Sorry this one took a whole week. Bella and Carlisle and I were arguing about what happens next (now that they've thrown off my master plan) and then Bella went and got Edward involved and I pretty much got ganged up on. Some of this will look familiar as it is from the book (fun fact: my copy is in storage right now but I was lucky enough to have been gifted Life and Death so this chapter could be saved!). Also, I know that some of you are worried about the age thing. Relax, guys. I got this. Also, a HUGE thank you to MandaRinne who not only demanded this story (although her request was a lot less angst filled) but who tells me when I'm being stupid.
The song for this chapter is Survivor by 2WEI.
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Disclaimer: I'm only doing this for a friend. I don't get anything from it but her undying appreciation. I certainly don't get to have fun with Emmett and the boys in my head.
Chapter Eighteen: Survivor
BPOV
When I woke up the next morning, I was confused at first. I glanced around Carlisle's bedroom in confusion before the events of the night came crashing back.
It was empty.
I noticed the vacant couch and open -empty -bathroom. I fell back against the pillows and something crinkled and poked me in the shoulder. I grabbed the offending item and found a folded paper with my name written beautifully. I unfolded it, my hands shaking slightly.
Bella,
I'm sorry to miss you this morning but I was called in for emergency surgery. I would love to see you later, if you'd permit me.
Don't let my children hassle you. You have my permission to ground each of them for eternity.
Yours,
Carlisle
My heart pounded in my chest as I read and re-read his words.
Even his penmanship was beautiful.
Weren't doctors supposed to have terrible handwriting?
I closed my eyes, losing myself in memories of last night. His hands gently cradling my head while he kissed me languidly, like he had all the time in the world to memorize me down to the last detail. It had been better than any fantasy I had ever imagined. He hadn't made any declarations to me but at the same time, he'd pretty much told me that he felt as strongly about me as I felt for him.
A knock at the door interrupted my reminiscing and I jumped.
"Bella," asked Alice loudly. "Are you up?"
"Yeah, come on in," I called out, well aware that my entire body felt like it had flushed.
I kissed her dad last night!
She opened the door and ran to hop onto the bed, perfectly graceful and more coordinated than I could ever hope to be.
"Morning, sleepyhead! Charlie called and asked if we could give you a ride home before school so you could change and grab your truck. He said he had to get in early since it snowed a little and the roads got icy last night. It usually means more accidents because people think they can drive like usual." I wondered when he'd gotten home last night. It had been pretty late when he called and I'd already been thinking of asking Alice to drive me home.
"That'd be great. I'll change and we can go." Her face fell dramatically.
"Esme put your clothes in the washing machine last night and forgot to switch them over," she admitted apologetically. "They're still wet. You'll have to wear those home and change." I looked down at Carlisle's shirt and then back up at her, my eyes narrowing suspiciously. She just smiled at me serenely and I wondered if any of the kids knew what had happened last night?
Surely Carlisle hadn't said anything.
Right?
I shrugged, still suspicious. She and Edward had been sneaky and deceptive and I found myself questioning anything involving Carlisle and myself when they were involved.
"Okay. Let's go." She beamed and hopped off the bed. I followed her downstairs, running into Edward in his pajamas at the bottom of the stairs.
"Well, good morning," he said with an unnaturally bright smile on his face. "Did you sleep okay last night? When did you and Carlisle finally get to bed," he asked suggestively, waggling his eyebrows at me and I moved past him, pretending I couldn't feel the telltale blush on my cheeks.
"You're grounded," I said flatly.
"You're not my mom," he argued.
"Nope but Carlisle gave me permission to punish you. So I hope you don't have plans anytime soon because you're under house arrest." He stared after me as I followed Alice to the door to put on my shoes and jacket.
"I take it back. I don't like you and my dad together." I laughed and gave him my sweetest smile.
"Should have thought of that before, buster." I followed Alice out to Edward's car and we headed down the drive towards my house.
When we pulled up, I hopped out.
"Want me to wait for you," Alice asked.
"No, I'm going to drive. I might stop and see Charlie after school. See you at school!" I headed up the walk as she drove away. When I got inside and up to my room, I grabbed a sweater and some jeans. I began to change but paused when I pulled the t-shirt off my head and buried my face in it, inhaling deeply.
