A/N: This chapter contains medical information and situations that some may find offensive or disturbing. It is done with the utmost respect to the girl suffering it all and I hope I have done her story justice. I have taken some creative license with regard to her baby and its parastic nature, I hope you will forgive me this in order to enhance the overall story.

Chapter 2 – Interlude to Paradise

RPOV

I went with Emmett downstairs and helped him to set the bottom floor of the little house to rights. We washed the clothing that was piled on the floor of the laundry. We cleaned the kitchen until it shone. I could still smell the evil foam cooler even though it sat, with its lid firmly on, outside in the back yard.

"Her name's May." I whispered to my husband as we sat on the concrete step at the back of the house.

"Yeah, I heard." He replied quietly. "So, that baby is a girl?" He asked.

"Sounds like it. I don't know how she knows that though. Bella could never find out and she was convinced Nessa was a boy, it was Ed who thought she was a girl." I mused.

"Dunno." Was all he said.

We hadn't said too much to each other since we'd arrived. We'd been full of hope for our future and for the future of the baby before we'd come here, before we'd seen the state of the place and met the girl. Now we both seemed as though we were suffering some sort of shell shock. As though our imaginations had let us think things were going to be simple, clean cut and that we'd just come here, let her give birth and take the baby home. That wasn't the case now we were here. Even if she'd been perfectly healthy it was ridiculous to think, to have ever thought, that bringing this baby home was going to be easy.

"I don't know if I can do this." I admitted.

He put his hand in mine and brought them both to his lips. "We have to." He said calmly. Emmett was rarely calm, but when I needed him he was my rock. "The baby will die if we aren't here when it's born. So we gotta do this. But I know what you're saying, and I totally get it, babe. I had this picture in my head of a neat little house with a pregnant chick in it who would be propped up on some white linen pillows. She'd give birth, we'd watch over her while she passed on, we'd clean up the baby and fly home. Now? Not gonna happen quite like that." He grimaced.

I blew out my held breath. He felt exactly the same way I did! Emmett was not a thinker, but I often underestimated him. I squeezed his hand tighter. "I know. I feel exactly the same. I'm scared. She's so frail. And the baby could be ill too and we're the only ones here. I'd feel much better if dad was here, hell I'd even take Edward right now."

"Yeah." Em agreed. "I been thinkin about that too. You remember on the plane when I said I thought we'd forgotten something?" He asked and I nodded. "Well, I remember what that something is." He grimaced again and I knew I wasn't going to like this.

"What?" I asked tentatively.

"Teeth." Was all he said.

I was about to ask what the hell he was on about when it hit me. That day in the dining room, when the three amigos had returned from Italy. Em had been the one to work out that our teeth were what was going to let Bella give birth to Nessa safely. That someone was going to have to bite through her belly so she could give birth. "Oh hell." I mumbled.

"Oh hell, yeah." He mumbled too.

"I can't think about that yet Em. I just want her to feel better first. I want this place clean and I want her to feel good before any of that happens. Alice said we had a couple of days, let's hope we do."

"She'll be awake again soon, let's clean up in there." He nodded towards the house.

By the time May woke up from her sleep the bottom of the house was as sterile as we could make it without using industrial equipment or chemicals.

I went to tend to May while Emmett called our illustrious leader for further instructions.

She was sitting up in the bed when I got there, I took that as a good sign. She looked a little better, though her overall condition was pretty grim.

"Do you feel any better for having had a rest?" I asked her as I handed her another glass of water.

"I think so." She whispered.

"Good. Emmett's on the phone with Carlisle so he should have some ideas about how to make you feel better still. That fever you're running bothers me." I told her as I put my hand to her forehead.

She didn't cringe away from me so I figured she was comfortable with me being near her. Humans baffled me. Bella had never been scared of me despite my being horrible to her the first few times we'd been close. Now this girl too. She let me touch her, care for her, hell she'd even let me undress her and touch her while she bathed.

"Your eyes?" She mumbled.

I took it as a question about the colour and answered it as such. "We're different from Eric. We hunt only animals." I told her.

