Chapter 3

Harbinger

Edward:

I hate how she looks at him, and the way she hangs onto him, like he's going to float away if she doesn't. I hate sitting in her room, and looking around to see reminders of the two of them together. I see the picture she printed out, and put in the scrap book that her mother gave her. The Neanderthal sits next to her on her bed, holding her the way she'd never allow me to. There is one way to settle all this, and having looked at Carlisle's medical file on him, I finally have something that he can't give to Bella, and that is forever. In the meantime, I pulled the picture out for the moment, folded it to hide his face, and put it back in. I looked around her room more, trying to find anything of mine she might've kept, and when I see she doesn't, I leave on of my leather wrist guards for her. I make sure it's somewhere she can see it, and think of me when she sleeps.

I had seen her a few nights before, from the ground as I look up to her window. She was pinned to the ceiling as he continually rapes her, and yet she pretends to enjoy it, even Emmett can't see it.

Emmett had seen me watching one evening, and stood next to me, "Whoa. That is awesome. I didn't know he could do that."

I shook my head, "He's raping her. Don't you see that?"

He almost burst out laughing, "If that were true, the Chief would be throwing the door in, and trying to blow him away."

"She only thinks she enjoys it." I snarled at him, and feel him grab my arm.

"Babe, do you think he's raping her?" Emmett called into the woods.

Rosalie came out to grab my other arm, and after a brief look up at the couple, she too shook her head, "She's not being raped. I would know. And that's not pain, Edward, that's ecstasy."

I nodded, "He probably slipped that into her drink, or something. We should get her up to the house again, and run her blood through a toxicology analysis."

Rose shook her head sadly, "Let's go, Edward. I would say maybe," She looked back and heard the moans coming out of the room, both of them calling each other's names as they panted, and he maliciously ravaged her. "I won't say maybe because this looks pretty much like true love and all that. Face it. She's just not into you like that.'

"But I'm the one that saved her life!" I argued.

Rose gave me a slight sneer, "So you think you deserve some kind of reward for that?"

I was nodding, "Well, not quite, but some gratitude."

Rose rolled her eyes, giving me a look, "She did thank you, and so did Damien, but you had to act like an ass, and now I'm surprised they're not trying to get a restraining order on you."

I flashed my eyes to her, "Her father's already threatened that. I think he might be bluffing."

Emmett just looked over to Rose, and they both pulled me away, as he said, "Um, I think you're pretty delusional right now, dude. Staying here, watching them…is not normal, even for us. I think if you were to find another mate, you might be happier. I don't think it would be a bad idea to start looking."

"If it weren't for him, she would be me mate. He stole her from me!" I rasped.

Rose looked at him, "What are you talking about?"

I lowered my head, resigned, "Alice said I would meet someone soon, who would change my life. I saw it, too. Had I saved Bella's life, and he weren't there, she would be completely and utterly devoted to me. Yes, there would be trouble along the way, and we would have many people to try and stop us from being together. Do you know that in the vision, I would marry Bella Swan?"

Emmett made a mocking gesture of waving his finger in the air, "Well, whoop-de-do. What else did you see?"

"I saw that Bella would become like us, and she would be beautiful. Now, that is all ruined because of that Stupid, bothersome Neanderthal who doesn't know to mind his own business. Rosalie, Emmett, help me gain my mate back. She must be mine. It can't end like this. I can't have her hate me like this. I keep remembering how close we were in that memory. She loved my every word, my every gesture. Even when I left, she couldn't live without me. The thought of life without me was too unbearable for her, to the point where she was willing to take her own life. She was only too happy to come to my aid when she found me again. I was able to keep her as mine, even when she wanted to love someone else. She left her family and friends behind for me. We faced so much together, but I knew that she would stay mine, even when her father wanted us to be apart. She threatened to turn him away on my behalf if he didn't accept us. I want That Bella back, NOW! SO, LET ME GO! SHE HAS TO BE MY BELLA!"

I suppose I was hysterical by now, the two of them carried me through the woods, holding me by my arms and dragging me away. It didn't matter. I already knew what I would be telling Bella about her beloved having his days numbered. After all, nothing could stand in the way of destiny.

Bella:

School went along in typical fashion, talking to the gang, and going through classes. I had called Damien a few times, throughout the day, and each time, he was swamped so I got his voicemail.

Lately, the case was not going well, and the families of the hikers were getting desperate enough to tell the local press about negligence on part of Forks PD, which Damien took care of by making a public announcement of creating a task force for that particular case. When he finally answered, I could tell he was on edge, but he tried to stay calm when we talked.

