a/n: Okay, so I'm really hoping I don't get flamed at all for the first half of this chapter, because I know some people are going to not like me for it and that's fine but this was something that I had decided was a long time coming and was planned from the beginning, although originally it was that Bella couldn't reach Emmett the whole time he was away so... Anyway, you'll find out soon enough.

Last chapter, everyone seemed to like Bella and Carlisle's relationship, and it was something important to me because in one of the future chapters she's going to go to him for a little help...

Also, last chapter we all listened to Esme give Edward a little advice (he was just afraid of losing Bella in the accident and in the future as Bella was of losing him, but he didn't quite reach the point of hysterics that she did, because he hadn't been awake as long to process everything, and Esme succeeded in cutting him off at the pass) after he realizes that he doesn't want to waste another second without being legally committed to Bella in case something like that were to ever happen again. Now, it's Bella turn to really see that life shouldn't wasted, but we're introducing a whole new MINOR (never will be seen again after this chapter...) character to do just that.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these amazing characters, except for Calvin Callahan. That old fart is mine. ¡¡¡Es mio!!!

Dedication: twimom817!!!! thanks for all the reviews :)

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Chapter 36 BEB: Sometimes You Get Lucky

Bella's POV

"WHAT THE FUCK?! ISABELLA MARIE SWAN, WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?!"

"Hi, Emmett," I mumbled, tightening the hold on the front of my jacket as the wind whipped against my face. I alternated between tapping my cane against the ground and playing with the strap which kept it to my wrist as I leaned against the wall of the hospital.

It was rare to hear Emmett this angry, but this level of rage had only ever been directed at me twice before.

The first time, he had been eight and I had been seven. I'd just gotten a new toy for my birthday, a big bouncy ball that played all sorts of music whenever it hit the ground. I'd been outside playing with it when I'd bounced it too hard and lost control of it. I'd scurried after it, following the sound and paying little attention to anything else. I'd just wanted my ball back. I'd thought it was the coolest thing ever. Of course, I hadn't heard the car coming down the street before I'd run into the middle of road after my toy. I'd ended up just fine, the car had stopped, but Emmett had been so afraid that he immediately expressed his emotions by screaming at me about how stupid I'd been.

The second time, he'd been sixteen and I'd been fifteen. He'd gone out with his friends and gotten drunk while Rose and I had enjoyed a girls' night together. The next morning, when I'd tried to get him out of bed like I always did for what had once been our traditional Saturday morning cartoon marathons, he'd thrown gone into an absolute rage. He and Rose ended up separated for a month as a result, and we'd never had a Saturday morning cartoon marathon ever again.

"DON'T YOU DARE 'HI EMMETT' ME! YOU CAN'T FUCKING DO THIS TO ME!"

I tried not to let it affect me as I listened to my brother yell at me for not answering the phone, about how afraid and worried he'd been while I was off doing "whatever the hell Little Miss Bella wanted to do without considering anyone else", but it did. Tears froze against my cheeks in the far below freezing weather, trying to get a word in, to explain what happened, but he wouldn't let me. He insulted me, insulted Edward, insisted that I was being selfish and stupid and inconsiderate. He told me I needed to spend more time caring about my family, and less screwing around with Edward. He reminded me that it had been Christmas, and that I had clearly just decided that now that I had a boyfriend who would take care of me, I didn't need to at least use common courtesy and wish my family, the family who gave up so much of their precious time for me, a "Merry Fucking Christmas."

I supposed it was ice to know what exactly Emmett really thought of me, and of all that he'd sacrificed over the years because I was too pathetic to do anything for myself.

"Is that too much to ask for, Isabella?! Is it really?!"

And it seemed like he finally took a breath for the first time. But I couldn't breathe, not anymore. My heart wanted to pretend I hadn't heard anything he'd said, but my mind knew every word he'd breathed. It processed every sentence, syllable, letter, and released it all in a series of uncontrollable sobs as I crumbled to the sidewalk outside. There was silence, other than his breathing, on the other end of the line.

"I'm...Sorry," I managed to squeak out, before I closed my phone. I couldn't take any other word he might have chosen to say to me after that.

