Oh hey guys...Look who decided to reappear :$

Okay, I'm not going to try and make pointless excuses. All I'm going to say is that I was dealing with some stuff, school and otherwise, but I made a commitment to this story and to all of ya'll. So I do apologize. And to all of you who bombarded the comments with threats...thank you. Ya'll are actually very motivational :P lol

But anyways, I realize that AT is coming to an end. This is very very likely the second last chapter. It's both exciting and saddening.

I just wanted to thank those of you who were there from the start, following this story step by step, and those of you who joined our little AT family recently. I appreciate you and your review very much.

Well now enough with the chitchat, and on with the story!


I realized that it was now me who was doing the rambling, but I couldn't seem to stop myself.

"Alex..." she whispered and her eyes began to well up again.

"Don't cry baby," I crooned to her, cupping her face gently in my palm. "You'll be okay."

But she shook her head, tears splashing onto her cheeks. I tightened my grip on her face, feeling the panic bubbling again.

"You'll be fine," I repeated, but my voice shook, just as her hands did as she raised them to wrap around my wrists.

I didn't need to read her thoughts to know that she thought that she wouldn't make it.

"Alex," she repeated, swaying on her feet. "I-I love you."

And then she collapsed.

Chapter 56

Alexander's POV

It all seemed to happen in a blur. One moment I'm standing there listening to Arabella tell me that she still loved me. The next moment she's collapsing into my arms in slow motion. And the next moment she was gone. Whisked away by Carlisle? Edward? Rose? Someone. I still found myself kneeling in the grass, my arms outstretched, a red stain on my shirt and the scent of her blood all around me.

I could hear someone speaking rapidly in hushed tones. Couldn't exactly place the voice, but when it stopped abruptly, dozens of feet started shuffling as vampires ran into the surrounding forest. It would have been easy enough to listen in on someone's thoughts, but I didn't want to accidentally catch any of the pity or fear...

When I felt Alice gently touch my shoulder I didn't move to look at her. She crouched down, her dress flipping out around her. She put one of her hands on my cheeks and lifted my face. I could see that she was trying to keep the worry off her face. But Alice was Alice. You could always tell what she was feeling on her expressive little pixie face.

She was also trying her best not to think about Arabella.

Arabella...

"Carlisle, Edward and Rosalie are with her. Inside," she said softly and I realized that I must have spoken her name out loud. "They'll help her Alex. She'll be fine."

But would she?

Would she really?

I didn't really take the time to find out how extensive the damage was. All I knew was that she was in severe pain. And that Katherine caused that pain.

"Katherine," I growled and I saw Alice narrow her eyes.

"She ran-"

"What!"

My outburst was so sudden that even Alice couldn't predict it and she jumped. I shot to my feet, but before I could move she grabbed my wrist.

"Wait. Eleazar organized Emmett, Jasper and some of the others into groups and sent them looking for her. She couldn't have gotten far," she said, begging me silently not to go.

"I need to find her," I snarled through my teeth. Alice needed to let me go. I didn't want to hurt her, but if she kept holding onto me, that's what was going to happen.

"Alex, hear me out," she pleaded, fingers tightening on my wrist. "She needs you. Arabella. You can't leave her now."

I know she probably didn't mean for it to be, but her words seemed...accusing somehow and I hung my head in shame. This was my fault. She's hurt because of me.

This whole time I put her through so much because I thought that it would get her the cure for the curse. So that she could live. And now look what happened. She could be on the verge of death.

"Come on," Alice murmured, tugging on my arm. Defeated, I let her pull me across the clearing. As we went, I saw Esme talking to the few remaining guests, holding Nessie's hand in her own. She turned her head to look at us and a sad smile appeared on her face.

It'll be okay. She thought to me, but I found it hard to believe her words.

"Hurry." Alice's whisper brought me back to her and I frowned.

"What's wrong?" I asked her. I couldn't read her thoughts because over the years she had perfected the art of hiding them from me and Edward.

"Nothing," she replied, tight lipped, but pulled harder on my arm. My own fear of what happened to, or rather would happen, to Arabella spurred me, and pretty soon we were sprinting the short distance back inside the building. We ran up the stairs instead of taking the elevator. I though the stench of blood was overwhelming downstairs, but the closer we got to the top floor, the stronger the scent got. It was a good thing there were barely any other vampires left around the building. I supposed that was half the reason Eleazar sent them off looking for Katherine.

