Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all.
Rated M for several reasons.
Chpt 3 Unfamiliar Territory
RPOV
"Rosalie." She gasps, her little face lighting up.
"You can cut the engine now." I drawl. "You're not going anywhere."
Obediently she does and the silence is deafening.
We face each other through the glass of the windshield. Glorious immortal and dowdy human.
Oh this was a great lack of plan.
"Don't move." I order.
She shrugs eloquently. Right, where could she go?
Fishing out my cell I call Em, speaking normally so that she hasn't a hope of hearing what I'm saying.
"I've done it." I whimper. "I've only gone and done it. I need you."
"I'm coming babe." He answers succinctly.
She's still smiling. I haven't seen her smile since we came back. It's nice, it has potential. Not that she looks happy, she just looks like the dentist has stopped drilling on a raw nerve.
Em's infallible instincts home in on me quickly which is just as well as the sight of one antique truck and two girls staring at each other in increasing discomfort is bound to draw some attention. And attention of the canine kind is not something we need right now.
To my intense relief the sight of my giant husband cheers her even more, this smile is almost genuine.
With barely a nod at me he pulls her out of the truck and crushes her against his chest.
I smile. Slightly. At least someone's happy with this unexpected turn of events.
"Emmett." She gasps. "Need. To. Breathe."
"Oh. Sorry Bells." He releases her, holding her at arm's length and studying her critically. "Forgot about your whole delicate humanness thing."
Doofus.
"Forgiven." She says with a small sigh.
Another truck turns off the highway, slowing down as the four smelly occupants regard us with naked hostility.
"Time to go." Em says easily, lifting Bella into the truck and sliding in behind the wheel to start the engine.
She's so pleased to see him she doesn't notice the sudden tension in the air.
All but forgotten I climb in beside them giving the wolves the benefit of my best ice maiden stare as Em turns us and heads back into town.
I'll give her credit. If it were me my mouth would be going a dime a dozen demanding answers to the many questions that must be in her head. But she sits quietly, and seemingly contently, between us as Em drives back to her house.
Without a word she unlocks the door and gestures us inside.
Politely we sit down on the couch as indicated and wait for her to speak.
"Are you, um, all back?"
"No." Em says gently.
Her eyes flick briefly to me and then fasten back on him.
"None of the others know we're here." He expands.
She looks down at her sneakered feet and shuffles them for a moment.
"Why?" She asks eventually in a strangled voice.
That's a big question and Em looks at me imploringly.
"I'll explain if you eat something." I offer.
She regards me curiously for a moment and then leads the way into the kitchen.
Don't ask me what the noxious substance she made is, I probably wouldn't have been able to identify it as a human.
Once we are all seated around the table she takes a bite and then looks at me questioningly while she chews.
"Edward." I begin noting with interest how she flinches at the mention of his name. "Is a dick."
She chokes for a moment and struggles to swallow the food in her mouth.
Em scowls at me. Dick is not an allowed word either.
To the accompaniment of the pounding Forks rain and Em's disapproval I explain Emo Ed's delusional thinking and the sorry tale of how we've all come to be sat here together on this grey day.
"He loves me?" She asks, seizing on the one thing I wish I hadn't mentioned.
I nod.
"Humph."
Quite.
"And Victoria is trying to kill me?"
I nod.
"Humph." She bites and chews another mouthful thoughtfully.
"And the two of you are the only ones who wanted to come back for me?"
"Not exactly." Em says defensively.
"But in actuality?" She presses.
I can't help but smile, straight to the point.
She looks at me consideringly for a moment.
"I think I need to lie down." She announces, abandoning her food and us to run upstairs.
"What do we do now?" Em hisses.
"Get out of here before she starts crying." I respond heading for the door.
"Shouldn't we comfort her or something?" He frets as we dart outside and hide ourselves in the trees.
We stare at each other unhappily as the sound of Bella's sobbing escalates.
"You should go and talk to her." He suggests carefully.
"About what?" I ask in genuine surprise. "How to fit a new can to her motorcycle?"
"No." He says patiently. "About why she's upset."
"You ask her."
"Babe, I'm a man, we don't talk about feelings and stuff."
"Em, I'm a Rosalie, I don't have feelings and stuff."
"Babe . . . ." He stops, wincing as a particularly heart wrenching noise escapes Bella's bedroom.
"Alright, alright." I sigh. "It's my responsibility, I'll do it, but I don't have a book on how to train your over emotional human, if she jumps off a cliff afterwards don't blame me."
With a strange sense of trepidation I about face and stalk back into the house.
Her room isn't hard to find and inside she's flung face down on the bed sobbing her heart out into a rather noisome pillow.
I flit over and open the window in case Charlie returns unexpectedly and then settle down to wait.
After an hour or so her crying lessens and eventually she rolls over onto her back with a heavy sigh.
She screams.
I smile.
Her breathing hitches and her heart skips a couple of beats.
If I hadn't spent years perfecting the art of being frightening I would probably be a little offended.
"Why are you here?" She manages to ask when her breathing has evened out again.
"I thought you might like to talk about it."
"About what?" She asks in confusion.
