A/N: Thanks for the reviews! They are much appreciated. I noticed that there was confusion about why Bella was so hurt by Edward. Just to clear things up, she was referring to when he left her in New Moon. Hope that helps!
"Nice of you to show your faces here now that you've had your beauty sleep." I could feel the fire in my eyes as I approached my friends. I loved them all dearly, and they had become my family over the past four years, but at that moment I was pissed. All four of them, Sarah, Dillon, Brent, and Luna, looked properly scolded as I stood in front of them.
"I'm sorry you've been here alone, Bella," Sarah started, "we didn't even know exactly what had happened until Dan's brother sent us that text this morning." The others nodded their heads in agreement.
"That's not even what I'm upset about!" I took a deep breath, reminding myself to keep my voice down. "I cannot believe that in the five minutes I was gone to use the bathroom you guys couldn't keep an eye on each other. You shouldn't have been drunk enough that letting Dan get in the car with his drunk ex-boyfriend sounded like an okay idea." I shook my head at their shocked expressions. I could tell Brent wanted to argue, but Dillon spoke up before he could.
"You're right, B." He stepped forward to give me a hug. I was hesitant, but let him put his arms around me. "We should be looking out for each other and we didn't do that last night."
I buried my head in his shoulder, feeling the first real comfort since the whole ordeal started. I knew if I looked up from Dillon's hug that I would see Brent rolling his eyes and acting defensive, Luna crying, and Sarah comforting her, but I decided to stay right where I was as long as Dillon would let me.
Dillon had been my rock since I left Forks, and Jake, to go to college. Jake imprinted just a year after I moved to Maine. I was ridiculously happy for him, but that meant that our phone calls were few and far between. Danny was my best friend, but serious talks were not in our normal activity regimine. Obviously I couldn't tell him everything about my past, but he did know about my first love that left me out of the blue and turned me into a zombie for over a year. I wished desperately that I could pull him aside and tell him that I had run into him and his family at this hospital, of all places, in fucking Augusta, Maine.
"Alright," I stepped back and shifted the backpack further up on my shoulder. "I'm going to go change and get cleaned up. Dan's in room 137." I kept my eyes down and hurried to the bathroom, not ready to see the look on my friends' faces after chewing them out.
I unzipped the backpack to find a pair of black leggings and a gray sweatshirt, underwear, white converse, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a hair brush, and deodorant. I could have kissed Alice right then regardless of how upset with her I was. I took my time brushing out my long hair and freshening up, knowing that it might be the closest thing to a shower I was going to get for a few days. We had rented a hotel room for the night in town instead of worrying about riding for hours in the car back to our college town, and I wasn't about to leave Danny in the hospital by himself.
I walked out of the bathroom with my old clothes in the backpack and began the walk back to Dan's room. I was trying to decide how angry I was with my friends when I saw my boyfriend at the check-in desk. If seeing him here wasn't surprising enough, my mouth nearly dropped open when I noticed that he was speaking to Edward.
"Hey, what's up?" I asked as soon as I was a few feet away from the pair. I was slightly out of breath since I rushed to interrupt their conversation.
"Hey, there she is!" Ryan smiled at me and leaned in to drop a kiss on my lips. I was fighting the urge to look at Edward's face, but it was clearly ridiculous to think that he would show any emotion about it, so I resisted.
"What are you doing here? I thought you worked all weekend." I wrapped my arm around his waist in greeting. He was carrying two coffee cups in his hands, and giving him a real hug would more than likely cause me to spill at least one of them.
"I was supposed to, but I got today covered. I heard what happened and thought you could probably use this." He handed me one of the drinks. I brought it to my nose and smelled the familiar spice of a chai latte.
"You're the best, this is exactly what I needed!" I gave him a quick kiss and turned toward Daniel's room. Edward was nowhere to be seen, and joining the rest of our group would only cause an overly crowded space. "Come on let's take a walk."
We walked outside the automatic doors hand-in-hand. The silence was comfortable and welcomed as I sipped my drink. I always appreciated Ryan for the fact that we didn't have to talk all the time. I met him two years ago and we started dating pretty soon after. At first, I was just proving to myself that I could do it. Date someone, I mean. I hadn't even given anyone a second thought since Edward and I needed to know if I could make it work. We had been together ever since, though, and I loved him. I was more independent and guarded than I ever was before, but Ryan took it in stride and our relationship was better for it.
