Edward's Pov

Pain.

I will never feel another ounce of it.

The detachment of Bella from my soul leaves an emptiness that will never be filled. Not with blood. Not with body. Not with bones. The warmth of her skin fades slowly with every mile she runs away from me and it is then that I begin to understand her choice. I want to destroy Bella. I want to swallow her whole and allow her to reside only within my mind. I want to possess her and control her and hold her. I want the kind of possession that only comes with vampiric isolation.

And I understand now that she'd rather be beaten than to be owned.

I sit on the steps and wait for Carlisle to return home. I leave the heat on so that they understand before they can smell that her presense was here. I don't eliminate the evidence of our encounter. I want them to know. I want them to know what I instigated and what she completed. I want them to know how weak I was. I want them to know that I will never love again.

But still. We wont hate her.

How can you hate something so fragile? Poor Bella...she couldn't stand to be hated. Her body would crumble under a vampire's hate just like it almost had before. We've promised to love her forever. And forever we will.

The door opens and I look up expecting to see Carlisle but instead Alice tackles me into the stair case. Loud yelps and cries escape her throat and I only bairly make out what she is saying, "Something horrible is happening! Something horrible is going to happen! Oh God! Edward! It's so bad!"

I rub her back gently and hold her against my chest, "It...It's already happened."

"It's worse! He's going to kill her! Oh Edward! I can't! It hurts so much!" the anguish on her features is uncompairable. Nothing the Volturi can do can match what she exibits on her features.

Panic seizes me and I look up for help, "Jasper! Do something!"

"I'M TRYING." he says through gritted teeth, but his mind is a blank as well as hers. The effort isn't concetrated, their still trying to protect me.

"To hell with me Jasper! To hell with me! Just let down your guard and help her! Just do it!" I shout.

But Alice cries, "No!"

But it's too late. Jasper falls to his knees as the veil is uncovered and Alice is lulled into a numbing state so strong it can pass for sleep. And for me. There is despair. Jasper's mind is a labyrinth of late night confessions in which Alice has revealed her first vision of Bella. It is the letter she wrote, sealed to break my heart. Following is the hospital and the moments of this night and Alice's hypothesis that our lives are so interconnected with Bella and the wolves that she can make no future of it. Not even when she tries to detach herself from us. Not even from one second. But worst of all is the vision she has had last.

I see this myself in Alice's calm mind. Darkness encases the vision but at the center is Bella unmistakably laying in a broken puddle of flesh and blood. Her eyes are casted away into death and her body is ripped open by a beast, by an animal. Her heart beats slower and slower until she blinks and upon opening her brown eyes are dead. She is dead. Bella will die.

"No...It...we wont...we wont let it..." Alice mumbles. Jasper holds her close to his chest appearing the most vulnerable and desperate in the room, something I have never seen of him.

I look up and it is then that I realize that my family is complete for the first time. Esme hides her face in Carlisle's chest and Rosalie bites her lip to hold back words while Emmett grips her to his chest with a clenched jaw. Esme's thoughts are a wordless blur of pain. Rosalie's thought echo the same phrase Why didn't they listen to me? Why didn't they just listen? Emmett repeats It isn't right. Not for anyone. This isn't right. And Carlisle looks into my eyes and asks Son...what happened?

"Bella was here," I answer Carlisle first. They look to me with confusion-Rosalie with hate, Esme with hope, Emmett with fear-and I continue, "She wanted to see Carlisle. But I was here to meet her. She said she thought Jacob was cheating on her."

"What did you do, Edward?" Carlisle asks, understanding dawning on him.

"We made love..." I sigh, looking down and away, "I know. I'm sorry...I...I couldn't stop myself."

Nice! Fina-...Damn it...I'm sorry...Poor Emmett. It's painful to see what a desperate situation does to an optimist.

"She left close to twenty minutes ago," I'm finished. That's the end of the explanation.

"That...That's it..." Alice whispers.

"What? Jasper, if you will?" Carlisle asks and Jasper nods. As the actions unfold Esme turns to Jasper and wraps her arms around his neck gingerly. She holds him to her chest as he holds Alice to his.

Alice blinks and focuses her attention on me, "She...She's going back to Jacob...he...he's going to hurt her. We...we have to stop this..."

"We'll get slaughtered," Emmett says in a soft voice, not trying to be mean.

But in a harsh voice Rosalie snaps, "She made her bed. Let her die in it."

"Rosalie! She's still a member of this family!" Esme's voice is frightening but she lowers her face back into Jasper's hair.

"No! She's a disgusting human! Pathetic! Family doesn't do what she did to us, Esme! Family doesn't act that way!" she screams. Emmett's arms never leave her but it is evident she has spoken so much about this he believes her, he relents.

"Rosie..." Alice whispers, looking into Rosalie's eyes, "If you had the choice...what would you do?"

Rosalie's eyes glaze over and I think about the conversation she had with Bella about her life. She knows she wants to die. As happy as she is now. Rosalie is more envious that Bella actually go away. But she wont admit that. Rose's eyes jump to me, her face still twisted in anger, "It's not fair what she did to you Edward, no matter what, it's NOT fair!"

