CHAPTER NINE: Explanation

As I made my way back down the trail towards my house in La Push it seemed to take forever and the light was fading faster from daylight into twilight. I could see the stars beginning to light up the sky here and there like little beacons shining through the treetops. I trudged onward and finally I could see the end of the trail leading to the road that brings me home. I was so glad to be almost back after my long and eventful walk. As I trodded down the road towards my house, I began to wonder if I hadn't just imagined the whole encounter with Aro. Perhaps I somehow managed to pass out or got knocked out, maybe I suffered more of a concussion from my kitchen mishap than I had thought. I really needed to learn to stop being so clumsy, if only it were that easy to just turn it off with the flip of a switch, so to speak. Unfortunately I must have been born with two left feet because I had been accident prone for as long as I could remember. My poor parents were constantly dealing with mending my scratches, scrapes, cuts, bruises, burns, sprains and broken bones ever since I was just a little kid. Anyway, I was writing off the encounter as a hallucination or nightmare of some kind since there was just no way it could have been real. It made no sense and besides, if it wasn't real, I surely couldn't go mentioning anything about it to anyone so the obvious and more sane plan was to tell Jake that I must have passed out or something like that during my walk. The downside to telling him this was that he would definitely want to take me back to the hospital to get me checked out again and make sure I really was okay. But this was the only option I had, unless I somehow made it home before him, I knew that wasn't likely though. It was just so embarrassing, constantly having to go to the hospital with all my stupid emergencies but oh well, I would deal with it if that was the way it had to be.

Once the house was in plain sight, I saw my truck in the driveway and Jake's Volkswagen was right next to it. Great, he was home before me as I suspected he would be. I wasn't looking forward to another trip to the doctor, but nevertheless, I continued on my way up the driveway, across the path to the porch and into the sliding glass door in the kitchen. "Hey Jake," I said as I entered the house. I could hear the television in the living room so I followed the sound and found Jacob dozing in the armchair. Lucky me, he was passed out. I thought that hopefully he had been sleeping for a while, that way he wouldn't realize how long I had been gone on my walk and therefore wouldn't be worried about me and want to take me to the hospital. I turned around and quietly tip-toed out of the living room but before I could clear the doorway I heard Jacob say, "Hey Bells! Where ya' been? I waited for hours for you to get home but you didn't show so I dozed off."

"Oh, just walking along the hiking trail and I guess I lost track of time or something," I explained, trying to brush it off as nothing.

"Well where the hell did you walk to, Timbuktu?" he asked jokingly.

"I was just walking towards Forks and then I turned around and headed back. I didn't have any definite idea of where I was walking to, I just wanted some fresh air and a good brisk walk always does a body good." Still trying to play it off like nothing crazy went down while I was gone.

"Huh," Jacob mused. "Well for as long as you were gone, you certainly should have made it to Forks, did you try to stop by Charlie's?"

"Nah, I didn't make it to Forks. I'm not sure how it took me so long, just all of a sudden it was dark out. I thought I was walking pretty quickly but I did stop to rest a little," I interjected, trying to be very vague about the whole thing.

"Bells, you know you're a horrible liar, right? What's up, what took so long?" Jacob chided. He totally had me figured out that I wasn't exactly telling him everything, so at this point I knew I had to fess up to something, and since I couldn't bring up the encounter with Aro-if that ever really happened in the first place, I had to tell him the only other thing I could, which was the most likely scenario of what happened anyway.

"Okay Jake, well I didn't want to tell you this because I didn't want you to worry about me, but I think I might have blacked out or passed out. Maybe an after effect of my concussion. I don't know, but it was all I could think of when it suddenly started getting dark." I was being as honest as I possibly could given the current circumstances, "I don't actually remember passing out though and I don't recall waking up and being on the ground or anything either, but it's the only thing I can imagine."

Jacob looked at me somewhat suspiciously and mulled over my explanation for a few minutes, but then he seemed to find it acceptable and responded, "Well damn Bells, you know what this means?"

I groaned in response and Jacob laughed and said, "Yep, that's right, let's go back to your favorite place in the world."

I knew there was no sense in arguing with him over this so I grabbed my purse and we both headed to his car. This time on the way to the hospital he didn't drive quite so fast since I wasn't amidst a dire emergency. I stared out the window as usual and half expected to have an experience like I had earlier that morning but there were no monsters that I was aware of, nothing in my sight at least, so that was a relief. We got to the hospital and walked up to the check-in desk for the second time that day. It was a different shift though, so it wasn't the same lady from our morning visit who had been suspiciously eyeballing Jacob. We went through the usual check-in process though, mentioning the fact that we were return visitors today and explaining the scenario of my mishap once again. She asked us to wait in the chairs as per normal and we waited quietly, myself slightly annoyed about having to be here again as well as feeling my usual embarassment about it.

