Chapter 9
Bella POV
2 months. 2 months without Paul. 2 months of constant heartache. Sue was doing everything she could, but without a doctor's diagnosis, we were blind. These past 2 months have taught me a lot about this new world. The world where I was needed by someone. But that someone wasn't around anymore, and I was struggling to cope. I didn't realise how powerful imprinting was until Paul had gone. I thought being friends would suffice for both of us. But without him here, I realised that I was a fool for even thinking I would be happy with that arrangement in the long term. No one else would make me as happy as Paul made me. In the weeks that I'd known him, because let's face it, before he fell into this coma, we had only weeks to get to know each other, I realised I'd started to fall for him. He was funny and very loyal, and he had this stupid face that made my insides melt every time I looked at it. How could I have thought being just friends with Paul would ever make me happy? I needed him. Sue was sure at first that my presence at his bedside would bring him back, but 2 months on and it hasn't worked! I was going completely crazy without him!
"Bella?"
I lifted my head from Paul's bed and saw my father standing in the doorway.
"Hey Dad" I said, rubbing my eyes with a heavy hand.
"Why don't you go and do something else. I'll sit with him for a while" he said, coming into the room and helping me up. Truth was, in the 2 months Paul had been gone, I hardly left his bedside. I slept here, ate here, cried here. The only time I wasn't here was when I had to go to school, under Sue and Charlie's orders, and even at school I was depressed. My grades were being affected and I avoided hanging out with anyone. I knew Jess, Lauren and Angela were worried sick, but there wasn't anything they could say to me to make me feel any better. There words wouldn't bring Paul back.
Billy had decided, with Old Quil's permission, to tell Charlie about the legends and the wolves. But only because Charlie tried forcing me home one night and I completely freaked out when he tried dragging me away from Paul. Ever since then, Charlie has been really supportive. He knows Paul and I are imprinted, and he also now knows how important it is not to interfere with an imprint, even if she is your daughter.
"What should I do?" I asked him. That was another thing I had taken to doing since Paul had gone. Asking people their advice on things I could do to keep myself occupied. I had completely lost sense of everything.
"Why don't you go and see your Fork's friends? I've called Melinda and she said there's a large cappuccino and a slice of carrot cake with your name on it-"
"-I'm not sure-"
"-it'll be good for you Bella. I'll look after Paul; don't you worry about that. I don't think there's no one better to look after him than the Chief of Police" he reminded me. He was right. I really needed a break, but I had denied myself the luxury purely because I thought I was being selfish. If it was good enough for Paul, it was good enough for me.
"I guess I could use a break" I finally admitted. It would be good to catch up with my friends, though I don't think I could handle them asking for updates on Paul, even though Lauren got hers from Jacob.
"You sure do. Go on, I'll watch him, take as long as you like, okay? Sue said she'd come and sit with him for a while when I go to work anyway, so he's gonna have somebody with him at all times. Go and enjoy yourself" he said, gently pushing me out of the house. I closed the gate to the little path behind me and turned to see Angela waiting for me.
"Come on Bella, let's go and have some fun" she said, taking my hand and walking to the car. The car ride was silent. Angela didn't seem to care at all, in fact, she knew talking about Paul upset me, so she avoided bringing the conversation up. Instead she would give me updates on Jess and Mike's relationship, which was, surprisingly to me, going really well. We got to the diner and Melinda came and ushered us to a table, where Jess and Lauren were waiting for us.
"You sit down girl and I'll bring you all your coffees and cake" Melinda said, pulling my chair out for me to sit.
"Hey" I said to the girls. They all looked at my sympathetically, but I found that I didn't notice it anymore. I was used to it by now.
"Hey Bella, we were thinking about catching a movie after coffee, you in?" Lauren asked, and there was a hint of authority in her voice that made me feel silly for turning the offer down.
