TW: PTSD AND GORE

The next morning is a sight to behold. Maria wakes up early, at around six a.m., after having a nightmare. She doesn't usually have nightmares, not anymore, but as today is the anniversary of the near-fatal car collision she was in when she was twelve, so it is only natural that the memories are reappearing in her brain.

After she calms herself down from the horrors of her memories, she stumbles out of bed, and her exposed legs are met with a chilling breeze. She shudders, quickly grabbing an oversized sweatshirt from a pile of clothes on the floor. She's a little shocked by the freezing temperature of the room because, despite the cold weather in Forks, it has never been this chilly inside the house. She rushes to the window, gazing out at the forest with wide, sparkling eyes. The floor is covered in a layer of snow, and all of the rain that fell after the snow yesterday has frozen over. The needles on the trees are coated in fantastic, icy patterns, and the driveway appears to be glittering.

"Bella!" She beams, running over to her sister's bed and shaking her awake with childlike excitement. "Wake up!"

"What? Are you okay?" Bella asks as she stretches her arms and struggles to open her eyes.

"Come and look!" Maria practically drags the poor brunette out of bed and over to the window. Bella groggily wipes her eyes and squints at the snow-covered scene before her. "It snowed!"

"Oh great," Bella huffs, frowning as she takes in the dangers of the landscapes outside.

"How can you be annoyed? It's so pretty! The driveway looks sparkly," Maria asks, puzzled by her sister's lack of excitement.

"Ice is not exciting for the uncoordinated," Bella mumbles as she leaves the window and pulls on a robe to keep her warm. Maria continues to stare out in awe, a wide smile on her face. "And snow is cold and wet, and it's just so uncomfortable. I miss the sunshine and the heat."

"I thought I would too, but I think the cold is growing on me," Maria says absentmindedly, still analysing the patterns in the ice on the trees. "It's so much prettier than all the dead grass in hot weather..."

"It's not pretty when it soaks through your shoes," Bella scoffs and heads downstairs to get breakfast. Maria sits back on her bed, hiding her legs under the quilt and picking up Wuthering Heights, which they have been assigned to read for their English class. She's never read it before. Bella has loads of times, but Maria has never been interested in it before now.

"Maria, do you want breakfast?" Bella shouts up the stairs to her.

"No, thanks, I'm going out for breakfast," Maria answers, and Bella furrows her eyebrows as she pours herself a bowl of cereal.

"What do you mean you're going out?"

"Well, I'm not going in today. You haven't forgotten, have you?" Maria doesn't have very many traditions. Of course, she celebrates traditional holidays with her family, and they have their own ways of celebrating together, but other than that, she likes to play every day by ear. She finds life is more enjoyable that way. It leaves more time for her to do something more exciting or thrilling than just sticking to the same routine day in and day out. However, there is one day every year when Maria does the same thing, without fail. On the anniversary of her near-fatal experience, the one that flipped her outlook on life around, Maria takes the day off from whatever she is meant to be doing. Whether it be school or work, meeting with friends or seeing her family, Maria will cancel her plans and do whatever she feels like on that day, alone. Originally, the year after the accident, Maria had just taken the day off of school because she was feeling terribly anxious about the whole ordeal, and her doctor suggested that the day off would be good for her. Apparently, her heightened nerves around the date of the accident every year is known as the 'anniversary effect' - something that people with post-traumatic stress disorder struggle with quite a lot. Her anxiety around the event is a lot less prominent now, showing up as nightmares or flickering moments of panic rather than manifesting for days on end as panic attacks or flashbacks. So, taking the day off now is more of a reminder of the importance of living her life to the fullest every day. It helps to remind her of the person she wants to be, and most importantly, it reminds her to look both ways before she crosses the street.

"Oh, of course," Bella rolls her eyes at herself, wondering how she could forget such an important day for her sister. Maria has decided that today, she is going to walk to the nearest diner, order a stack of French toast with an excessive amount of syrup and cinnamon sugar and a hot chocolate with all the toppings. Probably not the healthiest choice for breakfast, but if it were healthy, she probably wouldn't enjoy it as much.

Bella rushes around the house to get ready, seemingly put out by the snowy weather, and Maria stays sat in bed, reading and listening to music on her iPod. When Bella is leaving, Maria chucks on Edward Cullen's blue coat and a pair of slip-on shoes without socks and runs out into the driveway after her. She loses her footing on the ice, her feet slide out from under her, and she lands painfully on her back, the cold ice burning her bare legs. It probably wasn't the smartest thing for her to wear pyjama shorts outside on a snowy day.

"Maria! Are you okay?" Bella asks, laughing a little at her sister's peril as she tries to make her way over to help her up. "Oh, shit," Bella cries as she slips too and falls in a heap on top of Maria, who whines.

