Esme
The days passed painfully slowly with Rosalie in a coma. Nothing about her condition changed. The machines were doing all the work for her. I felt sick seeing her lifeless form with so many tubes and wires, but I felt less anxious knowing she was stable.
I changed her clothing every day and tried out different hairstyles, talking to her as I did it as Carlisle said she may be able to hear me. It felt strange to do so – as my musings fell onto silence, but it did help drown out the hum of the machines and Rosalie's forced breathing.
Alice felt confident enough to join me today. She stood in the doorway for a few seconds; taking in all the medical equipment, before inching closer to where I stood next to Rosalie. She seemed hesitant to touch Rosalie, as though she would break her, but I reassured her that she wouldn't cause any harm. I knew that Alice felt incredibly guilty about what had happened to Rosalie, but it wasn't her fault that the future was clouded and undecided. After all, if it hadn't been for her vision, we wouldn't have even known Rosalie was having a seizure in the first place, and I really didn't want to think about what would have happened.
Alice filled a bowl of warm water on my instruction and spent a little time picking out a body wash, shampoo and conditioner for Rosalie before coming back to join me at the bed. I'd decided that we would give Rosalie a body wash today as it had been a few days since she'd been sedated, and I wanted her to know and feel she was still being taken care of.
Alice worked on Rosalie's curls quietly. She carefully undid the braids, and then gently used a flannel to wet the hair. She then worked in the shampoo, going slow as though she thought she may hurt Rosalie. I couldn't recall ever seeing Alice so gentle and quiet – she was always such a bundle of energy.
I left her to it and started to gently wash Rosalie's body from head to toe. I moved clothing one section at a time to make sure her body wasn't fully exposed. I was very cautious of the tubes and wires, and it was still so difficult to see her this way. I talked her through what we were doing the entire time in the hope that she would hear me. I was almost expecting her to talk or move back but of course she didn't.
Alice blow-dried Rosalie's hair and then brushed it out against the pillow. "I'm not going to style it," she said, looking to me. "Seems a good idea to just let the curls rest naturally for now."
I nodded in agreement, a small smile on my face. We would have to prevent it from knotting eventually, but it seemed Alice was too concerned of hurting Rosalie to attempt a hairstyle. Emmett was just outside the door and rushed back in when he heard we were finished.
His eyes were darker, and he seemed restless – he hadn't hunted since he'd been back and was refusing to leave Rosalie's side. He would need to at some point, but I wasn't sure how we would convince him. He wouldn't be any good to Rosalie if he was starving.
Carlisle came in when Alice left to see if I would help him change Rosalie's position. It was important to keep moving her to prevent bed sores and any injuries considering she was unable to move her body herself. Carlisle moved Rosalie with the tubes and wires into a lateral position whilst I supported him and moved her clothing and hair appropriately as her body moved. I wanted her to be as comfortable as possible.
Carlisle had spoken to the school about Rosalie's quick decline of health, and they were understanding of this. They had also given all the other children authorized leave to support their sister to which I was thankful of because we were not going to convince any of them to go to school in this situation. Carlisle was also able to take a month's holiday off from the hospital without going into too much detail. He didn't want to tell them the truth about Rosalie's condition because realistically she should have been in hospital with how sick she was, but Carlisle was confident that he and Edward would be able to manage the situation at home. I knew it was also safer to have Rosalie home in case we did need to change her into a vampire. As much as I didn't want to think about that right now, it would be difficult to do that in the hospital.
I sat quietly on the chair by the window as Emmett perched on the bed with Rosalie. Carlisle knew there was no point asking Emmett to move, so he worked around him to sort out Rosalie's medication and feed for the day. He had a quick sweep over the wires and the monitors before coming to join me near the window. "My plan is to keep her sedated for around two weeks in total. By that point, her electrolytes should be a lot better, and the nutrition will have made her stronger. I'm hoping her body will be able to cope with her being awake – I don't see any reason why it wouldn't. I'll do another blood test a couple of days before I wake her just to check everything."
"What happens then?" I said, refusing to take my eyes from Rosalie as Emmett cuddled into her.
"We go with Rosalie's lead at that point." Carlisle mused. "It will take time after she's woken to figure out where we're at with her. To see if there's any lasting damage. It's a long road."
Rosalie would be okay, she had to be. We couldn't lose Rosalie. She had come so far yet we had failed to notice her get this severely ill and for that I felt so guilty. I was her adoptive mum – I was supposed to notice these things.
"Esme, stop." Carlisle touched my hand gently. He could tell by my face where my thoughts were going. "Everything will work out. It must."