I look down at the ground she had once treaded on, "It's my fault, Rosalie...I left her with him...and I promised I would be accept anything she chose. We have to accept...I have to accept that this is my fault."

"She's still apart of this family," Alice repeats Esme's words. She looks up at me, "We have to protect her."

I nod my head and open my mouth to speak but the sound of Carlisle's phone going off splits the air. A tension builds around us, between us, inside us-is this conversation too late? Everyone's mind is hush as he picks up the phone from his pocket. He answers the phone and whispers, "Hello?"

Nobody comments on the smell. Everyone is too busy trying to figure out how to cope with a houseful of vampires and werewolves and the disfigured woman in the bedroom laying down. I thought I could never feel pain again. I was wrong. The way her face has caved in on its self from her depression, the way the bruises sink in her cheeks and her skull, the way her movements reflect where and when she was hurt. I can't understand...I can't believe that my Bella has been through this.

Emily and Rachel and Kim are in the room with her now which allows us to get to business that might upset them. We are all scattered through out the room in silence, expect for Seth who speaks to one of us every so often to catch up and Paul who talks to Carlisle about what he should be expect with the birth. The oddity of it is how Seth speaks so intimitely with Emmett and Rosalie as if he knows them so well and the thoughts that leave Rosalie's mind. In her mind she invisions Seth as a child that needs protecting as a child that her and Emmett could shape into a fine young gentleman with an eye for fashion, much like herself and her Emm. She thinks fleatingly about taking poor Seth, a child with kind potential growing with savages, into a completely different environment-England perhaps.

The wolves themselves talk only in whispers and I and I wonder if any of them have ever owned a shirt. Although they try to act civilazed and comfortable in their home they cast glances at us that allow us to deduce that we are not welcome, not really. Their minds echo the same three things: He looks like shit. Those motherfuckers, they did this. Why do they have to look so pathetic?

As the last thought is echoed Sam comes to the center and speaks, "Guys, while the girls are inside I think this is the best time to talk about what's going on. We all know, more or less, what's happened with Jake and Bella. For the past two months our pack meetings have been terminated but Jacob insists on attending some of his own, at least that's what Bella told Paul, but with no other wolves. I'm not sure if you Cullens know but Jacob has the right to be pack leader."

"Yes, Ephraim Black was the leader last we had heard," Carlisle says with a ghost of a smile and the memory of a kind man, much like Sam is now.

"Right. Since I was the first to undergo the...transformation...I became pack leader with every intention of giving over my riegns but Jacob has continually denied the position, allowing me to stay. From what we gather from those who had the displeasure of sharing his mind we have uncovered that the Alpha force inside of him is taking control. It is a force that only a true Alpha can hold, something that I have inside of me and something all Alpha's of any pack must bond with as soon as they become the leader. With much deliberation between Billy and the elders we have uncovered that because of Jacob's resistance to being Alpha the force is taking over his mind so that he can prove dominance over...everything," his mind jumps to the image of Bella laying on the floor unconscious and destroyed.

"So...like the hulk?" Emmett asks with his arms folded over his chest with Rosalie drapped beside him.

There is the slightest bit of amusment but it is quickly submerged. Uncomfotably Sam nods, "Yes."

Seth sighs, "That'd be cool if it weren't so horrible."

"Wait...so...what do we do?" Jared asks, his head swimming with the simple question Do we kill him or not?

"The elders are going through the legends and trying to determine that themselves. Our only solution is if we combine with the Cullens," there is a small grumble from both sides, "and track him down for capture Maybe if we can speak with Jacob we can get him to overcome the Alpha."

"With all do respect," it's Esme's little voice that has broke through the conversation. Her voice is shaken and angry, "if you look at that little girl in there you will find that Jacob is GONE. No one in their right mind could do that to her. Not to Bella."

Silence fills the room but the mind of the wolves is a strong shudder of understanding. They have memories of the looks exchanged between Bella and Jacob. They know she is right. He would never do that to her. There is some terror in their minds as well. They are afraid he is gone forever. They are afraid they will never get him back. But maybe they will.

"Earlier today Bella visited Carlisle in the hospital," I begin. Carlisle looks at me as if he isn't sure I can continue but I do. "Jacob waited for her outside and I was able to achieve a glimpse of his mind. As he waited he looked at a photograph of himself and Bella on the beach and instead of the mind of the Alpha I am certain I saw into Jacob's."

"What was he thinking?" Paul asks. In his mind is hatred for Jacob. In his mind Bella is Rachel and every woman he has ever loved. Some how...with all the horror continuing I begin to relax. These are the people that Bella has surrounded herself with. These are all good people.

"All I could make out was..." I try to think of how to phrase it, "he was terrified. He was absolutely terrified."

"There. That settles it," Carlisle says as he clasps his hands together with a smile, "We will track him down but we will not engage. We will simply allow Edward enough time to seep into his mind and find Jacob and maybe a way to communicate with him."

