The Promise
by Laura Spudzmom
Chapter 15:
Bella awoke slowly to a whisper-shouted conversation taking place right outside her door and she absently wondered who it could be as she blinked up at her ceiling, trying to get her eyes to focus. Jim and Cora, perhaps?
The more she searched her memories, the more she remembered and she pushed herself up from the bed with a gasp, taking in the date and time on the alarm by her bed at Charlie’s house as tears filled her eyes. “Pete… oh gods above… I left you…” She dropped her head and covered her face with both hands as quiet sobs shook her shoulders. She hadn’t even been gone from this time for twenty four hours, and if not for the raw pain in her soul and the gentle movements of her child, she might’ve thought it all to be a dream, or a nightmare; she couldn’t decide which.
Jasper was the only one who heard Bella over the hushed din of the argument taking place with a red-faced Charlie and he nudged his wife and cut a quick glance at Bella’s door. “Bella’s awake.”
His quiet declaration stopped Charlie mid-rant and he opened his daughter’s door and walked in to see her hunched over and crying.
To say his morning had been unusual would be understating. He’d awoken to the sounds of movement and quiet conversation in his living room. When he’d gone to check it out, he’d found none other than Jake and Jasper Hale sitting across from each other, as they stared back at him. He’d just asked what was going on and why a Cullen was there when Alice made her way down from Bella’s room, after she’d sat with her for a while.
Jake had started in on some wild story about watching Bella perform some ritual last night in the woods that made her disappear, when Charlie had heard enough and had rushed up stairs. They’d all followed, and Alice had argued for Bella needing more sleep, in a bid to stall Charlie until Bella could wake up and figure out what she was going to tell her father. That’s as far as they’d got and now here he stood, watching his daughter cry.
“Bells, what’s going on? I thought you said you were over Edmund? Did something else happen? Did someone hurt you?”
Bella bent her knees and pulled the blanket up as her mind searched for what to say. Gods, once again, she was caught in another time, without a good cover story for her situation…
She met his gaze as she dried her eyes and gestured to her chair. “Dad, have a seat. This might get long and gods know you’ll probably need the support.”
His brows inched up. “Bella, I’m a cop. I’ve seen and heard of just about everything.” Nevertheless, he pulled the chair around and took a seat, motioning with a casual wave of his hand that he was ready to listen.
Bella took a deep breath and began. “Okay… you remember that box from my grandmother you told me about?”
He looked a little amused. “It was just yesterday Bells. I know I’m getting older, but I’m not senile… yet.”
She placed the heel of her hand against her forehead and muttered, “Shit, that’s right… it hasn’t been that long for you…” She dropped her hand and looked at him. “Sorry—I’ve sort of been through a lot, so bear with me as I try to explain.”
He gave a slow nod. “I’m here and I got Randy to cover things at the station until I get there. If this takes the whole shift…,” he shrugged and waited for her to continue.
She cleared her throat. “Okay, well, the box… After you left for work, I got it down and went through it. It had a bunch of stuff in there and a letter that was addressed to me, but let me stop there and ask you… How much did you know about my grandmother? I only ask because your answer will let me know how to approach telling you all of this.”
He shifted in the chair and crossed one leg over his knee as his fingers tapped a rhythm on the arm of the chair. “Well,” he said, blowing out a breath, “your mother didn’t really like her and her reasons were kind of shocking when she finally got around to sharing them with me… something crazy about her being a witch or something… why?”
Bella smiled wanly and nodded. When she met his gaze, he was startled by the deep sadness he could see in her eyes. “Because it was all true Charlie and I’m a witch too, but I never knew that until… yesterday when I read my grandmother’s letter and then performed the ritual she instructed me to.”
