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Chapter 22
Doctor or Slave?
Edward
"I will tell you. I promise. But not today, please," I asked Bella yet again and finally she nodded.
I went into the bathroom and washed the last of the ointment off my hands.
I had to tell her. How I had attacked Samantha and also what had happened later. She deserved nothing else than for me to be honest. But I couldn't tell her, not yet. I wanted to keep the extent of my shame to myself. At least until Bella was in my arms out of love ... If it came to that ...
I hung my head and braced myself sullenly on the edge of the sink ...
But maybe it was already too late for that. I felt it was a betrayal that I had slept with Samantha. Betrayal of my all-consuming love for Bella. Even if Samantha had deceived me, that was no excuse to me. I had been weak and lost in my hallucination of her memory, yet I should have known immediately that it was not Bella who was standing in front of me, but Samantha. Samantha had only taken what I had not denied her ... Maybe I should tell Bella now. Confessing was the more appropriate term for it. How was I ever going to earn Bella's trust if I dodged the truth at the first opportunity.
I took a quick gaze in the mirror.
Don't be a coward, I instructed the face of the whiner that was staring at me unfathomably.
I breathed deeply.
I would confess. Right now.
Resolutely I went back to the bedroom, but I remained standing in the doorway smiling and leaning against the frame.
Bella tried to carefully move her foot a little and bit her lower lip.
How sweet she looked at that moment. It undoubtedly hurt more than yesterday. Nothing was broken or overstretched, but the chair must have hit her right on the ankle bone. The only thing that helped was cooling so that the swelling went down ... and not straining it. And I would gladly do the cooling myself, if she would allow me to.
You're up to something! my conscience reprimanded me.
I gulped.
It was right.
I was searching for the appropriate words to start my confession when I heard Jake's and Leah's thoughts.
I was relieved. Bella deserved more than just stating everything to her in passing.
"Leah and Jake will be here any moment," I said.
A warm glow immediately settled on Bella's face.
How much she loved her children. How much I loved her for those feelings. From what I had found out so far, she was a very loving and good-natured mother who did everything for her children.
And then I paused suspiciously.
Bella, actually made an effort to get up on her own.
Not even a blink of an eye after this observation, I was standing next to her and holding her tightly.
She startled and I felt a little guilty for it. Still, I had to smirk. She had not noticed my vampiric abilities this time and was apparently surprised by how fast I could be. She must have really forgotten that. Or suppressed it.
"You don't want to walk around on your own two feet!" I admonished her.
"Sure, I do. Besides, it doesn't even hurt anymore!" she complained and I gave in to her.
At least that's how she saw it.
I was only holding one of Bella's hands so she wouldn't lose her balance and tensely waited for her to take her first step.
It would be her only stride. Because of course it didn't hurt right now. The ankle was somewhat numbed by the cold of my fingers and completely relieved. She seemed focused and the cute little wrinkle between her eyebrows appeared. I wondered if she was seriously warning her foot right now, that it should not hurt. But it would not do her that favor.
She carefully placed her little toes on the carpet and slowly shifted her weight.
I stood ready to catch her... and was not disappointed. As soon as even the smallest load was on the foot, she buckled and heartbreakingly contorted her face.
I sucked in her intoxicating scent and again wondered why I didn't waste any thoughts on wanting to attack her. It was much easier than earlier. Nothing in me craved her blood. But all the more for her body. For her heart, which had skipped another beat. For those eyes, whose ocean of chocolate looked at me. For the warmth of her skin.
"You better listen to your doctor!" I reprimanded her.
"You can't carry me around all evening!" she complained.
"Why not!" was all I said, lifting her fully into my arms and feeling very satisfied that she had just prompted me, between the lines, to stay with her all evening. But I couldn't overdo it. At the moment I was just an old friend, besides, she had her own life. I wouldn't stay much longer, but would warn Jake not to let Bella occur with her foot under any circumstances.
We had just reached the bottom of the stairs when a key slid into the front door and her children entered the house in a huff.
They startled a little when they saw us.
They had known because of my car that I was here, but they had not suspected us directly behind the door and wondered above all why I was already carrying their mother in my arms again. Not suspicious or jealous wondering, I was reassured to note. Only a surprised wondering.
"Peter ran me over with his chair!" Bella immediately enlightened them both.
They laughed and thought to themselves that something like this could only happen to their mom.
"And HE forbade me to walk around alone!" she added stubbornly.
'Is it for health reasons?' Jake asked me, serious in thoughts.
He was getting worried.
I nodded, set Bella down gently on the sofa, and waited between mutual greetings for the appropriate opportunity to say goodbye for the day.
They were a family; I had no right to impose myself.
Of course, I gave Bella a kiss on the cheek as a goodbye.
