Chapter 28.
I pulled into the school parking lot, pissed off that I was running late. I didn't like Edward being anywhere near Bella, especially without me being close by. I slammed on my breaks, hoping that I was imagining what I was seeing, an icy feeling shot through my veins. The drivers side of Bella's truck was smashed in and now married to a blue van. No. No. No. No. No. I inhaled deeply, searching for her scent and anxiously scanned the lot for any sight of her. A loud strangled sob escaped from my throat when my eyes landed on her, she was on the ground unconscious in Alice's arms near the Volvo, I drove over carefully, minding the ice. All of the commotion in the parking lot seemed to be aimed towards the condition of the driver of the van, a student named Tyler Crowley. I'd smelled the blood from his wounds as I exited my truck, but I was too focused on Bella to let the predator acknowledge it.
"I got her out of the way just in time, she fainted when she saw the van slam into her truck, but she's going to wake up soon. You should take her to Carlisle." Alice suggested.
"Where's Edward?"
"I . . . don't know. I can't . . . see him. I need to talk to you later. I'm going to try to go look for him. I'll call you as soon as I know anything."
"Thank you Alice. I don't know what I would have done . . ."
"Trust me, it wouldn't have been pretty for any of us." She said gravely. I scooped Bella into my arms and carried her to my truck, carefully setting her down in the passenger seat. I felt her begin to come to as I clicked her seat belt into place.
"Bella?" I said softly, trying to ease her back to the here and now. I froze as I suddenly felt a massive wave of fear erupt from her. Her limbs began to thrash about and she drew in a sharp breath of air and let out the most horrifying, blood-curdling scream I'd ever heard in my life. When she realized it was me, she clutched at my shirt and nearly jumped into my arms, but the seat belt restrained her. I quickly unlatched it and pulled her into an embrace as she began to sob uncontrollably into the crook of my neck. I scooted her over towards the drivers side and got into the truck with her. I continued to hold her, whispering softly into her ear as I stroked her hair. I slowly started pumping her full of calm relaxing energy and eventually her sobs became softer. I waited a few moments and eased up the dose before maneuvering her back into the passenger seat and myself into the drivers seat.
"Bella, how do I reach your father? I'm going to take you to see Carlisle. I want to make sure you're not going into shock."
"I'm fine, I just want to go home." Her voice was hoarse and her eyes were swollen. I could feel how exhausted she was.
"What if I had Carlisle meet us there?"
"Whatever." She stared out the window, her emotions felt almost numb, a complete 180 from just moments ago. I didn't like it, I stopped manipulating her feelings, but nothing changed. The drive was silent. She didn't move when I parked the truck and came to her side to open the door. She was like a zombie, it was like her emotional outburst had zapped all of her energy. I unlatched her seat belt and carried her into the house. I laid her on the couch and immediately called Carlisle, I told him that I wasn't sure how to reach Bella's father and he offered to take care of it on his way over.
"I'm cold." She whimpered as I took off her coat and boots. I wrapped her in a blanket that was folded over the back of the couch and elevated her feet with a pillow, growing more concerned that she was in the beginning stages of shock. "Can you lay with me?" She asked, tears falling down her face. I knew that Carlisle would be there soon, but I couldn't refuse her. I lifted her upper body and scooted myself underneath in a careful swift motion so that she was laying in my lap. Carlisle knocked on the door about ten minutes later.
"Bella, can you sit up? Carlisle is here, he's going to check to make sure that you're okay." She silently scooted herself into an upright position, tucking her knees to her chest. I went to open the door for Carlisle and took him to her.
"Bella?" Her eyes slowly met his. "May I sit down here?" He asked, motioning to the empty seat next to her. She gave a lazy nod and stared ahead. "Do you remember what happened?" She nodded again. "Can you tell me, out loud?" She was quiet for a moment.
"I almost died." Her voice was like gravel. Carlisle gave me a worried look before opening his medical bag.
"Bella, I want you to follow this light with your eyes." He shined it in a few different directions, inspecting her reaction time. He didn't bother to pull out his stethoscope to listen to her heart or breathing, he just sat quietly with his eyes closed for a moment. When he was done, he seemed content with her results. He closed his bag and stood up, motioning me with a nod to follow him to the door. "She seems to just be suffering from Acute Stress Disorder. It's common after events like this, when one avoids a near death experience. She just needs to rest and she'll be fine. I called her father on my way over, he should be here soon. I'll phone him again to let him know my diagnosis. In the meantime, just be there for her. Encourage her to talk through it."
"Thank you Carlisle. Have you heard from Alice?"
"She's still out looking for Edward. She said she'd like to talk to us all this evening."
"I'm not leaving Bella until I know where he is and why he left."
"I understand son." He gave me a strained smile before heading back to the hospital.
I went and sat back down with her to wait for her father. She latched onto me immediately once I was seated, her fingers clutching my shirt. She seemed so . . . broken.
"It was just like my dream." She whispered. "It was the van. Even though I couldn't see it, it was the van the crushed me in my dream." Tears began to stream down her face once again. I felt powerless. I wanted to soothe her, but I didn't want to numb her anymore than she already was. I felt her father's panic has he pulled up to the house. Bella still clung to me as he busted through the door in a fit of worry, so worried in fact, that he didn't even care that his daughter was in my arms.
