This story is written in the first-person point of view, and sometimes switches between characters by scene or chapter. (Please do not panic; I do not repeat each scene from various points of view.) I do not label my chapters with character names, subsequently, your key is thus: Chapter titles that are short & succinct are Bella's, long witticisms are Esme's; song titles are in quotes, belonging to Edward, and Rose's are questions, finished off with an interrobang (‽).
Chapter Notes:
The most formidable team this side of the pond: cookEgawd, Blackjacklily, MunkeeRajah and Detochkina. Hells yeah. Also a shout-out to KayMarieXW for the ultimate in reader support.
To my readers: I've been reading each and one of your reviews with absolute rapt attention. You guys are wonderful and leave such funny and insightful notes for me. You make it a pleasure to be part of this fandom.
"Viva La Vida, or, Death and All His Friends"
There were no words. No words to describe the amalgam of feelings coursing through me as we ran through the thickly wooded Pennsylvania wilderness. It was easy to find the place where Bella had fallen. Even in the dark I could clearly see where the rock had been stained by her blood, and it made me feel ill. Victoria's trail had been easy to catch from there, and easy enough to follow so far. Emmett trailed behind me as I ran, and Rose drove the car as far as she could in the same general direction as we were running. I fought to avoid thinking about the possibility of Bella in pain, tried not to picture her injured, hurt ... bleeding. I focused on the feeling of the wind against my skin, on hearing Emmett's movement behind me, and I fantasized. Snapping the redhead's arms off before throwing her into a rock. The smell once she burning once I had finished with her. Anything to keep my attention on Victoria's trail. Absolutely anything to keep from thinking about how I had failed Bella.
I heard Emmett from behind me. "Edward! Double back here and verify!"
I shouldn't have gotten so far ahead of him. I was focused on being fast while he was being careful, and I should have deferred to him, considering he was the most skilled at tracking amongst all of us. Emmett was a reasonably skilled hunter as a human, and while it gave him no preternatural edge in this life, his knowledge and his caution was still useful. I ran back a few miles to where he was standing.
"You smell that, bro?" he asked.
"A second scent?"
"Yep. I count this as a positive. I don't think you're gonna let me get a piece of the redhead, but if she's brought along a friend maybe I'll get some action after all." He grinned.
I nodded. It occurred to me then that I might not get to enjoy ending Victoria's life. I was too eager to get to Bella. I needed to see for myself that she was alright.
"Let's go," I said.
We ran until we found ourselves in an area just southeast of downtown Pittsburgh. She must have run here recently, because her trail was still strong as it took us around the populated areas until it abruptly turned north. This was good news because it meant less time having to work as hard to distinguish her smell through the scent soup that comes with walking down crowded city streets. Before long we found ourselves on Carson Street, which, at ten o'clock on a Saturday night, was bustling with crowds of diners, drinkers and general merriment, since the street was packed with restaurants and bars. Emmett and I picked our way east, Victoria's scent getting more concentrated by the second.
"Em, careful. She's close now." I had to raise my voice a little more than normal to be heard over the din of AC/DC behind me. I cringed.
"Yeah, I got that. Street full of bars; she must be hunting." He looked left and right. "Biker bar to the left, and a yuppie hangout to the right. Which do you think is more her type?"
I stuck my arm out at him and he grabbed it. It was a safeguard in case I needed his restraint. For two long, anguished seconds, I gave myself entirely over to my instincts. Inhailing all the tempting, flowing blood surrounding me, I tried to assign each delectable smell a name, age and face so that my brain would ignore the humans and keep moving. I found it, and I locked in on it. Opening my eyes, I looked at Emmett and pointed.
"I don't know about that second scent. It seems to wander off over there." I motioned across the street. "But the redhead is in there." I pointed to the place that Emmett had called "a yuppie hangout."
