So very, very sorry for the loooong wait between chapters. I had the flu so bad I thought I was dying. Plus there isn't internet where I'm staying so that complicates my update timeline. Hope you enjoy and I have the next chapter done... Just proof reading before I post! :)
Leah was jolted into action when the girl standing naked before her hugged herself with a pained, confused look; smearing blood on her torso in the process. Leah sighed; she so wasn't getting any sleep now.
Peeking out from behind the tree, she saw Emily walking her way with clothes in hand. Leah accepted them wordlessly and dressed in a flash. There was a small cotton blanket to wrap around Hannie and she did so before escorting her, forcefully, back into the clearing. Johannah leaned back with a whimper, trying to move back into the forest when she saw Dr. Cullen. When Leah pressed onwards, basically carrying her at this point, she let out a terrified wail.
"Hannie, I promise, Carlisle is not going to hurt you. He is a doctor and he is going to help get you better. He fixed your arm and gave you medicine to get better. That's why you are awake and aren't so sick, because he helped you." Leah spoke firmly and the girl stood panting, her eyes huge in her thin face.
Leah smiled gently at her. "I know you are scared of him and that he makes you feel really wrong, but he's not one of the bad guys. He's one of the only one of them who is good." She spoke in a soft tone making her voice unthreatening and persuasive.
Johannah looked over at him and shuddered before looking back to Leah.
"Can you trust me? You can sit in my lap while he fixes your arm again okay?"
Clearly fighting an internal battle, Johannah's face changed rapidly as emotions chased each other across her face. She looked like she was about to cry, but she bravely stepped one shaking foot towards the house. Leah was so proud of her courage. In spite of everything she had endured because of a vampire, she was willing to put her trust in Leah and allow one of them to touch her. Leah felt the responsibility of that trust and she felt amazingly good to know that she somehow was the one that her cousin trusted.
As they entered the house, Carlisle smiled gently at Johannah trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. When they were seated at the table, Hannie in Leah's lap, he spoke softly to her. "I am just going to clean up your arm and stitch it back together. I will be as quick and gentle as possible."
The little half-Quileute girl squeezed her eyes shut, but stretched out her damaged arm on the table. True to his word, Carlisle had her arm repaired once again in such a quick timeframe that when he stepped back and said, "All finished," the almond shaped eyes snapped open and looked at him in surprise.
She looked down at her arm which was once again wrapped securely and then back at Dr. Cullen. "If you leave your bandages alone and remain calm and in your human form, your arm should be completely healed in a few days." She was still looking at him mutely.
He set two orange medicine bottles on the table. "She needs to take the antibiotics every eight hours until they are gone. There are also some painkillers in case she needs them." He nodded to Leah and then smiled once again at Johannah.
"It was very nice to meet you. I hope your arm mends quickly." Her whole body was frozen and stretched taut as a bowstring. She looked at him with wide green eyes and made no movement until he turned and exited the house. The moment the door closed behind him, she squeezed her eyes shut and started trembling violently. Holding the blanket around her, Leah hugged her tight trying to comfort her. Emily disappeared up the stairs and then came down again with some more temporary clothes.
Leah carried her into the laundry room again and in a minute the two older cousins had dressed the younger one. Hannie was standing motionless, allowing them to minister to her but it was like there was no one behind her blank eyes. It made Leah both sad and furious that the once vivacious child was this silent traumatized shell of her former self. Emily smiled kindly at her.
"Would you let me brush your hair?" she asked sweetly. Johannah stared at the soft bristled brush in her hand and Leah saw a spark of something in her eyes when she saw the jeweled hair clip Emily held in her other hand. Wordlessly the girl sat on a short stool and turned her back to Emily. When Emily began running the brush gently through her hair there was a small sound like a purr. Leah smiled as she watched Hannie. The girl sat with her eyes closed and as Emily brushed she visibly relaxed a little with each stroke. Leah remembered her Aunt Kaiya brushing Johannah's hair when she was little and how much Hannie had loved it. She felt a pang in her chest as she realized that this was likely the first time since her mother had died that Hannie had her hair combed.
What was that like, Leah wondered, to live as an animal for almost eight years; to be a child still and be alone, afraid with no human contact save an attack by a cruel man and attempted assault by a foul piece of shit?
Her exhaustion had taken her past the point of tiredness and she was dizzy and nauseous. Emily set the brush down after parting Johannah's hair on the side and starting at the front, French braided the top layer of her hair around to the side. She fixed the end in place with the jeweled hair clip. When she was done, she picked up a small square mirror and handed it to Johannah. When she saw her reflection, the little girl's eyes widened and a tiny smile curled her lips as she touched her hair. Leah knew that she was way past her threshold for tiredness when she felt tears well up at that simple expression. Hannie looked up at Emily before hugging her around the waist with her good arm. Emily smiled as she hugged her back.
"Would you like something to drink now?" She asked kindly. Johannah nodded and followed as Emily left to go back to the kitchen. She grabbed Leah's hand as she passed by and pulled her along. Emily was pouring a glass of juice and Johannah reached up towards Leah's face. Leah leaned down and Hannie patted her cheek, pointed towards the door and closed her eyes with her head leaned to one side. Her pantomime was quite eloquent and Leah understood immediately that she was telling her to go sleep.
"You're telling me to go sleep?" Johannah nodded and again a tiny smile was on her lips as she looked at Emily.
"I will keep her with me and I am sure your mother will be here after the meeting." At Emily's words Leah suddenly realized that there was no one around but the three of them. She really needed sleep if she was missing the most obvious facts. She mutely nodded and walked to the front door.
