Chapter Five

Misunderstandings


I stood stock still, unable to think let alone react, as Harry’s mouth sealed itself against mine and moved softly. It took a split second for me to move; I jerked away from him, forgetting that I was standing half way up a flight of stairs, and felt my footing slip. The last thing I saw before tumbling backwards down the steps was Harry’s shocked face and his hand reaching out for me. Now in my head I knew that the fall wouldn’t really hurt me but the shock of it still drew a startled scream from me. I tumbled over and over until I reached the bottom of the stairwell, I lay quietly trying to regain my equilibrium along with my breath. I heard Harry jump down the stairs and come to a stop beside me, calling my name over and over again but my scattered brain refused to let me answer. I could hear the panic creeping into Harry’s voice and I knew that if I didn’t respond to him he was going to call an ambulance and they would want to take me to the hospital and I knew that I couldn’t let that happen, so I struggled into a sitting position and said “Harry its okay I’m fine. I just lost my step, that’s all. I, um, think it might be best if I go and get my Uncle to look at it though.” Harry was crouching over me with a worried look on his green-tinged face; I tried again to reassure him “Honestly Harry I’m fine.” Moving my limbs I was slightly surprised to feel twinges of discomfort, obviously I had fallen harder than I thought, but that wouldn’t account for the rapid greening of Harrison’s face. “Harry I am okay, please don’t worry about me. Why are you staring at me like that?” My annoyance made my voice sharper than I had intended it to be but it shouldn’t have resulted in the ringing in my head but that answer came with Harry saying “Ness you have a huge gash on your head. We need to get you to the hospital, now!” I froze as the sound of his words sunk in, then I raised my hand to my head and was even more surprised when it came away sticky and wet with warm blood. I smiled faintly and said “Um yeah that might be a good idea but Carlisle, my Uncle, isn’t at the hospital today. He is at home, so maybe you could drive me there instead that’d be great.” I struggled to my feet and let Harry help me out to the green pick-up sitting in his front yard. I allowed him to help my into the passenger seat without much thought as to what I was doing asking him to drive me home and the questions that it would raise.

The minute Harry twisted the key in the ignition and the truck rumbled to life I closed my eyes and gave directions to our property without opening them to see if he was following my directions or ignoring me and driving me to the hospital. After several quiet minutes I knew that he was taking me home because the sounds and the smells had changed from city to rural and I relaxed a little more. When we pulled up out the front of the huge white house that Carlisle and Esme lived in I knew that I was in for the third degree because Harry snatched a quick breath and muttered softly “Jeez, check out the models.” Which to me meant that at least more than one member of my family that Harry hadn’t seen now stood on the front stoop, waiting. I unbuckled my seatbelt but Harry’s sharp voice stopped me “Don’t even think about getting out of this car without help Renesmee.” and considering how much my head throbbed I didn’t even bother to argue with him. The car door was opened a second later and the cool hands of my Daddy gathered me close and he whispered quickly and silently in my ear “Ness what happened? Is this child responsible for this?” I groggily replayed the incident inside my head and let him see that Harry wasn’t directly responsible for my present condition. I lay my head against his shoulder and drifted into welcoming sleep.

When I woke it was dark outside and I was lying in Carlisle office, the shades had been closed and the room was muted and still; I shifted slightly, testing out my sore muscles, before sitting up slowly. A deep voice stopped any further movement off the sofa I had been lying on. “Renesmee Cullen I thought you had more sense than to behave the way you did.” For a split second I was confused as to what Daddy meant and when I opened my mouth to say so he snapped “Letting that boy kiss you while Jacob watched was reprehensible, how could you do such a thing?” I felt anger bubble up inside of me and it playing itself out through my thoughts ‘I didn’t let him do anything. He spotted Jake and he kissed me. I wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t surprised me. I take it Jake came back. Well did you see the reason for my being at Harry’s in the first place? Silence greeted my thought and I knew that Jacob hadn’t let on to what had drove me to my friends house in the first place, so concentrating over my throbbing head I replayed the entire scene with Jacob within my head, Daddy’s growl was the only indication that he had heard me. So I said “I didn’t go there to get revenge, I went there for friendship and then it got blown all out of control.” His clenched jaw made his words muffled as he said “I know that and I knew that Jacob was hiding something from me but he was stubbornly refusing to think about it. I am going to let the others know that you are awake and they will all want to come and see you to make sure that you are okay, especially Carlisle because this was something we always wondered about.” The comment intrigued me but before I could form the intrigue into a question he said “We always wondered if your skin was as impenetrable as ours.” Touching my head gently he continued “I guess now we know the answer.” I smiled wryly up at him and opened my mouth to speak but he was gone, I had barely ten seconds to myself before there was an influx of vampires crowding in on me. I tried to answer all of their questions but their bombardment was hurting my head more than I could stand but funnily enough it wasn’t Daddy who told everyone to give me some space it was Carlisle; whose deep, calm voice washed through me relieving the tension I had been feeling “Okay I need some space with the patient, you can visit after I have checked her over now that she is conscious.” I felt embarrassed heat colour my cheeks but I refused to acknowledge it.

