FAGE 9: The Last Ride

Title: Fearless

Written for: TheDarkestFallingStar

Written By: abbmickey24

Rating: M

Summary/Prompt used: Write whatever you want as long as pairing is one of mine and there's some angst but a happy ending.

If you would like to see all the stories that are a part of this exchange visit the facebook group: Fanficaholics Anon: Where Obsession Never Sleeps, or add the C2 to get all the stories direct to your inbox.

community/FAGE-9-The-Last-Ride/93625/

Disclaimer: I don't own it.

Chapter 7 of 16

-F-

Peter thinks for a moment, still a little in disbelief at her change of tone and her agreement in helping him. Granted, it's not all exactly the way he wants, but he can make it work. He does wonder if she will be able to call off her family once he keeps his word. And he does plan to keep it, not because of that stupid promise, but because his word is the only thing he has left in this world.

He'll cross the bridge of her family when the time comes though, for now he moves on to finding out all he can.

"Why aren't you with your human family?" Peter asks, after figuring out where to start.

It's Bella's turn to think. She holds her finger up he opens his mouth again.

"Give me a second," she says. He nods to acknowledge her words before sitting back to wait. He doesn't have to wait long before she continues. "I'm not with my human family because they're both assholes and shouldn't have been parents."

"What does that mean?" he asks.

"It means that they were more concerned about themselves and what they wanted than the needs of their only child. The incubator that had me left my sperm donor when I was two and moved us to Arizona, where she decided sleeping with strangers and partying was more important than being home with me. Sometimes she'd leave me with a neighbor, most times though I was left alone at home. By the time I was eight, I could do more than some adults can do now. She met the man that would become my stepfather when I was 10, and I was still forgotten, so I started looking for attention elsewhere. I lost my virginity at 13, to a guy that would have been arrested if someone found out. And then I turned 14, and she caught me with a boy; only one of a few that was near my age.

"I couldn't tell you how many men she brought home; there was at least one or two, sometimes three a week-all different-for years, before she married Phil. I couldn't tell you how many times I had to make excuses why she didn't show up for a parent/teacher conference, or make myself dinner, or beg for money when there was nothing to eat in the house and I was starving. I couldn't tell you how many days I spent without power or water before she came home and realized she hadn't paid the bills. But that night I was the whore, a burden, and the biggest mistake she'd ever made in her life.

"I hadn't spoken to my sperm donor since we left, but suddenly I was sent to live with him. Did things change? Yeah, I stopped seeking attention from guys as I'd known that wasn't the smartest thing anyway and I really didn't like being anything resembling her. I also didn't have to worry about the lights or water being cut off, but that was it. He'd lived his life without worrying about me for 12 years and that didn't change when I came to live with him. He spent his time working, fishing, or watching sports. At first, I did everything I could to get him to acknowledge me. I cleaned, cooked, did well in school, didn't go out or make friends. But eventually, I gave up trying."

Bella finishes her story and leans her head back against the wall. She doesn't cry as she learned long ago, it doesn't help and it wouldn't magically make her past better.

Peter stays silent as he doesn't really know what to say, but Bella helps him with that.

"What about your human family?" she asks.

"Hearing about me isn't part of the deal." he answers, somehow knowing that even as he says it he'll answer any question she asks. But he can't appear to give in too easily.

"You're right, but it seem only fair."

"I'm giving you your life in exchange for your words. For mine, I need something else."

"LIke what?" Bella asks, hoping like hell it's not what she's thinking.

Peter thinks for a minute, and while one thing comes to him almost immediately, he nixes saying it. It's not that he would be opposed, even if he'd never done that with a human before, she was pretty and it had been a long time, but he remembers her response to him calling her the Volturi's whore, and after hearing what her human mother called her, he knows it would make her stop talking all together. He quickly pushes it to the back of his mind and latches onto the next thing he can think of.

"My words for a useless fact." he says, realizing how stupid it sounds.

"Seriously?"

"Or a joke, I'm not picky."

"What are you playing at?" she asks.

