A/N I love all of the sweet, angry reviews I get! Since apparently I'm not allowed to do anything to Seth…-cough Tassel630 cough- I'll assure you all now, nothing has happened to Seth. And yes, when I read it over, I did say that the wolf that had jumped Jasper was both "huge" and "fairly small"…I was totally confused…I had two different wolves in mind at the time, but I guess you'll just have to read this chapter to find out what one it is, don't you? :D

Disclaimer: not mine…-sigh-


Bella's POV

Edward waited for me to stop crying as my tears soaked his shirt. He held me close, allowing no room between us. It was slightly hard to breathe, but I wasn't about to complain. The feel of his body against mine made me calm down some more, but after a while I started to shiver.

"Here, let's get you inside our room," Edward said, wrapping one arm around my waist and pulling me along. I rested my head against him.

We walked for a minute or two in silence. I didn't mind; I was just overjoyed to be with Edward again. I took a deep breath, inhaling his mysteriously wonderful scent. I was pretty sure he did the same to me when he gently took my wrist, and held it up—I guessed to his face. I felt him breathe on it, telling me that my suspicion was true.

We stopped briefly, and I heard a small click. Then Edward led me forward again, and put me on something comfortable…I felt with my hand and guessed that it was the bed.

I sniffled. What a silly thing to do. I was here with Edward, he was safe, and I should have no problems. But, being me, I was too worried about everything else going on to have a peace of mind.

"Edward…" I started. The words I was about to say weren't easy, and I hesitated. I took a deep breath, and began again. "Edward. Which wolf was hurt…when you fought? Or…killed?" I choked on the last word, my voice breaking.

Edward sighed softly and wrapped his arms around my waist again, sitting on the bed next to me. He held me for a long time. Then he took a deep breath of his own.

"Bella, love…"

I nodded, cuing him to keep going.

He nuzzled his face into my collarbone, and I felt when his lips moved, although his voice wasn't muffled at all. "He wasn't killed," he whispered, evading my real question.

I sighed in relief, but crossed my arms over my chest. He knew that I knew he was keeping something from me. "Who?" I asked.

Another unnerving silence. It was a while before he spoke again.

"It was Quil," he whispered.

My heart stopped beating. Quil. I hadn't even thought about the most careless of the pack. The only one who thought that no danger could befall them…

"Quil?" I whispered back, heartbroken.

I didn't care for him the most, and it wasn't like he was my best friend, but…it was such a horrible image to see him hurt. He was so helpless and innocent…

"Yes."

It was silent for what seemed like hours after that.

"What happened to him? Is he very badly hurt?" I asked, breaking the silence.

"No, Bella, he's okay," Edward responded. I narrowed my eyes, and I heard him groan. "Do you really want to know what Alice did to him?" he asked, doubt in his voice.

I nodded warily, due to the tone he used. Was it really that bad?

I thought about it, and realized that it could be. Alice may be very small, but she's stronger than one hundred men put together. And a thousand times fiercer.

"Well when Alice had realized that Jasper might've been losing the fight, she ran over and twisted Quil's arm, breaking it. Then she stomped on his leg, breaking that, too. And…remember what the newborn vampire did to Jacob when we battled against Victoria's army?" Edward asked. He sounded very cautious when he said Jake's name, trying not to trigger anything—and Victoria's name came out a growl, making me shudder. I nodded. "Alice did that, too—she wrapped her arms around Quil very, very tightly. I'm sure you can imagine how that turned out," he added quietly. He sighed. "He's in recovery, and he'll be perfectly fine," he assured. "He's healing miraculously, just like werewolves do."

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks for all those reassurances."

"I'm just making sure that you know he's okay. You love to throw things out of proportion," Edward said.

"Thanks," I mumbled.

"You're welcome," he said, a smile in his voice.

"Rosalie?" I asked.

"Yes, Bella?"

"Would you tell me the rest of that story, now?" I asked. I needed a distraction.

"Sure."

I heard soft footsteps across the carpet. Edward rearranged me so that I was sitting in his lap, and he set his chin on my shoulder from behind. I relaxed, melting into him. I pressed my right cheek against his left. I sighed happily.

I heard her voice from not far in front of me.

"Where did I leave off? Hmmmm…"

"The Cascade Range," I answered.