Every member of my family, except Jake who hadn’t been there, filed out of the room on Carlisle request; leaving me to smile sheepishly at my Grandfather. He spoke quickly and his touch was professional as he went through all of my injuries and checked to see if I was okay. When he was satisfied that I wasn’t wounded beyond repair he sat back and said “How did this happen?” I closed my eyes and rolled them behind my lids before opening them and reaching a hand out to touch his wrist. I showed him what happened and then sat back; letting him sort through the information I had given him. When he was done he said “Oh I see. Well I am very glad that you weren’t more seriously hurt and I think that, if we were given the chance, we wouldn’t have like to find out that you’re not as thick skinned as the rest of us. I do think that both you and Jacob need to talk about this together without the interference of the family, I suggest you lay here for a while longer than go and seek out Jacob and then…” his sentence never finished as we both heard the sound of shouting coming from downstairs.

“Edward there is nothing you can do, she is an adult and she needs to work this out on her own, they both have things they need to work out.” Momma’s strident voice was firm and I could see her standing before my father, preventing him from racing across the miles to attack Jacob as he made his way towards the house. I made to get up from the sofa only to be held firmly in place by Carlisle who smiled and said “Rest, I will go and sort this out. I will send Jacob up here as soon as possible. Close your eyes and rest.” I closed my heavy lids and lay back against the sofa, tired beyond words.

The exhaustion lasted for as long as it took Jacob to reach the house, than all hell broke loose, there was yelling and shouting and the sound of bodies crashing together; then there was nothing. No shouting, no crashing of meeting bodies, no breaking furniture; only the sound of dragging feet as they made their way towards Carlisle study, I kept my eyes closed even though it was Jacob, I was reluctant to have this confrontation now. He walked in and crossed to my side, I felt him crouch down and sit there staring at me. I pretended to be sleeping but as a small chuckle made me aware that he knew I wasn’t, his next words confirmed it for me. “Ness I know that you’re not asleep, I know how your body sounds when it’s asleep.” I sighed and opened my eyes slowly and looked up at him through my eyelashes, the sad look on his face made my heart twist and I struggled into a sitting position. When he moved to help me I held out my hand and whispered “No, I can do it.” He rocked back on his heels and watched me move gingerly up the sofa.

I breathed in deeply and swung my legs over the side of the couch and faced him, however reluctantly, and opened my mouth to speak but his words cut me off. “I know that it the gentlemanly thing to allow a lady to go first but I need to get something out into the open before we go any further. I did ask Leah to pass on the fact that I had gone hunting and I did as you suggested and asked her why she didn’t, she said that it served you right for making me feel like I had to go away for a little space. I couldn’t believe that she had done that so we had a huge argument and I told her in no uncertain terms that it had been my decision to have time away on my own, not yours, and that you had nothing to do with the decision. Also what you walked in on at her and Seth’s place was absolutely nothing, I swear and I promise that from now on if I need space than I will let you know personally.” He lent in and kissed my forehead, making me wince in pain. I hoped that he missed the little grimace but I really should have known better. I heard his breathing hitch and his heartbeat accelerate before he growled “I should kill him for this.”

I rolled my eyes and winced again before saying “It wasn’t his fault, not really anyway, I misjudged my footing and fell.” Jacob snorted and said “Yeah, that’s all that happened.” I swore under my breath and he smiled saying “You should know by now that you can’t lie to me or hide anything from me because your face is an open book.” I looked him squarely in the eye before saying “I haven’t lied to you.” I lent back slightly when he lent forward, my movement not going unnoticed. His nostrils flaring as he said “So why did you let him kiss you?”

