My heart kind of sank as I went to leave Edward's room.
I felt like I hadn't learned much about the man or those around him.
"Iz-Doctor Swan?"
"Yes?"
"Can I ask you a question? It may be bad timing, but I need to know."
I walked back over to his bed and placed my hands on the bed rail.
"Sure, Edward. What can I answer for you?"
He rolled to the side and propped himself up on his hand. Even though he couldn't see, he was looking directly at me. "Did you ever sleep with my father?" he asked flatly.
I wanted to laugh, but instead I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath.
"Edward, before I answer that, why are you asking?"
"I heard my parent's fighting about bringing me here." He coughed. "My mom said that you almost fucked up their marriage and she didn't want some home wrecker taking care of her kid."
Then I laughed; hard. Like really hard, until I realized his expression changed to one of emotional hurt.
I quickly composed myself. "Edward, I was once upon a time, very close to your dad, but never ever would I have or had I the desire to have sex with him. We were close, but we were never physical like that."
"So why does my mom think you were?"
"Because your father doesn't seem to have the balls to tell her otherwise. Anything else I can ease your mind on?"
He started to laugh, which turned into a cough. I got him some water and once he got his breathing back under control, he smiled at me. "No, I think you have answered all my questions."
His smile made me want to smile; of course, I am me, so I bit my lip and nodded my head, before walking away from him.
"Izzy, did you get anything from Edward?"
"Nothing I'm going to tell you."
"I'm his physician, you have to tell me," he snipped.
"Then you wouldn't have a use for me if you were his physician. Now, have you spoken to your wife?"
"Izzy, now isn't the time for me to have that talk with her."
"Carlisle, yes it is that time. You need to talk to her. You should have told her years ago. It was bad enough that when we were working together that she thought we were fucking, but now all these years later, she still thinks we had been together on all those late nights." I rolled my eyes. "Come the fuck on, grow up and tell your wife you weren't fucking me but her sister instead, okay?"
"I can't tell her that!"
"But it's the truth. Before I didn't mind being the scapegoat, the one you told her you were working late with, but now, now I care! So fucking tell her!"
I reached under my desk, grabbed my shoes, and slid my heels on.
Carlisle didn't move.
I stood and he still sat there. "Well then, fine!"
I slid around my desk and headed out of my office.
"Where are you going? I thought we were talking here."
"We were talking. Now I am going to go talk to someone else."
"Who? Iz, no you can't do that."
"If you won't tell Esme, I will. So far it seems like you are unable to."
"I swear I will tell her. Promise."
"When? In two minutes? Two hours? Two days? Another five years? When?"
Carlisle got up and walked toward me. He placed his hand on my arm. "When this is over, I'll tell her."
I rolled my eyes. "Not good enough. Tell her today that we were never together or I quit. Until you tell her, I'm done treating your son."
I shrugged out of his touch and walked out of my office.
Carlisle yelled after me, asking me to come back, but I kept walking.
I didn't care what he had to say, unless it was to tell me he told Esme the truth.
I headed toward the lab where I was sure to find my team, busting my way in. All three were knee deep in test samples with their eyes plastered to microscopes.
"We are still working on the testing, Bella. But, we can tell you that we know it isn't lead, rat poison, or anthrax."
"That is all good to know, but we will be stopping treatment at this time. I will let you know when and if we will resume."
The mouths of all three opened to protest, but I ignored them as I walked out of the lab.
It was now time to break the news to Edward.
Because I was a bitch and I had no problem shoving reality into Carlisle's face.
I won't lie, I felt bad doing this to Edward, but when I took his case, I had hoped that Carlisle had told Esme the truth, or that she had gotten over her hate for me.
My hand was on the door knob and I was ready to walk into Edward's room and put a stop to all of this.
"Izzy, stop," Carlisle called down the hall as he ran up to me.
"Unless you are walking in this room to tell your wife, then no."
"Esme isn't even here yet. She's still at the hotel. You have to give me time to tell her."
"Well then get on the phone and tell her, otherwise I am walking in there and prepping Edward for discharge."
I paused a moment and Carlisle didn't say or do anything.
I slid the door open and Edward turned to look at me.
"Doc, everything okay?"
"Well, Edward, first, can you see a bit better?"
"Kinda…or maybe I'm getting used to what you look like fuzzy."
I walked up alongside his bed and whispered, "Remember what we talked about your dad and needing balls?"
He nodded.
"Good, then go along with me."
He nodded yet again.
"Edward, I hate to tell you that your father and I have decided to transition your care."
"What!" he yelled and then proceeded to cough.
"He doesn't think that I am healing you and I think he is all around useless, so this is what will be for the best. I will gladly refer you to a physician that your father hasn't previously used to make his life easier."
I winked and smiled at him before walking back to the door, where Carlisle still stood.
"Izzy, you can't do that to my son!"
"First, I hate the name Izzy. I haven't gone by it since I worked with you. And second, you did this to your son. Tell Esme and I will be back on your son's case."
"But-"
"Tell me what, Carlisle?"
"Carlisle, tell me what?" Esme asked again, before glaring at me.
Yeah…just wait, you are about to love me and hate him.
"Iz, uh, Doctor Swan and I have agreed that this isn't the best place for Edward."
Really, asshole!
"Really, Carlisle? Really!" I snipped at him. "You would do that to your son to save face?"
Esme looked back and forth between Carlisle and myself. "What do you mean this isn't where he should be? You fought to bring him here because you said she was the best."
"Well, honey, it's just-"
"Enough!" I cut him off. "Esme, I told your husband here, that unless he could man up and be honest with you, his wife, the woman he loves," I rolled my eyes, "I was stopping Edward's treatment. Obviously, he feels that he can't be honest with you, so treatment has been stopped. Your husband would rather let your son die than be honest with you. Pretty shitty if you ask me."
