Disclaimer: Any characters and/or places that you recognise belong to J.K Rowling, Stephanie Meyer or the USA.
Chapter five:
The three weeks since Lija made the move to Forks passed by quickly, but it was not until the third week that it actually became eventful.
Since she had arrived in town she had become the object of rumour and speculation, on her way to becoming very close friends with Rosalie Hale, became 'friendly' with her neighbours and people she met in the town, and as of four days ago, owned a non-profit organisation.
A week before, during one of her 'melancholy moods' she had an epiphany. Taking stock of the events of her life she realised that she had done a great many things in her 18 years. She had attended a magical school, fought in a magical war, met The Mother-of-All, helped to defeat a Dark Lord, lost her magic, adopted a child and then moved halfway across the world to settle in a town that didn't even turn up in any of the American maps that she had seen.
Yeah she had come a long way but she had also realised that she was mind numbingly bored.
This town was great for raising a family; if one wanted quiet, peaceful and safe, but Lija's life had never been quiet, nor peaceful and definitely not safe. So unfortunately, as far as she was concerned, she had traded in the painful prison of England with the monotonous, quiet and unexciting existence that was Forks.
She had considered for maybe half a minute, whether to attend the local high school. But then she had a cup of tea and a lie down and then realised just how ridiculous that idea was. She had not had a muggle education since she was 10, and as brilliant as her lawyer was in creating her an identity for the muggle world, he could never have created seven years worth of muggle qualifications. Also, no amount of boredom was worth the excruciating experience that would come with navigating herself through the social cliques of that institute, as well as trying (and most likely failing) to keep her head above all the information that she would have to learn and retain.
Then, she had thought of getting a job. But she ran into problems there too because, one, she didn't have any qualifications, two, she didn't need the money, and three, she had zilch job experiences. She couldn't really put in her resume; I believe I am uniquely qualified for this position because I survived a Dark Wizard and his forces, for referee's I have enclosed the contact details for the Divine Mother-of-All and Tom Riddle a.k.a Lord Voldemort. And besides, even if there was even a small chance that she could get a job she couldn't really well leave Teddy with a babysitter, especially as there was no-one in this town that she would trust to that extent... yet.
Despite her frustrations, she did eventually find the solution to occupying her spare time and money sitting right in front of her.
Staring listlessly at the local newspaper in front of her, she tried not to feel too depressed by the unadventurous state that her life had become because, YAY, no Voldemort. But she really needed to find something to occupy her time, she couldn't run after Teddy all day and he wouldn't need her constant supervision forever.
Sighing, she picked up the newspaper and rose to her feet, but froze unexpectedly half-way.
There, on the front of page of the local rag was a heart-wrenching story about a nine year old local boy, his battle with leukaemia and his parents struggle to feed their other three kids and keep their house. The town had rallied together and raised funds, but it was barely enough to cover the house payments and it wasn't enough to cover the child's treatment, even with his father's health insurance covering a portion of it and the child's doctor treating him for free.
Slapping her palm to her forehead, she damned herself as three kinds of an idiot. When she had read this story half an hour ago she had felt sorrow and pity towards the family but she had never asked herself whether she could do anything. Now she wondered how it was that she had allowed herself to become so indifferent as to not see a solution to this family's misery when it was within her to grant.
Rushing to her phone in her study she dialled the number for her attorney from memory before realising that he was in England and the difference in time would put her eight hours behind. As it was midday in Forks that would make it eight at night for London which would most likely mean that Alan would not be in his office. Not wanting to interrupt him at home she searched her bags for the business card for his firm and located the number for the office in Seattle. After explaining to the receptionist who she was and that her normal lawyer was a senior associate, she was put through to one of the senior partners. He was more then willing to help her put her plans in motion and he had also assured her that anything they discussed would be forwarded onto Alan as soon as the London office was open for business.
One hour on the phone and a flurry of fax and email exchanges later, Lija was now the only Trustee of a yet-to-be registered Charitable Trust. When she was prompted for a name she decided to pick 'LJP Children's Hope Trust,' paying homage to her mother and her father in the simple title. The objective of the trust was simple; provide financial assistance for children and their families where needed. The rules, laws and the charter of the trust would need to be hashed out and specified with her lawyers later but at this stage it was enough. Eventually she would increase the mission statement to include physical and emotional assistance but with just one real employer of the organisation, it just wouldn't be feasible.
