A/N: I'm a first timer, so be honest, so I can improve! I know this chapter is sad, I cried writing it. The story will have many ups and downs, so hopefully you like it, and will stick around for the ride! There will be some in character, some out. Canon pairings for all, eventually. You'll see. This is AU, but uses many elements from the books.

I was listening to Lifehouse-Storm and Alkaline Trio-Over and Out for mood music for this chap.

Thanks so much to Katie J! Before I found you on the BC boards, I was going to toss out this whole idea, but your encouragement helped keep me moving along. So, thanks so much! You have mad Beta skills, and this story will be better because of your skillful editing! :)

I am so looking forward to any reviews you guys give, so please, let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight, and all things associated with it. No copyright infringement intended.

Chapter 1: Accident

"You are amazing, did I tell you that lately?" I asked him, as I grinned at him like a fool.

"Well, little Missus, you did, and I would have to say that you are quite amazing yourself," he said, as he leaned over to the passenger seat to give me a quick kiss. "I think I'm quite lucky to have you." He smiled at me, and then turned his eyes back to the road.

"Well, you're going to have me for forever now, so you better like me, because I'm not going anywhere," I jokingly warned him, as I admired his striking profile in the dark car. I reached over and grabbed his right hand, interlocking my fingers with his.

"You know, I was hoping you'd say that. Because otherwise, I was going to tie you up and keep you locked in my room," he said, as he grinned devilishly at me.

"So you're saying, if I had said no, you would have tied me up and held me hostage? Hmm. Is it too late to change my answer?"

"If you want, you can keep your answer, and I'll still do that." He was trying to keep a straight face, but I was blushing like crazy, so he laughed instead, his messy bronze hair falling adorably into his eyes. He only got a halfhearted laugh from me though, as I saw the speedometer approaching ninety.

"Edward, we're going too fast, and the roads are wet. You know that makes me nervous. Please, could you slow down?"

"You worry too much Bells. It's cute that you worry, but I can handle it. It's okay." He flashed my favorite crooked smile, trying to reassure me.

"Are you sure you like it?" He asked, changing the subject, and nodding his head in the direction of my left hand. I glanced down and smiled.

"Of course I do! It's perfect. I love it." I looked down and fiddled with the ring for the umpteenth time since he had put it there.

"Good. You know, I was wondering how you felt about the color red, any thoughts?" He asked, looking at me sideways and smiling.

"Um, I guess its okay. Why? What does red have to do with anything?"

I was very confused, but he had piqued my curiosity.

"Well, I would really like to marry you as soon as possible…like tomorrow…but I figured it would be nice if we picked a time when everyone will already be together…" he trailed off, obviously waiting for me to get the hint. I immediately did.

"Christmas? Really?" I asked, practically jumping up in my seat.

"Yeah, Christmas," he said, smiling at how excited I was. "I know it's only six months away, but both of our families and most of our friends will already be in town anyway, and since Alice is going to undoubtedly want to plan the whole thing, she will probably go overboard and make everything as 'Christmassy' as possible, so…lots of red. That's where I was going with that."

I looked up to smile at him, and tell him that he was the sweetest man in the world, but his face twisted with surprise and fear. I looked out the windshield just in time to see a dark shape in the road ahead.

"Oh no, Bella-!" He started to warn me, and he threw an arm out protectively across my chest, but quickly pulled it back so he could have both hands on the wheel to try to control the car. Edward swerved, and all I could hear was screeching tires, and wind whipping past my window, while I was pinned in my seat.

I tried to scream, but all that came out was a sharp exhale of breath.

I was violently thrown against my window, then suddenly upside down, and then thrust back into my seat. I wanted to make my head to turn to the side so I could see Edward, but the force of the flipping car was too much, and all I could see was increasing blackness as unconsciousness crept up on me.

I awoke after what seemed like an instant. My eyes fluttered open, and I tried to reorient myself. I was cold, wet, and the seatbelt was squeezing my body painfully. It was hard to draw breath, and I felt weak, but I mustered up enough strength to lean to the side and look over.

The dashboard clock was out, so I didn't know how much time had passed, but it was still raining, and dark out.

I looked over at the driver's seat, to see if Edward was waking up too.

"Eh…Edward?"

I could see his back, and the side of his head, but everything in the car was so displaced, that it was hard to tell what was what.

When I didn't get an immediate response, I started to panic.

I did a quick self-assessment; when I was satisfied that nothing felt broken, or too badly hurt, I sprung into action.

