Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise, I just use their creations to have my wicked way with them. No copyright infringement is intended.
Many thanks to Jadsmama and Ladysharkey1, my amazing beta team for this story. You ladies rock!
I added some pictures for this chapter as well as the song that inspired an important part of it to the blog. You can find the link on my profile page.
6.
The siren
It was too early that morning and the sound of his mobile phone ringing roughly disturbed Edward's first decent night's sleep since he'd arrived in Forks four days before. Though sleep might have not been the right word to describe the almost comatose state he'd passed out into the minute his head had landed on his pillow the previous night.
"Hello?" he croaked, too tired to even open his eyes to check the caller ID.
"Edward? Is that you?" the familiar voice of his little sister spoke.
"Alice?" Edward sat up, scratching his head as he tried to find his bearings in the darkened room. "Why the hell are you calling me in the middle of the night?"
"What? It's seven in the morning, silly!" she squealed in a high-pitched tone far too early for that time of day. "Besides, aren't doctors supposed to be up all night?"
"Only if we're on the graveyard shift," Edward grumbled, his mind finally starting to make sense of things. "And if it's seven in Chicago that means it's five in the fucking morning over here. Time difference, remember?"
"Oops!" Alice giggled. "I guess I forgot about that."
"Yeah, big fucking 'oops'!" Edward grumbled squirming back underneath the warmth of his covers as he leaned against the headboard.
"Anyhow…" Alice let her voice trail off, "how are you settling in? Tired of living in Hicksville yet?"
"Hicksville? Watch out, sis, your privileged, inner-city bitch is showing!" Edward chuckled fully awake, even though he didn't have to be ready for a few more hours.
"Didn't my mom tell you a million times to stop cussing like a fucking fifteen year old?" Alice berated him. "And answer my question, damn you."
"You're doing it yourself." Edward grinned back.
"Well newsflash: I am fifteen," Alice reasoned. "Now answer the fucking question."
"I'm doing fine, Ally," Edward sighed, not quite sure if he was telling the whole truth or stretching the truth somewhat. "And Forks…it's not that bad."
"You mean not that bad for a town named after a kitchen utensil and has less inhabitants than your average Wal-Mart on a Saturday?" Alice sounded as if she could hardly believe it could ever be habitable, let alone 'not that bad'.
To Edward, though, Forks had quickly become about more than just an intermediate station on his way back to where he wanted to be. Already he felt himself calmed and reinvigorated by his green, rural surroundings and the distance between himself and the people who knew what happened. It was like a weight was lifted from his shoulders, even though he knew it would be back the minute he set foot in Chicago again. No, Forks isn't that bad at all.
"I mean not that bad, period," he chuckled, voicing his inner musings. "Seriously, Tink, you should head out here some time. You'd see that country living definitely has its perks."
"Like?" He smiled, Alice's disbelieving smirk so apparent he could almost feel it through the phone.
"Like nature," he answered. "I know you don't really go for any green stuff unless there's a price tag attached and it's hanging in the window at Gucci's, but the scenery around here really is something else. I think you'd like it."
Alice chuckled disbelievingly. "I don't think so."
"You like fairytales, don't you?" Edward challenged, waiting for his sister to confirm before he went on. "Well, this place…it looks like it wandered straight out of the Grimm Brothers' imagination." He sighed, stretching his arms as he pulled the curtains apart to reveal the forest stretching out on the other side of the glass. "The trees and the woods…it's like they're from another world." Not to mention the people living among them, Edward thought, his mind once again drifting to the strange, but beautiful, hostile girl living with the old dying man.
"I still don't believe you." In spite of the words, he could hear by the tone of her voice he was breaking her down. It made him smile knowing Alice wasn't so spoiled and jaded by her lavish lifestyle to see the perks of something that lacked her usual grandeur. "But I'd love to see it someday. Too bad I'm stuck out here for the time being."
