53. Best friends share… everything.

Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods.

Thanks to BanSidhe [ruadh sidhe] and Feebes86 for betaing and pre-reading.


The SUV pulled up at the medical centre. The pack was already home and waiting for them. Many hands reached to lift Embry out of the rear of the vehicle. "Hey, guys," he muttered. The hands all patted him and made contact somehow. He was looking much better and they were all glad to see him; weak, but still alive. The trip had taken just under four hours.

Quil started telling the medic what drugs they thought Embry had been given, what he and Bella had done for him, what Embry had drunk and how many hours he had slept. They got him face down onto a medical trolley.

Sam carried Bella. Joy Ateara was waiting for them inside. She rushed to Quil and hugged him.

"Should we tell Embry's mother?' she whispered to Sam as he carried her easily through the front doors.

He shrugged. "I'll try, but don't hold your breath."

"I won't tell him, just in case she doesn't come," Bella suggested.

"She's got a suspected broken wrist, shock and bruising," Sam told one of the medical staff. So much for Bella trying to hide her injuries. "And duct tape stuck all over her."

"Lucky we have some tape Remover solution, Cramer Sports Medicine Solution. You can't peel it off, but that stuff deactivates it somehow," the nurse said.

"Embry will need it too," Bella pointed out.

"But first," the nurse said with a pointed look at her, "You need to get into a hot shower and get those clothes off."

"I'll try, but it's hard with one hand."

"I'll send someone to help you," the nurse suggested.

She was standing in the bathroom, trying to get her clothes off when Quil opened the door.

"He's sleeping," he said. "Mum's with him. They gave him something and he's on a drip. Are you okay?"

She flung herself at him. They were both suddenly just overcome with a need to reconnect. They couldn't get her clothes off until she soaked them off under the hot water. Then Quil just tore them apart. It hurt her, a little and neither one cared.

"I thought I'd lost you both," he kept saying; low and quickly. Like a mantra. "I thought I'd lost you both."

"I'm here," she kept telling him. But he needed to be in her to make sure. It wasn't romantic or sexy; it was just blinding need. He had to work to get inside her. Halfway through, he suddenly stopped. "Oh Jesus, your wrist. And you were hurt too; what am I doing?"

"Shhh… don't you stop Quil Ateara. Keep going… I need you too."

She clung to him and they both cried. It was an odd mixture of fear and relief. And guilt; guilt that they were okay and that Embry had been hurt. He made a sob noise as he came inside her. She comforted him and held him as well as she could with one functioning wrist. She kept kissing him and telling him it was all okay now.

He towelled her dry and made a noise of disapproval at the state of her hair. "Embry will be upset about that," he said.

"He'll just have to wait around for it to grow back." She grinned at him. "Could take years."

He put Charlie's sweat pants back on and carried her out to the staff, wrapped in the towel.

"She looks better already for that nice hot shower," the nurse said with a wink. Quil kissed Bella before depositing her on an examination bed. The nurse got a peck on the cheek too, before he rushed back to Embry and his mother.

"He's a good boy, that one," the nurse told her.

"I know," Bella agreed. "I'm so lucky to have them."

"Them?" she asked.

Bella decided to be open; this was the rez. They were hoping to live here all together at some point in the future. "Embry's mine too," she confessed.

"Oh now, you lucky girl. You let us fix you up and then you can get back to them."

Her arm was x-rayed and strapped. They found some hospital scrubs for her to wear and then they let her crawl into the bed with Embry. Quil wouldn't fit and he had to sleep in the uncomfortable armchair next to the bed. They both refused to leave him. Joy went home to sleep in her own bed. She said she would be back in the morning.

Bella snuggled down against Embry's side. He was face down on the bed. She kept stroking his undamaged skin. He opened an eye at one stage and saw her and Quil beyond her, asleep in the armchair. He smiled and then his eye closed again. She fell asleep herself, eventually. She woke up to him brushing her cheek. "No more Goldilocks," he sighed. His voice still sounded throaty and hoarse.

She blinked at him in confusion. "You were Goldilocks," she insisted. "I'm the three bears."

He smiled at her. "Sure, honey."

She sat up a little; he winced at the bed movement. They could not put bandages on him; they had learnt from past experience, that the wolf pack healed too fast and the bandages could end up stuck inside the wound. So they had left the wounds open and uncovered. His own metabolism and healing properties would protect him from normal infections. She winced herself at the sight of the cuts all over him.

