Summary: When Carlisle develops a antidote to vampirism in the year of 2116, Bella never thought that Edward would choose mortality over her. She never thought it would complicate life as she knew it, either. Limits are tested, true colors are exposed, and there is no room for hope as turmoil ensues, threatening to obliterate what was once known as forever.

Warnings: Rated M for some language, sexual situations, and themes including suicide and depression. Also, this isn't a happy story.

Disclaimer: Any recognizable names or characters belong entirely to Stephenie Meyer.

Remedium

Act I: Year 2116

Chapter One

Happy tears stung in Renesmee Cullen's eyes. As she looked up at the glass mansion she'd spent her childhood in, she knew she was home. She'd been born and raised in that house, and now, she was back. In a way, it was kind of liberating, even if she was with her family. The move back had practically been her choice, after all.

Esme Cullen, her grandmother—for the lack of a better word—wore a smile as genuine as Renesmee's. They were easily the happiest people to be back, though everyone else was content with the move, too. Renesmee and Esme had always had similar souls, anyway. It only made sense since the former woman had half of the latter woman's name.

Everybody was truly happy to be back, though. There was no denying it. The Olympic Coven had moved around the globe for years and years, yet they had come back to the rainy, bland Forks, Washington so soon. It was home, a place to fall back on. A hundred and three years had passed, but that time was relatively short. Time was limitless for creatures like them. Immortality in general was limitless, infinite.

Renesmee hadn't been around for as long as the others, aside from her mother. They'd experienced most of the same things and the same places, and they'd learned that people are fairly the same. Renesmee, though, still believed in this house and all that had happened in it, as well as the people in town, and people in general. She had a lot more hope than what was necessary.

Forks was Renesmee's favorite place. She loved it more than anywhere else in the United States, more than Iceland, more than Australia. To be back was truly a blessing. Everything in her life was a blessing, including the man right by her side, and she was reminded of it every single day with his undivided attention and adoration.

Renesmee squeezed Jacob Black's warm hand a little and turned to him, smiling. "Don't you love it?" she asked him.

Jacob looked down at her with a smile like no other, white and perfect and a lot unlike his current state of mind, but that was a different issue for a different time, and Renesmee had no idea, anyway. Now was Renesmee's time. It was always Renesmee's time, and Jacob didn't know anything different. Nobody really did, but that was just something that took adjustment. "It's amazing, Ness," he told her.

Her smile grew as wide as her satisfaction with having people agree with her. "It really is," she replied.

As Renesmee, Jacob, and the rest of the family entered the house, Renesmee's parents, Bella and Edward Cullen, took their time and approached the premises last. Bella's eyes were as wide as the moon; the house held more personal memories—not particularly good or bad ones, but simply memories—for her than for anybody else, in her mind.

Bella and Edward stopped short just of the front door. Edward sighed and pressed his lips down to Bella's forehead, which was something he liked to utilize—a lot. It was a classic, and Bella thanked the gods for it every single day.

"Home," he said, keeping his lips on her forehead, and his arms wrapped around her tightly like she was going to go anywhere. He didn't have to worry, though; he held forever in his arms right here and right now.

Bella smiled and turned to face him. "Not exactly. There's the cottage."

He chuckled. "There's always the cottage." And with that, he turned, wrapped his arm around her waist, and they started on their way to their real home.

Secluded and deep in the woods, Edward and Bella's cottage would take a lot of searching for an outsider to locate, so in the century that they'd been gone, the home had remained untouched and pristine, just the way they'd left it. Time in its infinity resumed now.

Running her fingers across the bookshelf in living room, Bella walked carefully, noticing the century's worth of dust that had built up for so long, wanting it gone immediately. A lot of things had been bothering her lately, more than they usually did, and even then, she had always been a sort of lax person when it came to simple things. But Bella's state of mind had been tense, and it still was. She couldn't pinpoint what was exactly troubling her, and that just added on to her predicaments, forming a positive feedback loop that she couldn't wrap her head around.

