Swans Don't Quit

Bella Drama

 Everything is finally settling down after Isabella's arrival. I had attended the pack meeting with the Council and as expected Old Quil had a gasket about my knowing. I thought that it was a little hypocritical seeing as his wife was a white woman and a relative of mine none the less. But the rest of the Council had agreed that, like Jared said he would have to get over it. After the meeting Billy had even expressed his happiness for my knowing. He said that there could be some advantages to my knowing and that this could be helpful to the tribe.

During our fishing trip with Dad and Billy, Harry told me that he and Sue agreed that it was a good idea for Leah to come with me to Seattle. He said that they had left it to me to ask her myself though, which I was grateful. If Leah had heard it from her parents she probably would have declined just to spite them and would have been pissed at me. But as it stands, Leah is excited for our trip. Harry had even told me that she had already packed, even though we weren't leaving till next week. I was glad I was able to give her this opportunity to get away from la push and the drama that surrounded her.

I was at the station for my bi-weekly training course when the calls began coming in over the radio for Forks High School. Reports that Tyler Crowley's van had slid across the black ice in the school's parking lot and into Isabella's truck. Dad left in a panic with me on his heels to the high school, blue lights lit up and sirens blaring. When we arrived on scene Isabella was being loaded up on a gurney into the ambulance, red as a beat while the red headed Cullen kid got into the passenger side of the ambulance to head to the hospital. Dad jumped into the ambulance with Isabella, leaving me to drive the cruiser to the hospital to meet them.

They brought Isabella and Tyler into the emergency room and directed Dad and I into the waiting room. It seemed that most of Forks High was in the waiting room. The only is severe injury seemed to be Tyler, his face and arms were pretty cut up from when the windshield shattered upon impact and I has heard they suspected his left hand to be broken. A nurse came out after a couple minutes and told us they speculated Isabella had hit her head on the ground and it had caused a concussion and were taking her for an x-ray.

When I saw Isabella come out of x-ray I walk towards the emergency room to check on her. As I walk down the hall I saw the red headed Cullen kid walk in ahead of Dr. Cullen into the emergency room and decided to wait. I saw the kid's tense conversation was Isabella before the doc gave Isabella her discharge papers and moved on to Tyler. As she left the emergency room with the red headed Cullen kid I saw as she was arguing with him and waited to see if she would notice my presence. I watched for a minute and decided that this was just creepy and went back to the waiting room with dad and continue to wait for her there. When she finally came out she rushed us out of the hospital and into the cruiser. I had to hide my laugh when Dad informed Isabella that she would have to call Renee when she got home because he had called her about the accident.

We stopped by the high school on the way home so I could drive the truck home. Isabella was reluctant to hand over the key, but finally did when dad told her that I had driven the truck tons of times and that it was safe with me. I scoffed at the idea that I could hurt the damn thing; it was more durable than a tank. I took a couple minutes to survey the damage, even when hit with a van there was only a dent on the left rear fender. I tried pulling at the dent out, but noticed that the metal was too thick to pull out without machinery. I would have to get the tools from Jake and fix it and while I was at it I would check under the hood, just in case there was more damage.

Even in the bitter cold weather I was able to get some work done on the house. I had been able to paint the kitchen and bedroom and make the new railings for the staircases and porch. The railings for the stairs to the second story were a decorative metal that I painted black. When I installed them they got bolted to the wooded stairs. While the porch railings were wood, I couldn't install them around the whole porch until Sam and the guys replaced the rotten support beam that held the overhang above the porch, but I install them on the front steps. I even got the new smoke detectors and got them installed, though dad had to help me with them. My next project was to replace the flooring, but that would have to wait until after my tests in Seattle.

Isabella had demanded that I stop going to the diner for dinner every night and dad had stood behind on it. He said I was wasting money when Isabella was already making enough dinner for all of us. I still made a habit of going once a week though. Aggie was happy to see me when I showed up and would always ask for an update.

"So there is word around town about your sister." Aggie said as she poured coffee into my mug.

"And what would the town gossip mill be saying?" I asked as I picked up my coffee to take a drink.

"Rumor has it that your sister is getting close one of the Cullen boys." Aggie said. I sighed as I put my drink down.

"Yeah she has shown she interest. I guess I'll need to bring that up later with her." I said and took another drink from my mug.

"Why what wrong with the Cullens, Eli?" Aggie asked.

"Every time they're around I get this feeling in my stomach and I'm just not comfortable with them. I just don't want my sister getting involved with that, ya know?" I said and gave my shoulders a shrug. I think I did my best to explain it without telling her that I knew exactly what's wrong with the Cullens that I don't want Isabella involve in. Aggie smiled at me and patted my arm.

"You're a good brother Eli. Even with you differences you look out for her even if you don't realize it." Aggie said before walking into the kitchen and leaving me at the counter to think. What did she mean by that? I haven't been looking out for her, given I know what she's doing most of the time do to the gossip mill around town and people asking me questions, but I always thought that I was just keeping track of her, making sure she wasn't getting in trouble. I decided to bring that up with dad or Billy at a later time and set to finishing my breakfast.

I wanted to talk to Isabella about her involvement with the Cullens, but I didn't want dad home because I knew Isabella wouldn't appreciate my knowledge of who she was hanging out with, so I came home early and waited for her to get home from school before I would head down to the res and hang with Leah. I also didn't want dad home because he and Billy had just gotten over a fight that was about the Cullens. If I remembered correctly Forks High got out at about two thirty and the truck would delay her getting home by about fifteen minutes of she left right after the bell rang. So she would be home at about three. I kicked back and watched the sports network until I hear the roar of the truck coming up the road.

"Elijah? You're home early." Isabella said as she walked toward the stair to set her bag down.

"Yeah I want to talk to you." I said and motioned to the seat next to me as I turned off the TV. She seemed hesitant, but sat next to me.

"What do you want to talk about Elijah?" Isabella asked as she sat.

"About you and the Cullen kid." I said and she seemed to jump to the defensive.

"I don't know what you're talking about Elijah." Isabella said and tried to stand up. I grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.

"Don't bullshit me, Isabella. This town is small and everything you do is reported back to either Dad or I whether we want it to or not. Now I want you to know before you get any further involved that there is something off about them and I'm not comfortable about you starting a relationship. I'm trying to look out for you, but this is all I'm gonna give you. What you do with them from here on out is your decision and don't come to me if you make the wrong choice." I said and stood up.

"It's none of anyone's business who I spend my time with, including you and dad. I will do as I please." She stated as I walked toward the door.

"That's fine, but think this through before you get in too deep and end up hurt." I said as I fished my keys from my pocket.

"Why don't you call me Bella?" She asked and I turned around confused. I wasn't expecting her to ask that.

"Why do you call me Elijah?" I asked and turned around.

"Because that's your name." She said back.

"And Isabella is yours." I said back.

"But I hate being called by my full name." She pouted as she sat staring at me from the couch.

"Then call me Eli and I'll call you Bella." I said and walked out the door, not waiting for her response.

Now to my haven. I can only hope that she heeds my warning and stops her interaction with the Cullens before she gets in too deep and ends up dead. Her death would crush dad and I would never hear the end of it from Renee if anything happened to her precious baby.