Chapter 4

Beep... Beep... Beep... Beep...

That's all Edward could focus on. He could hear voices around him, but that damned beeping was all he could focus on.

As his eyes fought to open he tried to move, pain shot down his body and he groaned. Soon a voice broke over the beeping.

"Edward, Edward!"

Bella! He thought.

with great effort he worked his eyes open, first he saw Bella hovering over him, she looked really worried.

"Hey!" he croaked, his throat burned and felt so dry.

"Hey!" she replied.

As Bella pulled back Edward was suddenly aware that they were not alone. His eyes scanned the room and he suddenly felt very crowded. McCarthy,Whitlock, Stanley, Weber and the Chief were all looking down on him.

"Aren't I Mister Popular" he joked, but instantly regretted it as pain shot down his side.

"You're one of us. We look after our own." McCarthy roared.

He looked back over the Bella and saw she was covered in blood, her once cream top was soaked red. As he focussed on her, he heard the beeping accelerate.

"Bella, are you okay? So much blood."

Bella moved back towards him and placed her hand on his head. As she did so he heard the beeping slow back down.

"I'm fine Edward. This is all yours."

Edward blanched, he started to remember small details of what had happened.

"What about Leah, is she okay?"

"Leah is fine. She's being treated, we've got her in a room with Victoria. Both are eager to talk to us now. Frank Carter is back at the station and his accomplice, Vic Carter is in the morgue."

Edward recalled the gunshots and the weight of the mans body falling on him.

"I had your back, kiddo." McCarthy added.

The door swung open and a burly looking nurse walked in. She started to check Edward over. She seemed pretty pissed off about something, but her touch was gentle.

"Is everything okay?" Edward asked.

The nurse looked to Edward and her expression softened.

"Now, you just concentrate on getting better. I'm just not used to having to battle past several people to get to my patients. These have been hovering over your bed since the moment you got back from surgery. They refused to leave your side. We're supposed to have a rule of two visitors per bed, but it seems that doesn't count to law enforcement."

"Oh!" Edward muttered.

"I'm sorry nurse." Chief Newton began. "We just like to look after our own. I assure you... now that we know he'll be okay, we'll not crowd the room any more."

The nurse softened some more. She seemed to have liked what the chief said and quite possibly the way she had said it.

"Thanks. Can you move the ones in the corridor along too?" she added before slipping out the door.

The chief moved over to the blinds and peaked out, curious as to who was out there. He saw three uniformed officers, one male and two females, they all looked anxious.

"Do you two have some friends back on uniform" he asked.

Bella joined him and followed his gaze. She spotted Alice, Rosalie and Jacob.

"Yes, they are our friends." she confirmed.

"Right we have to get back to the station. We've got to wrap this case up, we need to interview Frank Carter and then we've got the paperwork to go through. Cullen. We'll be back to check on you soon."

McCarthy, Whitlock, Stanley and Weber filed out the room straight away. Bella rushed to Edwards side. She lent forward and kissed his forehead.

"Don't take too long to get better. I can't do much without my partner. I'll come back and see you later."

"Yes Ma'am" he mocked.

Edward watched and Bella lingered over him, he could almost taste the sweetness to her breath. He considered his chances of snatching a kiss, there couldn't have been more than a couple of inches between their lips. He stared into her eyes and started to inch forward.

"Come on Swan. We've got a lot to do." Chief Newtons voice interrupted.

Edward watched as Bella moved away towards the door.

"Well done today you too. I hear that you were both instrumental in getting to Leah. I'm impressed, but Cullen. Next time try not to get stabbed."

"Yes Chief"

Edward watched as the chief put his hand on Bella's shoulder and led her to the door, he didn't like the way he had touched her. He heard the ECG machine beep louder and faster as he became agitated.

The nurse from before rushed back in and started to fuss. As Bella and the chief disappeared out of the room he started to calm down.

"I'm fine!" he lied

The nurse watched as the beeping calmed down, she gave him another check and tutted.

"You need to relax. I should send the others away, but they've been waiting for hours. If you are up for seeing them, there are three people outside desperate to see you."

