Title: Seven Minutes in Heaven
Author: Readingmama/Vampiremama
Beta: AcrossTheSkyInStars

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters. No copyright infringement is intended.

Continuity: AH/AU
Rating: M

Thanks to everyone reading, reviewing, alerting and lurking. I appreciate you all. Huge hugs to my beta Acrosstheskyinstars and to Chartwilightmom for prereading.

Chapter 9

Bella spent the next few weeks learning about Edward's band. Google had become her new best friend so much that Kate seemed to give her computer a dirty look every time she walked by.

"They don't have a manager," Bella said as she looked up at her friend who crossed by on her way to the kitchen to grab a drink.

"They are a small band, Bella. They can't afford a manager likely. Unless a band has a record contract, they don't really live in the lap of luxury."

Bella wrinkled her nose. She'd make a good manager; then she could be on the road with Edward all the time. The idea was stupid and reckless and she wished she was still seventeen so she could continue to convince herself that quitting her job to be a groupie was a good idea.

4 weeks later

"Did I make a mistake?" Bella asked Kate as she watched Sam dancing with his new girlfriend, Emily. She was tall and dark and beautiful, and they looked so good together. It made Bella's heart tug that it would still be two more weeks before she saw Edward, and still it would only be for a few days.

"Definitely," Kate replied, earning her a shoulder bump from Garrett. "What?" she hissed at him. "Sam is a fine specimen. I mean, so is Edward, but Sam is here and you could have been tapping that."

"We both know you wanted to tap that far more than Bella," Garrett teased, totally unworried. He knew he had Kate's heart and the smile she gave him proved he had hers.

"This is harder than I thought it would be," Bella admitted out loud for the first time. A few hurried phone calls over the past month did nothing but make her heart long.

Kate sighed and looked helpless at her friend. "Come on, let's dance. You know you love when we make all the boys look at us thinking we're lesbians." Bella rolled her eyes but smiled at her friend's joke. "Alright, you come too, Garret, we'll make a sandwich out of you."

The three of them made their way to the dance floor. Bella found herself having fun but something was missing. She just couldn't decide if it was worth waiting for.

"I miss you so much," Bella said, cradling the phone to her ear as she sat in her oversized chair. Everything seemed so clear when she could hear him. Waiting was easy when she had tangible reasons to.

"I miss you, too," Edward replied. "Only one more day." The road was wearing on him and Bella could tell he needed a recharge.

"You sound exhausted."

"It's always like this near the end of the tour. A good night's sleep in a real bed will fix me right up."

"And whose bed are you going to be in? Because last I heard, you didn't have a place secured here yet," she teased.

"Well I don't want to assume, but I was hoping I could stay with you?" Edward asked shyly.

"Of course you can," Bella said with a smile. But she was met with silence. "Edward?"

"Watch out!" he yelled but it sounded far away.

The next few moments were unlike any Bella had ever experienced, screeching and the sound of metal on metal came barreling through the earpiece.

"Edward? Edward!" The first was timid, the second came out as a scream.

Her heart pounded as the seconds felt like hours, waiting to hear something, anything to indicate Edward was okay. Too long, she thought to herself as she waited and waited. The sounds of the sirens began quietly and then grew.

"Please, please, please," Bella chanted softly as she strained to hear anything.

Voices shouted out instructions but they bounced off Bella's understanding, making it feel like they were speaking in a different language. Finally something made it passed her confused brain.

"We need a stretcher over here, and oxygen. Bleeding is bad."

Bella's heart pounded faster and the lump in her throat grew. Not Edward, not after they had just found each other again.

More words were passed between the obvious paramedics but Bella couldn't understand what any of it meant. She wanted to scream into the phone, to get them to hear her, to find out. Still, there was a part of her scared to do it. What if she interrupted them when Edward needed them the most? What if these were his last moments?

Bella jumped up, pulling her cell phone away from her ear. Quickly she hit the location button on the phone, her eyes frantically searching for a familiar name. She zoomed out and saw the name of the town, then put the phone back to her ear.

Silence.

The paramedics were gone.

Reluctantly, Bella ended the call, there wasn't much more she could do. Her mind became deathly calm, and a list of what to do became clear. Texting Kate, she grabbed a duffle from the closet and began to fill it with clothes and her toiletries. Even though she felt in control, she knew she shouldn't drive. The closer she got to Edward, the more unravelled she was likely to become. She didn't think Edward would have a chance to get to his phone but if he did, she wanted him to know she was on her way, so she texted him as well. Once her bag was packed, she locked up her place and headed outside to wait for Kate.

Once they were on the road, Bella wondered if she made a mistake having Kate drive her at all. Her friend was more anxious than she was.

"How do you know where they took him?" Kate asked, tapping nervously on the steering wheel.

"There is only one hospital in the area," Bella answered, not taking her eyes off the stain on the dash, it gave her something else to focus on.

Kate opened her mouth to say something else, but a quick glance at Bella stopped her. Bella knew she probably looked rabid. Her eyes were glassy, she wasn't sure she could string together more than one coherent sentence.

As they drove, her mind would start to wander, but Bella would quickly snap it back with facts; the next turn Kate needed to take, the words of the song playing on the radio, anything that would help her stay distracted from the fact that she may have had her last conversation with Edward, her last kiss, her last everything.

Bella knew the ride was going to be long and she should probably rest before she got there, but the best she was going to be able to do was to close her eyes. Even then it was for no more than fifteen minutes before her mind was full of images of her and Edward together, and her throat would tighten and she'd have to open her eyes to clear her emotions.

"Looks like we're getting close," Kate said when Bella opened her eyes again, nodding at the GPS showing on her phone screen.

The hospital parking lot only had a handful of cars in it. It looked too small to have all the services a hospital could need, but Bella told herself to calm down. The town was small but they wouldn't bring him here if they couldn't help him.

Unless it was too late.

Bella walked briskly, a couple steps in front of her friend to the front desk. A older blonde woman smiled up at her with the tired eyes of someone who'd worked a double shift.

"I'm looking for Edward Cullen, he was in an accident."

The lady looked at her computer and typed, and then looked back up, her eyes looked even more haggard after looking at the information.

"Down the hall, second door on your right. Room 124B"

"Thank you," Kate said for Bella as she was already half jogging down the hall.

As she rounded the corner, she stopped dead. Leaning over the bed a petite woman was sniffling. Bella's heart leapt into her throat. The girl must have sensed her because her head lifted and she turned to face Bella.

"Bella? Bella Swan?"

"Alice?" Bella said in recognition.

Alice was up out of her chair and she ran to Bella, tossing her thin arms around her and squeezing her tight.

Bella looked at Edward on the bed as she held Alice, her body trembling.

Just as Kate came around the corner, Bella said, "Is he going to be okay?"

Alice responded by sobbing harder.