A/N Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed last chapter, yes it was very evil to do that to you, I hope the later half of this chapter will make it up to you. Thanx as always to those who faved, followed and reviewed this story xxx. To my beta, my gorgeous Lady Seif... I apologize again for the last chapter Babe, PLEASE stop crying! You'll have to forgive me eventually.

Chapter twenty eight.

Edwards POV

I waited impatiently with the rest of my family, mostly pacing and glaring at the clock on the wall, whilst we waited for the doctors to come in and tell us how the surgery was going. It had been hours and not knowing what was going on was excruciating. The bullet had grazed Bella's lower spine, but as yet we didn't know just how severe her injuries were, we just knew it was really bad. We were told only the basics when they rushed her into surgery, Dad found out more but the grim expression on his face told me that I didn't want to know what they had told him. Right now I'm not sure that my heart can take it, the reaction from Kate and Garrett when he told them was more than enough to twist my gut into knots.

Finally, after more hours the doctors finally came into the waiting room, everyone standing and stepping forward, eager for any news.

"Mr and Mrs Nomad, I can tell you that we have managed to recover the bullet and we have been able to repair most of the damage. Unfortunately there was a lot of nerve damage, the extent of which we will not know until Isabella regains consciousness."

"She's still unconscious?" Everyone asked at once, every voice full of fear.

"We are going to keep her in a drug induced coma for a few days until the inflammation subsides, only then can we assess the extent of the damage." He informed us, I couldn't help the sob that escaped me, I wasn't the only one, everyone was in tears. Right now I was focused on my girl, but that didn't mean that in a small part of my brain I wasn't planning the best way to kill the malevolent tumor that did this to her.

"W-will she be... p-paralyzed?" Kate asked, tears flowing unhindered down her face as Garrett held her up. I'd been doing my best not to think about it, I really hope for Bella's sake that she's not, but it won't make a difference to the way I feel about her. Nothing will ever stop me loving her and no force in the universe can stop me from being with her.

"I'm sorry Mrs Nomad, it is much too early to tell." The doctor said.

"But there is a strong possibility?" Garrett asked gruffly, he was barely holding it together right now. I held my breath waiting for the doctor to answer, my mom squeezing my hand until it was white, but I barely felt it.

"Yes, I'm afraid, there is a very strong possibility." He admitted sadly.

"The injustice that that family have served on that sweet girl should warrant the death sentence for all of them." Mom sobbed beside me, she wasn't wrong though.

"We'll be moving her to ICU shortly, I can take you to her now if you wish." The doctor offered.

"Thank you." Kate and Garrett said as they began to follow him out, I followed too, pulling away from my sobbing mother. I felt a hand on my arm trying to prevent me from following, but I yanked my arm away and didn't look back to see who it was. I needed to be with my girl, she was the one that needed me and no one was going to stop me.

"I'm sorry but only immediate family are allowed into ICU." The doctor said holding his hand up to stop me at the door, I was ready to beat the ever loving crap out of anyone else who tried to stop me.

"It's okay, doctor, he is immediate family." Garrett said, much to my relief, not that they could stop me from being with her, I wasn't going to leave her side, ever again.

~U~

Kate, Garrett and I had been at the hospital for three days, none of us prepared to leave Bella alone at all. The worst of the swelling had gone down now and they would be bringing her out of the coma today, slowly obviously, so it could be quite a while before she actually wakes up. The police had been by several times, collecting the bullet for evidence and to take our statements. The tumor as we had become inclined to call him, had been arrested thank fuck. Though he had been here in the hospital for a while to have the damage to his face repaired. It was lucky for him that we were not told about that earlier, or both Garrett and I would have gone and finished the job. Unfortunately, Newton senior and the worst father in the history of mankind had escaped police custody and had so far eluded being recaptured.

Uncle Peter called my dad last night, to inform him that the mayor had a flight to the UK for the following day in his itinerary. Everyone was now on high alert in case they try to take Bella out of the hospital. Not that there was a force on earth that could make me leave her side, or Garrett and Kate for that matter. Emmett was stationed outside the door to her room along with a cop, we were not taking any chances. The police had been informed but it made no sense to me, the Tumor was in police custody, so how the fuck could he marry her? What the hell were they planning to do now? Was it Newton senior that was going to try to marry her instead? It was the only logical answer, the sick bastards, the idea of any of it made me physically sick.

It was a little after four in the afternoon when they came to take Bella down for x-rays and scans. I went along while Mom took Kate, Garrett and Emmett down to the cafe for something to eat. I was sitting outside the doors to the x-ray room with officer Benjamin whilst Bella was inside, when the fire alarms went off in the hospital. I stood when people came out but didn't have Bella with them.

"Where's Isabella?" I demanded to know.

"Sir, Officer, you have to leave and make your way with everyone else to the parking lot." A nurse said. "We don't have a fire drill scheduled so it must be an emergency."

