A/N: I'd like to start off by saying I don't claim to know anything about living with, or living with someone who has PTSD. I only know what I've read on medical websites, and I've tried to stay as true as I could to the symptoms I've read about. That said, if I've offended anyone, please tell me and I will try to fix anything I've gotten wrong.
Now that the serious stuff is out of the way, I want to apologize for the cliffhanger last chapter. I didn't even realize it was a huge cliffhanger. So I tried to write this as fast as possible for you all. Also, THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH. The reviews make this story so much more enjoyable to write, and inspire me to write as fast as I can. So again, thank you.
As always, I don't own Twilight. If I did, there would be lesbians EVERYWHERE! Actually, it's probably a good thing I don't own Twilight...
It sounded like dozens of voices were yelling all at once in the clearing. A mix of gasps, snarls, and shouts met us as soon as we stepped out of the trees. But the one noise that rose above all the others was a heart-wrenching cry of pain from one of the women in the clearing.
How do we want to handle this? I asked Kat. Sadly, I was only met with silence. She hadn't said a word to me the entire walk home; in fact, every time I had tried to get into her head I was met with that weird wall that she could somehow put up. I had no idea what was the matter with her, but obviously something was really bothering her.
A woman running straight at the four of us broke me out of my musing, and as she got closer I could see tears streaming down her face. Also, as she got closer I noticed the severe scarring running along the side of her face and disappearing into her shirt.
"Sam? Oh God, what happened?" She sobbed once she reached us, running her hands over the fur on his face.
Luckily, someone had the bright idea to bring Jacob a pair of shorts. So after carefully maneuvering Sam to the ground, Jake shifted back and began to explain to the hysterical woman, along with the dozens of other people that gathered.
"We were attacked by a werewolf. It got a hold of Sam and ripped his side. Kat says that his wounds aren't going to heal quickly like they normally do." Jacob looked up at his father and the rest of the Council. "He needs medical attention."
"And who do you propose we take him to? We don't even know if we can get him to shift back." Billy spoke up.
"The Cullen doctor." Jacob's statement was met with many voices raised in protest. "Think about it! He's the only one that we won't have to make excuses to. Let him come here and treat Sam. It's either that or Sam possibly dying."
The crowd seemed to understand the logic behind Jake's request, though it was clear that none were happy about the prospect of having vampires on their land.
"Please Billy." The woman pleaded, still kneeling at Sam's side, her arms wrapped around his large furry torso. She seemed to not give a damn about the blood that was seeping into her clothing.
"Someone call the Cullens." Billy finally spoke up, prompting people to scramble to find a phone and someone who knew the number of the Cullens. "And someone get something to cover these two girls up." Billy added, motioning to Kat and me.
Glancing over, I saw that Kat had a faraway look in her eyes, and even after chirping in her direction, I couldn't get her attention. I butted her side with my head, but that only got me a deep growl and fangs bared at me.
Several raised voices announced that Carlisle was on his way, prompting a sigh of relief from the woman at Sam's side, and one from myself as well. Even if Sam was being a jerk, he didn't deserve to die.
A moment later a boy was jogging towards Kat and me, holding out two large blankets, an apologetic look on his face.
"Sorry, but all we really have is extra pairs of shorts, so this is all I could find for you guys." He said as he placed them on the floor and jogged away.
Mentally shrugging, I shifted back, grabbing the blanket in the process and wrapped it around my body. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kat do the same, and I was glad to see that she seemed to be coming out of whatever was making her act weird.
"Bella!" For the second time that day I heard Alice's voice call out from the trees, and I turned towards the voice with a relived smile on my face. With the day I was having it was nice to hear my mate's voice.
However, her face contorted to one of horror, and she turned her attention on Kat, who had also turned at the noise.
"What did you do to her?!" Alice roared at my Alpha.
I was expecting Kat to snarl back, or simply leap and attack the charging vampire after everything she had to put up with today. Instead, she let out a terrified squeak, and she scrambled to back up. In the process she stumbled, falling flat on her backside. Once on the ground she only pulled her knees up to her chest, burying her face in between them and wrapping her arms over her head. She started rocking back and forth, chanting "no" over and over.
The reaction caused Alice to stop dead in her tracks, her look of anger turning quickly to one of confusion.
Rikki, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, was at Kat's side in an instant, and was murmuring to Kat, too quiet for me to hear. Leah wasn't far behind her, though she seemed to prefer to growl at Alice due to her mate's reaction.
"What happened?" I asked Danni as she appeared by my side.
"Was Kat acting weird on the way back?" Danni asked me, ignoring my question.
