Disclaimer: I have no ownership over the characters from the Twilight Saga. All rights belong to Stephenie Meyer.
Summary: Every year on September 13th I die. Only to have my life breathed back into me the next day. The only way to make it stop is to connect with someone that goes though the same thing. Let the needle search begin.
Chapter 2: The Return
Carlisle POV
The sight of seeing, Bella laying so still on the medical table I had in my study. It brought back the memory of the very first time I had met her. Fourteen years, had gone by with her never letting on about knowing about what my true natural was then last year when she had moved here to Forks to live with Charlie. My dark secret had been set free. However, she said nothing because she had one too.
When I had first met Bella, she had only been one years old. Her mother, Renee had been frantic. At first not hearing the child's heart beat caused me little worry. A human child had a soft heart beat though slightly rapid. My kind sometimes missed it, when they were in the company of older humans.
"You have to promise me that you will keep this a secret. My baby died yesterday, but she's going to be coming back to me. Today is the day after her birthday you'll see it."
Tears were flowing from her eyes, as she held Bella to her chest. What she was saying clicked suddenly in my head. The baby in her arms was dead.
"Mrs. Swan, why don't you let me have a look at Bella for a moment," I said in a soft soothing tone.
She released Bella into my care. Upon my examination I saw that the infant was indeed gone.
"Mrs. Swan." I began.
"I-it's Dwyer, I never married her father. It just wasn't going to work. I-I didn't kill my baby. She's be back you'll see. You'll see. She whispered.
From a doctor's stand point I had to assume that Bella had succumbed to SIDS. It was plain to see that Bella's mother was in shock and suffering from Post-Partum Depression. I covered Bella's small form with the blanket and then went to give my attention to Renee.
As I moved toward Renee a soft flutter reached my ears. It was followed by a gasping cough. My eyes darted from the mother to the baby I had left on the table. It coughed again flaying its little arms under the blanket. Bella then started to cry.
I was too stunned at first to move. In all my life and every case I had seen I had never seen anything like what had just happened. Fresh tears were making their way down Renee's cheeks as she made her way back to her baby.
"Oh sweetie, my sweet, sweet girl, you came back to me."
After allowing a few minutes for mother and daughter to reconnect, the doctor in my swiftly took over and monitored Bella's vitals. Her blood pressure, lungs and heart all sounded normal as if whatever I had just seen had never happened.
Renee's green eyes met my amber ones. They were pleading with me before she spoke.
"Please, I came to you. Because of how kind and good everyone says you are. Please, I don't know why this is happening to my baby. Just please promise me, you'll keep it a secret that you'll help. I'm afraid to tell Charlie, I can't tell him alone."
Her eyes continued to search mine.
"Will you help me stop whatever is happening to my baby? Please, please help me keep her safe?"
I knew I should have never made such a promise to Renee. Not staying in one place for too many years was how I kept what I was a secret. Yet here I was condemning myself.
"I promise that what just happened in here will never leave this room."
"Carlisle, Carlisle are you all right?"
Hearing Jasper's voice I blinked and the past was gone and the present lay before me.
"Yes, Jasper, I'm all right." I answered in a soft tone. I knew that my emotions were telling Jasper something very different. Yet he never questioned me. He did however question me about something else.
"Carlisle, have you ever thought about…" he started. I finished his thought before him.
"Changing her, yes and no, sixteen years I have been following her case, and I'm still no closer to finding an answer. Changing her would seem like the most evident thing to do. But, I can't be sure what venom would do to her, in her current condition."
The look on Jasper's face told me that he wanted to say something more. I however wasn't finished.
"Bella will return to us tomorrow. We just have to have patience."
"I don't see how it's going to be possible there are so many wounds. No normal human can come back from this." Jasper stated.
Glancing over at Jasper I answered him as I started to clean up Bella's blood.
"Yes, well, I can assure you she will. It's obvious that Bella isn't a normal human. She is however human."
I was quite aware that it was now sixteen years and I had yet to put my finger on the phenomenon that occurs every year around her birthday.
"Jasper, would you mind going to Bella's room and getting a change of clothes? I can handle things from here."
The only thing I could do was try to give her as much privacy as I could. The action would have been better if there was a female in my little family. As of right now I had yet to find a soul that sang to mine. After freeing Bella's body from it all the blood stains and changing the sheet beneath her. I placed a clean sheet over her until Jasper had returned with new clothes.
"I hope these will work and I brought a pair of these as well." Jasper said lifting up a pair of jeans, purple tee and flannel shirt; followed by a set of light blue flannel pajamas.
I looked over at then and nodded. "Those will be fine I'm sure."
After setting the clothes down on the chair that was in the corner of the room, Jasper just stood there looking at Bella.
"It's almost like we're waiting for her to wake up and join our family; to start a new way of life with us." He finished calmly.
I felt the same thing at times and I had seen Bella go through the same thing every year. She would died on her birthday, then on September 14th at the same time she had died the day before, her body would come alive again.
Jasper then shifted on his feet. "I'll excuse myself now so you can finish cleaning her up."
He was standing in the doorway when he turned to look at me.
"Jacob's not going to be happy when he returns home with Emmett. He has grown sweet on Bella."
I only nodded in response to Jasper's words. Once Jasper had gone, I was alone to set out to finish cleaning up Bella. I had never voiced my opinion before. Something continued to tell me that there were many things that Jacob wasn't going to be pleased with.
