Chapter X

New Life

That is what life is about. We do not get redos, but we do get second chances.

Jeffrey Fry

It's strange what stimuli take precedence over the reawakening senses. Noises, footsteps, voices... I wasn't sure if I was alive. I didn't know where I was, whether it was the Volturi palace or hell. I was aware that I had a body that ached, eyelids that wouldn't open, and a mouth that couldn't utter a word. Only hearing functioned, or was it just me? The sound of Leah breaking bones bade me farewell, and I feared he would be the one to greet me. I focused my attention on analyzing any sounds that entered my mind. Regular beeping, like a pulse. So it's a hospital? Footsteps, voices again. Strange, I heard them in my head, I couldn't get rid of them, as if my mind was possessed by demons. Or was it?

I mobilized all my weak being to isolate the words I had heard.

"Bella lost a lot of blood."

"God, why wasn't anyone watching her?"

"We sent Seth to the Blacks too late. Bella was no longer there."

"Couldn't do anything."

"Why Leah...?"

"Leah dies because it was her will."

"We had no right to interfere."

"I've never seen such determination. When I got to the clearing, Bella lay unconscious and Leah, in human form, was trying to pick her up."

"How did she manage to kill both of them?"

"She got mad. All she cared about was saving Bella. After all, we all know the strength of this feeling. It's an internal imperative, you can't fight it."

"Did Bella know about her...?"

"I don't think so. Only Jacob knew."

"How did she learn to hide her emotions from us so well?"

"Contempt and pain. Apparently it worked like a shield."

"Who would have guessed? Such a case has never been reported before."

"Never before has a woman been a wolf. Leah is different from the start."

"But a woman in a... woman?"

"Imprinting is for giving life, can't you see that? Leah gave Bella a new life."

"Jacob and Embry will come out of this?"

"They're in better shape than Leah, they should be healing, they've lost less blood."

"If she hadn't donated that blood, she'd have had a chance, too."

"Bella would be dead by now, and Leah wouldn't be able to take such a loss a second time. She preferred to take the risk."

The voices fell silent, I felt myself drifting away. I lost consciousness again.

In the next room, hooked up to a ventilator, Leah quietly passed away. It was supposed to crush the bone zone and some internal organs, as well as various lacerations. She was not breathing on her own and her heart, assisted by the machine, was beating very slowly. However, it was known that the brain was still working. Seth and her mother were by her bedside. Sam, Emily, Jared, Paul, and Quil were also there. Jacob Embry suffered many of them during the fighting and stayed in the ward themselves.

Wolves regenerate much faster than humans, their skin heals almost before the eyes. When Leah reached the source, the blood was no longer flowing from the torn body, and the other photo was invisible at first glance. With incredible self-control and inhuman help in pain management, he managed to achieve his wounds. The doctors did not expect that the patient could have so many hidden bruises and fractures, and still be able to start a fight. She was screaming in the emergency room to help me as soon as possible. There was not enough blood for me, so the universal donor with the function 0 forced the doctor to take it from herself. it's good that it reduces its effect to a minimum. I lost consciousness during my transfusion. All hell broke loose in the hospital when the doctors diagnosed the critical condition of this headstrong Indian girl.

Everything was done to keep her alive. The heart that hesitantly took up a new job. Unfortunately, Leah, along with the blood, deprived herself of the wolf's healing ability and executed the sentence on herself. She gave most of your strength to me.

I felt a terrible heat engulfing my body, licking like a living flame. Don't let me think and concentrate on anything other than my skin temperature. like to drink, but you should not be able to whisper a word, so much I return a parched throat. Not even using or moving with steps, or so it seems to me, to make this desperate attempt to raise the eyelids.

For so long my eyes were unaccustomed to the light, that's why they stung and watered to see them. I looked around the space around me. A hospital bed, the room should protect him, white, sterile, equipped with the most necessary furniture. Heart rate monitoring equipment, drips into the veins improve. do it yourself. Closed blinds blocked me from the corridor. But I heard his quiet voice.

