DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM TWILIGHT. THEY ALL BELONG TO STEPHENIE MEYER.
I just want to say a HUGE THANK YOU to mymiss who has just offered to translate "Saving Edward" into French!! This makes me so happy to think that someone is willing to do that. Seriously, this makes me so happy to think that you guys are enjoying this story enough to do that. I'm sat here typing this with the biggest grin on my face. Thank you all so much for reading my story.
Unfortunately though, "Saving Edward" is coming to the end soon. I have this chapter, possibly one more before an epilogue, but I do have the first couple of chapters of the sequel all typed up and ready to post, so don't kill me.
BPOV
Getting home after school, I felt surprisingly good. Today had gone better than I had thought it would. I thought that I would be miserable and unapproachable throughout school today, but the Cullens had made that feat impossible. I had even had the courage to stand up against Mike and Jessica. Something I would never have done before I met Edward or the Cullens. Maybe spending time with them was even more of a good thing than I thought it was.
Walking through the door, I hung up my jacket and dropped my bag on the floor by the door before taking off my shoes. Alice quickly followed suit. Seeing as she had taken me into school this morning, she undoubtedly had to bring me home, so I had invited her in for a little while. Until Charlie gets home at least.
"What do you wanna do?" I asked her, as she hung up her jacket.
"Oh, I don't know." I could tell there was something on her mind because she wasn't bouncing up and down wanting to play "Bella Barbie" as Rosalie had dubbed it.
"What's up?" I asked. She looked at me and I could tell that she was going to tell me that there was nothing wrong, but I raised an eyebrow at her, letting her know that I wasn't going to drop it. Hell, if I could get things out of her brother, who hadn't told anyone a secret or feeling in almost ten years then I could definitely make short work of a hyperactive pixie who rarely shut up.
"Okay," She looked down, knowing that she wasn't going to get anywhere. "It's Edward." This, I on some level had been expecting. "I mean, I'm just worried that he's not going to be okay in there, you know? I mean, you were kind of his support network while he was in there. Hell, since we moved to Forks. He depended on you and I don't know whether he'll be alright without you."
I walked over to Alice and embraced her, pulling her tiny body close to mine. "He'll be fine." I whispered. "He's made a lot of friends in there that will help him." I pulled away and looked her in the eye. "You're right. He did depend on me, and to some extent I depended on him too. And now that we're apart, we both need to learn to be able to live without each other." I saw her face fall slightly. "I love him so much, but we both need to do this. He needs this to learn not to depend on me. He needs to learn to depend on himself." I squeezed her shoulders reassuringly. "He'll be fine, Ali." She smiled at the nickname.
"I just.....I just don't know." She mumbled and I sighed.
"Okay," I had an idea. "How about we call him? Yeah?" Her eyes lit up. "We call him and talk about stuff and then you'll see that he's okay." I had to admit, I desperately wanted to talk to him as well, and I think Alice knew that. She may be an extremely hyperactive, shoppaholic pixie but she was extremely perceptive. I missed Edward like hell and to tell the truth I was just looking for an excuse to call him. She nodded and I walked over to the phone. I took out the card that I had been given before I left, in case I wanted to call him and dialled the number, setting the phone to speakerphone so we could both hear him.
"Seattle EDC," I heard the receptionist, Stephenie's voice call.
"Hello, may I speak with Edward Cullen please." I asked politely and Alice stifled a giggle as I glared at her.
"Who's may I ask is calling?" She sounded apprehensive.
"It's Bella." I replied, now grinning at Alice pointing and mouthing "wait for her reaction" at her.
"Oh, Bella!" I smiled at the phone. "Oh of course, I'll transfer you through onto the unit. How are you?"
"I'm fine, Steph. Just missing Edward a bit, so I decided to phone him." I looked up to see Alice grinning at me.
"Awww that's so sweet," I rolled my eyes at the phone, both wishing she could see me, and thanking the lord that she couldn't. "I'll transfer you through now."
A soft piano piece began to fill the room as we were being transferred onto the unit's switchboard.
"You got to know everyone there, didn't you?" Alice asked, grinning at me. I shrugged at her and she giggled. I playfully punched her in the arm and she pouted at me, pretending that it hurt. I rolled my eyes at her and turned my attention back to the phone.
"Hello, East Wing." I heard Jude's voice fill the room.
"Jude? It's Bella." I said smiling. If she was down there then there was a good chance that Edward was as well.
