While I thought I had thoroughly convinced him of my plan, Jacob's thoughts were still conflicted as we headed back to the house. He was certain he would try and reason with Bella, but wasn't certain he could make himself go through with the other part of our deal. I contented myself with hoping that his ongoing fantasies about Bella in his arms would be enough to make him do it once he was face-to-face with her.

I clenched my teeth hard to help me focus on blocking those fantasies out.

What the hell, Edward? When we stepped back inside, all of my family were looking at us and shooting thoughts tinged with confusion and suspicion my way. Rosalie's were of course the loudest and most obnoxious, but it was surprisingly easy to ignore her.

Bella simply stared from my face to his and back again, trying to figure out what we'd been up to. I clenched my teeth once more when I saw her pale even further with her anxiety.

It was bad enough already. I couldn't tolerate making it even worse for her. That, combined with my anticipation of her reaction to the conversation Jacob was about to have with her practically threw me to my knees once again.

The whole situation…there were simply no words.

It hadn't been that long since I'd left Bella in Forks and fled to South America. I had let myself go completely numb then, avoided feeling anything at all so that I could force one foot in front of the other and keep moving despite the overwhelming urge to dig a hole, climb into it and simply stay there for eternity.

I did my best to summon that same numbness up now.

"We're going to let Jacob and Bella speak privately," I told my family flatly.

More confused thoughts, now mixed with outrage. "Over my pile of ashes," Rosalie hissed, her eyes narrowing. She had a hand resting on Bella's cheek protectively.

I continued to ignore her and turned to the only person whose opinion on the matter counted. "Bella, Jacob wants to talk to you. Are you afraid to be alone with him?"

Bella's eyes widened, confused, suspicious. She looked from me to Jacob to Rosalie, but answered quickly. "Rose, it's fine. Jake's not going to hurt us. Go with Edward."

"It might be a trick," Rosalie protested.

"I don't see how," Bella replied.

I resisted the urge to go for Rosalie's throat once again and drag her out of the room by force. "Carlisle and I will always be in your sight, Rosalie." I couldn't believe I actually had to humour her in this, and worked to maintain the numbness. "We're the ones she's afraid of."

"No!" Bella's eyes filled with tears. "No, Edward, I'm not…"

Numbness, concentrate on the numbness, I told myself. "I didn't mean it that way, Bella. I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

I felt a spear of resentment from Jacob. He was disgusted that she felt badly about me at all.

I felt rather disgusted about that myself, but only for my own part in it.

"Everyone," I looked at my family and gestured toward the door. "Please."

Edward, are you sure? Alice's worried eyes were fixed on my face. You know I can't see anything with the wolves…or Bella right now. I don't know what you're up to or what's going to happen. I can't help you with this.

I gave a short nod in her general direction. The others were also silently asking me if I was sure, so my nod was a response for all of them.

Thankfully, no one said anything aloud, and simply proceeded outside. Esme quickly squeezed my hand when she walked past.

Only Rosalie remained, standing in the middle of the room with her eyes on Bella.

"Rose," Bella murmured. "I want you to go." It was clear from her face that she had no idea what Jacob and I had discussed or what Jacob was about to say to her, but since I had asked everyone to leave them alone she assumed it was the right thing to do.

Glaring and firing mental expletives at me, Rosalie reluctantly walked to the door. She gestured for me to go first, then followed and closed the door behind her.

The family hadn't moved far down the driveway. They were still within earshot, and were waiting to see if I planned to listen or to move further away.

"We're not all going to stand here lurking," I muttered. "Let's go into the forest."

"Forget it," Rosalie stated flatly. "I have no idea what you two are up to. Whether she's afraid of him or not, there is no way in hell I'm going where I can't hear what's happening."

"It's definitely not wise in any event, Edward," Jasper added in a quiet voice. I could feel the waves of calm he was trying to direct my way, but things had progressed too far for them to have any effect any more. "You know how the wolves can be. He may not mean to, but if he were to get angry for any reason…"

I hadn't thought of that. Knowing how stubborn Bella could be, about this subject in particular…there was no guarantee he could maintain control. I'd seen that first hand at the wedding.

Alice stepped over and took my hands in hers. She looked up at me for a long moment. Whatever this is about, you don't want to hear it, do you?

She was right about that. I knew I'd find out what had been said eventually, whether from Jacob's thoughts or the thoughts of one of my family, but I couldn't sit here and listen while it happened. I didn't want to be where anyone else could see me if Bella took Jacob up on the offer I had asked him to make. It was what I wanted…but it was also what I dreaded.

I couldn't find my voice, so I simply nodded.

