I don't own Twilight, all those wonderful characters and the entire world of the saga belong to Stephanie Meyer. I'm just borrowing them for the duration of a story.
Chapter 2 – Family and Friends
Bella
The three weeks I spent in the hospital meant that the following week at home was spent catching up on everything I had missed in school. The teachers allowed me to submit my homework once I got back to school, and to substitute the one test I had missed—in English—I would be submitting a long essay on the works of Jane Austin. All in all, not as bad as I thought it would be. However, it did mean that whenever I was not sleeping, cooking or eating—I was doing my homework. Trig was the hardest subject, and after spending days battling with it, I finally called Angela on Friday. Thank God for friends! Angela wasn't in my Trig class, but the girl was smart—really smart! With her sitting next to me in the living room, I was done with all the homework within just a few hours.
"You are a lifesaver!" I told her.
"I was happy I could help." Angela smiled. "How are you feeling?" Her eyes were gentle and I saw that she was genuinely concerned.
"I feel better." I smiled "I'm still terribly uncoordinated, but I don't think that it has anything to do with the accident…" I joked and she smiled. Angela was one of the few people I was comfortable talking to. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I miss school," I said, feeling as though I was confessing a murder.
"It's okay." She smiled. "Your secret's safe with me." She winked and I laughed in response.
Angela left a short while later. I invited her to stay over for dinner, but she said that her mom needed her help with her two younger twin brothers. They were into their terrible twos and could be a handful for one person to deal with, especially at dinnertime. I saw the smile in her eyes when she spoke of her family and I felt a light tug inside me. The only family I had left was Charlie. I missed my mother, and on some level, being an only child myself, I was a bit jealous of Angela for having siblings.
I picked up my books from the living room and put them away in my bedroom. Charlie would be arriving home in an hour, so I had plenty of time to come up with something for dinner. Nothing fancy—I decided after fiving it some thought—just some steak and baked potatoes.
In the last six months, I came to realize that Charlie was easy to live with. Sometimes it was almost like living on my own while still having someone around when I needed the company. Charlie didn't hover. For the most part, he kept to himself, yet he was always there. When I wanted company, I could talk to him, and when I wanted peace and quiet—he let me be and wasn't offended.
While Charlie was the easy part, school was hard. Well, not school as much as the students in it. The first day I came back was like having the first day of school all over again. I thought the accident would be old news by then, but everyone still stared at me.
I wanted to disappear.
When it was time for lunch, I even considered hiding in my truck. The only reason I sat down with Jessica, Angela, Lauren, Tyler, Mike, Ben, and Eric at the table in the cafeteria was because I refused to let everyone know I was a coward.
The second week of school brought the Spring Dance fever. It was the only thing people talked about. Flyers were being handed out almost daily and the corridor walls looked like one giant billboard, covered with posters. I had no intention of going. Dancing was the worst possible activity for me. The only thing that would be more dangerous than me dancing would be me dancing while there were people around—they could, and probably would, get hurt in that scenario.
Even though the dance was a Girls' Choice—meaning, a dance to which the girls ask the boys out—I was still approached by Mike, Eric, and even Tyler—who was still feeling guilty about the accident. I couldn't understand what part of 'the girls ask the boys' was unclear to them. Therefore, by the time I found Ben waiting for me next to my truck on Thursday after class, I wanted to scream out loud and inflict some serious bodily harm.
"Hi Ben, what's up?" I asked, trying my best to keep my voice as calm as possible.
"Um… Hi, eh, Bella," Ben fidgeted and kept his eyes firmly on the ground, "I wanted to talk to you… about the dance." Although clearly it wasn't a question, his tone made it sound like one.
"The Girls' Choice dance?" I asked, trying not to over-emphasize the words 'Girls' Choice'.
"Yeah, that one." Ben seemed relieved for a moment but then tensed again as he continued to speak, "I wanted to ask you something… Um…" he hesitated.
I did my best not to show my irritation. God, please don't ask me to ask you, please.
"It's about Angela," he finally mumbled.
"Angela?" My curiosity piqued.
"I was wondering if you knew if… she asked someone out yet." Ben seemed to turn a deeper shade of red with each word that came out of his mouth. "I mean, I know she's your friend, I thought… well, maybe…" he stuttered and trailed off.
"She didn't ask anyone," I said gently and heard his sigh of relief at my words. "I'll put in a good word for you." I smiled at him and saw his expression change from embarrassment to joy, hope and then doubt.
"Really? You would?"
"Promise," I said as I opened the door of my truck.
"Thanks." He had a huge smile on his face.
"You're welcome." I smiled back at him.
My smile was still there even fifteen minutes later when I got back home. It looked like the end of the week would be much better than its beginning.
