Author's Notes: And here we go again, drama drama! I hope you're all enjoying it so far and I hope you enjoy the chapters to come they promise to be dramatic and saucy! A big thanks to all of you that reviewed! I really am grateful for all your support, especially those of you who have been following several of my stories. Big thanks and virtual hug for my beta JenJenSon as always!

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or the characters and make no money from this, it's just for good old fun! The lyrics are from Hurts – Illuminated which some of you may have heard on the sky advert. It's a good song you should all go download it!

Exposure

Carlisle POV

Bella got out of her truck and I watched her from the upstairs window. I saw her hesitate as she made her way to the front door, probably nervous after everything that had happened so far. I didn't know whether the news that Edward was alive and coming here soon would make her better or worse.

"You've decided to stop fighting it then?" Alice breathed next to me so that no one else would hear but me. I nodded. "For a while there I thought all was lost when Bella moved in with the dog, but fate has its ways. You haven't decided when to tell everyone though?"

"How can I tell Esme Alice?" I asked her, feeling my own face contort in pain. "She's been by my side for nearly a century and although the love hasn't been there for some time I owe her more than this."

"Yes, but you can't help who you fall in love with Carlisle and in your situation I'm sure many others would have done the same." Alice said, hugging my arm. "But you do owe her the truth Carlisle and before she finds out for herself. Jasper has it pretty much gathered already and the only reason no one else has is because Bella loves us all very much and Edward leaving was bound to affect her badly...but they will guess if you don't do it soon and the outcome...won't be good."

"I don't think I can hope for a good reaction no matter what I say." I murmured. "Esme is the mother of this entire family...am I doing the right thing Alice?"

"Love is always right Carlisle, even when it's not easy." She smiled softly. "Edward will be here in a few hours, we should warn her."

"No." I said quickly, "Don't tell her. She'll only worry for the next few hours and react just the same anyway. Let her enjoy the next few hours." Alice nodded once before bouncing from the room. I heard her open the front door and greet Bella warmly.

Edward POV

Time waits for no one,
So do you want to waste some time,
Oh, oh tonight?

As I came up to the house I immediately noticed Bella's truck in the driveway, I could smell her in the house...as I got closer I could hear her laughter. I could hear my family laughing with her and immediately regretted trying to keep her from them. She had been human for all these long months around my family and was obviously still perfectly happy...the problem had been me.

I entered the house silently and found them in the living room. Bella, Emmett and Jasper were playing Twister and Alice and Rosalie were looking at a magazine together. I spotted Carlisle coming downstairs with a book in his hands and he was the first to see me.

"Edward." He greeted me. "We've been waiting for you." I suddenly had everyone else's attention and in true Bella fashion I saw her slip and land ungracefully on top of Jasper. Jasper was the most surprising one to see interacting with Bella, without my bloodlust for her, he had been able to interact with her fine. Emmett stood up and lifted Bella up before placing her firmly on two feet and Jasper got up after, as Alice skipped to his side. Rosalie came up the other side of Bella almost threateningly...only now it was me she was glaring at.

'you are an idiot' she thought loudly.

Esme and Carlisle came to greet me, Esme hugged me warmly and for a minute I forgot why I had come.

"Edward..." Bella croaked out, looking unsure whether to speak or not. I didn't blame her; I had left her without a goodbye or an explanation. Now I had a lot of explaining to do...

"I promise I will explain my actions later Bella, in private." I told her, "But right now I have something important to tell you all."

'Like why you didn't even say goodbye.' Came Rosalie's sarcastic thought.

'Like how I can't see your future.'

"You can't?" I asked Alice curiously, she shook her head and pouted.

"We were really worried." She said. "Carlisle and I thought maybe the wolves had killed you." I watched as the rest of the family glared at them, obviously they had not shared their thought with the others.

"Well as you can see I am in one piece." I smiled, "But the wolves have probably been the reason you haven't seen me Alice, I've been spending a lot of time with them recently."

"Why?" Alice exclaimed; the disgust in her voice, causing everyone to laugh.

