Breaking Dawn: Chapter 13: Good Thing I've Got A Strong Stomach
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ZeldaQueen: As I'll ever be. Just five more chapters left God help me...
Chapter 13: Good Thing I've Got A Strong Stomach
ZeldaQueen: Well, after last chapter's...unusual ending we jump right into the action, as Jacob follows Rosalie and Carlisle into the kitchen and watches as they start rooting around for some blood to feed to Bella. They discuss how best to prepare it and I’m kind of siding with Jake on how creepy it all is. Meanwhile, Edward stays with Bella and holds her hand and they stare into each other’s eyes in a hopeless way and Jake says that it reminds him of Sam and Emily. You know, I hate that pairing also. He feels all hurt again and - SON OF A WITCH!
I knew what it was like for Leah, having to see that all the time. Having to hear it in Sam's head. Of course we all felt bad for her, we weren't monsters-in that sense, anyway. But I guess we'd blamed her for how she handled it. Lashing out at everyone, trying to make us all as miserable as she was.
I would never blame her again. How could anyone help spreading this kind of misery around?
How could anyone not try to ease some of the burden by shoving a little piece of it off on
someone else?
And if it meant that I had to have a pack, how could I blame her for taking my freedom? I would do the same. If there was a way to escape this pain, I'd take it, too.
ZeldaQueen: CHRIST ON A POGO STICK JACOB, DID YOU JUST REALIZE THAT NOW? SHE WENT TO YOU IN FRIGGING ECLIPSE SAYING THAT SHE KNEW HOW YOU FELT AND YOU MOCKED HER THEN! YOU’VE BEEN WATCHING BELLA AND EDWARD CUDDLE AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP’S BEEN COMPARED TO IMPRINTING BY WAY OF SOUL MATES! GOOD LORD ALMIGHT, YOU ARE DENSE!
Personal anecdote time, viewers. Not too long ago, I was assigned to read a children’s version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin for my Children in Culture class. It was focused on the middle part, when Tom lives on a plantation with the St. Clare family who has the little girl, Eva. Towards the end of that part of the story, Eva’s father makes a bet with his bigoted sister, Aunt Ophelia. He buys a little slave girl named Topsy and tells Ophelia that surely she could raise such a wild kid to be a respectable person. Ophelia tries, but eventually is close to giving up because Topsy just won’t stop causing trouble. Then one chapter, Eva’s father and Aunt Ophelia overhear Topsy and Eva talking. Topsy confesses that she knows that Ophelia hates her, which is why she is so wicked. Ophelia is shocked that Topsy knows this.
My friend in that class hadn’t quite finished the reading that day, so I filled her in. When she heard about Ophelia’s revelation, her reaction was more or less “How stupid is that woman? She all but said ‘I hate you’ to Topsy’s face”.
That situation above was what ran through my mind when I read that. Leah has been with the pack for some time and the wolves surely knew about her being dumped even before she joined. According to Jacob, they all felt sorry for her - which I do not believe, incidentally. What evidence is there for that? - but felt that she mishandled the situation. Do we ever hear about anyone talking to her about things or help her work through it? Anyway, we then get Jacob getting “dumped” by Bella and going all angst and angry and self-destructive. And he only gets how Leah feels NOW?!? Do Meyer’s dream men all include the intelligence of a dead fish and the empathy of a pile of garbage? And on top of that, he never acknowledges that he was being sulky and making people miserable himself when he was rejected!!! AUGH!!!!
Oh, and so nice of you to inconvenience yourself to let her hang around, Jake. I mean, it’s not like you weren’t already going to let Seth mind link to you. Never mind, Seth doesn’t actually challenge you.
Well, I’d best move on before I pop a vein. Jake and Edward hear Rosalie running around in the kitchen and Edward mutters “not clear”. Jake and Bella start on the bedside manner routine and start talking about this and that. He mentions that Leah’s shown up and Bella gets all gaspy and scared.
Um…what? Why? Was there ever some point at which Leah threatened Bella? I know she saw Leah in wolf form in Eclipse and heard stories about the imprinting, but that’s the extent of their interaction, so far as I know. Could someone clue me in if I’m mistaken? Anyway, why is Bella so scared at the sound of Leah’s name? It’s not like Leah’s in the room or anything, and it’s rather pathetic. Jacob comments on how weird it is that Bella is so scared of Leah, but is perfectly fine with Rosalie hanging around. Bella goes into a snit fit over this, because how dare he insult one of the vampires?
