Title: Fallen

Author: Lazalot_Anreads

Beta: None

Characters/Pairings: Bella/Jacob

Rating: NC-17

Challenge: None

Summary: Bella is just starting to heal when she is raped, beaten, and left for dead on the side of the road near the reservation. Jacob finds her.

Notes: Rape, New Moon AU

Chapter 006

The next morning, Jacob opened his eyes to see Bella sleeping beside him, fully healed and with a soft smile on her perfect face. Amazed, he called for Embry in a whisper. He could hear the other boy moving around in the kitchen and knew he was up.

Embry shuffled in, still half asleep. "WHAT?" Then he saw Bella's face, and he was suddenly wide awake. His jaw dropped and his eyes popped, but all he said was, "Whoa."

"I know, right?" Jacob was still whispering. "It's like a frigging miracle, dude!"

"Is it just her face or …" Embry trailed off and raised a questioning eyebrow at his friend.

"I don't know, I haven't checked." Jacob shrugged. "I didn't want to wake her; she actually slept through the ENTIRE night without a single whimper and I saw no reason to disrupt such a HEALING sleep. Pun intended."

Embry chuckled and nodded. "You're right. We should let her sleep. Come on, you can keep me company while I make breakfast." He left the room and Jacob followed him. "Do you know what her favorite breakfast is?"

"Fried ham, boiled eggs, and cheesy hash browns," Jacob replied immediately. "Do we have the stuff for it?"

"Boiled eggs?" Embry made a face. "To each their own, I guess. Yeah, we have the stuff and I even know how to make it, so just chillax for a minute and then you can take sleeping beauty her breakfast in bed."

So Jacob grabbed a seat at the kitchen table and watched his friend cook. "How do you think she healed so fast, Em?"

"I have NO clue, bro," Embry replied, his back to Jacob as he prepared breakfast. "Normally, I'd assume you'd Mated even if you didn't tell me had, but these aren't normal circumstances. I know there's no way that you and Bella fucked last night, but I can't think of anything else that would make her suddenly heal the way she did. I'm clueless, man."

"Well, we did kiss," Jacob admitted.

Embry spun to face him, dropping an egg on the floor in the process. "Ugh. YOU can clean that up, it's your fault for startling me like that. What do you MEAN, the two of you kissed?"

Jacob grabbed some paper towels and cleaned the egg up quickly before going back to his seat. Embry waited, somewhat impatiently, but it was a long time before his friend said anything else. "She wanted me to kiss her. So I did."

"Just like that? What about the rape, man? There's no way she's ready to start a relationship with you right now." Embry went back to cooking. "Not that a kiss equals a relationship, or anything, but it does tend to start one. Was there tongue?"

Jacob, who had been in the midst of taking a drink, choked. Milk actually came out of his nose. He grabbed a napkin and wiped it away quickly. "That's none of your fucking business, man!"

Embry nodded. "So there was tongue. Jake, man, she's pushing herself too damn hard. I just don't know WHY."

Jacob didn't say anything, too busy thinking about Bella's possible reasons for kissing him the night before. Soon, her breakfast was ready and Embry laid it all out on a breakfast tray he'd recently found in the pantry before giving it to Jacob and sending him back to his and Bella's room. Embry would eat alone, but he didn't mind.

Jacob set the tray on his side of the bed and walked around to Bella's side, shaking her gently. "Wake up, baby. It's time to eat."

"No," Bella said clearly, squeezing her eyes more tightly shut and rolling over onto her stomach. "Go away."

"After all of Embry's hard work?" Jacob shook her again. "He made your favorite, Bella. The least you could do is eat it."

She groaned loudly and Jacob smiled, knowing he'd won. Guilt was always a good motivator for his Bella.

"Hey," Bella mumbled into her pillow, "I don't hurt. Why don't I hurt?"

Jacob chuckled nervously. "You seem to have healed overnight. At least, your face has."

She lifted her head and looked at him with the beautiful brown eyes he'd missed so much. Suddenly, a wide smile broke out across her face. "I can see! Shit, it's TRUE, I really DID heal overnight! How is this possible?"

"We don't know." Jacob helped her sit up and put the tray in her lap. "But that doesn't matter right now. Eat."

"Fine." She picked up her fork and called out, "Thanks, Embry!" Then she started eating, moaning when she took her first bite of cheesy hash browns. "GOD."

Entry 002 - Monday, October 11, 2010

When I woke up this morning, I found my body completely healed like some kind of miracle. Jacob doesn't know why it happened and neither does Embry, but personally I couldn't give a damn. I feel FANTASTIC. Physically, I mean.

Emotionally I'm still completely wrecked. Jacob and Embry help; they treat me the same as they always have, which is a HUGE relief. They tease me and make me laugh, too, which I really need right now. I honestly don't know what I'd do without them.

Jacob especially. I don't know what it is, but just being in his presence makes me feel a LOT better. It's always been that way, though, ever since we met when we were little kids. His spirit soothes mine.

