A/N Merry Christmas folks! Here's the next chapter, and thanks again for all the reviews!
19
Carlisle Cullen was so angry he almost broke the instrument in his hand as he looked down at the body on the table in front of him. Mark, one of Charlie's deputy's had just arrived at the hospital with what he thought was the result of an animal attack. It was obvious immediately to Carlisle that the man had been the victim of a vampire not an animal, probably the nomads they had destroyed the day before.
The victim's wallet said he was a survival expert from Canada, his clothing indicated that he had been sleeping outdoors for several days before the attack; he had a schedule of places he had to check on. Carlisle, though not a pathologist, of course knew the job. He estimated with his superior senses that the man's temperature was ambient through and through, there was no residue of heat from inside. Which meant, in current conditions, that he had been dead for more than a day. Teeth marks were plainly visible on the man's throat and wrists and Carlisle cursed the nomads for leaving him where he could be found by humans so quickly rather than animals, who could have covered any traces up. It was so suspicious that he believed it had been done deliberately to cause trouble for the family.
A text on his phone alerted him that Edward was on his way, and that Alice had let slip about Bella being Edward's mate. He sighed, he could do without this. He locked the body into a freezer until the 'local' coroner was due to visit and could get around to him and made his way to his office. They could talk in private there as there was only one other doctor on duty at the moment, broadcasting where he was to his eldest son, and leaving the window open so he didn't have to walk past the staff.
"How can you allow it?" Edward asked without greeting as he jumped through the open window.
"How much of Bella's life has Alice shown you, Edward?" his father asked.
"What has that to do with anything?" Edward said, exasperated.
Carlisle pulled to the front of his mind all the times Bella had been rescued, the reports the men hired to watch her had filed, the paedophiles she escaped, the accidents she didn't, the trips, slips, spills, burns, gouges, cuts, bruises. He visualised her X-rays and CAT scans, the damage to her brain by repeated falls due to her reaction to blood, the thickness of her bones, the early onset of arthritis she could expect due to repeated fractures and dislocations, her almost malnutrition in childhood that would compromise her immune system later in life. The chance she would contract HIV or HEP C from tainted blood as she had to have so many transfusions due to blood loss (though screened there was the odd bag of tainted blood that got through and with Bella's luck it would be her that got it).
Edward stood aghast. How could one small human be so accident prone?
{Add to that the fact that she smells so good that any passing nomad will kill her the first chance they get, and living up here you know the chances of her meeting one of us is higher than anywhere else she could live.} He visualised the man that was now in the morgue, Edward cringed when he considered that that could have been Bella. {oh and don't forget, her only other friend in the area is a pre-phase werewolf!} he added for good measure. Edward knew how volatile the species was, especially when they first started to phase. All it would take was Bella being stubborn and standing too close…
"Are any of the tribe phasing yet?" he asked his sire.
{Not to my knowledge, not yet.} That made it worse, if there was no one phasing, there was no one to read the signs and educate the youngsters on what they may face.
"Which blood line?" he asked.
{Black,} Carlisle sighed, he visualised that after Bella had returned from the reservation during the week he had done some research through the hospital records, what he had found had been shocking, {Jacob Black, son of Billy Black and Sarah Ateara. Billy is the son of Joseph Black and Lucy Clearwater, Sarah the daughter of Quil Ateara III and Molly Swan. Joseph Black, was, of course, the son of Ephraim Black and Rachel Littlesea, Lucy Clearwater was the daughter of Edmund Clearwater and Amelia Ateara. Quil Ateara III of course was the son of Quil Ateara II and Rainbow Young, and Molly Swan was the daughter of Jacob Swan and Mary Fuller. As you can see the bloodline is strong, reinforced in every generation. If Jacob does not phase within the year I will be amazed. There were only three wolves the last time we were here, Black, Uley and Ateara, but all the other bloodlines except the Swan connection had spirit warriors going back generations, they just did not have male children of the right age to phase when we were here before.}
This was worse than Edward had guessed in his wildest dreams. He knew that being in Forks was a risk, but the chances were… as Carlisle had pointed out before, that nomads passed through on a regular basis and the tribe may have been phasing nonstop since they were last in residence. But to know that Bella was close friends with the next Alpha of the pack… a pre-phase Alpha at that, was shocking. The girl wasn't just a danger magnet; she was a trouble-of-every-type magnet. If she lived to be 30 he would be surprised. Was that any reason to condemn her to this half life though? He asked himself.
