Chapter 7

A Surprise

March 2009

Okay, so another chapter, that's two in what, three days? This one pretty much just wrote itself today because I had a dream that went like this and I just had to put it on to paper. Enjoy and please review because it makes me feel good, and I will respond.

It had been a month since we had been in Forks for the wedding and we were now preparing for our monthly visit. It was just Jake, Mum, Dad and I going back this time. I really needed to hunt before we went back because my throat was burning; I had left it a little bit long to go hunting.

It was the middle of the day when I decided that I needed to go, so I started looking around for someone to take me. Jake and Rose were working on a car and said to ask someone else, but if no one else could take me they would. Emmett and Alice had both gone out and I didn't know when they were coming back, Poppa was at work and Nanna, Mum and Dad had gone shopping, leaving Jasper as the only one in the house who would take me. I liked hunting with Jasper and we didn't go together often but when we did it was nice to have some time together.

Jasper and I quickly ran upstairs to get changed and he came back down in a pair of jeans and a plain, dark blue t-shirt. I put on a pair of jeans and a long sleeved, white shirt with my running shoes. We ran out the back doors after telling Rose where we were going and we chose a direction and started running.

About two miles away from the house we smelled a small herd of deer.

"Do you feel like deer, Ness?" Uncle Jazz asked.

"Yeah, sure, blood is blood to me; I hardly notice the difference although I do like a good mountain lion." I answered.

"Like father, like daughter." Jazz chuckled. "Just go eat your deer."

We both took a deer, I went for a smaller one while Jasper went for one of the larger ones, but we were both still a little thirsty afterwards. We ran for another ten minutes before we smelled another herd, we didn't like taking too many from the same herd. We could also smell a couple of Black bears around, but didn't think they would be too bothered with us as the only time we usually encountered them was when we were eating them. We also decided not to take the bears as it smelled like a mother and cubs.

I finished with my last deer as Jasper moved onto get another one. We agreed that he could go get another one and I could stay here and climb trees or something. Jasper said that he was only going to be a minute or two away and if I yelled he would be able to hear me, so I knew I would be safe.

Just as I was about to start climbing a tree, the bears came into my sight. We were right, a mother and two cubs. The mother saw me and growled, and I did the instinctual thing of growling back. My inner feral vampire was coming out. The cubs started coming closer to me and I growled in warning for them to get back, but the mother saw this as a sign that I was going to attack them.

She came charging at me and the only thing I could think of doing was climbing up the tree behind me, but it was a difficult tree to climb and I couldn't get a footing, at the last second I decided to run from her, but I wasn't quick enough to get off the tree and she swiped me with her paw, hitting me across the back with her claws. I yelled out for Jasper and hoped he would come and help. This was quite a big bear and I wasn't able to fight her off, I just had to hold my own for two minutes that was it.

We fought, both of us trying to gain the upper hand, but even though I was super human and had super speed and strength, I was only the size of a ten or eleven year old, and now injured. As I was fighting the bear I could feel myself getting weaker and could feel the bears claws rip into my clothes and skin on my arms, legs, chest and stomach. I was in a world of pain.

Just as I thought that I was going to die, Jasper cam sprinting in and leaped, pulling the bear off of me and ending the attack. He didn't kill the bear as it had cubs, just hit it hard enough to stun it, before he came over to me, picked me up and ran off. About a mile away from the attack he stopped and laid me down on the soft ground to take a look at my injuries.

"Jasper, don't make yourself uncomfortable, just hold your breath and take me home."

"It isn't making me uncomfortable; I think it is because you don't smell exactly human and I just hunted. Let me take care of you, precious." He responded. He looked at the cuts all over me and used his t-shirt to cover them as my shirt did almost nothing now, before he picked me back up and ran back while making a call to Rose to tell her what happened.

When we arrived back at the house after quite a painful run, even with Jasper sending calming feelings and taking some of the pain away, Rose and Jake met us outside. They were both quite shocked about how I looked, all beaten up and bloody, with my clothes torn and Jaspers shirt on.

"I called Carlisle and he will be here any minute, he was already on his way home when I called." Rosalie said as she led us inside and to Poppa's room and Jasper sat me on his desk.

"And I called Bella and Edward, and they are on their way back as well, so is everyone else." Jacob added.

As they were saying all of this, Poppa came into the room with his bag of medical stuff. He asked if anything was hurting more than the other injuries and I said my right arm. When I looked at it I was shocked to see it slightly misshapen, obviously broken about half way between my wrist and my elbow.

