Disclaimer: Still not mine.
Note: 2,000 words! To those of you who review each chapter: you make me really happy! Thank you so much for caring about my little story. This chapter has more of Emmett. ;) I really tried to catch Emmett's character, so this is a fun one.
Chapter 11
Bella traded the house plans from one hand to another so she could slip her hands on her apron to dry them. Jasper arrived early in the morning declaring that the doctor needed them.
Though early in the day, the June heat was building. The door to the doctor's office was open. Bella stood at the threshold and decided to knock-the doctor didn't just work here, he and his brothers lived here as well.
"Hey Eddie!" Emmett Cullen appeared in the hall and shouted up the staircase as he yanked Bella inside. "The plans are here!"
Of all the brothers, Emmett was the one who never ceased to startle her. His actions were swift and often unexpected.
Emmett grinned at her, unaware of how he practically had her in a panic. "Eddie said you think we should keep some of the 'lace' on the house. You better be ready for a fight because I'm holding out to eliminate every last one."
"It's your house." She managed to scoot away from him.
"That's what I'm telling them. I'll do most of the construction. I used to do a lot of the mine construction back home."
"Oh."
"Good morning, Miss Swan." The doctor descended the stairs. "I gave your brother the plans." She turned toward the door trying to make a quick escape.
"Actually, while you're here, I'd like your help with something."
"No fair askin' the lass. It's your own fault." Emmett folded his arms across his chest and growled at Bella, "He slept through breakfast."
"I didn't mean anything about food," the doctor snapped.
Emmett leaned toward her, "Pay no attention to his surly attitude. He gets this way often enough. One night with a little interruption, and he's cranky."
"So, you need breakfast?"
"No, I dinna need you minding my belly." The doctor scowled at his brother, "Go make yourself useful."
"Nae. 'Tis too much fun staying for the moment."
"This is a touchy subject," the doctor began.
The matter seemed dubious. Bella murmured, "Perhaps you should have someone else assist you."
"I doubt anyone else could help." The doctor sighed. "Come out back."
"You go on. I'm not fool enough to chance it," Emmett announced.
"Coward," the doc muttered.
Bella tagged along and tried to ignore the smell of scorched oatmeal as she passed the stove. She had no idea what she was getting herself into, but the brotherly banter struck her as amusing. Once she reached the back steps, she gave the doctor a confused look.
Features strained, he whispered, "So you dinna know what to do then either?"
She blinked, "About what?"
The doctor cringed at the normal volume she'd spoken in and whispered, "That." He pointed to a huge pasteboard box.
Bella leaned forward, looked inside, and started giggling.
"Now then," the doctor's brow puckered, "'tisna that funny."
"Just yesterday you told me you were going to get a house kit. I didn't think you meant this kind." She went down on her knees by the box where a cat was nursing a litter of kittens, but in contrast to all the other marmalade colored babies, one was black and white.
Doc leaned down and clamped his hands on her upper arms as she reached for the baby skunk. He murmured, "I wasna askin' you to get rid of the beast, just for advice. I read about them, and I dinna think it's wise for you to be so close."
"He's a spotted skunk. If he's ready to do mischief, he'll stand on his hands." She didn't pick up the kit. Instead, she rubbed each of the kittens in the litter. "They're all about the same size, about six weeks."
"So how do we reunite him with his mother? And how do we get rid of them all?"
Bella sat on her heels. "Spotted skunks don't stay any one place for long. They roam. The mother could be anywhere. She probably came to the house because you've set out some food for the cat."
"So she could return tonight and reclaim the kit?"
"It's possible but not probable. When mothers and their babies are apart, they don't come back together again." She turned to look at the doctor. "What you read told you how stinky a skunk is, but they are shy. They only protect themselves when they feel threatened."
"Why do you think three grown men are whispering and tiptoeing around?"
Bella covered a smile. "He isn't old enough to be weaned." She paused and decided to tease him, "You should name him Spotty."
"There's not need to name something that isn't staying."
"Hey, Eddie," Emmett's subtle-as-an-ox whisper drifted to them. "I've never been happier that you're the doctor."
"Why?"
"I just read something." Emmett stuck his head out. "You could operate and take out the stink glands. Yep. You're the doc." Just as quickly, Emmett disappeared again.
"There's no need to be hasty," the doctor said.
Bella grimaced. "Actually, after four weeks, they start to practice spraying. By six or eight weeks-"
"We're not keeping it around that long!"
"If the mother took him out at night, he's about six weeks."
Looking disgruntled, the doctor said, "His mother will come get him tonight."
