A/N: Alright I have decided that my chapters will be around 3,000 words and I will be posting 2 times a week, Sunday and Thursday.

A special thanks to my husband's education with anatomy because he helped a ton with this chapter. –He is a biology teacher. Love ya babe!

Warning: This chapter may contain sensitive material and not meant to offend anyone. Proceed to read in caution.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything Twilight

EPOV

Chapter 5 Damaged Angel

∞Edward∞ July 2008- February 2009

Completely and utterly exhilarated I was unpacking my things and feeling somewhat strange to be back in Forks in my old bedroom. Finally moving on with my life and school behind me, I found myself an accomplished man with a Ph. D with a minor in Psychiatry from Northwestern, but couldn't figure out for the life of me why at twenty eight years old I was back in my old room. I was too elated to dwell on it because that fact was I would be starting work soon at Forks Hospital to care too much about it.

Finally getting settled, I had everything in order, my shirts and slacks pressed and hung up in order, and shoes lined up in a row at the bottom of my closet. Some people, even myself, would consider me having an obsessive compulsion disorder, but I always simply liked everything its proper place to because life was easier that way and less stressful. The only items missing were my white doctor overcoats; Carlisle wanted to purchase my new coats with my name embroidered into them, to me in a strange way that made everything much more real and permanent.

After climbing in bed I found myself too engrossed imagining what my first day would be like as Dr. Edward Cullen Jr. Yes, it was Jr. because I would be working alongside my father, Dr. Carlisle Cullen Sr., for the next nine months. This reminded me about my younger days when I followed him around like a little puppy dog, I wasn't too excited about this situation, but new it was necessary for a new doctor to shadow another doctor for at least nine months after receiving your Ph D. Out of all the other doctors at Forks Hospital Carlisle was the best to shadow.

****

The last six months were a complete and utter blur. Everything seemed to blend together because I was extremely exhausted and overwhelmed. I spent most of my time in the Emergency Room with Carlisle and when we weren't there we would spend it checking on other patients that were more seriously ill or needed further treatment. We had patients in and out for everything; broken legs, small cuts and some even found themselves needing surgery. Forks, I can say is quite an eventful place; people like to come to this area to hike, surf (even if it's cold) and even cliff jump.

Coming to the beginning of January I found myself falling into the routine as usual and feeling quite comfortable with myself practicing medicine, even Carlisle thought so as well and let me take a lot of cases on my own, while he stood back and scrutinized from afar.

****

It was January 8th when, having been brought in by paramedics, she found me. Carlisle and I waited as she was wheeled in on a gurney. We clearly had many people brought in before, but there was something about her that pulled me to her. She lied there unconscious and completely battered. My heart ached for this tiny fragile, damaged angel. Even though there were so many bruises you could tell she was a beautiful woman.

Snapping back into doctor mode I started assessing her body as they wheeled her to the emergency room, her head was wrapped with several layers of blood stained gauze as well as her throat. Her left eye was black and her cheeks were bruised as well. Scanning further down, her shirt was torn and her upper torso and stomach was aligned with black and blue bruises. The last quick assessment that I made was her right arm, it was twisted and her ulna and radius was broken, causing a displaced fracture*, almost breaking the skin.

My assessment was interrupted when two people, obviously her parents, rushed in through the ER doors. The woman, assumingly her mother shared some of my patients features, ran up toward the gurney appearing to be in shock and coming into view was crying.

"Oh….my…Bella, is that my daughter…Bella," she sobbed, completely distraught and then gasped when she took on her daughters appearance. "What happened, who did this to her?"

Running up behind her looked to be Forks Chief of Police, Charlie Swan, which I had learned of because he had contacted the hospital about his daughters' disappearance.

"Is she alright?" he looked at me in utter shock.

"Chief Swan, Mrs. Swan," I addressed firmly. "She is in stable condition, but we need to get her to surgery now and further assess her injuries and take care of her wounds; we will be out shortly to inform you of her status." They nodded in approval and I quickly turned my attention back to the gurney.

Finally reaching the surgery room they lifted her body onto the table. Carlisle and I followed procedure, checking her breathing and looking at her pupils. Concerned that she could wake from unconsciousness we gave her pain medications, a sedative, hooked her up to oxygen and a heart rate monitor. First item of business was to check her more serious injuries starting with her head. Cutting through the gauze we noticed the injury was on the right backside of her head, so being careful not to cause further injury we maneuvered her body to the left so we could access her head better. Carlisle and I looked at each other for a moment as we both detected a large two inch laceration, apparently done by a sharp blunt object, exposing her skull; which had a hairline fracture a half an inch in length. Cleaning and shaving a small amount of her blood stained chestnut hair we sutured and closed the laceration, wrapping up her head securely. We then moved onto her neck, removing the gauze, cleaning the area, we detected that all around her neck was bruised and burned, possibly from an abrasive rope. The cuts that outlined her neck were not too severe to need any stitching, so it was wrapped up in clean gauze with some ointment to help keep it moist and not cause any irritation.

