Universal Displacement

Need Some Space

Her hands shook, her rib cage rattled, and Edward visibly blinked.

Sutton took respite in the thought that she was alone in her thoughts at least. She didn't quite care how much it pained her to maintain.

"Hey, you need to conserve your energy for healing."

Carlisle knelt down in front of her next to Bella and admonished her gently. Sutton grit her teeth and held onto the spiteful belief inside that kept Edward out.

"No offense," she grit out, "but I'd like to have some- wait. Wait, how did you know? How do you know anything?"
"If you don't stop," he calmly explained, "you're going to get a fresh nosebleed. I can smell it."

Sutton flinched at the implication and released the tension, letting go of the belief that she was shielded from the mind reader. It felt like releasing a tight muscle, but in her mind.

Carlisle smiled in encouragement. Sutton wasn't sure how anyone could be convinced that the man was old enough to have high school aged children, adopted or otherwise. He looked about her age. All except for his eyes, she supposed. His eyes showed a maturity and wealth of experience far beyond his apparent years.

"That's better," he said. "You can't really afford to be doing that, I'm afraid."

Bella moved back, her hand slipping from Sutton's shoulder as she moved to stand back to chest with Edward. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his nose into her hair. Sutton's own nose wrinkled despite her attempts to remain aloof.

Was now really the best time for everyone to be so touchy feely? As she scanned the room it seemed like the entire living room was joining in on clinging to their significant other. She thought she saw Emmett and Rosalie making out in one corner of the room. Had they all been like this in the books? It'd been a long time since she last read them.

Yes, a long time.

No one had yet to offer any sort of explanation and her irritation was only spiking.

"Can someone just please tell me what's going on," she snapped.

Esme reappeared in the room with a bowl of what smelled like chicken broth and a glass of water. Sutton was just able to sit up on her own and she accepted the hot bowl gingerly as the glass of water was set on the table before her. She swallowed a spoonful of broth before glaring up at the group.

"And if one of you just says that I 'saved you' again, I'm chucking this bowl across the room."

She wouldn't. She'd already taken two more bites in between syllables. The broth just sloshed around in her empty stomach, as if the organ didn't recognize the substance as real food. She lapped up several more hot spoonfuls.

"You had to have noticed that this world wasn't right."

Sutton peered at one of the Native American boys from over her bowl. Jacob, was her guess.

"We weren't right either."

She swallowed another mouthful of broth, scraped the spoon along the bottom of her bowl and finished off what was left. The glass of water was handed to her and she gulped down two drags of the liquid before responding.

"Yeah," she admitted. A tremor passed through her as she recalled how the world had been only minutes before now. She would never be able to unsee their twisting, rubber faces. "It was definitely.... 'Not right' is one way to put it."

"We were like that for a long time," Jake continued. "Until just now."

"Obviously," Rosalie snorted; the wolfpack shot her a glare. She flicked back her hair flippantly and settled her gaze on Sutton.