A/N: I hope y'all enjoy this; Edward is about to get things wrong in classic Edward style. The characters still belong to SM. Happy Monday!

I could hear the quiet argument before I even got close. Edward was absolutely livid, he was speaking in a low fast whisper that I couldn't make out; he was the closest to the hallway with his back to me. Alice looked like she was carefully concentrating when she came into view. I didn't know if anyone had noticed my approach, it certainly didn't seem like it. When Edward had apparently blown himself out Jasper started in his hushed tone. I caught my name more than a few times. Edward was tense, rigid. I waited for Jasper to finish. The posture of everyone else in the room, except for Alice, changed. Esme and Carlisle wore horrified looks; she buried her head in his shoulder. Emmett was seated on the couch with his head in his hands fingers locked in his hair. Rosalie sat next to him dumbfounded. But Alice was still deeply concentrating which seemed to annoy both Edward and Jasper.

"Edward" I called him softly. "Edward, if you're mad at someone it needs to be me." His body heaved in a sigh. "Can you talk to me alone before you take absolutely everything out on the rest of our family? I think that you'll find that my explanation will go a long way toward easing your fears." He turned to face me, but didn't speak. "Will you meet me in the conference room?" He still hadn't officially responded but he attempted not to huff as he walked passed me. As soon as he was out I turned to Alice.

"What does our time table look like?"

"Her plans changed when Jane heard the news from Alec." She was still concentrating. "The current plan is to wait until you leave Volterra. She's looking for more allies though, it's still very dangerous."

"Thank you!" I started to make my way down the hall to reassure Edward.

"Thanks for not wrinkling the dress! You'll need it for the reception!" She shouted at my back and I waved over my shoulder at her hurrying down the hall.

The conference room was the third door on the left. I felt kind of odd having a conference room but in this particular case it was convenient because I had a sound proof place to take Edward. I had a feeling that I had worn down his patience today and that he was going to think the absolute worst. I entered the room and closed the door with a sharp click behind me. He was seated with his back to me, arms folded in one of the thickly padded swivel chairs at the large ovular table that dominated the room. His stare was focused blankly on a white view screen straight in front of him mounted on the opposite wall. I moved the chair next to him aside, with some difficulty, and pulled myself up on the table in front of him so that he'd be forced to look at me. My legs were angled to one side. He shifted his gaze away from me.

"I know that you're angry." I started with a level calm voice attempting not to incite any more anger than was obviously boiling under the surface. He didn't respond. "Okay," I took a deep breath, "I'm sorry that I felt it was necessary to keep you in the dark today."

Nothing.

"Look at me."

Still Nothing.

"You look at me now Edward Cullen or I am walking out of this room." His stone cold eyes finally shifted up to meet mine. "I am the only one who can reliably keep anything from you and today you would have behaved rashly and endangered us further because I was and still am in danger. I'm sorry I kept you out of the loop but it was necessary."

"What exactly are you planning? Are you intentionally putting yourself in harms way again? Are you planning on being selfless and just going out to meet her?" His voice was strained; he pinched his nose between his thumb and his forefinger.

"No, do you think Alice-."

"Are you sure?" He cut me off. This time it was an accusation.

"Esme already made me promise that." I met his eyes.

"You are a terrible liar." He leaned in. His face and voice bordered on viciousness.

"I'm actually not lying at the moment, but thanks for that. I really appreciate the fact that my husband thinks I'm lying to him on our wedding day. Marriage is going to be great! So glad we did it! This is exactly what I thought would happen!" I made a move to leave and he caught me before I'd made it off the table. He slid me back in front of him. His eyes were apologetic. There was something bigger wrong here. I let go of my anger and intently focused my eyes on him, squinting just a bit.

"Just tell me that you're not suicidal and we can talk reasonably." He begged.

"I – um – what?" I was taken aback. Something suddenly clicked, when people decided to commit suicide they got calm, they tied up loose ends. They were often calm and happy when they settled on their plans. He had seriously misread my intentions today. I sucked in a breath. I had insisted on marrying him immediately. I had asked if anyone had called LaPush. Those could have been loose ends.

"Are you planning on doing something to get yourself killed because you are upset about your parents?" He had articulated the question as clearly and slowly as he could.

"No. No!" I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding. Was this really what he thought that today was about? "I can't believe you would think that especially after everything we've been through this week."

"What was I supposed to think Bella!?" He yelled. I couldn't speak; I was too shocked for words. "Jasper said that you felt grief, a little bit of panic, but overall your emotional state before you kicked me out this afternoon was calm! You told him to look after me. You exact words were to 'keep me calm an occupied'. Calm and occupied! Can you understand why I might think this when you kicked both of us out and kept Alice from us so that we had no way of knowing whether or not you'd made a decision and what that might be!?"

My heart broke seeing the pain in his expression even though he was yelling at me. I had no idea what the afternoon had been like for him. He had honestly spent the afternoon thinking that I was planning on committing suicide. I could only imagine what it had been like for him worrying over me all afternoon. He knew about the cliff diving and the motorcycle; He thought that I had a death wish with those alone. That was before my parents… How could I have done this to him? I really was terrible; what had gotten into me? The room was blurry as two streams of heat moved down my face. The tears were flowing now. I could feel the world tremble.

