When she wakes, there's a dog lapping at her temple. Voices are close to it, and Bella shoots up, but the dog's tail is wagging and it tries to climb all over her to continue lapping at her face. She can't help herself and laughs while trying to make it stop.

"There she is!" she hears someone yell. She looks up to see a policeman, a torch in his hand and a walkie-talkie in the other. "Found her, everyone to the old stone circle immediately." Bella tries to stand up despite the frantic attempts of the dog to show her how much it loves her; she succeeds and shakes the policeman's hand. He offers her a blanket.

"Are you Bella Black?"

She hesitates a moment before nodding. That life feels so very far away. "Yeah. I can't remember- I just blacked out."

The man nods. "You have been missing for three days. Your husband has been worried. Come, we'll get you home."

It doesn't take them long to get to the hotel the policeman had mistaken for home. The dog yaps at her one last time as she is escorted into the building. "Call a hospital if anything happens, and call us if you remember anything." She'll also have to come to the station the next day, but those are procedures she knows well from her father's work. She smiles at the policeman and finds herself in Jacob's arms only a few moments later; he drags her into their room and she can feel him sob against her.

"Now, now..." she murmurs lowly, unsure how to react to such emotional vulnerability. "Nothing's happened to me. Everything's well." He sobs again, then lets go of her to take a step back and look at her closely. She doesn't want to know how she looks; with twigs and mud and the smell of the 17th century sticking to her skin, she's certain only of one thing: it's not pretty.

"Are you sure," he asks her, worried, and Bella nods.

"Let me take a bath first, Jacob, then we can talk."


She thanks civilization for the invention of running hot water and soaks in the glorious honeymoon tub far longer than is decent. Her thoughts swirl around in her head, frantic at first and lazier the longer she lies in the water. She bolted; she ran from Edward. And why? Just because he is from a different time. That doesn't make him any less human. (Unless, of course, he is in fact a descendant of aliens which have landed on Earth in prehistoric times, but Bella decides to keep that thought in the back instead of the forefront of her mind.) Indeed, it does not negate any of the positive qualities she has experienced with him. Edward is kind and she feels safe around him, even on a battlefield; at the same time, seeing him excites her endlessly and she figures she will not never get enough of his presence.

She lets herself float deeper into the water. And now he is in the 17th century and she is back in the 20th. She can try to find him again, that much is true, but who assures her that the stone circle will send her back to the correct time? If Edward spoke the truth about where – or when – he came from, then the stone circle has different eras and – she really doesn't want to risk ending up in three thousand B.C. or worse, like Edward, go to the future and not understand a single thing.

A plan forms in her mind, and it is a bad plan – full of risks and highly unethical. But it will be her only chance to see Edward again and at least apologize for the way she ran from him: he has not deserved that, not in the least.

Jacob initially insists that they leave for the States at once, but Bella protests, citing the fact she still has to tell the police everything she remembers. She won't, of course. They'll think her mad and lock her up, and they would be justified too, because Bella would have to be mad to tell them the truth. Instead, she stays with her story of having blacked out, and although the police do not learn more, it makes sense that she would collapse at one spot and later reappear there. No doubt they'll mull over it with their psychologists for a few weeks, but Bella plans to be out of here long before that.

It's dark when she and Jacob are sneaking back to the forest. "This is the worst idea you've ever had," he protested when she first told him of her plan. "Finding out what happened to you by going back there, Bella? It can't end well." However, she told him to bring his gun, and they both felt safe with that thing on his hip, even in the dark. Bella just hopes the police aren't combing the area anymore, but it seems that for once in her life, she's lucky. When they arrive, the stones look innocent and inconspicuous, as if they were just a heap of lifeless forms, when in truth they are so much more. Bella imagines them as magical beings, shaped from Edward's family's hands to draw her to him, and she touches one reverently.

She knows they'll have to wait until sunrise, but Jacob doesn't know that, so she just sits down on one of the smaller stones and watches him as he walks around the circle, looking for clues. There won't be any, unless he suddenly develops a keen sense for magic, she knows, but it keeps him occupied until she hears the first birds singing.

