A/N: You guys were rad on that last chapter. Edward is a little loopy on the pain meds. Just bear with him. Updates will be every 2-3 days.
So I have a load of betas to thank. Twike is the everbeta. Profmom makes my stories better by telling me where I'm dumb. Then Brighterthansunshine beta'd the stuff I wrote post twike's read. Yes it takes an army to fix my stuff.
One of my ff bffs won the Age of Edward Contest! Way to go Everwondering!!!
This chapter is dedicated to my other bffs Janeaustenlover and daisy. Maybe if I dedicate Edward's sponge bath to them they'll actually review.
Good Enough Chapter 2
The next time I woke up, the angel and Doogie Howser were standing on each side of my bed. The man I assumed to be my doctor looked to be in his early thirties and had spiky blonde hair. "Hello, Mr. Masen, I'm Dr. Newton." I didn't know why, but I felt an irrational wave of what could only be described as hatred toward my doctor. "We're going to remove those tubes now. When I say three, I need you to cough as hard as you can. Are you ready?" I just glared at him. He shrugged. "One…two…three." I coughed and doctor pulled the tubes from nose. It felt like he also pulled my stomach out with them, and my throat burned with pain.
My angel was there with a spoon holding it to my mouth. "Ice chips," she said. "It will soothe your throat."
I took the ice chips she fed me without breaking eye contact. Her eyes made the pain bearable. Dr. Newton came around to the other side of the bed and stood ridiculously close to her while he checked my bandages. He kept pointing to things on the table asking for her to hand them to him, but every time he did, his arm would brush hers and linger there too long. I noticed she rolled her eyes and sighed as she handed him clean gauze, scissors, and tape. Now at least I had a reason for hating him. I could barely remember speaking to her after my surgery, and I couldn't wait for Dr. Doolittle to get out so I could talk to her again.
"You took a shot in the chest near your pulmonary artery. There wasn't any serious damage there, but we'll need to watch you for infection," the doctor's grating voice finally caused me to move my gaze from the nurse. "You were shot twice in the abdomen, again just barely missing any vital organs. We did have to remove a piece of your small intestine, and you have a cracked bone in your hip. It is nothing we can cast, and you'll be able to walk fine. If you hit it or bump it though, it's going to hurt like hell," the doctor chuckled, and I silently plotted his death. "We'll do some blood work tomorrow to check for any infection and watch these wounds closely, but for now I think you should count on a recovery of two to three weeks here and then a month or so at home. That's the best I can estimate if all goes well. All in all you're pretty lucky for someone who was just shot three times."
"Isabella, I want you to finish dressing his wounds, and get him something to take care of those teeth. No offense, man, but your breath…" The doctor scrunched up his nose at me. "Do you have any questions?"
I just glared at him, and let out a low growl. "Hmm, he must still be in some sort of discomfort from the tubes. Why don't you get him more ice chips, Isabella."
"It's Bella," she replied flatly. "Bella or Nurse Swan."
Dr. Douche just winked at her and strolled out of the room.
"Here you go, Mr. Masen." Bella fed me more ice chips. I wondered why everyone kept calling me Masen.
"Edward. My name is Edward," I said, my voice still sounding gruff.
"Nice to meet you, Edward. I'm Bella. I'm going to be your nurse for the next few days. You're the only one on this floor, and they did background checks on Dr. Newton, me, another nurse, and an aid to be able to handle your care," she explained.
"You already told me."
Shock registered in her eyes. "You remember last night?" she asked.
"Well, part of it is a bit fuzzy, but I remember waking up and seeing you." Like I could ever forget her.
"Oh, well… um. I… uh. I guess I better..." she bit her bottom lip in the most adorable way.
"What's up with Doogie?" I asked. "It seemed like he made you uncomfortable."
Bella giggled at the name, rested her hand on my forearm, and I was in heaven. "Uncomfortable is an understatement. That little prick can't take a hint." I thought the forcefulness of the anger I was feeling might unnerve her a little since we hadn't declared ourselves yet. Instead I decided to try and investigate any obstacles that might be trying to stall fate.
"What about your boyfriend? Doesn't he care about the way that moron treats you?"
"No boyfriend – too busy." Bella shrugged. "He's hardly a moron – you know surgeon at such a young age and all. I guess he's not used to being told no."
I beamed at her; I couldn't help it. Bella was single, and I was already plotting in my head. As soon as I was released from this prison, I'd wine her and dine her. She would be treated like a princess, and everything she wanted would be hers. In about eight or nine months, I'd pop the question. Everything would be planned out meticulously, she'd say yes, and we'd spend the night making passionate love sealing our destinies together.
