Chapter 6
Thanks to juvinity, Lionnara and Soubei for the reviews on the last chapter. I know that the regular Twilight plot is super overdone- I hate writing it too. I will be moving off from the generic Twilight plot soon- promise!
The next morning the light coming in through my window was dull and grey, looking out I saw that there was a couple inches of fluffy white snow covering the ground. I could see that nothing had been plowed yet. The drive to school will be fun, I thought to myself. I got to school a little later than usual; most of the students were already there. As I pulled in to the parking lot I saw Eric and Mike throwing snow balls at each other as the other students tried to quickly get out of their firing zone. As I got out of the truck I of course slipped grabbing the door to stop myself from falling.
I looked up as Mike yelled 'Bella, catch!' and threw a snowball at me. Aiden let it get close enough so that from Mikes vantage point it looked like it burst on my stomach but it had actually hit an invisible shield a few inches in front of me. Aiden was caught in his thoughts thinking of how to get back at Mike as I looked to my left and saw Edward looking at me with a furrowed brow; of course he would have noticed that it hadn't hit me. Right as I thought that, I heard a screeching of tires trying to gain purchase on wet pavement. I barely had time to look up before a minivan barrelled sideways into me, I had no time to react and Aiden was distracted- no way was he stopping it in time.
I had just felt the jolting pain of the van colliding with my elbow when I felt the pressure of the van on my arm disappear and I had the sudden sensation of falling as something pushed me to the ground. No not something, someone. In the chaos I realized that Edward had appeared next to me, and I watched as he pulled me backwards out of the way of the oncoming van, stopped me from becoming sandwiched between the two cars. He had moved me like I weighed nothing, and how did he get here so fast? I swear I had last seen him across the parking lot from me.
He had pulled me back so quickly that I landed flat on my back on the grass bordering the parking lot knocking the wind out of me. I lay there for a minute in the silence following the impact of the two vehicles, only the sound of me trying to suck air into my desperate lungs breaking the silence.
'Bella! Can you hear me?' Edward looked down at me, concern flooding his eyes.
I just nodded still having trouble pulling a breath in. He pulled me up into sitting and rubbed my back until I was finally able to catch my breath. It was at this point that I could finally hear the noise of panicked voices, calling to me, calling to Tyler who I assumed was the one driving the minivan. I also noticed the pure fury emanating coming from Aiden as I could feel him approaching the minivan.
'Aiden NO!' I yelled at him, not caring that Edward was sitting right next to me. I knew what Aiden was planning on doing to the poor boy in the van. He didn't do it on purpose, plus I'm sure he's hurt. Just leave him be, I'm ok. I thought to him. He halted in his approach to Tyler and after a second turned around and came back towards me. As he looked at me concern immediately covered his thoughts as he sent me his vision of my elbow which was bleeding pretty heavily and didn't look quite right. It wasn't until he showed it to me that I finally felt the pain. I looked at Edward and saw that he had been watching this silent exchange, he didn't say anything about that or my outburst but he did look incredibly uncomfortable, and then I realized- the blood.
'Sorry…' I said to him.
He looked amused 'Why would you be sorry?'
'The blood…' I saw a shocked expression quickly flash over his face before he composed himself. It was at this that the concerned students and teachers finally made their way over to us. Before anyone could see my mangled elbow Edward swiftly removed his sweater and held it to the wound. I gasped in pain at the sudden pressure and felt a little light headed. 'I'm sorry, are you alright?' Edward asked concern in his voice again. 'Yeah, I'm good.' I said, sitting up straighter and steadying myself with my left hand against the cold ground.
I looked up as Tyler was getting out of the passenger side of his van; his door was firmly embedded into the passenger side door of my truck. He had a few cuts on his face from the glass shattering I guessed but he looked otherwise unharmed. 'My truck…' I said sadly. Edward chuckled 'That's what you're upset about? You were nearly crushed and I'm pretty sure your elbow is broken.'
'Thanks, by the way. You saved my life.' I said, suddenly remembering.
'Right place at the right time, not fast enough though.' He said as he frowned at my arm.
'Right… right place.' I said dubiously, knowing that he was about 100 feet from me when the van had collided with me. 'I'm fine, are you ok?' I asked, worried still about the blood.
'I'm fine, the van didn't touch me.'
'I'm not referring to the van…' I said as I looked pointedly as the blood staining through the ruined sweater he held to my arm. He frowned at this but said nothing.
I was started to feel a little nauseous and shocky from the blood loss and the freezing cold ground I was sitting on. I put my head in my left hand and leaned against my crossed leg. As I closed my eyes I heard Edward ask someone 'How long until the ambulance gets here?'
I heard the voice of an older man right next to my ear say 'They're five minutes out.' I had not expected this and I jumped where I was sitting, jarring my elbow. I groaned as I realized it was Mr. Berty who had crouched next to me. 'Sorry.' he said sheepishly.
'Are you alright?' I heard Edward murmur as I closed my eyes and rested my head in my hand once again.
I just nodded, not trusting that if I opened my mouth I wouldn't vomit.
By the time the ambulance arrived I was shivering violently even with the jacket that Edward had thrown over my shoulders. Between his sweater on my arm and his jacket around me I was amazed that he wasn't freezing. Add that to the list I guess.
