A/N: Hello everyone! Welcome to all my new readers and to all of you who are returning for more of this craziness. So a lot of you wanted to hear the conversation between Alice & Shelly. I'm happy to say that you'll get at least half of that Things are going to start picking up, so hang on tight!

Big thanks and Nutella-filled cookies for Roselover2 for her pre-reading skills. And even bigger thanks to all of you who continue to read, review, tweet, mention, and pimp this story. Your support means so much!

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While You Were Knocked Out Cold

Chapter 14

Just before Shelly took the phone from him, Edward pulled it back and covered the speaker. His brow furrowed and he glanced over at Bella for a brief moment then returned his focus to Shelly. "I…I really think they're sincere about making amends. I know a lot of serious stuff went down and feelings have been hurt for a long time, but…Just don't slam the door on them completely. I mean, if…" He hated even thinking about this possibility, but pressed on. "If the worst should happen, and she never wakes up, they should at least be able to apologize and make peace in person, don't you think?"

Shelly gave him a hard look then nodded once and accepted the phone. "This is Shelly Cope. I'm Bella's personal assistant."

It was odd for Edward to listen to the one-sided conversation. He tried to follow it though, as best he could.

"Yes, I'm well aware of who this is. You have an awful lot of nerve harassing her Facebook contacts to get her number."

Pause

"Regardless, you shouldn't have gone about it that way. There's a reason she cut off contact with you, or have you forgotten all about that?"

As Shelly listened to a lengthier response from Alice, Edward could see the lines in her face soften and her shoulders begin to slump just a little.

"I know that every story has two sides, but you've crossed a line. She needs those boundaries and for you to just trample all over them…I really don't think she'd be very happy about that."

Pause

"I wouldn't go that route if I were you. I have power-of-attorney and control over who is or is not allowed to be involved in her treatment. So you can take it to the courts, but it would just be a waste of your time and money."

Shelly was once again bristling and sitting ram-rod straight as she lit into Alice. She even started shaking her finger at the phone. In an effort to diffuse the tension Edward caught her eye and gestured for calm.

She took a deep breath and said to Alice, "I'd be willing to meet with your family and discuss the matter when you get here. But I won't make any promises."

She sighed as she continued to listen to Alice. "We'll have to play it ear. If she's still unconscious…Well we'll just have to see when that time comes."

Shelly listened for a moment then turned her eyes sharply to Edward. He sat up a little straighter and cocked his head to the side.

"If he's willing, then yes. I'll be in touch to schedule your arrival." She pressed the "off" button and handed the phone back to Edward.

He raised his eyebrows and said, "So…?"

"Alice requested that you call her with updates on Bella's condition. I can't control what you do, but if you value your relationship with her, Bella that is, you'll be extremely judicious with the details you provide her family." She arched one eye and Edward responded with a nod.

Once the conversation with Alice had blown over, Edward and Shelly hammered out the details of her bills and accounts, and came up with a tentative plan for Bella's job situation. She was more than happy to leave the care of Jake to Edward since she had several cats at her home and they ended up splitting plant watering and mail pick-up duty.

Bella continued to improve very slowly. Her verbal responses came more easily and there were slightly more purposeful muscle movements. This was always more apparent whenever she was in a session with one of the torture twins. Jane and Alec Sanger were a brother/sister team of physical therapists that had been assigned to work with Bella. There was also a speech therapist, a huge guy named Felix, who would work her jaw and facial muscles.

Once the feeding tube had been placed, she was able to maintain her weight; her coloring improved as well. Edward liked watching the hair grow back where they'd shaved her head for the shunt. He would rub his thumb over the soft, fuzzy spot, which would sometimes elicit a grumbly hum from his slumbering girl.

The other thing Edward liked watching was Bella stomach. He'd grown accustomed to the visits from Dr. Mercer and thoroughly enjoyed viewing the little bean on the ultrasound screen. He had also taken to humming and singing to her tummy. He'd rest one hand on the ever-increasing firmness of the baby bump and use his other hand to hold Bella's as he sang to her stomach. It was when he would sing that Bella's hand squeezing became the most active.

The doctors were encouraged by all of these little progressions. They would ask specific questions and prompt her to respond by squeezing, but she hadn't quite made it to that point yet.

Edward and Shelly talked frequently, conferring with each other on Bella's treatments and progress. He also spoke with Alice once a week and kept her updated. There were apparently only a handful of people in Alice's office and two of them were on maternity leave, making it nearly impossible for her to come back down as soon as she'd wanted to. Renee, Bella's mother, also ended up undergoing radiation treatments which delayed their arrival.

He hadn't heard much about the brother, Emmett, just that he and his wife Rosalie would be coming down with the rest of the family in a week.

The plan was for Shelly to meet them at her office and discuss the whole situation. She would then try to judge if it really would be in Bella's best interests to allow them back into her life, even though she was unable to speak for herself.

Edward soldiered on in his private life. He continued his regular associations with his parents and couple of friends, though his buddies were all convinced he'd turned into a recluse, since he never went out with them anymore. He cited work and other commitments but never elaborated.

