An alarm rang throughout the room and Bella Swan immediately sat up in her bed, her hand grasping her 45. And was brandishing it around the room before she remembered it was just her alarm clock. "Damn nuisance" She muttered as she leaned over to shut it off. Every morning it was the same, the alarm would go off and she'd wake up thinking it was one of the unmentionables trying to break their way in. But, it never was. It was always that damn alarm clock making her heart beat a hundred miles an hour in the first few seconds of being awake. Bella, out of habit, checked over her weapon. She took out the clip and tapped it against the bedside table before sliding it back in, and with another quick look over placed it on the bedside table and got out of bed. She went over to the mirror hanging on the wall and quickly brushed her hair before plaiting it, then went over to the simple chest of draws and changed into a pair of jeans and a simple dark green shirt. She put on her belt and cliped her holster on to it, also slung her shoulder holster on, for her walkie-talkie and clips. When everything was adjusted, she slipped on her leather jacket. She walked back over to the bedside table, holstered her handgun, clipped in her walkie-talkie, and slipped her extra clips in place. When she was satisfied that she was ready she took one last fleeting glance at the mirror before walking out of the room, on her way towards the cafeteria.
Bella entered the cafeteria of the once hospital and walked up to one of the two empty windows that served breakfast, lunch and dinner. "What do we have this morning?" She asked, smiling at the middle-aged woman behind the counter.
"Well" The woman smiled "The chickens have settled in and started laying, so we've got fresh eggs, boiled and some toast from the bread the children helped bake yesterday. Or" She paused "If you want something else we've got some cereal with rehydrated milk" She finished
"I'd take the eggs" Bella answered, "and some toast, and some rehydrated juice" She smiled. The woman disappeared and a moment later re-appeared with Bella's food on a tray. "Thanks, Lesley" Bella smiled
"No problem" Lesley smiled back.
Bella looked around the room, many people had already collected their breakfast and were sitting with their families or friends, chatting and talking about their plans for the day. Then she spotted Emmett, he was easy to spot really. His broad shoulders and mop of hair stuck out amongst the rest. Bella smiled to herself and went to sit with the new addition to her little community. She put her tray on the table and sat down, Emmett looked up from the food he was pushing around on his plate to smile at Bella.
"Hey" His deep voice rumbled.
"Hi, Emmett" Bella greeted.
"I feel bad wasting this food, you want my eggs?" Emmett said, pointing to his eggs with his fork.
"Well" Bella smiled, amused "I won't knock back extra food" Emmett grinned and happily transferred them onto her plate "So," Bella said then took a bite of a dry piece of toast "What are you planning to do today?" She continued, her voice muffled from the food in her mouth.
"Not sure." Emmett replied with a shrug. Bella eyed him for a moment, before realising the rest of her team decided not to take any action with their new quests and left her to place them into jobs. She sighed and cracked open her first egg, normally they jumped at the chance to show new comers around. Obviously, they chose to let her deal with them, considering she new them from before the infection.
"Well" She said, dipping a piece of toast in the runny yoke of her egg, "I guess I'll have to sort you all out then." She said eating the sloppy toast "But" She smiled around her food "After breakfast".
Bella returned her tray to Lesley behind the window and went back over to Emmett.
"Okay" She smiled, "Let's get you all sorted out, shall we?" Bella asked,
"Sure" Emmett offered his own dimpled grin, standing up "The rest of the family are in Esme's and Carlisle's room" Bella nodded and started her way towards the room she has gave Esme and Carlisle. She knocked before she entered, out of politeness rather than anything else.
"Come in" Bella heard Carlisle say from inside, she opened the door and sure enough the entire Cullen clan were standing in the room, making it look a little over crowded. "Hello, Bella" Carlisle smiled,
"Hi Carlisle" She smiled back, "Now, I'm here to get you all working." She started "I was thinking, Esme" She looked at Esme "You could help teach some of the teenagers, we have an elementary teacher, but she's struggling with the teens" She said,
"I can do that" Esme nodded enthusiastically
"Right, well you can head off now. On the first floor, conference room 1" Bella said, Esme nodded, and reached on her tiptoes to kiss Carlisle goodbye before leaving.
