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Chapter 174
A Farewell
Edward
On the drive home, my two angels were sound asleep, even though it was no more than nine o'clock through.
It didn't worry me, though. Bella had hardly gotten any sleep last night. It had turned out to be a very exciting evening in the Jacuzzi and in front of the fireplace, which did not come to an end for a long time even in bed. For Ced, the day with the Native Americans must have been very exciting overall, and he had not slept once. Everything had just been much too exciting.
As I walked into our house with Ced in his infant carrier, I sighed in frustration.
I would probably have to repeat my punishments directed at Jake and keep Bella from picking them all up again.
In front of my secretary was a huge picture frame.
A photo of me in Native American clothing. Life size!
For the Native American who is now his own enemy!
was written in a corner.
It was so humbling that Emmett, of all people, had a digital image of it. And he would surely have backups stored in so many places by now that I would never find all of them to destroy it for good. In other words, such attentions would haunt me for the rest of eternity.
I brought my Native Americans into their beds.
They had really solved the problem of the feathers cleverly, I thought benevolently.
A knot around a strand at the top, then the leather straps were two to three centimeters with the hair braided into a little braid, and then a knot again. It held, could not slip and was easy to undo.
Then I carefully destroyed the picture.
It would certainly not be the last time I would have to do this.
It wasn't until just before midnight that Ced woke up again in my old baby cradle and was thirsty.
I was just lying with him in the nest swing in his room when the text message from my children reached me.
The chauffeur was ordered.
I wrote back that I needed a moment as their baby brother was busy with his hunt.
Good hunting, we will not run away.
Jake wrote back with a winking smiley face.
So I finished feeding Ced and picked him up for his burp, slowly walking around Ced's room. I re-diapered him and put him back in the crib in the bedroom, but he immediately started crying. I quickly picked him back up in my arms and left the room before Bella woke up.
She was very sensitive about Ced, even when she was actually asleep. Maternal instincts.
I carried him around his room, talked to him, stroked over his back, tried to cheer him up with his Kraken, I even sang for him, but nothing helped. He only screamed louder and louder. And I became more and more desperate.
"What do you want from me?", I asked him rather irritably, whereupon he began to screech outright.
From this even Bella woke up two rooms away and she came running through the door, startled.
"What's going on here?" she asked immediately, taking him from my arms.
"I don't know. I can't get him to calm down," I stated anxiously. Maybe my son was sick? Was something hurting him?
I was already holding my cell phone in my hand to call Carlisle, but Ced instantly calmed down as Bella cradled him in her arms.
"I don't believe it!" I complained. "I must have carried him around for fifteen minutes, comforted him, sang to him, stroked him. And as soon as you're there, he's quiet?", I asked, completely perplexed.
"Sometimes babies just need to cry," she winked at me and smiled adorably. "Did you tease Daddy a little?" she asked our baby.
He could also giggle in answer to that? God, I was pissed off!
"Mo mi," Ced babbled suddenly, snuggling into Bella's arms.
Mommy. My son had said Mommy!
Touched, I walked toward my two angels.
Bella tried to coax that little enchanting word out of him again, but apparently Ced didn't feel like it anymore.
When I was with them, Ced looked up at me.
"Da di," he made, and I literally melted.
I gave my son a kiss on the temple - with slightly burning eyes - and when he touched me on the neck, I finally knew what he had wanted from me all along.
He wanted to be in bed with us because he had had very bad dreams.
So I lifted Bella into my arms, who in turn held Ced in hers, and brought my angels to our big bed.
"Now get some sleep really quick!", I reminded them both, and Ced was already pretending to be asleep for a long time after all. "I still have to pick up the rest of our kids," I whispered to Bella. I had not forgotten that.
"Then don't keep your kids waiting. Daddy," she murmured.
"I'll be quick. Mommy," I replied in love and gently kissed her lips.
Ced watched us with one eye and giggled.
"Close your eyes!" I admonished him, which he did immediately.
I really hurried to get to the Native American village.
I didn't want to keep my kids waiting, but I also wanted to get back in my bed really quickly.
They were already waiting for me in their normal clothes on the porch. Only the four wolves with their sweethearts.
I heard that only little was still going on behind the building. The remaining people were leisurely putting everything away to drive home or retire to their wigwams as soon as possible.
