Chapter Twelve

Hello! It's Monday morning and I'm quite cheery – wait until later, that won't be the case.

Disclaimer – I do not own Twilight but I do own Hetani.

7th April

"I'm sorry – you're going where?" I asked in complete disbelief. I was standing in the complete wreck that was the garage of the Black residence and Jake was leaning against a shiny red bike with a cocky smirk on his face. He had told me that he was going to Bella's house with the bike to get her grounded but, somehow, I couldn't wrap my mind around it. It had been over a week since Bella had returned from Italy (bringing the entire leech family back with her) and I had thought Jake had been getting over her actions, albeit slowly. My thoughts were sadly wrong and it turned out that he was simply plotting a way to make her miserable. I wasn't against Bella being miserable, but cockiness always leads to downfall.

"I'm going to Bella's house and I'm going to show Charlie the bike – therefore getting her grounded and being unable to see the filthy bloodsucker." I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. Lord knew that it was pointless to argue, so I just nodded stupidly.

"Alright," I agreed simply before giving him a sympathetic smile and leaving the garage. Embry was on patrol and I didn't feel like going to Emily's and explaining what Jake had gone and done, so I took a walk down to First Beach. I found the rock where I had finally seen Embry's wolf form and perched on top of it, looking over the relatively calm waters of the ocean. A tiny ray of sunshine peeked out from behind the dense cloud cover and landed on my cheek, causing me to smile. I often believed that, when that happened, it was my mom's way of checking up on me, like she had a little looking glass and the ray of sunshine was the reflection of it. It was something that no one knew about me and I liked it that way. Maybe one day they would find out, but for that moment, it was my little secret. I sat there just smiling gently at the sandy beach and waves that lapped at the grains until the ray disappeared and I no longer felt that connection to my mom. I knew she was always watching but it was those quiet moments I felt she and I really communicated. I stood up on the rock and prepared to climb down which was easier said than done. Earlier rain had made the surface damp and my foot slipped from its hold. I shrieked as I completely lost balance and tumbled off the boulder, my cheek catching a protruding, sharp bit of rock before I landed on the sand with a thump, the corner of my forehead hitting the base of the rock. Groaning, I sat up and eyed the shallow scrapes on my hands from where they'd attempted to grab the rock then brought my left hand up to my bleeding cheek for inspection. Embry would have a coronary when he saw it.

"Hetani?" a surprised voice asked and I held back a groan upon hearing it. It was, without a doubt, one of the wolves and I knew that if they knew, Embry wouldn't be in the dark for long. Without prolonging the inevitable, I turned around to see the confused face of Jared Cameron. The confusion instantly turned to worry as his dark eyes landed on my badly bleeding cheek and he skidded over to me, crouching and inspecting the broken skin. "This is deep," he pointed out and I winced as his fingers pressed too hard on the wound. He immediately withdrew his hand and helped me off the ground. "Embry is going to have a fit. Let's get you to Emily's." He effortlessly lifted me into his arms and carried me at a fast pace to Emily's.

"What on Earth happened?" she exclaimed loudly when Jared placed me on the kitchen chair. She frantically swept around the room whilst Jared placed himself on the kitchen counter, watching as Emily carefully cleaned the blood from my face and neck. When it became apparent that I was dizzy from hitting my head, ice was given to me to hold in position as Emily eyed my cheek. Sam walked in easily and his eyebrows shot up upon seeing me. His head snapped to Jared who then shrugged as though answering a silent question.

"I just found her on the beach, I don't know what happened," he said defensively. Emily sighed in annoyance as the blood continued oozing from the slice.

"It's too deep, I can't stop the bleeding. We should get her to a hospital." I froze at her words (even though I hadn't been moving much to begin with) and looked at her pleadingly.

"Embry, Jake," I began but halted, knowing everyone would get the drift. Emily shook her head firmly against my protests.

"I don't care how protective they are – you need stitches!" she insisted and grabbed a coat and some keys. Without being able to argue anymore, I was dragged out to Sam's truck and belted in. I saw Sam and Jared in the doorway to the quaint house, the latter on the phone to someone I didn't doubt was my father. Oh wonderful.

XXX

Embry POV

Paul and I got off patrol and walked in silence into Sam's house. When we had phased back and dressed, the instantly strong scent of Hetani had assaulted our nostrils. The only way it could have been that strong would have been if she was standing next to us (which she wasn't) or bleeding. We both moved towards Sam's house quickly and I whimpered at the stronger scent of Hetani's blood in the air. I fled into the kitchen but the only sign that she had been there was some ice wrapped in a towel.

"Emily took her to the hospital," Sam said as he entered from the back yard.

"What happened to her?!" I cried and Paul rolled his eyes at the desperate tone I was using. I really couldn't wait to see if he imprinted on someone – it would teach him a lesson.

"We don't know. Jared found her on the beach and Hetani wasn't very talkative," Sam answered easily. I noticed there was some bloodied tissue in the trash and winced at how much there was. Surely it wasn't serious?

"Why is there so much blood?" Paul asked instead of me and I knew he was thinking what we were all thinking (and what Jared had most likely been thinking when he found her). 'Victoria', despite the Cullens returning, was still hanging around and Hetani bleeding out in the open was not something that filled me with comfort.