"Where do you want me?" Jasper asked,
"Oh, well I figured since you want to come on the raid that I'll get Travis and Jason to give you some training" Bella smiled, and waited with amused eyes for Jasper's reaction.
"Training?" Jasper asked, raising a brow.
"Yes, training" Bella nodded, a smirk rising on her lips against her will.
"We don't need training" Jasper said, gesturing to Edward and Emmet "We've been protecting our family for a few years now." He paused for a second "And oh, we're 100 year old vampires" He added sarcastically. Bella raised her eyebrows in surprise and amusement at Jasper's comment. Before controlling herself and answering very seriously.
"Yes, but as Carlisle told me last night, the infected are stronger than you." Bella said, Jasper looked like he was about to interrupt but Bella continued with more force "And if you want to go on this raid, you'll have to learn to follow my orders. Lessons start now. I may just be a human but this human is now your commander, and you'll listen to me dammit." She glared "Now" She sighed, calming herself down "we use conference room 4 on the ground floor for training. I'll send Jason and Travis down there soon." She finished, and then eyed each one daring them to object.
"Yes" Jasper paused "M'am" He added, on the end.
"Good" She nodded and then smiled at him, he kissed Alice good bye and walked out the door. "Did I touch a nerve?" Bella asked, not really looking for an answer. Emmett chuckled and kissed Rosalie and followed his brother out. Edward just stared at Bella for a moment, his stare was so intense, so full of hidden meanings it caused Bella to look away. Edward then made his leave, following his brothers down to the training room. Bella regained her composer then smiled at the remaining Cullens, "Now" Her eyes landed on the last two Cullen women "I'm not sure where to put you" Bella mused, "I guess you have a choice between helping in the kitchens, or" She paused "The gardens I guess, it's up to you" She shrugged.
"Well" Rosalie sniffed "I rather get dirt under my finger nails then handle human food, which, for the record, smells worst then dirt" she continued
"I'm with Rose" Alice chimed,
"Cool, head out to the gardens and just ask someone for a job" Bella smiled, the girls nodded and left. "Carlisle" Bella smiled fondly,
"Bella" He replied in the same tone, "And what shall you have me do?" He asked, coming forward
"You, my friend" Bella said opening the door and Carlisle walked through, Bella followed "Will be helping with . . . a . . . beta test" She said cryptically,
"A beta test?" Carlisle asked, following Bella into a room he recalled as an observation room, it had one large window, which was one-sided glass. It had a few desks and a couple laptops and was filled with filing cabinets.
"Yes" Bella nodded, and nodded to the patient in the bed, Carlisle turned to look at her.
"What about her?" Carlisle asked with a shrug, looking back to Bella.
"Well," Bella paused "She was bitten by one of the infected" She paused and picked up one of the clipboards from the desk "6 months and 23 days ago" she finished.
"Wait" Carlisle's golden eyes scrutinised Bella "Are you saying you've stopped the infection from spreading?" He asked,
Bella laughed almost humourlessly "No" she shook her head "We've reversed it" Carlisle stared at her, for a moment
"I don't understand why you need my help," He shook his head, "You've developed a cure" He started, but Bella cut him off,
"It is not a cure." Bella shook her head "I haven't got a medical degree, but even I know there's too many variables for it to called a cure. I mean, there's weight, sex, age, blood type." She shook her head. "And that's why it's only a test." Bella continued "I'd like you to work with our small, but brilliant medical and science department" She finished
"I'd be honoured" Carlisle nodded, a small smile on his face.
"Great, so I think you should start here, every file we have on the infection is in this room. It also includes the observations of the patient," Bella nodded to the girl in the bed, she looked to be in her mid teen years and she looked a bit ill, her eyes were sunken her hair lank and her skin pale. "Feel free to go in and introduce yourself"
"Is she . . . hand-cuffed to the bed?" Carlisle asked, peering into the room and wondering how he missed it before.
