A/N: Welcome back. Has anyone won the lottery yet? Oh I forgot to mention that only readers who REVIEW increase their chances of winning the lottery, striking oil, or meeting the man of their dreams who happens to be independantly wealthy. Shall we coin this Edward Dumbward? I think Marysould helped me come up with that.
Anyway thanks for all the reviews. I know I whine beg and threaten a lot, but I love them all so much. Especially ny88 who usually always says great chapter, but last time said really great chapter. I'll admit - I got choked up.
Thanks Twike and profmom for your constant help. Everybody go review the last chapter of Rabbitt Hole and tell profmom she's nice. I'll give you a dollar if you do that.
The Characters are not mine.
Good Enough Chapter 7
I was getting stronger. I was getting better. I was getting restless. As much as I enjoyed my new friendship with Bella and craved our conversations, being stuck in the hospital was getting old.
"Good morning Agent Cu…Masen, how are your bowels this morning?" Bella giggled when she arrived. Apparently my being released from the hospital all hinged on me being able to take a dump. If everything came out alright, I could be released by the end of the week.
"Still not producing," I grumbled.
"Well, just keep pushing toward your goal." Her back was to me typing on my chart, but I could see her shoulders shaking. I was glad my crapping problems amused her.
"What's your pain from 1-10 today?"
"Bored."
She shot me a dirty look.
"Three," I huffed.
"I don't know why you're in such a hurry to get out of here. You do realize you won't be seeing this beautiful face all day once you're gone, don't you?"
"Not true. I plan to pack you up and take you with me. I've grown accustomed to you feeding and bathing me."
"You know now that I took the IV out, you can take a shower."
"Huh. I was wondering why you neglected me yesterday."
Bella sauntered over to my bed, bent over with two hands braced right next to my body, put her lips dangerously close to my ear, and whispered in a seductive voice, "Agent Cullen…"
"What?" I squeaked. What was she trying to do? What happened to sweet innocent Nurse Bella? She was going to ruin everything. I might be her friend, but I'm still a man.
"You… stink." She lifted one hand, held her nose with it, and scrunched up her face.
I couldn't help but laugh as I reached up to swat her away from me. "You're ridiculous."
"I try," she shrugged and practically skipped out of the room.
She was gone for too long, and I started to grow sullen again. I got up and went to the closet to dig around and see what other clothes Alice had brought me. I found a pair of basketball shorts and a wife beater that I figured would work as well as anything. I hobbled to the bathroom. Once I got there, I shed my clothes on the floor and carefully removed the gauze from my wounds. They were all closed and scabbed over now. I admired myself in the mirror. Those were going to be cooler than any of my tattoos.
The warm water felt good on my body, and I relaxed as I let it hit my chest. I started thinking about my time with Bella. If I were honest, I really didn't want it to end. She was like fresh air to me, a distraction from the chaos and pain. I hoped she'd be willing to continue the friendship we'd forged over the past weeks. There was something different about our relationship from my friendships with Alice and Emmett. She understood the parts of me that I'd always felt alone in. We could talk for hours and never grow bored. She could debate with me about books and politics without hating me afterwards. She thought I was a good person, and as much as I knew she was wrong, I reveled in her opinion of me.
The shower felt so good, but I grew tired quickly. It was frustrating. I hadn't even finished washing my hair when I suddenly felt the need to lie down. I rinsed off, wrapped a towel around my waist, and sat on the toilet.
"Edward? Edward, are you okay?" I heard Bella call out.
"I'm fine. I just got tired," I said through the door.
"Are you decent? I'm coming in."
"It's not like you haven't seen it all before," I complained.
The door opened slowly, and Bella peeked her head inside. Her face was flushed, but I was used to that by now.
"Come on Edward, you can try and poop when you're more rested."
I wasn't in the mood for her jokes at the moment. I was tired of not feeling like myself. I couldn't even take a freaking shower without needing a nap afterwards, so I just gave her a dirty look and stared straight ahead in a childish pout.
"Let's get you dressed." She held out her hand and helped me stand up. It felt like a chore just doing that much. She held my shorts down at me feet, so I could slip my legs through the holes. She pulled them up my body, and her thumbs grazed the sides of my legs. She turned her head to give me privacy as I unwrapped the towel. For some reason I found the entire thing completely erotic. I had the urge to reach out and lift her chin up to my face or to let myself finally touch the hair that I'd found so alluring the first time I saw her. I needed to get out of the hospital, the sooner the better. If Bella continued to be the only woman I saw day in and day out, I was going to do something really stupid. She unfolded my shirt and started to lift it up to my head when I snatched it out of her hands.
"I've got it," I snapped. "I'm not a toddler.