The next day, the Seattle office had sent over a small plane to pick her and Teddy up so that they could come into the office to sign the official documentation. In discussion with her attorney's she had chosen to keep her anonymity. Alan Shore and the associates in the Seattle branch of Crane Poole & Schmidt helped her by hiring a middle aged woman named Linda to be the official representative of any matters concerning LJP Children's Hope. All monetary and final decisions still lay ultimately with her, but Linda would be in charge of overseeing the day-to-day upkeep. Linda was the Trust's employee for only one hour when she set in motion the plans to assist Johnny Parson (the nine-year-old child) and his family. When Lija left the very next morning she left Seattle knowing that the Parson's house was safe and that Johnny would be receiving the best care that money could provide.
Now here she sat, looking over the results of what her plans had produced. The front page of the Newspaper had the Parson's in all their emotional glory thanking their friends, family, supporters, doctor and the LJP Children's Hope Trust. The financial assistance apparently now meant that Dr Cullen could sign off their son's transfer to John Hopkins where he would continue his treatment. Folding up the paper, Lija felt emotional herself, watching your own child suffer something this terrible was hard enough. But watching them suffer and knowing that you didn't have money to do your best? Having Teddy meant that she now felt those parental aches on a level otherwise not imagined and for this she was glad that her hero complex was still rather active.
If she had known what was going to happen on Friday, Lija would have probably wished that her hero complex had an off switch.
When Rosalie had told her the previous Wednesday that her brother Edward was planning to leave his girlfriend she had felt nothing but sympathy for the girl. As it was none of her business she couldn't involve herself and warn the poor girl as to what was going to happen. When her next door neighbour Mrs Pembrooke (who was a professional Gossip), had told her that Chief Swan's daughter had only just left the hospital after being admitted on Saturday morning, she knew that Edward must have finally done it. But after she actually saw her, Lija was thinking that Rosalie's observation of Bella being 'easily hurt' was a huge understatement. Bella needed professional help.
The morning started off inconspicuously enough. Her duties towards Teddy were routine, her responsibility towards the Trust was easily completed while Teddy was napping and any extra time was used for impromptu trips to the town or maintenance around the house. That morning, Lija decided to break with routine and packed Teddy up so that they could have breakfast at one of the popular eating establishments off the main highway. On the way there she passed Bella Swan's red pickup truck parked on the shoulder on the opposite side of the road but without any sight of the driver. Trucks and cars were travelling by the empty truck horns blaring in annoyance at the inconvenience of having her car parked so close to the coming curve.
She debated with herself for about one minute before hitting the indicator to pull over; she waited for the busy traffic to clear before doing a sharp U-Turn and driving back the opposite way. She slowed to a crawl as she got nearer to the red truck, before stopping to park behind it.
The speeding vehicles threw up gravel and dust, a cacophony of beeping horns as they sped on by, her hair which had been nicely done before she left the house, flew up every which way. She beeped her car shut before slowly moving towards the passenger side of the other car. She stopped when she saw the brown haired girl with her legs pulled up to her chest, leaning against the front tire of her vehicle, her head bowed against her knees. Not wanting to alarm the obviously distraught girl, she approached at a snail's pace and with caution, when she was within arm's length she lowered herself to a crouch and spoke softly.
"Isabella? Isabella Swan?"
'Isabella' raised her head and Lija saw such desolation in her eyes that it was like a blow to her heart. Her eyes were glazed and red-rimmed, her nose was raw and she had lost so much weight on her face that her bone structure was far more defined then it was before. She also had dark circles around her eyes and her lips were chapped and dry. Who on earth let this girl out of the hospital?
"Miss Swan? Is there anyone I can call to come get you?" she asked concernedly.
"I'm fine," came the reply in a voice so pathetic that it gave Lija pause. She was the master of the "I'm fine" as a reply and just looking at the poor creature before her she knew that she was anything but 'fine'.
