DISCLAIMER: SM owns all Twilight characters and settings. No copyright infringement intended.
WARNING: Contains references to child abuse. Read with care.
We are back to seven year old Edward in this chapter.
"Edward can you hear me?"
He nodded his head automatically, but groaned a little. His head hurt when he moved it. He felt funny…numb…and confused. He didn't recognize the voice and it didn't feel like he was lying on his mattress.
"Can you open your eyes for me, honey?"
"Kay," he said not wanting to move his head again. But when he tried to open his eyes he couldn't or at least not very wide. It was like someone was holding his eyes shut and no matter how much he tried to force them open, they wouldn't budge. But he could see the women looking down at him. She had red hair and a nice smile and she was wearing a pretty shirt with balloons on it. He tried to smile but even his lips felt funny and he wasn't sure if he was smiling or not.
"There you are. I can see those gorgeous green eyes of yours." She smiled wider. "Can you tell me where it hurts, honey?"
He tried to think about that. It didn't hurt that much except for his head and a little in his stomach where Karen had kicked him. His face felt funny but it didn't really hurt.
"My head," he said but it sounded more like muth heaaa so then he felt stupid and didn't want to say anything else. He took a deep breath and felt it; pain like a knife in his side and he cried out before he could stop himself and then he started to cry which made the pain in his side worse.
"It's alright sweetheart. Just close your eyes and try not to cry. It won't hurt as much if you don't cry. The doctor will be right in."
He closed his eyes and his head felt a little better and he tried to stop crying because she would know what she was talking about. She was a nurse and he knew he was in the hospital and that was bad…that was very bad; so if he wanted to minimize the damage he knew he had to pretend he was alright so he could go home and George and Karen wouldn't get into trouble.
"So what do we have here?"
Edward jumped a little and gasped causing another sharp stab of pain in his side. The voice sounded familiar but he didn't know why. He was sure he had never heard it before.
"I'm sorry did I scare you…son?"
He shook his head not trusting himself to speak, but then a wave of pain from behind his eyes made him feel sick. He clenched his teeth. He would not cry like a baby…he would not cry like a baby. The man had called him son. It made him almost forgot his sore head and side.
"Try not to move."
He tried not to move; it felt better when he didn't move.
"Why isn't his head immobilized?"
"He wasn't brought in by an ambulance. Someone from the reservation dropped him off."
"Dropped him off? You mean they didn't wait?"
"No Doctor Cullen. The gentlemen carried him in and we brought him right back here. I think he filled out admittance papers, but the admittance nurse said he left. Do you want me to see if he came back?"
"No. Call the sheriff's department and let them deal with it."
Edward wanted to shout out that he fell. He just fell that was all, but he felt kind of funny and wasn't sure if he could get the words out right. While he was thinking about what story he could tell that wouldn't sound like a lie, he felt hands on his face, cold hands, ice cold hands and then he knew why the doctor's voice sounded familiar.
"I'm going to feel your head, son. Tell me when it hurts?"
He didn't really tell the doctor when it hurt but his winces and groans must have given him all the information he needed to know.
"Hmmm, it looks like you have a few bumps and bruises, but nothing that won't heal up just fine. Now let's check your ribs."
This time he was prepared for the doctor's cold hands, but he was not prepared for the pain when the he touched his side, the side where Karen kicked him and he screamed out and burst into tears before he could stop himself.
"I'm sorry," the doctor said quietly in a whisper so soft that Edward could barely hear him. Then louder, "What's his name?"
"Edward Masen, Doctor."
Edward wasn't sure, but he thought he heard the doctor say something under his breath. He tried to listen harder.
"We need to get head and chest x-rays and depending on what they show, we may need to do an MRI. Does anyone know what happened?"
Edward tried to listen to see if anyone was suspicious, but there were too many noises, too many people talking and he had a hard time focusing. Besides, he was still thinking about the doctor's cold hands and his voice that sounded like maybe he should be on TV.
"Can you open your eyes for me Edward; I need to shine a light in them."
He felt the doctor's hand on his forehead. He opened his eyes obediently and what he saw made him feel instantly better. The doctor was like his princesses. His skin was pale white, his eyes were golden and sparkly and there wasn't a single thing that was scary about him. Not like Jasper. He was even smiling a little.
