I know there must be many stories out there with the same idea, and I tried to resist writing my own version... but I could not! It's been nagging at me for months and I didn't want to hear it anymore. So I gave in. I hope you enjoy it! Reviews will, of course, be very appreciated. :)

.:Emmett:.

Jasper sprinted across the ground. He was quick, but I was closing in on him. I knew what he would do in this situation: break left or right. Of course, lately, if he went neither way, then he'd usually—

With one great leap, Jasper grabbed a low vine and swung himself into tightly nestled branches, knowing I couldn't fit as well as he could up in these trees.

Grinning, I accepted the challenge.

"You keep using this tactic and eventually I'm going to find a way through it," I told him.

I pushed my legs harder, using all my strength this time. In record speed I heaved myself up onto a larger branch, one Jasper was just feet away from landing on. He instantly gripped another limb and forced himself back, landing safely a couple trees away from me. We stared at each other for a minute. Then another. Sensing this might take awhile, I decided to speed things up and pretend to let my guard down. I sat and swung my legs over the side of the branch.

"Retreating? Forfeiting?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Jasper smirked. "You wish you were worth that."

I narrowed my eyes, and his lips stretched wider, amused.

"Don't think so, Jazz," I said with a roll of my eyes. "You are all talk. You may have speed, but once I get my arms around you, you know you're defeated."

"Don't start going around flattering yourself, Em — you're starting to sound like your wife."

I smiled. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Of course you will." Jasper shook his head, looked up at the sky, and sighed. My grin dropped into a frown when I caught a glimpse of his face.

"I'm worried about Alice," he confessed suddenly.

I'd known this already. Ever since Alice left for Forks after her vision, my brother's been a little on edge. But he knew it was the only relief Alice would ever get from her best friend's death... Of course, that was in the past now. Just a few minutes ago, Alice had called Jasper. Turned out Bella wasn't dead after all. Alice had missed something in her vision. So now, despite how grateful and relieved I was that little Bella was alive and okay, there would be a big consequence for Alice being in Washington, involving everybody.

"I'm worried about the effect her being in Forks is having on her. Seeing Bella again..." He was shaking his head.

"Have something against Bella?" I asked with a snicker when he didn't go on.

"Of course not." He scowled at me. "We weren't supposed to interfere with her life anymore, though. And Alice, after being so long without Bella, might not be able to leave this time. She'll finally have her friend back. And what about Bella herself?"

"I know what you mean. But there's no point in worrying, is there? Whatever happens will happen. Alice will see anything coming." I shrugged it off. What was with this family and pessimism? Especially ever since Edward left.

My mood instantly fell at the thought of the youngest (in one way, at least) of my brothers, and I hated it. Wherever he was, he had better be making an effort to be happy. I didn't like worrying about anybody.

"EMMETT!"

The air shattered around me. Rosalie's panicked scream struck me harder than a lightning storm.

"Emmett, help!"

I was out of the tree and my feet were moving the moment they hit the snow, faster than before, in the opposite direction of Jasper, towards Rosalie's piercing shrill cry.

What the hell was wrong? Was Rosalie—

Before I could conjure up any assumptions, I saw her. She looked fine, unharmed...

"Emmett!" She slammed into me. I caught her in my arms, but then she leaned out of them to look me in the face while tugging on my hands. "Emmett, we need to do something." There was a wild light in her eyes — and not the good kind. What happened? What would give Rosalie reason to panic like this, and give myself reason to follow suit? Because anything that threatened her, threatened me. And she was usually always composed in tough situations.

"What's going on, Rose? What is it?"

"Something terrible. Something—" Her eyes went to Jasper, who had appeared beside me. "Alice. Alice saw Edward..." She looked back at me. "Well, it was me... Bella..."

"Rosalie." Jasper's hand fell onto her shoulder. Rose shook her head — one sharp swing. I watched as unexpected guilt entered her eyes.

"It's Edward. I... I called him."

It took me a moment, but then I knew what it was she was talking about, what this was leading to. So did Jasper. His hand fell from Rose's shoulder.

"You didn't do it," he said, as if he was denying the answer already. "You didn't."

But the look on her radiant face told us she did.

Her fingers gripped my arm tight. "Yes. I told him."

"Why? What would drive you to—?" Jasper started to say, exasperated.

"It's already done," I interrupted, and then demanded another answer from her. "What happened when you told him about what Bella did? What did he say?" Edward couldn't have taken the news lightly — he never took anything lightly — if he believed it at all. He could be unreasonably stubborn sometimes. And when I said 'sometimes' I really meant all the time.

