Edward

With fluids and calories going into him, Edward's energy and spirit was slowly returning. He and Jacob went for walks around the hospital and outside when the weather was nice. Edward wasn't allowed to do exercise, so Jacob pushed him in the wheelchair, and they talked. Something that surprised Jacob was that once Edward got going, he was actually a very outgoing person who wanted connection, which meant that facing the end of this hospital stay and Edward being forced back to Ohio with his family was all the more difficult. But it was a perfect week. By the end of it, Edward had gained weight, and there was a spark to him that hadn't been there before. But now, he had to go back home. Back to where all the troubles started. And to compound the issue, his parents still refused to see the bigger picture, insisting that Edward's problems were caused by self esteem, or something equally obtuse.

His last day in the hospital, Edward had to have the feeding tube removed. Dr. Evans guided him on how to do relax to make it easier on himself, but it was not a pleasant experience. He had a final weigh in, and his parents signed the discharge papers, and took the packet of paperwork that Dr. Evans handed them.

"Remember, your child has only just begun to recover. Ongoing care is going to be vital for full recovery," she said sternly. Then she handed Edward a card with her work and personal numbers on it. "If you ever need to talk, don't hesitate," she said. He nodded and tried to smile.

He hugged Jacob and Embry. When he got to Bella, he hugged her and whispered, "Thanks for this trip. I owe you."

"Never," she said with a smile. "I'll see you in a couple days." He nodded, and sat back down in the wheelchair. He almost managed to keep his expression neutral until they were out the door, but wheeling away from Jacob and Embry was the second hardest goodbye of his life.

The trip home was hours of Tony bragging about his latest sports achievements. He started a play by play of the winning game, and Edward zoned out almost immediately. They stopped for food about three hours into the trip, but Edward couldn't make himself eat.

"Why did you let me buy it if you weren't going to eat it?" His dad asked scathingly. Edward forced himself to take a couple bites, and pushed the rest of it away. Back in the cay, he put his earbuds in, and stretched out across the seat. He fell asleep to music drowning out Tony's incessant voice.

"Beth, wake up." The music was gone, replaced by his dad's voice.

"Huh?" Edward sat up. Instant headache. The cold shot through him, and he pulled his hands inside his sweatshirt.

"We're home." Really? Edward glanced at his phone, but it was dead, and probably had been for a while.

"What time is it?" He asked, blearily following his dad inside.

"Almost 4. Go on up to bed." Jeez, he'd slept almost twelve hours. He headed up the stairs and dropped his backpack by the door before flopping down on his bed. How was he still tired? Maybe he'd take a shower. He grabbed a towel and went to the bathroom. A flick of his thumb on the doorknob locked it, and then he started the water and flipped off the lights. He undressed and stepped in under the water in the dark, letting the heat soak into him. He leaned an arm against the tiled wall, and rested his forehead on it, and finally let himself cry. No one would hear over the sound of the water. He was so full of grief - how many more goodbyes would he be forced to say? He felt as though whatever was left of his heart was breaking into pieces, and the pain of it, physical pain of a breaking heart, nearly floored him. He sank down to a crouch, hugging himself as tightly as he could, and rocked back and forth, trying as hard as he could to keep himself together.

"I can't do it, he thought. "I can't keep my promise. There's nothing left. No one left to live for. I'm sorry, Brady. I'm so sorry." He'd allowed himself to hope. Over and over, with Eric. With Brady. Now with Jacob. And none of them were here. Not one of them was here. And thank god they weren't, because what would they see if they were? Finally, he was all cried out. Bone-tired, he could barely keep his eyes open. He wrapped his towel around him, and grabbed his clothes and glasses, and crossed the hallway to his room. Somehow, he found a pair of sweatpants and a shirt, and pulled them on before he flopped onto his bed, asleep before his head hit the pillow.

Jacob

After Edward left, Embry and Bella bent their heads together, talking about something that Jacob couldn't hear. Embry tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention, and at first, Jacob wasn't sure he understood what Embry was signing.

"You want me to what?"

"Go with Bella and Mike and Michael back to Ohio," Embry repeated.

"But we're a team. We need each other," Jacob said. Embry gave a sad sort of smile.

"Do you need us?" Embry asked. Before Jacob could respond, he shook his head. "We did need each other. But we grew up. We're safe. And we'll always be here when you come back. But right now, Edward needs you more." Jacob hesitated, but he knew that Embry was right.

