A/N: I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. So I apologize in advance if I messed up any medical procedures/technicalities. I only know enough about medicine from watching ER and House.

Disclaimer: All things Twilight belong to Stephenie Meyer; I am just taking a leisurely stroll through her world, borrowing a few characters here and there with no intent to profit from this story besides receiving awesome reviews...many awesome reviews.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Recovery

Bella's eyelashes fluttered, and then at last her eyes opened, their chocolate warmth engulfing me with a cascading sense of relief and joy. "Edward?" she repeated hoarsely.

"I'm here, love," I said, raising her hand to my lips, managing a tremulous smile after the stress of the past twenty-four hours.

As she had attempted in the hospital in Phoenix, she reached with her free hand for the oxygen under her nose in annoyance. And again my free hand caught hers before she could remove the line taped to her face.

"Leave the oxygen alone, Bella. You still need it."

She looked around, her eyes slowly regaining focus, obviously bemused at the number of people surrounding her bed. "Dad? Alice? Carlisle?" she whispered. She cleared her throat, wincing in pain, before continuing hoarsely, "What happened?"

Carlisle stepped forward. "You have the H1N1 Influenza, Bella, and you quickly developed pneumonia. Your fever was so high that you have been unconscious for the past twenty-four hours. We had to place a chest tube to drain the fluid from your lungs, so please try to stay still; we'll remove it as soon as possible. Now that your fever has finally broken, you'll be fine now."

Charlie stood unmoving beside Bella's bed, as if he couldn't believe that she was conscious at last. "Bella?"

She closed her eyes, already tired from the conversation, but she still spoke. "Hey, Dad." She reached for his hand blindly across her bed covers with her free hand as I held her other one, and Charlie grasped her fragile hand, careful of the IV in her arm.

"I got you, kid," Charlie whispered. "You'll be okay."

She nodded, eyes still closed, and, exhausted from conversing with us, fell into a natural sleep. I noticed that she was breathing much easier, and the frown of pain was absent from her face. She looked as if she were truly resting at last.

"Sleep is the best thing for her right now," Carlisle said quietly, picking up her chart and making several notations. Then he looked at Charlie seriously, using his best physician-giving orders-voice, "And you need to go home and sleep yourself, Charlie. You aren't going to do Bella any good by wearing yourself out."

Charlie rubbed his eyes wearily. "Yeah, Doc. I guess you're right about that. I'll head home for a bit, I think. You'll call me if anything changes?"

Carlisle smiled, replying "Absolutely, Charlie. You have my word."

Charlie nodded, and Alice gave Bella's father a quick hug. "We all will be going home to rest, too. We'll see you later," she said quietly, although her thoughts revealed her lie; my sister knew very well that nothing short of the apocalypse could make me leave Bella's side.

Charlie got to his feet, leaned awkwardly over the bed rail to kiss Bella's forehead, then, after glancing around the room at us and narrowing his eyes at me, cleared his throat nervously before striding out the door. I suppressed a smile; Charlie knew just as well as Alice that I wasn't going anywhere.

Carlisle placed his hands on my shoulders, the gesture reassuring. "She'll be fine, Edward. The antibiotics are doing their job, and the chest tube can probably be removed tonight, tomorrow at the latest." I nodded, not taking my eyes off Bella's face.

"I'm going home to see Jazz and tell Esme the good news," chirped Alice. "I'll be back tonight." She gave Carlisle a quick kiss on the cheek, then did the same to me before flitting out the room.

"I need to check on a few patients. I'm leaving orders for Bella to be transferred out of the ICU to a regular private room. They'll move her in an hour or two."

"All right," I whispered.

Carlisle removed his hands from my shoulders and walked around Bella's bed to face me. "Edward, look at me."

With effort I took my eyes off Bella's still, pale face to fix my focus on my father.

"Edward, Bella will be fine. She's recovering nicely at this point. Although I'm not Jasper, I can sense the anxiety and worry still rolling off you. Please know that all will be well."

I forced the words out, almost choking on them as I spoke, almost growling, "I am so afraid that I am going to lose her, Carlisle."

My father smiled. "Not this time, Son. But I'm sure that the diagnosis of influenza brought back memories of your parents. Am I right?"

I nodded reluctantly. "She's so fragile. I've come close to losing her far too many times as it is," I whispered, my heart sinking further at the truth of my words.

Carlisle looked at me sharply. "This illness is not your fault, Edward. How can you possibly blame yourself for influenza?"

I kept my eyes focused on Bella; I couldn't handle much more of my father's sympathy or I would break down. I took a deep breath to steady myself, soaking in Bella's beloved scent as I did so. "I should have taken her to the ER as soon as she showed symptoms—before she developed pneumonia."

"It came on quickly, Edward; there was no way you could have known she would develop pneumonia almost immediately."

I continued as if Carlisle had not spoken. "And think about what happened in Phoenix; we were almost too late then, too. Not to mention the incident with Tyler's van. And I almost killed her myself in our biology class on the first day we met; I must have plotted a hundred ways of getting her alone so that I could kill her."

Carlisle shook his head sadly. "Yes, humans are fragile. And Bella seems to bring trouble along with her at an alarming rate," he smiled grimly, but I could see the worry behind his expression. "Are you thinking about changing her?"

