AN – Hello again! And wow reviews! You guys were awesome. There were a couple of questions that I wanted to answer. Some one asked why I have James instead of some random guy or Rosalie's King. Well, I wanted to make this Bella's story as much as possible, and James was the hunter before, so…there you go. A few of you have asked for Bella's POV, and I'm sad to say I don't have any written, and wasn't really planning on it. I'm not so great writing Bella unless it's Angst!Bella. So don't hold your breath.

Also, just to be clear, I uploaded two chapters last time. I think some people missed that. Thanks so much to those of you who reviewed both chapters. I have a feeling you would have lynched me had I left off with Chapter 8.

On to the chapter!

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Chapter 10

The sun was rising before Bella had calmed down. I think she had wanted to cry herself to sleep. But the problem was, she could no longer sleep.

Or cry.

So I held her until she stopped shaking. When she finally did, she mumbled into my chest, "I'll leave as soon as I can."

"What? Why?" I asked, alarmed. She couldn't leave now. This was the safest place for her. And I wanted her here, as much as I hated to admit it to myself.

"I don't deserve to be here, to be looked after by you," she said miserably.

Immediately, I tucked one hand under her chin and forced her to look me in the eyes, feeling the pain of her despair flow into me at the contact. "You are more than welcome to stay here for as long as you want. And I will always be here to look after you." I didn't deny her claim that she didn't deserve me – it was clear she deserved so much better.

Her bright red eyes would have welled up had she still been able to produce tears. I withdrew my hand to give her emotions some privacy until she got them under control, but I held her gaze with mine.

"I mean it, Bella."

"Why?" she whispered. "How can you be so kind to me? I'm a ruined woman. I…you saw what happened to me."

"What happened was indeed horrible. But I could never even fathom the idea of treating you that way, or any other way than with the kindness you deserve."

She didn't believe me. I could see it in her eyes. I wished I could send my emotions to her, show her my sincerity. "Please Bella, listen to me. You are beautiful, inside and out. What happened to you does not affect your value to me, or to anyone else living here, for that matter." I watched her, gauging her reaction. She didn't accept it, but she didn't completely reject it either. This was going to take some time, I could tell.

Lucky me, I have all the time in the world.

"I'll stay then, if that's alright," she said finally, in a small voice, breaking away from my gaze, but not from my arms. I tightened them around her again.

"It's more than alright."

We stayed that way for a long time. I wished desperately to know what she was thinking, but couldn't bring myself to break the silence and ask.

But we had to get up at some point. Carlisle came in and found us like that, sitting on the couch with my arms around a clearly grieving girl. He must have heard us talking, or else he was clever enough to figure out that her memory had resurfaced.

"Edward," he addressed me aloud for Bella's benefit, "I need to speak with you. Bella, you too, if you think you can handle it."

To my surprise, she straightened and put on a brave face. She was done crying, done mourning for the past, at least for now. "I can handle it," she said, tonelessly.

Carlisle was surprised, too, at her strength. "If you'd both come downstairs, then."

We followed him down to the living room, Bella never more than a foot away from me. I didn't object to having her so close to me now that her scent was no longer tantalizing me to devour her, but it was odd. I was beginning to want her in a whole different way…

Now was not the time.

We sat, and Carlisle began. "The town is bursting at the seams with rumors. Bella's been discovered missing. No one knows what happened to her."

"No one would suspect the real perpetrators," I said darkly. Bella said nothing.

"But this presents a problem. Charlie is going crazy with worry and is doing everything he can to find her. And seeing as he is the police chief, there's a lot he can do."

"Oh, Charlie," Bella gasped, starting at the name. "I hadn't even thought…oh no." She collapsed in on herself, and I instinctively drew her to me, throwing a dirty look at Carlisle. Why did he have to bring that up?

But Bella didn't start shaking again. She simply went very still this time. "Bella?" I asked, worried, "Bella, are you alright?"

It was a stupid question, but what else could I ask? She seemed to think so too, and laughed humorlessly. "No, I'm not alright. Poor Charlie, I was all he had." Her eyes had a faraway look in them. "Is there anything I can do?"

"No, it's much too dangerous for you to be around humans right now," Carlisle said, gently. "I think the best course of action is for you to be assumed dead."

She looked so forlorn, as if finally seeing the weight of what had happened to her. She lost her father, her fiancé, her life – everything. And what did she get? Me. What a horrible trade.

We needed to stage her death. There weren't any convenient rivers nearby for her to drown in, nor steep cliffs to fall from. And she had been seen leaving her friend's home late last night. Somehow she needed to die on the way home.

The obvious answer was to "find" her in an alley, and play out the scene as close to the truth as possible. But that was no good. Chief Swan would certainly search for her killer until he found him and punished him. And we couldn't have that.

That was for me to do.

So what to do? There were some woods along the outskirts of town, but did Bella have any reason to be there? She shook her head. "No, it wouldn't make sense for me to do anything but go straight home. Something needs to happen on the way."

