Ugh, I hate being late! I tried so hard to get this out to you guys yesterday, but some stupid realtor stole my mojo. As some of you know, I'm selling my house so whenever a realtor calls me and wants to show it, I have to make sure everything's put away and take my dogs for a walk. Anyways, I was writing up a storm yesterday and then, this realtor called so I had to leave and by the time I got back, I couldn't write worth a crap. It sucked. So here it is now, a day late. Hopefully, you'll forgive me. Oh, and I'm so sorry that this chapter is short. Edward wasn't up for letting me write any more. Poor guy...I'll make it up to him and you guys next chapter though, I'm sure. Once again, I own nothing Twilight, but I own this story and I couldn't be more proud of it. When I can make myself cry, I must be doing something right. =D Enjoy and please review!
Chapter 28
Beating Hearts
"True love is when your heart beats more for someone else than it does for you."~ Me
EPOV
As my feet collide with the ground at a speed I never thought I was capable of, my mind wanders to days past. I remember the first morning I woke up with Bella in my arms, in our bed, she was so peaceful, and when she started to stir and the light hit her eyes in just the right way, it took the air straight from my body. It was like being born again, like seeing the stars or watching the sunrise for the first time. If she dies, I'll never see the sunrise again, and neither will anyone who has had a part in her death. I try to turn the knob on the door, but it won't move- locked. There's no time to think, no time to consider different possibilities on how I might get in; Bella needs me. Without a hint of delay, I smash my shoulder into the door, slamming into it with all my might, and it flies open. My shoulder radiates pain as I run into the dark, following the sound of Alice's sobs…Alice, shit. I click the safety off the gun and raise it as I enter a circle of light.
The first thing I see is red, vibrantly standing out amidst the gray concrete and the white rays of artificial brightness. Bella's collapsed on the ground, her arms sliced up by a blade that's dripping scarlet blood in Aro's hand. In front of her is a frail woman sobbing into her palms and Alice is handcuffed to a pole a few feet away, wailing, and kicking frantically. There's blood everywhere, but Bella's chest is moving; she's still alive. I need to get her help though and soon. I can't help thinking that if I had just kept the video feed; they'd be running in here right now. How could I have done something so stupid? And what for, so I could smack Tanya around a little bit and threaten her…My eyes begin to water as I level the gun in my hands with his black eyes and Aro laughs. This shit ends now. I grit my teeth, applying slight pressure to the trigger and he simply grins at me. That's when I feel a barrel of steel against my temple, the cold of the metal on my skin.
"Drop the gun," A deep voice demands and I let out a half sob/half-crazy laugh. "Drop the gun or I'll blow your fucking head in, kid."
The man beside me is a beast, as big as Emmett is if not bigger. You're shitting me! This is absurd. I've spent my whole life on the sidelines, and this is how it ends. When I finally have something to live for, to fight for, I'm supposed to throw up my arms and give up, just stand by and watch her die…fuck no! If I'm going down, I'm taking that fucking bastard with me.
"Bite me," I growl.
Everything happens in seconds, but it seems to go in slow motion. My finger squeezes down on the trigger just as the sound of bone clashing with bone comes from my right. I'm knocked to the ground, the bullet misses, spiraling into the darkness, and my watch smacks into the concrete, shattering the faceplate and possibly breaking it all together. I hiss out in pain at the impact and stare dumbfounded at Jacob as he attempts to wrestle the gun free from the guard, a series of grunting and growling noises echoing through the warehouse. He's practically naked, wearing only leather shorts, and covered in bleeding, whip-shaped gashes. They struggle hard for the gun, steel smacks against bone with a thwack sound and I let out a sigh of relief when I see Jacob stand, gun in hand, the guard knocked out cold. My mind is reeling with questions and praise, but there's no time for congratulatory hugs or pats on the back because Aro isn't planning to go down without a fight. He has a knife to Alice's throat and she has her mouth pursed in anger while tears continue to spill from her eyes. I jump to my feet quickly, glancing at the growing puddle of blood around Bella. I try to see if there's any movement in her body, but there's too much going on to focus. Besides, I can't bring myself to think about her being dead; she has to be alive, she just has to be. There's no life left for me if she isn't. Jacob and I both take aim at Aro's chest.
"Now, let's play nice, kids. We wouldn't want anyone to get hurt," he sneers, digging the knife in just enough so that blood begins to trickle, he laughs. "Or maybe we would, it is quite enjoyable to see this one squirm."
"Master, no, master, you promised, only one!" The frail woman in the chair pleads to Aro and he laughs even harder.
"Fucking shoot him!" Alice snarls, every word pressing the knife harder into her skin.
