What does Jacob tell Bella to try to keep her alive from the baby?

Answer 1

Once we were alone, I crossed the room and sat on the floor next to Bella. I took both her cold hands in mine, rubbing them carefully.

"Thanks, Jake. That feels good."

"I'm not going to lie, Bells. You're hideous."

"I know," she sighed. "I'm scary-looking."

"Thing-from-the-swamp scary," I agreed.

She laughed. "It's so good having you here. It feels nice to smile. I don't know how much more drama I can stand."

I rolled my eyes.

"Okay, okay," she agreed. "I bring it on myself."

"Yeah, you do. What're you thinking, Bells? Seriously?"

"Did he ask you to yell at me?"

"Sort of. Thought I can't figure why he thinks you'd listen to me. You never have before."

She sighed.

"I told you--," I started to say.

"Did you know that 'I told you so' has a brother, Jacob?" she asked, cutting me off. "His name is 'Shut the hell up.'"

"Good one."

She grinned at me. Her skin streched tight over the bones. "I can't take credit-- I got it off a rerun of The Simpsons."

"Missed that one."

"It was funny."

We didn't talk for a minute. Her hands were starting to warm up a little.

"Did he really ask you to talk to me?"

I nodded. "To talk some sense into you. There's a battle that's lost before it starts."

"So why did you agree?"

I didn't answer. I wasn't sure I knew.

I did know this-- every second I spent with her was only going to add to the pain I would have to suffer later. Like a junkie with a limited supply, the day of reckoning was coming for me. The more hits I took now, the harder it would be when my supply ran out.

"It'll work out, you know," she said after a quiet minute. "I believe that."

That made me see red again. "Is dementia one of your symptoms?" I snapped.

She laughed, though my anger was so real that my hands were shaking around hers.

"Maybe," she said. "I'm not saying things will work out easily, Jake. But how could I have lived through all that I've lived through and not believe in magic by this point?"

"Magic?"

"Especially for you," she said. She was smiling. She pulled one of her hands waway from mine and pressed it against my cheek. Warmer than before, but it felt cool against my skin, like most things did. "More than anyone else, you've got some magic waiting to make ethings right for you."

"What are you babbling about?"

Still smiling. "Edward told me once what it was like-- your imprinting thing. He said it was like A Midsummer Night's Dream, like magic." You'll find who you're really looking for, Jacob, and maybe then all of this will make sense."

If she hadn't look so fragile I would've been screaming.

As it was, I did growl at her.

If you think that imprinting could ever make sense of this insanity . . ." I struggled for words. "Do you really think that just because I might someday imprint on some stranger it would make all of this right?" I jabbed a finger toward her swollen body. "Tell me what the point was then, Bella! What was the point of me loving you? What was the point of you loving him?When you die"-- the words were a snarl--"how is that ever right again? What's the point to all the pain? Mine, yours, his! You'll kill him, too, not that I care about that." She flinced, but I kept going. "So what was the point of your twisted love story, in the end? If there is any sense, please show me, Bella, because I don't see it."

She sighed. "I don't know yet, Jake. But I just feel ... that this is all going somewhere good, hard to see as it is now. I guess you could call it faith."

"Your dying for nothing, Bella! Nothing!"

Her hand dropped from my face to her bloated somtach, caressed it. She didn't have to say the words for me to know what she was thinking. She was going to die for it.

"I'm not going to die," she said through her teeth, and I could tell that tell she was repeating things she'd said before. "I will keep my heart beating. I'm strong enough for that."

"That's a load of crap, Bella. You've been trying to keep up with the supernatural for too long. No normal person can do it. You're not strong enough." I took her face in my hand. I didn't have to remind myself to be gentle. Everything about her seemed breakable.

"I can do this. I can do this," she muttered, sounding a lot like that kid's book about the little engine that could.

"Doesn't look like it to me. So what's your plan? I hope you have one."

She nodded, not meeting my eyes. "Did you know Esme jumped off a cliff? When she was human, I mean."

"So?"

"So she was close enoguh to dead they they didn't even bother taking her to the emergency room--they took hre right around to the morgue. Her heart was still beating, though, when Carlisle found her."

That's what she'd meant before, about keeping her heart beating.

"You're not planning on surviving this human," I stated dully.

"No. I'm not stupid." She met my stare then. "I guess you probably have your own opinion on that point, though."