Jacob claimed me as his Chosen last night, which basically means that we're betrothed. I don't think that he thinks that I'm taking this seriously, but I AM. I even claimed him back! I'm proud to be his Chosen and I'd be even prouder to be his Mate. I just don't think that I can. Just the WORD 'sex' scares the hell out of me, I'd hate to see what happened if I tried to do the actual DEED.

I HATE Tyler Crowley and his fucking thugs! Ugh, the word 'hate' is hardly adequate to express how I feel about those SLUGS. I want to tie them down and cut off their equipment with a dull knife, then I want to feed it to them. THEN I want to take a broom and ram the handle so far up Crowley's ass that he CHOKES on it. God, I could talk all day about the tortures I want to inflict on those creeps!

But I won't, because something else happened last night and I HAVE to talk about it, even if only to a book. Jacob KISSED me! With TONGUE! Of course, I had to practically MAKE him, but a kiss is still a kiss no matter what way you look at it, and THIS kiss was damn GOOD!

It started out all sweet and tender, like he thought I might bolt if he showed any real passion. But then I asked him for more, and it was like my request unleashed something within him. His lips crashed back down on mine in the most glorious, most ELECTRIFYING kiss I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing. GOD!

I love Jacob Black. It's funny, but what brought that home for me more than anything else was the rape. I remember thinking, as Crowley stole my virginity, that he'd stolen something of Jacob's. The moment I realized that I wanted to give myself to my best friend was the same moment that Crowley took me against my will. How twisted is THAT?

I told Jacob that the reason I was out that night was that I was planning to tell him that I'm in love with him. That's more or less the truth - my feet were taking me to the keeper of my heart even though my head hadn't quite caught up yet. He doesn't believe me, though, and I can tell that words aren't going to make much of a difference. So from here on out, I'm going to let my actions speak for me.

I'll show Jacob that he chose right - that, even though I can't give him sex, I can give him everything else he needs.

Bella closed the notebook and looked up as Jacob entered the room, a small smile gracing her features. "You look WIPED."

"I am." Bella had asked for some time to herself after she eaten her breakfast, so Jacob had joined Embry in working on the master bathroom. They'd completely gutted it and were in the process of laying down new tile when they'd both decided that it was time to call it a night. "Are you ready for your shower?"

Bella raised both of her eyebrows at the question and took a closer look at him. His eyes were half closed and he was swaying in place. There were dark circles under his eyes and his shoulders were hunched with tension. He was a mess.

Bella smiled to herself. Even though she hated to see her best friend in such a bad way, this was just the kind of opportunity she needed to take care of HIM for a change. So she made a decision.

"Yeah, I'm ready." She got to her feet and took his hand, leading him to the bathroom. What he really needed was a bubble bath, but she had no idea how to swing that without making him suspicious, so she turned the shower on instead. "Take your clothes off."

They both got naked and into the shower. When they were both wet, he picked up the shampoo and motioned for Bella to turn around so that he could wash her hair. She let him take care of her, but when he was done, she took the shower gel from him before he could wash his own body.

"What are you doing?" he asked, watching her lather up the loofah through tired eyes.

"Hush," Bella replied, starting to wash him. "Let me take care of you tonight."

It was a testament to how tired he was that he didn't even argue.

Once he was clean, she got them out of the shower and dried off, and then they took turns brushing their teeth before Bella led Jacob to bed. She tucked him in, and he was asleep by the time she was done.

Bella could hear Embry in the kitchen, so she went to see if he needed anything.

"Nah, I'm good," he told her, taking a bite of his dry apple jacks. "Just having a late night snack. You want some?" He nudged the cereal box toward her.

"No, thanks. I just brushed my teeth." Bella sat down across from him. "Did Jacob tell you that he claimed me as his Chosen?"

Embry nodded. "He also told me about the kiss."

Bella's cheeks reddened. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah." Embry set his spoon down in his bowl and took a deep breath. "Bella, are you trying to have sex with Jake to forget about the rape?"

Bella reared back as if she'd been slapped. Tears sprung to her eyes and she looked away, toward the hall that led to the room in which her Jacob was sleeping. "I would NEVER do something like that!" A few tears escaped, but she didn't bother to wipe them away, hugging herself tightly instead. It didn't feel nearly as good as one of Jacob's hugs would have, but she'd take what she could get. "NEVER! Jacob means the world to me, Embry; I could never hurt him that way."

Embry breathed a sigh of relief. "I didn't think so, but I had to ask."

Bella turned back to him. "What on earth gave you such a RIDICULOUS idea, anyway?"

Embry blushed, but answered honestly. "I have a TV in my bedroom, so I usually watch something before I go to sleep. Last night it was a rerun of Oprah that just happened to deal with rape."

Bella couldn't help herself; she burst out laughing. "YOU were watching OPRAH?"

He scowled and took an angry bite of his cereal. With his mouth full, he muttered grumpily, "It's not THAT funny."

Bella was still giggling when she went to bed five minutes later.