"I don't think your fine. Whatever it is, it's not worth your health and safety," she replied quietly knowing exactly what it was but concerned at how the girl seemed to shrink in on herself at the reminder of her pain. "Swan? It's not worth this."
At that Bella seemed to snap out of her wretched stupor for a moment as her lips thinned and her face coloured in anger. "You don't even know what 'it' is. For all you know it could be worth it. You don't even know who I am so what business is it of yours. Thank you for your concern but you can just leave!"
Lija raised an eyebrow at the girl; anger was an emotion other then pathetic so she'd take it. She was tempted to just take the girl's advice and hop in her car and go on her way but she knew she'd feel guilty if anything happened to the idiot once she left. Damn hero complex.
"I'm not leaving you here. You're on the side of a busy highway and only your car separates you from all the trucks and cars that are speeding past. I sympathise with what you're feeling right now, but I suggest that you keep in mind that if you do anything stupid in the state you're in you'll be endangering other lives that are driving past here."
"I'm not going to do anything stupid," the silly girl retorted, this time in resentment at being spoken to like a child.
"Forgive me, but I beg to differ. You've parked yourself on the shoulder of a highway just before a curve; if any car takes that curve too fast they'll skid right across the lane and end up hitting you. That isn't anywhere near the top of the list of being smart, Swan."
Bella clenched her jaw in frustration and anger, there was still pain but at the moment she was angry at being lectured to, Lija just hoped that the anger would be enough to get her to hop in her car and drive home where she would be safe.
"Can you just go away?! I didn't ask you to stop, I didn't ask you to be here and I sure didn't tell you to care," the other girl exploded, unwinding and jumping to her feet. "Mind your own fucking business."
Lija got to her feet as well, if the little fool decided to attack her in her misplaced anger at being dumped, by Merlin she was going to kick her ass. Controlling her anger now, she took a deep breath through her nose and let it out. Calm, think calm.
"Alright Swan," she said holding her arms out to show she was not being threatening. "Okay. I'm going to get into my car and go on my way, but first I'm going to see you on yours."
Bella, who had calmed somewhat at the beginning of her statement practically vibrated with anger at the last. Her jaw was locked into place, teeth clenched, and her hands were fisted at her side, knuckles white. Lija knew the other girl had met her emotional limit for the day and could see her preparing to swing before she even did it, but Lija could also hear her son crying in the car and did not want to spend any more time arguing with this girl. She wished that she could direct the girl to get into the car without any further issues.
"Get in the car Swan," she commanded, not honestly expecting it to work. "Then I'll be on my way."
To her everlasting surprise, the angry girl struggled with herself for a minute before wrenching open the rear passenger door and getting in, shocked Lija stood there staring at her through the open door for a few seconds before another cry was heard from her car.
"Okay, good girl. But you need to drive home, so you need to get out on the other side and –"
She cut off abruptly when Bella quickly slid over to behind the driver's side and opened the door preparing to get out. Lija only saw the yellow blur indicating a speeding car before she dove through the passenger door and grabbed the fool to pull her back in; she was just in time because as Bella's feet left the open door the yellow car squealed and slid to a stop before slamming into the open truck door sending the door flying off the hinges in a loud screeching of metal and glass. With the impact on the door, Lija was violently thrown a meter back to skid on the gravel before rolling to a stop down the short slope.
Getting up gingerly she checked herself for any broken bones before gasping at the sharp, intense pain that went through her right wrist. Her t-shirt and jeans were torn and palms were scraped and bleeding and there were scratches and scrapes from the bottom of her broken wrist to her elbow on her right arm as it had taken the full brunt of her travel. Her eyes watered with the pain as she cradled her wrist gently to her chest and gingerly got to her feet
"Fuck!" she cursed in anger and pain at the burning sensation in her leg. Looking down she saw that the entire right side of her leg from her thigh to her ankle was bleeding where the skin and material had torn.
Turning she started her short trek up the incline to her car where she could hear the panicked voices of other drivers checking if people were alright. Teddy!
"Oh Mother!" she gasped in panic, before ignoring her pain and breaking into a run. Getting to her Land Rover she could see that it was undamaged but she could hear her son crying from inside. There were a lot of people surrounding the cars, she didn't know where Bella was but she really didn't care, if she saw the girl she was going to kick the shit out of her.
