Good intentions pave the way to hell
Summary: New Moon AU. Edward never came back. What happens when Bella ends up in hospital a year later...but she's a different creature to when they left?
AN: Twilight is copyrighted to the fabulous Stephenie Meyer, a genius of our time. No copyright infringement intended. I just want to play with the characters because I can never get enough.
Good intentions pave the way to hell.
Chapter 1: Patient
Edward POV
I was curled up in a ball wishing the pain would just kill me and put an end to it. I had been in this position for a year now; ever since I left her. My family had tried their best to get me moving, get me living again, but it was no use. Every cell of my being ached with a raw need to go back to her. I spent my time remembering; every second I was with her played out in my mind, and I held myself back. I never moved. Like another piece of furniture, my family carried me from home to home so that I was with them, but I never moved.
Until I heard what Carlisle was thinking.
Can't let Edward know...She's so frail...wonder if she'll survive the night?
His thoughts were fragmented, but interspersed between each one was an image. An image of Bella, my Bella, curled up in a hospital bed.
I was running downstairs before my head could give my legs the instruction. Charging straight into the living room, I found Carlisle sat beside Esme on the love seat. My whole family were sat watching a movie, or, at least, they had been. Now, they were wide eyed and open mouthed as they gaped at me in shock.
"What happened? What's wrong with Bella?" My voice was a lifeless croak as I demanded my answers from Carlisle. At my words the family gasped and turned to my father for an explanation. They loved her, too.
Running his hand through his hair, he looked up at me with pity shinning in his gentle eyes. He seemed so old all of a sudden. "That's the problem, son. We don't know what's wrong with her. She was found lying unconscious in the street and brought straight to me. I've done every test I know of, and aside from poor nutrition and her obvious lack on consciousness, I can find nothing. I don't know how to help her." The grief in his voice was echoed in his thoughts and it stabbed at my heart. It was bad enough that the woman I loved was lying in a hospital bed; but to have my father feeling so helpless as he failed to treat his lost daughter was too much.
"I need to see her." It wasn't a request and the look he gave me scared me more than anything.
"I know, but you have to be prepared, Edward. We don't know what's wrong...we might lose her." Again a chorus of gasps circled the room. I remained silent. Out of my peripheral vision I saw both Alice and Esme sobbing silently, dry heaves wracking their small bodies.
"I need to see her," I repeated a little more forcefully.
"We all do," Emmett added with unwavering defiance. "We all need to be with her. We're her family."
At his words, I noticed Carlisle flinch. It was such a minor movement that a human wouldn't have noticed it, but we all did.
"Carlisle?" Esme's soft question was heartbreaking. She didn't understand his reaction. None of us did. Even Rosalie considered Bella a part of the family now. It had only taken a couple of weeks, once she had seen what I became without her.
Carlisle turned so he was addressing the whole family now and not just me. "Naturally, as soon as Bella was admitted to the hospital they started doing checks on family to find out about insurance and who to notify. I gave them all the information they would need so it was quite easy to track everything down..." He paused taking a deep, unnecessary, breath as if for courage. In his mind he was reading an old medical journal to block me out. "Both Charlie and Renee are dead. Bella is all alone in the world and she has been for nine months. Charlie was supposedly killed in a hit and run a day before Renee was in a car accident with her husband. It is reported that Bella went missing for a month or so..." Silence. The room was plunged into total silence as we all tried to comprehend what he was saying.
"My poor baby girl," Esme cried.
"What have we done?" Jasper gasped as he tried to comfort a shaking Alice.
Hollow. I felt hollow. I didn't know what to do, or what to think. So much blame must be laid at my door, but with my fears so high for Bella's survival I was unable to feel the guilt I knew I deserved.
"We all need to go to the hospital," Rosalie began. "She may hate us, but we can't let her go through this alone. Let's go."
Unable to utter a reply in the growing mess of our emotions, we silently followed Rosalie out to the cars. We were going to see Bella. I just prayed to God that we weren't too late.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
We were half way along the deserted corridor when the screaming began.
