A/N I'm back. Sorry for the wait but I had serious writer's block. I'm at the point where I know where the story's going but not how to get there. So here's my splash of inspiration! Enjoy XD
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, SM does.
Previously
Rosalie sighed. "Well, at least show some manners. And apologize to her, you're certainly not scoring points the way you're going."
Jacob nodded grudgingly. "You're right, maybe after school and when she's calmed down a bit, I can-" He suddenly stopped speaking, his hands clutching the table so hard that it was starting to bend.
Embry looked at him in concern. "What's wrong man?"
His eyes seemed unfocused. "Bella…"
No sooner were those words out of his lips than Alice slipped into a vision. "We have to go now! Bella's been in an accident!"
The pack and the Cullens left the cafeteria in a rush to save the one person that connected them to each other.
Chapter Eight: Betrayal
Charlie Swan sighed in contentment as he patrolled the small town of Forks. It was times like these when he was happy to be the Chief of Police to such a small town just so he could enjoy the peacefulness of it all. The largest crimes here might be shoplifting or vandalizing property, usually the antics of teenagers trying to stir up trouble. Though cold and rainy most of the time, it really was a beautiful little town with the lush green forests and rugged landscape that could rival any scene found on a postcard. But perhaps he was a little biased, having grown up there his entire life.
As he turned onto the interstate, he drove for a few miles until he came close to the point where Forks jurisdiction met that of Port Angeles. He was just about to turn around and head back when he spotted a prone figure lying not too far away from a horribly wrecked motorcycle. He had always said that they were death traps and immediately thought of Billy's son, Jacob, who also had one.
Quickly approaching the scene, he could have sworn that he saw a figure standing over the person, but when he blinked, they were gone, and he decided that he must have had something in his eye. He called for back-up and an ambulance and got out of the car, rushing over to the figure. He realized with a gasp, that it was a young woman.
Placing two fingers on her neck, he realized that she was still warm, but barely breathing. Not sure if she had any major injuries, he decided against moving her, and surveyed the scene as he waited for the paramedics. Looking at the skid marks and the path of the motorcycle, it was clear that something had spooked her, perhaps a deer, and she had skidded off the road, hitting the tree.
A more pressing question would be why she was even on the interstate at this time of day. On closer inspection, he could see that the girl was clearly a teenager, so why wasn't she at school? Her bag was lying open next to her and he searched through it in the hopes of finding some form of identification. Opening her wallet, he found her driver's license. Her name was Isabella Cullen. The name rang a bell and after much thought, he realized that this was Carlisle Cullen's daughter.
He remembered Carlisle working at the hospital years ago and couldn't believe that he had returned. He had, of course, heard the entire story of how Carlisle and his family were ostracized because Isabella's mother had married someone from outside the tribe. He personally had thought that the whole thing was ridiculous and wasn't surprised when they moved. It seemed that they had returned, however, and vaguely remembered the announcement that Carlisle was once again working at Forks General Hospital as one of the lead doctors. The fact that Carlisle's daughter was injured made matters even more pressing and he willed the ambulance to arrive faster.
With a sigh of relief, he heard the rushing sirens of the ambulance and the police cars of two deputies. This would probably be the most exciting police matter of the year, he thought wryly. The ambulance pulled to a stop and two men immediately jumped out with a stretcher.
While one paramedic checked Bella's vitals, the other questioned Charlie. "Was she unconscious when you arrived?"
Charlie nodded. "Besides that nasty cut on her head, she seems to only have a few scratches and bruises, amazingly. She must be a very lucky girl."
The paramedic didn't look so sure. "It's the possibility of internal injuries that I'm more worried about."
With a nod from the other paramedic, they carefully lifted Isabella onto the stretcher and put her in the back of the ambulance.
Charlie quickly got into his car behind them, hoping to warn the doctor about his daughter before he got the shock of his life.