Her eyes widened. "Really? You don't have to kill people? Why doesn't Eric do that then?" She asked but I knew it was a rhetorical question. Besides, it wasn't one I could answer on Eric's behalf. I knew, better than most, how hard it was to conform to our chosen way of life.

I could hear Emmett on the phone and knew that he was wrapping the conversation up so I busied myself with tidying the room and when that was done I sat beside May on the bed and held her hand. She trembled slightly but I knew it wasn't in fear of me, more than likely it was fear of what was going to happen to her.

When Emmett came upstairs he was smiling. That was a good start. He plonked himself down on the other side of the bed and showed her his dimples. I fell for it every time and it looked like she was just as susceptible.

"You're looking good sweet thing." He drawled. I was going to shoot him a scowl but in the end, if it made her feel better to have his attention, then I could relinquish it for a little while. "Big Daddy Doc says I need to go into town and collect some supplies he's arranged. He has given me a list of things we need to check, but Rosie can do those." He winked at me.

"Sure I can." I took the list from his huge hand and read it quickly. It was all easy, simple medical things. Nothing that would pose a problem for me. "You can head off and we'll get this list happening."

He nodded and threw us both a smile before he ran off out the door.

I heard the car start and roar down the road so I picked up the list and began my investigation.

I took her pulse and noted the beats per minute on the list. I counted how many breaths she took each minute and wrote that down too. I took her temperature using a little glass thermometer I found in the bathroom cabinet. I asked the questions Carlisle needed the answers to and made as many clear notes as I could on the paper. I had no idea what Carlisle needed to know, and why, but knew that too much information was never enough when it came to Carlisle.

We talked for a little while about how she was feeling and how long she'd been poorly. She told me a little bit about her relationship with Eric and how they came to meet. None of it was going to matter in a few days, but it was nice to know that they'd formed a bond, that they loved each other and that they both desperately loved the child.

Everything she told me steeled my resolve. Telling her that Eric was dead was in nobody's best interest.

"Your family?" I asked her as I folded the pages and put them to the side.

"Gone." She whispered sadly. "My mother died when I was little, breast cancer. My dad had a heart attack three years ago. I didn't have any brothers or sisters so I was on my own when I met Eric."

"And here you are." I mumbled.

"Yeah, here I am." She began to cry quietly and I patted her hand sympathetically. There was nothing I could do for her, nothing I could say to ease the pain of what she was facing. "What about you? Your family, they sound great."

"They are." I said honestly. "There are nine of us now. But when I was changed it was just three of us. My sire my older brother Edward and me. Dad found his mate a few years later and then I found Em. My sister Alice and her husband Jasper came to us a few years later and we were seven for a real long time."

"And your brother found his mate in the end, right? Eric told me that. That your brother changed his mate so she could be one of you." She was watching me very carefully so I knew she was trying to decide whether she'd made the right choice, to stay human, to not let Eric change her.

"Yes. He found his mate sixteen years ago, when she was only little. But they only married just over two years ago now. And yes, she was changed so she could be one of us." I admitted.

"Eric told me there is a little girl now too. Is that right?" She asked wide eyed.

"Yeah. Renesmee. She's two but looks like she's six." I told her. She frowned and I knew she wanted to ask about how her baby would grow. "Would you like me to explain how it works?" I asked carefully.

She thought on it for a bit. "I don't know. It's not going to matter to me."

My heart clenched when she said that. "I realize that, but maybe you'll feel a little better if you know that your baby will grow up and have a relatively normal life?" I asked tentatively.

"I suppose so." She shrugged.

"Does Eric know much about how your baby will be?" I asked, wondering how much Eric himself had known about what he was condemning her to.

She shook her head. "He said he didn't think he could give me a child. We weren't careful."

I laughed. "Yeah, my brother didn't think he needed to be careful either." She laughed very quietly but it almost sounded sad. I guess, to her, it was. "But my new sister in law was already changed by the time she found out she was expecting, so it's a bit different I suppose."

