The Flower Moon

Year Eight, Chapter Thirty

Waiting for the End

Jacob's Point of View

Carlisle rushed into Edward's old room right after Nessie and I, saw Dave giving Janet CPR, and instantly switched into doctor mode, assessing the situation.

How long had David been performing CPR before he screamed for help?

"Asystole!" the Doc said to Rose, who'd run into the room a second later. She immediately grabbed a syringe off his medial cart, filled it with some sort of medicine, then handed it over to Carlisle.

"Move your hands," Carlisle told my son, but he wouldn't stop pounding on his Imprint's chest.

I went over and pulled my son away. As soon as Dave was clear, he slammed the needle into Janet's heart. The Doc knew what he was doing and didn't need Dave in the way. Dave tried to fight me, but Nessie was right by my side. She must have sent him a message through her gift because after touching his arm for a second he stopped fighting.

Edward came into the room now, having run from the cottage, to help. He immediately jumped in and resumed CPR.

"Stop compressions," Carlisle said after a few minutes.

What was going on? I looked to Edward for answers, but got none, so I tried Nessie. While she hadn't been to medical school, she had read all of the Doc's medical books and probably knew just as much as any doctor… or at the very least a med student.

"The epinephrine," she started to explain in a whispered voice, but when she saw the confused looks on Dave's and my faces, amended her answer, "Adrenaline was injected into Janet's heart. Carlisle is listening to see if her heart is back beating on its own, now that the medicine has had some time to circulate."

"It's beating," Rose said with relief.

Edward looked concerned. "Wait…"

"Tachycardia!" the Doc yelled, then grabbed a big red bag from across the room.

"Her hearts beating too fast, too wild" Nessie explained, while the Doc pulled out a portable defibrillator from the bag. I'd watched enough cop and medical dramas to know what that was.

"CLEAR!" he shouted, before placing the paddles on her chest, attempting to jolt Janet's heart back into rhythm. I watched helplessly as her torso jumped off the table and slammed back down.

Edward resumed chest compressions, while Carlisle blew into her mouth. Dave was starting to shake. I was worried he was going to phase but Nessie and Bella pulled Dave into an embrace and he calmed down… a little. We could all hear the erratic pattern of Janet's heart, but with each pump it got weaker and weaker.

"NO, NO, NO! Don't leave me. Please," David whimpered, collapsing onto the floor.

"Oh, no. Janet!" I then heard Felicity cry as she sleepily stumbled into the room. She must have just woken up,

Cradling Felicity in my arms, I turned her face away so she didn't have to watch. This was disturbing. Too disturbing for my baby.

"CLEAR!" Carlisle yelled again. And again Janet's body jumped. Again... no change.

More chest compressions. More breathing into her mouth.

More sobs from Felicity, more gasps and pleas for someone to do something from Dave. "Janet, darling. My sweet girl. Please come back to me. Please. If I could trade places with you I would. In a heartbeat. Please, please, please," he sobbed over and over again.

"CLEAR!" Carlisle yelled again. I lost count how many times I heard him yell that before shocking her again.

After several more agonizing attempts Carlisle finally managed to get her heart beating steadily on its own again. And this time with each beat it got stronger. Just a little, but enough to give Dave hope.

Thank goodness!

David let out the deepest, loudest gasp and then sigh I've ever heard. It was like his own heart had started again. And in a way it had.

Janet's heart was pumping, and she was breathing, but she still looked horrible. And still looked like she might not make it, but there was no way I was going to say that out loud, not while Dave was in the room.

"Jacob, could I talk to you in private for a moment" Carlisle whispered after pulling me aside. I handed Felicity over to Edward before following the Doc.

Once we were out of the room he began. "Jacob I've had an idea that I would like to try. It's only a theory, but I don't believe there is time to run tests and try it out beforehand. Janet is currently alive but in no way out of the woods, her heart could give out again at any moment." That made sense. It has been two weeks and her fragile human heart couldn't take much more of this.

"Sure, sure. What do you need Doc?"

"David said something tonight that got me thinking. He mentioned that he would change places with Janet if he could. Of course if he was the one that had gotten bit the anti-venom would most likely have worked on him. To that end I was wondering if you would be able to get in contact with Embry and ask him to come here as soon as possible."

