New Moon Rewound
Disclaimer: All the characters in the story are the property of Stephanie Meyer. I have borrowed them for my entertainment and (hopefully) your reading pleasure. I make no profit from their use.
Author's Note: I know that the chapters seem to be getting longer, but I am not trying to drag the story out. I like details so it is taking me a longer to get to the conclusion than I anticipated. I hope that you enjoy it anyway.
Chapter 36: Changing Winds
When the time came for Rosalie to make her apology to Bella, tell her story, and ask her forgiveness, my sister rose to the occasion. She was especially tense because she knew that I could read every thought, spoken or unspoken, in her mind. That was why I wanted to be there. I could have been doing it in another room, but I thought that it would be more honest, and in the end less nerve-wracking, if we were sitting across from each other.
In the end, it helped that Emmett and I were both there, and we helped pick up her story when things overwhelmed her. Even Esme and Carlisle showed up towards the end. By that point it wasn't even about supporting Bella anymore, it was about supporting both of them. When all was said and done, Rosalie had needed more support than Bella anyway.
There is no doubt that Bella is growing stronger emotionally. She is learning to stand up for herself, and less likely to let people walk all over her. Rosalie basically had to back off on a lot of the more irrational and hurtful things that she had previously said and admit that she was wrong. It was not easy for her to admit her ambivalent feelings toward Carlisle, but as Esme said, Bella needed to understand them.
In a family such as ours, potentially living together for centuries, secrets are impossible to keep. More than that, they are potentially very divisive. With my mind-reading ability, everyone is constantly held to account. You can only think in an obscure foreign language for so long, before it makes you start to go crazy.
Following the big confrontation, Jasper and Alice bring us the news of the fourth wolf.
"That will be Embry," Bella says. "At least it was in my dream."
Nobody even thought twice about it. Carlisle had told us that one way to keep Bella calm and steady whenever she made statements like that was treat them as if they were normal, something like the way that we treat Alice's visions.
"Okay," Emmett says. "Do you think that we should check it out?"
"Wait a minute!" I say. "When I was listening to them on Saturday night, Jared said that the next one to phase would be Jacob. His birthday is in January. When is Embry's birthday?"
"I don't know," Bella says. "But I do know that Jacob's is in January. But come to think of it, then, I'm confused."
"Why are you confused?" I ask.
"Didn't you say that the wolves have to be descended from Taha Aki?" she asks.
"Yes, why?" I ask.
"Embry's mother is a Makah, but he doesn't have a father. rather his mother never said who his father was," she says looking puzzled. "Jacob told me that everyone assumes his father was another Makah."
"Emily is a Makah too," I point out. "And she is Leah's cousin. Both Harry and Sue are in the wolf the genealogy so to speak. I'm guessing we don't know whose niece she is."
"Or how many cousins removed she is," Bella adds. "They call each other cousin even if they are second or third. When I was a kid it was confusing because it seemed to me that all the kids on the reservation were cousins with each other."
"This actually does make sense because to keep the Native American blood pure they must have had some intermarriage," Carlisle says. "I believe that the Makahs and the Quileutes have always been close. I wouldn't be surprised if there were marriages not only between them, but also with the Hohs over the years. And Taha Aki must have many descendants, even if they're all not related to the three last wolves."
"Listen," Emmett says. "I know that you guys like talking about all of this gene stuff, but we should find out what's going on over there. I think that we need Edward to go out and see what he can overhear. I sure as hell don't speak wolf."
He looks pissed and we all have to laugh. It breaks the tension.
Carlisle looks at Bella.
"It would be really useful if Edward could go out and see if he could hear what they are thinking now that they have four wolves to work with," he says. "There is no way that he can go to La Push. And even if you were to go alone, no one is going to say anything out loud about wolves."
"What are you suggesting?" Bella asks.
"I think that you should stay here and do your homework," he replies. "Esme, Alice, and Rosalie will be here. You can eat and then Alice can drive you back to Charlie's. Since you're bringing his dinner, you can't be too late."
"What about Edward?" she asks, looking at me.
"Edward and I will go out with Jasper and Emmett," he says. "We can get closer to the line than the other two. Emmett and Rosalie, have the wolves made visual contact with you yet?"
"They haven't made any contact," she answers. "We haven't run into them. We were more focused on Victoria."
"Very good," Carlisle says. "I prefer to keep them guessing as to how many of us are home. Right now they think that it's four plus one unknown. They have smelled but haven't seen Jasper."
