A/N: Thank you to everyone who took the time to read and review/fav/follow! I appreciate it so much. So, everyone seems to have questions. We may get a few answers in this chapter.

As always, I don't own Twilight, Stephenie Meyer does.

EPOV

I was a deer caught in the headlights, unable to look away from her beautiful eyes but too scared to fucking move.

"Who are you?" she whimpered, her anxiety escalating as the unmistakable scent of sheer terror filled the small space. Her eyes continued to dart around the room as her once slow and methodical breathing turned into shallow gulps of air. She was a few moments away from a full blown panic attack. I would know.

"Hey, hey…okay. Please calm down," I pleaded. "Give me just a few minutes and I will explain everything."

"Are you here to hurt me?"

Confused as to her question, I tried to make myself seem as nonthreatening as possible. "I promise I'm not here to hurt you. I found you last night on my way home from work," I explained. "My uncle is a doctor here, so I brought you in."

She seemed to relax a bit at my explanation, sinking back against the flattened pillows and picking at the threads of the worn blanket covering her legs. She shifted her weight slightly, groaning in pain as the movement jarred her injured ankle. "Where's here, exactly?" she asked in a whisper.

"Cedar-Sinai Medical Center," I replied. "My name is Edward Cullen, by the way. And you are?"

"No one that matters…" she mumbled, under her breath. Maybe she hoped I hadn't heard her or maybe she just didn't care either way. But I did hear her…and it ripped my heart in two.

"Everyone matters," I whispered, the heavy lump in my throat choking me as I thought back to a day three years ago when I pondered the reason behind my own existence in this very same hospital.

"Bella…just Bella," she answered, her eyes downcast as she spoke.

"Do you know who did this to you, Bella?" She shrugged her shoulders. "Do you have any family my uncle should call?"

"No…no family. I have no one. They're all gone." Big fat tears fell from her eyes and onto the blanket, her breath hitching every so often.

"How old are you? Where do you live?" Carlisle barked from the doorway as I had failed to notice his arrival.

"Twenty one and I don't live anywhere. Are you his uncle?" she responded meekly as she turned her head to look at Carlisle.

"You're homeless?" Carlisle asked, his tone laced with reproach as he completely ignored her question.

"Carlisle!" I admonished as I glared at him. His condescending attitude would get us nowhere with this girl. "Can I speak to you a moment in the hall?" Without giving him a chance to answer, I rose from the recliner and strode across the room. Grabbing Carlisle's arm, I dragged him out into the hallway and down a few feet from the door. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" he spat. "I'm trying to protect you! I can see it already. You're getting sucked in by that sob story. You don't know that girl!"

My heart stuttered at the look on my uncle's face. The compassion that once resided in his eyes was no more, filled now with emptiness and abhorrence. I ran my hand through my hair, pulling at the roots in frustration. "When did you become so heartless, Carlisle?"

"You know when," he spat, looking at me with disdain.

I nodded solemnly and lowered my gaze to the floor. "Yeah, I suppose I do." Looking back toward Bella's door, a hollow ache took up residence inside my chest. I'd once been where she was now. Maybe I could help her. "How long will she need to be here?"

"Oh good grief, you've already made up your mind," Carlisle sighed, shaking his head in disgust. "Your father would be so disappointed-"

"Don't!" I hissed through my teeth. "Don't you dare bring my father into this. I can see it was a mistake to come to you. A mistake I don't plan to repeat. Just tell me when she will be released and I will take care of the rest. You can go back to pretending I don't exist."

His eyes softened for the briefest of moments, a flicker of emotion passing through them, but before I could grasp it, it was gone again. Replaced by the hardened gaze to which I had grown accustomed. "I'll keep her until tomorrow morning for observation and then she's all yours." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a specimen cup. "You promised. You can leave it in my office as I'm sure you'll need to use the phone," he stated before striding away from me to return to his rounds.

I breathed deeply through my nose, trying to calm my nerves before heading back to address the issue with Bella. As I rounded the doorway into her room, I found her lying on the bed, curled into a fetal position with her back facing away from me and the blanket pulled almost completely over her head. Her soft sniffles floated through the air, carrying with them a weight that sat heavy in my chest.

"Bella?"

"What will your uncle make me do?" she whispered in between her broken sobs.

"I'm not sure I understand," I answered, completely perplexed by her question as I stepped around the foot of the bed and back toward the recliner in the corner. "Why would he make you do anything?"

Her blotchy face peeked out from an opening in the blanket as her hazel eyes sought me out. "I'm homeless. I have no family…no friends…no job. Now I have what I'm sure is going to be a whopper hospital bill with no money to pay it. So what is your uncle going to take as payment?"

The meaning behind her words hit me like a ton of bricks. She thought she would have to offer services to pay her hospital bill. Fuck…what had happened to this girl? I slid the recliner toward the side of her bed so that I could sit and be close to her as well. I was dog fucking tired and still had one hell of a trek home to make when I left here.