"How is Dan doing?" Ryan asked after a few minutes. He squeezed my hand in support as I told him the recent updates.
"He's not awake yet, but the doctors suspect he will be okay. We just need to wait for him to be conscious to be completely sure." We were coming back around to the front doors after our lap around the building.
"That's good. I'm sure everything will be fine, this hospital is supposed to have a great staff." I smiled a bit, thinking that if he only knew how knowledgeable the staff was he probably wouldn't have even asked. "I should probably head back to Orono. I have work tonight and the drive is a few hours long."
"Good idea. I wish you could stay though." This was true. Even though it was uncomfortable, I liked the idea of Edward seeing me living my life with my boyfriend. I deserved the chance to show him that I was happy without him.
"Me too, babe." Ryan threw his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer for a hug. I walked him to his car before heading back in to spend some more time in Dan's room. I needed to text his mom to give her an update anyway. His parents were on a humanitarian trip and were unable to fly home, so it was my job to give them every piece of information on their son possible.
I had just hit send from the chair next to Danny's bed when I heard the door open. It was Edward, of course, being that it was his shift and not Carlisle's. He nodded his head at me as I tucked my cellphone back into my sweatshirt pocket. I casually watched him as he filled out more of my best friend's medical charts and checked his medication levels. I noticed the red tint to his perpetually messy hair and how his graceful body moved throughout the room. I knew that it was wrong, but I couldn't make myself look away as he continued fulfilling his duties.
I quickly averted my eyes as he turned to make eye contact with me. Once again, it was painfully obvious that I had been staring at him, but it made me feel better to pretend that he didn't notice.
"So... you're in school?" He had folded his hands over the clipboard and leaned against the wall.
"Yeah," I felt my lips turn up into a small smile, "I am just finishing out my senior year. University of Maine." Upon hearing this his face broke into a gorgeous smile that made me want to throw myself out of the window. I shook my head a little, trying to clear my thoughts.
"That's wonderful, Bella. What are you studying?" His eyes were light and I wondered if he had hunted recently. I assumed he would have to often, working in a hospital and all.
"Public health, with a minor in education." I laughed humorlessly to myself as I thought about the reason. "I want to work with... struggling youth." I had become one of these students myself during my last year at Forks High School. I was failing every class and had dropped twenty pounds before Charlie had put his foot down and forced me to go to therapy, though. It didn't work as well as it should have seeing as I couldn't quite give all of the details without betraying the Cullens and ending up in a mental institution.
"You would be wonderful in that field." I wanted to be imagining the prideful look on his face, but I knew that I wasn't. I was, however, confused. Where was this interest in my life coming from? If he wanted to be proud of what I was doing with my life he should have stayed in it.
He had hit a nerve, with that look on his face, and I was about to let him have it when I heard one of the most incredible sounds in the world.
"Bells?" Dan croaked as Edward spun to look at him and I leapt from my chair.
"Danny!" Tears fell down my face instantly as I gripped the sheets, reminding myself that he was in a car accident yesterday, and that he probably felt like shit. I placed my hand on his cheek as he blinked his eyes a few times.
"Oh, fuck." I chuckled, loving how crass he managed to be at all times. He groaned and his eyes shifted to look at me, seeing as his body was pretty much stuck still from all of his casts.
"This is what your dumbass gets for getting into the car with Harvey." I would have hit him, any other day.
He winced as though I had hit him. "What's the damage?" He looked behind me.
Edward spoke up for the first time, reminding me that he was still in the room. I quickly wiped my cheeks and stepped back, allowing him to get closer as he filled Daniel in. "I'm Dr. Cullen, and I am over your case. You were in a car accident that resulted in three broken ribs, a fractured femur, a broken collar bone, and a serious concussion." He gestured to me, "Bella will have to fill you in on the non-medical information."
I raised my eyebrow, daring Dan to ask me anything about his ex boyfriend.
"Let me know if you need anything, otherwise I'll be back in a few hours." He looked at me questioningly, "Bella, would you like me to mention to your friends in the waiting room that Daniel is awake?"
"Yes, please." I moved forward to hold Dan's hand, but not before Edward lightly brushed his fingers over my shoulder in what seemed to be comfort. I did my best to recover as my best friend returned the eyebrow raise, full force. "I'd be so pissed at you if you weren't in a hospital bed right now." I hoped to high heaven that my distraction tactic would work.