Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight; it is the property of Stephenie Meyer. The original characters and plot are mine. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Thanks to my lovely Beta Biddy429 !!!

Chapter 10

Pain

I slept quite well for the first couple of hours then the dreams of my angel had me waking up every 10 to 15 minutes. At about 3 am I gave up and laid on my bed just staring out the window. Mondays suck I decided staring at the darkened window that reflected my own image back to me.

"Bells?" Charlie called from the other side of the door, I jumped, startled, then promptly fell out of the bed landing painfully on the floor, "oooof". "Are you alright?" he asked opening the door and moving quickly to my side, I was too shocked to respond. I tried to move but felt a stabbing pain from one of my ribs and gasped.

"Right, we're going to the hospital, now Bella." He said leaning down to help me up and I nodded moving slowly. I was in too much pain to bother to change out of my pyjama's and yesterday's supergirl top, so I just pulled on a zippered sweat shirt.

Once ready I was ready, Charlie helped me down the stairs and out into the car. My ribs were killing me and I tried to sit in a way that did not put too much pressure on them. It was really hard to do as no matter what way I moved or turned, it was really painful. Charlie was eyeing me nervously, and he drove very carefully, making sure not to hit any bumps and taking turns real easy. I tried to smile at him but I think it came out more looking like a grimace than anything else.

"Almost there Bells, how you doing?" he asked for about the twentieth time and I just nodded each time he asked me. I thought to myself "Oh Charlie, I love you dearly but please please stop fussing over me"! I tried to take really shallow breaths but the pain was too much, I was trying my best to breathe through the pain but it was getting harder and harder. Then I felt the tears begin to pour down my face, Charlie looked like he was freaking out and I tried to sooth him only to hurt myself further.

We arrived at the hospital and parked near the ER Department. Charlie came around to the passenger door and helped me out to stand on the sidewalk. He assisted me to walk, or in my case wobble, to the ER. He was lovely about it all, opening and holding doors for me, keeping his arm around me in case I fell or hurt myself further. The pain was that bad that I was beginning to see black spots float in front of me. It was not long before someone approached us in an effort to help and eased me into a wheelchair. I was taken straight through to casualty.

I was taken through to Triage and after a while shown to an examination room. I managed to hobble from the wheelchair and up on to the examination table and waited for the doctor to come and examine me. The pain was beginning to ease slightly, probably because I was now lying down and a bit more comfortable.

The door opened and closed and I heard a soft voice near me saying "Bella? Bella its Dr. Cullen can you take a breath for me?" his voice sounded faraway but I did my best to do as he asked. My body went into spasm as the pain shot through me and in an effort to protect myself I moved to wrap my arms around my ribs but Dr Cullen was holding my wrists to my sides. Finally I let go of the scream that had been building.

"Make it stop!" I pleaded, gasping for air. I couldn't think clearly at all, and all I could feel was a sharp pressure and the blinding pain. It didn't hurt this bad before, or did it, oh, it hurts so much!

****

"Is she going to be okay?" Charlie asked with a worried tone to his voice.

Carlisle did his best to reassure Charlie that I would be okay, "She'll be fine Charlie, we will take care of her, I know its hard but try not to worry too much, she is in the best place right now"

"I've heard screams like that before, what do you think happened?"

"Well, one of the broken ribs very nearly punctured her right lung. When she moved onto the examination table the rib must have moved somewhat and started digging into her back muscles. Also, as she has more than one broken rib, one must have dislodged further up just missing her lung as I said. It is excruciatingly painful when that happens.

"But her lung IS okay?"

"Yes, all in all Bella is really lucky that there wasn't any more damage. I will need to reset the broken ribs and wrap them again. It will hurt no doubt especially for the next few weeks and she will need some pain meds. It will however heal in time but she must be careful."

"Thank god," said Charlie. Then thinking to himself Charlie said, "oh Bella, you have been through so much with that drunk of a father and now this, its just not fair at all, wait till I get my hands on that son of a b............"

Carlisle set to work re-setting and binding my ribs, it was a painful process but much needed.

A short while later I moved slightly and gasped, I opened my eyes blinking in the brightness of the room. My eyes adjusted slowly and I noticed Charlie and Carlisle, both of them looked deep in thought and both looked equally worried. It's just a few ribs, for godsake!!

