TITLE: You Would Run From Me
SUMMARY: Bella Swan is a student counsellor at Seattle U. Her newest student is Emmett Cullen, who needs serious help with his temper.
PAIRINGS: Bella/Emmett
WARNINGS: Smut in later chapters, angst in the earlier ones.
DIFFERENCES: All human, Bella is 21, Emmett is 21. All at Uni. The rest of the Cullen's appear, but aren't related to Emmett. There is no Edward and no Carlisle. They just never ended up fitting.
A/N: I don't even know if there is a university in Seattle. I'm not even sure where Seattle is! I'm English, so please excuse me is there is no university in Seattle. There is now. As always, please review!
PS, I didn't know Esme's previous last name, so I stole Emmett's.
BPOVI don't want to be a goddamn student counsellor! I don't want to listen to tales of anguish and woe and how Miss Size Two on the cheerleading squad put on half a pound over the weekend. I just want to be left alone, in a corner someplace. With coffee. Lots of coffee. But I can't say no to Esme McCarty, and so I am heading for my doom with only one policy: listen and don't be stuffy.
On the up side, I get an office of my own, as I am the student counsellor on this dorm, so I get a room to myself, plus an office. They probably figure that the student councillors get so pissed off by the end of the day, they need a room of their own, or they'll end up needing therapy. And it's a nice office. Not too big, not too small. Neat. A phone - how cool? - a desk, and a file cabinet. With files. Left by the previous counsellor. Also a note from her.
To the next victim - I mean counsellor -
You have to provide the computer, but apart from that, they give you everything. All the students that have ever been seen by a student counsellor have a file in the cabinet. It's all alphabetical, and everything's labelled pretty clearly. You have to tidy up after yourself, the cleaners don't come in here. The key to this room is in the third desk drawer, you must make sure you lock this room up after you finish. Your office hours are 9-5 (which means you have to be here) on the days you don't have classes, you sort your own timetable on the days you do have classes. You can have a half day off on Sundays. But you have to keep to your scheduled breaks. You get to schedule them though. If you need any help, I'm in dorm block four, room 22.
Alice Brandon
Well, that's pretty self-explanatory. The light on the answer-machine is flashing, and I drop into the desk and unpack my laptop. I press the play button, and the soft, breezy voice of Esme McCarty drifts into the room.
"Bella? Bella, it's Esme from Student Relations. Can you call me when you get this? The extension's on the list to the right of the phone. Thanks."
"Esme? Esme, it's Bella."
"Hi! Um, yeah, so I know you've probably only just got in, but is it ok if you take a student now? Only he really needs to talk to somebody, and well, it is your job. I'll send him up now, if that's ok?"
"Yeah, sure. What exactly am I dealing with?"
"Well, he has temper issues, and his tutor has finally snapped and pretty much ordered him to take counselling. I persuaded him it wasn't a death sentence and he agreed to see you. And seeing as he's in your dorm block, he's all yours. I should warn you though, he's seen three counsellors, and they've all written him off. As a result, he's convinced he's a hopeless case, and I think it's why he plays up so much."
"Ok. Do you want to send him up now? I haven't got anybody booked, so we can thrash it out for hours if that's what it takes."
"Thanks Bella."
No problem Esme. No Problem.
CHAPTER TWO
EPOV
I don't need goddamn counselling. I don't have goddamn anger issues! Besides, I've seen three counsellors on this fucking campus, and they all wrote me off as a stroppy jock with attention issues. Straight away. Why should this chick be any different? She won't want to listen to my problems. Nobody ever does. She'll just sit there, make sympathetic noises, and treat me like a five year old. But I can't say no to Esme McCarty. And when she asked me to give counselling one last try, I caved and agreed. Maybe this Bella chick will be different.
"Come on in!" the voice sounds strangely muffled. I open the door to find somebody half-in and half out of a green sweater. She finishes battling her way out of it, and smiles at me. "Take a seat, give me a minute, I just need to put this away and find…aha!" She offers me half a bar of Kit Kat.
"Um…thanks." I accept the chocolate stick she holds out.
"Chocolate cures 98% of all troubles and I'm here to cure the other 2%. So, my name is Bella and, who are you and what's the problem?" She sits down on her chair and crosses her legs.
