Disclaimer: I'm running out of things to say for this considering all the stories I've done. So I own nothing OK?
A/N- I think I realized the order that I am updating in: MPW, SOLAL, and then this story. So it's The Incredible Journey's turn! Yay!
Also, I'm making Bella seventeen because it suits this story better. So pretend the Cullens never through Bella a birthday party because her birthday hasn't rolled around yet.
BPOV:
Awake, I was awake. But where was I waking up?
"Miss? Miss, are you awake?" An unfamiliar voice drifted into my dark solitude and I cracked my eyes open.
Bright, it was too bright. I quickly shut my eyes again.
Trying to form words, I opened my mouth and forced my vocal cords to make some sort of verbal communication. But all that came out was a loud painful-sounding groan.
"She's responding. Doctor, do we have anything to help her wake up?"
"Yes but we need to let her wake up on her own; it will be better for her brain."
I groaned again in relief this time-no more needles putting strange medicines into my system.
"Where am I?" I moaned. I think they understood my words this time because the doctor guy answered.
"A hospital. You were fatally injured in a hit-and-run accident. We managed to get you into surgery just in time. If we had waited any longer you more than likely would have died. How do you feel?" This man's voice was smooth like I remembered Carlisle's was but it didn't sooth me very well as panic overcame me-what had been my family's fate?
"I feel…"I checked over myself internally. "Dizzy. Confused. My throat hurts a bit as does my head. I can't feel my wrist at all. Is it broken? My whole body aches badly. I don't know if I can move too much. How's my family?"
I had just barely managed to say all of that before my voice gave out. I felt something cold and hard touch my lips and water began to pour into my mouth. I opened my lips so that I could drink more of it.
"Your family…didn't fare nearly as well as you did Miss. I'm sad to say all were found dead at the scene aside from one red-haired woman. Is she your relative?" The non-soothing voice continued to ask. I decided that by now the light would be bearable and opened my eyes.
Instead of being met with bright light the room was dim with only a few lights shining. That was good-I don't think my eyes would have been able to handle medical-quality lighting. At my bedside but respectively distanced away from me was a doctor. I knew he was a doctor by the white coat he wore. Underneath was a pair of scrubs colored blue and white tennis shoes.
"My name is Doctor Biggerstaff. And this is Nurse Jason Crocker. Can you remember anything Miss?" Doctor Biggerstaff asked her. Jason was a few steps behind Doctor Biggerstaff and was smiling slightly at me.
I blinked a few spots away and tried to focus on what happened.
"Renee was yelling about Phil's driving and then everyone was spinning, tumbling til the world stopped. Then…" I mentally decided that telling them about my crazy talk-to-someone-who-isn't-there episodes was a horrible idea. "…the smell of blood knocked me out. Then somebody said something about surgery?" The last part was a question for I was uncertain about whether that was real or just a dream. Everything between the crash and now was blurry-I must have been dreaming.
"Yes-you have a good memory compared to most critical patients that have experienced such a horrible event. Do you think you could tell me your name Miss? Along with some basic information?" Doctor Biggerstaff was polite like he should be and I managed to smile softly at him. He seemed like a great doctor-I had gotten lucky.
"My name is Bella Swan." I took a second to remember my full name. "Isabella Marie Swan. But call me Bella-I don't like Isabella. I'm seventeen years old an in my last year of high school. My father is Charlie Swan, ex-police chief of Forks, Washington. His wife-my step-mom- is Josie Stewart, now Swan. My real mom is Renee…I can't remember her new last name but she lives in Phoenix with my step-dad Phil. That all I remember besides Josie and Charlie had just been married and we were moving to…Michigan. Yes, Michigan."
I was proud of myself-I remembered so much of my life aside from my time with the Cullens. Those times were permanently ingrained into my memory-no amount of trauma could remove their faces from my mind no matter how much I might want it too.
No, I was lying. No matter how much misery they unintentionally caused me, I would still love them.
All of them.
