Chapter 53 - Untangling
Demetri stepped forward, bowed his head slightly, "Mistress."
"Renée, my name is Renée. Demetri."
I looked from one to the other. Did they know each other?
"Do you know each other?" Despite everything else that was going on, this was so odd that I need an answer before my mind exploded.
"We have never met before," Demetri replied to me with sincerity. "It is an honor."
"Never mind all that right now," my mother ordered. "Let's sort this out. Umm I guess frozen is better than fighting each other. What did you do? Shout stop at them, or something? It is a good job they don't need to breathe, you could kill a human doing that! You need to learn a lot more subtlety Bella, this really won't do. It would have been so much better to have nipped the whole thing in the bud rather than let it get to this."
I stood there staring at her. It certainly looked like my mother but I couldn't remember her ever chiding me like this before. I was too surprised to agree or disagree with her. I didn't understand how she could understand about this. How she knew about the vampire world at all.
"Mom?"
Renée was now inspecting the fighters. "Yes honey?"
"How did you get here?"
"Well I brought the car to the edge of the wood then I ran of course."
"How can you run like that?"
"Oh," she turned to me and smiled, "I haven't explained, have I."
"No Mom, and this needs some explaining."
"I did try to but you didn't want to listen, I thought maybe it was too soon."
The others, the ones not frozen, were staring in awe at her. Alice, however, was coming out of her trance, her eyes refocusing on the scene in front of her
She flitted to Renée and, grinning at her, embraced her. "I see so much now. Me too?"
"Yes, of course, you too, how could you not be one of us? You have always known, haven't you?"
Alice stood next to Renée surveying the scene. "Yes, but it was never clear enough until now to understand. There are so many paths now, so many choices. It's going to take some time to get my mind round this. The three of us?"
"Yes, you give hope to the world."
Carlisle interjected. "Renée?" he began hesitantly, "how nice to meet you again." He was floundering, clearly as bewildered as I was, "Would you mind explaining for the rest of us?"
Renée beamed at him. "Where would you like me to start?"
"My sons, how are they like this?"
"That's very simple, Bella forced them to stop fighting, in the nick of time I would say. That one is just about to lose his head."
Carlisle was still as mystified as the rest of us. "How are they frozen like this?"
"They aren't totally frozen, you'll find that they are functioning other than skeletal muscles, and in this case I think their lungs aren't working either."
"They can hear us and see but they can't move their eyes to look around. Smell will be more tricky as the air isn't being take into their nose – as I say it is a good job they don't need to breathe. Their brains will be fully functional."
Renée walked over to them and looked more carefully. "The question is what is the best way to stop them fighting when they are unfrozen?"
Emmett walked over to the three and pretended to join in the fight, mocking how he could in turn take out Jasper who was concentrating on Edward.
Alice looked relieved. "This was the vision. I saw all the boys in the wood fighting and your mother looking on. No wonder it looked odd as a vision, it looks very odd now."
Alice was back with Jasper in a flash. She stroked his cheek tenderly with her fingers.
"Mom... but how do we unfreeze them?" I asked. She'd said it as if it was an everyday process, freezing and unfreezing people.
"We don't, you do. It's best if it is you, it is more likely to have a proper counter affect to your first command. They will stay like this until you command otherwise."
"But I don't know how," anguish in my voice. Was Edward going to have to stay like that because I didn't know what I was doing?
"All in good time, first we need to decide what we should do with them. This needs to be considered carefully as it will have consequences. Carlisle, you are the head of the family, this is your issue to resolve."
Renée walked gracefully to a fallen tree and sat on it, clearly indicating that she was not going to take part in any decisions that needed to be made. We all just stared at her.
I didn't know how she could move so gracefully, too graceful for a human, her feet just skimming the ground.
Carlisle looked rather taken aback. "I... I... Thank you Renée. I..."
Demetri interjected. "It may be worth establishing all the facts, before we start to think of the future."
"Yes indeed Demetri. Thank you. Bella, please could you run through the events that happened to you since you left the match and we will fill in the events as they presented to us."
