Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight
Authors note I: Soundtrack for this chapter is "We Move Lightly" by Dustin O'Halloran. All music mentioned in Gifted has been compiled for your convenience in a playlist on my youtube account. Link is on my profile page.
Surveying the world from fourteen thousand feet up, Bella experienced a momentary sense of tranquility. She was so high up, the curvature of the earth was visible without needing to strain her peripheral vision. It was just before dawn. The horizon to the east teased the anyone who would look with its tinted sky. She was below the cloud bank but so close to it her skin and clothes were quickly growing damp from the moisture in the air. The world stood waiting below her feet.
This high up the wind lashed at her forcibly. She could easily cocoon herself and protect herself from its abuse but she didn't. It was nice to feel something, even if it hurt like hell.
Her ability to suspend herself in midair was a fist with an iron grip. Gently, she pried a finger one at a time until, without ceremony, the last one came loose and she plummeted to the earth.
She had 30 seconds.
Everything had changed. Rosalie either wasn't coming back or...what? She'd come back back and everything would go back to normal? She'd come back and they'd go on as before? Rosalie standing still in time while she aged?
25 seconds.
Bella couldn't blame her. Not really. If their positions were switched she'd feel slighted too. She'd feel the pain just as keenly as she felt the burns. But...no. No! Rosalie shouldn't have run like that. She broke her promise. She disappeared without giving her a chance to explain her side. And no matter how much it hurt, Bella was right. She had logic and truth on her side. She. Was. Right.
20 seconds.
Her desperation for a sight of Rosalie, for just a word from her morphed into anger. The emotion was a constant companion these days, flitting in and out unexpectedly and taking over her soul.
15 seconds.
She thought back to her first phone call to Charlie sixteen months ago. It was hopes for a future that inspired and instigated that call. Her future...what a loaded word. It wasn't something she ever thought of all those years alone. A future implied plans. It implied taking steps and building something...making something out of yourself. What on earth was she thinking, imagining such a thing for herself? She giggled, bitter amusement lacing her voice. The sound of it left her lungs and drifted away by the swirling, rushing wind.
10 seconds.
Jacob's plan to stop Victoria was a good one. But it had its risks. Bella, however found that she didn't care. Not even a little. There would be an altercation with the other pack. Someone could get hurt. She would most likely do the hurting. And still, she didn't care. Jacob was a friend-she didn't want him to come to harm. Leah and Seth were his packmates, and by virtue of that Bella would do all she could to protect them. But the more Bella thought of Sam or Paul or Jared getting in her way...getting sliced open with a razor sharp jut of her wind, or burning so hot they melted before they had the chance to act...the more apathy filled her. The thought of that disturbed her, and yet at the same time, it didn't. Her darkest self wanted to do these thing. Her best self was horrified and repelled by them. And together the two somehow...cancelled each other out.
5 seconds.
She didn't feel anything anymore.
4 seconds.
She didn't care.
3 seconds.
Rosalie's face shimmered across her consciousness. Her chest ached. Then a flare of anger burst though, and the ache disappeared.
2 seconds.
There is no future for her.
1 second.
And then it was over. Bella opened her eyes as if waking from a dream. A recurring dream with the same outcome every time. She was 95 feet from the ground, a little lower than the last time, and a little lower than the time before. And the time before. And the time before.
And the time before.
Few memories transcended the bridge from human to Vampire. That was always the way of it. Eternity is a long time. To be mired down by the finite nature of humans' sense of time would be unbearable. Whoever or whatever was ultimately responsible for Vampires' existence got it right; the most important memories passed the cut...and the others stayed behind, dying little by little until the last human who might remember dies too.
Rosalie's human memories were just what you'd expect from her. She remembered her last night as clearly as if it were yesterday. She remembered her friend, Vera, and the happiness she managed to make for herself with her family. She remembered confidence; not the reasons behind it but the emotion itself. She had always been sure of herself. Sure of her future. She was Rosalie Hale. It didn't matter if she was human or vampire. Rosalie Hale always knew who she was and what she was made of.
