CHAPTER FOUR
Nessie and Jacob were meeting us at the airport. Eila would be with them, and we rushed our way through baggage and security until we made it to the end of the terminal.
They were standing as close to the gates as possible. Jacob was holding Eila, and I couldn't believe how much she had grown since the last time I saw her. She looked like she was sleeping, but that's all I saw before Nessie saw us.
Her mouth formed into a gigantic smile and she started coming toward us. Bella crashed into her at the half-way point, and wrapped her arms around her. I thought she was going to cry, but I suppose I wouldn't have really known anyways.
"Oh, my gosh Nessie I've missed you," Bella said, rubbing the back of Nessie's head.
"You have no idea," Nessie said, burying her face in her mother's shoulder.
Nessie broke away from her mother and turned to her dad.
"Daddy!" she said as she jumped into his arms. Nessie really was crying now, and Edward swung her around.
"I love you so much, Nessie," Edward said. He held her to him. "So, so much."
"Love you too Dad," she muttered into his shoulder.
Her head shot up and he put her on her feet. "Jacob," she said calmly toward where Jacob was watching their reunion. He looked up, and walked over to us. He still had his sloppy grin, which was at the moment plastered on his face. Eila's small body didn't move as he walked toward us. But he brushed her dark ringlets-Nessie's ringlets-out of her face so we could see her.
She looked beautiful. She had a kind of beauty that couldn't be shown on a camera. Her face was lightly bronzed, with long eyelashes and a face that looked just like her mother's. But her nose was definitely Jacob's. She looked about fifteen months, although it was really only almost her first birthday.
"Hey there strangers," Jacob said.
"Hi," we all said.
Nessie gently woke up Eila by shifting her into her arms. She kissed her on the forehead as she blinked her little brown eyes. "Hey pretty baby," she said. "Look who's here to see you."
Nessie shifted so that Eila's little eyes were pointed toward us. Eila took a moment to comprehend our smiling faces. Then she smiled, and giggled and hid her face in her mother's hair; she was being shy.
We all laughed. Nessie put her mouth by Eila's ear and whispered to her, "Who is that?" She pointed to Bella. Eila giggled again and whispered into her mother's ear "Gamma."
Her voice was soft, just like we heard in the videos. No matter what she looked like physically, her mind was racing ahead of her.
Nessie then pointed to her father. "And who's that?" she said out loud this time.
Eila's little mouth was the mirror image of Edward's smirk. "Papa," she said.
"Yeah," Nessie said. "Good job!"She patted her daughter's sleepy head.
"Let's get out of here," Jacob said.
He was right. We were contracting quite a few stares. We kept our heads down as we walked out of the airport into the freezing, rainy, yet familiar, Forks night.
Jacob and Nessie had both brought their cars so that they would have room for all twelve of us. I don't think there would actually be enough seats, but we'd squeeze. Nessie strapped Eila into her car seat and Zach, Rosalie and I squished in next to her. Emmett took the front seat, and Nessie put her red charger into drive. It looked like Jacob had borrowed Sam and Emily's SUV for the occasion. We were going to be staying at Jacob and Nessie's house, but I knew we would most likely hunt tonight. I didn't know what we'd do for the other nights while they were sleeping, but I was sure we'd figure it out.
"So," Rosalie said on the ride home. "How have you been Ness?"
"I've been good," Nessie said. "I start working full-time for the schools next fall, so I'm pretty excited about that. I can't believe Eila's going to be one though…" She glanced in her mirror so she could see Eila asleep in her car seat. "It doesn't seem like that long ago that she was born. A lot has happened though I guess…" she sighed. "Though come to think of it…. I suppose Jacob and I will have been married for two years in October. That's crazy…"
Emmett shook his head at her. "Not when you think about how many more you'll have."
Nessie smiled to herself. "How long have you guys been married?" she asked Emmett.
"Almost seventy years," he answered.
Nessie shook her head. "You're right," she said. "Two years doesn't seem very long when you compare it to seventy."
"Two's a lot when you compare it to zero though," I said.
"Yes, I suppose it is," Nessie said without missing a beat.
"I told Zach that we should elope," I said. "I think it would be funny."
Nessie laughed. "That would be funny."
"I told her if she would accept a plastic heart ring that you get out of one of those little quarter machines then we can drive to Vegas whenever she wants. Cause let's face it; I'm dead broke."
"I'm thinking about taking him up on that offer if he'll get down on one knee," I told her.