A large, intentionally tacky sign read "The Tiki Lounge" in a large typeface that reminded me of old Tarzan movies. Loud music was blaring here, too, but this time the sound was some weird mixture I could only think of as Indie music meets Afrobeat. I heard a guy in the bar comment on the band; their name, apparently, was Vampire Weekend. Emmett and I looked at each other and laughed out loud.
Returning to the task at hand, I looked at him solemnly and nodded.
"I'll cover the back door, bro, no problem," he said.
"Thanks, Em."
I called Rose on my cell and told her where to meet us, then we walked in.
I knew it was her. Not because I could hear her mind from the doorway, but because I could almost smell her agitation and impatience. When I walked in a bit farther, I only saw a sliver of her bare, pale shoulder and a few strands of long, curly hair that were far more shockingly red than they had any natural right to be. I stood in a corner between the door and the tall front booth and listened. I could hear that she was trying to talk a rangy, blond man into leaving the bar with her, but his attention was split between her and the text he just received on his phone.
I failed to hold back a sharp laugh. Even though the behavior was distasteful to me, I couldn't help but think, What kind of vampire are you if you can't even seduce your way into a kill?
I could have eaten my words directly afterwards, because just then a college-aged blonde approached me with the intent to pick me up. I should have caught her thoughts ahead of time, but I was so focused on Victoria I had blocked out all else around me.
"Um ... hello there, gorgeous. I was wondering if you'd be interested in—"
"I'm quite sorry, but I'm waiting for my girlfriend to arrive." I would normally have been more polite in my rebuke of her advances, but I needed to get rid of her post-haste.
"Oh, in fact, I think I see her now."
Not waiting for the blonde's reply, I walked towards Victoria. When I got to the booth she shared with the tall gentleman, I quickly slid in beside her and slung my arm around her shoulders.
"Hey, what are you doing sitting back here? I've been waiting for you up at the front door for ages; I thought you'd wait for me there." She growled, but went silent when she noticed the man across from her look up from his cell phone. Excited to finally have her in my grasp, I fought not to let my anxiety disturb my focus. I was perhaps six pounds of pressure away from crushing her arm to dust, but she managed to avoid a reaction.
I might not even fight you. I may just accept this, because I'm satisfied. I saw your pretty little toy fly straight into the side of a wall of rock this morning. I've done what I needed to do, she thought.
I tightened my grip on her in my reflexive rage, and the expression on my face betrayed me. Victoria was smiling at me, pleased she had successfully taunted me. The plain man she had failed to interest looked up and eyed us with confusion.
Our little production had finally become enough to scare him off. His eyes darted between Victoria and me as he slid out of the booth, and he never turned his back to either of us as he made his way towards the front door of the bar.
I can lose the arm and slip under—
Her thought ended suddenly when I seized her torso with my other hand.
It was our turn to exit the booth. If I weren't so determined to kill her, it would have been fascinating to listen in longer on her thoughts. She really was quite the strategist. Unfortunately for her, I blocked every move she thought about before she could even start it. With every counter-move I made, her expression shifted further from anger towards one of fear as I pulled her closer towards me, trying to secure my grasp on her before I began our exit from the cramped space.
"I think that's enough of a chat. It's time to go."
She tried to resist, but I was stronger. Her advantage was in her uncanny ability to escape, not in raw power. Nor did she know she was surrounded.
I whispered in her ear, "You're not going to avoid the inevitable. We're going to walk back out front, and then we're going to have a little talk. You're going to cooperate, or I'm going to be forced to rip you to pieces in front of all of these people here, and then kill the witnesses. I'll be very put out if you make me do that. Do you understand?"
She glared at me with a pure, intense hatred.
One hundred and fifty years. That is how long I had with my James. If I don't escape from you, I'll at least be content with knowing that you'll never have that long with that blood bag you love.
I yanked hard at my fury as if it were tangible. In the time I took me to refocus, she broke free from my grasp. Thankfully, what she did next was exactly what I had hoped; she ran through the cavernous bar straight towards the back exit. Earlier I had suggested I wanted to take her out the front door, hoping her instincts would instruct her to do the opposite. Had she run for the front I would have been forced to give chase, but there was my large, muscular surprise waiting to block her at the back door.
