Edward

We walked across the courtyard. I reached over and drew her to my side and she leaned into my embrace. I still could not believe that she was here, next to me, her soft warm body pressed against mine. I felt lightheaded, dizzy from her presence. She still loved me; even after everything, she loved me and wanted to be with me. Being with her was the greatest happiness I had ever known and I knew now that I could never be parted from her again. I was not strong enough to be without her anymore. The pain that I felt when we were apart told me that. I knew I never, ever wanted to feel that kind of anguish again. I knew that being in my life was still dangerous for her but I could not bear being away from her. Protecting her and loving her were my two main goals now. I had no idea what the future would hold for us but I did know that there was no force on earth strong enough to take me from her side again.

We walked a few blocks to her hotel, neither of us speaking. It was a rather sad building, slightly rundown. Bella should be staying somewhere nicer than this place, I thought. We walked past the front desk and up the stairs since there was no elevator.

I could hear the curiosity in the desk clerk's mind, wondering who I was. He was disappointed to see me. Apparently he was infatuated with Bella and seeing her with someone else upset him. In his mind he replayed each time he had spoken to her or seen her. She had always responded politely but had given him nothing he could call encouragement. Seeing her with my arm wrapped around her had him seething in envy. I laughed inwardly. She seemed to bring men under her spell with no effort at all and she didn't even know it.

I resisted the urge to lift her up and carry her up the stairs but settled instead to travel the two flights of stairs at a human pace. I was burning with impatience and curiosity. What had really brought Bella here? I had to know.

We walked to the room at the end of the hall and Bella took the key from a pocket of her dress and opened the door. I followed in behind her and surveyed the room. It was not the kind of place I would have chosen for her to stay. It was clean and well kept but not nearly as comfortable and elegant as I would have liked for her. The furnishings were simple-a bed, armchair and footrest, a desk with a chair, a dresser. There was a television on a low table that was so old it looked like it should be in a museum.

Bella took my hand and pulled me to the armchair then pushed me down into it. I would have preferred to sit with her on bed. I wanted to hold her in my arms again. Before I could suggest it though she climbed up and sat on my lap. I was glad that she wanted to maintain contact with me. I wasn't ready to let her go yet either. She put her legs over the arm of the chair and clasped her hands together in her lap. I slid my arm around her back and placed my other hand lightly on her knee. I heard her heartbeat accelerate and she took a deep breath before resting her head on my shoulder.

I sat holding her quietly for a moment but before long my curiosity was raging. "So, are you going to tell me the story now?" I heard the impatience in my voice as I looked down at her expectantly. She was twisting her fingers together.

"I am not sure where to begin," she said, biting her lip.

"Well, maybe start with what made you decide to come find me in the first place." I waited anxiously for the answer. What could have propelled her to come here?

"Well, just please don't freak out, okay?"

Of course I tensed immediately. I knew instinctively that there was more to this story than I had first thought.

"Why would I 'freak out'?" What was so bad that she thought I would panic?

"You have been known to in the past and I don't want it to happen now. There are parts of the story that you may not like and I am worried about your reaction. Just try and listen in an objective way, alright?" She sounded both hopeful and resigned.

I was more anxious than ever to hear her story but I knew she would not tell me if she thought I would overreact. I willed my body to relax.

"Well," she began, "I had thought about coming to find you anyway but I guess the accident is what finally decided it for me."

I went still. She had been in an accident? I guess that was not surprising considering it was Bella, but there must be more to this than a simple accident. She would not have done something as drastic as this if it had been a trifling thing.

"Accident? What happened?" I waited tensely for her reply.

"About two months ago, I was in a car accident." She said it in a matter-of-fact tone but I heard the underlying tension in her voice.

"How bad was it?"

"Pretty bad."

I sucked in a harsh breath. Bella was always so careful to downplay anything unpleasant. I knew if she said bad it really meant terrible or horrific.

"Tell me exactly what happened." I held my breath, waiting for her answer.

"Alright," she took a deep breath, "Well, I was driving Angela's car because my truck was in the shop being repaired." She paused slightly before continuing. "I was going through a green light when a log truck ran the red and hit me on the passenger side. Which was a very good bit of luck they tell me." She sounded almost offhand about it.

