Bella MacLeod's Twilight Fanfiction

Growing Up

By BetterInTexas

Chapter 11:

BPOV

The sword sliced through the bastard’s leg. The other bastard was screaming by the door holding his face. I felt a spray of blood splashing me on the face. I twirled the sword in my hand, its tip still glowing red hot. Peter really did a good job on this one. The weight and balance were perfect.

Once again I was speaking a language I did not understand. Yet I did. “So my husband goes hunting and you poor excuses for men thought you would take what you want?”

“Please. Let us leave.”

“You come into my home and threaten me with rape? My children with death? You expect me to let you live?” I walked towards the man at the door. The one hopping on one leg behind me grabbed my shoulder. I spun and felt the sword go through his neck with hardly any effort. Yes, Peter did a really good job on this sword.

I heard the man’s head hit the ground. Judging by the look on the other’s face as he backed from my doorway, it was a good stroke. I followed him outside. I saw the crude fences of our homestead. The goats were whining. The pigs were snuffling.

“Lady, I apologize…”

“Pull your sword.” I told him.

“No.”

“You are dying here now. Die like a man fighting or die like the sick dog I dispatched last week. The choice is yours. Either way, the path to Valhalla is closed to you.”

I dropped my sword to give him confidence. The burn on his cheek from the top blade of my sword looked bad. Should he live past today it would definitely get infected. He would most likely die regardless.

“Mom?”

“Not now Erik.”

“Mom did you know there is a man on the floor missing half a leg and his head?”

“Yes dear. Go inside son. Mother has chores she needs to take care of.”

“Are you going to kill this man, mother?”

“Yes Erik. Now be a good boy and run along to the back. The goats need feeding. I will have food for the pigs shortly.”

“Can I watch?”

“Erik I swear if you do not do what I say I am going to tell your father you misbehaved while he was gone.”

“Yes ma’am.” He whined. I heard him walk away. I had no doubt he would be peeking along the side of the house.

“Draw your sword, coward.”

I kept my sword down. He mustered the courage to draw his. He charged. He had no skill. A pity. An overhead attack. I sidestepped with no effort and let my blade drag behind me slicing through his intestines. I turned to face him and saw he had dropped his sword and now knelt in the snow that was quickly turning red.

Enough of this. I had chores to do.

Without another word I walked up behind him and sliced his head off with a single stroke. I stepped over the body inside and resumed cleaning. Peter walked in not long after.

“Did I miss anything dear?”

I suppose he noticed the bodies.

“No dear. Just had to dispatch some ruffians. The new sword you made is perfect. If you could take care of the bodies and feed them to the pigs I would be most appreciative. Erik has fed the goats already.”

“Alright dear.”

“How was your hunt? I hope you had fun screwing around with your friends while I was defending your children and home.”

“My hunt was great. We killed a bear. Quite a large one. Very enjoyable.”

“Glad to hear it husband. Give me a kiss and take care of your chores. I have cooking to do.”

I woke up feeling Peter’s cool body next to mine.

“Mornin darlin. Nice dream?”

“Yes. I believe we were Vikings. I killed two men who threatened me and our children.” I moaned rolling into him.

“Where was I?”

“Screwing around with your damn friends. Speaking of which what sort of trouble are you and Garrett going to get into today?”

“Garrett and I are not friends.”

“Yes you are.”

“I don’t like him. He is… I don’t like him.”

“Yes you do.”

“You going back to school today?” he asked, changing the subject.

“Yep. I have to get back in the water. I feel much better but I think the water will be good for the soreness in my shoulder.”

“Don’t overdo it.”

“I won’t Peter. You know me. Always safe.”

“Yeah right. I’ll get your breakfast started.”

I took a shower and packed my uniform in my gym bag. Coach Decker said I didn’t need to do it anymore but I still got to school every morning at 6 and stayed in the pool till 7:45. I would never set any records but I wanted to be the best I could.

I had gotten a Mustang GT this time. Black. I got a convertible. I figured this way if I had to jump out of it I wouldn’t have to worry about opening the door. Peter didn’t find that funny.

