A/N: If you recognize it, it's not mine. Simple as that.
Chapter 25
Perci POV
Reaching the delivery room, I saw Bella laid on a bed, with her top yanked back, while Bella was moaning in pain.
"Carlisle said the placenta must have detatched, he's coming as fast as he can." Alice said, holding a phone to her ear.
"He's suffocating!" Bella demanded, and Rosalie grabbed a surgical knife, only for Edward to grab her hand to stop her from moving.
"Rose, give the morphine time to spread." He said, making her shake her head.
"There's no time, he's dying!" Rosalie snapped, causing Bella's eyes to widen in horror.
"Get him out, now!" She demanded. Edward released Rosalie with a sigh, and she made the incision, only to pause at the blood on her hand.
"Rosalie, don't!" Jacob shouted, as he leaped across the table Bella was on to tackle the blonde vampire, Paul and Alice, joining him in dragging her out. Once Rosalie was out of the room, Jacob returned to Bella's side, while I moved into the room, attempting to stem the blood loss with my control over the water in her blood.
"You have to turn her." Jacob told Edward, making him shake his head.
"I can't, not while he's still in there." He said, before leaning down to bite the kid free.
"Can't you do something?" Jacob asked, looking at me in despair.
"I'm doing all I can, Jake. I'm attempting to stem the blood loss as much as possible by controlling the water in her blood, but I'm not able to do much. If I try to force the blood back into her body, it might just make things worse." I told him, concentrating as hard as I could, while Edward reached into Bella's body -gross-, to pull out the baby.
"It's Renesmee. He said, looking at the baby tenderly, before giving Bella a smile, as he placed the kid on Bella's chest.
"Beautiful." Bella murmured, only to wince seconds later when she was bitten -gummed?- by her baby, making Edward pull her away. His focus turned toward the baby for a second, so he missed when my eyes widened at the notice that Bella was bleeding a lot slower now, as if her heart wasn't pumping her blood anymore. Thankfully, Jacob seemed to realize something was wrong, and started CPR when she didn't reply to his frantic calls of her name.
"Jacob, take the baby." Edward said, wrapping the baby in a small towel.
"Keep that away from me." Jacob snarled, continuing the chest compressions.
"Edward, I'll take her. I'm fine now, I promise." Rosalie said, coming back into the room, looking calmer. I released my now, very loose hold on the water in Bella's blood, and went to Paul's side as he came into the room while Edward injected Bella with his venom straight into the heart, taking over CPR.
"I won't kill you. You deserve to live with this." Jacob said with tears in his eyes when Bella didn't react, before he walked out the door. Paul gently tugged me away as I stared at Bella's body, shock beginning to seep into me. I had just witnessed someone else die, and once again, there was nothing more I could have done to save them. He took me outside, where I finally let tears fall, wrapping me in his arms.
"I'm so sorry, Princess. You shouldn't have had to see that." He whispered, pressing gentle kisses into my hair. We sat like that for a while, maybe twenty minutes, before the sounds of snarling reached us from the woods surrounding the house. I froze in realization that with all the excitement going on, nobody was running patrol to keep Sam's pack away. Edward, Alice, and Jasper joined us outside, facing the woods.
"There's too many of them." Alice said, looking grim.
"I won't let them hurt my family." Edward said, and I noticed a hard look in his eyes as I stood next to him, pulling my trident free from my hair.
"For once, we're on the same page. Sam's mine." I said, handing Riptide to Paul.
"I'll try to stop Jared." He said, uncapping my trusty sword. With no further words to be said, the wolves charged us, and I headed straight for the pitch black one, blocking out everything around me, as I made a quick jab at his front legs, making him whimper at the sudden pain.
"You tried to kill family." I snarled at him when I caught his eye. I smirked inwardly noticing the conflict in his eyes as he realized who he was fighting, knowing that it was sacred tribal law that no imprint can be harmed.
"What are you going to do about it?" I questioned, twirling my trident. Snarling, he lunged forward, throwing me into a tree. I cried out in shock at the impact, noticing a branch had cut my shoulder from hitting it just right, before hearing a feral snarl. Looking up, I only managed to catch a blur of grey, before Sam was tackled, Riptide in pen form returning to my pocket a second later. Glancing around, I caught sight of the Cullens, now including Carlisle, Esme, and Emmett fighting Sam's pack.
"Enough! If you kill her, you kill me!" Jacob said, charging outside and standing between Sam and Paul, not seeming to realize that Sam had injured me. Sam shoved Jacob, who phased and stood his ground between Sam and the house, before Edward's voice was heard.
"Jacob imprinted. Whoever a wolf imprints on can't be harmed, it's their most absolute law." He said, sounding annoyed and relieved, making me guess Jacob had imprinted on his newborn daughter.
"A law that Sam has broken." I voiced, standing slowly, and noticing that apparently, my shoulder had not just been cut, but dislocated as well.
"What do you mean?" Carlisle asked, while Paul snarled again at the black wolf.
"I stood between Sam and his goal, and for it, I was thrown into a tree. My shoulder is now dislocated, and bleeding from the impact, and I was dazed for a moment. It doesn't matter the injury, if a wolf intentionally causes harm to another wolf's imprint, then he or she is to face severe tribal retribution, and the imprint's wolf may do as they see fit to avenge their imprint." I said, voicing the law as Old Quil had told it to me once he was assured I was an ally of his.
"She can push the elders to exile him from the tribe if she so desired." Leah said, having phased back at some point.
"Why did you stand between Sam and the baby?" Esme asked, looking curious.