Except now, nearly 100 years after her birth, Rosalie didn't know anything anymore.
Her nostrils flared. A scent she was supposed to relish slowly took over until this side of the mountain was awash in it. A mountain lion. The sound of its blood and the footsteps that accompanied it rushed in her ears.
Emmett came into view with the dead animal slung over his back. He dropped the creature directly in front of her. Its eyes, wide open and looking as empty as Rosalie felt, stared unblinking into the black sky.
Her husband had no patience. "Drink."
Her mouth wetted itself with venom. She stayed still.
With one hand, Emmett dragged the lion to her until its punctured neck was an inch from her mouth. This close, she had no hope of control. She snarled in anger but leaned in and attacked the creature, draining it dry in what felt like seconds.
Emmett leaned back and watched her get her fill. His face was expressionless, but he had one hand behind Rosalie's back, always ready to catch her in case she fell.
"Don't give me that look," he muttered when her eyes flashed in his direction. "You needed to eat. It's been weeks."
She stayed silent. She hadn't moved her lips in weeks; why start now? Come to think of it, she hadn't moved whatsoever in weeks. Carlisle told her stories of Vampires from thousands of years ago who could keep from moving for years...hundreds and thousands of years. She had rolled her eyes, not really buying that one could keep still for that long. But after nearly a month of deathly stillness, Rosalie could believe it. Why would she move her body when her mind was running so fast? She was a stony figure on this ledge on the mountain...so much so that these last weeks her body was beginning to show signs of petrifying.
Emmett watched her, his face clouded with indecision as it had been since all of this started. Normally he'd be content leaving Rosalie to her own devices till whatever set her off healed itself. Normally he'd have let her cool off by herself and waited for her to come home.
But these were not normal times.
"We need to go back, Rose."
Rosalie heard his voice. She heard the care and the uncertainty in it. Acknowledgement came in the form of a slow blink.
Go back to what? Go back to a dying girl?
"She'll change her mind. We can change her mind."
Bella is the most stubborn person Rosalie's ever known. She'll never change her mind. Emmett can have his dreams, but Rosalie couldn't partake in them. They could talk her ears off. They could beg until they bled. They could throw logic, passion and love at her. Bella wouldn't have refused her the way she did if there was room for negotiation.
And Rosalie knew…
When she thought back to every time they brushed over the topic of 'the future', she knew that Bella had tensed. In hindsight she saw the pain in her eyes. She saw her resolve. She saw her dread for when the topic would finally graduate from sidestepping hints into real conversation. What a fool Rosalie was. What an utterly blind fool.
She had been so wrapped up in her own issues. In the span of a year Rosalie had had to force herself to reconcile with what she was when nothing had succeeded in 80 years. It took a year but she did it. She did it for Bella. And though it came years and years too late, she did it for Emmett too.
"We're wasting time out here, Rose. We should be with her."
Time was ticking. Time was counting down. Tick tock, tick tock. Bella was going to die. This was fact. Certain, undeniable fact. She's had Emmett for 80 years. How long would she get with Bella?
In her life, Rosalie has had to adapt to a lot. She learned how to cope after a brutal gang rape that left her dying in the street. She learned to love and find some measure of happiness after it happened. She learned to stop hating Carlisle for changing her. She learned that she was capable of opening her heart and her marriage...of loving two people equally with every fiber of her being.
But it looked like the true test lay down the road. Everything that happened before was nothing compared to what was about to happen.
Bella dying one day was a fact. The other fact: Rosalie was going to have to learn how to live without Bella. The question is, should she wait until Bella actually died? Or should she cut her losses, prevent further heartbreak, and start living without her now?
Jacob and Bella weaved through the houses on Spruce Street. Only a few hundred people lived in La Push, and of those, only a few dozen were of the right age to warrant a visit from them. The number would be even smaller if Bella hadn't insisted they check on the girls.
"You can't keep ignoring Leah's gender," Bella reminded him. "I doubt she'll be the last girl to shift."
