What Now?
Claire blinked her eyes, trying to adjust to the utter darkness. A momentary panic seized her heart's breakneck pace. She had no memory of where she was or what had happened to plunge her into this abyss. Stretching her arms before her face, she took timid steps forward, her voice echoing in the void as she called for help.
" Can anybody hear me? I...I can't see. Where am I? Hello? Please someone help me..." Her last words breaking into sobs. This was terrifying. Claire's throat tightened as she imagined the darkness closing in on her, pressing on her, taking the very breath from her lungs. Grabbing her throat as if she could release the talon-ed fingers of the blackness from her neck, she stumbled into the nothingness, catching the invisible floor with her knees. "Someone help me!"
It was not until she felt the cool gentle pressure on her shoulder, that Claire realized that she had closed her eyes to her panic. As she opened them, she was bathed in a pale blue light that shimmered from the form in front of her. Gasping in surprise, Claire stumble back onto her behind.
" Don't be scared. It's alright." Alice soothed as she stepped back, afraid that Claire's fear resulted from her frigid touch. The Quileute's were a touchy people when it came to their personal space. The close bond that she had made with the girl ten years ago, forged in their adventure was severed years ago by her memory loss. What little that had remained had been forever lost by Quil's assurance that Alice's presence would only bring back Claire's episodes of her horrendous migraines.
"Alice...?" Claire stretched the word in a breathy question. Alice's answer was in her wavering smile. The pain that Claire had forced into the back of her mind, in her panic, raced through Alice's own head. For a moment, Alice staggered under the assault, then dropped her to knees, trying to save her strength.
"What are you doing here?... What are we doing here?" Claire asked as she forced her fear back down and glanced around, seeing nothing behind what light Alice's presence generated.
" You tell me kid." Alice replied looking at the girl who had summoned her. She was so different and yet so alike the little girl that had called to her years ago. Having no clearer understanding now, then she had back then, tried to soothe the girl in front of her. "You are the one that summoned me." Claire stared back at the vampire, not understanding the simple words.
" I...I didn't call you," Claire whispered. Alice shook her head as if to clear the pain and then leaned back on her hands, tilting her head toward the girl.
"I don't know how you did it, but I am pretty sure that you did this. You may not remember, but you did this very same thing ten years ago. You were in a bad car accident and had some head trauma. We were tr..." Alice stuttered on the word trapped, not wanting to increase the girl's panic, and increase the pounding pain that radiated from her own. Choosing her words carefully, Alice continued, " We were linked this very same way." Claire's vivid stare bore into the vampire's. Alice could see the wheels spinning as Claire searched her mind trying to recall memories, long lost to her. Just as disappointment took over her face, a piercing pain shot through Alice's head. Trying to brace herself, she distantly realized that there was an echo to her own cries.
Opening her eyes, Alice watched as Claire withered on the floor before her. Alice hesitantly reached out to her, not sure how to help her.
Pain raced through Claire's veins, as bright lights flashed before her agonized eyes, in a strobe effect. In each moment of blinding light an image flashed before her eyes. A crazed monster lurched in front of her, his eyes the deep burgundy burned with insane hunger, then blackness, only to flash another image. Quil holding her like he used to do, making her feel so small and him so big, that he could carry the world, she had thought with the conviction of a six year old girl. The peace momentarily overshadowing the pain. Then blackness, only to be blinded by another image.
This one of her Dad, staring at her from the front seat of a car, his quiet assurance clear in his eyes. Claire tried to stop the carousel of images, grasping on the sight of her Father. She had not remembered his face so vividly in many years, as time robs those memories bit by bit. Claire wanted to hold on him and tell him … that she loved him, that she missed him, but her mind refused to be kind. Claire's father's face was replaced by Micah's familiar one. He was looking at her from the car seat next to her, her own childhood reflection mirrored in his crimson eye, then blackness.
The images raced in front of her helpless eyes, spiking pain etched in each scene, as memories came pouring forth, adding sounds, thoughts, fears, making meaning to the images as if it glued the pictures into a movie of her lost past. The piercing pain locking each memory in order, until knew. She remembered everything.
Claire came to herself, in Alice's arms as she was rocked back and forth. Alice's cool fingertips brushing back her hair from her fevered face. The most pitiful wailing was breaking the silence in the darkness. After a moment, Claire realized that the wretched sound from coming from her constricted throat.
"Shhhush... it will be alright. See, the pain is already receding." And Alice was right , the physical pain was ebbing from her eyes and the back of her head. But physical pain was not the only kind that she felt. As each moment crept by, as she continued to lean into Alice's frigid arms, Claire's heart beat with a lurching force, the anguish pulsing through her veins. It was as if the memories forced her to relive each frightening moment with Micah's kidnapping, the car accident, the Volturi confrontation and at the forefront, her Father's loss was brought to her mind and heart as if were happening all over again, as if he were ripped from her life at this very moment. Another heart wrenching sob escaped her trembling lips, unable to articulate the despair that ripped through her shaking body.
