SM owns Twilight.

(CozItRunsInMyBlood /Rose B. Mashal) owns the plot.

(BandMum) is the wonderful beta.

Chapter 15

Was I upset to learn that Dr. Cullen lied to me? From what he told Edward, my 'allergic reaction' was something else.

What happened was awful, painful, and left me very uncomfortable; I could barely move my fingers. But was it so horrible that I couldn't handle it? Was it more agonizing than the pain I've felt my whole life?

The answer was 'no' to all those questions.

Something was fishy about Dr. Cullen's experiment. I was aware of that. He was hiding so many things. I barely knew anything about him, and he wasn't telling the truth about what I was going through because of it. But in all honesty, I didn't care.

Yes, I was afraid, terrified, even. But my fear wasn't strong enough for me to leave the lab, give up, or abandon all of this. If I was going to die - and I would, sooner or later - at least my death would have meaning. I would die fighting. It didn't matter if I was fighting a person, a monster, or a disease – I fought all my life. Peace was like a fairytale which could never be my reality.

With sluggish steps, I left the small dressing area and returned to the glass room, moaning at each movement of my hand. The pain was so great, I got dizzy and almost fell, but braced myself until I made it back to bed.

I didn't have the energy to pull the covers over me, so I lay there without them; it was too hot, anyway. All I wanted was to go back to sleep again. Maybe tomorrow I would feel a little bit better. I wanted to sleep my pain away.

~WtSGD~

When I woke the next morning, I was neatly tucked in bed, and the scent of roses teased my nose, pulling a smile from me. I glanced over to see a bouquet of perfect red roses on my nightstand. It was the sweetest thing to wake up to.

"Thank you, Edward," I said to one of the cameras. "I love them."

Slowly, I got out of bed, groaning as I walked to the bathroom. I felt nauseated, and my stomach burned for some reason. I made a mental note to report that to Dr. Cullen.

When I got back to the room, a tray of food was waiting for me on the table. Since the room was empty, I knew it was Edward who brought it. I smiled to myself, wondering why he insisted on hiding from me this way, and if I would ever get to talk with him like I do with Dr. Cullen.

As I was finishing up breakfast, Dr. Cullen came through the door with a polite smile and another tray. This one was full of medications and instruments that made me shudder to see them.

"Good morning, Bella! How are you doing today?"

"Good morning to you, sir. I'm doing better than yesterday. Thank you."

"Still in pain?"

"Yes, sir."

"I'll look at your wound once you've finished eating and taken your medication. It'll take just a few minutes and you'll feel much better afterward," he said, and I nodded.

After breakfast and swallowing some pills, Dr. Cullen tested the range of my arm's movement. Needless to say, it was as painful as trying to remove my fingernails.

"You're doing a great job, Bella. I'll just check your stitches and clean the area, then we'll be all finished for the day. How does that sound?"

"Sounds great." I smiled at him nervously and watched as he started removing the bandages. Dr. Cullen was talking, but I couldn't hear a thing as I stared at the wound on my arm. It wasn't like anything I had seen before, and I've seen my fair share of ugly wounds. It wasn't a straight cut; it was a zigzag, like something had literally burst out of my arm. Not only was the cut weird, but the wound looked disgusting, and the smell was so bad I felt my stomach churn.

"You may want to look the other way, Bella," Dr. Cullen suggested, after seeing the look on my face.

"It's fine. I just… it looks so bad," I said.

"It does," Dr. Cullen said as he picked up some alcohol wipes from the tray. "This will sting a bit."

I hissed as he cleaned the clotted blood and yellow pus oozing out between the stitches. It looked disgusting. "Is it infected?" I asked.

"Not really. It's because of Maglos – your illness. More and more of your body's cells are decayed now. This wound will take a long time to heal," Dr. Cullen admitted as he continued to work on my arm, and my shoulders drooped in defeat.

"Will it heal eventually, though?"

"Let's hope for the best, dear."

Something told me he didn't believe it would.

~WtSGD~

All day long, I slept on and off. The meds knocked me out for the most part. I turned on the T.V. but couldn't concentrate long enough to watch whatever was on. I wanted to stay asleep and only wake up once my wound was fully healed, but thanks to the nightmares, I kept waking up, startled from the dream and the unintentional movement of my hand.

At some point during the night, I woke up and decided not to go back to sleep. Instead, I just lay on my back and stared at the ceiling for what felt like a very long time.

The sound of my phone going off startled me and I jumped. The slight movement made me groan. I grabbed the phone and tapped the green icon to answer.

"Hello!" I said breathlessly, wondering why Dr. Cullen was calling at such a late hour.

"Bella," the velvet voice said, and I realized it was Edward on the other end. "Are you okay?"

I looked up at one of the cameras in the corner before I replied, "I'm fine."

"It's just – you were looking at the ceiling for thirty-six minutes without moving. I feared you weren't feeling well and couldn't say anything," he explained, and my stomach fluttered at the concern in his voice.

It took me a few moments before I replied. "Don't you ever sleep?" It seemed that he was aware of everything I did. It was almost as though he never took his eyes off of the monitor, or me.

Edward chuckled softly, and for some reason, the sound made me smile. "I do. I promise."

"Why are you awake now, then?" I asked, wondering if it was rude to ask him questions like that. I almost apologized for it but held myself back.