She wondered what it had cost him to keep standing; supporting her weight and his own, on thighs that had been cut that badly.

"Don't," he said.

"Pardon?"

"Don't look at me like that."

She frowned. "I don't understand."

"Not pity, honey."

"It wasn't pity," she defended. "I am amazed by your strength of will. That you could continue to stand at all."

"It was that or choke," he said. He tilted his head a little. "Sam and Jake."

"Hey guys," Bella called out, before they got to the doorway.

"Morning all," Sam said. "Quil has punishment duty."

"He does? What for?" Bella asked. Quil stirred when they walked in. Rubbing his eyes and stretching his arms as he woke up.

"Blowing the secret," Jake cut in.

"He got shot," Bella protested.

"By Charlie," Sam pointed out. "Thus-"

"You blew it too," interrupted Bella.

Sam frowned at her.

"You spoke about patrols in front of him, too," Bella argued.

Sam studied her. "As I recall, Bella. You mentioned it first."

She looked caught out. "I did?"

"Yeah, you did," agreed Quil.

"Whose side are you on?" Bella admonished.

Quil held his hands up in a surrender gesture. "Just sayin'…"

"Did you tell my mother I was in here, Sam?" Embry asked; rescuing Quil from Bella.

Sam resisted looking at Bella. "Yes, I did."

Embry looked at Bella with a question on his face.

"I didn't see her come in," she admitted. She looked at Quil. He just shook his head.

Quil added, "Charlie popped in, but you were asleep and he said not to wake you."

Embry put his face back down on the bed. His shoulders looked tight and strained.

Sam put in, "I think she thinks it was gang related." He paused. "Because it was a knifing."

"Just desserts," Embry mumbled into the mattress.

Bella had to touch him. She pushed herself under his arm. "That was her last chance," she whispered to him. Quil put a hand on the back of his head and stroked his hair.

"Yep," Embry agreed. "I'm done with her now."

"Dad says you can move into the house now, if you'd like," Jake offered. He looked upset for Embry. "Once, you're healed enough to move."

The tribal doctor showed up just then. "He's healing better now. We have kept up the drip feeding. He will probably need a few more bags before he can eat." He paused. "I suspect the damage to his throat is permanent. The bruising is healing but he isn't getting the vocal range back."

Bella made a noise and put her hand over her mouth.

"I think it's sexy," said Quil. "All throaty and rough." He made a little sigh noise. Jake and Sam just shook their heads.

"Can we put off all discussion of punishment until later, Sam?" Bella pleaded.

Sam just nodded. Bella still wasn't sure if he was entirely serious in the first place; it was hard for her to read Sam's face. "You need to study, too," he pointed out to her.

"Yeah, you've got exams," Embry agreed. Jake grinned at her.

"I think being kidnapped might get me a medical exemption," she argued.

"Knowing Bells, she's done all the revision already, anyway," Jake added. "But there's another reason I'm here." He paused as if he wasn't sure about his reception. "Alice wants to talk to you."

"She can't come into La Push because of the treaty," Bella realised.

"Of course," Sam confirmed.

Bella looked at both Quil and Embry to gauge their reaction.

"She helped," Quil said. "I don't have a problem."

"Don't need our permission, honey," rasped Embry.

"Oh, okay then." She looked at Jake.

"I'll drive you out to the treaty line," he offered

She kissed the boys and walked out with Jake. He had the Rabbit parked out the front of the medical centre. She was barefoot and still wearing the scrubs. Jake had brought a jacket for her but he didn't know she had no shoes. She picked at the sleeve in the car. Jake noticed.

"Whassup, Bells?" he asked.

Jake was her best friend. She could tell him. "Victoria said Edward lied to me."

Jake just waited for her to get it all out. It all came out in a rush.

"He left me; he told me he didn't love me. But Victoria said he was hunting her in South America. That he looked awful; that he wasn't feeding properly. That his clothes were all tattered and torn. That he tried to kill her because he still loved me."

Jake nodded. "So?" he asked.

"What?" Bella squeaked.

"So?" he repeated. He looked at her with an exasperated look on his face. "Are you seriously suggesting that you are gonna toss over Quil and Embry, who have imprinted on you, by the way… and go back to Cullen? Is that what you are thinking?" He sounded incensed for his pack mates.