"I think there's something!" she cries out suddenly. Jacob rushes to her side, and together they walk into the center of the circle. A shiver runs over Bella's spine; it's as if she can hear the stones whispering to her, drawing her back into a different time, their magic palpable in the air, soft against her cheeks. She closes her eyes and takes Jacob's hand, and the first ray of sunlight blinds her, and then all goes dark.

Jacob's still unconscious when she wakes. They're in the stone circle, but the air is fresher and the moss greener than before; that's why Bella knows they made it back to the past. Which past, now – that's the other question. It can't be too far, she notices as she watches the stones. Some are fallen over and covered with strange forest plants, and the others are all in the position she remembers them.

"Jacob," she calls softly until he wakes up, and then they begin walking. Bella still doesn't tell him about where they've landed: she doesn't know herself, and besides, she's sure he'll figure it out soon enough. Strangely, though, Jacob doesn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, even when they pass where a souvenir shop should stand and instead, there's nothing. He's holding his head as if he's in pain. Perhaps some people don't deal with time-travelling so well? The thought almost makes Bella laugh. Time-travelling. She's tricked her husband into time-travelling with her. Ludicrous. She just hopes he'll be aware enough if they run into danger to draw his gun.

They don't run into danger, but they do run into the village Bella remembers a few hours later. She feels her face split open in a wide beam. The era can't be too wrong, then! Edward must be around here somewhere! She's almost with him again! She yearns to break into a run, but Jacob next to her still seems weak. They paused for a whole hour on the way, drinking and eating what Bella had wisely brought, and he's still not completely recovered.

"That's not our car," he complains when his eyes, too, fall onto the village. "Bella, just admit we're lost."

"We're not! We're right where we're supposed to be! Look at the castle." she tells him, and Jacob does, his eyes growing wide.

"That looks like... it's so... where are we, Bella?" he asks her, obviously confused. She shrugs, and they descend to the village together. Bella has been clever enough to wear a long skirt today (the only one she owns) and a long-sleeved shirt, but she knows the two of them won't fit in nevertheless.

It's Alice she sees first, and the sight makes her want to her cry from the overwhelming relief she feels. Bella breaks into a run, prompting Jacob to follow her, and embraces Alice, who seems surprised to see her but just as happy. Bella draws back to look at her and notices she looks older.

"B... Bella?" Alice asks, obviously uncertain. Bella nods eagerly. "But you... we thought you... it's been ten years, why are you still..." Bella draws a deep breath. Not quite so close to the right time, then.

"I'll explain it later. Alice, where's Edward? We need to speak." Alice blushes fiercely and Bella wonders why, and takes her hand.

"He's..." she begins, but stops when Jacob appears at Bella's side, one hand protectively on her shoulder. "Who's that?" Alice says simultaneously with Jacob, both questions directed at Bella.

"Oh! Right, introductions, you two don't know each other. Alice, this is Jacob! Remember, my husband I was looking for! And Jacob, this is Alice. She's a healer and a good friend and a good person." Alice tries to curtsy, but suspicion still shines in her eyes. The three of them walk to Alice's home. The way there is strange to Bella, different from what she remembers – there are fewer people around, some huts seem deserted, the shadow of the castle is longer than ever, and the perpetual cries of children cannot be heard, neither the birdsong she had grown so used to. The village seems lost, in a way, and the thought scares her into gripping Jacob's arm tightly.

"What is going on, Bella," he asks, but she shakes her head.

"I'll explain later. Just... trust me for now," she begs, and Jacob does.

They enter after Alice. There's a handsome blond man sitting at a round table – Bella doesn't know him, but judging from the way Alice greets him, they are very close. When Alice introduces him, Bella only hears "Jasper" - after that, her concentration is swayed elsewhere. Jasper is not the only person in the room. Next to him sits Edward. Their gazes meet, Bella begins to grin widely, and Edward looks as if he's just been hit by a grenade. He doesn't seem to have aged one day.

Next to him sits a woman, and she is holding his hand.

