Due to the fact that I was late posting my previous chapter, I am posting this one early as a treat...LOL! Enjoy.

Chapter 8

(Robbie Williams – Feel & Crack the Shutters – Snow Patrol)

BPOV

I threw my energy bar and chocolate milk towards the chair, not caring if they got to the floor as I ran to my mother's bedside. I started to rub her back saying, "I'm here Mom. It's okay, let it out." I'm such an idiot to have left her alone for so long. I felt stupid about having that fight with Jessica. Don't get me wrong, I loved the fact that I was able to pound her face in, but that was what caused me being away from her for so long. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

I snapped out of it when Edward put down the vomit bowl and walked towards the washroom. "Mom? I'm sorry I was gone for so long." I didn't have the chance to say anything else as Edward came back out and cleaned her face with the cloth. Both of us gently readjusted her pillows and put her in a comfortable position to rest. He even lifted the bed so she wasn't flat on her back.

He told me he'd go and get some ice for her and I went to the other side of the bed and grabbed another cloth. I did the same thing as he did and quickly went to put it under warm water. I wiped her face as I tried to soothe her. Her eyes didn't open at all and it scared me.

Edward returned with the cup of ice and put a small chip in her mouth. I looked up at him with worry in my eyes and I felt frightened at the same time. What's wrong? Is there something he's not telling me? He nodded his head towards the door, more than likely indicating he wanted to speak to me outside. Oh god.

I kept my eyes on her from outside the room as I told him she hadn't been sick in awhile and I asked him what was wrong with her. I didn't realize I was biting my nails and shaking until I felt his strong grasp on my shoulders and he told me, "Bella there's no need to freak out." He explained what could be the cause of her getting sick. I was sure it was Jessica, but he more than likely didn't want to, or he couldn't say it due to hospital rights or something. Ugh...that...that...witch...no, Bitch!?!?

He spoke with emotion as he told me he'd paged Carlisle and that she'd more than likely be asleep for awhile. If she'd wake up, I was to give her some more ice and if there's anything else just press on the button.

I nodded my head as he mentioned that someone would be here if he couldn't at the time. I was starting to have trouble seeing his beautiful face as the tears started to form themselves in my eyes, threatening to spill over.I almost threw myself into his arms with the look he gave me. His facial expression was almost like a mirror image of how I was feeling.

After he left me there, I slowly walked back into my mother's room and went to sit on the chair. I noticed the energy bar and chocolate milk I had thrown there earlier, but I was not hungry anymore, so I put them on the table close to me for now.

I felt the tears streaming down my face as I just sat there without moving. It started to get worse so I went to the washroom. I didn't want to leave my mother alone again, but I didn't want her to see me crying either. I knew I would end up crying hysterically if she did see me.

Once I felt better, I splashed some cold water on my face and decided to pee while I was there. I flushed, washed my hands and splashed some more cold water on my face after actually seeing what I looked like in the mirror. Great, now both my eyes are swollen. Oh well, at least they match now. Except for the color of course.

I jumped when I opened the door as I had not expected to see Edward there at all. I hadn't heard him return to the room. He apologized for scaring me, explained why he was back and asked me about my mother getting sick again.

I answered him after he showed me the vomit bowl that I'd forgotten to empty. "No, she's been sleeping the whole time. I just forgot to empty it. I've been afraid to leave her side since, but I really needed to use the washroom." I only left to go bawl my eyes out. He told me it was actually good that I'd forgotten and he'd get it analyzed or something. My mind wasn't completely focused.

"What happened to you? Who hurt you Bella?" The tone of his voice while he asked me those questions made me more alert.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me. I ran into something, that's all." Yeah, leave it to me to come up with something that stupid. I could feel my face heating up again so I looked down and started to pick at my shirt, or I should say, Rose's shirt.

