Impasse
Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to SM.
A Plan
Bella waited by the phone all the next day waiting for Jacob to call – and when he didn't, she couldn't stop the worry building in her chest. Was he sicker than she realized?
Deciding to give Jacob at least another twenty-four hours before she started hassling him, Bella went to bed that night feeling very apprehensive. As soon as she closed her eyes, though, the usual nightmares started to plague her and she was forced to resort to taking the Tylenol again to knock herself out.
The next morning, once Sue Clearwater left after helping her get ready for the day, Bella went straight for the phone. The first time she called, Billy answered and told her that Jacob was still in bed. She got a little pushy, checking to make sure that Billy had taken him to a doctor. Billy said he had, but, for some reason Bella couldn't nail down, she didn't believe him.
"I've made up some meals for him." She said. "Charlie and I can bring them up tonight."
"Um…. don't do that, Bella. We wouldn't want you to catch whatever Jake's got, especially when you are still recuperating yourself. Its best to wait for a few days. Don't worry, I am taking good care of my boy."
Bella let it go that day, but the next she wasn't so willing to be so compliant. She called several times throughout the day, each time Billy was the one who answered, coming up with one vague excuse after another about why she couldn't visit.
"Am I not welcome?" She demanded.
"Of course you are." Billy blustered. "Jake just needs some time to get over this bug, that's all."
After that when she rang, no one ever answered.
Bella grew more and more frustrated, annoyed that she couldn't just drive over to La Push herself because of the damnable walking cast. She pleaded with Charlie to take her, but he expressed the same caution as Billy.
"Bells, you're still recovering yourself. I don't think it's worth the risk."
Saturday, she decided to go and see him, invitation be damned. She got a cab over there, but the little red house was empty, so she was forced to give up and go home. This frightened her – was Jacob so sick that he needed to go to the hospital? She made the cab driver stop by the hospital on the way back home, hobbling clumsily inside, she asked the nurse at the front desk whether Jacob or Billy had been in.
"I can't give out that kind of information." The nurse sniffed indignantly. "Haven't you heard of the data protection act, young lady?"
Bella practically growled at the woman in aggravation, alarming the nurse considerably. Once she got home, she badgered Charlie constantly until he agreed to call Harry Clearwater as soon as he got home from work.
"You're overreacting, kiddo." Charlie complained, but he did what she asked anyway.
Bella waited, anxious, while Charlie chatted with his old friend; the conversation seemed to go on forever without Jacob even being mentioned. It seemed that Harry had been in the hospital…. some kind of tests for his heart. Bella remembered Sue saying something about that to her in passing. Charlie's forehead got all pinched together when he heard that, but Harry joked with him, blowing it off, until Charlie was laughing along with him.
"Dad!" Bella poked him sharply in the side impatiently. "Ask him about Jacob!" She hissed.
Charlie gave her an irritated glance before finally getting around to the reason he had phoned in the first place. Bella listened in to his side of the conversation, getting more and more frustrated with his constant hmms and yeahs. She drummed her fingers against the counter beside him, while periodically poking him to get him to hurry up. Eventually, Charlie grabbed her hand to stop her and the two glared at each other.
Finally, Charlie hung up the phone and turned to face her.
"Harry says that there has been some trouble with the phone lines, and that's why you haven't been able to get through. Billy took Jake to the doc down there, and it looks like he's got mono. He's real tired, and Billy said no visitors." He reported.
"What?" Bella exploded in disbelief. "That's just ridiculous!"
Charlie raised one eyebrow. "Now don't go making a nuisance of yourself, Bells. Billy knows what's best for Jake. He'll be up and around soon enough. Be patient."
"I will not!" Bella protested hotly. "I'm going back there. I'll stake out the house if I have to until I get to see Jake. There's something not right about all this. Even if Jake has mono, I know he would still want to speak to me on the phone."
"Bells, stop it!" Charlie reprimanded her. "You're acting as if there is some kind of big conspiracy going on. Jake just needs his rest. That is all. And Billy is right to keep you two separated. You's still recuperating – what if you got mono from Jake? That could set you right back. Just have the grace to be a little patient. Jake will be in touch soon, I'm sure. I'm more worried about Harry."
Bella decided not to push it any further. Charlie was too worried about his friend to bother listening to her whining complaints- thinking his friend's declining health was the more important issue. He clearly thought Bella was being irrational, and that her concerns were minor compared to his. It was one of the reasons she had held off telling him about Alice and Edward's intrusion the other night, and the mysterious wolf.
She had hung out near her bedroom window every night, hoping to catch another glimpse of the magnificent beast. She was sure that the wolf was nearby. It was just a feeling, a secret intuition, that even though she couldn't see him physically, he was around.
Feeling more morose with each passing hour, Bella sat in front of her laptop and typed in mononucleosis into the search box.
All she knew about mono was that you were supposed to get it from kissing. Perhaps Charlie and Billy were worried that she might slobber Jacob with kisses once she saw him again. Idiots. She read through the symptoms quickly -the fever he definitely had, but what about the rest of it? No horrible sore throat, no headaches, at least not before he had gone home after watching the movie at her house. He had said he felt 'fit as a fiddle.' Did it really come on so fast? The article made it sound like the sore stuff showed up first.
Bella glared at the computer screen and wondered why, exactly, she was doing this? Why did she feel so…so suspicious, like she didn't believe Billy's story? Why would Billy lie to Harry? Unless Harry was in on it and was lying too.
