A/N: My, you are all so angry with Edward! But keep in mind that, per canon, vampires are frozen, and change is rare. His heart is still that of a 17 year old. It's why he can love Bella so purely, why he doesn't want to take her life, and why he... well, let's face it, testosterone poisoning has no age limit. *smirk* Apologies to my unicorn ;-)

Voting is still active on the next story ideas. Roboward is winning, but only by 1!


Rosalie's POV

I knew that there was no sneaking up on Emo Boy, what with that whole mind reading thing, so I stationed Emmett on the ground outside of his window, and I marched into his room. Fortunately, he was being so apathetic (emphasis on pathetic) that the precaution wasn't necessary. He was just laying there on his bed, clutching Bella's pillow.

"Wakey wakey, moron!" I kicked the side of the bed gently, just enough to make it jump off of the floor a few inches and slam back down. I walked to the window, letting Emmett know he could go.

"Fuck off, Rose," Edward whispered.

"Oh, no. No, no, shit-for-brains. You're going to listen, for once. What the hell were you thinking? Bella is the best thing that's ever happened to you, and you've decided that she's not good enough to be one of us?" I knew I wasn't being completely fair to him, but he had to get his head out of his ass long enough to see reason.

"That's not- look, it's none of your business. Can't you just leave me alone?" He turned over, facing away from me, and that just pissed me off all the more.

"None of my business?" I shrieked. "Let me tell you something, pal; it is my business because I make it my business! I love her, too! She's my sister, asshole."

"That wasn't your opinion when she first arrived," he grumbled.

"Yeah? And a person can't change her opinion? I'll admit that, at first, I was against you bringing her here, making her a vampire. But I got to know her, got to find out just how kick-ass awesome she is, and yeah, I fell in love with her too. Just like the whole family did, because she's just that wonderful. And you," I threw my hands in the air, "you tell her she can't be one of us, one of our family, and when she leaves you for it, you let her go!" I don't recall ever being that angry before.

He sat up, then, "How can you, of all people, stand there and tell me that you're okay with taking away her life?" he thundered.

My goal was to get him angry, angry enough to talk. Now we were getting somewhere. "What do you mean?" I asked slyly.

"You were the one who was so destroyed over what you had become, what Carlisle did to you that you wanted to kill us all! And you have the nerve to stand there and berate me for not doing the same thing to the woman I love? You're a hypocrite, Rosalie," he hissed.

"Am I? Did I have a choice over what was done to me?" When he remained silent, so I answered for him, "No, I did not. But Bella has a choice. And she's choosing our life. She's choosing immortality. She's choosing you, you buffoon! Tell me, what sort of life is she going to have when she's deaf and blind?"

There was a trace of a crack in his bravado, "I... I would take care of her."

I'm sure my eyeroll was nearly audible, "Can you put yourself in her place for one minute, Edward? Can you imagine what it's going to be like? Even with you being her caretaker? Not her husband, her nurse. No music, no light, no color. How happy will she be?"

He stared at me for a moment, and then he was just gone, out the window and into the woods.

I threw my hands up in exasperation. If he didn't get his act together, I was going to New York to change her myself.

Edward's POV

Okay, fine. I was running away.

But it just seemed so cruel, Rosalie reminding me of what Bella's life would be, and not too far into the future at that.

Just cruel.

I mean, we have no idea if venom would cure her, or reverse the damage that's already done. Right?

I only got a mile or two into the forest when I heard Jacob Black's voice in my head.

Drac! Slow down, dude! I need to tell you something!

I drew to a halt and waited for Jake to catch up. He skidded to a halt, wolfy grin, tongue lolling, I don't want to phase. I'll just have to get dressed, and then undressed again for the run back.

He stuck out a hind leg, displaying his shorts strapped to his leg with some stretchy cord. Clever.

"I understand. What can I do for you, Jake?" I really just wanted to keep running, but in light of the new and improved relationship with the pack, I was willing to be polite.

So get this, you know we got Paul locked up in the village pokey, and he's none too happy about it. But yesterday, my sister Rachel came home for a visit. She wanted to take Paul his dinner, to give him a piece of her mind for almost starting a war with you guys-

"Jake, you all were never in danger. I was the one who almost crossed the treaty line, so if anyone is to blame-

To-may-to, to-mah-to. This is going somewhere, so just listen. So sis goes over with his dinner, and, you're gonna love this, he imprinted for real! On Rachel! The whole pack heard it happen, and there were wolves, all over the rez, falling over laughing. He gave a yipping bark, very laugh-like.

"That's wonderful, Jake. Well, wonderful for you all. It doesn't matter from our perspective though..." I looked down, the pain blasting through my chest yet again.

What? Wait, what happened?

"Bella... left. She went back East."

Why?

"It... it didn't work out between us." Please, leave it alone!

