Chapter 10: Damaged

Do You got a first aid kit handy

Do you know how to patch up a wound? (Danity Kane)

The Cullen mansion was dead silent, expect for the rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor from upstairs. Alice and Jasper stood at the edge of the couch, watching as Esme stood still as a statue at the entry of the room, her eyes never leaving the stairs. Emmett and Rosalie sat in the middle of the couch, her small hand in his.

It was true, Rosalie had felt bad about what she'd done, but she was more afraid than anything. She'd seen Edward a total of two times since she'd arrived with the broken and bloodied Jacob Black and each time his eyes burned with a kind of resentment she'd never seen, especially from him. She had tried to step into the office/make-shift hospital room they'd set up for Jacob, but Edward had stopped her, his teeth bared, his eyes burning, and a hiss escaping his lips. From then on she didn't dare move from the couch. Emmett sat loyally beside her, assuring her everything would be okay, she didn't listen.

"Carlisle," all ears perked up at the sound of Edward's voice from upstairs, "It's been eighteen hours, why isn't he waking up?"

Carlisle paused for a moment, "I don't know. His body seems to be healing, the bruising and swelling are lessening and his cuts are practically gone. And his leg is healing at a remarkable rate, but his skull was cracked in the accident and he's lost a significant amount of blood," the stains in Edward's Volvo and his bedroom were a testament to that, "but...it's not healing as quickly as the rest of his body."

"Why?" Desperation was apparent in Edward's voice.

"I don't know," he paused for a moment, "Maybe we should call the pack, they might be able to show us something we've overlooked."

"No," Edward's voice was serious, "there's no way they'd take this lightly. Especially since he's not healing. Our relationship with them is rocky enough already."

Carlisle sighed, "Then we wait."

They didn't need to see Edward's expression to know he wasn't happy with that conclusion.

Esme's eyes moved slightly, taking in the image of her husband at the top of the steps, "That bad?" He frowned and her eyes wandered past him, "Poor, Edward."

Carlisle descended the steps at a slow pace, "I don't know what to do. I don't understand what's wrong with him," he paused at the base of the stairs to turn toward Esme, "At least his body didn't reject the blood."

This was a fact the whole house was aware of, the smell was intoxicating at the least and Jacob even began to smell better, not good, but better.

Emmett groaned, "Not to be an ass, but, why is Edward taking this so personally?"

Alice turned to him, her eyes narrowed, "Because, he is NOT an ass."

Emmett stared back at her just as hard, "What's that supposed to mean."

"That you're an ass for even thinking it was okay to say that," she stepped toward him, but Jasper put an arm around her small waist.

"He's a dog! Yeah, it's sad, but we shouldn't have to be walking around on pins and needles, it was his mistake that landed him where he is," he paused, "all I'm sayin'."

Alice couldn't believe the lack of concern and compassion in Emmett's voice and she pulled herself from Jasper's grasp, "That DOG has helped us out on more than one occasional. When the Volturi came to 'recruit' me, it was him that convinced his pack to help us turn them around," she was obviously growing upset.

Emmett stood, an attempt to intimidate her, "Yeah, keyword in there, pack. That means there's more where he came from. So their one down. Not my tragedy. We pick a different one to be our pet, maybe one a little bit more well-mannered and who can stay outside more."

Alice crouched and prepared to lunge, "Why you ungrateful, miserable son of bit-" Alice stopped in surprise as Emmett's large form flew over the couch, past a ducking Rosalie, and crashed into the wall across the room. In his place Edward stood teeth barred, in the same position Alice had recently been in.

"You'll do best to keep the comments to yourself," Edward's word's came out in a low hiss.

Emmett shook off the blow and stood, crouching, but before he could move any further both siblings straightened out and their expressions changed, Jasper, "Both of you need to stop this. It is NOT the time."

Edward didn't wait for anyone to say anything else, he just turned and ascended the stairs, the effects of Jasper's ability wearing off slowly. His eyes were narrowed and his hands were in tight fist as he rounded the corner toward the office, Emmett had no idea how lucky he was that Jasper had been there. How could he be so cavalier about the life of someone who had fought by him, side by side?

