Important authors note. I've been having a lot of issues with fanfiction recently. I have not received a single email since November of 2021 for starters. This story also keeps disappearing and then reappearing an hour or so later. Once I could see the story on my author page but when I clicked on it it told me the story was unavailable to read. Has anyone else been having this problem? I'm also having an issue with my traffic stats. It's claiming my story was last viewed on the 13th and that my second chapter hasn't been viewed at all. It's basically telling me that my story has more reviews than views. From what I'm hearing from other people, these problems are not unique to me. I tried reaching out to fanfiction over a week ago but nobody has reached back out to me. I am afraid that this website has been abandoned. The only updates I've noticed in the last couple of years are the ads everywhere and the lack of ability to do anything on the mobile app.

I am genuinely afraid that one day soon I'm going to realize that all of my stories are deleted along with the website. That's why I've decided that after I'm done with this story, I'm going to start backing up all of my stories onto Archive of Our Own. I made an account years ago with the same username theclaysquid but never uploaded anything. I want to make sure that my stories will still have a place after this website is gone. So if fanfiction ever disappears you can come find me there.

I also want take a minute to thank everybody who favorited followed and reviewed. The response to the story has been great and every time I get lovely reviews it makes me so much more excited to write. Thank you all!

oOo

"It's okay, Dad." I said hoping it was loud enough for him to hear me.

He shifted then as if remembering I was there and forced himself up into standing, this required the help of a tree to pull himself up. He limped over to me, tears shining in his eyes.

"Bells…" he said choking up looking at my mangled legs and pierced abdomen.

"It's okay." I said again in my most reassuring tone taking his left hand in my right.

He took my hand in both of his touching his forehead to the top of the door frame and stood like that in silence for what felt like a few minutes. He eventually took his hands from mine, I looked up at him and he was backing away from me shaking his head. "No." he said quietly then more forcefully "NO. That's not happening, I won't allow it. I'm getting you out of here Bella."

"Dad…" I said quietly, sadly. But when he picked up the crowbar and looked at the part of the car that was pinning my legs I became alarmed. "DAD." I said holding up my right arm towards him. "You can't help me, Dad."

"Yes I can, I'm going to get you out of this." He said determinedly.

I kept my hand up where it was, panicked at the thought of the pain he was about to cause me. "Think Dad, you come across an accident scene, someone is in the same position I am. Not your daughter but a stranger. You don't know them, have no ties to them. What do you do?"

"Wait for the ambulance." He said immediately.

"Ambulance is here, what do they say?" I ask.

"Jaws of life." He said but he isn't so sure now.

"You know that wouldn't work Dad." I said sadly, sympathetically. "What will happen if you pull my legs out of here?" I asked quietly.

He held both hands to his head trying to think. "An ambulance!" He exclaimed and started hobbling his way around the front of the car, over the tree and to his open door eventually. He struggled to get himself back into his seat, crying out when he pulled his right leg in and turned straight.

"Be careful." I said quietly and coughed at a trickle in my throat. I felt some warm liquid come up when I coughed but I swallowed it back down.

He turned his keys in the ignition and… nothing happened. He tried again and again but there was nothing, no light, no sound.

"Goddamnit!" he yelled hitting the steering wheel and jarring the car slightly, he then groaned and said more quietly "Goddamnit…" clutching his head.

"Relax." I told him gritting my teeth against the pain in my body that banging on the steering wheel had flared up. "You're going to make your head worse."

"I can't relax, Bella! You're impaled and pinned in this fucking car, it won't start so I can't get the radio working and I can't think!" He yelled grabbing his head again.

"I know." I said gently and reached over to put my hand on his arm. "This situation is horrible, but it's not as bad as it could be. You could be as hurt as me or dead. But you aren't." I started coughing then, the little tickle in my throat worsening.

Coughs wracked me and warm liquid seeped up my throat and splashed out onto my right hand as I coughed. I let my hand drop down and groaned at the awful pain coughing had produced. I was completely out of breath from both the pain and the added pressure on my lungs.

"Bella." Charlie said with a guarded voice. "Let me see your right hand." I held up my shaky right hand without looking up, just concentrating on pulling in as deep of breaths as I could. I looked up, my right hand was splattered with blood, now that I knew about its presence I was able to figure out that the taste in my mouth was blood.

"It's okay." I whispered for what felt like the 50th time today.

"It's NOT okay, Bella! This is the farthest thing from okay!" I knew this but there was nothing I could do about it besides comfort him. I knew I wasn't okay nor was I going to be but I wasn't going to torture him by saying things like that. I'd rather he remembered me being at peace rather than distressed.

"I have a tree likely through my intestines, Dad. This was inevitable. This has to be so hard to watch and I'm sorry." I told him, it was taking me longer to get sentences out than it had been, I had to take breaths in the middle of them now.

"But if it's through your intestines…" Charlie said, thinking. His addled brain clearly hadn't realized that the tree had to be piercing things internally.