"Emergency vampirization," I mumbled.

"It worked for Esme. And Emmett, and Rosalie, and even Edward. None of them were in such great shape. Carlisle only changed them because it was that or death. He doesn't end lives, he saves them."

I felt a sudden twinge of guilt about the good vampire doctor, like before. I shoved the thought away and started in on the begging.

"Listen to me, Bells. Don't do it that way." Like before, when the call from Charlie had come, I could see how much difference it really made to me. I realized I needed her to stay liave, in some form. In any form. I took a deep breath. "Don't wait until it's too late, Bella. Not that way. Live. Okay? Just live. Don't do this to me. Don't do it to him." My voice got harder, louder. "You know what he's going to do when you die. You've seen it before. You want him to go back to those Italian killers?" She crigned into the sofa.

I left out the part about how that wouldn't be necessary this time.

Struggling to make myself softer, I asked, "Remember when I got mangled up by those newborns? What did you tell me?"

I waited, by she wouldn't answer. She pressed her lips together.

"You told me to be good and listen to Carlisle," I reminded her. "And what did I do? I listened to the vampire. For you."

"You listened because it was the right thing to do."

"Okay-- pick either reason."

She took a deep breath. "It's not the right thing now." Her gaze touched her big round stomach and she whispered under her breath, "I won't kill him."

My hands shook again. "Oh, I hadn't heard the great news. A bouncing baby boy, huh? Shoulda brought some blue balloons."

Her face turned pink. The color was so beautiful--it twisted in my stomach like a knife. A serrated knife, rusty and ragged.

I was going to lose this. Again.

"I don't know he's a boy," she admitted, a little sheepish. "The aultrasound wouldn't work. The membrance around the baby is too hard--like their skin. So he's a little mystery. But I always have a boy in my head."

"It's not some pretty baby in there, Bella."

"We'll see," she said. Almost smug.

"You won't," I snarled.

"You're very pessimistic, Jacob. There is definitely a chance that I might walk away from this."

I couldn't answer, I looked down and breathed deep and slow, trying to get a grip on my fury.

"Jake," she said, and she patted my hair, stroked my cheek. "It's going to be okay. Shh. It's okay."

I didn't look up. "No. It will not be okay."

She wiped something wet from my cheek. "Shh."

"What's the deal, Bella?" I stared at the pale carpet. My bare feet were dirty, leaving smudges. Good. "I thought the whole point was tha tyou wanted your vampire more than anything. AN dnow you're just giving him up? That ddoesn't make any sense. Since when are you desperate to be a mom? If you wanted that so much, why did you marry a vampire?"

I was dangerously close to that offer he wanted me to make. I could see the words taking me that way, but I couldn't change their direction.

She sighed. "It's not like that. I didn't really care about having a baby. I didn't even think about it. It's not just having a baby. It's . . . well . . . this baby."

"It's a killer, Bellla. Look at yourself."

"He's not. It's me. I'm just weak and human. But I can tough this out, Jake, I can--"

"Aw, come on! Shut up, Bella. You can spout this crap to your bloodsucker, but you're not fooling me. You know you're not going to make it."

She glared at me. "I do not know that. I'm worried about it, sure."

"Worried about it," I repeated through my teeth.

She gasped then and clutched at her somatch. My fury vanished like a light switch being turned off.

"I'm fine," she panted. "It's nothing."

But I didn't hear; her hands had pulled her sweatshirt to the side, and I started, horrified, at the skin it exposed. Her somatch looked like it was tained with big splotches of purple-black ink.

She saw my stare, and she yanked the fabric back in place.

"He's strong, that's all," she said defensively.

The ink spots were bruises.

I almost gagged, and I understood what he'd said, about watching it hurt her. Suddenly, I felt a little crazy myself.

"Bella," I said.

She heard the change in my voice. She looked up, still beathing heavy, her eyes confused.

"Bella, don't do this."

"Jake--"

"Listen to me. Don't get your back up yet. Okay? Just listen. What if . . . ?"

"What if what?"

"What if this wasn't a one-shot deal? What if it wasn't all or nothing. What if you just listned to Carlisle like a good girl, and kept yourself alive?"

"I won't--"

"I'm not done yet. So you stay alive. Then you can start over. This didn't work out. Try again."

