7

Bella whimpered as the darkness eased away from her and the pressure inside her head dissipated. Well, mostly. There was still a denseness surrounding her, but she didn't feel like she was being suffocated anymore.

Groaning, she attempted to move her legs, but they felt heavy and weak, like someone was sitting on them. She opened her eyes once, twice, a third time before she realized that she wasn't alone. Not only was Edward standing in the middle of her living room, but so was Jasper.

Alice was kneeling next to Bella; her tiny hands wrapped around Bella's wrists, and she knew why: she'd had a seizure and Alice wanted to make sure that nobody got hurt.

"Hey, you," Alice said, sighing. "You're okay. Just stay relaxed."

Bella shifted her eyes from Alice to Jasper and finally on Edward. A look of pure terror filled his features. His eyes were wide, his mouth contoured as if he were trying to hold back a scream. Humiliated and embarrassed, Bella tried to tell him to leave, but the words were stuck inside her head. A common aftereffect of one of her seizures. Frantic, Bella shifted her attention back to Alice, gesturing with her head toward Edward and Jasper.

"Hey, hey, hey, this isn't staying calm," Alice said, releasing her wrists, but taking hold of Bella's hands, bringing them up to her chest. "Slow, steady breaths, remember?"

But Bella couldn't relax, not when he was standing there gawking at her like she was a freak.

Alice sighed and shifted so that she was still holding Bella's hands, but her attention was on Edward and Jasper. "You two should go."

"What?" Edward asked, his eyes widening.

"Darlin, I don't think that's a good idea," Jasper fretted, his hand coming up to the back of his neck. "I mean, what if . . . whatever just happened, happens again?"

"It won't," Alice said, frowning. "I've got her now, and I'll make sure she's okay, so you can go ahead and leave. It's all good."

"Are you fucking mental?" Edward snarled, waving a hand in Bella's direction. "What the hell just happened?"

"It's complicated," Alice said.

"N. . . n . . . n . . .no!" Bella stammered, struggling to get any sound out.

Alice turned her attention back to her, tightening her grip on Bella's hands. "Shh, Swan, calm down. I'm not going to tell them, but if you don't calm the hell down and start taking some deep breathes, I'm going to take a fucking ad in the paper and tell everyone about the time you thought you had a penis."

Bella's eyes widened, but she did as she was told and tried to relax her body, knowing that a) Alice would take out an ad, and b) the more she relaxed, the faster she'd be able to move.

"That's my little Swan." Alice released Bella's hands and stood up, facing Edward and Jasper. "Look, we appreciate the concern, and we know how screwed up this is, but I cannot tell you anything, not if she doesn't want me to, and it's clear that she's not ready. So, just go, okay? Her sister and doctor are on their way. She'll be . . . okay."

"Whatever," Edward muttered, giving Bella a look before storming out of the house. For a reason that Bella couldn't explain, it hurt to watch him walk away from her.

"Okay, Darlin, if you're sure," Jasper drawled. "Call me if you need me."

"I will."

Jasper followed Edward out of the house and Alice turned her attention back down to Bella, who just realized she was still laying in the middle of the floor.

"Well, this is awkward," Alice said, kneeling next to Bella again. She slipped her arm between Bella and the floor, hoisting her upward so that she was sitting. "You and Edward, huh? Here I thought you hated him."

"I . . . do," she stammered, trying to get her arms to move so she could support herself, but they were still too stiff.

"Liar," Alice snickered, but when the door to the house opened and Esme and Carlisle rushed inside, she became serious again. "It was a bad one. She seized for at least five minutes this time."

"Okay, let's get her off the floor," Carlisle said, squatting next to Bella and sliding his arms under her legs and around her back. "Hold on, Bella."

He lifted her off the floor and carried her to the couch, laying her down. Then, he knelt next to her and pulled her eyelids upward. "Look to your left."

Bella did as she was told.

"Right."

Again, she looked in the other direction.

"Can you feel your legs yet?"

Bella nodded. "But they feel heavy."

"They always do."

"I took my meds," Bella whimpered. "Just like I was supposed to. I was good today. I took my meds, Carlisle."

Carlisle frowned and shifted so that he was sitting on the edge of the couch. "You know drug therapy will only does so much, Bella. As your symptoms progress, the meds become less effective."