The Cullens and the rest of the pack rushed through the forest, following Alice as she ran with clear panic. There hadn't been time to get too many details from her, only that Bella was in grave danger and that they had to get there quickly. It seemed that the only two who were fully informed was Alice and Edward, and judging by the looks on their faces, it wasn't good.
Alice suddenly stopped, holding up a hand to halt the others. As they crowded around her, or rather the wolves got as close to her as they could bear, they surveyed the scene with horror.
The crashed remains of Bella's motorcycle were unmistakable and the smell of her blood saturated the air. She was nowhere to be found and the police were all over the scene. What scared them the most was the faint smell of a vampire.
Alice slumped. "We're too late."
Jasper growled, causing Alice to jump. He had never showed any animosity towards her. "Where is she Alice?"
Alice glared at him. "I can't see her."
The pack was getting annoyed with being kept out of the loop and they all quickly phased back, pulling on their shorts.
Jacob was still shaking, as if it were taking every fiber of his being to refrain from phasing back into his wolf. "Where is Bella? What does it mean when you say that you can't see her?"
Rosalie snarled, clearly upset. "It means dog that either Bella's dead, injured, or so scared that her body needs to be protected. And it's all your fault. If you hadn't been such an ass, then she might be perfectly safe at school."
Jacob immediately lunged for her but was stopped by Emmett, who shoved him back so hard that he landed, sprawling, ten feet away.
The rest of the pack was on the defensive, tensed to attack back.
Edward cleared his throat. "If you two would stop fighting like toddlers, I would be able to tell you where Bella is."
Everyone's attention was immediately riveted on him.
"Bella is headed to the hospital; she's unconscious but still breathing."
They all let out a sigh of relief and turned to head to the hospital.
Edward cleared his throat again. "Someone else was here when the accident happened and might have actually caused it."
Jasper and Jacob turned around slowly and both said, "Who?" and glared at each other.
Edward stepped aside to reveal a message written on the tree behind him. She's mine.
Emmett, of course, stated the obvious. "Looks like James is back."
Carlisle rushed to the emergency room after getting the call that a young woman had just been in a motorcycle accident. There was a chance of her having a concussion but the paramedics weren't sure if she had any other internal injuries.
He made it to the emergency room doors just when the stretcher was being rolled in and froze when he saw who was there. Bella. Small scrapes and bruises littered her entire body and she had a terrible gash on her head. Her breathing was labored and judging by her shuddering breaths, he knew something was wrong with her ribs. Since she was clearly alone, he decided that something must have happened at school to cause her to take off but what worried him was the fact that none of the family found sense to at least follow her to make sure that she was safe. Feeling anger pulse through him, he tried to control himself so as not to scare the humans around him.
He heard someone calling his name and quickly snapped back into his cool and calm doctor façade. As he rolled the stretcher to an operating room, he and another doctor quickly cut open her shirt to see that the bruising was especially dark around her rib cage. Pressing around the area gently, he sighed with relief as he discovered that her ribs were merely bruised.
Her hand however, was severely swollen and even though it was sprained, it would need to be put in a cast so that it could heal properly. As to the gash on her forehead, they cleaned it up and stitched it together, deciding to do an MRI once they had wrapped her ribs.
Once they had done so, and put a nice cast around her arm, they immediately wheeled her off to get the MRI scan, discovering a while later that she did have a small concussion but should be fine. She would most likely be unconscious for a day or two and might have to stay in the hospital for about a week before she could be released, depending on her recovery.
As soon as his daughter was resting comfortably, or as comfortably as she could under the circumstances, he made his way to the emergency room where he heard not only the angered voices of his family, but of the boy who was apparently destined to be his daughter's soul mate.
With a sigh, he opened the doors that led to the waiting room and saw his entire family, as well as the entire pack, trying to see Bella. A very flustered Mrs. Stanley kept repeating that only the parents or guardians of said Isabella Cullen would be allowed to get information about her condition and that it was all standard protocol.
Jacob seemed to grow even more menacing. "Fuck standard protocol, that's my impr-girlfriend in there!"
