Good evening every one and thank you again to all of you, my lovely readers. I'm really sorry for the delay as I meant to update much sooner, but distractions just keep getting in the way. Over time at work is good for the paycheck but not as much for my sanity as far as these stories go. Over the last few weeks, I've struggled to find the time and focus to lay out my stories like I normally do. With a quick rough draft to lay out my ideas, then on Fridays I put them all together into a final draft then edit and publish. Well, no more distractions! I am settled in with my glass of wine and committed to get this update done, darn it!

I do want to mention that when I rated this story I didn't foresee any lemony content so I did rate it a little low; however in hindsight I do see where even a K+ rating did not fit the last chapter. So I changed the rating to T to accommodate that more intense theme. I do try to be mindful of these things and I appreciate whichever Guest brought that to my attention, so thank you. With that said and done, onto our next chapter!

A/N: I do not own any part of Twilight, it's characters, or its themes; aside from the ones that I make up, those are mine.

Chapter Nine: The Emergency Room

Bella POV:

We ran at full stride toward the reservation, covering the miles swiftly. After stopping albeit reluctantly to retrieve clothes from Jake's house, we sprinted the rest of the way to the meeting house in our human forms. Once inside, we found Harry sitting with Billy, a worried expression etched behind his eyes. We nodded in greeting toward Sam, who loomed silently next to Billy, a confused expression on his own face and his brow furrowed. Immediately Jacob turned to Sam to ask for whatever information they had, but for the second time, before the words were out of his mouth, I was one step ahead of him.

I rushed to kneel in front of Billy, "What happened after we left earlier?" My outburst surprised everyone in the room; as I hadn't really been know for my boldness.

His dark eyes sized me up slowly, not immune to the pull of my assertive demeanor. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, "I'm not sure exactly. After you two walked out, he continually got angrier and angrier after we mentioned the, um, possibility that…um…"

"I know what the accusation was, Billy; I was here for that." I snapped, "And after that, what happened then?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Sam and Jacob exchange a loaded look, but I was focused on getting the information I needed out of Billy. "You haven't answered my question." He began to squirm under my glare, and although a small part in the back of my mind I recognized that this was far from what the relationship that Billy and I had ever been in the past; I didn't care. He cleared his throat in shift awkwardly.

"Well, he became even more upset after you left the room and the next thing I knew he grabbed his chest and his arm, then he was on the floor. We called the paramedics and they took him to the hospital. I'm no doctor, Bella honey, but he didn't look well. He still hadn't opened his eyes when they arrived, or even as they loaded him into the ambulance." His voice trailed off at the end and for a moment I pushed through my anger and forced myself to see the anxiety radiating from him. This was my dad's best friend; they had been best buddies for a very long time. I tried to imagine what it would feel like to see Jacob or one of the pack injured or in pain and the thought immediately kicked me in the gut. I placed a hand on his knee, causing him to flinch out of surprise.

"Thank you Billy, I'm going to go find out what happened. He nodded somberly and I turned, striding purposefully toward the door again. "Come on Jacob, we need to get to the hospital." I felt the pull of him behind me and outside as my bare feet hit the grass outside I was itching to phase again. Jake stopped me by placing a hand on my arm.

"No love, it wouldn't be wise; we'll take the rabbit. It could be dangerous for you to have to be around a lot of people coming straight from a heightened state like your wolf. Not to mention you're stressed which will add to it and make it harder to control your temper, trust me."

I groaned in agreement and we quickly ran back to his house, and rushing around to the garage we piled into his tiny car. Normally one wouldn't consider it that tiny but to share it with Jake, who just this summer had sprouted to over six feet tall made space pretty tight. He pulled smoothly out of the driveway and out toward the highway. Once there, he sprayed gravel into the air as he kicked it into high gear. The jolt threw my back into my seat but I wasn't afraid, I was grateful. Grateful that someone was in as much of a hurry as I was, finally! The thought of my dad in the hospital terrified me, and my mind ran rapid with each of the scenarios that I might find once we arrived.