"Emmett Cullen." I'm blown away by her. Clearly, she didn't read the therapy manual. Most of the counsellors are stuffy geeks who seem to think they are the best counsellor on Earth. "And the staff and every counsellor has told me I have anger issues."
"Yeah, Esme mentioned you'd seen a few counsellors already. But they disagreed with you." This chick seems nice. But it may be a trap.
"Great, so now I'm the stuff of gossip?" I demand, putting on the defensive front.
"No, but because you are my new victim, I need to know your background." she shoots back at me. "Why don't we set a format for our sessions? You talk about whatever you fancy and I will listen. And if you want to talk about your anger issues, we shall. And if you don't, we probably will anyway. Got all that?"
"Yeah, I think so…"
"Perfect. Do you want a drink?"
"Um…you got coke?"
"Yeah." She reaches under the desk and grabs a can from somewhere. This girl is amazing. "So, you want to talk about what today? We could start with the time you wet yourself live on stage when you played a sheep in the Nativity play, or the time your mom had to yank you out of the way of something dangerous when you were a kid, or your first day of high school, elementary school or your first day here, or we could talk about art, or sheep, or cheese, or your deepest darkest hidden secrets."
"You're crazy. Are you sure you should be a counsellor? Shouldn't you be receiving it?"
"I can't say no to Esme McCarty."
"You too, huh?"
"She emotionally blackmailed you into coming up here, didn't she? Emmett, if you don't want to be here, you don't have to be. I'm not going to force you to remain in my office and talk to me if you really don't want to. But if you do, I'll listen. And I am not here to judge you. Everything you tell me will be in confidence."
"Trust me Bella, you will judge me if I were to tell you a fraction of my past."
"Try me." Her deep, endless brown eyes are the same colour as chocolate.
"I can't Bella, I just can't OK?" I snap at her. She doesn't want to know my past, because she would run away from me. And I don't want the only counsellor - girl - who has dealt with me and hasn't written me off the second I get on the defensive.
"Well, you're incarcerated with me for the rest of term…so I reckon that we can take our time on that. So, what do you want to talk about? Oooo I have a topic. Tell me about your first day at high school."
"My first day at high school? It was a fucking nightmare. I didn't know anybody, because I'd moved in the holidays. I was the new kid, the big guy who sat at the back of the class and kept his head down. But I met this guy - he was great to me. I mean, I wasn't smart, or cool - I didn't fit in at all - but he was nice to me - don't get all excited, I'm not gay - and he was cool. He took the shy freaky kid under his wing."
"Why did you feel you were a freak?" She looks all intense.
"Well, I was like I am now. I was huge. I had muscles and I was like six feet tall and I stuck out like a sore thumb. And there were the usual group of wankers who bullied me, thought I was the gentle giant type. That was when the anger management issues spiel started."
"How badly injured were they?" Her eyes are dancing.
"Coupla broken noses, a few split lips…nothing overly serious." Then her desk phone rings. She looks humiliated.
"Hello?…Oh, Mr Banner…Yes…now's not a great time…oh, I see… well, isn't there anybody else?…she isn't even on my dorm!…I have a student here…there must be someone else…well then, can't it wait?…I see…alright…yeah…bye." She replaces the phone looking a little hacked off. "Sorry Emmett. I've got a stroppy cheerleader having a tantrum coming up. Apparently she's threatening suicide and wants to see a counsellor right now. You're going to have to come back and tell me about your other victims tomorrow. I'm here all day, because I have no classes tomorrow, and I'll book you the afternoon, from say, one till five, with breaks and chocolate and coffee...or coke…whatever you want."
"Yeah sure. Nothing better than a stroppy cheerleader. And I'll hold you to that."
"I won't forget!" She shouts after me, and I chuckle as I close the door. She's nice. And I think I could trust her, if I didn't know that it was all my fault.
CHAPTER THREE
BPOV
Emmett Cullen is an enigma. Clearly he is hiding something. And clearly it had to do with his first day at high school. I will crack Emmett Cullen, if it is the last thing I do.
