Bella POV
Eventually, it didn't matter anymore that I'd banned myself from the Cullens. I wasn't free anymore.
I went in and out of the hospital. I got sick all the time. Blistering high fevers, coughs that wracked my body and made it impossible to breathe, and painful sores that made me cry out in the night.
The doctors said my blood counts were dangerously low and I couldn't fight off any sort of infection. They put me in an isolated room where no one could visit me unless they put on special clothing and a mask. But they couldn't stop Edward. He slipped past all the doctors and nurses with his vamp quickness and entered my darkened, isolated room. He held me in the bed for mere minutes at a time before a nurse came to check on me. But he was always there. His icy body felt good next to my fevered skin. I didn't hurt as much when he was there. I felt like he was giving me some of his strength. Sharing with me his immortal being.
"Bella, do you know what today is?" he asked me, his velvet voice too soft for anyone but me to hear.
I shook my head.
"It's the first of August. The summer is ending, my love." His words stung me. August was here. We were supposed to get married on the 13th, but I hadn't even talked to Charlie about it. My world had spiraled out of control that summer and now it was too late. The sobs wracked my weakened body as I cried next to him.
"I'm so sorry." I cried over and over into his warm arms.
"There will be other times. You just need to concentrate on getting well again." He said, gently, running his hands through my hair.
"I wanted it before my birthday…" I whispered after finding my voice. "I didn't want to turn nineteen." I felt the tears coming again, but I held them back.
"I don't want to die." I said the words who's meaning were so different for me only a few months ago. I didn't want a human death. I didn't want to grow old and die while he remained. But as I lay in that hospital bed Alice's words came back to me, "You're going to die." And I realized that a human death could be anytime, anywhere- not just from old age- and I was facing it at that very moment.
"You'll keep your promise to me won't you?" I suddenly found myself begging him from the bottom of my heart. "If I get married to you you'll be with me forever, right? You'll make me the same as you?" I cried, so I was scared someone might hear me. But I had to know. I had to know I wasn't going through all this for nothing. That I had refused Alice back when there was less pain for a reason.
"Bella…" he sounded hesitant and shifted his body beside me.
"Please, Edward." I begged. "Please." And I felt his cool hands brush my hair back from my hot, clammy forehead.
"Alright, I promise." He said almost too soft for me to hear. "I promise you Bella, that we will be together forever and I will be the one to change you." He didn't sound hesitant anymore. He was determined, ready to make this sacrifice for me. Ready to let me into his world.
I felt the air rush back into my lungs and realized I had forgotten to breathe again.
"When you get better we'll talk to Charlie together and we'll make this happen. You and me."
My eyelids felt heavy then and I let them droop as I smiled at him.
"I love you, Bella." I heard him say from far away. Sleep was taking me, and I wasn't strong enough to fight it.
"Please get well soon." His voice was a distant sound in my brain, but I pulled myself back to say,
"I love you too."
When I awoke the next day I felt awful. My head pounded and my body ached. I knew my fever had returned because my body burned, but I was also shivering in my bones too. When the nurse took my temperature I wasn't surprised it was high. But she seemed more concerned than usual, and she ran to get a doctor.
I felt weak and tired, and lay back on my pillow waiting for Charlie's daily visit before work. I didn't want to talk to my doctor, (I had a specialist now, it wasn't Carlisle anymore).
"Isabella, can you hear me?" I heard my hematologist, Dr. Mcphaden's voice ask through a sudden fog.
Yes, I tried to mutter, but it hurt to talk. Why couldn't they just leave me alone to sleep? I just wanted to sleep.
I felt cool hands lifting me up and the movement was sickening as I was placed onto another soft surface. I didn't understand. Why were they moving me? Charlie was supposed to be coming.
"Bella?" I suddenly heard him calling me. His voice drifted through my consciousness. "Bella?!" the voice was more urgent and I struggled to answer him. I was drowning into unconsciousness.
I was moving now. The motion lulled me even more and I struggled against it. Dad, where are they taking me…? I wanted to say but I was being pulled further down under.
"Edward…" I breathed into the nothingness. "…help me…"