A/N Thanks to for her delicious Edward, I mean characters – all of them, not just Edward...

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When Edward had finally fallen to sleep, Jasper phoned Esme informing her that it was over. They were both surprised by how quickly this one had passed. Esme thanked him for being there for her son and for being a true friend, for which he told her off,

"He's my mate Esme, you don't need to thank me." This only made Esme thank him once again. "Although I am thankful it wasn't a week long one this time, they do seem to be lasting shorter periods of time," he added. "I'm just sorry I had to call you so soon, we have been trying to keep Bella out of it until we'd persuaded Edward to tell her."

Edward's mother told Jasper that she had been looking into other ways to help her son and mentioned animal-assisted therapy, telling him that research showed that it could help towards improving his general well-being.

She asked Jasper if there had been anything that might have triggered this one, but the only thing he thought may have played a part would be the continuous late nights they'd been having since Bella's arrival. Esme agreed that could have been a possible aggravation and said she'd talk to Edward when he felt up to it.

Needing to speak with Alice, Jasper politely cut the conversation short and no sooner was the line free his fingers desperately fumbled at the keypad, his knee bouncing as he waited for her to pick up.

Whilst talking to Alice, Jasper took himself to bed foregoing his nighttimes' routine he opted to get straight under the quilt cover. They continued to talk quietly until Jasper fell asleep. Alice remained on the phone for a short time just listening to his deep breathing and appreciating what a fine man he was, before replacing the receiver and heading for her kitchen to bake her nervous energy away. Alice couldn't wait for her friend Rose to join her, she could have used another presence in the house tonight and quickly counted off the days until Rose would arrive.

Bella was now sitting in the armchair opposite the settee, slowly picking at the cold quiche and studying the sleeping man. His hair was a complete disarray and his mouth was slightly crushed into the cushion his head was lying on. The t-shirt he was wearing had pulled up slightly and a tiny sliver of skin was exposed. Bella's eyes lingered on that small piece of flesh and she absentmindedly licked her lips and bit into her bottom one.

She wanted to know everything about him, all his strengths and all of his weaknesses. All of his dreams and hopes as well as his fears. Never had she wanted to know someone as much. She acknowledged the emotions she felt when he was beyond her reach earlier and the overriding one was that of failure - she didn't want to ever disappoint him and his words told her she had, but so had Jasper apparently. She tried to work through the evenings events. Edward had accepted comfort from Jasper after he'd accused him and berated him, she hoped he would accept comfort from her too and that they would be able to work out this misunderstanding.

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The sound of activity from the kitchen dragged Bella from her sleep and the more aware she become the more evident her aches and pains were.

Stretching her stiff body caused an involuntary groan to leave her lips and the noise from the kitchen came to a halt. Noticing the settee was now empty; Bella presumed it was Edward in the kitchen. It remained quiet as Bella made her way towards the heart of the house. As she approached the door, she saw Edward's rigid back; his elbows locked straight as he leaned forward onto his hands and hung his head - his chin touching the centre of his collarbones.

Edward was racked with remorse and even though he had no control over it, it didn't stop him from blaming and hating himself for his actions. He could tell when the episode was coming on and had hoped this would give him enough time to make himself scarce whenever he was around Bella. He hadn't thought it through enough and hadn't accounted for her walking right into the middle of one - worse still was his paranoia having her as its focus this time.

He had wanted to keep his disorder to himself, initially because it was none of her business but as he got to know her over the week he needed to keep it from her so that it didn't put her off and make her run for the hills as he'd become quite taken with her.

Their group trips, late nights and one-on-one time bringing a lightness to his life that he wanted to keep.

By eating mostly healthy food regularly and keeping his life steady and stress free and taking his medication as prescribed - he'd hoped it would be enough to keep his illness at bay, therefore giving Bella a chance to know him for the guy his was 95% of the time, not the psychotic freak he was the other five.

Edward was afraid of what she would think of him, he recalled the look on her face as she had begged him to help her understand what she'd done. She had done nothing wrong, she was beautiful, innocent and carefree and he... he was a monster.

He was afraid of her loathing him, but he was more afraid of her forgiveness, because if she forgave him it would give the monster another chance at hurting her again when it decided to break free once more.

A choice needed to be made. Did he let her in - or keep her out?

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A/N Please note that I mean no disrespect by the phrase 'psychotic freak', this is Edward's opinion of himself as he works through his self-loathing and it is most definitely not my opinion.

Mental illness is a subject very close to my heart for several reasons, which I won't go into here. I'm not an expert but I do know that everyone's experiences are different, from the 'patient' to the 'caregiver' be them family or friend. What works for one, will not work for another.

Let me know what you think.

Ficturesque x