Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns everything in the Twiverse.

Thanks for all your reviews, alerts, and patience. Once again, I had trouble hearing Edward's voice and clarifying Bella's perspective. But once they both showed up, this chapter wrote itself in two days. Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 37: Showdown

Edward's POV

The night was soft and still outside my window, the overcast sky rainless for once. At some point during the last hour, someone—Rosalie, most likely—had sensed my need for privacy and turned on the silent house stereo, cutting me off from the parts of the world that did not include Bella.

And that was truly for the best.

As Bella had come undone in my arms, I relished the chance to show her with my hands and lips how much I loved her. To tell her with my soul and strength that I would never let anything come between us as long as we both lived.

And I was gratified to feel an equal fervor in her responses: the hunger in her lips when we kissed; her needy whimpers as I worshipped her with my tongue; the way she clutched my shoulders as I moved inside her. Our coupling was not gentle, nor was it meant to be. We had survived death today, and our appreciation for this ultimate act of life was made that much more profound.

But as our impassioned panting quieted and the trembling of our loins began to cease, I was stunned to feel even emptier than before. My frozen flesh was sated by our exertions, but my heart was in turmoil. For in spite of the intimacy our bodies had just enjoyed, the gulf between us lay just as wide and treacherous as before, a spiritual chasm that could only be healed by a truce of the purest kind.

And I wondered if we were up to the task.

Bella's arms were still somewhat around me as I had not yet moved from my position above her. But the realization that all was not well had cooled me to the core, and I found myself wanting some physical distance between us.

But the soft heat of her body was too pleasant to forsake, so I rolled off of her and accepted her light embrace when she offered it. She tucked herself into her favorite nook on my right side, but I noticed that she did not lay her leg across mine as she ordinarily would have done. In truth, her lower half was still somewhat askew, and I realized that she and I were of the same mind.

We would have to talk now.

Had I wanted to, I could have picked out a half-dozen emotions in her sighs and sounds, could have dissected the cadence of her heart for clues to her mindset. But I refrained. By some flick of fate, I could not read Bella's mind, and tonight I decided that I would not read her body either. If we were going to fix this, if we were going to erase the space she had placed between us, the work would have to begin with her.

Bella was fidgeting at my side, her hand uncertain of where to lay itself on my bare torso. With resignation, she dropped it against her own hip, another sigh punctuating her decision. She shifted against my arm once more before clearing her throat.

"How did Victoria die?"

I released the breath I'd been holding, relief and frustration clouding my mind. I had wanted to dive right into the void, to start with us and work our way out. Bella seemed to prefer the opposite path, and as I'd elected to let her lead, I had little choice but to follow.

The subject matter ignited my protective instincts once more, and my arm tightened around her waist. If Bella noticed, she neither reacted nor rejected me.

"At first glance," I began, "Victoria's plan seemed flawless. She had trapped us by our love for each other and your loyalty to Charlie." She stiffened at this interpretation, but I did not stop to guess why. "Ensnaring the Denalis further tied our proverbial hands, and it seemed as if our defeat was inevitable.

"On my own, I scanned varying scenarios in which I attacked Victoria from different angles. But Alice showed me that Victoria was expecting that, so the outcome was never good. But then, as my eyes roamed the faces of our remaining family, I remembered a brief exchange I'd had during the drive to the boundary line earlier this afternoon."

"With Carlisle?" Bella asked.

I shook my head. "Jasper."

My mind flashed back to several hours prior when we'd headed off to confront the Quileute leaders face-to-face:

The silence in car had been deafening as my thoughts bounced from mistrust of the Pack to concern for Charlie and always back to my longing for Bella. I didn't know if I could trust anything Billy and Sam might say, and I'd asked my brother to intervene.

"If you could incite their anger," I proposed, "maybe that would loosen their thoughts and reveal what their words might try to hide."

"Are you sure fatigue wouldn't be better?" he'd asked. "Suppressing their animalistic instincts would also aid us if they decided to fight."

