A/N: Hello! Here I am again. I'm sorry it's been so long since I last posted anything, but am I back on the saddle and ready to fully commit to my writing. I want to thank every one of you who took the time to check on me and send me wonderful words of support. Being part of this fandom is the best thing that could ever happen to me, you guys are amazing!
Now, this story is loosely based on the events that happened in Minnesota on August 1, 2007 where the I-35 bridge collapsed into the Mississippi River. Please note I said 'loosely' meaning not everything that happens in the story happened in real life. In fact most of it is fiction. Also, while I did my best to do medical research through WebMd and Google, I am not a doctor nor a paramedic, so some of the medical treatment depicted in here may not be one hundred percent accurate. Its fiction, so please remember everything is possible
This story is also intense, so if you don't handle suspense well, this may not be a good read for you.
I'd like to thank Sarcastic Bimbo and Tita Ritter for helping me pre read and beta this story. Most importantly, I thank them both for their undying support and patience. It is because of them I was able to write again, after a two year break. Sarcastic Bimbo is also responsible for the amazing songs used in this story. She blew me away with her choices and I hope you love them too
Now, put on your seatbelts and enjoy the ride!
"Standstill. Complete and utter standstill. Fuck. My. Life." Bella muttered angrily.
She hated traffic with passion, but even more when she had to be somewhere. Normally, she would have left her house an hour before she had to arrive at the university, but she hadn't seen Charlie in a few days due to his never ending workload, so she decided to spend some quality time with him. That decision wouldn't have been so bad if a semi-truck hadn't crashed in the middle of the I-35 bridge, but alas, her luck had never been the best. So she sat, anxiously waiting for a miracle that would clear the road in front of her.
The sun was beginning to set, but that did not assuage the scorching heat of summer. Normally, she liked to enjoy driving with her windows open, but the heat and the fumes of the semi-truck parked in front of her made her close her window and turn on her AC at full blast. She thanked God for small miracles when she noticed that Charlie had filled up her tank the previous night, knowing Bella's tendency to wait until the car was clanking and sputtering before she ever stopped at a gas station.
She tried to get distracted from the fact that her class was now starting by watching the water flow below her. With the sun setting, the water had turned a soft green and she could see little ripples of the small current from her position. She found the water to be oddly calming to her nerves and was beginning to relax when the hard notes of an electric guitar pulled her out of her nirvana, grating on each and every one of her already frazzled nerves.
"Fucking hell!" she snapped, before turning to the other side, fully intending to give the Lenny Kravitz wannabe a piece of her mind, or at the very least, her best version of the evil eye. However, all the breath left her body and her eyes could do nothing but stare almost lasciviously at the very fine specimen of the male kind that was currently drumming his fingers on the steering wheel of a fuck hot Camaro.
The man was beautiful. There was no other way to say it. He had a perfectly chiseled jaw, that was covered with a day old stubble, that gave him a bad boy look. His hair was a messy mop of coppery strands that fell right above the most intriguing green eyes she had ever gazed upon. They were a deep emerald, and they were currently shining with mirth as they looked back at her.
They were looking back at her. That realization startled Bella out of her stupor, and she blushed furiously when she realized he had caught her gawking at him. She tried to sink back into her seat and pretend the earth had swallowed her whole, but Mr. Adonis had a different idea.
He revved his engine, and when that failed to get Bella out from behind the curtain of her mahogany hair, the sexy bastard blew his horn, scaring her and making everyone around them look up. Bella chanced a small peek and found Adonis smirking at her, making her blush even more. He suddenly got distracted with his car stereo, breaking the spell Bella had fallen under while he smiled happily at her.
"Get it together, Bella," she chastised herself.
She took a couple of deep breaths and was ready to focus her attention to her phone when the heavy notes of Lenny Kravitz Are You Gonna Go My Way morphed into the crazy notes of Jet's Are You Gonna Be My Girl?
Bella almost gave herself a whiplash with how fast her head turned back to Mr. Adonis, only to find him singing the lyrics to her.