"Bella," a voice whispered beside me, and the warmth of my boyfriend's father's own velvet like tones fell over me in a once again soothing manner. "I take it your call with Emmett went poorly?"

I shook my head. I heard him shift, and recognized that he was seating himself on the disgusting Chicago sidewalks with me.

"I followed you out here, wanted to make sure you would be okay. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that one should never let a beautiful young lady such as yourself be alone in a strange city, whether she would be walking in dark alleys alone at night or standing just outside a hospital on her cell phone in broad day light."

I tried to crack a smile as I pushed my glasses up my face a bit, allowing me to wipe away tears.

"Especially when the beautiful young lady is clearly upset. Would you like to talk about it?"

I shook my head again.

"No. Okay, would you like to take a walk?"

I shook my head for a third time. I was sorely tempted to just sit here and wallow.

Emmett hated me.

"Okay. Would you like to go back to Edward?"

I shook my head vigorously.

"No, that would be a terrible idea!" I exclaimed, my words busting past the lump in my throat, sounded hoarse and like they themselves were coated in tears.

He chuckled. "She speaks."

I scrunched my nose, trying to think of something else. If I wanted to go back to Edward, I'd have to calm down.

I recalled Carlisle telling us more about the accident a little while after I'd been giggling about Edward's attempt at pronouncing his nickname. He'd said that the other car had hit a patch of black ice, and being rather old, had lost complete control. There'd been an old man in the car, a sweet old man who had gotten out of surgery rather late last night. I wondered if I could go visit him. I didn't know why, but I felt this awfully strong urge to go speak to him.

"Carlisle, the man in the other car..."

"Yes?" he encouraged, hoping that I would have something I'd like to do.

"Would it be okay...I mean, you said he was here at the hospital...and I kind of want to go talk to him?" It came out completely unsure, but I realized I really did want to do so. I tried my best to swallow the last of my tears as Carlisle answered affirmatively, standing up and then offering me his hand.

I really like Carlisle, a lot. He treated me with the same fatherly love as Charlie did, and I really missed my dad so much. It was just...nice.

He took me to the elevators and we stepped inside an empty one. I stopped him from reaching toward the buttons, asking, "What floor?" I pressed the button which corresponded with the number he told me, enjoying the feeling of the braille beneath my fingertips. I'd never known why, but it was always soothing. Immediately afterward, my fingers found my bracelets.

My Heart My Soul My Everything

I hadn't even realized we were at the man's room until Carlisle knocked on the door. I vaguely remembered him asking a nurse for the room number a few minutes before, but hardly.

"Mister Callahan? Would you mind a bit of company?" Carlisle asked.

The voice that answered was gruff and husky with age and probably years of smoking, but you knew the man was old and wise because of the underlying tone the rang through. He was intelligent, too. It was strange, how much just a voice could tell you about a person if you took the time to listen and knew what to look for. His was a nice contrast to the smooth velvet's of Edward and Carlisle's voices and the soft silk of Alice and Esme's (when Alice wasn't happily shrieking, of course). The roughness to it held years of pain, an edge of sadness.

"Told you you're welcome anytime, Doctor Cullen."

"Told you to call me Carlisle," was the playful retort.

I smiled. Carlisle had said he'd visited with the man earlier this morning at...I took a moment to remember his name, but recalled Carlisle said Mister Callahan... at Mister Callahan's request. They'd spoken about the accident, and Carlisle had told Mister Callahan not to worry about paying for the damages to the Escalade and to only concern himself with recovering.

"I see you've brought a friend," Mister Callahan then said.

"I'm Bella Swan," I introduced myself as Carlisle led me in and took my cane away from me as he sat me down on a plastic chair. I took a moment, trying to let the sounds make me more familiar with my surroundings. I could tell there were a few more machines in here that weren't in Edward's room - more beeping and more steady whoosh-ing than I'd before. I could only, however, hear myself, Carlisle, and Mister Callahan, in the room. No one else was here?

"Afternoon, Miss Swan, I'm Calvin Callahan," he returned.

"Please, call me Bella, Mister Callahan."

