Posting date: 2020-01-12

A note from my beta: I am currently in the Caribbean, riding out a storm at sea while fighting finicky wifi and under the influence of piña coladas so readers might need to be a little more forgiving of grammatical or other issues this time around.

And from me: When I started writing fanfiction, I didn't work with a beta. While I would proofread my work before posting, I had no frame of reference for the amount of work a beta (editor) puts into a piece - or just how much back and forth there could be in working on a piece of writing. In fact, I remember thinking, seeing people post about their stories on facebook, "Hasn't that story been going for a year, now? What's taking so long?" Well, having the pleasure of working with my (amazing) beta, I get it now. And I'm very, very grateful for the way she makes this story a million times better.

Happy reading, folks. We're always keen to hear what you think about this tale.

Erin

Edward was preoccupied. He was so focused, in fact, on his conversation with Jasper, that he didn't hear Josh stir until his little feet thudded onto the floor upstairs. Josh had recently become an adept climber, now able to swing a leg over the rail of his crib and clamber down to liberty. Knowing that Bella's youngest might come searching for his 'Man', rather than his mother, Edward returned his attention to his brother and glanced down at the collection of tin soldiers on the coffee table between them. It was a very old set, a relic of Edward's human life. He wasn't exactly sure why he had brought them downstairs for this strategy discussion, although the amused reaction from Jasper had been worth the effort. Josh had been entranced with the figurines when he had spotted them the prior morning. Edward picked one up now, holding it gently between his fingertips. The grenadier uniform was cast in obvious detail. In one of those quirks of Vampire memory, Edward could recall his distinct childhood annoyance at having been given such an obviously foreign set, inferior in its uniqueness from those of his friends. Being set apart had irked him.

And yet, it was this uniqueness that had fascinated Josh. He had seen images of soldiers on television, and these tiny, formally dressed men with large, long hats were strange. Bella had frowned at the obvious rifle each toy soldier carried but had not objected beyond that. Edward knew she didn't like the children playing with anything weapon-like, or having them watch any of the violent video games Emmett and Jasper enjoyed playing.

Edward sighed. He wished his worries were so simple as to involve what he should or should not let Josh play with or see as a growing boy. Try as they might, he and Jasper could find no way to work around the odds Victoria's large army presented. Their chances of success in facing her alone were so small as to be nonexistent.

Josh's thumping steps and final jump announced his descent down the stairs. Two-year-olds, Edward had learned, could produce an amount of noise vastly disproportionate to their body size.

Josh was very pleased with himself. Despite his ability to get out of his crib, he'd only lately mastered walking down the stairs, having needed the confidence of an adult's hand before that. He loved jumping to the floor from the bottom of the stairs, too, but his mother was less fond of it, particularly when he was two or three or four treads from the bottom.

"Play," Josh observed as he entered the room, his eyes focused on the tin toys on the table. He moved quietly towards Edward but slowed as he approached, his gaze flicking briefly to Jasper. He wasn't so certain of Edward's brother, about whom he felt some formless caution.

Edward listened, trying to tease out an order or logic to the metaphors in Josh's brain. Josh was thinking of Bubbles in conjunction with Jasper. This puzzled Edward until Josh recalled a memory of Bubble's claws, and a hissing snarl that had preceded a painful scratch. Ah, yes. The boy was not so devoid of normal human instincts if he feared some of their kind.

"Good morning, Josh," Jasper said politely, rising smoothly from his seat on the couch and directing a gentle smile at Bella's son. He then told Edward silently, We can talk more about this later.

"Thank you for your efforts," Edward responded. "I don't think we'll find much different, though."

Jasper's smile turned sad and apologetic. They had considered strategy after strategy, each defeated by their coven's small size and the need to protect Bella and her family. No amount of weaponry, trickery, or difficult terrain would give them the advantage they so clearly needed to defeat Victoria's amassed force.

