BPOV

I'm not sure where I am the next morning. It takes a few moments to slide into place. It's already daylight outside, but I'm not sure what time it is. There's a wardrobe, so I open it up and select a dress. It's beautiful. It's been - well, it's been years since I had a proper dress. I put it on, and then brush my hair. I look reasonably presentable. As presentable as possible. I go downstairs, and wander around, looking at everything. I can't hear anyone until I pass the open French doors. So, everyone is in the garden. It's a very beautiful day outside, and the sun is warm on my skin. Trick sees me first, and bounds up to me. He doesn't jump though - perhaps he knows he'd just knock me flying. When Emmett looks around for the dog, he smiles. He gets up immediately, and comes over to me.

"We thought you were going to stay in bed all day, sleepy-head."

"What time is it, then?"

"Twelve-thirty. You're just in time for lunch."

"Twelve-thirty?" I gasp. "But this is so rude of me! I must apologise to Esme and Carlisle, and -"

"No, Bella, there's no need," Esme says from behind us. She carrying two jugs of a pink liquid. "Home made lemonade. Cook's special. Come on, dear, and join us for some lunch. The sandwiches are on their way!"

"Mum, let me take one of those jugs for you," Emmett says, reaching for one.

"No, dear, you bring Bella along." He looks down at me and grins.

"Miss?" he says, eyes sparkling as he holds out his arm in a crook. I laugh, and slip my hand through.

"Sir." Jacob laughs when I get there, and jumps up.

"Emmett, may I have the honour of escorting the lady to her chair?"

"Certainly. Madam," Emmett says, kissing my knuckles. Jasper and Edward look at each other out of the corner of their eyes and then start howling with laughter. Jacob sits me next to Alice, and she reaches over and takes my hand. She doesn't have to say anything and I know she just means hello. It's been months since I saw her. She looks better, much better. She's put some weight back on, and there's colour in her cheeks and a faint light in her eyes. She looks better than I do. I still look skeletal and there is no colour in my cheeks. I'm still carrying the camps in my shadow.

"Hoe gaat het, schat?" she asks me, using Dutch, slipping so easily into the foreign tongue. I know she wants my response to be understandable only to Jake and her. She's giving me the chance to tell them the truth. So I do - I think I'm getting there.

"Ik ben niet zeker. Ik denk dat ik steeds beter."

EmmettPOV

She manages to eat a couple of sandwiches and drink down some lemonade. But after that, she protests against more food, and Dad lets it go, although I rather suspect that he'll be insisting on a full medical examination later on. Sure enough, as the maids clear the trays and plates, he stands up from the rug on which he's been sprawling comfortably, and turns to Bella.

"Bella, if you would permit me, I would like very much to be permitted to examine you later on - your lungs and heart, and your leg. There's also some questions that I'd like you to answer. In the mean time, are you warm enough? Quite sure? Then I suggest you young people stay out here for a while longer, while I get on. Esme, will you stay?"

"Certainly. Will you be in the study?"

"Yes - this is my day off. Fetch me if I'm needed." He retreats off the lawn, and Mum settles back onto the rug.

"So, Alice, tell us more about Holland in the summer time." She smiles warmly at Bella. "Alice was telling us about Amsterdam in summer."

"No, I have told this many times, and Bella knows of it. I shall tell the story of Hans Sneeman and the wooden bowl." Alice settles back. "Once, a poor woodsman lived alone in a cabin, deep in the heart of a forest. He had but a very little, and was poor indeed - owning simple wooden table, the chair, the bed and wooden bowl and spoon, all carved by hands his own. This was all, but enough it was. One night, in hard winter time, he had made himself thin vegetable soups. It was all he had in the weather of the frost. A knock came at the door, as he was prepare to eat, and he got up to answer it. An old woman it was, hunched and dressed in only a clutch of ragged. She begged only that he give her food, and shelter for the night. Hans looked at the woman, and looked at his bowl of soup. Hans gave her the soup, and gave up his bed, sleeping that night upon the wood floor.

In the morning, he arose to find the mystery stranger vanished, wooden bowl and spoon washed and placed upon the table. Three days passed, and Hans was working in the woods, in bad snow, to gather wood for a fire to warm himself. Sudden, a beautiful lady appears. She told Hans that she, the good witch, was the old woman he had helped those nights past. She said that in repay for his kind act, he would never want for anything again.

