A/N: Here it is guys, finally! I'm sorry it took longer than it should have, I got a bit side tracked. Like I mentioned on my profile page, I've been writing some original fiction lately, dabbling into my own stuff and exploring some ideas i've had for a while for stories of my own and decided it was time to give them a shot. Unfortunately, The Observer got a bit neglected because of that. I also rewrote quite a bit of this, so that took some extra time too. The EPOV is attached at the end, it's short and just a little drabble into Edward's mind. Edward is the one who watches out for thoughts that could be suspicious or that could threaten exposure and Annie happens to have one of those thoughts, so it's a bit of what Edward does when something like that happens. It's not that good honestly haha but what the heck, it was a fun little experiment there and I hope you like it, even if it may seem a bit off. Next update probably won't be for another week, but we'll see how that goes it may be sooner. Anywho, thanks a bunch for reading, Please Review! I'd really appreciate it. I need to make these A/Ns shorter, like geez kudos to you guys who actually read all of this. PS: I update my profile page often in between updates so if you're ever curious about how its coming along just check it out. Also, I have a fiction press account now under the same username I have here on FF, I posted a short story not too long ago so if you're interested, feel free to check it out :) K I'm done now, I promise. You guys are great!!
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, but Stephenie Meyer sure does!
Previously: Annie witnesses the accident in the parking lot in which Edward saves Bella from being crushed by Tyler's van. She then follows Bella to the hospital to do some observing.
I crept through the back entrance of the hospital as if I were a bank robber. I crouched down and scurried across the floor, pressing my back into the wall as I walked along it, my head turning swiftly from left to right before turning a corner. I realized, after sneaking into the hospital and down two hallways, that I was alone. I sighed, straightened out my coat and walked casually down to the end of the hallway I was in, only to be met with utter chaos when I turned the next corner. Kids from school were huddling around, standing on tip toes and blabbing away about Bella's condition in the front lobby. I sprinted around the corner and kept running until I was absolutely sure I was in the clear. How did they all get here so fast? I rolled my eyes, knowing I'd have to find some other way of getting close to Bella without being noticed. I continued walking, shaking my head at the amount of people here fussing over Bella like this. Geez, the lengths people will go to when something out of the ordinary happens amazes me.
Upon making a left at the next corner, a nurse came out of one of the rooms and walked in my direction. I slammed myself into the wall around the corner in haste, hoping she didn't catch me watching. I waited a few seconds before casually stepping away from the wall and around the corner. I held my chin up and smiled, knowing I was getting close to Bella. Just as I turned the corner I had the wind knocked out of me by the nurse I had spotted and was trying to avoid, who just so happened to be turning the corner at the same time I was.
"Oh, I'm sorry – " Her eyes drifted up from her feet and directly into my eyes, her expression changing from being all cheery and sympathetic to shooting an annoyed glare at me. I felt like I was five year old being reprimanded for stealing a cookie before dinner. I recognized her then, the glaring eyes and light blonde hair that was almost white couldn't go unnoticed. Janice inhaled deeply through pursed lips, her chest rising and falling in two distinct motions.
"Hey! You kids from the high school are to remain in the lobby! Now go!" She said, pointing a stiff finger down in the direction I'd just come from. I peered down at her clipboard, noticing 'SWAN, ISABELLA' written across the top. I was about to smile when Nazi nurse gave me a shove. I shook my head and turned around, only to be met with more annoyances.
"Annie? Is that you?" Grace squinted as she walked towards me.
"Yeah, hi..." I said, my eyes fluttering in every which direction to avoid Grace's face. She just kept getting closer until there was no escaping her and I was wedged in between two nurses.
"I'll take it from here, Janice." Grace looked past me and waved her devious little hand at Janice. Janice slapped her tongue off the roof of her mouth and walked away, the squeak of her white shoes following her every step.
"You here for the Swan girl?" She asked. It then dawned on me, amid the hatred I felt for the woman standing before me, underneath the unbearable cotton candy perfume that make my nostrils burn, that Grace could actually be valuable in this situation.