Starstruck.
That was the only word that came to her mind, except he wasn't a star, but she was indeed struck by him. She lowered her head once again, while trying to process whether or not she had fallen asleep and was suddenly dreaming the fact that the most handsome man she had ever laid eyes on was flirting with her.
"Don't be a coward," she told herself before she squared her shoulders and looked straight back at him. He kept smiling at her as he belted out the lyrics toward her.
So 1, 2, 3, take my hand and come with me
because you look so fine
and I really wanna make you mine.
I say you look so fine
that I really wanna make you mine.
Oh, 4,5,6 c'mon and get your kicks
now you don't need that money
when you look like that, do ya honey.
Big black boots,
long brown hair,
she's so sweet
with her get back stare.
Bella's heart jumped in her chest while the biggest smile she had ever smiled graced her face. She nodded her head at him, letting him know she was game for whatever he wanted. She felt bold enough to fluff her hair in a teasing manner and bit her lip in a way she hoped looked sexy. Apparently she succeeded because Adonis made a gesture that signaled an arrow hitting his heart and him falling backwards, making Bella laugh at his bad theatrics.
He then reached out to his stereo and soon the funky notes of Grand Funk Railroad's Some Kind of Wonderful started playing.
I don't need a whole lots of money,
I don't need a big fine car.
I got everything that a man could want,
I got more than I could ask for.
I don't have to run around,
I don't have to stay out all night.
'Cause I got me a sweet... a sweet, lovin' woman,
And she knows just how to treat me right.
Well my baby, she's alright,
Well my baby, she's clean out-of-sight.
Don't you know that she's... she's some kind of wonderful.
She's some kind of wonderful... yes she is, she's,
She's some kind of wonderful, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeahhh...
Bella laughed again as the man sang heartily, winking at her from time to time as the song played. She was dancing to the beat in her seat and even singing along, thankful that her locked window kept him from hearing her terrible singing voice, when she felt her car shake, followed by a deafening cracking noise. She turned around to look at her Adonis, hoping to find an explanation to what was going on, only to watch in horror as his car plunged to the river below, as the pavement beneath him crumbled like an old cookie. Half a second later it was her turn to fall 60 feet into the water.
She felt herself being jostled and turned as gravity pushed her against her seatbelt. In the next second she felt the impact of her car hitting the water, pushing her violently against the seat. A sharp pain tore through her shoulder before she felt the impact of something really heavy somewhere above her, making her hit her head violently against the wheel. She heard glass shattering around her, and she felt oddly cold. The next thing she saw was a huge piece of concrete crashing against water… right next to her?
Before she had time to realize what that could possibly mean, blackness overtook her.
It took Edward about thirty-seven seconds to register what was happening. Another forty-four seconds to convince himself that it was, in fact, happening, and he was not having a nightmare, and about eight more to react to the immense pain radiating from his right leg. During that time he had become aware of the fact that the I-35 bridge he was on had somehow disintegrated below him, and that he was now trapped inside his mangled car that sat precariously on top of a piece of concrete that was halfway below water.
"Are you okay in there?" he heard a man say.
The sarcastic side of him wanted to reply 'just peachy,' but his brain quickly caught up to the gravity of the situation, and he had to force himself to consider the question. Was he okay?
Remembering the "level of pain" chart his father had in his office, he took an experimental deep breath and was relieved to realize he could do that with only a pain level of two. He even imagined the mildly frowning stick figure in the chart. He moved his hands, opening and closing them, and was thankful to realize they were both functioning. He then decided he could not put it off any longer and tried to move his legs. He started with the left one, knowing very well that was the cowardly way, but not giving a damn. That leg only had a pain level of four, earning it a more severe looking stick figure. Looking at the blood coming out of it, he deduced that culprits were the many pieces of glass sticking out of it.
Then he moved his right leg.
The stick figure showed him its middle finger and told him to fuck himself with a rusty knife.
It hurt like a fucking bitch.
