It didn't take much for me to struggle out of Jasper's arms. I was kinda infuriated with this whole situation, I get that they care and all but holy shit. This isn't the 1800s anymore, you can't just kill someone you feud with!

"I'm not killing anyone or anything, and if I hear about him disappearing in the next 5 years, I'll leave." I held a finger up, shaking it at Jasper and Rose. "Don't think I won't do it." I warned.

"Cat-" Jasper started, looking frustrated as ever with me and my lack of complacency. I knew he was used to people simply taking his orders and running with it but I didn't play that game. Never had and never will.

"No!" I held the finger up to him, daring him to test me.

"Oh come o-" Rose started now, groaning at my stubbornness.

I spun around to her now, "Uh-uh!" I glanced at Emmett, waiting for him to try and jump in too.

Instead he seemed to know it was a losing battle and just held his hands up in surrender with his brows raised. He wasn't going to debate me on it, which was a plus. Em didn't try all that hard with people who weren't his wife. He tried waaaay hard with her.

"I'm going home now and I expect all of you to be there in a bit." I declared with some intensity as I started walking in the direction I thought the house was in. I got maybe 10 feet away when Jasper cleared his throat.

"Cat, the house is the other way." He directed with his head and some amusement creeping through with his arms crossed over his chest as he still somehow looked stern and sturdy. I hated when he could do that and I just sort of blundered about.

I held up a hand and started to march that way, "I knew that!" I assured them all as I went past them again, this time actually going towards the house. I could hear Emmett snickering as I went but choose to ignore it.

It didn't take long for me to stomp into the house and pick up my violin. Edward eyed me with mild confusion and interest from his place on the couch but didn't say anything until I started to really saw away at the strings. I was producing the shrillest sounds I thought possible and was enjoying the sensation it'd elicited in my ear, when he'd had enough apparently.

"Okay! Enough." He stopped me, wrapping a hand hesitantly around one of my own on the neck of my torture instrument. He forced the violin down from it's resting place between my shoulder and chin to hang near my knees.

"What happened with Jasper?" He asked, peering at me with some amount of worry.

He's talking about getting Woods tossed or killed. I communicated. He nodded, seemingly waiting for me to continue.

He can't just kill people when he doesn't like them! He was going to do that to...well never mind that. I pursed my lips, realizing that might still be a sore spot for him.

Last we'd talked, before Jasper had interrupted us in the classroom, he was in love with me but felt it was better for us both to wait until things had taken their course. His exact words were that he would wait as long as the day was short. I don't think Jasper knew about the total conversation and I was going to keep it that way. Too gushy for me to deal with for quite a while.

"To me you mean?" He was quiet for a second as he watched me nod. He shrugged it off pretty well for a guy that'd had his arm torn off by Jasper before.

"Thats fair. I don't know if I'd have done the same in his position, I'd like to think I'd have a little more dignity." He just sort of smirked at that, reminding me he still held a bit of a grudge for Jazzy ripping his arm off so long ago. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to talk about this with him.

"I didn't mean it like that." He sighed, looking down at my hand as he flipped it over. My charm bracelet from Jasper jingled ever so slightly, reminding me it was there. I watched as he picked up his particular charm, gazing at the map of Alaska forever covered by resin.

"Guess he really is secure now." Edward mumbled as he took in the old charm and my wedding anniversary on the charm next to his. I shrugged mutely to his statement, he is. But. He still isn't all that fond of you. I declared mentally as Edward snorted.

"Oh trust me, I know. All he thinks about when I'm around is how to tell me to not get to close to you without you 'flipping your lid' at him." Edward let go of my hand finally to do the air quotations.

"Wow." I snorted as I realised I'd rubbed off on him just a little, but it wasn't all that bad. I just don't really know what to do. I don't want to move but I don't want to deal with Jasper and him butting heads everyday at school either.

"Talk to Carlisle. He might be able to shed some light on it." He nodded, giving me a decisive action to go off of. I sighed again, putting down the violin and letting it sit on it's stand in peace. I felt a hand land on my shoulder softly and looked up to see Edward looking just as solemn as usual.

"He'll figure it out, Cat." Edward seemed to be trying to comfort me but I don't think I felt all that comforted. He got that from my general thoughts and sighed, squeezing my shoulder before he sat back down in front of the TV.


I waited for maybe an hour before I elected to toss on some sort of jacket and drive to the hospital. I'd gotten one foot out of the door when Edward apparently decided he was coming with.

"Uh..." I started, with my hand on the door knob. Esme wasn't home, she'd been in the community center for an art class of some kind. I didn't follow it mainly because I wasn't interested but the hobbies were good for her. Only issue meant that either we left it unlocked and hoped to god that no one got curious about our home or we lock it and leave everyone else to figure out how to get into the house. Just because we were immortal didn't mean we could get past a locked door without breaking it down.

