Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all
EPOV
A few hours later we were driving passed the decaying "Welcome to Forks" sign. Bella wasn't looking to good. We had driving over two hours and she hadn't woken up, spoken, or even moved. This scared me. When I finally had a chance to look over her I realized that she was in an extremely bad condition. I could see her bones clearly through her skin which helped me to realize that at least one of her ribs was broken. I was terrified to even breathe, because it would jostle her even a tiny bit. Even the tiniest bit of a movement would hurt her more. It killed me to have her so close and not be able to hold her and breathe in her sweet freesia scent. I was under the sad misconception that once I had her in my arms again everything would be fine. Nothing about this was fine; we weren't out of the woods yet.
Rosalie continued to speed to Forks hospital we were going over 100 mph and we were starting to attract attention from the ignorant citizens of Forks. That also caused a police car to notice that a car was going approximately 60 miles over the speed limit. They turned on their sirens. However, if they thought for one second that we were going to stops then they were delusional.
"Perfect" Alice said as she looked back
"What part of this situation is at all perfect?" Rosalie growled as she continued to push the speedometer as fast as it would go.
"That part" Alice said as she pointed to the squad car trailing behind us. I looked through Alice's eyes and realized that the squad car following us was Charlie. Well, I guess we won't have to call him from the hospital.
Within seconds Rosalie had pulled up in front of the hospital. That was all it took for me to throw open the door and cradle Bella in my arms and run as carefully as I could into the lobby. Where was Carlisle? Forks residents gasped from the waiting room as they saw me carry in the battered, bloodied and unconscious girl.
The women at the counter looked alarmed as I walked up.
"Where's Carlisle?" I asked with no patience for pleasantries
"He was called into surgery hours ago. He should be out in a few minutes. Son, who is that?" She asked, for once not trying to flirt with me. I was thankful that her mind was solely focused on helping the "beaten showgirl" in my arms. The comment in her mind about Bella being a showgirl confused me until I realized she was still wearing the whore's clothes that Jacob had given her. I felt like an idiot, but I couldn't move her to give her my jacket.
"Bella Swan" was all it took for everyone in the waiting room to gasp. Everyone in Forks knew about the girl gone missing. There had been many posters and even more people "keeping her in their prayers".
"Edward!" Charlie's gruff voice called out from the door.
I turned as slowly as possible to see Charlie; I couldn't bear to hurt her more than I already had. He choked out a sob as he saw Bella in my arms.
"How?" he stammered out in trying to find the correct question to ask first.
I was prepared to answer him and obviously so were the others that inched farther off their seats anxious to hear how Bella was saved. Some were from Forks High, so obviously they were excited to start spreading the gossip around town.
At that moment, Carlisle burst through the door ushering me and Charlie to follow him. I walked up to him and followed him through the hospital corridors. He turned to me and held out his arms. I was scared to give her up. I trusted Carlisle explicitly; but I was scared that I would lose her if I let her go again.
"Let her go son." Carlisle's words rang out through the hall way. I sighed before gently giving Bella over to Carlisle.
"Take care of her Dad. Please." I said with pleading eyes
He nodded before going through the doors that created a wall between me and Bella. I walked back into the waiting room and practically fell into the hospital waiting room chairs and let myself dry sob in my hands. I felt small arms encase me and looked to my side to see Alice smiling at me with tears in her eyes that would never shed.
"We've got her Edward. She's Bella. She'll be okay." Alice said
"How can you be sure?" I asked her feeling utterly hopeless
"Don't bet against me Edward." Alice said
I took in my surroundings to see Jasper beside Alice, with Emmet and Rosalie next to Jasper.
"I need to know what happened." Charlie said
I turned to him and nodded. "Jacob kidnapped her."
"Where did he take her? How did you find her? Why didn't you tell the police?" Charlie spit out rapid fire
"He had her in California. He wanted to break her and make her love him. He started taking videos of the things he would do to her. The videos were sent to my family. We were told that he would kill her if we involved the police. We already knew that she was in San Francisco because we saw the Golden Gate Bridge through the window of one of his videos. He left the camera on one day and Bella told us what she knew about her location. She knew the food place he ate at and how long it took him to get there and back. Through that we found an apartment rented to a Jacob Wolfe so we went there."