She began to cough then. Great wracking coughs that shook her shoulders and made her chest rattle. I patted her back carefully, not wanting to bruise her paper thin skin, and waited until the fit had subsided. "Sorry." She whispered when she lowered her back onto the pillows.

"God, don't apologise. What can I do for you? What will make you feel better?" I asked her as she shuffled down the bed again.

"I'm tired. But I don't want to be alone. Will you stay with me, talk to me about Renesmee until I fall asleep?" She asked sheepishly.

I took her hand and moved up the bed so that I could stroke her hair while she rested. "Of course I can do that. You close your eyes, I won't leave." I promised. "Renesmee is amazing. She had teeth when she was born. Two little rows of pointy perfect teeth. Scared the hell out of me when I first saw them." I chuckled. "Oh, and she has a gift too. I was surprised when I saw it for the first time, but I shouldn't have been. My brother, her dad, he's gifted too. He can read minds. It's creepy until you get used to him. He works real hard not to pry, but sometimes he can't help it. Anyway, Bella has a gift too, she's a shield. I don't know if you know what that means and I guess it doesn't really matter too much now, but between them they produced Nessa who has a strange gift all of her own."

May began to breathe a little deeper and I carefully counted the number of breaths she took over the course of a minute. The number hadn't changed since I noted it earlier so I sighed softly in relief that she was no worse.

I stroked her hair and continued to tell her about Nessa.

EMPOV

I found the medical supplies factory without too much hassle. It was tucked in between a plumbing supplies place and a wholesale bakery in the industrial sector of Brewer.

In the reception area I found a guy named Stan who said he had my order packed and ready to go. He asked me to follow him out onto the factory floor and then he helped me to stow it all in the trunk of the Mercedes.

I was about to shake his hand and say thank you when he mentioned he had the blood I was wanting too. That threw me. Carlisle hadn't mentioned I'd be picking up pouches of blood.

I signed for them, a half dozen clear plastic bags of human blood in a Styrofoam cooler just like the one at the house.

I drove back to the house, smelling that sweet, sweet scent the whole way. I wanted so badly to just pull over somewhere and slit one of the pouches open and drink my fill. But I knew Rosie would be pissed and the baby needed the blood more than I did.

I made it back there without giving in, even though the further I drove the more the smell taunted me.

May was asleep and Rosie was in the backyard hosing out the cooler. The cup was on its side, clean of the stench now, as she aimed the nozzle at it. "Hey babe." She called over her shoulder as I opened the back sliding door.

"Hey." I replied, going to her and putting an arm around her waist. "How is she?"

"Asleep. I filled out Carlisle's question sheet but I don't know what any of the answers mean yet. How did you go?" She asked as she turned the nozzle on the hose off.

I helped her wind it up and put it back against the back of the house where it belonged. "I went okay. I got everything Carlisle ordered and I got her some blood too. But its human babe. We're going to have to be real careful with it." I told her.

She grimaced. "Fuck." She whispered. "How are we going to be able to give it to her without…god Em, I've not been near human blood for so long."

I put my arm back over her shoulder and squeezed. "I know babe. Me either. We'll be alright. We can do this. She needs us to be able to do this. It's for the baby. I'll talk to Ed and he can find us somewhere to hunt round here."

Rosie nodded and we went into the house.

We opened the boxes of medical gear and laid them out on the kitchen table. We marked them off the list that Carlisle had given me and we read the information that came with each piece so we'd know how to use it when the time came. There were swabs and gauze bandages and packets of alcohol wipes and latex gloves. Those were all pretty much self explanatory. But the boxes of tubing and syringes frightened the hell out of me.

There were bags of plasma and some vials of liquid drugs too. There was a big box of aspirin and half a dozen sachets of antibiotic powder. After reading the instructions we were supposed to mix the powder with the little bottles of sterile water and make a liquid medicine for May. That wasn't as scary as I'd imagined. I just hoped we got the doses right.

