Thanks to divine divinity, Bonham Carter, sheeiur22, KarinaCullen, and B-Ball Boy C for reviewing!
Thanks for all the reviews so far! Keep 'em coming:~D I just wanted to let you know that I have the whole story written out and I will be posting one chapter a day until the grand finale on Saturday, so the end is near...but just to warn you, it might not have that happy of an ending...
CHAPTER TWELVE
ENEMIES
*
"You'll get better" Bella said resolutely.
"Bella..." Charlie said looking down.
An awkward silence between them.
"How long?" Bella said breaking the silence."How long do you have?".
He shook his head and shifted his weight to the other side of the door frame. "Weeks, months..."
Bella turned away from Charlie unable to look at him anymore. The signs were all there, she had just mistaken what they had meant. Charlie was pale and looked like he had lost some weight. She had thought is was because of her.
"Lung cancer?" Bella said suddenly. "You don't smoke".
Charlie looked at the ceiling.
Bella shook her head in denial.
"I've been around it all my life at the station" he explained. "I might as well have been smoking since I joined the force with all that second hand smoke" He sighed. "When you left...I just...gave in".
Bella looked down at her hands. She was still holding the picture of her and Charlie. She had just gotten everything back and now it was all slipping through her fingers like sand.
Wait.
How could she have forgotten.
"How is mom?".
Charlie hesitated and rubbed the back of his neck uncomfortably.
Bella looked at the floor.
"She's dead Bella" he answered. "Died in her sleep a couple of years ago".
Bella mouthed a silent 'oh'.
"And Phil?".
"Died a few months later, couldn't live without her" Charlie answered.
"And now you" Bella muttered.
She hated Victoria with all her might. No, that wasn't quite right.
She hated Edward. If she had never met Edward, then none of this would've happened. She could have had a normal life, one free from the threat of the vampire world. She wouldn't be here dealing with having a huge part of her life taken from her without her consent. She wouldn't be dealing with the idea of loosing charlie so soon after just finding him again. Even though she was thirty years older, that part of her life didn't count as part of her life as Bella. Once she got her memories back it was as if her mind was still that 18 year old girl. She felt as if she was just waking up the next morning, only to find that she was 30 years in the future.
"I..."Bella said, "I need to get out for a while". She stood up and brushed past Charlie walking down the steps slightly faster than a human and much more graceful than she had ever had as a human.
"Bella wait!" Charlie yelled. She was already at the door.
Bella hesitated and turned back to the stairs, her hand still on the door knob.
"You'll be back right?" he said quietly.
She nodded with a sigh and disappeared out the door.
It was almost too much to take. Everyone she knew was disappearing around her. First the Cullen's, then Renee and Phil, now Charlie.
All around her was a brilliant white. It was most likely bitterly cold, but being as she was a technically dead cold vampire, she felt none of that. In fact, she wasn't even wearing a coat. She was glad that there were no humans around. They would surly think her crazy for just wearing a simple sweater out in weather like this. This was why she had chosen to walk this way, away from the town, toward Port Angeles. She avoided the forest like the plague, instead walking just off the highway.
Life was cruel to her, that was for sure.
She smiled. When did become such an emo?
Suddenly her foot hit a hard object in the snow beneath her. Bending down, she felt around expecting to find a rock. Instead, she found a small white cross. Brushing the snow off of its surface she was shocked to read her very own name.
For our dear Bella
She looked around her desperately searching her memories for any sign of familiarity. Curiously, she ventured deeper into the forest that she had been so purposefully avoiding. She had thought she was avoiding it because of all the memories that it evoked of him, but now she was not sure. There were other reasons. Reasons she could not remember.
A salty smell of rust greeted her as she moved closer to large pile of snow. Brushing away some of the snow, she saw there was metal beneath it; orange rust tainted metal. Curious, she brushed more snow off revealing the outline of an old truck.
Her old truck.
Why was it out here? Curse her fickle memory. It was failing her when she needed it the most. She was sure she remembered this before. Why not now?
Shaking her head, she moved around to the drivers side door and yanked it open. A cloud of snow fell around her at the movement. Inside, the air was stale and old. The was also another smell that she couldn't quite recognize that made her want to retch. Confused, she stopped breathing all together. Problem solved.
