Remote [Chapter 2 -- Girl Talk]
Title: Remote [2/?]
Chapter: Girl Talk
Fandom: Twilight
Author: not_from_stars
Character: Cullens, The Pack, A few extras
Word Count: 3,000
Summary: Five years after Edward lied to Bella and the Cullens left Forks, it's gotten to be too much to be away from the girl they all loved. They come back for Bella, only to find that nothing is as it should be -- and that Bella is not who she used to be.
Rating: PG-13
Notes: AU from New Moon. Bella never jumped off the cliff, and Alice never got a vision of her "death" so Edward never went to Volterra.
Author's Note: The image for this fic was created for me by catsimmie. This was so not what I had outlined and planned for the second chapter. However, after deleting and restarting this chapter twice with the same results, I gave up and let the girls have their way.
"I'm pretty sure that no matter how hard you stare at it, you're not going to be able to set fire to it with just the power of your glare."
Angela blinked at the beer bottle that had appeared within her line of sight. "What?" she asked in confusion.
Leah settled gracefully on the ground next to her and gestured across the yard. "That tree. You were staring at it pretty fiercely. It looked like you were wishing you had the power to make it burst into flames with your mind."
"Oh," Angela said, accepting the offered beer. "I guess I was. I got lost in my thoughts."
"About the bloodsuckers?" Leah guessed.
Five years ago, Angela probably would have flinched at the derogatory term. Now, she just nodded, taking a drink. "Bella?"
"Seth is with her. She seems to be sleeping. He won't leave her side right now. He's worried about her waking up or hearing about the bloodsuckers' visit while she's alone."
"Do you think she knows they're back?"
"Probably not. Her room is situated too far back from the front door." Leah shook her head and blew out a breath. "But, I'm really not looking forward to her finding out about it."
Angela turned her head to look at her friend. "Do you think it's possible for her to become any more broken than she already is?"
"I don't know, Ange. I really don't want to see anyone try to test the limits with that. It's hard enough seeing her in this shape. I don't believe any of us want to see what could happen if she gets even worse."
"Damn it!" Angela burst out. "Why couldn't they just have stayed away? Haven't they hurt her enough? What, did Edward have to come back to admire his handiwork?"
"It's been five years," Leah agreed. "You would think that they would know better than to come back here after what they did. Those leeches are so lucky that we have a treaty or I'm sure there would have been bloodshed -- well, not that they actually bleed, but you know what I mean. It's not just Jacob and Sam's anger that we have to deal with, but Billy's grief and anger over losing his best friend and seeing his friend's daughter so hurt. The Cullen leeches have a lot to answer for and I know that several of the wolves would like nothing more than to have a turn at them for all of this."
"Including you?" Angela's smile was sad. "I'm glad that Bella has had such a good, strong family with the Pack. I feel better about her when I can't be with her. I know her family will take care of her."
Leah frowned and looked at her. "We're your family, too, Angela."
Angela smiled. "I know that, Leah. At first with Embry and everything, I was a little overwhelmed to find out all of this was real. I mean, werewolves and vampires are real? It was never something I had thought about. But, now, I feel really comfortable here -- and knowing about all of this helps me to understand what happened to my best friend." She looked down at her hands. "When my father first went along on the search for Bella, I was afraid. I didn't know what had happened to her, only that she was missing and Chief Swan was frantically calling everyone to organize a search for her. I was afraid of what they were going to find because it wasn't like Bella to disappear like that. Now? Now I just want to hurt someone for all of the pain that we've all gone through -- most of all Bella."
Leah nodded. "I know. I didn't know her before, but helping take care of her the last few years, seeing the memories Jacob has of her from before... it makes me angry. Jacob says she was extremely shy and clumsy, but that she had a good heart."
"A good heart that was shattered because she loved the wrong person," Angela said bitterly. She shook her head. "I can't believe I encouraged her. If I had known what was going to happen, how he was going to hurt her --"
"She's your friend and you wanted her to be happy. You can't help who you love." The bitterness was now in Leah's voice. "Love just happens. It's like a ride that you enjoy until the end, no matter how that end comes to pass. In Bella's case, he hurt her on purpose. At least Sam has the excuse that he had no choice in the matter with him imprinting on Emily."
"I'm sorry, Leah. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."
Leah's laugh was a sharp bark. "You didn't bring anything up, Ange. The memories are always there. They're things that I can't escape from no matter how hard I run. It's just a messed up fact of life about who we are now. It's one more thing we can thank the bloodsuckers for."
Angela leaned her head against her shoulder. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course."
"Besides the fact that they're vampires, why do Sam and Billy hate the Cullens so much?"