All eyes, well the ones that could move, were on me again. First I explained what happened when I went to get the water, with Fred threatening Nessie. It felt a betrayal to tell the tale when he couldn't speak to defend himself. I reminded myself that he wasn't our friend, he had proved that. He had threatened Nessie, and even after we'd got away from him once he still wanted me to leave with him. I tried to stick to the facts as I saw them. I did not try to explain his motives.
I came to the part where Jasper had run towards us and Nessie disappeared from Fred's shoulders, and then I realized this wasn't something I had an answer for. How did Nessie escape? I stopped.
"Bella, go on please. We know it is painful for you to relive, but we need to know."
I described what had happened to Nessie and explained that I'd not though about it since then.
Carlisle smiled and assured me that they would fill in that part for me when I finished. He urged me to continue. Although I was desperate to know how she was saved, I carried on. I explained Jasper's tale about the Volturi, his lie about the family all being safer if Nessie and I were not with them and his lie that Edward had sent him to keep us safe on the run. I said how I had shielded us from Demetri so we could run undetected. I described our journey to Portland and how Jasper had crushed our phones. I described finding the safe house and realizing that Jasper wasn't being honest with me. I mentioned that I was hearing voices in my head who promised to get help. I described how we had come into the wood to hunt, and the events in the wood until I shouted stop.
When I was done they were all staring at me. I'd told my story and I was waiting for the consequences. What would Alice say? Would she say I was lying and that I had bewitched Jasper into running with me?
But they all stood very quiet looking at me. I felt isolated, totally alone. Alice came to me. I braced myself expecting her to slap me or something but she hugged me and I felt that there was a way out of this situation and a way to salvage the family. There was hope.
"I could see glimpses now and then around Nessie, but she was so close to you all of the time that I was mainly blind. I was no help, I didn't know where you were. I could see you in a car then in a house but I had no idea where. I was so worried for all three of you."
"And now we owe you an explanation." Carlisle smiled a small smile.
"The match continued when you left for water until it was interrupted by Nahuel coming back in the clearing and asking to speak to me urgently.
"He explained that he had gone to watch out for you when you were getting water with Fred. I believe he see this as his duty to you?" I nodded my head. "He didn't trust Fred's motives, quite rightly so in this case. He told me how he'd pulled Nessie off Fred's shoulders into the trees above when Fred was distracted by Jasper's approach, so that she would be safe. He had presumed that Jasper had come to rescue you, something that he couldn't do alone. He told me Jasper's tale about the Volturi and his own indecision about what to do. He didn't believe Jasper as you had done, but just in case it was true he didn't want to follow you because he was unshielded and would be a signal to Demetri. He decided to come back to the clearing and explain what had happened, or, if the Volturi tale was true, to see if there were any way he could help."
I felt so grateful to Nahuel again. This man risked his life a second time to save me and my daughter. He could have run off if he thought there was a chance that the Volturi were coming back. It would have been the sensible thing to do, but, no, he went back.
"A party of us went off quickly to follow you. We found Fred and I stayed and put him back together while the others followed your scent down to town to where you got in the car. Fred verified Nahuel's story and admitted he'd asked you to leave with him." By the face that Carlisle was making I could see that wasn't a full description of that particular event. I was glad that Edward was frozen and couldn't get to Fred.
"We had little way of knowing where you'd gone. Demetri couldn't feel you, and Alice couldn't see you. Nahuel and Jacob were convinced that you had gone south, they said they felt a pull in that direction as if they needed to be somewhere. We all came south together by car, but we went too far south and had to drive north again. Their imprinting produces a pull but it is nothing like Demetri's talent, it is a pull of the heart. We were just traveling back towards Portland when Demetri felt Renée's presence and was sure that is where you would be. We followed Demetri's directions to the house and followed your scent here.
"Now we have established the facts as we see them we still have to decide how to go on from here. We will need to allow the men to talk for themselves of course, they should be allowed to dispute anything that we have said."
Carlisle continued, "It is clear to me that we can not continue as we were. These events were dangerous and our lives need to change in some way to lessen any chance that they will happen again."
To me it was clear. I was the trigger for these events. "We will have to leave, it is the only way. Edward will not be able to forgive either Jasper or Fred. And I will always be the cause of trouble in the family. My talent is even less compatible with the family than Fred's."
