Deeper than skin goes.

[Bella Lanning]

Bella fell asleep on the flying ambulance that transported her from Japan to St. Mungos. Her legs had blistered and scarred from the severe second degree burns she suffered from a pot of hot tea, but the good thing was she had woken up. She suffered a grim and frightening experience, she didn't know where she was, and she didn't know what was happening. The nurses that were looking after her had found large gashes in her arms where the kanji symbols were written in ink. They had been traced over, and were open wounds on the skin. The paramedics patched them up quickly, and found that she was fataly de-hydrated and suffering from a state of malnutrition. The paramedics helped her from her hovering stretcher on to a not so conmfortable bed, as she lulled around, looking ill, thin, skeletal, and more pailer than she'd ever been. She was being prepped to have fluids through canula and drip, and a nasogastric intubation, which will feed her. She was hooked up to a heart monitor, because she was suffering small burst of agressive panic attacks and needed to be sadated with a tranqiliser.

Bella couldn't even scream any more because of her exhaustion. She just winced and cried. as the heart monito beeped rapidly whenever she was scared or worried. Bella lay in her bed hopelessly, with her hands lopped over the side, her mouth open, and saliva dripping from her mouth. Anyone could've mistaken her for mentally retarded. Inside her mind, she was feeling so scared and alone. But she didn't know why, but she couldn't make sentences, only small words. None of the paramedics really knew what happened to her but saw the burns on her legs, and acted right away. They took blood samples, and wighed her and all of that, and found she was seriously under weight. After everything was done, they lay her down to sleep, in her own room away from noise, turning the light out so she could rest.

Morning came, and the light rays of sun beamed down onto her pillow and she covered her face wtih her sheets, as she struggled to even lift her hand. The heart monitor was at a steady pace, and the feeds were going through to her stomach, a thin yellow tube connecting to a machine and going through her right nostril. Occasionally the drip pumps would beep, but the nurses heard them and took over, before Bella got to restless. Bella was still asleep and everything was going alright.

 

[Izaak Finch]

This morning was always going to be a bad one for Izaak Finch, and so was every other morning for the next few months, at the very least. It was irrevocable. He had woken up alone in his bed made for two after a particularly vivid dream, one that had drawn him in so far that he could have sworn it was real. He had felt the seabreeze weave through his hair and the waves lap hungrily at his waist. The sun had been blazing against his shoulders, so much so that he could feel his skin browning further by every minute. And Izaak distinctly remembered a body pressed to his own, a scent so familiar that it almost hurt and a pair of honey and green eyes so soulful and so in love that they could have stopped wars if they wanted to. If he could have slept forever he would have, just to bask blissfully in that alternate reality. But once those astonishing azure eyes had stirred open, it dropped like the world upon his once so capable shoulders that it had only been that damned recurring dream and he felt himself die a little more on the inside. But as if that simply wasn’t enough, things began to roll rapidly downhill from there.

The house had sat in complete silence as Izaak stumbled tiredly from his bedroom. Leah was at work, Jay was at school and Kobe had been occupied in becoming his own personal tractor and tearing up the strip of lawn out in the tiny suburban yard. Great, that’s just great, he’d thought bitterly and sarcastically. With no one to distract him and nothing to do, there was no telling how far Izaak would drown himself in self-pity. He had lumbered over to the kitchen and flicked on the kettle, craving a coffee for the first time in weeks. And then had absentmindedly poured not one, but two coffees purely out of routine. Realising what he had done, he had hissed a profanity and slammed the mug down so hard in the kitchen sink that the glossed ceramic had shattered into pieces and slashed two deep cuts, one on each the fleshy pad of his thumb and his palm. Cursing again, this time loudly and repeatedly, Izaak had brought his sliced thumb to his lips and, like a paper cut, tried to stem the flow of blood by sucking on it. But it was no paper cut. Amidst all the clutter, his phone had bleated loudly, trilling for his attention and Izaak had snatched it up in annoyance off of the breakfast bar, just looking to shut it up. But the message had rifled his interest and with a sliver of hope that maybe his day would get better, Izaak had apparated straight St Mungo’s as he was. No amount of blood pouring from his hand or dignity he might lose from being clad slumberishly in a singlet and a pair of trackpants could stop him now. Bella was awake.