"You kids got her back on your own?" Charlie asked after my monologue was finished
"There's five of us and one of him. We had to get her back Charlie." Alice said
"How did you get her from him?" Charlie asked
The twenty questions bothered me because I didn't want to relive it. I wanted to focus all of my energy on worrying for Bella. But, I sympathized for him. I grill questions when she gets a scratch; it's fair for the father to want to know what happened to his only daughter.
"We ambushed him. He threatened to kill her if we didn't leave so we started to go and then one of us ran back and took her from his arms when he started to relax his position." Jasper said
"Which one of you boys got her?" Charlie asked
"Rosalie" Emmett said obviously proud of his wife
"I'm a black belt and I've been taking fighting lessons since I was a kid." Rosalie said when she saw the confusion on Charlie's face.
"I can't thank you kids enough. I will never be able to repay you." Charlie said to us
"As long as Jelly Belly is okay then we're repaid." Emmett said
Charlie chuckled a little bit at the name Jelly Belly.
I continued to stare towards the doors once the questioning was complete. She would be okay. She had to be okay. I mean she had to be okay. I can't live without her. Minutes passed by as I continued to watch the doors waiting for any signs of Carlisle walking through the door to say that I could see her. If it wasn't for me she wouldn't have gotten hurt. I couldn't even keep her protected. I promised I'd never let anyone hurt her and I let this happen. I wouldn't blame her if she never wanted to speak to me again.
I was broken from my trance by another pair of arms wrapping around me. I looked up to see the always calm and collected Esme looking at me with heart-breakingly sad eyes as she tried to crush me to her chest.
"Please tell me she's alright." Esme said
"I want to." I told her
"Why her?" was all Esme could say before she broke out sobbing into my shoulder
Why did it have to be her? Had she not been through enough? These questions were eating at me while I held Esme.
CHPOV(Charlie)
It was another day of watching speeders. That's what days were now. Work, that's all I could do. Going in the house only reminded me of what I had lost. My baby girl was gone. The case had gone basically cold. In a few weeks they would wrap it up and she would be just another girl pronounced dead. I knew she was alive.
As I continued to think of possible places Jake and Bella could be a car whizzed past me going at least 50 miles over the speed limit. I turned on my sirens and followed them expecting them to slow down and pull over. Instead the car sped faster. Did they really think that would work? I wrote down the license plate and continued racing after them. I saw them pull into the Forks Hospital parking lot. I caught up to them as they were pulling away from the entrance.
They parked and started to get out when I pulled over next to them. I stepped out ready to suspend their license when I saw that it was the Cullen girls in the car. They just got back so they sped over to see their father? That excuse wasn't going to work.
"Do you ladies mind telling me why you were speeding?" I asked
"Hi Charlie" Alice said. I always liked Alice when he came over to collect Bella. Ouch, don't think about it.
"Hello Alice, I'm going to have to write you up." I said pulling out my pad ready to write them a huge ticket.
"I don't care. I need you to follow me" Little Alice said with desperation in her voice. She started to pull me towards the entry way and I finally just started walking on my own. I opened the door to see the back of Edward Cullen as he spoke to the receptionist.
He said "Bella Swan" as I walked in. I was confused, just as I started to think about why he said Bella's name I saw a pair of thin legs sticking out next to Edward.
"Edward!" I called out wanting an explanation
He slowly turned to me and I saw the most horrific sight in the entire world. Bella was in his arms covered in bruises and blood. She was clad in a bra and skirt and I was terrified. Edward seemed just as scared as I was except he looked like he was in pure agony as he held my daughter in his arms.
"How?" Was all I could say. I wanted to know how he found my daughter and how she got in the state she was in.
He looked deep in thought when Carlisle rushed in and motioned for us to follow him. We did until we were in front of the ER doors.
