Hey ladies! Sorry, I've actually had this chapter ready to go for a few days now, but because of the internal error that FFDN is experiencing, I haven't been able to update. It took me until today to learn about the workaround. Eep! Anyhoo, here you go!
I do not own Twilight or any of its characters.
Chapter Thirty-Five – Burning
I could hardly wait for Carlisle to have time to attend to Aro. After reading to him for awhile, he decided that he wanted to do something, but he didn't know what. Eventually I found a book of crossword puzzles for him, which seemed to satisfy him once I convinced him that it wasn't the same thing as reading a book. Ultimately, though, I was doing the crossword puzzle for him. I would read the clues to him, he would ponder it and ask what I thought, and I would give him the answer and write it into the puzzle. He was quite pleased with himself every time "he" finished a puzzle.
I was trying very hard not to be preoccupied worrying about Rosalie. I knew that if anything was wrong, Carlisle or Edward would summon me right away. Every now and again when my thoughts would dwell on her for too long, Edward would call downstairs "She's fine, Emmett." Still, I would feel better when I could see her again. It was hard for me to believe that I'd lasted nearly a week without laying eyes on my angel. Twice.
At long last, Carlisle came downstairs. "I'm sorry for the delay, Emmett. I wanted to run a number of tests, and she didn't want you to see her while she tried to drink blood. It was very painful for her, and she was afraid you would do something foolish to try to 'rescue' her. She is sleeping now. You may visit her, if you wish, but try not to wake her."
"Finally," I muttered. "Aro's all yours." I rose quickly and slipped upstairs before Aro had time to finish complaining. Downstairs, I could hear Carlisle making preparations to change Aro. As obnoxious as he was, for some reason, I couldn't help feeling like I'd miss him just a little when he was gone.
I sat at Rosalie's bedside and hummed while she slept. I found myself wishing that she would talk in her sleep like Bella used to do. Carlisle must have given her a light sedative, because she didn't toss and turn at all. She slept peacefully, which I knew she needed to do, considering how sick she was. My eyes drifted to the bump on her stomach, which was clear to see even covered by blankets as it was. The idea that I was having twins still hadn't fully sunk in. I kept rolling the words "twins" and "father" around in my head, and they just didn't sound right. I was as thrilled as could be about my upcoming responsibilities, but I truly felt like I had somehow cheated. No one deserved to have this much happiness.
After a few hours, Rosalie stirred and eventually woke up. She gave me a small smile, which I was sure was probably the best she could muster in her current state. "How's Aro?" she rasped.
"Really? That's what you want to say first?" I teased.
Rosalie rolled her eyes, then clasped a hand to them. "Ow," she complained. "I shouldn't have done that."
"Don't hurt yourself just because I'm a damn fool. I don't want you to spend the next hundred years in pain."
"You planned to stop being a damn fool in a hundred years?"
"Probably not, but anything's possible. To answer your question, Aro's burning now. Carlisle started changing him a little while ago," I replied.
"I want to see him," Rosalie whispered.
"There isn't much to see. You know how this goes. There's no need to upset yourself," I said gently.
"I know, but I want to see him. It's because of him that this," she gestured to her stomach, which was now more visible because she was sitting upright, "was possible."
Strangely, I hadn't actually thought of it in those precise terms. I knew that Aro's arrival had brought all of this about, but it had never dawned on me to be… grateful to him. "What my Rose wants, my Rose gets," I said, lifting her carefully off the bed.
"I can walk," she protested, but she didn't press the issue when I lifted her anyway. Instead, she nuzzled her head against my neck and closed her eyes while I carried her down the stairs. Aro was on the couch in apparent agony. I couldn't help feeling badly for him. I was surprised, however, that he wasn't screaming. I had expected him to scream throughout the entire transformation. Even more surprising was the crowd gathered around him. Alice, Jasper, and Esme had returned from their respective trips and were huddled around the couch along with Carlisle and Edward. Bella, Nessie, and Jacob were still at Charlie's house, as far as I was aware. They weren't present, in any event.
"Something isn't right," Carlisle whispered to me.
"What do you mean?" I asked, setting Rosalie gently on the loveseat.
"It has only been a few hours, but he's made absolutely no progress toward becoming a vampire. He is still fully human. The venom is having no effect on him, except to cause him pain. His throat is still sore, according to Edward, and he is still running a fever. His illness should already be healed by now; it was that way with the rest of you."