After hastily finding out from a receptionist which room Bella was engaging, Izaak jogged barefooted through the blindingly white corridors, ignoring the strange looks he received from nurses and patients alike. He clenched his bleeding hand into a white-knuckled fist (dutifully ignoring the searing pain) as he rounded a corner so that no one would stop him because they assumed he was a patient searching for the emergency ward. But he needn’t have done so, because he suddenly halted to a stop at an open door. There lying amongst the shadows was a skeleton of a girl, hooked up to a cold and uninviting orchestra of various beeps and whirrs, that Izaak could have sworn was his little sister. Fear struck against his chest causing his wayward heart to leap ferociously against his ribcage and his breathtakingly blue eyes to widen and dilate. His breathing, quick and shallow, rasped across the distance between the two siblings as he took a ginger step forward. Izaak was holding back, even the vaguest of people would be able to tell. There was a limit that he had not realised had been there before on how much his bruised and battered heart could take. Deathly afraid to see of what might have become of his little sister, Izaak drew a shaken breath in and held it to brace himself before advancing hesitantly with slow strides.

The nineteen year old rapidly grew pale with horror as he closed in beside the bed. Torn between relief that she was alive and the overwhelming fright that she might never return to her former self, Izaak lingered motionless by Bella’s side. But a jolt of vigilance thundered through him as he realised that she needed him more than ever now and he had to be strong if he was going to support the both of them, he couldn’t be afraid. “Bells, hey, it’s me, it’s Izaak.” Perhaps the carefully placed soft tones of his voice could rouse a legible response. They had, after all, lifted her from a state of unconsciousness before. Perhaps Izaak could work the miracle again. His large-palmed, lithe-fingered, unbloodied hand closed over one of hers and he tried to suppress the shock that it was all skin and bone. He lifted it easily and brought it to his lips to press them soothingly against it.

 

[Bella Lanning]

Bella opened her eyes suddenly, to find that someone was holding her hand. Her vision was blurry, and the figure vague and distorted, she focused her eyes to see a boy. She didn't know this boy, and was wondering why he was holding her hand, but she'd seen him somewhere before. "I know you," she said weakly, the heart monitor raced a bit, and then slowed to a normal pace. She tried to think of who he was but she couldn't. "Izaak." He gave a name, but who was he really? she moved her hand and it fell heavily onto the side of the bed. A party of doctors and nurses opened the door to her room and a nurse came to her side, first looking at Izaak and smiling. "Are you family?" She asked him to assure the doctors he was allowed to be in there whilst they diagnosed and prescribed Bella with information, although she might not be able to retain it. Luckily Izaak was there to help. Bella had a thought, and wanted to reply to the nurse and say "No get him out of my room," but she was to weak to say anything in the least. My family's gone. All dead.

The nurseraised the head of her bed up, letting her geat some blood flow through her brain, because if she stayed laying down to long she'd surely get dizzy. Bella was having a hard time holding herself up, so the nurse put pillows and blankets around her sides and put the blanket over her for her body temperature was lower than normal, as she checked with her thermometre. The doctors spoke to Izaak and explained that Bella was suffering from a mild case of memory loss, but would surely get better as they treated her with the best magical medical attention they could give her. They explained that she must be very week sinse she hasn't walked in a while, her muscles have succumbed to no pressuer and have deteriorated slightly, and that they were doing the best they could to make her gain weight, adding in something that Izaak probably wouldn't want to hear but would be thankful for in a way. "Any longer and she would've perished. So we're lucky she woke up on her own in time." The doctor said nodding his head. After they gave the nurses all the charts for the drugs Bella had to take, and some food that would keep her nourished, they left the ward with Izaak and Bella alone.

The pale blonde princess stared off into the distance her eyes groggy, and half closed. She turned her head to look at the man she couldn't remember. The face she had in her mind but couldn't place a history on to. A name came to her head, and the heart monitor fluttered just as it did inside her rib cage. "Casey." She said not much more above a whisper. She thought of the name Casey and all the things she could find in her head that went with it. The beeps raced more as she thought about it. A face appeared before her eyes and she gazed into a pair of beautiful emerald green eyes. She saw her smile, heard her voice, and remembered the reason she had fallen ill. It was because she missed Casey. Bella turned her head to the boy who called himself Izaak. She had this knowledge all along that Leighton was her brother. "Where's my brother?" she asked, her voice becoming slightly hostile within her own weakness of her tone.

