Well it's Wednesday! Thanks always to Nati for pre-reading, you rock chica ;)

Ch. 9

A Step in the Right Direction

I sat on the table again waiting. I hoped he was at least on time today.

I heard the sound of crutches from the hall and glanced at the clock. It wasn't 4:30 yet. He was actually early. I looked around just to make sure that Jesus hadn't all of a sudden descended from the clouds and performed a miracle.

Edward came around the door.

"Hi," he said, hobbling over to the table he'd sat at yesterday.

"Hi." I didn't know what else to say. Frankly, I wasn't exactly fond of Edward at the moment. Yesterday, had been eye opening about his bad attitude, but I was still angry about his blatant disrespect. No matter what some girl named Tanya had done.

"So exactly what am I doing first?"

I was surprised by Edward's question. I was sure he'd be spitting fire at me again, but he seemed subdued this afternoon. It took me a moment to collect my thoughts.

"I want to do some ultrasound. Hopefully, get the muscle and the nerves around the knee to start repairing themselves," I said moving from my seat and moving to wheel the cart over to where Edward was.

He nodded. I stared at him again waiting for him to make some nasty or snarky comment.

Nothing. I exhaled a deep breath. Perhaps, I could actually survive the hour I had alone with him until his other team mates came fore their daily treatments.

"This will be about 15 minutes, since I don't have anyone coming until 5:30. That'll give us enough time to ice it and do some stretches."

I grabbed a towel from the bottom of the cart and told Edward to lay down on the table and relax. I squeezed some blue gel onto his leg and unwound the transducer from it's slot on the little ultrasound machine. Of course, this ultrasound didn't have a screen, but ultimately the waves would penetrate deeper than just normal heat into the leg and help encourage healing.
I turned the machine on and set it for the desired time before turning on the voltage.

I placed the transducer on the gel and started moving in circular motions around Edward's kneecap.

"Can you feel it? It should feel warm," I said, looking up to Edward's face.

"Yeah, it feels kind of weird, but it doesn't hurt for a change," he said. "Will this help with some of the pain?"

I stared into Edward's usually glinting eyes and noticed for the first time that they seemed a bit dull. He had bags under his lids. He looked like he hadn't slept in a few days. I moved down the rest of his body and his shirt was crinkled as if it had been laying in a pile for a few days. He looked disheveled and worn out. I actually felt some of my residual anger ebb. He looked a mess.

"Has your knee been keeping you up at night?" I studied his face. He shrugged, avoiding my gaze.

"Sometimes, it hurts like hell to tell the truth. If I even move the wrong way pain shoots through my whole leg."

I furrowed my eyebrows. I wasn't sure that his knee should be causing him so much pain. Moderate pain would be acceptable, but shooting pain up his leg? That didn't sound right.

"Tylenol and Ibuprofen aren't helping either?"

He shook his head. "Not really." Edward still didn't meet my eyes. He just contented himself by staring at the ceiling.

That meant he wasn't getting any relief from the pain. If he was in pain, his body would take that much longer to heal itself.

I grabbed the hand towel I had laid out and wiped off the ultrasound gel. I moved to the back counter where we kept a lot of our training supplies.

"I know you're here somewhere,"I muttered to myself. I rummaged through a few drawers before I found the one I was looking for. I pulled out a small tuning fork and walked back over to Edward.

"I just want to check something," I said, holding the fork so he could see it. He watched me as I took the fork and hit the two prongs against the heel of my shoe. I brought it up to his good leg.

"You feel that? That feels ok, right?" Edward nodded. I took the tuning fork and hit it on my heel again and placed it on his bad knee.

His reaction was instantaneous. His face scrunched up and he yelped as he moved the tuning fork away and clutched his knee.

"What did you do?" He glared at me.

"I'm sorry. I can tell that hurt. I just wanted to check and see, but Edward I think that you broke your kneecap." I tapped my fingers on the table. There was very high chance that Edward had a hair line fracture, that the x-ray hadn't picked up. Rare, but it could happen.

"But I went to the doctor and they said that I just dislocated it," Edward insisted.

"Doctor's are humans too. Sometimes they miss things. But look at you. You're clearly in pain and even if it's not broken, it'd be worth it to go back to the doctor and at the very least get some pain killers. Toughing it out will be the opposite of helpful."

He had lifted his head up to grab his knee and at my words he dropped it back to the table. "Fantastic."

"Maybe I'm wrong. We could wait a few more days to see if it get any better, but it's been what 3 days? In the grand scheme of things, that's not very long, but usually it wouldn't hurt this much after a couple of days. Your body kind of calms down."

"So you think I should go back to the doctor?"

"Yes."

"Okay," he said. I stared at him. His mood swings were confusing me. Yesterday he was throwing water down my shirt and today he was actually listening to my suggestions rather than trying to be obstinate and fight me.

"That's it? No snarky comment, no water thrown at my hair, no anecdote to explain disrespect?"

He blew out a puff of air. "The last three days have been horrible. I don't know if I've ever been in so much pain." He chuckled, but it was humorless. "So, I sorta realized late last night that I wasn't going to get any better if I ignored your advice. Emmett told me that I'm just going to have to trust you. That I don't really have any other options. And he's right." He ran his fingers over his face. " And...I'm sorry...you know...for being an asshole."

I smirked. "You can say that again." His apology didn't make up for the last three days, but it was at least a step in the right direction.

"Apology excepted. Just because I've forgiven you, doesn't mean that I'm going to forget."

He nodded. "That's fair."

I rolled my eyes. It was more than fair. It was damn saintly in my opinion, but for some reason I didn't feel so angry anymore. Perhaps it was because I didn't like anyone to be hurt and so my compassion was over ruling my senses. Either way, my heart ached for Edward. I wanted him to get better yes, but I wanted more than that. Because Edward wasn't just hurt, rude, or unhappy. He was just all out lost.

And when someone was lost you couldn't not help them...

Hey guys! Sooo they're making progress. Edward's coming around...I guess pain will do that to you. Does Bella really know what she's getting herself into...So please review and let me know what you think!

I'll see you next Wednesday!

-marie