A/N: Okay so I know my updates are coming later than I use to…. But I'm trying. We're reading "Great Expectations" in English and trust me… there's nothing great to expect. Hmm so how many people want to see the story progress…. Well I do XD!

Chapter 16

I caught myself chewing on my bottom lip as I anxiously awaited the nurse transport arrivals to come get me. I had talked to Mr. Baker and I was to go into surgery in exactly ten minutes. I watched the clock tick the seconds away.

Edward had gone to lunch after I had begged him to eat and Carlisle had arranged my surgery to plan for Edward to be away when I went in. I didn't need Edward to be sweating a minor surgery. There was a soft knock on my door and I felt the butterflies build in my stomach.

"Miss Swan?" A woman's voice asked hesitantly.

"Yes?" My voice came out as a squeak.

An elderly lady entered the room. She had on turquoise colored scrubs and a hair net type thing around her head. She smiled at me warmly and winked walked toward me.

"Nervous?" She asked knowingly.

I nodded. "A little."

She made quick work of checking all the tubes and she looked at the IV in my arm. "It's to be expected dear." She paused. "I'm going to give you some medicine that will put you to sleep. Just lay back and relax." Her voice was soothing and it made me a little calmer.

I did as she told me and she shot a new liquid into the IV tube on my arm. She pulled the needle out and smiled reassuringly. "You'll be fine. Just relax."

I nodded and felt the haze build around me. She slipped out of the room and someone else took her place by my side. "Bella?" I heard Edward's voice close to my face.

"Edward…… you're….. posed…. Be….. unch." I yawned as I tried to form a coherent sentence.

He chuckled. "Silly girl. You didn't really think I would let you prepare by yourself."

My eyelids drooped and I tried to hold them open. "I love you Edward." I whispered.

The last thing I felt or heard was his soft lips at my ear and his cool breath on my face. "I love you too, my Bella."

EPOV

"Calm down Edward, your father assured us this was a minimal surgery." Mom tried to calm my worried state as I paced back and forth across the cramped waiting room.

"Bella's tough dude, she's been through worse than this." Emmett piped in as he took the seat next to mom.

"Yeah, I know Bella and she'll pull through." Jacob uttered the couple of words and then dove out into the hall in search of something or another.

I continued my path of pacing across the waiting room floor as Esme and Emmett continued to watch me. They soon tired of my impatient attitude and made up excuses to get something from the cafeteria or to go check to see if Rosalie was up. I let my thoughts take over my body completely.

I found it weird that I had suddenly taken up this impatient hysteria. Emmett had always been the impatient boyish one and now I found it weird that I was the one now dreading the wait. My parents were both very patient people for it took great patience to be a mother and a doctor. Alice, although she wasn't truly blood, also was quite patient even for her balled up energy.

A quiet knock and a ahem pulled me from my pensive mood.

"A penny for your thoughts?" Rachel stepped into the room limping then sitting down in the seat Esme had vacated. She patted the seat next to her. "Come on, I don't bite…. Hard."

I couldn't help but smile as I crossed the small room to sit next to her. She reached out her hand to give me a mountain dew. "You look like you need some caffeine." She commented.

"Thanks." I twisted open the lid and let the cool drink slide down my dry throat. "Sorry I don't know why I'm so…" I couldn't think of a good word.

"Agitated, worried." She filled in a couple of words.

I nodded. "Yeah. It's not like me to get so nervous about something I know will be okay."

She placed her hand on my shoulder. "It's okay to be worried." She paused. "Edward, you almost lost her. Your senses are on high." She squeezed my shoulder lightly. "It's normal to be acting weird."

I sunk down deeper into my chair and let out a sigh. "I know, it's just not something I've had to cope with before." I admitted.

She looked me in the eye. "I almost lost my grandpa a couple of months back." She paused. "They almost lost him while I was at school. I spent every day after school till about 9:30 in the waiting room for two weeks." She shuddered. "It was extremely hard."

I stood up and my joints cracked. "It's like I'm falling in love with her all over again." I let the goofy grin take me over.

The left side of her mouth tilted up. "Good, now maybe you won't let her go."

RPOV

The words left my lips tingling. I dug my own grave as I said the final words. I knew that he loved her, yet my heart couldn't take the rejection that was like the final cock of the pistol.

I watched as his eyes turned hard and cold. "Yeah, that's never going to happen." He muttered out as if he were ashamed of the fact that he almost had.

I patted him on the shoulder and used the arms of the chair to hoist myself up. "Good." I replied keeping the façade that I had grown accustom to. It seemed that I was lying to just about everyone now days.

I felt his strong arm wrap around my torso as he helped me through the door. "Where is everyone?" He asked as if he had suddenly noticed that the room was vacant besides us.

"Um, cafeteria?" I answered hopefully. "To tell you the truth I have no idea."

"Hm, well that doesn't help our situation now does it?" He joked along with me.

He helped me to the scary elevator and leaned to press the down button. The doors slid open surprisingly fast and he helped me hobble in through the metal doors. We waited the short trip to the bottom and when the doors opened our friends and Edward's family were opened toward us.

"Found them." I laughed stepping off the elevator.

Conley and Nancy took Edward's place and helped me further into the hallway. "We're going back to the camp. Tootsie needs us. The kids leave tomorrow and then she said we can have free reign for a couple of weeks." Conley informed me.

I nodded. "Who's going?"

Conley grabbed Jake's hand and yanked him forward. "Just us and Jake."

I shrugged. "Okay."

Esme pulled something out of her bag and handed it to Edward. "Here's some mail that was forwarded from Bella's apartment."

My curiosity got the best of me and I found myself leaning over to examine the large off white colored envelope. Stanford University was printed on the front in large golden letters and I figured it was something crucial for Bella's enrollment.

"Wow, looks important." Jake commented.

Conley slapped him playfully. "I'll show you important." She pulled on his arm. "Let's go, I'm tired."

He nodded. "Yeah, me too."

I yawned involuntarily and had to agree with them. We had all spent the night in the waiting room that night and it seemed that the only one who got any sleep was Rosalie and Bella. Alice had curled up in Jasper's arms like a small child and both Emmett and Edward were too worried about their significant others to think of sleeping.

As for me Nancy and Conley, my car wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep so we took short naps when we could in the claustrophobic waiting room. Just the sheer atmosphere of the hospital was enough to keep everyone ill at ease.

"Who's driving?" I asked gesturing toward my leg.

Everyone's eyes seemed to dart back and forth at each other. Nancy had never been the most confident driver and she had just been in a car wreck so antsy was putting her mood lightly. With the current state of my leg and Conley's arm we decided that Jake should drive.

With all the little details hammered out we started for the car. I'm surprised we didn't get a few laughs as we walked out of the hospital side by side. We probably looked like a wreck. Bags were visible under everyone's eyes; there were cuts on Nancy, a cast on my leg, and gauze around random parts of Conley. Jake was the designated driver for a bunch of seriously impaired teenaged girls.

We found my car parked exactly where we had left it and I scooted into the back seat. I handed Jake the keys and sunk back into the soft seats. The car came to life and the familiar hum of the car intertwined with the soft music playing on the radio. A peace surrounded the car hugging each of us closely as if it were a reassurance.

I knew that everything was going to be okay. Everything happened for a reason.

A/N: So, I know the last bit is a little random and these are mostly fillers. Sorry but we've got some major drama going on in my family and I'm super tired from staying up to read the latest installment in the House of Night Novels XD! So far so good. Anyway like I said drama in my family makes me wish I were Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. Lions and tigers and bears would be much, much better.

Kayla