Disclaimer: I own nothing. These characters and this love story belongs to Stephenie Meyer.
English is my second language! Have that in mind...
"Rose will catch me if I trip over my feet. Which could happen pretty easily, since I can't see them." Bella was stretching, standing up. She insisted on walking to the bathroom herself, despite Carlisle's instructions. "That feels good," she said, inspecting her arms. She creased her nose. "Ugh, but I'm huge…" She sighed and patted the stomach. "One more day…"
We watched her. Rose and I were prepared to catch her fall. Jacob was back from his escape, somewhat shaken but prepared to catch her as well.
"All righty, then." The blanked she held touched the cup of blood standing on the sofa as she let it slip down. The cup fell and a large red stain spread over the fabric. "Whoops—oh, no!" She stooped to catch the cup, without need.
The three of us were faster than her, already reaching for it.
We heard a ripping sound. Like Velcro.
"Oh!" Bella exclaimed. She put a pale and empty expression on her face.
"Bella?" I asked anxiously, reaching out to her.
I was desperately trying to connect the horrifying sound to Bella's frozen face. What was that? Pain? Shock?
Then there it was. Another sound, even worse.
Bella's scream.
It was a shriek, panic. A single response to her state. The sound faded in a gurgle down her throat. Her eyes rolled back revealing two scleras. Rosalie held her collapsing body close to her. Then there was a stream of blood gushing out of her mouth.
Bella was unconscious.
Her body was severely twitching in Rosalie's arms. The seizure crooked her body in unnatural ways.
I felt powerless, I was watching her shatter for a fraction of a second, but it felt like forever.
Oh God… Rosalie fought her spasms as careful as she could, so she wouldn't hurt her. I heard Bella's body crack. I saw the baby recklessly move inside her. "Upstairs! Carlisle! Cesarean! Alice! We're taking it out now!" Rose screamed briskly.
We ran upstairs to the study.
Bella's body was still jerking as Rose put her on the table.
Where to start?
I wanted to grief.
I wanted to be submerged by the pain.
I had to push myself back.
I was the one who could run this. I would be saving her.
I longed to express my feelings. Throw Carlisle's desk out the panoramic window. Break the table in two. Whisper Bella's name to her ear. Kiss her gently, calm her down. Make it go away by a healing hand.
But she couldn't heal without medical attention.
She was still jerking. Suffering.
I had the medical knowledge here.
"Morphine!" I yelled at Rose.
"Alice – get Carlisle on the phone!" Rose screeched.
I'm on it Edward! He's… not…picking up… yet, I keep trying… all their cells. Alice was distressed; her thoughts were close to breakdown.
Rose ripped Bella's clothes off in a few motions. I successfully got the peripheral venous line into a vein in her arm in less than two seconds, quickly followed by a dose of Diazepam to fight the seizure.
Rose still wasn't preparing the Morphine. "What's happening, Edward?" She was momentarily derailed.
I felt our baby fade away, just like Bella, I saw him clenching on to the placenta with his small hands. The pictures were clear. The baby was wide awake. Fighting for survival, kicking her frantically. The amniotic fluid was read from the bleeding.
"He's suffocating!"
"The placenta must have detached!" Rose responded. I hear him panic, I hear him fade away Edward. He's not getting any oxygen! The baby will die! Take it out! Now!
The seizure subsided and Bella's eyes were focused for a moment. I felt my growing panic stabilize. "GET him OUT! He can't BREATHE! Do it NOW!" She screamed excruciatingly.
Vessels in her eyes burst, painting red spots on her scleras.
"The morphine" I growled to Rose.
She had it ready and I injected it.
"NO! NOW—" Bella screamed but gagged as a gush of blood was vomited again, cutting off her air supply. I tilted her head to the side and got my fingers in her mouth, trying to extricate the blood out.
Her eyes were still awake and staring at me but I saw her fade away again. Her eyelids seemed heavy. Her gaze started to flicker and she was gone again.
I got Carlisle on the phone! Alice darted to Rose to attach the hands free to her ear.
Rose debriefed him as fast as she could, with anger and fear painting her words.
My eyes caught Rose holding the scalpel. You have your hands full, let me do this. I have to save the baby.
"Let the morphine spread!" I commanded.
"There's no time, he's dying." She got the razor sharp blade into her skin and cut a few inches open. Bella winced slightly. A fresh stream of blood seeped down her groin. You know, she's dying too. The sooner we get the baby out, we can save her… Her… Scent. Oh…
I saw her upper lip withdraw to relieve her front teeth. I had my hands full trying to clear Bella's airway. Her body was twitching again on the table. The seizure wouldn't subside until we got the baby out of her.
"No Rose!" I exhorted her.
Finally, the dog made was useful. He'd been watching her twitching naked body for a long time now. He was too immature for prioritizing in a life and death situation. But he was all I had now.
