Disclaimer: None of this is mine.
Chapter Four- So Hard She's Trying
"So hard she's trying
But her heart won't turn to stone... oh no
She keeps on crying
But I won't leave her alone
She'll never be alone"
-H.I.M.- "Right Here in These Arms"
She was all skin and bones. Her once luscious brown hair was dirty and framed her face in stringy clumps. Her clothes were ragged and full of holes, but they were the same clothes she had been wearing the last time Edward saw her. She was sleeping at the moment, although not very peacefully. She shook with little tremors.
I could clearly see bruises on her bare arms and her face. Her left eye was black and she had blood under her nose. Blood soaked her clothes in some places. I didn't see her shoes anywhere, but only one sock was lying on the table in the middle of the room. Her wrists were trapped together with handcuffs. Around her ankle was an iron shackle that was connected to a chain holding her to the wall.
Slowly, I crossed the room and knelt down to her. I gently touched her face, she flinched in her sleep. Peeling the duct tape off her mouth, I realized where her other sock had gone to.
I covered my face with my hands, trying to contain my anger. No, not anger, fury. If I hadn't already killed him, I would have done it for sure now. I was vaguely aware of Rosalie calling my name. I yelled something in response and then I could hear the rest of them coming to me.
"Oh my God," Rosalie gasped. One hand covered her mouth, her blue eyes wide with disbelief, shock and horror. Had she been able to cry she would be now.
I grabbed the shackle around her ankle and snapped it off with a little effort. When I broke the handcuffs, she woke up. Her eyelids fluttered and she stared at me for a second before she started screaming and thrashing around. I tried to tell her I was there to save her, but she couldn't hear me over her screaming.
Rosalie pushed me aside and came forward. "Bella," she said softly. "It's okay, we're here."
Bella calmed down just a little. She cowered as far into the corner as she could go, shaking like a leaf on a tree. I reached out to her and she whimpered, batting my hand away. Sheer terror in her eyes made me back away. She was scared of me.
Rosalie spoke to her, "We're going to take you home, okay? Just come with me?" Rosalie reached out. Bella's eyes flicked back and forth between us. "You remember us right?" No answer. "You remember your dad? Charlie?" A slight nod, silent tears flowed from her eyes. "Come on, then," Rose said softly.
Slowly, Bella slid out of the corner. She kept her eyes moving between me, Jasper, Emmett and Carlisle. Rosalie turned around, "Guys, she's scared of you. Maybe you could wait at Charlie's or something. Warn him." She gave me a meaningful look.
I nodded and stood up. I looked back to Bella as I reached the door. She hadn't taken her eyes off of me. "I'm sorry. I hope one day you can forgive me." She whimpered again and fresh tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Go," Rosalie ordered softly. I turned and walked out the door with my father and brothers.
None of them tried to speak to me on the walk to Charlie's. I wouldn't have responded if they had. When we reached the front door, Carlisle knocked. Esme answered.
"Where's Charlie?" he asked, kissing his wife on the cheek.
"With Alice, watching TV. What is it?" she asked.
Carlisle's eyes darted to me. "Let's just go inside." She nodded and moved aside, we followed them in.
"Charlie?" Carlisle spoke softly. Bella's father looked up.
Alice looked like she wanted to vomit. I saw her, she told me mentally. I'm sorry. I nodded to her, not sure what to say even if I could.
Carlisle sat down on the couch opposite Charlie. "We found Bella."
He received a blank stare in response. Then Charlie blinked. "I'm sorry? How? What do you even…" His eyes filled with tears.
"We've been searching the woods since we left Esme and Alice with you. She'd been held captive by someone, she's not in good shape," Carlisle explained.
Charlie's shock wore off and he shot to his feet. "Where is she?"
Carlisle put a hand on his shoulder. "Rosalie is with her. They're still on their way here. As I said, she's in bad shape. Charlie, listen."
Charlie didn't seem to know what direction to go in. He didn't seem to know what to do. He finally turned to my father and said, "What?"
"She's been abused."
"You said that. How bad?"
"Bad enough. She wouldn't let Edward come near her. She's traumatized. Scared of men."
Charlie let this sink in for a minute. "What do I do then?"
"Let Alice or Rose stay with her. Get her in therapy. Give her some time to heal," Carlisle said.
Charlie nodded and looked around to Alice. Then he ran his hands over his face and sighed. There was a knock on the back door.
"That's Rose," Carlisle said.
Charlie ran for the back door and flung it open. "Bella," he choked. I could see he wanted to hug her, but she cowered away from him and he restrained himself. He motioned them inside.
Alice went to Bella and helped her sit down at the table. Bella seemed to be shaking in her seat. "Maybe it would be best if you guys weren't crowding her," Rosalie suggested, looking at Carlisle. Charlie almost backed out of his own kitchen, he didn't want to upset his daughter. "Not you, Charlie," Rosalie said quickly.
"She's right," Carlisle said. He looked at Bella. "You'll need to go to the hospital and get checked out, make sure you don't have any infection or internal bleeding. If you like I could look you over now?" When she shook her head, he motioned for us to go. "We'll see you later then. Whenever you're ready." I lingered by the door, but Emmett pulled me along.
Rosalie
"Do you want something to eat, Bella?" I asked. "Or do you want to shower first?"
She didn't answer. At least she had stopped shaking, though.