Charlie blinked at her for a couple of beats and then looked away. “Wow Bells, that’s…jesus…,” He looked back at her. “Not sure what to say here. Jake was saying something about watching you disappear last night in the woods, but I thought he’d been seeing too much of the tribe’s shaman or something…”
She met his gaze with a steady one of her own with not even a hint of mirth to be found, even at his bad joke. “No Dad, he wasn’t high or hallucinating. He told you the truth. The ritual I performed sent me back in time to San Antonio, TX, 1883 to be exact. She’d prepared a satchel with all the papers and money I would need and she’d even provided a period appropriate dress for me to wear. I didn’t know, at the time, why she’d sent me there, but…” Her chin quivered and she pressed her lips together as she fought her tears with a hand over her eyes. “I’m sorry dad, I’m sorry,” her voice trembled as she spoke. She heaved a big breath and looked back up as she wiped away her tears. “I know now why she sent me there—it was to meet my true soul mate Dad and I did meet him, the very next day after arriving there. I knew him the moment I saw him because I had dreamed of him before I ever left here.”
She met her father’s eyes to see him listening intently as she paused. “I was there for ten months Dad and in that time, Pete and I fell in love and got married.”
She stopped speaking when Charlie stood from the chair and stared out the window, his back tense as he fisted his hands and opened them in an effort to ease his tension as he tried to absorb what she was telling him.
At last he spoke. “Bells, do you realize how crazy that sounds?” He looked at her over his shoulder and she nodded slowly. She wasn’t about to be offended because it was crazy, but he would just have to come to terms with it all and she would give him the time he needed without pushing. “I do Dad, but it’s all one hundred percent true.”
Charlie sighed and sat back down, lacing his fingers together over his chest as his elbows rested on the arms of the chair.
She smiled sadly as he stared. “You would have liked him Dad.” She glanced up. “He was a Texas Ranger. He took a bullet in the shoulder a month after I got there. He was stopping a bank robbery.” She shook her head at the memory. “Gods, I was so scared, but he pulled through and was fine. That’s when I told him I loved him for the first time; there on the floor of that bank as he was bleeding.” She met Charlie’s gaze again. “It’s also where he proposed and gave me this ring.” She held up her hand to show him the diamond set she wore and Charlie shook his head slowly as he stood and ran a hand through his hair.
“Bells…,” he shook his head again and rubbed his eyes with his index finger and thumb. “Jesus…,” he pinned her with a steady gaze. “Can you see why I’m having a hard time with this? You were just here yesterday! You haven’t gone anywhere for ten days, much less ten months! And before yesterday, you were damn near incoherent with grief over Cullen leaving you! You weren’t healthy baby girl and now, the day after you come back to the land of the living, you tell me this wild story…” He looked tortured when he met her gaze. “How am I supposed to believe you?”
She looked into his eyes for moments, saddened but not surprised by this reaction, and knew what she had to do. Moving carefully, she peeled back the covers and stood to face him, taking no pleasure in his absolute shock as he stared down at her eight-months pregnant belly. Her voice was soft as she spoke. “I was just here yesterday, right?”
His gaze darted up to meet hers as he nodded as the color drained from his face. “Ye…,” he cleared his throat and tried again, “Yes, you were.”
“And clearly, I wasn’t pregnant yesterday, right?”
Charlie collapsed back into the chair and covered his face with a hand as he muttered, “God, how can this be possible—it’s just not possible…”
She sat back on her bed with her hands in her lap as she gave him a few moments to recover. It wasn’t until he stopped muttering to himself that she spoke again. “Dad, there are many more things in this world that you probably aren’t aware of and it’s probably not a good idea for me to clue you in at the moment. Just know that they’re out there and they’re very real. I can try to keep you separate from the supernatural if that’s your preference, but I am very much part of it and you can’t change that, no matter how you’d like to.
“All I need from you Dad is understanding and support. You see, I lost my husband to part of that supernatural world just before I came back here. To me, it was just four short days ago, but in reality, it’s been over a hundred years. The part that kills me is that I’m not sure if I’ll ever see him again, but either way, I have to go on no matter how painful it is Dad, because I need to raise and love my child, even if Pete isn’t here to do that with me.”