I sighed then, tugging the corners of my mouth in a frown.
"Yeah, Bella...I'm really worried about her, Grace. I was right there when the accident happened, I saw everything. It was horrible. And...well, she's the only friend I've had in a really long time and I just really hope she's okay." I said, keeping my tone saddened and worried, pausing at moments to make it seem as if continuing would make me cry.
"Oh, honey..." Grace cooed, wrapping her arm around my shoulders and leading me down the hallway towards the room I suspected to be Bella's. "I'm not supposed to do this, but..." She stopped just before the door and placed both hands on my shoulders.
"This is Bella's room. Go ahead and see her really quickly, okay? And if anyone asks, you found her room on your own. Got it?" She whispered.
"Yes, thank you so much!" I smiled, hoping she wouldn't hug me now. She nodded once and then left, leaving me thankful to have her grimy hands off of me. I was just about to step foot into the room when she called my name from down the hallway.
"Oh, Annie! I'll see you at lunch!" She said with a thumbs up before continuing on her way. I rolled my eyes as I watched her walk away, unnaturally swaying her hips from side to side.
I stood at the doorway, peering into the room as I tried to figure out how to manoeuvre this, to get in there and observe while remaining unnoticed. Tyler was in the room next to Bella, nurses fluttering around him with bloodied bandages and new ones to replace them. There was a curtain pulled between Tyler's bed and the one closest to the door, and I considered occupying it when I heard footsteps from a distance, getting louder as they got closer. I panicked, and ran back around the corner, slinking around to listen as Dr. Cullen examined his patients.
As I stood there, waiting to see or hear anything of interest my eye lids began to feel heavy and my lack of sleep started to take its toll on me. I fought against it, widening my eyes and blinking hard to push the drowsiness back and pacing so that I wouldn't get too comfortable leaning against the wall.
"Is she sleeping?" Edward's voice echoed towards me, awakening me like no amount of caffeine ever could. I snaked my fingers around the corner where the two walls met and peeked my head out from behind the wall I was behind. If only there were some kind of microphone in magnifying the volume of their voices in there so that I wouldn't have to put forth so much effort straining myself to hear the conversation clearly. This exertion was making me even sleepier.
Tyler started apologizing to Edward, to which he replied with a simple 'no blood, no foul'. I found this to be quite peculiar and suspicious, for there truly was no blood, not from Edward. But, from where I was standing, he should be the one with the most bloodshed.
Edward asked Bella for the verdict on her condition, to which she insisted there was nothing to worry about and questioned why Edward wasn't in a gurney like the rest of them. I gasped a little, my head leaning forward like a teenage girl watching Gossip Girl just as something 'OMG' worthy happens. Bella wasn't afraid to dig for the dirt up front, fearlessly asking the questions I wished I could ask and I was very grateful for that. This could be the birth of a wonderful, secret observing relationship with Bella, like partners in crime, except one partner doesn't know that they're in on it. Works for me. Edward answered Bella's question as coolly as he would anything, saying it was all about who you know. Fair enough, Dr. Cullen got him out of having to be poked and prodded like Bella and Tyler were, but it still doesn't explain the fact that he doesn't have a scratch on him. Maybe he really is made out of stone...
As if he had heard his subtle mention in Edward and Bella's conversation, Dr. Cullen appeared and turned into the room to check in on Bella. He asked her a bunch of questions to which Bella answered with a 'fine' each time. How many times do these people have to hear that she's fine? If she says she's fine then she's fine. These hospital types are so persistent.
"Can't I go back to school?" Bella asked. Okay, maybe she is sick. I think it may be fatal. Who actually wants to go to school? If I were in her place I'd be milking it for all it's worth.
Dr. Cullen insisted she take it easy for the day, to which Bella made another valid point that Edward was able to go back to school and he was in the accident too. If I could applaud I would, this girl was absolutely fearless. Well, to me anyway. I would never have the guts to speak out like that, ever. And for that, I admired her.
