The Only Exception

It's only been a few days since the incident - but I was healing up nicely, thanks to Carlisle and his trusty skills. I was still sore, the bruises could have been more severe though, so I was glad that they weren't as bad as they looked.

Jake had been pretty much at my side the whole time, though I was almost always asleep when he came. He would apparently try not to leave my side, from what Alice had told me. It was crazy that he thought Oliver would come back - he wouldn't, and even I knew that. The police had taken him in for questioning, and they were keeping him locked up until next week - where he'd be going to court for his sentence. I wasn't going to go, no way. Even though I knew he couldn't get me, my mind kept telling me he would.

I was still in shock from what happened to me a few nights ago. I thought Oliver had finally gotten a grip on reality that my mother was never coming back and he sooner or later had to forget her painful memories. I thought that he'd finally given up his aching need to beat me down for his own lack of control. He knew what he was doing, no matter how much alcohol was running through his system.

His relapse the first time - which wasn't much, but enough to trigger his brain that something was wrong, it scared me, it really did. I had to fight with myself over and over again about how it was just a mistake, he was still learning to control himself. I mean, he wasn't taking counseling and he was doing perfectly fine without it. I had to keep telling myself that it was a small slip up, nothing too concrete.

But that was a mistake. I regret thinking that everything was going to be alright - when in reality, it was never going to be alright. Not even okay.

I hated reliving in my head over and over again the times I yelled at Jacob because I was protecting my father. I felt stupid now realizing what I had done, and no matter how many times I tried to apologizie to Jacob the few times I'd seen him, about how stupid I felt and how pathetic I was, he wouldn't budge. He'd say it was expected because he was my father - and that Jake would probably do the same thing. But that's the opposite, I'd tell him. He'd ask why and I'd go on and on about how our fathers are very different, and how Billy would never lay a hand on Jake. But he would shrug off my excuses and tell me to stop apologizing.

Sooner or later Jake was going to realize that I would never stop apologizing to him. He'd have to give in sooner or later, as long as he got the message that I was sending him. I knew that it was all my fault, causing this much damage in less than two weeks was critical for me. But like I had said before, Jake wouldn't let me say anything, let alone 'sorry'.

I knew that I'd never get over what happened to me, I'd keep re-living the beatings in my head like they were some precious memory. This wasn't a memory - and I understood that, but I also had to realize that these flashbacks that turn into my nightmares were never going to leave me. They've been embedded into my brain like patterns so deeply embedded into a poet's writing. I didn't know how else to describe it, there weren't the right words.

I'd debated therapy, too, and right now that just seemed to complicate things. I was already going through the change of moving in with Jacob for the rest of however long I planned on staying. To be honest, even knowing Jacob and I had something special, I wasn't going to stay forever. That wasn't my plan. I'd planned on traveling around the world; the dream I'd had ever since I was little. It was Oliver's idea.

Oliver wanted to go. He'd showed me the ropes on the places he'd want to go, like London, and Rome. I fancied going to Austria, he said he could fit that somewhere into the traveling plans. We'd planned to go together once I was out of school. We'd saved up since then, all the money was sitting in the bank, a special label pressed into the account. But things have changed, I guessed.

I wouldn't tell Jacob about this, not yet, anyways. I couldn't put more stress on the table, I couldn't bear to feed him more trouble and irritation. I'd plan a time to tell him in the future, near future, which would be soon. School's out, and I'd need to make my leave sooner or later.

I would have chosen to go to college, with all the money saved up and Oliver out of the picture, but I'd never sent out anything to colleges, and I hadn't the clue of what to major in. So I really didn't have a reason to go.

I repressed a struggling sigh as I ran my good hand through my thick hair, it was still hard to move, but at least I was able to walk around without collapsing to the ground. Things were taking a turn for the worse, and I didn't know what in the world I was supposed to do right now. I had choices and decisions to make all in a very short amount of time.

Suddenly I heard a booming sound of laughter from downstairs, along with a slam of a door and some cursing. I found it to be the time to get out of this bed and downstairs to see what was going on.

I was still in the Cullen's house and apparently I would be staying here 'till I was ready enough to go back to Jake's. I still didn't look good; I was bruised badly - still, and the cut on my lip was still visible. Alice and Rosalie had come in everyday to brush my hair while I slept, sometimes while I was awake and Jacob wasn't here. Yes, Sam still made him patrol, though he would have fought to stay if everyone told him I'd be fine.

They'd take care of me, even Emmett would come in and make me laugh when Jake wasn't here. I needed that, a lot.