"Edward, just consider first, before you do anything rash like leaving again." His father spoke aloud, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Who resents being one of us more than anyone you know? Would it be Rosalie?" Edward nodded; his sister hated what she was with all her being. "and yet when she found Emmett she asked me to change him. Does this not tell you how much richer life is with a true mate? If Alice is right and Bella is fated to be your mate, will you long survive without her? Will she without you? Will you eventually beg one of us to end your existence, because, like Marcus you are adrift in the world alone? Will you condemn Bella to grow old and weak while she knows you are out in the world, young and strong? If it is Bella's wish NOT to turn, we will respect it, but if she decides to, the two of you will find your lives worth living… TOGETHER."
Edward contemplated the girl. Mates? How could he be mated to her? He couldn't even get close enough to touch her without wanting to drain her dry. Then he remembered her touch, the way his body reacted and his thirst diminished. She fascinated him, it was true, but would she turn out to be as shallow as all the other teenage girls he had ever met? The silence of her mind, was it covering beauty and depth or pettiness and spite?
He needed distance from the problem, and silence to contemplate. Though he knew it would hurt the family for him to leave again, he felt he had no choice, if he went to the Denali's he could ponder the problem without the undue influence of the family that already considered the girl a part of them. A pain shot through his chest. He gasped. He had not felt pain like that in all his 'life' as a vampire. Carlisle's phone beeped with an incoming text message. His pain was forgotten as Carlisle read the message.
"Edward? Alice says Bella just collapsed," he grabbed a well kitted doctor's bag and the two of them jumped through the still open window and ran towards the Swan house. They had to take a rather circuitous route to avoid residents seeing them. The problem being, of course, that more people were at home than usual, most of the businesses being closed because of the heavy snowfall.
"Did she say what happened?" Edward asked as they sped silently through the forest edges. A feeling of panic was slowly overtaking him. She HAD to be Ok!
"No, just Bella's collapsed, come quick." Carlisle frowned, Edward could read his worry. Alice hadn't seen any danger to the girl earlier. Whatever it was that caused the collapse was sudden and unavoidable, and there was a history of heart disease in the family.
They got to the house in less than three minutes; they went through the open door at full speed, stopping dead when they found Bella, Jasper and Alice in the living room. Bella was on the floor, holding her chest and writhing in pain, the others were trying to hold her still without putting too much pressure on her, to stop her hurting herself against the furniture.
Carlisle dropped to his knees, his bag already open; Edward knelt on the other side of her. They scanned her, taking her pulse and temperature with enhanced senses more accurately than the instruments in the bag. Nothing seemed to be wrong. Carlisle breathed an unnecessary breath, Edward read in his thoughts that he had been worried she was having a heart attack, his eyes met his father's and he shook his head in agreement, this was no attack.
"What happened?" Carlisle asked at vampire speed.
"I have no idea. Jasper was watching TV, Bella and I had just come downstairs after looking through her wardrobe and she gasped, grabbed her chest and fell to the floor." Alice looked as panicked as he felt.
"Jasper?" Carlisle asked.
"I don't know, she's scared, that's all I can tell."
Carlisle looked at the girl. "Bella?" he asked, she opened her eyes, they could all see the pain reflected in her gaze, "Bella what hurts?" he asked
"Chest." She gasped.
"Can you describe the pain? Is it sharp? Dull?"
"Sharp, stabbing. Hurts." Edward reached into the bag on the floor and withdrew a syringe and an ampoule of morphine. He drew 10CC's and passed the needle to Carlisle. He wasn't sure if he smelled her blood as the skin broke that he would be able to control himself. He stiffened his muscles as his father approached the girl with the painkiller. Jasper put a steadying hand on his shoulder to reassure him that he would be stopped if necessary. The pain in his own chest was still there, but he was successfully ignoring it in light of Bella's need.
Carlisle injected the liquid into her arm, they waited a few seconds, but nothing seemed to change. Bella still writhed on the floor, in as much pain as ever, the only effect the Morphine was having was on her breathing, making it even harder for her to catch her breath enough to speak. Edward rubbed his chest while trying to think furiously what could be wrong with the girl. Alice's gaze stabbed to him.
