AN: Guys, I'm sorry. If I ever attempt a multi-chapter fic like this again, I promise I'll work on my pacing. Thank you for even reading this far! I appreciate you. Un-beta'd, forgive my typos.
Chapter 21
Brady followed the now well-worn trail back to Sam's backyard with Bella on his back. They walked by Seth, who didn't even seem to notice when they passed him. He stared unblinking into the forest; every muscle taut as if he was just waiting for the starting shot.
"Hey Seth," Bella called nervously from her perch. She slid down Brady's back when he released her legs. To everyone's surprise, she didn't fall into the grass, but found steady feet easily before turning to see what was up with the sandy wolf.
"I think he was freaking out about Leah," Brady stopped her. "Just let him be. He seems so locked in that I'd hate for you to startle him if you got his attention."
Bella was disappointed. Paul wasn't here to make her feel better. Jake wasn't here to reassure her. Seth was her favorite substitute for puppy cuddles when she needed a pick-me-up. She still felt a little lightheaded from yet another unusual mode of transportation. Bella added high speed piggyback rides to the list of things she did not need to try again.
She had no clue the boys could run that fast as humans. Nowhere near as fast as the wolf, but still undeniably superhuman. She wasn't sure if riding a wolf was better or worse, but Bella was perfectly happy doing neither ever again.
Wandering dejectedly back to the now dead campfire, Bella shouldn't have been surprised when Emily knew exactly what she needed. The older girl held out her arms and scooted to make room on the oversized lawn chair. Pack was all about touch to reconnect and reaffirm. Bella was careful not to squish the pregnant woman while she snuggled in with Emily's arm around her shoulders.
"You're not going to hurt anybody," Emily insisted, pulling her closer and yanking Bella's legs over her lap to fit more comfortably in the small space. "I don't have the big belly yet. I can still cuddle."
The secret was out the second the pack got the chance to gossip that afternoon at the barbeque. It felt like that happened days ago, not hours. Bella couldn't believe everything could happen so quickly. One second they're eating cake and the next, her boyfriend and her ex are standing off in the wilderness. She could feel the tightening sensation of anxiety around her chest. Something was happening and she was doomed to wait.
Did Alice really think Bella would just drop everything and run off to Italy with her? That was insane. Edward was insane! She had never seen him look less than perfectly pressed and starched, but tonight he looked like he had come undone.
"Hey," Emily nudged Bella out of her thoughts. "Don't spiral on me. Tell us what you know."
Us? Bella peaked up to look around. She had completely forgotten there were others here who were probably dying to know what was going on out there. Charlie and Joy both had wide expectant looks on their faces. Brady was sitting on the far side of the fire pit with his head in his hands, clearly still recovering from whatever made him shut down in the forest.
Charlie was scanning her as if looking for injury and Joy was holding out a soda from the bucket behind the chairs. Bella took the proffered can with a tight smile. The warm soda held none of the memories of friendship, comfort, and healing like it would have in Jake's garage all those months ago. She popped the top with a shaky hand and did her best to explain what she knew.
The look on Charlie's face when he remembered that his daughter dated an actual, bonafide vampire was somewhere between incredulous and wrathful. The disbelief was mirrored in Joy's face as Bella recounted as succinctly as possible: Alice's deceit, Edward's completely uncharacteristic reaction, and the pack's reaction before she got hauled off.
Bella's concern turned back to Brady. "What was happening that forced you to phase back?"
Brady looked like he might cry when all eyes turned on him. Emily desperately wanted to hold the boy who seemed so little for the first time since he phased. Joy beat her to it, placing a motherly hand on his back. Seth's quiet, continuous whine added a new level of anxiety to the atmosphere. Brady drew in a shaky breath before speaking hoarsely, "There was too much going on in my head. I couldn't tell who's eyes I was looking through and once the fighting started I just couldn't."
"Fighting?" Emily whispered.
Bella had felt the rubber band around her ribcage tightening, but it was becoming unbearable. By the look of Emily's white-knuckled grip on the arm of the chair, she could feel it too.
Seth's sudden yip startled everyone in the yard. It sounded more pained and frightened than any puppy should ever be and Bella was reminded of his young age. She couldn't take it anymore. She pulled herself from Emily's grip to cross the yard and comfort the clearly distressed wolf. He continued whimpering as Bella walked towards him, but his eyes never left the forest.