Esme glared at her husband as I turned to walk away.
I could hear Esme asking Carlisle what was going on as I headed back to my office. He wasn't answering and I couldn't help but laugh.
Even if he didn't tell her, the cat was half way out of the bag. One way or another, Esme would find out now.
I walked into my office, but I could hear the sound of feet, running behind me.
"Doctor Swan," Esme said as she busted her way into my office, Carlisle on her heels.
"Yes?" I finished walking to my desk to start Edward's discharge.
"Izzy," Carlisle said. I glared at him.
"What do you two want? I have work to do. I need to get my patient transferred."
"What does my husband need to tell me so you can keep treating Edward?" Esme asked.
Carlisle looked pissed and shook his head no.
"You should talk to your husband."
"He won't tell me and unlike him, I'm not putting my son's life at risk like this. I won't play games when my first born is at risk."
I took a deep breath and looked at Carlisle. He was backed into a corner, both figuratively and literally.
"I never slept with your husband. I never kissed him; I never tried to get him in my bed. Nothing. Ever."
"But-"
I cut her off. "But yes, he still did have an affair and I was his scapegoat in the matter, because he knew you didn't like or trust me already, so he figured what was the harm. Now, all these years later, the pain and hate you have for me is still there."
She looked to Carlisle. "Who was it with?"
"That's not important, Essie. It stopped a long time ago and it will never happen again."
"How do I know it won't happen again?"
"It won't," Carlisle whined.
"Well, now that you know I never fucked your husband, can you and I get along?" I asked.
Esme glared at me, again and huffed. "You helped him lie; I don't know if that is forgivable."
"I didn't help him, I just didn't correct him. He let you believe what he wanted you to believe. I never weighed in on the subject, but I can tell you, it will never happen again, at least with that same woman and it has been years since it ended between them."
"So you know who it was with, too?" she asked, appalled.
I nodded.
"Will you tell me?"
"Yeah, Esme, I don't know if I want to be in the middle of that."
"Carlisle, tell me." Esme took a step toward him. "I won't be mad." Her expression didn't agree with that statement.
Oh, yeah you will.
"Well, since Esme now knows the truth, I guess I should get back to figuring out what is wrong with your son."
I slid between the two of them.
"Wait, just one of you, tell me how I can trust it will never happen again."
I smiled, Carlisle grimaced.
I pushed the door of my office open, then turned and looked at Esme. "You want to know how you can trust it will never happen again." She nodded. "You sure?" She nodded again. "Okay, but first answer a question for me."
"Okay."
"How long ago did your sister die?"
"A little over two years ago."
"And that is how I can promise it will never happen again with that person."
As I walked away, I could hear Esme yelling at Carlisle. I was about to turn the corner at the end of the hall, when I heard the telltale sound of skin to skin contact.
Ouch!
I stopped at the nurses' station and paged my team to get back on testing Edward's blood.
I was sure they enjoyed the mini break, but that's all it was; a break.
I was down the hall from Edward's room when I heard a woman scream. I saw a rush of staff, my team included, running into Edward's room.
Well, hell!
I picked up my pace and made it into Edward's room just in time to see Tanya and Eric being pulled back from Edward's bed side.
They both were bringing a part of him with them.
Edward's skin had started to peel off and was now in the hands of his wife and best friend.
xxxx
"What the fuck causes someone's skin to peel off?" I snipped at my team.
"Lupus," Tyler called out.
"Leprosy and Lyme disease," Victoria said.
"But those don't fit the other symptoms," Angela said. "What about Stevens Johnson Syndrome?"
"That does fit the symptoms. The fatigue and all of that, it works, but it doesn't explain the tumor." I paced back and forth across my office. "Shit! Just in case, stop all treatment and get him on a saline drip only. No foods, either. Nothing but water until we know if it is SJS for sure. Angela, since it was your idea, run some tests. Vic and Tyler, test your theories and once you are all done, get back running those tox screens. Run the ones that fit our symptoms the best first."
All three emptied out of the conference room and I headed back to see Edward.
His arms were moistened with saline and wrapped in gauze.
"How you feeling?"
"It hurts, doc. A lot."
"Yeah, I'm sure it does and you know what's going to hurt even more?"
"What's that?"
"When I tell you we can't give you anything for the pain. We are thinking you have Stevens Johnsons Syndrome."
"What's that? Why does that mean I can't have anything for the pain?"
"With SJS, if that is what this is, we have to find out what is causing the reaction. The symptoms mostly fit. If we keep giving you drugs and you are allergic to those drugs; the drugs will burn you, inside and out. You won't be hot, but it will burn. If we give you oral pain meds and you are allergic, your insides risk being burned. If the insides are burned, mortality is high. With your flesh showing the reaction, we can do skin grafts if needed, but first we have to find out what your body can and can't take and then we will be able to treat."
A tear slid down Edward's cheek.
"I will have a trauma doc come down and assess the skin damage. It will be okay, Edward." I placed my gloved hand on his. Edward's family left after his skin peeled off. I wasn't sure that his parents even knew that he was getting drastically worse. They both were no longer in my office when I went back. He needed someone now, and I was going to be that person. He tightened his grip on my hand and looked up at me. His vision was still off and it looked like he was looking to the left of me.
"Please, promise that you will make me better. Doctor Swan, I just, I can't imagine my life ending this way."
"Call me Bella and I will do my best, Edward. I promise."
He smiled even as the tears continued to fall. "I'll hold you to that promise, Bella."
Don't hate too hard on Daddy C.
