The Way It Should Have Happened…

Chapter 9

Bella became aware of her surroundings a few minutes before she opened her eyes. Being unconscious and so near death from the blood loss, she had been spared most of the torture of the transformation. Only now, as she struggled to wake up to the endless first and last day of her existence, did she begin to notice how she felt. She had no idea what had happened to her.

Then she swallowed and thought that she must be very sick, having the worst sore throat she could ever remember, an agony each time she tried to swallow. Her throat felt raw, like it was being scrubbed with sandpaper, tongue dried out and stuck to the roof of her mouth. She vaguely recalled feeling as if she was burning and knew she must have had a high fever. She felt someone holding her hand and opened her eyes.

"Bella?" Edward said . . . or was that Edward? She looked at the young man sitting holding her hand and felt confused. He resembled her gorgeous husband and was a handsome man but he didn't look quite like Edward. This person didn't have the pale perfect features but, instead looked like a plainer version of him, still strikingly handsome but not the perfection she'd always known. The black eyes stared at her from a face that was not quite Edward. The same tousled hair and strong bone structure but the stunning splendor of his heavenly face was missing. What had happened to him?

"How do you feel?" he asked, never taking his eyes from her face.

"Have I been sick?" she asked, confused and not wanting to look at him. Maybe something had happened to her eyes. She knew eyesight could be damaged by a very high fever. Could that be what was making him look different to her?

"You don't remember?" he asked, quietly. "Let me get Carlisle," and he stood up and walked to the door. She watched him move, wondering if he'd been sitting by her for a long time as he didn't move with his usual grace nor was his voice the angelic sound she recalled. He looked and sounded just ordinary. What had happened?

She heard Edward outside the door, call softly for Carlisle, then the sound of Carlisle's step on the stairs and they both re-entered the room together.

Bella stared at Carlisle. Where were his movie star good looks? He was a nice-looking blond man still but nothing more.

"Bella," Carlisle said, coming to where she lay in the bed. "How do you feel?"

"What's going on? Edward asked me the same thing. I have a terrible sore throat. Have I been sick long? I can't seem to remember. Edward, I need a glass of water. Could you get it for me, please?" she said, sitting up and shoving the hair out of her eyes. Edward didn't move but continued to watch her warily.

"You don't remember what happened?" Carlisle asked, gently.

"We came home from our honeymoon because I'm pregnant," she stated, moving her hand to her flat taut stomach. She looked down at herself, then her eyes met Carlisle's as the memory of her loss returned to her. "Oh," she said, her hand dropping away. She had vague fleeting images of hearing an argument in the hallway, getting up to see what was wrong, opening the door and falling into Edward's arms, Rosalie`s angry glare and Jasper`s sharp teeth coming toward her. She didn't understand what it all meant.

"Bella," Carlisle began, "we had to change you. There was too much blood loss and there wasn't any other way. I hope you can understand."

Shocked, she sprang up out of the bed, quicker than she'd ever been able to move, throwing herself back against the wall of the bedroom, cracking the plaster as she thrust herself away from Carlisle and Edward. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror over the dresser on the other side of the room and moved toward it faster than she could think of moving, crashing into it, splintering the wood but she didn`t feel the impact.

Her eyes had bright red pupils but otherwise she looked the same. The incision on her stomach was gone along with the pain of it as well as the long scar on the inside of her forearm where she`d been stitched after the accident at her birthday party. She turned back to them, whirling around twice, not in control of her newborn vampire strength and speed. She stopped and faced the two of them.

"No, you couldn't! You wouldn't! Now when I wasn't ready. Not when I didn't want it, not when I wanted to try again for a baby. You wouldn't take that away from me!" she hissed at them.

"Bella, please try to be calm," Carlisle said, holding his hands out to his sides and advancing slowly toward her. Edward was creeping toward her from the other side.

"I'm dying of thirst!" she screamed at the two of them, clutching her throat, realizing that she wasn't dying but already dead. She felt fury such as she had never known and thought with total clarity that she wanted to kill the two of them, rend them limb from limb and ignite the writhing pieces, right here in her bedroom.