The next day, I caught up with Angela in the morning before school started. It was an unusually sunny day, one of the brightest days I've seen since moving to Forks. Angela was sitting at one of the very-rarely used picnic tables next to the parking lot. She was very happy when I told her what Ben had said. Apparently, she wanted to ask him to the dance but was afraid that he would say no. Several hours later, as I was waiting in line in the cafeteria, Angela came up to me. Her face was almost as red as Ben's had been the day before, when she whispered excitedly that he had said yes.
"We should all go to Port Angeles to buy dresses," Jessica announced, hearing Angela's whispered confession.
"Bella, will you come with us?" Angela asked quietly while Jessica and Lauren were already discussing the when and where parts of the trip. "I would love it if you could help me pick out a dress."
"I'd love to go with you." I may not like shopping trips and spending an afternoon with Lauren—who seemed to hold some kind of a grudge against me—was even less to my liking, but I did want to help Angela. Besides, I can definitely use a trip to the bookstore.
We made plans for that afternoon. Jessica said, and I agreed, that a nice weather like today was a shame to waste. However, things didn't work out that day. When I got back home, Jessica called and said that both Lauren and she couldn't make it. She asked if I minded rescheduling for next week. After agreeing, I called Angela to tell her we would be taking a rain check and found out that one of the twins was sick—and she was just about to call and cancel herself. Not two minutes after hanging up, Charlie called. He was bringing Billy Black and his son Jacob over tonight.
"Don't bother with dinner, Bells, we'll bring pizza," he said before hanging up.
With that many people calling, I stood by the phone for a moment longer just to make sure that it didn't call again.
w.W.w
I remembered Billy very vaguely. The last time I'd seen him was when I was around eleven. Jacob, or Jake, as he preferred, was a year younger than I, and although he had insisted that we were friends when we were little and that we even "used to make mud-pies together", I didn't remember him at all. Fortunately, it didn't prove to be a problem. Jake was really easy to like, and just like with Angela, I felt comfortable talking to him without being self-conscious about every word that comes out of my mouth.
While our fathers argued over the game that they were watching on TV, I went to make us popcorn. Jake followed me into the kitchen and we were talking while the popcorn was in the microwave.
"Are they always like that?" I asked when both Charlie and Billy's voices rose to near shouting.
"It gets worse with age." Jake smiled, winking.
I chuckled.
Jake said he attended school on the reservation—which explained why I haven't met him yet. Forks High had a fairly small student body, and I was sure I knew all of the kids, if not by name then by face at the very least. He told me about a friend from his school that he liked go surfing with.
"We usually go surfing near First Beach. You should come." Jake told me earlier about First Beach, his favorite place to surf. The place sounded wonderful, but I couldn't imagine how anyone could enjoy surfing in this climate. To me, surfing came hand in hand with sun, heat, and sand. Frist Beach, while sounding very beautiful, had none of those.
Jake shrugged again and said, "I never get cold," as if that explained everything.
"You should come down to La Push sometime. I'll show you how the other half lives," he said with a smirk.
Just then, the microwave beeped, indicating that the popcorn was ready. I went to the fridge to take out a bottle of coke and asked Jake to take out a bowl and two glasses from the cupboard. He handed me the coke when they first came in, earlier this evening. He said, "That's for us kids," winking, "while those old guys drink their beer." He made a face, clearly showing his disgust, and made me laugh for the first in many times tonight.
When we turned to go to the living room—me holding the bowl in one hand and the bottle in the other, and Jake carrying a glass in each hand—I pulled a classic Bella maneuver and came down crashing.
That is how I ended up in the ER for the second time in less than a month.
w.W.w
Carlisle
I drowned myself in work and books, hoping that keeping my mind busy would stop me from losing my rational thinking. I took longer shifts in the hospital, pulling doubles as often as I could without arousing suspicion. When I wasn't working, I read every book or medicine magazine I could get my hands on—and there were plenty. However, spending time alone inside the house proved useless. My mind began to play tricks on me. Sometimes when I walked past one of the rooms in the house, I could swear that I saw someone in the room. The feeling was like a déjà vu, and it was maddeningly annoying. I didn't know how humans dealt with such a phenomenon. Being a vampire meant that I possessed a photographic memory, having a déjà vu was impossible by the very definition of my nature. It was yet another symptom of my insanity.
At the end of the second week, when I was driving back from my shift at the hospital—another double—I just kept driving. I made my way to a small airfield north of Seattle, parked my Mercedes in the hanger, and boarded the small private jet. Four hours later, I landed the jet in Denali, Alaska.
I was met with a warm welcome from Eleazar and Carmen, my two good friends. I thought the company of others would do me good. I only planned to stay over for the weekend, as my next shift at the hospital was the Sunday night shift. A three-day stay with my closest friends ought to do help bring me out of my sudden depression.