"Dude, you need to get out of there. Let me help you." The same man told him before attempting to open his door, only to find out he couldn't.
"Dammit," the man muttered.
"My leg is fucked up. I think the gas pedal is stuck through my foot. I can't move it," Edward replied, trying to breathe through the pain.
"Your car is leaking gasoline, and there is one car on fire beside you. We landed on a piece of concrete near the embankment so the water ain't deep. We need to get you out of here and swim to the riverside before your car blows up and turns us into crisp."
"Are the people from the other car…?"
"I got there too late to help them," the man cut him off sharply, the tightening of his jaw the only outward sign of his distress.
The image of his beautiful brunette hit him like lightening. One minute she was laughing at his antics, and the next her face was full of confusion as Edward plunged into the river below. He had no idea what had happened to her, but he was damned if he wasn't going to find out. She had to be alive. He had survived, right? So did this other guy. So far, there were two out of three chances that she was alive, and he was going to find her. Pain be damned.
"Pull me out through the window," Edward commanded.
"My name is Jasper, by the way," the man said as he put every ounce of power into pulling Edward out of the mangled car, while trying very hard to ignore the bone-chilling screams of agony caused by metal ripping through skin and muscle as he did so.
Alice knew she was in trouble. The fact that her car was lying in the middle of a river was the first sign, never mind the fact that she had always been terrified of water. She was three years old when she fell into her neighbor's pool and almost drowned. Had it not been for the incessant barking of the family's dog getting the attention of her mother, Alice would not have survived. Since then, she had suffered terrifying nightmares of being surrounded by dark waters that threatened to take her life… sort of like what was actually happening to her at that very moment.
As a therapist, she knew that her fear was irrational. Since the age of ten she had fought through the panic and learned how to swim, in order to feel more secure against the possibility of drowning. However, rational or not, she found herself paralyzed by fear inside a rapidly flooding car. Her mind screamed at her to move, to listen to her instinct and try to get out of there, but her body wouldn't listen. In a desperate attempt to pull her out of her stupor, her mind decided to pull the big guns and played the image of the one person who would make her conquer her fear and fight for her survival.
Jimmy.
In a matter of milliseconds, Alice relived each and every memory of him. From the moment she found out she was pregnant at seventeen to the memory of his sleepy face as he bid her goodbye that morning as she left to work. Every struggle, every tear, every slobbery kiss and every tantrum over video game time flashed through her mind as the water began to reach her chest.
Her mind won.
Alice forgot all about her fear of water when a new dread began to take over. The panic of not seeing her son again made her search for the seat belt clip desperately and yank with all her might when it wouldn't budge. Luckily, it cooperated and soon she was swimming through what had been her window at some point.
It took her less time than she expected to reach the surface and eventually the edge of the river, but when she did, she realized she was one of the few lucky ones. No matter where she looked she was surrounded by concrete, debris and a hell of a lot of cars turned upside down. Some were lying on the embankment, others were in the water and some like her, were laying somewhere in between. She knew that, like her, the people in those cars could still be alive and merely trapped by their seatbelts or injured. She knew that there was no way she could ever face her son knowing she didn't at least try to help, regardless of the fact that she was terrified and most likely in shock.
Without further thoughts, she took a deep breath and walked back into the water.
"We are almost there, buddy," Jasper grunted as he dragged Edward toward the riverside.
"I have to find her. You have to help me," Edward replied, trying his best to dig in his one good heel.
Jasper sighed. Edward had been talking non-stop about saving some girl he had been flirting with right before the collapse. At first he thought Edward was in shock or trying to distract himself from the agonizing pain he must had been in, but apparently Edward meant it. He wanted to look for some random girl he had never even met instead of looking for a way to back to safety.
"Look around you, man. There's no way we can find her. Don't you realize what happened? Has the loss of blood affected that pretty head of yours? We are in deep shit. We just fell what felt like hundreds of feet into a fucking river. I don't know about you, but I have a set of parents in Texas who would be very sad if I didn't come back home for Christmas. So excuse me for trying to get our asses back to safety instead of playing super hero."
