Chapter 19 – Rosalie – Running

The morphine left me feeling dazed and disconnected from the world. All I could focus on was McCarty's big, strong hand wrapped around mine to hold me in reality.

"I'm taking her home with me," McCarty said, and even I caught the note of uncertainty in his voice. "My Ma can look after her for a bit…but you mustn't tell him, if he comes asking."

"I know nothing," Dr Cullen said with a faint smile. He was working quickly, splinting and bandaging my elbow. "But he'll suspect it was you, if you both disappear."

"He fired me," McCarty said, adding defensively. "Nothing happened! I just…I hugged her because he upset her, and…well."

"I understand how it was," Dr Cullen murmured.

"I didn't do anything," I said drowsily. "I wouldn't…even if I thought things…" I heard McCarty's gentle chuckle and I looked up at him, feeling like I was swimming through a thick fog. "You never knew…how much I wanted…" I closed my eyes against a wave of dizziness.

"Keep the splint on for the next few days, and let her move it gently after that. It will heal well, but she'll need to take care. The baby seems fine, and she's had no more bleeding." Dr Cullen touched my face. "Rosalie? Rosalie…wake up."

"Hmm?" I forced my eyelids open.

"You can go now, but I want to make sure you're happy to go with Emmett? I can help you if you would prefer to stay here in Rochester. I've documented the previous abuse, and I can help you speak with the police. My wife will help you too," Dr Cullen said seriously.

I looked from his strange golden eyes over to McCarty's blue ones, and I knew what I wanted to do. "I can't stay here," I said, my voice slurring a little with the drugs. "He'll never give up…I want to go away."

Dr Cullen nodded. "Very well. If you need me for anything, I'll always be happy to help you. But your arm is set and there's nothing else I can do for the bruising, so you're free to go."

He gave me a small packet of pills to take for pain, and since I didn't have my purse McCarty slipped them into his pocket and took my good arm. "Come on sweetheart…ma'am…let's go."

There was a brisk night breeze outside that helped shake a little of the morphine fog from my brain. As we reached McCarty's car I looked at the rusted metal a little doubtfully.

"This actually drives?"

"We're not all fortunate enough to be driving Cadillacs," he replied lightly. "And you'd better hope it drives, because it's a long way to Tennessee on foot."

"We have to go home first," I said slowly, lowering myself gingerly into the car, wincing as I bumped my elbow.

McCarty looked at me doubtfully. "If he's there…"

"He won't be home yet, I'm sure of it. And I need some things, I can't run away without…"

"Rosalie," McCarty broke in, "You know that this is serious, right? If we go back and he's there then I'll kill him, or he'll kill me, and god knows what he would do to you. We can't afford to spend hours gathering up your things, and they won't fit in the car in any case."

"I know that," I said, although in truth I hadn't thought of it until then. "But a change of clothes at least…"

"We'll see if he's there," McCarty said after a pause, and I agreed.

I was right though, and Royce wasn't there. I was fairly certain he'd gone out drinking and wouldn't be home until early the next morning, but even so there was something about being in the house that terrified me.

"Come on," I said anxiously. "A suitcase with some clothes, that's all I need."

In my room McCarty yanked the sheet off the bed and threw a bunch of clothes from the wardrobe on to it. He went to the dresser and a few handfuls of stockings and underwear and nightwear were tossed on top. A coat, a couple of sweaters and a spare pair of shoes, and then he tied the corners in knots to make a big bundle. "We're done," he muttered, "Now let's get the hell out of here."

I snatched up my purse, and went to leave after him. All the jewels, the fur coats, the fancy and elaborate gifts Royce had given me…I didn't want it then. I didn't want anything to remind me of him. But at the last minute I ran back and took the sapphire set that my parents had given me for my eighteenth birthday and dropped it into my purse. I would take those.