"Why?" How was Embry going to help save Janet? And what did it have to do with what my son said?

"He wants to try giving Janet Embry's blood," Edward replied from behind me. When did he get here? But Carlisle already gave Janet a blood transfusion when he'd set up the morphine and saline drip, to replace the blood Stefan drank. Why did she need more? And why Embry's. If the Doc couldn't get any more from the Forks Hospital I was more than willing to donate some.

"You're the wrong blood type Jacob," Edward replied, shaking his head to my thoughts. "Embry's is a match to hers. Carlisle wants to try Wolf blood and see if it will have a more favorable result than human.

"Carlisle believes, and I agree with his hypothesis, that Wolf blood might be the missing piece of the puzzle. It's why none of our tests have worked as of yet. If we're right Stefan's venom has currently been fighting the anti-venom inside of Janet's body. I believe the two have been stuck in a sort of stalemate, neither one gaining the upper hand. It's his hope that if we add even a small amount of Wolf blood to the equation it might be enough to overwhelm the venom."

"This is a long shot, Jacob. I don't want to tell David anything about this," the Doc added. "There is a high probability that since Janet is not Quileute that Embry's blood will have no effect."

But she's Makah. That's close enough. Right? Edward didn't nod his head like I hoped; only shrugged. Guess this really was a long shot. Still we had to try. "Okay. You're right. There is no point in getting Dave's hopes up. I'll go call Embry."

I hoped this would work, but I doubted it.

Embry, wasn't exactly happy that I'd called him at 3:38am, but he agreed to come and should be here in about a half hour.

In the mean time Carlisle bandaged Janet's ribs that had been broken when Dave administered CPR. Carlisle lied, telling him it was a normal side effect of the defibrillator's shocks, sparing him from any extra guilt a Wolf would feel whenever their imprint got hurt accidentally by their actions.

While the Doc was doing that Edward implored Alice to try and see if she could get a vision of what might happen if we gave Janet Embry's blood. If it only made Janet sicker (or worse) we'd need to call it off before even starting.

The vision Alice got before led us to belief this would have all been over days ago. She hadn't had one since; of course Dave had refused to leave Janet's side so that wasn't too surprising. But what the hell? Why hadn't she seen something major like Janet's heart stopping tonight, when she had the first one? What good were they if they left out something so important?

Just like last time Dave stayed in the room with Janet, but went as far away as he could, while Ness, Felicity and I went down stairs. A few minutes later Alice called us back into the room and told us what she saw.

Sort of.

A little.

Actually we were left with more questions than answers.

Why in the world would no one be in the room with Janet when she... whatever she was going to do - wake up, die, change – whatever it was, happened. That didn't make sense to anybody, but of course it could have been just that the room was going to be packed with Wolves. That was Edward's theory.

Embry would be here soon, and I doubt would be leaving by tomorrow night; and Quil had already planned to stop by with Claire again. Even if no other Wolves showed up, with them in here with Dave and me, the four of us would definitely obscure Alice's sight. But why would none of the Cullen's be here? This just didn't add up. Something must happen between now and then.

At least we didn't have too much longer to wait to find out. I was anxious, ready for this to be over with, yet terrified, dreading it at the same time. If things didn't turn out right I would lose my son.

Embry arrived just after 4am. The sun was hours from rising and, while he knew this was important wasn't happy about being dragged out of bed so early. He never said a word, but his annoyance was written all over his face.

"Thank you for coming so quickly," Carlisle said as he inserted a needle into Embry's arm. It was hooked up to a tube that ran into another needle. This one went into Janet.

Two hours later Carlisle pulled out both needles, but I couldn't see any improvement in Janet.

"How are you feeling," the Doc asked Embry.

"Could go for a sandwich,' he replied as he wobbled getting onto his feet.

"I should think so, your down a few pints. I believe Esme has prepared something in the kitchen. Do you think you can make it or shall I ask her to bring it up?"

Before he could answer, Bella appeared and offered to accompany him to the kitchen.

