Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the content or characters of the Twilight Saga. They are the sole and rightful property of the great Stephanie Meyers.

CHAPTER ONE

(BPOV)

The phone rang incessantly as I clutched the clipboard in my hands, my eyes skimming down through the long list of patient names who had checked themselves into the Emergency Room. I still had more than a dozen triage cases to assess and it wasn't even midnight yet. The large clock hanging on the wall above me dreadfully revealed that I was only three hours into my fourteen hour shift. This was the typical weekend run here at Pen Bay Medical Center. The waiting room was overflowing as it usually was at this hour. You had your lively mix of flu patients in the bunch, children needing antibiotics for a cold that had hung on too long, accompanied by nervous parents who were seen pacing the floors, while they waited for an available on call doctor to tend to their ill children. Of course we couldn't forget about your overly intoxicated and equally beligerant individuals who had been brought in and dropped at the door for suspected alcohol poisoning. Then there were those who fell somewhere in the middle on the list, those who were here waiting to be seen for lacerations, abrasions, a mild burn or something non-life threatening. I was well used to pulling long shifts like these by now. After all, this was my fifth year here and I had adjusted easily to the demanding, and sometimes never ending, schedules for the emergency room nurses like myself. There was nearly a dozen of us that kept this place running.

Being an ER nurse meant that our department was often the first line of defense to anything from accidents to severe allergic reactions and any other kind of urgent medical care. The job required nothing but the best from you. All the time. It demanded your devout attention and mental sharpness, along with your rehearsed and routinely practiced bedside manor for both patients and scared or grieving families alike. I was told by many, including my own father, that this job would be anything but easy and that I wouldn't survive it without thick skin and a cast iron stomach. As it turned out, Charlie was right about it all. The money was never incentive enough for me to stick with it, only earning a take home pay of about sixty-five thousand a year wasn't exactly the kind of six-digit salary the average buried in debt college graduate sought out these days. No, instead it was my desire to help those in need that always drove me forward in the end.

I had seen my fair share of both traumatizing and crazy while working here and with the fast approaching,and highly over commercialized holiday season just around the corner, I knew this weekend would be no exception. Among the crowded families all shoved into our too small waiting room tonight, was a wife who could be heard screaming at her husband for his mistake in burning her while trying to deep fry their turkey. The entire floor had to listen to her dramatic rant and I was beginning to rapidly lose my patience with her.

I placed my empty coffee mug down on the desk and pushed away from it, my steps deliberate and quick when I entered the waiting room and addressed her for the third time.

"Ma'am, I need you to please-..."

"Oh, here we go again! Back to tell me to keep the noise level down, right? Well, maybe if you people would get their asses in gear and treat this burn on my arm, I could go home and finish cooking for the two dozen guests I have coming over to our house in less than nine hours!"

I sucked in a breath and squared my shoulders, my eyes tightening while still trying to remain professional yet polite with her.

"I understand your discomfort and I apologize for your stress, but we are experiencing a longer than normal wait time. The on call doctor will be out to get you shortly. Until then, I ask that you please stop shouting. We have many sick patients on this floor who need their rest."

She got to her feet, her shoes and pant suit stained with grease but appearing to cost more than I currently had in my bank account.

"You listen to me! I have been out here in this stuffy waiting room for almost two hours now and I demand better treatment than this!"

"Janet! Sit down! You are making a scene and an even bigger fool of yourself! That's enough! The nurse is only doing her job!" Her husband argued, trying to escort her back to her seat.

"Don't touch me! Get your hands off me! You're the reason we're in this hell hole of a place to begin with! I should be back at our house finishing Thanksgiving dinner prep but instead we're stuck here! Whose hairbrained idea was it to deep fry the damn turkey to begin with, Frank!?"

I saw the middle aged mans face harden as he leaned in with his angry reply to her.

"You were the one who bought that needless contraption and insisted we use it this year! I told you we should have stuck to cooking it in the oven like we always did but you wouldn't listen to me! You never listen to me! You think you know everything! Besides, everyone knows you don't cook the bird until the morning! It dries it out faster!"

"Oh, just shut up, Frank! If you would've adhered to the instructions I gave you that came with the deep fryer then-"

"Excuse me." I tried to interject, tossing a look back over my shoulder toward the nurses station who was buzzing with activity and phone calls that still needed to be answered. "Sir...- Ma'am...- I need you to-."

The couple continued to frantically shout and I huffed in frustration as several onlookers looked to me with wide eyed stares of alarm, some of them covering their children's ears while the fighting escalated further between the two.

I was at my wits end.

"You always screw everything up!" Janet shouted, shoving into Franks shoulder with her good arm.

"You are so ungrateful and-..." He began.

