Only Human Twilight

23

Carlisle couldn't come for two more hours because of the sun. Edward was still strong enough to get up to bed with my help, though he stumbled. I tucked him in, pained at the sight of his shivering body.

"You should go," he choked. "You could become sick as well. Go to the country house –"

"It's too late for that," I murmured, brushing his damp hair back. "Besides, I can't leave you now. My friend Carlisle is coming to help us. He'll help me get you to the hospital."

"Hospital...and then you go," he insisted. His hand clutched mine with surprising strength.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "Carlisle will convince them to let me stay. I won't leave until I absolutely have to."

"You're so damned stubborn," he sighed, wearily closing his eyes. "No sense of self-preservation."

"Just accept it," I said with a small smile. "Let me do what I have to do."

Eventually, he fell into a fitful sleep. I stayed beside him, alternately applying a cool washcloth to his forehead and wrapping my body around his to try to ease his chills. Just after sunset, Carlisle appeared in the doorway. He'd let himself in the house. It was comforting, in a weird way, to have a vampire around again with all his vampire peculiarities. It reminded me of home.

"I've arranged a cot for him next to his mother. She'll be devastated. She talked to me for hours last night about him when she found out I knew you."

Another crack formed in my heart. "You told me, in the future, that she'd worn herself down trying to care for him. That she might have survived, had she not tried to nurse him as well."

"I can't say I'm surprised," Carlisle said. "He is all she's living for at this point. She has very little choice. To fight for him is to fight for herself. I think you can understand that."

"Of course," I breathed. "It's just...so hard to watch, and do nothing."

"I know," Carlisle agreed ruefully. "But we do what we can. Let's get Edward to the car, shall we?"

There was really no "we" about it. Carlisle lifted him from the bed as easily as he would have picked up a pillow. Edward looked so small and frail in Carlisle's arms, and he shivered violently at the cold touch. I finally started to cry. Was this how Edward had felt, seeing me injured on the floor of that ballet studio? So helpless, unable to protect the one person that mattered most.

Carlisle placed Edward in the back seat, and I joined him, cradling his head in my lap. He was half-awake now but not really conscious. He mumbled nonsense and clutched the folds of my skirt. I tried to keep my tears from touching him.

"Carlisle?"

His eyes lifted to look at me in the mirror. "Yes, Bella?"

"Why does it happen so fast?" I asked. Just hours ago, he'd been happy, we'd been flirting and joking like everything was normal. And now...now I wasn't sure he even knew my name.

"That I can't say for sure," Carlisle replied. "The disease causes pneumonia. Bleeding into the lungs. That's what kills so fast. But why it comes on so suddenly, I can't say. It's simply...a very aggressive illness."

"Will he suffer much?" I had to know.

Carlisle sighed. "If he remains alert, he may. But if he remains in this state...I doubt he'll ever realize what's happening."

"And...you will change him, won't you?"

"If and when the time comes that it's apparent he won't survive without my help, then yes, I will change him."