Bella's lips trembled and tears sprinkled down her face. "It's not fair."

"No, no, it's not," he agreed. "Let's get your muscles loose before you get too sore."

—BD&BH—

Bella sat in a white, wicker chair on her front porch. It was barely six o'clock in the morning, yet Bella had been up for hours. She hadn't been able to sleep. Her body ached too much, and her nerves felt like they were on fire. So instead, she sat with her knees pulled up to her chest, her camera resting on her knee as she attempted to snap a picture of a huge wave, but when her hand twitched, she swore, "Fuck."

The muscles in her arms were still recovering from the seizure the night before, like they always did. Just once, Bella had hoped they wouldn't. She hoped a lot of things that would never happen. Hope was just another four-letter curse word in her opinion. The worst of all of them.

"Bella?" Esme called, stepping out on the porch a moment later. "I'm going to make a smoothie. Do you want one?"

"No, thanks," she said, quietly.

Esme sighed and sat in the chair next to her. "How are you feeling?"

"How am I supposed to be feeling? Everything hurts. I still can't move my left foot much, and my hands are shaking like I just robbed the Kiwi Hut."

Esme smiled, but it didn't quite reach her eyes. "I shouldn't have gone out. I knew it was coming. After the last couple days, I saw the signs."

"You can't put your life on hold because of me, Essie," Bella said, sadly.

"You needed me," she cried, grabbing Bella's free hand. "I'm not ready to lose you, too."

"I'm not ready to be lost," Bella sobbed, letting her camera fall between her legs and her body. "I'm scared, Essie. Like for real, shit's going down kind of scared."

"Me, too."

Esme's attention was pulled away when her phone rang inside the house. As she hurried inside, Bella propped her camera back up on her knee and once more tried to take a picture, but again, her hand twitched. This time, however, the camera slipped from her grip and fell onto the porch.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck," she muttered, dropping her feet from the edge of the chair. She stopped, however, when she spotted Edward walking up the pathway from the driveway to the porch. "What are you doing here?"

"Want the truth? Or should I lie to you the way you've been lying to me?" he asked, nearly skipping up the steps. He bent over and picked up her camera, but didn't give it back to her. "You owe me an explanation."

"Owe you? I don't owe you anything, Edward," Bella snarled, and reached for her camera, but he pulled it away from him. "Give it to me!"

"I will after you tell me what the hell is going on with you."

"I don't have time for this." Bella managed to stand, though her legs felt like she had lead weights wrapped around them. Placing her hand on the wall, she scooted past him, using the wall as leverage to keep from falling on her face. Edward wrapped his arm around her, pulling her against him as he opened the door with his other hand and nearly dragged her inside.

"What in the ever-loving fuck?" Esme gasped. "Gotta go, babe. Shit's going down here."

She ended her call to Carlisle and shifted her attention from Edward to Bella and back before asking, "Everything okay, Bella?"

"Make him leave," Bella gritted through clenched teeth and tried to push him away, but Edward tightened his arm around her and helped her over to the couch. "Please, just give me my camera and leave."

"No," he said, but he placed the camera on the coffee table. Sitting next to her on the couch, he reached for her hand. Bella was too slow to pull away and he wrapped his fingers around hers. "You're trembling."

"I know," Bella murmured, closing her eyes. "Why are you here? Just want to get the scoop so you can go tell all your friends about me? About how I'm a freak?"

"No," he denied. "I'm here because last night you had a fucking seizure right in front of me and the other day, you couldn't speak. I'm here, Bella, because I'm worried."

"But why? Why do you care?" she asked. "I'm nothing to you."

"I . . ." Edward shook his head. "I don't know why, but I do. And you're not nothing. You can trust me."

"Trust you," Bella murmured. "You want to know? You really want to know?"

"Yes," he said, quietly.

"Have you ever heard of Kufs Disease?"

"No."

"I'm not surprised. It's not one of the cool diseases," she quipped. "It's also known as adult neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis. It's a rare disorder that effects my nervous system. There are two types. I have type A."

"And it's what caused your seizure?"

Bella nodded. "Seizures, muscle weakness, spasms, tremors, speech, dementia—I get all the fun shit."

