I do not own Twilight or it's characters.
Both vampires whirled around at the sound of my voice, absolute silence falling over the three of us for what felt like the next minute.
"What happened to you Bella?!" Emmet demanded suddenly, his face losing all of it's usual happiness. As I looked timidly from him to Jasper, their expressions mirrored each other perfectly. Absolute shock and horror.
I dove into my story immediatley, not wanting them to jump to any conclusions on their own.
"Well, I got a little off path on the way to the bookstore, and I tripped over this rock in the road and fell pretty hard, I even hit my head on the asphalt..." as I was speaking I was grateful for adding the part about hitting my head, because the more I spoke the more difficult it became to hold my tears at bay. Before I finished the story tears were inadvertantly streaming down my face as I clutched the back of my head, suddenly feeling the enormity of the pain I was actually in.
Unfortunatley, the story did little to soften the looks on my brothers' faces. Emmet grabbed me into a bear hug, holding me firmly against his chest and lightly brushing my hair with his fingertips. He whispered "shh, it's okay, we're going to take you home now and you can clean up" into my ear. I was still doing my damndest to hold back the full force of my hysteria when he lifted me into his arms to carry me to the car. Jasper followed silently behind, and slid into the driver's seat as Emmet lowered me carefully into the back.
...
The car ride was silent, and I didn't dare glance the front of the car and risk seeing my brother's worried faces. When we reached the house, Emmet immediatley scooped me back into his arms from the backseat and carried me into the house, setting me delicatley on the living room couch. Jasper went straight upstairs, not even glancing at me. I closed my eyes and laid my head against the stiff armrest of the couch and immediatley regreted it. Pain shot through my head like an icepick was being driven through the back of it. I cried out lamely and felt a cold hand touch my upper arm, causing me to jerk my body violently away, almost instinctivley. I opened my eyes quickly to a stunned Emmet, perched on the coffee table next to me with his hand hovering where my arm had been a split second earlier.
"I'm sorry Bella, does your arm hurt too? I didn't mean to startle you" he asked fearfully, his wide eyes searching my face for some indication of what he should do.
"No, no I'm sorry, I was just startled that's all" I mumbled meakly. Jasper desended the stairs at that moment, carrying an armful of what appeared to be comfortable clothing from what had to be Esme's closet.
"Alice didn't have anything that looked near comfortable," he commented with a hesitant smile, offering me the pile of clothes. Although the small smile remained on his face, his eyes looked unmistakably sad, and confused even.
"Emmet and I will go upstairs while you change Bella, just let us know when you're done. Then we can find something to help the pain with your head." He leaned forward slowly, as if he were going to touch my head, and automatically my heart skipped a beat and I froze in sudden fear. Almost as quickly as I froze, Jasper stopped and withdrew his hand. Instead, he grabbed Emmet's arm and led him upstairs giving me some privacy to change.
I slipped into the downstairs bathroom and quickly stripped off my dirty clothing. I wanted to burn those clothes as soon as I had the chance. Before putting on Esme's sweats, I glanced my naked body in the mirror, and my mouth dropped. Faint purple bruises were forming along my entire ribcage, and on the insides of my thighs rapidly. My chest was scratched severely, as though it was knives instead of fingernails that had ripped through my skin. Dried blood was smeared in little swirls across the cuts, like I was marked as some sort of prey. I ran the faucet immediatley and used a washcloth to rid my skin of the blood, but it did little to improve the overall appearance of my naked body. My eyes traveled up the mirror, and I was startled again at the state of my face. My lip had been cut, and my left cheek bone was thoroughly bruised. My hair was in absolute knots, so I threw it up quickly with the hairband from around my wrist. With my hair pulled up, I could now see the massacre that was my neck. Bruises and bite marks were forming into raised welts along my throat. The sight of the teeth marks caused me to gag and I was able to throw the toliet seat open in just enough time to release pure stomach acid into the bowl. I coughed and flushed quickly, knowing the boys must have heard me upstairs. I threw on Esme's clothing and quickly exited the bathroom, only to be confronted with two very concerned looking vampires.
"Sorry Bella, we would have waited for your say so, but we heard you being sick," Jasper started.
"Yeah Bells, look, we talked about trying to get in touch with Edward, but you don't have any cell reception in those mountains, and he's too far away to hear either of our thoughts. One of us can go up there and get him while the other stays with you, if you'd like. It's not big deal at all little sis, don't worry." Emmet smiled softly at me, pure worry radiating from his eyes. But no, I couldn't see Edward looking like this, no matter how much I needed him. I didn't want him to ever know what I had let happen, and my beaten body would give it away immediatley.
"Thanks guys, but I just fell that's all. I'm not going to bring Edward home over something as simple as that. My head just hurts a lot right now, that's the only reason I'm so upset, and it would just cause him unnecessary worry."
Emmet and Jasper exchanged a short look, as if silently debating whether that was the right decision. Eventually they both agreed not to get Edward for now, but I had to stay at the house with them for the rest of the week in case the pain from my head didn't improve.
"People don't usually vomit from head pain unless they have a concussion Bella" Jasper told me as I sat back on the couch. "In which case, we really need to take you to the hospital for scans".
Oh no. No hospitals. If I went to the hospital I would have to get undressed and a doctor would examine me and see my bruises and cuts. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out from thier placement what had happened.
"Jasper, please. I hate hospitals, you know that. I doubt it's as seious as a concussion", I knew I was lying through my teeth on this one, I had at least a concussion. It actually felt more like I had brain damage.
"I know you do, but Emmet and I both feel strongly about this."
"We can't let anything else happen to you Bells. It's bad enough that we weren't with you today to catch you from tripping" Emmet added softly, looking down at his feet as if he were ashamed.
This was all too much. My brothers actually felt guilty about the lie I had told, when in actuality, it was all my fault I was hurt. I couldn't even begin to think about what had really happened, I just couldn't allow myself to go there. I don't know if I would ever be able to come back. I closed my eyes in thought, desperatley trying to figure out how I was going to get out of going to the hospital. All of a sudden, I felt a hand on my shoulder and Randall's crazed eyes flashed through the darkness of my eyelids.
"NO!" I screamed, jumping from the couch and loosing my balance as I fell to the floor. I was panting instead of breathing, almost hyperventalating, as I instinctively curled into a ball on the ground. Fear raged through me as Randall's roaming hands flashed through my mind and I was shaking uncontrollably as I hardened my body on the floor.
After what seemed like several moments, the shocking looks on my brothers' faces replaced Randall's hands in my vision. Slowly, it registered with me that Emmett had touched my shoulder, in a reassuring gesture, not a threatening one. Now he looked terrified, frozen in place with his hand yet again suspended where my shoulder had been previously. I looked from him to Jasper, who looked unnervingly sad, but not shocked, as Emmett did.
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