Chapter 4

Carlisle's POV

When I made it down to Surgery Suite 1 the radiologist and surgeon were waiting for me.

"Well what is the diagnosis on Miss Swan guys?" I said hopefully.

Both doctors looked at each other.

Dr Singh, the surgeon did the speaking, "Truthfully Dr. Cullen, I really don't know how this woman is still alive." "She has a punctured left lung, her spleen was completely obliterated, and left kidney is not salvageable at this point, it will have to come out." "We've already had to give her 3 pints of blood, and expect to have to give her more during surgery." "She has three broken ribs, hence the punctured lung, her pelvis is fractured and will need to be monitored, and hopefully won't need surgery." "Her left femur is broken and will have to have a cast." The doctor took a deep breath and continued, "she also has a fracture in her skull, but there is no swelling at all right now and barring any complication with that it should heal on its own." " I did find something a little odd as well, the ribs that are broken today where broken approximately 6 months ago, give or take a month or two which made them weaker than normal, so when she got hit by the vehicle they broke completely." "I also noticed old fractures on almost all of her fingers, both of her wrists and a fractured jaw bone a few years old as well." I shook my head in disbelief, "I don't know what happened to her before she came here, but I strongly suspect that she has been a victim of abuse." "I am having her prepped for surgery, we will remove the spleen and kidney, will also do an exploratory procedure to make sure we haven't missed any other damages or internal bleeding." Once she is in recovery, we will set the leg, and after the chest tube comes out we should be able to stabilize the ribs better."

"Thank you for consulting with me; if it's ok I would like to observe the surgery from the gallery." I asked.

"I have no problem with that at all Dr. Cullen; we will let you know how it went after we are finished."

I observed as they wheeled her into the surgery suite. I was barely containing my anger at this point. Who had abused my mate? I could feel my animal urge to protect her kick in, after over 300 years alone, i had someone that depended on me to protect and take care of her. I would find out what had happened in her past, something told me it wasn't going to be easy to convince her that I was there to protect her, she had been hurt before and expected her to have a wall built up over her and her children. Right now he had to concentrate on getting her through the surgery and stabilized enough to start healing and rehab.

Dr. Grant's POV

I waited in my office for the call to come in on my disposable phone I purchased 2 weeks after my bitch of a wife left and took my children with her.

I warned her that if she left she would regret it. Well today I kept my promise. I had hired a professional to take care of the situation for me. The good doctor couldn't go getting my hands dirty, now could I?

I grinned at my plan. I had hired a private detective the day she left. It took me a few months but I found her, living with her father in the same tiny little know nothing town he took her out of. That was the kicker, she had lied to me and told me her father was dead, so they didn't know to look there first. It was only after me thinking that she may have gone there did the PI find her there.

JI had given her everything she wanted she just couldn't seem to keep her mouth shut and do what she was told. I had to keep her in line and she would listen after I would beat some sense into her.

She had the nerve to take my daughters with her as well. When I got them back I would make sure they were raised to respect and obey their father.

The cell phone rang in my hand. "Hello?"

"Yes, this is the Doctor." He replied.

"Is the job done?" I asked.

"What do you mean, kind of?" Scowling to him.

"Jesus, she's still alive in the hospital?"

"You had better hope she doesn't pull through, or no payment." I then hung up furious.

By God, I paid good money to this professional to take her out and she's still hanging on in the hospital. Guess it's on to plan B then.

I gathered my briefcase and my keys to my Lamborghini, I would have some thinking and planning to do, if you want something done, apparently you have to do the damn shit yourself. I shook my head, what is this world coming to?

Meanwhile back at the Cullen house...

"Rosie baby, I think one of these little cuties has done something really nasty in her diaper." Emmett snarled his lip up in disgust.

"Don't Rosie baby me, get the diaper and wipes and change her then." Rosalie smiled to herself at the thought.

"Oh man, really, come on babe, please?" He begged.

She came in the nursery vampire speed, and shot him a dirty look.

"Emmett, if you think just the women in this house is going to be in charge of diaper duty, you are sorely mistaken." "Get on with it; quit making her sit in that any longer." She pointed sternly.

He sniffed the air cautiously and determined little Miss Bridgette was the culprit. She laughed and clapped her hands and reached up to him. Emmett grabbed her up careful not to make a bigger mess for him to clean up.

"Come on Miss Stinky Pants, let's get you all changed." Emmett said in a silly voice. Bridgette giggled loudly at his comment.

CPOV

I raced to my house to check on the babies and change clothes and then I was going back to the hospital to sit with my Bella. She had made it through surgery without complication and was in recovery when I left to come home. She would be heavily sedated for the next few days to let her start healing; she was in for a long hard road ahead.

I also needed to talk to Chief Ryan about the accident details. Something about this did not sit right with him at all. I had a bad feeling it was no accident and someone had tried to kill my mate, and that was just not acceptable at all. I was making a mental list of the creative ways I could make the bastard who did this pay dearly.