She frowned. She raised one hand and touched the place where my eyebrows were mashing together. Her fingers smoothed my forehead for a moment while she tried to make sense of it.

"I don't understand. . . . What do you mean, try again? You can't think Edward would let me . . . ? And what difference would it make? I'm sure any baby--"

"Yes," I snapped. Any kid of his would be the same."

Her tired face just got more confused. "What?"

But I couldn't say any more. THere was no point. I would never be able tos ave her from herself. I'd never been able to do that.

Then she blinked, and I coudl see she got it.

"Oh. Ugh. Please, Jacob. You think I should kill my baby and replace it with some genric subsitute? Artificial insemination?" She was mad now. "Why would I want to have some stranger's baby? I suppose it just doesn't make a difference? Any baby will do?"

"I didn't mean that," I muttered. "Not a stranger."

She leaned forward. "Then what are you saying?"

"Nothing. I'm saying nothing. Same as ever."

"Where did that come from?"

"Forget it, Bella."

She frowned, suspicious. "Did he tell you to say that?

I hesistated, suprised that she'd made the leap so quick. "No."

"He did, didn't he?"

"No really. He dind't say anything about artificial whatever."

Her face softened then, and she sank back against the pillow, looking exhausted. She stared off to the side when she spoke, not talking to me at all. "He would do anything for me. And I'm hurting him so much . . . But what is he thinking? That I would trade this"--her hand traced across her belly--"for some stranger's . . . " She mumbled the last part, and then her voice trailed off. Her eyes were wet.

"You don't have to hurt him," I whispered. It burned like poision in my mouth to beg for him, but I knew this angle was probably my best bet for keepign her alive. Still a thousand-to-one odds. "You could make him happy again, Blela. And I really think he's loosing it. Honestly, I do."

She didn't seem to be listening; her hand made small circles on her battered stomach while she chewed on her lips. It was quiet for a long Tim.e I wondered if the CUllens were very far away. Were they listening to my pathetic attemps to reason with her?

"Not a stranger?" she murmured to herself. I flinced. "What exactly did Edward say to you?" she asked in a low voice.

"Nothing. He just thought you might listen to me."

"Not that. About trying again."

Her eyes locked on mine, and I coudl see that I'd already given to much away.

Her mouth fell open a little. "Wow."

It was silent for a few heartbeats I looked wown at my feet again, unable to meet her stare.

"He really would do anything, wouldn't he?" she whispered.

"I told you he way going crazy. Literally, Bells."

"I'm surprised you didn't tell on him right away. Get him in trouble."

When I looked up, she was grinning.

"Thought about it." I tried to grin back, but I could feel the smile mangle on my face.

She knew what I was offering, and she wasn't going to think twice about it. I'd known she wouldn't. But it still stung.

"There isn't much you wouldn't do for me, either, is there?" she whispered. " I really don't know why you bother. I don't deserve either of you."

"It makes no difference, though, does it?"

"Not this time." She sighed. "I wish I could explain it to you right so that you would understand. I can't hurt him"--she pointed to her stomach--"any more than I could pick up a gun and shoot you. I love him."

"Why do you always have to love the wrong things, Bella?"

"I don't think I do."

I cleared the lump out of my thorat so that I could make my voice hard like I wanted it. "Trust me."

I started to get to my feet.

"Where are you going?"

She held out her thin hand, pleading. "Don't go."

I could feel the addiction sucking at me, trying to keep me near her.

"I don't belong here. I've got to get back."

"Why did you come today?" she asked, still reaching limply.

"Just to see if you were really alive. I didn't believe you were sick like Charlie said."

I couldn't tell from her face whether she bought that or not.

She flinced. "You're right, you're right. You shouldgo."

I headed for the door.

"Bye," she whispered behind me. "Love you, Jake."

I almost went back. I almost turned around and fell down on my knees and started begging again. But I knew that I had to quit Bella, quit her cold turkey, before she killed me, like she was going to kill him.

"Sure, sure," I mumbled on my way out.

A section from Chapter 9 of Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC. Copyright 2006 by Orson Scott Card. First Edition: August 2008.

Answer 2

Jacob tells Bella to drink blood to keep her alive and sustain her strength for the baby in her womb. He emphasizes that even though she is a vampire now, feeding on blood is essential to support both her and the baby's well-being.