Life gets in the way sometimes. I apologize.

Here's chapter 10. Enjoy.

Bella was catatonic for 12 days. She lay in bed, hooked up to several machines that let the world know she was alive. Charlie sat by her side whenever he could, only leaving when visiting hours were over and when he was desperately needed at the station. Renee flew back and forth between Florida and Seattle every other week, Phil occasionally coming with her. But when neither of her parents could be there, she always had a Cullen by her side.

Esme was nearly impossible to separate from Bella. She watched her so carefully, desperate to see any sign of change, but Carlisle told her she wouldn't come back until she was ready.

Edward's self-loathing ate him up inside, making him poor company to the entire family, but especially Jasper. He was never far from the hospital, staying as close as he could without causing alarm. At night, he sat next to the outside wall of Bella's room, content to at least hear the beat of her heart.

The rest of the Cullen's took shifts sitting with Bella, even Rosalie, which Emmett joked should have been enough to help Bella snap out of it. Alice spent most of her nights in Bella's room, concentrating all her energy on Bella's future. She only ever saw brief glimpses but nothing concrete. Alice was totally blind, and that terrified her.

"What can we do?" Esme asked Carlisle late one night. Jasper was at the hospital with Bella and Alice while Carlisle went out to hunt and be with his wife. "There has to be something we can do."

Carlisle shook his head sadly. "When she is ready, she'll come back to us. Right now her mind needs to heal."

Esme said nothing, but a growl resounded from down the hall. Edward was with them then, his eyes narrowed at his mother.

What if she's never ready to come back to us?

"Don't even think that," he snarled.

Carlisle was in front of Esme in a flash, his eyes unusually hard and angry. "Do not take this out on Esme. She has done nothing wrong."

Edward's eyes slowly dimmed, the rage being replaced by sadness once again.

"I'm sorry, Esme," he whispered. "That was rude of me."

Esme rolled her eyes at Carlisle, pushing him out of the way, before embracing her son. "I understand you're frustrated, Edward. We all are. But your constant sadness and anger will do nothing to improve Bella's situation."

"I know," he whispered. "I just feel so useless. I wish I could hear her thoughts. I could know where she is. I could help her."

"But you can't," Carlisle said bluntly. "Stop brooding about it. Do what Bella would want you to do. Keep yourself fed. Support your family. And most importantly, stay. You can't run this time, Edward."

Edward knew the truth in his father's words as much as he knew he didn't have the strength to leave. He didn't care if Bella spent the rest of her life in a catatonic state. Edward would be there every day to wash her, to keep her muscles strong, to feed her.

He would do whatever it took to keep her alive.

~0~

Jacob arrived at the hospital just as visiting hours started. He ran the entire way, keeping in contact with his brothers who were watching out for Charlie. Victoria had been spotted near Forks yet again, but had circled away as soon as the wolves caught her sent. Charlie hadn't given Charlie many details, but he knew Bella's progress had been short lived. He adjusted his shirt, which had gotten a little dusty on the run here and made sure his fly was up before he entered the hospital.

He could immediately smell the bloodsuckers, but he was able to differentiate between the good guys and the bad guys now.

Ugh, Jacob thought. Since when did the Cullen Coven become the good guys?

Jacob shook it off and signed in before wandering down the hallway to Bella's room. The smell of vampire got stronger and stronger as he walked, and then he could hear the sound of movement from Bella's room.

Dr. Bloodsucker must have heard him coming; he exited the room just as Jacob reached the door, his expression guarded but not surprised.

"Hello, Jacob," Carlisle said, his voice friendly.

"How is she?" Jacob said, ignoring the pleasantries. "Charlie said she was…comatose?"

Carlisle shook his head before opening Bella's door and leading him inside.

Jacob stared at Bella. She looked like she did the first time she came to see him with the motorcycles. Her cheeks were gaunt and there were dark bags under her open eyes.

"She's catatonic. While a coma is more like a deep sleep, catatonia is a state of unresponsiveness," he said. Jacob could tell he was dumbing it down for him, but he was grateful.

"So how do we get her to respond?" Jacob whispered as he walked over to Bella's bed. He sat down on the chair next to her bed before carefully taking her frail hand in his. She didn't move, didn't even acknowledge his presence. Her eyes blinked once, but that was it.

"We can't. I believe this was either caused by her extreme depression or by her shock at seeing …him again," Carlisle explained. "She had found a process that worked to dispel the hallucination. When she tried that on the real version and it didn't work…"

Jacob nodded. "It caused this. He caused this."

"Now we wait for her mind to process everything," Carlisle said after a long pause. Jacob noticed that Carlisle didn't contradict his blame, and Jacob wondered if he blamed Edward, too.

"How long will that take?" Jacob wondered.

Carlisle put his hand on Jacob's shoulder, but it didn't bother Jacob as much as he thought it would. It was paternal and comforting. He didn't like it, but he didn't mind it.

"I don't know."