"Yeah." I said quietly.

"Is it… are you?" He said not sure what to ask.

"It's starting to make me sick." I told him truthfully.

"What are you feeling?" he asked.

"Wrong, shaky. Like I have a bad infection." I told him.

"Are you in pain?" he asked me and I couldn't help but smile.

"I'm okay." I told him, thankfully he nodded accepting this answer, knowing that I wasn't truthful.

A thought struck me then. "My cellphone, it must have been on me. In my lap or in my pocket? It might be okay." I said turning to Charlie and seeing him brighten.

"I forgot you had that!" He exclaimed and started searching the car. I hoped against hope that it wasn't in the wheel well at my feet, I couldn't stand the thought of Charlie having to search for it amidst my mangled legs. He searched his side of the car, between the seats, the centre console and the whole of the back seat and didn't find it.

"I don't see it anywhere." He told me "Are you sure you had it?" He asked and I nodded.

"It might be at my feet, Dad." I said quietly.

He stared at me silently for a minute with pain on his face. "It's the most likely place." I said "It probably slid off of my lap as we crashed. You need to check, Dad." I told him seeing how reluctant he was to look for it where he knew it would hurt me.

He closed his eyes for a moment then nodded once and without a word started making his way around the car and over to me. I took a couple of deep breaths trying to steel myself against the pain that I was expecting to hit me when Charlie looked for the phone. He appeared next to me after a minute looking grim. "If I hurt you, tell me and I will stop." He told me seriously.

"It's going to hurt." I told him quietly. "But it still needs to be done. If there's a chance it's there you have to look for it."

"I'll be as gentle as I can." He said quietly.

He started off barely touching me, reaching the few places he was able to reach without jostling me but he soon realized it was likely somewhere under my feet which were jammed into the wheel well. "I'm sorry, Bella." He told me and began trying to look around my legs as gently as he could. In a knee jerk reaction to the pain I grabbed onto his leather jacket at the shoulder and white knuckled it through the torturous process of trying to find the phone. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He would tell me at the sound of my whimpers. Finally he said "I think I found it…"

"Get it." I rasped, unable to hide the tears in my voice.

"It's under your left foot, Bella." He said quietly looking up at me.

"Fuck." I whispered as a few tears fell from my face. "Fuck. Okay. You have to do it. Get it out, Dad." I told him with a bit more volume in my voice.

"Are you sure?" He said hesitantly looking torn.

"Yes. Do it." I said and closed my eyes taking another couple of deep breaths and gripping harder onto his jacket. He reached his arm under my legs and as gently as he could tried to ease the phone out from under my foot. My breaths were coming out in short gasps as I tried my hardest to keep from calling out in pain. Charlie finally had to give the phone a small tug to get it out from under my foot. The change in position as my leg fell an inch down sent an unbelievable jolt of pain through my body. It was as if I was hit with lightning and I couldn't hold back the single short scream as my vision faded briefly. Of course unconsciousness didn't fully come though because that would have been a relief from the pain. Instead I broke out in a cold sweat from the sudden and horrible increase in pain.

"Im sorry. I'm so sorry." He told me after he stood up and wrapped his arms around me and pressed his lips to the top of my head. "Bella I'm so sorry."

I couldn't help the sob that broke out of my chest but I made sure it was the only one. I had to get my shit together. Showing him how much pain I was in didn't help me and put him in worse pain than I was feeling. He continued to whisper how sorry he was while he held me tightly as I regained my composure.

"I'm okay." I told him after a while. "I'm better now, I'm sorry."

"Don't you dare apologize." He whispered into my temple, kissing it after. He pulled back and grasped my head between his hands. "It's better?" He asked me and I nodded truthfully. He kissed me one more time on the forehead and then pulled back gently letting my head go. The angle and gravity were becoming too much and I couldn't hold it up to the angle he had held it at and it drooped towards my chest. "I'm going to check the phone." He told me and I nodded, resting my head down still not 100% recovered.

There was silence for a good 30 seconds before he said "C'mon…" quietly and what little hope I had had faded. "Mother fucker." He whispered. "Not after that… not after I…" he was whispering quietly now, assuming I couldn't hear I guessed. Then his strangled voice said "Fuck." And he was silent for a minute.

"It was destroyed?" I asked him quietly looking up to see his forehead rested on the door frame with his eyes closed little silver cellphone gripped in his hand. He was quiet for another second before sighing and opening his eyes.

"Yeah. It's smashed. I hoped it might still turn on but it's done for." He said sounding bitter and angry like I had never heard him. "I need a minute." He told me and I whispered an "Okay." As he walked away from the car. I could hear him talking to himself but I couldn't hear what he was saying. That is until he yelled "Mother fucker!" Loudly and it sounded like he threw something into the forest, my cell phone I imagined. It was a few minutes later that he made his way slowly back over to me.