"I'm not going anywhere without Bella." I said adamant.

"All the patients from x-ray have already been escorted out via the emergency exit." She informed me.

"What the fuck!?" I growled at her, running towards the doors to x-ray, Ben right beside me.

"Please Sir's, you have to come with me." She tried to say, but we were too busy running through x-ray towards the emergency exit that they must have taken Bella through. We burst through the doors and raced down the path and across the lot towards the patients gathered in the far corner. I spotted the orderly that had taken Bella away earlier.

"Where's Bella?" I asked him, barely containing my temper.

"Sorry, what?"

"Isabella Nomad, the unconscious patient from room IC3."

"Oh, yeah... another orderly and a paramedic came and took her." He said looking around, my stomach damn near imploded. "But I don't see them." He added looking around in confusion.

"Of course you fucking don't!" I screamed at him as Garrett caught up to me, Ben was already on his radio, yelling instructions to someone.

"Where..?" Garrett started to say until he saw my face, his face changed to pure panic, which I'm sure reflected my own. Across the lot an ambulance pulled out of the lot, sirens and lights blazing. "That's Newton!" He yelled, taking off in the direction of the parking lot to the left of us, it was where his bike was parked.

I spotted an old car parked not far from me with the window left open a little, it was enough to get my hand inside. I was inside and had hot wired it before I realized what I was doing, hoping Ben was too distracted to see me, I took off after the sirens. It wasn't long before I had caught up with them. Not that I bothered to look at the speed I was going to catch up with them. The hospital wasn't far from Seatac and the realization of that made me throw up in my mouth, but I had to stay focused.

I dumped the car out front, not even stopping to shut the drivers door, my cell had been ringing incessantly. I pulled it from my pocket and saw it was Garrett.

"Seatac!" I growled into my cell as I ran in what I prayed was the right direction.

"I'm here, security have detained someone near booking, I'm almost there." He said and the line cut off.

I spotted Newton senior first, he was running for a gate with Bella limp in his arms. Not fucking lightly! Security were busy trying to control several other people that I didn't recognize. Garrett caught up to Newton first, punching him in the face before pulling Bella from him and turning to me, he placed her carefully in my arms. I couldn't see Chief Asshole anywhere, but some of the men that escaped from security came to help Newton. Emmett appeared from nowhere like a fucking supersonic steam roller and took two of them down.

"Take care of my daughter." Garrett whisper growled in my ear. "Whatever it takes, you take her somewhere, keep her safe and get her to a hospital." I turned to stare at him in shock. "We'll keep them off you, you take my baby girl and get on the first flight out of here. I mean it Edward, whatever it takes, you take care of my daughter." I nodded clutching Bella in my arms and heading away from him to the nearest booking desk.

I turned just in time to see him, Kate and the police tackling with different people, or heading off to draw the attention of the fucker and his scum, whoever they were from Bella and myself. After a quick check I was able to get us both on a flight to St Lucia, leaving in just fifteen minutes, it was a mad rush, but we made it through as neither one of us had any luggage. After the head's up from uncle Peter, I had both Bella's and my own passport in my pocket in case of emergency. I hadn't realized that I was going to be so grateful for the fact, I could get her away and keep her safe until it was safe enough for us to come home again. The state of the unconscious girl in my arms was explained away by saying she had taken too many flight sickness pills.

We had made it, enclosed in the safe comfort of first class I settled Bella into the seat beside me. Cushioning her lower spine so that she wasn't in even more pain than she already was. She would still be incredibly groggy, I'm sure she had no clue of what had been happening since she'd been kidnapped and drugged days ago. But no matter now, for the time being at least, she was safe. But how safe? Was this going to be a constant threat to her, kidnapping and drugs, until they finally got her away from me? This thought was all that plagued my mind as I fell exhausted into a fitful sleep.

Somehow I'd managed to sleep for a few hours, woken only now when I felt movement beside me, knowing instinctively that it was Bella. "Hey." I said as she slowly opened her eyes, she looked fearfully around her until she turned to me at the sound of my voice.

"Where are we? What happened?" She asked, her voice horse from the drugs and sleep.

"It's okay Buttercup, you are perfectly safe, I have you." I said reaching for her hand. "We are on a flight to St Lucia, just the two of us." I explained, then turned to catch the attention of an attendant as she passed to get us both some orange juice.

"What happened? The last thing I remember was seeing you outside Twilight and walking out to meet you." She said, fear still etched on her face. I lifted my free hand to stroke my fingers over her cheek, she leaned into my touch, seeing her do that always makes me smile.

"Chief Asshole and Newton grabbed you before I could get to you, I'm so sorry Baby, they drugged you and took off in a van." I said making her gasp. "We managed to catch them at the marina and get you away from them, but Bella, you were shot during the mayhem. The hospital had you in a drug induced coma, because of the damage to your spine."