Confused, I looked at where Aro laid sweating and whimpering lightly. He was clutching at his throat, which should be the least painful part of his body by now. He also shouldn't be sweating with fever any longer. He should be far more human than vampire still, but Carlisle was right. This wasn't normal.
"I'm afraid of what might happen if things don't improve quickly," Carlisle continued in a low whisper. "The presence of the venom in his bloodstream will prevent any medication to reduce his fever from working. His temperature is already quite high. Left unchecked, I'm not certain that he can survive." Carlisle shook his head. "To think that someone could die in this day and age from strep throat… It's unimaginable. I should have waited until his illness had passed," he lamented.
"Carlisle," Edward was speaking in the same hushed tone, "you couldn't possibly have known. History has taught you that vampire venom heals any injury or illness in moments."
"Still, this is his second transformation. We had no way of knowing what would happen," Carlisle continued to blame himself.
"I didn't have any trouble," I matched their whispers with my own. "I'm under the impression that my transformation was completely normal."
"Yes, but you weren't sick," Carlisle whispered back.
"True," I said slowly, realizing something horrifying. "Carlisle, from what Edward told me, I stayed intoxicated for quite awhile after the burning started. That shouldn't have been possible, should it?"
Carlisle blinked, pressing his fingers lightly to his temple. "No, it shouldn't. I don't know why I didn't think of that until now. Something was different about your second transformation too. I should have realized…" His voice trailed off as he stared at Aro's frail form on the couch. Rosalie was staring at him, her eyes wide with fear. She couldn't possibly have heard us speaking, so I had no idea if she had figured out on her own that something was wrong or if she was just afraid of what would happen to her in a few weeks. In either event, I raced to her side to try to soothe her nerves.
"Shh, it's all right, Rose. Everything's going to be all right," I told her. I knew my words weren't entirely true, but she needed to be reassured right now, even if things could turn out very, very wrong indeed. I didn't want to think about what was going to happen to all of us if Aro died here, today, on our couch. Caius would have no reason to spare any of us when he came for the wolves. I wouldn't even have time to get to know my children before we were all reduced to nothing more than ash and rubble. I wondered if anyone would even remember the strange family who had attended high school with them.
"Emmett, he's not healing," she whispered in alarm.
Well, at least I knew now exactly what she was afraid of.
"How can you tell?" I asked.
"It's obvious. Just look at him," she said. I supposed she had a point. His sore throat and fever were about as plain as my own hands, and it would have been foolish to assume that only a vampire could pick up on these things.
"I know," I told her sadly. "Carlisle doesn't know what to do. He doesn't understand what's happening or why. We just realized that my transformation wasn't entirely normal either,"
Her eyes snapped to meet mine. "How so?" she demanded, sounding exactly like her old self. For the briefest of moments, you wouldn't be able to tell that she was ill, pregnant, or even that she wasn't a vampire. The ferocity of her voice was back, the intensity of her gaze the same, even though the color of her eyes had changed from gold to blue. For a moment, I became lost in them until she brought me back to reality with an impatient shake of her head.
"Well, err, I went out with some of the wolves earlier that night and we had a lot to drink," I explained sheepishly. "From what Edward's told me, I stayed pretty toasty for awhile after I started burning, which really shouldn't have happened. The venom should have returned me to a fully alert state in minutes."
Rosalie tilted her head thoughtfully, turning back to look at Aro once again. "This was before I arrived?" she asked.
"Yes," I replied. "By the time you got here, the alcohol had worn off. Why?"
Edward's mouth pressed shut in a hard line. "That's an intriguing idea, Rosalie."
I glared at him. "What is? A man's life is at stake. For once, will you just spit it out?"
"Rosalie wonders whether her return to you was what brought about your ability to transform. In other words, since rejection by your true mate brought about your humanity, perhaps you wouldn't have been able to transform again while she still rejected you," Edward spoke rapidly, his voice flat.
I waited a moment for his words to sink in. The others did likewise. "I didn't see this happening," Alice winced. "I would have warned you if I had."
"Do you see any chance of Sulpicia suddenly changing her mind?" I asked. That was, after all, what it had taken for me to complete my transformation successfully. It was a long shot, but it was worth asking.
Alice shook her head in despair. "Not in the slightest. She and Marcus haven't decided where to travel next, but she's very much enjoying her new freedom and independence. I can't tell what she's thinking, of course, but I would be surprised if she even remembered Aro's existence."