Carlisle quickly moved to intervene. "Sorry about that Mrs. Stanley, I'll take it from here."
Mrs. Stanley flushed. "Oh it was no problem, Dr. Cullen." She smiled warmly at him and bustled back to her station.
Carlisle turned to face them. "I would be much obliged if you refrained from causing such a scene in the future."
Rosalie huffed. "Well sorry, dad. But we were only worried about Bella after we found her motorcycle completely destroyed, James' scent in the air, and her nowhere to be found."
Carlisle's eyes flashed and though he was outwardly calm, it was clear how furious he really was. "We'll talk more about why my daughter was left completely unprotected later, as for now, I'm sure you would like to know that other than a concussion, a couple of bruised ribs and a sprained wrist, she'll be fine."
Jacob's fury disappeared immediately and guilt took over his face. "When can we see her?"
Carlisle had a feeling his daughter's accident might be somehow related to him, but seeing the concern on Jacob's face let him know that he really did care about Bella. "She's still unconscious so maybe one or two visitors at a time."
Jacob and Jasper were the first two to stand up and made their way over to the room Carlisle had told them.
There lay Bella, sleeping peacefully.
Jasper narrowed his eyes at Jacob, clearly telling him to back off before making his way over to the chair by Bella's side and holding her uninjured hand. "Bella darlin', you better wake up soon so I can yell at ya for takin' off and damn near gettin' yaself killed. You know us Whitlocks don't run away, we stand and fight and if ya had asked, I would have been only too happy to kick your mate's ass for ya." Jasper's voice lowered as he spoke into her ear. "Come on, Bella. You know you're the glue that holds this family together. We need you."
Jasper stood up and with one last glower in Jacob's direction, left the room.
Jacob slowly walked over to Bella and wrapped his hands around hers. He cleared his throat before he spoke. "Bella, honey, please wake up. I'm so sorry for what happened in the cafeteria. I was just pretending to like that girl to make you jealous, because I thought it was the only way to get you to realize that you have feelings for me. I realize now that it was a really stupid idea and I'll never listen to Paul again. Just please, wake up." Jacob wasn't ashamed of the tears that filled his eyes because even though he wouldn't openly admit it, he was very much in love with her already.
After that, Jacob refused to leave her side, so that the rest of the pack and the Cullens could only come in to see her one at a time.
Rosalie was next to come in and stated vehemently that if Bella did not wake up soon, she would have to jump into her own pyre just to get away from the awful stench of the wolves.
He could have sworn that he saw a small twitch on Bella's lips and chose not to say that since Bella was Jacob's imprint, she should probably get used to it.
Next was, surprisingly, Seth. He came in with a wide smile and began to talk to Bella cheerfully for several minutes, as though he wanted to pretend that she could hear his every word. He kissed her quickly on the cheek and breezed out before Jacob could get his hands on him.
Emmett practically bounded in after Seth, declaring loudly that she better wake up so she could once more be his partner in crime, because frankly, no one else was enlightened enough to understand his genius.
When Quil came in, his normally cheerful self was gone, replaced with a misery that looked out of place. He once more apologized profusely for not being such a good friend to her so long ago and that he promised to make it up to her.
And so every single member of the pack and Cullen family came in to see her in the hopes of giving her some sort of encouragement to wake up.
It had been seven days since Bella had been rushed into the hospital and she still hadn't woken. Jacob had stayed in her room with her since that first day and when the nurses had tried to make him leave after visiting hours, he had become so irate that they had rushed out of the room, clearly alarmed. They would have called security if Carlisle hadn't pulled strings and allowed Jacob to stay there.
Jacob was now fast asleep, his head resting on Bella's arm. There were dark circles under his eyes that definitely hadn't been there a week before. A plate of untouched food was on the table next to him and soft snores were leaving his mouth.
This was all observed by Bella, who had been awake for several minutes and smiling down at him even though she had no feeling in her arm due to his head resting on it.
An elderly nurse bustled in, humming, and almost dropped the food she was carrying in her hands when she saw that Bella was now conscious.
