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Chapter 47 - Hitting the Water

EDWARD

I woke up the next morning to Bella madly scribbling in her journal, while a commotion was going on in the other room. Apparently, Alice had decided it was time to go, and she was getting the animals ready to take down to the ship. Of course, we had the little problem of getting the animals on the ship once we got that damn thing back into the water. However, that was the least of our problems. Turned out, there was a big fucking tree down across it. Ironically, that was what had kept it from washing out and being torn apart.

Needless to say, I got my saw and axe out after breakfast and got to work making firewood out of the motherfucker. Jasper was working hard running the saw as I used the axe. Emmett was dragging the wood away from the ship as we worked. It really didn't take long for us to get the tree cleared, and Jasper quickly started checking to see if there had been any damage done to the ship.

Bella and Alice made their way down the beach carrying a trunk. They set it down and went back for more. I wondered what all Bella would bring home with us. Ollie and the parrots and Sam were coming for sure. I was okay with leaving the chickens and the goats, but I didn't know if Bella would be okay with it. She was very oddly attached to the chickens.

I got my answer when she sat down with strips of torn sheet and started lashing some of the branches I'd just chopped into a cage. I guess the girls were coming home with us. I was surprised when Alice sat down with her and helped her with the cage. I guess she thought it was important for the chickens to come with us as well.

I stood back, looking at the beached vessel. I knew it was going to be a bitch to get back into the water, and I wasn't sure how we could do it without sinking it ourselves. Captain Whitlock strung up rope, cradling the ship, and made some sort of shoulder harness for each of us men to pull to get the ship back into the water. "It's imperative that we keep the underside of the ship up and out of the sand and only start tipping it down as we get into the deeper water. If it hits the ground at any point, we'll have problems."

We used ropes to pull the ship into position, waiting to see if Alice would stop us to warn us of any impending mistakes, but she never said a word, just smiled and clapped as we finally launched the ship into the water.

Captain Whitlock climbed up into the ship and turned on a little pump to help get rid of some of the water the ship had taken on. He inflated an emergency raft, and we all started to load up our things into it. Alice insisted that she and Bella work on emptying the water using our clay pots, while the rest of us finished gathering our things and loading the ship.

Alice announced she and Bella were done and sent Bella back to shore to help coax the animals and such onto the ship. Oliver went with Emmett, and Pervy the parrot went with Captain Whitlock and the chickens. Polly was staying close by me, watching what was going on curiously, and Sam was whining nervously, as if he thought we were leaving him behind. Little Jake was hanging on to me, confused about what was happening. Bella came out of the bushes, followed by the baby goat she had carried away from the mountain lion. I knew it had been attached to her, but I'd thought she would have left it with the others.

I guess she could see my doubt as she approached with the kid. "His mom is dead, Edward. The others still have their families to take care of them, but he doesn't. I can't leave him."

I just let out a sigh and nodded my head in agreement. She was right. I held out my hand and helped her step into the raft. She called to the little goat, and it looked at her nervously and then jumped into the raft and curled into her lap.

"Sam," I called, and he looked at the raft unsure. "Come on, boy," I called. He took a step back, and my heart broke a little, thinking he didn't want to come with us. "Sam, come!" I yelled, and he put his head down and moved forward slowly. I was finally able to get my hands on him and picked him up, putting him in the raft. I gave the signal, and the wench on the ship started up, pulling the raft up to its side.

Sam looked nervous, and he let us know he didn't like the water. He whimpered, sounding upset, and the goat concurred by bleating in response.

I handed Jake up first, and he squealed excitedly when Emmett hoisted him up. He passed him to Alice, and I handed Sam up to Emmett and then the goat. I helped Bella get a hold of the ladder and watched as she climbed aboard. I glanced back at our beach, our paradise. This was it; we were finally leaving our island.

We were going home.

BELLA

We had been sailing for three days. I hadn't seen any land anywhere, but Captain Whitlock assured me we were on the proper course, as 'Ms. Alice' had mapped out our course before we'd sailed. The ship was not small, but it felt small with us all on it. I guess after having had a whole island to myself, being crammed all together on a tiny ship felt confining.