"Bella, honey . . ." His face crippled with concern as he watched the tears fall down her face, he turned his attention to me after a moment. "How long's she been like this, Dr. Cullen said she fainted?" I began to send him a bit of calming energy.
"She woke up just, traumatized. She was standing right where the crash happened, just seconds before it did."
"Jesus . . . Uh, well . . . Thanks kid. You and your family have been a lot of help this past week. I know I've been a little . . . hard on you, I'm sorry. Why don't you go on and head home, I'll stay here with - "
"NO!" Bella cried. She sniffled and tried to gather herself, wiping the tears from her face with her sleeve. "Dad, I'm fine, just . . . go back to work. I really don't want him to leave." I could tell that he was a bit surprised by her outburst. He looked to his daughter who was pleading to him with her eyes, then to me. "Bella . . . I'm sure Jasper needs to get back to school . . ." He trailed off, I could tell he was thinking about giving into her request. She gave me a panicked look.
"Um, Sir, my father already called me out for the day. I can stay with her . . . if you don't mind." He looked at me for a long moment, searching my face for something it seemed. His expression eventually softened and I could tell he'd made his decision.
"Alright. Uh, I guess that's okay." He stood a bit awkwardly with his hands on his hips, shifting his weight between both feet. He didn't want to leave her, but he also didn't want to do anything to upset her. He loved her a lot, I was glad she seemed to have at least one parent that wanted the best for her. I wondered for a moment how different Bella may have been if her father had been the one to raise her, I decided that I really respected Charlie Swan.
"Son, will you follow me outside for a moment." He asked, I nodded and followed him to his cruiser. He opened the door and stood there for a moment, looking towards the house before speaking. "Listen, I know there's something going on between you and my daughter and I'm not gonna pry for more information right now. Just know that there's not a thing that goes on under this roof that I'm not aware of. I think you're a good kid, but you're still a teenage boy and I've been one of those, so I know exactly how they think. Just remember that." I was trying extremely hard to fight a grin.
"Yes sir." I said with a nod, trying to maintain a serious expression. He slapped the roof of his cruiser and got inside, giving me a curt wave as he backed out of the driveway before heading back to the police station. I shook my head as I walked back up to the house, grinning ear to ear.
I panicked for a moment upon entering the house and seeing that Bella was not where I left her, but I relaxed as I heard the toilet flush upstairs, followed by the sink running. I sat down on the couch and waited for her. After a few minutes she came downstairs with her hair pulled up in a ponytail, she'd changed into sweats. She was looking and feeling a little more like herself. She gave me an apologetic look as she came to sit next to me.
"I'm sorry, I kinda just . . . freaked out. I've known for days that there was a possibility that I could die, but having to see the evidence like that was just . . . too much. This week has felt like a dream, but this morning felt like a nightmare. Literally, my nightmare almost came true."
"Well, now we know that your dreams really are trying to tell you something. We just need to pay attention to them and be cautious."
"How? It makes sense now, I can connect the dots, but at the time it was so vague . . . and it offered no estimated timeline. It didn't feel any more urgent last night than it did the other night. How was I supposed to know that it was going to happen today?"
"Well, let's think before you dismiss that idea completely. Was there any sense of deja vu this morning before the crash?" She was thoughtful for a moment before answering.
"Um, not really. I mean, it didn't happen the same way at all. I didn't realize it was like the dream until I heard the screech and saw the impact. Edward was more of a threat in my dream. Today he smiled and waved at me, I was scared but he didn't do anything besides leave before the van would have crushed me."
"Hmm . . . I'll have to talk to Alice. I want to know what she saw before she got you out of the way."
"She's saved me twice now. I never even got to thank her."
"There will be plenty of time for that Bella, I promise."
"Not at the rate I'm going. Something's gonna get me one of these times." She let out a dark chuckle and looked down. The voice inside my head was screaming. Tell her about the vision, offer her this life. Things would be so much easier if she were one of us. I was, metaphorically, going to die of a heart attack if I had to constantly fear for her life, wondering each day if something was going to swoop in and take her from me. First my brother, now a van, how was I ever going to be able to let her out of my sight now? I sighed, deciding to keep my promise to myself. I tucked away the thought.
"I'm sorry Bella, I should have been there."
"It's okay, you can't always be."
How could she still be so understanding? I felt selfish when I thought back to the previous night. I was so caught up, worrying about Edward. I was being a hot headed idiot, when I should have been really cherishing our time and giving her my full attention. It could have been the last time I'd seen her alive, yet I showed up brooding and bloody . . . and late at that. I was so worried and angry that I just wanted to escape reality. I put her to sleep before she was even that tired, just so that I could pretend that I was doing the same. Then I left without saying goodbye or telling her that I loved her. A lump caught in my throat.
"Bella . . . I love you. More than anything in this life or the last." I let her feel it too, she smiled, letting me feel her own.
"I love you too." She grabbed the remote and turned on the TV before handing it to me and laying her head in my lap. She was out like a light within less than five minutes, without any help from my gift.