"Bella! Oh, how are you dear?" The way she spoke it sounded like she was an old friend that I hadn't spoken to in years, not a nurse in the clinic that my boyfriend was in.
"I'm good, Jude. You?" I may as well keep up with the pleasantries.
"Oh, I'm well dear." I could hear her smiling on the other end of the phone.
"Could I possibly speak to Edward." I asked her.
"Of course dear. He's just in the rec room at the moment," I couldn't help but smile. I knew how close the phones were to the recreation room. "I'll just transfer you through to the patients phones and go and get him."
"Jude! Could you not tell him that it's me calling." Alice looked at me in surprise. "I kinda want it to be a surprise, you know?"
"Of course dear." Jude replied before the soft piano melody filled the room again.
"A surprise?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow at me. How she could not be related to Edward and yet be so much like him was beyond me. I suppose it's what happens when you spend so long living together. I shrugged and grinned, waiting for Edward to pick up the phone.
"Hello?" I heard his beautiful voice call out over the phone. He sounded a bit confused as to who would be calling him at the clinic but then again, if someone had called me without leaving a name then I would be too.
"Edward?" I said softly smiling at Alice.
"Bella?" I practically heard the smile spread across his face.
"Yeah, it's me love." I felt my smile widen. "Alice is here too."
"Hi Edward." She called in her usually chirpy voice.
"Hello Alice." I could hear the smile in his voice.
"So bro," Alice said, folding her arms on the table and laying her head on the top of them. "How are ya? Hows everything going?"
"I'm okay. Everything's going good. Missing you though."
"Really?" Alice brightened up. "Wait. Is that just Bella you're talking to or me as well?"
"Of course I miss you too, squirt." I heard him chuckle on the other end and I laughed as Alice's head shot up off of her folded arms as her back straightened indignantly.
"Hey!" She whined at the receiver. "It's not my fault. I can't help being small."
"I know. I know." He was laughing now. Such a beautiful sound.
"So love," I said, looking at Alice who had settled her head back on her arms now. "How's your day been? What you been doing?"
"Not much really. It was weird waking up without you here though." I nodded even though he couldn't see me. I had felt lonely waking up this morning in my own bed, without Edward there next to me. Well, he wasn't there with me when I woke up at the clinic, but the pillows were coated with his scent so it was easy to imagine that he was there if I closed my eyes. "Just been sitting around in the rec room with the others for a while. As I was leaving Di and Michael were starting to have another argument about some game they were playing."
"Oh god another one?" I moaned. Those two were always fighting. "I swear those two are like an old married couple."
He chuckled on the other end. "I'll tell them you said that."
My head shot up. "No! Don't. Please. I'd never hear the end of it from either of them if you did." He continued to laugh on the other end. "Please Edward, don't."
"Alright I won't." He promised, still chuckling. "So what about you? How was it......going back to school?"
"It was okay, I guess." I looked at Alice who was smiling. "You know, boring old school. Nothing really happened."
"Nothing happened?!" Alice cried. "Isabella Marie Swan, you little liar!"
"What? What happened?" Edward started to sound worried on the other end. I glared at Alice. I didn't want him to start getting worked up.
"Nothing bad." Alice chirped. "But we found out that Mike Newton, you remember him?" Edward grumbled a yes. Of course he would remember him. It was because of him attacking Edward in the corridor that he was in the clinic in the first place. "Well, we found out that he had been lying about what happened when you were taken into hospital and-"
"Wait, what?" Edward cut her off. "What did he say happened?"
"He had told people that he was walking to class and found you collapsed on the floor by the lockers and that he went to find help." I replied and I swear I could hear Edward's jaw hit the ground.
"He didn't!" He growled. He was angry now and I hated for him to be angry at anything.
"Don't worry, love, I sorted it. I told Eric and Tyler, you know, his best friends and possibly the biggest gossips in the school, besides Jessica, that he was lying and I told them what really happened."
"What everything?" He sounded worried. I slapped my forehead and realised that he must have thought that I told them where he was.
"Not everything." Alice spoke up, noticing my panic. "I mean, everyone knows you had a heart attack, but we've gone with the story that you just have a weak heart and have had from birth and Bella told the two of them that the stress from Mike attacking you caused the heart attack. I hope that's okay." Her face was wrinkled slightly from the worried expression on her face. An expression that I was sure my own face mirrored.
"Well, it's better than the truth I guess." He sounded somewhat relieved at the news. I breathed out a silent sigh of relief and saw Alice doing the same thing.