"So we can run our own perimeter," I say. "And Jasper and Emmett can shadow us out of sight. This morning I didn't hear anything about a fourth wolf."
"This morning they were more interested in what you were saying than anything else," he replies. "We last saw them three days ago. Chances are that the next boy phased in the intervening time. We won't know if it's Embry or Jacob until we go out. Remember, they ran almost directly into Victoria on Friday night. And she demonstrated a definite threat to human life."
"I don't get it," Bella says, still hung up on the mystery of the fourth wolf. "I thought Jacob was safe because Edward couldn't smell him. If he was going to phase, couldn't he have smelled you too?"
"Theoretically, yes," I say. "But I feel like we don't know as much about these wolves as we thought we did. We've been making a lot of assumptions here without any direct evidence to prove them. I mean, they're nothing like European werewolves. I don't get it either."
"Neither do I," Carlisle agrees. "But you both have to realize that the Quileute werewolf is a much more complex creature than a normal werewolf. The werewolves from our histories are created through the bite of a werewolf to a human. It is similar to the way vampires are created. But werewolves only phase at the full moon and then they return to human form.
"The Quileute wolves inherit a gene and phase when they are needed to protect the tribe from vampires in the area. But I didn't see why that gene couldn't also have passed over to the Makahs as well. So it's probably not that unusual for a Makah to phase if there are a lot of vampires in the area, and let's face it. There are.
"The American wolves at least can control their phasing and their emotions much better than the werewolves we hear of in European werewolf lore. But how they know that vampires are in the area is a mystery. Nobody told Sam or any of the others to phase, they just did."
"Part of the Quileute legends say that the wolves have their origins in what the Quileutes call spirit warriors," I add. "They see it as a part of their magical nature that helped protect them from the larger tribes around them. Unfortunately, I have no clear narrative of how this transition from spirit warrior to wolf came about. I've pick up bits and fragments from their thoughts, but never a whole story.
"For example, this morning a reference was made to the story of the Third Wife, when we were talking about Victoria avenging her mate. It was in the time of Taha Aki and involved a female vampire who nearly destroyed the whole tribe after one of their wolves killed her mate. But that was all I got."
"I'm just glad that they got it," Carlisle says. "It is important that they realize how completely dangerous Victoria is and the necessity of protecting themselves from her not us."
"Maybe that's why Billy invited us over for dinner," Bella suggests.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"In my dream, when the Quileutes realized that I was what Victoria was after, I would spend my days at La Push," she explains. "None of you were here, so the wolves were trying to keep me safe and the best way to do it was for Charlie and me to spend a lot of time there. Maybe that's why Billy wants us to go there. He only talked to Charlie this afternoon, after he would have heard about who the 'redhead' was."
"Yes," I say. "And even if you are engaged to marry a vampire, you are still a human and Charlie's daughter. The Quileutes may think that they can defend you better than us."
"Did you ever hear the story of the Third Wife in your dream?" Carlisle asks Bella.
"I never heard any of the stories," she says. "As it was, I was the only one who knew that there even were wolves in my dream. In fact, most of the tribe doesn't know. They don't think that the stories are true."
"I know that from reading Jacob's mind," I say. "But I think that you have the right idea, Carlisle. I need to get out there and try and pick up more information. Bella, I promise that I will be at your house before you go to sleep."
"And if for some reason, he doesn't get back in time," Alice says. "Then I'll come and stay with you until he does. Now Carlisle's right. You better do your homework."
Bella looks down, but doesn't argue. Rosalie walks over to her and puts her arm around her.
"Don't worry, Bella," she says. "We will all wait together for our men to come home. As if we couldn't do the job, just as well if not better than they can."
"Glad to see you're really back, Rosalie," Jasper comments. "I would have missed your sarcasm if you had decided to go straight."
"Oh shut up you fool and go chase the dogs for a while," she answers.
Laughing, the four of us run out.
After sitting in a classroom all day, it feels good to run in the fresh air. It's damp and drizzling, but that won't stop us, or the wolves for that matter. Carlisle suggests that we head further south to pick up the boundary closer to La Push and run up. If the wolves were farther north when Jasper and Alice ran into them, there is no reason why they would have stayed there.
As we move in closer, Emmett and Jasper drop back as we catch sight of Jared and Paul. This is lucky because both of them have notoriously loose lips.
Hey Paul! Do you smell that?
Yeah, they're closer to the village this time, but still on their side of the line. They're probably looking for the redhead too.
