Chapter 29:

Sorry it took so long, and sorry it's short, but I've been busy recently, so I hope this will give you something before the next chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

"My hump, my hump, my hump, my hump,

My lovely lady lumps…"

I covered my grin with my hand and my shoulders shook violently as I desperately tried not to laugh. Emmett was letting out his booming laughter with no shame, and Tanya snorted next to me; biting on her bottom lip as she barely kept herself from exploding when she heard her sister singing.

Kate sat in the middle of the room, arms crossed over her chest like a stubborn child as she sang—clearly pissed. Her head was ducked as she sang with incredibly sarcastic enthusiasm. Kate was a woman of crude humor, pranks and childlike spirit, but that didn't mean she liked to lose or be humiliated in such a way.

I snorted against my hand when Irina looked up at me. "You know, this is almost the same amount of torture for us as it is for her," she said with a grin.

I nodded. "Yes, but for us it's hilarious while for her it's incredibly embarrassing and ego slamming," I smirked.

Irina grinned as Kate continued to belt out My Humps. Esme and Carlisle sat on the other side of the room, seeming unsure in whether to laugh or stay neutral with the scene before them. I mentally applauded them for even being able to hold a straight face at all as they went from smiles to blank expressions to smiles again.

I knew I was far from being able to do that.

Kate was getting to the end of the song when I felt the familiar churn in my stomach. My laugh immediately died in my chest and a chill rushed up my spine. Alice's head snapped to me barely a millisecond before I felt the bile rise in my throat.

In a panic, I clapped my hands frantically. The vampires looked at me confused for a second—probably thinking I was randomly applauding—when the Denalis remembered the signal. Their eyes widened and in a second Tanya had me slouched over the toilet with my hair back in time to empty my stomach.

I gripped the counter with one hand as I held my balance on the bathroom floor with the other. My body rocked back and forth with the force of the vomiting while Tanya's hand rubbed soothing circles on my back. Her lips whispered sweet nothings in my ear in a language that sounded like Russian, but was still a beautiful purr.

As the contents flew out of my mouth with a cough, I heard the nervous talk rise up the stairs. "What's going on?" Emmett asked stunned, his loud voice once again unusually timid.

"She's having an episode," Eleazer explained. "She usually has them after a chemo where her stomach just can't hold food down, so she vomits whatever her body hasn't already started to digest." He paused. "However, it has been a while since her last chemotherapy."

I wretched and gagged over the toilet, spilling more of my stomach contents into the water. Tanya continued to soothe me as Carmen appeared in the doorway and joined us, dropping to her knees to carefully caress my shoulder with Spanish sweet nothings.

"When was her last treatment?" Carlisle asked.

I gagged again.

"About five days now," Irina spoke up.

I didn't gag.

I spat what remained of the bile into the bowl, taking in deep breaths as my heart pounded in my chest. I blinked, feeling the shock of the sudden incident slowly begin to wash out of my body. I rocked back, moving to lean against the wall.

Tanya followed me, keeping her worried golden eyes focused on me. A soft smile pulled on the corners of her lips as she tucked some hair behind my ear. Carmen was getting a rag wet to clean what vomit remained on my mouth off like we had many times before.

When she began cleaning, she asked, "Are you alright, Bella?"

I shrugged, suddenly feeling exhausted. "Tired."

Tanya nodded, kissing the side of my head. "You can sleep downstairs to get your rest back, love," she promised. "I'll personally make sure you aren't bothered."

I gave the blonde a weak smile, not really replying as Carmen finished cleaning up the surprisingly little vomit left behind. Tanya helped me to my feet, balancing me while Carmen began to rinse out the rag and hand us my toothbrush and toothpaste. I silently brushed my teeth, half-heartedly actually putting effort into the action before I spat and rinsed.

My eyelids were droopy, feeling like two weights were hanging from them as I walked down the stairs with Tanya and Carmen's arms around my waist and shoulders to guide me. For the first time in the past few days, I truly felt exhausted and ready to drop on my feet.