Edward, her loving husband, couldn't wrap his head around her problem, either, but she couldn't be surprised; she wouldn't let him get into her mind to even try to figure out her issue. That was always the deal with them since she had become immortal. Bella thought she could solve her own difficulties, so she always let them build and build until that solution came, when really, the solution was Edward.

So because he couldn't wrap himself around her mind, Edward wrapped his arms around her body again instead. It had been a strange couple of days for him, too; he just couldn't get enough of Bella, and he never let her go. Crazily enough, they weren't even in danger. Not today. Something had to be brewing inside him, too, only he handled things much better than she did. He was cool; he lived in coolness these days. Bella, not so much.

Bella swayed a little bit in Edward's arms. "Now we're home," she said.

"Could hardly wait," he replied, and then he was kissing her neck, the gateway to getting what he wanted. Her breathing hitched as he clutched her tighter, and it was then that she realized she wasn't cool at all. She'd never been able to keep things under control very well.

"Where's the kid?" she asked in half-seriousness, half-playfulness.

He laughed softly like the angel he was. "Over a hundred of years have passed since we've been back," he said, "and now you decide to worry about where the kid is."

Bella laughed, too, in a much uglier fashion, at least to her. "I guess the kid doesn't matter so much right now."

Edward shook his head, wordless, and then returned his lips to her throat. His body pressed closer to hers, and she arched her back, broke away momentarily, and turned around quickly. If she was human, she would have given herself whiplash. Their lips collided as if they hadn't kissed each other in a century, but it was the home aspect that made things different. The familiarity was prominent, and it made all the difference.

It was a strange thing to come across her mind, but Bella was glad the Cullens had money. If they didn't, then it would have been wasteful and fiscally impossible for her and Edward to be ripping each other's clothes off all the time. If they weren't millionaires (billionaires, perhaps?), they'd be a little more sensible, a little more resourceful. But when had rich people ever been practical? Besides, indulgence was a way of life, and if Bella and Edward together could ever be put into a word, it was indulgent.

And they loved each other—they really did. The whole forever thing was real, and it was still Bella's favorite word. They loved each other and each other's bodies and what they could do in an hour on their living room floor. Bella and Edward loved each other; they told each other every day, during every session of what they liked to do most together, nearly every time they came together.

When his mouth wasn't on her lips, her ownership of him was. With her fingernails gliding across his back, she could have etched her name onto him if she wanted to take the time to, and he wouldn't have minded. He would wear it like the best of tattoos. Mine, mine, mine. Both possessive and hungry, Bella's moans complemented Edward's groans. Her cries were the harmony to the melody of his grunts.

To say they had communication problems was a bit of an exaggeration, but neither Bella nor Edward were big on talking to each other when they were so preoccupied. They both had one-track minds, so when Edward began to engage in actual conversation, Bella grew slightly confused.

It was between animalistic noises, fluid hip movements, and greedy I love yous when he uttered, "How would you feel if I was human?"

Not taking him seriously, Bella kept her eyes shut and ruffled his soft, bronze hair. Keeping quiet, she peppered kisses along his sharp collarbone and occasionally grazed her teeth along them. A shiver ran through him, and not out of coldness.

"Bella," he said, not letting her ignore him, "how would you feel if I was human?"

God, he's serious. She opened her eyes and stared at him. Thrown immediately out of her high, she knit her eyebrows. "Are you okay?" she asked, the atmosphere completely different. It sure didn't take a lot for that to happen, she realized.

"Yes, I'm fine," he replied. "I just wanted to know how you would feel."

"Well, I would obviously feel like something is wrong." Her words came out harsh, but so was his silly question. "Are you unhappy with vampirism or something?"

"No," he assured her. "Not at all. I just want to know what it would be like, is all."

"Okay," she said, not believing a word of what he had told her, "but is there a reason why you brought this up? Things have been a little… edgy lately. You know?"

He nodded, but it did nothing for her nerves. He still looked like he was hiding something horrible from her. She could always read him better than he could read her.

"You're right," he told her. "Carlisle, Rosalie, and I have been talking."

She blinked once. "About what?" Again, her words were harsh and as sharp as a knife.