The lady was corrects, and Hans became rich, and comfortable. But for the remainder of his years, he eat his food from wooden bowl with wooden spoon, to remind him of how poor he was, and how we must be humble in deed."

We're all quiet when Alice has finished. Despite her queer, broken English, the little story is pretty and she tells it well. It follows typical folk-tale lines, but is a different sort of tale to those Mum used to tell the three of us when we were children.

"It is beautiful story, Alice, you tell it well. Perhaps, you know others? You can tell us other story?" Bella asks, quietly. She sounds very tired, however, and Esme notices it at once.

"Bella, darling, are you tired?"

"It is but a little fatigue, Esme, pray do not worry." If she thinks Mum will be satisfied with that, she is mistaken. She's going into mother hen mode already.

"If you are tired, you ought to be in bed, Bella."

"No, truly, I am alright. I wish to impose no trouble upon you."

"What nonsense. It'll be a great deal more trouble if you get ill." Jasper gets to his feet, excusing himself. I know where he's going and I follow him, leaving Mum to argue with Bella.

I wait until we're safely inside before I grab his arm to stop him.

"Emmett, don't try stopping me. Dad'll make her see some sense, she still needs rest."

"I'm sure he will, but forcing her to go? That'll do no good."

"What won't do anyone any good?" Dad himself appears on the scene.

"It's Bella. She's tired, but is refusing to go to bed."

"If she's tired, why didn't she say?" he asks, worry creasing his brow.

"She said she didn't want to impose, or cause trouble."

"She's become so used to hiding when she is tired or ill that she defends against everything now. Dad, we can't force her to go to bed. She needs to learn what's best for her herself. She needs to learn to trust us."

"I thought -"

"Come on, Jasper, look at her. She trusts nobody, she lets nobody in. She's built a wall around herself, to keep herself safe. She's learnt not to trust, now she has to learn to trust. That will take time, and if we insist upon knowing what's best for her, she isn't going to learn to trust us. She'll see it as a method of control and that is the quickest way to ensure she puts those walls up."

"Emmett has a point. Jasper, go back and tell your mother - quietly, mind - that if Bella doesn't want to go, she doesn't have to. Then ask Bella to come to me for that exam at three, but she's welcome to come sooner if she wants - she can make her choice about it. Emmett, my lad, you just go into my study and wait for me in there."

He sits himself down and looks at me for a long, cool minute. Finally, he sits back and smiles at me.

"Emmett, have you ever considered going medicine?"

"I'm not clever enough to do medicine."

"Actually, Emmett, you did very well in your Higher Certificate. Better than Edward, although we won't tell him that. You're qualified to do it."

"Really?"

"Really. Your problem, I think, is confidence. You don't believe you're good enough. But today, about Bella? You showed damn good instincts. A good doctor needs good instincts."

"But that wasn't medical -"

"Perhaps not medical knowledge, no, but you identified that forcing Bella to go to bed would be more likely to upset her than cure her. You then took steps to stop it from happening, you made the case for it, and presented it very well. I think you'd do very well in medicine. You may want to consider it. I think you could be a good doctor."

"Really? You think I could do it?"

"It'd mean damn hard work. But yes, I do think you could do it."

"I never thought about it."

"Maybe, Emmett, you should start thinking about it. You'll need a way to support a family one day."

"No plans for that yet, Dad."

"Maybe not now, no. But one day, you might just change your mind. There's an awfully good reason for changing it right outside on the lawn. I see the way you look at her. Maybe you should think about a lot of things. A career, yes - but also what she means to you. Work that out, and then most of the questions tend to answer themselves. Take this letter to your mother, will you?"

I hand the letter over to Esme, then murmur an excuse. I go up to my room and go over to the window. I can see them all from here. I see a light breeze take Bella short hair and ruffle it gently, see Alice take her hand, say something, see Bella nod in response, see Jacob bend over her to ask something else. Edward and Jasper start arguing about something, you can tell by their body language, and Bella sits back in her chair and tilts her head to the sky.

What happens next?