So... this is embarrassing. I swear that I haven't forgotten about this story I've just been really busy lately! Anyways, this chapter is extra long to make up for it. Please don't hate me!

Chapter 12

I woke up slowly; it was like trying to emerge from a pool of mud. My hearing came back first, muted at first and then clearer. I heard a few people talking close to me, men? My memory started to come back… China, Ryan… Aiden! We had been cut off from each other! At this I heard his concerned thoughts cut through mine.

'Aiden?' I slurred, barely audible. The conversation that had been happening close to me stopped.

'He's here Bella, we got him back.' Definitely Ryan, I fought to pull my eyelids open, when I did I saw we were in the back of what looked like a military cargo plane, made to carry soldiers and vehicles.

'Bella, can you hear me?' A strange voice, I didn't know this man. I tried to sit up, laying down was making me anxious, as I started to sit up a felt a hand try to push me back down for a brief second before it was ripped away by Aiden, he was as anxious to be out of here as I was.

'Where are we?' I asked as I sat on the edge of the military cot that I had been laying on. It was as I got up that I realized how injured I was, my right thigh pounding in tune to my heart beat. My entire torso felt like it had been pulverized, I put a hand to my ribs and realized that they had been wrapped and stabilized. It took me a few minutes to realize why my vision was so poor, the left side of my face was so swollen I couldn't see out of my left eye at all, all in all I felt like crap.

'We're on our way to Langley to get you checked out at the CIA hospital.' Said the man I didn't recognize, he was keeping a safe distance after being pushed away by Aiden, I guessed he was a field doctor that had been posted in China.

'I'm not going back.' I said, deadly serious. 'You're bringing me to Forks.'

'Bella,' Ryan said, stepping forward 'you need to be checked out by a doctor, you can barely walk.'

'I don't need your fake concern Ryan, everything that happened to me there was your fault. I have a doctor in Forks that I trust, and I certainly don't trust whatever doctor they have for me at headquarters. You're turning the plane back and taking me home.' I could feel mine and Aidens anger burning together, radiating out of us at the four men in the plane.

'Don't be ridiculous' said the man I assumed was the doctor, 'We can't just get the pilot to change directions, we might not even make it-' he was cut off as the plane started to shudder.

'The plane turns back' my voice was deadly calm 'or I bring it low enough for me to jump out. You don't survive the second option.' The plane was really starting to lurch now as Aiden took control.

'Bella, stop!' Ryan ordered.

'I'll go talk to the pilot!' Vince said, scurrying off towards the cockpit.

For about 60 seconds we remained in a silent deadlock while I refused to relinquish control of the plane. Vince came running back in 'The plane is too big to land at any of the small airports close to Forks but he is bringing us to Seattle instead.' He was clearly afraid of my response to this.

I just nodded and the effect on the plane was immediate, the turbulence-like shaking ceased and the plane flew smoothly once again although I could feel it banking, heading to the other side of the country. After this I relaxed and started to shiver, suddenly feeling the cold that had soaked into me from the water.

I leaned back against the wall of the plane that my cot lay adjacent to and closed my one working eye. After a few moments I felt a light pressure on my arm and I looked up, Ryan was holding out a thermal blanket to me while the others looked on warily.

'Thanks.' I said as he draped it around me and sat next to me. I closed my eyes again as he sat, the shifting weight caused a jolt of pain through my body.

'I really am sorry. I never wanted this to happen; you don't deserve any of this crap.' Ryan said quietly to me.

'No. I don't. But you keep sucking me back in, I don't know if you remember but I never signed up for this. In fact, it was you who dragged me off to train at the CIA in the first place.' I said bitterly.

'I was just following orders…' he said quietly, trying to convince himself, I thought.

I stayed quiet for the rest of the plane ride, drifting in and out of consciousness. I woke up just before we landed and suddenly felt anxious. God I hoped Alice was watching. I hope they knew I was coming and that I needed help, otherwise I was going to have to try to get to a cab. God… how would I get to a cab? I had no idea, I didn't think I'd be able to walk and the last thing I wanted was the help from anyone on this plane.

The plane landed and pulled up to the part of the tarmac designed to handle planes of this size and I waited to disembark. As we sat there waiting for the gangway to be attached I joined with Aiden's consciousness and searched to see if anyone knew we were coming back. Sure enough- there was Edward and Carlisle with a wheelchair waiting in the pickup area.

'There's two men with a wheelchair in the luggage collection waiting for me, go get them and bring them to help me.' I said without opening my eyes.

Edward POV

My hands gripped the edge of the wheelchair so hard Carlisle had to warn me against crushing the handles. These last few days have been the hardest of my entire life, not knowing if she was ok- knowing that she would come home injured, but the best thing I could do for her was wait here to pick her up. Alice saw that if I were to take off after her I would become hopelessly lost, we knew she was taken to China but we had no idea where.

Seeing Bella hurt in Alice's visions was the worst torture that I could ever endure, I could never forgive myself for not being able to help her, to stop those monsters from torturing her. Carlisle put a steadying hand on my shoulder, sensing my stress. I was pulled out of my self-loathing when I heard the thoughts of a man approach.

