CHAPTER TEN:

BELLA POV

"Ed! You are here tonight!" Emmett hopped up and hugged his cousin, who returned it as he laughed.

He looked so fucking good in his dark blue scrubs and white lab coat. His name was embroidered on the front, a pen in his breast pocket. His hair, as usual, was a disheveled mess, but still fuckhot. I probably would have licked my lips if I weren't experiencing an immense amount of panic.

"I am. I pretty much never leave this place." Edward's gaze shifted from Emmett to me, scanning my face before focusing in on my thumb. Apparently, he didn't recognize me from Halloween, although, I had been wearing a mask all night and he was slightly intoxicated for a good majority of it.

He took the chart from Emmett's hands as he sat in the stool Seth had once occupied, and I wished so much that it was him here now instead of Edward. My heartbeat was pounding in my chest and my right knee was bouncing, which was an involuntary nervous habit of mine. I was having trouble breathing, the breaths seeming like they were doing nothing to supply my body with the oxygen it needed.

"What do we have here…" he trailed off, looked at the chart for my name, "Isabella?" He paused for a second, his eyebrows shooting up. He looked back up at me, his eyes wide. "Bella? Oh shit, I didn't recognize you."

"It's good to see you again, Edward," I muttered, surprised I was able to get that much out. The tightness in my chest was making it pretty hard to breath, let alone speak. I might end up passing out.

Good, then maybe he can give you mouth to mouth.

Oh my god, that's not how that works.

"Yeah, likewise," he sighed, his eyes searching my face. "You look different without a mask on."

Emmett stood from where he was sitting and mumbled something about finding a vending machine since I had ruined dinner. I would have glared at him if Edward's eyes weren't holding mine intently.

Edward shook his head, blinking hard. "What did you do to your thumb?" he asked. He set the clipboard down and cradled my hand in his. He began undoing the patchwork that Seth had created as I answered.

"I was chopping vegetables and got a little carried away," I explained. I couldn't find it in me to joke with Edward like I had with Seth. My impending mental breakdown probably had something to do with that.

Edward finally exposed the wound, which had slowed in bleeding, but was definitely still not stopping. He pulled a cart with a suture kit closer to him, resting my hand on it. He tossed the soiled gauze away before grabbing a fresh stack. He soaked up the blood as it flowed from my thumb, inspecting the damage I'd done.

"Well, you don't seem to have damaged any tendons or anything," he said. He pulled a pair of glasses from his breast pocket and slid them onto his face.

God damn, he looks so fucking hot in glasses. Like a sexy nerd.

"Yeah, I don't see anything but muscle and skin here," he confirmed. "You must have a pretty good set of knives, because this is a pretty clean cut. Almost looks like it was made with a scalpel."

"I cook a lot," I blurted, for some unknown reason. I apparently lost the 'intelligence' filter when I was around Edward unexpectedly. "Rose and Emmett got a nice set for me last Christmas." There, that should clear that up.

"This could have been a lot harder to stitch up if they hadn't." He rolled around to grab a pair of gloves and looked at me over his shoulder. "You're not allergic to latex, right?"

I shook my head, fearing some other stupid thing might come out of my mouth if I tried to speak. He spun back around, gloves donned, and grabbed a vial and a syringe.

"I'm going to inject some lidocaine real quick just to numb the area." Edward wiped the area down with betadine before he began poking the needle into my skin all around the wound. Lidocaine worked quickly, so he wouldn't have to wait a long time for it to go numb.

He worked quickly, adding a line of six stitches to the area. The entire time, his left hand held onto mine as his right hand created perfect sutures. If I hadn't already swooned enough, I was now swooning at Edward's suturing skills, admiring how efficiently and effortlessly he executed each one. People in the medical field apparently get turned on by weird things. Or maybe that's just me.

When he had finished the last stitch, he dabbed the area with gauze, cleaning away the betadine and blood that had escaped while he was putting my skin back together. He wrapped the area in more gauze, much like Seth had the first time, except not so bulky. It was more to keep germs out than to keep blood in, now.

"Keep that wrapped for a couple hours, then let it air out, apply some antibacterial ointment and redress it," he instructed. He took his gloves off, and Emmett walked back into the little room, a cheese danish in his hand, half eaten. Edward was still in doctor mode. "Sleep with it dressed for a couple days, just so you don't accidently bump it and tear the sutures. After tomorrow, only put a bandage over it during the day, let it air every few hours. You should be able to take the stitches out in about a week."

"Bells is a pro at this stuff," Emmett said, waving his cousin off. "She's been in and out of ERs her whole life. She's had more than her fair share of stitches."

My face began to heat up at Emmett's words. Edward didn't need to know how clumsy I was, even though he knew how clumsy Bambi was.

