[DISCLAIMER: I do not own Twilight, New Moon, or Eclipse or any of it's characters.

CHAPTER 4: VISITING

carlisle. day 3, before midnight.

"Can I see her? I know... maybe Edward should see her first... But if he decided... Well..." She trailed off, then headed in a different direction, "When are you going to tell him?"

"Tomorrow, I think, during lunch. I'll get him to meet me at the hospital." I answered, "And you can see her, if you want. We can leave tonight before Edward and Emmett get back." Esme squeezed me tighter. Bella was like a daughter to her, and she had taken the absence particularly hard.

"Thank you." She whispered.

edward. day 4, after midnight

Emmetts thoughts revolved around the wedding Rosalie was planning, it was a relief from the constant worries over my emotional state. He was sitting on the floor against the wall of the garage, hitting his head against the wall metrically in boredom. We were waiting for Jasper to come home, Emmett wanted to have a wrestling match.

We were just home from another hunting trip. I had had one every day since my arrival back home, but it seemed to be the only way to be with them. Jasper had come too, but he was picking up Alice and Rosalie, who had spent part of yesterday in Seattle taking care of some wedding arrangements.

Alice had been avoiding me lately, mentally reciting ingredients for shampoos and cosmetics. And so had Carlisle.

A phone call interrupted my thoughts. It was Jasper, the plane was going to be late. Emmett, who had stopped thumping his head during the call, sighed and resumed doing so.

Memories involving a late plane filled Emmett's thoughts. He absently tried to predict how long it would take until Jasper got home and as the minutes passed, he thought of other matches and other competitions and bets and games. And then to a fateful baseball game.

I could feel my dead insides tighten.

He remembered the three visitors, the aftermath, seeing Bella in the hospital, Bella at the prom in her cast. He smiled internally. Bella's clumsiness in the easiest tasks. Tripping over anything and everything. Her humanness.

He misses her.

An image in his mind appears of her sleeping on our couch, head on my lap, whispering words in her sleep. The sun throws patches of light on her skin, glowing with warmth, her hair fanned out and body limp in sleep.

Every detail unforgotten with time. My heart aches, and I can't take it.

"Emmett..."

"Oh, sorry... It's hard, not thinking about her." He thought of the year with Bella as one of the best in his life.

"It's... it is so hard." I admitted after a long minute.

"Go back, Edward." He said it, straight out, what everyone had been thinking.

"I can't."

carlisle. day 4, just after 1 am.

"Bella..." She whispered, bringing a hand to the scarred face of her almost-child. "What happened to you? You're broken. What happened?" If Esme could cry, she would have. The sight of Bella was devastating. Bella was broken past the skin and the cartilage. It wasn't just body and bones, it was her soul and you didn't need to see her healthy and awake to know that. Even asleep, her unhappiness was worked into her expression and her body.

"When will she wake up?" She asked, suddenly, looking away from her.

"They want to wait another day. She hasn't been doing too well. Her injuries aren't as bad as they could be, but she isn't healing." A thought nagged at the back of my mind, one that I tried to keep at bay, that she didn't want to heal.

Esme looked back at Bella, "Bella... I am so sorry we left you... I am so, so sorry. You have to know that. That I am... we are so sorry, Bella. We could have stopped this... We could have done something..." I took a step forward, wrapping an arm around her. "Carlisle... we can't leave her. Not now, not again... You have to talk to Edward, tell him that we can't go again."

"It will be okay, Esme. Trust him."

carlisle day 4, noon.

A knock on the door, "Come in."

"Dad? What did you want to see me about?" Time to tell. He was here, and now it was time to tell him.

"You hunted before you came down here?" He'd hunted every day since he'd been here. He was ready, and I was stalling.

"Yes..."

"Then follow me. I have something to show you."