AN- Thank you so much for the continued support of this story! I can't believe it's almost over! I also appreciate keeping Mark on the down low.

Ginginlee, Lizzylillyrose, Morethanmyself, & Sammielynnsmom – I really do love you guys so much. Thank you for all of your help!

SW is up for a Tomato Soup Award. Nominations are still open, and I believe voting starts either at the end of the month or the beginning of next.

Summer's coming to an end, folks…

…

Chapter 26

2010

There were hundreds of sounds being made around me, but I didn't hear any of them. Object after object, person after person, passed in front of my eyes, but it all went unseen. Even blinking felt like a thing of the past.

I just stared at the same white speck on the tiled floor for hours, not moving, not speaking, barely even breathing. My head felt like it weighed a ton as it rested on my curled fist, my elbow using the armrest for support.

The clock kept ticking, the sun went down, the world kept moving; I did not.

Not until I knew. I would stay here until I knew. He never left me, and I wasn't about to do the same to him.

Edward was on my left, Seth on my right, both as quiet as I was as we waited. I could see Riley from the corner of my eye as he sat in the row across from us, but my eyes refused to leave the white speck on the floor.

It was if it had happened in slow motion, a haze covering my eyes as the ambulance came to the house, putting Uncle Charlie on a gurney and into the back, myself climbing in behind him. It was a maze through the streets, the loud siren accompanying the ringing in my ears, the flurry of the paramedics working on Charlie not at all helping my panic.

When we had gotten to the hospital, I could only stand there, watching as they pulled the closest thing I had to a father out of the back and pushed him through the doors. I wasn't allowed where they were going. I couldn't move past the white doors with the red stripe across it. I couldn't help them; I couldn't save him.

So I did the only thing I could do: I fell to my knees, praying for a miracle, begging God for His mercy, asking, pleading for more time, for another year, month, day, hour, with my uncle. He'd already taken my father from me. He couldn't possibly take this one from me, too. Didn't He know how much I needed Charlie? Didn't He know that I couldn't say goodbye yet?

My head had been buried under my arms, my body in a curled ball on the floor when I had felt arms come around me, picking me up. When I had felt the soft shirt against my skin, the rough facial hair on his jaw, I started to cry harder. I had gripped his neck when he put me down on my feet, my harsh grip refusing to let go, and he mimicked my actions, pulling me towards him with a crushing force.

"Please don't leave," I had begged between deep breaths of air. "I need you here." My words had been broken between my cries, but it didn't matter…he knew.

"Shhh, Bella," he had hushed, stroking the back of my head that was still pressed into his chest. "I'm right here."

Edward and I had stayed against the wall in the hall of the hospital, merely holding onto each other, for a while before he had led me back into the waiting area. Seth had stood when he saw us walking up, taking me from Edward and pulling me into a hug himself. It was desperate, clingy, and I had matched it will all my strength.

But as soon as I had sunk into the chair, it was as if I had checked out as memory after memory, moment after moment, played like old film in my mind. My eyes had found the white speck on the floor, Edward's hand had found my own, and we both sat there, both just as scared, both about to lose someone equally as important, but both of us being entirely helpless to do anything about it.

All we could do was sit, wait, pray, and remember.

So that was what we did.

It had been at least two hours, and we had still yet to hear anything. Nurses and doctors came in and out of the area, but no one called for us, came to speak to us. It became a waiting game, one where we weren't sure we wanted to know the outcome.

"My God, how long does it take to tell us if the man is dead or not!"

My head snapped up to see Riley groaning in his chair, watching as he crossed one leg over the other and pulled at his clothes.

I was just about to say something when Edward beat me to it. "And why exactly are you even here?" he spat. "This doesn't concern you."

Riley's eyes matched Edward's hateful glare. "This concerns me a lot more than it does you, pal. Charlie is a part of my family."

Edward scoffed loudly. "You don't know the first thing about family." I felt his grip get deathly tight, hurting my own hand without realizing it. "You know nothing about loyalty or commitment."

"Don't get all high and mighty on me, Edward. No one wants to hear your whiny bullshit!"

"Excuse me?"

"We didn't want to hear it when you were eighteen, and we sure as hell don't want to hear it now."

"And what exactly are you talking about, Riley?"

"You think you have some claim on the Swans, first on Bella and now on Charlie, but you don't! You don't know the first thing about this family, about my wife."

"Ex-wife, asshole," I finally spoke up.