When Dr. Cullen mentioned most of the student body was in the waiting room Bella was not thrilled at all. I loved the irony of this, it was beautiful. Here we have the girl who tries so hard to stay out of the lime light and yet she's constantly thrust into the middle of it, always the center of the attention she so passionately avoids. Not only that, but she's now under the attention of one of the only people who even matter, for she has caught the attention of a Cullen. Two, if you count the doctor, but it's his job to pay attention to her, Edward could have walked away and never given her a second glance. But here he was, checking on her. He saved her life, he took the effort and the risk for her. He's never shown any interest for anyone outside of his family, ever. It's always opposite day for my friend, life, always giving people the opposite of what they really want. Whether life is just cruel of whether it's genuinely trying to teach us a valuable lesson, I'll never know. Life is the one subject I never bothered to figure out, the one that is absolutely impossible to understand.
"Do you want to stay?" Dr. Cullen asked Bella.
"No, no!" She exclaimed.
Bella's feet plopped on to the linoleum floor in haste, sending me into a frenzy of panic. Realistically, this would be the point where I'd make a run for it, cut my ties to the situation and be happy with what I was able to get, but a part of me was unsatisfied and took over. looked from side to side, unsure of where to go, my heart pounding in my chest as I reminded myself that time was running out. I looked down either end of the empty hallway, a force pulling me in both directions due to my uncertainty.
I stopped then and calmed myself, realizing I had nothing to worry about. No one had noticed me here, except for Janice but that was easily taken care of. And if anyone does find me I can just say I was meeting Grace and my being here had nothing to do with Bella at all. Still, I figured it would be safer to move a bit further from where Bella was so that it didn't seem suspicious. I crossed where the four hallways intersected and leaned against the wall, halfway down the hallway. I felt the need to put on an act, checking my watch restlessly and pacing to make it look as if I were waiting for someone. I felt a presence behind me as my back was turned and looked behind me quickly and noticed Edward and Bella huddled by the corner I had been standing by just moments ago. I felt relieved that I'd moved, knowing if I hadn't I would have been caught.
I listened as closely as I could with my back still turned, angling my ear up and to the side so that I could hear them better.
At first all I could hear was my breathing, in and out, in and out...it was making me sleepier than I already was. The silence of the hospital, the white walls and floors, all of it was making the sleepiness hit me harder after each intake of breath. This was absolute madness. My frustration escalated as I fought with my eyes to stay open, battling with the drowsiness that loomed over me, threatening me.
My vision began to blur and I blinked hard to make the haze in my vision go away. A hushed pounding began at the centre of my forehead and my head lolled to the side. I was tired. Scratch that, I was dead tired. Those stupid yellow walls ruined everything. They are so out of there the second I can get to a hardware store and buy some paint.
When I heard Edward's accusing tone, asking Bella what she thinks happened I was snapped back into reality. Or was I dreaming? It certainly felt like a dream. Their voices sounded weird, like they were echoes and at times they would just black out completely, only to be dropped back into my ears when it got intense.
"The van was going to crush us both – and it didn't, and your hands left dents in the side of it – and you left a dent in the other car, and you're not hurt at all – " The other car? He left a dent in another car? Then it hit me – my car! That strange, whatever it is on the side of my car...that was Edward? He...how does a teenage boy dent a car? How does he dent two cars? And how is he not dead right now? My head began pounding harder, all of this information dropping into my mind like a heavy downpour slapping against the pavement.
"You think I lifted a van off you?" Edward asked. "No one would believe that, you know." He continued. It was strange, I mean why say that if there were really nothing to believe? So, Edward Cullen lifted a van. It could happen, mothers lift cars off of babies all the time.
The pounding got worse, sending waves of pain from the center of my brain, one after the other. Damn Grace, because of her I'm missing this. This could be the most important conversation my ears will ever hear and she took it from me because of her stupid paint job.
Bella's voice then broke through the sonic booms going off in my head.
"I don't like to lie – so there better be a good reason why I'm doing it." Lying? About what? So he did leave the dents and lifted the van, but why would she have to lie about it? What on Earth did I miss?
"You're not going to let it go are you?" Edward asked.
"No." Bella replied. Gutsy.
