BPOV
"Right this way, Miss Swan," the nurse said as she led me back to the patient area. She had me step on the scale and had me pee in a cup. Standard operating procedure around here it seems. She led me into a patient room and had me sit on the cloth covered table while she proceeded to take my blood pressure and temperature. She frowned as she wrote the numbers down on the chart.
"The doctor will be with you shortly," she stated, exiting through a different door.
I could hear the hushed voices outside my door and wondered what they could be so concerned about already, they hadn't done anything with the baby. I didn't have long to contemplate it as there was a soft knock at my door.
"Come in," I called, fidgeting with the paper on the cot.
Dr. Gerandy smiled as he entered, "So, Miss Swan, I hear congratulations are in order."
I couldn't help but grin at him, "You've been talking to Carlisle."
Dr. Gerandy beamed back at me, "Yes, I have. I must say, he's quite thrilled at the prospect of having you as a daughter-in-law. Not to mention the joys of being a grandparent."
"I'm so glad they're back in my life." I took a deep breath, reveling in the changes of the past few weeks.
"So, have you and Edward decided what you are going to do?" he asked as he began his exam. I had never been a big fan of hospitals, but Dr. Gerandy was growing on me. He had such a good bedside manner. I quickly filled him in on our plans to spend the summer in Forks and about spending the semester in New Hampshire. He was very supportive in our decisions.
"Sounds like you two have thought this through well," he mused, pulling his gloves off and disposing of them in the trash. "Bella, I'm a little concerned about your elevated blood pressure."
The nurse had never told me what my blood pressure was, but I now figured that was what her frown was about.
Dr. Gerandy called the nurse back in to recheck my blood pressure while he continued to flip through my chart. This time he frowned when the nurse handed him the numbers.
"How bad?" I asked, my stomach already starting to do flip flops. Everything was finally going right. I should've known it wouldn't stay that way.
He sighed and sat down in the chair next to the cot I was sitting on, my chart on his lap. "Your blood pressure is running pretty high. Unfortunately, that's pretty concerning in pregnant women and can cause all kinds of complications. I'd like to keep you in the hospital overnight to keep an eye on it. We'll probably have to keep you on bedrest for awhile too."
I scrunched my nose at the thought of having to stay in the hospital and being on bedrest indefinitely, but if it would help my daughter I would do it. "But I only have to stay in the hospital one night?"
"If everything checks out okay, yeah, you can go home tomorrow." He put a comforting hand on my shoulder. "Janie will get you to a room and help make you comfortable. I need you to stay in bed as much as possible. No getting up and walking around, you can get up to go to the bathroom and that is it."
A short while later Janie returned with a wheelchair and wheeled me into an inpatient room. They had me change into a gown and drew a bunch of blood. I went ahead and called the grocery store, informing them that I wouldn't be in for a few days. I called Charlie, doing my best not to freak him out. He offered to run by the newspaper and pick up my paperwork so I could at least be a little productive while I was stuck here.
I called Jake next, asking if he would be willing to go to Charlie's and bring me my laptop and some pajamas. I did not want to be stuck wearing this ugly, uncomfortable hospital gown with no back. Jake immediately agreed, saying he would swing by as soon as he was done at work.
I sighed, knowing my next phone call needed to be Edward. I knew I would feel better if I talked to him, but I didn't want to worry him. I pulled my phone back out and quickly dialed his number, not realizing until it clicked to voicemail that he would still be in class. I quickly left him a message with the pertinent information and ordering him not to worry, after all, I felt perfectly fine.
By 7pm I had a room full of visitors. Charlie and Jacob had brought me my clothes, laptop and paperwork for work. Carlisle and Esme both stopped by to check on me. Esme even brought me homemade mushroom ravioli, my favorite. "In case you don't care for what the hospital serves," she said, giving me a wink. We both knew that the food from Forks General left a lot to be desired.
Esme and Carlisle didn't stay long, neither did Charlie. I couldn't help but smile when Esme produced a plate of ravioli for my father. He started to protest, but Esme argued, telling him he shouldn't stress me out any more by him not having a decent meal. That was all the convincing it took for Charlie to head home with a plate full of food.
Jake stayed and watched a couple of movies with me while I typed up my work for the newspaper. "Night Bells," I heard him whisper as he lifted the laptop off of me and gently kissed my forehead. I had been fading in and out for the last half hour at least. It briefly occurred to me that I still hadn't heard from Edward, which was very strange. I knew I told him not to worry, but he never listens when I tell him that anyway. I couldn't imagine why he wouldn't have called me. I was still having disgruntled thoughts about Edward not calling when I drifted back to sleep.