"You think you have a place in our lives," Edward continued, "but you don't."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing that I didn't come to see you then, isn't it?" Riley countered, rising to his feet.

Edward was quick with his footing and let go of my hand as he rose to match Riley's domineering height. "It's kind of funny that who you came to see now concerns me."

"You let her go over twenty years ago. Your piss-marks are washed away, Masen. She isn't yours to claim."

The smile that rose on Edward's face was unfitting but matched his humorless words. "If we're going to talk about claims, Riley, shouldn't we talk about how you cheated on Bella? Now, if anyone here let her go, it was you."

"What happened with my marriage is none of your damn business!"

"Oh, but it is."

"WILL YOU STOP?" Edward's and Riley's conversation, on top of everything that was happening with Uncle Charlie, was pushing me over the edge, but even I was shocked when I turned my head to see Seth standing, shouting at the two grown men that stood before him. "This is Bella you're talking about, as if she isn't sitting right here! She isn't an object to have claim over! She's a person, damn-it!"

I was rendered speechless as Seth stormed out of the waiting room, and I didn't even spare the men a glance as I ran out after him.

"Seth!" I called, the last rays of sun falling behind the tree line as I made my way outside. "Seth!"

I turned my head to the left as saw him slouched against the wall, knees bent to his chest with his shoulders deflated.

"Seth," I repeated much more quietly, walking over to him and joining him against the bricks.

"Bella, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry." He started crying, burying his head in his arms.

"Oh, honey," I tried to sooth, bringing him to me and letting him cry on my shoulder. "You have nothing to be sorry for."

"He has to be okay, he just has to," he spoke out between his sobs.

"He will, baby." I rocked him back and forth, holding the back of his head as he shook. For the past few hours, I had been nothing but selfish, only thinking about how Charlie being in the hospital was affecting me, but of course Seth, who was only a child, was just as hurt and confused as I was.

"And then...then they were talking about you..."

"I know, sweetie."

"And who was that guy, anyway?" He pulled back and looked at me with red eyes.

I couldn't help but feel ashamed, my reasoning, my life up until now mocking me. "That's my ex-husband," I answered in a hushed voice.

"Why is he here?" he questioned, something he had every right to do.

"It's...complicated. I don't really know."

"Do you...are you going to leave us...for him?" The fear on his face hurt worse than anything Riley had ever done to me in our years of marriage.

I didn't have words; I didn't have anything I could say that would express how I felt, so I just shook my head as my own eyes filled with tears and brought him back to me, holding him as tightly as I could.

People looked as us strangely as they walked in and out of the hospital, but we weren't about to move. I didn't want to go back in there, and Seth didn't make a move to get up, either. I was perfectly content being outside, feeling a lot less suffocated than I did when I was sitting in the waiting room that was filled with sorrow, doubt, guilt, remorse, and insecurity that the one man that had tied us all together was possibly slipping away from us.

"Bella?" I looked up at the sound of my name, once against speechless as I saw who was walking up to us.

"Rachel?" I asked, blinking rapidly to see if my eyes were fooling me. I pushed off the wall and stood, Seth standing after I did.

"What happened? Is Charlie okay?"

"Um...I," I stuttered. "How did you...?"

"Oh." She looked embarrassed. "Well, Emmett has Lana and Pat, and Edward called him a little bit ago and told him what happened."

"Oh."

"Is he okay?" I was surprised that she actually looked concerned. I shook my head out of it; Rachel wasn't the Devil just because she married Edward. She wasn't incapable of human feelings just because she didn't like me or said those things about me to their daughter.

"I, um, I don't know yet. We haven't heard anything."

"Okay," she said softly, seeming like she was debating whether or not to give me a hug. She didn't. "Well, I'm just going to..." She motioned towards inside the building.

"Yeah," I said, crossing my hands over my chest, still trying to hold myself together. "We should be heading inside, too."

Seth gave me a sad smile and threw his arm around my shoulders as the three of us went back inside the building.

Edward stood as soon as he saw us walk in, eyes looking at me with worry before they transitioned to one of shock and a bit of panic when he saw Rachel walking beside me.

"Bella," he rushed out quickly, gripping the back of his neck.

I walked up to him, Seth releasing me to sit back in a chair. "He just needed a second," I said only loud enough for Edward's ears as my head motioned to the emotionless looking sixteen-year-old.

"Are you...?"

My cheeks reddened as I looked down at the floor. "We have so much going on right now, can we just...?"