Jacob rolled his eyes but agreed without further comment. And so the two of them flew silently through the night. Jacob's knowledge of La Push guided them while Bella kept their scents from leaving their bodies.
The first part of Jacob's plan was simple enough. Victoria was waiting for someone to start shifting. She was waiting and planning to bite them right before it happened. In order for them to prevent this from happening, Jacob and Bella first needed to know who would need protecting, hence the clandestine scouting mission.
"Over there," Jacob whispered, pointing to a split level in desperate need of roofing repairs. "Eric and Miley. Eric's my age and I think Miley's a year younger."
Bella nodded and glided them down lower until they were right on top of one of the windows.
"Here goes," she said. She lifted her hands from her waist and slowly raised them up. At the same time, the air from inside the house lifted up, outside the window, and into Jacob's nose. The hand gestures were nothing more than theatrics for Jacob's benefit, but they served to alert him when her magic (or so how Jacob referred to it) was underway.
"Ugh," Jacob wrinkled his nose. "I hate curry. Nope. No wolves-to-be here."
When he explained his plan to her, Jacob was surprised she didn't question the main premise of it. He thought she'd think he was crazy, but of course he kept forgetting that Bella was no stranger to the supernatural. The premise was this: anyone showing signs of coming down with a case of wolf should be very easy for a current wolf to detect. He remembered the strange looks Sam kept giving him when he was on the verge of phasing...how he seemed to be waiting for him. When he finally shifted, he understood that the other wolves could somehow sense his impending transformation. Well now he was a wolf himself, and he needed to find those who were about to transform.
Bella nodded in understanding as soon as he explained his idea to her. Of course, she knew for a fact that a person with the gene did smell distinctive. The Cullens could sense Jacob's impending shift long before he actually shifted. That was a fact. The only question in today's wolf detecting mission was whether Jacob's nose was as good as the Vampires'.
"Next house," he grumbled.
Two hours and 61 houses later, they had their answer. Jacob detected slight wolf smells from three different people. For two of them, the scent was just starting to appear. They guessed it would be weeks before they shifted.
But there was one boy who didn't have that long.
Jacob's eyes widened when he got a whiff of his old friend, Quill. "The force is strong with this one," he whispered to Bella.
"How long does he have Obi-Wan?" Bella asked, wondering if they were certifiable for making jokes at a time like this.
"I don't know," he said softly. "The fever hasn't set in. My guess is she'd want to do it when that happens. He'll smell a lot more like the rest of us then. But...he's close."
She nodded. She could see Quill in his room playing videogames. The catch in Jacob's voice had to be stemming from his sadness for his friend. Even without Victoria and Laurent complicating everything, this kid's life was about to change and if you asked Jacob, not for the better.
"Jake, I think we should take him now. We might not get another chance."
He looked at Quill, thinking long and hard but his resolve stayed true. "No," he shook his head. "We have to at least try. We have something concrete to bring to Sam now. Protecting him is something they can do."
For all his bravado coming out here, Jacob didn't want to antagonize Sam and his pack any further. Everything he had done thus far was one thing. Kidnapping a future wolf was something else entirely. He still had hope that he and Sam could see eye to eye.
As for Bella, she had no such foolish hopes. Things were going to get very, very ugly...especially since she was about to have a formal meet and greet with Sam's pack. Again, Bella found herself in a strangely numb place. The next part of Jacob's plan should have her worried for their safety. Yet...nothing. She should definitely be worried for the pack's safety. Again, nothing. They're human beings. They're people. Nothing. Esme and Carlisle are gonna be mad as hell.
Nothing.
Nothing.
...Nothing.
Author's note II: I appreciate everyone's well wishes from last chapter. And I truly, seriously, so very much appreciate the exceptional reviews many of you take the time to write. You guys are the closest I come to talking to an actual editor. I get tunnel vision sometimes and getting your perspective often goes a long way to giving me a fresh take on things. You'd be surprised how often in depth feedback has forced me to rethink some angle of the story and completely change something. I hope to see more of them!