Chapter Three
Rosalie cornered Bella at the driveway, grabbing the latter woman's arm. "Are you out of your goddamn mind!?" she exclaimed.
Bella tried to tugged her arm away, but Rosalie's strength prevailed. "Not now, Rose,."
The blonde whipped the brunette around and held her with both arms, her golden eyes wide and primitive. "You're going to be a problem, Bella? Is that it?"
Bella shook her head, embarrassed. "Stop, Rose."
"You're going to be a problem now?" Rosalie repeated. "What the hell does that even mean? Have you lost your mind!?"
"This is none of your business," Bella said quietly, "so let me go."
"Bella, this is all of our business!" Rosalie was so disgusted that she could have spit. She should have spit, in all honesty. What Bella had said was way out of line. Didn't she know that? Would she ever take responsibility?
Bella managed to get one of her arms free and shoved Rosalie with it using all the power she contained in her body, but Rosalie, solid as a rock, kept her stance.
"What is your problem?" Rose demanded. "If you don't care for the remedy, don't take it!"
"I won't, Rosalie," Bella said slowly, just to make sure she heard her correctly. "I am not going to take the fucking remedy."
"Then why are you going to cause trouble for the rest of us?" Rosalie asked sharply. "Why the hell did you even think of saying that?"
Bella hadn't been thinking at all, honestly. If Bella was anything special—besides the obvious thing—then she was all bark and no bite. She could banter and threaten for days but still never do anything huge, and now she was going to have to deal with everything she'd dished out. It was only fair to everyone, but to her, it just wasn't fair at all.
"Edward is my husband," Bella stated.
"And he'll still be your husband once he's human," Rosalie reminded her, letting go. "You know that, right?"
"I do know," Bella admitted, "but it won't be the same."
Rosalie's eyes were honest. "If it works out okay, he can always go back."
"Well, I don't trust any part of this. I just don't want him taking that chance because of the possibility of things not going as planned." Bella sighed, exasperated. "Why do all of you trust this so-called cure?"
"Bella, it's not the chance of it working that you're worried about."
Rosalie might as well be a mind-reader; she could read Bella like a book.
"You're just worried about your little forever, aren't you?" Rosalie asked condescendingly.
"Practice what you preach," Bella told her. "Don't knock my desires down just because you don't have the same ones."
Rosalie crossed her arms and raised and eyebrow. "Oh, so this is definitely about your desires."
Bella sneered. "My bad for caring about my future."
Rosalie's voice wasn't condescending this time, making Bella like her a little bit more in the moment. "You're insecure, aren't you, Bella?"
"You're not helping, you know."
"You're insecure about your future," Rosalie stated matter-of-factly.
"You would be, too," Bella replied, her face blank, "if you had it set for being perfect for so long. You would be so insecure, Rosalie, if your future was suddenly jeopardized because of some stupid way to take it all back. You would be upset. You would be insecure, Rose. You would be terrified."
And it was then that Bella realized she had exposed practically everything, and to Rosalie, at that. More vulnerable than ever in the past century, Bella stared at the destroyer of everything she'd had going for her. And it was also then that Bella realized she would never forgive Rosalie. She would refuse to.
Don't ruin my forever, Bella wanted to say. But what was the use? What change would it make? The plans were set in stone, as well as Bella's unhappiness.
The Denali coven, composed of Tanya, Kate, Garrett, Carmen, and Eleazar arrived in Forks two days later, having driven from Alaska. Spring had sprung, but the Forks air was still cold. There was still room for change, though.
Unwilling to be cured, the Denali coven planned on sticking around to watch the transformations and also to give each other mutual support, since they all considered each other cousins. Once they arrived, business almost began.
Esme insisted on saying last goodbyes; she didn't think the remedy would fail, but, caring for who she considered her children, she wanted to say goodbye to the vampire versions of them. She was positive that Rosalie, Emmett, and Edward would never go back. Everybody was. Even Bella.
So in their last moments, Rosalie, Emmett, and Edward were showered with hugs from everybody. Despite her dispute with Rosalie two days prior to the bittersweet goodbyes, Bella would miss Rosalie, and she told her.
"I'm not leaving for good yet," Rosalie assured her. "I'll still be me. Just different."
Emmett told Bella, his "little sister," to try not to eat him when he turned back, all while giving her a giant hug that she knew would be softer and warmer when he came back. She would be heartbroken if Emmett didn't come back.
Bella was the last (besides Renesmee) to say goodbye to Edward, and while she was angry, he was still her husband. While she was more than likely going to be a problem without meaning to or not, she still loved him. With time, Edward had grown to fit the unconditional love Bella had for Renesmee, though Edward made Bella much more temperamental. But still—Bella had died for the both of them. And it angered her, really made her boil with anger, that Edward was allowing himself to eventually die without her, if he would enjoy being human so much, though he hadn't anticipated on it.
It was just all so unbalanced. So Bella was angry, but not angry as she could have been; he'd be back, after all. She didn't believe the remedy would kill him; she just thought it wouldn't work. But she knew Edward, and she knew that he would adore being human with or without her. And though she highly doubted it would ever happen (because Edward still adored her and he would always adore her for the rest of time), there was still the slim, slim chance that he would leave her.