I finally heard him pick up, "Hey, baby, how's it going?"

He let out a breath, "Things are kind of hectic around here, Bella. I've had the press in twice to see how we do things, so I'm glad I updated all our systems when I did because they would've attacked us on that too. Babe, I know I haven't picked up before, and I am really sorry about that. I don't want to seem like I'm avoiding you, because that's not what's happening."

I heard a noise in the background, as his door was slammed in, "Is it true you are dating the chief's daughter, and even having-"

I heard him cover the mouthpiece, and yell away from the phone, "Get the hell out of here! This is a private conversation!" The door slammed closed.

I heard him on the phone, "I am so sorry, babe. Can I call you back? I swear I will get to you soon."

I couldn't stand having to wait again, "Why didn't you just come to school with me, instead of dealing with all that crap? You're my age for god's sake! Who would put a kid in charge of a major task force on a major case like this?"

He let out a breath, "Bella, easy. It's rough, but I'll handle it. Just enjoy school for now. Think of it as taking it easy for me, ok?"

I know I should have kept my mouth shut, but I wanted him to just get mad at how unfair this situation was, "Why aren't you mad? Aren't you pissed at having to deal with all the press crap, and having to deal with angry parents, and all that?"

He finally did snap, "Because that won't help! Ok?" He blew out a breath, and was now calm again, "I'm doing the best I can. I know what theory I can't present, and I know how it'll look even if I do. I'm stuck in a hard place right now, babe."

I was still mad, though, "So, quit! No one's making you do this! You're only stressing yourself out! For what? Look, I know my dad needs you, but I need you too. I love you, baby. I do, but sometimes you make yourself suffer so much, I wonder if my being around really helps."

He sighed, "It does. Really, Bella, it does. I need you to know that. I love you, too, and if I could, I would try to make this go away. Right now, though, there's too much to work with. I'm trying to deal with a bunch of wannabe-whistle-blowers who are looking for anything wrong with the department. If they find something, it's Charlie's neck that's on the line, not mine. I can't let that happen, not after everything your father has done for me. That's why I'm trying to calm the waters…Want to have dinner later?"

I guess I sounded a tad cool to him, "I'll think about it. We'll talk later, then. Go back to whatever you were doing."

He tried to say something, "Bella-"

I hung up, and regretted it immediately. Alice walked up to me now, and asked me very shyly, "Trouble in paradise?"

I shook my head, "Just couple stuff. He's busy with work, and such."

She put one arm around me, "You know with Edward, you wouldn't have to worry about that?"

I looked up at her, "Why are you telling me this?"

She gave me a pleading look, "Please, don't turn my brother away. He does want to be your friend."

I gave her a cynical look, "I think he wants a little more than that, Alice. I think you know it, too. So, why won't he leave me alone?"

She looked around, and Jasper was behind her, although, he didn't look too happy right now. She told me, "I saw your destiny…with him…with us."

I met her gaze, and asked her, "What exactly are you talking about?"

She told me about how she saw my life if Damien hadn't been there at all for me when Edward saved me. She told me that Edward protecting me, and then bringing me into his world, only to abandon me for months. She went on to tell me of my connection with Jacob, as well. From Alice's brief account of that, I gathered that I had gotten really close to Jacob in the intervening months. She told me about Edward trying to destroy himself and about my desperate attempt to save him, as well as the meeting with the Volturi, and how they expected me to be changed to protect their secret. She told me of the wolves joining forces with the Cullens to fight off newborns created by Victoria to find and kill me. She finally went on to tell me that I would marry Edward Cullen, and have his child. She was crying now, and her eyes were pleading with me.

Alice sobbed, "So, you see, Bella? It was a beautiful destiny I saw for you two, and if you let this other boy come into your life, and change everything, we won't be sisters, and I don't know if I could handle seeing you around, and not be able to have you there as such." She wanted to hug me, now.

I let her, briefly holding her, and looking to Jasper for help so he could take to holding her. He must've done something, because she calmed down after a moment, and turned to Jasper, asking him, "Why did you do that? I needed her to see me with that loss, Jaz."

He simply looked at her, and then turned away. Alice seemed to feel bad instantly, and took his hand. She turned to me, "We won't take any more of your time, Bella. I just wanted you to know what you'd be missing if you went on the current path you are now. We won't be sisters, and I won't see you with your beautiful daughter and her mate as you and Edward come out to embrace them."

As she was leaving, Jasper touched my shoulder, and whispered, "Bella, don't worry about any of this. Just go with whatever your heart tells you. Personally, I didn't think that was very fair to you. So, you can choose to disregard all of it." As he left, he stuffed something into my pocket.

