'Quiet Zone'
Disclaimer: In its use of intellectual property and characters belonging to Stephenie Meyer, David Slayde, Wyck Godfrey, Greg Mooridian, Mark Morgan, Melissa Rosenberg, Summit Entertainment, Imprint Entertainment, Temple Hill Productions, Goldcrest Films, Maverick Films, Twilight Productions et cetera, this work is intended to be transformative commentary on the original. No profit is being made from this work. Any similarities to other fanfiction stories are completely coincidental.
A/N: So I believe from now on chapters will be coming at a more weekly basis (roughly…) because of the business of my life. As soon as we reach Christmas break however, I'll most likely be able to crank out these chapters much faster.
I had another request from a guest reviewer to write Paul's perspective of finding Tehya, and while I do admit that I find that p.o.v request intriguing I believe that I am going to stick strictly with Tehya (and at very slim times, Seth) p.o.v's. With too many points of view in the story I find that it can get a bit confusing, so I try to avoid doing so. Thanks for the reviews, and enjoy this chapter!
Wanna be in the quiet zone
Wanna be here on my own
Wanna see what I can do
But I don't know what I'd be
If you were to go
-Tom Rosenthal, 'Quiet Zone'
The long moment of silence in the Young house never seemed to end, until Emily broke it.
"Sometimes we hallucinate things when we're in moments of panic like that," She explained, shrugging as she made her way closer to me. I watched her movements with growing suspicion, aware that she was trying to diffuse the tension. "Paul found you pretty far out there too, so it's possible it was exhaustion that took its toll."
I didn't respond to that, and simply clutched the water bottle that Seth had given me seconds ago. I didn't want to make any more brash statements, as I had a feeling that this situation was already awkward enough without me accusing anyone of anything. Besides, what did I have to accuse? I had no information; that was the problem.
"Here," Seth murmured, suddenly reaching for my hands. "Let me…"
I relinquished the water bottle to him, watching him slowly rise from his position on the ground and go to the sink where he refilled the bottle with water. I didn't take my eyes off of him until he sat back down next to where I rested, handing me the bottle in the process. I thanked him as quietly as I could, and he shot me a warm smile. I had to admit, as cold as I was at the moment his gesture thawed my heart a little.
"How do you feel?" He kept my attention, and I took a deep breath before answering.
"Weird," I frowned, trying to place the uneasy emotions swirling around inside of me. It felt like nothing was definite; nothing was in its right place. On top of this, the disturbing memory of feeling as though there was something...else inside of me kept making the queasy feeling in my stomach increase. "I feel weird."
"Listen Tehya," Sam suddenly interrupted, stepping forward from his position beside Emily. "I know you might have had reasons for running all the way out into the woods, but the fact of the matter is it's not safe to do things like that in a time like this."
"Sam -" Seth tried to interrupt, turning to face him after the vague statement.
"Let me finish," Sam's eyes flashed with something I couldn't call anything else but dominance, and Seth quickly backed down. I recorded the exchange and stored it in the back of my mind for further analyzation later. "I'm sure Billy told you about the bears; it's a dangerous situation right now and we don't want anyone getting hurt."
"We just want to make sure no one's running off into the woods," Jacob reiterated from his position on the couch, shrugging his ginormous shoulders up and down. I was still baffled at the size of these boys. "We want to keep everyone safe."
Abruptly and before I could respond to the two of them, the distinct sound of the sliding glass door opening drew everyone's attention to the front of the house. Some of the boys began to disperse, Jared and Quil being the first to make a move to leave. I frowned and wondered why at first, until the noise of my father erupted into the living room.
"Tehya Bryant!" Dad rumbled, ignoring Emily's pleas for him to listen to her that everything was alright and that I had been informed of my wrongdoings. "Do you have any idea how worried I - how stupid - how, how selfish an act like that was?!"
The living room was dead silent, and I caught every single one of my friends - I supposed I could call them friends at this point - looking between my father and I with uncomfortable expressions. No one liked to be caught in the middle of an argument; especially not a one sided one. Billy made no move to calm my father, allowing him to continue chastising me about how irresponsible I had been and how stressed he had been when I hadn't come back.
"I asked if you had your phone!" My father roared, and I flinched at the intense decibel that his voice could reach. "How the hell was I supposed to react when I called it and found it in your room!? How do you expect me to feel?!"
I found myself looking at every single other spot in the room to avoid my father's face, and without a second thought my eyes glued themselves to Seth's face for comfort. He hadn't even turned to look at my father, staying in his position near me on the couch like a faithful dog. He was shooting me an expression I could only somewhat read; a cross between sympathy, supportiveness and encouragement. I wasn't sure what to do with that.
