FF still does NOT have their shit together and I have no indication they are even working on it. I was trying to wait it out to post because this starts three VERY crucial chapters in this story and no one will have any way of knowing I updated unless they are a member of my group or other fanfic facebook groups where people pimp me out ( I don't really do self- pimpage... maybe I should start...)
*Because the next three chapters may be more than you are realized you were taking on, I will post them once a day until they are done THEN I will wait a few days before posting again to see if you are still buckled in and ready to go. No hard feelings if you have to walk away. I just ask that you be polite if you choose to tell me why you can't continue with this story. I mean, I'll KNOW why as I have struggled with whether I should take it there or not but in the end decided that is how I wanted the storyline to go and where the characters took me. Anyway, I look forward to hearing from you, no matter what you decide after Monday.*
"No, it's fine, Alice. You deserve to rest and now that I work from home I can take care of Charlotte." I cradled the phone to my shoulder as I flipped a pancake. "No! Alice, I swear to God if you show up here today, I will… I will… I don't know what I will do, but it will be bad. Okay… mmmhmmm… love you too. Bye." I took the phone from my ear and put it on the counter.
I looked at Charlotte, who was taking a drink of her milk.
"Charlotte, your aunt is incorrigible."
Her confused look told me she had no clue what I was talking about.
"She's crazy." I clarified.
She giggled.
I smiled and plated our breakfast and carried it to the table. I looked at the clock. I still had twenty minutes before I had to be online for work. We chatted and laughed as we ate and I don't know if it was just wishful thinking but Charlotte looked better. Her pallor had more color than usual and her lips were a lighter blue. I really felt like we would make it until her new heart was ready. She was on constant oxygen except during her brief meal times and it seemed to be working.
At 7:59, there was a knock on my door. I opened it without thinking and my face drained of all color.
"Dr. Cullen." I squeaked. "What are you doing here?"
"Dr. Cullen. Yesterday, it was Edward and today it is Dr. Cullen?" He smirked. "Nice outfit by the way." He threw out as he slipped past me and walked into my apartment.
I blushed as I looked down at my 'office' wear; short boxers, tank, no makeup, hair in messy bun and black rimmed glasses on my face. Let me die now, please.
"EdBer." Charlotte squealed, as she tried to run to him.
"Baby, don't try to run." I admonished. I looked at Edward. "EdBer?" I asked.
He shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat.
I waited expectantly.
"My sisters, when they were little, called me…" He mumbled something intelligibly.
"What was that?" I asked.
"Eddie Bear! They called me Eddie Bear, alright? Are you satisfied?" He grumbled, glaring at me.
"Oh, that is too good. I shall call you Dr. Eddie Bear." I laughed.
"And if you do, I shall call you unemployed." He said.
"Nah, you like Charlotte too much." I smiled victoriously.
He looked at Charlotte.
"It's all your fault." He told her, though he smiled at her.
"So, why are you here?" I asked.
"Oh. I had this contract with me so I just decided to bring it over here."
"You couldn't have emailed it to me?"
"It was on my way."
"From where? You live across town." That fact was revealed a couple of days ago. Then it dawned on me. He was with Kate. "Oh. Well, still you could have just emailed it to me." I said, not sure why the hell him staying with his girlfriend bothered me. I must be losing it.
"Is it a problem that I brought it by, Ms. Swan?" He asked, his tone taking a turn to icy.
"Knock it off with the Ms. Swan crap." I demanded, taking my daughter from him and setting her in front of Dora the Explorer. Anything, and I do mean anything, was better than that damn Sponge Bob. Who lived in a pineapple under the sea? Someone annoying and stupid and yellow, that's who.
I then walked over to my kitchen table and cleared it, putting the dishes in the dishwasher, ignoring him. He huffed and then stalked over to my coffee maker and poured himself a cup.
"Just make yourself at home." I said dryly.
"I will, it's technically my home." He said arrogantly.
Anger slammed into me.
"See, this is why I don't like people doing stuff for me. Because it just gets thrown back in my face." I seethed. "So, feel free to take your freebies back and stick them up your rigid ass."
I went over to my desk and threw open the computer, pounding on the keys to sign in. I know I shouldn't take it out on the computer but that damn man was so infuriating. He was like… like… Jekyll and Hyde… or Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice.
