CHAPTER SEVEN
Edward and I went hunting that morning. We took down a whole herd of dear. I drove to Seattle with Edward during the afternoon for one of his classes. It was a short one, and we made it home in time for Nessie. Julia came home with them today, and they all did their homework together. Julia worked for about an hour, and Nessie and Connor were done in about fifteen minutes.
Connor and Julia went up to his room for a while, and I could hear Julia strumming away on her guitar. After a few minutes of us all subconsciously listening to Julia play, Edward snapped out of the transfixing tune. "I'm going to go get the mail," he said. He stood up and darted out the front door and into the downpour. Within seconds he was back in the house. In his hand he held the mail.
He started going through the handful of things. "Carlisle… Esme… me… Alice…" He paused in his sorting, and I watched as his face grew into a shocked expression. Nobody was watching him as carefully as I was, just like always, and no one saw his face at first.
"Edward?" I said.
The confusion in my voice turned all eyes to Edward's face. "Carlisle…" he said. Carlisle came up and stood behind him.
Edward handed him the envelope in his hand. "The Volturi are writing to us," he said quietly.
This got everyone's attention. Carlisle peeled open the letter. Alice put her face in her hands, and Nessie walked into the kitchen. Alice's head snapped up almost immediately, and her eyes met Edward's. In one instant I saw that whatever was in that letter wasn't good.
"Dear Cullen's," Carlisle began. "Well, well, well, my dear friends, it seems you have gotten yourselves into trouble again." Carlisle continued to read. "It seems we are repeating history here. It has come to my knowledge that once again, you have been seen showing less than human qualities to, in fact, a human. As I am sure you know, this is not the first time this has happened. So, regretfully, we must treat this situation delicately, as we did last time." Carlisle paused and shook his head. Edward leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. "We know not the situation, but we do know this; a human knows about us, and this is not acceptable. As with last time, we must warn you. There are four options; you kill the human, we kill the human, you change the human, or we change the human. We apologize for any inconvenience. Regretfully yours, The Volturi: Aro, Caius, Marcus, and their guard."
I bowed my head, and shut my eyes. Why, why, why did this have to happen? Connor and Julia hadn't even been together for a year yet. How could they do this? Now Julia faced death, or immortality. Something that I never wanted for me, or anyone else. The decision to be made immortal needed to be dealt with carefully. "What have we gone and done now Edward?" I muttered. I rolled my head back onto my shoulders. This was our fault. No, my fault. I was the first person to be put in this situation, making the Volturi suspicious of the Cullen's forever. Maybe if I hadn't done what I'd done, they wouldn't know about Julia, because they wouldn't have anything to suspect us of. This was my fault.
I heard Connor come down the stairs then. I didn't want to look at him. I didn't want to see the position he'd been put in written all over his face. "Connor what's going on?" I heard Julia ask. He didn't answer her. I knew everyone was avoiding her face. I put my head back down, and I covered my face with my hands. I felt Edward come over and sit down next to me. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders. I had to do something. I was the only one who had ever been in this situation, and I needed to help Julia if I could.
"Connor what's wrong?" Julia asked again.
"It's going to be okay Julia," I heard Connor say quietly. I could tell he was wrapping his arms around her.
I sat up and opened my eyes. I saw Nessie leaning on the doorway into the kitchen. She was refusing to look at me, but I saw the tears of fright in her eyes. Back when Nessie was much younger, she used to wake up crying, sometimes screaming in her sleep. Edward would hold her and sing to her and rock her until she fell back asleep. Edward told me her nightmares were always centered on the Volturi. She hadn't had these dreams in years, but sometimes I wondered if she was still scared. The look on her face now was more than clear that my suspicions had been correct. She wasn't scared, she was terrified. It must be like one of her nightmares was coming to life. Only this time daddy couldn't rock her and hold her and make everything okay again.
"Come here honey," Edward said. Nessie ran to him. He opened up his arms and she curled into them. Her 5'0" body still fit inside his strong arms. He held onto her and she hid in his shoulder. "It's okay Nessie don't cry, I'm not going to let anything hurt you."
She continued to cry, but it was still silently. "Julia," I said as calmly as I could muster. "Why don't you come sit by me?"
She came out of Connor's arms and sat down by me. "What's going on Bella?" She asked tentatively.
I reached out for the letter from Carlisle. He handed it to me and I gave it to Julia. I watched as she read it slowly. Her face went from confused to shock within seconds. "Are you kidding me?" She asked. She didn't sound sad or upset or even scared. Just really mad. "Who do they think they are? Ugh, well that's annoying, and death threats really put a damper on my day!" She still didn't sound upset, just angry.