He could tell his mother was worried about him, but he really hadn't given her any reason to stage an intervention, so she kept her opinions to herself. He went golfing with his father a few times, but their fairway chatter usually remained on neutral topics, except for the one time when Edward inquired after Tanya.

"From what her father says, she's doing remarkably well. They've been very pleased with the treatment she's been getting up there." Carlisle set up his tee shot, waggled and shifted, then swung the driver with a grunt.

Edward waited until after they'd sighted his father's ball and then asked, "And she hasn't had any more breakdowns or episodes?"

Carlisle shrugged and said, "Not that Eleazar has mentioned. They're very optimistic that they've got her on the right combination of medications and her therapy sessions seem to be going well, too."

"Good. I hope she can get better." He then took his own tee shot and placed the club back into his bag.

His father looked pointedly at him and asked, "How is everything with you?" He hefted his own bag and started walking along the path to where their balls rested.

"Good. Same as usual," he said coolly, catching up alongside of his father.

"And how is your friend doing?" It was the first time Carlisle had inquired after Bella and the emphasis on the word "friend" told Edward his father was suspicious.

"She's improving slowly."

"So it is a girl? Your mother and I have had a bet going for a while now. She'll be annoyed to learn that she lost."

Edward's eyes grew wide as he realized what he'd said. Up until that point he'd been so careful to be ambiguous about his friend. He really wasn't sure why he'd wanted to keep her gender a secret. Maybe it was because of the circumstances that surrounded his break-up with Tanya and the fact that he had gone to Bella's side that very same afternoon, but he couldn't do anything for it anymore.

He was grateful that his father chose to keep his thoughts to himself for the rest of their outing.

It had been ten weeks since Bella's accident. Her family was arriving that afternoon. And everything around Edward was too much. His clothes were too tight, his apartment was too hot, and his heart was beating too hard. He was definitely going to have a heart attack any moment. He was sure of it. The moment her family walked into Shelly's office, he'd keel over dead. Her dad's probably going to be packing heat, his evil inner voice taunted.

The only thing that calmed him was the fact that Dr. Mercer was going to try and determine the sex of the baby. He was oddly, calmly ecstatic about that.

He waved "hello" to the staff he interacted with frequently, hitched his messenger bag higher up on his shoulder and ducked into Bella's room.

"Good morning, Beautiful. Are you excited for today?" He stowed his bag and opened the vertical blinds a little wider to let in the rare bit of sunshine.

He did what he usually did: Kissed her cheek, smiled at her gentle hum of—what he assumed was—appreciation, and squeezed her hands. He waited for just a moment and felt the return squeeze, though it was really more of a trembling of her fingers than an actual grip.

He rambled about his nervousness but that did nothing but make him more anxious. Instead, he began grading an assignment for one of his students, adding suggestions for revisions as he went along, but the paper was really boring. He slumped in his seat and dozed off.

A sharp rap on the door startled him awake. He scrambled to keep the laptop from crashing to the ground and looked up to see Dr. Mercer rolling in her ultrasound cart.

"Hello Edward, how are you today?"

"Good. Really good. Excited."

"I'll bet you are. So we're going to be looking for girl or boy today, right?"

He grinned. "Yes, we are."

"Well, then let's get started."

She went through all the various measurements, checked the umbilical blood flow, kidneys, heart, all the vitals. Edward was proud that he was able to keep up. He'd been paying attention. She was rolling the wand around trying to get a better look at the spine when something caught Edward's eye.

"Wait, wait, wait. Go back a little?" He stared fixedly on the screen. "Is that…Is that what I think it is?"

Dr. Mercer grinned and nodded, "You have sharp eyes, Daddy. He certainly is waving his little flag pole proudly isn't he?"

"A boy," Edward whispered.

The next few moments would be burned in his mind forever. A loud crash drew his attention to the door where a crowd of people were gathered.

Alice and Jasper were gaping, Renee had her hands clasped over her mouth while a pot of flowers lay broken at her feet, the dirt spilled everywhere. Charlie's face was a deep shade of magenta and his mustache looked like it would walk right off his face with as much as his mouth was working. And Emmett and Rosalie just stood there grinning.

Grinning? That's odd, he thought.

And that's when the shouting began. But it was when Charlie said, "What kind of a sicko knocks up a comatose woman?" that Edward truly began to fear for his life.

A/N: Jerry Springer doesn't get much better than this. So is that how you thought the chapter would end? Annnnnd she's having a boy…Let me hear it…AWWWWWWWW. What's gonna happen next? Chapter 15 is already in the can, but still needs some polishing. Plus I'm going out of town this coming weekend and am not sure if I'll be able to write while I'm gone, so I don't want to get myself behind in posting.

Let me hear your theories! I can't wait to read them. Just in case you didn't know, I appreciate every single comment and review. So press that little button, leave me some love, then go read you some Cowboyward and Country DancinElla; she's got some tight jeans on.