Claire had no idea how long she sat there mourning her Father, before she was aware of another presence in the darkness. Another figure framed in a soft bluish glow. Claire knew when Alice became aware of it as well, when her marble arms tightened and her body tensed, prepared to fight the unknown. Both turned to the tall figure as it advanced.
Micah's stark gaze raked across the young girl's face, then turned to Alice, his hand raised to stop her protective movements.
"So you have truly awakened. And now you know the truth." Micah tilted his head as he watched Claire's mind whirling with memories that continued to click into place. Memories of him and her, memories that she had plucked from his own past, memories so buried in his own subconscious, that he had forgotten them himself, from his past when his heart beat on its own. Memories a world away. Memories when he still possessed a soul.
"You were there... before... you kidnapped me? Quil..." Micah stepped forward. He hated that name. He hated that it passed her lips.
"I saved you. I healed you. Why is only now that you remember? You were not afraid of me then. Why are you afraid of me now?" Micah bent down to be closer to her, ignoring Alice as she tried to force herself between the two.
"Quil..." Again the name slipped through her lips, steeping Micah's anger. It was all his fault that she did not remember. He was always in the way. Micah schooled his features, to not show his irritation, but only compassion. Keeping his voice low and melodic, he tried to convince her.
"He doesn't want you to remember. He is the one that has kept you in the dark. He is the liar, the deceiver. As long as you cling to him, you will be in the dark." Micah saw that she was not ready to believe him, yet there was flickers of hesitancy in her eyes as she denied his pleas.
"You're wrong," She stated, but he only shook his head sadly, pity pouring from his eyes and the slant of his shoulders. That more than anything he could have said pierced her tender heart and she whispered Quil's defense, desperately praying that she was right.
Carlisle paused in the doorway as his eyes scanned the room to access the current situation. Moving with vampirific speed he took in the once homey living room torn asunder. The guarded expressions on the residents, did little to put him at ease. His thoughts still pulling him to Alice's still side, and Jasper's desperate face, Carlisle pushed his frustration to the back of his mind. This was no time to be distracted. Alice needed answers, and he did not want to fail his daughter. He understood their wariness when it came to vampires in their living space. The crunch of broken glass, and the destruction of the quaint living room was evidence fore most in their minds, that his kind was to be feared.
His oath to heal, made him want to relieve their fears. But he couldn't help feeling that he was needed elsewhere. Jasper's expression swam before his eyes, as well as Alice's blank pale face. He knew that his son would not survive a repeat of the tragedy that happened ten years ago. He felt like he was betraying his family by leaving to attend the Quileute's, but he knew that the answer to their problem was here. Carlisle's eyes rested on young Claire resting in Quil's arms, as he ignored Amy's pleas for him to put her down, so she could have a better look at her. Claire was the answer. Somehow, Claire had pulled Alice into the catatonic state that she was currently experiencing herself. It had happened once before, ten years ago, when Claire barely escaped a deadly car accident, leaving her fatherless.
The link had eventually helped them locate Claire, and get her from her kidnapper, but he had thought that it was a one time fluke. Apparently, he had guessed wrong, but he was clueless as to the cause or the trigger.
"Carlisle, thank God!" Amy breathed, as she motioned for him to help her. She pushed back the hair from her face as she braced herself to try to get Quil to release Claire, yet again. "Quil let us help Claire. Come on, you need give her to us. We are wasting precious time." Amy's pleading tone moved across Quil's rigid hold on his imprint.
"This is not happening. Not again! I can't live through this again." Quil's denial rang through the room, falling upon the sudden silence of the room, as he clutched Claire's still body to his chest.
Moving forward, Carlisle tried to take control of the situation. "We don't know for certain that this is the same situation as before. Quil you need to put her down so that we can examine her." Carlisle's tone was polite but firm as he placed his cold fingers on the shifters arm. Quil looked into the doctor's eyes, his own accusing, as if it were Carlisle's fault. Carlisle stared back, ready to pry her from his arms, if necessary. Time was ticking away, each moment making the distance between Alice's consciousness harder to bridge.
After a tense moment, he gently placed her on the floor. Carlisle scanned Claire's face as he counted her heartbeat, sniffed the air around her, mentally pushing the tantalizing scent of fresh blood from his conscious mind. Her heartbeat was slow but steady. No rapid eye movement. It was as if she were in deep sleep.
"Quil it's going to be ok ." Embry braced Quil's shaking shoulders. Gently he pulled at his friend to move back. "Come on man, let's give them a little room." Quil reluctantly let himself be helped up, but refused to take more than a couple of steps from his imprint's side. Carlisle accessed the situation quickly, turning to Amy for answers.
