Chapter 6

BPOV

The sky was overcast; dark with even darker clouds that churned and roiled like slow-motion ocean waves. Though it wasn't raining at present, it had rained most of the night, and when the temperatures had plummeted to below freezing, the rain had turned into sleet and a thick layer of ice now coated the ground. Needless to say I was miserable as Edward opened the door and climbed out of the backseat of Carlisle's giant truck and the frigid wind stung every bit of me it that it touched. He turned and helped me down first, making sure I wouldn't slip on the ice, and then Alice.

I was bundled up in a way I'd never had to bother with before, having lived in either Arizona or Florida for most of my life. Esme, having pointed out that I couldn't wear my usual skirt ensembles unless I particularly enjoyed freezing and suffering, had loaned me a pair of high-waisted corduroy pants and knee high leather boots, as well as a long wool coat that cinched at the waist, covering me down to my shins, a matching hat and an extra glove and scarf set of Alice's.

I could see what Esme meant now, about dressing to fit my body. I was still covered, neck to toe, and nothing was skin tight, but I felt cute today, and appreciated the bolstering that it gave me, especially since Edward had let me know, in no uncertain terms, before he kissed me silly after breakfast this morning, that he had no intention of hiding us, or letting me hide from him.

Esme rolled down the passenger side window and grinned at us from behind smart black cat eye glasses. With a finger, she motioned me closer, and then gave my hat a jaunty tilt forward and to one side and kissed my cheek. "You look very nice Bella. Have a good day, my babies, and keep your phones on. I'm on my way to the shop for a couple hours, but if the weather starts back up, we'll come and pick you up early."

She and Carlisle were on their way to pick up Edward's car, preferring that he not drive when the weather was particularly hellish, and then Carlisle was dropping Esme off at work in Port Angeles…at the tattoo studio. Turns out Esme was a pretty sought after artist, who had done the 'partial sleeve' that Edward had. I hadn't studied it too much, but I did notice that the art work was beautiful. And now I kind of wanted one, but I don't know how I felt about all the pain that comes along with it.

With one last goodbye, we all three turned towards the school building, me with no small amount of…something or another rolling around in my stomach. Edward held my left hand and Alice wrapped her arm around my waist from my right, giving me a squeeze. She seemed to know, as what was her usual way, I was discovering, that I was feeling more anxious today than I did on my actual first day. I anchored her to me with my arm around her shoulder and smiled gratefully, then with a Cullen on either side of me, we headed inside.

"Maybe try not to look like a hostage, Bella." Edward teased. "It'll be okay."

And it was, all in all. There were whispers, of course, when Edward walked Alice and I to our first class and deposited us at the doorway with a shifting of Alice's hat on her head and a kiss to my cheek. Alice assured me that this was inevitable though.

The classroom was arranged in a "partner" set up, and we chose a set of two desks in the back that were pushed together, side by side. "It's Forks." She told me as I removed first the scarf and gloves, and then Esme's beautiful coat. "Nobody has shit better to do."

I tucked the scarf and gloves into the coat's pockets and draped it over the back of my seat. I left the hat on, since the way it sat provided a partial barrier between me and everyone else, and I didn't look too out of place since almost half of the other students had left their hats, and some even their gloves, on. "They're just jealous. Most of these heifers have been after my brother for years, and this is technically your second day, and you're already dating."

"Heifers, Alice? Really?" And then I startled. "Has it really only been a day?"

"And one weekend." She agreed, rather smugly. "We Cullens know who and what we like. And yes. Heifers. Like that one. Mooooo!" she added under her breath when Jessica Stanley stomped by us to flounce in her seat, giving us both a nasty look.

We fell into each other giggling, and completely unperturbed by her ire, which only seemed to irritate her more.

So far, my day followed much along the same vein. I laughed and joked with Alice in the classes that I had with her, and flirted with Edward in the class I had with him. Or rather, he flirted with me and I still blushed. Lunch had also been uneventful, other than the few moments after sitting when Edward, having arrived a few minutes after everyone else, pulled a chair up close next to me, and kissed me briefly on the lips. Rosalie and Jasper stared, wide eyed.

Alice was the one to shrug it off. "They started dating over the weekend."