Edward wanted to speak, ask him if he knew Esme, Rosalie and Alice and even Jasper, but then the doctor was shining a light in his eyes and asking him to look to the right and to the left and he had to concentrate so he wouldn't look stupid.
"Okay good…all done," he finally said.
Edward guessed he did everything right, because the doctor didn't look at him like he was a stupid little kid and smiled again at him which made him feel better. He decided not to mention the others because he didn't want the nice doctor to know that he was the boy that cried like a baby and wet his pants.
"…I don't know they said he came from the reservation."
His ears perked up when he heard that word, but he closed his eyes so they would maybe think he was sleeping.
"Well he's definitely not Indian so that really doesn't make any sense," a man's voice said. It was gruff and deep and sounded nothing like the nice doctor's voice.
"Maybe he was just visiting." It was the nurse with the balloons on her shirt.
"He lives there. Not sure of the circumstances, but my wife had the pleasure of meeting him near the reservation and walked him home several weeks ago," the nice doctor said.
His wife? Who was his wife? Was it Esme, or Rosalie or Alice? He wanted to ask but then he remembered he was suppose to be asleep so he didn't say anything.
"The admittance papers have Harry Clearwater listed as the person that dropped him off. I'll go out and find out what's going on," the man with the gruff voice said.
"He told my wife he lives with George and Karen if that helps. I don't have a last name."
Oh, oh…him and his big mouth. Now he would be in big trouble for telling Esme and Rosalie who he lived with.
"What do you think happened?"
Edward didn't hear the doctor's response. He was too busy trying to come up with a reason why he was hurt. A good reason…not one that would raise suspicions or was too ridiculous to happen.
He must have really went to sleep because the next thing he knew he heard the doctor whisper against his ear. "Don't be afraid Edward. No one will hurt you again. I promise."
He wanted to tell the nice doctor that no one had hurt him, that he fell, that he tripped down the stairs but then they were wheeling him away to the x-ray room so he didn't say anything and just thought about how nice people with pale skin and musical voices and cold hands were; even when they were making promises they couldn't keep.
They let him stay overnight in the hospital which was okay except the nurse kept coming in and waking him up even though he was really really tired. In the morning, a different nurse brought him a real breakfast, but he tried not to appear over eager, because it had been his experience that if he really liked something, there was always someone around to take it away.
The doctor with the cold hands and nice voice that was Esme or Rosalie or Alice's husband didn't come back and that made him anxious. He tried to think if he did anything wrong, but he couldn't remember the night before that clearly so he couldn't say one way or the other. Maybe the doctor talked to his wife and found out that he was just a lying big baby and didn't want to keep anyone from hurting him because he was bad and deserved it.
He tried not to think about it too much because it made him feel bad and he didn't want anyone to see him cry, especially not the nurses that were nice to him or even the new doctor who was nice but didn't have cold hands or a TV voice.
He kept asking when he was going to leave the hospital so he could prepare himself but every time the door opened and he thought it might be George or Karen coming to pick them up, it never was. He didn't need anyone to tell him that they would be really mad even if it wasn't his fault and he hadn't said anything to anyone just like he was told not to do. No one had even asked him about what happened to him so he couldn't be blamed for saying something ridiculous that no one would believe.
Eventually he relaxed and even watched a little bit of TV that wasn't soap operas or sports, but a show for kids and he must have taken a nap because the next time he opened his eyes a nurse with flowery barrettes in her hair brought him dinner and sat with him while he ate it which made him self- conscious but he thought he did a good job remembering his table manners and even wiped his mouth when he was done.
"When you're done with dinner, you're going to have a visitor…Chief Swan. He'd like to have a little chat with you."
He took a deep breath without thinking and cried out in pain.
"Edward you don't have to be afraid. I know Chief Swan and he's very nice."
"I know he's nice. I know him too. He's Bella's dad, but why is he here?" Edward asked in a shaky voice. "He's suppose to spend the whole day with Bella then he's taking her to the airport so she can go back to Arizona."
He rubbed at the tears in his eyes. He didn't want to talk to Charlie. Talking to a policeman was bad and if George or Karen found out he would get into big trouble. But then he thought of something. Maybe Charlie wasn't coming as a policeman, maybe he was bringing Bella with him to visit him and that made him happy because it made a lot of sense; but then he made the mistake of telling the pretty nurse with barrettes in her hair.
