Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or its characters, it all belongs to Stephenie Meyer, I'm just borrowing them.
Bella-POV
I woke up uncertainly, my eyes fluttering open painfully. I was immediately aware of how warm I was. I could feel the perspiration gathering on my sticky forehead.
I squirmed uncomfortably under the mass of blankets. I sucked in a quick breath slightly panicky. I knocked my legs out hoping to throw the unwanted layers off of my already sweltering form. As always luck shied away from my very presence meaning the action only succeeded in tangling and twisting myself further.
I groaned in frustration, the heat was too much.
"Bella?" my bloodshot eyes flew upwards greeting the anxious golden spheres that hovered ever protectively over me. "What's wrong?" he asked his eyebrows creasing together.
"I'm too hot," I huffed kicking my legs out once more in a desperate struggle "and I am a bit stuck." I gestured vaguely towards the pile of blankets winding around me.
He chuckled weakly then aptly unravelled me from my puzzle in a single tug. The action was lightning fast and the covers deftly flew out from under me causing me to spin quickly onto my side.
I squeezed my eyes tight shut as the nausea overcame me. I shuddered as a blast of cold air hit me as all the heat inside me seemed to burst into the surrounding air, rapidly leaving my body. I lay still for a moment trying to steady myself then slowly tried to roll onto my back, but I was disorientated and suddenly I realised I was rolling in the wrong direction.
"Bella!" A melodic voice shouted suddenly. The sound echoed in my ears, ringing loudly.
I felt myself slip off the side of the bed, a slow painful motion. I braced myself for the impact of the hard wooden floor.
I heard the air whistle quickly past my ears and I seemed to fly for a moment, and my brain somehow managed to recognise that firstly this wasn't possible but secondly and more importantly I was moving at way to fast a speed for my stomach to handle.
I opened my eyes slowly and became thoroughly confused when I found myself in Edward's arms on the other side of the room. I groaned again when the room around me began to spin involuntarily, Edward's faces swimming together his anxious words vibrating and bouncing off the walls of my head, not fully registering. No ounce of meaning or understanding made.
I closed my eyes tight shut trying to calm down, breathing in deeply through my nose, scrabbling to anchor myself in his stony arms.
This wasn't the best of ideas. His usually luscious scent was sickly sweet filling my nose and clouding my already tender mind, this combined with the sudden movement of my scrambling sent my body into a rapid decline. I felt the contents of my stomach roll around tauntingly and I groaned in despair as I proceeded to hurl over myself, splashing dangerously large amounts onto his pristine white shirt.
I shuddered in embarrassment and pain. Edward stayed frozen his eyes filled with fear as his thick heavy words drilled into my skull. I frowned trying to concentrate worried that he might be angry with me but I could feel myself slipping back into the nothingness, the never ending dark. My eyes rolled back and I fell swiftly into un-consciousness.
I dreamt of nothing. It was just black; I was floating though the never ending dark. It scared me. Not knowing what was out there, not knowing if there was anything out there. My heart raced as I searched manically through the darkness for something. Too scared to imagine a world constructed of nothing.
Then I realised that there was something because somehow even within the nothingness, I was still too hot.
I was melting burning in the non-existent chamber of my mind. It was my fever, the fever that had haunted me for 3 weeks now. It made me want to scream in frustration because it burned so much.
It scared me the most out of all my symptoms because I knew that when…if I was ever changed then the burning would be worse oh so much worse than what I was suffering from now and even when that was gone it would travel to my throat and I would burn just so I could live for ever.
I sighed into the black world as I told myself what I already knew.
He is the one and only reason that I would do this and I could not ever possibly live in any other way without him.
But yet I yearned for the fever to end. I wanted to be cool. I wanted to freeze for god damn sakes. I was tired and frustrated with this tormenting burning heat that never ceased, that never ended.
I felt tears brewing in my eyes as I continued to search into the black, dark expanse around me. I choked as I tried to cry but I couldn't for the only thing that existed in my mind, in this nothingness was the heat. It burned the tears before they could be created.
