A/N: My duckies...today was a good, good day.

Bella vacillated, not quite conscious, for what may have been hours or may have been days. She heard voices sometimes. She felt touches. Some of them weren't so pleasant—tugs at stitches, needle pokes. Some of them were okay—soft fingers taking her pulse, and someone holding her hand. She opened her eyes sometimes, and thought she recognized some of the blurs—the blond doctor and Edward.

She thought it was Edward who held her hand. She hoped it was. The other touches, the people around her, made her nervous. The lethargy, though. The lethargy refused to let her go.

The voices always sharpened first. She listened, getting more disturbed by the moment. There were a lot of voices around her; a lot of voices she didn't know. Edward was there. In fact, he seemed to be the center of the conversation.

"Okay, look," a booming, but not unpleasant voice said. "I know this is a serious problem. My brother, the car thief, set off the temper of the closest band of tough guys he could find. But—remembering that your precious baby boy survived this, Mom—can we stop a minute to appreciate the fact Edward was a legit action hero?" There was a deep laugh. "Wheels squealing. Gunshots ricocheting? That's some Hollywood bullshit right there."

Someone sighed; a female. "I think living through every post-apocalyptic movie I've ever seen is more than enough Hollywood for me, Emmett."

Edward chuckled. The sound was quiet and tired. "I might appreciate it more if someone had been around to film it. Living through it wasn't great."

"Well, if that had been the finale of the movie, no problem," another female said. "This is crazy. They have the damn car back. Should be no harm, no foul. Surely anyone with a shred of humanity left would understand what Edward did."

"Not in this world, Tanya," a voice Bella recognized as Edward's father said. "You have to remember, we have a good thing going here; somewhat unique, if the reports we're getting back from the teams we've sent out are true across the board. We've managed to establish a peaceful society, but that's not how it is for them. Death is so common to them, they're probably numb to it by now. Surviving the virus is one thing. Surviving the world as it is is quite another. It's the car they cared about. Specifically, the fuel."

"Even as precious a commodity as females are to them, they wouldn't understand the waste of resources it took for Edward to get help for a woman who was knocking on death's door," the first woman said, her tone acerbic. "As many abandoned cars as there are everywhere, so few of them work. And fuel? Fuel would be more precious to them than any human life."

"So, what do they want?" Edward asked.

There was a sigh, and the second woman spoke again. "Your head on a platter, essentially. They're all about their whack-ass version of justice, it seems. Crime can't be tolerated."

Throughout all this, Bella had been trying to get her body to cooperate; trying to seize full consciousness with both her hands. Those last words did it. Her eyes flew open, and she gripped the hand in hers. Turning her head, she found a startled Edward staring back at her. She swallowed, her mouth too dry, and spoke in a raw voice. "God dammit, are you in trouble again?"

The shocked laughter that went through the room was loud, and it startled her. She jumped and groaned at the wave of agony it sent through her.

"Okay, everyone out." The blond doctor's voice was, as always, gentle but firm. "I'll be right there." He turned and smiled, his expression apologetic as he looked at Bella. "I'm sorry about that, Bella. They came looking for me and Edward. I shouldn't have disturbed you."

Bella licked her lips. Everything was so dry. "Tell me." She cleared her throat and brought on a coughing fit.

Edward took her hand, pressing it to his chest. "Take it easy, Bella."

She groaned, trying to talk through her coughs. "They're. Coming?" She wheezed. "For you?"

The infamous, faceless, they. Always lurking. Always ready to take something more from her. She had to be ready. She couldn't be this weak. She needed to be on her feet.

"At ease, soldier." Edward's father came over and pressed a hand to her shoulder. "I know my son takes some looking after, but you leave that to us. We have some practice keeping him alive."

"Thanks, Dad," Edward said, his tone wry.

His father flashed him a cheeky grin and looked back to Bella. "Don't worry. We got this one. Let Edward take care of you for once, hmm? Edward. Help her with some water. Hydration and rest is the most important thing right now."

The doctor left, following the small crowd whose job it was to solve this latest disaster. Not her responsibility. When was the last time someone else was making the decisions?

And could she trust these people to make the right decision? It was just one more reason she liked being alone. It would take nothing to start a conflict with a nearby compound.

But what could she do about it?

"I'm going to put my arm around you to help you sit up and drink a little, okay?"

Edward's voice focused her erratic thoughts. She blinked several times, bringing his face into focus. "Are you okay?" she rasped.

He furrowed his brow. "What?"

"Someone shot at you?"

"Oh." He sighed and leaned in closer, stroking her cheek with the tips of his fingers. "You know how much trouble I get into when you're not around to look after me."

"So is that why you kidnapped me?"

She was kidding. Mostly. Only being conscious for minutes at a time, she hadn't been able to process how she felt about being trapped in this room, with these people, presumably on an island. Paranoia took energy she didn't have at the moment.