Bella feels the color leaving her face. There's a small gold band wrapped around Edward's left ring finger.

"You're married?" are the first words she speaks to him.

"Bella-" Edward begins as he stands up, but something in Bella's expression renders him speechless. They merely stare at each other.

"Hi, I'm Jacob?" Jacob rudely interrupts their silent conversation with his presence. Bella thinks about throwing him out of the window before she remembers they're on a ground floor. "Nice to meet y'all!"

Introductions are being made. Bella doesn't hear the name of Edward's wife. She knows the feeling climbing up the walls of her throat – green, ugly, garish and undeniably jealous. She wants to never see that woman again. In fact, she wants to throw her out the window right after Jacob. She doesn't, though; it would be both ineffectual and extremely impolite. Not while Edward is still staring at her like that, either way.

"We need to speak," she tells Edward, grabs his arm, and bodily pulls him out of Alice's hut. There's warm food still on the table and Bella, who has spent most of the day with walking, really regrets leaving it behind, but there are more important matters right now. Like the fact that the man she travelled through time for has apparently just gone and married a random villager.

"Bella, you've brought your husband?" he exclaims as soon as they are alone. It comes unexpected.

"Well, you've got a wife, sooo..." Bella attempts to argue. Edward interrupts her.

"You brought him through the stone circle? Do you know how- why did you-"

"I needed to come back!" It is her turn to interrupt him now, and her voice is strong and doesn't waver. There's a gleam in her eyes that speaks of genuine emotion. Edward looks at her the way people look at the sun – with admiration in their eyes, but also squinting and obviously uncomfortable. "I needed to apologize," she continues, quieter, and takes his hand. "And it... it's not important that you're married now, I suppose. But listen to my apology, please. I didn't want to run away, not really. It's okay that you're from five thousand B.C. or something, nobody is perfect. I just... I didn't want to run away." She looks down at where their hands are entwined. "I would have liked to stay here with you. But that's not possible anymore, is it?"

When she looks up at Edward, his face is hard and passive. She sighs and lets go of his hand, but he grabs her shoulder and pulls her close. One hand is gently placed on her face.

"Bella-" he begins. He doesn't come far, though: there's is a loud sound ripping through the air, Alice and the others come stumbling out of the hut and Edward lets go of her immediately, and the courtyard gate closes.

"The English!" someone yells. Frantic voices begin to sound, then there is metal clinging in the air, and then the terrible shriek of bullets piercing through bodies.

"Women to safety!" Edward cries and pushes Bella behind him. He grabs Jacob.

"You must save yourself too, you cannot-"

"I'll fight with you," Jacob says and he's much calmer than Bella has ever seen him and maybe she does love him a bit, she thinks then, but after a second she finds herself running, holding the hand of Alice, and meets with the other women of the village right in front of the castle's walls. They're not being let in, though, no matter how much they scream.

"Our old leader died a few years ago," Alice tells her, "and the castle has been in a bad condition ever since. But why nobody opens, I can't sa-" And then the gates do open, and two women keel over. Bella realizes the situation a second faster than everyone else, rushes forward and punches the suddenly appearing English soldier in the face. He is too surprised to defend himself, and she takes the musket from his hand and before she knows what's happened, has shot him in the head.

There is a terrible scream. Bella can't think straight. "Everyone back where you came from!" she shouts in the direction of the people. "The castle's been taken! It's not safe, you must flee!" The women run and Bella fires two more times at soldiers that come through the gates before she, too, throws the musket at a third soldier's head and begins to run. No bullet hits her, and it must be a miracle, but somehow she ends up with a little girl behind one of the huts, and after a while, the fight dies down.

She takes the girl's hand and steps out into the yard. There's heavy smoke settling in between the huts that still stand. They have brought cannons, Bella thinks: she smells their balls in the air. The ground is covered in bodies, uniformed and villagers alike. Bella's close to throwing up from the smell alone, but the image pushes her over the edge, and she kneels down. The girl shivers and begins to cry for her parents.

