Chapter 12 – Clocks

"Don't, Jacob." Edward's eyes shifted to Amy, allowing her fear to consume him so his panic and rage would not.

"No!" Alice shouted simultaneously, her face contorted with concern.

Jake growled, knowing he had pushed the vampires – these hidden, ruthless killers – so they were under his control. He had the power.

"Jake, let me go," Amy said, her strained voice growing in aggression.

"If I let you go, they'll take you, Amy." Jake finally acknowledged her, his fingers rearranging their position around her stomach. "You don't know what they are – what they could do to you."

"I could say the same thing about you," she replied, the anger in her body starting to grow, like the bubbles forming at the base of a boiling saucepan.

Edward winced at the sound of Amy's thoughts pouring from her head. Let me go! Dammit, just let me go! This hurts … can't move …

"They could kill you. In a second." Jacob began backing up, holding tightly to her as he maneuvered away from the vampires. "Edward likes you – he likes you a lot—"

"Shut up!" Edward shouted. "You know nothing of my feelings for her." Amy looked at Edward, her eyes pleading with him for help, for him to pry Jacob's grip from her body, to grab her, hold her, and never let go. I don't want to be here, don't want to be here … Please, Edward, help me … like you have before … I know you can. The fact that was not only enraged her more. The boiling bubbles began to rise to the surface.

Edward's eyes softened, but filled with a sharp pain. He had been craving to hear her thoughts for days, and now that he could, her internal calls for him sent a fresh wave of guilt to quiver through his limbs. He could tear her from Jacob's grip in a second, but there was no certainty that she would be freed without injury.

"Do you know how old he is, Amy?" Jacob asked, his muscles rippling as they further tightened their grip around her body, pinning her arms to her sides. Her fingertips began to tingle with numbness from lack of circulation.

"Stop!" Alice shouted. She dashed to Edward's side as he darted forward toward Jake. Edward's added aggression would only aggravate Jake more.

"He's 110 years old, give or take a few years," Jake said snidely.

Amy's eyes were unwillingly filled with tears, partially out of fright, but mostly in response the uncontrollable flame building inside of her. It caused her veins to pulse, her heart to race at an inhumanly swift pace. Her stomach contorted, the release her body craved becoming unbearable.

"Do you want to know how? How he's so old but looks so young? And why he's always so cold? How he always knows where you are?" As Jake spoke, Amy's entire body was quivering, her skin flushing with heat.

"It's because he's not alive. It's because—"

"I'm a vampire," Edward finished, his voice soft.

The four bodies froze. The air around them became still. Silent.

Barely able to breathe from the building pressure, Amy felt a new sensation fully consume her limbs. Powerful bolts of electricity inflated her muscles. Like a miniature tornado, the wind suddenly picked up, a gust angrily billowing through her hair and swimming around her and Jacob. In less than a second, her muscles exploded. She broke free of Jacob's grasp, pivoted and thrust her hands into his chest.

Jacob flew backward toward the darkened road, the gust of wind following him. He hit the ground hard, a heap of dirt bouncing into the air in response to the crater he left in the earth.

As quickly as the strength had overpowered her, Amy's limbs became weak, the wind she had created now swirling within her head. All the power had been deflated from her body in an instant. Unable to stand, her eyes rolled back into her head, and she fainted.

* * *

The quiet was endless.

Even when her eyelids slowly opened, the silence surrounded her like wisps of fog.

"Amy?" A soft voice finally broke into her consciousness, and her blue eyes opened to a dimly lit hospital room. A blur of white hovered above her, the images of blonde hair and golden eyes gradually coming into focus.

"Carlisle?" Her voice was soft as her mind attempted to piece together why she was lying in a hospital bed. Jacob. Wolf. Alice … has visions. Edward? Vampire.

"You're in the hospital, sweetheart. I brought you here after you fainted. I should have brought you straight here in the first place." Already seated in a wheeled stool, Carlisle pushed himself over to her bedside and placed a cold hand on her forehead. Amy flinched under his icy touch, the contact causing her to make another discovery.

"You're a vampire, too?" she quietly asked.

