Story Title: On the Island
Summary: Emmett ended up in a plane crash while on a business trip to Hong Kong several years prior. Now stranded on an island by himself, he sees himself as the president and king. But is everything as it seems?
Pairing: Emmett/Bella
Rating: T
Word count: 3,172
Disclaimer: All things Twilight belong solely to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended.
Emmett wasn't sure exactly what day it was, in fact, there were times when he wasn't even sure it was day.
He'd lost track of time a long time ago, though he knew he'd been stuck on the island by himself for well over five years. When he'd flown from California to Hong Kong on a business trip back in 2011, he'd left behind a wife and four kids, having kissed them all goodbye and telling them he'd be back in two weeks. But the flight Hong Kong had been sidetracked by a major storm, and they'd ended up crashing in the ocean. He knew there had been close to two hundred on the jet, but none of the others had washed up on the shores of the island that he had.
Though, when he'd first woken up on the island, he'd figured out approximately where he was and knew there were hundreds – if not thousands – of islands in the immediate vicinity of where he was. Not that it did him any good to know that given that he was ninety-nine percent certain he was in the Dragon's Triangle. A place that was actually harder to get through than the Bermuda Triangle was.
What he did know was there were seven hundred twenty-one trees on his island, that sea turtles came ashore frequently, and there were exactly thirty-six species of animals native to this island – three of which he'd never heard of or seen before. He even knew the number of bugs which constituted fifty-eight types of insects, thirty-nine types of arachnids, and eighteen types of myriapods. Yes, he'd really counted them all at one time or another.
From when he'd first washed ashore, stranded on an island with no other intelligent life and, for the most part, nothing to do he'd had to make do. Counting things, imagining being rescued, pretending like he'd someday get off the god-forsaken rock, but though he retained the memories of his early days, the truth was that he no longer even bothered to pretend.
However many years he'd been on the island by himself, without so much as a sight of a helicopter, plane, or boat of any variety told him that no one would ever find him. So he made do with what was available to him on the island, self acclaiming himself as the president, king, and sole-proprietor of the island – it wasn't like the coconut crabs could complain to him.
Though, there were days when others talked to him. He could hear his wife's voice in his head... Sometimes he could see her... Sometimes he could even see and hear the kids. Frankly, on most days he wasn't sure what was and wasn't real. Not anymore.
He got up from the ground so he could seek out some sustenance. Emmett had gotten pretty good at harvesting, hunting, and fishing, three things he'd never even done before he'd found himself stranded on the island. He'd also quickly learned how to find fluids which could actually be drank – he'd pretty much had to, given that he was surrounded by nothing but salty ocean water.
His options for food were quite limited, in all reality. Most of the animals on the island were of a smaller variety. In fact, aside from the coconut crab, the only animals which were larger on the island were the small deer – he was pretty sure they were pudu, though if they were, it had to be some sort of strange anomaly – what appeared to be pygmy hogs, and Breton dwarf sheep. The rest of the animals were all smaller, mostly of the rodent, marsupial, bird, and reptile families. In fact, aside from the three mammals he'd already mentioned, the only other one on the island was a rusty-spotted cat.
He'd tried most of the animals at least once, but there was no winter on the island, and he had to worry about things like plague being in the animals. Not so much with rabies as there were clear indicators for rabies, but plague was a far different disease. Many animals could carry plague without ever having symptoms as they were carriers only.
It was amazing what information that he'd learned growing up and had believed to be useless was now helping him with. Occasionally, he wondered if his best friend and business partner was stranded on another island in the same triangle as him, and if he was, was he using the same information?
He and Edward had been best friends since preschool. They'd grown up together in Chicago, gotten into equal amounts of trouble, fallen for the same girl – the girl he'd later won the heart of – went off to college together, and eventually started up their business together.
When they'd started up their business, they'd simply been creating video games, but a few months before their trip which had ended where he was now, they had started to develop a design for a virtual reality headset. In fact, they'd boarded the plane for Hong Kong with the intention of acquiring state-of-the-art computer chips for their design.
More than halfway to their destination and the storm that cast the jet to sea hit.
Honestly, if his best friend was lucky than he drowned, unlike him.
But part of him wished his friend was there to share the island with. That way he had more company than the visages who spoke to him.
Emmett started his way into the trees, pausing when his oldest, Maggie, appeared in front of him. She had long brown hair with a heart-shaped face and chocolate eyes just like her mom. The visage in front of him was fourteen, the same age as she'd been when he'd last seen her, but he was sure she had to be an adult by now. The more logical part of him couldn't help but wonder if she was in college, engaged, already married... if he was already a grandpa. The rest of him though was just grateful to see her in front of him.
