Blurry Lines: Chapter Fourteen

Isabella

He was happy.

Anthony walked into the living room between Edward and I with his head held high, and in less then twenty minutes Esme and Carlisle were wrapped around his little fingers. And our son was happy.

Immediately he took to Carlisle, calling him grandpa and asking him when he'll teach him how to fish. That brought tears to my already misting eyes. Charlie was supposed to teach him, like he'd taught me.

I greeted Esme and Carlisle like I hadn't seen them in eight years…because I haven't seen them in eight years. I fell into Esme's hands, more tears slipping from the corner of my eyes, but that was nothing to the heart breaking sobs rolling from me as I hugged Carlisle. He just hugged me closely and promised me that it would be alright. When he released me Edward was there, enveloping me in his arms and walking me to a nearby kitchen chair. That was all that was left of the furniture in the front of our home.

After all the greetings were done and my blubbering moment was over, we got to work. Edward and I finished our room, while Anthony helped his grandparents in the living room with the rest of my books. Alice and Jasper showed up with Hailey soon after noon and they got to work while Anthony moved his focus from his grandparents to his 'cousin'. It always surprises me how Anthony took to Hailey Marie so fast. He adores her and for now she feels the same way about him.

We all worked hard loading the rental truck, sweat rolling down our bodies, our clothes sticking to our clammy skin, but eventually we got it done. After we were all finished, the house cleared, the truck filled, I ordered pizza for everyone and Edward ran to the store to get a few cases of beer and a few juice boxes for Anthony. We sat around the empty living room, laughing and smiling, all of us ignoring the big pink elephant in the room.

There is so much to discuss, yet here we are, all tip toeing around it. And as much as I wish that no one would ever bring it up, I know that it's inevitable. And I refuse to have this hanging over my head for the rest of my life.

"I'm sorry." I blurted out, directing my attention to Esme and Carlisle. "I should have told you, you had a right, but I couldn't risk you telling Edward, I couldn't risk his happiness. But when he came here and I found out about Tanya, I realized my decisions were stupid. He had a right to know no matter what and so did you. I took Anthony away from you, all of you and that was wrong of me. And for that I am so sorry."

"Baby," Edward started, but I shook my head, not wanting him to comfort me.

"Esme-" I started, but was quickly cut off.

"Isabella," she whispered her eyes misting. "I'm not angry; I'm confused as to why you felt that you couldn't trust us anyway. You wrote all those letters to me and not once did you mention Anthony. I would have loved to have known about him, but we get him now, so for that I am grateful. I'm not angry Isabella. You don't know how excited I am to be a grandmother, how excited I am to know that you and Edward have this beautiful boy together, that you two are together. I am as happy as I have ever been in life."

"But you must-" I begin to insist.

"Isabella," Carlisle called, interrupting me this time.

"Dad?" I wined helplessly. He smiled, reaching across the pizza to take my hand.

"That, Isabella is why we are not angry. You are our daughter, how could we ever be angry with you? It was your right as his mother, no reason, or explanation is necessary. Come now; let's finish our meal so we can get over to the new house and get you guys' settled in, as a family."

So we did just that. After lunch was done with and cleaned up, we packed ourselves in our respective vehicles, Carlisle driving the moving truck- and made our way through downtown until we reached the quite suburbs of outer Seattle. Getting to work every day will be a longer commute then I'm used to, but it shouldn't be a problem if I leave slightly earlier. The great thing about the entire move is that Anthony made it, just barely, but still made it in the same school district.

As I pulled along the curve of our new house I couldn't help the gasp that left my mouth. Anthony snickered as my hand came to my mouth. Besides Charlie's house, Esme and Carlisle's and a few months in Alice's house I'd never stayed in a house long enough to call it mine. But this house, it was mine, ours. Edward, Anthony and I, and no one can take it away from us.

I froze when my door opened, Edward standing there. He reached in, his hands coming up to cup my cheeks. With the tips of his thumbs he gently wiped the tears away from my skin, his lips brushing against mine softly. "What's wrong babe?"