He was just nodding when there was a timid knock at the door and Bella stood and answered it, clearly shocked by who it was. “Alice! What are you doing here?” Just as she asked that question another thought occurred to her and her face twisted in absolute hate as she stared over the female vampire’s shoulder. “Are you alone? Is your husband with you by any chance?” Her gaze met Alice’s apologetic gold one as Alice nodded.
Pure malice dripped from every syllable as Bella spoke again. “Oh good, let me just get my robe and I’ll go greet him and introduce him to my father.” She turned to the still somewhat shell-shocked Charlie. “Come with me Dad to greet Alice’s wonderful husband?”
He rose and muttered, “Yeah, sure,” as Bella slipped into her robe and headed, carefully, down the stairs.
Jasper stood from his chair as soon as Bella entered the room, looking bravely resigned to take whatever she was willing and capable to dish out. He’d give her this and much more because he owed more than he could ever atone for, not only to her but to his nephew also.
Bella ignored every other soul in the room as her gaze pinned Jasper where he stood, waiting, as she slowly approached. When she reached him, she eyed him up and down before saying a word, speaking slowly and enunciating clearly when she did so. “Well, well… Jasper. It’s been a long time has it not?”
He inclined his head. “It has Bella, a regrettably long time.”
“Yes,” her lip curled in distaste as she stared him down, “regrettably long, and yet, for me, not long at all.”
His gold eyes shown with nothing but sincerity and it turned Bella’s stomach to see it. She didn’t want his sincerity, his remorse, his sympathy, and least of all, his apology. No; she wanted absolutely nothing from him but to witness his pain. That’s what she wanted from him, and she’d see that she got it, eventually, no matter what.
With that thought foremost in her mind, she extended her hand, hearing a slight whimper from Alice as she did so. “Have a handshake for an old friend, Jasper?”
Again, he inclined his head as he reached to grasp her hand. “Gladly, Isabella.”
He stiffened visibly when they made contact and she smiled as she covered his hand with her other in mock warmth as she smiled. “Ever the hero, eh Major?”
She watched as the muscles in his jaw began to twitch under the strain as he tensed with the pain she delivered. Smiling into his eyes, she observed with relish as his nostrils flared and he began to tremble, but still, no sounds of distress left him.
His eyes were next to exhibit strain as they darkened in response to the excruciating current running through him and finally… finally… his lips parted the barest amount and a quiet, pained moan left him.
Bella was entranced as she took it all in. She wasn’t sure how long they had stood in this mini-punishment session but she reveled in every second of it until the sound of Alice’s quiet voice broke her concentration. “Bella, please, I beg you…”
Bella locked gazes with a panting, trembling Jasper. “Did you hear that Major? She begs. Sound familiar?” She glanced over at a distraught Alice, her voice cold as ice as she spoke. “Begging gains nothing, isn’t that right Major?” She glanced back at him and he managed an answer.
“You’re right…,” his voice was weak, thready, “… and I’m sor…”
Bella’s anger flared and the voltage she delivered flared with it, nearly putting Jasper on his knees. “No! Don’t you dare apologize! You don’t get to say you’re sorry!” Tears fell from her eyes and she clenched her jaw as she threw his hand away from her and turned away. “Words will never fix what you did to us, so don’t think to soothe your filthy conscience with their utterance.”
With that, she turned and went back upstairs, leaving all those remaining behind somewhat speechless as Jasper eased back into a chair.
“Well,” Charlie’s voice broke the tense silence, “do I even want to know what the hell that was all about?”
Alice was busy making sure Jasper was okay so Charlie looked over at a stunned Jake who shook his head resolutely. “I’m not even sure on the details Charlie, but I can say this— I have no desire to know them—ever.”
Charlie sighed and stared into the middle distance. “Right.”