"Nothing. This is what I want. I don't get to hear many facts or jokes."

"Okay," Bella says. She's thrown for a loop, but doesn't want to argue anymore in case he changes his mind.

"So, a useless fact … " Bella says, racking her brain for one and finally coming up with something that fits where she lives. "The population density of Alaska is one person per square mile.

Peter nods and answers her question, making Bella shake her head. "I don't remember my human family which I'm glad about now."

"Why?"

"Because after hearing about your human family, it's nice to not know if it was like that."

"What if they were good people though?"

"Then I would be disappointed that I was taken from them." Peter says, causing Bella to understand. "Now, your turn."

"Okay, what do you want to know next?"

"How did you meet your vampire family and come to be with them?"

"I sort of met them in school or most of them. They moved to town about year after me. Right away, it was clear they were different. All of them were beautiful, and together romantically. It was weird to even me at first, since the story was they were adopted siblings. My father, was the new doctor and he and my mother didn't look old enough to have kids that old even adopted ones. But they were nice and quiet, Dad was a great doctor who could work anywhere and chose our town, so people didn't question too much.

"My siblings didn't talk to anyone else, but each other. They didn't acknowledge anyone else and after a while I even sometimes forgot they were there. I personally, never had any interaction with them until after I turned 16."

"What happened then?"

"I started to notice some things and then one of them saved my life."

"What and how?" Peter asks, leaning forward; his curiosity spiking even more.

"The what is they would watch me. At first, I thought I was wrong and chalked it up to coincidence since I never caught them outright staring or following me, but they just always seemed to be where I was. After a few months though, they starting speaking to me if they passed me in the hall. It was usually just a hello or good morning, but it was enough to make me wonder and for others to look at me like they wanted to know how I'd gotten their attention.

"Nothing ever moved passed that until the how in February. In Forks, Washington where I lived, it rains a lot. We get snow, but because the rain we also get a lot of ice. It was after school, and I was walking across the parking lot to go home. I had my head down and wasn't paying attention until I heard the screech of tires. By the time I looked up, the car was sliding toward me. I can still remember my eyes landing on my brothers, Emmett and Jasper, and the look of fear on their faces. They were the only ones I saw until all I saw was Emmett and relief replacing the fear as I was jerked away from behind. I landed hard on the ground. My head hit the pavement just as the car stopped in the exact spot I'd just been standing in seconds earlier. I remember looking up into Jasper's eyes as he lay on top of me, his arms and body like a cage of protection, and thinking how in the hell did he get to me so fast. And then I passed out.

"I woke up in the hospital a few hours later. I was in my own room, and Esme, my mother, was sitting beside my bed. All she did was smile and tell me things were going to be okay. I didn't know what to make of it at first and I had so many questions; like why was a woman I'd never met sitting by my bed and how Jasper had been in one place and gotten to another in seconds just to name a couple. But my head hurt and I went back to sleep before I could ask them.

"The next time I woke up, my mom had been joined by my father, Carlisle, Jasper, and my sister, Alice. Together they explained things. Some I believed right away, like the fact I had a small concussion and that my sperm donor couldn't be bothered to come see me. Others things though, at first made me think they were crazy or high. But the more they explained, the more I believed them until I knew that within just a matter of seconds my life had changed completely."

"So, they told you about our kind, just like that?"

"Yeah. Alice saw me when I first moved to Forks. It's why they moved there. She saw me becoming a part of their family. She didn't know why or when it would happen except there was snow on the ground. So they waited for a sign and the car almost killing me was it. I got out of the hospital the next day, and I moved in with them a week later. I've been with them ever since."

"Your human father didn't care?"

"You mean my human sperm donor; he doesn't get the honor of being called a father."

"Yeah, him."

"He didn't even bat an eye when I gave him the paperwork to make my parents my legal guardians. The only ones who cared were the gossips and rumors ran rampant, but none of it mattered as I'd finally found the one thing I'd always wanted."

"Which was?"

"A family that not only loves me, but also cares about what happens to me."

