This is an outtake/bonus chapter from the story Branded; it takes place between Chapter One and Two...that mysterious time when Bella was in the hospital after James threw her down the stairs. Be warned, it's pretty intense and there's a lot of swearing because a lot of this chapter is from Emmett's POV and we all know that he LOVES to curse. :)

This is dedicated to Sophie-LA-is-Foolio because she requested it.

SM owns Twilight. I own a basement full of ants. Do you think she'd trade?

Branded Outtake #1--What the hell happened to Bella?

Emmett raced his jeep well beyond the speed limit toward the hospital. Bella's limp body flopped behind the seatbelt with every bump and pothole he hit. Blood dripped from her mouth and ear onto her shirt and the seat.

"Belly? You stay with me, okay? You don't go to sleep, okay? Belly?" He shook her lightly. "BELLY! Don't you dare fucking die on me! Don't you leave me too!"

When he arrived at the emergency room, he carried her in and yelled for help. Several nurses ran to him while and orderly wheeled over a gurney. Emmett laid her down gently and watched, horrified as they assessed her.

"Pupils are non-reactive. Breath sounds are light. Get a crash cart and take her into trauma one now!"

A kindly nurse took him by the arm and led him to a triage station. "Dear? Are you okay?"

"Help her, PLEASE! You can't let her die!"

"We'll do what we can, but we need some information. Is she your girlfriend?"

"No, she's my sister."

"What's her name?"

"Isabella Marie Swan. She's fifteen years old; her birthday is September 13th."

"Swan?" the nurse asked, looking up from her clipboard, "as in former Chief of Police Charlie Swan's daughter? Are you Emmett?"

"Yes, ma'am. Can you help Bella? Please?"

"We'll do everything we can. Does Bella have any allergies?"

"Penicillin and cats."

"Thank you, son. Please excuse me for a moment." She stepped out to talk to a nurse, who ran down the hall yelling something about an allergy.

Emmett's mind was racing. How had it come to this? Why was Bella drinking and at James' house?"

The nurse returned. "Emmett, dear, do you know how this happened?"

"I…I don't. I showed up at my best friend's place and found her drunk and incoherent; he said she fell down the stairs. I carried her out to the Jeep and I saw blood in her ear. Is she going to be okay?"

She smiled sadly at him. "I don't know, dear. It looks like she's had a head injury. They're trying to stabilize her now. Should I call your guardian?"

"I'm her guardian," he said before breaking down. "Some fucking guardian and big brother I am. I…I need to see her."

"Not yet, dear. Why don't I take you down to the family room? I'll update you as soon as I know something."

She stood with him, leading him through the trauma bay. He bolted when he heard a doctor yell out: "We're losing her!"

"BELLA! DON'T DIE!" he yelled as he ran toward her. Several doctors and nurses tried to stop him, but he shoved them off and only stopped when he reached her. She was being bagged and a doctor was about to use the defibrillator on her lifeless body.

"CLEAR!" the doctor with the paddles yelled. The nurse bagging her stepped back.

"NO!" Emmett screamed as her body jerked on the table.

The nurse resumed her position using the bag to force air into Bella's still lungs.

"Increase to 300. CLEAR!"

"BELLA! DON'T DIE! I LOVE YOU! I'M SORRY!"

The flat line on the monitor remained horizontal and monotonal.

"Nothing, doctor."

"Again. Come on, kid, don't leave us now. CLEAR!"

Emmett fell to his knees when he heard a slow beep, beep, beep from the monitor.

"Okay people, we've got a weak pulse. I want a CT scan of her head and I want OR 7 prepped and ready in case we need it. Son," he said to Emmett, "we need to go. You might want to say goodbye."

Emmett sobbed as he approached his sister. He kissed her forehead, tears dripping from his eyes, splashing on her pale cheeks. "Don't you die, Belly. Hang on. I love you. I'm not letting you go too."