Edward was quiet, stroking her cheek as his eyes turned serious. He swallowed hard. "I couldn't let you die. After everything you've been through, and everything we've been through together, it couldn't end like that." Another swallow, and a heaviness came over his features. "Bella, I swear… You know how I told you we were on the cruise ship when the virus hit? And we decided we had to land, even though we knew some of us wouldn't survive? I thought nothing could be more terrifying than getting off that boat. " His fingers trembled as he brushed her hair back. "But thinking that I was going to fail you? That I wouldn't get help on time? I've never been that scared."

He took her hands, bringing them to his lips and pressing a lingering kiss there. "I know this isn't what you want; to be trapped here. But you're safe with us, with me. I'm going to help you get back on your feet and—"

"Release me back into the wild?"

He flinched but covered it well. "If you still want to go."

"Mm." Her eyelids were getting heavy again. "It'll be close to winter by then. You want me to decide between freezing to death and staying here, surrounded by people I can't trust?"

His mouth fell open slightly, his expression pinched. "I—"

She laughed and then groaned, closing her eyes. She breathed as deeply as she was able, dizzy with pain. "Mm teasing," she said, slurring now. "We're all alive. I can work with that."

As sleep began to claim her again, she felt his hand slipping from hers. She tightened her grip, her eyes flying open. "Edward."

"It's okay." He leaned toward her again. "I'm not going anywhere. You just need more saline if you're too tired to drink." He tilted his head, his eyes on her. "What is it?"

Bella blinked, discombobulated. The rush of panic that had gone straight down her spine when he started to slip away wasn't rational. It was just, in that moment, she'd remembered the churning feeling in her gut as they got closer and closer to the point she would have to walk away from him. She'd remembered the cold fear, watching the twisted expression of the man aiming a gun at Edward and Aaron. She remembered the fear from scant minutes before, knowing someone in this warped world of theirs wanted Edward dead.

It was as though, at that moment, she realized how close she had come to losing him.

Her throat tight, she couldn't speak. She just squeezed his hand with all her strength.

He let out a shaky breath and leaned down, pressing a long hard kiss to her forehead. He whispered her name and kissed her again, a sweet, soft kiss to her lips.

~0~

As the days went by and Bella stayed conscious for longer periods of time, she began to gather data and assess potential threats.

People first.

Edward's family were around most often, which could be expected given that Edward himself was rarely away from her.

First there was his father. Carlisle Cullen had some kind of supernatural power. His bedside manner was such that, even though he had to be in her personal space more often than anyone besides Edward, he somehow bypassed her engrained paranoia. He was calm and reassuring; the ultimate father figure.

It helped too that he didn't talk down to her. He spoke with Bella not only about her condition but about everything else she was worried about. He was a member of the ruling council on the island, and with good reason. His attention to detail and his calm, rational thinking made him an excellent leader.

As he worked to get her broken leg immobilized so she could still move around, he spoke to her at length about the problem of the village across the water threatening to go to war over Edward's car theft.

"I got the sense a lot of their aggression is posturing. They can't look weak. They can't let this waste of their resources go, as relatively small as it was, because they can't invite a bigger theft. They need any rival group to understand they can't be threatened."

"So they want to impose the death penalty for couple miles worth of gas?" She had to swallow hard, trying to tamp down the adrenaline that went through her. They would get to Edward over her cold, dead body. "What are we going to do?"

"We have this," he said, giving her knee a reassuring pat. "Most of us here on the islands prefer peace, but there are a lot of us. We have the numbers if it came to a fight, and they know it.

"I'm confident we can negotiate. This is about resources. You know better than most that managing your resources is how you survive. When it comes to a group, a society like ours—as small as they are—your biggest deficit in a world like this one is medical supplies. People are going without the medications that were keeping them healthy in a modern world."

Bella knew already from Edward's stories that they had teams of people whose job it was to scavenge anything useful from miles around. Teams, not unlike the one Edward had originally been a part of before he got lost, were sent out on gathering missions. "Your resources aren't infinite though," Bella said, anxious at the thought of losing a resource as important as medical supplies.

Carlisle tilted his head and offered her a smile. "No, and it's a blow. It is. But then, it drives their point home too. Resources are precious, especially those that can't be replenished easily. They can't go to the gas station and fill up the tank. How can we ask them to look the other way at a loss if we're unwilling to bend with things we need as well? We needed the car to save your life. How can we ask them to consider our people if we won't consider what they need for theirs?"

Bella was struck by his words on many levels not the least of which was the ownership he took. He already considered her to be his people—her welfare and survival under his protection. Nerves twisted in her stomach. She didn't necessarily want this man making decisions on her behalf. Still, there was something inherently profound about how easily he brought her into the fold.