"Yeah, she wouldn't talk to me, and she had that block up." I told her.
"She's having an attack." Danni told me after a moment.
"An attack?" Alice asked tentatively.
"Sometimes she gets these weird flashbacks to her time in The Pit. It's like she's stuck in her memories and can't get out. They just paralyze her. She can't fight it, just like she couldn't fight it back then. I've only seen her have two of these, ever." Danni explained.
"The Pit?" Alice asked, picking up on the strange title, but Danni only shook her head to stop the line of questioning in its tracks.
"What do we do?" Leah asked Rikki, who was gently rubbing Kat's back and still murmuring to her.
"She'll come out of it eventually. Just make sure she knows she's safe." Rikki told the panicking wolf-shifter.
Leah nodded and took over the job of rubbing soothing circles on her Imprint's back. She also began talking in a low and soothing voice, telling Kat that she was safe, and that she would protect her.
"I did that to her?" Alice asked after a moment.
"No." I turned towards the raven-haired girl who looked like she wanted to burst into tears. "It was a number of things, and I don't even understand everything that did this. It's just been a really bad day."
"I didn't mean to set her off. I just saw your face and freaked out." Alice whimpered.
"What's the matter with my face?" I asked.
"I'm assuming the werewolf hit you?" Danni asked.
"Yeah, but-"
"It broke your face." Danni informed me.
"Broke my face?" I turned to Alice to get a better answer.
"Your nose is broken and you have two black eyes." Alice explained.
"What?" My hand flew up to my nose, but as soon as it made contact I flinched from the pain, and after pulling my hand away I immediately noticed the blood coating my fingertips. "How did I not notice this before?" I groaned more so to myself than anyone else.
"Adrenaline?" Danni supplied anyway.
"Maybe…" I shrugged. Turning to Alice I decided to just change the subject since I couldn't do anything about my busted face at eh moment. "How many of your family are coming?"
"Just me and my parents. Carlisle didn't want to freak out the pack. He figured the less the better. At first he only wanted to bring Esme, but I wasn't going to stay home once I heard that there was a fight." Alice explained.
"Where are Esme and Carlisle then?" I asked, which caused Alice to let out a small chuckle.
"In the Black's house. They got here when I did." She explained.
"Oh…"
"It's alright. We were a bit distracted." Alice said with a grimace. "We should probably join them as soon as possible though. You need your nose set, and Kat needs her arm looked at."
"How-"
"I can smell the blood. And I'm not blind." Alice told me. And, after thinking about it, it was a really stupid question. After all, the blonde shifter had four wide slashes on her arm, ranging from her elbow to her wrist, evenly spaced and still bleeding.
"Right…" I muttered.
"Where-" My head shot towards Kat when I heard her shaky voice. Her head was lifted, but her arms were still half-raised to cover her face. She swallowed harshly and tried again. "Where'd everyone go?"
"The pack went with Sam and the doctor, and everyone else went home." Leah told Kat in a calm voice, obviously frightened that she'd set her off again.
"Kat, how much do you remember?" Rikki asked the blonde.
"The werewolf, Sam getting hurt, then…" Kat trailed off, her face scrunched in confusion.
"Kat, you had an attack. You curled up and wouldn't move." Rikki explained.
"Oh Goddess." Kat whimpered, burring her face again, only this time in shame not fear.
"Are you okay?" Leah asked.
"I will be." Kat told her, peeking out from behind her arms.
"Good." Leah wrapped her into a hug. "You had me worried there for a second."
"Sorry." Kat returned the embrace and buried her face in Leah's shoulder.
"Now let's get you and Bella fixed up." Leah pulled back, stood, and offered Kat her hand.
"Yeah, apparently I got my face broken." I pointed out needlessly as I walked towards my Alpha.
"That's nothing." Kat brushed off with a weak smirk. "It's not even going to scar."
"That's a relief." I smiled.
"Nah, chicks dig scars, right?" Kat tried to teased, pulling Leah a bit closer. I was glad to see she was coming out of the attack, even if the teasing was subpar.
"I'd prefer her not getting hurt at all." Alice deadpanned, wrapping her arm around my middle.
"'Cause that's an option." Rikki rolled her eyes at the statement.
XXXXX
It was a relatively short walk to the Black's house, though it would have been a much more comfortable one if I actually had some clothes on. The blanket I had wrapped around me kept threatening to blow apart, which would have not been a fun experience for me. Looking over I kept seeing Kat scowl at hers and pulling it tighter around her body. Well, at least I wasn't suffering alone.
Thankfully we did make it to the house without any blanket mishaps, for both Kat and myself. Upon arriving, I saw that every member of the pack, minus Sam and of course Leah, were sitting around the house, glancing at it every so often.