I reached around, fumbling to release the seatbelt. The button was within my reach, but was stuck between my seat and the console. Once I was able to push it, I immediately felt relief from the pressure on my chest.

I tried to pull the door handle, and it stuck, so I wiggled my legs up and onto my seat, and turned to the side, facing Edward.

I pushed gently on one shoulder, trying to rouse him. He didn't appear badly hurt. I couldn't see any blood, but my view was limited, because his seat was twisted, and his body was slumped towards the door.

"Edward. Wake up", I tried again, while I pushed him again gently on his side.

"Unnnn…oooooww", no words, just a low pained moan was coming from him.

Glass crunched under my knees as I tried to move on the seat. I looked around carefully, trying to figure out what to do. The windshield was a mess of spider web cracks, and still in place, but my window, and the window on his side were gone, and rain was falling freely into both.

My door wouldn't open, the only thing I could do was climb out my window. Somehow, I knew I needed to get to him as fast as possible.

I carefully pulled myself up, and slid out the broken window, trying to avoid the remnants of glass in the frame. As soon as I was all the way out, I scrambled across the wet asphalt, around to his side of the car. His door was crumpled, and mangled, but luckily, it wasn't stuck shut, and with a hard tug, I was able to pull it open. The instant I got the door open, I knew it was bad.

He was slumped motionlessly over the steering wheel, one arm around the column, and one arm hanging limply at his side.

His forehead was cut, and bleeding a lot, and he had a trickle of blood coming out of his left ear. I couldn't see any other injuries. I knew that bleeding from the ear was not a good sign.

"Oh, God, Edward, are you okay? Please answer me. Please…" I begged.

When he didn't respond, I grabbed his left arm, and attempted to pull him towards me. He was heavy, but he moved without resistance. I took one look at his shoulder, and knew why.

"What the hell! You didn't have your seat belt on! What is wrong with you? Are you crazy? God, please be okay. Please, please, Edward. I'm going to try and pull you out, okay?"

"Uhhhhhh…."

I wasn't sure whether he understood me or not, but I needed to get him out.

I got one of my arms under each of his shoulders, and pulled as carefully as I could. It took two hard yanks for me to get him out of his seat, and onto the pavement next to the car. He was groaning, and wincing, but he hadn't opened his eyes yet.

Once I had him safely on the ground, I pulled my hands out from under him, and was horrified that they were covered in dark red blood.

"Oh God, oh God, oh God…" I furiously wiped my hands on my pants, and I could feel the fear gripping my chest like a vise.

I reached into the car, and fumbled around, until I found my purse in the glass-filled console. I pulled it out of the car, and dug out my cell phone. I prayed for a signal as, with shaky hands, I roughly dialed 911, and waited for the operator to pick up.

"9-1-1. What's your emergency?"

"My name is Bella Swan. My father is Charlie Swan; he's the police chief in Forks. Please call him. I've been in an accident, and I need an ambulance. Now!" I yelled at the operator.

"No need to shout sweetie, calm down. Where are you?"

"I'm not sure. Somewhere on Highway 101. Um, I'm not good with directions…we were on our way home to Forks from Seattle. I think we're somewhere between Forks, and Port Angeles. Please, hurry. My boyfriend is hurt, and he won't wake up. I don't know what to do!"

"Is he breathing?"

I placed one hand on his chest. I could feel it moving up and down, but weakly.

"Yeah, sort of, kind of shallow, though. He's bleeding from his head, and his ear, and there's blood coming from somewhere else, but I don't know where, I need help!" I pleaded.

"We'll have someone there soon. Are you hurt?"

"No, I think I'm okay. Just send someone, now!"

"They're en route sweetie. Just hang on, and see if you can wake him up."

"I'm trying to, lady! Just hurry, God, please tell them to hurry!" I shouted, and hung up the phone.

"Edward, hey…hey…can you hear me?"

I put one hand under his head and the other on his cheek.

His eyelids fluttered, and opened slightly. He was looking at me, but seemed to be having a hard time keeping his eyes open. He scrunched his forehead and groaned.

"Hhhh…urts…" he mumbled. " Wha…what…happened?"

I inched my face closer to his. "I'm not sure babe. You swerved, and we skidded, and I don't know what happened after that. I think I passed out. Can you move?"

"It hurts…when…I move."

"Okay, then try not to. I'm here. Help is coming soon. Just hold my hand. It'll be alright. Okay?" I took my hand out from under his neck, grabbed one of his hands, and held it gently.

"Mmmm…hmm."

His eyes closed again.

"Hey, you stay here, you hear me? Edward? Stay awake. You need to stay awake."