It takes nearly three months for him to finally talk to me about the secrets he hides. He looks afraid, and somehow ashamed. But after two months of talking about random happenings in his childhood, he opens up and goes back to high school with me. He arrives ten minutes late for his appointment, but he starts talking as soon as he sits down. Clearly, somehow, he has decided to trust me. I know not to interrupt. He isn't looking at me. He's staring straight past me, out of the window, and he is very pale.
"Yeah…so this guy gave me friends and slowly, I got accepted into the school. People forgot I was the new kid after a while, and I started to blend in. Pretty soon I knew everybody. It wasn't something I was used to, having to fit myself around people. People had always fitted around me in a way. But that was way back. It didn't start going badly wrong until my second year. When Mike - that was the guy who kind of adopted me - cam back from the summer break, he suddenly didn't want to know me. He spread all sorts of rumours, and all of a sudden I was the odd kid out again. I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't understand why he'd turned against me. I hadn't done anything. I spent months trying to figure out what I could possibly have done. I withdrew into myself, but I didn't like being in the background. I started to answer back to teachers, and play practical jokes. I became the class clown very fast. Mike was absent a lot, so I was Ok when he wasn't there. But when he was in, nobody would talk to me, but I would get louder and ruder, because I was so desperate to fit in with the crowd." He looks like he's in so much pain right now. I desperately want to hold him, to wrap him up in my arms and protect him. Even though he's so big, he looks so vulnerable right now. I get up, and put one hand on his shoulder.
"You don't have to tell me this Emmett. It's OK." I can't stand to see him in pain. Because I realise his pain hurts me too. I have fallen in love with the man who has spent hours sitting in my office, willingly, despite the defensive façade. Because behind that, hides a vulnerable man, who is hiding secrets.
"No, Bella, I do. I've hidden this for five years now."
EPOVI do. I have to tell her. Because even though she will run from me as fast as she possibly can, I have to tell somebody. Even though I'm so frightfully ashamed of it, I have to tell her. Three years is too long to keep an secret, and now the thing I've feared has happened. She will protect me, that's what I pray. That she somehow, won't run away from me. Because she hasn't yet, and I pray she will understand somehow. Even though it hurts, I must tell her. She has to know.
Because I have fallen in love with Isabella Swan, through the hours I have spent in her cosy little office, talking to her about anything and everything. I hold her hand as I tell her my story.
"When I was eighteen, just a month before I left for this university, Mike came back to school for the first time in months. I thought he'd finally gone. I was making progress, making some real friends. I met Jasper Whitlock, and Alice Brandon - you know them, they're both psychology majors - and they were helping me ease back into the social circle. They were bringing me out of myself. I would have - after it happened, Bella, I honestly think I would have died if they hadn't been there to save me. I owe both of them a huge debt, and I'll never be able to repay it. I'd met Rosalie Hale, but she moved to Canada with her folks just after graduation. She never knew, I never managed to tell her. She didn't know, because I was too ashamed to even think about it around her. I never ever told her, and I have no plans to tell her. Jazz and Alice knew, obviously, and they agreed - against their better judgement, but I begged them to keep my secret - to keep the secret.
Anyway, when Mike got back to school, he was obviously high. He'd started taking drugs, and the principal sent him straight home. But he didn't go. He was the same height as me, and did some serious body building. He waited outside the school for me, and started walking home with me. I wanted to get rid of him, but I'd always been slightly afraid of him. He kept offering my a joint, but I kept on saying no. I've lost count of the amount of times I've tried to justify what he did that day. But I know, I think, that he knew what he was doing. He came right up to the house with me. And then, all of a sudden, he attacked me from behind. I was knocked out I think, and when I woke up, everything hurt. He'd been kicking me about. But he wasn't any where near done. He told me I'd been a traitor, something about Jasper. And then…" my voice breaks off, and I feel a tear slip down my cheek. She wraps her arms right round me, stroking my hair and making meaningless soothing noises, the way you sooth a child who's had a nightmare. She's standing next to me, and I swivel in my chair to bury my face in he stomach. I talk from there, determined to avoid her gaze. "It was my fault, Bella. If I'd just done what he said in the first place, if I'd just kept to myself, he wouldn't have had to do it. He…he…he raped me Bella!" I fling my arms around her waist and sob uncontrollably. I'd planned to walk out the second I'd said the words, but I can't, I just can't leave. Her arms stay around me, and she lets me sob myself out.