"Jesus Christ, Bella," Maria huffs, pushing the clumsy girl off her and struggling to her feet. When she's finally stood up again, she uses her limited balance to help Bella off the floor and then wipes the ice and snow off of her legs. "I just wanted to tell you to be careful."

"I always am," Bella says, her eyebrows furrowed quizzically.

"Yeah, but you're clumsy, and you're not used to driving on the ice," Maria points out. "Just drive slowly, okay? Trust me, car accidents are no fun."

"I'll take your word for it," Bella muses, walking back over to her truck. "I'll see you later, Maria."

"Bye, Bells," Maria smiles and heads back inside to warm up again. She decides to get dressed and ready to leave now, not in the mood to carry on reading her English book. She decides to wear a pair of leggings with a long-sleeved T-shirt, a thick hoodie and, as she doesn't own any other, Edward Cullen's coat. She doesn't really want to take the time to do anything properly with her hair, so she just runs a brush through it and throws it into a ponytail.

The walk to the diner isn't too far, and luckily, Edwards's coat does a great job of keeping her warm on the way, so when she gets inside, she shrugs it off and sits at one of the empty tables, waiting to be served. She orders what she wants, waits patiently for it to arrive and then tucks in happily. The diner is quaint, a wooden cabin with a lot of decorations that sum up Forks, and there are a group of men there who seem like they're ready to go hiking and have stopped for a nice, cooked breakfast to fill them up and a young mum with a very little baby, who is asleep in her arms as she has a stack of pancakes. The group of men give her weird looks, thinking it's a little strange for a girl of her age to be home from school and eating alone, but she ignores them and finishes her French toast with a smile on her face. She pays the bill shortly after she finishes her hot chocolate, leaving the waitress a considerable tip, and then leaves the diner to go for a little walk down the street. She's just thinking about where she should go next when her cell phone rings.

She takes it out of the pocket of Edwards's coat and flips it open, frowning when she sees it's her dad calling. Her dad never calls. Not unless she's in Phoenix and he's catching up with her.

"Hi, Dad?" Maria answers the phone warily. "Is everything okay?"

"Maria! Where are you?" Maria looks around and finds a street sign, so quickly tells Charlie where she is and explains that she just had breakfast at the diner, which is why she isn't in school. "Okay, stay there. I'm coming to pick you up."

Maria waits for him anxiously, wondering what he had sounded so distressed over on the phone. Surely she isn't in trouble for skipping school, he's well aware of the tradition, and she mentioned it to him the night before. She doesn't think he could've forgotten. She hopes it's nothing serious. Maybe he doesn't want her walking around because of the icy paths.

He pulls in at the side of the sidewalk in front of her, and she climbs into the police cruiser with a confused look on her face. He seems frantic, and he starts driving before she has a chance to even buckle her seatbelt.

"What's wrong?" Maria asks, a knot forming in her stomach as Charlie drives as fast as he can in the dangerous conditions.

"Maria, Bella had an accident at school," Charlie says. It's obvious he's trying to stay calm for her, but it doesn't work. Her face falls, and it feels like she's been punched in the chest. It feels like all the air has been knocked out of her lungs. "I don't know what happened. From what I heard, it sounds like she was hit by a van."

"What? Is she okay?" Maria demands, her eyes welling with hot, anxious tears.

"I don't know, Maria. On the phone, they just said she's alive," Charlie replies, shaking his head as they pull into the hospital parking lot. Maria jumps out of the car before Charlie has even parked it properly and runs into the entrance of the hospital and up to the desk in the main waiting room.

"Where is Bella Swan?" She demands quickly and maybe a little rudely, but she's too panicked to apologise. They tell her she's in the emergency room, and Maria runs off, thanking them in the direction of the emergency room. "Bella?"

"Maria?" Bella calls from her bed, and Maria rushes over to her, eyes wide with fear.

"Oh my god, Bella? Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Maria asks, taking Bella's face in her hands and checking her over for any injuries.

"No, I'm fine," Bella says, frowning. "They're making such a fuss out of nothing! I barely hit my head."

"You hit your head? Do you have a concussion? Is your brain bleeding?"

"No, it's fine, Maria. It doesn't even hurt," Bella rolls her eyes.

"But Dad said you got hit by a van?" Maria says, noticing that she's barely got a scratch on her.

"No, Edward Cullen pulled me out of the way," Bella mutters. "This is all so embarrassing. They even gave me an X-ray! My head doesn't even hurt! I just want to go home."

"Edward pulled you out of the way?" Maria asks, shocked. Bella nods, shrugging her shoulders.