She yanked open the heavy steel door, bringing her face to face with Emmett. Catching up from behind, I lunged from behind and jammed my arms between her own arms and torso and pushing upwards until her arms were locked outwards and my hands were gripping her shoulders. I was able to incapacitate her long enough for him to reach down and twist her leg until we heard a clear snap.
She tried to scream but I slapped my hand over her mouth. Once I was satisfied that she couldn't run if she tried, we dragged her down the alley fast enough to avoid human eyes and hoisted her into the jeep, where Rose was waiting with the rear passenger door open.
"Honey buns, did I ever tell you how awesome you are?" Emmett asked.
"Every day, as you damn well better." She grinned.
We took off through the jumble of one-way back streets of the South Side neighborhood. Emmett sat on one side of Victoria and I on the other, holding her so tightly, she couldn't budge. She screamed, and Rose yelled back to her from the driver's seat.
"You really need to shut up, chica, because Edward's going to snap your neck before we get to our destination, and that'll leave little vampirebits all over the interior. I'm really not in the mood to clean that up, so can it."
We drove to a heavily wooded township south of the populated area because we needed somewhere to burn her without attracting notice, but I was getting more nervous every minute, scared she might manage a way to escape. Victoria, however, was finally starting to understand that her luck may have run out. She didn't say anything coherent aloud, but I could hear the mutterings in her mind.
You deserve to roast for what you did to James, you bastard! This is not happening, this is not happening, ...
From what I could tell, Victoria had little if any conscience in this life, but her new experience of captivity was forcing her to consider what might await her after we removed her from this realm. In her head I saw images of her victims; some of her most depraved kills. I leaned into her to whisper in her ear.
"Don't worry, it won't be long now. But before you go, I do want you to know one thing."
I could feel the muscles in her neck tense as she tried to bend her head away from me. I responded by pressing closer.
"Bella is alive, and I guarantee you this: she'll outlive you."
She screamed again, a strain of desperation within it.
"This time, say it with feeling!" Emmett joked. He shook with laughter, and it caused his hold on her to falter.
When I felt her shift, I realized I couldn't take any chances. I immediately launched upward and snapped her spine at the neck. The shrill noise ended immediately. Emmett caught on to my revised plan quickly, and grabbed her head with just enough force, yanking her head clean away from her body.
Rose shrieked, "Oh, come on! Thanks a ton, Edward, we're only five minutes out! Vampbits! Now we'll have to find every one to burn them!"
Holding her head up by the hair, Emmett leaned over to show me his huge, teethy grin. "Well, that was anticlimactic, don'tcha think?"
I scowled. As much as I wanted her dead, this wasn't over yet, and I didn't want him to get too relaxed. Also, it wasn't possible for me to respond with the glee he seemed to so easily muster. Too much harm had befallen Bella for me to react in such a manner.
"Eh, that's alright. It was still worth it, 'cuz the timing made her yowling end on the upbeat. Anything else would have sounded wrong," he said.
She was dead. I had looked for her for over three years, and I had finally caught her. She couldn't hurt my reason for existing any longer. I did not know if I expected to feel a certain way—I did not expect guilt, but nor did I expect to feel the immense sense of relief that came over me then. The only thing halting my glee was the knowledge that Bella was somewhere in misery because I failed to complete this task in a more timely manner. It was almost too much to take; the last few days had been strange days, indeed. Never had I heard Carlisle express desire for someone's death, nor could I ever have imagined hearing Esme call for anyone's head. I was beginning to understand, to see what all of my decisions had done to my loved ones. I had never been able to look much beyond my own pain where Bella was concerned, but now that I had started to see the farther-reaching consequences of my decisions, guilt started to hover over me for reasons altogether new to me.
"Hey, bro, it's time to get out of the car and do this." Emmett looked at me with obvious pity. It must have been obvious that my mind was elsewhere.
