A/N: I couldn't leave you guys hanging for too long, so here it is. I really hope you enjoy it. This is a scene I've had from the very beginning, and it's one of my favorites.


CHAPTER 16:

I turned the corner to the bank. The parking lot was empty? The vans and crew were supposed to be outside. With a deep breath, I came to the realization that the operation must have already been finished. Pulling out my phone, I dialed Emmett's number to confirm.

"Hey Bells. What's up?" he said with an urgent tone.

"Um, I'm wondering if the operation is up. Edward's not picking up my calls."

"Bella, the team never made it there. He's alone," I had never heard panic in Emmett's voice until now. As he said the word "alone," my heart jumped and with it a shiver went down my spine.

My grip on my phone loosened. Amidst the silence, I heard the slight crack of it hitting the concrete. Picking it back up, I began to run to the bank doors. The heavy metal bars were cold to the touch. I pulled them open and was greeted with a room of silence. Not wanting to compromise myself, I quickly unfastened my shoes. The knife attached to my thigh gave me hope. At least I have one scrawny weapon.

My legs couldn't carry me fast enough to the main entrance. Once I was there, my eyes scanned the room and stayed on a still figure on the ground.

A body was curled in pain. The right side of his leg was facing up, blood dripping from it onto the floor. One of his hands tightly gripped his gun while the other frantically moved against the tiling to get up. The dark liquid smeared on the floor. The gun was still laid in his right hand; they must have just left.

Scrambling to the floor, I slid towards him, "Edward, stay with me. What happened?"

With a low and faint voice, he replied, "It was a set up, there wasn't a robbery." His eyes fluttered, and I could tell they were going in and out of focus. My hands gripped onto the phone as I pushed 911 haphazardly. Damn it. They used a cell phone jammer.

"Edward?" His eyelids shut. "No, stay awake! Please." This is all my fault, if I had stayed this wouldn't have happened.

Picking up the tail end of my dress, I used the silky material to clean the blood off of his face. Think Bella. You're running out of time. He needed to get to the hospital quickly before he lost too much blood.

"Edward," I said as gently as possible, "I'm going to need you to help me, okay?' His eyes flickered again. "I need you to stand up." Of course I knew this was going to be impossible; I put my hand on his back and pushed him into a sitting position. Standing up, I grabbed his waist and tried to bring it closer to me.

"Edward, honey, I know this is hard. But I need you to help me." There was no way I was going to be able to carry him by myself. I only had to walk a block to be out of reach of the jammer. Only a block.

Adrenaline coursed through me as I got him on his feet. His eyes opened briefly allowing me to see the raw fear in him. Please do not go into shock. With his body slung over mine, I opened the door to the bank.

With the phone in my hand, I desperately watched for the bars to come back. The muscles in my legs began to tense an unhealthy amount which was when Edward's body suddenly went limp.

"Come on Edward. It's just a little while more." I tightened my grip on him.

The bars were up again. Lowering us down onto the sidewalk, I noticed how eerily silent the streets were.

"911, what's your emergency?"

"There's been a shooting at the San Fransisco Bank, I need an ambulance right away. He's dying."

"The roads are blocked," her voice said with surprise.

"I don't care how you get here!" I took a deep breath, " Figure it out, it's your job." I pressed against the concrete to stand again. My palm became covered in little cuts, but I couldn't feel a thing. Emmett.

I dialed him quickly. Before he could ask who it was I blurted out, "He's shot and dying Emmett. I can't carry him to the hospital. I need you to come. I don't care what you have to do. Run."

"Okay Bella, stay calm. I'm heading outside the van, we aren't too far away."

Setting the phone on the pavement, the blood in my veins slowed, creating an unnerving feeling. I felt lightheaded. Staring at his face, tears started to stream down my eyes. I can't lose him. He's the most important thing in the world to me. I pressed harder on the wound.

He had to be too far gone to hear me, but I needed to speak anyway. It solidified things. "The ambulance is going to be here soon." Instinctively, my hand went up to brush his hair with my fingers. My other hand went to intertwine our fingers; the usual warmth was fading slowly. Looking into his face, I hadn't realized how precious he was before. We've gotten hurt in the past but never like his.

My lungs screamed for air as sobs began to suffocate me. "Listen, everything's going to be okay." I watched as my tears fell onto his shirt.

It was almost like I had an internal clock screaming at me, telling me if we didn't get help soon it was over. With my eyes still on his face and my hand still combing through his hair, I heard the hopeful noise of distant heavy breathing.

"Emmett. He's dying." I choked on my words.

"It's okay Bells. We'll get him to the hospital. He'll be okay." Extending a hand, Emmett pulled me up and then focused on Edward below me.

"I called the ambulance, but they said the road is blocked."

"Yeah," he said swinging Edward's lifeless body over his shoulder, "I'll tell you more once he's being taken care of."

Emmett started sprinting. I couldn't understand how anyone could run so fast with another entire person on their back.

As we got closer, I could hear the ambulance's siren. He ran even faster leaving me in the empty street, praying to catch up. While my legs pushed me forward, my lungs burned.