Having seen it several time before in other members of his family, Carlisle could read the expression on her face and ceased his advance toward her, stepping instead to the door and calling for Emmett and Jasper.

 

*          *          *

Charlie had been calling Carlisle for three days now, asking how his daughter was, always getting the same answer. She was doing as well as could be expected, they thought she'd make a full recovery but she still couldn't come to the phone and there was still a risk of infection so he couldn't stop by and see her. Three days! He'd had enough and was out of patience. There was something here that just didn't add up, he was certain of it.

When Edward had first come on the scene, from the night of their first date, there had been something odd between his daughter and that boy. One date and she had been so in love with him that she'd run away from him, not wanting to be trapped in Forks like her mother.

The memories of that night still ached when he remembered them. He didn't think he'd made such a bad life for Bella and her mother that she'd need to run away from the possibility of it. Geez, it had been their first date. How had Renee raised her?

She'd been injured that time because the boy had chased after her. That accident, when she'd fallen down the stairs and through the window, had been Edward's fault. She wouldn't have been hurt if it wasn't for him.

Then, he'd taken her into the woods and broken her heart, or he assumed that was what happened since they'd never spoken about it to him to this day. What kind of young man does that? He'd lived with her those months when Edward was gone and couldn't get the look in her eyes out of his head. Something in her had died that night and Carlisle tells him the kid was suicidal? Did Bella know how crazed Edward was when she married him? Something wasn't right about the two of them. He hadn't wanted his daughter to get married but the girl was eighteen and he couldn't stop her.

Enough, Charlie thought in disgust. He would go out to the Cullens' house and make them let him see her. He was the police chief after all, he'd use his civil authority if need be but he'd see his daughter today. He put on his jacket, slipped the gun into its holster at his waist and headed out to the car.

 

*          *          *
 

Emmett and Jasper flew up the stairs to Edward's room, stopping just inside the doorway, assessing the situation. Jasper immediately sent out calming waves toward Bella, hoping he could help diffuse the situation.

Bella was half-crouched, snarling at Edward, who was staring at her in open-mouthed horror. He'd known the newborn year would be difficult but there seemed to be no trace of the woman he loved in the creature he was facing. He'd seen newborns in his long existence before and her newborn bloodlust seemed to be laced with an underlying rage that he wasn't prepared for and didn't know how to deal with it.

"Hey, Bella," Emmett said, trying for casual conversation. "Want to go hunting with us? You'll feel a lot better once you aren't so thirsty. That thirst, it's a killer," he said, laughing lightly. "How about it?"

"Were you in on this whole plot?" she questioned Emmett, never taking her eyes from Edward.

"Plot?" Emmett asked, sincerely confused by the question. "I just want to go hunting. Come on, let's head out, maybe take down a few mountain lions or even a bear if we get lucky."

Bella shifted her eyes from Edward to Emmett and back. She wasn't thirsty for animal blood. She wanted salty, tangy human blood and suddenly she smelled it and closed her eyes, breathing it in. Was there anything in the world that had ever smelled that delicious?

She feinted toward Edward who stepped backward as Emmett and Jasper lunged toward her. She picked up Emmett and tossed him like a rag doll toward Jasper, knocking them both to the floor. Edward grabbed her from behind, trying to restrain her and she drove an elbow hard into his ribs, forcing him to let go. There was only Carlisle left between her and the door and she shoved him aside and raced down the stairs just as she heard an insistent knock on the front door.

Alice, a look of horror dawning on her face, yelled her name, trying to stop her, as Bella sped toward the door, but there was nothing anyone could do. She was too fast, too strong and too intent on quenching her thirst.

Bella pulled on the doorknob, yanking the door off the hinges and tossing it aside. Charlie stood there, eyes wide as he stared at the monster who had been his daughter. She looked the same, though maybe a bit prettier, except for the red eyes and pallor and his daughter had never had that kind of strength. He didn't have time to consider what had happened to her as she grabbed him for what he thought was a hug.

"Hey, Bells," was the last thing Charlie Swan ever said as his daughter snapped his neck and sank her razor sharp teeth in his throat, drawing the blood out of his body in huge gulps.
 

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