Halfway across the large lawn, Bella froze mid step. In that second, she was confident her heart had stopped. With a gasp she brought her hand to Paul's mark, but instead of an exhale, an agonizing scream tore through her and she crumpled to the ground.
Seth shot into the woods as if her scream was the starter gun he was waiting for.
~0o0o0o0o0~
Before Paul could comprehend the white-hot pain, a blur of black fur leaped from the trees. Latching his teeth around the leech's shoulder and neck, Sam's momentum ripped the parasite free and sent them both tumbling. Sam clamped down until he felt the barely reattached head roll from its shoulders as the wolf skidded to a stop, the ghastly body hanging limply from his mouth.
Paul let out an anguished howl before crumpling to the ground. The other phased wolves could experience the depth of his agony more acutely than they ever would have liked. The adrenaline of battle was finally calming down just in time for Paul's pain to echo through the packmind in perfect clarity.
Leah and Jake stood firm, but the others staggered at just the shadow of what Paul was experiencing.
Sam pushed to his paws in determination to finish what he started. He made quick work of disassembling the vampire more thoroughly this time. Sam's stomach churned at the combination of saccharin bleach and the blood of whatever animal the leech had drained last. He dropped the body on the others and phased to find his lighter, annoyed he had never mastered Leah's claw flint trick.
'Paul," Leah urged through the packmind with force. 'Phase back.'
Paul had been struggling to hold himself upright. The command came as a relief. He sunk to the ground, finding his human skin somewhere along the way. They weren't going to be able to carry him back quickly in either form so anything that could be done would have to be done here. Even if they could get him back to the Rez or to the clinic, what would they be able to do?
Leah phased back to kneel at Paul's side and wracked her brain. The legends. There had to be something they could do. Some record or story about a protector getting bitten. Leah knew the legends better than any of them, even the council members. She had read every scrap of history and myth that she could find as soon as she had put the pieces together and realized she was cursed to phase.
There had to be some freaky magic that could help him because, goddammit, Leah was not going to lose one of her pack. Not Paul and not because of that fucking bloodsucker.
The magnitude of the damage was painfully clear once his fur was out of the equation. The edges were an unnatural purplish-red. It wasn't a clean bite, but a jagged open wound from where the leech had been ripped away while still latched onto Paul's shoulder.
Sam came to kneel at Paul's other side to help Leah roll him to his back. "Holy shit, Leah. A mouthful of his shoulder probably just went into the fire with that asshole's head." Sam's face fell. "I did that."
"No, you did not, Samuel. You got the fucker off of him," Leah insisted with a tone of finality. She was not dealing with Sam Uley's insecurities right now. She had a pack to run and orders to give. "Is Quil awake?"
Sam looked to Embry before answering for him, "Sort of, but he's stable."
"Ok, we'll get Sue out here as quickly as possible. Embry keep an eye on Quil, let me know if there are any changes. Sam, go find one of my burner phones in one of these trees. Check the trees that smell the most like Jake, he pees on them all the time. If you find something for me to wear, great, but not a necessity."
Sam paused before leaving to follow orders. He couldn't look away from the angry mark draining the life from his pack brother. Leah continued, speaking to Embry like a pack walkie-talkie when he nodded that yes, Seth could hear. "Paul has been bitten and it doesn't look good. I don't think Paul should try to phase back even if he could so we're staying here. We need to get Sue out here. I'm working on getting a phone."
Embry nodded so she hoped that meant Seth got everything.
The purple coloring was slowly spreading in spindly lines out from the bite. Leah didn't know how much time they had left or if it wasn't too late already. She didn't have a plan; she was just sending her wolves running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The packmind was practically useless between Quil's delirious state and the youngest wolves' panic attacks.
Jake was still trying to talk Collin down. The kid definitely had a concussion from where he ran full speed into a tree and the rest of him was scratched up quite thoroughly from thundering through the forest without the usual precision of the wolves. Brady had phased back to make it stop, but that was probably for the best with Bella in tow. Without his point of view, nobody had eyes on Bella.
The phased Alpha could tell that Seth was present in the packmind, but Jake couldn't tell where he was or get a clear read on the pup's head. A filter of distorted mania made his mind indecipherable. Jake couldn't even tell if Seth was still with the imprints.
The live feed on the girls wasn't as imperative now that Paul was unphased and unable to lose his shit about Bella's safety. Compared to Paul, Sam had a much better hold on his composure, even with a pregnant imprint. The constant protective concern Sam felt for Emily was so pungent in the packmind that the younger wolves could easily mistake it for their own emotion, but it was at least still rational.