"Let them be," Carlisle disagreed. "It is our best hope for learning the truth."

We tacitly accepted our father's edict, but Jasper's initial reply had given me pause. "What did you mean by your latter comment?" I'd asked him.

"If I concentrate hard enough," he replied, "I can incapacitate someone with an intense feeling of lethargy. It would only last a few seconds, but that small window of time could make all the difference in a tight contest."

"That's when I realized that we had one shot at defeating Victoria," I said as I concluded my explanation to Bella. "If Jasper could physically neutralize Victoria, then I could destroy her without risking you."

"How did you share your plan with Jasper?" she asked.

"Alice. Although their gifts don't work in tandem, they have developed a silent shorthand common to mated pairs. In their case, it is part body language and part emotional projection, but through it, she conveyed our plan to Jasper and showed me when he understood it. Once his involvement was secured, it just became a matter of timing."

"And Victoria didn't notice any of this?"

"Although she was blocking me, I could hear some of her thoughts," I explained. "She was too busy reveling in our suffering to pay attention to anyone else. Besides which, she believed that by deciding to remain with you in the field, Alice, Jasper, and I had conceded defeat. Her arrogance became our second greatest asset."

I had phrased my reply in hopes that she would inquire about our greatest asset. But as usual, Bella did not do what I expected.

"What about Irina?" she asked. "Wouldn't your plan have put her life in jeopardy?"

"There were several lives in jeopardy," I replied more sharply than I'd intended. "It would have been impossible to save them all." With a heavy sigh, I added, "And it turned out that we were always too late to save Irina."

Bella rolled over to face me, her eyes muddied with myriad emotions. "What does that mean?"

I relayed the sad truth about Irina's death, and Bella received the news with considerable sadness over the half-cousin she had only met once. "She didn't deserve that," she murmured almost to herself.

"None of us did."

"I was referring to Laurent's betrayal," she clarified. "She trusted him with her life, and he sacrificed it without a second thought." Her voice took on an added layer of sorrow. "She didn't deserve that."

I caught the insinuation and chose to ignore it.

"Victoria's death?" she prompted.

"When the moment came, Jasper focused his gift and rendered her unable to move. I needed only to make sure you were out of harm's way before lunging at her." A low snarl escaped me at the memory. "As Jasper was too weak from expending so much energy, Alice tossed you to Emmett, who had just returned from saving Charlie. Eleazar quickly realized what was happening and leapt to restrain Victoria. With a final look in her eyes, I took great pleasure in ripping her head from her neck with my teeth."

Bella shivered at my tone and words, and I held her that much closer. She seemed comforted by the movement, and I pressed my lips against her forehead.

"So you lied to me, then."

My mouth froze in place. "What?"

"I asked you if there was no hope for us," she said as she sat up, "and you shook your head. You said that they would never be able to track Charlie's scent, that Rosalie had been mistaken."

"And I was right," I replied tightly.

"But you lied!" She had scooted out of my arms and was facing me from the foot of the bed. "You knew what I mean, and you misled me."

"Victoria," I corrected. "I was misleading Victoria, not you."

"But you were talking to me," she insisted. "You could have done something, said something to let me know that all was not lost."

"What would you have had me do?"

"I don't know," she said. "But Alice and Jasper figured it out."

"Alice and Jasper," I said between clenched teeth, "have had decades to perfect their private discoursing. You and I have been married for barely a week and are of two different species."

Her eyes narrowed. "So you couldn't confide in me because I'm human?"

I suppressed an exasperated groan. "Vampires can detect physiological nuances that escape human senses, thereby giving them additional ways to communicate wordlessly."

"Regardless," she pressed, "Alice and Jasper trusted each other enough to..."

"No!" I interrupted. "We are not doing this again."

"So you're ordering me around now?" she cried. "Is that the kind of marriage you want us to have?"