"Then I'm assuming you'll be able to take them out yourself," Edward said. He reached into a drawer and handed me a sterile bag filled with small scissors and gauze pads. I had several of these in my house over the years. Like Emmett said, I was a pro at taking out stitches long before I even knew I wanted to be a doctor.

Edward stood, gathering the chart from where he had set it on the table next to me. "I hope to see you again soon, Bella. Hopefully outside of the ER." He beamed at me, switching from Dr. Cullen to the Edward I knew in a split second.

My blush deepened, and I didn't respond to his words, since I wasn't sure how to do so. I just hopped up off the bed, stumbling on my way down. Emmett's arm shot out and caught me by my bicep, keeping me from falling flat on my face to the floor.

"Careful there, Bells," he said, chuckling. He helped me right myself as he said, "I might have to start calling you Bambi again if you keep this up."

My heart may have actually stopped when he called me Bambi. I saw Edward stiffen out of the corner of my eye. His shoulders squared and became rigid. The muscle in his jaw flexed, making me want to lick it and hide under a rock at the same time.

Damn Emmett and his big mouth.

"I'll discharge you, just sign some papers at the front desk before you leave." Edward's voice sounded strained, like it did at the club on Friday. I hated hearing him like that, and I knew it was my fault this time. I needed to talk to him soon. "You're free to go."

Edward disappeared from the room, leaving the curtain open behind him. He hurried to the front desk, dropping the clipboard to the surface and saying something quickly to the guy that was there. He quickly signed some papers before hurrying off to another makeshift room.

He looked pissed off, and Emmett noticed it, too.

"What's got his panties in a bunch?" he wondered. I just shrugged. Emmett helped my into my jacket, which I hadn't been able to put on until now.

I quickly signed my discharge papers and left the ER with Emmett. I didn't see Edward before we left, so I made a mental note to get his number from Emmett so we could talk. I owed the poor guy an apology and an explanation. I needed time to get my frayed nerves under control, though.

Way to go, Bella. He learned the truth in the worst way possible.

EDWARD POV

I had been in the ER for nearly two weeks now, and it was dragging by. Patients came in regularly, usually due to sickness or some holiday related injury. We were definitely busy, but nothing ever came in that could keep my interest for long. I spent a lot of time suturing or assessing symptoms and having my attending approve prescriptions. Everything was becoming mundane, and I craved for something exciting to happen.

I had just run to take a quick bathroom break, since my bladder had been calling for my attention for several hours. I was just exiting the bathroom and planned to go grab something to eat really quickly from a vending machine, when I heard my name being called.

"Cullen!" Clearwater shouted. I looked up to him, dreading what he was going to say next. I just wanted a five minute break. "There's a suture job on bed five. Pretty deep, bleeding a lot."

I groaned. I got assigned to lesions a lot, considering I could throw the best sutures of all the residents. Even though I had no intentions of becoming one, my dad was a surgeon, and I had spent many days practicing different techniques, just so I knew how to execute them properly when the time came. Apparently my time was my rotation in the ER.

"I'll be right there."

I looked longingly back at the vending machine. I had really been wanting a bag of potato chips, but it looked like those had to wait.

Just as I slid open the curtain to bed five, I heard a sweet voice say, "That would imply that I've had sex recently. I haven't seen any type of action since senior year of high school."

"Well, isn't this quite the conversation to walk in on," I commented, closing the curtain behind me. Being in such a crowded place, it wasn't uncommon to overhear strange conversations.

I saw Emmett sitting in the chair in the corner of the small room, and he jumped out of his chair, setting the chart he had in his hands down next to my patient.

He shouted his pleasure at me being in the hospital, which I seemingly never left. I told him so as I glanced to my patient, first taking in her very pretty face, then her bandaged thumb. I took the chart Emmett was holding out to me as scanned it to see that she had cut herself.

Sitting in the stool provided, I saw that her knee was bouncing and moved along quickly to calm her nerves. Hospitals weren't always everyone's favorite places to be.

"What do we have here…" my eyes flitted to the top of the chart to find her name, "Isabella?" My eyes had found hers, but they jumped back to the chart to make sure I had read her name correctly.

It couldn't be? She looked so much different.

"Bella? Oh shit, I didn't recognize you," I said in surprise. I berated myself briefly for cursing in front of a patient, but then I remembered that this was Bella, the girl from the Halloween party that had danced on me all night and licked salt off of my neck. Somehow, I think she was alright with my bad language.

Memories of Halloween hadn't left my mind since the morning after. I had never gotten a good look at her face because of the mask she had on, but I knew she was beautiful. Her body was warm and soft under my hands as I held onto her waist while we danced. Her tongue against my skin had been the most action I had seen since my breakup with Lauren, the thought of which made me cringe.

Fuck Lauren. There's a reason I dumped that evil parasite.