My thoughts were barely coherent as we reached the last step. The other vampires were waiting for us with concerned and rigid postures. Rosalie was placing a bin next to the sectional along with a pillow from one of the bedrooms, glancing up from her task when I came closer.

Somewhere, in the back of my exhausted conscience, I thought of how sweet it was that Rosalie was doing that. Before today, I had every idea in my head that the woman hated me, but today her reaction to everything so far and contradicted that.

She truly had seemed stunned and sad when she found out I had cancer—that I had had it longer than she thought I would have. Now, she was fixing me a comfortable place to rest on the couch after I had an episode and was exhausted.

It was…touching.

I smiled in my head when Esme walked forward; wrapping me in her arms lovingly in the first hug she had given me in the past two years. While my body was too exhausted to really react, Tanya and Carmen did a good job for my part by stiffening and giving soft growls of warning to the woman.

Esme, however, ignored them as she pulled back and kissed my cheek. She gently cupped it and looked into my eyes with a small smile. "Are you alright, dear?" she asked.

I gave a small shrug. "Enough," I murmured.

The woman smiled and was forced to move when Tanya and Carmen decided I needed to be taken away from the Cullen to the couch. Rosalie was waiting for us, stretching out her hand to help me when she stopped, seeming to think better of it and retracted her hand as she took a small step back to get out of the way.

I looked up at the blonde and gave her a small nod of thanks for the gesture. Rosalie—surprising me—nodded with the smallest, unsure smile I had ever seen on someone. My own lips tugged slightly in reply as Tanya and Carmen set me on the couch.

Contently, I positioned myself on the pillow as Tanya slid in behind me, securely wrapping her arms around me and a blanket was draped over us. I didn't protest when Carlisle took a step forward. "Bella," he said gently, "do you usually vomit so late after your chemotherapy?"

I shook my head.

"Should we take her to the hospital? Is she getting sick?" Edward asked. His gold eyes were trained on me, worried and jealous as his eyes landed on Tanya behind me.

I shook my head. "Wait," I said. "If it happens…again with a fever…take me to the hospital." My words began to slur as I started to fall asleep from the exhaustion overtaking my body.

"Shh…rest, Bella. You need it," Irina said gently from near me. Her cold lips pressed against my temple as she began to stroke my hairline soothingly.

No sooner had the words left her mouth was I gone.

…

I woke up to loud growls and snarls. My eyes snapped open and the arms around my body tightened, pulling me closer to the one behind me. It was feminine, I could tell that, and from the lack of vanilla almonds, it was not Tanya.

Said blonde was standing not far in front of me, in a low crouch as she growled deeply in her chest. Edward was in front of her, mimicking her position with his lip curled back in a snarl. "Now look what you did," he hissed. "You woke her up."

"Says the bronze pansy," Kate shot back.

"We all participated," Jasper contributed as he tried to help maintain the peace in the room. "Let's not play the blame game and make the situation any worse than it is."

I furrowed my brow—still half asleep—and began to raise my head when a small purr sounded from behind me. Gently, a nose nuzzled my hair. "It's okay, Bella," Irina soothed. "Go back to sleep. It's just a little disagreement."

As if on cue there were more growls.

I hummed. "Little?" I asked groggily.

She chuckled. "Even half asleep you're amusing."

"Talent."

She chuckled again as Tanya hissed. "I swear, Edward," she snarled, "if you dare say anything about my relationship with Bella like that again, I will not hesitate to tear your head off."

"She is my mate," he snapped. "Get it through your head that you are not hers. She is mine and I am hers."

Tanya's eyes went pitch black and her lip curled into a vicious snarl. Just as she blurred, Kate quickly grabbed her shoulder, holding her in place to keep a fight from breaking out in the middle of the Denali household. "Watch your tongue, Bronze Boy," Kate warned.

"Let's just try to calm down," Carlisle said. He glanced at Jasper whom appeared to be having a headache from the emotions.