The front door had just slammed shut behind me when I stopped abruptly, still hearing Bella.
"Why are you guys here anyway? Didn't you want to go out?" Bella asked the two of them amazed.
Leah and Jake would not be there today? Bella would be alone in the house? With that ankle? That couldn't go well, however!
In my mind, I could already see her tumbling down the stairs and lying in the ER.
"There's something wrong with the car. I'd rather have it break down before school tomorrow than anywhere this evening," Jake explained, considering which costly part was broken this time.
"I'll call Ben to come pick us up," Leah announced, already thinking of her boyfriend.
I knocked on the door again.
Jake bristled as he opened the door.
"You're both going out?" I asked quietly, and he made a welcoming hand gesture with a smirk, while Leah held the phone indecisively.
Jake had already thought about foregoing the movie theater so Bella wouldn't get the idea of stumbling around the house alone. He knew his mother well enough. But if I would take care of her, that would be just fine with him ... Becky. And also me. The fear that I might harm a single hair on his mother's head had been completely extinguished in him during the course of the day. Carlisle must have told them quite a bit and left a good impression.
I walked past him and put on a very grumpy face as I leaned into the door frame and looked at Bella.
"And when were you going to mention that you were going to be alone with your foot all evening?" I asked crossly, because she would have insisted that Jake drive to the movies.
I smiled to myself.
She looked caught and as if she was cursing in her thoughts.
"What's wrong with the car?" I turned to Jake.
"Do you know anything about them?" he asked me.
I shrugged my shoulders.
"A little."
"I'm sure Rosalie understands more about it," Bella announced, still miffed.
I made an offended face, sure to upset her and she stuck her tongue out at me.
She was just incredible.
"Don't budge!", I seriously warned in Bella's direction as I walked into the garage with Jake.
The car only needed a spare part, but I agreed with Jake to the extent that it was in danger of breaking down. I immediately gave him my car keys and explained to his skeptical face that I wouldn't need the car. For one thing, I would take care of Bella, and for another, I was usually faster without a car. We chatted a little about a very dirty and relatively old motorcycle that I had seen in the back corner.
An ice-cold tormenting shiver ran down my spine when Jake said it was his father's bike. Immediately, I had the image of his memory in my mind, dying and muttering his last words. Moreover, I saw now in his thoughts that Bella had cried when he had gotten the bike from her a few days ago. I didn't even want to imagine that Bella had learned to ride a motorcycle on such a thing.
Soon the kids were leaving and I reassured Jake not to worry too much about the material value of my car.
If he totaled it, that was it. As long as Leah and Jake got back here okay, it wouldn't matter what my car looked like. But he wouldn't have to challenge it!
When I returned to the living room, Bella was already halfway to the kitchen. I shook my head.
"One cannot leave you alone for a minute!", I teased her.
Of course, I had already lifted her up into my arms again.
"I have to eat something!" she tried to contradict.
"You're not doing anything today except resting your foot!" I admonished, setting Bella down on the countertop in the kitchen.
"Feel free to leave. I can take care of myself!"
"By hopping all over the house and hurting your other foot or worse? I ask you," I replied only condescendingly. It was not up for debate!
"But it's not just that I have to eat. I have to bake a cake for tomorrow, water the flowers, do laundry, and tidy up," she explained her 'to-do' list to me, probably thinking she could scare me away with it.
However, during her list I imagined all the things that could happen to her. She certainly hadn't come up with this list just for my sake. I knew what day tomorrow was. The 13th of September. Her birthday. And as I had been able to gather from Jake's and Leah's thoughts, Bella was having guests over tomorrow evening.
"I am your subservient slave," I smiled wryly at her and Bella gave up her resistance. Maybe she hoped to get rid of me that way. Who knew what domestic duties would occur to her yet during the evening? "So? What should I do first?" I asked cheerfully, patiently waiting for instructions.
First, I got the laundry baskets from Leah's and Jake's room and turned on the washing machine under stern eyes. Sitting on the countertop now as before, I had given Bella an ice pack from the freezer, since I was unfortunately busy. Then it was time to bake the cake. Bella's ingredient list was a bit vague, as she had the recipe in her head without any real quantities. She followed my every move with a critical gaze and regularly laughed at me when I questioned her estimates of the ingredients. I had just put the rest of the eggs back in the fridge and turned back to her as she had her fingers in the mixing bowl and was snacking on some chocolate chips.
"Get your fingers out of my dough!" I admonished, disguising it as shock, slapping her fingers gently. She flinched, being caught red-handed.
With a cooking spoon I stirred everything together. Vampiric hand mixer!
Bella's eyes grew bigger and bigger. Bella snacked again and then gave her consent that it was ready to bake.