I jerked away from the ferocity in his voice, the movement causing radiating waves of pain to sweep through my body, but my voice remained steady and I hissed at him, my anger flowing from me like a burst dam “I didn’t let him do anything. He saw you standing outside and he took advantage of my surprise at seeing you there. If it makes you feel better, all this” I gestured to my head and my body “is because I jerked away from him and fell backwards down the stairs. So if that’s letting someone kiss you than I think you and I have been doing it wrong.”

His smile was small and he whispered “I knew when I saw the two of you kissing” I narrowed my eyes and glared silently at him causing him to say “When I saw him kissing you that you wouldn’t do something like that, even if you were pissed at me.” Jacob’s whole body seemed to vibrate with his emotions and I wondered what was really going on inside his head. Suddenly he got to his feet and started pacing around the room; I watched him as he paced his circular movements causing my head to ache, so closing my eyes I waited for him to work through whatever was going through his mind. It didn’t take long before he stopped moving and opened his mouth to speak, I could see the set lines of his face and I was pretty sure that whatever he was about to so would end in an argument, and as he spoke my thoughts were confirmed “I think that maybe you should change schools, you know, maybe even go to college. You’re definitely smart enough and then we can be together, all day every day and, now that we know you are breakable, then I could keep an eye on you and so could your parents.”

I snarled low and in the back of my throat, drawing his attention back to me. I stood slowly and said “I am not, I repeat not, changing schools. I am not making another new set of friends and I am not going to have you all being over protective because of a little cut on my head. I know you are feeling out of sorts but seriously I can look after myself. I won’t allow you all to treat me like a fragile little flower.” My fury propelled me across the room and I watched myself poke a finger into his chest, I couldn’t stop my voice from rising as my anger mounted. “I have had a really bad day and all you’re worried about is keeping me closer to you, I love you but I need some space. Just like you do but unlike you I won’t keep quiet about it. I refuse to be dictated to, I will take into consideration what you want but considering how screwed up my life has been so far I want so semblance of normality.” The stunned look on Jacob’s face stopped my ranting short; I turned away from him and made a shaky return to the couch where I slumped down feeling drained. I closed my eyes and said softly “I think I need to rest now.” There was no response except the soft closing of the door.

The next few days were some of the worst I had experienced. Jacob barely came home and when he was there he made sure to only be around with me when there were other people nearby. We barely spoke and when we did it was about stupid little things; the weather, my injuries, when Rose and Emmett were coming home; things that had little or no deep meaning. I didn’t know how to fix it and, from the uncomfortable way Jacob was around me and my family, he didn’t know how to fix it either. Three days after my fall Jacob and I were sitting in the lounge room, I was one end of the couch and Jake was the other, when my parents came in. I could tell from the set looks on their faces that they wanted to say something and I readied myself for a fight that I could feel coming. Daddy looked at Mom as if unsure of how to proceed, Mom, in return smile softly before saying “We have been talking and we think that we might have a solution, to what seems to us, to an impasse.” She paused and held out her hand for Daddy to take, she smiled and he took up her train of thought. “We spoke to Carlisle and he called in on the principal of Nessie’s school and he has organised for you to be able to spend every lunch time together.” I moved to the edge of my seat and asked happily “Really? That is excellent.” I smiled warmly and looked over at Jacob who seemed a little less enthused than I would have expected. He rubbed his hand over his face before saying tiredly “Thanks that’d be great. But it doesn’t stop me from worrying about her being away from me for the remainder of that time.” I rolled my eyes and caught Momma doing the same thing; I flashed a quick smile at her before looking back at Jacob. “I can take care of myself Jake, honestly. The fall was an accident and it won’t happen again, I promise. Please, I hate fighting with you and I hate this weirdness, let’s try this and if it doesn’t go well then we can talk about me changing schools.” I held my breath and waited for Jacobs’ answer and when it came he sounded tired and a lot older “Fine, we’ll try it this way but I will only give it two months. If it doesn’t work out then we move to plan B, Ness comes to college and I can keep a close eye on her.” I crawled across the small space between us and threw my arms around his shoulders, kissing his cheek I said “Thanks Jake. You won’t regret it, I swear.” He remained statue-like and whispered “I already do.” before untangling himself from my arms and leaving the room.