"We'll need help," Edward mumbled. Sam may have agreed to assist them, but Edward would exhaust all other possibilities before he left his mate and her children in the hands of wolves—and adolescent ones at that.

"Help?" Josh asked. He looked towards the empty tin that normally housed the soldiers. He was excited to have pulled the word from Edward's quick speech, but disappointed no one had moved to include him in their game. He remembered how Emmett had clashed the figurines together when Edward had first brought them out, making what Josh thought were funny sounds.

"We don't need to clean up yet, but I think you should visit the bathroom and have breakfast before we play."

Josh frowned, huffing out a breath. He did not like this proposed ordering of his morning.

"First bathroom and breakfast, then playing," Edward reiterated.

Still frowning, Josh turned and thumped more purposefully towards the bathroom.

The day wore on, its patterns largely dictated by the needs of the house's human habitants. And while Edward had told Bella that the wolves had agreed to help, he hadn't given the terms or explained that they hadn't yet accepted them. There was no need to concern her if a more palatable option became available.

Not they had the luxury of time, or of being choosy about their allies.

No response yet, Carlisle thought at Edward.

Sitting beside Bella at the table as she chatted quietly with Esme, Edward lowered his gaze briefly—his version of a nod.

We may not have help to accept, if we don't accept it soon, Jasper reminded Edward from his place next to Carlisle.

Edward repeated his downward glance. Then he turned his head to find Bella staring at him in concentration.

"Care to share?" she asked him, a hint of a smirk on her face.

"Not right now." he murmured. Bella might not be able to see his motions but had clearly determined that his stillness was also suspect. He reminded himself once again that he should never underestimate her intuition.

"Hmm," Bella said, eyeing him in a way that told him she'd be pressing him for the truth when they were in private.

The chirp from Carlisle's phone barely had time to sound before he answered it. "Tanya, thank you for returning my call." He stood, his words fading from human hearing as he walked outside to the far edge of the deck, the door clicking shut behind him.

Edward, along with every other Cullen present, listened to both parts of the conversation. So much weighed on this phone call, and they were all so intent on hearing the outcome that they all became noticeably still. It did not go unnoticed.

"Are you playing statues?" Meredith piped up. "And can I play, too?" She popped the cap back on her marker, neatly stowing her colouring book and markers in the basket Esme had set aside for her.

"Absolutely," Bella said. "Let's go play in the living room." She nodded to Edward as she stood up and he gave her hand a squeeze before releasing it. Yes, she understood that there was greater significance to this call.

"I'll join you," Esme said, holding out a hand to Josh.

"Man, play?" Josh asked.

"In a little while," he promised Josh.

Edward could hear everything that passed between Tanya and Carlisle, yet he still found himself hoping, though more and more in vain, as each word made more absolute the Cullens' solitude in facing Victoria's wrath.

Tanya's words suddenly seemed louder than the rest of the conversation had been. "I'm sorry, Carlisle. Truly, I am. But Irina . . . well, she's not here right now, so I can speak frankly: She still blames you in part for Laurent's death. She sees your inaction against the wolves as siding with them. She's still so angry, I can't ask her to help in this fight, and if you can have help from those quarters, I think you should accept it. I'm sure you understand . . ."

Carlisle sighed. "Yes, I do."

"We want to repair our relationship, Carlisle. Honestly, I . . . we do want that, but this isn't the way."

Edward watched Carlisle put his phone back in his pocket and then stare out over the river. His father would know that the rest of his family, barring those with human ears, would have heard his conversation.

It was the wolves, or nothing.

Beyond that, Edward knew that the Denalis' sense of betrayal burdened Carlisle. Once Edward had known about Laurent's attack on Bella, they'd tried reaching out to their cousins with the new evidence, but the news had been just as unwelcome as before. Irina refused to believe that Laurent would break faith with them or their ways. She had gone so far as to say that perhaps Bella truly was mentally unwell, if she believed Laurent had tried to attack her. Edward had been glad that Carlisle had held that phone conversation with the Denalis when he was away from the house. He didn't want to widen the gap between them and their cousins further, but just hearing about the maligning of his mate after the fact brought all his protective instincts to the fore.