They wheeled Bella away and Emmett sank to knees again. The kind nurse put her arms around his shoulders and squeezed. "Let's go pray for her, shall we?"

"Emmett, buddy, I know this is hard, but none of what you're telling us makes sense. We asked the lab to run a toxicology report and there's essentially no alcohol in her system. The smell seems to be superficial. Are you sure she had been drinking?"

Staring at his feet, Emmett shrugged his shoulders, unsure at this point what was real and what wasn't. If the police thought none of this made sense, they should have been inside Emmett's head.

"James said she'd drank his father's bourbon. Why would he lie?"

"We're questioning him now. Son, I'm not sure how to tell you, but the preliminary report on Bella's injuries don't match your friend's story. The doctors found some pretty horrifying injuries: broken ribs, both old and new; bruising not concurrent with the type of fall she supposedly had; cigarette burns and old stab wounds.

"Do you have any reason to believe that someone was abusing her? Did she have a boyfriend?"

"No, she didn't have very many friends left after Mom and Dad died. She started keeping to herself, hiding in her room a lot. Unless it was happening at school, I can't think of anyone who would be near enough to hurt her. It was mostly me and James."

"Did you leave them alone very often?"

Emmett thought hard for a moment. Had he left them alone a lot?

"Yes," he replied quietly. "I didn't want her to be alone so much."

"Would you have some reason to suspect that he might be abusing her? Can you think of why he would want to hurt her?"

Jerking his head up to face the officer, Emmett gasped, shocked. "NO! He's been my best friend since elementary school! He's the only person who has kept me sane through all of this. He'd never hurt Bella, she's like a sister to him."

"Son, have you ever done steroids with him? Has he ever offered them to you?"

"What does…?"

"We found a large quantity of anabolic steroids on him when we picked him up for questioning. He began yelling something about 'the little bitch snitched' on him. Has he ever acted violently in the past?"

"No…oh…OH! You think that James…" he fell quiet. "Well, holy shit. Yeah, he started using steroids last year to beef up for football. He offered them to me, yeah, but I never took them…I like my dick and balls the size they are, thank you."

Officer McCarty chuckled.

"Man, I can't believe I just ratted out my best friend. Look, Officer McCarty, Officer Embry, you won't tell him it was me, will you? After he started using them he kind of went apeshit for a while, randomly picking fights and playing overly rough on the field. He was ejected from a couple of games for…" he stopped as the epiphany hit him like a freight train. He started gasping for air.

"Emmett, son, are you okay?"

"THAT FUCKING ASSHOLE! He did this to Bella, didn't he? How the fuck could I be so blind! Oh my God! What have I done?" Emmett put his head down on the table and sobbed, his big shoulders heaving so hard it was making the table shake. "This is all my fault. My father must be rolling in his grave. What have I done?"

Anguish tore through him as he replayed the events of the past year. Now, he could see, clear as day, exactly when it had started. He pieced it all together into one fine, fucked up, mess.

A doctor entered the room. "Emmett Swan?"

Lifting his head, he looked at the doctor through red, swollen eyes. "Yeah?"

"Isabella is out of surgery."

"She's okay?"

The doctor moved to sit beside him. "I don't know, son. She coded again in surgery. We had to go in and try to relieve some of the pressure on her brain by inserting a shunt. If her pressure drops significantly and the swelling subsides in the next twenty-four hours, we're hopeful she'll make a near-full recovery. However, there is a strong chance she'll suffer brain damage of some sort. It could be as mild as minor memory loss or as devastating as remaining in a vegetative state or death. It's too soon to know right now. The important thing at this moment is to get the pressure down."

"Can I see her?"

"As soon as they have her settled in the ICU, they'll come and get you."

"Thank you, doctor."

"Look, son, we'll do everything we can to save her. The ball is really in her court right now. All we can do is wait and pray."

"Pray," Emmett mumbled. "Whatever. Where was God when that drunk driver killed my parents and why the hell did he let this happen to Bella? She's just a kid! She's an innocent! God," he snorted, "God doesn't care."

