6:14:19 → j. hale, a. cullen

15.

It seemed as if time was going by in slow motion, although for Alice, the days spent by her mate's hospital bed went by too quickly.

Within the past week, on the days that she wasn't excused by her father and siblings to miss or cut from class, she'd be sitting on the edge of the hospital bed, her cold hand clutching onto the slimming one that belonged to the newest member of her family.

Thoughts of losing her and the possible dangers of her not being able to wake up because of the blood loss she had endured during her accident, plagued her to the point to where she was no longer feeding. She hadn't realized she was malnourished from the loss of feeding, until one day Carlisle came into the hospital room and sat down next to her.

"There's no more bruising, and she's she stable. I really think you should start caring more about yourself." He started out, his tone still gentle.

"She's getting better, but you aren't. Can you imagine when she wakes up and she sees how things are going along without her? How sick you're beginning to look?"

Alice bit back a response filled with anger, and closed her golden eyes, her chest shakily inhaling a rare breath of the sterile air.

"She didn't tell us she was dying. She didn't tell us that we would have to continue living our lives without her." She spoke out, her voice ringing out along the bright white room.

"You know, I never saw her coming, Carlisle. And then, here she is. The new beginning for us, our second love. Another chance for us to grow. And then we see her, hurt and bleeding out, and we can't do anything to help her. And then we I can't see a way of this becoming any worse, we find out she's dying. We saw the bruises, how tired she looked. We didn't even try to help."

Carlisle watched as his child began to weep, her eyes burning with unshed tears she begged to fall. Wrapping an arm around her, he swept her closer to his side and placed his head on top of hers. Sighing, he glances over at Emery's monitor and is once again comforted by the steady ring of her heartbeat.

"When I first met her, I thought the other doctor's were wrong." Carlisle started, hushing his daughter gently as she tried to separate to look at him curiously. "She was so strong. Is still strong. To this day, I can still not believe that she had so much fight left in her, even when she was terminal. You'll come to realize at some point, that just like you had met Jasper, you have met Emery in the same way. He was sick, he was still traumatized from the war. He had no home, he was heartbroken and betrayed, and confused with his own emotion. Emery is just sick in a different way. And she'll get through this, because she is just as strong as we are. Even if she is only human."

Alice grasped onto her father's white coat and clenched, her body twisting, unable to continue to hold in the fear of the idea and reality of the trauma she had been through when she saw Emery injured.

"You are just as strong, little one. That is why you three are meant to be together, and you will be. Find that strength and hope you had with Jasper, and place in inside of you, for yourself. Be strong for yourself, for Emery. You are not alone. You will never be alone again."

Carlisle smiled as Alice covered his hand with her own and sat up, the spark in her eye returning as her father uplifted, her once again.

▹

Bella sat back, her head pounding incessantly as Edward continued to pace around the room.

Pursing her lips, Rosalie rose an eyebrow at her brother, causing him to pause mid step.

"So you're meaning to tell me that you became human once again, became the injured one instead of Emery, met two magically powered men in cloaks, healed instantaneously, was threatened, and then brought back to the future in the matter of seconds? I can grasp the fact that we're vampires, but even that sounds like a stretch."