I stared out of the window as the dense forest that bordered each side of the road whipped past while Carisle drove us to La Push. He was driving faster than usual, in a hurry to attend to his patient. I looked behind me through the rearview mirror and Edward had his eyes closed, his jaw clenched. He looked worried.
I could see a thin reflection of myself in the car window. My hair had become undone from the bun I had put it in before dawn, loose curls framed my face. My brows were knit and I was frowning too, a small pout. We were about to cross the treaty line, something I never would have thought possible. A twist of anxiety pulsed in my chest, I didn't know what to expect. Sam approved of Carlisle's request, but there still was the hostility of his pack.
Embry was there too.
We passed the treaty line with no fanfare and we arrived at the Black home soon after. A small red house was surrounded by greenery with remnants of hobbies and projects between two little workshops. A creek babbled on as we parked on the gravel. Hastily, I popped the trunk to gather the supplies we had grabbed from Carlisle's office. Edwad was close behind me as I followed our adoptive father to the house.
The door was open, and a man in a wheelchair with a grave expression waited for us to enter. Behind him, the majority of the pack stood quietly, faces serious.
"Billy, thank you for letting us come here," Carlisle said as he extended a hand to him.
To my surprise Billy nodded and reached out to shake it. "Dr. Cullen," Billy acknowledged him.
"Thank goodness you were able to get here so quickly." Charlie Swan chimed in, he looked at me and Edward in surprise. "And you brought help."
"Yes, well my children seem to have picked up a thing or two from me over the years." Carlisle smiled at us. "Now, Jacob?," he inquired.
"He's in his room," said Billy, gesturing to the back. "Sam is trying to keep him calm."
Carlisle led us through the pack as they made a path for us to get by, some of them wrinkling their noses as we went.
"Hello Sam," Carlisle greeted the Alpha at Jacob's door, "How is he doing?"
"Better, kind of," Sam admitted, lines of worry etched across his face.
"We can work with that," Carlisle reassured him.
Sam stepped aside to let us in the bedroom. It was cozy, clothes and knick knacks were scattered about, a twin bed in the corner against a wall. Jacob laid there panting, his face covered in a sheen of sweat. Embry and another one of their pack members hovered around him protectively.
"Dr. Fang has arrived," Jacob said between shallow breaths, a sarcastic bite in his voice even through his pain.
"We're here to help," Carlisle said, "Vera? Edward?"
Carlisle and Edward stepped closer to Jacob to examine him as I began to set up an IV stand. Embry and his friend backed up as Carlisle and Edward took their place next to Jacob, whose room was getting cramped with our addition. I looked up and met Embry's gaze. He observed me as I hung a bag of saline on the stand. His face looked pale and his eyes dark.
I picked it up and brought it next to Carlisle, who was kneeling, gently examining his right arm. Like the rib I saw back in the clearing, his arm was already beginning to right itself, but the alignment was slightly off. Carlisle was going to have to correct it.
"I don't think they should be in here," I said under my breath to Carlisle.
He hummed in agreement and finished his examination, carefully placing Jacob's arm back on the bed. He stood and turned to Embry and his friend. "Please, come with me," he said. Embry looked to me and I gestured to Carlisle. Hesitant, they listened to him and Carlisle led the boys to the living room, no doubt to explain to the pack and Jacob's father that what was coming next would be difficult to hear.
I took Carlisle's place and kneeled beside Jacob, snapping plastic gloves on my hands.
"How's he feeling?" I asked Edward.
"Just peachy," Jacob said, breath still shallow.
"Morphine it is then," I said, grabbing a vial and syringe from Carlisle's bag.
"You're kidding right?" Jacob asked incredulously, "aren't you still in high school?"
I pulled back on the syringe, calculating a slightly larger dose for a man of Jacob's size. Accounting for his accelerated healing and high temperature, he would likely burn it off quickly.
"I just graduated actually," I smiled, reaching for his unshattered arm, "little prick."
Jacob groaned and looked away as I pushed the needle into his skin.
Edward let himself a small chuckle before he interjected, "Vera has a medical degree."
"One more than you," I hummed as I finished up. "You should feel some relief soon," I told Jacob.
He began to relax and his breath slowed as the morphine made its way through his body. Carlisle reentered the room, having finished explaining Jacob's treatment plan to the group.
"Let's begin," he said.
Carlisle moved quickly and concisely, rebreaking Jacob's fractures where they had started to heal incorrectly. I followed closely behind, wrapping Carlisle's work with elastic bandages in an effort to keep the new alignment in place. The morphine burned off even quicker than expected and Jacob, in vain, tried to hold in his screams of pain. Edward and I moved to hold him down as he struggled against Carlisle's touch. Even with Carlisle's skill, it was a long and arduous process.
Finally Carlisle corrected the last fracture and wrapped a brace around Jacob's leg. He placed a soothing hand on Jacob's shoulder and said, "You did great, you're going to be just fine."