"He didn't say anything." Rosalie hesitated, looking back frantically toward the house, then back at us. "He... Alice had a vision."

"Another one?"

"Yes." She gave me a look that I knew well: 'Keep up, Emmett. It's obvious!' "Alice called me after I spoke with Edward..." She looked uncomfortable now. Then she pressed on, fiercely. "Look, we have to do something fast. Edward is off to get himself killed like some vampire Romeo who's lost his Juliet!" She pivoted back toward the Denali's place. Her hands slipped off me and I easily let them go, my mind elsewhere.

Did I hear that correctly?

"Rosalie, what are you saying?" Jasper asked slowly, uncomprehending. I wasn't the only one trying to make sense of what had just been said. I mean, Edward couldn't be... Why...

"Edward can't... Why would he do that?" I asked out loud, full of confusion. "Alice called Jazz — Bella's still alive. It's not like he's lost her..."

I was hit with a thought then. Hesitantly, I asked her, "Didn't you know that?"

Rosalie turned back to face us. "At the time...no." She gave a short sigh before her speedy explanation. "He hung up on me when I told him about Bella's...death. I thought he expected me to be cruel enough to joke about something like this, but instead, it seems, he is taking action to join his beloved human in death." She gave us another look, one of deep threat, a warning that she was dead serious and there was no miscommunication on what Edward was planning for himself.

We needed to move, I knew that. And I wished I could move. My limbs felt leaden. Inside, I was spitting mad, snarling and cursing. But my body was stiff as stone.

Edward was going to kill himself? Just like that?

Of all the ways to die, could any be more humiliating and ridiculous? Not to die suddenly, put out in a blaze of glory. Not to die at the hands of an enemy during battle, noble-like. Not even to fade away at the ending of time. All those deaths couldn't be helped, and while I would have fought against any of them, fates like those were nothing compared to this — to die because he inexplicably lacked the will to go on after losing his undoubted mate. A mate that isn't lost. To die over misunderstandings. To kill himself for nothing.

No, that wasn't possible. I wouldn't let it be possible.

I forced down the burbling panic and found my voice and movement with my determination.

"We have to stop him." I grabbed Rosalie's hand as I passed her, now sprinting toward the Denali's place. "We have to find Edward before he can do this."

"Where is he headed? What did Alice tell you?" Jasper demanded from my wife.

"Italy. Edward is going to Italy."

Jasper and I shared a frantic glance. Italy. Really, Edward? Really?

Jasper growled. "Crap."

"There have to be flights available," Rosalie said. "We can intercept him before he gets anywhere near the Volturi."

"Only if he's planning to talk to them," Jasper countered. "He could easily just do something illegal. That won't give us the time to reach him."

Rose glared at him, impatient. "This is Edward we're talking about. He'll want an audience for whatever theatrics he has planned. And you know he'll plan it."

She did have a point.

"It doesn't matter what he wants, he's not getting away with this," I said.

When we reached the Denali Estate — a cream, brick and stone mansion set with an old Victorian style — that we had taken residency in for the past week, I went immediately for the car keys. "Come on, Rose. You can call and get tickets for the first plane out of here."

She was already running to the car.

"Jasper?"

"I'll stay here, wait for Alice, meet her wherever she wants." His eyes were deep in calculation. We didn't have time to stand around, so I left him, not caring what his plan was, knowing he'd come up with one eventually. "I'll call you when I contact Alice," he called after me, just as I slammed the jeep door shut and started the engine.

I drove down roads and highways at an illegal speed, a string of words — mostly profanity — spilling from my mouth, all revolving around Edward, Bella, Forks, Alice, the Volturi, and just all the impossible ridiculousness of this entire situation that just pissed me off and scared the crap out of me at the same time. But Rosalie — she hardly said a word. As the drive progressed, she became even more quiet and withdrawn. A silence had fallen between us, and, even though I tried, I couldn't understand where it was coming from. It wasn't like her at all. I could only guess she was struggling with fear for our brother.

Rosalie was just a little blonde riddle to me a lot of the time. She held this outer shell that could either be contradicting what she was really feeling or not, and it was difficult to tell.

"He's pretty dramatic, isn't he?" I decided to say, to ease the air some. "Edward, I mean."

"Yes."

