A/N: Sorry this took longer than I promised; my exam went well, but I had a lot of work piled up as a result and had to play catch-up. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!

Chapter 22: Fever

Carine moved past Eleanor into Edythe's room, her eyes going to the source of the beeping; the vital monitor shrilled out its monotonous sound, indicating the change. Carine's eyebrows furrowed at the cause of the alarm.

"That can't be right," she murmured as she turned toward the counter lining the back of the room, opening one of the drawers underneath. She turned back and stepped toward where Edythe sat on the bed, leaning against Archie; her face was pinched, her eyes strained, as if she had a headache. Carine produced the thermometer strip, and Edythe obediently opened her mouth to place the piece of plastic under her tongue. Dr. Vernetti stepped to the monitor as they both waited for the device to read, glancing at the computer's log; Carine laid her hand against Edythe's forehead, though she could feel how warm she was just sitting a foot away from her.

"You're burning up," she told her, the concern in her voice apparent. She took the temperature strip, face impassive as it confirmed the monitors' readings.

"It's uncomfortable," Edythe replied simply, her face set in a grimace as she pressed herself against Archie's skin, the coolness combatting her suddenly hot body. Carine could see that Edythe's face was flushed but, despite how warm she felt, her body was shivering. Dr. Vernetti met her gaze, his head tilting to one side in question as they both began going through the lists in their heads. Carine turned to the rest of the present party.

"Eleanor, take Archie's place. Everyone else, out," she instructed. They obeyed silently, their eyes on Edythe as they departed. Edythe smiled encouragingly at them, squeezing Beau's hand gently as he passed. Eleanor moved to sit beside Edythe as the door closed, leaving the three of them alone; she kept her hands under Edythe's arms to hold her upright as Carine moved to remove the bandages covering the incisions. Edythe had been working on sitting up and moving as quickly as she could since waking up, but with her back injury, such movement became exhausting quickly. She tried not to flinch as Carine peeled the tape and gauze away, looking over the incisions.

"They're not inflamed," she said, more to herself than to them. As her hand grazed along Edythe's flank, the human flinched. Carine froze, surprised by the reaction.

"Tender?" she asked. Edythe nodded, her fingers laced around Eleanor's arms. Her mind was going a mile a minute, the only part of her that seemed normal since the accident. Though her knowledge of human medicine was limited—and decreasing by the month as her human mind adjusted to the decreased space—she tried to recall anything that would cause this. Most of them were directly related to surgery and were unlikely since she had been out of surgery for over five days. The fever had come out of nowhere; one minute she had been fine and the next it felt as if she had been dumped into a too-warm hot tub. She could feel sweat beading across the back of her neck, as well as the accompanying chills. None of it made sense…

Edythe froze, and the two vampires immediately responded, so in tune to any signs of her discomfort from the constant vigilance. They asked her what was hurting, but she shook her head, her eyes wide as her mind came to the obvious horror.

"It's what he said," she whispered, too low for humans to hear. Eleanor and Carine exchanged a glance, unsure of what Edythe was talking about.

"Edric," she clarified, "This is what he meant."

Both Carine and Eleanor, as well as the vampires in the hallway, froze in surprise at her words, their minds quickly running through the possibility. But Carine shook her head after a moment.

"There's no venom in your bloodstream," she countered, "And your temperature isn't high enough."

"Not yet," Edythe amended; her voice was monotone, her face blank, unseeing. Carine didn't answer, immediately moving to redress Edythe's incisions before moving toward the door. Eleanor resituated herself and pulled Edythe's left side against her stone cold body, trying to cool her off. Edythe lay her head on her sister's shoulder, her eyes on her mother as Carine stepped into the hallway. Her siblings and Earnest moved back into the room but Dr. Vernetti stayed in the doorway, speaking to Carine. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but she had an idea. But the realization, though not confirmed, felt real. And with that, a sinking feeling in her gut got bigger and bigger. She pressed into Eleanor's side, her body feeling more drained than even when she had awoken from surgery.

"It's okay, Edy," Eleanor murmured to her, "It's going to be okay."

The human didn't respond, partially because she was focused on trying to listen to the doctors' conversation, but also because doing so felt like too much work. She could feel her body, though still very weak from the surgeries and accident, seem to become even weaker and she felt no desire to do anything other than sleep. The task of keeping her eyes open and her head felt like too much, and she let Eleanor take all of her weight; her sister did so easily, but her concern grew, her golden eyes flashing to Carine, who met her gaze before glancing down at Edythe. Carine murmured once more to Dr. Vernetti before returning to Edythe's side, her cool hand ghosting across her daughter's forehead.