I saw the hurt and sadness in her eyes before the irritation replaced it. "Fine," she huffed and turned to walk out of the room. Arg! I was such an idiot. She was just trying to help me. I made my way slowly to my bed and lay down exhausted. I waited for Bella to come back so I could apologize, but I fell asleep before I had the chance.
I woke up to Bella wrapping a blood pressure cuff around my arm to take my vitals. "I'm leaving early today. I'm going to the barbeque at Alice's. Jacob will be here, Dr. Newton's on call, and Jessica will be here at seven."
"You're going to leave me here all alone while you go have fun with MY friends?" My mood from earlier was back.
"Yes. I do have a life outside of work."
"Oh right… work. Sorry to be such a bother."
"Listen, I know you're tired of being here. I know you're tired of how you feel, but that doesn't give you an excuse to treat me like crap. I haven't done anything wrong."
Bella stomped out of the room. The door shut behind her, and she didn't come back in for the rest of her shift. I felt like dirt. I was lonely. I was mad. I was sick of Jello. I just threw away time I could have spent with Bella, if I hadn't been a jerk to her. The way I felt wasn't her fault. It was James' fault. He got me into this mess.
I was assigned to his case about four years ago. I'd spent a considerable amount of time trying to get inside his head, and what I found there made me sick to my stomach. He was a genius in the truest sense of the word – photographic memory, critical thinking, and the ability to lie without flinching. James got kicked out of school in 10th grade for assaulting a female classmate. He used the extra time to start his own business on the streets. He mainly focused on cocaine and pimping out young girls. He was quite the entrepreneur, and in a few years he formed a connection to some creeps bringing methamphetamine up from Mexico. This proved to be very lucrative for him, and soon he was the wealthiest drug dealer on the west coast.
By the time the FBI got involved, he'd moved on to human trafficking. The things he did, his disregard for the value of a person's life, the ruthless killings, and the destruction he left in his wake were appalling. This man had no conscience. Meanwhile the people who got close to him adored him. They described him as kind, loving, and generous. James was the worst kind of monster – a likeable sociopath. He was well protected by his contacts and employees. Alice was the special agent in charge of his investigation. No matter how much evidence she gathered or how hard I worked to predict his next move, he always remained one step ahead.
One time Alice found a former prostitute willing to testify that she'd given up her eight year old daughter in exchange for a hundred thousand dollars from James Darnell. Alice and Emmett tracked him down and were about to make the arrest, when the woman was murdered. Her body was found in a trash bag dumped in a yard in a residential neighborhood. That was just one example of the many times James eluded us.
The night I got shot, we'd gotten a huge break. Emmett turned an informant, who passed it on that James had a shipment of meth and young girls coming up from Mexico. I was positive that James would want to inspect the merchandise himself, and we planned to catch him in the act. With that evidence, we wouldn't have to rely on convincing anyone to testify. I didn't have anything going on so I tagged along with Alice and Emmett that night. They had officers standing by to move in and listening devices trained on the warehouse so we could record whatever went down inside. Right on schedule, we saw two vans pull into the garage on the south side. Alice radioed for the teams to move in and ordered me one more time to stay in the car. I hadn't planned to be involved in the raid. A few minutes later I heard a couple of shots ring out and commotion coming from inside. Things got quiet, so I figured it was over. I climbed out of the car to see if I could see anything.
The next thing I knew, I saw James running out of the warehouse with no one in pursuit. We'd worked too hard for him to get away, so I unholstered my weapon and started running after him. I was gaining on him when he rounded the corner onto another street. I didn't think he'd seen me, so foolishly I sprinted around the corner after him. I still had my own gun down at my side when I heard three shots ring out in quick succession. Everything after that was a blur.
The next thing I remember seeing was Bella in the hospital. I remembered back to that night and how I decided I wanted to live just to get a chance to speak to her. Things hadn't turned out exactly like I'd planned, but I was glad that I'd gotten to know her. She was important to me now in a way I never expected her to be. I hated that I'd upset her today. I made a vow never to cause her any more pain or anger again.
I heard hushed whispers coming from the hallway and glanced to the drawer where Alice had stowed my gun. The only people who were supposed to be near my door were Jacob and the uniformed officer guarding me. No one should be having a conversation out there. The door started to slowly open, and I sat up ready to dive out of the way if I had to. I was shocked to see the blue eyes of my mother poke through quickly and then back out.
"He's awake!" I heard her announce. The door swung open and people started pouring in. It was my mom, dad, Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie (uh oh), and finally Bella. My mom rushed over to me and wrapped me in a hug.
"Oh my baby!" she cried and held on to me for dear life. "I'm so glad you're okay. I was afraid the last time I saw you before your surgery that it might be the last time I ever got to hug you. Don't you ever get shot like that again. Do you hear me young man?"