"Sure, a movie sounds good" I said. I wanted to feel excited for this, but I just felt like it was a chore. Something I had to do to please someone else. Everything in me was telling me to go back to Paul right away, but I knew he was safe with Charlie there.
"What movie are you thinking?" I asked. Well, if I was going to do this properly, I may as well put my best effort in. I was thankful to the girls for their friendship and their patience these last 2 months. I haven't exactly been good company lately.
Jess answered "Well, I thought we could all decide on a genre right now, so after the count of three, everyone say what genre they wanna go for, ready? 1…2…3…"
"Action" we all said at the same time and laughed out loud. I was actually laughing. Huh. I forgot how good it felt to laugh.
"Okay then it's settled. I'll check and see what action movies they have playing tonight" Lauren said, picking her phone up and tapping away on the screen.
"How are things going with Mike, Jess?" I asked. I was kind of curious. I honestly didn't think it would work out between the two of them, mostly doubting Mike could stay loyal to one girl.
"Oh my God Bella! He's just amazing! The other night, you know what he did? He took me to meet his parents! They really liked me, of course, and they invited me to dinner this Saturday! Can you believe it?" she gushed. No, I thought. I couldn't believe it of Mike. Maybe he had changed? He seemed to like Jessica enough to introduce her to his parents, so that was something. I was happy for her though, and she herself seemed happy. So, I had no problems with it, even though it wasn't my place to have problems in the first place. But I was just trying to be a good friend to Jess. Girls needed to stick together – something I needed to remember myself!
"How could they not like you? You're awesome! I'm really glad things are working out between you too" I said sincerely. She took my hand and squeezed it appreciatively.
"How are you holding up?" she asked me.
"I'm not really sure what to do Jess-" I said, bringing my hand to hide the tears that had begun to spill from my eyes. Traitors.
"Bella, listen. Everything will work itself out. You're not going through this alone. You have us to talk to whenever you need to take off a load, or if you just want some company" she said, as Angela put her arm around me and held me against her.
"It will Bella. We can even be your distractions if you want. But we'll be here for you, even if you don't wanna talk" she said, smoothing my hair with her hand. Ah man, these were some great friends I had. I had to start appreciating them more.
"Thanks guys" I sniffed, wiping my nose with my sleeve.
"Bella, Jacob just text me to say that Charlie has gone to work now but he's sitting with Paul until Sue comes over" Lauren said.
"Thanks Lauren, that's made me feel a bit better" I said, though it really didn't. But I suppose as long as I knew Paul wouldn't be lying in bed alone, then it put my mind at ease a little.
"Here you are girls" Melinda approached the table with a tray laden with caffeinated goodies. She placed our coffees in front of us and then dished out our carrot cake slices. I forked a piece off; it was mouth-wateringly delicious.
"I can understand why Charlie came here all the time before I moved in, the food is delicious" I said, taking another bite of carrot cake.
"I understand his need for the diner food completely-" Jess said "-hey, how it the whole diet thing going?" she asked. I had told the girls about trying to change Charlie's diet without him noticing and they all thought it was a brilliant idea. They said they looked after their fathers too, and that sometimes they get so busy with work they forget to eat the right kind of foods.
"Well, I've kind of neglected it since-" I couldn't even say his name without wanting to cry. But they understood who I was talking about. Melinda came over to our table again.
"Your Dad told me to put your treats on his tab, so it's all paid for girls. Bella, I couldn't help but overhear about your secret diet with Charlie and I want you to know I always make sure he gets the proper portions for his size and weight and when he orders one of our curry's, I swap the rice for cauliflower rice. He's never noticed" she chuckled.
"Wow, thanks Melinda. That's cheered me up a lot" I said, and found it was true.
"it's no problem darl, my brother was a wrestling champ and so was my father before he passed, rest his soul, so I know all about portion control and I know too much about the size and weight of men" she chuckled again.
"Can you wrestle Melinda?" Angela asked.