She saw me looking a little confused by everything she had just told me, and then I thought about my plans with Damien, and how none of those were taken into account in my "grand destiny."

Damien:

"Bella-"

Then, she hung up. She must've been really pissed to do that. I supposed it wasn't the first time we'd argued like that. I hadn't meant to snap at her, but considering that I was dealing with having to deal with having to walk point on the missing persons cases, now seemingly connected. I knew what was actually going on, and it was like I had told Bella. There is no way I could actually present any theories, because the department was looking bad enough. I still had to cover for the Cullens, and at the same time, I knew Victoria was definitely still out there, running wild.

Now, I wasn't only handling all these cases, and trying to manage an entire division of the department, I was also slowly but surely dying. I was pretty sure that having Jasper bite me might've bought me a little more time. Meanwhile, I also had to deal with Edward trying to steal my girlfriend. I wasn't even sure why he was being so persistent, or why he hated me so much. I hadn't remembered dealing with him at all since I had arrived, that is before meeting him at the FMC.

His obsession with Bella was also rather disturbing. I found myself trying to dismiss it for the moment. There were too many other things to worry about right now. It was actually annoying having the press coming in every so often, and asking useless questions.

Finally, I called a press conference, around 4pm and announced that I had checked the trail of some of the victims from a few months ago. Whatever it was had actually moved east, and the department was trying to determine if the animal hard returned. When one of the reporters mentioned that they had seen my own report on the bites on the last known victims having human bites. I mentioned it might've been someone that was psychotic, and living in the woods. If such a person were found, they would be taken to a maximum security hospital for treatment. I closed the session thereby, and dismissed the whole press cabal, subsequently having them leave the station completely.

After they left, Charlie patted me on the shoulder.

"That was a good job today. Do you want to send some people out today for another search party?"

I looked to him, "Have them do a cursory sweep, and then we'll let SAR take over for now. There's not much else we can do until morning."

He looked away a moment, and then asked, "Did you just have an argument with Bella earlier?"

I lowered my head, "I suppose you could say that. We've been having a few arguments since her birthday, last week."

"Hmm, well, what was the argument about today?"

"She's upset that this job is taking a lot of my time. I'm trying to manage everything at the same time. Whether it's Bella, or the Task Force, or even having to worry about-"

"Cullen? Listen, this job isn't worth losing her over it. I'll see if Davis can take over earlier, so you can get home sooner. She does love you, you know?"

"I know. I love her, too. I guess I should-" my phone went off, and then I saw it was a text from Bella. She was in the woods somewhere, not too far from school.

"Speak of the devil. Get going, kid. I'll handle the rest."

"Thanks Charlie."

Bella:

After Alice and Jasper left, I decided to go home, only to find Edward waiting for me by my house. He looked very sullen, his eyes utterly dull. He motioned for me to join him in the woods. I gave him a brief glance, and went to open my house. He was next to me in seconds.

"I presume Alice told you about everything. I want to talk to you about it."

"Well Edward, I don't. You can go now."

He took me up into his arms, insisting, "You have to come with me, right now."

We arrived at a clearing in the woods, where he had told me his secret, and set me down. He looked around, and put his hands on my shoulders.

He looked at me, his cold gaze penetrating me, "Damien is very sick. He has a condition called ACDS, which is actually Acute Cellular Deterioration Syndrome. For the moment, the venom is arresting the process, but like any bad medicine it's taking a toll on his body. Has he told you this?"

I slid out of his arms, "No, that can't be. I thought he was getting better."

He shook his head, "The first symptoms are chills, fever, eventually he will feel the onset of bone marrow deficiency, as well as being highly susceptible to airborne viruses, and eventually he will start suffering heart, liver and kidney failure."

I continued to look at him, "He's as strong as the rest of you, right now. What about that?"

He looked at me, trying to reach out to me, but I didn't want him to touch me right now, so he said simply blurted, "He will die, Bella, leaving you alone."

I tried to think, and demanded, "Can't Carlisle do something about it?"

Again, he shook his head, "Damien's talked with Carlisle about this several times, and they haven't found anything."

I hit his chest with my fists, "Then, tell me what I can do for him."

He took me in his arms, "My family and I are leaving, Bella. I want you to come with me."

I shook my head, "How can you even ask me that?"

He gave me a resigned look, reaching for my face, making me pull away, "It's all I can tell you right now. Think about it, and we can start living our lives, right now. You can leave all this behind, and leave Damien to his fate. He is not part of your destiny, anyway. I am everything you need, and all you're ever going to want, but you have to accept me as I am."