Go, then. We'll go into the trees where they can't see us, but we'll listen to make sure nothing bad happens. You just…go.

I nodded again gratefully and ran into the forest as fast as I could, trying to outrun the heartbreak that was threatening to choke me into immobility.

As I ran, I let animal instinct take me over. I forced away all of the human weaknesses, the human feelings that wanted to pierce through my veil of numbness and just ran.

I couldn't even hunt.

I just ran.

* * *

I wasn't sure how much time had passed when I realized that I was once again near home. At some point I had turned back without really deciding to do so. It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. I couldn't even tell from the sky, because I hadn't been paying attention to what time it was when I left.

I was desperately afraid of what I would find when I returned – whether she said yes to Jacob or no – but my subconscious knew that I had to return eventually.

Running until I actually collapsed had its appeal, but it was impractical. At the rate I was going, I probably would have hit the Arctic Ocean before that happened anyway.

Oh, thank God! I heard Alice's thought before I saw her or noticed her scent, sitting on the edge of a rock on the other side of the stream that ran through the trees not far from our house. Jasper was beside her, and they both straightened as I slowed and walked toward them.

As soon as I'd seen them, I'd immediately thrown up a mental brick wall to block the rest of their thoughts. I would have to ease into what had happened gradually.

"Oh, Edward," Alice sighed as she leapt from the rock and flitted to my side, throwing her arms around me. "I was so afraid…" she let her voice trail off vaguely.

"What? That I wouldn't come back?" I asked humourlessly, edging toward the rock to sit down.

"I just…we had no idea, Edward, no idea that you were so…I mean, we know how awful…" she was having a hard time finding the words, but was speaking aloud for Jasper's benefit. It was just as well; I still wasn't ready to open my mind back up to theirs.

Jasper clapped a hand on my shoulder. He tried with the wave of calm and comfort once again, but I was still too far gone for it to make a dent, even with him touching me. "We had no idea how desperate you'd become, Edward," he said bluntly. "Maybe we could have done something more."

"There's nothing any of us can do. That's exactly the problem. I don't have a lot of options at this point," I replied. I looked from his face to hers and back again. I couldn't get an idea of what had happened from their expressions alone since they were both so worried and distraught. That reaction could have been caused by any part of this.

"Well, Bella is…" Alice started to say, but I put a finger over her lips.

There was no point avoiding it any longer. There was no easing into it, either.

I opened my mind to theirs and braced for the assault of their memories of what they had heard. Their infallible vampire synapses had recorded it like high-definition DVRs.

Bella…She had assured him – as she had assured all of us – that she was certain she could do this, that she would survive it and could be changed in time, before her heart stopped beating.

He had been angry with her, with me. Very angry. He hadn't phased, but it was still almost certainly wise that my family had been nearby. They thought he had gotten very close.

He had tried to reason with her, to beg her to stay alive. He'd even tried to convince her to do it for my sake.

That had gotten her attention, but she had still insisted she would survive this.

And he had made the offer.

But she hadn't taken him up on it.

She hadn't even appeared to take a second to consider it. She'd dismissed the notion out of hand.

And she had told him that it wasn't just about having a baby, any baby with anyone. It was this baby. Just as she had told me.

She had also figured out that I had put him up to it. That had made her sad.

Without my permission, relief coursed through me. It wasn't just about having any baby, regardless of the consequences. It wasn't motherhood itself she was so determined to die for. She wasn't going to choose him, no matter what the benefits might be. Even if it meant life itself.

It really was about this baby. Ours. Hers and mine.

Crushing self-loathing immediately followed the relief. It poured over me in waves, knocked me breathless.

Selfish, selfish, selfish, I cursed myself, resisting the urge to bash my head against the rock I sat on only because Alice and Jasper were so close.

Monster, I was a monster. Feeling relief at what had happened, that it meant she was mine even if it cost her her life…It was despicable, abominable. It was no better than if I had just given in to the urge to drain her blood the minute I had met her.

Jasper gasped aloud at the force of the emotion washing over me, and Alice pulled me into her tiny arms.

"Edward!" she exclaimed. "She said no, she didn't even consider it!"

"I know," I choked. "I know! That's the problem!" I couldn't explain the rest. I couldn't admit to the selfishness. I couldn't say it out loud, and hated myself all the more for that extra weakness.

She held me tightly as I shook with dry sobs and an overwhelming sense of revulsion at everything I was. She was on the verge of panic herself, unable to think of anything she could do or say to help and horribly afraid of what I might do.

It made me feel even worse to drag them into my abyss of misery.

Edward? Edward, you there?

