Chapter 12 – Skyway Avenue
Blinded by the light, hold you through forever, never let you go – We The Kings
"What do you mean you can't tell me anything?" Rosalie hissed to the thirty-something nurse. Her pale orange scrubs clashed with her red fire engine hair and light skin. She was trying so hard not to jump across the cheap white Formica counter top and strangle the woman.
"Miss, I can only give that information out to immediate family members," she said trying to reason with a very annoyed Rosalie.
She wasn't about to call Carson in order to get information. She didn't have any desire to ruin the teenager's formal. Pul-ease! That was more obscene than Kate Gosselin thinking people actually envied her multicolored backwards woman mullet.
"Listen Vicky," Rosalie said glancing at the nurse's name tag. "I've been up since four, all I've eaten has been a bag of pretzels from a vending machine and I am so nawt in the mood. You know the Hale - Braxton Law firm? Yeah well my father owns it and I can get him to sue you…so you better tell me what happened to my boyfriend now!"
She was pretty sure her father wouldn't be able to do anything, but she needed a good bluff and the nurse with Lindsay Lohan serca 2004 colored hair didn't seamed to notice.
"Oh – Okay, um lets see…" she responded, her voice shaking slightly as she flipped through a plastic clip board next to an old HP desktop computer.
"Okay…McCarthy, Emmett. Pedestrians say they saw him waiting on the sidewalk for the light to change…a taxi hit a patch of ice and swerved. Onlookers called an ambulance…his right tibia and fibula broke on impact as well as two ribs on his left side and minor cuts on his face from the broken glass…"
As much as Rosalie needed to hear the extent of his injuries…she couldn't will herself to listen. It was too much, to know that he was hurt, that he had been in pain.
It made it hard to breathe, like Muhammad Ali had punched her repeatedly while he was still in his prime.
Griping the counter for stability, Rosalie tried to keep her body from rolling into the fetal position. "C – Can I see him," she said speaking above a whisper.
"Well Doctor Cullen put him under a medical induced coma once he got out of the ambulance, so he's not awake now and the nurses will be prepping him for surgery in five minutes…but I guess you could still see him. Room 304C. It's down that hallway, forth door on the right," she said motioning down the hallway.
After mustering some form of a thank you, Rosalie walked as fast as her wobbly legs could take her.
The small white room was separated by a single thin blue cloth that hung from the ceiling. There were two chairs next to the wall and a hanging TV that looked like it was from the seventies next to the bed.
But the thing that drew her attention the most was the man on the hospital bed with an IV sticking out of his elbow.
The nurses must have changed him because he was wearing a light cream colored hospital gown.
His right leg was bent so awkwardly under the thin sheets it made Rosalie's breath hitch.
When she saw the slanted gash above his left eyebrow she felt like her empty stomach was about to hurl…it was so close to his eye.
"I'm so sorry Em," Rosalie whispered even though she knew he couldn't hear, as she placed kisses along the side of his face that wasn't damaged. Rosalie realized she was crying when she saw the wet moisture fall on his bruised face.
"Please help him Lord. He's strong, but he, he's in pain. Pl – please don't make him hurt now," she prayed as she whipped her cheeks with the sleeve of her coat, not worrying if her tears ruined the sateen.
Rosalie pushed his curls back and tried to get a hold of her breathing when she heard the people file through the room.
"Excuse me Miss," the younger looking nurse with pale blue scrubs said. "We have to prep him for surgery now."
Nodding her head, Rosalie kissed his still lips and cheek once more before turning towards the door.
"Don't you worry honey," the older nurse with dark gray hair said patting Rosalie's forearm. "He'll be just fine."
After calling Bella and Alice for supplies, Rosalie went to one of the hospital bathrooms. Not even a sale at Intermix could make her leave right now.
Rosalie settled into one of the wooden chairs in the waiting room on the floor Emmett would return.
"Rose!" a frantic voice called from the hallway.
"Carson what the heck are you don't here, you're suppose to be at the dance?" Rose asked confused as she took in a worried looking Carson and her date.
"I – I got a call from one of the nurses. She told me what happened and everything, where is he?"
"He's in surgery now, the doctor told me it was going to be about three hours give or take," Rosalie said calmly. "Cars, they said the medication will keep him asleep until morning. Why don't you just go home, and you can come back tomorrow."
"Okay but what about you? Do you need anything?" she asked already sold on sleeping in her own bed rather than a hospital chair.
"No I'm fine; I've got reinforcements coming in. Anthony would you mind riding back with her?" she said to the fifteen year old. She did not want Carson walking back to her apartment alone at eleven on a Friday night.
"Yeah, 'course," he answered nodding his head.
"Text me when you get back to your house," Rosalie said as she hugged Carson goodbye. "Don't worry, Em's strong."
Rosalie wasn't really sure if she was trying to convince Carson more or herself. The reasonable part of her brain knew that he would be fine, but her stomach and heart couldn't stop flipping.
Her relationship with Emmett was so much different than her previous relationships.
Her feelings ran deeper; she depended on him in a way that was so different. He cared about her in a way that was strange. The fact that when she talked, he would listen made Rosalie smile. He wasn't focused on her Blake Lively-esk hair or her Cameron Diaz length legs.
Despite not being accustomed to feelings as strong as these, Rosalie wasn't afraid. Instead of running, she basked in them. She wasn't positive, but her brain automatically went to thoughts of love. Did she love him?
"Rose," a voice called, breaking Rosalie out of her thoughts.
"Hey girls," she said pulling herself up again from the chair to hug her best friends.
"I'm so sorry about everything Rose, but we came with supplies," Bella said trying to be supportive as she held up one of her larger totes.
