Sometimes you spend forever waiting for something, and when it happens, it isn't at all what you wanted it to be. We spent almost two weeks waiting for Heather Forster to wake up from her vampire bite.  Her broken ankle was healing nicely, and the scratches on her leg that had started the entire mess were barely noticeable.

Finally, she woke up.  It wasn't a peaceful, smooth awakening like waking up in the morning from a deep sleep.  It was like waking up from a horrifying nightmare, when someone chases after you and they've almost got you by your shirt collar, or when you're falling off a ten story building and you're about to hit the ground.  It was insanely disturbing.  She sat straight up from her deep sleep and screamed, flailed her arms, kicked her legs, and started breaking into a pure sweat.  It was an instant transformation.

I was on the supervising shift when Heather woke up.  Carlisle was out hunting with Esme and Tanya.  It took me almost forty five minutes to get her to calm down, but I would like to think that the process was speeded up some by the fact that I was able to read her thoughts.  She was considerably scared.  She didn't understand where she was or why.  She was in pain, although she didn't know what had happened, and she remembered vague memories of being attacked and women rushing towards her.

My first thought was relief that she didn't remember the exact attack.  I tried to soothe her and tell her we had found her lost in the woods, and were there to help her.  She was thinking fast, trying to piece together the events of what had happened.  Her thoughts also flickered to her family- her children, her husband, her parents.  She didn't understand why we didn't call the police or the hospital- why we had taken care of her ourselves.  I didn't know how to answer that.  Carlisle was much better at this than I was.

She remembered falling and hurting her ankle, which I explained briefly and demonstrated further with the cast on her leg, and then she flashed back to the bears she saw in the woods just before the women found her.  I explained that the bears had attacked her, and that the women that found her were the women who lived here- we were visiting at the time, and had a Doctor in our midst.  Since we weren't sure how serious her injuries were, we didn't want to move her and were hoping she would wake up soon.

I had Carmen bring her some food as quickly as possible, and Eleazar and Kate pulled all televisions and radios from the house and hid them in the outside shed, covered with a tarp behind some boxes.  We didn't want the woman to realize that we had access to television or news broadcasts and had realized this woman was missing, with a family looking for her.  It would be easier to pretend that we didn't know anything, and were waiting for her to awaken and tell us her story herself.  I felt like a cad doing this to her, prolonging her safe return to her family for even a moment- but at the same time, I knew it was necessary.  We had to keep our secret safe and both her life and ours intact in doing so.

After Carmen fed Heather, she was feeling much better.  Carlisle returned a couple short hours within Heather waking up.  He quickly went to work examining her, checking heart rates and blood pressure, making sure her eyesight and reflexes reacted properly.  He checked everything he could think of and then some.  When he had no excuse to delay her stay any longer, and I felt absolutely sure there was nothing suspicious in her thoughts, we decided it was time to call the police and report her arrival.  Carlisle suggested it to her before he even let her bring it up.  He barely let her get a word in edgewise because he didn't want her to accuse him of keeping her here, or suggest calling the police first.  It was important that we seem as helpful as possible.

Heather was more than grateful for our "help."  Although I didn't feel helpful at all, she was happy to be awake, alive and well.  She kept thinking about how lucky she was to be found by good people who took her in and took good care of her.  What luck.  I wish Irina could have heard her thoughts.  Irina has yet to leave her room, which both serves her right and irritates me at the same time.  She should be out here with the rest of us, cleaning up her mess and fixing her mistake.  She should be helping this poor woman get better, tending to her wounds and feeding her soup and crackers.  Instead, she is sulking in her room like a child who just got yelled at for coloring on the wall.  We all make mistakes, no one blames her, but to make us all bear the burden of what she did and not even face it herself is ridiculous.  I am getting annoyed with it.

At any rate, Carlisle got Heather's contact information, and we gathered around the telephone and called Heather's family.  It isn't exactly convenient for an ambulence to drive up to the Denali house, so we opted against an ambulance and decided to drive Heather to the nearest hospital instead, with her family meeting her there.  It was our job to act concerned, of course.

Heather promised us she wouldn't bombard us with news crews after she was found, either.  We explained that our families have lived here for years, and we didn't want to have a bunch of people stomping around on the property, asking for interviews and ruining the land.  She was very understanding.  In fact, she is a very nice, caring and warm woman.  I suppose like your ideal young mother of two should be.  It makes me feel much better about sitting in that tiny room for the past few days, staring at her sleeping body, waiting endlessly for her to wake up, and wishing this whole thing had never happened.

After she was gone, we all celebrated.  All of us except for Irina, of course.  She has remained in her room all day and night, still.  If she doesn't come out of her room at least to hunt tomorrow, Eleazer says they should cut off her blood supply.  I vote in favor of that.  I think they should at least make her come out and apologize, or explain herself, or something.  She can clean up the imitation medical hospital style bedroom.

I guess I am cranky today.  That means I should end this for now.  Be back later.