EPOV
I was walking back to my car after classes for the day when my phone beeped, alerting me to a message. I pulled the phone out as I tossed my bag into the passenger seat. I smiled, hearing Bella's cheerful voice. My smile faded fast though as I listened to her tell me that there was something wrong with her blood pressure and she was going to have to stay in the hospital overnight. She sounded okay though, as she told me not to worry. Like that was possible. The first call I made was to my father, asking him everything he would tell me about high blood pressure and pregnant women. He listed off the complications of preeclampsia and promised he would head directly over to check on Bella. My next call was to the airline. I don't know why I thought I could do this, it was hard enough to be away from Bella when she was perfectly healthy and we hadn't had the complications we had just been through, now it was unbearable. I had just enough time to run back to the apartment I was sharing with Seth and pack a bag before booking it to the airport.
It was after midnight when I arrived back in Forks. I told the cab driver to take me directly to the hospital and threw a couple of $20's over the seat at him. I noticed Jenny immediately, she had been a nurse for years and had helped my father on occasion. She just grinned when she saw me.
"How is she?" I demanded.
"She's okay. Blood pressure is doing a little better. Doc's going to put her on bedrest if she wants out of here. She was asking Dr. C about you. She's in room 210," she told me, pointing me in the right direction. The hallways were quiet with the occasional beeping of monitors and call lights. I entered Bella's room slowly, not sure what I was going to encounter. The sight I did was beautiful. Bella was dressed in one of my t-shirts and a pair of blue flannel pajama bottoms. She kicked at the blankets, which were tangled around her feet, muttering something unintelligible in her sleep. I carefully untangled the blankets and pulled them up to cover her, tucking them up under her chin. I picked up the chair in the corner of the room and moved it up next to Bella's bed, reaching out to take her hand.
"Edward," she mumbled in her sleep, sighing contentedly as her hand tightened in my hand.
I leaned against the bed, resting my head on my outstretched arm and looking into the face of my own personal angel.
I don't know how long I slept, but I was awoken by Bella's soft hand running through my hair. "Hey," I said quietly, looking up at her. Her hair was cascading down around her face and she was looking at me with such a look of adoration and love, her hand still softly running through my hair.
"Hey," she said back, just as quietly. Her hand reached behind my head, gently pulling me towards her for a quick chaste kiss. She gave me a slight smile, "I thought I told you not to worry."
"Yeah, right. Not possible." I said, reaching up to hold her tightly in my arms. "Mmm, I don't want to let you go," I admitted after holding her for a few moments, burying my face in the crook of her neck.
One of her arms was tightly around me, the other hand buried in my hair holding me close. "Then don't," she whispered, planting a quick kiss on my temple.
I sighed and eventually pulled myself away from her. She scooted over and patted the spot next to her in bed, indicating for me to climb in bed with her. I climbed up, pulling her to me, allowing her to rest her head against my chest.
"So how are you feeling?"
Bella shrugged, holding herself tightly to me. "The same as I told you yesterday in my message. I feel fine. They just say my blood pressure is a little too high," she sighed, and all was quiet for a few minutes. "Thank You, Edward."
"For what?" I was genuinely confused.
I felt her tears dampen my t-shirt, "For coming home," she stuttered.
Dr. Gerandy came in awhile later and I was never so grateful to have come home. Bella would've downplayed all of this. Dr. Gerandy said her blood pressure wasn't down as much as he wanted and told us that Bella needed to stay at least another night in the hospital. He also insisted that Bella was going to have to remain on bedrest after she was discharged. We both got the lecture – absolute bedrest, she would only be allowed out of bed to go to the bathroom. She would be living in a bed until her blood pressure improved.
It was a few hours later when Bella finally kicked me out of her room. I was starving and told her I was just going to run down to the cafeteria to grab something, but she insisted I go home and see Esme and Carlisle and get something better than hospital food. I agreed, but only because I knew that I needed to have a conversation with my parents, one that would go over much better if Bella wasn't present. I quickly found my father and asked to borrow his car so I could run home.
"Hey Mom," I called as I walked into the house, tossing the keys onto the table just inside the door.
"Edward?" she questioned, then squeeled when she saw me. Apparently word hadn't gotten to Esme that I came home. "Oh baby," she cried, taking in my haggard state. I'm sure I looked worse than I felt. I still had my rumpled clothes on from the previous day and I'm sure my hair was even messier than normal. "Is Bella okay?" she demanded.
I sighed, running my hand through the mess of hair I had. "Yeah, she will be. That's actually what I came to talk to you about."
