Twilight Fan Fiction ❯ Bette Noir ❯ Chapter 6 ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6

Carlisle stood within the confines of his office, the door closed. He held his cell phone to his ear, pinching the bridge of his nose with his other hand as he bowed his head and closed his eyes. His lips were pressed into a thin line and he nodded, before realizing that the person on the other end of the call would be blind to his gesture. He spoke softly of his understanding, acknowledging the news he was being told and wondering just when the hurricane of suffering would end for the girl sleeping upstairs.

“Would you be so kind as to send me the detailed surgical and death report so that I may fully explain what has happened to his daughter?” he requested, opening his burnt butterscotch eyes that were rapidly getting darker. Yes, thank you again,” he said after a long moment and provided his fax number, turning on the machine, before disconnecting the call.

He had stayed with Bella while the rest of his family had hunted. He had waited in his office, looking over medical reports for little Bella's father, while Edward became more comfortable holding and comforting Bella upstairs. It had been almost a full week since Bella had crashed her truck, since Emmett had found her stumbling through the ice and freezing rain. It had been almost ten days since he had hunted and he could feel his control beginning to slip. He knew he would never harm Bella, never harm any one of his family members, but could feel his rising frustration and mixed emotions, borne from everything that had happened, demanding to be released.

“Come in,” he acknowledged the light tapping on the door.

“You need to hunt,” Esme told her husband, watching as he nodded, seeing the silent strain etched in his face. “What happened? Carlisle?”

“Charlie didn't make it,” he said quietly, his voice choked and painfully rough. “Little Bella's mother died as well. The doctor's had to perform an emergency C-section; she died seconds after they cut her open.”

“The baby?” Esme asked, her arms wrapping around his waist from behind, her cheek pressed against his back as she tried to comfort him.

“The baby's fine. A little boy, six pounds, two ounces and eighteen inches long. She wasn't quite to term, but the baby was fully developed enough that he isn't even in need of an incubator. Alice was able to convince the medical personnel that she was the woman's sister, and because of the way that Bella refused to be taken from her `Uncle Emmett', the hospital released the infant to their care.” Carlisle grew quiet, carefully unwinding Esme's arms from around his waist as he gathered the stack of papers from the fax machine and sat down.

“And their father?” Esme asked, readily taking Carlisle's outstretched hand and letting him pull her down to sit astride his lap.

Looking out into the grey skies of the falling night, Carlisle drew in a deep breath, hoping that the unneeded physical action would bring him some measure of peace. Shaking his head, his arms were on either side of Esme's waist, holding her in place while his hands moved through the faxed documents searching for the ones holding information on the man's condition.

“Here we are,” he said as he came to the name he didn't recognize and his eyes flared wide at the familiar last name. “Lukas McCarty…you don't suppose?”

“Emmett did say he had two sisters and who's to say his parents didn't have more children after he joined our family.”

Carlisle pursed his lips in contemplation and nodded as he returned his attention to the medical information. The man's right femur and tibia had slammed together so hard as to crush the tops of the bones together and completely shatter his fibula. The patella of his right knee would have to be replaced with a silicone metal composite. His left leg was almost worse. Again, the bottom of the femur and the top of the tibia were crushed together, but he had landed harder on his left leg and had broken his ankle as well.

“It says here that he made it through the first surgery fairly well, but in the next four days he's going to have to undergo at least two more surgeries to repair the damage and that at the very least, his right patella will have to be replace with a prosthetic implant. Over the next twenty four hours they're going to be testing for nerve and muscle damage, after which they're going to have to reconstruct his lateral and medial condyle of both tibias with silicone caps. Due to the level of pain he's currently in, they've not sure how he's going to handle the next few surgeries.” He sighed, letting his forehead fall against his wife's shoulder as he read through the end notes made by the nursing staff. “There's doubt as to whether he'll be able to walk again.”

Startled by the sudden trill of her cell phone in the quiet of his office, Esme pulled the device from her pocket and answered it. She smiled at the sound of Emmett's voice and laughed softly before agreeing to her adopted son's request. Carlisle smiled, his worry for the moment forgotten as he set the small stack of papers aside on his desk and leaned back in his padded leather chair, wrapping his arms around his wife and tucking her against his chest as she spoke into her phone.