~0~

Jacob held Bella's hand until visiting hours ended. He prattled on about nonsense, telling her when she got better, they could go riding again. He promised he'd take her cliff diving. He promised her everything he could, just as long as she woke up.

But she hadn't done more than blink since he arrived. Jacob placed a kiss on her forehead before exiting the room, shutting the door behind him quietly.

She's just sleeping, he tried to convince himself.

Jacob walked the streets of Seattle for a few hours after, unable to bring himself to "wolf out," as Bella called it. He didn't want to plague his brothers with what he'd seen just yet. They all cared for Bella and he knew seeing her like that would cause them pain.

Not as much pain as he was in, but pain nonetheless.

~0~

A week later, when the room stopped wreaking of dog, Rosalie sat on the plastic chair next to Bella's bed. She held Bella's hand gently in one of her own while she read to her from one those old books she loved so much. Rose wasn't particularly keen on reading, preferring working on old cars than reading an old book.

She had picked the first one up off the pile of books across the room, a novel called Sense and Sensibility, and began to read. She quickly realized the hero of this book was a man named Edward Ferras and wondered briefly if she should stop reading it. She knew nothing about psychology and wondered if hearing that name could hurt Bella. But nothing registered on the monitors, no physical change noted, so Rosalie kept reading.

When the sun began to rise on the horizon, Rosalie put the book back on the desk before staring down at Bella, who was as still as the dead.

"I know what it's like to want to give up," Rosalie said quietly as she sat back down. "Edward didn't tell you my story. It wasn't his place. And though I'm not sure if you can even hear me right now, I don't want to take the chance. You're so good, Bella. So pure. If you knew what they did to me...I should have died that night. And when I woke as the creature I am now, I wanted nothing more than to find a way out of this life. I wanted to give up. I tried to find a way, but as you saw with James…it's not easy to kill another of our kind, let alone ourselves. I wanted to give up but I didn't.

"I lived as best as I could. And then I found Emmett. I did the best I could with what I had. That's what you have to do, Bella. If not for yourself, than for your family. For Charlie and for Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Emmett…Edward. They need you to wake up. They need you to live," Rose said, giving Bella's hand one more squeeze.

"Keep fighting, Bella. For you and for everyone you love. Keep fighting until you just can't fight anymore."

~0~

She was drowning again.

She didn't remember jumping off the cliff at La Push a second time, but she must have. She could feel the current pushing her down, making it impossible for her to move. But she didn't feel cold, and she knew the water should be good.

Bella took a deep breath and quickly realized she wasn't drowning. She looked around at the vast grey fog that surrounded her. It was heavy and thick. Every breath hurt.

People infiltrated the fog occasionally. She saw Charlie and Renee. They spoke to her, held one sided conversations that she knew she should partake in. But she couldn't open her mouth.

Or, more accurately, she didn't want to.

She could feel the warmth of their hands as they grasped hers and she could hear her subconscious confirm the automatic question.

They're real.

There was no doubt in that anymore. Charlie and Renee had never left her. And therefore they were real.

Once, she felt an abnormally hot hand grip hers firmly and she knew her Jacob was there. That made her feel comforted, but she still didn't try to find her way out of the fog. There were no vampires or werewolves in the fog, and she almost liked it that way.

But whenever the hands weren't warm, they were abnormally cold. Bella could occasionally catch glimpses of Alice and her spiky black hair and, though she never saw him, she could always feel the calm that came with Jasper's presence.

But it was never enough to make her leave the fog. She enjoyed the security of it, the promise that nothing would hurt her as long as she stayed solitary. So Bella allowed herself to float deeper into the fog. She felt warm and protected.

But then Bella heard his name.

Edward.

She instinctively knew the context was wrong; the words that surrounded it were familiar to her. But the name alone sparked a reaction. The fog shifted but didn't thin. She made herself stay a float and waited, wondering if she would hear it again.

Edward didn't tell you my story…

Bella strained, desperate to hear what was being said about him. The voice that spoke was familiar, but it made Bella nervous. She strained to hear what else she would say.

…for your family. For Charlie and for Carlisle, Esme, Alice, Emmett…Edward. They need you to wake up. They need you to live…

Bella clung to those names, allowing them to pull her from the fog. A part of her wanted to fight it, but another part of her couldn't bear it. She was being selfish, letting the fog consume her. Charlie, Renee, Esme, Carlisle, Alice, Jasper, Emmett, Rosalie, Jacob…Edward.

She said the names like a mantra, using them as a lifeline. She repeated them over and over again until the fog disappeared and she could breathe clearly again. She sat up, taking in a gasping breath. She could hear loud beeps surrounding her, keeping rhythm with her pounding heart.

On the morning of the 12th day, Bella finally woke up. She stared at Rosalie, confident that the blonde vampire in front of her was real. She grasped Rosalie's hand, which was still gently holding hers.

"Real," Bella gasped at Rosalie.

Rosalie smiled a brilliant smile at Bella and nodded.

"Real."

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Write me a review. I love you hear from you guys!

Lots of love,

Emilia Elliot