He pulled me to him. "Why did you marry him?" he asked out in a breathless whisper. "Out of everybody?" I could hear the hurt behind his words, the anger trying to break through the surface. I knew that it was going to be a long night ahead of us, but we both knew that my old marriage wasn't the priority here.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you, but you have to understand..." I was halfway through my sentence when Rachel started laughing beside us.

"My God, you have got to be kidding me!" she exclaimed, and when I looked behind Edward, I saw her looking up from her chair at Riley strangely.

"Riley?" She laughed again. "Is that really you?"

The smile on her face pissed me off, and I wasn't exactly sure where my reaction was coming from.

He looked back at her with an arched brow and a menacing smirk. "Rachel Andrews?"

"Well, Rachel Masen, now, actually."

It was Riley's turn to laugh, and I felt Edward's grip around me tighten.

"You're married to Masen?"

"Was," she corrected.

"Yeah," he spat out, all humor in his voice disappearing as he looked in my direction before turning back and looking at her. "I know how that goes."

"Wait," she said, sitting forward and pointing at him and then at me. "You married..."

He threw his hands in the air, and they came down with a loud slap to his thighs. "Best fucking thirteen years on my life, let me tell ya."

Rachel sat back in her chair and chuckled heartily, crossing her arms over her chest. "That just made my god-damn day."

"Seriously?" Edward spoke out, glaring at his ex-wife. "Mind sharing with the group why this is so damn funny, Rachel?"

She stood then, her shoulders hardening as she looked him square in the eye, the air around her shifting from her humor to her obvious anger. She waited a beat as her eyes narrowed in his direction. "I find it hilarious," she started with obvious sarcasm, "that you wasted years of my life pretending I was good enough when you knew all along that I was just second best, 'acceptable', someone that you settled for, when it turns out that she did exactly the same thing! I don't think either of you realize the people that you've hurt along the way because you couldn't pull your head out of your ass long enough to see that you weren't happy! You pulled me down with you, Edward, by making me think that I was enough when you decided to marry me. You went through our entire marriage, had children with me, when in the end you would just end up back with her. Don't you see? Don't you get it? Life isn't all about you. But you've sure as hell made it that way. And to see that she did the same? Yeah, I find it pretty fucking funny."

Edward sighed heavily as he released me and gripped at his hair, pulling at it as he took another deep breath. "It wasn't like that, Rachel, and you know it!"

Her eyes searched his for something, and when I glanced down at Riley, I saw he was looking at me the same way Rachel was looking at Edward.

"You should have never married me," she said with simple conviction.

"You got pregnant, remember?"

A slap that could have been heard across miles sounded from the room as her hand made contact with his face, and all of us looked at the two of them with our mouths wide open.

"Okay, that's it." A security guard came up to us. "All of you out!"

I didn't even notice the audience we had generated from our little show, but when I looked around the hospital, all eyes were on us. Rachel was the first to storm out with tears running down her cheeks, but I just stood there, looking at the guard.

"But please, my uncle..."

Right when I said the words, a doctor in scrubs came through the doors behind the guard. "Charlie Swan?" he called out, and I rushed behind the guard and went right up to the man who was either going to crush me or present me with some kind of hope that this was going to be okay.

"Ma'am," I heard the guard call behind me, but I wasn't going to give him any attention.

"Yes, I'm Bella, Charlie's next-of-kin," I said to the doctor.

He looked at me before he looked behind me, and I turned to see Edward talking to the guard, telling him that he was leaving, that I didn't have a part in the confrontation that had just gone down.

"Okay, miss," he said when he saw that I was okay. "I'm going to need you to come with me."

O.o

The room was too bright and the smell wasn't right. The flowers that sat by the window behind me were slowly dying, petals falling one by one. I slipped in and out of awareness, my memories serving as my escape as I sat here for hours. All I could do was sit here. I couldn't help the doctors; I couldn't save him.

All I could do was wait.

My hand stayed glued to his as I sat in the chair, the clock ticking, reminding me of the seconds he was still breathing. I watched as his chest rose and fell; I looked for movement behind his closed eyelids; I tried to feel for his touch in case his hand moved in mine.

The doctor said I needed to wait, to be patient. He said that after the complicated surgery that he had just gone through, it would be a while before he would wake up.

The clock kept ticking, and I kept waiting.

It was going on seven a.m. the next morning, having had fallen asleep on the chair in Charlie's room the night before, when I walked up to the nurses' station and asked to use their phone. Edward's cell number rang repeatedly before I heard his familiar voice on the voice-mail machine. With a heavy sigh, I hung up and tried Charlie's house phone, hoping that someone was there because I sure as hell wasn't going to try and give Riley a call.