"It's burning," Edythe said quietly, a soft lament.

"Shhh, I know," Carine told her, her face concerned but still formal, a trademark expression she done when dealing with patients. "We're going to give you something to reduce the fever, as well as an antiviral." The matriarch glanced at her eldest daughter.

"Stay close to her, to keep her as cool as we can," she instructed, and Eleanor nodded, adjusting to pull Edythe into a more comfortable position; Edythe worked not to flinch at the movement, but, of course, everyone saw it.

"Sorry," Eleanor murmured, and Edythe shook her head.

"It's fine," she said, a phrase she had been repeating a lot since waking up. She remembered when she used to hate when Beau used that excuse and she couldn't help but feel slightly chagrined to be doing the exact same thing now, to brush away the pain, no matter how legitimate it was, to keep her family from feeling badly.

There was a slight knock on the door and all vampires and humans looked toward the sound; Jamie stood in the door for a moment, a tender smile on her face, before stepping toward the bed. She handed Carine a syringe, already drawn up with medication. Jamie's face turned to Edythe's for a moment, the smile turning concerned, before retreating from the room as Carine thanked her. The vampire added the colorless fluid to Edythe's bag slowly before tossing the syringe in the red biohazard bin on the counter. As she returned to the bed, she worked to compose her face into an encouraging expression, working to calm not only Edythe, but the rest of the family who relied on her.

"We will figure this out. It will be okay," Carine promised.

Edythe's fever did not subside, despite Dr. Vernetti's and Carine's work. Her temperature rose higher and higher as time went, surpassing a hundred and four before dusk. At least one of Edythe's family members stayed close to help cool her down, especially as the medications Dr. Vernetti gave her only helped take the edge off. Her body grew weaker and she became even more uncomfortable as time wore on; her skin was caked in sweat and her head never stopped spinning. She could feel the fever burning through her, and her mind went back multiple times to what Edric had said, and her own memories at the end of her human life.

"It feels like I'm burning alive," she told Carine when she asked. "It feels like venom; it feels like the first time. But I could move then; I can't even move this time." Her green eyes met Carine's, and Carine saw the scared expression in her face, and her mind was brought back to that time from over a century ago. She remembered Edythe's change easily, of course, and she remembered her cries, her screams as the venom burned through her system, with nothing she could do other than hold her until it was over. The déjà vu was terrifying in its duplicity, but Carine knew Edythe had no venom in her system. She knew, this burning would not end well, but she was at a loss of how to reverse the process when she couldn't even bring Edythe any type of relief.

"It feels like I'm dying, more and more as the hours go on," Edythe whispered, her eyes slipping shut and her voice dropping to an almost inaudible level, "It's getting harder and harder to move, to think, to breathe. I don't want to die."

"Shhh, sweetheart," Carine interrupted her, wanting to stop Edythe's despondent words; they upset Carine just as much as Edythe. She could hear the low intakes of breath from her family, shocked by Edythe's admission. "This will be over soon, and you will be okay. I promise you."

"How?" Edythe asked lowly, her eyes closed now, "No one has any idea what's going on. It feels like this transformation was, in fact, too good to be true. It doesn't feel like it's fluctuating; it just feels like the life is being drained out of me. Too quick for anyone to fix."

"Do not think like that, Edythe," Carine said firmly, her hand going to lay over Edythe's hand, squeezing it, "The minute you give up, your body gives up too. We will figure this out." But as she said the words, she knew she wasn't confident in them.

Carine's heart clenched as she watched Edythe cringe into Earnest's chest, her mouth opening as she tried to get relief from the cool air in the room. Her parents kept their hands on her to help alleviate her fever, but she found it wasn't helping; despite feeling their chill, the fire inside seemed to rage hotter and hotter. Beau seemed to shake as he watched from the far end of the room; he didn't dare touch her with how hot she was, forced to only watch as the Cullens used their lack of body temperature to try desperately to keep Edythe cool.

Carine said nothing, forcing her face into a mask of calm concentration as she helped Edythe try to drink; she was unable to really do so by herself before the sudden fever, making her completely unable to do so now. Edythe swallowed as much of the ice water as she could, but felt them evaporate the moment they moved into her stomach, bringing no relief or touching her dehydration.