I walked in the living room to the smell of breakfast and the sight of… Garrett. In a pair of Bermuda swim trunks with a towel over his shoulders.

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh don’t mind me. I just needed to get a towel from Peter. He was kind enough to open the back door and toss me one.”

“Why were you at our back door?”

“I was soaking in your hot tub last night.”

“Why?”

“Because I don’t have one. You do. I wanted to get into a hot tub, you two weren’t using it… so I figured you wouldn’t mind.”

“I shouldn’t have talked Peter out of killing you.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “What’s done is done. Too late to go back now.”

“It’s really not.” I reminded him. “Wait you were outside our house all last night?” Oh fuck.

“Yes and I must say I am extremely impressed. How your lady parts can withstand hours of sex with a vampire is beyond me. And the things you say. My my, Bella. Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?”

“Leave her alone Garrett.” Peter said from the kitchen while my face burned from the blush on it.

“Or what Peter? Will she threaten to put a collar on me and call me spike while hitting my ass with a paddle? Because that was certainly what she threatened you with if you didn’t lick her…”

“Garrett!” Peter and I both yelled.

“Sorry. Right. Not my business. I’ll be heading home now. Still redecorating the place. I haven’t owned a home in quite some years. I had forgotten what a pain in the ass they were.”

Peter brought me bacon and eggs and I ate in silence. He sat next to me and began reading the paper. Garrett sat down across from us. We both looked at him.

“Your still here.” Peter noted dryly.

“Peter, you are the perceptive one.”

“You are getting my chair wet.” I added.

“My apologies.” He took the towel from his shoulders and placed it under his ass. Great.

I ate in silence not looking at him. Finally Peter and I both looked up.

“Why are you staring at us?” Peter asked.

“Well she is eating and you are reading the paper. I have nothing to do.”

“You said you were going home.” I reminded him.

“Yes, but I have all day.”

I put my plate in the sink when I finished.

“Baby will you look into those classes? Christmas break starts next week and it would be a good time for me to start since I won’t be swimming as much.”

“You sure darlin? I mean your balance…”

“That’s why I need the classes. They will help my balance. Please babe. I need to learn.”

“Whatever you want.”

I kissed him for a while until Garrett cleared his throat. We both glared.

“You do have company you know.”

“Unwanted company.” Peter reminded him.

“I got to go babe. You be good. I love you.” I told him.

“I love you Bella. You sure you up to drivin with your shoulder hurt?”

“I’m fine. Look into those classes for me.”

I walked out sad to leave him but excited to get back in the water. I had to make sure my injuries were healed. Meet in February. I may not win but I was not going to come in last.

Peter POV

I turned and shot the finger at the motherfucker I should have already killed.

“Don’t do that again.”

“What?”

“Stay in my hot tub listening to me and my mate makin love.”

“Makin love, Cowboy? That girl says things that made me blush. Congratulations.”

I had to laugh a little inside. Bella did have quite the mouth on her. I thought it was sexy as hell.

“Who was Erik?”

“Excuse me?” Did this fucker have his ear to our wall?

“She said the name Erik in her sleep. Please tell me she isn’t treating another man like she treats you.”

“She doesn’t touch other men!” Asshole. I should have killed him.

“Hey no problem man. So who is Erik?”

“I don’t know. He must have been our child once. I heard her mumble that he needed to listen or she was going to tell his father something. She mumbles in her sleep. You shouldn’t listen. It’s none of your business.”

“What do you mean your child once?”

“Fuck! Didn’t you hear the part that it is none of your business?”

“Of course it’s not my business. But I want to know.”

Persistent fucker. I guess it wouldn’t matter.

“Bella has had dreams since the first time we touched. She sees our past lives together.”

That was met with silence. He wasn’t laughing though.

“So you two have always been together? In every dream? Always lovers?”

“Yep.”

“You believe her?”

“Yep.”

