For anyone who may be confused by some of the reviews up referring to a hilarious joke that fooled everyone, for April Fool's Day, I originally posted up a "fake" chapter 36 called "Foolish." I moved it to a one-shot of the same name so that I could maintain the proper story continuity. Feel free to check it out in my profile if you missed the joke. =) The real chapter is below! Enjoy!

I do not own Twilight or any of its characters.

Chapter Thirty-Six – Speech

I stared at Alice, stunned. Out of my peripheral vision, I could see that I wasn't the only one. Everyone was gaping at her. I expected Edward to start doing his obnoxious "having half of a conversation in front of us" thing, but the expression on his face was one of disbelief, and he merely shook his head. Nessie was the first to break the silence.

"What?" she sniffled. "How am I a genius? I called Jacob a—"

"We all heard it, Ness," I cut her off. Edward hadn't said a word about her rare outburst when it happened, but I was pretty sure he might actually chastise her if she repeated herself. He rolled his eyes at me, and I had no idea whether that was supposed to mean that I was right or wrong.

Nessie nodded. "Right, of course you did," she murmured miserably. She took a deep breath. "I'm sorry you all had to hear that."

"Don't apologize, Nessie," Rosalie croaked firmly. "He had it coming to him."

"Can we please get back to Alice's plan?" I interrupted desperately. "Ness, we're all very sorry about what happened with Jacob and none of us blames you for your reaction. I'd be more than happy to talk to you about it at length a little later, but right now, if Alice has an idea of how to help Aro, I think we all need to hear it." I forced myself to gaze at Aro's writhing form on our couch, although it was painful to behold. "We owe him that much," I added.

Nessie nodded again, wiping away tears on her sleeve. "How do we help Aro?" she whispered.

Alice had a slight smirk on her face, but wasn't smiling as broadly as she usually did when she had a brilliant plan. "I realized when Nessie and Jacob were arguing that Nessie can get over Jacob much more easily than he can get over her," she began.

"Alice, sweetheart, I think they want you to get to the point," Jasper told her gently.

Alice pouted slightly. She had a flair for the dramatic and didn't appreciate being asked to cut to the chase. Normally, we didn't have much trouble indulging her, but with Aro in excruciating pain, every second counted. She caught the impatience in our stares and sighed, relenting. "We have to get Aro to let go of Sulpicia," she explained.

"Won't that cause her to turn into a human too?" Esme asked anxiously. "Traveling with Marcus, that would surely put her life at risk."

"I don't think so," Alice said slowly. "I think that since Sulpicia has already severed the mate bond, Aro letting go of her won't have that effect on her any longer. The only reason it worked that way with Emmett and Rosalie was because Rosalie had already come back and accepted Emmett as her mate again."

"Even if it does endanger her life, at this point, there's a lot more at stake," Jasper said reasonably. "I know you value the sanctity of human life highly, Esme, and none of us wants to have to sacrifice her life for the rest of us, but we're talking about one life compared to all of us, all of the wolves, and everyone the Volturi will senselessly murder while Caius rules alone."

Carlisle nodded soberly. "It's not a sacrifice we would be willing to make lightly, but I agree with Jasper in this case. We don't know whether Sulpicia would become human, and if she did, we don't know that Marcus would harm her. He certainly has control of his bloodlust. He is thousands of years old, not a crazed newborn who wouldn't be able to resist the urge to drink from the nearest human. I think we need to be willing to risk the small chance that Sulpicia could be placed in danger, given the near certainty that we will all perish if we don't at least try Alice's plan."

I pursed my lips. "How do we get him to let go of Sulpicia? Have any of you ever tried to let go of your mates?" Edward stiffened. "Not exactly easy, is it?"

"No," Edward spoke quietly. "I would wager to say it was the most difficult thing I have ever attempted to do, and I still failed."

"More importantly, Alice, why do you think this would work?" Nessie asked curiously. She had all but regained control of herself, but she was still speaking into Edward's shoulder as he maintained his grip on her.

"It's mostly just a theory, I'll admit," Alice confessed. "It makes sense though. Emmett's transformation wasn't exactly normal, as he pointed out. He was still able to transform though. Either that was because Rosalie came back, or it was because he was able to let her go."

I was still listening to Alice's thoughts when I realized that the others were staring at me, waiting for me to say something. "Uh…" I shifted uncomfortably, automatically reaching for Rosalie's hand. "I suppose it was a little of both. Rose, I'm so sorry."

Rosalie shook her head. "Don't be. I forced your hand."

"Alice, can you see it working?" Carlisle asked.