I enjoyed my talks with Eleazar very much. We became acquainted two hundred years ago while we were both with the Volturi. Eleazar left them after finding his mate Carmen, and I followed him not too many years later. We remained friends until this day. He was a scholar and a very intelligent vampire, which made him an intriguing partner for conversation regardless of the topic.
Eleazar and I stayed in his library for the entire first day and night, catching up on the last fifty years since we had last seen each other in person. We went hunting together in the following morning, joined by Carmen, and for the first time in a month, I felt at peace.
However, the presence of the three other members of Eleazar and Carmen's family was a little less pleasant. Their three adopted daughters—Tanya, Irena, and Kate—were all beautiful women and they knew it. They inspired the original stories about the succubus, and although the three ladies preferred the warmth of human men when it came to their choice in bed partners, they did not pass on a chance to pursue male vampires if they found them to be attractive.
Unfortunately, I seemed to fall into that category. All three ladies made offers—as subtle as stripping inside a church on a Sunday morning—to all of which I had politely but firmly, refused. Tanya and Kate accepted my refusal with grace and let me be. Irena, however, was a different story. Whenever I was in the same room as her, she would find reasons to touch me and "accidentally" brush against me. If I took a stroll outside, she would find me and rub her body against me like a cat in heat. I'm embarrassed to admit that she even managed to grope me, very inappropriately, several times. The last straw was when I came back from a hunt earlier than the rest of them, and Irena was waiting for me in the guestroom, wearing nothing but a smile.
I offered a quick goodbye to Eleazar and Carmen—who walked into the house just as I was about to leave him a note—thanked them both for their hospitality, and said that I must be on my way. I knew that I didn't fool either of them—they were well aware of their daughter's attempts—but they wished me a safe journey and promised to keep in touch without mentioning the .
I came back to Forks on Sunday, late in the afternoon, to start another workweek at the hospital. The time I spent in Denali was a nice break from the loneliness, but it was not enough. I continued taking as many shifts as I could and avoiding my own home as much as was possible. I hunted a little more often, running as far as the Canadian border in some nights. As the week progressed, I felt anxious for reasons I could not explain. I felt as though I was waiting for something to happen, or for someone to arrive. I didn't know which.
I began avoiding some of the rooms in my house like a plague. The images I would see when I passed through them were too disturbing. The first floor was the worst; it was the only floor I could not avoid completely. Not only were the flickering images still there, but I began hearing sounds. Most of the time it was the sound of a non-existent piano playing, but I also heard glass shattering, footsteps, and even laughter. I began to think that the house was simply haunted—It was better than thinking I had developed a mental illness, and about just as plausible.
My shift on Friday began at six in the evening. It was one of the quietest ones I'd had in the two years I spent living in Forks. It was both good—because it meant that there were less injured humans, and bad—because my mind wasn't kept busy and began to wonder. I decided to do the human thing and linger around the break room. It was a perfectly normal place to be in on a quiet Friday night. However, there was no one there, so after a few minutes of sitting there alone, I made my way back to the ER.
I heard the doors to the ER open and recognized the Chief's heavy footsteps walking through the doors. They were heavier than usual and I suspected that he was carrying the person he had brought in his arms. I listened as the nurse instructed him to take whomever it was that he brought in to room number one. I felt my pager vibrate at the same time as I heard Chief Swan's footsteps leaving the front desk.
It took me a minute longer to reach the ER. The halls were empty but I did not dare move in my regular speed in the hospital. By the time I reached Nurse Grace Lloyd in the front desk, Chief Swan was standing alone, filling out forms.
"Chief Swan, Grace," I greeted them as I approached. "How may I be of a service this evening?"
"Isabella cut herself on a piece of glass. It looked deep so I brought her in," the Chief explained.
"She's in room one," Grace informed me.
"I'll go see her right now."
I put on my gloves and entered the room were Isabella—no, not Isabella; she preferred Bella—was lying on the bed. She had a white kitchen towel wrapped around her right hand and I could smell fresh blood. It made her scent more concentrated. I could not explain why, but her scent reminded me of waterfalls and wild flowers. I noticed it on her first visit, but with her blood exposed, the scent was much more potent.
"Bella?" I called as I came closer. I learned that humans were more comfortable when they could hear the person approaching them. The girl seemed even paler than normal. Her eyes were closed, but I could hear her rapid heartbeat and shallow breaths and knew she was awake.
"Dr. Cullen?" Her eyes opened in surprise. She tried to smile and failed.
"Why don't you tell me what happened to you?" I suggested, pulling a stool on wheels and sitting next to her right side.