I looked between them both and thought to myself "who died?" I tried to push myself up and so that I could speak to them however before I got to do that properly, Carlisle was making me lie back down again and I began to struggle. "Bella you need to rest, you are going to hurt yourself more acting like this, please lie back down" Carlisle said in a tone that brooked no argument.

I complied with his request and looked Charlie, I said "Ch...Ch...Charlie, w...wh...what's wrong with me, tell me please, why does it hurt so much?" I pleaded. Charlie shook his head slowly and did not reply I spoke again "Cha...Charlie, your scaring me, please tell me?" so many thoughts flashed through my mind, was I dying? Was there going to be another surgery? and I promptly burst into tears.

Charlie rushed to my side and took my hand and said soothingly "ssshhhh Bella, its all right and your fine, no serious injury."

I couldn't take in what he was saying but his tone soothed me "I'm okay? No... no surgery? I'm... not going... to... die?" I asked trying to slow my breathing.

"Carlisle set your ribs your fine and don't you dare start thinking like that girl" He leaned down and kissed my forehead.

Charlie looked at Carlisle for some indication as to why Bella would be acting like this. Carlisle realised what Charlie was thinking by the expression on his face and said "Its the pain meds Charlie, some people react oddly to them, she will be fine after a good nights sleep" Charlie nodded at this.

Carlisle spoke once again "Perhaps it might be a good idea to admit her for tonight, just as a safeguard and for observation?" Charlie looked up a Carlisle and then back to Bella and mused.

Bella looked absolutely shattered, she needed a decent nights sleep and maybe this was the answer tonight, he replied to Carlisle without lifting his eyes from Bella's sleeping form saying "Yes, I think that might be a good idea Carlisle, she may not like the idea but I think it's what she needs right now" nodding.

Carlisle picked up Bella's medical charts and started writing some notes, whilst doing so he said "Okay then I will go and have the necessary paperwork done to have her admitted, if that's okay with you. You can stay for a while Charlie but unfortunately we don't have the facilities here in Forks to accommodate families overnight."

"Oh, that's okay Carlisle, I know she will be in safe hands, I will stay until she is settled and then head home myself" Carlisle just nodded in agreement and headed out of the room to arrange for Bella's short stay in the hospital.

Charlie stayed with Bella for a while until she was moved into a private room. Carlisle could pull strings in the hospital and he managed to get a private room for Bella. He felt that it was the least he could do for the Chief of Police's niece. Once Charlie was sure Bella was sound asleep he left and headed home in his cruiser. He would return the next morning and hopefully Bella was more settled by then and feeling more refreshed, poor girl had been through enough lately.

Bella slept the sleep of the dead, or so she thought, maybe she was dead, it was so quiet! Very slowly she opened her eyes and she could see nothing, absolutely nothing! Well, that's it she thought, I am dead! "Why can't I see anything, where am I, why is it so dark, I must be dead!" She reached out her hand and felt at the end of the bed, "oh, I am in a bed", she thought, her hand came into contact with a hard object, like a bedrail!

"Why on earth would there be a bedrail on my bed, what on earth is going on, where on earth am I?"

"Enough of this" thought Bella,"I need to get out of here, NOW". Bella instantly pulled herself up into a sitting position, still unclear of where she was, she did know that she was not in her own room. She was correct; she had a bedrail on either side of her but could not understand why. The need to get out of this bed was imperative.

She easily worked the bedrails but every time she moved she hurt, how on earth was she going to get off the bed having no idea how far the ground was. A thought came to her"YES, she would pull the blanket to the ground and see if it was far, so she did. The ground was only a short distance away but it hurt quite a bit but she could work through the pain there was no other option. It was quite easy to stand and she was very pleased with herself.

The only problem now was, what did she do now and where did she go. She needed to know where she was before she could do another thing. She began to walk away from the bed, her hands reaching out to grab at her surroundings as it was so dark. She stubbed her toe a couple of times and quick movements only made the pain in her ribs hurt even more but she was determined. She eventually came up against something hard "what on earth is this now" she thought!

She grabbed something hard and which felt like metal and before she knew what was happening she had managed to swing her body around the other side of the bed and land in the floor in a heap! Her head struck the cold hard floor with a thud and she cried out in pain! She tried to move and pick herself up but her body refused to co-operate. She moved her head and a wave of nausea hit her, but before she could be sick she felt a stabbing pain in the back of her eyes and then the blackness overtook her.