"There are plenty of actions he can take," I went on when she didn't say anything else. "It wouldn't be like him to use the quickest route rather than the theatrical one, so that should buy time, and time's good." I paused. "Although, he's always been very thorough..." I suppressed a shudder of revulsion. Saying that Edward was theatrical but thorough was an understatement of grotesquely funny proportions.

"You wouldn't think he would take anything I said to heart right away," she said suddenly, quietly, for her. "You would think he would check with someone he... trusted more."

Her words triggered something. With a sinking feeling, I instantly saw the position Rose had put herself in.

Earlier, though I had wondered, I refrained from questioning her motivation for calling Edward in the first place. It didn't seem a good time, and we were in a hurry. It was clear Jasper had been a bit put out with her, but I knew Rosalie. Even if whatever reason she had for doing what she did was, for lack of a better word, selfish, she wasn't callous. She would never purposely hurt anybody. In her mind, her reason was meant to only do good.

I couldn't imagine she had ever been the cause of such a horror in her life.

But she was not the cause — she was a little piece of a puzzle of inconvenient coincidences. Honestly, Bella jumping off a cliff? Alice seeing it, but not catching that she'd survived even though she waited and waited for Bella to resurface? And I was sure there were things I had no idea about — on Alice's side, on Bella's, and on Edward's. Something was seriously up with the world. Rosalie had to see this.

Then again, it wasn't unknown that she was never one for self-loathing... So maybe I was misinterpreting her words. But how could I tell? Her face and voice did a complete one-eighty from when she rushed into me in the woods. Then, she was frantic with panic; now, she was stoic, almost bitter. Again, sometimes I just didn't understand her. But I knew, right now, that I needed to.

"Rosalie, we're going to get Edward back. We'll fix this," I said. What I really wanted to say was that I wished more than anything luck was on our side, so then I could be the one to kill Edward myself for doing something so stupid and rash. Usually I wouldn't have any problem at all with expressing myself, but something prodded at me to tread carefully.

Rosalie didn't respond again.

I hesitated. "It'll be okay, babe."

"Just drive, Em."

I felt frustrated, but left her alone. If Rosalie wanted to say something, she'd say it. Of course... I took an anxious peek at my wife. It was usually the things she didn't say that mattered most.

Minutes of torturous silence later, my phone rang, interrupting the internal speech I was giving myself about being optimistic and determined and focused. I checked the number before answering. "It's Jasper," I murmured for Rose's benefit while I flipped the phone open. "Jazz, what—"

"Turn around, Emmett." His voice was dead, emotionless.

"What?" Was he serious? "No way! We just hit McKinley Park. It isn't even ten minutes away from the air—"

"Doesn't matter. Turn around. They're Alice's orders."

"We don't have time for this. Edward will—"

"Edward will act instantly the moment our thoughts are in range of his hearing, even if we could get to Italy in time. The plan is not going to work."

My jaw clenched as I understood what he meant. I'd have no trouble keeping Edward from doing anything stupid once I got a hold of him, but I'd have to manage that first, and sneaking up on Edward was next to impossible. More often than not, having a mind-reader for a brother was a giant pain in the ass.

"Do not get on that plane," he continued. "Call and cancel the tickets and come back."

I sighed, heavy and loud, and hung up. Jasper would know I was following orders.

"He can't be serious," Rosalie fumed, having heard the exchange clearly. She was not as obeying as I was — it was one of the things I loved about her, though. Her head turned swiftly in my direction, her gold hair mesmerizing me for a moment as it flew behind her shoulder. "Are we just supposed to not try? Are we just going to let Edward die?"

I flinched. There was no way in hell I liked this any more than she did. But if this was Alice telling us, there had to be some motive behind it. Was it possible that we would have never made it in time anyway, no matter what course of action we lead?

I scoffed at the idea. No, Alice wouldn't give up on our brother, either.

I made a U-turn at the first available opportunity.

"Emmett!"

"I'm sorry, Rose, but..."

"How is this going to help? Running away, is that what we're doing?"

I scowled at that. "I don't know, but I'm sure Alice knows what she's doing. You know Jasper wouldn't listen to her otherwise." Otherwise, I'd have a bone to pick with both of them — a violent one. Because not one of us was going to allow Edward to... Ugh! Damn it! Why was this happening? Why now? What in the hell is that mind-reader thinking? How could death be the automatic solution?

Unless it wasn't automatic.

Unless it wasn't spontaneous.

