Chapter 3~ A Race Against Time
“Carlisle!”
He was in the living room in a flash; fighting to get his sweater over his head fast enough. He was dressed in a pair of Dockers with a polo shirt under the sweater.
“Alice , what is it?!?” his voice full of concern.
“It’s Bella! She’s dying!”
Jasper was holding her shoulders trying to intensify his gift as he attempted to balance her panic with his calm.
“Where is she, Alice ?” Emmett called out as he joined the others in front of her.
“She’s in the meadow; Edward’s meadow.” They looked at her in confusion before she continued. “The one off of Route 101.”
Emmett didn’t hesitate to race for the door with Jasper and Carlisle fast on his heels. He was not going to lose his little sister after everything that had happened. He reached for the door…
“STOP!” Alice demanded, “You can’t all go! She cut her wrists. There is blood everywhere! If you all go, you will kill her!”
They froze in place at her words. Jasper felt his own panic rise. As much as he wanted to help, he knew what happened last time and there was no way that he would risk Bella like that again. He found himself backing away from the door without making the conscious decision to do so.
“I can handle it.” Emmett said with determination.
Rosalie rushed to his office for his black doctor’s bag and forced it into his open hand a second later. He looked into her soulful, golden eyes and saw her silent plea. Please save her, Carlisle . We can’t lose her too. He let his free hand rest on hers for a moment conveying his understanding and his promise to do all that he could. Then he turned back to Alice .
“What is the fastest way for me to get to her, Alice ?”
“Follow the path along the river till it forks by the large patch of Sitka trees with the cracked boulder that Emmett hit, then go to your left. Follow the trail about six miles and the scent of her blood will lead you to her. Hurry Carlisle ! I didn’t see this in time. She is already fading. Go!”
The keening sound of the wooden frame of the door echoed through the house as Carlisle ripped it off the hinges not caring what damage he left in his wake. He flew through the woods pushing his body to unprecedented speeds. The air screamed past him as he cut through the forest. Nothing was left standing in his wake. His clothes tore as he ripped branches off their trunks. Boulders exploded into millions of shards as he plowed into them. He had one thought and one thought only. I must save our Bella. He didn’t question his motives; he only focused on saving her life.
He came to the group of Sitkas and the cracked boulder then immediately veered left. He ran even harder and faster. His body had the grace of a gazelle but the destructive power of ten charging bulls. The smell of her blood hit him like a brick wall causing him to stumble back for a split second. He composed himself and continued on his race against time. The sound of her heartbeat slowing down rang in his ears like the toll of a great clock. She was fading fast. Just then he breeched the line of trees that opened into the meadow. The smell of her sweet blood hung in the air like a dense fog. He had been exposed to it before, but not at this magnitude. He understood why Alice insisted that the others stay behind. There was no way they could have fought temptation and he would have had to struggle to stop them while trying to save her life. It wasn’t often that the smell of human blood caused the burn in his throat to rise above the constant low hum that he was always aware of, but this was different. If felt like he swallowed hot lava. Carlisle was distracted from his thirst when he saw her. She was lying in the center of the clearing; unmoving with the exception of her chestnut hair blowing in the soft breeze. He was by her side in an instant; assessing her wounds and her vitals. He could tell she had lost a significant amount of blood; possibly too much for her small stature. He attempted to wake her up.
“Bella. Bella, sweetheart, please wake up for me. Please,” he begged her as he examined her wounds.
They were deep; straight to the vein. She had sliced diagonally from her wrist to just before the crook of her elbow; ensuring that she severed the vein. He knew this was not a ‘cry for help’. This was an honest to goodness attempt to end her life. He would not allow that. He had already lost too much, and he refused to lose her too. Carlisle took a deep breath that caused the fire in his throat to burn once more, and with as much strength as he could muster, demanded that she acknowledge him.
“Damn it Bella, you will wake up! I will not let you go!”
Her eyes fluttered then opened slowly but only part of the way. She saw skin that sparkled in the sun giving the illusion of a glowing ora and intense golden eyes. She knew he was with her and would bring her home. She gave a feeble smile as her body was so weak.
“Edward,” was all she said before she passed back out.
“No sweetheart, it’s not Edward,” he spoke as he grabbed supplies from his bag, “I am here, and I am going to help you. Today is not your day to die. I will not allow it.” He said with conviction.
