Disclaimer: Twilight and all recognizable characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. All of the utterly unrecognizable characters are from my warped imagination.

"So give me reason to prove me wrong, to wash this memory clean,

Let the floods cross the distance in your eyes,

Give me reason to fill this hole, connect the space between,

Let it be enough to reach the truth that lies across this new divide."

"New Divide" - Linkin Park

Chapter 4 - Trust

Things changed a bit after the declaration from Jonathan. He came in regularly again but he would bring the tray of food over to me and move to stand by the door while I ate. I ate and took the aspirin without question. He checked my injuries routinely and I noticed after a while that I wasn't flinching away from him. I felt comfortable with his presence in a way I didn't when he was out of the room. For the first time in a long time, I didn't feel alone.

Jonathan was someone who was looking out for me. I had forgotten what that felt like. He would ask me questions about my injuries and I would answer without hesitation. I waited patiently for the day he promised was coming; the day he would help me escape.

I marked the passage of time in the only way I knew how anymore, by the healing of my injuries. I remember being able to take a breath without pain. I remember being able to open my eye a small amount, although I still couldn't see out of it. I remembered Jonathan telling me my wrist was about as healed as it would be. He was unhappy that it seemed to heal wrong and he was afraid I would never have full use of it again.

He was mostly concerned about my eye. According to him, the swelling had gone down tremendously across the rest of my face but my eye wasn't looking much better. I could open it a small amount and see light, but I couldn't make out anything else.

I continued to eat and he brought me fresh clothes and let me shower again. I noticed that my ribs were not as prominent as they had been. After my shower he checked my eye again but there was no change.

I noticed as his eyes became darker everyday. I saw when they were completely black and wondered why he hadn't hunted. It didn't take long to notice he wasn't coming in as often. He wouldn't come over by the bed anymore. He kept his distance again and I started to worry that I had done something wrong.

"Why aren't you hunting?" I asked one day before he slipped back out the door after leaving a tray of food. He paused and turned toward me slowly. He kept on hand on the doorknob as he spoke.

"I don't want to leave you with them," he answered honestly. I could tell he wasn't breathing. I remembered this reaction to my scent. I smelled good and yet he wasn't hunting to protect me.

"You should go. They shouldn't have any reason to bother me, right? I'm eating and not causing problems," I said. I didn't want him to feel like he had to be in pain because of me. I also missed my only friend. I was beginning to feel isolated and alone again. A small part of my mind knew that it was insane that I was becoming so dependant on someone. I dismissed the thought quickly, knowing that I had to learn to trust him if I wanted him to help me.

"I'm fine," he said quickly and walked from the room. His arrivals became farther and farther apart. He would drop the food inside the door and disappear, a lot of times while I was asleep. I slept a lot because I didn't know what else to do. I stared to get scared that he wouldn't be able to help me.

After a while I quit eating again. My eye still hadn't healed and I went back to curling in the corner and not sleeping. I was scared again. I was trapped again. Before, I could see the way out. Now, it was only black. I had no future. I would die in this room.

This went on for a while and I could tell he was unhappy with the change in my behavior but he said nothing. He just continued to bring food and not say a word to me. I felt myself falling. I was giving up again. It was crushing me to know that I had trusted someone working for Victoria. I wondered why I had ever listened to him. I didn't know how much longer I could hold on to the bit of sanity I had left.

I remember when I could open my right eye almost completely. I couldn't see but I could open it. It was painful to keep it open for long but I did it anyway. I felt like something or someone was going to attack me at any moment. I knew I was probably losing my mind after being in this room for however long it had been now.

The food by the door was beginning to stink. I wasn't sure how long it had been there but I considered flushing whatever it was down the toilet. I scowled at it as if I expected it to dispose of itself. I didn't see Jonathan for quite some time and I wondered if they moved on and left me here to die. Part of me hoped that they had.

The door opened one day but I didn't raise my head. I was too tired to try. I heard the tray move and the door closed.