"NO! Please, don't! No more, please, please." In the blink of an eye we were all crowded in Bella's private room. She writhed on the bed as she begged through screams and sobs for her imaginary tormentors to stop. Looking at her, she was just as beautiful as before. The heart monitor began to go wild before all that could be heard was one continuous note.
"Her heart has stopped!" Carlisle cried, beginning CPR in the same second.
Standing still as statues, we watched helplessly. I felt as if the world was caving in upon itself. An unneeded breath caught in my lungs, with it the sweetest scent in the world.
"It's no use, "Carlisle moaned. The heart monitor droned on, signalling my decent to hell. "Help me!"
Immediately I was at Carlisle's side. We placed pads on her chest, her skin even paler than before. Her body so thin I could see her bones.
"Clear!" I looked on in horror as Carlisle charged the resuscitation panels and pumped electricity into my angel. Her body shuddered and the heart monitor droned on. I could hear Esme and Alice weeping, but my eyes remained fixed on the still face of my love.
Nothing happened.
"Clear!" She shuddered and the heart monitor droned on. Nothing happened. The thoughts of my family had deteriorated into one pleading chant for god to save her.
"Clear!"
Fifteen times he tried. Nothing happened. The heart monitor droned on.
Forty five minutes after her heart stopped Carlisle looked up at me. I knew what he was going to say even though his thoughts were blank. After fifteen minutes there is a high risk of brain damage; after thirty there is no real chance of recovery. I knew this, but still my mind clung to that small thread of hope.
"I'm sorry, Edward. There is nothing more I can do. She's gone, son." I felt his heavy hand on my shoulder. "Time of death is twenty three minutes past six." He took the pads off her and began to pack away the defibrillator.
"NO!" Alice screamed before burring herself in Jasper's chest.
"She can't be gone," Emmett whispered in disbelief. He sounded so lost, like a little child. Rosalie wrapped her arms around him and they sobbed together. Esme ran into Carlisle's embrace.
For one long moment I looked down at the bed where Bella lay and then my knees gave out. I collapsed to the floor with a crack and buried my face into the bed. My cheat felt like it was going to implode from the pain as my body shook uncontrollably with tearless sobs.
"Please," I begged. "Baby, please come back to me. I don't want to live without you, please."
The endless tone of the heart monitor droned on...before resuming a steady beat.
Gasping for breath, Bella bolted up like a jack in the box and looked around. "Oh!" She gasped surprised. She gracefully fell back into her pillows and swiped a hand over her face.
"Bella?" Everyone gasped in unison. Her eyes were closed, but her voice was strong and sure.
"How long was I out? What day is it?"
"Thursday," Jasper replied; everyone else was still too frozen in shock by the miracle before us.
"Crap! I've been gone three days!" Her eyes remained closed but she held her hand out as if she were reaching for something. Amazingly, the cell phone that had been lying on the bedside table floated up and landed in her outstretched palm. She flipped it open with her thumb and brought it to her ear, all without opening her eyes once.
"Caleb?" her voice was soft and full of concern.
"Bella? Where are you?" The male voice on the other end of the phone held a British accent and sounded frantic.
"In hospital," Bella sounded apologetic.
"WHAT?" The shrill cry of alarm made Bella wince. I felt a pang of jealousy. Who was Caleb?
"I'm fine, nothing serious. I'll meet you at club six tonight. Be there at nine." She snapped the phone shut before he could respond and placed it back on the bedside table. Still, her eyes remained closed. We were frozen in place.
"Bella?" Carlisle's concerned voice broke the silence.
She didn't move straight away and it was clear that she was reluctant to face us. Her breathing was steady and her heartbeat strong. I waited, almost lost in a tangled web of emotion. I was so elated that she was alive; against all the odds. But, the guilt had begun to invade my heart. I was afraid.
"Yes, Carlisle?" She asked a little petulantly. Her eyes snapped open to glare at us in annoyance. My family were mentally apologising- especially Jasper.