"You think I want this?" I growled, my rising fury becoming harder to contain. "You think that after narrowly escaping today's insanity that I want to stand here arguing with you about something we've already settled? You think this is what I…"

"Settled?" She cut me off. "When you and your family still leave me out of decisions that affect my life, how can you say this problem has been settled? You still don't trust or respect me, Edward, and that was made quite clear when…"

The loud crack of splintering wood interrupted Bella's tirade, followed by the abrupt collapse of the bed beneath us. As we tumbled onto the carpeted floor, I lifted my hand to find it full of the bedframe, which I had crushed to kindling in my fury.

Bella's eyes widened as she stared at my cold, clenched hand. Her eyes met mine, and the barely-concealed fright in their depths brought me up short. I'd seen that look only once before: the first time I'd revealed my monstrous side to her in our meadow. That day, she'd made the life-altering decision to love me anyway, and I had promised myself that I would never scare her again.

And just like that, I'd gone back on my word.

I forced my hand to relax, releasing my hold on Bella's gaze. She didn't move as the dark sawdust sullied the creamy carpet, and I sighed my failure. I still believed that her accusations were without merit, and I reserved the right to defend myself against them.

But not with fear.

She'd had enough of that for one lifetime.

Keeping my eyes down, I rose from the floor in a flash and extended a hand to my bewildered beloved. She hesitated a telling moment before accepting my help. Murmuring her thanks as she reached her feet, Bella sought her nightclothes which were tangled in the mess I'd made of the bed. In like manner, I walked to the bureau and opened the drawers, covering my nakedness and shame with the first casual items my hands touched.

Pulling the long-sleeved black thermal shirt over my head, I closed my eyes and counted backwards from ten thousand. The seven-second enterprise lasted long enough to bring me back to myself, and I felt in control once again.

I turned back to my bride, briefly noting how my ancient Harvard sweatshirt hung off her left shoulder, and folded my hands in front of my mouth. "You are so angry with me, with all of us," I began. "And for the life of me, I cannot figure out why. Help me understand."

She furrowed her brow, and her heart rate increased. "I don't know if I can."

I further softened my voice. "Try."

Her eyes flitted toward the window, and she stared at the sky for a long moment. After expelling a loud breath, she turned back to me and folded her arms across her chest. "I understand that Alice and Jasper had their silent way of talking to each other, that being vampires gave them that advantage. But why didn't you tell me that my life wasn't in danger? Why didn't you tell me what was going on?"

"How could I have done that, love?" I asked again. "Anything you heard, Victoria would have heard as well. And had she discovered our plans, she would have killed your father. Surely you can see that."

The stubborn set of her chin said otherwise. "Your eyes."

"What?"

"I can read your eyes as clearly as I hear your voice," she said. " You could have told me with your eyes that you had a plan."

"And then what?" My resolve faltered a bit at this belated suggestion, but I refuse to concede the point. "Had you known there was something in the works, you would have second-guessed yourself at every turn, trying to help me instead of following your instincts. Victoria would have sensed your confusion and pounced on it.

"Besides which, you're a terrible liar," I smirked. "So any attempt to persuade Victoria that your stilted reactions were in earnest would have failed and possibly cost you your life. I was in no way willing to take that chance."

Bella studied me, and I held her gaze, searching her eyes for a concession. But she shrugged and shifted her weight to the other foot. "You should have given me the choice."

I was unmoved. "That was not your call to make."

Her eyes flashed, and I felt her response before she formed it. "So now you're making my decisions for me?"

"In a case like this, yes."

Her reply was acidic. "And what gives you that right?"

I stepped across the invisible divide and took hold of her left hand. "This," I said. "This gives me that right. When I swore in front of God and our family and friends that I would live for you as long as I lived, I took upon myself the full responsibility for you and your life. So regardless of what Victoria decreed, regardless of what you might have wanted, it was always my decision."

"What kind of Neanderthal bullshit is that?" she snapped. "Because you're my husband, you get to run my life?"

"Not run," I said with surprising restraint. "Protect. 'Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it,'" I recited.