Alice piped up, "No, no, there is another way. Fred will leave, we will leave, and you will train."
"How Alice? How will I train to stop this happening again?" I was cross, I couldn't do it. I couldn't be responsible for this happening again.
"With help from your mother."
I'd put Renée out of my mind when we were having this discussion, but now she walked slowly towards me and put her hand on my arm. "It is possible my love, it would be my honor to teach you. I can't promise it will be easy but without it people will die."
As she said it I knew it was true. I knew that I could find a way to stop being a danger. Instruction, time and practice were required, but I would get there.
Alice continued, "I see Jasper and I taking a trip to... Europe. We are going to travel, he can't be near you for now. If he stays here he will try to be with you."
I was amazed that she could say this in such an easy manner. How could she be so un-jealous of the hold I had over Jasper?
"Bella, don't look like that, I can see it all, the paths in front are very clear to me now. And the future if we pick that path looks good. Jasper still loves me, I know that Bella, nothing has changed. This is just a temporary blip. You are still young, you see relationships as such short term things. Jasper and I have been married for decades, we will get past this.
"If you leave you will take Nessie away from her family, and away from Jacob, when she is growing so fast and needs them. You need to stay with the family for now. And you will train."
Renée interjected, "I don't think that you and Jasper should see each other again, certainly not regularly. Your gifts are incompatible, and even after training the risk will be too high that you would manipulate each other's feelings again. You must not blame him or yourself for these events. It was bound to happen at some point with Jasper. He is a man who hears not only the thoughts you put into heads but feels the emotions too, so very keenly. He has been in great emotional pain because of them. I am sure he will be less burdened away from you."
I would lose Alice and Jasper from my life and the lives of all our family forever.
"Ah Bella, don't look like that, no one is dying here," Alice rang. "I can visit, we can both visit with the rest of the family if you are away anytime. We just have to coordinate. It won't be the same, but we will all be happy."
"And Fred, what do we do about Fred?" I looked at Alice and she looked to Carlisle.
"He has chosen to disrespect our family. He will not feed as we do. It is clear and simple, he cannot stay with us. He needs to leave this area and not return." Carlisle's judgment was surprisingly authoritative. He left no room for discussion. I felt a mix of relief and guilt. If Fred had not fallen under my spell and acted in this way he would have found help here for longer, and now he would have to cope on his own in a life of exile from every living thing.
"So Renée, how are we to release them?" Carlisle questioned.
"This is for Bella to do." Renée repeated her earlier assertion
"But how? I can't, I don't know how."
"Bella, honey, don't be so negative. You stopped them very decisively. I don't think you will have too much trouble in getting them to resume."
"So do I just shout resume! Or is there more to it than that?"
"You are forcing thoughts into their minds, you can be as precise as you want to be. Start with something small. Address just one of them and command them to make a small movement."
"Mom, that isn't going to work. I can't just tell someone what to do and they do it."
"You can, look at the truth in front of you. When you concentrate you can do it."
"OK, I'll try and then you'll see."
"Edward, please look at me." I walked over to him. "Edward if you can hear me move your head and look at me."
The frozen stance of my husband stayed exactly as it was.
"You need to concentrate, you need to put your soul into this just like you did when you commanded them to stop – well maybe not that much! Remember how you felt when you saw them fighting like this, you felt so much that they needed to do something."
"I will show you." Renée glided to Emmett's side. She looked so small and fragile against his massive frame. Emmett looked nervous, clearly not sure if he should try to defend himself in some way. "Emmett, I want you to climb half way up the tree you are standing next to. Just go and sit safely on that nice thick branch." Renée pointed to the branch.
Emmett looked like a bear climbing the tree. He bounded up the trunk and sat on the branch comfortably, swinging his legs slightly. He almost looked like a young boy, but the scale was all wrong, the tree was too big and Emmett vast.
We all just stared at him, "What's wrong with you, haven't you seen anyone climb a tree before?" He called from his elevated position.
Carlisle looked very puzzled. "Emmett, why did you climb the tree?"
Emmett just shrugged his shoulders in his normal manner. "I felt like it I guess. It seemed like a good idea. I thought I'd get a better view."