"Bella, I love you. I love your laugh and your cry. I love your no and I love your yes. I also loved your... I don't know... I love how you wrinkle your nose when the sun hits you, how you frown at me when I ask uncomfortable questions, and how you get anxious when I don't ask them. I know, sometimes I drive you crazy, I guess it's my nature, hungry for discharge, lightning, passion. But that's how we act on each other, right? We generate power. So don't extinguish my spark, I beg you."

I failed to check on the question of why find him if he is not with me, and I really fell into the dark.

Of course I have no idea how long I lay unconscious. When external stimuli kicked in again, I began to hear my friend snoring before I managed to lift my eyelids again. Charlie. Dad. So my room was changed? I saw my father sleeping in an armchair near my bed. The room in which it is now located differed from the establishment of the apparatus function and this very armchair for visitors. That means my condition has improved. Snapshots were coming back to me. The battle, the ambush, my run, the attack, the pain, Leah... My memory was coming back, and so was my pulse. Back to the previous hot. I have noticed that I will suffocate with nervousness as soon as you notice the facts and you will notice that I heard right after the first awakening. I felt like I was out of breath, going crazy or screaming.

But you can't see anything like that, I just had enough strength to keep my eyes open and think.

So Leah imprinted on me. How long it took? So that's why Jacob was sure I wouldn't be harmed by her hand. She warned me not out of hatred but out of concern. She felt something was going to happen. I can imagine how she experienced it. Not only did she not accept her transformation and blamed the wolf genes and the whole mechanism for the loss of Sam, but despite herself, she imprinted herself on the woman, driving the only member of the pack she tolerated to despair.

Being able to objectively assess my own talent for getting myself into life-threatening trouble, I must admit that she did not have an easy task. It's like protecting someone who's seeking death himself. Her glances and anxiety came back to me as she waited for us to come back from meeting Edward, the words about how she wouldn't be imprinted on a man because she couldn't be a mother, and yet in a way she had become one: she had given me a new life. The broken puzzle finally formed a precise picture.

A familiar voice snapped me out of my attempts to put everything together, "If there is one force ruling this strange world, to you, the force, I say! I'm begging for a chance. It's impossible to predict the end of our story, so I ask only one thing: don't end it prematurely. Just let me touch her, let me look at her eyelids when she sleeps, apologize when she's angry and listen to her apologies when I'm angry. So little is needed. Only time. Time to try, experience, see if as a couple of peaceful old people we will make our lives together or if a strange fate will separate us. I doubted, I wanted to give up, leave, let go, and yet I won her love. I don't want much. I just want her to heal."

Jacob was alive and I could hear his thoughts.

My stomach rose to my throat.

I heard not only HIS thoughts! Before, in the ICU room, the thoughts of the whole pack came to me. They weren't at my bedside, they were probably in another part of the hospital, and yet I could repeat the whole conversation.

Leah gave me more than just HUMAN life.

The epiphany that I experienced caused my heart rate to accelerate so much that the apparatus around me began to squeak terribly. Charlie woke up in a flash and jumped to my bed, and a moment later two doctors and a nurse rushed into the room. Everyone was speechless at the sight of my open eyes and the figure trying to get up on its own on the bed. They began to check my pulse, pupillary reactions, feeling in my limbs.

"It's unbelievable," said one of the doctors.

"Miss Swan, welcome to the living," added the nurse.

"You have a very high fever, which we will try to bring down pharmacologically and find the source of infection, but otherwise your condition seems to be stable," said the second doctor.

"Bella, thank God..." Tears rolled down my father's cheeks. The first time I saw him cry. If the memory went back to the moment of birth, it would be the second time. I was born again for him.

He buried his face in my hands, afraid to embrace me so as not to hurt his healing body.

"Bella, Bella, I was so afraid you wouldn't wake up from your coma. Your body began to respond to the treatment, but the brain seemed to shut down to all stimuli."

He didn't know he was wrong, my mind was open to NEW stimuli and as you can see it took all his energy.

I was given water to moisten my cracked mouth and dry throat. The first word I wanted to say was just a gurgle, but then I whispered with an effort, looking into my father's eyes,"Sorry..."

"Bells, this probably isn't the best time to discuss what happened, but for God's sake, promise me that you will never, ever go out with a group from La Push to see the wild again. Those bears could have killed you all."