"Please, call me Calvin."

I smiled at him. He was quite a pleasant man, as far as I could tell.

"If that's what you'd prefer. How are you doing?"

"You can shake my hand, I won't bite, nor am I contagious," he told me, instead.

I cringed, blushing, as I extended my hand to him, hoping he'd grasp it.

"I'm sorry... I didn't realize you were... That you wanted me to." He took my hand in his and gave it a soft squeeze.

"You can't see me, can you dear?" he asked.

I shook my head, embarrassed.

"Don't worry. It's okay. I don't hear or see very well anymore either. Comes with getting old, I s'pose."

I carefully retracted my hand from, noticing how warm and inviting it'd been. "I do suppose that's true."

"So, what brings you by to see little old me? Not that I'm complaining about having such a young beauty like yourself showing up and taking a seat in my room, but I'm sure you had other reasons." I detected a hint of an accent in his voice. Mississippi?

"Last night..." I trailed off, wondering what to say.

"You were the girl in the car?" His voice sounded so sad suddenly, and I could hear him withdrawing just a bit.

I nodded, reaching out to seek his hand again. I needed a connection, and I think he needed it too. I heard footsteps and the closing of a door - Carlisle had left - as the back of his hand finally came to rest beneath my palm.

"I'm so sorry, ma'am."

I hushed him. "It wasn't your fault. The roads were messy last night, from what I hear."

He chuckled sadly. "I knew better than to drive tonight, especially with the poor visibility and my...declining sight, but driving has always cleared my head. Being alone on Christmas puts a lot of thoughts in your mind that sometimes you just want to go away."

I squeezed his hand. "Too many people are alone on Christmas, when really nobody should be."

"That's one sad truth," he agreed with me. "But at least I'm not alone right now."

"Your family hasn't come to see you," I acknowledged, realizing he was more alone than he wanted to admit.

"I lost my wife to cancer a few years ago, never had kids, my friends all have families of their own to take of or aren't really in their right minds enough to come visit."

"I'm sorry," I whispered. My mind instantly took me back to thoughts of having nearly lost Edward and I felt a tear slip down my cheek. Another fell as I thought of Emmett hating me and my mom changing into the woman nothing like she'd ever been before.

"Don't frown, sweetheart. You never know who might want to see you smile."

I swiped away the tears, wondering how I could still cry. How could I still have tears after crying so much in the past 24 hours?

"The boy in the car...he was yours?"

I nodded, swallowing against more tears. "Yeah...My boyfriend. He is my boyfriend."

"How long have you been together?"

"Two and a half months."

He whistled. "My wife and I, we were married before the first month was over. But then again, things were different in our time. Courtship was short and quick, and you don't always have to love to be married. But you love him." He spoke like he knew. And I supposed he did.

"I do love him. You loved your wife, though, didn't you?"

"With all my heart. Sometimes you get lucky and know who you should be with the moment you meet. I got lucky." He chuckled. "No one knew we were courting. My Margaret and I, we snuck out all the time and met in secret. She was the daughter of a prominent city lawyer, and I was the guy who was selling apples at the market place. But I loved her, and somehow I got lucky and she loved me back. We ran away one night, found a church, got married, and the rest is history."

I smiled at his story. That was love.

"She gave it all up for me. The rich fiance, the life of leisure, the future any girl in that time would have wanted. We worked hard to make ends meet, but it was all okay as long as we got to fall asleep together at night."

"I know that feeling," I whispered softly.

"I know you do. I could see it plainly written right on your pretty face the second I mentioned him. So smile for your boy, and tell him you love him, now."

I giggled. "I will, but what about you? I don't want you to be alone..."

"I think it's about time this old fart took a nap," he answered, yawning. I laughed, a real, full laugh, and he chuckled with me.

"Thanks Calvin."

"Thank you, Bella. Hey, what's your boy's name?"

I smiled as I spoke it, standing up and patting his hand. "Edward. His name is Edward."

His voice was drowsy as he responded, "I'll make sure Maggie looks out for you two, then."

And then one of those loud, obnoxious snores filled the room.