An hour later Esme and I were sitting in the breakfast nook munching on sandwiches and chips that she had put together. She had pushed me upstairs to take a shower and change clothes while she had gotten the food together. I glanced out the bay window. It was another rainy, dreary day in Forks.
"So, what did you need to talk to me about?" Esme asked, breaking me from my thoughts.
"I have a huge favor to ask of you," I started.
Esme nodded, waving her hand for me to continue.
"Dr. Gerandy says Bella has to stay on strict bedrest indefinitely. She's not allowed out of bed until her blood pressure improves or until she has the baby. The thing is, you know how independent Bella is. Charlie can't take that much time off of work, not to mention he can't cook to save his soul. They'd both like to starve to death. She'd be left alone all the time . . . " I continued rambling until I felt Esme's hand covering mine.
"Edward, do you want Bella to come stay with us?"
I nodded, "I know it's a lot to ask. And you know I would stay and do this in a heartbeat, but Bella is so adamant about me finishing the semester that I think it would stress her out even more and that wouldn't help her blood pressure."
Esme squeezed my hand that she was still holding. "Edward, your father and I love Bella like she was our own. Of course she can stay here."
I stood and hugged my mom, holding her tight and finally letting the stress of the situation get to me. "I . . I just love her so much."
Esme held me back, "I know you do Sweetheart, and she loves you too." She paused for a moment, then continued. "She will be fine. Your father and I will take good care of her until you come back."
I spent another thirty minutes talking to my mom before insisting I needed to get back to the hospital. I swung by the police station on my way to run my idea by Charlie. He wasn't thrilled, insisting he could take care of his own daughter, but eventually relented. Having a mother that could be with her 24/7 and a live-in doctor as a father did have its advantages. The two easy ones were done, now I just had to convince Bella.
I returned back to the hospital to find Bella working on her computer. "Hey Beautiful," I called, leaning down to give her a quick kiss.
"Hey Handsome," she replied with a smile.
"You hungry?" I asked, pulling her bedside table up next to her.
She eyed the bag in my hand, quickly moving her computer off her lap and rubbing her hands together. "Starving. What'ya bring me?"
She grinned from ear to ear as I pulled out a sandwich and chips my mom had sent with me. "You are the best," she mumbled, food already in her mouth. I couldn't help but laugh at her. "The nurse says my blood pressure was a little better," she announced proudly after she was done eating.
"That's great. Maybe we can break you out of here tomorrow then." I climbed up next to her in the bed, putting my arm around her shoulders. "About that, Bells, we need to talk."
Bella swallowed hard and looked away. "Yeah, I kind of figured this was coming." She turned and poked a finger into my chest suddenly. "You are finishing the semester at Dartmouth."
"Kind of figured you'd say that," I started. "I have a proposition for you though, if you want me to go back to school and not go completely insane with worry."
"Okay . . . " Bella stated slowly.
I quickly ran through my plan of Bella staying with my parents, making sure to tell her that my parents and Charlie were already on board with the plan. "I can take care of myself," she huffed.
"Bella . . . " I warned. "You have to have someone with you all of the time. Esme will already be home. Are you really going to force Charlie to take all that time off?"
"Fine," she agreed reluctantly. I knew she wouldn't want to inconvenience anyone, but she knew what a hardship it would be for Charlie to take the time off.
I smiled and kissed the top of her head. "I love you."
She wrapped her arm around me, "I love you too."
We spent the evening in her hospital bed, flipping between NCIS and Law and Order. Bella had several visitors that evening. Charlie came and talked for a little while, insisting to Bella that if she wanted to come home that he would figure out how to take the time off. Bella had come up with a compromise with him too. Bella had asked if he would be in charge of bringing her the paperwork for her job at the newspaper. Once she had the paper copies, she could type it and submit it back to them online. Charlie seemed pleased to have something to do to be able to help with the situation.
My parents and Jake also stopped by. My mom went on and on about all of the things the two of them could do together. Only my mother could come up with that much entertainment for someone on bedrest. Jake's visit didn't go quite as smoothly. He still hadn't forgiven me for everything Bella had gone through. He was civil, for Bella's sake, but kept shooting me evil glares and was pretty short when addressing me.
"Hey B," I asked later that evening once everyone had left.
"Yeah?"
"What all did you tell your dad and Jake about our . . situation?"
Bella sighed. "Yeah, I guess I need to fill Jake in a little more. I just didn't want everyone to know everything about this," she paused for a moment before continuing, "My Dad knows everything. I told him how worried I was and how I was too chicken to tell you about the baby. It took a lot of convincing to keep him from flying out to New Hampshire and taking a shot at Victoria," she giggled, "or you for that matter."