"Is there anything you need to make you more comfortable?" Bella asked. I was thrilled that she obviously cared so much for me, too.
"No, you've made me very comfortable," I smiled at her, trying to communicate the adoration I was feeling with my eyes.
She looked at me curiously and said, "Oh, um, okay then I just need to empty out your catheter once you're done with that little deposit."
I looked down and there was a stream of yellow liquid going down a tube from under my sheet to a bag hooked to the side of my bed. I felt my face burning. I'd just met the love of my life, and the first thing I did was take piss in front of her? This was a nightmare. At least it couldn't get any worse.
"Hopefully I'll be able to remove that thing tomorrow or the next day," Bella assured me.
I was wrong. It could get much worse. She planned to personally remove the pee tube. Great.
Before I could agonize over it too much, Whitlock and McCarty came bursting into the room. McCarty rushed over to my bed full of concern, while Whitlock stood back, arms crossed, looking less than pleased.
"Cullen, man, you look awful. Are you in pain?"
Wanting to milk his concern for all it was worth, I simply moaned and closed my eyes. When I opened them back up I noticed Bella standing off to the side smirking: she was onto me. I winked at her quickly and moaned again.
"Can I help you? How did you get in here? Mr. Masen isn't supposed to have any visitors."
"We are federal agents, and we need to speak with Mr. MASEN," Whitlock practically growled at her.
"I don't care who you are. He's in a great deal of pain and needs his rest," Bella challenged.
"Listen here little girl… are those Crocs you're wearing?" Whitlock looked at Bella's shoes in disgust.
Bella's mouth opened, closed, and opened again. Whitlock had successfully rendered her speechless.
"Enough guys," I grumbled. "Leave my amazing nurse alone."
"Oh, don't even get me started with you," Whitlock turned the attention to me. "I told you TO STAY IN THE CAR!"
"When have I ever been good at following directions?" I tried my best to look innocent and pitiful and like I was still on the verge of death.
"Give it a rest, Whitlock, if Eddie here hadn't decided to be our sacrificial lamb, we might never have caught the bastard. Now we've got him in custody on charges of assault with a deadly weapon, and you, buddy, are the star witness."
"You got him?" I asked with wide eyes. I hadn't even had a chance to think about what happened after I went down.
"Yeah, it was like we were in a movie or something. Whitlock and I caught up to him, just as he shot you. I told him to freeze, but Whitlock ran right up behind him and tackled him to the ground. I'm pretty sure he would have finished you off otherwise," McCarty explained.
"You've got James Darnell in custody? That's incredible! I mean you're welcome!"
"YOU'RE WELCOME! I saved your ass, and all you say is you're welcome! I thought you were dead! Do you know how awful that was? Thinking your best friend is dead? I hate you, Edward, I hate you!" Whitlock's voice started to shake and tears threatened to spill out.
"Come here, Alice," I reached my hand out to my best friend, and pulled her down to hug me. I held on to her for a minute, while she tried to compose herself. Finally I couldn't bear the pain anymore. "Um, Whitlock, that kind of… ow."
She realized she was leaning her weight on my shoulder and quickly jumped up, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I'm sorry. I was just so worried about you. How would we solve all our cases without our best behavioral analyst?"
"More like who would you drag shopping with you during lunch?" I teased and squeezed her hand.
"Glad you're okay, man," Emmett McCarty, who had been like a brother to me, nodded in my direction. I nodded back, knowing this was hard on all of us, not just me.
"Now, can we please get down to business?" Whitlock groaned.
"Hmmm mmm," Bella cleared her throat still standing there holding my bag-o-urine. "I need to give him more pain meds in a few minutes, which means he's going to fall asleep. I'll give you guys some privacy."
"You don't have to go!" I said quickly. I worried I would miss her if she left.
"I just need to get rid of this and pick up your medication," she smiled at me and her warmth washed over me. Alice looked at Bella looking at me and then looked at me smiling back at Bella and rolled her eyes. Bella left the room, and my eyes followed her out the door.
"Cullen," Alice whined, "not again."
"She's beautiful, isn't she?" I sighed.
"Let me guess," Emmett sat down in a chair across from my bed. "You think she's the one."
"She's the most beautiful creature you've ever seen, and you're already working on plans for your proposal," Alice added.
"Guys, this one's…"
"Different," they both finished my sentence for me.