"And I took you away from them." Peter says, suddenly feeling like complete shit and realizing that maybe everything he'd done since he met her was wrong.

"You did, but you're going to take me back." Bella says.

"I am," Peter says with a firm nod. "I promise."

Both fall silent for a few moments after his words as they both lose themselves in their thoughts.

Bella finally believes his promise and knows that she'll keep hers too now; she'd been all set to betray him, but now she's not sure she could. Sure, he hasn't done much to change her mind, but there's something about him and the way he just promised that he'd take her back, that has her rethinking things.

Peter is wondering if finding out even more is going to work like he thought. Already, she's consuming more of his mind and he isn't sure it's going to get better. However, he also needs to know the rest.

He wars with himself on what to ask her next, but Bella takes it out of his hands when she asks, "Can that be it for today? My head is starting to hurt again, I'm hungry and so are you."

"How do you know that?"

"Your eyes are black. When is the last time you ate?"

"About three weeks ago." he says, making her cringe.

"You need to eat before you forget that promise you just made for a second time."

Peter chuckles as he pushes himself to his feet.

"What's so funny?" Bella asks.

"You knowing I'm going to kill someone and yet are still telling me to go eat."

"There is another way."

"Another way for what?"

"For you to eat. It's what my family does."

"There's only one way for us to eat." Peter says, walking toward her.

"No, there isn't. My family survives on animals. Four of them haven't even tasted human blood."

"That's not possible."

"I swear it is." Bella says, looking up at him when he stops in front of her. "They only drain animals, and while they all have their favorites any animal will do. You could try it too."

"I don't think so." Peter says.

"Why? Do you like killing people that much?"

"It's not that. It's just all I've known. Hell, it's what I was turned for."

"That was Jasper too, and if he can change his diet after the things he did at the start of his vampire life, anyone can."

"What was his life like?"

"Oh no, you don't get that yet. Try an animal and I'll tell you though."

"You're changing the deal again."

"Sue me." Bella says, grinning when Peter rolls his eyes.

"Fine, I'll try it. I don't want to draw attention by killing someone in the town near here and I don't want to leave you longer than I have to. Anything I should know before hand?"

"Carnivores are best, break their neck first, and pull the hair out or you're being throwing up a hairball."

"How do you know so much? I wouldn't think they'd take you hunting with them."

"They don't, but do you think I'm going to be human forever? They're teaching me everything now, with the hope that once I become a newborn I won't be so unprepared like some of them were."

"When do they plan on changing you?"

"This summer." Bella answers.

Peter has no response to that as he's not really listening to her answer, since his focus has shifted back to how she got him to agree to try feeding from an animal so easily. It takes only seconds for the answer to hit him like a ton of bricks and it renders him stupid for a moment. It's not because of the half-ass excuses he gave her either. The answer is so much more simpler than that; it's because she asked him to. He doesn't understand why that is all it takes, why it matters to him what she thinks or wants, but it does.

"Hey, where'd you go?" Bella asks, snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Did I turn into a big cheeseburger?"

"What?" Peter asks, shaking his head to clear it of his latest thoughts. "Why would you turn into a big cheeseburger?"

"You don't watch cartoons much, do you?"

"I've never seen one."

Seriously?" Bella asks. "They're the best, especially the older ones."

"But what do they have to do with you turning into a cheeseburger?" Peter asks, clearly confused.

Bella laughs and says, "In some cartoons, if one of the characters is really hungry, their companions or the first person they see, usually turns into some type of food."

"And that's entertaining to you?" Peter asks.

"Very." Bella says, grinning.

"Okay." Peter says, still not understanding the appeal. "But no, you didn't. I was just thinking."

"About?"

It only takes Peter a half second to come up with a response. "How to go about something, I know you're really not going to like."

"Which is?" Bella says, her eyes narrowing.

Peter doesn't speak as he bends over and drags something out from under the bed. He keeps his head down and doesn't see Bella's eyes widen as she takes in the thick rope in his hands.