A thought, strong, loud and deliberate could not help but grab my attention. It was coming from some distance away, but I knew this person.

Seth. It was Seth Clearwater.

Hey, Edward. If you can hear me—circle the wagons, bloodsucker. You've got a problem.

Jacob Black was with him. They were returning to the house through the forest from the other direction, both in wolf form.

We've got a problem, Seth corrected.

Alice flinched at the suddenness with which I sat up, straight as an arrow.

"Something's wrong," I said, pushing everything else aside. I could wallow in self-loathing later. Only a threat to Bella would make Jacob Black rush back like this to speak to me.

"Come on." I didn't give Alice and Jasper a chance to respond before I was on my feet, sprinting for the house as fast as I could go. We were little more than a flash of movement when we barrelled inside, into the living room.

"Alice, stay here. Jasper, Emmett. Come with me." I didn't even pause to see if they had heard me before shoving the front door open and rushing onto the porch to wait for Seth and Jacob to arrive. A torrent of confused and worried thoughts followed, but everyone other than Jasper and Emmett stayed inside. I could hear Alice in a hushed voice, trying to explain what had just happened in the forest.

I didn't have time to say anything further to Jasper and Emmett before Seth and Jacob broke through the tree line and trotted up to front steps, panting slightly from the exertion of their run.

"Jacob? Seth? What's going on?"

The two of them flashed back quickly through a series of events with the wolf pack. After speaking with Bella, Jacob had phased and they had learned immediately about Bella's condition from his mind…They were shocked, appalled, stunned silent. When they had met back up with him they had been in confusion, not knowing what to make of the situation or what to do about it.

But they had quickly arrived at a decision.

The pack was coming after Bella.

I sprang into action and leapt off the porch before I even finished absorbing all of their story, a furious hiss escaping through my lips. "They want to kill Bella?"

At that, Emmett and Jasper leapt too, landing next to me in fighting crouches, teeth exposed, ready to tear the two wolves in front of us into pieces.

Seth backed away, startled.

"Em, Jazz—not them! The others. The pack is coming," I explained quickly. Their stances relaxed, but Jasper kept his eyes locked on Jacob and Seth as Emmett turned to me for an explanation.

"What's their problem?" he demanded.

"The same one as mine. But they have their own plan to handle it. Get the others. Call Carlisle! He and Esme have to get back here now."

Jacob whined, anxious that we were short two vampires.

"They aren't far," I told him quietly. I had only just realized myself that they weren't in the house, that they were in the forest waiting for me as Alice and Jasper had been, but off in a different direction.

I'm going to go take a look, Seth thought. Run the western perimeter.

The import of Seth's and Jacob's presence suddenly hit me. I had been so thrown off by the part of their story about how the pack had resolved to come after Bella that I hadn't listened to the rest, what had led the two of them to seek me out.

Jacob had refused to follow Sam's orders, even though Sam was the pack alpha. He had broken away, split from his tribe. Seth had followed.

They were on their own.

They had done it for Bella.

I was barely able to form words. "Will you be in danger, Seth?"

The two wolves looked at each other. Don't think so, they thought together. Then Jacob added, But maybe I should go. Just in case…

They'll be less likely to challenge me, Seth pointed out. I'm just a kid to them.

You're just a kid to me, kid, Jacob replied. I couldn't have agreed more, but in some respects it was difficult to think of Seth that way when he was in the form of such a huge, deadly animal.

Seth merely huffed in response. I'm outta here. You need to coordinate with the Cullens. In a flash of fur, he was gone into the trees.

Emmett had moved off to call Carlisle from his cell phone. Jasper was staring into the woods after Seth, and I could hear Alice step onto the porch behind me. She had heard enough of the conversation to know generally what was going on. Reflexively, she flitted to Jasper's side, ready to stand with him to face whatever might be coming.

I stood staring at Jacob. The magnitude of what he was doing for Bella was almost too much for me to comprehend. "This isn't the first time I've owed you my gratitude, Jacob," I whispered. "I would never have asked for this from you."

He snorted, an odd, sarcastic sound to come from a wolf. His mind flashed back to our earlier conversation, to the hurt he had felt when Bella had rejected his offer out of hand, without even a second thought. Yeah, you would, he thought bitterly.

I supposed when it came to Bella, he was right. I would ask anything, try anything. "I suppose you're right about that."

The wolf sighed. Well, this isn't the first time that I didn't do it for you.

Obviously. But it didn't matter; all that mattered was that he had done it. "Right," I murmured, feeling as though I needed to acknowledge the statement.

