A/N: Thank you for the reviews on the last few chapters. Hope you enjoy this one!
Trigger warning: discussion of SA/rape, injuries from SA, etc
Chapter 7 – Treaty (EPOV)
The days seemed to creep by at a speed no one quite recognized. Some days the sun set faster than I could have blinked, and other days they wouldn't pass no matter how much I begged. Bella's nightmares only worsened, leaving her exhausted and plagued with headaches throughout the day. Recently, she had begun refusing all forms of medicine – pill or otherwise. Carlisle had been battling himself for two days about slipping small doses of pain medicine into her drinks but that was a clear violation of her autonomy and decided against it, despite how much pain she was in. She still refused to sit or lie on any bed – remaining steadfastly sleeping on sofas downstairs or the couch in my room. Sometimes, I'd watch her eye the couch skeptically, as if she couldn't remember whether she was comfort sitting or not.
While she slept, however disrupted, I slipped out of the house to hunt. My tracking had taken me as far as the Northern border British Columbia and as far south as Nevada. I had yet to come across the scent in Bella's room. Recently, I was following random scents of vampires that had been moving in and out of town. I was never able to track them for long with the rain washing away their scents. It pained, and appeased me, me that Bella was so consumed by her pain that she didn't notice my disappearing. I was thankful I could do something without leaving her feeling unloved and unprotected.
Now, Bella was asleep on the couch in the den after Alice managed to force a small bowl of chicken broth into Bella. She'd resisted, insisting that she still felt sick from her earlier panic, but Alice shut her down quickly.
"Don't you lie to me, Bella." Alice snapped, sitting cross-legged on the couch with the bowl of soup in her hands. "I saw the future and I saw that you eat this soup whether you like it or not. And no, you will not throw it up later."
That had been a lie. Alice hadn't seen the future. Bella's future was void of everything but death in Alice's mind.
Bella hadn't learned of Alice's troubles with her visions and resigned the fight. She ate the soup without another complaint. We could all see her struggle to finish just a few of spoons of it, her body so used to not eating that it was no longer capable of consuming more than a few mouthfuls. The meal had exhausted Bella to the point that she immediately fell asleep. Carlisle was content with the fact that she had gotten something into her body, at least. We would continue to work her up to more nutritious, filling food that her body was secretly craving.
"The killings in Seattle are getting worse." Emmett informs Carlisle as he steps downstairs. Carlisle breathes a sigh, shaking his head.
"I've heard this much." Carlisle responds, grimacing. "Too many injured and missing for just a single nomad – it must be a coven."
"It's strange they're staying." Alice says.
"We'll continue to monitor the situation." Carlisle announces firmly. "There is little else we can do without getting involved ourselves." We can't afford to be involved with this right now. His mind falls to Bella, thinking of her nightmares and rapid weight loss.
I listen to their conversation, not really adding anything myself.
My fingers find the bruise on Bella's cheekbone, slowly tracing the edges of the black and purple discoloration as it moves toward her neck. He choked her.
Monster.
Alice slips into the room quietly, sitting down at the end of the couch with her arms wrapped around her legs.
"What are you thinking?" Alice asks me. She'd been quiet nearly the whole night – her thoughts ridden with guilt and annoyance at herself, sadness for Bella, and confusion about the blank spaces in her abilities. She'd gone through hundreds of theories as to why she wasn't able to see the future anymore.
Her eyes, darkening orbs, staring at me blankly.
"You shouldn't feel guilt, Alice." I mumble at her.
Alice scoffs lightly, rolling her eyes. "Don't tell me what to do, Edward. Especially when you're feeling the same thing."
Despite it being nearly two weeks since the attack, the bruises on Bella's body were still darkening on her skin. It was unusual – but something Carlisle chalked up to her sudden malnutrition.