I leaned forward a bit in the chair so that I could see Bella's eyes clearly. "It doesn't work that way. No one expects…that…of you. The hospital will bill you, but my aunt works in the Financial Services department. I'll talk to her for you."

"How long will I be here?" she asked meekly.

"Carlisle is going to release you tomorrow." Her eyes welled up with tears and her tiny frame began to quake. "Wait, Bella, please calm down. I know you don't know me, but it seems like you could use a friend. Do you not have anywhere you can go? Anyone you can call?"

She shook her head slightly as her quiet sniffles returned. "No. No one," she whispered through the barrier of white woven threads.

I hung my head as her hopeless cries rung in my ears. I very well could regret this later, but something in her eyes spoke to me. Maybe it was kismet…or maybe I had just been up for going on twenty nine hours.

"I am sure that Carlisle will be back by in a little while to address your injuries and aftercare instructions, but I can give you the cliff notes version," I began, knowing that this information could very well break her. "Your ankle was badly broken and they had to place a pin in it to stabilize the joint. You won't be able to walk on it for at least eight weeks. Your wrist was also fractured, so while you'll be given crutches for the ankle, you won't be able to use them because you can't put pressure on that wrist."

She seemed to sink further into her cocoon of blanket, perhaps hoping to disappear altogether. "I know that things seem bad, but maybe I can help you-"

"How can I trust you? I don't know you," she whispered. "How do I know you don't want to hurt me?"

My ire flared at having my intentions brought into question. "If I wanted to hurt you, I could have done so last night, when I found you naked and drugged out of your mind with a needle in your arm." I instantly regretted my quick temper, tramping it down, reminding myself that this poor girl really didn't know me. And here I was asking her to take a blind leap of faith. I was an idiot.

"What did you say?"

Her face drained of all color and her lips trembled. Oh, fuck. She didn't know. I was really walking on thin ice here. "Bella-"

"I was naked?"

I simply nodded instead of offering a long-winded explanation.

"And t-there was a n-needle in my arm?" Again, I nodded as she dissolved into hysterics. "W-what was in t-the needle?"

"Heroin," I whispered. I watched horrified as her face fell even further. This girl was no fucking drug addict. "I take it you didn't inject yourself?"

She shook her head violently as the alarm on her heart rate monitor began to beep loudly.

I leapt from my seat and sat on the foot of her bed, placing my hand on her back above the blanket. "Bella, you're having a panic attack. I need you to calm down," I pleaded. If I couldn't get her breathing under control, she would pass out for sure.

Carlisle stormed into the room with a nurse hot on his heels. "What the fuck happened?"

I jumped off the bed with my hands raised in the air in surrender, watching helplessly as Bella gasped for air. "Fuck, Carlisle…she's having a panic attack. Please help her-"

"Move!" he shouted, pushing me out of the way and barking a med order to the nurse. She returned in less than fifteen seconds with a syringe in hand. Carlisle grabbed the syringe and pushed it into Bella's arm, depressing the plunger quickly and stepping away.

It took several long moments, but Bella's breathing finally slowed and her heart rate returned to normal as her eyes fluttered shut and she drifted off to sleep.

I glanced over at Carlisle and nodded my thanks. "What was in that syringe?" I asked him, hoping that she wouldn't have any lasting effects from the drugs.

"Don't worry," he sighed, running his hand through his unruly blond hair. "It's just a mild tranquilizer. Nothing that would conflict with the heroin still left over in her system." He looked at me hesitantly and opened his mouth a few times as if to say something but then changed his mind. With a quick nod of his head, he dismissed his nurse and gently closed the door behind her before turning back to me.

"What? What is it?" I asked, slightly perturbed at his reluctance.

"I really shouldn't be telling you this, but I got back the results of her hair follicle testing-"

"And?"

Carlisle looked toward the bed at a sleeping Bella, his eyes glazed with remorse as he answered. "The tests show that she hasn't used any type of illegal substance in at least ninety days."

"Well that explains the freak out," I mumbled. "Whoever did this to her…they must have beat her unconscious first. She had no idea that she was found naked or that she had drugs in her system." I plopped back down in the recliner with my head in my hands.

"I'm sorry I jumped to conclusions," Carlisle muttered with his hands shoved into his lab coat pockets. "Look, she's going to be out cold for a while. Why don't you go up and see Esme? I told her you were here, but she doesn't want to approach you if you don't want to see her."

"I harbor no ill feelings toward Esme-"

Carlisle snorted in irritation. "No…just toward me."

My lack of reply was answer enough. We shifted around each other uneasily before I finally broke the silence. "Well, I've got to take a piss," picking up my specimen cup from the table and heading toward the door. "I'll stop by Esme's office after I hit the payphones-"

"Edward, please don't call Marcus collect…just use the phone in my office," he mumbled before shuffling toward the door and out of Bella's room.