It was silent for another beat, and then Jasper grinned at us. "Moved in rather quickly there, didn't you Edward?"

Alice raised an eyebrow at him and drawled with a flirtatious grin, "We Cullens go after what she want." Jasper flushed, and I looked to Edward to see what he thought of it, but for someone usually so observant, he didn't seem to catch on.

"Must have been one hell of a tiramisu!" Rose grinned.

After so decent a day, I was dreading heading to gym. Not only was it freezing cold and the gym was drafty, but I would have to deal with Jessica Stanley without the buffer of either of the Cullen twins to temper her nasty behavior.

With fingers loosely crossed, I headed into the locker room to change. Instead of focusing on the other girls, I thought instead about the video that had cued up last night when Edward had showed me his YouTube page. He didn't try to protest or wrestle the phone away from me, though he did mutter an "Ah, fuck."

He just looked on in silence as Alice leaned over my shoulder and we watched him gush about "the new girl" and how gorgeous she was and how mind blowing her tiramisu was, how she was supposed to be spending the night with his sister, and how he'd done something to upset her in class, so how could he make up for being an epic fuck wad, at which point, in the video, I had knocked on his door and he'd paused his ranting to yell "Go away Alice!". You could faintly hear my voice then, though not what I'd said, and the shot had ended with a whispered "FUCK! She's here!" and a whole lot of rustling noises as he leapt off the couch to go let me in.

I turned to him after the video ended, beaming like a huge dork, but I couldn't help it. Over 11,700 views, the little counter underneath had read. His most popular video, he'd told me. He'd never had so many views in one day. Almost 12,000 times, people had watched him gush and fret over his crush on me. ME! Not Jessica Stanley, or Lauren or Rosalie or anybody else. But me, Isabella, in my armor of shapeless skirts and huge glasses. I really didn't have the words to describe how that had made me feel. I wasn't used to being chosen, or crushed on, or found attractive. "Gorgeous", he had called me, sincerely, and put it out there on the internet for the world to see, with no ulterior motives. He hadn't told me about his YouTube channel, Alice had. And he hadn't offered to show it to me either; I'd asked.

The feeling I got was heady. Even thinking about it now distracted me enough that it took me some time to realize I was standing there in my pants and bra with my sweater hanging around my neck and gym t-shirt in one hand.

"Look at her," Jessica's nasally voice sneered from behind me. I can't believe he's fucking her. Fucking whore can't even get dressed she's so busy thinking about it." I looked over my shoulder to see Jessica and Lauren dressed in bright neon athletic pants and matching tank tops that clung to them way too tightly. Not overboard for a high school P.E. class at all. Rolling my eyes, I turned back to my locker, determined to pretend they weren't crowding me, wearing colors so bright that they hurt my eyes.

"Don't ignore me, fucking slut!" My locker had still been open, so when the harsh shove came at my back, my forehead slammed into the corner and I felt the sting of it, heard the crack of my glasses breaking, and then felt the deep ache, echoing towards the back of my head where I still had a knot from Garrett slamming my head into the concrete floor.

I staggered back around, glaring at Jessica. Lauren backed away and gasped, turning to stare at her friend in horror. I put my hand up to feel the damage and my fingers came away wet. I looked then, knowing, as well as I knew my own name that I should have just pressed my shirt to my head and went to the nurse's office. But I didn't. I'd pulled my fingers away and looked. "Damn it." Even without my glasses, it was unmistakable. Blood.

The last thing I heard was a scream, another thud, and then silence.

EPOV

Screaming. The girls were in their locker room screaming like a bunch of idiots and the soccer class (we didn't have enough decent people to be a 'team' this year) could hear it all the way on the far side of the gym. Since it was so fucking cold and shitty out, Coach let us play indoor today, so the gym was going to be divided into two. Indoor soccer drills on one half, P.E. class on the other. And I'm not even going to pretend like I wasn't looking forward to catching glimpses of Bella in her gym shorts. But then girls started that stupid fucking shrieking.

"EVERYBODY OUT!" I heard the P.E. teacher bellow, and then the gym was flooded with hysterical girls. All except for mine.

What. The. Fuck.

I stalked towards that end of the gym and grabbed the first person I laid eyes on: Lauren, who paled when she saw me. "What happened?"