"That would explain the pain." She said wincing and shifting awkwardly in her seat.

"I'm sorry, I have some pain meds for you... here." I said handing her a couple of them. "They aren't brilliant, but I hope they'll help a little."

"You weren't shot were you?" She asked panicked, always more worried about anyone but herself.

"No, sweet girl, his shot missed me but ricocheted off and hit you." I explained then kissed her forehead.

"The bastard tried to kill you?" She asked alarmed, I'd never seen her look so angry.

I caressed her sweet face, "Buttercup, I'd take that bullet a hundred times if it meant that you wouldn't have been shot." I told her honestly, "if I could have jumped into the path of that bullet I would have." I told her, she smiled sweetly at me and tried to move closer to me.

"I can't feel my legs." She gasped, her breathing becoming erratic, her expression now anxious.

"I know Baby, it could just be the swelling, but it's too early to tell yet." I informed her, wanting to soothe her but not having a clue how to.

"But I could be paralyzed?" She sobbed, I sighed, it broke my heart to have to admit this to her.

"It is a possibility." I admitted caressing her face. "Someone helped them kidnap you from the hospital, we caught up with them at the airport and we got you away from them. I got us on the first flight I could to escape, I'm going to make you safe, but I'm..." I stopped to swallow the lump in my throat. Something had occurred to me whilst I slept and not for the first time. "I'm sure that he will try again... Unless..." I said caressing her sweet face in my hands as I wiped away her tears.

"Unless?" She whispered.

"Unless we get married in St Lucia?" I asked and watched as the realization of what I was saying hit her and she gasped.

"But..." She said then stopped, closing her eyes for a moment before she continued. "You can't, that's not fair on you, no..." She started to say but I stopped her by kissing her lips.

"Bella you are wounding my ego here, I have been wanting to ask you again for a long while, I have no intention of ever leaving you, I want you as my wife. You know that I do, I know it's not ideal, not having the rest of our family here, but we can do it again more formally, just... please Bella. Will you marry me?" I asked, Bella stared open mouthed and a gasp came from the attendant who must have returned with our drinks.

"But if I'm paralyzed." She said sadly, more tears falling down her face.

"In sickness and in health, not even at the end of eternity do us part." I said beseechingly.

Bella stared into my eyes, looking for something, if she was looking for any sign of doubt, she wouldn't find any. My dreams of late had been filled with visions of her on a beach in a long slinky white dress, her hair all done up with flowers, looking beautiful and sun-kissed. Those pictures in my head were only second to the ones of us together, our arms entwined and surrounding her swollen belly, swollen with our child.

"Yes, Edward." She finally whispered.

"Yes?" I asked not hiding my jubilation.

"Yes, I'll marry you, but not because I want to be married to escape from those evil people, I want to do it because I can't imagine living my life without you." She said as I gathered her in my arms and kissed the living hell out of her. I was vaguely aware of a squeal behind me that caused us to break apart.

We both turned to see the attendant beaming at us as she tried to hand us our drinks. "Congratulations!" She gushed.

~U~

I managed to find a hospital, Soufriere Hospital and soon had Bella admitted and on morphine, she had been in so much pain, but she never complained. After a few days it became evident that Bella wasn't completely paralyzed, she had feeling in her lower half and her legs. But the damage to certain nerves meant that she couldn't use her legs at all, as expected, she was devastated. As I knew she would be, she tried to tell me that I didn't have to marry her.

"Buttercup, those thoughts in your head are just ANT's, remember? Automatic Negative Thoughts. You tell them to fuck off, you know that I want to be your husband, I've wanted it for some time now. This." I said stroking my hand over her legs. "This is just a life test on our journey of forever, Baby, it's nothing that we can't face together." I informed her.

"There are no words to describe how much I love you." She said nuzzling against me.

"Or I you, Buttercup, or I, you." I assured her.

~U~

I found us a nice apartment to stay in, in Soufriere and even got a job in a bar locally at the Hummingbird Beach Resort. It wasn't easy, I didn't have that much cash on me and I didn't want to use a credit card as it could be traced. With some strong pain pills, I was able to bring Bella home to our new place after just a week.

It wasn't long before we got into a routine, I worked at the bar and did general maintenance for the resort too. Bella had gotten much better, she still couldn't get around as much as she'd like, but she did the best she could with her wheelchair. She did a great job in the hotel kitchen, so that meant that we worked pretty much the same shifts, which gave us more time together. She wasn't in as much pain anymore, but she tried to go without the pain medication as much as she could. We were closer now than we had ever been, I was in heaven and helped her as much as I could to organize our little wedding.

