AN: Thank you to everyone who is favouriting, following and especially reviewing! It's always a highlight in my day when a review comes in, please please continue to do all of these thing for me and I'll keep writing. I will say that I work in a hospital right now and my life is in chaos with COVID-19 so if updates come a bit slower please bear with me. The story is already written but finding the time and energy just to edit it right now is hard. Be safe everyone.
AN2: Something went wrong with this chapter the first time I tried to post it, hopefully it works this time!
After a brief conversation with his wife he ended the call and came to sit by me telling me in his mind that the family was on their way. 'You can breathe Edward, she really will be okay.' He said taking in my tense posture and the fact that I literally wasn't breathing, mostly because I couldn't stand that Bella didn't smell like herself. I took a deep breath and gave him a small smile at the same time.
We waited for about 20 minutes for the family to show up. They walked in in staggered groups and as singles to make it less obvious that so many people were coming in to Bella's hospital room in the middle of the night. Nobody was absent for this meeting, even Jasper showed up, clearly not breathing and looking uneasy.
Alice and Esme both hugged me when they came in and Emmett clapped me on the shoulder, clearly having calmed down since our last conversation, maybe seeing Bella in this condition had sobered him.
'Thanks for coming everyone, we have a lot to discuss and we need to make some decisions as a family. The pack will need to be addressed soon and we have to decide how that conversation will go. I think we can all agree that we don't want a war with them but this also can't go unpunished.' Carlisle said.
'Damn right it can't.' Emmett said quietly, sad eyes on Bella's prone form.
'What do you think should be done, Edward?' Esme asked me.
I shook my head; I hadn't had the mental capacity to even consider it up until this point. 'I'm not sure, as much as I'd like to crucify Jacob I feel like we need to hear his side- it's what Bella would want. But even when we do hear his side I can't see it being anything except what it appears; he lost control, hurt Bella and instead of staying and helping her he ran off and left her to die. Or worse.
'If this is the case then he needs to pay. The whole pack doesn't need to be punished for his actions; they were the first people to get to her and to help her after all. I agree with Carlisle that we can't have this escalate to a war, that's the last thing we need. The pack is better as an ally than an enemy.' I finished.
'Well-spoken Edward.' Carlisle said. 'I agree- we need the pack as an ally, especially with the threat of Victoria looming over us. I think that the only way that we can stay in the packs favour is if we let them decide Jacob's punishment.'
I could almost feel Emmett's explosive anger even before he stood and half shouted 'Bullshit, Carlisle!'
I immediately felt the calming effect of Jasper wash over the room as Carlisle shot Emmett a look silencing him immediately. 'What will us enacting revenge do in this situation Emmett? It will make us feel better, yes. But will it help Bella? No, I don't think so. Her family doing harm to her best friend won't do her any good- she may even resent or hate us for it. It certainly won't help her healing.'
Emmett suddenly smiled 'That's good Carlisle, have Sam decide Jacob's punishment and Bella will hate him instead of us. She won't want to go to La Push anymore.'
'That wasn't exactly my intention but it wouldn't be a bad side effect I suppose. Even if she doesn't hate them I hope that this incident will show her how dangerous it is to be around werewolves.' Carlisle responded and this irked me.
'I hope you aren't implying that this attack was Bella's fault because she didn't heed our warnings Carlisle.' I said, trying to control my voice.
'Of course not Edward, I'm sorry if that's how it came across.' Carlisle said sincerely and I nodded looking back to Bella.
'I will tell you all my idea and you can tell me if you agree with it or not.' Carlisle began. 'I want to call a meeting between our family and the pack tomorrow morning, we need to deal with this as soon as possible. I say that we pose it to them to decide what to do with Jacob, we impart how serious this is and how it won't be easily forgiven. While we let them decide what to do with him we tell them that we will need to agree on the punishment. If they decide to give him a slap on the wrist then we will need to escalate things. The punishment must fit the crime.'
'And if they don't agree? Or don't pick a just punishment?' Emmett asked.
There was a long pause before Carlisle spoke again 'Then we take it upon ourselves to punish him, and if they don't like the choice we make then we deal with it as they would have if we broke the treaty.' He finished with a dead voice.
'Carlisle… you can't mean that.' Esme said. 'You can't be saying that we could start a war with them.'
