BELLA'S POV
I was slowly becoming conscious again.
I could hear voices muttering and they made me confused.
My body was stiff and I felt pain starting to creep up on me. It was dull at the moment but I knew it would stay that way. I desperately wanted to open my eyes and see the owners of the voices around me. But my eyes were like glued together.
I was confused as to why I was in pain and why I was this uncomfortable. I couldn't remember anything that could have caused that. And why were there so many people? I could hear several voices speaking even if it was just for a second.
Suddenly I felt something being pressed to my lips. I felt a weird kind of liquid starting to flow into my mouth and I automatically swallowed it. It was warm and its flavor was like nothing I had tasted before. It was like delicious taste of strawberry but at the same time it was strong like some kind of alcohol. It made me shiver internally.
Without warning I could feel something happening to me. The pain that had begun to grow stronger with each passing moment was dying down. It felt like warmth was spreading in my stomach and it helped ease the pain. It made me feel… stronger.
I decided to try again. To try and open my eyes. And this time they complied.
My eyes fluttered open and the light shone brightly in my eyes. I blinked a couple of times and then came to look into the most piercing blue eyes I had ever seen. They were burning with hope.
I looked frantically around the room, looking at each of these people's faces. They were all unbelievably beautiful. I blinked and my eyes flew around from face to face. Without my permission my heart speed up I could hear it pounding in my ears but I was also able to hear a little beeping noise that was intact to the beat of my pulse.
I opened my mouth wanting to say something but words wouldn't come to me.
"I'll go get Carlisle" Someone murmured. I saw a brown haired, kind looking woman step out of the group and head for the door and out.
Carlisle? Who was Carlisle? Maybe it was the doctor. But shouldn't she have called him by last name and not his first? These questions bombarded my mind.
Who were these people? What were they doing here? What was I doing here? How did they know me when I had no recollection of ever meeting any of them? Each of their faces was unfamiliar to me.
Or… were they? One of them seemed to get a little bell ringing in my mind.
There was something about her heart shaped face, hair and her way of standing that ticked me off. Maybe I did know her. But anyhow I did most certainly not know the rest of the lot.
A squeeze on my hand made my eyes turn back to the blue eyes guy.
"Bella?" He said.
I knew that my face was twisted in confusion and I got stressed out by not knowing who all these people were.
I could feel my heart pounding, hear the pulse in my ears but most of all I heard it on the machine which was currently mimicking my heart beat. Everyone in this room was able to hear it.
"Honey, I know it's confusing right now but please try and relax" The guy spoke again.
Bella? Honey? How did he know my name? And why the heck was he calling me honey?
Even though I was burning to get some answers I couldn't resist that voice of his. I leaned back and drew in a couple of deep breaths. It helped me calm a little.
But before I got to even say a word, a doctor came through the doors with the brown haired woman right behind him. That sure was fast she found him.
He immediately went to the side of my bed, making a petite girl with spikey, black hair move out of the way.
He took that little flashlight-thingy out from his pocket.
"Bella, how are you feeling? Are you feeling sick? Does it hurt anywhere?" He asked me while shining in my eyes.
A small part of me noticed that the blue eyed guy still had a firm grip on my hand. Oddly enough, I didn't want him to let go.
But that only reminded me that this was weird because I had no idea who he was, I kept thinking of him as 'the blue eyed guy' and until I found out who he was, I shouldn't be holding hands with him.
I needed my answers.
"Before I answer…" I started but my voice was hoarse. I cleared my throat and spoke up again "Before I answer, can I ask something first?"
The doctor, Carlisle, nodded "Sure"
I looked back at the strange guy holding my hand and then to all of the other, speaking to each one of them when I said; "Who are you?"
None of them said anything. They just stared at me with the oddest expressions. Then one by one they turned to look at the doctor their faces silently begging for an explanation.
The doctor spoke "You don't know?" He asked me with a frown upon his handsome face.
"How would I know?" I asked him back "I've never met any of you before. I'm at a loss as to how you even know me when I have no recollection of ever seeing you"
Their faces turned to despair. They all looked so miserable that I wanted to reach out a hand towards them and comfort them.
The blue eyed guy, still sitting next to me, spoke. His voice came out in a wondering tone "You don't know" his words didn't form a question but more like a statement.
I rolled my eyes "Thanks for the update Sherlock" I said. I was surprised by rolling my eyes at him. That was weird. It wasn't a thing I did very often.
His body seemed to drain of all energy. He slumped back in his chair, letting go of my hand and stared ahead. His eyes were glassy and seemed like they didn't really look at anything.
I could feel myself getting more and more impatient with their continued silence. I wanted to act on it but found myself holding back. I somehow sensed that they needed to assemble their thoughts though I could not fathom why.