"Maybe he's bringing Bella to see me?"
He knew right away that he was wrong because she was looking at him with that look that said he was deluding himself and was just a dumb kid that would believe anything, so then he pushed his food away and pulled the blankets up to his chin and squeezed his eyes shut, ignoring the questions from the nice nurse who didn't understand what was wrong.
Finally she left him alone and he had to wait by himself. They told him he would get medicine that would take the pain away and help him sleep, but it was too early to sleep and he doubted they would give it to him before Charlie came to ask him questions or maybe he was coming to take him back to the reservation. Charlie was the one that brought Mike to stay with George and Karen, so maybe he was coming to get Edward to bring him home.
He must have slept a little because the next thing he knew he heard Charlie's voice and it took him a while to realize it wasn't just a dream, but when he opened his eyes as much as he could, he saw that Charlie wasn't alone. There was a women with him, the same women that came out to the house to ask questions about the rumors on the reservation. He felt a flutter in his belly.
"Hi, Edward, how are you feeling?"'
"Okay," he said cautiously. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine…a little sad. You know what today was, right?"
"You sent Bella away on a big plane to Arizona," Edward replied slowly, hoping he hadn't, hoping Bella would just pop out and surprise him. But Charlie only nodded so then Edward knew that wasn't going to happen.
"I'm always sad to see Bella go. You and Bella became good friends over the summer, didn't you?"
Edward hesitated. He hadn't expected Charlie to ask him about Bella. He wondered how much Charlie knew.
"It's alright Edward. Bella told me you were friends. I'm glad she has a good friend here in Forks. She even asked about coming back at Christmas, which she's never done before," Charlie said kindly. He didn't seem upset that Bella was friends with a foster kid. "Would you like it if Bella came back at Christmas?"
He nodded his head then winced. He had to remember to quit moving it so much.
"Well if she comes, I'll make sure she pays you a visit it…how's that?"
"Okay," he replied pressing back into the pillow to remind himself not to nod when Charlie asked him something.
"Now you probably know that I'm not here to talk to you about Bella." Charlie glanced over his shoulder, like he finally remembered there was someone else in the room with them.
Edward decided not to say anything this time or nod either. He knew what was coming and he was ready.
"Can you tell me how you got hurt?"
"I fell." He was experienced enough to know that he would have to elaborate, but he would wait until Charlie asked the question.
"You fell…huh and where did you fall?"
"Down the stairs."
"How did you fall down the stairs?"
"I tripped."
"Did anyone trip you?"
"No."
"Was anyone with you when you fell?"
Edward thought about that. Without George or Karen to tell him what to say he couldn't know what they told Charlie or social services. So he decided it was best to keep his options open.
"I don't remember."
"You don't remember?" Charlie's eyebrow went up. He was suspicious.
"There might have been someone else there, but I'm not sure."
"So no one pushed you or tripped you?"
"No."
"Which stairs did you fall down?"
Edward felt his hear race and he winced at the pain in his side. Charlie wanted details. That was bad. It was easy to get caught in a lie if there were details.
There were three staircases in the house. One that led out the back door, one that led out the front door and one that went into the basement. The basement stairs was the longest and steepest. He decided to stick with the truth, at least the truth about which stairs he fell down.
"The basement stairs."
"So let me see if I got this right. You fell down the basement stairs and as far as you know, no one pushed you or tripped you."
"Yeah…no…I…" another deep breath, another gasp of pain. He touched his hand to his head to make himself concentrate. "I fell down the basement stairs, by myself…I tripped. I don't remember if anyone was around."
"Now Edward, I think we both know that you didn't get all those bruises from just falling down the stairs." Charlie was looking at him with his policemen's face on, but he didn't look mad even though he guessed he was lying.
Edward decided not to say anything and glanced over at the social services lady who was sitting behind Charlie. She had a frown on her face. He couldn't tell if she was suspicious or not.
"Did you go out in the woods by yourself before you fell down the stairs?"
That comment brought his attention back to Charlie. How did Charlie know he went out into the woods? The only way he could know is if someone told him.
"Yes, I…I went by the river and fell asleep," he mumbled.