Bella awoke slowly to a whisper-shouted conversation taking place right outside her door and she absently wondered who it could be as she blinked up at her ceiling, trying to get her eyes to focus. Jim and Cora, perhaps?
The more she searched her memories, the more she remembered and she pushed herself up from the bed with a gasp, taking in the date and time on the alarm by her bed at Charlie’s house as tears filled her eyes. “Pete… oh gods above… I left you…” She dropped her head and covered her face with both hands as quiet sobs shook her shoulders. She hadn’t even been gone from this time for twenty four hours, and if not for the raw pain in her soul and the gentle movements of her child, she might’ve thought it all to be a dream, or a nightmare; she couldn’t decide which.
Jasper was the only one who heard Bella over the hushed din of the argument taking place with a red-faced Charlie and he nudged his wife and cut a quick glance at Bella’s door. “Bella’s awake.”
His quiet declaration stopped Charlie mid-rant and he opened his daughter’s door and walked in to see her hunched over and crying.
To say his morning had been unusual would be understating. He’d awoken to the sounds of movement and quiet conversation in his living room. When he’d gone to check it out, he’d found none other than Jake and Jasper Hale sitting across from each other, as they stared back at him. He’d just asked what was going on and why a Cullen was there when Alice made her way down from Bella’s room, after she’d sat with her for a while.
Jake had started in on some wild story about watching Bella perform some ritual last night in the woods that made her disappear, when Charlie had heard enough and had rushed up stairs. They’d all followed, and Alice had argued for Bella needing more sleep, in a bid to stall Charlie until Bella could wake up and figure out what she was going to tell her father. That’s as far as they’d got and now here he stood, watching his daughter cry.
“Bells, what’s going on? I thought you said you were over Edmund? Did something else happen? Did someone hurt you?”
Bella bent her knees and pulled the blanket up as her mind searched for what to say. Gods, once again, she was caught in another time, without a good cover story for her situation…
She met his gaze as she dried her eyes and gestured to her chair. “Dad, have a seat. This might get long and gods know you’ll probably need the support.”
His brows inched up. “Bella, I’m a cop. I’ve seen and heard of just about everything.” Nevertheless, he pulled the chair around and took a seat, motioning with a casual wave of his hand that he was ready to listen.
Bella took a deep breath and began. “Okay… you remember that box from my grandmother you told me about?”
He looked a little amused. “It was just yesterday Bells. I know I’m getting older, but I’m not senile… yet.”
She placed the heel of her hand against her forehead and muttered, “Shit, that’s right… it hasn’t been that long for you…” She dropped her hand and looked at him. “Sorry—I’ve sort of been through a lot, so bear with me as I try to explain.”
He gave a slow nod. “I’m here and I got Randy to cover things at the station until I get there. If this takes the whole shift…,” he shrugged and waited for her to continue.
She cleared her throat. “Okay, well, the box… After you left for work, I got it down and went through it. It had a bunch of stuff in there and a letter that was addressed to me, but let me stop there and ask you… How much did you know about my grandmother? I only ask because your answer will let me know how to approach telling you all of this.”
He shifted in the chair and crossed one leg over his knee as his fingers tapped a rhythm on the arm of the chair. “Well,” he said, blowing out a breath, “your mother didn’t really like her and her reasons were kind of shocking when she finally got around to sharing them with me… something crazy about her being a witch or something… why?”
Bella smiled wanly and nodded. When she met his gaze, he was startled by the deep sadness he could see in her eyes. “Because it was all true Charlie and I’m a witch too, but I never knew that until… yesterday when I read my grandmother’s letter and then performed the ritual she instructed me to.”
