A/N: This chapter's up a lot faster than I thought it'd be. So, umm, nothing else to say but enjoy! Oh, sorry for the abrupt start. :)
I rested my head on Bella's pillow, looking at her angelic face. Her eyes flickered open, and her hand sleepily searched for something. "No, you don't." I took her hand, pulling it away from the tape covering the tubes.
"Edward?" I sighed. I hadn't heard her voice in over a day- it was driving me crazy. "Oh, Edward, I'm so sorry!"
"Shhhh. Everything's all right now." And it was. Bella was here, alive, with me. As much as it was wrong, it felt so right.
"What happened?"
"I was almost too late. I could have been too late," I murmured softly. The visions from the ballet studio still ran before my eyes, my own living hell.
"I was so stupid, Edward. I thought he had my mom." She looked at me pleadingly, her brown eyes full of regret.
"He tricked us all," I soothed her. None of this was her fault. It was completely mine- to let her stay with me this long. If only I'd been strong enough to resist her scent. If only I'd had a biology partner, or if Mr. Banner had one less student in a class...
"I need to call Charlie and my mom," Bella said suddenly, looking around. I grinned. Alice had that job.
"Alice called them. Renee is here-" I grimaced slightly. "-well, here in the hospital. She's getting something to eat right now."
"She's here?" Bella tried to push herself up, and I tugged her back down, respecting Carlisle's words of advice.
"She'll be back soon." Bella's heart rate sped up as I told her this, a slight look of panic coming over her face. "And you need to stay still." Three medical degrees -and a 300-year old father- had told me as much.
"But what did you tell her?" Bella looked at me anxiously. I didn't tell Renee anything- that was Alice. "Why did you tell her I'm here?"
"You fell down two flights of stairs and though a window. You have to admit, it could happen." Only to you, I finished in my mind, smiling slightly.
Bella lifted the sheet and frowned at her leg. "How bad am I?"
I winced. "You have a broken leg, four broken ribs, some cracks in your skull, bruises covering every inch of your skin, and you've lost a lot of blood. They gave you a few transfusions. I didn't like it – it made you smell all wrong for a while." I wrinkled my nose at the thought. Though most of the foul smell had gone away, there was still a faint, lingering odor of stale blood inside her delicious, tempting… I mentally cursed myself. I shouldn't think of her like that, ever.
"That must have been a nice change for you."
"No, I like how you smell." However wrong that statement was, it was a hundred percent true. It was part of what made Bella herself, part of why she was so irresistible, in the physical sense.
"How did you do it?" I looked at her face, my eyes boring into hers. She had an inquisitive look in her eyes, wondering. How did I do it? I searched through my mind, bringing up the past, when I had to make that decision in the dance studio. The sweet, tantalizing blood. Venom filled my mouth even thinking about it. Reflecting back on that made me think it was impossible- yet, I stopped.
"I'm not sure." I looked away from her eyes, and gently picked up her hand, reveling in the warmth. "It was impossible… to stop. Impossible. But I did. I must love you."
I looked back at her, a smile on my face. It was true. Never, in the 87 years that I had been a vampire, had I had feeling so strong. Amazing, what this human girl could do to me.
"Don't I taste as good as I smell?" Bella asked me, breaking me out of my thoughts. As if there was even a competition.
"Even better – better than I'd imagined." Nothing, no animal blood, no human blood, could ever live up to the taste of her blood.
"I'm sorry." She looked at me, her eyes burning with regret. I looked away. Why was she sorry for this?
"Of all the things to apologize for." I rolled my eyes. Leave it to Bella to say sorry for having tempting blood; as if she could control that.
"What should I apologize for?" For running off like that to James, I thought.
"For very nearly taking yourself away from me forever."
"I'm sorry," she murmured, looking down at the hospital bed.
"I know why you did it." For Renee, of course. If it was me, I would've done it too. "It was still irrational, of course. You should have waited for me, you should have told me."
"You wouldn't have let me go." Of course not.
"No," I said firmly. "I wouldn't."
Bella shook violently on her bed cringing at an unpleasant memory. "Bella, what's wrong?" I asked urgently.
"What happened to James?" Bella's voice was still shaky.
"After I pulled him off you, Emmett and Jasper took care of him." I grimaced. James should be glad that Emmett and Jasper did the deed, for if I had done it…
"I didn't see Emmett and Jasper there." I shook my head. If Jasper had been there, it… wouldn't have been good.
"They had to leave the room… there was a lot of blood." I frowned, remembering how much blood there was.
"But you stayed."
"Yes, I stayed." I had to stay; I couldn't leave. It was the furthest thing from my mind then. Looking back, I realized how much stronger I'd made myself by staying.
"And Alice, and Carlisle…" Bella trailed off. Carlisle, I knew he could handle it. But Alice…
"They love you, too, you know." I beamed at her.
Suddenly, she shut her eyes, and gasped. "Did Alice see the tape?"
My mind flashed back to the scene when Alice watched the tape, every dark thought filling her – and me.
"Alice, Alice, the video – he knew you, Alice, he knew where you came from," Bella mumbled.
"It's time to move her…" Carlisle trailed off.
"No, I want to sleep," Bella murmured, a bit louder. Alice gasped, and ran off, into the distance.
