Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, I own a serious addiction to Twitter.

Chapter 32

BPOV

Charlie shot him. I can't believe my own father shot the person I love. Watching Edward's body go limp on the floor stopped my heart. Arms pulled me away from the scene, I fought against the strength of them determined to not stop watching Edward until his beautiful green eyes opened and that crooked grin was back on his wonderful mouth.

Somehow I was managing to ignore the pain emanating from every part of my body as I watched the paramedics work to find a pulse. A huge wracking sob of relief burst forth from me when I finally noted that Edward's chest was rising and falling gently. They ripped off his shirt to reveal the vividly ugly wound that travelled from the front to the back of his shoulder. Blood was still freely escaping, pads of white cotton were pressed down onto it and strapped into place before he was picked up and placed onto the stretcher. Then they rushed him out of the room away from me.

I struggled to follow him, railing against yet more restricting arms around me.

"Bella, calm down." Charlie's face appeared in front of me breaking my stare at the door Edward had been taken through.

"I'm with him. I have to go with him." I muttered still trying to pull myself away.

"You'll get to the hospital, you'll get to see him. I just need you to get fixed." His brown eyes pleaded with me to acquiesce until finally I did. When I nodded at him I became intensely aware of the fact that it felt like every part of my body had been broken. The pain was excruciating.

"It hurts."

"What does?"

"Everything." I sobbed out, finally allowing myself to crumble under the pressures of the day. My eyes locked onto the lifeless body lying crumpled on the carpet knife still in hand.

"Come with me." Charlie took my hand gently but it still sent wincing pain through me, he guided me up the stairs and out the house before sitting me down onto a stretcher with a gentle push on my shoulder.

Fresh air swam into my lungs, I gasped it down like I was drowning, trying to cleanse myself from the inside out. Paramedics worked around me, applying gauze and make shift bandages as I stared blankly through the trees. Emergency service lights bathed the scene in rotating colours bouncing back into the trees off the white walls of the house.

"Where is everyone?" I asked Charlie, moving my head to the side to look past the woman who was making more pain shoot through me by flexing my hand and wrist.

"Everyone is at the hospital getting looked after. Carlisle is waiting to see you and Edward."

"I'm so angry with you, but so grateful too." I told him truthfully making him cringe slightly under my gaze.

"My only option was to shoot through Edward. It was that or let him plunge that knife back into you."

"Hence the grateful comment Dad. How did you get into the house?"

"Carlisle gave me the name and number of the company. I've been out here since I spoke to you on the phone getting the master code. Son of a bitch refused until I threatened to track him down and shoot him in the face if he didn't give me it."

"Dad!" I was shocked more at the use of the word bitch than of the empty threat he had administered. I knew he would never use his gun without provocation, thankfully this guy hadn't.

"What else was I to do Bella? My only daughter trapped in a house with a dangerous killer and no means of escape, if threats of violence gave us a happy ending then I have no regrets."

"We should get her to the hospital, get her cleaned up." The woman said to Charlie like I didn't even exist.

"Well your timing was impeccable Dad." I stood up and hugged him gently, trying to avoid any pressure anywhere on my body. "Alright, get me to the hospital, I need to see Edward."

It felt like it took forever to get to the hospital. Every bump on the road reverberated through my injured body and trust me when I say there was a shed load of bumps on the road. Under the bright false lighting in the back of the ambulance I was finally able to see some of the damage that had been done to my body.

Extending my arms out in front of me I was shocked at how much blood was smeared across my hands and arms. The shallower cuts on my upper arm had stopped bleeding but throbbed dully, especially when I couldn't resist the urge to have a little poke at them. My right hand was bruised almost black and was swollen hugely, my knuckles sitting slightly out of alignment. The sight of it made my stomach turnover. My left hand was not so damaged yet was still bruised beyond recognition.

I was dreading the look of my face, though I was hopeful that it would just be dirty. I couldn't remember any damage being inflicted on my face, though the memories of this evening were already not as vivid as I had feared. I had assumed that this would be a night I would forever remember in all of its Technicolor horror. But it was slowly dawning on me that as long as Edward, and everyone else, was going to come out of this ok then I wasn't going to let this night define me for the rest of my life.

The woman was looking at me with a glower because I refused to take off my jeans and let her look at my damaged leg. Realising that I was being obtuse I still refused. There was no way I was going to arrive at the hospital sans jeans.