Looking into her eyes, Carlisle answered her very calmly. "Yes." He gently patted her arm and gave her a reassuring smile. "I have been for many years. I'm an old man." His smile widened at his own humor. Amy did not return the smile. Somewhat dazed, she attempted to understand this paradox: a doctor – a life-saving vampire.

Carlisle grabbed a clipboard holding a stack of papers and began flipping through the first few pages. Unsure of why the question was next to leave her lips, she softly spoke again. "Did Edward want to kill me?"

Looking up at her from the clipboard, Carlisle paused his visual scanning and set the clipboard down on a table beside him. "Edward is very … attracted to you," Carlisle answered after a long silence. "Our family doesn't kill humans. We only eat animals."

"Family?" Her stomach jolted.

"We're all vampires. Me, Esme, Edward, Alice … all of us. We choose a very different lifestyle than the vampires you probably remember from scary stories – we don't harm humans. So you can be sure that Edward did not want to hurt you. He very much cares for you."

Amy swallowed and tried to sit up, but her body's movement was met with shooting pain. Her muscles ached from limb to limb.

"Whoa. Lie back." Carlisle placed a gentle hand atop her head as she leaned back into the hospital bed. "You need to relax."

"What happened to me?" she asked, her body wincing as flashbacks of the confrontation at the condo lot reminded her of why she was in so much pain. "Jake." She sighed. "How did I … I pushed him so hard. He went flying. I don't know how I did it."

The softness in Carlisle's face seemed to fade. "I wish I could tell you how, but I don't know. That's part of the reason why I brought you here. I wanted to run a few tests. Humans are not strong enough to put up a fight against a wolf."

Amy shook her head to rid his last statement from her thoughts. She did not want to add her own abnormalities to her predicament. "Where's Jake? Is he okay? Did I hurt him?"

"Jacob's fine. He's waiting outside."

"I want to see him."

Carlisle pushed away from her bed. She could tell he was debating her request. "Just for a few minutes," he told her. "You've been through a lot, and you need to rest." She stared back at him, her blue eyes glistening with overwhelmed tears. Rising from his seat, Carlisle left the room.

Marching down the hallway to a private waiting room, Carlisle entered, several sets of eyes turning to meet his – Edward, Alice, Jake and Sam. Only Alice looked unsurprised by his presence. Her eyes were wary as they moved to Edward.

Already pacing the room, Edward was first to approach Carlisle. "Dad. Is she awake?"

"She is. And she's fine." Carlisle put a hand on Edward's shoulder before he could go to her. "Jacob?" Carlisle's eyes moved to Jake, his silent figure leaning against the wall in the corner, obviously wanting to remain as far away from the other vampires as possible. Jake looked up and watched Carlisle's eyes shift to Edward, the doctor leery of Edward's reaction. "Amy has asked for you."

A low growl filtered through the room as Edward glared at Jacob. Sam stood up defensively, his muscles flexing beneath his shirt. Hoping to subdue Edward's jealousy, Alice reached for Edward's hand and held it in her own. Jacob hurried past Carlisle and Edward, his fierce, brown eyes catching Edward's before fleeing the room.

"You will continue to remain civil," Carlisle told Edward, his voice low. When Edward did not move or respond, Carlisle's eyes shifted to Sam. "Mr. Uley, I can show you to a separate room if you'd like."

"That won't be necessary," Sam stood as his deep voice resonated off the walls. "I'll wait for Jacob outside." His jeans swished together as his legs quickly carried him from the room.

"I don't want him in the room alone with her," Edward said quietly.

"He deserves a chance to explain himself just as much as you do." Carlisle's eyes were stern as they searched his son's face. "I'm only allowing him to see her for a few minutes. She needs to rest."

"When do I get to see her?" Edward asked quietly. Sensing Carlisle's stress, Alice tugged lightly on the sleeve of his dark gray shirt.

"I will not push her or force her to face this. You will see her if she asks for you," Carlisle immediately regretted his cold tone, its resonance reflected in the shocked haze that blurred Edward's topaz eyes.

"I'm sorry." Carlisle squeezed Edward's right shoulder. "We can no longer lie to the girl, but her knowing the truth about us is not in her favor either." His mind was rapidly evaluating their options. "I suggest we meet as a family in an hour."

