So I'm not sure if I should include a fight with Victoria or not. I was wondering what you guys think. If I let Victoria live, the next chapter might be the last one, if I include Victoria's death I don't know how many more chapters it might be. So please review and let me know. Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far.

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Chapter 8 Illnesses

As I had expected, the drive back to Forks went very quickly. After Alice had greeted me with a hug, we got in Edward's car. Edward drove, I sat next to him, and Alice stayed in the back, chattering happily about how we needed to have a celebration. She was mentioning plans of a big shopping trip, followed by a party. That was honestly the last thing I felt like doing, because I did feel very tired and sick, not to mention my arm still hurt. But I didn't want to complain or seem weak, I already felt very pathetic and fragile when I was around the Cullens.

It was so nice to be inside the Cullens house again. Esme ran up to me and hugged me, saying how glad she was I was safe. Carlisle came to me and quickly inspected my health, confirming my guess on the flu. I decided I would tell him about my arm after we figured out what I would tell my parents. Jasper nodded to me with a small smile, keeping his distance.

"lets go into the dining room," Carlisle said," Emmett and Rosalie are in there waiting for us. We might as well decide what to do as soon as possible so Bella can go home and rest and not become sicker."

I was about to protest that my health was not that big a deal, but Edward must have known what I was about to say. One look from him stopped my words short before I even opened my mouth, so I just nodded and followed Carlisle with Edward walking beside me, holding my hand. Alice came in after us.

Emmett and Rosalie were standing next to the large table talking about something so fast that I couldn't understand anything they were saying. Once we came in they stopped talking and looked at me. Rosalie greeted me with her usual glare, which I did my best to ingnore.

"Hey Bella," Emmett said in a much too excited voice,"it's been a long time since I've seen you!" I just rolled my eyes, because we both knew we had seen each other just. . .

Suddenly I realized time had meant almost nothing to me, and I didn't even know how long it had been since I first saw James that day. As I thought about it, I remembered it had been from Sunday night until Wednesday morning that I had been away from Edward. It was easier to remember how much time had passed then, because time had move so painfully slow then. I couldn't think of how much time had been spent with Edward, time was just a blur then. It also didn't help that I had been sick probably most of that time, making me feel even more tired, and sleep more than I usually would.

"How long were we in New York." I asked Edward as we all sat down at the table. As I sat, I realized how exhausted I had been, and I wondered if I would be able to go to school anytime soon. Then I thought of something else," What day and time is it now?" I wondered how much school I had missed.

"We arrived in New York Wednesday night," Edward started, " and we were there all of Thursday. Then we left late Friday afternoon." I shivered as I remembered why we left. "We were in Indiana late Friday night to to this morning. Obviously it is Saturday now, and it's getting late, almost seven."

I looked out the window and realized the sun was beginning to set. This meant I had only missed one week of school. that wasn't so bad, I was confident that I would be able to get caught up again.

Carlisle started the discussion," We all need to come up with a story we can tell Bella's parents, so we can keep any suspicions to a minimum. Does anyone have any ideas?"

I picked the worst time to be clumsy. Momentarily forgetting about my arm, I quickly shifted my position slightly and somehow ended up banging it lightly against the back of my chair. I couldn't keep the pain off my face, or hold in the quick gasp, as the searing pain shot through my arm. The worst of the pain only lasted a couple seconds, but that was more than enough time for my reaction to be seen by seven ultra sharp pairs of eyes and ears.

"Is something wrong with your arm," Edward asked quickly.

"It's fine," I started, but Edward interrupted.

"I should know better than to ask you," he mumbled to me. Then he turned to Carlisle, "Can you look at her arm?"

"Definitely. Bella, why don't you come over to the couch, where it's a little more comfortable."

I sighed, it seemed we would never figure out what I would tell everyone. There was no way I was going to get out of having my arm checked now. I wondered how I was going to get out of my heavy sweatshirt. I hadn't showered since yesterday morning, so I hadn't tried to take it off, and I hadn't seen what my arm looked like. I sat on the edge of the couch. Edward and Carlisle stood right in front of me, and everyone else had followed, staying out of the way with looks of curiosity or concern on their faces.

"Do you think you can take your sweatshirt off?" Carlisle asked me gently.

"I don't know." I said truthfully.

"Do you mind if it gets a little destroyed?"

"Not really." I didn't really care much about clothes, and this shirt had just been bought at the mall in New York. I figured it had just been something temporary for the colder weather up there.