'We wouldn't be starting the war love, they would be.' Carlisle said and the room went silent. Alice had been silent through this whole exchange, trying to see the future but unable to see past the werewolves. She was clearly frustrated and she clutched her head at the blossoming headache.
My family was silent for a few minutes while everyone digested this, I had to admit that I had some doubts about our plan if the pack refused to cooperate. I had no desire to start a war between our family and them, but one look at Bella told me that if we had to then we had to. Jacob nearly killed her, in no world would that ever be okay, he had to be punished and if anyone came between them punishing Jacob they would be quickly dispatched.
'Okay Carlisle.' I said after about ten minutes. 'Let's do it.' I said quietly and he put his hand on my shoulder giving it a firm squeeze.
'Are you going to come, Edward?' Carlisle asked me.
I shook my head 'With Charlie going out tomorrow to hunt for the 'wolf' that did this I can't leave Bella alone, I trust all of your judgement to decide if what they decide is punishment enough.'
'Do you want me to stay with you tomorrow Edward? I won't be any use there; I won't be able to 'see' anything there.' Alice asked me.
I shook my head again 'No Alice, but thank you. We need as many of us there as possible, if nothing else than just to have a larger presence. We're outnumbered by them as it is, hopefully that won't become an issue.'
'That won't be an issue.' Emmett said with certainty, ending the conversation.
Carlisle decided that he would attempt a call to Sam even though it was the middle of the night. He dialed his number and Sam answered halfway through the first ring.
'Carlisle?' I heard Sam answer, and I could almost hear the trepidation in his voice.
'Hello Sam.' Carlisle responded.
'How is Bella doing?' He asked.
'She is out of surgery and things seem to be on the upswing. I was able to repair most of the damage but not all, only time will tell how much lasting damage there is.' Carlisle said calmly.
'I'm glad to hear that she will be okay.' Sam said. 'I'm sorry to hear that there may be lasting damage.' As he spoke I could almost see him in a room full of Quileute tribe members waiting to hear what Carlisle had to say.
'I'm sorry to call so late but I figured we should have this conversation sooner rather than later.' Carlisle said, his tone even and measured.
'I agree completely.' Sam said.
'I was hoping that my family and yours could get together and discuss next steps.' Carlisle said, choosing his words carefully.
'That sounds like a good Idea. Where and when were you thinking?' Sam asked, choosing his words just as carefully as Carlisle.
'Since my whole family will be at this meeting, you and whomever you choose may come to our property for this meeting. It is private and secluded and coming to our property tomorrow may be done without fear of breaking the treaty. I promise that no harm will come to you or any of your party. This is will be purely a conversation.' Carlisle said.
There was a lengthy pause; I figured that there was no chance that Sam would agree to come into enemy territory. But on the other hand we were the ones who had been wronged and perhaps Sam would agree as an act of good faith, to show that we was willing to work with us.
After nearly ten seconds, ten seconds in which I assumed he was deliberating with whomever was in the room with him he responded. 'That is… agreeable.' Sam said much to my surprise, Carlisle's as well as it turned out because he raised his eyebrows at this. Turns out I wasn't the only one who didn't expect Sam to agree. 'When would you like to meet?' Sam asked.
'Would you be able to meet at 4am? I'd like us all to be on the same page by morning.' Carlisle said.
'We'll be there.' Sam said.
'We'll see you soon then. Bye Sam.' Carlisle said.
'Goodbye.' Sam replied and Carlisle ended the call.
'I'm shocked that he agreed.' Jasper said.
'Me too.' Replied Carlisle. 'But really there's no difference to him meeting us there or somewhere like the clearing. Our whole family will be there no matter where we are. I was curious to see if he would trust me enough to meet us there, he surprised me.'
'Hopefully that's a good sign.' Esme said.
'We should go get ready,' Emmett said standing up needing to move 'they will be there in the next few hours.'
'You guys go ahead. I'm going to stay another hour or so to make sure Bella is okay then I'll meet you at home.' Carlisle said. 'You should all try to get a quick hunt in since we didn't hunt as much as we'd liked yesterday. We need to be as strong as we can be.'
Emmett, Esme, Jasper and Rosalie all got up to leave.
'You should go too, Alice.' Carlisle said. 'You hunted less than anyone.'