As we got onto the top floor, I could hear Carlisle saying something very softly. I heard rustling, shifting. And the closer we got, other sounds became more obvious. The sound of cloth being run over flesh. The sound of a needle piercing skin. The sound of the suture being pulled through skin.

And the sound of a heartbeat.

It was weak.

Irregular.

But it was there.

And I knew for a fact that no humans, werewolves, or even Nessie was in that room with her.

She was alive.

Alice and I rushed into the room side by side. If she was bigger, we would have gotten stuck in the doorway with our haste. Edward and Rosalie looked up at our entrance, but Carlisle continued his meticulous stitching, never once looking away from the gapping wound in Arabella's stomach.

I winced as I stepped closer and heard Alice gasp quietly.

She looked almost crude, the way she was positioned on the bed in the bridal suite. Her dress was discarded in a bloody heap on the floor and her skin was so pale that it almost matched the crisp white sheets she was laying on. Snow white blankets covered her breasts and her lower half.

It would have looked almost surreal if it weren't for all the blood.

Her entire midsection was covered in it, even as Edward continually dabbed it away. Standing at the side of the bed, across from where Carlisle was kneeling on it, I could see that Arabella had a four or five inch gash on her abdomen. The blood had pooled under her, so that the white was harshly stained with red.

"How is she," whispered Alice from where she was standing at the foot of the bed. "Will she be okay?"

"She fucking better be," snapped Rose, her voice ringing like the crack of a whip. I looked over to see her glowering out the window. She outwardly seemed pissed off, but I could tell from the way her fingers dug into her arms as she crossed them and the way her eyes darted back and forth that she was worried. Scared.

I wasn't the only one who had come to care for Arabella immensely. Rose had formed some sort of a bond with her. And that didn't happen easily, what with her bitchy personality and sharp as glass comments. I knew better than most how hard it was to get Rosalie to play nice.

But Arabella, in that ever efficient way that she did everything, managed to somehow breech that rough and touch exterior. Rosalie thought of her not only as a best friend, but as a little sister as well. And sometimes, as weird as it was, as her child.

It was no secret that Rosalie cared a lot for Arabella. She loved her. All of the Cullens did.

Do.

"What the fuck are you staring at," snapped Rosalie and I realized that I had been staring at her through my one-man monologue in my head.

"Nothing," I muttered and looked back at Arabella.

Carlisle had finished the stitches and there was now a long, neat line of stitches running across her pale stomach. Edward stepped in with a wet cloth and ran it over her stomach. I saw the way he was doing it, in sharp, hard strokes, and bristled.

"Watch it will you? You'll rip the damn stitches open with the way you're doing that."

He didn't look up, nor did he stop his precise wiping. "Do you want to do this pretty boy?" he commented lightly and I growled deep in my throat.

"Alexander," Carlisle said, the caution apparent in his voice as he got off the bed, wiping his hands. "If it was hurting her that badly, she would have woken up. But she is still unconscious. She cannot feel it. Don't worry," he assured and walked into the washroom to wash the remaining blood off his hands.

After a moment Edward straightened, tossing another bloody piece of cloth to the floor to join the others. The blood was all gone from her stomach, except for an angry red line along the stitching. When Carlisle came out of the washroom, Edward went in, closed the door behind him and ran the tap.

"Get her dressed please, I'm just going to go and check on everyone downstairs," he said, walking towards the door. Behind me, both Rose and Alice stepped to Arabella and began moving the sheets away. I looked quickly to the bathroom door to make sure Edward was still inside.

Like I haven't seen patients naked before. He teased. Or Arabella specifically-

Shut up. I snapped back and heard him chuckle.

It's not my fault you enjoy thinking about her without clothing, kid. You seem to forget that you aren't the only mind reader around here.

I was about to make a comeback concerning his very...inappropriate thoughts about Bella, but before I did, Carlisle opening the door caught my attention.

"Wait, so...why isn't she awake? Is she alright?" I asked after him and he turned around to look at me.

"She's fine. I've accessed her vitals and everything seems to be in order. The wound was a bit troubling because it was so deep, but I've managed to stop the bleeding and sew everything up. But she did lose a substantial amount of blood, and her body is just trying to cope with that. And coupled with the physical trauma of the incident and the emotional trauma of today, she just needs some time."