I left the mixing bowl unrinsed but far away from Bella.
Then it was her dinner's turn, with me again being followed with stern gazes.
Although I could have done it even without her instructions. For such evenings, when she ate dinner alone, she had frozen a few single portion meals that only had to be thawed and heated. Today there was a very strange looking meat stew. This couldn't really taste good.
"Chili con Carne," Bella explained. "Jake cooked it."
When it was finally on her plate it looked considerably better. It still didn't compare to a cougar or a cheetah in my opinion.
I carried Bella to the dining room table and set her down carefully.
"Bring milk, please," she called to me as I grabbed the plate from the kitchen. "There's no other way to eat it," she still murmured.
I paused and she explained that Jake had a habit of overly spicing food. Especially since Monday. Since he got together with Becky.
Bella courageously took a spoonful and immediately drank an entire glass of milk afterwards. beads of sweat formed on her graceful forehead and her cheeks turned a beautiful reddish hue.
I could not imagine anything that spicy and dipped my index finger lightly at the edge of the plate and tasted ...
Nothing. Except disgusting.
Offended, Bella rolled her pretty eyes. While Bella ate and we continued to talk, I did not refrain from pulling her injured foot onto my lap to personally cool it.
"Dessert?" I praisingly asked, when the plate and the second glass of milk were empty.
She looked at me confused.
"Close your eyes," I smiled at her on the other hand, and I was surprised that she did without protest.
I got the mixing bowl and a spoon. There was still some batter left in them.
"Eyes open," I whispered leaning close to her ear after briefly savoring her scent and held out the bowl, which she immediately grabbed and let her index finger slide across the inside of the bowl.
I laughed at her as she then shamefully took the spoon, I held out to her.
"Of how many leftover doughs did your kids have to give up with a heavy heart because you were too greedy?" I asked with a laugh.
"No comment," she said softly, lowering her eyes in embarrassment.
I could kiss her.
The washing machine rang and I fetched the next laundry basket from upstairs on command. After the machine ran again, it was the flowers turn.
"You don't trust me to water flowers?" I accused her played incensed, because she wanted to supervise me again.
She realized herself how ridiculous this was and adorably made a face.
Then I let her climb on my back, as a small silent hope awakened in me. I enjoyed every tiny touch between us and longed for her closeness. Maybe Bella was feeling the same way right now.
She personally made sure that each innocent little flower didn't get a drop too much or too little.
Afterwards she gave me instructions on how to clean up. God knows the house wasn't messy or unclean, but when she had her friends over tomorrow, the table had to be extended and some pieces of furniture had to be moved so that there would be enough space.
Unfortunately, I needed both my hands for that and so I could not hold Bella sufficiently on my back. Therefore, I put her back down at the table.
I had just finished when the doorbell rang.
Bella was about to get up again but I was vampirically quicker. This time I stood right in front of her and held her by the waist.
"You stay where you are," I whispered - a little dazed by her scent and warmth.
Her heart betrayed her and Bella just nodded weakly.
Yet before I went to the door, I quickly took the biology book and Jake's writing pad out of his school bag and placed them on the table by Bella. I winked at her conspiratorially.
"Good evening," said a middle-aged woman in surprise, standing in front of the door in sportswear and completely out of breath. "Who are you, my boy?" she then asked as her circulation slowly returned to normal.
"I'm Edward Stone. Mrs. Black is tutoring me in bio," I replied kindly and a little louder than necessary so that Bella could hear me.
She looked me over and concluded that she was much too old for me.
"I'm in here, Cathlyn. Come in," Bella called from the living room and Cathlyn walked past me.
"Hey, Bells. What do you have on your foot?" she inquired, pointing to the bare foot and sitting down in my seat where Bella had spread Jake's papers out a bit so it looked like we were studying.
I retreated to the terrace, having been assured that it would not take long.
I looked at Bella through Cathlyn's eyes, whose thoughts were very kind.
"Well, that makes you wish you were eighteen again," Cathlyn chuckled a bit and looked outside at me.
She was not thinking exclusively about me, but also yet about parties, young men in general, the confusions of first love, not having anxious thoughts about the future, getting to know the world on her own, jogging without getting out of breath, and things like that.
I stood with my back to her, but smirked.
Bella had agreed with her.
Cathlyn was Brandon's mother, and apparently the parents took turns making sure the kids also had something decent to eat on the camping trip. And this Saturday, it was Bella and Cathlyn's turn. They wrote a long list and in between turned off the oven with the cake in it.
"Condoms?" Cathlyn then asked out of nowhere and Bella said nothing.
Bella seemed ... shocked was the wrong expression. Disappointed was a better word. But I wondered why. Leah and Jake were seventeen years old, old enough for sex in this day and age. Plus, they were both truly in love, so there was no reason for me to think Bella would be disappointed in her children.
