26. Ethics

Chapter Synopsis

Back at the Cullen house, Alice is brushing Bella’s hair, and all Bella wants is to go back to La Push to see Jacob again. The time she’d spent with him before Alice insisted she return to their “sleepover” went by too fast. But Alice reminds her that Jacob is still unconscious, and Charlie needs to be kept in the dark about everything in order to keep him safe. So Bella has to be an obedient little Cullen-to-be, return home, and feed her father some more lies. Alice thinks Claude will probably be suspicious, since he’ll know by now that Carlizzle and Eddie-kins are back from their “trip,” since they would have been over Billy’s too.

Bella finally stands up to leave, wearing a snazzy new dress (after all, the girls supposedly went “shopping” instead of up a mountain to do battle with wicked vampies), and Alice reassures her Jacob will be fine with time (and lots of morphine from Carlizzle). But Bella’s worried about something else, too — she can’t get the visual of Bree, the short-lived newborn, out of her head. She asks Alice if she’ll be like that, too. Alice says it’s likely, but notes that it may be different, since Bella is actually choosing her fate in this. (We would have told her that she’s already crazy, so what’s a little added bloodlust going to change?)

Bella has one more question for Alice — how come Alice can use her future-seeing power on Bella when no other vampy skillz work on her? Alice points out that Jasper’s powers work on Bella, too, and decides this must be because Jasper and Alice’s speshul talents don’t try to affect Bella’s mind. And that must be the key; Bella is “safe” inside her head. (Safe isn’t quite the word we would choose…) Bella then asks if Alice can still see her becoming a vampire. We’re lead to believe that Bella is concerned that maybe she’ll end up picking Jacob after all, now that he’s half-dead. But Alice assures Bella that she can still see her future — it hasn’t disappeared, as it obviously would if Bella picked wolf boy.

Charlie is indeed suspicious when Bella returns home. But he seems to buy Bella’s story (what else is new?), and assures her that Jacob will be fine. Charlie is under the impression that Jacob crushed his entire right side in a motorcycle accident, and makes Bella promise never to get on one again. Charlie then mentions how weird Billy was acting all day, and says they heard a bunch of wolves “yowling” in the woods, and then right outside Billy’s house. But, naturally, this couldn’t mean anything.

Bella then goes into her inevitable inner monologue mode, thinking about how fragile Jacob had looked when she had rushed to see him briefly. “Breakable,” she calls him, noting that she’ll have to “break” him further.

She feeds Charlie, but he stops her before she can leave the room. He isn’t sure why, but he feels like he’s going to lose Bella soon. Bella tries to avoid the topic, but Charlie just wants her to promise him one thing — that before she runs off with “him,” she’ll at least let good ol’ dad know so he can give her a hug goodbye. Score one, Claude, for making Bella feel even more terrible. Bella makes the promise. And then she runs out the door, headed for La Push.

Carlizzle isn’t there anymore, and that means Edward isn’t either. Even though Bella knows she’s about to go in and break Jacob’s heart, a part of her wishes she could hold on to Eddie’s cold, undead hand while she does it. This wish, of course, means that Bella simply couldn’t ever live without Edward, end of story.

Billy hears Bella rumble in, and tells her Jacob just woke up about half an hour ago. Bella is reluctant to go into Jake’s room, half hoping that he’d fallen back asleep, so she can postpone this longer. But he’s not asleep; he’s sitting up in bed waiting for her with a blank look on his face. Bella realizes how hard it is to look at him, now that she knows she loves him.

Jake’s feeling a bit stoned from all the drugs Carlizzle’s been giving him, but he’s worried about Bella. He’s concerned about how “mean” Edward was to Bella when she fessed up about the kiss and love-struck-ness. Bella informs Jake that her beloved Eddie-kins was nice — too nice — about the whole situation. This takes Jacob off guard. He fully expected Edward to get angry; to give Bella an ultimatum. Bella realizes that Jacob is still fighting for her, and tries to make him see how perfect and loving and unselfish Eddie-kins is.