Once they were gone I tilted my head to the hallway, not wanting Dave to overhear. "How is Janet doing? Any improvement?" I asked the Doc, once the door was closed.

He didn't have to answer. His facial expression said it all.

Damn-it! I really had hoped it would have worked.

"Let's give Embry's blood some time to circulate before losing hope. In time we could see a vast improvement," he smoothly lied to me, before heading back into the makeshift hospital room.

Dave was back in bed with Janet, still trying to keep her warm. He'd sat in the chair while she was hooked up to Embry, but that was just so he wouldn't accidentally pull out the tube. Looking closer I noticed his eyes were closed. He must have finally fallen asleep. Good. He needed it.

So did I. With everything going on I'd barely gotten any sleep last night. The same was true of everyone in the house, at least those who normally slept. It was morning. The sun, a rare sight in Forks, was just making its presence known.

Esme had offered Felicity her old room, so after coaxing Felicity back to bed I tried to do the same with Nessie. I had a feeling we were going to need to be well rested for whatever was going to happen tomorrow.

"Jake, how can you think about sleep at a time like this? I'm too worried and wired," she scoffed.

"Okay, how about a quick hunt then. You haven't drunk enough blood these past two weeks. You must be thirsty." I only got her to agree to go hunting once, and only then with the pretext that we would drain a deer or two to bring back for David. She didn't want to leave her son right now, but I could see her resolve waning. "You're going to need your strength tomorrow. And we'll get some more for David, too. Come on." I held out my hand hoping she would give in and take it.

She did and, after grabbing a few thermoses from the kitchen, I led her out side where we quickly took off to the north. After not too much searching we located a herd of deer. She drank one while I drained another for our son.

"Feel better?" We both were worried about our son, and Janet, but the lack of blood in her diet was impacting her almost as much as her emotional state. Now at least she looked a little healthier. Her cheeks were a bit pinker, her eyes a smidge brighter, she didn't look so sullen. She in no way looked her normal radiant self, of course. I wouldn't expect that, I probably looked pretty bad myself, but at least now I didn't have to worry about her health as well.

"Much."

"Come on, if we leave now, and run quickly, we should be able to get four to five hours of sleep."

I thought she was about to start running home, but then I caught a glint in her eyes. Hmmm! I guess we could make due with a quick catnap.

Everyone was squished into Edward's old bedroom – all of the Cullen's, Nessie, me, Felicity, Embry, Quil, Claire, and David and Janet.

It was eerily quiet except for Janet's labored breathing, intermittent screams, and muffled yelps. You could probably hear a pin drop, even with the eight Vampires in the room, who didn't need to breathe, and the rest of us who were barely breathing ourselves. Everybody knew what time it was. Whatever was going to happen, to Janet, was going to happen in the next twenty-two minutes.

I didn't think Claire should be here for this, but she practically begged Quil to let her stay, and everyone knew he couldn't say no to her.

Bella's phone suddenly started ringing, breaking, or possibly adding to, the tight tension in the room. Even though she didn't put it on speaker everyone present (except Claire) could hear Charlie on the other end of the line. He called to warn us that some new hot shot cop on the Forks police force was heading over with four of his cronies to look for Janet.

What was going on with Alice's visions lately? The other night she missed Janet's heart stopping. Now this! How could she not have seen this was going to happen?

"Why are you always blaming at me? I'm not omnipotent. I can't see everything, all the time," she whined, scoffing at me. "All of the Wolves are stopping by here, all the time. I'm effectively blind to everything going on in this house. And why would I be checking up on the cops in Forks? We called Charlie to let them know to stay away from here. I didn't think it was necessary to constantly go back and make sure everything was okay there. I thought he could handle this."

"Relax Alice. Nobody is blaming you," Carlisle said as Jasper glared at me for my non-outburst. Personally I was pretty proud of myself for NOT yelling at her. I hadn't even growled. Well… not out loud.

I wasn't really in the mood to be scolded by Jasper right now. I know he was protective of his wife, but this was my son, and I was pissed. So I glared at his wife. So what? I needed to do something. Luckily he could sense how I felt and dropped it.

We had more important things to worry about right now anyway.

