Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

Warning: This is not beta'd, all mistakes are my own because I'm too lazy to check over everything and spell check only does so much.


I kept my eyes closed as I waited for the pain to take over. I don't remember what happened, but I do know that I'm in a hospital. The only way Charlie would ever let me go to the hospital is if he went too far and I would die without their help. I don't think Charlie's ever gone too far though, he's always been so careful so that I won't be taken away from him.

I know Esme and Rosalie are here; their voices are easily recognizable. One of them is holding my hand and the other still has their hand on my cheek. They haven't said anything beyond saying they know I'm awake. They also haven't seemed to move a muscle since I woke up. I don't understand why they are here or even how they would know I would be here. If anything Charlie should be the only here pretending to be the caring father that the town knows him as.

The pain still doesn't seem to want to overcome the numbness that's settled in my body. It's not that I'm not grateful for that, I just don't get it. I don't feel any casts on me and I don't feel anything that would give me any hints as to why I'm here. The only thing I know that I'm hooked up to right now is the heart monitor and that's only because I can hear it. I don't even have one of the oxygen nose things that I know helps people breath.

Deciding that at the moment I want answers more than feeling awkward with Esme and Rosalie randomly being at my side in the hospital, I slowly opened my eyes. I've read that when you unexpectedly wake up in a hospital that when you first open your eyes, the bright lights hurt them. Something about sensitivity or something that I really don't care about right now, so that's what I was expecting. As my eyes opened to see a boring looking ceiling though, my eyes weren't bothered at all by the light.

The hand on my cheek left and my head, almost like a knee jerk reaction, turned in the direction the hand was disappearing to. The hand was retracted only to be placed back on top of my head to soothingly comb through my hair. Esme stared down at me with tear filled eyes. She looks as if at any moment she would have tears flowing down her face, but not a single tear fell.

"Good morning dear." Esme said with a small, sad smile.

Before I could think of a response, I felt someone start to rub gentle circles on the back of my hand opposite the side Esme is on. It seems almost like whoever is there is trying to get my attention away from Esme and on to them. It worked.

I turned head to the other side and saw Rosalie sitting next to me with my hand held gently in hers. Her other hand was placed closely to face, like she wanted to copy Esme's actions, but something was holding her back from doing so. Just like Esme, Rosalie looked like she was about to burst out crying, but not a single tear was being released.

Were they trying to not cry for me? Were they trying to do the whole, let's be strong for Bella since she's in the hospital and doesn't need anyone to break down on her thing? I don't see why they would break down or why they would even try not to break down. We barely know each other, nothing more than school mates and in Esme's case, well, nothing more than an acquaintance. I'm assuming Esme is Rosalie's mom, but even with that connection, it still wouldn't warrant her being here right now.

"I'm so sorry Bella." Rosalie said. I think this is the first time I've ever heard her speak with some sort of softness in her voice. Normally she's the epitome of the Ice Queen that everyone at school has come to know her as.

I wanted to ask her why she's sorry, but I quickly stopped the words from coming out of my mouth. I already know why she's sorry. That's the automatic thing to say when someone is in the hospital or even just sick. The person has nothing to actually feel sorry for and they may not even be sorry, but it's the polite thing to say so they say it. That has to be what Rosalie means.

"What happened?" Was instead what I asked.

My voice wasn't scratchy or practically non-existent like I've also read in books. I didn't need anything to drink because my throat was so dry it felt like it was in the middle of a drought. My throat in fact felt just fine. It feels like it normally does when I wake up on any other morning. Nothing out of the normal.

"Go get Carlisle dear and tell him Bella's awake please." Esme said without taking her eyes off me and gaining my attention from Rosalie.

"You go get Carlisle and I'll stay here to explain to Bella." Rosalie said; the bitchyness back in her voice. I turned to look at her and saw that even though her voice was hard and cold, her eyes held a softness that was only directed at me.

I could have sworn I heard a small growl come from Esme's direction and it momentarily scared until I was able to remember that humans don't growl and I had to be hearing things. Maybe it was actually just my stomach letting me know I'm hungry? I saw Rosalie's eyes quickly stare at Esme and then back to me. She had a scowl on her face and clearly she was upset, but for some reason I just know that she isn't mad at me.

"Fine. I'll be back." Rosalie said before she bent down and gently kissed my forehead.

I couldn't stop my face scrunching in confusion if I wanted to. Why did she do that? Isn't that something you do to someone that you're actually close to? That's a sign of affection I thought, Rosalie shouldn't have done that. I don't get it.

Before I could think about it further, Esme cleared her throat and started to answer my question.

"You were in an accident dear." Esme said gently when she had my attention back on her.