"Um, Uh." She stuttered. "B-Bella, she fainted and hit-"

I was in the locker room before I even realized Lauren had still been talking. I smelled the metallic smell that I was praying wasn't what I thought it was before I rounded the corner and saw it. Blood on the open locker door, blood on the wooden bench, and blood on the floor. Bella lay crumpled, a towel covering her torso lengthwise, like a sheet covering a fucking corpse and more blood covering the entirety of one side of her face.

"Jesus Christ." I whispered, horrified. "Bella!"

I knelt down next to her, hands hovering, afraid to touch her anywhere. Then I noticed fucking Jessica Stanley sitting on another bench, Coach Clapp behind her, one hand firmly holding her in place by the shoulder, the other holding a phone up to his ear.

"You hateful bitch!" I roared at her. "What the fuck did you do?"

She had tears in her eyes and she was shaking. Good, she should be scared because I was going to fucking kill her. Clapp gave me a good hard frown before I could even move to get to my feet. "Settle down Cullen, and you let the principle deal with her. An ambulance is on it's way."

"The principle?" I snorted derisively. "She's Chief Swan's daughter. You're going to have to deal with the police."

Jessica burst into pitiful sobs then, but I didn't give a fuck. "Stupid bitch." I growled under my breath.

"Cullen, I said that's enough!"

Yeah, well Coach Clapp could go fuck himself too. I ignored them both and leaned over Bella, clutching her hand to mine. She was breathing, I knew that, and could see and hear it, but the panic that was overtaking me wasn't soothed by that. "Bella," I touched the unbloodied side of her face. "Bella, Baby wake up. Wake up, please?"

Nothing, no stirring. Not a single twitch.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. This was all my fault. This was all my fucking fault.

I could hear the sirens now, and it was only a minute later when paramedics came into the locker room and one quickly hooked Bella up to all kinds of shit while the second flashed a light into her eyes, and then eased her into a neck brace. "What happened?" The third one, a female this time, asked. She counted to three then, and they turned Bella onto her side while the first guy slid a backboard under her and they lowered her back down.

"Got pushed into a locker." Coach Clapp answered. "Cut her forehead, and when she saw the blood she passed out and hit her head on the bench on the way down."

I sent Jessica the most hate filled look I could muster, willing her to just fucking die on the spot. Bella was raised onto a stretcher and I immediately followed as they wheeled her out of the locker room and out of the doors that led to outside, where the ambulance sat, lights flashing. Damn if the whole fucking school wasn't watching, nosy fuckers.

"Edward? EDWARD?!" My sister came running out of the crowd looking as fucking horrified as I felt. "What happened?"

I pulled Alice along with me as I kept time with the stretcher. "Jessica pushed her and she hit her head. Listen Alice, I need you to call Mom, Dad and Charlie and tell them that Bella is unconscious and I'm going to the Hospital with her. My phone is in my locker in my street clothes, I don't have time to-"

She shoved hers in my hand. "Here, take mine, you need a phone. The passcode is 0-4-1-7. I'll get your stuff, just go."

I kissed my sister on the top of her head while the paramedics boosted Bella into the back of the ambulance. "I'll keep you posted. You remember my locker combination?" She nodded. "Okay. Stay with Jasper until Mom and Dad come get you."

Riding in the back of an ambulance was the most nerve wrecking thing I have ever experienced. I'd done it before, when Alice had had her last seizure, the one where they found the tumor, but the familiarity didn't make it any easier to tolerate this time around.

I sat off to the side, clutching Bella's hand and trying my best to stay out of the way, all the while dreaming up ways to make Jessica Stanley's life a living hell for the rest of her days. I'm sure Charlie wouldn't mind covering it up if I wrung her scrawny neck.

Alice's chirpy bird whistle alert sounded in my pocket and I pulled her phone out to see a text from "Big Brother". Even though we didn't know who was technically older, Alice insisted that it was probably me because I was over protective as all Hell. I'm pretty sure it stemmed more so from the fact that she'd been though a lot of bullshit. We all had, but Alice had suffered more lasting physical effects than Emmett and I, and I tried my best to keep her from going through anymore if at all possible.

Big Brother

Can't get a hold of Charlie, he's away from his radio. Daddy is on his way.