Bears? Apparently, Billy had already given the correct version of events

"Dad, what about the rest?"

"Leah Clearwater suffered the most. Poor Sue... First Harry, now her daughter's fate hangs in the balance... A curse hangs over this family."

"And the boys?" I asked him.

"Jacob is lying in the next room, he is conscious, his condition is improving surprisingly quickly. It's unbelievable how strong the organisms of the Indians are. He had three broken ribs, a shoulder and a leg, and now the X-ray shows he's actually discharged. And Embry is already chasing guys down the hall in a wheelchair and picking up nurses. Everyone treats it as a miracle. Generally only the four of you are admitted to the ward, but the rest are here practically 24/7. The hospital staff frowns a bit, but on the other hand, it is known that a person recovers faster among loved ones." He explained.

"How long have I been here?"

"A week, Bells. It's mid-July. Bells... Leah saved your life, you know?"

"I know..."

"Sam found her and you in a clearing near the Black house, called for help, and took them to the hospital. I don't even want to think what would have happened if he hadn't arrived on time. If I wasn't fishing with Billy, maybe I could donate blood for you myself. So... she..."

"Will Leah survive?"

"I don't know. Her fate is in God's hands. She's not getting worse, which I guess is good news considering her internal injuries. Do you know how many operations this girl has had?"

My father told me in detail what had happened while I was unconscious. For him, the least talkative person I know, his mouth literally wouldn't close, you could see relief slowly replacing stress. Knowing all the facts from the conversations of the pack, my thoughts drifted to the next room.

"Jake?" I didn't know if the fact that I could hear him meant that I was being heard.

"Jake?"

"Jake!"

"Bells?" He heard!

"Bells? How the hell..."

"Sorry," a third voice joined in.

"Leah?!" We both screamed in our minds.

"Were you expecting someone else? I live, if anyone cares. I'm surprised myself... And back to the topic - I didn't know it would end like this, but I didn't really have any other choice. Oh, and before you start suspecting me of having a crush on Bella, imprint or not, for me it's an imperative to protect her life. And that's it! Or so much... Your well-being, Bella, is the most important thing to me, so be careful, Black." she snorted with laughter. "And in general, do not regret that I did not trumpet about it left and right, but it was the drop that overflowed the cup of bitterness. Another proof that nothing can be normal for me. Well, that's it, here comes this concerned doctor with the appearance of the TV series Chase. It's time to open your eyes, let the boy breathe and start writing his doctorate about the miraculous healing of an Indian girl."

"Leah?"

"Bella, it's all her, she throws a message and then without waiting for a comment she "turns off", we don't even know if she hears. Leah is an individual."

"I realized in time. Jake, what's next?"

"I don't know. I'm glad you're alive, I guess we all owe a merciful fate."

"To Leah."

"I think so."

"Bella, I love you."

"I know, I heard your thoughts."

"Did you hear?"

"You are my spark, you ignite previously unknown feelings. When my will to live cooled, you rekindled it. What else to call you if not a spark?"

"Bells, close your eyes and focus."

"Hmm?"

"Shhh, I want to try something."

I listened to Jacob. I closed my eyes, relaxed my body, tried not to think about anything, and suddenly... I was in his hot arms, naked, his hand under my buttocks, loving me slowly, kissing my neck, running his tongue along the lines of my veins. I got dizzy.

The monitor next to my bed beeped, snapping me out of the scene.

The ward sister came over, checked my pulse by hand and asked if I was okay.

"Perfect," I murmured half-consciously, trying not to blush.

"Hmm ... It seems that something is wrong with our equipment," she threw as she left.

"Jake! What are you doing?! I almost got a blood pressure shot up my ass. Thanks! Now you focus for a moment!"

"Hmm?"

"I want to try too."

I remember our first night together. I circled around the painting in which I gave myself completely to him. In my mind, I ran my hands over his sweat-damp back, over his buttocks, pressed against me to have more and stronger of him inside me.

I was snapped out of my dreams by the sight of the headmistress running to the next room. Ha! The equipment in the hospital wasn't just crazy for me.

"Litte minx!" he replied after a moment.

"More, more," came the enthusiastic voices of Paul, Quil, and Embry choking with laughter.