I winced as I took small steps down the stairs, my heart beginning to race as I pushed myself to take another step. On the second to last step, I was so close. I gasped suddenly, as I began to fall, but warm arms wrapped around me, catching my small fall that could have injured me all the more.

I looked up, a smile beaming on my face as I looked into his warm chocolate brown eyes. His smile never faltered as I turned to pull him into my arms. I didn't care about the pain at this moment, I just needed to hug him, needed to be embraced in his arms, to smell the woodsy scent from him made my heart calm just a bit.

"I missed you," I whispered, my voice was strained from all the stress. Jake chuckled, kissing the top of my head as he helped me down the last two steps.

"I wasn't gone that long, Bray." He smirked. He placed his right arm around my waist and hoisted me up so I wasn't putting all the weight on my right side. It hurt like hell, the pressure was intense at times.

"Still," I muttered. As Jacob and I walked into the family room, which everyone was currently settled at, I was met with a smiling Rose and Alice, who were sitting down next to their loved ones.

"Hello, Braylin!" Alice chimed. "How are you feeling today?"

I grimaced. I could tell the truth and get everyone on my tail about it, or I could just lie and tell them that I was fine. Edward coughed as he shook his head. I glared over at him as he put on a giant smirk. That wasn't going to work.

I sighed, "I'm alright," I glanced over at Edward, who just smiled at me. "Still sore, of course." Rose frowned at me as she let her smooth hands twirl in her long luscious blonde hair. God I was so jealous of how beautiful everyone was.

"I wouldn't be thinking those kinds of negative thoughts about yourself if I were you," Edward mumbled. Again, I glared over at him but decided to ignore it afterwards. Jacob looked at me funny, but I shook it off.

"I think that it's safe enough to take Braylin back to my house," Jake spoke minutes after it went silent. Rosalie growled under her breath and shook her head. In response Jake growled back defensively.

"Rose, don't start this again." Carlisle ordered.

"Start what?" I asked. Emmett began to chuckle and shake his head.

"Oh, these two have been going at it for the last few days, Bray." He explained. I gave him an unsure nod, not really understanding what they were 'going at.'

Edward sighed, rolling his eyes. "He is trying to say that your boyfriend and my sister have been shooting rather rude remarks at each other since you've been... er- unconscious." Shaping my mouth into an 'o', I nodded, understanding instantly.

Emmett let out a hard laugh, "You missed it though, Bray. Whoo, you should have seen Rose's face when -" Rose growled instantly and slapped Emmett in the back of the head with her hand. "Ow, Rose!"

"Shut up," She muttered. I stifled a giggle, finding this to be quite entertaining.

"So Doc, can we go?" Jake asked, rather rushed.

Carlisle sighed, taking off his glasses and looking up from his book. "I suppose so. But Braylin, if you're feeling out of the ordinary, or have any pains whatsoever, come back here, alright?"

"Okay, thank you." I smiled attentively at his routine order; after all, he was a doctor. Alice rushed over to me, followed by Rosalie and Emmett. She grabbed me in a hug - it was gentle, of course. Then came Rose and Emmett, who smiled at me and hugged me as well. I smiled, bidding my goodbyes to the others as Jake pulled me to the front door in a hurry.

"So long, mongrel." Rose muttered. I giggled, once again and rolled my eyes.

"Hey blondie," Jacob called over from the front door. "What do you see when you look into a blonde's eyes? The back of her head." Jacob and I began to walk out of the house, and then I heard Emmett suddenly let out a boom of laughter, which lasted for about a minute before a loud smack was heard, followed by an "OW!"

"Good one, Jake." I smiled warmly at him. Once in the car, Jake looked over at me and smiled. It was a quiet ride back, except for the occasional I love you's whispered from Jake's mouth. I'd only smile at him and nod a little bit.

We'd arrived at Jake's house fifteen minutes later, and I just wanted to go lay down, I was too exhausted to do much of anything besides sleep. Jacob helped change me into some of his clothes since mine were still at my house. He helped lay me down gently and got himself into the bed along side me. I could have been asleep within seconds if Jacob hadn't interrupted.

"Braylin?" He whispered.

I sighed, "Yeah?"

"You know that I love you, right?" What kind of question was that?

I looked up at Jacob, confusion etched on my face prominently. "What's going on?" I immediately asked. He shook his head, his eyes showing me nothing. They were blank as of right now. I sighed once again, "Yes, I know you love me."

"Good, that's all I needed to know." He said.

"What's going on, Jake?" I asked. I could feel my nerves begin to go haywire as I looked back into his brown orbs, finally finding some sort of answer. His eyes led me to nothing. Nothing but what I was afraid of. Worry.