In Which I Beg for Sweet Release From Breaking Dawn: Chapter 14 -- You Know Things Are Bad When You Feel Guilty For Being Rude to Vampires · 10:42am Jul 5th, 2018
You know things are even worse when you feel tired for complaining about all the padding.
Jacob arrives at the Cullens’ and finds a fresh set of clothes waiting for him. As he’d torn his last set changing when he left the house last chapter, he’s grateful. He re-enters the living room and finds that it’s back to mostly normal, with no hospital bed or anything. Bella hears Jacob enter and her face lights up.
What was with her? For crying out loud, she was married! Happily married, too — there was no question that she was in love with her vampire past the boundaries of sanity. And hugely pregnant, to top it off. So why did she have to be so damn thrilled to see me? Like I’d made her whole freakin’ day by walking through the door.
If she would just not care… Or more than that — really not want me around. It would be so much easier to stay away.
Jacob’s being sensible for once in this book. Why does Bella keep running back to Jacob when she’s married? She knows it’ll only hurt both of them. But for that last paragraph, CM + 1.
Jacob explains what happened, then walks into the forest to get some rest. Edward runs after him and thanks him for going through all the hardships he does — effectively getting kicked out of La Push forever, constantly running patrols, the lack of sleep — for Bella’s sake. He passes along a message from Esme that Jacob, Seth, and Leah are welcome to any of the human food the Cullens have in the house. The Cullens are also willing to replace any of the wolves’ clothes that get destroyed in the course of shapeshifting. Jacob awkwardly thanks Edward for the message.
They hear Bella cry from the house and return to check on her; the baby kicked and possibly broke a rib. They should probably just cut the baby out with a Caesarean now. So the baby will be a little premature; at least they won’t be breaking Bella’s bones from the inside out. They take Bella upstairs for an X-ray, but Jacob’s too tired to follow. He collapses to the ground in exhaustion.
Alice stays downstairs and asks if Jacob wants a pillow, which he declines. When Jacob asks her why she isn’t staying with Bella, she says she gets headaches. She can’t see the baby the same we she can’t see werewolves, and Bella’s fate is so intertwined with the baby’s that she’s blurry. Whenever Alice tries to see Bella’s future, she can only gets a few minutes at the most. She admits that it’s nice being around Jacob, because then, although everything’s gone, so’s her headache. It’s not like she can take aspirin for it. Jacob asks her to stay quiet; when she does, he’s asleep in seconds.
It’s weird, but when the series jumps away from all the romance and the love triangles and just has people talk, it’s surprisingly compelling. Bella and Carlisle discussing why he works so hard as a doctor, the early days of Bella’s and Jacob’s romance when they were just building motorcycles, and now this scene. The writing lets the characters be characters, with what few personalities and nuances they have twisting together and working off of each other. If the rest of the story was of this quality, it’d be great. Honestly.
Jacob wakes up the morning of the next day to find that someone stuck a pillow under his head. In the house, Bella’s almost completely back to normal and Seth’s sharing some food with her. Leah didn’t want to eat anything made by a vampire, but Seth doesn’t mind in the slightest. He advises Jacob to get some food, too. Jacob attempts to just duck out, but Esme gives him some food anyway, as thanks, and some clothes for Leah. Feeling embarrassed at thinking of vampires as friends, Jacob leaves the house.
Clinginess Meter: 26 x 2
Wow. Why are these chapters so uneventful? This was sixteen pages. Bored.
No one but Edward, Bella and Jacob deserve this. :C