third chap is up! Edward POV just this once. sorry for any confusion or if it seems a bit disconnected or rushed. it's 12:11 pm here, and i'm running on none cafinated Orange Soda...not good....hahahahahahahha!! ...see? not good...

love you guys who have faved, alerted, or reviewed...

-isabell the looserrrrrrrrrrrr (agg...stupid keyyyyyyyy)

"Guilt is perhaps the most painful companion to death."

--Coco Chanel--

Fault Line

I was reading in my room when I first heard the commotion downstairs, but I didn't pay it any mind; probably just Rosalie having another row with Alice, like usual. I sighed and returned to my book, wishing Bella was here to talk to. It always got so dull without her here, and I constantly had a nagging feeling that something had gone wrong…what if something had?

No. I fought the thought back with a resigned sigh. Jacob's with her, he'll look after her.

Suddenly the door burst open and Alice appeared, flustered, from the other side. I sat up and dropped the book to the floor, no longer interested in fictional characters. "Alice, what…"

Her thoughts flashed through to me with lightning speed and intensity, though she spoke the words at the same time. "Bella's been injured, Edward. Badly. She's on her way to the hospital."

I had no idea what expression betrayed me, but I could only guess it was fear. "How…What? When?!"

Alice grabbed my arm and towed me to the doorway, continuing. "She got in a motorcycle accident with Jacob. She's being rushed to the ER as we speak. Carlisle's ready to leave and take care of it."

I have no memory of what happened next; maybe nothing. I vaguely remember moving as if in a dream; knocking first Rosalie, then Emmett out of the way as I charged outside. The rest is a jumble of flashing lights and distorted voices. My Bella…motorcycle accident…Jacob with her…my fault…my fault…my fault…

They rushed Bella past me on a gurney. Surrounded by a jumble of EMTs, nurses with machinery, doctors arguing over procedures, curious bystanders, and nurse's aides hefting IV feeds over their heads to let gravity do its job, I could not get a good look at her; she was also covered by sheets.

If I could have had a heart attack, I would have then.

"Come on, Son." Carlisle gripped my arm and led the way to the ER, following the flood of personnel.

I was shoed into a corner by a heart monitoring machine and told to stay out of the way, but I only had eyes for the girl lying beneath the blood-covered sheets; my Bella.

Nurses buzzed around; whisking away the gory sheets, attaching IVs and heart monitor cables to Bella. EMTs hefted Bella's lifeless form from the saturated gurney onto another clean table and traded information. Amid all of this, Carlisle appeared by Bella's side and immediately called in for some oxygen.

I stared at Bella, my sweet, wonderful, breakable Bella and couldn't pretend to breath. Her face; coated in drying blood and gravel seemed oddly disfigured and shaped, and there was little left of her left ear. Horrible burns blistered along her arms and legs, and one huge bubbling spot covered her chest from the left shoulder, across her neck, to the right hip. Not my Bella.

As I watched, her eyes flickered open, and she glanced warily about her as if she'd merely fallen asleep. Her blistered eyelids blinked, taking in what the doctors and nurses were doing. Her gaze travelled to me, leaning over her.

"Eee…" her lip twisted into a strange shape, the corner sagging down to touch her chin as she fought to say my name.

"Ssh," I told her, wanting desperately to touch her, but not wanting to cause more pain. "Everything's alright. Don't speak. I'm right here."

A nurse brusquely shoved me aside. "Excuse me." Another two stood at the other side of Bella, and began to scrub at her fresh wounds with bristly brushes.

Bella let out a scream, though it was more like the dying call of a wounded animal. Her body convulsed away from the pain, but they merely scrubbed harder. I leapt forward, only to be shoved back by Carlisle.

They have to get the dead skin and gravel off before we can do anything for her.

I let him push me back, my eyes locked on Bella's convulsing form. She simply laid there, her neck and feet touching the table as her middle strained against the brushes and hands that held her down, her mouth gaping open but no sounds coming out. Her head rolled to the side and her eyes trained on me, tears flowing down her cheeks.

"Take her to the AP scan, find some grafts!" called Carlisle, and she was suddenly whisked away from me, into another room, where I could only imagine what horrors lay in store for her.