“You’re not much of a conversationalist Peter. I thought I was a loner. But you really have issues with carrying on long conversations don’t you?”

“Nope. Talk to Bella just fine. Just have problems with long conversations with people I don’t like.”

“Well then it’s a great thing that you like me. We can work on your conversational skills. Now tell me, can Bella see other peoples past lives?”

Huh. Why not?

“Yeah. She had a dream about you after ya’ll met.”

“Really? Tell me about it!”

“You were a eunuch in some pharaoh’s Court. Serving boy. Walked around in a little loin cloth. The pharaoh was gay so we aren’t sure exactly which one, but you were basically a part of his harem.”

“A eunuch!”

“Yep. Didn’t have a dick in sight.” I reiterated.

“You are full of it.”

“Nope. Testicle free. Left that ass for the Pharaoh to tap and he didn’t have to worry about you makin a mess.”

“You are a liar Peter. I will ask Bella when she gets home.”

“No you aren’t. She is tired when she gets home. She eats a couple of bananas to recover from practice. Then she likes it quiet when she does her homework while I cook dinner. Then we watch TV or read together and then we go to bed and make love until she falls asleep. You hear any room in that schedule for you to be bothering her?”

“My God, you are a fantastic wife! She has you so well trained. I may have done the Cullens a favor by keeping her hidden. Although Edward would look good in an apron. Do you actually wear a collar while you are serving her?”

“You should probably go home now eunuch boy.”

“What are you doing today? Ironing her panties?”

“You should probably go home now eunuch boy.” I repeated.

“Fine, be that way. If you get bored you know where to find me. Although later I may walk the bottom of the lake and see if I can find any human remains that have been dumped there. Are there mobster hits in Austin? Or does the posse just string em up and leave em hanging in the streets?”

“You should probably go home now eunuch boy.” I said for a third time.

“I can tell when I am not wanted.” He sniffed.

He finally left. Asshole. I should have killed him.

Speaking of people I needed to kill, I called Jenks to see if there was any new information on my favorite target marked for death.

Jasper apparently went to Pittsburgh with the rest of the family but did not have IDs changed. Jenks had a feeling it was only a temporary trip. No one had asked yet for any new papers for a teenage girl.

I turned the TV on but nothing was on. I caught up with the news but nothing was happening. I tried to read but I was distracted. I had been with Bella for a week now with no school to distract us. I was quite frankly missing her. I looked at the clock and saw it was only 10 AM. This was going to be a long day.

I could at least be close to her scent. I walked to our closet and pulled out her uniforms. I had planned to iron these later but being near her scent would do me good.

After the iron heated up I started on her skirt when I heard him looking through the sliding glass door in the back.

“Damn! You do iron her panties!”

I ignored him and continued ironing. Once her pant… uniforms were ironed I hung them up and walked them back to the closet. I walked back into the living room and Garrett was still on the back porch looking in.

“Peter!”

“What?”

“Come out to play. There are a couple of fishermen 400 yards away. Let’s swim under and make them think their boat is being attacked by a shark!”

“Is this how you spend your immortal life?” I asked him, opening the door.

“No. But since I don’t have a girlfriend or an arch enemy to stare out the window for hours dreaming of killing, I have to pass the time somehow.”

“We aren’t going to fuck with fishermen. That brings attention to the lake. I don’t want attention near here.”

“Can we at least scare fish away from their lines and pull them down? They will think they caught a huge fish and then the line will snap. We can keep doing that. It will drive them crazy that they can’t pull it in. I guarantee they won’t give up.”

“You’ve done this before haven’t you?”

“Yes. I have to pass the time.”

Well….it was juvenile. It was dumb. I looked around. The house was empty until Bella got home.

“If I do this with you do you promise to leave us alone when Bella is home? I don’t like our time being disturbed.”

“Of course! There is an alternative music festival in the city tonight. I was planning on having dinner there anyway. Come on Peter. You have to lighten up a little. I get that you are an intense, angry, revenge driven young man with intense love for your soul mate to the point that you iron her panties but Jasper isn’t here right now and Bella is at high school of all things, surrounded by nuns, so you may as well cut loose a bit.”

