Chapter Fourteen

Bella

By lunchtime we both knew it wasn't a chill but neither was I sick, the baby had got fed up of waiting and decided it wanted out. Char got me back upstairs with effort as the contractions kept doubling me up. Once on the bed she left me just long enough to ring Peter. He offered to come back but I refused, I wanted him to find Jasper for me. The pain seemed to go on for days although Char assured me it was only hours but finally with a huge push my baby was born and I heard its cry with relief. Char wiped it down and put it in my arms to hold, a tiny little creature with a wrinkled face and some blond hair plastered down at present. As it cried it opened its eyes and I saw they were a deep golden brown.

"Welcome to the world little one"

"It's a girl Bella, do you have a name for her?"

I shook my head, I had thought it tempting providence to think of names before it was safely delivered.

"Well you better think of one, we can't call her Baby Swan for ever"

"Baby Whitlock you mean"

Char smiled at me,

"I have to tell you she has her fathers face, look at her"

I did, more closely, and she was right, looking back at me was Jasper.

"It is his baby Char"

I was so relieved I held her close and kissed the top of her head,

"Hello baby, now we need to find your daddy."

Within a couple of days I was up and about although very tired and Char took over babysitting at the least excuse. I couldn't stop thinking of Jasper, he should be here experiencing his baby not locked away somewhere, I wouldn't entertain the idea he might be dead, no way. Charlotte rang Alice again at my nagging to see if she'd seen anything else but there was no news. I heard Alice ask after me,

"Mother and baby are both doing fine"

"Oh, she had the baby and its OK?"

"Yes, a little girl"

"What's Bella called her?"

"She hasn't yet."

"Is she...does she look like..."

"Yes Alice, she looks like Jasper."

"Well, give Bella my congratulations"

Charlotte

Peter rang that evening and after I told him the latest about baby he told me some news.

"I spoke to Genna this afternoon"

"How the hell did you manage that?"

"A friend of a friend, she wasn't happy but she agreed to talk to me for a few minutes."

"Did she know anything?"

"Yes she did, but not about The Major. She wont discuss him, you know how much she hates him"

"Yeah, yeah, so what did she say that was so interesting?"

"She's heard a rumor concerning the Hale Foundation, a rather interesting one as it happens."

"Oh yes."

"It seems our friendly neighborhood doctor is doing research into ways of stopping our skin reacting to sunlight."

"That would make things easier for us. I can see why he might find that interesting. Anything else"

"Yes. a by-product of his research is proving very successful at addiction management in humans."

"So that's what he's doing"

"Yes but he has a problem"

"Oh good, what?"

"One of the ingredients used to make this miracle addiction beater is venom. He needs to find a way of explaining it away before he can market the drug, it's just being trialed for now."

"Venom eh? Do you think he supplys it himself?"

"I've no idea, that would depend on how much his wonder drug uses I suppose. Maybe the family all cough up a little for daddy's work who knows. That's all I have for now but I'm waiting on a call from Louise, Dinah's friend in Italy, she knows something about the good doctor but they have to persuade her to talk to me first."

Bella

I wondered if the drug Carlisle had been giving me contained venom too or was my medicine different altogether.

"So Carlisle is using a drug made partly with vampire venom to wean humans off drugs or something and at the same time trying to find the magical ingredients for stopping you looking like twinkle lights in the sun."

"Yes that's about it. Not that it helps us much."

I felt my blood go cold and my skin crawl with the thought that had just entered my head. She saw my expression and frowned,

"Bella are you OK?

"I just had an idea"

My mouth was so dry I could hardly talk and I felt physically sick.

"How do you test drugs Charlotte?"

"On animals then people"

"Yes but how would you test a drug meant for vampires exclusively?"

"I don't know, try it on a control group in the same way I guess."

"I think it's all tied to Jasper's disappearance Char. Carlisle needed a guinea pig, he doesn't know what this drug will do to a vampire. He also needs a supply of venom."

"So?"

"He's using Jasper for both."

"No way. He'd never get The Major to agree to that"

"I don't think Jasper is doing it willingly, I think Carlisle has some way of keeping him prisoner.

"How did he subdue The Major in the first place?"

"I have no idea, but it makes sense. More sense than making me pregnant. Maybe that was just a little experiment on the side, to see if he could do it."

Peter

I'd listened to Bella's theory and it gave me the fucking creeps but if she was right then Carlisle would lead me to his Guinea Pig, all I had to do was follow the good doctor. His private clinic was in the grounds of one of the hospitals on the outskirts of Boston. It was very upmarket with lots of smoked glass and gleaming chrome. The patients coming to and fro were quite obviously loaded, expensive cars, chauffeurs, fur coats, and plenty of glittering jewelry. I'd taken a risk by going into the reception area when it was momentarily unmanned and taken a brochure and sitting in my vantage point, the top of a tall tree which gave me a good view all round I opened the sleek glossy brochure and flicked through it. So it was an exclusive and extremely expensive rehab clinic for the rich and not quite famous. They came here to beat their love of painkillers or booze helped by the cutting edge medical skills of the Hale foundation, the good Dr Cullen was hiding behind his daughter's name, that's why Bella had been unable to trace him.

By the third day I had the routine down pat, first thing came the workers who opened the place up, set up the computers for the day, got the consulting rooms ready, then at eight Carlisle would appear usually with Esme and Rosalie. That had thrown me at first but Esme seemed to be designing an extension so business must be booming. Rosalie stayed all day and I never saw her until lunchtime when the two of them plus Esme if she'd hung around would disappear for "lunch", usually meeting Emmett at the house where they would split up, Carlisle to his study, Esme to her work room, and Rose and Emmett just went for a walk or sat together talking. It was all very normal and ordinary, at about 2 pm they would appear back at the clinic with Emmett who stayed about an hour before leaving alone to hunt. He always seemed thirsty when he came out and that intrigued me. What was he doing that made him so thirsty in the course of an hour? Neither of the other two reappeared before 7 pm when the clinic was shutting for the night, there were no overnight patients here.