AN: Hey everybody! I'm back from vacation and having to type like crazy to catch up. This one is a new one that I started and finished before I left. The words that appear in bold are words that came from a conversation between my friend and I during a tough time in her life. Enjoy the story!!!
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the idea.
Catch Me When I Fall
A story of sorrow, heartbreak, and perseverance, Bella must survive without Edward, but will her first mistake be her last?
This story is dedicated to my best friend, Stefani for all that she has gone through and for her perseverance when times looked bleak. We love you Stef, don't ever give up.
"Edward doesn't love you Bella," I told myself again as I drove to Jake's house to confront him. "Jake doesn't either. Nobody does."
I didn't let tears fall; I had used all of them anyways. "You have to do this Bella," I told myself one last time as I drove past the first house on the reservation.
I pulled to the curb in front of Jake's house and stopped the engine. From where I sat, I saw Billy's stony face look out the window, eyeing me as though I was the plague.
Well, he wasn't about to get me to leave. Not until I finally got to say what I so desperately needed to say. I crossed my arms stubbornly and waited. After a moment, Billy withdrew from the window, and a few minutes after that, there was a tapping sound on the window. I looked over to find a stone faced Jake.
I got out of my truck quickly as Jake stepped away. "I need to talk to you Jacob Black," I snapped, my hurt getting in the way of both my shyness and my manners.
"So talk," he snapped right back. "I'm right here."
I glared towards the group behind him. It was the same group that he had hated not too long ago. "Alone."
Sighing, Jake turned towards Sam as a wolf would look to the leader of his pack. Sam nodded shortly before Jake started to walk towards the thin tree coverage across the street. The others went inside of Jake's house.
I had to run to keep up with Jake's elongated stride. In the time that had passed since he had started ignoring me, he had grown at least a foot. Jake stopped suddenly just inside the trees and turned to face me. I just barely managed to avoid walking into him.
"We're alone. Talk," he said icily as he crossed his arms in defiance. But why?
"Why are you doing this Jake?" I asked. It was the most obvious one to ask. At least I thought that it was.
"Doing what?" He asked his face still icy. When had he become so cold?
"Ignoring me!" I exclaimed, frustrated with his whole attitude. What had happened to him to make him befriend the people that he had hated? What happened to make him turn on me so completely?
Jake's eyes turned hard. "I don't have a choice in the matter Bella. It's what is best for you."
"Best for me?" I cried in disbelief. "It's best for me to be hurt by my best friend? The ONLY one that I have left?!?!?"
His eyes became softer for just a moment, showing some sympathy before becoming hard once more. "I told you already Bella, I have no choice." With that, he turned and started to walk away.
As a tear slowly fell down my face, I said the one thing that had just occurred to me. "You're no different than Edward." Lying, deceiving, betrayer that they both were. Jake jerked to a stop, whirling to face me. His hands were shaking, the tremors carrying up his arms.
"I am NOTHING like that bloodsucker!" He spat angrily. My eyes widened and I took a step back. How did he know the Cullens' secret?
I took another step back as Jake's whole frame shook. "How DARE you say that I am like that LEECH!?!" His frame shook so much that his outline began to blur... his yelling slowly turned into howling...
I stumbled backwards. Why had I done this? What was wrong with him? I tripped as I continued backwards. I looked up to find a mammoth sized wolf standing where Jacob had just been.
As he growled and launched himself at me in a fury, I realized that Jake was a werewolf: descended from those in the legends that he had told me so long ago. Jake's massive paw hit my head, leaving me surrounded in darkness.
I awoke to a steady beeping. Funny thing was that it sounded a lot like those monitors that they had in the hospital...
Everything came rushing back to me: confronting Jake, learning he was a werewolf, seeing him lunge... then darkness. I gasped as the pain broke through the numbness caused by whatever medication that I had been given. Jake had attacked me.
"Take it easy Bella," Charlie's voice tried to calm me. "You're hurt pretty badly." I struggled to open my eyes. It hurt to open my right eye.
"What happened?" I croaked, wanting to know what the cover-up story was.
"Jake and some of the La Push boys found you being mauled by one of those giant bears that have been spotted around. They managed to scare it off and then they rushed you here. You've been out for a week already.
They'd come up with a pretty good cover-up, and it was the truth too...just leaving out the fact that the bears were actually werewolves and that the wolf had been Jake. I struggled to sit up, but Charlie placed his hand on my uninjured shoulder to keep me still.
"Bella, please just take it easy." I slumped reluctantly against the uncomfortable pillows. Charlie smiled before walking over to a wall to press the button. He returned to his seat beside me and a few moments later, a doctor came in. "Hello Isabella. I'm doctor snows... how are you feeling?"