A few minutes later an orderly was at the emergency room door and called my name to come back and get examined again, "Isabella Swan?" I briskly got up and headed that direction, the orderly then smiled and said "Hello Ms. Swan, please come with me." He led me through the door and back through the hallway into one of the emergency units, looking at my chart he said, "I see this is your second visit today, so I'm sure you know the routine. We'll need to take your vitals and all that and then a doctor will be with you shortly, okay?" I nodded my head in response and then my vitals signs got checked, questions asked, etcetera, etcetera and then the orderly left me in the room to wait for the doctor. I was zoning off in my own little world when the door swung open and in strolled the doctor. It was a different doctor than the one who stitched me up in the morning during my previous visit.

He looked young for a doctor, blonde hair and the most interesting eyes. There was something familiar about him but I couldn't put my finger on it. He smiled at me showing perfect straight white teeth, and then he seemed to notice the bewildered look on my face, "Bella, hello! So you hit your head this morning did you? I see you got stitched up already though and the stitches seem to all still be in place. What brings you back in this evening?" How odd, everyone else addressed me as Isabella unless I informed them to please call me Bella. I hadn't remembered asking him to call me Bella though. Huh, well, I'm sure that Bella is a common nickname for Isabella, nothing to get all worked up about that's for sure. Also, why didn't he introduce himself to me? Normally the doctor will let you know his name, he hadn't greeted me with the usual doctor's greeting though. I was going back and forth about this in my mind for a bit when the doctor asked me again, "Bella? What brings you back in this evening? It's too early to be the follow up appointment, so are you having complications related to your injury?"

I was preparing to answer his question when I suddenly saw his name tag. I could see plain as day that it said 'Dr. Cullen', I shook my head a few times and looked again to make sure I was reading it right, sure enough that's what it said. I then remembered my dream and brought up a vague image of his face I had buried down in the depths of my mind. "Carlisle?" I asked him, to be sure I was remembering correctly, "Is that your name, Carlisle Cullen?"

"Well Bella, of course that's my name. You know that, I'm your father-in-law after all, how could you forget?" I was in complete and utter shock by the bombshell he had just dropped on me.

I practically exploded at him, "Father-in-law? WHAT?! I've never been married in my life, who are you and why have I been having these strange dreams? I don't understand what is going on, something is wrong with me, something is seriously wrong!"

I began crying hysterically, my head buried in my arms, sobbing heavily and repeatedly. I stayed like that for what felt like an eternity and then I looked up and I was alone again. Where could the doctor have gone? I was so disoriented and frightened by my state of mind which was falling apart at the seams day by day, hour by hour. Was I losing my mind? As horrified as it made me to think that, really it made more sense than anything else I could come up with.

I sat there waiting quietly and anxiously in the room for the doctor to come back and finally the door swung open again but a different doctor came through into the room. A woman this time, I was too out of it to pay attention when she greeted me with her name. She asked me why I was there, I mentioned my possible fainting spell or coma aftershock, whatever that might be called, and she decided it was best if they keep me overnight so they could observe me in case I passed out again or anything. Rather than keep me in the ER, they wanted to get me set up in a regular room with a more comfortable bed and nurses on staff to tend to any needs I might have. She then advised me to head back the check-in desk to get the information on where my room would be.

I went back out to the waiting area to let Jacob know what was going on and he walked up to the check-in desk with me where we got the necessary information and then he escorted me to the floor I would be staying on overnight. Jacob wanted to stay with me but I insisted he go home so he could get a good night's sleep in our comfortable bed. There was no need for him to sleep uncomfortably all night long in a hospital room visitor's chair that was much too small for him to begin with. He wasn't having it at first and argued with me for a while but finally he caved and I convinced him to sleep comfortably at home.

"Okay Bells, I'll go home then since you're such an incredible pain in my ass and won't take no for an answer," he said in a defeated tone. Following up in a more agressive manner, "But I'll be back first thing in the morning, you got that?" Then Jacob smiled at me with that amazing grin of his to let me know he wasn't actually upset with me, probably just annoyed that I wouldn't let him have his way. His way being that he would wake up with a horrid backache from sleeping in the chair. I didn't bother to tell him about my strange incident in the ER room, I was beginning to worry about my sanity and didn't want him to start thinking I was coocoo for cocoa puffs too. I decided that once I got home I would look on the internet for information about the hospital and try to find a roster of all the doctors who are employed there. I knew I had to get to the bottom of what was going on before somebody ends up throwing me in a loony bin for hysteria. Oh I was hysterical alright, but it was no laughing matter.

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