Alice sighed but seeing the intelligence in the idea she slowly rose to leave as well. She walked around the bed to where I was, sighed and kissed Bella's brow then turned and kissed mine in turn before going to leave. Esme came and did the same thing and then they all slowly left the room leaving myself Bella and Carlisle.
'I'm going to go and get a bed so that it looks like it you slept here for when Charlie gets back in the morning.' Carlisle said and left the room.
Bella hadn't moved or shifted once since being brought back from surgery though her heart beat strongly and her breathing remained steady. 'You're doing so well.' I said to her quietly rubbing her hand gently. 'I'm here when you're ready to wake up.'
Carlisle came back in and set up the bed with pillow and blanket strewn about to make it look like it was slept in.
'I'm going to go back to my office for a little bit, let me know if there are any issues. Otherwise I will be back in an hour. Do you need anything Edward?' Carlisle asked.
I shook my head 'No thank you Carlisle, I'll let you know if anything changes.' He clapped my shoulder comfortingly as he walked out one more time.
The next hour passed by slowly just waiting for something to happen with Bella and waiting for the meeting between the werewolves and my family. Bella continued to sleep peacefully under the influence of the drugs Carlisle was giving her, I just wanted her to wake up and I wouldn't be able to relax until she did. This whole thing just felt like a never ending nightmare, it's looking like Bella will pull through after the worst day of my life but our future in Forks was up in the air as the meeting with the pack loomed.
An hour after leaving, Carlisle came back to check on Bella and say goodbye before heading back to the house to be with the family.
'Any change?' he asked me.
I shook my head looking up at him.
'She will probably wake up within the next couple of hours. Probably not for long but when she does try to get her to drink a little bit of water. Again if there is any change call me and I will be here within a couple of minutes.' Carlisle said.
'Same goes for you Carlisle, if things look like they're going south and you need back up call me immediately.' I said to him, then I thought better of it. 'Better yet, call me when the meeting starts and have me on the line the whole time. If you need me there have whoever has the phone whisper my name and I'll be there.'
Carlisle nodded 'That's a good idea, but I am very hopeful that it won't come to that.'
'Me too. Be safe Carlisle. I trust you to do what's right for Bella.' I said to him solemnly.
'Thank you son, hopefully it will all be over and sorted before Bella is conscious. I want to have answers for her when she wakes up, I also don't want her to have to be involved in the decision.' Carlisle said.
'Me neither, it wouldn't be fair, she's too close to him to make an objective decision as well. She wouldn't want anything bad to happen to him but he needs to be punished. She needs justice.' I said and Carlisle nodded.
'I'll see you soon.' He said and I stood up and hugged him not liking how final this conversation felt.
'Bye Dad.' I said and he walked from the room.
As he left my anxiety definitely rose at his departure, Carlisle is a rock, especially when it comes to things like this. He is an expert healer and with Bella so sick it's comforting to have him nearby in case something goes wrong. Also with him being gone it meant that the meeting between my family and the wolf pack meeting was coming in less than an hour. I had no idea what Sam and the pack might decide. I worried that their close relationship with Jacob would hinder their decision and they wouldn't want to punish him at all. In that case we'd step in and it wouldn't be pretty. I didn't even want to think might happen.
Alice POV
The sky was just beginning to lighten, the pitch black turning to a dark grey blue when we heard them coming. We heard the heavy padding of wolf feet as they strode through the forest towards us, it was hard to tell just how many there were but I guessed less than ten. The headache that had been building all day as I tried to see what would happen today was reaching a crescendo as the wolves approached us and suddenly all of our futures disappeared.
They all stopped about a hundred feet back in the forest and we could hear them changing from their wolf forms to their human forms. It was at this point that I called Edward.
'Hello?' he said quietly.
'There just getting here.' I told him.
'How many?' he asked.
'I'm not sure yet, less than ten I think. They're changing back to their human forms.' I said.
'Hmm.' He said sounding as surprised as I did.
'Wait.' I said, hearing something new. 'I could hear a car on the road but I just heard it turn down our driveway.'
'Who is it?' Edward asked.
'The Elders?' Jasper guessed from beside me.
'Must be.' Carlisle said in the same muted tone we were all using.
'They're walking towards us as humans now.' I told Edward through the phone and he didn't respond, just listening and I pulled the phone away from my ear and held it at my side.