Zach and I were just joking around of course. We both knew that we would get married some day, but we figured we should wait until we graduated from High School. It would just be easier that way. But then again… Neither of us had ever done anything the easy way.
Zach rolled his eyes at me. "We'll get married someday..." he said. He sighed. "Just not right now."
I leaned my head on his shoulder. "Oh, I suppose."
We pulled into Nessie's house then, just behind the others. They had left the front porch lights on, just like we always did. It was a comforting sight. Nessie pulled her car into the garage next to one that Jacob was working on. I could see that it looked like he was doing a nice job as we all filed out of the car.
Nessie unbuckled Eila from her car seat, but Jacob automatically bent down to carry her sleeping form into the house. He nuzzled her warm little body into his massive hot one. She didn't stir as we walked into the house.
"I guess she was tired," Jacob said with a yawn.
"Hm," Nessie said. "That sounds like someone else I know." She gave Jacob a pointed look.
He sighed. "Ness, I'm fine," he said. "If you're going to worry, you should worry about more important things."
"You're pretty important in my book," she argued. "And you need to sleep more."
He rolled his eyes at her sarcastically. "Yes ma'am."
I took a seat next to Jasper on Nessie's couch while she and Jacob put Eila to bed. I looked around her living room. It looked much like it had the last time I had seen it. The biggest difference was that there was a new recliner in the corner of the room that hadn't been there last time. It looked nice.
Nessie came back from Eila's room before Jacob did. "So," said Edward. "Where is dear old Bryce tonight?" I knew he got a kick out of Bryce imprinting on Eila.
"He has patrol," Nessie said. "He's going all night I guess with Caleb. I don't know which eagles are out there… Probably Robert and Corey." Nessie smiled. "He's a pretty big help when it comes right down to it. Especially if I'm by myself and I have to run an errand or something."
"How's Jacob holding up?" Emmett asked.
Nessie rolled her eyes. "Jacob is Jacob," she said. "He won't admit he's tired until he falls asleep before dinner with Eila in his arms." She shrugged. "I'm no good at making him do things for himself."
Jacob came out of Eila's room then. "I do things for myself."
"Name one," Nessie countered.
"I watched a TV show last night," he said.
"You watched the kid's channel with Eila, and you fell asleep after that."
"Exactly," he said. "I fell asleep."
"Sleeping doesn't count as doing something for yourself."
He sighed. "Okay."
She looked at her watch. "Go to sleep Jacob," she said. "It's eleven o'clock at night."
He crossed his arms. "Jeez," he said. "Bringing down the hammer." He cocked a smile at her.
"Yes sir," she said. "Someone's got to."
He stretched his arms upward until they reached the ceiling of the living room. "Fine," he said. "Good night then."
"Good night," we all said at once. He shut the door to their bedroom behind him. Nessie sat down on the floor in front of us. "So how's school?" she asked.
"Over," I said. "At least for the summer."
She nodded. "I suppose that's good." She tilted her head to the side. "Any more surprise visits from the Volturi?" We had told her about them coming unexpectedly of course.
"Haven't heard a word from them since," Carlisle said. "Unfortunately, that's what makes me worry."
Nessie eyes stared straight ahead. "I don't ever want them to meet Eila." She shook her head. "They shouldn't ever have to."
There was a buzzing from the counter in the kitchen. Nessie stood up. "Who would be calling Jacob at eleven o'clock at night?"
His pack, I thought. Nessie answered his phone without looking at the number. "Hello?" she said.
I heard Caleb's voice on the phone. "Nessie!" he said, sounding panicked. "Where's Jacob?"
"He's asleep," she said quickly. "What's going on?"
"There's been an accident," Caleb said after a second.
"What the hell do you mean 'there's been an accident'?" she said.
He took a deep breath and I heard a low noise from somewhere near Caleb. Caleb breathed in. "There was a hunter, Ness," he said.
We were all sitting up ramrod straight now. Every piece of concentration I had was focused in on listening to see what had happened. "Oh my god…" Nessie said after letting her air out. "Caleb, answer me right now; is Bryce okay?"
"No," Caleb said immediately. "No, he's not." I could hear in his voice that he was panicking a little. "Nessie, he got hit. We were being careless… we didn't see the guy. We didn't even see him… I don't know where he went… I don't know if he saw us…" Caleb was in full panic mode now. "He's not okay, Nessie," he said. "He's not okay at all…"
"Where are you?" Jacob said as he came out of his and Nessie's room. He must have heard what was going on.