I called Carlisle when we had everything assembled and he talked us through how to set up a drip line. Neither of us wanted to be the one to do it so we flipped a coin. I fucking lost. Big surprise. Unluckiest vampire in the history of vampires I am.

When it got dark we took it all upstairs and spread it out on the floor in the bedroom. We hoped that by doing the horrible bit now she'd be able to sleep for the rest of the night peacefully.

I set the IV pole up at the foot of the bed and set out all the things I was going to need on a clean towel at the edge of the mattress.

When May woke up we got set up. She looked around the room with wide, frightened eyes.

"Don't worry, please." I told her. "We only want to help you feel better."

Rosie helped her into the bathroom and she had another shower and did what she had to do. When she was in another clean nightgown and back in the bed I went into the bathroom and scrubbed my hands and forearms like Carlisle had told me. When I was as clean as I could possibly be I slid on some gloves and Rosie dialled the Doc.

Once he was on speaker he walked me through inserting the IV into May's arm. Rosie had to leave the room. The smell of the pouches of blood coupled with the tiny pinprick I'd have to make to insert the IV was going to be too much for her all at once. After a few hours we'd both settle down, but at first it was going to be hard to be near May when she had a wound.

It wasn't difficult to put the line in, but it was gross. I shuddered when the needle tip slid under her skin. I didn't take a breath until the IV was dripping at the right rate into the tubing and May was lying back against the pillows again.

Rosie hovered around watching every move I made after the line was working as it should. She made heaps of notes for Carlisle. He walked me through adding the antibiotics to the fluid bag and how to regulate the flow rate on that. We gave her another drink of water and a couple of aspirin to help her with the aches and pains she was suffering with the fever.

Then it was time to tackle the blood issue.

Carlisle suggested we decant it into a drink bottle or water bottle. Something with a sipper spout so the smell wouldn't be as potent for us or for May. She was reluctant to try the blood but we both knew, from watching Bella, that the baby needed it and that it would override May's repulsion in the end. The baby craved it and in turn so would she once she'd tasted it.

I found a sports drink bottle in the kitchen and after I'd rinsed it out and filled it a few times with boiling water I braved the pouch of blood in the cooler. I took one pouch out and put the rest into the refrigerator. Even through the plastic of the pouch it smelled fucking fantastic to me. I snipped the corner off the pouch and began to squeeze its contents into the drink bottle. I could feel my bloodlust rising and knew the instant May finished her meal I'd have to run and hunt. I had no idea where a suitable area for hunting would be locally, but knew that Edward would have found out for us.

I handed Rosie the drink bottle and with a grimace I told her that I'd need to stay downstairs while May consumed it. Rosie didn't look much happier than I was when she smelled the liquid for herself. But she took it upstairs and did what she needed to do anyway.

RPOV

I didn't want to rush her but I couldn't sit for long in a room with human blood in it.

She wrinkled her nose at the smell of it but sipped all the same. She groaned once and then she sucked hard. She had the bottle empty in under a minute. It was also the first time she had any real colour to her skin. I poured her a glass of water and set it on the beside cabinet. She drank it down too and then smiled.

She handed me the drink bottle and I ran into the bathroom to rinse it out. I watched with longing as the crimson river flowed down the sink hole and away from me. I fought the urge to run my tongue around the edge of the basin and mop up the feint trace I could still smell there.

Instead I used the face cloth and a bottle of bleach to wash away the last vestiges of the blood. When I could no longer smell it I went back into the bedroom.

May was hunkered down under the covers again, still shivering with the fever and had a light sheen of sweat on her lip and forehead. I didn't want to leave her but needed to hunt. Her own scent was masked in illness and something in my brain was telling me not to crave her as I would any other human. Perhaps because of the baby she carried, perhaps because I knew she was ill but more than likely because I knew that she was going to die very soon and I didn't want her last hours to be those of a terrified human victim.

"Do you think you'll be okay up here on your own for a little while?" I asked.

"You need to hunt, I understand." She said quietly.

"Only animals May, I swear to you, we only hunt animals. That's why that blood freaks us out so bad. It's been so long, decades really, since either of us was anywhere near human blood." I assured her.

