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Prompt: Monsoon
Dialogue Prompt: "Tell me about your day."

The curtains were flung open and Carlisle stood beside the bed, his brow furrowed as he looked me over. Then he noticed the man next to me. His eyes grew wide for a moment before hardening into what looked like resolve. Bending over he picked up my bedmate, threw him over his shoulder, and hurried up the stairs. Maman followed in his wake.

"Bella?" Alice called, peering around the bed. Her eyes were wild and her hand trembled on the curtain. "It worked?"

"I guess so," I said, falling back on the bed. My very bones ached with weariness, but something pulled me. I needed to get up those stairs.

"Are you all right?"

I ran a shaking hand over my forehead, surprised to find sweat there. "I'm just so tired. Why am I so exhausted?" I asked, turning to look at her again.

"Um, I'm not sure." She shifted her weight, looked up the stairs, and then back at me. "Can you stand?"

"I'll try." I rolled to the edge of the bed and took hold of Alice's hand in order to sit up again. That simple action left me panting. "Pull me to my feet."

Alice took both hands and tugged, and then caught me when I stumbled into her. "Do you really think you can make it up the stairs?"

"Have to. Have to see him." Alice pulled one of my arms over her shoulder and helped me walk to the first step. I'd never realized how steep and just how many stairs there were before. With one hand on the bannister I pulled myself up the first step. It left me gasping.

"I think you should lie down," Alice said behind me. I looked back to see her hands outstretched as if prepared to catch me if I fell. That amused me until I realized she might need to do just that.

I grabbed the rail with both hands and forced my legs to cooperate, gaining another step.

"Bella, we need you up here," Carlisle yelled down the stairs.

"She can barely walk," Alice shouted back.

He appeared at the top of the stairs, took one look, and rushed down. The next thing I knew I was over his shoulder and watching the stairs fall away. "Too heavy," I said, complaining.

"Actually, it seems as if you've lost weight since your last visit," he said, his voice tense and his breathing heavy. "In fact, I'm certain you've lost weight since an hour ago."

The pull intensified as we neared the kitchen. I tried to look around, but my head was so heavy and my eyes seemed to want to glue shut. It felt as if all my energy were draining away.

"Mom, you need to stop this. She's wasting away," Carlisle said as he laid me on the table next to Edward. Oddly, he didn't look as ashen as he had when Carlisle took him upstairs. Edward's hand somehow found mine. I squeezed his fingers, my body relaxing at the contact.

"Alice, bring the main candles," Maman shouted, coming around to look down in our faces. "Close your eyes, both of you." That was probably the easiest command to follow I'd heard all day.

She started to chant again in what I assumed to be Creole. After a moment the draining feeling stopped. I was still exhausted. My entire body felt as if I had run a marathon through a monsoon while performing some military obstacle course, but finally I could rest. I took a deep breath.

"What are you doing to me?" the man lying next to me asked. I felt him shift and opened my eyes. Carlisle stood above us with and IV needle.

"I need to give you an antibiotic, and it's best if I do it intravenously."

"You want to give me what and do it how?" he asked, his tone imperious as he tried to slide down the table.

I pulled on his hand. "Let him, please. It'll make you heal."

"Where am I?" he asked, his eyes wild. His gaze drifted down my dress, then to Carlisle in his scrubs. "When am I?"

"Seattle, Washington," Maman answered, resting a hand on his shoulder. "The year is two-thousand thirteen. You've been gone for two hundred thirty-three years. Much has changed, especially medicine."

"Maman?" He turned around and found Alice. "Alice? You look like my sister, but yet not quite."

Alice came forward with a smile. "I'm your sister's eighth-greath-granddaughter. My Maman is her sixth. The woman next to you is Bella Swan, and I'm guessing that the fact that you're here means she's your true love."

Edward shook his head. His body shuddered as he looked around the kitchen and up at the ceiling light. A bead of sweat trickled down the side of his face, darkening his auburn hair.

Carlisle reached out a hand to him. "Please, let me give you this medicine. It will both give you nourishment and fight the infection that killed you."

Edward looked at me. "Do you trust this man with his needles?"

I proffered my arm to Carlisle but kept my gaze on Edward. "I hate needles, but to prove I trust him I'll allow him to put it into me."

"Good, because I'm sure you need it as well. If I'm not mistaken, it looks like you're now infected," Carlisle said as he swabbed my arm with an alcohol wipe. The smell of it made me cringe, and I bit my lip as he inserted the needle. At least he was fast and accurate. I made sure I didn't look at the blood in the line. In no time it was taped off and hooked to an IV line, some liquid dripping into my vein.

Edward sighed and wiped away another drip of sweat on his brow. The circles beneath her eyes were deep and black with lines of exhaustion etched into them. His muscles shook as he lowered himself back to the table beside me, and he kept his eyes staring into mine as Carlisle hooked him to another IV.

Edward blinked a couple times. Each time it took longer for him to open his eyes again. "When I wake, please tell me about your day. It seems the world has changed a great deal since I died."

"I promise," I whispered. There must have been something more than antibiotics in that bag, because I quickly followed Edward to sleep.

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