CH 37-Bella's All A Mess....
EPOV
Charlie told me to stay by the car, but when they broke into the room, I heard shouting. I knew it was Bella's room. I ran to the door and found my poor Bella. My angel, laying helpless on the floor, broken pieces of a wooden chair around her. There's blood around her head, and so many bruises marring her perfect body.
Charlie is kneeling by her, radioing for an ambulance and telling the other cars Phil's been apprehended. I ran over to him and checked Bella's pulse, just under her jaw. It was faint and thready, but there. My shirt was off in an instant, before I even had a chance to realise what I was doing I had ripped it into strips and was tying them around the gash in the head. It was bleeding profusely, and I was worried she would bleed to death.
"Charlie....can I untie her hands?" I looked to him and he nodded. Ghastly purple bruises wrapped around her tiny little wrists, but I couldn't see more than minimal swelling. I don't think they're broken. Right now I know the best hting is for Bella to remain unconscious, he blood flows less that way, but I want her to wake up...I need to hear her voice....to know she's okay. I don't know how, or why, but the next thing I heard was Bella...
"Edward" she mumbled. I don't think she was awake...but I still felt my heart soar. Charlie heard it too. He was smiling, and for the first time I think he allowed himself some hope that she would be okay.
The ambulance got there quickly. The EMTs got Bella on a stretcher quickly. Charlie threw his keys to one of his officers, and rode in the back of the ambulance with her. I rode upfront, wishing the whole time I was back there holding her hand. I called everyone in Forks. We had been in such a rush, no one even knew she'd pressed the tracked button.
Emmett was, as expected, overjoyed and worried. He told everyone else, and promised to meet us in the hospital as soon as they got there. With the spped he's going to go, they might just make it to the hospital here before we do....
:-:-:
Three hours of sitting in the E.R. lobby waiting........Carlisle and Esme arrived two hours ago, only 10 minutes after Emmett, Rose, Alice and Jasper. Carlisle immediately went to the back to see if anyone would tell him something, and since the hospital was short staffed, they let him help. So far no one has heard anything, good or bad, from anyone. We were all tense and waiting. We assumed Carlisle was busy with Bella, and as soon as they could, someone would come tell us her progress....If something were seriously wrong, they would tell us, right? Just as my mind started running over the worst-case-scenarios my father came out from behind the admittance desk, clad in scrubs.
He gave us her injuries, and her progress.
Bella needed a bunch of blood transfusions. She had lost so much. Dad said we got there just in time. He said I 'did good' helping her, but I felt like it wasn't enough. It was my fault Phil got to her in the first place.....my Bella also had some broken ribs, and they needed to be set. One of them almost cut through her lung, and they had to decide if they were going to do surgery to fix it, or let it heal on it's own. Carlisle convinced them not to do the surgery. It was risky, and Bella was weak. Her lung tissue could heal itself, she would just need to be on a ventilator for a while. She would need it either way,though....Bella also had a very bad concussion, and an MRI showed some swelling on her brain. They had to do a surgery where they drill holes into her skull to relieve the pressure. Carlisle assisted, that's what had taken so long.
"But...as far as we can tell she's going to make a full recovery, physically. We can't assess wheather or not she has serious brain damage until she's stable enough to be woken up. I don't forsee anything horrible happening, but the brain is tricky. She could lapse into a coma....she could already be in one, and we won't know it until the anesthesia is out of her system. We'll know more soon...but for now, it's a waiting game. She's under heavy sedation, and won't be able to come off it until sometime tomorrow morning. She's in recovery now, we can all go back and see her now."
:-:-:
Carlisle warned us....but she just looked so helpless. Tubes and wires everywhere. Dad said she wouldn't wake up until tomorrow...but I was still expecting her to mumble my name...like she did before. I felt tears run down my cheeks, and didn't have it in me to care. I think everyone in the room was crying.
Hospital visiting hours were technically over, but they made and exception for us, since Carlisle did help with Bella. Family could stay with her, and that's it....but neither Emmett or Charlie could bare seeing her in the state she was in. I wanted to stay, so badly, but Carlisle didn't want to allow it. He promised me that there was no chance of her waking early, and the best thing we could all do right now would be to get a hotel room to stay in, and come back tomorrow....so that's what we did.