"I love you too, Mom."
She finally released me, and it was my dad's turn. He squeezed my arm. "Good to finally get to see you, son."
"What are you guys doing here?" I asked.
"Bella convinced Alice that we could safely be snuck in up the service elevator without anyone knowing. I must say, she's pretty persuasive. Alice and I have been arguing about this non-stop. One afternoon with Bella on my side, and we're finally all together," my mother gushed and held her hand out for Bella to come to her. Bella looked embarrassed, but squeezed my mom's hand appreciatively.
"Thank you Bella. This means a lot to me." I smiled at her, and she smiled back at me. "I'm sorry for the way I treated you earlier. You didn't deserve it."
"It was nothing." She kept smiling at me, and I kept smiling back at her, until my mom finally cleared her throat snapping us both out of our trance.
There was almost a party atmosphere in my room. People were laughing and talking. I took turns speaking to all of my guests. I felt like I should be opening gifts or something. Bella was there the whole time in the thick of things. I noticed she spent time talking to my dad who was already treating her like another one of his kids. Later, Alice was standing at my bed talking to me when Bella came up and draped an arm around Alice's shoulder. Alice leaned her head back into Bella in kind of a weird side hug and smiled. Bella joked around with Emmett making fun of me in an effort to get Rosalie to laugh. Rosalie spent most of the time standing in the corner with her arms crossed over her chest glaring at me. I tried a smile and a wave at one point, but she only responded by turning her head away. I don't think she was used to being turned down by men.
My mom stayed at my side the entire time. She went on and on about how terrible I looked. She told me about everything she'd been doing on the outside, and she started crying at least three times. I loved my mom so much, but I hated to see her upset. I tried my best to reassure her that I was fine, that I wasn't in pain, and that I missed her like crazy. I kept kissing her hand and telling her I loved her. I caught Bella watching us and smiling once or twice. She'd obviously already won over my mother's affections, and she seemed to like my mom just as much.
Once again I started to get tired much too quickly. Bella slipped back into her nurse role and announced to everyone that I needed to rest. Everyone groaned and complained, but she insisted. Everyone took a turn telling me goodbye, and Bella promised she'd see me the next morning. I thanked her for everyone and once again found myself smiling at her a little too long.
Of course my mom noticed. She notices everything. "Would you mind if I had a few minutes alone with my son?" she asked sweetly.
Everyone left the room giving us some privacy. "Promise me you're going to be okay, Edward. I don't know what I would do if anything happened to my little boy."
"I promise mom. I'm going to need lots of lasagna and your famous brownies once I get out of here," I said with my best puppy dog face.
"You're going to milk this aren't you?"
"Would you expect anything different?"
"I guess not," my mom laughed and squeezed my arm. "Edward, I like that girl."
"Who, Alice? She's alright."
"Don't play games with me. You know what I mean. I've seen the way the two of you look at each other. Now tell your mother what's going on."
"Nothing's going on," I groaned. "We've become good friends, nothing more."
"Well I think she's amazing. I hope you don't let her get away."
"Come on Mom. You know how I am. I'd just make her fall in love with me and then grow disinterested. I don't want to do to her what I do to every woman I'm interested in. She's too good for that."
"If I'm ever going to get any grandbabies, you're going to have to stop losing interest at some point," my mom grumbled.
"I know. I will. But Bella and I are friends. That's it."
"You know your father and I were good friends before we ever started going steady."
"Going steady?" I laughed at her archaic terminology.
"Laugh all you want. I was dating a boy named Donald at the time. I thought Donald and I were in love, but he was gone in the military when I met your dad. We became friends and started doing things together as part of a large group. We found we had a lot in common and soon started getting together over cokes just to talk. I loved those talks, but we were just good friends. Then one afternoon I got a letter from Donald. He dumped me for some hussy he met at boot camp. Carlisle admitted his feelings to me soon after, and I realized I'd already felt the same way for months. I was just too stubborn to admit it. To this day, I think that time we spent as friends was the foundation for the wonderful and passionate relationship we still enjoy. See, there is nothing wrong with starting out as friends."
"Just because it worked that way for you and Dad doesn't mean it will work that way for me," I argued. I'd always wanted something like my parents had, and my mother knew she had me backed into a corner.
"Just don't rule it out. That's all I'm saying." My mom leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Don't miss out on what might be staring at you right in the face with beautiful brown eyes and a lovely smile." She winked.
I told my mom goodbye and settled in to rest. I tried not think about what my mom had said, but it was hard not to.
A/N: So dumbward, momma's boy, gun yeilding , whiney pants Edward gets out of the hospital next chapter and has his dumbest moment so far. The story starts moving along there so hurry! Review! Tell all your friends to read! Start a revolution!