Life and Death
Author's Note: Read the Support Notes after this, please?

Not always accurate. I don't do medicine.

Oh, I'm playing with time. It skips quite a bit of time each interval. You'll get filled in later.

Disclaimer: Twilight is not mine. There aren't that many creative ways to say it.

--

The pain.

It burned her numb body again and she rose to the surface, even as she fought to stay under that cold, dark, influence of sleep. Her whole body felt as though she were in that corridor, burning again, the flames racing up and down her body.

Such pain. She wished she could just sink beneath those lapping waves of unconsciousness, but the pain reared and pulled her closer and closer to the surface once again, unrelenting.

Her eyes shot open and the first thing she saw… was him.

The face of an angel.

--

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Doctor Williams apologised to a distraught Charlie.

Charlie paced up and down the corridor, wearing holes in his shoes more than in the ground. He thought over the decision he and Renee needed to make – which he had no idea would be as important as another person's decision they had made.

"Why are you telling me this? Where is Doctor Cullen?"

"I'm afraid something came up at his house and he needed to take some time off, so he hasn't been here for the past three days."

Charlie mulled this over. Although it was true that he had certainly not seen Doctor Cullen – Carlisle – for days now, he hadn't actually thought to ask. He wasn't sure how much this Doctor Williams knew about his daughter's condition, and that made him anxious.

Renee came in from up the corridor abruptly and watched Charlie and Doctor Williams suspiciously as they both glanced at her in surprise. Phil came racing up from behind, the lunch they had gone outside to get in his hands. Renee glanced at the doctor with an order for him to explain what was happening.

"Can you tell me more about her condition?" She finally asked.

"She's been placed on life support. She hasn't been doing very well, especially since, well, two days ago. We had to up her morphine because she showed more signs of life than she has in a long time. She was showing a lot of pain, but her heart is slowing down now. We're forcing it to continue beating, but its slowly failing. I don't think there is anything we can do."

Charlie nodded. "If we leave her, is there any chance she'll wake up?"

The doctor's face was grim. "Not much, I'm afraid. If her heart is failing, there is nothing we can do about heart failure."

"Do you think if I said yes to what you asked, that would be an ethical decision?"

The doctor sighed. "As doctors, we don't want to commit euthanasia, but if there is a slim chance of her waking up again and, I'm sorry, there is very little chance of saving her, then…." He trailed off.

"Have there been other students who have been like this?" Renee asked to fill the uncomfortable silence which had fallen.

"Sadly no, but a few of the students have been so badly hurt, they have had to been flown off to have extensive surgery. However, we cannot find what is wrong with Isabella."

Charlie and Renee both flinched at her name as Phil looked extremely concerned, a frown on his face, next to Renee.

Danger Magnet. Edward sighed, as he listened to them a little while away. It would be just like Bella to be the only one with a life-threatening and nonsensical thing happen to her, wouldn't it? There was always some way to get her in trouble. However it wasn't really her fault that her heart was dying – that could be put down to the effects of vampire venom.

"Then, we will say yes. We will turn off her life support."

As Charlie and Renee followed Doctor Williams to look over some legal documents and Phil sat down morosely on the bench to wait, Edward slipped back into the room.

"Make the preparations." He said to Alice, who was waiting inside. "Are you sure it will be tonight? We don't have much time left."

"Don't worry." Alice's voice reassured him confidently.

Edward glanced at Bella's monitors. They beeped sullenly and sluggishly. Bella's heart was slowing down now, although the life support machines urged it to go. Bella's body had been through a lot in the past few days as they tried to keep her alive and the Cullens had had to play along, although they knew what they had done could not be reversible now.

Edward wondered if Bella would like what he had done.

Alice slipped outside as Edward heard the approaching of feet and could hear the thoughts which followed them. Sitting down, he steeled himself for the news he knew was coming.

--

Bella woke up in a familiar room. A very familiar room, in fact. Sitting up, she looked around, taking in the furniture in the room. No doubt about it, this was Edward's room.

Suddenly the memories came rushing back and she remembered pain and burning and the angel she had seen for an instant before slipping back into pain once more. It had been dulled for a while – under morphine, she guessed – but she had not been able to return to sleep. In fact…

Suddenly she had that thought – the same one as she had in the ambulance long ago.

Bella rushed over to the mirror and stared into it, seeing her own blood red eyes. She stumbled back as the door opened and she crashed straight into Edward. He looked down at her amusedly and her eyes widened as she looked up at him. In that instant, she could hear voices from all over and flinched away in fright.

Edward frowned at her and dropped his arms to his sides. Bella glanced back and realised she must have offended him. She tried to apologise.

"I'm sorry, Edward. I don't know why… I suddenly heard… voices."

Edward frowned at her. His eyes showed that he accepted the apology, however there was also confusion in them as he tried to make sense. Was this, her skill?

"Bella!" Alice bounded in the door, crashing into Bella and a loud bang sounded in our wake. As Alice tried to hug Bella, cheerfully, suddenly an image showed in her mind and she also stumbled back from Alice, who stared at her strangely.

Edward stretched a hand out to Bella as she looked confused and swayed sideways slightly. They were all as confused as she was. Edward and Alice exchanged looks and Edward nudged Bella towards the couch, making her sit down and explain.

When she had finished, they glanced at each other again. This was an interesting ability.

"What do you mean?" Bella asked as she studied their faces.

"We think…. No, wait." Alice's face went distant for a while as she decided to have a look to check. "Yep, we should be right."

The suspense was killing her. Bella just managed not to throw something at Alice in frustration.

"You can share another person's power as long you have physical contact." Alice announced eventually.

Bella's elegant eyebrows shot up and her eyes flickered towards Edward. He nodded slowly.

"That's right."

--

Author's Note: Bella never has the same ability in any fanfiction. Here she can share an ability if she has physical contact with them, as a vampire's skill is based on their personality or skills in their previous life. I'm not sure my version of her skill really shows this, however, it was just a passing fancy – that never quite passed.

Bella's also had the ability to erase minds in another of my fanfics. Not to mention I thin I was going to make her have some other ability in another… nevermind.

More stuff sorted out next chapter.

ACHOO. Don't mind my temper. You know why. (Crabby when sick. xP)