"You can sleep, sweetheart, I'll carry you." My focus was solely on Bella then, but I could still hear Alice, in the distance.
No… no… no! How could he?
"Sleep now, Bella," I said gently, looking anxiously at Alice, who was still staring fiercely at the small, dark screen of the video camera.
"Yes." I shook my head slightly, so slightly I doubted Bella caught it. Alice's thoughts were still wavering back and forth. I could hear the din in the lobby, and tried to pick apart the thoughts.
No! MOMMY!
Oww… wonder when the doctor's going to be out…
Why don't lollipops taste better?
Must stop Jasper… must stop Jasper… why did James do that? He basically took my entire history away! At least… now I know how I was changed, why I didn't know…
"She was always in the dark, that's why she didn't remember." Bella's voice tore me out of my reverie.
"I know. She understands now." My voice was harsher than I'd meant it to be, and I turned away to hide my angry eyes.
She reached for my face, and then stopped, looking at something on her arm. "Ugh." Bella made a face, picking at something on her arm.
I was immediately by her side, unaware of the fury that lingered in my pitch-black eyes. "What is it?"
"Needles," she mumbled, still pulling at her IV.
"Afraid of a needle. Oh, a sadistic vampire, intent on torturing her to death, sure, no problem, she runs off to meet him. An IV, on the other hand…" I rolled my eyes, and Bella did the same. Surely, certainly, there had to be something wrong. She hung out with vampires too much…
"Why are you here?" Bella looked at me, her eyes telling me that she was intent on changing the subject.
I frowned slightly. Did she not want me here? Was I bothering her too much? "Do you want me to leave?"
"No!" I smiled slightly at her outright protest. "No, I meant," she continued, calmer. "Why does my mother think you're here? I need to have my story straight before she gets back."
"Oh." I hadn't heard the entire conversation with Alice and Renee, so this would be a little harder than I thought. "I came to Phoenix to talk some sense into you, to convince you to come back to Forks. You agreed to see me, and you drove out to the hotel where I was staying with Carlisle and Alice – of course I was here with parental supervision, but you tripped on the stairs on the way to my room and… well, you know the rest. You don't need to remember any of the details, though;" I smiled. "You have a good excuse to be a little muddled about the finer points.
Bella considered it for a second. "There are a few flaws with that story. Like no broken windows," she pointed out.
Ha! Tell Bella I broke more than enough windows. I growled softly, wishing Alice could read minds so that I could tell her to stop eavesdropping.
"Not really," I said, smirking slightly. "Alice had a little bit too much fabricating evidence. It's all been taken care of very convincingly – you could probably sue the hotel if you wanted to." Which was true –the mental image that Alice had sent me told all "You have nothing to worry about. Your only job now is to heal." I reached down, and as light as a moth's wing, I brushed my hand against her cheek, reveling in the warmth.
The EKG machine suddenly beeped out of the steady rhythm, and I smiled. I still couldn't believe, after so many months, that Bella responded to me this way.
She blushed, a beautiful rosy pink, and looked away. "That's going to be embarrassing."
I laughed quietly, and watched until the machine beeped normally again. If she responded to my mere touch what would happen if…? "Hmm, I wonder…"
I leaned in slowly, still taking care to control my inner monster. Even though the ballet studio incident had made me so much stronger, I didn't trust myself. I pressed my cold, hard lips against her warm, soft ones, enjoying it. Ahhh, kissing… Beep…beep… … …
I pulled away anxiously, checking to see if she was still alive. The beeping began again, and I sighed slowly in relief. "It seems that I'm going to have to be even more careful with you than usual." I shook my head slightly; as if that was possible.
Bella frowned petulantly. "I was not finished kissing you," she grumbled. "Don't make me come over there."
I smiled, and kissed her again. Again, the monitor went silent, and I pulled away immediately. Footsteps were approaching, coming closer to Bella's room. Maybe she's awake by now…
"I think I hear your mother," I said, bracing myself for a nice, long chat with Renee.
Bella looked at me nervously, panic in her eyes. "Don't leave me," she pleaded.
"I won't." As if I ever would. But I had to somehow escape Renee… my eyes slid over the uncomfortable-looking recliner by Bella's bed, and I grinned. "I'll take a nap," I decided.
Bella watched as I lay down on the chair, positioning myself to take a "nap". "Don't forget to breathe," she whispered. I rolled my eyes, but decided to humor her, taking a deep breath.
Renee was still outside, talking to Bella's resident nurse. "No, that's my daughter in there! You have to let me see her!" Renee's voice, though weary, was demanding.
"I'm very sorry, ma'am, but visiting hours are over." The nurse, who sounded just as tired, began walking away.
"Just a few minutes," Renee pleaded with the nurse.
My goodness, if I just let her go, then maybe she'd leave me alone! "You know what? Fine, but make sure your daughter – Isabella, isn't it? – gets enough rest." She walked away; her high heels clearly heard clicking down the hall.
I lay still, tense on the recliner as Renee approached. The door opened slightly. Here comes the dragon lady, I thought.
A/N: Okay, so I lied. I told someone that the next chapter would be the last, but it's not. Unless it was to be 10 pages on Word, or something. But, um, review! My goal for this fic is to get to 50 reviews. XD