Edward just nodded.

Out in the corridor Bella walked alongside the chief, Alice rushed to her side, followed closely by Rosalie and Jacob.

"Bella!" Alice cried.

"I'm fine, its not my blood."

"Is Edward okay?"

Bella looked back towards the door, she hated to leave him like this.

"Detective Cullen will be just fine. He just needs to rest. I'm sure he could do with seeing some friendly faces. I trust you're all of duty" the chief asked.

As none of them answered, the chief shook his head.

"I didn't see any of you. Now if you'll excuse us we have a lot of work to do."

The chief led Bella towards the exit. Alice, Rosalie and Jacob turned to see the nurse leave the room.

"You can go in now, but not for too long. He needs to rest."

The nurse stomped past them and the friends quickly filed into the room. They looked at Edward, hooked up to various tubes.

"You look like shit, man!" Jacob said

"Thank!" Edward responded.

"I hear you did this saving that girl and Bella." Rosalie muttered.

"I'm sure anyone would have done the same thing."

"Oh Edward, we could have lost you!" Alice cried.

The friends sat for a while, making small talk. There was still a slight tension in the air, but Edward was just glad of the company. Rosalie and Jacob received a call on the radio and had to go, leaving Alice.

Alice sat on the edge of the bed, her petite frame barely making a dent.

"So what's your chief like?"

Edward scowled.

"What? He seems like a nice enough guy."

"He's a decent boss. He's firm, but fair and he's made us feel welcome, but he seems to like Bella a little more than he should. It's not right, Alice. He's old enough to be her dad."

Alice stared at Edward, she noticed the beeping accelerate as he spoke about the chief.

"Edward. Are you sure you aren't imagining it? I know you've always had a thing for Bella and I've told you time and time again to tell her, but you never listened."

"Alice, he looks at her like she's something to eat. He put his hand on her shoulder to lead her away and I got so agitated I ended up with the nurse fussing over me, thinking something was wrong. She kissed my forehead when I came to and I was working up to kissing her properly when he interrupted. Now what must she think of me? First day in the job and I get myself stabbed!"

Alice couldn't hide the smirk from her face, she'd been the only one who knew how much Edward liked Bella. She'd always known it and she'd tried to match them together on many occasions, but Edward was too shy and Bella was too blind, too focussed on their training and the job. On the outside Rosalie and Jacob were the most openly hungry for promotion, but Alice had no doubt that Bella wanted it more, she just held back from showing it.

"You got stabbed knocking her out of the way and saving her. I think that may be worth some brownie points. Look, I have to go or that nurse will never let me back in. You should really get some rest."

Alice jumped down off the bed and gave Edward a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Tell her Edward, the next chance you get."

Alice bounded out the room, leaving Edward to his thoughts. His body was screaming at him for rest and his eyes were feeling heavy. The nurse came back in, took one lot of him and muttered something under her breath.

"You can't push yourself too hard or it will will delay your healing. You need some rest now."

Edward watched as the nurse injected some morphine into the cannula on the back of his hand. It was pointless resisting, besides she was right.

Edward let his eyes close and looked forward to some rest. He'd expected to slip back into darkness, but instead his mind was filled with sounds and images.

He could hear the sobbing of Leah. Bella screaming his name and the loud gunshots that were fired, before Vic Carter's body fell onto him. Then he heard other things, things that he didn't remember. The voice of McCarthy telling him he should have fired his gun rather than playing hero. Sirens and voices didn't recognise talking about saving him and the voice of Bella repeating his name, ordering him not to die and telling him she couldn't live without him. In his drugged haze he couldn't decipher how much of it was real or how much of it was hoping.

Finally the darkness he'd craved came and he slipped into oblivion.

Edward wasn't sure how long he'd been out for, but when his eyes next opened the lights were dimmed. He heard a faint sound beside him and turned to see Bella asleep on the chair. Her hair was damp and she was wearing some casual grey jogging bottoms and a hooded top, she had a thin blanket draped over her.