"It's a long story and the details aren't pretty, I'd rather fill you in when we have more time." I replied. "However, having spent some time with them I happen to know some information regarding the vampire attacks and have come with a solution."

"Really? Spit it out then." Alice said suddenly a bit more excited.

"He's going to ask us to work with them." Bella said softly. I met her gaze and smiled brightly at her.

"As a matter of fact, yes." I replied. "Sam is willing to come to a more relaxed arrangement to enable us to end the problem."

"So that's the holes in Alice's vision? The wolves help us so she can't see everything?" Carlisle asked.

"I'm not sure; we only decided today." Edward replied.

"No, if they hadn't decided yet that can't be it. Someone is playing with the blind spots in my vision somehow, they're not deciding on anything for certain." Alice said quietly.

"So they know us." Jasper concluded. "Which means they're here for a reason."

"The Volturi?" Carlisle asked.

"No I would have seen something to do with them; they're too big to hide from my visions completely." Alice shook her head.

"And they would just come straight through; they wouldn't worry about playing chase with the wolves to get here." I agreed. My eyes flickered to Jasper as his thoughts caught my attention. "That was my theory."

"What?" Bella asked, looking around at us in confusion.

"He thinks Victoria has something to do with this." I replied.

"I haven't seen her." Alice said. "Would she really start a fight over this? If she knows about the wolves she's going to come back with numbers to keep them busy."

"We killed her mate; wars have been started over less." Jasper shrugged, his accent leaking out a little.

"In which case we should definitely go and talk with the pack." Carlisle said.

"That's why I came. They'll be waiting for us at the boundary line near the big clearing where Emmett...decided to use a tree like a baseball bat on me." I felt my lips twitching as I tried not to laugh at the memory. "I'd like just a word with Bella before I go."

"I'm not sure you should be left alone with her." Jasper said, "Not until you've hunted just in case." I frowned, I hadn't realised Bella would be here and that was the only reason I hadn't done just that. I felt a stab of bitterness and guilt that not so long ago I was having this conversation with the roles in reverse. I just hoped nothing happened at the meeting before I had a chance to explain.

We started out of the door but were interrupted as we got outside.

"Hello? Human here!" Bella shouted, still stood in the living room.

"Sorry Bella!" Alice and Jasper said in unison. I felt like I should be the one carrying her, I had managed to be closer to her before and was sure I'd be fine as long as she wasn't bleeding in any way but Emmett had beaten me to it.

"Sorry Bells." He grinned, darting back outside with her on his back; her laughing and hugging him tighter.

"Sometimes we just forget you're still human." Alice said. "You're just my sister to me." I felt a twist in my stomach at the thought of Bella being turned into a monster like us. I had never wanted that for her. By this time we were at the clearing so I didn't want to bring that conversation up. As the wolves emerged from the other side Jasper's thoughts again caught my attention and caused my whole world to freeze.

'Geeze he's frustrated...wait 'til he finds out the rest...'

"Rest of what?" I asked him.

'Crap! Sorry Carlisle.' "Nothing much." He shrugged trying to block his thoughts from me but it was too late.

"Carlisle?" I asked him. Jasper was now refusing to think about anything but army generals and as I looked to Carlisle he was also blocking me.

"Not now." I heard Bella's plea loud and clear through my vampire ears even though she had barely whispered it. I looked at Bella who was looking at Carlisle pleadingly and suddenly it made sickening sense.

Suddenly my eyes are open,
Everything comes into focus, oh,

"Carlisle?" I roared at him; getting everyone's attention, wolves included. "Tell me it's not what I think it is." I saw his eyes slip to Bella apologetically before walking towards me.

"I am afraid it is exactly what you think it is." He said softly.

"How could you do this?" I asked, my whole body shaking with the betrayal of it all.

"Did I miss something?" Emmett asked. Rosalie and Esme looking just as confused which begged the question; why did Alice and Jasper know but not say anything? Bella slipped down from Emmett's back and stood next to him, I could see the guilt all over her face.

"I think perhaps this should be solved when we don't have such a large audience." Carlisle said quietly, glancing to the pack looking on.