When Sam phased out to complete the destruction of the dead undead, Collin was able to breathe a little easier. With most of the extra people out of his head, Collin was finally able to understand the instructions Jake was trying to pass on from across the forest.
'Get Sue out here to help Paul. Let Chief Black know what's happening. Have the adults at Sam's help you.'
Collin was finally heading in the right direction and Jake was able to phase back to help Leah however possible. What he missed by leaving the packmind moments too soon was the distraught scene back at Sam's. It devolved into chaos with Collin's additions to the mix.
Charlie and Joy were fretting over Bella writhing in the grass. She wasn't screaming anymore, but she could barely be considered conscious. Emily was trying to comfort Brady who was clearly at his limit. Collin recognized that face on his best friend and he knew Brady was trying really hard not to cry.
Nobody had seemed to notice his entrance so the adults jumped when Collin blurted out, "We need to get Sue to Paul and Leah wants to talk to Chief Black. Where is Chief Black?"
Wide eyes and shocked faces were the only response Collin got for a few seconds that felt like forever to the young wolf.
"Who can go get Sue the fastest?"
When his questions were still met with shocked silence Collin sputtered, "And where the hell is Seth?!"
Joy's jerk reaction to the swear was more of a conditioned response thanks to motherhood than an actual hold on the situation. "Language, Collin."
~0o0o0o0o0~
Why the fucking fuck was nobody listening to him?!
Seth was a sandy blur through the trees. He could sense Leah through the eyes and ears of Embry, but through a heavy filter of dread for Quil. The words were muted and muddled together in a way that Seth was sure he wasn't getting all of it. Though one thing had been crystal clear: Paul had been bitten by a vampire and the pack were being sent out for needless errands.
Seth had no clue why the pack members who were currently present in the packmind weren't more focused on the fact that Paul was DYING. Embry would not SHUT UP about Quil. Jake was coddling Collin through his crisis and worrying about Bella.
Bella was safely with Emily. She was going to be okay, but she was going to be very not okay if Paul died! Every bit of the lore said that after marking her, the imprint dies with her protector. Bella's soul-bonded protector was currently dying a slow, agonizing death in the forest and nobody was listening to Seth.
The smallest wolf skidded into the clearing, tripping over his oversized paws and rolling ass over tit until he came to a painful halt on his scrapped up human hands and knees. Pushing up to his feet, Seth cut off Leah before she could protest or order him to go back.
"We have to suck the venom out!" Seth urged frantically. "Was I the only one paying attention when Bella told us about Phoenix?!"
Leah was the first one to put words to what they were all thinking, "Ingesting the venom would be just as deadly as a bite, Seth."
"So don't fucking swallow it!" Seth didn't understand why nobody was acting. Shouldn't one of the more senior wolves be doing something. Anything! They were all looking at him like he was a stupid little boy. He hated being dismissed just because he was quiet and small. Leah always treated him like he was still a five-year-old needing his big sister, but Seth was a protector too. If one of them wasn't going to help then he would.
Seth came to kneel where Paul lay on the ground, bodily shoving Leah out of the way. Reflecting on this event later she would wonder how her wolf had allowed that to go without consequence. Maybe her inner Alpha didn't see the pack Omega as a threat. Maybe the wolf knew he was just her kid brother.
What the spirit wolf understood, that Leah never quite would, was that Seth was a ferocious wolf in his own right. This was the first taste of the wolf and man Seth would grow to be, a man of action and command in a time of crisis.
Rolling Paul mostly on his side to better reach the infected shoulder, Seth did not hesitate before latching as much of his mouth as possible over the ugly purple bite. The first mouthful of blood and venom made Seth wretch as he spit the foul mixture to the forest floor. He took a moment to mentally fortify himself for the taste again before going back to remove more venom. Not once did he hesitate again.
Leah snapped back into reality at the sight of purple tinged blood splattering from Seth's mouth. What the fuck. Where was their mom when they needed her the most? Paul was dying and now Seth would be dead too because of some twisted need to prove himself.
She watched with tears in her eyes as her baby brother went back for mouthful after mouthful of tainted blood. What was probably mere minutes felt like hours of Seth pulling the poison back out of Paul's veins. Each spit of blood was closer to a natural color.
