Chapter Seventeen

My hands were shaking as I held the phone and listened to the sobbing on the other end. I felt like I was going to throw up, but I had to keep myself together for her.

"I am so sorry." I said to her.

"I-I can't believe this… I just… I just saw him Wednesday!" She sobbed.

"I know. I am so sorry. He was a very good man." I told her.

"H-How did it happen?"

"I'm not sure about that," I told her. "The hospital is going to know more about it."

"Which hospital is he at?"

"They took him to Saint Andrews. It right down the road from here." I said. "Would you like me to call them and tell them that you're coming?"

"N-no I'll call." She sniffled. "Thank you for everything you've done for him. He really liked you. He talked about you all the time."
I smiled softly. "He was very sweet. I liked him a lot."

"I'm going to hop off here now." She said. "Thank you."

"Of course." I said before hanging the phone up. I put my face against my hands and started taking some deep breaths.

"You okay?" A deep, tired voice asked, causing me to jump.

"E-Edward," I said, my voice cracking as I looked up to see him leaning against the doorframe for support. "You shouldn't be standing."

I sped over to him and grabbed him by the arm to help him back to bed. His arm was very heavy, much like a dead weight, which was pretty accurate. I wasn't sure how he was even holding himself up right now.

Edward let me walk him over to the bed and help him lay down. One look at his face told me that he was still completely out of it. His eyelids were very heavy, and he was struggling to sit up.

"Lay back down Edward," I said as I gently pushed against his chest.

As he fell back against the pillow, one of his big arms wrapped around my waist, and pulled my upper half against his torso. I blushed and tried to push away from him, but his damn arm was too heavy.

"Why you cryin?" He asked in a low, sleepy voice. I looked up to see his eyes were closed and his head was leaning over as if he were asleep. I wasn't completely sure if he was actually awake.

"Edward, move your arm," I said sternly.

Edward did move his arm, unfortunately, he moved it so more of my body was laying on top of his very firm, muscular body.

"Whoa," I said quietly under my breath as I placed both my hands on his chest and felt the extremely rock-hard muscles underneath his shirt.

Edward had completely passed out again and fortunately, his arms fell to his sides. I scrambled to get off him before anyone saw, but I'm not so lucky.

"Are we interrupting?" A familiar voice asked with a slight chuckle.

I was red from head to toe at this point and praying for a bolt of lightning to strike me down right now. I quickly jumped to my feet and straightened out my scrubs.

Carlisle, Esme, and a man in a suit were standing in the main office, looking in through the open door. I cleared my throat.

"Just give me a second, I need to hook him back up to the heart monitor. And the IV." I sighed. Edward must've woken up but wasn't in his right mind. It didn't look like he ripped out his IV, instead, it looked as if he just walked away from it, and it tugged out.

Esme walked into the room. She was wearing a new expression upon her face today. One of pure rage. I felt small in her death glare as she looked over the room.

"Where is that bastard who did this to my son?" She demanded, her voice cutting through the air like glass.

"Riley went to the hospital," I said as I fixed Edward up. I went ahead and checked his vitals as well, lifting his lids and listening to his breathing. Everything was fine. He was just deeply asleep.

"Is my son alright?" She asked as she walked over and placed her hands on his face. "He's hot. Why is he so hot?"

"It's normal after receiving a tranquilizer to have a slight fever. I've been monitoring him."

"Will he overheat?" She asked as she placed the back of her hand to his forehead. "He has to be at least a hundred and one."

"He's one hundred point nine," I said before chuckling. "Good mom thermometer."

"Will he overheat?" She asked again, clearly not in a laughing mood.

"No, he won't. His temperature has actually gone down. It was a hundred and two an hour ago." I said. "I'm monitoring him very closely. Everything is good, he's just very deeply asleep."

"When will he wake up?" She demanded.

"I can't say. It could be another hour, or six." I said. "It's hard to tell with the tranquilizers. And with the mid-dose tranq. he's been taking on a regular basis, it's hard to say."

"Why were you laying on him when we walked in?"

My face turned beet red again. "That was an accident. He woke up for a few minutes, but he was still really out of it. I helped him back into the bed and he just grabbed me and pulled me on top of him. I swear. There's a camera and everything that can prove it."

Okay. Angry Mrs. Cullen was kind of terrifying. I felt like I was in a lot of trouble, even though I hadn't done anything. I didn't peg her as the type to be so scary.

"Leave the girl alone, Esme," Carlisle said as he walked into the room. "Edward's okay. He's tough."

"I don't care." Esme snapped at him, nearly spitting. "My son could have died! Do you not understand that?"

"I do," Carlisle said softly as he placed his hands on her shoulders and his lips against her forehead before whispering. "I understand you're upset, but it's time to calm down."

Esme exhaled sharply, annoyed by Carlisle's request. But it seemed to work. She relaxed her shoulders and looked back at Edward without saying another word.

"Miss Swan?" The man in the suit said as he walked into room, his hand extended. "I'm J. Jenks. The Cullen's attorney and a very old family friend."

"Nice to meet you," I said as I took his hand. "If you're here to tell me that you're going to sue me because of what happened to Edward, I'll save you the trouble by telling you that I live in a crappy studio apartment and I have like forty bucks in my savings account."

He laughed. "No, no. We are not filing a lawsuit against you. We would simply like to get your side of the story during the assault."

"Oh," I frowned. "Okay, who are you filing a lawsuit with?"

"Doctor Riley Biers and this facility." He said. "Could we sit and take your statement? Just so we're prepared in court."

I felt my gut clench. I followed him out to the main office area and sat at the table.