We finally arrived at the hospital and I hobbled out of the ambulance to be met with Carlisle's anxious face. I smiled at him warily, pleased beyond belief that he was standing before me without any damage. His hand extended out to guide me to the wheelchair that was sitting at his side.

"Bella, thank god, I've been so worried." He told me, trying to sit me in the wheelchair.

"A wheelchair? Really Carlisle I can walk."

"Please don't argue with me Bella, indulge me this favour." With a sigh I sat myself into it and he wheeled me through the doors of the hospital.

"How is Edward? How is everyone else? Are they safe? Are they going to be alright?"

"The girls are being patched up, nothing too serious, we have to keep a close eye out for concussion but they should be fine. Emmett and Jasper will be fine too."

Relief.

I'm falling a little bit in love with relief.

"Edward?"

"He is in surgery right now." His tone was cautious. Like he was unsure he should have told me at this moment in time. I hauled myself out of the moving chair, catching my heel and stumbling forward.

"Surgery?! What?" My voice echoes through the crowded halls making people pause what they were doing and turn to stare at this vision of bloody covered anguish in front of them.

"Please sit back down Bella. His shoulder was shattered; he needs to have it reconstructed."

"Fucking Charlie." I muttered darkly, fully aware that it was the only option available to him but also suspicious that he had wanted to shoot Edward since the previous night.

We turned a corner and I saw Alice walk out of a room to our right. She stopped in her tracks when she saw me, her eyes filling with tears that spilled down her cheeks. A sob started in her chest and she ran over to me, dropping to her knees and hugging me around the waist, her cheek resting on my damaged knee. The pain made me want to vomit but I held it in and patted her head with my left hand.

"Oh Bella, you look like hell, I was so worried." She whispered to my lap.

"I'm alright Alice, promise." Her face turned up to mine and I grinned down at her. "Honestly, you know me better than to think that I could get killed by a murderous psychopath." I huffed jokily, trying to ease her worry.

"Good point. I pity the fool who tries to take you down." She returned my grin and some of the Alice sparkle that I love so much returned.

"I need you to do me one thing though." She nodded immediately. "You really need to stop touching me right now, every part of me feels broken." Her eyes widened and she immediately pulled away from me.

"Go get fixed then." She shooed us off and returned to the room she had left when I spotted her.

Three hours, countless x-rays later and I was as fixed as I could be by modern medicine. My right hand was in a cast, my arms covered in stitches and bandages and my knee strapped so tight I'm surprised that blood could get through to my lower leg.

Edward still wasn't out of surgery.

I was sitting in the room Emmett and Jasper were calling home, their faces peppered with scratches from the glass of the windscreen from the car. Emmett's leg was in a full cast, from foot to crotch but his dimples were in full attendance so I wasn't worried about the pain he was in. Jasper had managed to get away without any broken bones but he wore a bandage around his head that made him look like a rejected prototype for Rambo.

And Edward still wasn't out of surgery.

I was doped up to the eyeballs with some painkiller or another that left my entire body feeling pretty damn numb but my chest was aching. With every beat of my heart my pain grew more and more intense. Alice tried to ease my worry but I couldn't help but think of the trauma his body had been through even without surgery. People go in to have surgery on the simplest things and yet don't survive.

I can't exist without him.

I don't exist without him.

Carlisle would give us periodic updates but mostly we sat and we talked over what a psycho James was and the reasoning behind his campaign of hate. But I zoned out after telling them what had happened in the room, letting them come to their own conclusions about the kind of man he was. Personally I didn't care what kind of traumatic childhood he had experienced; there was no excuse for what had happened tonight.

"I'm going to go for a walk." I muttered. Half hopping out of the room I pulled the door closed behind me and leaned against it.

I couldn't concentrate, couldn't bring myself to think or care about anything. There was only one thing on my mind. Charlie had come in with some of his deputies and taken our statements but mine was a garbled mess, I didn't tell it in order at all. Random statements forced their way out of my mouth leaving us all confused.

With every minute that passed another sliver of my heart detached itself. It was becoming a jigsaw that I wasn't going to be able to reassemble if the main part of it was missing forever.