"Bella, honey, your heart was dead for forty five minutes...you died. I'm afraid you can't go anywhere just yet. I need to do some tests." His voice remained calm and soothing.
For a whole minute, that's sixty agonising seconds, there was silence. Like a vampire, she was utterly motionless. We waited anxiously for her to react, but none of us expected what happened.
She glared at us, her eyes burning with hatred before she broke down into a fit of maniacal laughter. She chuckled so hard that tears sprang to her eyes. Holding her had up in the universal 'wait' gesture; she tried to get herself back under control.
"I'm sorry," she gasped through the giggles, although it was insincere.
"It's not funny, Bella!" Alice finally snapped. She didn't understand why her friend would find her own death so funny. Neither did I, for that matter.
"Oh yes it is!" Bella laughed before going still. Her eyes snapped to meet mine. I was caught in her fiery gaze, mesmerised and terrified. "First, you are supposed to stay away from me- as if you never existed, isn't that right, Edward?"
"Edward!" Esme squeaked in horror while my siblings starred bloody murder at me.
"That's messed up, bro!" Emmett boomed.
"Second, you think dying is such a big deal," she continued as if no one had commented. "I do it frequently. But, the real funny part is you actually think you can stop me from doing whatever I want. I guess I forgot just how arrogant vampires can be."
"What happened to you?" Alice cried, hurt by the hostility Bella was exuding.
A sly look crossed Bella's face before she jumped from the bed and stalked towards Carlisle. There was no other way to describe it. She moved like a vampire, fast and prowling. Emmett and Jasper jumped to flank our father, but Bella merely waved her hand and giggled. "No, you'll stay over there until I leave."
I felt every muscle in my body freeze at her command. I couldn't move. The others seemed to be in the same predicament from the snarls and gasps I heard.
"Carlisle, Bella Swan is dead. You saw them take her body to the morgue." Her eyes held Carlisle's in place.
"Bella Swan is dead. I saw them take her body to the morgue," Carlisle repeated in a dead tone.
"Wonderful!" She patted Carlisle on the cheek patronisingly, as you would a child. Turning on her heal, she plodded out of the room with a spring in her step. "See ya!" She called over her shoulder. I could hear her heartbeat, its steady rhythm familiar, until she reached the elevator and it vanished. It was in that precise moment that the spell was lifted and I could move once more.
"What the fuck?" Emmett yelled.
"What is she?" Jasper was now caught between his guilt and his longing to protect his mate from the unknown.
"What happened to my poor baby?" Esme cried, clutching Carlisle's shirt as she did so.
Before we could discuss this any further a nurse came barrelling in the room. She looked frantically at the empty bed before turning and noticing Carlisle, her face relaxed.
"Oh, Dr Cullen. What happened to Miss Swan?" Her question caused all the concern and pain to leave Carlisle's expression. He became a blank mask of indifference.
"Bella Swan is dead. I saw them take her body to the morgue," he chanted the words.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I know you knew her. I'll finish my rounds." She dashed out of the room seemingly afraid she was interrupting a moment of shared grief.
"You do know Bella isn't dead, right?" Rose asked Carlisle with venom in her thoughts. The problem was she didn't know who to blame. I was taking a lot of it.
"I know, but she seems to have made it so I have to respond to my colleagues in her desired fashion. What are we going to do? That girl is very much in danger. I have no doubt whatever caused her attack will occur again. I don't think miracles happen twice."
"This is Bella we're talking about!"
"Rosalie!" Alice and Esme scolded.
"I think we should follow her. We know where she'll be. I say let's crash the party." Emmett was all too eager to crash in on Bella. His mind was filled with images of her dancing at a club. I had to hold back a growl.
"She didn't seem to want to see us," Jasper pointed out. He cast me a glare.
What did you say to her? I ignored his thoughts.
"I wonder why?" Alice was now glaring at me, too. "What the hell did you say to her, Edward? As if we never existed? I thought you explained everything to her!"