"Is it . . . Are you going to . . ." Edward once again trailed off, huffing out a deep breath.

"Is it going to kill me?"

He nodded.

"Eventually," Bella told him. "They say ten years, but my symptoms are progressing faster than normal, so I'll be lucky if I get five at the rate I'm declining."

"And there's no cure? Nothing they can do?"

"Fraid not. I take meds to control the seizures, to help with the muscle spasms, but in the end, there's nothing to be done. I'm just going to die."

"How can you be so glib about this?" Edward asked. "This is your life and you're fucking acting like you have a common cold. How can you be so calm?"

Esme snorted. "She wasn't a year ago."

Bella glared at her. "Yeah, well, whatever."

"Don't listen to her, Edward. She cried like a two year old. Really ugly crying, too. Snot bubbles and all."

"Essie," Bella hissed. "Get out of here."

Esme laughed, but left Edward, who didn't appear to find their banter funny, and Bella alone.

Sighing, Bella pulled her hand from between his. "Let me guess: WebMD suggested ALS or MS or Epilepsy?"

"Yeah," he admitted, sheepishly.

"That's what we thought, too, when our father started showing symptoms."

"Your dad?" he asked.

Bella nodded. "He started showing symptoms five years ago, give or take a few months. At first, we thought it was just his age. His legs hurt, his joints. Arthritis or something, but then he started having tremors in his hands. He'd start a conversation and in the middle just stop talking. Like he couldn't speak anymore. We begged him to go to the doctor, but he kept insisting that he was okay, that he fine, but then he had his first seizure. By the time they got the right diagnosis, he . . ." Bella shook her head. "He was this fragile, weak man who could barely wipe his own ass anymore."

"And, um, he's gone?"

Bella frowned. "A year ago. Guess he got tired of it all and decided to go surfing. He could barely walk across the room, but thought he could handle a board. He barely made it thirty yards from shore when he had a seizure. By the time we got to him, his lungs were already filled with water."

"I'm sorry. I can't imagine how much that sucks."

"He was an amazing man. He just gave up in the end. Can't say I blame him, either. This life we're forced to live . . . it's a nightmare, to be honest. One we don't get to wake up from."

Esme walked into the room, clearing her throat. "Sorry to interrupt, Bella, but Peanut wants to know what she should tell Felix."

"Don't tell him anything," she said, placing her hand on Edward's shoulder and pushing herself to her feet. "I'll be there before the first match."

"You can't be serious," Esme exclaimed. "After last night, the last thing you need to do is spend all day on your feet."

"I have to, Essie. We have a contract."

"Fuck the contract. The little bastard can spot you a day to rest."

Bella clamped her lips together before looking down at Edward. "Can you excuse us?"

"Um, sure," he mumbled, but when he moved to stand, Esme clamped her hand down on his shoulder and said, "Don't be silly. You can stay. You're in the know, so to speak."

"Essie," Bella sighed.

"Don't Essie me, Bella," she argued. "Peanut can cover for you today, but you need to rest, stay relaxed, and let your body recover."

"You're not going to bend on this, are you?"

"Nope," she said with a smirk. "Sit your ass down. I'll make you a strawberry and banana smoothie and you can binge watch more Supernatural on Netflix."

"Fine, whatever," Bella grumbled and sat back down on the couch. "You're obsessed with smoothies, by the way. It ain't natural!"

"Whatever you say, sis." Esme yelled back.

Edward stood up and pulled his phone out of his pocket. His fingers flew across the screen as he sent a message to someone. Then, he kicked off his shoes and sat back down on the couch, getting comfortable before reaching for the remote control.

"What are you doing?" she asked. "Don't you have a match today?"

"Nope," he said. "Supposed to run with Whitlock and then practice serves for a bit, but unfortunately I'm sick, so it looks like I get to watch Supernatural, too."

"Don't do this for me."

"I'm not," he said. "I'm doing this because I'd like to get to know you better, Bella. If you'll let me."

Bella shook her head, but shifted on the couch, so that she was leaning against him. "Hope you like the Winchester brothers."

Edward laughed. "Who doesn't?"

Bella had taken a huge risk by confiding in Edward. She hoped it wasn't a risk she would end up regretting tomorrow.

Thank you for all the reviews. I'll admit to getting a bit emotional with this one.