Sam came back sometime during the gruesome extraction with a bundle of clothes and a burner phone in a waterproof bag. He numbly handed a ratty t-shirt dress to Leah and passed her the phone when she had pulled it over her head.
"What the hell is the kid doing?" Sam whispered to nobody in particular.
"We'll see," a rough voice came from where Jake had finally phased back to hold Leah. Either for comfort or to keep her from lunging forward to snatch Seth from Paul's limp form. The damage had already been done, so Jake was going to let Seth try to help. The kid had a point, Bella had been saved this way by the fucker himself.
Leah finally got a hold of someone on the phone on her third attempt and thank heavens it was her mother.
"Lee, what is going on? Collin just tore up a strip of the lawn coming to collect me. Is everyone okay? Do I really need to come out there?"
"No, Mom," Leah coughed through tears she was not going to let fall. "Paul is going to need blood if he even makes it back to the clinic alive."
They talked through Sue's entire drive to the clinic. They made plans to meet Sue there while the pack would work on transporting Paul and Quil. Leah told her mother everything that had happened and what was going on now, especially her concerns for Seth and the venom.
"I think you can stop, Seth," Jake tried to convince him. A firm hand on the young wolf's shoulder kept him from continuing. Sam held his other side when Seth fought back. "Seth, it just smells like Paul now. He needs to keep all the blood he can."
Seth thought everything smelled of vampire, but he trusted Jake's word. He sat back on his feet and looked over Paul. The spindly lines of purple were gone and the wound was only the natural reds of flesh and blood, but there was still a gaping hole in Paul's trapezius. Seth lurched to the side with a violent wretch. Bile, blood, and a tinge of venom splashed over Sam's feet.
Seth muttered an absent apology and went back to watching Paul's weak pulse thrum in his neck. He couldn't help but overhear the conversation between his mother and sister. Leah thought he was going to die, so naturally both women were hysterical. Seth tried to block out their blubbering and stood up, plucking a pair of shorts from Sam's hands.
"Embry, get Quil to phase back and carry him to the clinic. Sue will be there to meet you by the time you get there." Seth turned to Sam and the Alphas before giving Embry a chance to reply. "We're going to get him to the clinic the only way we can. Between the four of us we can carry him and keep pressure on his bite."
Nobody moved.
Seth snatched the last pair of shorts from Sam's hand and pushed them firmly over Paul's wound. Seth explained the arm hammock method of carrying an injured person, directing Leah and Sam to one side of Paul and Jake on the other. They were to reach under Paul and clasp wrists, Leah to Jake and Jake to Sam. Seth would maintain pressure and help direct movement.
Nobody moved.
"NOW."
It wasn't a command, but it held the force of a person who was going to kick your ass if you didn't move in the next millisecond.
It wasn't that Leah didn't believe Seth knew what he was doing. He was full of surprise bits of random knowledge. He was always reading something or other while the other boys goofed off. She was shocked because she realized in one traumatizing instant that Seth was not a baby.
The oldest wolves snapped into action, executing Seth's instructions to the letter. Paul didn't stir once during the tumultuous trek back into town. They managed not to drop him while crossing the thankfully low creek branching off the Quileute River. Sam almost lost his hold when they had to duck to avoid being seen by a hiker on the usually bare trails across the National Park.
The cotton shorts were soaked through and dripping by the time the ragged group carried Paul into the back entrance of the clinic. Sue met them at the back door with a gurney for Paul and a wheelchair for Seth. The younger boy didn't even bother arguing when he saw his mother's red rimmed eyes set firmly in her scowl.
Sue rushed Paul into the building while shouting back directions for how Leah was to check over Seth. The last thing Seth remembered was the strobing of each fluorescent light that passed overhead as Leah pushed his wheelchair down the hallway of the clinic. The blackness on the edges of his vision slowly narrowed to block out the painful lights as Seth's head lolled back.
~0o0o0o0o0~
By the time the rescue team brought in Paul, Quil had already been assessed and treated under Sue's care. The boy and his imprint were waiting for news just down the hall. Joy insisted no child was too big for hugs and motherly comfort and Quil only pretended to be stubborn for a moment.
Bella was in the next room over with Charlie watching her for any sign of improvement or change in her condition. She remained unconscious, but the most troubling bit was her dangerously low blood pressure. Sue had her hooked up to an IV with saline and had blood on hand if her numbers got worse.
