Five

"Come on Ari, come on!" I heard Jake's voice faintly, but it felt so far, and then I felt the pressure on my lips as air was pushed into my mouth, my nose pinched closed. The water that expelled from my lungs was salty and fishy, and absolutely awful. When I opened my eyes, there was Jake, his arms covered in blood, and his hair dripping wet. "Oh my god Ari!" He hugged me and I cried out. "I'm so sorry!" He gasped suddenly. When I tried to move I felt tears sting my eyes. "I already called your dad and Mine, yours is on the way, we're taking you to the hospital." He said calmly, he had my bag swung over his bare shoulder and his board was underneath me.

"Where's my board?" I asked with a gasping breath.

"It broke when you hit the rocks." He said apologetically. "I had to put you on mine to get you on shore."

"Does this mean no cliff jumping next week?" I asked with a choked laugh, looking down my body and seeing the blood all over my leg.

"You're crazy." He laughed and looked up just as my dad's cruiser pulled up. I could hear Maddie barking loudly, she knew I was hurt.

Before I knew it my dad was there and helping Jake pick me up. "My god Arabella." He said, grunting as he lifted me and the board with Jake.

"I'm sorry dad," I reached for him and winced. "That wave came out of nowhere, pulled me right under."

"It's okay baby, I know, come on let's get you in the car." The walk up to the car was filled with jostles and Jake nearly dropping me. Once we were there, Jake jumped in, and my dad picked me up and put me in the back, Jake holding my head and looking apologetically at Maddie who whines loudly. "Jacob, call your dad, let him know we will be at the hospital, I'll take you home tonight but your board is still at the beach." Jake nodded and pulled his phone from my bag, pushing mine back into its pocket. Meanwhile I watched my dad push on the radio and start talking. "Charlie, it's Jacks, I got her, call the hospital, let them know I'm on my way in. She's got a cut down her leg and god knows what else."

"Ssshhtt gotcha, hope she's okay. Ppt." Charlie Swan's voice broke over the radio, and my dad flipped on the siren and picked up the speed, parting traffic like Moses and the Red Sea.

•••

Once we got to the hospital we were met by a flurry of nurses accompanied by a blonde and perfect looking doctor. His jacket read " " and instantly I recognized him as Edward's dad. "Hey." I laughed, holding my side as I did. "I met your kids today." I smiled, but it left my face as soon as they moved me, I cried out and squeezed my eyes shut.

Shit shit shit shit I hate everything.

I opened my eyes and went searching the room for a familiar face, I was too scared to deal with this, and my eyes caught a face I didn't expect.

Edward's here? Didn't expect that.

I felt silly, of course I should expect that his dad was here after all. They started to wheel me away and I began to panic, searching for my father, or at least Jake. Hell even Maddie would do, they couldn't have all left me. I couldn't find them in the chaos, and my fear only began to build.

"Don't be scared, your dad's filling out papers and your friend isn't allowed any further." 's voice pushed through my panicked cloud. "We are just going to clean the cut and give you stitches, X-ray your ribs because it looks like you're favoring them, and check for a head injury. Okay?" His voice was calm and steady among the other sounds that were so loud.

"Yeah." I coughed, my mouth still dry from the sea water. "I swallowed some water too." I informed them, and he nodded, informing a nurse to get fluids.

After all the chaos had ended, I laid in a bed with my leg bandaged and my arm hooked up to tubes. My ribs were bruised but not broken, I had a mild concussion, and I needed 37 stitches from my ankle to my knee on my left leg. My dad had to leave and take Maddie home as well as Jake, against his protests to stay. Doctor Cullen walked into the room however and smiled at me. "Tell me, I'm I going to be able to go to school tomorrow?" I smiled back at him, and he just laughed lightly.

"Hopefully, I never want to stand in the way of someone's education." He picked up my chart and looked through it. "You are a little dehydrated, we just got to get a lot of water into you and that should fix it." He smiled and continued to flip through. "I can't help but notice a lot of the family history is missing here... do you know if there are any diseases or disabilities that run in your family? It's important that you know these things."

"Umm... we actually don't know who my family is." I smiled awkwardly and he just looked at me curiously. "I was left on the police station doorstep, I was like a day old. I can tell you my birthday and the first name my birth mom gave me. Other than that, the Jacks are my family through and through." I shrugged and smoothed the blanket on my lap.

"Oh. I'm so sorry. I had no idea." He put my chart back down and smiled at me.

"I met your kids today- I don't know if I said that or not." I said, scratching my head.

"You did." He laughed and crossed his arms.

"Oh. Well they are all really nice. You've raised a good bunch." My fingers itching to draw anything, anything at all.

"Well thank you, but all that credit has to go to my wife. She's an extraordinary mother." He laughed and looked down as his pager went off. "I have to go, but I'll be back in an hour or so to determine if you can go home, okay?"

"Alright doc." I gave him a thumbs up and began to flip through the tv channels until I landed on a rerun of Supernatural.

Dean is my spirit animal. I want pie now. Damn.

There was a gentle knock on my door, and I looked up to see Edward poking his head through the door. "Hey. I saw you come in."

"Hi." I smiled and shifted slightly, wincing as I did so.

"What happened? You looked pretty banged up."

"Surfing accident believe it or not." I smiled faintly. "It broke my board and nearly broke me. Damn reef." I shook my head, pushing my hair from my eyes.

"That's crazy." He walked forward. "And you're not clumsy. Right? Because this is the second time you've been in the hospital according to what you've told me." He laughed, a smile breaking on his face.