"I understand, Jasper, but I'm doing this with or without your help. She must be terrified, I can't leave her."
"Have you lost your fucking mind? You don't even know her fucking name, and you want us to jump into the fucking water and look for her? Never mind the fact that I just pulled you out of a fucking death trap, and your foot is basically torn to fucking shreds! You need medical attention, and I need to go home. End of discussion," Jasper gritted as he pulled Edward a little more forcibly toward the riverside.
"Please, Jasper, I need to find her," Edward implored.
"Look, dude, let's get to the riverside, and then we can see from there. There are a lot of people there, maybe she's one of them."
"She was right next to me, Jasper, and the bridge cracked right between our vehicles. She must have fallen over there where all of those cars are lying upside down. She could be trapped. I can't go home and leave her here."
"I don't get it, man. Why is she so important? You don't even know her! I mean, I get it that she must have been a looker, but is she worth risking your life? How do you know she isn't a whore or a cheater or that she has bad breath? I mean, I know your dad is a doctor and therefore you knew how to do some voodoo shit on your foot to help slow the bleeding, but I think that we both know that's not gonna last long, and you will eventually bleed to death or your foot will die and fall off. . . and for what? For a chance to find a girl you don't even know? Are you really that dumb?"
By this point, Edward had completely stopped cooperating with Jasper, and both of them were standing on the concrete between the burning vehicles and the embankment. He knew Jasper's argument was logical and that he should be listening to him and accepting his help back to safety.
Back to his parents and medical school.
Back to his friends and his dog Max.
Back to his content, yet lonely existence… without her. Without those brown eyes that captivated him from the moment he caught them lusting after him. Without that shy smile that spoke of a hundred secrets. Without those blushing cheeks that spoke of candid fervor and hidden innocence.
No, he wasn't going back. He was going to find her, no matter what it cost him.
"I guess I am," he replied, right before he dove into the water.
"Damn you to the pits of hell," Jasper muttered.
Right before he dove after him.
As Alice waded through the water in search for survivors, she came across a Honda Civic that lay upside down on top of the embankment floor. A heavy piece of concrete had fallen on top of the hood, breaking the windshield and causing the water to seep into the front of the car.
A pretty brunette was hanging from her seat belt, apparently unaware of the fact that she was minutes away from drowning, unless Alice could find a way to get her out of there, and soon.
Due to the slope of the embankment, Alice knew the quickest way to the driver side was to swim around the front of the car. A fact that made her panic flare, but she quickly squished it down to the bottom of her belly, took a deep breath and lurched into the water, swimming around the concrete piece that was crushing the hood and finding the driver side. Luckily, all the windows were blown out from the impact, so she was able to reach the seat belt clip quite easily. Unfortunately, she wasn't as lucky at pulling it open as she had been with her own, and the damn thing was stuck. No matter how hard she yanked, the seat belt would not budge, and the water level was getting dangerously close to the brunette's head.
She didn't have much time.
She needed help.
At that moment she had to make the decision, whether to keep trying until there was no more use, or leave the unconscious girl alone while she looked for someone to help, knowing that most likely it would be too late by the time she came back.
Thinking of her son, she decided that if it would have been her instead of the brunette, she would have wanted for the person saving her to look for help, to exhaust every possibility to bring her back to Jimmy.
"I'll get you home, girl. I promise. I'll do everything I can to get you home to your loved ones," Alice vowed as she kissed the brunette's hand and dove back into the water.
Edward swam the best he could among the many cars in the river. He tried to use every ounce of physics knowledge he had to guess where his brunette's car had landed in relation to his own car. It was a stupid thought, since he had no idea what had caused the collapse of the bridge, nor had he studied physics since high school. But hope is a stubborn bitch, and it clings to any possible scenario, no matter how illogical it may be.