I shiver remembering Bella's panic when she had seen her face in the mirror for the first time. It had been an accident – she had been taking a shower when she caught her reflection. Two days later, she caught a glimpse at herself in the mirror in the hall when she caught her reflection. Her grief at the bruises that wrapped around her neck and cupped her jaw and cheekbones debilitated Jasper.
I could only stomach a few moments of her cries before disappearing from the house.
I needed to find him. I need to kill him. He was a monster.
Maybe we should've held up a mirror to her face when she was in the hospital. Maybe they we have told her everything all at once and let her panic one time. Maybe Bella should have been kept entirely in the dark. Maybe it she would be better off knowing that not everyone was privy to her injuries.
All the mirrors had disappeared from the house when I returned.
The low whispers of my family's thoughts were being interrupted by more unfamiliar ones – wolves.
I could hear the low rumblings of Jacob Black's thoughts before he called me. We need to talk.
"Jacob Black is on his way to talk to us." I say quietly. The house goes silent at my announcement, Carlisle and Emmett both breaking their conversation to look at me. Jasper, who had been upstairs, appears in the doorway, defensively.
What? Alice's thoughts are furious. He's been away for two weeks. What gives him the right to come now? She was fuming.
"Maybe he wants to feel important." I mutter shrugging. Or, maybe, he genuinely cares to see Bella.
The thought frustrated me more than I wanted to admit.
Why not come earlier?
I shrug at her, tracing the bruises around Bella's wrist lightly. He held her down.
He was a demon.
I stand, slowly pushing Bella's weight off my body. I instantly regret it, seeing how uncomfortable the movement makes her in her light sleep. Carlisle, Jasper, and Emmett follow me out the front door as we move to speak to Jacob and his friends. They were standing equal distance apart, much farther from the house than would be considered normal for a conversation.
"Good evening." Carlisle murmurs to them, nodding in their direction.
Jared, Embry, and Paul stand tall on Jacob's flank, all defensive and waiting for an order to attack from Jacob. It seemed Jacob had no intentions to give that order tonight.
We found two scents on our land, right near the border. Jacob informs me bluntly.
"Could have been nomads passing through." I tell him with a slightly shrug. "There are plenty of vampires that frequent this region."
Carlisle peers at me, hoping I would explain the other side of the conversation that no one else was getting.
"Two scents on their land." I explain hastily to Carlisle, not in the mood for conversing. Carlisle nods, as does Jasper, though my words were not directed at him.
Strange that they would be here. Emmett is thinking.
"Some vampires from Seattle may have come South." Jasper says, shrugging slightly. "Did they harm anyone?"
Not this time. Jacob remarks coolly.
I almost scoff. If the wolves were what they thought of themselves, they should be able to defense themselves.
I relay the information to Jasper, who nods quizzically, recalling his information of newborn habits. The mess in Seattle was definitely newborns who had no sense of cleaning their messes. It just wasn't clear who had changed them. Perhaps, as Emmett had thought of, a newborn vampire had little control or care to finish a meal.
"We'll keep on the lookout for any additional scents in Forks." Carlisle tells them. "So far, we have encountered no other vampires or the scent from Bella's room. Thank you for the update from your side, we'll extend the favor if needed."
Jacob nods in response to Carlisle. I did not come as a favor to you.
"Then why did you come?" I question, my voice cold.
"As much as we appreciate the help, your energy might be better spent on other. . . endeavors." Alice says, her voice harsh. "Tell your pack of mutts to stay out of our business."
Bella is our business.
"Bella was your business." I correct angrily. "Not anymore. We'll take of it now."
The other wolves take a step back, wanting to return to their own lands, but Jacob stays. His thoughts are directed only at me now.
I need to talk to Bella.
I grimace, slightly annoyed at his firm request. It was clear he had no business here except to talk to Bella. The information he was passing along was a ill-planned excuse.
I'm talking to her whether you allow me to or not.
I glare. "That's her decision." I mutter to him, turning my back as I walk inside the house. I hear him retreating to the forest, intending to phase back and come to speak with Bella.