I needed to figure out what cologne Carlisle used and buy a bottle.
So I could smell it and think of him.
Like a creeper.
The man had no business walking around looking like that and smelling like aged oak barrels, rich whiskey and books.
I shook myself out of my thoughts and finished changing, stuffing Carlisle's shirt under my pillow.
I should at least wash it before returning it. That was only polite.
I grabbed my backpack and shoes, stopping in the kitchen to grab an apple and biting into it while making my way to my truck. I hopped in and drove to school, going slower than my usual snail pace in case there was black ice on the roads. I pulled into the school and parked. I hopped out, walking to the front of my car and looking down at the tire. There was a set of chains wrapped around it. I checked the other three tires and felt my eyes get hot.
Charlie had put chains on my tires. I don't know when he got home but I couldn't imagine he'd gotten nearly enough sleep. And yet, he'd taken the time this morning to make sure that I would make it to school safely. The gesture touched me deeply and I wiped my eyes gingerly before anyone could see and wonder what was wrong with me. I looked up and around, checking to see if anyone noticed. My gaze met Edward's several cars away and he was staring at me, brow furrowed in concern. I shook my head with an eye roll, dreading having to explain that I was emotional over snow chains.
I was standing by the back corner of the truck, trying to compose myself when I heard a strange sound. It was a high-pitched screech, and almost as soon as I registered it, the sound was already painfully loud. I looked up, startled.
I saw several things simultaneously. Nothing was moving in slow motion, the way it does in the movies. Instead, the adrenaline rush seemed to make my brain work faster and I was able to absorb in clear detail a few things all at once.
Edward was still standing four cars down from me, mouth open in horror. His face stood out from a sea of faces, all frozen in the same mask of shock. Also, a dark blue van was skidding, tires locked and squealing against eh brakes, spinning wildly across the ice of the parking lot. It was going to hit the back corner of my truck, and I was standing between them. I didn't' have time to close my eyes.
Just before I heard the shattering crunch of the van folding around the truck bed, something hit me, hard, but not from the direction I was expecting. My head cracked against the icy blacktop, sending pain shooting down my neck and white spots across my vision. I felt something solid and cold pinning me to the ground. I realized I was lying on the pavement behind the tan car I'd parked next to. But I didn't have a chance to notice anything else, because the van was still coming. It had curled gratingly around the end of the truck and, still spinning and sliding, was about to collide with me again.
"Come on!" He said the words so quickly I almost missed them, but I recognized him immediately.
Edward.
His hands shot out in front of me, and the van shuddered to a stop a foot from my face, his pale hands fitting exactly into a deep dent in the side of the van's body.
Then his hands moved so fast they blurred. One was suddenly gripping unde the body of the van, and something was dragging me, swinging my legs around like a rag doll's, till they hit the tire of the tan car. There was a groaning metallic thud so loud it hurt my ears, and the van settled, glass popping onto the asphalt -exactly where, a second ago, my legs had been.
It was absolutely silent for one long second. Then the screaming started. In the abrupt chaos, I could hear more than one person shouting my name.
"Bella? Are you alright," Edward's frantic voice said in my ear.
"M-my head," I whimpered as the aching intensified with the screaming.
"Just lay here. Carlisle will get you all fixed up," he promised me.
"How in the…" I trailed off, trying to clear my head, get my bearings. "How did you get over here so fast?" He frowned at me.
"I was standing next to you," he said seriously. I pushed against him, but I couldn't even budge his arm. He took the hint though and climbed off me gently, sitting next to me so I could still look at him without moving. I noted his concerned, innocent expression and tried to remember what we had been talking about.
Then they found us; a crowd of people with tears streaming down their faces, shouting at each other, shouting at us.
"Don't move," someone instructed.
"Get Tyler out of the van," someone else shouted. There was a flurry of activity around us that was making my head spin more. I tried to get up but Edward's hand pushed me back down.
"Just wait for help."
"But it's cold," I complained. He laughed and I cringed as the sound rang around my head like the clashing of symbols.
