So hiya! Erm.. I did say I'd never give up on my stories right? I just didn't think I'd be posting my next chapter years later.
This is completely unbeta'd so apologies for what I'm sure are many mistakes and I hope you like this chapter anyway. You may want to read the A/N at the end.
I own nothing Supernatural or Twilight
Chapter 40
Burning for You
Charlie ran me into the house as fast as he could, depositing me on the couch opposite the one Dean was occupying at present.
"What happened?" Carlisle asked, entering the room quicker than the eye could see, even a hunter's eye. He tore my shirt just enough to look at the stab wound. I was going to need to go clothes shopping again at this rate. Sure, when the boys had tried to dissuade me from joining them they mentioned the death and pain but never how hard hunting was on your wardrobe.
"Demon stabbed me." I gasped as he prodded the gaping wound.
"Ellen!" Charlie called at the ceiling. "Bobby!" The two hunters had helped Jo inside as soon as the demons were down outside. Before I'd gotten shanked, obviously.
"It should be okay, it's a clean slice, no serrated edges and it hasn't nicked anything vital. It will take a while for the muscle damage to repair itself though. I can sew you back together in no time Bella." Carlisle said calmly, his bedside manner impeccable even as three sets of feet pounded down the stairs.
"What now?" Bobby growled out, his eyes holding worry as he took in the scene in front of him.
"Cursed knife." Charlie said while showing the three hunters stood in the doorway the offending article.
"Damn. How are you feeling honey?" Ellen asked me, concern bleeding out of her. She took the knife from Charlie to inspect the carvings in it.
"I've had worse." I replied honestly. It hurt like a bitch but no more than any other stab wound I'd received. It was odd how normal that thought was in my life now.
"Should I start treating it? Or is it going to need… expert care?" Carlisle asked looking more lost than I'd ever seen him.
"It depends what curse is on it, we may be able to stop the curse by burning the knife, it might not have worked because Sam killed the demon who used it or…" Dad stopped talking with pain filled eyes trained on me.
"Or I may be screwed." I supplied with a grimace.
"I don't recognise these markings." Ellen said, ignoring me, rude much?
Bobby had a furrowed brow as he looked it over. "I'm pretty sure that these are Anglo-Saxon runes There's got to be a book on them in that library." He took off without another word.
"We'll find something Bells." Sam said with his earnest expression across his face. I nodded with a small smile as he followed Bobby. Ellen and Jo were hot on his heels, Ellen squeezing my shoulder as she went.
"I don't want to leave that as it is Bella, you're likely to get an infection this way." Carlisle said as he, dad and I were the only ones left besides a passed-out Dean.
"Stitch away Carlisle, if we need to open me up again we can." I replied with a smile I wasn't feeling. What was this curse going to do to me? Was I never going to catch a damn break?
"Okay, I'm going to give you something for the pain." He brought out a syringe, a packaged needle and a bottle full of clear liquid, the good stuff. "You'll feel a sharp scratch."
"I've just been stabbed Carlisle, not too worried about a needle." I said dryly. Carlisle chuckled as the needle hit home. "How's Dean?" I asked as he got out all the other supplies he would need for putting me back together again, going human speed out of habit I guessed.
"He'll be fine Bella." Carlisle reassured me with a small smile that didn't reach his eyes.
"Good." I started fidgeting wanting to speak, but also not wanting to. At all. Still I had my big girl panties and it was time to pull them up, curse Bobby and his colloquialisms. "I'm sorry… About Edward. I really am." And I was, I was sorry that I'd brought pain down onto the Cullen's who really didn't deserve it.
"No apologies." Carlisle said very softly, pure pain in his voice. "I…I understand and I'm not sure if I wouldn't have done the same. He was my son, my first companion in this lonely life and I will forever mourn who he was. In the same way that my family had already started to mourn who he was after he tried to defile you Bella. The person out there, that one who was killed wasn't our Edward, he wasn't my Edward, he was twisted beyond all recognition and I'm not sure how that happened, I feel partly responsible for that. Emmett was right Bella, Eve wasn't making him do the terrible things that he did. She controlled the rest of us, made us do things, despicable things, but not him, he did them with a smile on his face. Do not feel bad Bella, you have helped rid the world of an evil and I have come to believe that's what you do now, that's who you are and who you were meant to be. We still love you Bella, you will always have a special place in my heart." Carlisle smiled down at me just as the blackness the drugs were conjuring took me away.