He attacked her. She didn't fight him back. I'm so sorry Edward…
The hands free shattered to pieces on the floor.
I needed help, my hands were full. And all I got was a sixteen year old boy with a testosterone excess. I had to save them both by myself.
Panic. Pain.
Bella. Focus.
"Alice, get her out of here. Jacob, I need you."
He stood paralyzed, watching her face turn blue. Her soul was long gone but her eyes were open, staring dead into the bright light above the table. In panic. Choking.
"CPR?" I was knowingly mean, demanding the stupid dog. Maybe, he'd get that something was more important than this experience of his.
"Yes," he reacted. How to…I don't know if I can…
"Get her breathing! I've got to get him out before—"
CRACK!
No shriek. Her cramping legs went limp. They were recklessly thrown onto the table.
"Her spine," I stuttered.
"Get it out of her!" Jacob threw the scalpel at me. "She won't feel anything now!"
He was right about that. Finally he was on the right track, starting CPR. Breathing for her, supporting her faint, weak, irregular heartbeat.
For a sixteenth of a second I watched my wife covered in blood. Her naked, limp, half twitching body on a operating table in my father's study. Her best friend was hovering over her, supporting her with oxygen either pushing her chest down regularly. I realized what my life had become. I wasn't alone anymore. She was with me. After all those years by myself, preparing for an eternity alone, I found her endless love and faith in me. She gave it all. She walked through fire. She'd given me a child.
Which I was about to meet for the first time.
Right now.
I finished Rose's cut and threw the scalpel to the side, accidentally stabbing Aro's stone cold face, in the thick canvas on the wall.
I knew I was about to taste her blood. I knew I wouldn't care.
I knew my largest weakness wasn't primal, it was emotional.
I lowered my head and tore the membranes apart with my teeth. The taste of the amniotic fluid was different, new. Vampire. I tasted Bella too. The fluid and Bella's blood gushed out to the sides as I extended the crevice, exposing the curved fetus inside.
The head turned.
A pair of chocolate brown eyes met mine.
Improbable.
I gasped for air.
Bella coughed.
"You stay with me now Bella!" Jake yelled. "Do you hear me? Stay! You're not leaving me. Keep your heart beating!"
I didn't watch them. But I saw her face in his eyes. She wasn't waking up. I watched the baby in front of me.
I got my hand in there and wiggled the baby out through the crevice. Another gush of blood and fluid flowed out, along with the cord and the disconnected placenta. The baby was covered in both grease and blood. I dug the remaining fluids out of Bella and covered the bleed with my venom, which instantly made it subside.
As I bit the cord to separate the baby from the placenta I felt the baby clench on to my hair, my ear… I was excited about that.
I tied a knot of the cord I left and took a peak at the sex of the baby. It was a baby girl.
My girl.
I quickly removed blood and fluid from her mouth, letting her breathe. But she didn't scream or seemed relieved. As I got my pinkie out, her lips transformed into a smile. Her small hands grabbed on to my shirt. I wiped her face with it. Still unable to see any other feature than those chocolate brown eyes.
"Renesmee…" I whispered to her.
She winked. With my face and voice on her mind.
She seemed to understand the correlation.
Bella was still, breathing. She was weak but she was awake. Free from the demon. An exceptional demon.
Bella reached towards us with frail arms. "Let me…Give her to me…"
I held Renesmee above her before laying her on Bella's chest, still supporting the weight.
She was blinded by the strong light, fighting her eyelids to get a vision of her. Soon her face transformed into tranquility. She hummed.
"Renes…mee. So beautiful," she sighed.
She was exhausted. She was all out.
But she was so happy.
I got caught up in the family moment again. I had never seen anything this beautiful before. Regardless of Bella's irregular heartbeat and the gore covering us…
Bella gasped in pain and I realized Renesmee had bit her chest.
"No, Renesmee," I murmured, trying to reprimand her. I took her back into my arms. She was so warm, still warmer than Bella.
Shouldn't she be less warm by now?
Suddenly I saw Bella's eyes roll back through Jacob's eyes.
And her heart stopped beating.
The world went silent.
Bella was dead.
I couldn't breathe or move, holding my baby girl.
Her soul was gone. The electric impulses in her body vanished.
The atmosphere changed. I felt something indescribable consume the room.
Bella…
Jacob was fast, carrying on with compressions, hardly missed one heartbeat.
"What are you waiting for?" he choked out, without air. His voice was strain.
Renesmee was moving anxiously in my arms. I had to let go of her. I had to save Bella. Jacob would never manage this alone.
"Take the baby," I said urgently, handing Renesmee to him.
"Throw it out the window," Jake hissed.
What?
"Give her to me," Rosalie stood by the door, reaching her arms towards me.
We snarled at her. Her nursing Bella would be more efficient.
