A/N - Sorry for the delay with this chapter...turns our real life can't always be ignored in favour of writing fanfiction. Who would have thought? Anyway, just wanted to say thank you so much for all the feedback and encouragement, I love talking with you all and it's really appreciated.
Chapter 12- Jeopardy and Hope.
My eyes went instinctively to Emmett, who winked at me as a smile curved across his face. "There's gonna be some action then?"
Edward frowned and made a move to step out the front door. "I'm not sure Emmett. I need to hear what Jacob has to tell me- it's sounding a little complicated."
The three boys disappeared out the front door and I stepped swiftly across to the window so that I could see them, standing motionless on the porch as they waited for Jacob to break from the dark surrounding forest.
"Stupid mutts," I said over my shoulder to Alice. "I wish we'd never got involved with them in the first place."
"We didn't have much choice, as I recall," Alice said wryly. She came and stood by my side, looking out into the night with large, unhappy eyes. "I hate not seeing," she said plaintively. "I know you think I'm being a big baby, but it's horrible Rose…I feel so blind and so useless! I can't see Bella or the…what she's carrying, and all our futures hinge on that right now." For a moment she rested her head against my arm. "The future is changing with every minute that passes and the visions are nothing but flickers and gaps and it's all giving me such a headache."
She sighed mournfully as Jacob emerged from the tree line, a smaller wolf at his heels and then she leaned forward, peering intently. "Is that Seth with Jacob? This is very strange Rosalie, he was here only a few hours ago and things were fine." We watched Edward talk with the wolf, and then Alice huffed impatiently. "I'm going to find out what's going on," she said, gliding outside.
Behind me Bella tossed restlessly, moaning. I went to her and gently wiped her face, moistening her lips with the sponge. Tears dribbled down her cheeks even as she slept, and her cracked lips moved as she whispered Edward's name. I saw a ripple across her belly as the baby moved and although she didn't wake Bella gave a low, pained whine. For a moment I rested my hand on the bulge of her belly, feeling the hard shape of the baby within.
"Hey you in there," I whispered. "Hold still…your mama isn't doing so well right now." Oh, the words hurt to say! Your mama…and it wasn't me. Would never be me, even though I knew without doubt that I would do anything, even suffer the way Bellla was, if I could have the chance for that baby to be mine. "Just try and sleep in there and let your mama rest. She needs that." Below my hand there was a softer flutter of movement and then the baby was still.
There was movement at the door and the other four crowded inside. I could feel the tension, the jittery energy that radiated from them, so different from the despair of earlier.
"What's happening?" I asked, mindful to keep my voice soft.
"The wolves are coming," Emmett said, coming to my side and pressing against me for a brief minute, inhaling the scent of my hair. "They're coming for Bella- well they want to kill the baby and she'll just be collateral damage."
I hissed furiously. "Over my dead body."
"Not just yours," Emmett said. He sounded almost cheerful- he was such a person of action that the forced inertia of the past days was torturous for him. He bounded across to the window and peered out into the dark.
"I don't understand though," I said slowly. "Why did Jacob warn us?"
"He's left the pack," Edward said, and it was only that I knew him so well that I heard the thread of agony in his steady voice. "For Bella…he would kill what's she carrying without pause, but he cannot see her hurt. He's gone against Sam, against the pack, against all that the Quileutes have stood for all this time, and he's doing it for Bella. So she won't die."
"We don't have time for your navel gazing tonight Edward," Emmett said practically. "Let's just be glad that the kid had an attack of conscience and came and warned us." He glanced at his watch. "I called Carlisle and Esme, they'll be back in fifteen minutes…let's get organised."
There was a screech of metal and then the rolling shutters that Carlisle had had installed at Jasper's insistence came down to cover the glass wall. "And you all said I was paranoid…" Jasper murmured with a pointed look in my direction. "We need to make our position defensible. Rosalie- you and Edward move Bella out of the way of the free windows. Alice my darlin', run upstairs and check those windows are closed. Emmett- garage."