"No," Alice sounded crestfallen. "I don't know if that means it won't work or if it just means that there are too many factors in the way. I think we should try though. What have we got to lose?"

"Aro?" Carlisle asked. "Aro, can you hear me?"

Aro opened his mouth to reply, but instead of words, what came out was a long, agonized shriek of pure suffering.

"I think that's a yes," Jasper said.

"He's heard everything," Edward spoke up in a clipped tone. "You needn't have asked him."

"Sorry, Son," Carlisle directed his words back to Aro again. "Aro, my old friend. I know what we're asking of you is tantamount to impossible. You must try though. You must. Your life, my life, my family's life, everything depends upon it."

"No pressure though," I said under my breath. Rosalie punched me in the arm, hurting her hand. "Don't do that, babe," I scolded her gently, wrapping my fingers around hers to cool them and prevent swelling.

"Emmett has a point though," Jasper remarked. "Telling him that he has to let go of Sulpicia because we're all going to die if he doesn't is a bit intense."

"It's true though," Nessie whispered, her eyes welling up with tears again. I was sure this was due more to her argument with Jacob than to her impending doom. She was just like her mother in so many ways.

"That's not the point," Alice grumbled. "I'm sure he knows it's true. I can tell you right now though, that approach won't work."

"Then what—" Carlisle began.

"I don't know," Alice replied, frustrated. "I have to get out of here so I can see. Jasper, you stay here to try to help Aro in any way you can." Jasper nodded, but Alice didn't hang around to see it. She was out the door as soon as the words had left her mouth.

"I ruin everything," Nessie wailed. She began sobbing inconsolably again.

"That's not true, Nessie," Rosalie whispered, clutching her sore throat.

"Yes it is," Nessie sobbed. "Alice would be able to see if I wasn't here."

"No one blames you for that, sweetie," Esme moved to Edward's side to comfort Nessie. "Alice can usually see around you somewhat, it's just that for something this important, she needs to see with more precision."

"Do you think my being here, this close to Aro, is still causing problems?" Nessie said in between sniffles.

"Perhaps we should go to the cottage, just to be on the safe side," Edward suggested.

"Daddy, no, Aro needs you here," Nessie's voice was firm, despite her nonstop flow of tears. "I'll just head there."

"Nessie, you shouldn't be alone right now," Edward told her.

"I'll go with her," I volunteered. I didn't really want to be away from Rosalie for that long, but Edward was absolutely right. Nessie shouldn't be alone right now. Besides, being away from Rosalie and Aro might do me some good. Venom had been pooling in my mouth for the past thirty minutes, and it was becoming almost impossible to concentrate. I didn't think I was going to do much good if all I could think was don't kill them, don't kill them, don't kill them.

"Thank you, Emmett," Nessie whispered. "Will Rosalie be all right?"

"I'll be fine," Rosalie whispered. "I'm very tired anyway. I think I should go back to sleep. Between being pregnant and being sick, it's all I can do to keep my eyes open."

I moved to pick Rosalie up, but Edward intervened. "Esme, would you mind taking Rosalie back to bed so Emmett and Nessie can be on their way?" I cast him a grateful look. I didn't mind taking care of Rosalie in the slightest, but being a newborn did make it rather trying to be around humans for long.

"Of course, dear." Esme lifted Rosalie in a swift motion and moved quickly but gracefully to the stairs, taking care not to jostle her.

"C'mon Ness, let's blow this popsicle stand," I said, doing my best to be as upbeat as possible.

"What's a popsicle stand?" Nessie asked.

"Never mind, let's go," I grinned. Once we stepped outside, breathing in the fresh air that was untainted with the aroma of human blood did wonders for my ability to think straight. I really should feed, and soon.

"Ness, I know I promised your dad I'd take you to the cabin, but..." Nessie eyeballed me suspiciously, her face still red and puffy. I cringed inwardly. The girl was having a really rough time. I shouldn't be so insensitive. Still, I did have to think of my own needs too. "Do you mind if I grab something to eat first?" I finished.

"Oh!" Nessie exclaimed. "I'm so sorry, Emmett. This must be just awful for you, being around Rosalie and Aro. Here I am crying my eyes out because some jerk of a man was being unreasonable, and you're having a much harder time of things than I am. I'm such a selfish, insufferable—"

"Nessie, cut it out. You're not any of those things," I interrupted her. "You're having a bad day. We all have them."

"You don't," she pointed out.

I stared at her incredulously. "Were you there a couple of weeks ago?"

"That was different!" Nessie exclaimed. "Your own mate rejected you. How were you supposed to react?"