A figure steps in front of her. Bella looks up and tries to make out a face through the thick musket fog. The person falls to his knees, and a moment later she realizes it's Jacob.

"Jacob!" Bella cries out, "oh, thank God, you're alive, I thought you all-"

He keeps falling, with his face down. There's a wide, deep hole in his back, right over his heart. He is not breathing, Bella realizes.

She screams.


Bella doesn't know what happens next. She loses sight of the girl, somehow, and when she next sees anything but Jacob's dead body in her mind, she's in a cart full of people. Her hands are bond, she realizes, as are her feet. Her eyes are open wide. The sun is beginning to set far away, and the birds still aren't singing. They're on a road, a real road, and she can smell the fear of the people and the horses drawing the cart.

"Hey," she asks the person closest to her, an old, apparently blind woman with tearstreaks down her cheeks. "What is... where..."

The voice of the woman is a croak. "They have taken us. The English. They..."

"Bella?" a voice calls out. Bella turns and is unbelievably relieved to see Alice at the far end of the cart. She can't move well, but somehow they manage to meet up in the middle.

"Do you know where-" Bella begins, but Alice shakes her head.

"I was knocked out, and then I woke up here. I do not know anything of Edward or Jasper..."

It seems to be Bella's lucky day after all, because an English soldier who rides alongside the cart seems to have overheard them. "Edward Cullen? One of the Scottish rebels' leaders?" he asks, his eyebrows drawn up. Bella looks at him; he looks common, and young, like a teenager plucked from his parents' hearth, but Bella can't help but hate him for the slaughter they left behind. She nods, though.

"Do you know anything of him?" Her voice, too, is croaked, she realizes. It is the soldier's turn to nod.

"He will be questioned sharply. Not like you ladies, we'll treat you right, do not worry," he smiles, and Bella assumes it's meant to be reassuring. She grits her teeth silently. Alice sobs behind her.

They drive on for what seem to be hours until night truly falls and they stop. Bella sees that the horses are being watered; some soldiers are lying down to sleep on the ground. Army life has never been good, she muses, not in her time and not in the 17th century, but her thoughts are soon taken up by something else. The hostages are being guarded by one man – not the teenager from before, but a grown man, with wide shoulders and from what Bella can see in the firelight, a truly glorious mustache – and one man only. She crawls closer to Alice.

"We need to flee," she tells her in a whisper. "There is only one guard. We will be in the forest before they know it." There is one, not far; a sprint will get them there, Bella is certain of it. They merely need to get rid of the ropes. No problem – she has brought Jacob's Swiss army knife with her.

"You are mad," Alice tells her and turns away from her.

"Don't you want to rescue your brother?" Bella asks, nudging her. Alice tries to shh her but Bella keeps on. "Haven't you heard the soldier? They'll torture him. They are torturing him this very moment, Alice."

She looks at Bella as if she's going to regret her decision, and Bella knows that she has won.

"Fine," Alice hisses, "but we won't endanger the other hostages. Do you have a plan?"

Bella maneuvres herself until she can order Alice to find the knife in her skirt pockets. They manage to get rid of the ropes that hold them and stay undetected by the guards. "Run when I tell you to," Bella whispers, "I'll take care of the rest."

Most of the other soldiers are sleeping, she can see, but they're several feet away from them. They won't see shadows fleeing in the night if they manage not to make a sound. Bella robs closer to the guard. She can see him better in the light of the torch he is holding. He's balding, his mustache is indeed very enthusiastic, his skin is patchy and his eyes are beady little things. He looks like a schoolyard bully who has outgrown school, but not bullying. Bella lets her bare thigh dangle over the edge of the cart.

"Hey..." she says slowly. The guard turns to look at her. His eyes don't leave her thigh. "Can you help me? It's terrifyingly boring..." The guard comes closer until he is leaning over her. His breath is sour and his body's stench is almost unbearable, but Bella kisses him while the other hand takes his sword and draws the hilt over the back of his head with all the force she can muster. It surprises even Bella that he falls down to the ground with only a soft 'thud' and no other sound.