"Maybe you guys should go and wait outside in the hallway" The doctor finally suggested. His eyes were plastered to my face though he was speaking to them.
No one responded. They didn't answer him verbally but they slowly began to move towards the door and one after another slip out.
The guy with that beautiful dark hair and piercing blue eyes lingered for a moment. He turned to give me one last glance, a glance so full of an agony I could not understand. It made me want to go and put my arms around him. I sat up a little in the bed, about to do just that when I remembered that I could really move from my place thanks to all my injuries.
Instead I gave him a small smile. This was so out of character for me. I did not know this guy, I had never met him and still his pain affected me so deeply.
His lips curled into the tiniest smile just before he excluded himself from the room.
The door closed slowly after his exit. I stared at it for a while with desperation growing in my chest. I looked up at the doctor named Carlisle. I was quietly begging for him to explain, to somehow make me understand.
He had been watching me staring at the door. His eyebrow knitted together ever so slightly.
"Bella" He started "Do you know where you are?"
I looked around "Well, my first guess would be in some hospital in Phoenix but somehow I get the feeling that that isn't the correct answer"
He shook his head "No, Bella, you are not in Phoenix. You haven't been for quite a while actually"
I waited for him to elaborate but he never did so I took action "What is that supposed to mean?"
Instead of answering me, he asked another question "What is the last thing you remember?"
I frowned and thought for a second "Well…" I began "The last place I remember being is at my mother's house, with her and Phil"
"Bella, you do not recognize any of those people who were in here just now?"
I felt my heart break just a little "No and that's what's killing me 'cause they obviously seems know me while I have no idea who they could possibly be!" My head was beginning to work overtime and it made it pound "I'm trying very hard to place them but they might as well be strangers to me!"
At my last words Carlisle closed his eyes. Great, now I had hurt his feelings to. What a great day this was starting out to be. Or ending to be? I didn't know. What time of the day was it?
And why was I in the hospital? What had happened? I had no idea whatsoever why I was in these clothes and lying in this god awful bed.
"What am I even doing here?" I asked him.
He sighed "Well, you came to Forks to…"
"No, no, no" I cut him off "That's not what I meant. I meant what am I doing here as in how did I end up in the hospital?"
"You were in an accident"
"Car?" I suggested.
"Yes"
I snorted and rolled my eyes "Hmpf, figures"
He looked at me questioningly "What was that?"
I shrugged, which turned out to be a bad idea. The movement made something I figured as my ribs hurt "Well, I always get into trouble like that. I'm kinda like a…"
"…danger magnet" he finished for me. He knew exactly what I was gonna say.
We fell silent. I turned my attention to the window and what was displayed outside. It was all very cloudy and sad out there. This sure as hell wasn't the sunny Phoenix I was used to.
"So?" I finally said.
"So" He said back. At that I cracked a smile.
"What am I doing here?" I mumbled "Here as in Forks"
I noticed the hesitation holding him back a bit. Instead of answering my question he began to speak of other things "Bella, from what I have gathered by talking to you and observing you, it seems that you have lost some of your memory. It seems that things that have happened to you over the last three years have gone missing. It has simply vanished. You have no recollection of anything that has happened since you came to Forks"
"When the accident happened, you apparently hit your head very badly. It has hit the part of your brain that contains memories. Damon said that you were unconscious when he found you which probably also was due to your head injury"
The name confused me "Damon?"
"Yes, one of the guys who were in here just before" He replied and pointed to the door where the rest of the lot probably were at this very moment.
"Which one?" I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.
A tiny smile graced Dr. Cullens face "The one with the dark hair, blue eyes and black leather jacket"
Something that reminded me of a tiny little flame began to light up in the pit of my stomach. So he was the one who found me. He was my Knight in Shining Armor.
He sure as hell didn't look like a prince charming. Not blond wavy hair and a white horse. More like the super-hot, seductive villain in a fairytale. With a black motorcycle.
I couldn't help but smile at the mental picture of that guy, Damon, on a motorcycle.
Dr. Cullen's eyes searched my face with a curious smile.
I just shook my head.
"Bella, what year do you think it is?" He asked me. That was a weird question of course I knew what year it was.
I answered like it was the most obvious answer the world had ever heard of.
"2007 of course" I replied.
DAMON'S POV
Waiting was agonizing.
Knowing that she was just inside that room, on the other side of that very door, was painful to know. But what was even more so was the fact the this girl who had managed to snatch my heart now had no idea who the hell I was.
I felt like I was choking, like my body couldn't function. This was what it was like to go very long without feeding.
The back of my head was resting against the wall as I sat in the char I had been seated in while Bella's dad had been inside with her.