I saw my face as we hurried through the front hall. The large mirror there caught my reflection and for a moment I stopped and stared at it with a wordless cry. My beautiful face…

"It will heal," McCarty said quietly, stopping by my side as his eyes met mine in the mirror. "It's just swelling and bruising…it will heal like it never happened."

"Let's go McCarty," I said softly, turning away. "Let's go."

"Sure," he said, swinging the bundle of all my possessions over his shoulder. "But if you're coming away with me there's one thing you've got to do for me…"

"What?" I demanded, instantly suspicious. Surely I hadn't judged his character so wrongly? He couldn't possible mean…

He grinned at me boyishly. "You've got to call me by my name. Not McCarty…Emmett. I want you to call me Emmett."

I suddenly laughed, and felt my spirits lift, just a little. "Okay then, Emmett. But that means you have to call me Rosalie."

"It's a deal." And he gently shook my good hand, and opened the car door for me like he had always done.

We drove through the night. Exhausted and in pain I didn't speak, and after making a few remarks Emmett fell silent too. Later I slept, waking with my arm aching and tears streaking my face. Emmett pulled over and fed me pain pills, and then I curled up in the corner of the seat and tried to sleep again.

I've run away from my husband. I'm pregnant, penniless, and I've run away with my driver…what are people going to THINK?

Early in the morning, as the sky lightened from grey to pink, Emmett pulled the car off the road, parking in the shade of an oak tree growing by a stream.

"I've got to sleep," he yawned. "I'm sorry, but I can't drive for another second without a break." With a groan he hauled himself out of the car and stretched, before he sank down onto the sparse grass at the base of the tree. "I'll just have a little shut-eye," he mumbled, almost instantly falling into a light sleep.

For a little while I just watched him. He was sprawled out on his back, his arms folded over his eyes, his lips parted slightly. I was surprised that he could sleep so peacefully on the hard and uneven ground.

Eventually I rose from the car and picked my way gingerly down the slope to the stream, where I crouched down and let my fingers trail in the water. I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard something rustling in the grass on the other bank, but it was just a rabbit, who saw me and disappeared underground almost instantly.

Uneasy, I stood up and peered around me. Emmett had stopped in the middle of nowhere. There was the road and the stream, and then nothing but fields and trees as far as I could see. Frightened by the sheer size and emptiness of it all, I hurriedly made my way back closer to Emmett.

He woke easily, stretching and yawning and smiling at me sleepily, in a way that made me long to stroke the dark curls away from his face. But I kept my distance, and simply smiled as he sat up and ran his own hand through his hair.

"I guess you're hungry and thirsty," Emmett said a little awkwardly. "I'm sorry I don't have anything…I didn't really plan this. There'll be a town soon enough and we can buy something."

I nodded silently. Suddenly, out here, the two of us alone felt so awkward!

"I want to talk to you before we go any further," Emmett said resolutely. "You must know what you're getting yourself into, and know that you can go back right now if you don't want it."

"What do you mean?" I whispered. Didn't he want me to go with him anymore?

"I am who I am, Rosalie," Emmett said slowly, and I saw the vulnerability on his face. "I'm a poor man, and I've nothing much to offer you. My family will share what they have with you, but it will be nothing like you've been used to. We live in a four roomed shack on a little patch of land a good hike outside of town, and you'll have to make do just like everyone else." He looked at me steadily. "If you don't want to do that, I'll turn around and drive you back to Rochester now. Not to him, because you won't be safe there, but your parents or your friend…"

Slowly, I shook my head. What he was saying frightened me, I couldn't imagine the life of poverty he was talking about, but the idea of Rochester frightened me more. The prospect of a life without Emmett in it…

"I don't want to go back to Rochester," I said, my voice low. "He has too much power and influence there. Even my parents…I'm not sure that they'd help me. They would think me a disgrace for running away, and would try and make me go back to him. Everyone would try and make me go back with him. But you know what he's like…" My skin prickled. "He'll never forgive me for leaving with you, even if I were to go back."

