To Love and To Be Loved (A Jasper Hale/ Whitlock Love Story)

Healing

We showed up at a small, cozy house, and I heard Jacob's rapidly-beating heart amongst all the others. We went into the house as quickly as we could, finding Jacob in the center of all the wolves. They parted like the Red Sea for us. With one look at him, I winced. I could see the way his energy moved through him, erratically, his bones at odd twists and angles.

"He's already nearly healed," I murmured, and father nodded.

"I have to re-break the bones," he admitted, and I winced, walking forward and placing my hand on his forehead. I could see him relaxing at the cool against his forehead, and I felt guilt like never before. I should've been more careful. "Would you mind to give us space to work?" Carlisle asked the wolves, and they shook their heads, each of them slowly making their way out, a man in a wheelchair taking up the back, looking terribly worried. I knew that look. It was the worry of a father. My heart only continued to sink. My eyes connected with my father's, and I knew what he wanted. I nodded.

"I'll be out with the others. Call for me if you need me," I told him, and he nodded.

"I will," he promised, and I turned to leave. "Eleanor?" he called, and I turned to look at him. "Don't blame yourself." I didn't answer. I just turned and made my way out front to stand with the wolves. The moment I stepped out the front door, I slowed. All eyes were on me.

That was when the oldest one stepped forward.

"We haven't introduced ourselves," he said, and I stepped down the last two steps.

"I'd say you had good reason not to," my voice was nearly a whisper as I spoke, feeling nothing but shame talking to these people who I had so let down.

I kept my eyes on the ground, and flinched, pain etching itself across my face as though Jacob's pain was my own when he let out a scream. The first of many, I'd come to find. I saw the elderly man in the wheelchair clench his hands and squeeze his eyes shut. I saw the rest of the wolves shift slightly, obviously uncomfortable with the screams. They cared for him. They were connected to him.

"I'm sorry," I murmured. "I must beg for forgiveness from all of you. If I had only been more careful, if I hadn't gotten cocky, if I hadn't gotten so certain that the fight was over, none of this would've happened. Because of my mistake, your family is suffering." There was a stunned silence before I heard a huff.

"Oh please," the girl-Leah-rolled her eyes. "Stop being so melodramatic, this isn't about you. It's not like it was your job to check the woods once the fight was over." I was stunned.

"Leah," the man in front of me snapped, and again, she went quiet.

"No," I murmured. "She's right." Then it was time for them to be stunned with my words again, and I looked to them. "I did what I could, and it wasn't good enough. But I shouldn't be wallowing in self-pity, I should be making it up to you in any way I can."

"Making it up to us how?" one of the others asked, and I thought for a moment. It was futile to try and put Jacob to sleep without any kind of pain-killer, it would only slow his processes and he would likely awaken once more from the pain. But... I could heal him faster once father re-set his bones.

"I could heal him," I told them, looking back up at the man in front of me, the one who I deemed as the Alpha based on what I had seen. "I can control energy, I can use it to guide his natural body processes and help him heal faster. With your permission, once my father is done re-setting his bones, I would like to try." The man shifted uncertainly for a moment.

"Are you sure it will work?"

"I used to do it when I lived in Egypt," I admitted. I left out the fact that, back then, it was hard for me not to attack the patients, and sometimes they wouldn't end up healed, but instead they'd end up... dead. "I've never performed on a shape-shifter before, but I've healed plenty of humans." He hesitated.