CBWR? Chapter 90

Author's Notes:

Don't hurt me, or I can't finish the story!!

It was from Bella.

________________________________

Chapter 90:

I could hear a lot of yelling and screaming, and I felt my arms being released as I slumped down to the ground right before I blacked out.  I woke up in the prison infirmary feeling about as shitty physically as I already did mentally.

It helped, actually.

I opened my eyes and looked into a strangely familiar tanned face.

“Hey Edward,” he said, and the sound alone made my head feel like it had just spilt open and a yoke fell out of it.  “Remember me?”

He really did look familiar.  Fucking huge guy, too.  He was really tan, and had black hair and eyes.

“Um…Seth?”

“Yeah!”  He literally beamed from ear to ear.  That hurt my head, too.  “Don’t try to move or anything, okay?  You got pretty…um…beat up.”

“Yeah.”  I didn’t really care to have any further elaboration on the topic.

“Don’t worry, man,” Seth said.  “You gave me a job when I needed it, so I already made it clear to the rest of them – they don’t come near you, or they have to deal with me, ya know?”

It was coming back to me a bit – Seth ran guns for me four or five years ago, then became part of Alice’s pack after that.  He got himself caught because he couldn’t stop joyriding in expensive cars.  Alice got sick of bailing him out, and let him take the time for grand theft instead.  That had been eight months ago.

After two days in the infirmary, Seth pretty much stayed at my side wherever I went.  At nearly six and a half feet tall, and built like he did nothing but life weights all day, no one seemed too interested in messing with him.  I got the same treatment defacto.

…

Life in prison is weird when it comes to the relative nature of time.

Days absolutely crawl by – like, it takes about six hours for every minute to pass.  But at the same time, days and weeks just kind of magically disappear.  There’s so little to actually mark any change from one day to another that very small things tend to stand out.  When someone got a letter from someone who loved them on the outside, or maybe a visit from someone, everyone listened to it.  It ranked a lot higher than television.

In my first year of incarceration, I had exactly two visitors and one letter.

The first to visit was my public defendant.  He had a lot of paperwork for me to sign, including an annulment for my marriage to Isabella Cullen.  He told me the options were to either sign it, or they’d have to go through months or maybe years and possibly fraud charges against one or both of us to have it completely voided.  I didn’t want Bella to have to deal with that, so I just signed them and tried to pretend it didn’t make me grow even colder inside.

The second visit was from a Ms. Mary Brandybuck.  Ms. Brandybuck looked a lot more like Alice Brandon than a hobbit, but I guess that didn’t raise as much suspicion at the visitor’s desk.  I was brought to the visiting room and placed in a little cubicle with an orange phone hanging on the pegboard wall.  I picked up the receiver, and Alice did the same.

“I’m honored,” I said dryly.

Alice smirked and glared all at once.

“Just wanted to let you know everything’s good on the outside,” she told me.

“Got all the chips in barbecue flavor, I assume?” I asked, hoping I wasn’t being too cryptic.

“No problem at all,” she replied.  “Our mutual techie friend lives for that kind of shit you know.”

I nodded, and then I looked into Alice’s eyes, rimmed with heavy black eyeliner.  The flecks of gold in her hazel irises glimmered in the harsh fluorescents.  They were not the least bit friendly as they narrowed at me.

“I’ll have you know,” she said as she leaned in a little closer, “that from the very beginning of all of this, I fully intended to complete this job by ending you.”

I felt the blood drain from my face.

“But seeing you here now, I kind of think this is more fitting.”

I nodded a little.  Yeah, honestly, I’d take the bullet right now.  Alice leaned in even closer to the Plexiglas.

“You been fucked over yet?”

I looked up.  The glimmer was still in her eyes.  I nodded once.

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

She slammed the phone back in its holder, then stood up, turned on her heel and walked out of the room.

The letter though…the letter was different.

It was from Bella.

It came shortly before the calendar marked my first year in prison.  It had obviously been opened and examined and then sealed up again, but I didn’t care.

Edward,

I wish I knew what to say to you, but I don’t.  I want to explain everything, but I don’t think it really makes any difference now.  I want you to know that I didn’t expect you to do this, but I think I understand why you did.

When I wouldn’t testify against you, everyone was so angry with me, especially my dad.  The prosecutor and another police officer kept yelling at me until my dad finally told them they couldn’t talk to me anymore.  I figured out they couldn’t make me testify since we were married, and it would take too long to get the whole marriage license revoked.  I thought it would mean they would have to drop the charged, but then they said you were going to plead guilty and I didn’t know what to do. 

I know everything that happened was my fault, and I’m so sorry.  I know they found us because I called home.  I know how stupid that was now, but I just couldn’t think of them going through that whole day thinking I was probably dead.  I couldn’t do that to them.  I didn’t really think they could trace the call like that, and I thought it would take more time to do it, and we’d already be on our way back. 

I wanted to see you, but no one would let me.  I had to actually sneak out of the hotel and walk twenty blocks to get to your hearing at all, and then when I got there it was too late.  I wanted to at least be able to talk to you before they took you away, but as soon as you were walked out my parents put me on a plane back to Washington.  I don’t have enough money for a plane ticket, and I’m pretty sure my truck isn’t going to make it all the way there.  I want to see you.  I want to talk to you – I really do.  I just haven’t figured out how yet.

Someone you know came to visit me while we were still waiting for your trial.  She used some funny little thing that looked like a remote control near my head, and said it worked.  I wanted you to know that.  I wanted you to know that everything you did for me worked out.  You saved me.  I know you did, and I hope you know it, too.

I asked one of the guys at my dad’s station about prison sentences and how long before you could really be out.  He told me you could be out in eight years.  That’s not really so long, is it?  I promise I will come and see you as soon as I can figure out how. 

Please be careful, and take care of yourself.

Love,

Bella

I lay down on my cot and held the letter next to my chest.  I could almost smell her on the paper, and hoped it would help me sleep.  It really didn’t, and even after lights out, I kept holding it up to try and re-read it in the green glow of the emergency lighting outside the cell, which didn’t work well.  Finally I lay back on the pillow with the paper underneath my head.  I took my hand and lay it against my cheek, slowly brushing stray hairs from my forehead and rubbing my own temple.

I could at least remember and pretend, right?

__________________________________

Chapter end notes:

Okay - that's at least better than leaving you with the last one, right? 

I swear, things will start going uphilll now.

Stop by the forum and berete me - http://www.twilighted.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=15403