LL Chapter 18

LL Chapter 18

Bad Memories

The moment that I saw that first tear escape her eye, the stupid ice cream was completely forgotten. I immediately went to her and knelt in front of the chair, but as I reached out for her hand she swatted me away. She still had that look in her eyes that plainly said that she was not here in this room with us and wherever she was in her head was not a happy place. I felt completely helpless as more and more tears fell from her eyes.



I felt Mom's hand touch my shoulder and I moved back out of the way. She crouched in front of Bella. She was deliberately not touching her but she leaned in and started talking to her softly. Pretty soon she had Bella nodding and agreeing to what she way saying.



"Alice, will you please help me get Bella up to her room."



"I can help you Mom."



"No, Edward. I need you to stay down here with Tanya."



I got it. I wasn't allowed to help Bella because I was a guy and that was the root of her problems. Bella allowed Mom and Alice to help her out of her chair and up the stairs. The last thing that I noticed they disappeared on the stairs was Alice's arm going around Bella's waist.



It was a good half an hour before Mom came back downstairs to find me sitting on the couch holding a sleeping Tanya. She had started to fuss so I had picked her up and rocked her to sleep.



"Bella is asleep in her room. I moved the basinet in my room and I have the baby monitor, so you can put her down in there."



"Is she ok?"



"She will be. There is just so much for her to deal with and she is so young. Not that anyone of any age should ever have to deal with the things that she has."



"You know the whole story, don't you?"



My Mom looked up at me with a concerned expression, "Yes, your father and I know everything. But, do you know the whole story?"



"No. Only what I've managed to guess at and one thing that Chief Swan let slip."



"Which is?"



"She was raped by two guys. Tanya came from it and Bella's Mom killed herself out of guilt, for some reason."



"That's all? You haven't looked her up on the internet?"



"No, I told her when or if she trusts me enough to talk to me I would be here. I am not about to betray her trust by going behind her back like that."



"There's more to her story, Edward. There is a lot more. But it is for her to tell you, not me. I think you need to get to bed for school tomorrow."



"Will you at least tell me one thing? Just please tell me that they are in jail."



"Yes they are and they will be for a very long time."



"Thanks, Mom. Good night."



"Goodnight Edward. Oh and Edward. You are making your father and me very proud with the way that you have been there for her as a friend and the way that you have stepped in to help with Tanya."



"Thanks Mom." And I continued up the remaining stairs. I went into Mom and Dad's room and went to lie Tanya down. As I placed the sleeping baby down in the bassinet, I hesitated before I leaned back down and kissed her forehead. As I left my parents room I was torn between going to check on Bella and going to wash the day off with a hot shower. When I got to my room and was surprised to find her lying on my bed.



"I'm glad that you're in here. I have something to talk to you about."



"Well, I just thought that you would like to know that she has calmed down and fell asleep."



"Yeah, that's what Mom said."



"She was hurt pretty bad."



"How do you know?"



"Edward, come on! I'm not stupid! She flipped out over strawberries! Not to mention that she wouldn't you touch her but Mom and I could touch her. That says she has an issue with men right there."



"Yeah, I guess your right about that."



"It's why she is different to you isn't it? Why you are protective of her? Why her and Rose are so close?"



"That would be yes to all of those questions."



"Damn it." I sat down next to my sister on the bed and she laid her head on my shoulder.



"Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Although I could through in a few more choice words that get me in major trouble with Mom if she heard me."



"Damn it!"



"You already said that."



"Well, I felt it needed repeating. I better go. I promised Mom that I would sleep in her room in case she needed anything."



"Speaking of being protective, Lauren and Jessica have it out for her. Will you help Rose, Emmett, and I watch out for her?"



"Of course. I get Jasper in this too."



"Thanks"



After my sister left the room I went for that hot shower. But it wasn't working. I could not get Bella's past out of my mind enough to let the hot water relax the tension away. I wanted to know who these guys were. And I wanted to know why her.



After my shower didn't work I decided to try reading a bit before going to bed but remembered that I had left my book downstairs in the living room. I was half way down the stairs when I heard my parents talking from the living room, "I wasn't thinking. I should never have brought those damn strawberries in this house with her."



"Esme, it's going to be ok. She is going to face triggers repeatedly for a long time. The only way for her to avoid it is by locking herself away. She'll even be faced with that possibility anytime that she goes to a restaurant and sees someone drinking a daiquiri. The more she faces the trigger the less it will bother her…hopefully."



"Hopefully?"



"It's not a perfect science and I specialized in cardiology, dear, not psychology."



"I just feel so bad for her."



"I know."



"Edward knows a lot of it."



"Really? Did he Google her?" Ok. I was really starting to piss me off that my family thought so little of me that I would go behind her back and invade her privacy like that. I heard Mom set him straight on where I got my information and I waited for them to quiet before I finished going down the stairs to the living room.



After I made it back up to my room I crawled into bed to read. I must have fallen asleep reading because the next thing that I knew I woke up with a start in a cold sweat with my stomach clenching and the light was still on. I was having a nightmare, in which, Bella and I were running through the woods searching for Tanya. We could hear her crying in distress but we could not find her. It was like whoever had her kept moving her away from us. What the hell was that dream supposed to mean? I looked at the clock and realized that it was two in morning and I knew that I wasn't going to able to get back to sleep anytime soon so I went down stairs to get something to drink and maybe watch a movie.



When I got downstairs I found Bella curled up on the couch watching TV and sipping on a glass of lemonade. I went into the kitchen and pour myself a glass of lemonade and then I returned to the living room and sat on the couch with her, but far enough away that I would not be making her uncomfortable.



"You must think that I am crazy."



"Nope. I know enough about you to know that there is a reason behind your reaction to the strawberries."



"There is and I'd like to explain. If you want to hear, that is."



"I told you that when you were ready to talk I would listen."



"I came home that day and they were there waiting for me. They offered me this strawberry daiquiri. I told them that I was allergic to strawberries and retreated to my room. When I woke in the hospital six weeks later, I found out that when the police tested the mixture they found it spiked with rohypnol." She was speaking to her hands that she had folded in her lap. She didn't look at me once but I didn't care.



"You knew them then? The two guys?"



"One of them the former major league baseball star Eric Conners."



"Shit. I've heard of him. He got sent back to the minors because he was arrested so many times for minor assaults and bar fights that no major league team would touch him."



"That's him."



"Bella? Who was the other guy?"



Now she raised her head and looked me directly in the eyes, "He was my step-father; Phil Dwyer."



A/N:



There you go. More answers about Bella. But that is not all of it. There will be more tomorrow. Maybe with more answers. Not sure yet.