The next thing I knew, he was in front of me telling me he knew I was lying to him and that I could tell him anything. He touched my face with his smooth hand, which felt kind of cool against my heated skin. I fought the urge to tilt my head into his hand even though I knew the pressure would hurt my eye.

"Thanks, but I'd rather not talk about it." I regretted saying anything because he took his hand away as soon as I spoke. I didn't want him to see the sadness in my eyes, so I looked over at my mother, her still frame looking so peaceful. Automatically going into 'doctor mode', he started asking me a bunch of questions so fast that I didn't even have time to answer at first.

He was being so sweet, but I had to let him know that I was fine and that I was not a patient of his. What if his other patients were like my mother and needed him? I can't keep him here. Of course, I wouldn't mind keeping him here, but that would be selfish of me as I thought of all the other people that were in the same position as me. Wouldn't they be asking themselves where he was? What if it affected his career? I shook my head trying to clear it, but the sudden movement only reminded me of the headache I had.

As he stepped out, I took the Tylenol I told him I had with my chocolate milk and decided to eat my energy bar. With all the fighting and the crying I was really low on the energy thing. I had definitely scarfed that down since he was back in no time with that bag of ice. I was glad he didn't see me consume that bar. I'm sure I looked like some kind of animal devouring it's prey.

I wish I was selfish and could tell him to stay with me. I didn't want to be alone, but I knew he had to go again. He did say I could press on the button for him. That's all I'd need to do. Ugh, what's wrong with me? I just met him. He's still a stranger to me. For all I know he could have a girlfriend. How could someone that beautiful not have a girlfriend?

That little red button was driving me crazy as my eyes were constantly being drawn to it, my fingers wanting to press it, call him back. I closed my eyes to try to forget about it. I must have passed out because I was being shaken as I heard my name. "Bella, wake up. Come on, Bella."

"What, what happened?" I started looking around the room everywhere until my eyes met Alice's.

"You were asleep, that's all. What happened to your face? Who did this?" Oh great! Someone else questioning me. Maybe I should just post it on my forehead 'I was punched by Jessica Stanley!'. "You need to get some rest Bella. You're coming with me." She started to collect my things that were scattered everywhere and grabbed the wrapper from the energy bar I hadn't even bothered to throw out. "We are going to go out for lunch first. This," she held up the wrapper and looked at me squinting her eyes and hissed, "is not, a meal!"

"She got sick this morning Alice and I don't want to leave her alone." I was almost pleading with her until I heard another voice.

"You won't have to sweetheart, I'm here too. I'll take care of her while Alice takes you out." I didn't even know there was someone else in the room. Wow, I really am out of it.

"Aunt Esme? What are you doing here?" I surprised myself with the energy I did have to jump into her arms and hug her hard. I was dumbfounded by how much I had missed her.

"I'm here for you and your mother Bella. I still consider her as family you know." We squeezed each other for a few minutes and then she pulled me away from her. She kept a hold of my shoulders though and looked up and down my body. "Oh sweetie, what happened to your face? Never mind, you definitely need some food and rest, so go now, we'll discuss this issue later. Everything will be alright. I'll let you two know if something goes wrong. Alice," she said, nodding her head, her lips in a thin line. She let go of my shoulders and crossed quietly over to my mother.

That must have been the key word for Alice to grab me and take me out, or drag me out as I didn't want to leave. "Ouch, Alice, don't squeeze so hard. My hand hurts." She rolled her eyes, but kept a firm grip. She was pretty strong for someone as small as herself. Maybe it was just because I was so weak from lack of food and proper sleep.

I still wasn't completely out of my zombie mode as I never realized Alice hadn't brought us to my place. We were parked in front of some gym, I guessed, as the sign read, Goodlife Fitness Center. "Alice?" I looked at her with a confused look wondering what in the world we were doing here.

"Come on, just follow me." I saw her reach for two long bags of some sort and she threw one of them at me. "Here, you'll need this."

"Where are we going and what is this?" I lifted the somewhat heavy bag that I had barely caught and looked at the sign.