Confusion tainted the blush that spread across her cheeks. "What?"

"The book of Ephesians, chapter five, verse twenty-five," I explained. "Carlisle inscribed those words on each of the diamond cufflinks I wore on our wedding day. He said that in this verse was contained the essence of my new role as your husband, the mandate by which I must thereafter live whether you approved of my methods or not.

"I am your covering," I continued as she sought to refute me. "Your perpetual shield against life's assaults. Nothing is more important to me than preserving your life. Not your opinions or your preferences, and if the circumstances are ominous enough, not even your feelings."

She looked as if she'd been slapped. "My feelings don't matter?"

"I would rather have you alive and angry," I replied, "than dead and anything else."

My diction drained the color from her face, but I could not regret it. She needed to understand the severity of the situation she had just escaped.

Her eyes slid their focus to her bare feet, and I listened with curiosity as her heart rate spiked. "You didn't seem to feel that way a few hours ago," she muttered.

Even with my otherworldly hearing, the words barely reached my ears. "What?"

She seemed to steel herself as she raised stormy eyes to mine. "You almost killed me."

I shook my head. "No."

"Yes," she nodded. "I could see the resignation in your eyes, felt the goodbye in your kiss." Her bottom lip quivered, but her tone revealed her anger. "After months of refusing my decision to become like you, you were not only going to let me die but do the deed yourself."

"I would never have done that," I said, keeping the tightest possible leash on my heating indignation. "No matter what you saw or felt."

"I don't know if I believe you," she scoffed. "And how can I trust you when you were willing to throw my life away so easily?"

"Easily?" I hissed. "You think it was easy for me to pretend that I was going to kill you? To graze your fair skin with my teeth not to pleasure but to suggest pain? Do you think for one earthly minute that it didn't tear me apart to stand there and convince you that after everything we had survived, after all our promises and plans for an immortal future that I would be willing to sacrifice it all, sacrifice you in order to save your father?"

"You didn't try to stop me!" she shouted. "You just accepted my choice without hesitating, as if… as if you wanted me to die!"

"What would you have had me do?" I countered. "Compound your pain with my own? Waste time convincing you to let your father die so you could stay with me?"

"Yes!" she cried.

"You would have hated for me that! You would have accused me of not supporting your decision or not valuing your family the way you value mine. And we would have ended up right here, with you hating me for trying to protect you."

"You should have fought for me, Edward!" she insisted. "You should have fought harder to save my life instead of…"

"I was fighting to save your life!" I roared, the force of my voice causing Bella to back up against my closet door. "From the moment I first caught your tantalizing scent in that lunchroom, I have fought my family, my enemies, and even my own instincts to save your life! I fled the state when I feared that I might not be strong enough to resist the lure of your blood. I risked exposing my family's secret and ruin the lives we'd so carefully built to prevent that van from crushing you to death. I saved you from those savages in Port Angeles to keep your innocence alive. I even planned to whisk you out of the country to save you from James when my efforts to trap him failed. I have rescued you, courted you, married you, made love to you, and promised to spend my entire life caring for you. Why the hell would I have done that if I wanted you to die?"

My emotional explosion had taken all of the fight out of me, and I sunk to the floor in a defeated heap. I closed my eyes as the room seemed to spin around me, feeling physically ill for the first time in my existence. Anger, frustration, and something akin to nausea rolled through my body like a tempest, and I had never felt so thoroughly abased. As I was equally repulsed by her accusation and my tone, it took every bit of my remaining courage to meet her gaze.

Startled brown eyes met mine, and I prayed they could see the apology in mine. I dragged myself toward her and was relieved that she didn't recoil from the movement. Scanning her eyes for permission, I reached for her hands from my position on the floor, caressing them as gently as I could.

"Bella." My voice was a ragged whisper. "How could you believe that I wanted you to die? That I could ever, under any circumstances, for any reason in heaven or earth, take your life? Do you still not know how much I love you? Have I somehow failed to convey the depth of my devotion or the lengths to which I would go to secure your happiness? How, Bella? How could you ever believe me to be so vile?"

