I could not stop myself from running towards the thing that was hurting Quil. So, being the girl I was, I jumped on the man's back the second he had turned away. I punched the back of his head once before I found myself on the ground. I couldn't deny myself the crunching noise I had heard when I landed; but I couldn't bring myself to be helpless.
If looks could kill, well, then you would have Quil right about then. With one paw he batted the man down on the sand and hovered over him. Normally, I knew, that this would crush a man into nothing but dirt; but instead the crimson-eyed man started laughing.
Quil could only shoot me one pleading look before the man had gotten himself up and attacking him.
"Stop!" I screamed, wishing I pull myself off the ground and kill that man. "Stop it!" I grabbed at the sand and drug myself a few inches.
The man looked back at me and laughed again. "Silly, little human," he remained in the same position he was, and then grabbed Quil by the neck and slammed him against a huge boulder. "You're quite amusing actually. I can't wait to have my way with you once we get rid of your little friend here," he turned back toward Quil.
"No!" I screamed, the only thing that could come out of my mouth. I was about to offer he kill me first before I heard a bunch of footsteps running across the beach behind me.
"Brady, take Claire home now!" I heard the 'Alpha' in Sam's voice before I was pulled off the ground, in to Brady's human arms and through the forest.
"Please, no!" I fidgeted in his arms, "I have to help Quil!"
"Stop, Claire." His voice was way too calm for the time being, "Quil is going to be fine. The pack is going to take care of that bastard," he hissed. "You're not the only one pissed at this situation, they always send me off to do the easy work."
As soon as Brady set me down on something, a couch; I realized, that I was full out crying. My eyes were burning from the salt and I was shaking a little.
"Oh, Claire!" Aunt Em's voice seemed to sooth me like my mother's had. "Brady, can you call Carlisle? It might be hard to explain to a human doctor what happened, I'm afraid."
Aunt Emily sounded so calm, of course, in such a situation. She pulled all the hair out of my face and wiped the moisture off my face, "Where do you hurt, honey?" She kept asking over and over. Did she want to know the truth? My heart hurt, that's what.
"My leg," I finally managed out, just so Aunt Em got that horrid, worried expression off of her face.
Emily looked up suddenly and stood up to look out the front window. "Carlisle!" She sighed, relieved.
I didn't know much about the Cullen family, but I probably knew the most about Carlisle. He was around whenever one of the pack members injured themselves. He walked through the door with another blond vampire behind him. Jasper. Jasper was one that I had seen from a distance, but never said a word to. But then I remembered that he could make people feel things. I felt my hurting go away, and my tears stopped rolling down.
He was good.
"Thanks," I told both of them as Carlisle went on his knees to examine me.
"Now, where does it hurt?" Carlisle asked me, and I felt a little embarrassed even staring at him; he was very handsome. The way he asked me was less worried and more doctor-ly.
"My leg," I said immediately, "I think it's cracked or something."
He went on to feeling up and down my leg, he stopped at my knee. He pressed some force on it, but I couldn't feel it because of Jasper. "There it is," he said, calmly, "Your leg is broken, right at the knee. But, in a few minutes I will have it all bandaged up and it should feel a tad bit better. You'll need the cast for at least six weeks and then I can make another house call to remove it." He told me, then turned to Jasper. "Jasper, can you call Esme for me? Tell her to run over some crutches for Claire, I didn't know we would been needing them or I would have brought them myself." He stopped for a moment and then finished with, "Oh, and tell her there is no need to hurry."
Jasper nodded and left the room while still some how managing to numb my pain.
Carlisle dug in his bag for half a second and pulled out the stuff he was going to wrap my leg in. I groaned, remembering my previous experience with this sort of stuff. He chuckled.
"Now, if I remember right, didn't you break your arm some years ago?" He asked playfully, and I was glad he knew how to keep such light conversation.
"Yes, when I was nine. Some girl pushed me down the slide during recess and I just so happened to fall wrong," I said, remembering it all too well.
I had started screaming and crying and the teacher brought me to the nurse. The first one through the doors to see me was Quil, of course, wearing that same worried expression he put on whenever something was wrong with me. Then Aunt Emily came and brought me to the E.R. Which is where they put me in some cast from hell. For six weeks I was miserable.
And now it was going to happen again.
Carlisle just finished wrapping my lower leg when he looked away from his work for a quick second. "Edward's coming," he told me. "He should probably know what's happening with the pack right about now."
My eyes widened and all of a sudden I remembered why I had a broken leg. Trying to save Quil. Where was he? Was he all right? I threw all these questions at Edward through my mind. It wasn't totally annoying having some one who could read your thoughts.
He didn't even start with any sort of greeting, "Everyone is doing pretty well. In fact, most of the pack along with Emmett and Rose are trying to chase him down. There is one minor injury thought," he scratched his head. "Sometime during the fight Quil got his head knocked against something hard, a rock I'm betting, and he is having the symptoms of a minor concussion. Embry and him are over at the house, waiting. I injected Quil with some pain killers, but you might need to see him soon." He glanced down from Carlisle to up at me on the couch, "I can take over from here, if that's best."
Carlisle nodded and handed the wrap in to Edward's pale hands.
I was only scared for a half second before Jasper got the best of me. Besides, there was no reason to be scared of Edward, he had helped my Quil after all. I can't believe Quil had a concussion. "Are you sure he is going to be okay?"
"Trust me, Claire, Quil is going to be just fine. Carlisle is going to work on him a little... it should take a half an hour tops. Carlisle works fast. Then, he won't need much recovery, maybe two hours or so...And, maybe after I'm done wrapping you up I can bring you over to see him. The entire time I was trying to inject the medicine, he kept questioning over and over how you were." He shook his head, smiling, like he knew something I didn't.
"Edward, I don't suppose you know where Sam is..." Emily hadn't spoken much since Carlisle arrived, and I had basically forgotten she was in the room.
"Don't worry, Emily. Sam is with the pack, and the last I heard of them, they were planning on heading home soon."
She smiled and said sweetly, "Thank you."
Edward didn't say another thing as he finished off the wrapping of my leg. He finished off quite quickly, actually. "Carlisle told you everything about the cast?" He asked politely, though I was sure he already knew.
I nodded and starting wondering about Quil again. How many more moments until I could see him?
"We can leave to the house as soon as Esme gets here. I wouldn't want her to have to come all the way here only to find we left for the house," he said, looking over at Emily who was now pacing. I don't even think she realized she was. "Ah, here she comes now."
I heard a car pull in to the driveway. I only kind of wondered why she hadn't just ran here. She was inside in three seconds, pulling off the freaky, fast vampire stuff. The crutches were tucked under her arm and then she passed them to Edward.
"Here you go, son," she said. Then she knelt in front of me, "How are you doing, hon?" And that quality of hospitality no matter the situation reminded me of my Aunt Emily and my own mother.
"A lot better," I told her, glad to see that a big smile came across her face. "I just can't wait to see Quil," I sighed out.
"Well, maybe we should go, then. Are you excited to try out your brand new crutches?" She asked, starting to pull me up off the couch. The way she asked it sort of sounded like I won a shiny car or something.
I put on a sarcastic smile, "Of course."
Aunt Emily raced across the room and grabbed the crutches from Edward, who was holding them out to her, and she put them under my arms. "Do they fit right?" She asked, and I knew if they didn't she would find a way to make them.
At that moment I felt glad to have so many people in my life, family or not, that cared so much for me.