Concessions

"So come on and leave the years
When you watched the days go by
Come on and leave the fears
That you were afraid to find
'Cause while you wait inside
The days go by"
Days Go By- Lifehouse

It's a long one folks… If you are still unsure about last chapter PM me!

Mood Music: When I fall by Jonathan Cour, Let Me Sign by Robert Pattinson, and Bella's Lullaby by Carter Burwell

"Dr. Cullen to the emergency room, Dr. Cullen to the emergency room." The shrill voice over the announcement system caused Edward to cringe.

He had been warned that there was a severe chest trauma coming in and he would most likely have to scrub up for surgery. Making his way to the closest elevator, he tapped his foot in impatience looking down at his beeper. The thing hadn't stopped going off since he had gotten there.

While normally Edward would have enjoyed the challenges that work brought him, he could feel in his entire body how truly tired he was.

It had been 18 hours since he had been home, 18 hours since he had seen Emmett. Edward contemplated that thought for a moment, suddenly questioning his job choice. Could he really justify such long periods of time away from Emmett? He wasn't sure. Working gave him less time to think, though, less time to ponder how his life was all wrong. That was a positive that he couldn't ignore.

"Edward?"

He heard the voice calling to him and found himself grumbling under his breath. It had been such a long night on call and all he really wanted to do was go home and crawl into bed. Edward turned around addressing the person calling to him.

"Make it quick, I'm exhausted." He muttered under his breath, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Through his blurry vision he was able to make out who was standing in front of him and his eyes widened.

"Well it's wonderful to see you are still so polite." Rose bit at him, her arms crossed on her chest and her eyes narrowed at him.

The elevator dinged signifying its arrival. Edward turned to look at her eyebrow raised, a million thoughts running through his head. The main thought that predominated was that he had a room full of people waiting for him downstairs.

"We need to talk." Edward muttered watching the elevator door close in front of him.

"I think you are right." Rose growled her hands tightening their hold on her arms. She looked pissed, really pissed. Edward's pager buzzed in his pocket and he pulled it out looking at it, a scowl present on his face.

"I really need to get down to the ER we just had a severe trauma come in that needs heart surgery. Are you going to be around for awhile?"

"Nope." Rosalie stated shrugging her shoulders and biting back a smirk. "I was just on my way out. I was visiting a family friend."

"Can I call you?" Edward asked pushing the elevator button once again and running his hand through his hair frustrated. This was the chance he had been looking for, begging for and he couldn't let her leave without some way of contacting her.

"I think this is a conversation that would better be done face to face." Rose replied rolling her eyes.

"Coffee shop downstairs at say" Edward looked at his watch "noon tomorrow?"

Rose nodded curtly, pointedly looking at the elevator as it dinged once again. Edward stepped into the empty lift, looking at Rose for a moment in concern.

"Is Bella alright?" Edward asked holding the door open with his hand.

"Depends on your definition of alright." Rose hastily answered before turning and leaving him standing shocked.

After a moment he moved his hand, allowing the doors to close. Leaning his head against the wall he replayed what Rose had just said to him and all the meanings it could have behind it. The lack of sleep and the confusion only seemed to swirl around in his head.

The annoying ding sounded again and Edward made his way off the elevator and quickly down the hall, pushing the trauma doors open and pulling on his gloves.

A petite woman lay on the table, her face badly bruised and disfigured from the accident. Her legs were mangled and it was clear that she would never walk again. Edward took a deep breath digesting the scene for a moment, his heart hurt and he wasn't sure why.

This wasn't the first time he had seen someone in this condition but the image struck with him as he looked at the blood all over the poor woman's body. His eyes scanned her once again, latching onto the brown hair that hung limply by her head.

Edward clenched his eyes shut, shaking his head softly. He suddenly felt sick.

"What's the patient's name?" Edward asked the nurse closest to him.

"Elizabeth." The nurse replied looking at him quizzically.

He opened his eyes letting out the breath he was holding and chiding himself on letting himself get worked up. For a moment there he had thought…

Edward shook his head once again. He couldn't even bear to think of it.

After conversing with two other doctors to arrange the order of her surgeries, Edward made his way up to the O.R. quickly changing and then scrubbing up.

