I felt a rough set of fingers moving around my head, whatever they were doing stung like crazy. Suddenly a gentler, more delicate pair of rubbery fingers pried my eyelids open. I was unable to take in my surroundings as a small white light blinded me. It shined directly into my eye for a few moments before moving away. My eye started to recover from the visual assault to see the silhouette of a female's head before the light blinded me again. This frustrating pattern continued a few more times before moving to the other eye.

My hand was being held by someone. It couldn't have been Alice's, it was way too big. The warm hand felt soothing; all I wanted to do was sleep. The pain in my head began to subdue but the rubbery hands were poking and prodding around making sleep all but impossible. I winced in pain, the large rough hands causing the back of my head to hurt. My head felt like it was being lift up by something; my movements were restricted by whatever it was. The stinging from the back of my head was replaced by the violent familiar burn of lidocaine; my eyes shot open. I could make out three cloudy forms above my head. I felt dizzy and sick to my stomach as I attempted to focus on them.

There was suddenly a sharp pain in my forearm, I reached and grabbed a hold of the offending tube that had caused the pain but the gentle hands from before grabbed my wrist as I tried to remove the tube. I could see two of the figures were speaking to me, I instinctively struggled against the hold but found quickly that I didn't have the strength overcome the grasp. Two of the figures continued speaking to me while the other moved their hands. I couldn't make out her face clearly but it was Rosalie, there was no doubt about it. The hand holding my wrist belonged to a female, the same I'm sure that was blinding me before. She gently pushed my arms away from each other and placed my wrist at my side.

My arms and legs felt heavy, brick like. I also felt like there was an elephant on my chest, it was uncomfortably tight. The pain eased as I slowed my breathing. I started to feel light headed again as I suddenly felt like was slipping into a warm blanket. I wanted to smile, to enjoy the warmth as I let my eyes shut. The people around me seemed set on stopping me from sleeping though. I groaned as one of the rough hands from before kneaded its knuckles over my chest. I considered reaching up to stop it but I didn't have the strength or will power.

My throat was wrecked, it felt tight like my chest; each breath I took caused me pain. Rosalie's hand was shaking slightly as it wrapped tighter around my fingers, she wasn't the type to just hold my hand so something must be wrong. I took in a few deep breaths as I forced my eyes open again and the abuse my chest was taking stopped. My vision was more focused now but not by much, I took in Rosalie's face; she was crying. Anger bubbled in my chest, someone that beautiful should never look that sad.

She looked back at me a soft smile playing on her lips. I shared her gaze for a few moments before she looked at the female, who I could now tell was an EMT. She was speaking but her face appeared sideways from the angle I was at, I couldn't understand a word of what she was saying. "What?" I opened my mouth to speak, I'm sure the plastic oxygen mask muffled my words but she got the point.

I turned my eyes towards Rosalie, Just relax and concentrate on taking deep breaths. She signed translating for the EMT.

"Cold" I croaked out, my throat burning as I spoke. The EMT nodded and started to speak again. When Rosalie didn't translate I figured she wasn't speaking to me. The burly male EMT with the rough hands handed the female a bag of fluid, saline probably, and she attached it to my IV. I started to feel a little warmer after the female handed Rose a thick blanket. She wrapped it around my legs but my chest was exposed and my shirt had been ripped open. I started to lift my head to look at the damage that had been done to it but my head was still strapped down.

Jasper lay still. Rosalie scolded me before she took my hand again. I felt the vehicle come to a stop and the doors were ripped open, the night air felt incredibly cold and shivers began to rack my body. The stretcher I was on was pulled forward as new people surrounded me, I held tight to Rosalie's hand still confused as to what was wrong with me, I was cold and tired, well cold, tired and wet but that seemed like no justification for the concern on everyone's faces. The new people above me appeared to be shouting at each other as they pushed me inside of a building. The man who appeared to be in charge was in his mid fifties with gray hair and a gray beard, his expression was much calmer than the others around him. He was confident and that made me feel much better.

We were inside quickly, the air conditioning causing my shaking to get worse. I couldn't see Rosalie any longer but her hand remained around mine. I was unable to focus on anything now except for the repetitive ceiling above me. We continued for a while down a straight hallway for a while before turning. Once we turned Rosalie's hand dropped mine, I reached for it but I was being pushed away from her.

****

The next few hours drug on for what felt like an eternity. A lot had been done to me but mainly they warmed me up. Warming me up took care of some of the tightness I felt in my chest but my throat was still ravaged. I had been forced in to a hideous hospital gown and I had been freed from the constraints of the backboard but that had been replaced by an uncomfortable neck brace.

I gave the older doctor an appreciative smile as he came back in; he had been a great doctor so far. After realizing that I couldn't read his lips effectively because of his beard he had started communicating to me by righting cue cards in a notebook. "Feeling any warmer?" was scrawled in large black letters.

"Almost toasty" I answered him with a smile. He nodded and started writing again.

"You're breathing has improved - pain killer time" I smiled as he turned the notebook around. I had several pieces of glass removed from my hair and scalp in the ambulance but the majority of the pain I felt was in my neck. He pulled a small syringe out and injected it into my IV. He watched the monitors that had been hooked up and nodded approvingly before starting to write on his notebook again. "You'll stay down here for a few more hours before we can get you into your own room okay?" I nodded as I read.

"Is my sister still here?" I asked glad that the oxygen mask had been replaced by a small tube running under my nose.

He nodded and began to scribble again, "I'll send her and a few of your friends back"

"Thank you" He left after writing a few things in my chart. I leaned back against the bed pulling the blanket around me, it didn't take long for the pain killer to kick in and I dozed off.