As she walked towards the bed Bella felt her heart race faster and faster

Author: Juana

Title: "Love and Sacrifice"

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters in this story they are from the creative mind of Stephenie Meyer.

As she walked towards the bed Bella felt her heart race faster and faster. The look on Edward's face was just about killing her.

She had hurt him and every ounce of that pain was etched in his face for her to see.

"Edward…." Bella began only to be quickly silenced by him.

"Just tell me…why Bella?" Edward asked his calm demeanor chilling her now.

"I know I owe you an explanation…" Bella said her words trailing off.

"I would say that you most definitely do." Edward countered his beautiful face within touching distance now – subconsciously she reached out and laid her hand lovingly on his stone cheek.

Bella wanted desperately to say the right thing now, to make Edward feel okay about the situation, but she knew that would involve actually telling him exactly what the situation was.

"I love you Edward…I do." Bella started hoping that the truth shone in her eyes since her earlier behavior had contradicted this very statement.

"You're stalling." Edward said his impatience obvious now in his tone.

"You're right I am…but it's because I don't want to hurt you." Bella told him sincerely, slowly and reluctantly dropping her hand from his cheek now.

"I think it's a little too late to start worrying about that." Edward said stating the obvious now.

"When you ran back down that aisle – you ripped my heart out and took it with you. This was not without pain." he stated surprisingly eloquent and composed considering his dream of marrying her had been all but shattered.

Bella felt the tears threatening to roll down her cheeks now and fought desperately to hold them back, her intentions had been good; she truly believed Edward deserved to know the truth about her and Jacob before he bound himself to her for life.

But she could see that her actions had not been without consequences.

"Please don't hate me Edward." Bella pleaded, the pain of his impending response hanging in her heart.

"I don't hate you Bella – I never could. I can only hate myself for forcing you to do something you so obviously don't want to do." Edward responded hating that even now she still wasn't opening up to him.

Bella sighed. It would be so easy to just melt away into her confusion, to shut any and everyone off from her mixed up life – anyone but Edward that is.

Bella knew she could never live without Edward that she needed him like the air she breathed – he was her lifeline to sanity and her one true love.

And with that realization came the words to finally explain to Edward what had transpired and exactly what it was that had wrecked his dream of a life with her.

Edward listened in shock as Bella fought her fears and tears to explain to him exactly what had been going on with her and Jacob.

Unmistakably Edward felt a hot rage build towards Jacob, an unbidden desire to just take him out of the equation and end all of Bella's misery and reluctantly he silently admitted to himself…his insecurities.

But he knew that wasn't the answer…at least not the one he could live with or that Bella would ever forgive him for.

And for what it was worth he was renewed by the fact that what Bella had done she had done out of love and respect for him believing he deserved to know the truth before he took her permanently into his life.

With tears awash in her eyes, Bella sat down on the bed next to Edward her guard still up, her fear that he was seconds away from walking out of her life for good still uppermost in her thoughts.

"We'll he must be getting a real thrill out of this conversation." Edward stated bitterly as he looked purposefully into Bella's eyes. "What is he saying to you now Bella?" he inquired.

Edward hated having to ask that but he also wasn't willing to give up the opportunity to counteract whatever mind poison Jacob was spewing at the moment.

"He's not saying anything" Bella replied realizing for the first time since she and Edward had entered the room that her mind was Jacob free for the moment.

"Really?" Edward replied unable to keep the tone of disbelief at bay.

"Really." Bella said more than a little relieved, it was a small moment of respite but it felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her heavily burdened mind.

"What kind of game are you playing now Jacob?" Edward wondered spitefully.

It didn't matter – he was going to fix things for her – for Bella.

"Call him." he stated his mind working overtime now to piece together the puzzle of why in such a monumental moment Jacob would suddenly choose to remain silent.

It wasn't like him Edward thought not to be gloating in his victory – his goal had been to stop the wedding and he had succeeded, it seemed a given that he would be celebrating.

So either Bella was lying to him, a conclusion he refused to come to or Jacob couldn't reach her when she was with him, he of course hoped for the latter.

Suddenly a thought sprang to his mind…perhaps it worked both ways – perhaps Bella became "out of range" to Jacob when she was with vampires just as she did to the Cullen's when she was at La Push or with Jacob.

Wanting to work with Edward Bella reluctantly called out for Jake in her thoughts – nothing happened. He was either angry with her or ignoring her Bella decided not yet having pieced together what Edward quickly was.

"Well?" Edward questioned looking hopefully and far more confidently at Bella now.

"He's chosen to become mute" Bella admitted more than a little surprised now as she too believed this to be very non-Jake like.

"I'm not sure it's a choice." Edward said in a conspirator's tone.

"I'm not following." Bella said her confusion more muddled now than ever.

"I'm still working it out but if what I'm thinking is true…well…its good news." Edward said more to himself than Bella.

"Still not following you." Bella replied wiping at the fast drying tears on her face.

She could tell that Edward was immersed in finding a solution for her situation, but still believing it to be hopeless she just sat back with a heavy sigh and let him continue trying to work it out.