"Me?"
Bella smiled, leaning up to place a quick kiss on my lips. "Yeah, you. I finally admitted you were the father of our baby. He wasn't exactly thrilled about you knocking up his little girl."
I smiled, knowing the chief was okay with our situation. I think our separation had actually helped in that aspect. He had seen Bella so completely down and unhappy, that he would've been happy with anything that made her smile again. And she was definitely smiling more now that we were back together.
"Okay, so what about Jake?"
"He knows we're back together and knows that you never intentionally meant to leave me. I told him it was all a big misunderstanding that we were both to blame for."
I nodded, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear.
"I'll tell him to back off," she muttered, turning to lay her head against my chest.
I knew it had been a long day for her. I quickly turned the overhead light off and pulled the blankets up around us. "Good night, my sweet Bella."
Dr. Gerandy came in early the next afternoon, Bella's chart in hand.
"Well Dear, it looks like your blood pressure has improved. I've been informed you will be staying with the Cullens while you are on bedrest," he asked, verifying.
"Yeah," Bella muttered. I could tell she still wasn't happy with this whole bedrest situation.
"Well, if you've gotten those arrangements made, I don't see why you couldn't go ahead and go home today. I'll have the nurse get your discharge paperwork together."
Thirty minutes later Bella was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and was waiting quite impatiently in a wheelchair while the nurse went over her discharge instructions with us. I wheeled Bella down to her car while the nurse wheeled a cart full of her belongings. Jasper and Alice had sent a large bouquet of flowers along with some balloons. Honestly, I think Alice just still felt guilty about how she had treated Bella when we were apart. Emmett had driven up from Seattle today and brought Bella a soft little teddy bear. I couldn't have been more grateful for my family's involvement.
I drove to Bella's house first, demanding she stay in the car while I went up and got the belongings she wanted. Bella wanted to stop by the library on our way to my house, but I refused. She really needed to get back in to bed and lay down. I did promise to go and pick her books up before I had to head back to New Hampshire though. As much as I hated the idea of leaving, I really did need to head back tomorrow night if I was going to avoid missing too many classes. I helped Bella in to the house and up to my bedroom where she would be staying. I quickly unloaded her belongings, trying to make her as comfortable as possible. I think even this little bit of activity was hard on Bella because when I got the last bit unloaded she was already asleep. I quietly set the flowers on my night stand and shut the lights off, sneaking out of the room. I decided I should probably go ahead and run to the library since they would be closed tomorrow.
I got to the library, wandering to the health section. Forks library wasn't very big, but they did have a few books on Pregnancy and even one that had a large section on preeclampsia that I decided to pick up. I wanted to know what was going on with Bella and our child.
Bella had just woken up when I arrived back at the house. She was curled up on the bed, her worn copy of Wuthering Heights in her hands. She smiled when I walked in the room, setting her books next to the bed.
I spent the next 24 hours curled up in bed with Bella. I read to her, we watched TV and listened to music. I sighed, throwing the last few things in my bag. My dad was taking me to the airport in an hour.
"When do you get to come home again?" Bella asked in a small voice.
"Well, I could just stay," I offered, looking over at her.
"No. That is not an option," she stated soundly.
I walked over and sat on the edge of the bed. "I probably need to stay there next weekend to catch up for being gone now, but I can come home the weekend after that. Esme is going to take you to your doctor's appointment this Friday, but I'm hoping I will be back to go with you the next week."
Bella nodded, fiddling with the sheets. "That sounds good. At least I can still call and e-mail you," she muttered, almost to herself.
I leaned forward, my fingers under her chin, lifting it so she could look at me. "I wouldn't accept anything less."
Bella leaned forward to hug me, holding on tightly. "I love you," she whispered into my neck.
"I love you too," I told her, "and if you need anything at all, you call me. Day or night, okay."
Bella wiped the tears from her eyes, "Okay."
There was a quiet knock at the door. "Edward, we need to get going," Carlisle said softly, not wanting to intrude.
"Okay," I said, standing and picking up my bag. I turned back to Bella, "I'll call you as soon as I land, okay?"
Bella nodded, so I quickly kissed her forehead and turned to walk out the door. I knew if I didn't leave now I wouldn't.
The ride to the airport was a quiet one. I did not like the idea of being so far away from Bella.
"We'll take good care of her son," my dad said seriously, patting me on the shoulder, "I promise."
I nodded, knowing Bella was in the best possible hands. With that, I got out of the car and headed for my gate. These next two weeks were going to be torture.