Brady and Collin couldn't be deterred from camping out in the waiting room until they knew how their brothers were doing. Billy Black told Sue he'd stay to keep an eye on them. He was more concerned about one of them going into shock than wandering off or getting into trouble. They may barely be teenagers, but these boys had been forced out of their youth already. Especially after tonight.
Billy hoped he'd get some goddamn answers at some point too. Collin and Brady knew next to nothing beyond "the Cullen's were there" and anyone with more information was busy worrying over the lives of their loved ones. His boy was okay. Jake didn't seem to have a scratch on him and neither did Leah. That left Billy with plenty of room to worry over the other young men of his tribe.
Earlier that evening Collin had asked about legends involving venom before breaking down into overwhelmed sobs on the front porch of the Black's little red house. Billy encouraged his nephew inside and made a quick PB&J for Collin while Billy gathered any lore books he had into Jake's school backpack. By the time he was ready, Harry Clearwater was out front with his truck to take the strange duo to the clinic.
Leah brought paperwork for Billy to sign the second he rolled into the clinic. Apparently even treating werewolves needed to be documented. The signatures were for Chief Black's permission for Jake to donate blood. What Billy did not yet know was that his son had already been hooked up directly to Paul's pale arm. Sue had no patience for re-poking wolves every time their supernatural healing rejected the needle. Sam had gone first because he was of age and Sue felt more comfortable experimenting on an adult than the Chief's son. Sorry, Sam.
Billy listened to the explanation about blood types and supernatural genes and unusual transfusion procedures, but it was all out his other ear before any of that medical mumbo jumbo could take root. Sue knew what she was doing, so Billy trusted her. Explaining it all seemed to calm the woman down while they waited to see if Paul's systems would reject the blood.
By the end of the night, he had been given nearly four pints. Sue complained that half of it bled back out through the missing chunk of his shoulder, but eventually she got the wound closed after an unholy number of stitches. Wolf healing hadn't kicked in one bit, against everything they knew about protectors.
This fact was the flicker of doubt that kept Leah from getting too hopeful. She tried to ignore it as best she could while she waited for Seth to wake up. At least there was something positive happening. Seth was going to be fine. Exhaustion was the only explanation for his loss of consciousness earlier in the evening. A quick power nap and the wolf was back on his feet, good as new. Better than new.
This Seth was not the same boy that woke up this morning. Even her inner wolf could sense a shift in dynamic with her baby brother. Maybe it was time to stop thinking of him as her baby brother. Leah was so proud of Seth's actions tonight. When everyone else was frozen, Seth had a plan. He stood his ground and ordered his Alphas to listen. That was ballsy.
Jake wondered how the pack would react to Seth after this. They called him the Omega because he was the smallest, but Jake had a feeling there was more to it. When the adrenaline had worn off and the scene at the clinic had settled into nothing but waiting Jake sought out his Father.
Leah joined the men outside to talk. A streetlight in the small parking lot flickered annoyingly, but the dim lighting in the pitch black was a relief to the Alpha's eyes. It had to be at least midnight by now and everyone was about ready to crash. That wasn't an option until they could debrief and Billy was getting impatient for answers.
"So, what actually happened out there?" Chief Black asked when neither Alpha spoke.
The wolves looked at each other and back to the Chief and sighed. "It was a disaster," Leah nearly whispered. They told Billy the whole story, finishing each other's sentences back and forth.
"We were disorganized and the younger wolves couldn't even run once the packmind got that chaotic and—"
"The imprints were a distraction and—"
"We barely got out of there even though—"
"There were nine of us and only three of them—"
A new voice cut in from the front door of the clinic. "That's why you don't need me," Seth interjected. "You have plenty of wolves."
Leah rolled her eyes and clamped the impulse to pinch him or smack the back of his head. "If you're going to eavesdrop, don't be an idiot and actually listen to the whole conversation. We outnumbered them three times over, but we were still terrible. We need every protector we can."
"But, Leah, what if this was the prophesied event? Chief Black said something about the spirits knowing how many protectors the tribe would need. We're done. The battle happened and now we're done."
Jake looked to his father and Leah to make sure he wasn't the only one totally confused. "What prophesied event? What are you talking about?"
Leah remembered that day all too clearly. "When I joined the pack, Chief told the legend of Kaliso, the female spirit warrior. Do you remember the warning he gave us? The spirits will gift the wolf to as many warriors as will be needed to protect La Push. You think it should take nine of us to take down three vampires?"
Seth was losing hope. "Who knows if that's just a myth? We don't know much about the first packs. There could be this many of us just because the Cullen's were so close for so long."