"Where did Jacob go?" I asked Edward quietly, as he and I moved the hospital bed and monitoring equipment further away from the windows.
"He and Seth are running perimeter," Edward told me, staring blankly at Bella. "Keeping a watch- I can't hear his thoughts now, so listen out for a howl."
There was a flurry of movement and noise and Carlisle and Esme came in, Carlisle walking immediately over to Edward and I. "Bella?" Carlisle asked me tensely.
"No change," I answered.
"We saw Seth out in the forest," Carlisle said quietly. "He phased and told us what's happened. I can't believe…" His words drifted off and he passed a hand wearily across his face. "He seems to think that Sam will not bring the pack over tonight, not without Jacob."
"We can't afford to be complacent," Edward said in a hard voice. "Not…"
He stopped, as the air around us echoed with the howls of a wolf. Jasper snarled and Emmett came streaking in from the other room, his eyes glittering and fierce. "They're here?"
"No…wait…" Edward listened, concentrating hard. "It was a false alarm. Seth was upset about something else, and he forgot we were listening for a signal. He's very young."
"Nice to have toddlers guarding the fort," Emmett commented in disgust.
"They're done us a great service tonight, Emmett," Carlisle cautioned him. "At great personal sacrifice."
"Yeah, I know," Emmett sighed, shrugging. "I'm just jealous. Wish I was out there." He bounced on his toes and shadow boxed at Jasper for a moment, and had our position not been so serious I would have smiled. It was all such a game to him…he was disappointed that common sense dictated that he stay inside rather than going outside to play.
"Seth doesn't think Sam will attack now," Edward said tonelessly. "Not with us forewarned, and lacking two members of the pack."
"What does Jacob think?" Carlisle wanted to know.
"He's not as optimistic."
Carlisle frowned as he read the printouts from the heart monitor, and his hand went towards to Bella.
"Don't touch her! You'll wake her up," I whispered. The baby seemed to be keeping still and that was allowing Bella some real, deep sleep…I didn't want anything to spoil that.
Carlisle sighed. "Rosalie…"
I narrowed my eyes. "Don't start with me Carlisle. We let you have your way earlier, but that's all we're allowing." You too Edward…don't start with me. She's coping okay, and we just have to wait.
Even as we watched though, Bella gagged and choked a little in her sleep and automatically both Edward and I moved towards her. Her body shuddered and she whimpered, and I stroked a cool hand across her forehead, smoothing her limp hair away from her forehead. I looked up to see Edward glaring at me with such complete and utter hatred that I instinctively braced myself for an attack. Despite everything we were facing it would not have surprised me if he had thrown himself at me across Bella's body and torn me apart right then.
I was not the only one to see the look. Emmett pushed me unceremoniously behind him as he held up a placating hand to Edward. "Not tonight Edward," he said calmly. "We've got other things to worry about."
Edward turned away, and I couldn't help but wonder if he would ever forgive me for what I was doing here. I truly believed that I couldn't do other than what I was doing for Bella, but there was an unrelenting ache of grief in my heart at the knowledge of what this schism was doing to our family.
Emmett folded me into his arms and for a minute I relaxed, feeling the warm, solid strength of him against me. At least I had him, with his big heart and loving kindness and everlasting devotion, even in the face of all my tempers and prickliness and issues!
Sam and the pack didn't attack that night. Jacob and Seth continued to run patrol in a wide looping arc around the border of our property, and Emmett fretted and paced the living room because he couldn't be out there with them. I stood guard over Bella, listening to her laboured breathing and the beat of her heart, alert for even the slightest change. Carlisle was right that we were approaching a critical point- she couldn't keep going like this.
She slept most of the night, waking early the next morning. I carried her into the bathroom and helped her there, and then she lay in the bed as Edward sat beside her holding her hand. They didn't talk, and as I looked at Edward's set face and dead eyes I realised with a pang that he had given up hope.