Dr. Vernetti stepped through the doorway, knocking on the frame as he entered. Everyone in the room trained their eyes on him, and the human felt unusual scrutiny under the vampires' gazes and he shifted uncomfortably before speaking.

"The medication doesn't seem to be working," he started, though he knew that was obvious, "There is no sign of infection from the incisions; everything in the surgeries went according to protocol, and the length of time since the onset points to something else. But the acuteness and severity of the symptoms point to some type of recent malady." No one said anything; they had already figured all of these things. Dr. Vernetti turned to Carine.

"I've called a few specialists, and they seem to be perturbed by the fact the preventative medication is not helping at all. They suggest a bone biopsy, to begin with." He said. Carine pursed her lips but nodding, not in assent but in acknowledgement. She knew that would be the next suggested step, but such a procedure was invasive—not to mention painful—especially for Edythe, who had already undergone multiple surgeries and procedures that left her body close to nothing in terms of strength. But she was coming up with a blank as to what could be causing the fever; none of the small amount of possibilities were adding up with the timeline of Edythe's symptoms. She did not want to admit it, but Edythe's belief of Edric's doing was becoming closer to the top of the list. But, whether as a result of normal or supernatural doing, she wasn't sure of the next step to take to get Edythe back on the road to recovery, and she feared to make decisions that could result in too much for her youngest child.

"Carine." Earnest's call brought Carine out of her deep mindset and her eyes flashed to his face; his ocher eyes were panicked, a new more sudden fear piling on top of all the others. "She's getting warmer." The tone was lower than what Dr. Vernetti could hear but, as Earnest spoke, the monitor shrilled again. The machine had been silenced after the doctors' attempts at lower the temperature proved unsuccessful, but, as the number jumped again, the alarm was triggered. Dr. Vernetti grabbed the laser thermometer to confirm the monitor—though none of the readings had been wrong all day—while Carine laid her hand across Edythe's forehead. At the same time, Edythe made a small noise under her breath, her eyelids squeezing shut.

"Edythe," Carine murmured, trying to rouse the human girl.

"Mom," Edythe whispered, her voice so low that Beau could barely make out the word. She didn't feel Carine's hand on her forehead. Carine watched as the monitor began another shrilling monotonous alarm, this time her blood pressure numbers dropping; she turned her attention back to Edythe as Dr. Vernetti confirmed the monitor's reading on the thermometer—106.7.

"Edythe, stay conscious for me, talk to me," she instructed, but Edythe barely heard her. She could feel her consciousness slipping, and she worked to open her parched mouth, to speak.

"I don't want to sleep. If I do, I won't wake up," she murmured, almost like a sigh.

"Sweetheart, stay awake," Carine implored; her hands held Edythe's face, trying to cajole her.

"Edythe," Earnest said now, "Listen to us. You need to stay awake; keep your eyes open." But Edythe didn't respond; the last of the strength in her fingers loosened around theirs and her body went limp as she lost consciousness, her body sagging against Earnest's side. Though not awake, her breath was uneven and Carine felt her pulse weaken, her blood pressure dropping; she moved immediately to increase her fluid rate.

"Carine." Dr. Vernetti's voice cut through her like a knife and she was forced to step back as Jamie and two other nurses bustled into the room at his call.

Her senses seemed to blur as Paul ordered the nurses to administer medication, adding instructions to the regiment. Earnest reluctantly moved out of the way as the nurses reached for Edythe's IV line, adding acetaminophen and other drugs to the fluid bag. Earnest moved to Carine's side, who had sank shakily to the sofa besides the bed, her eyes never leaving Edythe's face. Even after the doctor and nurses had left, Dr. Vernetti promising to return in a couple of minutes after contacting the specialists again, she didn't respond; he squeezed her shoulder gently as he left. Earnest's hands were on Carine, but she couldn't look at him.

Carine held her head in her hands, her elbows against her knees, her mind going a mile a minute while her heart clenched tighter and tighter. Vaguely, she knew the rest of the family was watching, having stayed silent and out of the way for the past few days, trusting and relying on her that she knew what Edythe needed most. But now they watched, horrorstruck and hearts breaking, as their mother and leader was brought to the brink. Carine knew they were depending on her for answers, answers she could not provide. She did not know why this was happening, how it could be happening, what could be causing it.