I suppose it wouldn’t kill me.

“Fine. Let me put some shorts on. First I have to make a call about some classes though. Then we can go.”

BPOV

I came home finally. It was a long day. Peter was waiting for me at the door with a smile.

“Hey baby. I missed you. “I told him honestly.

“I missed you too. How was your day? Set any personal bests? How is your shoulder? Your knee?”

“Everything is fine. It felt good to be back in the water. Did you call about the classes?”

“You sure you want to do this?”

“Yep. I was a fighter before. I have a fighter inside me. I just need to teach this body how.”

“Fine. You start in two weeks. The beginners class is twice a week. You know I can teach you this here, at home.”

“I need to spar.”

“You know I can’t come. I can’t watch anybody even pretend to hit you.”

“Yes you can. But you don’t have to come.”

“I’ll come. I can’t guarantee if someone takes a cheap shot I won’t drain him after class.”

“Sweetie if someone takes a cheap shot you have my full permission to take him out. Speaking of when are you going… hunting again?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I’m good for a few more days.”

“It’s been two weeks, Peter.”

I thought when I first met Peter his diet would be a source of contention with us. Everything else was. But I found I really didn’t mind. The people Peter feeds from… gave me a chill thinking about them. Unfortunately for the world there never seemed to be a shortage of them. I hated when he went hunting though. He didn’t like to bring attention to us so he would usually go to Houston or San Antonio to feed. It meant he was gone for a while. Sometimes all night. He didn’t lay with me all night. But he always held me when I went to sleep and was holding me when I woke up. I tried to talk him into letting me go with him one night. He refused. Flat out refused. Wouldn’t discuss it. I got pretty pissed about it and we argued but I gave in. I would be feeding right beside him soon enough. I could wait.

We didn’t argue about much any longer. Not like in the beginning. I think back to when we first met and it seems like a different time.

Now on top of swimming I had Krav Maga classes to look forward to. It was my idea. I wanted to know how to fight. It wasn’t the balance I was concerned about. Soon my balance would be perfect. It wasn’t the technical skills. Peter would teach me those when I became a vampire.

I wanted to know what it was like to physically fight someone. Coach Decker always stresses the benefit of competing. How competition teaches you about yourself and makes you dig down for strength you didn’t know you had. I would imagine fighting would do this also. I needed to be used to conflict. Since I wasn’t going to go around starting fights on the street, this seemed like the next best thing. Peter wasn’t crazy about the idea but he understood. This was something I needed to do. If and when we fought others as vampires the odds were we would be outnumbered most of the time. Especially when he went after Jasper and I held off the rest of the Cullens. I needed to learn to stand on my own. I needed the fighter inside me. The one who has always been there.

I was pretty sore still and decided to go sit in the hot tub for ten minutes or so and then eat my bananas. I slipped into my bikini and walked to the back enjoying the look Peter gave me when I walked by. I heard him moving to the bedroom. He must be joining me. I got turned on thinking about it.

That stopped the minute I sat in the steaming water. I looked out over the lake and saw Garrett by the lake shore. He was under a tree so he wasn’t sparkling but he was doing what looked like Tai Chi. In a red white and blue Speedo.

He had a great body like all vampires but… yep he just bent and touched his toes. Oh dear God.

Some things can’t be unseen. His Speedo just turned into a thong.

“What the fuck is he doing?” Peter asked walking out.

“Looks like Tai Chi.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you let me kill him?”

“He’s a nice guy Peter.”

“His suit is up his ass.”

“Yeah.” I said sadly.

I suppose he heard us because he turned and smiled. Before I knew it he had jumped into our hot tub.

Peter growled.

“An evening in the old spa. Sounds like a blast. That is a lovely suit Bella. Really accentuates your breasts.”

Peter just growled louder.

“Chill Peter. I was just complimenting your mate. Why don’t you hop in? It would be awkward if it was just the two of us. What would the other neighbors think?”

