AN ~ my aunt who shall remain nameless is a nurse and the other day she told a story about how she almost killed an old lady with a morphine overdose (10mg) coz she had misheard; it was supposed to be a 2mg dose! I used this info a bit in this chap so forgive me if it's wrong but I'm no medical professional and my aunt is so...

Disclaimer: Eclipse is not mine

Reviews anyone? I'm not feeling very well at the moment :( I need some encouragement - I love hearing from you guys and I know there's a lot of lurkers out there, so come on and throw me a bone? Please? Thanks XD

Chapter Forty Two: Building Bridges

Carlisle:

Billy and any members of the pack who might have stayed with Jacob already knew what was going on, but we couldn't guarantee that Charlie wouldn't be there - in fact, it was likely, so Edward, Bella and I took the Mercedes to the Blacks' house. We rolled into the drive with Jacob's fervent cussing ringing in our ears, and before I had cut the engine, Bella was battling with the door. Edward wrapped a hand around her wrist.

"Wait here," he hissed. "Charlie's here. You're supposed to be on a shopping trip with Alice remember?"

Bella looked as though someone had ripped something out of her.

"You're kidding," she snorted, tears glistening in her red eyes. The two of them stared at each other for a long moment, until Bella returned her hands to her lap. Edward, clenching his jaw, exited the vehicle in stony silence. Bella slowly began to move for the door again, and Edward snarled under his breath.

"Lock it," he demanded, stalking past me.

"Sorry Bella," I murmured. "It is for the best."

Click.

"Hey!" Bella cried, surprised at my obedience. She hammered the window indignantly. "Carlisle!"

"Alibis," Edward mused. "She's going to have to work on that before..."

He trailed off, but I knew what he was thinking. Bella had agreed to marry him, which means he had agreed to change her. I hoped he knew how proud I was; he had put what was to him a very important issue in order to grant Bella her wish. It takes a lot of love and commitment to do that.

"Thanks, Dad," Edward murmured, smiling crookedly. We were at the door, though, and Charlie opened it before I could say anything in reply.

"Carlisle? What are you doing here?" he asked, surprised. His gaze moved past me to Edward, and his wide eyes narrowed. "I thought you were away…" his voice was suspicious now.

"Oh, yes, well…the weather was terrible," I said dismissively as I stepped inside. I couldn't even remember where we were supposed to have gone. "We might go next weekend if we get the time." Edward nodded casually in agreement, looking around the house as we walked through it but sticking close to me. Jacob Black wasn't the only wolf here.

"Thank goodness," Billy's voice came from behind Charlie, who shuffled to the side to let his disabled friend past. Billy didn't move into the space; he moved out of the way so that I could get past. His eyes were red, his cheeks marked with tears.

"I'm glad you're here. Jake's upstairs, cussing his lungs out…" With a look of immense relief on his face, Billy watched me start up the stairs.

.o.o.o.

When we got upstairs, Sam was waiting.

"'Bout time you got here," he grumbled, hardly audible over the curses flooding from Jacob's room. I opened the door and Sam took it, following me through and purposefully cutting Edward off. Edward wandered in after Sam as if he didn't care, but there was a low growl in his throat.

Jacob groaned and cried out and cussed loudly, not doing his crippled side any good. The skin was mostly healed, but before I reached the side of the bed I could tell that his bones were fusing badly. They were healing so fast that they were fixing themselves in the wrong places. That would have to be fixed. And that would hurt.

I pulled a syringe out of my bag and filled it with morphine; Jacob's naturally high temperature would burn it off very quickly, so even an excess dose wouldn't do any harm. I gave him the full dose at once, and he stopped struggling and swearing.

"Woah…" he moaned, his eyes going distant and unfocused. I tried not to think about the fact that 10mg of morphine - what I had just injected - was enough to kill some humans. Jacob's heartbeat had slowed dramatically, but it was still going strong: a reaction that could be elicited from a human with one-fifth, or even one-tenth, of what I had just given him. Curious.

"Carlisle," Edward murmured under his breath.

"Unlike you, we don't have all century," Sam sneered.

"Right, sorry." I shook my head and tried to focus on the mission at hand. I could feel Sam's eyes burning into my back, and Edward's casual yet confident gaze from just inside the doorway. I stared at Jacob but couldn't shake the overbearing awareness of Sam's presence. How exactly do you tell a werewolf who wants to kill you that you have to break his companion's bones?

"What's up?" Sam inquired gruffly. I turned around. Sam didn't look too mad - yet.

"His bones are healing quickly, but they're in the wrong places," I explained, taking a deep breath and forcing my shoulders down. "It's going to be worse for Jacob if they fuse badly."

"So…"

"So I'm going to have to...re-break the fractures."

There, I said it. I cringed, expecting a wolf to erupt at me. Sam's expression flinched, and his hands tensed into fists, but he did not object. He glanced at Edward, who reluctantly nodded and left the room. Now that it any fight would be a fair one, Sam felt comfortable enough to take a few steps back.

"I'll be watching," he warned.

I was certainly glad Jacob was unconscious as I examined the shapes of the bones, trying to work out the best way to do this. I didn't know how much time the morphine was going to give me, so I focused on speed and neatness.

"I'm not going to lie to you," I murmured as I gripped his right forearm. "This is going to hurt." His skin was torturously hot. I gritted my teeth at the blistering feeling. Jacob was about to endure much worse.

Crack. His arm.

Snap. His leg.

Crunch. A few of his ribs at once.

A snarl ripped out of Sam's throat, but he knew that what I was doing would be best for Jacob in the long run, and so refrained from attacking. He had invited me here, too, which means that if he hurt me, technically he would be violating the treaty. There wouldn't be much time for arguing that point, though; especially since the only evidence of an invitation was that Edward had read it in his mind.

There was a tangible release of tension as I straightened after having braced Jacob's newly broken bones.

"Okay, I'm done," I announced, turning to face Sam. He watched Jacob's face with concerned eyes. I packed up my things in silence, and was headed for the door when Sam called me back.

"He'll be all right, won't he?" he asked, worry shaking his voice though he tried to conceal it. I turned around to see him still staring at Jacob.

"He'll be fine, Sam," I replied with a gentle smile. "Just give him a few days."

"Good." Sam nodded. "Uh...thanks, I guess."

"I'm just doing my job."

"Yeah...about that - we can't exactly take him to a regular doctor, can we?"

"No. Breakages like that would usually take months to heal."

"He's going to need more morphine, isn't he?"

"Yes - quite soon, I'd imagine."

Sam turned around, anxiously raking a hand through his cropped black hair.

"What I mean is...will you come back? Check on him and stuff?"

"Are you sure? The injection is quite simple. I could teach-"

"No, it's okay. You can come back. Besides, you don't know exactly how much to give him, do you? So how am I to know?"

"Good point."

The conversation was clearly over, but a step had been taken towards closing the void between our kinds. The invitation settled in my heart, weighty but satisfying, and I strode towards the door feeling that something powerful and good had been achieved here today.

"Doctor Cullen?"

I stumbled at Sam's use of my name.

"Yes?" I turned to face him, his concerned black eyes glistening with a newfound respect.

"Thank you."

He nodded his head respectfully, and I was struck motionless for a moment by the memory of Ephraim Black, nodding his head once in respectful farewell after the signing of the treaty: the first step towards bridging the gap. Now, just as I had then, I nodded back and quietly took my leave.