"How do you expect me to react, as a parent?!" My father continued, having lowered his voice slightly. I realized now that Jacob was wheeling Billy out of the room, as well as ushering Jared and Quil out in front of him. I nearly begged them to stay; the last thing I wanted was for everyone to leave me alone with my father at this moment.
Thankfully, Paul, Emily and Sam didn't budge, and neither did Seth. I made a mental note to thank them all later.
"Look," My father finally stopped yelling as soon as her acknowledged that I was not going to respond to his crude tone of voice. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for yelling. I was scared. I was terrified."
At this, I finally tore my eyes off of Seth and latched onto my dad's gaze, distraught and concerned. This was a bit embarrassing to have happen in front of everyone, but I knew that my father was also going through a rough patch in his life and despite the frustration and blur of emotions I felt at the moment I also felt sympathy for him. Empathy and love wound their way into my current feelings as well, and I caved.
"I'm sorry," I ground out, forcing my gaze to stay stuck to my dad. "I panicked."
"I know," He caved as well, coming to sit on the edge of the couch where Jacob had been leaning on moments ago. "I know you're going through a tough time, but I'm here to help - we all are."
I didn't know how well anyone was going to help with this terrifying ball of anxiety, depression and horror stuck inside of me, but I understood the general gist of my father's statement. I knew I had support here - that much was clear. But there were times when I didn't want support. There were times when I didn't want to lean onto someone else to find strength; I simply wanted to accept my weakness and deal with it on my own. I wanted independence - independence to fight or flee, to succeed or fail, on my own. These emotions I felt inside were not going to be cured by anyone else other than me, and this fact made me feel isolated from everyone else because of that.
"I'm sorry for raising my voice," My father spoke to the whole room of remaining people now, regret quickly appearing on his face."That was uncalled for, and I apologize."
More uncomfortable moments of silence followed, where the only way I was able to surpass them was to finger the rimmed design on the plastic water bottle slowly. My father avoided anyone's gaze, and Sam has his eyes pinned on Seth who in turn, had his eyes pinned on me. It felt like a train of gazes.
"Do you remember anything else from the panic attack?" Sam broke the silence boldly, arms crossed.
I suffered an internal debate for several seconds as I tried to decide whether or not to tell the room about this odd thing that I felt was living inside of me, but because I couldn't feel it now as strongly as I had felt it earlier during the attack, I decided not to mention it yet. It didn't seem like an urgent problem to me, and since I naively assumed that another attack wasn't going to hit me anytime soon I shook my head.
"No," I bit my lip and looked towards my father, who still seemed concerned beyond belief, and Seth - whose brows furrowed slightly as he stared on towards me. "Besides vomiting...and the wolf, no."
"We should have gotten Sue," My father rubbed his tired face with a long hand, sighing heavily. "She would have been able to help."
"She's on call," Seth's warm voice cast a wave of calm over me, and I was briefly reminded that his mother was a nurse. "Couldn't make it."
At least Seth had made it. That much I was thankful for.
I felt a brief guilt when I remembered that I had been unable to contact him with the phone number he had left in my mailbox, but given the circumstances I was sure that he would understand I had been having a rough day. I also felt a brief pang of guilt when I remembered Leah, and the clear hatred she felt towards me even though I had no idea what the hell I had done wrong.
"I'm scared," My father admitted surprisingly honestly, diverting my attention from Seth to him. "I've already lost one, I'm not going to lose the other."
This remark obviously hit close to home, and I shared a glance with my father that held an avalanche of meaning to it. It was obvious that he was in a great amount of pain, and this stunt had only rekindled the fire of concern for me in his mind. I felt bad, not only for lying to him about my cell phone but for putting myself in danger. I hadn't wanted to be an inconvenience for everyone here and I had gone and done just that.
"Especially not to…" My dad began with a certain vigour, then looked up towards Sam for a split second and back towards me before finishing. "...bears."
"I'm sorry," I repeated, not knowing what else to say at this point. "I didn't mean to make everyone so worried."
"It's not your fault." Seth bravely defended me, and at that moment I felt that the only person who truly understood how I felt was this boy who had barely budged from his position so close to me.
I tried to convey my gratefulness through my expression, and was rewarded with another positive half smile. Jesus - was there any situation where Seth wasn't partially upbeat? This kid practically shot sunshine and rainbows out of his ass and I had to admit - it was getting to me.
"Well, from now on," My father took authority over the room once more, although no one could deny that in the living area Sam was the one who exuded the most physical dominance. Still, my father retained a certain amount of authority that not even Sam could reach with his burly frame. "I want you to always have your phone on you. No more lying. And you'll tell me where you're headed if you're to go out on your own. This can't happen again."