~0~
I groaned as I woke, feeling like I'd downed a bottle of whiskey the night before. My head was pounding, my body ached, and my side burnt dully. In short, I felt like crap.
"Hey sweetheart." Dean said as I opened my eyes with a groan. "How are you feeling."
"Uhhh." I moaned my response. "How are you?"
"Vampire doc fixed me and I'm all good." He replied, my head was in his lap and the hand that wasn't braced was stroking my hair gently.
"How long have I been out for?" I asked trying to sit up and failing as my stomach muscles protested violently, the sting feeling like a burn that either meant I was healing or becoming infected, either way it was a bitch and was already annoying me.
"I woke a couple of hours ago, not sure how long I was out for though." He said while helping me up.
"You were sleeping for fifteen hours Dean, Bella you have been asleep for fourteen." Esme said with a warm smile as she walked into the room from the kitchen. "I've fixed you up some supper, well breakfast really, if you'd like it."
"Yeah, thanks." Dean said a bit uncomfortably, you could literally see him warring with himself about the Cullen's, on one hand they were vampires, on the other hand they were so damn nice you couldn't not love them. "Where's Sam and everyone else?"
"Carlisle and my children are in the library trying to research that blade, the others are all still sleeping, it's almost four thirty in the morning."
Dean wrinkled his head in confusion looking completely adorable as he did. "What knife?"
"The blade that sliced through my knife like it was butter?" I replied.
"What?" Dean bit out his voice gravelly, he started looking me over properly then, his sharp eyes quickly travelled to my shiny new bandage. "What happened?"
"No one told you?" I asked.
"I haven't seen anyone. I just thought you were sleeping by my sick bed." Dean frowned.
I rolled my eyes at him, even though he sort of had a point, I would have slept opposite him regardless, even if I had been fine. "You were out cold, demons came, they had Jo, Ellen's daughter?"
"I know Jo yeah" Dean replied impatiently.
"They wanted you and me. I told them they couldn't have you, obviously, handed myself over then we shot the demons and exorcised them. I was checking the hosts over when I was stabbed, it hurt like a bitch too. Anyway, apparently it was a cursed blade. No idea on the curse." I summed up for the obviously angry hunter.
"You have got to stop putting yourself in danger! God damn it Bella! That curse…! Aargghh!" Dean stood up and started pacing angrily. I heard him muttering furiously about how we needed a punching bag around here.
"Dean it's what we do, what we all do. Look I feel fine, just a bit banged up. It's not like I could have just left Jo is it? They would have killed her." I said going over arguments we'd had before and would no doubt have again. "Everyone Is looking for something on that knife, we'll find something to stop whatever it is and all live to gank another demon another day."
Dean glared at me before storming out of the room.
I tried to get up to go get some of Esme's wonderful cooking only to find myself stuck. It hurt way too much to get up on my own.
"Are you okay?" Esme asked quietly from the doorway, apparently, she had witnessed all of Dean and I's little spat, oh well if the Cullen's were sticking about for any amount of time they'd have to get use to daily disagreements in one form or another.
"Yeah. He'll be back in a minute." Esme looked sceptically at me, she didn't know Dean very well though.
Sure enough a minute or two later Dean came stomping back into the room and very gently helped me from the sofa with his arm that was still useable. "I'm still pissed at you." He growled out as he helped me walk gingerly into the kitchen.
"I know." I replied with a smile. "I love you too."
~0~
"Morning!" I said smiling at the assembled vamps as Dean helped me into the library, Esme following us with two coffees.
"Good morning Bella, Dean. How are you both feeling?" Carlisle asked with a small genuine smile across his movie star face.
"All good here doc." Dean replied while helping me stiffly into a chair.