I recognized his scent immediately as the one from Bella's room and I recognized his face as the one from Alice's visions. My vision went red with rage.

'Son, stop, think. Hurting him will do nothing but expose us. We need to get Bella out of here, we have to help Bella.' Carlisle pleaded with me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, after a second I nodded and we walked up to meet this man.

'Are you here for Bella Swan?' the man asked us.

'Yes, please take us to her.' Carlisle said, not trusting me to speak. The man looked at Carlisle for a second before saying 'Are you the doctor?'

'I am.' Carlisle responded and after another second he nodded and turned, leading us to the plane that held Bella.

We stepped off of the gangway and into a large plane that no 17 year old had any right being in. I walked right over to her sitting on a cot, pushing the chair with me- I knew she was going to be injured but I wasn't expecting the full extent of her injuries. The left side of her face was incredibly swollen and black; her beautiful eye was completely swollen over. The rest of her body was obscured by a large thermal blanket as she sat on the edge of the cot, clearly in a lot of pain.

I went straight to her as Carlisle walked over to the doctor. 'Bella, love.' I murmured, and her right eye shot open. 'Thank god…' I heard her whisper as she leaned into me and I wrapped my arms around her as gently as I could- she still winced.

'I'm sorry' I said, pained, 'so sorry I couldn't help you, I'm so sorry you're in pain now.'

'Please just get me out of here.' She said quietly, voice clouded with pain.

Bella POV

He was here; he really came to get me. I thought I was being delusional, I never imagined he'd actually come, yet here he was.

'Don't worry Bella, I'm getting you out of here.' I felt him scoop me up off of the cot and lower me into a wheelchair. He was so unbelievably delicate, so gentle but still the movement made me cry out in pain although I tried to stifle it for his sake. He set me down and held my hand as the pain passed. He picked up the blanket that had fallen to the floor and wrapped it securely around me, inexplicably I was still freezing.

I was aware then that Carlisle walked over to me and crouched in front of me.

'Bella' his eyes looked pained 'I know that you're in a lot of pain, but we're getting you out of here, we're going to take care of you. Ok?'

I nodded 'thank you…' I said quietly, as loud as I could muster, I was so exhausted.

They pushed me swiftly through the airport as we got many curious stares, the young girl in the winter military gear wrapped in a thermal blanket with half of her face pulverized was something to look at I guessed. Carlisle's black Mercedes was parked directly in the front of the airport, thankfully. Edward helped me up as I tried to do as much as I could and with Carlisle lifting my injured leg the three of us managed to get me sitting in the front seat with my leg propped out in front of me and my seat reclined to take the pressure off of my ribs.

Laying back in the warm car with Edward behind me murmuring comforting words I felt at ease for the first time since this ordeal started and I started to drift. We arrived at the hospital in an impossibly short period of time

I was barely conscious as they got me onto a gurney and whisked me away into the hospital where they first brought me to get x-rays. It wasn't great news.

My cheekbone had been fractured but it was in a good position to heal itself, my ribs on the other hand where in as bad of shape as they felt almost every rib was broken and three of them had been shattered, they needed to do surgery to reattach all of the splinters and to stop them from puncturing any vital organs.

I woke up who knows how long after the surgery, groggy, confused and in pain. It felt like my chest had been ripped open; an involuntary groan left my lips.

'Bella, love? Can you hear me?' I heard a sweet voice murmur. 'Bella, sweetheart, open your eyes.' Edward? I think. He sounds upset…

It took all of my energy to crack my right eyelid open, my left one didn't even budge, and what I saw was Edward sitting next to me staring down at me.

'Oh thank God…' His voice was full of relief; he leaned over and kissed me ever so gently on the forehead. 'Can you hear me Bella?'

'Mmm…' it was all I could manage; it felt like my head was full of cotton and my mouth was dry as a desert.

'Here.' Edward brought a straw to my lips, almost reading my mind, and I drank greedily before Edward pulled the straw away. 'Sorry Bella, you can't have too much, don't want to make you sick.'

'S'ok.' I whispered, so weak- too weak, what's wrong with me? 'Wha' happen'?' I whispered, close enough to what I wanted to say.

'You've been asleep for four days love, there was a complication with your head injury. We couldn't wake you up after the surgery on your ribs so they did an MRI and found a bleed on your brain. They did emergency surgery to relieve the pressure that it was causing; they removed a portion of your skull so that your brain has room to expand.' He looked and sounded so broken.

'S'ry…' I slurred, closing my eye again, the headache becoming too much.

'Are you in pain?' He asked me, I couldn't bring myself to answer, but I had a great idea. Aiden; I thought tell him yes for me.

'Ok, I'll get the nurse.' He said, lightly squeezing my arm. He came back with the nurse a few minutes later and I felt the effects of the morphine almost immediately, I tried to fight the effects.