The doctor put his hand on Emmett's shoulder. "Sometimes God works in strange ways. I hope you can find some faith to hang onto, son, because your sister might just need a miracle."

When the doctor left the room, one of the officers put his hand where the doctor's had been. "Son, if you need ANYTHING at all, we're here for you and Sweet Pea. She's a tough kid, Emmett, she'll pull through. Your father wasn't just our boss, he was a good friend. We're all sorry you two had to go through this. We should have been there for you."

Emmett cried quietly as the officer continued. "We will do what we can to get this dealt with as quickly, easily, and privately as possible.

"Officer Embry put in a call to Mr. Alec for you and he will be arriving shortly."

"Why did you call my parents' lawyer?"

"As Executor of your parents' estate and the person responsible for your well-being, he has a right to know."

"Great," Emmett said, sighing, "someone else to come and tell me how much I suck."

"Emmett, you did well with what you had. Don't dwell on it and save your energy for helping Bella. We all love you and Sweet Pea like you're our own, and we're here for you. Here's my cell number. Call me anytime. Please."

"Thanks, Officer McCarty."

Emmett was lead down the dim hallway toward the ICU. With each step his heart sunk a little more. When the nurse stopped in front room 316, he started to sweat. I can't do this, he thought nervously.

"It's okay, son. She's in a drug-induced coma so her brain can rest. I'll also warn you that she's on a ventilator, but her vitals are getting stronger. The pressure in her brain is going down slowly, but it's not getting any higher.

"Go talk to her. She needs to know she's not alone."

"Can she hear me?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I'd like to think so."

"Okay."

"If you notice anything , please let us know. I'm going to have someone bring up a cot for you because I have a feeling you'll not be leaving her side."

"No, ma'am, I won't. Thank you."

She gave him a hug. "Hang in there, sweetheart. Let me know if you need anything; and my name is Gianna."

"Thanks."

Emmett walked into the darkened room toward the bed where his baby sister, his Belly, lay trapped in her coma. She was paler than usual, save for the bruises and scars he'd neglected to notice. There were tubes and wires coming out of everywhere, including her bandaged head. She was essentially being kept alive by machines.

"Oh, Belly, I'm so sorry," he whispered as he pulled a chair beside the bed. He rubbed her bruised cheek gently. "This is all my fault," he said, putting his head down on the bed beside her.

Sleep quickly overtook him, the stress of the day finally taking its toll on him. He woke some time later when he heard a doctor speaking quietly to a nurse nearby. Raising his head, he asked the doctor how she was.

"Sorry we woke you, son. I was just coming in to check on her."

He leaned over, opened one of her bruised and swollen eyes and shone a light into it. Emmett gasped when he saw that the whites of her eyes were red.

"What the hell?"

"It's okay, just some ruptured blood vessels. Watch," he said as he flashed the light into her eye again. "Did you see the pupil react?"

Emmett nodded.

"That's a good sign, son. Her pupils were non-reactive when she came in."

He checked her reflexes, tweaked the monitors and the IV before he spoke again. "The pressure is down a little, but I'd like to see it go down a lot more."

"What can I do?"

"Talk to her, reassure her that everything is going to be okay. Pray. That's all. It's a waiting game now. Why don't you go home and get some sleep, take a shower, change your clothes; you've got blood on your shirt."

Emmett replied quietly that he wouldn't leave her.

"You're no good to her like this, son. She won't be waking up anytime soon. Please, go take care of yourself."

Sighing, he finally nodded. "Belly, sweetie, I'm going home for a little bit. You be safe. I love you. Don't die." He kissed her cheek before he left.

Mr. Alec met him in the hallway. "How is she?"

Shaking his head sadly, Emmett slid down the wall until he was sitting.

"I'm sorry son, this is my fault. I should have never entertained the thought of you being her guardian. You're just a kid yourself!"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Alec. I thought I could handle it. Never in a million years did I ever think that my best friend was a monster."