She stared at me for a few minutes and then she smiled weakly. "I'll be okay for a bit. I'm going to sleep for a while."

I went to the side of the bed and mopped the sweat from her brow. "That drip and the antibiotics should start working real soon. I'm sorry you feel so awful, I wish you could enjoy the pregnancy to its end May." I told her truthfully. Being with child should be an amazing experience for any woman, not this gut wrenching mess we had here. "We'll be as quick as we can." I told her and went downstairs to join Em.

He was in the backyard on the phone with Edward.

"Fair enough. Yeah, I'll find it, thanks." He snapped the cell phone shut and turned to me. "Eddie says there's a bit of forest about ten minutes run due north. He says there are Canadian Lynx and Cougars. I gotta hunt, babe." He cringed.

I smiled and put my hand in his. "Then let's run big boy." I told him.

An hour later we returned sated and feeling much better about the pouches of blood that sat in the refrigerator. Emmett had taken down a huge Black Bear and I'd had my fill on a caribou but the Lynx and Cougar had eluded us. No matter, we'd be going out again at some point.

May was awake and coughing violently when we got back to the little house. I was going to just run in through the backdoor and go to her when Emmett reached out for my arm and stopped me. "Stop Rosie. Smell that."

I lifted my chin and closed my eyes. I sniffed a little but I could already smell what it was he wanted me to find. "Shit, that can't be good." I muttered. "You get Carlisle on the phone I'll go and see."

We could both smell blood but it wasn't the good kind. Not as foul as what had been in that cooler, but bad all the same. And this time we knew there was nothing in the bedroom that could make that smell other than May herself. She was bleeding and judging by the strength of the smell she was bleeding a lot.

I heard Emmett greet Carlisle as I went in through the bedroom door.

May was half sitting up in the bed. She was coughing hard and it looked like it hurt but there was no blood around her mouth. My gut clenched when I realised where it must be coming from. "May, honey, take a drink." I held a glass to her lips and in between coughs she tried to sip at it. Eventually the coughing slowed and then stopped. I put my hand to her cheek and felt the fever, much hotter than it had been earlier. "Emmett's on the phone with Carlisle, he'll know what to do." I told her.

I could smell the blood, it was trapped under her nightgown and under the blankets but I could smell it all the same. I wondered if she knew for herself yet. I didn't want to have to clean it up and I didn't want to frighten her but I couldn't let her lie in it either. Quite apart from the fact that if she was bleeding vaginally it would be a bad sign for the baby's health.

Em came running up the stairs and he put the phone on the floor in the doorway again. "You're on speaker dad, go." He said.

"Rosie, what can you tell me?" Carlisle asked.

I smiled weakly at May as she stared up at me with wide scared eyes. "She's heaps hotter dad. Sweating much more and coughing too. I think she's bleeding but haven't checked." I cringed when May began to cry quietly. I rubbed the tear off her cheek with my thumb. "Shh, it's alright sweetheart, we're here to help, shhh." I told her gently.

"You can't help me." She whimpered.

I didn't doubt the validity of her statement but I didn't want her to know that. I wanted her to feel better, despite what I knew was going to happen to her very soon. "Oh sweetheart, I'm so sorry about all this. Carlisle, tell me what I need to do." I begged.

"You need to tell me about the bleeding Rosie. I'm sorry May, but we need to find out why you are bleeding." Carlisle said firmly.

I felt May cringe and I felt the same way. "Sorry." I told her. She shrugged as though it was no big deal but I knew that it was. "Carlisle I'll take her for a shower and I'll call you back." He rang off and I turned back to May. "Would that be alright? You'd have to get naked for that anyway."

She smiled weakly and began to sit herself up. "I'm so sorry you have to do this." She mumbled as she slid her legs over the side of the bed for me.

I told her not to be silly, that's what I was there for, to help her. I put both my arms under hers and tried to help her stand. She was so weak she could hardly hold her weight.