"Hello?" a tired voice answered, and I was just happy to hear it.

"Hi, Seth," I started. "What are you guys doing at Charlie's?"

He yawned before he answered me, this time sounding a little bit more alert. "We thought you would come here last night."

"We?" I asked even though I should have known the answer.

"Well, yeah, Bella," he said as if it were obvious.

"Can I talk to him?" I questioned, not sure why I was nervous.

I took a few calming breaths as Seth put the phone down and went to go wake Edward who was apparently sleeping in my bed in the upstairs bedroom. It was a good few minutes before he picked up the line, and I avoided the eyes of the nurses so they wouldn't ask me to hang up.

"Hello?" he answered, sounding just as exhausted as Seth had.

"Hi," I said, searching for something else to say.

"How is he? Has he woken up yet?"

I swallowed heavily. "Not yet."

I could hear as he breathed out. "Okay," he said. "Well, we'll be back over there at nine when visiting hours start."

"Okay," I responded, not wanting to say anything that would keep him from coming. I needed him here.

"Do you need anything? Want me to bring you another pair of clothes?"

"Um, a toothbrush would be nice."

He yawned, the action, I wasn't sure why, bringing tears to my eyes. "Okay, baby."

"Hey, Edward?" I said after a few quiet moments went by.

"Hmm?"

"Are you angry with me?" My voice was just loud enough for him to make out my words.

Another deep sigh escaped his lips, and it made my heart that much heavier. "We'll talk about everything later, Bella. There are more important things to deal with right now."

"Okay."

After I hung up the phone, I went into the restroom and washed off my face, the cold water feeling good against my overheated skin. My eyes had dark circles around them, making me look even older than I was. I pulled my hair back as best as I could and tried to make myself look at least a little bit presentable. Deciding that I needed a bit of fresh air before I went back to Charlie's room, I took the stairs back down to the lobby and walked outside.

I smelt the cigarette smoke before I saw him, but when I turned my head, sure enough, he was there, sitting against the wall. Knowing that I didn't have the energy to fight him, I walked over there peacefully, taking a seat on the concrete.

"Wanna smoke?" he asked, holding out his pack for me.

I shook my head and played with my hands in my lap. "Trying to quit, with Charlie's bad breathing and all."

"Ah," he said, taking another inhale before squishing it beneath his shoe.

I leaned my head against the bricks behind us, closing my eyes as the first rays of sunshine danced around us.

"Did you sleep here last night?" I asked after a few minutes.

"Nah," he answered. "I got a hotel across the street. Wasn't sure when visiting hours started, so I got here an hour ago."

"Riley, what the heck are you doing?" I asked with obvious exasperation.

He turned his head and looked at me, his eyes meeting mine. "I've loved you for a long time, Bella."

I scoffed in frustration and shook my head. "That doesn't answer my question."

Licking his lips, he looked out in the distance. "Nothing I did was ever enough."

"We are not getting into this again," I quickly retorted. "Please just answer me."

"Alice left me."

"Ah, so you came running back home?" I laughed out humorlessly, even though I was silently aware of the irony.

"You're the one who ran away from home."

"I refuse to fight with you over this. You know what you did." My voice was tired as I answered, and I closed my eyes again, taking another deep breath to keep myself calm.

"Did you hear what Rachel said in there yesterday?" he whispered.

I didn't respond.

"She was right, you know. I was always your second place, only just barely good enough for you. You were with me because you thought you couldn't have him, but the only difference in our marriage and theirs was that I went into it knowing that."

I opened my eyes and looked at him. "What are you talking about?"

"Don't play dumb with me, Bella."

"Do you think I never loved you?" I asked, not helping but to get angry.

"I know you loved me, but it wasn't the same."

I shook my head, but I honestly couldn't pretend he was wrong. He waited for my answer; he knew it was coming. "You reminded me of him," I finally admitted my deepest secret aloud, something that I had tried for years and years to keep from him.

"Yeah," he said after a minute, turning his head to look back out at the parking lot. "I guess it was my own fault."

My head continued to shake back and forth as I wiped the tear the dripped from my eye. "No divorce is one sided, Riley. But please, please know that I did love you. You did make me happy once."

He smiled and stretched out his legs, fidgeting in his spot. "I've should have known when it took you so long to marry me in the first place."

"If you knew…why did you even want to marry me?" I whispered as I hugged my legs closer to my chest.