He seemed hesitant for a moment. Sorry I didn't do any good today, he thought, and was genuinely rueful. Told you she wouldn't listen to me.

"I know. I never really believed she would. But…"

He interrupted me. You had to try. I get it. She any better?

I quickly cast my mind to Alice's, then inside the house to Rosalie's. Bella's conversation with Jacob had upset her, especially the knowledge that I had put him up to the offer he had made. As always, the stress had made her feel worse, more nauseated. The crea…fetus seemed to react to the stress, to kick more, harder. I cringed.

Rosalie had Bella wrapped in a blanket on the couch, and was sitting with her as she rested, Bella's head in her lap.

I swallowed heavily over the image in Rose's mind of Bella's pale, tired face. "Worse."

Suddenly Alice spoke. "Jacob, would you mind switching forms? I want to know what's going on."

Jacob shook his massive head just as I responded for him. "He needs to stay linked to Seth."

"Well, then would you be so kind as to tell me what's happening?"

"The pack thinks Bella's become a problem. They foresee potential danger from the…from what she's carrying. They feel it's their duty to remove that danger. Jacob and Seth disbanded from the pack to warn us. The rest are planning to attack tonight," I explained flatly, reaching once again for the numbness.

Because the situation wasn't horrible enough already. We needed a war with the wolves to top everything off.

Alice hissed, annoyed, a little frightened, but mostly steeling herself for battle.

Seth's thoughts travelled back clearly from the forest. Nobody out here. All's quiet on the western front.

Jacob answered: They may go around.

I'll make a loop.

"Carlisle and Esme are on their way," Emmett reported. "Twenty minutes, tops."

Jasper was immediately trying to plan out strategy. "We should take up a defensive position."

I nodded. "Let's get inside." We needed to make plans, to outsmart them. With Jacob and Seth separated from the pack we probably had the advantage in strength and numbers, but I wasn't about to take the chance of not being ready.

It wasn't going to be pretty.

Jacob glanced at me. I'll run the perimeter with Seth. If I get too far for you to hear my head, listen for my howl.

"I will." Emmett, Jasper, Alice and I backed toward the house, each of us trying to scan the darkness for movement, listening, smelling.

Nothing yet.

Jacob ran into the forest just as I closed the front door behind us.

Emmett and Jasper were already huddled together, quietly discussing strategy, analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each pack member based on what they had seen when we'd banded with them against Victoria's newborns.

That seemed years ago, now. Decades.

Alice had drifted over to the couch and was gently stroking Bella's cheek with the backs of her fingers. Mercifully, Bella was asleep and had apparently slept through our entire conversation with Jacob and Seth outside.

Rosalie looked up at me with fierce eyes when I walked over to check on my wife. She had heard everything that had been said. "You're not really going to trust those dogs, are you? This could easily be a trap."

"It's not a trap, Rosalie," I hissed at her. "They wouldn't be able to hide it from me if it were."

She had to concede that much.

"Jacob and Seth broke away from the pack at great personal cost to themselves, Rose," Alice added.

Rosalie let out a low growl when I bent over Bella to kiss her lightly on her forehead. Her skin was cool, clammy, even in sleep. She wasn't moving or speaking, but her brow was slightly creased, as though she were dreaming of something she didn't like. "Don't you dare wake her up."

"Oh, shut up, Rose," I growled in return.

We heard the back door open, and Carlisle and Esme appeared in the room a moment later. Both immediately drifted to the couch to check on Bella. Gently, careful not to wake her, Carlisle took her wrist in his hand so he could check her pulse. I didn't have to read his mind to see that he wasn't happy with what he was seeing. I could hear for myself that her heart rate was abnormal, too fast.

"We ran into Seth in the forest," Esme said softly. "He explained what he and Jacob are doing."

"And we heard the rest from Emmett," Carlisle added, straightening back up. He looked at me for a long moment. His thoughts were mixed, partially on the trouble with the pack and how much he dreaded an end to the hard-won peace, but mostly on Bella's condition.

She's becoming very dehydrated, Edward, now that she's having so much trouble keeping anything down. And she needs some nutrition, some fortification so she can keep her strength up.

I nodded, knowing where he was going with this. Rosalie glared at us, irritated at being kept out of our silent conversation about Bella. "What?" she demanded. "What is it, Carlisle? Is Bella worse?"

He turned to her. "I think it's time to try an IV. She needs fluids, nutrients. It's the only way to keep it in her without her throwing it back up."

"Shall we get the equipment from the garage, then?" Alice asked. Carlisle had already prepared for this eventuality, and had arranged for a hospital bed, life sign monitors, IV drips.