“Hello there, Bella,” Esme greeted, smiling at the soft voice of the young child. “Oh he did, did he?” she laughed softly and looked up at Carlisle, his silent chuckles telling her that he had heard the child's words as well.

Bella spoke animatedly about the chocolate chip pancakes that she had now had four days in a row, and the macaroni and cheese that she was currently eating. She told Esme about coloring with Alice and the stories that Emmett would tell her after he tucked her into bed for the night. Her hand rose to her heart, her eyes shining with affection when the little girl she was talking to slipped and called her “Gramma”. Noticing her slip up the second time that she used the familial title, Bella asked if it was alright, her voice hesitant.

“Of course it is, Sweetheart,” Esme assured the child, the smile on her face brilliant. “Would you like to say hi to Papa Carlisle?” she asked smiling up at her husband when he stroked her hair. “Here you go, Little One.”

“Hello, Bella,” Carlisle said, smiling as he held the device to his ear. “Oh, I'm alright, Little One. How are you?...Yes, well Uncle Emmett can be quite amusing.” The little girl talked about everything and nothing before finally asking what would happen with her and her new little brother. “Well,” he began, his eyes meeting Esme's as he spoke with the child. “You and your brother would come home with Uncle Emmett and Aunt Alice and live our family for a little while. Your father's going to need a lot of personalized care and therapy before he'll be able to take care of you and your brother again.”

He shook his head, a bemused smile curving his lips. The tiny child on the other end of the phone adapted quickly to what he told her, adjusting to the change that was necessary without fear or hesitation and he knew that her comfort with the situation was due in great part to Emmett's presence. It was easy to tell just how much little Bella adored Emmett and took comfort in his playful antics and protective comfort. Emmett had snapped a picture of her doll-like face with his cell phone, sending it to Carlisle a few days ago, along with a picture of the perfect infant boy that Alice had held in her arms.

“Angels?” he asked, shaking his head slowly as he chuckled silently. “Well, Aunt Alice is right, we are `different', but I don't know about us being angels.”

Esme looked toward the office door when she sensed her son's presence and met Edward's concerned eyes. Rubbing Carlisle's shoulder before standing and moving to Edward's side, she shook her head in silent question.

“I can't wake up Bella, she keeps calling for you,” he told her and nodded at the thoughts that raced through her mind. “Yeah, I think it's the same nightmare.”

“Stay down here with Carlisle,” she instructed before disappearing out the door and up the stairs.

:::::

Esme moved quietly into Edward's bedroom, looking down at Bella's sleeping form and closed her eyes against the mottled bruising on the girl's face. Carlisle had warned her that the bruising would get worse, become darker, before it got better. After five days Bella's purplish and blue marks had turned almost black, but she maintained that the pain wasn't that bad and would not actively ask for the morphine that Carlisle kept on hand to assist Bella. After the third day of Bella not telling him when the pain was bad enough to require more than Ibuprofen, Carlisle had asked Jasper to monitor her physical discomfort and alert him when she was in need of the morphine.

Sitting next to her on the bed, Esme brushed the backs of her fingers down Bella's cheek and called to her softly. She whimpered again in her sleep and Esme's brow furrowed at the way her breath sounded. Bella's breathing sounded harsh, stunted and Esme wondered if it was more than just her nightmare causing the roughness in her breathing.

“Bella,” Esme called to her again, louder this time and leaned over to kiss the girl's brow when her eyes fluttered open. “Sweetheart?” she asked at the pained grimace that greeted her.

Esme's hand moved down over Bella's arm, rubbing her shoulder before brushing against the girl's side. Bella's eyes flew open wide, her jaw clenching tightly as a breathless pained groan sounded from her.

“Bella?” Esme's soft voice was alarmed at her reaction and when Bella's eyes squeezed closed, her face contorting in pain, she turned toward the door. “Carlisle!”

There was barely any sound on the stairs. It only took seconds before the doorway was filled with her husband, Edward and Jasper. Grunting against the physical sensations that came from the girl lying in the bed, Jasper projected them to Carlisle knowing that she needed more than just another dose of morphine.

