Start Living Now

Standing by the door was a tall, dark-skinned boy with somewhat short, black hair. He was wearing a long sleeved grey shirt, and had an excited, hopeful look on his face. He walked up to my bed with a smile.

“Hi. I’m Jacob. Jacob Black.”

I stared at him with what I knew had to be a dumb look on my face. Thanks to a series of mixed emotions, I had no idea what to say to him. I was angry because he had the nerve to storm into the room when Carlisle and I were having a very important, very PRIVATE conversation, yet utterly shocked at the same time. He looked so familiar. It was his eyes that did it; I felt like I’d seen them before. But I was also willing to bet my life on the fact that we’d never met.

The awkward silence must’ve gotten to him, because Jacob glanced over at Carlisle nervously. “Uh, Carlisle? Can she hear me? Can she understand what I’m saying? Because she doesn’t seem to.”

Okay, so NOW I knew what I wanted to say to him.

“Of course I can understand what you’re saying, jerk! What do you think I am, stupid or something?! I’m the smartest person on my entire reservation! And who the hell do you think you are, storming in here like it’s your place, when me and Dr. Carlisle are having a fucking private conversation?!”

Did I forget to mention that when I get angry, I tend to turn into a pretty big potty-mouth? The look I gave him was enough to send even Yuma off running. And it wasn’t like Yuma was a chicken either; that boy had more guts than anybody I’ve ever met. That is, except maybe that russet-colored wolf that jumped on the truck to get the gun away from that kid.

Jacob returned my gaze with just as much vigor. “Look, I’m sorry about that, but I just wanted to see if you were ok. You gave us quite a scare. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get you here in time with all the blood you were loosing. And I didn’t want to attract any bloodsuc-err-vampires that weren’t members of this family. Sorry about that, Doc.”

“No offense taken, Jacob. Now if you don’t mind, I think I should continue looking after Jael. She still has to learn what happened.”

At hearing my name, Jacob’s mood seemed to brighten. He looked at me with a huge smile on his face.

“Jael. That’s a pretty name. Wait, what happened there?” He pointed at the scar on my shoulder.

“Carlisle, when we were back at the clearing, those lines weren’t there. That scar was shaped like a crescent moon, with a few dots around it.”

I carefully looked down at my shoulder. But after seeing my scar, I quickly forgot about any pain. “What the hell?! What did you do to me?! My scar; it looks even worse now! This is never going to heal!”

It was true. What had originally been the lovely -note the sarcasm- crescent-shaped pattern Niko had left on my shoulder with his teeth was now the starting point of two long, jagged-looking claw marks that covered two more interlacing wounds that were currently being held together by tons of stitches. To put it bluntly, my shoulder looked like shit.

Apparently, all of the commotion had Carlisle on his last nerve, because he had an aggravated look on his face.

“That’s enough, Jake. Stop pestering her before she goes into shock again. Now please, get out before everyone downstairs comes-”

At that moment, the door burst open again, and two females walked in. A blonde haired male came in shortly after them. Since I didn’t know anything about these people, I stuck to my wolfish instincts, and described them according to their physical appearance and gender. The first female had short, brownish colored hair. She was a tiny little thing with a sincere face. The second female had long, golden-brown locks; she couldn’t have been any older than sixteen. The male that followed had curly blonde hair and had a sympathetic look on his face. There was something strange about these three. I couldn’t put my finger on it; there were multiple things about them that put me in a bad mood. For one, they reeked. And two, they all had the same honey colored eyes. It freaked me out.

The teenage girl spoke first. “Jacob, there you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. C’mon, let’s go downstairs; Nahuel is out hunting with Emmet, and I haven’t seen you all day.” She put an innocent look on her face, as if all she wanted was Jacob’s company.

Oh, Ancestors. I didn’t buy that innocent look at all. This girl was a pain in the ass. I could tell already, and she hadn’t even been in the room for a whole minute.

“Not right now Nessie, I have to talk to Jael about some important stuff.”

“Oh no you don’t!” I yelled. “I don’t want to talk to any of you except for Carlisle. Now get the hell out of here!” This was too much for one person to handle, and it didn’t look like the Doc was going to help me at all.

Now it was the short-haired female’s turn to talk. “I tried stopping her as soon as I saw it, Carlisle, but she’s as fast as her father. That, and it’s going to be hard to convince your patient to go back to sleep. I thought Jasper might be able to help.” She looked at me. “I’m Alice; this is Jasper, and Renesmee. It’s so nice to finally meet you, Jael. We’re going to be great friends, no matter what anyone says.”

I looked at her as if she had the plague. “What the hell is this? Some sort of a show? Well I don’t want any part in it. Get them out of here, Doc.”

I hadn’t realized that the whole time everyone was talking, Carlisle had been busy trying to quietly usher them out of the room. And at seeing my discomfort, he rushed into the center of them room.