I shook my head. "I don't know; I'm torn. Part of me wants Bella to always remain human—she deserves a normal life, a life without mythical creatures who put her life in constant danger. She deserves the joy of a family, to have children, to grow and mature into the woman she is intended to be, and to go to heaven when she dies. I can't stand being apart from her, yet I can't bear the thought of her becoming like us: frozen, bloodthirsty, a killer. I want her forever, for myself, but how can our life be the right choice for her?"

"What does Bella want?" he asked, his eyes serious as he pondered my dilemma.

"She wants to become one of us—no question about it."

Carlisle smiled wryly, "So what's the problem?"

My eyes bored into his as I ground out, my face livid, "I. Will. Not. Damn. Her. Soul."

He shrugged, unimpressed with my anger. "I'm not getting into this old argument at this time, Edward. I completely disagree with you. But you know my views on the matter."

Now his eyes bored into mine. "This is for you and Bella to work out between you. But I suggest you listen to her, Edward, and consider carefully her side of the argument. You can't make her decisions for her, after all."

"I need to protect her, Carlisle. I can't allow her to go through the agony of changing and then regret losing her humanity as Rosalie so clearly has done."

Carlisle winced, then spoke quietly. "Yes, Rosalie has indeed regretted this life. But just because Rosalie has regrets does not mean that Bella will. They possess quite different personalities and desires; you cannot project Rose's desires upon Bella. It's not fair to Bella."

"But I can't take that chance, Carlisle. How could I steal her beautiful human life just so I will never risk losing her? It's incredibly selfish of me to even consider it." I looked away from him and focused my eyes again on the beautiful face I adored. "I just can't do that to her, no matter how much she thinks she wants to become one of us."

Carlisle glanced at his watch, saying, "I need to go see my other patients. I'll be back in an hour to check on Bella."

I nodded absently, my mind still focused on Bella, not noticing when he left the room. I watched her sleep deeply, her breathing sounding much more normal. I placed my hand on her forehead and smiled faintly when I detected almost no fever.

Bella was going to get well. I rejoiced in the fact of her recovery, yet my heart remained heavy. Her human life was such a fragile thing—as delicate and as beautiful as a butterfly, as ephemeral as a sunset. So easily could she be snatched away from me, through accident, illness, violence. With the way that Fate seemed to conspire against her, would I have the sixty years of her human life I had hoped to spend with her if I refused to change her?

I knew one thing as surely as I knew my own name: if Bella left this earth, I would not be far behind her. I refused to remain on this earth without my angel. My existence was nothing without her—it was worthless, pointless, empty.

An hour later Carlisle accompanied the orderlies when they transferred Bella from the ICU to a private room, and I refused to let her out of my sight as they did so. Soon she was settled, still sleeping soundly, in a quiet room at the end of a corridor. After Carlisle left and the nurse checked her vitals, during which Bella woke momentarily, too exhausted to do more than squeeze my hand and whisper "I love you" before falling asleep again, I pulled the chair close to her bedside. As I had in Phoenix, I laid my head beside hers on the pillow, watching her with loving but sorrowful eyes, not letting go of her grip that remained constant even in her deepest sleep.

Carlisle came back in a few hours later, checking Bella's chart then laying a pale hand on her forehead. He smiled at me. "No fever. Her temperature is normal."

"Should she be sleeping so much, Carlisle?" I asked worriedly.

"Yes. She's going to be tired and weak for a while. This illness has taken a great deal from her, and she will need time to regain her strength and endurance."

"What about her job at Newton's?"

Carlisle shook his head as he replied, "She needs to take at least two weeks off from work to recuperate fully, although I would prefer four. She is going to tire extremely easily, and she will require a great deal of rest to recover fully. Going to work before she regains her full strength is one of the worst things she can do."

I looked at my father beseechingly. "Please, Carlisle, tell her to take four weeks off from work. I don't want her going back too early. You know how stubborn Bella can be; I need her to be well."

Carlisle nodded, smiling a little. "Four weeks it is, then." He flipped her chart closed and slid it into place at the foot of her bed. He came behind me, placing both hands on my shoulders again. "You need to go home for a bit, too, Son. Hunt. Shower. Then come back."

I shook my head in negation.

"Edward, your eyes are completely black. You need to hunt," Carlisle insisted.

"I'm fine. I don't need to hunt. I can't leave anyway; I have to be here when she wakes."

Carlisle looked at me for a long moment, then nodded briskly and silently left the room. "I'll be back to remove the chest tube soon," he said quietly before closing her door behind him.

Again I settled my head on Bella's pillow, content to merely be close to her. I listened to her light, even breaths, the steady thrumming of her heart, now sounding normal again, all the while I inhaled her beloved and intoxicating scent, basking in the truth that she was still with me, still alive when this illness could have taken her away from me forever.

I was so wrapped up in the blessed normalcy of Bella's vital signs that I almost didn't notice the quiet knock or the entrance of another person into the room. Expecting a nurse or physician's assistant, or perhaps my father, my eyes never left Bella's beautiful face; I was not even aware of this person's thoughts through my utter absorption in Bella's every breath, every heartbeat.

But then I heard the awkward clearing of a throat, and I sat up blindingly fast, finding myself facing the anxious dark eyes and worried mind of Jacob Black.

Thanks so much for reading Evening Star; sorry for the delay in posting. We had company here over the holiday weekend plus the kids and I spent a couple of days at the beach.

As always, reviews are very much appreciated—and they spur me on to write and update faster! :)