She looked around her, examining a backpack that was laying in the passenger seat. These were her things. Her clothes, her I.d.'s, her money...wow, did she really have that much money as a human? Never mind.
She looked to the floor and grabbed a book. It was her old journal. Curious, she opened it and read it.
…He said it would be like we never met. He was wrong. Everyday, every minute, he's there haunting me. It's making me crazy. To think, I could ever mean as much to him as he meant to me. I'm just a dumb little girl who got in over her head with someone who was never meant to be with her, only play with her. I hate that, I hate me. But no matter how I try to, I can never bring myself to hate him...
Look what 30 years can do though, Bella smirked.
...The only thing that is saving me right now is Jacob. He like my personal Sun whereas Ed-Him...was like the moon at night. If Jacob were to ever reject me like…Him, I don't know what I would do. There's only so much a heart can take…
Confusion came across her. She didn't remember this Jacob. Who was he? If he was that important to her, then why didn't she remember? For the second time that day, she cursed her unreliable memory.
"Get out of there you leech!" a voice boomed from outside the truck.
Unintentionally, Bella gasped in surprise then made a retching sound. That smell! It was horrid!
Before she knew it, she found herself lying on the snow, the truck's door having been wrenched open by the foul smelling man, and her having been roughly thrown to the ground.
"How dare you!" Bella said indignantly, backing up from the towering man and brushing away the hair that had tangled in her face, "What did I ever do to you?!" she said looking him straight in the eye, her hair no longer obscuring her face.
The man looked like he had seen a ghost.
"B-bella?" the man stuttered.
Her eyes widened. She had forgot to change her appearance after leaving the house. Thinking quickly, she grabbed a handful of snow and threw it into the man face, then she hastily changed her appearance back into the curvy blonde she had had been just previously.
"Hey!" the man shouted, grabbing his eyes in pain.
"Serves you right" Bella muttered picking herself off the ground and quickly bursting in a quick run. Whoever this man was, he was clearly deranged and unstable.
"Wait you crazy leech! the man shouted, stumbling after her. "Bella!" he screamed.
Yup, think man was clearly headed for the loony bin, she ran faster leaving him far behind.
Or so she thought.
Unceremoniously, she found herself on the ground again, this time the crazy man was on top of her, pinning her to the ground. As he stared down at her, his face was an open book of confusion.
"What the..." he muttered, leaping up from her and backing up in embarrassment.
"Who are you?"
Bella stared at him in anger. That smell really was horrible.
"You stink" she was her reply.
"Of course you would think that when its you who really stinks" the man threw back.
Bella turned her back to him, "You should really think about taking a shower, you smell like a dog".
"And you smell too sweet".
She turned back to him. "Better that than smelling like a mongrel" She sized him up."What are you?" she asked, "I've never smelt a human that smelled the way you do and are as repulsive as you are to me".
He looked at her like she was the crazy one. "Are you playing with me?" he asked irridiculously.
She rolled her eyes and stared walking away from him.
"I'm a werewolf you crazy leech" he said, looking at her as if he were stating the obvious. "You and me are mortal enemies".
She stopped in her tracks and turned back to face him.
"I could tear you limb to limb and not feel an ounce of pity for you" he boasted.
"And why would you do that?" Bella challenged, walking right up to the wolf.
"Because you were trespassing on my property".
She laughed.
"So that's your rusty old truck then" she laughed again. "So your the one writing about being heartbroken by a man named Edward" she continued to laugh.
The man's face grew angry.
"Your the one writing about your sun-your dear Jacob" she snickered, "Yeah right that truck is yours".
"You-have-no-right" he fumed.
"Oh I don't?" Bella challenged. She could use a good fight to get rid of her pent up frustrations.
"I could rip your head off right now" he threatened.
"I'm so scared" Bella moaned dramatically.
"Jacob!" A voice shouted from behind, "What in the blazes are you doing?!"
"Jacob?!" Bella exclaimed, "You're Jacob?! What could I have seen in-"
"Are you crazy Jacob?" the voice from behind repeated.
"What?" Jacob said staring at Bella.
"Jacob!" a similar looking man came up behind Jacob and turned him around forcefully.
"What's your problem man?" Jacob said wrenching himself away. But when he turned back around, Bella was long gone.