"Did you see anyone else out in the woods or were you by yourself?"
This time he looked up and locked eyes with Charlie. He did see someone else. He saw Jasper and Alice. How could Charlie know that? He couldn't, could he? No one could. But then he remembered the doctor with the cold hands. Maybe he went home and Alice told him about the little boy that was lost in the woods and peed his pants. Maybe the doctor told Charlie and Charlie would believe the doctor more than he would believe Edward or George and Karen for that matter. Still…
"I was by myself." He didn't want to mention seeing Alice and Jasper unless he had to. He didn't want anyone to know that he was a scaredy cat baby that wet his pants.
"Are you sure?"
He started to nod his head, felt a little dizzy and stopped. "Yeah, I'm sure. I'd remember something like that."
"I think you should know that I talked with George and Karen and they said that they found you in the woods by the river and you were already hurt. Did someone in the woods hurt you, Edward?"
Charlie was staring at him so hard, that he couldn't look at him even though he knew that it made him look guilty if he didn't. He thought about Jasper and how he was pretty sure that Jasper wanted to do a lot worse things to him then George or Karen did. He could lie. It was a good lie, a lie that maybe someone would believe…someone like Charlie. All he had to do was tell him that he saw Jasper and Alice in the woods and not elaborate about anything else. It's not like Edward would know Jasper any other way unless he saw him in the woods and Jasper was scary. He didn't think a person had to be a little kid to see that. But even if he scared him as bad as he'd ever been scared in his life, Jasper hadn't hurt him, so he didn't think it would be very nice to blame anything on Jasper just so George and Karen wouldn't get into trouble.
"I fell asleep by the river and when I woke up it was really really late, so I walked home and it was dark in the house and I fell down the stairs."
"So you didn't see anyone else in the woods, not before you went to sleep or after you woke up?"
"No."
"Do you know why George and Karen would tell us that story?"
"No…why? He said mystified. But when Charlie smiled he knew he misunderstood the question. He yawned and rubbed his eyes and saw Charlie and the social services lady share a look.
"Are you tired, Edward?" Charlie asked, patting his hand.
Edward nodded, winced and closed his eyes. He wished someone would come in and immobilize him so he couldn't move his head at all.
"The doctor tells me that you should be ready to go home tomorrow."
Edward's eyes flew open and he met Charlie's gaze. He felt a flutter of fear in his stomach and hoped Charlie couldn't see it on his face. Policemen were really good about seeing things like that.
"Do you want to go back to George and Karen's, Edward?"
He swallowed. That was probably the easiest question Charlie asked all night. No he did not want to go back, but he knew that wasn't the answer they were looking for and it was simple enough to lie.
"Okay," he said, but that was wrong. That wasn't what he meant to say at all. He was such a dummy. How hard was it to say yes?
"Edward, would you like it if we found you another place to live?" For the first time the social worker lady spoke. She was nice enough. Edward remembered her from other visits to the house, but he knew better than to trust anyone from the government and it was his experience that another place was not always a better place. He decided not to say anything.
"I can't promise that we can find a family for you right away, but you can always come back to the county home for a few weeks until we do. How did you like it there, do you remember?"
Edward studied her for a minute trying to decide if this was a trick question. When he was pretty sure it wasn't he answered her honestly enough. "It was good. There were a lot of kids to play with."
And that was true; there were a lot of kids there. The county home was really just a great big house with a lot of small bedrooms, one for each kid and a staff that looked after them. The staff was different in the morning and at night and there were no foster moms or dads. Some of the kids called it an orphanage, but he wasn't an orphan and neither were any of the other kids he met. No, the county home was just fine and no one hit him there. So he couldn't really understand why he was crying.
"Edward, it will only be for a few weeks. We'll find you nice home, hopefully in time for you to start school with the rest of your class," the nice social worker lady said.
He nodded, cried out loud in pain this time and closed his eyes again.
"Okay I think we're done. You've done a good job answering our questions, kiddo." Charlie stood up and gave his hand a squeeze. "Don't worry, everything will work out just fine and no matter what family you end up with, I'll make sure that Bella stays in touch."
"Kay," he said, keeping his eyes shut so no more tears could come out.
"Good bye Edward, I'll be here tomorrow to pick you up," the social worker lady said.