Well, if she's after Bella, of course they would. They're a little bit ahead of us, should we follow them?
Good idea, Jared. We want to keep them honest. I'm sure that they can smell us behind them.
"Keep your pace," I mutter rapidly to Carlisle. "They want to follow."
He nods.
Crap, Paul! Do you smell that? It's another unknown. Are they having some kind of vampire convention or something out there?
How the hell should I know? But it's not the redhead. So there are four over there, Edward, Carlisle, and two unknowns. That makes at least six. Maybe they called up reinforcements.
Wish we could call them up. Man! Who would have thought that Embry would phase? Looks like someone couldn't keep it in his pants.
"Embry," I whisper.
Looks like Bella was right, Edward.
Well I wouldn't want to be Harry, Billy, or any of those other guys right now. If it's Harry, Sue will cut his nuts off.
I guess she has a temper like you do, Paul.
Do you blame her? But hey! I'm just happy that we have another wolf to run with. Now at least we can run own pairs. With all of these extra leeches around, it will be safer.
It's right about now that I really wish that we could sit down with these boys and bring them on side. They are going to keep wasting their time if they keep trying to defend the tribe against us. And I really hate having to get information this way. We can't even ask them questions. We just have to hope that they happen to say or think the right thing.
Well, I'm just glad that we don't have to hang out at Charlie's place any more. I really don't know what Billy thought was going to happen there. When are they ever going to learn to listen to Sam? He's the Alpha, so isn't he supposed to be the chief?
Yeah, right, the chief of what? According to the palefaces, we didn't have a chief anymore. We have an "elected" council. It's more like a Soviet election if you ask me.
I guess you were paying attention in school, Paul.
I had my moments. But Sam sure shut them down this morning when you guys came back and told them about the redhead and how she was after Bella.
Nah, that wasn't what got them. It was when we started to tell them about the fact that she wanted to avenge her dead mate. And it's scarier for them because they're not wolves. If she gets through to the village, they will all be sitting ducks. That's why Sam is so pissed at them.
Why?
Don't you ever listen, Jared? Sam wants two in the village and two running the perimeter. And he's right. Even with four of us out here, if she slips past the Cullens and us and hits the village, there's no hope. And it takes two of us to kill one of them.
In the Third Wife story, one hds to be the sacrifice.
You moron! That was in the story. Man, Sam's gonna have to review this for you again. One does the takedown and the other begins to rip it apart before it can get up. That's the way our great-grandfathers did it. At least at the village, there would be someone else to start the fire.
One of these days we're going to have to figure out how to carry clothes with us. I mean, if we have to phase human, what are we going to do?
Brazen it out, my man. Brazen it out. Don't these bloodsuckers ever get tired? Neither one of them has even broken stride yet.
Hey boys! Got anything going on out there?
Out of nowhere, Sam's voice comes into their minds. I can actually look through his eyes, via the other two, and see the village. Even I have to admit that's pretty cool.
How nice of you to join us, Sam! We're just running along the line with a couple of leeches.
Running with . . . What the hell do you think you're doing?
Relax, Sam. We're on our side and they're on their side. It's all cool.
Cool, my ass! Who are you running with?
We've got Edward and Carlisle in sight. But now there are two unknowns shadowing them. I guess they called in another reinforcement.
Didn't you think this information was a little important, you idiots? Why didn't you tell me right away?
Listen, Sam. You just phased. Would you rather that one of was running out here alone with four of them? I didn't think so. If we're going to stay in contact with you, then you have to go wolf all the time.
Or you could keep two in the village and one could stay phased while the other eats and sleeps. Then the four of us could stay in contact.
Jared, you just earned your pay for the week! I'm going to get Embry to phase and you can stay in contact with him while I talk to Chief Sitting Duck and his ducklings.
It takes all of my strength not to burst out laughing. It is obvious that any respect that Sam might have had for the council just went out the window. Come on, even Jared is smarter than they are! For better or worse, these kids are shaping up into a really great pack.
Hey guys!
Hey, Embry! How's it going?
I just had dinner at Emily's! Man, she makes the best hamburgers!
You know, Paul. I think that Embry would make pretty great kibble, don't you?
Huh?
Let me tell it to you straight. After our weekend of sitting outside Charlie's house smelling Chef Vamp-ar-dee's cooking, we do not mention food on patrol. Got it, bro?
Got it, Paul. What am I supposed to do while you guys are running?
Sit on your hind legs and if we say that we need you let up a howl. That will alert Sam. It's the only way we can communicate with the guys in human form.
