Description; Bella Swan's life consists of constant loneliness until she saves Edward Cullen, the man she is enamoured with from a few brief glances. After a mix up at the hospital that leads Edward's family to believe she is his fiancé, they take her into their lives with open arms and make her feel loved and happy for the first time in years. Never believing herself to be anything special or noteworthy, when the family reignites her zest for life and love, Bella finds she can't let them go. Especially Alice, Edward's younger sister.
Rating ; Nothing too graphic but ladies willbe smooching and falling in love. If that's not your cup of tea, no one's forcing you to drink it.
Author's Note; Inspiration struck on Sunday night after I watched this movie for the billionth time. I hope whoever may read this is happy inspiration struck, and not cursing it for doing so... If you've seen it, you know what's in store. Obviously it won't be scene for scene the same and I'll be changing things up to suit my idea of it, but I love the movie and want to stay as true as possible to it. So in saying that, don't be surprised if there's a few lines that are verbatim slipped in. And maybe some OOC-ness. Not crazily so, I just don't want Rosalie to be a bitch, basically. I'm really nervous about this actually, so please, be kind =)
While You Were Sleeping
Chapter One
Bella Swan liked to watch people. She liked to watch her regulars; the Roberts family interact over dinner when they came to the diner she owned. She liked to watch Lizzie and Don, a couple who had been married for forty-four years eating the same meal day after day before they set out on their walks together, holding hands and laughing even though the passing of time had made them slow and a little less steady on their feet. She enjoyed watching the younger couples share a plate of fries and a milkshake on a first date.
She just liked watching people.
Most of all, she liked to watch the bronze haired man who rushed in every lunchtime ordering a coffee and a jelly donut to go before rushing out and back across the street to 'Cullen and Sons, Attorneys at Law.' For three months, Monday to Friday, she watched as the handsome man ran his hands through his luscious looking locks, how he gave that devastating crooked grin to her head waitress in thanks as he balanced his coffee and donut in one hand while he held his expensive looking briefcase in the other.
He was her favourite to watch.
She liked to think that one day she would get the courage to talk to him. Maybe stand at the cash register one lunchtime and smoothly initiate a witty conversation that would make him wonder where she had been all his life. He would fall madly in love with her and dump the super model she was sure he was seeing, propose to her and want to have a baseball team of bronze-haired babies...
Who was she kidding?
She was a shy, clumsy, diner owner who had no life outside of her job. The main man of her life for the past three years had been her dog, Scruffy. As for dating, since her father died and left her the diner she had no time for anything but keeping the food stocked, paying bills and making sure Crazy Phil always had 'his' special booth by the window free or she would be cleaning food off the walls for days after.
No. She would carry on like this; keeping her father's beloved business thriving and watching others live happy lives.
It wasn't that she was unhappy. Every day Bella laughed and joked with her customers, her staff loved the banter she shared with them and she considered them her closest friends, but once she shut up shop and went home it was quiet. Lonely. The only one to greet her at the door was Scruffy. As much as she loved her dog, and she really did, she couldn't help but feel an emptiness settle in her soul.
Her mother had died when she was three in a hit and run accident. Her father had died three years ago from cancer and as far as she was aware, there were no other Swans remotely close to America, never mind Washington. She was alone. No family, no partner, no nothing.
Nothing except the four minutes of each day that she got to watch the Greek God in his tailor-made suits stroll across the street with that swagger; the confident swagger of a man who knows he's going places, who knows he'll have the perfect wife and the perfect kids and they'll all have perfect hair forever and ever.
Bella knew she didn't belong in his world. She was too normal, she wasn't interesting enough and she certainly didn't consider herself pretty enough to be with someone like him.
But in her daydreams, which varied from walking through the park with his arm securely around her waist pulling her into his swimmer's physique, to being snuggled up on the couch while a few mini Mr Gorgeous ran around their house yelling to mommy and daddy as Bella and he chuckled good naturedly at the little scamps, to the more raunchy fantasies she had; in every one he didn't care what she looked like or what she was wearing. She didn't have to try and be interesting. He simply wanted her. And no-one could take Bella's daydreams from her. God knows, it was all that kept her smiling some days.
She sighed as she locked up the diner one night, reflecting on how the midnight blue suit had complemented her nameless stranger's complexion. As she turned she heard raised voices and what sounded like a scuffle from behind her. Whipping her head around she saw none other than the object of her obsession being punched and shoved into the middle of the road. She yelled for the yob to stop. As Mr Perfect Hair stumbled farther into the lane of oncoming traffic, disorientated by the blow to his head, everything started moving in slow motion for Bella.
She saw as he struggled to right himself, she was dimly aware of his attacker running away after seeing something that spooked him, she only barely heard screams from onlookers as she started running the fifteen-odd feet between herself and the bronze haired Adonis after spotting a car careening around the corner and straight towards him.
Suddenly, and she wasn't sure how exactly, she was on her back with someone half on, half off her. People started crowding around yelling for help, crying, asking if she was okay.
Was she?