"EXCUSE ME!" I half shouted, my face feeling warm with my own anger as the two looked my way in shock from my tone with them. "I have asked you more than enough times to stop shouting and you refuse to listen."

I waved down the two security officers, Roman and Jon, who were at least six feet tall and had the arms of tree trunks to match. They saw my distress signal and were posted at the end of the long hall on grant seven for purposes just like this one and more. I used to be afraid to say boo to them or ask for their help, but after my second year here, we had all become good friends and I quickly learned that despite their massive size, the two of them were nothing more than giant teddy bears with a wife and kids back home. I saw Franks eyes bug out as they headed our way and I gestured for them to be escorted out of the waiting room until they could be seen.

"You can't do this!" Janet yelled.

"Actually, yes I can." I declared. "You had your warning."

"That's really not necessary." Frank tried to suggest but I dismissed him with a wave of my hand, as Roman took hold of them both and followed behind Jon.

A round of unexpected applause came from everyone who remained in the waiting room, some of them even thanking me with a hug for giving them some peace and quiet.

I sighed heavily, trying to get my second wind as I stalked toward the ringing phone and took one call after the other.

"Pen Bay Medical Center how can I direct your call?"

The lines stayed lit for over an hour and I barely had time to take a bathroom break and splash some cold water on my face, before rushing off to stitch up Mr. Dawson who was still waiting for me in exam room four, his minor head laceration coming from a fall he'd taken out on the ice earlier this morning. Dr. Niles had been the one to order a head CT and when it came back clear, he had left instructions with me for his follow up at home care after his sutures were finished.

I pulled the warn hair tie out of my ragged ponytail and piled the thick strands high on my head, as I tightly bound them all together and pushed open the exam room door.

"I'm so sorry for your wait."

"No need to be, dear. I've noticed it's a bit busy in here."

"Yes it is. How are you feeling after your fall? Any head pain, dizziness, or headache?"

"No, I feel just fine. Martha will surely be relieved to know that my fall did no real damage. Well, other than to the small blow up snowman she insists on having in the front yard this time of year. Little fella' didn't stand a chance when I landed on him."

"Well, I think all things considered, you were lucky. An inflatable snowman can always be replaced but you cannot." I replied, wheeling over to him as I moved the light closer to his face, and got a better look at the deep cut on his forehead.

"I do suppose you're right, dear. Could have been a lot worse for a man my age. Being almost eighty isn't for the faint of heart, you know?"

"You don't look a day over sixty to me. Tell me your secret?" I mused, gently wiping his wound to be sure it was clean before I began suturing.

"Oh, there's no real secret to obtaining ones fountain of youth. I guess I stay busy and have a routine that works for me all these years. Being married doesn't hurt either. My lovely wife Martha and I have been married for almost fifty-five years now. She is the light of my life. May sound sappy but it's true for this old boy."

I smiled warmly at him, keeping my hands steady as I injected him with the local anesthetic to ease his discomfort and continued on with the conversation to distract him better.

"That's a long time to be married. Congratulations to you and your wife. Not many couples stick with it for the long haul anymore."

"It's a shame really. We come from a time when people fixed what was broken if it needed to be mended. We didn't throw away love for convenience like most folks tend to do now. Such a foolishly fast paced world we live in."

"I couldn't agree more, Mr. Dawson." I sincerely replied.

"So, tell me, what's a young and pretty woman like yourself have for a secret to a good marriage these days? Surely, you have a family at home waiting for you on this Thanksgiving Eve?"

I met his aged blue eyes then and simply shook my head to him in return.

"The only thing I have waiting for me back at my cottage is a left over turkey sandwich in the fridge and a good book."

His expression turned to one of pity at this and I smiled with a soft chuckle.

"I don't believe it to be true. Beautiful and lovely lady like yourself all alone on Thanksgiving tomorrow? Don't you have family?"

"Yes, I do have family but they don't live here with me in Maine. My mother is in Jacksonville, Florida and my Father is happy as chief of police in Forks, Washington. He's been content living there for years."

"My wife and I have some family out in Washington ourselves. Both of your parents are so far from you. Do you visit?" He thoughtfully inquired.

I soon felt the familiar pang of regret that settled uncomfortably in my gut at the mere mention of my former home state. A place I had tried desperately to separate myself from years ago, breaking ties with anything that connected me to the supernatural and embracing the ordinary contentment of my own humanity as much as I possibly could since then.

"It's been a while since my last trip to see either of them. To be honest, working here takes up most of my time but it's a job I love." I replied.

"That's nice that you've found your career and that it's one you still enjoy. That's real important. Doing work that doesn't feel like work."

"I am blessed there."

Mr. Dawson sighed heavily then as I finished the last stitch and placed a small bandage over his wound so it could begin to heal. I could feel his gaze lingering on my face, as I wheeled back and pulled off the thick pair of latex gloves, before tossing them into the trash and reaching for his medical chart.