"Just a little sore," I lied easily. Or a lot sore...
He looked at me skeptically but came closer. He helped me sit up so that he could change the bandages that wrapped around my torso. I somehow managed not to wince as the movement hurt my broken skin.
Charlie excused himself from the room, not the biggest fan of blood. One of the deeper cuts on my right side bled a little, but that was it. Dr. Snow then checked the various monitors that I was hooked up to as he waited for Charlie to return; it only took a minute for Charlie to return.
"Well... I think that we've done all that we can do for her here. The cuts are healing pretty well, but Isabella will have to change the bandages every 8 hours or so. I'm going to prescribe some pain-meds as well as antibiotics to ward off any infections that may start."
Dr. Snow continued on with warnings and instructions before leaving to get Charlie the release forms. 2 hours later, I walked out of the hospital by Charlie's side. Thankfully Jake hadn't cut up my legs and I was able to walk fine though it caused my scratched side to hurt.
Once home, I made my way carefully to my room. Once he was sure that I was safely in my bed, Charlie left to pick up my prescriptions. I was on the verge of sleep when I heard a tapping on my window. Looking over, I was angry to meet the eyes of Jacob Black.
"Go away," I said angrily. He shook his head no.
"Please let me explain Bella. Please," he begged. I grimaced in pain as I stood and made my way to the window, wanting only to lock it before he realized that it was unlocked. Jake smiled, thinking that I was coming over to the window to let him in. Oh how wrong he was.
I easily locked the window and turned around as the smile disappeared from his face. "Bella please! I'm sorry Bella!"
I made my way slowly to my dresser and looked in the mirror. "Sorry is a little late. Sorry counts for nothing anymore." As I looked in the mirror for the first time I a long while, I saw a person that looked just how I felt.
Slash marks marred my once smooth skin. From how it looked, he had scratched my face twice. One set ran from above my right eye to my ear, and another went down the right side of my face.
From when the doctor had changed my bandages, I knew that there were 3 sets along my torso also. My body showed how I felt for the first time in a long while: broken. My eyes didn't hold the light that they had once held. Instead they were dull, lifeless, and slightly pained. I turned away from the mirror and returned to my bed. Once there, I fell into a fitful sleep.
When I woke up, I wasn't surprised to find my prescriptions and a glass of water on my end table. I quickly took my pills before getting up and making my way downstairs. I froze halfway down.
Jake and Charlie looked up from the kitchen table at my appearance. "Hey Bells, Jake came to visit you."
I carefully kept my face straight. "I don't want to talk to him," I said calmly before returning to my room, ignoring their calls after me. After carefully locking my door, I made my way over to the window. For once, it wasn't raining outside. Despite everything, I slid it open and carefully pulled myself onto the roof, ignoring the pain that it caused.
Ever so carefully, I crawled along the roof towards the backside of the house. Then I just sat there, looking towards the darkening woods. I hugged my legs to my chest, a habit that I had recently developed.
Just a few moments afterwards, I heard Jake's Rabbit start up and then drive away. It was surprisingly calming to sit on the roof and not have to worry about anything. As the sun set, the rain returned and the temperature dropped.
Someone should have been yelling at me to get off of the roof, but nobody knew that I was up here. As the rain soaked through my shirt, I heard a smooth voice talking to me.
"Bella, please get off of the roof." It was almost funny how well I could remember Alice's voice. Alice. The name reopened the hole in my chest. Alice and all of the Cullens had left me. I laid my head on my legs. I couldn't take much more.
"Bella," her voice called again. "Don't do anything stupid." I chuckled once without humor.
"That's what HE told me. No promises Alice. He broke his promise, and I might have to break mine." Great, now I was talking back to the voices in my head.
"Bella please go back into the house. You're starting to scare me," the voice said again.
"I can't," I answered the imaginary voice. "It's quite calming out here."
The voice that I had imagined up sighed. "Don't make me come and get you," the voice so alike Alice's called again.
Why had this imaginary voice started to threaten me? I stood up, upsetting my scratched side. I probably stood too quickly for I could feel the deepest cut open and start to bleed. "I have nothing more to live for," I said. "I wonder if falling from this height will kill me," I wondered out loud.
"Don't even try it Bella," the voice was louder now, angry.
"Nobody can stop me," I replied angrily. "Certainly not a figment of my imagination."
"You think that I'm not really here? Bella what happened to you?" The voice replied, horrified. Dang my imagination was running out of control. I walked closer to the edge but then though better of it. Shouldn't I at least leave Charlie a letter goodbye? Or a letter saying that I was sorry?