The wedding was quiet and sweet, held on the day we had been away from home for a month, on the beach at the resort we worked. It was nothing fancy or even particularly memorable, but we would do it again properly, Bella deserved to. My Buttercup looked incredible of course, her skin already tan, her dark curls up in a fancy twist with tendrils flowing down the side of her face. My girl was perfection, I did the ceremony on my knees so that we were face to face. She'd argued against it, but I knew that sitting in her wheelchair would be the most comfortable option for her and I wanted us at the same eye level. We had the friends we'd made at work with us, so we were not doing it alone, but it wasn't the same as having family here. We missed them all desperately, we hadn't called home at all, so we had no idea if Mayor Assbutt and Chief Asshole had been caught yet. I had ditched our cellphones at the airport as we couldn't risk being traced, I'd even managed to get the hospital to agree to only keep Bella's details in hard copy and not digitally.

The night we came home from our small wedding at the hotel was one I will never forget until well after my death. I had been able to get Bella off with my fingers and tongue so well that I got her soaking wet with no pain at all. So when I had her mewling beneath me on our wedding night I was in ecstasy just watching her come undone.

"Ed...ward." She gasped out as she came for the third time, I fucking loved to watch her come, she was so fucking exquisite.

"What is it Baby? What do you need?" I asked her, my voice husky and needy.

"You, Edward, I need you to make love to me." She almost breathed the words, her voice low and wanton.

"I am making love to you." I pointed out, knowing that I felt that way about everything we did when we were naked together.

"I need your cock inside me." She growled at me, her eyes blazing with fire. Fuck me! I have wanted that for so long.

"Are you sure that you are ready for that Baby?" I asked, though my cock was so hard I felt like I might explode if she wasn't. We were both naked and I wanted our wedding night to be the first time that we really did make love.

"Take me." She growled pulling me down to her, I growled in response and lowered my body onto her.

"As you wish..." I managed to say, my heart was pounding. I moved my hand to grasp my aching cock, sliding it through her soaking wet pussy.

"Oh god Edward... please." She begged me, she fucking begged!

I slowly slid into her, I really wanted to watch as I did, but I kissed the fucking hell out of her instead, I couldn't help myself. Slowly sinking into her, the feeling so incredibly fantastic, far beyond anything that I had imagined and I wasn't even in that far yet. I was so eager that it was the hardest thing I'd ever done, trying not to move too quickly. She was so fucking wet and I could feel how tight she was, how she squeezed me as she stretched to accommodate my size.

"Oh god Edward, you're so big," she gasped, I was about to ask her if she was okay but then she moaned loudly. "You feel sooooo good."

"Fuuuuuck Buttercup, you feel so fucking good." I moaned against her lips. I lifted one of her legs, pulling it up over my hip, the adrenaline and endorphins numbing any pain and allowing me to sink all the way into her. Both of us moaning loudly at the sensations, really, there are no words to express just how fucking incredible she felt. "I'm in you now Baby, we are one." I told her, as I slowly eased back out and then I slid slowly back into her.

"Fuck yes, like that." She moaned, her back arching a little as she threw back her head. Her muscles began to squeeze even tighter, making my cock throb and somehow get even bigger. "Edward, Husband... I love, oh gooooood yessss!" She almost yelled, panting as I sped up my movements a little more. She lifted her arms over her head, trying to push against the headboard to help her meet my thrusts as she couldn't move her hips. Fuck me if she wasn't the most magnificent creature on the entire planet.

I moved us both, as I sat up on my knee's, lifting her gorgeous ass onto my legs as I slid easily back into her heavenly tight pussy. Now I could use both hands to pull her onto me with each thrust. That's when I found out what a screamer my girl was, when she came, holy fucking hell did she come. I was right there with her, watching myself slide in and out of her was the single most erotic thing I had ever seen. I came like an Olympic medalist, she was squeezing my cock so tightly that it went on for longer than I ever had before. Epic! It was truly epic. I moved us both to lie side by side, wrapping her in my arms, holding her tightly.

"W-wow, that was beyond... anything... you were incredible, I can't believe I held off for so long." She said with a giggle, her breathing still too fast.

"Mmmmm," I agreed. "You know, if our wedding night is anything to go by, I'm really going to enjoy being married to you." I teased.

"Fiend!" She giggled, trying and failing to sound pissed.

"Mine!" I told her, she was finally completely mine, I was married to the girl of my dreams. I squeezed her to me, not allowing any space between us as she settled against me.

"Always." She agreed, "now get some rest so that we can do that again." She said, I might not have been able to see her face but I knew that she was smiling.

"Pfft... who need's rest?" I teased, moving to hover over her.

"You can go again already?" She asked.

"For you Buttercup, I can go all night long." I informed her.

"As you wish." Was all she got to say before I spread her open to take her again.

A/N FINALLY! That was a long time coming. * cough * Hope that felt good for you too.

Next chapter is a request, partly (depending on just how much he has to say), Garrett's POV.

Much love Mysty xxx