"I…" Bella's voice broke as a few tears escaped her eyes. "It wasn't just you, Edward. They abandoned me—Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, Emmett. I know now that they were just trying to help, that the fight between Alice and Rose was staged…"

"Okay. Then how could you blame them?"

"Because I didn't know it then," she muttered. "I didn't know any of this then. All I knew was that half of my family had left me to die, and my husband seemed poised and ready to end my life himself."

I shook my head, fearing that I might not be able to pull her out of this loop. "You truly believed that I was going to kill you?"

Bella was silent for much longer than the desired answer would require, her eyes hooded and betraying nothing. And just when I thought that I would go mad with waiting, she shook her head once.

Relief flooded through me and washed away my fears, leaving a discomforting displeasure in its wake. "So if you knew that, why are so angry?"

"Because you left me out," she whispered. "Everyone knew what was happening but me."

"And the Denalis," I clarified. "They had no knowledge of our plans."

"But we are a family," she said. "And I could not believe that all of you let me believe the worst instead of finding a way to tell me the truth."

I caressed her hands, debating. "Do you want the truth?" I asked after a moment.

"Yes," she sighed.

"Leaving you clueless was the key to our success."

Confusion crisscrossed her face. "I don't understand."

"For all of our subterfuge and scheming, none of it would have worked had Victoria received the smallest inkling that you were not afraid for your life and the life of your father. Leaving you in the dark ensured that your every reaction was genuine. Your heart rate, your fidgeting, your frantic stares and questions, they all cemented Victoria's belief that we had given up hope. And because she believed that, relished it even, we found the time and opportunity to defeat her." I ventured a smile. "In essence, your ignorance saved the day."

I fell silent as Bella chewed on this explanation. "I hear what you're saying," she conceded at length. "And I understand why my parents and siblings excluded me. But we are partners, Edward. And even if everyone else lied, you should have told me the truth."

I lowered my voice. "Like you did in Phoenix?"

She blinked at the subject change. "I'm sorry?"

"In Phoenix, after we lost James' trail, you were supposed to wait for me at the airport so I could take you to Europe and hide you among some old friends of Carlisle and me. You promised to be there with Alice and Jasper when I arrived."

She bit her lip as I continued. "But you weren't. James tricked you into believing that he had kidnapped Renee. And instead of trusting my family, instead of trusting me with the truth, you slipped away and went to James alone, leaving me with nothing but a letter and a chilling fear for your life."

I shook off the sensation as I remembered. "I was terrified that we would find you too late, but that emotion was in a dead-heat with the blinding rage I felt when Alice told me that you'd disappeared. I was livid that you did not tell me what James had done, incredulous that you would choose to face the possible end of your life without me by your side. Alice was so furious at your deception that half of the damage to the hotel was done to expel her feelings. To say nothing of Jasper. He was inconsolable."

"Why?" she squeaked.

"He was your guardian," I murmured, "and because you rejected his protection, he felt as if he failed you."

Bella covered her face with her hands, her body shaking with the effort not to cry.

"Love, I understand why you feel betrayed," I continued as I rose to face her. "Why you're angry that we left you out of the decision-making in the field. But it was not for a lack of respect or trust or because we see you as any less of a Cullen because you're human. It was only because we were on a time-sensitive mission to save your life and the life of your father. Anything else, everything else was a distant second in importance.

"Tell me you know that, Bella." I cradled her face in my hands, pleading with my eyes. "Tell me that you no longer doubt our love for you, my love for you, my desire to spend the rest of my life showing you how much I need and…"

My pleas for understanding were interrupted by the sudden press of Bella's lips to mine. I was shocked by their warmth, aroused by their eagerness, and unable to do anything less than ravish them in gratitude. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and despite their feather-light hold, I could feel her determination as she held me. I kissed her cheeks, her forehead, her nose, and her lips, tasting her apologies as they peppered the air.