"Good, this is good!" Jason said enthusiastically. He seemed even more thrilled than the doctor that I remembered so much.
"Yes, this is splendid. Your recovery seems, from this point on, to be smooth sailing. But I sadly must inform you that one of the other victims, a redheaded woman who was seated beside you, is not doing as well. Do you think you could come with me to see her and help me identify which of your relatives she is?" Doctor Biggerstaff asked.
I nodded eagerly before holding my head in pain-that had been a bad idea.
Jason helped me into a wheelchair and wheeled me out of the room and into the halls.
For the first time I looked at myself. I actually looked better off than after James' attack. My left wrist was in a cast and I was covered in bandages but at least wrappings were lighter and softer than plaster. My lungs ached and I realized that I must have broken at least three of them.
"Why did you have to put me into surgery?" I asked Jason. I didn't look like I had been into live-saving surgery. That reminded me. "How long have I been out?" I asked urgently.
"Hush, calm down Bella. You had to have surgery because one of your broken ribs had pierced your right lung and a piece of glass had cut into your neck pretty bad. Those two things combined were enough to be very serious. Though I don't have high hopes for your wrist either-it was pretty badly damaged." Jason was now looking at me sympathetically and I avoided his gaze. I'd always hated pity.
"As for how long you've been out, it's only been a couple of hours. Right now it's pretty late, but we needed some type of lead as to who this woman is pretty badly."
I frowned at Jason's words as Doctor Biggerstaff opened a door and lead us inside. I gasped at the sight before me.
Josie was laying in a hospital bed and resembled what I believe I looked like after the attack in Phoenix. Josie was covered in gauze and not really moving though the heart and breathing monitors claimed she was alive. Her face was pale and her red hair a mess as it was sprayed around her head. She twitched as the door closed shut.
"Hello Doctor," the nurse currently on duty for this victim said politely. "We haven't gotten and response from her that would show she is conscious but I don't think we could have expected anything so soon. She's breathing normally but hasn't really moved at all-she's still as a statue."
Or a vampire, I thought sarcastically as I looked at Josie's still form. I didn't like the woman but she looked like she was in a lot of pain.
"Which one of your family members is this Bella?" Doctor Biggerstaff asked me.
"Josie," I chocked out; my throat still didn't feel one hundred percent. "Josie Swan."
Doctor Biggerstaff nodded and looked at Josie critically. "Alright, this girl needs rest. Jason, roll her back to her room so she can get a good night's sleep; she's had a rough day. Carol, let's see if we can hunt down those painkillers, the pain might be the reason she hasn't woken yet." Doctor Biggerstaff seemed to be going straight into doctor mode-something I had seen happen to Carlisle whenever I had gotten seriously injured-as Jason wheeled me to my room.
"You really should have stayed. I need your support." I muttered to Edward as tears of realization hit me. Everyone was dead except Josie. I really was alone now, in an unfamiliar place.
Alone.
The word haunted me like a scary movie haunts little kids and I cried into my hands as Jason provided soothing words and eased me back into my hospital bed. The smells of antiseptic and cleaners filled my nose as salty tears filled my eyes and everything became too much for my emotions to handle. My brain shut down.
EPOV:
An unfamiliar man frowned at the teenage girl as she fainted in the bed, tears still falling from her eyes.
"Poor thing," He muttered quietly, obviously feeling great pity for the girl. "Wish I could help her."
The man sighed and went to report to the doctor who was in another room, shutting the wooden door silently behind him.
I blinked out of the vision at the same time Alice did. Alice looked down sadly.
"Poor Bella," she muttered. Then her eyes blazed and she looked at the road in front of us in determination. "We will find you and take you home Bella. Don't you worry about a thing."
I nodded at my sister. "You're right. We will find her."
I pressed the gas even harder as we zoomed down the road through Canada and towards the United States. Or more importantly, Washington.
BPOV:
I woke up the next morning to find my eyes were dry and gritty. I rubbed them for a few minutes before blinking away any other sleepiness in them. I needed to be awake to face a new day.