I looked at Edward. He didn't seem to know what to say to this. I looked at her again. "Okay," she said. "Let's look at this logically."
Connor scoffed. "That's kind of my thing," he said grimly.
"Four options," she repeated. "Two of them I end up dead, two of them I end up…undead. Hm… I'm not going with the whole idea of being dead. Then again… I really don't want to meet this... Volturi unless I'm there to watch them burn."
She sat down and sighed. "Connor," she said quietly. "You are smart enough to realize that out of those four options only one of them is even plausible to look at."
He put his face in his hands. "There has to be a better option," he muttered.
"Connor," she said with exasperation. "What's a better time than now, when my life is in danger? Why not now?" Her voice had risen as she continued on.
"Because Julia," he yelled back. "I don't want this for you! I don't want this for anybody! If there is any other option, any other way, I'm not just going to sit back and watch as it goes by!"
Nessie had calmed herself enough now and was sitting up. She slid off of Edward's lap and whispered in my ear, "I'm going to go find Jacob." I nodded slightly. She ran out the front door at a dead sprint.
"Julia," Connor said a little more calmly. Nessie's exit had given him a moment to calm down. "I could never forgive myself if I let this happen to you." He gestured around the room.
She took a deep shaky breath, and I could tell she was getting very frustrated. "Fine," she said quickly. "Let's see what happens first; natural death or maybe someone will kill me." She took another deep breath, and then calmly walked out the door. Connor didn't make a move to follow her.
He sat down in the recliner and put his head in his hands. He muttered something that sounded an awful lot like a string of profanities. He looked at Edward. "Now what?" He sighed.
Edward shrugged. "I don't know. But… you're going to lose Connor."
Connor sighed again. "I know." He was quiet for a moment. "I guess I've always known."
I stood up a few silent minutes later. "I'm going to go get Nessie; I have to talk to Jake anyways."
I walked out the back door and started running before I hit the woods. About thirty seconds into the run, I saw something that made my lifeless heart break. Julia was walking along the side of the road, and she was silently crying her eyes out. I wanted to comfort her, but even I didn't know how. I knew what it felt like to want something, someone, so bad. To feel like it's in your grasp, but no one else wants to do it. To feel like no one else wants you that way. I was wrong to feel that way of course, I knew that now, but Julia didn't. She would have to learn just like I had.
When I started to see the familiar houses of La Push, I slowed to a walk. I could hear voices from inside the houses, and what I heard made me laugh. Joel and Leah were trying to get Alexis to sleep, and keep Nick occupied long enough not to bother her. It sounded to me like Nick loved his little sister just a little bit too much. I listened for Jake's voice and I heard him and Nessie at Jared and Kim's house. Kim was working, like most of the imprints did, so Jared was watching David. Considering he was only a month old, that was quite a task without a mommy there to help. I could hear him sucking contently on a bottle, and from the smell I could tell he was in Jared's arms.
I knocked before I went in. "Come in," Jared said quietly. I'm sure he could tell it was me. I walked into the house.
"Hi," Nessie said. She was sitting on the couch with Jake's arm on her shoulders. "What's going on?"
I sighed. "Well, you heard the ultimatum. Connor of course is still looking for another way, another option. Julia got a little frustrated, and she walked out. I saw her on the way here. She's pretty upset."
Nessie nodded. "Well, I don't pretend to understand, but I'm sure I would be upset too."
I ran my hand through my long hair. "I wish I could help. I mean… I should be able to. I just, I don't know how to put my help into words sometimes. I mean, when I was the human who tried to keep up with the vampires, I just pretty much ran at it with my eyes closed. Most of the decisions I made were based on feelings that I had at that time."
I laughed a little. "But I guess that's love. Strong feelings, jacked up teenage hormones, and a crazy kind of rush. Never knowing what's coming, but not caring."
Nessie smirked her daddy's smirk at me. "See," she started. "That would have been really sweet, except for the fact that you were talking about my parents. Which so forth makes it gross."
I grinned. "Yeah, yeah, yeah miss teenager. Mom and Dad and romance in the same room is the end of the world."
"Let's go home," she said. "I want to sit in my tree for a while." She walked out the door then. The tallest tree behind the Cullen house had become known as Nessie's tree. She was up there so much, I was positive she had some of her old things up there still. We had to get back anyway, Edward, Carlisle, and I had work tonight.