He would leave her again, this time for being human.
And she would boil with anger over it for the rest of eternity. She would much rather be angry and immortal than even and dead. She had too much pride for that.
Once his moment was done with Bella, Edward spent his very last vampire moments with Renesmee. She was still a daddy's girl, though they had been out of sync. While she had never really discussed the remedy with her mother or father (since they had both been trying to prove they were happy to each other over the past two months), she'd spent a lot of time with Jacob. She hadn't asked him much about his depression; they'd never really touched upon it or came clean on it. They'd spent most of their time on fake, annoying bullshit, but it was still time, and they had a lot of it. She didn't have much time with her father, though, and they both knew it, so everyone left Edward and Renesmee to be alone. Their moments belonged to them.
As Renesmee and Edward talked in private for a few minutes, Jacob was left desolate and on the balcony with Kate, Garrett, and Carmen of the Denali coven. It was Kate who had initially sparked up small talk with him.
"You're looking good," she told him politely.
A fake smile was plastered onto Jacob's face. "Thanks," he said.
"Still young, too," she observed. "It's almost like you're one of us."
"Might as well be, huh?"
Kate smiled; he couldn't tell if it was genuine or not. "Might as well," she agreed.
"How has life been treating you?" Garrett, Kate's boyfriend who she never planned on marrying yet always planned on being with, asked Jacob.
"Good," Jacob replied. "It's all been pretty good, I guess."
"Nice, man. Real nice."
As dazzling as vampires were supposed to be, they weren't huge on conversation with werewolves, no matter how long a certain one had been around. Jacob leaned against the bar and stared out to the forest. It wasn't a big place; he'd figured it out over three days, one time. He'd explored every part of it, alone. The world wasn't a big place when he knew it would always be there and he would always have time to experience it. Maybe that was why living people used the mantra you only live once to the death: there was always a thrill in the rush of living, because living was something to be excited about when it wasn't permanent.
"You seem tired, Jacob," Carmen said. With a soft Spanish accent and eyes that were easy to trust, Carmen had a nice presence. She was easily Jacob's favorite of the Denali coven, though he often thought of them as one working machine.
And he was tired, too. He was exhausted, and it wasn't the kind of weariness that could be fixed with eight good hours of sleep. Carmen understood, though, and she understood his ties to Renesmee at the same time, and it made all the difference in the world.
Jacob sighed long and hard. "I am," he replied. "I really am."
And then Carmen touched Jacob on the arm in the most compassionate way, and it didn't matter that she felt like ice to the touch. Nothing else (besides Renesmee) mattered.
Somewhere along in the last century that had passed, Jacob could have—should have—been treated with some form of sympathy, but somewhere, he'd been lost for good. It was Carmen's acknowledgment that made him a little bit braver, a little bit brighter. That one acknowledgment didn't immediately fix his depression, and it shouldn't have immediately fixed his depression, but it was a much-needed acknowledgment. Carmen had been the only one to take the time to understand, or at least attempt to understand what was visible on the surface.
The difference that one acknowledgment could make truly amazed Jacob.
Carlisle had turned an extra room on the third floor of the house into a sort of medical room. Rosalie would be changing first, and when she sat down on the experiment table with her bare legs up, clad in a hospital gown, everybody gathered around, but not too close; Carlisle still needed space to work.
"I'm going to explain the process as I go through the steps," Carlisle announced smoothly.
Eleazar, Carmen's husband, held his chin in his hand, focusing intensely on the tools that Carlisle had laid out. He didn't doubt Carlisle's abilities at all—he could never—but he was very interested in the science parts of the process.
Carlisle looked down at Rosalie, "Are you ready?" he asked softly.
"Yes," she whispered.
Carlisle shifted his focus to the group of spectators in the room. "Venom," he stated, "is a retrovirus. It works similarly to HIV, for example: it changes the DNA. I, with the enthusiastic help of Rosalie and Edward, have formed a retrovirus that serves as an antidote to venom and, eventually, vampirism. I don't personally see vampirism as a sickness or disease of some sorts; this is simply a key to existing differently than before."
Standing between Bella and Renesmee, Edward gave both their hands a squeeze. Renesmee squeezed back, not upset (however more understanding) with her father's decision, but still very nervous about the process. Bella remained frozen, using ignorance as a quick way to coerce him out of his decision. If only it would work.
In his left hand, Carlisle held up a small beaker containing a purple liquid that glinted in the light. In his right hand, he held a clear glass containing blood. Based on the smell, it was human blood, which caused a small stirring among the group, but nothing too noticeable.
Pouring the purple liquid into the blood, Carlisle spoke again. "The elixir mixes in almost instantly with the blood, and when Rosalie drinks it, her eyes will briefly change color, and she will fall asleep." He handed the glass to Rosalie. "All in one gulp, please," he advised her.
She did as told, and almost instantly—a human would miss it, and if Renesmee blinked, she would miss it all—Rosalie's eyes flashed quickly from red, then to blue, and then to white before closing completely. She fell onto her back, her blonde hair sprawled across the layer of paper between her and the table.