Sunlight, my savior, came into the room through opening between the curtains. It made lines of light that cut through the room and highlighted certain parts like the lamp on a coffee table against the far right wall and her left hand which still had a heavy cast on it. I experimentally tried to raise the monstrosity but it refused to move-my arm muscles were too weak.
I sighed at this and turned to the wooden door, preoccupying my mind by trying to discover what type of wood the door was made of. Was it oak or fir? Maybe pine…
"Good morning. Looks like you are all up and awake." Jason said cheerfully as he opened the door, food in hand. My stomach growled as I eyed the plastic tray the housed bacon, eggs, juice, and an apple.
Jason laughed. "Well you seem hungry."
I laughed too. "And you seem oddly cheery. What's got your mood up?" I really only asked to be polite for what I was really focusing on was the food before me. Jason set the tray down and I began eating the food as fast as possible.
"Josie woke up about twenty minutes ago." Jason said happily. He looked like he was about to break out into song or something. "Chances are she'll regain her full memory within a year, also." He continued.
"WHAT!" I yelled at him. Josie lost her memory? She has amnesia? WTH?
"Yeah," Jason said. "When she woke up we asked her the same questions we asked you. She didn't know who you were, who her husband was, she didn't even know herself. It's a good thing you had all of you memory or we'd be more lost than she is. But her amnesia is temporary and Doctor Biggerstaff says that it may take a year at the most for a majority of her memory to come back. But hey, that means that there's hope for a regular life for her again, isn't it?"
I was gaping at the nurse. Was he insane? A year; that was horrible, not good. What was he thinking?
"A year! Were you dropped on your head as a child? This is horrible! She may never regain her memory, she may have forgotten her life forever, the doctors may be wrong…And you're practically whistling show tunes!" I screamed at him.
Jason seemed to be very easygoing considering he just shrugged my little rant off and kept on smiling. "Yeah, you could be right. Or she could regain her entire memory within the next month. You never know and I, personally, tend to be optimistic." Jason smiled as he took the now-empty tray off my lap.
"Well I'm not! And you could be completely wrong!" I continued to yell.
"Or not," He practically sang and I wanted to throw something at him for reminding me of all the times Alice had been beyond cheerful and I had been a worried mess. Memories and tears were not what I needed right now.
Jason exited my room before I yell a retort at him and I growled in frustration-like Alice, it appeared my nurse was impossible to deter from being happy when he wanted to be. I groaned loudly.
This was going to be one interesting recovery.
I can't wait.
EPOV:
As we came closer and closer to Washington-we got held up around three a.m. because of some bad traffic-I felt a sort of hope come through me. It would be simple: We would just ask around and find out where Bella went and then follow Alice's visions til we found out what hospital she is in.
Of course that was where we hit a rough spot.
"No, dammit!" Alice cried/growled angrily.
"What now?" I groaned. Of course nothing would be easy-this was my life, wasn't it?
"Agh, Bella's future it at a humongous crossroads right now and so many choices are possible with so many variables that I can't see straight! Agh, why her, why Bella? I can't see straight!" Alice was clearly pissed beyond belief at this revelation and everyone moaned in unison-this just made everything else harder.
"OK Alice; what made her future like this?" Rose asked, rubbing her temples even thought she could never have a real headache again.
BPOV:
"Since you have no more relatives who could watch over you at the moment, you step mother is still in recovery and you still haven't finished high school, it has been decided that you will temporarily be put into foster care." A strange man in a professional-looking suit told me.
I stared at him for a moment before my brain fully processed the information.
"WHAT THE HELL?"
Hahahahahaha! I made a HUGE cliffhanger! Awesome huh, Bella's going into foster care. How will the Cullen's find her now? It's nearly impossible to track foster kids down, or at least that's what I've heard. Oh well, lets see how this works out for her.
This was comparable short but huge plot wise. Review please!
More of the Journey continues!
~Sweevil Out!