"Embry, you should take off. Leave out the back door, go through the woods. You already have a record. If something goes wrong and they find you here…" I didn't need to say more. He took off without another word.

I tried to get Quil and Claire to leave to. This time, thankfully, Claire listened and agreed, especially when I mentioned how she'd get to ride on Quil's Wolf back, like a pony. Nessie use to travel around like that sometimes when she was younger, but Claire was human and more breakable. But now she was almost a teenager. And this was an emergency.

"Call when it's over and I'll bring her back," Quil said to me before they took off.

Now that Alice knew what to look for she easily got a vision of the cop and filled us in on what was going on and what was about to happen downstairs.

Apparently this new hot shot cop, Officer Dan, had done a little digging, still looking into Janet's "disappearance" and it had led him here, to the Cullen's old house.

Officer Dan had decided to ignore Charlie's orders and gone off on his own and investigated. He'd found out about the morphine and other medical supplies Carlisle had acquired from the Forks Hospital and his imagination had gone wild. He'd come up with a crazy theory that Carlisle was keeping Janet captive here, and was... what? Tying her up? Subduing her with drugs? Something like that?

Apparently, "Yes!" that was exactly what he thought, according to Alice, and we all knew not to bet against Alice on things like this. (At least when her visions didn't involve Wolves and were working.)

It didn't seem like a very thought out hypothesis, on his part, but it's been almost two weeks and the police had searched everywhere else. I guess it was really only a matter of time until someone turned up here.

Everyone started throwing out ideas of what to do about our guests. Rose suggested simply pretending we were not home but Jasper worried they'd force the door and come in anyway. My idea to deny them entrance by sheer force… literally us standing in the doorway, not letting them pass, didn't get many votes. Jasper suggested going the legal route and demanding to see a search warrant, but a quick check by Alice revealed them staying on the property until a judge could be found to get one. Alice flew through everyone's suggestions.

Nothing worked.

"I've got an idea," Emmett finally spoke up. He didn't say out loud what it was but when Alice looked to see if his idea would work she gasped, and Edward growled.

"No one will like doing that, but it'll work," she sighed.

We were running out of time. They would be here any minute and without any other ideas we decided to go with it… whatever it was.

"Jacob!" Alice squealed. "You need to come downstairs with the rest of us."

"What? No, I'm saying here with my son, he's gonna need me now more than ever."

"I know Jake, but I saw it. You need to be down there with us. Nessie and Felicity can stay up here with him." I knew she was serious by the way her face was set… stern and all business. "I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen, but that officer is bringing a whole pack of dogs with him, not just four other officers. Real dogs. Those dogs are going to freak out at the sight of all of us," she said gesturing to herself and the rest of the Cullens.

"I checked every possible scenario I could think of and the only one that didn't end in bloodshed was when you were downstairs with us. You seem to, somehow, in some way, get the dogs to calm down with your presence, or something. I don't know, exactly. I couldn't see you, of course, just that a big void in the room was keeping them from attacking. Not that we couldn't defend ourselves, or even get hurt by them, but without you there the dogs go crazy, the officers can't control them, the dogs break off their leashes and attack. Then the officers freak out, start shooting, the bullets bounce off of us, and back into them, There would be blood, lots of it, and we all know what would happen then," she continued her ramblings while eyeing Jasper. "More than one of us would lose control, the others wouldn't be able to stop…" she hesitated, looking between Jasper, Edward, and Esme, "them. That would result in a giant mess for us to clean up. And how would we explain that?" she then chuckled uneasily, unsuccessfully attempting to lighten the mood.

Damn-it! I guess I was going down with them. We didn't need a bunch of dead cops, too. Or new Vampires.

The Cullens started to vacate the room, everyone who was going, except me.

"Jake are you coming? We need to go." Alice chirped from the doorway.

"Yeah just a minute. I'll meet you down there." I would go, but I needed to do something first.

I could hear Alice's voice as she started to explain to everyone some plan she had, but I didn't bother trying to listen. I would just have to wing it. I needed to say goodbye to my son... just in case.