She let me take her right hand before she spoke, "I stumbled on something, probably my own feet." An embarrassed expiration crossed her face before she continued, "My friend had two glasses in his hands and I fell on him."
I removed the towel from her hand, doing my best to be gentle. I noticed her wince several times. The cloth stuck to the coagulated blood, and when I had to remove it, she began to bleed again. I saw her face turn green and knew she was about to be sick. I acted on instinct and brought a trashcan from the entrance of the room under her face, for her to throw up in. When she was finished, I handed her a paper towel to wipe her face and a cup of water.
"Thank you," she murmured.
"Did you hit your head when you fell?" She might have sustained another concussion.
"No, it's the blood. I hate the smell of it," she said, still a little green. "It makes me feel sick"
This girl was so unexpected. The humans I had met during my long years of existence could not detect the scent of blood. I couldn't help the smile that came to my lips. "Well, it's a good thing, then, that it does not have that effect on me," I said.
I pulled a sterile cloth and placed it under her hand. I went to the cabinet and took the equipment I will need to treat her. "Is your friend ok?" I asked when I came to sit next to her.
"Yes, Jake is ok. He only dropped the glasses; I did the falling" She smiled sheepishly, but her face still had a green tint to it. I cleaned her hand with alcohol soaked gauze, and once the scent of blood was drenched in the scent of alcohol, she looked much better. "I landed straight on the pile of broken glass..."
"Hence the cuts," I finished with a smile. I can't say what it was about her, but this human just had this effect on me; she was able to make me smile even when I was certain that I was at a new low in my life. I looked back down on her hand. There were some small cuts and several deep ones that will need stitches, but first I had to take out all of the glass shards that were still in the wounds.
I picked up the syringe with the anesthetic and saw her blanch. "Needles," she said.
"I need to pick the pieces of glass out of your arm," I explained, "and some of the cuts will require stitches as well." I saw her grimace at the word 'stitches', I guess she doesn't like them any more than she likes needles. "It will be easier for you if you concentrate on something else," I suggested.
"Like what?"
"Why don't you tell me about your friend?"
"There isn't much I can say about him," she said sheepishly. "I know that we used to play together when I was little, but I don't remember much"
I noticed her wince when I gave her the anesthetic and began to work on taking out the shards of glass, but she continued to talk while I worked.
"He is Billy's son. Billy is my dad's best friend. They used to go finishing every weekend for as long as I can remember. Billy was in a car accident a few years ago and he's in a wheelchair now, so they don't get to go fishing anymore…"
I could hear the sadness in her voice when she spoke of her father's friend. Such compassion was rare amongst both our kinds.
"They came over to watch a game with us tonight. I guess I kind of ruined their plans…"
I glanced up at her face, she sounded so guilty that it surprised me. "I'm sure they are not mad at you," I said, but ended in a questioning note. Surely, they aren't so stupid as to blame her.
"No, no," she assured me hastily, "but I still feel a little guilty"
"You have nothing to feel guilty about. It's not your fault. It could happen to anyone." The moment the words left my mouth, everything suddenly changed. I was no longer in a hospital room, but in my kitchen back home. Bella was still sitting in front of me, but she wasn't on top of a hospital bed but on the heavy kitchen table. The image lasted no longer than a mere second, not long enough for her to notice anything, but it was long enough to shake me to my core. I heard her speak again, and her words were like another impossible déjà vu.
"Could," she repeated, "but it usually just happens to me."
I did my best to behave as normally as possible for the rest of her treatment, but it was challenging, keeping those feelings of shock and disbelieve at bay. I finished stitching her cuts and then gathered the dirty gauze and everything else I had used, wrapping it in the sterile cloth from under her hand. When I approached the biohazard trashcan to throw everything away, I had a weird feeling that I should be using a crystal bowl instead, and burning everything rather than throwing it in the trash. Bella Swan remained silent while I placed a piece of clean gauze over her wounds and taped it securely in its place, but I felt her gaze on me, watching throughout the whole time.
"This ought to do it…" The words fell of my lips. It was as though I was reading from a script that I wasn't even aware I had memorized.
"Thank you, Dr. Cullen," she said quietly.
"You're welcome, Bella," I replied.
I walked out of the room right after that. I gave a nod to Chief Swan in the waiting room and let him know he can take his daughter home, but for the rest of my shift, I was operating on autopilot, barely aware of my surroundings. It was a very good time to have a vampire mind that was able to focus on several different things at once. It was also a good time to have a slow shift.
I sat in my study for the remainder of the night. There was a question that kept echoing inside my mind. It was not the only question I had—far from it—but it was the loudest one.
What is going on here?
I'm sure all of you caught the references to the books (New Moon, right after Bella's disastrous birthday party). If you didn't—go back and read the saga! ASAP!
Thank you for reading!
Alley Cat.