Well, that sucks, bad. I'm really sorry Edward. I'll... uh... leave you to it. You'll tell the rest of your family? We'd really like to let Paul out, now that he's not a danger to Bella anymo- uh... damn. Maybe she'll come back...

"Doubtful. I'll tell them about Paul. Yes, since he has genuinely imprinted, please feel free to let him out. Thank you for letting me know, Jake."

Sure, Drac. Let me know if there's anything... or, maybe if you just want to talk...

I nodded once as he dashed back into the forest, toward La Push.

I suddenly needed to be in a place that was her. Not the meadow, that would be too agonizing. I turned and ran back to the house, slipping into our river niche from the forest side. With any luck, no one would bother me here-

"Edward! You little dumb ass, I know you're in there!"

Emmett's POV

I wished I hadn't promised Carlisle that I wouldn't beat the shit out of Edward.

I really, really wanted to beat the shit out of Edward.

He was trying to be very quiet, not even breathing, but I knew he was in that little hidey-hole by the river that he loved to drag Bella to in the evenings. Since he was going to pretend to be five, and hide from me, I would go in after him.

The little mind-reading weasel.

I stuck my arm out to push back the foliage, and there he was, sulking. Typical emo Edward.

I grinned big and said in sing-song, "There you are!" I pushed my way in and dropped down on the stone bench next to him, slinging one arm around his hunched shoulders. "How is my favorite little brother today?"

"Emmett, please. Please."

"Aww, what's the matter, little buckaroo? Did you screw up and drive away the only woman who could ever love your pouty little emo ass? That's a shame, huh? I wonder what you could do to fix that!" I ended on a bellow, right in his ear.

He twisted out from under my arm and stood looking at me, doing that teeth-clenched-seething thing that he had perfected, "Why does everyone think they have the right to interfere in my private affairs?"

"Because this is about the family, too, Ed. We all love Bella. She is part of the family now. So right now, I'm good and god damned pissed off that my sister left!" Yeah, I may look like a tough guy, but I was hurting too. I wasn't even home when she left. She never even said goodbye.

His face crumpled, then, and I started getting that feeling in my tummy when I accidentally hurt my Rosie's feelings. I hate hurting my Rosie's feelings.

"Emmett, can't you see that I'm gutted right now? I want her back, too." He turned and faced the river, but his head was hanging low. I reached out and placed my hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry, man. I... I know you're hurting. But look, let's just go get her. I'll go with you. We can road trip! We haven't done that in awhile. Wadda ya say, huh? Let's just go."

His voice was real quiet-like, "I wish it were that easy, Em. She doesn't want me."

"That is complete bullshit, bro. She loves you. I know she does. She's just mad that you won't turn her. So just... turn her, already!"

He turned back to face me, "I can't. I can't sentence her soul to hell. Can't any of you understand that?" The words were rowdy, but there was no 'umph' behind them.

"You're worried about hell? Jesus, man. None of us will go to hell if we never die. And look, think about Mom. Can you honestly say that Mom is going to hell, just because Dad made her a vampire? If that's the way your god works, I don't want to know the guy."

Okay, yeah, I would rather see a riled up Edward than this broken one.

"Emmett, I... give me some time, okay? I just need some time alone, to... think things through. Please?"

Unfortunately, it didn't work. He was still pretty down. I can't say I blame him. I'd be all kinds of messed up if my Rosie had left like that.

I turned to go, saying, "Well, if you change your mind, I'm up for that road trip. Don't forget."

"I won't, Em. Thank you."

Well, there was still Alice. She and Ed were real close. Maybe she could get through to him.

But I sure hope he decided on the road trip, 'cause that would be awesome!

Edward's POV

It hurt me to see my large, sweet brother in pain. He liked to think he was a big bad-ass, but we all knew he had the heart of a lamb.

Now I was finally alone to lick my wounds. If I could just spend some time alone, give myself some time to think-

Edward? A word, brother?

I sighed loudly, "Come on in, Jasper."

Jasper's POV

It took everything I had to approach Edward. The absolute sucking pain that radiated off of him was worse than any newborn bite or temporary loss of limb I had ever experienced.

This was going to be short and sweet.

"Look, I'm not here to tell you what you should or shouldn't do, Edward. I just want to say that I can't live like this. I can't take it." I paused to rub the ache in my chest, "Not for long, any way. So here's the deal. Get it together, go get your girl back. Bite her, change her. I'll be around for another day, but if you're still here tomorrow morning, I'm grabbing my Alice and getting the hell out of Dodge. I love you, Ed, but you're killing me."

Without waiting for a reply, I turned and marched back to the house.

Something had to give, or my wife and I would have to find a new home.

Edward's POV

I watched Jasper stalk back to the house, my mouth hanging open. That was the longest speech I think I'd ever heard from him.

I settled back on my stone bench to wait, because there was one more family member to hear from, and I knew she'd have a lot to say.

I was dreading it.


E/N: Who wouldn't dread a stern talking to from our favorite Pixie?

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