Bella's POV:

The blackness was pushing at me from every direction. The pressure hurt more than it usually did when I was knocked out or fainted. I didn't like it, I wanted out! I tried to reach out into the darkness, but I wasn't moving. I had no control over my body, it was like I was detached from it, but I could still feel all of the pain.

If I'm going to die anyway, just hurry up and get it over with. I squealed in my head.

At that moment I felt a different feeling. Something sultry surrounded my body, and I grew cold. I could feel the pressure releasing itself.

"Bella, Bella…" I heard in my muggy head. I tried to answer but I still didn't have power over my body parts.

The pressure that was compressing my body liberated itself even more and I felt like I was floating, the pain was lighter and further away than before.

Before I could get used to it, I was abruptly pulled back to my body from a sharp point on my neck. The pain was almost unbearable. I broke out of my stupor and entered into a new kind of oblivion, with even more pain than the previous.

I screamed so hard that it felt like I collapsed a lung. The fire was back, and I was scared. My mind raced through the events that had happened only months ago, when James had almost killed me. I had Edward to save me then. But, now, I couldn't see anything and I didn't know where he was. I needed him. I needed him to make the pain disappear.

I continued to scream. No shriek could express the pain I was in. All I knew was that the fire was spreading into each of my veins and I didn't think I could handle it. I couldn't take it for much longer. I couldn't breath.

Edward's POV:

I raced as fast as my immortal feet would carry me to the hospital. I was there within minutes. I continued to fly up the stairs at a pace that might scare some humans, even though I had now slowed down. The hospital was packed, but I didn't care. The only thing that was on my mind was Bella's well being.

I followed Carlisle's voice rather than paging him, this saved a lot time.

"Carlisle!" I screamed, possibly too loud, seeing as how everyone in the room turned to stare irritably at me.

He met my eyes the fastest and sensed my urgency. He raised his eyebrows.

"Bella?" he asked in his head.

I nodded as a single tear rolled down my ice-cold skin. It burned.

He set down the clipboard he had been writing on, took off his lab coat, threw it to an assistant and ran out the door ahead of me. He led me to his office where he picked up his medical emergency kit and continued out of the hospital. Once we were out, we ran to Bella's house together.

On the way, I explained to him her condition based on what my untrained eye had seen. At this his faced turned grave and he sped up a bit. He already knew that I had bitten her. This was the first thing that I told him and he smiled and patted me on the back. But, he now wore made me even more anxious, if that was possible.

We came to a halt outside of Bella's house. We could clearly hear her excruciating and heartbreaking cries.

We glanced at one another quickly, and then I followed him as he ran, as swift as ever, into the house and up the stairs.

We reached Bella in record time. After kneeling beside her, Carlisle set down and opened his kit. He mumbled to himself for a few moments while he examined the wound on Bella's head and continued all the way down to her broken leg. I could barely hear him over Bella's continued hollering, but I could see his mouth moving and I watched his face as different emotions passed through it. I tried to remember when he ever had any emotion on his face while he was in his doctor mode.

Finally, he stopped his prodding and looked up into my face, which was, by this time, warped with worry.

"Her leg is broken and the gash in her head has caused her to lose a lot of blood. There are some other things, like a bit of internal bleeding, but I'm sure the venom will heal everything quite quickly over the next three days. It's safe to move her, but it might be difficult." He said all of this with a strained voice, but I believed him.

"Okay." I think it was the only word I was capable of saying as the realization finally sunk in. Bella, my beautiful Bella, was going to become one of us. No more warmth, no more breakability. I sighed.

Carlisle noticed my sigh and questioned it in his thoughts, but I ignored him.

"You'll have to carry her, Edward. We have to bring her back to our house. It will be easier there. Our house is still in one piece, I imagine?" A smile played around his lips. He knew it was.

"Yes." Eager to get away from the blood again, I picked Bella up, with some difficulty seeing as how she thrashed with pain. I really didn't want to hurt her anymore.

We traveled fast so no one heard her screaming. On the way, Carlisle told me what he thought should happen. But, he added, it was, in the end, up to her and me.

He thought, of course, that she had to stay with us.

But, I thought, what if she hated me? What if she hated herself? What if she didn't want to be a vampire? What if she couldn't handle the pressure of how we lived and she ran away or worse…went to the Volturri?

The decision would have to wait until she was at least able to speak and make a coherent choice.

I helped Carlisle strap down Bella's leg so that it wouldn't cause her even more pain. She was in a room in the basement, which we barely used, so that when the rest of my family got back, they wouldn't be bothered. I was planning on staying with Bella the entire time she took to transform. Her pain should and would be my pain. And to think, I was the cause of the torture.

The days passed tediously. I sat entirely motionless the whole time while silent tears streaked my cheeks. I didn't think I would cry. I hadn't in decades. Each painful sound Bella voiced, each movement from her struggling body, each distorted expression she made, I promised myself and her that I would make up for everything, I would love her forever, no matter what she decided.