I don't own Twilight. What I own is my character's behavior, personality, background, and plot of the story.
Thanks to my Beta MadMooey18 for her constant support and help in making this story what it is today.
For a moment, Edward wonders why he can't hear the sound of the slap, because he just received one to his face. That is what it feels like.
A rational voice in his head urges him to be cautious. It tells him to calm down. Bella is in shock. She didn't mean to give you an ultimatum. She is scared for you.
He can feel the calm facade crack under the weight of everything and despite all of those thoughts floating in his head, he finds himself getting off her bed and striding toward the door and leaving, but not before telling her, "Fine, I will get you a bodyguard, but if you change your mind on that, you won't have a boyfriend!"
Bella flinches from the sound of the slamming door. She runs her fingers through her hair and sighs in defeat as she stares at the door hoping he'll come back. After an hour passes, it becomes clear that he won't. She closes her eyes and exhales then opens her eyes knowing that she can't sit around and do nothing. She has a busy schedule, the kids will need extra attention once she is back home, and more. She searches for her phone and calls Seth. After she lets him know that she is okay, Bella gives him a list of things she needs him to get for her.
She is on the tail end of her talk with Seth, when a man in a white coat, her doctor, comes into her room followed by Edward. "You won't need all of those things. I will have you discharged in a couple of hours."
"I thought I had to be under constant watch for days because of my concussion," she recalls in confusion.
The doctor nods his head then tells her that she has been in and out of sleep for more than 24 hours. Bella is surprised since she doesn't recall waking from her sleep at any point, but doesn't let her surprise show and asks him how extensive her injuries are. He explains that both her head and shoulder injury aren't critical anymore. He explains to her how to take care of the wound in her shoulder and her head. He says that the stitches on both will come out in a week and he will personally take them out once she comes for her check up. After that he leaves her alone in the room with Edward who obviously wants to be anywhere but here.
"Tim, my bodyguard will guard you until I pick another guard for you," Edward tells her stiffly as he stands a couple of inches away from her bed with his hands crossed.
Bella looks at him with an open face and tells him, "I will not be sorry for worrying about you." She doesn't see the point in beating around the bush. There is no reason for her to pretend to not know why he is mad at her. If he wants to be mad at her for doing the right thing for him, then so be it. She has two sons. She isn't new to this attitude.
Edward shakes his head then turns to the door as he speaks, "I wish you thought of the fact that I already told my dad before you gave me an ultimatum. I sounded like a kid who doesn't know what he wants."
Alarm bells sound in her head as the tone of his voice reminds her of a long forgotten discovery. "Did he get mad when you changed your mind?"
"What do you think?" he tells her sarcastically with his hand on the door handle.
"I am serious, Edward. How angry was he?" Bella asks hoping that what is in her mind is just her thinking of the worst case scenario.
Edward opens his mouth then closes it for a second thinking over his words before he tells her honestly, "He was the angriest he has ever been. Even Emmett was surprised with his reaction. Emmett figured that I made that promise in a moment of fear and I would back down once I came to my senses. Father, on the other hand, went ballistic once I changed my mind."
Bella nods her head plastering a sympathetic smile on her face, but underneath it, she is reeling from what he told her.
His anger and the phone call? All of this can't be coincidence.
"I want to see Jasper," Bella tells him hiding the discomfort in her voice. Someone has some answering to do.
"How about you go there on the way out of the hospital?"
Bella nods her head. "I will take you there when I take you home," he tells her.
Bella shakes her head and tells him dismissively, "I will have Seth or Phil take me home," She needs to chill, and figure out what her angle will be. More importantly, she needs some space away from Edward. She needs to think, and Edward hovers.
"You don't want me to take you home?" Edward asks her sounding almost hurt.
Bella looks up, and finds a hurt expression on his face. "I figured that you spent enough time by my side, and would be needed by your family. No need to waste your time with me. I am okay."
"I don't consider the time I spend with you wasted, if you need me to be beside you," Edward tells her, closing the door and leaning his back against it to face her.
Bella nods her head and tells him. "I know that, but I am okay on my own. I don't need anyone, and I'd imagine, your family needs you."
Edward opens his mouth then closes it with a frustrated huff and leaves. Whatever was bothering Edward, wasn't on Bella's radar at the moment. She had bigger fish to fry.
So what? You will dig and then what?
What do you mean and then what?
What will you do with the answer?
I'll tell Edward.
I think you should keep it to yourself.
You want me to know that Edward's family hired someone to harm me so they can push him into the family business, and stay silent?
You think Edward is gonna take your words over his family?
That is the crocks of Bella's fear. What if he doesn't believe her? What if he decides that she is lying? What if despite it all, he decides that he is fine with what his family did? Bella can wait a little longer to tell him until she has evidence she can show him, but she can't stick around if he decides that he is okay with what happened.
And who is Bella to tell him to choose her over his family? Would she choose him over hers? Would Bella sacrifice that kind of a thing for him? Would it be fair for him to be with someone who wouldn't make the sacrifices he made?
Bella doesn't feel the hours pass as she spends them going over what she can say and how she can prove things to Edward which is how Phil finds her. He rushes into the room and hugs her tightly.
"You had me worried, kiddo," he whispers into her hair.
She laughs and tells him, "I have been up for hours. Where were you?."
Phil pulls back and with a smile on her lips, he relaxes and tells her, "I spent all of yesterday, and early this morning here. I only left at nine because of a work meeting I couldn't get out of. Then I had all sorts of hell break loose in the office I had to attend to. Didn't Edward tell you that?"
Bella shakes her head. "His family needs him for some stuff and I have had some stuff on my mind."
Phil observes her for a moment before he tells her, "Don't tell me that going through a near death experience made you realize you don't want to be with him anymore, cause I won't believe it."
Bella rolls her eyes at Phil's tendency for melodrama. It must be because of all of the soap operas her mum got him hooked into.
"Don't be ridiculous. Of course not. It just made me notice something I need to work on."
"Anything you want to tell me about?" Phill asks her.
"Maybe I'll tell you about it some other time."
Phil picks up the bag off the floor and places it on the bed and tells her, "Well, I will call the nurse to unhook all of that stuff and wait outside for you while you get ready. Cool?"
She smiles and nods her head.
He kisses her forehead then gets off the bed and walks toward the door, but before he can leave, she has a request. "Can you take me to Jasper's room? I want to check on him before I leave." He nods his head then leaves the room and soon enough the nurse comes to her room.
After she unhooks her, the nurse helps her stand and once she is sure that she can balance on her own, the nurse tells her, "If you need anything, press the button. A similar one is also in the bathroom."
Bella takes the bag and walks to the bathroom. It's only then that she notices just how lavish her hospital bedroom is. From the extremely comfortable bed, to the wide windows covered with the beautiful beige curtains, to the multiple seats in the room, and the wide bath tub in the bathroom. She tells herself then that she will ask Phil who is paying for this. Edward shouldn't have to. She does ask Phil when he comes with the discharge papers. Once she finishes getting ready she asks him, "Edward is, but don't worry. I will talk to the hospital manager and straighten it out. I will cover the bill and make sure he gets his money back."
"Just make sure not to bring my name in it, if Edward asks you," Bella tells him as she glances over the papers before signing.
"Blame it on your old man, why don't you?"
Bella looks up and finds him grinning at her. "Things are a bit tense, and I don't think his ego will handle being told his help isn't needed by me very well."
"Are you sure you're not mad at me?" Alice asks Bella. It's not the first time since she came into Jasper's room with Phil.
Bella turns to Alice and tells her in a frustrated tone, "I will be mad, if you don't stop bugging me."
Before Alice can open her mouth, Phil turns to her and tells her, "Why don't the two of us head to the cafeteria and get something hot to drink."
Alice lights up at the idea then she falls back into her chair and tells him, "I can't leave him alone."
"What am I? Chopped liver?" Bella asks her in an offended tone.
"You would do that for me?" Alice asks her, but she already standing up. Seems that the hospital room isn't agreeing with her, if her continues nose twitching is to go by.
Bella snorts and says, "It's not like it's the first time I did something for you. You can add it to the list of favors I have done for you the next time I am in the hospital."
"See? I knew that you were mad!" Alice exclaims, but before she can continue Phil rushes her out of the room while throwing Bella a wink.
Jasper stares at Bella as she watches the two leave with an expression he can't read, then tells her, "Don't be too harsh on Alice. She has the tendency to forget important things when she is overwhelmed."
It did not stop her from forgetting you.
Bella raises an eyebrow in silence which makes him tell her, "No really, she loves you. She didn't mean to."
"Do you know why I helped you with Alice?" Bella asks, confusing him with the change of subject, but it's not a real change in subject.
Jasper gives her a confused look telling her, "Because you want her to be happy?"
Bella snorts at that and tells him, "You've got one hell of an ego. What makes you think you will make Alice happy?"
"Because I love her and she loves me," he tells her forcefully, bothered by her insinuation. Why else would she help him?
"You could spend the rest of your life trying to be a better person for her, and you still wouldn't be good enough for her."
Jasper is deeply hurt by her answer. He racks his brain for what Alice could have told Bella that makes her think this low of him, but comes up empty.
Let him stew in confusion and distrust. It is what he deserves for betraying me and his brother that way.
"Then why help me? Do you love Edward so much that you are willing to throw your best friend under the bus?" Jasper finally asks her.
"Oh no, I am not throwing Alice under the bus. My help won't be enough to keep her. You will fuck up something else, and then another thing, and another, and eventually, she will leave you. My help is only delaying the inevitable."
That's a lie. Bella isn't even sure if Alice has the courage or dignity needed to ever end things who drags his feet doing everything he should be welling to do, but she isn't about to sound unsure in front of him.
Jasper assumes that this is the hurt talking and instead tells her, "You still didn't answer my question."
Bella answers him simply, "Because she deserves you."
"I don't understand."
"You don't have to," she tells him dismissively. Their talk is getting too long for her taste and there is only so much time that Phil can keep Alice away from the room.
But before she can change the subject, Jasper tells her, "You know, Alice needed you when you left, and you weren't there to help her when she got into drugs. I think whatever tension there is between you two can be resolved if you apologize to her."
Bella stares into space as she tries to make sense of what she was just told. It takes everything in Bella to keep her expression neutral. Her white knuckles clutch the handles of the chair as she fights everything in her. She wants to yell at him that her mother had just died. Only her fear of not being able to control herself stops Bella from hitting him to show him just a small taste of the hurt Charlie caused her. She wants to squeeze his neck the way James squeezed hers as he raped her, show him the scar on her wrist under her watch, tell him about every time she had to cry herself to sleep, and everytime she cried with Adam and Peter instead of calming them down.
Instead, she slowly uncurls her fingers from the seat handles, knuckle by knuckle then lays them on her lap and tells him, "This isn't what I came to talk to you about."
"What did you want to talk about?"
"Why did you backstab me?" she tells him calmly, too calmly.
Jasper is surprised by her accusation and tells her, "What are you talking about?"
Bella claps her hands slowly as she tells him, "I have to give it to you. The plan was perfect. You hire a guy to shoot me, but take a bullet for me instead. That way no one is suspicious of you or your family. Then your father swoops in to remind Edward how no one would touch me, if he only he was feared by the other families and Edward goes into the fold of the family all on his own. Hook, line, and sinker."
Jasper shakes his head and defensively tells her, "I would never do that to my brother. I love him. Even if I didn't have any disagreement with you, I wouldn't plot behind my brother's back like that."
Bella ignores what he told her and asks him, "Do you know what spoiled your plans?'
When Jasper doesn't comment, she continues, "I put my foot down and made him choose between me and joining the family because it seems that out of everyone around Edward, I am the only person who gives a fuck about him. Your father made the mistake of his life when he reacted the way he did."
That's not the actual mistake he made. The mistake Carlisle made is underestimating her.
When Bella initially noticed the guy tailing her, she was worried and only relaxed when she did some digging. She snapped a photo of him and with Aro's help got her hand on his number and used it to hack his phone. She found countless calls to a phone located in the Cullen's mansion from before he started really tailing her, but Bella doesn't tell him any of that.
This confrontation isn't a real confrontation. This is her fishing for information.
Bella would be not be going on this excavation and would go straight to Edward with the information she has, if only she had a way of proving that the records belong to the man that shot her.
Jasper stares at her for a full minute trying to digest what she just told him, before he tells her, "Our family would never do that."
Bella leans forward until her face is only inches away from his and asks, "Can you look me in the eye and tell me this is something your father wouldn't do?"
Jasper turns away from her and tells her, "You are being paranoid. It must be some sort of PTSD."
"You think I came to this conclusion with vibes and feelings. I have sufficient reason. I know that your family is behind that like I know I am sitting in front of you. I am a hundred percent certain of your family's involvement. Are you a hundred percent certain of your family's innocence?"
Before Jasper can reply, he hears the door knob being turned and quickly sits back as if everything is normal, but everything isn't normal. Jasper is as white as a sheet.
Alice giggles at whatever Phil had just told her, but stops once she comes in and sees the nonchalant look on Bella's face and the shock on Jasper's. Bella has always been good at pretending that everything is okay. Jasper, obviously not so much.
"Is everything all right?' Alice asks them in a worried tone.
Getting up, Bella smiles sheepishly at her and tells her, "I think I tired out Jasper with my talking. Good thing you came when you did, because I need to leave and he needs a nap."
Bella leaves figuring that Jasper would need to stew on this for a couple of days before he can give her a straight answer.
Hello lovely people,
Thank you to everyone who is still reading this story and my other one despite me being wishy washy with the updating schedule. I promise to let you the updating schedule as soon as I can commit to one.
Until my next update,
Stay Safe