“Help me sit her up,” Carlisle spoke softly to Esme able to feel the phantom burning in his lungs and the nearly unbearable pain that radiated through his chest and ribs. “Shh, it's going to be just fine, Bella,” he soothed, helping her to lean against Esme as he sat behind her on the bed. “Hold her carefully, keep her back as straight as possible,” he instructed Esme softly before nodding to Jasper and breathing a silent sigh of relief when the southern vampire ceased his projection of Bella's pain. “Take a deep breath for me, Bella. That's it,” he praised her gently and rubbed her shoulder. “One more time,” he instructed, able to hear the soft bubbling sound.

Edward reached into the black leather bag, pulling out the supplies needed as soon as Carlisle thought of them. He hated the sight of the long intravenous needle attached to the overly large syringe and ground his teeth together as he handed it to his father. He listened to Carlisle as he soothed Bella with his words and the reassuring tone of his voice. Lifting the back of her sleep shirt up and instructing Esme to hold the garment in place, he cast his eyes to Jasper watching as the younger vampire moved immediately to sit at Bella's side and closed his eyes as he blocked the sensation of the needle penetrating her back.

Carlisle worked quickly and carefully as he drained the bit of fluid that had gathered in Bella's lungs and capped the syringe. Handing it to Edward, he instructed his son to save the fluid so that he could test it and asked Bella once more to breathe in deeply. Unable to hide the pained grimace as she did so, Bella hissed sharply when his cold hands gently probed her ribs. They weren't broken, but they were now showing the more painful signs of being badly bruised. He had wrapped them the first night, but had removed the wrapping when he had taken her in for the x-rays days ago. She hadn't complained of any pains and this was the first time Jasper had allowed him to feel the full extent of Bella's injuries.

“I'm going to wrap your ribs again, Bella,” he told her as Esme lifted her sleep shirt higher until it was gathered just below her arms. Dipping his head down to kiss her hair, Carlisle wound the ACE bandage around her ribs, overlapping the stretchy medical wrap layer by layer from her chest to just above her waist. “There you go,” he soothed after attaching the three metal clasps in place.

“I don't need that,” she protested softly when he asked Edward for the morphine.

“Yes, you do,” he stated, his gentle voice leaving no room for argument as he moved and guided her carefully to lie back on the pillows. “Hush,” he quieted her protest as he injected her arm with the opiate. “Bella, you can't sleep, eat or even breathe comfortably with the amount if pain that you're in. The morphine helps with that. If you're worried about becoming dependant, don't. I'm having Jasper monitor you carefully. Stop that,” he scolded when she glared at Jasper. “If you would tell me when your pain was more severe, I wouldn't have to have him monitor you, but you won't. You're a rather argumentative patient,” he told her with some amusement.

“I don't like how groggy it makes me feel,” she said, her eyes blinking tiredly as the drug took affect.

“You need your sleep, Isabella,” he said, his lips quirking when she narrowed her eyes at his use of her full name.

“How's Charlie?” Bella asked as he tucked the blankets back around her shoulders. “Carlisle?” her voice shook at the pained expression he wasn't able to hide. “How's Charlie?” she repeated, her eyes wide and voice trembling.

:::::

“I'm not tired,” the five year-old protested even as her eyes drooped heavily.

“Oh, yes you are,” Alice said, watching the young girl fighting sleep while bouncing on the bed where she sat. “Bellaniece, you stop that,” she said trying to hide the amusement in her face and voice.

“Emmett's `pose to tell me a story,” she said with a pout, her blue eyes wide.

Oh no, not that face. Emmett, I hate you, Alice thought as the little girl upped the pout with a sniffle. This is not fair! Hmm, I wonder if it would work on Jasper. Breathing out softly as she walked slowly with a slightly bouncing step, she prayed that the infant in her arms would sleep through the night. He knew instinctively that his mother wasn't with him, wasn't alive and he was constantly crying when he wasn't being fed. The formula smelled horrendous and she wondered how he could stand it, of course Emmett in his infinite curiosity had decided to taste the formula the first night after he had prepared the bottle to feed the child with. Bella and Alice had laughed at the face he had made and Alice had smirked at him anytime he went to feed the baby.

“Emmett needed to go get something to eat, Sweetheart,” Alice told her and encouraged her to get under the covers.

“Why? There's macaroni and cheese in the fridge,” she said pointing to the small dorm fridge that sat in the corner of the hotel room.