"I'll calm down when this ass here—"

"How 'bout all of you shut-up and let me sleep?" I groaned from the couch. I brought Irina's hands from around my waist to cover my ears. I was pleasantly surprised. Wow, they work a lot better than humans'.

Every pair of eyes snapped to me as I glared up at them through my hazy eyes. I may have been mostly asleep, but that didn't mean I didn't know when to step into a fight when needed.

Behind me, I could feel Irina's chest vibrate in a chuckle. I lifted one of her hands from my ears as Eleazer nodded with a small, apologetic smile. "Of course, Bella. We apologize for waking you," he said.

I snorted. "Be glad you woke me up and not Paul. That son of a bitch isn't afraid to scream at you." I shifted in Irina's arms, burrowing myself further into the make-shift nest. "If you are going to fight…" I raised my hand and pointed towards the front. "…there's the door."

Irina, again, chuckled.

I let my hand fall as I heard feet shuffling from the vampires breaking up. "I think we can control ourselves enough," Tanya said stiffly as she moved towards the couch.

Edward snorted. "Speak for yourself," he grumbled.

Esme cast him a warning glare and Eleazer scowled. "Edward," he said in a low, threatening voice, "it would be wise of you to think of what you say before you say them."

"He is usually quite good about it," Carlisle said, defending his son. "However, I do believe that the tension of today has made all of us a little on edge and less likely to think, Eleazer."

The Hispanic vampire scowled. "I wouldn't say any less, Carlisle."

The blonde man scowled, but didn't reply. Sensing the arguing was coming to a close, Tanya moved closer to the couch, looking at Irina pointedly and the dirty blonde behind me held up her hands in surrender and released me.

Careful not to jostle me too much, Irina slid out from behind me as Tanya took her place, dutifully wrapping her arms around me. I turned over in the blonde's arms to burry my face in her chest as the vampires began to settle around the room now that the "little" disagreement was over.

Tanya's nose began to gently nuzzle my head as my eyes closed, helping me relax as the two covens started to speak to each other civilly; still not particularly friendly, though.

My breathing began to match my heartbeat, slowing as I started to slip back into unconsciousness. My senses were filled with Tanya's touch and her delicious vanilla almond scent, both caressing me into a nice and peaceful sleep that I needed. I buried myself further into her body, letting my breaths slow and my heartrate decrease.

At least, I was until I heard a loud, "Ow!"

My eyes snapped open when Tanya growled. "Shut-up already. Bella is trying to sleep and you aren't helping her at all," she hissed, just barely loud enough for me to hear.

I grunted. "The same could be said for you, Tan," I grumbled. The room chuckled as I sighed, pushing myself up. I rubbed my eyes as Tanya moved with me, dropping one of her arms to be around my abdomen as the other stayed draped around my shoulders to give my arms room. "It's fine, though," I said, "I won't be getting much sleep anyway."

"Are you sure, Bella?" Esme asked concerned. "If you need your rest, you should rest and—"

"I'm fine, Esme," I said, cutting her off. The caramel haired woman closed her mouth and bit the inside of her cheek as she ducked her head in hurt. I gave an internal sigh and continued, "I'm just not that tired is all."

"Do you want something to eat?" Kate asked. "Perhaps something light to start off with like crackers or water?"

I nodded. "That'd be nice," I said. "Thanks."

She nodded with a smile. "Sure thing, Bells," she said warmly. Kate stood from the couch, smirking a little when she saw the jealous glares of the Cullen siblings—surprisingly Rosalie and Jasper included—as she headed towards the kitchen.

Before she disappeared, I called out, "Kate."

She froze and turned her head to look over her shoulder towards me. "Yeah?" she asked, raising a brow to see if I had changed my mind.

A wicked smirk pulled onto my lips as I raised my chin. I pretended to dramatically inspect my nails. "I'm pretty sure you used the wrong name for me," I said.

The blonde was confused for a half second before she rolled her eyes and did a dramatic bow, placing one foot behind the other as she extended her hands out. "Yes, my Queen."