Carlisle and Rosalie show up with a cup with a lid and a bendy straw and Jacob figures out that the “not clear” was referring to that. Bella takes the cup and slowly starts getting ready to drink it. She admits that she thinks that it smells good. What? Meyer that’s…that’s just wrong! And creepy! Is that supposed to be some weird foreshadowing that Bella’s good vampire material? Because the rest of the world probably has a different idea about what it says when someone finds drinking a cup of human blood appealing. She starts chugging down the cup and thinks it tastes good too, shoot me now, and asks for more when that’s done. Oh, and Rosalie figures that the cravings for blood and the fact that she thinks it tastes so good are a sure signs that the fetus does in fact want blood. Again, isn’t it only the nutrients that the fetus gets, in which case shouldn’t a rare steak work just as well as a cup of human blood?
While waiting for more blood, Bella notices that Jacob looks tired and tells him that there are a number of beds upstairs that he can take his pick of. Rosalie gets defensive at this which presumably means that the beds in question belong to the actual Cullens. In which case, that seems rather presumptuous of Bella, doesn’t it? She’s basically telling Jake to help himself to something that technically isn’t even hers.
Bella’s starting to feel better now and Carlisle decides to see if she can eat normal food now. She asks for eggs.
As Bella sucks (the blood), Jacob gets annoyed with Edward for reading his thoughts and notes "Jeez, how did anyone stand living with him? It was really too bad he couldn't hear Bella's thoughts. Then he'd annoy the crap out of her, too, and she'd get tired of him." Actually Jacob, I think the exact opposite would happen. Edward would realize what a selfish, shallow idiot he married and dump her sorry butt.
Suddenly, a shot rang out! No wait, it was a wolf howl. Jacob shifts back into wolf form and is informed by Seth and Leah that three wolves from Sam’s pack are showing up. Leah also grumbles a bit about being third in command while Seth’s second, but I guess I’ll let that one slide because it’s apparently first come first serve and Seth got there first.
Turns out that they’re being greeted by Jared in human form and Paul, Quil, and Collin as wolves. It turns out that they were sent to get the three to return to Sam’s pack. I do like how Seth, Leah, and Jake are all on the same page and not belittling and bickering with each other for a change. Then Jake turns back into a human to talk to Jared and things get really…well see for yourself:
Jared turned to face Seth, concentrating on him now, separate from me. “Sue asked me to tell you-no, to beg you-to come home. She's brokenhearted, Seth. All alone. I don't know how you and Leah can do this to her. Abandon her this way, when your dad just barely died-”
Seth whimpered.
“Ease up, Jared,” I warned.
“Just letting him know how it is.”
I snorted. “Right.” Sue was tougher than anyone I knew. Tougher than my dad, tougher than me. Tough enough to play on her kids' sympathies if that's what it took to get them home. But it wasn't fair to work Seth that way. “Sue's known about this for how many hours now? And most of that time spent with Billy and Old Quil and Sam? Yeah, I'm sure she's just perishing of loneliness. 'Course you're free to go if you want, Seth. You know that.”
…
Leah very deliberately looked at her brother and then at me.
“So you want to watch out for Seth, I get that,” Jared said. His eyes touched my face and then went back to hers. Probably wondering about that second look-just like I was. “But Jake's not going to let anything happen to him, and he's not afraid to be here.” Jared made a face. “Anyway, please, Leah. We want you back. Sam wants you back.”
Leah's tail twitched.
“Sam told me to beg. He told me to literally get down on my knees if I have to. He wants you home, Lee-lee, where you belong.”
I saw Leah flinch when Jared used Sam's old nickname for her. And then, when he added those last three words, her hackles rose and she was yowling a long stream of snarls through her teeth. I didn't have to be in her head to hear the cussing-out she was giving him, and neither did he. You could almost hear the exact words she was using.
I waited till she was done. “I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Leah belongs wherever she wants to be.”
ZeldaQueen: Right.
ZeldaQueen: SAM ULEY, YOU HAVE BALLS THE SIZE OF TEXAS! WHERE THE FLYING FRIG DO YOU GET OFF USING YOUR OLD NICKNAME FOR LEAH? THAT IS SICK AND WRONG AND CRUEL! YOU KNOW FULL FRIGGING WELL SHE STILL LOVES YOU AND IS HURT! AND WHAT, YOU CAN’T GET HER TO COME BACK UNLESS YOU FLIRT WITH HER? BAH!
As for the bit about Sue, look to my rant about how Meyer described her at Bella’s wedding. If you missed it, I went on a rampage because the recently-widowed Sue was described as being harsh and like Leah - in other words, Meyer seemed to be implying that a single person is unapproachable and bitter.