"That's it?" Renesmee asked quietly.
"Shhh..." Edward shushed her. "Watch."
Suddenly, Rosalie started coughing, and a clear liquid began burbling out of her closed mouth. In that moment, Alice and Jasper promptly exited the room, like they were viewing something unholy. They left totally unacknowledged.
Carlisle laid Rosalie on her side as she coughed up the rest of the liquid into a silver container on the floor. "Her body is getting rid of the venom," he explained.
Within minutes, Rosalie started dry-heaving, and Bella winced. "This is like a goddamn exorcism," she muttered as Carlisle shifted onto her back.
"Her heaving indicates there is no more venom in her body, so it is now time to start the blood transfusions," Carlisle explained as he carefully forced a fine tube into Rosalie's skin. The tube connected to a machine, and when Carlisle pushed a button, it started to pump blood and Rosalie stopped dry-heaving. "Her skin is already slightly more vulnerable, but still very tough," he noted. "It is similar to the texture of Renesmee's skin."
"How do you know Rosalie's blood type?" Eleazar wondered aloud.
"When I was initially reviving Rosalie, along with Emmett, Edward, and everyone else who I had changed," Carlisle replied, "I took note of their blood types in the hopes of doing transfusions. Making people immortal is hardly ever my prerogative."
"Ah." Eleazar nodded.
"The heart has already started pumping blood," Carlisle said to the group, "and as it pumps blood throughout Rosalie's body, her cells will unfreeze faster and faster. Rosalie will become warmer and begin to sort of... relax. This contrasts to the reverse process, in which the person becomes colder and stiffens."
Various heads nod in agreement, and Carlisle goes on. "Rosalie's DNA is changing again, and it will take approximately one and a half weeks for the process to be complete and for her to awaken again."
"So what happens now?" Emmett asked, staring down at Rosalie's unconscious body.
"Now," Carlisle said, "we wait."
And everybody waited. Over the course of the next week and a half, Rosalie's blood transfusions stopped eventually, but interior changes still occurred. Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, Edward, and Eleazar waited in the medical room nearly the entire time (Carlisle, Esme, and Eleazar still had to go hunting), watching over Rosalie. With time, Carlisle knew the time was coming, so he called everybody to return. Even Alice and Jasper came in to see the grand finale.
Rosalie's grumbling stomach was heard before her voice, and that indicated that the transformation was over. Warm, soft, and significantly slower than before, Rosalie fluttered her eyes open, and they were dark blue—nearly violet—which was her human color.
"Rosalie," Carlisle said. "How do you feel?"
The room was absolutely silent.
"Real," was what she said.
Obsessed with her heartbeat, weaker eyesight, less defined hearing, a slight headache from having less room in her head, and the feeling of intense hunger for human food, Rosalie was definitely human, though still a bit pale, in obvious need of some sunlight. The only complaint she had was that she didn't remember how to use the bathroom like an adult at first, which would take work. Other than that, she was happy-go-lucky, and being surrounded by vampires, she didn't feel much less confident in regards to her looks. She was still gorgeous, but on a human level, and even then, she knew that that didn't matter. Rosalie was human.
Emmett's process was virtually the same, but with more venom to throw up, more blood to be transfused, and more time to change, taking two more days than Rosalie, all due to his size. When he was finally finished, his eyes were baby blue and his first words were, "Carlisle, I'm as blind as a bat."
"Did you wear glasses when you were human?" Carlisle responded.
Blinking excessively, Emmett shook his head. "Nah."
"All right, then. We'll get you some glasses." Nobody would have guessed that Emmett Cullen, brawny and tough, was nearsighted and could wear black-framed glasses like a (very human) model.
Esme and Carmen had the patience, but Jacob had the experience, so while Edward was transforming last, Rosalie and Emmett were guided through human courses while also occasionally getting checkups and immunizations from Carlisle. Bella and Renesmee watched over Edward's transformation entirely, along with Eleazar and Carlisle. Not taking as long as Emmett's, Edward's metamorphosis was similar to the previous two trials. Carlisle's discovery was solid.
Holding Edward's hand, Bella felt his pulse as he prepared to awaken once his most vital organs were working again. Bella's eyes were closed once Edward opened his, but she felt him move just slightly, forcing her to open her eyes.
His green eyes were the first things she saw of him. They were the eyes that Bella had never experienced firsthand prior to now, but the eyes that she had always wanted Renesmee to have. Those eyes glimmered like emeralds, but with golden flecks, too, and they focused up on the ceiling. Edward couldn't see the details that he usually could.
Looking still very pale but downright surprised, Edward blinked a few times. Then he focused on Bella, moving up the corners of his mouth in a weak smile.
"There was nothing to worry about," he said, his voice as weak and dry as his smile.
"Can you still read minds or something?" Bella wondered, her voice quiet, but still loud enough for him to hear. She still clutched his hand, but now leaned in closely. She felt his pulse everywhere, especially in her throat.
"No," he said, "but it wasn't hard to guess."
Bella smiled, not showing her teeth. "Well, you got me."
A/N: Feedback is still appreciated. Questions are, too.
Thanks so much,
HalcyonSeasons