Paralyzed was the only word she could think of to describe it, and though she could see Jake approaching from the corners of her periphery, she wondered how he could be so obtuse when she was so very alert.
Paul's body was still pressing hers back into the tree, but his eyes were locked on Jacob, telling him silently that if he had any sense, any intuition at all, he should be walking away.
"Seriously Bella, I get home to find from my Dad that you're wandering around looking for Embry, he then practically forces me back out here to find you because apparently you're frantic or some shit and I find you all but fucking Paul up against a tree. Some shitty joke that is!" Jake sneered and though she wanted to tell him to shut his mouth because she had seriously been worried, she also knew how bad this looked from his point of view. Her hands which had previously been gripped over her exposed body began the uneasy task of redressing herself without revealing anything more, feeling highly confused within as she did so.
"You better watch your fucking language, Black." Paul said in a voice that was so low and threatening, Bella almost whimpered.
"You're kidding me, right? I don't take orders from you!" Jacob didn't seem to heed any of the warning signs he was being given and without taking his eyes from the threat, Paul gripped Bella's waist and slid her slowly down the tree, keeping almost all of his body firmly against hers as he did.
Turning slowly, Paul's shoulders rolled slightly and Bella could feel the energy begin to coil around her. This was what danger tasted like, she thought, but Jake was still bizarrely oblivious. A part of her wanted to call out, to warn him of the stupidity he was entertaining, but she also felt a little embarrassed to be caught in such a precarious position.
"I don't care who you are Jacob Black, or who you're going to be. I suggest you back the fuck away from what's mine." Paul snarled and though there were many things to be interpreted from his words, she was stuck on chastising herself for feeling a rush of something sweet when he'd labeled her as his, even if he had made it sound as though she was one of his possessions.
"Great, just what I needed! More cryptic bullshit to get me through the day." Jacob muttered and Bella thought perhaps this was a sign he was about to retreat. She only had words to go on, because even though she was standing on her tip toes, she could see neither above nor around Paul's shoulder.
"Tell you what, why don't you hand Bella back over and you can go back to fucking everything you see, everything but her?" Jacob reasoned in a callous voice and for a moment, Bella wondered whether he'd slipped in Paul's promiscuity for anything but her own benefit.
"Get the fuck away." Paul said, taking one step forward, but keeping her back with a strong wide hand splayed across her stomach.
At least from this new position she could see Jacob, but once she had the view, she decided it wasn't exactly one she was going to savor. Jacob, Jake, her usually placid and perpetually cheerful friend, was all but vibrating with disgust, the harsh look in his eyes escaping over Paul's shoulder to catch hers just for a second.
"No. Not until you rethink your choice of prey." Jake said, standing his ground as he folded his arms across his chest in what Bella assumed was intended to be a stance of defiance.
"You have no idea what you're dealing with Black, and if you do what I think you're going to do, you're going to cross a line that even you can't take back." Paul warned, but there were simply too many words missing, too much beyond the realm of knowledge Bella and Jacob possessed for the warning to carry its intended weight.
Bella didn't want to be standing there anymore. While she couldn't deny Paul's hand pressed against her stomach had kept her feeling somewhat calm, she also had no intention of getting involved in a brawl, especially when she couldn't even really figure out what they were fighting about.
"I think maybe I should go… I mean Charlie is going to go crazy when he finds out I'm gone and it's not like I even have an excuse anymore." Bella said as she gnawed her lip, her hand lifting to pull Paul's away from her body, but somehow she ended up just resting hers with his, her fingers fascinated by the potent feel of him.
"Jesus Bella, what the fuck is with you? Did he drug you? Because I seriously thought you were better than this." Jacob interrogated, his eyes narrowing as the question seemed to grow roots in his mind.
"What the fuck did you do to her?" He rephrased and redirected his question, whipping around to face Paul once again, but all he got in response was a sneer and then before she could calculate his motions, Paul had turned around and was kissing her again.
Instantly she forgot about Jake and everything that had come before. All she could think about was the sweet taste of his lips, the way his hand intoxicated her with its strength as it spanned almost her entire stomach. The only thing she could deduce was that the feelings he emoted in her seemed to come from nowhere.
"Get the fuck away from her!" Jacob called and Bella felt Paul's body jolt just slightly. Whatever Jacob had done was enough to stop their kiss, but not enough to actually move Paul.
"Stay there and don't move one fucking inch." Paul commanded and Bella felt herself nodding even though she knew that she really should be running in the other direction and not setting woman kind back by a hundred years with her acquiescence. Paul turned so gracefully and so fast that she almost didn't see him move, but she did hear the sick sound of bones crunching as he punched Jacob and though she felt weak as she saw the blood spurt from his nose, she was frozen to the spot.