As much as she'd love for her little brother to be out of harm's way, Leah wanted him close. "Or there actually is some horrible confrontation coming and this was the wakeup call we needed to get our act together. You're not quitting the pack, Seth."
"We need you, bud. Thanks to you, we didn't lose one of our own tonight," Jake reached out to shake Seth's hand, clapping the other on his shoulder with pride gleaming in the Alpha's eye.
Billy raised his eyebrows at this new information. They hadn't explained past the bite itself. When the Chief heard the whole story, he knew he needed to tell one of his own.
"The Omega," Billy stated with reverence. He reached around to shuffle through the bag of books hanging on the back of his chair.
It was Seth's turn to roll his eyes. He hated being the smallest wolf and now even Billy was making fun of him.
"Do not mistake the meaning, boy," Billy chastised, flipping through a handwritten journal. "The Omega isn't the runt of the pack, he's the balancer. When your Alphas floundered, when your leaders were down, you stepped up. You acted when the others were lost. Jake and Leah, even the former Alpha, listened to you when you spoke. Your pack trusted you and you saved your brother." Billy held out an open passage for Seth to read. He took the ancient journal with shaky hands and read through the passage the Chief indicated.
Seth stood a little straighter and Leah could tell he was clenching his jaw against the big goofy grin she missed seeing on her little brother. He deserved to be proud and they would make sure he knew it.
~0o0o0o0o0~
Charlie hated the fact that vinyl hospital chairs paired with disinfectant gave him deja vu. His daughter wasn't the klutz she once was, but she still had a knack for finding herself in the inpatient wing of a hospital.
Quil had the idea of moving Bella into Paul's room in the smallest hours of the morning. There was nothing physically wrong with her, so Quil supposed being near the source of the bond would help. Charlie didn't love the idea of his daughter's health being so literally dependent on a man, but he didn't grumble once after Bella woke up an hour or so after being rolled in next to Paul.
Charlie wanted to make sure she was okay, but didn't know what to say. When it was clear Bella only had eyes for Paul, he left with excuses of caffeine to give them some space.
Sue gave the distraught girl all of the information she could, but it wasn't much. There were no records of wolves being bitten. Sue couldn't believe it had never happened before and the lack of record didn't bode well for the survival rate. For now, Paul was stable so she left the younger woman in peace with her imprint.
Bella always thought Paul looked younger in his sleep. His face would be lax and his limbs would be sprawled out and taking up as much space on the bed as possible. He would snore when he was in an especially deep sleep and right before he woke up Paul would get all twitchy. That wasn't the Paul that was laid out on the sterile hospital bed.
Trying not to think about the ghostly shade of his usually warm, vibrant skin, Bella took in his form. His arms were stiffly by his side. The blanket was tucked too neatly around him. The weird hospital socks would be driving him nuts if he was awake to complain about it. The bandaging on his shoulder left his neck at an awkward angle. She knew that would be uncomfortable when he woke up.
When, not if. There was no option of if when it came to Paul. He was bullheaded and Bella needed that stubbornness to kick in. Any minute now. Any minute now Paul would wake up and call her "Princess" one more time.
She climbed up to sit next to him on the bed, careful not to jostle him or bother any of the monitors attached to his arm. She wanted to touch him, but she couldn't find a patch of undamaged skin within reach. Her gaze purposefully avoided the shoulder where she knew the bite was.
The entire side of his face was swollen and discolored from the blow that broke his jaw. The blanket was pulled up to his chest, just to the bottom edge of a thin bandage that covered what Sue had described as road rash. His scratched forearms were covered in gauze that already had patches of red seeping through.
Why wasn't he healing?
She inched forward slowly, reaching a small white hand to trace the line of his vein along the uncovered side of his neck. He felt cold to her touch instead of the feverish heat she had grown so used to.
A part of her was disappointed that her touch hadn't been his miracle analeptic. She had been revived from proximity alone, why couldn't it work for him? Once everyone's stories had been shared, it had been clear she passed out at the same time Paul lost consciousness, but if she was awake then why wasn't Paul?
"You can't leave me, Paul. You were supposed to make a rug out of Jake for me," Bella whispered. "He'll look great in your house. Our house. He's a nice reddish color so I'll design the whole room around that. It'll be nice and earthy, not girly, I'll promise."
