Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. I'm thankful Stephanie lets us practice and play.
A/N: If graphic medical descriptions are your trigger, probably avoid reading this story.
PST 17:42:45
"ETA fifteen minutes." A parametric hums into the radio affixed to his shoulder.
He works feverishly over a young brunette who had just been involved in a motor vehicle accident on the expressway by cause of a drunk driver.
Isabella Cullen was on her way home after a long day of editing with her publishing office, when the reckless choices of another motorist has just changed her life forever.
She had been excited as she drove home, eager to meet her husband after his shifted ended at Northwest Memorial Hospital. She couldn't wait to meet up with him back at their home, just twenty minutes away.
Bella's husband, the dexterous and newly named Chief of Neurology, Edward Cullen, had been working long hours lately. Becoming chief of his department at such a young age was an honor, but one that came with a price. The constant work load was taking a toll on the young lovers, though you would never know it. They never fought about their busy schedules, just mourned the time lost between them. Stolen kisses and whispered promises of a later time had loomed over the couple for months now as they had been readjusting into Edward's new hours.
Tonight however, marked their fifth wedding anniversary, and tonight, they would rekindle the flame that burned deeply between them. The two had arranged, and then rearranged their time to make this night - this weekend getaway - possible. Both dreamed of starting a family and both were determined to have their deepest hearts desires. Bella had put in the extra time on her latest book and the last in it's series of novels, so that she could take a small break from writing and focus on something she wanted more than anything else. A baby.
Not just any baby either, Edward's baby.
Edward was obsessed with the idea and as enthusiastic as ever. Whenever he and Bella had a spare five minutes to one another they touched and kissed. Eager and dedicated to keeping their love alive despite their hectic schedules, Edward and Bella's love could be defined by the pages of Corinthians 13. Ever patient and always kind, their love for each other came first and concord all.
Little did this couple know, that their faith and love would be put to the test on this night, the fifth anniversary of the day they shared their wedding vows. Devastation and fear would grip this family like never before. Their lives would be forever changed because of the poor judgment another man had used after a few drinks at a local bar. No one could've known that his choice to get behind the wheel of his 2007 Honda accord would become such an irrevocable mistake.
What starts out as a small chain of events, will eventually change the lives of one family eternally. Tyler Crowley's choice to get behind the wheel tonight would now shape the future of the entire Cullen family and put one man in a situation that had haunted the darkest place in his dreams.
PST 18:01:03
By the time the ambulance pulls into the bay, an entire team of surgeons and nurses are waiting, ready to take over the efforts of the paramedics. There wasn't a single member of this trauma team that didn't have a job to do. It was their duty to treat and heal every patient that came through their doors and the woman being unloaded from the ambulance would receive the best care they could give her.
It was their job to fight for her life when she no longer had the strength to do so on her own. Bella Cullen was in capable hands as the paramedics traded her off to the doctors.
Through their effort, she could wither away, or thrive.
She was in their hands now.
"What have we got?" A graying middle aged doctor asks as the team approaches Bella's stretcher ready to take over.
The first thing that's noticed is the jagged cut off end of a rebar protruding from just below Bella's ribcage.
"Twenty-eight year old female, sustained multiple injuries to her upper and lower body, neck and head from a motor vehicle collision. Glasgow Coma is an eight, BP and pulse ox are dropping rapidly."
"She's tachycradic!" A nurse in salmon colored scrubs shouts to her team.
Doctor Gerandy pulls back a wad of sterile dressing surrounding the rebar. The blood soaked cotton had been being pressed down by a blue blood soaked officer's shirt. He quickly discards the garment that represents a piece of Washington State's finest and presses his finger tips into Bella's belly. "Abdomen's rigid," his eyes quickly examine the object impaling the woman.
Taking a quick look up to her face to catalog the injuries there, his eyes focus on her prone form. "We need to work quickly." The graying doctor states before going completely pale, for the first time since he's approached the paramedics a hint of recognition flashes in Doctor Gerandy's mind.
"Oh, God." A surgical nurse holding the paramedics notes gasps from the side of Bella's stretcher. As the good doctor continues to study Bella's face, he see the nurse's fingers shoot up and hover over her own mouth in horror. At a loss, she continues to gaze down at a woman that she knows, but hardly recognizes.
As Doctor Gerandy studies Bella's injuries his eyes land squarely on her heavily disfigured face. The flicker of recognition that had passed through his mind just second before is now like a flashing neon sign. He blinks, it's clear he's trying to convince himself that this can't possibly be the bright, beautiful woman that is married to one of his colleges.
However, as he looks to the hollow of her throat there is no longer any way to deny the truth. There, resting in the delicate dip of her throat he recognizes a symbol hanging around her neck. Spattered with drops of crimson and the dirty airbag grime, sits a small blue opaque cameo. The moment he makes out the lion etched into the charm, he knows.
"Do we have ID on this patient?" Doctor Gerandy asks as he pulls the chart from the horrified nurse's hands to hastily to examine the EMT's and Paramedic's findings.
"The officer on the scene identified her as Isabella Cullen. We also have her identification by her drivers license found inside her purse." A red haired Parametric hand pumping Bella's lungs with oxygen, squeezes down on the bag as he answers.
As the name slips from his lips and out into the open air, all life seems to still in the ambulance bay of the ER. The only sound that can be heard for a fraction of a second is the sound of air refilling the Non re-breather pressed over Bella's swollen mouth and nose.
"Who is the Nero consult?" Doctor Gerandy snaps into action, a look of fear passes though his eyes. He needs to be sure that Edward is not the one who has been paged. Edward should not find out about his wife's condition like this way.
"It's Doctor Wagner is on call sir." The nurse in salmon hospital scrubs answers, you can hear the relief in her voice as she reads the page details.
"Good, good." Doctor Gerandy replies offhandedly, far away in thought, although he seems relieved. However only just, as they continue swiftly into the hospital and down the hall into the elevator that is specially sanctioned to go straight to the OR. He trades looks at the staff around him. "Spread the word on the floor, this stays quiet until we can properly notify the Cullen's."
A murmur of agreement sounds among them and as they step on the elevator, two nurses head back into the emergency room to kindly ask the rest of their staff to keep quiet about what they've seen and heard.
You'd be surprised how quickly word travels through the hospital and they aren't taking any chances.
As the two nurses make their way back to the elevator to join the surgery in the OR, an erie silence strangles the morale of the ER nurses and doctors. Silently, they pray for Bella, Dr. Cullen's beautiful, sweet wife. They've seen accidents like these before, they come in and out of here all day long and the thought of Bella be counted among those tragedies...it's enough to sober everyone on the floor who knows of her.
They say that bad things always happen to good people, and tonight, truer words have never been spoken.
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