What she did not hear was the door crashing open and two nurses running in to find out what the noise was in the middle of the night. They found Bella lying on the floor unconscious and the blood pressure monitor that had been attached to Bella lying near her head splattered in blood. Obviously she had came into contact with the machine in the dark and lost her footing, she then fell and the monitor had fallen on top of her thus knocking her unconscious!

One of the nurses reached to the emergency phone just at the door of the room and paged Dr Cullen who arrived within minutes. "What happened nurse?" the nurse explained what she thought had happened and they set about getting Bella from the floor onto her bed. She was beginning to come around, her eyes opened slightly and she began to scream.

"Where am I? What's going on?" she screamed backing up slightly. Her arms were flailing all over the place and both Carlisle and the nurse were having a great deal of trouble trying to calm her down.

"You're in the hospital Bella." Carlisle stated calmly. Her eyes were too wide as she began to frantically look about the room.

"Where's Clara? Tell me where she is!" Bella screamed she was totally hysterical.

Carlisle spoke to her softly "Bella, your okay, Clara is not here, hush now or I will have to sedate you" Bella just stared wildly at him and continued to scream for Clara. Carlisle was almost beside himself and could not understand what was wrong with her. He spoke to the nurse urgently, "Nurse, go and call her uncle for me please, he needs to be here, maybe he will be able to calm her down" The nurse nodded to Carlisle and left the room, almost running to the nurses station to call Charlie.

When Charlie got home he had opened a can of Vitamin R, sat down on the settee in front of the flat screen television and decided to watch a game of baseball. He must have been tired as he completely missed the game, never got to drink the Vit R and woke up fully dressed on the settee to the annoying sound of the telephone ringing. He heard the ringing but his brain did not realise what it was.

He stood up and staggered sleepily to the kitchen where the telephone was. He picked up the phone and said groggily "Swan Residence." He did not recognise the voice on the other side of the phone and as he was still half asleep he did not understand what the voice was telling him!

"Mr Swan, this is Forks General, Dr Cullen asked me to call you, its about your niece Bella, she has had a fall and is quite agitated, can you come please?"

He listened to what the voice was telling him and suddenly it all fell into place "Oh my God, Bella, is she okay, is she hurt, please tell me she is okay?"

"Mr Swan, yes she will be okay but at the moment she is quite confused and Dr Cullen is concerned and thought it would be best for you to come and be with her!" the nurse informed him.

"Yeah, I will come, I am on my way, tell Dr Cullen I will be there as fast as I can". With that Charlie hung up the phone and made his way out to the cruiser and drove to the hospital.

****

On his arrival he went straight to the private room occupied by Bella. He knocked on the door and he heard Dr Cullen ask him to come in. When he entered the room he could not believe the sight before him. Bella sitting up in the bed, the tears running down her cheeks, sobbing wildly, she looked so distraught and she seemed quite manic.

Dr Cullen was sitting beside her trying his best to console her without any success. Charlie noticed a syringe sitting on a silver tray near the bed, obviously Carlisle was intending to sedate her at some point but wanted Charlie to try and console her before he went that far. Bella did not like needles of any description and would not cope well with this. Charlie moved slowly towards the bed, afraid in case he would frighten her. Looking into her eyes he realised that they were wild with fear and uncertainty.

He spoke softly to her "Bella sweetheart, its Uncle Charlie, what's wrong honey?"

"U....u.....u...ncle......Cha.....Charlie, oh U......u....uncle Ch.....Cha....rlie, Clara, wh.....wh...

...wh....where is sh.....sh....she, I w....w...woke up aaaand sh.....sh....she w...w..wwas ggone, wh.....where is sh...sh.....she?" Bella's voice was ragged and broken.

"Bella, Clara isn't here." Charlie answered simply and as I looked at him I realised. Everything came back to me and I let the tears overwhelm me. She wasn't here, she was never here. My head turned and I looked at Charlie trying not to sob and hurt myself. He moved and kissed my forehead and brushed at my tears ignoring his own.

"I'm sorry honey" he said and I nodded looking at Carlisle to see if he was really going to stick me with that needle. Instead both he and Charlie helped me sit more comfortably and I pushed myself into Charlie's arms desperate to feel safe. He rubbed my back and soon the tears stopped.

"Sorry" I said wiping at his shirt. I felt like crap but Charlie looked every bit as bad as I did. Carlisle looked between us but said nothing. I needed to know what was happening, "Charlie, why am I in this room, I don't really remember much. I mean, I remember coming to the hospital to get my ribs bound but all I really remember after that is the pain and then falling asleep, after that all I remember is Clar........."