"Just tickety boo." I said with a smile for Carlisle and a gentle thank you smile for Dean. I slightly under playing how good I was but I would say something if the increasing burning pain persisted.
"Anyone found anything?" Dean asked while nodding his head to Esme in thanks as she placed our coffees down in front of us.
"Yeah some freaky ass shit." Emmett said his eyes wide as he read.
"Nothing about the curse no sorry." Jasper said to the point and rolling his eyes at Emmett.
"Great, can someone please pass me a book then?" My voice was emotionless to try and hide the worry I was starting to feel, hoping that Jasper wouldn't rat me out.
"Sure B you want Cursed Objects and their Histories or Forgotten Ruins of the Saxons?" Dean said somehow making both of them sound racy and wiggling his eyebrows. My giggles were joined by all of the remaining Cullen's laughter.
"Oh Dean!" I simpered while fanning my face. "It will have to be Forgotten Ruins."
Dean chuckled as did the Cullen's once more.
Four hours later, three more coffees, five hunters added to the now full library and we still had nothing.
I was starting to feel really uncomfortable though. Not just from my wound, which despite the painkillers that Carlisle had given me for it an hour ago was really starting to be a problem. No, my major source of discomfort was the hunter sat the other side of Dean.
Jo, when she wasn't openly flirting with Dean, was sat glaring at me. It was really starting to grate on my nerves.
She'd come into the library earlier and made a bee line straight for Dean.
"Hey Jo, how are you doing?" I'd asked as she passed me.
Giving me a bitch face that would rival Roses' she replied with "S'up."
"Hey Dean-o!" She gushed at Dean "That had to have hurt!" She stroked the part of his arm that had been injured which wasn't in a cast.
"What?" Dean had asked looking up distractedly from the book he'd been reading. "Oh, hey Jo, how are you?"
"I'm good as usual." She flicked her long blonde hair behind her back. "Takes more than a couple of demons to put me down." She'd said with a pointed glance at me just to make sure we knew what she was talking about.
I exchanged an incredulous look with Sam who was frowning deeply at the blonde hunter.
"Just to catch you, yeah?" Sam said sounding like he was teasing but his face said otherwise. She gave him a small glare and picked up a book with a suffering sigh.
Since then she'd desperately been trying to get Deans attention at every given opportunity, touching him whenever she could and giving me the stink eye every half hour or so.
Now she was giggling at him as he bitched about the current book that he was trawling through.
I didn't really want to move, however the need to use the facilities as well as the need to get away for a minute or two was too great to ignore any longer. I tried pulling myself up from the table but failed, Carlisle had said that it would take some time for muscles to knit back together, it was going to be a total ball ache until then. What was worrying me slightly though was that every time I moved the burning pain got worse, if it didn't start getting better by this evening I would probably have to tell someone.
"You alright sweetheart?" Dean asked pushing himself back from the table and standing to help me up.
"Yup, just need to pee." I declared while blushing as everyone had their eye on me.
"I'll help, I need to do something else before I scream." Rose said surprising me. I nodded my thanks as Dean pulled me up with his good arm. He pressed a gentle kiss to my lips as Rose came to help me hobble back into the main house.
The pain was steadily getting worse as we made our way.
"What are you going to do about that bitch?" Rosalie asked me conversationally as she all but carried me up the stairs, I didn't have to ask who she meant.
"Ignore her." I replied with a tiny shrug, trying not to further jostle my burning wound. "Dean and I have fought pretty hard to be where we are. He loves me, he's not going to go there." Not that I didn't feel a little jealous and more than a bit pissed off. I wondered if he'd slept with her before? Dean was anything but a saint and although it wouldn't have bugged me before, but the way she was acting if he had I would be irrationally pissed off I knew.
"Oh, he wouldn't, but she's not giving up." Rose said. "You need to shut her down."
"And just how do I do that?" I asked.
"Give me another half an hour or so otherwise it's going to look too obvious but I'll…"
~0~
When Rose and I got back downstairs to the library Jo was sat even closer to Dean, she might as well have been giving him a lap dance, as soon as she saw Rose and I she started again.