Don't look at her like she's already dead! She's trying so hard Edward…give her a little credit. She can still get through this!
He made no sign that he'd heard me, but moments later he at least relaxed his face enough to smile. I looked away.
Emmett, Alice and Jasper were talking together upstairs. Esme was humming tunelessly, and I could hear Carlisle sitting on the porch with Jacob, both of them talking in low voices, although I didn't bother listening. I was too busy trying to calculate the baby's current growth rate and how many more days gestation it might need, versus how many days Bella could possibly keep going. It didn't matter what I did or how I calculated…I couldn't make the numbers match up.
"I'll be right back Bella. I want to speak with Carlisle for a moment. Actually Rosalie, would you mind accompanying me?" Edward's voice sounded different as he spoke into the silence.
"What is it, Edward?" Bella asked, and I waited suspiciously for his answer.
"Nothing you need worry about, love," he said gently. "It will just take a second. Please, Rose?"
You're saying please to me now? Must be something important…"Esme? Can you mind Bella for me?" I called.
"Of course." Esme flitted into the room and smiled, standing beside Bella and smoothing her hair with one of her instinctive motherly gestures.
Warily I followed Edward out onto the porch, keeping a safe distance between the two of us. I didn't trust him an inch at the moment, and with Jacob on his side…I wished Emmett was with me.
"Carlisle," Edward said quietly, closing the door behind him. "Perhaps we've been going about this the wrong way. I was listening to you and Jacob just now, and when you were speaking of the what the…foetus wants, Jacob had an interesting thought. We haven't actually addressed that angle. We've been trying to get Bella what she needs, and her body is accepting it about as well as one of ours would. Perhaps we need to address the needs of the…foetus first. Maybe if we can satisfy it, we'll be able to help her more effectively."
"I'm not following you Edward," Carlisle said.
"Think about it Carlisle. If that creature is more vampire than human, can't you guess what it craves- what it's not getting? Jacob did."
"Oh!" Carlisle sounded surprised, and then thoughtful. "You think it's…thirsty?"
Ohhh. I hissed under my breath. "Of course!" I knew all too well what it felt like to be thirsty, to have only one thing in the world that would satisfy that desperate craving… "Carlisle we have all that type O negative laid aside for Bella," I said, trying to contain my excitement at the fact that we just might have something that we could do. Something that might work… "It's a good idea," I added, not being able to bring myself to look at the source of this good idea.
"Hmm. I wonder…" Carlisle frowned reflectively. "And then, what would be the best way to administer…"
I shook my head. "We don't have time to be creative. I'd say we should start with the traditional way."
Jacob looked revolted. "Wait a minute. Just hold on...are you- are you talking about making Bella drink blood?"
I'm sorry if that offends your delicate sensibilities, you stupid mutt, but what the hell do you think we all do to get by? "It was your idea, dog," I scowled.
Jacob glared at me. "That's just…"
"Monstrous?" Edward suggested. "Repulsive?"
Oh, you're so helpful Edward!
"Pretty much."
"But what if it helps her?" Edward whispered, and I saw the small spark of hope in his eyes.
"What are you gonna do, shove a tube down her throat?" Jacob asked aggressively.
"I plan to ask her what she thinks," Edward said loftily. "I just wanted to run it past Carlisle first."
"If you tell her it might help the baby, she'll be willing to do anything," I said practically. "Even if we do have to feed them through a tube." I looked irritably from one of the men to the next as they seemed to gaze around with hopeless indecision. "Well, we don't have time to sit around discussing this. What do you think, Carlisle? Can we try?"
Carlisle took a deep breath. "We'll ask Bella."
I couldn't stop my smile. Bella would say yes- she would say yes to anything that might help the baby. And really, could she be THAT revolted by the idea? For over a year she'd been pushing to become one of us, knowing all along what that would entail. Drinking blood...she was willing to do if for immortality, so wouldn't she be willing to do it now?