"Chicago has its perks," Edward shrugged. It was the city he'd lived in for all his life, except for a short stay at Dartmouth – the Masen family's alma mater – to get his degree. He loved it; the strength that spoke out of the stone and glass as it rose up from the earth and the sharp contrast where the stone gave way to the vast watery surface of Lake Michigan. Besides, for an incorrigible shopaholic like Alice, it would be a torture to be away from her usual stomping grounds.
"But I miss you." Alice sounded close to tears as she spoke. "It sucks that dad wouldn't let me skip class to come pick you up."
"Yeah," Edward sighed, really missing his sister in that moment. There was something about her presence which made it completely impossible for him to become mad, depressed or harbor any other negative emotions. She was like the sun. His sun. "As much as I'd hate you to miss school, I really wanted you there, too."
"Well, this just sucks!" Alice pouted in her own, slightly less than articulate way. "It's gonna be weeks before we see each other again. Dad won't let me fly out there for the weekend on my own, even though mom would totally allow it, and besides…I don't really thinks Esme likes me all that much so I feel kind of weird showing up on my own."
"What the hell, Ally? She's your sister! Of course Esme likes you," Edward interrupted her never-ending flurry of words, hoping to hell he was speaking the truth.
"Then why is she always acting like I was the one who broke dad and Elizabeth up?" Alice countered. "I know that dad only pushed for divorce when he found out mom was pregnant with me, but it's not like I could help it."
"She likes you, okay?" Edward pressed. "It's just that it's hard for her, too, you know? She wasn't around to see the whole thing develop so it must have come as a shock to her to find out dad had knocked up the nanny. Besides, she hardly knows you."
"Yeah, well, while that's all fine and dandy, I'd still like to wait until mom can come with me," Alice grumped. "Not that dad's ever going to let her out of his sight, though."
As strange as the connection between the cold bastard and his warm-blooded, former employee might have looked to everyone – including his own children – Edward Sr. and Carmen had been happily married for over fifteen years. Though Carmen was by no means blind to her husband's defects, the bond between them was still as strong as it had been the minute they had given in to the tension that had been steadily growing between them for years. It was so strong, in fact, though he never openly showed his affection, he refused to be parted from his wife for more than a few hours.
"You could always fly out for Thanksgiving with my mom," Edward suggested, immediately cringing in anticipation of his sister's reaction.
"No, thanks," Alice replied sarcastically. "I'd rather boil live puppies than spend a weekend with Elizabeth. No offense."
"None taken," Edward chuckled, knowing his mother's relationship with Carmen and Alice was fragile to say the least. They were civil to each other, both for the sake of appearances and because they knew that open hostility would make the large amount of time they were forced to spend in each other's presences only more awkward and tedious. "So, I guess that means we're stuck with Skype, huh?"
"Yeah." Alice's pout was so clear in her voice he didn't even need a visual to imagine it. She changed subjects then, telling him all about her latest acquisitions and the spa day his ex-wife – with whom Alice had always been thick as thieves – had treated her to. "By the way…Tanya and I went to see Claire the other day. It…it was good."
The mention of the name – that name – made Edward break out in a cold, panicked sweat. It was too soon to be mentioning her name; the pain still too fresh to face it. "G-good," he finally managed to stammer, knowing his sister would want some kind of confirmation that he'd heard her. "That's…it's very good of you to visit her."
"I talk to her sometimes, you know?" Alice, unaware of the pain she was causing, went on. As much as she had wanted to help her big brother at the time, she hadn't been privy to the complete and utter devastation which took a hold of Edward on that black day and, though she knew he never really talked about it, she mostly thought it was because he had no one to talk to, not because even thinking her name left him completely shattered. "I know it's silly but-"
"No, that's…that's great," Edward interrupted her, wishing to God that she would please change the subject. "I think she'd like that."
"Thanks," Alice's emotions were thick in her voice, making Edward feel even more guilty and despicable for moving on when she…
"Look, Eddie?" It was his sister's voice that pulled him right off that ledge. "I think the driver has just pulled up. I've gotta go. Talk to you soon?"
"Y-yeah," Edward felt a hug wave of relief wash over him. "Love you, Ally."