"I'll just leave the upstairs windows open." Edward supplied helpfully. I nodded, That'd be a great idea. He nodded back to my thoughts and took off, I could hear glass panes sliding and figured he'd made it through most of the windows already.

I was almost relieved that Jasper, Em, and Rose weren't back yet but at the same time I was a little worried they'd be plotting together for whatever reason. They were just so paranoid that my possibly ex-husband would fuck everything up. I mean he could but what would plotting do really? They'd just mess things up even more than Wood's would have in the first place.

"Are we taking the Volvo?" Edward called through the house as I came out of the front door.

"Um, sure." I shrugged to myself as I answered him. I was more focused on locking the door behind us just in case, no one really came out here but I'd rather not have anyone poking through our rooms. Hard to explain photographs of yourself where you look the same as you did 40 years ago.

"Straight to the hospital, right?" He checked as I slide into the passenger seat smoothly enough for someone of my age.

"Yeah, straight there." I nodded to him, and felt an odd sensation of what I could only assume was nostalgia wash over me. We worked well as a team.

"We do. Always thought so." Edward's voice was hollow sounding, reminding me of our issues in Alaska that felt so long ago.

I looked out the window and forced myself to focus on each and everything that passed by my window while we went through the middle of town. I watched the police chief's cruiser pass by with a pale brunette girl in the front seat, then a logging truck, it was a cloudy day but bright enough that things didn't feel depressing. This would just be a difficult day.

Arriving at the Fork's hospital wasn't such an issue, in fact we found a place closer to the door than I thought we could find honestly. I'd spent the car ride in total silence with Edward, just trying to keep my thoughts under wraps. I mean just because Jasper and I were having a disagreement on how to deal with the situation didn't mean that it was suddenly his chance to swoop in.

"I know that. I was more just trying to support you, Cat." Edward's voice was gravelly sounding, making me pause. I forgot he could read my thoughts.

"Almost 40 years around me and you still forget." He seemed to be light-hearted as he said this one, snorting to himself.

"It wasn't entirely 40 years." I rolled my eyes as we entered the elevator to find Carlisle, I figured Edward already knew where he was. It would take us from the car park to the first floor in less time and we'd look pretty casual doing it...more casual than just speeding up the stairs anyways.

Silence drew on until another ding and the elevator doors opened to the controlled chaos I found to be the hospital. I'd missed it. I missed the ER especially, you could never get bored in an ER, never catch your breath either. I loved it. The thrill and the high strung atmosphere when an ambulance pulled up couldn't be found anywhere else. I let out a sigh and zeroed in on a male nurse at the nurses station in the middle of the room.

"Hi sir, is it possible for you to page Dr Cullen and let him know that Catharin and Edward are here to see him?" I gave the human boy a smile in some attempt to speed up the process.

"U-uhm. Sure. Right." He stuttered and faltered in what he was doing before we showed up, leaving me to believe I shouldn't have bothered with the smile. It just seemed to draw things out slower.

"He thinks you're beautiful." Edward was talking at a lower volume, I could only assume it was so that the human in front of us couldn't hear him. I let out a low breath and stared at the plastic lining for the nurses station, there were little specks. Probably ink or where someone dropped some sort of red sauce while they were eating a while ago.

"It'll be a little while. Dr Cullen is currently in surgery." The nurse came back speedily from the phone and looked like he was sorry he couldn't help me further. Carlisle was a man of many talents, I'd forgotten that bit I guess. None of my patients ever really needed surgery, well they might have started out needing surgery but I'd usually eliminate it in time.

Edward and I found our way back towards the blue fabric chairs with wooden handles. I'm pretty sure these were the same kind that every hospital waiting room I'd ever been in had. My phone buzzed, I'd almost forgotten about it.

Is there a reason Jasper won't leave me alone about where you are right now, missy?

I stared at the number in confusion until it dawned on me that it was Alice. I'd completely forgotten about her, holy shit.

Where have you been?

I texted her back with my own question as I glanced around the room with little interest at it's contents.

I was just walking around the forest for a bit of quiet. I can feel Irenta getting closer!

A smile started to force it's way around my lips despite the seriousness of the situation with Woods. It was literally just because of her excitement, Alice's excitement had always been infectious.

I do need to know where you are though. Jasper isn't too happy.

Her second message had the smile cleared off my face. I suppose in Alice's focus on her mate, she'd missed Edward and I completely. That was both a good thing and a bad thing but I didn't think I really wanted him to know that Edward and I were at the hospital right now.