Title: Why Socks…
Summary: Edward is a vampire and Bella is still human. It is a couple months before she is going to be changed and she works as a Clinical Laboratory Scientist in a large hospital. She has a really bad day at work.
Pairing: Edward/Bella; Emmett
Rating: Teen/Mature
Word Count: 2170
Bella hugs Edward as she gets ready to leave for work.
"Edward, I am heading out to go to work. Are you going to talk to Emmett about leaving his socks in our hamper? I swear. It's really disgusting," Bella says as she leans up to Edward to give him a kiss before she walks out the front door.
"What's even worse is he doesn't even live with us. So how do his socks get here again?" Bella asks turning to open the front door as Edward walks out with her.
"That's a very good question. I will ask him to stop bringing his sock over and placing them in our hamper. I haven't been able to read his mind to see what his reason is."
Edward hugs her and then kisses her softly on her lips, "Be safe my love. I will see you when you get out of work."
"Love you!" Bella whispers as she kisses him back. They head out to her car, getting in she notices a sock underneath the driver's seat.
UGH. Emmett.
Rolling down the window, she throws the sock at Edward. "NOW they are in my car. WTF? Edward, YOU had better talk to him."
Snickering, Edward walks over and gingerly picks up the sock, "I will make him eat the sock just for you and have Alice take pictures."
"Thank you!" Bella huffs while pulling out of the driveway and starting her hour-long commute to work.
One hour later, Bella is finally pulling into the parking garage at Metro Memorial Hospital. Hoping there is a space on the third floor of the parking garage. Bella holds her breath. No dice, every spot on the third floor is taken, up to the fourth floor and those are all taken too. Up and up until she hits the seventh parking level. It is really odd that every space was taken, but Bella doesn't want to be late for work. So she grabs her sweater and heads into work.
Bella walks into the lab and snaps. "Ah, hell. It's Wednesday. That means that Mary went home early and it is my late day. Fuck it!" Bella sighs clearly fighting the urge to just turn right around and go home.
Bella clocks in, puts on her lab coat and walks into the laboratory. Sure enough, Mary went home early and left loads of work for second shift to catch up on.
"Bella," Jo called over to her, "Mandy called in tonight and Mary went home early today. It is just you and Katie tonight. I know you have to the parasite comprehensives, read the cultures and setup the Vitek. Just get done what you can get done and leave the rest for the morning shift."
"Are you sure? Won't Jane be pissed if we leave anything for Mary to do when she gets here in the morning? You know how much she loves to complain to Jane."
"I will be here before Jane is in the morning and I will take care of it. Just do what you can."
Looking at Katie and in silent communication having done this routine countless times Bella nods to her and they get started. Bella heads to the walk-in cooler to get started on the parasite comprehensives and the literal tubes of poop she had to use to get the testing done. Katie gets started on emptying the totes that Mary left from the 2 o'clock drop off.
After a couple of hours, Bella has finished comprehensives and has started reading the culture plates. The only thing that second shift was actually assigned to do today.
"Katie, how is the war going? Do you need help? I have a few minutes before I start the Vitek." Bella yelled before taking a quick pee break. Putting on her lab coat, she pulled a sock out of her pocket. Trying to figure out how it got there. Katie screamed and she dropped it.
"OH, MY GOODNESS! I can't believe she left this much work for us! I mean seriously this has to stop. I took pictures of what she left and I am taking to to HR and to Robert."
Heading over to the front of the lab where Katie was she saw that she was waging the war, but the current battle was definitely not won. "I can't believe she left this much work. I will start on the plating and then head over to the Vitek. Can you get the gram stains?"
"Yes, if you get the cultures then we will be caught up and there really isn't much left on the transit screen" Bella sat down and started to plate the 50 cultures that had shown up in the last 3 hours.
Finally, after two hours Bella finished the plating and started to set up the Vitek. She lifted the access door, placed the boat in the slot and pushed the start button.
Finally, after the Katie got her lunch Bella went to lunch. She went to get her lunch from the breakroom fridge and found a sock on the floor. Not wanting to get stuck on where all the socks were coming from, she just dropped it and pretended like she didn't see it. After a much too quick 30-minute lunch break, Bella dons her lab coat again and heads back to the trenches to help Katie with the next set of totes from the couriers.
Soon it is eleven o'clock and the other lab techs are heading home. Bella looks longingly at them thinking of her bed, shower, and food. Clocking out, Katie calls out, "You sure you will be fine by yourself? I can stay and help you with the next courier drop off."
"No, it's alright. I don't think that there's much left. And if there is I will just get Kahn to help me finish it all. It's part of his job anyway. Thanks though."
The couriers came and went leaving behind almost as much work as that Katie had to swamp through earlier in the day. Trudging through Bella finishes finally at 0145 AM. Nearly an hour past the end of her assigned shift.
"You're finally finished," Rosa asked from across the hall in the main lab. "Yes, finally. I swear that the other hospitals hold everything back for the very last run of totes. I mean we had more on this last one that in the last two. Anyway, I headed home. Take care, Rosa, and be safe tonight."
Clocking out Bella stopped and looked down the hallway to the left and then to the right. Not a soul in sight and an eerie silence abounded in the hall. Bella took a shortcut to the parking garage through the janitor's hallway. Entering the door that leads to the garage Bella looked up at the windows and saw falling rain. Noticing the temperature dropped a few degrees, Bella pulls her sweater tighter around her body.
Stepping two steps into the hallway Bella hears a "POP" and screams. Frighteningly, the lights burn brighter instead of dimming. Feeling slightly creeped out but still brave, Bella steps forward to the right turn that will lead her closer to her car. Her safe haven from the craziness of work.
