Cullen's Hound

Ch. 8: Over the Rainbow and a Warning

BPOV

I gasped a little as I felt the tingle that meant the connection had been made. Suddenly there was an explosion of colors and a cacophony of sounds. It was far too much information but somehow my mind was process all of it without any effort. It was almost as though it had been made for just this purpose. Only now, had I realized how multi-facetted my brain truly was.

My hearing picked up every conversation in this wing of the hospital, along with the usual electronic sounds associated with places of healing, and all the noises outside for about five miles. There were also those ranges that humans were never meant to hear. Thankfully, I was use to borrowing a dog's senses so I was able to filter all of those into a dull buzz in the back of my mind so they wouldn't be distracting.

It was what I saw that had been awe-inspiring. If my world wasn't dark, then it was seen through the black and white vision of my only friend. Now, I experienced the world in color for the first time. Everything was so vibrant it was breathtaking. I must've looked like a kid on Christmas morning because I noticed the barely contained excitement on the divinely beautiful faces of my new vampire family.

I wanted to see what the rest my room looked like, so I turned my head but Rose kept looking at her…our family. With all the demanding of a child, I mentally pulled as hard as I could on the connection between us. Her head whipped to where I looked at a speed that made me dizzy. It was her yelp of pain that caused me to sever the connection.

Unfortunately for me, I just yanked my hand off her and the backlash of the abrupt disconnect made me cry out then I felt blood trickle down my nose to my lip. I tried to knock away the hands of whoever was trying to help me as I tapped out a frantic Sorry, on Rosalie's arm. Her slender fingers closed around my wrist then guided my hand to her throat.

"I'm okay. I'm okay," she soothed and I hadn't realized I had started sobbing.

The one that had tried to help stepped back as my love pulled me into her lap. She stroked my hair and rocked back and forth until I finally calmed down. She tried to coax me into re-establishing the link between us, but I vehemently refused. Nothing she could say had any hope of changing my mind.

"Please baby, for me. I know what happened was an accident; you didn't mean to hurt me. Please," she begged, then added, "If you do, I'll make worth your wile."

It was the images that last part of her plea had conjured up that broke my resolve. Tentatively, with my left hand softly resting against her throat, I pushed open the connection. It had taken a few minutes to force the multitude of sounds into the dull ring again, and then I was ready to give my undivided attention to those around me. Rosalie had used the time to wipe the blood from my face.

RPOV

Just before I felt the tingle of connection between me and Bella re-open, my siblings had been snickering. It had taken all my self-control not to join them; everyone had smelled my vixen's arousal when I made my final plea. Despite what I'd said earlier about not wanting our first time to be in a hospital bed, there was little doubt that Bella would try something to get me to change my mind. With a simple implication, I'd taken control and now she'd wait with anticipation until I've made a move.

"What happened," Carlisle asked which snapped me back out of my musings.

"I don't know; one minute I was looking at you then the next I felt a force pull that made me turn my head. It was the strength behind the pull that made me yelp," I stated delicately so that the brunette wouldn't get upset again.

"That was my fault, I didn't mean to tug so hard that it hurt you but you weren't looking where I wanted you to. I've only seen the world in black and white whenever I'd used Bran's vision; color is just…wow. Charlie told me about a movie, The Wizard of Oz; it starts out in black and white then switches to color. I that's the only way to describe it, everything is just so vibrant. Anyway, when I heard Rose yelp in pain, I instantly severed the connection. While that had been painful in the past, it was nothing like what happened a couple of minutes ago," Bella explained.

Emmett had suddenly started singing Somewhere Over the Rainbow in a very girly voice and it had made us all laugh. Bella was still a little upset that she'd caused me pain, so I went back to softly soothing her. I felt the slight trembling of her body so I looked down at her in my lap and noticed she was under some sort of strain. Thankfully, I hadn't been the only one to see it.

CPOV

I had kept an eye on Bella since we had started this experiment, and I noticed that now she started to show signs of stress. The young woman had pushed herself past all of her previous boundaries and she needed to stop. I decided to only ask a couple of questions then have her rest. The other answers needed to wait, for now.

"Bella, why are Rosalie's vision and hearing not causing you problems," I asked.

"It's weird, you'd think that but somehow my brain easily compensated for the overload. I suppose it could all be distracting, but I'm able to shove the excess information into different compartments in my mind. Like with the sounds of everything outside this room are a dull thrumming but I can go back and pick up individual sounds. Sight is kind of the same way; everything I don't want to see is blurry until I do. It's as if my brain were made for this kind of sensory input but my body wasn't. I'm exhausted and the longer I keep the connection open, the worse it gets," she explained.

"One more question then I want you to get some rest. Can you only use someone's senses when you touch them, or can you do it over distance," I wondered.

"After the connection becomes stronger, then I can do it from a distance. With Bran, I could do it from three miles away. I only ever did that when Charlie took him hunting and I was back at our campsite. That way I could keep an eye on him because he was more of a fisherman than a hunter," she replied with the slightest of waivers in her voice.

I nodded then indicated for her to break her connection to Rose. The poor girl was so drained from her endeavors that she fell to sleep in her mate's arms seconds later. Her answers showed that she was beginning to understand how different she really was. Rose and I shared a look that meant we would be having a private conversation later. My cell phone rang as I was about to examine the sleeping beauty.

"Dr. Cullen, this is Billy Black," a voice on the other end had said once I had hit the talk button.

"Hello Billy, I take it this is not a social call," I responded politely.

"No, I wanted to let you know that the Council and the Pack are not happy with you adopting Bella. I was hoping we could sit down and discuss things calmly before the Pack does anything stupid," Billy replied back civilly.

"I think that would be a wise idea, call me tomorrow with a time and place but there are some complication of which you are not aware that may color the discussion. Until I hear back from you, good day," I commented then ended the call before he could ask any questions.

From what I had observed of this new generation of wolves, they were more prone to violence that those we made the Treaty with. We could not take the chance that Bella was not safe in the hospital. After a rapid discussion, it was decided that I would discharge Bella and we would take her home at once. I made my way to the Nurse's Station to sign the requisite forms while the others made short work of packing our youngest member's things.

After a brief stop by my office to pick up my new laptop, we were headed home on full alert. I wanted to avoid bloodshed if at all possible, so as soon as we reached the house, I would call in an old friend for insurance.