Chapter 3

EPOV

'Bella! Keep your eyes open!' I half shouted at her, they remained shut and I got a soft 'Mm.' from her in response. I sighed and looked around frantically for anything that would help. I had to seal the sucking chest wound before she developed a tension pneumothorax, a collapsed lung. So far lung sounds were as good as could be expected and I didn't think there was too much air in her chest cavity.

After making sure her hand was still pressed firmly enough to the chest wound I ran to the bathroom silently praying that I'd be able to find the first aid kit I knew had been under the sink before the tsunami hit. As I entered the bathroom I started searching under the counter and by some miracle the white box with the red cross was still under there. I grabbed the wet box by the handle and pulled it out to see another miracle, the latches were still latched.

I popped it open to see that the seal held and everything inside was bone dry, I ran back to Bella who was shivering slightly. 'I'm here Bella.' I whispered to her. I was suddenly overcome by the look of her. The right side of her forehead to her cheekbone were various hues of blues and purples with a mean looking cut above her eyebrow, I knew there was an even worse cut on the back of her head that really worried me. Her shirt was lifted to just below her left breast, he entire left side of her chest and left hand were covered in blood.

The most grotesque to look at injury though was the large stick that had been pushed straight through her right thigh. The top of the stick came out to the outer side of her leg and the inside jutted in towards her left thigh and had in fact cut the inside of her left thigh. Her right shoulder was clearly broken and looked as though it was collapsed. Almost her entire body was covered in scrapes and bruises, if it wasn't for the quick rise and fall of her chest and the steady thump of her heart I'd have thought her dead. She certainly had the pallor of a dead body; she was pale from blood loss.

I shook myself from my reverie and went to her side, everything else could wait, I had to deal with the sucking chest wound. 'C'mon Bella, come back to me.' I said to her trying to rouse her as I rummaged through the first aid kit. I ripped open a sterilizing swab and lifted her hand briefly scrubbing around the site as bloody air bubbled from the wound. This elicited a groan from her. 'That's it sweetheart, come on back.' I said to her as I ripped open a plastic package of gauze, carefully placing the gauze back into the first aid kit and laying the small square of plastic over the chest wound.

Next I taped down three sides of the plastic with the blessedly dry tape. This created a seal- it would be sucked towards the wound if she inhaled but air could still escape. I watched for a few moments as it was sucked in towards the wound and then watched as a few pink bubbles escaped. I wiped them away with the same alcohol pad I used earlier.

'Bella?' I asked her.

'Hmm?' she mumbled, eyes still closed.

'Is that better?' I asked.

'Yes,' she sighed 'thank you.'

'Of course.' I kissed her forehead again and moved to stabilizing her neck. The way she had called out in pain when I moved her neck was incredibly alarming. I felt along her cervical spine and I gasped as I noticed deformities in two of her vertebrae. I found two hand towels in the bathroom and rang them out to make them as dry as possible, then rolled them up placing them on either side of her neck.

I then took the roll of tape and tightly wrapped it around both towels holding it and her neck firmly in place being gentle as I lifted her to wrap the tape beneath her neck. As gentle as I was she still whimpered when I moved her. 'You're okay.' I murmured.

'Bella, I'm going to look at your leg now, okay?' I asked her as I moved down to inspect the horrific wound.

'H'rts Edw'rd.' She mumbled out, it was hard to tell if it was the blood loss or the concussion slurring her speech.

'I know love, I'll try to be gentle.' I said to her, her admission of pain spoke to how much pain she was really in and it broke my heart.

I grabbed the scissors out of the first aid kit and cut her pants open up to the wound; to make it easier I just cut the whole pant leg off above the stick protruding from her leg. I looked at it overwhelmed; I didn't know what I could do for her with my limited supplies. There's no way I could extract the piece of wood without her bleeding out. I firmly grasped the end of the stick protruding on the inside of her thigh to stabilize it as my other hand snapped off the last few inches that were stabbing her other leg. I then did the same to the other side where it stuck out more than a foot reducing it to just a few inches on both sides.

That had to at least reduce the strain on her leg from the weight of it pulling on the wound. She had groaned multiple times throughout the process but hadn't opened her eyes for a while. Ignoring this fact, I grabbed the bottle of saline solution and poured it on both wounds around the stick, knowing it was probably futile since the stick was still firmly embedded through her leg. I ripped open multiple packages of gauze and placed them around the stick on both sides hoping to stop some of the bleeding. I then found a tensor bandage a wrapped it around her leg and the stick both stabilizing the stick and holding the gauze in place.

I looked at her shoulder, deformed and black and blue and knew there was nothing I could do for it here so I went to her head.

'Ok Bella the worst is over, I need you to open your eyes and talk to me. Can you do that?' I pleaded with her sitting next to her head.

'I'm here.' She croaked, cracking her left eye open searching for me and smiling once she caught sight of me, her right eye had swollen shut by now.

