When I woke up the next morning, my thoughts were slow and my limbs felt like dead-weights. Ah yes, the lovely side-affects of sedative medications. I lingered on the edge of asleep and awake for a moment, the hazy fog filling my brain and clouding head and any thoughts I could have had were left half formed. I kept my eyes closed as I took a breath deep into my lungs, the oxygen burned through my muscles and I let out the breath in one tired huff. I eventually opened my eyes and blinked up at the ceiling, I didn't really have any need to get up today did I? I could just lay here in a post sedative haze for a few hours, maybe I could take another one and sleep the day away in a fit of dreamless sleep. That thought made me groan and I scrubbed my hand over my face, it was never a good sign when I was considering taking a sedative first thing in the morning. It was just hard to see the point of forcing myself out of bed. To face a day filled with pain both old and fresh from my still healing hip.

A gentle rapping on my door pulled me out of my pity party. "Izzie? Are you awake yet?" Edward's honeyed voice drifted over to me and it filled out the hollow space in my chest. Maybe I had a reason to get up after all.

"Barely." I replied back, my voice breaking around my raspy throat. I kept my eyes on the ceiling as I heard the door creak open and Edward's soft footsteps came into the room. I took another breath, trying to pull on the sliver of motivation that I knew wasn't there before I had heard Edward's voice, I pulled myself upright and looked at him. No one had any business looking that damn good first thing in the morning, especially not after the night we had.

I had woken up in the dead of night, screaming and crying and sobbing and barely able to form a single fucking sentence and Edward had rushed to my side. He had been so patient with me as he talked me down from my nightmare. A nightmare that didn't even make any sense. It wasn't the usual crash, the burning fire and screaming fear. By all accounts it shouldn't have even been a nightmare at all, just a bizarre dream. But still, I couldn't stop the complete and utter breakdown that the dream had caused. How was it that after helping me through that, he looked so good and well rested?

The usual darkness under his eyes seemed to be lighter than usual, and his pale skin had a slight pinkness to it that I hadn't seen before. It made me feel all that much worse. I felt like shit, and I knew I probably looked the part too. Edward was looking at me with that face again. The one with the scrunched up eyebrows and hard line in his lips, a look of worry and concentration. He slowly came across the room and sat gently next to me on the bed.

"Are you alright Izzie?" He asked softly as his hand slowly came up and cupped my cheek, his thumb grazed over my forehead and I felt my face relax, my deep frown falling away under his touch. "What are you thinking?" He whispered.

I was sure that this was probably Edward's favourite question. Judging by the sheer amount of times he had asked me.

"I'm thinking that it's unfair you look so put together when I know I look like a dumpster fire." I mumbled back, some of the words only coming out half formed as I battled against the black sludge rumbling around my skull that had taken the place of my brain at some point in the night.

"You could never look anything short of beautiful." Edward replied and even though I had closed my eyes at some point during our conversation I could hear the smile in his voice.

I opened my eyes to a smiling Edward and made a move to get out of bed, before stopping at the sharp twinge in my hip. At this point in my short but incredibly pain filled life I had become a master at masking pain. Stopping that hiss of air between clenched teeth before it could start. Insisting no doctor, I'm fine. It doesn't hurt that bad as I had taken the first wobbly steps on a leg held together with a titanium plate and a whispered prayer. I was a girl without a family, the girl who rocked up with no memories and nothing except a grocery list of injuries that needed fixing, so I didn't need to inconvenience anyone else with any unnecessary bitching about how it hurt. This new pain was nothing I hadn't dealt with before, in fact it was pretty low on the pain scale for me. So I figured that it shouldn't be too hard to grin and bear it and fake my way through the next two weeks without worrying Edward too much. The guy didn't need it, he already looked like he was carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders and I didn't want to add to whatever burden he was already shouldering.

Somehow Edward always knew. It was like he could pick up on the tiny minuscule tells that occurred in my body against my own will. It annoyed the fuck out of me. I couldn't seem to hide anything from him.

"Izzie, wait." Edward gracefully rose from the bed and grabbed the little orange bottle of pain pills, handing it over wordlessly, "You must be in a lot of pain, you haven't taken any since dinner last night."

I frowned at him. A lot of pain. I wondered what he used for his pain scale, what his level of pain tolerance was like?

I opened the bottle and shook out a couple of the small white tablets, staring at them for a moment before tossing them into my mouth. I wasn't looking forward to how the pain meds would interact with the dwindling fog of last night's sedatives. I took the glass of water Edward offered me and swallowed the pills down quickly, trying not to think about it. I had spent too long in a hospital bed, my mind and body muddled by a cocktail of different drugs made to mask pain and to put my damaged mind to sleep. Most of those days had become blurred together in my memory, the only way I could mark the passage of time was the white hot memories of dressing changes and burns being cleaned to break up the otherwise continuous memory into distinct days and weeks. These days I didn't like mixing sedatives and pain relief together, at least not these Opioid based painkillers that the hospital has sent me home with. Sure, they took away the pain, but when mixed with the after affects of the sedative it lowered my inhibitions to a dangerous level.

Again I thought about just laying back down, spending the day in bed doing nothing except wallowing in the empty feeling that gnawed at my gut, but then I looked at Edward and the pain seemed to lessen some. I guess it was worth getting out of bed for a little while, if I didn't feel any better afterwards I could always just come back.