When I enter the living room, Bella is awake, though barely. Esme is coercing more water into her body, encouraging her to drink at least a few more sips from the cup. I settle down on the end of the sofa and Bella hesitantly touches the bottom of her feet to my thigh. I sigh slowly, wrapping my hand around her ankle, offering her the comfort she must have wanted. She recoils but doesn't pull away fully.
If only I knew what was going on in her head, maybe I would understand these strange behaviors of hers. Maybe I would understand the strange way she reacted to food and water now, as if she wanted to starve. Maybe I would know what kept her writhing and crying in her dreams and left her scared of sleep.
Now, I realized the years of studying medicine and psychology were essentially useless when I simply relied on my mindreading abilities to understand people. Now, without any practice at normal, non-verbal cues, I was at a loss with Bella – the only human that even mattered.
Alice used to complain that Bella was a terrible patient with her always belittling her pain, but this Bella was much worse. This Bella seemed as if she would break at any moment, but she always refused to admit weakness.
"Jacob is outside." I tell Bella slowly. I don't miss the way her body jumps, her eyes wide with a strange excitement. Her sudden change of stature makes my dead heart prickle with something – perhaps annoyance or jealousy of the dog. "He wants to talk with you. Is that alright?"
"Yes." Bella's voice is possibly the happiest I've heard it since she woke up in the hospital, and that makes me slightly more upset. Had I done something wrong to inhibit these feelings in her? There was something about Jacob Black that brought them all out that I clearly didn't have.
I don't miss the pride in Jacob's head, either, as he walks giddily into the house to talk to Bella.
"A little privacy, please?" He mutters to me as he passes by, dropping onto the floor next to Bella's head. "Hey Bells."
I sigh, slightly irritated, standing up. Bella watches me without a word, though I can tell she dislikes my threat of leaving.
"Hi." She squeaks quietly, a small smile on her face.
"You look like crap." Jacob retorts with a shake of his head. I stiffen at his words, but Alice puts a gentle hand on my shoulder, reminding me to give them their time and conversation.
"I think I might kill him." Alice says to me. She sits at the kitchen island, pulling her knees to her chest.
"I think I'll help."
We stay wordlessly across from each other, both starring at the marbled countertops.
I was, without shame, listening to Jacob's and Bella's conversation, and Alice – slightly more shameful – was doing the same.
"Are they feeding you at all?" Jacob asks. "Or is your diet strictly blood?" Probably is. Dunno how sick they are over here. . . Do they even have food?
I grit my teeth tightly, trying not to let his thoughts get to me. Jacob Black had never been one for decorum.
"No. I'm just not hungry."
"So, you're just anorexic now." Maybe they're intentionally starving her.
"That's mean." Bella mumbles under her breath. I hadn't noticed how weak her voice sounded today. Last night's dreams had truly exhausted her.
"Are they keeping you awake at night too? Throwing water on your face when you start dozing off?" Jacob jokes, though his thoughts were dark, remembering how he and his sisters faced nightmares following their mother's car accident.
Despite his clear attempts to not think about it, his mind kept fishing back to the day he yanked clothes onto her body and raced her to the hospital. My body cringes in pain each time I saw Bella in his thoughts.
"You should come to the Rez, Bells. My house isn't a royal palace, but at least we'd feed you."
"They feed me here."
"Sure."
"Stop it."
"Seriously, Bells. You look like a ghost." Jacob says, his voice much more grim than before. She'll probably kill herself in a week like this. Why isn't the doc doing anything? Does he even want her to get better? Charlie said he'd gotten her out of the hospital faster than normal . . . Something about comfort for her. That was stupid.
"Get some sleep. I'll come back later." Need to talk to Sam . . . This is insane.
"No." Bella's voice is panic-ridden, and I hear her grasp Jacob's clothes, keeping him where he was.
