Well guys...here's the chapter I've kept you waiting a little too long for. Lol, sorry about that. I haven't been able to find any time in my crazy life here recently to sit down and do anything on the computer. Even my weekends are crowded with activities! So without further ado, here is the long-awaited chapter. BTW make sure to read the author's note at the end.

Chapter 34

White walls, white floor, white ceiling, white curtains.

Everything seemed so plain, so bright in appearance. The darkness I had remembered was not present.

It seemed to piece together for me rather quickly. I was in the hospital...where else would I be?

And I was alive.

Suddenly my blurry vision grew sharper, and I was extremely aware of my surroundings, and the events that put me in them.

I heard the soft beeping of the monitors attached to me, and I felt something heavy on my arm, a cast possibly.

My head hurt beyond any type of description. But my heart hurt even worse....because I knew he was gone.

There was no way he could have survived, even with my attempt at saving him. He was just no match for Viviene.

I felt tears sting at my eyes, knowing the love of my life was gone, and I survived.

Out of the two of us, I thought he deserved to live so much more than me. He was such a wonderful person, vampire, whatever he was, and he had "children" that were counting on him to guide them through the rest of their eternity.

The love of my life was gone.

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on breathing and maintaining composer...but it wasn't working so well. I just couldn't piece together why I had to survive instead of him. The whole reason I did what I did that night was to save him, even if it meant loosing my life in the process. Why him?

Why not me?

Everyone I had ever loved and cared about always seemed to pass away when I could have done so in their place. What was so special about me? Why did I still deserve to be on this earth? Why did I deserve it more than my mother, my father, my grandmother, my grandfather...and him?

I never thought that my life would ever be able to fill with more pain then it already had. But now it became very obvious to me that it surely could.

What was I going to do with my life now? I would never be able to move on and just get over him. I loved him, and I would never love anyone more than I had loved him. But I had to make something out of my life, rather than just sit on the couch in my apartment, crying as I watched Grey's re-runs. I had to finish college, go to medical school, get a job, and...possibly start a family.

But I knew that would be impossible. I would not feel right walking down the aisle with someone else when I so desperately wished I could be with him instead.

I opened my eyes again and turned my head around to look beside me. Much to my surprise I noticed I wasn't alone. Gertrude was sitting in a chair beside my bed, working on a book of crossword puzzles.

She must have noticed me, because she looked up from her book with a huge grin on her face. I tried to offer her the most sincere smile I could, but smiling was the exact opposite of what I felt like doing at that moment.

"Hey Brookie." She said, walking over to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

I just kind of shrugged my shoulders. I really couldn't find much strength to talk.

"You had us kind of worried there for a while dear." She said.

I offered her a puzzled expression, hoping that was enough for her to know what I was trying to say.

"You've been unconscious for quite a while. You hit your head pretty good." She said, smiling. "You've had so many people here for you. They're all worried sick."

I smiled a much more sincere smile then, it felt good that people were worried about me.

"Some boy keeps calling here saying he's going to fly down here soon if you don't get any better." She said, looking at me to see if I would tell her who he was.

I actually laughed a little. "Adam." I said softly.

"Adam? Oh yes! That's who it was. And there was some girl cursing at me in the background. I told her that wasn't very lady-like."

"Lacey." I said, laughing a little more.

"Your cousin Sandra was in here a little while ago while I used the bathroom." Gertrude informed me, which was information I could have lived without knowing. "But they all went home."

"They?"

"Your aunt, uncle, and cousins." She said.

I nodded.

"I think I'm gonna go call that boy so that way his girlfriend will stop swearing at me." She said, with a slightly disgusted expression on her face.

"She's not his girlfriend." I said. "She's dating his brother."

"Oh." Gertrude said, obviously not processing this. "Very well then. I'm gonna go find someone to come sit in here with you Brookie."

I simply nodded my head again, suddenly feeling very exhausted from my short conversation with her.

Gertrude walked toward the door and pointed her finger at me. "Don't you dare die on us now...you got it?"