Edward did all he could to keep from going back down to the living room, but stopped at the open door to the office. His eyes collided with Jacob's. He was awake. In a blur of a motion he was at Jacob's side, his cold hand wrapping around Jake's. He'd been growing steadily cooler since he'd gotten here, but Edward noticed Jake finally began to feel normal, well, normal for a werewolf, "Jake?"

A small smile appeared on his beautiful lips, Edward hadn't realized just how much he'd missed it, "Who else?"

Edward's eyes were soft and somber, like he wanted to cry if it had been possible, "You scared me."

Jake's small smile stayed in place, "I told you I'd be fine."

Edward squeezed his hand, "You're not fine."

"Okay, so I'm a little damaged," he paused and worked his lips into a pout, but Edward could see the effort it took for him to do so, "does that mean you don't want me anymore?"

Edward gently ran the back of his hand, barely touching Jacob's warm skin, along his cheek, "I don't know if I'll ever stop." Jake's smile was back, and Edward hated to tear himself from it, but he had to, "I'll be right back." And with a soft, quick squeeze of Jake's hand Edward was gone, only to return a few seconds later with Carlisle.

"Jacob," Carlisle wore a concerned smile and was at his side in no time, how are you feeling.

Jake made a small face, "My head hurts. A lot." Carlisle nodded, looking to Edward, but not discreetly enough, "What? What'd I miss? I'm done for aren't I?"

Carlisle forced a smile, another fact that didn't go unnoticed by Jake, "You hit your head pretty hard."

"How hard?"

"You cracked your skull."

Jake made another face, "Just a small crack, right." Edward and Carlisle shared another glance, "I really wish you two would stop with that."

Edward looked down at him, "Why are you so perceptive all of a sudden?"

"I was always perceptive," Jake huffed.

"Sure, sure," Edward smiled.

"Hey, that's mine," Jake went to move, but winced in pain and pushed himself back and put a hand to his head.

"Jake," both vampire said simultaneously.

"My head," Jacob groaned.

Carlisle vanished over to his desk and was back before Jake could even finish blinking. He quickly tied a rubber strand around Jake's large forearm and held a needle to his skin, "This will help. It should knock you out, long enough for me to do some more X-Rays," He looked to Jacob who only nodded his eyes tightly shut, he felt the pinch of the needle in his skin, but his head throbbed too hard for him to truly acknowledge it.

The needle was out in almost no time and he looked up at Edward, "Hey, this is the second time in three day's I've woken up in this place with a headache and barely any recallation of what happened," he offer up a smile that was smaller than the ones from a few moments prior and Edward noticed how stiff it was.

"Yeah, if you keep it up, you might knock off the few brain cells you do have," Edward tried to smile, but his attempt was pathetic.

Jake tried to think of a comeback, but the grogginess won out of over whit and he was a sleep in seconds.

By now Carlisle had wheeled the compact X-Ray machine over from the corner of room and had begun setting up, "I'll be back," it was all Edward said as he retreated from the room. He was downstairs in a matter of seconds, feeling a calm wash over him as he re entered the living room, "Alice."

She didn't hesitate in following him as he headed for the kitchen, "How is he?"

Edward didn't mask his emotions, "Better, but not good." Alice went to speak, but Edward was already continuing, "He's so damn...I don't even know."

Alice's brow scrunched together, "Wait, huh?"

Edward looked up at her, "He's so...cavalier. Like Emmett," Edward hissed out his brother's name, "He wakes up and he's making jokes. Doesn't he get..." Edward trailed off, not willing to bring himself to finish the sentence or even the thought.

Alice frowned and without a second of hesitation embraced her brother, "I'm sorry."

He hugged her back, his arms wrapping around her tiny frame, "I'm going crazy sitting here though, there's nothing I can do."

Alice tightened her embrace and looked up at her brother's beautiful, but broken face, "It sucks, yeah, but worrying isn't going to help." She noted the darkness of his eyes, "You need to eat."

He scoffed, "I can't eat right now."

Alice pulled back, "You should, it might help calm you. And this way you can be that much more focused on him when he wakes back up," she tried to smile.

"There's something else."

Alice looked up with pure concern, "What?"

"I couldn't HEAR him," he whispered.

Alice looked confused for a moment before catching on, "Oh. Oh!" Well, that's not good," Edward gave her a look, "Sorry."

"I'm worried, Alice." Alice nodded, her minded wandering.

"Go."