* * *

Jogging down the hallway, Jake forced himself to leave his angst behind with the vampires in the waiting room. But when his anger toward the Cullens left, guilt took over. In wanting to defend Amy, he had only scared her, even hurt her. His body had nearly performed its explosive shift with her tightly drawn into his chest. But she had, somehow, appropriately retaliated.

When he entered the room, Amy shifted in her bed, her knees together and bent toward the ceiling. Her eyes glistened as they watched him enter the doorway, critical, but not scared or furious. The lack of emotion on her face made him nervous. What he had planned to say left his head like a dry leaf in an autumn breeze.

"I wish I could take it back—"

She held up her hand to prevent him from speaking further, her slender fingers cutting him off as they poised in the air. Jacob slowly pushed his hands into his pockets, attempting to stifle his anxious sigh as it drained from his chest.

"I … " The building moisture in her eyes was difficult to hold back, the overwhelming images from the night replaying in her head like a movie. But movies with those images were fantasy, science fiction. Her images were memories. They were real.

"I don't really understand what you are or-or what Edward is. Or Carlisle or Alice. Or what I am, for that matter." Her hands dropped in her lap, emphasizing her pause. She used her right hand to wipe away a fallen tear before continuing. "You really freaked me out."

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Jake left his silent post near the door and hurried to the edge of her bed, sliding into the empty chair beside it. Her reaction, once again, alarmed him. She barely moved, even when he reached across her stomach to hold his hand in her own. She did not flinch, even at the extreme heat, but she did not return his affectionate squeeze. "I promise you, I was only trying to protect you. But I just lost it when I saw Cullen with you. Part of who I am – the wolf thing – it's my job to protect you from his … kind." He muttered the final word with distaste.

Amy shook her head, her glistening eyes looking away from Jake's pleading gaze. "Both of you keep saying this stuff. 'I'm protecting you.' Yet one of you is a werewolf and the other is a vampire, and now I'm in the hospital."

Jake couldn't respond. She had a point, but she was too fragile for him to attempt to truly convince her his intentions were not harmful. He only stared back into her eyes and used his thumb to gently stroke her hand.

The warmth from his hand seemed to seep into her skin and spread up her arms. Nothing made sense in her present life. Nothing. But the heat from his hand served not only as a gesture of his honest kindness, but a catalyst for her emotions.

"Please, just … don't ever do that to me again …" She lowered her head and let the tears fall from her eyes. Jake immediately rose from his chair and reached the free fingers of his left hand up to her pained face. Brushing her hair from her face, his fingers rested on her jawline, and he used his thumb to gently blot her tears.

"I'm so sorry, babe. Don't cry."

His words only made her eyes squint shut, more tears unwillingly escaping through the strained slits.

"You're just new to our crazy world. But I promise, you'll understand more soon—"

"Mr. Black?" Carlisle's voice interrupted him, his head turning toward the doctor in mild annoyance. Sighing, Jake already knew what was coming. "I'm afraid I must ask you to leave her alone now. She needs to rest."

Returning his attention to Amy, Jake curled a section of blonde hair around her ear, then leaned down to kiss the top of her head before leaving the bedside. She sniffed in response, her overwhelmed mind demonstrated by the indifference that had taken over her consciousness. Carlisle nodded at Jake as he swiftly left the room.

Carlisle walked across the room to a counter along the sidewall and grabbed several tissues from a box. Turning around to meet her tear-stained face, he handed her the tissues and sat in the unoccupied chair beside her bed.

She took the tissues but did not use them. Carlisle felt her forehead, the abrupt cold a startling contrast from Jacob's touch. "You're running a slight fever, but other than that, you're just a little weak. I'd be okay with you going home as long as you get some rest."

Amy glanced at the clock on the wall in front of her, ticking monotonously, mocking her lost sense of reality. It was just after five in the morning.

"My car's at home. I don't have a ride."

Carlisle paused before continuing. "Edward has offered to take you home."

Staring ahead at the ticking clock, her response was quiet. "No. I don't want him to."