BPOV
I hold him while he cries. I'm shaking myself, but it isn't until a tear falls onto Emmett's head that I realise I'm crying too. But I'm crying with rage. I've never been so blisteringly angry in my life. I will commit murder when I get out of here. It takes him a good half an hour to calm down, and I was about to go run for the nurse. I thought he was going to have hysterics. And then its time to talk to him.
"Listen to me, Emmett. What that SCUM did to you is NOT your fault. It will never be your fault. Look at me!" He looks up, eyes red and swollen. He looks startled at my anger. "I will do whatever it take to track this guy down, and I will see him jailed for what he's done."
"But it is my fault! I am the reason, because I didn't do what he said!"
"NO! It will never, ever be your fault. Men like that are scum, they are worthless and they deserve their punishment. Let me call the police Emmett, please."
"You aren't…you don't think I'm disgusting?"
"Emmett! No, my darling, I will never ever think that of you. Not now, not ever. Please, let me call Jasper and Alice, and the police too. We can get this sorted, you can give a statement, and Mike can get what he deserves!"
EPOV
I can't believe it. She hasn't been disgusted and she hasn't run from me. What she has done is gotten angry, and called for his head. I never stuck around to see either Jasper or Alice react. And she wants to call the police, and have me talk to them. Never before have I seen somebody get so worked up. Her hair is storming around her head, her eyes are blazing with sheer fury. They seem to have darkened, become inky black, and I swear they would be shooting fire if such a thing were possible. She kneels beside my chair, and takes both my hands in her tiny ones.
"Emmett, I need you to know that no matter what you decide here, I will be with you, every single step of the way. I won't leave you." she kisses my forehead, and I nod.
"Call them Bella. Call Alice and Jazz. And then can we go to the police station?"
"Yes. Yes we can." She holds my hand with one hand, and dials the extension for Alice and Jaspers dorm.
"Hiya Jenny…yeah, it's Bella Swan, from Student Counselling…can you connect me to Alice Brandon please?…thanks." She squeezes my hand comfortingly. "Hiya Alice, it's Bella Swan from Student Counselling, Dorm two…could you come over please? And bring Jasper…I'll explain everything when you get here…that's great, thanks." She hangs up with a quiet click. "Emmett? Do you want to stay whilst I explain? I can intercept them outside and tell them everything, or you can tell them what you've decided."
"You tell them, but do it here, please, I don't want you to leave." I'm clinging to her like a drowning man clings to a life belt. I can't let her go, because if she lets go of me even for a second, I'm scared I'll drown.
CHAPTER FOUR
"So, Emmett has decided to give a statement to the police, and we're asking you for your support in the matter. I won't be leaving his side unless he tells me to go. But Emmett needs his friends around him now, and I hope you will support him in this matter." Alice's clear blue eyes are blurred with tears as Bella breaks the news to them. She is gripping Jaspers hand, but she lets go of it to hug me.
"Of course we will. We aren't leaving you either Emmett." She looks up at Bella, asking a silent question.
"We're leaving now. Emmett wanted you to come too - both of you." She adds, looking over at Jazz, who hasn't budged an inch since Bella started talking.
"I should have killed him when you told me Emmett." He whispers, his voice rough and harsh with fury. "I should have gone after him right then, and ripped him apart."
"It wouldn't have helped Jazz," Bella breaks in quietly. "Emmett needed both his friends with him during that time and it wouldn't have helped him if you'd been banged up for murder." She's been so calm and collected. She's full on amazing. And god, but I am in love with the angel.
BPOV
I can't even imagine what this man has gone through. Alice and Jasper can't even understand. I'm not allowed to be present whilst he gives his statement. But I promise him I'll wait. He finally agrees to let me go and give his statement alone. Jasper takes me outside, claiming that Emmett will be a long time.
"Bella, when Emmett first got told he had to see you for counselling, he stormed up to my room and yelled for half an hour straight. But after your first meeting, he looked happier than he had done in quite a long time. Since Mike, in fact. You can't see it so much, but Alice and me, we who have seen him unsuccessfully battle his demons for such a long time, we can see the change in him. You never gave up on him, and he'd come up, and we'd know he'd tested you, got on the defensive, been ratty and an arse, but you kept making him go back and talk to you, and he never stopped talking about you. You're the first person who hasn't just written him off as a stroppy jock. And I was wondering why that was."