Jake startled me out of my dreadful visions when he took my hand into his, "He'll be okay, love. Charlie is strong, he's just had a lot to deal with today, and that's all. Sure a lot more than he's used to, I'd say. And quite honestly I almost ended up on the floor myself with the outlandish accusations the council was throwing at him. I was so embarrassed for them, for their assumptions. But listen; let's not assume the worst until we know for sure. We'll be there in just a few more minutes."

I attempted and failed at flashing him a reassured smile, and he reneged; leaving us to sit in a tense but companionable silence the rest of the way to the ER. Once there, Jake dropped me off at the entrance so I could run inside while he parked the car. Jogging to the nurses' station, I found two nurses chattering animatedly while one filled in information on a patient's chart, while another clicked away on her computer. "Excuse me, I'm looking for Charlie…um, Charles Swan." The nurse with the chart did not even look up before she responded.

"Yes ma'am and you are?"

"I'm his daughter, Bella Swan."

"And when was he brought in?"

Her apathetic attitude was beginning to make my blood boil. "He came in my ambulance it must've been about an hour ago, he was having chest pains and he lost consciousness." I looked down at her name tag and quickly learned her name to be Betty R. I mustered the sweetest smile I could manage, although she still had not managed to look up at me. "And nurse Betty, is it? Well if you could just direct me to where I could find him that would great? Please." I smiled again at the nurse on the computer who had stopped typing and stared, listening to our conversation.

Nurse Betty finally met my worried glare, after feeling it pierce the side of her head no doubt, and smiled a very practiced and plastic smile. "Well, Miss Swan, is it? If you will wait your pretty little head one minute here I'll be happy to take a look and see if we can get you where you need to go. How's that?" With that she returned to her forms and their conversation resumed.

I could feel my blood reach a mercurial point and I tried taking a couple deep breaths to calm myself all the while chanting, "Murder is a crime, get to Charlie. Murder is a crime, get to Charlie. Murder is a crime, get to Charlie." Sadly even the thought of serious jail time was not a deterrent enough to keep my subconscious from imagining me leaping over the counter and on top of dear Nurse Betty and her companion, Nurse Chatterbox. Lucky for the two of them, Jacob walked up behind me wrapped his arm lazily around my waist.

"So, find out anything?" He asked leaning in to kiss my forehead.

"No," I huffed. "Nurse Betty over here doesn't feel we are a priority apparently."

He smiled tenderly, "Let me give it a try, hun."

Placing his hands on my hips he pulled me gently to the side, and leaned over the counter. His towering form caught their attention and neither one could help but to have to lean back to look into his eyes. "Excuse me, could either one of you lovely ladies point me in the direction of Dr. Carlisle Cullen?" Nurse Chatterbox flushed immediately and shuffled some paperwork around, looking for something. "Oh, um, yes sir. Let me…um…let me get his…uh, uh, uh..his, uh…"

"Schedule?" I suggested sardonically and that seemed to start her brain working again.

"Schedule!" Smiling sweetly again at Jake she attempted to shuffle the large pile of forms and charts on her desk out of the way of her keyboard which only resulted in her spilling paperwork everywhere. Both she and Nurse Betty dove down scampering to gather them back together.

"Dear God in heaven! Can someone please just tell me where my father is?" My body began to tremble uncontrollably until I was started by a voice from behind me; which caused me to turn around suddenly. Rising from his seat directly behind me in a row of chairs assembled in neat rows along the back wall, Edward rose lithely.

"Why, hello Bella. He's in the OR with my dad, he's the doctor. They had to pull him into emergency surgery."

I stood confused for a moment. How is it that Edward Cullen the random, creepy, irritating boy from my Biology class knows more about my dad than Nurse Talks-a-lot and Nurse Betty combined? Jacob stroked my shoulder gently but I could feel the tension mounting, and if I were on four legs the hackles on the back of my neck would've been standing straight up. I hated having to even talk to this boy, considering how our last encounter had gone I didn't foresee them getting any better. But in order to avoid Tweedledum and Tweedledee who were still trying to bring order to the scattered pile of paperwork on the floor, it appears that I would have endure him just a little longer.

"Okay Edward, start talking."