 

[Izaak Finch]

"I know you," In the first instant the sentence was lost on Izaak. Of course she knew him, he was her brother. Was it possible that she was trying her hand at being funny mere days after waking from her coma? But then the horrific realisation dawned on him that this was no joke. Bella was serious, so serious in fact she made every muscle in his body tense with fierce frustration. For a moment a sliver of hope shone light on the situation as she murmured his name but it died all too quickly when he remembered that he was the one who had spoken it in the first place. In a movement that was anxious all over, Izaak slid his thumb and his forefinger over his lips until they met at the tip of his chin, only just realising then as his skin prickled against the stubbled that dusted his face that he was more of a mess then he had initially thought. And judging by the looks of things, life was not about to get any easier.

There was little else he could do but stare dejectedly at her bony hand after she had dropped it exhaustedly from his own. Trying to reach for it again would just upset her, so the nineteen year old sat tense on the edge of his seat, wanting to hug her and thank god that she was alright but knowing that in her current state of mind that it was way off limits. Izaak felt guilty to even think that it was relief that flooded through him as a group of nurses and doctors alike walked through the open door to join the pair of siblings by the hospital bed. He didn’t want to be alone with Bella right now, he didn’t know if he could take the strain on his heart. It hurt to see her looking so deathly paled and famished, it pained him to know that she couldn’t look after herself properly and it absolutely killed him that she couldn’t remember who he was.

In silence he listened to the nurse that was so graciously informing him of his sister’s condition, nodding where he should and trying to convince himself that she was right, that this was only mild and temporary. His constant ache for Alexis intensified and knotted his throat with an excruciating strength as the nurses and doctors left the room. She’d know exactly what to do and say, and how to comfort the fear he held for Bella, she knew him like she would the back of her hand, how could he ever account for such a devastating loss? Izaak hadn’t thought the term ‘other half’ was literal until now. Suddenly he felt like nothing but a shell, his sister didn’t remember who he was, he had broken his love’s heart. Was it normal to miss someone this much? Is it normal to love someone this much? His azure eyes wavered edgily over Bella with desperation, wishing she’d remember. He needed his little sister now more than she had ever needed him before.

"Casey." It near broke Izaak’s heart (again) to hear such a distant yet familiar name. And on top of all the confusion, pain, the anger and the shattering heartbreak, a bout of guilt settled to lower him even further. Between all the unfolding drama in his life, just problem after problem, he had barely had time to see his best friend. Knowing that she should have been one of the first to know about Bella, Izaak whipped out his phone, but after tapping it unlocked realised that phones didn’t work within the walls of the castle. He’d have to owl her but it couldn’t be now, he needed to stay with Bella. Unexpectedly she spoke up again and Izaak choked as he heard the question she had to ask. His wild blue eyes stared at her in distress and first-rate heartbreak. Izaak knew she wasn’t meaning to hurt him but she was doing it with such articulate skill that she might as well have meant it. “Bells, I’m your brother, don’t you remember? How can you not? And Leah, she’s your sister, do you remember her?” Izaak was beginning to become hysterical now but he needed to calm himself, otherwise he’d frighten her. “Bella, please.” His eyes were as soft as his words as they gazed pleadingly into hers at the height of all their blue glory, willing her to remember.

 

[Bella Lanning]

Bella stared at the young man, squinting, as if she was trying to picture his face swimming through her memories. Nothing. She could see his heart drop, his eyes immediately falling bleak drastically. This boy was serious. She grew scared for herself, because she had no memory of him, and she saw that he was desperately to make her see that he was who he claimed he was. Tears welled up deeply as she tried to think, and it pained her to see his face like that. She became even more confused. The brother who he so eludedly spoke of, using his name in the sentence, made her neck become hot with anxiety. "I don't know who you are.." her voice broke, feeling as though she deeply wanted to know this gentleman, but nothing came to mind. The beeping of the annoying heart machine became rapid, and she hyperventilated, coming to the realisation of this guy being here. He mentioned 'Leah'. She didn't know her either, the name wasn't even familiar to her. She didn't know what to do, this stranger was in her room, insistent that he was related to her. His voice raised slightly, but Bella resisted. She didn't know what to say, the words caught in her chest, as her hand crept weakly over to the buzzer, she wasn't able to use it, before it was knocked out of her hand. She shook with lack of muscle strength, and fear now, a thin layer of sheen developed over her forehead.