Here, we see that Sue is apparently not above tricking her kids to get them home. Right. Like she’s a manipulative woman. Well guess what? Tough or not, why does it have to be said like she has ulterior motives? Don’t you think that, ya’know, she’s honestly worried about her kids? Jared’s right, her husband just died and then Seth disappears and then Leah vanishes, leaving only a note, and so far as she knows, both of her children are alone with Jacob and hanging around with a group of vampires who may or may not be dangerous. And she’s being painted as heartless for wanting them back. Yes Jacob, I’m sure that Sam and Billy and Old Quil are fine replacements for her own flesh and blood. But yet again, we see that family ties apparently mean horse pucky to these people!
Anyway, why does it have to be such a big deal for them to go home for a bit? Will Sam and the rest of the pack try to lock them in a closet if they do? It’s not like Sam has any command over them or can force them to return. And Jacob’s been describing himself as “homeless”. So apparently his life with Billy doesn’t count? Are his dad and sister really such fuckers that they’d kick him out of the house for making his choice? You could argue that Paul would put up a fuss, but again would Rachael really choose Paul over her little brother. God, what am I saying? This is the Twilight universe, she probably would.
That all being said though? Once more I admire Leah and how she actually calls out Jared and Sam on the bull that they tried on her, instead of whimpering and going back like Bella probably would have. And I kind of like Jacob too, because again he’s actually being pretty cool and standing up and supporting her for a change. Can’t wait to see how long that lasts.
Jared and the wolves go off and Jacob wonders why Embry wasn’t sent as well. Seth speculates that Sam was worried that Embry would have been tempted to jump ship and join Jake’s crew as well.
And before the chapter ends, Jake catches up Seth and Leah on how Bella’s going to be “nourishing” the fetus. Leah is, quite reasonably, freaked. Seth tries to rationalize it, saying that it makes sense for vampires and it’s fine so long as it’s helping Bella. Of course. Anyway, the chapter ends with Leah and Jake making some sarcastic comments about Seth’s views on the matter and again I’m sort of pleased with it because it’s less Leah bashing and actually has the three of them acting like fairly normal, snarky teenagers instead of angsting rebels without a cause.
ZeldaQueen: Tune in next week, when I get permanent brain damage from the idiocies of this book. Ta!
Onward to: Chapter 14: You Know Things Are Bad When You Feel Guilty For Being Rude To Vampires
Back to: Chapter 12 - Some People Just Don’t Grasp The Concept Of “Unwelcome”
Return to: Table of Contents
ZeldaQueen: As I'll ever be. Just five more chapters left God help me...
Chapter 13: Good Thing I've Got A Strong Stomach
ZeldaQueen: Well, after last chapter's...unusual ending we jump right into the action, as Jacob follows Rosalie and Carlisle into the kitchen and watches as they start rooting around for some blood to feed to Bella. They discuss how best to prepare it and I’m kind of siding with Jake on how creepy it all is. Meanwhile, Edward stays with Bella and holds her hand and they stare into each other’s eyes in a hopeless way and Jake says that it reminds him of Sam and Emily. You know, I hate that pairing also. He feels all hurt again and - SON OF A WITCH!
I knew what it was like for Leah, having to see that all the time. Having to hear it in Sam's head. Of course we all felt bad for her, we weren't monsters-in that sense, anyway. But I guess we'd blamed her for how she handled it. Lashing out at everyone, trying to make us all as miserable as she was.
I would never blame her again. How could anyone help spreading this kind of misery around?
How could anyone not try to ease some of the burden by shoving a little piece of it off on
someone else?
And if it meant that I had to have a pack, how could I blame her for taking my freedom? I would do the same. If there was a way to escape this pain, I'd take it, too.
ZeldaQueen: CHRIST ON A POGO STICK JACOB, DID YOU JUST REALIZE THAT NOW? SHE WENT TO YOU IN FRIGGING ECLIPSE SAYING THAT SHE KNEW HOW YOU FELT AND YOU MOCKED HER THEN! YOU’VE BEEN WATCHING BELLA AND EDWARD CUDDLE AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP’S BEEN COMPARED TO IMPRINTING BY WAY OF SOUL MATES! GOOD LORD ALMIGHT, YOU ARE DENSE!
Personal anecdote time, viewers. Not too long ago, I was assigned to read a children’s version of Uncle Tom’s Cabin for my Children in Culture class. It was focused on the middle part, when Tom lives on a plantation with the St. Clare family who has the little girl, Eva. Towards the end of that part of the story, Eva’s father makes a bet with his bigoted sister, Aunt Ophelia. He buys a little slave girl named Topsy and tells Ophelia that surely she could raise such a wild kid to be a respectable person. Ophelia tries, but eventually is close to giving up because Topsy just won’t stop causing trouble. Then one chapter, Eva’s father and Aunt Ophelia overhear Topsy and Eva talking. Topsy confesses that she knows that Ophelia hates her, which is why she is so wicked. Ophelia is shocked that Topsy knows this.