He worked at lightning speed; tearing the sleeves of her shirt off from the shoulders and tossed them aside. He put a compression wrap on her left forearm while he worked on the right. He took a syringe and injected a high dose antibiotic into her upper arm. He made quick work of the internal stitches to seal the vein and surrounding muscle she had severed. He closed the wound with small measured stitches that would hopefully leave her with as little scarring as possible. He knew that he could use his venom to close the cut faster, but he also knew that it would leave a very noticeable scar. His fingers were dexterous and perfectly accurate. It took him less than a minute to complete the eighty-five stitches necessary to seal her arm closed. He wrapped it in gauze to keep the wound clean before doing the same to her left arm.
As he finished with her stitches he focused on counting her respirations and heart beats. Her heart and lungs were both terribly weak from the loss of blood. He needed to get an IV into her to increase her fluids immediately. He started thinking about the logistics of getting her a blood transfusion without taking her to a hospital. He could tell by the scent that she was O-positive. He flipped open his phone and dialed as he clipped the Bluetooth to his ear. Alice answered before the end of the first ring.
“Tell me what you need,” she answered.
“Alice , go to my office and in the bottom drawer of my desk you will find a file marked ‘WA-826’. I need you to forge a request form for medical supplies for three units of O-positive blood and fax it to the blood bank.” Carlisle could hear as she did what he asked. Alice and all the others had perfected forging each others hand writing years prior for just such an occasion. Carlisle continued as he heard the paper being fed into the fax machine, “I need you to go and pick it up and drop it off at the house,” he explained as he gingerly lifted Bella from the cold ground and cradled her in his arms. “I need everyone out of the house. Tell them to go hunt big game so their tolerance is as high as possible. I have her cuts closed, but the smell of her blood is still incredibly strong.”
“I’m already on it, Carlisle . Jasper and Rose have headed north to hunt, and Emmett is on his way to the blood bank. He and I will head out once he gets back. We will leave the blood in the kitchen and then head out. Emmett and Jasper captured two white tail deer for you earlier and have them tied up out back. You need to feed as soon as you get back.”
“Alice …” he tried to protest but she cut him off.
“Trust me Carlisle ; you need to feed as soon as you get back. Bella will be fine in the house for the few minutes you need. Just don’t put her in Edward’s room.”
“Thank you Alice ,” he spoke as he ran through the forest.
“You’re welcome Carlisle . Thank you for saving my sister.”
The line went dead as he carefully ran through the forest back to the house. He secured Bella against his marble chest so as to not jostle her or tear her sutures open. His arms were around her back and under both knees. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest while her head rested on his shoulder. He felt her warm breath against the cold skin of his neck. He had not been this close to a human since he was one. He looked down at her face. He thought she looked like an angel as she slept in his arms. Her blood had saturated his sweater and shirt and now was soaking into his pants as well. The smell of her blood mixed with the tears that had run dry over her cheeks and into the collar of her shirt. His heart ached for the pain he and his family had caused her. It would be so easy to blame Edward, but it was all of their faults. We never should have left her the way we did. We abandoned her in the worst possible way. Never again. He thought as he brushed his lips against the crown of her head.
“I will never leave you behind again,” he promised her as he made it to the clearing behind the house.
He stepped into the back door and quickly made his way into his and Esme’s room. He laid her gently on the bed. He noticed the light blue velour set at the end of the bed. Alice . He didn’t feel it was right for him to change her clothing, but there was no one else who could do it.
“Bella, I need to get you out of these clothes, sweetheart. I promise I will not harm you.” He whispered to her still form.
He removed her sneakers and placed them on the floor. He carefully tore her jeans and what remained of her shirt off of her body. She did not make any noise or movement. Thankfully her undergarments were untainted by her blood. He gingerly sat her up and pulled the new shirt over her head; being wary not to disturb her injuries. He laid her back down before slipping the matching pants over her legs. She was much thinner than she was last time he had seen her. He also noticed the dark circles under her eyes making him think she was undernourished and not sleeping well. He shook his head of these thoughts as he focused on the matter at hand.