I was barely aware of two cold arms pulling me off of the table. I found myself in Edwards lap. He gently cradled me into him. He stroked my hair. His scent and his touch worked their usual magic. My breathing slowed, the sobs calmed.

"Oh Bella," he whispered.

"No, I've behaved terribly!" I was still crying even though the hysteria had stopped.

"Why wouldn't you just let me help you? You don't have to deal with this alone, we're here for you."

Oh no, he still thought that this was solely about the plane crash. That I would –

"Wait, I'm not planning on dying." I placed a hand on either side of his face. "I just feel terrible for what I've put you through. I didn't know that my emotions would lead you to believe that. I can only imagine what you've been through today." I caressed his smooth cheek.

"So, Jasper and I were wrong?" He was still puzzled.

"Your assumption is so far from what was actually going on today that I don't even know how to begin to explain my actions."

He relaxed visibly and let out an almost imperceptible little sobbing gasp. He suddenly threw his head back in relief. Although, he looked like he was still on the verge of a breakdown.

"I will never leave you. I didn't fly all the way here and risk my life to save yours just to throw it away." I resituated with my knees on his thighs to be closer to his face. "I'm so sorry Edward. I wouldn't have done this if it hadn't been necessary. I promise I will explain everything."

"So, I don't have to worry about your desire to live?"

"Not in that sense. I am still planning on becoming a vampire so that hasn't changed." The fact that he could smile about this spoke volumes about how far we'd come on that issue.

"You scared me today." He sighed, "So, what is this game that you've been playing?" His frustration was evident but so was his relief.

"I've been attempting to manipulate our situation to make it safer." I bit my lip, he was still sure to be unhappy about this.

"The games weren't necessary today. You could have told me." He softened his tone and pulled me to stand beside him.

"Today's 'game' changed everything, and you over react in a very unsafe way when my safety might be at stake. I'm not sure how firm the alliance it formed is but it was necessary to keep some rogue members of the Volturi guard from handing me over to Victoria themselves."

"Speaking of which, I can hardly say that I approve of our current family situation." He raised an eyebrow.

"I didn't have much choice. The wedding had to happen today so some deception of both Carlisle and Aro was necessary." I couldn't figure out the expression on his face. "I feel really terrible about yelling at Carlisle. I really didn't see Aro's reaction coming though. It shocked Alice too."

"He really does have a genuine interest in you beyond your shield. I have seen that much. He finds you entertaining, particularly due to that lack of self preservation skills that we keep running into." He paused. "It may be just because he can't hear your thoughts as well, or maybe it's just because you seem to draw out strong reactions from vampires. We either want to kill you or feel protective of you. Humans tend to have strong emotions about you too."

"That's just silly." I scoffed at him.

"You don't believe me." He sounded almost offended. "I can hear them. You inspire very strong reactions in just about everyone you come in contact with. I don't think that you can help it."

"We need to talk about what's going on." I changed the subject. "We've talked about this year but we haven't covered everything that's going to be important that's happened. Did Alice tell you that Victoria has been after me for a few weeks already?" He nodded. I sat back down in his lap feeling weak and fragile. "The werewolves have been protecting me." There was an angry rumble deep within his chest. "Please stop, I would already be dead without them." I begged. "It appears that Victoria is getting desperate. I'm certain that she had something to do with the plane crash, and Jacob Black is on his way here now." An ache was now building in my chest. I just wanted to stop and cry but I didn't have the luxury right now.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't there to protect you." He breathed into my hair. I curled in closer to him.

"Felix is with her." I shuddered. Edward pulled me in even closer. "Jane was with them earlier today but Alice saw her leave after she got word that I'd been 'adopted'."

"You're shaking."

It was now my turn not to respond.

"There's no reason to be afraid. There are only two of them, even without the Volturi involved we could have handled them." He sighed.

"Victoria has yet to go straight for me through the wolves. She avoids confrontation at all cost, and she seems to be quite evasive. They're probably not planning on fighting you. The plan is to kidnap me, remember?" The thought put a rather large knot in my stomach.

"They'll have to get you alone first and that isn't going to happen." He paused. "I have something relevant to tell you that you might find upsetting." He tried to assess what my reaction would be. "I attempted to track Victoria when I left you. I'm obviously not very good at it because when I was trying to pick up her trail in Brazil, she was obviously hunting you in Forks. I tracked her as far as Texas though."

"You were tracking her?" I cocked my head to one side.

"That was my distraction. I thought that there was a slight possibility that she'd come back and I still wanted to do something to protect you. I'm obviously not very good at it as I was on entirely the wrong continent but I did try."

"Thank you for trying." I kissed his cheek. "It's the thought that counts."

He hugged me again.

"Wait!" I jumped up. "Were you and Jasper sharing your suicide theory with the others?"

"Yeah, that's what we were doing when you came down the hall." My realization had just dawned on him; the whole family with the exception of Alice now thought that I was suicidal. He seemed to unconsciously agree with me that this had to be corrected immediately.