Disclaimer: All the Twilight stuff belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended. I'm just playing in her sandbox.

Chapter 10 Ambulance

APOV

"Edward, what have you done!"

"Alice, give me your belt, quickly," he yelled. It was then I noticed that he wasn't pressing her to the ground to immobilize her while he fed, he was squeezing her upper arm in one hand while an applying pressure to her thigh with the other to control the bleeding from her injuries. I yanked off my belt and applied the tourniquet to her upper leg, the bone showing thru her leathers. Edward used his belt then to stop the bleeding just below her shoulder.

Blood, so much blood . . .

I had to move away, to gain distance from the wreck, never taking my eyes off her. Edward worked at vampire speed. The emergency medical personnel had not even arrived at the scene, though they were screeching towards the wreck at breakneck speed, sirens blaring. He was amazing. Meticulously going over her body to assess her condition, he had stopped the obvious bleeding before anyone had even gotten close to her. Blood was still coming slowly from her mouth and she was unconscious. I noticed the smears of blood covering Edwards mouth and jaw matched the smears on her face and lips.

How was he doing it!

Suddenly, there was an explosion and the bike Edward had tossed off of her burst into flames. She would still have been under it had it not been for him, the crew had not yet reached her.

I saw a tall dark skinned boy approaching, well out in front of the others. Jacob. He was frantic, he was terrified, he was irate. As he approached, luckily he realized what was happening as I did. He knelt beside her and watched the skill at which Edward tended to her and monitored her condition. When the emergency medical personnel arrived with the stretcher, Edward was barking orders for IV drips and filling them in on her pulse and pressure and getting a tube down her throat to help her breath. In no time flat, they were in the ambulance and gone, Edward and Jacob both riding with her.

I exchanged stunned glances with my siblings. Edwards two medical degrees had been put to good use, but we were still stunned, in awe and disbelief that he paid no attention to the blood.

"He had no blood lust at all," Jasper quietly stated, " just intense concentration on tending to her mingled with overwhelming love. He is unbelievable, he REALLY loves that girl, I have never felt anything like it. He was completely whole again the minute he was with her."

"I know," said Alice. "I know."

Jacob POV

I watched with horror as the front tire left the ground and the bike was flung into the air, the bar in back giving way and allowing the wheelie to continue and the bike to flip backwards and upside down on top of her at 100 plus miles an hour. She and the bike continued to bounce and slide for some distance, coming to rest on the side of the track with what looked like the remains of the bike on top of her. I ran, full tilt, towards her even as the wreck had started to happen. I was running while watching it occur. No sooner than the tangled mass of bike and Bella had come to a rest on the track, the bike was moving again. It appeared to have been thrown away from her, and a guy was hovering over her body there on the track.

It was him, Cullen. What the hell? I thought I saw the other Cullens there as well but as I got closer, they were behind the fence, looking on as Edward seemed to be tending to her. He already had a tourniquet around her arm and leg and was keeping her airway clear of blood so that she could breath. He came out of nowhere and I had no idea how he had accomplished all of the emergency first aid before I had even gotten to her.

"Jacob, don't try to move her! ", he warned between breaths, her broken ribs have punctured a lung and her leg is a compound fracture! I knelt there, unable to do anything.

He was covered in blood, even his lips as he pushed air into her body. As the medical personnel arrived, he gave them her pulse and blood pressure and started barking orders for her IV and medication. They must have agreed with him, cause they did exactly as he said, and in no time at all we were all in the ambulance in route to the hospital.

As she was being lifted out of the ambulance, one of the medics patted Edward on the back and said, "Where did you get your training, that was amazing. She would have bled out on the track before we ever got to her. You saved her life."

He paid no attention, too focused on Bella. They rushed her past the double doors and he and I were left starring at each other.

"I'll just go wash up", he said as he glared at his bloodstained hands. "Right, I'll get the paperwork", I said. Her father had to be called, I knew that. She was not conscious and the next of kin would have to give permission to operate. I slowly dialed the phone that was handed to me, Charlie would still be at the police station.

"Charlie, yea, It's Jacob. There has been an accident . . ."

One of the nurses took the phone from my hand and guided me to the waiting room. There was nothing to do but wait. Edward emerged from cleaning himself up and it had helped a little. His undershirt had a few places where blood had soaked thru, but the outer shirt was gone and his arms and face had been washed. He sat down a few seats away to wait. We said nothing. His siblings arrived shortly after that and just sat quietly in the chairs surrounding him. A calm seemed to fall over the room and we waited.

