Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

Author's Note: Well, here's chapter nine! This is a rewrite of the original chapter that I had for chapter nine. I didn't really like the original one, so I rewrote it and replaced it with this chapter here. This one I like much better.

Thank you to all who reviewed last chapter! It means so much to me whenever I open my e-mail and see that there are either Favorite story alerts, Favorite author alerts, Story alerts or – my favorite one – Review alerts. As of right now, there are 2,439 hits and 18 favorites. You guys are awesome!

Chapter Nine – A Call for Help

Alice Cullen

It was great to take a break from the labors of school. It was nice to be back home, even for a little bit, to be with my family for the Thanksgiving holidays. But I was worried about Bella. What if something happened to her? For some reason, I wasn't able to shake the feeling that I had had for the last couple of days that something bad was going to happen.

It was nearing nine o' clock at night, and I was sitting with Jasper in the small diner in town. We had already had Thanksgiving dinner with at the house with the family, Rosalie, and Jasper and Rosalie's parents. Wanting to have a little time to ourselves, we had escaped for a couple of hours while the rest of the family watched the football on TV. We decided to go get milkshakes, and that was where we were currently.

"You're worried about Bella?" Jasper asked, throwing me an amused smile.

Laughing slightly, I smiled a sheepish grin. "Yeah."

"Why would you be worried about her? I mean, she's only at the college," he said, taking a slurp through his straw of the chocolate milkshake.

I shrugged my shoulders as I fingered my cell that was on the table. "Well, you know her. She's klutzy."

He laughed and nodded. "That is true."

I fingered my phone, twirling around on the table top. "You know, I think I'm going to give her a call. I just want to see if she's okay."

But before I could flip my phone open, it rang. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was Bella calling. I flipped it open and placed it to my ear. "Hey, Bella. I was about to call you."

"Alice? This Angela Weber," came the voice of Angela Weber – a friend that had grown close to Bella and I – over the speaker.

"Angela, hi! What are you doing with Bella's phone?" I asked.

There was a few seconds of silence, and then Angela said, "Alice, uh, there's been an accident. I'm with Bella right now."

"What type of accident?" I asked. More intense worry began to settle in as soon as I heard Angela say 'accident'. Had James gotten to her? I knew I should have persisted that she come with us. Jasper was looking at me, confusion in his face. "What happened?"

"I'm not particularly sure. I knew Bella was staying at the dorm for the Thanksgiving holidays, and I thought I'd ask her if she wanted to grab some dinner. The door was open a bit and I could see blood on the doorknob. I found her in your bathroom. She was bleeding severely from her leg and unconscious, so I called 911. I'm at the hospital with her now and I thought I should call you. She kept mumbling your name and then the name of another guy. Uh, James or something."

My hand went to my mouth. "I'm on my way. Which hospital are you at?"

"The one fifteen minutes away from campus. Grace Memorial," she replied. "She's under the care of a Dr. Daniels in the ICU. I'll meet you in the ICU waiting room, alright?"

"Okay. Thanks, Angela," I said, and hung up.

I placed the phone on the table top and sat for two seconds. "Oh, my god," I said, then stood up. "Come on, Jasper, we have to go. Bella's in the hospital."

Jasper looked at me in surprise. "What? She's in the hospital? What happened?" he asked as he threw a couple of dollar bills down on the table and stood up. He looked worried.

Within a few seconds, we were in the parking lot, getting into the car. Jasper stuck the keys into the ignition and turned the car on as I said, "I'm not sure what happened. But I have a feeling that it's not good. We need to get to the hospital."

"Which hospital?" he asked as he put the car in reverse and backed out of the parking space.

"Grace Memorial, the one near campus," I said. "God, what is Edward going to say when he hears that Bella's in the hospital?"

"I'm sure he's not going to react to good. He cares so much about her," Jasper said. "Call him. Let him know that we're on our way to the hospital."

I dialed Edward's phone number and waited as it rang. He picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Edward. Listen, I need you to not freak out, alright?" I heard Jasper snort in disbelief.

"Alright. What's up that you need me to not freak out about?" he asked.

"Bella's in the hospital. James attacked her," I said, praying that he wouldn't explode too much.

"WHAT!"

Well, there goes that hope.

"Edward, calm down. She's in the hospital. Jasper and I are on our way to the hospital right now," I said. "Freaking out won't help anything."

"What happened, Alice?" Edward's voice was full of anger – for James – and worry – for Bella.

"All I know that it is really bad. Just get to the hospital as soon as you can," I said. "And see if Carlisle will come with you."

I heard Edward let out a huge frustrated sigh and say, "Alright. Which hospital is she at?"

"Grace Memorial."

The phone clicked and I knew that Edward had hung up on me. I flipped shut my phone and put it on my lap, sighing. My eyes turned to look out the window. Jasper took my hand in his and said, "She'll be okay. Bella's a strong fighter."

"God, Jasper, I hope you're right," I said.