'Sleep sweetheart, you need your rest, I'll be here, don't worry.' I let myself relax and drift off. The next few days I drifted in and out of consciousness, most of the time I was confused and in pain, but Edward was always there to remind me of what happened and to help ease my pain. On the fourth day since I had woken up they put the part of my skull back that they removed back once they surmised that the swelling had gone down enough.

On the 6th day I woke up feeling much more alert than I had in a long time, I was much less confused and more awake.

'Hey.' I said to Edward, smiling, noticing that my vision seemed weird but I couldn't figure out why.

'Hello.' He smiled at me 'Nice to see both of your eyes open.' Ah that's what it was, I closed my right eye and looked out of my left.

'It's really blurry.' I said

'Hmm.' His brow was furrowed 'I guess that's to be expected, I'll message Carlisle, get him to come and look at it.'

'Ok.' I sighed leaning back 'Are you ok?' I asked quietly.

He sighed pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. 'The last few weeks have been the worst of my life, to have you taken from me in the middle of the night… I've never felt so helpless. I'll never be able to forgive myself for not being able to come find you.' He finished, head in his hands.

'Edward,' I said emphasizing every word 'nothing that happened is your fault. You hear me? There's no way that you could have come and saved me, no way that you could have found me. I'm not even sure where we were, we had walked for so long through the same terrain- there's no way Alice would have been able to pinpoint where we were exactly.'

'She should have seen you being taken from your house.' I was shaking my head before he finished the sentence.

'I had no idea that he was going to come to get me; it wasn't a choice I was considering making. The only way she could have seen it is if she had been watching Ryan, a guy she had never met, nor did she know he even existed. That doesn't make sense Edward.' I looked at him sadly, his head sat in his hands.

'You're right.' He said after a moment, looking up. 'I can't blame Alice.'

'You can't blame yourself either.' I said trying to sit up, the pain in my ribs exploded and I gasped, laying back down. 'Bad idea.' I said breathlessly, leaning back closing my eyes.

'Bella!' I heard him from right above me.

'I'm ok.' I said through clenched teeth, trying to control my breathing.

'Do you need me to get your nurse?' worry was evident in his voice.

'No, no. I just need a minute.' I felt him rubbing soothing circles on my arm with his cool thumb; the pain slowly faded until I was able to take more than a shallow breath.

'Better?' He asked voice strained.

'I'm good.' I sighed 'So, what did I miss? Any big drama at school? What's the story about where I am?'

'I'm actually not sure.' He shrugged, I've barely been there, just enough so everyone didn't think that we had run off together.' He laughed.

'Have you had any ideas about what to say when people ask where I've been?' I asked hopefully.

'Car accident out of state? Naturally no one worked up the courage to ask me where you were so we'll have to make up a new story. Although, its not totally unbelievable.' He joked darkly, as he finished talking Carlisle walked in and gave me a huge fatherly smile.

'Bella, it's so good to finally see you with us.' He walked over and kissed me on top of my head.

'Thanks to you.' I said 'Thank you so much for coming with Edward to get me, I'll never be able to repay you.'

'Nonsense. Although you would repay us a thousand times over if you were to stay safe, we need to keep you away from the CIA but we'll talk about that another time. First of all, I need to look at that eye.' He turned off the light and walked over to me turning on the light on his retinoscope and directing it into my eye, I flinched away and gasped at the sudden jolt of pain.

'Sorry, sorry, I promise I'll be quick.' He said as Edward grabbed my hand, Carlisle directed the light back in my left eye, this time I managed not to pull away as the spike of pain shot through my head. Carlisle looked for a few seconds before he shut the light off.

'Well,' Carlisle started 'it looks like you have traumatic iritis, the iris of your left eye was damaged by the blows to it, I can give you some eye drops to help clear up the pain and inflammation.' He crossed the room turning on the light (I flinched again) passed me a paddle to place over my right eye and stepped away from me holding up a standard eye chart 'Alright Bella, what can you see?'

Closing my right eye, looking just with my left I really couldn't see much. I could see colours and shapes but no sharp detail. 'I can see the shape of the chart you're holding up, and I can see you. I can't see any letters on it or any features of your face, everything is out of focus and blurry.'

'Unfortunately I can't guarantee that it will come back 100%, we'll do everything that we can but you might never have full vision again.' He said sadly, Edward's hand squeezed mine, a little too hard- I squeezed back.

'It's alright Edward, it's really not that bad.' I tried to assure him, it really wasn't, it was more so annoying than anything else. He gave me a strained smile.

'So Bella, when you came in your leg was incredibly infected, we've managed to kill the infection but I don't want you putting any weight on it for a few weeks until it heals properly. But I also don't want you using crutches for about a week until we're sure that your ribs are healing correctly.' I groaned in annoyance. 'I know' Carlisle said 'you're welcome to stay with us until you are literally back on your feet.'

'I can't ask that of you, I've already inconvenienced your family so much already.' I felt so bad about imposing myself on them.

'You know that isn't true Bella. If you want I can help you at your house instead, and if I can't be there Alice can.' Edward offered.

'Are you sure? I really don't want to be a burden.'

Edward just rolled his eyes.