What the hell?
"I don't sleep well."
"I can see it in your face." You look worse than when he left you for dead. I bet your dreams are back. . .
I wince slightly at Jacob's memory of Bella's skinny, exhausted form. She was a ghost when I was gone, but she looked worse now.
"It's land of the living dead over here." was Jacob's nonchalant response, not hinting at his grim thoughts. "Probably wouldn't be able to sleep here either."
"I have nightmares."
Do they wake her up when she starts screaming at night? I used to have awful nightmares after Mom died.
"I'm sorry."
"I don't like to close my eyes."
"Maybe Carlisle can give you something for that –"
Bella's quick to protest, as I expected her to. "No!" she cuts him off sharply, her heart panicked in her chest. "No medicine."
Jacob sighs loudly. "Yeah, okay." He's quiet, then he continues. "What are you going to do then? Drive yourself to exhaustion until you can't help but sleep?" That's the Bella thing to do.
Bella doesn't respond.
"You really do look like crap, Bells. I'm serious, why don't you come to the Rez for a bit? We can go to the beach, have some food, and then I'll safely return you here in like two hours. Don't worry about the leech, I'll deal with him." She's looks like she's dead. Bet that's the way he likes her – looking like a meal or a bloodsucker. Pathetic. I would never treat her this way. I didn't before.
I grit my teeth, my jaw locking tightly.
I knew he intentionally thought provocatively to get a reaction from me, which was incredibly frustrating when Bella insisted we get along. As immature as it was of me to consider, Jacob Black had been the one to start the fight when I tried to make peace with him. He was the one who brought the bikes to Bella's father. He was the one who stood there, thinking of all the ways I had harmed Bella and he had patched her up. He was there, reminding me that if I left, Bella would eventually be content with him.
And I could do nothing but listen because he was right. He had taken care of Bella and saved her life in all the times I couldn't, he had witnessed all the ways I harmed Bella with my own actions, and he was absolutely right that Bella might have loved him one day if I had stayed gone long enough.
But I wasn't gone for enough time. Bella's love for me was so incredibly potent that she risked her life without a thought to journey to the most dangerous city on the planet. She did that for me.
Now, in this moment, Jacob and I seemed to be a war with each other over the same girl who had picked me but might have picked him had I given them more time.
"I'm too tired, Jake." Bella responds only moments later. "Maybe another time."
"Bells, don't do that." Jacob whines at her. "I'm serious, come with me. You can sleep there if you want."
"No."
"Bells, Charlie is already out on the Rez with Billy. He misses you, you know. He always talks about how quiet and different you are on his visits, how he misses how you used to be. He came to the Rez right after his visit with you today. He looked awful."
I clench my jaw even tighter. This is not what he should be telling her. Of course she would be different. No one is ever the same after a traumatizing experience, let alone one so violent and cruel in nature. No one expected her to be the same.
"No, Jake."
Jacob sighs again, more defeated. "Another day?"
I hear the scraping of Bella's head on the couch as she nods slowly.
Did the leeches tell her to say no? Manipulative freaks. Damnit.
"Bells, what happened?" Jacob says after a long moment of silence. I stiffen, my hands pressing hard against the countertop. Alice shoots me a worried look, a warning not to go into the room and interrupt their conversation.
"What?" she sounds groggy, like she was falling asleep when he spoke.
"That day. . . What happened?"
Bella doesn't respond immediately, and I recognize the way her breaths are turning into short, anxious pants. She was going to have a panic attack. "Nothing."
Jacob scoffs at her, nearly laughing. "Bullshit. No one looks like you two weeks after nothing happened."
"Ask someone else." Bella mumbles. "I don't know what happened."
I know she has a concussion, but it's not bad enough to cause memory loss. Maybe one of the leeches has some memory control thing. Probably why Bella even stuck around after the hell they put her through.
"I'm serious Bells, stop joking around."
