What's Forever

Chapter 34

Bella and he kept talking so I went to go check on my daughter who miraculously slept through all of that. The door was closed and her white noise machine was on but she slept soundly through what just occurred two floors down. Nothing short of a miracle. Since she was still asleep, I went back downstairs and found Esme cleaning.

"Esme stop, let me." I told her.

"It's okay ..." she huffed softly.

I bent down next to her and placed my hand on hers.

"Let me do this. Go outside and take a couple of deep breaths." I insisted.

"I'll stay here, the bleach helps." Esme said softly before standing up.

I got to scrubbing until there was no blood left and then I just kept going to make sure that the scent didn't linger.

"Oh God, Valentina, let me do that." Bella said when she walked into the room.

"I'm already done." I said, smiling softly as her entire face turned bright red.

"How do you feel?" Esme asked her.

"I'm fine, Carlisle sews faster than any other doctor I've had and Valentina has such a soft touch I didn't even feel it." she lied, at least about me. She winced more than a few times as I pulled the glass out.

When Edward and Alice walked back into the room I knew it was bad, worse than I thought by the look on his face. They were quick to leave after Alice got Bella some new clothes and everyone came back. The somber looks on their faces worried me.

"Val ..." Emmett sighed, wrapping me in his arms.

"Thank you, for cleaning up." Esme sadly said.

"And for helping me." Carlisle added.

"It's nothing, really. I figured Bella would appreciate another human in the room." I told him.

"She did, she told me so." Carlisle said.

"How bad is it?" I asked no one in general.

"I don't know." Alice said.

At that moment we heard Ava cry through the little monitor and it made me jump in the sudden silence. I wanted to run upstairs but I took my time, I know all of them can hear my heart racing but I'm trying my best to calm down.

"Hey piccola, it's okay sweetie momma is here."

I wrapped my daughter in her blanket and walked back downstairs warily, not knowing what to expect. Rose and Alice looked at me and then at Ava, Jasper took a couple of steps back away from us. I think that hurt more than anything else.

"What were you thinking?" he asked me.

"What?"

"You saw me! You saw my face and still, you tried to ... why?" he angrily asked.

"I thought that if you focused on me, on smelling me since I don't appeal to that side of you that you could forget the scent of blood for a second. For just enough time to get out of here."

"That was dangerous." Emmett said.

"I could've hurt you, darlin." Jasper sighed.

"I'm fine, you didn't hurt me." I told him, swaying slightly.

"Can I ..." Rose timidly asked.

"Did any of you ... feed? I don't know what to call it. Did you take care of business out there?" I asked.

"Yes." they all chorused.

"Are you okay?" I asked Rose.

"I'm fine now, I promise."

The decision was made for me when Ava reached out to Rose. The vampire carefully grabbed my baby who quickly nuzzled into the cool temperature of Rose's body. The sigh that she let out was oddly relieved, I can't quite say that I understand it.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked Jasper and Jared.

"I'm just waiting." Jared said while Jasper looked away.

"For what?"

"For you to leave running and screaming about the Cullen monsters." he sighed.

"I'm not afraid of you. Not any of you." I told him, surprised at how true that was at this moment.

"Jasper could have killed you!" he growled.

"Why are you trying to scare me? Do you want me to leave?"

"Yes!" he shouted, making my daughter cry and that I won't allow.

"Say no more." I told him.

I took my daughter from Rose whose face alternated from sadness to anger between Jared, Ava, and myself.

"Emmett, can you take me home?" I asked him.

"I ... yeah." he sighed.

Ava cried up until she was in her car seat and it broke my heart.

"I don't know if I have clean scrubs at your house but I have a shift in the morning." I told him.

"You're staying with me?" he asked surprisedly.

"Do you want me to go to my house?" I asked and his hesitation hurt more than Jared's outright demand.

"No! Not at all, I just thought ..."

"Jared said he wanted me to leave the family house, that isn't that same thing as my home with you. Unless you don't want me there either, all you have to do is say so." I sighed, trying not to let the hurt be evident.

"I don't want you to leave. I want this to be another home for both of you." he quickly said.

The short drive was made in silence but Emmett laced our fingers together and kept kissing the back of my hand softly. I took Ava out and went straight to nurse in her nursery, she latched on quickly and fell asleep once she was milk drunk again. When I walked into Emmett's room after laying her back down, Emmett was looking at his phone.

"Bad news?" I asked.

"Edward wants a family meeting." he sighed.

"When?"

"As soon as Bella falls asleep."

"Don't lie to me, how bad is this?" I asked him.

"Bad, I don't know what's going to happen." he said, rubbing his hands over his face.

"Emmett ... can I ask you something and you promise to tell me the truth?"

"Of course."

"Are you leaving?" I asked him, feeling the tears coming.

"What?"

"If they choose to leave, will you go?"

"No! No, if they choose to leave I won't. I can't." he said, striding over to take my face in his hands. "I love you, both of you, and I will not leave."

"Promise?" I whispered.

"I promise."

After I showered, we laid down and I pretended to fall asleep. I was able to fool him enough that he kissed my head and ran out of the house at around 2 am. Then I just sat up in bed crying. I texted my supervisor and told her that I'm feeling under the weather and won't make it in today while I waited for Emmett to come back. He was gone for an hour and was not happy when he came back.

"I thought you would be asleep." he sighed.

"Like I could sleep. Do you want to talk about it?"

"You have to work in a couple of hours."

"I texted my supervisor, told her I wasn't feeling good. Please, Emmett, talk to me."

He walked over to the bed and laid down with his head in my lap. I just placed my hand on his cheek and rubbed my thumb softly over it while he gathered his thoughts.

"Edward wants us to leave."