'How are you feeling sweetheart?' I asked knowing it was a stupid question.

'I'm okay.' She whispered.

'Do you think you could swallow some pills?' I asked her grabbing a bottle of water I found lying on the floor.

She tried to nod then stopped realizing she couldn't move her head. 'Yes.' She croaked out.

I grabbed the bottle of extra strength Tylenol knowing that it would barely touch her pain but I figured it was worth a try. I gently put her right arm on her stomach; this elicited a whimper from her.

'I'm sorry sweetheart, I'm going to lift you up so you can swallow these, okay?' I did it in stages; I would put one pill in her mouth then tip the bottle back and let some of the cool liquid pour into her mouth. I was incredibly grateful that she managed to swallow all three of the pills down and I lowered her upper half back down to the mattress. Her skin was colder than I would have liked.

I grabbed two blankets and rang them out as much as I could then I ran outside, shook them out and then hung them up on a tree hoping that they would dry quickly even without the added benefit of sunshine. I ran back in, hating to be gone from her for even a second.

With the major injuries dealt with I was able to take care of her more minor injuries. 'Hey Bella, I'm going to clean up your forehead a little bit, okay?'

'Hmm.' was all she could muster.

'You're doing amazing, love.' I encouraged. I grabbed the bottle of saline solution again and poured it onto another gauze pad and cleaned her forehead, face and around her mouth where she had coughed up blood. I noticed at this point that she needed stitches in her forehead but there was nothing I could do, I taped some gauze into place and moved on.

From here I used my sense of smell to find any and all cuts and contusions on her and cleaned them and covered them as well as I could. I then had to move to her back which was going to be a terrible endeavor due to her injuries.

'Bella, I need to turn you on your side now, okay?' she looked up at me with pleading eyes. 'I know sweetheart, I'm going to support you, I'll try to make it as painless as possible.'

'I tr'st you.' She slurred and I felt my chest constrict, I would never deserve this sweet girl as long as I lived, all I could do was make sure that I deserved that trust. I realized I would have to turn her onto her left side because the stick in her leg prevented me from turning her to the right. This meant that I would have to support her entire torso so as to not put any weight on her chest injury.

Using one arm I kept her head and neck stabilized as well as holding up her weight. Her breathing rate increased, clearly in intense pain. I quickly grabbed the scissors out of the first aid kit and cut the back of her shirt open. The myriad of cuts and bruises on her back was heartbreaking; I couldn't believe she had survived and it seemed harder to believe that she would remain alive.

I tried to deal with the cuts as quickly as possible, cleaning them, covering them with gauze and then again with tape to keep them dry against the wet mattress. I ended with the one on the back of her head, there wasn't much I could do for it. The back of her head was a bloody matted mess, all I could do was pile up some gauze on the back of her head. I laid her back onto her back as quickly as I could to see tears streaming down her face.

'I'm sorry sweetheart.' I murmured kissing the left side of her face where the tears were falling. Now that I had done what I could for her I was starting to panic. I had no way of reaching help, whether here in Brazil or to my family in Forks- my phone was completely waterlogged and useless now. I couldn't swim with Bella off of the island, the trip would kill her. Her only chance was Alice having seen this happen and sending help to us. All that I could do was wait.

I tried not to panic as I grabbed the saline solution again and used it to wash off Bella's hands and forearms gently trying not to cause her anymore pain. I grabbed the tweezers out of the first aid kit and started pulling wooden splinters from the small wounds.

'What d'd you hunt?' she asked slowly, breathily with her eyes still closed.

I breathed a laugh 'Jaguar, it was… interesting.' I said not looking up.

'Y'r still fighting fate.' She said after a few moments, so quietly I wouldn't have heard her if I was human.

I looked up at her; her left eye was cracked open looking at me. 'You're going to be fine Bella, I promise.' I told her firmly.

'I think 'm dying Ed'wrd…' my chest clenched at those words.

'Bella you look at me, you will not die from this you hear me? We're going to get you back home to Forks, you're going to see your father again. I promise you, okay? You told me you wanted to go school, we're gonna get to Dartmouth together. I promise.' She didn't respond, just closed her eyes, I could tell she was still awake but just barely.

I sat with her for an hour, cleaning her skin where there was dirt and blood, getting her as clean and Bella-like as possible. I went outside and retrieved the sheets that were blessedly mostly dry, as dry as they'd get in the humid air. She fell asleep half an hour ago but still shivered every now and then. I wrapped both sheets around her trying to warm her up.

Two hours after the tsunami had hit we were still alone, I hadn't seen any ships or aircraft that might be coming to our aid. Although Bella's shivering continued I had noticed a steady increase in her temperature; fever. I knew I would find none but I searched the first aid kit again for antibiotics, nothing. I tried not to freak out. We needed help, now.