A sudden onslaught of white hot anger coursed through her, anger at the two beings that had caused this. For the first time in her vampire life, Carine felt the urge to hunt, to kill, to track down the nomadic vampire that was the reason Edythe was dying. She wished fleetingly that Edric was still alive, so she could enjoy the pleasure of destroying him herself, but Victor would have to do.

Suddenly, Jessmaine was besides her, taking her mother's hands and squeezing them firmly as she pushed an overwhelming amount of calm into her, enough to combat the extreme anger.

"She needs you here," Jessamine said softly, "Neither she or you gain anything by hunting him down right now." Carine exhaled deeply, the calm Jessamine was giving her pushing the anger out of her body. Carine knew she was right, but she felt she could provide no help to Edythe at the moment; she was still spinning in circles, chasing her own tail, with no way to figure out the underlying causes of the fever, let alone treating it.

All Carine suspected was that it had to do with Edythe's transformation, as Edythe and Edric had implied. His underhanded, vague explanation of how Edythe could be submitted to the side effects of his gifts were twisted, and that was assuming Carine could even trust the words at face value, which she didn't want to. A description of only his other victims recreating their vampiric transformation, that there was something in their genetic make-up that was flawed, that caused them to succumb. But the possibilities were endless on what that could be! It couldn't be that general or simple, because Edythe had had no trouble until now, when her body was reacting to something that they didn't understand.

Thus, according to Carine, whatever had triggered this reaction, whether originating from her former vampirism or not, had to have been due to the accident and its after effects. This intense of a fever had only a very small list of causes, of which nothing fit, as Carine had gone through them over and over all day. Edythe'd had surgeries days ago so an anesthesia reaction wasn't feasible, Carine couldn't smell an intercranial hemmorrhage, she had been on antibiotics and antivirals since awaking from surgery and more so now, without it making a dent….but for some reason, her body felt the need to hike up her temperature, to fight what? Carine's mind seemed to spin, her eyes flicking back and forth as she replayed the past few days, looking through every minuscule details.

She paused, the mental rewind tape stopping for a moment as she considered. At the same moment, Archie gasped. Carine looked up to meet his gaze and his golden eyes were wide, alive and energetic for the first time since Edythe's fever had spiked.

"What did you just decide?" Archie asked. But Carine didn't respond; she was out of her seat, pulling open a set of drawers underneath the counter. She turned back to face them, a fresh butterfly set and two blood tubes in her hand.

"It will be close, I can't see which way it will go. But her future has gotten less chaotic," Archie murmured not just to Carine, but everyone. Most of them didn't understand but Carine didn't have time to stop and explain; if she was right, she may already be too late.

Mechanically, working at vampire speed, she prepared a tourniquet on Edythe's free arm; her family, though in the dark, quickly moved to block her from the door's view, masking her quick movements from anyone that could be walking down the hallway. Carine punctured Edythe's vein easily, filling the tubes and inverting them with one hand as she removed the needle. Archie stepped forward to press on the gauze as Carine left, moving just a little too quickly to pass for human. She stopped first at the in-hospital lab station, handing the fresh blood tubes to the senior technician, Tamerin. They did not blink at Carine's request, turning a blind eye to the doctor's involvement, and promising to run the test as quickly as possible. Carine thanked them, then moved on to find Dr. Vernetti. She found him in his office, and he pulled his face away from the receiver of his phone as she stepped halfway in, his eyes taking in the concentrated look on her face.

"Was O-negative given when Edythe was in surgery?" she asked, wasting none of the precious time she had. Dr. Vernetti stumbled a bit as he hurried to catch up.

"Yes, of course," he said. "Why?"

"Was her blood type tested?" Carine asked, and he shook his head.

"No, she responded well to the transfusion in surgery. You don't know her blood type?" he asked, perplexed. Caine shook her head in response.

"There was no medical history given when Edythe was adopted; I never had any need to get her tested." Paul nodded slightly. Carine didn't give him a second to think it through before continuing.

"I ordered a blood type test. Approve it," the statement came out a little harder than she had intended, but she could feel the moments slipping away, time that Edythe may not have. Dr. Vernetti nodded immediately, moving toward his computer and digitally approving the test that came up on his screen under Edythe's chart.

"What are you thinking it is?" Paul asked. Carine pursed her lips.

"Something that may explain everything."

It was the longest fifteen minutes of Carine's life in most recent history. She waited only a few feet from the lab station, as if willing her proximity to quicken the computers and machines' work. Tamerin moved quickly to Carine's side, handing her the paper with a neutral expression. Carine gave them thanks wordlessly, glancing down at the results. She froze.