"A cure."

"You make it sound like all of this is a bad thing, Edward." She blinked again. "Are you unhappy with this? All of this?"

He clenched his jaw, the line protruding more than usual. "No, Bella, I am completely happy with life. The idea has been in the air for a few days, though."

Everything about this idea bothered her more than it should have at the moment, but Bella was an easily bothered person. "Of course," she said. "And you decided to tell me nothing."

He sighed as he rubbed little circles into her bare back. "The idea is very premature. It has gotten nowhere yet. There would be a lot of biological breakthroughs to be made for there to even be a rough first examination."

Bella nodded, careful to keep her emotions intact before everything turned way worse than it really was. "Okay," she said.

"Okay," he repeated. "Things are fine, I promise you."

"And you're happy?" she asked.

"I'm happy," he confirmed. "But your happiness is far more important. Are you happy?"

"I'm happy," she assured him.

"And you trust me?"

"I trust you. Forever."

Then he brought his lips to her forehead as if to simply clear her head of everything he had put into it just moments ago. It was as if she had a clear memory button he could push every time he worried her, and all of a sudden, everything was okay. All of a sudden, he was forgiven and all of his impetuous words meant nothing. Classic.

He wasn't happy with vampirism and wanted to be human. Classic.

"Do you want to go to the main house?" he asked her gently. There was no point in asking, but that was the gallant thing to do, even as they obviously couldn't return to their previous state of euphoria.

Bella untangled herself from his body, stood up, and started walking down the hall to her closet for some fresh clothes. "Let's go," she called to him.

He remained on the wooden floor for a few moments longer. He had the feeling that she didn't trust a word he had said. Words just didn't seem to be enough for her. She would see, though, later on. She would have to.

At the main house, the other members of the Olympic Coven had resumed their activities as if they hadn't gone away. That was their default setting in Forks, since the town didn't particularly have many sightseeing opportunities they hadn't taken or interesting stores they hadn't shopped at. Over time, the stores had closed down and similar other ones had taken their places. Nobody had ever considered building a shopping mall or anything remotely resembling a name brand, though. Never.

Forks' longevity really surprised Renesmee, honestly. It was a tiny town that had nothing to thrive for. It didn't have tourist spots or anything special about it besides the boring title of the Logging Capital of the World. Renesmee felt sad for the town and its residents, but slightly proud at the same time. Forks was a durable little place that was nice to return to for her, but it didn't hold the same feeling for Jacob.

Resuming old activities like everybody else—Esme sitting at one end of the dining room table with her sketchpad and a pencil; Alice and Jasper talking quietly amongst themselves at the bottom of the staircase; Rosalie and Emmett building a house of cards at the other end of the dining room table after he had set up the cable system; and Carlisle in the library upstairs—Renesmee and Jacob sat on the leather couch in front of the television set. Jacob gazed absently at the plasma TV, his attention fixed on nothing in particular.

Jacob hadn't told Renesmee yet, but he was depressed. She should have known, but he hadn't been vocal enough with her lately to make it official. She had not even the slightest idea that he was depressed—that was what happened when she got too wrapped up in her own mind and stayed there for too long.

Somewhere in his own nearly vacant mind, Jacob knew why he was like this. It was obvious: everybody he had once truly known was now dead. Gone. Buried six feet underground.

Living with the Cullens since imprinting on Renesmee had taken Jacob away from the Quileutes. It was still in his blood, but the culture and people he'd known had been away from him for a while. By the time his father, Billy, had passed away, Jacob had been completely disconnected, but he hadn't been the last to know. He knew his family wouldn't treat him like that.

Still, though, everybody else was dead. They'd been dead for years, and their grandchildren and great-grandchildren were still around, but it wasn't nearly the same. His nieces and nephews could never replace his sisters or his lost friends. Only Jacob was senseless enough to phase forever, all for his imprint. Paul hadn't, Jared hadn't, Seth hadn't, Leah hadn't, and nobody else had, either. Only Jacob was that stupid. Only Jacob was too foolish to not think of a compromise.