Suddenly the humor of the situation evaporated. Bella averted her gaze, "Just because you want it happen does not mean it will."
Dr. Cullen heavily sat on the veranda beside her. "'Tis a harsh truth you just spoke."
Bella tried to rise, but he stopped her. "Dinna run, lass. You needn't speak a word. I plan to do a bit of talking."
"I have chores to do at home."
"A woman's work is ne'er done. Or so my ma always said, God rest her soul." The corners of his green eyes crinkled. "I canna be certain whether she's finally resting in heaven, or if she's bustling about with a broom, making sure the streets of gold gleam brighter."
The image coaxed a smile out of her.
"I oughtn't cast stones. My brothers taunt me about my tidy ways."
"Your patients would develop infections if you were slovenly."
He inclined his head in acknowledgment and glanced over his shoulder, then whispered, "Betwixt me and thee, times when my soul's most troubled, I've tried to busy my hands from thinking."
Her breath caught. "My da-he passed just before we reached America."
"I-I'm sorry."
"I still grieve for him, but 'tis only my own selfishness that causes me to. He was ailing for a long while, and now he's not in pain. A mining accident took his arm several years back. 'Twas the guilt money they settled on him that paid for my medical training. He claimed that the universe took a bad situation and turned it good."
Anger flashed through her. He'd better not tell me it's all for the good that Jacob abandoned me and I'm with child.
Unaware of her reaction, the doctor kept talking. "But 'twasna until his last hour that Da pointed out something that was right before my eyes. I cared for Da-leastways, for the needs of his ailing body. But Jasper-he's a man with a knack for wrapping quiet comfort like a blanket about others. Emmett-well, he manages to scowl others into behaving."
Bella concentrated on the kittens in the box. The doctor was right: the Cullen men were vastly different in their strengths and personalities.
"None of us is good at everything. We have strengths and weaknesses. You're a fine woman, Isabella Swan. Aye, you are, but you're going to have to lean on others to help you through what lies ahead."
She started to tremble. "I must leave."
"I'll walk you out." It would be rude to refuse his assistance rising from the veranda. Once she was up, Bella snatched back her hand.
"We obviously have a mama skunk close by. Go back through the front." He added, "Is there anything I should put out to entice the mother to come get the kit?"
Relief flooded through her. She could salvage her pride by leaving on a better note. "What did you have out last night?"
Emmett must have heard her because he started to chuckle.
Bella gave the doctor a questioning look.
His neck and ears went red. "Leftovers."
"Dinna believe him." Emmett served his brother a wallop on his back that would have felled a smaller man. "Eddie tried to bake beans. I've chewed on softer bullets."
It's my fault. I was upset yesterday and didn't send food. She stared at the wall and said, "Eggs. Skunks like eggs."
"How many?"
"I'd suppose you have one female and her litter of kits."
Doc chuckled. "One's more than enough. I meant, how many eggs should I put out? Half a dozen?"
"One or two."
He looked uncertain, "Fried?"
"Raw." She quickly added, "In the shell."
Emmett seemed to find the whole exchange vastly amusing. Until today, he'd always seemed so stern. Discovering it was nothing more than bluster made her bold. Bella walked toward freedom and called over her shoulder, "Emmett Cullen, you owe me for helping you. It's going to cost."
"Is that so?"
"Yes." She turned towed the doctor. "I count on you to make sure he pays his debt."
"You name it," Doc said.
"I can hardly wait," Emmett looked smug.
She gave the doctor's brother the same look she gave Alec when he misbehaved. "Gingerbread."
"Uh…I'm not any better at cooking than my brother."
The doctor tried to smother his laughter with a cough.
Bella cast him a quick glance, "But you are good at building things?"
"That's a fact." Suddenly, Emmett's face contorted, "Not my house!"
"Our house," the doctor corrected. "Miss Swan, what will satisfy the debt?"
"I'm a fair woman." She ignored Emmett's rude snort and continued. "The fan styled inset at the peak of the eaves. And if the mother returns and takes away the kit, whichever is cheaper: a spindled veranda or scalloped clapboards."
"If the skunk is gone, you'll have both, and we'll be coming out better in the bargain."
"You're demented." Emmett shook his head. "Any sane person would want a skunk as far away as possible, and you're trying to get it to come up on the porch!"
"You suggested I bring a skunk into my office and perform surgery!"
Bella left, surprised she was still smiling at the Cullen brothers. But she'd ridden no more than five feet before it happened. Women gave her pitying glances and turned away. The tiny bit of happiness vanished, and misery washed over her.
A/N: You have no idea how much information I had to look up on skunks!