And I wanted to say something to Nessie and Felicity. They would be alone in the room now with Dave and Janet when it happened. Hopefully it wouldn't be too much for the two of them to handle. Nessie was a rock, my rock, and knew she would be fine. But if what was going to happen was that Janet died, and she had to deal with David and Felicity at the same time… no one would be able to, not even her.

"I know," she said to me before I even got the chance. Her eyes bared into mine, while she used her gift to pore all the love she had into my mind. Like I said, she was my rock. Go, now, do what you need to do, so you can come back quicker, she added as she practically pushed me out the door.

Edward was speaking when I walked into the living room. "Normally the Forks Police Force only consists of Charlie, and three other guys, but the new guy, Officer Dan, transferred from Seattle. His father was the chief of police there. He's well connected and brought those connections with him."

"This idiot cop, is going to threaten to search the entire house," Alice added. That wouldn't have been so bad if he wasn't bringing four other officers and the entire K-9 unit with him.

"If Alice's plan is to work Jasper, Emmett, and I won't be doing a lot after the initial greeting of the officers. It will be up to you and the others to handle things. Just make sure you…" Carlisle started to explain to me, but I never got to hear what it was I was supposed to do, because a second later the doorbell rang and he got up to answer it.

As soon as Carlisle opened the door the police dogs started going crazy. We all knew they would. It would be any animal's natural reaction to the Cullens. Normally, while hunting, forest animals would run away from Vampires, but these dogs were specifically trained to follow the officer's commands and therefore, fought their baser instincts and stayed put… sorta. They weren't attacking or running away, but most were growling, a few whimpered. The cops that were trying to control them, but they were rightly... extremely... agitated. And that was an understatement. Possibly the understatement of the century.

At least Janet's muffled screams couldn't be heard by the officers; they only possessed weak human ears, but the dogs probably could. If the door was closed the soundproofing would have kept everything out, but I'd left it open just a crack, so I could hear what was going on up there. If it got too much for Nessie or my kids I'd rush up to assist. They were my first priority. We'd figure out what to do about the cops later.

"Officers, is there anything I can do for you?"

They seemed to freeze. Eyes popping out of their heads. Dazzled by the intense beauty of the Cullens.

Officer Dan was the first to snap out of it. "We… um, we need to search these premises. I'm going to need the names of everyone here. This place is supposed to be abandoned. Are you trespassing or squatting here?" He seemed to muster up some courage from somewhere because he actually poked Carlisle in the chest when he spoke.

"My name is Dr. Carlisle Cullen, this is my house," the Doc said opening his arms to indicate the dwelling, "and my family," he continued, gesturing to those of us gathered near the front room.

We all stayed close but tried to look casual about it. Somehow the Cullen's managed to pull it off, except for Edward, he was trying, the cops must have been thinking something weird or crazy, that was making his normally perfect composure crack. Of course as bad as his was I'm sure my own performance was lacking, at best.

"It will be over soon, you can do this," Bella whisper to him, too low for the cops to hear.

The Doc then showed the cops his ID as further proof, but how was that going to work? Everybody in Forks new that Carlisle left almost a decade ago and there's no possible way that the forever twenty-three year old doctor looked like the forty something year-old that must have been listed on his old work ID, or license, or whatever he was showing them.

Then again… maybe it might. Looking closer I saw that the Doc had conveniently placed his thumb over the birth date on his license. That would work as long as no one tried to take it from him.

"Uh huh," the cop said with a snort and wrote something down in his tiny notebook. "We're still going to need to search-" he continued before Janet let out another anguished shriek, this one loud enough for the cops to hear. "What's that? Who's screaming?" he yelled while shoving his way past Carlisle. The other four rushed in behind him as well, with the dogs pulled behind.

Of course Carlisle wouldn't have been moved by the cop's feeble attempt to brush past him, unless the Doc had let him. Which he must have done. But why? These cops were the last people we needed in the house right now. I thought the point was to try to get rid of them. What was Carlisle thinking?

"We're just back in the area on vacation," Carlisle started to explain, seemingly ignoring the sound of Janet's screams, or the cops questions, yet quickly stepping in front of them so they couldn't head upstairs. "We used to live here a number of years ago. We kept the house, and have returned, just to visit some family and friends. Soon after we arrived we came across a young woman who stumbled up to our door, obviously in distress. She collapsed on our doorstep. Since I'm a doctor and she was in no condition to be moved, I took it upon myself to treat the young lady."