"You really should think about getting a life man".
"I have one thank you very much, Seth" Jacob said, bending down out of the way of a branch.
"I mean, getting yourself a woman" Seth said cheekily.
Jacob rolled his eyes, "Like the invisible one you got?".
Seth frowned. "At least I'm working on it, unlike you".
After a few minutes of silent walking, Seth got an mischievous look on his face.
"Unless..."
Jacob sighed in annoyance, "Unless what?"
"Unless you and that female leech back there..." he left off suggestively.
A look of absolute disgust came across Jacob's face. "She's a leech, 'nough said".
"I don't know man" Seth said with a grin. "She was pretty hot" he said, "For a leech".
"Nah" Jacob said, "Their all the same"
"True".
The two were silent for a while, just the sound of branches snapping beneath their feet.
"I wonder what she was doing in the truck" Jacob said suddenly.
"Is she with those Cullen's?" Seth asked.
Jacob shook his head, "She never said; didn't tell me what her name was" he had a far away look in his eyes.
"I know that look" Seth said, "What is it?"
Jacob looked up to the sky. Just ahead the forest ended and houses could be seen. They were almost to the reservation Jacob stopped and turned to Seth.
"When I threw her out of the truck-"
"You'll never get a girl that way-" Seth snickered.
"WHEN I threw her out of the truck" Jacob continued," She looked like Bella".
"Uh, man, that was no Bella" Seth said looking at Jacob strangely. "That girl was blonde and Curvy in all the right places" He shook his head, "I'm sorry Jacob, but this Bella you've been hung up on so long about, was not like that"
Jacob rolled his eyes. "Vampire have powers sometimes".
"Like those Cullen's" Seth stated."So what is she? Some sort of shape shifter?"
Jacob shrugged his shoulders uncertainly.
"So you think that this girl is Bella?" Seth questioned. "Wouldn't she have recognized you?"
Jacob looked up, "I'm different now" he ran a hand through his long hair, "She never knew me this way" he explained, "She went missing before I could tell her".
Seth smirked, "Yeah, but its not like you grew another head or something".
"True" Jacob conceded. A far away look came across his face. "I think she misunderstood me".
Seth raised his eyebrow and took a seat on a small rock. Jacob began pacing.
"Right before she went missing, I wasn't talking to her".
"And that would cause a misunderstanding how?" Seth asked.
"It was right after that leech left her" Jacob said running a hand through his hair, "I think she took my not talking to her as a rejection".
Seth shook his head, "What's done is done, you can't change the past. Surely she must be over that now".
Jacob rolled his eyes, "That is, if shes still alive in the first place" he looked at the sky, "We're talking about her as if she'll come around the corner any moment now".
Seth smirked, looking behind Jacob, "I don't know man...maybe..."
Catching Seth's gaze, Jacob quickly turned around.
"Seth, I'm gonna!" but when he turned back around Seth was gone.
That dirty little scoundrel. There was no one behind him. Only his past. He growled in frustration.
Werewolves.
What was this world coming to? Vampires, werewolves...did that mean elves existed too?
Shaking her head, she shook off her coat and stepped into the house, she vowed to do something about the state of the house asap.
She peered into the kitchen. Charlie wasn't there.
"Charlie?" she called out. Slightly worried, she went back through the living room and up the stairs. As she looked around the top of the stairs, her breath caught in her throat. Different from the stale air born of uncleanliness, this smell was rusty and ten times more disgusting to Bella.
"Dad?"
Following the smell, she ended up in front of the bathroom door. Listening hard, she heard a slow heartbeat coming from the other side. The heartbeat was slow enough that whoever was in there must have been unconscious. Holding her breath, she opened the door. On the floor laid her dad, unconscious.
"Dad!" she gasped out. Her face crumpled in disgust at the blood on the floor. Ignoring her discomfort, she turned Charlie over. He was out cold. She had read that one of the symptoms of lung cancer was coughing up blood, but it was something else totally to be seeing it in front of her. Quickly she picked him up effortlessly in her arms and ran out of the house. The hospital wasn't too far away.
Somehow, she was able to avoid to avoid the brunt of the afternoon traffic and passersby so she was able to run at vampire speed.