"So...what. You're saying she's comatose or something?" I asked, jabbing my hands deep into the pockets of my dress pants.

"Not comatose precisely, but I suppose you could say that. But it should not be anything to worry about. She has suffered no trauma to the head, or anything of the sort."

"So she'll be fine. She'll wake up."

"Yes. Don't worry Alexander, she'll be fine. You should sit with her. Talk to her. Wait. And be patient," he said, touching the doorknob again. "And if anything changes, I'll be just downstairs, alright?"

After I nodded, he gave me a smile before leaving the room. When the bathroom door opened, my eyes darted to the bed where Arabella lay, dressed in her top and shorts again. New, clean sheets under her. Alice was sticking all the bloody sheets into a large black garbage bag and Rosalie was fussing with Arabella's hair idly. Edward passed by, and cleared his throat pointedly before walking out of the room. After a moment, Alice walked out too, touching my arm gently as she went, garbage bag in her hand.

Rosalie continued to stand at Arabella's bedside for a moment.

"Edward isn't very slick," she said suddenly, not looking up from her face. I nodded slightly and stepped up beside her to look down at the unconscious girl. It was amazing, but she still looked heartbreakingly beautiful.

The way her dark hair curled around her face. The way her black eyelashes made crescent shaped shadows on her beautiful cheekbones. The curve of her nose, the hollow of her cheeks. The way her lips parted ever so slightly. The prominent cupids bow. The full bottom lip.

I remembered kissing those lips a few hours ago. It may have been stupid, but I didn't regret it. Not one bit. I could kiss her for hours. I did kiss her for hours. Those lazy weekends we spent laying in her bed or on the couch or anywhere really. With her curled in my arms, her lips on mine, my lips on hers. Short pecking kisses, long drawn out kisses. Playful kisses, steamy kisses.

But mostly I enjoyed spending that time with her. Being near her. Holding her, touching her, hearing her heartbeat. It was weird. Sometimes, especially after a particularly heated make-out session, I'd hold her close to me, chest to chest. And the pounding of her heart seemed to...transfer into my own body. Made it feel as though a heartbeat was thrumming within my own chest.

I suppose that's part of what she does to me. She makes me forget sometimes. That I'm a vampire. That I have been around for almost a century. That I'm not like her, or her family. I don't belong in her life, I really don't, but she made me feel as though maybe I was.

I sighed quietly and looked up to find Rosalie staring at me with a strange look on her face. She and I haven't exactly talked in the past little while, what with her hating my guts for doing what I did. I didn't blame her any more than I'd blamed Arabella for hating me. Hell, I even anticipated it.

But what I failed to anticipate was how much it would bother me, Rosalie's hatred. I've been on the receiving end of her temper hundreds of thousands of times before, but this was different. This was actual hate. She hated me, and I didn't know why it bothered me so much.

Rose had always been the one I connected with, from the very start. Maybe because we were, are, very much alike. Emmett would often tease that Rose 'took me under her wing', but when I thought about it, I wondered if maybe she did.

"You really do love her don't you," she said after a long moment and I nodded slowly.

"More than I've ever loved anything in my entire life," I replied in all honesty, shifting my eyes back to Arabella. Nodding herself, she turned her head back down to the bed.

"And...I'm afraid...that she's never going to completely forgive me for all this crap..." I said quietly. I figured that I may as well tell her about how I really felt about all of this.

I was afraid.

Afraid that, despite the fact that she told loved me, what I'd done to her would still weigh on her mind. I didn't think I could take hearing her thoughts on all of this. Afraid that she'd be 'settling'. Afraid that no matter how I wanted us to, that we would never be the same again. It scared the shit out of me. And I hated that it did.

"You know," she said slowly after a long pause. "For an eighteen year old, she's impossible strong. Physically. Emotionally. I mean, to agree to be the maid of honour and the best man at the wedding of the guy she loves? Not to mention talking up a werewolf to try and prove that she was over you. Coming over to the house day in, day out to plan your wedding. She's made of tougher stuff Alex."

"Don't get me wrong, you completely fucking destroyed her heart. And regardless of your good intentions, you did do a great deal of damage. But I think you two will be just fine. If there ever was a woman who could be the bigger person and put the past in the past and move on? It would be her. If it were me? I'd say fuck you and your little dog to and fucking burn you into a pile of ashes."

I scoffed lightly at that and looked up to see her flash me a small grin.