"Isn't that enough of a reason?"
"Leah..."
She smirked. "The Cullens are the reason Sam -- and the rest of us -- became wolves. It skipped my mom and Billy's generation because there were no bloodsuckers around. Then the Cullens came back and bam. We all start having fur and four paws."
"And are larger than a small pony," Angela added with a small smile.
"There is that. Then, when Charlie called Billy to tell him Bella was missing in the woods, it made them even angrier when Sam found her and saw the condition she was in. When all she kept saying was 'He's gone' and 'They're gone', it didn't take a genius to figure out why she was in that shape. It was no secret that she was involved with Edward Cullen. Billy has known Bella since she was born and it hurt him to see her so broken. He saw the way it was affecting Charlie, too, and it tore him up to see his friends in so much pain." She paused to take a drink from her beer. "Then, when more vampires came and more of us started becoming wolves, they knew that there was something going on. When that leech killed Charlie, well, that was the final straw."
Angela nodded. "I can see that. One thing piling on top of the other until you've had more than enough." She looked at Leah. "Is that why the pack took her in, because of Billy?"
"Wow, you're just full of questions today, aren't you? I thought you were the silent but thoughtful one."
"It keeps me from thinking up stupid things to do and giving into them."
"Stupid things?"
"Like going over to the Cullen house and giving Edward a piece of my mind."
Leah stared at her for a moment and then she narrowed her eyes. "Don't you even think about it. First, do you know what it would do to Embry if anything happened to you?! You're human and for all of the protection of the Pack, you going to attack a vampire alone will get you hurt -- if not killed! A wolf never recovers from the death of their soul mate. Second of all, it could violate the terms of the treaty so Sam -- and Jacob -- would be highly pissed off. Third of all, you're not going to go anywhere near Edward Cullen without me."
Angela snorted. "You just want a chance to tear apart Rosalie."
"Well, yeah, that's true. I don't like the look of her." Leah admitted. "She needs someone to mess up that pretty leech face of hers."
"Bella used to say that Rosalie was the only one in the Cullen family that hated her. The rest of them treated her like she was family."
"Oh yeah, some family. They all packed up and abandoned her. Her boyfriend left her alone in a dark forest where anything could have happened to her." Leah took a long drink from her bottle. "That's wonderful family love right there."
"And now we're right back to me wanting to kill them for all of this," Angela sighed, lifting her head from Leah's shoulder and glaring at the tree again. "Maybe with a baseball bat."
"Like you could cause anyone harm like that. You're just not that kind of person, Ange."
"I never used to be, that's true," Angela said quietly. "But I've had five years to think up ways to make those people pay for everything that they did to my friend."
"Leave the violence to us, my friend," Leah said quietly. "That's what we're for and you don't need that poison in your soul. It isn't you. You just be yourself. Bella needs loving and gentle people around her as much as she needs us wolves."
"Maybe you're right."
"I know I'm right. I usually am." Leah looked at Angela and then looked back into the forest. "What was she like before all of this, Ange? I have Jacob's memories, but you spent more time with her than he did because of school and shit."
Angela was quiet for a long moment as she stared into the woods. How would she describe the Bella she had known before all of the tragedy that took her friend away from those that loved her?
"She was shy," Angela finally said. "She hated being the center of attention and she didn't like it when people knew she was hurting. She thought it was better if she locked up her pain and unhappiness inside her to deal with when she was alone. Her first day at school, I could see that she was really uncomfortable with all of the attention that was being paid to her. It was nice hanging out with her because she never expected you to talk and fill the silence if you didn't feel like it. We could sometimes hang out together and there was rarely a word spoken. It was nice and peaceful. She was also a lot more concerned with the happiness and well-being of those around her than she was about her own. When Tyler almost killed her --"
Leah growled. "Excuse me? Tyler? Almost killed her? Who is? Why did he --" Her words were becoming lost in her snarls.
Angela batted lightly at her shoulder. "Let me finish! It was an accident. There was no way that Tyler would have purposefully tried to hurt her. It was icy one day and he lost control of his van. It was headed right at Bella and she would have been killed when it crushed her into her truck. But Edward --" Anger filled her eyes again at the mention of his name. " -- Edward saved her life. We called an ambulance for her and Tyler. At the hospital, Bella kept reassuring Tyler that everything was all right and that she wasn't angry at him. She told people that it was an accident and that it wasn't his fault." She shook her head. "She was almost killed and all she seemed worried about was making sure Tyler was okay and that her father didn't do anything to him because of the accident."
"Charlie must have loved that."