Bella had been truly amazed when Nova told her that she and others were actually spending the night there. In addition, the small tents were lushly furnished with tapestries and blankets and with a fire - albeit only small - in a fireplace provided for this purpose, it would be very warm in there. Bella had refused to try this and preferred our cozy bed.
'... Silver Volvo. I had heard that somewhere before, hadn't I?' Jake pondered as Phoebe and Akai walked purposefully towards one of those.
I also briefly looked in that direction.
That was mine in the past. Only considerably newer. Nanuk had good taste.
"When I got to know Bella, I drove one of those," I reminded Jake.
However, it also made me curious.
This model - and it was an S60 R like mine once was - had a starting price of around $45,000 these days, though I didn't assume it was his parents' car based on Nanuk's comment about the seat settings.
As Jake had some images of the evening in his head during the drive, I saw that Nanuk was smoking. That made up for the plus point of his good taste.
I also told beaming with joy about my night so far.
"... but it may have just been a random combination of syllables," I just admitted, after proudly reporting on Ced's gift for language.
"Coincidence or not. How was it for you?" asked Becky from the back seat.
"Overwhelming! Like the first time of Jake and Leah," I said truthfully.
Jake chuckled next to me, but I knew why. Marcus, however, did not.
"Why are you laughing about it?" the latter asked, also from the back seat.
I had been observing Leah the whole time through the rearview mirror. She was leaning against Marcus, who was sitting in the middle, looking out the window, but she was too quiet for my daughter. She was hanging on to her thoughts of that day.
Marcus. A cake named Nanuk. A horse named Sitara. A sunset. A late-night debate with Kate.
"When we called Edward Dad for the first time, we didn't really think much of it. David had shown up at our house unannounced, of which Dad had known absolutely nothing until then," Jake recounted the events of that time.
"Oh ha ...", Marcus already came of his own accord to the explosive nature that David's first visit to us would have brought.
"... I really didn't mean it until the second time, but he didn't seem to catch that at all," Jake finished, pointing up at me.
"Of course I caught it," I corrected his opinion. "It was when Carlisle had just operated on Seth. I had assisted him and called home afterwards. First I talked to Bella while you were in the shower, but then to you. Your first word to me was 'Dad' ... But the concern for your health weighed much heavier at that moment than the fact that you had deliberately called me that," I told him as I parked Jake's Mercedes under our carport.
The kids got out one by one, but made no move to go inside yet.
"And Leah?" asked Marcus, looking toward her in a prompting manner.
"Excuse me?" she inquired, confused, still preoccupied with her thoughts.
"When did you first call Edward Dad and mean it?", Becky dug deeper.
"Do you know that Dad met us shortly after we were born?" she asked.
Becky and Marcus nodded.
They had been told about it, but neither of the two of them could remember it clearly.
So I told how I once chased Victoria and found myself in the Atlanta hospital. Soon after my twins saw the light of day. I was caught up in the incredible thoughts of the newborns, whereby I had never heard people so young before. It was so pure. I had not known why I perceived the thoughts of these two babies of all people, however, I was not lucky enough to notice Bella's presence either.
"Dad told us that one Sunday afternoon somehow the thought that he might have stayed with us since that day wouldn't leave me for the rest of the day. I imagined how our lives would have gone if he had been there. And that I'm sure it would have been normal for me to say Dad to him, because then he would have been filling that role all along, not just now and by surprise. I had also considered whether he might then call me something else if he had known me as a baby. Just like Lisa used to be called Mousetooth by her dad, or David calls Emma smooch ball," Leah told.
"Good night, Little one!", I then said in the middle of her thoughts. Today, as on that evening in question.
Leah smiled at me sentimentally and took me in her arms as she did then.
"You said that like it was perfectly normal and like you've always said it," she confirmed.
"That night I also got my first kiss from my daughter," I remarked invitingly.
"Good night, Dad!" she said a tiny bit shyly, also like that long ago evening, and gave me a tentative kiss on the cheek.
With that, she left my arms and walked toward the house. The others followed her, after similarly wishing me a good night.
When I woke Leah up the next morning, I already suspected that this was not going to be a good day.
My 'little daughter' was often in a bad mood when she thought the night ended too early, but she usually left little room for interpretation of her mood. Today she was quiet and introverted. Her emotional imbalance was taking its toll, but she didn't want to talk about it. Her mood was already better by the time the kids left the house together, though, so I didn't give it a second thought. A day with Marcus and her friends would certainly do her a lot of good.