But Jacob’s not buying it. He tells Bella that Edward is fighting, too, just all sneaky-like. He calls Edward a “manipulator,” and tells Bella her boo isn’t as perfect as she thinks he is. (THANK YOU, Jacob.) But Bella won’t have any of it, and brings up Jacob’s threatened suicide if she didn’t kiss him. She immediately regrets trying to guilt-trip Jake, but he doesn’t mind; he’s glad Bella figured out her feelings (and that he got that steamy kiss), and he’d do it again, even though he knows he’ll never get in her pants now.

Bella feels terrible, and goes over to comfort Jake. She tells him he should yell at her. He does, and she cries (ugh, dumb bitch). Then they canoodle for a bit, and Jacob tells Bella he’s done with the games; he’s going to “be good” now, and just be her friend. Bella doesn’t know how that will work, seeing as how they’re so madly in love with one another. Jacob explains that he can’t be cutting Bella in half anymore (oh yes, there’s a Bible reference here), trying to make her choose. He’s going to be the bigger man (both literally and figuratively) and let Bella go. Then they both admit that they’ve thought about their wolf babies together before. But Jacob knows Bella is too addicted to her sparkly heroin for any of that to be possible now. Bella tells Jake she WANTS that happy life with him. She wants to make him happy. But she claims she “never had a choice;” that Edward was always her destiny. (Gaaag.)

They talk about the wedding, and about Bella being scared of Eddie’s venom. Then Bella tells Jacob she loves him. He says he wishes that was enough, and tells her he’ll be waiting in the wings if she ever changes her mind. Hell, he might even take her as a sparklepire. But he’s not sure he’ll want to see her right away once she’s changed; he’ll have to get back to her on that one.

Best Worst Lines

“THE COUNTER IN ALICE’S BATHROOM WAS COVERED WITH a thousand different products, all claiming to beautify a person’s surface. Since everyone in this house was both perfect and impermeable, I could only assume that she’d bought most of these things with me in mind.”

“Breakable. Huge as he was, he’d looked very breakable. Maybe that had just been my imagination, coupled with the knowledge that I was going to have to break him.

If only I could be struck by lightning and be split in two. Preferably painfully.” (589)

“I bit my lip. I was never going to get through this. Why didn’t anyone ever try to kill me when I wanted to die?” (592)

“’I’ll be your friend, Bella,’ he said quietly. ‘I won’t ask for more than that.’

‘I think it’s too late for that, Jake. How can we be friends, when we love each other like this?’” (597)

“We were quiet for a moment. He seemed to be waiting for me to say something; I was trying to think of something to say.”

“’He’s like a drug for you, Bella.’ His voice was still gentle, not at all critical. ‘I see that you can’t live without him now. It’s too late. But I would have been healthier for you. Not a drug; I would have been the air, the sun.’” (599)

“’I’ve never been much of a masochist, so I’m not looking forward to the pain.’”

Things That Really Irk Us

Nothing new, really. Bella is still dumb and selfish. And we still hate her.

We suppose our biggest gripe with this chapter comes at the end, where Bella’s all, “I’ve seen our babies, Jake, and I WANT them. But I never had a choice; Edward is one drug I can never live without.” This is so illogical and stupid that we have trouble even writing about it. She acknowledges how perfect and happy her life would be with Jacob. But nooo, she’ll have none of that! She has no choice but to stay with her creepy, undead, stalkerish boyfriend. Does this remind anyone else of anything? Like, hmm, women who stay in abusive relationships because they claim they “have to;” that they have “no other option”??? Because that’s exactly what it sounds like to us.

Final Thoughts

So Jake’s out of the picture now, huh? Joy.

We’re sure this wedding’s going to be awesome. Bella’s probably gonna be rocking her Chucks, and making rude remarks about how dumb everything is in front of some poor unsuspecting minister. Well, then again, maybe not. Carlizzle’s so badass, he’s probably got an ordained minister license lying around somewhere…

Go to Chapter 27.