I gave him a deep, hateful stare, "I don't want to be part of your future. I want my future. I want my world to be whatever I want it to be. That includes Damien. I'll stay with him, however long it takes."

He shook his head, "Then, by not coming with me, you've condemned him to death. If you had come with me, someone would've stayed in your place to make sure that Damien had his medicine. He now needs the venom in his system, or he will die. My family will be far away. We will not contact you, or even come back. We'll disappear until we're not even a memory to you. We'll stay way for however long it takes for him to die. Once he does, you can decide then. If you want him to live, you can come with me, right now. You have to decide now, though."

I backed away from him, "No, you can't make me do that."

He pulled me close to him, "Your life is with me! Decide now!"

"Let me go!"

"DECIDE NOW! IT'S HIM OR ME! DECIDE!"

I looked down for a moment, and kicked him away, something Damien had taught me. Edward pulled away, "No! I won't become part of your little world! I'm not doing this because I belong to him, or especially you. I belong to me! I am choosing him for me! He makes me happy, and he believes in me! You just want me because you think it'll complete your little fantasy, but I'd rather die than think of being with you! So GO! I'll find a way to save him without you! GO! NOW!"

He sped away from me, and I could've sworn I had seen him almost cry, and that made me angrier. "DO YOU HEAR ME?! I FOLLOW MY OWN DESTINY! I'LL FIND A WAY TO SAVE HIM WITHOUT YOU!"

There was still light in the woods, so I sent a text to Damien. He found me about twenty minutes later.

He approached me cautiously, "Are you still mad?"

I shook my head, and took his hand, "That was a bitchy thing to do to you, I know. I'm sorry. By the way, I know how sick you are. Edward told me, you know?"

He looked away for a moment, "I'm sorry. I know-"

I took him in my arms, "You should've told me, you know?"

He pulled me into his arms, and I held him back so tightly, "Do you know how much I love you, Bella?"

I pulled my head back for a moment, "I love you too, Damien. You know what? You're right. We don't need me to be a vampire. I want to live this life with you, however long it takes. We'll find a way to save you. I promise that. In the mean time, I have the meds Carlisle gave me for you." I handed him the venom in capsules, and nodded. "I want that house. I want those kids. We'll figure out a way for us to have all that, and we'll live here together."

He chuckled, "Slow down, wild girl. Let's get you past high school first, shall we?"

I slyly moved my hands up and down his body, "Is that an order, sir?"

He shook his head, and took my hand as we walked back towards the road. He squeezed my hand as dusk hit, and looked to me, "Naw, I don't give orders. Besides, you're going to be my partner, right?"

I nodded, "I trust you with my life. So, trust me with yours. Next time you have something this big, you better tell me, got it?"

He leaned his head to one side, "Would that be one of our vows?"

I kissed his cheek, "We got lots of time to work on those."

From what I remembered, Alice had told me that I had tried various times to contact the Cullens in her vision, simply because I missed Edward. So, I decided that I would completely let myself break contact, and make a clean break. I found that my life was mine again. Damien would come home from casework, and help me with a lot of my homework because he could. He was still suffering side effects from the meds, and they would last him at least a year. So, he was able to keep himself going, except for getting the chills at night. I tried to keep him warm at nights, and it worked most nights, but at other times, there wasn't much I could do, except hold him, and soothe him to sleep.

I had my own spout of nightmares too. Dreams about watching him die, or dreams about Edward killing him. Those would pull me from my sleep screaming. At which point, he would wake me up, and soothe me back to sleep. I was grateful for having him, and still I found myself trying to think of how to save him.

Damien also had been relieved of task force duty by another of Charlie's men, but someone not as experienced or even as good as Damien. At least he had the database that was set up by Damien, but Charlie could tell that the new guy was a bit of an amateur.

The holidays came up, and we all went to Seattle to celebrate. My mom joined us for Thanksgiving, so Damien was able to actually show off his cooking skills in a flat he had rented just for the occasion. Charlie was a little hesitant about it, but we got him to come with us. Even mom's new husband, Phil came, much to Charlie's dismay, but after a few beers, they got along just fine.

I came into the kitchen to help him with the turkey, and saw him prep the stuffing to be put in.

I went over to him, "Need help with that?"

He waved me over with a spoon, "Sure, come on over."

"That is a lot of stuffing." I commented on the huge pot he had been mixing.

"This should be enough for us. Don't you think? Are you going to have turkey?"

I shrugged, "Why not? I guess I could break my diet just this once."

"Golly Gee, Ms. Vegan, I'm proud of you." He winked at me.