"I'm not." Bella responds stiffly.
"I know you're lying." Jacob snaps at her quietly.
"If he makes her upset, I'll break his bones." Or, maybe, she would just hate him enough that she would decide on her own to never see him again.
Alice's eyes flash to me, dark orbs filled with understanding.
"If you want the truth, go ask Carlisle." Bella's voice is a little angry when she responds. "He's the one that treated me anyway."
I want to go into the room and push him away from her and promise that she didn't need to tell anyone what happened. No one else needed to know if she didn't want them to.
"You know I was the one who found you, right?" Jacob asks her, his voice slightly hurt. He's remembering the painful contortions of her body when he first found her, the wheezing of her breath as she struggled to breath with her punctured lungs and broken ribs. How he'd grabbed a blanket and wrapped her body up before rushing her to the hospital.
"I remember." Bella mumbles quietly.
Jacob is quiet for a long moment and I can hear him debating how to respond to her, how to make his words less blunt. "Then you know I have a pretty good idea of what happened."
I hiss under my breath and Alice squeezes her hand on my arm, reminding me to stay calm.
"He's gotten her to think about this more than we have." Alice reminds me quietly. "Let him. She might talk to him."
"He's more willing to risk her breaking, Alice." I growl at him. "Pushing her only makes her panic."
"Let him, Edward." Alice's voice is firm and I glare at her, upset with her demand. Talking helps, sometimes. Let her talk to her friend. You know we need this information, too.
Jacob Black did not deserve Bella as a friend.
"I'm here, Bella. Which means you can trust me." Jacob is saying, and I can hear the desperation in his voice and thoughts to get her to say something to him. He was pushing her much farther than I had ever, and I was incredibly hateful of his stupidity.
"Why weren't you here before?"
I was, Bella. I will always be here, even when they all leave you like nothing. I was with you every time you needed me when your bloodsucker was gone.
"I was, Bells."
"Now, Jake. I mean now." Bella's voice is so timid, almost fearful of his reaction to what she was saying. Did she expect him to be angry with her? To leave her like I left her? "Why did you leave me at the hospital?"
Jacob's voice falters as he struggles to find an appropriate way to explain it to Bella. "I couldn't stay. Sam told me to leave, you know how it is with the alpha thing."
"Right, I forgot about that." Bella mumbles. I can't tell if she's still mad at him or not.
"But I'm here now."
Bella doesn't respond and I can taste her salty tears with every breath I take. He made her cry. I was getting more and more aggravated by him talking to her.
"Enough torturing her!" I hiss under my breath, fully aware that the mutt could hear me. "Tell her what you need to and leave."
I can hear Esme's disapproving thoughts upstairs, upset with my hostility towards Bella's friend. I ignore her.
"I was at the hospital every damn day, Bells." Jake swears firmly, ignoring me completely. "I couldn't go inside knowing it was safer for you if I was outside protecting the hospital. Ask any of your bloodsuckers, they all saw me."
Bella breathes a shaky breath in. "Thank you."
"I'll always be there to protect you, Bella. I swear on my life." Jake tells her gently. "Even if, from now on, I have to follow you everywhere I go until the bastard is killed. Even if it means picking up the pieces of you when they all leave you again."
I hear the marble countertop crack loudly beneath my hands as he speaks, as he mentions my departure again. As his thoughts echo the prospects of Bella being his one day.
Alice watches me wearily, but her thoughts are seething.
Jacob Black was not as easy to break as the countertop, but I would gladly do it.
Bella doesn't respond again.
"For now, though, I think it's best that you don't starve to death. I don't think the bloodsuckers know how to use the kitchen." Jacob chuckles bitterly, and to my utter shock, I hear Bella make a small sound under her breath with him.
I could feel my whole body course with euphoria – I'm not sure she had laughed at all since she wound up in the hospital. The fact that Jacob elicited that laugh made me furious, but Bella laughed.