I could hear some of the others murmuring and whispering in hushed tones but I did not bother to listen. Nothing they could say mattered right now.
It was comforting that even though Bella did not know me she was alive and healing. Healing quickly, thanks to blood I had given her. I could hear it running through her veins in slow fluid motions, patiently healing things in its wake.
I did not listen to what she and the doctor was speaking of. Instead I had fallen into a kind of semi slumber by listening to her beating heart. It soothed me in ways I had never believed a human would be possible to do.
Somehow I had changed. Not completely though, I still thought of humans as not the most intelligent creatures but I had come to think that there was few in that race which was above the rest. In my opinion one of them was clearly Bella.
Mainly I did not kill humans anymore because of my promise to Elena but I think that if I hadn't made that promise I wouldn't even want to kill them at this point. I didn't think I was gonna be able to ever kill for the mere goal of feeding. Bella had made me open up my eyes to the human race. I knew I wouldn't be able to handle the way she would react if she ever found out that I had fallen back to my old habit of killing. She would for sure get mad at first, probably yell and scream at me but then she would grow quiet. She would retract into herself and get sad and worst of all she would be disappointed in me. Never had I worried over things like that, not once had it even crossed my mind but it sure had now.
Even though I weren't listening my brain still heard new voices approach. And judging by the smell, it was not something good.
The smell of wet dog was coming our way and I did not like it.
My eyes flew open and I was on my feet in a flash.
Coming down the hall were three boys, each of them half naked with tattoos on their arms and when they got up close I noticed their noses crunch in a sign of disgust.
Yippee, werewolves. Goody, it was beginning to get slow around here. A little action wouldn't hurt anyone. Well, except them of course.
"No"
I turned. Ops, I let that thought slip out. It is rather irritating to have to constantly keep up the shield. It's like having a very loud and annoying fly near you but you just can't get rid of it. Well, this fly had a name. Edward.
"Oh, c'mon! Why not? It wouldn't be that bad" I eyed the dogs "Surely, you've had the same thoughts as me Eddie-boy"
"No" Another voice said this time.
Ada was in my face instantly "You will not hurt them, Damon. They are Bella's friends. Her best friends" She said with determined laced in her voice.
I rolled my eyes "Fine, fine" I surrendered.
I went back to my previous seat. I kept my gaze at the dogs at all times.
One of them stepped forward, eyes on me as well and spoke "So, you're the famous, Damon, huh?"
I smirked "I'm famous? Great. Now all I need is a bodyguard. You doggies won't volunteer as my guard dogs by any chance?"
They snarled in response and a series of shakes went through them.
"Jacob" Someone said warningly. So that was his name. The mongrel Bella was so good friends with.
"Infamous might be more of a correct term" Jacob spat venomously.
I shrugged untroubled "Depends who you've heard it from" I said smugly "But if it's from Bella, I highly doubt it"
He was about to reply when the vamp doctor came out the door.
His face was so grave that I immediately forgot about the dogs. Though, the smell was hard to ignore.
We all looked at him with eager expressions. Would he just spit it out already!
"So what did you find out? Why doesn't she know us?" Edward asked.
Puppy boy then spoke "What? She doesn't remember you?"
"No" The doc's wife whispered. I was sure that if she could cry she would be right now.
"How come?"
"That's what we're about to hear, " I snapped at him.
I looked back at Carlisle "So?" I could feel impatience beginning to tear me up. How could she not know me? I had felt hope take place in me at the tiny smile she sent me right before I got out of her sight. I wanted that hope to get stronger.
Carlisle's face was blank as he spoke "The last she seems to remember is something about her mother and her mother's husband" he paused "She thought she was in Phoenix. Where she was three years ago"
"What exactly does that mean?" I heard Pixie ask.
Instead of the vampire doctor answering it was Edward who spoke "Bella, asked why she was in Forks hospital, not only why she was in the hospital but what she was even doing in Forks. What her dad was doing here instead of her mother. She asked us who we were, she did not recognize any of us" he stated all of these things. Some of them were unknown to me until now and I figured that the reason he knew this was because he had been mentally eavesdropping on Carlisle and Bella's conversation.
My eyes widened as I took in his words "Three years ago? That's the last thing she remembers? But wasn't that when…"
"Yes" Edward said, interrupting me. He looked straight at me "That was when she came to Forks to live with her dad"
He closed his eyes seeming to go paler even though it was impossible "And if she doesn't remember anything from those three years, that means…"
This time I cut him off "That means that she has no recollection of who you are, who I am" I felt my heart clench "She doesn't know anything about werewolves or…" I heard a gasp from behind me and somehow I just knew it was from Ada "Vampires. She has no idea that vampires are real" I ended and pinched the bridge of my nose in deep frustration.