I opened the front door the house and it looked like a bomb in a baby store went off in here. Well, I should have expected it with Alice getting the "necessary baby supplies" for the twins. Her necessary and his were apparently two different things. There were crib boxes, strollers, high chairs and everything else you could imagine. I do believe these girls have every baby toy ever made. Was that set of Barbie Jeeps out in the back yard? They aren't even old enough for those yet. Oh Alice, she is a force to be reckoned with that's for sure. I'm pretty sure Jasper tried to no avail to rein her in, but even he knows he is wasting his time. They would definitely never want for anything that's for sure. I shook my head and chuckled to myself, it was good to have happiness in my life again.

I darted upstairs at vampire speed to check on the state of things with the children. Alice, Esme and Rosalie had already prepared a nursery. Wow, when it comes to vampire women they get things done in a hurry. It was a beautiful nursery, decorated in fairies and flowers. The three women were in the floor with the babies playing with various learning toys. Brianna and Bridgette looked up at him as he zipped in the door, not phased a bit by his sudden entrance into the room.

"Looks like they have made themselves at home, like they have lived here all along." I beamed.

"Oh yes, Alice smiled, "these two, are girls after my own little vampire heart." "They chose their own pajamas, and picked the Baby Prada sets, of course, they have such developed tastes already."

Alice couldn't have been more proud if they were her own children.

Rosalie piped up, "Yeah, we had to give them a bath after Emmett changed his first dirty diaper, it was awful Carlisle, poop everywhere." "I just told him practice makes perfect, and he just gagged." She giggled with a wicked smile on her face. "It was priceless, I took pictures for their baby books."

I sat on the floor with the twins, they both crawled to me as fast as they could, climbing in my lap to snuggle.

"Well, Carlisle, we will let you have a little time with your new daughters before you have to go back to the hospital to be with Bella." Esme winked at me and smiled.

Alice, Rosalie and Esme said their goodnights to the babies and chattered happily as they left the nursery.

I picked up the babies with ease and sat in the rocking chair to get to know my girls a little bit.

The girls looked up at me with the most trusting eyes. I noticed that they looked almost exactly the same color as I did when I was human.

"Ok, you little angels, it's time for bed." "I know you're probably used to your Mamma putting you to bed every night, but she is sick right now and needs to get better." "So for now I will be here each night until she can be again."

I put each one in a crib covered them up and kissed them on the forehead. They seem contented enough even with the traumatic events of the day. Without a doubt they were amazing children and I was positive it spoke of how devoted a mother they had.

Bella's POV

I felt like I had heavy weights all over my body, I couldn't move at all. I tried to concentrate to remember what had happened earlier that day.

Was I in the hospital? Yes, that was it; I could feel so many emotions. There was pain, sadness, and grief everywhere.

Ok, Bella I thought to myself, you need to calm your mind and think very hard about the day. The girls had their doctor appointment today and the last thing I remembered was I walking them in the stroller to the clinic. Then there was a black SUV coming towards me and then pain, extreme pain.

Oh God the babies, I was panicking now, did he have them? I tried to wake up but was so tired. I drifted back into unconsciousness and into a nightmare I hadn't had in 3 months.

It was the last beating he had given me. I had made the mistake of threatening to leave him and take the girls. He looked at me with such arrogance and punched me in the face. I felt a crunch in my jaw and went to the floor. When I hit the floor he started kicking me repeatedly in the ribs and banging my head on the wood floor.

"You worthless bitch, you even think about stepping foot out of this house and leaving town with my children, yes my children, my property Bella, and I swear I will find you and kill you and take the girls anyway." "I have connections that can make it look like an accident and no one would ever know."

He bragged.

I covered my head with my hands as he continued to kick me in the side.

I started crying and said "I'm sorry, I'm sorry Jamison, I just got mad I didn't mean it." "I would never do that to you."

I had to tell him what he wanted to hear so he would stop hurting me.

I lay in the hospital bed reliving the whole event in my mind, I could feel a panic attack coming on and herself start to hyperventilate, and then as quickly as it descended on me, I felt a rush of love, warmth and pure devotion.

Someone was in the room with me and I could feel it, I felt safe, for once, something I hadn't felt in the last 5 years. I relaxed and let myself drift back to sleep.

Carlisle POV

I left the house and went back to the hospital as fast as I could, bringing a change of clothes with me for my shift in the morning. I intended on being and integral part of Bella's recovery, I needed to prove to her that I and my family could be trusted; I had a feeling that was going to be a big issue with her in the days and months to come.

I pulled into the underground parking at the hospital and zipped up the stairs to my office to drop off my things and then made my way to her room.

I quietly eased into her room and immediately sensed something was wrong. She was dreaming and he could tell it was not a particularly pleasant one. Bella's heart rate accelerated as she had started hyperventilating, thrashing her arms and whimpering, over and over "Please stop."

My long dead vampire heart was breaking for her. This woman, my mate, had been through something very traumatic. The thought of this made me want to find the person responsible and shake them until I broke every bone in their body. I was not a violent man by nature, but no one would hurt my mate and get away with it. That would be able to promise her without fail.

I made it to her bedside in less than a second and placed my hand on her arm, alternating caressing it and her hair. I could feel her body relax under my touch and her breathing slowed.

She was my mate and with every fiber of my being I would do what it took to help her recover and feel loved and accepted into my family.