She was right.

Equal parts fulfillment and dread spread through her at the realization; she moved quickly, contacting Paul on her phone to meet her at Edythe's room. The minimal satisfaction she felt stemmed from the fact now she had a diagnosis, but the dread lingered, because the prognosis was no better now that she had the truth. Paul came running up the hallway from his office and Carine thrusted the paper into his hands. He took one look at it and met her gaze, wide-eyed. She gave him a meaningful look before both of them moved into the private room.

Carine stepped to Earnest's side, who pulled her tightly against him. One hand was pressed to his chest as she beckoned her family away from the doorway as a triage of nurses sprung in at Dr. Vernetti's command. One nurse was hooking Edythe's other hand to an IV, hanging another fluid bag while others prepared various syringes with medications, pushing it into Edythe's bloodstream.

"You figured out what it is," Earnest said, his eyes on his wife. Carine nodded, her eyes watching the mayhem. She could feel seven pairs of eyes on her and she turned to meet them.

"Hemolytic reaction," she said. When they looked confused, she moved to explain.

"All human blood has different types; A, B, O, AB, et cetera, but that's not the only defining factor in a person's blood type. There are hundreds of other antigens, like the Rh group, on red blood cells." The Cullens still looked confused, and she continued.

"It is possible to be missing these some of these antigens. That's why someone could be called Rh negative, though that usually has to deal with fertility."

"So you're saying Edythe was negative for this antigen?" Eleanor asked, but Carine shook her head.

"She's negative for all of them," Carine told them, lifting the paper she held in her hands. Her family stepped forward to read the results, taking in the multiple 'NEGATIVE' results reading down the page.

"It's called Rh-null," Carine clarified, her eyes never straying from Edythe's bed as she catalogued the medications being administered and the level of fluids being added.

"That's rare?" Beau asked; Carine nodded.

"Only forty-three people in the world have been known to have it; it's called the 'golden blood' type, because it's possible to donate to everyone on the planet because there's no risk of antigens interfering and attacking the new red blood cells," Carine said, her eyes straying back to Edythe's face.

"But that makes it impossible for someone to donate to a person that has that blood type," Beau finished, the pieces finally coming together. Carine nodded.

"She got O-negative when she went into surgery after the accident; almost every person does, because O-negative is considered the universal donor, but not for someone with Rh-null blood. It's just as dangerous as any other transfusion." Carine flickered to her family once more, her voice dropping,

"Edric's other victims didn't die from a recreation of their vampiric transformation; they died because the human blood in their digestive system caused a reaction in their own blood stream; once their human blood was regenerated, it attacked the blood that was absorbed in the stomach, because it wasn't the same blood type, because all of them probably were Rh-null. They died of a hemolytic reaction, which causes all of the symptoms Edythe has."

"Why didn't that happen with Edythe?" Jessamine asked. Carine had an answer for that too.

"She had animal blood in her system," Carine said, "There's no Rh factors in animals; though animals have blood types, they are not the same. So there was no response. Only when her blood interacted with human blood could this have happened. It's also possible animal blood is not processed in our bodies the same way human blood is, which could account for our eye color." Carine's voice was grave as she glanced back at the hospital bed. Dr. Vernetti was whispering quick instructions to the head nurse.

"Didn't you do blood tests on her back in the summer?" Jessamine asked.

"The blood tests don't test for blood type specifically, and especially not one that would indicate Rh-null. They were chemistry panels, and allergy tests, not meant for the same purpose." Carine said, a bit of regret in her voice as she realized this could have been discovered earlier if she had chosen to run a blood type test, though she never imagined she would need to know Edythe's blood type so soon.

"When she turned, her scent changed slightly, and it didn't smell like a particular blood type that I've encountered before, but I attributed that to it being so similar to her vampire scent. I never imagined…" Carine trailed off for a moment before continuing. "I didn't recognize it because I've never met someone with Rh-null blood. Even regular blood types smell very similar to each other, since the changes are so minute. I only learned when I realized early blood transfusions would only work if the donor's blood smelled exactly a certain way relative to the recipient's."

"How come we didn't see the reaction when she got the transfusion in surgery? Shouldn't it have happened much quicker if the blood has been in her for so long?" Eleanor asked.

