2.

I felt nothing. I could hear sirens screaming and people chattering around me, but it was like there was water in my ears. I saw bright, flashing lights everywhere I looked. They hurt my brain so I shut my eyes to the world. I couldn't think, couldn't respond. A fireman was prying my door off, asking me questions. But I couldn't answer. I know he had caught sight of my huge belly when I heard the pause in his flow of questions.

I mumbled something, though I wasn't sure if he had heard me or not, since I could barely hear myself.

Gingerly, hands grabbed me and slowly pulled me out of my squashed car. I couldn't see very well, everything was muddled. I heard someone shout that I was pregnant and a few minutes later, "She's in labor!" Someone said something about the shock causing this.

No, no, no, I groaned. Baby, stay inside where it's safe. Please don't come out now!

The next thing I saw when I opened my eyes were lights above, flashing rhythmically. I heard people talking around me. The sensation that I was being pushed down a hallway hit me and made me want to vomit. But I couldn't move. I felt warm liquid all over my body, probably mostly blood. What had happened? I couldn't remember anything except for the horn and the bright lights.

"John?" I croaked, my throat parched. My lips were cracked and my mouth was dry. I felt a tear slip out of my eye socket. "John?"

A nurse leaned in to hear me. "Ma'am?"

"John," I said again, focusing all my strength on that one word. "Please."

"I think she wants her husband! Can someone locate a John…" She glanced down at the clipboard in her hand. "A John Freeman!"

I heard a man respond that he would call him. He would be worried! Wasn't he flying in from somewhere? I couldn't remember.

The lights stopped flashing as I reached the ICU. My mind went blank and I lost consciousness when another contraction hit me like a tidal wave. For a minute second, I felt everything in my body that was broken, cut, and bruised. Then there was only blackness.

I felt cold hands probing me, feeling my tummy. "This baby needs to come out," a sweet musical voice sang. Was that my John? "We're going to have to do a C-section, now!"

"John?" I groaned. I saw a beautiful face look down at me. "My name is Dr. Cullen, ma'am. Do you remember anything? You were in a terrible car accident."

I couldn't respond and I know the doctor saw the pain in my face as I tried to speak. "No, don't say anything. You've lost a lot of blood and that baby is desperate to come out. We're going to have to operate. I'm guessing you're already past your due date, so there's nothing to worry about." Dr. Cullen's sweet, melodic voice flowed over me.

"My baby," was all I could manage before drifting back into the darkness.

When I awoke again, it was still. I couldn't feel the weight on my spine anymore, where the baby should have been. I gasped. Who took my baby?

A cold hand pressed against my smoldering hot forehead and I though I saw an angel peer down at me. He spoke in the same melodic voice as the doctor had. "Allisa," he spoke my name softly.

My mind raced frantically. The angel called a name and another angel appeared. Suddenly, there was calm and my thoughts slowed. Am I dead?

The first angel shook his head. "You're alive." As if he could read my mind… But the calm I felt wouldn't let my mind grasp at the probability.

Where am I? Where is my baby?

"You're at the hospital in Forks." He stopped and glanced away, as if looking for the answer to my next question. Finally he looked back at me and replied, "Your baby is resting, safe." I heard a small hesitance in his voice before he said the word, 'safe'. What was that? My baby was hurt?

If the angel could hear my thoughts, he didn't respond to my last one.

John, where's my John?

As if he could read my thoughts, the sweet angel answered my question again.

"He's here but we weren't sure if you could handle seeing him. You've been through a lot."

I tried to shake my head. I want to see John. I want to see him!

The angel spoke to someone across the room and I saw a tall, dark-haired girl glide out of the room. Soon, my husband appeared. He rushed to my side and grabbed my hand, glancing up at Dr. Cullen, who had slipped in with him. "How is she? Can she hear me?"

Dr. Cullen glanced at the angel, who nodded slightly. Looking back at John, he replied, "Yes, she can hear you, but she's unable to respond. There was a lot of damage to her brain and we fear she may have lost some of her motor skills."

"She can't talk?"

"Yes, but we're not positive if it's temporary or not. We'll run more tests in the morning."

I looked at John. Everything was so confusing and muddled. I couldn't see or hear very well. John grasped my hand. "I'm right here, baby, and I'm not leaving. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have left you to go on that trip!" I was confused. What was he talking about? What had the doctor told me had happened to me? Was I in an accident? My mouth opened slightly as I tried to comfort my husband, who was openly weeping now.