"I told you to stay the fuck away from her." With some finality Paul kicked Jacob to the ground and stood over him, his shoulders high and set. Whatever show of dominance this was, it seemed to be too much for Jacob, because without warning he was rearing up, the loud roar of anger in his throat coming from nowhere.
Bella felt like she was drowning in fear and instinctively Paul started to step backwards. While she could see less and less as Paul got nearer, she clearly caught Jacob's body twisting with itself, shaking so violently with anger that she reached her hand out to grasp Paul and pull him in front of her.
It was the last thing she visibly saw before she felt her head whip back as Paul threw himself against her, a sharp tangle of pain shooting through her body as everything erupted in a chilling thunder, and then the world which had always been flowing with colors turned black.
"I think she's waking up." Someone called out from nearby and Bella squeezed her eyes shut a little tighter, hoping whoever it was didn't mean her. As she wrestled through the murkiness of her mind to find all of her senses, she recalled an attack of pain, and just as she did, it washed through her body once again. Reaching her hand up to the back of her head, she winced as she found a hardened lump and then tangles in her thick hair where blood had dried in uneasy clumps.
Listening intently for more voices, she heard the low intonating buzz of conversation, too low to catch any specific words. Something clicked and then footsteps drew nearer until she could hear something sliding, She really didn't want to, because from the vibration of sounds it was clear she wasn't alone, but she opened her eyes anyway, blinking once or twice to perfect her vision.
"How're you feeling?" Asked a voice from the corner of the room and Bella bypassed the shabby floral wallpaper which had initially caught her attention, her eyes searching for the figure in the darkness.
Leah was standing sharp as a razor tucked against the adjoining walls, her eyes wide with fright as though she had something to fear from Bella.
"I hit my head?" She asked, despite having already pieced that back together herself.
"Yeah, seems like you got in the way. Paul was just trying to protect you." Leah added as something of a disclaimer and Bella wanted to tell her that it was hard to get in the way when you were trying to make your whole body mould into a tree trunk, but she didn't.
"From what?" Bella asked, and when Leah chose not to respond, she clarified further. "You said he was trying to protect me, protect me from what?"
It looked for a moment like Leah was going to just go on pretending the question hadn't been asked, then suddenly she slunk down to the floor, uneasy with the information she possessed. "You won't believe me, but he was trying to protect you from Jake."
Normally Bella would dissolved into laughter at the thought of Jake being able to cause her harm, but the vivid memories of his anger left her feeling too numb to really react at all.
"Is he okay? I mean… are they?" Bella asked as she tried to sit up, clearly wincing but getting no help from her guarded audience.
"Which he?" Leah asked, ignoring her correction.
Thinking about which of either Jake or Paul she'd actually meant only made her head hurt more, so she simply mumbled out, "forget it," as she threw her legs over the side of the bed.
"You can't do that." Leah said, not leaving Bella any time to respond before she rushed forward and practically threw her back on the bed.
"Why not?" Bella asked, finding the frantic staccato movements of the girl a warning to adhere, at least for now. Leah took a sharp step back as though Bella was once again infectious and then started to gnaw on her lip.
"The Doctor said you have to stay in bed, that you might have a concussion. I have to make sure you stay here." Leah finally proffered, not really attempting to vouch for the authenticity of her reasoning.
"I want to see Jacob." Bella stated and then thought perhaps she should have said Paul, but while he seemed to hold more sway with Leah, she also doubted he would aid in her attempt to escape.
"He's busy right now." Leah said quickly and seemed pleased to be back on ground she could easily cover as her face softened into a more relaxed form.
"Well, what about Charlie, my dad? He'll freak when he knows I'm here." Bella tried.
"Billy called him to tell him what happened. I explained that I would look after you here and he agreed it would be a good idea. I'm training to be a nurse." Leah said proudly.
Bella couldn't help the groan that found its way out of her mouth. "He's going to kill me."
"Why?" Leah asked, the first effort she'd really made at something that amounted to a normal conversation.
"The same day Sam told me I wasn't welcome, Charlie, well… he told me if I came down here again he'd send me back to live with my mom, in Florida." The words were easy to produce, but once her sentence was done Bella found herself listening only to the sounds of their ingoing and outgoing breaths.
"That wasn't exactly what Sam meant…" Leah began and as Bella lifted her head to get a better look at the girl, she saw Leah's eyes harden; realizing she'd made a mistake by being so forthcoming.
