This is just an idea I've had in my head since this summer when I got my wisdom teeth taken out. Please enjoy, this is just one chapter long!
All wonderfully delightful characters belong to Stephenie Meyer!
"I was in bed for a barely a day. Hardly affected me at all," Mike Newton boasted, averting his eyes from Edward's knowing gaze. We were in the crowded cafeteria discussing the topic I was dreading for the past six weeks. My wisdom teeth were being extracted tomorrow.
"Oh my God Mike, you're so lucky. I heard Hannah had to get rushed to the hospital because the stitching in her gum ripped-" Jessica's mouth snapped shut when Edward's fist hit the table with a dull thud. All the color had drained from my face and my eyes were squeezed shut, trying as hard as I could not to think about what could go wrong. Jessica might not have been terribly perceptive, but she could take a hint. "Well, um, Bella…I'm sure everything will work out fine, " she muttered, her eyes darting from my face to Edward's hand still on the table.
"Yeah Bella, good luck. I hope you're back at school next week!" Angela said, shooting me a sympathetic smile as the bell rang and everyone clamored to their feet. Edward's hand was immediately in mine, our fingers interlocking. Looking up at him, I noticed his brows were creased.
"You have nothing to worry about, Bella. You will be perfectly fine, love," he whispered, leaning down to kiss my cheek. I shuddered, imagining them as puffy chipmunk cheeks by this time the next day.
The rest of the day flew by much too quickly. Edward helped me shuffle from class to class gathering up work I might miss if I was out for a few days. By the time the last bell rang, I had a permanent lump in my throat as I thought about the next day. When we got to my house, Edward sat in Charlie's favorite chair in the living room. When he motioned for me to come sit on his lap, I more than happily obliged.
"So what are you going to be doing tomorrow?" I tried a lame attempt at making conversation, yet also mildly curious at what he would be doing while I was going through my procedure.
"With Jasper to Olympia. It's our civil responsibility to take care of the rising deer population," he smiled, "We're leaving very early tomorrow morning." I involuntarily sighed. I'd miss seeing him tomorrow before I went to the oral surgeon. He pulled me to his chest, moving his finger under my chin and making me look into his eyes. "But I will be in your room ready to take care of you by sunset. I promise. You probably won't even realize that I'll be there," he smiled, kissing me fully on the lips. Realizing that I wouldn't be able to kiss him for a while, I took full advantage. My hands instinctly held the sides of his face, keeping him close to me as his kisses became more powerful. He broke away slowly, kissing me softly then pulling away, repeating this several times. My eyes were still closed when I felt him rest his forehead against mine.
"Alright, honey, try not to freak out when they put in the I.V. Actually, just don't look at it. Pretend you're, uh…on a beach somewhere," Charlie nervously eyed the nurse who rolled a cart adorned with shiny metal instruments into the tiny room. I was in a plush leather chair, willing myself not to get up and run out of the room when the oral surgeon entered.
"Chief Swan, I'm going to ask you to step out until we finish. She's going to be pretty out of it when we're done, so you might want to pull your vehicle up front to make sure she can exit as efficiently as possible," he said in his droning voice. Charlie smiled and winked at me, closing the door behind him as I lost all hope.
I squeezed my eyes shut as the oral surgeon's assistant reached for my arm, rolling my sleeve up. There were several brief seconds before I winced at the sharp pain in my arm. Holy crap that hurt!
"Oh dear…I didn't seem to catch a vein. Let me try again. Breathe deep, Bella," the needle entered my arm at a different location. No longer did I have control over my breathing at all.
"Shoot! Let me try one last time!" I was nearing hyperventilation. Why couldn't she find a damn vein? She does this every freaking day. My eyes were still clenched shut as the needle punctured my skin a third time.
"Lori, you having trouble? Let me try," The doctor's softer touch was the only hope I had that this would be over soon. The needle stung me again, and the pain was much worse than the previous three times. My arm was aching already.
"Hmm…let's try the wrist. Bella, remember to breathe. Your arm will be sore tomorrow," he murmured, the needle sinking into my wrist.
"Ah, there we go. Drift off to dreamland, Bella," the doctor said, shuffling out of my vision. The room began to spin, but didn't disappear completely. This wasn't good. I could hear the rattling of the instruments and low talking, but the sound began to grow fainter. I closed my eyes, allowing myself to drift away with it.