Her head hurt like hell and the weight on top of her torso wasn't helping her any, but other than that, she thought she was alive. Maybe not well, but at least alive.
She turned her head slightly to see what the hell was happening and saw a shock of bronze hair and the face of a male model centimetres from her own. He had a large gash running from his forehead across to his temple and downwards. The blood seemed to be steadily flowing out of it. Bella cringed. She hated blood.
She tried to sit up but hands pushed her back down, told her not move, that she hit her head and she may be bleeding. A man in a police uniform asked her her name.
"Bella." She whimpered out.
She lifted her hand to the back of her head and felt warmth and wetness. Dreading what she was about to see on her fingertips, she slowly brought her hand in front of her face seeing the sticky red substance that never failed to make her faint.
"Okay, Bella. Can you tell me who this man is?"
She could feel it happening, that old familiar reaction. How the sickness rushed over her, the high pitched ringing in her ears as everything else was drowned out, could see everyone get farther and farther away as her vision darkened.
But just before she fainted, she managed to breathe out; "He's the man I'm going to marry."
An undeterminable time later Bella awoke to beeping. Her head hurt. Something was pinching into the back of her hand and the sheets of the bed she currently reclined on were far too scratchy for her liking.
She opened her eyes to the blinding light above her and crinkled her nose at the sterile smell invading her senses.
"What the fuck?" She groaned out as she sat up.
The pinching in her arm turned out to be a needle leading to a drip and the beeping was coming from the heart monitor beside her bed.
She was attempting to take out the needle when a nurse breezed into the room and exclaimed happily, "You're awake! Excellent! How are you feeling, Miss Swan?"
She checked Bella's chart and walked to the head of the bed where Bella sat staring in confusion.
"Er, fine I guess. I've got a pretty bad headache and this drip is cutting into me, but other than that... what the hell happened?" Bella trailed off, asking the nurse as much as she was asking herself.
For the life of her she couldn't get a handle on why she was here. She knew she was in the hospital, she wasn't that handicapped, but she just couldn't remember why. If the throbbing in her head was anything to go by, she should give up on remembering and just let the nice lady poke and prod her and try again later.
"Oh don't worry about that. You're only awake so that's totally normal. Especially after a traumatic incident." Traumatic incident? What traumatic incident? "You're kind of hot stuff around here, Miss Swan. Everyone's heard about how you jumped in front of a car to push Mr Cullen out of the way. You're a hero!" She gave Bella a toothy grin as she checked her body for signs of any hidden injuries.
Mr Cullen? A car? Me jumping in front of it?
And it all came crashing back.
Whereas before, when it was actually happening it was like the title sequence to Baywatch, all slow motion and feeling like it wasn't really her that it was happening to, now it was slamming into her in all it's technicolour glory.
What. The. Fuck?
What in the name of fucking Jesus Christ was I thinking? Jumping in front of a fucking car? My own mother died from a hit and run! But no, apparently the the clumsiest goddamn girl in America decided to go head to head with a two tonne fucking car? How the hell did I win that one? And not only that, but I evidently saved Mr Dreamy while I was at it! Mr Dreamy, who is either the main 'Cullen' in Cullen and Sons, though he seems way too young to have kids, or he's the 'Son' part of the firm.
Well, shit.
Bella didn't know what to say so she settled on giving a non-committal "Mm."
"Well, everything seems to be just fine here." The red haired nurse bustled about the bed and threw the covers off of Bella. Bella frowned in confusion watching as the nurse wheeled in a wheelchair and clasped her hands in front of her. "Would you like to go and see Mr Cullen?"
"You mean I can see him?" Bella panicked. What the fuck would she say to him? 'Oh hey there, I'm kind of your stalker but it ended up working out well for you seeing as I was able to save your life... forgive me for creeping on you every day for the last three months?'.
No. She needed to find a way out of this.
"Of course! Why wouldn't you be able to?"
Bella looked from left to right in hopes of inspiration striking. She saw a sign stating visiting hours and blurted, "But visiting hours are over!"
"Honey, you aren't a visitor. You're a patient. Not only that; you saved his life!"
Bella was now in the chair being pushed through the hallways and into elevators as numerous nurses shot smiles her way and doctors clapped her on the shoulder.
"See? I told you that you're a rockstar round these ways!" The nurse leaned down to whisper in Bella's ear as Bella gave one last ditch attempt to not go and see her bronze haired dreamboat before she could at least prepare what to say and most importantly, at a time when she wasn't in a fucking hospital gown!
"Family!" Bella shouted, "I thought only family were allowed to visit patients?"
"Oh come now!" The nurse said with a chuckle and a knowing gleam in her eye.
Bella's attempts to stop her dog-with-a-bone nurse were all for naught as she was wheeled into the intensive care wing of the hospital and through to the doorway of a large, private room filled with people.
