Thanks to all my reviewers and avid readers! I love you all! Cait, you always find the cutest things to wear and Beta my stories...I couldn't ask for a better 'sister'. So, on with it, and hold onto your seats my lovelies, this one's going to be a little bumpy :) Warning: This one is definitely on the darker side towards the middle and the rape will be remembered.
Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns these characters and the awesomeness that is Twilight! I'm just subjecting them to my fun little schemes. I do own Jasper Cat. Literally. I have a 17 lb tabby named Jasper Cat. :)
Previously on Waiting for the End: His blood ran cold. Sitting straight up in bed, he dialed Emmett. Please, don't let him see her! Please, let her get out of there safely! The phone rang and rang. There was no answer, so he decided to try Bella.
Chapter 21
Edward paced his hotel room, phone to his ear, in total panic mode. He'd tried Emmett—twice, he tried Bella—three times, he'd tried Rosalie—it rang as if she was on the phone with someone else, he even tried Alice and Jasper who answered and said they were on their way to his parent's. Alice was having pains and Jasper wanted their dad to check her out. Now, he had no one left to call, no one to tell him what was going on. He did call the Seattle PD to report that Newton was at the club. There was one other person he could think to call, the person who had told him Newton was there in the first place.
Tanya answered on the first ring, "Where are you? Your brother is going apeshit on this guy!"
"Tanya? Is Bella okay? Can you still see her?"
"No, we're outside," he heard police sirens in the background, "Tanya, talk, what the hell's going on?"
"We saw that Mike was here so I called you to let you know. Kate called the police. Now, we're outside watching the show go down. Why aren't you here?"
"I'm in Chicago! Listen, I need you to look around. Do you see Bella anywhere?"
"No. I see Rosalie standing by their vehicle but Bella isn't there. I think she's still inside with Emmett. Rose is talking on the phone with someone," there was a shuffling sound, and then she said, "They're bringing Mike out now! No one's allowed in or out. Holy shit!"
"What? Tanya, tell me."
"Em's in cuffs too! They're leading him to a car...oh my, God, they're arresting him too!"
"FUCK! Do you see Bella? Is she alright?"
"No," Tanya began to sound distracted, she was saying something to someone in the background.
"She's NOT alright?"
"Huh? No, no, well I don't know. She's not coming out. I don't see her. Rose and Carmen are talking to the police, I think they're trying to get Emmett out of trouble."
"Alright, I can't believe I'm going to do this, but I need you to go back in and check on Bella. Actually, ask Kate to do it. Take your phone, don't hang up, give it to Kate and let her go in."
"I'm going with her! She's not going in there by herself! I'll behave," she said, sounding a little offended.
"Dammit, just do it. Go," On the other end he could hear another familiar siren, his heart about stopped "Is that an ambulance?"
"Yeah, Edward, they aren't letting anyone inside."
He listened, completely powerless. All he knew was that she was alone, in a club, where the man who raped her had just shown up. He'd fought with Emmett. Now, they were both being arrested. Bella couldn't even handle loud voices, let alone a bar fight. He knew she wasn't going to take this well. He listened to voices in the background. There was a lot of talking, he could hear Rose arguing with someone. "Let me in! She's my sister-in-law! Her husband is out of town! She has no family but me here!"
"Rose!" This time he heard Tanya's voice again, "Rosalie! Take this. It's Edward. Give it to her! They're not going to let me in."
He heard shuffling, a door open, and it became much quieter. He could hear heels clicking on the floor and soon after, heard murmurs of men. "Where is she?" Rose demanded, then, "Bella! Thank God! Are you okay? Bella, talk to me!"
"M'am, she won't speak to any of us. We think she's in shock."
"Was she harmed?" Rose demanded.
"No. We think she's just scared," the man said more sympathetically.
Edward's heart twisted. I NEVER should have left her. I can't believe this is fucking happening! The fucking bastard took off for two weeks and just now appears—when I'm fucking out of town.
"Bella," he heard Rose ask quietly, "Hey sweetie, Edward's on the phone. Will you talk to him? I'm sure he's really scared right now. Just tell him you're safe and we can go home. I'll take you home."
"I think we are taking her to the hospital..."
"No. You aren't. I'm taking her back to our father-in-laws. He's a doctor. She's afraid of hospitals, it will make things worse for her," Rose interrupted. Edward realized how much he loved Rosalie at that moment. "Bella, talk to him. He's already on the phone!"
