A/N: Edward was either helpful or foolish or maybe a little of both. I will leave it to you… should Edward live or die in this story? Enjoy the new chapter!

Chapter 28 – Foiled

"Hey JW, why is your hand so cold?" A ten year old Bella gazed up at the man walking beside her, her eyes full of innocence and curiosity.

"I have a circulation problem," came the reply.

"Oh." Removing her hand from his, she blew her hot breath on them before rubbing them together in order to warm them up. When their temperature had increased, she grabbed his hand again and smiled, "I'll help you warm them up."

Slowly a pair of brown eyes blinked open, wandering around the room before they settled on the man standing next to her, his chilled hand in her hair. Was that why she had dreamed of that memory? Her own hands gripped one of her father's; the differences in the temperature between the two men were night and day. Although not exactly hot, Charlie's hands could be considered such when compared to the freezing digits combing through her hair at the moment… and both gave her comfort. The warmth of her father's meant that he was alive and not standing at death's door, and the chill of Jasper's meant that he was real and there and they had a long future ahead of them. Two conflicting temperatures and they both meant life and a future.

"You ok darlin'?" Jasper asked softly not wanting to disturb the sleeping man; although he wasn't sure anything could actually disturb Charlie. The police chief had yet to wake up, but the doctors were hopeful, and as Carlisle explained there was only slightly swelling of the brain and that had already gone down. Now it was up to the patient to wake up. It had been almost twelve hours since he had been brought in and still there was no change. Jasper just hoped and prayed for Bella's sake, her father would wake up soon. He knew it was weighing on her and she had refused to leave his side through the night, which meant Jasper refused to leave his side as well, even when he received that phone call.

A couple hours after they got to the hospital, Emmett had called. They had captured James and then Edward had helped the enemy escape. Jasper had wanted to punch somebody or something, to rip anything and everything apart, and yet, somehow he had managed to remain in control and do nothing. Fighting his very nature, he stayed with Bella and refused to leave her side. At one point he could tell his emotions were affecting her and her father. Charlie moaned and scowled in his comatose state, while Bella started to glare at the body lying in the bed, her aggravation growing by leaps and bounds. He had to regain control of his own emotions and not project them unnecessarily.

How long had it been since he lost all control of his gift? Before Bella, it had been decades; and after her, it seemed as if he was unintentionally pushing his emotions onto her and others every other day. It wasn't her fault, quite the opposite. Before her, he had all but shut off his own feelings and emotions. He didn't want them to get out of hand and if he didn't feel anything himself, he could remain in control and separate. In a sense he was there without really being there. The first time he met Bella, she put a crack in his façade; and then when she crashed back into his life, the mask was ripped away, broken to pieces, its ashes scattered upon the four winds. Even if he wanted it back, it was no longer possible to regain his old persona… and he didn't want it. Bella had awakened something in him which had been missing for well over a century and he didn't want to go back to the cold, dead, unfeeling darkness.

"JW?" Bella questioned pushing her way into his thoughts.

Snapping to attention, he gave her a small smile. He could feel a small bit of confusion and concern for him flowing out of her and leaned down to kiss the top of her head, "I'm fine darlin'. I was just thinkin' of a couple things."

"Are you sure?"

"Yah." Seeing her disbelief on her face and feeling it in her emotions, he squatted down next to her chair, "Bella, as long as I'm with you, I will always be fulfilled and happy. I was thinking about how much you have changed me and brought me back to life."

"What do you mean? You were always alive."

"I may have been walking through time and moving forward, but it was a pretense at living. You changed that." Capturing her lips in a kiss, he pushed forth all of the emotions he felt for her: the love, hope, happiness, and peacefulness. This is the woman who had been created to be his mate and he would do anything and everything he needed to in order to make sure she never had to fear anything ever again. Even if that meant killing off all their enemies one by one.

A groan from the bed captured their attention and forced them to break off their kiss. Eyes studying the man in the bed, soon they saw the movement of his eyes behind the closed lids and then the lids carefully lifted and slammed shut again.

"Dad?" Bella jumped up and hit the call button for the nurses' station. "Dad, can you hear me?"

"Bells?"

The soft voice which sounded more like a groan was music to his daughter's ears. With tears burning her eyes, she smiled, "Yah dad. It's me."

A voice came through on the speaker, "Can I help you?"

"It's my dad. He woke up," Bella responded.

"I'll be in momentarily and will call the doctor," the nurse responded, a smile could be heard in her voice. The police chief was well known and liked, and everyone in town and at the hospital had been worried about him. Hearing that he was finally awake, was a relief.

When the nurse's voice disappeared, Charlie furrowed his brow and asked, "Did Paul make it? I think there were giant wolves. I…" His head hurt and he was trying to remember everything that happened.

"Don't talk right now dad. We'll get it sorted later. Just rest right now," Bella instructed. What was her father talking about? Giant wolves? There was no such thing. Maybe his injury had caused him to see things that weren't really there.

Charlie stopped talking and tried to gather his thoughts together. He could easily remember Paul talking to him and he remembered being in some shack, but what else had been real and what had been a dream. Paul had rambled something about sacrifice, however, everything was a little fuzzy. He just didn't know any longer… and he knew some of the things he thought he saw could not be real, and if he believed they were, others would think he had completely lost his marbles when he had been injured.

Striding into the room, a petite nurse quickly approached the bed and said, "It's good to see you awake chief. How do you feel?"

