Hey everyone!
Thanks so so so so so much for your patience and support. I love you guys so much! Your reviews always make me smile!
A special thanks to punkfarie for her help in deciding exactly where to go with some of this. 333
Be sure to check out her story Stripped! Its awesome!
This is the last chapter before Edward leaves for his course. From here on in Bella's going to have to survive without him.
"Sweetheart..."
Esme's voice brought me out of sleep and I was quick to notice that I wasn't in my room and my neck was stiff. I also had something attached to me. With a deep yawn, I remembered that I was in the living room with Bella. She was still sleeping on my shoulder.
"She didn't make it?" It was more of a statement than a question, and Esme looked both concerned and relieved at the same time. I shook my head, gently easing Bella down and covering her with a blanket as I stood to stretch.
"A noise scared her."
"Why is there a cut on her lip?"
"She panicked and ran into a door." Esme looked shocked at first, and then burst into light giggles. She led me out into the kitchen, her arm around my waist, and hugged me gently before making a pot of coffee. I could hear Carlisle rifling around in the pantry and I called a good morning over to him. His cheery face appeared as he shut the door and he patted my shoulder before moving to stand beside Esme, a box of Cap'n Crunch in his other hand.
"Bella panicked and ran into a door last night, honey," Esme informed him, evidently still amused by it. Carlisle didn't share this amusement.
"She ran into a door?" he frowned, pouring milk over his cereal.
"Yeah she heard something that scared her and she went to run and get Emmett to kill it or something, but she ran into a door."
"She told you this?"
"As much as Bella ever tells us anything, yes," I lied. She told me a lot more than she ever told anyone else, but that was our little secret. I leaned over and peered around the corner at her, still sleeping peacefully on the lounge. After a second my view was disturbed by Rosalie and Emmett making their way into the kitchen for breakfast. "Do you live here now?" I asked Rose – a response to her glare in Bella's direction.
"If she gets to live here, so do I," she retorted.
"Bella doesn't have anywhere else to go, babe," Emmett argued, rolling his eyes and biting into an apple. I wondered why she bothered to come here if all she was going to do was complain about my Bella. Secretly, I think she resented the fact that it had taken all of us a while to warm up to her when Emmett introduced her, and we all so willingly embraced Bella – the difference between the situations mainly being that Rosalie is a bitch and Bella is the sweetest most innocent person in existence. She muttered something about a vet and Jasper caught my hand before I could throw my bagel at her.
"Dr. Cullen, am I coming with you today?" he asked, not having bothered to knock at the door or anything. Carlisle nodded, smiling warmly at him. "Awesome, what are we doing?"
"You know I don't discuss my work at home, Jasper," Carlisle replied and Jasper's face morphed so quickly to one of complete seriousness that I almost laughed. Almost. This rule of Carlisle's was obviously new – he'd never had too much of a problem discussing certain aspects of his work with us. It made me curious. "I'll explain everything with you in my office, where I can show you all of the reports we'll be doing further research on."
"Right, sounds good," Jasper nodded, taking a seat next to me. "Where's Alice?"
"Probably buffing off a layer of skin," I smirked. Jasper chuckled next to me.
"Dude, she really does that!"
"Yeah I know! Calls it exflating or something..."
"Exfoliating, moron."
"Fucking whatever Rosalie, does it look like I really care?"
"Language, Edward."
"Really, Edward, watch your mouth around your mother."
"Sorry."
"Hey where's Bella?" Emmett asked and my head snapped up. She should have been clearly visible from his position in the kitchen. I dashed to the lounge room and looked around. I called her name, but she didn't respond. Esme alerted me that she was going to check the bathroom and when she called down that there was no sign of her, I began to panic. The others broke away to look for her, everyone begging her to show herself.
Then I heard it.
Bubbles and chimes.
From behind the curtain.
That sneaky little minx was playing games with us!
A smile crept across my lips and I tiptoed around the lounge room, wondering aloud where on earth Bella could be. Another giggle sounded.
