Bella is ragy in this chapter. I'd blamed it on my own hormones at the time. Who knew babies caused such drama when they were still microscopic.
I spent the first night in my own bed since meeting Edward the night he was discharged. While he was under my care, I spent many nights asleep on my couch in my office, or drinking energy drinks and staying up most of the night.
Nodding off in my office chair and waking three hours later was turning into a regular for me.
Now, I lay in bed unfortunately staring at the ceiling…wondering if Edward was okay. It was hard to get used to not looking at a screen and seeing his vitals. Knowing he was all right.
I got up out of bed and made my way to my kitchen.
I opened my freezer and grabbed a bottle of Jack. I took a nice, long swig and waited for the warmth that I knew the alcohol would provide to start coursing thought my body.
After a few tip backs of the bottle, I headed back to bed.
Images of Edward floated through my mind before I drifted off into a fitful sleep.
I woke feeling hung over and lonely.
Very lonely.
I was thankful with Edward having just left the hospital; the likely hood that we would have another case already would be slim to none.
I would be able to rest up at my desk, while finishing all of my notes, so I could send a copy to Carlisle.
I was sluggish getting ready. Wherein reality, I didn't want to go in.
I debated on taking a sick day, but I had a feeling that wouldn't go over well.
I fed my dog and myself before sucking it up, pulling my hair back, and heading into work.
"Doctor Swan, there is a potential case in the ER we need you to have your team access," Irina, one of the ER doctors said as I walked in the door.
Like right as I walked in the door. Jesus, people!
I rolled my eyes at her, not stopping to listen to what she had to say. She started to run after me to tell me what made this case so special.
"Sixteen year old girl with loss of menstruation-"
"Maybe she's pregnant," I said cutting her off as I pushed the button for the elevator.
"No, tested negative."
"Maybe she is anorexic."
"She's too fat too be anorexic," Irina snapped back.
"Maybe she's too fat and her body gave up." Irina's mouth dropped opened wide. "Send her records up. We will review them. When and if I feel it is worth my time, I will let you know."
I stepped onto the elevator as the door opened and was thankful that Irina didn't follow me. I think she was still in shock.
I leaned my head back against the wall of the elevator.
I wasn't ready to take another case and I didn't understand why. I never didn't want a case. I loved working and helping people. Plus the enjoyment of a medical puzzle was what kept me enjoying life.
Something just wasn't sitting right with me.
I ended up at my desk, ignoring not menstruating girl's files as I took a nap…
…and dreamt of Edward.
My team worked hard on the non-menstruating girl. Turns out she had lupus.
God, I was such a fucking fail with that one.
I was thankful more than ever that I had a competent team who could pick up when I failed.
Lupus girl had been here three days when we finally got a diagnosis…that was a week ago.
I had yet to do much of anything.
Pathetic.
I was counting down the hours until Edward came in for a follow up.
Six more…but seeing as it was three in the morning and sleep was nowhere in sight for me, it would be a long six hours.
I rolled over in my bed and buried my face into the pillow and screamed.
Edward was all that was on my mind anymore. I thought about him constantly. At work, at home, in the shower; and to know what he looked like under the hospital issued gown didn't help my thoughts stay innocent.
It was wrong though. He was my patient. I was his doctor.
I was so fucked.
I was on my fifth cup of coffee to make up for the shitty sleep I got as I walked into the side entrance of the hospital.
The ER docs kept trying to grab me when I would use the main doors, so I had to put a stop to that shit.
My knee bounced as I waited in my office for Edward to show up.
I was in serious need of mental help if I was going to react this way to a patient.
This was unbelievably wrong of me.
Thankfully for my sanity, Edward was fifteen minutes early. He knocked on my office door and my heart began to race.
I took a deep breath before calling for him to enter.
He slowly opened the door and my breathing hitched in anticipation.
"Hey Doctor," I raised my eye brow at him, "Bella," he said with a smile.
I thought he had looked amazing when he left, but I was wrong. Now he looked fucking edible. The color had returned in his cheeks and he looked like he had put on weight in the mere ten days since he left.
"Edward, you are looking great."
He laughed. "Thanks, Bella. Now that I'm toxin free I've been able to get back to working out. And since I'm not working and living in a hotel with a lot of free time, I've taken to working out in the gym and running."
It showed…
"Well, that's good, but don't overdo it. I would hate to have you stress your body out with the sudden influx of exertion."
There was this awkward pause between us. He was looking at me and I was looking at him.
It was like time stood still until Victoria came busting into my office.
"Oh, hi. Uh, I need to get my coat off the chair." She quickly exited, leaving us alone.
I snapped back to reality and escorted Edward into an exam room next to my office.
"So, we will take some blood and do a quick exam and you should be good to go."
"Sounds good."
Edward jumped up on the exam table and waited instruction.
I took his blood pressure and his oxygen level before taking his blood.
"So how has everything else been? Have you found a place yet?"