Being Edward, perhaps this was thought out well before. Maybe this was his plan all along. Maybe he never even considered living a life without Bella.

That realization shook me.

Without my brother around I had been constantly bored, aside from my time spent with Rosalie. But Edward had been roaming the world moping, depressed, and I should have gone out to find him. I should have brought him home even if I had to drag him in pieces. I saw how miserable he was, but I left him alone. We all did. I think that was wrong. He had been around as an immortal for eighty-eight years, yet he was still a seventeen-year-old kid and vulnerable in so many ways. Technically, he was born in a slightly earlier time than I was, but I had always seen him as my kid brother, one that I had always wanted to have. I swore, in my human days, that if I wasn't the youngest in the family, if I had a younger brother I'd be there for him the way my own older brothers had never been there for me. There was no doubt in my mind that I would have made an awesome big brother to someone. And now I had failed myself. I'd gone back on a promise I made to Edward without even realizing I had made it to him. Jasper and I should have tracked his brooding ass down even if it wasn't our place. As a vampire, Edward was technically free to do what he wished, but... No - he was more than just a vampire — he was family! I should have helped him when he needed it, whether he wanted it or not. That was what I should've done.

Still, I wouldn't have ever thought of this happening. There was no way I could have pictured something like this being possible. Not until now.

Maybe I wasn't being fair, being mad at Edward's choice. I might not be picturing it from the right angle, because what if I had been in his place, if Rosalie was the one who had been 'lost'? Not a pleasant thought. Quite unbearable, actually. Would I kill myself, though? If I wasn't so deep in the pain that would accompany her death and enable myself to move, yeah, I probably would want to burn myself into oblivion to join her. What was a life without Rose? But would I not even think, for one instant, the effect of what would happen to the people I left behind? Or would I even think of them at all? Heck, my family could probably go on without me. Not saying they wouldn't be sad, that they wouldn't mourn; but they'd live on. It was likely Edward thought the same way. But...I didn't think it was the same. Edward and I held the family together in different places. I kept the outer rims of our circle in place, with my flamboyant humor, with my physical strength; he kept the inner planes intact. He was closer to the core and was, therefore, more important to the family structure.

And things were definitely going to fall apart if Edward wasn't stopped.

Rosalie seethed with scarily visible anger from the passenger seat during the ride back to the Denali's place. She was out of the car before it stopped completely. She slammed the door and stomped up to and in to the house — her hips swinging, her hands almost claw-shaped — without a glance or word at me. I followed with a prepared strategy against the conversation I knew was coming. Jasper, and Alice for that matter, better know what they were doing.

"Jasper!" Rosalie called, following his scent into the kitchen.

Jasper stood with his head down, hands leaning against the island in the center of the room. He looked almost sick.

"Jasper, what is Alice thinking?" Something in her question seemed to remind her of something, seemed to hurt her. I watched her face carefully. "I mean, what is she planning to do?"

"Alice sees that Bella is our only hope, if there is a hope. Edward has to see her with his own eyes or he won't be saved." His voice hadn't changed from how it sounded through the phone. If anything, it was worse.

"Alice is taking Bella to Italy?" I caught on with wide eyes. That was insane! Insane and, horrifically, the only option available to us, I realized. "Damn it!" My fist collided with the wall. I grimaced at the crumbling hole left in it, hating the resemblance it now had on our lives. I'd also have to apologize to the Denalis about that later, but I couldn't find the will to care.

"It's the only chance we have," Jasper said, matter-of-fact. He appeared troubled, and was failing at trying to hide it.

"And what about us?" Rosalie asked.

"Yeah. We have to do something," I said.

"No."

"What?"

Rosalie's amber eyes raged. "No? No? What do you propose we do then, Jasper? Sit around and do nothing? Sit back and wait this out?"

"It's all we can do."

"That's not—"

"That's not what?" Jasper was suddenly vicious. Both Rose and I leaned back in surprise. "That's not fair? That's not right? How true I know that is. Trust me, it's all I can care to think about. But really, you should worry more about your own well-being, Rosalie, you haven't seemed to be doing much of that lately." The sarcasm dripped from his voice as much as the venom did.

Rose turned defensive. Her voice raised. "What gives you the right to speak to me like I don't give a damn what happens?"

"You want a reason? You deliberately tracked Edward down to tell him the girl he loves died, and he thinks it's because of him. You went back on what we all agreed on, without considering—"

"I did not agree to that, you automatically assumed. Edward had a right to know." For a quick moment, I swear I saw Rose's eyes glint with some emotion I'd never seen there before and her bottom lip tremble slightly. But her face was angry again before I could process anything.