"Love you, too, big brother." And just like that she was gone, leaving Edward behind; wide awake and a complete mess at five-thirty in the morning.
He fell back, his head cradled by the pillow as he let out a deep breath, his mind taking him places he wasn't quite ready to revisit yet.
Claire...She had been such a blessing to his life that, even now, it was hard to imagine she had really been there. Yet, if he closed his eyes he could still remember her happy, innocent laughter ringing out through the house as he came back from a grueling eighty-hour shift or her mumbled, semi-coherent mutterings as they 'talked' early in the morning under the covers of his bed; her eyes lighting up and her stubby little arms wrapping around his as she greeted him…Gone. She is never coming back. None of that will ever come back.
And was all his fault.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he could already feel the tears pricking in the corners of his eyes, his muscles trembling with the force of months of pent up grief and anger.
No. Not now. Not yet. His hands balled into fists as he used one of the lessons learned in rehabilitation therapy to push the unwanted feelings down, wondering wryly how Dr. Adkinson would look if she found out he was using the mechanism she'd taught him to cope with withdrawals to repress his feelings.
It didn't matter what she thought, though. He wasn't ready to face all of that – and he was going to make it quite clear to whoever would be treating him. He was wondering if he ever would be ready to face all of the pain he kept locked up inside. After all, was there ever such a thing as the right time to fall to pieces?
With his grief safely pushed back, his mind jumped onto a different pathway, going back to some of the other things his sister had shared with him.
Poor Alice. He breathed out, some of the tension in his shoulders slowly slipping away as he thought about how she missed him and how much he missed having her around. It might have been a pain at times, having a little sister who was more than ten years younger but over the years, he'd really started to grow close to her, even if they were complete polar opposites in almost every aspect of their characters.
She was bold, vivacious and outgoing, smart but not in a conventional way. Alice almost obsessed with fabric and design whereas he…Edward snorted. He'd never given a damn about clothes, except for the fact they covered his naked ass and protected him from getting cold or hurt and, as to his character? Well, nobody ever made the mistake of calling him outgoing or vivacious.
No, he had always been more of an indoor, contemplative kind of guy; listening to music most people labeled as 'old' or 'difficult' and preferring to study the human body from the inside instead of the outside.
They complemented each other; Alice forcing Edward to engage with the world outside of the hospital, as well as, brush up on some pop culture and while Edward, in turn, made sure that his baby sister didn't get lost in her own little world of fashion and design or end up a shallow little airhead.
It was why he was so pissed off at his dad – and had been for a pretty long time – for what the old man was trying to do. He was trying to break that unique spirit of Alice's, molding her into a likeness of himself; cold, hard and only occupied with the acquisition of power and wealth.
It was why he'd vetoed her choice of school, enrolling her in a school known for its academics and not for its accomplishments in art in the hopes his daughter would let go of her silly dream of attending art school instead of electing a more sensible major like business or law. Art, to him, was something to invest in or brag about. Not something to let your own child dabble in, least of all when it wasn't some intellectual form of art like sculpting or painting but fashion. No, Edward chuckled darkly, hating his father even more than he already did. The old man doesn't like that idea very much.
For years, he'd been living with the bitter resentment of not being able to live up to his father's high hopes of him. It had been a crushing weight and one his dad had never let him forget. Edward narrowed his eyes, his hands balling into fists as he made a quiet vow to himself not to stand by and let the old man do the same again to his little sister. If her father wasn't going to look out for Alice, then he would.
He rubbed his face, knowing he wasn't going to get any more sleep considering the state he was in. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. He knew his sister had always wanted nothing more than to make her daddy proud of her – something that, though she was his princess and he doted on her in all her girly prettiness, was a rare occurrence – but on the other side, she had a dream that she wanted more than anything to come true.
Edward knew all about it. A little over ten years ago he had been in that same position and had made a move so bold and uncharacteristic that even now it amazed him how he'd had the guts to do it. To go against his dad's wishes and choose what he wanted instead of what had been chosen for him. Will she have the balls to do it as well?