"Is she under the blanket?" I lifted the blanket so she could hear the noise. A stifled giggle this time. The others bustled inside, looking distressed, and I motioned them over, wordlessly warning them that she was hiding and pressing a finger to my lips for silence. Carlisle and Rosalie were unimpressed as each other, and they both stormed off in different directions. Alice joined Jasper and at her confused look he explained in whispers what was going on. She too looked on with amusement. "Is she under the coffee table?" Another stifled giggle. "Oh no! I can't find my Bella anywhere! I have to go find her; she might be lost and scared outside!"
I exaggerated my footsteps, stomping loudly as I slowly made my way out of the room. With a delighted squeal, Bella revealed herself and came flying at me, launching herself onto my back. If she wasn't such a lightweight I would have fallen flat on my face. Straight away, I hooked my arms around her legs and ran around the lounge room, weaving around the furniture. "There you are! Bella you're flying! Put your arms out!" She obediently flapped her arms like she'd seen birds do and giggled happily as we flew around until I was exhausted, flopping on the lounge with a disappointed Bella's legs still locked around me. She wriggled impatiently, flapping her arms. "We'll fly more later if you ask," I winked. She scowled and pushed me onto the floor. I didn't care; I just laughed at her as she stomped away and buried her head in Alice's sympathetic shoulder. She'd forgive me later – after all, I was the one with the gummi bears.
***
Bella had been up in Alice's room for hours. It was concerning because the last time I'd seen her she'd been upset with me. I thought she'd come around sooner than this. I clutched my bag for gummi bears uneasily, debating whether or not to knock on the door and apologise or just wait for her to come back down.
I was just deciding to go back downstairs when I heard something that made me stay.
"Its okay, Bella. Its alright. I was just like you, you know. Did anyone tell you that?" I imagined Bella shaking her head and gazing curiously up at Alice, her head tilted quizzically like a puppy's. Alice launched into her story and I stayed there listening like an idiot, because Alice's story would forever haunt me.
She was born Mary Alice Brandon to a pair of twenty-year-olds in Mississippi, their real names still aren't known to this day. They travelled the country stealing from people and living as squatters to pay for their drug habit – heroin was their drug of choice. Alice's father would put on a fake cast and ask for help carrying various items to his car. He always chose business centres, as the people would most likely be wealthy in a business centre. Once the unsuspecting good Samaritans were busy with their heads in the back of the car, he would knock them out and strip them of any cash or valuables. Alice's mother was an expert pick-pocket and a master of tricking lonely old men that she'd do their shopping for them. When they handed over the money for a week's worth of groceries, she'd leave with the promise to bring back the goods, but would never be seen again.
One day, when Alice's little family made their way to Seattle, Alice was playing about the house like any regular five-year-old. She had a Barbie doll and was braiding its hair, talking to it and making voices for it to talk back to her. Her parents hadn't been very successful in their operations thus far and were on their way into withdrawal. Withdrawal for heroin addicts was never the prettiest thing in the world, but I never thought anyone would do what her father did that night.
In a fit of rage – no one was sure why, though Alice was sure it was the noise she was making – her father turned on her and threw her across the room. Her mother spoke up and yelled at him to leave Alice alone. Well, that was enough for him to completely snap, and he beat Alice's mother to death. Alice screamed and screamed for him to stop, to leave her alone, but it only made him turn on her again.
He put his hands around little Alice's neck and choked her until she passed out, yelling at her over and over to shut up. Poor little Alice struggled and pulled, but he just kept telling her to shut up.
So she did.
And from the day she was found dumped at the hospital Carlisle was working in at the time, she wouldn't talk. Because the last thing she remembered was being told to shut up, and thinking she was going to die for being too loud.
It was only after two years of Carlisle and Esme's constant encouragement that she finally spoke again, catching up quickly for everything she'd wanted to say but not felt confident enough to.
Now the pesky pixie wouldn't shut the fuck up and was probably upsetting Bella.
I knocked.
"We are having a heart-to-heart here!"
"You're talking her ear off is what you're doing," I retorted, entering the room despite not being given permission to. "Don't you have a boyfriend for that kind of stuff?"
"Doesn't she look pretty?" Alice gestured grandly in Bella's direction and I smiled widely when I took her appearance in. She was wearing a pink sweater and matching pink tights under a white miniskirt. She loved bright colours, so she was wearing a bright aqua-coloured scarf loosely around her neck. With the purple barrettes in her hair, she looked positively adorable.