He ran to the kitchen and fetched the bags of blood. He was grateful that Alice and Emmett were able to obtain them so quickly. He inserted the needle and let the new blood flow into her veins. In the other arm he inserted a second IV that was warm saline. There were certain supplies he began keeping in the house when Bella became a part of their family. He was thankful that he had left many of them in the house when they left all those months prior.
He opened the IV all the way and watched the fluids pour into her body. He stood back and listened for several minutes. Then he heard her heart begin to strengthen. It was a minute change; one that a human would not be able to detect, but he could. He breathed a sigh of relief.
Grabbing clean clothes he went to the bathroom to shower quickly and change. He went back to his room and collected the remnants of Bella’s outfit and took the blood stained clothes out back to burn. He saw the two deer that had been left for him and felt the burn that had not let up since he entered the meadow. He dropped the clothes and darted across the yard taking down the large buck first then turning to the slightly smaller doe. He released the drained body from his steel grasp and it lay on the ground at his feet. He felt restored as he sent a silent prayer to God to accept his creatures home and to thank Him for their sacrifice. It was a ritual that he had adopted from his first meal as a vampire and had done each time after.
He quickly buried the bodies in the woods before returning to his task at hand. He set the clothes into the outside fireplace and lit them on fire. Once the flames dwindled down he headed back to the house and to Bella. He washed his hands before walking back to his room. Her face held more color and her respiration rate was stronger. He changed out the empty IV bags for fresh blood and more saline.
An hour later the IV’s were removed and Bella appeared to be resting comfortably. He leaned forward resting his head over his folded hands and thanked God for sparing her this day. He felt exhausted; if that was even possible for a vampire. He had been through so much. In his three hundred years on this earth, he couldn’t remember a more traumatic and wearing twenty-four hours.
“How is she?” Emmett asked as he stepped into the room.
Emmett smiled at the welcome good news, “I’m going to go help Jasper fix the front door. We stopped at the hardware store after we hunted and picked up a replacement.”
“She’ll wake up in three and a half more hours.” She said assuredly.
~*~
As if she was set on Alice ’s own alarm clock, three hours and thirty minutes later Bella began to stir. She opened her eyes and looked up into the three pairs of golden eyes around her, but none of them were the ones she was looking for. She looked down at her arms and saw the bandages that covered her cuts that she remembered making. Her heart began to speed up to a dangerously fast pace while her breathing shortened into pants. Instantly Jasper was in the doorway throwing calm at everyone but especially Bella. It might as well been nothing as it bounced right back at him.
“No! No! No! No! No! No! Nooooooooooo!” she wailed, “What have you done?” she screamed at Carlisle as she thrusts her arms out in his direction. “I was going to be with Edward! Why did you stop me? Why?”
Before anyone could respond to her, a blood curdling scream ripped through her as Jasper was brought to his knees by her agony. Alice was torn between her mate and her best friend. Carlisle was next to Bella in a split second holding her upper arms to keep her still as Alice went to Jasper. She lifted him up and ran him out of the house and away from Bella. Rosalie curled into Emmett’s arms and wept. She did not have Jasper’s gift, but she could feel Bella’s pain as if it was her own.
Bella continued to scream until her lungs were burning with the need for oxygen. Carlisle tried to calm her but nothing he said could sooth her. Tears streamed down her face as her eyes darkened with soul shattering agony. Finally the screaming stopped and Bella fell limp under his unyielding grip. Her vitals drastically dropped and it was near silent in the room.
“Carlisle , what happened? I can’t see her future anymore. It was like it just stopped and now all I get is fog. I can’t see her Carlisle ! I can’t see her with us. I can’t see an end like I did with Edward and Esme. I can’t see anything but fog! What’s wrong?” Alice spat out at vampire speed.
“I can’t feel her anymore either,” Jasper spoke up, “Her emotions are void. There is nothing there; no happiness or sadness or pain. There is just nothing.”
All four of them looked to Carlisle for an answer, but he didn’t have one to give. He looked back down at the emotionally broken human girl in front of him and shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
A/N
Stephanie Myer never clarifies what blood type Bella is so I used my own writer’s discretion with that little tidbit.
Suicide is a very serious issue and should never be taken lightly. If you are contemplating taking your life, please don’t. Suicide is a permanent solution for a temporary problem. Please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or go online at www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org. |
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