Chapter 73 – Wearing Thin
Bella
"Bella, wake up. Bella, are you okay?" Emmett's voice whispered in my ear. I hadn't even realized I had fainted, but I looked around to find I was lying on a bench in the emergency room. I sat up quickly and immediately threw up. Emmett was fast and dodged it, but I made a mess, nonetheless. Emmett just stepped around it and summoned a nurse, who called for an orderly after covering the mess with a disposable drape. Emmett led me to another area, where he sat me down and then went to get me something to drink. My ears were ringing, and my stomach felt like I had been punched.
Emmett came back with a cup of ice water and encouraged me to drink it, while he watched me with worried eyes. "Bella, they've taken Edward to x-ray just to make sure nothing serious is going on, but the doctor believes he'll be fine, he just got knocked out. He was waking up when they took him down, so that's a good thing. His scalp is split open, though, and he does have a concussion. He's going to have an ugly haircut for a while, and a bear of a headache, but he's going to be okay," Emmett tried to reassure me.
I sobbed in relief into Emmett's chest. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to find a detective waiting to speak with me. "Mrs. Masen, I need you to tell me anything you can remember."
I told her I hadn't seen much, but I gave her a description of the car as best I could. "It all happened so fast. We were so busy just trying to avoid getting attacked by reporters again that I didn't pay attention to anything." I felt helpless that I couldn't provide more information, and stupid for not being more observant, given recent events.
The doctor came to speak to me before taking me to Edward. The x-rays confirmed that it was a concussion, and he would be fine. As I walked in, Edward was slightly propped up, looking rather precarious, but better than I had seen him earlier. He held his arms out to me, and I quickly climbed up beside him and wrapped myself around him.
"I thought I'd lost you there for a bit," I muttered into his chest, as he pulled me closer. I tried to choke back the sobs, but the emotions and relief finally got the better of me, and the dam burst.
"I'm just happy you're safe, sweetheart," Edward whispered into my hair. I looked up into his beautiful eyes, and he had a confused look on his face, as if he were trying to remember something.
"What are you thinking?" I asked, as I lay my head back down on his shoulder. He chuckled softly, pulling me closer against him.
"It's funny the things you think you see when you're facing death head on," he said, kissing my temple. I wanted to press further for an explanation, but he had drifted off to sleep before I could ask him anything else.
They kept Edward overnight for observation as a precaution, and I refused to leave him there alone, so we shared his bed. I awoke the next morning and got up to go to the bathroom, but I slumped backwards, bumping hard into the side of the bed, as my eyes landed on what lay on the side table – a crushed red rose. My stomach dropped, and I had to fight to keep from throwing up again. Except for the nurses noisily coming and going during the night on regular rounds, I had heard no other sounds in the room, nor had I heard the door opening at any other time. Whoever had left the flower had been absolutely stealthy and silent.
My jarring the bed woke Edward, and he looked at me, following my panicked gaze towards the side table to see the mangled rose. He quickly grabbed the phone and called Emmett, and then he pushed the nurse's call button and requested they send hospital security immediately.
This routine was starting to wear thin, on Edward as well as myself.
After an exhaustive search of the hospital, just like at Children's, nothing unusual was found, even on the surveillance footage. Whoever had left the flower had managed to completely evade any security measures. While Edward answered questions from the detective, my mind wandered back to the previous day at the funeral. I wondered if whoever had left the rose had been at the memorial as well. I tried to remember faces and people I had seen there, but with everything else that had happened, my mind was a muddled blank. With my memory so questionable at this point, I wasn't even sure I was remembering everything correctly, but I was certain about one thing now. Someone wanted me dead.
Edward was finally released, and we both were anxious to get home. We were escorted the entire way by a policy car, only to arrive to find another police car parked across the street from the house. The officer got out and met us on the sidewalk, waiving off the officers who had followed us home.
"Welcome home, Mr. and Mrs. Masen," the officer greeted us. "I'm Dayton Quinn, a friend of Emmett's, and I'm here to make sure you're safe." Edward and I both shook his hand and invited him inside out of the cold. Mom brought out coffee and some cookies, and we sat down with him to talk.
"I'm actually off duty," Officer Quinn said, "but any friends of Emmett are friends of the rest of us on the force, so we're going to be taking turns providing protection until we catch whoever is stupid enough to mess with you guys." I started to protest, but he shot his hand up to stop me.
"Look, it's our pleasure. Besides, none of us on the force want to deal with what Emmett would be like if anything happened to either of you," he said with a laugh. Knowing Emmett, I didn't blame him.