The good news she realized was that he hadn't kicked her out of his life or on the flip side walked out on her again…so maybe she thought hope surfacing in her now…maybe all wasn't lost.

Downstairs Jacob was just about to burst – he knew from his inability to communicate with her that Bella was now with Edward and it was killing him.

He needed desperately to talk to her to find out if she'd come to her senses and decided to kick the cold guy to the curb.

Okay, he knew that was wishful thinking, but at least he hoped she'd conceded that all was not sunshine and roses in vampire land and that living her life with Edward was not going to be without problems.

One of which was him and how he would always be in her head. Jacob tried to envision the look on Edwards face when Bella had told him that little juicy bit of what he was sure was irritating information.

It was a vision that caused him to inwardly laugh as a slow, satisfied grin spread across his face.

It was time for Edward to realize that he was the one who had done the interloping and that he Jacob was the real victim here not the other way around.

"You've ruined everything dog!" Alice hissed standing mere inches from Jacob's ear now.

"That's your opinion little bloodsucker." Jacob countered the earlier grin still plastered on his face.

"Look – I don't care for you but I do adore Bella, so I'm saying this in the nicest way I can…you are not what Bella wants and you must give up gracefully or you will ruin her life." Alice promised.

Now Jacob was truly annoyed at the clearly one sided opinion of the future seeing Cullen vamp.

"You have no way of knowing that – you can't see my future…remember?" Jacob taunted.

But Alice was not about to be outdone.

"True, but I can see Edwards and Bella is in it and she is one of us – a part of the family." Alice said nailing Jacob's heart now the only way she knew how.

Jacob felt his sharp in take of breath at the mere thought of his Bella as a vampire. Apparently Edward wasn't the only one in the Cullen clan who didn't fight fair.

"Over my dead body!" Jacob growled.

Smiling a tilted smile Alice leaned into Jacob now. "You should be careful not to provoke me dog boy – I promise you my bite is far superior to your bark."

If he didn't hate the Cullen's so much he could actually respect this one mused Jacob as he stood up to tower menacingly over Alice's small petite frame.

"Those are hefty words coming from such a little girl." Jacob countered.

"Just say the word and I will show…" Suddenly Alice grabbed the side of her head as if she was in a blinding pain and Jasper was immediately at her side.

"Alice…what is it – what do you see?" Jasper said the worry creasing his usually calm brow now.

Slowly as the waves of the vision started to subside Alice looked in Jasper eyes and he immediately responded.

"Tell me what to do."

"We need to get everyone out of here now!" Alice whispered hissed to him.

Quickly Jasper surveyed the room.

"How long do we have?" he asked inspired by the thought of the action an impending danger might bring.

"Not enough." Alice responded.

"What's going on?" Jacob barked not willing to be shut out.

"Our kind is coming – they are looking for Bella…checking up on her and her promise." Alice admitted absentminded still trying to piece together an accurate time line before informing the others.

"Then we stop them before they get here." Jacob offered full of bravado and ready to summon his pack.

"We don't have that kind of time – we need to take Bella to meet them or the entire wedding party will be damage collateral." Alice hissed as if Jacob should somehow already know this.

"I am not letting you offer Bella up to them just to protect who you are!" Jacob bellowed.

"You insult me if you think I would do anything to harm Bella – get out of my way!" Alice said giving him a look that would fell most brave men.

"Not gonna happen." Jacob said menacingly.

"You would sacrifice everyone in this room for Bella?" Alice said stunned knowing very well that would include Jacob's own father.

"I would sacrifice my very life for her." Jacob said selfishly.

"Well that I have no problem with." Alice countered.

"In fact…go for it. You head the visitors off and that will give us plenty of time to get these people to safety.

Jacob could tell that Alice was baiting him, but he rose to the challenge any way.

"Fine, I will."

'No you won't." Edward hissed appearing at Jacob's side as if by magic.

Tragically Jacob noted that Bella stood beside him, their hands intertwined.

"This is my battle Jacob – mine and Bellas and I will thank you to stay out of it."

"No can do partner…I won't leave Bella unprotected." Jacob said smugly.

"That's enough you two!" Alice said intervening now.

"We are wasting precious time. We need to get Bella to the field quickly or everyone here will die and there will be nothing we can do to stop it.

"Fine, take me there." Bella said finally speaking up the memory of the massacre of those innocent people in Italy at the hands of the Volturi running unwanted through her mind now.

"Are you insane Bella?" Jake countered.

"I'm not going to let Charlie and Renee, or even you, get hurt – I just wont." Bella admitted the tears welling up again.

"Then I'm coming too." Jacob said making a snap decision now.

"Do you have a death wish?" Alice inquired.

"Our people will not let you leave that field alive and you alone do not possess the skill or strength to destroy them – I promise you this."

"We can waste more of that precious time you were talking about earlier or you can just give it up now little one – I will be in that field with or without your permission and there is nothing you can do to stop me." Jacob promised.

"Fine, it's your funeral." Alice said turning on her heel now and continuing to mutter under her breath.

It was time to inform the others and then leave Esme and Rosalie behind to get the others safely away from the mansion without raising any red flags.