in so many ways she was. Looking back at my new family, I grinned, "So, what's for dinner?"

Edward smiled and pulled a small, black cloth bag from his pocket, presenting it to me like it was the prize. Curiously, I took it and felt something rattling inside. I opened the drawstring and shook some of the rattling things into my hand. Claws. And teeth. Bear claws and teeth. I stared at it for a minute until it hit me. The bear.

"Edward," Rose's voice said disapprovingly but I squeezed her close to me.

"How did you..." I started to ask, but before I was even finished he answered me, as if he'd heard my thoughts.

"I tracked your and Rose's scent back to the bear, I figured it would be a great souvenir..." he chuckled.

"You have no idea," I grinned back and somehow I knew we were gonna be great friends.