"Not like this, Rosalie," Jasper said in a tone that had me instinctively positioning myself halfway in front of my wife. "You do things like this and then you wonder why sometimes anybody can hardly stand to be around you."

"Jasper..." My voice was low and thick with warning. We didn't need this right now. There was already something wrong with Rosalie, and then Edward...and everybody! I refused to even think about Carlisle and Esme, who had been away hunting for the past couple of days and would be back early tomorrow. We really didn't need this right now.

"Edward was miserable, Jasper. Moping over Bella worse than a lost puppy. He deserved some sense of relief."

"Relief?"

Even I paused and glanced sideways at Rose.

"Yes." Rosalie seemed both confused and angry at our shock, but she carried on, stern. "Edward was supposed to come home. When he had nothing to run from anymore. I— Esme and Carlisle — they needed Edward back. And Emmett. Our family was incomplete. I just wanted it back."

"Rosalie, what are you playing at? First you say it was because Edward had a right to know, then you 'wanted your family back'? Stop trying to excuse your actions like they were insignificant to what is going on."

"They are not excuses!" Rosalie glared at the same time I said, "Rose isn't a liar."

"Well, she isn't truthful," Jasper said. "She can't be with so little remorse in her. Wouldn't doubt if the fear that is there is merely for how she's being portrayed now, instead of for the people she claims to care—"

"Man, quit taking this out on her!" I growled. "We are just as scared right now as you—"

"Don't compare emotions to me." Jasper's eyes sparked. His voice dropped, became deadlier. "Alice is heading to Italy with Bella to save Edward with odds that aren't even close to okay. You'll lose what in this? A brother, a sister or two? I'll lose Alice. As much as I love my family, there is no comparison to losing a mate." He shot a look at Rosalie and spat, "Just ask Edward."

"Goddamn it—" my voice rattled the entire house "—we're NOT going to lose ANYBODY!"

The silence that followed was filled with steely tension and irrational fury. Anger always instantaneously appeared where fear was involved, I thought, as if it helped drown a person's worries.

I stared at my brother, who, just an hour ago, was relaxed and happy (enough) hunting with me. Now he looked dangerous, ready to kill, and I understood the anxiety behind that, I guessed, but...I didn't like it. It felt like another tear in the family structure.

Jasper turned his back on us. "It doesn't matter now." His voice was calmer, but there was a dark edge to it. "What's done is done, and there is no going back. But I know this much, Rosalie—" Jasper looked back over his shoulder just slightly "—Alice swore to me that she would get away and come back no matter what. And I promised her I would not follow after if she were to be lost. Both of us lied." I stared wide-eyed at him as comprehension hit. "Either way this plays out, the charge that obliterated our brother's only speck of happiness and the results that follow is not something I'd want on my conscience forever."

As Jasper slid out the back door, disappearing into the woods, heading who knew where, I wished I could disagree with him, but knew that I couldn't.

"Rose," I tried to start.

Blonde slapped me in the face as she spun away from me. My arm went out, my hand curling around her side and turning her back to me. My other hand flashed up, catching Rosalie's wrist as she tried to shove me away. She was dressed in a loose silk blouse which top buttons were undone enough to show a little bit of her—well, I'm only a man, and Rosalie was a goddess, of course I looked. But her beauty, for once, couldn't keep my attention. I was too anxious about everyone and everything.

"Emmett, let go of me."

Hesitantly, against my better judgment or for it — I really couldn't tell anymore — I let go of her wrist and waist. She retreated two steps and tried her best glare at me. If I didn't know her for as long as I have, if I was dumb enough not to see through that sturdy wall of ice she kept up, it might have worked. But as it was, it had no effect on me. She must have known this; when I opened my mouth, she spun quickly and dashed up the stairs before I could get a sound out. I sighed. I had to decide if I was going to follow her against her wishes or not. And I knew the mistake I made with Edward.

Playing the fool had its advantages — no one expected much from you, therefore you exceeded their expectations more gloriously than if they had believed you could manage it. Sometimes, though, the mask had to slide off. Any ignorance of mine had to be pushed aside, and any pride of hers had to be seen through. All this drama and fear was overwhelming me. I wasn't used to it. When bad things happened that was when a person's true valor was shown. And, goddamn it, I wish I was stronger.