Wow. Remember me? My other Twilight stories have been taking my attention from this one... sorry for the big delay.

So... Thank you, SundaySolis and ShiningDay, for the reviews. Also, thanks to DianaB17, cocogirl198, cHoCoLaTe-RuM, and Katara Melody Cullen for the alerts/favs.

Finally... here's the next chapter.

-Scarlet

Chapter 5: Stumble

Edward caught the sickness much faster than I had. He was worse than me in less than five hours. My mother nursed us as well as she could, but she was tired too. When Mrs. Williams called and touched our faces, she insisted that my mother take us to the hospital. So, she dressed us and brushed the tangles from my hair before asking the neighbor to use their automobile to drive us.

Edward leaned on my mother's shoulder as we walked into the hospital. My eyelids drooped and my steps swayed as I followed closely behind. When the nurse showed us to our room, her flushed face was blurry in my vision. We were told to walk some more, upstairs even. I hadn't been more exhausted my whole life.

As I stumbled down the hallways of the hospital, an increasing sense of dread rose within me. I'm not sure whether it was fear for my brother, or simply fear from the horrific amount of death in the atmosphere around me. This was certainly like nothing I'd seen before.

Nurses and doctors rushed around, caring for their patients. The dead and dying filled every room, and even spilled out into cots along the walls in the corridors. The air was stiff and foul; death saturated each shuttering breath I took.

Once we made it to the room we were assigned, I sat rigidly on the side of Edward's bed, watching the events around me with expressionless eyes. My mother's face was pale with worry and sickness, and Edward's breaths were quiet and rough. A woman sobbed over another patient's cot, and the legs under the sheets looked as short as a child's. There were twenty beds lined up on either side of the room, totaling fourth, all bearing sick people. Coughs and moans were heard frequently, and some even thrashed in their fevered sleep.

And then a doctor came into the miserable setting, and the entire atmosphere shifted. Because I then realized that we had not just come here to die – there was help, at least, so there was hope.

The doctor was as tall as my father had been, but not as brawny. He was nearly as pale as his crisp white coat, and I wondered if that was because he was sick as well. He looked exhausted with black circles under his eyes, and his hair was tousled from working. His light brown eyes scanned the entire room before landing on my mother and me. But something was wrong. He worn no mask like all the others in the hall did, and his eyes weren't glazed over with tiredness. I wondered if all doctors were like that… if they had something better than nurses and orderlies did. He glanced down at the file of papers in his hand as he walked over to us.

"Elizabeth Masen?" he asked, and his voice was consoling and grave all at once.

I watched my mother look up at the man and nod tiredly.

"I am Dr. Cullen. I'm here to help."

My mother didn't notice his outstretched hand, as she had already looked back down at Edward. "Thank you, Doctor. Thank you so much..." Her voice was wearier than I'd ever it heard before.

Then the doctor noticed me, and I felt a wave of panic. I hated doctors.

"Hello. How are you today?" he asked, smiling.

I wondered how he could smile at such a time, but then I felt myself smiling back suddenly. Instead of feeling worse with a doctor there, I felt better. "I'm worried about Edward," I said honestly.

He nodded, and his face was serious once again. "I'll do everything I can for you brother, Miss Masen."

"OK," I said, looking away.

"Wouldn't you like to lie down?" the doctor asked, motioning to the empty bed beside Edward's cot.

I glanced at the white sheets, and then down at my brother's clammy face. He had fallen asleep right when we arrived. "No," I answered. "If I lie down, I'll surely fall asleep." I looked up after feeling the doctor's questioning gaze. His bright yellow eyes were a color I'd never seen before. "I don't wish to die yet."

The doctor's honey eyes seemed to melt with sympathy... or perhaps pity. "If you rest, your condition will get better... not worse."

I felt chided, so I stuck my chin up. "But I don't wish to rest."

His attention was drawn to my mother then, and he wrote down some of the answers she gave on his file. He asked questions like what our diet was like, when the symptoms began, what parts of town we were in recently... Then he turned to me, and put his icy fingers on my wrist and took my pulse. He put his hand on my back and told me to take deep breaths. He stuck a thermometer behind my tongue, and told me to stare at the tip of his finger as he moved it from side to side. He took notes on everything, then moved on to the next family.

I felt my mother sweep my short hair behind my ear, and looked up to her face as she stood over me. She gazed down with her warm eyes, and I smiled at the comfort they gave me. "We'll be together, Eleanor. You may sleep in peace."

I was too young to understand the depth of her statement "be together." Our family didn't attend a church often, but we had faith somewhere. From my mother's Baptist father, maybe. My father, however, had always told me to trust in myself and no one else. But I was a bad daughter – I put my trust in my parents, my brother, and my friends like Timmy Butler, Bill Johnson... and maybe even Danny Williams.

:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:

The sun went down as I lay awake in my hospital bed; the cloudy windows in the ward dimmed very slowly throughout the day. I never fell asleep, and kept glancing over at Edward. He always slept, and rolled over a lot as though he was uncomfortable. His skin was pale, even though he was sweating.

My mother was sitting beside me, stroking my hair as she thought I slumbered. I kept my eyes closed, and my raspy breaths even. I was too convincing, maybe, because the same doctor from before left his other patients to visit us.

"Would you like a bed cleared, Mrs. Masen? You must be exhausted," he said, and I felt his presence close.

"No, thank you. I'll sleep later..." My mother's soothing touch left then, and I nearly flinched when I felt the doctor's cold hand on my forehead. I balled my fists to keep from fidgeting as his chilly fingers slipped down to my neck, feeling the pulse there. "How are they?" I heard my mother ask, and then the doctor's hand disappeared.

"Eleanor's temperature is the same," he replied, and I wondered how he knew without a thermometer. "Edward's has risen, I'm afraid."

I felt myself frown. Why would the sickness go easy on me? Edward was much stronger than I... he should have been fighting better.

I heard my mother gasp. "Dear God!"

"Ma'am, are you ill?"

My eyes snapped open and I sat up rigidly. My mother was on her knees, clutching her forehead as the doctor held her up by the elbow; it looked like she would have collapsed otherwise. He guided her to the empty cot on across from Edward, and she laid down on the white sheets. Her face was deathly pale, almost as pale as Edward's. I felt a sudden rush of dizziness due to my upright position... but I stayed there anyway, watching my mother catch her breath.

"I am fine. Just... winded, perhaps." She caught the doctor's wrist to keep his hand from touching her forehead. I saw her fingers linger on the exposed skin below his coat sleeve, and the flash of intuition that crossed her face. She looked up at him with wide eyes, and he slowly removed her grip from his wrist.

Her brow furrowed. "You – !"

"Mrs. Masen," he said, and his voice was discomposed for the very first time. "You are very –"

But she interrupted him. "Don't worry about me, Doctor – just..." She nodded her head toward me, and the doctor glanced behind with guilty eyes.

I clutched the bed sheets in my hands. The room was spinning and dimming... my hearing began to fuzz. "Do you have the sickness, Mother?" I croaked dryly. My lips burned and my throat screamed when I tried to swallow.

"Everything's fine, Eleanor," she said evasively, nodding against her pillow. "Go back to sleep, dear."

My head fell to the pillow. I couldn't contemplate the scene further because I felt my mind slipping. The woozy feeling in my skull made my eyes drift shut into a very dark sleep.

Shorter chapter, but I'm getting back into "the groove."

Review? Tell me how I did.

-Scarlet