Without leaving anything unturned we took radiographs of her entire body. After the radiographs were developed we appraised them and notice she had four ribs broken on her left side, so her ribs were wrapped securely. Even though we already knew her right arm was apparently broken, we looked over those radiographs to make rule out any more fractures; fortunately just finding the one main break through her ulna and radius (forearm). Seeing as her forearm was definitely a displaced fracture we had to make a small incision to go in and realign the bones, suture and put it in cast.

After having a nurse clean her up and placing a hospital gown on she was admitted to the ICU. Hesitantly I made my way to the waiting room to consult with her parents.

Rounding the corner to the waiting room Mr. and Mrs. Swan jolted to their feet and gazed at me with heartbreaking stares.

"Chief Swan, Mrs. Swan…Bella has been stabilized. She sustained many injuries and is in ICU for further evaluation and hopefully she will make a full recovery." I said to reassure them. "Do you know what happened to her?"

"No, we just got a phone call about an hour ago telling us that she was in the parking lot of Newton's Outfitter's, and if we wanted her to live we needed to call an ambulance, so we did." She stated vaguely informing me of the events that brought her here.

Without further delay, I explained Bella's injuries avoiding going into too much detail.

"Is she awake, can we see her?" Chief Swan asked.

"You may see her, but unfortunately she was unconscious when she got here, and then we had to sedate her to care for her injuries. We are all hoping that after the sedative wears off that she will wake up…….but to be completely honest with you her head injury was so severe that she may not wake and be left in a coma."

"Do you know for how long?" Mrs. Swan cried.

"It's hard to say and since having education in Psychiatry it all depends on how her mind is handling whatever horrific experience has put her in the state she is in now; we'll have to wait until her mind is ready and it heals itself." I stated assertively. "However, it could be from a couple of days to quite possibly years before she wakes up."

****

It had been three weeks to the day, and she still laid there a shell of a beautiful angel. Her family and friends had come and gone, with every passing day wearing on them; they looked like they were losing hope. Every day I checked on her almost lifeless body, noticing the bruises fading and wounds nearly vanishing. Looking back at her day in surgery and the wounds that covered her fragile body, I was having a difficult time registering why anyone in their right mind would conflict so much pain on this beautiful creature. Concluding that whatever monster did this damage was unquestionably not in their right mind.

After my shifts during the day I started sitting with her, anticipating on giving her parents the excuse to leave and telling them that they needed to get rest. The real fact was; I just wanted to be with her. It sounds a little creepy, but I felt that there was something present between us pulling and fighting to be together. Most nights I was with her were spent giving her physical therapy. We did have a physical therapist in the office, but I took it upon myself to care for her and to ease her discomfort, always maintaining being professional, of course, even though her skin was as soft as silk.

All the while, I longed for when I would be able to hear her voice and see her eyes light up when she was awake. I caught myself from time to time trying to imagine what her eyes would look like when she would notice my eyes were staring at hers.

When I was not spending time being there for her in a doctoral way, I would read one of the books her mother suggested I read because she knew Bella absolutely loved it, Wuthering Heights, I had not read it since high school and for some reason I could imagine Bella reading it all curled up in her bed. That was definitely one part of her life I was hoping to be able to experience.

During her fourth week of being in a coma we all started seeing a substantial change in her status. All of her wounds were about ninety-eight percent healed and we were hoping that maybe her mind was almost healed as well. That was nearly confirmed when we noticed that her tiny long fingers started to move, her eyelids fluttering, but never opening; as if she was in a dreamlike state. Getting hopeful her parents asked if this was a sign that she could wake up soon, I told them that the human mind is quite capable of dreaming while in a coma and even though it was great to see her have given some little response, there was the chance that she could remain comatose for who knows how long. I hated being a buzz kill!

****

Tuesday February 10th was the day my life changed forever……..my angel had awakened.

Jessica, Bella's nurse, had already informed me that when she had awoken she could not speak. Clearly I was agitated about that because I had yearned to hear her voice, but I was too enthused because after all she was awake. Barely containing myself, I ran to her room energized to see her.

When upon reaching her room and gazing upon her, all I could see were the tears soaking her eyes and face, understanding that she was quite overwhelmed and shocked.

Approaching her bed I stood next to Carlisle, she apparently heard me, wiped her tears away from her face and looked straight into my eyes. The way she looked at me was nothing that I had imagined; it was increased a thousand times, sending a surge through my body as if she was bearing into my soul with her chocolate brown eyes. I honestly melted. It's at that moment I knew I was going to find my way into her heart and soul somehow.