"Right," she acknowledged. "So we went to the ever-so-boring Cascade Range. Like I said, not much there. So Alice and I decided to look further." She paused. "We ran through Idaho, not stopping. We didn't have reason to…We went south, to Utah. Alice had a lot of fun there." I imagined her rolling her eyes, when she used that tone. "She went nuts. I have no idea how she could have so much fun there. So she dragged me over to see the Mormon Temple, right? She treated that dusty old place like it was a palace full of wonders and dreams. Oh, and then she took me to Arches National Park. It was too…red, and desert-y. Too hot for my taste. It didn't really bother me, but I'm just so used to Forks. Then to Lake Powell we went. She wanted to see if we could go canoeing." She sounded a little miffed. "That girl sure is strange…anyway, when she was finally done in Utah, off to Colorado we went.

"We ran and ran and ran. We weren't quite sure where we were going, in the sense of direction, but I didn't really care. Even if we did get lost, it wasn't like we were human. We wouldn't dehydrate and get really weak and eventually die. We had to run into someone eventually. But, after about two more days, we came across the Grand Junction. I had no idea what Alice was doing—she seemed so sure of herself, but for what? Every few minutes, from the moment we hit the Colorado border, she would look at my slyly, a smirk on her face. It bothered the hell out of me. She wouldn't tell me where she was taking me.

"Not long after we hit a town called Grand Junction, Alice had led me to where the Colorado River used to be; it's currently known as the Grand Canyon." She paused, maybe for dramatic effect. I waited patiently.

"'Rosalie, be patient—we'll get there soon.'" She mimicked Alice perfectly. Then she sounded annoyed. "She kept me running. The endless desert was killing me—I was starting to get extremely impatient. Eventually, I sat down right where I was, and refused to move until she told me where she was taking me. Then she told me that we were there, and I was very confused. She told me that she had a vision." A short silence followed. "She explained what she saw—her and I, finding this cave. It was huge—it had so many caverns and other tunnels leading out from it that it was insane. And then I almost turned right back around and took the next plane home when she told me that we would be renovating said cave.

"You know how Alice can be…an eternal annoyance. I gave in to her wishes without grace." I felt that she then started to edit. To save me from some more of Alice, or because of something else, I couldn't be sure. It made me curious.

"We spent weeks on that nasty thing. Alice was definitely going over the top—she carved out the walls perfectly, made the entrances wider, put propane lanterns in the darkest corners.

"She ran back to town, once. Told me that she would be back in a little while, and not to worry—she would be back before dawn. I was apparently on 'cave duty,' as she called it." I could almost see her roll her eyes. "As if it needed to be protected…as if anyone could even find it…" she muttered.

"She kept her promise—she was back before dawn. But with one sports car filled to the top with furniture and other…things. I dubbed her insane.

"Then she did the unbelievable. She started to decorate the creepy cave! She placed a chair, a mattress, and even blankets on the floor…I think she even put up a few pictures. She claimed one of the caves as her own room, and she made me one. She might've made all of us one…who knows? It's Alice, for crying out loud!

"Every day she would bring something else out there. She kept me there—I have no idea how I kept sane. She thought of it as 'a fun slumber party!' when I thought of it as 'another day in hell.' But, after a few weeks, we finally went home.

"I told everyone of the horrors I saw there," she said, a smile in her voice. "Alice was dancing around, and telling everyone that we were going to go 'camping' there sometime soon." She snorted. "Right. Well, I guess that some good came out of that place. Never thought that we could use it again."

"Very useful for us," Edward murmured in my ear. I placed my right hand on his right cheek, holding his face there. I turned my face so that my lips were pressed against his jaw. I didn't care that Rosalie was watching—I had already forgotten her presence. But then she sighed, and I remembered again. I began to think about her story.

"So…that's where we're going, then?" I asked her. "To those caves?"

"Yes. For the time being, anyway…"

"We can't risk having them follow our scent," Edward explained quietly. "We have to go somewhere where the wolves wouldn't be capable of finding us. They're still part human, which means that it wouldn't be easy to try to find us in the middle of the desert. It's the safest place for you to be right now, until we think of somewhere else."

I nodded slowly.

He pressed his lips to my neck. I shivered.

"Edward!" Alice called, in such a panicked voice that my heart froze over with ice.

Edward stiffened beside me, and I heard Rosalie cry out in…pain? Why would she be in pain—?

Rosalie—her arms were not as muscular as Edward's—picked me up, and set me down on something cold—tiles? Was this the bathroom? My breath was coming faster.

"Stay here," Rosalie whispered, voice broken.

I had no choice but to obey.

Edward's agonized screams tore through my heart, knocking me breathless.


A/N I am so sorry…I absolutely hate to see Edward hurt, but it's just part of the story…

Well…I guess if you want to see what happens, you'll have to review, huh?

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