But instead, the angel touched my husband's shoulder softly, as if to reassure him. Could he really read my mind or was it written plainly on my face that I wanted more than anything for my husband to not worry about me?

I closed my heavy lids and darkness enclosed me. I heard a constant bleep and felt my heart slow. This was it? What about my baby?

I heard someone yell and a jolt of electricity ran through my body and my heart reacted, coming alive again, beating furiously, as if begging me to fight and stay alive. But the darkness would not let me go. And then there was nothing but the slowing of my heart. I was dying.

This conclusion was confirmed when I heard a dim voice shout, "She's dying! I need another charge!"

I prepared myself for death. I counted the beatings of my heart, until another shock of energy went through me. My heart responded weakly this time. Time dragged by slowly and I felt like I was being moved, though I couldn't think anything past that. Then the sensation of movement was gone and silence lay upon me like a heavy blanket. Then I heard someone murmur. "Should we do it?" The voice sounded familiar. Was it the voice that belonged to the first angel that had been by my bed? The mind reader? He spoke again.

"She'll surely die in a few hours and there's nothing we can do, is there?"

"I don't know, Edward." A sigh. Edward.

"We need to save her. I have a feeling that she's special."

"Like you and Alice?"

"Gifted?" squeaked another voice.

"Yes," the first voice replied sweetly, quietly.

"Well, I suppose there is no other choice." A pause.

"I'll do it," replied Edward in a tone that said he wouldn't be budged from his decision.

"Wait," said the third voice. It sounded like it belonged to a girl. "What about her husband? The baby?"

There was a pause. Everything was dreadfully silent except for the very faint beat of my heart. "We'll have to lie; tell him that she died."

And then the third voice said very quietly, almost too quiet to hear, "Maybe one day she can tell him the truth."

"And the baby?"

Nobody replied for a while. Then I recognized the voice of Dr. Cullen. "I'm not sure if she'll survive the night."

So my baby was a girl. I couldn't think about the rest he'd said about my little girl.

"We should let her hold the baby, then!" This reply belonged to a fifth voice, also a girl. "The best memory I have of my life before is getting to hold Nessie."

I heard another sigh and a small shuffle. And then there was a warmth against my chest. My arms were moved so they crossed under the warmth, and I could feel the shape of a small body.

Oh, my baby girl!

I felt the presence of the first angel, hovering over me. "What will you name her?" he asked me sweetly.

And I responded in my head with the first name I could think, not even trying to form the words with my mouth. Lily. Lily Anne.

I heard a soft chuckle and the angel responded, "Lily Anne, then."

He could read my mind! I was so far removed from myself that the thought didn't seem ridiculous and I felt no need to question it like I would have a couple of hours ago.

And again the angel replied to my thoughts. "Yes."

The warmth was lifted off of me as my baby began to cry. I begged them not to take her away, but no one responded because no sound escaped my lips.

"Ready?", a voice asked some time later.

"Yes." I felt a cold hand against my cheek and someone whispered, "I'm so sorry, Allisa, for this."

And then there was pain, unbearable pain. It pierced the skin just inside my elbow like two sharp needles. My veins were on fire. A stab in my chest and my heart began to burn. I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out. Only in my head was I screaming bloody murder, begging someone to kill me. The most unbearable was perhaps the fact that I couldn't move, couldn't fight against the pain. It spread slowly through my veins, and with each second that passed I was more in pain than before. I kept time with the beating of my heart, which was still pounding weakly, despite the anxiety I felt from the pain. I didn't want to imagine what it would feel like when my whole body was on fire. How long would it take? When would it end? Wasn't dying supposed to be easy?

Oh God, what is happening to me?

I had never believed in God, but somehow, in the back of my mind, it was the only thing I could grasp, the only one who, if He existed, I knew could hear me. And so I screamed at the pain and I screamed at God.

When I lost count of how many times my heart had beat, I began to grow frantic. How long would this last? The pain was almost everywhere now. Every now and then I felt a heat on my skin that was a little different than the fire in my veins. It almost felt as if my body was mending itself, like the fire in my veins was healing me. I couldn't think straight, so no objection formed in my mind against this statement. Again I began to count my heartbeats, in a desperate need to cling on to something, anything, that was familiar.