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Post by Gabrielle Gamarra on Feb 7, 2007 22:50:07 GMT -5
Gabrielle parked in front of Bella's house. Something in her chest clamped down, making her feel as if someone had dropped a large weight on her. She struggled to breathe, but she had come for a reason, and she was going to go through with it. There was no way she could back down now, not with everything that was at steak.
Of course, she didn't know that Bella had already been turned. There was no way she could know. All she had was a pathetic hope that everything was going to be okay.
She stepped out of the car and made her way to the door, the heels of her boots clicking gently on the concrete sidewalk. She gulped and knocked on the door. "Bella? Are you home? I really need to speak to you."
It was now or never.
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Post by Bella Swan on Feb 10, 2007 21:14:02 GMT -5
Bella was reading Romeo and Juliet again when she heard a knock at the door. She placed the book on the table and gracefully walked to the door. She could tell from the smell it was someone who spent plenty of time with the werewolves.
Surprise flickered across her face when she opened the door to see Gabrielle , but she tried to hide it. "Hey Gabrielle." She knew that Gabrielle would know right away that she had been changed; no doubt Jake had filled her in on everything.
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Post by Gabrielle Gamarra on Feb 10, 2007 21:51:46 GMT -5
There was something odd about Bella, but whatever it was she had no idea what it might be. She looked at Bella, pleading in her eyes, before she spoke. "Listen to me, we need to talk. I need... I really need to tell you something." She didn't want to be there, not one bit. But she had to be, there was no way around it. "May I come inside?"
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Post by Bella Swan on Feb 12, 2007 19:47:30 GMT -5
Bella was confused, to say the least. What could Gabrielle need to tell her? Nevertheless, she nodded. "Sure." She stepped to the side to let Gabrielle in. She searched Gabrielle's face, looking for the meaning of the unexpected trip. But she only saw a pleading look in her eyes. "What can I do for you, Gabrielle?"
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Post by Gabrielle Gamarra on Feb 12, 2007 20:56:14 GMT -5
She walked into the room, her hands clasped tightly clasped in front of her. "Listen, I'm not going to beat around the bush," she said, turning around to face the new vampire--the vampire she didn't know was a vampire. "You cannot let Edward turn you into a vampire, okay? Please, just don't. You have no idea what will happen if you do. I fear the worst. Think about someone other than yourself." It didn't come out the way she wanted it to, but there was no taking it back. "People will get hurt."
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Post by Bella Swan on Feb 12, 2007 21:20:57 GMT -5
Bella's mouth formed into a straight line. "Jake told you." She said it as a statement. She had heard the rumors about Gabrielle and her ex-best friend. She couldn't see him keeping his werewolf realities a secret from someone who seemed to be so important to him. "It seems that the pack doesn't fully understand. I've already decided. I decided long before there was ever a pack.
"I don't want a war anymore then you or the pack do. Keep in mind that the pack is the side that will insitgate the war. There's just no way around it. A treaty is a treay, its true. But the times and circumstances have drastically changed. Besides, it was getting to be too dangerous for me to remain human." Bella chuckled as she briefly reminisced about her human years. "I would be willing to meet with the pack in search of a negotiation. The rest of the Cullens may even want to seek one as well, though obviously, I can't speak for them.
"Please, understand, I don't want a war. I don't want to step on anyone's toes, I don't want an unnessacary fight."
She ended her speech, and waited in anticipation for Gabrielle's reaction. If only she could make her see her side...
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Post by Gabrielle Gamarra on Feb 12, 2007 21:34:34 GMT -5
"I see what you mean. I know you love Edward, and I have no doubt that... he's..." her voice came out strained, as if she was forcing herself to say this, "a good guy... but look at it from the point of view of someone else. Look at me, for instance. I lost my home, my family, my friends, in an event that could have been avoided if a few people had thought ahead. If my family had decided to leave, my father would be alive. If David and his family had left, he wouldn't have fallen off his roof into the floodwater right in front of my eyes. And my father? He wouldn't have been killed by one of those vampires you love so much." She looked away for a moment, her eyes tearing up. She could feel the panic rising up in her throat, but she forced it down. "People who don't even know us will get hurt, and for what? So you can be with somebody forever? I know that the werewolves could sidestep this, but a treaty is a treaty, and it is there for a reason. Times may have changed, but not that much. Vampires are vampires, and werewolves are werewolves. Vampires will still be blood suck--" she hesitated "--drinkers. Werewolves will never stop seeing them the way they do. It's in their blood to look at vampires the way they do. And this war? I hate it. I hate war, I hate death, I hate everything about it. Innocent people will be hurt. For what? For pure selfishness? The werewolves are at least trying to protect something. What are you protecting, other than yourself?"