Edward watched her as she slept, her eyes twitched slightly and there was a beautiful glow to her cheeks. He wasn't sure how long he had watched her sleeping, but it was truly mesmerising. Bella started to twitch and she started to talk. Edward remembered back to a conversation in the early days of their training when she confessed to be terrible at sleep talking.

"No... no..." she muttered.

Edward watched as she became increasingly agitated, her head started to thrash and he was torn between watching and waking her up. Then she said his name..

"Edward, please don't go. I need you" she whimpered

Edward mouth swung open and he stared. She continued to whimper and then started to cry, she sounded genuinely afraid.

"Bella... Bella" he called out gently.

She didn't respond. He reached out towards her to wake her up, but she was just too far away. Inching his way to the edge of the bed he reached as far as he could. His side screamed at him to stop, but he ignored it. He took one last lunge and managed to nudge her awake.

Bella's eyes flew open just in time to see Edward falling from the bed, she quickly stopped him and pushed him back up. He groaned in agony as she laid him back down.

"What were you doing?" she snapped.

"You were having a bad dream, I was trying to wake you up." he panted.

A nurse rushed through the door and started to respond to the alarm that was sounding.

"What happened?"

"He was trying to lean over to wake me up, he almost fell out of bed." Bella snapped.

The nurse gave Edward the sternest of looks. He sunk back deeper into his pillow. As the nurse moved to check his wound he felt an odd dampness, he looked down to see blood seeping from the wound.

"Ah!" he muttered

"Ah! Indeed. Don't let him move, I need to fetch the doctor."

Bella stood up and hovered over Edward, he watched as her eyes drew down to the blood and she blanched.

"Edward! What were you playing at. You could have just shouted at me."

"I did! You didn't hear and whatever you were dreaming of seemed to be getting worse, so I had to wake you up."

"What did I say?"

"You said my name and uttered the words don't go, but you started to thrash around and you were crying."

Edward watched as Bella's cheeks flushed crimson, he put his hand up towards one of her cheeks and gently rubbed. Bella put her hand around his out-stretched wrist, but didn't stop him.

The door swung open again and a doctor appeared with the nurse. Edward tried to ignore him as he poked around at the wound, but it was agony.

"You're lucky, you've just popped a stitch or too. I need to close it back up. Will you need sedation, or do you think you can manage?"

Edward kept his eyes on Bella and shook his head. If Bella doesn't mind holding my hand i'm sure I can manage.

Bella smirked and held Edwards hand tight. The room was silent as the doctor worked. Once he'd finished he got he nurse to apply a fresh dressing.

"I suppose I don't need to tell you how important it is not to do too much too soon. You had quite a deep wound Mr Cullen. You need to allow your body to mend itself."

"He'll behave, i'll make sure of that." Bella promised the doctor.

The doctor and nurse left them alone. At first their was an awkward silence. Edward started to try and move, but the look on Bella's face made him stop.

"Stay still. You've done enough damage for one day."

"What time is it anyway?"

"A little after 3am."

"How long have you been here?"

"I finished work around 10pm. The paperwork was horrendous. The team went out for celebratory drinks, but I told them I was too tired. I jumped in the shower and tried to relax, but I couldn't. I got here around midnight, had quite a fight to get in. I just needed to know you were okay."

Bella was leaning on the edge of the bed next to Edward, he placed his arm across her lap. He watched as Bella wrested her hands on his arm.

"I don't quite know how I would have coped if I had lost you."

Edward felt a dampness to his arm and realised Bella was crying.

"You don't get rid of me that easily. I'd have done it all again, you know. I can't help think that had I not done what I did, you or Leah would have been hurt."

"Why didn't you shoot? Why did you lunch forward?"

"I figured if I had shot then he would have still had chance to get to one of you. I couldn't have risked that. "

An uneasy silence descended.

"Bella..." Edward began. When he didn't continue, she moved his arm away from her lap and got off the bed, spinning around she adjusted herself till she was looking directly at him.

"What is it Edward?"