"We're right over the old treaty line, but we're way up by Port Angeles…" he let out his air quickly. "Oh my god…" I could hear Bryce moan again, recognizing the sound this time.
"Caleb!" Jacob said sternly. "I'm coming up there right now. Listen to me!" he said seriously. "You will stay calm."
Jacob was out the door in the next second. "Caleb," Nessie said more calmly. "I'm going to call Sam, and get him up there with you alright? You tell Bryce he'd better hold tight…" Nessie looked up all of the sudden as if she was just remembering that we were there. "Wait…" she said. "What am I thinking?"
She met Carlisle's eyes. With one nod, he headed out the door behind Jacob. "Thanks…" Nessie muttered. "Carlisle's on his way Caleb, I have to call Sam…" she hung up the phone and started dialing.
"Andrea…" Edward looked over at me. I knew what he was thinking… He wanted me to go with Carlisle. He wanted me to see what it was like.
I glanced at Edward, then looked back down at my feet. "This is what opportunity looks like," Edward said. Everyone was looking at us now.
"I'd be in the way," I said. My mind was telling me to stay, and I was trying my hardest to listen to it. This would be dangerous.
"No," Edward said. "Not if I came too. Come on…" he was already on his feet.
I was fighting against this idea inside myself. I couldn't go, not thistime.
But in one moment, Zach squeezed my hand, and I knew that I was losing. He wanted me to go…
I took one deep breath in through my mouth, and I got to my feet. I tried to keep my head, but it was hard. There would be blood, and probably lots of it. I fought the panic inside of me, and threw caution to the wind. I would do this. And when I made my mind up about something, that's what was going to happen.
"Right," I said with a nod. "Let's just… go…"
Edward nodded, and I saw his smirk as he headed out the door.
I turned to look at Zach. I knew that he knew I was worried. He met my eyes. "You'll be fine," he said confidently. "Seriously Andrea, come on, just go… You'll regret it if you don't."
"But," I shook my hands in frustration. "I don't want to hurt him…"
"You won't," Zach said immediately.
"I'm worried," I admitted.
"I'm not," Zach said confidently.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Whatever you say…"
I bolted out the door before I could think of another reason why I shouldn't go. I could follow Edward, Carlisle, and Jacob's scents very easily, but it wasn't long before I started picking up other scents. I knew Sam was somewhere to my left, but I wasn't sure how close he was. It seemed like seconds before I could smell the blood, but I knew that it must have been longer than that.
I braced myself before I burst through the last of the trees, trying to picture Zach's face in my head to keep me focused.
Bryce was a mess. It looked like I had gotten there right after Sam, because he seemed to still be taking in the situation. Caleb was standing off to the side, looking pretty traumatized. Carlisle was kneeling down by Bryce, as was Edward, and that's when I saw Bryce. It looked like the bullet had gone right in on his right side.
It was a strange wound. It looked like it was half-healed already, but there was blood everywhere. Carlisle was gently poking at the wound, probably trying to find the bullet. Bryce had his eyes squinted shut, and he was breathing pretty hard.
"Bullet's pretty deep…" Carlisle muttered. He seemed to ponder for just a second. "We need to move him," he said decisively.
"Bring him over to your old house," Sam said immediately. "I'll run ahead and let them know that we're coming…" The eagles currently lived in our old white house, and we were glad it was getting good use.
"Right," Carlisle said. Sam was gone in the blink of an eye, pulling Caleb along behind him. It was just us, Jacob and Bryce now. "Okay," Carlisle said. "We're going to move you Bryce, you just hang in there."
Carlisle gently scooped Bryce into his arms, but Bryce still winced at the movement. We were off and running after that. Sam and Caleb beat us back to house, and had gotten everyone out of the way. They had the bedroom on the bottom floor open, and they brought Bryce in there. I tried to stay outside the door, but Edward gave me a look and pulled me in right behind him.
"Just watch," Edward muttered to me. "You're fine."
I didn't know what alternate reality he was living in, but in my opinion, I was in no way shape or form fine. My throat was burning, and I was scared. I was scared to death that I was going to hurt Bryce. I'd never really pushed myself this far before, and it was terrifying.
I put my hand on the door jam, and imagined that I could hold myself there. I tried to focus on something else. I thought about Bryce, and how important it was that he be okay. There would be a lot of people who missed him if he was gone, Eila being one of them. The thought of that little girl being sad made me want to cry.