Thanks to Jasper's fast driving, the normally forty-five minute drive to the town where Seattle University was located was shortened to only twenty minutes. We parked the car in the visitor's parking lot and hurried into the hospital lobby. The receptionist at the desk looked up, shocked, when we (well, okay, only I) nearly ran up. "May I help you?" she asked.

"Yes, do you know where the ICU is?" Jasper asked politely and calmly.

The receptionist – whose nametag said 'Shirley' – let out a bored sigh and said, "Level two. Follow the signs. It ain't that hard."

My mouth dropped open and I was about to reply back with a sarcastic retort when Jasper said, "Thank you very much," and pulled me away before I could say anything.

Angela was waiting for us, as she said she was, in the ICU waiting room. Her angelic face held a worried look and I could see dried tear marks on her face. She was sitting in a chair, but stood up when she saw us and ran over.

"Have you heard anything?" I asked.

She shook her head. "I've been waiting. Nobody's been out to tell me anything."

Edward arrived about twenty-five minutes after Jasper and I did, followed minutely by Carlisle and Esme. Carlisle had his serious doctor face on, Esme looked immensely worried, and Edward … Edward looked furious (at James, I was sure), but at the same time, he looked worried as well.

The wait was horrible. Because he was a doctor, Carlisle was allowed to go behind the swinging doors. That left me, Jasper, Edward, and Esme (Angela had left to head back to the college, after we promised to keep her updated on Bella) to sit and wait in the waiting room. I sat on a double seat with Jasper. He was holding me in his arms. Edward sat on the other side of the waiting room. He was beyond help. Even Esme couldn't console him. He was beyond worried for Bella, and I couldn't blame him. He loved her with all of his heart, and I couldn't imagine the pain of worrying that he was experiencing.

Finally, after about an hour and a half, Carlisle walked back through the swinging doors with a doctor. They stopped and talked to each other for a moment, and then Carlisle shook the doctor's hand and walked towards us as the doctor walked back through the doors.

Edward shot up from his seat when he saw Carlisle walking towards us. "Will she be okay?" he asked. Panic and worry was clearly still evident in his voice.

Carlisle nodded. "She'll be fine. She is going to be admitted to this hospital for the next couple of days so that the doctors can monitor her and see that she hasn't suffered any horrible trauma mentally. They did a rape test and she definitely was." Edward winced at Carlisle's words.

"Is she awake?" I asked as Esme and Jasper stood up as well.

He shook his head. "She's still unconscious. She should be awake in the next couple of hours, though. Is there any way that we can contact her parents to let them know what happened?"

Edward and I glanced at each other. I shook my head. "You wouldn't be able to contact them. They died when she was seven."

Esme, Jasper, and Carlisle gasped, and a look of concern formed on Esme's face.

"Well, is there anyone else we can contact?" Carlisle asked. "Any form of relative?"

I shook my head. "I don't know of any. Bella's never mentioned any other relatives."

For the next hour and a half we waited. Edward looked relieved that Bella was going to be okay, but still worried. We could tell that he was trying to wait as patiently as he could, but wasn't having very much luck. I flipped through a magazine, but I wasn't very interested in it, which was a first for me.

"Alice, what did you mean when you said Bella's parent's died?" Jasper asked me quietly.

"Her parents died in a car accident when she was seven years old. She was in foster care and social services up until she came to college in September," I said. "That's all I can tell you now. Bella's gonna have to tell the rest of you, if she wants to."

It was about an hour and a half later when we got the news that Bella was now awake. The nurse told us that she wanted to see me, so I immediately went to her room – room 305 – with Edward hot on my feet. I opened the door to her room and immediately ran to her bedside, engulfing her in a big hug.

"Alice!" Bella said, wrapping her un-bandaged arm around me. She spotted Edward, and her eyes lit up. "Edward!"

He came up to the bedside and took her hand in his. He looked deep into her eyes, his eyes full of unconditional love and worry for Bella. "Are you alright?" She gave a weak, trembling smile and nodded.

"We were all so worried about you. We thought you wouldn't wake up," I said, giving her another hug.

"We?" Bella asked.

Edward nodded. "Carlisle, Esme, and Jasper are out in the waiting room."

Bella was silent for a moment, and then she looked at me. "Alice, they need to know … don't they?"

I nodded solemnly. "I wish it were under better circumstances, but they still need to know."

Taking a deep breath, she said, "Alright, Alice. Call them in. They need to know the truth."

Author's Note: Well, there it is! I hope you all don't want to kill me!

If any of you were wondering why Bella didn't fight back when James came for her at the diner – she didn't fight back because she knows what James is capable of. I can't really explain a whole lot right now, but in a future chapter, her entire past will be revealed, and you'll see why.

So! Please review (I want to again thank everybody who reviewed) and I'll post the next chapter as soon as I can! I want to try to get up to at 20 reviews, so I'm going to need at least 5 reviews before I post another chapter.

See you next chapter! Hershey Kiss Lover.

NEXT CHAPTER:

"You don't have to be scared, Bella. We're never going to leave you. James will get caught and he'll go to jail."