It was true I did have a tendency to fall quick and hard for beautiful women. I usually fell out of love just as fast, after I tried to have a conversation with them, or I actually went out on a date with one. I couldn't help it. I'd always been a hopeless romantic. There was nothing I wanted more than to find the one that could make me whole. I was convinced that I was only half of what I should be, and the right woman would finally pull the pieces together. The problem was I couldn't seem to find her. I searched all the time, but the women I met never measured up to the ideal that I knew she would be - whoever she was. There was Mary, the beautiful brunette I met at the health food store. She seemed sweet, until we went out for coffee. She didn't stop talking about herself long enough to breathe. Then there was Kathryn. She actually competed in the pole vault at UW, and I thought that was interesting. At first I thought she was just shy, but my friends informed me she was really aloof. Alice couldn't stand her, so that was the end of that. Alice started calling her loofa, and the idea of dating a scratchy brown bath sponge became less and less appealing. A couple of months ago, I met Rosalie. She was every man's idea of beautiful, and I was planning our wedding before we even spoke. I quickly learned she was used to always getting her way, and that girl cussed like a sailor. She was completely wrong for me. I tried to let her down easy, but needless to say, it did not go over well.
"Cullen, you just need to focus on getting better right now and not on living happily ever after," Alice said.
"Hey, why does everyone keep calling me Masen?" I asked.
"We're trying to keep a low profile, so we put you under another name. We've spent too long trying to get something that will stick on James. You being able to testify that he shot you is the one thing we have that can finally put him away. I'm worried he knows that, and he'll use his connections to try and keep you quiet."
The idea that I was still in danger from James hadn't occurred to me until now. The realization was followed by panic, "What about my parents?" The way my body suddenly tensed made everything hurt more.
"We're taking precautions. Your mom and dad are staying with Jasper and me for now, and I'm not allowing you to have any visitors but McCarty and me. We've got James pretty isolated waiting for his trial, but I've underestimated him before, and I don't want to make that mistake again. I'm sure everything will be fine." Alice didn't sound very reassuring.
"Wait, my dad works here. Why can't he visit me?"
"We don't want traffic in and out of here, just to be safe. You can call your parents on a secure line – meaning a Bureau cell phone to Whitlock's house phone." Emmett shrugged.
"Edward, you've been profiling James Darnell for four years. You and I both know what he's capable of, but I'm not going to let anything happen to you," Alice vowed. I was genuinely touched until she added, "Your testimony is just too important to this case."
She was right, though. I knew exactly what kind of monster James Darnell was, and being in jail wouldn't stop him from ending my life. There had been many witnesses who had mysterious accidents or disappeared over the last four years. I wanted more than anything to see that bastard fry. Bella came back into the room, interrupting my thoughts. I wanted see Darnell fry almost more than anything. I wanted Bella more.
"I'm worried he's going to be in a considerable amount of pain if I don't give him his meds soon," Bella said. "Can you guys finish up your conversation after he wakes up?"
"Sure," Emmett smiled at her.
"Weenie," Alice mumbled. She winked at me and squeezed my hand again. "Cull- I mean, Mr. Masen, we'll be back again this evening to get your full statement and to see how your sorry ass is doing."
"See you guys later." Everything really was starting to hurt more.
Alice and Emmett left me, and all my attention turned back to my nurse. She was putting the medication into my IV, and I couldn't help but wonder if Alice was right. Would her charm wear off just quickly as all the others?
"I need to turn you before you sleep," she said. She made me feel like a rotisserie chicken. "I don't want you lying in the same position too long. It's not good for your circulation."
"Oh, okay," I agreed. She bit her lip like she was trying to figure out a strategy. Finally she went to the closet and pulled out several pillows. She lined them up on one side of the bed, and told me to try and roll the best I could onto my side. I did just that, and the strain was painful. I moaned, and she helped push my back up and stuffed the pillows under me so that I was propped up on my side. Just then I felt a slight breeze against my skin? Good lord, I wasn't wearing underwear? If they had to put me in a nightgown, at least they could spare a small shred of my dignity! My angel was probably staring at my ass! She pulled the sheet back over me, and when I could finally see her face again, she looked perfectly composed. I was sure my face was bright red.
"Are you comfortable?" she asked, brushing my hair off my forehead.
"Yep," I squeaked out.
She smiled and told me to push the button if I needed anything. "Just you," I whispered as I drifted off to sleep again.
A/N: I'm serious. Reviews are the reason I write this stuff. I love the immediate feedback. It's what I live for. They don't have to be long. They don't have to be eloquent. But they will make me oh so happy.
Oh yeah and if you didn't review the first chapter because the site was fail over the weekend, you are required to go back and do that too… or else!