"I know." I murmured, looking up at my dad through my lashes. "I'm sorry, dad."
No one said anything, including my father.
"Uh, Harry?" Suddenly Jacob was standing in the entrance to the living room, looking expectantly towards my father. "Billy wants to have a word."
My father slowly rose from his position and nodded once towards my friend, then turned to me. "We're leaving right after I finish talking. Drink some more water."
He stooped down low over Seth to lay a kiss on my head and muttered that he loved me, a phrase that I returned as he walked out of the room by Jacob. The latter resumed his position on the edge of the couch, and I now realized that everyone's expectant eyes were again on me.
"What?" I questioned out loud, not wanting to deal with any more awkward pregnant pauses.
"How are you feeling?" Seth asked immediately after I had stated my question, nearly interrupting me. I would have been surprised by this if not for his outright caring attitude. "Do you think you could eat anything?"
"I-I don't know," I admitted, not feeling particularly hungry as the nausea was bound to settle in at any moment. "I kind of just want to sleep."
"That's understandable," Emily's quiet resolve broke, and she neared herself to me. "You've been through a lot of physical and mental stress today - it's best you get some rest."
"Can I try to stand up?" I asked, not wanting to agree with Emily's statement but wanting to make some progress here.
"Sure," Emily moved forward to help me rise, but someone else was already on the move to assist.
My instincts caused me to reach out to the closest thing near me for support; Seth. He didn't seem shocked by this, as as soon as I had mentioned that I had wanted to stand he was already halfway onto his feet, but I briefly pulled back as I didn't want to use him as some sort of object. In turn, my newfound friend looked down at me expectantly. So, with another deep breath, I tentatively reached out towards him and used his arm - I had to admit, his forearm was much thicker than I thought it would have been and the muscle felt nice under my touch - to swing my legs out to the side of the couch and sit up.
My head swam.
"Careful," Seth murmured, registering that the motion had dizzied me and now offering me his hands. I took them without a second thought. "Go slow."
Go slow.
As if my brain was on a course to permanently disobey me, I did the exact opposite. I got up fast, excited to be on my own two feet again, and promptly saw spots of familiar black overwhelm my vision before my knees buckled and the whole world shut off.
"Tehya! Tehya?"
Well, fuck me.
I let out some sort of incoherent noise to prove that yes, I was in fact coherent and that I understood that I had passed out. Again. Except this time the dull pain in my head was missing, and I acknowledged with a start that I was actually in someone's arms. Someone had caught me, mid-air, as I had been falling towards the floor like a sack of potatoes.
"Can you hear me?"
"Yes." I groaned, trying to lift my head and feeling a hand on the back of it.
I snapped my eyes open abruptly, pupils adjusting to the light of the Young living room yet again as I took in my surroundings. I was lying on the floor, upper body supported by Seth and head supported by Emily who were both peering down at my face in alarm. I could make out Sam and Jacob's forms through my peripherals before my father came back into the room, quiet creaks revealing that Billy had followed him.
"What happened?" My dad asked, stalking over to me and trying to help me up.
"Wait, Harry - wait," Emily stopped him, relinquishing her hold on my head and letting Seth take over."She fainted again - just, leave her for a second."
"What did you eat today?" Seth asked before my father could say anything else.
"Nothing," I admitted guiltily. "Besides water."
Lately I felt like I had been letting everyone down.
"So your blood sugar is low." Seth confirmed, and I willed my eyes to try and focus on his lovely features instead of blurring him out.
"Let me get her a soda." Emily made her way out of the room, returning quickly with a can of coke. I hadn't been able to say anything within the timespan that she had gone and come back, and apparently no one else in the room had either.
"Okay," I propped myself up on a spare elbow, and bent my sore knees. "Can I try again?"
"Slower this time." Seth urged, rising from the floor himself and taking me with him.
"Holy - woah." Stunned by his strength, I found myself lifted up into a bridal carry without a problem before being tilted forwards. I realized Seth was giving me the opportunity to try and stand on my own, and took it carefully. Gently tipping me sideways, Seth was able to give me the support on my back that I needed to lean on to be able to stand up straight. On weak knees and a hand still clutching his shirt very tightly, I was able to regain normal feeling in my legs.
"Got it," I assured, feeling confident that I would be able to walk as I looked around the room. "I got it."
I saw a room full of people who apparently hadn't wanted to help get me standing on my feet, and surprisingly caught a few discreet smiles. I wasn't sure where this upbeatness was coming from as this whole situation was beyond screwed up, but either way it was sort of nice to see some people smiling even if I didn't know what it was for.