As Carlisle turned, he locked eyes with Edward. We need to agree to the wolves' terms, and quickly.

Edward looked away. Yes, they did. A tremor rippled over his body. Even his flesh dreaded the idea as much as his mind did. His gaze lingered over the pool of soldiers on the dining room carpet, now regrouped according to Josh's specifications. If such an alliance kept them safe, then it was worth his anxiety and dread.

Unwanted, the image of Emily Uley's scarred face appeared in his thoughts, quickly morphing into Bella's face, but with the angry lines of scar tissue still in place. It was quickly replaced with a new image of Bella's lifeless body, drained and ravaged by vampire teeth.

Yes, they would accept the wolves' help. Even if he had to make peace with fears he wanted no bargain with, they would.

- ooo 0000 ooo -

Bella knew that Edward tried to keep anything distressing, and particularly the supernaturally-distressing, from touching her and her children's lives. And towards that effort, he and Bella habitually remained silent on all but mundane matters until the children were in bed. Today though, she'd struggled with this principle, wanting to ask him about Carlisle's phone call as soon as the children were outside playing in the yard. At the same time, she hadn't wanted to upset the balance they were finding again. Her own judgement still felt rocky and unpredictable.

So she had waited. Impatiently. Doing her best to appear patient. She almost held her breath when Edward finally came to sit beside her in the kitchen after putting Josh to bed. Her youngest was going through a phase that required either Edward or Bella to be near him as he approached sleep, one of their hands in his. It didn't take long for him to go to sleep, but tonight it had felt like a small part of forever.

She forced herself to take what felt like an ordinary breath in, releasing it and looking at Edward, refusing to start asking questions. He would talk when he was ready. It would not do to push.

"Everything went alright with Meredith?" he asked.

"Mm-hm."

"No worries about racoons tonight?"

Bella knew that Edward would have heard all of her and Meredith's conversation that evening, but she also knew he liked to talk with her about the children. It let them problem-solve together, as well as simply enjoy the work of parenting. If she hadn't been so worked up and anxious about Carlisle's phone call, she could have filled a half-hour with talk of Meredith's newly-acquired fear of racoons, resulting from a recent nightmare.

"Just the usual," Bella assured him, hoping he would bring up the topic she wanted to discuss.

Edward frowned. While becoming a parent with Josh had come so naturally, he had struggled with Meredith. And as with all things that confounded Edward, Bella had watched him respond with studious efforts. Several serious texts devoted to child psychology and development had appeared on his bed-side table, and Bella could tell he was about to start pulling apart what he'd no doubt overheard in Meredith's dream memories and conversation.

"What was Carlisle's phone call about?" Bella blurted out.

She watched Edward's face fall slightly.

It would be easier, she knew, to tackle a five-year old's fear that a raccoon would come into the house and attack her, rather than think about the army of vampires that was preparing to destroy them. She did not blame him for seeking a momentary escape. If parenting could be called an escape. And it needed doing, even when you weren't certain you would be alive to be doing it past the next week.

"Carlisle asked the Denalis for their help. They declined."

He did not elaborate as to the reasons why, though Bella could imagine the ones he'd given before still remained in effect.

"But we still have the pack's help," he said, almost as an afterthought.

"And what does Sam want in return for their...help?" She asked

Edward hadn't suggested any trades had been requested, but she couldn't fathom there being enough good will for the pack to support them without some benefit for themselves.

Edward shook his head. "Nothing. It serves them to do so. They're sworn to protect their people. Destroying an army of vampires so near their territory moves them towards that goal."

Bella considered this for a moment. His answer made sense, but there was something in the way he said it that didn't quite sit right. Bella couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"Okay." She set aside her wondering, too mindful of her nerves as she asked the next question. "Where should I plan on being with the children during the . . . ?" She wasn't quite sure what to call it, and the words her mind suggested made her gut twist in unpleasant ways.