I made a move to get out of bed again, this time stubbornly ignoring the pain in my hip as it shot down my leg and radiated throughout my lower back. As if sensing my discomfort Edward hurried to my side, snaking an arm around my back and helping me stand up. I huffed out a breath as my cheeks flushed red. I wasn't sure if I was reacting to Edward being so close, or if I was just embarrassed by the fact I needed the help to stand upright.

"Kitchen?" Edward asked and I felt him pull me closer to his side. Not for the first time I noticed that Edward seemed to run a bit cooler than normal, and I tried not to think about how nice that coolness felt against my body.

"Or you could just pass me my crutches and I could get where I need to go by myself." I mumbled half irritated-half joking.

"Accepting help isn't a sign of weakness, Izzie." Edward's chest rumbled against me as he started a slow walk down the short hallway towards the kitchen.

"It's not that." I grumbled out as we limped into the small kitchen and I eased myself down onto a chair.

"Then what is it?" Edward asked as he turned to get some water boiling to make me coffee.

I sighed and scrunched my nose as I ran a tired hand over my face, I didn't have the energy to keep up any defences right now. "I just don't like being a burden." I mumbled out softly, hoping that maybe he wouldn't catch what I said over the clatter of cups and spoons.

The soft noises of Edward making me breakfast stopped and I looked up to see him staring at me intensely. "You are not a burden." Edward said the words with such fury that I almost believed them.

I gave him a tired look, making it pretty damn clear I didn't believe him for a second. He frowned and crossed the small kitchen, pulling over a chair next to me and sitting down so our knees were just barely touching. I looked up at him and saw that he was gearing up to make some sort of speech, his eyes were soft and caring but his jaw was tense like he was grinding his teeth. I could feel the painkillers kick in with a vengence, a soft sort of giddiness invading my mind and mingling with the remaining fog. I had things I wanted to say, questions I needed to ask and I knew if I let Edward start first that by the end I would be too drugged out to put up much of an argument.

Edward opened his mouth to speak but before he could I blurted. "I can't even work out why you're still here." Edward stopped whatever he was about to say, his mouth hanging open slightly for a moment before he remembered to close it again. His frown deepened, his amber eyes confused as he tilted his head to the side slightly as if he were looking at a particularly difficult puzzle. Before he could say anything to rebut me I continued, forcing the words out of my drug addled brain and bringing them into existence, albeit a little bit jumbled. "I mean, we've known each other for what? A little over a month?" I paused as I thought about it, nodding to myself when I realised that I was correct. "We've been on one date." I held up a single finger, and then frowned. "Well two if you count Halloween, which I don't think really counts as a date?" The sentence ended up sounding more like a question than I had hoped. "What are you still doing here?"

Edward took my hand in his, lacing his fingers through mine and covering the scar burned back with his other perfect hand."I'm here because I care about you, Izzie." He answered evenly, like it was the most obvious answer in the universe.

It wasn't. It made absolutely zero sense, and it was making me more and more irritated that he couldn't see that. Or worse, he did see that and was choosing to ignore it for some reason. Something in the back of my mind itched, causing my throat to tighten and my eyes to narrow. A small warning that maybe Edward was playing some sort of game, some sort of long con with the poor Amnesia Girl. Something different to occupy his time, after all he was obviously extremely wealthy and privileged, a life like that would probably become boring after a while. Maybe I was just some pet project.

I shook my head and cleared by throat, fighting back the urge to admit just how much I cared about him too. "Why." I managed to force out the word, fighting back the sting in my eyes caused by the threat of tears. I cleared my throat again, fighting a loosing battle against the painful lump in my throat. "I just don't get it." I muttered out, "You-you're…" I shook my head and dropped my gaze down to our hands. "Most guys would have run for the hills by now. I'm a mess, and not just physically. Edward… my head is a mess." I peaked up at him for a moment, just long enough to see him looking at me with a tortured expression. "I have all these… issues. Trauma from shit I can't even remember and it's not fair for you to put up with that!" I pulled my hand out of Edward in an angry jerk and covered my face with both my hands as hot tears started to fall.

Fuck. I'm such a fucking mess. The fog in my brain was starting to spread throughout my body now, and the only upside to it all was it made it easier to reign back the tears and get myself under control. I took a deep breath and mumbled behind my hands, "You don't even know me, Edward. Fuck, I don't even know me."

I felt Edward cold hands circle around my wrists and pull my hands away from my face. I didn't have the mental or physical energy to fight him. "I know enough to know that I love you."

"That doesn't make any sense." I muttered, I couldn't stop the corners of my mouth jerking upwards in a watery smile at the sound of those words.

"Does it have to?" Edward asked.

I couldn't really argue with that, and not just because of the drugs that were becoming more pronounced as the minutes wore on. Most things in my life didn't make any sense, so why should this?

"I guess not." I replied, my eyes were dried, the lump in my throat getting smaller by the second and my mood was become more stabilised again. "I… I love you too." I glanced up just in time to see Edward's face break out into a stunning grin, his eyes crinkling around the edges and teeth all white and perfect. Even though I had never seen this particular expression on Edward's face, something about it was so achingly familiar. I just couldn't figure out why.

A/N: Thanks for reading! I hope you guys liked the chapter! I look forward to reading your thoughts and feelings on the new update. Your reviews are what give me the motivation to write and I love each and every one I get! Thanks again.