****

Blush, I loved seeing her blush rise on her cheeks and found she did so when I would compliment her. When I would look into her eyes there wasn't just beauty, but there was pain, frustration and pure quilt. It was all confirmed to be true, when I had walked into her room and noticed she was on the bathroom floor, apparently looking like she had thrown up and tears streaking her face. It ached inside me to see her this way and I extremely wanted to take it away, to comfort her and then I found myself kissing her. Feeling her lips on mine I felt, complete and I knew at that moment, my lips were meant for her and her alone. She kissed me back silently confirming that she felt the same way.

Wanting to let her know that the spark between us was something that I didn't want to ignore, I decided that I would visit her when she returned home and bring her a present, hoping to let her understand that I have true feelings were real.

After visiting her, it dawned on me how much she was clearly frustrated with her condition, but it was pushed aside with her complete devotion to figure out what has happened with Bree Newton. After carefully comprehending her nightmares I realized that there may be some truth to them, and that pushed me into wanting to help Bella and Bree. Knowing that her mind had not healed itself completely by shutting out her memories I became extremely enlightened thinking that if we found Bree it could help Bella's condition and maybe even cure it. The nightmares she was experiencing could be the window to solving not just her own tragic experience, but Bree's disappearance as well.

More determined than ever I was excited to help Bella every step of the way, rain or shine, to keep her protected from further harm.

First item I knew I could help with Bella was try and be her voice, ask questions to Alice, the police and whomever else needed questioning to ease off some frustration on Bella's part. Second item I knew I could attend to was to check the hospital's database to see if anything pulls up regarding the Newton family.

****

My shift on Friday was next to mind-numbing without Bella there, but I did divulge myself into my patients making sure that everything was taken care of according to their needs. However, I did find time to research the hospital database for information. What I pulled up was not enjoyable; matters of fact it made my stomach churn and made the bile rise in my throat. My discovery was not something I was happy to have to share with Bella on our first day out together. I also knew that this latest information was not something I would withhold from her, even if it did upset her, she needed to know everything. Focusing on finding the truth of Bella's condition and hoping to put us one step further in finding out, I printed out the information I had found and place it painstakingly in my briefcase. Also, hoping that I wouldn't be caught breaking HIPPA* laws.

****

Valentine's Day, never in my life have I felt so excited about this fabricated holiday. To think that someone invented this holiday to express your love is beside me, you are supposed to express your love every day. Matters of fact I made a promise to myself that I would make sure to show my love and affection to Bella every day until forever; never taking her for granted.

Alice had called me Friday night to inform me that she would just meet us for lunch in Port Angeles and assumed I would pick up Bella, of course I had no problem it, but something told me that was Alice's plan to get us to spend more alone time together. I gladly would not object.

As I walked up to her house I was questioning to myself when I should come clean about my research on Bree, I decided that the sooner the better and that would be while having lunch with Alice; the more support the better.

In my right hand I had a bouquet of red roses and in my left I had a heart shaped box of chocolates, I felt like a walking cliché, but knew I wanted her to feel special no matter what type of cliché it happened to look like. Hesitantly, I knocked on the door and waited nervously. Slowly the door was pulled opened and then I blown away; Bella looked beyond beautiful. Starting at her feet she had white Nike tennis shoes, dark denim blue jeans that covered her long thin legs, a midnight blue t-shirt and her hair was in ringlets cascading down framing her face and touching her waist line. It was the simplest of outfits, but it suited her and she looked very comfortable, maybe I was just used to seeing her in a hospital gown or pajamas. The attire was completely forgotten when I noticed her slightly pale face that was lightly covered with makeup, the little mascara she had on her eyelashes made her chocolate eyes pop and her lips were covered with a tinted pink lip gloss.

She must have noticed I was in a trance because she brought her hand up a few inches away from my eyes and waved, trying to get me to snap out of it. My eyes regarded hers and I noticed she was smiling ear to ear and shaking her head.

"Sorry…," I said breaking out of my trance, "you look gorgeous and you took my breath away. Oh and here I thought you might like these." I said handing her the roses and chocolates.

Shyly, she took them and mouthed what it looked to be a Thank you and motioned that she want was going to put the flowers in water. It didn't take her long and then she was back at the door.

Smiling at her I asked, "Um…well are you ready to go?" She nodded, grabbed the dry erase board I gave her from a table by the door and shut the door behind her. Sliding my hand in hers I walked us out toward my car, opening the door for her.

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Displaced fracture: In this type of fracture, the bone fragments on each side of the break are not aligned. A displaced fracture may require surgery to realign the bones properly.

HIPPA Laws: the Rules' protection of individually identifiable health information, the rights granted to individuals, OCR's enforcement activities, and how to file a complaint with OCR.