Entry for the JBNP "Come on Baby Light Our Fire" Anonymous One-shot Contest
Title: bonfires and burns
Pairing: Bella and a wolf
Rating: G
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods.
Word count: 1216
The family was sitting around the bonfire. They had planned to stay all night and watch the sun come up. The other kids were asleep.
The youngest one was wide awake as he often was. His mother had given up and gone home to sleep in her own bed. She never had been much for the outdoors and sports. The kid poked the fire. A log fell out and he instinctively reached for it; tried to catch it. It burnt his hand.
He let out a wail.
His father picked him up to comfort him. He took a look at the burn and winced himself. He couldn't run the kid back to the house and leave the others alone. He woke up the eldest and asked him to go home and get Mom. If he left him here to guard the others, he'd just go back to sleep. "And bring the first aid kit. Repeat that back to me."
"Mom. First aid kit. A burn."
"Good boy. Run. Fast as you can."
He took off towards the trees, half stumbling with sleep.
"Don't fall and hurt yourself," he called after him.
Then he turned his attention to his injured child.
"Now, this will have to do, little guy. It's all we've got."
He crouched down right at the edge of the waves. His bare feet in the cold water made no difference to him. He laid the child down on his large thigh; tummy down. "Put your hand in the sea water."
"Owie…"
"It stings?"
"Yessss."
"It will keep hurting for a long time. That's what burns do."
"Want it to stop."
"Yeah. Me too. Mama will be here soon with the special cream."
"Me go too?"
"Then you'd have to take your hand out of the water."
Frown. "Ouch."
"Yeah."
"Okay."
Silence. Just the sound of the waves and an occasional sniffle from the child. He pressed his cheek against his father's leg.
"You are such a brave little guy," he crooned at him, "but you can cry if it hurts."
"S-story?" he asked in a shaky voice.
"Hmm. Which one?"
"The Mama story!"
"Again?"
"Awww."
"Okay, okay." He rocked a little moving the child's hand through the water. "Hmmm. Now how does that one start?"
"Forest."
"Ah, yes. I was in the forest with my friends. We were following a cold one. It smelt awful to us; sweet and rotting."
"Like trash?"
"Yes, like that. We followed it to make sure it didn't go onto our lands or hurt our people. But then, it stopped running and we could hear it talking to someone. We crept forward very carefully. So carefully and quietly that it didn't know we were there and standing there facing him in the middle of the clearing was a girl."
"Mama!"
"And she was talking to it."
"Ugh," the little boy shuddered.
"She was frightened but she was so brave. And so clever, if she had run away the cold one would have chased her."
"Like a bear?"
"Yes, but it was much stronger and faster than a bear." He checked the child's hand and listened out for his mother. He kept his voice low and evenly paced, drawing out the story. "So, my friends and I… we crept from our hiding place. The cold one saw us and he was so surprised. He could not believe what he was seeing. Mama stood stock still, too. We were so big and so scary that do you know what he did?"
"Ran away!"
"He did. He turned and he ran as fast as he could. But it wasn't fast enough."
"Caught him?"
"Yes. We caught him and we made sure that he couldn't hurt anyone again."
"Yay."
He caught sight of a flashlight bobbing along the beach. "Here she is."
"Mama?"
"Oh, baby," she cooed, "what did you do to yourself?"
"Fire."
"Let me see it. You will have to take it out of the cold water now."
The little boy's lip wobbled.
"It will hurt," his father told him. "But Mama needs to bandage it up for you."
"I bought the special burn cream."
"Green?"
"Yes, you remember? We used it the last time you burnt yourself."
A small whimper escaped the child's lips as his father stood and lifted his hand out of the cooling water.
"Sea water?" she asked. She was standing out of the reach of the waves.
"Couldn't leave the others and it was cooling. I thought it would be better than nothing."
The child whimpered.
"Be brave, baby," she told him.
"Like you, Mama?"
"Are you telling him that story again?" Her hands were busy applying the aloe gel to her child's injury.
"Hey, he wanted to hear it and it distracted him."
"Where were you up to?" she asked.
"He ran," said the little boy.
"Keep going Dada," she said, "I like the part where you left me all alone in the forest."
"You are never going to let me forget that, are you?"
"I will tell my part, then. I was so scared and after everyone else had chased the cold one, I ran. All the way back to my truck and then I drove home to Grandpa Charlie." She had wrapped the burn lightly so that the covering wouldn't stick to the wound and the beach sand wouldn't get into it. "Here, you sit on Mama's lap now."
She pulled the child onto her lap. The man lifted them both and sat them within the circle of his arms. She had a sippy cup of milk for the baby, too. He grabbed it eagerly, holding it with one hand. The other curled on his chest.
"You haven't finished," prompted the eldest boy. He had returned with his mother and was back inside his sleeping bag.
"You're right," said his father, "something happened when I saw Mama."
"Bootiful," said the baby, and then put his cup back in his mouth.
"I thought so; I thought she was an angel. She glowed to me. It was as if she was my sun. The centre of my world."
"Me too?" asked the baby.
"Definitely. And your brothers and sisters. You are all the centre of my world."
She rocked the little boy and he finally fell asleep.
The man kissed her hair. The eldest child was watching them together. They were always like this; couldn't stop touching each other. He knew the legends and he knew the truth. He was twelve now and one day, it might happen to him as well. His father had prepared him with stories like the one he had just told the baby. The pack didn't like kids phasing in ignorance. It was too much for them and their families and there were still cold ones around.
"You still left me to run home alone," she chided.
"Yeah… it took me a while to work up the guts to tell you about the imprint, too."
"I forgive you," she told him. "You're the centre of my world, too."
"I love you," he told her. They kissed over the head of their smallest child. "Are you staying til dawn?"
"I suppose I have to, now."
"Yep, not letting you go again."
She chuckled and snuggled down in the arms of her wolf.