"How long has she been in this state?" Amy took a deep breath to steady herself. She was trying to keep it together for everyone's sake, but once Carlisle got there, with his professional demeanor, Amy felt herself trembling, her body ready to fall apart, ready to give up the fight. "Amy?" Carlisle repeated, a little more urgently. Amy closed her eyes to concentrate on the moment.
"Not long...She hit her head on the fireplace, I think. She was conscious until just a few minutes ago. Just before we called you." As she opened her eyes, she noticed the other casualties in the room. "I need you to look at Jude's shoulder... it was dislocated, and I had difficulty in setting it. I just want to make sure that it was done right." Amy's words sped up as she took control of her emotions.
" I will as soon as I have accessed this situation," Carlisle replied, not bothering to look up from Claire's still form, as he continued to check her vitals. He just wished that he felt as confident as he looked to the nurse. There had to be a reason why Claire and Alice were unconscious. And locked together... if only Claire had memories of the past. Maybe she could illuminate the cause...
"Carlisle?..." Amy's warm hand on his arm brought him out of his internal discussion. He turned to her and apologized for his inattentiveness. "I was just asking if you might want to move her to your house. You have an xray machine. It won't be as effective as a cat scan or MRI, but we could see if there was any mass or pressure that is ….." The rest of what she was suggesting was lost in the cacophony of voices that broke through the room, Quil's being the loudest.
"The hell you are moving her anywhere! Over my cold dead body, will I let her anywhere near your horde of leeches. Not with her covered in her own blood... Have you lost your frigging mind?" Quil was held back only by the strength of Embry and Jacob, who each had him by an arm. Amy cringed back at the blast of hatred that came from Quil's mouth, as the shifter trembled, close to shift from man to beast. Drew raced forward, blocking the older Quileute from Amy's direct path.
"Hold on there man! She is not the enemy. Back off man! Calm down, or you will hurt a lot of innocent people. Claire isn't going anywhere, is she Doc?" The last question thrown over his shoulder, afraid to break eye contact with Quil who was slowly losing his battle to control his emotions.
Carlisle raised himself slowly from the ground, his hands up in supplication, not wanting to make any sudden movements. Using his most soothing, confident voice he had he tried to reason with him.
"Quil, I can only do so much for Claire, not knowing all the scientific facts. We really can't fix the problem if we don't know what it is. It would help to have some xrays. I could tell if we need to relieve some pressure. There may be scaring from her car accident that was affected from where she hit her head. We are working blind right now and time is of the essence. Alice is unconscious." That comment broke through Quil's anger. His looked to Carlisle with disbelief. " Unconscious, just like last time."
Quil voiced an audible gasp of denial. Carlisle took a step forward, against the warning looks from Jacob and Embry. "Quil, maybe if we get Claire close to Alice, it might affect the hold she has on Alice...
Quil flexed his arms, but the shifters restraining him, refused to give him much room to move. "I don't want her near Jasper... He may blame her and try to k... to hurt her." Carlisle took another step toward the shifter. "I wouldn't let him hurt her."
"Like before? Like he tried to kill me?" Quil asked as blatant disbelief swept across his face. "I can do without your worthless assurances. Claire is going nowhere. I'll take her to the hospital first. They have her records and know what to do for her.
"Quil this is beyond their capabilities. Try to understand my reason. She will be protected." Carlisle said, saddened by the awareness that there was no way that he could convince the boy otherwise.
At the exclamation from Amy, all eyes turned her way to see Claire's eyes open as she unsuccessfully tried to sit up. Immediately Carlisle's hands were easing her back down before the boys could let go of Quil's arms. Quil fell to his knees, with the force he used to break free. Instead of standing up he crawled to where she lay.
"Claire! Oh, God! Claire baby. Are you ok?" Quil said through a haze of tears, not quite believing his eyes, not trusting that she was back. Claire stared up at him, searching for something. There was something in her stare that worried him, maybe there was something wrong with her eyesight. "Baby?"
"Let me take a look." Carlisle said as he brought a light to her eyes, while he called to Renesmee. " Can you call your Father..." His words died as the shrill tone of her cellphone interrupted his request. Renesmee put it up to her ear, but Carlisle heard Bella on the other end of the phone as if he held it himself.
"Alice is awake. She and Edward are on their way over. Watch Claire..." The sound of crunching glass broke Carlisle's concentration as Edward and Alice walked through the damaged doorway, Jasper right on Alice's heels. Edward moved to Carlisle's side.
"So she is awake. When Alice bolted up and out of the house, we assumed that she was conscious as well." Edward's tone was light, the opposite the last time that Carlisle had talked to his son. Carlisle turned to Jasper, relief letting him relax, as he watched him follow Alice's every movement, his body pivoting toward her at every turn she made.
