The Girl Named Bambi

Ch 7

*Jacob's POV*

I watched her fall. I just watched. I watched her back get stabbed by those rocks. I didn't save her. Why didn't I save her? Why didn't Quil save her? He went about as pale as she did. Her face just turned white as she plunged down. Her limbs flew up as she let the wind carry her. They looked like they were reaching out for us. The way she just stopped struggling. She just stopped fighting it. She peeled off the rocks into the water. Embry dove in himself. We stood silently and watched as he pulled her bloody body out of the water. She wasn't moving. I must have gone temporarily deaf, because Jared broke the silence by saying, "The ambulance is coming." When had he called the paramedics? Why didn't I? Instead, I just stood there like a stone, looking at my nearly dead... My nearly dead imprint. 

It didn't matter if she were dead. She loved Quil. Not me. She'd told me so. It felt like half of my heart died, and I was only able to breathe. And stare. And stand there. Stupidly. Embry dragged  her up onto the cliff we were on. Her eyes were shut and her skin looked milky. Her dark hair was soaking wet and was probably half her body weight. Her lips had turned a pale purple color, and her hands were sprawled open, palms up. Her minty green colored bikini was soaked in her own blood, so much that it blended into an ugly brown color. The ambulance arrived and the guys picked her up and put her on a stretcher, lifting her into the van. It sped off. I looked over at Paul and Jared. Jared was crying. 

"Did I just kill her, Embry? Did I kill your twin sister who was beaten and cut by her foster parents? The one who was taken away from your mom by your father because he didn't want a girl? The one who's my imprint's best friend? Did I just kill that sweet little girl with the chocolate brown hair and the bikini soaked with blood?" he fumed and breathed hard, obviously mad at himself. Kim began to cry more than she was, she was now sobbing. "I'm the worst person in the world."

Paul slapped his arm. "Shut up. Right now. I had just as much to do with that as you did." 

"I don't know if you killed her. They wouldn't tell me," Embry said darkly and ducked his head back down.

"She looked dead. She looked dead before she even hit the rocks. Did you see the way she just shut down like that? Skin went white, body went limp. She knew if she struggled, it would hurt more. That or she died of a panic attack," Quil contributed. 

"Stop talking about her like a corpse. We don't know if she's dead yet. We don't know if you two killed my imprint or not. So shut up," I demanded. Everyone went silent. Quil turned white. 

"I didn't know that she was yours. You should've told me," he whispered. 

"It's okay. She loved you. Not me. She told me. If she died, at least she died happily with you," I admitted bitterly and looked away. Embry snapped us out of it and instructed everyone to get into his car. We drove to the hospital in silence. 

"Hi, I'm Embry Call, my sister was just picked up by an ambulance for a cliff diving accident, most likely three puncture wounds on her back," he introduced himself to the head ER nurse. She was a short, plump, frantic looking woman, and she nodded anxiously. 

"The surgeon is performing emergency surgery on her right now. I'm afraid you can't see her. You'll have to wait in the waiting area please, sir." She had to look up to see into Embry's eyes. She looked intimidated by him. Embry gritted his teeth and sat down in one of the chairs. We followed suit. All of us waited for a very long time, reading stupid magazines and watching stupid news channels. Mrs. Tiffany came rushing through into the waiting room. 

"Where's my baby?" She shrieked at us. We all exchanged looks. 

"She fell the wrong way off the cliff and landed on some rocks, and they stabbed her in her head and her back," Quil explained when Embry was not exactly in a good state for such explaining. He gritted his teeth once more. 

"She's having emergency surgery," was what Embry came up with. Tiffany sighed a great sigh and plopped down into one of the chairs near us. We sat there for two hours. 

"Family of Bambi Beatrice call?" A doctor in minty green scrubs called out. The same color as Bambi's bikini. Tiffany immediately raised her hand and sprung out of her chair. 

"The surgery was a success, but she may have suffered some brain trauma, and she lost a significant amount of blood. However, her cerebellum was punctured, so her heart may stop beating or she may stop breathing any minute now. The chances of her surviving are pretty fair. Would you like to see her?" He asked. We all nodded hastily. 

He led us into a wing of the hospital called the Intensive Care Unit. There, we entered room 1C and there she was, laying with her beautiful eyes closed, hair tied up into a bun, and her soft, full lips slightly parted. She was attached to all kinds of machines, and had bandages wrapped around her head and torso. There were IVs stuck into her arm and she had been dressed in hospital pants, but no shirt, because her back needed to be wrapped. MHer feet were bare and her hot pink toenails shone brightly against her greenish skin. Her bikini was laying out on a table, bloody and brown. I winced at the sight of all the blood I hadn't noticed. Streaked down her chin where her scar was, knotting in her hair, soaking the bottom of the bandages, and spattered on her arms. 

A machine probably measuring her heart rate started to beep faster, and the doctor rushed into the room. Bambi's eyes flashed open and stared at the ceiling. We all let out great sighs of relief. The doctor sighed out of something else, and flapped her eyelids shut. Tiffany scowled at him. 

"She's done that several times, irresponsive and inconsolable. That's her conscious fighting her subconscious. But after a while, her eyes will dry out because her body won't allow her to blink. And even if she did wake up right now, she'd be very dangerous, because she'd still be in epileptic shock, so she could have a heart attack or a seizure." We all gave up and went back to the waiting room. I wouldn't leave. Neither would Embry or Tiffany. We would take turns sitting in her room, and Jared and Paul came back every day with spectacular gifts for when she woke up. I went out and actuall bought a nice silver ring for her with her name engraved on it. It emptied my savings, but who cared? She was all I had to hope for and to worry about. She worried me whenever she would toss and turn, I didn't want her to have bad dreams in a sleep she couldn't wake up from. It wasn't fair. And it upset her. When she got like this, I'd go out and buy some new flowers so as not to upset myself and do something crazy.

Her room was covered in vases of flowers. Sam, Leah, and Seth brought in some stuffed animals, and Kim brought in a large gift box wrapped in gold paper and with a big pink bow tied around it. I was itching to know what was inside but she wouldn't say. Good for her. If Bambi looked up at me with those brown eyes and asked me what was in the box, I'd tell her what was in it right down to what the cardboard was made of. I simply sat there, waiting for her to wake up. Weeks passed. Her room was covered in stuffed animals, flowers, and balloons. 

It was that one morning. I fell asleep in the chair next to her hospital bed by accident, and when I woke up, I saw those brown eyes open again. I didn't think much of that, it happened all the time, but the way she looked around and made eye contact with me was different. Then she spoke. 

"Why am I here, Jacob?" her voice was raspy after not using it for weeks. I nearly had a heart attack. 

"You hurt yourself cliff diving. There are big wounds on your back and the back of your head. Don't touch them. I should go get the doctor," I responded and leaped up from the chair. She grabbed my wrist on my way out. My heart stopped as her small, cold hand made contact with me. 

"Wait," she requested. "Is Embry okay?" I nodded and she let go. My heart began beating again. Really fast. I notified the doctor and he came racing in the room. I noticed a huge smile on my face as he entered with some equipment or whatever. However, Bambi did not even politely smile as the doctor greeted her. Her face turned to complete horror at the sight of him.