I struck the match and touched it to the cedar kindling.
We watched her pyre burn far into the night. I felt one corner of my mouth pull upwards into the most faint of smiles. The fire that permanently erased Victoria from this plane was one of the most glorious things I had seen in a hundred years.
Hubris.
I couldn't avoid it any longer; it was time to call Charlie. I dialed, hoping against hope that he wouldn't be home.
"Bells! Are you okay? The school called and said you'd had an accident, but the hospital said you weren't in a room they could forward calls to yet, and I can't get a flight out until tomorrow—"
I would have no such luck, apparently.
"Dad, no! Don't come all the way out here! Really, I'm okay, I swear."
I was afraid that someone had told Charlie more than he needed to know, but he didn't seem to know anything. It wasn't until later that I realized that it was because they couldn't tell him. I was no longer a minor and was fully covered under doctor-patient privilege.
"I'll decide for myself whether I'm coming to make sure my daughter's okay or not, thank you very much. What happened?"
I cringed. He was obviously peeved. It was essential that I kept him from coming out here. He would drag me back to Forks and I would end up at least a semester behind. There was something else making me feel panicky about the prospect of leaving Pittsburgh just now, even though I didn't want to admit it. As much as I still didn't want to think about the possibility of truly allowing the Cullens back into my life, there was still too much unresolved between us all as things stood. What if I didn't get to talk to Edward before Charlie got here and hauled me back out to the coast?
"I fell and ended up breaking my leg. It's not even really a break, it's just a fracture, I'll be fine."
"Yeah, like I believe that. If that's all that happened why did the school and the hospital call me? Wouldn't they have discharged you from the hospital, for that matter?"
He had me there. How much more should I give away to make me believable?
"Well, I broke my arm, too." The rest flew out of my mouth. "But I'm only still here mostly 'cause they did a lot of tests to make sure I don't have internal injuries, just in case. They've mostly come back all-clear, but they want to hold me for observation anyway, just for a little while. You know, it's just hospital CYA 'n all."
There was a long, uncomfortable pause before he responded. "Yeah, all in all, I think I should come out anyway. In any case, aren't you going to have to come home? How are you going to take classes with one arm and one leg?"
"It's my left arm, and you know I'm right handed, so I'm good. It's not like I have to do acrobatics in class, all I have to do is just sit there. I have a couple friends that won't mind pushing me around too much, and I can take my own notes, so I'll be all right. I really, really don't want to get behind. You know I finally get to do an independent study next semester, and I was really counting on that time to experiment and do some really cool stuff."
I hope I had said enough to get him sufficiently distracted from discussion of my injuries.
"I dunno, Bells..."
"Dad, I will be fine, I promise. All this just means I won't be able to cook for myself for a while. The campus restaurants aren't that bad though, I'm sure I'll live."
I feigned a chuckle, hoping it would come off as reassuring.
"Alright, then," he said.
I exhaled.
"But I want to hear from you regularly—"
"Okay," I interjected.
"And you need to call your mom and tell her what you've managed to do to yourself this time."
"Uh..." No way was I going to agree to that. "I love you, Dad."
"Love you too, Bells. Please try to keep your feet underneath you from here on out."
"I'll try my best. Bye!"
Just then I saw a dainty, spiky-haired head peek around the corner. I didn't suspect she had good timing so much as she was probably just waiting patiently for me to end my call.
"Hi, Bella."
My breath caught.
"Alice?"
"I missed you," she said.
She walked towards me slowly and tentatively, as if she were afraid of me. My working hand reached up to wipe a traitorous tear from my eye. It was quickly replaced by another.
"You know, I'm pretty pissed at you over these new hobbies you've apparently picked up," she said.
She smiled at me, but the best I could manage to return via my expression was a humorless smirk. How dare she judge any of my decisions! Not to mention that it wasn't rock climbing that got me in this hospital bed so much as it was the assistance from the homicidal vampire bitch from hell. I glowered at her in frustration.
