Chapter Text
Beau has been thinking about death lately. The how is much less of a concern than the when. Until this year, he hadn't given much thought to it—only believing that he'd die of old age. Like his grandmother. Like most people. But, when a rogue vampire named James becomes hellbent on killing him and is almost successful in his attempt, Beau begins to think this is how he'll die.
On the floor of his old ballet classroom, he lay there with blood pouring out from a gash in his head, the injury of a broken leg and broken ribs, a bite pulsing from his forearm, and the haunting eyes of Edythe Cullen staring into his.
It's there that he thinks his final moment of life has come. Wriggling in blistering pain, swimming in and out of consciousness. All in the presence of the girl he's come to fall in love with.
*
Edythe hates hospitals. For as many people there who are on the mend and healing, there's an equal amount of those who are close to death.
Despite being in Carlisle's care for over a century, Edythe has never gotten used to his career path. Carlisle is great at what he does—saves and treats as many people as he can, but Edythe prefers not to be around him when he's at work. She promised herself not to visit the hospital, it only serves as a reminder and trigger to the memories of Chicago, her mother's pain, and the sweltering agony she endured herself.
Beau makes her break this promise. Twice.
Once, when she saved him from colliding with a car. And now, when she saved him from dying at the hands of James.
So, she shackles herself to his bedpost, stays with him until he can be released and cleared to go back home. Because while Beau's first visit to the hospital had nothing to do with her, his current one is all her fault. If she had been smarter or stronger or faster, she could have prevented everything that happened entirely.
So, she's putting up with the smell of death, the sobs from patients and their families, the thoughts of resignation to living and sheaths herself around Beau, who looks too fragile and small in his hospital bed.
*
It's around day seven of Beau being in the hospital when Julie gets told he's there.
*
The hospital is filled with overlapping odors. The aroma of food being delivered to patients. The scent of dried blood, wounds leaking out puss. The antibacterial soap that is present on all the hands of passing nurses and doctors. The disinfectant used to clean every surface. The range of medications. The noise of shuffling papers and pagers going off.
All of those things are alighted. Julie thinks it can be overwhelming at times. Even though she wants to see Beau, she's planning on keeping her visit short. Just a quick 'hello' and she'll skedaddle. The briefer her trip to the hospital, the better—that way there'd be no time to think too deeply about being nine years old and the phrase 'car accident' echoing throughout her brain.
Julie can feel her heart pick up its pace when she sees the state of Beau. She's brought a teddy bear with a shirt that reads: Get Well Soon.
She is supremely disappointed that Edythe is also paying her best friend a visit.
Edythe is standing by his bedside, holding his right hand in hers. Julie's eyes instantly look at their connected hands. She feels a surge of something akin to anger and annoyance. Edythe must have read Julie's mind because the vampire swiftly releases her hold on Beau seconds later.
"Hello, Julie." Julie's eyebrows scrunch up when she hears Edythe speak.
Edythe is smiling, open and genuine.
Julie nods to her in acknowledgement, giving the vampire a tight-lipped, halfhearted smile. Barely two seconds pass before she drops it hastily, and promptly turns to look over at Beau, whose own eyes keep glancing back and forth between her and Edythe.
"I hope you're feeling better," Julie smiles again, this time brightly, and hands the teddy bear over to Beau. "I thought this might cheer you up."
"Thanks, Jules." He beams back at her.
"That was very thoughtful of you, Julie." Julie doesn't look at Edythe when she says that, she pointedly ignores the girl's comment.
She can feel Edythe staring at her, so she spares a glance—just enough to notice that Edythe has moved to sit on the couch.
"When are you due to get out of this prison?" Julie proceeds to sit on the bed and reaches out to place a hand over one of Beau's. "It may have to wait a few weeks, but I've still got to fulfill my promise to take you cliff diving." She intertwines their hands, an act on Julie's part that serves more of a purpose to show Edythe: See? I can hold his hand too, than as a want to touch him. Julie's unsure if the message is clear, but Edythe does seem to shrink down into her seat.
"Oh, it'll be a while before I'm ready for that. Besides, I think Charlie would chain me to my bedroom if I do anything else he deems even slightly harmful."
They both laugh at that. And for previously wanting this visit to remain concise and swift, Julie tries to engage Beau in every bit of conversational topic she can think of. If she laughs a bit harder and smiles a little wider and holds his hand longer and firmer than she usually does then she's willing to blame it on the fact that her best friend was severely injured and he needs her attention, and not on the fact that she wants to irritate Beau's leech of a girlfriend.
Perhaps it's just that. Perhaps not. Either way, Edythe gets up from the couch.
"I should be heading back home soon," Edythe says, inching her way to the door. "I've been here all day and it looks like you two still have quite the catching up to do."
Beau releases his hand from Julie and instead clutches at Edythe's arm. "You're leaving? You can't leave, Edythe," he pleads.
"I'll be back tomorrow. I've had you all to myself for these past couple of days. I have to share you, sometimes." Beau seems like he's ready to protest but Edythe places a kiss on his cheek.
It makes the inside of Julie's mouth turn sour at the display. She has to bite her tongue to avoid saying anything.
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow."
With that, Edythe makes her leave. The absence of the vampire delights Julie greatly, but she reserves a little resentment at the fact that Edythe managed to drag Beau's attention away—that the vampire couldn't stay and deal with being ignored while she and Beau reminisced and talked. Julie had to deal with Edythe and Beau's relationship being shoved down her throat, but the vampire couldn't deal with not being Beau's center of attention for ten minutes. Typical. Ugh, leech.
Something else turns in Julie's head that makes her ask-
"How'd you wind up with breaking so many bones and acquiring all those skull fractures? My dad said that it was some freak accident involving a window and some stairs." Truthfully, Julie didn't believe that, but she wants to hear what happened from Beau's mouth.
Beau's eyes drag to look at the spot Edythe had just occupied. He hesitates to answer. At the sight, Julie gets all the confirmation she needs.
"Did Edythe do this to you?" While Julie doesn't think Edythe would do something like that to Beau (even if it was just out of fear of angering the wolves), the girl is still a vampire. 'Vegetarian' or not, Edythe is still capable of harm.
Beau has the decency to look offended on Edythe's behalf. "What? Of course not. Edythe would never hurt me!"
"Then she must've had something to do with it," she fumes, "she's a freaking vampire for Pete's sake! If she didn't hurt you herself, it must have been one of her leech buddies!"
"Jules! You don't know anything."
"Yeah? Well then, what I do know is that ever since your girlfriend and her family moved back to Forks, everything has been for the worst." Well, not everything . But Julie says it mostly hoping her words will snap Beau out of whatever spell Edythe has placed him under. She just wants the time back when there was no Edythe Cullen in their lives.
"Don't say that," Beau turns his head to look away from Julie. "If you would just get to know the Cullens— understand them—you'd realize that they're not a threat. They're good people."
"You do realize that their reappearance is the reason my pack and I even turned into wolves in the first place, right?" Julie huffs, "It's them that brings the danger."
"That's not fair. They can't control that." Beau folds his arms, "Any danger that has come was because of me. Not the Cullens. I was being stupid and my stupidity landed me in the hospital."
"But they-"
"Jules. Jules, can we just drop it?" Beau turned back to look in her eyes. "Please?" He clasps her hand again, and she can't help but squeeze it lightly. The harsh words she was going to utter die in her throat.
"Alright," she says because she knows she won't win an argument against him, especially not one concerning the Cullens and his special Edythe.