It's here!!!!!!! New chapter! I am so happy with this chapter and I hope you enjoy it. Sorry for the wait, but I tried to make it longer for you.

I was aware of something; though what it was, I wasn't sure. I didn't know what I expected from death, but this wasn't it. I guess maybe I expected to feel comfortable and happy, or maybe pain. But this...I felt, but I didn't feel. I was aware that I existed, but I didn't really feel.

But feeling was coming back, and I didn't know what it felt like. It came back slowly. I became aware of more. Maybe I was getting closer to heaven or hell or wherever it was that I was going. I also realized my thoughts were getting clearer. I became aware of a beeping noise near my head. Was it near my head? Or was I just imagining that? More feelings started coming to me. I felt heavy. Not in pain, but rather that my body felt like it weighed a thousand pounds. I couldn't move, but I could feel my body. My arms felt heavy at my side and I felt pressure at multiple points of my body.

My sense of smell came next. I smelled latex, rust, and salt. I wasn't sure but I thought I smelled roses and another scent that I couldn't identify. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever smelled and I felt like I knew it from somewhere. Maybe that was heaven; that irresistible scent. Next I became aware of dryness in my mouth. Like I hadn't had anything to drink in weeks. That didn't make sense; wasn't I in heaven? My eyes seemed to start functioning, too. Light was starting to leek through my lids. This surprised me. It hadn't been dark or black or anything; it had just been nothing. Like I wasn't even aware that I could see anything. Like I had never even known what vision was.

I noticed the weight seemed to be easing. My body still felt heavy, but I almost felt like I could move. I tried to move my arm but was unsuccessful. It felt like I was trying to lift a 1 ton anvil with my pinky finger. I tried something a little simpler. I tried to move my eye lids and found that I could. I twitched them successfully, how about my voice? Did I have a voice?

The question of where I was still bothered me, but I was starting to think it wasn't heaven. I didn't think it was hell, though; hell should be more painful and all that. Maybe I was stuck in some kind of purgatory; in between Heaven and Hell. I tried my vocal cords and heard a quiet groan emulate from them. I heard voices talking together to each other after that, though I couldn't quite make out what they were saying, and I began to wonder if there were other people in purgatory with me. I tried my eye lids again, and after some effort, I managed to pull them back. I was blinded by a rectangular panel of light staring me in the face. Then I realized that the panel of light was actually one of many in the ceiling of the room I was in. I looked around the room and was shocked by what I found.

I was in a hospital.

And there were people with me. I felt the weight fade away even more. Opening my eyes had seemed to dispel some of it. After the shock of the lights had faded, I noticed that there were three people in the room with me. After a moment of befuddled thought, I recognized two of them. Alice Cullen (what was she doing here?) and...no way. I really must be dead if Edward Cullen is sitting in a hospital room with me; let alone staring at me worried. Last I checked he hated me, or something along those lines. Alice had her eyes trained on me, an excitement building behind a face filled with concern and fear.

The third person I didn't recognize, though I thought it might be God. He had very fair skin and light blonde hair. He was dressed in light colors and a white lab coat. He was very good looking; better looking than most models I had ever seen. His piercing blue eyes were gentle and full of concern, and after a few moments I realized that he was a doctor.

"Isabella?" He asked me and I groaned internally. I didn't have the strength or the will to bother correcting him. "How do you feel?"

Though I was still groggy, my mind was awake now and fully functional. Thoughts started occurring to me that I didn't want to think about because I knew I would probably go into a panic attack.

"I don't." I croaked out, my voice sounding like I hadn't used it in around a decade. He chuckled at my response.

"That's a good thing. That means the pain killers are working." He scribbled something on his clipboard and glanced up at the machine connected to me. After a few moments of staring at the screen, he looked back at me, his eyes intent but cautious. "Do you remember what happened?"

I'm sure all the color drained from my face because I felt my insides go cold. I nodded slowly and I heard the beeping speed up in time with my increasing heart rate.

He sighed. "Your father?" He asked even more cautiously than before. I merely nodded again, completely at a loss of what to say. I realized that Alice and Edward were still in the room and when I glanced at them, they both had identical looks of horror and disgust on their faces. I flinched away from them, and had I not been so cold right now, I probably would have blushed.

The thought of my father brought back a fear that I thought I had eliminated for good, but it seemed only temporarily detained. It came back full force and I felt myself start to hyperventilate. Aside from the pain of breathing too fast, I felt sharp pains in my chest and I gasped out loud, not caring who was there. The blonde haired doctor was at my side in an instant and calling for a nurse to come give me another dose of morphine.