Right then, I knew that I had to be okay. I couldn't freak out. Killing was wrong, no matter what intents or purposes. Killing someone as young as Bryce was practically as good as sending yourself straight to hell. Hurting Eila like that wasn't an option. If she was hurt, so were her parents. The path of destruction I would leave in my path wouldn't stop with just Bryce, and I refused to let that happen.
I watched Carlisle work, and I could see how much he loved it. I could see how easily he could forget about all of the blood and just focus on the patient. I could see myself doing that. They had Bryce lying on his left side, and he looked like he was terrified, not to mention in a lot of pain.
Jacob was knelt down next to Bryce's face, trying to talk to him and comfort him.
"You're going to be okay," Jacob was saying.
"How do you know?" Bryce asked.
I had an answer to that one. I knelt down right next to Jacob. Bryce looked like he had just realized I was there. "Because," I said. "I'm as stubborn as hell, and I just decided you're going to be." I took a deep breath in through my nose and tensed. I looked Bryce in the eyes to try and steady myself. "And trust me, if I'm going to be okay, you sure as hell better figure out a way to be."
Bryce nodded at me, and I forced myself to stay close to the blood. I watched Carlisle carefully. He was gently breaking the skin where it had started to heal over the bullet. Edward was trying to contain the blood flow as much as possible.
"Does it hurt to breathe?" Carlisle asked Bryce.
"Yes," Bryce said.
"Try to breathe shallowly then, alright? Short, quick breaths."
Carlisle looked like he was having the most trouble getting to the bullet because the wound kept trying to heal over it. After about ten minutes though, I heard the metal tweezers Carlisle was working with hit something solid.
After that it looked like it was as quick and easy as breathing for Carlisle. He pulled the bullet out in one quick movement, and Bryce winced. Jacob was still talking to Bryce, but I wasn't listening. Edward took the small, deadly piece of metal from Carlisle and set it aside. "Alright," Carlisle said, turning back to the wound. "The worst is over." He looked into the wound, moving it slightly with the tweezers. Bryce bit his bottom lip. "I don't think I can do much to make that heal any faster," Carlisle said. "It's healing rather quickly…" he pondered what to do for a moment. "You're going to be sore for a while…" Carlisle said. "And there's definitely some muscle damage, but nothing that will be permanent." Carlisle dug around in the bag that he usually carried. He pulled out a small bottle. "We're in luck," Carlisle said. "I only have a little bit of morphine with me, but enough to take the pain away enough for you to sleep."
Edward poured the addicting medication into a syringe. "I'm going to put it into your arm okay Bryce?" he said.
"'Kay," Bryce said quietly.
The morphine seemed to give Bryce almost immediate relief. It was only about ten minutes before his eyes were drooping and his breathing slowed from panting to a calmer pace.
As soon as he was asleep, I stood up and made myself walk calmly from the room. If I'd had it my way, I would've bolted out of there full speed ahead.
When I came out of the small room, I saw all of the eagles sitting there in their living room; waiting to see what had happened. Caleb was there of course, as was Sam, and I'm sure they had filled in all the details about what had happened.
I wasn't used to having so many people look at me, and I cowered back a little. Edward came out behind me and put himself between me and all of the curious eyes. "He's okay," Edward said. "Or he will be in twenty-four hours time."
I saw them all relax at once. I thought it was funny how these two different groups of people, two different tribes, two different… breeds, were so much alike. They each had a leader, and they each had their own place in the pack. The eagles were so different from the wolves, yet so much the same. I saw so much good in all of them; I couldn't help but feel safe and happy.
Edward turned to me then. "Are you okay?" he asked.
I felt all of the eyes shift to me again. I blinked, and sighed. I leaned against the wall and slumped down onto the floor. I pulled my knees to chest. "I will be," I said.
Edward nodded. "I wasn't as okay as I thought I was going to be."
I gave him a questioning look. "What do you mean?" I asked.
He sighed. "I guess it's harder if you're away from it for a while."
I nodded, and leaned my head forward and covered it with my arms. "How do you do it?" I muttered.
Carlisle came out of the room then with Jacob. "Determination," Carlisle said. "And stubbornness."
I scoffed. "I think I'm pretty much covered on the whole stubbornness part."
I heard footsteps outside the front door and lifted my head to see who was here. Wyatt crashed through the door a moment later. He looked wet, tired, slightly panicked, and extremely worried. "What happened?" he asked loudly. "All I know is Bryce got shot…"
"He's okay," Edward said before Wyatt could go any farther. "It wasn't that bad."
Wyatt's shoulders dropped. "Why do I always get only half of the story?"
"Because you only listen half of the time," Sam said.