"Leah!" Seth hopped up and rushed to his sister once he caught sight of us.
"Hey Seth. How's Sam doing?" Leah asked.
"Last we heard, it looked good, but the doc's been in there a while." Seth responded, earning a few relieved sighs from our group. "And it looks like a few of you need to see him next."
"Minor wounds. We can wait until Sam is all taken care of." Kat brushed off.
"Well, then you won't have to wait very long." A voice called from the front door of the house. Esme was standing there, a concerned look on her face. "Come inside and Carlisle will take a look at you."
"Is Sam stable?" Kat asked as she walked towards the house.
"Yes. He's sleeping now. Carlisle didn't know exactly how fast the wolves' metabolisms were, so he gave Sam a healthy dose of morphine. He'll probably be knocked out for a little while." Esme explained as we walked into the house.
"We'll stay out here. That house probably can't hold too many shifters at once." Rikki called out, and Kat turned and nodded in acceptance.
"Are these my next two patients?" Carlisle asked as we made our way deeper into the house.
"I guess so." I shrugged.
"You've got to love the enthusiasm people have when coming to the doctor." Carlisle chuckled to himself. "Alright, whoever's first, you can take a seat here." He patted the chair next to a table holding his medical bag.
"Kat, you can go." I told her, noticing that her arm was still seeping a bit of blood.
"No, Bella. You'll be much faster. Just get your nose fixed." She all but shoved me into the chair.
"Fine." I grumbled as I sat. "How much is this going to hurt?" I asked Carlisle as his gloved hands moved against my nose and cheeks.
"Your nose is almost completely healed, so I'll have to rebreak it and set it." He told me, lifting my head slightly.
"So a lot." I sighed.
"Don't worry, it's not bone, just cartilage." He assured me before a sharp pain in my nose made me hiss. "All done. There are advantages to moving much faster than a human."
He then bandaged my nose and instructed me to ice it as much as possible over the next few days. Alice pulled me to another chair, disappeared, and reappeared a moment later with a cloth to clean up the blood on my face.
"I believe you're next Katherine." Carlisle called. I overheard him telling her that she was going to need the gashes cleaned then stitched up since they weren't going to close themselves.
"How's the face?" Alice asked me, pulling my attention back to her.
"It's throbbing, but I'll live." I told her with a small smile.
"So does everything caused by another supernatural take really long to heal?" She asked as she ran gentle fingers over my cheekbones.
The feather-light touch had me closing my eyes and shuddering slightly, but not out of pain. In fact, it was the polar opposite. Alice's touch was causing warmth to swell through my body, making me forget about the pain entirely.
"Sorry." She pulled her hand back at my reaction, thinking she had hurt me.
"No." I pouted once her touch was gone. "I mean," I cleared my throat and collected myself, "it didn't hurt. It felt nice actually."
"Oh." Alice's face broke into a warm smile. "Good."
"But to answer your question, no, not every wound. Just ones caused by claws, fangs, spikes, those kinds of things. My face is healing slowly because broken bones, and I guess cartilage, takes a little longer to heal than a cut. That, and we do heal a bit slower than the wolves." I explained.
"That makes sense I guess." She shrugged.
"As much sense as anything else going on these days." I added.
"True." She laughed and continued to dab at my face with her cloth.
"You're pretty good at this." I spoke up after a minute of her cleaning me off.
"Huh?" He movements stopped and she looked up at me.
"Taking care of people. You're pretty good at making sure I'm all clean and okay." I elaborated with a slight blush on my face.
"Of course I am." She beamed and finished cleaning the blood off of me. "What aren't I good at?"
"Controlling yourself in a mall." I suggested with a small smirk.
"That is irrelevant to this conversation." She scoffed and lightly smacked my arm.
"How so?" I shot back.
"That's not a skill or talent that I don't have." She argued.
"Self-control is a skill. You lack it. End of story." I laughed at her offended expression.
"Because you're the poster child for self-control." She shot back with an eye roll.
"Oh, I never said I was. I also lack any sort of self-preservation instinct. Just look at who I choose to hang out with."
"You-"
Her sudden seizing up next cut off whatever she wanted to say, all expression leaving her face, and her eyes glazing over. I knew that expression, she was having a vision, and if the slight shuddering was anything to go by, it was a bad one.
Knowing there was nothing I could do to break her out of her vision, I simply pulled her frame into mine, hugging her shaking body close, trying to give her any reassurance I could.
Thankfully, the vision didn't last long, but the second she came out of it she shot out of my grip, a petrified expression on her face.