God, I loved Carlisle. One of the best things about having a father who was a mad scientist level computer genius who worked from home? He always came running the instant we needed him. He had been in medical school when he and Ma adopted us, and he'd dropped out the very first time he couldn't reschedule a clinical thing around one of Alice's doctor appointments.

Emmett was still in his acting out phase, and I still hadn't spoken yet, and when Dad thought about how trying to become a doctor could make him unavailable to us, he quit, Johnny-On-The-Spot. The computer thing was a hobby, one he was insanely good at, so he wasn't ever challenged, hence Med School. But once he dropped out, he became a software developer full time, and worked from home so he'd never have to miss anything else, like his own father had.

"Ooooooow," Bella didn't open her eyes, but moaned low as one of the paramedics started an IV in her forearm.

"Bella?" I was closer to her in an instant. "Bella, can you hear me? Open your eyes, Baby."

"Eh-…. Eh-ward?" She groaned.

"Yes! Yes, I'm here."

"Wha?" Her arms flailed a little as she tried to grab onto me. "Where?"

I grabbed her free hand, kissing the back of it. "We're an ambulance. You can't move your arms, okay? They have to get your IV going."

"Hurts. Head hurts."

"I know baby, just wait until he finishes getting a line in." I looked over at the paramedic who was taping down the end of said line. "You can give her something, right?"

He nodded, moving quickly and already drawing something out of a clear vial. "Not much, we need her to stay awake, but we can make her more comfortable. Bella? Do you feel nauseated at all?"

"Yes." She hissed, gulping. "Too loud."

"I'm sorry Bella," he lowered his voice. "I'm giving you some Zofran too, okay? It'll help with the nausea."

She just whimpered, clutching my hand so tightly her nails were digging in. I could tell we were nearing the hospital, because we were slowing down when she asked. "Ed…ward? What?"

"You were pushed, do you remember?"

She didn't say anything else, but I figured her head probably hurt too bad. I leaned closer, about to kiss her hand again, when:

"Moooo." She answered in a low moan. Did she just-

"What the fuck?"

"Heifer." She answered.

I stared at her, and then at the paramedics. "Dude?" I asked the female one. "Why is she talking like that?" I lost a couple of octaves, but she was scaring the shit out of me.

"Almost certain she has a concussion." The woman answered. "It can cause delayed responses and an overall disruption or difficulty with mental functions." She took her pen light again, and pried Bella's lids open, flashing the light in one eye and then the other. "Her pupils are reacting normally, so try not to worry just yet. They'll get a CT of her head to make sure everything looks the way it's supposed to."

"Don't worry?" I fought hard to get my octaves back and to not panic. "My girlfriend was unconscious, and she just woke up and fucking mooed at me!" Way to stay calm there, Ace.

"Hey, kid." The male paramedic, whose shirt, I finally noticed, had "James" embroidered on it, reached over Bella and clasped me on the shoulder. "I know it can be scary, but it's not outside of the realm of a normal reaction when someone gets a good knock in the head. We've seen some people react way worse, and be perfectly fine later. Head knocks can do weird things. Don't borrow trouble."

The female, whose shirt read 'Vickie', nodded in agreement and examined the screen on the monitor Bella was hooked to. "Just have to wait it out. So far her vitals look good, so I'm willing to bet it's just a temporary reaction caused by the concussion."

Then the doors opened, and there was a flurry of movement once more. Vickie and James jumped up immediately, getting the stretcher unlocked and quickly lowering it out of the truck and into the crowd of doctors and nurses that were waiting and rattling off her vitals signs and symptoms.

I moved to follow them as they wheeled her into the hospital, but a hand clasped my shoulder.

"Dad!"

"Let them get her settled Edward, they're probably taking her straight in for a scan. Here." He held my overnight bag in his hand. "Alice said you were covered in blood. Go get changed, and then you can sit with Bella."

I looked down, noticing for the first time the wet, dark red stains all over my sneakers and saturating my sweatpants, from knees to ankles, as well as on on my t-shirt.

"Fucking Christ." I whispered.

Dad took one look at my face and grabbed me under my arm, hauling me over to the trash can, not a second too soon, before I hurled up everything in my stomach. I kept coughing and vomiting until I wasn't sure I had even stomach acid left to purge. "God." I groaned.