"Ughhhhhh!" I moaned, my mouth feeling like cotton. Wait…there WAS cotton in my mouth. I fumbled with my hands, trying to remove whatever was lodged in the back of my jaw. Movement felt…strange. Unfamiliar, and difficult. Saliva was trickling out of my mouth. I gave up, closing my eyes as I fell asleep again.
"Bella? Baby, I brought you your pain meds. And an ice pack. You look like you need it…" Charlie's voice roused me, my room slowly appearing before my eyes. He handed me a glass of water and told me to remove the gauze from my mouth. I almost vomited as I noticed it was covered with blood. It made me think of Edward, and I hoped he wasn't here to see this.
"Good job Bells, I'm glad you can at least down some water. It says on the bottle that the meds should kick in soon. You can go back to sleep, honey," Charlie said softly, before propping the ice pack against my left cheek and leaving.
Reaching my hand slowly towards my face, I touched my cheek. It still felt numb. Keeping my tongue as still as I could, I avoided at all costs allowing it to investigate my mouth, fearing it might dip into the bloody holes where my four wisdom teeth had been. I knew they had stitched them up, but I was terrified of disrupting them.
Great, so I was now awake and not able to do anything. Hot tears welled into my eyes as I began to feel the soreness of my mouth. Pulling the ice pack from my cheek, I moved it to the other side of my face.
Glancing at my clock, I saw that it was already seven. The evening dragged on as I rotated the ice pack from each side of my face in fifteen-minute intervals, occasionally wiping saliva from the corners of my mouth. Charlie hesitantly entered several times every few hours with more pain meds or a frozen bag of peas, which he assured me would be better for molding against my face.
There really wasn't much to do, so I slept.
I awoke with a start, still keeping my mouth wired shut. My room was pitch black, but I knew that Edward was here. My heart pounded with joy, but also a nervous knot began to twist in my stomach. I leaned over and snapped my bedside light on, trying my hardest to not grin widely when I saw his beautiful face at the foot of my bed. He had a small smile on his face, but his eyes looked tired. Reaching out for his hand, he was by my side in an instant.
"Is there anything you need? Anything I can get you?" He whispered quietly, eyes fluttering across my face. I shook my head, squeezing his fingers with my right hand. My left was preoccupied holding the bag of peas against my cheek.
I lost track of how long he stayed by my side, his hand smoothing my sweaty hair back from my face. I did want to tell him that my room was much too warm, but it would not have been worth trying to figure out a way to tell him that. Besides, his cool hand against my forehead was solving my problem already.
Then, as gently as I'd ever seen him move, he kissed my swollen cheek. My heart began to race, causing a crooked smile to grace his features. "Does this feel better?" He softly asked, cupping my left cheek as his fingers lightly stroked my face.
I nodded as I gazed into his golden eyes. However, the glorious feel of his cool skin brought back my exhaustion, lulling me back to sleep for a fourth time.
THREE DAYS LATER
"Dad?" I pathetically called, not able to yell but desperately wanting a change in scenery. My room was making me feel sick. It disgusted me that I had been laying in the same smelly sheets for four days, which were dotted with droplets of blood and dried drool. Sighing in defeat, I realized that he must have returned to work. He had taken off three days to care for me.
"Need some help?" Edward casually walked through my bedroom door, scaring the hell out of me. Taking notice of my surprise, he pointed at my clock. It was already noon!
"I only went to school for half the day. I didn't want anyone to get suspicious that we were both missing," he explained, arms cradling me as he lifted me from my bed. It felt strange to leave the confines of my room, since I had only moved to bathe and use the bathroom. He carefully lowered me to the couch, crouching down my my side as I turned to face him.
"Anything you need? I've missed you today," he said softly, kissing all over my face except my lips. Thanks to his cool hands, the swelling was nearly gone.
"No," I whispered, my voice still a bit raspy, "but I want you to stay with me." He smiled, shaking his head.
