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"Custody"

BPOV

I felt as Edward's body went limp, his weight falling over my arm and shoulder. I panicked even more.

"Edward? Please, answer me!" I practically yelled at him. He moved slowly, trying to regain his balance; however, I could notice he was somewhat absent, like he was about to faint… I wondered if vampires could actually loose consciousness.

"Sorry… to scare you…" he said, but I could see he was suffering. This time he didn't open his eyes to look at me, and his voice was almost a whisper. At my side, Emmett looked at him, worried.

"He needs to feed. Now" he said to me. I already knew that.

"Nobody leaves until we solve this" Paul's voice was heard. Emmett growled at him.

"He needs it! I know you don't give a damn about his health, but I do! Let's see if you can stop me!" Emmett said, furious, and tried to lift Edward. I looked at Carlisle, trying to see what he wanted to do.

"Calm down, Emmett. Surely, we can solve this quickly… my son needs treatment" Carlisle said, trying to sound calm. At his side, I saw Jasper watching the scene with a serious face; I guessed he was trying to calm down everyone in there.

"Stop it, Paul." Sam ordered when Paul trembled slightly. "We recently discovered this man is part of the Quileute tribe, so it is our duty to protect him" he continued.

"I understand. But you must consider he attacked my son first… he was just defending his life" Carlisle said. Sam seemed to think about that for a minute.

"He also attacked Bella, didn't he?" Alice asked, confident. The pack looked at me, then the hunter. He was still on the ground, apparently unable to move, but he was human again.

"Yeah! I'm sure he deserved that and more!" Emmett said.

"Shut up, you leech!" Paul said. Rosalie stepped closer to him, growling.

"Don't even think about it, dog" she warned him. I saw Jasper concentrate again, and both relaxed a little. I sighed in relief; when Emmett was involved, Rosalie could be really fierce.

Edward moaned softly. "Please, Rose… stop…" he said. She looked at him with a sorrowful expression, and nodded. I pushed him softly, so that he rested his head on my legs. At my side, Emmett chuckled –it always surprised me how easily he recovered his easy going attitude-.

"Well, at least you're enjoying it, aren't you?" he teased him. Edward merely sighed. Alice approached lo look at me.

"Are you ok, Bella? Does it hurt too much?" she asked me. Funny, I hadn't even thought about my own injury. But now that I did, it really hurt.

"Don't worry, Alice" I said. I realized –with humor- that I was doing the same Edward always did with me: diminishing my own troubles to avoid worrying her. She seemed to guess the same, and smiled sadly.

"I guess he's a bad influence for you. You're starting to talk just like him… fool" she said, stroking Edward's hair. He laughed softly, but grimaced in pain soon after. Alice stood up.

"Carlisle…" she said.

"I know, Alice" he said. Even I could hear the worry in his voice, but Sam remained still. "I don't want to pressure you, but we really need to know your decision" Carlisle said.

"Look, despite my… personal feelings about this, I can't allow you to hurt him. He's one of us" Sam said, a little unsure. I've never seen him like that. Carlisle sighed.

"We saw the disaster he created at Bella's home. We need an explanation for her father" he said. Shoot! I'd totally forgot that… how was I going to explain the disaster in the house? What was I going to tell Charlie?

"So, what? You plan to turn him in to the police?" Paul asked mockingly.

"Actually, that was my plan…" Carlisle said.

"He IS a criminal, after all. He tried to kill Bella!" Alice said. Sam looked at her, angry.

"I don't care… if he's caught, we'll all be in danger of being exposed. We'll deal with him" Sam said. Edward sighed as if he were counting on that… I was definitively missing something here, something big. "Of course, if you consider the treaty is broken…" Sam said, trying to see Carlisle's reaction; apparently, he thought the vampires would gladly start a war.

"No. He's not really part of the pack, no matter how you see it or the relation between you and him. As far as me and my family are concerned, the treaty is still on. You can take him as long as you promise to keep a good watch on him… it would be dangerous if he escaped" Carlisle said. Sam nodded, and made a sign to Paul and Embry. They both helped the hunter to stand up, and then moved towards the reservation. I think I saw him look at me briefly before leaving… maybe it was just my imagination.

"Thank you" Carlisle said.

"Never mind" Sam answered coldly. The group then leaved.

Once they were out of sight, Carlisle practically ran towards me and Edward. Before I could notice it, the Cullens were all gathered.

"Edward" Carlisle said to get his attention. I watched in horror as Edward slowly, painfully moved to a sitting position. Esme suppressed a gasp.

"My poor child" she said to him.

"Sorry… mom…" he said, and then looked at Carlisle again. "Is it necessary? I'm not…" he started, but stopped and closed his eyes in pain again. My poor Edward.

"Sorry, son. But I think we need to convince Bella's father about this. You'll need to be here" Carlisle said. I was confused. Edward nodded bravely.

"Charlie's coming. He has seen the disaster in his house" Alice said.

"Jasper, maybe you should go and bring him here… we'll need to be convincing" Carlisle said. Jasper nodded and disappeared.

"Wait a second… what are you talking about? What are you going to do?" I asked, desperate to know. The others looked at Carlisle too.

"Since your father had seen what happened in your house, and he knows Edward was there, we'll need to convince him it was just a common thief that entered the house. We arrived earlier to check on Edward, saw the broken window and looked for you two. The thief attacked you, but Edward managed to defend you just in time for his brothers to arrive… so we're now here. He escaped from Emmett, and we were about to call him" Carlisle said. I looked at him surprised; he had said it all with such confidence I doubted my dad would suspect. Why couldn't I lie so convincingly?

Edward tried to stand up. He staggered a little, but managed to stay up. Emmett put one of Edward's arms around his shoulder for support.

"Man, you're really messed up! What a vampire you are, bro…" Emmett said, chuckling. Rosalie rolled her eyes, exasperated.

"Thank, Em… that helps… a lot…" Edward said, but he was smiling.

Meanwhile, Alice had brought Carlisle's small case, and he was now checking my arm. He bandaged it firmly, which sent tears of pain to my eyes. I was glad Edward was so out of it to notice.

"Well, this will do for now. But you'll need a cast… I'll do it later if you want" he said to me.

"Yes. Thank you, Carlisle" I said, grateful. For someone like me, having a doctor like Carlisle was a blessing. He smiled at me.

"No, thank you. For taking care of Edward" he said. I blushed intently.

"It's not necessary, really… I love him, I'll do anything for him" I said. At his side, Esme smiled warmly at me.

"Charlie's almost here. We better start acting like humans" Alice said. Edward sighed; I could see this was going to be difficult for him, but Carlisle was right… my dad would search for him, and it would be worst if he didn't find him here.

Despite the Cullens confidence, I felt a little scared. My father had blamed Edward for my injuries once, what would he do now? I heard some footsteps nearby… Jasper had returned, along with my father and some of his officers. Oh, no. This was getting harder.

OH, my! What a difficult chapter!! I still have trouble with Carlisle… so much wisdom and experience for me, silly mortal. :P Ok, so Sam's very mature, we know that –he had to be, considering his dad was not around… until now --

Oh, and some of you seem to have theories about who Matt –the hunter's friend- really was… I actually hadn't thought about that, it was just a character I made to make Alphonse hate Edward –it worked!- but now I'm reconsidering… maybe if you give me some ideas about who he could've been, I'll add them here…

Next chapter will be more…hum… relaxed? A little, considering we still have to deal with Charlie (and you know how that always turns out!) but I hope the final chapters (yes, more than one… I still have some things to set up) will be good enough.

Thanks for your support! And thanks to Andys-lovelytwilight for the amazing ideas!