"I'm no champ but I can spring a few moves on unsuspecting thief's that wander on in here" she said with a serious voice, holding her hands up into fists and shaking them. We all laughed at her silliness.
"I'd pay to see that" Angela said. Jess agreed.
"Me too! Who made this carrot cake? It's the best thing I've ever tasted" she said, rolling her eyes back when she popped another piece in her mouth.
"Oh, that'll be Derek in the kitchen-" she then proceeded to shout loudly "-DEREK, THE GIRLS LOVE YOUR CARROT CAKE" and then a loud "WOO HOO" travelled back from the kitchen. I shook my head in disbelief. This was the most fun I'd had for a while, and the most I'd laughed for a while too. Maybe it was good for me to spend time with my friends.
"Alright, well I'll leave you girls to it. You have fun"
"Melinda is so funny! Okay Lauren, what movies have you found?" Angela asked.
Lauren turned her phone to show us the poster for a movie called 'The Great Big Texas Shootout'.
"What do you think? I read a brief description of the plot and the title really isn't what the movie is about, though there is a lot of action and violence in it"
"I think it's sounds great" I said. Because anything was better than Romcom's.
"Yeah it sounds good!" Angela agreed.
"Alright then ladies, drink up your coffees because it starts in an hour" Lauren said. I wandered if I could grab some movie snacks when we got to the movie theatre. There was just no point going to see a movie if you didn't have popcorn to eat during the trailers.
We finished up our coffees and headed out to the cars. I rode with Angela and Lauren rode with Jess behind us. The movie was in Port Angeles, so it took almost an hour to get there, but luckily there was still ten minutes to spare. We waited in line for the concession. Then a thought came to me. I had no money on me. I mentally slapped myself for being so stupid! I quickly told Angela I'd meet her over by the bench because I'd left my cash at home.
"Relax Bella, I'm buying for all of us!" she said, as she approached the desk where she ordered four extra-large popcorns with butter, a hot dog each, and a giant slushy.
"Wow thanks Ange" I said gratefully, taking a sip of slushy and sighing with satisfaction. I loved taste of artificial raspberry flavouring.
"Yeah thanks so much! Gosh, we're not gonna be able to walk when we've finished all this!" Lauren said, holding Jess' bag for her whilst she retied her sneakers.
"Okay done. Right let's go and watch this movie!" Jess said, taking her bag back from Lauren and leading us through to the theatre. We sat in the back row and waited for the movie to start. Eventually, the theatre went dark and the movie began. I was only hopeful this would distract me for a while.
The movie was exactly what I needed. It was a great distraction for me, and it was even better to spend some time with my great girlfriends. Angela dropped me back to La Push at 9pm and I was dreading the feeling of guilt I'd get when I walked through that door.
I walked in to see Grandma Inola cutting vegetables at the table slower than usual. I joined her, grabbing a knife, and chopping board.
"Did you have a good evening dear?" she asked, adding her chopped peppers to a salad bowl.
"You know something? I did. I think I needed it" I said, as I diced an onion. I wiped the onion tears away with my sleeve.
"Of course you did dear, it's good to get out and about and remember to live, you know. Sue has just left. Connie has made us a lovely lasagne for our dinner tonight, but I thought it'd be a shame without a little salad on the side" she said.
"You were right about that Grandma, it does smell good-" I added the chopped onion to the salad bowl –"my friends understand why I've been quiet lately and I guess I forgot about them, but tonight was great fun for all of us"
"Well, you can arrange to see them again" she smiled. I walked over to the sink to wash a couple of lettuce leaves under the faucet before walking back and adding them to the bowl. Grandma Inola tossed the salad, and I brought the pan of lasagne over and dished it out onto two plates. Grandma did the salad. The 2 months I had stayed here, Grandma Inola and I had bonded. I really loved her as if she were my own grandmother and she didn't mind in the slightest that I had essentially moved into the house because she enjoyed the company. She didn't like to stay on her own for too long.