"You need to free your mind of things so I brought you here for a class. It's fun and relaxing. You'll see." I was definitely in no shape to do any exercise if that was her intention.

"Um...Alice? Have you not looked at me. I'm in no shape for exercise and I don't have the energy right now."

"That's why we're here." She grabbed my arm and practically dragged me up the stairs and to the front desk making me sign something that I didn't even know what it was. Instead of grabbing my arm this time, she grabbed the bag and tugged. I almost let go, but I knew she'd just come back to get me anyway, so I just followed her.

We ended up in a locker room and she handed me some kind of pants and a top. "Here, put these on. You won't need your shoes by the way." I did as I was told and, despite the fact that they were a little form fitting, I actually felt comfortable in this set of clothes.

She handed me the long bag again and told me to follow her. I followed her to some kind of classroom with mirrors on pretty much every wall. She guided me to the far corner and told me to take the mat out of the bag. A mat?

There were other people that were starting to pile in the class as I took the mat out of the bag. I looked at Alice and mimicked her moves as she took the mat out and unrolled it on the ground. We placed our bags to the side wall of the class and a trainer came out to the front.

"Hello everyone, my name is Leah and I'll be your teacher for today. Is there anyone new to this class?" I didn't want to raise my hand but Alice nudged me with her elbow so I did. "This class is called Bodyflow which is a mixture of Tai Chi, Pilates and Yoga. It takes a few classes to get used to the choreography, but I'll explain some of the moves while we are performing them to make it easier. I will also be giving options for different positions as some people aren't as flexible as others. Alright?" I nodded my head in comprehension and figured I'd try to follow. "Okay, I'll go start the music, so if everyone could get ready and stand in Wu Chi position."

I had no idea what she meant so I looked over at Alice; her feet were spread apart a little further than her shoulders, they were also in a diagonal position and her knees were bent. When the music started everyone was moving their hands in a certain way and I tried to follow along.

After about an hour of exercise the class finished off with meditation. The teacher recommended we grab our socks and a sweater and then lay on our backs. Alice told me there was a sweater in the other pocket of my bag that I had taken the mat out of. I thought it would be my favorite part as it was time to relax and we were told to empty our minds and think of nothing. This was our time to free our minds of stress and thoughts of grocery lists and stuff like that. Like that would work for me. It actually brought on more thoughts of my mom, how my laundry wasn't done, how I did need food and then, Edward came into my mind. I was trying to block him out of my thoughts, but those emerald eyes just kept popping back in.

I could hear the teacher's footsteps, but I didn't know she was right beside me. "Relax, your face is crunching up." I jumped when she spoke even though she whispered the words. "Listen to the music and let yourself melt into the floor." She placed her hand on my face and smoothed out the creases I had in my forehead. She started to speak out loud for the class to hear. "Start to inhale deeply and exhale letting it all out. Start by breathing from your nose, your mouth..." She went on and on about breathing through our body parts. How the heck am I supposed to do that? It reminded me of when we'd do a smudge in my martial arts class, so I tried to do it that way. It got my mind off of other things though, so that was a start.

The class finished off with everyone sitting in a cross legged position, our palms were together in front of our hearts and the teacher said, "Namaste, the light in me salutes the light in you." People clapped their and gentle murmurs of voices filled the room as they started to roll up their mats.

"So, what did you think?" Alice looked over at me while I changed my damp top.

"It was an effort, I'll tell you that much." I finished getting dressed and we headed out to the car. "I'm sure I'll be sore in some places tomorrow. I liked the music too. There's one song that's still stuck in my head. All I remember is something like 'Feel Real Love'?"

"Oh, well I'm glad you enjoyed the class. That song by the way is by Robbie Williams. I have it here." She put a disc in the CD slot to the car stereo and pushed some buttons until it came up. I closed my eyes and relaxed trying to capture the lyrics.