I just nodded again as she bounced out the door and into the hall.

I sighed and looked up at the ceiling, before I closed my eyes to try and hold in the tears that were threatening to fall. It was wonderful to know so many people were worried about me, but the only one I really cared about being here, couldn't be.

One single tear rolled down the right side of my face, followed by several others. There was really no use in living without him. He was the reason I woke up every morning, the reason I went to bed every night, the reason I laughed, the reason I breathed, the reason I lived. Whether I was actually dead or not, without him I was not alive at all.

The feeling of sleep was becoming quite friendly with me, and I wasn't too reluctant to greet it. At least if I slept I wouldn't be so aware of the pain.

I slowly let it overcome me, and soon I was in a very relaxed state, very close to reaching a state of unconsciousness once more.

As I was resting, I heard someone talking outside my door, which shook me out of my almost sleep-like state. I wasn't aware enough to be able to distinguish who was talking, and their voice was very soft, so I assumed they were walking away.

I sighed again, trying to force myself back to sleep, but it wasn't working. I heard a soft squeaking noise, which I assumed was the door, and my eyes fluttered open.

And there he stood, with the most beautiful smile plastered on his face. He had never looked more gorgeous, more perfect in all the time I knew him.

His smile grew wider when he saw that I was awake. "Hello darling." He said, closing the door as he walked my way.

I wasn't sure if I should scream or cry, so I did both. He sat down on the edge of the bed, and he laughed at me.

"That bump to your head must have affected you a lot more than I thought." He said.

I tried to sit up the best I could, and I gently rested my good hand on his face. Now all I could do was cry.

"Brooke dear...what's wrong?" He asked, placing his hand on mine.

"I...thought...you...were...gone." I said softly, unable to speak clearly through my sobs.

He smiled at me before he gently kissed my forehead. "Well my dear, I am very much alive."

I just shook my head in disbelief.

"Thanks to you." He said, lifting my chin up.

"Thanks to me?" I asked, trying to wipe some of the tears off of my face.

"Yes." He said, his gentle smile still present. "If you hadn't done what you did, I surely would have been killed. But what you did was just enough to distract Viviene long enough to allow me to get the upper hand."

I just starred at him as I continued wiping tears off of my cheeks.

"What you did was very brave." He said.

I nodded. "So Viviene is..."

"Gone." He said. "She'll never bother us again."

I burst into another fit of tears, and he sat there and watched me for a while.

Finally I regained some composer and I looked up at him, not wanting to ever take my eyes off of him again.

"Surely we'll have to hide this just a little longer won't we?" I asked.

He nodded. "Yes, just a little longer."

"That's fine with me." I said. "I'm just glad you're alive."

"Me too dear..me too." He said, kissing me very cautiously. "You were much closer to death than I was, it's a surprise you were able to stay conscious as long as you did."

"What all happened to me?" I asked, examining the cast on my arm.

"You broke your wrist, a few ribs, and you suffered a pretty nice concussion. Other than a few cuts and bruises, that's basically it. It could have been so much worse."

Thinking of how close I was to those trees, I knew how much worse it could have been.

"You should be just fine." He said.

I smiled at him. "So for the record, what is the story of what happened to me?"

He laughed, knowing that we couldn't just walk around telling people a vampire had beat me up. "You were getting out of your car at your apartment complex, and you slipped on the wet parking lot, causing all of your injuries."

"And how did you happen to be there?" I asked, assuming he was the one that brought me to the hospital.

"You called me on your way home from the airport, cause you wanted someone to walk with you into your apartment due to the recent murders. You couldn't get a hold of anyone else, so that's why you choose me. I came across you after you fell and brought you in here."

I laughed. "Nice story. And people believe it?"

"Yes they do." He said, laughing a bit himself.

"Ok...now what's the real story?" I asked.

He laughed again at my curiosity. "After you drove past us, Viviene was distracted enough to allow me to take advantage of the situation. The kids caught on to what was going on and came outside to help me. We made the fire and once I was sure everything was safe and underway, I came to you."

