Chapter Two;

"Is she alright? She looks unwell," Alice asked for the tenth time, clutching the arms of her chair tightly. Every time that Renesmee had even twitched the slightest bit she had all but sprung up to her feet in panic. I would have too, if I had not already been reassured by Carlisle's glances every couple of minutes that she was absolutely fine.

Edward returned only a couple of minutes after he left, all his anger faded and the forest probably a few trees thinner. He did care about her deeply even though her affection for him had taken a strong knock. It was still there somewhere, all her anger was just a show that she was putting on, a tantrum as such. I was certain of it.

"She's fine, just a little warm," Esme assured her, moving her cool hands from Renesmee's cheeks to her forehead. Carlisle's drugs had kept her asleep for over six hours now and from what Edward could tell, she was making no attempts to pull herself out of it. Her naive mind had convinced itself that Jacob was coming back, or that I would go and fetch him from the forests. Hope was clear in her dreams. Hope that she would be joined by her lover in hours - helpless, pointless hope. No matter how hard she wished for that I was intent on sustaining my wishes. I was sure that I would no longer put her through suffering after her physical pain was over. Everything that I did from now on would be an act of protection or something to make her happy. I would do whatever I could to bring back those perfect days.

Every chair in the semi-circle in front of the couch was now filled with my family. Esme had dragged her armchair to sit right up near where Renesmee lay, every now and then she would shoot glances at Carlisle to check that what she doing was right. All I was focusing on was that her pain was nearly over, the venom was draining away, bit by little bit.

"What are we doing now? Are we just going to sit and wait for them to make the decision to kill us? Renesmee can't cope with anymore stress!" Rosalie snapped. Our encounter with Jake had wound her up so much that she still hadn't calmed completely. Even with Emmett making an attempt to massage her shoulders as gently as his huge hands were capable of. Ness was closer to her than any other person excluding Emmett; any problems she faced were hurtled towards Rose too. Edward wasn't keen on their close bond at all; in fact, he had not spoken to his sister much at all since he changed me because of her behaviour previously. Never had he explained the truth about what was going on in her head while I was pregnant. He said it would upset me, so it was obviously out of the question that I would ever find out.

"What else is there to do?" Jasper asked, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. One fight had been enough for all of us. Especially for my brother-in-law, his memories from the vampire wars of the South did not need another unearthing.

"I say we find them first and catch them all by surprise – slaughter them all easily," Emmett suggested, allowing a sneaky smirk to cover his face. I soon wiped it away with a glare. How he could find anything like this amusing was totally beyond me.

"Slaughter what remains of their vast army that we only faced a fraction of before, alone with no help, great plan brother," Edward sighed, breathing deeply against my neck. I was curled up on his lap, it was the only place I felt safe right now.

"We have friends-" Emmett started before Carlisle interrupted sternly.

"Who will not be condemned to decimation again if I have anything to do with it, no matter the circumstances."

"So we're all dead then," Emmett grumbled, picking at the velvet cushions he sat on.

"If we don't come up with a sensible plan to protect ourselves then of course we're going to be dead," Rose hissed at him, rolling her eyes at his stupidity. "It'll be like lions hunting mice."

"They may not even attack! We may have proved a big enough threat that they won't try again!"Jasper suggested enthusiastically. He seemed unusually optimistic for a moment like this when our lives were hanging in the balance. Perhaps all his fighting success had gone to his head. He had never really lost a battle in this life...

"I'll watch them, we'll know if we are going to be put in threat as soon as they do," Alice promised, her eyes glazing over as she spoke. No decision would pass without her spotting it – she was fiercely determined to play her part in this. But everyone knew that not everything would be seen, there were people out there that could be our enemies that she may not have encountered before. Therefore, we needed other defences too.

"There is no point in running, they'll find us. There is no point in picking a fight if we're not even sure that they are going to and there is no point in giving up, because we've lasted this long together. We have to stay together from now on, as much as possible, just in case someone slips through Alice's sights. If we panic, nothing is going to happen apart from Renesmee getting more and more frightened. We just need to stay calm and as one, for now. We have got through this before. There is no reason why we can't do it again!" Edward said in a solemn voice, silencing all the breaths in the room. Everyone nodded quickly, including me, though his face was behind mine. Emmett stared in awe at his brother, another smile emerging.