She was being silly, probably. She was just so worried, and, to be honest, she was afraid of not being allowed to see Jacob – that made her nervous.
Bella skimmed through the rest of the article, looking for information. She stopped when she got to the part about how mono could last for more than a month.
A whole month? Her mouth fell open.
But Billy couldn't enforce the no visitors rule thing that long. Of course not. Jacob would go crazy stuck in bed that long without anyone to talk to.
What was Billy afraid of, anyway? The article said that a person with mono needed to avoid physical activity, but that said nothing about visitors. The disease wasn't very infectious.
She would give it a week, Bella decided, before she got really pushy. Then all bets were off.
A week was long. By Wednesday, she was sure she wasn't going to live to the coming Saturday.
When she had decided to leave Billy and Jacob alone for a week, she hadn't really believed that Jacob would go along with Billy's rule. Every day when she got home from school, she hobbled to the phone to check for messages. There never were any.
Bella cheated three times by trying to call Jacob, but the phone lines still weren't working.
Every night she kept vigil by her bedroom window, staring gloomily out into the dark night. Once or twice, she thought she caught a flash of reddish-brown fur weaving through the tall, shadowy trees that bordered the edge of the garden. For a moment her heart would soar, hoping that the mysterious wolf would appear on the back lawn, only for the same crushing disappointment to follow when nothing happened. She was sure he was out there, somewhere, keeping watch – but like Jacob, the wolf remained elusive.
Bella was in the house much too much, and much too alone. Without Jacob to brighten her days, life felt mundane and monotonous. It was the same boring routine day after day after day. Everything she had been repressing started creeping up on her. The dreams got hard again. She could hardly take Tylenol every night, so she was forced to stay awake. Her silent vigils at her bedroom window now lasted until the early hours of the morning, until sheer exhaustion knocked her out.
She wasn't handling alone well at all. So, in a final act of desperation, she called Leah Clearwater and invited her over, just to have some company.
Leah's temper was as short as Bella's as she filed the latter's nails to points, painting them a deep blood red.
"What am I a vampire?" Bella complained mulishly when she studied the end result of the horrific manicure. "I could gouge someone's eyes out with these."
"Quit whining, girl." Leah snapped impatiently. "I'm not into all this girlie shit. Anyway, you look like a freaking vampire most of time- you're so damn pale, you look bloodless."
"And you're just plain rude!" Bella fired back irritably. "Did you come over here just to insult me?"
"Of course I did. Its not like I've got anything better to do right now." Leah retorted. "And, anyway, mom nagged me to death about spending quality time with another female. Not that you count. We're not friends. You're just useful."
"Thanks for deigning to keep such a miserable specimen company." Bella replied bitterly. "I thought you would have declined, actually. Where is your precious Sam these days? I thought you two were attached at the hip."
Leah's expression darkened, the end of the sharpie she was holding breaking off at the nib as she wrote something derogatory on Bella's walking cast in Quileute.
"Ugh, you just had to go there. What has my mom been saying?" She demanded sharply.
Bella's cheeks blazed with indignation. She really liked Leah's mom. Sue was so compassionate, patient and kind. The total opposite of her uptight daughter. There was no way she would engage in gossip about her own offspring. Bella was offended on Sue's behalf that Leah would even assume she would.
"Your mom hasn't said anything to me."
"Then how do you know?" Leah questioned suspiciously.
"I don't know anything!" Bella snapped again, losing patience with the older girl. "It was just a perfectly innocent question. Jeez, its bad enough that my supposed best friend has gone AWOL, without you interrogating me over your dumb boyfriend."
Leah was about to issue a retort, when something Bella said cut through her ire. "What do you mean your best friend has gone AWOL? Are you talking about Jake?"
"Who else would I mean?" Bella threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "Catch up, Leah."
To her surprise Leah let that insult go. Instead, the older girl stood up and began to pace restlessly back and forth.
"What's wrong?" Bella asked, her curiosity piqued by Leah's strange reaction. "Not that I care." She tagged on at the end, just to make it clear she really didn't, when she so obviously did.
Finally, Leah stopped pacing and faced Bella, her hands balled into fists at her sides. "Two weeks ago, Sam disappeared without any warning or explanation. I was worried sick. He sent no word. I had no idea where he was and no one else seemed concerned. I begged my dad for help but he brushed off my concerns, telling me I was overreacting."
Bella's ears perked up at this. "Oh my god, that's the exact same thing everyone's been saying to me about Jacob."
"Like I give a shit about that." Leah snarked. "Anyway, two days ago, Sam reappeared, giving no apology or explanation for his absence, and expecting me to just accept it. Well, hello, as if I was going to take that lying down!"
"Of course not!" Bella agreed dryly.
"He's like a changed person – all moody and secretive. He's become so aloof. We were supposed to be spending the day together today, but he's taken off again without giving me an adequate explanation. And now you're saying that Jacob is giving you the brush off – not that I blame him for that. I mean -it's you." Leah said with a frown.
Bella ignored the intended barb. Two disappearances within a matter of weeks could not be a coincidence. She had a right to be suspicious. She met Leah's angry gaze with her own.
"I'm going to La Push to stake out Jake's house. I have a feeling all this must be connected. Are you in?"
"I'll drive." Leah said with a grudging smile.
A/N-thanks for reading!