"Edward? Does your chest hurt?" she asked. He looked up, surprised.
"Yes, it started back at the hospital, just before Carlisle got your text." He said, suddenly seeing the connection in Alice's head.
"What is it, Alice?" Carlisle asked. Tears streamed down Bella's face as the pain continued.
"What were you doing? What were you thinking? Planning?"
He ran back through everything he had been thinking. Thank god for total recall. "I was planning on heading up to Eleazar's for some time to think." Both he and Bella gasped at the same time as pain stabbed brutally through them both.
"Change your mind!" Alice shouted. "NOW!"
"What?" he was distracted by the pain, it was almost as bad as the burning he had suffered when he changed.
"Stop planning on going north. Decide to stay here, and you have to mean it!"
Of course he wouldn't go to Alaska while ever Bella was like this. His medical degrees may help find out what was wrong with her. Carlisle hadn't been to actual medical school for almost 20 years, and though he learnt as new technology and diagnosis came out, Edward may just know something that he didn't.
The pain eased. Bella breathed easier, her hands stopped clenching into her clothing and she relaxed onto the floor.
"What happened?" she asked groggy with the pain and the now working painkiller.
"We don't know." Alice lied, Edward frowned, in her thoughts she was projecting the fact that it was how mated vampires reacted when they lost their mates. Carlisle understood what Alice had worked out, and he agreed silently, remembering his friend Marcus and the pain and suffering he lived with every day of his life, since losing his wife. He remembered his own pain when he left Esme behind when she was 16, not totally the same as they were not fully bonded, he had been careful not to actually touch her when he realised what was happening back then.
Deliberately speaking quickly so that Bella could not understand him he asked, "How can we be mated? She's human!"
"She is now," Alice answered so the other two could hear the conversation. "No matter what you want Edward, it IS going to happen, as soon as you touched this afternoon your fates were sealed, you are fully mated."
"I won't allow it." He said.
"You are going to stand by her as she ages, moves on and dies?" Alice asked.
"If that is what it takes, then yes. She can live a normal, happy, HUMAN life."
"Knowing what you do of Bella, do you think she will believe you love her as she grows old?" she asked, he frowned and then nodded. Of course she would accept that he loved her, he would tell her every single day!
"Edward, you're wrong." Carlisle told him. "It will kill Bella, she won't be able to accept you if she isn't your equal, her self-esteem is too low. You have seen this already! And if she doesn't accept you…" a stabbing pain cut through them both again.
Bella groaned in pain and rolled onto her side, curling around herself in a foetal position. Edward looked at her helplessly. Carefully he gathered her into his arms, realising that her scent had not really affected him since he arrived back, it was there but not overwhelming. Of course as soon as he thought of it, the venom flowed and the burning throat returned.
"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice fuzzy with the morphine.
"Putting you to bed, you need to rest." He told her, she blushed violently and he swallowed the sudden increase of venom. Jasper left through the back door quickly.
{Edward, I have to go back to the hospital before I'm missed,} Carlisle said, putting the used syringe into his bag and discarding the empty ampoule. Edward nodded and continued up the stairs.
"I can walk." Bella struggled weakly in his arms; her scent grew stronger as she blushed even more. She was so soft in his arms, soft, warm and fragile. He hadn't touched a human in decades and he was amazed at how she felt.
"Shh, please, just let me help you." Edward looked directly into her eyes, her gaze became focussed on him and he found himself trapped in the dark chocolate orbs that locked on his own. Her heartbeat stuttered, he paused. Was this something to do with them being mates? Was it the first sign of heart trouble?
{Don't panic,} Alice's thoughts came to him, {she is healthy at the moment.}
{How can it be healthy? You heard her heart falter!} he continued to carry the girl to her room slowly, assessing her as he moved.
{Try smiling at her, I bet you get the same reaction.}
What was she talking about? Edward frowned, and he noticed Bella copied him. Her whole demeanour was subdued all of a sudden. To relieve her he smiled gently at her, as Alice suggested, and noticed that she was correct again, Bella's heart stuttered and she blew out a lungful of air, causing Edward's thirst to roar even louder. He managed not to tighten his grip and damage her as he shouldered the room door open and laid her softly on the single bed.