I've turned into a pessimistic drama queen. I didn't know love could make you feel like this. If it is like this with a boyfriend then I don't understand how parents can get through a day without having a breakdown. That's the only other love I can think of that could be so consuming, so unconditional. I would never need anything from Edward except him, and even if he wasn't willing to give me that I would still love him this strongly.

Thankfully he was more than willing to give me that.

EPOV

Bella was safe and I loved her and she loved me. That was the last thing I remember thinking before I lost consciousness. Knowing that she was no longer in danger I allowed myself to submit to the knowledge of my body, let it take over and kick into survival mode. I hadn't expected it to knock me out so suddenly and completely but it was a welcome respite from the ache of my face and the agony of my shoulder.

I knew Charlie was just waiting for the opportunity to shoot me.

But the bullet that had managed to shatter my shoulder into splinters had also managed to escape through my skin and sink solidly into James's back to prevent him from stabbing through Bella's perfect skin again so I can't hold any grudges. I'm pretty sure that if I had the same opportunity when it comes to my future daughter's boyfriend then I would gladly take it.

The next thing I was aware of was waking up to see Carlisle hovering over me. A look of intense relief on his face when he saw me open my eyes. They were giving me blood to replace the pints that I had lost. I couldn't make out what was being said.

Carlisle told me something and I nodded. I had no idea what I had just agreed to. He could have told me that they needed to amputate something and I just nodded like an idiot.

Then I was being wheeled through corridors, a mask being placed over my mouth and nose. My eyes were fluttering shut but I didn't want to sleep again until I had seen Bella.

My beautiful beat up Bella.

But I couldn't fight whatever was pumping into the mask and I was lost once again to the blackness.

I don't know how long I was unconscious.

What I did know when I was drifting solidly towards wakefulness was that I was screaming inside. The pain emanating from my shoulder was greater than any pain I had felt in my life. I couldn't talk, couldn't move. It was like I was trapped in my own mind. There was no silence from my unflinching mental scream. It was so loud inside my head I was sure the sound would be seeping through my ears and into the room.

My scream lessened when a soft familiar hand made contact with my own.

It felt like days were trudging slowly by with me trapped inside my head. I started talking to myself, singing to myself to keep the boredom at bay until sounds began to penetrate my mental prison. Voices I recognised spoke around me, some of them to me.

When I heard Bella's voice pleading with me I resolved to fight against my prison with more passion. I used every fibre of my being to move my fingers in her grasp but they would not obey. It felt like there was never a moment that Bella wasn't with me. She was urging me to open my eyes, to move my fingers, to speak to her and I so desperately wanted to. I wanted to kiss those soft welcoming lips, wind my fingers through her silky hair, to taste her strawberry skin, to kiss her neck and to touch her everywhere.

"Carlisle, why won't he wake up?" Bella's voice asked at one point.

"His body has been through spectacular trauma Bella, plus the head injuries that he sustained." They both sounded weary. "He will wake up when his body is ready for him to."

"I miss him." Bella whispered making my heart ache to comfort her.

"We all do."

Enough is enough. If I wasn't ready to wake up why would I be experiencing such a high level of cognition? This is hugely frustrating. Remind me to never get kicked in the head and shot again.

I focussed all of my energy on opening my eyes. I pictured Bella waiting for me to look at her, waiting for a sign that it was all going to be good from now on. I would wake up for her. I would wake up because she was my life. She was everything I would ever need. Without her I was nothing, a shell of a human being subsisting on a very basic level. She brought me to life before and she was my focus to begin living once again.

Slivers of light slipped through my eyelids, my eyes tried to remain shut against the alien brightness but I forced them open that little bit more. I could make out the white sheets that were tucked tightly around my body, looked at the IV secured in the back of my hand, glanced down at my shoulder and saw the bandages wrapped tightly around it. Looking beyond the foot of my bed I finally saw her standing looking up at Carlisle.

Carlisle's head inclined slightly in my direction and Bella turned her head towards me.

BPOV

Edward had been sleeping for 88 hours, 34 minutes and 13 seconds. I couldn't bring myself to call it anything other than sleeping. He had been rolled out of surgery and I wasn't allowed to see him for another hour until I all but screamed at Carlisle to make the nurses let me see him. I had barely left his side since.