"Why are you doing this?" Jonathan asked quietly. His voice startled me because I thought he had left the room. He sounded far away. I raised my head and looked at him but didn't speak. I placed my head back on my knees when I realized I couldn't hold it up anymore. I was weak and very tired.

"If I go hunt now will you eat when I get back, please?" He was begging but he remained by the door. I shrugged a bit in response because it was all I could too. I felt too weak for anything else. The door closed again.

I think I may have fallen asleep after that because I woke again to the sound of the door. I didn't raise my head because I assumed it was Jonathan returning. I didn't want to see him. I didn't want to think about eating. I just wanted him to leave me alone.

Suddenly I was upright and there was pain. I knew it was Riley before I opened my eyes. I still couldn't see out of the right side. Everything was blurry and dark but I could see him with my left. He had pulled me up by my hair. I didn't have the strength to fight him. I felt as he tossed me across the room and I landed on the floor but I didn't make a sound. I didn't even try to get up.

"Not eating again?" He questioned and I felt his foot connect with my stomach. The pain was blinding this time. I began to cough immediately, gasping to regain oxygen but otherwise not moving. He kicked me repeatedly until I started to cry out and scream. I knew it was the reaction he was waiting for. I could feel my ribs cracking under the repeated attacks and I knew I was in worse trouble because of the amount of weight I had surely lost. I coughed again and tasted the blood in my mouth. I sobbed and tried not to move as I heard the snarl from across the room.

"Get out, Adam. I told you to watch the door," Riley hissed over his shoulder. I coughed again and blood splattered the floor. The snarling became more pronounced and I heard a sound like a boulder colliding with the wall. I closed my eyes and tried to calm my body down. I heard more snarling and growling before the door was slammed shut and locked. I hoped again that he was gone but I knew he wasn't.

I felt his foot connect with my stomach once again and this time my body was sent sliding across the floor and I hit the wall. My head whipped back and I felt my skull connect with the concrete wall. I couldn't really feel the pain anymore. I knew it was almost over. Even if he didn't kill me now, I wouldn't heal from this. It was a strange feeling to know I was right all along; I would die in this room.

I felt him lift me with one hand wrapped around my throat. I forced my eyes to open so I could stare him down at the end. I smiled but not in defiance. I smiled because I was glad it was almost over. Suddenly the door was flung open and I expect to see Adam standing there but it was Jonathan. He had one arm blocking Adam from entering.

"Put her down, Riley," Jonathan said calmly but I couldn't clearly make out the expression on his face. My eyes were unfocused as the last of my oxygen was burning away under the force of Riley's hand on my throat.

"I don't take orders from you," I heard Riley hiss over his shoulder at Jonathan and the pressure on my throat increased. I smiled again, seeing the blackness seeping into the sides of my vision.

"Victoria will rip you to pieces if you kill her this way," Jonathan said and I could hear the certainty in his voice. He knew I was going to die just as much as I did. I felt the hand around my throat loosen almost to the point of releasing me.

"No," I croaked weakly. I couldn't let him stop. I was so close to the end. "You going to listen to him? Are you that much of a chicken?" I asked hoarsely. He narrowed his eyes at me but didn't respond. "Can't you come up with anything to say to me now?" I taunted him and worked up a mouthful of blood and spit it in his face. He growled and I could feel his entire body trembling as he worked to control his temper.

"Riley," I heard Jonathan's voice distort with a deep growl. I felt my body being thrown across the room. I felt cold hands catch me before I hit the concrete again. Then I heard the door slam. The cold hands lowered me to the floor. I didn't fight. I couldn't move.

"Bella?" Jonathan asked as his hands moved over me, searching for my injuries. I groaned as he pushed on my stomach and he lifted my shirt. I coughed again and started choking on the blood. He pulled me up to a sitting position, placing his legs behind me to hold me up.

"Bella, listen to me. You have to hold on, okay? I don't know what to do here but you have to hold on," he said over and over but I barely heard him. I wasn't sure what was happening anymore.