"Do you remember that hunt we did together Dean?"
Dean looked up at his name. "What? Yeah, ghost with the creepy hidden room right?" He asked distractedly standing to help me sit once again. The pain was starting to hit critical levels.
"That's the one. Remember we had to pretend to be engaged?" Right that was it, I was in pain, I was tired, and this bitch was going down.
"What was your first proper hunt Bella? You never did tell us?" Alice piped up as I opened my mouth to say something I probably shouldn't.
"Err… That was probably when we got arrested and some demons attacked. Real 13th precinct case." I replied with a small smile, it seemed like a lifetime ago now.
"What happened?" Alice asked, her eyes wide looking shocked. She was a great actress; I'd told her this story less than twenty-four hours ago. Still I was sure that she was going somewhere with this, so I carried on.
"Sam, Dean and I got locked in a cell together…" I started telling the story once again noticing as I did that everyone was listening now.
"… As soon as he pulled the gun out I knew that I was toast." I was saying to my rapt audience with a little smile.
"Dean took the bullet though, literally." Sam took over also with a small smile in remembrance.
"How did you get out of the cell?" Charlie asked us with a frown.
"That one was all B." Dean said wrapping his good arm around my shoulders, ignoring the mild glare that Charlie sent his way. It was almost like dad was just token glaring now, doing it because he thought he should rather than it being necessary. "There was this chick, erm…"
"Nancy." Sam supplied for Dean.
"Yeah, Nancy, super religious and carrying around these rosary beads." He carried on the story. "B starts puppy dogging her for a towel as I was bleeding and all."
"Dude, you're missing a bit there." Sam laughed before continuing. "Bells pretended that Dean was her husband to appeal to Nancy. I thought he was going to have an aneurism." He laughed again.
"Was not! Bitch!" Dean pouted as we all laughed, he then placed a gentle kiss to my forehead.
"Excuse me." Jo said shoving her chair from the table and leaving the room.
I looked across the table at Alice who shot me a tiny wink before asking me to go on with the story.
An hour later, unfortunately with Jo back in the room Rose shifted and sighed. "I've got to take a break, this is worse than calculus for the seventy fifth time."
I looked around the room to see the others nodding their agreement, Dean however was frowning at the book he was reading. He looked suddenly at me and said quietly; "Cas?"
"No, it's Bella, you okay?" I smirked.
"Very funny. We call Cas! If he can't fix you sweetheart, he should at least know what the curse is!" Dean sounded hopefully at this course of action.
"That's a pretty good idea." Sam agreed eagerly.
"No need to sound surprised Sammy." Dean joked. "Here goes then. Dear Cas, who art in heaven, we have a situation down here, so if you could grace us by getting your feathery ass here that would be great."
"Amen." Sam, Dean and I chorused together with a chuckle. The others in the room either looking shocked, amused or disappointed. Jo managed to get all three emotions across her face while still giving me the stink eye, that was commitment there.
"What is it Dean?" Cas' voice came from behind me making me jump then gasp in pain.
The wound literally felt like it was on fire now. As though my skin was burning, charring, bubbling. I screamed pulling my top away from my skin. Pulling it up to see if my skin really was blackened.
It was. I heard multiple shouts just before I passed out.
~0~
Dean P.O.V.
At Bella's scream I whipped round, her stab wound which five hours ago had looked fine now looked as though some one had taken a flame thrower to it. I managed to catch her just before she hit the deck. I ignored the pain in my arm telling me I'd just wrecked Vamp Docs good work and went to put her on the table that the vamps had already cleared. Got to love super speed.
Ellen was ripping her top away immediately.
"She has been cursed." Cas claimed in that stupid emotionless voice of his.
"No shit! Can you fix her?" Sammy asked sounding almost as panicked as I was feeling.
The burn mark was spreading minutely every time Bella was moved even slightly.
"Don't move her!" Charlie and I barked out at the same time.
"I can not fix her no. I have no power over curses or cursed objects." Cas stated making my heart sink. "Do you have the knife?" He asked.