"Thank you." Bella whispered.
"Just lay down and get some rest, you need it." He told her, he could tell by her eyes that the morphine was in full effect, her pupils were very small and her movements were slightly uncoordinated.
"I'm sorry." She told him, burrowing under the bedclothes; he quickly helped her to take her shoes off when he saw her repeatedly fail at toeing them loose.
"What are you sorry for?" he asked.
"Being such a nuisance. I know you have better things to do with your time." She told him, sleep was creeping up on her.
"Don't be silly Bella!" he said, rather sharply. His tone seemed to wake her slightly.
"I'm not being silly. You left and then Alice called you back." She told him stubbornly.
"It was my fault you were in pain in the first place." He told her, realising that… of course… she didn't know about the way mated vampires reacted and that he had been planning on leaving again.
"How could it be your fault?" she asked, her words thick and slurred, "you are an angel." With a long exhale she slipped into sleep. Edward smiled softly at the girl. An angel? He was flattered that she saw him that way. He grimaced. An Angel he wasn't. He was closer to the opposite.
Alice slid past the partially closed door. "I'll stay with her until Charlie arrives," she told him. He walked over to the rocking chair in the corner and sat down.
"I'll stay." He told her. Alice smiled and stood next to the bed silently.
{What is this piece of crap?} Edward looked at the ancient computer on the table, he would have to buy her a laptop and get a wireless connection installed, it probably took half an hour just to start up and get on the internet with this dinosaur.
{She won't let you, you know?} Alice told him. {She is even planning on repaying us for the clothes we bought her.}
{Doesn't she know the family has plenty of money?} he asked.
{Of course she does. But she is stubborn and won't accept what she sees as charity. That's why when I saw the job advertised for Newton's I told her about it. If I hadn't she would have got a waitressing job in Port Angeles, and you don't want to know how bad that would turn out.} He looked at her, trying to read what she was hiding, but she started singing the national anthem… in Gaelic?
{Stop that!} That was annoying. Edward had never known anyone who could do that. Carlisle tried at times to block his thoughts from Edward, usually when he and Esme were going to be intimate, but rather than blocking her thoughts, Alice flooded her mind with meaningless trivia.
Alice smiled at him smugly. He got to his feet and moved to one of the windows. This one looked out of the front of the house, twenty feet from the building was a solitary tree, its branches reaching almost to the house. Edward tried to open the window, but it was sealed shut and he was afraid that he would break the glass if he put enough pressure on to break the layers of paint sealing it. Alice reached past him and with a deft push opened it fully, the frame protested and gave out a horrible noise as it moved, he looked at Bella but she was still oblivious in sleep. He frowned at Alice, annoyed with her for making a noise that could have woken the girl.
{Don't have it open too long, it's too cold out there. And the other window wasn't sealed,} Alice stared out of the window that faced the side of the house, her mind ranging through the future. Edward was fascinated by the visions he could see. He caught a glimpse of the woman that gave birth to Bella, (he refused to call her her mother!). She was sat in a prison cell; her lawyer was explaining to her what the charges were. She insisted that she had a right to the money, as payment for looking after 'the child'. The lawyer was as disgusted with her attitude as Edward was, if his facial reactions were anything to go by. She asked if Charlie Swan had been in touch, she seemed to think that he would help her… why she thought that when it was the money he had saved for his daughter that she had stolen, puzzled Edward. She also asked after Phil Dwyer. Alice's vision shifted, Phil was in Canada, he had returned to his plans of starting a firm as a fitness instructor?
"Alice?" Edward spoke out loud, Bella stirred and he projected again, {what was that? The vision of Phil Dwyer? Whoever that is?}
{You don't want to know.} Alice told him. He stared at her and she sighed. Her mind ran through the history of the Cullen Family with Phil Dwyer.