Much to my surprise, his smile faded.

"I thought you were dead at first, because you're eyes were closed, and you were covered all over with blood from all of your injuries. I wasn't sure if you had hit the trees or not. But I checked your pulse, and I saw that you were breathing...and I knew I had to get you to the hospital...and fast. So I left the children to attend the fire and I brought you in here."

"How long was I unconscious?" I asked.

"A few days." He said.

I was surprised. It really didn't seem like it had been that long, but yet again...I was asleep.

I just shook my head and smiled. His smile returned as he leaned forward and softly kissed me again.

"I love you Carlisle." I said gently running one of my hands through his hair.

His smile grew wider, but he didn't say anything in response.

"What?" I asked, unsure of his reaction.

"It sounds so good to hear you say that." He replied.

"Say what? That I love you?"

"Well yes...that too. But that's not what I was talking about."

"What were you talking about?" I asked, defiantly confused.

He laughed softly. "My name."

"What about your name?"

"I didn't know you knew it." He said gently placing his hand on mine.

"Of course I do."

"Well I thought you didn't like to call me by name. Am I not just Dr. Cullen to you?" He said, smiling.

I suddenly caught his point, and I laughed. "Oh gosh...I guess I didn't even notice that I did that."

"You did, and that's not the first time you've said it either."

"It's not?" I asked.

"When you were over by the Mercedes, Viviene had thrown me down or something, and you called out my name. I thought I was just hearing things, but regardless...it seemed to give me the strength to get back up."

I smiled.

"How did you not notice you said it? You've only called me Dr. Cullen since the day we first met." He said.

"I guess at that moment I wasn't thinking of you as my boss....just the man I loved." I said, with a smile spreading across my face.

"You are a wonderful girl Brooke." He said, softly kissing me again. "Why am I so lucky to have finally found the perfect girl for me?"

I laughed and shook my head before I gently kissed him myself. "Oh Carlisle....I don't necessarily think you're the lucky one in this situation."

Well guys, how did you like that?

I have an announcement for you all. This chapter was officially the next-to-last chapter in this story.

I did not originally plan to end the story this soon. (I never originally planned to do a lot of things with this story...lol). But it's already 30+ chapters long, and I was intending on extending it probably 20-30+ more chapters. Now this alone wouldn't seem like much of a problem, but it kind of is. You see, after this chapter, the drama is basically gone. Viviene was my main source of drama, and she's dead now. Don't get me wrong, there was indeed more dramatic stuff planned, but the next few chapters were going to be filler chapters with nonsense until I could get around to dramatic stuff once more. It was going to be sort of boring to put it in other words...ha ha.

So here's how this is going down. The next chapter is going to be the last chapter, and it's kinda gonna be like an Epilogue. It's just kinda gonna go over everything that's happened, and then I'm gonna close it off.

Now don't panic! Lol...cause you see...Carlisle and Brooke's story does not end here. There is so much more to tell about them. I promise and swear on this very computer I am typing on...that there will indeed be a sequel to this story.

I had planned on writing a sequel to this story regardless of when or where I ended it. But I just think for story flow (and to give me some time to think of some more drama..lol), cutting it off now and then writing the sequel to it is the best idea.

At the end of the next chapter, I will have a long author's note, just over viewing the story and what it's meant to me, asking you guys some questions, and of course offering my thank yous.

After I finish this story, I do indeed plan on writing another story. I have several story ideas planned out, but I know which one I'm going to write. My next story is going to be an Edward/Bella pairing, and the title is going to be called Just Acting. I don't know how long it's going to take for me to put it up after I end this story...but it will be soon. Once I finish that story (unless I come up with another amazing idea I just can't wait to write), then I will write this story's sequel. So if you want to read more of my stuff, wait for Just Acting. If you really would just rather wait until I write the sequel to this story, keep checking my page and I'll make sure to let everyone know when it's up.

This makes me very sad as well, but I just feel it's what's best for the story.

Thank you guys so very much for reading! Please shoot me a review if you have the time!

~Hazl~