I had no time to argue.
"I've got this under control, give me the baby Edward," she yearned. "I'll take care of her until Bella…"
She took a few quick steps to me and I gave her my child. I loathed her, but trusted her.
I ripped a stainless steel syringe from a sterile box and divided it, effortlessly filling it up with my venom. I had enough due to the excess of human blood in the room.
"Move your hands, Jacob." I demanded holding the syringe ready for injection.
"What's that?"
I pushed his hand away, cracking one of his fingers.
He could cry about it if he felt like it. I didn't care.
I wedged the needle into her left ventricle of her heart to make it spread faster through her aorta.
"My venom," I said, injecting it.
Her heart reacted with a rough shove.
"Keep it moving," I demanded. I was working a schedule, no longer reflecting over the fact that it was Bella's body fading away. Apprehension would distract me. I told myself this girl was someone else.
But I fooled no one.
Jacob continued the CPR. He was going a too slow. But time to instruct him didn't exist.
I was injecting her with my venom manually. My teeth cut her throat, her wrists, her thighs, her groins anywhere I could find a blood supply. I sealed the wounds by leaving a coat of venom.
Jacob losing his grip distracted me. It's just me and him now. And this corpse. This was Bella, but she will never be her again. She is mangled over. We can never save her.
His compressions became thoughtless, slow and irregular.
He gave up. I don't feel drawn to this dead body at all. She will never come back to me. Why are we still doing this? I don't need to be here. I don't want to stand here for nothing. I got nothing here anymore.
Sluggish and a waste of time. Mongrel. Go away never come back.
"Go, then," I barked.
I cracked his hand in purpose. If weakness was his biggest problem right now he should go pity himself somewhere else.
I began keeping an accurate rhythm.
"She's not dead" I growled to his back as he left me. "She's going to be fine."
I could be regular like no human could.
I could keep a series of actions in a steady pace if I wanted to. I would massage her heart and help her breathe regularly. I would never go tired. I would keep doing this forever if I had to.
At this time I felt more alone than I ever had.
But there was something to live for. Even though Bella was dead. I had my daughter to care for. I would spend my infinite life feeling empty by her side. I didn't want that for her. I would be a poor father.
I was resolute to make this through.
I was eager.
Unwilling to be without her. Any version of her.
The blaze caused my chest to impair. My head ached. My arms wanted to weaken but I wouldn't let them. The pain I pushed back was trying to overpower me.
It didn't feel like me. I never had a human fall in love with me. Never had anyone fall in love with me. Certainly not marrying me. Worshiping me. I had no daughter. Except I did. Who had I become? Who was I? Trying to resuscitate a human I primary longed to suck dry.
I felt opaque.
Sad.
What had life turned out to be? I never realized. Looked at it this clearly before. And I didn't get to experience it fully before it was taken away from me. My own reckless behavior caused this. And I was the one telling her not to be reckless. The dead girl I was pushing down and unemotionally kissing—was innocent.
If Carlisle asked me if I wanted to become a vampire. And I would know about her… My gut would tell me yes. But at this moment I couldn't answer that, she could do better than be dead at eighteen.
I would never be able to suck that pain up.
I would always be a damaged man.
I would always love her.
Breathe!
Don't fade away, Bella!
Live!
Don't leave me now… Don't leave me like this… Look at me… LOOK AT ME BELLA! I'm right here, for you… I need you for this. I need you for Renesmee. Please, don't go away.
Her body was motionless on the table. Only her arms snatched at every compression, hanging on each side of the table.
"Oh Edward!" Alice voice was thick and distraught. "Oh my god, Edward. Please let me help you."
She ran to the table and took over the artificial respiration. I stared at her focused face.
Between breaths she looked up to me. I see her coming back Edward… Keep going. Keep going.
I thought my knees would curve. Relieved.
But time stood still.
How could she be this sure?
It felt impossible to me.
I stared at Alice. She tried to look calm. She knew I was evaluating my trust for her.
Trust me Edward, keep going.
We got through another two series. I was about to start the compressions again when a rhythm accelerated in her chest. Her heart picked up a rapid throbbing.
I gasped.
I let go of her and took a step back. Watched her. Something more powerful than relief built up inside me. And I fell onto my knees. I shook and covered my face with my hands.
Alice lowered to me at the floor and put her small arms around me. Everything will turn out fine. You made it through. It's over…
If I could fall asleep I would.
Until she'd wake up.
I knew the time would pass by faster that way.
I wanted to be unconscious. Not experience anything, until I knew she was alright. I knew this change in her would cause her pain. Pain I didn't had the strength to think about.
But it was a price I was willing to pay.
She would survive. She would become my equal.
My contentment was overwhelming but I couldn't express it.
I heard her and my daughter's hearts beat fast. All I ever wanted. The two things I would single out in this world.
Please review =)