"Are they sure it was James?" Mr. Alec said as he sat down beside Emmett. "Will they have enough to prosecute?"

"I hope so," Emmett said, picking at his jeans. "I'm pretty sure that if they can't charge him until Bella wakes up, they can still get him on the drug charges. So, what happens now?"

Mr. Alec sighed heavily. "First we get your sister through this, we need to know what special needs she'll have when and if she wakes up and we'll go from there. If she's able, she'll go live with the Cullens."

"What about me?" he asked, panicked.

"Son, you're eighteen, you can do whatever you want. I'll release part of your trust fun and you can go anywhere your heart desires."

"I'm not leaving her. Will the Cullens take me too?"

"Yes, Esme insisted that you both come."

"Good," he said.

They sat in silence for a moment until they heard the scratchy sound of the PA system coming to life. "CODE BLUE, ROOM 316. CODE BLUE, ROOM 316."

Emmett jumped up. "That's Bella!"

He and Mr. Alec ran to the doorway and watched helplessly as they worked on Bella again.

"Come on, Bella!" he said through tears. Mr. Alec put his arm around his shoulder.

"They're doing their best, son."

Emmett flinched.

"She's back," a doctor announced after a second round with the defibrillator. He replaced the paddles on the cart. "Get her to CT again. STAT!"

Helplessness took root in Emmett as he watched them wheel away his poor pale, broken, baby sister away from him.

"I'm sorry, son, her pressure shot up. I think there's a bleed on her brain, or a clot. We'll do what we can, but there are no promises."

Mr. Alec led Emmett into Bella's room. "Here, sit, son."

Emmett flinched again. "Please don't call me that."

"What?"

"Son."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't deserve that title after what's happened. My father would disown me for destroying his precious Sweet Pea," he replied, his voice colourless.

"You did the best you could, Emmett; I'm as much to blame as anyone. Come on, let me run you home to get some clothes. I'll find a place for you to shower here.

"And don't worry about anything, s…Emmett, we'll get her through it."

Bella's head was splitting; lightning bolts cut through her grey matter and bounced off the inside of her skull. She tried to open her eyes, but they resisted. She managed to open one eye just a crack and she gasped, or rather, she would have, had a machine not been breathing for her. Emmett was sitting beside her, holding her hand, looking terrified.

When he seemed to notice her slight eyelid movement, he called out for someone, but she couldn't tell who it was until a nurse approached, smiling.

"Belly? Are you there?"

She blinked, too afraid to move her head, lest it shatter.

"Are doing one blink for yes, two blinks for no?"

She blinked once.

The nurse moved closer. "Hi Bella, I'm Gianna. It's nice to see your pretty brown eyes. You've given us all quite a scare. Are you in pain?"

Bella blinked once, hard.

"Can you move your hand?"

Bella thought about it for a minute and tried to move it. When there was no motor response, the nurse smiled at her. "It's okay, sweetheart. I'll give you some pain medicine for now and once you're better able to move we'll hook you up with a pain pump. Don't worry, dear, you'll be up and moving around in no time considering you shouldn't even be awake right now."

"Belly, do you know who I am?" Emmett asked.

One blink. How silly! Why wouldn't I know my own brother? she thought.

The nurse pushed a button, fixed Bella's blankets, checked the monitors, smiled and assured her that the pain would be gone in a moment.

Mercifully it was, and so was Bella; swept away on a warm morphine wave of relief.

"Exhale, Belly, come on, push that tube out."

Bella strained to find the air she needed to get that vile breathing tube out of her throat.

"Good girl," Gianna said in a soothing voice. "You can do it, Sweet Pea, just stay calm."

The tube slid out, leaving Bella struggling for air. After nine days on the ventilator, her lungs were a little out of practice. She coughed, gasped and gulped for the oxygen her burning lungs cried out for. Gianna placed a mask over her mouth and nose, encouraging her to breathe in and out slowly.