He shook his head as the needle pierced his skin. "No, Alice is looking, but since it is going to be her place, my input doesn't matter. I've found a few places I thought were great, but she didn't like them."
"Yeah, that could be hard. I know they have some rentals in the same complex as my condo. If you are interested, I can give you the info." My offer was innocent…at least I hoped it came off that way.
"Bella, I think that would be lovely." He smiled at me and I was thankful I was sitting because my knees went weak.
I pulled the blood draw needle out and slapped on a band-aid.
I got the vials of blood ready to take to the blood bank while Edward hopped off the table.
"If you want to walk with me while I drop these off, I can get you the number and address."
He nodded. "Sounds good."
We walked down the hall to the nurse's station. "Well, all in all, you are healing nicely, but I would like you to follow up in say, two weeks?"
"Yeah, I can do that. I have to stay in town for at least a month if not longer for this trial."
"How's that coming along?"
"As good as could be expected. The first thing I did upon discharge was file for divorce, so that pissed her off more, but what did she expect? She tried to kill me. Either way, since we are still married, I was able to talk with her. She is claiming insanity and they are trying to use that as a defense. She said she didn't know what she was doing when he tried to poison me. She just felt it was what she was supposed to do. Whatever that means."
I shook my head. What did I say to him? This situation was so messed up. "Have you personally thought to talk to someone?" Doctor before personal was always best. "You have been through a lot, and maybe you need to voice out your worries."
"I haven't but maybe I should. Could you refer me to someone?"
"Sure, let's go back to my office and I will get you that as well as the rental information."
As we headed back to my office, the only thing that I felt was missing was his hand in mine.
EPOV
I thought about Bella constantly. Okay, not constantly, but often enough.
I knew it was probably useless thoughts, but thinking of her helped to take my mind off other things.
Thinking of Tanya and her attempted murder trial all of the time messed with my brain.
I would get up every morning and head to this park by the lakeshore. I would take a run and let my mind wander. Each and every time it wandered to Bella.
Her smile in my mind's eye was for me. Always for me. Her eyes sparkled in the light as she looked at me.
In my mind it was just her and me…and it was perfect.
By every afternoon my mind was so consumed with thoughts of Bella that Alice would get annoyed. The first time I zoned out, she was worried I was sick again. She was ready to drag me back to the hospital.
After Alice realized why I was always spaced out and I was moving on in my mind to Bella whether she liked it or not, she tried to occupy me.
She dragged me apartment hunting. She dragged me to lunch with her boyfriend, Jasper. I vaguely remembered him from when I was inpatient. He was a doctor at the hospital where Bella worked.
Ah, Bella. No matter what Alice tried to do, and no matter what else I tried to focus on, my mind always took me back to Bella.
The night before I was to go in for my follow up with her, I was nervous. I couldn't wait to see her again.
I had wanted to go and visit her at the hospital, but I always talked myself out of it. She probably wasn't interested in me. Yes, she offered to let us stay with her, but I figured that was to be nice. We were practically family friends due to her association with my dad.
I didn't want to jump to conclusions with her and end up in another bad relationship.
I ended up bouncing off natural energy waiting for an acceptable time to leave to head to see Bella. I meant to go to my appointment.
Who knew if she would even be the one to see me?
I tried to let that worry leave my mind as I jumped into the rental car and headed to the hospital. On the way there, I decided I would go to her to secure me at least seeing her momentarily.
I ran to her office as quickly as possible without drawing attention to myself.
I did my best to compose myself before knocking on the door. My heart raced as I waited for her to respond.
God, she was beautiful. Sitting behind that desk. Just beautiful.
It took every ounce of control not to react when she said I was looking good. Because I wanted to tell her the same. She looked damn good.
Her touch was light as she took my vitals and drew my blood. The conversation was light and it felt perfect.
Being near Bella felt perfect.
When she offered the rental information for a building near her, since we didn't take her up on moving in, I wanted to jump up and down.
Even if Alice didn't take it, maybe I would by myself.
By the time I left the hospital, I carried Bella's cell number, her address and the same for the rental office.
Now to decide when it was too soon to call her…
BPOV
I gave Edward my number in hopes that he would call me. As much as I was drawn to him and wanted to like him, I couldn't risk my job by hitting on him. If he wasn't interested, I would make a fool of myself.
And really, who was I kidding, I already did like him, badly.
So, as a friendly, you are new to the area gesture, I gave him my number and address and may have jutted my chest out a tiny bit. I don't think he noticed, but I still did it.
I worried I would get too involved in my head with him, that at the end, I would be heart broken.
I couldn't let that happen.
I dropped back into my desk chair and paged my team. Maybe sending them on a hunt for a good case would take my mind off shit.
While waiting for them, my cell phone buzzed. My heart raced. What if it was Edward? Would he message me this soon?
Wanted to make sure this worked, and to officially give you my number too – E
Holy shit! I felt like a freaking teenager again. Overly excited about a boy I liked.