"Riley," I heard him hiss after a minute of trying to soothe me with his words. "Go find Victoria. Tell her that if I don't take Bella to a real doctor she's going to die. Take Adam with you. I can't afford to have him lose control around this much blood."

"Bella, open your eyes. Please look at me," he begged and I struggled a moment before I forced my eyes to open. "Listen to me, I will be right back." I stared at him unable to do anything else. He laid me on my side and I saw him disappear quickly from the room. When he returned the picked me up off the floor carefully. I lost my hold on consciousness then and the blackness washed over me.

At one point, I heard the sound of a machine beeping somewhere nearby. The sound didn't make any sense but I couldn't open my eyes to figure it out before I lost my grip on reality once again.

Some time later I vaguely remembered a voice. I thought it was Jonathan, but I wasn't sure. The voice was repeating something about memory loss. I couldn't catch it all before I faded out again.

When I was finally able to open my eyes, I blinked several times at the brightness of the room. I felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu creeping into my mind as I tried to link the vision my eyes were seeing to the word hospital in my mind. This was impossible, of course, because as a hostage I wouldn't be taken somewhere so public.

So maybe I was dead. I hoped not because I was too uncomfortable. I wasn't in pain but I was definitely uncomfortable. I wondered if maybe I was dreaming. Maybe I was reliving my time with Edward for some reason. That didn't make sense because this hospital room looked different than the one in Phoenix.

I scanned the room quickly and saw a still, white figure standing in front of the open window. The cool air blew into the room. I blinked, expected him to disappear but he turned his head in my direction.

"Hey, you," he said softly and walked toward me. I saw his irises were nearly black but he didn't seem bothered by being here. He stopped when he was beside my bed and placed his hands lightly on the rail beside me.

I wanted to ask where we were. I had so many questions but there was some sort of obstruction in my throat that made it impossible. He seemed to understand my distress.

"We got away. Well, we aren't too far away but I had to stop to let someone check you out," Jonathan said with a sigh. "They will be after us soon, if they aren't already, so we will have to leave quickly. I'm not sure we can wait until you're fully healed from the surgery. You need to pretend you don't remember what happened," he hissed the end under his breath as a doctor entered the room. It stirred some sort of memory in the back of my mind.

I turned my head slowly in the direction of the door. I struggled to make my eyes focus. My right eye was still unfocused. I could see he was short and balding. The name badge he wore on the pocket of his scrubs said that this was the McLaren Regional Medical Center. I had no idea where I was.

"Hi there. I'm Dr. Jenson. I was the surgeon on duty when you were admitted. Do you remember anything that happened?" He asked. Memory loss. I needed to feign memory loss so I just shook my head. "That's okay. It's perfectly natural for someone who has been through a traumatic event to have some temporary amnesia. I bet you are about ready to have this thing out of your mouth now," he said but it didn't really seem like a question as much as an observation. I nodded slowly in agreement.

"Okay," he said and he picked up my chart and jotted something down. He walked over to the side of my bed and I felt myself flinch as he walked directly beside my head. "Listen, I need you to cough as I remove the tube," he explained and I nodded. I felt my heart accelerate at the thought of his proximity to me.

He unhooked the tube from the machines behind me and then reached a hand to my chin which caused me to flinch again. He paused momentarily before he placed the other on the end of the tube. "Okay, cough," he told me and tried to make myself cough as it felt like I was choking on the tube. It didn't take long before it was out. I continued to cough and rub my throat.

"Well, the bruising has gone down some on the outside finally but I'm still concerned there might be some swelling inside your throat. We may have to put the tube back in if you seem to be having trouble breathing again. Can you tell me your name?" He asked and I felt myself beginning to panic. I knew I couldn't tell him the truth so I just shook my head in response.

