All Bark, No Bite [Jacob & Edward]

3

"I've seen magic that swaps a person from one body to another, but magic that places a fetus into another body?" Carlisle mutters flipping through his books with a frown on his face. "And one that inflicts that amount of damage to the new host?"

Everyone - except Rosalie - is gathered in the living room area flipping through their respective books looking for something that could make such a thing happen. Rosalie decided she'd do the "charitable" thing and watch Jacob while the rest of the family scoured their resources for answers. Answers were slow to come even with the weirdly specific case they were dealing with. Nothing seemed to fit all of the parameters.

"Maybe it didn't mean to inflict the wound...maybe Jacob almost broke the spell and that's what caused the wound?" Alice mumbled more to herself than anyone else as she flipped through the pages.

"A magic spell gone awry can cause serious problems," Carlisle confirms, scribbling a note down on his notepad before returning to his book, "but it's such an oddly specific spell."

"He said he saw a dark figure...but Bella never saw anything." Edward pointed out and watched as pages were flipped in sync.

"Must've been a part of breaking the spell," Alice supplies, "a measure to keep him in place for the spell." No one felt the need to point out how bad it'd backfired. Edward looked grim enough without the reminder.

"But why move the baby?" Jasper asks quietly, bringing the group back to a very important question.

"Danger," Esme's stopped flipping and is staring down at a page, but Edward isn't sure she's even reading from it. "Bella wasn't guaranteed to be able to carry the baby to full term. Witches tend not to interfere with fate, but maybe this one decided it was worth it. "

"But why?" Edward sighed out.

Bella doesn't look very happy as she looks between the group who'd been tossing out ideas. She could force herself to be nice to Jacob. He was carrying her child. He was just trying to protect her. She shouldn't have been out there and he got hurt because of it. She could be nice to him, but it was tearing her up inside that no one had any solid answers that made sense even in this town. Jacob didn't even know that he was carrying a baby. No one had figured out a decent way to tell him that wouldn't result in him trying to get out of bed and therefore making his problems worse. It made her shake just thinking about it. 

"He was just trying to stand up and he started bleeding, Bella. He wasn't doing anything wild to hurt the baby, just said he needed to go to the bathroom."  

Edward wasn't even sure why he was defending him so fiercely, but it's the truth.

"It's farfetched but it's the only thing that makes sense without actually doing a search through the woods." Alice noted and Edward could basically see the exasperation on Bella's face even though she wasn't going anywhere near those woods again.

...

Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Jasper, and Emmett are the team that start the search for whatever was lurking in the trees, meanwhile Edward was left to watch Rosalie watch Jacob.

"We don't need you being distracted because Jacob's in a fragile state," Is the way Alice had worded it as she gathered up her stuff. "You keep doing research, we'll do the fieldwork."

So, here he was sitting next Jacob's bed and hoping he would wake up soon because Rosalie was driving him mad.

"Baby doesn't have ears yet, Rose." He reminded her as she chattered away about unconventional families and being loved anyway. 

He can hear Bella shuffling around quietly, unable to sit down for even a second. He could feel the guilt radiating off of her in waves and as much he wanted to comfort her, Jacob was the one who was genuinely hurt. 

As if on cue, Jacob's eyes open slowly. He seems a bit better considering the roller coaster he's been on, but still not where the baby needs him to be. Edward isn't the only one to notice he's awake as Rosalie's "banter" finally stops so she can finally address someone who can actually hear her.

"Do you think you can eat something?" She was the first to speak, seeming like she genuinely wanted to make sure that he was taken care of. It almost fooled Edward for just a second. 

He stood from his seat next to the bed and grabbed for the cup of water he'd sat down earlier, bringing the straw towards Jacob's lips to give him a sip. He drinks it down like he's been walking through the desert for several days. 

"Get him something light." Edward answers for him. He hasn't eaten anything in almost two days and the only thing keeping him going is a drip. He needs food. The baby needs food. 

He can feel Bella next to him before he can even think to turn and look properly. She's a ball of anxious energy and isn't really something Jacob needs towering over him, but Edward knows he's not going to win explaining this to her. 

"How do you feel?" Edward asks after giving Jacob a moment to wake up fully. 

"Like shit...nauseous." He mumbles quietly. His eyes don't seem to want to find Bella. It's like she's not even there. "What's wrong with me?"

Edward tries not to let the uncertainty show on his face as he digs to find the calmest answer. 

"Some kind of magic was used on you...and Bella." Edward glances over to see her biting at her lip.

"Magic?" Jacob looks as though he wishes he'd stayed asleep as he turns it over in his head.

"It's the only thing that makes the wound closing so slowly make sense. That and the baby." Edward's not sure if he could have casually slid that into conversation if he wanted to. The baby seems to make Bella vibrate at an even higher frequency as she starts tugging at the ends of her sleeves and breathing a little heavier. 

"Baby?" Jacob sounds exhausted and Edward feels genuinely bad for him as he tries to comprehend what was worked out while he was sleeping. 

He said the baby was safe. 

Jacob's not sure why that irritates him so much.

"There was a spell between you and Bella that caused a displacement of the baby." Edward emphasizes this by looking down at Jacob's stomach, resisting the urge to gingerly place a hand against it.  "We're not sure if this was the intended effect, to place the baby inside of you, but that's what ended up happening." Edward can tell even before he's finished his explanation that Jacob seemed to have stopped comprehending as soon as he mentioned "a displacement of the baby". 

"Is...is this a bad dream?"

"God, I wish. It would explain a lot." Edward mumbles to himself.

Bella's still there and Jacob still isn't really looking at her. Edward finally begins to wonder why. Whatever happened doesn't seem to be very helpful for keeping Jacob calm and stable so Edward hands her the empty cup and tries to imply as kindly as he can that she is making everyone anxious. She scurries down the stairs with a huff to refill the cup, leaving Edward and Jacob alone.

They're not speaking, but it's not an awkward silence. It's almost peaceful. Edward can feel his hands grip the duvet to keep from messing with Jacob's hair that's pointing in all directions. His overall hygiene had been neglected for the sake of keeping him alive.

Jacob almost feels like a science experiment, the way Edward keeps analyzing him. It's better than Bella nervously watching him like this weird nightmare would be fixed if she just stared longer and got more and more jittery. It was a bit more comforting, like someone cared about him living as much as he did himself even if it was just because his baby had somehow found its way into Jacob. If Jacob had the energy, he'd take the time to freak out a little. He was a hair away from being disemboweled and now there is a baby in there somehow.

Makes sense, but how are they going to fix all of this?

Jacob tries not to think too hard about that or Edward's hand fiddling with his fingers.