"You sure?" Seth was reluctant to let go, and simply kept a hand on my arm as I tried to take a step towards him.
My knees instantly buckled, and my hands flew out to grasp at Seth as I tried to find my balance. It didn't come, and I knew I was going to fall unless he caught me.
"Woah!" I heard Seth's exclamation before I felt his grip underneath my armpits, raising me back up to a standing position. "I gotcha."
At this point, nearly everyone in the room had taken a step towards me to help, obviously alarmed by my knees functioning like that of a newborn calf's. This time it was my father who came to my side, urging me on with some support under my elbow. With both my father and Seth's help, I was able to take one step with their assistance, and the next few with gradually less support until I was safe to walk on my own.
"Thank you." I turned to Seth gratefully, heaving a sigh.
"My pleasure." He responded with a sweet smile, and it certainly looked it. I noticed a flush on his face that had not been there when I had first awoken on Emily's couch, and was not unhappy with this observation.
After slowly returning the smile as best I could, I turned to Paul. Paul had only moved like the rest of the group when I had stumbled, and had otherwise stuck to his position in the corner of the room. I didn't know what to think of him or how he had found me, resolving that I was going to have to ask him about it when we were alone in the future some other time. Or perhaps I could ask Seth; either way I would figure something out. For the time being however, a thank you was in order.
"Thanks for helping me back," I nodded once towards his broad figure, hoping that he would accept my gratitude. "Much appreciated."
"It's what we do," He shrugged, jutting his chin out towards Jacob, Sam and Seth with a stoic expression remaining on his face. "Protect."
I didn't really know what to say to that, and so with another nod I turned to Emily. She was already thrusting the coke into my hands and urging me to go home to get a good night's rest, something that I was looking more and more forward to with each passing second. So I forced my weary butt to continue saying goodbyes, knowing that this was my 'get out of jail free' card for the night.
"I'll see you Jacob," I waved towards my friend, and did the same to Billy but without a goodbye. "Thanks, everyone."
"Seth, Jacob," My father suddenly piped up before we could fully leave, turning back towards the living room where everyone still stood. "Why don't you two come by tomorrow around noon? Tehya could use some company, and I've got a couple things around the house I need done."
"No problem, Harry." Jacob responded quickly for both him and Seth with a smile, the latter of the two looking very hopeful.
"We've got a board meeting," Billy clarified for himself and my father, eyes narrowing in on me. "So we'll be out all day. You kids can keep each other company, right?"
"Yeah," I nodded, catching Seth's eye one more time before I lost sight of him. We both smiled.
"Alright," My father mumbled, finally turning tiredly towards me. "Let's go home. Night, folks."
Quiet calls of 'goodnight' could be heard, and with another long sigh my father opened Emily's screen door for me so that we could head home. The walk was silent, and my father wrapped an arm around me halfway. I accepted the gesture, and again felt feelings of remorse and sympathy arise in me. I couldn't find a way to voice them however, and so I simply stayed quiet the entire way back to the house.
Once my father locked the door behind us however, it was clear he wanted to talk.
"Tehya, I -" He began, obviously hoping for a response or some sort of conversation from me.
"Dad please," I begged, not wanting to push the night for what it was worth. "Can we just...I don't know, can we talk about this another night? I'm really tired."
My father considered this for a moment, and then nodded.
"Okay - I'm sorry," He planted another kiss on my forehead. "I love you. Very much."
"I love you too, dad." I replied with a yawn, and made the slow trek to my room where surprisingly enough, I managed to change into a large oversized shirt and actually organize my room before heading to bed, making sure that my phone was underneath the pillow I never seemed to use so that I could find it in the morning.
Before I could fall asleep and allow the dream world to take over, however, I felt the need to do one final thing to symbolize the closing of the day.
Grabbing my cellular device and turning it on, I squinted briefly at the brightness before lowering it and ignoring the numbers on the clock. I didn't care what time of day it was. I quickly tapped into my messenger app and initiated a new message to Seth, bravely typing in the words 'hey' and sending it off. I slid the phone back underneath my pillow almost immediately, as though I was terrified of the response such a neutral greeting would invoke, and before the crushing anxiety filled my stomach I allowed myself to fall asleep.
A/N: So this chapter is a little shorter than the others simply because I wanted to divide this event and the next scene or two that happens, but I hope you guys enjoyed it nonetheless! Again, like I mentioned in the A/N at the beginning of this chapter, updates will be slower because of the general business of my life so you can expect a chapter roughly every week. I will try to maintain that schedule and let you know if anything changes!