My finger wavers on the trigger. I can't do that to Alice, not even if she wants me to. I see the same hesitation in Jacob's face and I know that neither of us will shoot him, not if it's going to cost Alice her life. Aro grins triumphantly.
"Renee, grab their guns, bring them to me," he orders the woman and it clicks, Renee…but she's supposed to be dead. Didn't Bella say that she was dead?
My mouth drops open in surprise, and Jacob shakes his head, seeming somewhat shocked, but mostly angry. Aro chuckles as Renee stands from the chair.
"Oh, my apologies, Edward, you missed story hour, didn't you? You were a tad busy with Tanya. I suppose that was just a show though. Pity…you would have made a nice addition." Jacob hands over his gun when the woman reaches for it, eyeing her with disgust. "Anyways, this is Bella and Alice's mother, Renee."
Aro's lips lift in a devious grin and Jacob smacks a palm to his face, letting out a short, non-humorous laugh. I feel like I've been hit with a battering ram. Sisters…they're sisters? The woman, who I now notice has an ashy version of Bella's hair and Alice's eyes, reaches for my gun and I hesitate. Aro presses the knife into Alice's throat again and Renee winces, pulling the weapon from my grasp. I look over at Alice apologetically, but notice she's smiling at me…what the fuck? Her eyes dart to the side and back to me. I follow the signal, joy flooding me when I notice a key has been inserted into the handcuffs and Alice's arms are free. I shove Jacob so that he pulls his head from his hand. Alice's eyes lock on the guns. Renee's only a few steps away when she gives us a nod. God, I hope she knows what she's doing.
We both move at her cue, grabbing the guns as the smile on Aro's face falls and Alice slips free, her neck being nicked in the process. He lunges for her, but before Jacob or I have the chance to fire, Renee tackles him to the ground, screaming in a battle cry at the top of her lungs. The warehouse floods with noise, footsteps coming from every direction as I try to get a clear shot, sweat dripping off my brow. They fight over the knife until Aro gets the upper hand and she screams as the knife penetrates her gut. Her body goes limp; my finger pulls the trigger. My ears ring and the sound of gunshots fill the warehouse as Aro is riddled with bullets that seem to come from all sides. His body shudders with each blow, blood barely having the opportunity to surface before he hits the concrete. It pours out of him all at once then, stretching out across the floor as his body lays motionless.
Alice races to Bella's side as our company steps into the light and I brace myself for whoever it might me, prepared to defend the girls. It's only when I know its Kate, Rose, Emmett, and Jasper, that I let my gun fall to the floor. The tears that have been held back now fall with earnest as I rush to Bella. Alice is holding Bella's arms over her head, trying to slow the flow of blood. I press my hand to her neck and cry even harder when I feel the slow thump of her heart. Her pulse is slow, but she's still alive. She's still alive!
I rip off my shirt, wrapping it around one of her arms as Emmett follows suit.
"Sam, it's Kate, we need an ambulance, now!" Kate shouts into her phone, the sound muffled by the ringing in my ears, the croaking sobs escaping me, and the aching of my heart.
When the ambulance arrives, they thankfully agree to let me ride with Bella to the hospital. I try my best not to cry while the EMT woman, whose nametag looks something like Tracey through my blurry vision, works over Bella; I fail, spending the whole time with one of my hands clasping Bella's leg and the other yanking at my hair while I bawl my eyes out. The slow beeping of the heart monitor is the only thing that keeps me sane. Everyone breaks out in a frenzy the moment the vehicle parks and the back doors open, people shouting at one another different medical lingo that I can't keep track of as they hurriedly push Bella down the hall. I hear someone say something about a blood transfusion when we reach a set of double doors, and Tracy shoves me back.
"You can't go in there, handsome, they've got to work on her," Tracy says, clasping her hand on my shoulder with a grim smile.
Something snaps in me, incoherent words spill out along with my tears that splash onto the floor, one right after the other.
"But-, I-, Bella-, she needs-, I-, I can't live without-"
The woman pulls me into a hug and I press my face into her shoulder, weeping like a child while she pats my back. After a few minutes, my sanity comes back to me and I go silent, awkwardly pulling away.
"God, I'm sorry," I mumble, batting away my tears with a closed fist and a manly grunt.
She gives me a reassuring smile as she wipes away the tears on her shirt.
"It's all good," she says.
A whistle makes her head snap to the door of the ambulance bay where the driver of the ambulance stands, waving her over impatiently.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming!"
She walks me to the waiting room door a couple feet away and holds it open. I murmur thanks.
"No problem," she says, patting my back as I step through the door. "Just try and keep the faith, handsome."