She knew she was coming off harsh, but what else was there for her to do? She didn't personally care if Bella died, became a vampire, or lived a normal life. It wasn't Gabrielle's life, it was Bella's. But when the lives of people were at risk, she couldn't avoid intervention.
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Post by Bella Swan on Feb 12, 2007 21:45:29 GMT -5
Bella could hear the emotion running in Gabrielle's voice. She swallowed the lump in her throat down. "I don't really know what to tell you Gabrielle. I can't go back now." She debated whether she should tell Gabrielle that she had already been changed. She decided against it for the moment. "I will do everything within my power to make sure no one will get hurt, I promise you that.
"Jake, he meant- no- means so much to me." And Bella knew those words were true the moment she spoke them. She still though of him as her safe harbor in her heart, though her mind and logic knew that things were forever changed between them. "He kept me from completely falling to pieces when Edward was gone. Do you think I want him hurt? I don't. There's no way to protect everything you love. Its impossible. You can't cover everything beneath you. You just have to decide what means the most to you, and go with it. No matter what."
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Post by Gabrielle Gamarra on Feb 12, 2007 21:54:18 GMT -5
"If I had the choice," she started after a short hestitation, "to save one-hundred innocent strangers, or save everyone I love, I would save those innocent people. Why? Because I don't want people hurt on my account. I could not handle that on my concience. I wouldn't die without my loved ones, I learned this when the most important man in my life was stolen from me. I may no longer have any reason to live, but at least I will not have so many lives on my mind. The lives of a few people I love? Yeah, I would always think about them. They would be dead, but I think of it this way: one person is important to someone. Who might die if I chose to save my loved ones? A father of six? A mother of one? A grandfather of fifteen grandchildren who love him? How about a president of a country, or a king, or a national hero? You never know who's life you're puting on the line. That's how I look at things. I don't want Jake hurt, and I don't want this war started. I don't even want you and Edward hurt, but I especially don't want people I don't know getting hurt. I don't want another young girl like me losing her family. I don't want another girl having to go to a shrink every Saturday because she has horrible flashbacks that take over her entire body."
She looked at the ground, a single tear falling from her hazel eyes. "Because that's what I see because we didn't leave. We made a mistake, and now we pay. Don't make a mistake that will do this to somebody else. Don't make that mistake, don't do that to somebody. You'll live on, maybe in a lot of pain, but at least you'll know you're not the source of somebody else's."
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Post by Bella Swan on Feb 12, 2007 22:05:17 GMT -5
Bella shook her head. "I can't go back now, even if I wanted to. Also, morales have ceased to mean anything to me. Its only brought me hell, I owe my conscience nothing. It sucks when someone says it like that, but its true. I can't go through something like what happened last September again. This is the only way I can secure that it won't happen.
We won't kill anyone willingly, not an innocent person, not even the werewolves. But how can that be guaranteed if the pack is so set on starting a war over my transformation? It can't be.
Can you think of anything that could get the pack to change their minds? I would do it in a second, trust me." Bella got lost in her thoughts. She didn't want this war, and she had been doing a decent job of avoiding any thoughts concerning it. Now that Gabrielle brought it up, it worried her again.