Ollie seemed restless and bounced all over the ship. He had decided to give us a show. He was hip thrusting and air spanking, and Polly joined in, mimicking my voice, crying out loudly, "Ohhh, Edward." Needless to say, I was mortified. When I saw Jake watching what Ollie was doing, I freaked. There was no way I wanted my little boy to learn any dirty monkey moves from Ollie. I still didn't know where he'd picked them up from, but I had a sneaking suspicion it was Emmett, because Edward kept glaring at him every time Ollie did the hip thrust dance.

Edward's and my physical relationship had been halted while we were on the ship. The fact that we could hear Alice and Jasper going at it made me lose my steam. Those walls were way too thin for my liking. Edward just chuckled and told me that Alice was singing to herself in her mind as Jasper worked her over. Apparently, it was the only thing that kept him out of someone's head. He said that whatever had made Jasper act daffy was easing some, courtesy of Alice, so I guess I shouldn't complain.

Then the most beautiful words I had ever heard were shouted, "LAND HO!"

"Where, where? I've been going through a dry spell lately. I could use an easy lay," Emmett quipped, and I was ready to quip him over the head and off the ship.

ROSE

Getting into a hurricane-ravaged area was proving difficult. Garrett had made it clear that our window of opportunity to pick them up would be short, which was after the hurricane, but before the cleanup and people started to return.

I decided to give in and call Garrett to ask if he could help get my sister out of there. The phone rang twice before he picked it up, "We're on it, Ms. Hale. Thanks for letting us step in this time."

If I hadn't thought he had psychics in his family before, I did now.

EDWARD

Something was up with Alice. She kept blocking me, and then she told me not to worry and that things would work out fine, it wasn't what I thought. She told me not to freak out when our ride showed up.
"I thought you had a van? I saw a big white monstrosity."

"Like I said, change of plans, you know that happens sometimes. Rose got the heads up and has someone coming to help us. You just need to keep your cool. They're not taking you, okay." Then she started singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat in her head and then finally out loud. I thought about being pissed, but I knew why she was doing it. Singing always helped ease me into the population buzz. If I had a mental voice to focus on that was menial, it wasn't so bad.

The rest of the crew joined in. The look on Bella's face when Alice started singing was some sort of recognition. Bella had sung to me at night on numerous occasions. The round was easy to get lost in as we approached the shore. The buzz was light and on the edge of things because of the distance, but I knew it would be getting worse the closer we got to the rest of the population.

Emmett wasn't sure why the girls were singing, but joined in anyways. Apparently, they had sung a lot of sea shanties on the way to get us. Captain Whitlock realized that Alice was singing with a purpose and joined in, not asking questions.

When we got closer to shore, Alice stood by the captain and helped direct the ship through the debris. She sent me, Bella and Emmett with Jake to shore first, and then she and the captain came with all the animals in the second go-round.

The whole time, Emmett and Bella kept singing, and I finally gave in and sang along. Jake was thrilled with all the singing. He started chanting Row, Row, Row mentally, proud that he could sing along. We walked up the beach a ways instead of going into town. Alice was still blocking me, and it was really starting to worry me. It made no sense. I trusted her implicitly, though.

There was a plane on the water. I wasn't sure what was going on, and ironically, the pilot was singing the same damn song. "What the hell is going on?"

"Just get on the plane, Edward. I'll explain in the air."

"Do you know what's going on? Does anyone?" I asked, and Bella pulled me into her arms. Jake yanked on my shirt. He was worried, because I was upset.

"She's never steered us wrong, Edward."

The guy helped us on the plane with a big grin, and it was really starting to piss me off. We were in the air for about twenty minutes when Alice stopped singing, and everyone took her cue, except Emmett for some reason. He was really getting into it and was teaching Ollie hand motions to go with it. I would have thought it was funny, if I hadn't been so pissed.

Suddenly, the guy's thoughts came in loud and clear. He was from Black Land. "Are you fucking serious?" I shouted at Alice, and Captain Whitlock stepped between us. "What the fuck possessed you to put me on a fucking Black Land plane? I'm not going back there!"

"Black Land?" Bella was confused.

"It's the mental health facility Edward and I were in. They're just helping us out, Edward. You know they do that."

"That's fucking bullshit! They did nothing to help me!"

