CH18

Bella coughed hard, the water in her hand spilling down her gown even more than before. "What?" her eyes shot around the room, searching for the man in question. "Where is he?" She tried pushing herself up in the bed, her muscles aching, her IV pulling hard on her arm, the heart rate monitor going crazy. "Is he okay?"

Dr. McCarty took a deep breath and put a hand on Bella's shoulder, forcing her body back to the bed. "There were a few complications, we had to take the marrow from the hip, but he's fine." He tried to calm her with his words, but Bella wanted to see him with her own eyes, see him alive and in front of her. "Believe me Bella, he was a bigger prick than the needles that we used." Bella watched as smiles graced the faces of those around her, all happy with the joke the doctor made.

"I don't care, I want to see him." She was incessant, and now that her body was feeling better, she was going to get her way. By force if necessary. She pushed herself up in the bed and threw her legs over the side, feeling for the floor beneath her.

"Whoa there Bella." Edward. His voice was so painfully beautiful, and she knew that if she looked up to see that handsome face, reality would come crashing back down on her. "Emmett's right. He was a bigger pain in my ass than the needles were. I'm fine."

She could hear giggles around the room, hear the shuffling of the two men pushing each other around, but it was all background noise, muffled by the sound of him, blurred out by the electricity she could feel flowing between them. After what felt like hours, but was probably only a few moments later, she felt a hand smooth down her hair and instinctively knew who's it was. Her body leaned into his without her will, and she sighed.

"You gave us a pretty bad scare there." His voice was low; his lips close to her ear. "I didn't think I'd get the chance to apologize to you Bella." His other hand slid down her arm and lifted her wrist to his mouth where he placed a kiss against the fading bruises he had accidentally left all that time ago. "I didn't think I'd get the chance to fight for you, like I should have all those years ago." His voice was catching, and he knew that he was close to tears himself. "But here we are. Both of us healthy, both of us alive, and I will fight for you until the end."

She tilted her face up toward him, ready to tell him that she wasn't worth it. Ready to spill out the same excuses she had been using for years when something caught her attention. "What do you mean both of us are healthy?" Her eyes darted around the room again, meeting the happy eyes of each of her friends, before finally meeting the tear streaked face of her father. "Dad, what does he mean?"

Her father came toward the bed and Edward backed off to the side, limping a little along the way. "Bella." Charlie's hands found his daughters warm ones and he smiled, smiled a smile Bella wasn't sure she had ever seen in her life. "Bella, you and Edward both will need to see a physical therapist for a while, and you'll both be on a pretty strict diet, even though I'm sure Cullen over there has broken it already." His eyes darted to Edward and he smiled, gesturing for him to come closer to the two of them. "As you know, Edward was a match. He was your donor." Edward took Bella's free hand, sitting beside her on the bed. "They're going to run a few tests to be sure, but they told us you're cancer free."

I've got four words for y'all IT WAS FINALS WEEK. But I'm back now, and we're going to finish this thing!