He hoped so, even though he feared Alice would probably settle for second best.
It made him bitter, his body growing restless with anger as slowly, but surely, the sun – or what light passed for sunrise in this virtually sunless place – started to creep through the curtains.
He needed a run.
The thought alone was enough to trigger him into action, digging around in his closet for his gear before heading out, his body restless with the anticipation of a solid workout in the fresh, outside air. It was something that had been sorely missing from his life of late.
It was cold outside, the ground covered in a subtle white mist as he looked around, pulling the hood of his Dartmouth hoodie over his head as he jogged in place, trying to warm his ankles before setting off along one of the trails that led into the woods.
It was only just light enough to find his way and keep to the trail, his shoes bouncing along the rich soil as he made his way into the thick of the wood, the serene silence of the forest enveloping him as soon as he set off.
He loved to run. The pounding of his feet against the earth, the rhythm of his heart thumping from deep inside of him, the sounds of nature slowly awakening around him…yeah, this was the life. Over the years he'd tried other sports; football, baseball, even a blue Monday of golf since the doc's at the hospital seemed to be doing it. However, nothing had given him the same sense of exhilaration as the feeling that came from a good run; the endorphins coursing through his veins the minute he started to work up a sweat, his muscles straining against the brisk pace he set himself as the path he was following led him deeper and deeper into the forest.
It was so quiet around him, the only sounds breaking through the thick silence being a few early birds here and there calling out to the rising dawn as the trees slowly rustled in the muted wind. The rest…it was all him; twigs snapping in half as he crushed them under his feet, his breath coming louder and louder as the fast pace started to catch up with him, his clothes rustling with every step he took.
He'd never been the kind of person who, like so many, liked to exercise to the beat of a drum, even if the kind of music he liked would have lent itself a bit better to the rigors of his routine. No, he loved the silence; the absence of any disturbances soon lulling him into an almost trace-like state that no kind of music could ever achieve. It was the only moment of the day when he could truly be at peace, his mind quiet and his thoughts solely focused on his next step. Nothing more. No hospital. No past. No recovery. No Isabella. No Rachel. No future.
Just the run.
That day, however, his blissful nothingness was cut short by the sound of a voice sounding from the distance.
A female voice…and it was singing.
His steps faltered as his mind zoned in on the foreign, unfamiliar tune; a rich, feminine, soprano voice stringing notes together in a way that seemed so random it was almost…jazz.
He smiled, his pace now slowed into a brisk walk as he moved toward the sound, his body moving without thinking as his mind tried to wrap around the otherworldliness of the situation he was in. It was almost like something out of a dream; the dense forest producing a sound so beautiful you simply had to follow it. Like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.
The forest crunched underneath his feet as he left the trail, his feet still moving at their own volition as he got closer, the singing louder and louder as he encroached on what appeared to be a clearing in the trees. The light was shining brighter and brighter through the branches until he was there…on the very edge.
The sight that greeted him as he looked out in front of him was so strange, so foreign that, once again, Edward started to wonder whether or not Forks was really the dull, rainy town it claimed to be or if it was in fact a portal to a parallel universe; one where strange, mysterious things seemed as normal as everyday life. That or the lingering effects of his addiction had done more damage to his mind than he thought they had. However, he had never heard of anyone actually losing their mind from a regular intake of Vicodin. Withdrawals however….
But seeing as Edward had gone through withdrawals months ago and was pretty sure that both his mind and body were now completely free of any poison he might have so willingly submitted it to, his eyes could not have been deceived. He was really seeing Isabella Harrison, dancing around a woodland meadow at daybreak.
The sight was mesmerizing; her feet hidden by low hanging wisps of fog as her thin white dress which, upon closer inspection, appeared to be either a shift or a nightgown, danced around her slender body, always a few paces behind as she spun around, her hands flailing and her legs moving to a rhythm only she appeared to be aware of.
And he? He just stood there, slack-jawed and completely enraptured by the sight of her, his eyes spellbound by her movements as the melodic, though seemingly erratic, tune she hummed swept him up into a cloud of confusing feelings.
