Break
Chapter Three
Three Months Later
The phone rang shrilly in the Cullens' living room, and was picked up instantly by a cheerful Alice. "Hello?"
"Hi, Alice, it's Charlie."
"Oh, hey, Chief," she responded in her singsong voice. "You want to talk to Bella?"
"Yeah, thanks."
Bella suddenly appeared behind Alice, having heard the conversation from upstairs. "Hi, Dad. What's up?"
"Hey, Bells. I just thought I'd call and see how you were doing, I haven't seen you in weeks."
"Yeah, you're right," she agreed. "You want me to come by and hang out tomorrow? Maybe I can make dinner, give you a break from Chinese takeout."
"That'd be great, Bells. I sure do miss having you around. Say, I also called to let you know about the latest update on the Newton case; I know he was your friend."
This caught Bella slightly off guard, and Mike looked up from where he was reading on the sofa opposite her. "Um, yeah, what's going on? They find him?"
"Well, no. It's just…it's been too long since he disappeared, and his parents are having him declared dead. There's almost no chance that we'll find him at this point, and he's been moved to the station's cold case files. It's just been too long, you know?"
It was almost eerie to be talking about the death of a friend when said friend was sitting right in front of her, hanging on to every word, his forgotten book having slid to the floor. "Y-yeah," she stammered, trying to concentrate both on what her father was saying and how Mike was reacting.
Charlie sighed audibly on the other end; Bella could tell he was frustrated. "I just can't believe a kid who spent nearly all his free time camping and hiking around here was killed by some sorta animal out of the blue. Just doesn't make sense."
"Dad, I'm going to have to call you back later," she cut him off hastily. She could see by Mike's expression that he'd heard too much. After hanging up, she went over and sat by her newest brother, her hand on his arm. "Are you all right?"
"I guess it's official, then…" he said, his voice trailing off. "Um, I'll…I'll be right back." With that, Mike stood and walked slowly out of the house, leaving Bella alone in the living room, not knowing what to do.
Once he was outside, Mike began to walk faster, not noticing as the trees flew by. His parents were having him declared legally dead. It was the bang of the judge's gavel, the period at the end of the sentence. Three months of interacting with no one but the Cullens, of being stuck inside and only leaving to hunt or play baseball if there was a storm. Always hiding. His adopted family had made the transition much easier than it probably would have been had he been changed with nobody there to help him, and they were right – he didn't have to be a monster. It was obvious that they were proud of his determination not to submit to his instinctive craving for human blood, since he had not slain a single person and as such had the lowest number of killings on his hands out of all the Cullens. Even Bella had once surrendered to her stomach's initial demand.
Of course, this was also probably somewhat to the credit of always having to hide, even occasionally within the house. Bella's father made relatively frequent visits, and as the Chief of Police he could not be allowed to know that Mike was in fact just on the floor above rather than missing. The only visitor he didn't have to conceal himself from was Jacob Black, who sometimes came to see Bella and was sworn to absolute secrecy. Obviously, he wouldn't have been able to tell anybody outside the reservation what had become of Mike without being institutionalized, but they'd made him swear anyways.
Carlisle had explained to Mike that they would move soon, to someplace where they weren't known so that he wouldn't have to live like someone under house arrest any more, but if they left so soon after his disappearance it would draw attention. And so they waited.
Living with the Cullens was simple: they went hunting roughly every week or so, played baseball whenever there was a storm, and other than that, he occupied himself around the house. He'd never read so many books in his life as he had in the past three months. After working through the initial resentment he'd had for them, Mike had developed very different relationships with each of his new family members, and was slowly warming up to the notion that he was now a Cullen himself. Carlisle he naturally viewed as a father figure, and Esme as a mother. Emmett was good fun, and provided most of the humor in Mike's new life as well as being his usual hunting partner. Alice went out of her way to keep him occupied with book suggestions, chess and card games (which she always won), and animated conversation whenever she saw that he was feeling down. Edward kept his distance for the most part, and Mike had a feeling it was partly due to the fact that they had disliked each other when they'd been in school, but they at least shared an occasional talk. Rosalie had been surprisingly nice to him, always choosing him for her team in baseball. Jasper he was not close to, but was on better terms with than Edward, and although Mike remained closest to Alice, he eventually settled into something similar to his original friendship with Bella.
Mike had only been into Forks once, a week ago, when he was so sick of being cooped up that Alice had agreed to take him with her when she went shopping, as long as he stayed in the car. While she was occupied he'd watched the people on the sidewalk go about their daily lives, and as nice as it had been to get out of the house for even a little while, the trip had been nerve-wracking. He could smell the tempting fragrance of warm blood every time somebody passed by the window, and it had only gotten worse when Jessica, Lauren, and Angela, back for the summer holidays, had suddenly walked past, forcing him to duck low and pray that they hadn't seen him. He remembered listening to their lively chatter as they strolled by. It wasn't an unusual conversation by any standards, but it had made him realize just how much he missed normalcy. And then he'd wondered if any of his friends actually missed him.
He wondered this again as he continued to walk through the woods towards town. Miserably, he estimated how many of them would show up to his funeral service, and how many would be crying.