Jasper, on the other hand, grew more desolate the more he swam among the wreckage. Edward had decided to swim deeper into the river, in order to avoid the debris that lay closer to the edge. That included the many, many cars that lay there, too. Some of them were half submerged in the water, others in flames, many others bent into unrecognizable pieces of metal, and who knew how many more were lain at the bottom of the river, right below them as they swam.
Since Edward had the blessing, or the curse, of being fucking crazy, and obsessed with finding his damsel in distress, he wasn't really paying much attention to the carnage that surrounded them, but Jasper had no such luck. All he kept thinking about were the many people who were probably waiting for their loved ones and would never see them again. When he saw the yellow top of a school bus peeking through the water surface, he lost the fight against the heartbreak and for the first time since he was seven years old, he cried real tears.
Not the tears of a drunken boy crying for unrequited teenage love, or the tears cried after a loss of a game. Those tears were the tears of grief. The same tears he cried when his best friend accidentally shot his sister Maria while Jasper was laying in bed with the stomach flu.
As his tears fell into the water, he raised his head to the sky for the first time since that horrible day when he begged God to save his little sister.
"Please, help us," he begged, not only for his sake and Edward's, but for the sake of all those who were going to suffer from such horrible trial.
Alice made it back to the embankment but found that most people who would have been able to help her, had gone inland, searching for safety. After all, it is a natural instinct to search for higher ground.
An instinct she apparently didn't possess, she thought dryly as she desperately searched for someone who could help her.
A flash of bronze in the water caught her eye, and she soon realized it was a guy swimming in the river. It took her a minute to realize that he wasn't swimming toward the edge. Rather, he was swimming east against the current. It made absolutely no sense whatsoever, much less when she saw another guy following him. Deciding that a couple of crazy guys were a better option than no guys at all, she jumped into the water and began to frantically call for their attention.
Bronze hair seemed to be deaf. No matter how hard she screamed, he didn't turn around to pay attention. Even though she was kind of far, she knew they could hear her, but he just kept swimming. The blond guy behind him, however, did turn and soon grabbed the other guy and forced him to stop.
"Please, help me! There's a girl trapped in her car and the water is rising. If we don't get her out of there, she is going to drown. Her seat belt is stuck and I've tried to get it out, but I can't. I can't!" Alice sobbed, finally letting the desperation seep into her soul.
"Hush, sugar, don't cry. Just lead the way, and we will help," Jasper said, willing Edward to follow.
Alice's tears awoke Edward from his brunette-minded haze, and he realized there was no way he could not help. He would never be able to live in peace knowing he could have saved a person and chose not to, regardless of the reason why. So, he followed after Jasper and Alice, begging God to have mercy and keep his pretty girl safe until he could find her.
A few minutes later, he realized that he should have been more specific.
Turns out, his girl was at least alive until he found her, but once he did, she didn't have much longer.
She was hanging upside down in car filled up with water that reached her forehead. Once he realized the girl in trouble was his girl, the haze came back, and he was able to forget about his pain, about the smell of blood, about his parents or anything non-related to the pretty girl in danger of drowning in front of him.
His first instinct was to try to yank the seat belt out with all his might. However, no amount of adrenaline could make up for the fact that he had lost a lot of blood, therefore his strength wasn't at its best.
"Fuck," he cursed as he grabbed his girl's head and tenderly bent it forward to keep it out of the water, while Jasper tried first to yank the seatbelt off and later attempted to cut it with a tiny Swiss Army knife key chain his mother had given him for Christmas.
Five minutes later, Jasper's knife had only cut about one third of the thick seat belt strap, and Edward was running out of space to keep his girl's face out of the water.
"Fuck, Jasper, we don't have a lot of time left. I can't keep her out of the water much longer. Please, hurry!" Edward yelled from the inside of the car.
Jasper knew better than to voice his fear out loud, but he knew he wasn't going to be able to get the girl out before the car flooded entirely. He could tell that Alice had figured just as much by the size of her tears. The only problem was getting Edward to understand it.