Alice looked at me over Bella's head. "Let's shower first," she said. When Bella didn't protest, Alice reached out and helped Bella to her feet. Charlie stood back and watched. At least Bella didn't seem as afraid of him as she did the others. Alice helped her up the stairs while I followed behind. Alice took her into the bathroom while I went into Bella's room to find some soft pajamas, clean underwear and a big tee shirt for her. I knocked on the bathroom door and handed them to Alice.
Knowing Bella would be safe with Alice, I went downstairs. Charlie seemed to have gotten over the shock of his daughter coming home.
"Sit down, Rosalie," he said, pointing to the chair in his living room.
Something in his voice scared me so bad I almost froze on the spot. Instead I went forward and sat down where he told me.
He crossed his arms and looked at me. "I want you to tell me what's going on."
"What do you mean?"He huffed and started to pace. "Bella goes missing the same day your family leaves town. Then you show up here and suddenly you find her in the woods. We searched those woods. The entire Forks police squad and a few hundred volunteers couldn't find her. And then your family comes into town and just happens to find her six hours later. Yeah, spin me another one, Rose. Cause that's not suspicious at all!" He flung his arms out wide and stared at me.
I stared back with my mouth hanging open. "What are you saying, Charlie?"
"I'm saying I think Edward had something to do with her disappearing. Either he took her with him when you left and just brought her back today or he hid her somewhere around here and he never actually left," Charlie said.
"That's insane!" I shouted, standing up to my full height of five-nine. My fists were balled at my sides. "Edward had nothing to do with it."
"Oh really? Well then explain it to me, Rosalie." He crossed his arms and stared at me.
"Edward broke up with Bella before we left. We've been in Alaska these past few months. We didn't know anything about Bella disappearing until yesterday when we saw it on the news. We drove down as soon as we heard. All we did was trek through the woods. And apparently whoever searched the woods didn't do a very good job because we found a scrap of her clothes on the ground, not to mention we actually found her," I ranted.
"Where did you find her?"
"She was in this shack. I can show you where, if you want me to."
"No need, I think I know what you're talking about. Because we searched that shack before and we didn't find her, so explain that one."
I huffed. "Was the plan of you searching the woods public?"
"Yes, we advertised on the news asking for volunteers," Charlie answered.
"Did you think whoever had her stashed there saw it on the news and decided to move her before the five-oh came stomping through his little house of horrors?"
Charlie scrubbed a hand over his face. "I guess, maybe."
"Look, Charlie," I said, as calmly as I could. "Edward loves Bella. He blames himself for what happened. He thinks it's his fault because he left her alone out there when he broke up with her."
"He left her alone in the woods?" Charlie yelled incredulously. "Then it is his fault!"
"It's no one's fault!" I yelled back.
"Guys, stop it!" Alice interjected. She was standing at the foot of the stairs. "Bella can hear you guys fighting. You're upsetting her." She glared at us both before bounding up the stairs again.
Charlie and I glanced guiltily at each other. "I'm sorry I yelled at you," I said quietly.
"Me too. And I'm sorry I blamed Edward," he said, though his voice wasn't completely sincere. I supposed mine wasn't either so I forgave him. "Just- you have to understand. She's my daughter." His voice became thick with tears. "She's all I've got."
"I know. I understand." We stood there awkwardly until Alice came back down. She sat with Charlie while I went into the kitchen to get Bella something to eat. When I went up the stairs carrying a plate of lasagna Esme made Alice was chattering away while Charlie stared at her. I knocked on Bella's door before I went inside. She was under the covers, staring at the wall.
"Here you go," I set the plate next to her on the bed. She started to eat slowly, as if she were in pain just from lifting the fork. "Do you need anything?" She looked up at me, then back down at her plate. I took that as a no. "Alice and I are going to stay the night with you. We're going to take you to the hospital in the morning." Tears welled up in her eyes but she didn't speak, only continued eating.
I sat with her until she finished eating. Then I tucked her in and squeezed her hand. "Get some rest." I turned off her light and shut the door. Alice was still talking when I got to the ground floor. "Alice," I said. She looked at me. "Time for bed, I think."
"Okay," she kissed Charlie's cheek and sent him up the stairs. I sat next to Alice on the couch. We heard Charlie slowly make his way up the stairs. The door to Bella's room opened and he whispered 'good night' to his sleeping daughter then quietly went into his own room.
After hearing Charlie's bed squeak under his weight, Alice turned to me. "I can't believe he thinks Edward did it," she said.
"When you listen to his side of things, it makes sense."
"Rosalie!"
"What? He made a convincing argument." Alice just stared at me so I said, "Well I know Edward didn't do anything to her. But you can't blame Charlie for thinking it. It does look weird. His daughter disappears the same day we leave, then we come back and find her. I can see why he would think it was Edward."
"I guess I see your point," Alice said quietly. "What do you think is gonna happen now?" She leaned over and laid her head against my shoulder. In turn I rested my head on hers.
"Well, tomorrow we'll take her to the hospital and have a doctor look at her. Make sure there's nothing seriously wrong with her. We'll go from there," I said.
"Do you think she'll get better?"
"I don't know, Alice."
"What about her and Edward?" she asked. "Do you think they'll ever get back together?"
I wish I had answers for her, but I didn't. "I just don't know."
A/N: Okay, I fucking love Rosalie and I hate how she always gets written off as a bitch, so this is my attempt at giving her more character and making her a bigger part of the story. How did I do? Do you like my Rose? Yes? No? Let me know! ~JLL