"And you didn't feel the need to bring her to a hospital," one of the other cops, his name tag said Hollis, questioned him, while looking around, eyes landing on Rose, "or call the police," they shifted to Esme, "or her family," over to Bella, "to let anyone know what was going on?" moved quickly to Alice, before returning to Rose.

All of the cops were now gathered in the center of the room. Carlisle blocked the stairs and the rest of the Cullens surrounded them. Clearly they could sense the danger they were in, surrounded by Vampires, even if they didn't know it; they looked extremely agitated, verging on downright scared. I wonder if Jasper was doing something to them.

And the dogs… they were still freaking out. I tried to meet their eyes, trying to get them to calm down somehow, but it only worked a little. I don't know if it would have worked any better if I was a Wolf right now. That would probably freak them out even more. But at least I was another creature in the room that was warm and had a heartbeat. I think that they knew that, and somehow the fact that I was calm, calmed them down as well.

"Of course that would have been the first thing I would have done under normal circumstances," Carlisle continued to explain. "Unfortunately the young lady was too unstable to be moved to the hospital. She didn't have any identification on her and hadn't told us her name."

"That still doesn't explain why you didn't notify the police. Her parents have been worried sick about her."

"Her parents?" Carlisle questioned with false ignorance. What was he doing now? "While she hasn't regained consciousness the young lady has been speaking in her sleep from time to time. A few things she said, events she mentioned participating in, led be to believe that she was at least eighteen, if not twenty. I had no reason to not believe her, and as an adult saw no reason to alert the Police."

The Doc's delivery was perfect. There was no way these guys would be able to tell that he was lying. But anybody looking at Janet could clearly tell she wasn't an adult. Did he really think he was going to convince these cops that she was eighteen and not the fourteen years old that she looked? I know the Cullen's are good at dazzling people but this just seems a bit much.

This wasn't going very well. They were getting more and more agitated and the dogs were starting to go crazy again.

"Officers," Rose fluttered her eyes and smiled over at all of them, "you look like you've had a very long day. Why don't you come and sit down and we'll get you something to drink," she said while lightly touching each of their shoulders, arms, chests... What was she doing? Was this what Alice saw? That she seduced them? Was that really her plan?

Never mind. Her flirting and dazzling was clearly going to work. Yuck! I think at least two of them literally started drooling right there in the middle of the living room.

I thought Emmett would have been growling but he just chuckled and disappeared into the kitchen. I guess he'd seen her do this sort of thing before.

Seeing that it was working Bella, Alice, and even Esme joined in much to their husbands chagrin. This must have been the "plan" that Alice explained to everyone while I was still with David. Edward's face winced in misery but he didn't make a move to stop Bella.

Rose took Hollis's hand, while Bella, Alice, and Esme each grabbed one of the other cop's, pulling them over to the couches. Officer Dan was left standing in the middle of the room alone. Thank goodness Nessie and Felicity had stayed upstairs with our son!

Carlisle and Jasper then followed Emmett into the kitchen, but not Edward. He did something I wasn't expecting. He grabbed Officer Dan's hand and pulled him over to the love seat, much to the jerks delight. Interesting. Now I understood why Eddie was so troubled before.

The dogs were still barking. I guess that was my cue. Was this actually going to work? A quick, quizzical look over at Alice and I saw her nod, slightly. It was so small no one would ever really notice it unless they were looking for it.

"Come here boys," I called as I crouched down in the corner of the room. The dogs came and I did my best to calm them down, or at the very least distract them. While they were happily diverting my attention from what was happening on the couches, I strained to hear what was happening upstairs.

Then at 3:42pm just like Alice predicted Janet's screaming stopped!

Was Janet dead? Alive?

What about David? I didn't hear anything. Was he in shock?

I wished I was up there.

A.N. So what do you think? Is Janet Alive? Or not?

And what about the rest of the chapter? Too weird? Funny?

Please review and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading.