Sweet Hostage - Chapter Twelve
Chapter Twelve
Edward braced himself; he heard Alice coming all the way from the other side of the house. Heard her thoughts, that is. She was ranting at him inside her head, calling him all kinds of foul names that Edward didn’t even think Alice knew.
“You idiot! How could you?” She flew delicately around the corner from the hallway into the music room, where Edward was sitting at the piano.
The heavy velvet drapes were drawn, casting the already dark room in shadows. The sun shining outside not only irritated him, he didn’t need to be reminded of his sparkling status, but the nice weather wasn’t conducive to his mood and what he was trying to accomplish.
He’d been trying to compose another lullaby for Bella, but his mind had been so muddled lately, he couldn’t get beyond the first four notes.
He didn’t bother to cast a glance Alice’s way, just continued to run his cool, pale fingers over the keys.
“How did you find out?” The answer to his question popped into her head, where he plucked it from her effortlessly. “Ah, Rosalie. Why am I not surprised?”
“Don’t blame Rose. She didn’t tell me.”
“Then how did you find out?” He played some Braham’s to soothe himself and hopefully to inspire him as well.
Alice’s lips tightened. “The Cullen express. Rosalie told Emmett in confidence, who - “
Edward cut her off. “Who then told Jasper, who then told you.”
It wasn’t the first time; this was the way news usually trickled through the house, with Carlisle and Esme always being the last to know.
“But that doesn’t matter Edward. What were you thinking?”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s really none of your business, Alice.”
“But I’m trying to help you! And sleeping with Tanya is not the way to get your wife back.”
Alice jumped as Edward slammed both his hands against the keys and the piano blared with a loud protest.
“Sorry,” Edward apologized, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Tanya has been very helpful to me. I’ve been very forthcoming with her, and while what we did was unethical, ultimately, I feel more confident that I can give Bella what she wants now.”
“What? Jacob Black?”
“Very funny,” Edward glared at her. “You and I both know the only reason she’s run to Jacob is… “
“For sex,” Alice finished for him. “God Edward, you can’t even say it.”
“Bella has been begging me to… “ He hesitated again, uncomfortable.
Alice shook her head, her eyes wide. “To?”
“To be intimate with her. I’m afraid, Alice; what if I hurt her? What if I lost control? God, I’d never forgive myself. But she wouldn’t let up. No matter how many times I explained to her that it was for her own good, she just kept asking for it.”
“You sound like a cheap porn movie,” Alice giggled. Edward’s look of disdain forced her to wipe the smile from her face. “Sorry, go on.”
“I finally made a compromise with her. If she would marry me, I would… try. Against my better judgment.”
“I never saw that.” Alice perched on the edge of the piano bench beside Edward.
“What did you see?”
“I didn’t see much,” she admitted. “I briefly got a flicker of poor Bella trying to seduce you, and not succeeding. That’s why I packed a lot of lingerie in her luggage. But wait a minute. What does this have to do with you sleeping with Tanya?”
“Well, when I explained all this to her, she made the point that I had no idea what sex was like, so she understood why I was reluctant to put Bella in that kind of danger. She said that if I had experienced sex, and knew what to expect, she didn’t see how it would be too much for me to handle. If I knew what to expect, I could pace myself, so to speak, and come up with some coping mechanisms.”
Alice put her head down to hide her smirk. Her brother was gullible. Tanya could talk a footless man into buying a pair of shoes.
“I know now, I can handle sex with Bella. And I will get her back.” He turned to look at Alice confidently. “I can do this. Jacob Black is toast.”
“Are you sure you can… do it, as well as the dog?”
Edward’s eyes narrowed angrily.
“I just mean,” she sputtered. “I mean, he’s part animal, Edward; and an Alpha, too.”
“I saw what Jacob did!” He yelled; the memory of Jacob throwing him the scraps of his and Bella’s lovemaking still fresh in his mind. “Trust me; he made sure I got all the dirty, oral, pounding details!”
“It’s okay,” Alice stroked her brother’s cold, solid shoulder soothingly. “Bella loves you.”
Alice hoped she sounded more convincing than she felt.
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They sat at the kitchen table, a heaping plate of scrambled eggs and turkey bacon between them. Bella had made it mostly for Jacob, but she picked at the eggs.
“Ya know what we haven’t done in a long time that I’d like to do again?”
“Well, it hasn’t been that long, only an hour or so - but, have sex?”
“No,” she giggled, swatting him. “I meant, ride the bikes. Do you still have mine?”
“Yeah,” he sighed. “I tried to get rid of it, but I couldn’t.”
As a matter of fact, his plan had been to ditch it as soon as she was officially married. That was the end; the fat lady singing, the door closing on their relationship, was her getting married. How ironic that instead of it signifying the end, like he’d imagined, it had become their true beginning.
“We could do that if you want,” he agreed. “The weather is perfect for riding. The paths should be semi-dried up too, so it won’t be so muddy.”
“Okay,” she smiled, excited. She’d missed riding with Jacob. The speed, the exhilaration, the wind in her hair. “Let me clean this stuff up, and we can go.”
She brought the plates and utensils to the sink, while Jacob put the butter away, and wrapped up the loaf of bread, before placing it back in the cupboard. Bella went back to the table and grabbed both their glasses. She carried them to the sink.
Her foot caught on the edge of the floor mat, just underneath the sink. She stumbled, and the glass in her left hand slid out of her grasp, falling toward the porcelain basin. Bella clumsily tried to grab it before gravity pulled it toward its inevitable shattering crash, but it was too late. She hastily tried to clutch the cup firmly, and instead grabbed a broken hunk of glass.
“Ow!”
She pulled the large piece from her palm as the blood flowed red against the white porcelain. Her head instantly felt light and her stomach clenched in nausea, as the metallic smell assailed her nostrils.
“Bells! Are you alright?” His arm slid around her waist, helping to keep her upright.
“I’m okay, I’m okay,” she spoke, trying to breathe exclusively through her mouth. Her knees went weak, and Jacob lifted her up onto the counter. He took her hand and tried to examine it through all the blood flowing from the gash on the mound beside her thumb. He couldn’t see any small shards there, so he turned the cold water on lightly and held her hand underneath it, rinsing away the blood.
He pulled his shirt off and attempted to wrap her hand with it.
“Stop! Don’t ruin your shirt!” she shrieked at him. “Grab the dish towel on the refrigerator door, and use that.”
Jacob turned toward the fridge and snatched the dish towel from the door’s handle and put it around her hand, holding it in place with pressure against the gash.
“You’re gonna need stitches, Bells.”
“What else is new?” she sighed. Some things never changed.
“I ran here last night, so I don’t have the Rabbit.” She could see he was fighting a grin. “So I guess I’ll have to drive you in your new car.”
She rolled her eyes. “Go get the keys. And put your shirt back on,” she yelled as he practically skipped toward her room for the keys.
Jacob pulled the car into the Emergency parking lot. Bella hadn’t known the Guardian was capable of going quite that fast. Jacob was under the impression that since there was blood, any police officer who happened to pull them over, would have to let them go, because of that. She’d clutched the door handle with her good hand the whole way to the hospital. What was it with boys and fast cars?
There was blood staining the dish towel, but it wasn’t like it was seeping through or anything, so obviously the flow was stanching.
Jacob walked with her to the nurse’s desk, and Bella shut her eyes and bit off the groan that threatened to emerge. She knew this nurse well. With all the trips here that Bella had made since she’d moved back to Forks, the nurses had gotten to recognize her face. But now there was another reason for them to greet her so familiarly.
“Bella Swan!” The nurse exclaimed when she looked up. “Oops, or should I say Bella Cullen?” She winked, and Bella tried her hardest not to grimace. “We haven’t seen you in here for at least a month! Marriage must agree with you.”
Bella smiled weakly at her.
“But what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be on your honeymoon with that new husband of yours?” Luckily the woman didn’t expect Bella to answer. As she started to stammer, the nurse went on. “And you’re in luck. Dr Cullen is in today too. Who better to take care of you than your new father-in-law?”
Thankfully, a little girl in the middle of the waiting room moaned, just before throwing up all over the scuffed linoleum floor. The nurse handed Bella some paperwork to fill out and began to bark orders at the orderlies about cleaning up the mess.
Bella gratefully took a seat on the opposite side of the room from the vomiting girl and filled out the paperwork with her good hand.
“Sorry,” she whispered to Jacob. That couldn’t have been easy for him to hear.
“Not your fault,” he murmured back, rubbing the back of her neck soothingly.
Someone must have told Carlisle that his daughter-in-law was in the waiting room, because she was bombarded with dirty looks from the other patients who had been waiting much longer than she had, when they called her into a back room.
“Do you want me to come?” Jacob asked her before she stood up. She hesitated before quickly nodding her head.
Jacob could smell the vampire stench as soon as they walked through the door. It permeated the whole back area, thick and sickly sweet. With the underlying odor of urine and sick people, Jacob quickly opted for mouth breathing. It didn’t help much.
The nurse looked at Bella’s hand, wincing at the cut, and replaced the dish towel with a heavy gauze bandage. She took her blood pressure and told them the doctor would be right with them, before leaving the room.
“Well, so much for riding,” Jacob quipped. “You didn’t even make it out of the kitchen before you injured yourself. You usually at least make it out the door.”
“Haha.”
She was nervous and not in the mood to make conversation. But Jacob was quite content to chatter on.
“I haven’t seen Dr. Fang since after the newborn fight. Maybe he’ll want to take a look at me. Make sure all my injuries have properly healed. Although, on second thought, keep him away from me, he may take the opportunity to decide to re-break a few things,” he joked.
Jacob walked over to the small table that had cotton balls, and what looked like long q-tips, in glass jars, on top.
“Jacob, don’t play with that stuff,” she chastised him.
“Hey Bells, what am I?” He’d taken two tongue depressors and stuck them under his top lip, so they hung down out of his mouth like overgrown incisors.
Just then, there was a soft knock on the door, and Carlisle came into the room.
“Well, hello, Bella,” he greeted her, before giving Jacob a weak grin.
“Bet you didn’t expect to see me here, did ya, Doc?” Jacob said, pulling the tongue depressors out of his mouth.
“On the contrary, Jacob, I uh, I picked up on your… scent in the other room, when I was with my last patient.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean,” Jacob muttered.
Carlisle turned his attention to Bella. “So, what seems to be the trouble today, Bella?”
She held up her hand with the blood-tinged gauze held to it. “I cut my hand on some glass. I think it needs stitches.”
She could barely peel her eyes from the floor, and look at Carlisle. What must he think of her? Maybe she shouldn’t have had Jacob come in with her. This had to be making Dr. Cullen uncomfortable; although he didn’t seem to be. His demeanor spoke of the same patient, caring, man he always was. Bella assumed he must always be in doctor mode.
“Let me see,” he gently took her hand in his cold fingers and moved the gauze away. Bella got a chill as she felt the familiar hard, frigid vampire skin.
“Yes, it looks like you’re going to need about 4 stitches for this.” He smiled gently at her. “You remember how this goes, right? We’ve done this before.”
She nodded, a small smile sneaking past her lips. Of course she remembered. How could she forget? She’d let the details of that horrible day go, once Edward had returned with her from Italy. But the fact that his brother had tried to kill her, was something she could never completely forget.
“Let me get a few things, and I’ll be right back to take care of this for you. Excuse me.” Carlisle left the room to get what he needed to stitch her hand.
“Jake?” She asked him, once the doctor had left.
“Yeah?”
“Would you mind terribly if I asked you to wait in the waiting room?”
He hesitated. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I need to say a few things to Carlisle, and I… I just feel it would be disrespectful to address this to him, in front of other people.”
“Especially the dude that whisked you away from his son at his own wedding, you mean?”
“Yeah, kind of.”
Jacob nodded and started for the door.
“Thank you for understanding, Jake. And thank you for coming with me.” She reached out and grabbed his hand with her good one, and gave it a squeeze. “I love you.”
“I know,” he squeezed her hand back and went outside to wait for her.
Bella stared bleakly at the picture on the opposite wall of a human heart with a diagram of all the major chambers and blood vessels. What could she possibly say that could take away the sting of what she’d done?
“Okay, this will just take a few minutes, Bella, and you’ll be as good as new. Did Jacob leave?” Carlisle asked, glancing around the room.
“Ye-yes,” Bella stammered. “I asked him to leave, so I… so I could apologize to you.”
She took a deep breath and forced the words out before she lost her nerve. “I’m so sorry for what I put you and your family through, Carlisle. I can never re-pay you all for your patience and your kindness. I know it’s not enough, but please, I hope you’ll accept my apology.”
Carlisle looked up at Bella, after swabbing some alcohol around the injured area. “You don’t have to apologize to me, Bella. I know Edward is hurt, and I know he loves you. But more than anything, all any of us ever wanted for you was to be happy. You weren’t merely accepting a marriage proposal, you were taking on so much more. It was not something that any of us took lightly, and you don’t have to be sorry for changing your mind about something like that.”
“Thank you,” she whispered. She shook her head. “I could have done things differently though. I should have done things differently. I really - “
“It doesn’t matter now, Bella. No one else could make this choice for you. The stress of such a decision and its ramifications would of course affect the way you would react. My only regret is that you and Edward both seemed to have been hurt by all this. It was a lot to ask of anyone, and you couldn’t go through with it. To be honest with you, I’m rather glad. This is not an easy existence. You’re very young; I don’t think there’s any way you could fully understand all that you would be giving up.”
“Yes,” she nodded. “That’s just it. I did realize all that I would be giving up.” She studied his beautiful, pale skin and golden eyes earnestly. “Please know that I truly do love all of you. And I appreciate everything that you have all done for me.”
“As do we,” he murmured reassuringly, as he worked the needle skillfully through her flesh. She didn’t feel anything but slight pressure and some tugging. “We placed a lot of danger in your life. Not many humans could have survived that without cracking, or without giving up our secret. So we thank you, and apologize, likewise.”
He taped a fresh bandage over the stitched wound. “There. Keep this dry, and you don’t have to come back. The thread will disintegrate on its own.” He patted her hand. “You can take some ibuprofen for the pain, if you need it.”
“I think I’m going to need more than ibuprofen,” she joked wryly.
Carlisle chuckled, before turning serious. “I’m not sure if you and Edward have discussed this yet; I don’t even want to assume what it is that the two of you are going to do about the… situation. But don’t forget that we have people who can take care of this; people we employ to handle our legal and monetary issues. They are the best at what they do. Don’t hesitate to use them. If that’s what the two of you decide to do,” he added.
Carlisle took her two hands between his gently and kissed the top of her head affectionately. “Take care, Bella.”
She had no sooner murmured, “Thank you,” than Dr. Cullen was gone.
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