"How about something to eat? And milkshakes don't count; it's all you've had. Esme did have fun making them, though," he grinned. My stomach growled, answering his question for me. I flipped the TV on and began watching a mildly interesting sitcom as Edward disappeared into the kitchen. About ten minutes later, he came in with a bowl of tomato soup and a piece of white bread. Typically I would not have appreciated these plain foods, but my stomach growled again with excitement. He pulled an end table up to the couch and sat down next to me as I ate hungrily. I had no idea I was this hungry. He seemed pleased, and refilled my soup bowl twice.
"How does your mouth feel, love?" He had pulled me across his lap so I could lie across the couch and still be propped up.
"I really do feel much better. I might even be able to go to school tomorrow. You know I worked on homework yesterday," I said proudly, impressed that I had the willpower to do any of it. Charlie had been attempting to keep me company yesterday by chatting with Billy on the phone about their next fishing excursion, keeping Edward from entering my room till Charlie had decided to go to bed. It was a nice gesture on his part since he thought he was my only social interaction for days, but I did miss Edward.
He didn't respond to my comment but instead ran his index finger along my left arm, his brows furrowed and a frown plastered across his face. It took me a few seconds to realize that he was staring intently at the swollen blue and purple-tinted bruises all along my forearm and wrist.
He cleared his throat, tearing his eyes from my skin to my face. "Please tell me that this isn't from the IV." It scared me how strained his voice was, suddenly void of all banter and full of hardness. I gulped, remembering the nauseating feeling the consumed me when I was struck five times by the offensive needle before they had been able to get the medicine to enter my vein.
"Edward, it's fine. Really!"
"Please tell me what is fine about you having more bruises on your arm than a heroine addict?"
"Well, maybe I just have crappy veins. Honestly Edward, it's barely sore anymore."
He paused a moment before he kissed me on top of my head. "I just hate to see you hurt. I apologize for making a big deal out of it, but it does anger me that those professionals-" he spat, before stopping and sighing deeply.
I had silenced him with a kiss; his lips with cool and magnificent against mine. It had been so long since I had been able to do this, and he let me. Gently. For several seconds, before he pulled me away.
"Conserve your energy, Bella. I think Charlie will let you return to school tomorrow," he said, chuckling into my hair.
"Bella!" Alice squealed, picking me up and swinging me around in a huge hug. She dropped me lightly to my feet as she excitedly handed me a large Styrofoam cup. It was cold to the touch, and had a clear plastic cover and a straw poking out.
"It's a mango banana smoothie, without a single chunk of ice! Esme and I had the most fun picking out a blender!" She jumped with excitement, waiting for me to taste it. Guilt instantly filled me when I realized that all of the smoothies I had been living off of for days had been made with a fancy blender the Cullens had purchased for my sake.
"Alice, you really didn't have to-"
"Bella," Edward smiled, arm wrapping around my waist as he walked us towards the school, "Alice and Esme had more fun making those drinks than you'll ever imagine. You did them a favor."
By lunch, I had already spoken with most of my friends who for the most part seemed mildly interested in how I was doing. Several even made comments about my lack of swollen cheeks, which I falsely credited the frozen peas with. Edward would have never told me, but I was certain that most people were surprised I had come back to school after only five days.
"So tell me honestly, did it hurt as bad as everyone says?" Angela questioned at lunch. My food consisted of yogurt and another Alice and Esme concoction, which I had avoided questioning how it had ended up at school still cold.
"Yes." I answered glumly. My mouth still felt a bit sensitive. Mike seemed to twitch in his seat uncomfortably, unusually quiet.
"I know this is really rude, and it's fine of you don't want to…but, can I see your stitches?" Angela asked. Edward smiled and squeezed my hand under the table. Obviously there was something he wasn't letting me in on.
"Uh, sure." I opened my mouth and let Angela peer around, her eyes widening. Suddenly, there are a loud squeal as a chair scratched against the linoleum floor.
"God Mike, what's your deal?" Jessica seemed irritated, glaring at Mike from across the table. He was standing up and dry heaving, all color drained from his face. Suddenly, he gagged and covered his mouth, running towards the trashcan as the entire table held their laughter.
Edward leaned down and whispered in my ear, "Newton lied last week. He gets his teeth taken out tomorrow." I couldn't help but laugh. Poor Mike wouldn't have Edward there to take care of him.
Please excuse the lame ending, but shorts are hard to finish! This story has a few incidents borrowed from my memory, such as getting stuck with the IV five times! It also took me twice as long to heal. Please review!