Charlie blinked at her for a couple of beats and then looked away. “Wow Bells, that’s…jesus…,” He looked back at her. “Not sure what to say here. Jake was saying something about watching you disappear last night in the woods, but I thought he’d been seeing too much of the tribe’s shaman or something…”
She met his gaze with a steady one of her own with not even a hint of mirth to be found, even at his bad joke. “No Dad, he wasn’t high or hallucinating. He told you the truth. The ritual I performed sent me back in time to San Antonio, TX, 1883 to be exact. She’d prepared a satchel with all the papers and money I would need and she’d even provided a period appropriate dress for me to wear. I didn’t know, at the time, why she’d sent me there, but…” Her chin quivered and she pressed her lips together as she fought her tears with a hand over her eyes. “I’m sorry dad, I’m sorry,” her voice trembled as she spoke. She heaved a big breath and looked back up as she wiped away her tears. “I know now why she sent me there—it was to meet my true soul mate Dad and I did meet him, the very next day after arriving there. I knew him the moment I saw him because I had dreamed of him before I ever left here.”
She met her father’s eyes to see him listening intently as she paused. “I was there for ten months Dad and in that time, Pete and I fell in love and got married.”
She stopped speaking when Charlie stood from the chair and stared out the window, his back tense as he fisted his hands and opened them in an effort to ease his tension as he tried to absorb what she was telling him.
At last he spoke. “Bells, do you realize how crazy that sounds?” He looked at her over his shoulder and she nodded slowly. She wasn’t about to be offended because it was crazy, but he would just have to come to terms with it all and she would give him the time he needed without pushing. “I do Dad, but it’s all one hundred percent true.”
Charlie sighed and sat back down, lacing his fingers together over his chest as his elbows rested on the arms of the chair.
She smiled sadly as he stared. “You would have liked him Dad.” She glanced up. “He was a Texas Ranger. He took a bullet in the shoulder a month after I got there. He was stopping a bank robbery.” She shook her head at the memory. “Gods, I was so scared, but he pulled through and was fine. That’s when I told him I loved him for the first time; there on the floor of that bank as he was bleeding.” She met Charlie’s gaze again. “It’s also where he proposed and gave me this ring.” She held up her hand to show him the diamond set she wore and Charlie shook his head slowly as he stood and ran a hand through his hair.
“Bells…,” he shook his head again and rubbed his eyes with his index finger and thumb. “Jesus…,” he pinned her with a steady gaze. “Can you see why I’m having a hard time with this? You were just here yesterday! You haven’t gone anywhere for ten days, much less ten months! And before yesterday, you were damn near incoherent with grief over Cullen leaving you! You weren’t healthy baby girl and now, the day after you come back to the land of the living, you tell me this wild story…” He looked tortured when he met her gaze. “How am I supposed to believe you?”
She looked into his eyes for moments, saddened but not surprised by this reaction, and knew what she had to do. Moving carefully, she peeled back the covers and stood to face him, taking no pleasure in his absolute shock as he stared down at her eight-months pregnant belly. Her voice was soft as she spoke. “I was just here yesterday, right?”
His gaze darted up to meet hers as he nodded as the color drained from his face. “Ye…,” he cleared his throat and tried again, “Yes, you were.”
“And clearly, I wasn’t pregnant yesterday, right?”
Charlie collapsed back into the chair and covered his face with a hand as he muttered, “God, how can this be possible—it’s just not possible…”
She sat back on her bed with her hands in her lap as she gave him a few moments to recover. It wasn’t until he stopped muttering to himself that she spoke again. “Dad, there are many more things in this world that you probably aren’t aware of and it’s probably not a good idea for me to clue you in at the moment. Just know that they’re out there and they’re very real. I can try to keep you separate from the supernatural if that’s your preference, but I am very much part of it and you can’t change that, no matter how you’d like to.
“All I need from you Dad is understanding and support. You see, I lost my husband to part of that supernatural world just before I came back here. To me, it was just four short days ago, but in reality, it’s been over a hundred years. The part that kills me is that I’m not sure if I’ll ever see him again, but either way, I have to go on no matter how painful it is Dad, because I need to raise and love my child, even if Pete isn’t here to do that with me.”
