Matt's POV
I stood in the middle of a hospital room, staring at one of my best friends in the world.
I saw his mouth moving, and I knew he was talking.
But nothing coming out was making any sense to me.
Bella?
In the hospital?
In critical condition because of an abusive boyfriend?
It didn't make any sense at all.
Bella isn't being abused.
She would've told me.
I know she would have.
At least I hope she trusted me enough to share that secret with me.
But she didn't.
She had trusted Jimmy.
I tried not to let jealousy sting too much.
This is Jimmy we're talking about.
Everyone loves and trusts Jimmy.
Of course she went to him when she needed help.
I should have seen this coming.
Everything was starting to piece itself together now.
Why Bella sometimes didn't come in to work, but she would have conference calls with us over the phone to check our progress.
Why she sometimes wore bulky clothing that covered her entire body.
The dark make-up, bracelets stacked up and going passed her wrists.
All the signs of someone trying to hide something.
And she was trying to hide bruises.
Because she knows we care about her.
And she knew exactly how we'd react.
Either that, or she thought we didn't care at all and didn't want to bother us with her problem.
Well, that idea is crap.
We all care about.
I'll be the first to admit that I like her a lot more then I should.
I have no idea why this happened.
To Bella of all people.
She's the sweetest, most caring person you'll ever meet.
And someone asshole who claims to love her, has been beating her.
Now she's laying in the hospital in critical condition.
The thought of him putting his hands on Bella in a harmful way made my blood boil.
I felt my skin getting hot all over, and my fists clenched into tight fists.
My breath was coming a lot faster and the words kept repeating over and over in my head.
"How did she end up in critical condition?" I whispered.
"Ryan, her boyfriend, put her there." Jimmy said softly.
Over and over again.
Her boyfriend put her there, her boyfriend put her there, her boyfriend put her there.
That piece of shit put Bella in the hospital.
He hurt her so bad, she's laying in a hospital and none of us know what's going to happen to her.
"Matt?" I heard Jimmy say, but he sounded so far away.
Like he was down a long tunnel and I was only hearing the echo.
I looked at him and my eyes narrowed.
"How long did you know about this?" I hissed.
"About what?" Jimmy asked.
"Don't fucking play stupid with me! How long did you know Bella was getting the shit beat out of her by that asshole!" I yelled.
I was so angry I was seeing red and I couldn't really think straight.
"Matt! You need to calm down. There's no way Jimmy knew about Bella getting hurt. He would've said something." Brian defended Jimmy.
Jimmy looked down and the rest of the guys turned to look at him.
"Jim?" Johnny asked softly.
Jimmy didn't say anything.
"For fuck's sake Jimmy!" Zacky yelled.
Jimmy looked up and his eyes were filled with hate.
Not hate for any of us.
But hate for himself for not saying anything.
"Why the fuck didn't you tell us. We would've protected her." I whispered menacingly.
"She made me promise not to say anything! She told me that sack of shit was going to anger management and that he was never going to touch her again. I made her promise to tell me if it ever happened again, and I would handle Ryan. She hid it from me too. And no one feels worse about it then me." Jimmy growled.
"You should have fucking toldm e." I growled.
"I know I should have. And I can't take that back now. As much as I wish I could, I can't. She made me promise that I wouldn't say anything, especially not to you, Matt." Jimmy said.
My eyebrows furrowed in confusion at that comment.
What is that supposed to mean?
"She told me if I said anything, she would have to leave. So I kept my mouth shut, even though I wanted to tell you guys what was going on. And now she's in the hospital." Jimmy said in a choked voice.
He sagged against the wall and stared at the floor.
My heart felt heavy and full of pain and worry for Bella.
"Don't beat yourself up, Jimmy. You were trying to keep a promise. It's not your fault." Brian said.
He went to Jimmy and clapped him on the shoulder, leaning against him to show his support.
Jimmy nodded but didn't look up from the floor.
"He's right, Jimmy." I finally said after a few minutes of silence.
Everyone turned to look at me, even Jimmy.
"You were trying to keep Bella's trust. She trusted you with a secret, and you were keeping a secret. If you knew this was gonna happen I know you would've said something. But we can't control what happened in the past. We can only control what happens now. Now that we all know what happened, we're not going to let anything happen to Bella." I said with determination in my voice.
"Damn right we're not going to let anything happen to her." Zacky agreed.
"We can all take turns staying with her in the hospital for however long she's here." Johnny suggested.