"Tell Jake and Seth not to wake me up unless it's a life or death emergency."
Emily chuckled quietly. "I will and I will clarify for them what a life or death emergency constitutes."
Leah nodded her thanks and once again wished that their relationship was what it used to be. She watched for a moment as Johannah climbed onto a barstool and picked up her juice. Her legs swung as she sipped and Leah smiled. She was too tired to do more than walk slowly towards her house. Ten minutes later she reached her house. Two minutes after that she was passed out on top of her bed.
Johannah sat on a wooden stool with the glass of juice in front of her. It was dark red but around the ice cubes it was a lighter pink. She thought it was so pretty. Emily was doing little things around the kitchen but Johannah saw that she was watching her. Hannie didn't mind; it actually made her feel happy inside that she was with someone who took care of her and made her feel safe. She remembered Emily a little bit from when she was younger. She had been Leah's best friend and it puzzled her why Leah didn't like her anymore. No one had said anything, but she could sense the uncomfortable air between them and how being around Emily made Leah tense.
She touched the braid in her hair again and smiled a little bit. She liked to feel the texture of the intricate twist; it made her remember how her mother used to fix her hair. Thinking of her mother wasn't difficult for her anymore. When she had first died and Hannie had turned into a dog, she was so scared and confused that she hadn't been able to process grief. After the first few days of bewilderment and fear she realized that her mother was really gone and it felt as if she would die from the pain inside. She hid in the forest screaming and howling incessantly until her throat hurt and she was too tired to do anything but sleep under the trees.
But the years of searching for Leah and the rest of her family had dulled the agony of losing her mother. Remembering the good things about her mother was the only thing that gave her comfort during her lonely wanderings. Living as an animal had become something she was used to but it never felt right. She had faced starvation continuously, mostly because foraging for leftover human food was difficult in wolf form and she didn't hunt animals for food. She was human in her mind and a girl to top it off.
She had once, out of desperation, caught a rabbit. When she tore into it, utter revulsion turned her stomach and she had retched dryly, giving up the thought of eating the raw creature with intestines spilling out onto the forest floor. She had covered the body with leaves and foliage and rinsed her mouth in the stream before heading onwards.
Now, as she sat in Emily's kitchen, which smelled better than any place she had been in years, she thought of how she would never have to live in such a way again. She knew that Emily and Leah would make sure she was taken care of. And she knew that even if they weren't here, there was one person who could take care of her as well as her own mother had; her Aunt Sue.
She had seen her earlier as the Cold Doctor had fixed her arm, but terror of what the Evil Man could do had locked her in place and she could do nothing to speak or even make eye contact with her aunt. When Emily and Leah had finished dressing her, there had been no one in the house anymore and she wondered when Aunty Sue would come back. And where was Uncle Harry? Emily had spoken to Leah about her mother but nothing had been said about Harry.
Emily started piling items from the fridge onto the counter and Johannah watched with fascinated eyes as her hands began assembling food with lightning precision. She chopped and measured, poured and stirred. In less than ten minutes, she was greasing glass baking dishes and filling them with a pale mixture before sliding them deftly into the oven. Hannie was enthralled. Emily cooked like a professional chef and she thought of possibilities in the future. She had always loved to cook with her mother and she wondered now if Emily would let her help in the kitchen.
As if sensing she was being thought of, Emily smiled at her. "Everyone will be back shortly and the boys will be hungry of course. Would you like something to eat before the hoards descend?" Johannah looked at her and thought about the odd statement.
The hoards? Was she talking about the humongous boys Hannie had seen through the window the night of the storm?
And food; did she want food? Now that she thought about it she wouldn't mind eating something again. The mere fact of never having to feel hunger pangs sent her head swimming and she smiled timidly at Emily.
"I'll take that as a yes," her cousin by proxy said. "What would you like?" Hannie thought about it and realized she didn't know. She really hadn't had a choice in her selection of food for so many years. She shrugged her shoulders and Emily nodded, seeming to realize that not only was it too much for the younger girl to choose, but also, there was a slim to none chance of getting a verbal response.
Turning back to the fridge, she hummed absently as she pulled out more items. A few minutes later she had arranged neatly cut triangles of a sandwich on a plate with some grapes and strawberries. When she set it in front of Johannah she couldn't help but feel pleased at the way the girl's eyes widened and the tiny smile that formed on her lips.
Hannie looked at Emily from the plate of beautiful food and nodded, blinking her eyes a few times. She wanted to tell her thank you but she couldn't speak. She hadn't spoken since the day her mother had died and part of her was afraid she didn't know how anymore. But Emily seemed to understand what she was feeling and merely smiled before turning around to work at the counter.
Hannie looked at her food a few moments longer before beginning to eat. She was starting to realize that there was no threat to her here; that no one was going to take her food away from her. When she had eaten breakfast with Leah, the deep rooted fear that there was a predator just waiting to snatch what was hers away, had her hunching over her food as she wolfed it down. But Leah had done nothing to take away from her and had in fact, given her own food to Hannie when she had stared longingly at it.
Now as she sat eating at the kitchen island, with Emily humming as she worked, she felt relaxed. She ate slowly as there were no tearing hunger pains in her stomach, and relished the flavors of the simple foods she had missed so much.
At the counter where she worked, Emily could see Johannah's reflection in the shiny toaster and she smiled as she realized that the little girl was relaxed as she ate. There was no defensive posturing and Emily could tell she was enjoying her food. She realized that had she ignored the pathetic stray a few weeks ago, this innocent child would most likely be dead and it made her feel really good that she had inadvertently saved her life.