WAY DOWN WE GO ⇀ ( JASPER HALE ) ✓

THIRTY-SIX

How his sister survived the bite.

He admired her for being able to handle all that with only a broken leg and a few cuts and bruises.

As expected, when Charlie called Renée to tell her that her daughter was in the hospital, the woman dropped everything and drove there.

A shining slap of reality for Tony.

How many times had Charlie called Renée about Tony being in the hospital?

How many times had she actually shown up to care?

It hurt, Tony would admit. It hurt that his own mother was just waiting for a phone call from the hospital to say 'hey you should start planning a funeral'.

It hurt that he'd been hurt so much that his mother was just expecting it now.

But, then again, Anthony knew the people that really mattered, would never leave his side.

Bella hadn't woken up yet, and Tony's brain was fuzzy from waiting.

He'd had to stay in his own room the whole time, to insure his own safety.

Charlie had started living in the hospital too, since most of the vampire attacks had stopped there wasn't a lot for him to be doing. He felt more responsible to be there for his kids, than out at the station anyway.

It was moments like these Tony could see the real unity in his friends. The people that cared most for him.

Danny would talk with Charlie, trying to reassure him. Liv would bring him coffees, just the way Charlie liked them. Reyes told Charlie that he would be there to look after his kids if they ever needed it. Their own personal nurse.

They were really trying to make it easier on everyone, and Tony could not have appreciated it more.

He still wasn't allowed to see Jasper, but the talked on the phone every couple hours and Alice had given him back the camera that she'd had.

Looking through it gave him something to do.

So one night, exhausted and drunk on boredom, he turned on the little device and clicked from picture to picture.

At the beginning, there were blurry photos of a little brunette girl, with tinier fingers over the lens.

A real amateur shot.

Tony could practically remember the day he took it, despite it being so long ago.

"Bewa you have to sit still!"

"I am! I promise!"

He remembered when little Bella's name was apparently too difficult for his mouth to comprehend and he remembered the way she stood and stretched her short, chubby little arms over her head, then lost her balance and fell back on the pillows giggling.

"You're not sitting still!" His own giggles echoed around his mind as he clicked through more photos.

Slightly older now, a male and female brunette sat on a park bench in muddy clothes next to a short tan boy with an equally messy ensemble. They made faces and put up peace signs and-