"Damn," I muttered, apparently echoing the sentiments of the others.
Esme pressed a cool washcloth to Aro's forehead, which was about the only thing anyone could think of to do for him right now. If he couldn't change while his mate rejected him, he couldn't get her back, and there was no way to expel the venom from his system.
"What if he doesn't die from his illness?" Jasper asked. "I mean, we don't know for certain that his fever will get that bad," he reasoned.
Carlisle whispered so quietly that we all had to strain to hear. "If Rosalie is correct, he will still be unable to transform, but he will continue to be in agony. There would be only one way to ever end his suffering."
A hushed silence fell over us all. One of us would have to kill Aro, who had, in the most unlikely of circumstances, become our friend and even, perhaps, a member of our family. It would be the most humane thing to do; certainly more humane than allowing him to continue to exist in this kind of excruciating pain. He would die in a few days anyway, since he would find it impossible to eat or drink while enduring this suffering.
"What is it?" Rosalie asked. I had momentarily forgotten that she wouldn't be able to hear.
"Carlisle thinks you could be right," I whispered in her ear. "If Aro manages to survive his illness, he'll go on like this until one of us…" I couldn't bear to finish the sentence.
"No!" Rosalie whispered back fiercely. "No, you can't. Oh Aro!"
"There must be some other way," Esme frowned. "There simply must be some way to save him. A complete blood transfusion?"
Carlisle shook his head. "It wouldn't work. As soon as we introduced new blood into his system, the venom would rush into it. The only way we could attempt to accomplish such a thing would be to drain him completely of the infected blood, which would kill him."
"But Bella—" Alice began.
"The venom hadn't spread throughout her body yet," Edward interrupted. "I was able to suck out the infected blood because of that. Aro has had venom in his system for several hours now."
"Do we have any way to reach Sulpicia?" Jasper asked.
"What good would that do?" My words were a little ruder than I'd intended. I softened my tone before continuing. "First of all, she probably won't be inclined to help if she doesn't give a rat's ass about him. Second, even if she did show up, she won't take him back unless she truly feels like it."
"Perhaps she could be convinced to take him back long enough for him to transform?" Jasper offered.
"Which brings me to my third point," I continued, "even if we could somehow magically convince her to do the exact opposite of what she wants to do without giving her any kind of good reason why she should do it, as soon as he was transformed and she rejected him again, he'd become a human again and we'd be right back where we started."
"Oh," Jasper murmured. "Good point."
"It's true," Alice confirmed, "she has no reason to want to help us. She has no reason to care whether Caius kills the wolves, and by extension, us. Every version of the future I see where we ask her to help, she refuses outright because there's nothing in it for her."
We fell silent once again. I pulled Rosalie closer to me, gazing on at Aro in sorrow. Only weeks before, we had been hoping that Aro's disappearance from Alice's visions meant that he would die. Now we couldn't bear the thought.
"Alice," I said quietly. "Can you see what's going to happen to him?"
Alice shook her head. "Something is blocking me from seeing anything about that."
"I guess that means we can expect Bella to return with Nessie and Jacob soon," I tried to joke, but even I wasn't amused. "Well, maybe one of them will have an idea," I added. Despite my best efforts, there was no hint of hopefulness in my voice. None of us had even an inkling of an idea. How could we even begin to hope that there was a chance of being able to help Aro?
As if on cue, Bella's truck pulled up to the house. "I can't believe she drives that thing," Rosalie muttered under her breath. I managed a short chuckle at the fact that Bella's truck was so loud that even a sick human could hear it.
Nessie and Jacob stepped inside. "Bella decided to stay with Charlie for a little while longer," Nessie explained before any of us had a chance to question her. "Sue's got her hands full trying to take care of him. You know how men are when they get sick."
"Do I ever," I grumbled before I could stop myself. I immediately wanted to punch myself in the face for saying anything negative about Aro now that he was doomed.
"What's going on?" Jacob asked, taking in our bleak expressions and correctly interpreting them to mean that something was wrong.
Carlisle filled the two of them in on the specifics. Nessie gasped in horror at the idea of Aro living in agony until one of us put an end to his life. Jacob's expression remained unreadable, but I gathered from Jasper slowly edging away that he was less than pleased about the outcome.
"You're suggesting that one of you should kill a human," Jacob finally said. "I know we gave you some leniency on the treaty, but that's a clear violation. We won't allow that."
