He was chasing me with a banana slug. The bastard was chasing me with a banana slug.
We were on a camping trip; one that we took every year to the redwoods in California. But this had never happened before.
I had a jug of ice water that I was ready to throw at him as he creeped up on me like a pouncing cheetah.
"Don't do it. I'll kick your ass!" I screamed, a big, fat smile on my face.
"I'll do it..." He chuckled, crouching down as we circled each other.
"So will I!" I shouted, throwing the ice water at him. "I am victorious!"
He laughed, throwing his hands in the air. "You certainly di-", his sentence was cut off as two shots were fired from behind him. I saw the blood spray out from the two bullet holes in his chest.
He collapsed to the ground, convulsing.
"CARLISLE!" I screamed, rushing to him, holding his face. "Stay with me! Please! Don't close your eyes! Don't leave me!"
As he closed his eyes, I patted his cheek, reading his lips as he spoke something, but I couldn't hear what he was saying.
"Bella... Bells..." Someone was gently shaking me, quickly jerking me from my horrid dream. Thank God, it was my brother. He sat on the side of my bed as I curled against him, crying.
"Shhh, Bella. It was only a dream. Just a dream. He's safe. And so are you." He rocked me back and forth. Even growing up, my brother was always like this; very much like a father figure to me. Carlisle almost looks at him the same way, sometimes, with only being 5 years apart from each other; Emmett was the eldest.
My breathing became erratic as I hiccuped from crying. "Th-thank y-y-you for pull-pulling me o-out of t-that..."
My head was throbbing, and my body was drenched in sweat, as I allowed myself to cry some more. I needed this. I needed to just cry.
"It's alright. It's okay." He continued rocking me like a little kid.
When our mom died when I was 6, Emmett was 18, he'd rock me like this. For some reason, he felt the need to be strong; to be the bigger one. He never cried in front of me. He would always soothe my pains when mom or dad weren't there. I was practically raised by Emmett. Our dad was always off at work (he was the chief of his division for 20 years), so we never saw him. It was our aunt that looked after us. But when we were old enough, Emmett took care of me while going to medical school. He taught me how to ride on my first bike, how to make a fire, and how to fix the toilet in the bathroom. The man was my savior at 6 years old. He still is today. Though the gap in our age is so drastic, we still remain closer than ever.
"My head is hurting. A lot." I spoke, quietly.
"I'll get you some food, and we'll see if that helps at all."
I nodded, rolling off of him, onto the bed, watching him walk away. I laid there on my stomach for a few short minutes, thinking of the dream while closing my eyes.
Suddenly, my iPad began to ring with the familiar sound of Skype.
Quickly, I snatched up the iPad, unlocking it, answering Carlisle's call.
His video came up first. It wrenched my stomach. His beautiful face was swollen and cut up, yet he was still smiling. I brought up my video next, tears coming to my eyes with a smile on my face.
"Good God, what happened to you?" He asked me.
I laughed, covering my mouth and tears, "A little accident. But Emmett's here." I paused for a moment. "Speaking of which, you look like hell." I added, giggling.
"Yeah, I feel like hell too," He turned his head away from the Skype to speak to someone who came in the room. "Anyway, I'm coming home in a week. To the UW Med Center. They want to keep me here a bit longer." Carlisle stopped as he saw me tear up again.
"That's so soon. Will I see you soon?" I asked, my heart began to flutter with joy.
"Yes." A big grin appeared on his face. "I'm not completely healed yet, but I'm stable, and they want to transport me home as soon as possible. I'll be in the hospital for a day or two, but then I'll be home. With you."
Emmett walked into the room with a piece of toast. I gestured him over to the front of the camera, smiling. "Emm! Carlisle's on. And he's scheduled to come home next week!"
"Woo!" He set down the plate and came running over with a big smile on his face. "Hey, Doc! How yah feelin'?"
"Good, Emmett, thank you." He replied, smiling.
"What'd they do to you?"
"There were two ballistic wounds; both were very clean penetrations. They found a pulmonary contusion in my left lung, while the other was to the posterior of my shoulder, where the acromion, top of the humerus and supraspinatos tendon were all severely damaged. My doctor, I think he spoke to you, Bella, trained me in gunshot wounds," He laughed, "Needless to say, I'm in excellent care." He showed us his arm. It was in a sling, but there was a weird metal device that was attached to rods going into his arm, through his skin. "This is an external brace. It's temporary."
Carlisle was only doing this for Emmett's sake. Emmett was an orthopedic surgeon specializing in shoulder, elbow and hand surgery. He was wanting to study cardiology, but decided against it. Carlisle specialized in orthopedics too, that's how he met Emmett, and through Emmett, he met me. He is a trauma surgeon, and is studying cardiology. Ah, doctors.
"That looks so painful." I said.
"Eh, it's not. Not the brace, at least."
"Wicked. Did you go into shock at all?" Emmett asked.
"Yes, in the beginning. My lung never collapsed, but it constricted my breathing. I felt like I was drowning."
"It happens." He looked to me, chuckled and back to Carlisle on Skype. "I'll let you go. You probably wanna talk to your girl." Emmett kissed the side of my head and instructed me to eat before I took the ibuprofen, and walked out into the living room.
I turned back to the screen. "You've got dark circles-" I paused, looking closer. "Why do you have a black eye?"
"I won't go into the details. Let's just say that I was beaten before anything happened."
My eyes sprang to tears again. "I feel so helpless."
"You aren't. I told you; you are what kept my heart beating, Bella. Marcus told me that when I was in shock; stone dead shock... I cried out your name. Just your name. No one else. I could see you, feel you with me."
"God damn you, Carlisle Cullen." I wiped my streaming tears from my cheeks. "Hopeless romantic."
"You are no better, my love." He chuckled. "So, are you going to tell me what happened to you?"
We continued to speak for a long while, until someone came in and told Carlisle that he needed to relax and not push it. I didn't need to either.
Night fall came once again, and by now, I was alone. Emmett had been called in for a shift, and I tended to myself.
I sauntered to the bathroom, my hair was a mess, and my body ached. I flipped the light switch on and was appalled at what I saw; I had one big bandage on my forehead, and little white tape strips on the other stitches. My arm had 2 wrappings of bandage around it, and my poor hands were all cut up.
"What the fuck, Bella?" I asked myself in the mirror, taking off the big bandage from my forehead, and the little bandages on my fingers.
Leaning on the countertop, I could feel his arms around me. I could feel his breath running down my neck, and I could hear his gentle, soothing voice.
"Soon. Just wait." I soothed myself with words of encouragement. "Soon."