A/N Hey everyone! I'm back from a very busy weekend! :) Sorry about the wait for the new chapter! Thank you to those of you who continue to read and review, favorite, or add alerts for this story! I'm still constantly amazed at your support! The story has almost 200 reviews, so I'm really hoping to get there with this chapter! Please let me know what you think! I'll try to update again by Thursday! Thanks again for everything! I love you all!
Chapter 59 – Exams
Charlie had never been so happy to see Carlisle in his life. When the ambulance pulled up into the bay and the doors opened to reveal Carlisle there and waiting for Bella, most of the tension left his body. He couldn't help the smile that pulled at his lips when he noticed Edward sitting on a stretcher in the entryway as well. It was obvious that Edward loved his daughter, but until that moment he didn't truly understand the depth of that love.
As soon as Bella's eyes met Edward's, relief filled her face. She whispered something to Edward that even Charlie didn't hear although he was right next to her. There was no way Edward could have heard her, but he smiled brightly at her. It was almost as if they were communicating without words.
After Bella was pulled from the ambulance, Carlisle directed the paramedics to wheel her into Trauma Room 2. Charlie was a little taken aback by Bella's reaction. Her peaceful, tender smile disappeared in an instant and she started to gasp for air. "No. Carlisle please!" she begged him. "I don't want to go anywhere without Edward."
His best friend was at his daughter's side in an instant, speaking to her softly. "Shh, Bella. It's okay. I know you don't want to leave Edward. Normally we wouldn't do this, but I pulled a few strings. Edward can go into the trauma room with you while we check you out. He'll be right there the whole time, I promise."
It broke Charlie's heart to see her eyes light up at his words. Bella didn't need him anymore; she hadn't needed him for a long time now but it didn't stop him from loving her. With a smile on her face, Bella looked from Carlisle to him, pausing for a second after noticing the tears streaming down his cheeks, but then looked to Edward. "You won't leave me?" she asked him in a whisper.
Feeling like he was intruding on a very private moment, Charlie silently backed out into the waiting room. He knew Bella was in good hands with Carlisle as her doctor and he had things he should probably take care of as Chief of Police anyway.
Forks Community Hospital was fairly slow considering the size of the town, so it was rather easy for Charlie to find a quiet corner in the ER waiting room. As soon as he sat himself down on the uncomfortable green chair, he pulled his cell phone out and called Sam to get an update.
Sam answered his cell phone almost immediately. "What's up, Chief?"
"Hey Sam. I'm just calling for an update. What's going on with that James kid?" Charlie secretly hoped the asshole was dead so he wouldn't hurt anyone else, especially Bella, but he would never admit it out loud.
Sam chuckled before answering him. "Well, I'll say this, Sir: You should be damn proud of your daughter. Bella really did a number on him when she wrecked the car." The scene must have been crazy still because Charlie heard Sam cover the phone and yell at someone in the background before continuing. "The fire department had to use the can opener to extricate him from the car. He's got severe injuries to his head, neck, chest, and legs. He may also have a spinal cord injury. Marcus says his outcome looks good, but they won't know for sure until the doc checks him out. There is a chance he'll be paralyzed, but he'll more than likely live. The ambulance is just pulling out now, so they should be there in less than five minutes."
Charlie took a deep breath and tried to process everything that Sam had just said. There was a chance that James would be paralyzed. If that were the case, he wouldn't be able to hurt anyone ever again. That thought brought up another concern that he had placed on the back burner until he knew Bella was in good hands. "What about the gun, Sam?"
"I've bagged and tagged it like you requested. The serial number has been filed off, so we can't trace it that way, but I'll have Jake see what he can find on it anyway. He's on his way to photograph the accident scene as we speak."
"Thanks Sam." Charlie knew he could always count on Sam to handle situations like this with little or no guidance from himself. He was hoping one day, when he was ready to retire, that Sam would be willing to step up and fill the role of Chief. "Hey, have you checked in with Heidi and the station? Lauren Mallory is there in my office. She had an issue with James earlier this morning and I told her to stay put."
"No, Sir, but I will check in with Heidi as soon as we get off the phone. Should I have Jake swing by the hospital to pick you up so you can come grab your car?"
His cruiser was the last thing on his mind when he left in the ambulance with Bella, but he knew he needed to go grab it, so he told Sam to go ahead and make the call. Wanting to check on Bella once before he headed out, he made his way back to the trauma room. None of the nurses questioned him as he walked directly into the room; after all, who wants to tell the Police Chief no?
When he walked into the room, he almost walked right back out because of what he saw. Edward was standing beside Bella, helping her take her shirt off while Carlisle stood on the other side of her bed waiting to examine her. The moment Bella's shirt was off and Edward saw what must have been bruises on her chest from the accident, he was livid. "I'm going to kill that son of a bitch," he growled as Carlisle looked up and noticed Charlie standing there.