As soon as the doctors at the hospital caught sight of her, they took Charlie from her arms marveling at how she was able to carry him.
"You a relative of his?" the kindly looking lady at the front desk asked, handing her some paperwork.
Bella nodded.
"I didn't think he had anyone left" the nurse said shaking her head and turning away.
Bella sighed and took a seat in the waiting room. It wasn't too crowded. It was a small town after all.
It didn't take her long to fill out the paperwork. Strangely enough, she didn't have a problem remembering these details about Charlie.
"Done already" the nurse at the desk asked.
Bella nodded.
"The doctor should be out soon".
A memory came up. It was a possibility.
"Is there a doctor Cullen here?" she asked.
The nurse looked up at Bella strangely.
"Funny you should ask" the nurse replied. "He just started this morning".
Bella took in a deep breath. This was no coincidence. He was looking for her.
"You okay dear?" the nurse asked concerned.
Bella shook her head, "Yeah...yeah I'm fine" She back away and walked back into the waiting room. She supposed there was no avoiding it. But at the same time, she was not going without a fight.
The sound of a throat clearing the air broke into her thoughts.
She looked up and there he was. Dr. Cullen was as handsome as ever.
"Miss..."
"Josi, Mary Josi".
"Miss Josi" he tipped his head, "You're with Charlie Swan?"
Bella nodded.
"If I may ask," he said with a wary look, "How do you know Mr. Swan?"
Bella inwardly smirked, "I'm a friend of the family".
He looked at her doubtfully. "Mr. Swan is not doing too well" he said seriously, "His cancer is spreading very fast throughout his body".
"How long?" she asked quietly.
Carlisle shook his head sadly. "Weeks at best".
Bella sat down heavily. So soon?
Carlisle took a seat next to her. "I can help him" Carlisle said quietly, so quietly she would not have heard if she was a human.
She looked at him as if she didn't know what he was talking about. "Of course you can, you're a doctor".
He looked around uncomfortably, "You know as well as I do what I can do, what you can do".
"Excuse me?" she asked afronted.
"I know what you are" he said looking her straight int he eye, "I know who you are too".
"Bella".
"How dare you!" Bella said standing up, "How dare you assume these things about me and Charlie!"
Carlisle stood up.
"And I am not Bella!" she yelled, "She's dead! Edward killed her!"
"Bella-" Carlisle grabbed both of her arms holding her in place.
"I am not her!" she said furiously wrenching her arms from his grip.
As if talking to a child having a bad temper tantrum, Carlisle crossed his arms, "Ok then, who are you?"
"I'm Bella's friend".
Carlisle raised his eyebrow.
"She told me look out for Charlie before she died".
Carlisle's eyes narrowed, then he took a deep breath. A few moments passed as if he were having an internal debate.
"He's not here is he?!" Bella barked out.
"Edward?" Carlisle asked confused.
"I know if here's near he can talk to you in your head" she said defiantly, "Bella told me everything".
He looked crestfallen, "No" he said, "He is not here".
Composing herself she started to walk away from Carlisle, "Don't you dare call him here".
"Wait Miss..." he called out, "What are you doing?"
"I'm taking Charlie and I'm leaving this place" she said not looking at him.
"You can't do that".
She turned around sharply, "Yes I can and I will" she huffed, "It's obvious Edward has his spy here and I will not stay here and be watched".
She turned around and started talking to the nurse.
"I'm not sure who you are, but I hope you know what you are doing" he said quietly, walking away.
Bella shook her head and ignored him. Of course she knew what she was doing.
"He will be in a lot of pain" the nurse informed her, handing her the medications that Charlie was supposed to take.
Bella mutely nodded looking at the medication in her hand.
"The most you can do is to keep him comfortable and not let him over exert himself too much".
Again, Bella nodded.
The nurse sighed and put a hand on her shoulder, "It will be okay dear".
Bella sniffled and grabbed the nurse in a hug. The nurse rubbed Bella's back for a few moments then the two separated.
"Thanks" Bella said awkwardly.
The nurse nodded then stepped aside as Charlie was led into the main room in a wheel chair. He was sleeping.
Thanking everyone around her, she took control of Charlie's wheel chair and pushed him out of the room.
Come what may, she would stay with Charlie till the end.