A/N - These characters all belong to SM. I am just borrowing them.

Thanks for reading this story.

Chapter 2

EPOV

It was a pretty nasty afternoon in Seattle. It's April for God's sake, it isn't supposed to be so hot! The misty rain seemed to just amplify the heat, causing sweat to run down my back and arms as I left the gym. Something made me look over my shoulder, and I noticed the big jeep before I saw Emmett getting out of it.

"You're a few minutes late, we could have spotted each other."

My brother, Emmett, had a grin that stopped people dead in their tracks. According to the ladies, Emmett has just the right amount of mischief in his smile. He and I looked almost nothing alike, and we certainly didn't act alike. I did my fair share of time in the gym, but I would never be able to work up to the size or strength of my brother. I also didn't share his desire to bed every cute girl that I met. Well... maybe I shared the desire, I just didn't share the lifestyle.

He reached in to pull his bag out of the Jeep. "Maybe I'm not late." He shrugged, "Maybe you're just early. Ever think of that?"

Emmett knew that I worked out during my lunch break and that I couldn't just come and go when I pleased. I opened the door of the Volvo and slid my bag into the back seat. Turning to look at him, I responded, "Did you just get out of your philosophy class?"

"How'd you know?" he grinned, "Hey, is Jasper coming into town this weekend?"

Jasper and I had been friends since first grade. He was like another brother to me, and Em loved him too. "I think so. He said he had a few loose ends to take care of, and then he would give me a call."

Jasper's parents had been killed in a car accident the previous year. Although he hadn't talked to his parents since he was seventeen, he was the only child, and he took responsibility for making sure that his parents' estate was cared for. It sucked for him even more because there was very little money left in the estate. Jasper, being who he is, had been bound and determined to give his parents a proper burial, despite the cost. My parents had offered to help with the finances, but he had refused. He had been working two, sometimes three, jobs at a time in order to pay off the funeral.

"When's he plan on moving out of that hell hole and joining us here?" Emmett was trying to sound noncommittal, but he couldn't wait for Jasper to move to Seattle either. Emmett and I shared an apartment not far from the gym. He was a physical therapist and worked mostly with athletes. We had a three bedroom apartment in anticipation of Jasper's pending arrival.

"As soon as he can," was my only reply. Jasper had told me that he was going to finish paying off the funeral and save some money so he could finish his Graduate Degree. He had been teaching Social Studies at Forks Middle School for several years. The fact that teachers didn't get paid nearly enough, combined with the expense of his parents' burial, meant that Jasper had to put all of his education plans aside so he could work more jobs. I knew that he was picking up his last paycheck from Newton's store tonight, and he was planning on finishing out his school year. After that, my hope was that he would move here to be with his "real" family.

I needed to get out of there if I was going to make it to the hospital and get out to Willowbrooke in time to see my newest patient. I was itching to get in and see him, but since the word 'Harborview' was written at the top of my paycheck, I knew I had to go there first.

"Well, have fun... Duty Calls."

"See ya later, Bro."

Bree, a little girl that had fallen off of her bike, was my first patient of the day. It was usually really difficult for me to stay in her room for very long because I could feel the fear and heartbreak radiating off of her mother. There was also so much tension in the room between Bree's mother and father that I had begun to think that if Bree stayed in her coma to hide from them, I wouldn't blame her.

"Good morning Mrs. Tanner," I spoke as cheerfully as I could muster.

She looked at me through teary eyes, "Good Morning."

There was an air of peace in the room which I attributed to the fact that Mr. Tanner wasn't around. I assumed that he had gone to work since he had been here every day for the past four.

I could tell just by touching her, that the intracranial swelling had gone down. Without wanting to give Mrs. Tanner too much hope, I wanted her to know that we would soon be slowly taking Bree off of the Pentobarbital that we had been using to keep her in the coma.

"I see definite improvement in the amount of swelling here." I pulled Mrs. Tanners fingers to the side of her daughter's head so that she was able to feel. "I would like to get a few more CT scans to assess the pressure that we may or may not be able to feel. If they come back as I expect them to, we will begin reducing the medicine that we have been using to keep her in a coma."