I felt my eyes widen in shock as I stared back at Jacob, who was standing calmly, his arms folded over his chest in defiance. His chin was lifted and he stood tall, practically daring one of us with his stance to go against him. Did he not understand what he was saying? Was he incapable of recognizing compassion?
"You can't actually expect us to allow Aro to live on for days, weeks, or years in this kind of pain?" Edward was the first to speak, and he did so with no small degree of incredulousness.
"It's not our fault that you screwed up," Jacob shot back.
"It's not Aro's fault either!" Alice hissed. "You would have him suffer for our mistake?"
"Ought to teach you not to take transforming others so lightly," Jacob said.
"I cannot believe you would behave this way!" Nessie shouted. "You would actually attack us because we were forced to end a man's suffering with compassion after making a mistake we couldn't possibly have known was a mistake, all in the name of trying to save all of you from certain death?"
"We wouldn't hurt you, Nessie. You know that."
"I can't believe you'd even suggest that it's about me and my own life!" Nessie's voice became shriller by the moment. So much for trying to protect Aro from the cold reality of what was taking place. There was absolutely no way he hadn't heard her. "Jacob Black, you're talking about murdering my entire family when all they did was try to help you. If they'd been willing to just let you all die, none of this would have happened."
"Regardless of the reason, we can't allow vampires to end a human life. You know my hands are bound by my own bloodline on this, Nessie. I know it's your family and you love them, but what do you want me to do?" Jacob pleaded.
"Try thinking for yourself instead of acting like such a pigheaded oaf whose only concern is for obeying some tradition about killing vampires. What if…" Nessie stopped short. "Jacob, what if I was the one to kill Aro? Would you kill me for it?"
"Nessie, we couldn't let you live with something like that—" Edward began.
"Shut up, Edward," Rosalie snapped. "I want to hear the dog's answer."
Jacob glowered at Rosalie while he answered Nessie's question. "You already know we wouldn't."
"So I get a free pass to do whatever I want. I can go on a rampage and murder half the town for absolutely no reason and you won't do a thing about it, but if my family euthanizes Aro—"
"It's not euthanasia when they're the ones who caused the problem in the first place!" Jacob protested.
"To help you and your pack of mutts!" Nessie argued, her eyes filling with tears of frustration and anger. "Don't you dare ask me to choose between you and my family." Nessie's eyes had spilled over, tears streaming down her face. "You won't like my decision."
"That's just the way it is with you Swan girls, isn't it?" Jacob shouted, taking a step toward Nessie. He was shaking visibly. "Always choosing bloodsuckers over me. Always telling me how I'm important, but when the chips are down, you run off to your bunch of freaks and forget I ever existed. Good old Jacob Black, good for a laugh now and again, but not worth picking when push comes to shove."
"Jacob, I think you'd better go now," Jasper warned him.
Jacob didn't move.
"I wish you'd never imprinted on me. Get out of my house, you son of a bitch!" Nessie shrieked.
Jacob stepped back, stunned. I started to get up, preparing to escort him out, but Edward motioned me back down. I shrugged, figuring that there were plenty of other vampires gathered around to help Jacob find the door. "Nessie, I'm sorry, I didn't mean—" he began.
"Now!" she shouted, pointing at the door and stamping her foot. "I want you to leave right now."
Jacob hung his head and left, shutting the door quietly behind him. Nessie flung herself into her father's arms, sobbing inconsolably. Jasper did his best to try to soothe her, but it didn't seem to be doing any good.
"It's too bad rejection won't turn him back into a human," she mumbled in between sobs.
She'll forgive him, I thought.
Probably, Edward mouthed to me over his daughter's head.
If she doesn't though, too bad for him that he'll never be able to truly let her go.
Edward nodded. "He deserves it," he said aloud in response to my thought, although Nessie believed it was in response to her remark.
"Daddy," Nessie moaned into Edward's chest in a rare display of emotion, "do you know what the worst part is?"
"I know, sweetheart," Edward replied softly in response to her thoughts.
"What?" I asked, curious and wanting to help.
Nessie sniffed. "Come here, Emmett," she said, holding out her hand.
I obeyed and waited for her to press her hand to my face. My eyes unfocused slightly as she sent me a series of images and emotions centered around Jacob. "No matter how terribly you want to hate him, you still love him," I summarized. Nessie nodded. She had always loved Jacob, of course, if not in precisely the way he might have preferred.
Alice gasped. "Nessie, that's it! You're a genius!"