Defective - Jacob Black {1}

Chapter 22: Decisions

Movement from the kitchen woke me from my sleep. The soft clanging of kitchen utensils and the smell of eggs was wafting into the living room. I blinked my eyes open to see Bella lying next to me and Alice gone, no doubt she was in the kitchen with Charlie. Bella seemed to have awoken in that same moment too, her breathing pattern changed into one that was more irregular.

"How bad was it, Charlie?" Alice asked softly and I shifted so I was laying on my back, allowing for Bella to see that my eyes were open.

Uncle Charlie sighed heavily before answering. "Real bad."

"Tell me about it. I want to know exactly what happened after we left." She didn't want to know that it would only make her feel guilty.

"I've never felt so helpless." He began slowly. "I didn't know what to do. The first week I thought I was going to have to hospitalise her. She wouldn't eat or drink, she wouldn't move. Dr. Gerandy was throwing around words like 'catatonic' but I didn't let him up to see her. I was afraid it would scare her. The first night she clung to Aria afraid she would disappear like you lot had but the next morning she shut Aria out completely. Hardly spoke to her for the next three months."

"She snapped out of it though?"

"I had Renee come to take her to Florida. I hoped being with her mother would help her. But when we started packing her clothes, she woke up with a vengeance. I've never seen Bella throw a fit like that. She was never one for tantrums. She threw her clothes everywhere, saying we couldn't make her leave. She started crying then and I thought that would have been a turning point. She did seem to get better at first..."

Bella was completely tensed up beside me and I reached across the blanket to squeeze her hand. I had no clue that Aunt Renee had even come up here to see Bella.

"But?" Alice prompted.

"She went back to school and work; she was eating again. She let you talk to her, and she answered. But she was empty. Her eyes were empty. She didn't listen to music anymore, she didn't read, she didn't even come into the room when the TV was on. It was like she was avoiding everything that reminded her of... him." That explains why she shut me out, Alice would have caught on. "We could hardly talk. I was so worried about saying something that might have upset her. The littlest thing would make her flinch. She was alone all the time; she didn't call her friends back and after a while they stopped calling. Aria bless her, called me to check on her everyday... It was night of the living dead around here. I still hear the screaming in her sleep." Bella squeezed my hand back then as she shuddered at the memory.

"I'm so sorry Charlie." Alice said glumly.

"It's not your fault. You were a good friend to her." It was clear now, how Uncle Charlie felt about Edward. It wasn't going to change anytime soon.

"She seems better now, though."

"Yeah. Ever since she started hanging out with Jacob Black, I've noticed a real improvement." I swallowed hard then, that was when Jacob was still my Jacob. Not the confusing, cold person he is now. "She's happier. I know she used to think of him as a friend, but I think maybe it's something more now, or headed that direction, anyway." Charlie said in a kind of warning tone, like somehow, she was meant to get this to Edward. "He's good for Bella. We always thought he was going to end up with Aria." That stung. Badly. Bella looked at me then and I kept my eyes fixed on the ceiling.

"Then it's good she has him." Alice agreed.

"She still has her moments though. I can tell something isn't quite right. It's not normal, Alice, and it frightens me. Not normal at all. Not like someone had left... like someone had died." Uncle Charlie then went on in a hopeless tone. "I don't know if she's ever going to get over it. I'm a little worried about what your coming back will do to her."