She smiled warmly at Bella and took several deep breaths. "Oh dear, you gave me such a fright. I was just bringing this food in for that young man over there, but it seems that he still hasn't eaten. I hope you know how lucky you are to have someone like that, he hasn't left your side since you arrived here, you know."
Bella nodded sheepishly, knowing that she certainly hadn't been treating him very well before the accident. The nurse picked up the food trays and left, leaving Bella to her thoughts. She absentmindedly began to stroke Jacob's silky hair and soon found herself drifting off back to sleep.
Now Jacob had, of course, been listening the entire time and only pretended to be asleep because he had a feeling that if Bella knew that he was awake, she would immediately remove her hand from his head, and he didn't want the amazing sensation to end.
He sighed contentedly as she continued, even when he heard her breaths even out as she fell asleep. He stayed awake long enough to hear her mutter, "Jacob, my Jacob." With a smile, he yawned, vowing to get Bella to say those same words when she was conscious. And no matter how hard she fought those feelings, he would fight back even harder to get her to realize them.
Bella was awakened several hours later by the sound of loud voices.
She heard Kim's excited voice. "Don't they look so cute together, Emily?"
Paul grumbled something under his breath that caused someone to hit him and he cursed loudly. "Dammit Sam! I was just kidding!"
Bella slowly opened her eyes to see that the entire pack and their imprints, as well as Billy, were crowded in her small room. Looking down, she saw that Jacob had taken the liberty of snuggling even closer to her so that his head was now resting on her stomach, yet carefully away from her bruised ribs.
With a loud sigh that caused everyone to jump and Jacob to awaken with a loud snort, Bella addressed the room. "Is there a reason why you all decided to disturb me with your loud voices? I am recovering from a motorcycle accident, after all."
Billy cleared his throat. "Uhh, Seth. Maybe you should get Dr. Cullen in here to…explain things."
Seth waved at Bella and exited the room quickly.
Bella glanced at Jacob, who looked sheepish, yet happy, and then leveled her gaze on Billy. "Not to be rude or anything, but why are you here, Billy?"
Before he could respond, Carlisle appeared with Seth, but Bella did catch the look of relief on Billy's face, almost as if he were happy that he didn't have to answer.
Carlisle smiled at Bella, but it didn't reach his eyes. He was almost…wary of her? "Bella, it's good to see that you're awake again."
Bella raised an eyebrow in his direction. "Cut the crap, Dad. What's going on and why is there an Elder present?"
Carlisle frowned slightly but fixed his expression to a more neutral one. "Well, I don't want you to get upset, Bella. But Alice had a vision about James and it seems he's gathered quite a force in the hopes of distracting us enough to get at you. So the others have started trying to gather more information and allies to help us out and now that you're awake, I will be taking leave from the hospital to join them."
Bella looked confused. "Okay, I still don't see how this connects with the entire pack being present in my room."
Carlisle grimaced and she knew that whatever he was about to say, she wouldn't like..at all. "You'll need protection while we're gone, so Billy here has so graciously agreed to allow you to stay with him and Jacob on the reservation."
There was a few seconds pause before Bella exploded. "WHAT? You're leaving me to stay with the pack? Are you out of your mind! Did you forget what they did to me when I was little? Look at them, they have no experience whatsoever!"
Paul interrupted. "Hey sweetheart, we've bagged several leeches before, I'm sure your big scary vampire will be no different."
Carlisle sighed. "Bella, they are werewolves. They were made to destroy vampires. When you were younger, you said yourself that Jacob could take Emmett in a heartbeat."
Bella huffed and resorted to her father's only weakness. She looked down for a few seconds and when she was looking at him again, she hit him with the adorable puppy dog eyes and pout that he normally couldn't resist. "But daddy, do you really want to leave me home with my imprint, where he could do all sorts of naughty things to me while I, the injured one, am defenseless?"
Jacob's eyes darkened at the very thought. Oh what fun he could have with her if she'd only let him.