She was feeding a syringe into the tube connected to me in a matter of moments and I could feel my consciousness slipping away. The last thing I saw before I went under were a pair of panicked green eyes staring into mine. Then I was out.

When I awoke the second time, it was darker. I opened my eyes to see a full moon outside the hospital room window, and I reading light on in the corner. There was a figure sitting in the worn, generically patterned blue recliner, and after looking closer I realized it was Edward. He must have heard my intake of breath because he looked up from the book he was reading to look at me.

Surprising even myself, I held his gaze, fear and caution in my eyes; curiosity in his, along with another emotion that I couldn't identify; I had never seen it before. We stared at each other for an immeasurable moment, and then he closed his book and stood up. I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding and felt a soreness emanate from my rib cage, but it was nothing like what I felt earlier.

Edward came and sat in the folding chair next to my bed and whispered words I never thought I would hear from anyone, let alone him.

"I'm sorry Bella." He told me, pain in his perfect emerald eyes. "I'm so sorry for what I did to you, and not seeing…" He trailed off in anguish and dropped his head into his hands. I was too stunned from his words to speak, so we sat in silence for a few moments. Finally he looked up at me, a hard determination in his eyes.

"How come you never told anyone? Carlisle said it had to have been happening for years. Why did you not say anything?" He demanded from me and I recoiled slightly from the harsh edge in his tone. But at the same time he sounded fiercely protective and that shocked me more than the harsh questions. It took me a moment to answer, and when I did it was little more than a whisper.

"Who was I going to tell?" I asked him, looking at my hands afraid to look at him. When I did glance at him I saw his face was torn; guilty and frustrated.

"You could have told…" He trailed off, obviously coming to a similar conclusion I had. "…someone. He finished after a moment. "Anyone." He added on. I shook my head slowly.

"No." I forced out. "I couldn't." I amended quietly. I felt the teardrops well in my eyes and I tried to force them back. I didn't need anything more to show the pain that I was in. I jumped violently when his hand touched mine softly. He grasped it gently and I was unnerved by how much it calmed me down.

"Bella…" He started, and seemed to struggle for the right words. "I can't tell you, I can't even begin to describe to you how terrible I feel; about all of this. I feel so sick at what I did the other night (I secretly wondered how long I had been out) and that I didn't see the damage…that nobody saw it. This should never have happened. I was so stupid and naïve and I can't believe how blinded I was."

"Edward." I said as firmly as I could. I don't know why I was saying this, but I was. "Stop it. It's not your fault. It happened; big deal. It happens to people every day and I won't let you beat yourself up for something you had no responsibility for. It was my problem and you had no reason to know, and therefore no reason to feel guilty." My confidence dwindled so dim that I was about to lose whatever I had left of it. It was so hard to say this. Even though I knew it was true, it hurt to say. But Edward didn't need to know that.

His free hand came up to touch my cheek, and I felt my hand go limp in his other palm. His eyes held such a tenderness that I had not seen since my mother died; it was a look she always gave to my father and I when she told us she loved us. I felt the tears start to fall at the memory and I felt my resolve begin to crumble around me.

"Don't say that. Please, don't even try to justify my actions. I can't so why should you?" He asked me softly, his cool breath fanning my face and I realized that was the scent that I was so mesmerized by earlier; him. The last of my barriers crumbled to dust inside me and I lost it. I started crying so hard it was difficult to breathe. I just couldn't hold it in any longer. It was the first time I had allowed myself to really cry in years. Edward moved from the chair to sit next to me on the bed, holding me tightly as I cried. And as embarrassing as it was, I couldn't bring myself to feel embarrassed. I realized I needed him there. I needed someone to hold me and tell me that it would all be okay, even if I knew it wouldn't.

He whispered soothing words in my ear and rocked me back and forth. After a few solid minutes of crying, I felt my tear ducts dry up and I couldn't cry any more, I didn't have anything left in me.

"Bella." Edward murmured to me. I nodded not quite able to find my voice; my face still buried in his shoulder. "I promise I won't let anything happen to you. You will never go back to Charlie and you won't ever have to go through that again. You never deserved it and he won't ever touch you again." I couldn't believe his words but I relaxed into him despite myself. For the moment I was content, and I felt safer than I have ever felt in my life. I sighed and I heard him start humming a song that sounded like a lullaby, and it had the effect of one. I drifted comfortably to sleep in his arms, comforted and protected for the first time in too long.

What do you think? Review, review, review! I can't wait to hear your thoughts. I hope it lived up to your standards and I will have the next chapter up as soon as I can.