"Look, I don't want to get involved with any of this," I said, my mouth dry. "I need this job I can't be involved in a lawsuit against this place. I'm sorry."

Carlisle sat down beside Jenks. Esme stayed in the room with Edward, stroking his hair gently.

"Oh not to worry, Miss Swan. We're not technically suing this facility; we're suing the insurance company that protects its medical staff. It is clear that Dr. Biers is not fit to be in this facility."

I took a deep breath. "Is this going to somehow come back on me? I mean… I don't want my license to get snatched or something."

"No, this shouldn't come back to hurt your nursing career." Jenks said. "You were the only physical witness that was there. I'm sure the police will need your statement as well."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Alright. Fine. What all do you need to know?"

"Just tell us what happened. From the beginning." Jenks said as he pulled out a tape recorder.

"Uh, well, Edward had come in for dinner, as he usually did before he had to take his pill—,"

"And how many meals does he have in the medical office?"

"Just breakfast and dinner."

"How long as that been happening?"

"Two and a half weeks? About that time. He's in here a lot."

"Mm, so he and Riley have interacted with each other before the incident?"

"Yeah, they interact a lot. Riley has given Edward his medicine too."

"How often does he give Edward Cullen his medicine?"

"He gave it to him one time when I was running late from the med drop off."

"Only once?"

"Riley struggled with the medicine, so he just let me do it."

"How was Riley's attitude towards Mr. Cullen?"

I thought about that for a minute. "Well, it was clear that Riley didn't like Edward. Why I'm not sure. I think it bugged him that he was allowed to have frozen meals."

"Why would that bug him?"

"Because he had written me up for giving Edward a meal that hadn't been authorized by the jail. But then the warden took the warning back and ordered a freezer and put me in charge of ordering frozen meals for inmates who struggle to eat the food the prison provides. Anytime Edward ate the food that was served here, he got really, really sick."

"And this angered Dr. Biers?"

"The warden made him apologize to me for writing him up. I think that really pissed him off."

Jenks nodded. "Before this incident, had there been any other physical altercations between the two of them?"

"No, nothing physical has happened before. But Riley always kind of pushed Edward. Like he would say things that would piss him off."

"What kind of things?"

I tapped my chin as I thought about this. "Um, well, whenever he needed Edward to do something he would command him to do it instead of asking."

"Can you be more specific?"

I sighed. "Hm, well, for instance, if Edward and I would get caught up talking and he wouldn't eat fast enough or not at all, Riley would snap his fingers at Edward and tell him to eat very harshly."

"So would you say Dr. Biers tried to intentionally rile Edward up?"

"Yeah," I sighed with a nod. "I told Riley not to be so harsh with the inmates here, but I don't think he understood that the men in this facility are much more violent than the women he's used to treating."

"And how do you handle the inmates here? How do you get them to do as you ask?"

"I ask them politely. If they don't listen the first time, I'll ask them again a little more firmly. And if they still don't listen then I call a P.O. to assist. That's what we're supposed to do."

"Now, onto the incident." Jenks said. "I know I cut you off, but would you mind starting from the beginning? Knowing the time of the incident will help us as well."

"Edward came in for dinner at six, like normal. The P.O. dropped him off because Edward isn't considered a violent inmate and he's in here all the time without any issues. Riley and I were already kind of bickering because, well, the two of us didn't get along so great. It always pissed Edward off how he talked to me, but Edward did a great job controlling his temper. He never said anything before now."

"So, what happened? What caused Edward to react in the way he did?"

"Riley and I were arguing, and I think what pushed Edward over the edge was Riley calling me a bitch."

Carlisle's and Jenks' eyebrows raised in unison.

"I'm guessing he's never said that to you before?" Jenks asked.

"No, he would always just say I had an attitude problem, but he never called me a bitch. I think we both just reached out boiling points."

Jenks nodded. "Now, after Dr. Biers called you a bitch, that's when Edward reacted. Could you explain the incident from there?"

"Sure," I nodded. "Uh, Riley called me a bitch and Edward jumped to his feet. He knocked everything off the table then stormed at Riley, but he stopped before he got to close. I turned my back on Riley to stand in front of Edward to try and deescalate him. He was pissed but he wasn't attacking at that point. I was telling both of them that they needed to calm down, but then all of a sudden, Edward knocked me aside and tackled Riley to the ground."

"Did you get the tranquilizer and inject Edward?"

"Oh no, I didn't have the tranq." I said. "Riley had pulled it out when Edward got to his feet."

"Now, is that protocol?"

"No, it's not." I sighed. "If an inmate is raging, we're not allowed to tell them we're going to hit them with a tranquilizer because research has shown that it escalates patients instead of calms them. Now, when Edward tackled Riley, he was allowed to hit him with the tranquilizer to protect himself."

"Did Dr. Biers tell Edward he was going to hit him with the tranq."

"Yeah, he did several times, which seemed to egg Edward on even more."

"In your opinion, do you think Dr. Biers antagonized Edward to attack him?"

I rubbed my jaw for a moment as I thought about this. "Well, before Edward attacked him, definitely. Riley was trying to assert himself by using his position to tell Edward what to do. And then when Edward was visibly angry, he continued to escalate the situation by pulling the tranquilizer out and threatening him with it. But when I was facing Edward and talking to him, he seemed to be in control of himself before he suddenly attacked Riley."

"And do you know why he suddenly lunged at Dr. Biers?"

I shook my head. "I don't. I was—,"

When I heard a loud, steady beep, I immediately jumped to my feet and ran into the room where Edward was sleeping.