"Hey girl, long time no see." Alice's voice was soft, afraid that any tone harsher would break the girl's emotional control. Claire took one look at her and then raised up to embrace the vampire, Claire's tears wrenching as her body shook. Everyone froze at the sight.
Quil clenched his fists, as he stood by helplessly. Nothing of this night made any sense. First the pack lost Sam as their leader, then Archer, turning out to be a vamp himself, attacks the kids, then Claire. God, he was tired... sick and tired of all this. He wished that he could just scoop up Claire and get the hell out of there. Just run and run until he could find a place that never heard of shifters or vampires. Quil came to as Alice's voice broke through his thoughts with the name that brought tremors to his body.
"...Micah showed up and said things that stirred up Claire so much that she fought back and the next thing I saw was Jasper's face." Alice brushed the pale locks of hair from Jasper's forehead, and gave him a shy smile that reassured him more than any words could that she was truly alright. Quil tried make sense of Alice's speech, but failed. He started to ask her to repeat it but Carlisle was already asking her another question. Suddenly all Quil wanted to do was get her as far away as he could from Micah and his sick infatuation of her. Nothing else mattered.
"Come on Claire let's get you home." Quil interrupted as he bent down and gently pulled Claire out of Alice's arms, not comfortable having her that close to a nest of leeches. Alice instinctively started to reach back to keep her there as the girls tears still streamed from her face.
"Wait! You can't go yet. We still have to discuss your wedding!" The change of topic took the crowd by surprise, no one more than Quil.
"How...what are you talking about?" They were standing in a battle ground, with broken glass under their feet for Pete's sake, the last thing that he was going to do was "make plans" for a wedding with a bunch of leeches.
"Wait, you can't get married tomorrow anyway. There is a 24 hour wait period for the license for minors under 18 and besides the court house is no place for the most magical moment of Claire's life!" Quil huffed, not able to articulate a suitable reply, not knowing if the wait period was true for the license or not. "You want her to have beautiful memories of her wedding day, don't you?" The question hanging in the air.
Quil bent down to look into Claire's eyes, but she broke eye contact first. Something in the way she buried her face into his chest worried him, but the talk about the wedding had him thinking. He had already taken her childhood, or what was left of it away from her. Was this just one more thing she would miss out on? Did she have special dreams of her special day? Had he even asked her about it? Even once? He turned to Alice, guilt on his face. The smug look on her face, hardened his own. He took a deep breath and then nuzzled the top of her head with his chin.
"Claire, Claire, I didn't even ask, do you want a wedding? I know that we don't have much time, but maybe we can do a little something." Quil's voice rose in his agitation. Still she refused to raise her eyes to meet his. Something was definitely bothering her. He just wished he didn't have an audience. It was hard enough to bare his soul to her, let alone a dozen or more people.
" A little something?" Alice repeated his last statement, in disbelief. " I thing that we can do better than that." Quil turned back to her.
"We only have a couple of days. Her Aunt will be here.."Alice interrupted his statement, as if knowing the little time they had also depended on this argument.
"On Saturday, I know, but that still gives me a couple of days. You can't get married before Thursday. That gives me more than 24 hours, 72 if its an evening ceremony." Quil stared at her wanting to know how she knew so much about this. He turned his confusion to Claire's still bent head.
"Claire, what is it? What do you want? Claire slowly raised her head. Hurt and worry in her eyes, mixed in with a little pain. After searching his eyes for something, he could not speculate, she opened her mouth, but the words would not form passed her lips. After a couple of tries, she lowered her eyes and whispered I don't know. "What Claire-bear? I can't hear you."
Claire turned to Alice, "I can't think about this right now." She turned back to Quil and laid her head against his chest. "I just want to go home." Quil did not wait a minute more, but brushed past the other shifters, careful with his precious cargo as he made his way through the doorway.
"Don't worry, it's all in my capable hands. Don't worry about a thing." Alice called to their backs.
"That's what I'm worried about." Jacob commented to Renesmee, who had joined her husband and Father in the group.
"Oh, you be quiet, or I'll make sure that your monkey suit is the most uncomfortable."
"Claire said that she didn't care to have a big wedding," Jacob reminded his wife's aunt. Alice was quick to correct.
"No, I think she said that she couldn't think about it right now. That is what a wedding planner is for. She's got me to think for her. Besides I have already seen it. As a matter of fact she has already seen it too."
"Really, you have shown her a vision of her future wedding?" Jake's voice was incredulous. "I thought we shifters clouded your visions." Alice's forehead scrunched under her troubled thoughts.
"No, she showed me. It was her vision from ten years ago. She showed me the dress, the location. Hell, she even showed me your monkey suit." A scream broke the light conversation. Jake gave Renesmee a what now expression as they all turned to the occupants at the couch. Jared was bracing Kim, who was hunched over in pain. At her feet was a pool of bloody water.
"Carlisle! Amy! I think the baby's coming."