"I've already told you, Bella," he spoke. "I've loved you for a long time."

I slowly released the breath from my lungs and looked back out to the lot as well. "What about Alice then? What about all the other women?"

He pulled out another cigarette from his shirt pocket, lighting it and inhaling the nicotine. "If you didn't think the foundation of our marriage was shaky enough, add to that all the shit we went through with the baby attempts, and you get a perfect recipe for a fan-fucking-tastic disaster."

"So that was enough for you to put me through an even deeper hell?" I shot back with anger.

"No, it wasn't, Bella. But damn-it, for a short time with Alice, I was so happy. I felt alive again!"

"Well, that's just great." I scratched the top of my head for a distraction. "You know what," I stood up from the ground, "we're just talking in circles here. Obviously things didn't work out between us; you don't want to be with me, I don't want to be with you. I just…I just want you to go."

He slowly stood up from the ground and wiped the pebbles and dirt off his pants. "You know, Bella, I've done a lot of shitty things in my life, made a lot of really bad decisions along the way, and I guess, I don't know, I guess I just wanted to come here and make it right, apologize."

My stomach sank as I saw how completely spent he looked.

"You really hurt me," I said softly.

His eyes met mine. "And you've spent decades hurting me."

I just looked at him. I had nothing to say to that.

"Let me know how he does, okay?" His head motioned to the doors of the hospital before he started walking away. But after he took a few steps, he turned back towards me. "Oh, and Bella? I really hope that you find happiness here…somewhere. Life is nothing if you're not happy in it, and it's about time you start living."

I was left speechless as he turned back and walked away, his shoulders slumped over as he got smaller and smaller out of sight.

It wasn't even eight o'clock when I went back inside, and it depressed me that much further that Edward wouldn't be here till at least another hour. After once again going back into the restroom and washing my blotchy face, I took the elevator up to Charlie's floor and stood outside of his door for a moment before entering.

The sunlight was filtering through the windows and there was a nurse at his bedside as I walked in.

"Oh, hi, darlin'," she greeted as she fidgeted with something at his bedside.

"How is he?" I asked, looking at my uncle up and down for any external signs of his current status.

"Heart is beating stronger than yesterday, dear," she said with clear enthusiasm. "The medicine is helping the deep infection in his lungs; his vitals look better." She gave me a wide smile before she saw how red my eyes were. "Oh, honey," she cooed, coming over and grabbing onto my shoulders. "Your uncle suffered a massive heart attack; I promise that considering this is only the next day, he is doing much better!"

"What if he doesn't wake up?" I croaked out as my voice became thick with impending tears.

She offered me a consolidating smile. "Give his body time to heal, sweetheart. He will open his eyes when he's ready."

I sniffed and nodded my head as she finished up what she was doing and left the room. I pulled up the same chair back to his bed and took the same hand I had yesterday.

"Good morning, old man," I said in a soft voice, almost embarrassed if anyone else could walk in and hear me. "You scared the ever living shit out of me. I hope you don't think this is some sick practical joke, because no one is laughing."

I just wanted to see him smile.

"Well, I'm also guessing that you saw Riley. I don't even know what Edward is even thinking about it all. He won't talk to me about it. It's just…everything was going so well, it only makes sense that it would all crumble." I laughed without humor.

"Why can't life just be simple, back to the days when my worst problem was the summer ending? Why can't we rewind our lives, pause them at the happy times? It's not fair that life isn't on our schedule!

"I just want to go back," I whispered the last part hardly coherently.

I stopped talking, waiting for him to answer, waiting for his eyes to open and show me that he was still here, that I wasn't alone.

"Please," I begged out one more time. "I need you."

There was no response, no recognition, so I did what I had been doing: I sat and waited.

Even though the nurse said he would wake up, I didn't want to take anything for granted, so while I could, I studied his face. I memorized the lines around his eyes, the color of his lips, the gray of his receding hair. I wanted it all for safe keeping, because even though we were lucky this time, life didn't stop for us. I knew there would be a day when my uncle's heart failed him, and I knew there would be a time when I would have to say goodbye.

I just prayed, as I sat there and waited, as I sat there and remembered every amazing moment with my dear Uncle Charlie, that I would never take a day of my life for granted again.

Riley was right. It was time that I start living.

I started now.

…

End Notes –

See, angst wasn't too bad on that one. I'm trying here, people.

And look at that…I got y'all two updates this week after all.

As always, please review. Authors strive off of them. I read and cherish every one, I promise.