Apparently neither of us is very good at this sort of thing. Immediately I feel less awkward about the whole exercise.
The silence stretches out.
"I could take a look at your new bikes if you'd like." I offer eventually.
"Um." She looks shifty for a moment and then back to confused.
"They won't run you know." I inform her.
"I don't know anything about motorcycles." She admits.
"They're a lot like cars."
"I don't know anything about cars either." She says with a small smile.
I shake my head in disgust.
"Okay." She says eventually. "I just need a human moment first."
"I'll wait downstairs."
Outside I find Em with his arms crossed over his chest having a staring contest with the four smelly individuals from earlier who are driving slowly by in their less than classic truck.
I stand next to him mirroring his posture and with snarls they speed away.
Em and I share a long look, hoping we don't need to ask them for help.
My cell vibrates and I snatch it out of my pocket.
"Hey bitch." A familiar voice greets me. "How's the vacation?"
"Hey brother, how's life under the thumb?"
He chuckles. "Bearable Blondie, bearable."
"Eaten anything good lately?"
"Ah now, don't you start darlin'." He sighs. "I'm feeling special enough already."
"Bad?"
"Oh yes."
I nearly invite him to join us but bite my tongue just in time. We're justifying all this on the basis of protecting Bella and Jasper Hale represents danger, on so many levels.
"Too bad." I tell him. "Your lack of self-control is bound to get you into trouble from time to time."
"I knew there was a reason I called you." He chuckles again. "You're so good at making me feel better."
"Hey, we're on my time here Major Catastrophe, what do you want?"
"What are you really doing?" He asks.
"What I want, of course." I respond, automatically tossing my hair back as if he can see me.
"Be careful Rosalie Hale." He says sternly, ending the call.
"Alice giving him a hard time?" Em asks.
"Sounds like it."
Bella emerges from the house and approaches us with a cautious smile for Em who just about manages to restrain himself from enveloping her in another massive hug.
Instead he jumps up and pulls the tarp back from the bikes. I hop up after him and offer her my hand, which she takes with a little swallow, and I haul her into the truck bed.
"Ouch." She mutters rubbing her hand and flexing her fingers.
Oops. Too hard. Oh well.
I hunker down and inspect the two fairly well trashed bikes. They are salvageable but so not worth it.
"We'll need to go to Port Angeles for parts." I inform her.
"I've got the money."
I shrug, giving them another once over. One of them could potentially be a decent bike, we'll have to see how we go.
"Do you want to go tomorrow?"
She hesitates and then nods.
"Okay, I'll pick you up at ten."
She nods and Em picks her up and jumps down with her, placing her carefully on her feet while I re-hide the bikes. I'm guessing Charlie isn't a fan, hardly surprising in his line of work.
"I can't work on them here." She says looking up at me curiously.
"I have somewhere."
"Okay." She nods again and returns to the house, looking back once with naked curiosity on her face.
"Hunt?" Em asks, offering me his hand and helping me down.
"Yes please. She smells delicious."
He laughs and with one last look round we melt into the trees.
The following morning the three of us ride to Port Angeles in her truck with a shopping list of parts I prepared the night before.
They have everything we need and Em and I load the parts into the truck while Bella pays. I've always sympathised with her reaction to our attempts to spend money on her, coming from a similarly frugal background myself. If she wants to pay then that's her prerogative.
When Em turns into the driveway of our old house she tenses up, her pulse hammering.
"It's just an empty house." I point out.
She looks at me, those enormous brown eyes filled with an emotion I'm not equipped to identify.
"We'll only go in the garage." I find myself promising. "It's the perfect place to work on the bikes and I already have all the tools we'll need."
She lets out a long breath and Em and I exchange shrugs.
I leap out to open the garage door while Em unloads the bikes.
Depositing them on the floor he flits off to switch on the power, we don't need the lights but she will.
Turning I find her blinking stupidly and gazing around the walls as if she expects something to jump out and bite her. No chance, Jazz is in Alaska.
Em returns and Motorcycle Repair 101 begins.
We work for several hours me working on one bike and Bella on the other, following my instructions, before her stomach starts making empty noises and Em heads off to get something for her lunch.
"He told me he didn't love me." She says suddenly without looking up from her work.
"Lying prick." I mutter under my breath.
"That I wasn't enough to hold him from his distractions."
"You were his distraction." I respond, annoyance evident in my tone. "From the moment he met you he couldn't think about anything else."
"Why would he lie?" She asks, studiously unscrewing the sump the way I showed her.
"I make it my mission in life not to understand why anyone else does anything if I can help it." I reply in a bored and disdainful voice.
A long pause, during which I fight down the urge to smile.
"Why would he lie?" She asks again, catching the oil as it drains out.
Interesting. Clever girl to see through my first line of defence.
"I would imagine he thought it would be impossible to leave if you knew he still loved you. You would have been able to reason him out of it."
"Will he come back?" Her voice is expressionless but I sense the hope behind her question. Which irritates me enormously.
"I don't know."
"Will you pass me the rag please?" She asks.
I hand it over and we return to our tasks silently until Em interrupts with a bag full of foul smelling food.