Edward nodded once, looking as if he had come to some sudden agreement. He wasn't looking at her as he continued. "Sam is working on something so that you and Charlie and the children are invited to stay at the reservation for the day. Some of the members of the pack would stay nearby . . . as a precaution."

In case they failed, Bella finished for him. But the reservation? She never expected to hear Edward sanctioning her staying there.

"You will all be perfectly safe there."

Then it clicked. The robotic tone. He wasn't trying to share information with her. He was trying to convince himself that this was a good plan.

Since Edward had told her of Alice's vision she'd been trying to think of how best to support what the Cullens were doing, and how best she might keep herself and the children safe. Staying somewhere far away and keeping to themselves had been all she could come up with. It seemed that the Cullens thought the same. Apparently, the wolves had agreed.

Clearly, Edward didn't like this plan, but if it was the best option available, she needed to put his mind at ease about it.

She slid her hand into his. "That sounds like a very logical plan."

To the casual observer, his glance would seem just that, casual, but Bella knew he was assessing her entire reaction: her heart rate, her breathing, the way her eyebrows got a wrinkle in between them when she worried. Her face felt relaxed. She hoped it looked that way.

"It will be good to have Dad there," she added. "He needs to have company right now, and spending time with him before we go back home will be good for him."

It would be good, she thought, if they all lived.

If.

She knew how big an if that was.

Edward's fingers curled softly around hers and he turned his head to face her fully. "You're not worried about things being at all awkward, being on the reservation?"

"No," she said, shrugging. "If you think it's a good idea for us to be there, and Sam wants us there, I'm sure he will make sure it isn't awkward. After all, it keeps Charlie and the kids and me in one place, which frees the rest of you up to do what you need to do."

"It does," Edward said. His expression had relaxed from the look of tense resolve that had been there before.

Better, Bella decided. He felt better about this plan. Good.

But the kiss they brought their lips to was too firm, too urgent, and felt too desperate for there to be any comfort or certainty. Not yet.

- ooo 0000 ooo -

It was three days later when the weather outside and Alice's visions finally correlated. Everything the Cullens could think of to prepare themselves for a confrontation with Victoria's army was taken care of and the wolves' portion of responsibility, including the invitation to Charlie, had been coordinated.

"Maybe you should head to bed?" Edward suggested that evening. He watched Bella press the last tupperware lid down on the container of food she'd prepared. While Edward and the other Cullens had taken on much of the cooking of late, she'd been busy in the kitchen that afternoon preparing food for tomorrow. Edward had told her, several times, that he could do this after she went to sleep, but she'd smiled, shaken her head and then continued with her work. Her nervous energy was evident, and he knew it was better that she was occupied, rather than worrying, but he wished he could simply allay those worries.

"I will," Bella said. She put the container in the fridge and then closed the door, leaving her hand flat against the door for a moment. Her fingers walked her hand up to the picture held in place by a magnet, and she traced her index finger over the faces of each of her children and then Edward's. In the image, she and the rest of them were smiling. Carlisle had taken the photo as they all sat in the garden, the day after Edward had officially proposed.

"Everything will be alright," Edward said, walking to her side. He tugged at her free hand, urging her to come sit with him.

Their chances of success tomorrow were high, he told himself. Very high.

And the chance of failure was small.

They sat together, Bella on his lap, her side curled against his chest. Her breathing was tight, the kind that preceded tears.

"I'm sorry," she said, wiping at her face. "I'm trying not to worry. I know that the odds are very good, but I'm scared, Edward. I'm terrified that something is going to happen to you."

His own chest tightened. Of course she was. Weren't they all? There were no guarantees. Every one of the Cullens had some small drop of fear that tinged their thoughts. He was grateful for it. The small statistical possibility of failure banished any complacency that might weaken them.

