Bring Him Home - Chapter 16

 I raced to the hospital in record time, it wasn't until I was in the cab on the way there that I realised I was still in my pyjama bottoms. I'd at least remembered to throw on a sweatshirt and my sneakers and I had picked up my purse.

As I ran into the reception area of the ER I tried to get someone to talk to me, but because I didn't know the name of the patient I wanted to enquire about, no one would talk to me. No matter how many times I tried to explain that they didn't have his name either, it didn't seem to work so I was stuck until I finally remembered the name of the doctor who had called me

"I really need to speak to Dr Harvey" I explained to the receptionist and she looked at me as if I'd just spoken to her in a foreign language.

"Dr Harvey called me earlier to help me identify a John Doe you have in the department, can you please call him immediately". I was rapidly losing patience with the woman but I knew shouting at her would only get me thrown out. Finally she paged him and I stood waiting at the desk as all these different white coats seemed to dash by me.

"Miss Swan"

I spun round to face the voice I'd just heard,

"Miss Swan is it, I'm Dr Harvey" he held out of his hand for me to shake and I kicked into professional mode.

"Sorry yes I'm Bella Swan, good evening Dr Harvey" I grabbed his hand and shook it solidly. I'd learnt a long time ago that a flimsy handshake got you nowhere in business.

"We had a young man brought in earlier, he was found badly beaten in the park this afternoon, he looks as though he has been living rough for quite a while, but as I explained on the phone, when we finally got his clothes off so we could treat him, we found your business card in his sock. "

"He was beaten up today in the park?"

"Yes it looks as though he was set upon around lunchtime; he has taken quite a severe beating from probably several people."

"Can I see him, just to make sure that it's who I think it is" I asked Dr Harvey.

"Of course, follow me, he's heavily sedated at the moment so he won't even know you're there"

I followed the doctor down the corridor until he stopped outside a private room.

"We've put him in here until we can identify him, then we'll find a place for him on a ward somewhere. Now I want you to be prepared, he looks badly beaten and he's connected to quite a few machines."

 With that he opened the door and walked in and I followed, the light in the room was quite low so I had to get close up to the bed to have a good look at him. As soon as I was close enough I could see that it was Edward, his hair was mattered with blood, as was his beard, his face was swollen and he had a broken nose and the beginning of two black eyes. The bed covers were drawn up to his chest and his arms were placed over the sheets, he had a drip in each arm and when I questioned Dr Harvey he informed me that Edward was so dehydrated they were trying to get as much fluid into him as possible and that it was the quickest way to get the drugs he needed into his bloodstream.

"All I can tell you is that his name is Edward, I'm not sure of his surname but I know someone that might be able to help".

"Well anything you can find out will be good so just let me know if you can come up with anything"

"Is it ok if I sit with him for a while?"

"Yes certainly, as I said he is heavily medicated so I don't expect him to wake up for several hours so don't stay long, you'll be better coming back in the morning"

I nodded to let him know I understood and he left the room, so I made myself comfortable in the chair at the side of the bed. I sat for about an hour just looking at him, the hospital had obviously tried to clean his face, but the dirt was ingrained and would take some serious exfoliating before he was clean again. His fingernails were filthy and the skin on his arms was just as dirty as his face, it was heart breaking to see such a young man so neglected and I was really angry at Emmett for not finding him earlier.

As my feelings bubbled I realised I really needed to speak to Emmett, I needed to tell him I'd found Edward. As I contemplated calling him I couldn't help but look at the poor broken man in the bed in front of me, what if Emmett was somehow connected to the reason Edward was homeless? What if Edward only wanted to see Emmett to confront him? My mind was swimming with all the different scenarios I'd been imagining. Eventually I decided to just leave things for the moment and speak to Emmett in the morning; Edward wasn't going anywhere so there was no rush to call him, especially as it was now very late at night.

I looked around at the sterile bland room and wondered what if would be like to wake up here, I thought about going downstairs to see the if the small gift shop was open or the florists but common sense prevailed when I remembered it was getting towards midnight and nothing would be open this late. After the life he had been living a few Get well Soon balloons and a bunch of daisies weren't really going to have much effect.  I fleetingly wondered when he last slept in a bed before I mentally shook myself, he probably slept in a shelter most nights, my imagination was running away with itself, what I knew about living on the streets amounted to nothing other than what I picked up when I was helping at the centre or talking to Bree.

My mind drifted and I thought about hard she worked, she did what she needed to do for us, but every other waking hour was spent at the shelter trying to raise cash and donation, anything really to keep the place going. As I looked at Edward's body I made a promise to myself that I would speak to her about what we could do to raise the shelters profile, anything to make sure it stayed open.

I paced around the room waiting for him to wake up, I knew the doctor had said it would probably be several hours but I was hoping by some miracle my presence would make him open his eyes. When wishful thinking failed I decided that maybe hearing my voice would help, they told you to read to patients didn't they, or was that coma victims? Either way I went in search of the local newspaper and started to read. I read everything, the weather, births deaths and marriages, even the agony column, which caused me to blush and even censor some of the letters, how could people write in and admit to things like that?

The night nurse came into the room to check on him and to administer some more shots, she confirmed what the doctor had said about him not waking up for several hours so tiredness won out and I decided to go home. Before I left though I couldn't help but stand by his bed, I placed my palm on his arm and used my other hand to smooth back the hair on his forehead. I leant forward and gently kissed him, softly so as not to disturb him. I swear his eyes fluttered and he took a deep breath but that was it, so I said goodnight and left him to sleep.

I finally settled into bed around 3.00am, my mind was full of images of Edward in his hospital bed and I tossed and turned as I tried to drop off to sleep. By 6.00am I finally gave in and got up, I'd probably had about an hour of restless sleep. I was exhausted but the thought of seeing Edward and talking to Emmett gave me a kick that even my morning coffee fix couldn't have rivalled. I knew Emmett would be in the gym early this morning so I decided to just start my day by telling him about Edward.

I walked into the gym and as I expected he was busy running one of the early morning sessions, I grabbed a bottle of water and took a seat waiting for him to finish. All manner and ages of people rushed past me, trying to complete their daily exercise routine and to get it out of the way. Finally Emmett emerged and I stood up to meet him,

"Good morning Bella, how are you today?"

"Emmett I'm fine, tired but fine, look I need to talk to you, I had a call from the University Hospital late last night, they had a John Doe in their ER department, and he had one of my business cards on him so they called me."

I could tell that Emmett wasn't connecting the dots so I carried on telling him what had happened.

"I went to the hospital to see if I could help identify him and it was Edward Emmett, he is badly beaten, but he is alive and they were looking after him."

"Oh fuck Bella are you sure, you are sure it's Edward?"

I nodded and watched as he pulled out his phone. To my surprise he put it on speaker phone and started to speak as soon as the phone was answered, not giving the person on the other end time to even speak.

"Hey Dad, Bella found him again, he's in University Hospital but he's been badly beaten. I'm on my way there now do you want to meet me there?"

"Yes I'll see you there, do you know what room he is in?" I recognised the voice on the other end of the phone but in that moment I couldn't place it but I knew I knew it.

Emmett looked at me and I told him that Dr Harvey was looking after him last night and that when I left he was in room 622.

"I'll see you there shortly Dad and hopefully we can finally bring him home."

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