"Uh, yeah... I was talking to him when it happened. I would've probably died if it weren't for him," Bella explains to her sister. "Tyler lost control of his van on the ice and swerved straight for me."

"I'm so sorry, Bella," Tyler speaks up from a bed near Bella's. He looks pretty beaten up, with bandages wrapped around his head and an anxious look on his face.

"Oh, Tyler..." Maria shakes her head, walking over to him. "Are you okay?"

"I'm just glad Bella is okay," Tyler shrugs, wincing in pain as he does. He sighs and looks down at the floor. "I was going too fast. It's my fault."

"Well, at least everyone was okay," Maria pats his leg and tells him to heal up quickly before returning to Bella's side. Her hands are still shaking, and she watches Bella anxiously, who reaches out and takes Maria's hands.

"Maria, I'm fine," Bella says calmly. "It's not like what happened to you, so you don't need to worry."

"I'll wait until the doctor confirms that," Maria says firmly, and Bella groans, resting back against the pillow and shutting her eyes, wishing the nightmare would end.

"Is she sleeping?" A musical voice asks, and Maria's head snaps up. When she sees him standing there, his bronze hair out of place and eyes filled with conflict, she's overcome with a wave of emotions. A mixture of fear, gratitude and relief. The tears she was holding back earlier spill over, and she brings her hand up to her mouth, stifling her sob.

"Maria," Bella sighs, sitting up and pulling her sister into a hug.

"No, it's... it's fine!" Maria waves her hand dismissively, trying to pull away from Bella's hug. "I'm fine... I'm fine. Honestly."

"Hey, Edward, I'm really sorry-" Tyler begins to say, and Edward lifts his hand to stop him.

"No blood, no foul," he says, flashing his teeth. He moves to stand by Bella's bed and turns to the sisters, who are still hugging as Maria tries to stop crying. "Are you okay, Maria?"

Maria breaks free from Bella's arms and flings herself at Edward, catching him off guard as she wraps her arms around his torso and cries into his chest. "Th... thank you for... for saving her!"

Edward stands stiffly, holding his breath, and he very awkwardly reaches up and pats her head, looking at Bella with wide eyes. "Uh... it's okay. Don't mention it."

"I'm sorry," Maria says when she finally pulls away from him, sniffling and wiping her tears away on the sleeve of his coat. "I'm fine."

"So, what's the verdict?" Edward asks Bella politely.

"There's nothing wrong with me at all, but they won't let me go," Bella complains. "How come you aren't strapped to a gurney like the rest of us?"

"It's all about who you know," he answers. "But don't worry, I came to spring you."

As he finishes his sentence, a doctor walks around the corner. Bella's mouth drops open, and Maria blushes bright red, wiping the rest of the tears from her cheeks as she watches him approach Bella. He's a young doctor with blond hair, and Maria thinks he's more attractive than any movie star she's ever seen. It's clear from Charlie's description of Edwards's father that this is Dr Cullen. Bella and Maria exchange a silent look, giggling a little, and Edward rolls his eyes.

"So, Miss Swan," Dr Cullen says in a smooth voice, "how are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," Bella says.

"Your X-rays look good," he tells her. "Does your head hurt? Edward said you hit it pretty hard."

"It's fine," Bella sighs, throwing a quick scowl toward Edward.

The doctor's cool fingers probe lightly along Bella's skull. She winces in pain, and he notices. "Tender?"

"Not really."

"Well, your father is in the waiting room—you can go home with him now. But come back if you feel dizzy or have trouble with your eyesight at all."

"Can't I go back to school?" Bella asks, frowning.

"Maybe you should take it easy today."

"Bella," Maria sighs, taking her sister's hand in hers. "I know you feel fine, but car accidents are serious. You know they are. It's fine. We can go and spend some time together at home. I'm sure someone can drop any work you miss over - maybe Edward will?"

"Does he get to go to school?" Bella demands, upset about the fact that she has to stay off.

"Someone has to spread the good news that we survived," Edward says smugly.

"Actually," Dr Cullen corrects them, "most of the school seems to be in the waiting room."

"Oh no," Bella moans, covering her face with her hands.

Dr Cullen raises his eyebrows. "Do you want to stay?"

"No, no!" Bella insists, throwing her legs over the side of the bed and hopping down quickly. She staggers forward, and Dr Cullen catches her as Maria gasps and reaches for her.

"I'm fine," Bella assures everyone, sensing their concern.

"Take some Tylenol for the pain," Dr Cullen suggests as he steadies her.

"Are you sure she's okay... do you not need to keep her in for observation?" Maria asks, fussing over Bella, who pushes her away. "She could have internal bleeding or something..."