"Nothing, I'm just…I am so happy that I can call this my home, with you and Anthony. Nothing has ever felt like home to me, not really, not until this. I fell like everything is coming together, finally, but there is this tugging at the back on my spin that's telling me to hold on to something tight because something's going to come and blow this happiness from under me."

"Nothing, nothing or no one will take this away from you. This is yours baby, all you. I won't allow anyone into that door that I think will mess with your peace. Our home will be filled with good energy and good people. No one with a hint of anger will step into that door or get anywhere near you or Anthony. I will lay my life on the line before I let anyone mess this up for you, do you hear me?"

"Yes, I do. I love you Edward."

"I love you too baby. Come on; let me show you around the place. Anthony's already decided we'll need a pool, oh, and a dog…."

I laughed as Edward led me out of the car and toward the one story, two garage house. I loved the fact that it was brick, everything brick, a dark tan brick, but the door, of course, and the windows. The door was white, golden handle. It was held wide open with a box that was marked 'Books x 2' written in Edward's beautiful script.

The foyer was medium size and very homey. Edward led me through it and straight towards the living room, which was dramatic and complete with a framey light fixture. I gaped. He gently pulled me away from the living room and towards the kitchen, I was done. I didn't need to see anything else. The kitchen was a chef's wet dream. Stainless steal appliances, glass cupboard doors, glass refrigerator doors. Sigh.

"Can we sleep in here?" I asked Edward as he smiled over at me.

"If you wish it." He replied amused.

"I don't have to see anything else to know that this is perfect for us, for our family. Thank you so much Edward. You are the best thing next to our son that could have ever happened to me. And I promise you that as long as I live I will never take you for granted. I love you."

"I love you too baby, forever. Let's hurry with the packing so we can finally get our home to ourselves with our son." I nodded and with his hand linked in mine we head towards the moving truck.

Five hours. Five hours is how long it took us to haul in every box, unpack every box and decorate the entire house. After feeding everyone 'thank you' pizza they were on their way and Edward, Anthony and I were left sprawled out in our living room on the floor with our heads drawn together. Edward held my left hand and Anthony took the right. We were done.

"Ma," Anthony called sluggishly.

"Yeah bud?" I answered, rubbing the back of his left hand soothingly.

"I'm tired mom…." He said trailing off as he slipped into sleep.

"I'll take him," Edward offered, standing from our tight nit circle to lift Ant. "Why don't you go ahead and get yourself ready for bed; I'll be in in just a minute love."

"Okay," I agreed standing and kissing his lips softly, then turning a little to the right to kiss Anthony on the cheek and forehead.

I took my time getting ready for my first night in my home. I ran warm water in the bath tub for a nice long bath. I searched through my draws to take out my newly required blue silk night gown, something to wear after my bath. And I also took out Edwards dressing gown, hoping he would take that nice long bath with me.

"Babe?" Edward called out to me. "Are you in there?"

"Yeah, come in." I called back.

I'd just stepped out of the last of my clothing when he walked through the door. He watched, as if in a daze, as I climbed into the warm water and took a seat. I turned to his silent form and smiled tiredly.

"Are you going to join me or stay there and stare? I mean I know you like to watch baby, but I was hoping you'd join me on this one." I smirked, watching his clothes disappear from his body in less then twenty seconds.

"Move forwards." He directed. I leaned forwards, making room for him behind me. He settled pulling my back to his chest. "Ah," he sighed tiredly. "this feels like heaven."

"I know what you mean. This has been one of the most life altering days of my life so naturally it was exhausting. Hmm…" I hummed as he began to manipulate my shoulders.

"I'm so happy we did this. I've always dreamt of you and I sharing a home." He leaned down, placing a light kiss to my neck. "Having a child together, being with you forever."

"I had the same dreams, when we were children. Now I dream of moments to come with our family; Anthony graduating high school, college. Him leaving home, getting married. Myself waking up to you every morning and laying with you every night. Moments…"

"Perfect moments. I can't wait." Edward whispered into my shoulder.

That night we made love three times; once in the tub, me straddling him. The second time out of the tub; me bent over the sink, and the last time in the shower which we had to take because of our two times before. I'd never felt more loved then when Edward held me in his arms our fist night in our new home.