"It's called a delayed hemolytic reaction, where symptoms don't occur until after the antibodies are created. And the precursory symptoms overlap with that of major surgery and trauma. She had a fever and dizziness from the inflammation and concussion; we just didn't see that it was coming from multiple causes." There was a long pause, and everyone could see Carine was right, everything added up.

"Will she be okay?" Earnest asked. Carine closed her eyes for a moment, her face turning grave. As she opened them, she met Paul's eyes as he made to step out. The look on his face was sufficient for Carine to know they shared the same prognosis. Carine exhaled slowly as she responded.

"With how much was transfused into her, and how long it took for us to figure it out…I don't know if we got to it in time. It's up to her body to fight it off now. All we can do is support, wait, and hope."

Carine had never known a time in her vampire or mortal life where time seems to slow down to where minutes felt like days. She stayed seated on the sofa across from Edythe's bedside, Earnest's arms around her; she knew time was passing but it seemed to take an eternity for the light to return after such a long, quiet night. Beau couldn't sleep, unable to get remotely calm enough to get near unconsciousness, and Carine didn't try to force him. He stayed almost as still as the rest of them, gazes never wavering from Edythe or the monitors.

Dr. Vernetti had thrown everything he could at Edythe's treatment, and the amount of medication flowing through her veins made it almost unbearable for the vampires to smell. They listened and watched and felt as the medication worked to outrun the fever, like two Olympic athletes in the last lap of the final race; it was intense and all-consuming. But instead of a mere minute or two of anticipation, it was all night.

Finally, after nearly ten hours, Carine could smell the change; she inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of Edythe on her tongue and in her nose, registering the difference. She said nothing for another hour, but her eyes trained themselves on the monitor, watching as the numbers changed. Finally, the red lights on the side of computer turned green. For how long they were watching it, all the Cullens stood or sat a little straighter, their eyes darting to Carine. Her golden eyes were upturned and there was a light in them that wasn't there before, as she took note of the temperature reading—103.

"Her temperature's going down," she murmured, squeezing Earnest's hand. It was easy enough to read on the monitor, but she knew they wanted her confirmation. Everyone seemed to take a steadying, though still uncertain, breath as Carine messaged Paul. When the doctor arrived, he took in Carine's expression, from panic and forlorn to marginally, cautiously hopeful. As he read the most recent readings, he smiled at Carine and Earnest.

"Her body's responding to the treatment," he confirmed, though with an awed edge; he was shocked, to say the least, and Carine understood why. Carine nodded, leaning in Earnest as his thumb ran across the back of her hand soothingly. Dr. Vernetti called for a nurse and Diane stepped into the room a moment later; she listened to the doctor's instruction carefully and began to move about the bed, adjusting the monitors, adding more to the fluid bags. As she did so, she spoke.

"Keep fighting, honey," she murmured quietly to the unconscious girl, "Your family is waiting for you." The human thought she spoke low enough that they couldn't hear her, but the Cullens latched onto the words, their hope greater than it had been. As she left, Archie moved to Carine's side, hugging her tightly from the side that wasn't pressed against Earnest. She looked over at her son, slightly confused, but the tired smile on his face, in juxtaposition to the rest of the expressions on everyone else, made her suddenly more alert.

"What did you see?" She asked urgently under her breath. The expression widened slightly.

"I see her waking up," he said, "She's going to be okay." Carine looked over Archie's face carefully, not quite believing what she was hearing, but there was no instance of deceit or ingenuity on his face; he look relieved. And Carine smiled, feeding off his emotions to build up her own hope. But she would not be satisfied until Edythe was awake.

"How long?" She asked.

"I'm not sure, but not long," he promised. "When her temperature gets to around a hundred." Carine nodded, leaning forward to wrap her arm around his shoulder, needing the support. The Cullens and Beau seemed to exhale, their eyes all going to the monitors as they willed the numbers to drop.

Over the next couple of hours, Edythe's stats continued to level out; her blood pressure finally rose to normal, and her temperature creeped downward, as if aware it had an audience and was doing so to spite them. Carine moved from the sofa to sit on Edythe's bed, her fingers twisted through her daughter's, barely moving enough to pass for human.

Around midday, the monitors finally dropped to a hundred point three; as soon as it had dropped below one hundred and one, everyone was tense, waiting for Edythe to stir, getting more worried as she didn't. Archie assured them they were getting closer, but it wasn't exact. Carine understood, but her anxiety didn't lessen as time passed. She reached forward to brush her free hand across Edythe's cheek.