"Sorry," he apologized, concern taking over his features again.
"You were over there," I suddenly remembered. His frown deepened. "You were by your car."
"No. I wasn't," he said lowly.
"I saw you." Everything around us was confusion. My head throbbed like it might just burst into a million pieces. I could hear the lower voices of adults arriving. But I stubbornly held onto this argument.
"Bella, I was standing with you and I pulled you out of the way."
He stared at me, ochre eyes flashing with… something.
My head hurt so much.
"That's' not what happened," I said weakly.
"Please, Bella."
"Why," I asked.
"Trust me," he pleaded. I could hear sirens now, the sounds intensifying the pain in my head.
"Will you explain everything to me later?"
"For Carlisle," he asked quietly and I sighed.
"Fine," I mumbled, unable to process the conversation any further with the wailing of the sirens drowning out all thought.
It took six EMTs and two teachers to shift the van far enough away from us to bring the stretchers in. Edward insisted he hadn't been touched and told them I'd hit my head. He threw around words like concussion and hemorrhage. They strapped a neck brace on and loaded me onto a stretcher while the whole school watched. I was loaded into the back while Edward conned a seat in the front of the ambulance. Only a few minutes into the swaying of the ambulance's journey to Forks hospital, I felt the swirling in my head get worse and the sensation was mirrored in my stomach. I choked out a request for a bag and an EMT helped me lean over and vomit into a blue emesis bag. I laid back, tears streaming down my face. I reached up to wipe them away and gasped as white hot pain shot up my arm.
"My wrist," I cried out and the EMT began to probe gently, each painful prod sending more pain up my arm and into my fingertips.
"I think you broke it," he said. "We'll have them get xrays when we get there." I sagged, brain unable to process anything more that he was saying as we pulled up to the emergency entrance. He and the other EMT unloaded me and wheeled me through the ER doors. Charlie was waiting on the other side, face drawn with anxiety.
"Bella," he yelled in panic when he saw me. I winced at the sudden noise and he ran to my side, taking my hand gently.
"I'll be okay, Dad," I murmured, attempting to reassure him. He rounded on the nearest EMT to get a full report but I tuned them out, considering the jumble of absurd images churning in my brain.
Things that were impossible.
When they'd lifted the van away from us, I saw the deep dent in the tan car's bumper.
A very distinct dent that fit the broad shape of Edward's shoulders.
As if he'd braced himself against the car with enough force to damage the frame.
And then there had been his family, standing in the distance. They'd all been horrified but I couldn't miss the disapproval on any of their faces.
I remembered the sensation of almost flying through the air, the hard mass that had pinned me to the ground.
Edward's hand under the frame of the van, like he was holding it off the ground.
I tried to think of a logical explanation of what I had seen. All I could come up with was a psychotic episode.
It was bound to happen eventually.
They transferred me into a bed, the curtains drawn on one side but open to the rest of the floor on the other two. Nurses and aides came and went, checking my vitals and asking me questions. I looked around for Edward awkwardly but didn't see him anywhere. Charlie came up to my bedside and patted my head softly.
"I have to go to the school to do a report on the accident. Edward promised to stay with you until I get back."
"Okay, Dad," I said softly and he smiled, eyes bright.
"I'm glad you weren't hurt worse, Bells." He kissed the crown of my head and turned to leave.
"He, Dad," I said a little louder to get his attention. He turned back to me. "Thanks for putting snow chains on my truck this morning." His mouth twitched and he pursed his lips before nodding.
"No problem," he said, voice choked before he walked away briskly out the ER doors. I closed my eyes against the bright lights. I heard as they wheeled in someone else next to me.
"Oh my god, Bella! Is she dead," I heard a frantic voice ask and I opened my eyes to see Tyler Crowley from my Government class staring at me in horror from the bed next to mine. He looked awful, cuts on his head and completely shaken.
"I'm not dead," I said tiredly.
I'd kill for a nap though.
"I thought I was going to kill you! I was going too fast and I hit the ice wrong." He winced as a nurse started dabbing at the cuts on his face.
"Don't worry about it; you missed me."
