A Fresh Start

The Breakdown

Author's Note: I own nothing. I just like to play with the characters that were created by Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended.

Also, thank you for those of who have commented and offered well-wishes in my difficult time. It means a lot to me. Writing these stories has been my strength (as silly as that sounds) and has grounded me.

Thank you so much for reading and reviewing. It means so much to me. More than you can imagine. These stories (this one in particular) are my babies and I adore the reviews and comments I receive. Much, much love to ALL of you!

Chapter 24: The Breakdown

Rose's sedation was lessened a few days later. The damage to her lungs was more substantial than originally anticipated. It was a mistake that was missed by a resident. Edward saw red and laid into the said resident. The damage to Rose's lungs is what caused her fever. Once that was determined, they prescribed the right medication and the fever finally broke. Emmett took the first few days off when Rose was in the hospital, but Edward, Alice and I convinced him that if he stayed in Rose's room, she'd be pissed. He reluctantly went back to work but was really cranky with his kids.

I visited Rose every day. I talked to her and told her about school, the mundane things that would make her laugh. I told her about her sub. He was a young man who was very attractive and all the eighth grade girls were in love with Mr. Drum. Mr. Drum, Rose's sub, relished in his attention. I found it to be extremely disturbing.

Despite the medication that held her under sedation was lessened, Rose still remained asleep. Her body had undergone a radical change and obviously needed to heal. I asked Edward about it, but he said that she would wake up when she was ready. It was the end of the week and Rose still hadn't waken up. I was getting really worried.

The weekend came and went. We were preparing for open house. It felt weird to not have Rose with us. She was still in the hospital, asleep. We were having our team meeting in my room, discussing what we wanted to share with the parents. Emmett was not really paying attention, Mr. Drum, Tyrone or Ty as he liked to be called, was grading some papers and Jacob was creating a math test. I was working on the power point for the team presentation. I was loading pictures onto the power point, showing the kids in various poses and our classrooms. I typed up the basic curriculum that was covered in my classes. I saved the power point and sent it to Jacob. Out of the team, he was the most focused. However, he said that school was the only positive thing in his life. I made a mental note to remind Edward about talking to Ren about Jake.

"So, is this open house thing required?" Ty asked.

"Um, yeah," Emmett said, arching a bushy brow.

"Shit. I have a date and I guess that'll have to be cancelled," he grumbled. "I thought that since I was a sub, I'd be able to get out of it."

"Ty, you are, for all intents and purposes, Rosalie Hale. All of her responsibilities are your responsibilities. You do her bus duty, handle parent concerns, attend open house, attend parent/teacher conferences and anything else that Rosalie would have done if she was not in a fucking coma and fighting for her life," I seethed. "If you can't handle it, then I'll talk to Mrs. Cope and get another sub. Are we clear?"

"Yeah, sure," he said, blinking a few times. The bell rang and the boys got up to leave. I heard Ty mutter the word 'bitch' under his breath as he left my room. I growled lightly as my one class of regular language arts class strolled in. I sent off a quick email to Mrs. Cope, requesting a meeting to discuss Mr. Drum. The rest of the school day went by quietly. I had a great class with my final accelerated class. We had a deep conversation about the virtues of vampires versus werewolves. It was humorous, listening to their arguments. At the end of the day, I went into the main office and checked if Mrs. Cope was in her office. She was and I told her about my concerns with Mr. Drum. She said that he was going to finish out the week but would not return after that. She had received several parent phone calls about his behavior in class that was deemed inappropriate.