I sighed. I couldn't very well point out to Nessie that the exact same thing had just happened to her, not when I'd been the one that she had come to when she was feeling uncertain about the direction her relationship with Jacob should take. I felt certain that, sooner or later, she and Jacob would wind up together, but this was a reality she had to meet on her own terms. If I tried to tell her my thoughts on the topic, it would only make her want to prove me wrong. Instead of pointing out the truth as I saw it, I masterfully changed the subject.

"So, food?" I asked.

Nessie folded her arms over her chest and pouted. "Rosalie's right you know. All you ever think about is blood, blood, blood."

I waited patiently for her to give me a yes or no answer. If I wasn't already made of immortal stone-flesh and venom-blood, my stomach would be grumbling. "Fine!" she finally threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. "Let's go get you some blood. Just don't whine."

"I never whine!" I protested. I realized my voice sounded a little whiny as I said that, so I clamped my mouth shut. Out of my peripheral vision, I could see Nessie smirking. Good. Better for her to laugh at my expense than keep crying, no matter how justified her tears. We trotted off into the woods together, with me forcing myself to keep pace with Nessie. Edward would never forgive me if I left her alone even for a minute when she was this distraught.

We found some deer before too long. I wished we had the time to go on a longer hunting trip, but it was just unreasonable to even consider it with Nessie along. Ordinarily, Nessie would stand off to the side and watch curiously when we hunted, but on this occasion, she shocked me by taking down a deer of her own.

"You all right?" I asked her when I had polished off my own meal.

"Yeah," she replied, sounding ashamed of herself. She looked thoughtful.

"You know, none of us would be upset if you decided to drink animal blood instead of eating human food," I informed her.

"I know that." She sighed and sank to the grass, wrapping her arms around her knees. I sat down beside her, looking straight ahead and waiting for her to gather her thoughts. "I don't want to change my diet. I just thought maybe treating myself a little might make me feel better."

"Did it?"

"No," she answered immediately. "I don't even understand what I'm so upset about." I do, I thought, but I wasn't about to tell her that. We continued to sit in the forest in silence for a little while longer, until Nessie finally rose from the ground and turned, without a word, heading in the direction of the cottage. We made our way there slowly, deliberately, going at roughly the pace of a human stroll. I wished there was something I could say to ease Nessie's pain.

Bella was already at the cottage by the time we got there. She must have finally finished up with Charlie and been filled in on the details when she arrived back at the main house. "Hey guys," she called out.

"Hey," I replied noncommittally. "How's Charlie?"

"I finally got him to go to sleep. He kept insisting that he's 'not going to let a little old bug keep him down.' Sue looked like she might smack him with a spoon, baseball bat, or anything else she had handy." Bella snorted. "She's never liked us too much, of course, but I think even she was relieved to have my help for a few hours. Do you think Alice's idea about Aro will work?" She switched subjects without another thought.

"Maybe, if we can somehow get him to do the impossible, I guess," I mumbled. "I don't know what we're going to do if we can't though. We don't really have a lot of options."

Bella sighed. "I can't believe the wolves would actually prefer that we let Aro suffer that kind of excruciating torment rather than putting him out of his misery. It's unimaginably cruel." She carefully avoided Jacob's name. Obviously, Edward must have filled her in pretty carefully on the precise details of what had transpired.

I couldn't think of a single thing to say in response, so I just nodded sadly. "Well, if you're going to be staying here with Nessie, I think I'll head back home and see if anybody's heard from Alice yet. I hate sitting around not being able to do anything."

Nessie flopped facefirst onto Bella's couch, and Bella gave me an apologetic smile as she trailed in after her daughter. I took that as my cue to leave.

Back at the house again, I couldn't figure out how to handle Aro's presence. Should I try to ignore him and pretend he wasn't there? That seemed like a horrible way to treat a friend. Was I really thinking of Aro as a friend? Well, what else could he be considered to be?

I knelt down on the floor beside Aro's head, placing my elbows on the couch beside him and resting my chin on my hands. I stared at him in silence for awhile, hoping that my compassion and caring for his well-being could somehow be felt by him despite the torture he was enduring. "Aro, buddy," I whispered. His head jerked slightly in response, so I knew he was listening. "I know it's hard. I know it. I've been there. Letting go... It's the hardest thing you'll ever do. But it's the right thing to do. For you, and for her." Aro turned his head to face away from me, which I took to mean that my words of advice were unwelcome. I sighed and went back to watching on quietly.

Less than a minute later, Carlisle's phone rang. "What just happened?" Alice's voice shrieked on the other end. Carlisle went ahead and put her on speaker. "Something just happened. Everything just changed. I can see things so much clearer now."