"Bring us back a hog," she said, her voice quavering between alto and soprano – in the cusp of childhood and adulthood – as it had been the last time he'd seen her.
His youngest, Kate, appeared next to her big sis. Unlike Maggie, she'd acquired long black hair and bright blue eyes with a round face – much like he had. Though, as she was only six, it was highly possible she'd eventually grow out of the rounder face. He knew she had to be a pre-teen now, if not even older.
"Yeah, a hog!" But as he saw her, she was still a little girl.
He didn't see his two sons, Garrett and Peter, who had been twelve and nine respectively, or his wife, Bella. But he knew they'd appear to him at some point. The visages always showed up at least a few times throughout every day.
The trees were dispersed far enough apart that it was relatively easy for him to walk between them, though the underbrush, which was so thick in parts that he simply had to climb trees to get over the areas, was another story. A good bit of it had been trampled by his years combing the island, allowing him to travel with relative ease.
Much like everything else when it came to the island, he'd grown used to where each of the larger animals preferred to stay, and so he headed in the direction of the small valley which was near the center of the island.
The island was able to be walked from one end to the other in a few hours, so he suspected – given the terrain – that it was probably about five miles across. It was hard to say for sure though, as he didn't exactly have a tape measure. In fact, everything he did have, he'd had to make on the island.
His clothes – drenched in salt water when he woke – were one of the first things he got rid of after they dried out as all the salt water had made them beyond itchy.
And when he arrived, there was nothing in the way of an actual weapon, house, fire pit, or anything else on the island.
He'd had to make it all himself. He had a simple shelter of broken branches, leaves, and the shells of the cannonball fruit which was exceedingly common on the tropical island – a fruit that he'd once been taught was toxic, but while it had a truly foul smell, it actually was edible – a little ways into the trees for when it stormed. He also had a bed made of leaves that he'd used vines to weave so he could take it out to the beach and lay on it there, as he did on any night that wasn't storming. And he'd made his own little defunct fire pit on the beach so he could cook whatever he killed... Starting fires was its own difficulty, but he did fairly well anymore. As long as he'd presided over the island, it was inevitable.
He'd also crafted a handful of basic weapons – from stone, sea glass, and branches – made several fishing apparatuses, and had managed to make a simplistic covering for his groin with the hide of one of the hogs. On the highly improbable chance that someone actually ever did find him, he was pretty sure the last thing they'd want to see would be his dick. Not that he ever expected it to happen. It wouldn't, and he knew it.
Though, he knew if he ever did make it off the island... the adventure would make for one hell of a game.
Of course, he'd have been more likely to be rescued in the heart of the Bermuda Triangle than where he was now. He was pretty sure that most airlines even had the Dragon's Triangle listed as a no-fly zone. It did beg the question of how he'd ended up there, but he tried not to think of why the jet had ended up so badly off course.
Emmett spotted a couple of Prevost's squirrels in one of the trees and shouted in his loudest voice, "Boo!"
They chittered as they dashed away from him, though the reality was that the animals of the island weren't really afraid of him. He was probably the first to be on the island in who knew how long, if ever, and the animals didn't have the same instincts that the ones did where he'd grown up. But loud noise did tend to startle most of the animals; except the sheep, the coconut crabs, and the little cats – as they all acted as if it was nothing at all.
He chucked to himself anyway after they'd fled. "That's what they get for messing with the pres of this here island."
"You showed them, dad! Woo hoo!"
He glanced to the side, seeing his youngest boy, Peter. Peter, unlike Bella and him, had blond hair and hazel eyes, but he had the same heart-shaped face as his mom and Emmett's button nose. He looked cute that way, though Emmett suspected – thanks to the nose – he'd always look 'cute,' something Emmett was sure Peter would probably hate him for later in life, if he didn't already. After all, his nine-year-old son would be in high school by now.
Emmett grinned briefly at the visage's words but then frowned. He couldn't help but wonder if his family was still in Chicago. The truth was, Bella and he had been in a bit of a rough spot just before he'd left on the trip. Their oldest, who'd only just started high school a month before his flight had been raped during the first week of school by a few of the senior football players. Well, he supposed it hadn't been actual rape, they hadn't penetrated her or even physically hurt her aside from a few bruises; instead, they'd held her down while one jacked off on her.
The official claim the seniors made was it was just a normal hazing ritual for new cheerleaders. He was supposed to have made it back in time to be at the first court hearing in an attempt to not only get the kids expelled from school but hopefully in jail for hard-time. Unfortunately, like his marriage, it had been left unhandled by him.