-~~'\\%/'~~-

"We have two car accidents. The ambulances are within minutes of each other. The first is apart of a DD. The father and the son is in serious condition the wife and the daughter made it out without a scratch mark. The driver of the other car, the drunk, also made it out without a scratch." I turned towards Paul and looked at him stunned. My job was never easy, but working on kids in this profession has to be the hardest thing I'll ever do in life.

"I'm sorry, B." Paul said sympathetically.

"It's okay. What about the second?"

"The second was with a woman and a man, they were hit from the back and both were injured. Here comes the first ambulance. I'll take the first one." Paul offered, but it wasn't his responsibility to take and it wasn't apart of his job description to protect me.

"I have it. I'm going to need two stretchers and can someone page Doctor Cullen. Tell him to meet me in ER 6 on the second floor. Lets go, lets go, lets go."

In seconds my ER was full of commotion. When the first ambulance pulled up I ran to the doors, pulling them open and grabbing at the closest gurney to me. It was the little boy and there was blood everywhere; his face, his head, his chest, arms, legs. He was badly injured and I needed to go now.

"Ted!" I called, my assistant male nurse abandoning the father and letting the EMTs lift him out. "The boy. Help me lift and roll. They'll carry the father in and Doctor Cullen will take over from there. On my count; one…two…lift!" Ted and I lifted the young boy who was extremely silent.

"…I believe," Came the voice of an EMT from behind us. "That the boy has brain damage and a few broken ribs. His leg was trapped in the car door so we had to cut around it. When we got the door off, he began to bleed a great deal. We stopped it as best we could but it's still going. His face; cheeks, jaw, has pieces of broken glass embedded in his skin. He hit the window head on. He's also bleeding from some unlocated spot on his chest. There was just too much blood to pinpoint it. His arms were dislocated, but we were able to put one back in place. The right one has glass and we didn't want to risk infection"

"Thank you, we'll take it from here."

We entered the elevator and hit floor six in no less then twenty seconds. That's were Edward stumbled into us. One look at me and he knew that something beyond the obvious was wrong. But he kept it professional, as was I. "Doctor Swan, what can I do?"

"The father is right behind us. Take him into ER 5 and began working on him. You have Doctor Engaled and a few interns that are going to watch in on you. I'll be there as soon as possible."

"Yes Ma'am. Good luck Doctor Swan."

"You too Doctor Cullen."

Seconds after Edward entered ER 5 all hell broke out. "Doctor, he's coding!"

-~~'\\%/'~~-

After almost ten hours of working on that young boy, who I now know as Julian Burnwell, I found myself in the Doctors lounge alone, in the dark, crying my eyes out. I'll never get the image of Julian's dead, lifeless body on that gurney out of my head; albeit he was only dead for a minute. Still, the image would never leave my mind….

After coding I fought my hardest to get him stabled, but nothing seemed to work. So I opened him up and massaged his heart. Then I shocked it directly. He was once again on line, but time was limited. That's when the image changed. But I put it to the back of my head and continued to work. I had to deal with his most life threatening injuries fast or I would have lost him, and I would not have been able to bring him back. During the surgery he bleed more than any normal boy of the age of ten should have. But I found each and every hole and fixed them. I'd never been more thankful for my ability with a scalpel in my life until that moment….

"Isabella?" Came Edwards' small comforting voice. "Isabella is that you?"

"Yes," I whispered hoarsely. "I'll be out in a few minutes Edward, I promise. Just give me a moment."

The door opened wider and Edward stepped through, his slim frame coming towards me. I didn't want him to see me like this. But it looked like I wasn't going to get a choice. "Isabella," He called once more as the light above finally flicked on. I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the light. "Baby," He whispered moving to my side. He scooped me up effortlessly and sat me on his lap, my head buried in his shoulder. He went quiet and after a second I just couldn't hold it.

"He died Edward." I cried.

"But you brought him back baby. You saved his life. You were amazing and so confident. I watched you from above when I was finished with his father. You were incredible Isabella."

