Title: Safe
Rating: PG-13
Summary: See chapters 1-6
Disclaimer: I don't own it.
OOOOOO
I felt like my heart was going to explode out of my chest and land on Tanya's impeccably clean floor when I heard his voice on the other end of the line.
"What do you want Alice? Esme said that it was urgent." He was annoyed as far as I could tell, but his voice was still beautiful, even if distorted by the phone.
Alice looked like she was trying to keep calm, and she was doing a fair to decent job too, but her fiery eyes were intimidating. "Yes," she hissed angrily. "It is urgent."
"What are you going to do with this stupid bear?"
"I told you. I told you but you didn't listen."
"Alice, what happened?" Edward demanded. Worry colored his tone. "Is Bella alright?"
"I don't know. Maybe display it by the door."
"Oh, she's perfectly fine. In fact, she's sitting right in front of me."
"What?" his question was more of a growl than words.
"You could display crabs too!"
"You heard me." Alice's tone was icy.
"I don't believe you," he snapped.
Alice gave an aggravated sigh and thrust the phone in my direction. "Say 'hi' Bella." It was not a request.
"Hi," was all I had time to say before Alice snatched the phone back.
"You don't display crabs!"
Henry sighed and hit the mute button on the remote. Up until then he had been trying to watch his cartoon.
"And how, pray tell, did she get to Denali?" the accusation was clear.
"On foot." Alice nearly snarled at him.
"What?" he asked again, his anger replaced by bewilderment.
"She came on foot from Forks to Denali. Amazing, isn't it?" Her sarcasm could have been sliced with a knife. "She traveled only at night, stayed off trails and roads and gave cities a wide birth. Have you caught on yet or do I need to continue?"
"Oh God," it came out as a whisper of sound over the phone.
"I suggest that you get on the first north bound airplane that you can find," Alice concluded before hanging up with the push of a button. Before anyone could say anything she held up a finger to silence us. Then she closed her eyes and concentrated. After a few minutes of just watching her, Henry turned back to the TV and relaxed his alert position, settling closer to Esme again. He pushed the mute button again and noise flared to life in the silent room causing me to start.
"I've been meaning to tell you for awhile. Um, you don't hold your chopsticks correctly."
"What? What about my shopsticks?"
As the two women on TV continued to banter Alice just sat perfectly still. I soon found myself drawn into watching the show instead of her, it was quite humorous. However, I wasn't so engrossed that I didn't notice when Alice started moving again. Henry pushed mute again.
"It is now three a.m., at 6:30 tonight Edward will board a plane in Rio and if all fares well, I will be picking him up at 1:15 tomorrow afternoon."
And that was that.
oooooo
Waiting was agony. I could only handle so many of those cartoons Henry liked before I went spare. So at about five in the morning I trudged my way up to the room where Louis and Shad were; Joey had ended up in Kate's room after all (unfortunately for my poor virgin ears). I couldn't hear (thank God for that at least) or smell Emmett or Rosalie anywhere in the house and I wondered if they had left to go hunting. As for Tanya, Irina, Carmon and Eleazar, they were in the library.
When I entered the room Shad and Louis were on opposite sides and they were not speaking. Normally this would be a sign that a feud had taken place. But to someone who had spent a week with these vampires it was nothing out of the ordinary. This is just how things were with them.
"Isabella," Louis intoned with a nod in my direction. This served two purposes, one as a greeting and one as a warning for Shad to know that someone had entered the room.
According to Joey, in Shad's early days as a vampire he had made another of our kind very angry. In retaliation for whatever it was that he did, the other vampire used his gift and dulled Shad's mind. That was the cause of the perpetually blank look on his face. He could still do everything a normal vampire could, like hunt and run preternaturally fast, but it wouldn't occur to him to do these things unless he was prompted. It was hard for him to pay attention to conversations or to notice the presence of people around him.
After Louis had acknowledged my presence, Shad was able to focus enough to greet me as well, a blank smile slipping on and back off of his face.
"Did you need something Isabella?" Louis asked politely, closing the book he had been reading around one of his fingers so as to keep his place.
I shook my head. "Just came to talk. You haven't been downstairs in a while, I was just wondering if something was wrong."
Louis smiled thinly. "All the things that I know about these people swirl around in my head until I can no longer think. It is easier to be around Shadrach and Joseph because I know them better. All the pasts that belong to your friends, and even to you, are difficult to have screaming though my head. Shadrach has elected to stay with me and Joseph is . . . busy." He grimaced at the last word.
"So I've heard," I muttered dryly. Tuning out the noise coming from just down the hall was easier said than done. "What do you think?"
For Louis I didn't need to elaborate my query, he already knew what I was talking about. Of the four of them he had been the only one to openly question my new way of life. Joey had been skeptical, but he didn't say anything about it. He had a 'to each his own' sort of attitude. Shad couldn't think more than two feet in front of him at any given time, so he didn't bother me with it either. And Henry had wanted it. He didn't want to have to kill children like himself; he didn't want people to be sad.
"It is interesting, but you still haven't convinced me." He smiled and cocked his head. "But, that is because you are not after me, right?"
I smiled. "Right."