Carlisle's eye twitched slightly but he steeled himself. "That would certainly be a problem if you were a normal human. But you and I both know that you can take care of yourself. Now, I've already taken care of the discharge papers and Alice was kind enough to pack your things, so you'll be going home with Mr. Black here today." He bent down to kiss her on her head. "See you in a few weeks, sweetie."
Bella glared at his back as he walked away. "This is a betrayal! You're leaving me with the enemy."
The pack, who had been silent throughout the entire conversation, couldn't hold their laughter in any longer and burst out laughing.
Quil was practically pounding the floor with mirth. "She was practically shaking her fist at him."
Seth wiped tears from his eyes. "From what I've heard from the Cullens, she's been spending way too much time with Jasper."
Bella frowned. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. But I'll just be taking my frustrations out on each and every one of you."
They were immediately quiet and most of them looked fearful.
Bella smirked and leveled her gaze at Jacob. "Oh, and don't think I don't know you had something to do with this, I could have just as well stayed with Sam and Emily. THIS. IS. WAR."
Jacob winked at her, just happy that he would constantly be in her presence for three weeks. "Bring it on, babe."
Bella stomped into the Black's house, secretly finding that it was a very snug and comfortable looking place. She glanced over her shoulder at Jacob. "Where is the room I'm staying in?
Jacob smirked and walked up behind her, pressing his body against hers. "Well, I would prefer for you to stay in my room, but until you're ready for that, you'll be staying in my sister's old room."
Bella fought her shudder of pleasure as his warmth wrapped around her and stepped away from him. "Good to know. But for now, I suppose you'll have to take care of your little problem."
And before he could make a smart remark, she had sauntered off into the room he had pointed out to her.
As she walked into the room, she closed it firmly behind her and slid down to the floor. It was getting harder and harder to resist that boy, no man, in the other room. She didn't know why she even tried, but she refused to be the girl who immediately jumped into his arms without getting to know him better.
Settling down on the bed, she tried, but failed, to read one of her favorite books, Pride and Prejudice. She kept wondering what Jacob was doing right then. Whether he had left or was just in his room.
After a while of trying to distract herself, she threw the book down in frustration and crept quietly to the door, silently opening it and stepping out. Only to run right into Jacob who was apparently just getting out of the shower.
Oh sweet baby Jesus. His short hair was glistening with little drops of water and she watched as one drop slid from his chest, down his chiseled abs, and slipped down the V of his hips to be lost under the towel that was slung low around his hips.
Her inner Bella was fanning herself and urging Bella to jump him before some other girl did. She really hoped that she wasn't drooling and tried to stop herself from imagining licking the water off of those abs.
Jacob cleared his throat, but his voice was husky. "See something you like?"
Bella bit her lip to keep from blurting out a, Hell yes! Instead she shrugged and said, "I've seen better," even though she knew that it was an outright lie.
Jacob narrowed his eyes and growled as he pushed her onto the wall opposite them, trapping her before leaning forward, his lips almost inches from hers. "Don't think I didn't catch the lust in your eyes, Bella. I know you want me. And by the end of this week, I'm gonna have you begging for me."
She almost moaned but controlled her expression as she heard the door opening. "Don't flatter yourself."
Billy rolled into the house, taking in the scene and only shaking his head. "You guys can order a couple of pizzas for dinner; I'll just eat one of those frozen meal things."
Bella rolled her eyes. "Billy, I refuse to let you eat that cardboard trash. I'll make dinner." And with that, she trudged into the kitchen, rummaging through the cabinets and fridge for whatever ingredients she was searching for.
Jacob winked at his dad. Bella may not know it, but she was already taking care of them as if they were her family.
A/N And so the battle of wills continues. Bella may have joked around with the whole betrayal thing, but she really is hurt that her family didn't even say goodbye or consider her opinion on staying with the pack. And on lighter notes, how long do you think it's going to take her to give into the sexy piece of man meat that is the one and only Jacob Black. Tell me what you think and review, review, review!