"Bella Swan is it?" He asked from across the room while I added some additional needed notes in his file for Dr. Niles to see later.

"Yes, that's my name." I replied, tugging lightly at the I.D. badge with my photo and name printed on display for patients such as himself to observe while in my care.

"That's a lovely name. Fits you well. I think it goes perfectly with your warm smile and pretty eyes. Reminds me of my granddaughters smile a little. You actually look a lot like her now that I think of it." He softly admitted.

"Really? Thank you for the compliment. How many grandchildren do you have?" I countered.

"Three and all of them now grown with lives of their own. Jobs and spouses and homes. They come here to the coast every holiday season to see us. It's nice really. You see, Martha and I were high school sweethearts and we married very young. So, not only do we have grown grandchildren by now, but this Thanksgiving we have our first great grandchild to spoil rotten. I think poor Martha has already wrapped about a dozen gifts for that baby girl. We've only seen pictures of her so far. Our grand daughter Lillian, she is the youngest of our grandkids and she lives far from us. Much like your family does. She and her husband are the ones who reside in Washington. Lillian had planned to attend a university here, but when she went to visit a friend of hers out that way three Summers ago, she met her husband there and the rest is history. She never looked back that one. Such a hopeless romantic like her mother and grandmother have always been. We're happy for her but it's hard for us to make the trip out that way, given our age and all. Traveling isn't easy like it once was. We can't wait to see them all. They were just setting out when Lillian phoned in late last night. They should be arriving not too long after breakfast. Martha always prepares a feast for them. She outdoes herself every year. It's truly how she shows her love."

I marveled at the way he spoke about his beloved family and for the first time in years, it made me miss a little bit of home myself.

"Congratulations on your new great grand baby. I hope you and your wife have a wonderful time tomorrow." I replied, handing him his coat and discharge papers.

"Thank you, Bella. I wish you much the same. I'm only sorry your dad and mom are not closer. Personally, I've been to Washington and I don't really care for it. I think I'll stick to my Maine coastal roots. Lived here all my life. No intentions on spending my remaining years anywhere else."

"Washington can be nice but it's certainly not for everyone. It has it's moments. Lots of rain if you like that sort of weather." I truthfully admitted.

He rose to his feet then and took his coat from me with a grateful smile, his gaze thoughtful as he checked his wrist watch for the time.

"Well now, would you look at that. Turkey day is now officially upon us. What do you know."

"You have yourself a great Thanksgiving, Mr. Dawson."

"You do the same, nurse Swan. It has been nice talking with you, although I hope I won't be seeing you again for a while. Don't think my old noggin' can take another fall like that. I'm not as resilient as I once was in my much younger days."

"You be careful out there. It is icy." I kindly cautioned him, noticing how he seemed to be lingering a bit longer than most usually did when they had been given the all clear for discharge. Normally, no one ever terried.

"Say Miss Swan, my warm and heartfelt wish for you this holiday season is to find the unexpected."

I smiled again and held open the exam room door for him with a soft chuckle.

"I don't know if I have much time for the unexpected, Mr. Dawson."

"Oh now dear, take it from a man of my advanced age and life lessons. In this world, all we will ever have time for is the unexpected. After all, just because it's unexpected doesn't mean it has to be bad, right?"

"I suppose not but in my own past encounters, all things unexpected eventually led to disaster." I timidly stated.

"I'm sorry to hear that but what good is this mundane life without a little unexpected to shake things up every once in a while?"

I simply nodded and watched him, as he headed out on his way to the nurses station with his discharge papers in hand. I placed his chart in the holder at the desk and reached for another when he turned my way a final time, his simple departing words making me still there where I stood.

"Nurse Swan, may the love your looking for in this life find you, wherever they are this holiday season and may it be as unexpected and as everlasting as my dear Martha and I have had for all these years."

He placed a gentle hand on my cheek then, the brief gesture caring, and briskly headed for the exit without so much as a backwards glance.

That's when we all heard it, the alarming call from the ambulance bay as Dr. Niles, and two other on call surgeons, rushed to assist the incoming trauma that was pulling up. We dropped everything and ran for the double doors, the instructions given to us clear and expected as they had been all the other times before.

"Alright everyone. All hands on deck here. Multiple blunt trauma protocol. Let's go!"

The EMT's jumped out of the rig, their movements urgent and fast while they desperately worked to keep the person laying bloody on the stretcher alive.

"Twenty- four year old automobile accident. Tachycardic and severely hypertensive on route with obvious head and neck trauma at the scene. Lost her pulse twice so far." Callie yelled to us.

She was one of the most fierce women I'd ever known here. Her dedication to the job showed in every shift she worked and in every trauma she assisted with bringing to Pen Bay. This job was her life.