Charlie had brought me some clothes from home, Carlisle let me use the doctor's lounge and bathroom, I picked through trays of hospital food. I played music for Edward, with one earphone each I sat beside him and played him the songs that I associated with us from my IPod. I was sure that if he heard Machines or Disenchanted Lullaby that it would stir something in him and wake him up.

Every passing hour built upon the savage desperation I was feeling. Another hour passed and another block was placed on top of the last.

Everything outside of the hospital room ceased to exist. I was rarely in there alone. Doctors and nurses provided a constant stream of interruption. They looked upon me with sympathy but I didn't want it. They would try to convince me to get some fresh air but I would refuse. They would change my dressings as I sat at his bedside, gripping his limp fingers in my own.

Sometimes my mind would play tricks on me, I would be convinced that his fingers moved, or that I saw his toes twitch underneath the sheets. Sometimes I would stare at his closed eyes, memorising the tiny blood vessels underneath the pale skin, his long eyelashes rested gently on his cheeks and I would fall ever more in love with him.

Esme would sit silently in vigil with me, understanding my need to be there, to not be questioned about my presence. Thankfully she understood my need to use her crystal vase as a weapon too. She fended off curious staff wanting to know the details. In a town like Forks our ordeal was going to go into legend with abundant inaccuracies that I didn't have the strength or desire to correct.

Jasper and Emmett were still in the hospital and very sporadically I would venture along to see them, as always Alice and Rosalie were by their sides and for a few minutes in each day I would feel some of the worry, some of the desperation lift from me and I could allow myself to be comforted by just the presence of my friends.

It was early evening when Carlisle came in to check on us both. He picked up the folder that sat at the end of Edward's bed and looked over to see if there had been any change. He could have asked me, I was preternaturally aware in any changes in his son.

"Carlisle, why won't he wake up?" We both sighed at me asking this question. It was a well worn path of me knowing but not comprehending the reasoning and Carlisle feeling more than helpless at both his son being asleep for so long and at my need for him to be awake.

"His body has been through spectacular trauma Bella, plus the head injuries that he sustained. He will wake up when his body is ready for him to."

"I miss him." I whispered pointlessly.

"We all do."

We looked at each other, united in our hopelessness, until he inclined his head slightly towards the bed. I turned to look down at Edward, at a loss as to what Carlisle was directing my attention to. When I realised it felt like I had been punched in the gut. There was no air left in my body as soon as I became aware of the most beautiful pair of emerald eyes peering up at us. The smile of overwhelming relief that formed on my mouth almost split my face in two. I positively beamed down at Edward with happiness.

I was at his side in seconds, my hands wrapped around his and I practically passed out at the sensation of him gripping back. Happy tears burned my eyeballs but I refused to let them cloud my vision, refused to lose the image of Edward smiling up at me. He was smiling the smile only I get to see, the smile that tells me just how much he enjoys being with me. He cleared his throat and lifted his hand to stroke across my cheek, pulling my face closer to his until out foreheads rested against each other.

"Welcome home." I murmured against his lips.

"You brought me back."

"It felt like you were gone forever. Don't ever leave me like that again."

"Only if you promise me one thing."

"Anything."

"Make Charlie promise not to shoot me again." He laughed and I'm sure I heard Carlisle stifle a snigger behind us. Looking deep into Edward's eyes, smiling like an idiot, I knew that there was nothing he could ask that I would refuse.

"Deal."

Our lips pressed softly against the others and the frenzied emotions of the previous days stilled, calm swept through me and I wasn't worried about what the future would hold because I was looking it right in the emerald eye.

"I love you."

"Marry me."

A/N: Hello my lovely readers and supporters!

Leave me a review and let me know what you thought!

The last A/N was very very rushed because I had about 3 minutes to get changed for work and write it and post the chapter.

My course is close to ending as is this story and I wanted to extend a majorly heartfelt thanks to those of you who have been avid readers and feedbackers (not sure that's a word).

The Twilighted thread thing is easy to find if you search for my author name and not the story name because about a billion matches comes up for dream...I snatched a quick look but had no time to post a nice message...sorry! For my next story I'll be more vocal and interactivey because it'll be summer time and I'll be free of college...I got an A for the entire course so the study time has been worth it!

Dependent on what spills out of my messed up brain the last chapter will be the end *sob*.

It'll be up asap...but as always lots to do and not enough time....I really am longing for the summer...not least because I'm going to London to see Kings of Leon :D

Be good peeps!