I made my way back to my bedroom window and carefully slipped in before searching for a pen and paper. "Isabella Marie Swan stop this madness right now!" The voice had followed me. I ignored the voice of Alice that my head had conjured up to make me think that somebody cared for me. What should I write? Finally, I just wrote the simple words 'I'm Sorry' in large letters. I then quietly made my way downstairs and exited through the back door, heading into the blackened woods.
"Bella STOP!" The voice yelled, now louder than ever. I continued walking, looking down at the path my feet followed. My feet quickened pave, running now from my life. The farther away I got from what I had called my life, the more likely that Charlie would never find my dead body.
I could just barely hear a second set of footsteps. I slid to a stop and looked ahead of me. Alice emerged from the trees.
"Bella, go home," she said. My mind was so far out of control. I walked up to the mirage my mind had created. Surely when I touched it, the image would dissipate. I reached out a hand to touch the mirage, but my hand met cold, hard skin.
"Alice," I murmured in shock before everything went black.
I awoke on a soft surface. It was probably a bed. Cold fingers were pressed to my wrist while another had softly touched my cheek. "Alice what happened to her?" A familiar voice asked. It shouldn't have taken me so long to realize that it was Esme's. I couldn't move yet to comfort her; her voice sounded as though she was being tortured.
"I don't know Esme," Alice replied, her voice sounding as though she was also being tortured. "She was suicidal by the time I showed up. For god's sake, she asked me if falling from the roof would kill her!"
I flinched. If I had known that her voice wasn't imaginary I probably wouldn't have said that. "Bella can hear us," Alice said sadly. "She'll open her eyes in 3 seconds."
Sure enough, it took me only a moment longer to open my eyes. When I did, I saw Carlisle and Esme huddling worriedly over me. "Bella are you alright?" Esme asked.
I carefully sat up, Carlisle aiding me as soon as he realized what I was doing. I winced as the movement caused the edges of my broken skin to shift. Shoot... the bandages probably had to be changed again.
"I'm fine," I finally managed to say.
"But you're bleeding," she said worriedly.
I sighed. "I know Esme. I've been moving around too much. Anyways, it's time I changed my bandages. Alice appeared into my sight holding Carlisle's medical bag. I smiled sheepishly at her as she handed the bag to Carlisle.
As I lifted my shirt so that Carlisle could take a look at the cuts himself, he questioned me about what had happened.
"Um…" I hesitated. I couldn't rat out Jake no matter how much I hated him at the moment. Carlisle didn't push me into answering, just carefully unwrapped the white bandages that covered my torso. His face turned into a frown as my marred skin was exposed. Alice and Esme hissed in shock when they saw the slash marks. Where they really that bad? I looked down at it.
The slash marks across my stomach looked as though they had somehow become infected judging by how red the skin was around it. The deeper slashes on my right side were bleeding, and another set of marks crossed those and wrapped around to my back.
Silence filled the room until Carlisle finally broke it. "You should probably shower before I bandage those." I nodded and stood, Alice appearing by my side to help me up.
With Alice's help, I made my way to the bathroom and showered. She then brought me new clothes to change into. Finally clean, Alice helped me back to the bedroom that we had been in earlier.
I had to stand so that Carlisle could easily treat the cuts on my back. He also smeared something on all of the cuts before carefully bandaging them. Once he finished bandaging my torso, Alice helped me lay back down on the bed. As I laid down, I saw Jasper standing in the far corner of the room.
I didn't need his peculiar power to know that he was feeling guilty. "Jasper none of this is your fault."
He looked at me, still with the guilt showing in his eyes. "But I attacked you…at least I tried to…"
I cut him off. "Jasper, that only sped up Edward's timeline. After all, it's not your fault that he didn't love me."
I could sense rather than see all of the vampires tense. "What do you mean Bella?" Jasper asked through tight lips. I looked towards Alice for answers. "What does he mean by what do I mean?"
Alice was holding her head as if she had a headache. "We don't understand… you said Edward doesn't love you but he does." She was shaking her head back and forth in confusion.
"He doesn't love me Alice," I said, confused. "He told me so."
Her golden eyes flashed open. "Edward is so dead," she hissed. I looked at her curiously.
"What do you mean by that Alice?" I asked.
"Nothing," she answered quickly: too quickly. She must have seen that I would pressure her, so she spoke again. "Go to sleep Bella. I'll take care of everything." I opened my mouth to object, but she set her eyes pointedly on Jasper. Soon after I fell into a deep sleep.
AN: So that is Catch Me When I Fall. If I get a lot of feedback on this story, I might continue it. Please leave me a review!! I even got up early to type it.