Charlie POV

I couldn't believe it when I got the call. It was Jacob. Before I could react to hearing his voice he had told me that there had been an accident The nurse that took over the conversation told me that Bella needed surgery, and I waited to speak to the doctor, all the while dialing the airlines number on the other phone. There was no immediate flight to Atlanta, I would have to wait a few hours, but I lost no time in calling Sue.

Sue Clearwater had become a fixture around my house since Bella and Jacob had left the day of Billy's funeral. I guess really, I had become a fixture around her house as well. Having lost Harry a few months before, I guess we both propped each other up. When she offered to come with me, I couldn't say no.

I arrived as soon as it was humanly possible, but it still took almost 14 hours. I had driven straight to the airport in Seattle and gotten the first flight to Atlanta, but it was an agonizingly slow process. The hospital was an hour North of Atlanta. When I entered the hospital they directed me to the surgical waiting area.

Carlisle met me at the door to the waiting room. I suppose it was a good thing he did. I saw the room filled with the entire Cullen family, including 'HIM' and Jacob was walking towards me. Before I could react, Carlisle had an arm around my shoulder and was walking me down the hall, telling me what her injuries were and bringing me up to date on what was happening. I was in shock.

It was bad, real bad. They did not know if she would make it.

Esme sat with me in the waiting room, barely making it to a chair before my legs gave out. Bella had been in surgery for hours. Carlisle apparently had clearance to go to the viewing room, overlooking the surgical floor and he kept us updated as he could. Edward stood in the hall outside the surgical unit as close as he was allowed to go, and seemed to be concentrating on something.

My attention turned to Jacob.

"How about explaining to me just what the hell you were thinking running off like that, and what the hell is my daughter doing RACING a motorcycle?"

"She insisted on coming with me, Charlie. After the funeral, after we buried my dad, I just couldn't stay there. I had to get away, I just had to leave and get some distance from all of it. It took me back to the accident when my mom died and I just couldn't handle realizing they were both gone."

"Son, you should have come to me", I said as I put my hand on his shoulder. Jacob sat beside me in the row of seats lining the walls of the ICU surgical waiting area.

"I could have been there for you, we all would have," I said as Sue came to sit on Jacob's other side.

"But, Jacob, why the hell was Bella riding a motorcycle?", I asked again.

"When we left, we rode to Seattle. We saw a billboard with Dale's picture on it. You remember Dale?"

"I remember him", Sue said, "Nice young man, left a few years ago to start his own business."

"Yea, the guy that taught me to fix cars and bikes. Anyway, he has a racing crew and he gave me and Bella jobs with his company."

"Jacob, who would hire Bella to ride a bike?"

"No, no, Charlie. She was hired to run the front office, I was the mechanic. Neither of us were supposed to race the bikes."

"RACE! RACE the motorcycle, Jacob?", I virtually yelled in his face, my face reddening.

"I thought you knew. Bella was injured when the bike she was racing flipped a wheelie and landed on her at the end of the track."

I couldn't see straight, I couldn't breath. I sat for a long second before I rose and paced to the window, looking out at nothing. I just couldn't process what I was being told. Bella. MY Bella, RACING motorcycles? What the hell? My daughter was so clumsy that I had taken care to wrap her in a nearly indestructible truck. I even put snow chains on the tires at the least hint of snow or ice to lessen her chances of an accident, and here she was RACING a motorcycle! I ran my fingers through my hair and returned to my seat. I just starred at Jacob.

"Tell me again EXACTLY what happened', I managed to say calmly and quietly, but with enough malice that I heard the intake of air from Jacob.

"Bella, without permission, rode the bike down the drag strip in Louisiana at the race about 8 weeks ago. She did it so well, Dale let her ride in the last race that day and she won it. She won all the races at the meet in Phoenix, Charlie."

I just starred at him. "WHAT HAPPENED TODAY, Jacob!" I was becoming angrier.