"Here." Bobby said gruffly passing the damn thing to the angel.
"This is a Saxon blade." Castiel said he then sighed. "She is in agonising pain."
"What do we do?" The vamp doc asked urgently.
"Hold her down." Cas said before he was raising the blade and stepping towards Bella.
Instinctively I grabbed the knife and used every ounce of will power I possessed not to smack him round the face. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" I growled out, my voice coming out icy cold.
"The only way to save Bella is to cut out the infected bit with the cursed blade itself. It will hurt, and I can only heal her so far afterwards but it's the only way she'll live."
"Shit!" I took a look at Bella, she was growing pale on the table. The burn mark growing even now, she was going to lose a chunk of flesh, I wondered vaguely if she'd be bothered? It wouldn't bother me any, she was still hot as hell. Wasn't much that would change that.
"We'll let you know when it's over." The blonde vamp addressed his family as they left the room, Bella's vampy best friend looked like she was going to start bawling any minute but even I got why they left. Didn't want a blood bath on top of this shit.
Cas looked at me and when I nodded he stepped forward and raised the blade before swiftly cutting deeply into Bella's blemished flesh. I wanted to retch, I wanted to be the one under the knife, I wanted to turn away. Sucked to be me. The only thing I could do for Bella right then was to watch her pain, I couldn't even hold her hand, knowing that it could spread the burn.
A minute in and Bella let loose a heart wrenching scream that I swore tore at what was remaining of my battered and bruised soul. All I could do was mummer platitudes that she wouldn't even be able to hear.
Two minutes later Bella's cry silenced and with a wet slap of parted fresh a huge chunk of Bella's side came away from her. It took everything I had not to toss my cookies. Jo, Ellen and Sammy weren't as lucky, all of them were gathered near the bin and puking.
"Have you got it all?" I asked stepping forward and taking Bella's hand which was clammy.
"Yes. It is all out." Cas replied.
"How much can you heal?" Charlie asked.
"Not as much as I would like, she'll be sore for a while." And with that Cas closed his eyes and a pressed his hands to Bella's bare, toned stomach. The wound reduced in depth, but the ragged, raw edges remained. By the time he had finished there was a wound about two inches deep and three inches across. It wasn't pretty, but it was a damn sight better than it was. "That is all I can do for her." He then turned to me. "Let me help you." He healed me quickly, the burning pain of my re broken bone that hadn't even registered as Bella lay injured vanished, Cas got that far away look on his face before speaking abruptly. "I must leave." And with that Cas was gone before I could even mutter a thanks.
"I can sow this up." The blonde vampire offered.
"Sure." Charlie said his eyes not leaving Bella, I moved so he could come stand next to her with me. I could see the need in his eyes. I would have been damned if anyone would have kept me from her and I wouldn't do the same to Charlie, despite his past mistakes.
"It'll take a week minimum for this to be healed enough for her to move around on her own. I recommend at least two weeks before she starts doing exercises to build her strength back up. I advise that she doesn't doing any hunting for a least a month, more depending on how she heals." The doc was explaining as he started working on Bella.
"We'll make sure she stays put Carlisle, don't worry." Charlie said.
I nodded quickly as I watched the doctor work, we were so close, so damn close to losing her, not being able save her, if the burning had got something vital, if had spread much further… I could handle a lot of things, hell I had handled a lot of things, losing Bella again was not something I could live through. I couldn't. Maybe her sitting out for a bit wouldn't be such a bad thing. I could even stay with her for a bit. Make sure she stayed put.
I really hope you liked this chapter and the only reason that I'm still writing (or writing again) is the fact that even after all this time people are still reading this story! That being said, I don't have even of a fraction of the time I use to have for writing. I will be updating this and Firework on a rotating weekly schedule. One week I will update Firework the next Lies For My Protection, the next Firework and so on. This way I'm hoping I can get back on track and wrap these stories up for you all. I just want to say a massive thank you to anyone who's reading this story, following it, favourited it and especially reviewed. See you in a couple of weeks and please let me know what you think Tametiger x