"And after that, at lunch Jessica was trying to get the scoop on you and Bella, so Bella basically told her where to go, in a not so polite fashion." Alice beamed when she said this and I couldn't help but smile.
"Jessica?" He pondered over the name, obviously trying to place a face to the name.
"You know, frizzy brown hair. Biggest gossip in school." I rung off some things that might jog his memory. Obviously I got nothing when he didn't reply. "Practically in love with Newton and follows him around like a puppy dog."
"Oh her!" He remembered her now and I grinned.
"Yeah her." Alice giggled. "You should have seen it, she was trying to get a load of information out of Bells about the two of you. You know, where you were and stuff. And then...she noticed the crest on Bella's wrist."
"Oh, really?" He sounded curious about this development and I giggled.
"Yup, and you could tell that she wanted one, cos she asked where Bella got it from, and Jasper told her that it was specially made and that you could only have one if you were a Cullen." I rolled my eyes. Alice had gone into storytelling mode. "And then, Jessica, who thought that she was being smart, pointed out that Bella's last name is Swan and not Cullen."
"What did you guys say to that?" Edward asked. He was obviously used to Alice in this mode.
"Sshhhh, I'm getting there." She flapped her hands at the phone so much I thought that if she continued the action she would take off. I couldn't help but laugh, which earned me a glare from Alice. "Well, then Rose pointed out that Bella has been there for you and for us and that she might have the last name of Swan but at heart she is a Cullen."
"That she is." Edward chuckled and I felt my cheeks heat up. "So what did she do after that?"
"Well, she just huffed and turned back to Bella. Started questioning her about you guys' relationship. Bella just turned around and told her that it was none of her business. What was it you said? That you would answer two of the questions that you knew she wanted to ask?" She looked at me and I nodded. "And the answers were yes, you guys were still together and no, you weren't going to break up any time soon. It was so funny you should have seen her face. She was sat there in a complete state of shock, as though no one had dared to talk to her like that before." She and I were both giggling at the memory and Edward was laughing on the other end. I was sure he could picture it.
"Oh, love, you are definitely a Cullen." He breathed.
"You know, that's exactly what Jazz said." I laughed. "Oh, its good to hear you laugh." I smiled at the receiver, wishing that it was actually him I was talking to.
"Well, if it wasn't for you then I wouldn't be." He admitted and I sighed. "I miss you."
"I miss you too love."
"I'm going to have to go soon." He sounded sad. I felt my mood dampen at that. I looked at the clock and saw that it was almost five. We had been on the phone for a while. I hoped Charlie wouldn't mind. I'd tell him I'd pay him back for it of course.
"Mealtime." I whispered and Alice nodded in understanding. "How's that going hun?"
"It's.....It's alright. It's not as hard as I thought it would be, you know." He sighed. "Di, Michael and Claire are a big help."
I smiled, grateful that he had friends in there who were able to help him out. "That's good to hear. How are they anyway?"
"They're alright. You know, no one's been the same since you left. You made a big impression here." I scoffed at that. "Hey! You did. People are really missing you and it's only been a day."
"Really?" I didn't really believe it.
"Yup." He popped the "p" and I smiled. He was becoming more and more confident with every passing day, which only increased my fear of that when he got out he might realise that I really am nothing and leave me. Something I don't think that I could bear if he did. I looked up at Alice who was looking at me increduluously. In the background on his end I heard someone calling out for dinner. "I have to go."
"I know." I sighed. "I miss you."
"I miss you too." He breathed. "Bye Alice. Miss you squirt."
"Miss you too, bro." She beamed. "Get better and come back to us, you hear?"
"Loud and clear. I will." He chuckled. "I love you, my Bella."
"As I love you, my Edward." I breathed. "Goodbye, my love."
"Goodbye." And he hung up.
I couldn't help feeling slightly empty as I pressed the "end" button on the phone. I looked up at Alice and smiled at her. She smiled back at me looking slightly sad as though she knew that there was something bothering me. Stupid perceptive pixie.
"Are you okay honey?" She asked, reaching out and placing a hand on my arm. "And don't lie to me. I'll know."
"I just can't help thinking that, he's getting healthier and healthier and more confident every day. I can't help thinking that, when he gets out of there, that he's going to see how much of a nobody I really am, and leave me." I felt a traitor tear roll down my cheek, but I didn't move to wipe it away.