Poppa quickly put my arm back in the right shape and put it in a splint, saying that he will bandage it later. He then started to clean up my cuts and keep the bleeding to a minimum, while he had Jasper keeping me calm and was telling Rosalie how to give me the pain killers.

"Most of the shallower cuts are healing by themselves and scabbing over, but the deeper ones aren't. I think I will need to bandage them up, keep an eye on them and see if I will need to stitch them up. How's the pain going Renesmee?" Poppa said after he finished cleaning the cuts up.

"It doesn't hurt too much, mostly just my back and arm hurt." I answered.

"I will get you arm in a cast soon, I just need to make sure that I set it right. You are healing quite fast, not as fast as the wolves or vampires, but much faster than humans." He answered. "How is the thirst going Jasper?" He turned his attention to everyone else for the minute.

"It was fine when the attack happened, and when I was carrying her home, but we got here it suddenly got worse. And then just as you got here it a little worse again, not as much, but I could feel it. But it is still manageable, just a little uncomfortable." He answered, sounding a little confused.

Just then, as he said that, it all came to me. The reason Jasper struggled so much with his thirst.

"I didn't get worse Uncle Jazz, you power picked up on another thirst and you confused it with your own. If Poppa and Rose were to leave, get out of your range, your thirst would decrease." I said.

"I think your right Ness." Jasper answered with a smile. He was about to continue, but Mum and Dad ran into the room.

"Ness, are you okay?" Dad asked, at the same time that Mum said:

"Oh, Renesmee, are you okay?"

They both gave me a very gentle hug before getting out of the way to let Poppa check my arm and put a cast on it. He had put my arm right the first time and started to put the plaster cast on it. He said that judging by the rate my other injuries were healing at, I would need the cast from anywhere between two days and four weeks. He would need to x-ray my arm every couple of days.

After an hour of observing my back and seeing that the deep scratches were not going to heal on their own, Poppa decided that he needed to try and put some stitches in. He saw that the skin wherever I had been cut was a lot more like human skin as it was softer and thinner. This would mean that his job would be easier.

Because the cuts were all over my back, I had to lay on my stomach without a top on and Dad needed to help Poppa, as Dad had a couple of medical degrees. Mum and Jacob both sat near my head with Mum stroking my hair and Jacob holding my hand of my good arm.

It hurt. A lot. The pain medication that Poppa gave me was not working very well as it was hard to get a dosage for me correct as my high temperature burned it off very quickly. I cried almost the whole way through it with Poppa apologising and Mum, Dad and Jake comforting me. But kind words can only go so far. Jasper was also going to try and take the pain away but with three vampires in the room and blood, his power was making his pain difficult to work through.

After about twenty minute of stitching my back up, I was wrapped in bandages and Poppa gave me another dose of painkillers. I was starting to feel sleepy from all the medication and pain.

"It's alright Nessie, you can go to sleep." Dad said as he kissed my forehead. "You were so brave, you can rest now." And with that everyone got up to leave.

"Wait, Jake, can you stay with me? And Daddy, don't be mad at Uncle Jasper, he came back as quick as he could." I pleaded.

"Its okay, Jasper wasn't doing anything that we haven't done before. And it isn't anyone's fault that the bear was too over protective."

"Of course I'll stay with you, I always will. You scared me today." Jacob said.

And with that, I fell asleep. I woke up around two in the morning, so I had slept for about eleven hours. My back felt like it was on fire it hurt so much. I started crying and this woke Jacob, who was asleep in his chair, up and Dad and Poppa must've heard because they came in as well.

"Where does it hurt Ness?" Dad asked.

"My back, it feels like it is on fire!" I sobbed.

Daddy and Poppa then took the bandages off of my back to have a look and see what was wrong. When they saw that nothing was going on and that the cuts were almost healed enough for the stitches to be taken out they gave me some more medication through an IV that had been hooked up at some point and I started to drift back to sleep again.

I was woken up the next morning to Dad lightly shaking my shoulder.

"Nessie, wake up. We need to look at the cuts again." Dad said gently. I opened my eyes and looked to the clock that was on the desk near the bed I was on. I hadn't registered that before, but I had been moved to a bed at some point, probably just after they finished doing the stitches. The clock said that it was eight o'clock in the morning.

The carefully unwrapped the bandages and took a look at the cuts.

"I think that the worse and injury is, the longer it takes you to heal it, which makes sense, so these cuts are not completely healed, but I need to take the stitches out now." Poppa said. Jacob then took my hand again as they started to take the stitches out. It was less painful than getting them put in, but it still hurt. I was silently sobbing by the time they finished but I felt relieved that that was the only thing they had to do to my back.