"Jazz, this is going to sound strange, but I think I may well be in love with him. I kept making him come back because he doesn't hide the pain in his eyes as well as he thinks he does, and every now and then, during an apparently unrelated subject, that pain would flash in his eyes, but I saw it still. And at first, I just wanted to help. But then it became more than that. And I realised I was in love with him."
Emmett has clearly had a rough time when he comes back to us. He flies straight to me, and Alice and Jasper smile at us when I slip my arms around him and kiss his forehead. It's an unspoken agreement that we are never going to be letting each other go. I love him, and I know that he loves me too.
EPOV
He goes on trial three months later. I don't want to have to go, and as he has agreed to plead guilty, I won't have to. But I wrote a letter to the judge, asking him to read it out. Bella has never left my side since that day in the police station. I have found an angel, and I will never let her go again. Alice and Jasper have stuck by me and even though Alice feels frightfully guilty that she didn't do what Bella did, she was the first to swear revenge on Mike. She agreed to go to the trial to watch the judge sentence him to three years behind bars. I'm glad he'll be away from me, and I love the woman who has held me close during the nights I cried and who laughed with me when I needed to laugh and who distracted me when I needed distracting. Who listened.
It's raining the day I take her to bed and make love to her. We are running back from Alice and Jaspers dorm, and it's pouring down. Her hair is plastered to her head and her shirt is see-through, clinging to her. She's laughing, the rain running down her face and soaking us both to the skin. We're laughing as we fall into her room.
"I'll get towels. Not too sure what I'm going to give you to wear though. My things won't go near you." I grab her before she can slip round me and kiss her softly. She smiles under my lips, and I kiss that smile until she sighs and lets me in. Her kiss is soft and gentle, and she puts one hand against my neck and one against my heart. I wrap my arms around her and scoop her up, and she wraps arms and legs around me like a limpet and threads her fingers through my hair. I break away and rest my forehead against hers.
"Are you sure?"
"Never surer. I love you, Emmett Cullen." She kisses me again, sweet and gentle, yielding herself entirely to me. I carry her into her to the bad, and lay her down softly.
CHAPTER FIVE
I never break the kiss, and we stay like that for a long time, just sweet kisses and murmurs of love and gentleness. The angel beneath me smiles up at me and very slowly removes her top. She's breathtaking. Her hair is tangled and wet, and she's damp from the rain. I trace every rib, along her collarbone and over her shoulders. She brings her hands to the buttons of my shirt and looks at me, biting her lip. I nod, giving her the permission she is so clearly seeking. She unbuttons the tortuously slowly, sliding the shirt off my shoulders, her fingertips training down my arms. She kisses a line down my chest, gentle, hot, open mouthed kisses right down to my waist and then she comes back up, tracing my jaw with her mouth before finding my mouth again. I unbutton her jeans and slide them down her legs, making sure my hands trail down her legs and she kicks them off whilst I lose mine. She's in just her panties and I'm in my boxers and this feels so right to me. She pulls me in for another kiss, this one more heated, but gentle nonetheless. She's so beautiful, cheeks flushed and eyes sparkling.
She reaches down and takes me in her hand. Her strokes are slow and gentle, and she watches me all the time. I close my eyes and let the sensations take me over. She is doing everything right, and I know she wants this to be special for me. I remove her hand slowly and position myself. I look at her first, silently asking for permission. She nods, smiling at me. And I slide in. She's so warm and wet and tight around me. I can't help the moan that slips out, and I kiss her as we move together. She holds my face in her hands as she kisses me back. Her hips come up to meet mine and she throws her head back and my name slips through her teeth. It's slow, it's gentle and she's so, so beautiful when she clenches around me and kisses me as she orgasms. I go over the edge with her, and I fall with her in my arms.
"I'll never let you go, Emmett." She whispers slowly and lazily in my ear when we come back down to earth.
"Love you angel."
"Love you too, my darling. Love you always."
AN: This was an emotional roller-coaster to write. I wanted my final scene to be sweet and silent, and I hope you all liked it. This is the promised longer Bella/Emmett, even though it isn't that long and doesn't have much detail. Please review xxx