Shit... is it always supposed to be like this? No intimacy?

"Hey! Get out of our bed!" Jake shouted at them, amused.

"Um...you always mess things up," Embry moaned.

Our conversation was interrupted by the return of Charlie, who was calling his mother from the hallway to tell her I was awake. Behind him, Sam and Emily entered the room.

"Bella, Mom breathed a sigh of relief. She's booked a ticket for tomorrow, she wants to see for herself if you're recovering."

"But..." I moaned...

"Bells, you know Renee, she didn't even bother to listen to what I had to say," Charlie replied with a smile.

"Good to see you Bella, you gave us a fright," Emily interjected.

"Ok, kids, I'll leave you alone, apparently someone demolished a cast-iron fence in our neighborhood. By the way, I don't know how you can ruin something so solid. I'm going to check what happened." Charlie kissed the top of my head and walked out with the brisk stride of a man whose heart had recently fallen.

When the door closed, Emily sat on the edge of my hospital bed and asked, "Bella, is it true that you hear..."

"Yes, Emily... And I have a constant fever."

"There's never been an event like this in the history of the tribe," Sam said thoughtfully. "I think with Leah's blood but your genes, you won't be completely transformed," he added.

I felt relieved hearing those words.

"But if... we'd be in serious trouble. You don't live on a reservation, so you can't assume that there will always be someone around you who can tame the wildness that wakes up after the phase. Besides, as we already know, it also involves imprinting, and that in turn..."

"What if I imprinted on someone other than Jacob?"

"We don't even want to think about it," Emily whispered.

"No, the chance of your complete transformation into a wolf is negligible. Besides, Bells, bear in mind that wolfish traits only show up in the presence of vampires. Now we are fresh out of combat and the consequence of this is increased telepathy, but normally even that disappears. Body temperature also decreases."

I owed it all to the Volturi family. For a split second, I imagined myself paying a return visit to a noble court.

"Don't you dare," Leah hissed in my mind.

Well, from now on, I have limited opportunities to pursue risky ventures.

"Bells, let's not worry too much. Perhaps the only wolf trait you've acquired is telepathy, and it's not that annoying because it doesn't last all the time."

Suddenly we heard a raised female voice coming from the next room.

"Mr. Black! Where are you going?! You must lie down!" she ordered.

"But why?" he complained.

"Your newly assembled bones will move!"

"Oh, it's all grown together, and now I'm sorry, but I miss my girl. You have to move those lovely shapes of yours, sister, or I'll have to do it myself."

"Dear God! They're not patients, they're monkeys in the circus! Some of them are crashing in wheelchairs, the other is chasing the corridors to see the lady ... I don't understand today's youth at all," added the ward sister in a resigned voice.

"Hi, Bells." He leaned against the doorframe, but it must have been out of necessity, because maneuvering the big cast was not easy.

He could be singled out as a model to advertise the local emergency room. With his baggy hospital pants held up to his thin belly only by the owner's wishful thinking, his hair sticking out in all directions, his bare torso half hidden by a bandage, and that Indian tattoo of his that took up most of his mighty arm, he looked like the sexiest train victim in the history of mankind.

"I shaved! Appreciate it!" He winked at me as if commenting on my thoughts.

Emily got up, walked over to him, hugged him and said with a smile, "Jake, it's good to see you upright." Then she left, looking knowingly at Sam. He understood and followed her.

We were alone.

"How do you feel?" he asked, trying to get the visiting chair as close as possible to my bed.

"Surprisingly good, as if they were giving me some kind of magical wound-healing accelerator with the medication."

"It's Leah's blood work."

"I'm glad she's recovering."

"Me too. You know I was the only one of us who didn't doubt he'd get over it?"

"But you doubted me..."

"Bells, when you told me how you felt just a day before the fight, all I was thinking was that it was too much luck for one man and I'm about to wake up, alone as always, fighting for you as always, and as usual not even knowing if this the fight makes sense. Before I competed with a vampire, now I had to fight fate. Bells, I was scared as hell."

"Have I already told you that I love you?"

"You did, but somehow... indistinctly. Will you repeat?"

"I love..."