I must have fallen asleep again because I was being shaken exactly like I had been in the hospital. "Bella we're here. Come on." I looked up at the building and realized we were at my place. Oh great. Now Alice will see what a pigsty my place looks like.

I was baffled once I opened the door and looked inside. It was like I was in a new place. Everything was spotless. "Um...Alice? Is this really my place or am I dreaming?" I think my jaw hung so low it must have been inches from my chest.

She laughed at that one. "This is your place. Mom and I came over last night to see you, but you obviously weren't back yet. I called the hospital and they told me you were sleeping so we took the opportunity to clean up your pigsty and do your laundry. I see you had to go shop for clothes so it's a good thing we did your laundry." I kept my mouth shut about the fact that these were actually clothes that someone lent me. "You also have some food in your fridge and cupboards. Mom made you a few meals that you can bring to the hospital to eat so you won't have to eat at that god awful cafeteria."

I was speechless. They went through all this trouble for me. Wow. I tried to search for words, but I wasn't sure what to say, so I just spoke as it came. "I don't know what to say. I definitely owe you one. Thank you so much Alice. You don't know how much this means to me. I was running out of clothes to wear and I've been hungry and...and..." I started bawling my eyes out, unable to hold the tears at bay any longer, and Alice came towards me, wrapping her tiny arms around me and comforting me.

"It's okay Bella. You owe me absolutely nothing. It was our pleasure to help you out and I was able to...um...redecorate a bit." Uh oh. I hope she wasn't talking about my clothes. "Now let's eat. I'm starved." Her little pixie body pretty much floated over to the counter while I practically stumbled over my feet clumsily.

She must have stopped off somewhere on the way here because there was a brown paper bag on the counter. She opened it up to reveal two things wrapped in aluminum foil. "Hungry for a Donair?" I nodded my head and my mouth started to water.

We cleaned up our mess after I had consumed everything of my meal, including the crumbs. "Wow, you really were hungry." She looked at me with a surprised facial expression and then I told her I wanted to take a shower. That was quite a workout we'd done earlier.

I winced as the soap burned the cuts on my knuckles as I washed my face. I thought of Edward's cool hand touching it earlier and sighed. I was also surprised Alice hadn't said anything else about my black eye. The coloring was starting to get darker around my eye but the swelling was down. I put on some of my fresh clothes after my quick shower and exhaled, feeling refreshed.

I grabbed all of our dirty clothes from the class and Rose's, and threw them in the washer. I wanted to give Rose her clothes back as soon as I could.

"Hey, Alice? You mind checking your phone to see if your mom called?" I might have been overreacting, but I wanted to make sure everything was fine.

"Don't worry Bella. She called, but she said everything was fine. The nurse came in to check on her a few times and that she was still sleeping on and off." At least she didn't get sick again. Edward's face came to my mind and I was enthralled. "Okay, you really need to get some sleep. You're sleeping standing up. Let's go, off to bed." She was pushing me towards the bedroom and we both laid down on the bed.

We began talking about what had happened since the last time she'd seen me, which was only yesterday, and I explained everything from meeting Edward to the fight with Jessica and then with my mom getting sick. She loved the part about me beating up Jessica and wanted all the little details.

She was starting to tell me her side of the story, but all I remember hearing was something about a guy named Jasper? Or was I dreaming?

The phone rang a few times before either of us woke up. We both giggled a bit once we realized we'd fallen asleep the same way we used to when we were kids. When we had sleep-overs we'd talk until we fell asleep. We'd be on our sides and put our foreheads together, but our faces were looking down towards the end of the bed. That way we always felt connected, but we were able to say anything to each other without worrying as to how the other reacted since we couldn't see each others facial expressions.

"Mom? Is everything alright with Aunt Renee?" She was listening to her mother speak and I started to panic. I didn't even bother waiting for the conversation to end before I got out of bed to get ready and flee to the hospital.

Please leave me some lovin'...you know where to go, right? Thanks for reading everyone.