"Easy there, Son."

Dad hadn't let me throw my ruined clothes away, just in case Charlie needed to see them. We sat in an ER room with no bed in it now, waiting for Bella to be wheeled back in from her head scans and I told him everything that was going on.

He adjusted his glasses, and angry tick of his, and his frown was pretty legit. "The Stanleys have always been entitled assholes, their kids included, but to put her hands on Bella like that was inexcusable, I don't care how many computers her father bought for the library. Not that those ancient adding machines can even be called decent computers anymore." He added the last part in a grumble.

"Oh Look, there's that handsome man of yours." It darkened in the room as a dark skinned male nurse with his long gray hair pulled up into a bun on the top of his head pulled Bella's bed inside with one hand and used the other to flip the light switch on the wall. "I told you he'd be here!"

Bella looked at us, wild eyed, and struggled to get and arms out of her blankets. I grasped her hand and frowned at how pale she looked. "Hi Baby." I whispered, trying to stay out of her nurse's way. The man was like an eight handed Octopus hybrid as he efficiently hooked Bella up to the heart monitor, switched her other monitors from the portable machine hanging off the bed to the one on the wall behind her, set a bag of fluids running into her IV, and tucked her in. Then he reached behind her and raised the head of her bed into a seated position and patted her shoulder.

Then he turned to Carlisle, "Okay Dad, results from the scan shouldn't take too long, but our girl here had a bit of a panic attack when she went through the machine, so we had to give her some Lorazepam, or Ativan to calm her down. She's still having a hard time stringing together her thoughts, and at this point that's indicative of a pretty good concussion. The medication we gave her isn't going to make it any easier, so don't be alarmed if she isn't 'talking right' yet."

"Now," He addressed Bella, this time. "No more panics for you, okay hun? I'll get the doc to come look at you so we can get you some more nausea medication, but I really don't want to have to give you anymore Ativan because we want you to stay awake for a bit."

"Sorry…vomit." She whispered, wincing. He just patted her again. "No worries sweetie. Part of being a nurse as long as I have is learning how to dodge." He leaned backwards dramatically, pinwheeling his arms in slow motion like he was in the Matrix.

Bella gave him a small smile, and with one last fiddle to her IV line, he excused himself. "How are you feeling Bella?" Carlisle moved his chair to the other side of her after pulling mine closer for me, so that I could sit.

"Hurt worse." She whispered. "Panicked in small tube."

"The scanner? Are you Claustrophobic?"

"Yes. Locked me in closets?"

"Your mother?"

"Yes."

Dad was used to foster kids from all kinds of situations and had long since perfected having a calm face, no matter what they said or did. I definitely didn't, and had to turn away, my jaw tight.

Alice's bird whistle text alert went off again. Mom and Alice were on their way.

"Why phone?" Bella asked, shifting uncomfortably.

"I left mine in my locker, so Alice and I switched." I motioned for her to lean forward a bit, and pulled her hair tie out, releasing her hair from it's low bun so she could rest flat against the bed. "Better?"

"Yes. Thanks."

"Isabella? Hi, I'm Dr. Revis."

Fucking finally. We all turned to watch a female with a face full of makeup and her red hair pinned up in some kind of fancy updo slide the door open and slip into Bella's room. I shit you not, her name tag had rhinestones on it. Resident. And a brand new one at that, I guessed, eyeing how not-sleep deprived she looked. Intern maybe?

"Bella, better." Bella moaned as the woman turned on the lights. The woman eyed Bella skeptically, and flipped through the chart in her hand. "All better, huh? Well, I don't know about that. What brings you to the ER today?"

Also, I noted to myself. A fucking idiot.

"She's telling you to call her 'Bella'." My father corrected, frowning.

"Hm. Does she usually have trouble making herself understood? Is your daughter cognitively impaired sir? Or mentally deficient in any way?"

Mentally deficient? The fuck kind of shit is that for a doctor to say? "I don't see Autism or anything else listed in her history that should explain why she's speaking at the level of a small child. Will she be able to understand any health questions I ask her, or should I have one of the nurses bring the anatomy picture book that we use with children, so they can point to what hurts?"

