Chapter 29
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Twilight related objects like Twilight or Eclipse, Stephenie Meyer does. I only own this story line.
We've been stuck in this tight, cramped, noisy city for months now! If we don't do something to get out of here I think that I will go crazy. There's one thing that we've been putting off, and would be a delight to have happen…
Alice squealed in the room next door, followed by several large crashes, Jasper's raised voice from across the hall, and a few doors slamming.
"Oh my Carlisle, oh my Carlisle, oh my Carlisle!" Alice barged through my hotel room door with another large bang. I winced, not only for the noise, but for the barrage to follow.
"There's so much to do!"
"Alice, I'm warning you now. If you can't get it done within a week, it's not happening. It's going to be a tight ceremony for our family only, and the Denali clan. You've already seen what it's going to look like, so I am not participating in any shopping trips. You'd better get to work while take care of the finer details."
"What finer details?" She asked, confused.
"Um, the little one that might consist of the groom not knowing about his wedding day…"
"Oh, right." A smirk appeared in the corner of her lips.
I rolled my eyes and watched the hyper-active pixy dart about, planning things and muttering to herself, and every once in a while being frozen in mid-step by a vision, but nonetheless it was hilarious to see.
I sighed, and wondered what Edward had gotten himself into.
"Alice, do you know where Edward is?"
She paused for a moment, listening and thinking. "I think he's in the lounge with Emmett and Rosalie, or will be shortly."
"Thanks."
I made my way down to the lounge, and just as Alice had predicted, there sat Emmett and Rosalie torturing Edward, who was looking at the window with a strange longing. A small smile crept onto my lips as I watched the scene.
"Edward? Can I talk to you?" I asked with an uncertain tone. He turned around quickly to see me, smiling, and sporting something else that almost looked like relief.
"Of course! Privately?" It was more of a plea than a question, but I nodded regardless. He quickly took my upper arm in his gently and dragged me out of the room, out through the hotel doors, and out into a private wooded area behind the hotel.
He finally stopped, but I was too breathless to say what I knew needed to be said.
"It would really help if you stayed out of Alice and Jasper's heads while I try to say this, ok?" I finally said when I could.
"Anything. Is everything alright?" his tone started to get a bit anxious and worried. I nodded and tried to articulate my words.
"Yes, everything's ok, I just needed to inform you of something."
"It's time, isn't it?" he whispered, excitement starting to flood into his voice. I nodded again.
"I can't imagine how Jasper's been taking my emotions. I need out, I need to be free for even a short weekend. Away from the sleepless eyes of the media! People stop, point, and stare when I walk into a building! People shake their heads in pity and some of them have even hugged me while passing by!! I need out! I just want to breathe with my family for a while. I'd just like to go back to forks for one weekend. Even a day. Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate what your…our family is doing for me, it's just that it is a really good time to get married, take a breather, and reaffirm what we are doing in the city and stop cutting each others' throats. This thing is taking forever."
When I got finished my rant, I noticed that we were hugging, my head tucked under his chin, and his hands were running soothingly up and down my back.
"It all sounds wonderful, it's just that…the Forks idea, it's not such a good idea as the rest of it."
"What? Is anything wrong?" He seemed to be phrasing his words very carefully.
"There have been some very dangerous animals in the area, and they've been hurting people. I'd rather that you weren't in the area until they clean up the mess."
I snorted, and averted my gaze back to the hotel.
"What?" he said with a bit of irritation.
"Animals? Dangerous? To you?" I could only imagine how amused my voice sounded. A voice deep in my mind screamed out my worst fears. He was just making excuses not to marry me. He had no intentions of marrying me. I just shook my head and wriggled out of his grasp, then made my way back to the hotel.
"Where are you going?" His irritation was increasing, and so was mine.
"You're just making excuses! You eat mountain lions for amusement, but you're worried about an animal hurting me? Just go hunt it and destroy it, end of problem!"
"It's not that easy! I would explain if I could, but I can't, ok? I'm not making excuses. Can you accept that Vampires aren't the only mythical creatures that are real?"