"She's got a nasty cut on her cheek and hit her head. There's nothing to be worried about, though," Sam assured us both, although it was directed more at me than Paul. Jared chose that moment to walk through the door and all eyes flew to him, causing him to groan.

"I was hoping it would take longer," he complained before looking at Sam and turning right back around for patrol. Jake was due for patrol too, which meant he couldn't check on Hetani at the hospital. I didn't even know where Jake was, to be honest.

"Embry, you can go to the hospital. Your shift is over and I'm sure Hetani will want to see you," Sam said and I didn't need further prompting. I took off out the door and didn't bother going home for my truck, choosing to run instead.

She's ok, mate. Gonna have a heck of a bruise on her head, though, Jared said in my head and I growled in irritation. It was incidents like these that made me realise that I couldn't protect her all the time, especially from normal things. I didn't know the details of what had happened but I knew that it was no supernatural being attacking her that had caused it.

Hey, Jared, where'd you find her?

She was by this big rock thing on the beach. He showed me an image and I smiled despite my annoyance. It was the same place she had seen my wolf form for the first time. She had probably fallen off of it.

Thanks Jared, I told him sincerely before phasing back to human form and pulling on my cut-offs. Knowing I was entering a hospital, I looked around for the trainers I knew I had stashed in the bushes. After ten minutes of searching, I finally found them and pulled them on before jogging into the hospital.

"I'm here to see Hetani Black. She was brought in for-." I was cut off by the sound of Emily's voice.

"She's back here, Embry," she called and I turned to see her gesturing to me. Sighing in utter relief, I all but sprinted down the hallway to where Emily was waiting. The door was open and Hetani was sitting on a bed inside. I smiled gratefully at Emily before going in. Hetani wasn't in a hospital gown or anything and the neck of her pale blue top was stained with red blood. I saw she had stitches in her cheek and there was a purple splodge forming on the left corner of her forehead. Wincing slightly, I strode forward and sat next to her where she was perched, legs dangling over the side of the hospital bed. She jumped as I startled her from whatever deep thoughts she was having and she flushed red upon seeing me there.

"Oh," she stated and I knew she hadn't expected me so soon, like Jared had.

"What did you do?" I asked softly, lifting my hand to gently trace around the stitched up cut. It must have been deep.

"Long or short?" she asked and I contemplated.

"Long," I decided and she nodded.

"Jake went over to Bella's to get her grounded." I looked at her with a raised eyebrow and she just shook her head at her brother's behaviour. It struck me as the reason that I hadn't seen Jake all day. "I went for a walk on First Beach to, um, our spot and just sat there thinking for a while." I knew that there was something that she was keeping from me about what else she'd done there. But I was too caught up in the fact that we had a 'spot' to care. She would tell me when or if she was ready. "When I got up, I slipped on the wet rock and fell off, where Jared found me," she concluded and I shook my head. I remembered when Jake had told me about her slipping over three days after she was adopted and I wondered if she was just prone to hitting her head.

"What am I going to do with you?" I asked playfully and she just blushed in embarrassment. It was very endearing to see her blushing.

"Kiss it better?" she asked in a rare show of boldness. I could feel the shock on my face but it quickly morphed into a goofy grin as my lips slowly lowered to brush her bruised head softly. They drifted lightly over her temple then around her soon to be scarred cheek. I stopped at that thought and looked at her with a pained expression.

"It's going to scar," I whispered sadly, fingers running along the mark. She nodded.

"It's only little," she told me and I knew that she wasn't at all bothered by it scarring. And she was right, it was only small, just like her. I smiled gently and brushed my lips to hers delicately. Her left hand linked with my right one and I helped her off the bed.

"I assume you're allowed to leave?" I inquired and she laughed lightly, nodding. I pulled her from the room and she was instantly swept into Emily's arms.

"You should be wrapped in bubble wrap!" she almost yelled and Hetani smiled at the older woman apologetically.

"Yeah, no more climbing on big rocks," I ordered jokingly and she nudged me, snuggling into my side afterwards. I wrapped an arm around her shoulders as Emily signed the discharge papers (no guardian required as it was only small). We walked out of the hospital and I hopped into Sam's truck after Hetani, thankful I got to stay with her instead of running home from Forks hospital.

"Jake is on patrol for the next few hours, if he made it in the first place, so you have time before he flips out. Your father, however, wants you home now," Emily told us and I looked to see Hetani looking through the windshield with wide eyes. I simply rubbed my thumb over the back of her hand to soothe her. Billy would just be worried and she knew it. Jake was who she was concerned about and we both knew she would be getting a lecture about leeches later when he got home.

"Good luck, love," I whispered, kissing her forehead lovingly before walking her to the front door. She gave me a weak smile before turning and walking through the front door. I moved back into the truck and Emily gave me a lift back to hers where she then fed me. The entire time, my mind was on Hetani and what she was doing.

I'll admit it – this is one of my favourite chapters. I can't really say why but it is. Let me know what you think! I'll update on Friday morning (British time). Love Bianca :) x