Soothing Cold

Chapter 19

BPOV

Between my dad, Emmett, and Rosalie, I hardly interact with Phil at all. That is, until Charlie and Emmett get roped into picking up some pizzas for dinner.

"Bella, can you get us some drinks from the kitchen?" Rene takes a moment out of her story she is telling Rose to address me.

"Of course," I get up, making my way to the kitchen. I pull the liter of soda from the fridge and set about finding the plastic party cups. They are still where they were before I was sent to Forks, on the highest shelf in the cabinets.

"You have nice friends."

I jump at the new voice, causing the red disposable cups to tumble down and scatter across the countertops and floor. I whirl to face the man from my nightmares leaning casually against the island countertop.

When the cups scatter to the floor, he bends down to pick them up.

"It's good to see you hanging out with people your own age again. You look better, Bella." Phil stands slowly after collecting them all and holds them out to me in a stack. His expression is open and friendly, an easy smile pulling at his lips. "Sorry about that. Didn't mean to startle you."

There is a tremor in my hand as I take the offered cups. Then he is moving further away to lean back against the counter in his previous spot next to the soda.

"It's alright," I manage to say in an even voice. I've been interacting with this man for years outside of my bedroom. Small talk is nothing new between us. I move closer to stack six cups in a line. Then I reach for the soda.

I nervously lick my lips, trying to wet them but my mouth is dry; my tongue feels like sand.

"Your mom misses you, you know. Your time in the psych ward really scared her."

"Yeah, well," I mumble, trying not to spill the bubbly drink as I mostly fill up four of the cups, and the last two only a quarter. Then I put the soda back in the fridge, wiping the sweat off onto my pants and shaking my hands out slightly. The fingertips are starting to go numb

"When do you think you'll be coming home?" He asks, like me coming home is for my mother's wellbeing. Like this place is still my home.

"Rose," I call out, and she is instantly in the kitchen, all smiles, but her eyes are black pools as she rushes up to my side, subtly putting herself between me and Phil.

"Hey, baby girl, let me help you with those." She collects three of the six cups, two of them being the ones only a quarter full. "Your dad and my brother are back with the pizza; lets head on back out."

I sigh in relief, as I collect the other three cups and follow her back to the Livingroom where she is handing one cup to Charlie and the other to Emmett. I hastily distribute my cups as well before quickly going to stand between the two. It takes about ten minutes before I'm able to fully calm down again.

That night, before bed, I crawl into bed with my two vampires while my dad is in the shower. My fingers absently trace over the scars on my wrists and they just watch me. My back rests against the wall and I have a cold shoulder pressing into mine on either side of me. I feel secure.

"He said something about a psych ward…?" Rosalie ventures after we sit in silence for a while.

She wasn't there when he was talking to me. If she were a human, she wouldn't have known anything about our conversation. We haven't talked about what she is yet, but I've noticed that, for the most part, she's not trying to really hide it anymore. I think she knows that I'm aware of what she is. I wonder if it will ever be brought up in conversation.

"After I cut my wrists, mom came home early from an art class and found me. At the hospital, I was put under suicide watch. My great escape was trying to jump out of a window. After that, they labeled me as a danger to myself and put me in a psych ward for 6 weeks. After they found some anti-depressants that worked for me, they let mom take me home, and then she sent me to live with Charlie."

"Thank God," Emmett murmurs, slinging an arm across my shoulders and his arm is so big that it makes it across Rosalie's as well. I willingly fall against his side. It's like leaning against a pliable concrete slab.

"I don't think I can thank him for this…" I whisper.

Rosalie reaches out, fingers tracing over my wrist, then my palm, and then entangling her fingers with mine. She presses a lingering kiss to my cheek.

I like it when she kisses me. It feels nothing like His.

I close my eyes and drift off to sleep before my dad ever makes it out of the shower.

…..

"It was so nice seeing you, Bella," my mother exclaims, hugging me tightly to her bony frame. "Are you sure you won't stay longer? Just because Charlie can't stay doesn't mean you can't."

I stiffly pat her back as she cries on my shoulder.

"I'm ready to get back home, mom. I'm sure."

"Well… I suppose I have to let you go then…" she pulls away reluctantly. "Please visit again soon."

"I will," I lie smoothly, anxious to just get away from them.

Then she is stepping away and Phil is taking her place, his arms wrapping around me, and my entire body breaks out into a sweat.

"Maybe next time a family visit, yeah? You have your friends all year but we hardly get to see you anymore." He pulls away to hold me at arm's length by the shoulders, and my hands shake so much that I have to shove them in my pockets.

"Maybe," I say, smoothly stepping farther away and forcing his arms to drop away from me, follow me, or hover awkwardly in the air. His touch lingers like a sickness crawling across my skin.

"Come on Bella," Charlie suddenly appears at my side, holding my ticket out to me, but staring at my step-father coldly. "We don't want to miss our flight."

"Right," I say, relieved. "By mom. By Phil," and then we are pushing our way through the crowded airport to go through security. Emmett and Rose will once again be getting a later flight in the evening.

"Dad," I say hesitantly after we make it through the metal detectors and find a private corner at our gate. "If…if I did want to…tell about Phil…"

My dad watches me, his eyes suddenly becoming very intense. It unnerves me a bit, so I drop my eyes to my clenching fingers bunched in my sweatshirt sleeves.

"How would I ever prove it? There's no evidence…. I never told anyone…."

"Well…" he says slowly. "We can take you in to get an exam done in the hospital, we'd take your statement, talk to the doctors who treated you for your depression and get their medical expertise on trauma. And then, after that, we would start a quiet investigation."

"But that won't be enough, will it," I press. "It'll be he say she say. He'll say I'm doing it for attention. And then everyone will find out, mom will find out, and everyone will talk about me and stare at me and think I'm a freak- everyone will think that I'm a liar, or if they do believe me then-"

"Bella- Bells!" Charlie calls, grasping me by my arms and giving me a small shake to bring me back to myself. My skin is still crawling from Phil's hug, so I start to cringe away before I realize it's just my father grabbing me. "Bella, breathe," he tells me, making me suddenly realize that I had started hyperventilating in the middle of the airport. Luckily, not many people are at the gate yet. We got here early.

I nod shakily and try to slow my breathing, trying to match my father's as he coaches me through it.

After several minutes, I nod my head and he slowly lets go of me. I lean heavily against the wall in exhaustion.

"We'll figure this out, Bells," he tells me. "I promise."

A/N: Alright, so a little note: Bella does not have her shield powers in this fic. It is originally what Edward saw in her head that got them to start talking to them. Also, at the beginning of this story I originally wrote her as 15 but then I also accidentally had her already driving herself to school. So, for our purposes, lets say she had just turned 16 because it was still the beginning of the school year when she transferred to Forks and her birthday is in September.

Please let me know what you guys think of this one.

~Silver~