So soon I was sitting in the pool with Bella, Esmé, and Ced.
My son had a penchant for a watering can today, to which he devoted himself tirelessly.
Bella swam a few laps in the process, as usual. She took advantage of our son's fairly frequent visits to the water to get back in shape herself.
I thought indeed that my queen was perfect, no matter what her belly looked like, but Bella saw it a little differently. However, I had to admit that swimming was very beneficial to her figure. Soon she would certainly venture into her bikini again.
And Ced, after some time, watched her very attentively and fascinated as she moved through the water. He tried to copy the movements, which in turn fascinated me very much.
I had read many books on baby development by now, but Ced wouldn't stick to anything in them: At one month, the baby should begin to return glances and track things with his eyes. By the second month, controlled movements should develop, and sleep intervals should become longer. Lifting the head on his own starting around the third month, settling into sleep habits and recognizing his parents. By the fourth month, a baby should want to put everything in his mouth, turn on his own, and be able to occupy himself on his own for a few minutes. Sitting independently, holding the bottle alone and learning cause and effect came in the fifth month. At six months, a child could slowly be expected to begin crawling or babbling and demanding attention from others. Fine motor skills were forming in the seventh month, as could beginning teething - which Ced would generally skip - and the first tests of authority-power were on the schedule. Of course, these were all just statistics of experience, which could vary greatly from child to child.
Our baby was not yet three weeks old. From his appearance, in terms of height, weight, and proportions, he already looked to be about four or five months. But this whole list of things to expect by the seventh month, he had already done. And his mental development was indisputably much further along. Some baby toys were already below his level. He understood what we were saying. What he showed us about his gift were precise wishes or memories that fit the situation. In general, he was able to distinguish the many images he already had in his head. Whether they were his own memories or whether someone else had shown them to him. When I heard his thoughts - which still only happened when he used his gift - he also already thought quite factually for childlike conditions. No constructions from colors and emotions, as I heard with Emma, but clear considerations. For many things, however, he still lacked the right terms. He also knew our family circumstances. Bella and I were his parents. The ones who would always look out for him and protect him from everything. Jake, Leah, Becky, and Marcus were his siblings.
Or as Ced put it: The same as him for us. Only bigger.
He could not see any difference between my parents and siblings. David and Sonya also circled in his thoughts. He was not yet familiar with the term uncle or aunt, but they all belonged somehow.
Except Carlisle!
That he still didn't trust as far as one can spit with Carlisle, he made more than clear to us again in the afternoon.
Carlisle wanted to examine Bella.
A gynecological examination had become unnecessary. A few days ago, Carlisle had repeated the scan with the testing device, whereby the result had not changed. However, he did not want to skip a current blood count and an ultrasound over the abdominal wall.
I had distracted Bella from the needle prick with Ced's help. He gave us his gift.
But then. Carlisle was 'torturing' my wife! When the cold gel for the ultrasound touched Bella's skin, she sucked in air sharply between her teeth and winced violently. This was too much for my son.
He showed me this short scene several times with his gift, along with the urgent question of how I could just let that happen.
He pounded his fists against my upper body, crying. If I were a human being, my chest would be covered with countless bruises.
"You're hurting me!", I said clearly.
Startled, my son paused, looked at me in dismay, and snuggled apologetically.
"You can't hit anyone like that. Or have you forgotten what you did to Mommy?", I asked him.
He showed me, touching me on the neck, that he had not forgotten. He had not yet understood that he did not have to touch me to show me something. But maybe he needed skin contact so that he could actually use his gift. I wasn't sure of that yet. But my son was being sweet again. Maybe it was also because Carlisle was done, and his mommy had actually survived it.
Ced convinced himself at length that Bella was unharmed and crawled recklessly on top of her.
"When will he finally understand that I would never hurt him?" asked Carlisle from the background.
It saddened Carlisle greatly that his grandson avoided him and did not trust him. The first few days it might have been amusing that Ced never got too close to him, but by now it wasn't. He had never held Ced in his arms, given him a bottle, swaddled him, experienced his gift, or played with him. I felt very sorry for him, because if things continued like this, he might miss the whole baby stage. But we could not do more than telling Ced over and over again and showing him through memories that Carlisle was a very kind and loving person.
I went with him and Jazz to hunt in the forest.
Actually, I didn't need to hunt yet, but I was quite rarely out with my father, so I wanted to take the opportunity.