Jasper had 'found' him in 2001 through his agent Jenks. He had been a baseball player… not a very successful one though… so he was trying to set himself up in business as a personal physical fitness trainer. He had come to their notice because of his connection to Bella's school teacher, they just planned to use the man to get the teacher away for a while so the Cullen's could make contact with the girl, but Alice's visions had shown another way and when his Aunt's mother died, Jasper asked him if he would be willing to put his business plans on hold for six years, for one million dollars. The deal was struck, helped by the fact that Phil had heard from his aunt for years about the child and the terrible home life she had, his natural empathy and his love of children had convinced him to agree to the proposal. By judicious use of their funds the Cullen's had enough influence to get him a place on a minor league team close to Phoenix and he started seeing Renée, all the time working behind the scenes trying to make Bella's life better and look after her properly. The Cullens offered him a substantial bonus if he would marry Renée when she looked to be getting bored of him. The temptation of having a larger regular income and free travel on top stopped Renée from moving on to the next sexual conquest. As soon as Bella moved to Washington to be with her father, and the Cullens realised Charlie was going to find out about the money going missing, they had contacted Phil and told him to leave. They had travelled to Chicago the day after Bella had left with the team for an exhibition match and so, without a word, he bought a cheap car and crossed over into Canada, leaving Renée behind. He sent a message through Jenks as to what had happened and that he wanted to wait for his money until the divorce was final. No way was he going to allow Renée any grounds for asking for a share in it.
Edward was aghast. They had no right to manipulate Bella, or her mother, like that. Alice had no sympathy for the older woman though; she actually thought that she deserved everything she got for her treatment of Bella. {If it hadn't have been for Phil, Bella would have been in a lot worse state than she is now.} Visions of the girl sat at school on her first day in Washington flooded his brain. She sat alone, in a corner of the canteen and refused to speak to anyone who approached. She was pale and weighed at least fifteen pounds less than now. She also exhibited signs of sexual abuse, flinching every time a man approached, even her father. A psychiatric report diagnosed her as extremely depressed, bordering on suicidal, painfully shy and at times violent towards herself, he saw signs of cut marks on her arms.
Edward looked at the girl calmly sleeping. He could understand, now, why they had intervened, but he wasn't pleased about it.
"Edward," the name floated on the air, softly spoken by the sleeper. Alice grinned at him. "Don't leave, Edward." A sob rent the air and her hands grasped her shirt as if she was in pain again.
"I'm not leaving." He said softly as he gingerly sat on the edge of the bed and took her hand. He flinched as he realised the temperature difference, but Bella, still asleep, grabbed his hand with both of hers and cuddled around his arm. He looked helplessly at Alice, who was doing her best not to laugh and wake Bella up.
"Please," he looked down helplessly as she pulled on his arm, "I love you! Don't leave." the tears in her voice were heartbreaking. Edward laid himself fully on the bed. Bella wrapped herself around him, she didn't have much choice… he thought… the bed was rather narrow. He winced, thinking of her lying on him. His body was cold and hard, it would be like laying on a slab of marble. Bella didn't seem to mind though; she half lay on top of him and settled into a deep sleep again. Alice closed the window and left the room quietly and he heard the door downstairs shut behind her.
Thirst raged through his body and he wondered why Alice had left him alone with the girl. Was she hoping he would be overpowered and change her today? He doubted it. She must have seen something though, to trust him with her friend like this.
"I love you," Bella moved her head onto his chest from his shoulder. Her arm wrapped around him tightly. He smoothed her hair, the soft strands felt amazing as they slipped through his fingers. Her soft warm body pressed against him and he felt something he hadn't felt in… he didn't actually know how long, which meant it was before his change. His body reacted to Bella as a man. He stiffened as he thought of it (in more than one way). He was disgusted with himself. Though his body was of a 17 year old, he was over 100. He should have better control over himself, especially in the presence of a lady such as Bella. He had prided himself for decades that he had such control, as Tanya had repeatedly and persistently pushed him to get physically intimate. But that just proved that Tanya did not attract him, Bella on the other hand… he groaned as she threw her leg over him, her thigh contacting just where he needed, or didn't need… the pressure.
"I love you too." He whispered and kissed the top of her head. As before, her being in contact with him lessened his thirst enough that she wasn't in any danger. But he better hunt as soon as he could, he decided. He couldn't count on her wanting to touch him once she was awake. His body reacted even more at the thought of her touching him, he groaned, Bella groaned in response, not a painful groan like earlier though; this one sent a shudder through his body.