"Are you okay?"

Edward looked at the doctor next to him, drawing a blank on the guys' name. He seemed rather pleasant the few times Edward had been assigned to work with him.

"Yeah, just the end of a long shift," Edward replied shrugging "I'm just kind of tired."

The doctor nodded in understanding, pushing the surgery doors open. Edward followed him in.

--

Edward sat, his head resting against a locker, staring at the white wall in front of him. Everything around him looked blurry, fuzzy, and faded. His eyes burned and he knew if he didn't get some sleep soon that he would be regretting it.

Rubbing his hands over his tired eyes he moved them up tugging on the ends of his hair, bringing tears to his eyes. His mind replayed what had happened in the O.R. over and over. He analyzed it each time trying to figure out if he could have changed something, if there was something he could have done. Elizabeth had gone into cardiac arrest and her injuries were too great for them to continue.

She died on the operating table.

Squinting at his watch, trying to tell the time, he sighed frustrated that the numbers were blurred together. Turning his head he looked at the large clock on the wall. He had been up for over 30 hours; he definitely needed to get some sleep.

Trudging through the physicians room Edward made his way back to the on call rooms, closing one of the doors and flopping down on the bed. Pulling out his cell phone, he texted Jasper.

"Too tired to drive, crashing here. Thanks for taking care of Em, be home ASAP."

Setting the alarm clock on his phone to wake him in time to meet Rose, Edward rolled over bunching the pillow beneath his head. His body ached from the stress of the day and yet his mind seemed to be completely awake replaying every moment over and over.

He stared at the fuzzy expanse of white ceiling above him, willing his mind to quiet and willing himself to sleep.

--

Edward was in the hallway, running towards the trauma room. His heart was pounding in his ears and his breath was coming out in pants.

Pushing open the trauma doors he looked at the petite woman lying on the cot. Her face was mangled and bloody, her brown hair streaked with blood.

"Call down to the bank, we're going to need a few pints." Someone called.

His eyes focused on the face of the woman on the table, his breath coming in pants. His world seemed to swirl around him and he felt someone put a hand on his shoulder.

"Edward, are you alright?"

He clenched his eyes tight, willing the images away, willing his mind to clear its sleep induced haze.

"Edward?"

Carlisle stood in front of him concern on his face as he looked at his son.

"What is her name?" Edward asked looking at the mangled young girl in front of him.

"Isabella." His father answered brow scrunched in concern.

"I-Isa-Bella?" Edward's voice stuttered the words out.

His father looked at him knowingly, a small smirk on his face. "Yes, son, Isabella."

The room seemed to spin around him and Edward found himself on his knees his father looking down at him as he spoke.

"Such a pretty girl, too bad you fucked everything up. Look at how broken she is."

Edward found himself on his feet standing next to the bed. Other doctors and nurses made their way around him, hustling to help his Bella, to save her.

He looked down at the battered face her nose crooked and swollen, her cheeks covered in tiny gashes from the glass. Her eyelids were so swollen that they stuck out from her face, making her look inhuman.

Edward found himself willing her to open her eyes, to look at him so he would realize they were wrong, that this was all just a coincidence.

"Why couldn't you save me?" she asked, her eyes opening and looking at him. The brown was mudded by the blood in them. "You couldn't save me."

Edward woke to the ring of his cell phone, his breaths coming out in pants and his body covered in a thick sheen of sweat. His head was spinning and he sat up immediately looking for a trashcan to throw up in.

Grabbing the basket he buried his head in it for a moment, letting the contents of his stomach loose. The mangled image of Bella was burned in his retinas and he physically scrubbed at his eyes with his hands trying to erase the image.

He looked around, shaking his head and crawling out of bed. His body ached with the stress of the past hours and the lack of proper sleep. His muscles screamed at him as he moved, stretching them stiffly and groaning at the tension. He was definitely going to need a shower, a very hot shower, before he met up with Rosalie.

--

Edward sat on a stool by the coffee shop. His shower had helped with his nerves, but only a little bit. Tapping his hand on the empty table, he sipped his latte checking his watch what seemed like every two minutes.