"Will someone please fill me in here?" Esme asked.

"Yes, Carlisle would you like to fill everyone in on how you felt the need to have an affair with my mate!" I spat. Esme's face crumpled and instantly I regretted her finding out like that.

We are all illuminated,
Lights are shining on our faces, blinding

"That's why you wanted a divorce?" Esme asked him softly, he nodded. "I know we haven't been man and wife in the true sense of the word for a long time Carlisle Cullen but don't you think you should have just told me?" Now she looked pretty hurt and angry.

"It's my fault." Bella said, stepping in front of Carlisle.

"You were so desperate to get someone in bed with you; you couldn't wait for me to not kill you in the process is that it?" I sneered, moving closer to her, snarling. Instantly my whole family was in front of her protectively, all save Esme who stood just behind them still trying to understand what exactly had happened. I laughed out loud. "So my mate sleeps with my father and you all take her side?"

"This isn't about sides Edward, hurting her won't help." Alice replied.

"We didn't sleep together." Bella said, weaving through my family to face me herself. "I didn't sleep with him and if you are supposed to be my mate where exactly have you been all these months?"

Then a loud bark and snarl interrupted us as a large wolf pounced in front of me.

"Leah!" I shouted, "I'll handle this!"

"Leah?" Bella gasped. "So when you said you'd been spending a lot of time with the wolves recently you actually meant Leah?" I nodded, guilt creeping up on me. I was no better than her really...not after this, but I was planning on telling her everything.

"Can we all take this down a notch before I start going hulk on everybody?" Jasper asked.

"Alright, so Edward you've spent the past months in La Push with a female wolf?" Esme asked. I nodded.

"Impossible. I've been living in La Push for months trying to avoid Carlisle." Bella exclaimed.

"So that's why you didn't visit." Emmett said thoughtfully.

"Alright and Bella you were both in La Push to avoid Carlisle?" Esme asked. Bella nodded. "Can I just ask why?"

"I thought I could forget all about him and avoid...well this pretty much." She replied. "I never wanted to hurt any of you, you've all tried so hard to look after me...I was trying to save your family...this." Rosalie moved to hug Bella and Esme continued to stand between the two parties as a mediator.

"So how didn't either of you know about each other being there?" she asked. "And Edward why were you even there in the first place?"

"I went to ask them to kill me." I whispered. "But Sam refused, as much as some of them wanted to. Then I saw Leah. I've barely left her side since. I heard the pack mention Bella but since I knew some of them were friends with her I didn't think anything more of it."

Suddenly my eyes are open,
Everything comes into focus, oh,
We are all illuminated,
Lights are shining on our faces, blinding

"Jacob!" Bella shouted towards a large russet coloured wolf. He came over to us slowly, bowing his head. "You lied to me! You knew! The whole time!" Jacob nuzzled her shoulder and whimpered slightly.

"He couldn't talk, alpha orders." I explained. "To stop any of you finding out where I was until I was ready."

"We were so worried about you, and you were here?" Alice said quietly. "Hiding from us..."

"I was...worried what you would think." I replied carefully. "Leah and I..."

"So Edward, are you romantically involved with this Leah?" Esme asked. I nodded, feeling Bella's eyes on me.

"Then how could you stand there and yell at me?" Bella shouted, shoving past Esme and shoving me. I felt nothing but moved backwards anyway. Leah snapped at her and in a beat of her human heart she was stood back behind Carlisle.

"She has a point Edward," Esme said softly. "What Bella and Carlisle did was wrong but you have done the same, I think we all need to calm down. Arguing right now isn't going to help anyone; we can talk when we all have clear heads."

Suddenly my eyes are open,
Everything comes into focus, oh,
We are all illuminated,
Lights are shining on our faces, blinding

"Sam wants to talk to you." I told Carlisle. He nodded.

"Can you translate?" he asked. I nodded. There was a distinctively cold feeling between us now. The man I had looked up to like a father...how could I think of him like that now?

Author's Notes: Well? I hope you liked, let me know! If you review it makes Carlisle horny!