"How did you get out of the way so fast? You were there and then you were gone…"
"Oh, um, Edward pulled me out of the way. He was standing next to me."
"Edward? I didn't even see him… wow, it was all so fast, I guess. Is he okay?"
"Yeah. He's around here somewhere."
I knew I wasn't crazy. Tyler hadn't seen Edward anywhere near me.
They wheeled me away to get an xray of my head and wrist. I laid back and just closed my eyes, exhaustion tugging at me. The nurses kept coming in to wake me up until a doctor came to see me. Tyler repeatedly apologized until the pain in my head was reaching intolerable levels.
"Is she sleeping," a familiar voice asked but I didn't open my eyes.
"I feel like I'm being stabbed," I complained to him.
"How do you even know what being stabbed feels like?"
"I think I actually hate you," I grumbled as the sound of the curtain closing between my ebd and Tyler's et ym sensitive ears.
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that. Especially when I brought you something to make you feel better," he singsonged at me.
"What would that be?"
"Bella?" I opened my eyes and turned my head slightly to see Carlisle standing by the foot of my bed, chart in hand and gorgeous face blank but I could see oceans of worry and fear in his golden eyes.
"Carlisle," I breathed and it came crashing down on me that the last time I had seen his perfect face, we'd been lying in his bed together, kissing languidly before I'd fallen asleep in his arms. I felt a sudden onslaught of emotions; embarrassment, anxiety, relief, stress, desire. He came closer, setting the chart at my feet and pulling out a penlight from his pocket.
"How do you feel," he asked as he shined the light in my eyes. I shied away from the brightness, the feeling of stabbing seeming to come directly from the beams of light hitting my pupils.
"My eyebrows don't hurt," I said, attempting to gain control of myself through sarcasm. The corner of his mouth lifted and I saw his shoulders loosen in relief. He placed his cold hands to my head and I wanted to cry in relief. He probed gently, apologizing when his fingers came into contact with the tender spots and I whimpered.
"Your x rays show a pretty nasty concussion," he said. "And your wrist is definitely broken. I'm going to have to put it in a cast. And I want to keep you overnight for observation." I groaned and stared at the ceiling.
I hated hospitals.
"I know it hurts, but you have to stay awake," he instructed apologetically and I looked back at him. Flashes of memory from last night flashed into my mind and I felt a telltale blush starting. He smirked slightly before grabbing my chart and writing in it. "It could have been so much worse," he said and it almost sounded like he was reassuring himself.
"Well, I was lucky Edward was there," I said with a scowl. Carlisle's hand stilled for a moment before continuing.
"Thank heaven for that," he said and my heart dropped.
He knew something.
He knew or had an idea of what had happened but wasn't saying anything, just like his son.
"I'll come check on you later," he promised, eyes soft as he placed his hand over mine. It felt like heaven. He left to see Tyler and Edward sat on the edge of my bed.
"I'm really happy you're okay," he said.
"You owe me an explanation," I said with a glare.
"Um, I just saved your life. I don't owe you anything. You on the other hand have to be my slave for eternity." I pinned him with a look, although it was hard when there were two of him. "Bella, you hit your head. Hard. I think you're confused about what happened."
"I'm concussed, not deranged," I snapped.
"What do you want from me, Bella," he asked tiredly.
"I want to know the truth. I want to know why I'm lying for you." He flinched.
"What do you think happened?"
"You weren't anywhere near me. Tyler didn't see you either, so I'm not just forgetting or didn't notice you. That van would have crushed us both but it didn't. I saw the dents that your hands left in the side of it. You held it up so it wouldn't crush my legs…" I trailed off, fully aware that anyone who heard would probably want me committed.
"You think I lifted a van off you," he asked incredulously. But he was still tense.I just waited, silence filling the small space between us. "Nobody will believe that," he said tensely.
"I'm not going to tell anyone." He watched me intently. "Thank you," he finally said.
"I still want to know," I whispered.
"I… I can't, Bella," he said, eyes pleading for understanding. I closed my eyes, exhaustion overwhelming me once more.
"I'm going to… figure it out," I promised and I just heard him sigh.
"I know," he finally whispered.