I stared into the dark and let it swallow me.
"Carlisle it's been 3 hours." An angel's voice murmured only just reaching my mind in this docile state. "Are you sure she's okay?" he whispered the pain immanent in his voice.
It was Edward. I relaxed slightly; I knew I was safe with Edward. I strained my ears; I could hear him pacing restlessly. I struggled against the heavy anchor of sleep that clouded my head.
"Edward, please." Another voice begged. I presumed this must be Carlisle. He sighed in the background. "Calm down son, there is nothing we can do but wait. She will come round in her own time." I heard Edward mutter something unintelligible.
Then I felt an ice cold hand grasp mine, rubbing it soothingly. The cold was good. I was so hot all the time. We had tried everything from ice baths to simply lying with one of them but nothing brought my temperature down. I whimpered nervously.
He stiffened beside me for a second, perhaps in reaction to me or another thought in the room, and then stroked my forehead. The cool hand against my sticky forehead was refreshing but still not enough and was it my imagination or was his hand shaking slightly?
"Alice!" he snapped restlessly. "Can you see anything yet? When is she going to wake up?" I struggled against the chains of slumber in defiance; I hated it when he talked to Alice like that. I tried to speak, an attempt to reprimand him but all that came out was a slurred murmur. I groaned in frustration disappointed at my lack of communication in this state.
Edward winced beside me his hands once more fluttering to my forehead desperately trying to cool me. He had taken my attempts at scolding him as a sign of pain.
"This is my fault. It is always my fault that she gets hurt." He whispered softly to himself miserably. "How could I have been so careless? She's so breakable, so weak." His voice broke in pain on the last word. I felt the covers pull taught beneath me. I would imagine his perfectly sculpted fist enclosing the pathetic white sheet in desperation.
"She will be fine Edward. All she needs is to fight off this fever." Carlisle soothed shuffling through some papers on my other side now.
Edward growled something under his breath too low for me to hear.
Carlisle paused. "She can do it." He sighed in expiration. "Edward, Bella will make it through this she is stronger than you think." Edward seemed calmed by this reassurance, stroking my forehead as lightly as he could manage furtively trying not to harm me.
Then his body straightened out as if he had been shocked with some form of electric current. An ear splitting howl encased with agony erupted beside me. I felt him shift his body protectively over me.
"What do you mean" he spat out. "What do you mean what if she doesn't…wake up?" he hissed the words.
"No, she has to wake up. She will wake up. It was my fault, I wasn't careful enough. She will wake up. She will wake up." He seemed to be more intent on convincing himself then stating facts. His voice gaining volume with each word
Carlisle continued to look though his papers as if tired by the on-going slaughter of Edward vs. Edward an ever constant battle, which I had reasonably concluded would never be won, at least not while I was still human.
I backtracked suddenly, had he said that this was his fault? What on earth had he done? Unless he had purposely contaminated me with this illness then I fail to see how he could pinpoint me being sick to his wrong doing.
The world around me was getting clearer. Pricks of light were piercing through the black.
"Alice!" Edward barked again, shocking my slow recovery into first gear. The light was blinding now for holes appearing in my dark mind. I tried to clear my throat, to tell them I was waking up. Instead it came out as an odd mewling sound. Edward's shaking hand gently squeezed mine. "For God's sake why can't you see anything?" he was shouting now "What's wrong with her?"
"Edward I don't know! Just shut up and sit down!" Alice cried out in indignation. Edward ignored her too. His mind was in full spin nothing would distract him now.
"Do you think it was me?" His voice dropped to a whisper so quickly I wondered if I had simply imagined his tortured shouts. "Oh Bella" he sighed softly. "My darling Bella, what's a matter with you?"
And with that last agonised sentence I was brought back from the dark. I felt the drowsiness seep away, but knowing too well that it would return soon enough. The fever of coarse still raged ever constant but I was faintly immune to it now. If I didn't concentrate on it for long enough then my mind would occasionally forget about my outrageous scorching temperature.
I opened my eyes slowly and whimpered "I don't know."
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