Poppa then checked my arm and saw that it had started healing, but I would need the cast on for about a week. I felt a lot better now and all the minor cuts and scratched I had received were either healed completely or scabbing over.

"Nessie, do you feel up to going back to Forks? Or did you want to stay here. Everyone will understand whatever you choose." Dad asked.

"I want to go. My back feels fine now. But before we go I want to speak to Uncle Jasper." I answered.

Once Alice had come and given me a sweater to wear over the bandages I went looking for Jasper. I found him sitting in his and Alice's room reading a book.

"Hey darlin', it's nice to see you out of bed. How you feelin'?" Jasper asked as I walked into the room, but I didn't answer, I just walked over to him and hugged him.

"Thank you Uncle Jasper. You saved me." I told him as I hugged him.

"I was just doing what any of us would do. It wasn't that hard. And you have discovered what none of us have in almost sixty years, that my gift is part of why I struggle, I feel everyone else's thirst as well as my own."

We spent the morning sitting together and just talking. I loved Uncle Jasper but hardly every did stuff with just the two of us, but when we did I always enjoyed it. Jasper had been teaching me history whenever he wasn't at uni and I loved to sit and listen to his stories.

At lunch time Mum, Dad, Jacob and I all left to head to Forks for a bit. My arm was sore so I had taken some painkillers that once again made me drowsy, so I slept the whole way leaning on Jacob. When we got to Forks we parked the car out the front of Grandpa's and went in. We had organised it so that we would arrive at dinner time and Billy was here as well so we could all jut have a big catch up. Also, tonight we were going to tell Grandpa the truth about us. He was entitled to know because he was now married to Sue, who is a tribal elder and mother of two wolves and Grandpa is now the step father of two wolves. Because of this, Leah and Seth were also over for dinner.

Dinner was nice, just a simple lasagne and salad but it was nice to be here with my other family that I didn't get to see as often. Everyone was curious about how I got hurt but we said I was alright and we would explain later.

"Okay, so you guys are all here to tell me the truth to the 'need to know' stuff?" Grandpa asked.

The next hour was strange. We told him everything and then he asked all sorts of questions that we answered. He even asked about mine and Jacob's relationship and we explained imprinting. At that point he called Jacob a paedophile but Jacob just sat there and let the abuse continue until Grandpa had it all out of his system. We then explained it a little more carefully and said that Jacob saw me as a little sister and maybe in the future see me as something more. He accepted that but did threaten Jacob with his gun and possibly locking him up if needed.

He took everything else pretty well, so we decided to tell him about yesterday.

"Do you want to know the truth about how Nessie got hurt yesterday, Dad?" Mum asked and he nodded.

"Yesterday I went hunting with Uncle Jasper. We had run about fifteen minutes from the house and I was playing around while Jasper went to get another deer. We could smell a couple of bears nearby but they never harmed us and I am pretty fast." I started and paused to see how he was taking it. "Jasper was two minutes away and I was about to climb a tree when a mother bear and her cubs walked into my sight. She growled in warning and I growled right back, warning her that I wasn't completely defenceless." I paused because I could see he had a question.

"You mean you can growl? And the bears didn't scare you, you didn't scream?" He asked me.

In response I growled playfully and giggled before saying, "Why would I be scared of something that tastes so good?"

His eyeballs bulged out of his head comically and he splutters out "You have eaten bear?"

"Yep, well yesterday this bear growled at me and then the cubs started coming towards me, I wasn't too fussed just showed my teeth and growled, basically told them to go away. Then the mother attacked me. I yelled for Jasper and he came in about a minute, but in that minute she did a bit of damage. Broke my arm and cut me up a bit, but I heal fast, so no big deal." I finished the story.

Grandpa was pretty shocked that I had been attacked by a bear and then he hugged me saying that I was brave for standing up to the bear and then telling me I was so brave.

Grandpa and Sue offered for us to stay here for the night so I was going to sleep in Mum's old room, and Jacob was going to go home with his dad for the night. I was tired, so Mum got my overnight bag from my room, I said good night to everyone and went to bed.

I had only been asleep for a few hours when I could feel someone wake me up. Mum and Dad were standing over my bed.

"Nessie, there is a situation at home, don't worry everyone is safe, but we need to go back to help them bring someone back here. You and Jacob are staying here and we will be back by tomorrow afternoon. We have told Charlie and Jacob already, we love you and see you tomorrow." Dad told me and Mum kissed my forehead before they took off out the window and into the woods. It was very strange and I was a little scared about what was happening. I had a bit of time to wait and find out. I don't think I will get anymore sleep tonight.