"It's going to be okay Bells," Jake said matter-of-factly.
I smiled at him. "I know that, but she doesn't." I smiled at Jared. "Having fun?" I asked him half sarcastically.
He yawned. "It's great," he sighed. He looked at David then. He had drifted to sleep in his arms. It was a sight for sore eyes.
"I'm sure," I muttered. I waved to Jake and followed Nessie out the door. I started at a sprint when I reached the woods. I could hear Nessie ahead of me, running as fast as her legs would carry her. I heard something else in the distance. I blocked out the sound of Nessie's feet hitting the ground, and listened closely. Though it was not my ears that told me something was wrong. It was the smell of blood. Human blood.
Someone was hurt. I could hear them moaning in pain. I didn't know who it was, but I hurtled myself in their direction. I could hear Nessie's feet going to the same place mine were. As I got closer to the person, I tried to see who it was. What I saw made my head spin, my knees go weak, and my stomach get tight.
Nessie had gotten there just then. Her startled scream was exactly what I felt like. Lying there huddled on the ground was Julia. Though not the Julia I had seen walking home a mere twenty minutes ago. No, this Julia was broken, bruised, and bleeding. She was unconscious, but moaning in her troubled sleep. Someone had hurt her…
"Nessie, go! Get help now!" I half yelled at her. She didn't need telling twice. She sprinted off into the woods and I heard her yelling for Edward within seconds. I dropped to my knees by Julia. She had a large gash covering her forehead. It would need stitches. Most of the fingers on her right hand looked broken. From the way she was huddled there were broken ribs too. Her hands and knees were scraped up, and her lip was bleeding. That wasn't the part that had scared me though. It was the bruises covering her body. I could see the knuckle marks where the fists had hit her. Someone else's fists.
They covered her face, and I could see her nose hadn't been broken thankfully. There was blood coming out of it though. The bruises went down her neck, and I could see ones still forming on her shoulders. Whoever had done this was still near…
I looked around me naturally. Whoever had done this, was sick. Who would hurt a seventeen-year-old girl? A girl in Forks, of all places. I carefully leaned over her and looked at the back of her neck. Two more slashes near the bottom. I neared them, and smelled. Though the smell was completely compelling for me to drink, I ignored it. Around the smell of the delicious blood, I smelled a trace of metal. These slashes had come from a knife.
I looked down at Julia's body. Her jeans were torn at the knee, and her long sleeved shirt had been torn by her abdomen. There was a cut across her stomach. It was shallow in comparison to the others, but still deep. She was shaking; she was losing so much blood…
My unneeded breathing was coming hard and fast through my mouth. I could still hear Nessie screaming. I heard the back door of the house slam, and eight pairs of feet hitting the ground, Edward in the lead. He burst through the trees seconds later, followed by everyone else. Nessie had tears running down her face; Edward looked like he was in shock.
But the look on Connor's face was pure agony. He looked like he was having his heart ripped out, which I'm sure that's what he felt like. He fell to his knees by her head. Carlisle spoke first, which broke us all into action. "Esme call an ambulance," he said quickly. She whipped out her cell phone immediately. He knelt down beside me. "Bella help me get her onto her back." He held her neck still while I slowly moved her onto her back. She moaned in her sleep.
Connor's head fell. "Connor," Carlisle said calmly. "Go hold her right hand gently. The coolness will help the swelling go down." Connor crawled to her right side. I'm sure he was happy to be doing something.
I heard Esme telling the hospital where we were. "Edward, find out how many ribs are broken. Bella, hold her head still while I look at this cut…" Carlisle continued to instruct. I held my hands on her neck, bracing it so it wouldn't roll.
"Pulse feels decent…" I muttered.
"They're coming," Esme announced.
"Emmett, Rose," Carlisle said. "Rip this into bandages." He threw his light weight jacket at them. He was left in only a t-shirt. They immediately began ripping it to shreds.
"I count three broken ribs," Edward said.
Carlisle sighed. "We'll just have to try not to move them. Help me with these cuts; leave the one on her stomach, its fine."
"Carlisle, it was a knife," Alice said.
"I know," Carlisle said gravely. He didn't look up from his work.
I heard the ambulance in the distance. "Jasper go meet the ambulance at the road and bring them here," Carlisle said. Jasper took off.
"Carlisle," I said. I showed him the blood on my hands. I had my head turned away.
"You're fine," Carlisle said confidently. He met my gaze for half a second and I barely nodded my head.
