Clarity // p.l

026

Death was dark, but it wasn't scary for Elise. She'd been wired to love the dark so the eerie silence and calm she felt in her time of dying wasn't an issue for her. The electric shocks that were summoned throughout her body, that was an issue. When the defibrillators rubbed together and charged, a doctor or nurse yelling clear before the current was rushed through her body, she felt the charge until the darkness was gone and she was back to the light.

It was much too bright, her eyes straining again the red of her eyelids. She couldn't open them yet but she could see the light now. "You can't do this to me." Paul's voice cracked in her ear, his warm hands holding onto her own. Something wet was touching the crease of her arm.

His tears, she noted them as. He was sniffling between every word his strong frame shaking so hard she could feel it. "I'm begging you to please wake up. You cannot leave me."

"I can't do much moving, leaving isn't exactly an option for me."

Her cerulean's barely opened before he fell apart altogether, nuzzling his face into her neck and pulling her as close as he could without harming her fresh injury. "I love you, please don't do that to me ever again."

"I'll do my best," She swiftly curved responding to the intense three words she was too afraid to repeat back. "Where is everyone?"

"Your dad's in the lobby trying to calm down Asher. They freaked when they heard what happened."

"What'd you tell them?"

Paul wiped his face clear of the stray tears. "Your dad thinks it was another animal attack but Asher knows. He came down to the rez after hearing what happened and went looking for Sam and found him trying to get Jake to shift back. He saw everything, he knows now."

Raising an IV attached hand to her forehead she caught sight of a healing wound on Paul's shoulder. "What happened to you?"

"Beef jerky vamp and I had a little altercation."

"Emmett?" Elise repeated using the vampires actual name. "Why were you near him?"

Paul told her everything, about how the redheaded leech kept going on their lands hopping between the reservation and Cullen territory. How he was so hyped up on the adrenaline from being so close to catching the problem they'd been trying to eliminate for so long, all for it to be destroyed by Emmett crossing the river and getting a quick nip by Paul's teeth. He was perfectly fine minus the wound he'd procured by the marble like skin vampire possessed. "We were so close, El, so close."

"You'll get her baby, I promise. First, I need you get pain meds, very soon because this hurts really bad."

Jumping up without further questions, Paul went outside to call a nurse to administer some sort of sedative. A woman with brown hair and bored brown eyes used a needle to administer an anesthetic into her IV tap, then moved her sheets around to get a look at the wound Elise now sported. "I never got to see it," Elise said drowsily, the medication working quicker than she'd expected. "Is it bad?"

The nurse looked down at the large scratch marks that were now sewn up as best as possible, jagged scars sure to take place in the future. Starting from the middle of her ribcage to the top of her hip, the still red and seemingly achy werewolf scratches weren't exactly something you'd miss. "You'll be fine, you'll heal."

Fortunately for Elise, the medicine she was injected with was simply enough to keep her numb and not fall asleep. This way, she was able to see the look of relief was across her father's face the moment he stepped into her room a cup of water and special hospital ice inside. Rushing to her side, he all but tripped trying to get ahold of her hand and hold her anyway he could, gaining some sort of physical confirmation that she was okay rather than the obvious signs of her breathing, blinking and whatever normal bodily functions that showed signs of life. "How many time do I have to tell you Ellie? We cannot lose you and if I have to handcuff you to me so I can monitor your every move, I will do so."

Scoffing at her father, smiling a little to show she wasn't actually copping an attitude, she squeezed his hand tighter. "You know me, Dad. I never really was the best listener."

"Don't I know it, gave me and your brother a heart attack."

"Where is Ash?"

Tucking his other hand in his jean pocket, her father subconsciously looked behind him at the door where he entered on his own. "He's camping out in the lobby, seeing you all cold and near death really shook him up. He's having a little trouble working up the strength to come inside. Give him a little time, he'll come inside when he pulls himself together."

Feeling guilty for no reason other than she couldn't comfort her brother as much as she'd have liked too. It wasn't like she had asked to be here in the condition she was but she understood fully. The last time any member of the Dunatos family entered a hospital it was to say their goodbyes to their mother and clearly seeing her in whatever way Asher did had resurfaced memories that no one deserved to have to go through. "I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, Ellie. He'll come around, just get better for me and everything will be back to normal." Seeming to realize Paul's presence since the first time he had arrived in the room, Mark nodded in his direction. "Good thing Paul was there, he had you scooped up and here as quick as he could. Paramedics said that had it been any later you for sure wouldn't have—" Choking up at the very thought of losing his daughter, Mark Dunatos didn't even finish the sentence. "Anyway, were extremely grateful, so please just get better and I'll feel much better."

"You and me both." Running her opposing hand around the bandages underneath her thin hospital gown, Elise couldn't even feel pain the meds so high she could probably go through the whole ordeal again and not even bat an eyelash.