"But she's not me, and thank god for that. She'll forgive you. It may take some time, but she will...She loves you, you know? She loves you far more than most kids her age are even capable of. She's been through a lot. She's had a tough life. It's going to take a whole lot more that a stupid as hell boyfriend to break her."

"So if you're done making your verbal jabs, you can leave," I commented dryly, crossing my arms. She chuckled slightly at that and stepped back from the bed.

"I'm done saying my part," she said, holding up her hands in mock surrender. "Now I guess it's up to you to fix your shit."

"My shit is just fine, thank you very much."

"Bullshit. You don't even shit."

I laughed at that, and so did she as she walked to the door. Just as she was opening the door I looked over my shoulder at her.

"Hey Rose."

"What do you want?"

"I love you, you know."

"Well obviously," she smirked and I rolled my eyes. "But I love you too kid."

I continued to stare at the back of the door long after she had shut it behind her. I suppose part of me was...nervous? I had no clue why, considering Arabella was unconscious. With a sigh I turned back to the bed and was slightly startled to see her peering at me though long eyelashes.

"I was wondering when you'd stop staring at the back of the door," she said, her voice sounding rough and gravelly. I was actually stunned into silence, so it took me a moment to even process what she had said.

"Alexander?"

"Yea. Yea, uh, sorry about that. The door thing. And about everything else too. The Katherine thing and the wedding thing and the Atian thing and the getting attacked by a vampire thing...Yea..."

I was rambling.

I don't ramble.

Well at least it brought a shadow of a smile to her face.

"Are you...in pain? Do you hurt? Headache? Anything?"

"Yes, yes, and yes. But I'm fine."

At least she was telling the truth about that. I could tell from her thoughts that she was in pain, but also that it wasn't excruciating or anything. I could also hear the inner turmoil she fought. Between the part of her that wanted to forgive me, and the part of her that didn't, or at least didn't want to forgive me just yet. Truthfully, if I was in her position I didn't know what I would do. What I would decide.

"Right."

"Yup..."

I held my breath during the awkward silence that followed. This is what I was worried about. This feeling of anonymity and awkwardness. I hated it. And since it was my fault, I supposed it was about time I owned up to it and did something to try and fix it.

"Arabella...I can't even begin to tell you how sorry-"

"I know."

"-I am about- wait...you know?" I frowned at her slightly, not expecting her to interrupt me. In her mind, I hear the battle being won by one side. I was afraid to let myself get too excited. But she only continued to watch me calmly with those blue-grey eyes of hers, not outwardly showing any sign of her decision.

"Yea. I know. That you're sorry. You look like shit."

"Well gee, thanks," I commented dryly and ran a hand through my hair. "Didn't think looking like shit translated into being apologetic though."

"Oh it doesn't. I'm just telling you that you look like shit," she said smirking and I rolled my eyes again. What was it with these girls and dissing me?

"Again, thanks."

"Not a problem."

"..."

"..."

"I love you," I said suddenly, and as clichéd as it was, she said it at the exact same moment. As if to continue with the cliché, I stared into her eyes. She stared into mine, and I heard her heartbeat being to pick up.

"I understand that guys are slow...but will you come over here and kiss me already?"

We needed to talk, I knew that. There was so much to be said. So much to be explained, questions to be answered. But I was weak.

And I wanted to kiss her really bad.

Like, desperately.

So I stepped up to the bed and looked down at her beautiful face. When she gave me that smile, I swear I felt the ground slip out from under my feet.

I reached out my hand. Traced a finger over the side of her face and watched her eyes flutter shut. I leaned down then, almost in slow motion. Her head tipped up slightly as my head descended.

Our lips were just a whisper away from one another.

She took one little gasp of air.

And the I-

"What the fuck do you think you're doing."

Her brothers.


I understand that some of you may be wondering why the hell Arabella has forgiven Alexander so easily, or so soon, or think that it goes against her character. But if you really thought about it, it isn't. I feel that in that moment, after everything had happened, she just needed him to know how she felt and hear that he felt the same way. Also remember that she's been an emotional wreck for the past few months. Let me know what you think about that.

Soooo the next chapter will be the last chapter. I've already started it and promise that you won't have to wait four months for it. Heh, sorry again about that.

Oh, and yes sequel, no sequel? Lemme know.

Comment and Review loves,

Piece, love, and forgiveness.

Xoxo thedarkangel22