"That's okay. Don't feel bad. We'll get this figured out soon enough. Do you recognize this gentleman here?" He asked as he pointed toward Jonathan. I looked that direction and tried to keep the confused expression in place. I glanced back at the doctor and shook my head again. I was terrified suddenly as everything started falling into place. I remembered exactly what had happened and I knew if I didn't get away from here innocent people would die because of me.

"Sounds like Post Traumatic Stress. It's not uncommon in abuse victims. Can you remember if you are married?" He asked and I shook my head. I wondered how much longer I would get away with avoiding any real answers to his questions. Eventually, I would have to speak to someone and my ability to lie had not improved that much in all.

"How bad are my injuries?" I asked in a hoarse voice. This was the major question to me. I needed to know the extent so Jonathan and I could make a plan. We needed to get away from here soon. My head began spinning with all the questions I had for Jonathan. I needed to know where we were and how far away from Victoria. I needed a plan.

"Well, there was quite a bit of internal damage. It took quite some time to suture you up internally to get the bleeding to stop," the doctor explained. "We had to remove your spleen because it ruptured. There are six broken ribs and multiple fractures. You were very unstable for a quite some time. We weren't sure whether we had gotten to you in time," he said. "You should be up and around within eight to twelve weeks." I felt my eyes bulge at the thought. Eight weeks stuck here was impossible if Victoria was still after me.

"Thank you," I said softly and looked toward Jonathan. I was speaking to him more than the doctor at this point. I had given up on Jonathan and he proved to be exactly who he claimed. He was biding his time to help me escape and I nearly ruined everything. I felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude toward him. I knew what he had risked in taking me. Now Victoria would see to it that we were both killed.

"I'll leave you two to talk. He should be able to speak to you a bit about your past and maybe that will help. If you remember anything use the call button for the nurse. I will be back later to check your incisions," Dr. Jenson said as he exited the room. I turned back toward Jonathan feeling relieved that I pulled that off.

"Good work," he said with a smile. "I wasn't sure how you would respond when you woke up so I said I was your uncle. I told them your parents had passed away when you were young and I had taken care of you. I said that I hadn't seen you in a few months and was worried when you wouldn't return my phone calls so I went to your apartment and found you this way. I'm not sure how much they believed since neither of us had any sort of identification."

"I wasn't sure I had heard you right before but I knew I couldn't tell him the truth," I said and my voice still sounded hoarse. I laid my head back on the pillow. "What's the plan?"

"I'm working on it," he promised. "I'll know when they get close but in the mean time you just worry about healing." He walked over to the side of my bed and sat down in a chair. I looked over at him and noted again the dark irises.

"How long was I out?" I asked curiously. I knew he had left to hunt just before Riley's attack but I couldn't remember the color of his eyes when he returned and saved me.

"Six days. They kept you under for the four to make sure your body would begin to heal and they said it may be another four before you woke on your own," he responded.

"You're going to need to hunt again soon. Then what?" I asked. I knew that his eyes would turn that awful crimson and he would have trouble masking that in a hospital. I knew it was probably very uncomfortable for him to be around this many humans and all this blood as thirsty as he was.

"I'm not sure. I'm fine for now," he said and shrugged. We sat in silence for several minutes, the only sounds in the room coming from the monitors beside me and the television on some old sitcom in the corner of the room.

"Why do you do it?" I asked. It was a question that had bothered me for a while but I hadn't had the nerve to ask. I wasn't sure where the bravado was coming from but I guess I had decided that since he followed through on his promise to get me out of the basement I could trust him to an extent.

"Do what?" He asked, confused.

"Hunt humans," I clarified. "I mean, after you told me what happened to you I was wondering why you do it. I'm sorry if it seems like a very invasive question, I was really just curious." I looked over at him again and his eyes looked completely bewildered.

"I don't really understand your question. I hunt because of what I am and I don't really have a choice," he explained but he looked as confused as I felt.

"Didn't Victoria explain anything about the Cullen's to you?" I asked. I really assumed that they had discussed the enemy thoroughly.