After a few more seconds, Rose got on the phone, "Edward? Are you still there?"
"Yeah, Rose, what's going on? Is she okay?"
"She's in shock. She's not talking to anyone. I tried to get her to talk to you. Look, I'm going to take her to mom and dad's, then I need to figure out what to do about Em. They fucking arrested him."
"On what charges?"
"Assault and battery! How fucking ridiculous, right? He was protecting Bells!"
"Rose, he's got a wife and a brother who are both lawyers. The guys at the station know that. I'm sure the charges will be dropped. Take Bella to dad, he'll know what to do. Just get her home. I'm going to call dad and tell him about Bella."
With Bella sound asleep upstairs, Emse, Carlisle, Rose, Jasper and Alice all sat around the large dining room table. It was almost two am. Rose couldn't post Emmett's bail until he was finished with the booking process. She'd given him some free legal advice when they were loading him into the police car and she prayed he wouldn't say anything stupid. Emmett always had a way of opening his big trap and getting himself in trouble.
"So, what's next?" Alice asked, quietly, rubbing her belly.
"I don't know," Esme replied, rubbing her face with her palms.
"Well, I think Bella's finally calmed down and asleep. I can't pick Emmett up yet. I still have Tanya's phone. Edward needs to be called..."
"He called six times already," Alice sighed, "we didn't know what to say to him. We don't want him to come home until we talk to Bella. You know how he gets, he's probably going to freak out."
"He's already freaking out," Rose argued, pulling out her own phone. Edward answered on the first ring. "Edward, it's Rose, we're all here—except Em and Bella. You're on speaker."
"What the hell happened tonight? Why haven't you called me back? Where's Bells? Is she safe?"
"Bella's going to be fine, Edward, she's asleep upstairs. We didn't call you because we were trying to calm her down and figure out what to do about Emmett. I ran over to the apartment to get her pills and Jasper and Alice are dealing with some baby issues."
"Is Alice alright?"
"Me and baby Whitlock are fine, Edward. Just Braxton hicks. I thought maybe it was labor but I was wrong," Alice said cheerfully, despite the crazy night they'd just had.
"What's going on with Em?"
"He's being booked. As soon as I can get down there, I'm posting his bail but I have this strange feeling that the assholes down there are taking their sweet ass time on purpose. Emmett's been in trouble with them before for fighting and the drug issue in high school. I don't know much else."
Everyone became quiet. Rose looked around anxiously at everyone. No one knew what to say. Finally, she added, "They got him, Edward. Mike's behind bars. He can't touch her. I know what happened tonight was horrific for her but Emmett didn't let him lay a finger on her. It could have been bad but it wasn't. She was just shocked to see him. I promise you, she's safe now."
Things got quiet again and she was just about to say goodnight when they heard Bella's crying upstairs...obviously, she hadn't fallen asleep yet. Esme stood up and walked towards the stairs, now Jasper spoke. "I'm going to say this because no one else wants to do it. You need to come home. She needs you. She doesn't want anyone else. You should be here."
"I'm about five steps ahead of ya, man. I've got to go, they're calling my flight."
"Have safe one, bro," Alice responded.
"Don't worry about tomorrow. I'll call my dad and let him know if he gives you shit about this, he'll never meet his grandkids."
"Are you..." Edward began to ask.
"No. Not yet, anyway. Just have a safe flight and we'll see you in a few hours.
Bella fell asleep to Esme rocking her gently. She wanted Edward but knew he was hours away. She would have to settle for his mom. She did eventually give into exhaustion.
'Mike..." Bella half whispered, half whimpered, "why...why are you doing this to me?"
"Because you're a tease, sexy girl. I found it a little too easy to go after the ones I get completely trashed...this is so much more...exhilarating. We can do this the hard way or the easy way but God, I hope you pick the hard way. I love watching you fight."
Mike hauled her up off the floor and threw her into the bay window. On her way, she grabbed a large hard cover book sitting on the shelf and slammed it against the window, hoping to break it open so she could get out. It broke alright, glass scattered on the porch. She turned to crawl out but he grabbed her thigh and flipped her over so she was looking up at him. He held her down with such force, she thought his palm was going to go through her pelvis.
He ripped her shirt off, followed by her bra, "We can do this in the window. I don't mind. Everyone can see us this way. They can see how disgusting you are. How much of a whore you are. Maybe that husband of yours will choose tonight to drive past. Let's give him a show, baby."
