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Thank you for all the reviews, at the moment updates will be more frequent but I won't give you a date when I can up date next. Sometimes RL has a habit of surprising me with something unplanned.

Enjoy


The Medicine Man

BPOV

Two days after the first injection, I had to have another one at Forks hospital. Paul was there, holding my hand and helping me back to my truck afterwards. Dad had already made plans to stay on the Reservation for the weekend, and Paul didn't want me to stay at Forks on my own, so I agreed that I would stay at his for a few days.

He still had to patrol, but I didn't mind. I was able to catch up on homework, cook, and have time to relax without worrying about my dad.

I drove down to the Reservation alone, and by the time I pulled up outside Paul was already getting my bags off from the passenger seat. He knew that I hated, having help getting in and out of the truck like a baby. I knew that he would watch me, and probably be ready to catch me if it looked like I was going to fall.

I followed Paul into his house and watched as he put my bags into the guest room before joining me a short distance from where I was stood.

"I need to patrol, make yourself at home and I will see you later. If an emergency happens and you need to get hold of me Sam's number is next to the phone. He is not patrolling today, so he can be here or he can phase and get me." I nodded, before he walked towards the back of the house and out the back door.

It hurt when Paul put my bags in the guest room, I hid the hurt, and then told myself that we are friends and friends don't share beds.

Once Paul came back from patrol, and we ate dinner together, we watched a few DVDs before going to bed. After tossing and turning, I was now wide awake staring into the darkness. My thigh was still throbbing from the injection, which meant that I couldn't sleep on my right side at all, and that was my comfortable side on a normal day.

I had no idea how long I led in bed for, but eventually my bladder decided I had to get up. Slowly I got out of bed, and shuffled my way to the bathroom. As I was leaving the bathroom, I looked towards Paul's room. The door was shut, and I couldn't hear anything from his room.

Once I had finished in the bathroom, I remembered that I had left my phone in the living room, so decided to get that, so I could find out what time it was, and then get a glass of water. I made my way slowly into the living room and grabbed my phone off of the arm of the sofa; I didn't bother with the glass of water. Knowing that if I drank a glass of water I would only need to use the bathroom again, putting weight on my sore leg again.

Once I was back in the guest room, I sat down on the edge of the bed before switching my phone on. I was surprised that it was just after two in the morning, it felt like I had been in bed a lot longer. I wished it was later, at least then I could justify getting up and starting the day.

I looked around the room, not sure what to do with myself. I was wide awake, so I didn't see the point getting back into bed just to toss and turn again and cause my leg to hurt more. With a sigh, I decided I would get that glass of water; at least it would give me something to do if my bladder needed emptying again.

I limped out of the guest room and into the kitchen, pouring myself a glass of water and sitting down at the table. Making patterns on the table top, until I had drank all of the water. Putting my glass in the sink, I had decided to sit in the living room. With the TV down low, so not to wake Paul and hoping that it would send me to sleep. As I turned around, I jumped and almost screamed. Paul was stood in the door way, arms crossed, looking grumpy.

"Why are you awake Bella?" He asked, not moving from the doorway, and staring straight at me.

"I can't sleep." I mumbled back, looking down at my feet, feeling guilty. "Sorry if I woke you up."

"You didn't, but it was hard trying to fall asleep and listening to you toss and turn. Then use the bathroom, and then wonder around the house."

"Sorry, I will go back to the guest room, and be quiet. You need to sleep, you have to patrol tomorrow morning."

"Come with me." Paul grunted, before turning around and walking towards his room.

I followed behind him, and then watched him from the door way as he got back into bed and moved over to the other side.

"Come on Bella, we shared a bed last time you stayed here, this is no different." Paul invited, he lifted the sheet. I blushed, feeling the heat spread across my face and the top of my chest. Before shrugging my shoulders and getting into the bed, I rolled onto my left side to find Paul led on his back.

"Now sleep, it's late and you look tired." Paul mumbled, before moving his right arm so that it was almost covering his face.

I pulled the blankets up closer to my head, and closed my eyes. The heat from Paul's body soon warmed me up and I started to fall asleep.