Emmett held her hand, coaching her as she finally pulled enough air into her lungs. Her body relaxed and she smiled weakly.

"You okay?" he asked.

She raised a hand to his cheek and nodded.

Gianna checked her lungs for fluid, watched her O2 levels on the monitor and smiled. "Good girl, Bella. You're doing great."

"Really?" Emmett asked.

"Really. You're a tough cookie, Bella. I'm going to go grab the doctor. If you have any further trouble breathing, push the red button right away. Do. Not. Wait."

"I won't," Emmett replied, smiling. He turned his attention back to Bella.

"W…what?" she stuttered, her voice weak and raspy.

Emmett gave her a couple of ice chips. She closed her eyes and sighed as the cool water soothed her burning throat.

"Do you remember what happened?"

Bella tried to recall how she could have ended up in the hospital. She had…what had she…?

The heart monitor pinpointed the exact moment she remembered what precipitated her hospitalization. Gianna ran back in, a doctor in tow.

Bella gasped for air. "James," she croaked. Oh no! What have I done? Em's going to leave or send me away now. Shit! Shit! Shit! Bella, you are SO incredibly stupid!

"Bella, Sweet Pea, you need to calm down," Gianna said as the doctor prepared a syringe. "The doctor is going to give you something to help calm you down. You'll be okay."

The room began to spin. She looked at Emmett and pleaded with him. "Don't go," she whispered.

"Never, Belly, I'll never leave you alone again. I'm sorry." He kissed her hand as the darkness overtook her again.

"Come on, Sweet Pea, you can do it. We're just going to walk to the chair. You need to get moving, get your lungs cleared," Gianna said. "You can't stay in bed all day like a lazy bones."

"I'm dizzy," she replied quietly, trying to centre herself. "You stop the room from spinning and I'll run a marathon."

"I see you haven't lost your sense of humour. Come on, up you go."

Gianna and Emmett helped her to her feet. Her legs threatened to give out on her, but they held onto her securely so she wouldn't fall.

"We won't let you fall, Belly, we've got you," Emmett said, tightening his grip on her. "You're doing great."

She wanted to throw up by the time she made it to the chair by the window. The room was rotating so bad she really struggled to keep her liquid lunch down.

"How's that?" Gianna asked as she adjusted Bella's IV, and pulled back the lever on the recliner.

"Better."

"Take deep, cleansing breaths, Sweet Pea."

"Why do you call me that? That's the name my Dad always called me."

"I can stop if you like. I thought it might make you feel a little better," the kind nurse said, crouching down beside her. "I knew your parents, Bella. Your father was always so proud of you both," she said, looking at Emmett. "He always showed us pictures of you; newspaper clippings of your football successes, Bella's adorable ballet recitals. He'd beam and say that's my Sweet Pea in that tutu; or that son of mine is going to play in the NFL! Even when you were little, Emmett, he'd brag about how you were going to be an awesome football player.

"Bella, you were the apple of his eye. We'd always have a chuckle about your latest clumsy accident."

Bella slowly raised a hand to wipe away a tear. "How did you know him? I don't remember you being at the house."

"He spent a lot of time here with accident, abuse, and rape victims, not to mention suspects who required medical care. He was well-loved here and well-respected. We were all devastated when…" she paused, swallowed hard. "I was on duty the night of the accident. It was so hard to see. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be upsetting you like this."

"No," Bella gasped, "I need to hear it. Please?"

"They were already gone when they arrived, but nobody was willing to give up. We worked on them for almost an hour," Gianna began to cry. "I'm so sorry, kids. We loved your dad so much."

Bella took Gianna's hand in hers and rubbed it. "Thank you."

Gianna looked up, confused. "Why?"

"I needed to hear that…I…" she frowned, "I never really grieved for them; it never felt real. It was like they went out to get me some cough medicine and just didn't come home. How could they be dead…I never saw them."