While I was still sprinting, the paramedics hooked Edward up to an IV. Emmett grabbed my hand and pulled me in with an ungodly amount of force. This is all my fault. If I had just been there. If I had just forgotten about the stupid date, he wouldn't have gotten hurt.

A weight had come to rest around my shoulders. It was minutes before I realized it was Em's arm. He pulled me closer and allowed me to rest my head on his chest, soaking his shirt with tears. I knew what he wanted-to be there for me-but the only person that could accomplish that was on the gurney. "You know this isn't your fault."

"But…" I started to talk, but he cut me off.

"No buts about it. Edward knew what he was getting into and he told you to go on the date. You blame yourself too much….I mean taking responsibility is a great trait, but this was not your fault." My breathing became heavier. "Bella, it was not your fault."

"I just don't understand how this happened," I stayed put in the pack of the ambulance as the team rushed him out, said stepping out of the vehicle.

Someone ushered me to leave, but I couldn't feel my legs; I couldn't feel my body.

"Bells, we have to get out of the van." I nodded to him.

The pavement crunched against my feet. I was seeing everything through a filter. It couldn't be real. I had to have made this up. It had to be a dream.

We sat in silence on false-leather seats breathing in the sterilized air. While I stared at the blue and green pattern on the walls, my mind took a turn for the worst. I keep thinking about life without him—I couldn't. Since moving to San Francisco, I had been with him almost every moment.

"How about this one? What do you think?" He gestured around the room with a smile.

The apartment had potential. I was slightly put off by the smell of the paint, but I was immediately drawn to the window which had all other thoughts dissolved.

"I really like this." I stared into the street before turning around. Stepping into one of the two bedrooms off the kitchen, I smiled. This one's mine.

"Any other comments? Is this the one?"

"I don't think we could find better honestly," I spoke as my hands grazed the fake granite countertops.

"And you're still okay with moving in together?"

Rolling my eyes, I smiled, "Edward, we've been looking for a place for like a month. It's either this, or I keep sleeping at the office or on your couch."

"I still can't believe she threw you out."

"Apparently I smelled too much like a rotting corpse for her after that one case."

I came back to reality when Emmett started to speak:

"I promised I would tell you what happened."

I nodded, but I wanted to go back to the memory. I wanted to relish in it for a second longer.

"So, we connected Edward up to the van a few blocks away from the bank. He took his own car there and then we waited to park in the bank's parking lot. But there were crashes on all sides blocking us from getting to him. I'm assuming he acted his role for an hour or two, before the cell phone jammer was turned on. We thought that, because we were still decently close and could hear him, it would be okay. But when the earpiece shut off, we knew something had gone wrong. Everyone was scrambling to get the connection back up and that's when you called."

I just gazed at the wall, this was too perfect of a crime to not be a set up, "Someone is after Edward." The realization hit and my breathing crept towards hyperventilation.

"Yeah, and we better find out who before they try to finish the job. Whoever hired the hit is not happy right now." There were so many people, too many to recall. People had come after us before, but never succeeded. Anne, Santiago's family, anyone related to Jessica. And that was just in the last 3 months.

My eyes watered in panic. Emmett noticed and placed his burly hand over mine.

"Bella, nothing's going to happen to him. This attack is personal to all of us."


Something squeezed my hand and I readjusted in the blue leather chair that I had curled up on. I was exhausted and really wanted a few extra minutes of sleep. My eyelids fluttered. As I moved slightly, a beeping increased and then returned to normal. That's when I remembered where I was. "Edward?" My eyes darted open.

"Bella." A grin grew as I looked up. My sight hadn't adjusted yet, so everything was a little blurry and disoriented. Taking a quick scan of the room, my eyes flashed down to my hand; our fingers were intertwined.

Glancing over his body, he was covered in a blue sanitized sheet. His placid skin scared me, I could only imagine the number of stitches under the blanket. It physically pained me to see him like this. A tear formed in my eye, but I pushed it back. He was going to need someone to count on, and I sure as hell was going to be that person.

Yawning to cover up the watering in my eyes, I said, "I am so, so, so, sorry. If I knew…"

He cut me off, "None of this is your fault." Although it wasn't directly my fault, I could have helped him, protected him. I should have been there, I should have been the one shot.

The action worried me. "Do I need to get the nurse?"

"No," he shook his head, "Just stay with me."

I nodded and leaned back in my chair. Our hands still clasped together; the missing warmth from last night had returned. I kept seeing the image of his body curled in agony. Last night had been my personal hell and I would do anything not to relive it, but I had to know what happened.

"Edward?" His green eyes glanced up and connected to mine. I really didn't want to ask him anything so soon after waking up, but I had to find the asshole who did this. I remained silent, trying to find the right words.

He squinted at me, "Do you have a question? You can ask me anything," his voice earnest.

"…I was wondering if you could tell me about last night," I bit my lip. "But if you don't feel like it, that's perfectly okay. I don't want to push you." The words left my mouth faster than ever.

"Bella it's fine. I'm fine." No he wasn't. He was hooked up onto an array of machines. His body was bruised and stitched up. His words pulled on my tear ducts, he thought that I needed comfort.