A normal person would have left Edward to his own devices since he was trapped in a gas leaking death trap next to a burning fire, but Jasper was apparently not normal. He knew the kid probably had parents and perhaps even siblings that needed him and would be devastated at his loss. Knowing first-hand what it was like to lose someone you loved so much, he didn't think twice about saving him.
After Edward jumped in the water, Jasper was assaulted by the memory of his mother as she cried over Maria's dead body. He remembered how she had refused to let go of her casket during the wake, and how his father had to physically restrain her in order to stop her from jumping into the hole where his little sister had been laid to rest. Then he thought of Edward's mom and wondered if he got his determination from her. He knew that if such was the case, his death will surely be the end of her, just like losing Maria was the end of his mother. Sure she was alive and breathing, she tried to smile and took solace in her church, but her soul had died right along with his sister. Photography had been her biggest passion, but after that day she never touched a camera again. The usually good humored beauty stopped playing pranks on his dad or watching funny shows. There was no point. She never laughed again. There simply was no trace of the woman she had been before Maria died. Jasper refused to let anyone else watch their mom go through such loss and jumped after Edward.
"Edward, I can't cut this. You need to get out of there, man. We have to find more help," he explained, keeping his voice even, in order to ensure Edward would not catch the lie behind it. There was no way to save her.
"I'm not leaving. I have to get her out of here!" Edward yelled, tilting his head upwards to keep the water out of his mouth.
Alice had gone back to the riverside hoping to find either more help or something else to cut the belt strap with. She was screaming, trying to get attention from someone as she walked toward the land. Once she made it past the greenery and into the street, she encountered a sight that confronted her with the magnitude of the tragedy.
There were dozens of people gathered there, some of them seriously injured, others in shock and many others just screaming in panic. She saw elderly people, teenagers and even a toddler. All with bloody faces and broken bones. The few paramedics and police officers that had arrived were not enough to help.
She hastened her steps and approached a police officer who was helping an injured woman.
"Officer, please, I need help. There's a woman trapped in a car down by the river. Her seat belt is stuck, and she is unconscious. Two guys are trying to help, but it's impossible. Please, help us!"
"Help is on the way, ma'am. The collapse has caused all traffic to stand still, and emergency vehicles are having a hard time getting through, but I assure you we are doing all we can. There will be emergency boats, and the choppers are already on the way."
"There's no time! Please, help! She is going to drown!" Alice screeched, her panic beginning to take over again.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, I have my hands full at the moment. If I leave now, this woman will bleed to death."
It was only then that Alice realized the cop was working on the woman's leg, or what was left of it.
It was right at that moment that the truth hit Alice like a ton of bricks. Every person there was hurting and a lot of them were dying. The few people who, like her, had survived were busy trying to save them. The life of the girl in the river wasn't any more important than the life of the woman laying on the ground in front of her. There simply was no way she could force someone to give up one life to save another. She was out of her depth, and the realization made her scream in anger. It was too much, and all of it was unfair. She sobbed desperately as she kneeled on the still warm concrete, and for the first time since she realized she had fallen in the water, she let the pain overtake her.
The sound of helicopters and sirens barely drowned her desolated screams.
Jasper yanked and pulled with all his might. He decided not to argue with Edward. He would just pull him out of the flooded car when it was time for both of them to give up.
Now was not the time.
'Please! Please!' He kept begging in his head. He had not given up on God yet either.
"I'm going to take you out on a date. Once this is over, I'm going to take you somewhere nice and show you off. You are beautiful, you know that? I bet you have lots of guys after you. Too fucking bad, because I'm going to steal you away. We are going to go to the park on Sundays, and we'll read poetry while lying in the sun. I'm too cold right now, but I promise you I'll keep you warm during the winter, and I'll find the prettiest flowers for you in the spring." Edward said, looking at the woman in front of him.