"What?" Edward was shocked at her suggestion, "Go, feed. Find a deer or something. All this stress is making you hungrier. If we're going to figure this out, we're not going to need any distractions. Carlisle, just gave him a dose of morphine, right," Edward nodded, "Then that gives you about an hour, that's enough time to find something, maybe not something challenging, but it'll do. I'll call you if anything changes." Her tone didn't leave much room for anything, but Edward was hesitant. Alice took his hand in hers, "I promise you, he'll be here when you get back."

Edward looked at his sister and knew she would keep her promise, "Thank you."

"Hey, I care about him, too."

Edward smiled slightly, "I know. I really do, but not just for now. For everything you've done over the last few days."

"Hey, it just means you'll owe me that much more when I need you to repay your debts," she smiled, "Now, go."

With a light kiss to her forehead he was gone. Alice remained still for a moment, the seriousness of the situation holding her like a vice grip from Emmett. She frowned at the thought of her brother's name. Her eyes narrowed and she turned on her overly-expensive, but still entirely beautiful black heels. She'd been cheated. And she didn't like it. She moved gracefully through the house and back into the living room and luckily Jasper had let go of his hold on everyone, but he eyed her suspiciously as she entered. She'd only have a moment to do this.

She surveyed everyone's positions; Jasper was leaning on the arm of the couch, Esme still stood by the end of the wall, near the stairs, Rosalie was staring off somewhere back in her position in the middle of the couch, and Emmett stood looking out one of the large windows on the side of the room. She walked up to him, "Em?"

He turned an unhappy expression his features, "What?"

She didn't speak, instead with a fluid, flawless turn she raised her foot and extended her perfectly shaped leg, causing her heel to collide with Emmett's chest. Emmett didn't have time to react, instead his large body flew out through the window, over the porch and rolled over the lawn, she turned back to a very surprised and shocked looking Jasper and Esme, and a pissed looking Rosalie, "What? I had to get my turn," she looked at them like what she did had made perfect sense and they were crazy for not realizing it.

And with that she disappeared up the steps and down the hall. She entered the office as a confused looking Carlisle was placing Jacob's x-ray sheets into a folder, "What happened down there?"

Alice, shrugged, "Emmett needed to learn a lesson," she made her way to Jake's bedside, her hand ever so lightly trailing over his face, "What happened to his hair?" She couldn't help but notice taht the majority of his beautiful black locks was gone.

Carlisle was beside her now, : I had to cut it to tend to his wound. I tried to leave enough for him to be able to do something with it after. Does he look that bad?"

Alice shook her head, "No, just different. Younger." Sometimes Alice forgot just how young Jake really was and this realization made the whole situation seem that much worse.

"How is he?" she never took her eyes off the sleeping boy.

"Better, his skull is still healing, but the pace seems to be picking up." Carlisle looked around for a moment, "Where's, Edward? I haven't seen him leave the room all day."

Still not taking her eyes from Jacob, "I sent him hunting, I could see that he needed it," she brushed her hand against Jake's face once more before looking up at Carlisle, "I should probably wait, but I think the sooner this is out there the better."

Carlisle eyed her curiously, "What is it, dear?" his tone was gentle.

"Before Edward left he told me something," she looked back to Jake, "when Jake was awake, he couldn't hear him?"

Carlisle understood right away, "Oh," his eyes traveled to Jacob, "you stay with him. I'm going to do some research."

Alice turned as Carlisle began walking away, "I thought all the important books where in here?"

He turned back to her, "The ones on our kind; our histories and such, but I'd have more luck with the subject of Jacob's kind in the library. Come find me if you need me."

She nodded, but said nothing else, turning her attention back to Jacob, she smiled as if he could see her, "So, I totally kicked Emmett's ass..."

Alice stood by Jake's side for a moment, before rushing to her bathroom and back. She laid out the gathered supplies and set them on the small metal table next to Jacob's bed, "We have got to do something with this hair."

She fell silent as she went to work.

...

Author's Note: SO, what did you guys think? I was really happy with this chapter and I hope you were, too. By the way, if you're wondering what Jake looks like now, think Taylor Lautner (the Jacob from the Twilight movie-minus the wig). The first two or three pics (The black wallpaper and shirtless pic of him) on the Google image search are good examples. Please, don't forget to REVIEW! I really appreciate them. They're part of my inspiration and motivation to continue this story.