"I know," Emmett said simply. "But I want you to be sure. You're giving up a lot by running, and you need to understand that."

I looked down at my hands. "I do."

I understood what I was losing: The wealth and position in society that I'd been working towards all my life; the self-assurance that being the beautiful Rosalie Hale King gave me; the fulfilment of all those girlish hopes….

The violence. The humiliation. The pain. The uncertainty. The fear.

And what would I gain in return? I couldn't be certain. Would Emmett's family really be willing to take me in as one of their own? Would there be a home, a warm place in a family for my baby and myself?

Emmett. What was going to happen there? I had run with him, trusting him as my friend to help me find a place and keep me safe, but there was something else beyond friendship there. Something I had never dared to confront, caught up as I was in the tangled, sticky web of my marriage.

"I don't want to go back to Rochester," I repeated, stronger this time. "Whatever happens after this…it has to be better than that."

"Well, let's get going then," Emmett said cheerfully, giving a final yawn and jumping to his feet. Solicitous of my hurt arm, he helped me gently up. "We'll stop at the next town for some breakfast. I don't know about you, but I'm starving."

It was a hard drive. The car was nowhere near as comfortable as what I was used to, and each bounce and jolt shot bolts of pain through my splinted elbow. My face throbbed, my skin hot and tight over the swollen bruises, and as the day wore into evening and exhaustion claimed me, I couldn't always stop the traitorous tears from dribbling down my cheeks.

It was dark when Emmett turned the car off into the parking lot of a brightly lit motel.

"We'll stop here," he said, a little regretfully. "You look done in, and I guess you can't really just sleep in the car like I can, not with the baby and your arm and all." Much to my surprise, he reached over and laid gentle fingers against the bruises on my face. "You look like it hurts pretty bad."

All I wanted to do was throw myself into his arms and weep with pain and exhaustion, but I forced a weak smile. "I'm okay."

"Tough girl," Emmett teased, and I found myself laughing. "Come on sweetheart, let's go."

The clerk who booked us into the motel looked fascinated. Between my obvious injuries, the enormous engagement ring and wedding band I realised I still had on my finger, Emmett's bare hands and overbearing size I have no idea what he thought of us.

Emmett seemed oblivious, chewing his lower lip anxiously as he counted out money from a little stack of notes he had in his shirt pocket. It wasn't until it was done and we were walking to the room with the key that I realised that I probably had three times as much cash as that in my purse and I could have offered to pay.

The room was small and ugly, but at least it was clean. Not that I noticed anything when the door opened but the double bed, which dominated the tiny room.

"I'll sleep on the floor," Emmett said quickly, obviously thinking the same thing I was. "You can wash up in the bathroom and I'll go to the car and get your things."

I did as he suggested, blushing bright red when he returned with the bundle of my clothes and untied the knots, spilling shirts and underwear out on the bed.

Emmett's ears went red, and he ran a hand through his hair self-consciously. "I'll just go into the bathroom…you can get changed and uh…get into bed."

Undressing with one arm splinted had me nearly screaming with frustration by the time I had my dress off. Not sure how I would ever manage to get my bra and slip back on the following day if I took them off, I just left them on and tugged my nightgown on over the top. I waited until I was in bed with the blankets pulled up to my chin before I awkwardly called out to Emmett that he could come out of the bathroom.

"Here," he said, standing beside me and gently laying a washcloth soaked with cold water on my battered face. "It will make it feel better."

He was right. The cold turned the hot throbbing into a duller ache and I smiled at him gratefully. "Thank you."

Emmett gave me a dimpled smile and then disappeared from view, stretching out on the floor to sleep. I put my hands over the mound of my belly and closed my eyes, waiting for sleep to take me and put an end to this long, pain filled, confusing day.

But before it did, I felt it. A small but unmistakeable kick against the side of my womb. A tiny little sign that meant the world, because my baby was still going strong despite the storm outside.