I leaned down toward Bella's sleeping form and whispered, "I'll be back soon." Shutting her door behind me, I quickly made my way to the bathroom to take care of business before heading straight to Carlisle's office. I strolled around to the chair sitting behind his desk and plopped down, sinking into the leather cushions. My eyes roamed across the top of his desk before settling on a half-eaten sandwich sitting on a paper napkin next to some charts Carlisle was working on. I tossed my now full specimen cup right up next to his sandwich. Call me juvenile, but I may have even made sure they were touching.

My thoughts turned to Bella as I picked up Carlisle's desk phone and dialed a number I seldom used but would never forget. Fucker picked up on the first ring.

"Carlisle, is everything alright?" a wheezing voice called out from the receiver.

"Jesus, Marcus…did I interrupt your morning tryst with your receptionist?" I snickered.

"Ah Edward…always a pleasure," Marcus chuckled. "I see you're calling from the hospital. Are you alright, son?"

I sighed wearily and leaned my forehead onto the desk. "I wasn't aware that you and Carlisle kept such close contact that you would recognize this number."

"He and your aunt are the only people I know at Cedar-Sinai, Edward," Marcus quipped. "But we do keep in contact…for your sake."

"I'm a grown man, Marcus," I huffed already highly agitated at the direction this conversation was headed. "I don't need you or my uncle looking after me."

"That remains to be seen, Edward," he responded in a clipped tone. "Now as I'm sure this isn't a social call…what can I do for you?"

I sighed, contemplating the best way to go about this. "I brought a girl into the hospital tonight. She'd been attacked. She's homeless and has sustained significant injuries-"

"And you want to help her…yes?"

"Yes." I waited with bated breath while Marcus chewed over my request.

"You know I've always respected you and your opinions," he paused briefly, "but the other two tenants have only been there for a little under a year. Do you really think adding another is wise?"

I closed my eyes and breathed steadily through my nose, trying to keep from blurting the first thing that came to mind. After a long moment, I finally whispered, "Please just come speak with her, Marcus."

"Fine," he huffed. "I'll be there at noon. I assume you will still be there as well?"

"Yeah, she's in room 406. I just need to call Emmett and get him to cover my shift at the bar."

"Then I will see you both at noon," he stated, his old swivel chair squeaking in the background. "Edward…one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"I got a call from Peter today," Marcus announced jovially. "He's graduating college next month…and he's engage to be married. Just thought you'd want to know." My mind wandered back to a dark time filled with long shadows, needles and pain, sleepless nights and the pungent smell of chemicals. Shaking my head briskly to clear away those dangerous thoughts, I smiled at the thought of Peter being happy. Good for him.

"Thanks for telling me," I sighed. "I'll see you at noon." I disconnected the call and quickly dialed the number to the house, praying to any deity that would listen that Emmett would answer instead of Rosalie. The gods obviously ignored my plea.

"Hello?" Rosalie chirped.

"Hey Rose, can I talk to Em for a minute?" I beseeched in a sugar sweet voice.

"Are you fucking serious with this shit, Edward? You'd better be dead, asshole," Rosalie screeched in my ear. "Emmett's been worried sick about you. We didn't know who to call when you never made it home-"

"Rose! I don't have time for this!" I gritted through my teeth. "Something did happen last night, but I'm fine. I'm sorry I couldn't get word to the two of you any sooner. I just need you to tell Emmett to cover my shift at the bar tonight. I'll explain everything else later."

"Dammit, Edward, I'm not your fucking receptionist-"

"Rosalie, I swear to all that is holy…" I grumbled, squeezing my eyes shut and pinching the bridge of my nose.

"Fine, Edward! Anything else, sir?"

"Yeah, actually, there is. I spoke to Marcus today." Rosalie went completely silent on the other end of the phone. For some reason she had a healthy fear of the old man. "We may be getting a new tenant tomorrow."

"Oh…okay," Rosalie whispered. I could tell she was already contemplating the type of person that may be arriving and how we would handle the situation. "Marcus said this person was okay?" The fear in her voice reminded me that not all of our tenants had been…kind.

"He's meeting with the girl today. If he says she's approved, then she'll move into the room next to mine." Bella would need a lot of help getting around for the next several weeks, so I wanted her as close as possible.

"She? It's a girl this time?" Rosalie asked, her interest piqued.

"Yeah, her name's Bella," I sighed wistfully. "Listen, Rosalie…I really need to go. So please just have Emmett work my shift and I'll explain everything else tomorrow."

"Alright, Edward…just be safe," Rosalie whispered before hanging up.

I rubbed my eyes and stared at Carlisle's couch a little too longingly to be appropriate. I slowly stood and made my way out of Carlisle's office, heading back to Bella's room. I could just sleep in the recliner until she woke up. Besides, I needed a little cat nap if I was going to be refreshed enough to meet with Marcus at noon. Plus I really did need to see Esme.

This day was shaping up to be a real bitch.