She Walks Where Angels Fly
Chapter Five
Within days the plants Hope has planted are blooming, different gorgeous shades of life. And the vegetables are producing like crazy. Already there's a cucumber the size of Bella's forearm, ready to be harvested. "What did you give these plants? steroids?" Bella jokes, blowing on the steam wafting up from her tea. Soon it's going to get too hot to drink any, but Bella finds she is hard pressed to give up the warmth of the drink, or the comfort it gives her.
Hope tips her head like she doesn't know what steroids are and Bella shakes her head, moving away from the window where she had been looking out to see the plants.
It's hard to believe how quickly time has gone by.
It's been a month now and there still has been no break through in Hope's case. The Swans have gotten used to her being around. To her cooking, to her cleaning up the place, and to her sometimes waking them up in the middle of the night with her nightmares that leave her shaking and trembling like a newborn colt learning to walk.
One time it's so bad that Bella insists she come and sleep in her bed upstairs. Hope doesn't want to intrude at first but she relents when Bella gives no quarter. Because she hates seeing Hope like this. She wants to be able to help her much the same way Hope has helped them by feeding them and renovating their house. It's practically all fixed up internally and looks brand new. The least Bella can do is make sure that Hope doesn't have to suffer through her nightmares alone.
Hope's never been up in Bella's bed before and Bella has never had anyone else sleep here. But she slides in and pulls the covers up, beckoning a hesitant Hope to come in and join her. Soon Hope gathers herself and slides into the bed too. She keeps to her side of it, lying stiffly.
"No need to be scared," Bella tells her, pulling the covers up.
Bella's eyes are already slipping open so she doesn't see the wistful smile Hope gives her before she falls asleep. And as Bella sleeps, Hope turns onto her back, looking up at the ceiling and just thinking.
When Bella wakes up the following morning, it's to bird chirping out her window. The sun is streaming in and Bella yawns and tries to turn onto her right side so she can get away from it's light and sleep some more. But as she tries to move, she finds that someone is holding onto her. She looks over her shoulder finding Hope snuggled up to her, face buried in Bella's hair and arm around her waist, holding her like Bella's her own personal teddy bear.
Bella breathes out. She doesn't mind this. It feels nice, actually.
She just puts an arm over her head and blocks the sun out this way, because she can't bare to disturb Hope's slumber. When Bella wakes up again it's to an empty bed and the smell of eggs in the air. Bella stumbles down, still half asleep and finds Hope is making breakfast for them. Hope looks up when she sees Bella come in and she smiles gently, hair piled up in a bun on her head. The smile doesn't reach her eyes and Bella blames it on the spook of the nightmares, but it isn't until Bella has helped make breakfast and then calls Charlie down for some food, that Bella finds out what is bothering Hope.
On a ripped out piece of paper she's scribbled down some words. Her elegant script is rushed, a bit shaky. Charlie reads it over, his chewing on a tough piece of toast slowing down before he eventually swallows, looking a bit pained by the note. Bella wonders what's on it, but when she tries to catch Hope's direct eye contact, she finds the blonde is looking down, hands folded, thumbs fiddling with each other.
"This could be useful. But, what do you mean by fell? Did you fall off of a cliff?" Charlie says, putting the paper down at last and addressing Hope. As soon as she does, Bella snatches it up and starts to read it. Charlie shoots a sharp glare at the way she snatched it up, but continues with speaking to Hope. Bella drowns out his words, as she absorbs what's on the paper.
"I remembered," it read. "I was in a fight. With someone named Edward. He had red hair and these cruel eyes. He was very upset at me, and I was upset at him. I couldn't make out why this was, the words in my dreams were silent. But I saw how upset he was. He kept pushing at me and pushing until I fell. I fell down hard, into a forest."
Bella finishes scanning the words, confused by this.
"Are you sure it wasn't just a figment of your imagination?" Charlie asked, sitting back in his seat. Bella was tuning back into his conversation. Hope shook her head no.
"Well, then we look for this Edward guy. I'll set up his profile at work. If he ever comes near you, we should know." He put his hand on top of hers, running his thumb on the knuckles. "Don't worry, I won't let any harm come to you."
