***A/N: Wow, no hate mail! That's a first for me after a twist. Thanks so much!

Chapter 11

I didn't know what to do. I was bewildered and petrified; unable to move a muscle. I just stood there blankly, frozen in an abyss of mystification and surreal vertigo.

Somewhere outside my stupefied haze, I was aware of the fact that the nurse took Edward's vitals and then quietly left the room. Carlisle returned shortly after, though it could have been hours and I wouldn't have noticed. He placed his hand gently on my shoulder, which pulled me back to reality just enough to hear him speak.

"Bella…I'm so sorry. I would have told you about Edward the first time you brought me my lunch, but I thought you knew."

"How would I know?" I asked absently.

"Well, it's been in the paper. Forks is a small town. I can't even count how many bouquets he's received from people we hardly know. Most of which I just end up sending to the retirement home…. Renee has been in here a few times visiting him."

"She has?" I asked surprised. Why the hell wouldn't my mother tell me? Of course, I had been avoiding her like the plague, and whenever we were home at the same time I would hide out in my bedroom like a sullen teenager. She probably just figured I already knew as well. How could I have missed it?

"She was pretty upset when she was here. I'm really sorry, I just assumed…"

I held up my hand to stop him. "It's not your fault. I just…I can't believe this."

"Bella, for obvious reasons I've been here practically 'round the clock, but I'd really like you to come to my house for dinner tomorrow night. Meet my wife and her kids. I've wanted to introduce you to them for a long time now. We can discuss Edward's accident more…" I must have made a face because he quickly added - "or we don't have to talk about the accident at all. I would just really like to catch up with you. I hate that we've lost touch." I didn't feel myself nod, but he smiled and told me "Okay, see you then. Five o'clock." And then he turned and exited the room.

I stood there and watched the doorway for a moment, but then I turned to look at Edward's unconscious form, and once again the monitor beeped unexpectedly and I knew I wasn't alone…or I was alone, I wasn't sure.

I didn't turn to look at him, but I could sense him step closer until his was standing just behind me. I could have sworn I even felt his warmth, and then… "God, that sucks!" Edward groaned as he looked over his own lifeless body lying in front of us.

My breathing sped and deepened, and then I squeezed my eyes shut trying to get ahold of reality. I tried to remember the prayer I learned during Renee's brief marriage to Husband Number Two, the Southern Baptist, but I forgot most of it and hadn't been to church since their divorce. Crap.

But I didn't really believe it was a religious matter anyway. I was just hallucinating. I had suspected my fall from sanity for a while now, and this was just proof. I was delusional. Either I imagined every encounter I had with Edward since my return to Forks, or I was currently stuck in a nightmare. I could only be so lucky if it were the latter.

"Bella, say something to me," he pleaded. His voice was strained and desperate, and I couldn't help but wonder why I was imagining him that way.

I tried to ignore him. I bit the inside of my cheek just to keep my mouth shut. But I pushed myself further into my senile daydream by answering him anyway. "You're not real," I whispered with a single tear escaping down my cheek.

He laughed once humorlessly. "Then what the hell am I?"

"I don't know."

"And you think I do? Bella, I have no idea what the hell is going on here. I'm just as fucking shocked as you are."

"How could you not know?" I asked in disbelief.

"I…I…I don't know. I guess…looking back on the past few days, it kind of makes sense."

"Makes sense? Nothing about this makes sense."

"Nothing about us ever has," he said, taking me aback. "But it doesn't make it any less real." I shook my head slowly, so he sighed. "Bella…I'm really freaked out right now," he said emotionally. "I don't…everything is so…confusing. I remember working an overnight shift….there was an accident on Quileute Pass, and I was just getting the victim onto the gurney, and then….Everything is so hazy."

"What have you been doing since then?" I asked vacantly. "That was over three weeks ago."

He ran his hand through his hair and then pulled it away from his scalp. "It doesn't seem like that long ago…. The next thing I remember after that is seeing you in the elevator. I was so…out of it. I mean, really, how could I ever forget you? But when I saw you…it was like…I started remembering things in reverse. The most recent things came back to me first, and by the time the elevator had completed it's descend I got to the memories that revolved around you. Everything suddenly became clear. Like I instantly knew I was supposed to be with you. For the first time since the last time we were together, I felt like myself…The real me…The me I was always supposed to be."

"You followed me to my car," I murmured.

"I can't explain it…I just didn't want you to leave. Like we were connected, even after all that time. As I'm standing here, I'm trying to make sense of it all - where I've been, what I did when you weren't around….but I have no idea. I just haven't been….existing when I'm not with you. I was with you in the elevator…and then I vaguely remember being at Waylon's diner looking for you….though I'm not sure how I got there, and no one would talk to me or tell me where you were. And then you were back in the elevator, and for whatever reason I somehow knew it was a different day, though I was confused about it all. It's been like…a dream, or something. Nothing has made sense, and yet, I haven't really questioned it until now. The only times anything felt…real, was when I was with you. I could remember things clearly from my life then…everything up until the accident. But now…Fuck, I don't even know what I'm talking about."

He looked and sounded so lost, and I wanted nothing more than to just wrap him in my arms and tell him everything was going to be okay, but the truth was that I couldn't make that promise. I couldn't make it because I was fairly certain I was crazy and in serious need of a psychological evaluation. Maybe I should be committed.