"Not really. She said that it was a coven of seven, which seemed like an exaggeration. Otherwise she really didn't tell me anything," he said honestly. I studied his expression for a long time before I decided. I would tell him about my past if he wanted to hear it. He had shared his with me.

"There are seven of them. They are really more of a family. They are able to live together because…" I trailed off. I wondered briefly how crazy this would sound to another vampire. "Because they hunt animals, not humans." I finished. He stared at me for a moment before he burst into laughter.

"You had me going there for a minute," he said between laughs. I just stared at him. "You… You can't be serious. Those are just stories told in the vampire world. They don't really exist."

"I am serious. They hunt only animals which allows them to stay in one place longer and interact with humans more easily because their eyes turn gold instead of red," I explained. He stared at me for a long time before he sat back into his chair.

"I thought those... No one ever took them seriously. I had heard about vampires that lived differently from the rest of us but…" he trailed off in shock.

"They do live differently. That's how I met them. The younger ones are actually enrolled in school. Edward was in one of my classes," I said and he looked at me again with wide eyes.

"They go to school?" He asked in shock.

"Yes, and Carlisle is a doctor, a surgeon actually. I met him for the first time after a car accident. He came and checked on me in the Emergency Room," I continued, happy to have this information off my chest. It was nice to finally be able to talk to someone about them.

"That's impossible. How can he…" he trailed off again and I left him alone with his thoughts. I laid my head back on the pillow and tried to come to grips with the fact that for now, at least, I was free. I never thought I would be so happy to see a hospital but I was.

"Bella," I heard him say softly after just a few minutes of silence. I turned my head back toward him. "How is it that you ended up in a relationship with a vampire?" He asked. I sighed because his question was one I had heard several times from the wolves back home and I had asked myself repeatedly.

"I'm not really sure. How does anyone end up in a relationship?" I asked rhetorically. "It just sort of happened."

"When did Victoria come into the picture?" He asked. I bit my lip as I considered how to respond.

"I had figured out the truth about everything and had just met his family. I spent the day at his house with them and we went to play baseball in this clearing that night. Victoria and her mate, James, and another male named Laurent showed up in the clearing. James…" I trailed off not sure if it would upset Jonathan to know this. "James was a tracker. It became a game for him to get to me and Edward and his family saved me. It was close," I explained the story. He looked again at the scar on my hand and I explained about Edward saving me twice that night.

"After all of that he left you?" Jonathan asked curiously.

"It was a lot to handle. He stayed with me while I healed in the hospital. His family helped take care of me back home but about six months later, they were gone," I said softly and it was then I felt the tears streaming down my cheeks.

"I'm sorry, Bella. We don't have to talk about this anymore tonight," he said and I smiled at him.

"It's just been a long time since I've talked about this with anyone," I said honestly. "It's not the greatest conversation starter." He laughed in response to my comment.

"No, I suppose you're right about that," he said in response and stood up. "You should sleep." I nodded and laid my head back against the pillows. It didn't take long for sleep to come.

When I woke it was to the doctor and nurses entering the room. They changed the bandages on my incisions and I refused to look as they did it. They seemed happy with the progress of the healing and gave me some more pain medicine in my IV before I fell back asleep.

The next time I woke I realized there were still things I didn't know. I felt uncomfortable but I didn't want the pain medicine yet because I didn't want to sleep. I tried to get comfortable but couldn't. I finally decided to focus on my most important question.

"Jonathan, what day is it?" I asked. He was sitting across the room by the window again, breathing the fresh air.

"It's Friday," he responded without looking at me.

"That's not what I meant. I mean, what month? I need to know how long Victoria had me. I wasn't really keeping track," I said honestly.

He turned and looked at me but didn't answer right away. He made a face before he picked up the unopened newspaper someone had delivered to the room this morning. He walked slowly toward me and set it on my lap. He kept his eyes on my face as I looked down at the paper.

The title of the paper was The Flint Journal. I saw the address of the paper was Flint, Michigan. Well, that explained where we were. I glanced to the right side of the page to find the date and I gasped.