Weakness like he never felt before was pulling at him, but he knew he had to keep fighting. The only reason the girl was still alive was because he was holding her upper body up and keeping her head above the water, and he wasn't about to let her die. His body felt cold, and he knew it was due to the blood loss. He also knew he didn't have much time before the choice of not giving up was taken away from him, but he was determined to fight for the life of the girl and his own. He refused to allow any thoughts of failure into his head, or even begin to consider the option of having to leave her behind to save his own life. In Edward's mind, failure was not an option.
Emmett had been at the gym when he saw the news of what had happened. It was his day off, but he didn't think twice before heading back to his car to get his 'back up' uniform and backpack, and taking off running toward the site of the tragedy. He knew that Emergency vehicles were going to have a huge problem getting through the traffic, and that it would take time for the choppers and boats to be ready.
As a paramedic, he knew that time was the difference between life and death, so he pushed his massive frame harder.
Nothing had prepared him for the chaos he encountered. The number of victims was staggering. He had been ready to dive in, to do what he could with his limited resources when he heard the hoarse voice of a woman screaming. He found it odd that such a tiny thing had a strong enough voice to stand out among the many other screams and laments around him, so he made his way to her.
"She's drowning, and it's my fault. I can't get her out. Please, God, forgive me! She's dying!"
He could tell the woman was amidst a panic attack, and he really couldn't blame her. She was shivering, and there were some superficial cuts on her body, especially on her feet, but he couldn't see any severe injuries. Her words bothered him though. It was obvious that she knew someone was trapped in their vehicle, and he wanted to help.
"Hello," he said, flashing her his most disarming smile, complete with dimples.
At first, she didn't respond, and only kept sobbing and repeating her desperate mantra. So Emmett kneeled down and pulled an ice pack from his backpack, knowing the shock of temperature would help her snap out of it.
Luckily, the trick worked, and her eyes finally focused on him.
"I left them there. We couldn't get her out, so the guys were trying to save her. The bronze-haired guy was really hurt, but he wouldn't leave her, and I did. I'm so sorry!" She sobbed as she engulfed him in a hug.
Emmett felt bad for her and did his best to reassure her with his hug.
"It's not your fault, sweetie, but why don't you tell me where they are, so I can help them, too? Can you do that for me?"
That woke Alice from her frazzled state of mind.
She had finally found help and she was wasting time being a baby.
"Yes, help them. They are down there. I'll take you," she replied hurriedly as she pulled him toward the river.
Emmett didn't want to make her go back to the river since her feet were a mess but figured there was no better option. Time was of the essence.
So he did the only thing left to do. He took her in his arms and took off running.
Water.
Cold.
Velvet voice.
Those were the sounds Bella could hear from afar. She couldn't make out the words the voice was saying but she found comfort in them. She was scared, but she didn't know of what. It was unsettling, but the voice helped her relax, and soon she found herself back in the blackness where no fear and no sound reached her. She did mourn the loss of the velvet voice though.
"Fucking piece of shit!" Jasper bellowed as he tried to yank the belt out of the clip for the hundredth time. He had given up on the tiny Swiss Army knife when the screw that held it together loosened, making it even harder to use.
"Jasper, please, man. I know you can do this," Edward replied feebly from the car.
Jasper knew that Edward was losing the battle quickly, and yet he still refused to let go of the girl.
"If you are out there, if you are really out there, God, do something. Aren't you all about faith? This kid has not lost it, he is fucking dying and still thinks I can do shit. I can't. I'm nothing, okay? I know that. I know I've hated you for ruining my family, and I've spit on your name many, many times. But don't take it out on this kid. He is young and innocent enough to believe in love at first sight. He has balls of steel, but more than anything he has faith. Please, don't prove him wrong. They are both too young to die." Jasper prayed as he pulled on the damn belt again.
"There they are" he heard Alice yell, and when he looked up, he felt like crying, because she was being carried by the biggest motherfucker he had ever seen. The man was a mountain of muscle, and Jasper knew he was their last hope.
He couldn't help looking up at the sky and saying a quick thank you.