He was just nodding when there was a timid knock at the door and Bella stood and answered it, clearly shocked by who it was. “Alice! What are you doing here?” Just as she asked that question another thought occurred to her and her face twisted in absolute hate as she stared over the female vampire’s shoulder. “Are you alone? Is your husband with you by any chance?” Her gaze met Alice’s apologetic gold one as Alice nodded.
Pure malice dripped from every syllable as Bella spoke again. “Oh good, let me just get my robe and I’ll go greet him and introduce him to my father.” She turned to the still somewhat shell-shocked Charlie. “Come with me Dad to greet Alice’s wonderful husband?”
He rose and muttered, “Yeah, sure,” as Bella slipped into her robe and headed, carefully, down the stairs.
Jasper stood from his chair as soon as Bella entered the room, looking bravely resigned to take whatever she was willing and capable to dish out. He’d give her this and much more because he owed more than he could ever atone for, not only to her but to his nephew also.
Bella ignored every other soul in the room as her gaze pinned Jasper where he stood, waiting, as she slowly approached. When she reached him, she eyed him up and down before saying a word, speaking slowly and enunciating clearly when she did so. “Well, well… Jasper. It’s been a long time has it not?”
He inclined his head. “It has Bella, a regrettably long time.”
“Yes,” her lip curled in distaste as she stared him down, “regrettably long, and yet, for me, not long at all.”
His gold eyes shown with nothing but sincerity and it turned Bella’s stomach to see it. She didn’t want his sincerity, his remorse, his sympathy, and least of all, his apology. No; she wanted absolutely nothing from him but to witness his pain. That’s what she wanted from him, and she’d see that she got it, eventually, no matter what.
With that thought foremost in her mind, she extended her hand, hearing a slight whimper from Alice as she did so. “Have a handshake for an old friend, Jasper?”
Again, he inclined his head as he reached to grasp her hand. “Gladly, Isabella.”
He stiffened visibly when they made contact and she smiled as she covered his hand with her other in mock warmth as she smiled. “Ever the hero, eh Major?”
She watched as the muscles in his jaw began to twitch under the strain as he tensed with the pain she delivered. Smiling into his eyes, she observed with relish as his nostrils flared and he began to tremble, but still, no sounds of distress left him.
His eyes were next to exhibit strain as they darkened in response to the excruciating current running through him and finally… finally… his lips parted the barest amount and a quiet, pained moan left him.
Bella was entranced as she took it all in. She wasn’t sure how long they had stood in this mini-punishment session but she reveled in every second of it until the sound of Alice’s quiet voice broke her concentration. “Bella, please, I beg you…”
Bella locked gazes with a panting, trembling Jasper. “Did you hear that Major? She begs. Sound familiar?” She glanced over at a distraught Alice, her voice cold as ice as she spoke. “Begging gains nothing, isn’t that right Major?” She glanced back at him and he managed an answer.
“You’re right…,” his voice was weak, thready, “… and I’m sor…”
Bella’s anger flared and the voltage she delivered flared with it, nearly putting Jasper on his knees. “No! Don’t you dare apologize! You don’t get to say you’re sorry!” Tears fell from her eyes and she clenched her jaw as she threw his hand away from her and turned away. “Words will never fix what you did to us, so don’t think to soothe your filthy conscience with their utterance.”
With that, she turned and went back upstairs, leaving all those remaining behind somewhat speechless as Jasper eased back into a chair.
“Well,” Charlie’s voice broke the tense silence, “do I even want to know what the hell that was all about?”
Alice was busy making sure Jasper was okay so Charlie looked over at a stunned Jake who shook his head resolutely. “I’m not even sure on the details Charlie, but I can say this— I have no desire to know them—ever.”
Charlie sighed and stared into the middle distance. “Right.”
DISCLAIMER: Twilight and its inclusive material is copyright to Stephenie Meyer. Original creation, including but not limited to plot and characters, is copyright to the respective authors of each story. No copyright infringement is intended.