“Everyone, please! She just woke up! She doesn’t even know what’s going on, or what’s happened to her! Jacob and Renesmee, get out of here. Now, Jacob- you can talk to her about the attack later. Alice, stop scaring her; it’s not the future just yet. Everyone out! Except for Jasper; you go over there in case your help is needed. Out! And quietly, if you please.”

Quietly, yet reluctantly, the group filed out of the room, shutting the door in the process. Jasper walked over and sat in a chair placed in a corner of the room.

Carlisle turned to me. “I apologize for all of the commotion; my family gets rather excited when a unique houseguest arrives. I hope they haven’t bothered you that much. They know you’re not to be disturbed, but I guess they just couldn’t help themselves now that you’re awake.” He smiled at me reassuringly. “Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.”

I look up at him from the bed. “No offense Doc, but your family’s weird.” At this remark, both Carlisle and Jasper chuckled.

“Weird is one way of putting it. We prefer the term unique.” Carlisle said. “We’ll fix you up as best as we can before finding a more suitable lodging for you. The smell is only going to get worse for you when the rest of the coven arrives.”

“Yeah, what’s up with that? You guys don’t clean you house or take baths or something? What suitable lodging? Coven? What’s going on, Doc? You aren’t doing a good job of explaining things.”

“In due time, Jael. Right now, I need to tend to your bandages. They need to be changed. Try not to move so much, it will be more comfortable for you.”

As Carlisle saw to the many bandages on my body, I brought up one of the many questions left unanswered by him. “You know, you never answered my question.”

“Oh? Which one? There were many questions I wasn’t able to answer.”

“The one about how my body isn’t healing as fast as it should.”

“Oh that one.” Carlisle tensed for a moment. He looked over to Jasper, who walked to the side of the bed opposite the doctor. “Try not to overreact, Jael. It’s not as bad as it sounds. If you become upset, Jasper is here to calm you down. Understand?”

I took a deep breath, and nodded my head. “Tell me.”

“After you were hit by that truck and shot multiple times, you were damaged in multiple focal points of your body. Not only were your clavicle and scapula hit numerous times- which explains the severity of your scar- but your coccyx -tailbone- was fractured in two essential places. And since you are a Shapeshifter and the tailbone is an imperative balance point for your lupine as well as your human Form, it will take longer to heal because your body needs to account for both Forms including the way your body changes when you switch between Forms. You also suffered from numerous flesh wounds from the fight between you and Paul- the grey wolf- as well as from the bullets.”

That was somewhat understandable. I didn’t exactly get the names of all the bones; but hey, he’s a doctor, it’s what they do. The point is, most of the bones in my lower torso and upper right side were broken, among other flesh wounds. But he only referred to my body healing properly for two Forms; what about my third?

“Are you alright Jael? Do you need something?”

“Carlisle, you said it would take longer for my body to heal because I can Shift.”

“Yes, longer than usual. You have two Forms of skeletons and everything else that goes with it.”

“No, I have three.” It was amazing how quickly I grew to be able to trust this guy.

Carlisle froze for a minute. “Three? I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“I can Shift into three Forms; my human one, my wolf Form, and I can Shift into an American Golden Eagle.” Jasper shifted and gave Carlisle a knowing look.

“Oh, well that changes things a bit.”

“Does that mean it will take longer to heal?”

“Of course. But considering your ability to shift into three Forms, I’m surprised you’re conscious right now. You are healing remarkably fast for someone in your condition. But you still need a lot of rest; your bones haven’t completely healed. It will take time.”

A thought popped into my head. I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it already; I still needed to get to Canada. “And how long do you think that will take, Doc?”

Instead of looking at me, Carlisle turned to the blonde boy. “Jasper.”

Jasper nodded, and shut his eyes. It was then that I began to a reassuring feeling of serenity, to my surprise. Carlisle turned back to face me.

“This will come as a shock to you, Jael. That is why Jasper is doing the best that he can to keep you calm.”

“Ok.” I felt kind of giggly.

“I’ve done the best I can to stabilize you, but you are a stubborn one. I’m sorry to say that it will take at least six to eight weeks for at least one of your Forms to heal properly. And so on. Judging by how quickly you awoke, the earliest for each Form to heal would be four to six weeks.”

In the back of my head, something told me that wasn’t a good thing. But the way I was feeling now told me otherwise. What kind of morphine did the Doc give me?

“That’s not good, Carlisle.”

“No, it’s not. I’m also sorry to say that you will need to have therapeutic sessions with me to ensure you get full flexibility in your bones back.”

Okay, forget feeling giggly. This was insane! There was no way I could stay here and just wait for Niko to find me! A force in my head was trying to calm me down and comfort me, but I wouldn’t let it.

“What?! I can’t do that! I have to get out of America before I get caught! And what do you mean ‘how quickly you awoke?!’ How long have I been unconscious?!”

Carlisle sighed. “Four days.” This time I hit the roof. I’m surprised he could understand me with the way I was yelling.

Carlisle looked to Jasper once again. “I think it’s time was helped her get to sleep.” Jasper nodded, and closed his eyes once more.

Soon after, my body began to shut down, and I fell back into unconsciousness.