"It's a simple safety precaution" Bella said, her voice perfectly even and unaffected by Carlisle shock and almost disgust. "She understands that she may . . . turn back at any time. She also doesn't want to hurt anyone, and I don't want to lose one of my team." Bella continued "So until we're one-hundred percent sure she's safe, she stays cuffed to the bed"
"I understand" Carlisle nodded, but he knew from that moment that Bella had changed. The Bella he knew wouldn't be okay with chaining a girl to a bed, keeping her locked in a room. Something had changed in Bella, making her colder then she was all those years ago. Carlisle knew this, but he wasn't sure why.
"I have other things to do, you'll be ok I trust?" Bella asked,
Carlisle nodded "I have a lot of things to look through here" He looked around, wondering where to get started.
"Right" Bella nodded, smiling "See you later" Carlisle nodded, already engrossed in one of the files Bella chuckled to herself and strolled out. She walked down the stairs and down to the conference room where the boy's would be training. She cracked open to door to see Jason showing Edward how to hold an assault rifle correctly, Bella whistled and Jason looked up. Bella gestured with her head for him to follow her outside, then went to wait for him.
She walked down the hall a bit then stopped, turning around to talk to Jason. "How are they going?" She asked in hushed tones, trying to make sure they couldn't hear her.
"Good" Jason nodded, a small smile on his face "They're all very strong, even the lanky looking one, Edward" He continued and Bella looked down, trying to hide the look of pure amusement on her face.
"Yes," She cleared her throat "They seem very keen to go on the raid tomorrow, do you think they'll be ready?" She asked,
Jason sighed heavily "Well" He paused "Yeah" he eventually said "I don't see why not, they're very committed."
"Good" Bella nodded, "Make sure they can handle themselves," She said starting to walk back towards the door "But be careful" She continued, now also speaking to the vampires in the room next door "I don't want to be one man short because of a stupid accident, clear?"
"Yeah" Jason nodded, pushing open the door and heading back over to Edward. Bella smiled to herself and continued to walk around, checking on everyone and having casual conversations. She had already drawn up the roster for the separate sections during the week, and the raid the following day was routine so there wasn't much for her to do. But she always made sure she had time to talk to people, see if they had any concerns or wanted something changed. It kept everyone happy and content with in the community.
"Bella!" Bella heard a voice call out, she turned around and smiled as she saw Ryan running up to her,
"Hey Ryan" Bella greeted, clapping him on the shoulder when he came up to her "Ready for the raid tomorrow?"
"Yeah" Ryan nodded, Ryan wasn't a conventional soldier, but when Bella tried to train him she was amazed, in the few months of protecting his little sister he had taught himself an array of hand-to-hand combat and was a near expert on weapons. He was street smart, and had helped Bella more than once. Within a few months of living in the complex, Bella had put him in charge of the defence of the south end. It was a big job, but it he was up to it. "Who else is going?" He asked,
"Well there's the usual team. Jason, Travis and Gwyn, myself obviously." Bella started to talk as she walked, Ryan followed "And some newbie's, Edward and Emmet Cullen, and Jasper Hale"
"Yeah, Vinny was telling me at lunch how she had a new teacher . . ." He trailed off
"Yeah, Esme, their mother." Bella said
"Wow, how many are there?" He asked,
"Seven" Bella answered,
"Seven?" Ryan asked, not believing what he heard. It wasn't common to meet a group that big.
"Yeah," Bella nodded
"Wow" Ryan mused "They're lucky to still have each other," Ryan said
"Yeah" Bella said, her voice almost breaking, "Lucky"
What do you all think? I'd like to give a shout out to SilverWingtips, without her this chapter wouldn't have been up as quick as it was, she also gave me the motivation to get this uploaded. So go check out her stories! Also, please review. Reviews make me feel loved, and it makes me up date faster.
Peace
StopTheMadness