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Chapter Six

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"I really wish you would have just told me you wanted me dead," Jake said playfully from the hospital bed he was laying on in Carlisle's office.

"Jake, stop," Bella hissed. "I feel bad enough without you guilting me."

"I guess it could have been worse," he continued as if he hadn't heard her. "You could have been driving Emmett's truck."

"Do you want me to leave?" she asked, jaw clenched.

"Next time could you just punch me in the stomach, or backhand me with a frying pan?"

"I'm leaving!" Bella turned to walk away and Jake instantly started laughing.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I won't keep doing it. I just find it really funny that of all the people that could have hit me on that road it was you."

Her face was scrunched up into a grimace as she turned back to him. "Hilarious."

"If it were Blondie I would have expected it. I'm just a little shocked to wake up and find you standing by my bed looking like you killed my dog . . ." Jake's lips pulled up at the corners then as he realized what he had seemingly said without comical intention that time.

"Keep breathing, Jake," Bella said and didn't turn back as she walked out the door this time, closing it behind her.

And then we were alone. I hadn't even intentionally walked in with Bella, but I couldn't very well go running out when I'd realized where she was headed.

So I'd stayed and quietly stood on the other side of the bed while he teased her for causing the extensive bruising and thick layer of blood that coated much of his upper extremities from an absolutely horrifically broken jaw that he'd had until Esme very calmly set it before he'd regained consciousness. The bleeding had stopped not long after the accident, but no one had washed it off him yet.

"You look worried," Jake said so quietly that I was the only one that could hear him.

"You weren't awake when we scraped you off the road," I replied at the same volume and reached out to touch the bruise on his forehead gently before remembering that I shouldn't, no matter how much sympathy I was feeling. I pulled my hand back and watched as Jake's eyes followed it to my side before returning to my face.

"Well my brain was kind of freaking out and decided to have a shutdown, so I was unable to attend that party." He pursed his lips in mock regret, but stopped when I pulled a disapproving face back at him.

"You really need to stop joking," I whispered.

"That's how I'm handling this."

I sighed gently. It wasn't like I could really ask him to stop if this was how he was handling the nightmare car accident he'd just been in.

"I hate you. You know that, right?" I said in the same tone usually deployed for discussions about soil types.

His mouth pulled up at the corners. "I know. I am extraordinarily annoying."

We made total eye contact for a few seconds and then I looked away as I spoke. "Yes. You're a jerk."

"Some things can't be knocked out of me I guess."

I closed my eyes and exhaled slowly before speaking again. "Jake?"

"What?"

"I'm glad you didn't die," I whispered, turning slowly before opening my eyes and leaving the room.

I barely had the door shut behind me when I turned and found Nessie standing very close in front of me with wide, eager eyes.

"Is Jake going to be okay?" She asked, staring at me intensely.

"I think so," I replied slowly.

"Mom won't let me see him," she continued, edging closer still. "She said he got hurt pretty bad."

I nodded and leaned back to compensate for her stretching forward. "Yeah. He's healing fast though."

"You've gotta do me a favor," she whispered conspiratorially. "If you get me in there, I'll owe you."

I fought the urge laugh and instead forced a frown. "No."

"Yes." She nodded.

"No!" I hissed again, shaking my head. "And back off out of my personal space, creepy child of the corn."

She seemed not to understand my words at all and leaned closer still until our faces were almost touching. "I don't think you understand. This is all my fault. If I hadn't have been born then you guys wouldn't have to protect me and we never would have driven the car to Seattle which means Jake never would have been hit. I have to apologize!"

"For being born?" I said.

Nessie nodded vigorously.

"And this has nothing to do with the medical aspect and gore?" Both my eyebrows raised as accusingly as possible. "You're not trying to study him?"

Of course, she didn't deny it. It was likely that despite being aware of what a lie was, she had never thought to do it herself. "Non-invasive observations. Purely to help with my education."

I laughed openly at her then and rather than trying to pull back even further, I looped my arm around her shoulders and began walking forward.

"You are such a bizarre mix of amazingly sweet and utterly demented. Did you know that?"