If I my heart had been beating it would have stopped. I could imagine the type of damage that a log truck would do to Angela's little Sentra.

"And how badly were you hurt?" I had to know.

"I came out pretty well all things considered." That was all she said but she had to know that that would not satisfy me. That she was hesitating meant that she had been hurt fairly badly. She was going to tell me; I would accept nothing else.

"Bella, tell me exactly what your injuries were."

"The usual compliment of bruises of course," she smiled. "I had some scratches from the glass and some pretty bad gashes on my arms and one on my head. They say I lost a lot of blood." I sucked in a harsh breath and waited for her to finish. I knew there had to be more. "I had four broken ribs and my lung collapsed where the log hit me in the side."

"Log? What log?" I barely had the ability to speak.

"A log came loose from the load when the truck hit me. It came through the passenger side window and hit me." Her voice was calm.

It was even worse than I had imagined. She could have been killed! She could have died while I was thousands of miles away and I would never have known it. The whole time we had been separated I had been able to survive the pain because I knew that no matter what happened to me she was alive and living her life. The thought that I might never have seen her face again filled me with such pain I almost could not bear it.

I pulled her tightly to me and buried my face in her neck. "Oh my God", I heard myself whisper over and over. Feeling her in my arms, smelling her scent and feeling it burn my throat was reassuring, telling me that she was alive and safe. I felt her fingers in my hair and she was saying 'its okay, I'm okay" over and over. So like Bella to try to make me feel better when she was the one who had been hurt. I raised my head and looked into her eyes. She placed her hands on both sides of my face.

"No freaking out, remember? I'm perfectly fine now, okay?" I nodded my head then I looked down and froze. There were two long pink scars on her arms. It horrified me to think of how much they must have hurt and how many stitches it must have taken to close them. I pulled her hands from my face and held her arms out so I could see them properly. I knew it would take a long time for these scars to fade away.

I took both her hands in one of mine and stroked my finger gently down each scar. I was aching with the knowledge that either one of these might have been the one that ended her life. Remorse filled me as I realized that if I had never left, if I had been with her that day, I could have prevented this from happening. I would have been driving her to school and could have evaded the truck or at least shielded her with my body. Anything to keep her safe and uninjured. I would never ever forgive myself for leaving her. For abandoning her to a world that seem determined to do her in.

"Hey, I'm okay, still here and whole." Her voice was soothing. Yes, she was here and with me. I would hold on to that.

I looked into her eyes and smiled sadly. "I can't stand the thought of you being in pain."

"Well, I was unconscious for most of it. I didn't really know the true extent of my injuries until I came out of the coma." She cringed as she said the word.

I sucked in a sharp breath. This kept getting worse and worse.

"Coma? You were in a coma?" I could barely speak the words through the horror I felt. "For how long?"

"Only three days. Not long at all." How could she sound so blasé about something so serious? I suddenly couldn't wait to talk to Carlisle again, to ask him about this. While I was going over everything I had ever read about comatose patients in my head, Bella continued.

"I'm pretty sure it was Alice's voice that brought me out of it." I'm sure that she meant her words to be reassuring but I was too angry at Alice to be comforted. She had promised me! Even though breaking her promise seemed to have brought Bella to me I could not forgive her, yet.

"Alice was there?" I wanted to know the full extent of her interference. Was Bella only here because of her?

"Yes, she came when she "saw" me have the accident. She was worried because she could not see what the outcome was, what my condition was." I knew Alice loved Bella almost as much as I did; she would have wanted to make sure Bella was alright. Why hadn't she told me about the accident? Called me at least? A thought occurred to me.

"You said your accident was two months ago?"

"Yes, give or take a few days."

Alice had called me about two months ago. She had asked if I was still in Rio, though of course she would have known that. I replayed the conversation in my mind but she hadn't said anything about Bella. Maybe the accident hadn't happened yet. But why hadn't she called me after? Had she been afraid of giving something away, of letting me know somehow that Bella was going to track me down? I don't know what I would have done if she had told me that. Left Rio? Wait for her to arrive? I had no idea.