Stroking the side of her daughter's face that wasn't covered with bandages, she asked, "What does that mean. Is she going to recover? You know, I told her to put her helmet on," She said almost as an afterthought.

It was not the first time that I had parents or loved ones try to explain away the guilt they were feeling. My guess would be that the tension between Bree's parents had a lot to do with that guilt as well.

While filling out her chart, I informed Bree's mother that we really wouldn't know how extensive the damage was until Bree was completely removed from all of the barbiturates in her system. "Once we have established that there is no medical intervention causing a coma, we will be able to assess things a little more clearly. I wish I could give you a more definitive answer, but I just can't yet. I'm sorry."

She reached out and took my hand in hers. "You've been wonderful. Thank you."

Trying not to imagine what it must be like for a parent to sit with their child and not know whether they were going to live or die, I then headed over to the NICU to find that my premature little friend, Seth had not had a seizure in over twenty four hours. I chatted with his nurse for a little while to find out what other improvements the little guy had made over the past day and instructed her on exactly how I wanted the anticonvulsant to be weaned.

It isn't terribly uncommon for a baby that is born prematurely to have seizures, but in Seth's case, it took us quite a while, relatively speaking, to get them under control. As much as I wanted to get him off of any unnecessary medicine, I was a bit concerned about his seizures returning. As I was writing my notes in his chart, I was paged to the emergency room for a consult.

A thirty-three year old female, who was almost six months pregnant, had come in at the insistence of her OB's office. Their office was closed for the day, and the patient had been suffering from a disabling headache for more than twenty four hours. Although her blood pressure was checked when she came in, I checked it again to ensure that she wasn't suffering from blood pressure issues brought about by her pregnancy. Her blood pressure was fine, so I did a few more tests. I diagnosed her with a migraine, gave her some medicine that she could take, and sent her home. It was the kind of page from the emergency room that I don't mind taking.

After seeing a few more patients, I headed over to the office that I shared with my Dad. It was attached to the hospital but in a different facility. Office hours on Friday's are from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm. Contrary to popular belief, we don't shut down at 12:30 on Fridays to go play golf. Friday afternoons were almost always spent getting caught up on charts or going to some sort of seminar regarding the latest research. Not to mention, I always tried to stay a little bit longer with my hospital patients on Friday afternoons, since I didn't usually see them over the weekend unless there was an emergency.

I was settling into my office with my mail when the phone rang. It was my mother wanting to know if Jasper was coming into town tonight and what time we would be there for dinner. If anyone loved Jasper more than I did, it was her. Sometimes I was convinced that she loved him more than she ever loved Emmett and I. She didn't like it when I said as much. That's when she would tell me that Em and I had no idea what it was like to grow up in a house like Jasper's. She was right.

We talked a little bit about some of the common patients we were seeing. She was truly excited to hear that Bree's swelling had gone down, and she was convinced that she would have a full recovery. Mom's eternal optimism was the reason that I very rarely let her talk to the loved ones of a patient. Brain injuries are always so iffy. The last thing that I want to do is give a family member false hope.

I told her about the rest of my morning with Seth and the other patients and also that I wanted to swing by Willowbrooke if at all possible before dinner. Mom had a thing about Friday night dinners. It was one of those things in which we were not allowed to be late. Period.

"Your dad went by there earlier today. He met Mr. Swan's daughter."

Sensing that there was something other than mere conversation going through her head, I prodded a bit. "And..."

"And he said that she was a strong girl that had high hopes for recovery," she continued, "From what he tells me, she doesn't seem to mind butting heads with the medical staff if she feels it's necessary."

Just what I need... Some smart-assed family member that doesn't have a clue what she's talking about telling me how to do my job. I made a mental note to find out what time Carlisle had run into her so that I could hope to avoid a meeting as well. Since she had already been there today, I felt pretty confident that I would be safe in going to visit. Wasting no time, I grabbed my keys and headed out the door. The charts would still be there tomorrow morning.

I know it's a short little chapter, but there will be more from Edward's point of view coming soon enough.

Enjoy!