Got it!
Well, this is good to know. There aren't any real wolves in this area, so if we hear a howl, we'll know that something is up. But we're nearing the coast and our edge of the boundary. Carlisle and I make the turn to head northeast, but they don't follow us. I guess that up here we're too far from the village for them to worry. Still, if Victoria figures it out, it leaves a hole in their defenses.
"They're not behind us anymore," Carlisle says, as he turns toward Jasper and Emmett. "Let's circle up and hear what you learned."
We meet up with Jasper and Emmett deeper in the woods and away from the line.
"What did you learn, Edward?" Emmett asks.
"The fourth wolf is Embry, like Bella said," I answer. "But there's no point in speculating now on why that is. They haven't seen Victoria at all since Saturday. But this is the first time they caught your scent Emmett, so they don't know about Rosalie."
"I've been thinking about it," Jasper says. "Why wouldn't they have recognized my scent from our meeting that night? And they know I exist. Why don't they wonder where I am?"
"Well, they were very young wolves that that point," says Carlisle. "They were just overpowered by full impact of the three scents mixed together. And I think that this a part of the puzzle that they haven't put together yet."
"If Sam had been more mature then, I'm sure that he would have figured it out by now," I say. "He is really building a fine pack, but the council is holding him back. The wolves call Billy 'Chief Sitting Duck' because they want all four wolves out running instead of keeping two back at the village."
"That's dumb," Emmett says. "What if Victoria slips through?"
"Billy's never run the treaty boundary before," I answer. "He has no idea of how long it is. But since they can only communicate with each other in wolf form, they had to wait for Sam to phase before they could communicate with him. When he finally did, he was pissed that he didn't know they were tracking us from their side of the line. But the only other option was to leave one guy alone. And they knew there were four of us."
"That's a problem they had better fix," Jasper says.
"It's a problem they can fix if Sam can convince the council to keep two in the village, one to rest and the other to play telephone," I reply. "But they do have a signal for contacting each other from wolf to human form. They howl."
"Good to know," Carlisle says. "If they have a problem, then we'll know."
"No good if we can't cross the line to help them," Emmett says.
"They do know how to kill vampires," I explain. "They have the same knowledge that their great-grandfathers had. It's another good thing to know that even though the gene can skip generations, the human gene carriers on the council know enough to pass the important things down to the new wolves."
"That's good," Carlisle says. "Anything that they know that can protect them is good."
"But what happens if Victoria figures out where La Push is and just stays away from the rez?" Jasper asks. "Charlie wasn't on the rez or in our territory."
"It's okay if they patrol outside of La Push," Carlisle says. "And since they know that Victoria is the target and her distinctive scent, there shouldn't be any mistakes. We can't protect this whole area anyway."
"My focus is on protecting Bella," I say.
"So is mine," Emmett says. "It's too bad that we can't talk to them and split up the territory. All we need is to be able to stay close to Bella. They can roam wherever else they want."
"That might be a good idea," Carlisle says. "But it sounds like there is going to be a power struggle over there if there isn't already. We are going to have to wait to see who ends up in charge."
"All the more reason to make contact with Billy," I say.
"No way," says Jasper.
"Not happening," says Emmett.
"Sorry, son," Carlisle says. "If those wolves know how to kill a vampire, you are not, do you hear me? Not going on that reservation. Any invitation issued by Billy Black would be a trap. Do you understand? We're just going to have to figure out another way to listen to him."
"Calm down, Carlisle," I say. "I wasn't planning on taking the risk. But it's getting late now."
"Gotta go spend the night with your girl?" Emmett asks suggestively.
"And I suppose that you're not planning on going straight back to Rosalie?" I ask drily.
"Hell, yeah," he says. "But at least she's my wife."
"I'm glad that you understand that, Emmett," Carlisle says. "So I would appreciate it if you could save those kinds of remarks for after the wedding."
"Sure, no problem," he shrugs. "It's just too bad that once she's a vampire, Bella won't be able to blush anymore."
"Ha, ha," I reply. "Am I good to go, Carlisle?"
"Of course, Edward," he says. "Have a good night."
"I will," I say as I take off quickly so that I don't have to listen to any more of Emmett's crap.
I run as quickly as I can through the dark woods. There is no light at all because the heavy clouds are still hovering in the night sky. When I get to Bella's house, I tell how late it is because all the lights are out. I am grateful that I will be able to find Alice with her.
Be ready, Edward. She's upset.