I was loaded onto a stretcher and had a blanket thrown over me as they tried to warm me up. I felt my eyes close as one of the paramedics shook me slightly 'Don't fall asleep on us until we get you seen by a doctor.' I opened my eyes and saw that Edward had come with me in the ambulance. He had the same pained look on his face, but he was also looking at me very concernedly.
'I'm alright.' I assured him. 'You didn't have to come.'
He gave me a small smile 'Yes I did.'
I laid back, stupid masochist vampire I thought to myself wryly.
We got to the hospital and they wheeled me off to an exam room leaving Edward behind, his arms stained with my blood looking sadly after me.
A nurse came in shortly after the paramedics brought me in; she was told about my blood loss and immediately started me on an IV drip. For my whole life I have always hated needles, and the feeling of having this large one in the back of my left hand was torture. The doctor came in shortly after this, this man was like no doctor I had ever encountered. He was impossibly young for a doctor and insanely attractive with blond hair, pale skin and gold eyes. I knew exactly who this was at once, Carlisle Cullen.
'Dr. Cullen.' I said in greeting smiling at him.
'Hello Bella,' he said back to me 'looks like you had quite the accident today.'
'Is Edward ok?' I asked. He looked at me quizzically.
'As far as I'm aware, why do you ask?'
'He was with me the whole time. He got a lot of my blood on him.' He looked at me hard for a long minute then smiled tightly and said 'He's getting cleaned up as we speak.'
'We need to send you down to x-ray before we can do anything about your arm. The bleeding seems to have slowed as well.' he said as he pulled down the layers of padding on my arm to peek at it.
After the x-ray Dr. Cullen came back in, much quicker than I was expecting. He walked across the room and placed the x-ray image in the back light and it showed a picture of the bones in my elbow.
'When the van hit your arm it managed to simultaneously fracture and dislocate your elbow. The fracture is unfortunately on a growth plate in your arm, so hopefully you're done growing, otherwise you may end up with one arm longer than the other.' he said as he smiled at me.
'Now for the fun part.' He said as he approached me with a grim smile on his face.
I sighed 'you have to pop it back in.' He nodded as he came up to my left side.
'I'm not going to lie, this is really going to hurt for a second, but it will feel immediately better. It will relieve that pain you're hiding.' He added with another smile.
He grasped my forearm and said 'Ready?' I just nodded.
'Ok, on the count of three.' He said 'One, two-' pop! I wasn't sure if he pushed on my arm or pulled on it but I felt the joint slide back into place as a quiet groan escaped my lips.
'Sorry… If I make it to three the patients always tense up.' I just nodded. 'You were very brave, most grown men scream when you reset a joint.' I chuckled at this.
'Ok, Violet, your nurse is going to come back in and stitch up your arm and fit you with a sling. The fracture is pretty well lined up so as long as you don't move it, it should be ok to heal on its own. I want you to come back in in a week though so we can take more pictures of your elbow to see how the bones are healing.'
'Thanks Dr. Cullen,' I said, relieved that I wouldn't need a cast 'I appreciate your help.'
'Call me Carlisle.' He said smiling at me. 'You aren't going to like me for long. From what I hear and from your blood counts, you lost a lot of blood today. I'm keeping you here overnight to get some more fluids in you.' At this I groaned. 'Sorry,' he smiled apologetically 'is there anyone I can call for you?' he asked, giving me the same concerned look that I had got from Edward earlier today.
'No I'm ok, thank you though. Oh and I do have insurance-' I added, thinking he was concerned that since I didn't have parents to take care of me I wouldn't be able to afford to stay here 'my insurance card is in my wallet.'
'That's not what I'm concerned about Bella. There's no one that I can call, no one who should know that you're hurt?' The same concerned look, these Cullens. I just shook my head and smiled at him, 'I'm good.'
The nurse came in after and cleaned up my arm, helping me change out of my bloody clothes and into hospital clothes. After stitching me up and taking all of my insurance information they brought me into a coveted private hospital room, the CIA's insurance coverage is very good and I was thankful. I was finally starting to warm up and feel better as the IV worked its magic and I started to drift off. I was on the edge of sleep when I heard the door quietly open and I opened my eyes to see Edward walk in and close the door behind him. Aiden had been uncharacteristically silent up until this point, mad at himself as far as I could tell for not stopping the van, but as Edward came in, he went silent.
'How are you feeling?' He asked as he pulled up a chair next to my bed and sat in it. I noticed he had changed his clothes.
'Sorry about your sweater…' I said embarrassedly.
He waved his hand dismissively.
'You look better; you aren't white as a sheet anymore'
I nodded 'I feel better.'
'So what's the verdict?' he asked nodding towards my elbow. As if he hadn't talked to Carlisle.
'Fractured and it was dislocated, hopefully just a few weeks in a sling. Any idea how my truck fared?' I asked, nervous to hear the answer.
Edward laughed- a magical sound 'Better than Tylers van, but even so, it will be in the shop for a few weeks at least.'
'Great.' I groaned leaning back into my sheets. We sat in silence for a few minutes before I looked over at him. 'It's really nice of you to come check on me, but you didn't have to, you know.'
'I know' he smiled, but after a few seconds the smile dropped. 'We need to talk.'
Let me know what you think!