Emmett quickly dove into the water and assessed the situation. The front of the car was almost full of water, and the added weight was causing the car to slide further into the river. The movement was causing the heavy piece of concrete to move as well. It was only a matter of time before it shifted toward the front and crushed the girl inside.
Without losing another second, he pulled out his Kershaw knife and cut the belt out, making Jasper hold on to the girl to avoid cutting her accidentally. Alice had swam to the other side of the car to check on Edward, who was still holding the girl's face out of the water, but Alice could tell it was taking a lot out of him to do so.
She couldn't see him well because he was almost submerged in water, but she could tell his lips were blue. She also noticed that the water around him was tinged red, and she knew he was losing a lot of blood.
"Edward, get out, we got her." Jasper yelled while Emmett pulled the girl out through the window, causing the car to jostle and the concrete to slide a little bit further.
But Edward didn't react. He simply dropped his arm and kept talking as if she was still there.
Alice had no time to think about her fear of water. She simply held her breath as she dove into the water and pulled Edward out. Thanking the Lord for buoyancy, because had they been on dry land, there was no way her tiny arms would have been able to move him.
A second after she got him out, the concrete slid further toward the front, bending the metal and causing the car to sink fully into the river.
It took them all a few seconds to absorb the shock, but reality hit them in the face when Edward began to shake uncontrollably.
Handing the girl to Jasper, Emmett grabbed Edward from Alice and waded back to the embankment. Once there, he laid him on his back and began to assess him while Jasper and Alice tried to flag one of the patrol boats that had arrived.
He found his bag on the ground where he had dropped it before jumping in the water. After retrieving a bunch of gauze and a tourniquet, he undid Edward's amateur one and clamped the foot right above the ankle. He then poured some iodine in the wound and was happy to see that his nerves were still alive, even though all of the extremities were turning blue from the loss of blood. He then gave him a shot of epinephrine to force his heart to keep pumping.
He heard the siren of an approaching boat, and he knew help was underway. He only hoped it would be in time.
Edward woke up to big doe eyes looking up to him. The eyes looked worried, but they soon sparkled with joy.
"You are awake!" A pretty girl with long brown hair exclaimed excitedly.
She was dressed in a hospital gown with blue bows on it. She was breathtaking.
"Do you remember what happened?" the girl asked, concerned.
He tried hard to make his mind work, but it was fuzzy. All he could focus on was on the pretty girl's eyes and the sweet timbre of her voice. He tried to tell her that she was beautiful, but his mouth was not cooperating.
She let out a giggle and looked at him with eyes full of mirth.
"You are stoned, aren't you?"
He was going to attempt to answer when he noticed her arm was in a sling and both her arms had many cuts and bruises. When he focused back on her face, he saw the gauze that covered the side of her head and one by one the memories trickled back into his memory.
The songs.
Her smiles.
Her fear.
Pain.
Jasper.
Water.
His foot.
He felt the panic rising and soon he couldn't breathe. The memories of that day were choking him and he was scared.
"Edward, breathe! You're okay, son, you are fine. Breathe with me!" He heard his father say.
He tried to breathe, but the fear was choking him. He then felt a tiny hand running through his hair.
"Breathe with me, Edward. You are okay. We are okay. Breathe, sweetheart."
He felt himself relax at her touch.
"That's it, hun, you are doing fine. Breathe, that's it. Open those pretty eyes for me." she begged.
When he did, he found her teary eyes right above him. He couldn't help himself and burst out crying.
"Hey, Bubba, don't cry. Mom is here, Mommy is right here," he heard his mom say as she awkwardly hugged him. She hadn't called him Bubba since he was six, but he found it comforting. He was safe, he was home and he had his girl.
His girl.
That got him to smile through his tears, and he found his voice.
"You're here," he stated, looking into the deep brown eyes above him.
"Thanks to you, I am," she replied, her eyes shining with gratitude.
"You are my girl," he stated again.
"I did say yes to your song, didn't I?"
His smile could not be contained.
"Yes. Yes you did."