Hope just thins her lips to this.
These memories leave her haunted, a dark look in her eyes. For the rest of the day she is down, and even the repairs she tries to make on the creaky screen door don't go well. Bella comes downstairs from doing homework to find Hope silently cursing in frustration at the door.
"Hey, it's okay. You don't have to do that," Bella tells her, placing a hand over Hope's which is on the doorframe, other hand holding a screwdriver. Hope freezes at her touch, body relaxing and pulling away from the door. She turns in to Bella, resting on the screen with her shoulders, head tipped back. Her eyes are sad. Painfully so, and it rips a hole inside Bella. "You don't have to pretend things are fine. You're allowed to be scared of Edward. You're allowed to be sad, to take a break."
Hope shakes her head on the scared comment. Seems she's not scared of him, but either way he hurt her. She gestures to her shoulders and makes a slashing noise. It takes a while for Bella to realize this, but when she does she becomes furious. Her hands ball up. "He did that to you?"
Hope purses her lips, looks pensive, like she's the one in trouble and not Edward.
"That asshole! How could he do such a thing to you! He's sick. Sick in the head!" Bella cries out when Hope grabs her, leaning up from the door and holding Bella by the upper arms. Her thumbs stroke the shirt material there, attempting to soothe. "It's okay," Hope mouths.
"It's not. How can you think that?" Bella hisses out.
"I made a profile on him given what you've given me, Hope," Charlie's voice comes in from behind them. He's looking through a manila folder, his reading glasses on. He takes them off when he goes to look at them. He spots them in their awkward embrace. "Everything okay?" he questions, and there is an edge to his voice.
Bella steps back, opens her mouth to tell Charlie about what Hope told her, when she spokes Hope's face from the corner of her eye. She shakes it, ever slightly no. In warning. In a plea. "Hope's having bad luck with the door today."
"Is that so," he murmurs, amused. "I never thought the day would come you couldn't fix something!"
Hope offers up a clumsy smile, hands folding behind her back as if she was ashamed for having been caught touching Bella in front of her father, even if the gesture had been small and innocent. Charlie goes to her with the folder, their heads bending together to read it, and Bella excuses herself back upstairs to finish her weekend homework.
Her hands slightly shake and she has to erase the stray lines she makes.
She can't get it out of her head how someone could do such a thing to Hope. She hopes her father catches this Edward guy and arrests him.
"So, how's Hope?" Mike asks as they walk to class together. The hall is crowed with rambunctious teens. Bella almost doesn't hear him.
"You know her?" Bella squints at him. She'd heard the gossip Jessica had wasted no second to spread after the two of them met at the mall. Bella had to field questions off left and right about Hope. It was annoying and Hope certainly did not need the extra attention of a small town hungry for gossip.
"Yea, she comes by to my store and buys stuff. Offers to help out whenever we have some issues." He shrugs when Bella gives him an odd look. Technically Bella knows this, because Hope had admitted it was how she had gotten the Swan residency fixed. But Bella just felt...jealous? About Hope spending time with others?
She wasn't sure either but it felt weird. She decided she didn't like this feeling. So she resolved to not feel it.
"What's the deal with her?" he asked when Bella didn't speak up.
"It's not my place to say. She's in a tough spot and she's just staying with us. She fixes up our house instead of paying rent."
"She fixed the place up?" Mike looks astonished. "She doesn't look the type to do heavy work. She looks more like an actress. Or a model."
"My thoughts precisely. But no, she's pretty handy. The place is as good as new."
"So no more threat of your house blowing away, huh," he smiles. "Does this mean I can come over without worrying for my safety? Or should I wear a hard hat just in case?"
She rolls her eyes. "You're just saying that because you want to come over and meet her."
He gives a sheepish grin. "Maybe."
She rolls her eyes again. "Sure, but don't expect to talk to her. She lost her voice."
His smile drops, thinks making sense to him now. "Oh. Shit."
"Yea," Bella sighs out.