We didn't get far. Blood coursed down her legs and pooled on the floor at her feet. She looked down and began screaming.

EMPOV

When May started screaming I dialled Carlisle back right away. There was never going to be a chance that things weren't horribly fucking wrong in that bedroom so I had to get him on the line right away.

When he answered I put my hand and the phone through the bedroom door, "Hear that?" I held the phone out in front of me. "Rosie, docs on speaker." I told her as I put the phone on the floor again.

I could smell the blood now, it was really strong and I could tell without looking that there was a lot. It didn't smell good though, not like tasty or anything. It smelled like menstrual blood did to us. Old, dead. Not at all appealing. We'd had decades to get used to women who were experiencing their monthly cycle. I'd never had a problem with it and I didn't know any vampire who had. So this wouldn't be a problem for Rosie, just for May. Poor kid. As if it wasn't bad enough that she was going through this shit with two strangers in the first place, now it has to go all fucking wrong and get real degrading for her too. Sometimes life just wasn't fucking fair.

"She's bleeding a lot dad." Rosie told the doc.

"Okay, you need to tell me what colour it is. Is it bright red or dark red?" He asked.

"It's dark." She said as they shuffled towards the bathroom again.

"Is it clear or are there clots in it?" He asked next and I cringed.

Jesus fucking Christ on a cross, why couldn't it just be easy? Why is it never fucking easy?

"Um, it looks sort of watery. Some clear stuff with blood mixed in it." Rosie shuffled on the floor a bit more and then apologised to a whimpering May. "Sorry darling, I have to tell him or he can't help. Carlisle I'm gonna take her in the shower now, Em can you talk to him?" She called to me.

"Yeah, on it." I told her and reached down to take the phone off the floor again. "You got me now doc."

"It doesn't sound good Em. I hoped it was just the show, do you know what that is?" He asked. When I said I didn't he told me it was when the woman was ready to give birth, when her cervix started dilating she sometimes lost a little bit of bright red blood. But that wasn't what this was. "Do you have the sheet of results from Rosie's tests?" He asked.

"Yeah, I'll go get them." I ran back down the stairs and laid the sheets out on the kitchen table. "Shoot doc."

I told him all the answers Rosie had written down and waited for his instructions.

I heard the taps turn off upstairs and then the two of them shuffling back into the bedroom. Rosie came downstairs and filled my bucket up again with hot water. She got new rags from the cupboard and took the bottle of bleach with her. The smell of the blood went away and was replaced with the smell of the bleach. I hated that smell but it was much better than smelling that blood.

"Okay. From the answers Rosie has given I think she's got blood poisoning." I cursed and he sighed. "It's called puerperal sepsis son and it's not good. From what you've told me about the contents of that cooler she may have caught something from that blood or it could just be infection. Do you know if she has any wounds?" He asked.

"Not that I know of. I can ask Rosie though."

"Please." He said he'd wait while I went and found out.

I ran up the stairs and met Rosie on the landing. She said she hadn't noticed any wounds on the girl's body, just that she had the fever and the shivers again now.

"No wounds doc." I told Carlisle.

"No matter now. I think, unfortunately, that things are going to get a lot worse for her son. If it is sepsis her organs will begin to dysfunction next and her body might try to spontaneously abort the baby." He said gravely.

"Oh for fucks sake." I muttered. "Okay, let's deal with one thing at a time. Is there anything we can do to stop the bleeding?"

"I don't think so, no. Just bed rest. If it was a human baby that's what I'd recommend. Bed rest and plenty of fluids. You can speed up the antibiotic IV and try to bring the fever down." He told me at what speed the drip should run from now on and I wrote his instructions on the top of Rosie's answer sheet. "But Em, I have to warn you, the only thing you can really do for her now is make her as comfortable as possible. No amount of drugs or intervention will help her now son."

"What about morphine or something?" I asked hopefully. Maybe if she was out of it for a bit her body would go easier on her.

"No son, I have no idea what effect morphine would have on the baby and it won't change anything for May now. I'm so sorry Emmett." Carlisle said.