"Yeah, I know, it still doesn't seem real for me either, and I'm the one who had to deal with the funeral home. The closest it's felt to being real, that they're really gone, was when I saw you dead on the table while they tried to bring you back. All I could think was that I was going to lose you too, that I was going to be all alone."

"Well, I'm still here," she said, smiling at him.

"Yeah, but you weren't for a while. Between coding God knows how many times and being in a coma for a week…I thought you had left me."

"You're lucky to be alive, Bella," Gianna said, standing up. She wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled. "I have to go check on another patient. Let me know if you need me."

Bella looked at Emmett and sighed. "So, you're holding out on me, Brother Bear. Tell me the truth, I can handle it, as long as the truth doesn't make the room spin any more than it already is."

Emmett quietly told her about finding her at James' house, about her coding in the ER, in the OR, and then again in her room just before they took her back to the OR to remove a blood clot.

Raising her hand slowly to the bandage on her head, she winced. "That explains the bandage. Did they have to shave off a lot of my hair?"

"No, I don't think they did, just a bit around the incisions. If they did, we'll get you a wig to wear until it grows back."

"So, now what?"

"What do you mean?"

"James."

"Oh…well, James has been arrested, although I'm not sure of the exact charges against him. They are waiting to talk to you, I think."

"And?"

"And what?"

"When do you ship me off?"

Emmett was puzzled. "Why would I ship you off? I go where you go."

"That's not what James said. He said if you found out that you'd leave me, that I've been holding you back and that you'd toss me the first opportunity you got."

Taking her hand in his, he sighed. "Belly, we are a team. I won't ever leave you. Yes, we're shipping out, but we're going together."

"We're leaving Phoenix?" Bella gulped. "But the house…"

Big sigh from Big Brother Bear. "We were on borrowed time. I had made an agreement with Mr. Alec that I would try to raise you; if it didn't work, then we…well, we're moving to Washington State to live with the Cullens."

"Our Godparents?"

"Yup."

"But…we don't really know them-we've seen them how many times? Twice? When we were little? I don't want to live with strangers, Emmy, I just want to go home," she said, crying. "I promise I'll be good this time."

Emmett held her tightly in his arms. "You're a good girl, Belly, I just wasn't able to take good enough care of you. Why didn't you tell me what he was doing to you? I could have stopped it!"

"I was scared, Emmy."

"Because you thought I would leave you?"

She nodded slowly, so as not to set her head spinning any faster.

"Did he hurt you for a long time?"

She nodded again and tensed up when she felt his hands curling into fists. Her stomach lurched a little.

"How long? When did it start?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"Just after Mom and Dad died," she whispered. Her body began to tremble and she couldn't control it. Her teeth chattered.

"Shh, Belly, it's okay. Calm down. I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at James and myself."

Bella's stomach rolled, her eyes grew huge. Emmett grabbed a bedpan just in time to get it under her chin as she threw up.

"Gianna!" he yelled.

Bella held a hand up. "I'm okay. Just get me back to the bed. My head is killing me."

Gianna ran in. "What's wrong?"

Emmett was picking Bella up and carrying her to the bed. The nurse followed with the IV pole, fussing over Bella once she was back in bed.

"Are you okay?"

Bella nodded slowly. "I got sick."

"I see that, sweetie. I'll go get the doctor."

"I'm okay. My head just hurts. I'd like some sleep."

"Okay. Here's your pain pump. You get some rest. Emmett, dear, can I speak with you?"

"I'll be out when she falls asleep, okay?"

"Sure."

Emmett found Gianna going over some charts at the nurse's station.

"Hi, sweetie, I take it she's sleeping."

"Yeah, but I don't want to leave her for too long in case she has a nightmare."

"Does she vomit a lot? She didn't seem too overly upset that she was sick."

"Usually after a nightmare. I've had to crawl into bed with her almost every night since Mom and Dad died. She started having nightmares, screaming, crying and throwing up.

