Midnight Sun(26)

not noticed me standing by the girl before the accident.
She was the only one who didn't accept the easy explanation, but she would be considered the least
reliable witness. She had been frightened, traumatized, not to mention sustaining the blow to the head.
Possibly in shock. It would be acceptable for her story to be confused, wouldn't it? No one would give it
much credence above so many other spectators...
I winced when I caught the thoughts of Rosalie, Jasper and Emmett, just arriving on the scene. There
would be hell to pay for this tonight.
I wanted to iron out the indention my shoulders had made against the tan car, but the girl was too close.
I'd have to wait till she was distracted.
It was frustrating to wait-so many eyes on me-as the humans struggled with the van, trying to pull it
away from us. I might have helped them, just to speed the process, but I was already in enough trouble
and the girl had sharp eyes. Finally, they were able to shift it far enough away for the EMTs to get to us
with their stretchers.
A familiar, grizzled face appraised me.
"Hey, Edward," Brett Warner said. He was also a registered nurse, and I knew him well from the
hospital. It was a stroke of luck-the only luck today-that he was the first through to us. In his thoughts,
he was noting that I looked alert and calm. "You okay, kid?"
"Perfect, Brett. Nothing touched me. But I'm afraid Bella here might have a concussion. She really hit her
head when I yanked her out of the way..."
Brett turned his attention to the girl, who shot me a fierce look of betrayal. Oh, that was right. She was
the quiet martyr -she'd prefer to suffer in silence.
She did not contradict my story immediately, though, and this made me feel easier. The next EMT tried
to insist that I allow myself to be treated, but it wasn't too difficult to dissuade him. I promised I would
let my father examine me, and he let it go.
With most humans, speaking with cool assurance was all that was needed. Most humans, just not the
girl, of course. Did she fit into any of the normal patterns? As they put a neck brace on her -and her face
flushed scarlet with embarrassment-I used the moment of distraction to quietly rearrange the shape of
the dent in the tan car with the back of my foot. Only my siblings noticed what I was doing, and I heard
Emmett's mental promise to catch anything I missed.
Grateful for his help -and more grateful that Emmett, at least, had already forgiven my dangerous
choice- I was more relaxed as I climbed into the front seat of the ambulance next to Brett.
The chief of police arrived before they had gotten Bella into the back of the ambulance.
Though Bella's father's thoughts were past words, the panic and concern emanating out of the man's
mind drown out just about every other thought in the vicinity.
Wordless anxiety and guilt, a great swell of them, washed out of him as he saw his only daughter on the
gurney.
Washed out of him and through me, echoing and growing stronger. When Alice had warned me that
killing Charlie Swan's daughter would kill him, too, she had not been exaggerating. My head bowed with
that guilt as I listened to his panicked voice.
"Bella!" he shouted.
"I'm completely fine, Char-Dad." She sighed. "There's nothing wrong with me."
Her assurance barely soothed his dread. He turned at once to the closest EMT and demanded more
information.
I wasn't until I heard him speaking, forming perfectly coherent sentences despite his panic, that I
realized that his anxiety and concern were not wordless. I just...could not hear the exact words.
Hmm. Charlie Swan was not as silent as his daughter, but I could see where she got it from. Interesting.
I'd never spent much time around the town's police chief. I'd always taken him for a man of slow
thought-now I realized that I was the one who was slow. His thoughts were partially concealed, not
absent. I could only make out the tenor, the tone of them...
I wanted to listen harder, to see if I could find in this new, lesser puzzle the key to the girl's secrets. But
Bella was loaded into the back by then, and the ambulance was on its way.
It was hard to tear myself away from this possible solution to the mystery that had come to obsess me.
But I had to think now-to look at what had been done today from every angle. I had to listen, to make
sure that I had not put us all in so much danger that we would have to leave immediately. I had to
concentrate.
There was nothing in the thoughts of the EMTs to worry me. As far as they could tell, there was nothing
seriously wrong with the girl. And Bella was sticking to the story I'd provided, thus far.
The first priority, when we reached the hospital, was to see Carlisle. I hurried through the automatic
doors, but I was unable to totally forgo watching after Bella; I kept an eye on her through the
paramedics' thoughts.
It was easy to find my father's familiar mind. He was in his small office, all alone -the second stroke of