"What do you think, Edward. Will Ced go hunting with us one day?" asked Jasper on the way.
"I hope not. If my son wrestles with a bear, I'll have a heart attack," I replied immediately.
I was laughed at.
By both.
When dusk fell, we returned, and I went back to our house in Saco with my angels.
We ordered pizza for the humans.
It took me a moment to clarify to the gentleman on the phone that a pizza really should have gummy bears on it.
While Jake and Marcus reported on their race on the ice, Leah retired to make a phone call.
When the pizza delivery guy came, Leah was still in her room.
"She's still on the phone," I replied to Bella in that regard.
"I'll take it up to her," Marcus said, grabbing the box for Leah.
When he came back to us in the dining room, he was very quiet.
After dinner, we all sat on our sofa.
Ced babbled happily away, we chatted about trivia, in the meantime Ced sat on the floor with Jake and Becky, and Marcus looked at his watch in his armchair at three-minute intervals without Leah showing up with us.
Again and again I heard my daughter laughing upstairs, which on the one hand of course made me very happy. On the other hand, Marcus became more and more thoughtful and increasingly absent-minded, which is why I began to listen to his thoughts. I didn't like what I was overhearing at all.
"Are you sure you want to do this?", I asked him quietly.
He looked gloomily toward me.
'No, but I don't think I have a choice!' his thoughts replied. 'Tell me if I'm wrong!' he demanded earnestly after a moment, mentally going over the decision he had made in the course of Leah's phone call.
He hoped that I would find another solution, that I might see a way out. But I didn't. He would leave my daughter. Leave us.
"She hung up," I indicated to him.
He nodded, rose heavily and went upstairs. In the upper hallway, he slowed down with each step.
It seemed so surreal to him what he was about to do. So unreal. With every step, it seemed more stupid to him. He did love Leah after all. But when he walked through the door, his decision was finally made. Leah looked happy, humming elatedly to herself as she sorted her worn clothes into the closet. And that mood was all because of Nanuk.
I followed the conversation. It was in no way appropriate, but unfortunately I could not help it. Marcus surprised me once again.
What he said to Leah was not his actual reasons. He merely listed for Leah what had changed between them since Wednesday. So that she could see the change and understand his decision. Most of it even I had not been aware of. Leah's confusion over the past few days had ultimately led her to treat Marcus as a good friend. Not as her lover. That generally bothered Marcus, but he would be able to come to terms with it. If it was certainly not easy for Leah to stand between Nanuk and Marcus, he showed sincere understanding for it. At present. His thoughts, however, went a bit further. He recognized Nanuk as the cause of Leah's behavior and that would never change. Thus, Leah's brokenness would not change either. On her inner conflict, which slowly consumed her from the inside and took away her self-confidence and joy of life. Because she was deeply stuck in her feelings of guilt. This was exactly what Marcus couldn't stand to watch! How Leah would break from it if she continued to fight! That was far too high a price for Marcus to pay if the way out was a love that could be lived out like between Jake and Becky. Even if he wasn't one of the people involved. But Leah had earned that love. Through the dangers - fighting vampires - and hardships - not being able to have children until she discarded her assignment - that were imposed on her as a Spirit Warrior, surely she should find absolute fulfillment in at least one area of her life.
"My heart? Is everything all right?", Bella addressed me.
I shook my head ponderously and looked my confused angel in the eyes.
"Marcus is breaking up with Leah right now," I muttered.
"What?" asked Bella, Becky, and Jake at the same time and also equally startled.
"You've got to be kidding!" said Becky, smirking.
"I'm afraid not," I said as Marcus left Leah's room as well.
He remained standing behind the door for a moment, trying to understand what he had really done. That he would never see Leah again.
"You don't say a word to him!", I instructed the youths.
Jake was already starting to get angry, while Becky had countless accusatory questions in her head. If the two of them went after Marcus now, I wasn't sure what would happen. They just didn't understand, but there was no time for an explanation right now.
I sent Bella to Leah to comfort her, provided she could.
Provided that anyone could. Something I doubted very much.
Marcus more or less stormed right out the front door, but stopped on our little porch.
He hadn't said a word to Bella, who met him on the stairs.
He needed air.
I went to the wardrobe, took his scarf, jacket and schoolbag, his key and followed him outside.