When I opened my eyes again, it was to the light of day. I automatically reached over to Paul's side, and sighed quietly when the bed was no longer warm. My leg was throbbing this morning, so I slowly climbed out of bed and limped to the bathroom.

Once I finished my business, I limped into the kitchen and put the kettle on. I looked at the time on the oven and was surprised that it was nearly lunchtime; I had never slept in so late before.

My stomach rumbled, reminding me how hungry I was, I put some bread in the toaster and finished making myself a coffee. The back door opened suddenly, causing me to jump and nearly drop the kettle of hot water.

"Whoa, it's only me, calm down." Paul, said, rushing to take the kettle off me.

I jumped again when the toaster popped the toast up; Paul chuckled as he pulled another cup down from the cupboard.

I ignored him, and put the toast on a plate before buttering it. I took it to the table, and Paul soon joined me with the cups of coffee.

"Why are you only having toast for lunch?" Paul asked as I took a bite of toast, "and why are still in your night clothes?"

"This is not my lunch, this is breakfast, and I'm not dressed yet because, I've only just got up." I replied, quickly swallowing the mouthful of toast.

"Good, you obviously needed the sleep, but you need to hurry because we have to be at Old Quil's in half an hour."

Half an hour later we were on our way to the Aterea's, I had no memories of meeting old Quil before and was feeling nervous. He was one of the oldest members of the tribe, so he had set traditions, I kept wondering what he would think of me.

"Stop worrying Bella." Paul suddenly said, stopping when the house came into view. "Old Quil might surprise you; he is one of the most laid back people I know. Whatever he tells you will always be the truth, and he won't ever go for the soft approach."

"But what if he doesn't like me? Because of my past choices or because of my skin colour?" I asked, pulling the bottom of my lip into my mouth and chewing on it.

"If Old Quil didn't like, you would know by now. As for the past well it's in the past now, he won't hold you over it. Never make skin colour an issue, Old Quil is very sensitive on that subject." Paul explained, taking my hand and almost dragging me to the front door.

Paul knocked twice on the wooden door, before opening it up and walking in. I followed behind him, closing the door quickly. Old Quil was sat in a recliner chair; very similar to the one my dad has at home.

"Paul, go hunt some deer, I only need one. Isabella, please take a seat on the sofa next to me. We have some talking to do." Old Quil, spoke up.

Paul squeezed my hand before he turned around and walked back out the house, I nervously walked to the sofa and sat down.

"Isabella, I don't bite. Stop looking so nervous, and look at me."

I looked up and couldn't stop the smile, when Old Quil was sat there giving me a mega watt smile.

"See, I have no idea why you were so nervous. I'm not going to sit here and give you a lecture about your past decisions, to be honest I'm not interested. You are here now, and hopefully you have learnt some lessons."

I nodded silently, adverted my eyes when he stared right into my eyes before looking over the rest of my face.

"If you need a drink, the kitchen is that way." He said, as he pointed to a closed door that was behind me.

"I'm ok, thank you." I replied, I had drunk a large glass of juice at Paul's as well as the cup of coffee and I knew that I would become embarrassed if I had to ask where the bathroom was.

"Ok, get comfy, I'm going to tell you a true story. I warn you now, it does not have a happy ending depending on how you look at it."

I nodded again before sitting back on the sofa, pulling the cushion that was behind me on to my lap. Old Quil nodded, before he grinned slightly and sat back in his chair.

"What do you know about your great aunt Molly?" Old Quil asked, surprising me because my dad had never spoken about her.

"I don't, I didn't even know I had a great aunt."

"Well your dad was very young when she left us, perhaps he doesn't remember her." He turned to look out of the window, before turned to look at me again.

"You look so much like her, it's quite uncanny. Well your Great Aunt Molly was my first wife, much to the disgust to the elders at the time."

"Your first wife?" I asked, "I didn't realise I had Quileute blood in me."

"You don't, she was white like you. She came here to help your grandmother when she was pregnant with your dad."

"What happened to her? Where is she now?" I asked, I wonder if the previous elders kicked her off the Reservation.

"She passed away, two years after she arrived in Forks. We met while your grandparents were spending time with the Blacks. Molly wanted to get outside, it was a sunny day and she really missed the sun. I was walking along the beach, my parents were trying to force me to pick a bride. They wanted me to settle down, but every girl I had seen just didn't appeal to me. I had had another argument with them because they wanted to start arrangements. I knew I needed to cool off, and the beach was the only place that seemed to work for me."

