He gazes at her as she begins to whimper and scream in pain. At one point, he thinks he hears her mutter his name. She clutches the sheets on the bed with her sharp nails and her face seems to be fixed in a permanent expression of suffering. She is looking less and less to him like the young Mia he'd once known and loved.
But as time passes, days become weeks and weeks become a month, she slowly but surely changes. The warmth flees from her body and her skin hardens. Gino never leaves her side as he watches. He mourns the loss of her red cheeks but even more than that he wishes to see her smile again even if it won't quite be the same. He mourns the loss of her soft skin but even more than that the way she would move so gracefully towards him whenever they would see each other.
Finally, her screaming stops.
Instead, now she lays so quietly that he can only pray that Alice's visions aren't wrong. He doesn't even have the comfort of her heartbeat to know that she's alive now. Instead her chest is still and no sound or movement comes from her.
Alice enters the room, smiling. "She's waking up today," she announces cheerily as she carries in a bag of what must be a change of clothes. "I don't want my new sister to be wearing that," Alice motions to the hospital gown that Mia is still wearing with a look of disgust, "when she wakes up. So would you mind leaving the room for five minutes? She's not waking up until tonight. Go hunt or something."
"Where's Jasper?"
"He's in our room," Alice answers already turning to the unconscious girl.
Gino leaves the room and walks down the hallway in a daze. He doesn't want to leave her but the burning in his throat is becoming unbearable. I'd promised the Cullens I wouldn't kill anyone from the town, he thinks as he makes his way down the stairs. So I'll have to catch a deer or something, he grimaces.
"Hello," Renesmee greets him at the bottom of the stairs. "Are you going hunting, Uncle Gino?"
"Yes, I'll be back in a few hours for our game of chess."
She smiles as Bella enters the room. "I'm going with you," Bella says. "It's been a while since I've last fed."
"Okay," Gino smiles.
As Alice changes Mia into the white dress she'd bought for her, Jasper knocks on the door to the room. "Gino was looking for you," she told him.
"I know I heard him," Jasper answers. "But I don't think it would be such a good idea to talk to him right now."
"Why not?"
"He hates me."
"Why's that?"
"I don't know," he replies, irritated. "He has visions just like you do except his are more. . . Definite."
"Then why didn't he look into Mia's future himself?" Alice asks, confused. "Why'd he ask me?"
"He was most likely afraid of what he would see, I would be. Anyway, he probably saw something that I did and it must have been pretty bad."
"Yeah, he did see something," Edward says as he enters the room. "But it wasn't that bad, it's just something that he wants to prevent. And it would be best if you weren't in this room when he gets back Jasper."
"Why not?"
"He's very protective of her," Edward smiles as he leaves the room. "And that's all that I can tell you."
Jasper and Alice shoot each other confused looks as they follow him out.
That night, the whole Cullen family gathers around the bed and watches as the girl finally opens her eyes for the first time in a year.
Please review and tell me if I should delete this.