"I'm here, you can stop being frustratingly annoying." Rose plopped down on the stool in front of him, setting her drink down and brushing her hair back from her face. "You look like shit."

"Is Bella the friend you were visiting in the hospital?" Edward asked his voice filled with concern.

"Not that it is any of your business," Rose snapped "but no."

Rosalie looked around for a minute, before throwing her bag onto the table and speaking so incredibly fast that Edward had a hard time keeping up.

"I'm going to tell you something and you are going to listen and I mean truly listen. So close your mouth and shut up." She looked up at him for a moment to make sure he was acknowledging her request before continuing to talk.

"I thought we had an agreement, I thought I could trust you and that you would do what is best for her. If I would have known that it was a goodbye letter I never and I mean never in a million years would have allowed it to be passed. She was just starting to do better and your little antics set her in a nice tailspin. You fucked up, plain and simple."

Edward opened his mouth to speak but stopped when she shot him a dirty look.

"I thought I was doing the right thing, I thought that you loved her and I knew how hard it was for her to see you that day. I figured what could it hurt, right? Well I made a mistake and I'm here because I am rectifying this shit right now. Bella is my best friend and I will do anything and I mean anything to make sure that she is alright, to make sure that she is happy."

Rosalie continued to dig in her purse then, taking her eyes off of him. Pulling out an envelope she threw it down on the table and looked up at him.

"What is that?" Edward asked.

Rosalie growled at him for a moment before slapping her hand on the table.

"Listen here, and listen good. I am not happy about what I am about to do but I feel it needs to be done so just shut the fuck up and listen. I wasn't here visiting a family friend I was here looking for you. I knew you were here because Jasper told me."

Edward took a minute to digest the information suddenly feeling angry.

"You know Jasper and he didn't tell me? I've been trying to find you to find a way to get a hold of Bella."

Rosalie snorted, actually snorted.

"Yeah you tried really hard. Calling her old phone number and calling my office leaving me a message. Big efforts there buddy. Did you honestly think I would return your calls after all you've done? As for knowing Jasper, we go way back, I was his lawyer when he was opening his new business and we kept in touch."

"That doesn't explain what's in the envelope."

"It's a letter."

"From Bella?!" Edward asked reaching for the envelope and ripping the contents out.

"No, from Jasper. He called me being all emo and shit begging me to hear out your story. I told him it didn't deserve my time and he begged. After explaining everything to me I agreed to come here and see you for myself. I guess he was right about you looking like shit."

Rose smirked for a moment before continuing.

"He told me what has been going on these past few months. He told me how he had to take care of you and Emmett and how you weren't functioning properly." Her eyebrow rose as she sipped her drink. "Bella isn't functioning properly either. While it pains me to admit it you two obviously love each other and apparently need each other."

"Jasper wrote a letter out for me to show to Bella, basically begging me to get a hold of him about you. I showed it to Bella and she had a panic attack. I told Jasper I was out at that very moment. I'm not going to hurt her, to make her worse than she already is. I refuse to be a part of that."

Rose's face softened then and she rested her forehead on her hand.

"The fact of the matter is no matter what I say or do she is getting worse without any help from Jasper or I. You make her happy, alive, whole. That is something that isn't easily replaceable. Before I continue I have one thing I need to say."

"If you have no intention of following this through then leave right now. I'm serious. I can promise you right now that if you screw her over again, if you hurt her, you are going to have to deal with me. While I may not look intimidating I can make you hurt a hundred different ways. I'm not someone you want to fuck with, especially when I am angry."

"I can believe that," Edward whispered afraid to speak, afraid for her to leave. "I'm in, I'm all in I promise."

Rose studied him for a moment, looking into his eyes. After a moment she nodded, suddenly looking very tired.

"I believe you. She goes to the lake in the park once a week, I can't say when as it changes based on her mood; If you really want to find her, than you know what you need to do."

Edward could feel his heart pounding in his chest, ringing in his ears. His Bella needed him, still loved him. He would go to the park and wait there forever if he had to.

"Thank you," Edward whispered his eyes stinging in relief.

"Don't make me regret it." Rose replied.

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