Jacob responded with a slight nod, eyes closed, recovering from the physical trauma of having almost half of his bones broken for the second time today.
Carlisle went to go update Billy and the rest of the pack and I injected Jacob with more morphine, making a mental note of the time, not that it really mattered with how quickly he burned it off. I secured the brace on his arm as Jacob drifted off and Edward remained still, a grimace on his face. Bella was to be arriving soon with Charlie having finally left. Was he worried about what she would see?
He shook his head no. "I have more empathy for Jacob than I would have predicted," he said quietly.
"I see," I said, adjusting the bag of saline that flowed into Jacob's veins.
Just in time, Bella's truck roared to a stop outside and she hurriedly ran through the house, abruptly opening Jacob's bedroom door in a frenzy, heart beating wildly and out of breath.
"How is he?" she asked Edward.
He immediately wrapped her in his arms. "He's going to be fine," Edward said.
I got up and left the room to give her some space.
In the living room Carlisle was discussing Jacob's aftercare with Sam and Billy, detailing the next house call and asking for their permission to enter the reservation once again. The healing process will be fast, he explained, but he would need to make sure it was done the right way to mitigate any complications.
Most of the pack sat on various surfaces listening to Carlisle talk, ignoring a game that had been put on that they likely failed to distract themselves with.
I went outside to get a breath of fresh air, feeling confined in the small house surrounded by the large Quileute pack members. Some of the other pack members were on the porch sitting in silence as they waited for one of their own to recover. I walked past them towards the creek, feeling it was not my place to update or reassure them.
I followed the creek to a large tree behind one of the workshops. It was a cute little piece of land, small wildflowers decorated the edges of the creekbed. It was getting late in the day and the sun began to set behind the gray sky. Beams of light broke through pockets of dense clouds.
"Hello," I said as I turned to look at Embry who had trailed behind me, footsteps soft on the damp grass.
Although he was the one to come to me, Embry was caught off guard. I could almost see the process in his head, trying to figure out what to say. He was tall like the other boys and like them he was wearing just a pair of shorts, heat radiated off of him as the afternoon began to cool into night.
I realized I had never even introduced myself. "I'm Vera."
"I know," He replied, his face flushing immediately.
"You know normally you would say back, Hi, I'm Embry."
"You know my name," He said, not in a question, but more like relief.
I grinned. Embry was a little clumsy, but so was I. "Yes, I do."
He opened his mouth to reply, but it was interrupted by the loud roar of Bella's truck.
As she finally drove off, a laugh escaped him, running a hand through his hair as he shook his head. "I'm sorry. I am… terrible at this. I have no idea what I'm doing," he said, tilting his head over to the large tree, "Do you want to sit?"
I obliged and sat at the base of the tree, leaning against the thick trunk. He sat down and leaned against the trunk as well, sitting just far enough that I could only see part of his left side around the tree. Even with the space I could feel the warmth of his body, his scent flooded around me and I allowed myself to take it in. It was comforting after such a strenuous day.
Embry breathed slow and deep, as if to calm himself. He turned to me just as I did towards him and our eyes met. He let out another soft laugh before restraining himself.
"Hi Vera," he smiled, nervous still, "I'm Embry."
It was my turn to blank and all I could say was, "Oh," my breath a little shaky.
A moment of silence overtook us and I fixated on one of the wildflowers on the creek bed. I remembered I used to press them as a child, between the sparse books we had in the house. My mother would exclaim in delight when she would find them months later while reading me to sleep.
"Thank you for taking care of Jake today," Embry said quietly to the air.
I turned to look at him again and met his close gaze, he had leaned in further.
"Where did you learn to do all that? Did the doc teach you?" He asked.
"I've attended medical school, but yes Carlisle also taught me too," I replied. I had gone when I still thought I needed to win Carlisle's approval, to make him proud of me, but now I knew better than to seek something I already had. It took me a long time to learn that.
"Jacob is going to be fine, he's strong." I said, remembering his pale face earlier in Jacob's room. "He's in great hands, Carlisle is the best there is. We should be back sometime tomorrow to check on his progress."
"Oh!" Embry's brows raised in surprise. "That's great-hey, um, can I, would you be ok if I was here tomorrow? I mean I probably will be, I'm at Jake's a lot anyways. But-yeah, is that cool?"
"Yes," I said, a quiet giggle escaping. "That would be cool."
"Great!" He scrambled up from the tree, an excited energy about him, "Good, ok. I'm going to go check on Jake, see if he's awake." He walked a couple of steps away before turning around to face me. "I'll see you tomorrow." A smile was plastered on his face as he turned back to walk to the house.
A genuine laugh bloomed in my chest and I called out after him, "I'll see you tomorrow, Embry."
He probably should have stayed longer to talk to her, but he got a little overwhelmed and needed to talk to his friend lol. xx seeya next time