He was sitting on the small staircase, his elbows propped on his knees and his face in his hands. He winced when I put his jacket over his shoulders.
"It's too cold. You'll catch a cold," I said.
"So what?" he replied bleakly.
I sat down next to him.
"I'm sorry, I was listening. I didn't notice how things developed between you," I admitted.
"Neither did Leah," he sighed.
"It was selfless," I remarked after a moment.
He didn't understand me and raised his gaze to me in confusion.
"You see how happy Jake and Becky are together and each of us knows they will be forever. Nothing will ever break them apart. Nor have you failed to notice the deep attachment between Amarok and Shanti. Both are lovers with a supernatural power at play, and even though Amarok has not been an active wolf for several decades, this strong bond between them is still there. And there are already enough signs now that Nanuk and Leah are destined to be equally happy ... When they are both free ... When they are no longer trying to fight the attraction. You gift Leah with that freedom!"
"I just did what Leah couldn't," he played down the issue meaninglessly.
"Because she truly loves you. She doesn't want to lose you, that's why she fought against the imprinting, but you realized before all of us that in the end Leah is only fighting against herself with it."
"And one day she would have lost that fight. No matter how this fight turns out, whether I stay with her or not, there are only two options for how it can end. If I stay and she continues to fight, Leah will perish from it. Or she gets involved with Nanuk, in which case it wouldn't matter if I'm still here or not. Only one of the two is possible. Either way, I have no chance ... I can only try to help her by not making her choose between Nanuk and me."
"And that's what you call selflessness, Marcus! You love Leah more than anything in this world, but you let her go so you don't stand in the way of her happiness and force her to make a decision she doesn't want to make," I explained.
He nodded heavily and let his head hang.
I saw myself in Marcus. When I had left Bella for her own good so many years ago. Hardly anyone had understood my intentions then. Just as Jake was getting angrier and angrier in the living room, I had to listen to the accusations from my family for a long time. But I couldn't help it then, and time proved me right after the fact. Bella had given me a family. If I had stayed, she would certainly have been immortal long ago and none of our children would exist. So I could understand Marcus being willing to sacrifice his own for Leah's happiness. And here and now, things were a little different. Marcus was only a human being. He would forget Leah one day, fall in love with another girl, start a family with her, and be happy. And for Leah, there was Nanuk. Imprinting didn't do things by halves, so far I had understood this mystery. Becky belonged to Jake. Like the stars to the night, as I had said once before. So it was with Amarok and Shanti. So it was with Sam Uley and his Emily, as far as I knew from the thoughts available to me. So it would be with Nanuk and Leah. To assume otherwise would be foolish.
"We're going to miss you a lot, Marcus," I said sincerely after a while. We really would here. Ced, Jake, and Becky lost a brother and Bella and I lost a cherished son.
"I you as well," he muttered, thoughtfully surveying the past few months.
Then he laughed, but it wasn't real.
"What do you think my ma will say when I'm standing in the doorway?" he pondered.
I smiled.
He had not spent a single night at home since Christmas. Here was his home!
He shook his head, stood up and reached for his backpack on the top step and the bunch of keys lying next to it. He weighed the considerable number of keys in his hand and looked at them. With difficulty, he then fumbled the ring with the remote control and the two front door keys from his bunch.
"I don't need these anymore," he said, handing me the ring.
Then his gaze fell on the car key he currently had on his ring and wanted to take that off as well.
The key to my Audi.
"Keep it," I countered, stopping him from fumbling any further. "For now. I'll bring you the bus when Rosalie's done with it!"
He mentally started to contradict considerably.
"The restoration is and remains your Christmas present! Regardless of the events of today!", I made clear, however.
He didn't know what to say to that. He generally didn't feel like talking anymore. He just wanted that this day would pass.
"See you tomorrow, Marcus," I wished therefore, but he looked at me confused. "You were going to pick up your things tomorrow," I reminded him.
"Oh well," he sighed. "See you tomorrow, then."
With that, he turned away heavily and got into the Audi parked in the driveway. As he started the engine, he glanced up at Leah's window. He paused for a long moment.
How many hours had he spent up there with Leah? Countless! Starting with the discussion about their pet names. 'Verbal disputes' about the good or even not-so-good ending of a movie. Leah's attempts to get him excited about novels. The mutual help when they did their homework together. Squabbles over the last piece of candy, mostly chocolate. The way they would just sit and yak about God and the world over a cup of tea or coffee or a bottle of beer. They never ran out of topics. And then there were the countless nights together. Now it was all over.