"It sounded pretty clear to me." Bella scoffed, hoping Leah would break whatever ties were binding her.
A silence fell awkwardly between them and Bella couldn't help but use the obdurate time to assess her surroundings. Whoever had decorated this room had done so a long time ago, the curtains were sun washed, the carpets worn and old-fashioned, and the wallpaper was falling away in large chunks. She felt dirty just being there, but she needed something more than just four walls to ascertain her whereabouts.
"Where am I?" She asked, thinking the answer wasn't going to be forthcoming. But Leah surprised her as she looked around, her nose turning up slightly in obvious distaste. "Sam's house."
Bella felt her heart begin to beat a little more violently, just the thought of Sam sending her into a minor panic.
"Why? I mean, why am I here?" She asked, trying to keep some calm in her voice.
"Paul brought you here; he didn't know what to do with you and I guess this is their fallback plan when all else fails" The way she said it made Bella feel like a useless sack filled with worm infested apples, and while she wanted to ask who 'they' were, she didn't.
"Great, well, that's just wonderful." Bella muttered sarcastically. "Does Sam live on the rez?" She asked, hoping Leah would mention a street she knew so that if she ever got a chance to run, she had a hope of making it beyond the front porch without running in circles.
"I guess it would still be classed as Quileute land, but it's right on the edge, in the forest." Leah mused, the question eliciting nothing more than a bored drone.
Bella lay back and thought about her predicament. She was stuck here alone with a girl who's fiancé seemed intent on harassing her, she had left home against her father's express wishes, kissed a boy when she should have been finding another, and then somehow managed to inadvertently get herself hurt during a very confusing fight.
"Do you think maybe Sam has some painkillers, my head really hurts?" Bella said genuinely, though she also secretly laid hope that Leah would need to leave the room. Unfortunately though, Leah just pulled out a little orange bottle from her pocket, something she assumed the elusive doctor had left behind. Instead of merely handing it over, she paused for just a second and Bella watched as her lean fingers caressed the label, her eyes seeming almost forlorn as they tracked her thoughtful caress.
"Water?" Bella asked wistfully when Leah finally threw the little bottle her way and Leah managed to look a little sympathetic as she shook her head.
"Sorry Bella, Sam said it's important you stay up here like the Doctor recommended and I can't be sure that's the case if I up and leave. You'll just have to swallow them dry."
Reading the label, she noticed there was a warning about drowsiness. She didn't feel like she had a concussion, but as her eyes followed the neat little black script, they paused over the name.
Emily Young.
Bella's fingers began to shake, the fragile movements beyond her mental capacity to control.
She found herself stoking the label just as Leah had been doing moments before and when she looked up, hoping for some answers, Leah was glaring at her, almost willing her to speak. Bella rolled around the questions in her mind, thinking how she could actually communicate anything she was thinking, what it would mean to physically say the words aloud. Under Leah's watchful, intimidating eye, she simply wrapped her palm around the lid. It felt wrong as she tapped out two tablets on her palm and as she threw back the tablets and tried to swallow them, she coughed as each one caught in her throat like glass.
"It's not what you think. Just don't ask, okay?" Leah spoke ominously into the silence and Bella found a morsel of inner strength left inside as she openly stared into a pair of haunted brown eyes. Realizing she didn't possess the courage or energy to ask how Leah had come to possess that little orange bottle, she wriggled down, drawing her knees into her chest as she wrapped herself in blankets that smelt like wet soil. As the silence spanned out and the world began to ooze at the edges, she felt a frisson of fear ebb through her body. She had no idea what she had walked into, and no clue what it meant to be swallowing the tablets of a girl who had recently shown up dead.
a/n: A big thank you to my wonderful beta Twiticulate and to all you readers. Also, I'm feeling like maybe I need to say something, a bit of a disclaimer if you will. Judging by the feedback I'm getting, there's obviously a lot of confusion right now. I've tried to answer all your questions as thoroughly as I can (if I missed you, I'm sorry) without giving too much away, but I think it's important to note that my Pack isn't going to be Twi-canon (you've probably figured that out by now!), they aren't going to dance on rainbows, and to find out exactly why that is, will require a little patience. I'm probably going to shoot myself in the foot by saying this, but if you're struggling with the way things are going, it might be an idea to step back and join me again in a few chapters time... I'll miss you, but I'll also completely understand. That being said, I welcome any questions you have, but I can't promise to answer if it might compromise the mystery for you... but please have faith that there is a reason for everything, and everything will be explained in time.
Okay, I'm gone on for waaaay too long here. Enjoy, I'll see you all on Sunday - well... those of you I didn't scare away.. ooops x