“That's for you, Bella. Emmett needed different kind of food,” she said and closed her eyes in relief when she saw Emmett moving back to the hotel from the woods surrounding them.

“What kind of food?” Bella asked a moment later, her brow furrowing. “I coulda shared my pie with him.”

“Pie?” Emmett's voice sounded from the doorway as he stepped into the room and shut the door.

“Emmett!” she shouted and bolted from the bed, running straight into his arms and waking her brother in the process. “He's noisy,” she said, pointing at her brother who was once more crying in Alice's arms.

`I hate you,' she mouthed at her brother to which the infuriating behemoth just laughed. Tossing Bella into the air before catching her and sitting her on his hip, he walked to the bed and tucked her under the covers. She giggled when he tucked the blankets tight around her effectively pinning her in place on the bed and smacked a loud kiss on her forehead.

“Alright, now where were we?” he asked and looked to Alice who was bounce-walking the baby around the room.

“The brave knight, Jasper was facing down the dragon named Rose,” she reminded him to which Alice snorted in amusement.

“Ah yes,” he said and flopped down to lay beside her on the bed. Turning on his side and propping his elbow on the pillow and resting his temple on his fist, he looked down into her ice blue eyes. “The pink dragon named Rose flew high in the sky, roaring and screeching before diving toward the brave knight, Jasper as he stood tall on the parapets with his sword held high.”

Alice tuned out the rest of his bedtime story, knowing that if she started laughing there was no way that either the infant in her arms nor his sister would fall asleep. She could just see the kind of hell the blonde would bring against her husband if she found out that she was starring as the temperamental dragon in his bedtime story to the child. Shaking her head in amusement and cooing down at the baby in her arms, she watched him blink slowly before finally drifting off to sleep.

“Finally,” she whispered in relief and looked over to see that Bella had fallen asleep as well.

“Here, give the little guy to me,” Emmett said as he walked toward her. “You need to hunt, too.”

Passing the baby to him, she watched as Emmett moved to sit in the overly large overstuffed recliner, the baby cradled in his arms. Her eyes softened at the sight of him curled up with the baby in his arms, his eyes fixed on the baby's sleeping face. He was so careful, so gentle with the children, playful and comforting of little Bella, painfully gentle and protective of the baby held in his arms. She had a feeling that had he not been attacked by that bear, had he not been made a vampire, he would've married and had a house full of children. Unlike Rosalie, he didn't care that these children weren't his by blood, he was simply happy to care for them and protect them in whatever capacity that he was able to.

“I know,” she said quietly and Emmett looked up, his brow furrowing in question of her words. “I could see you standing inside a room holding adoption papers. I know you'd be happy to be a father, but do you think that Rose would be happy with a baby that wasn't hers?”

“I don't know,” he sighed and shook his head. “I just know that after taking care of these two…”

Alice nodded with a smile and stepped toward him. Kissing her brother's forehead she smiled down at the sleeping baby in his arms.

“You make a wonderful father,” she praised before leaving the room to hunt.

:::::

“Jasper,” Carlisle looked at the blonde vampire and waited for him to follow before stepping into the kitchen. “Emotionally, how is she doing?”

Jasper released a deep breath as he thought about the question. Bella had fallen asleep before Carlisle had been able to answer her question about Charlie and for that he, as well as the other three, had been thankful. He watched as Carlisle took out a pot and set about creating a base of homemade pulled beef stew. Bella wasn't eating nearly as much as she needed to and that had them all worried.

“It's difficult to say,” Jasper said after a long moment of silence and handed the plastic packets of fresh basil and oregano to Carlisle. “She's continuously fluctuating between a sense of numbness, small short lived panic attacks, and a confusing combination of fear, rage and grief that's almost too strong to bear. The more she tries to control her emotions and to swallow her grief, the longer her panic attacks become and the more violent her nightmares.”

Carlisle nodded as he swept the chopped herbs from the plastic cutting board into the pot with the knife and added a small dollop of olive oil.

“And Edward?” he asked, peeling a sweet yellow onion.

Jasper watched as he diced the onion with careful precision, sweeping it into the simmering pot as well before starting in on four cloves of garlic.