Very quickly they began to appear through the foliage, Sam in the front followed by Paul, Jared, Embry and Quil. So few. I thought and I lifted the phone up slightly and whispered 'Five.' So Edward would know how many there were.
They stopped walking about 30 yards from us all of them getting in formation behind Sam.
'Thank you for agreeing to meet with us Carlisle.' Sam said somberly breaking the silence between us.
'Absolutely, thank you for coming.' Carlisle said in response.
'There are two more of us coming down the driveway in a car, is it okay if Embry and Quil go and help Billy and Old Quil get back here to meet us?' Same asked.
'Of course.' Carlisle said and Quil and Embry hedged around our family not letting their eyes wander from us to go and get their tribes Elders.
Embry came back around the corner first pushing Billy Black in his wheelchair followed by Quil leading his grandfather over to stand next to Billy.
'Thank you both for coming.' Carlisle said addressing the two elders.
'I would like to start by apologizing for my son's actions.' Began Billy Black 'Nothing I say will forgive what happened, Bella trusted him and he nearly killed her. Not only that but he left her for dead, his carelessness and cowardice are unacceptable.'
'Thank you Billy.' Carlisle said.
'May I ask how Bella is doing? I care about Bella and her father very much and I want the best for her.' Billy's voice was sincere and I could hear the sadness in it.
Carlisle nodded 'It was touch and go for a while. She lost a lot of blood; she needed two units of blood before I could do surgery on her. But Bella is strong; she pulled through the surgery with flying colours. I have her sedated currently to help control the pain and to keep her still to give her the best chance she can get to heal properly. I don't know for sure, we can only tell with time but it is possible that Bella won't regain full use of her arm, Jacob did a lot of damage.' Carlisle explained seriously.
Billy closed his eyes in response to this trying to digest what his son did to his best friends daughter.
'I asked you all here today because Bella needs justice. As you wouldn't let one of us attack one of yours without retribution neither will we. But at the same time I understand how hard this is and I also don't want to have this ruin the peace shared between our families.' Carlisle got to the point. I was shocked by their response, no scoffs, no noises of derision; they were all taking this seriously.
'You're right.' Sam said. 'If the roles were reversed I would consider the treaty broken and I would want the perpetrator brought to justice. What does your family have in mind Carlisle?' Sam asked flatly not wanting to hear Carlisle's answer.
'My family has discussed it; if we decide what Jacob's punishment is then there will always be a resentment there. Whether you want it or not your pack will hate us. Therefore we have decided to leave the decision up to you.' A lot of the packs eyebrows shot up at this. 'But,' Carlisle continued and their faces became guarded again 'we have to agree to your punishment. Jacob can't get away with this with a slap on the wrist, he must be punished appropriately. Punished as you would have had one of us punished had we done the same to one of your women.' Carlisle's voice was as heavy as I had ever heard it, almost a little dangerous sounding too.
At Carlisle's last sentence I could see some of their faces screw up, undoubtedly imagining one of us sucking their wives, girlfriends, mothers or daughters dry and what they would do to us.
'That is… unexpected.' Sam said. 'I must admit I don't think that I would have extended you the same courtesy.' Carlisle nodded once in response.
'How long do we have to decide?' Sam asked.
'I want this decided before sunrise. I want a verdict for Bella before she wakes up and we need to decide on a story for Charlie and the other humans.' Carlisle said.
Sam nodded at this. 'May we have a few minutes to deliberate?'
'Please.' Carlisle gestured towards the forest. 'We will wait in the house. If you go about a hundred feet into the forest we won't be able to hear you. Please try to come to a decision before 5, I know Charlie is heading back to the hospital early before going out to hunt for the wolf that injured Bella, I want to have some news by the time he gets there.'
Sam nodded tersely and said nothing as he turned his back on us and the others followed by example, the younger ones weren't able to trust us enough not to look over their shoulders over us to make sure we weren't going to attack them. To make them feel better we all began to head back to the house to wait.
Once we had settled in the living room and we could no longer see the wolves I pulled the phone back up to my ear. 'So far so good.' I said to him quietly.
'Who all is there?' he asked me.
'Sam, Billy, Old Quil, Paul, Jared, Embry and Quil.' I said to him.