Old Quil, suddenly got up and walked to a shelf on the other side of the room. I watched as he grabbed a frame before walking back towards me, he held his hand out and I took the frame. Gasping when I realised who it was a photo of, I could see so many similarities. My eyes were the same shape, and I could see that I also had her nose and lips.

"I don't remember how we got talking, but within minutes I knew that she was the one. I took her home that day and introduced her to my parents. They warmed to her straight away, there was something enduring about her, whenever she would walk into a room, it was like the room would light up."

I looked at the photo again, running my hand over her face, before placing it on to my lap.

"What happened after that?" I asked, intrigued now.

"A few weeks later we set a date for the wedding, the elders were not happy, but my father fought for me and my happiness. I loved her so much, that had they refused, I would have given up all my tribal rights including the eventual title of medicine man. I would have left the Reservation, I would have followed Molly to the ends of the earth."

I closed my eyes, and I could almost imagine the wedding, I know that I would want to get married on the beach. The white dress and shoeless feet, not caring about the stares. I jumped when I realised that I was dreaming about my marriage, maybe one day.

"So we got married, and I was given a cabin from the council. We were so happy, once the elders accepted that she was my wife the rest of the tribe accepted her and she was shown respect. The same could not be said to the white people in Forks, Molly was shunned. She lost all of her friends, your grandparents were the only people that accepted our decision to marry and they were happy for us."

"That's really sad, it's good that opinions have changed." I commented, I couldn't imagine suddenly becoming an outcast just for my choices.

"That's just the way it was back then, your aunt was happy to stay on the Reservation. She was making new friends, she did become very close to the Uleys."

"Why did she die so young?" I asked, unable to stop the question leaving my mouth. "I'm so sorry, you don't have to tell me." I apologised, feeling my face heat up.

"Six months after we were married, she kept getting these headaches. I would make her up herbal remedies but nothing would work. I wanted to take her to Seattle, to get looked at by the special doctors there. She refused, knowing that we couldn't afford it, in the end your grandfather and the Black's gave us the money."

My mouth suddenly felt dry, and I tried to swallow. "Is it ok if I get a drink now?" I asked him, he nodded silently and turning to look back out the window.

I went into the kitchen, there was a glass on the draining board. Once I had filled the glass with water, I gulped the contents down. Rinsing the glass out, I put it back on the draining board before going back into the front room and sitting back down.

Old Quil, silently stared at me before he rested his elbows on his thighs and rubbed his face with his hands.

"So we went to Seattle, and saw some brain doctors. Back then, the tests were simple and few, but the waiting period for results were weeks." Old Quil continued, resting his hands under his chin.

"Nearly two months after the tests, we received a letter informing us that we had to go back to the hospital. Ironically that, the date that we had to go back was also our one year wedding anniversary. It is usually celebrated within the tribe, but we could not be there and Molly was still suffering every day with the headaches and would often retire to the bedroom on an evening. So it was the perfect excuse, I've never been big on celebrations. I don't get much choice nowadays but back then it was a lot easier to get out of them."

"Two months for results?" I asked shocked, how they could cope with living that long without getting any answers.

"I'm not a medical expert, but I would think back then everything had to be done by hand rather than using computers and robots."

"Yes probably, but it would have driven me mad, waiting so long."

"It did me, I wanted to go back sooner, but Molly didn't. She wanted to wait, and she would often reassure me that they would contact us when the time was right. In the meantime, I made more remedies."

"What kind of remedies?" I asked, as Old Quil picked up an old looking leather bound book from the small table at the side of his chair.

"This book was my great grandfathers, and in time it will be passed on to young Quil. There are recipes in here for most ailments, every generation has added to it, as Molly started to spend more time in bed. I spent more time trying to come up with something that would stop the headaches."

We were interrupted by the front door opening and Paul walking in, he looked intently at me before turning to Old Quil. "It's in the shed, what do you want me to do with it?" Paul asked, staying near the front door.