The only times he had come around to see his old friends and family since he'd settled in with the Cullens were for the weddings and the funerals. Of his original pack, as well as Sam's, Jacob had attended everybody's wedding and everybody's funeral. Embry Call had looked so happy—just so goddamn happy and still free—when he'd gotten married so long ago. And Jacob had kept tabs on him, just like he had with everybody else, but he had definitely become a stranger, so to find out that Embry had passed away due to a stroke in his old age was hard. Really hard. Embry was the first of Jacob's friends—as well as his best friend—to go, and Jacob had been sad for a while, but it was the complications that made him realize that life carried on and people changed with time. It was difficult to believe in that since he wasn't changing at all, but that took time. Jacob had a lot of it, and he would continue to spend all of it with Renesmee, the love of his life that he'd hardly even shared a few kisses with.

So life never really resumed for Jacob Black. He wasn't allowed to live. Quiet and inattentive, Jacob continued to stare at the television as the commercials and programs passed him by. Every once in a while, he would see a girl make a snarky expression that reminded him so much of Leah Clearwater that it hurt. He missed her more now than ever. And then he'd see a guy grin after telling a dumb joke, and it was Quil. He saw Quil in a lot of things, too. His old friends were around him more posthumously than when they had been living.

Forks wasn't home to Jacob. No, it wasn't anything like home.

It was a goddamn graveyard.

Edward and Bella entered the main house together, and were greeted by everybody. Silently, Bella sat on the couch next to Renesmee, and Edward went upstairs to meet Carlisle in the library. Rosalie followed behind him. As much as Bella wanted to believe Edward's words, she couldn't. What else could they be discussing in secret, and why would it matter if the idea was so premature?

"Hey, Mom," Nessie said casually. She held Jacob's hand, rubbing it, but he was unresponsive. Both Renesmee and Jacob were used to that.

"Hey, sweetheart," Bella replied.

"Is Dad all right?" Nessie blurted. So it wasn't just Bella who could see that.

With her lips pressed into a hard line, Bella nodded. "Of course."

Bella's gaze was fixed on the TV, and Renesmee couldn't help but join in. It was another quiet day in Forks, almost like they had never left to begin with.

But all that Bella could think about, naturally, was Edward. Edward and his current afflictions.

She didn't like to admit it, but loving Edward Cullen was especially easy because he was beautiful. He wouldn't have been particularly loveable if he'd been any other way. He was brilliant, but lacked any endearing qualities, but Bella wasn't entirely crazy about all of that. She could deal with his broodiness; she'd been fascinated by it from the start.

Bella had always been prone to admiring people and places and things, but loving them, on the other hand, was especially hard in the aspect that she had only known of two different kinds of love in her earlier years. Jacob had selfishly compromised her views, but he'd never fully changed them since it had been so difficult for her to let the idea of sharing the same kind of love approach her mind. She had never wanted to think about it because at the time, it had sounded so absurd.

So her views on love were just a little twisted and confused, but she knew that she did love Edward in a way, and his splendor had always contributed to it. Her love for him was only solidified by his beauty, but now he wanted to give it all away. He wasn't happy. She knew him. He couldn't have been happy if he had brought up the idea of a cure in the first place.

It was a selfish idea, really, and that was coming from her. He was willing to give up beauty, a considerable part of her love, and perfection all for a chance at what could have been. It didn't make sense to Bella. People who dwelled on the past and its desires didn't make sense to Bella.

But Edward had asked for trust, so the least that Bella could do was give it to him. She wasn't a teddy bear that said, "I trust you" at every rash idea once somebody pulled the string, though. She should have had a say in all of this, no matter how premature.

"I'll see you later, guys," Bella told Renesmee and the zombie that had taken Jacob's place. "I'm gonna go check on Edward."

Nessie, completely enthralled in the television program, nodded. "See ya," she said without taking her eyes away from the screen.

Bella got up from the couch and made her way up the staircase. She might as well find out the minimal facts as soon as possible.

A/N: This is Remedium. Feedback is always appreciated.

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