Sighing, he started "I got there on time, but the bank was pretty much empty. About two hours later, the people I thought were robbers arrived. It was a large group. The moment they entered, I couldn't hear Emmett anymore, and that's when I knew it was a set up. I think I knocked most of them down, but one of them got me before I could finish." The scene played out in my mind more dramatically than the tale he told. Looking back at last night, I hadn't noticed the other bodies on the ground, but, then again, I was a little preoccupied. The feeling of his limp body in my arms wasn't something that was easy to forget. My breathing picked up as I watched my side of the story play.

"Are you okay?" He asked quietly, his thumb rubbing circles on the back of my hand. I should be comforting him, not the opposite. Zoning back in, I forced a smile for him and got a genuine one in return.

"I'm great. Are you sure you don't need the nurse?" He was bound to need medication soon.

"No, I'm good." Closing his eyes, they blinked open with the gush of wind from the door.

"Bella, can I talk to you?" Crap I forgot about Jake.

"Yeah." I looked down at Edward, "Will you be okay? I'll be back in a few minutes."

"I'll be fine." That phrase didn't sit well with me. Whatever Jake had to say needed to be said quickly. I hated leaving Edward alone.

Jake's expression quickly turned sour as we walked out of the room and into the hallway. "Bella what happened? You almost gave me a heart attack. All I knew was that you left and then twenty minutes later the television news starts saying there was a shooting. Don't scare me like that." His body engulfed me in a hug with a tension I had never seen before.

"I'm so sorry, Jake. Give me a second to explain." My breaths became unsteady, so he brought me back closer to him. "When I left the restaurant, I ran to Edward and clearly he wasn't doing great." My gaze shifted to the door. "I called a friend and we got him to the hospital. And we made it in time, he didn't lose too much blood. I'm sorry, Jake. I totally forgot to call, this thing has been a little crazy. I've been so worried about him." The weight of the previous night finally crashed down on me and a tear made its way down my cheek.

"Honey, it's okay," he whispered into my ear. His breath was warm and soothing as he spoke. I was a little afraid that I would fall apart if he let go. But, Edward sat in that small room alone and I couldn't leave him.

"Jake, I need to go back to him. Do I look okay?" He squinted at me with a tilted head. "Do I look like I just cried?"

I saw him internally debating between telling the truth and lying. "You look fine."

"Thanks," I tried to stuff my hand down in my pocket as a nervous habit, but I noticed that I didn't have one. I was still wearing the gown from last night; the blue fabric was stained with dried blood.

"Do you want me to bring you something more comfortable?"

"Thank you." The offer brought a new set of tears to my eyes.

"I love you, Bella," his voice was rough as the sentiment came through.

"I love you, too." The words felt weird in my mouth considering the timing of everything.

"I'll be back soon with a bag." I smiled at him as he strolled away to the parking lot.

Walking into the room, I took my place back on the uncomfortable chair. The pleather stuck to my exposed skin. Edward's eyes followed my every movement. And then, I noticed Emmett standing in the corner.

"Hey Em." His eyes saddened with my raspy voice. I didn't want to be that easy to read.

"Hey Bella. I was just coming to check up on Edward." He slowly made his way out of the door; their interaction couldn't have lasted more than five minutes. Weird.

"Bella?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I need the nurse." Edward's voice was sturdy, but his body didn't match his tone. A sheet of sweat covered his forehead and his skin blanched. I ran to the nurses counter and told him he had woken up. Immediately, the man followed me to the room and turned the nozzle on the IV, administering painkillers into his system.

I held his hand in mine again, desperately hoping that he understood that I would be there for him. His eyes closed and the crease in his forehead disappeared. Leaning back in my chair, I let my eyes fall as well.

The door closed. And with its small creak, I was awake. Jake stood in the corner with my duffel bag slung over his right shoulder. His lips formed a frown as he stared at me; his eyes caught on Edward's and my hands.

"Here," his voice startled me. Placing the bag on the floor, he quickly walked out the door.

"Jake, wait."

"Bella," he exhaled harshly.

"Jake." I grabbed his hand and pulled him back to me. "Don't be mad. I know you don't like how close Edward and I are, but he's my partner and I care about him."

"You can care about someone without touching them."

"Please don't do this to me."

"Do what? You're doing this all by yourself."

"I was holding his hand because I'm scared that if I let go"–– my wall collapsed–– "I won't get him back." My rib cage ached from holding in the sobs, "Jake, he was so close to dying. I thought…I thought that I was going to be too late. I couldn't carry him far enough. I thought he was going to die in my arms." His hand held my face to his chest.

"Bella, he's alive and," he paused, " And if this is what you need to cope with last night, I'll be okay with it. I just want you to be okay hun."

"Everything will be back to normal. He needs me right now, but that doesn't mean I love you any less." Reaching up on my toes, I passionately kissed Jake.

He stopped, but his arms still had a sturdy grip on me. "I love you so much Bella." His fingers played with my hair briefly before we parted ways.


A/N: Don't be too mad, he's not dead. I really want to know what you guys thought about this. Please review :)