"They couldn't! You think I was the only one working on a way to get you out and back to work? Alistair knew you weren't happy there, but you were too much of a target to just let you go."

"No! I'll fucking snap this guy's neck before I let him land anywhere near that prison!"

"Edward," I felt Bella's hand on my arm, and I went to shrug it off, until I saw her face. Jake was crying into her chest. He didn't like my yelling. She didn't understand. I wouldn't be able to leave with her, hide with her, be with her like I'd planned, like we'd planned, if this plane landed in Black Land.

"Rose is going to meet us with a car. You've been cleared of the charges, and Garrett has deemed you sane so you can go back to work. It was never a prison, Edward. It was a safe haven."

"Don't 'safe haven' me! He's a damn telly, and you know it. There's no way you'd get anywhere near him. That's why they sent him, because they knew you'd act like a damn idiot! Fucking telekinetics," I growled, and the guy was amused. I wanted to knock his head in, but I knew I wouldn't get two steps near him if he didn't want me to.

He landed the plane in a lake, and a woman leaning hard on a cane was waiting excitedly for us. It was Rosalie. I'd seen her plenty of times in Alice's head and met her once in passing when she'd visited Alice. I doubted she'd remember me. She was nervous at the time and really thought the whole lot of us were a bunch of crazies. The hospital did have a few crazies, just not in our wing.

"Can I trust you to behave yourself?" the asshole pilot, whose name was Rusty, asked me.

"Like I have a choice," I snarled. I hated tellies.

"Edward, what's going on? What's a telly?"

"There's more shit out there than what me and Alice do. Just stay close to me."

Rosalie hurried to Alice, and a little girl came running out of the building. She was excited to see us. It was her visions that had picked us up. She saw us being tracked. A nervous-looking guy came up behind her. The girl was his daughter. His wife was a seer like Alice and promised him it was okay. Emily went straight to Emmett and Ollie.

This Garrett guy was a reader like me, so I didn't trust a damn thing in his head. He knew how things worked and could lie up a fucking storm if he wanted to.

"Edward, could you please tell me what's going on?" Bella was really starting to worry.

"I can't read her. Can you? Has he read your mind?" Garrett asked her straight out.

"No, he can't. You can…you're like him, like Edward?"

"A lot of the time the ghosties are blocked. Does she see dead people? Or maybe a family member does?"

"Are you serious?" Bella was looking at him like he was nuts.

"It might've skipped a generation," Garrett was talking to me, as if Bella wasn't standing next to us, and it was really pissing me off.

"She's not a fucking ghosty."

"Edward, what are you talking about? What's he talking about? What's a telly, what's a ghosty?"

Rusty the cock sucker decided to show off, because he thought Bella was hot. He picked up the trunk with our stuff without touching it. "I'm a telly, or telekinetic," he nodded at the floating trunk.

Her mouth dropped open.

"Ghosties see dead people," he shrugged his shoulder like it was nothing, "Ed here is a reader, cause he can get in your head, and little Emily is like Alice, a seer. Then there's Nahuel," he nodded to another guy walking out of the building. I didn't like so many guys around Bella. "He's an empath, but we call them emps."

She looked at them all, and then at the large facility that said Black Land Mental Hospital on the side of it. "What kind of hospital is this place?"

"The kind that saves your cute little ass," the fucker winked at her.

"Drop it and we'll go! I dare you to drop it and fight fair! I'll take you the fuck out!" I was gonna kill that cocky telly ass.

"Edward, settle down," Bella grabbed my arm and pulled it around her. I looked at a sniffling Jake and then to the little girl, Emily. I felt bad for all of two seconds. She wasn't fazed. She'd seen my outburst coming.

I looked over at Alice, and she just shrugged. "Everything is going to be fine." Her mind flashed to me in the basement, but this time, Bella was naked and riding me hard…fuck, it was making me hard. "That's why I wasn't showing you." Alice glanced at my pants and chuckled. That little pixie was just as fucked up as ever. She'd seen it. She knew it was going to happen. We being here didn't change it. I needed to just trust her like I always had before. But when you were surrounded by gifted people, they knew how to manipulate things to trick readers like me. We really were the weakest of the group.

But right now, looking at my family, I knew I couldn't afford to be weak.

A/N: Thanks for reading and please review!