"I'll have to remember to thank Connie again, this is delicious" she said, taking some more lasagne from her fork. I was full of carrot cake from the diner and the hotdogs and popcorn from the movie theatre, but I always had room for some home cooking. Grandma Inola and I had taken to eating dinner later than most people would because we both dreaded going to sleep at night. Paul was now hooked onto a monitor, so it would alert us if his heart stopped beating or he stopped breathing, but it didn't take away the fear we both felt when we were in our most vulnerable state; asleep. After dinner, we usually made hot chocolate and sat on the bench on the porch out back, just watching the waves in the distance and listening to the birds in the trees. It had turned windy this evening, really windy. It was blowing my hair into my face so much I gave up and tied it back with a hair tie. Grandma Inola didn't seem to mind. It wasn't exactly cold out tonight, but the wind was making it difficult to hear each other.
"Goodness, where has this wind come from?" Grandma complained loudly.
"I know, it's just come out of nowhere. Should we go back in?" I suggested, raising my voice slightly so she could hear me.
"I think it best dear, could you help me-" I took her mug of hot chocolate and quickly put it with mine in the kitchen and came back to help her up. Grandma Inola's house didn't really have a living room, but it was really cosy. The kitchen was pretty big, the table sat in the middle right next to a roaring fireplace, where she liked to sit in a squashy armchair, watching the flames. I must admit, it was nice to get away from technology and TV. Because she didn't have one of those either. The only piece of technology in Grandma Inola's house was a landline phone, which she rarely used. I helped her into her armchair and handed back her hot chocolate.
"Oh thank you dear, you are good to me" she said, taking a sip and relaxing into the chair. I sat in my own chair with my own hot chocolate and just leaned back, watching the flames light up the kitchen.
"Where do you suppose Paul is Bella?" she asked me. I had had 2 months to think about this and watching him lying in that bed, for 2 months hooked up to machines and liquid food, I strongly suspected Jacob's claim. That he was stuck in the spirit world.
"Jacob thinks he's stuck in the spirit world" I told her.
"What do you think?" she asked, watching the fire.
I thought for a moment "I think Jacob might be onto something, though I didn't know Paul could spirit walk" I said. He'd never mentioned being able to do it. I wondered how long he had been doing it before it went wrong.
"What you have to understand about spirit walking is that it is very rare nowadays for the shapeshifters to be able to do it. Once the spirit warriors were able to merge their souls with the wolves, the ability to spirit walk pretty much died out, since they were no longer doing it. It works a bit like hereditary traits Bella. They're passed down from the parents to the children. So once the fathers had stopped spirit walking because they had a new way to defend the tribe, the ability was not passed down or taught to the next generation of protectors. Paul shouldn't be able to do it, but alas, he has done it"
"Why do you think Paul can do it and not the others?" I asked.
"It's not a question of they can't do it, I suspect they haven't ever tried because they have no need to do it. But Paul has always been special. I suspect that his upbringing has something to do with being able to spirit walk. He was mistreated and abused by his father and witnessed horrid things being done to his mother. It was a wonder he turned out so good. Before he died, his grandfather told me that he believed Paul has spirit walked when he first came to stay with us, but of course, the little thing only thought they were dreams so thought nothing of them. But I think Paul has been spirit walking by accident, as a way to escape"
"I don't understand. What would he want to escape now? Isn't he happy?"
"He is happy dear. The happiest I've seen him in many years and imprinting on you has made it even better for him. But there is something on the other side that's keeping him there. Not against his will, but a part of him does not want to come back. That is what I believe" she said.
This was by far the most accurate and possible explanation for what was happening to Paul. Sue couldn't even diagnose him because she had never seen anything like it, and why would she have seen anything like it? If what Grandma Inola said was true, Sue would never have seen a spirit walker before. Sue was adamant that Paul be seen by a doctor, just to be on the safe side. In case we were wrong, and it was something natural. But there were no doctors that could see him and not admit him to hospital straight away. His abnormally high body temperature would scare even the most experienced doctor and they'd take him to hospital for treatment, which could expose what he really is. But where were we going to find a doctor that knew about the wolves and could help us?