His hand on mine made them still. For about a second. Then I withdrew my hand like I had been burned. Which it felt like I had. Now that I think of it, it felt like a shock every time he touched me. I knew it! That man was shocking the hell out of me on purpose!
He looked unsettled as well and he was still leaning over me. I felt different emotions I couldn't name at his close proximity.
"Back the hell up." I ordered.
He did as I requested, probably scared for his testicles. Which he should be. I was a great shot.
"Contract, please." I said as politely and as professionally as I could. Which wasn't very, seeing as how I was angry and half dressed.
"Bella." He beseeched.
"Contract. Please." I enunciated.
He huffed and practically threw it at me.
Ass!
"I will email it to you later." I said dismissively.
"You're throwing me out?" He asked in disbelief.
"Yes, I, Bella 'White Trash' Swan am throwing you, Edward 'Money Bags' Cullen out of my house. Yes, I said my. This may be 'your' house but I am living in it, so get out. Now." Oh yeah, I was pissed. I used to my fingers to do quotation marks and everything.
"Fine." He said tersely and made his way out, slamming the door.
Whatever.
I raced after him and threw it open and then slammed it again. I would have the last word.
"Baby, you need better taste in men." I said, turning to look at her, expecting to see her smile.
What I saw instead made my heart drop.
Charlotte, my baby, was slumped over, her lips a darker blue than I've seen them, her face whiter than a ghost, her eyes closed.
"Charlotte! Charlotte Baby!" I raced over to her and pulled her up into my arms. "No! Nononononono! Wake up!" I screamed. In my head a million things raced through it. What I needed to do, what I had to do, but all I could do was scream.
EPOV
"Damn ungrateful woman." I muttered as I stormed out to my car. Well, at least I had made my point clear.
Then I heard her open and re-slam the door.
Or maybe not.
"Always getting the last damn word." I scowled. To whom, I don't know. That woman infuriated me.
I don't know why I let her affect me like this. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered with her at all. Then she wouldn't be bothering me.
I practically tore the door off of my car in my blind rage when I heard it. At first I thought it was the roar in my head from my anger but then I heard it again.
I tilted my head towards the sound.
"Charlotte! No! Charlotte! Wake up!" I distinctly heard.
Instinct took over and I raced to Bella's door and my sheer velocity about tore it off the hinges as it gave way.
I took a quick moment to access the situation. Bella was screaming and rocking Charlotte, who was despondent, limp and turning blue.
I shoved my way around Bella to check Charlotte's pulse. Not finding one, I strived to stay calm. One panicked adult in here was enough and panic wasn't going to save this child.
"Bella, go get me her oxygen machine." I ordered.
She didn't move, just kept screaming.
"Bella!" I screamed harshly.
No response for me.
I took her by her arms and shook her hard.
"Snap out of it!" I screamed at her.
She looked startled and then she started to quietly weep. I pushed her aside and ran to Charlotte's room. Bella was no use right now. I would have to do it myself. I grabbed her oxygen machine and ran back, grabbing the phone off of the counter on my way back.
I quickly dialed Forks Gen Emergency as I placed the oxygen on her face and started pumping her chest, doing compressions; one, two, three, four, five… pump in oxygen.
"Who's this?" I asked. "This is Edward Cullen. I have incoming. No, not an ambulance. I don't have time to wait for it, expect my car. I need a intubation tray, tube size 5.5, a ventilator, an EKG monitor and Maggie O'Connell and Alice Swan waiting for me in Trauma room four. I don't care who is in it, move them. Then call UNOS. Tell them that Charlotte Swan needs that number one spot pronto. She isn't going to last without it. She just became critical." I hung up without saying goodbye and was surprised when I saw a set of hands helping me.
I looked up into the grave face of my mother.
I grabbed Charlotte up, throwing my keys to Mom.
"Get Bella and get in the car." I ordered as I ran and got into the back seat, still holding the oxygen over Charlotte's face.
We were soon on the road and I cursed every time my mother stopped for traffic. I think I yelled at my mother more today than I had my whole life.
Maybe it was because I almost felt like my life depended on it. I glanced at Bella and she was just rocking back and forth. I couldn't see her eyes, but I knew they were empty.