"Um, ok, let me try that again. My problem is that I'm not really sure what to say, because I'm pretty sure there's nothing that'll be enough, and definitely nothing that will change anything that's been done. But I'm really, really sorry, Bella, and I've missed you every single day."
I wasn't ready to forgive, but I didn't want her to go away either. I didn't have a response yet, but in the meantime there was no reason practical issues couldn't be addressed while I thought this through.
"Could you put your arm on my ankle, there? Yeah, just a little bit higher. Right there. Thanks. It helps."
She looked at me, speechless at my request. She was in the process of placing her other hand above the one on my ankle when I saw her eyes go unfocused. My stubborn bitterness couldn't negate my curiosity by any extent.
"What are you seeing?"
Her face flooded with relief.
"You, finally. Somehow you've been avoiding me. I haven't been able to see you at all since I started trying to home in on you yesterday. It's really been freaking me out. I see me fighting to get a dress to fit you over all of your bulky braces and casts, Bella, so obviously you're going to forgive me eventually. I hope we can get past this stage quickly, because I have no idea where I'm going to find that dress, so I need to get to work on it, pronto."
Arrrrgh.
While normally I'd never bet against Alice, I had managed to avoid any and all occasions that would have required me to wear a dress for nearly four years, and I couldn't think of any reason why I would break my streak now. I wondered if she were telling me the truth about that vision, or just trying anything she could to get me to cave in. I tried my best to put a poker face into play before I spoke.
"I wrote you every day, you know. Every day I wrote my bleeding heart out and pressed send, praying each time that somehow, this time, it wouldn't bounce. I thought that maybe at some point you'd find a way to call. To leave me a note, a message. Something. It just ... seems to have been so easy for you ... to go. To forget me."
She walked over towards the head of the bed and kissed me on the cheek. Then she tightened her forearms around me in a half hug.
"None of us ever forgot you, Bella. Not possible." She sat on the pleather-covered chair next to the bed. When she spoke again her voice was soft and subdued. "And it was anything but easy. I ... thought I had to do it, for Edward. He begged me to let you be, he ... thought it would be better for you that way. I talked myself into believing that. I tried to, at least."
I flinched at the heat that returned so quickly to my horribly throbbing ankle. She returned to the foot of the bed and replaced her hand.
"Can you tell me now? I want to know everything, I ... I need to know the worst of it, how much damage I did. I'll sit here for the next year if that's what it takes. Tell me everything that I wasn't there for."
I just looked at her, unbelieving. "What?"
"I can apologize until I'm blue in the face, but it can only mean so much when I don't even know what all I'm apologizing for. I don't know ... what all you went through. And I can't even imagine what it must have been like having no one to talk to about it." After a pause she spoke again, "and no, I'll never be blue in the face. That's the point." She smiled.
I was hesitant. I relished the opportunity to say all of it out loud, but I also realized she was manipulating me. She was intentionally giving me an excuse to get it all out, and I wasn't sure I wanted to relent. I also wasn't so sure I wanted to go through the hurt of bringing it all back to memory. It was like slicing open wounds that had just scabbed over, even if they had by no means healed.
"I'm not asking you to wallow in guilt, Alice."
What was I asking? Was there a part of me that wanted them to suffer as I had? Would that make me feel better, if that were even possible?
"I know, and I know what I'm asking is hard. I think it has to happen though."
"Fine," I said with a bit of petulance. "Where do you want me to start?"
"The day ..." She was hesitant to finish her sentence. "... that we left."
I blinked. Alice had stilled herself in a chair, and now looked like a statute. It helped—I could try to imagine she wasn't really there. It was easier to talk out loud if I didn't think I had an audience. The room quieted, and it allowed me to think, to recollect. I closed my eyes and sunk back into the hard mattress before I spoke.