"Come on dear, you'd better get some sleep, you've got school tomorrow-"
"-actually, my morning is just free periods, so I'll just do some study here" I smiled at her, and she chuckled heartily.
"You are very clever Bella, sometimes I wonder if your intelligence can be helpful to Paul" she said, deep in thought. Huh. Maybe she was right. Maybe I could use my knowledge to help him. I thought for a moment. What did Paul need desperately right now? To come back to me, my subconscious thought. I mean, that would be fantastic, but what he needed right now was a doctor that could help bring him back. A doctor who knew about the wolves.
And then I thought of it. Billy had mentioned that the 'father' of the Cullen's family was a doctor… and the Cullen's knew of the wolves! It was worth a try, I'd do anything, even consort with my friend's mortal enemy.
"I just thought of something Grandma"
"What's that dear?"
"We need a doctor right? A doctor that knows of the wolves. Well, what if I told you I know of a doctor-"
"-this isn't time for jokes Bella-" she giggled.
"-I'm not joking! I know a doctor that knows about the wolves, the only problem is, he's well, he's a vampire" I whispered the last part, watching her for her reaction. She turned to look at me, slowly, before setting her hot chocolate down on the kitchen counter next to her.
"Bella, I can't believe you would even suggest… such a wonderful idea! Do you know how to contact this doctor?" she said. I let go of the breath I was holding. I wish she didn't talk so slowly sometimes. I almost had a heart attack.
"You're not angry that I suggested we ask a vampire to have a look at Paul?"
"Bella, you have to understand, I would do anything for my grandson, even if that meant involving the tribe's mortal enemy. I would do anything to help him dear. Do you have his contact information?" she asked again, and I shook my head.
"No I don't, but-" I had another thought. I mean, it would be totally crazy of me to but, I could ask Edward Cullen.
"-well, this doctor's son is in my biology class, we sit next to each other. I could ask him-"
"-yes you must! Can you do it tomorrow? When do you next have biology?" she said excitedly. I couldn't blame her for getting excited. I was too. If this doctor could help Paul in any way, then it was a step in the right direction. It was something to get excited for. I grabbed my schoolbag which I put next to the door and pulled my timetable out.
"Uh-" I quickly scanned tomorrow's classes "-I have biology after lunch" I said.
"Perfect! You can study here in the morning and then go to school and ask this Edward if his father would be able to have a look at my Paul. Oh fantastic job Bella, I'm so proud of you" she said, leaning over to pat my cheek with her hand. I beamed at her.
"Thanks, though I'm not sure how the rest of the pack will think-"
"-Old Quil will never allow a vampire onto our lands, not for anything. But maybe we could see this doctor off of tribal lands, technically we wouldn't be breaking the treaty" she pointed out. Oh, this is so sneaky, I thought. But Paul needed this doctor. I just hoped he could help.
Grandma Inola and I stayed awake for as long as we could until we were both yawning our butts off. I helped her into bed, tucking her in like she said Paul does, then went back to Paul's room. My heart broke every time I looked at him just lying there, not doing anything. I pulled my pyjamas on and climbed into bed with him, putting the monitor wires over me on the outside of the duvet so I didn't pull on them. I snuggled up next to his side, rested my head on his shoulder and put my hand over his heart, where I felt it's slow pace.
Being in bed with Paul wasn't exactly what friends would do, but I knew he wouldn't mind it. I needed to be close to him and I know he needed to feel me here too. I closed my eyes, letting the thought of the vampire doctor helping us wash through my brain.
"I love you Paul" I whispered sleepily before falling into a deep sleep.
A/N: Sorry if this chapter was shorter than what I usually write but I wanted to make a new chapter with Bella's introduction to the Cullens, which I've already written, so will post later today!