"Nessie left in case she was interfering with your visions," Esme supplied helpfully.

"No, no, no, I figured that out half an hour ago. Something just happened. What was it? I need to know," Alice pleaded.

"Um," I spoke up uncomfortably. "I said something to Aro."

"Whatever you were saying, I think you were on the right track," Alice chirped excitedly. "I got a flash of him becoming a vampire. It only lasted for a few seconds, but it was perfectly crystal clear."

Great. The entire future of my family depending on my ability to figure out the right thing to say?

We were doomed.

"So what do I do now?" I asked, not daring to voice my thoughts aloud. "Just keep randomly talking out of my rear end to Aro and hope that something sticks and causes him to re-evaluate his priorities?"

"Could you?" Alice asked, completely missing the sarcastic tone of my voice.

I sighed. "Alice, you know how insane this is, right?"

"Well it's all we've got," Alice replied. "Wait, before you get started, let me head home, since Nessie isn't there to block my visions anymore. I can give you feedback on what I see working and what I see failing."

That was something, at least. We weren't relying completely on my admittedly dubious loquacity. I'd have Alice as a failsafe. "Fine," I grudgingly agreed. "Hurry back. I don't want to have too much time to overthink what I'm saying."

"I'm on my way now. Edward, smack Emmett if he starts thinking too much," Alice commanded before hanging up her phone.

"Well, that's a sentence I never expected anyone to say," I muttered quietly. What was I going to say to Aro? What had I said before that was right? What if I said the wrong thing? Suddenly, something hit me in the side of the head.

"Hey!" I complained. I located the object on the ground near me. It was one of the controllers to one of my gaming systems. "Be careful with my stuff, you jerk!"

"Sorry," Edward grinned. "Just following orders."

I grumbled and went back to watching Aro. He seemed mildly interested in what was going on around him, since he must have head the conversation with Alice. I decided not to give any more thought to what I was going to say to him until she got here. I really didn't want the TV ripped off the wall and chucked at my head. I hoped she was planning to hurry. Watching him like this was terrible. As far as I was concerned, Aro was an honorary Cullen.

"I think we all feel the same way, to a degree," Edward remarked quietly. I remained silent. I knew I had no reason to feel this way, but I was a little embarrassed to voice my thoughts aloud in front of Aro.

After what felt like an eternity, Alice finally returned. "Good grief woman, how far away did you go?" I grumbled.

"I'm sorry. I had to see," Alice replied. "Now, what exactly did you say to Aro?" I recapped my musings for her, still having difficulty believing that anything I'd said had made a difference. "Oh, I see," Alice seemed lost in thought.

"Yes, I agree," Edward chimed in. After a short pause, he continued. "Well, that theory makes the most sense. After all, what reason does he have... Precisely."

"Will you two knock it off?" I leapt up from the ground, fists clenched, ready for a fight. "Do you have any idea how irritating that is?"

"Calm down," Jasper said softly, working to help me to do exactly that.

"Sorry," I mumbled.

"He is still a newborn, you guys," Jasper chastised his wife and brother. "You might show a little consideration for his emotional state."

"Oops," Alice giggled. "I was thinking that Aro must have reacted when you said that it was the right thing to do for Sulpicia. I think that perhaps he doesn't care about himself anymore at all, after finally feeling remorse for his past actions. Edward confirmed that Aro doesn't really think he deserves to live after all the terrible things he's done, and the only reason he even remotely wants to go on is because he wants to help us."

Alice's words stabbed through my heart with the force of a thousand razor blades. "He's a changed man," I protested. "Anyone can see that. Yes, he's done terrible things, but—"

"That's not the point right now," Alice cut me off with a wave of her hand. "We have all the time in the world to work on improving his self-esteem later. Right now, we need him to find a reason to let go of his wife, and it seems like the only thing that's ever come close was when you said it was the best thing for her."

I pondered that. "I don't think that's going to be strong enough," I mused aloud. "When I went through this, I knew intellectually that letting go was the right thing to do. It didn't give me some magical capacity to unravel decades of emotions and memories, fuzzy and inaccessible though they were." I flapped my arms uselessly in frustration. I knew what I was trying to express, but the right words weren't coming to me.

Edward tilted his head to one side. "I regret that I didn't spend more time with you during this period. I might have gained valuable insight into what did finally enable you to let go."

I shuffled my feet uncomfortably. I knew exactly what had allowed me to let go. I just didn't want to say it in case Rosalie woke up and could hear me. This wasn't exactly a comfortable topic. Just as it was hard for Edward to talk about the time when he'd left Bella, I didn't want to think about the time that Rosalie and I had been at odds.