I had asked my cousin for Bella's number, but he had told me he wasn't going to give out her number when she didn't know about it. I had respected his reasoning, but that didn't stop me from thinking about her almost every day for nearly three months, now. I even thought about her when I went to the strip club. That was until I actually laid my eyes on Bambi, then all thoughts beside watching this woman dance for me and talk to me went out the window.

My head-and a little bit of my heart-hurt when I remembered what I had done this weekend. Somewhere in the last month or so, I realized I was developing actual feelings for Bambi, which was not okay on any level. She was a wonderful person, I knew this, but she was also a woman that was just doing her job. I knew she enjoyed talking to me as much as I did to her, she had told me as much, but I'm sure that's as far as it went. When I first went to the club, it had been as a stress reliever, especially with the interviews and meetings I was enduring every weekend.

But now the interviews and meetings had passed, for the most part, and I was still going in every Friday or Saturday. I craved the feeling of her hand in mine when she led us back to the private rooms. I wanted to hear her voice as she asked me questions and answered mine. Her body and her dancing was definitely enticing, but it was more than that. She was a kind person who I knew would do great things in the world. But I couldn't have her, and I was just torturing myself every weekend.

So, I chose Friday night as the day that I was cutting myself off. I had a long meeting about the residency program that day, and my first thought was to go to the club to see Bambi. On my way there, though, I realized how complicated I was making this for myself, so I came to a decision.

When I walked in, I had all intents of telling her that I had just came to say goodbye, but she was on stage when I entered, and I couldn't take my eyes off of her. I ordered a drink as she finished her set and waited. When she was finished, I met her just offstage, and she moved us to a room, just like always. I had let my true intentions of coming in slip as she was in my lap, tugging on my hair. It was an internal war with myself constantly over wanting to touch her and knowing I couldn't. The things she did to me were dangerous and amazing, but I had to let it go. I walked out that night feeling really shitty about not seeing her anymore, but also a little relieved that I wouldn't have to restrain myself.

My mother was still awake when I had gotten home that night. She made me a cup of herbal tea while she told me about her day, letting me know she had seen Bella there. Right after Thanksgiving, my mom had called me and told me about how she met Bella, first at the charity gala and then on Thanksgiving day. Rose and Emmett had taken her with them to my aunt and uncle's home for the week and her parents spent some time with them as well. I didn't know Bella's life story, but I knew from Emmett that she had grown up somewhere in Washington, apparently relatively close to Seattle.

My mind focused back in on the task at hand. I unwrapped the gauze to reveal a bleeding wound. I inspected it, ensuring that there wasn't anything other than minor muscular damage. I sewed it up quickly, trying to prevent more blood from escaping.

Emmett had left the room at some point, not really a big fan of blood and open wounds, but he returned as I was telling Bella how to take care of her sutures and dressing them and removing them. It was a pretty simple process, but I was liable if the instructions weren't given and someone came back with an infected wound and no knowledge of the instructions.

"Bells is a pro at this stuff," Emmett said, cheese danish in hand as he sat back in the chair he had occupied originally. "She's been in and out of ERs her whole life. She's had more than her fair share of stitches."

I reached into a nearby cabinet and provided her with a kit to take the sutures out. I stood from my chair and gathered the chart. "I hope to see you again soon, Bella. Hopefully outside the ER," I told her, smiling.

It was true. Now that I had stopped whatever it was that was going on with Bambi, I wanted to try to pursue something with Bella. She seemed very nice, and she was one of the most beautiful women I had ever met, especially now with her face bare and her hair in a natural state. She had a pink tinge to her cheeks, that I could only assume was from blushing.

Without saying anything, she hopped off of the exam table, stumbling on her way down. Emmett's arm shot out quicker than I could move, catching her bicep in his large hand. Years of football had evidently paid off.

"Careful there, Bells," he chuckled, standing her upright. "I might have to start calling you Bambi again if you keep this up."

At the mention of the name, my eyes shot to Bella's face. I studied her as she stared hard at Emmett, looking like she was in shock. A sinking feeling formed in the pit of my stomach as I actually looked at her.

My body was on edge as I realized the similarities between the girl in front of me and the girl I visited every weekend in the club. Same body shape, same chocolate hair, same round face. I'm sure I'd see those cute back dimples and beauty mark on her ass if she didn't have as much clothes on.

I felt my jaw flex as anger swelled up, replacing the surprise. How could she not tell me? We had met before. She had spent a week with my family, for Christ's sake. Who the hell was she, exactly?

I told her that I was going to discharge her and left the room. I couldn't deal with her right now. I was too angry and I needed to get my mind off of it before I did something stupid. I quickly moved onto another bed, wanting to think of anything besides this Bella/Bambi clusterfuck.