The woman still didn't look up from her clipboard, searching for God knows what. Shouldn't she have looked at that fucking thing before she came in here? And I didn't care for her stuck up ass tone either.

Carlisle and I both glared at her, and I tried really hard to be a good boy and not inform her what a fucking twit she was… For about two seconds, until Bella squeezed my hand tightly and her face paled further. "Lights. Pills." She groaned. "Hurts."

"She under-fucking-stands you fucking fine." I snapped. "She's only having a hard time speaking because of the head injury. The one we're here for, that you probably could see if you deign to fucking look at her. And do we really need that light on? It's hurting her head."

"Well, I need to be able to see what-" she was halfway through waving her hand in an imperious gesture when she glanced up and froze. Great. Now she was making moony eyes at my dad.

"Lights. Pills. Please." Bella whimpered. "Vomit."

I got up and turned the turned the lights off. Fuck this. My father compromised by cracking open the curtain behind him enough to let a sliver off light through. "Surely that's enough?" He asked her. "She's photosensitive right now and it's making her nauseated."

I sat down on the edge of Bella's bed as Dr. Revis flashed my dad a brilliant smile, her entire attitude changed, though I'm not sure which version of her was worse. "Of course, Mr…." She held out her hand for my dad to shake, only it was turned knuckle-upwards instead of sideways, like she expected him to kiss it? For fuck's sake.

"Cullen." Dad gave her hand a firm shake, his frown deepening.

Bella tugged on my hand. "Please!" she insisted, starting to gag. "Vomit."

I didn't see any kind of bucket or bin, so there wasn't much I could do but hold her up while she dry heaved until she threw up bile over the side of the bed. Dr. Dumbass just sat there, looking grossed out as she backed up, like she was gonna get splashed. That's why you wear scrubs, not skirts and heels, dipshit.

Dad wet a bunch of paper towels and handed me half, lifting Bella's hair to lay the others at the back of her neck. I tried to wipe her face down, help ease the nausea some, but she had her face pressed tight to my shoulder, sobbing and whimpering, one hand tangled in my shirt, the other clutching at her head.

"Hurts." She cried. "Hurts."

I was about to lose it. I was about to completely lose my shit, this was getting fucking ridiculous. I opened my mouth to let fucking loose when Alice and Mom walked in carrying a couple of huge brown shopping bags.

Thank God.

"What's going on in here?" Esme demanded in her tone that said Somebody-Fucked-Up-and-You'd-Better-Pray-It-Wasn't-You. In a split second she took in the doctor standing way too close to Carlisle and way too far away from Bella, who was curled into me crying in pain. She took in my face, which, I'm sure, showed that I was fucking furious and asked "Edward?"

"She's been asking for pain and nausea meds this whole time." I growled. "Do something, Ma please!"

Alice and Dad both flinched, because they knew I did. Esme could resist calmly if Emmett or even Alice begged because they often did it, but not me. I rarely ever pleaded with either of my parents for help with anything, and when I did, Esme went full on Mama Grizzly.

She turned on Dr. Revis and I swear to God, I think she even growled. Fucking right, get her Ma. The woman had the good sense to look nervous, as Mom whipped her coat off and tossed it into my empty chair. Though Emmett sometimes teased her that she looked like a punk rock Lucy Ricardo, Esme Cullen's short ass was imposing as fuck when she got pissed off. And now she was pissed off.

She grabbed the good doctor's hand and pulled her out of the room. While we waited for the fireworks, Alice danced around the mess on the floor and hopped into the bed with Bella, cuddling up to her side with a whimper of her own. Alice hated hospitals, and she especially hated to see any of us in one.

Mom came back dragging Dr. Gerandy and Dr. Revis both, the former looking completely bewildered. "You want to repeat what you just said to me?" She demanded.

"I, uh-"

"Don't bother. You said 'I'm sure Dr. Revis has it well in hand, Mrs. Cullen.' Does that look like 'Well in hand' to you? They have been here for how long?"

"Just over an hour," Dad supplied helpfully, glancing at his smartwatch. I think he liked watching Mom hand somebody their ass as long as it wasn't him.

"An hour!" Mom hissed. "In one hour, she has complained of pain and nausea how many times, Edward?"

"Three times at least."