So deep in thought was he that he didn't notice when he emerged from beneath the trees and crossed the two-way road that headed out of Forks and towards Port Angeles, walking directly into the path of a fast-approaching Suburban. When the driver honked urgently, Mike's reflexes kicked in, and he sped into the woods on the other side of the street as the car swerved onto the shoulder and skidded to a stop, spewing gravel from beneath its tires. Had Mike been human, he wouldn't have had time to move out of the way, so he watched the driver's reaction as he confusedly climbed out of the car, looking up and down the road for any trace of the boy who had just vanished into thin air.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Jessica, it's Rachel Newton," said the young girl holding her cell phone to her ear as she leaned on the railing of her front porch.
"Oh, Rachel," said Jessica, her tone dropping to a more serious note than her usual bubbly manner. "Hi. How're you doing?"
Rachel decided to avoid the question. "Listen, I just called to let you know that we're having a service for Mike, and—"
"Wait, the – the police are giving up?" Jessica interrupted.
The younger girl ran her hand through her blond curls in agitation, not wanting to have a conversation about her dead brother with someone she'd never really liked. "Yeah, they, um…they said that since they haven't found him by now, then the chances of him ever being found are… well, they're not good."
"But there is still a chance," Jessica pressed, a trace of ire slipping into her voice. "I mean, how can they give up as long as there's still a chance?"
Rachel's patience ran out here, and she snapped, "Jessica, all they found of him was a torn coat and a lot of blood. That was three months ago. Mike is gone, and he's gone for good, all right?" If his own sister had figured this out and accepted it, why couldn't his ex?
There was a stunned pause on the other end.
It occurred to Rachel then that Jessica hadn't learned the details of what the search parties had discovered, and she immediately felt guilty. "Look, Jessica…" she began again. "The service is being held a week from Sunday. I know he'd want you be there."
"Um…yeah," Jessica replied, still taken aback. "Yeah, sure. I'll spread the word."
At that moment, Rachel jumped in shock, Jessica forgotten as her phone slipped out of her hand and into the rhododendron bush below. She didn't bother to look for it, though, since what she had seen across the street was far more disconcerting. Her eyes wide and her brows knitted in confusion, she slowly descended the porch steps and walked to the edge of the front yard, keeping her eyes on the tree line on the opposite side of the street.
She had seen him. She was absolutely certain.
He…he'd been standing there, just beneath the canopy of the woods, and then – then he was gone.
Her mouth setting into a determined line, Rachel marched across the wide strip of pavement and pushed her way through the waist-deep ferns carpeting the forest floor.
She was not crazy. She was not hallucinating. She wasn't.
"Mike?" she called as she walked, feeling slightly ridiculous. "You here?"
There was no reply, and the silence was deafening. Not even a bird's song or a squirrel's chatter disturbed the quiet, all noises from the street muffled by the dense, moss-covered vegetation.
She ground her teeth and started again, stopping where she stood and not caring that her shoes had sunk two inches into the mud. "Mike, if you can hear me, listen. It's okay. Wherever you've been…whatever you've been doing, it's okay. You can come home. We miss you, Mike, so please. Come home."
Rachel stood where she was, waiting, for a long time, wishing that he would materialize again but also hoping he wouldn't. Because how could he explain himself if he really was alive? What excuse could he possibly give for what he had done, if that were the case? Finally, she swallowed the massive lump in her throat and turned to go back to the house.
And high above her, in the forest canopy, her brother crouched on a branch, his hand clamped over his mouth and nose as he fought the pressing desire to leap down and make his presence known. But he knew of both outcomes of that action, and he was afraid that the pleasing fragrance of his sister's life pulsing in her veins would be too much. Only one thought was in his mind as his fingernails dug into the bark of the tree:
He would not feed now. He would not feed on her.
Mike didn't know how long he sat there, but it was after dark when light footsteps sounded on the forest floor beneath him. "I thought you'd be here," Alice called up to him.
"You mean you saw that I'd be here," he said dryly.
She smiled sheepishly, quickly saying, "I wanted to give you some time to think," before leaping into the lower branches and fluidly climbing until she was sitting cross-legged across from him. "You made the right decision, you know. You could have hurt her."
He nodded silently, not meeting her gaze.
"Mike, I'm proud of you," Alice stated. "That was an incredibly hard thing to do."
"I could have told her. I should have."
Alice shook her head mournfully. "No, Mike, that would have made things so much more tangled and confusing than they already are. Especially for your family."
"Easy for you to say," Mike said bitterly. "You couldn't even remember your life when you were changed."
"You know perfectly well that I'm not speaking from personal experience," Alice told him sternly, subtly referring to her unusual ability.
He rubbed the back of his neck in agitation, knowing that she was right. Alice was always right - it was one of the most charming things about her, but also one of the most vexing.
"Come on, Mike, let's go," she said, giving him a comforting pat on the knee before jumping down to the ground.
Heaving a sigh, he followed suit, and they began the short trek back to what wasn't home, but would have to do for now.
A/N: As always, thanks to It'sTimeToDance and lots of reviews would be lovely :)