He squinted his eyes painfully, the first tears finding their way.
These would certainly not be the last.
Then I sprinted to Leah, who had already been crying bitterly since Marcus left her room.
Bella hugged our daughter whose world had just shattered.
For a long time we just held her close together.
Leah's thoughts were a mess, but one thing crystallized in the course of the never-ending tears: She would be to blame for everything! However, it was not like that, and Marcus had also known that. Nobody was to blame. It was simply the supernatural circumstances that none of us could conquer. But we could not calm Leah down.
It was Jake who, at one point, couldn't take his whining sister anymore and put her to rest.
Just by his presence. He said nothing because he was just too pissed at Marcus. He had broken his sister's heart. For that, he wanted to break something for him.
Wordlessly he lay down with her, she clung to her twin and fell asleep.
Only when he was sure around ten o'clock in the evening that she would not wake up again for the time being, he got out of her bed.
He had to go to the bathroom, was thirsty, still had all his clothes on and his girlfriend was also in the house.
So we sat together at the dinner table, Becky gave Ced his last bottle of blood for the day, and I explained to my family why Marcus was now ultimately gone. It didn't take very long for them to understand his considerations.
"So he didn't really want that!", Becky stated again.
"No. It doesn't affect him any less than it affects Leah. Marcus just didn't see any other way out in the long run," I explained.
Jake recalled the many casual glances between Nanuk and Leah. Glances that spoke a pretty clear language. And if he had seen that already, Marcus, who watched his sister far more, must have seen that even more. He also agreed that the nature of the relationship had indeed changed, even if he hadn't necessarily realized it until now. But looking back, he then remembered some moments that were quite atypical for his sister. Today, for example. She had slipped hastily between Lisa and Claire into the café's bench. She had also never been alone on the ice rink with Marcus, but had always encouraged others to join her. He also remembered a situation back on Thursday. Tutoring had ended for all three of them at the same time, at ten o'clock sharp in the evening. Leah had virtually picked Jake up before they went to Marcus in the garage together. It was as if she had avoided being alone or too familiar with Marcus. Leah had not been aware of these things, as I had gathered from her thoughts during her conversation with Marcus.
Dejected, Jake let his head hang.
Now he was upset that he couldn't be mad at Marcus anymore. That there was no one he could take his frustration out on.
We went to bed.
Jake brought his star in his room, but since Leah was starting to get restless, he went back to her.
Before I lay in bed with Bella, I talked to Rose on the phone.
"How fast can you get the bus ready?", I asked her directly.
"I can't tell you that. It depends on how much time Marcus has," she wanted to answer.
"How long do you need without Marcus?"
"Why?" she asked, confused.
Marcus detained her considerable temporally with his humanity, but Rose had a lot of fun working with him and explaining to him all the parts of his own vehicle. There Rose was fully in her element.
"Because Marcus and Leah aren't together anymore."
"Oh no ..." she said sympathetically, and I even heard Emmett cursing about it in the background.
I quickly explained the closer circumstances and that I had no idea how Leah would be tomorrow.
"I definitely have to wait for some spare parts. In that respect, give me one, two weeks at the most," Rosalie indicated.
She would get to work on ordering the parts immediately.
When I brought the twins their cups of coffee the next morning, Leah looked pretty good, but she was merely physically rested. Emotionally, she was completely down. She also quickly started crying again, but she held her own. She also wanted to go to school to get her mind off things there.
She did not succeed very well. She hardly listened to the teachers and shed tears again and again.
She could not hide from her friends that she was sad.
The term didn't fit. She just felt really miserable - which was all thanks to Jasper - and she felt the need to lean on someone and simply just cry. Without Jasper in the background, she would probably cry incessantly.
Most of the time I was available for her to lean on.
I also stayed with her during lunch break, getting her something to eat from the cafeteria, but sitting outside the building with her.
She didn't want people around her. She had understood why Marcus had left, but she had far from accepted it.
Jake picked up his sister from the bank before the bell rang and I headed home.
Leah had personally asked me to drive, or I would have stayed with her.
I had just duly greeted my two angels when the front doorbell rang.
Marcus, as I noted even before opening.
I winced when I saw him.
He was pale, his eyes swollen and red, with deep shadows under them.
"Hello," he said weakly.