"Maria, I don't have internal bleeding! I didn't even get hit by the stupid van!" Bella snaps at Maria, who frowns, drops her arms to her sides and steps away from her sister.

"Maria, I can assure you she has no internal bleeding," Dr Cullen smiles politely at the blonde Swan and places a hand on her shoulder. "She'll be fine. Especially with someone as attentive as you looking out for her."

"Yeah, and my head barely hurts anyway," Bella agrees, reassuring Maria again.

"It sounds like you were extremely lucky," Dr Cullen says, signing Bella's chart with a flourish and a smile on his face.

"Lucky Edward happened to be standing next to me," Bella corrects him, glaring over at Edward.

"Oh, well, yes," Dr Cullen agrees, busying himself with papers and then walking over to Tyler and starting to check the cuts on his face. As soon as the doctor is distracted, Bella turns to Edward and demands to speak with him alone. Edward is very adamant that he does not want to speak with her alone, not wishing to keep Charlie waiting, but Bella insists, and he eventually has to give in.

Maria is visibly uncomfortable with the idea of Bella leaving her sight, and Edward notices this. Before he walks into the hallway, he reaches out and places his hand on her shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "I'll make sure she's okay."

"Thank you," Maria breathes out, blushing from the cold grip on her shoulder. "I'll just wait with Dad."

Charlie is standing in the waiting room, pacing up and down, and half of the waiting room is sitting there, watching expectantly. Charlie runs over to her, engulfing her in a hug and making sure she is okay before asking after Bella, knowing that the events of the day may have triggered her post-traumatic stress disorder from her own accident.

"Bella is okay, Dad," she promises him. "Edward Cullen pushed her out of the way, so she didn't even get hit... she just bumped her head on the floor, I think. Dr Cullen says she has no internal bleeding or breaks or anything, and she says her head doesn't even hurt."

"Oh, thank God," Charlie exclaims, relieved that his daughter is safe and sound, escaping the accident with barely a scratch.

When Bella joins them in the waiting room, she looks very irritated, and Maria wonders what her conversation with Edward had been about. She doesn't ask, though, not wanting to upset her sister anymore, and they quickly leave the hospital, helping Bella avoid the crowds of students from school.

Bella has to call Renee when they get home. Maria can only imagine how hysterical their mother will have been after Charlie told her about the accident. After all the adrenaline and panic that had filled Maria earlier in the day wears off, Maria just feels very numb. She sits on the sofa with her Dad in silence, staring at the tv blankly, but not taking in any of the information on the screen. She hardly replies to anything Charlie says, and when he asks her questions, she just nods or shakes her head.

Charlie cooks them dinner that night, and he drops the pan on the tiled kitchen floor, and a bang rings through the house.

Maria isn't there anymore. She isn't sitting on the sofa in her father's house. She's twelve years old again in the blazing heat of Phoenix, Arizona, shouting to Bella, who is on the opposite side of the road.

"Come on, Maria," Bella calls her over. "It's okay. There aren't any cars! You were supposed to cross with me!"

"I know," she shouts back, laughing. She steps into the road without looking, still talking to her sister. "I dropped my-"

The speeding car comes out of nowhere, striking Maria at full speed, and she flies down the road, landing in a heap on the floor as Bella screams out. The car drives off, not even slowing down to see if she is okay. The noise when the car hit her body is the loudest thing she has ever heard, and the pain as she lies on the burning hot concrete is the worst pain she's felt in her entire life. Her leg is bent funny, blood pouring onto the floor from where her bone sticks out of her thigh; her ribs ache with every shallow breath she takes; her head is pounding and ears ringing as her surroundings spin; pain ripples up and down her back and neck; her torso cramps painfully, but she can't do anything. She can't move, she can't speak, she can't even scream. She just lies there in agony as Bella runs over to her, shrieking her name and crying for help.

"Maria! Are you okay?

"Maria, can you hear me?"

"MARIA?" Bella shouts at her sister, whose vacant eyes snap up from the television with fright. Bella looks at her suspiciously, analysing her body language with an eyebrow raised. "Are you okay?"

Maria swallows thickly, wiping her sweating, shaking hands on her leggings. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You aren't having some sort of relapse, are you?" Bella presses further, and Maria forces a snort of laughter and shakes her head, pretending her sister's assumption is completely wrong.

"Of course not. I'm just really tired," Maria stands up and walks to the stairs. "That's all... I think I'm just going to go to bed early."

"Dad made dinner," Bella tells her.

"I'm not hungry... had a big lunch," Maria lies as she walks up the stairs. Truthfully, she hasn't eaten since breakfast, but food is the last thing on her mind at that moment because Maria has just had her first flashback to the accident in years, and that is not a good sign.