My friend in that class hadn’t quite finished the reading that day, so I filled her in. When she heard about Ophelia’s revelation, her reaction was more or less “How stupid is that woman? She all but said ‘I hate you’ to Topsy’s face”.
That situation above was what ran through my mind when I read that. Leah has been with the pack for some time and the wolves surely knew about her being dumped even before she joined. According to Jacob, they all felt sorry for her - which I do not believe, incidentally. What evidence is there for that? - but felt that she mishandled the situation. Do we ever hear about anyone talking to her about things or help her work through it? Anyway, we then get Jacob getting “dumped” by Bella and going all angst and angry and self-destructive. And he only gets how Leah feels NOW?!? Do Meyer’s dream men all include the intelligence of a dead fish and the empathy of a pile of garbage? And on top of that, he never acknowledges that he was being sulky and making people miserable himself when he was rejected!!! AUGH!!!!
Oh, and so nice of you to inconvenience yourself to let her hang around, Jake. I mean, it’s not like you weren’t already going to let Seth mind link to you. Never mind, Seth doesn’t actually challenge you.
Well, I’d best move on before I pop a vein. Jake and Edward hear Rosalie running around in the kitchen and Edward mutters “not clear”. Jake and Bella start on the bedside manner routine and start talking about this and that. He mentions that Leah’s shown up and Bella gets all gaspy and scared.
Um…what? Why? Was there ever some point at which Leah threatened Bella? I know she saw Leah in wolf form in Eclipse and heard stories about the imprinting, but that’s the extent of their interaction, so far as I know. Could someone clue me in if I’m mistaken? Anyway, why is Bella so scared at the sound of Leah’s name? It’s not like Leah’s in the room or anything, and it’s rather pathetic. Jacob comments on how weird it is that Bella is so scared of Leah, but is perfectly fine with Rosalie hanging around. Bella goes into a snit fit over this, because how dare he insult one of the vampires?
Carlisle and Rosalie show up with a cup with a lid and a bendy straw and Jacob figures out that the “not clear” was referring to that. Bella takes the cup and slowly starts getting ready to drink it. She admits that she thinks that it smells good. What? Meyer that’s…that’s just wrong! And creepy! Is that supposed to be some weird foreshadowing that Bella’s good vampire material? Because the rest of the world probably has a different idea about what it says when someone finds drinking a cup of human blood appealing. She starts chugging down the cup and thinks it tastes good too, shoot me now, and asks for more when that’s done. Oh, and Rosalie figures that the cravings for blood and the fact that she thinks it tastes so good are a sure signs that the fetus does in fact want blood. Again, isn’t it only the nutrients that the fetus gets, in which case shouldn’t a rare steak work just as well as a cup of human blood?
While waiting for more blood, Bella notices that Jacob looks tired and tells him that there are a number of beds upstairs that he can take his pick of. Rosalie gets defensive at this which presumably means that the beds in question belong to the actual Cullens. In which case, that seems rather presumptuous of Bella, doesn’t it? She’s basically telling Jake to help himself to something that technically isn’t even hers.
Bella’s starting to feel better now and Carlisle decides to see if she can eat normal food now. She asks for eggs.
As Bella sucks (the blood), Jacob gets annoyed with Edward for reading his thoughts and notes "Jeez, how did anyone stand living with him? It was really too bad he couldn't hear Bella's thoughts. Then he'd annoy the crap out of her, too, and she'd get tired of him." Actually Jacob, I think the exact opposite would happen. Edward would realize what a selfish, shallow idiot he married and dump her sorry butt.
Suddenly, a shot rang out! No wait, it was a wolf howl. Jacob shifts back into wolf form and is informed by Seth and Leah that three wolves from Sam’s pack are showing up. Leah also grumbles a bit about being third in command while Seth’s second, but I guess I’ll let that one slide because it’s apparently first come first serve and Seth got there first.
Turns out that they’re being greeted by Jared in human form and Paul, Quil, and Collin as wolves. It turns out that they were sent to get the three to return to Sam’s pack. I do like how Seth, Leah, and Jake are all on the same page and not belittling and bickering with each other for a change. Then Jake turns back into a human to talk to Jared and things get really…well see for yourself:
Jared turned to face Seth, concentrating on him now, separate from me. “Sue asked me to tell you-no, to beg you-to come home. She's brokenhearted, Seth. All alone. I don't know how you and Leah can do this to her. Abandon her this way, when your dad just barely died-”
Seth whimpered.
