Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all.
Rated M for several reasons.
Chapter 33 Losing Equilibrium
BPOV
I rang Demetri to tell him I'd be leaving and quick as a flash he replied that he could get me there quicker than a scheduled flight would at this point. Way quicker. The first scheduled flight would get me in midday and it didn't leave till after five am, leaving me twelve hours to go bat shit crazy. Not an option.
I apologised profusely and gratefully, to the extent that he eventually told me to 'shut up and be packed before I get there'.
He's not the world's most patient man, but you've got to love him.
...
By the time we'd made our way out of New York William had rung to let me know that they'd set Edward's leg with the aid of some metal work and they were keeping him in at least overnight. He sounded exhausted and was heading home so I rang Esme to fill her in and then Felix to let him know I'd skipped town for the weekend.
And then I leant back into the purple suede seat of my Panamera to give my lip a serious worrying . . . .
...
"Wah?" I groan, rubbing my eyes vigorously.
"You were snoring." Demetri chuckles as I blink across at him.
"I most certainly was not!" I object, if a little weakly.
"Okay, my mistake, just sounded eerily like it for a moment there."
"You woke me up to tell me you made a mistake?"
"No. I woke you up to tell you we're stopping for gas and human fuel."
My stomach growls, reminding me that I haven't eaten since lunch and Demetri starts chuckling to himself again.
Rude.
...
"Where are we?" I ask as we emerge into the cold night air a little while later.
"Harrisburg."
"Historical."
"Cold." Is Demetri's only response as we scuttle into the nearest restaurant, drawn by the power of grease and coffee.
...
Twenty minutes later we're on the road again but this time with me behind the wheel.
"You know you can go a bit faster." Demetri drawls as I creep down the on ramp.
"I'm used to driving in New York." I remind him as an approaching semi forces me to put my foot down and utilise all the power of the Porsche.
He manages not to comment and after a minute my heart stops beating like helicopter rotor blades. Jesus Bella, its just fucking driving, get a grip . . . .
"So." Demetri asks. "Do we have a plan for when we get there?"
"What?"
"You know. A plan? Where are we going to stay? How are we going to take care of Lover Boy, how much are you going to pay me to cook so you don't poison him while he can't defend himself? How long are we staying?"
"Oh. I hadn't thought about it." Any of it.
"How very feminine of you."
"You know we might have to stop having lunch together, or I might have to stop you talking to Rose." I huff without actual heat since I'd say Demetri is definitely now more friend than employee.
"Whatever you say." He observes with a sly smile. "In the meantime you plan and I'll sleep."
...
I do but I keep coming back to one thing and one thing only.
AT's jockey shorts are going to disappear up his ass when he finds out I'm going to stay in, and work from, Kentucky for as long as Edward wants me to.
I still haven't made up my mind how I feel about that, any of it, when I realise my eyes are threatening to close and I need more coffee.
"Where are we?" Demetri asks as I poke him awake.
"Morgantown."
"Nope." He grumbles as he unwinds himself from the car. "No idea."
...
Demetri takes over the next stint but this time there's no way my brain will let me go back to sleep.
Obviously we need to go straight to the hospital and find out what's happening with Edward.
And then I guess we'll see.
He wanted me to come but he might not want me to hang around. If he can't get around and he can't work for a while he might prefer to go stay with Esme and Carlisle. If he wants me to stay then the Cask site outside Louisville is commutable from his barn, but he might not want me to stay with him. Which would be okay. Demetri will have to go back to New York anyway so we can work something out. It's not like I'd actually poison Edward, that's what TV dinners are for . . . . the prevention of I mean, god I'd never poison Edward deliberately but I'm hardly carer material, shit . . . . what am I even doing?
...
Demetri is made of stronger stuff than me and though we stop for more coffee and a human moment in Charleston he keeps the wheel until Lexington where he abruptly announces that I need to drive for a while or he's going to kill us both.
Which is nice.
So it's me that eventually pulls up in the hospital parking lot at Louisville a little over twelve hours after we left New York.
Five am.
Lovely . . . .
...
There's the usual kerfuffle requiring a phone call to Esme and Carlisle and a quick look at TMZ before they'll let me anywhere near Edward but eventually they do and Demetri very graciously lets me see him alone once he's inspected the room for any unwelcome lurkers.
Edward's fast asleep, pale, but other than his leg being in plaster and him being hooked up to pain meds he seems okay and it abruptly dawns on me that I've just breathed properly for the first time since he called me.
Suddenly exhausted I flop into the chair by the bed and take his much too cool hand in mine.
And then I start crying, though god knows why . . . .
"Bella?" He asks sleepily.
"Yes." I answer using my free hand to wipe away the tears. "I'm here."
"Kissy kissy?"
"Of course." I laugh quietly, leaning over to press my lips to his cheek.
"S'not wot I meanted . . . ." He murmurs, falling back to sleep almost immediately.
But I'm so in love with him that I get up to brush his lips with mine anyway.
He doesn't wake up.
But his lips do quirk up into that crooked smile . . . .