"In that case... I hope you enjoy disappointment." Edward said.
Wow. I've never seen – well, heard Edward be so intense and rigid. He's expressing all of these different emotions so passionately, showing sides of him that, two weeks ago I would have never guessed he possessed. Finally the veil is thinning and the true version of himself is coming through. Too bad I can't fully enjoy this. Never again am I going to neglect getting a full eight hours of sleep, under any circumstances. With great frustration and defeat I turned down the hallway, lazily putting one foot in front of the other, watching my feet as I walked. When another set of feet appeared before mine I staggered, stepping back and looked up to see who the feet belonged to.
It was Edward, he was walking towards me, I mean, down the hallway but in my general direction. He was here, in between the same two walls I was in between. It was just he and I, alone. This has never happened before. I knew it would be over quickly, but something about it made me feel strange, kind of fuzzy and a little scared. I felt like I should drop to the floor and not look at him, like I wasn't allowed to. But I couldn't help myself, I looked up and we exchanged glances.
"Annie." He nodded, stepping around me.
I stepped aside, flinging myself against the wall. I was filled with a sense of euphoria, having experienced the hypnotizing combination of his scent and his voice. But it was so much more than that. Edward Cullen acknowledged me. Edward Cullen knows my name. He knows who I am! I'm more than another face, I'm a face with a name, a somebody.
I looked up to watch Edward walk away and noticed he had stopped in the middle of the hallway. He turned in my direction and smiled at me, nodding again before continuing on his way.
I should have been immensely flattered and over the moon like I was when he said my name, but something about his timing threw me off. I found it strange that he just stopped and smiled at me. And it wasn't just any smile, it was sympathetic, pitying even. I mean, a name utterance and a nod is normal social behaviour. But, coming from Edward it's like a miracle because the man never interacts with anyone outside of his family and now apparently Bella. But outside of that, it's regular human behaviour to acknowledge an acquaintance when coming across one. But the extra acknowledgement, right when I was elated with the fact that I wasn't nameless, that he knew me was just strange. It made me think of that day in physics when I humoured the idea that he had read my mind when I prayed he wouldn't sit next to me. Had he read my mind just now? Did he hear how grateful I was that he knew me? Is that why he smiled, because he felt sorry for me? Even though this mind reading or telepathy or whatever you want to call it is absolutely insane, it's actually making sense. In fact, it makes the scene of the accident make sense. How else could he have gotten there so fast, unless he knew what was coming? I began to walk down the hall, to follow him. I quickened my pace and noticed him walking out the door to the parking lot.
That's it, Edward Cullen. I know your secret.
And then he flinched and quickened his pace. I'm right. He flinched, it means he heard me and he knows I know.
Now what do I do about it?
EPOV
I walked away from Bella, still mesmerized by her face, when I bumped into a drowsy looking girl. She had dark bags under her eyes, her face puffed up with fatigue. She looked familiar, and when the name came to me I accidently said it out loud.
"Annie." I said, the name attaching to the face in an instant. Realizing what I'd done, I nodded to acknowledge her, as if I had said her name on purpose as a greeting. I stepped around her, and walked away. I could sense her emotions after I had uttered her name, how it had impacted her.
Edward Cullen knows my name, he knows who I am!
Her thoughts were like a quiet mumble, escalating in volume as more emotion and excitement were pressed behind them. I stopped then, feeling a slight twinge of pity for the poor girl. I turned back and smiled at her, to confirm that she didn't go unnoticed and then continued on my way to the parking lot. I wasn't necessarily thrilled to go back to school, but it was the right thing to do. I glanced toward the full waiting room before pushing through the door towards the parking lot. The number of people had dwindled, but it was still pretty crowded.
I know your secret.
I flinched at the door at the sound of the quiet voice of someone's thoughts. The voice was unfamiliar. I felt like I knew it, but I couldn't pin point who it belonged to. It alarmed me, not so much who the thought belonged to but more so at what they had to say. Someone knew our secret, someone knew what we were. It's over. We need to leave Forks immediately.