"She threw up a lot on her last birthday, too. It was strange. She was fine when I left to pick up her cake, but when I came back she looked like she'd seen a ghost. She picked at her food and threw up on the floor. When I came back with a mop and bucket, she was laying on the floor crying. Oh," he stopped for a moment. His face was suddenly flush with colour. "James…FUCKER!"

"How long has this been going on?"

"What?"

"The abuse?"

"Since Mom and Dad died. I had no idea."

"She needs to talk to someone."

"I'll find someone when we move."

"Do you have any reason to believe he sexually abused her?"

"Oh God, no. I never thought of that. He wouldn't do that…I know he wouldn't."

"I think it's a question that needs answering. By the way, Officer McCarty stopped by. I told him to let her rest for a while before they start questioning her."

"Gianna?"

"Yes, Emmett?"

"Will you stay with us while they question her? I don't want her to freak out. You can make them stop if it gets too bad, not to mention I could use the moral support; I don't know how much more of this I can hear," he mumbled the last part.

Gianna hugged him. "Of course I will. Are you really sure that you want to be there? It might upset her more to talk about it with you in the room."

"I never thought of that. What if she needs me?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there," she cupped his cheek in her hand. "You look exhausted. Why don't you go take a nap too."

He smiled, but it barely reached his tired eyes. "A nap sounds great."

"I put some clean bedding on your cot but didn't get a chance..."

He cut her off. "No worries, I got it. Thank you."

She kissed his forehead. "Anytime, Emmett."

"So, Bella, do you know who this gentleman is?" Gianna asked.

She scrunched up her face for a moment, covered one eye and smiled. "Officer McCarty! Is that Officer Embry?"

"Hi, Sweet Pea. How's our girl doing?"

"Meh, I've been better," she grinned. "I suppose this goes way beyond my klutzy mishaps, doesn't it?"

His smile dropped. "I suppose it does. How're you feeling?"

"I'm still dizzy a lot, I have some double vision and for some reason it feels like someone cracked my head open like a coconut," she laughed lightly.

"Aw, Bella, we're so sorry. We should have looked out for you. Your Dad was our boss and our friend and we totally let you and Emmett down." He moved to sit in Emmett's usual spot beside the bed.

"Where's Emmett?"

"I sent him out on a mission to find you some edible food," Gianna said. "I'm going to be his proxy until he gets back."

"So, Officers McCarty and Embry, when does the inevitable investigation start?"

"I'm sorry, Sweet Pea, I hate to ask."

"Go ahead."

"Sweetie, do you know who it was who caused your recent injuries?"

"James. James McLeod."

"Can you tell us what happened that day?"

Bella though long and hard about the day in question, but her memories were kind of fuzzy.

"I don't remember how I ended up at his house. I remember him punching me and then landing at the bottom of the stairs," she paused, "I think he burned me with a cigarette."

"Can you show us?"

Panic bubbled up in the back of her throat in the form of acidic bile. She closed her eyes and tried to swallow it, along with the slew of memories assaulting her.

Gianna moved closer and rubbed Bella's cheek. "Take your time, sweetheart, no one will hurt you."

"No," she muttered, trembling. "Please, no."

"Shh, calm down, Sweet Pea, we can wait."

Bella eventually pulled down the sheet and pulled up her gown only high enough to show the lesser scars. She didn't want anyone to see the brand further up her torso, although she was sure the doctors and nurses had already seen it dozens of times.

Officer McCarty gasped. "Oh, Sweet Pea."

"Please don't, sir."

"I'm sorry. Sometimes it's hard to separate work and, well, this. So," he said, composing himself. "What else do you remember?"

"Fire in my throat. He made me drink fire."

"It was bourbon."

"It felt like fire but it tasted better than the blood."

"How long has this been going on?" Officer Embry asked.

Bella went silent, a tear fell down her cheek. "After Mom and Dad died. Emmett was so busy dealing with all the funeral stuff, I had been sick and he didn't want to leave me alone, so he asked him to come over."