...
At six thirty on the dot both Edward and I are awakened by the world's most cheerful and loquacious nurse.
I think she said her name is Sarah but she's talking so fast I could have misheard . . . .
Medication. Doctor's rounds. Catheters. Breakfast. Cannulas. Vitals. Cute couple. Wheelchair. Bathing. Crutches. Pyjamas . . . .
The blinds were yanked open and the lights were flicked on leaving Edward and I holding hands and blinking at each other with our mouths slightly open.
"Well don't just sit there." Possibly Sarah exclaims coming to a stop finally with her hands on her hips. "Time to sit up Doctor Cullen and time for you to get some coffee Ms Swan!"
"Um?" Edward and I ask in unison and she actually claps her hands making us both jump.
"Ms Swan I'm going to remove Doctor Cullen's catheter before I do anything else. Do you want to watch?"
"Um?" God why can't I wake up? "No?"
"Don't leave me." Edward pleads, grasping my hand desperately but Possibly Sarah already has me on my feet and halfway out the door.
"Go downstairs and get some coffee." She urges not unkindly. "And get him some too, the stuff they serve up here isn't fit for human consumption. Ah, Demetri, here she is. Take her for coffee. Ten minutes Ms Swan, that's all I need and he'll be more than ready to see you . . . ."
And she's gone, the door closing quietly behind her.
"I'd just do what she says." Demetri observes dryly. "I've been watching her for the last hour or so and she's an unstoppable force of nature."
"Um?"
"Come on, you'll function better with coffee."
"But Edward . . . ."
"Will be fine for ten minutes." He says firmly, guiding away me down the corridor . . . .
...
I arrive back after exactly ten minutes with two coffees, both of which nearly end up in Edward's lap when he yanks me to him and clamps his arms around my waist so he can bury his head between my boobs.
"Never leave me alone again." He groans. "Never."
...
Edward is far from a model patient.
Edward is snippy when in pain.
Edward thinks his Doctor is an idiot.
Edward's Doctor probably wishes Edward was a horse so he could euthanize him.
I was in equal parts appalled, and endeared. It must be love.
Anyway, the upshot of all that drama was that he was finally discharged in the late afternoon, though he has to go back next week for another x-ray to confirm that everything 'bonewise' is where it should be, but apparently it was a clean break and complications aren't expected.
I called Esme to tell her.
Rose called me to see if I was freaking out yet.
Not yet.
Moira and William kindly agreed to put Demetri up for the night and Edward wants me to stay with him, everything else we'll sort out in the morning . . . .
...
"Don't laugh."
"I'm not."
"You're smiling."
"You're shuffling upstairs, backwards, on your ass. In nothing but a hospital gown and Demetri's coat. Of course I'm smiling."
"I'm in pain."
"Not until you eat dinner you won't be."
"So this is the way it's going to be?" He chuckles as he rounds the bend at the top of the stairs.
"If you 'accidently' poke me with that crutch again it will be." I inform him as he does just that.
"Sorry."
We've arrived upstairs in his barn.
"Um. At the risk of sounding unmanly, what happens now?"
"Shit. I might be able to lift you if . . . ."
"No offence Bella, but lets not try okay?"
"Okay. Shuffle across and I'll help you up onto the couch?"
"Might be easier to go straight for the bed?"
"Wow, that's quite a line." I drawl.
"No offence but not tonight Josephine."
"Alright Napoleon, you shuffle and I'll get the fire started."
After a couple of false starts I manage to help him haul himself backward onto the bed.
And when I've passed him everything he's asked for, including clothes from his dresser, I head back downstairs to find something in the deep freeze I can't screw up for dinner.
...
A couple of hours later we're in bed together with the dying fire crackling from across the room. I'm reading one of his science fiction books and he's asleep, curled up with his head in my lap. I may or may not be running my free hand idly through his hair. And I may or may not be enjoying the hell out of such a simple act.
There's so much I know I potentially need to do and decide that I can feel it clawing at my insides, desperate for attention, but there's nothing that I can do about any of it right now so I'm ignoring it, and choosing to live in the moment.
I'd like to stay awake to savour this odd sense of ease but after the last forty eight hours my brain and body have other ideas.
Reluctantly I ease myself away from Edward so that I can skip across the cold floorboards to bank down the fire.
"Bella?" He calls sleepily as I make my way back.
"Here. Go back to sleep." I murmur as I slide back into bed.
Grumbling incoherently he gathers me to him, pulling me down into the bed and with a sigh I relax into his embrace, who cares if the cast on his leg is scratchy and not very cuddly? Not me apparently.
So much so that I press my lips to his forehead.
"Bella?"
"Hmm?"
"Thank you."
"For?"
"Being here."
"You don't have to thank me for that. And I'll stay as long as you want me to."
"Want you to."
"Go back to sleep, we can talk in the morning."
"Meant what I said."
"Okay."
"So much I want to say to you."
"In the morning."
"You'll be here?"
"Of course."
"Okay."
"Okay."
"Night Bella."
"Night Edward."