Dr. Cullen raised his eyebrows.89 "Do you want to stay?"
"No, no!" I insisted, throwing my legs over the side of the bed and hopping down quickly. Too quickly—I staggered, and Dr. Cullen caught me. He looked concerned.
"I'm fine," I assured him again. No need to tell him my balance problems had nothing to do with hitting my head.
"Take some Tylenol for the pain," he suggested as he steadied me.
"It doesn't hurt that bad," I insisted.
"It sounds like90 you were extremely lucky," Dr. Cullen said, smiling as he signed my chart with a flourish.
"Lucky that Fredward happened to be standing next to me," I amended with a hard glance91 at the subject of my statement.92
"Oh, well, yes," Dr. Cullen agreed, suddenly occupied with the paper-documents in front of him. Then he looked away, at Tyler, and walked to the next bed. My intuition flickered; the doctor was in on it, and was using Tyler's more serious injuries as an excuse to not talk to me.
"I'm afraid that you'll have to stay with us just a little bit longer," he said to Tyler, who whimpered as Dr. Cullen began to pick at his cuts.
As soon as the doctor's back was turned, I moved to Fredward's side.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I hissed under my breath, from between grit teeth. He took a step back from me, his jaw suddenly clenched hard.
"Your father is waiting for you," he informed me through his teeth.
"Your father is waiting for you," I countered.
"What?"
I glanced at Dr. Cullen and Tyler. The doctor seemed absorbed with rubbing Q-tips in all of Tyler's cuts and didn't appear to be listening. Tyler, for his part, was trying to make eye contact with me while mouthing 'sorry' over and over.
"I'd like to speak with you alone, if you don't mind," I pressed.
89. Raise High The Eyebrows, Cullen was J. D. Salinger's tribute to Fredward Bound, and one of his last published works before going into seclusion.
90. Vampire echo-location.
91. A very technical glance that is difficult to do.
92. Which is to say Fredward Cullen, bane of Bella's existence and the burning flame that consumes her eternal heart.