A/N: I am so sorry for the delay in posting this chapter. I've been out of town on a business trip, but now am back home and ready to write! Thank you so much to all of you who have left me a review or alert. They brighten my day each time one pops up.

Thanks to my pre-reader, EternallyCullen, and to my beta, Jenny Cullen, for all of their help, guidance, and just being there to chat!

Also, the ficwife, EternallyCullen, and I have entered another anonymous contest – Trying for a Baby! Hop over and read the stories that are posted, and vote for your favorite! http:/www (dot) fanfiction (dot) net/u/2067697

Dr. Taplin walked into the room the next morning, a smile on his face. "Good morning, all."

Bella sat up, wiping at her eyes. She had not managed much sleep, but enough to fuel her for the day. "Morning," she replied, looking over at Matt. He was just waking up, as well.

The doctor flipped through the chart, reciting Matt's blood sugars since he'd been at Children's Hospital. "Well, he hasn't been over one eighty since we changed his insulin regimen. Let's change it a bit more today and see how he does. Plus, we're going to do some testing today to see what we can find that might be causing him to be so brittle."

"Will it hurt?" Matt asked, his sleepy eyes wide.

Dr. Taplin patted him on the arm. "Some might cause a slight pinch, but as tough as you are with all of the sticks and shots you've been through, you'll do fine. The nurses bragged on you and how you don't even flinch when they give you a shot." He smiled at Matt.

Matthew grinned back. "It didn't hurt too bad, but my mom still gives the best shots. I don't feel them at all."

Bella couldn't help but smile. It had been difficult for her to give the control over to the medical staff, as the ones she had dealt with thus far had been a joke, but the staff at Children's had been wonderful to both of them.

"Dr. Taplin," she started, "I really do appreciate you taking Matt's case on, but I don't know what Dr. Cullen told you. I-I don't have the money to pay you, and I don't know if his Medicaid card will cover it."

He shook his head. "Ms. Swan, I'm not worried about getting paid for this. I'm just glad I can help. That's why I got into medicine – to help children. I believe in paying it forward, so if you get to a place where you can spare a bit, a donation to the hospital would suit me just fine. And if you can't, that's fine with me, too. Carlisle is a very dear friend of mine, and I can see how close you are to Edward. If it hadn't been for Carlisle, I wouldn't have made it through medical school, so I'm glad to be able to return a favor to him, finally."

She felt her eyes well up again. What was it with the waterworks? "T-thank you."

"And don't worry about the hospital bill. It's already been taken care of."

Bella shook her head. "How is that possible?"

He just smiled at her. "My sources must remain confidential," he said with a wink.

Edward… what had he done now? she wondered, but found she was so grateful, she didn't care. When her son's health was at stake, she'd take whatever she could. She knew she had been an ungrateful bitch to him in the beginning, and she felt very contrite about that, but she had let her emotions rule. Thank goodness he had been persistent.

"I-I don't know what to say," she whispered.

Dr. Taplin just shook his head, scribbling in the chart. "You don't have to say anything. We're all glad to do it to help you and Matthew."

He gave them one more quick smile, and then was out of the door.

"Mom?" Matt asked.

"Yeah, buddy?"

"I like him," he said softly.

She smiled at him, feeling the urge to fix herself up a bit in the bathroom. A toothbrush sounded heavenly. "Me, too."

Before she could move, however, Edward came sauntering into the room. "Hey, Matt! Bella. How are things going this morning?" He set a bag down on the table.

"Um, good," she replied, her hand over her mouth to hide her morning breath. "The doctor just left."

"Yeah, I ran into him. Bella, what are you doing?" he asked as she continued to hold her hand over her mouth.

She bit her lip. "I forgot my toothbrush at home. Actually, don't come too close, because I'm sure I stink. I've been in these same clothes for three days now."

He grinned at her. "Then I think you'll enjoy what I have in this bag."