The utensils clink on dinner plates as the Swan's enjoy their wonderful meal. Bella would never get tired of Hope's cooking. Every dish she makes tastes amazing. Charlie feels the same way, always complimenting Hope on her cooking. How will they ever go back to eating what Bella's made for dinner now?
Bella had tried following Hope's recipes and while the food does come out better, it's never on the same level as Hope's. It's almost like magic.
"I'd figure I'd enroll her into school or some online courses. She looks to be fairly youngish and maybe going to school might jog her memory. Besides, it could do her good to be actually being among her peers," Charlie said, turning to Hope. "What do you think?" They'd been having this conversation for a while now, and Bella doesn't like the topic. She can tell Hope didn't feel comfortable with it either.
Hope looked uncertain. She shrugged.
"I don't know dad, it might be too soon," Bella spoke up, pushing around the peas on her plate.
"It was just a thought. I know the school year is ending soon anyhow, but I thought it wouldn't be fair for her to not get an education just because this happened to her. She should have as stable of a life as possible."
Hope takes her pad and pen which she carries with her, and writes down one word in blue ink. JOB. Seemed Hope wanted money.
"You want a job?" Charlie raises a brow. "That might be hard to do, given you have no past."
"She can get a part time job. Those don't really look into background info as much." Bella offers up this advice.
"I'll look into what I can find for you," Charlie said. "I don't think they'll be many options in Forks however."
"I'll help you look too," Bella offers. "How about after dinner we hop on the computer and look some things up?"
Hope nods her head in agreement and excitement.
Once the plates are cleaned up, Hope follows Bella up to her room and they hop on the web, googling results. "What kinda job you want?" Bella asks once the computer is booted up. She fiddles with the mouse while Hope sits on the edge of the bed, Bella having taken the desk seat. Hope shrugs.
"Alright, let's just look at some availability," Bella suggests and starts typing in search words, key phrases, and clicking on this and that. Thirty minutes later and they haven't found anything good. Bella leans back into her seat with an annoyed huff. "Hm, nothing," she announces. "Maybe we should go walking around the streets, check in person?"
Hope makes a motion like she thinks that's a good idea. This is also Bella's chance to ask Hope about other things. "Do you...would you mind going to school?"
Hope gives Bella a blank look.
Bella fumbles with her words. "I mean, I don't know how old you are, so maybe you were in high school or college. You don't have to go to school if you don't want, but would you want to?"
Hope shrugs. She takes out a pad and pen and writes. Bella waits patiently. Hope hands the paper over to Bella when she's done. "I don't think it would be a good idea for me to go to school or online classes. I would cost you money. I'd rather work so I can pay off my bills."
"Oh," Bella breathes out. Right, this would make sense. She continues reading. "But Charlie is so taken with me going to school that I don't know how to tell him no."
"I can talk with him," Bella offers and Hope smiles at that. Bella tries to not let the smile affect her. It's been getting a bit ridiculous how she is so easily flustered by Hope.
"Thank you," Hope mouths.
That night, when Hope has a nightmare, she makes her way up to Bella's room before Bella can even go down to make sure she's fine. Bella's halfway in the bed, Hope already in the room. She stands in the doorway, fiddling with her hands. Bella knows what she needs, and it's almost a relief to offer it. She pulls the covers back, slides her freed leg back into bed. "Come on in," she says an Hope does.
This time she doesn't lay stiffly on her side of the bed but scoots in to Bella, shivering from the remains of the nightmares. She clings to the front of Bella's shirt, burying her face into Bella's collarbone, legs intertwining with Bella's own. Bella breathes in Hope's scent. It's so wonderful, so her. She wraps her arms around the blonde's form, feeling her calm down already.
Within heartbeats, the both of them have fallen asleep. And when they wake up the next morning it's tangled together even more than they had last night. And Bella's heart throbs and throbs, as she looks at Hope's achingly beautiful face and longs to reach out and trace it with her finger tips. Longs to taste those lips against her own.
But her heart breaks. She's falling in love with a woman who she knows nothing about and who will probably have to leave soon. And it's best to keep her love to herself, sparing the both of them unnecessary pain.