"We brought your sweats and UGGs," Alice said sifting through the bag. "We also grabbed your laptop in case you had work or something, and the Bible of course," she said playfully holding up a copy of French Vogue.
"We brought some food too since hospital food stinks," Bella said offering Rosalie the bag they had packed.
After Alice and Bella left, Rosalie changed into her olive Juicy sweat suit, replaced her killer heals with her chestnut UGGs, and threw her hair in a messy bun at the nape of her neck. Even after two hours and eating something, she still had that sick worry feeling in her stomach. The laptop and pictures of European fashion were okay distractions, but her mind still wondered.
"Miss Hale," Doctor Cullen said making Rosalie jump in surprise. "Emmett made it through surgery very well. The brakes in his leg were actually smaller than we thought. He won't be awake for about four hours, but you are free to see him if you wish."
"Um yes, thank you," Rosalie said quickly giving the blond haired doctor a polite smile as she grabbed her bags from the floor and followed him to Em's private room.
The nurses had placed him in a small single room since he had to say overnight.
After make sure that Emmett was visibly comfortable, Rosalie plopped down in a chair, tucked her legs underneath her and closed her eyes letting the trickling of his IV soothe her to sleep.
The light coming out of the side window from the fifth story hospital room woke Rosalie up.
"Why are you all the way over there baby," Emmett mumbled, his voice groggy from heavy pain relievers and his eyelids closing.
"Ehmygosh Em," Rosalie sputtered out when her eyes had finally adjusted to the light. She flew out of the wooden contraption of a chair so fast that she almost fell over as she ran to the side of the hospital bed.
Afraid she would hurt him in some way, Rosalie settled for placing kisses on his mated down hair and next to the white bandage above his eye.
"Are you okay? Of course you're not 'okay,' what am I thinking? Do your ribs hurt? Your leg? Doctor Cullen said you hit your head too. Does your head hurt? Because I can get a nurse or -"
"Hey, hey I'm fine. It's okay," he mumbled whipping the tears Rosalie didn't know were falling off her cheekbones. "I'm invincible remember?"
"Maybe you should go back to sleep. I think the Tylenol with Codeine is going to your head," she said giggling.
"Only if you stay with me," he whispered. She could tell he was fighting to keep his eyes open…he was so tired.
"You have two broken ribs. How am I going to do that?"
"Not on this side," he said as he pat the left side of the bed.
With a huff and a slight smile, Rosalie rounded the bed and crawled in carefully as to not hit his side.
"I like you here," he mumbled draping his arm over her shoulders to pull her closer as his eyes closed. "G'night Rose…love you."
Yep, definitely the Codeine.
"Tada," Rosalie yelled throwing out her arms to gesture to the room with a bright smile as Emmett hobbled through the doorway of his bedroom on his crutches.
Emmett had been released Sunday morning as long as he promised to keep weight off his leg.
Rosalie had to work on Monday, so she wanted to make sure he would be okay for the day. She had spent the last hour organizing/cleaning his room so that every guy magazine from Sports Illustrated to The Economist were placed on the desk to the right of his bed. Rosalie piled two of his text books and the case briefs her dad had assigned him on the desk. She also put out two water bottles, his medication and different foods the doctor advised on the wooden nightstand.
While she cleaned, the feelings that she felt were still running through her, growing stronger if that was possible. It was love, and she wanted to tell him. She had gotten very close, but then Carson came over to see how her big brother was feeling and Rosalie lost her nerve.
"You didn't have to do all this Rose, but thanks," he said bending down to kiss her softly.
"The Nets are on at eight, right?" Rosalie said glancing at his alarm clock as she carefully stuffed two pillows underneath his right leg when he got on the bed.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" he asked astonished.
"Pul-ease! Don't act so surprised," she said laughing as she slipped off her gray Tory Burch flats. "My dad used to take me to games sometimes when he had free time, I used to play against my cousins at our beach house every summer, and Hoosiers is one of my favorite movies of all time," she said flicking on the plasma screen to ESPN.
"Coach you only have four players...My team's on the court ref!" Emmett and Rosalie said, laughing as they recited the famous line from the late eightys basketball movie.
"Oh and what about...'Okay, here's what were gona do. Were gonna run the picket fence," Rosalie grumbled, trying to imitate Dennis Hopper as she snuggled to his chest.
"Ah darn ribs," Emmett said wincing as he tried not to laugh. "It hurts to laugh."
"Em I need to tell you something," she said propping herself up on her elbows so she could look into his eyes.
After taking a deep yoga styled breath, Rosalie said, "So I've been thinking about this a lot actually...see I was going to tell you before but then Carson was here so..."
Losing her strength, Rosalie dropped her gaze to her hands.
"I - see what I'm trying to tell you is um..."
Rosalie looked at him as he placed his rough hand at the base of her chin, craning her neck upwards. "Rosalie Lilian Hale, I love you too."
"You, oh. Because I do too. Love you I mean - I love y-,"
Disregarding the sharp pain in his leg, Emmett leaned up to press his lips to hers, their tongues meeting excitedly.
Sooo??? How was it? Do you guys like me again? Remember I promised I wouldn't kill Emmett. How cute is he, really?
Don't worry and don't think I forgot about Bella and Alice because I didn't...pinky swear!!!
For everyone who speaks Polish, Buffy415 is officially translating 'The City,' for the twilight fan-fiction sight in Poland. Heck yes, I thought it was awesome too. If your interested keep your eyes open!
Everyone saw the New Moon poster right? Personally I think there is a little too much Edward, I mean he's only in 25% of the book! But hey, still love him!
As always thank you for reading
xoxo
Lex