"Well if I ever do change my mind about my diet, it is unlikely that I would join a family such as this. My ability makes that almost impossible. I like what I have now; change is not something I want." He turned back to his book and opened it. "You should know that Joseph will not stick around much longer. Since you have found what you are looking for he has no reason to stay."
"Yeah, I figured as much." Joey had never struck me as the type to settle down. "Well, bye."
"Good bye Isabella," Louis said, already focusing on his book. I took this to mean the conversation was over.
When I reached the door Shad called to me. "Bella." I turned to look at him. "It's been fun." His smile was still a bit blank but it was a smile none the less. I smiled back, but his attention had slipped again and he was looking at the magazine in his hands.
oooooo
Early morning passed slowly, my quick conversation with Louis only took up ten minutes tops, so I was left wandering the almost mansion in a sort of daze. I avoided the third floor as much as possible, it was the residential area of the home and that was where Joey was 'getting his grove on'. The library would have kept me busy for hours on end if I hadn't been in such an anxious mood. I wasn't able to concentrate on anything except the clock and the slowly moving second hand. I spent a few hours just staring at it, my chin resting on a table and my eyes blank.
The thirst that I always felt seemed somewhat insignificant now. It burned and itched and made it feel as though I wouldn't be able to talk until I drank another moose. A quiet chuckle leaked out of my mouth at the thought. Just last week it would have been strange to think such things. I felt too lethargic to go hunt but I just knew that if I didn't Edward would wind up making me blush when I finally saw him. It would definitely ruin the mood if I became wildly thirsty when he turned his dazzling eyes on me.
So with a grunt and a sigh, I heaved myself away from the table and trudged into the den where Carlisle had joined the cartoon party at some point. Henry was now snuggled between Esme and Carlisle, his teddy bear- Wolfgang- in his arms. I didn't say anything to them as I walked through the room, but as I passed Henry I ruffled his hair. He whined quietly and tried to knock my hands away without taking his eyes off the television screen. I just laughed and continued on my way to the front door.
"Where are you headed Bella?" Alice asked from the den, she hadn't raised her voice but I heard her fine just the same.
"To find another moose," I replied.
"You shouldn't go alone," it was Carlisle this time. "Do you want me to go with you?"
"No worries mate, I'll go." Joey's voice shocked me. I had thought for sure that he was still upstairs. There was a short silence and I was wondering if I should go find out what had caused it when Joey's laughing voice rang out again. "Get that look off your face. We'll stay out of the town."
Joey rounded the corner then, his hair back in its spikes and a smug look on his face. "Let's do this bitch," he said with a smirk. He opened the door and made a big show of being gentlemanly. I rolled my eyes and moved to punch him. He blocked the swing easily and smacked the back of my head in retaliation. Our playful scuffle lasted until we had made it into the sparse woods around Tanya's house.
"So," Joey drawled when he managed to wrestle my arms behind my back, "what should I do with you now?"
"You should let me go before I kick you in the balls." I kicked back blindly to prove my point. I must have gotten too close to hitting him because he released me with a little push. I stumbled.
"This boy of yours must love you a lot if you treat him like you do me."
"You are the one that treats me badly. Not the other way around," I pointed out.
"Just shut up and find you moose." Joey shoved me lightly in the direction of the denser forest.
oooooo
It was just past noon by the time we made it back to the house. I was pleasantly quenched and Joey had a look on his face as though he had sucked a lemon. He opened his currently gold eyes and glared at me.
"It's your entire fault I even had to go through that. If you weren't so damn messy-"
"Oh shut up. It isn't that bad," I interrupted his whining.
"I'm going to have to go hunting as soon as we hit Russia because of this." Joey had been bitching at me for a little over ten minutes now. I tuned him out and speed up.
Henry opened the door for us before we had even made it up the porch. "Finally!"
"What's with you midget," Joey snarled as he brushed by me and into the house. He didn't care for an answer apparently; he just swept up the stairs and into Louis and Shad's room.
"Alice told me to tell you that she and Esme went to go get what's his face from the airport," Henry said, bringing my attention back to him.
"Edward," I reminded him.
"I know." He didn't explain further, he just grabbed my hand in his small one and pulled me into the now empty den. "Let's watch a movie," he demanded.
I nodded and watched as that simple action made him beam happily. He rushed over to the TV and pushed play on the old VCR. He had been prepared.
"What are we watching?" I asked.
"Fright Night, it's about vampires." He laughed at the dubious look on my face. "Don't worry; I think you'll like it. It's pretty silly."
We ended up laying on the couch as we watched the film, his small body sprawled across mine and Wolfgang crushed to his side.
The movie was standard B horror fare, lots of bad visual effects and a corny plotline, but it was mildly enjoyable. I ended up being so engrossed in the movie that it startled me to hear the sounds of a car rolling into the drive.
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A/N: Woot
Yeah, Edward isn't in this one either but I swear he will be in the next. Do not lose faith.
Sorry it took so long and all, I've just recently started Driver's Ed. and it takes up most of my mornings. I'll have the next chapter up as soon as it is finished.
I'm going to take my sister to church at 6 and the Harry Potter movie at 9, so when I get home I want to see a bunch of reviews in my inbox. Please?
Later!