Dying To Be Alive

[Inactive User]

Wow I loved it! Never got to reading this. Sorry, mate It's my first comment here, hehe. I liked it. Update soon

[Lise]

I missed an update!

That was all good. I love the way your writing this.

Can't wait for more.

[KaiyaBlake]

She's pregnant! With Geoff's baby?

I like how she told Belle, it was sweet

I'm crossing my fingers that Belle doesn't snap at Aden. Even though I don't know the full story, it seems like they both did things wrong.

Great Chapter! Update sooon please

[jenlee]

Thanks guys An update shouldn't be too far off

[murchkins]

great fanfic. will you be updating soon? x

[Lise]

Any chance of that update?

[jenlee]

*Hangs head in shame*

Yes, I suck and it's been over three months since I updated. But, here it is and I do promise to try my best to finish this fic. I haven't been totally slacking off either - having written well over 100,000 words on another fic - just slacking off in the adelle fic dept.

Anyway, to those of you still reading, thanks, I hope you enjoy it and comments are always appreciated

PART NINE

10.19am

Nicole was pregnant? Belle seemed unable to process that even though she had been in the room when Rachel had said it. She had been in the room when Nicole had confirmed it to be true.

Belle narrowed her eyes. She had been in the damn room when Nicole had been unable to tell her it was Geoff’s.

Leaning against the side of the hospital she hugged herself. She couldn’t believe this was happening. Not today. It seemed as though everything she had been trying not to think about since waking up that morning had been pushed right in front of her, jumping about and screaming for her attention.

Feeling some kind of presence near her Belle looked up to see Aden standing all of six feet away from her. Her chest clenched painfully and she stared at him. She could run again. She knew that, she thought about it, but quickly realised that it would be useless. She could tell by looking at him that he would come after her this time.

She couldn’t just excuse herself and walk past him either. The space between the side of the hospital building the fence next to it was small. Walking past Aden would be more of a squeeze that would require bodily contact and being that close to him was definitely not on her to do list. The six feet between them right now was close enough as it was. At least when she had passed him to get to Nicole’s room it had been in a hallway full of people and Roman had been almost between them.

Belle took a breathe and weighed her options. Run and have Aden follow her. Or squeeze past him in the very small space allowed. Or…

“What do you want?” The relief she felt at her voice sounding clam, quiet and normal was flooding. The last thing she needed was for it to cut out on her right then.

Aden continued to stare at her. “I just want to talk,” he said.

Belle’s stomach dropped. Not at his words, but at his voice. Deep, husky, familiar. It was a voice she knew so well, even after all this time. It was a voice she had heard roaring with laughter, filled with love, crying with hurt.

Belle swallowed and shook her head fiercely. “I don’t want to talk to you.”

“You have to eventually.”

“No I don’t,” Belle said, still shaking her head.

Aden smirked and Belle could tell immediately it was out of amusement rather than nastiness. “Still as stubborn as ever huh?”

Belle was silent. She wanted him to leave, not make jokes.

Aden sighed. “I’m not going anywhere, Belle. You’ll have to talk to me eventually.”

It was Belle’s turn to smirk, despite her thoughts on the matter earlier that day and despite the gut wrenching pain her chest was feeling. “You say that now,” she said in an even tone. “But we both know you will just run off again when things get too hard.”

She saw a flash of hurt in Aden’s eyes before they went blank. “I’m not going anywhere, Belle,” he repeated.

Belle sighed. She wanted to simply snap back that, if he wasn’t going to leave then she would, and follow this by turning her back on him and leaving. She still knew he would follow her. She could see in his eyes that he wasn’t going to give up on this unless he really had to.

So instead she stayed silent and stared at the ground. Being near him, looking at him, into his eyes, speaking to him. It all hurt and she wanted it to stop. She needed it to stop. Things weren’t supposed to happen like this. She needed to open be alone, to work through the box and talk to Aden when she was ready.

“Belle?” Aden’s voice sounded kind of far away but she knew he was right in front of her. “Belle? Are you o.k.?”

Belle saw the concrete she was standing on shift a little and placed a hand on the building for support. Oh god, she thought to herself, I am not going to faint, I am not going to faint, I am not going to-

“Belle?!”

Belle looked up and blinked a few times to clear her vision. “I don’t want to talk to you,” she said as strongly as she could.

“You have to eventually, Belle,” he said and Belle thought he sounded desperate. “I’m not just saying that to convince you to talk to me, I’m saying it because it’s true. Eventually we are going to have to talk.”

“Fine!” Belle snapped. “You want to talk? How about you tell me why you’re back? Why you came back today? Why you bothered coming back at all? Everything was going just fine without you.”

Aden was silent.

“Just go, Aden.”

“Belle, please” he said.

Belle couldn’t control her anger. He couldn’t answer her questions but he expected her to talk to him? Plus hearing her name on his lips was hard. “Damn it Aden, you’ve done enough. Don’t push me!”

Aden blinked and took a step back. “Right,” he said with a nod and Belle got the feeling that her outburst had been enough to make him give up. “I’ll leave you alone then.”

Belle sighed and placed a hand to her forehead as she closed her eyes. Her head was beginning to pound and she needed to get away. Not just from Aden, but everything else too. She needed to be alone, without any interruption this time.

Screw you and your damn box, she thought silently to herself. As far as she was concerned, the box could stay closed for the rest of time. Never to be opened, looked at or thought about again. Hearing Aden’s voice, talking to him, had been bad enough. She didn’t want to go through anymore of that box or the memories inside it.