"Do you remember Renée saying anything to you?"
"Well she came over to me and I thought it would be better if I was up here safely out of the way."
"And can you get down?"
"Of course." And he jumped to the ground, the earth quaking slightly as he landed.
If this hadn't been so serious it would have been funny.
I looked at Renée, "But if he can get down, why can't the others move?"
"I didn't tell him to stop. I was careful to explain to him what I wanted him to do, but after he had done it he was at liberty to do anything he wanted."
"What do you mean, you wanted me to climb the tree? It was my idea, you didn't ask me to do it."
Renée looked at me. "They never remember it was you that asked, which is usually a good thing."
I went to Edward's side and touched his face. He felt still, but otherwise completely normal. I thought back to the desperate desire I felt for them all to stop fighting, and tried to put some of that into my command.
"Edward, please look at me."
His head moved away from Fred's neck, swiveling in my direction. His eyes found mine and then he was still again. I stared into his eyes for a few seconds, they were coal black but still looked very alive.
"How should I get them to move again? I don't want the fight to restart."
"Well honey, I'd try for one at a time. Start with Jasper as he is least entangled. You need to be very specific, just continue or resume won't do, he will just start to fight again."
"No, I know, I know what to say, I have seen it," Alice cried, and went into a trance again. "Yes, that's it! You must tell him to move away from the other fighters and leave with me. We will go straight away from here. Can you send things up to Denali for us? We'll start there but we are going traveling for a while. We will keep in touch, I still have my phone. "
She looked over to me and smiled, "Don't worry Bella, it is all going to be fine. I can see it all and it is just fine."
So this was what needed to happen. I had split the family, the cuckoo chick throwing the other chicks out of the nest.
I moved to her husband's side. "Look at me please Jasper." His neck rotated in odd fashion until he was looking directly into my eyes." I saw black fire in them. "Jasper, move away from Edward and Fred. Go to Alice and leave with her when she asks you to."
But he didn't move.
My mother flitted to my side and put her hand on my shoulder. "Try again. Think what you want him to do most of all."
"Jasper, release Edward's arm and stop loving me!" The last bit slipped out from deep within me without my conscious thought.
Jasper released Edward's arm but Jasper didn't move. I felt hatred in the air. His gift had not stopped, it involved no muscles. He now felt hatred and this was filling the air.
"Too much again Bella," Renée chided. "Are you trying to get him to kill you?"
I was glad that Jasper was still frozen. I could imagine a hate-powered Jasper stalking me for eternity until he found and destroyed me.
"Love me as your sister." It was the only thing I could think that might be near what I felt for him.
The hated evaporated and a comfortable calm pervaded the clearing.
"Jasper, move normally and go to Alice."
This time it worked. He slowly rose from his place next to Edward and took four steps to be next to Alice. He embraced her briefly and stood staring into her eyes, their hands linked, emotions of many kinds passing between them, some strong enough to leak outside of their personal space. I had to look away, it was such a personal moment between them.
After a minute or so Carlisle cleared his throat, "Ahem, how much of what was said did you hear Jasper?"
"All of it I think, I just don't know why I can suddenly move again."
"That was Bella releasing you. Do you have anything that you want to add to counter what you have heard."
"No, Bella's description was correct. I just don't understand what possessed me. If it makes any difference I am truly sorry. But I know that is not enough to put right the damage I have caused."
"We are going to leave now and go to Denali," Alice said.
"Yes, I want to go with you," said Jasper, his deep base voice chiming with (it took me a second to think what it was) … hope.
Alice hugged me one last time. "We will meet again Bella." And my hope for this was restored too. They ran out of sight hand in hand. I may have lost Jasper from my life forever but I would see her again, I was sure of it.
"Just these two to sort now, one to go and one to stay," said Renée.
"What should I say to them?"
I looked first to Renée, who merely shrugged her shoulders, and then to Carlisle.
"I think you should ask Fred to leave voluntarily and not to come back, and to feel friends and only friends with all of our family."
I did as Carlisle requested. It took three goes but eventually he was able to maneuver away from Edward. He left with hardly a word, just a brief smile and a "see you around some day."