"Yeah, I know. Okay, I'll go and change the speed of the drip. I'll call you later if there is any news. Bye dad." I hung up the phone and went back upstairs.

RPOV

I wheeled the IV stand back closer to the bed when Em had changed the speed of its dripping. I'd heard every word Carlisle had said on the phone and it made me sick to think her last days were going to be spent like this. Attached to a drip and feeling so awful. It just wasn't fucking fair!

She slept for four hours and then began coughing again. It was even more violent this time. She coughed up milky white stuff that had little streaks of blood in it and she lost a little more blood from down below which meant more cleaning for Em and me taking her for yet another shower. I didn't mind, not really. It made her feel better to be clean and it gave me something to focus on other than the inevitable.

For two more days all we did was clean her up and dose her up. Nothing worked. She still shivered and she still coughed. She slept on and off and had nightmares about Eric not returning. It was gutting to have to sit by her and reassure her that he was fine. She wanted to talk to him, wanted us to get him on the phone, but of course we couldn't. Each time she asked we put her off with excuses. She believed us and I felt so guilty for deceiving her.

Emmett kept an eye on the IV and I kept her clean. It was all we could do. We tried hard to keep her calm and to make her comfortable but as the end drew nearer her condition worsened and we knew we would soon have to face the reality of having to deliver the baby.

Her blood pressure dropped dramatically on the third day. Carlisle said it was because she was getting dehydrated. Emmett had to start another IV line that day, in her other arm. She was so thin now I thought the needle might come out the other side of her arm as he slid it home. He didn't want to have to do it again and he nearly cried when he sunk the needle into her paper thin skin a second time, but May was brave and talked to him all through it, reassuring him that it was what was best for the baby.

She was so fucking strong. Like Bella had been. Everything was about and for the baby. May let us poke and prod her, even letting us feed her blood for Christs sake, and she took it all willingly because it was what was best for her baby. It was both the most amazing thing and the most heart breaking thing I'd ever heard and had to watch.

That night when she began coughing in her sleep a pale pink froth leaked out of her mouth. I panicked but Em told me he'd been expecting it, that Carlisle had told him what the steps were going to be as she approached complete organ failure. The froth was from her lungs, they were filling with fluid because of the massive infection inside her. There was nothing we could do that we weren't already, so once again we simply cleaned her up and held her hand while she slept.

I was worried about what the infection was doing to the baby but Carlisle was fairly sure that the thick, steel-like membrane was protecting it and that she was as sick as she was because the baby was sapping her resources for itself. It was a double edged sword, sick mother equalled healthy baby, but it just wasn't fucking fair.

Her liver went next. The bleach smell in the room had nothing to do with the mopping and the bucket of hot water we'd used to clean up the floor when she'd leant over the bed to throw up during the night. The smell of ammonia came from May herself. I talked to Carlisle about it and was horrified to learn that her liver couldn't process toxins in her body anymore so it was shutting down. Her skin leeched an ammonia smell. She was pale and drawn and slept in fits and bursts.

She was so confused now too. It was almost a god send really. She slipped in and out of reality as she slept and woke disoriented. Sometimes she wondered who she was and at other times she wondered where she was. I was grateful that when her end came she might, mercifully, be unaware of most of it.

As the sun crept through the open windows the following morning we called Carlisle and asked for some last minute words of advice. It was obvious the time was almost upon us and we were going to be forced into action at any moment.

His only advice was to say what we needed to say to May without delay. Her continued deterioration was going to end in coma very soon and if there was anything we wanted her to know we should tell her now.

Em said he wanted to go first, that he would like some privacy, so I kissed his cheek, then May's, and left them to it.

I ran out through the back door and down the little concrete steps. I didn't stop running until I came to the little forest Edward had told us about that first day. I didn't need to hunt so I found a place to sit so I could think about all the things I wanted to say. I made a mental list and tried to be patient until it was my turn to say it.


A/N: Thank you for reading. Please review if you have enjoyed this chapter, and if you have not please review and tell me why. Thank you all the same.