6:14:19 → j. hale, a. cullen

22; in which things become clearer

4:20:19

"Any new or persisting symptoms of your cancer? New rashes occurring on the skin surrounding your spinal cord? More weakness and fatigue? Easy bruising and excessive nosebleeds? Shortness of breath, followed with the urgency to cough?" The EMT rattled off as she stared down at the bracelet the Swan wore, the tips of her fingers causing Emery to jump and flinch painfully as they grazed over her covered, sore skin. Shakily breathing in, Emery looked up at her father, who stared back at her with a grimace. 

"Should you tell her or should I? Since all you did was fall, right?" Charlie spoke out into the small confines of the ambulance, skepticism thick in his tone as he took in his daughter's weakened state. Lying in the gurney was his eldest daughter, looking more terrified and exhausted than he has ever seen her. Bruises wrapped their way down her neck and around her shoulders, indentations of fingernails that dug into her skin still present from the attack that happened just hours ago. 

"I didn't just fall, dad." Emery whispered out, her dampened eyes straining against the bright lights. 

"I was attacked."

✾

Coming home to the quiet and dark home was nothing new to Charlie, but he knew that something was wrong when Bella's door was left open and Emery's was closed shut. He can remember the way his youngest stuttered as he asked why she was still awake and how her sister was feeling, dread filling his veins as Bella pleaded him to not bother Emery and to let her sleep. Charlie should have known something was wrong when Emery didn't greet him on the sofa like she usually did, with her small body curled up against the plaid quilt she and him made together the summer she stayed back with him, while Bella traveled with their mother.

Emery and Charlie always made sure to say goodnight to each other before going to bed. It started all the way back to when she was three, and continued throughout the hospital visits and the inevitable distance that came with him and Renee being divorced. 

All thoughts and incessant worries left his mind when opened her bedroom door, and saw his daughter lying unnervingly still in bed, her shoulders shaking in effort to breathe in through the waves of pain that ran through her body. 

"What the hell happened?" He barked out, his stomach churning as Emery jolted in bed, causing the blanket to roll off her shoulder and expose the bruises that began to darken and pulsate. Bella stumbled into the bedroom to stop their father from getting any closer, but it was too late. Charlie gasped and clutched onto the bedding as he made his way over to the other side. 

"Dad, please. All she did was fall." Bella insisted, her hand failing to reach out and grasp onto her father's shoulder as Charlie fell forward, letting out a choked breath of air as he took in Emery's battered state. Charlie couldn't even detect where the bruises began and where they ended, her skin beet red from the shower and from when she fell onto the concrete and scraped the majority of her upper body. 

Tears sprung to his eyes as he landed on the edge of the bed and gently lifted her head, his breath halting to a stop as Emery cried out with her eyes closed in agony. Charlie took a deep breath and delicately lifted her head onto his lap, his shaking hands trying to find home on his daughter's tremoring body. 

"I'm okay. I'm okay." Emery strained out, her breathing becoming erratic as her father moved her closer into his embrace. Raising her gauzed hand, Emery gently held her father's hand that held the side of her neck in an urgency to find a steady pulse. "I'm still here, I'm still breathing." Emery forced out in a whisper, a pained smile stretching her scraped lip open as she tried to calm him down. Bella shut her eyes tightly as her father hunched over and held her sister as gently as he could, his shoulders shaking with silent sobs.