Bella had wanted them to move away from Chicago after it happened, but his business and partner was in Chicago, and when he'd told her no – but they could put Maggie into private school or into a different public school – Bella had been adamant that they either move or she was leaving and taking the kids with her.
He hadn't had the heart to tell her that if she followed through, and he wanted to keep the kids, he'd have won in court.
Of course, he'd have never done that to Bella, and he was sure, with time, they'd have worked it out. But time was one thing that had definitely been cut short when he'd ended up stranded on the island.
Emmett closed his eyes briefly and shook his head, forcing himself to forget the memories that were surfacing to the forefront of his mind, before he continued his trek to the small valley.
It was a short walk through one of his more preferred paths, as he walked through the area very often even though he limited the number of the pygmy hogs he killed to two or maybe three a year. He was the only person on the island, so, for the most part, he didn't have to worry about affecting the ecosystem of the island, but he was self-aware enough to understand that eating too much of one species would guarantee it's genocide on an island as small as it was here. Still... occasionally he had to have something other than fish.
Today was one of those days.
When he reached the valley, he knelt on the ground and watched one of the burrow like beddings where the hogs stayed. He was looking for an older one to take as he didn't want to kill one of the piglets.
A visage of Garrett, with the same brown hair as Bella – even kept long like hers – but blue eyes like him, suddenly appeared beside a relatively large pygmy hog just as he spotted it.
"This one, dad."
He got up from his crouch and headed in the direction of the animal slowly. He didn't bother with stealth though he tried to keep noise to a minimum as he moved. The truth was that the hog was unlikely to run.
Emmett found the animals so naturally unafraid that he'd even tried before to be nice to some of the animals before killing them, and it worked with the little deer that roamed the island, but the hogs liked to bite. So when he neared this one, he raised the sharpened wooden stick – he called it a pike in his head, but knew most would probably call it a shiv as it was far too short and simply made to be considered a traditional pike – and then plunged it downward, using his full body weight to force it into the animal.
He'd broke more than one of his weapons in the past with the method when the animal moved out of the way in time, but his aim was true on this occasion, and the animal fell dead almost immediately aside from a brief squeal.
Emmett picked it up and quickly exited the way he came, making his way back to the beach so he could start breaking the animal down and cooking the meat.
As he walked, he heard Bella's voice beside him, though she didn't make a physical appearance like she usually tended too. "Good job, Emmy Bear."
He used to hate that pet name, but the truth was he'd give anything to hear it by his real family again, instead of just the visages his head managed to pull up.
Back at the beach he sat in front of his makeshift fire pit and picked up his tools which were placed on the edge rocks of the pit. The heat being the closest thing he could use as sanitation for them on the island.
…
"Do you think he'll ever come to and truly see us again, Emmett?" Bella asked softly, looking at the chair where Edward sat in his rocking chair.
Emmett sighed, his shoulders sagging. "I don't know. The mugging that occurred on our last day in Hong Kong was brutal. Perhaps whatever world he sees in his head is better than reality." He knew what he was talking about. The same mugging that had left Edward mentally unchecked back in October of 2011, more than seven years prior, had cost Emmett his left arm up to his elbow and one of his kidneys – not to mention the permanent scars that covered most of his body. But he couldn't help but wish his best friend would come back.
They'd been partners in one of the biggest up-and-coming game developers in the country; equal shareholders, CEOs, and co-presidents. But now it was just him running the company they'd started together.
He knelt in front of his best friend. "I don't even know that you can hear me, the shrinks here tell me that all the lights are on but nobody's actually home in there, but I keep hoping. I want you to know that our business is doing well, buddy. We just released our fourth version of the virtual reality headset. It's down to a slim pair of what appears to be sunglasses. In fact, you can shut off the gaming function, and they are simply sunglasses then. It's amazing. I wish you could see it with your own eyes. And we just found out Bella is pregnant again. It's a bit concerning since she's forty-four, but she's in good health. We found out just a couple of hours ago that it's a boy. We're going to name him Anthony, after you. Maybe someday you'll wake up from whatever world you're living in and meet him yourself.
"Also, Maggie got married last month to a young man named Seth Clearwater. She's twenty-one now. You wouldn't know him, but he's from La Push, the same area Bella was originally from. Anyways –" he checked the watch that was on his prosthetic, grimacing "– we've got to go. But we'll check in on you again in another month."
Emmett got to his feet and took his wife's hand as they headed out of the room in the psychiatric ward where Edward had been for the last seven and a half years of their lives.