It seemed to take a lot of energy, but he opened his eyes again, and his eyes met mine.

"Yep…here…got it…I'm…cold…Bella…"

I could see his eyes going in and out of focus, and my heart almost stopped in my chest.

"You listen to me. You are going to be fine. Now look at me…Edward…look at me. I love you. You're not going anywhere. You hear me? Nowhere."

He looked at me, and nodded weakly, but he was getting paler by the second, and I could hear him struggling for breath.

I was trying to reassure him, and look him over at the same time. Besides his ear, and the gash on his forehead, I couldn't figure out where so much blood was coming from. His arms and legs seemed to be okay, so I peeled back front of his jacket, and I saw it.

There was a huge piece of jagged metal protruding from the right side of his abdomen, just under his ribcage. His shirt was soaked with blood, and he still seemed to be bleeding quite a bit.

"Oh God babe. That isn't good. Oh shit, oh shit, you're bleeding a lot."

I could see a small puddle forming under his side. I quickly pulled my soaked sweatshirt off, and used it to put pressure around the wound.

I couldn't even feel the ice-cold stinging rain that was still pouring on us.

"Bell…I feel…funny…can't think."

"I know, you're losing blood, I'm trying to stop it, but help is coming soon. It'll be alright. We just need to get you to the hospital." I was choking back the tears and panic.

"Bella…listen…to me."

"I'm listening. What? What can I do? I don't know what to do Edward!"

"Bell, I…I think I'm…hurt bad…"

"I know, but they're coming! It'll be alright…you'll be okay."

"I don't…I don't know…it's getting…fuzzy…I don't…feel right."

I couldn't stop the sobs that were trying to burst out of my chest.

"What do you mean? Don't talk like that! Stay with me Edward. Look at me!"

He looked me directly in the eyes, and though he was grimacing from the pain, the corners of his mouth turned up just slightly, as if he was trying to smile at me.

"I…love you Bella…I always have…"

"Stop it! Stop it right now! You sound like you're trying to say goodbye! You are not going to say that to me, because you're going to be fine."

"What…do we say…huh? For life…or…longer…ugh…it hurts."

"Don't you even say those words to me! You told me just twenty-four hours ago that we were going to have our whole lives together! You promised! Now you're going to stay here Goddamn it! You can't leave me! You…just…can't."

"Bells…please…just…know that …I…love you."

"I do know. I love you too, more than my own life."

"Okay…I just…need to…close my eyes…just for a second…tired…"

I held his hand tightly, and just nodded as his lids slipped closed.

"They should be here soon. They'll be here any minute. Okay?"

I felt him shudder lightly, and his chest fell, and didn't rise again.

My mouth fell open in shock at what I just witnessed.

"Edward?" I squeaked out, as I patted him lightly on the cheek.

"Oh God please…wake up," I whispered. "Edward…"

I crumpled in a heap on top of him, holding him as tightly as I could, and rocking back and forth.

"Please, please, please…" I whispered. "Don't leave me…you can't leave me."

He couldn't be gone. That wasn't possible.

"No, no, no, no, no, no," I kept repeating, as if saying it enough could make it true.

I was crying so hard I didn't even hear the siren as the ambulance approached, and I barely felt a strong pair of hands pull me off Edward and onto my feet.

"Bells, come here. I've got you. You're okay now," Charlie said, holding me firmly.

I could now see Carlisle, Edward's father, bent over his son's body, as he joined the paramedics trying to save him. I almost couldn't bear the pained expression on his face, as he fought his emotions, trying to be both father and doctor.

Charlie gently grasped my chin and turned my face away from the scene; away from the blood, away from the crumpled car, and away from the sight of the paramedics shaking their heads.

It was over.

He was gone.

I wanted to tell the paramedics to turn off the sirens, because the wailing was hurting my ears.

It took Charlie squeezing me tightly to his chest, and gently telling me to calm down, to realize the wailing was coming from me.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Pain.

Nothing but pain and blackness.

I could hear her voice, begging me to stay awake, but my eyelids were so heavy.

She was holding me tight, and I wondered if it was rain hitting my face, or her tears.

I was stuck in a vacuum of pain and pressure, and I had no means to escape.

All I wanted to do was tell her I was sorry, and that I never imagined that our life together would end before it had ever begun.

I wanted to apologize for not listening to her, when she had told me to be careful.

I wanted to say that I regretted not having time to give her the family she had dreamed we'd have.

This was my fault.

And I couldn't even draw the breath to tell her I was sorry.

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