"Where the hell did that come from?" he bellowed, laughing in amusement.

"I really have no idea," Edward chuckled, kissing my neck tenderly.

"He is right though, every word makes sense right now," Carlisle said. It seemed like everyone's moods had suddenly lifted dramatically, everyone was smiling – except me. My sense of humour had switched itself off permanently, until there was no more danger. When lives were in threat I found it somewhat disrespectful for them to be laughing like this.

"Cheer up Bella, we've still got time for thousands of arm-wrestling matches before anybody will come for us," Emmett teased adding, "Plenty more times to rub your face in the dirt!" onto the end in a hushed tone.

"I'll look forward to it," I groaned.

Edward leant around to see my expression. His forehead creased at my depression and his hug became tighter in what seemed like an attempt at cheering me up.

"What's up Bells?" he whispered into my ear, as quiet as was possible. I didn't want to ruin everyone's happiness so instead of speaking, I let out my shield and showed him through my thoughts. All the images that I had seen as we spoke before would now be flickering in his mind. They were cemented in mine, causing nightmares in the middle of the day.

"Don't worry love, I won't let anything happen to you or Ness, I swear," he breathed.

"It's not your choice really, saying that to me didn't help before," I snapped harshly, pressing my lips together firmly afterwards in shock of what I'd just said. I'd never argued with him seriously before and I had no intent on changing that now.

"Okay," he mumbled, returning to kiss my neck and shoulders tenderly. He knew well enough that I didn't want him to argue back without me telling him.

My heart was falling deeper and deeper with each new worry; there was even a kind of physical pain along with the emotions. However, after a couple more seconds of sinking it seemed to lift as if tied to a hundred balloons. Everything suddenly became brighter and more vivid – the change from darkness to colour took me aback for a while. I almost smiled but before I could, I realised that the feelings were fake and they plummeted back down to earth again.

"Not now Jasper," I mumbled. Although I would feel better I really didn't want my mood to be lifted by him. It would feel like laughing at a best friend's funeral. I prised Edward's arms off mine and slowly got to my feet to make my way to the window. As much as I wanted to go outside it didn't really feel like the best time, not when my daughter was unconscious on the couch and the whole family was watching me. At least if I stayed in the room nobody could talk about me behind my back. It was raining, just as it probably would continuously for the next week. We'd had our couple of days of cloud for the month, the rest would all be horrible drizzle and storms. No sun, thankfully. It was raining so hard outside that the droplets were striking the windows hard. Watching it fall just made me wonder about Jacob out in the forests, distraught, alone, lost...

"Bella?" Edward called from behind me. How much would I have to pay for a moment or two of silence in this life? It never stopped anymore! There were never any breaks without sleep, it was driving me insane! Totally and utterly mad!

"Leave her," Jasper whispered cautiously. I noticed that he didn't try and sooth me again, perhaps my expressions were a little stronger than I wanted them to be. Looking at the distorted reflections of everyone in the window confirmed my suspicions that they were all looking at me. Although, not like I was mad, just in concern. Only one person would understand if I spoke to them now, one person would actually lift my feelings and help me forget all of this madness – Renee.

Edward had told me that my mother kept pestering Charlie, demanding to know where I was and who I was with. She'd sworn to involve the police if he didn't give her information soon; I was going to have to do something. I couldn't go there myself, with her talent for picking out the slightest hint of change and tension she would probably faint at the sight of me. My perfect features, freakishly pale skin, my eternally youthful face that would not have changed from how she remembered me five years ago and my golden eyes. None of that would pass her by. So seeing her myself was out of the question. No other plans made themselves known in my mind, it seemed impossible to do this right.

After a couple of minutes of getting lost in my own thoughts I was interrupted by a strange, strangled whimpering sound – like someone was on the edge of tears. I looked behind me rather unwillingly and saw Edward crouched in front of the couch. Renesmee's noises became louder. She was messed up, really messed up.