"What does the fortune-teller see?" It's Embry. His heart is filled with disgust for us that had once been acceptance. He blames us all for what has happened to his best friend. None of us can get away with judgement in his eyes.

"She can't see anything. Unfortunately werewolves escape her vision," Carlisle says in the softest way possible, attempting to soothe any egos that might be wounded.

"Well...what's to stop us from going after him right now?" Embry asks, looking to Sam.

"The same thing that stopped us from getting him before, Bella. She needs our help and our protection," Sam answers firmly.

The door to her room opens and out steps Emily with her baby bump. I'm suddenly jealous. So jealous for the lives that these wolves get to lead. The scars on her face and arms no longer attract my gaze, it is the beautiful thing that is allowed to grow inside of her. They are as apart of her as Bella's striking brown eyes. Just another perfect feature. Her voice is soft as she asks, "Dr. Cullen...would you mind checking on Bella? I think she's lost consiousness again."

Carlisle gives her a gentle smile and nods, "I wouldn't mind at all. Thank you for telling me."

Carlisle patiently waits for the imprinters to escort their women from the room. He understands the bond between the wolves and their women and he would never want to give the false assumption that they are in danger with him. Carlisle enters the room and now that the women are out the talk has ended. I look to Esme and see she is still boiling with anger just as Rosalie is boiling with confusion. Rosalie wants to hate Bella...but she can't dare hate her anymore.

I offer Esme my hand and she gladly accepts it. My arms fall around her shoulders and I gently rub her arms to relax them from their rigid state. I suggest, "Shall we see how Alice and Jasper are?"

She nods her head, "Okay."

We walk out the door and she says to me I love you all so much. None of you deserve this. You don't deserve one ounce of this situation.

I lean over and kiss her head to let her know how much her love means to me. On the front porch we look through the trees to find which Jasper and Alice are perched in. Since her powers are causing such pain Alice has taken up weird hiding places to try and fix it with Jasper as her faithful companion. Before we can call out to them though they are before us and I am hit with the most recent vision. It is me standing in the meadow of the newborn attack surrounded by darkness. It's a hint.

"I want to see Bella," Alice says finally. I wonder if this is such a good idea.

"Okay," Esme smiles, happy that Alice looks better and more to herself.

We walk inside but it is like we have never left. There is still the discomfort that makes every action a thousand times more noticable. The wolves look to us as Esme, Jasper, and Alice make their way to Carlisle. They feel as though we should explain every action we commit. But we don't.

When the door has closed and Carlisle and Esme are out I speak, "Alice has had a vision of me standing at the field of the new born attack."

"Bella."'

Mouths are stuck open. Actions are half commited. Everyone is frozen. The voice is hypnotic and heartbreaking. Our eyes turn to the room Bella lays in and although we don't want to we listen.

"Bella...I envy you so much. You feel pain and you can express it...I feel saddness and I have to contain it...do you know how badly I wish for tears? Oh Bella...Bella I missed you so much, sister. I missed you so much. I kept looking for you and looking for you but all I saw was darkness...Why didn't you visit me, Bella? You could visit me too...You know we were friends long before your relationship with these silly boys...we could still be friends."

There is an anger that sprouts up inside all of us caused by the poor pixie girl and for the first time we are on the same page. We wish she never had to feel so much saddness, we wish she never said those words. We wish the vampire curse was eliminated, we wish the same for the werewolf curse as well. We wish there were no enemy lines. They wish they didn't have so much compassion for us and we wish they didn't have the thing we cherish. But most importantly we wish we all did not love Bella.

"So...it is settled. We will go to the field of the new born attack," Carlisle says carefully.

"We have to break into two groups first. Group A will leave for the attack and group B will stay to meet Jacob if he comes. Group A will be me, Paul, Jared, Embry, Quil, Leah, Carlisle, Edward, and Emmett. Group B will be Seth, Collin, Brady, Esme, Alice, Jasper, and Rosalie. Emily, Kim, and Rachel will stay in Billy's house while Esme, Alice, Jasper, and Rosalie will stay here. Seth, Collin, and Brady will each circle around the houses to inform us of Jacob's arrival and to protect the women in the houses. Does that sound acceptable to everyone?" It's hard to compete with Sam. There's a reason he is the Alpha, "We break in fifteen minutes. Jared, Paul, and I will escort the women to Billy's and then we will meet in front here."

"Seth?" Rosalie seems to stumble out of some daze and we look from her to Seth but he is just as confused as we are. "But they are so young. How are they suppose to defend the women against Jacob if he were to come?"

"Well...we highly doubt Jacob would attack the women in any way, shape, or form. There is one action that is unforgivable in our pack and that is the death of someone that has been imprinted upon. And if Jacob is so far gone you all will be suffient back up, I believe," Sam answers but the thought Jacob would attack is still frightening, "Any other questions?"

"Just one," Esme's voice is gentle but she has a look of determination that is visious, "What do we do if we find Jacob here?"

"Depending on how he advances toward Bella...," Sam goes quiet for a moment, "It's up to your discretion."