She started to scream, knowing this was actually going to happen. He was reaching for her jeans as she began to thrash against him. "Go ahead, and scream, baby. The windows open, let everyone hear what we're doing."
Bella fought for another couple of minutes but just learned it caused her to hurt even more. He held her down with even more force, pinching and hitting her, just to hear her cry. If she fought, he thrust into her harder. He had a knife and threatened to cut her, down there, if she didn't stop. Shaking and completely terrified, she stayed as still as possible. When he was done with her, he threw her away from the window and down onto the carpet. She passed out.
She was out for about twenty minutes. When she came to, she realized she hurt too bad to stand up, so she stayed there until she knew Mike was definitely gone. Dragging her body across the floor, through the shattered glass, she reached up and knocked the phone off the table. Picking it up, she fought the urge to call Edward, instead she called his mom.
Esme answered in a kind, almost hopeful voice, "Bells?"
"Hey..."she choked out, "I need..."
"Bella? What's wrong, sweetheart?" Bella couldn't talk, she could only cry. It was a loud sobbing cry. "Where are you? I'm coming to get you!"
"Home..." When they got off the phone, Bella crawled up the two stairs into the front foyer. She stood up awkwardly in order to turn the door knob. Hunched over, she made her way to the porch steps before dropping to her knees. There was blood pouring onto the finished wood. There was blood all over her...
Bella woke up with a loud gasp. Sitting straight up in bed, she rubbed at her skin, still able to see the blood from that night. She was sobbing and shaking and all she wanted was Edward. The familiar churning feeling hit her and she ran for the bathroom. For the second time in two weeks, she vomited in her in-law's bathroom. Reaching over, she turned the shower on, intending to get in but realized she didn't have the strength and decided to stay on the bathroom floor, letting the steam fill the room. It's warmth wrapped around her.
Her shaking hadn't stopped. She thought she saw a figure in the steam and panicked. Turning the water off, she pulled herself up and realized she was just being paranoid. No, not paranoid, scared. Completely fucking terrified. Flipping off the light switch, she headed downstairs to the kitchen, walking right over to the block of knives. She chose the biggest one there. As she looked at her reflection on the blade, she thought back to what Mike had said.
Bella watched in horror as Mike and Emmett took turns throwing punches. Emmett's face was bleeding, Mike's mouth was gushing blood. Angela was screaming in vain for them to stop. She couldn't breathe, bringing her hands to her ears, she sat back against the wall. Sliding down she began to cry. Angela tried to help her but she screamed as soon as she made contact. Ben was trying to talk to Mike, to get him to stop. When Mike tried to stand up, Emmett pulled him back down. With Emmett on top of him now, his face smashed into the ground, Mike looked up at her with a bloodied mouth.
"Hey, baby. Don't worry. I'll find you again. That husband of your has nothing on me. I know you're back together. I'll take care of that problem later," he grinned. Emmett brought his head up and slammed it back into the ground. Bell let out a silent scream as she heard bones crunch. She closed her eyes and thought of Edward, trying to block everything out. Before she knew it, a police officer was trying to get her attention. No one was around. She was alone. There was blood on the floor in front of her.
With shaking hands, Bella went to go back upstairs with her knife when she heard snoring in the living room. She snuck over and peeked in. Alice was in the recliner, probably too uncomfortable to lie down. Jasper was on the couch beside her, the source of the snoring. Bella didn't want to go back upstairs. She didn't feel safe. Grabbing a blanket off the back of the loveseat, she curled up, setting the knife on the arm of the loveseat beside her.
She woke up the next morning and realized she was now on the bigger couch. Reaching for the knife, she began to panic again when she saw it was nowhere near her. "Bella, shhhh, you're okay."
"Jasper..." it was the first thing Bella said since the club, "oh, God."
Alice pulled herself up off the recliner and waddled over. She rubbed Bella's arm soothingly as Jasper hugged her. "He's going to kill him. Mike's going to kill him!"
"Bella, Mike's not going to hurt anyone. He's in jail. Rosalie just left to pick up Emmett. Em's safe."
"No, Edward! He's going to kill Edward!"
"He's in jail! He can't hurt you or anyone else. I swear."
Bella turned to see Edward walking through the doorway, his large duffle bag swung over his shoulder. She began to cry again, scared that something could happen to him because of her, because she tried to push him away. Dropping the bag, he walked right over to her, Jasper backed away so he could get to her. She clung to him while at the same time crying, "You can't be here. Mike's coming. He's going to hurt you!"