Bella felt so scared, she didn't know what to do. "Get out!" She didn't have the strength to yell, so it came in a broken, high pitched squeal. She struggled to remove the blanket from her legs, gazing down at herself, she was in horror, she leared at her thighs in disgust. Thick and heavy bandages wrapped around her thighs tightly, she didn't even feel them there. More confusion flooded her mind, she raised a wavered hand, and picked at the cotton, wanting to know what the bandages were hiding.

 

[Izaak Finch]

Desperation gripped Izaak with fierce tightness, so much so that he could barely draw a breath, as Bella repeated again that she didn’t know who he was. Even if she didn’t, even if she’d forgotten him forever, wouldn’t it just be so much less painful on the both of them if she would aloofly play along? In a space of not much more than a few hours, Izaak had lost not only the most wonderful lover in all of the planet for him but his tiny, baby daughter as well. Bella might not remember who he was at the moment but Izaak would literally piece her memory by the end of the day if she did not recognise him before. He could settle for nothing less because it would be the very death of him, perhaps not physically but in every other sense imaginable. It was just not fair to lose this much in so little time.

Izaak was not fazed by his sister’s screeching demand, instead he stood calmly by her side, gazing down at her with those soulful blue eyes of his. There had to be something he could do to open the flood gates to her memories. Sighing exhaustedly, the nineteen year old treaded his battered Converses wearily across the linoleum floor to a plastic chair that had been conveniently set up by the hospital’s beside. Sitting down now, Izaak drew a deep breath in and then proceeded in making one last desperate plea for her memory of him. But this time it was different, this time it was memorable. “We met two years ago in the entrance hall of the school’s castle, it was raining, pouring actually and you collapsed in the halls. I was there, I saw you, I picked you up and I carried you all the way to the hospital wing. And from then on in we were tight as, like this.” Izaak crossed his index and middle finger over one another and held it up for his sister to see with a grin dancing momentarily across his lips. “You were there through everything Bells, I can’t even begin to describe how happy I was when I found Marcus’ diary, the one we found out we were siblings through. It really hit home though after the Easter dance. Do you remember it? You were unconscious, I guess not. But you told me you heard my voice and that was what woke you up. Anyway after that it was always you and me Bells, and Casey and Alexis too..." Izaak stopped then with curiousity brimming in his azure eyes and wondered if hoped this was enough to trigger her memory.

 

[Bella Lanning]

The more this boy was sure he'd seen her before, she became more frusterated with him, and even more confused. Frightened even, that this stranger is insistent on her knowing who he was. Bella looked at him, frightened and distraught, she knew he wouldn't let go. "Did you do something that... er" she made a small sound, as she slumped in her bed, faces flashed in her mind. A girl, so beautiful, blonde, curled hair. Loved a boy. Tan, brilliant blue eyes, astonishing to look at. She turned to see 'Izaak's' face. Blue eyes, astonishing and precious, same as her memory. Bella's heart fluttered, and she gasped quietly at the sight of his handsome face, the eyes are really the window to a person's soul. She knew him, but she wasn't sure, she didn't want to know him, because she was scared of him. "Izaak." She said lowly, and smiled, she laughed, as her head was so clear of everything, all the little holes were full, and she remembered her brother's beautiful blue eyes. "You're here!" She cried though her voice was barely above a whisper, tearing up slightly, she laughed. Her brother was here! She wasn't alone anymore. She didn't have to fight this alone, she missed her big brother so much, she was glad to see his face again, a wonderful feeling of security, blessed to know he was here, now she wasn't scared.

"What would happen to me if you weren't around?" she asked a rhetorical question that was a 'thank you', and it was the best feeling in the world to have family by your side when you need someone.