I winked right back at him, "Oh shut up, you."

He pulled the turkey open, and motioned to the spoon, "Ok. Start scooping the stuffing in with that spoon. I'll hold it open."

I went ahead and started scooping, at first taking a huge spoonful, "This alright, or should I drop some back in the pot?"

He shook his head, "No, that's fine. Just stuff that load in."

I turned red as he said that, "K, you don't know how wrong that sounds, baby."

He gave me a wink, "I'll stuff you later."

I burst out laughing, "That just sounded wrong."

He looked sheepish, "Hmm, you're right, it did. Just put another couple of scoops like that in, and we'll sew this one up, and put it in."

"Where'd you learn to do all this, baby?"

He shrugged, "I watched some cooking shows in the break room."

I gave him a bit of a heavy lidded gaze, "I had no idea you were so domestic."

He threw on a chef hat, and looked over at me, "Impressed?"

I finished stuffing the turkey, washing my hands, and then hugged him from behind, "Very impressed. Can't wait until we make one of these for our family."

He turned his head to kiss me, and went back to sewing the turkey together. It didn't take him that long. Once he was done, he washed his hands, and we sat in the kitchen.

He looked over at me, "You want to talk about kids?"

I blushed at that, "What?"

He smirked, "We might as well. I know that we've been talking about this whole thing, or talking around it."

Just then, my mom came in, "Alright, you two are way too young to start talking about kids."

He gave me a quick sheepish look, and nodded politely.

My mom turned to him, "Are you done with the turkey/'

He nodded, "It's cooking about now, so it'll be a few hours."

She looked at the both of us, "Do you two have plans later?"

I leaned on his shoulders, "I think we might take a look around the city after dinner. We'll be taking his car, anyway."

He gestured to me smiling, "Well, whatever my princess wants, she gets."

My mom sat down across from us at the kitchenette table, "I know how serious this is getting between you two, but I hope you're both taking precautions and such. It won't be such a fun marriage if you knock up my daughter, young man, understand?"

"Mom!" my face was hot now.

She waved at me in a calming gesture, "I'm just talking straight to him, dear. It's nothing to be embarrassed about."

We heard a knock at the door, and Charlie went to get it.

I heard him yell out, "What the hell are you doing out here?"

We got up to check, and saw Jacob wheeling in Billy Black, who had brought over a bottle of champagne.

"Greetings from Forks. Say hi to Bella, Jacob. Bella, he insisted on coming all this way to see you! Tell her, son!"

Jacob shook his head, "Dad, do you really have to?"

Billy looked over at Damien, "Seeing as how she's probably free tonight."

Charlie spoke up, "Well, if you're here for dinner, you'll have to be polite to the chef, who also happens to be Bella's boyfriend."

Billy laughed a bit, "He's a bit pale, don't you think?"

Charlie shook his head, "Are you here to eat?"

Jacob walked up to us, and shook Damien's hand, "Happy Thanksgiving. Sorry about my dad. He tends to shoot off his mouth."

Billy called over, "Just keeping it real, son."

I looked at my boyfriend for a bit, and he nodded.

So I asked Jacob, "We're going to check out some of the sites in town. Want to come with?"

Jacob nodded, "That would be awesome. I heard that have a couple of great bike places here."

Damien gave him a surprised look, "Really? I guess I hadn't thought of that."

My mom got up from her seat, "You kids have fun. Enjoy your time on the town."

After dinner, the three of us went out, and Jacob asked me if I was still thinking about Edward.

I turned to face him, "Um, you mind not mentioning him?"

He almost seemed to smile when I said that, "Well, nevermind, then. So, when are you two going to tie the knot?"

I did blush at that, and Damien called out, "Probably a month after her graduation, but we don't have a date set, yet."

I looked back too, "We're trying to get the papers drawn up to, and trying to see what we can do to get the marriage license."

Jacob whistled, "Wow, I guess you two are serious."

I took Damien's hand, and squeezed it, "Very. It'll be about time. I think I might want to give myself an anniversary gift shortly after."

Jacob cleared his throat, "Before you do that, I think you should both know…There are more missing hikers."

Continued…

Well, there it is. Chapter 3 of New Moon on Monday. I suppose there might be a lot of things to go over, but some did ask for deviation. Now that Bella knows what might be in store for her, she's really going to try to avoid it at all cost. Also, hope ya'll can tell me what you think of the chars thus far, especially the Bella/ Damien factor. I did want to add some spice by trying to have Billy Black and his own prejudice against Damien, simply because he's an outsider, and he can't tell what Damien is. I know this chapter was rather short, but I do have school.