There were five people in total. On one side of the bed, the two oldest looking people of the group were standing leaning against one another, faces drawn and eyes red rimmed from tears and worry. The woman had long brown hair that had tints of her fallen son's bronze and her whole being exuded the presence of a concerned and devoted mother. The man she was desperately clinging to was tall, lean and had blonde hair and was obviously her partner. Beside them was a tall young man, about twenty four years old, Bella guessed, with long honey blonde hair and a deeply disturbed expression on his face. On the opposite side of the bed stood a tall, muscular, dark curly haired man, looking down sadly at the man Bella saved from certain death. Holding his hand was a gorgeous blonde haired woman who made Bella feel even more self conscious than she already was sitting with her hair a mess and ass hanging out of a paper gown. She had a worried frown on her face as a man near the bottom of the bed in a white lab coat droned on.
Everyone was listening to the doctor as Bella heard him say things like 'coma', 'no brain damage detected, but we can't be sure with such a blow to the head' and 'unsure of when he'll wake up, but we're optimistic." The doctor's eyes looked reassuringly at the group of people before settling on her own. He frowned and puffed out his chest rather self importantly.
"Nurse, just what is she doing here? I don't care who she is or what she did, we have rules to follow and only family are permitted to be in this area."
Bella turned to raise her eyebrows at the nurse and gave her a smug half smirk as she simply waved the brunette and the doctor off.
"I don't think that applies here, Doctor, do you? This is the woman who risked her life to save this young man's."
Everyone's eyes turned and stared at Bella before a choked sob was heard and the brown haired woman rushed towards her and leaned down to envelop the girl in a firm but gentle hug. She was shaking with the force of her sobs and Bella awkwardly patted her back from the seated position she was stuck in.
"Thank you! Oh, honey I don't even know how to show my gratitude! You saved our boy!" The woman pulled back and looked into Bella's eyes. She could see the heartache there, but more-so she could see hope and happiness that her son would be okay.
"Mrs Cullen, I'm sorry, but protocol states-"
"She saved Edward's life. This girl is family." The blonde haired male, who Bella assumed to be Edward's father, stated leaving no room for discussion.
Bella blushed deep scarlet as once more all eyes were on her. She was almost happy her busy-body nurse started to speak again just so that the attention was off her. 'Almost' being the operative word. When Bella heard what the nurse had to say next, she wasn't feeling anything but blind panic and nausea.
"What a fairytale story! I'm telling you, me and the girls at the nurse's station were positively giddy when we heard the story! How a girl saves a boy from an attacker and risks her own life to push him out of the way of a car!" The red head gushed the story out with the enthusiasm of a three year old hopped up on candy and coke. But she wasn't finished yet, oh no. "But then, to find out they were engaged to be married! Well, we were-"
Thankfully, but long after Bella would have preferred it, the nurse was cut off as the entire room exploded into a cacophony of sounds. Bella was stunned into silence, a flashback of her parting words to a policeman before her world surrendered to darkness played in her mind's eye.
"ENGAGED?"
"Since when?"
"Emmett, did you know about this?"
"Pop, I'm as clueless as you are."
"ENGAGED?"
"Jasper, he didn't mention anything to you?"
"He hasn't called me back in months."
"Everyone quiet. QUIET!"
The matriarch of the family let her presence be known, and damnit if that wasn't the most commanding 'mom' voice Bella had ever heard.
"I don't care that Edward didn't tell us. I don't care that he's been so buried in work for the last few months that we barely see him. I don't care about anything other than the fact he's alive. He's going to waken up, we're all going to be here for him and in the meantime we have a daughter-in-law to get to know and make her a part of this family."
Everyone seemed to calm down significantly after the woman's reprimand. Bella sat, looking like a deer caught in the headlights.
How the hell was she going to talk herself out of this one?
Just as she was about to tell them that this was all a big mistake, the woman gave her the warmest, most tender hug Bella can ever remember receiving. Family, Esme had said. Be a part of a real family. Bella couldn't deny that that was the very thing that she craved the most. And so, as Edward was unconscious and at the moment it was a victimless crime, Bella would let herself see where this would go. If nothing else, she would get to feel loved for a short time at least.
"I'm Esme, Edward's mother. This is my husband and Edward's father, Carlisle." She gestured the family to move round the brunette's wheelchair as she introduced them. Carlisle shook her hand gently and with a tenderness that bore from Bella being his son's saviour. "This is Edward's older brother, Jasper." The honey blonde man stepped forwards and kissed the back of Bella's hand in a gentlemanly fashion. "Emmett is his younger brother and this is his wife, Rosalie." Esme gestured to the burly man who was grinning like he'd just been given a new toy to play with. He bounded over and almost lifted the whole wheelchair with Bella still in it when he hugged her. Rosalie gave a much more demure greeting, simply nodding at her and politely shaking her hand with a look of curiosity on her beautiful face.
"Man," Emmett drawled out, "Looks like we have a new little sis then!" He grinned down at Bella and winked at her mischievously. "Short Stuff is gonna be so psyched!"
Esme smiled fondly at the mention of this 'Short Stuff'.
"That's right, Bella dear. You still haven't met Alice. She's the baby of my children. I know you'll just love her."
And though none of them quite knew it yet, they would soon find out that indeed Bella would love Alice.
Very much so, and not just limited to the sisterly bond they were expected to form.