"I don't remember everything that happened that day—right after he left. I tried to follow him into the woods. I wandered for hours. I yelled his name until my throat was raw and I couldn't speak anymore. It was dark, I think, when I gave up. I don't really know how to describe the feeling. I never really understood why they called it heartache, I mean, wouldn't the reaction to losing someone you love be totally psychological? All the action should be in the brain, right? Now I understand perfectly well, of course. It really felt like he had attacked me. He'd ripped my skin open, reached in, and pulled my heart right out. I remember feeling confused from the sensation, feeling like I was going to bleed to death. After a few hours I remember sitting on a big rock I had stumbled into. I couldn't walk anymore, and I sat down. I gave up. I don't think I would have moved if given the choice; I could have died right there.
Sam Uley found me. I didn't know him then, but the search party sent him after me. He carried me out of the woods. I think I was looked over by a doctor, and Charlie asked me a bunch of questions, but really I don't remember much else from that night. I just remember waking up the next morning... dead. I didn't feel anything, really. I kinda miss it. It's much easier, when you've completely given up, you know. For a week or so I laid in my bed and imagined that I really was dead. Whenever I sat up, or shifted my focus, or, well, anything... that pain would come back. I would scream. Lie back down. When I would try to think about doing anything—like making myself something to eat, reading a book. I couldn't. It was like I couldn't get my brain to work right; everything was scrambled, and I just couldn't stay... coherent. I don't know how else to say it. When I figured that maybe I could complete a thought, I'd end up thinking in circles and couldn't decide on anything, or I would end up picturing him... or you, in my mind, and I'd shut down again. I would find myself praying for the dead feeling to come back. It was relief.
"A couple days later is when I went into full-blown denial. I think that after I got over the initial shock, I tried to believe that he wouldn't be able to stay away. That maybe he was hurting as much as I was, and if that were true, he would have to come back. That day in the woods must have been a bad dream or something, or, maybe he lied."
I chuckled to myself. Now there was no way I could believe that he had lied when he said he didn't want me anymore.
"I already knew that he had stolen all of my photos of him, but I wasn't convinced that you would all disappear so thoroughly. And whatever dignity I had left at that point—well, I had none. That was when I tried calling his cell; I was going to beg. I didn't have any other options. I got the disconnect notice. I called your phone, then Carlisle's. I emailed you, pleading. I sat in front of my monitor for fifteen minutes—until I got the bounced mail message. Nothing, of course. Now it seems ridiculous to think he'd be anything but thorough.
"The screaming—it was the screaming that got me out of bed. If Charlie was home, it would get his attention, and it really scared him. I could see exactly how scared he was when he looked at me. It made me feel guilty to be the reason he was afraid, so sometime during the following week, I decided to try to pretend to live. I'm still not sure how I managed it, but I made it to school. I managed to make dinner. I went through all the motions. Apparently I wasn't nearly as convincing as I had hoped I was."
A weak laugh escaped my throat. "Oh, the irony. I started sitting at your old table at lunch, because I wanted to be by myself. I think I also felt ... closer to you all, somehow. From what I've been told since, I looked just like a Cullen when I was sitting over there. I never really ate, I didn't go out, so I was paler than ever, and I looked exhausted. I always had shadows under my eyes because of the alarm clock."
I could tell she was hesitant to interrupt me, but I noticed her look at me with confusion.
"Oh. The night terrors. They're like hallucinations-cum-nightmares, and I had them whenever I slept. After a couple weeks I thought Charlie would put me in the loony bin; he really didn't know what to do. I would scream for twenty, thirty minutes straight before waking up. I started setting my alarm clock to wake me up twice in the middle of the night, to interrupt my sleep cycle and avoid the terrors. It worked most of the time, but it meant I didn't get much sleep. Now I just... let them come. I have a room by myself, so I don't really bother anyone. It just so happens that the walls are amazingly thick for a dorm, so it... works out.
"Anyway ... school helped a little bit. I couldn't focus on anything else if I really paid attention to what was going on in class. I kind of became addicted to studying because it was so much easier to not think about anything else. I went back to work. It doesn't really get much more interesting than that. Every day just kind of... began and ended. Repeat, ad infinitum."