"I had a nightmare and couldn't go back to sleep," he said, and I frowned. I wasn't sure if he was being honest or was mocking me. Something told me that Edward wasn't that kind of guy, so I pushed the negative thought away and told him that I had the same problem.

"What was your nightmare about?" he asked.

"Someone was hurting me," I said, "What about you? What was your nightmare about?"

"Someone was hurting the people I love," he said, sadly. I wanted to ask so many questions, but I chickened out.

"I'm sorry, that must be hard."

"It's okay, I don't get them as often as you do," he said, then quickly added, "I'm sorry, Bella. I didn't mean…"

"How closely do you actually watch me?" I was sure he could hear the smile in my voice.

"Very closely," he said, and I looked up at the camera again. Silence lasted for a few seconds before he continued, "It's my job."

"Yeah… I guess it is," I said, not sure why I felt disappointed. "Well, you know now that I'm fine. I guess I'll go back to sleep. Good night, Edward."

"Good night, Bella."

When we hung up, I couldn't stop thinking about him. His voice played in my head over and over again: the softness in his tone, and the sound of his chuckle. I didn't understand why I was thinking about him so much. It was as though I had no other thoughts in my head when I was thinking about Edward. That never happened before.

For the second time that night, my phone went off. I couldn't contain my smile when I reached for it with my good hand, but still grimaced when the movement affected my bad arm.

"Hello!"

"You're still in pain." Edward stated in a low voice.

"Dr. Cullen said it may take a long time to heal," I told him.

"Yes, I heard." I mentally slapped myself for being such an idiot, telling him what he already knew. "I'll pray it heals fast."

I didn't know how to reply to those kind words, so I said a very rude thing instead. "Why are you calling again?"

"I can't sleep, and you're still staring at the ceiling. I thought we might keep each other company, maybe," he said, and a smile played on my lips.

"How?"

"I don't know. Let's just talk," he said. "Tell me about you."

My smile fell. "There's not much to tell about me," I told him. "How about you tell me something about you?"

"There's not much to tell about me, either." He sighed.

We fell silent for a minute. I wasn't sure what to say next, and Edward wasn't talking, either. I wondered if I should end the conversation again, but the truth was, even when the conversation fell flat, I still didn't want to hang up.

"Your books arrived yesterday…" he trailed off.

"My books?" I frowned, not sure what he was talking about.

"Carlisle bought you some books, since you said you liked reading. I thought I would wait until your bookshelf is installed, then I'll arrange them in your room."

"Wow! That's very nice of you two. Thank you so much."

"I didn't do anything," Edward said. "Would you like for me to read you one of them? Maybe my voice will bore you right back to sleep?"

I heard his chuckle, and my stomach fluttered again. I wanted to tell him all my thoughts about his voice, and that the last thing it could do was bore me, but I didn't. I couldn't.

"What kind of books do you have?" I asked.

"Action, sci-fi, historical, romance, horror, fant-…"

"Horror!" I interrupted, immediately regretting acting like a child, and feeling the niggling need to apologize.

"Horror? You want me to read you horror?" Edward asked, and I looked at the camera, nodding and smiling. "All right, horror it is."

It wasn't long after Edward started reading that we were both laughing out loud. Well, I laughed first, then it seemed to infect Edward and he started laughing hysterically, too.

I don't think I had ever laughed like that in my life.

"I'm telling you he plucked out eyes and put them in jars, and kept them in the fridge, and you're laughing?" Edward accused.

"You're laughing, too!"

"I'm laughing because you're laughing! It's contagious!"

"I mean, it's sad and all, but just imagine him opening the fridge for lunch. All those eyes looking at him, like they are judging him for his food choices," I laughed.

"Imagine him going into an empty room and calling 'all eyes on me, please'."

I laughed so hard, I cried. The feeling was alien to me. I don't know if it was Edward who made me feel so comfortable talking and laughing with him, or if it was the strong painkillers I was high on. I thought it was the latter.

"That's a very nice sound, Bella. You should do it more often," Edward said.

"Yeah," I said, because I couldn't think of anything else to say. "Will you continue the story? I promise not to laugh again."

"I'll continue if you promise to laugh again."

My smile grew at his words, and I looked up at the camera for a moment. "I promise."

That night, I fell asleep to Edward reading me a story through the phone. It was the first time I sleep for hours. Instead of waking up in the panic of a nightmare, I woke to the sweet smell of freshly picked roses in the morning.

My smile was permanent. Even Dr. Cullen noticed it. "You look great today, Bella. I'm glad to see you smiling."

"Thank you, sir. I feel better today," I admitted.

When Dr. Cullen removed the bandages to clean the wound, though, he knew I didn't physically feel better.

I hissed as he cleaned it with alcohol wipes. "It looks bad," I commented, wanting to cover my nose and mouth to block the offending smell it gave off.

"It looks very bad, I'm afraid, Bella."

I nodded. "I don't suppose it could get worse?" I imagined in the worst-case scenario; healing would take double the time it normally would.

"If your body doesn't start responding to the antibiotics, we may have to amputate your arm, Bella."

~WtSGD~

AN: I'm giving away: Paperbacks, eBooks and Amazon Gift Cards. Join my Facebook group (CozItRunsInMyBlood) for a chance to win.

Until we meet again …