We made it to Forks Gen in record time, but it wasn't quick enough to me. I waved off all offers of help and grabbed Charlotte and ran.
"Oh God, no!" Alice wailed as I placed Charlotte down on the gurney.
"How long has she been down?" Maggie asked, grabbing the tube.
"Twenty minutes." I said after looking at my watch.
Her worried glance agreed with my own.
Maggie tilted Charlotte's neck and inserted the tube down her trachea, attaching that to the ventilator. Not what any of us wanted but the only way she could live right now. Her stats rose with the artificial breathing machine and I breathed deeply.
My eyes found Bella, who was huddled with Alice. I was right… empty.
"I need a shotgun workup. And get me the EKG results stat." I barked.
"Did someone call UNOS?" I asked Maggie.
She nodded.
"And?" I asked.
"We don't know yet. They will get back to us."
"That isn't good enough. Call them every thirty minutes until we have a heart." I demanded.
"I do have other patients, you know." She argued.
"Not anymore, you don't. This is your only patient until further notice."
She looked affronted but I didn't care. I walked over to Alice. Her frightened eyes met mine.
"You are officially on leave. Your job is to take care of her." I said.
She nodded, gratefully.
I looked at Bella, but she was focused on her daughter. I had no idea how she was still standing but she was.
"Get her a seat. We will have Charlotte moved up to the third floor soon." I told Alice.
I didn't wait for her nod, I just left. I walked through the bustling ER but the sound, the flurry of activity, the people; none of it registered with me. I was instead trapped inside my own head, my own memories, my own nightmares.
"Edward." I vaguely heard my mother's voice but I just kept walking, to the elevator, then the stairs leading to the roof access and finally to the roof itself. I stood near the ledge, the irony not lost on me.
I had my own demons that stayed on my heels like the hounds of Hell. I could push them to the back of my mind, I could pretend they didn't exist, but they did. Charlotte and, by extension, Bella, brought them out. The grief, the nightmares, the helplessness lapped at the vestiges of my mind.
I had to stay out here until I could only see Charlotte, and not Lauren, lying in that bed. I will admit that part of me didn't want to go back in there and watch this. I didn't know how things would work out and that child deserved only positive thinking from at least one of us. Oh, Alice would fake it, my mom would exude it but we all knew where this could lead but none of us wanted to face it.
And Bella…
Bella. This was her worst nightmare come true. Her child was officially dying and there was nothing any of us could say to her to make her think otherwise.
My phone buzzed and it was at my ear in an instant.
"What? Room 3249? Great. Stats? Up the oxygen. Give her some Lopressor. I don't care what O'Connell said. How's Bella? Get her to drink something. I don't need her in a hospital bed, too. Keep me informed, Swan."
I hung up and rested my elbows on the railing of the ledge.
"Thought I might find you here."
"You always did know me best." I said, as lightly as I could.
"How are you holding up?" She asked.
"I'm fine." I told her as I laughed.
"Don't. Don't do that. You are obviously not fine. Fine doesn't have you practically dangling off the ledge."
"I am not dangling off the ledge." I argued.
"But you are not fine." She countered.
"Yes, yes I am. I am perfectly fine." I yelled.
"No, there is nothing fine about this. I am not fine, Alice is not fine, Bella sure as hell is not fine and neither are you. That child is dying. And Alice is helping Bella, Bella is a basket case and you, you are out here."
"Where am I supposed to be?" I asked.
"Where do you want to be?" She shot back.
"Right where I am." I said.
"Bullshit." She said.
I blinked. Mom did not curse. She was way too classy to let obscenities fly.
"That little girl has wormed her way into your heart. You care for her and you care for her mother."
"I do not. Bella is an obstinate, opinionated, stubborn, difficult woman and she drives me crazy." I growled. "And Charlotte…"
"Is not Lauren." She finished for me.
"Go away." I turned my back on her.
"It has been over twenty five years. When are you going to let it go and realize it wasn't your fault?" She sighed.
"I have work to do." I replied stiffly, walking away.
No, my demons were better left in the dark recesses of my mind.
And that is where they would stay.
Still with me? The next chapter's a doozy. Get ready, Harpies, we are going to take a trip to the dark side.