Wyatt held up a finger in concurrence. "Point taken."
He went and sat down in the window seat by Ashley. They were generally speaking hilarious together. I had gathered in the short amount of time that I had known Ashley that she was extremely smart, and very quiet. Her sense of humor was highly sarcastic, and it cracked me up. Wyatt's humor was pretty straight forward, so they made the perfect mix.
Edward's cell phone rang and he answered on the first ring. "Hello?" he said.
"Hi." It was Bella's voice that I heard. "Is he okay?"
"Yup," Edward said confidently.
I heard Bella sigh. "Good," she said. "Because Eila woke up about an hour ago crying her eyes out. She was convinced that Bryce wasn't okay. She's still pretty upset."
"Wow," Edward said. He looked behind him for half a second at Carlisle. "Why don't you tell Nessie to bring her over here? I'm sure Bryce would be more than happy to see her."
I heard Bella suggesting the idea to Nessie. I heard them discuss in low tones, but I couldn't quite make out what they were saying. "Alright," Bella said after a minute. "She's going to run her over there."
"Okay," Edward said. "Tell her to follow Wyatt, that'll get her here the fastest way."
"Right," Bella said. "I'm coming with, and I'm bringing Zach because he's freaking out."
"'Kay," Edward said. "Love you, bye."
I leaned my head back so it hit the wall and felt a smile spreading across my face. "Wasn't he the one telling me everything was going to be okay?"
"Yup," Edward said. "And I'm highly convinced that the second you left he started worrying about you."
"He would," I said.
There was a beat of silence. "You guys should get married," Edward said randomly.
"Jeez Edward," Carlisle said. "Give them a second to breathe."
"Ah," Edward said. "What are you guys waiting for?"
I looked at him and raised my eyebrows. Several people were silently cracking up. "I'm waiting for Zach to ask me," I said.
"I see," Edward said. "So you're saying if Zach got down on one knee right now you'd say yes, no hesitation?"
"Yup," I said.
"Alright then," Edward said.
"Why do you want us to get married so badly?" I asked him.
"Do you have any idea the things I've heard?" Edward said with a sly smile. "One of you is going to spontaneously combust."
Had I been a human, my face would've turned red. I knew exactly what Edward had heard. Zach and I had decided a few months before we left Forks that we weren't going to have sex before we got married. That had proved harder than both of us had thought it was going to be. We were really secluded from the rest of the family at our new house, but that didn't mean we couldn't hear anything going on around us. Especially considering Connor and Julia were on the same floor as us. One of us was going to spontaneously combust.
I gave Edward a look. "Because that's not awkward at all, Edward, not at all."
"You asked," he said.
I could hear the light patter of quick vampire feet, and I could tell that Zach was in the lead. Bella was hanging back with Nessie and the baby anyhow. It was only another couple of seconds before Zach came through the back door, shaking himself off from the rain. "Hi," he said.
"Hi," I said back. "I thought you weren't worried about me," I said with a smirk.
"I lied," he admitted freely. "I'm always worried about you, Andrea."
I rolled my eyes while I stood up. "Please," I said. "You should worry about more important things."
"Hey Zach," Edward said. I had a bad feeling about this. "You should propose to Andrea."
Zach looked slightly taken aback. "And why is that?" he asked.
"Because," Edward said. "She will say yes."
"Right," Zach said. "Because that's the only reason you should ever propose to somebody." Zach and I thought much alike.
Nessie and Bella came through the door then. Eila was hiding in Nessie's shoulder, but she snapped her head up as soon as she was out of the rain. Nessie set Eila on her feet, and she turned to look for Bryce. "He's in there, sweetheart," Edward said, pointing toward the closed door.
Eila walked her little legs right over to the door and reached up as high as she could to reach the door knob. She stood on her tip toes to twist it open and walked right in. I could see inside the room now. Bryce was sound asleep. Eila didn't pause in her saunter; she just climbed up next to Bryce and laid down right next to him. Bryce flinched at the movement, and woke up. He smiled when he saw her lying next to him. "Hi," Bryce said to Eila.
"Hi," Eila said sleepily. She bolted awake a minute later, sleepy no more. "You need to be more careful," Eila said in her little girl voice. Eila's speech was far more advanced than any one-year-olds should be, but Nessie's had been too. "And follow the rules," she added.
I saw Bryce containing his laugh. "Okay," he said. "I'll try to follow the rules better next time."
"Thank-you," Eila said. She kissed Bryce on the forehead, and laid down right there and went to sleep.