Bella kept talking to him about everything and anything she could think of. She stroked her fingers along any tiny sliver of skin she could find between bandages. The sun rose as Bella talked. Charlie brought her coffee at some point, but she didn't touch it. Quil came back from a patrol after the square of light from the window had sunk down the wall. He made her eat a sandwich and replaced the cold cup of coffee with a bottle of water.
After a few more hours she moved to the other side of his bed because her joints were getting sore. Pain echoed through her shoulder with every movement, but she didn't care. It was Paul's pain and she would take all of its burden if she could. Before she saw the placement of his bite, she thought the pain she felt was coming from his mark. Leave it to the spirits to contrive some sort of poetic mirroring in a dire situation like this.
She wondered aloud about their possible futures together, not once considering any future where Paul's story ended in this hospital bed. She talked about her career ideas and Paul's future with Forks PD. She talked about kids and all of the activities and sports they would try, hopefully having more skill than Bella did as a child. If not, she'd be happy to raise little bookworms just like her.
The more she talked, the imaginary rubber band around her ribcage loosened.
Bella looked up from her twiddling thumbs when she was just about out of topics for her one-sided conversation. She was considering reading to him next when she noticed the bruise along his jaw was gone. She leaned forward to inspect further and saw that the swelling around his eye looked normal once again too.
Bella debated calling for Sue for less than a second. She couldn't possibly be imagining this, but she wasn't ready to pop the bubble if that was the case. Carefully, she peeled back the edge of the bandage on his chest and a pink outline was the only sign there had been an injury. There were no jagged scratches under the still bloody gauze on his forearms and at last she noticed the temperature of his skin was nearly back to normal. Well, normal for a shifter.
She didn't dare touch the bandaging on his shoulder. If it was as bad as Jake described, she wasn't ready to stomach that on her own. She peeled off the other bandages that were no longer needed to feel as much skin as possible. Her touch felt electric once again and she needed Paul to feel it too.
"Come on, Paul. Wake up. Please wake up and come back to me."
Tears came streaming down her face, far from the first time today, but for the first time the grief was tinged with hope.
"Paul, please."
It was barely more than a breath, but she saw his lips move. She wasn't imagining this. "Bella."
Paul's eyelids fluttered. She moved as carefully as possible to lean over him. She needed to see his eyes to make sure this was real.
It took a gargantuan effort, but Paul was able to slowly open his bleary lids to the most beautiful pair of cinnamon brown eyes and he Fell. Right. In.
Three dark-haired children ran along First Beach. The smallest had the exact same curls as her mother while the two older boys sported traditional braids. They laughed and skipped rocks under familiar grey skies.
An audience went wild as a tall man in uniform saluted Chief Swan on a stage. As he shook the cadet's hand, the older man winked and said, "Now I get to keep an eye on you, son."
A petite woman caressed her swollen belly and insisted she must be having twins if she was that big. Emily Uley laughed and laughed before saying she'd never regret her boys.
Two people with delirious smiles shared vows under the umbrellas being held by their Best Man and Maid of Honor. Afterward Leah hugged the bride and whispered, "I told you an outdoor wedding was a bad idea in La Push."
Chief Jacob Black lit a bonfire, illuminating the faces of dozens of people. The entire pack waited to hear the legends. Some of their children would be hearing them for the first time and their excitement was palpable. The youngest ones were already asleep in their mother's laps.
Two men carried a cooler full of fish up the driveway. Both wore Forks PD sweatshirts under their practical, but goofy fishing vests. One had grey hair while the other was just starting to get crow's feet around his eyes. Both men had huge smiles for the woman waiting on the porch.
Watching children open Christmas presents from the couch. An arm around her shoulder, and steaming cups of coffee. This was their family.
Bella surfaced with a gasp, sitting up on the edge of the bed.
Paul tried to clear his throat, but his voice still came out in a sandpaper whisper, "Are you sure you don't have magic too? Are you a fairy? Maybe you're a witch."
"Paul!" Bella let out a laugh of shock and disbelief that alerted the wolves in the waiting room to come running. She patted his chest and wiped her eyes for tears she didn't know were still falling. "Be careful, be careful. You're still all wrapped up."
He ignored her to keep poking fun, true to form, even though talking was quite difficult. "It would explain the shield and the mind reading zap you just did. Or was that the future?"
"You saw it too?" She asked, awestruck.
"It's like you looked into the deepest, gooiest part of my heart. My soul."
"Who knew you were such a sap, Paul Lahote."
"Only for you, Princess."