My team entered my office. Before getting up to address them, I texted him back
It works…and thanks for the number – B
I dropped my phone back into my coat pocket and tried to get the giddy smile off my face.
"What has you blushing, Doctor B?" Tyler asked.
I rolled my eyes. "You know I hate it when you called me Doctor B, and to answer your question, my frustration has me red in the face, not blushing."
"Oh."
And the wrath of God was back in my eyes.
"We need a case. You three will go down to the ER and not come back until you have something good."
They nodded and left my office.
Now I waited…and thought…of Edward.
My team failed me and was unable to bring me a case worth my time. Everything was mediocre and easily diagnosable by a first year med student.
Extremely pathetic.
After three hours of failed attempts, I kicked back on my office couch and opted for a nap. I knew my dreams would take me to Edward, but at least my subconscious wasn't ashamed of thinking of him naked.
"Bella, you're beautiful," he said, hovering over my naked body.
"Mmm, you are too." Our lips met just as he slid his way into me.
"Uh, fuck. You are perfect. So perfect."
He rocked my body with his thrusts. My body didn't take long to react to his. Every thrust was met with my own desire.
He arched his back and took one of my nipples into his mouth. His thrusts became erratic until he released my nipple and moaned as he came right along with me.
He kissed me lightly on my forehead before rolling to my side.
I smiled a smile of extreme pleasure. That was prefect.
I woke, panting with flushed flesh to my pager buzzing. Fuck!
Seemed my team finally found a patient worth my time.
On my way to the restroom to freshen up, I checked to see if Edward texted again. He hadn't. I wanted to pout.
After washing my face and fixing my hair, I headed to find out what they thought would be worth my time.
I busted into the ER and found my team huddled in the corner by a gurney.
There was someone on said gurney and as soon as my team saw me, Victoria came toward me, stopping me from seeing the patient.
"Uh, twenty-six year old male. Shortness of breath and chest pain."
"Onset?"
"Immediate. One minute he was going for a jog and the next he was calling nine-one-one."
"Is he conscience?"
"Coming in and out of it."
Suddenly everything snapped into place. Edward was twenty-six and he had been working out a lot.
"It's…is it Edward?" We weren't by the patient. But it felt like she was trying to prep me.
"Oh, no. no. It's not Edward, but Edward was the one that found the guy. He said that he was walking at this park and a guy went running past him. Edward caught up to him about five minutes later, because the guy was on the concrete."
I nodded my head, looked around and followed Victoria back to the patient.
"He didn't come with," she whispered.
"Huh?"
"Edward, he didn't come with in the ambulance, but he did call in."
"Oh…"
Was I that obvious in my glance around the ER? I thought I was being subtle.
I took the guy's chart that was full of notes from the ambulance ride as well as the few the ER added.
"Get him into a bed and we can get to testing," I called back to my team as I started to get to know James Smith via his chart.
James, I mean Mr. Smith was doing bad and getting increasingly worse very quickly. Maybe because I had taken to calling patients by their first names.
Being too personal was a bad thing for me it seemed.
Since at first I thought it was Edward lying ill again, I approached the situation worried and have yet to shake the feeling even knowing it isn't him back in my hospital.
We had checked his heart, his lungs; even did a complete body scan, yet found nothing out of the normal. The last three hours of testing had shown nothing that would set off an alarm.
Via my tests, he was a normal, should be healthy patient. But so was Edward…
There was a knock on my office door and before I could say come in, it was opened a crack.
"Bella?" Edward asked as he opened the door the rest of the way.
"I'm in here." I was currently pacing back and forth across my office, trying to think and being unsuccessful.
"I just wanted to see how that guy was doing."
"Oh, well, I can't really tell you much, but there isn't a change since you last saw him."
Edward pouted. "That sucks. I see that guy almost every day at the park. He always said 'hi' when he would pass me. I feel bad for the guy."
"Be hopeful. We are still running tests. You did the right thing getting him in here. It will be okay." I walked over to Edward and placed my hand on his forearm, trying to comfort him.
He gave me a small smile and I swore he moved closer…until I knew he did. I could feel the heat off his body, his warm breath on my cheek. His chest slowly, oh so very slowly as it moved closer until it pressed against mine. His lips touched my cheek and I may have moaned. I prayed the sound was only in my head, but when I felt his hand make contact with my lower back, I knew it could be heard.
I moved my face slightly so I could look at Edward.
"What-" but I was shushed by his finger being placed lightly on my lips.
"I am doing something I wanted to do before I should have even wanted to. I'm sure it's still wrong on so many levels, but I'm upset and I don't care anymore about right and wrong."
…and then my legs went weak as his lips met mine.
Can you believe on the original posting I left for a week vaca without internet RIGHT HERE! It was also when I found out I was having a baby (that one from the hormones a few back). He's four now and begging for juice. #TimeFlies