"Alice, what is it?" I stood too, concerned at her expression. It seemed whatever this vision was, it was much worse than any of the others.
"Victoria." The one word sent shivers down my spine. It didn't matter that I was now a shapeshifter, very capable of defending myself, the thought of an absolutely insane vampire coming after me still had me terrified.
"What did you see?" Kat spoke up from her position at the other end of the table. Carlisle wrapped the last bandage around Kat's arm and looked up as well.
"She's coming to Forks." Alice replied.
"So? She's one vampire, and we have seven. Plus three shifters that wouldn't let anything happen to Bella. And Bella's a shifter. And an entire pack of wolf shifters that will rip apart any human-drinking vampire." Kat told her, but still looked concerned at Alice's fear.
"She's bringing newborns." Alice told Carlisle more so than anyone else. And before he could speak up she spoke again. "And I think shifters."
"Newborns?"
"You think shifters?"
"How do you know?"
Three questions met Alice all at once, but she just shook her head.
"At least seven newborns. And there were blank spots in the vision, plus large beasts that were slightly out of focus, just like the pride is in my visions."
"How in the world would a vampire be able to get shifters to follow her?" I asked.
"There was another person there, the same one I could never get a fix on. He wasn't a vampire or a shifter. But I did finally get a good picture of him." Alice explained.
"What did he look like?" Kat asked in a strained voice.
"Does it matter?" Alice asked, her brow peaked in confusion.
"It matters a hell of a lot, especially if he's not vamp or shifter. I need to know what he looks like." Kat's voice was low and overly controlled. Obviously something was really troubling her, but she needed to be sure about the man first.
"If someone could get me some paper and something to draw with I can show you I guess." Alice surrendered after a moment.
"I can do that." Jacob's sudden voice caused me to jump slightly. "Though I'd prefer to know what's going on first."
"Alice had a vision of a bunch of vampires and shifters coming here. Probably to attack the Cullens." I told him.
"Why?" He asked.
"Edward killed her mate, and she thinks I'm Edward's mate. And before you ask, she's not the type to stop and realize that Edward is gone." I clarified.
"If the Cullens fight then you're going to fight too, aren't you?" He asked.
"I would never abandon my mate." I growled at the thought.
"Which means the pride is fighting too, right?" Leah asked Kat.
"I'd never leave a pride-mate to fight alone." Kat said with a definite nod.
"And I'd never leave my Imprint to fight alone." Leah declared, squeezing Kat's good hand.
"Which means the pack will fight. For both Leah, and to defend the humans here." Jacob returned
"This is making my head hurt." Kat chuckled humorlessly. "But back to the paper and pencil."
"Right." Jacob shook to clear his head and disappeared, reappearing quickly with a sheet of paper and a pencil.
Alice took the objects and quickly set to work sketching the man from her vision. It took all of a minute for her to have a full portrait of a scowling man, the sketch looking as detailed as a photograph.
"Here you go." Alice handed the photo to Kat.
Kat immediately tensed up, her face giving away the pure horror she was feeling. To her credit, she managed to keep a hold of herself; the only hint to the level of fear was her eyes flashing green.
"Are you sure that this is who you saw?" Kat choked out.
"Yes, why?" Alice responded.
"This is my trainer." Kat simply said, each word heavily controlled, as if it would explain everything. And it did, but only to me.
"Are you sure?" I asked Kat.
"I'd never forget that fucker's face." Kat growled at the sketch before slamming it facedown onto the table.
"Want to explain what a trainer is to the rest of us?" Leah interjected. "Because I'm guessing it's not what we think it is."
"They called themselves trainers, but there were more like owners." Kat told her, pulling her hand away to burry her face in her palms.
"Some bastard thinks he owns you?" Leah snarled.
"For all intents and purposes, he did." Kat admitted.
"What?" Leah tried to control her voice for her question, but failed miserably.
"If he's coming here, then this is a whole lot bigger than a crazy vamp coming after Bella for revenge." Kat announced.
"Well, what does it mean then?" Jacob asked.
"It means, you need to know about the trainers, and their connection to vampires. Which means it's time I told you about my past."
Okay, so I don't know if anyone even cares about Kat, or her past, and the level of caring matters a lot in the upcoming chapter. I don't want to write something that you will hate which means we have two options for the next chapter. Either, Kat sits and talks about her past (which involves a shit ton of dialogue), or the next chapter is a flashback of Kat's life.
So it's up to you guys. Leave me a review telling me which you'd prefer. Once I get a good idea of which one sounds better, I'll work on it. (Now I feel like I'm bribing for reviews... Oh well!)