"I'm sorry." He told me. "I'm sorry that you had to go through that pain for nothing."

"We had to know." I told him. "It was worth the chance." He stood silently next to me for a while. Reflecting on our situation and trying to think of a way out for both of us, I imagined. I was doing the same except I had accepted the fact that I wasn't making it out. I had another thought then.

"It's the battery that you need to get working, right?" I asked him changing the subject back to the car radio.

He looked up, surprised. "Um." He rubbed his head. "Yes. To get my radio working I just need the battery."

"Think you can fix it?" I asked him.

"Only one way to find out." He said and started immediately making his way to the drivers side of the car. I could tell he was glad to have another job.

He popped the hood once he got to his side of the car, and aside from a soft clicking sound you never would have known he did it as the hood didn't move at all. The front of the car was so smashed in, I worried he wouldn't be able to get to the engine at all. He came and got the crowbar from my side of the car and got to work trying to pry the hood of the car open. After 15 minutes or so he came to check on me.

"This hood is really jammed closed. It's going to take me a while to get it open. I just realized that it's been nearly 24 hours since either of us have ate or drank anything. I'm going to search the trunk and see what's in there. I usually keep some water at least." He said and I nodded.

After a few minutes of him rummaging in the trunk he pulled out two full water bottles, one half full bottle and three granola bars. "It's not much but it's something." He said and brought the half empty water bottle around to my side of the car. "Here." He said as he took the cap off of the bottle and went to hand it to me. I tried to take it but I was weak and shaky and it was obvious I wasn't going to be able to hold it and drink from it myself.

"Okay.' He said quietly as he brought the water bottle up to my face for me to drink while also lifting my head up for me as I only had the strength to lift it a little bit. Water, I would drink as I was sure if Charlie was here for long enough that he needed more that he would be able to find a water source. His food though, I wouldn't touch. It would be completely wasted on me. I needed him to survive, he needed all of the food.

He opened a granola bar and broke a small piece off and brought it to me but I shook my head letting it drop.

"Bells you've got to eat something." Charlie pleaded, lifting my head again.

"That won't help me." I said looking up at him. "You need the food, dad."

"Bells…" he said in his most pleading tone.

I gestured toward the tree protruding from my stomach. "Where's it going to go, dad?" I asked quietly. He looked at me for a minute with his eyes brimming with tears. "I can't use it, you need it."

"Do you feel hungry?" He asked me sounding close to tears. "It's worth it if it soothes hunger pains." He was trying to take care of me in the one way he could, but I couldn't have it risk his chance of survival.

I shook my head "No, I don't." I told him truthfully.

He looked at me again for a minute before leaning in to me, wrapping his left arm around the back of my shoulders and his right hand to the side of my face. He kissed the top of my head and then rested his left cheek on the top of my head. "I love you kid. So much." He was careful not to move me at all.

"Love you too, Dad." I said tearing up again from the sadness of this situation. I didn't want to die, and I didn't want him to have to watch it happen.

"Keep trying for the battery, Dad." I said after a few moments. "And eat some of the granola bar."

"Right." He kissed the top of my head again. "Right." He pulled away from me gently and wiped his eyes. "Thanks for keeping me on track, kid."

"That's what I'm here for." I told him breathily. "If you need a break please take one. You're all we have."

"I'm okay, promise." He said and limped back to the tree, slowly and painfully climbed over it then went back to the hood of the car.

"Eat. Drink." I said as loud as I could. He still hadn't.

"Yes ma'am." He said taking a swig from the bottle and a bite of the granola bar. I was reminded of Jasper with the 'Yes ma'am' and it forced me to think of the Cullen's. The Cullen's who had Alice's visions to see exactly what had happened to me but no way to help. Edward who could see everything Alice saw. Edward being forced to watch his fiancé die a slow and painful death. I couldn't even imagine our roles being reversed.

I felt a sudden thrill of fear. Edward. He wouldn't be able to live with this. He would go to the Volturi. He would want to die.

Charlie was making lots of noise banging away at the hood of the car and I took this chance to talk aloud to Alice and by extension Edward.

"Alice. Edward. I think we were on route 8 when we exited the highway because of traffic." I had just remembered the name of the road. I was still hopeful that they might be able to find me and turn me before I died. "We're in a forest, down a ravine. I don't know anything else. I'm sorry. Charlie is extremely concussed so he can't remember anything more either.

"Edward, please listen. I'm not going to make it. Not unless someone makes it here to change me before I die. Please don't go to the Volturi. Don't kill yourself. You need to find something to live for. Your family needs you. I need you to live. For me." I was struggling to breathe between these short sentences. This godforsaken tree felt like it was crushing my lungs more and more.

"If you don't find me… I don't hold it against you. It's like finding a needle… in a haystack." Breathing was hard, talking was harder.

"I love you. I love you so much." I said before all my strength left me and I passed out.

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