"Are you okay?" someone asked. But she didn't reply pushing past and avoiding all the grasping hands trying to help her. She vaguely remembered someone telling her to sit down but all she could hear was her son crying in fright.
My keys?! Where's my Keys...
Her mind was panicked and she needed to get to Teddy and she was getting frustrated with everyone trying to get in her way, the adrenalin was pumping and her pain was gone, but she needed to get to her son. She snarled at another person who tried to make her sit down and gave up looking for her keys. Her mind was filled with too much terror... too much fright... too much worry...
She felt detached from her body as she watched her left elbow go through the front passenger window, and she watched herself unflinchingly putting her bare hands through the sharp shards of glass to flick open the lock from inside. She ignored the glass on the passenger seat as she frantically climbed over it to reach behind to get her baby boy. He was red and sweaty, big crocodile tears falling down his face, he reached out his small hands grasping for his mum but restricted by his belt.
Hands trembling, whether from pain or fear she'd never know, Lija unbuckled her son and carried him outside. Teddy kept crying, startled by all the faces that looked upon him and in the distance Lija could hear sirens. Walking away from the scene she tried to put a distance between all the people and her child. She hugged him to her, gently rocking him as his cries turned to whimpers, her own body trembling in pain and cold as the adrenalin slowly started to leave her.
She watched disconnected as she finally located Bella, sitting huddled underneath a huge tree about five metres away from her truck, there were people surrounding her but they all parted like the red sea when Chief Swan reached her yelling for his daughter at the top of his lungs.
Looking down upon her now sleeping son, Lija could honestly say that at this moment she had never hated and loathed anyone more then Bella Swan, if she had known what would have happened if she stopped to see if that bitch was okay, she never would have done so. She should have left the first time that she told her to.
A gentle hand on her shoulder made her look around in a daze. Now that the adrenalin had all but left her she could feel the burning intense pain down the right hand side of her body and she felt like her arm was on fire. She could feel the wetness against her skin, so she knew she was probably bleeding heavily. She probably looked a mess.
"Lija? You need to let me look at your injuries," the voice said kindly.
Staring at the person who had spoken she couldn't get her mind to concentrate. She didn't know whether she had met him or not. Her mind recognised that he was very handsome; he had blonde hair and an almost radiant pale skin and kind golden-eyes... golden-eyes like Rosalie. She watched as his mouth moved and tried to concentrate on what he was saying, something about Teddy? Was there something wrong with Teddy? She looked down and saw blood on Teddy's clothes... Teddy's blood? No, it wasn't. She could feel the stinging of the cuts in her hands. This was her blood.
"You need to let me take a look at you Lija, can you let me have Teddy?" he asked again, slowly and softly. He nodded in understanding, eyes worried when she shook her head, tightening her grip on the sleeping toddler.
Carlisle assessed the young lady in front of him with concern. Edward wouldn't be happy when he found out what happened to his mate and it would be very difficult stopping him from killing Bella. Even if it wasn't Bella's fault the very fact that she was involved would be reason enough for him... and Rose. She needed treatment though, he could see that she was pained and most likely some of the injuries were easily fixed, but he had a suspicion that her wrist was broken and it needed to be tended to before the bone set and they had to re-break it.
Still keeping an eye on her he pulled out his mobile phone and hit speed dial. Rosalie answered on the first ring.
"Rose, where are you?" he asked quietly, hoping that she wasn't at home.
"At the art shop with Esme, why?" she asked curious.
"Is Edward with you?"
"No, he's home with Emmett and Jazz, its just Alice, Esme and I... what is this about Carlisle?"
He paused, wondering why Alice hadn't seen this in any of her visions.
"Lija has been in an accident. She needs to be tended too but she will not give up her son, I am hoping that she will give him to you," he explained. There was silence on the other end and he could hear Rose conversing with Esme too fast for human ears to pick up.
"I'm on my way, where are you?" she asked rapidly.
