Paul's POV
I hating leaving Bella there all sad and scared and left to Jake. I know Jake cares about her and Amelia but he's so freaking emotional sometimes. She's going to need someone to be stable when she's a mess. She's such a beautiful mess. Stop it! I tell myself.
I try to sleep for a couple of hours but I can't stop thinking about Bella and Amelia. I love Amelia, she's an awesome kid.
I give up on sleep and watch TV until it's time to go to the shop. Once I get in Sam is all worried about Bella because she's not in yet and she hasn't called. She's never late, I usually am.
"Man, I'm sorry I forgot I told her not to worry about calling. She's in the hospital with her baby. She needs brain surgery because of a tumor. I took her last night. I told her to call if she needs anything and I told her I would go check on her when I could." I tell him.
"Is she alone?" He asks.
"Nah, Jake's there but you know how Jake is." He nods in agreement.
"You can go Paul. I can handle the work today." He offers.
"Maybe you should go." I tell him and he looks at me like I'm nuts.
"You're a lot closer to her than I am. Why would I go?"
"Because you like her." I tell him like duh.
"Where the hell did you get an idea like that?" He asks.
Damn Jake.
"She's a sweet kid but she's just that, a kid. I'm come to care about her a lot but she not like that." He goes on. "She doesn't think about me like that does she?" He's worried now.
"I actually don't know. I know she thinks you're the "hottest man I've even seen" but I don't know if she actually likes you. Jake told me you like her and he's been trying to convince her you like her and you'd be good for her." I tell him and I'm confused. Why would Jake set her up like that? I thought Sam told Jake he liked Bella and Jake was trying to help Sam out.
Then Sam starts laughing and I'm waiting for whatever is so funny.
"Jake wanted to make sure she didn't end up with you, you idiot! He knew you would never go for her if you thought I liked her and he probably knew she wouldn't take his advice and go for me since I'm older and her boss but that it would probably keep her from going for you." He's still laughing. "Get out here Paul. I've got this covered. What is Bella wearing?"
"What the hell?" I ask.
"She was on a date last night right? She's probably wearing clothes that make her look good but are as uncomfortable as hell. So take her some clothes. And take both of them some food. And buy something for Amelia but leave it in your car for when she does wake up. A stuffed animal or something." He explains the clothes and goes on.
"I can't get her clothes; I assume Jake locked her house up."
"Then take her some of yours." He's looking at me like I'm slow but she's tiny. "Take her some sweatpants that tie and a shirt." He goes on when I obviously look lost.
"Are you sure you got it covered here? I could come back in a couple of hours." I make sure before I head out and he tells me yes he's sure and stay with her as much possible because I'm right about Jake being too emotional.
So I stop at a little gift shop and buy Amelia a little stuffed cat, she loves cats and then head to my house to try to find something for Bella to wear, at least until I can get her keys and get her some of her own clothes then I finally drive through at Wendy's to get them lunch. Jake hates Wendy's I think but oh well Bella loves it and he pretends to like it for her and Amelia. He's a good guy in little ways to the bigger things but he needs to stop trying to control her, she's going to get tired of it and he's going to lose both of them. I don't understand why he went to so much trouble to make her think Sam liked her anyways. I'm not into her. Oh but I guess I'm not the greatest person when it comes to women. So maybe I understand he didn't want me to screw around with her. Funny thing though, I never even thought about it with her. I like her more than that. But I don't like her that much do I? I feel like a girl thinking about all this so I push it out of my head just as I pull up to the hospital.
I grab the clothes and the food and walk to where they were yesterday. Bella is asleep on a bench and Jake is pacing back and forth until he sees me.
"Hey Jake, I brought you lunch." And I laugh as he scrunches up his nose. "Sorry dude but it's her favorite. How's she doing?" I ask looking at her crashed on the bench, noticing that Sam was right about her clothes.
"As good as she can I guess. She just fell asleep a few minutes ago. Amelia got out of surgery a couple hours ago and now we have to wait for her to wake up and see if she's can function like she's supposed to. What's in the bag?" He asks.
"I brought her some of my clothes but if you want to give me her keys I can go get her some of her own stuff." I offer but he says that since she's asleep he'll go so he can clean up and change too and get some food that's not crap.
I sit close to her but not too close because I don't want to wake her or scare her if she does wake up. I close my eyes for what feels like just a second when she's saying my name.
"Hey babe, how you feeling?" I ask her, she looks awful.
"Um, OK what did you do to Jake?" She whispers in that post sleep fog.
"He went to change and get you some clothes and get some food." I told her not really knowing what she meant by do to him. "I brought you some of my clothes but you probably just want to wait until he comes back but I did bring you Wendy's." I hand her the bag and she hands me the food meant for Jake.