Edward didn't respond. He heard her sigh but he didn't care if she was frustrated with him or not. His head hurt because it wasn't immobilized, his side hurt whenever he breathed and now he was going to have to move away from the reservation and all his Indian friends. Worst of all, his army men, his baseball and his books, especially the Harry Potter books were gone. He knew from experience that the county home didn't allow personal items, everything had to be shared and he had no way to go get his stuff even if he could find a way to hide it.
"Hello, Chief Swan, I'm glad I caught you, I'd like to talk with you if you have a minute."
Edward didn't open his eyes, but his ears perked up immediately upon hearing the voice by the door of his room.
"Doctor Cullen," Charlie acknowledged. "Edward and I just finished up having a nice chat. It sounds like he will be released from the hospital sometime tomorrow."
"Yes, that's right. That's what I want to talk to you about. We should probably have this conversation in my office."
"This is Edward's social worker, Mrs. Grant. I'm sure she'd like to come if you don't mind?"
"No of course not. It's a pleasure to meet you. Please, come with me."
Edward heard the click of his door and the sound of their voices faded away. When they were gone, he tried to sleep but he was nervous about what the doctor wanted to talk with Charlie about. He thought that it was late enough that the nurse should be by to give him medicine so he could sleep with no pain, but eventually he got tired of waiting for her and fell asleep on his own. He was pretty sure that he hadn't slept very long when someone with ice cold hands was touching his face. His eyes flew open.
"Hi Edward, do you remember me from last night? I'm Doctor Cullen."
He nodded his head and groaned.
"Try not to move your head. It won't hurt as much. I've brought you some pain medicine, but I'm afraid your head is going to hurt for a while. You have a concussion. Do you know what that is?"
Edward almost shook his head no, but then he remembered and stopped himself.
"No."
"It means you bruised your brain. It will hurt for a while and there's not much we can do about it, but in a few days you'll start feeling a lot better, so it's nothing for you to worry about."
"Kay."
"Now as for the pain in your side, that's going to take a little longer. You have a bruised rib. We can't do much for that either, other than let it heal on its own and it's going to be more painful than your head because you have to breathe and every time you do, it's going to hurt."
"Only when I breathe a lot," Edward corrected the doctor. He couldn't imagine why he was so scared of Jasper and wasn't scared of the doctor at all. They looked a lot alike. He thought about asking but then figured it might be rude. People didn't like it when you said things about how they looked unless you were telling them they were pretty or beautiful or handsome or something like that.
"So when you take little short breaths, it doesn't hurt that much, correct?"
"Yeah…I mean no."
"The problem with doing that is it's bad for your lungs. You need to take deeper breaths to keep your lungs from getting sick, but that will hurt more. I'm going to show you some exercises that I want you to do as often as you can. It will hurt, but it will make sure that you don't get sick. Okay?"
Edward frowned at that. It didn't make sense that he should do something that would hurt if he could help it but he supposed the doctor would know more than he did.
The doctor seemed to be waiting for him to answer. "Okay," he finally said and then before he could stop himself he burst out. "Who's your wife?"
The doctor looked startled. "My wife? Did you hear me talking to the policemen last night?"
Edward thought about that. He couldn't remember who the doctor was talking too, just someone with a gruff voice. Was that a policeman? He shrugged.
"My wife is Esme. She said that she met you in the woods by the reservation." He was smiling now.
Edward started to nod, but then he remembered not too. "Yes, Esme and Rosalie. They walked me home."
"Rosalie is my daughter…my adopted daughter."
"They were nice," Edward said smiling a little himself.
"Can I ask you something Edward?" The doctor leaned forward and was talking in a hushed voice, like he didn't want anyone else to hear.
Before Edward could say anything, like no, he didn't want to answer any more questions, the doctor continued.
"Why didn't you tell Charlie that you saw Jasper and Alice last night?"
Edward froze. How did he know that? Charlie must have told him. Did the doctor think he was a bad person for lying? He didn't look like he was mad; in fact he looked almost, well…happy wasn't it but he couldn't think of the right word for what he imagined the doctor was thinking. He decided to tell the truth.
"I didn't want them to get in trouble."
"You didn't want who to get in trouble?"
Edward sighed. "I didn't want Jasper and Alice to get in trouble."