Peter slowly got in and pulled me into his lap. He wrapped his arms around my breasts. I had to giggle a little bit.

“Bella, has Peter told you about the fun we had today?”

“No. Peter hasn’t had the chance to yet.” I smiled.

“We went swimming under the lake and screwed with fishermen.”

“Not my Peter! Mr. Serious?” I smiled.

“I’m not always serious. You know that darlin.”

“I know baby. I’m just glad you had some fun without me. It’s good for you.”

“It was kind of stupid.”

“Did you have fun?” I asked.

“Yeah.” He admitted.

“It beat the hell out of hanging out at a Catholic school all day Bella. You should tell Peter to change you now. The three of us could have so much fun!”

“There is no three of us. It’s me and her. Us. No three involved.” Peter said coldly.

“I understand. So where are we going to take Bella for her newborn year? I’m thinking the Congo. Plenty of cover in the jungle. Nice scenery. Constant civil war so there won’t be a shortage of bastards for her to eat. What do you think Peter? Bella?”

“We really haven’t talked about it. I just want to get through this year.” I told him honestly.

“Hey Bella you think I could pick you up from school tomorrow? I want to scout the talent. See if I can find me a hot teen for a Mate.” Garrett asked.

“Garrett… shut up. Please?” Peter practically begged.

“No problem Uncle Petey. So has anyone done any Christmas shopping? I’m a last minute man myself but Bella you strike me as a planner.”

“No. I haven’t really had time. Probably this weekend.”

“Outstanding. Maybe I will tag along. I was thinking of getting Peter a book since he likes to read. Or maybe a mood ring so he can tell if Jasper Whitlock is nearby. Maybe an aluminum foil hat with a clothes hanger sticking out the top to counter Edward’s mind reading? I could make him a kill the Cullens pack! What do you think Peter?”

Peter wasn’t talking. I wiggled my ass against his cock and felt it come to life. He squeezed me tighter. I have a feeling he was glaring at Garrett.

“We actually have plans for Christmas, Garrett. We won’t be here.”

“You do?”

“Yep.”

“We do?” I asked.

“Yep. It’s a surprise.”

“Okay.” This was the first I heard. I wasn’t crazy about surprises but Peter’s were really good so I would shut up and go along with it.

Three weeks later we spent Christmas Eve morning driving to Houston Texas. I figured he wanted to show me the city, get away from Garrett, all of the above. Garrett had been a constant presence in our house for the past three weeks. Peter had hit him twice. But I knew that he was spending most every day while I was in school with Garrett screwing around. I was happy. Peter was starting to lighten up. He would even joke with him. From what I gathered Peter had never really had friends. He needed friends. At least one. I shouldn’t get to be the only one that sees the side of him that is funny and sweet. He puts on a tough exterior to the world but he has mellowed so much. I think Garrett is bringing him out of his shell a little more. I hardly ever catch him staring out the window.

Peter and I agreed to buy small gifts for each other. I made him promise to stick to it unlike my birthday.

We pulled up to a hotel in Downtown Houston. Peter checked us in. We got the penthouse suite of course. I didn’t see why we needed that much room for the two of us. It covered the whole top floor.

When he opened the door my breath caught in my throat. The entire suite was decorated for Christmas. There was a huge tree. And next to the tree were two people I did not expect to see for a very long time.

“Mom? Dad?”

“Bella. You look beautiful.” Dad said smiling. Mom had tears in her eyes.

“Where is Phil, Mom?”

“We celebrated Christmas last night with his family. I told him I had a teacher’s conference the day after Christmas and I wanted to get here early.”

“You two are staying? Through Christmas?”

“Yes. Now are you going to stand there or hug us?” Dad asked.

I let go of Peter’s hand and ran to them. I was crying before I was out of their arms. I looked at Peter who was standing still and smiling.

“Merry Christmas baby.”

“I love you so much.” I ran into his arms and kissed him. I kept kissing him until I heard Dad clear his throat and speak.

“So I’m guessing you two are together now?”