It was…like nothing he'd ever seen before, her motions both primal and fluid, elegant and crude, organized and arbitrary, her eyes far away and sometimes closed as she sprang from one leg to the other, her arms reaching high up in the sky as if in greeting of a sun they both knew would never come.
It was like she was performing some sort of ancient ritual that had been long forgotten by everyone, but her.
It was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen.
And one of the strangest.
As his eyes started to get used to the strange scene playing out in front of him, he started to notice the subtle changes in Isabella's demeanor compared to the last time he'd seen her. Apart from the distinct lacking of the rather conservative clothing she'd worn on both occasions he'd seen her, and the fact that her almost waist-length brown hair was hanging down her back in shiny waves instead of tied up into an elegant twist, there was something so different in the way she was moving that she seemed almost a different girl.
It was freedom; her lips no longer set in a hard line but curled up in a relaxed, soft smile and her eyes shining in the dim light of the breaking dawn, her face happy instead of calculative and guarded. There, dancing around in the meadow, she seemed much younger than she had both times he'd seen her before but still, her body and her movements were one hundred percent woman and the sheer, almost erotic, sensuality in the way she moved stirred up the same almost primal urge to know and posses her which seemed to go hand in hand with seeing her.
And no amount of resolve to forget Isabella and treat her with nothing but professional indifference could stop Edward's cock from hardening in his pants as he licked his lips, his eyes never wavering from their target. It was not something he could stop and, unhealthy as his feelings for this strange, hostile, barely legal woman were, in that moment, he didn't even want to stop them.
All he wanted….was her.
Unwittingly he took a step forward, his whole frame cringing as a twig snapped under his feet, the sound echoing through the forest with a loudness that made a few birds fly up in alarm.
Like the birds, Isabella also heard the sound, her movements coming to a sudden stop as she looked around her with panicked eyes, her mouth hanging slightly open as the sound that had been pouring from it just seconds before died down making her look as vulnerable as she had been happy, just minutes before.
Her eyes scanned the tree line, her heartbeat speeding up with fear and anger and a strong sense of betrayal at knowing that her secret hiding place, her one safe haven, had been disturbed. For a moment she held hope that it had been nothing, just an animal passing by or a dead branch falling from the tree. That was, until her eyes found him, perched on the edge of the meadow, his tall, masculine frame half hidden behind the undergrowth.
Edward's breath hitched in his throat the minute they locked eyes, his heart pounding through his veins as they stood and stared, spellbound in each other's gaze in one of those moments where the rest of the world ceases to exist and the universe was brought down to just two simple things: him and her.
It seemed like an eternity when, in reality, only seconds passed before the spell was broken by the inopportune shrieking of an animal in the distance. A loud gasp fell from Isabella's lips as she took a few steps back; first one small pace, then another before taking off into a run, more branches snapping underneath her bare feet and more birds taking off into the heavens as she disappeared, the forest swallowing the tiny figure as she left the meadow devoid of everything but her deep red coat and her abandoned Vans.
For a moment Edward's mind started to wonder if it had all been real, the whole event seeming so odd and unbelievable that he thought it couldn't have been. It had to have all been a figment of his imagination. That was, until his eyes landed on the small pile of discarded clothing and he realized it wasn't. It was real. It had happened.
And the fact it had ended before he could speak or act or even start to apologize for basically spying on an unsuspecting female from behind a couple of bushes like some sort of perverted stalker left him feeling oddly bereft and slightly at odds with himself.
He was under her spell, just like he had been every single time they'd met. But, unlike in romance novels or fairy tales, Edward had no desire to be held spellbound by a woman who had so clearly indicated, on more than one occasion, that she wasn't interested in him, even if any foolish feelings on his part could ever lead to something. The realization she'd done it again; that after all his efforts to distance himself from her she still had an effect on him, made him more frustrated and angry with himself, and with her, than he perhaps had reason to be.