"Let her go son." Carlisle told Edward while holding out his arms to take her. Edward looked down at Bella and then back up as if he was in deep thought of whether it was a god idea to let her go or not. He then looked down at her like she was the sun before handing her over.
"Take care of her Dad. Please." He said in a weak voice. I was shocked. Edward always seemed so nonchalant like he could handle everything. Now, it looked like he couldn't even figure out where to go in the hospital.
I started firing off questions once we sat down. I needed to know exactly what happened to my daughter. I was amazed to find that Rosalie was in fact the one who had gotten Bella away from Jacob. Where was Jacob? Well, I'll ask later when everyone has calmed down a little and I've seen Bella.
After Esme had left I was still confused. It looked as though the entire Cullen family had taken this as hard as I had. But, how? How could they risk their lives for her and cry like she was one of their own? Maybe they all really did love Bella. No, they could still leave her all alone again is what I've been telling myself. But, the looks on their faces when they saw Bella hurt and the maternal voice Esme used that I hadn't even heard from Renee told me otherwise. RENEE!
I got up from my seat and walked outside before dialing Renee's number.
"Hello?" A tired voice answered on the other line.
"Renee it's Charlie. They brought her home." I said unable to hold the excitement in her voice
"She's home! I'll be on the first plane out. Who found her?" Renee asked as I heard shuffling and banging on the other end of the phone
"It's a long story and get here soon. She's not in a good shape." I said
"How bad is it?" She asked
"I didn't even know it was her until Edward said her name." I said depressingly
"Edward? How is he holding up with all of this?" Renee asked with sympathy clear in her voice
"He looks like the living dead over there sweet heart. He's just staring at the door like he's waiting to run in there and find her at a moment's notice. I could shoot him right now and his eyes wouldn't even leave that door."
"Well, I'll be there soon." Renee said before hanging up
I went back inside and settled into the waiting room chair. I watched Edward and saw that he was about to fall apart. That's when I knew that the Cullens were never going to leave her again.
EPOV
After what felt like years Carlisle came out and said that two of us could come in. Charlie and I both automatically stood up and started to walk in. Carlisle led us to the ICU and then we reached room 217. I took a deep breath before entering to see my angel. She was hooked up to wires, but still she was the most gorgeous thing I'd ever laid eyes on. I felt a little bad about taking the chair next to Bella's bed and taking her hand instead of her father but I couldn't find it in me to care.
I quickly sat down and grabbed her frail hand in my own. It scared me that her hand didn't feel very warm to mine. I kissed her hand before settling into my seat and starting the wait for her to wake up.
"She's asleep at the moment. She had four broken ribs, a sprained wrist and ankle, is extremely malnourished, she has a little water in her lungs, there are burns on her torso none of which will scar, there are also electrical burns on various areas of the body only one of those is bad enough to scar, and she has bruising on the majority of her body." Carlisle said this in a professional tone, but I could see how much this was killing him.
"Right now her body just needs rest. She won't wake up for a while because of how much pain medication she's on. She should be able to leave the hospital in about a week." I continued to rub circles on the back of her hand as I listened to Carlisle.
I blocked out the world around me and just watched her sleep. It made me feel like things were going to be ok.
"Edward" escaped her lips as she continued to sleep in the hospital bed. I don't know how long it's been.
"I'm here love."
"Edward don't go." She said as her eyes squinted and her nose scrunched up in one of the most adorable things I've ever seen.
"Never. I'll never leave you." I said in her ear praying to the gods that she would hear me in her dream
"I love you." She sighed
Throughout the night there were more whispers of "Edward" and "I love you". Charlie was looking at me strangely like he was contemplating something. I looked into his mind and realized that he approved of my relationship and believed that I loved her.
Moments later Alice came bouncing in with eight pieces of paper in her hand and the rest of the family following her.
"I think we should read these while she's still asleep." Alice said as she passed a sheet of paper to Charlie.
Did I want to read her goodbye to me? Of course I did. I took the paper from Alice and we all started reading.