We thought in silence. "What if," Bella began slowly, sitting back up. I reluctantly withdrew my hold on her. "Is there some part of town along the path they haven't searched yet?"

Carlisle answered, "You've been missing for almost four days. They've searched your route pretty thoroughly, but there might be some places on a backroad they haven't looked yet." He looked at her curiously, did she have a plan?

She chewed thoughtfully on her thumbnail. "Is there some place we could stage some sort of accident? I mean, I'm not exactly the most graceful person around, it would be easy to believe I fell or something."

Carlisle exchanged a glance with me, "There's a construction site not too far from your usual path, but they've been working on it. I can check it out and see if there's not someplace inconspicuous where you could have fallen or been hit with something."

He left quickly, time was rapidly running short before all of our opportunities disappeared. Four days was a long time for a person to be missing without a trace. Carlisle returned sooner than I had expected, but not at all too soon. Bella and I were waiting anxiously and silently on the sofa. It must be thoroughly depressing to plan one's own death, so I hadn't pushed her for conversation.

"The construction site's no good. It's completely gated off. There's no good reason for her to have been there." We both visibly deflated. "It'll have to be the woods, then."

"Oh!" Bella suddenly exclaimed. "I think I have an idea. There's a grove not far from Angela's that leads into thicker woods. It's the opposite direction, so it probably hasn't been searched. I would have wandered in there if something had caught my attention."

"What would catch your attention?"

She looked embarrassed all of a sudden, then shyly said, "If I thought I saw you."

Carlisle picked up on her train of thought, "Yes, that should work…Edward could have been coming back for the wedding, and you saw him and followed him as he headed toward the woods for a walk. Edward has been gone, so it makes perfect sense, and you can be a witness."

"And once I'd reached the grove and gotten too far in, I was completely lost. Some animal found me and ate me."

"We can leave your clothes as evidence. They won't expect to find your body. If we can plant those clothes in the right spot, and have Edward, you tip them off."

Their conversation flowed like they were planning what to have for dinner. How could she think about this so…businesslike? This was her death we were talking about. Shouldn't she be, I don't know, too delicate and feminine to even think about such things?

I mentally shook my head. No, that was not Bella. She wasn't one of those delicate flowers, she was like a venus fly trap. She would fight back. Even in her memory, she fought when she knew she had no chance. She fought until she literally could not move.

"What do you think, Edward," Bella's sweet voice brought me back to attention. "Do you think it will work? Can you lead them to the right path?"

I thought. "I think it will work," I answered finally. She smiled a somewhat grim smile. "I can say I was catching up on business, which is why no one has seen me, and I can mention that I might have seen you that night. They'll be desperate enough for leads that they'll comb the grove and the woods."

She squeezed my arm, "Thank you. If nothing else, I want Charlie to have closure."

She was so good. "I'll do what I can."

"We had better get started," Carlisle urged, "The sooner we clean this up, the better."

"By the way," Bella asked, as we all stood. "Where is Esme? I haven't seen her since I woke up, and I wanted to thank her for the things she prepared for me."

"She's in town, helping with the search party," Carlisle replied, "She's always helping with something. She's very good at finding lost children. It's only natural that she would be looking for you."

"Oh," Bella looked touched at this act of concern. She would need to get used to the idea of others looking out for her, I could tell. I could only assume she took care of her father more than he did of her. She seemed the type to take over the household while the Chief was at work. And he was a notoriously bad cook.

"Alright, Edward, let's go." Carlisle had already retrieved Bella's clothes to plant in the woods.

I looked at Bella with what I hoped was a reassuring expression. "I'll be back before you can miss me," I said, hoping she would be alright on her own. I'd have to send Esme back when I saw her. I really didn't want to leave her all alone.

"I'll be fine," She tried to flash a reassuring smile, but it didn't quite reach those expressive eyes of hers. It would be a long time before she was truly fine.

Carlisle and I rushed to town in his car, seeking out the search party to share our latest "revelation."

We found them convened at the police station. It always made me a little nervous there. My record wasn't exactly as white as the freshly fallen snow.

But no one was paying attention to me, at least not yet. Carlisle weeded out Chief Swan and brought him to me, telling him I'd realized something that might be of help.

I put on a nervous face, matching the anxious looks of so many around me. "Chief Swan," I began as he approached, "I think I may have a lead to your daughter's whereabouts. When I was coming into town late that night, I think I saw her leave her friend's home. If she saw me, too, she might have tried to follow me. I passed by too quickly to notice. But it might be worth a try."

"Why didn't you come forward with this information earlier?" He demanded, looking angry and as if he hadn't slept for these past four days.

"I wasn't aware she was missing. I was shut up in my office, attending to some business matters." I stammered, feigning fright. The guilt in my voice I didn't have to fake, though. "If I'd had any idea…" I trailed off. He had the information and proceeded to pump me for more of it. He didn't care about my excuses now. He just wanted to find his daughter.

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