"And how many times has she been medicated?" She snatched the chart from Dr. Revis's hand, flipped a page and shoved it back at her chest. "That's the physician order and medication administration page, in case you were wondering. It's blank. Perhaps you've been busy. Busy doing what, however, is another matter entirely, because I happened to notice on my way in here to see Chief Swan's only daughter that the Emergency Department is otherwise empty! Oh, yes, that's right, you were draped all over my husband! Has this become acceptable behavior in the ED since I was a nurse here? Letting patients suffer so we can make eyes at the family members?"

Old Dr. Gerandy was as pale as paper beneath his Colonel Sanders 'stache. "Now Esme-"

"Don't 'Now Esme' me! If this is what this hospital is going to teach its residents and interns, perhaps my husband will pull the funding that helped this piss-ant hospital achieve magnet status so you could have your pitiful residents in the first place, hmm?"

Dr. Gerandy placed both of his hands up in a placating gesture. "Let's not be hasty. How can we make this right?"

"How can you- You've got to be kidding me. Medicate her, you idiot. Medicate her now!"

"Of course, of course. Right away." He hightailed it out of there, pulling his idiot savant of a student with him. Mom gave Carlisle a long suffering look and opened her mouth to say something, but Bella's nurse, the guy from before came back into the room, syringe in hand.

"That was quick." Carlisle remarked dryly. The nurse gave him a look, much like the one mom had. "I've been carrying it around in my pocket, I just needed someone to write me an order." He whipped on a pair of gloves and tossed a couple of towels down over the sick on the floor and stepped right on top of it.

"Do you want to lay down sweetie?" He asked, squatting so he could look Bella in the face. She didn't take her head out of my shoulder, didn't turn to look at him. "No." She sobbed. "It hurts too bad. Dizzy. Nauseated."

"Ah, BUT, dear girl," he said happily, twisting the needleless syringe onto one of the hubs on her IV line. "Your words are coming back. A very good sign. And don't you worry, this lovely little cocktail will fix all of that right up. It might make you drowsy though, but at this point, I'm sure your aches so badly that any relief is going to knock you out."

"I thought you didn't want her to sleep." I said in a low voice, watching him slowly push the medication in while I rubbed her back and shoulders. "Originally, no. But her CTs came back clear, no swelling, no bleeding, so Doc feels safe enough letting her rest."

"Her bandages are almost completely bled through." Alice pointed out from my other side. I looked down, but couldn't see anything from this angle for all of Bella's hair.

"She'll be getting stitches." Dr. Gerandy stated, poking his head in and giving mom a weary look. She raised an eye brow. The infamous Bitch Brow that made me want to learn as a kid. "Sutures that will NOT be put in by one of your residents, correct?"

Gerandy did a pretty good bobble head impression. "Of course, of course. I'll do them myself, we'll just give the girl time for her medicine to kick in first."

It appeared to already be doing its job, judging by the loosening of Bella's grip on my shirt. Finally, she released it entirely, patting the nurse's hand when he finished with her medication and went to pull away. "Thank you." She whispered. "Thank you."

"All in a day's work for Super Nurse." He teased. "That medication is going to hit you hard, let's get you back in the bed, hmm?" He reached for her but she shook her head again. "Not yet. Edward help later?"

"Of course." If she wanted to sit here cuddled with me after the day she's had, she would get what she wanted. Her nurse shrugged indifferently, and then bent to use the towels he was standing on to wipe up the mess on the floor. He took them out of the room, returned with some strong smelling antiseptic wipes to go over the spot, and then disappeared again.

BPOV

I woke up feeling very…punch drunk? My head was woozy and so was my stomach.

"Hey Sleeping Beauty. How's the head?"

I turned my head to see the fuzzy outline of my dad in a chair in the corner of the darkened room. What was I still doing in a hospital room. "What happened? What time is it? Why didn't I go home?"

He chuckled. "Esme raised a bit of Hell about making sure you were monitored for the night. It's just precautionary. How's your head?" he asked again.

It was a little tender feeling, but nothing like before. "Just sore all over. It's tolerable."

"You weren't here earlier. Was everything okay?"