"Just tell me! I'd have a hard time believing that a griffin was prowling the perimeter of our wonderful town of Forks."
"Very funny. You don't really believe, do you? You just think that this is a joke. This is no joke, Isabella."
"ISABELLA? Formal now are we? Maybe I am blind. I do believe in vampires, but I'm beginning to think twice about us."
I just stormed off to the hotel at my quickest pace, my worst fears coming true right before me. The only thing that could make life worse would be Lucia. A picture of Lucia in Edward's arms flashed to my mind, he bent down and kissed her passionately. My stomach turned and just as I raced into my room I raced into the bathroom and vomited in the toilet. Tears started flowing down my cheek unstopped, and soon I was sobbing and hyperventilating between bouts of vomiting fits. When my system finally calmed down to the point where I was only sobbing, but a bloody mess, stone arms carried me out and placed me gently on my bed. Exhaustion quickly claimed me.
I woke up feeling half dead, and I was also quite alone. My eyes were puffy, cheeks stained, lips bleeding from where I was biting, and my stomach still felt unstable but empty. I brushed my teeth, tried to comb out my rat nests, utterly failed, and just hopped in the shower. After I came out, I found Alice just outside my bathroom door with waiting clothes.
"I got some clothes that are a sacrifice on both our parts; stylish for me yet conservative and comfortable for you."
"Thanks Alice."
"You need to talk, don't you?" I just nodded a bit and turned around re-entering the bathroom to get dressed.
Afterwards, I went over and folded myself unceremoniously on the bed, then stared over at Alice.
"How do you feel?" She asked me, but already knew the question.
"I feel dead. Really. I had a big fight with Edward. A fight. I'm not sure about anything right now, it just seemed like he was making up excuses when I said that I wanted to get married or even just a visit to Forks, but he complained about wild animals, I laughed, he made up another excuse why he couldn't just destroy it. I feel trapped, Alice. I can't take much more of this. I am going to break; I already broke a bit last night. Oh, by the way, thanks for taking care of me."
Alice just stared down at the floor. "It wasn't me. It was Edward."
"I do need to talk with him, but I can't face another fight. I'm so afraid, afraid that he doesn't love me, doesn't want me; that I am angering him, or frustrating him, or boring him, that he's just doing it so that I won't make a scene or that he feels guilty. I don't know, I just don't know anymore."
"The last time I checked, you weren't Jasper. It's just the pressure of everything, and your fears with Lucia so close. You really really need to talk with Edward. He's been locked up in his bathroom, growling at anybody who comes remotely near it."
"Oh Edward." I breathed out, wanting to break out into another fit of sobbing and crying. A large bang that I instinctively knew as damage rang through the halls.
"Emmett, Rose, Jasper, Carlisle, are you ready?" I looked up to Alice with faint interest, tears still sneaking down my already tear-swollen cheek.
I heard another cracking of wood, a strangely familiar blood curdling growl/hiss combination, and a sound of several boulders ramming together at high speeds. Everything seemed so fast from there.
"Fuck!!"
"Rosalie!"
"He's getting away!"
I saw Alice flinch and tense, almost as if she was preparing herself for pouncing into action. I froze, along with my blood, at the thought of his family gaining up against him on my behalf. It felt treacherous.
"What's going on Alice?"
"Edward was always difficult; and nearly impossible to gang-up on."
I heard a whisper cross my ears caringly: "Bella."
"Edward!" I whispered back, and then screamed with everything I had. "EDWARD!"
Alice just paced about the room with her hands wringing each other and a fierce look of concentration on her face.
"I guess…" she started. Personally, I found it unnerving when Alice had to guess, it also meant that nothing good was going to come of it. "…That we're going to have to let the 'secret' reveal itself, or themselves. Maybe this will resolve itself. It's risky, but I can only see this as our only choice."
"What about Edward?"
"I don't know."
A/N: Yes, the wolves will play a part, and no it is still ExB, keep in mind that Twilight or New Moon haven't happened, and also Bella's past.