"Oh, Bells." She moved around the table to give me a hug. "There's no way that that will every happen. Have you seent he way my brother looks at you? He's completely and totally devoted to you. He worships the ground you walk on Bella. He loves you so much that I can tell it hurts him when you're not there. As much as it hurts you to be away from him. There is no way on earth that he would ever leave you Bella Swan. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if you became Bella Cullen one day. Because I know that there's no way in Hell he's ever going to let you go." I luaghed slightly. I wouldn't go that far, but I wanted to believe that what she was saying was true.
I heard Charlie pull up outside the house and Alice released me from our hug.
"I'd better get going." She smiled and waved at me as she walked out of the door, getting her jacket and shoes on. She greeted Charlie as she passed him and he gave her a polite greeting in return.
"Hey Dad." I called, still sitting at the table.
"Hey Bells." He walked into the kitchen after hanging up his jacket and his gun. He sat down at the table in front of me and leant on it, crossing both arms in front of him. "I missed you, you know, Bells."
I looked up at him and smiled. "I missed you too, Dad."
He looked at my wrist and noticed the crest glittering there. I hadn't really spoken to him last night, so he hadn't had a chance to see it. But now, he gently took my hand and inspected the crest, fingering the "Cullen" written on it.
"Edward's?" He asked me and I shook my head. "Who's then?" He sounded confused.
"Mine." I replied and he now looked confused. "The Cullens' wanted to thank me for what I've done over the last few months or so, and they all came to the decision to get me a crest made. They say that they feel like I'm part of the family." I looked at him and smiled.
"You've realy become attached to that family haven't you?" He asked me, looking back down at the crest on my arm.
"Yeah." I nodded. "They are the first people that I've met here, that aren't caught up in the small town ideals and gossip you know?" He cocked his head to the side, wondering what I meant. Honestly, I was surprised he was still here. Charlie had never really been one for talking or showing emotions, and yet here he was, sitting here, waiting for me to explain. "It's like, in school, everyone's so hooked up about who's going out with who or who's just broken up or whatever. But the Cullens'. They're different. They know that the world is made up of more than that, and its like I can really talk to them, you know?" He nodded.
"And Edward?" I wasn't sure on my Dad's opinion of my relationship with Edward. He, like everybody else probably thought that he was unstable and belonged in a mental institute. Although no one ever said that or would ever say that, I knew it was what they were all thinking.
"I love him, Dad." I said simply. "Completely and irrevocably."
"I know, Bells." He laid his hand on mine. "I know. You think I'm stupid? I've seen how you look at the boy, and how he looks at you. There's nothing else there but love. And.....if you're sure he's who you want-"
"I'm sure. I've never been so sure of anything in my whole life." I said, looking at him, panicked.
"You didn't let me finish." He raised a finger at me, not in a menacing or scolding way, but enough to make me quiet. "If he's who you want, then I'm fine with that. As long as he doesn't hurt you, and I get to kick his butt if he does."
"Dad." I sighed. "First: he is who I want and nothing is going to change that. Second: he wouldn't leave me, and I wouldn't ever leave him. We mean too much to each other. And third: No you cannot "kick his butt"," I made air quotes as I said this. "Because his bones will always be weaker than they should be. That's what happens when you starve yourself for five years." I looked into his eyes and saw that they were full of sadness. Charlie was the only one in this town, other than the Cullens and myself who knew exactly what was going on with Edward. It seemed only fair seeing as I was staying with Edward at the clinic. He had a right to know where his daughter was. Edward didn't really have a problem with telling Charlie. I think that he would have had a problem if we hadn't told him to be honest. "So, you'll probably end up hospitalising him without meaning to. Now, I'd like to see you try to explain that to Carlisle." I smiled and he chuckled once.
"I'm glad that you've found someone that you feel this way about Bells." He leant across the table and kissed me on the forehead. Something that I couldn't really recall him ever doing before. Watching my father leave the room I knew that everything was going to be okay. I was sure that when he came out of hospital, Edward would make a special effort to make sure Charlie knew how grateful he was for letting me stay with him at the clinic, because thats how Edward was. It would be perfect. I would have both my best guys around me.
Now all I had to do was wait.
It's coming to a close but as I said up top I do have the prologue and first chapter of the sequel written and typed up. I just need a title now. Anyone got any ideas for a title for the sequel? If you do, PM me and I'll have a look through :D
As always can you review please. You must know by now how much I love them.
Ciao!! xx