"Your twins are growing up, Bella. You can't stop that," Cathlyn explained compassionately.
And I suddenly understood why Bella, of all people, was disappointed. How stupid of me.
"I'd like to, though ... Time passes too quickly with them," Bella murmured somewhat sadly. "Go ahead, write it down," she then prompted Cathlyn with a smile.
"For both of them?" she asked curiously.
Bella laughed again.
"I' m not sure about that. Leah, definitely. But Jake's only been with Becky for a few days ... Is she even going with them?" Bella asked and Cathlyn shrugged her shoulders ignorantly.
As if on cue, the doorbell rang again and Becky's mother appeared.
She was very worried and accused the other two of being negligent. How could they let 'the children' go away, alone, into the wilderness, overnight?
In the meantime, Cathlyn grabbed a bottle of sparkling wine and glasses. They welcomed the mother to their parents' circle and prepared her for what was yet to come.
Apparently, the children were together often and did a lot with each other. So, she would not only her own two children, but six more teenagers.
Elizabeth Young gulped and emptied her glass in one go.
Bella and Cathlyn then had a long talk with her to make her understand that their children were much more responsible than she assumed. Lisa and Jason had been in the Boy Scouts for a long time and knew what could happen in the great outdoors. Brandon had had excellent 'first aid' training for his age, as he wanted to be a paramedic. Besides, the children were almost adults and as parents there was nothing that could be done about it. They had to live their own lives, whether the parents agreed or not.
It was already nine o'clock when Becky's mother was finally convinced and Becky had permission to go.
Jake would be thrilled.
The list was torn into three equal parts and each of the ladies got a section of it.
Becky's mom blushed when she saw condoms listed on her part, but she didn't say anything about it.
Finally, Bella was alone again and I went back to her. She looked exhausted.
"You look tired," I squatted down next to her.
She nodded.
"I wonder why., I did all the housework, after all," I teased her.
She smiled and wanted to push me, but I stopped her hand, which I did not let go of, and looked into her eyes.
There was so much I wanted to tell her, but she wouldn't believe any of it. I forced myself not to sink into her gaze and turned my attention back to her ankle, which I then gently enclosed with my hands.
She sighed in relief and closed her eyes.
"That feels good," she murmured to herself and I looked at her totally relaxed face with satisfaction.
The washing machine's ding broke my solace and Bella immediately opened her eyes again.
"Is there another laundry basket calling my name, somewhere?", I inquired.
"In my bedroom," Bella smiled sheepishly.
Immediately I fetched it and changed the laundry.
She trusted me so much by now that she didn't supervise me in the process.
When I was back with her, she was a bit livelier again. She stood - more or less - without putting any weight on her damaged foot and stretched in all directions. She had hardly moved for over an hour.
I stood back, in front of her, and thus offered her my back.
"Where to?" I inquired.
"The couch," she replied, climbing on me.
On the sofa she let herself fall and straightened herself so that she sat halfway upright. I sat down next to her and pulled her foot to me again so that I could continue to cool it.
The swelling was already going down. With a tight bandage, Bella would be able to walk again to some extent tomorrow, provided she could hold out until then, by not putting any strain on the foot.
"Can I walk by myself tomorrow?" asked Bella meekly.
"I know what you absolutely cannot do tomorrow," I shrugged.
"And what is that?"
"Drive a motorcycle!" I looked sternly at her.
She looked angry for just a moment and then seemed to think.
"What about the VW Golf?" she asked, startled.
"You can't drive that one either. It needs a new guide pulley for the timing belt." I wouldn't let Bella drive it tomorrow either, even if it was in perfect condition.
"Crap," she cursed.
"Are you that disgusted with the thought of me taking you to work and taking Leah and Jake to school?" I inquired, slightly offended. After all, we had gotten along very well so far, and the kids had already agreed to it.
"No. But I have to go shopping tomorrow, and I would have taken the car."
"Then I'll drive you shopping."
"You can't drive me around. It's enough for you to unnecessarily carry me around the house."
"Why not?" I asked.
Apart from the fact that she really had no other choice tomorrow, it also gave me the opportunity to spend some time with her.
"You've already done enough. You don't need to babysit me just because you think it's your duty. I don't want to keep you from your own life," Bella said confidently.
For a moment I was actually shocked.
What was Bella thinking? That I only considered it my duty to look after her? That I was not here voluntarily? Had she really hadn't noticed why I was here?
"Has the thought not occurred to you that I just like being with you?" I asked softly, and began to play with the fingers of her hand that was resting on the back of the sofa.
Yes, I'm hiding under my desk for this cut right now!
Sandra (Psy1980)
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