Bella hesitates, closing her eyes for a second, realizing the air has a strange, almost evil feel to it. Stepping into the hallway another breaker box 100 feet away "POPS" again. Just 100 feet to the door, that leads to her car. Bella, steeling her spine, takes another step and swears she sees a something white. A sock?
Then the entire walkway grows dimmer and then "POP," "POP," "POP." All the lights down the walkway dim and then get brighter. One of them actually goes out completely and starts to shower a few sparks.
Hugging herself around the waist, Bella has her phone in one hand and her car fob in the other. Twenty feet into the walkway, Bella hears footsteps, but there is no one in the hall either direction. She speeds up and the footfalls are still bounding behind her.
Realizing that it could be he echo of her shoes off the windows that are in the sky bridge walkway Bella slows down. Trying to relax as her heart beats a crazy staccato.
Fifty feet closer to her car, Bella hears what sounds like some breathing behind her and still hears the footsteps. Not wanting to cry, Bella doesn't turn around.
Seventy-five steps in. Only twenty-five more to go to get to the garage elevator. Bella feels something gently pull the hair from her ponytail. She knows that she is the only one there in the hallway. She again refuses to turn around but tears well up in her eyes.
Finally, Bella reaches the garage and impatiently waits for the elevator to take her from the third floor to the seventh-floor parking floor.
Bella waits impatiently for the elevator that never comes. Curious and frustrated Bella looks around and sees the 'out of order' sign on the ground. Either someone had pulled the sign off the elevator or it had fallen off.
Swallowing loudly, Bella looks around the garage and decides that she had to take the trek up to the top.
Entering the actual garage, Bella starts out slowly. She puts one foot in front of her, climbs to the fourth floor, and then continues up to the fifth floor. It is still raining outside and the temperature dropped about 30 degrees from when she went into work 9 hours prior.
Sixth floor and Bella has no problems. She starts to relax just a bit. She is almost to her haven. Almost to her car.
The seventh floor comes into view and there is her car. Her lovely blue Porsche Cayenne. She presses the button and the lights come on. Pressing it a second time, the engine starts. She is hoping that the heat is on and not the air conditioner.
It's still raining, but there is no wind. No sounds. Just the sound of the falling rain. Ten steps. Ten steps until she is home free and safe in her car.
Then she hears it.
AHHHHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHH
The worst blood-curdling scream she has heard in her life. Bella starts to breakdown. The day is just getting to her and all of the creepy moments prior to this just catapult her to fall to her knees.
Falling to the ground, Bella sobs uncontrollably; just wanting to get into her car before the creature eats her or worse kills her.
Bella gets up and sprints to her car; hastily she gets in and puts the car into reverse. Glancing in the rearview mirror, she sees nothing. There is nothing on the seventh floor except her and her car. The rain is making little noise.
Looking in her rearview mirror, as she is crying, snot running down her nose, she sees the stairwell door open and sees red eyes staring back at her.
There is no explanation for the scream she just heard, but she doesn't stay around to find out what it could be. Bella puts the gas to the floor and drives down the parking garage at breakneck speeds.
Finally, she gets home and runs to the shower. She turns it on and tries to get warm.
BEEP BEEP BEEP
Bella wakes up gasping and tries to scream. She is frightened by her dream. She knows she had to work late this evening and won't get off until 1 AM. She quickly promises herself that she will not walk to her car by herself this evening at all.
Rolling over to hug the body next to her. She nuzzles her face into the chest. Looking up she sees the eyes from her dream. The ones looking back at her from the stairwell in her dream.
Pushing away from the body from her bed. Bella screams. Edward comes running out of the shower-soapy and naked. Asking her what is wrong. He looks where her finger is pointing and sees a mannequin with the creepy eyes and smiling face. The same mannequin Emmett brought home from the fair. He had snuck it in while Edward was in the shower.
Edward screams, "Emmett, I'm gonna let her dismember you!" Emmett laughs and quickly runs out of the house. Quickly, Edward finishes his shower (at vampire speed), gets dressed, and comforts Bella all within a few seconds. He continues to threaten Emmett under his breath.
"Shhhh, Bella. Shhh," Edward says as he climbs into the bed to comfort Bella. His arms go aroundher and he pulls her close. "I was so scared Edward. It was horrible. The eyes! The eyes! They were so evil looking. I am not sure I can go back." Bella said through her tears and shuddering hiccups.
"You don't have to sweet girl. We can move up your change and just tell them that the family has an emergency out of town." Edward said as he tried to get her to calm down. "Just go to sleep. It will all be better in the morning. I promise. We will go to the HR department and tell them your time is up." Nodding in agreement, "Alright," Bella said as she sleepily drifted off while Edward was still holding her.
Edward kisses Bella's forehead. Closing his eyes, he leans back, and starts to think of the possible ways he can get back at Emmett for pulling the stunts he has on Bella. Startled, he sits up looks around the room to see what could have disrupted his concentration. Seeing nothing, he closes his eyes again.
As he closes his eyes, he realizes the mannequin is gone from the room. He knows that no one took it and it couldn't have moved on its own. This time he just opens his eyes barely opens his eyes and looks around the room. Above and outside the window there are two red eyes looking down on Edward and Bella. A small silent laugh is heard by Edward and he turns quickly to look up and out the window. The red eyes are gone; the mannequin is hanging from a noose and beating itself against the house. The mannequin's eyes are gouged out as it stares unseeing into the room with a sock stuffed into it's mouth.