I sensed a change going on inside of Jacob that was more then puberty. For right now though I needed to focus on Bella.
"Forgive me, Bella. I made a promise to your mother that I haven't completely kept. I haven't been able to solve the riddle of just why this happens to you."
I had cleaned her and put her in the pajamas Jasper had brought to me. Bella looked as if she was merely sleeping. If it wasn't for the stillness of her heart, I would believe the illusion that lay before me.
Shadows were slowing being cast around us. The twilight of the day was here, there were nine and a half hours left to go before she would return. Before I realized it, I had bent over and placed a kiss on Bella's forehead.
At the sound of Emmett's jeep I made my way down the stairs. Emmett made his way through the door first.
"The little man's not happy, Carlisle." Emmett said to me in a matter of fact tone.
My only reaction was a sigh.
"Here you go Carlisle; I know there's no way you need this now but here."
Lifting my head to see a small cooler hanging in front of me, inside was the extra blood that I had ask the two of them to procure for Bella.
"Thank you, Emmett." I replied as I reached out to take it from him.
Just sitting here wasn't getting me anywhere. Without saying another word, I stood up and disappeared into my study. There were still nine hours to pass as we waited. Time meant nothing as I began to comb through book after book until there was a layer of open books on my desk.
At the sound of knock at the study door, I looked up from my reading.
"Carlisle, it's almost one in the afternoon. Just thought I would let you know." He voice was soft as he spoke.
I could tell that Jasper wasn't as sure of my earlier words as I was. In this situation seeing was believing, it seemed.
"Is it really?"
I had been so wrapped up in each passage I had been reading, that I hadn't even noticed the rising of the sun. Something else came to mind then.
"Jasper, Jacob is he…"
He stopped and turned to look at me a slight smirk on his face.
"He's safe and still sleeping in his bed."
Jasper then continued, "He's still angry, even though he knows why you did it. You're to compassionate sometimes Carlisle."
I found myself laughing at Jasper's statement. He seemed shocked to see me laugh. I don't think I had ever laughed in front of him.
"Maybe so, it however and the drinking the blood of animals of course, is the one way I have been able to hang onto my humanity." I said as I stood up from my desk.
"Come with me, it's better if you witness what Bella goes through one day of every year. It's best if you both see it."
Emmett then spoke from behind me.
"What about Jacob?" he asked me.
I answered him as we made our way upstairs.
"We'll let him sleep. I'm sure that Bella will understand." I said in a firm yet gentle voice.
It was impossible for me to say that I understood what she was going through. I was aware that the experience must be very trying and frightening for her. Nevertheless, I couldn't say that my theory was right, Bella never discussed what she experienced when she came back.
Picking up a chair I sat it catty corner to the head of the bed and sat down. I had become so accustom with the strange event Bella went through once every year that I could time just the moment she would be back.
"Carlisle, are you sure about this? Emmett asked in an unsure tone.
"Yes, Emmett I'm very sure. Just look at her wounds." I assured him.
The scratches and contusions she had stuffed yesterday were gone. Just as the puncture wounds in her chest and stomach were sure to be gone as well.
"No way!" came a gasp from Emmett as he watch Bella come alive.
Then as if touched by an invisible hand of life color started to fill her cheeks and lips; erasing the ashen, purple hues and leaves brushes of color. Next, the return of her heart beat. Starting as a light flutter of a bird's wing, to the strong thump, bump, thump of a heart.
"Carlisle this is…" Jasper whispered as he continued to watch.
"Impossible, yes I thought the same thing when I first saw it happen." I replied.
I could feel Jasper's own anxiety wash over me as he tried to contain it.
"Carlisle, how…" Jasper started to question me.
"We'll talk more about all of this later and I shall do my best to answer your questions." I finished rather quickly.
A sudden gasp escaped her as she pulled in a breath of air her body must have been screaming for. Bella's eyes fluttered open and she began coughing as her body did its best with dealing with breathing once again.
Bella found her voice a few seconds later.
"Dad!" she gasped.
I was at her side in an instant soothing her as best as I could.
"It's all right, Bella, shhh. Just small breathes at first. Your blood pressure is returning to normal." I said soothingly.
In her disoriented state she whispered, "Dad?"
"No, Bella its Carlisle." I said softly.
The levee that had been holding in all of her sadness broke, as tears flowed free and sobs racked her body. Jasper was standing beside us as Bella continued to cry into my chest.
"Just give her a moment longer." I said low enough for Jasper and Emmett to hear but not Bella.
They only nodded to me in understanding. After a while Bella's sobs quieted, a sign that she had fallen asleep. Shifting her in my arms, I laid her gently back into her bed.
"So what can we do for her?" Emmett questioned me.
Looking away from Emmett to Jasper, I sighed as I looked down at Bella.
"We can use everything we have at our disposal to figure out why this is happening to Bella and how to put a stop to it."
With sober topaz eyes my sons nodded in agreement with me. Just then the door bell rang, causing us to look at one another once more. Looking at Bella one last time I sped down the stairs to answer the door.
Turning the knob and opening the door, I was greeted by a petite young woman.
"Hi, I'm Alice; it's nice to finely meet you."
A/N: So what do you think? Leave a review I'd love to hear from you.
Playlist: Sick Cycle Carousel by Lifehouse, Simon by Lifehouse, Trying by Lifehouse, Breathe In Breathe Out by Matt Kearney
TaintedDarkInuShemeeko