Kim was discharged about the same time Jared and Sue arrived. Sue held onto Charlie with all of her might before they sat down.

"She's got a shattered femur, a bit of damage to her head," Charlie said, swallowing. "They won't know how bad the head damage is until she's stable enough for an MRI and her swelling goes down. But she's in surgery right now for internal bleeding." Sue gasped in alarm.

The others were released after a few hours, Emily needing to stay overnight, but she was fine. But Bella... "She's in surgery," Charlie said when he returned. He looked old, more his age. "They say she's got a shattered femur and a bit of damage to her head. They don't know how bad until she's stable enough for the MRI and her swelling goes down."

Leah arrived, looking a tad wild. "What the hell happened?" she demanded. "I've been at the club and I get a phone call from Sarah-"

"Everyone's waiting for news," Jared said. "We've got pretty much nothing right now."

It took forever. But eventually the stomach of the wolves proved to not outlast their worry, and Sam and Paul went off in search for some food.

"You doing alright?" Sam asked as they stopped at the vending machine, searching for something worth the ridiculous price. "You've been quiet."

"If I would have spoken, it would have just been every possible way to say fuck there is," Paul muttered. He spotted the coffee machine beside the vending machine, and felt like he needed something to make him feel awake. He felt like he was numbing out. Like he was losing touch with her, not that he had much of a bond with her in the first place.

"She'll be alright, Paul. You know she will. The bond makes it literally impossible for her to be otherwise. She's drawing from your strength, so the stronger you are the stronger she is." But they weren't even close. How could that work? That couldn't work for them.

The blinding pain caused Paul to stumble and crashing into the vending machine, putting a wolf sized dent into the side of it. "Jesus Christ, Paul, get yourself together," Sam demanded. But the pained whimper left Paul, unable to be stopped. He could not respond.

His chest felt like it was burning. Like someone had set a hot coal onto his chest and wouldn't take it off. And his vision was blurring, and the sounds were all becoming too much. His own heartbeat sounded like it was a hurricane and a tornado mixed into one.

"-aul? Paul?" Sam was calling. And when Paul blinked, Sam focused in front of him, looking worried. "Paul, you okay?'

"Fuck was that?" he muttered. He rubbed at his chest, and Sam followed the movement closely as he helped Paul to his feet. "Felt like I was burning alive."

"Did you… did you hear your heartbeat?" Sam asked hesitantly. "And you couldn't breathe?"

Paul eyed the Alpha strangely, a feeling of dread in his stomach, for the second time that night. He was really starting to hate it. "Why?" Sam hesitated. "The fuck, Sam? What the fuck was that? You better fucking tell me now or-"

"When I mauled Emily… It was bad," Sam admitted. "She wouldn't stop bleeding. I had hit an artery on her neck." Paul swallowed as Sam seemed to struggle. Oh, shit.. this wasn't… it wasn't that. "Her heart gave out in the ambulance. And… Fuck, Paul.. I had killed her. And.. they brought her back. But I just remember that sound. It's like your heartbeat and it's the loudest thing in the fucking room and..."

"She just… Bella just..." Paul couldn't say the words. His mouth felt dry and Sam winced as Paul's grip on his coffee tightened enough that it spilled all over him and the ground. "Did she just die?"

"But she has to be better now, they had to have saved her, because you're alright," Sam continued quickly. "Otherwise you'll feel the burning. I swear, alright? She's okay-"

"How long was I out for?" Paul demanded. "How long was she gone for?"

"Maybe a minute? A little less."

"Fuck." Paul tugged at his hair. "She just… I fucking… fuck."

"Do you need to step outside?"

"Stop asking me if I'm in control," Paul snapped. "I'm fine. That's the last thing I'm worried about right now."

"When Emily was in the hospital, I didn't even make it to the ER before I phased again." Paul knew. He had to deal with the shithead. "So I understand-"

"I'm fine," Paul snapped. "I'm not the one dying on the operating table." Sam winced. Paul grabbed his cup and the food he had bought, marching to the waiting room where everyone was sitting. Paul sat heavily by Jake, and tore into his bag of chips.

"We can't keep eating this," Leah said quietly. "We've got to start eating real food or we'll never be in good enough shape to get any kind of news. What do you want? I'm getting take out."

She logged the data into her phone and her, Sue, and a stitched up Kim left with Jared. And Paul leaned back, his fingers thrumming against the armrest as he sipped from the cold coffee in his hand.

Angela arrived nearly five minutes later, and the first thing she was asked was what she wanted from the Chinese restaurant. "Really? I was in a car accident and you want to know what I'm going to eat?" Angela demanded. There was a pause, before she sighed. "Szechuan Chicken." Leah was notified and then there was a quiet pause as Angela didn't seem to know how to ask. "Bella?"