I quickly and silently scale the house, slip in the open window, and slide it closed. Alice is sitting with Bella on the bed, holding her in her arms. She looks up at me.
Billy won't let you or me come to La Push. We were expecting that. What we weren't expecting was that Billy would talk Charlie into insisting that she go with him anyway. I'll let her tell you the rest.
"Good night, Bella," Alice says as she changes places with me.
"Good night, Alice," she says quietly. "Thank you for being here."
Alice doesn't answer but exits the way that I came in. Before she leaves the yard, she shows me a vision of a new future. It is the future that will happen if we can't make this right.
Find the decision to change this, Edward. I can't help you, because I can't see it. Or it will kill Charlie, and Bella will never forgive herself for the rest of her existence.
I look down at Bella and hope that she will tell me what could bring things to this extreme so quickly. Bella isn't crying. She is simply sitting very still, clinging to me. Charlie is snoring away in his bedroom, obviously unperturbed. I'm guess that I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow morning before I can talk to him and try to understand his thinking.
"She told you, didn't she?" Bella asks.
"Yes, when I came in," I answer.
"Good, I didn't think that I could say it without getting hysterical," she says and then falls silent.
It makes me wonder what her reaction was when Charlie did tell her. But I know that she will only tell me when she is ready. To think that we have come so far with Rosalie and she was so happy this afternoon! Now this has to happen. It just plain sucks! It worries me that it may be difficult for one human heart to handle so much turmoil. But I know that Bella can be strong. It was just earlier this evening that I was thinking how strong she was now.
Her silence allows me to process everything. We had expected that Billy would refuse to allow Alice and me on the reservation. That was a given from the beginning. Billy had long established his dislike for the entire Cullen clan. So I doubt that it was a surprise to Charlie. Billy had tolerated our presence when we were on neutral ground, but he would not let us break the treaty. Carlisle wouldn't have let us go anyway.
I can't really imagine what he said to Charlie to make him insist that Bella come with him. Perhaps it was some warning that we were spending too much time in each other's company. He could have insinuated that Bella was becoming too emotionally dependent on me. Sam and Paul witnessed her reaction to my return. I know that Charlie had said something to her about starting the truck every once in a while to keep it running. That might not exactly have been a joke.
I doubt that Billy has any comprehension of the necessity of keeping Bella close to at least one of us if we are going to keep Victoria away from her. They may have passed down the tribal knowledge of how to kill a vampire to the next generation. But none of them has actually done it. And it's not as simple as they think. Victoria would be a huge challenge.
Vampire speed exceeds werewolf speed. Carlisle and I were holding back so that the wolves behind us could keep up tonight. I perceived through their thoughts that they were really pushing themselves. What they also don't realize is that vampires can move up as well as across. Wolves can't climb trees, so it would be no problem for Victoria to ambush one of them if she could separate him out.
If Victoria is as smart as we belief she is, she would never go into a fight thirsty. The blood of a wolf is foul to any vampire, but if she were after human prey and succeeding in biting before they caught up with her, it would distract her. But what they may not know at all is that vampire venom is deadly to wolves. That was how Caius was able to defeat the wolf he fought with centuries ago. If Victoria's origins lie in Europe then she would surely know that.
European vampires, like Carlisle are far more knowledgeable about vampire fighting than most Americans, particularly northern Americans who don't fight on a regular basis. Even Jasper's knowledge only takes him so far because his area of expertise is newborn fighting. When I return to the house in the morning, I will ask someone to call Laurent to see if he knows anything about Victoria's history.
He had joined James's cover because they were strong. It would be interesting to know how they were strong. Laurent said he was over three hundred years old, with a French name it is possible that he is also European. That would certainly explain his attraction to the Denalis, who are all Europeans themselves.
I remember what Bella told us tonight about how in her nightmare, while we were away, the wolves protected her by keeping her at La Push. That scares the hell out of me because at La Push she is not only in danger from Victoria, but also from the wolves themselves. The only fully mature wolf is Sam. Jared is showing signs of maturing, but Embry, who seems to be some kind of friend since she knows so much about him, is brand new and Paul is a hot head.
And what about Jacob? Unless we can get him off the reservation so that we can get close enough to smell him, there is no way to know how close he is to phasing. Emily is evidence that accidents can happen around these creatures, and I wouldn't want Bella to be the next victim.