He winced. Or at least it looked like a wince. Hard to tell without my glasses. "I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner. I was helping get Mrs. Cope's car out of a ditch. Why she drives that tiny thing in this insane weather, I don't know. By the time we got it out and I made it back to my car I had missed calls from the school, Carlisle, and Esme, and the station was trying to get a hold of me.

"I went up to the school first, and raised the kind of Hell that damned principle will have nightmares about. We've gotten so many complaints about that Stanley girl through that school and nothing's ever been done about it. That shit stops today." He glanced at his wristwatch. "Well, yesterday technically."

"What happened?"

"I pressed charges. Let's see that pompous ass of a father of hers try to talk me out filing them, like he did all those other parents. The girl is a God damned terror, and if someone had taken her to task sooner, she probably wouldn't have put my kid in the hospital. I saw that locker room, kid. There was blood every where."

I waved my hand to ward off the image. "D-don't. Please."

Dad made a "hmm" noise, staring at me critically. "Edward told me you fainted when you saw the blood. Does that happen a lot?"

I shrugged, embarrassed. "For more than a couple drops, yes."

He winced again. "Jeez, kid."

"So, when did everybody leave?" Let's talk about something else, yes?

"Esme and Carlisle dragged Alice out of here after they brought you up here. About 9 or so. She was curled up in the bed with you. Wanted to climb in this one too, but Esme put her foot down."

"Alice? What about-"

Dad tilted his chin up, motioning to something behind me. Edward was stretched backwards in another chair on my other side. I could tell it was him from the sheer size of his shoulders…and even half blind, I recognized those biceps curled over his chest. His neck was stretched, head thrown back over the back and his feet propped up on the mechanisms beneath my bed.

"He flat out refused to leave. Only passed out about an hour ago. From what I hear, he's been the world's biggest guard dog since they put you in the ambulance."

I vaguely remember opening my eyes under a metal ceiling and seeing Edward there, and then brief clips of him holding me up in a different hospital room. I turned back to Dad and saw that he was staring at me again. Well, staring at the both of us.

"It's the damndest thing." He said, sounding…I don't know, bewildered? Amazed? "I've known that boy since he was in diapers and I've only ever seen him this protective of his mother and his sister. Hell, I don't think I've ever even seen him date. If you hadn't only been here the week, I'd swear on my badge he was in love with you. At the very least, he cares about you a lot. Would damn well freak me out if I didn't know him. He and Alice… they're intense about things. They're old souls and old fashioned, both of them. They don't have very many good relationships with people, and they cherish the ones that they do have. Once they've developed feelings about something, it doesn't waver. They've been through a lot. You've been through a lot. You all be careful with each other, you hear?"

"I'm not going to hurt her Charlie."

I startled, which did nothing for the mild soreness in my head that was turning to a throbbing ache. Edward was sitting upright, sounding groggy, exhausted but alert. "I know that this" he waved a hand between himself and I. "hasn't been going on long at all, but it just clicked into place for me. I take this seriously."

Holy crap.

Dad nodded. "I'm not saying that I particularly think either of you is going to hurt the other. Just be careful, is all I want. You all mean a lot to me. Edward, Bella, Alice, Emmett. The four of you represent my greatest achievements. You three: lives changed in the most utmost…the epitome of every great and wonderful thing I could have hoped to do in my career, and you Bella, the most amazing thing that I never could have imagined being able to create. I love all of you, and I don't want to see any of you hurt. Now,"

He adjusted his posture in his seat, stretching his legs out and slumping down further. "that's my piece, and I feel better now that it's said. And it being said, I'm glad two of my favorite people got together. I'd much rather you date each other than the other shining prospects Forks has to offer."

"You mean like Jessica Stanley?" I asked dryly.

Edward groaned and rubbed a hand across the back of his neck. "I'm sorry about her. I feel like this is all my fault."

"You can't take on blame for that."

"If it wasn't for me, she wouldn't have targeted you."

"She strikes me as the type who would have picked on me anyway. She did pick on me anyways before she saw you and I talking at lunch and in class that first day. My head is aching, can we just…talk about it later?"

"Of course." Edward looked stricken as I slid back down in the bed. I reached my hand out for him, and as he scooted his chair closer to grab it, I wanted to reassure him, to take that anxious look away, but all I had time to do was curl up on my side facing him and clutching his hand to my chest as sleep pulled me back under.