The EMT's burst through the trees behind Jasper, and I recognized John and Cole from the hospital. John ran to get the stretcher as Cole ran toward us.
"Oh my god," Cole said.
"Let's get her to the hospital," Carlisle said.
"Pulse is good," I repeated to Cole.
John came up then with the stretcher. "Oh my god," he said as well. It took him a second to get into action. "Do I need a rape kit?" He asked.
Oh gosh. I hadn't thought of that. Connor's head snapped up. Apparently neither had he. "I don't know," Carlisle said calmly. We carefully moved her onto the stretcher and they put the neck brace on. Carlisle climbed in front with John and Edward climbed in the back.
"Go with them," I whispered to Connor. He went immediately.
"C'mon," I said as the ambulance drove away. I started running toward the garage and everyone followed. I grabbed my key to the Volvo and hopped in. Nessie, Alice, Jasper, and Esme rode with me. Emmett and Rose took Carlisle's car. I drove at break-neck speed all the way to the hospital and they were just getting her through the doors as we pulled up. I hopped out of the car immediately and ran up to them. "Connor," I said. He didn't look at me. "Connor, how can we contact her dad?"
He looked up as we kept walking down the corridor. They were taking her to the ICU. "Her dad's out of town on business, he's not coming back for two weeks. Our best bet would be his cell phone."
"What's the number?" I asked.
He rattled off the digits, and I stopped and turned the other way, back to the secretary. I gave her the number and told her what I knew so far, and she copied it all down so she could give him as much information as possible. I ran back through the ICU until I got to the sign-in slot. Carlisle had signed in as the doctor on duty, and Edward had signed in as a student doctor. I signed in so I could legally take care of her, and I ran to go find them, pulling on my nurse's jacket as I ran. They were in one of the larger rooms, and Edward was putting a needle in her wrist. Probably trying to put some pain meds into her. "Bella," Carlisle said. "Help me with these stitches in her forehead." I immediately walked over to him.
I put on my rubber gloves and grabbed a sterilizer pad. I began to wipe down the area we would be stitching up. "Should I put her under?" Edward asked. Carlisle nodded. I saw John and Cole leave the room then. Their job was done. Carlisle began to stitch up the large cut in her forehead, and I helped him finish it off. It was only fifteen stitches, because the cut wasn't too long. Who would do this? Carlisle began to look at the cuts on her neck then, so I moved down to where Edward was. He seemed to be focusing on comfort of the patient right now.
He was working on her scrapes. I handed him a sterilizer pad, and grabbed one for myself. We each started wiping down her different scrapes and bandaging them. I put gauze on her knees, and Edward did the same to her hands. "She'll need x-rays on her hand and ribs and an MRI on her head, she might have a concussion." Carlisle informed us. As soon as all the places she was bleeding from were somewhat under control, we began to walk her to the x-rays. I moved her IV pack and Edward pushed the stretcher. Connor was still holding her hand.
The x-ray technician was just as shocked as we were the first time we saw Julia. He x-rayed her hand first, and her first three fingers were broke, her thumb and pinky were okay, so she wouldn't need a cast. To me it looked like she had tried to punch whoever was hurting her. When they took the MRI, she had a very slight concussion. It was probably from being hit so many times in the face. She had three ribs that were completely snapped, and one that was cracked. She was going to be in a lot of pain when she woke up. After the x-rays we wheeled her back to an ICU room. Edward got some ice for her bruises and Connor held it on either side of her face like Edward had showed him. "Oh, Connor," I said. "Here," I handed him some rubber gloves. "ICU, they're required by visitors and staff." I ducked out of the room then to go see if they had gotten a hold of Mr. Bird. When I talked to the secretary, they hadn't talked to him yet.
I went out to the waiting room where the rest of the family was still waiting for news on Julia. I came out of the emergency room doors and peeled off my rubber gloves as I walked up to them. "Bella!" Esme said immediately. "What's going on? Is Julia okay?"
Everyone was waiting on my answer. Nessie was sitting next to Rose with her head on her shoulder. She had stopped crying, but her eyes looked tired. I shrugged my shoulders in answer to Esme's questions. "She's stable. Her head is fine, but she needed fifteen stitches across that gash. Her first three fingers are broken, and she has three snapped ribs. Another one is cracked. Most of the cuts weren't too deep, but those bruises are going to give her some trouble. The deepest cuts that didn't need stiches are on the back of her neck and across her stomach. She's going to be in a lot of pain when she wakes up. Edward had to sedate her."