She continued to tell them about the physical abuse. She stopped talking about everything when flashes of the repressed memories of the rapes; the feel of him touching her, stretching her, violating her, sent an involuntary message to her stomach causing her to throw up. Gianna held the bedpan for her and rubbed her back.

"Breathe through it, sweetie. It's okay."

"My head hurts," she cried. "Can we please stop?"

"Yes, dear, we'll stop for now; we can talk another day. We have more than enough to charge him. I'm sorry to make you go through this again. It'll all be over soon."

"What's going to happen?"

"Well, we'll charge him. He'll probably get bail because he's a minor, and he'll be eventually tried. We're hoping we'll be able to have him tried as an adult."

"What if he comes after me again?"

"He won't, Sweet Pea, he won't know where to find you. We are going to try to keep the location of your new home confidential. Please don't worry." Officer McCarty shuffled his feet uncomfortably. "There's one more thing. We need to get photographic evidence of your injuries. I'm really sorry."

Bella began to cry harder.

Gianna spoke up. "Do you think you could do it later? She's so upset."

"I'm sorry, but as it is, we should have taken these a week ago."

"Please, no!" Bella wailed.

"What's the problem?"

"I...Please don't show Emmy. If you promise not to show him, if you SWEAR on my father's grave that you won't show him, then..." she sobbed, "okay."

The officers helped Bella stand up. Gianna locked the door so no one would come in. The officers gasped when they saw the word PIG burned into her pale flesh.

"Did he...?"

She nodded, sobbing, and trying to cover her shame.

"We're almost finished, Bella, just a couple more and we'll go."

As soon as they were finished, she curled up into a ball on the bed and began rocking as she sobbed.

"Gianna, she needs to talk to a counsellor," Officer McCarty said, "the poor girl is severely traumatized."

"Emmett assured me that he'd get her some help when they get settled in Washington State. Oh dear, she's vomiting again. Please leave the door open when you leave."

When Emmett returned with bags of take-out, he found his sister curled up in a ball whimpering in her sleep. He set the bags down, crawled into bed with her as he usually did at times like this, wrapped his big arms around her and silently begged for her forgiveness.

Although still somewhat unsteady on her feet by times and prone to bouts of dizziness, Bella was finally discharged after three weeks in the hospital. She was thrilled to be leaving, but sad at the same time. She was going to miss Gianna, who had become almost a surrogate mother to both of them, and because they would be leaving for some tiny town in damp old Washington State called Forks.

Emmett had already begun packing up their things so Bella really had very little to do, not that she was allowed to do much or even had the energy or balance.

She stood in front of the mirror in her bathroom and stared at the scars on her head. The doctor had done an amazing job at hiding them in her hair. Of that she was thankful. She already had enough scars to look at.

Packing up her toiletries and a last few trinkets and mementos did nothing to quell the fears she had of the future. She was leaving behind everything she knew, stepping out into the unknown. Maybe a fresh start wouldn't be so bad.

Pausing in front of the door to her parents' bedroom, she took a deep breath as she pushed it open. She braced for the tears, but they didn't come, at first. Instead, she saw lazy Sunday mornings in bed with her parents, laughing, joking around, having tickle fights; having THE talk with her mom when she had her first period when she was twelve; trying to help her Mom with the crossword puzzle; watching baseball games with her Dad. She smiled before she walked to the bed and took the afghan her Nanna Swan had knit, said goodbye to the memories, and left before she broke down.

"Emmett," she said as he helped her buckle her seatbelt. "What if the Cullens hate us? What if they think I'm too much of a freak? What if they find out what happened and they can't stand to be around me? What if I'm too broken?"

Tilting her head so she was looking at him, he gave her a kiss on the nose and sighed. "Belly, they're good people and they'll love you; everyone always does."

Tears forced their way out of her eyes as she nuzzled the afghan and watched her childhood home disappear behind them. Goodbye, old life. See you never, old house. Hello cold, damp, mossy Forks, Washington.

Again, if you have any outtakes you'd like to see from Branded or Road Maps, please let me know.

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