"That's impossible," I whimpered. It couldn't be true.

"I'm sorry, Bella," Jonathan said. "I wasn't sure how to tell you."

"But… no… how?" I started each sentence but couldn't form a full thought. My brain was still trying to process the date. Finally my anger broke through. "How is it possible that she had me for ten months?"

Jonathan didn't answer but I wasn't expecting an answer. I started at the newspaper in my hands with the horrid date. September sixteenth. I hated that date. It seemed my horrible past just wouldn't leave me alone.

Three years. Three years ago today my world was shattered. Here I was in a hospital bed after another vampire attack. I wasn't sure what to make of anything anymore. I couldn't call anyone back home, I'm sure they all assume I'm dead by now and I shouldn't put them in danger anyway. Suddenly, something occurred to me and I couldn't help but laugh. Jonathan looked at me as if I'd lost my mind. Maybe I had.

"I'm sorry. It's just… I'm now officially twenty one," I said, laughing. I never wanted to celebrate birthdays because I never wanted to get older yet here I was.

The next afternoon two police officers arrived to question me about my condition. They asked Jonathan to leave the room and he agreed quickly and left. I felt nervous and very uncomfortable alone with them but I told them the same thing I told the doctor. I didn't remember anything. They asked more than once if Jonathan had harmed me. They insisted they could protect me if that was the case. I almost laughed but managed to keep my solemn expression as I told them again that I didn't remember anything before I woke up in the hospital.

A few hours after Jonathan returned, I started to get a bit uncomfortable in the bed and I realized I was tired of laying still. I fidgeted and tried to find a position I liked but I couldn't. I just kept moving in the bed.

"What's wrong?" Jonathan asked after only a few minutes of this. He had returned to his post near the window after my conversation with the police.

"I don't want to be here anymore. I hate being stuck in this bed," I said sounding a little harsher than I had intended. He let out a short laugh before my glare stopped him.

"Calm down. You need to stop moving so much," he said and he walked over from the dark window to stand beside the bed. I hadn't realized it was so late.

"Easy for you to say. You can get up and walk around," I said and continued to glare at him. Suddenly he stiffened. He turned slowly in several directions before he nodded.

"Well, you're getting your wish. It's time to go," he said quickly walking to the opposite corner of the room and throwing the backpack over his shoulder "I'll be right back." He said quickly and slipped out into the hallway. I sat there motionless trying to will his words to make sense. He was back in just a few minutes with a plastic bag in his hands. He tossed it to me.

"Get dressed. Can you take out that IV?" He asked. I slipped the jeans on under my hospital gown and carefully buttoned them without putting too much pressure on the incisions. I laughed in response to his question.

"Not a chance," I answered honestly. I knew that needles were far beyond my ability.

"Fine, leave the other monitors on until we are ready to leave the room. Once we unhook them it will alert the staff," he said and walked to me quickly. He pulled the IV out and covered it with a cotton ball. I saw him swallow convulsively and look away. I felt remorse instantly for not at least trying to do that myself.

"I'm going to need you to walk until we are out of the hospital. I'll help you," he said reaching out a hand to me as I slipped my shirt on and the gown off. He handed me a hat. "Put your hair up."

I slid my hair up under the hat and put my legs off the edge of the bed. He steadied me with a hand around my waist, supporting most of my weight. I was instantly dizzy so I closed my eyes. I felt the rest of the monitors being pulled off quickly.

"Time to go," he said quickly and we walked to the door. "Just don't stop walking."

A/N: So, what did you think? Did anyone imagine the amount of time that had gone by? I tried to be vague in previous chapters because I didn't want it to be too obvious how long she was there. I'm curious to hear what you all think of Jonathan now?! Also, do you think they'll make it out in time? Will Bella be okay away from the hospital?

As always, I have a great teaser for my precious reviewers. It's sad to see only 8 reviews after 3 chapters but I can't express my gratitude to those of you that have reviewed. It means the world to me!!