I barely heard the door close behind Rosalie when Esme told me that. I don't remember any accident. I remember Charlie getting mad at me and having to stay home for a couple days to heal up, but that wasn't hospital worthy. There wouldn't have been any way for Esme or Rosalie to know about that anyways. I'm always careful enough to not get caught.

But, if I'm in a hospital and I doubt Esme is lying to me; that means I did get in an accident somehow. With how clumsy I am, I really shouldn't be that surprised. If I did though, which clearly I did considering where I am right now, that means someone found me and took me to the hospital. That also means that someone would have called Charlie and told him what happened. I'm in the hospital, in a hospital gown and Charlie isn't here.

Oh God.

That means he's in trouble. Someone must have seen my lingering bruises and blamed Charlie. I know Charlie did them and I know he really shouldn't have, but at the same time I deserved them. If I had behaved like he's taught me to, he wouldn't have to teach me his lessons; lessons that he's taught me basically my whole life. I should have known better.

Now Charlie is in trouble someplace and it's all my fault. I'm eighteen now, I won't have anywhere to go. I doubt I would be allowed to go back to Charlie's place. I can't afford it, I don't have any money.

As my panic increased about my situation, so did my heartbeat, which was being broadcasted to anyone in the room; to Esme. Esme gently cupped my face in my hands and turned my head to face her. I didn't even realize I had turned away from her. Her thumbs gently swiped away tears that had unknowingly started to fall down my face.

"Calm down dear, you're fine. Nothing bad will happen to you, I promise." Esme said in a soothing voice that actually seemed to help calm me down a little.

"Where's Ch-my dad?" I asked as I calmed down.

Before Esme could answer, the door opened and allowed Rosalie followed by a similar looking blonde doctor. The doctor screamed patience and a caring nature. Normally I don't like doctors because of what they could do to Charlie if they suspected anything, but I couldn't help but like this man.

"It's good to see you're awake Bella; how are you feeling?" The man said as he went straight to my charts at the foot of my bed and Rosalie sat back down in her chair next to me while giving Esme a little glare before taking my hand and smiling gently down at me.

"I'm fine. Can I go home with my dad now?" I asked, wanting to get away from here as quickly as possible.

If Charlie isn't here, I know he's mad about me getting placed in here. I bet he's thinking of ways to get me to remember to not go to the hospital in the future. I bet I'll have to miss a lot more of school when Charlie is done; but that's what I get for breaking one of his biggest rules.

"Well, I just want to make sure that you're as well as possible before releasing you." The man said.

"I'm eighteen, can't I just leave?" I asked quickly when I realized that he's holding something back from me.

I saw his smile falter briefly before he placed the chart back down. He looked at the women on either side of me, almost like he was asking their permission or something before looking back at me.

"First off, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Carlisle Cullen and I was the doctor that attended to your father when he was brought in and by request, I attended to you as well." Carlisle said gently with a small, calming smile.

It took me a moment to think through what he just said. I gathered right away that someone had to request that he treat me and I bet anything it was probably Esme and Rosalie to make that request. That doesn't really bother me; if they made the request then I'm sure it was for the best. I really don't care which doctor treated me, it doesn't change the outcome of Charlie getting in trouble at all. What took a little longer for me to realize though was that Carlisle said that he was the doctor that treated Charlie, past tense.

"Who's treating him now?" I asked as I tried to sit up. I didn't even know he was hurt, I don't know what happened but he's the only one I have that gives me any sort of food and shelter, I can't lose that.

I don't know why I tried to sit up. Lying down in this meager hospital bed is actually the most comfortable I've even felt. If I had to be honest, I would have to say that if I could I wouldn't want to leave this bed and just lay here forever. This beats what I'm used to sleeping on by a long shot.

"How much do you remember about the accident?" Carlisle gently asked.

"I don't." I answered, silently begging me that he would just hurry up and tell me where Charlie is.

"Charlie was driving you to I believe school. It was storming very badly yesterday and I suppose neither driver were paying attention." Carlisle said. I swear he's dragging this out on purpose. I'm doing my best to stay calm and not think of anything too bad happening to Charlie, but Carlisle is making that very hard to do. "Charlie ran a red light and another driver slammed into your vehicle, the other driver couldn't have stopped in time." Carlisle said.

As I said this I could see flashes of what happened. I remember Charlie driving me to school and me being happy that he cared enough to do so. I don't remember the other vehicle, but I remember something slamming into us. For some reason though, I remember seeing a flash of blonde hair. Maybe the other driver was blonde?

"Where's Charlie?" I asked, my eyes slowing filling with tears as I started to think the worst.

"I'm very sorry Bella, but he wasn't wearing his seatbelt; he didn't stand a chance." Carlisle said in a gentle voice that for once did nothing to calm me down as he destroyed my world.