That didn't work so well, though, and I could barely focus on the little kid I was examining. I knew he had a sinus infection, but I still had to go through the motions of documenting each symptom. It was second nature to me at this point, so I couldn't exactly distract myself with it.

Instead, my mind was racing a hundred miles an hour with Bella/Bambi. I had spent three months getting to know this amazing beautiful and seductive woman in the club. She was more than her looks, too. She was incredibly intelligent, and I knew she would do well in whatever area she was planning on going into after college.

Then there was Bella, the mystery girl at the party who was one of my cousin's best friends. She was funny and sarcastic and could hold her own with the alcohol. She also made me forget about my indiscretions at the club, because she filled all of my mind for those few hours I was with her. I had been in a war in my head between her and Bambi for several weeks now. Turns out I didn't need to be worrying at all, seeing as they were the same person and all.

As the night wore on, my anger started to dissipate as I considered the situation. Bella was young and in college, trying to do anything she could to get by and live comfortably. I really didn't look down on those that entered sex work to help pay for expenses. It was easy cash, as far as I knew, and it was an easy enough business to get into.

I also knew that those girls purposefully used stage names to keep their personal and business lives separate, which I knew from the start was the case with Bambi. I couldn't really blame Bella for not telling me about her alter ego on Halloween. During one of our many nights at the club, she had confessed that she wasn't willing to share her future area of study because she didn't want to possibly be barred from entering the field. It was a sound reason for withholding information. Her not telling me that she was Bambi that night was the same thing.

On my way home that night, I realized I hadn't been so harsh with her when I first put it together. Sure, I was upset, but I hadn't taken even a split second to think about her version of things. I knew if I was a stripper, I definitely wouldn't be telling anybody about who I was, especially when my future was still so uncertain.

As I got ready for bed, I considered texting Emmett and asking for her number again, but I assumed I'd get the same response as last time. Instead, I planned to figure her out a little more so I could actually speak to her in person. I owed her an apology and I think we needed to talk.

I opened Rose's contact and sent her a message.

Hey Rose, got a sec?

It took all of twenty seconds for her to respond.

Sure, make it quick tho. Studying for finals.

What is Bella doing tomorrow?

Instead of a response, my phone began to ring, Rose's name popping up. I spit the toothpaste in my mouth out into the sink and answered. This had to be bad if she was calling me instead of just answering the text.

"Something tells me that she doesn't want to talk to you, Edward," she started. No greeting or anything. She was talking in a hushed voice, so I assumed she was in a quiet house or a library.

"What makes you say that?" I asked.

"Well, when I got home she told me what happened at the hospital," she said. I had no doubt that Rosalie knew exactly what happened as soon as Bella had walked out of the ER. Those two seemed like they shared everything. "She's kinda beating herself up, and probably will for the next few days. She thinks you hate her."

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion as I glanced at myself in the mirror. "What, why would she think that?"

"She said you did the jaw thing that guys do when they get angry," she said, as if that explained everything.

"Jaw thing?" I was slightly confused.

"Yeah, guys tend to clench their jaws when they're upset. We can see the muscle flex. It's pretty telltale."

I sighed. I knew I did that. I have since I was young. I couldn't help that all my tension went to that one muscle in my body.

"I mean, I was upset, but I was more shocked than anything. I just want to talk to her."

It was silent on the other end for several moments, and I thought maybe Rose had hung up, but the call was still going when I checked. I was about to say something, but she finally spoke up.

"Tomorrow the house will be empty. I have a final, Alice is going out with her parents all day, and Em has work. Come by at some point, and I can guarantee you Bella will be here with her ass glued to the couch and a Grey's Anatomy marathon playing on the TV." I chuckled at the image of Bella snuggled up on the couch watching that terrible show. "You guys can talk then."

"Thanks, Rose."

"I'd say anytime, but I'm not doing this for you. I just hate seeing her mope around like this."

I fell asleep that night trying to think of what I was going to say to Bella the next day.

So, Edward officially knows! It was how I envisioned him finding out since before the first word of this story was ever typed. I just knew I wanted to to be Emmett's loud mouth that gave the secret away unintentionally, even though he doesn't know it himself. It was fun hearing you all guess how Edward was going to find out, but no one ever guessed that it would be this way.

I hope you enjoyed, I know I certainly enjoyed writing it. I had this chapter done a few days ago, but waited to post it until today. The next chapter is already written as well, but you're going to have to wait until Thursday for that, unless you all can do some serious begging haha

As always, tell me your thoughts. I love to know what you guys think of the chapters and what happened. And I welcome any suggestions for what will happen in future chapters. Also, let me know how quickly you want to see a relationship between E & B develop. Some of you have told me you liked that their relationship wasn't rushed in this story, so I'm curious as to when you want to see things moved along. Let me know!

Until next time, lovelies!