She gives me a nod and walks off. The waiting room is deserted, full of cheap wooden tables and chairs that connect with each other so they can't be moved. There's an old television and stacks of magazines scattered about. My body is trembling and I immediately nix the idea of sitting. Instead, I pace in my undershirt and jeans, filthy and spattered in blood as I try my best to keep faith, to believe that something this wonderful wouldn't come into my life just to be ripped away. The television entertains itself as the clock ticks on the wall, time passing, minute by minute. At the one-hour mark, the gang shows up. They try to talk to me, but I can't talk, I can't even think about anything except Bella. I continue to pace. They sit at the tables and in the chairs, solemn and silent. Rose grasps onto Emmett, Alice buries her head in Jasper's shoulder, a bandage around her neck, and Jacob grimaces in pain when he shifts occasionally in his hospital pants and plain white tee.
One and half hours in, Mom and Dad show up, Jasper called them. The girls nod weakly when the guys introduce them and Mom latches her arms around me. My arms move automatically to wrap around her, my face blank, my heart not quite into it. Although I don't want to, she makes me sit.
My knees shake, my feet tap the linoleum, and another 15 minutes pass. Kate shows up, she announces that Sam's making her take time off and sits with Jake. They talk softly amongst themselves. It's not long before they're holding hands, comforting each other. Sam arrives moments after the clock hits the two and a half hour point. Two agents are with him, they try to ask me questions I don't have the strength to answer. When Sam gives them the go ahead to leave me be for now, they move onto the others. I don't have the energy to thank him. My head falls back against the wall and I stare into the fluorescent light overhead until my eyes hurt.
I'm beginning to lose faith when I register that it's been over 3 hours. I watch the waiting room without truly seeing it, barely realizing when Mom and Dad leave, and then, bring back food for the others; I refuse to eat. Sam leaves with the two agents after they've taken statements from everyone except me, but first, he tells me that he'll be praying for Bella and asks me to call later with an update. When I stare at the card he tries to hand me as if I don't know what to do with it, he gives it to someone else. With every second that passes the faith slowly dies. Someone would have come to tell us if she was dead, right? I mean, they can't just leave us sitting here forever! I have to know, I have to know if she's alive or dead, if I'm alive or dead. Abruptly, I stand and storm out of the room, the noise of half a dozen people following me, my family and friend's voices and shoes trailing behind me.
I stop at a nurse's station and begin banging my hand on the counter until they're all looking at me and Emmett's trying to hold me back.
"Can I help you, sir?" A blonde girl in scrubs glares at me from the other side of the counter, dropping her gossip magazine in irritation.
"I don't know, can you?" I shout, struggling against Emmett's hold. "I'd hate to disturb you when you're so clearly busy reading something of vital importance."
"Is everything all right here?" asks a man in a white doctor's coat, his nametag says Dr. Peter Jackson.
"No, it's not! I've been waiting for four fucking hours to hear about my fiancé's condition. I want to know what's going on and I want to know, NOW!"
"Are you with Isabella Swan?"
I nod.
"I am so sorry," he states and my heart drops, I stop struggling against Emmett. God, please, no…I can feel the blood drain from my face. "Oh my! No, sir, she's fine, everything's fine. She's still asleep, but she's stable and in recovery room three. I can take you there now."
He turns towards the blonde girl.
"Ms. Mallory you were supposed to give this group an update an hour ago!"
I don't even care that the stupid blonde bitch is stammering to make up an excuse or that Jasper and Alice are holding back Rose from jumping over the counter because Bella's alive. She's alive! I wiggle free of Emmett's hold and start running the halls, scanning the signs by the doors until I come upon the sign that makes my heart return to my chest, Recovery Room Three. I don't know where the others are and I don't give a flying hell at the moment. The door is open and the lights are dimmed, I can hear the monitor beeping steadily. Slowly, I walk into the room and my eyes fall on her chest, rising and falling beneath a hideous blue hospital gown. It astounds me because she's still the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Bella's arms are bandaged neatly and placed at her sides over a relatively thick hospital blanket. She has an IV hooked up to her that I hope is full of pain medication. I don't want her to be in pain, she shouldn't ever have to be in pain. Her bed is propped up slightly and her head is lulled to the side, her eyes closed in sleep. Cautiously, as if I may break some magical spell, I step over to the bed, taking a seat in the chair beside her. Leaning forward, I place my head on her chest, careful not to disturb her arms. When I find what I'm looking for, I breathe a deep sigh and close my eyes in contentment. My heart still beats.
YAY! *Melting into a puddle of tears* It's so beautiful! I'm head over heels in love with WOOTSL's Edward. Seriously, he is the best! Here's where you click the review button and tell me how happy you are that Bella's not dead. Also, for those that kept their faith in me, you rock my socks! \m/