"Excuse me for a moment," he told Bella and Edward before walking toward Charlie. When he got to him, he motioned toward the door and followed Charlie out. "I haven't had a chance to examine her yet, so I don't know the extent of her injuries. I can tell you that she's got extensive bruising on her torso from the seat belt though."
Charlie smiled and patted his friend on his shoulder. "It's alright, Carlisle. I just stopped in to tell Bella that I'm heading out to go get my car. I left it at the scene to ride in the ambulance with her." He took a deep breath and then spoke again. "The other ambulance is on its way back here with James. Apparently he's pretty beat up, but he's alive. I wanted to give you the heads up so you can keep Edward away from him. As much as I'd like to kill the bastard myself, I know we can't harm him. Maybe you can have Dr. Gerandy care for him so you can finish with Bella?" He knew it was a lot to ask, but he also knew that to Carlisle, family was everything, and Bella was a part of that family now, even if it wasn't official quite yet.
Carlisle smiled. "Of course, Charlie. Irina?" he shouted to a nurse. When she looked up he told her to have Dr. Gerandy take the incoming ambulance patient to Trauma Room One. Irina quickly picked up the phone and dialed some numbers. When she hung up the receiver, she looked back to Carlisle.
"He's doing rounds so I paged him. As soon as he calls back, I'll let him know. Is there anything else you need, Dr. Cullen?" she asked with a kind smile.
"No. Thank you Irina." He turned back to Charlie. "I need to get back in there and examine Bella. With the extent of her bruising, I need to make sure there isn't any internal bleeding." Charlie tensed up at Carlisle's words, knowing that internal bleeding was serious. "She'll be fine Charlie. I promise I'll do everything I can, okay?"
With a quick wave, Carlisle disappeared into the trauma room again and Charlie turned toward the exit to wait for Jake.
…..
Edward made an excellent point about Carlisle being the best and Bella couldn't doubt his conviction in the statement. She was still a little nervous about having her father-in-law examine her but she knew it would make Edward so much more comfortable if she let him. With a heavy sigh, Bella squeezed Edward's hand.
"I think you're right, handsome. Your father is the best, and if it will give you peace of mind, I'll let him examine me." She smiled at him but decided to add one stipulation. "You just have to promise me that you'll hold my hand the whole time, otherwise it's a no-go. Okay?"
His answering smile was full of love. "You got it, gorgeous." He turned to look at his dad and as he squeezed Bella's hand, he said, "We're ready dad, what does she need to do?"
Carlisle stepped back up to the bed with a reassuring smile. "Okay, Bella. I'm going to need you to take your shirt off so I can see what the impact did to you."
Bella only hesitated for a second before trying to lift her shirt over her head. She was still so sore that she couldn't even get it up to her shoulders, so Edward quickly stepped in to help. Once the shirt was off, she heard Edward suck in a breath through his teeth. "I'm going to kill that son of a bitch," he growled causing Bella to look down at her chest.
Starting at her shoulder and going between her breasts, down across her ribcage, was an ugly blue, black, and purple bruise from the seatbelt. She had no doubt that it had saved her life, but it still hurt like hell doing so.
"Excuse me for a moment," Carlisle told them before heading toward the entrance of the trauma room. Bella's eyes followed him as he approached her dad, meeting his eyes for a split second before Carlisle gestured for him to lead the way out.
As soon as the door swung shut, Edward spoke up. "Oh, my beautiful Bella, I'm so sorry this happened to you. I promised you I'd never let you get hurt and now look at you." Reverently, he brought his hand up and gently ran it from the start of the bruise to the end; sadness and regret were the emotions showing clearly on his face.
"Babe," she tried to get him to look at her, but he refused to meet her eyes. He just kept staring at the bruise, tracing it with his fingers. "Edward Anthony Mason Cullen, you look at me right now, dammit!" She knew that would get his attention and it did.
When his eyes snapped up to hers, he flinched. She was pissed that he was blaming himself and she let it show on her face. "This," she said gesturing to her torso, "is not your fault. James is a sick fucker who had some sort of weird obsession with me. He would have gotten to me whether you were there or not." He started to protest and interrupt her, but she held up a hand to stop him. "Don't you dare, I'm not finished."
She grabbed his hand and placed it over her left breast. "Do you feel that, Edward?" She watched him expectantly, and when he nodded, she continued. "That, my heart, beats for you. It's the only thing you're expected to keep safe. You can try to keep me safe all you want, but the truth is, if something is meant to happen to me it will, whether you're there or not."
Edward was staring at his hand, which was still placed over her heart, but she wanted him to look at her. Slowly, she brought her hand up to his chin and tilted his head up. "Edward, you are the love of my life, my constant, my always. Nothing will change that. Thank you for wanting to protect me, but you need to stop beating yourself up because you think you failed." She sat up a little more on the stretcher ignoring the pain it caused her, and pressed her lips softly to his.