"Come on, darling, come back to us," Carine murmured, too low for the others to hear. The Cullens listened closely to Edythe's heartbeat, their more sensitive ears taking in the added strength that had gradually built over the past few hours. Carine pressed the back of her hand to Edythe's forehead, checking her own reading against the monitor. Carine's eyes continued to rake over Edythe's still form and almost missed the movement, it was so subtle. The flutter of her eyelids. The Cullens froze, waiting in rapt attention for some other movement, some clue.

Edythe's eyelids fluttered once more as she became aware of her surroundings. She recognized the now familiar beeping of the monitors attached to her, but the burn on her thigh and her right hand was new and uncomfortable. Her eyes scrunched ever so slightly in response, and she heard several low intakes of breath. The coolness engulfing her right hand was familiar and she opened her eyes to meet Carine's. She was startled to see Carine's reaction; her mother breathed out a long sigh of relief, her shoulders sagging as if she were human holding a breath too long.

"Mom?" She asked quietly, still half out of it, her voice groggy from disuse. Carine took another quick breath, leaning forward to place her lips to Edythe's forehead Edythe's cheek. As she pulled back, Edythe could see glassiness over her mother's irises, the closest vampires could get to shedding tears.

"Oh, Edythe," she murmured, almost like a prayer. Edythe moved to take her hands but found resistance on her free hand; Carine caught her wrist in time for Edythe to notice an IV line identical to the one on her right hand, tugging at her arm. This new line was currently taped shut. Her eyebrows furrowed, confused as she didn't remember getting or needing a second IV line.

"Easy, sweetheart, try to stay still," Carine cautioned gently, though it wasn't necessary once Edythe realized what it was. Her memories were coming back to her slowly and she remembered the fever, the burning, the weakness. She remembered what she had said, how she had felt, and how her last thought was that she was going to die right as she lost consciousness, that she would never open her eyes again. She looked up at Carine, eyes wide, confused.

"What…" she began, but wasn't sure which question would be best. Carine understood though.

"Hemolytic reaction," she answered; Edythe's eyebrows furrowed, not understanding how they could have come to that diagnosis. Carine reached behind her and offered her the chart at the end of the bed, the front page showing the results of her blood test. As Edythe looked at it, her eyes got wider, her mind finally knitting the pieces together. She took a moment to assess herself mentally. She felt a little hot, but nowhere near as she had before, a little groggy, and always offset because of the being in the hospital. She didn't feel great, but she didn't feel at death's door as she had when she had lost consciousness. Now that she thought about it, she felt better than she had when she woke up from surgery; the weakness was there, but not all consuming, and her head wasn't pounding. The difference was noticeable and Carine could see it, as Edythe could feel it.

As her mind progressed further into consciousness, recalling more specific details, she remembered her words to her parents, said in fear and desperation. She could only imagine what had happened in the interim of her losing consciousness, when those words very well could have been her final. She internally shuddered at what her family had had to go through since she had uttered them.

"I—" she began but Carine cut her off, predicting this.

"Shhh," she hushed her, "There's nothing to be said. It's all going to be okay now." Her promise was said, for the first time, in confidence, and she felt rather than heard her family exhale their own relieved sighs. Edythe could feel it was the truth, just as Carine could see it; she was far from being able to do cartwheels or even walk as she could before Victor's intervention, but, for the first time, she felt she wasn't trying to scale a vertical mountain.

She felt stronger; the mountain was not as steep, and she could feel she was able to continue to climb.

A/N: I was going to leave this chapter at the point where they figured out the diagnosis, but I felt that was too mean, so this chapter got a little longer and I cut some unnecessary stuff out. I hope you guys are okay with that.

I apologize for all the science; I hoped I explained it well enough. But I thought this would be an interesting take on the events, that there is a rational connection between the supernatural and human physiology, that something can be explained with something other than "oh vampire venom/magic/whatever."

Again, I am sorry for any medical people out there for any issues with how real human medicine worked; I tried to do it as much justice as possible while still being a fantasy story.

The anger may be OOC for Carine, but we all know what a mother would do for her child. I enjoy exploring this dynamic; Carine is usually a very calm, collected person, but she cares for her family above all else. And her youngest/eldest daughter will always be her Achilles' heel.

Next up will be Edythe's recovery and eventual return home; please let me know if you have any question you need me to clarify on or if you would like to see something specific! Happy Monday!