"Bella had won all the races today. In the last race of the day, Bella rode a Harley Davidson nitrous oxide powered drag bike down the quarter mile track. Near the end of the track, the front wheel came up off the ground and the motorcycle flipped backwards on top of her. She was doing better than a hundred and fifty miles an hour, Charlie. I was running down the track towards the wreck before the bike had even stopped moving and found Edward beside her. He had moved the bike off of her and administered first aid, stopping the bleeding before I even got to her. Before anyone got to her. Charlie, the bike burst into flames before the medics arrived. He saved her life. The ambulance arrived, and he and I rode with her to come here to the hospital. That's exactly what happened."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Carlisle, Edward and the surgeon who had apparently just finished with my daughter walking towards the waiting room. I stood to address them. He introduced himself and told me how bad her injuries were. They had removed her spleen, inflated the lung that the multiple broken ribs had punctured, set the compound fracture in her left leg, and repaired some arterial lacerations. He looked to Edward, noticing what looked like blood stained over the front of his t shirt and asked, "Were you the first responder on the scene at the accident?"

Edward shook his head yes. Doctor Riley patted him on the shoulder, "Excellent work, she would never have made it this far if it had not been for your aid so quickly. Where were you trained?"

Carlisle quickly interjected, "I'm afraid it is a hazard of being a surgeons son, all my children are well versed in emergency first aid."

"Well, you should be proud of him. He saved her life, I mean, he got her to this point. Now we have to just wait and see. I'm afraid her injuries are critical. She has less than a 50/50 chance at this point, if she survives the night", said Doctor Riley " I'll keep you posted and let you know when she is out of recovery and you can see her, one or two at a time in the intensive care unit. Should be about an hour from now."

I just stared at him as he walked away and returned to my seat in the waiting room.

I sat in my seat, thinking to myself. I guess I did owe the boy thanks for this one. Seems he was on the spot at just the right time. Maybe he is on the up and up. I could have misjudged him, I suppose . . . and she was really happy before he left town. He seemed sincere enough when he had first come to my door just after she had left, the car he had brought for her was still in my driveway. Alice had said he they were all searching for her and they had even gone to the phone booth in Georgia that Bella had called me from after the private eye that he had hired traced where the call had come from.

An hour passed slower than the previous year had. Carlisle came out to get me and we walked towards her room, passing Edward who was standing where he had been the entire time, right by the door to the ICU.

I had no idea what to expect. I had been in hospitals before, of course, but rarely in the intensive care unit. There were no actual 'rooms' here, just glassed off sections of beds and equipment in full view of the nursing station. I almost dropped to my knees when I saw all the tubes running in and out of my frail little daughter. There was a bag of red liquid that seemed to be draining from a tube that went directly into her chest. Her mouth had a large tube taped in place that I guessed went to her lungs, a machine appeared to be breathing for her. The monitor showing her heartbeats was registering only 60 beats per minute, and even I knew that was low. I reached out a finger and stroked her hand. She felt so cold, and she was an ere grey color. I was vaguely award of Carlisle leaving and Jacob coming in.

Jacob stood with his hands in his pockets, afraid to touch anything. He finally put a hand on my shoulder, bent and kissed her on the cheek, and left. She made no response whatsoever. He couldn't take seeing her like this. I guess I understood, after just having lost his father.

I was just about to leave, my fifteen minutes being up, when Edward came in. The boy had some nerve, I'll give him that. He paid absolutely no attention to me, I could have been invisible. He moved to stand by her bed, taking her hand in his and kissing her forehead lightly as he stroked her hair. I would have sworn he was reading her pulse and temperature with his lips and hands, but I had to be hallucinating. He held her hand as if she were the most fragile, precious china doll, and the look on his face as he stroked her hair. I remembered that look. It was the look on my face in the hospital as I looked at Renee when Bella was born. This boy was deeply in love with my daughter, a fool could see it. As he stroked her hair and whispered in her ear, I would swear that a glimmer of a smile turned up in the corners of her mouth. Her heart rate sped slightly on the monitor, which was good because they had said it was alarmingly low earlier.

I strangely felt as though I was intruding. I left them alone. I had intended to throw him out on his ear. I blamed him for all of this! She became so closed off when he left, so despondent, but when I saw him with her, I could say nothing to him. He obviously loved her and even while sedated in a coma she responded to him n a way she never responded to me or Jacob or anyone else. Ever. As I came out of her room, I spoke to Carlisle, "I didn't realize it was like that between them."

"Neither did I," Carlisle told me, "or I would never have made him move away. It almost killed him. Is it alright with you, then, for him to stay with her? The hospital has extended that to me as a professional courtesy, with your permission, and I think we would have to forcibly drag him away."

"I suppose so," I said, "I would have sworn she realized he was there. Maybe he is good for her, but whether he is or not, she seems to respond to him, even now. He may be the only chance we have at getting her to fight thru this."

"He may be the only one who can save her!"