LL Chapter 4

Warnings

The head nurse on duty, Mary, asked me to stay a little later than normal today as Isaac's parents were going to be delayed in returning to the NICU. It seems that Isaac had an older sister that was turning four years old today and they were trying to spend some time with her today so that she would have a great birthday and know that she was special to her parents too. It had to be hard for parents in this situation. I knew that they wanted and needed to be here and they wanted and needed to be with her too. I was more than happy to oblige and help out.

I tried not to listen as Mary went over Leah and started talking but I could not help it. Besides, this is a small town with a lot of gossips. At least, I would know the truth instead of vicious lies.

"So, tell me how Bella is really doing?" the nurse asked.

"As well as she can be expected. The kids at her school haven't been too welcoming to her. I know that someone has said something to upset her because she cried herself to sleep that night, but she refuses to tell me who it was or what they said. She just keeps saying it is not important what others think. I mean, tell that to her mother, right?" I felt a little bad about that because I knew that it was Rose and Alice that upset her and I set them on her. But, like I said, Leah was scary fierce and I was not about to go ratting out my sister. I might throw Rose under the bus for the right price, though.

"I know. Look. There are only a few of us that know the whole story of what happened in Phoenix, but we are all really proud of the maturity and strength that she has shown through all of this."

"So are all of us in the family. I'm glad that she went out today. I know that she's worried about Tanya, but she is good hands with you, me, and Edward over there." She looked up at me, "hey, Edward?"

"Yes?"

"Are you still planning on going to med school and specializing in neonatology?"

"Yes, I am."

"Good for you! You'll be great at that!" Leah responded. Sue has worked part time as one of my dad's nurses since I was a kid. They are practically family to us at this point, which led me to a new realization. There was a good chance that I would have to endure putting up with Tanya's mother and certain functions my parents forced me attend. I hated those things to begin with now they were going to be excruciating to endure. Not because of little Tanya, though. She was a little peach of a baby. She was such a sweet, quiet, good baby.

But their conversation did leave me wondering what happened with Psycho's mother? More than likely she kicked her out when she found out that she was pregnant. But, no, there is no way that Chief Swan would have let his pregnant daughter live on the streets during her pregnancy only to take her in now. Why the hell was this bothering me anyway? It not like it concerned me what happened.

I was brought out of my musing by Leah and the nurse continuing there conversation.

"…but how is she physically?"

"Physically? She is still healing and will be for a while. She went through so much hell."

"Yes, she did." And they left it at that while Mary went about checking vitals of the babies and administering meds.

Before I knew it Carrie, Isaac's mother, showed up to spend some time with him before visiting hours were over.

"Thank you so much for staying with him, Edward. It meant a lot to us to be able to spend time with Cassidy."

"I was glad that I could help. He's a good baby and I get that Cassidy needs attention too. Anytime you need me to stay or come in, just have one of the nurses call me, and I will help out. Even if you just need a couple of hours to yourself. I'm also willing to babysit him after he is released if you need help. I know it can be hard to find sitters with experience with preemies." With that she grabbed me and hugged me while crying and trying to thank me for the offer. It was not the first time that I offered sitting services. Preemies often needed special care even after they were sent home.

When I got home that night, Alice was waiting to pounce on me.

"Angela is coming home today!" I remembered Mom telling Dad that the Webber's had to go to Texas because Mrs. Webber's mother had died suddenly. They had been gone for a couple of weeks for the funeral and to start the process of settling the estate.

"What? Am I supposed to care about that for some reason?"

"Come on, Edward! She's a nice girl and she's pretty and really smart and for some reason she really likes you."

"No, Alice."

"I don't understand why you have such a negative view of the people around in this town. They are not as bad as you have made them out to be in your head."

"Well, I do not understand why you are so determined to attempt to ruin my life by attempting to set me up with these girls." At this she rolled her eyes at me. "Alice, the answer is still and always will be no. Absolutely NOT!"

"FINE! Be a complete jerk then. But do not come crying to me when you wake up one day, all alone and miserable." And with that she ran off to room and slammed her door. In all honesty, Angela wasn't all THAT bad. But, I was not about to relax my 'no girls' rule for anyone at this point. I sighed and went up to my room. I did not come out until my parents yelled upstairs that they were leaving for a date night and probably would not be back until late. Jasper showed up to pick up Alice for their double date with Emmett and Rose and little bit after that, so I decided that it was safe enough for me to come back downstairs.

I grabbed a sandwich, chips, and soda for my supper and started flipping through channels on the TV. Out of the hundreds of channels we get, the only I could find remotely interesting was some rerun of Hee Haw on RFDTV. Yeah, that is how I spent my Saturday night.

A/N:

Can you believe it? Two updates in two days! Here is the deal with this. I am trying to work on Follow Your Heart, but it takes a lot of research and fact checking. That makes the writing process time consuming and difficult. These chapters are easier to write and I can get more out quickly. Also, this story is helping with my focus for writing. So, I have decided to do something that one of my current favorite authors, Savage7289, does. I am going to post shorter chapters to this story quite frequently while I work my way through the chapters of FYH. I am not guaranteeing daily updates but frequent.