Despite his own fears, he smiled, amused that she was worried about her doubt damaging his ego. "My pride is undeterred by your very natural fears. You should be worried about an army of vampires. Just like you should have run screaming from me the first day you met me, but it's good to see some of your protective instincts are in place."

She laughed and wiped her hand across her eyes. "Yes, my instincts. Good to know they're doing their job."

The family members had spoken at length about what they anticipated happening and about their plans; they had also spent most of the day training with the wolves. They were all as prepared as they could be.

Carlisle cleared his throat from the door.

Bella glanced at him. Edward could hear her bodily rhythms shift in unpleasant anticipation.

"Are you ready?" Carlisle asked.

"Of course," Bella said. She stood, her hand tight over Edward's.

While Carlisle hadn't intended to ask, he had considered how strong a lure Bella's blood had been to Edward, wondering if it would be the same for some of the newborns they anticipated meeting tomorrow. It was clear Victoria had trained them to recognize all of their scents, after all. Knowing how it physically distressed Bella to see or smell her own blood, he'd quickly dismissed the idea of asking her to allow him to draw some as bait. It was Edward, surprising even himself, who had seen how useful Carlisle's plan could be. He didn't doubt that they would be looking for her scent above all others, and if it prevented them from following milder versions of it, then . . .

Carlisle eyed their linked hands. Will you stay? He asked Edward.

Edward's nod was tiny, visible only to his father.

"Everyone else has just stepped outside for a moment," Carlisle explained. "There won't be much of an aroma, but it seemed a prudent measure."

Bella nodded, her eyes travelling over the small tray of implements on Carlisle's desk. Beside it was a kidney-shaped basin. Edward didn't have to be able to hear her thoughts to know what she was thinking.

"Hi," he said, gathering her attention. He smiled. As expected, her heart-rate sped and her pupils dilated. He still marvelled at the way she reacted to him. He trailed a finger down her cheek as Carlisle wiped the crook of her arm with alcohol. "You're going to be fine," he told her. "You're not going to be ill because you don't want to be. Besides, I'm here," he whispered, nuzzling her cheek with his nose. She giggled. Carlisle had the syringe ready, and Edward wrapped his arms around Bella, humming softly, moving two fingers up and down her spine so that she would shiver with the pleasurable sensation. She did.

Carlisle was fast. He'd pinched the skin lightly, pressing his thumb in place before depressing the syringe so that she didn't feel the sting. It worked.

Edward kept moving his fingers. "I think," he mused, "we should have sundaes tomorrow after dinner. Josh and Meredith would like that."

"Mm," Bella mumbled. She was breathing shallowly into his chest.

But she wasn't being ill. The plunger was almost full.

"Maybe Emmett would like to supervise the little people while you and I go for a walk alone." He whispered the next words even more quietly. "With a nice plush blanket." Her cheeks flushed hot against his chest.

"All done," Carlisle announced. The vial was nowhere in sight, and a tidy bandage sat on Bella's arm.

Bella pulled away from Edward slowly, either to give herself time to compose her features, or to make certain she wasn't ill. "Thank you," she said to Carlisle.

"Oh, I think the thanks are ours to give. Your contribution will help."

Carlisle finished his words with the briefest of nods, and then vanished—or probably appeared to vanish to Bella.

"Take me to bed?" She asked, sliding her hands back around Edward's back.

He chuckled. "Gladly."

How beautiful it was to watch her blush again, the pinking of her cheeks making his throat tingle. It made other parts of him tingle, as well.

They walked slowly upstairs, hand in hand, turning out the lights as they went. By the time they reached their bedroom, thoughts of sleep were far gone, their fingers and hands and limbs tangled up in ways sweet, slow and gentle.

Sometime later, Edward listened to Bella fall asleep, trying to hold on to the feeling their lovemaking left him with. The euphoria it brought was fleeting, but the peace he felt after was also unbearably brief, replaced with the necessary and steely determination that would see him—all of them—through tomorrow.

Or so he hoped.

DISCLAIMER: S. Meyer owns Twilight. No copyright infringement intended.