“Ease up, Jared,” I warned.
“Just letting him know how it is.”
I snorted. “Right.” Sue was tougher than anyone I knew. Tougher than my dad, tougher than me. Tough enough to play on her kids' sympathies if that's what it took to get them home. But it wasn't fair to work Seth that way. “Sue's known about this for how many hours now? And most of that time spent with Billy and Old Quil and Sam? Yeah, I'm sure she's just perishing of loneliness. 'Course you're free to go if you want, Seth. You know that.”
…
Leah very deliberately looked at her brother and then at me.
“So you want to watch out for Seth, I get that,” Jared said. His eyes touched my face and then went back to hers. Probably wondering about that second look-just like I was. “But Jake's not going to let anything happen to him, and he's not afraid to be here.” Jared made a face. “Anyway, please, Leah. We want you back. Sam wants you back.”
Leah's tail twitched.
“Sam told me to beg. He told me to literally get down on my knees if I have to. He wants you home, Lee-lee, where you belong.”
I saw Leah flinch when Jared used Sam's old nickname for her. And then, when he added those last three words, her hackles rose and she was yowling a long stream of snarls through her teeth. I didn't have to be in her head to hear the cussing-out she was giving him, and neither did he. You could almost hear the exact words she was using.
I waited till she was done. “I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that Leah belongs wherever she wants to be.”
ZeldaQueen: Right.
ZeldaQueen: SAM ULEY, YOU HAVE BALLS THE SIZE OF TEXAS! WHERE THE FLYING FRIG DO YOU GET OFF USING YOUR OLD NICKNAME FOR LEAH? THAT IS SICK AND WRONG AND CRUEL! YOU KNOW FULL FRIGGING WELL SHE STILL LOVES YOU AND IS HURT! AND WHAT, YOU CAN’T GET HER TO COME BACK UNLESS YOU FLIRT WITH HER? BAH!
As for the bit about Sue, look to my rant about how Meyer described her at Bella’s wedding. If you missed it, I went on a rampage because the recently-widowed Sue was described as being harsh and like Leah - in other words, Meyer seemed to be implying that a single person is unapproachable and bitter.
Here, we see that Sue is apparently not above tricking her kids to get them home. Right. Like she’s a manipulative woman. Well guess what? Tough or not, why does it have to be said like she has ulterior motives? Don’t you think that, ya’know, she’s honestly worried about her kids? Jared’s right, her husband just died and then Seth disappears and then Leah vanishes, leaving only a note, and so far as she knows, both of her children are alone with Jacob and hanging around with a group of vampires who may or may not be dangerous. And she’s being painted as heartless for wanting them back. Yes Jacob, I’m sure that Sam and Billy and Old Quil are fine replacements for her own flesh and blood. But yet again, we see that family ties apparently mean horse pucky to these people!
Anyway, why does it have to be such a big deal for them to go home for a bit? Will Sam and the rest of the pack try to lock them in a closet if they do? It’s not like Sam has any command over them or can force them to return. And Jacob’s been describing himself as “homeless”. So apparently his life with Billy doesn’t count? Are his dad and sister really such fuckers that they’d kick him out of the house for making his choice? You could argue that Paul would put up a fuss, but again would Rachael really choose Paul over her little brother. God, what am I saying? This is the Twilight universe, she probably would.
That all being said though? Once more I admire Leah and how she actually calls out Jared and Sam on the bull that they tried on her, instead of whimpering and going back like Bella probably would have. And I kind of like Jacob too, because again he’s actually being pretty cool and standing up and supporting her for a change. Can’t wait to see how long that lasts.
Jared and the wolves go off and Jacob wonders why Embry wasn’t sent as well. Seth speculates that Sam was worried that Embry would have been tempted to jump ship and join Jake’s crew as well.
And before the chapter ends, Jake catches up Seth and Leah on how Bella’s going to be “nourishing” the fetus. Leah is, quite reasonably, freaked. Seth tries to rationalize it, saying that it makes sense for vampires and it’s fine so long as it’s helping Bella. Of course. Anyway, the chapter ends with Leah and Jake making some sarcastic comments about Seth’s views on the matter and again I’m sort of pleased with it because it’s less Leah bashing and actually has the three of them acting like fairly normal, snarky teenagers instead of angsting rebels without a cause.
ZeldaQueen: Tune in next week, when I get permanent brain damage from the idiocies of this book. Ta!
Onward to: Chapter 14: You Know Things Are Bad When You Feel Guilty For Being Rude To Vampires
Back to: Chapter 12 - Some People Just Don’t Grasp The Concept Of “Unwelcome”
Return to: Table of Contents