Oblivious to her wool-gathering, Carlisle continued, speaking as though thinking out loud. "The world will become more interconnected again. That's inevitable. It happens all the time on a micro basis." He gestured to her absently. "You, like everyone here, can decide to become part of the collective. I don't think it's naive to hope that we can foster some goodwill here. We can make allies instead of enemies. Living on these islands fosters a natural defense, but we're isolated as well. It'll happen sooner than later that our scavenging teams won't be able to replenish the stores of what we need."

He seemed to come back to himself then and offered her a smile. "But who can tell what the future will bring. All of us are trying to survive one day at a time, aren't we?"

Like her husband, Edward's mother, Esme, seemed to be a gentle creature. They were a matched pair, exuding warmth and comfort. She was no leader, but she didn't follow blindly either. She was philosophical. It was easy to imagine the depth of conversation between the power couple, and how Carlisle's decisions were informed by her thoughts.

"Allies instead of enemies is a policy that makes perfect sense, but it's not that simple, is it?" she reflected. "What happens if this group is like the men who tried to take you?" She nodded at Bella. "Two men sharing one woman." Her features twisted. "And, clearly, it's not all consensual. If we found out they had our daughter, Carlisle wouldn't be talking about peaceful allies. He'd lead an army to war to get her back. But, because they're someone else's daughter, we can have peace?"

Esme sighed. "But if we started thinking like that, we'd be at war with the world, I'd expect."

Bella scoffed. "No kidding." She was only too used to thinking of these compounds, these tiny societies, in terms of potential for awful. Being a woman in a post-apocalyptic society aside, wasn't that the whole reason they were stuck back in the dark ages? The virus hadn't attacked the public utilities after all. The reason they had no electricity was because groups were too busy trying to seize power rather than work together for the good of everyone.

"It's not that much different than the world we had before when you think about it," Esme said. "Easier not to think about it. But, clearly, we were never as enlightened in this country as we pretended to be." She shook her head. "Anyone who knew anything about how hard it was to convict a rapist understood that a long time ago, but here we are."

Edward's brother, Emmett, was the antithesis of gentle. He was bold and brash; loud and physical. He should have been Bella's nightmare. His size alone set off every frayed nerve she had.

But it was hard not to be charmed by Emmett. He had a dimple, for chrissake. And since he was always smiling—a huge smile at that—the dimple was front and center almost constantly. It was disarming. His easy, breezy attitude was disarming. The fact he—a man who looked like the ultimate dude bro—had been the one to adopt Aaron was disarming. And despite his brash nature, he was considerate. He figured out almost instantly that Bella grew more uncomfortable the closer he got. She noticed he made an effort to stay as far away as he reasonably could while they were still in the same room.

Emmett more than anyone filled in blanks Bella couldn't while her body was too broken to move around. As it turned out, he and his mother were part of a trio of engineers whose job it was to solve problems. They were figuring out how to get running water across each of the islands. They were rigging generators so they had a source of electricity, if only for minutes at a time. Emmett showed her how they'd retrofitted the hospital they were in, bringing more functionality to the outer rooms that had windows.

Bella was aware of his attention when Edward helped Aaron climb into bed with her for a careful hug. Emmett's smile then was wistful, his usually sparkling eyes dimmed with sadness.

"My wife," he explained. "She would have loved this little guy." He took a deep breath and his smile brightened again. "But, me and my boys got this. It's not too bad doing the single dad thing around here. I drop the kids off at daycare—we have a good daycare set up here—and do what needs doing. Not a bad life, all things considered.

"I like your family," Bella told Edward two weeks after they'd landed on the island. She was trying to distract herself. They were working on getting her mobile again and everything, everything, hurt. She panted, leaning heavily against him as she tried to balance on her good leg. "They're good people. Like you."

"Not a bad family to be adopted into," Edward said, his tone light. He waited a beat. "For Aaron, I mean."

"Sure. That's what you meant."

They were quiet as Bella concentrated on taking a step, a crutch under one arm and Edward under the other. He whispered quiet words of encouragement, his lips near her ear. The vibration of his voice did pleasant things to her body—the only thing that didn't hurt.

"So, I was thinking," Edward began.

"Uh oh. Never, uh…" Bella closed her eyes, fighting dizziness. "Never a good sign."

"Hah. Well. It's just something for you to consider. If you're going to stay for the winter, you should decide soon where you want to go. There are plenty of houses. You could have one. Even if it's just for the winter, it would be yours."

Bella had to blink hard at that. What a world. She could just have a house. Nevermind that she'd spent the last few years living mostly on various pieces of ground, even in her first life, home ownership had never been on her radar.

"But you're going to need help, I think, for a while. You could stay here at the hospital. There are people here every day."

"Or?" Bella prompted, seeing right through him.

He shifted, keeping an arm braced under hers. When they were face to face, he cupped her clammy cheek, searching her eyes. "You can stay with me, in my house. You took care of me. You're so good at surviving out there. But I can be good at this. I can take care of you here."

A/N: Let him help you, Bella!

Thanks for still being here.