Edward had finally gotten her to calm down and they explained to her for the hundredth time that Mike was in jail, where he would be, for a long, long time. He was safe. She was safe. It was finally over. He was sitting in the large bathtub with her, rubbing her arms and kissing her hair. "I never should have left you, Bells. I don't know what the hell I was thinking."
"I'm glad you're here now," Bella said, playing with the bubbles.
"Me too."
"So, it's over? After all this? Mike's behind bars for good?" Edward was silent a bit too long, she tried to turn to face him, "What? What is it?"
"He's behind bars for now but you do realize you're going to have to go to court over this. It's going to be pretty nasty. I also don't know that I can represent you..."
"Why?"
"I'm your husband. I don't know that it will be allowed. I'll have to talk to Trent."
"What if you can't? Can Rose?"
"I have someone in mind already...just let me ask around work. We'll have to figure this out soon and I'm also going to make sure no one tries to represents him from our firm."
"Do I know the person you have in mind?"
"You know of him, Collin O'Brien. He's good, Bella. Really fucking good."
"Well, let's deal with this later, I'm starting to get wrinkly."
Wrapped in a thick warm robe and slipper boots, Bella followed him down to where the rest of the family was all chatting. Emmett had made it home and she was shocked at first. He had a bandage over his cheek and the side of his face was swollen and purple. She knew he'd done it for her and it made her smile. She practically ran over to him and hugged him tightly to her. "Thanks, Em. I love you, big brother."
"Anytime, Bells," he said with a smirk. Bella turned back around and was surprised to see Tanya standing beside Rosalie. She was holding the phone Rose had given to her last night—the same one Edward had been on. When she turned to question him, she saw him returning Emmett's smirk as the two brother's clapped the others hand and then gave each other a hug. Edward was beaming, totally proud of his brother. "Fuck man, I'm regretting that I wasn't there to help you."
"Wasn't needed," Emmett said, shrugging, "I only let him do this so he wouldn't run and I could press charges against him too. Plus, now me and Bells match."
In spite of everything, she found herself laughing and Edward wrapped his arms around her. She was tired of fighting with him about Tanya. Not wanting to make a scene, she pushed Tanya aside in her mind and kept her mouth shut. Until Edward turned towards her...
"Tan, thanks. I probably wouldn't have even known about it being that my family probably would have decided not to tell me," he said, only half joking.
"Don't worry about it. You'd do the same for me. It would hurt you if something happened to her."
"Well, thanks, and tell Kate I said so too."
"Will do. Well, I guess I should head out..." she pointed behind her with her thumbs.
"Yeah..." he said awkwardly.
She turned to walk away and Rose stepped forward to walk her out. When they were gone she looked at Edward. "Why were you on her phone," she asked, more out of curiosity than anything.
"She called to warn me Newton was there. She saw you and assumed I was with you. Basically, she was just warning me and when I couldn't get ahold of anyone, I called her back to see if you were safe. She was waiting outside with Kate. It was the longest five minute phone conversation I've ever had. She was the only one I could get a hold of. I asked her to check on you and they wouldn't let her in so she handed her phone off to Rose."
"Oh."
"Come on, let's go home, angel," Edward said, kissing her forehead. His family had scattered around the house and Emmett and Rose were getting ready to leave too. "Since I'm now off this weekend, maybe we can get the house fixed up. I can call the contractor..."
"No! I mean...not yet."
"Okay," Edward said, slowly, raising an eyebrow. "Let's just go back to the apartment then. I think we could both use some serious cuddling and sleep."
"Deal," Bella said with a smile. Breathing a sigh of relief, she followed him towards the front door. She had no idea how to tell him she didn't want to go back to that house. At least, she knew she couldn't live there, not again. Not now, that she could remember what happened with Mike. Edward was going to be devastated.
For now, she reveled in having him back, though she still felt guilty. It amazed her how much she could be comforted by him just being there. Now, he had on thick gray sweatpants, and an old hockey t-shirt. She was still in her robe with just a pair of his boxers and a cami underneath. She left her boots on as they made their way out to the Vanquish. Settling in, Bella slept the whole drive home.
Hope you found this one a little more exciting than the last couple chappies! Let me know what you think and don't worry, there will always be more drama ;) I'm kind of feelin'a lemon but I'm not very good at writing them, so who the heck knows... Until next time, LP xo