"And what the most?" he smiled playfully. He had bright, laughing eyes and looked like a boy on a first date.

I was touched by this sight.

"Mole on the shoulder blade."

"And I have this little scar on my elbow, in the shape of a maple leaf."

"And me is a smooth, fragrant place above the collarbone, in the hollow of the neck."

"Two cute indentations on the border of the back with the bum."

"Wrists and forearm muscles visible under the skin."

He leaned his head back against the armchair, closed his eyes, licked his lips and said in a sensual voice, "I love the place where you are smooth as pure silk, hot as the sun-warmed shell and taste like..."

The monitor howled horribly.

"Jake, I'm going to murder you!"

The ward sister burst into the room, and seeing her favorite patient sprawled in a reclining chair, she checked my pulse with one hand and showed him the door with the other, grumbling, "It's barely back on its feet, and it's already touring the halls. To bed, Mr. Black, yours!"

Jake politely got up, laughing to himself, blew me a kiss, and limped to the door.

"I'll see you later, shell," he whispered at the door, flashing me a knowing smile behind his sister's back.

I was afraid the monitor would start howling again.

I slept the rest of the day, given a blood pressure injection in the buttock.

I woke up in perfect shape, even stronger, with the intention of trying to get out of bed, and excited by the arrival of my mother today.

Charlie came in early, right after breakfast, actually, and kissed me, happy that the treatment was going very quickly and efficiently. There was a round, and the young green-eyed doctor Leah had mentioned burst into the room escorted by several interns.

"Miss Swan, you look blooming," he complimented me. "Will we see the wounds heal?" he added.

"Oh, you're welcome," I replied with a smile. Father, not wanting to embarrass me, started to leave, but I stopped him with a hand gesture.

"Stay, Dad, it'll probably take a while."

The nurse unbuttoned my hospital gown and exposed my back, where I had several bandages, then my neck, and finally my shoulder. The doctor smacked his lips appreciatively at the progress of healing, and I watched my father's eyes pop into their sockets.

Finally he gasped, looking at my shoulder, "Isabela Swan, when the hell did you get that tattoo?"

The monitor attached to my heart began to howl.

I don't even remember what I replied to Charlie because the sudden spike in my pulse caused quite a stir as usual, but I do know that dad won't let go that easily and we will have a conversation about it. And I have no idea what I'm going to lie to him. I always thought a tattoo was something you DONE, not just APPEAR on your skin, so at this point it was hard for me to hide my own surprise.

Charlie had gone to work but promised to come over later that evening, and I waited for Jacob to hobble over to me.

As soon as he showed up, he immediately offered to help me into the wheelchair so that I could diversify my time a bit and visit the hospital. Of course we went straight to Leah's room.

She sat on the bed, still hooked up to two drips and a monitor like mine, and gave an audience to the members of the pack with a bored expression. On her bed, swinging his legs merrily and solemnly studying the "Cosmopolitan" he had brought out of the waiting room, sat Seth.

"I'm fine here. Being with someone other than you is invigorating to me. Although I miss the forest. I will unsubscribe at my own request and arrive at home." I heard entering the room. I greeted her with a nod, not wanting to interrupt her.

The boys received the news with a moderately enthusiastic "awesome" grunt.

"Come on? Aren't you glad?" Leah joked with an ironic smirk, then slapped her brother on the back, saying, "You're sitting on my IV tube, flea!"

I" don't have fleas!" he protested.

"And who was scratching in the forest?"

"It was thistle that stuck in my fur. Not fleas."

"Yeah,yeah..." Then she turned quickly to Jacob, "What are you laughing at? The second smartest in the family. Better think about whether you want to be a daddy before you're even an adult. Nature gave you broad shoulders, and brains the size of a pine nut. What an asshole. Maybe a pill?" she asked me.

I looked like I wanted to run away.

"Come on?" She looked at me menacingly.

"You're starting college in a few weeks, right? Who will be pushing the stroller during the session? Auntie Leah?"

"Respect, sister, you can do it! And you're as subtle as pickaxe embroidery," Seth commented cheerfully.

"Shut up flea bag! Well, now everyone shu, I will negotiate discharge with the attending physician!"