She was mostly looking to Paul for the answer, and Paul dropped his gaze, swallowing. "We haven't heard anything yet. Just what she was brought in with. She went to surgery." Angela glanced to Jake, who had spoken, and Paul shifted slightly in his seat, his fist crushing the empty coffee cup as he tried to figure out what to do. What to say.

He didn't need to.

"We… we can't do the wedding without Bella," Jake said quietly. Angela didn't even look up from their clasped hands. But everyone else had turned to look at them. "I can't. Bella's my best friend. I've almost died for her plenty of times… I'm not doing this wedding without her."

"She's the reason we even met," Angela continued, on board with Jake. "I was her first friend at high school..." She swallowed, shaking her head. "The wedding doesn't go on without Bella. I don't care if it's a year from now, or three years… No Bella, no wedding."

"But Ange.." Sue pressed gently. "The weddings only two weeks away. Bella could be fine."

"Then it'll go on, but… but if she's got a long recovery… Weddings have been canceled sooner. No, I agree with Jake. I can't… Bella's been like my sister all throughout our senior year. I helped her out of her Edward slump, she helped me out of my Ben slump. I just… I can't get married when the main reason Jake and I even met is in the hospital… and we don't even know what's wrong yet. No."

"Bella would have wanted the wedding to go on, and she's going to be fine," Charlie insisted. "A couple broken bones, but she'll live."

"So will I but we have everything. We're just maybe changing the date. We don't even know yet."

But they knew. And only because Paul felt like he was burning again, and practically falling out of his chair as he gave a whimper of pain, this time feeling like he was about to throw up. It lasted longer. He was absolutely certain of that. His heartbeat in his ears was so loud that he knew they could hear it. And he whispered Bella's name as he dug his fingers into the cheap carpet of the waiting room.

Fuck, where was Bella? Why was she… why was she dying? Weren't they fixing her?

"Paul?" Charlie's voice sounded. "Paul, what the hell? Someone get a nurse-"

"I'm fine," Paul ground out. He squeezed his eyes shut, realizing he was twisted at their feet. And after a moment of gaining his bearings, he pulled himself to his feet.

"What the fuck?" Jake breathed.

"Bella," Sam said quietly. "He…" Sam exhaled, glancing to Charlie and Sue. Sue knew about the wolves, but Charlie. "There's a lot you don't know about us, Charlie. But let's just say that Paul… You've heard the legends. Paul imprinted on Bella, and …"

"And that?" Charlie demanded, his voice hoarse. "What was that?"

"Her heart stopped," Paul said quietly, rubbing his chest. "It happened when I went to get coffee."

"Stopped?" Charlie said almost inaudibly. Paul swallowed. And Angela let out a sound before she started to cry into Jake's shoulder. "But… but that's not-"

"She's okay now," Sam said. "She's got to be, otherwise I don't think the feeling would have stopped." There was silence, save for Sam and Sue explaining a few choice things about the pack to Charlie. But the more Paul heard about how imprint worked – how it was so happy and everyone fell in love and it was the greatest thing in the world, the more he felt his blood boil. That wasn't them. That would never, ever be them.

Paul pushed himself to his feet. "Paul?"

"I really, really need to go outside," Paul spoke out between clenched teeth. After that, he was barely holding himself together.

"I assume you're all here for Bella," a new voice spoke. Fuck, couldn't they just have a break?

Paul tensed and Sam held onto his arm tightly. "How is she?" Charlie asked, standing as well.

"Well," Dr. Gerandy said carefully. "It's… not the best case we've gotten. She was in pretty bad shape and we worked on her for a very long time." Fuck, fuck, fuck. "We were able to stop the bleeding and get her swelling down. She has a shattered femur, left side of her pelvus, and her arm was broken in three places, as well as a shattered hand." Fuck. "Her skull had three fractures and her jaw was broken in two places." Holy shit. "The deer quite literally hit her."

"Oh, my God," Angela whispered.

"She's stable, but we had to put her in a medically induced coma to help her heal. It's a lot of damage and it is best until she's more managable in her injuries before we attempt to wake her."

"How… how long will she be under?"

"At this point, we're planning at least two weeks, but once we induce a coma, especially with her injuries, she could not wake for another month."

Coma? Bella was in… Fuck.

"I need to go outside." Sam didn't even get a chance to follow. Paul was dodging sick people as he burst out of the waiting room. And as soon as he hit the treeline, he exploded. And he did not even think about when he'd be turning back. He just knew that he needed to get as far away from the hospital as possible, before he hurt someone else.

This was all his fucking fault.

Check out my tumblr and twitter. I'll update there on when I will be posting an update pretty regularly.