Slowly opening her eyes and removing her hand. Belle found herself alone in the ally. She was pleased, even if she hadn’t even heard Aden leave. Pushing her hair away from her face, she turned and leaned her back against the side of the hospital.

“Damn him,” she whispered to herself.

* * * * *

10.47am

By the time Aden had left Belle and slowly made his way back into the hospital, Geoff had taken off in some kind of huff and Roman was, very impatiently, pacing the waiting room.

Aden himself was trying to stay as calm as possible. Things with Belle had gone better than he’d expected but facing her had been tough. Real tough. He had left her alone, as she had obviously wanted, and felt himself reverting back to his old ways of dealing with anything emotional.

He wanted to hit something, yell at someone, cause other people to have problems too. He wanted to let his temper take over and be angry instead of confused, hurt and tired.

He remembered the way Belle always used to be able to calm him down. The way she would simply place her hand on his shoulder and whisper his name. The way her soft, warm hand and sweet voice would send a wave of calm flowing through his body.

But after talking to her today, Aden didn’t feel any kind of calm at all. He felt like he used to feel before Belle knew his history, before she ever tried to calm him down. Back then a lot of the anger that took over to cover the pain was taken out on her and she would respond with anger of her own. He felt as helpless now as he had then.

Upon reaching the worried Roman, he’d realised that other people already had problems and didn’t need his help in causing them.

“So what’s going on?” He asked shoving his fists into the pockets of his jeans.

“I don’t know,” Roman said and Aden noticed how worried he still looked. “Rachel told me that she fainted due to stress and low iron levels, but I still haven’t seen her yet. Rachel said she wanted some time alone.”

“Time alone? What for?”

“Dunno,” Roman said, “but she’s not a kid anymore. I can’t force them to let me into see her. If she doesn’t want to see me, she doesn’t have to.”

Aden didn’t know what to say to that so he changed the subject. “Where’d Geoff go?”

Roman sighed. “He was so worried about Nic, then when Rachel said she didn’t want to see either of us, well, he just took off. I think I actually heard him swear as he left too”

Aden smirked at that and sat down. He had been able to tell immediately that Geoff wasn’t taking their break up too well. The guy was still so obviously head over heels for Nicole but Nic didn’t seem to want anything more to do with him. Aden wondered again why she had broken up with him.

“How’d it go?” Roman suddenly asked, still pacing.

Aden knew exactly what he was talking about. “Better that I thought it would have,” he said. “But still not great.”

“Belle o.k.?”

Aden nodded. “I think so.”

“You o.k.?”

Aden nodded again. He wasn’t but he still wasn’t too keen on opening the gates up for Roman. “Yeah. I think she knows that we need to talk. I mean, she didn’t want to then, but I think she knows that, eventually, we’ll have to talk.”

Feeling slightly hypocritical, Aden didn’t mention the fact that he hadn’t said anything when she had asked him why he was back. That wasn’t something he could tell Belle yet.

“Give her time mate,” Roman said. “She’ll come around when she‘s ready. Just give her time.”

Aden didn’t get a chance to answer before Rachel made her way over to them. Aden stood from his seat and Roman turned to face her.

“Is Nic o.k.?” Roman asked quickly.

Rachel nodded. “She’s doing well. Has Geoff come back yet?”

Roman shook his head and Rachel continued. “That’s probably a good thing. She only wants to see the two of you for now.”

“We can see her?” Roman asked.

“Yes,” Rachel said and led them towards Nicole’s room.

Aden looked at his best friend as he walked into the room. Except for this morning, they hadn’t hung out in over a year, but Aden figured he’d always think of her as his best friend. Seeing her looking pale, week and a little scared, worried him.

“Hey,” she said softly as they walked in.

“You alright?” Roman asked, hurrying over to her bedside.

“I’m fine Dad,” Nicole said and Aden grinned when he saw her roll her eyes. “Did you see Belle leave?” She asked unexpectedly.

“Yeah,” Roman said, throwing a glance at Aden which Aden ignored.

“Was she o.k.?” With a small frown Aden realised that Nicole had directed her question at him.

Aden shrugged, not really sure what to say. “Any anger she had was directed at me, not whatever had her running out of here.”

“So you talked to her?” Nicole asked, eyebrows raised.

“I tried but I don’t think she’s ready.”

“Right,” Nicole said and Aden thought she looked relived.

“You sure your o.k. Nic?” Roman asked again. “You’re looking really pale.”

Nicole didn’t say anything for a moment just continued wringing her hands which were resting in her lap. Aden noticed her eyes were flicking from his, to Roman’s, to the hands in her lap and wondered what was going on.

“What is it Nic?” He asked.

Nicole looked up at him before turning to Roman, and back to him again. “I don’t want either of you to be upset,” she said in a low voice.

“Nic,” Roman said, grabbing one of her hands. “As long as you are healthy and happy, we won’t be upset.”

Aden could practically hear the silent plea at the end of Roman’s statement. Please be healthy.

“What is it Nic?” Roman asked.

Aden watched as Nicole took a deep breath and felt his heart sink at her next words. “I’m pregnant.”

[LAURZY!]

Sooo glad you updated I've missed this fic!

Ooooh! I wonder how they'll react to her being pregnant?

Loved how you wrote the Belle/Aden scene, i hope they do talk soon

Cannot wait to read more

[Lise]

YAY! An update

That was really good. I love how you write their thoughts. I wonder what Roman and Aden's reaction's are going to be to Nicole being pregnant?!?!

Can't wait to read more

[rocknroll]

YAYYY!!! u updated!!

fab chapter.. i really liked the belle and aden scenes

looking forward to seeing how'd they react to the news

update soon