Was that what she was thinking?

"N-no," she stuttered.

"So, what's the problem, Bells?" He looked at her again; then glancing back to the road. "It's only a problem if you make it one."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, let's think about why he would lie to you? What did he want?"

She thought about it. "He didn't want to turn me; he wanted me to remain human."

"To have kids, grow old… all that stuff," said Jake.

"I suppose so. I don't entirely know what he was thinking."

"Yes, you do; you know him. You know how he thinks." He glanced at her again. He was staring down the road when he said, "He probably thought you were gonna do all that with me. He could read my mind that night I came to your prom. He knew how I felt about you."

Silence.

"So he won't be upset that you are doing that with a guy, or two," Jake added. "Of course, he might not be happy that they are werewolves."

"I know… but… I just worry," she murmured.

"You worry too much, Bells. Anyway, Jasper felt it."

"Pardon?" she wasn't sure what Jake meant.

"Outside the mine. He saw Quil and he felt what Quil was feeling. And his love for you and Embry. He knows."

"The empathy thing," she stated.

"He called it something else; Pathokinesis I think. But if Edward wanted you to be loved and human; you're doing that, Bells. And he should be happy for you. And Jasper can tell him just how much they love you. Both of them. Because he knows what Embry went through, rather than hurt you, and what Quil felt at the thought of losing you. And today he will pick up how you feel about them."

She just looked at him. "When did you get so sensible?" she asked him jokingly.

"Best friend," he insisted. He slowed the car and nodded at the other car parked, waiting for them. "They're here."

"Thanks, Jake." She hugged him.

Alice and Jasper were waiting for her. She ran across to them and hugged Alice enthusiastically. It felt so odd to hug her; she was so cold and hard. Jake leant against the car, folded his arms and watched them carefully. He and Jasper nodded at each other.

She hugged Jasper too. He looked momentarily startled.

"I can't stay long," she started. "I have to get back to Embry."

"Yes, Bella," chided Alice. "What on earth? With werewolves?"

"Oh, my God," Bella started and then she was off. She prattled on about how they had imprinted on her. How much she adored them both, how they were all going to live together. She went on and on. It wasn't until she noticed Jasper's crooked smile, that she comprehended that she had completely monopolised the conversation with chat about her lovers.

"Oh, I'm sorry. How is everyone? Is Edward okay? Victoria said she had seen him in South America."

Alice and Jasper exchanged a look. "He'll be pleased to hear that Victoria is no longer a problem, and that you have moved on," Alice stated.

"And that you are happy," Jasper added.

"Please…" She hesitated for a second. "Please tell him that I forgive him. For leaving me. I think I understand now, what he was trying to do. Why he lied to me. I was very hurt that you all left without saying goodbye. But I get it now; he loves me and that's why he left. So I could have a real life."

"Yes, I'm glad you understand now," Alice said.

"Please give everyone my love. I heard that the wolves obscure your visions."

"They do, your future has been black for a while now," Alice said.

That was odd; she had only really got together with the boys weeks ago. Maybe it was when she first started hanging with Jake. "Not black," she said, "Ateara and Call."

Jake laughed. Alice and Jasper didn't get the joke.

She farewelled them and made Alice promise to keep in touch. Email her or something.

They drove off and she walked gingerly on her bare feet back to Jake.

He gave her a look.

"What?" she asked.

"You didn't mention the four months of zombie Bella," he accused.

"She would have seen it," Bella stated. "You can't tell me, Alice Cullen didn't know about that. If they didn't come back or contact me then, then my 'zombie' phase wasn't … I can't think of the word… important enough to them? To make them come back."

Jake hugged her. "It was important to us, Bells. We were all worried about you; me, Dad and Charlie."

"I know," she mumbled into his chest as she hugged him back.

"Ugh, you reek of vampire," he complained.

"Thanks for bringing me out, Jake."

"One day I might have to make new treaties, with the same Cullens. Pays to be friendly now, doncha reckon?"

"Smart thinking, Jake. One day you'll be chief, thinking like that," she teased.


Meanwhile… back at the medical centre…

"Man, we are pussy whipped," Quil told Embry. "Letting our girl go meet vampires." He shuddered. "Vampires that are her friends."

"If we said 'no', she'd go anyway," Embry pointed out. "Now she thinks we're nice."

Quil thought about it. "Yeah, okay. I can live with that."