"It's just a dream," Edward hushed, removing a couple of strands of damp hair from her reddened forehead. "Everything's alright, it's just a dream darling."

"What is it?" I asked, keeping back a couple of paces for fear that if I crouched down next to him, it would be a little too awkward to cope with.

"Jacob."

I sighed and ran my fingers through my tangled hair, "Right."

She wasn't going to forget him at all, I knew it.

"And flashes of before today, a nightmare," he told me as he stroked her cheeks where Esme had previously.

"Can we do anything?" I asked pathetically.

"I thought you weren't supposed to wake people up when they're dreaming!" Emmett piped up as I edged a little closer to my daughter. Years of life had not really improved his brain; he was still as educated as a little child.

"She isn't sleep walking Emmett," I mumbled. "I think you should wake her up Edward. The longer she dreams the more scared she'll become."

He nodded without turning around and then clasped his hands around the sides of her face delicately. "Renesmee, wake up darling. It's just a dream."

Her eyelids flickered a little and then opened slowly, burdened with the weight of sleep. Before anyone could say anything else to her, her expression had morphed into one of fear.

"Please don't hurt me," she whimpered. "Please don't!"

"What? I'm not going to hurt you Renesmee," Edward gasped. "I would never dream of hurting you, you know that!"

Her eyes widened even more as she looked down at her arms, her pupils flashing from side to side as she examined something. It took a while before I realised what she would be seeing there – the scars from when she'd fallen from the couch, the bruises from when she hit the ground, the things she blamed Edward for.

"Don't give me any more of these, please, don't hurt me." She was trembling from head to toe now, her back pressed firmly against the couch back so she was as far away from him as possible. It was like she was still in her nightmare, while she was awake - a living nightmare as such. I couldn't imagine anything scarier for her at this moment.

"I didn't mean to do that to you, you understood," he spluttered, trying to figure out what to say to her. "I'm your father Renesmee; I will never hurt you intentionally. I love you."

"Jacob loves me, you don't, I don't love you," she panted, her eyes dazed and confused.

"You don't love me," Edward breathed.

She shook her head quickly, repeating herself over and over again. "Please don't hurt me, please!"

"I won't hurt you," he murmured quietly, standing up and walking over to where I had stood at the window. My heart fell as I caught a sight of his expression. He was so saddened that it almost looked as if he was in physical pain. He'd been stung in the heart by her string of slurred words.

"Renesmee, listen to me," I said, walking forward and looking her straight in the eye. "You're awake now, everything is okay. It's all going to be fine."

"Is anyone going to hurt me?" she asked, still panicked and scared.

"No one would dream of hurting you Ness, no one here," I promised her, it was a promise I knew that I could keep with the second phrase attached.

Her staggered breaths slowed as she blinked several times as if she was adjusting to the level of light. However, it started to speed again as she looked over my shoulder. I could see what she was seeing in her eyes, the stares of everyone in the room on her. She pushed herself up a little of the couch and then looked down at her cast, that was restricting any movement from where she lay. Instead of trying again she rolled onto her side with her back towards me, pressing her face into the cushions. I ran my fingertips across her back in swirly patterns just like Renee used to do when I'd had a bad dream. It used to help me drift back off to sleep; maybe it wouldn't work with so much more complicated problems than monsters hiding under the bed...

Seeing her act like this around Edward made me so upset. I could clearly remember the days when he would push her on the swing in the garden and catch her at the bottom of the helter-skelter slide he had carved and constructed from trees in the forest - those days when she was still young, fresh and completely carefree. Whenever Jacob wasn't around he used to entertain her for hours on end with different voices and faces. He used to lay there still in the sunlight while she inspected his shimmering skin with her little fingertips. In fact, he would do anything that she ordered him to do - which was usually quite a lot of things! I would give far more than money to get those moments back, that relationship back into their hearts. Why couldn't she have stayed a little girl for longer? I didn't want her to grow up this fast, if at all! Even I found getting older scary and I faced it at its normal, steady rate. I don't know how I would manage if I was her...