"Bella finally got him calmed down and Tyler didn't lose his license or have any charges brought against him. Bella knew that it was just one of those freak accidents and she didn't want Chief Swan to punish Tyler over it. It's just the type of person she is... was... is." Angela let out a frustrated breath. "A couple of the girls, Jess and Lauren, pretended to be her friends at first because all of the guys were tripping over themselves to get with her. I think it really angered them when Edward paid attention to her because he had never paid attention to them no matter how much they tried throwing themselves at him." She spread her hands. "They just couldn't understand why Edward -- and the other Cullens, for the most part -- would want to have anything to do with her. They thought she was too plain for him -- that they would fit in so much better with their glamorous family."
Leah swore under her breath. "From everything Jacob has told me, they didn't deserve her time or her attention. I hate people like that; the ones that either use the ones to get what they want, or gradually changing them into who they are and ruining who that good person was originally."
"I know." Angela pulled her knees up to rest her chin on them. "Bella seemed to see right through Jess and Lauren, though. Well, Lauren was just really unpleasant towards her because Tyler liked her -- and because she thought Bella was stealing all of her spotlight. Bella wasn't like that at all, though. She didn't want the spotlight ever. She didn't call anyone on their behavior because she didn't want to draw attention to herself, and the boys falling all over themselves to get her attention really seemed to make her uncomfortable." She closed her eyes. "I was so happy for her when she and Edward started seeing each other, I saw real smiles in her eyes. She was more relaxed at school and she wasn't always doing her best to avoid poeple or conversations. She seemed to be more at ease than she had been at the beginning. She really loved him and I thought he loved her. He always seemed so protective and caring of her. He drove her to school and home every day. He somehow got all of his classes changed senior year so that he could be in all of her classes with her. Alice was in a lot of our classes, too. I believed that they gave a damn about her in a real and deep way. Next to me, Alice really was her best friend -- at least in her eyes. I thought so, too. I never imagined that all of this would have happened. I really never thought that Edward would be cruel enough to break her heart only days after her birthday."
Leah stiffened beside Angela, and then turned to look at her friend. Her eyes had darkened and her entire body was trembling. "He did what?"
Angela looked at her firmly, her own eyes calm. "Leah. Calm. Down."
"I'm trying, damn it."
"Then try harder. You're better than this and you're not going to let this cause you to lose control and do something stupid."
"You've gotten bossy since Embry imprinted on you."
"I've had to learn," she said with a faint smile. "Embry, you, Jacob, Sam, Quil... I don't know what I would have done without Emily and Billy to give me pointers in dealing with you animals when you all get too temperamental." She grinned into Leah's eyes, taking any of the sting out of her words that Leah might be tempted to feel.
It was Angela's own calmness that helped Leah get herself back under control and gradually her body stopped shaking. "I am not temperamental."
"No, just bitchy."
"Angela Weber, I didn't think you knew the meaning of such words," Leah teased her softly, finishing her beer.
"I've studied at the Leah Clearwater Language University," she quipped back at her friend. "I've had the best teacher."
Leah took a calming breath and then another before she looked back at Angela. "You were saying, about him being cruel to her around her birthday?"
"Yeah. I don't know what exactly happened on her birthday, I never got the chance to talk to her about it, obviously. But, she was so sad the day afterward at school and then the next day she was even sadder. Alice wasn't in school and that seemed so strange to me. Of course, now we know why. She had already left with the rest of the family, leaving Edward to say the goodbyes for them all. The night Bella got lost in the woods was only a couple of days after her birthday." Angela swallowed. "I would have done anything to save Bella all of that heartache. I wish we could have prevented her from all of this happening to her. I wish she had never met the Cullens."
"You're afraid of what's going to happen, now, aren't you?"
Angela nodded. "It's been five years, Leah. There have been very small improvements, but they've been there. You've seen her sometimes with you guys when you're in your wolf forms. She has reactions -- honest reactions. She seems to be at peace with you guys and she reacts to you. She'll sometimes look at me and Emily and you when we're with her. Her eyes sometimes follow us as we talk to her. Yes, I know, they are very tiny things, but they are still there. What if --" She sighed, looking down.
"What if what, Angela?"
"What if seeing the Cullens -- seeing Edward again -- causes her to retreat and go back to the way she was the night after Charlie died? What if we lose her completely, Leah?" Her eyes were tearing up as she looked at Leah.
"We won't let that happen." Her voice was firm on the subject but her fists were clenched at her sides. "We'll protect her from them this time. They won't hurt her again -- and there is no way in hell that we'll lose her."
In that moment, as she watched Leah's eyes darken even further, Angela was very glad that she was her friend. She would never want a look of such malice and hatred directed at her. She could almost feel sorry for the Cullen family.
Almost, but not quite.