He nodded, and the three of us headed outside. In the few minutes it had taken us to bring everything he needed into the living room, Esme, Jasper and Emmett had pushed the living room furniture aside to make space for what we carried. Esme was now pressing the button which would close the heavy metal shutters on the glass wall.

That part had nothing to do with the medical equipment; it was fortification against the pack.

Numb, I told myself. Numb. There's work to do.

As Carlisle hooked everything up and arranged it the way he wanted it, his body a blur with the quickness of his movements, I heard a howl from the forest.

My stomach rolled, and Emmett and Jasper and I stared at each other. That was Jacob's signal that the pack was coming.

False alarm, false alarm! Sorry. Seth is young. He forgets things. No one's attacking. False alarm.

Jacob's thoughts. He was running back toward the house through the trees.

I held up a hand to signal my family to wait. Except Carlisle, who was still working feverishly, they were all staring at me expectantly.

I wandered over to the front window to wait for Jacob to come through the tree line.

There's nothing out there—you got that? he was thinking as he dashed into the front yard. I nodded.

"Okay, Rosalie. Let's move her now," I heard Carlisle say, and turned to see them bent over Bella on the couch, working together to lift her gently and carry her to the hospital bed. I couldn't suppress a shudder at the sight of her no longer covered by the heavy blanket: frail, her midsection grossly distended.

I waved at Jacob briefly to show him I had the message, and turned to walk over to the bed where Carlisle and Rosalie were now arranging Bella.

What's going on? I heard Jacob demand, but my attention was focused on Bella.

"It was a false alarm," I told my family as I watched Carlisle work over my wife, clipping something to her left index finger, sticking something to her chest under her sweatshirt. "Seth was upset about something else, and he forgot we were listening for a signal. He's very young." I knew from Jacob's mind that Seth had been howling about the story of what I had asked Jacob to do this afternoon, but felt no need to explain it to everyone else.

"Nice to have toddlers guarding the fort," Emmett grumbled.

"They've done us a great service tonight, Emmett," Carlisle reminded him. "At great personal sacrifice." He held an IV needle in his hand and glanced around the room at the rest of us, wondering if anyone would react when he pierced Bella's vein. There was no time to wonder long, so he proceeded without waiting for any assurances. Mercifully, the puncture site was so small that the smell of human blood in the air was minimal. It would hit me more forcefully than anyone else, and I barely registered it.

"Yeah, I know," Emmett answered. "I'm just jealous. Wish I was out there."

Emmett was itching for a fight. He was worried about Bella, too, worried about me, worried about Rosalie. He dealt with it with physical exertion. In a perverse way, a battle would be a welcome diversion for him.

I knew Jacob was still sitting in the front yard, and searched his mind once again for an update.

"Seth doesn't think Sam will attack now," I advised flatly. "Not with us forewarned, and lacking two members of the pack."

"What does Jacob think?" Carlisle asked.

"He's not as optimistic." Jacob could hear our conversation from his perch outside. He wished he could be more optimistic, but feared the worst.

Carlisle satisfied himself with the arrangements for Bella, double checking each piece of equipment, each connection. He moved to adjust her pillow.

"Don't touch her! You'll wake her up," Rosalie whispered.

I resisted the urge to growl, to pounce on her at her presumption of interfering with Carlisle's care. Carlisle merely sighed. "Rosalie…"

"Don't start with me, Carlisle. We let you have your way earlier, but that's all we're allowing." She gestured at the medical equipment as though it were an annoyance. She didn't like the look of this hospital set-up, thinking it appeared too much like an operating room, ready for Carlisle to take some kind of drastic step to remove the crea…fetus from Bella's body.

What irritated me the most was the way she was speaking in plurals, as though Bella were her mate, as though Bella would side with her on this.

I focused on the sound of the IV's slow drip to control my rage. Like Emmett, I was starting to think that some physical exertion would be a nice diversion. Only my battle would be with Rosalie.

Bella's breathing was laboured, and she gasped a little in her sleep. Both Rosalie and I moved closer to the bed, just as Bella's body jerked and she whimpered softly. Another kick.

Rosalie's hand was on Bella's forehead before mine. That she beat me to it, that she felt entitled to do that in my place raised my fury all over again.

Emmett sensed the tension in my body and was between us in the blink of an eye, holding his hands up to me.

"Not tonight, Edward. We've got other things to worry about."

I turned away quickly and caught sight of eyes through the window. Jacob had crept up to look inside, to see how Bella was doing.

Something he saw inside, something in my expression made him drop back to all fours and run for the forest.

He had seen for himself. Bella was worse.