And without giving us a chance to thank her for saving her life, as usual, she was the first to end the discussion.

We walked back to my room, both slightly broken down by Leah's lovely speech.

"Bells... I guess I really am a dummy."

"I don't take any responsibility either. You know, every day of the last dozen or so has been such a surprise to me that it never occurred to me that we might accidentally have a child. I guess I should be glad that with my luck to complications I'm not pregnant yet."

"Aren't you?"

"No, this is one of the basic examinations before starting treatment. I would have been told already."

"Not that I'm not imagining a flock of cute babies chasing around our home, but right now wouldn't be the best time. I think Leah's right, we need to think about that before we get back to the fun, and believe me, I can't wait to..."

"I know..."

We stared at each other for a moment in silence. I was embarrassed by Leah's words. I felt like an ignorant snot and a moron with no imagination.

"Bells, Leah also reminded me, with her usual timing, that you're leaving for college..."

"Jake, please, don't spoil my mood now."

"Bells, this is an important topic, damn, I've only been with you so short and you're about to leave. I don't accept it."

"Jake, there are other possibilities."

"Meaning what? You're going to stay in Forks and take a job at a diner, pretending this is what you've dreamed of all your life? You must study, no doubt!"

"Jake, we'll figure something out. You don't think I'll disappear, do you? Anyway, please, let's not talk about it now. You know, Leah could be an animator of team building events," I smiled.

"Yes, in hell," he laughed out loud.

Leah's talent analysis was interrupted by the impatient voice of a ward nurse coming from the hallway.

"For the love of God, I'm stabbing the kid's ass. Where is he again? They're making fun of the squad. They hang out with each other, no wonder later that my female staff goes crazy. Plague!"

"Damn how much she miss me," he snorted with laughter, pointing his head towards the corridor. "I'm coming, baby," he added, blowing me a kiss.

As he was leaving he turned to me saying, "Bells, condom or not, the first thing I'm going to do when we get home anyway is remember in detail how beautiful your naked body is." And at that moment he climbed on my mother, who was standing right behind him, waiting for the opportunity to get into the room.

That disasters don't come when we wish they would. I wished the earth would split open and swallow me and this whole hospital bed as a tsunami-sized wave of shame washed over me.

"Mommy," I shouted in a voice that was a mixture of embarrassment and joy to see her.

"Hmm..." she choked out, looking at Jacob with wide eyes in surprise. She looked him over from head to toe, and since he was gracefully presenting his attractive, despite the dressings, body in a controlled negligee, she smiled saing only, Interesting young man."

"Mom, this is Jacob Black. Friend."

Jake gracefully took my mother's hand and kissed it gallantly, looking deep into her eyes with an amused look.

"I dreamed of meeting an angel, to whom I owe Bella."

I thought I was going to boil. Mum, unable to respond to the compliment, stood with her mouth half open as Jake bowed gallantly adding, "Excuse me, ladies, but the ward sister has announced she's coming. I have to run."

He gave us a killer smile and, pleased with the opportunity to escape, limped briskly to his room. Who would have thought that he spent several days in intensive care.

"Bella," Mom smiled faintly. "Child, what is really going on in your life?"

"I know, I'm causing trouble."

"Sometimes I think it's my fault that I'm not there when you need me. You're probably on your own a lot of the time and..."

"Mom, I'm a big girl now."

"Yeah, and you also have an interesting big friend." She gave me a questioning look.

I swallowed.

"Mom, I've known Jake since childhood. I can't rationally explain how it happened that we..."

"Privileges of youth, do not explain yourself. I'm a little surprised though, because when you introduced Edward, I thought it was something serious, but..."

"Mom, it's a long story, I don't want to go back to it. Jake... he's an extremely determined person. You don't know him yet, but believe me, if he sets his mind to something, he will succeed. Hmm... I'm proof of that. I think that's what I love most about him."

Mom smiled at her thoughts. She probably recalled her own love complications, and I know she had countless of them.