I could not continue but Charlie knew what I was asking him. "Bella, you were in so much pain and you were quite upset last night, Dr Cullen thought it would be a good idea to keep you in overnight just as a precaution, you woke up confused and disorientated and tried to get out of bed in the dark, you fell and hit your head. You managed to knock yourself unconscious and when you woke up you were very distressed. Dr Cullen had the nurse phone me to come in and be with you so here I am! How are you feeling?"

"Er, well a bit better I suppose but I think I want to go home now" I looked over at Carlisle for his agreement, he simply nodded in agreement. He probably wanted rid of a looney tunes patient who probably was the clumsiest person on the planet! I looked at Charlie and said "Right, when do we go?"

"As soon as your ready honey" said Charlie. "why do I get the feeling there is something he is avoiding talking about, no matter, I will get it out of him some way or other" I thought to myself.

"Well Unc, give me five minutes and I will be ready" I told him simply.

"Okay Bella, I will go sign the papers so that we can get outta here then eh?"

"Okay Unc!!!" He looked at me and laughed at my attempt at humour "unc" indeed!!!! Charlie and Carlisle both left the room and I quickly got ready to leave the hospital. I was so pleased that Carlisle had not needed to give me that injection – needles and I did not mix – hated them, horrible things – gah!

I was ready quickly and walked out to meet Charlie at the nurse's station. He was talking to Carlisle as I approached. "Hi" I said and Carlisle turned to look at me.

"Take care of yourself, Bella, I don't want you getting hurt just to be my patient" he said and I smiled weakly at him. It hadn't crossed my mind and yet because I am co-ordinately challenged I bet I would be seeing him again soon. "Oh you need to come back next week so we can do another CT scan to make sure that the rib stays where it's supposed to be" He added as we walked in front of him out into the corridor.

"Cool. I wish I could say that I enjoyed staying the night here, but I didn't, sorry no offence!" I told Carlisle and he laughed.

He replied "None taken Bella, I'm just glad your feeling better today. Oh and Bella, Charlie has some painkillers for you. Make sure to take two an hour before bed tonight, they will help you sleep" Carlisle stated eyeing me. So I crossed my heart he chuckled at that and I smiled.

"You and Jasper have a similar laugh" I commented randomly and he looked at me smiling. "Of course you have to dress like supergirl in order to get him to chuckle but still" Carlisle seemed to get a kick out of that. "Hey you can say you've treated supergirl now." I said smiling at the thought of him actually saying that to anyone.

"Indeed I can" He chuckled and then continued, "It's nice to know that Jasper seems to be enjoying school a bit more" He said smiling at me, I could tell he loved his children and wanted the best for them as I looked into his eyes.

"Well I torture him regularly, but yeah" I said and he looked at me confused and I shrugged smiling. Charlie looked between the two of us and chuckled.

"She's an evil kid Carlisle. Don't doubt her ability to torture almost anybody close enough to her" Charlie said and I elbowed him.

"Yup" I said shaking my head. Uncles, jeez they tell everybody far too much. "Better get going before the rain drowns us" Carlisle looked amused and Charlie shook his head following me as I headed for the exit. "Nice to see you again and thanks for everything" I called sarcastically and giggled even though it stung a bit. Carlisle looked confused but smiled and waved as we left.

"Did I embarrass you?" Charlie asked as I pouted at him on the way home. I stuck my tongue and smiled at him. "Good"

"Jeez, it's already 2pm!" I said and Charlie laughed at my expression of horror.

"Bella you were in so much pain yesterday, Carlisle thought it best to keep you in overnight as a precaution. You woke up in the middle of the night, you were confused and disorientated and managed to fall out of your bed and hit your head, not like you at all is it? Anyway, you got a concussion and you were out for a while and when you woke up you had a panic attack. They phoned me to come and be with you, scared the willies out of me Bells. Carlisle said that you were fine and fixed you up, so here we are, your out and on your way home now, its all over so relax" he said looking at me like he was thinking don't make me regret letting you come home. I held my hands up in surrender which surprisingly didn't hurt in the slightest, mmmmm good pain meds!!!