"I will conquer this," he growled at the empty field before turning around and trekking back through the tree line in search of the trail, determined more than ever to finish his run, clear his mind and be in command of himself again before his first session with the therapist the hospital was making him see.
Making. Because Edward had no desire to bare his soul to a stranger any further than he'd already been forced to do. As far as he was concerned, all therapists were eerily alike in their annoying habits to focus on the very things their patients didn't want to discuss. And his past…it was full of those moments.
Still, it was a requirement both Forks General and St. Mary's had made and, since he still loved practicing medicine more than he hated sitting across from a shrink for sixty minutes, trying to dodge difficult questions, he was just going to have to grin and bear it.
But first there was his shift at the hospital to complete. Well, half shift, since he was still in his trial phase and it had been deemed unwise for him to jump straight back into full twelve-hour shifts.
With that in mind, Edward made short work of the rest of his job, arriving back at the house even more frustrated than he'd been when he left. His bad mood not going unnoticed by his sister or the rest of the family as he stomped around the house in need of a quick shower and shave, his tie still half undone as he dashed around the kitchen for a quick breakfast on the go.
"Are we still on for dinner?' Esme asked, barely looking up from her newspaper. She might not have seen her brother for quite some time before she took him under her wing, but that didn't mean she'd forgotten about how awfully grumpy he could be in the mornings when he'd woken up on the wrong side of the bed.
Edward nodded, cringing slightly as he took a big gulp from his scalding coffee, the back of his throat burning as he put the half-empty mug back into the sink. "I'll let you know when I'm done at the shrink's office."
He was out the door before his sister could reply, arriving at the hospital an hour before he should to find a sleepy Carlisle on the back end of his night shift, briefing Dr. Molina on a case which had presented during the night.
They both appeared to be pleasantly surprised by his early arrival, the small appreciative smile on Carlisle's lips and nod of approval from his female colleague telling Edward that he was on his way to win at least some of the trust he was so yearning for.
Already his step was a bit lighter as he walked into the doctors' lounge, quickly changing for his shift before going back out to mingle with the rest of the hospital staff.
It was the best avoidance tactic he could think of and one that had proven its value time and time again for as long as he'd been working at hospitals. After all, treating patients meant your mind was fully occupied with medicine, the pathology of cases as they presented itself and the rush of adrenaline when an emergency patient was brought in; pushing all thoughts of a certain female twirling around a twilit meadow to the background.
With that knowledge in his mind, Edward made a beeline for the admittance desk, grabbing a chart from the tray to check if there was anything to get him started on, his eyes scanning the now familiar scribbling of his colleagues as they perused the information.
"You're here early!" Rachel greeted him, her easy smile and natural kindness the complete polar opposite of the woman he was still trying to push out of his mind. "Already beginning to get hooked on medicine again?"
Edward almost chocked on his own spit, his shock masked by a sudden interest in the chart he was holding as he shrugged. If only she knew. "I woke up early and figured I might as well do something useful rather than stare at the ceiling." He put the chart back into the rack, his usual grin back in place as he turned to face her. "Besides, I knew my favorite nurse was going to be here."
"Charmer!" Rachel faked a huff, though there was no hiding the blush on her cheeks. "I bet you say that to all the nurses."
"Only the pretty ones," he joked back, adding a wink for extra effect. "So, I've been thinking about your proposal."
"My proposal?" Rachel's brows furrowed as she tried to remember which proposal he meant. There had been several she'd made in her mind but none of those were of the nature that they'd ever been voiced out loud.
"Going to the bar on Friday?" Edward reminded her. "That is…if it's still on."
"Sure." Rachel tried to play it off lightly, though inwardly her heart was racing. "Shelley and Nicole are going to be there as well and I think I heard Mark Banner mentioned something about going…"
"Good." Edward nodded, a little relieved he wasn't going to be the only doctor there on a nurses' night out.
She was careful to keep her voice free from expectation, knowing instinctively that any sort of pressure would make him run for the hills. "So you're going?"
Edward nodded, his feelings conflicted as he opened his mouth to speak. "Yeah. I'm game."
Thoughts?