"Bleed it, there are clean glass bottles in the big cupboard in the shed. Take off four steaks and bring them into the house, the rest of it chop into parts and put it in the chest freezer in the shed."

"Sure, shout if you need me." Paul called out, before walking out the front door again.

"Let's get back to your Aunt Molly, we went back to Seattle and got the results. We were told that she had a cancer of the brain, there was nothing that they could do. They did mention about operating on it but it could have left Molly severely disabled, so she refused. Molly was a very independent woman, the thought of somebody else helping her to live would have shamed her and probably killed her in the end."

"So there was nothing they could do? Was there no medication that she could take to make it smaller?" I asked, shocked that there was nothing.

"Nope, there wasn't the drugs back then that could do that, plus the extra ways that they test nowadays was not even invented back then."

"What happened then?"

Well your Aunt Molly, wanted to come home, and try to live as normal as possible She didn't want anybody to know, she hated the attention. We told your grandparents and the Black's a few weeks later. Anybody else we would just change the subject, or come up with a fitting story. She did eventually tell the UIey's, by then they knew what she was like so they didn't make a big deal about it when she was around."

Old Quil, rubbed his hands across his face and coughed slightly.

"For a while, the headaches went, or were not as bad. I thought the doctors had got it wrong, but one day your Aunt passed out. From that day she got weaker and weaker, and stopped getting out of bed. The rest of the tribe soon found out, but she refused to let them into the bedroom. Your grandmother would come a few times a day to help me clean her and keep her comfortable. Over the next few months the cancer seemed to spread throughout her whole body, she was in so much pain. None of my remedies worked, so in the end I had to pay for the doctor to come from Forks. He would give her was was classed at the time as modern medicine that would help her to sleep and be painfree." Old Quil explained, in a flat unemotional voice.

I wanted to hug him, maybe even take some of his pain away for him. But I had a feeling that he would rebuke it and push me away. It happened so long ago, maybe over the years he has just learnt to switch his emotions off. I wish I could do that, just for a few hours. Switch off and not feel anything, be in my own emotionless bubble.

"Eventually without even taking the medicine Molly stopped waking up, then one evening, I had a feeling that her time to leave me was coming near. For an hour, I sat on the bed holding her in my arms as she took her last breath. For a long time I felt guilty, it was my job to heal people but I couldn't even heal my wife."

"But you tried, and some things may not be able to be healed." I said, I didn't like seeing this old man looking so guilty.

"Your Aunt Molly said almost the exact same thing to me, all those years ago."

"She was right, it's just the way something's are sometimes."

"So almost a decade later, I met somebody else. She was nothing like Molly, but I enjoyed her company and over time learnt to love her. She gave me a son, who in turn gave me a grandson."

"Is it because of my Aunt, that you are helping my dad and me?" I asked suddenly.

"Yes, I couldn't heal your Aunt, and I can't heal your dad. But you Isabella, I can and will. You are the last in the line of Swan's, if it's the last thing I do on this earth. It will be to keep you healthy and be able to live a long happy life. On that note, excuse me a minute I have your remedy in the fridge keeping cool."

I watched as he left the room, returning a few minutes later holding a glass of dark liquid. When he handed it to me, I could see that it was a dark burgundy, with black bits in.

"It might be best if you don't over think it and just drink it. This will help your iron levels, so you won't need the injections for much longer."

"What is in it?" I asked, moving the glass to my nose and sniffing. I nearly gagged, when the smell of blood hit my nostrils.

"I will tell you after, I fear that if I told you now then you won't drink it unless forced to do so."

Without anymore thought, I drank the liquid in one go, gagging afterwards from the heavy taste of blood left in my mouth.

"It was blood?" I asked, gagging again at the thought.

"Yes, deer blood, their diet includes food that has a lot of iron in it. There were also spinach leaves, fish eyes, elderberry flowers, camomile and other natural plants that don't have English names."

"It tasted awful." I moaned, yawning at the same time suddenly feeling very tired.

"I guess it would, now lie down and get some sleep. Paul will wake you when dinner is ready in a few hours." I heard Old Quil say, before my eyes closed, and any sound lost.

Dreaming once again about getting married on the beach on a rare sunny day, growing old and being healthy just like Old Quil had told me.


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