****

We had been back home for a couple of hours and the pain meds I had taken in the hospital were beginning to wear off so I took two of the painkillers that Carlisle had given to me, Percocet to be exact. I was sitting uncomfortably on the couch staring at Charlie who was staring right back. I let it go and closed my eyes trying to adjust myself so that I could get more comfortable and try and get some sleep. Opening my eyes after a few minutes of failure I looked up at Charlie who was still staring at me.

"Oh for pete's sake what?" I asked and he chuckled before turning back to the game. He was staring at me just to get a reaction, what a man!

"Want me to help you up to bed?" he asked and I nodded not trusting myself to go up the stairs alone. Even if I managed to catch myself it would hurt to bend, damn if I fell I wouldn't stand a chance in hell of helping myself and I would end up back in the hospital. Helping me stand we walked slowly up the stairs and once in my room he took a seat at the end of my bed while I looked for my other pyjama bottoms.

"You're going to have issues at school tomorrow Bella." He stated as I finally found them and tried to pick them up with my toes and not bend. Finally I gave up and pointed to them and he got them for me. "I don't like the idea of you home alone either so I'm not sure what we should do." He said and I nodded.

"How about I call Erik and Ange and see if they are willing to babysit me at school tomorrow and maybe until these damn ribs are healed enough to let me fend for myself" I suggested.

"Smart thinking Bells" He said reaching for my school bag and pulling out my cell phone and handing it to me. He left me to dial the numbers.

"Hi Angela?" I asked and there was a pause before a young boy hollered out 'Ange!' Must be one of the twins she talked about at lunch. "Hey which are you Isaac or Joshua?" I asked and got a grunt.

"I'm Josh" he answered cautiously and I giggled slightly.

"Well I'm Bella one of your sister's friends" I said and the boy grunted and I heard the phone switch hands.

"Hello?" Ange said and I smiled.

"Hey Ange, I'm looking for a favour, I managed to hurt myself and had the pleasure of spending the night in the hospital, don't worry I'm fine, well as fine as I can be! So, I was wondering if you could help me out at school tomorrow and for a while" I said quickly.

"Are you okay?" she asked concern filling her voice and I smiled at her.

"Yeah, you know how I bruised my ribs in the move?" I asked and got an 'umhm' and continued on, "well it was broken and I fell off my bed last night and end up in the hospital. They kept me in and guess what I had another accident while I was there and was apparently attacked by hospital equipment! Lucky me eh? Anyway, Dr. Cullen thinks I managed to move it and he reset it and bind it but I'm not really able to bend or carry, its too painful for that"

"Sure Bella, I would love to help you out, but we don't have many classes together" She said obviously worried about the times she couldn't help.

"Oh, well I'm going to ask Erik too, so that just leaves me on my own for one class" I replied and she seemed pleased so I promised to see her tomorrow morning when I hung up and dialled Erik's number.

"Hi is Erik there?" I asked and was startled when I heard a soft gasp on the other end.

"Hello?" I asked wondering what was going on.

"I'm sorry. But who is this?" she said and I cocked and eyebrow wondering why it mattered.

"I'm Bella Dwyer." I answered a little put off by this woman and her questions. "Is Erik home?" I asked again hoping she would tell me.

"Oh yes certainly." She said as she called out for Erik. I was certain I understood where his lack of confidence came from now.

"Hello?" he asked and I giggled.

"Hey your mom sounded weird, do you not get lots of girls calling you all of the time? I mean am I not just part of the hoards that constantly call you? Cause if you have told me I would have come over instead." I said and I could practically see his mouth hanging open at my accusation.

"Yeah likely, Bella likely" He said chuckling; I guess he figured out my joke.

"Well I called to ask you to do a huge and painful favour for me, are you up for it?" I asked purposely not telling him what.

"You weren't in school today did you want me to get your work? Cause I did already." He answered and I was touched by his kindness.

"Thanks really but I was thinking more along the lines of babysitting" I said and I could tell I had stumped him this time. "I managed to break a rib and ended up in the hospital overnight hence me not being at school. But I'm coming back tomorrow on painkillers and all, so I was wondering if for first and last block and also escort me to second period if you could help me out. I can't really bend or lift anything."

"Seriously, I would love to help you out Bella!" he said and I was puzzled by his obvious excitement at helping me carry my books. People are weird and I just hope he doesn't have a crush on me because that would be real awkward.

"Thanks see you at school tomorrow?" I asked. As I hung up I was still baffled at his desire to help me carry my books class to class. Boys are odd.