Forget Me Not | ✓

25 |Letting Him In

  
   
25
Eclipse
L e t t i n g   H i m   I n
  
   
   

ADELE WAS EXHAUSTED. In her many centuries of life, she had experienced so many things which had built and broken her, and now she'd been broken for the last time. When that wretched newborn wrapped his arms around Paul and tried to choke the life out of him, her still heart clenched within her chest. When he cried out in agony, her sanity collapsed under the weight of the knowledge that she wasn't quick enough or strong enough to save him. Again.

Her only saving grace was knowing that he was still alive, or else she would have shut down on the spot. Adele had been through a great many horrors in her life and emerged from them as a stronger woman, it was true, but this would be the last twig to snap before the dam flooded over.

She willed herself to run as quickly as she could before the emotional toll of the series of unfornate events that took place that day could take effect. When the tears blurred her vision and her sobs were just barely masked by the rustle of leaves as she and Carlisle ran, she told herself that it was all her fault. She needed to make it past the Treaty Line without breaking down like a weakling, and she needed anger to fuel the fire. It's all my fault, she whispers as she thinks of every way she could have prevented it.

She was fast, almost faster than Edward, so she should have reacted quicker. She was a god damn vampire -- she was supposed to be indestructible. She swore to herself that she woulsnt lose anyone else like how she lost Jace, that she would protect the ones she loved at all costs, but where was she when Paul needed her? She was preoccupied with being pissed off at him for wanting to protect her. She should have been with him.

God, she was so fucking stupid.

She leapt over the river which established the Treaty Line and didn't give it a second thought. Unlike Carlisle, she didn't take a moment to recognize the shift in the timeline as two vampires crossed the line for the first time in ninety years.

The wolves joined them about two minutes in. Jared Cameron and Quill Ateara had volunteered to lead the two Cullens to Billy Black's house where Paul and Jacob were being kept. It wasn't a long run, maybe ten minutes, but it felt like a lifetime to Adele as Paul's pained cries grew louder in her ears.

Everyone was solemnly gathered by the front deck when they arrived. Sam was guarding the front door when the father and daughter emerged from the trees and hesitantly approached. He, Billy Black, and Carlisle exchnaged words of a mutual understanding before Same stepped aside to bid him entrance, but Adele didn't hear them. She stared at the doorway as if once shs stepped foot onto ghe threshold, she'd carry her curse of mortality with her.

"I can't go in there." She muttered, then turned to Billy, "I apologize for coming onto your lands... I thought I would be able to face him but... I can't." She walked off of the porch and headed for the woods again. She needed to drown out his screams, his pain, his agonizing thoughts -- a warm hand grabbed her arm and she turned to face Jared Cameron. He didn't flinch back from her icy flesh and  met her eyes with a friendliness she hadn't seen in one of the pack members before.
   
"Paul's my best friend." He scratched the bavk of his neck and gave her an awkward lopsided smile. "I dont think he's mentioned me yet, but he talks about you all the time."

She was taken aback. She knew Paul had feelings for her, as did she, but considering the divide between her kind and the shapeshifters, she never figured he would talk about her to his friends.

"I can't face him. The last words I said to him...I told him to stay away. We got into a fight and I can't just walk in there as if nothing h--"

"I --we-- know." He glanced back at the rest of the pack as they shifyed uncomfortably on their feet. "When we shifted, his thoughts were all about you and the fight you two had. Honestly, I think..." She looked expectantly at him. "I think you both were just scared."

"Yeah." Embry Call pitched in. She was beginning to grow on him, especially after he saw how humane she really was. "I don't know about you, but Paul's not the commitment type. But with you, he's different."

Jared cleared his throat.  "A good different--"  Jacob's agonizing screams piercing the chilly evening air as Carlisle broke his ribs to reset them. His pack mates bowed their heads and his poor father flinched in his wheelchair, gripping the handles until his knuckles turned an ugly shade of yellow-purple.

Jared shook his head, as if it would help shake off the sympathy pain he felt for his friend, and returned his attention to Adele. "You changed him in ways we can't explain, but we like this Paul. He's nicer, funnier, and a hell of a lot happier since he met you." He kicked at the sand beneath his feet and sighed. "And if I know anything about him, it's that he would want you there right now, in the middle of fight or not."

This time, his words were followed by Paul's pained shouts as Carlisle moved on to care for him. Adele looked longingly at the house and for the first time, she envied Bella -- envied her for being able to be by Jacob's side without hesitance. Yet there she stood like a stupid girl, wondering whether Paul would want her by his side in his time of need just because of a fight they had days before.

Billy Black caught her eyes and nodded wryly. "Go."

When she entered the house, she walked past the spacious living room and the kitchen across from it to get to the hallway opposite the door. There were four rooms but only two doors were open.

Carlisle emerged from the farthest room and gave her a wry nod as he returned to the first. "He's in there."

She slowly approached the second room and lingered in the doorway as the heart-wrenching sight before her made her stomach churn. Paul lay on the only bed in the room, covered in a thin layer of sweat from enduring the pain of getting his bones set back into place. His chest rose and fell swiftly, his breaths shallow as he tried to lessen the pain.
    
She shut her eyes and focused on wanting to make all of his pain go away, but as she entered his mind, she could almost feel the agony he felt through the vividness of his thoughts. She sighed and let the pain roll over her, and just like that, it dulled almost completely within him.

"A-Adele..." He felt her presence. He dared not look up for fear of bringing the pain back. She walked over to him and sighed upon meeting his deep brown eyes. "What...what is that?"

Her lips formed a ghost of a smile. "I let you in." You feel what I feel. Her heart may not beat, her skin may have been as cold as ice, and that sensation alone was weird, but he felt as though he was her. He felt no pain. It was the most intimate thing she could ever do, but it didn't matter because it took his pain away and she did that.

But it does matter. It matters more than you know. "It's...odd."

She grabbed a wet cloth on the bedside table beside him and gently wiped the sweat from his head, then his arms. "How are you feeling?"

"Better, now that you're here."

She carefully moved onto his torso as he watched her. She pursed her lips. "I'm sorry about the other night...I did not realize how you really felt until...until I experienced it with you."

"I know." He spoke gently so as not to scare her away. He felt like that every moment during the battle; he felt that sense of dread every time he didn't see her on the battlefield. "Will you stay for a while?"

She nodded. "Until the pain goes away."

She stayed through the night until dawn came and Paul finally fell asleep on his own. The pack, although they were right outside, didn't object to her presence -- not after she took Paul's pain away. They finally accepted their relationship, regardless of the complications. Maybe Adele did, too. After all, her life was always one big complicated mess -- but the difference was, she loved this complicated mess.