"Yeah, we'll make sure she's listening to the doctor's orders. We all know she's stubborn when she thinks she's right." Jimmy said with a warm smile.
I smiled too.
That is definitely Bella.
We were all working out a game plan when we heard footsteps coming closer and closer to us.
I turned to see a doctor headed straight for us.
He was pulling off his bloody scrubs and throwing them in the biohazard basket along with his face mask.
I tried to get the picture of the blood smeared all over him out of my face.
But it wasn't working in the least.
"Family of Isabella Moore?" The doctor asked aloud.
We all rushed over to him.
"Whoa." He said, putting up his hands to keep us from rushing him.
"Is Bella okay?"
"How is she doing?"
"Can we see her?"
"What fucking took so long?"
Everyone was talking at once and the doctor put his hands up to silence us.
"Isabella is---," He tried but we cut him off.
"It's Bella. She doesn't like being called Isabella." Jimmy said.
"Okay then, Bella, is going to be just fine. You are very lucky that you brought her in when you did." The doctor said looking at Jimmy.
"She took quite a beating, on top of having major blood loss, and broken bones, she also had a ruptured appendix. The poison that was being held in her appendix spread through her organs and was slowly poisoning her. If you had waited just a few more hours, she would've died." The doctor said.
My mouth dropped open in shock.
Bella could've died.
"The surgery went well, from our CAT scans we see that there isn't any brain damage, we're still going to be running some more tests while she remains hospitalized, and she will be watched around the clock. She'll be hooked up to a morphine drop that will administer pain medication so she won't feel any while she sleeps. As soon as she's awake and able to function on her own, we'll take it off the drip and let her control the morphine depending on her pain levels." The doctor said.
He looked around at all of us and the relieved looks on our faces.
"All in all, she's an extremely lucky lady. Not many people, male or female, could go through the trauma she went through, and pull through. You've got a fighter on your hands, whether she knows it or not." The doctor said with a small smile.
"We know she's a fighter. We just need her to figure that out too." Zacky said.
"Speaking of fighters," The doctor said.
He looked at us and his eyes had gone hard.
"The person who did this to her, is justice going to be served on his part?" The doctor asked.
My mouth tightened into a straight line and my eyes hardened.
The doctor shuffled back a few steps.
"I have a daughter, so I know what you must be feeling. Off the record," He said in a low voice, and leaning in closer to us.
We all listened up.
"I'm sure the guy could handle a few bumps and bruises himself. Just as a little taste of what he's going to get in prison. I'm sure the cops won't mind as long as you turn him into them afterwards." The doctor said.
"You don't have to worry about that, Doc. He's definitely gonna get what's coming to him." I said in a hard voice.
All the guys nodded.
The doctor nodded and stepped away.
"It was nice meeting you gentleman. Isa--, I mean Bella, is in room 425 B, she has her own room so there will be plenty of room for all of you. All I ask is that you keep it down. A few of the nurses told me about a couple of rowdy guys in the waiting room. You wouldn't happen to know who she was talking about, do you?" The doctor asked looking around at all of us.
"Of course not."
"Not us."
"We're perfect angels."
I let out a short laugh.
"We'll be on our best behavior." I said with a firm look at the doctor.
"Excellent. You guys can go in. She'll be out for a few hours, maybe even for the rest of the night. But she should wake up sometime tomorrow. Feel free to visit." The doctor said.
We all smiled and he nodded, turning away from us.
"Wait! Doctor!" I yelled as he started making his way down the hall.
The doctor stopped and I jogged over to him.
"Thank you so much for what you did for Bella. I appreciate it more then I can say." I replied with compassion in my eyes.
"It's okay, Matt. You don't have to thank me. It was my pleasure." The doctor said.
"Wait, how did you know my name?" I asked in confusion.
"Bella was coming in and out of consciousness on the ambulance ride here and up to the surgery room. She kept saying 'Matt' over and over again." The doctor said.
I stood there speechless, not knowing what else to say.
The doctor clapped me on the shoulder.
"Take care of her." He said, before turning and walking away.
I still stood there, rooted to the spot.
I definitely intend on taking care of her.
For as long as she'll let me.
I looked up at my friends who were anxiously waiting for me so we could go and see Bella together.
Bella.
She was the only thing on my mind now.
I ran over to my friends and we made our way down the hall.
Closer and closer to Bella.
My Bella.