"Hello, Marcus. You don't look well," I said directly and commanded him to enter.
"I'll be fine," he said appeasingly, and I rolled my eyes once again. "I just want to get my things," he continued and was already moving towards the stairs.
I accompanied him upstairs.
"Why aren't you in school anymore?", I asked on the way.
"I couldn't concentrate and then I just drove ... How is Leah?" he asked.
It sounded fearful.
"Do you really want to know?"
He shook his head ponderously.
He felt bad enough as it was, he didn't need to hear how she was doing. Maybe she was doing better than him because she was comforting herself with Nanuk, or maybe she was doing much worse. Both would only depress him even more.
We reached Leah's bedroom door, he put his hand on the knob but did not open.
What all he had experienced behind that door!
I put a hand on his shoulder.
"Marcus. I can do this ... And you go down and say a proper goodbye to Bella and Ced," I offered him.
He nodded and shuffled lazily back down the hall.
He didn't think it was right that he had driven yesterday basically wordlessly, the way he had been accepted by us.
As I began to pack his various belongings into a large bag, he hugged Bella and expressed to her how sorry he was that he had to leave Leah.
"It's all right, Marcus. Edward has explained your motives to us. We're sorry that it had to end this way," Bella replied good-naturedly and offered him coffee, which he accepted with thanks.
He had to stay awake for a few more hours, until after his shift at the diner.
Bella went into the kitchen to make coffee and Marcus sat with Ced on his lap leaning against the sofa on the floor.
Ced asked him through his gift where he had been this morning.
I smirked.
Ced didn't know a breakfast table without Marcus when the young people were there.
"Marcus, are you perhaps hungry too? We have ...", Bella started to ask from the kitchen, but faltered. "Edward!" she called out all at once, and I immediately went downstairs.
Marcus' head had fallen back onto the cushion, with Ced lying quietly against his torso, touching him on the neck and showing him pictures of Marcus and Leah.
My son wanted to make it clear to him that he hadn't seen anything like that in a long time, but Marcus no longer noticed it.
"He fell asleep," I explained. His vitals were steady and quiet. "I doubt he slept much last night, from the looks of his eyes."
"Then we should let him sleep," Bella said, taking Ced off his lap.
I carefully bedded Marcus down on our sofa, whereby his breathing became a little more frantic.
"Leah," he mumbled dazedly as I placed a light blanket over his body.
Ced picked out a puzzle toy and slid it next to the sofa. He clasped one of Marcus' fingers peeking over the seat cushion, continued with memories of the happy couple, and played by himself.
Marcus became calm again and a slight subtle smile settled over his mouth.
"Is it hitting him harder than Leah?" asked Bella.
"That may very well be," I reflected. "Well, my little angel. Are you taking care of your big brother?", I asked my son, who nodded quite seriously.
I gave Ced a kiss on the forehead before turning to Bella.
"Marcus lost more than just his girlfriend," I stated.
Bella sat down at the dining room table with her laptop to work on her PhD and I went back up to Leah's room.
I made sure that I didn't change anything other than packing up his belongings. The room was in need of a small clean-up campaign, but I didn't want Leah to recoil from her own room if it looked completely different from the way she had left it. However, it was also not my job to keep this room tidy.
Marcus also had some things in my house and in Carlisle's house. I also picked these up immediately.
In a drawer I found something. Hidden deep between his socks. A small jewelry box from a jeweler.
I let my head hang dejectedly and ran with a hand through my hair as I looked in.
The fate was cruel! An engagement ring. A simple plain ring made of fourteen-carat white gold and a small diamond.
Quickly I finished, ran back, and put the bags in the trunk.
Marcus was still asleep.
With a book, I sat down in the opposite armchair and listened to the steady sound of heartbeats around me.
It wasn't until about 6:00 p.m. that I woke Marcus up.
Leah was at Nanuk's house right now for dinner.
Afraid of possibly running into Marcus, she had arranged with Jake at breakfast to have him drive her to the edge of the forest so that she could run directly to Nanuk. She had announced that she wanted to come home immediately after dinner. But a few minutes ago Leah had sent a text message that she would stay a little longer, but we should not worry.
Marcus looked much better than when he arrived here.
As was the custom in this house for waking up, I had a cup of coffee in my hand.
"Marcus," I purred softly, placing a hand against his shoulder. As I always did when I woke him up in the morning.