"The truth is that you did save me Edward. It was you that I was thinking about the whole time, you who I knew I needed to be strong for. You're the reason I wrecked the car. Sure, my dad may have given me the idea, but I did it for you." Her lips met his again, this time more forcefully than before. She brought her arms up to his shoulders as he encased her waist, pulling her closer into him. "I love you Edward Cullen," she whispered after breaking the kiss.
He smiled at her before whispering, "I love you, too, my beautiful Bella; my forever."
Seconds later, Carlisle came back into the room and shared a look with Edward before turning to her. "Alright, I'm sorry about that Bella. Your father asked me to tell you he was going back to get his cruiser. He shouldn't be gone too long. Are you ready for me to take a look at you? I'm worried about internal bleeding and really don't want to put this exam off much longer."
She felt Edward's hand grasp hers and he gave it a squeeze, silently encouraging her. "I'm ready," she told Carlisle. For the next ten minutes, Carlisle poked and prodded gently at Bella's torso. Every time she winced through the pain, Edward's grip on her hand would tighten, silently reminding her that he was right beside her like he promised.
Carlisle sighed deeply before telling Bella she could put her shirt back on. Edward, or course, helped her with the task because she was still having difficulties lifting her hands above her head.
"Well Bella, it looks like you've cracked a three of your ribs, maybe four, but there doesn't appear to be any internal bleeding. I need to get an x-ray of your chest to make sure there are no splinters from your ribs floating around. We don't want anything puncturing a lung, do we?"
Bella shook her head and then looked towards Edward. "That would be just my luck," she said with a smile on her face. "If everything on the x-ray is okay, can I go home?" She looked back at Carlisle with hopeful eyes.
"Well sweetheart, I need to get Edward in for an MRI of his head too, but as long as both tests come back clean, you both can go." He must have seen the way she lit up with excitement because he was quick to add a stipulation. "There is one condition, though."
"Anything," she answered with conviction.
Carlisle smiled at them both. "You have to promise me that you'll come back here immediately if the pain changes or increases even slightly. I would tell you to take it easy today, but somehow I know my words would just be wasted. After all, you've got some pretty important stuff to take care of today, or so I hear."
"Really?" Bella couldn't help the surprise that clearly came out in her voice. "I didn't know if we'd be able to go though with the ceremony tomorrow. I was afraid we were going to have to stay here tonight."
Chuckling, Carlisle spoke again, "Well, like I said, as long as the test results are normal for your x-ray and Edward's MRI, I see no reason to keep you here over night. Besides," he said glancing at his son, "I don't think Edward would let me keep you here even if I wanted to."
Bella looked toward Edward and realized by the sheepish grin on his face that Carlisle was right. Edward would do anything he could to make sure Bella didn't have to spend the night in the hospital and for that, she was truly grateful.
"How long will the tests take, Carlisle?" she asked. She was more anxious than ever to get home and get ready to head to Port Angeles. It looked like the wedding was still on, even after the events of the morning, and she couldn't be happier.
Carlisle laughed openly. "Anxious, are we?" he asked her while smiling at her with so much kindness on his face. She nodded. "Well, the x-ray should only take about five minutes or so. Edward's MRI is going to take a little longer. He'll probably be in there for about twenty minutes." He took a deep breath as he thought for a minute. "Bella, you know you can't go with Edward when he has the MRI, right? And he can't come with you either? I'm sorry, I would let you if I could, but the radiation and risks are too much."
It was Bella's turn to sigh. "I know, Carlisle. Its okay." She took another breath and squeezed Edward's hand again. "I'm okay now, I promise."
Carlisle looked relieved and jotted some notes in her chart. "Alright then. Bella, I'll send a nurse in for you first. Edward can wait right outside while the pictures are taken, but then they're going to need to take him for his tests. Do either of you have any questions before I leave?"
Bella looked at Edward who just shrugged. "No, I think I'm good, but thank you," she told Carlisle.
"Um, Bella?" Edward asked a little tentatively. "Do you mind if I step outside to talk to my dad for a minute?"
She knew he wouldn't leave her if she asked him to stay, but the way he looked at her when he asked told her he really wanted to talk to his father alone. "Of course I don't mind," she told him. She wasn't sure how convincing she was though.
Apparently she wasn't very convincing at all, because his face filled with doubt. "Baby, are you sure? I can wait if you don't want me to leave," he whispered.
Reaching as deep into herself as she could, she pulled out her bravest face before opening her mouth again. "Don't be ridiculous, Edward. Of course I'm sure. Go talk to your dad and I'll wait for you right here," she told him, adding a wink for good measure.
To her relief, Edward chuckled as he turned toward his dad. "Dad?" Without another word, both men left her alone in the trauma room with her thoughts.