They went back to Clearwater so he could pack, and Bella collected her stuff and Mike and Michael. He wasn't sure what to bring to Ohio, having never been there before, so he shoved the warmest things he owned into a bag, and decided that he'd make Edward go shopping with him first thing when he arrived. Thank god for the several hundred thousand dollar grants they'd each received from the government after their rescue, and the fact that Embry and Jacob's parents had left them an inheritance when they'd died, which meant that not only did neither Jacob nor Embry have to work, they were all already set for life. Which meant that no matter what Jacob chose to do with the rest of his life, finance was not something he had to worry about. He tossed his bag into the his car, and hugged the other three goodbye.

"I'll call you and keep you updated," he promised.

"You'd better," Sam said.

"Here," Embry signed, and handed Jacob a set of knives in their very own case. "Just for my peace of mind. Even if you don't use them, at least I know you have them." Jacob hugged his brother again.

"Thanks. I'll be back," he promised.

"I know. And I'm sure I'll find my way to Cincinnati one of these days. A road trip sounds like it might happen soon, anyway," Embry signed.

Jacob tossed the knife case in the passenger seat, and set off. Thirteen hours of driving lay ahead of him, and he settled into the trip. The further North he got, the colder it got. He made it through Atlanta before he had to stop and buy warmer clothes. As a person from Russia, you would think he was built for cold, but standing at a gas pump to fill his tank, he decided that he hated it. Give him sun and heat over cold and snow any day.

He was tempted to call Edward, but he really wasn't sure what he'd say. Everything he wanted to say, needed to be said in person. So, he checked in with Sam, Jared and Embry a few times, and bought a whole set of warm clothes - jeans, sweatshirts, a coat. And back on the road, between the sometimes spotty radio reception and the total lack of quality music near Bowling Green, Kentucky, he imagined the conversation with Edward, a hundred different ways. Mostly, every scenario started out with "Surprise." He thought back to that moment at the hospital, where Edward tried to have a brave face, but he couldn't quite hold it until he'd turned away, and his true feelings were painfully obvious for just a fraction of a second. It was heartbreak, that was the only way to describe the look on his face. That he had to say goodbye to yet another person who he'd gotten close to. How did his parents not see it? How could they just ignore the fact that their child was in so much pain. If not from Brady's loss, then at least from the party Tony threw. And, Jacob suspected, more parties like it. From experience, he knew that if a person was willing to do something like that once, they were certainly willing to do it again.

He was wired, so he decided to push through and drive the whole roughly fourteen hour drive all at once, and he crossed the bridge into Cincinnati at almost 6am, before most of the bustle of traffic or activity started for the day. He stopped for some gas, and immediately regretted getting out of his car. It was so cold, that even with three layers, his teeth were chattering within minutes. Once the tank was full, he gratefully warmed up, letting the hot air hit him for a long minute before starting to drive again. He had to pay closer attention now, as he approached Bella's house. Bella called ahead to her mom to tell her to expect him, and he noted the other houses on the street, including the one that had to be Edward's. A light was on in an upstairs window, but he didn't see any movement from it. Any normal person would be asleep, he assured himself. Surely Edward was sleeping, too.

He pulled into Bella's driveway, keeping to the side to allow Hannah's car to leave, and Bella's to pull in, whenever she and Mike returned. He knocked on the door, and Hannah opened it almost immediately, ushering him inside from the cold.

"Jacob," she said, with a warm hug. "So nice to meet you. Bella said they stopped overnight at a hotel, but that they should be back tomorrow. I bet you're exhausted, so I'll let you settle in, and we can talk later." She showed him to a room, and he gratefully sank onto the bed. He was exhausted, and sleep that so often eluded him, arrived quickly and easily.

His dreams, when he had them, were often nightmares, but today, he was blessed with easy, peaceful sleep. The hope and possibility of what might be in store for tomorrow colored everything, and he knew that as long as Edward was still here, there was still a chance. He'd never been one to give up, and there was no way, after everything, that he was giving up on Edward. And, he hoped, Edward wasn't giving up on him. Only time would tell. For now, the universe was allowing him to sleep. He sighed, and sank down into the bed. And then he remembered something, and pulled out his phone to text Sam.

"Made it."