Their reunion was cut short by Sue bustling in with Emily following in to help as directed. None of the nurses knew about the pack and everyone else was dead on their feet. Emily was the only one that had gotten any sleep that night and she only acquiesced for the good of the baby.
Bella would not be talked out of the room, so she was allowed to remain if she stayed out of the way. Sue cleaned dried blood from around what were horrible injuries only an hour ago. Pink outlines were the only remainder and Sue was sure even those would fade shortly.
She approached the untouched bandage on Paul's shoulder with only a moment of hesitation. Nobody in the room knew what was going to be under there and none of them were sure if they were ready for the worst. It looked like Sue was cleaning the area before meeting Bella's eye across the room.
"You can come look, Bella," Sue said calmly. She didn't sound horrified, so Bella felt more confident scooting around the head of the bed to peek under the gauze. She placed a comforting hand on Paul's good shoulder before she looked… and let out a relieved breath. Bella had no idea what she had been expecting to see. Holding out her wrist so Paul could see, she let out a watery laugh.
"We're twins." There was definitely a void of missing muscle and some puckering where it looked like his body had rejected the stitches, but faintly around the uneven divot was a silvery ring of scars, just like the mark on her wrist.
Sue helped him sit up once she determined he was otherwise alright. Paul tried to look down at the scar, but couldn't see much without a mirror. One thing couldn't escape his notice. He traced his ring of silver scars before reaching to trace his mark in the same place on Bella's shoulder. The electric jolt she had gotten used to was replaced with a wonderful sensation of warmth and coming home.
"Yeah, we're twins," he smiled.
~0o0o0o0o0~
Billy had Dr. Fang's phone number from when they came back to Forks last year. The glittery asshole sent a letter with a genuine wax seal to announce their impending arrival. The Council never would have known that the fancy, thick paper was also announcing the beginning of a nightmare.
The Quileute Chief didn't respond with their level of pomp and circumstance. He sent a postcard from the La Push gift shop that captured the view of sunset at First Beach that the monsters would never be allowed to see. Billy's shaky hand had simply written "the treaty remains" and signed it as Chief Black.
Jake remembered mailing that postcard for his father on the way to school over a year ago. It wasn't addressed to the Cullen's, instead just an address he didn't recognize. Billy had firmly ignored any questions and had not spoken of them again until Jake's prom-crashing mission.
The phone didn't even complete its first ring before a painful, distorted voice answered, "Dr. Cullen." Jake wondered if the Doc sounded like this to human years or if the phone was just magnifying how unnatural they sounded to the wolves.
"This is Jacob Black. I am the Alpha of the Quileute pack. Your family has violated the treaty after threatening to kidnap Isabella Swan who is in our protection. She wants nothing to do with what remains of your coven."
The silence that followed was long enough for Jake to wonder if he had the right Dr. Cullen.
"Remains?" The heartbreak clear in the choked-up response gave the Alpha pause, but now was not the time to develop empathy for vampires.
"Three of your own crossed the treaty boundary with unquestionable hostility. At a cost to my pack, they have been put down." Jake needed to thank Leah for practicing this conversation with him first.
Carlisle couldn't bear to think of what fate his children had met or what they had done to find themselves in a confrontation with the wolves to begin with. The loss could wait to be unpacked when he and Esme could be there for each other. One of the well-honed skills of his profession was compartmentalization. The loss of his children, his first born, would be packed into a box to be opened at a more convenient time.
Default mode for Carlisle was to be a doctor first and foremost. There was always something he could do and action did not leave room for the inconvenience of emotions. "Do you need me to tend to your pack's injuries? I know a little about the differences in your physique, maybe I—"
"NO!" Jake snarled. It took every ounce of concentration not to smash the phone in his hand. "We need nothing from you except for you to leave. You have one day to be gone. The treaty is over and in 24 hours we will be destroying any bloodsuckers within 50 miles of La Push and Forks."
"Understandable, Chief Black. I apologize-"
Jake could only be expected to not smash the phone for so long while talking to a vampire. He'd find his old piggybank or ask his girlfriend really nicely if she could help him replace Billy's kitchen phone.
He walked out to the porch where the pack was waiting for him. Leah was sitting on the railing with her face turned to the rare sunlight. Goddamn, she was beautiful. It pained him to tear his eyes away from the Mona Lisa smile on her lips and address the boys waiting on the lawn.
"In 24 hours, we are going to burn down Leech Manor."