Chapter Twelve
I don't know when I fell asleep, but when I awoke, Alice was holding out a tray of pancakes. The smell coming off of them made my stomach growl and my mouth water. Despite my mourning over the loss of my friend's humanity, I was starving. So I ate silently.
"Are you feeling better?" asked Alice.
"No different," I said in that same dead voice. "Just less hungry."
"Do you want more?"
"No." I looked out the window covering the one wall. The sun was high and covered in clouds. "What time is it?
"Three in the afternoon."
More than a day had passed. Dana was nearly silent now. Evidently it did no good to scream so she had stopped, though she did moan now and then.
"How much longer?"
"Forty-two hours, twenty-seven minutes."
"Okay." With that, I slipped back into my silent vigil, shared with Jasper, whom, I'm sure, hadn't moved in the slightest.
I lay on my side in the fetal position next to Jasper and Dana. I didn't move except once or twice when I got up to go to the bathroom. I always came back to the same spot, though, and I always sat there the same way.
Edward couldn't bear my grief, so he went hunting and told me he'd be back before Dana was finished. I barely noticed his absence, caught up as I was in my sadness.
"I'm sorry," the voice was so quiet, I wondered if I had perhaps imagined it. He hadn't spoken for over a day.
I turned my head to Jasper. He met my eyes with his strange bronze ones. "I'm so sorry," he said. "I'm always ruining your life with my terrible lack of control, but this time I ruined two lives."
I couldn't think of what to say so I just watched him with sad eyes.
"I'll make it up to her," he vowed. "It's my fault she's hurting right now, but I will make sure she is aways happy from the moment she wakes. I swear, Dana will never know sadness, fear, or pain again."
"You can't make that promise," I said in that same dead tone. "Something will upset her, something will scare her, and something will hurt her. Eventually. You can only promise that you will not actively sadden, frighten, or hurt her. That's as close as you can get, because you can't protect her forever."
"Then that is what I vow. I will never intentionally upset, frighten, or hurt her, ever again."
With that statement, I no longer felt sadness at the thought of my new friend's change. Instead, I felt hope. She would have somebody to look out for her and make sure she's happy and protected. Maybe, Dana will be happy when she wakes. That was a happy thought.
Jasper sighed in relief at the end of my mourning. It must have been hard on him to have to deal with my emotions as well as Dana's and his own. I decided to give him a break.
No sooner than I decided that, Alice had zipped down the stairs and halted abruptly in front of me.
"Get dressed, Bella!" the pixie crowed. "Dana needs new clothes and you're going to help me pick them out!"
A/N: All reading and no reviews makes Robin a sad girl :'( (It also makes me write slower) Review! I answer them all! (even though I don't get many) It lets me know you guys like it! It also gets me to update faster. So: R&R!