"Very pretty," I agreed. "Gummi bears?" I offered, holding the back out to her. Bella's face lit up and she hurried over, taking the bag and kissing my cheek before skipping out – probably to sit in the kitchen and sort them by colour like she always did. On my way out, I stopped at the doorframe and turned back to face Alice. "You okay, Al?"
She smiled knowingly.
"Never better," she winked. Jasper brushed past me and greeted her with a kiss and I knew I wouldn't be needed to comfort her this time, but I would be if she ever needed it. Us Cullen kids were tight like that. No matter how crazy we drove each other.
***
"I'm not hiding her."
"You're talking like she's our daughter and that just isn't the case, Esme, how many times do we have to go through this?"
"Keeping her safe until we know more about her is different than hiding her. I won't hide her from him, she's-"
"She's not ready for normal interaction!"
"He'll understand!"
"He's not Billy!"
"Well he knows everything! He knows about the kids and how they were-"
"This is different to that, she's fully grown! She's their age!"
Esme and Carlisle were doing that thing where they move into the room next door to yell at each other, like we couldn't hear them through one fucking wall. I mean what was the point of having a house that was called a mansion by most if they weren't going to utilise all the goddamn space?
Anyway, Esme had a staff member of hers coming over soon to pick up some equipment that they needed for an event the next day. Her and Carlisle were currently debating whether or not to hide Bella.
"If I just explain to him..." Esme trailed off, knowing full well that explaining things would only lead to more questions.
"Esme, we need to keep her safe."
"Jacob Black is no danger to anyone, Carlisle and you know that. I'll just explain that we have a new family member, and that she's a little fragile. I'll tell him to keep his distance. He'll understand." I heard Carlisle sigh and I pictured him pinching the bridge of his nose like he did when he was about to cave, even though he was still stressing about something. Beside me, Jasper mocked the gesture and we all chuckled quietly. Except Bella. She was too busy eating gummi bears and listening to Alice's iPod – we didn't want her to hear the argument.
"He's not to tell anyone."
"She's a foster child for the moment and we want to keep her presence quiet until we're sure we can keep her," Esme replied in a smug tone, knowing Carlisle was about to agree.
"Fine, Esme. You speak to him before he even walks through the door."
The doorbell rang right that very second and Esme darted off, smiling triumphantly.
"Jacob! Let me talk to you out here for a second..."
Minutes later, Jacob strolled in trying to look casual even though he was clearly searching for Bella. She wasn't hard to find, sitting on the kitchen counter with her gummi bears, swinging her legs happily to the beat of some pop song. He waved at her and she stared at him warily as he made his way past. She didn't take her eyes off him until he'd turned a corner and vanished from sight. She pulled the earphones from her ears and pointed in the direction he'd just gone, a question in her eyes.
"He works for Esme. His name is Jacob. He's been a friend of the family for a long time," Jasper explained. She frowned a little, then nodded, apparently happy enough to trust him on the basis that we obviously did.
"Ready, Jasper?" Carlisle called from the front door.
"Yeah!" he called back, kissing Alice quickly before sweeping out of the room. Emmett and Rose had left for the bar-site a little earlier. Jacob called Alice over to help him go over a seating plan or something and Bella jumped a little at the sound of his voice. I took her hand and smiled reassuringly.
"He won't hurt you," I promised her. "He's a nice guy. We used to hang out a lot but he lives out on the Reservation, got a different bunch of friends. We don't get along with them, so we only see him when he helps Esme and Alice, but he's cool."
It was all true. Billy Black and my father were good friends. Billy was a resident doctor down on the Reservation near La Push beach – took care of all the Quileutes. He consulted with Carlisle quite a bit and if anyone from the Reservation had to be admitted to hospital, it was Carlisle who took care of them. Whenever we took trips to the beach, we would inevitably be joined by Billy and Jacob. We grew up together, but in the more recent years Jacob took to sticking by his friends at La Push. It didn't bother me any because I didn't like those guys – they were like a pack of wolves, to be honest – but I was happy to hang out if Jacob ever wanted to.