"And why would they get in trouble?"
Edward looked at the doctor skeptically. Did he really not know? "Because George and Karen said someone hurt me in the woods and I didn't want Jasper and Alice to be blamed for something that wasn't true. Even if…"
He hesitated and glanced at the doctor out of the corner of his eye. He wasn't sure that he could trust him. Doctors were like policemen. They did good things but sometimes the good things they did made things worse for the people that they were doing the good thing for.
"Even if what, Edward."
"Even if Jasper is super scary."
The doctor laughed; a real laugh, not a fake laugh like he heard from most adults when they were pretending that something he said was funny.
"You are a pretty smart boy, Edward," he said like he meant it and that made Edward feel funny. Like he might cry even though there was no reason that being told he was smart by a doctor should make him feel that way. He really thought that maybe this doctor understood him better than anyone ever had before, well aside from Bella.
"Can you tell me who really hurt you?"
Then he had to go and ruin it.
"I fell down the stairs," he said sullenly.
"Okay, well from what I understand from Charlie and Mrs. Grant, you won't be going back to George and Karen's. They can't have foster kids in a house where falling down the stairs can lead to the kind of injuries you have."
Edward knew the doctor was being sarcastic and this made him feel bad. He didn't like lying to him, but he couldn't change his story now.
"Charlie told me that tomorrow they wanted to move you back to the county home."
Edward didn't say anything.
"He doesn't think it's a good idea and neither do I."
The doctor looked at him closely and Edward shut his eyes. He felt like he was going to cry again. He didn't understand why he couldn't get his emotions under control.
"Edward, Charlie suggested something to me and I think it might be a good idea. I want you to think about it tomorrow when you wake up."
The serious tone in the doctor's smooth voice made Edward open his eyes. The doctor was extremely close to him. So close that he could see how the gold in his eyes fanned out and was black around the edges. He remembered how Jasper eyes had been completely black but then they turned golden just like that. He wondered if it worked the other way too. He didn't like to think of the doctor with black eyes, but it seemed like a possibility.
"How would you like to come and live with me and my family for a few weeks until they can find you another foster home?"
Edward felt his eyes widen in surprise. Of all the things he thought the doctor might say to him, asking him to come and stay with him for a little while was not one of them. First no one ever asked him anything. They just told him what to do. He never had a choice. Second, that would mean he could be with his princesses and see them every day which gave him that feeling like when he was around Bella, that happy warm feeling. But then he remembered something.
"Is Jasper going to be there?"
The doctor smiled but he looked sad and Edward was sorry he mentioned it.
"Jasper will be there. He's my son, my adopted son. You don't have to be afraid of him Edward. He won't hurt you, but if you don't feel comfortable with him there, he will leave while you're staying with us…okay?"
"Okay. Edward said, feeling bad that the doctor would make his son leave so Edward would feel comfortable. He would have to be sure to not be afraid of Jasper.
"I have some things to work out. We're not even sure if the county will allow it, but we have fostered kids before, in fact all of my children were foster kids before we adopted them, so we think they might make an exception."
The doctor continued talking and Edward closed his eyes again. He was so tired, he could hardly think about going to live with the doctor.
"I don't think it would be a good idea for you to be in a home with a lot of other kids right now. You need to recover and if you're with me I can help you with your breathing exercises. I can't make any promises but before we move forward with this I want to make sure it's something you would want to do."
Edward nodded and winced. He was kind of excited to think he would get to hear the doctor's voice a lot more if he lived with him while he recovered. Maybe it would take him a long time to recover and maybe they wouldn't find a suitable foster home for him for a long time, he thought it would be nice to live with the doctor and Esme and Rosalie and Alice, and he tried not to think about Jasper or Emmett who he hadn't even met yet.
He must have fallen asleep again because the next thing he knew, a cold arm was around his back and he tasted an icky cherry flavor in his mouth and realized it was his pain and sleep medicine, but he didn't really want it anymore. He wanted to think about living with the doctor and his family, because as far as he could remember no one ever actually wanted him to live with them before.
Author Notes:
I'm sure Carlisle had plenty of opportunity to help children over his decades as a doctor so to justify why he chose to get involved with Edward I had to establish a prior relationship with the Cullens via encounters in the woods around the reservation.
Thoughts?