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Post by Gabrielle Gamarra on Feb 12, 2007 22:12:37 GMT -5
Finally it clicked. She knew what was so different about Bella. "You're a vampire!" She gasped, her hands turning into fists. Her long nails dug into the palms of her hand, and her knuckles turned white. "Dio mio! Che cosa avete fatto?" She muttered to herself, forgetting she wasn't in her own house, where her mother was finally teaching her Italian. "What have you done, Bella? There's nothing we can do now. Nothing!" She turned her head, trying not to look at the disgraceful vampire. Her muscles clenched painfully in panic. "Oh..." she suddenly felt really sick. "Bella, you should have come to Jacob first to talk to him one-on-one. I'm sure without Edward, things could have been negatiated easier. But... now..."
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Post by Bella Swan on Feb 13, 2007 9:09:29 GMT -5
Bella sighed. "Thats what I've been telling you. And I don't regret my decision." She paused to consider Gabrielle's idea of talking to Jake alone. She couldn't truthfully say that she thought Jake would do that. He seemed pretty pissed off with her the last time they talked. "I doubt Jake would have talked to me about this... He'd make sure Sam was there or something. It wouldn't have accomplished anything."
Bella looked at Gabrielle. She hoped what she was saying was getting through efficently. "I'd lke to talk to him alone now, though, if you think that could help the situation. We can't give up hope on this. I think if we try hard enough we can find a way around this. But we can only do that with the cooperation of the werewolves." Her hands twisted into knots, she was nervous, Gabrielle's bad reaction to the news frightened her.
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Post by Gabrielle Gamarra on Feb 13, 2007 11:59:41 GMT -5
"I told Edward a while back," she stated, "that Atilla was the one true outside threat to the Roman Empire. He came from the outside and almost demolished what was left of Rome. He pillaged and destroyed, he killed people. Rome was already on the downfall, but the added pressure of the outside Germanic nomads was almost too much. Rome did eventually fall, shortly after the reign of Constantine." She straightened up to look at Bella. "How much longer do you think Rome would have lasted if there had been no Atilla? Would it continued to be a thriving civilization, maybe even to this day? Or would it eventually have fallen to another outside force, such as the Islamic Empire, or perhaps Ghengis Khan would have made it that far. He did, after all, have the largest land empire in history. Even to this day. So what would have happened to Rome if Atilla had never come around?"
She smirked.
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Post by Bella Swan on Feb 13, 2007 19:00:53 GMT -5
Bella thought she could see where Gabrielle was going with this. She just sighed. "I don't know what would have happened to Rome, and I don't really care. All I know is that I have to deal with the present, and listening to metaphors won't do me any good."
She wondered if what Gabrielle was saying was from Gabrielle or Jake. No doubt Jake hadn't been kind to Bella, and he probably didn't use gentle terms when describing her and the situation to Gabrielle. But didn't she know that there are two sides to every story?
"Do you know where I can find Jake? I need to talk to him. This has to end... its starting to get ridiculous." Bella's tone continued to be indifferent. She wasn't going to talk to Jake through a go-between.
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Post by Gabrielle Gamarra on Feb 13, 2007 19:43:17 GMT -5
"He wont talk to you," she said, folding her arms across her chest. The fear she felt a minute ago had finally subsided. "You're a vampire now, remember? Jacob doesn't take kindly to vampires, and neither does Sam, Jared, Paul, or Embry. You've brought this onto yourself." Anger bubbled up in her chest. She couldn't believe that Bella was being so self-centered about all of this. She wasn't the only one affected. Maybe things were rediculous, like Bella said. "Things being rediculous is no reason to go and break rules," she growled, "because rules are there for a reason, and are not, contrary popular belief, meant to be broken. Your selfishness is really going to hurt someone. And it seems that one of the people who are going to get hurt is you, and probably Edward if, by some chance, a fight breaks out and you're killed. Because you're new. And Jacob is strong, so is Sam and the others. They can take care of themselves. I doubt a new vampire like yourself is strong enough to take them on." She quickly pushed past Bella and, before she left, turned around again. "If someone gets hurt, I blame you. I don't blame Edward, Jacob, Sam, or Alice. I blame you."
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Post by Bella Swan on Feb 13, 2007 19:49:07 GMT -5
Bella's jaw clenched as she heard Gabrielle's words. She didn't move until she was sure Gabrielle was gone, and then she went back to her room. She needed to think.
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