I moved on robotic instinct then, grabbing the rails of the stretcher after hurriedly slipping my arms through the flimsy pale yellow plastic gown and pulling on a fresh set of gloves.

Thick crimson coated the patients clothes and hair as we rushed her inside, leaving a trail that steadily seeped out onto the hospital floor behind us.

"Get out of the way! Move! That blood is coming from her chest. She's one of three. Husband and six month old baby are still at the accident scene. Had to use the jaws of life to free them. Still not sure if they'll make it. Touch and go when we left." Tina added, as she frantically continued to yell for clearance to the nearby trauma room.

Tina was Callie's partner and just as equally fierce. They always performed as if they were born for this job and I admired their courage for it.

"Okay ready!? On my count! One... Two... Three! Let's get them Vitals!" Dr. Niles demanded, when we rounded the corner and entered the room. I knew the protocol and the standard procedure for an accident trauma like this and I knew them well. My hands reflexively reached for the cloth cutting scissors that lay on the tray to my left, and I quickly pulled the blood stained shirt and jeans away from her battered skin.

"We have a rhythm. Pupils are equal and reactive." I soon called to Dr. Niles. "Heartbeat is barely there."

"Went through the windshield. Wasn't wearing a seatbelt. Neither was her husband. This is the third accident we've been called to within the hour. This snowstorm came on fast. Caught a lot of drivers off guard. So many traveling for the holiday." Callie stated to us, her hands and uniform covered in blood as she and Tina backed away and gave us the room we needed to work.

"Lost the heartbeat again!" I called out, placing my hands over her chest and beginning compressions.

Utter chaos swiftly unfolded as the patients vitals continued to plummet faster than we could respond.

"We're losing her!" Dr. Niles half shouted to the surgeon across from him. "I need that blood."

Within minutes we heard the second set of sirens blaring when another ambulance sped into the bay.

"That has to be Jackson and Trevor with the father or the baby. Hopefully the rescue crews were able to free them both." Tina urgently stated to Callie, the two of them running from the room to assist in any way they could.

Dr. Niles continued to work over the patient, shocking her heart and swiftly moving me out of the way as he ordered another round of Epinephrine. After the third push of it, he demanded I stop. His words making my hands only work harder as I thought of how young she was. Too damn young for an ending like this.

"Stop compressions." He asserted.

"We can still-..." I hastily argued, not ready to give up on her yet.

"That blood won't make a difference. She's already lost too much. It's been eighteen minutes with no returning rhythm. She's gone. Our efforts are needed elsewhere. Come on."

I struggled to cease the compressions, looking down into her young face still splattered with blood. She was someone's wife. She was someone's mother.

"Dr. Niles-" I dared to speak. "She has a baby and a husband who-"

"I know and it's tragic but it's part of the job. We can't do anything more for her. She is beyond help but the others in the accident may not be. Let's go."

I reluctantly stopped CPR and ran behind him toward the bay where Tina and Callie were rushing to meet us with the baby, her tiny frame not responsive when they urgently handed her to Dr. Niles. He was quick to head for another exam room along with several NICU nurses who were already in place to help her.

"Bella!" Callie yelled, making me turn to see her blood covered gloves waving me forward. "I need you! Husband of the woman from the crash who is still in trauma one. He's in V-fib. They cut him out last. SUV was mangled pretty bad but they got to him. He needs blood and a central line! Pupils were equal and reactive while in route but he needs a CT. Could be suffering from a head lack due to impact. Needs to be ruled out first as soon as he's stable enough for it."

I gloved up again and headed for them with trepidation as I listened to her every urgent word. I pulled the stethoscope from around my neck and pushed my way through the cluster of chaos, seeing Tina while she hovered over the man with her hands firmly pressed to his side.

"He's loosing too much blood. We'll lose him if we can't control it and fast."

My eyes trailed down to the blood that was smeared across the hospital floor, the sight of it's vivid red color standing out against the stark white marble, and making me pause before shoving one of the tall male EMT's out of the way.

Everything around me stopped then, my whole body feeling numb in an instant as I gasped. My shaking hands were outstretched and I was frozen in a hell I couldn't describe when my wide eyes took in the sight before me, my mind filling with the scream that my mouth couldn't make.

No...

This wasn't real.

It couldn't be.

"Bella! What are you doing! We need to move! He is dying! Get over here!"

The sound of Callie's shouting ripped through me and her harsh nudge to my shoulder forced me to react. I blinked once.. twice... a third time. Nothing changed and the air felt stolen as I tightly gripped the rails of the stretcher and choked out the name.

"Jacob."

A/N: Thank you for reading and please review with your thoughts. I hope you all don't mind the Christmas theme with this one. I tried to get it up sooner! :-) Look for chapter two and three tomorrow! Till Then... HAPPY READING!