Edward wasn't quite sure how to say it. He'd liked Bella for so long he had played the moment through his head so many times, but they'd always involved candlelit dinners or walks on a beach, this isn't how it was supposed to happen.

"Edward..."

Edward closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as he opened his eyes he felt the intensity for Bella's stare.

"This isn't how I wanted to do this, but i've waited far too long to tell you this and given how bad I feel right now and how much I know that there'll be a nurse or a doctor bursting through that door at some point to give me more pain meds I need to get this out of my head whilst I still can. I like you Bella I mean really like you. I've been in to you ever since I met you, but i've been too much of a jerk to ever say anything about it. When you were in danger earlier, my only thought was 'not her'. I'd rather be stabbed or shot over and over again if it prevented anyone harming you in any way. I know that we're partners and we need to be professional, but I had to let you know how I feel."

Edwards words tumbled out so fast he didn't know if he'd said everything he wanted to say, but he felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. After all this time he'd finally let it all out.

He watched as Bella's cheeks flushed, but her eyes never wavered from his face, she leant down towards him and their lips met. Edward felt the blood rushing to his head and he hungrily kissed back. The beeping of the machine went into override and they pulled way when a nurse ran through the doors.

She took one look at them and then noted the machine calming down and threw her hands in the hair.

"Get a room kids" she snapped.

"That could get embarrassing." Edward complained.

"Quite!"

Edward could feel the smile plastered across his face and he saw that Bella had a grin on her face too.

"You know, that machine has been telling all day." she teased.

"Oh?"

"Like when I left with the chief earlier today the machine started to beep faster when he put his hand on my shoulder."

Edward looked away.

"Edward, he's old enough to be my father. I like him though, he's charming, but he's also my boss and I am sure he doesn't see me as anything, but his latest recruit."

Edward bit down on his bottom lip, he should have known that Bella was much more observant than he'd given her credit for.

"How long have you known?"

"That would be telling. All I can say is I am glad you've finally admitted it."

Edward put his arms out and Bella leant over him resting her head on his chest. She listened to his heard pumping away and tried her best not to put any pressure on his right side.

"I have to go." she murmured.

Edward moved his arms to let her up. She could read the disappointment on his face.

"Why?"

"First of all, you need your rest. You are no good to me in here, hooked up to machines and bleeding every time you move and secondly. I am on shift in around 2 hours and I need to get some sleep, or some strong coffee."

Edward knew it made sense, but having finally shared his feelings with her, he felt like nothing had actually been resolved.

"What now? I mean I have finally told you how I feel, but what does it mean for us now?"

Bella leant down and kissed Edward on the forehead, she then brushed her nose against his cheek before kissing his neck, finally she hovered over his face and kissed his lips. Gently at first, but then with more intensity. She stopped when the beeping began to elevate again.

"First you get better. I'll come back whenever I can to see you. Then we can see where it takes us, but Edward. At work and around our colleagues we are Cullen and Swan. If this is to work at all, we need to keep our professional and personal lives separate."

Edward nodded.

"Just one more kiss before you go?"

Bella moved out of reach and laughed.

"You'll get the next kiss when I see you next time and only if you look better than you do now. I'll be checked with the nurses whether you've been behaving yourself."

Edward shot Bella a look of contempt.

"You don't play fair!"

"Never said I did. If you want any chance of seeing where things can take us, you better do everything they tell you and get better soon."

"Yes Ma'am!"

Bella headed back towards the door, turning to Edward long enough to blow him a kiss. Then she disappeared, leaving Edward alone with his thoughts. He was feeling euphoric, aside from the pain in his side. The restitched wound was very uncomfortable. He considered just closing his eyes and trying to sleep, but then he remembered what Bella had said. How she needed him fit and well and the sooner he got out of here, the sooner they could explore their feelings more.

Edward placed his pride aside for the time being and pressed the call buzzer. As the nurse came, he explained the pain he was feeling, she checked his wounds for signs of infection but it was clear. Then she checked his chart and administered the morphine that he should have had a while ago.

The last thoughts Edward had as he slipped back into darkness was of the feeling of Bella's lips against his.