"I love Jake but he's just a ball of nervous energy. He won't sleep and he's snappy and emotional and he's kind of driving me nuts. I'm glad he left for a while." She looks guilty saying it. "Thanks for the food, and the clothes." She gets a text and sighs, in relief I think. "Jake said he is going to head to his house and update his dad and take a nap as long as you will stay with me until he gets back." She's sort of asking/telling me.
I tell her of course I will stay and then she takes the clothes after all and goes to find somewhere to change. She comes out and I have to stop myself from staring at her, she looks so hot in my clothes. She sits down by me and finishes eating the rest of my fries.
"I was starving. I didn't even eat dinner last night because I assumed Emmett would take me to dinner, not a bar. Then I've been too worried to leave even to the cafeteria. I'm so worried Paul. It's been hours already but they said it can take up to 24 hours to wake up before they start doing brain activity tests. I'm so scared she's not going to wake up. I've only had her for such a little time and I know it's my fault but I don't want to lose her." She's crying and I pull her close to me and hold her and rub her back and wish I knew what else to do.
"Don't you have to work today?" She asks and I tell her Sam's fine and he told me to come.
"I don't want him to be nice to me just because he likes me, I feel like I'm taking advantage of him." She sounds guilty again.
"Don't worry about it, Sam doesn't like you like that babe, it was all a misunderstanding. He cares about you though and understands you have to be here for Amelia and we both understand that Jake can be hard to handle sometimes."
"Oh OK." She says softly and I think she's upset about Sam not liking her, maybe she does like him. I'm going to kill Jake.
"What's wrong babe?" Maybe I should stop calling her babe… but she doesn't seem to mind anymore. It's more habit than anything now.
"Jake lied to me. I mean I'm not upset that Sam doesn't like me, he's way too old for me and I'm not ready for a relationship or anything, especially now but Jake went on and on about how Sam liked me. Just to try and keep me from going out with Emmett." And me I say to myself.
I hate seeing her sad and honestly that bothers me. I'm not used to caring about anyone else like this. When you care about people they hurt you. Just like Jake hurt her.
"Hey don't worry about all that now. All the matters now is Amelia." And at that she starts crying now and then apologizing for crying. I think she must be exhausted.
The rest of the day passes slowly with no change in Amelia. Jake comes back later in the afternoon and Bella tries to pretend she's not pissed at him but he finally gets it out of her and then he's mad at me and she's mad at him for being mad at me and it's all a mess.
Then a nurse comes out and tells Bella that the doctor will allow one person to sit with Amelia for a little while and so she goes in the room leaving me with Jake.
"I was trying to protect her from you." Jake tells me as soon as she can't hear.
"By trying to trick her into liking someone who doesn't even like her? And what about Emmett, he's not me." He's being really stupid.
"Emmett's not much better than you. She needs someone who can take care of her." He whines. Seriously, he's whining.
"Someone like you? Since I know this isn't about Sam anymore."
"No, I don't feel that way about her. But at least I can take care of her until someone good enough comes along."
"You're going to push her away if you don't stop trying to control her." I warn him.
"Stay out it and stay away from her." He snaps and just then she comes running down the hall right into my arms and Jake looks like someone just stabbed him through the heart.
"Bella, what happened?" I try to figure out.
"I don't know. The machines started beeping and they made me leave. A nurse told me they would update soon. I'm so scared." She's crying so hard I think she's going to pass out and I look at Jake like what do I do and he just shrugs and goes to sit down.
When the nurse comes out she's still crying so Jake walks up but she won't talk to him without Bella saying OK and she manages to nod her head that it's fine so she tells him that Amelia flat lined, probably because her brain is trying to rewire itself but she's stable but still asleep and Bella can go back to see her if she wants. She asks if someone can come in with her and the nurse hesitates but says yes as long as it stays quiet and no one stays too long.
"Come with me please?" She grabs my hand and look into my eyes and I know Jake is hurt and he really deserves to see her but I can't tell Bella no.
"Bella," Jake starts but she cuts him off.
"It's hard for me Jake. But I need someone who can be strong when I'm not. You're too emotional and I'm too emotional and I can't deal with your issues right now. I'm sorry Jake. You can see her as soon as she's awake I promise." She tells him sadly.
Whether I have feelings for her or not I'm pretty sure I just lost my best friend over her.
A/N Once again I know it is not medically accurate. I grew up on soap operas so maybe think of it like that… Nothing needs to make sense in that world. Also thank you for all opinions on who she ends up with. I thought about them all and was really thinking Sam and then the story wrote itself in a completely different direction and honestly I'm still not sure where it's going.