Worst of all, if Bella goes without us, we have no idea about her future. Alice will be blind the minute that she hits the reservation. And if she goes with Charlie, it will be his decision as to when they leave. Charlie is not known for making plans ahead of time. He may say that he plans to leave at one time, but he might end up changing his mind. There is cell phone contact, but if anything were to happen, I couldn't get there fast enough to save her.
Bella's safety is not only everything to me; it has become the primary concern of the whole family. We need to keep her safe until the wedding. I intend to tell her that we shouldn't even wait for July. June is the month for brides anyway. Alice would love it. Bella would get married tomorrow if we could. She has been so still for so long, I wonder if she has fallen asleep. At this point, sleep would be good.
"Hey, love," I whisper without moving her. "Are you still awake?"
"I don't want to sleep," she says wearily. "I don't want to miss a minute of time with you."
Hey bro! Alice told us what happened. Rose and I are out here watching the house to back you up.
"Bella, you are a human and you need to sleep," I answer. "At least let me lay you down. You don't need to worry about anything tonight. I am here and Emmett and Rosalie are outside. If you can, I think that you need to tell me what Charlie said. Or you can go to sleep and Alice can tell me in the morning before we come to pick you up."
"Charlie wants me to drive myself to school from now on," she says. "He thinks that you are being too overprotective or too close or both. Billy told him that it sounds as if you are smothering me, that you are influencing me too much."
"So that's his game," I say. "Well, there's no reason why you can't drive yourself to school and back. We will just have someone follow you."
"That's what Alice said," she answers. "I can live with that. But there's more."
"He's making you go to Billy's party?" I say.
"Yes," she says. "But I don't want to. I don't want to be around all those people who want to kill you. But I can't tell Charlie that. Billy played the whole stupid race card on him. You know, the old prejudice thing. But that's not the worst part."
"What's the worst part?" I ask.
"Billy called Renee," she says as she begins to quietly sob.
The Renee card, brilliant! I hadn't even thought of that, but he must know Renee from her days of living here. And I'm sure that Charlie told him all about Renee's disapproval. I wonder if Renee called Charlie and set this whole thing in motion.
"Did Renee call Charlie?" I ask softly.
She nods and continues to sob. I don't blame her. I would sob too if I could. This could be a game-changer. It gives Renee the ammunition that she needs to destroy all the hard work that we've put into bringing Charlie around. Billy knew that he had no chance of convincing Charlie of anything. So he decided to sic Renee on us.
At least Carlisle knows this because anything Alice knows, he knows too.. But I double check to be sure.
"Bella," I ask. "Does Alice know all of this?"
"Yes," she says. "When she came in the window, I told her everything. Charlie heard me, but she slipped into the closet before he came barging in. I had picked up my cell phone and pretended that I was talking to her. She had been very quiet while I was ranting, so he didn't even know that she was there."
"What did he say?" I ask, impressed by her cleverness.
"He thought that I was talking to you, but I told him it was Alice," she replies. "Then I pretended to turn off the phone. Some cop he is! He didn't know that all he had to do was check the call history to see if I was lying. Or maybe he didn't think that I would lie. Anyway, he didn't even ask to see the phone. Of course that was also when I started yelling at him."
"What did you say?" I ask.
"I told him that he had no right to listen in on my private calls," she says. "And then I said that if I couldn't talk to my best friend about my problems then who could I talk to?"
"I hope that you were careful about what you were telling Alice," I say, fearful that she might have let something slip.
"I didn't mess up," she says. "I didn't get that far. All he could have heard was how unfair it was that he was restricting my access to my fiancé. I said that I didn't want to go to any stupid party at La Push where they wouldn't let you go. And then I said that I didn't care what Renee said. I said that Billy had a lot of nerve calling her up. But I don't think that's what brought him upstairs."
"What do you think did it?" I ask.
"I told Alice that I was eighteen and could move out of the house any time I wanted," she says. "And then I asked her if Esme would let me stay at your house."
"Well, that was playing to his worst fear," I say. "But after you told him that he was invading your privacy what did he say?"
"He said that if I wanted privacy then I shouldn't be yelling loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear," she answers with a little smile. "He had a point there."
"Did he say anything else?" I ask.
"Well," she replies. "He did say something about it being a big house but there were seven people already living there."
"And you said?" I ask, suspecting the answer.
"I told him that there were three empty bedrooms because the others were away at college," she answers. "And even if there weren't, I knew that I could share with Alice like I always do when I sleep over."
"That's my clever girl!" I say, kissing her head. "Did he say anything else?"