"No," she says, pushing herself backwards on the bed to get away from him.

"I can't risk you running off." He says, his eyes still on the rope.

"I won't, I promise." Bella pleads. "I'll stay right here."

Peter growls in frustration, since it's just like with the animals. He wants to give in, wants to give her what she wants, but he can't; not this time.

Or so he thinks until she whispers, "Please, Peter," and he finally looks up at her.

The look of fear in her eyes and her body language has him dropping the rope like it's on fire. In the time he's known her, she's shown no fear, but that's not the case now.

"Why are you so afraid?" Peter asks, but either she won't speak or can't as no answer comes.

Peter doesn't know what to do, but he knows he won't be tying her up; not when she's looking at him like that. Finally, when she doesn't move, he slowly reaches forward and barely touches her cheek until her eyes focus on his face.

"I won't tie you up." he says. "But please don't run off."

"I won't." she whispers, casting her eyes away again as soon as the words are out.

Even though she isn't looking, he nods and steps away, moving over to the front door. He hesitates briefly before pulling it open and stepping outside. Again there is hesitation, but he soon takes off into the trees wanting to find his meal as quickly as possible.

He has no luck finding a carnivore as she said, but an elk crosses his path and he takes it down. It's not as good or even close to being as good as human blood, it's about the most disgusting thing he's ever tasted actually, but it does the job intended much to his surprise. He doesn't take time to think on it though and heads back to the cabin as soon as he's finished.

Bella is still in the same spot where he left her, lost in thoughts from long ago. Her mind is reeling with memories she's never told her family. Memories she thought she'd forgotten, but seeing that rope brought those two terrifying days of back, and she doesn't know how to get out of the tailspin her mind has gone in.

"Bella, look at me." Peter says, but while she can hear him she can't focus until his cold hands press fully against each side of her face.

Her brown eyes slowly meet his now red ones, and at his tentative smile she blows out a shuddered breath.

"Good," he says with a nod. "You're okay. Whatever it is, you don't have to be afraid of it anymore. And as much as it might not have seemed before, you are safe here, alright?"

Bella doesn't speak, but she believes him and nods letting him know she's heard him and understands.

"Okay. Are you hungry?"

Again she can only nod and he stands immediately going over to pile of food. He brings back a few different things, dropping most of it on the bed in front of her. He keeps hold of a bottle of water, opening it for her before handing it over and she drinks almost half before stopping.

Her eyes meet his again, and she whispers, "Thank you."

It's his turn to nod his head as he sits back down on the foot of the bed. He knows she won't talk to him about what happened, so he doesn't ask. Instead, he tries to get her mind off of it.

"I ate an elk." he says as he leans back against the wall.

A small smile flits across Bella's face at his words. She's grateful he doesn't ask what she knows he's probably wondering, and is happy to go along with it.

"How was it?" she asks, her voice to Peter's delight stronger than a few seconds before.

He shudders and sticks out his tongue, causing her to chuckle.

"That bad, huh?" she asks.

"Yes. You're family really does this all the time?"

"They do, but I told you carnivores are the best."

"I couldn't find one." Peter says, in a way that reminds Bella of a kid not getting his way.

It causes her to laugh again as she says, "Next time look until you do, and according to Emmett you'll be able to tell a big difference."

"What does he like? I mean you said they all had a favorite. What about the others?"

"He likes bears. Jasper prefers lynx. Alice and Rose, prefer foxes. My dad likes the coyotes, and my mom actually doesn't have a preference. The first thing she comes across she eats, so she can get it over with. To her every life is precious."

"Tell me more about them."

"Tomorrow." Bella says with a yawn. It's only the afternoon, but she has a sudden need to sleep the day away. She half expects Peter to argue, but he doesn't.

Instead, and with yet another nod of his head, he pushes off the bed and picks up the things she never got around to eating. He takes them back to the counter as Bella settles under the covers, her eyes closing and sleep dragging her into darkness before he makes it to the chair across the room.

-F-

What had her so afraid? Any guesses?