'Sam seems receptive, we will see what they decide.' He said quietly.
'They all seem receptive honestly; they appear much less antagonistic than I would have anticipated.' I said.
'We have to remember' Carlisle cut in 'that Sam, Seth, Billy and Old Quil all saw Bella in the condition Jacob left her in. We probably have that fact to thank for them agreeing to our terms.'
'I'm curious why Seth isn't there.' Edward said, I had put him on speakerphone once Carlisle had interjected on our conversation.
'I think that it was strategic. They brought only as many people as are in our family- I'm assuming they anticipated Edward being here.' Jasper said. 'They didn't want us to feel outnumbered, and even in the seven they brought two of them are old frail humans. They made themselves vulnerable to show us that they trust us.'
'I also think that they chose the more mature members of their pack to come, hence no Seth.' I said.
'Shall we address the elephant in the room?' Emmett asked after a short silence. 'What do we do if their punishment isn't to our liking?'
There was another short silence as everyone considered what we might do. 'First, we tell them that it isn't acceptable. If they refuse to change their punishment then we get to decide.' Carlisle said.
'And what will we decide?' Esme asked hesitantly.
'There's only one decision at that point. We do what they would have done to us.' Rosalie cut in, surprising me. 'We hunt down Jacob and make him pay; we make sure he can't hurt another person.'
We were all stunned into silence, both at the fact that what we had all been thinking but no one wanted to put to words was said, but mostly because after everything it was Rosalie who had said it. Rosalie who had always resented Bella and seemed to care so little about her, I supposed that Rose had seen herself in the Bella that we saw laying in the hospital bed. The Bella who was broken at the hands of one of the people she trusted most in the world.
Nothing seemed to be left to say after this and we all sat in silence and waited for the pack to make a decision. The sky had begun to lighten in earnest and the first streaks of orange were starting to become visible above the trees when the pack began to emerge from the forest once more and we all walked out to meet them.
We resumed our previous positions and the faces that met us were grimmer than before with hard set jaws and furrowed brows. Sam took a deep steadying breath before he spoke.
'We consulted with the rest of the pack so that we were all on the same page; we have come to an agreement on what needs to be done with Jacob.' There was a weighty silence following this and I couldn't miss the pain on Billy's face.
'While Jacob didn't mean to do what he did and he did send help once someone phased- he did leave Bella for dead. Since this was not intentional we don't think it warrants something as serious as death, but it does deserve a serious punishment. We have decided that our chosen punishment will be banishment.' Sam finished to another heavy silence. My first thought was: that's it? Jacob has already taken off, who knows if he would ever come back.
Sam's words cut into my thoughts 'It's not as simple as it sounds. Jacob is banned from communicating with anyone from the tribe and he is banned from ever returning to Forks or La Push.'
'How is that possible?' Carlisle asked. 'Jacob has a link with everyone in the pack, you might be able to ignore him but he is still privy to all of your thoughts.'
'That is the main aspect of the punishment. If you agree that this punishment is acceptable then I will banish Jacob from our pack, severing the mental link. He will be truly alone.' His voice faltered at the end of this sentence betraying the sadness that he felt. At this last sentence I saw a single tear escape Billy Black's eye.
'You could do that? Sever the mental link?' Carlisle asked.
'Yes. It has been done once before- a long time ago when a pack member committed an atrocious crime. He was allowed to live his life but he lost all communication with his pack and his family.' Sam replied.
'Can you give my family and I a few minutes to talk about this? We need to consult Edward, he has a major say in this.' Carlisle asked.
'Yes of course. Would you like us to move away?' Sam asked.
'No, that won't be necessary; we will just go into our home for a few minutes.' Carlisle said and we all ran back into the house.
When we arrived back in the house I held the phone up without putting Edward back on speakerphone. We could all hear him without it and we wanted to have a quiet conversation without the pack hearing.
'What do you think Edward?' Carlisle murmured.
'I think that that is a fair compromise. My only concern is what if we learn that Jacob has hurt another person? Or what if he returns and tries to contact Bella?' Edward's tinny voice came through the phone.
'That is something we will have to clarify.' Carlisle said.
'I'm surprised they decided on such a harsh punishment for Jacob given how close they are too him. This can't have been easy for them.' Esme said.