"I understand," Edward told me sincerely. "If it wasn't of the utmost importance, we would never ask you to speak of it."

"Oh, Emmett, you know that's true," Alice cried out, surprising me by throwing her arms around me in a death-grip embrace. "I'm sorry; we know how hard this is for you, and if there were any other choice at all, we wouldn't push you like this."

Esme stepped to my side and patted my shoulder reassuringly. "None of us will think any less of you, dear. If you know of any way to help Aro—"

"Yes," I blurted out. "I was able to let go of Rosalie when I got angry with her. God, I'm so sorry," I whispered the last sentence. If Alice hadn't still had her arms around me, I would have sunk to my knees. "I was so furious with her. I blamed her for everything, the burning, the suffering I'd endured by being displaced, the misery of facing life alone. I pinned all of it on her and I... I think I hated her for it." I might be a pretty manly fellow, but if I still had tears in me, I'd be crying them right now.

Alice gasped and backed away from me, taking my hand firmly in hers as she did so. "That must have been so difficult for you to say," she cooed soothingly as Jasper watched on, helping me to relax.

"Aro?" Edward said. "Have you considered the possibility that, had Sulpicia simply accepted what you had done, you would never have had to endure the humiliation of being cared for by the very family you had actively hunted and attempted to acquire in the past?" He waited a few moments. "Yes, I realize that you've come to conclude that you shouldn't have pursued us with such fervor. Please believe me when I say that we all appreciate that conclusion. Nevertheless, it must have been degrading to you in the beginning." Edward sighed and addressed the rest of us. "He feels that she had every right to react the way she did."

"Bull," I blurted out. Alice's head snapped back to face me, and a slow smile formed on her face. She nodded encouragingly. "People mess up. People make mistakes. Vampires have a lot bigger capacity to mess up and make even bigger mistakes. You forgive the people you love for their mistakes. Look at Edward. He left Carlisle and Esme for years and killed more humans than the rest of us combined. Do they hold that over his head? Did they turn him away when he came back?" I was starting to get myself riled up. I felt like I needed an actual soap box to stand on.

"No," I continued boldly. "They welcomed him back with open arms and forgave him on the spot. Why do you suppose that is? Because they love him, that's why. Almost all of us have killed people. Rosalie never drank from the people she killed, but she did kill them. Has Carlisle ever held that against any of us? Have any of the others? We've had to leave town on a moment's notice because one of us slipped up and killed someone or did something in front of a human that made them too suspicious. None of us has ever said 'well, you've had too many strikes, time for you to get out of here.' None of us has even thought it."

"It's true," Edward confirmed. "No one in this family has ever considered abandoning anyone else."

Alice's eyes had become unfocused. I paused, waiting for her to say something. Her eyes returned to their normal state. "Keep going," she whispered.

"That's what people do when they love each other," I went on. "They accept their mistakes and past transgressions and move on. They help each other. They don't just turn tail and run or send people off to fend for themselves. Yes, Aro, what you did was pretty awful, but if Sulpicia really loved you like she claimed to, she would have found a way to handle it, or to let you help her handle it. If she really loved you like a mate does, she wouldn't have been able to just let go like that, even if part of her wanted to."

"That's it!" Alice exclaimed. "That did it!"

"Does that mean I can stop preaching?" I felt suddenly very self-conscious of all the eyes on me. I had the undivided attention of the entire room. I wasn't big on long speeches, and I'd just made one of the longest of my entire life. To my surprise, Esme began clapping her hands softly. Alice was next to join in, followed by Edward, Jasper, and Carlisle.

"Come on guys, knock it off," I complained, hanging my head in embarrassment.

Aro let out a long shriek, then at last, he stopped clutching at his throat.

Carlisle stopped clapping to touch a hand to Aro's forehead. "It worked," he announced. "His fever is gone. He should complete the transformation as normal now."

"He'll have you to thank when he wakes up," Alice grinned. "Oh, Edward, look! He's going to have normal vampire skin again."

"I had wondered about that," Edward remarked. "Well, now that this is settled, does anyone object if I call my wife and daughter and ask them to join us?"

I snorted. Edward must be going nuts, spending an entire day without Bella and a couple of hours without Nessie. He shot me a dirty look, but made no verbal mention of my thoughts.

"That should be fine," Alice confirmed. "I don't think there's anything pressing I need to see now. For the moment, everything seems to be as close to normal as it's going to be."

Thank goodness. I excused myself from my circle of admirers to head upstairs and watch over my angel as she slept. What exactly was "normal" for us anyway?