"No," she says. "And that's why I'm so upset. He looked like I just punched him in the gut when I told him about the bedrooms. I suppose metaphorically speaking that I did. But I was just so mad at him. He wouldn't stand up for me when Forks wouldn't take me into the NHS. He doesn't know how hard I worked for that!
"It was my only real accomplishment in Phoenix. And I know that I'm smart enough to go to those schools. But if the counselor tells him that he's wasting his money, I know he won't support me. But after the way he stood up to Renee last week, how could he just run out on me like that?"
And now I realize the basis for the tears. As an eighteen-year old woman, Charlie can't force her to go anywhere. It was the idea that he was betraying her because he was allowing himself to be influenced by Billy and Renee. But I knew from reading his mind, that there was a little more to it than that.
I had told her that I was still on probation with Charlie. Despite all of Esme and Carlisle's efforts to take of her and Alice's loving friendship, it all came down to me. And I know that when Renee called him up, egged on by Billy, it was the intensity of our relationship that disturbed him the most. The very fact that we needed to be together bothered him to no end.
And what we could not explain to him was that the underlying reason for that intensity was the very nature of our relationship. We were not two foolish kids infatuated with one another. The essential nature of our love is the powerful attraction between two mates that have found each other's other half. The only thing that could part us is the destruction of one of us. And if one were destroyed, the other's life would no longer be worth living.
Renee had been royally pissed at me down in Phoenix. She was pissed because I wouldn't leave Bella and even more pissed because Bella became almost ill if I tried. Bella had always been hers. It was she who controlled her relationship with Charlie. And when she "let" Bella move to Forks that control slipped away from her in unforeseen ways.
She had never imagined that her shy, socially awkward daughter would fall in love, and that love would be reciprocated, with a boy like me. I wasn't some dirt bag she could belittle. I was a clean-cut kid with top grades and a father for a doctor. Like all the other blind humans around us, she saw us together and couldn't understand what a gorgeous guy like me would see in a mousy little girl like her daughter.
When it was convenient for Bella to live with Charlie, to sacrifice her life in Phoenix to move to Forks where she had always felt misunderstood, she was happy for her to do it. Oh, she protested that Bella didn't have to do it, but Bella knew better.
And without truly knowing Bella's mind, I can only assume that she either couldn't bear for her mother to be unhappy, or she couldn't stand living with an unhappy Renee. I have a feeling that she convinced herself it was the former, when it was really the latter.
Bella was self-sacrificing by nature. I knew that the minute that I heard her story about what her life was like living with Renee and then saw how she took care of Charlie. It was a total shock to Renee when she refused to move to Jacksonville. Now that it was convenient for Renee to have her home, she just expected her to drop her life and go back.
It never occurred to her that even though Bella had already picked up and moved from one school to another, she wouldn't want to have to rebuild her life again, going to three different high schools in one term. She just brushed it off by saying that "she was smart and she'd figure it out." Bella said she wanted to stay for Charlie, but Renee knew intuitively that it was for me.
She had been breathing fire when Bella called to announce her engagement, but Bella stood up to her. Charlie and Bella thought that she was giving them the silent treatment, but I can see now that she was biding her time. She was waiting for some small crack to appear in the perfect situation for her to exploit. But what she hadn't counted on was Bella's newly discovered backbone, couple that with her innate stubbornness and it is a formidable combination.
I have to work to control my own anger. Billy and Renee had forced Bella to play the move out card, the one card that she was most reluctant to play. If she moves out of Charlie's house, he has no recourse. She is eighteen and belongs to herself. In the end, it is not Billy or Renee who will be hurt by this. It is Charlie.
I have grown to like Charlie. We all have. It was almost a joint effort in the family to keep Charlie happy and connected to his only child. We included him in everything, every plan. We had gone the church wedding route, so that he could walk her down the aisle. I was even going to pre-marital counseling "willingly" because I knew that it would make him happy.
But now all those efforts were destroyed. Alice's vision had shown me that. Bella believed that her back was up against a wall. I knew where this was leading. She had heard Laurent say that the only way to help Bella stay safe from Victoria was to turn her.
She would suggest that we elope now. There was nothing stopping us anymore if she moved out. Bella could leave Charlie a note, telling him that she was disappearing and not to look for her. We could leave. I could change her. And she could finish high school later.
It would break his heart. He would realize too late that he had been unreasonable with his daughter. To put it bluntly, his life would be over. And someday Bella would realize that she was sorry that she had left things with him in such a mess. I couldn't let it happen that way. There had to be another way out. I had to find that decision which would bring Alice's vision of the wedding that she and Esme were planning back.