He literally startled, with completely confused chaotic thoughts, looked around him, looked at me in confusion, but immediately got order back in his head.
He had broken up with Leah and just wanted to get his stuff. Shit! It wasn't a nightmare/dream after all, but a bitter reality.
His gaze slid to the windows.
"It's dark?" he asked, still confused, though. That didn't necessarily fit his own conclusions now. He had been here around one o'clock in the afternoon, after all. Early enough to avoid running into Leah after school.
"You were so exhausted that you fell asleep, and we let you sleep. You looked like you needed it a lot. You slept for almost five hours and it's now six in the evening," I explained.
"Ba guru di ba," my son added emphatically, which actually made Marcus chuckle.
Gratefully, he drank the coffee, which quickly made him perk up again. He wanted to go.
"You are not leaving this house without having had a decent dinner!", Bella, however, determined adamantly and already put the steaming cooking pot on the dining table.
One of Marcus' favorite foods.
"I have to go to work," Marcus replied.
I pulled out a piece of paper from the sideboard and held it in front of his face.
"Best regards from Carlisle!", I said in response. A certificate of inability to work today. "And I've already called your boss, too. He sends 'get well soon' wishes. If you insist, you can make up the missing hours another day."
Marcus let his head hang in shame, but smiled a moment later.
"Thank you," he said simply.
An all inclusive statement, I gathered from his thoughts. It included thanks that I had packed up his belongings, that we had let him sleep, that we had excused him from work, and to top it all off, we 'invited' him to dinner.
There was Jake's Chili con Carne for dinner, of which Bella still had some frozen in portions. For evenings like this, when she ate dinner alone. After Leah's text message, she had now defrosted all her remaining supplies of it, so that the big strong Marcus would be full too.
Sharpness was still a little mystery to me as far as food was concerned, as the two drank three quarts of milk and ate all the baguette bread until the pot was empty.
Since Leah wouldn't be back at any moment, we could also serve Marcus a portion of chocolate ice cream - his favorite - and chat with him informally.
His mother had been really startled when he had suddenly arrived yesterday without announcement. He hadn't really been able to explain how it had come to this end, since they didn't know our secrets, but he didn't want to blame it on Leah for the sake of simplicity either. His mother had been disappointed. Jules, on the other hand, was really mad at Marcus. They had both liked Leah a lot and had been asking all evening what had happened between the couple.
This had additionally tugged at his temper, as I gathered from his thoughts, and it would continue to do so. There was no one with whom he could talk about all this, since he could not tell anyone everything. Therefore, he remained silent and suffered all alone.
But we also got to talk about shallower topics that could distract him from his grief a bit.
The basketball season paused until the school semester was over. His mother had found a job that gave her a lot of pleasure. She was not a trained educator, but the kindergarten was very happy about the reinforcement. Emma's kindergarten. As I once said, we had wanted to end her destitution. Now she had a job and was earning her keep, although she would still be entitled to alimony from her still-husband.
"I also went over to pack up your things. In the process, I found this," I said, placing the jewelry case in front of him. I felt it was inappropriate to let the ring disappear into his pockets without a word.
His eyes narrowed in agony.
"What's that?" asked Bella curiously.
Marcus pushed it in her direction and Bella looked at the pretty little ring, very concerned. Even a little tear my angel could not stop.
"May I ask when you were going to present it to her?", I asked.
"On her birthday," Marcus admitted.
"Because then she'll be of age and our opinion of it will be beside the point?", I dug deeper.
"No. Because it would be Valentine's Day," he said so quickly, though, that it couldn't be an excuse. "I would have asked you before ... and ... Jake has one too!"
After this statement, we threw Marcus out.
So to speak.
We hugged him and he said a proper goodbye to Ced as well. Thanked him for his assistance while he had slept.
"Ma kiss," Ced said on my arm as Marcus was already putting on his jacket.
Quite surprised at what all three of us were, Marcus turned to us.
Ced pulled him down by his sweater and holding onto my arm, leaned forward and planted a kiss on Marcus' cheek.
"I'm going to miss you so much, little vampire!" murmured Marcus, giving Ced a kiss on the forehead.
So he walked through our front door.
For the very last time.
With Bella and Ced in my arms, we stopped in the doorway and waved after him until the car was out of sight.
We had lost a son and brother. I felt that this afternoon was a dignified, although sad, farewell.
Thank you for reading!