Right then, the phone rang and I left Bella eating her gummi bears to answer it. Carlisle needed me to write a few messages down for him so he wouldn't forget some extra research to do at work. It sounded like garble to me, but he assured me he'd understand what the notes meant. How anyone could understand "secondary layer" without further explanation I'll never know.
When I got back, Jacob was sitting next to Bella on the counter sharing her gummi bears in a comfortable silence.
"You don't talk much, do ya?" he asked. She shook her head. "Why not?" She shrugged at him. "That's cool you don't have to tell me," he winked. "These are good. I like the green ones," he told her. She made a revolted face at him and pushed all the green ones towards him. Smart move. I hated green as well. "Are you serious? You don't want them?"
"You sound shocked," I laughed, heading over to them as Bella shook her head. No, she definitely didn't want them.
"Bella, dude, green is the best. You are missing out, my friend," he insisted, holding one out to her. She made a face and popped a red on into her mouth instead. "Oh whatever, you food snob," he chuckled, and even though I was sure Bella had no idea what a food snob was supposed to be, she just smiled and pushed the green gummi bears closer to him. When she noticed me standing there, she held out a handful of yellow ones.
"Thanks, Bella," I grinned, taking them and popping one into my mouth. Suddenly, she stood and fled the room, passing Esme and Alice on the way.
"Bathroom break," I laughed when Jacob asked if he'd offended her.
"Oh, right. Okay," he nodded. "So where's she from?"
We all took a moment looking at each other. Good fucking question, man. Too bad we can't answer it.
"Bella wasn't raised in a normal family."
"Vague it up a little for me, Esme, I didn't quite need that much information," Jacob replied, rolling his eyes.
"Edward found her," Alice blurted out and Esme made a squeaking kind of panicky noise, slapping her with a wad of colour charts she'd been holding. But it'd been said now and there wasn't really any way of taking it back. Jacob was staring at me with such deep curiosity that I couldn't deny him the entire story. I jerked my head towards the door and he led the way out into the back yard.
***
"So you don't know anything about her?" he asked for the millionth time.
"Not a fucking thing," I answered once more, taking a deep drag of the cigarette we were sharing. He ran a hand through his shortly-cropped hair and dropped to the ground, leaning against a tree. He'd stayed silent through my story, just nodding in encouragement as I explained the entire sordid deal to him. "And you can't tell anybody. The only reason you know the truth now is because Alice couldn't keep her mouth shut. And honestly you're lucky you even know about her existence at all. Carlisle didn't want you to even see her. Esme's gonna have to butter him up real good before we tell him you know the truth."
"I can't believe it. I wonder who she really is," he sighed, looking back towards the house as I passed him the cigarette. He took a drag, staring pensively between the house and the forest behind us – no doubt trying to make some sense of everything. "She's fucking cute, though. You guys should keep her."
"Dude, she's not a puppy."
"I know, but I mean... she's sweet and stuff. She doesn't know anything else. Do you think she's like... a Dark Angel clone thing?"
"What like a super human genetically modified... clone?"
"Well yeah, why not?"
It was my turn for a drag now, and I considered the possibly of it until I remembered her inability to even use a spoon and the fact that she still sometimes tripped over her own feet.
"I don't think so, man. She's not even used to her body."
"Maybe she's an alien or something cool like that. Oh!" Jacob slapped me as he remembered something. "What about if she's like in that movie with the hot chick. The one with the orange hair! And Bruce Willis is in it-"
"She's not The Fifth Element!"
***
The rest of the day passed without much to report. Emmett and Rose stayed at Rose's place, Alice locked herself in her room with charts and plans, Carlisle and Jasper returned home only to spend all night in Carlisle's office, Bella had some lessons with Esme and I fucked about on my guitar for a while, mentally preparing myself for what was to come. I glared at the suitcase on my bed, refusing to pack it until the very last minute. I knew I had to go in order to stay with her in the long run – and staying with her was my number one priority – but leaving her now was the very first thing on my list of things I didn't want to fucking do.
When I put her to bed that night, I didn't tell her I was leaving for the course in the morning. I didn't tell her I'd have to say goodbye for a long time. I just told her to sleep tight and have sweet dreams. Because I wanted her to be happy. And I wanted to believe I'd find a way to stay.