I refocused on Alice. I could tell she was hesitant to call me out, but she did it anyway.
"I think you're skipping a lot. Something about werewolves and, well," she pointed at my injuries, "rock climbing."
I still looked forward, staring at the wall to the front of me.
"Another day, perhaps."
I didn't want to think about Jacob, let alone talk about him. I was not looking forward to the experience of talking to Jacob once he found out what happened, and figured out how to get a hold of me. I expected to pick up the phone to a barrage of worried yelling and screaming any minute now. I tried to change the subject.
"How is Jasper? Is he here?"
His head peered into the door frame. "Did I hear my name?"
I smiled. I had all but forgotten about vampiric enhanced hearing. I wondered how much of my conversation with Alice he had overheard.
"Hey there, missy." He smiled even though he looked uncomfortable. "I'd come in, but you're awfully dinged up right now. You know that open wounds and I don't mix very well."
"Yeah, it's okay, Jasper. Good to see you."
"We've all missed you, Bella."
"I've missed you, too."
I thought I noticed Alice make a hand motion. It was too fast to tell, but it looked like she was waving him away. This was confirmed when Jasper responded by ducking back out of the doorway.
Before he left, I could hear him mumble. "I'll just be out here; let you girls catch up an' whatnot."
Alice stood up and walked towards the bed. She stood on my "good" side and clasped my working hand. I had no warning for what she did next.
"Alice!" I spoke louder than I intended.
One limb at a time, Alice gently began pushing me towards the opposite edge of the hospital bed. Once I was only occupying the far two thirds of the bed instead of the center, she slowly climbed up into bed with me and lay, looking uncomfortably curled at my side.
"I'm not leaving you again, I swear it. I'm not even leaving this bed unless you tell me to go, and I'm not even leaving then unless you've forgiven me."
She looked at me with a self-satisfied smile, convinced this was going to work.
"Alright then. I can't make any real decisions right now seeing as I'm under the influence of several medications, so I guess I'll see you when I wake up." I started to close my eyes, but stopped when I heard Carlisle's and Esme's voices approaching the door. They appeared in view shortly afterwards.
"Bella!" Esme stopped and looked at Alice. "I'm sorry, Alice, I've tried to be patient, but really, now! You're taking forever."
Carlisle walked in behind her. Esme looked at me again and sighed. "Are you comfortable, dear?"
"Um, mostly," I said.
Carlisle put his hand on my ankle again, and my tensed muscles visibly relaxed. "Better now," I said.
I spoke about mundane things with Esme, Alice, and Carlisle for the next hour or so. My eyelids started to drift when I heard Carlisle speak.
"It's gotten very late, and visiting hours are technically over. While I doubt that the floor staff will give you any problems since you all are obviously here with me, Bella really does need to rest, so we should probably give her some space and go out to the waiting room."
Alice didn't budge a millimeter.
"I promised. Not moving," she said.
Esme rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Alright then, the rest of us will be close by."
I managed to get it out, though my speech was probably slurred with fatigue. "No reason why you should—" I yawned. "—stay here and be bored." I did it again, and this time it was one of those wide, ugly, gaping yawns. I was a little embarrassed. "Where is everyone else, anyway?"
Esme and Carlisle looked at each other quickly. It was Esme that spoke then. "Rosalie, Emmett, and Edward went to hunt Victoria down."
That woke me up. My eyes opened wide.
"She's dead, Bella. They got her, and there's no reason to worry about her anymore. The three of them are now retrieving your motorcycleas well as the climbing gear you were forced to leave behind, and are heading this way. You'll see them in the morning."
She placed extra emphasis on motorcycle, so I knew this wouldn't be the last I would hear about it; even in my tired haze I realized that I had been found out. The last thing I realized was that I was maybe a few hours away from seeing Edward again, and I had no idea how to handle it. Though my trepidation fought my languor hard, I had no choice than to drift off to sleep.