"Now," she whisper-yells to Alice. Together, they slide down the cart and onto the ground. Some of the other women must be seeing this – they are looking at them wide big eyes, after all – but none of them make so much as a sound. Alice says something to them, and one of them nods, wearing a thin smile. Bella doesn't understand what they're saying; the Scottish is too thick for her to understand.

But there is no time for long Goodbyes. It is only a matter of time until the soldiers see that their friend lies unconscious on the ground. Bella and Alice begin to run for the trees.

"Stop them!" an English voice yells when they are about halfway there. The English soldiers are illuminated by the light of their fire, but they won't be able to see them well.

"Only a little more," Bella tells Alice as bullets are hitting the ground right next to her feet. Tears are running down her cheeks, but she knows this is her only chance to do something. She hasn't come back through time and lost her husband to succumb to an English bullet now. Then, there is a tree right before her. Heavy boots are thundering over the ground behind them, but as soon as they are behind the treeline, they will have the advantage – they are slim and fast, much more so than heavy English soldiers, and their torches will not be of much use in the forest.

They run: Bella, Alice and about five soliders behind them, through the trees into the forest. When the fall of thunderous boots behind them gets quieter after a while – no wonder, the English have been marching and fighting the whole day while Bella and Alice rested in a cart – Bella points at a tall elm. They climb it, quick and well, and look down on the soldiers through the canopy of leaves not long after. The top of this elm is where, a few hours later, they experience the sunrise too, and as those first sunrays are climbing over the horizon, they climb back down.

The forest is silent around them. Bella grins at Alice. They must both look horrible, she notices, with twigs in their hair and sweaty faces, but she couldn't care less. She feels exhilarated, joyous: she has made her escape! And she will help Edward escape as well!

"Come," Alice says, "I know this forest, I know where we have to go."

There is a small brook not far from where they are, and they both sink down to drink as much as possible. Bella still hasn't stopped to think of what happened in the last twenty-four hours. Jacob's death – she will not waste one single thought on that, she thinks to herself, but of course, then she does. She has brought him to the past. It is her fault, in a way, that this stupidly brave man threw himself into the battle – without any idea how to fight or at least survive.

"It's the end," Alice says, and although Bella would usually be grateful for this opportunity to draw her out of these dark thoughts, it doesn't sound like Alice is going to talk about some particularly optimistic things. "Of the movement. We were one of the last bastions of independence. And if Edward lets any intelligence about the other patriot castles slip..." She heaves a heavy sigh. "With all of our men dead and our women captured by the English, Scotland will perish."

"Do not say such things," Bella insists. But then again, she knows Alice is right – her history knowledge may be narrow, but Scotland will lose this war. But who says you can't change history, anyways? "We must concentrate on saving Edward."

"And Jasper," Alice adds. Bella smiles at her. "They'll be going South, home, to their camp on the other side of the mountains."

Bella's eyes start to gleam. "They must cross a mountain range to get to the rest of their army?"

Alice nods. "It will be quite a feat, but if there is one thing I have learned, it is that the English won't give up until they have you safe between their teeth and can rip chunks of flesh out of you. They will cross these mountains, no matter how difficult."

"Then we shall make it even more difficult," Bella says with a grin.

They collect food to fill their own aching bellies before they start to follow the English. When they're fed and starting to be satisfied, they start talking – well, Alice starts talking. She tells Bella about her husband, Jasper, how they met – apparently, only weeks after Bella left, she started seeing her old childhood friend as something more – and finally about Edward.

"He waited for you," Alice says, "he waited for five years, but you did not return. He told us all that you searched for your home."

"I found it," Bella replies, quietly uncomfortable.

"He is my brother," Alice says, "well, something like that. I grew up with that boy. He didn't... he really..." She sighs. "He really liked you. It was hard to watch him after you left."

Her words make Bella's heart swell to a size she couldn't have imagined possible before. "I came back as soon as I could," Bella answers in lieu of a true apology. "It just took me... a bit longer than expected."

Alice shrugs. "He found a wife two years ago. She's a good girl. I haven't seen her in the cart, though..."