'I agree. I actually think it's a perfect punishment for this crime. I couldn't have thought of something better myself.' Jasper said.
'I wonder what the crime was of the person who suffered this punishment in the past…' Esme said.
'Shall we go back out and tell them we approve given that Jacob is dealt with if he breaks the agreement or if he injures someone else?' Carlisle asked and we all agreed.
We walked back outside for the last time to find the pack talking quietly amongst themselves. Conversation ceased as we approached.
'What happens if Jacob disregards the banishment and comes to La Push, or Forks, or approaches Bella?' Carlisle asked.
'If he comes into town or onto the reservation, or if he attempts to approach Bella or anyone else he will be removed by force. If he attempts to communicate with the pack or any members of the tribe then he will be ignored, calls blocked, hung up on.' Sam said.
'And if he attacks another helpless girl? Or anyone else?' Rosalie asked in a voice like death.
'If Jacob seriously hurts anyone else then we agree that your family can deal with him. I can expect my pack and tribe to ignore him and keep him away, but I cannot ask them to harm him. If Jacob needs to be dealt with then we will meet again and decide what to do with him.' Sam said somberly.
Carlisle nodded his head liking this answer. 'My family and I agree that this is an acceptable punishment for Jacob. We understand how hard this is for all of you, especially you Billy. We never wanted any of this, Bella is so close to Jacob that she will be devastated by this as well. We appreciate the gravity of the loss on all of you.' Carlisle said meeting Billy's eyes, Billy nodded slightly.
'There is one thing left to discuss.' Carlisle said. 'Charlie is concerned for Jacob's safety, not only is he hunting for the wolf, he's also going to be coming around looking for Jacob. He knows that Jacob and Bella were supposed to meet yesterday but he thinks Jacob never showed up. We need to decide on what to say to him and the rest of the police force.'
'I have thought about this as well.' Sam said. 'As painful as it will be I think that the only option other than saying that Jacob just vanished is to stage his death.' There were a couple of furrowed brows on the packs side but from the lack of reactions it was clear that Sam had already discussed this option with his people as well.
'How will you do that?' Carlisle asked.
'Place tattered clothing in the forest near the beach where Jacob attacked Bella. Put spots of blood on them and make it seem like wolves carried him off.' This time Billy spoke and his voice sounded dead. I was shocked that he was the one who spoke about this but as I thought about it I could see his reasoning. Billy knew his son did wrong and had to be punished. He didn't want dissent within the pack and he didn't want a war between the two groups so if he was the one who voiced this idea then no one could argue against him.
'There would need to be a funeral.' Carlisle said.
'We can arrange something small, might actually help our people deal with the loss.' Sam said gruffly.
'Who will tell Jacob of all of this?' Carlisle asked.
'I will. Jacob hasn't left his wolf form once yet. Once we are done here I will contact him, tell him of everything that we discussed, warn him not to break any of the rules placed upon him or he may face death. I will then sever his connection to the pack.' Sam said.
'The whole tribe has already been versed on what is happening. In a few hours when Forks PD shows up to start searching for Jacob and hunting for the wolves we will help them, we will all be avoiding changing until this hunt is over with.' Sam explained.
'That is all agreeable to us.' Carlisle said. 'I don't think we have anything left to add other than thank you for helping us get justice for Bella even though it was at great personal loss to you all.'
'As I said before, had one of you broken the treaty and not only attacked a human but almost killed one of our people I don't think I would have thought before I acted. You showed greater restraint than I ever could for the good of all of us and I will never forget that.' Sam said with true sincerity in his voice. 'If anything else comes up that we need to discuss don't hesitate to call and schedule another meeting.'
'I appreciate that greatly Sam. I have to be heading back to the hospital now to check on Bella, I don't want to leave her when she is so medically fragile. For now my family will feign ignorance on the subject of Jacob and the wolf attack until we hear something from Charlie.' Carlisle said.
Sam nodded 'That's a good idea. We're going to go and scatter bloody tatters of an outfit of Jakes through the forest in anticipation of the search.'
'That sounds good. Sam, please contact us if there are any issues with Jacob's reception of these developments.' Carlisle requested seriously.
'I definitely will, though I don't anticipate it. Jacob is in his own world of hurt and self-loathing, I think he will go along with whatever we say.' Sam said.
Carlisle nodded 'I hope you're right.'