"Because I knew the law. I hoped that he would stand down facing an imprint, but he threw me into the tree, knowing who he was fighting. I saw when he realized and asked what he would do about it, hoping he would stand down. Next thing I know, my back met tree." I said, noticing a small spark of fear in Sam's eyes once he realized what he was now facing. Paul snarled, apparently not liking the fact that Sam was even laying eyes on me after what he had done, making the other alpha flinch and avert his eyes.
"Leave him be for now, Paul. Let the elders handle it first, then take what you want. I've got to get my shoulder taken care of first." I said, and in a flash, Carlisle was in front of me, and I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder.
"Shit, that hurt!" I called, realizing that he had reset my shoulder before I could tense, earning a snarl from Paul himself.
"It's okay, love. He needed to do it before I could tense up otherwise it would've hurt worse." I told him, making him calm down, before turning to Sam.
"Leave, now. I will be calling Billy Black once I get inside to tell him exactly what happened here today." I said, only mildly surprised when Sam's pack left.
"Phase back and get ready to tell Billy everything, Paul. I'm going to get my phone." I said, looking at my wolf, and earning a nod of his large head.
"Let me get it, you should get that cut checked out by Carlisle." Jasper said, blurring into the house.
"Come on then, I'll check this out in the living room." Carlisle said, putting a gentle leading hand on my back, escorting me inside.
"What about Bella?" Edward asked, looking mildly frantic again.
"Checking Perci over won't take too long, Edward. If you've injected the venom into her heart, then there will be nothing I can do but to let nature run its course at the moment. I'll check Perci and the baby over first." Carlisle said, glancing back at the mind reader.
"You don't need to worry if it needs stitches, I just need water." I assured him, earning a confused, curious look.
"You would need a bit more to clean that, at the very least." He said, making me chuckle.
"I'm the daughter of the sea god, I have a healing factor when I come into contact with water. I was once able to recover from getting slashed by a hellhound just by stepping into a river after the fact. Believe me, all I need to heal this is water." I said, heading toward the kitchen once we were upstairs. Seeming intrigued, he got a bowl of water for me, going bug eyed when I lifted the water from its bowl and guided it over to my shoulder, the cut healing at the touch. Once the cut was closed and not even a scar remained, I sent the water into the sink, and smiled at the doctor, before walking into the living room, where Paul was apparently already on the phone with Billy, and ranting up a storm.
"Seth and Leah saw him throw her into a tree, Billy! I want Sam punished to the fullest extent you can go, and I'm sure a few members of his pack saw it too. Perci wants the council to give their punishment before I get my turn, and I won't wait for longer than a week! They should be back any minute, so get it done!" He shouted, a growl to his tone, before hanging up.
"You didn't even give me a chance to tell him that I stabbed Sam in the leg with my trident. Hopefully it'll scar so they know that I used a weapon to defend myself and my family." I said, pouting playfully.
"It better scar. Sam needs a warning on what'll happen if he ever lays a harmful hand on you again." Paul snarled, pulling me into his arm and checking my shoulder for the wound that was no longer there.
"It's healed, I used a bowl of water, there's not even a scar left." I told him, calming him down.
"Good, you don't need any more scars, you have enough of them as it is." He said, nuzzling my neck to calm himself further.
"I'll agree with you there, I do have more than enough." I said, hugging him back.
"Come on, let's get to bed. I already told Jacob I wasn't letting you out of my sight for the next few days, and we aren't going to set foot on La Push until Sam has been punished by the elders for intentionally harming an imprint." He said, gently picking me up and carrying me up the stairs. Oh joy, my wolf on a mother hen kick.
The next day, Paul made me stay in bed, which I didn't particularly mind, since he pampered me with every meal in bed. Triton had come by, after Paul had IM'ed Atlantis to inform my father of what had happened, wanting to check on me since the seas weren't safe for anyone at the moment due to Poseidon's anger. Sam would apparently never be safe in open water ever again, no matter what he did to make it up to me. It didn't matter that it was a minor injury, the fact that he had hurt me, and meant to do so was enough to anger the sea god immensely. The second day after the near-war, Paul finally let me out of bed, and I went to check on Bella, who was in the middle of her change.
I had come just in time to help get her changed, and had brushed her hair, while Rosalie and Alice put her into a dark blue dress, leaving her feet bare. After that, I spent a little while getting to know my newest relative, Renesmee, and ragging on Jacob for imprinting on a baby. Apparently, Jacob had requested -not ordered-, that none of his pack go back to La Push until Sam's punishment was issued, wanting to show support for Paul's request of me not doing so. Seth and Leah had agreed not to return home yet with no hesitations, making me feel very touched, knowing how much they had to miss their mom at the moment.
Aphrodite had also come by that day, wanting to work on my dress, so everyone had been quite distracted by the goddess being in the house. Carlisle had asked seemingly endless questions after she had sketched out a design for my wedding dress, which would be Greek in style, knee length since it was a beach wedding, with blue accents and pearls sewn onto it as a nod to my father's domain. She had also taken one look at Leah, and informed the she-wolf that she would find her imprint herself and send them her way, wanting my friend to have happiness. Apparently, Aphrodite had crafted the love between Leah and Sam herself, but the Fates were the ones to tie him to Emily, she was just going to make a problem for them to get through together by making Emily attracted to Sam. Leah had been mildly irritated at that, but understood love needed some trials, Paul and I were just going through an easy patch for a while because she felt like she owed me.
Day three, everyone had been tense, waiting for Bella's change to finish. According to Alice, she would wake soon, so everyone stayed in various positions around the house, while Edward went into the room she was changing in to wait. After twenty minutes of waiting, everyone turned to look in the direction of the room, and I knew. Bella was awake, and no longer human. My cousin had awoken to her first day as a vampire.