Carlisle gave directions to her before asking her to bring Esme and Alice so that Edward wouldn't find out. They couldn't have him turn up at the hospital especially as he hadn't yet claimed the girl and there would be no real reason for him to be present. And by the looks of it, Miss Swan would also be at the hospital too.
Hanging up he turned his full attention back to the injured green-eyed girl. Eyeing her for a minute he could see that she was tired and about ready to fall, he only took a second to make up his mind. Motioning to the paramedic that was standing by he beckoned them to bring the ambulance closer, the driver nodded and hopped back into his vehicle.
"Lija, I know you do not wish to let Teddy go so I am going to ask that you allow me to at least put you into the ambulance. I have called Rosalie and she is on her way, will you allow her to hold Teddy while you are treated?" he queried, slowly manoeuvring her towards the now parked Ambulance.
"Okay," she replied. Even with the exhaustion and the pain, her voice was strong and clear; Carlisle felt pride at knowing that this girl would be part of his family soon.
He had her seated in the ambulance; introducing himself to her he talked about his family to distract from her pain. She asked questions every now and then, but he would be very surprised if she even recalled any of his answers. He was just describing his home to her when he sensed his wife and his two daughters approaching at vampire speed, they'd arrive within twenty seconds.
Sure enough they appeared out of the cover of trees, blending in easily with those already there and making it look like they had been there for a while. They headed straight towards him and stopped while Rose continued and climbed up into the ambulance to sit next to her friend. Carlisle noticed with interest that although Lija was bleeding copious amounts of blood, neither Rosalie nor Alice was affected.
"Lija, honey, Carlisle needs to take you to the hospital. I promise I'll look after Teddy," she said anxiously.
Green eyes looked into Topaz for a moment before Lija nodded her head and transferred Teddy into the blonde vampire's arms. As Rosalie went to hop out of the Ambulance, Lija stopped her.
"Wait. His carry-bag is in the car, it's got everything he needs," she said tiredly, her words now slurring slightly with the pain but you could still hear the pleading in it. "Rosalie, take care of my baby please."
The ambulance door closed, but not before Lija saw Rosalie nod sincerely. She laid herself back on the stretcher, worn out by the emotions of the day. She felt cold hands gently tending to her and she barely felt the prick of the needle as it entered her arm. Her eyelids felt heavy but she eventually opened them, her head felt drowsy and the interior of the ambulance was blurred and spinning. Concentrating she focussed on Dr Cullen, she opened her mouth to try and say something but she felt like she couldn't move her tongue. The good doctor must have noticed her attempts at conversation because he brought his face closer and smiled encouragingly at her. At least she thought it was encouraging, it was hard to tell with his five heads. And he had so many eyes, and what is with all the spinning? Oh yeah, that's right, she was going to tell him something important.
"This... is... all... your... son's... fault," she slurred slowly. As her eyes closed and the world went dark she thought she saw Dr Cullen's eyes widen in surprise.
And she was sure she imagined it but she also thought she heard him laughing.
A/N: I don't know if you can tell by the beginning of this chapter but this occurs a week after Edward dumps Bella.
Now, I don't know how registering for a Charitable Non-profit Organisation works in the USA but I've based it on how you would set one up in NZ. So to answer everyone who worried about Lija doing nothing all day, this is what I had set up for her to do since I first thought of this story.
I've finally caught up with all the chapters that I had written in draft format, so the updates from here on are going to be a little longer to get out. At this stage, I would say two updates a week.
Thank you for all the Encouraging reviews.
EDIT: You all seem to be very worried that Lija's money will run out with her setting up a trust, and Lija thanks you for that lol. In NZ any income received by the trust is tax-free, furthermore Charitable Organisations have a few allowances in regards to donations that can be written off as a loss towards the Organisation. So in actual fact, the only cost that Lija is initially underwriting is the set-up, continued running and employee wages. The trust will end up paying itself through grants and donations, but as its just starting it's actually a few years away before it gets to that point. Meanwhile, if you believe that Lija or her attorney's would let all that money just sit in the bank unused then :) aren't we silly? I am sure that Lija's money is making money through long/short term investments and as she is the only one spending it thus far she has a lot of it to get through. And really, Lija's doing this out of her goodwill to mankind - honest. :)