Carlisle nodded and gently took my sleeve. Then with perfect precision he smoothly ripped through the heavy cotton, until he went through the entire shirt and was able to take it off. He was able to do this in seconds, without touching my arm in the slightest. I shivered slightly, because I still had the chills, and that shirt had been keeping me warm. Then I glanced at my arm.

The painful spot on my arm was very colorful. It was mostly a very deep purple. There was also some small amounts of deep red, and an ugly yellow on the edge of the bruise. The bruise was about five inched long, and covered the entire circumference of my upper arm.

"Bella, why didn't you tell me about this?" Edward asked me in disbelief.

"I didn't want you to worry, or blame yourself," I mumbled lamely

Edward gave me a stern look, "Your well being is much much more important than me."

I didn't think I could agree to that, and I didn't respond as Carlisle started to inspect my arm with his able sensitive hands. His soft cool touch felt nice, and he put just the right amount of pressure, not too much to hurt, but not too little so it tickled. "It's not broken or sprained." he announced after a few quiet minutes. "But I think the bone and muscle have been bruised. I can feel the blood leaking very deep down. It is very lucky there isn't any broken bone or torn muscle."

"What can we do for it?" Edward asked.

"Not much unfortunately. We can give her pain killers, maybe ice it a little, although the swelling is minimal, and lots of rest. But it should start to feel better in a few weeks," Calrisle said confidently.

"Maybe between the flu and bruise she should just go rest now." Edward suggested. "It's still the weekend tomorrow, she could sleep here, and the rest of us can still try to figure something out."

"Don't I get any say in this," I snapped, I was getting annoyed from being treated like a child. I also didn't like the idea of not being a part of the conversation we were about to start a few minutes ago.

"No,' Edward said, his face and voice were still stern. "Obviously you have no idea how to take care of yourself. Who knows how hard you are pushing yourself right now to stay awake. You look like you're going to fall asleep any second."

I started to protest, but I was interrupted.

"Bella, Edward is probably right." Now Carlisle was against me too. He felt my forehead, "Your fever is getting worse anyway. That's not a good thing. I'll go get you a prescription strength dose of ibuprofen. It'll help the fever and the bruise, then we should get you to bed."

As Carlisle talked about my fever I came up with an idea, but he vanished out of the room before I could say anything. I could remember learning something about fevers in a health class I took a few years ago. "A high fever can cause confusion and make people disoriented, can't it?" I asked Edward.

"I guess so," Edward said, obviously confused.

I smiled. It looked like I might be able to have a say in my story after all.

Carlisle came back in the room, carrying the pain relievers, a blanket, and a large cup of water. "You should take these, and drink all the water. We need to be able to keep you hydrated," he told me. Edward took the blanket from him and gently threw it around my still shivering body.

"Carlisle, do you know of any illnesses that cause a very high fever, and a lot of confusion," I asked thoughtfully after I took the ibuprofen and drank a few extra sips of water.

His face lit up, and he immediately understood what I was thinking. "I do, we could say you have meningitis or encephalitis. Then we could maybe stretch the truth a little about what the symptoms would be and the length of recovery. We can tell Renee that you thought someone wanted to kill her, but you were actually just confused from a high fever, or something like that. Do your parents know much about diseases?"

"Hardly anything," I told him happily. "We could tell them the flu and a common cold are exactly the same thing, and they'd believe it."

"So, it's your story and your idea, do you have a preference for a disease to tell your parents?" Carlisle asked me.

"You could say you have rabies," Emmett teased. His voice almost startled me, I had forgotten everyone else was still in the room, because they were so naturally quiet and still.

Edward growled halfheartedly, "That's not funny, Emmett."

"I think I'll go with encephalitis, " I decided. "I'm not very familiar with it, so I know Charlie and Renee won't know much about it." After I spoke, I couldn't stifle a yawn. I was feeling more and more exhausted, and I didn't know how much longer I could stay awake. I thought Edward's and Carlisle's suggestion for me to sleep first sounded pretty good, especially since the hard part of determining what to tell my parents was over.

The yawn certainly wasn't unnoticed by Edward either. "Do you think you could please come up to my room with me and sleep now?" he asked anxiously. "I really don't want you to get any sicker, and if you rest more, you'll recover faster."

I nodded and gave in, satisfied with the outcome of the day. The pain relievers were kicking in anyway, and I was feeling better and even sleepier. "We can call Renee first thing when you wake up, and take you home tomorrow. We'll figure out the specifics tomorrow" Edward told me as he easily scooped me up, blanket and all. Then before I could protest that I could still walk, I was in Edward's room, being laid on his couch. He started to hum my lullaby, and I knew I wasn't going to be able to stay awake any longer. I fell asleep in seconds.