Bella raised her eyebrows in question, and he handed her the bag. Inside, she found a full set of clothes, along with a toothbrush and toothpaste. "Oh, Edward! Where – how did you know?"

"Well, I knew you didn't bring anything from home, so Emmett's girlfriend, Rosalie, put this together. The sweats might be a bit too long for you, but we figured you could roll them up. She also went to Target and got you a new package of under things and a new toothbrush." He blushed slightly.

Bella was too ecstatic to be embarrassed that he had brought her underwear. "Oh, thank you, Edward. Can you sit here with Matt while I shower?"

His face bloomed scarlet, but he agreed. Bella skipped into the adjoining bath and quickly pulled her hair out of the sloppy ponytail she had slept in. She heated the water to hot and relaxed under the massaging spray.

She really did owe Edward for this.

She soaped her hair with the shampoo Rosalie had tossed into the bag, luxuriating in the feel of washing the grit and grime away from the last few days. When she finished in the shower, she dug the new toothbrush out and scrubbed her teeth and gums. Finally finished, she felt like a new person.

She stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in Rosalie's clothing. The pants were way too long, but she didn't care. They were clean.

"You look like you feel better," Edward remarked with a smile.

She sighed happily. "Oh, yes. Thank you, Edward, for thinking of this. I-I really appreciate it. You don't know how much."

Edward was shocked. He was not used to her reacting so positively whenever he tried to do something for her. Obviously, her son's problems were weighing on her, if she was too tired to fight with him.

"You're welcome. Matt, I brought you some stuff, too. Check that bag for a game and some coloring books. I thought it would help pass the time," he explained to Bella.

Bella sighed. He was just too good to be true. "Thank you, Edward. Matt, what do you say?"

"Thanks, Edward," he replied, digging through the bag of goodies that Edward had brought him. "Will you play Go Fish with me?" he asked, pulling out a deck of Go Fish cards.

"You bet, buddy," he replied. "I thought you'd never ask."

A woman from the lab walked in just then. "Hello. I'm here to get some blood."

"Mom?" Matt asked worriedly. In all of the years he'd been to the emergency room, he hated the blood work the worst.

Bella physically hurt for him; it was painful to see her son in that bed, knowing what his own body was doing to him. She knew she would have taken it all upon herself if she could have. "It'll be all right," she said, holding his hand.

"Matt, the trick is to not think of it. Come on, I'll deal, and we'll play while she gets a bit of blood," Edward interjected.

"Okay," Matt said dubiously, obviously not believing it would work.

While the phlebotomist prepared his arm, he held his cards in the other. Edward had already started the game. He timed it perfectly so that when the needle pierced his skin, he asked Matt if he had any fours.

"Go fish," he cried happily.

By the time it was his turn, the blood draw was done, and she was taping a band-aid onto his skin. "All done."

He looked at her, surprised. "That's it?"

She smiled at him. "That's it."

Matt looked over at Edward and grinned. "It worked!"

Edward ruffled his hair. "I told you it would."

Bella sat back in the reclining chair and watched the game in progress. As she watched Matt and Edward battle back and forth, each winning a game, she felt her eyes get heavy. Before she knew it, she was sound asleep.

Edward looked over, and then back to Matt. "Looks like your mom's out again," he said quietly.

Matt nodded. "Yeah, she's had it rough since I've been in the hospital."

Edward felt a pain in his chest as he looked between mother and son. They both understood each other so well; their bond stretched further than just parent and child. They had been through so much together, they were just in sync.

He stood up and quietly covered Bella with a blanket. "We'll play for a while and let your mom sleep. How's that sound?"

Matt nodded. "Good to me," he whispered.

Bella stretched, waking up from her nap. She had slept amazingly well, considering the current surroundings. The hot shower had done wonders for her spirits. She looked over to the bed, only to find it empty.

Where the hell is Matt? she thought, scared. Surely they didn't take him somewhere without her. She wandered out to the nurses' station and asked where her son was.

"Oh, Radiology came to get him for an ultrasound on his liver and pancreas."