“He's worried for Bella, but he's no longer afraid of her. He doesn't fear holding her; however her panic attacks make him increasingly uncomfortable. I believe his discomfort stems more from not knowing what to do than anything else.”

Carlisle was quiet as he stirred the sautéing herbs and vegetables in the pot with a flat wooden spatula. He understood Edward's discomfort, he felt it too, but as a doctor he had far more experience with coaching patients out of panicked states. Turning to the refrigerator he removed a packet of beef bones and peeled back the plastic film before placing them in the pot and adding just enough water to cover them. Covering the pot tightly with a silver lid, he set the burner to simmer and leaned back against the sink behind the stove. Crossing his arms over his chest he looked up at Jasper.

“And how are you doing with all of this?”

Jasper raised his brows and lowered them just as quickly in a facial expression of a shrug. How was he doing with all of this? Jasper shook his head; he hadn't stopped to think about that before and told Carlisle as much. The only thing he really knew was that he needed to hunt more frequently. The more blood he had in his system, the easier it was to control his reaction to Bella's whirlwind of emotions.

“Perhaps you should take a few days, go visit Alice and Emmett in Seattle?” Carlisle suggested and moved back to the stove, checking on the broth that he was making.

“I'm almost afraid to do that,” Jasper said, handing him the carrots when he requested them. “The force of her emotions, the increasing strength of her panic attacks, I don't want to leave her alone.”

“She's hardly alone,” Carlisle said wisely and wrinkled his nose as he looked down into the simmering pot. “I'm not sure if this smells right, cooking is not as easy for one of our kind to learn by scent as it is for humans.” Jasper huffed in amusement and Carlisle looked up at him with a crooked smile before adding the chopped carrots and replacing the lid. “Beside that Jasper, you cannot influence her emotions forever. Not if she is to heal from this.”

“I know that, I do,” he said and shook his head.

“You're just worried.” Carlisle nodded knowingly. “These things take time, Jasper. Go, take a few days. Give yourself a breather,” he arched a blonde brow at Jasper's grin of amusement. “You know what I mean. See if you can't help Alice with little Bella's brother.”

“An infant?” Jasper asked drily, leveling Carlisle with a look that questioned the man's sanity. “Carlisle, I may be good, but I'm not that good. I doubt there's anyone alive or of our kind,” he amended at the amused twitch of the doctor's lips, “who can possibly control an infant's emotions.”

“It's not about controlling,” Carlisle said with amusement. “As any parent will tell you, it's simply about making the infant feel safe.”

Jasper rolled his eyes and shook his head before turning to leave the kitchen. “An infant,” he mumbled to himself ignoring the feel of Carlisle's amusement that followed him through the house.

He made his way silently up the stairs and offered Esme a smile as he passed her in the hall. Stepping into Edward's room, he looked down at the sleeping girl in the bed. Sitting down on the bed, opposite to where Edward lay, he touched Bella's shoulder and watched silently as her eyes fluttered open. Bending down and kissing her cheek, he told her that he would be traveling to Seattle for a few days, promising to call her at least twice a day.

Edward kept his eyes closed, listening to the conversation and Jasper's thoughts as his brother spoke with Bella. Smirking when he made her promise to ask Carlisle for morphine when she needed it while he was gone; Edward rolled his eyes beneath his closed lids. He knew that Bella was only agreeing for Jasper's benefit and his brother's thoughts made it clear that he knew it as well. Opening his eyes when Bella moved, he helped her to sit up so that she could hug Jasper as she wanted to.

Edward watched as Jasper kept his arms wrapped around Bella and laid her back on the pillows before kissing her brow and standing. Call me if she needs me, Jasper thought to Edward as he looked at his brother. Nodding and watching Jasper leave the room, he kept still as Bella moved with some difficulty and curled back against his side. He knew that her ribs were in a great deal of pain, but she had insisted repeatedly that she was fine when she rolled onto her side to sleep with her head on his chest. He had tried lying on his side and curling his body around hers so that she could lie flat, but Bella wouldn't have it.

Listening to her heartbeat slow and her breaths even out, Edward moved his hand from where it rested on her hip to gently comb through the ends of her hair. Turning his head, he pressed a cool kiss to her brow and closed his eyes with his nose buried in her hair. Sleep well, my love.