"Bella," I ask. "Will you make good on your threat to leave if he doesn't relent? Of course you always have a home with us. But before you leave here, you have to know that it will change everything."
"I know," she says. "But what other choice do I have? They are turning Charlie against me. I can't let him run my life anymore. No, it's more than that. I can't let him pick and choose what is his choice and what is mine. I had that when I lived with Renee. I thought that I had escaped it. I thought that Charlie wasn't like that."
"Bella, this is a confusing time for both of you," I say. "He can't decide if you are a grown woman or still a little girl. I can see it in his mind sometimes. He is looking at a woman, but he still pictures you at about the age of nine or ten. That's the way parents are. It's a part of how they love you. It's hard to let go. They want what is best for you. But they don't know how."
"You're lucky that you never had to deal with that," she says.
"Am I?" I ask her. "I didn't have to deal with it because my mortal life ended so young. But my immortal life happened because my mother begged Carlisle to save me in any way possible. She knew that there was something different about him. It was not entirely Carlisle's choice to change me. It was her choice first. He simply carried out her wishes."
"I didn't know that," she says. "You never told me."
"No one knows it but Carlisle and me," I say. "And I only know it because I have seen it in is mind. He has a very clear image of my mother's last hours. It is the only clear image that I have of her. We have never spoken of it. This is the first time that I have ever spoken these words to anyone."
"You said you had no secrets," she whispers.
"This is not a secret," I say. "It is something I hadn't told you yet. But I always intended to. If I am lucky in anything, it is that I left no one behind. The only two members of the family who left behind others who loved them were Emmett and Rosalie. The rest of us were essentially, if not literally alone."
"I understand," she says. "What should I do?"
"I will not tell you what to do," I say. "That choice must be yours. But you need to wait and see what Charlie says in the morning. You dropped a bomb on him tonight. He's sleeping like a baby, so I can't tell you if he's worrying about it, but I'm sure that it's on his mind."
"I'm sure that as soon as he went downstairs he began to drink more beer," she says. "I wouldn't be surprised if he went through a whole six pack."
"Neither would I," I say. "It seems like every time I see him, he has a beer in his hand. Unless of course, he is going to work."
"He only drinks at night," she replies. "But I know he drinks a lot on some nights, he told me that it is the stress at work."
"Or the loneliness," I say.
"Yes, that too," she says. "He got into the habit before I came to live here, and now he can't break it."
"Bella, please, it is after one," I say, thinking that there might be more to
Charlie's beer-drinking than mere habit. "Please let me try to sing you to sleep. You need to sleep or this will all be much worse in the morning."
"I love you, Edward," she says. "I love you more than my own life."
"I know that, Bella," I say. "I love you more than my own existence."
"I can't go to La Push without you," she says. "I'm afraid that I will never come back."
"Why are you afraid of that?" I ask fearfully.
"I don't know," she says. "All I know is that if Charlie doesn't back down, I'm going to pack up my things in the truck and leave to go to your house tomorrow. Who cares if I ditch school? Since I'm eighteen, they can't even call Charlie."
She kisses me softly and then turns over. I begin to sing her lullaby, hoping that the soothing melody will help her off to sleep. She desperately needs to sleep. All I can do is hope that Charlie changes his mind in the morning. But what will happen if he doesn't?
Author's Note: I made an error back in Chapter 29 when I had Jared tell Sam that Embry, supposedly the next Quileute to phase, but he wouldn't be sixteen until January. My bad! No one knew that Embry was going to phase until he did, which is why I dealt with it this way in the story. That fact did not come out (to the Cullens anyway) until Eclipse during the first Cullen/pack meeting to prepare for the fight with the newborn army.
Quil did not phase until Eclipse either. The meeting was also the time when it was discovered that Leah, Seth, Colin, and Brady had also phased. I'm playing that storyline a little backwards here so that the Cullens get a shot at deceiving the wolves as to their numbers.
If you haven't had a chance to read the books in a while, then you may have forgotten that there were only five wolves in New Moon. If I do an AU of Eclipse that would be when the others phase and join the pack, bringing the number up to ten.
Therefore, to go back to my original point, although Bella knows that Embry will phase next, based on her dream. No one else does. I have edited Chapter 29 to correct this so that Jared says that Jacob is due to phase next. Nobody ever wrote to correct me about that detail, but it bugged me so I fixed it.