Bella thinks back to the bodies covering the ground back at the village and is suddenly ashamed of her petty jealousy from before. "I came back for Edward," she admits quietly. Alice takes her hand, and although the smile on her face is tired, it is a smile.

It takes them only a day to catch up with the main host. Two lithe women, it turns out, move much quicker than thousands of soldiers, their food train, generals, and hostages in carts at the very end. There is a camp of followers too, with the usual array of women and wine. Bella steals one of the prostitutes' clothing and her client's weapons and poses as a prostitute to talk to some of the camp followers; with this information, Alice and she plan how they will continue. They're sitting next to one of the tents of the camp followers. The hostage train is still some way back, so there is no chance anyone will recognize them; the main host, though, with the generals is at the front.

"Edward is with General Fitzmaurice," Bella is telling Alice while they're more or less hiding. "He is around there." She points at the camp. It has started to snow, here, at the foot of the mountains. "He's got a ton of guards, though, so it won't be easy. Jasper is with General Egerton, though. He's there." She points at the opposite side of the camp. "Less guards, but also more in the center of the host. They probably won't be able to run, so we must get in quick and get them out even quicker to have even the slightest chance."

Bella takes the machete she's stolen from the English soldier and her own Swiss knife while Alice takes the musket. Is it a suicide mission? Probably, Bella thinks, but if they succeed, it will be quite a magnificent apology. No better apology than saving someone's life. Alice slips into the soldier's stolen clothes and together, they cut her hair. She'll pass as a formidable soldier, Bella thinks; she just has to shut up or else they will hear the Scottish accent. Bella herself stays in the clothing of the prostitute. It should be able to get to the general's tent by pretending to have been ordered there.

The last part of their plan is a diversion, of course – Bella is not that suicidal. Jasper is held close to the gunpowder. Bella has given Alice her lighter and shown her how it works. It will be a risk, but it will be well worth it if it works – everyone will be distracted by such a giant explosion, rushing there and leaving the two women to save their men.

They have only one shot, and if that doesn't work, it will mean their lives and by extension, Edward's and Jasper's. When the moon is starting to wane and thick clouds drift in front of it, they stand, clasp each other hands and wish each other luck. There is a good chance only one of them succeeds.

It is pitch black when Bella begins to sneak into the encampment. A few guards are walking around and eyeing her warily. "I'm wanted by General Fitzmaurice," she lies to them and apparently that is believable enough to let her through without major problems. When she is close to his tent, she slows and watches the nightsky. No signs of an explosion – that means too many guards in the general's tent. Bella grits her teeth. Please, Alice, she thinks, and as if the other woman had heard her, a deafening bang rips apart the night. Suddenly, there is screaming and yelling everywhere around her, buckets of water begin to be carried; some water splashes on her, but Bella doesn't care. When she arrives at what is obviously the general's tent – large enough to house five families and a car, with his sigil in front of it – there is nobody in front of it. A head peeks out of it and speaks to a slim soldier who squeaks about an explosion of the gunpowder – everyone must help putting it out. The head sighs and disappears into the tent again.

She will never have a better chance, Bella realizes. When the boy has gone, darkness engulfs her and helps her to the tent's entrance. She waits there, one, two, three minutes, drawing deep and calming breaths, before she enters.

She stumbles into the general's tent and draws the opening close behind her, breathing heavily and rapidly. When Bella lifts her eyes, she regrets this decision immediately – the sight in front of her is not made for her eyes. There is Edward, each of his arms held up into the air, rope around his hands binding him to the tent's posts; his legs, too, are bond to small pegs hewn into the ground. He is almost naked, which is a sight Bella would have appreciated at any other moment, but the blood running down his chest ruins the sight. His chin rests on his breast and his breathing is the loudest thing in the tent.

"Who-" a deep voice begins, and Bella spots the general. He is standing by Edward's side. A whip is in his hands, long and black and terrifying, and Bella understands where the blood on Edward's chest comes from.

She doesn't notice the tears on her cheeks, but as the general steps forward, she raises her knife in a blind red anger.

To Be Continued