Chapter Two – Stitches

Chapter Number: Two 
 
Chapter Name: Stitches 
 
Page Numbers: 30 – 53 (Hardcover)
 
Date of Chapter: September 13, 2005  

Summary: After the attack, Rosalie and Emmett get Jasper outside, followed by Esme, who apologizes to Bella. Alice, Edward and Carlisle stay with Bella when Carlisle starts examining the wound in Bella’s arm. He applies a tourniquet to Bella’s arm and Edward takes her to the kitchen so Carlisle can take a better care of the wound.

Bella asks Edward to leave the room, she sees how he’s fighting the thirst but he doesn’t want to leave; Carlisle then suggests to Edward that he go and find Jasper to talk to him, and he finally leaves the room. Bella watches Carlisle while he is working on the wound, and she can see Alice leaving the room with an apologetic smile.

Carlisle and Bella then start talking about his work and how he can resist the blood temptation. He tells her that after years of practice he doesn’t notice the scent. They continue talking while Carlisle finishes getting the glass out of the wound and sewing it.  Carlisle tells her what he likes about his job, and the conversation changes when he starts talking about his father, his beliefs about God and his thoughts about the vampire afterlife. Bella is surprised by the turn the conversation has taken, but she agrees with him, and when Carlisle tells her she’s the first one to agree with him, she thinks about Edward. Carlisle explains that Edward agrees with him to a point, because he thinks they have lost their souls, and this makes Bella understand why Edward acts that way with her and changes the subject.

Carlisle tells Bella about Edward’s story before he was changed, how it was his mother who made him make the decision to change him. They were in the hospital where Carlisle was working, his father died first and one day, when he was checking Edward and his mother, she asked him to save Edward in a way that made him think she knew what he was. After that she was unconsciousness and died soon afterwards. Carlisle took both Edward and his mother to the morgue and he carried Edward to his home, where he changed him.

After the conversation Carlisle offers Bella to take her to her home, but is Edward who takes Bella home after she changes her blood soaked clothes by borrowing something from Alice. Bella asks Alice to tell Jasper that she’s not mad at him after what happened.

Bella is walking towards Edward to leave when Alice gives her the presents from her birthday and her camera. They get to her car, neither of them talking while they drove back to her home. Finally they start talking about what happened at the birthday party.  Bella asked Edward’s forgiveness because it was all her fault; however, he tells her that if she had been in the party with Mike, Jessica and Angela nothing potentially deadly would have happened.

When Bella arrives home, Charlie asks her how was the party and she tells him about the present s she got. He asks her what happened to her arm and she answers that it was because she tripped, and she goes upstairs.

After changing in the bathroom she goes to her room to find Edward in the bed. Bella starts opening the presents and she gets excited when she finds the present from Carlisle and Esme, plane tickets to Jacksonville for both Edward and Bella. Edward takes his present and unwraps it, handing Bella a CD case, with a CD inside. Edward puts the CD on her CD player and Bella listens speechless to the music.  She tells Edward it’s beautiful, the music he composed for her alone.

Edward gets Bella some pain killers for her arm while the lullaby he made for her continues playing. They lay down in the bed, and Bella asks Edward to kiss her again seeing it was her birthday and she didn’t want him to ignore her birthday. They begin kissing as usual; but Edward doesn’t stop when they begin getting out of line. When he stops he says he’s sorry for crossing the lines, but Bella tells him she doesn’t mind.

Bella finally gets to sleep, but when she’s almost asleep she realizes this kiss was similar to the want they shared when Edward kissed her goodbye before he left to get James off of her trail.

Characters Involved: Carlisle Cullen, Emmett Cullen, Rosalie Hale, Jasper Hale, Edward Cullen, Esme Cullen, Alice Cullen, Bella Swan, Charlie Swan 
 
Characters Mentioned: Carlisle Cullen, Emmett Cullen, Rosalie Hale, Jasper Hale, Edward Cullen, Esme Cullen, Alice Cullen, Bella Swan, Charlie Swan, Renée Dwyer, Elizabeth Masen, Edward Masen Sr, Mike Newton, Jessica Stanley, Angela Webber

Places Visited: The Swan Home, The Cullen Residence  
 
Memorable Quotes:
“You don’t need to be a hero,” I said.
~ Bella to Edward when he refuses to leave her after she has been wounded.

“Well, that’s everyone, “ I sighed. “ I can clear a room, at least”
~ Bella when she sees Alive leaving the kitchen.

“What I enjoy the very most is when my … enhanced abilities let me save someone who would otherwise have been lost. It’s pleasant knowing that, thanks to what I can do some people’s lives are better because I exist.”
~ Carlisle explaining what he enjoys about his work.

“I look at my … son. His strength, his goodness, the brightness that shines out of him. How could there not be more for one such as Edward?”
~ Carlisle talking about Edward with Bella

“Which is tempting you more, my body or my blood?”
~ Bella asking Edward after their kiss 
 
Important Information Learned:
What Carlisle enjoys the most about his work is when thanks to his abilities as a vampire he can save someone who would have been lost.

Charlie’s parents were Lutheran and his considers himself one, but Bella wasn’t devoted to any belief

Edward thinks vampires have lost their souls.

Edward’s eyes were green, the same eye colour as his mother.

When Carlisle changed Edward, he chose to recreate the same wounds he had received when he was turned.

Bella kept her pajamas in her bathroom for the nights Edward stayed with her.  
 
Chapter Prepared By:  Eri