Carlisle

Late morning, Esme came up to give us a hand with Rosalie. I felt we needed to do a little chest physiotherapy at this point to stimulate some coughs. I was trying to avoid the suctioning machine.

Edward and I positioned Rosalie onto her stomach and started a mixture of percussion and vibration on the chest wall from her back. The hope was that the lung would drain, and the mucus would move into the larger airway so it could be coughed up. I encouraged Rosalie to breathe deeply. The motions together helped stimulate a cough, so I stopped whilst Rosalie brought up the mucus.

Esme was at hand with a bowl and cloth to help clear Rosalie's nose and throat when she was coughing. "You're doing so well, Rose." She whispered gently.

The session took around 40 minutes. We were able to get a decent amount of mucus up, but Rosalie still sounded raspy.

"Why don't we try a shower?" Edward suggested. "The steam should help break up the mucus so it's easier to bring up."

I agreed that a shower was likely to be helpful. Due to Rosalie's disoriented state, she would need support from two people. I offered to support Esme.

We decided the ensuite in our bedroom was the best place. There was a shower head over our bath which meant Rosalie could still be sitting down. She was too weak to be able to stand unaided at the moment.

Rosalie was barely supporting her body weight on the short walk to the bathroom. She was heavily leaning against me. I supported her into the shallow water in the bathtub whilst Esme adjusted the shower head to the right temperature. "We may as well freshen up and have a hair wash whilst we're here, Rosalie." Esme smiled lightly.

A small smile tugged at the corner of Rosalie lips, but her eyes had remained closed the entire time as though they were too heavy for her to open. She was barely able to sit up; I had a firm hand against the middle of her back and was prepared to catch her with my other hand if she started to fall forwards. She was swaying and quite unaware of her surroundings, but she seemed to enjoy the feel of the warm water. It was hard to see her bones protruding and the still scattered bruises in various stages of healing along her body. She looked even more fragile in this state.

Esme was very gentle washing Rosalie's hair and body. She talked her through each step to help her feel involved.

The hot water did appear to be working. There were small amounts of secretion coming out of Rosalie's nose and she was trying to clear her throat and force a cough.

When we were done, I supported her out of the bathtub and held her upright so Esme could dress her. We then made our way back to Emmett's room where hopefully Rosalie felt things were more familiar.

Edward was there waiting and helped me attach Rosalie back up to the machines. Although she wasn't having a breathing episode, I decided to put the nasal cannula on her as the pneumonia would generally make it harder for her to breathe.

The rest of the day was spent monitoring Rosalie and her vital signs. We worked on percussion and vibration again after a few hours as Rosalie was still struggling to clear her lungs.

Emmett joined us when he got in from school. "How has she been?" He sat down and took Rosalie's hand in his.

She opened her eyes in response to the touch and smiled weakly when she saw who it was. She was much more aware now than she was this morning.

I gave him a run-down of how the day had gone and what the plans were moving forward. As it currently stood, Rosalie would likely need suctioning as the mucus would just keep blocking and building if she wasn't clearing it.

Emmett nodded but said nothing as he absorbed my words. This was all so new to him. Before Rosalie, he'd barely thought about humans and their lifestyle. He loved being a vampire so much he didn't usually think that much in depth about his life as a human.

Alice came in to see Rosalie as Edward and Esme were leaving the room. She offered to blow dry and braid Rosalie's hair as it was still damp from the shower.

I left them to talk and went to sit in my office. It was in close enough distance to be able to get back to them easily if needed, and I could still listen to make sure Rosalie was doing okay.

I stated working on the letters for our current patients at the facility. Thankfully, as they were outpatients, it was easy to transfer their sessions over to another hospital rather than the facility. There was just no viable way we were able to keep the facility running on our grounds now that Rosalie had become such an integral part of our lives. She needed our attention more than anyone, and we were still yet to tell her that her parents had abandoned her. I was in the process of filing for adoption, and I was contemplating whether there would ever be a right time to tell Rosalie. In normal circumstances, Rosalie had the capacity to make decisions for herself, but in her current state, her mental capacity was questionable. I couldn't trust that she would make decisions in the best interest of health and that was swaying me towards finalizing an adoption so that we could take over parental responsibility. It was a very complex situation.

At least with the letters for the facility sorted, we could work on transforming the building into something usable. Esme wanted to turn it into a smaller home so that each couple could have time alone from the main house. This was definitely a good idea, especially with Rosalie living with us. Eventually, perhaps Rosalie and Emmett would be able to stay in the smaller home together so that Rosalie wasn't around too many vampires, but we were a long way from that point at the moment.

I was slightly surprised that Rosalie hadn't asked for either of her parents, but for the most part she was usually quite out of it and in a dazed state. There also didn't seem to be much of a relationship between her and her parents so perhaps she wasn't missing them too much.

The rest of the evening continued smoothly. Rosalie remained stable and I was able to get on with my work regarding the facility, adoption and my work for the hospital.