"I am so sorry…" she whimpered against my mouth.

"I know, love…"

"I should never have doubted you…"

I buried my face in her neck, suckling the fragrant skin there.

She sighed in pleasure and regret. "This was all my fault…"

"No!" My head snapped up to meet her eyes. "This was all Victoria's fault. She set this in motion. She kidnapped your father to pit us against each other. She wanted us to hate each other, to tear us apart no matter what was decided. She tried to come between us, and she paid for that mistake with her miserable life." My gaze intensified. "She is the one to blame, Bella. Not you."

Bella nodded but couldn't quell her crying. "I was just so frightened and angry and frustrated and…"

I brought her head to rest against my shoulder as I lifted and carried her to the crumpled mass that used to be our bed. She clung to me as I lowered us to the floor, creating some sort of order from the cushy chaos. Propping the pillows against the resilient headboard, I rocked her as she wailed, humming her lullaby as the balance of her emotions spilled onto my neck and chest.

I kissed her tears as they fell onto her cheeks, my lips moving toward her mouth on their own accord. The combination of salty and sweet overwhelmed my palette, and my cravings began to desire a different flavor altogether. Our kisses became feverishly focused, and when Bella pulled me on top of her, I was all too happy to oblige.

Limbs and sheets entangled atop the mattress as we reveled in our reunion, seeking with our bodies the connected our hearts had rediscovered. Bella's hands were under my shirt, the pleasant heat from her palms warming me from the inside out. I lifted my arms so she could remove my shirt, and as she kissed her way from my collarbone to my earlobe, I cupped her face once more.

"I love you, Isabella Marie Cullen," I murmured.

"As I love you, Edward Anthony Masen Cullen." Her eyes were moist as she smiled up at me. "Thank you for saving my life."

I dropped my gaze to her parted lips, and my mouth soon followed. And for the rest of the night, we spoke without words in a timeless language that we could both understand.

I had very different plans for this chapter, but Bella and Edward chose to shut out the rest of the world to repair the damage Victoria had done. As a result, they've changed the trajectory of the story's end. There are still one or two chapters before the lengthy epilogue, but I'm not sure what they'll contain, LOL! Edward and Bella completely derailed my plans, but as this is really their story, I trust their judgment :)

I know which loose ends are on my radar, but what say you? Is there anything in particular you'd like me to address? I can't promise to include it all, but I'd love your input.

Lastly, in alphabetical order, I have some amazing recs to share! Check my Favorites for the Links.

"An Angry Man" by katinki. 'Edward is a bitter, angry man, a man suffering the sins of his past. An emotional & physical recluse, he pushes everyone away. That is, until Bella, a mysterious woman with her own demons, moves in and forces him to face himself. AH' This fic is so moving and layered that I hardly have the words for it.

For my fellow Pride & Prejudice lovers, "An Unwanted Engagement" by LilLamb24. 'Darcy reluctantly becomes engaged to Caroline prior to joining Charles at Netherfield. Can he face a lifetime in a loveless marriage when he finally meets the woman of his dreams?' This delightful, nearly complete story is well-written and has many delectable moments between Darcy and Lizzy. If you wished there were more of those in canon-and who among us didn't-this fic is for you!

"Downward Spiral" by content1. 'Post-BD EU. Captured by the Volturi, Edward faces a nightmarish choice as Aro enacts a diabolical plan to break him. As Edward's hold on his sanity weakens, only his memories of Bella help him stay strong as he faces the ultimate test.' The premise is fascinating, the writing amazing, and you will find one of the most beautiful complex Edwards ever written.

Also by katinki, "Requiem." 'For seven decades, he has worn the collar of faith and service. Wandering the earth alone, he's searched for redemption and for the soul he can never possess. Until now - when a young woman enters his world and shatters everything he ever believed.' This completed AU fic is so beautifully haunting that it will literally bring tears to your eyes.