She gaped at them. "He went alone?"

The clerk shook her head. "Oh, no. Your friend, Mr. Cullen, accompanied him. They didn't want to wake you. But they should be arriving back at any time."

She walked back to the room and flipped on the television. Within fifteen minutes, Matt came wheeling back into the room, Edward following behind him. The radiology tech helped him get settled into the bed with the tubes and wires, and then left the room after giving Matt a high five.

"Oh, I was worried to death," she said with a sigh.

"I didn't wanna wake you up, Mom," Matt said. "You were sleeping so good that me and Edward decided to let you sleep. He went with me."

Bella was choked up. She had never dreamed that in such a short time, she would come to depend on Edward so much. "Thanks," she whispered to Edward.

He grinned at her. "It was my pleasure. He's a special little guy."

"Yeah, he is," she agreed, drowning once again in his emerald eyes.

"Bella," he breathed, cupping her face in his hand.

She was speechless, and her breath was coming in short bursts. "Edward…" she sighed.

"Edward!" Matt called. "You promised you'd play checkers with me when we got back."

The spell broke between the two of them. "O-okay, buddy. I'm coming," he responded, looking longingly into her eyes. "We'll finish this," he whispered in her ear, before going over to the hospital bed and claiming the black checkers as his.

Bella sank down onto the chair, her knees weak. She shivered at the idea of finishing what they had started.

xXx

Bella and Matt remained at Seattle Children Hospital over the next two days. Finally, once his blood sugars had stabilized, Dr. Taplin came to discharge him.

"Well, it looks like we have the sugar under control for now. It's been running between seventy and one twenty, so I think we'll be safe to send him home, but I'm changing his entire insulin regime. Ms. Swan, are you comfortable with that?"

She nodded. "Yes. Anything to keep him from spiking, and then crashing."

He wrote out several prescriptions and handed them to her. "This is for his new insulin, and I've written out the sliding scale he needs to follow. His ultrasounds of the liver and pancreas were normal – so no organ damage – so I think it's just the absence of insulin in his body that is causing the problems. Hopefully, we'll be able to control them by changing his insulin.

"One other thing I'd like for you all to think about is an insulin pump. This would keep him from having to be stuck four times a day, and the pumps now are able to read sugar levels and administer the proper amount of insulin."

Bella nodded. She had tried to ask Dr. Ferguson about an insulin pump, but true to form, she had been brushed off. "We'll certainly consider it. Anything to make this easier on him."

He scribbled some notes in the chart and flipped it closed. "I'd like for you to bring him back to see me in the office in two weeks. Will that be a problem?"

She wondered briefly about her job and if it would be a problem for her to take a day off so soon. She'd already been off close to a week, what with Matt in the hospital. "No, I think that would be fine. I'll make it work." Even if it means losing this job. Matt comes first.

He smiled at Matt. "Good job, buddy. You sure have been a good patient. I'll see you in a couple of weeks, okay?"

"Sure," Matt agreed.

"I do want you to keep a log of his blood sugars and how much insulin you're giving him. You've done this long enough that if he has trouble with the dosage, you can adjust it slightly. If you have a lot of problems once you get home, don't hesitate to call me."

Bella nodded, still in shock at the instructions she was getting. Typically, they shoved Matt out as quickly as possible, but at Children's, she had seen the doctor daily, the nurses checked on him frequently, blood work had been done, and they had even sent a dietician up to discuss meal preparation with her.

She did not need any help with the diet portion, as she had been doing it for so long, but it was still nice to review; she was simply grateful that Dr. Taplin had thought of it.

"All right. We'll see you in a couple of weeks, then. I-I can't thank you enough. I can tell just by looking at him that he's so much better."

And it was the truth. Matt was still small, but his brown hair now had a shine and bounce to it, and his chocolate eyes held a sparkle that had been missing.

Dr. Taplin agreed. "Yes, I can tell a difference just from when he came in. I think we're on the right track."

"So do I."