"Bells, the new boy in your life surprises me less compared to where we meet. Tell me, is it normal to be a frequent visitor to the hospital? Is it typical teenage behavior to get mauled by bears on an Indian reservation?" Charlie was quite eager to keep my mother well informed. "Bella, you've always had a tendency to get into trouble, but can you explain to me why you can't go to the cinema, read books and take walks like other young people? Do you have to immediately jump off a cliff, experience the wild nature and get a big tattoo?" She sighed. "Honey, understand, both Charlie and I are afraid to answer the phone, expecting more and more interesting information."

"Mom." I couldn't say anything wiser, because the truth was out of the question.

"Baby, just respect your life." I've heard that a lot lately. " You only have one! And your Jake... Hmm... I hope he's as smart as he is cute. And... equally reasonable..." she referred to a sentence she had accidentally heard.

I blushed.

"Mom..."

"You're an adult, and I hope you're aware."

"Hmm..."

"Ok, I won't talk to you about flowers and bees, don't worry," she laughed, and my heart dropped.

"I love you mom, you know?"

"And you know that if something happened to you, I wouldn't survive it?"

We hugged each other tightly.

We spent the next few hours reminiscing about my childhood and the time we lived together. Renee had a flight the next morning, so we had to say goodbye early.

However, I wasn't alone for long because Charlie came right after her.

"Bells, you're looking better and better," he greeted me cheerfully.

"And I'm feeling better! How's work?" I asked as usual.

"Ha, I was just about to ask you something. Do you remember the story of that dilapidated fence on our street? Turns out the damage was done the same day you had that accident in the woods. The neighbors didn't see much, they only heard a bang, as if something had crashed into this gate, but that's not the most interesting thing. Someone saw Edward Cullen's car nearby. Has he contacted you?"

"No," I lied.

"Hmm... We're still trying to figure out what happened because the dents in the fence aren't the size of a car, so I don't think it was a collision."

I was beginning to understand the meaning of Dad's words. Edward, as promised, stayed to guard my house, so there were even more attackers sent by the Volturi. Since his car was seen and then disappeared, it seems that he managed to successfully deal with the guard. I was relieved.

"Bells, there's one more thing. You know, I've been thinking about these past few weeks, and um... I wish you'd spent more time at home and less time on the reservation. This is probably not a safe place for you. That cliff jump, the motorbike ride, and now the bears... I think you'd do well to have some quiet time in Forks."

A cold shiver ran through me.

"Dad, I think there's something you should know."

"What is it, honey?"

"Me and Jacob..."

"I know, you're friends. But I guess taking a breather never hurt anyone, right?"

"Yeah, I mean, not really, because..."

And at that moment, the ward sister got angry, dragging Quil by one arm and Jared by the other, and panted in a furious voice, "I hope you're not hiding this Black in your place?" I caught these two, but I don't have the third arm, and..."

"What happened?" Charlie asked menacingly.

"They ate, I can't put it any other way, all the lollipops in the children's emergency room," she shouted accusingly, like a prosecutor at a serial killer trial. At that moment, Jake, pleased with the whole action, leaned out from behind the ward sister's back and said in a stage whisper, "We missed this extraordinary sweetness of the dear sister, the ward cared so little about us today..."

"Oh, I'll take care of you, Black!" And she turned to grab him with both hands while letting go of the boys, who immediately took advantage of their freedom and tripped, laughing their heads off.

Jacob deftly dodged and his sister gasped instead, then spun around and shouted over his shoulder, amused by the whole situation.

"Will there be a needle in the buttock?"

"I'll get you both, and I'm sure the head of the department will agree to the request to be strapped to the bed."

"The ward sister is a sharp woman. I like it!"

I stared at Charlie and tried not to laugh, unable to tell if the scene would offend or amuse him, but he cracked first, and as soon as the voices in the hallway died down, he roared with laughter.

"Bells, I think I understand what draws you to them. They have so much life in them!"

Unknowingly, Charlie was repeating one of my first thoughts after spending some time with the pack. They had so much life in them...

"Well, it's getting late, soon they will start chasing me from the ward," he added smiling.

He got up from his chair, kissed me on the top of my head as usual, stroked my cheek.

"Have you thanked Leah yet? It's a miracle she came to her senses!"

"I tried, Dad. There's always someone at her place, and I wanted to talk to her alone."

"Do it, kiddo. As soon as possible."

And then he left.