Then there was just Edward. I so wanted him back it was easy to know what to say.
"Come back to me, I love you."
I was caught immediately in such a passionate kiss that, had I been human and kissed like this with so many onlookers I would have gone bright scarlet. As it was I felt a flush in my cheeks.
"I love you so much Bella," was all that he said.
"Will you two just get a room or something!" Emmett grumbled, leaning against a tree watching us with disgust.
"Mind you thoughts brother, she's mine," Edward snapped back at him, but his remark had an edge of humor to it. We both grinned at each other, our eyes not losing each other's.
"Now that's all sorted had we better get off. The sun will be out soon and we don't want you exposed to the light when there are innocents about," Renée said with enthusiasm. She turned and started to run gently back towards the edge of the forest.
She was right about the sun. The cold gray light was giving way to a bright winter's morning. We needed to get away before we were seen shimmering in the rays of sunlight filtering through the forest.
I followed her, dragging Edward by the hand. I wanted answers.
Carlisle, Demetri and Emmett jogged along twenty yards or so behind and further behind them still Nahuel.
"Mom, aren't you going to explain?"
"Yes I am honey, but not here."
"Will you come home with us?" I asked. The thought of going without answers for another minute seemed unbearable but going for days without them was unthinkable.
Carlisle spoke up from the party behind. "Renée, please come back with us, we all have things we need to share with each other."
"Thank you Carlisle, I will. I would love to see Esme again."
She said little else until we reached the edge of the wood despite my numerous attempts to start a conversation. All I managed to get out of her was that Phil was fine and in good form this season.
We were again obliged to move at human speed, but this time we chose what would have been a brisk run for a human. We had to get under cover.
We reached the safe house again just as the sun was getting dangerously high in the sky.
Jasper and Alice had taken the car we had used to get there. But there were now a convoy of cars parked outside the house. Edward and Alice had arrived in Edward's Aston Martin and Carlisle in his Mercedes with Demetri and Fred. Emmett had his huge Jeep, which by the scent had also carried the two wolves but now Nahuel was the only remaining passenger. There was also one very ordinary looking car, a compact Japanese car, just right for a teaching assistant, Renée's car.
We were a strange convoy driving back to Forks. I thought that we would have to drive slowly because of my mother's ordinary car, but like so much else about my mother there was more to her car than met the eye. Under the hood it was obviously not an ordinary compact car. It was little wonder that she had never let me drive it. She'd always said that it was unreliable and hard to change gear, and I had always borrowed Phil's when I was at home.
Edward and I said little to each other on the way home. We sat in silence, occasionally grinning at each other. Edward drove one handed along all the straight bits of road so that we could hold hands on the way back.
All I could say was, "I believed him, I am so sorry, he said you'd sent him."
"I know you believe a lie so easily, you trust people so much. It is one of the things I love about you. Jasper was a member of the family. Why wouldn't you trust him?"
At that point I though back to the incident in the kitchen. Maybe I should of at least been suspicious of him.
I wanted to know more. "What made him do it? Was there a trigger that suddenly forced him to act like this? I haven't been trying to lead him on or anything."
"I know that Bella, you mustn't take any blame yourself. Emmett and Nahuel both love you too but they haven't acted in this way towards you and Nessie.
"There were two things going around in his mind when we were frozen, I so wanted to tear his head off when I heard them. The first was the image of you asleep in the cottage; apparently you whispered his name…"
"Oh, I am so sorry, I can't help what I say when I'm asleep, I don't suppose I meant anything by it."
"I know, you usually say my name at least a dozen times when you sleep, to say his once is nothing. But he didn't understand that, he thought it was your subconscious crying out for him. But even with that he may not have taken such drastic action if it wasn't for you blasting him the other day when you unshielded in the cottage. At that point he lost his mind, he felt that he would die without you."
"Oh," I felt ashamed and dejected, "I won't do that again unless it is just the two of us. Does it make you feel more in love with me?"
"I feel more in love with you every day, this is just a bonus.
"It is a good job they had both gone before you released me or I would have had both their heads. Nobody's going to take you away from me."
"I know, but it's all over now," I replied, and we smiled.