"Do you know what I saw when I saw that little boys body lying there on that table lifeless? I saw Anthony the night I found him running through traffic."

"Bella-"

"I know, but I couldn't help it. The image just changed and suddenly I wasn't saving Julian anymore, I was saving Anthony. I was panicking Edward. I was inside that little boys body and I was a panicked mother instead of a professional surgeon. What you saw from above was just a robotic shell. On the inside I was a mess and I've never been that way before. I mean working on young kids always gave my heart a squeeze, but this time it was different. So very different."

"Okay, I want to show you something. So clean up your face and come meet me out-front. I'll be waiting."

"Edward I'm not in the mood for any surprises."

"This is not a surprise, trust me. Now clean yourself up and meet me out front asap." With a soft kiss to my temple he stood and set me on my feet. He was out of the room shortly after. I walked into the bathroom and went to the sink. I took a look at myself in the mirror and my insides were worse off. I ran cold water and splashed my face. With a brown paper towel I dried my face and walked through the lounge until I was outside of the door in front of Edward.

"That was fast." He comment before grabbing my hand and pulling me away.

"Well I wanted to get this over with." He nodded, walking through the hospital until we met the elevator. It opened up, seconds after Edward pressed the up button and we were on it and headed to the seventh floor. "Where are you taking me Edward?"

"I want to show you why you have nothing to worry about. Come on." He disappeared in room 328 and pulled me with him. The room was empty, besides the odd paint brush and ladder. This floor of the hospital was getting repainted to make the kids more comfortable here.

Edward walked through the room and entered the rest room, still pulling me along. Once I was in he closed the door, exposing the gaping hole that was in it. I looked at him accusingly and he shook his head.

"Apparently one of the painters did it when their boss refused to give him his check. Follow me."

"There is no way I'm going into that hole. There could be anything in there."

"Oh Bella come on." Edward called behind him as he climbed through the hole. Reluctantly I followed. I was so getting this hole filled in soon.

Through the hole was a small room and in the floor of the small room was one of those trash shoots. Like the one in -Home Alone 2. It was yellow and it went straight down. Edward jumped in and went down it.

"Edward!" I yelled looking down the whole. "Edward answer me!" I demanded.

"I'm fine love. Come on, jump down!"

"Edward there is no way in hell I'm doing that!"

"It's better than it looks. Come on Bella!"

"Edward-" I wined.

"Now Bella!" With a sigh and closed eyes I lunged myself down the opening. It was fast and exhilarating. The wind flew past me fast and I felt my cheeks grow hot. I wanted to do it again.

Not long after I landed in a small pool of foam. Edward was there to pick me up. "That was amazing." I told him excitedly.

"I thought you would think so. Come on, we're not far now."

I took his hand and he led me down a small hall and into a room off the right of the hall. Inside was a big empty space. There were windows and light showed through them. Not sun light, but light from a giant workers lamp. "What is this place?" I asked Edward.

"Look over there, in the corner." I glanced to my left, following Edwards' finger. There was a small shape huddled sound asleep in the corner. Anthony. He was in a small bed, surrounded by his toys and covered in one of his blankets that went missing over two months ago. "This is one of his new hiding places. He comes down here when the kids start to get on his nerves in the daycare."

"And you let him?" I asked disapprovingly.

"Of course." Edward answered sounding unabashed. "Under a few conditions of course. The first was to show me where this was, the second was to tell me when he was coming down, the third was that there was always more than one exit in case something happened and he had to get out. But that isn't why I asked you down here. I want you to look at him Isabella. Look at our son and tell me what you see."

I knew instantly what he wanted me to say, but I couldn't. He wanted me to say that Anthony was there, right in front of me and he was safe and content and sleeping peacefully, but I couldn't say it. I just couldn't say it. Instead I cried.

"Isabella." He cooed. "I promised you that I wouldn't let anything happen to him and I meant it. I will give my life before our son is the little boy on one of those operating tables. I know what happened today scared you, but you handled it beautifully. I promise you that Anthony will be safe, always…."

A/N: I'm sorry it took me so ling to update. Anyway, i hope you liked it.