Alice and I are still standing across from the now shattered counter when Jacob walks into the kitchen. He spots the crack going through the marble, grinning widely.
"Was it something I said?" he passes me, reaching to open the fridge. "Damn lot of food for vamps who don't eat. How much blood did you lace it with?"
"The pots are there." Alice tells him, ignoring the rude comment. She gestures towards a cabinet next to the stove. "If you need something, we can make a trip to Forks."
"Nah, it's fine." Jacob shrugs, grabbing some ingredients and laying them on the cracked countertop. "She's not on a human diet, last I heard."
Alice grimaces slightly, irritated by the comment. "Watch yourself, mutt." She hisses, walking out of the kitchen.
"I'm not surprised you didn't tell her I came to visit." Jacob says to me, his voice slightly accusatory as he envisions me with dark eyes.
I grimace, my jaw hard as I stare at him. "I understand that Bella considers you to be a good person and even a friend, but that is where my insight ends."
"So, you stop her from seeing me and manipulate the facts." Jacob snaps, annoyed. His eyes narrow in my direction and I can see how difficult it is for him to turn away from me, returning to the carrots he was chopping on the counter. "I know you stopped her all those times from coming to the Rez."
I don't respond. I watch as he cuts the carrots ruggedly without precision.
"You know, she called me. She asked me to come pick her up when you left."
I look away from Jacob, knowing it would be difficult to not attack him if we made eye contact. "I'm sure you can understand why I might be uncomfortable with Bella being around wolves." I mutter in response, not even caring that I was attacking his species.
"Afraid she'll realize that she'll just turn into a snack if she stays here?" Jacob seethes. He was getting bolder and viler in his words.
"Careful, mutt." I force my voice to be calm, but it's a lost attempt. "You're on our side of the boarder now."
"And I'm sure you know how I feel about her here with you – a merciless bloodsucker. The reason for the treaty." Jacob spits.
I can feel Jasper's influence, trying to calm us both down and I want him to stop. Jacob seems slightly uncomfortable by the manipulation of his emotions, though I'm not sure he realizes it is Jasper's doing.
"Jacob, I would never harm her." My voice is incredibly bleak when I respond, and I know it's the bizarre form of exhaustion that Carlisle finds himself facing at times. It was strange – I was incredibly tired, though I did not seem to crave sleep or rest of any sort.
Jacob turns to glare at me, his hands shaking. His thoughts fly back to the ghost of Bella when I had gone. "Do you even know what she was like before? Has Charlie not told you anything?" She was as good as dead in that forest, bloodsucker.
"I left to protect her. To prevent something like this from happening." I hiss at him, seeing red. He bares his teeth, gripping the knife in his hand.
"Maybe you should've stayed away." He snaps at me, turning back to the food. She would have realized what was good for her. She would have learned to live again.
His thoughts were infuriating me – he was remembering how Bella had improved after they became close, how she started smiling and eating more. I grind my teeth tightly together as he arrogantly imagines fixing her up until she's perfect because I, as always, was the root of her issue. And I, according to him, would never be capable of helping her; only harming her.
"You know you're not good for her either." I tell him quietly. "Neither of us are."
He seethes, staring at the vegetables, his hands shaking. I have to go. Get out of here this rotten place. "I'll send some food with Charlie." He tosses the knife onto the counter, leaving the kitchen quickly.
The front door slams as he exits the house.
Instead of going upstairs to debate with him, I decide to go to the sitting room with Bella. She's asleep on the couch, her face distorted in pain but still unconscious. I settle down on the couch beside her, my fingers rubbing at one of the fading bruises on her arm. They were healing so slowly. Her body had no excess nutrients or energy to focus on recovery – it was purely attentive to survival.
She was still alive. She was still breathing. My reason for existence was safe besides me.
It was a mantra I kept up in my head to limit my thoughts of finding her attacker and ripping the dog's head off his shoulders.