"Like a Mack truck hit my head at top speed," he grumbled, his eyes losing focus as the pain in his head became back to the forefront of his thoughts and concerns.

"Well considering the extent of your head injury, I would think that is a pretty fair depiction," Carlisle chuckled as he walked into the room. Strolling up to the bed, he glanced over his shoulder to the two people behind him and asked, "I need to examine your father, can you step out for a few minutes?"

She gave the doctor a dubious look, but finally nodded and walked out of the room with her mate right beside her. It wasn't that she didn't trust Carlisle or the nurse, however, after her father was kidnapped and injured, it made her hesitant to leave him alone.

Once they were out of the room, Bella allowed her eyes to roam up and down the hall before she questioned her boyfriend in a low voice she was sure he could still hear, "What's going to happen now? James and Edward both got away again and they could be on their way here. What are we going to do? And what did my dad mean by 'did Paul make it?' Did Paul do this to him? Which Paul?"

Pulling her into his arms, he wrapped her into a tight embrace and whispered quietly, "Your dad was found on the reservation and Billy Black and the elders are tryin' to find out what happened. We'll catch the guy that did this. For now, your dad is gonna be watched and guarded and neither James nor Edward will come near him. I swear. Cross my heart."

A small snicker escaped from her lips at his promise, "You sound like kids in grade school."

Her small laugh would have quickened his pulse and caused his heart to beat faster if he had either one of those. As it was, it caused a stirring of longing deep within him. He wanted her to smile and laugh, and he never wanted to see tears of sadness or pain slip from her eyes again. Life was not that easy though and he knew he wanted the impossible. It was full of hardships and losses which always lead to unease, hurt, and sorrow. He could not keep it from her completely, but he could shield her as much as possible; and when the time came, he could and would hold her and remind her that he would be at her side until their time on earth came to an end. "I mean every word of it. My mama told me never to promise something I couldn't deliver or I would just be a liar and worse than a snake in the grass."

Another snicker. Hearing his words always seemed to set her at ease. "A snake in the grass?"

"Yep. Rattlers and other snakes hide in tall grass and when they see their prey, they strike. Most of 'em blend into the scenery and you don't notice 'em until you're about to step on one… which is why you should always wear boots when in tall grass."

"I will be sure to do that whenever I'm in Texas… where everyone talks funny."

"Well only people who are real Texans or have lived there long enough to embrace God's gift to the US."

"A little cocky aren't you?"

"Nope, just tellin' the God's honest truth," Jasper smirked. Winking at her, his lips moved closer to her ear as he said, "And that ain't what's cocky about me." He stepped back to witness the bright red blush appearing on her face. He might have said more if Carlisle hadn't stepped out at that time. "How is he Carlisle?"

"As you know he has a concussion, but other than that, he seems to be alright. I'm going to order a couple of tests and I still want to keep him for observation for a couple of days," the doctor answered.

Nodding, Bella frowned, "Carlisle, he said something about giant wolves. Could he be imagining things?"

His eyes shooting to his adopted son before returning to Bella, the patriarch of the Cullen's explained, "Well, given the extent of his injuries, something like that is possible. I wouldn't worry too much about that. Regardless of if we have a head injury or not, our minds will sometimes try to make sense of things we see and don't completely understand, and then when we have a head injury, that coping mechanism can be intensified; which means, he could have seen things that weren't really there. It is also possible to hear things that were never spoken." Although given what he knew about the tribe, he fully believed Charlie saw the wolves. "If you want, you can go in and see him now."

"Darlin', I'll be in in a sec," Jasper ushered her inside and closed the door. Speaking in tones only other vampires could hear, he asked, "You and I both know he saw what he saw. What is Billy saying?"

"Paul is being held by same and the others in the pack, but other than that Billy doesn't know much. Apparently Paul was able to sever his mental connection with the others, and Sam wants to know how. He had to learn that skill from someone."

"I agree."

Jasper suddenly felt shock coming from down the hall and his head shot up. Standing down the hall was his errant brother. "Edward," he growled. Before he took off, he told his father, "Watch Bella." He was at a disadvantage because he could not use his vampire speed and Edward had already been 70 feet ahead of him. Desperation spurred him on and he pushed the speed allowed by humans as he chased after his brother. What had he been doing there? Was he there for Bella? Why had Edward come to the hospital when he had to have known she would not be alone? Another thought occurred to him… what if Edward had been there for Charlie? Taking the chief and using him as bait would have been a damn good way to lure Bella to him. A growl rumbled in his chest as he kept Edward in his sights. The moment his brother turned down another hall, he momentarily lost sight of him, and when he rounded the corner and ran out the door, Edward was already gone. Yelling in a rage, Jasper hit the brick wall that surrounded a flowerbed and turned it to dust. Thankfully no one else had been around him. He would catch his brother and James and he would make sure they never had the opportunity to come close to his family again.

As soon as Edward exited the door and moved behind an ambulance which blocked his figure from the hospital, he took off as fast as possible and made it to the tree line as Jasper exited the hospital. He heard the implosion of brick and knew his brother was mad. Once again, things had not gone as he wanted them to. He should have been able to walk into Charlie's room and leave a note, one only Bella would have found. And when she feared for her father's life, he knew she would have met him, but he had not been expecting Jasper or Carlisle to be standing just outside the door. He needed a different plan… a better plan. Bella would be his and no longer a prisoner of the man who had become someone feared amongst the vampire population. Bella deserved better than that, and Edward believed he was the one that could give it to her.