I was about to turn to go to Carlisle, but knew he would be busy and that the person who knew our secret would probably be watching. I decided to tell Alice first instead, to see if she saw anything. Walking at a human pace to get to my car was agonizing, especially under the current circumstances. This was the ultimate emergency and having to mosey around at this pace was excruciatingly difficult. Finally, I reached the Volvo and sped out of the parking lot to get back to school.
As I drove I filtered through the many voices I've heard throughout my existence, trying to place a face to it. The voice was slightly unfamiliar but I knew I heard it before. I banged my palm on the steering wheel in frustration, trying to keep my strength under control. I need to know who thought it. I decided to back track, beginning with after the accident. No one at school had noticed anything, I had made sure of that before going to the hospital. So, it couldn't be anyone there. Perhaps one of the nurses? Could one of them have grown suspicious of Carlisle? Could Bella have told someone about what she saw during the accident after all?
I tried to consider who it could have been, going through everyone I've seen Bella speak to since she moved here. I was familiar with Jessica, Angela, Lauren...it was not one of them. As I pulled into the school parking lot I realized I had overlooked one very important person. Annie. Knowing her face now and remembering her voice, although rarely heard, I was certain it was her. She was the last person I had seen, the last I'd spoken to and the last whose thoughts I'd heard. It wouldn't be the first time she had suspected something of me. On my first day she had begged me through her thoughts to choose any seat but the one next hers and I obliged, foolishly. I could hear her during the entire period calling my name through her thoughts, at first quietly and then louder as she grew more persistent, then quiet again as she grew tired, gave up and dismissed the notion of my ability altogether. After that I never considered her to be a threat and rarely noticed her again.
A wave of guilt washed over me, knowing my carelessness would tear my family from the comfort of Forks we had all grown used to. It was inevitable that we would leave eventually, but it still pained me to know I had caused the circumstances under which we'd have to leave. But I also felt slightly grateful. With everything that had happened with the accident and Bella's suspicions of me, maybe it's best we leave anyway. Annie's thought is just quickening the inevitable. It may be a good thing to start over, to get away from Bella and the temptation she presented me with every time we were together. This could be just what I needed. Of course I hated to bring my entire family down with me and they would be angry, especially Rosalie, but in the end it would be for the best for all of us.
Alice sat down next to me in the Volvo and I assumed she had seen us leaving Forks or something of the sort.
"We have to leave, Alice. It's the only thing left to do."
"Edward, don't be silly. We do not have to leave."
"Yes, we do. Someone knows what we are, we have no other choice." I insisted. How could she even suggest we stay? She understands the dangers it would pose for us, she must know we cannot risk staying here any longer.
"Nobody knows. We're fine."
"Alice, you don't understand. I heard her. She said 'I know your secret'. It can't be any clearer than that."
"Well, I don't see us leaving. Are you sure whomever this 'she' is meant us?"
"Annie McCord. And yes, who else could she be referring to?"
"Annie McCord?" Alice asked, questioning the identity of the girl. "Oh, right. Edward I think you're over reacting. There is absolutely nothing to worry about and if there is I'll have seen it way before anything bad happens." She said reassuringly, laying a hand on my shoulder.
"Yes, well we all know how well in advance your visions come." I scoffed, recalling the accident. Alice pursed her lips and then sighed.
"Edward, she could have been referring to anything and anyone. Just relax and go to class." She said firmly, stepping out of the car gracefully to return to Jasper's arm.
I remained in the car, contemplating whether I really was over reacting. I suppose Alice was right, Annie could have meant anything and I hadn't heard her mention me or my family in connection to that thought. And even if she did suspect I could read minds, it's not like that is in any way linked to vampires, not in ways that a human would know about. Annie seems like a rational, logical person anyway. Even if she had suspected something, she would simply dismiss it like she had that first day in Physics.
I stepped out of the car, knowing the right thing to do would be to go to class and act naturally. All I needed to worry about now was Bella, in more ways than one. With Annie and her quiet mind's accusations pushed aside, Bella overcrowded my thoughts. I wished I could go see her, to ditch school like many others had, but knew that being here was the right thing to do.