"I'm absolutely sure." I picked at the tape holding the IV in my arm. "It's actually the fifth."

"Five times! Good lord!"

"Yeah, but like, I've only broken my arm once, I broke my leg when I got hit by a car, and there's this time." I shrugged nonchalantly and smiled.

"What about the other two?" He asked curiously, moving to sit on the bed.

"Let's see, anaphylaxis, and I got knocked out and nobody could wake me up." I smiled like it was nothing. "I got stung by a bee and we found out I was allergic real quick, I have an epi-pen now. And then I was knocked out because I was playing with my friend Bella, and I was holding her hand, and she fell off the edge of our treehouse and I went down with her. She wasn't hurt because I was between her and the ground." I laughed, thinking of the clumsy brunette I hadn't heard from in years and accepted I would probably never hear from again, she hadn't come back for the summer since fifth grade. "She's the real clumsy one. Saying she has two left feet is an understatement," I laughed and muted the TV as a series of high pitched screams erupted from the screen.

My god, he's so nice and I'm just so boring and awkward.

"You're not boring." Edward said with a smile.

"Wait what?" I stared at him confused.

I could have sworn I thought that, not said it... maybe I just said it really quite and thought it was in my head?

"You said you were boring..." He spoke quickly, balling his hand in the fabric of the bed.

"Oh..." I bit my lip hard and looked down, embarrassed that the words had been heard.

We had watched television until doctor Cullen came back, I was released but I had to walk with a crutch and I wasn't allowed to wear jeans, only shorts or loose fitting pants. "Got it Doc." I smiled kindly and hobbled my way to the car, my dad looking at me and shaking his head. "What."

"Don't scare me like that." He sighed and put the car in drive. "No more extreme sports for a while? Please?"

"Got it- so Jake and I won't go volcano exploring tomorrow." I smiled and received a loud and hard laugh from my father. They were few and far between since my mother passed, but when I heard them, they were amazing and filled me with such joy. When we were home my black German Shepherd whined as I opened the door. "Immobulus!" I snapped my fingers and Maddie sat down and watched me patiently. It took me months to teach her commands using only Harry Potter charms, and even longer for her to bark at me when I pronounced Leviosa wrong.

"Oh god I raised such a nerd." My dad rolled his eyes behind me and set my bag down on the table. "Go upstairs and get to bed. You do still have to go to school tomorrow, bruised ribs or not."

"That's okay, it'll give me more street cred among my fellow thugs."

"Oh yes, how could I ever forget the street cred. of course." I heard his chuckle as he gave Maddie one of his German commands. Maddie was such an amazing dog, she knew commands in two different words each, mainly because I couldn't say the complicated German commands, and I wasn't allowed to teach her English commands for the sheer fact that we couldn't risk her getting confused in the line of duty.

I hobbled up the stairs, my phone temporarily sticking out of my bra strap as I pushed against the crutch praying it wouldn't decide it wanted to quit its job and become an acrobat that performs only for tumbles.

Once I was up the stairs I sighed and felt my phone vibe accompanied by a hard PING of an incoming message. U good? Txt me l8tr -Jake I smiled softly and put my phone back as I went down the narrow hall, into my bedroom, latching the door and going across to the bathroom. When I caught my reflection in the mirror I almost screamed. How had anyone allowed me to look like an actual piece of waterlogged trash for so long? I brushed my hair angrily, and stared at the bruises that spread across my face, arms, and down into my shirt. When I lifted my shirt, the purple tone of the bruises was just appearing. "Fuck me." I grumbled, brushing my teeth and pulling my hair into a loose scrunchy bun. I made the agonizing walk over to my bed it was a four poster princess bed with scarves, tool, and sheer sheets and clothes draped in a haphazard gather of clothes and color. I crashed into the bed and rolled myself in the marble print comforter and curled my arms around the golden pillow. "Uhhhhgggg my lights not off and my phones unplugged." I slapped my hand over my face and began rolling over, already feeling the drowsy fingers of sleep pulling my eyes shut. I was out before I could even grab my charger, let alone plug it in, turn off my light, or get under my covers.

I walked through the woods, something beside me glittered like diamonds, but every time I turned to look I could not. That was when I realized I was being carried, and I couldn't turn to look because my head was being held still. Something was stopping me, and pain began to radiate through my body.

"Don't worry Arabella. We're almost there." A woman's voice whispered, a flutter of red hair and a sudden turn made me toss sideways.

Suddenly I was awake, and not just awake, but staring at a pair of brown eyes. "Hello?" I whispered, and with a slow blink the eyes were gone, perhaps it was a remnant of my dream, but what I knew I wasn't dreaming was that my phone was plugged in and laying on my end table, my light was off, and I was under my comforter. It was midnight. I knew my father hadn't done this, he would be halfway through his second beer bottle, holding Maddie and crying as he looked at a picture of my mother.

"Wot in ternation." I mumbled, grabbing my phone, wincing as I moved my tired body, and glancing at my notifications. Nothing too major, just another message from Jake, and a couple from Gaia. I let my phone clatter back onto the table and cried out as a shooting pain shot up my leg.

No no no no no no no no. No thank you. Nope. Nope train to nopeville. Honey bunches of nope.

Tears sprung to my eyes and I clutched my blanket angrily. I had pulled on my stitches while I was reaching, I moved my leg so it would not even have the chance to pull, bunching my blanket up in front of my face I began to drift off again, the faint sound of someone moving in my room keeping me slightly stirred, but not long enough before I entered a dream state again, and fell asleep.