"Oh my gosh," Emmett said.
Everyone else was silent. Then Alice asked the question everyone wanted to know. "Is Connor okay?"
I sighed. "He hasn't said anything. I'm hoping he's talking to Edward now."
Nessie's head came off Rose's shoulder. "This has been a really scary day, mom."
"I know sweetie," I said. I held my arms out to her. She jumped up and ran to me. I held onto her for a few seconds. She was only a few inches shorter than me now. "Why don't you go home?" I suggested.
"I'll take you," Jasper volunteered. The sad and worried feelings around the hospital bothered him.
"Thanks Jazz," she said. I kissed the top of her head. I watched them walk out of the hospital doors, and Alice's head shot up.
"She's going to wake up at midnight, and Edward's going to knock her out again," she said. I looked at my watch. It was now almost ten o'clock at night.
"Right," I said. "Well, I should probably get back there. I just realized that she isn't in a hospital gown, and I'm sure neither Edward nor Carlisle wants to mess with that. I'm also going to try to get all the dried blood washed out of her hair, and wipe down her skin. You'd be surprised at how much better you feel just by being clean."
Esme nodded. "Keep us updated Bella," she said.
As I walked back through the ICU I could hear Carlisle and Edward down a separate hallway with some of the other employees. They were trying to give Connor some space. I went to join them. "Hey," Edward said as I walked up. "Did you talk to them?"
Everyone was looking at us. Cole and John were there, along with Shannon, Grace, Braydon, and Nicole. Apparently everyone had heard about what had happened and were coming down to see what was going on. "Yeah," I said. "Our daughter is terrified, and I don't know what to do."
He sighed. "Where is she?"
"She went home," I told him. "Jasper took her." I paused for a second. "When you walk up on someone you know, half beaten to death, on the way home from a hike…" I trailed off, and shuddered. I was very good at lying…
"Well," Edward said. "At least we learned something today." He sounded slightly cheerful.
"And what's that?" I asked.
"That Nessie is very fast, and she can scream loudly and run at the same time." He smirked at me.
I raised my eyebrows at him. "Wow, I walk up on your brother's girlfriend half beaten to death, and you're impressed at how loud and fast someone is."
"Hey," he said. "At least it's a positive comment."
"So how do you like being parents?" Shannon asked. She had two girls and three boys at home.
I watched Edward's face and waited for him to answer. His eyes got really big, and his eyebrows shot up. "It's really, really scary," he told her.
She laughed. "I feel your pain." She stopped laughing. "Although I hear you two were thrown headfirst into parenthood."
I snickered. "That's one way of saying it."
Everyone laughed then. "You know what they say," Edward said. "Life changes in a second."
I looked at my watch. It was nearing ten thirty now. I touched Edward's arm. "I'm going to go get Julia cleaned up."
He nodded. "I'll be in there in… fifteen minutes. I'm going to do the injury report."
"I'll see you guys later," I said as I waved good-bye.
As I walked into the room, what I saw took my breath away. Lying next to Julia, covered in her blood himself, was Connor. The fact that her blood wasn't even making him flinch was a miracle in itself. He had his arms loosely wrapped around her, and his face gently resting on hers. His eyes were closed, and her face looked peaceful underneath all the bruises. Now that I looked at her, her beauty still shown through, from the inside out. When I came in the room, Connor's eyes darted open.
"Sorry," I said.
"It's fine," he said immediately.
"I just came in here to clean her up," I told him. "Get her into a clean gown; get some of the blood out her hair and stuff."
He nodded. "I'll leave until she's changed, but… Bella could you come get me when you're done with that?"
"Of course," I said.
He smiled at me a little, and strode out of the room. I began to gently lift the clothes off of Julia. She mumbled a little in her sleep, but I kept working. After slipping one of the extra soft gowns we used in the ICU over her head, I went to get Connor. He was leaning on the wall outside of the room. "C'mon," I said.
He followed me into the room. I gave him a sterilizer, and pointed to her arms. "If anyone asks, I didn't let you do this," I told him.
He nodded his head. "Do what?" He asked sarcastically.
We worked in silence for a few minutes, me on her legs, he on her arms. "Bella?" He said breaking the tension.
I glanced at him. "What if…" he started. "What if it was, you know… rape. What are we going to do?"
"Connor," I said. "If it was rape, we'll deal with it." I thought for a moment. "But, I wouldn't worry about that too much. I've seen rape scenes and rape patients, and that's not what they look like, I promise."
He nodded. "If you say so."
