Chapter 39

Things got better over the next few days once Edward left town. He'd agreed not to hide from Alice's sight and the Denali's had agreed to keep an eye on his whereabouts for us. He wasn't to go hunting alone and he was to call and check in a few times a day with Carlisle. With the plan in place, he'd seemed to mellow out slightly and he was trying his best to gain back our trust. He'd even kept in touch with me since he'd left, but now, it was time to make some difficult and finite decisions. I'd told Bella some of the ideas I had for faking our death and she'd come up with a few of her own. In fact it seemed to be all that we had talked about for days. She'd asked the same questions over and over. The conversation continued as we sat out at the cabin Saturday afternoon, her father had to work and she'd decided she wanted to spend the day there.

"I can't burn my dad's house down. He's lived there since before I was born, it just doesn't seem right, even if we could leave him money for something nicer - and your family's home? I couldn't even imagine, it's way too nice. Where would they go?"

"They'll have to move on anyway in a few years, I'm sure it would upset Esme, but she'd understand and she still has the blueprints, she could rebuild it anywhere if she wanted to." I reassured her.

"Wouldn't a wreck be even harder to fake? We'd have to sacrifice your truck, you've had it for decades. On top of that, would anyone believe we hit a tree and just blew up?"

"I'd gladly trade the truck to have you around forever." She smiled as I went in for a kiss.

Truthfully, I was trying to distract her a bit. The conversation had been a bit morbid for a while, I wanted her to be able to think less dreadful thoughts for a bit. It seemed to be working at first, she'd came forward and climbed on my lap, straddling my legs on the couch. She deepened the kiss, driving me wild. As our fingers tangled in each other's hair and her breathing picked up, I felt the burn settle into my throat.

Thankfully, I'd finally been able to hunt once Edward left Washington. Alice had stayed with Bella for a few hours while I went and took care of my dwindling control yesterday. The night that Bella had came into her room barely dressed, I'd been dangerously close to pushing myself too far. I'd had to stop myself once her scent became too much, I even had to step away and spend sometime in the rocking chair before I was able to lay next to her for the night.

My plan for distraction didn't last quite as long as I'd hoped. She suddenly pulled her lips away from mine and resumed with her questions. Though she remained in my lap, making it harder for me to concentrate on what she was saying.

"What about the bodies? Won't we need substitutes?" She asked, I sighed before answering.

"There's a way around everything Bella, Carlisle is a doctor."

"I don't know, what if my dad like . . . checks the dental records or something and they don't match." I let out a chuckle, though her expression was serious.

"You've been watching too much Law & Order, this is a small town. It doesn't really work that way, especially in an accidental death. Unless the Quileutes were to try to expose us and put something in his head about the circumstances of your death, he'd have no reason to go looking for anything. He'll be too distraught."

"Maybe we could get lost hiking? Mauled by a bear?" She asked after a moment.

"That's already Emmett's thing and the Quileute's wouldn't buy that. They know a bear is no match for a vampire."

"Okay, and what was the thing you said about . . . running away to elope?" I felt a wave of nerves from her.

"If we just simply ran away together, he'd still never find us, I'd make sure of it. You could send letters every so often, he wouldn't have to think you died violently."

"Do you really think that could work? I don't know, I'm just stressing out. I want this life, trust me, I do. But . . . Charlie doesn't deserve this. He's a good dad. He's gonna think for the rest of his life, no matter what we do, that he messed up somehow. If he thinks I'm dead, he'll blame himself forever. If I run away . . . he'll think I don't love him or appreciate him. I just wish there was a way that I could still have him in my life." Tears welled in her eyes and my heart broke for her, I hoped like hell that Edward could get through this so that I wouldn't have to put Bella through the emotional torture of leaving her family behind this way. She bent forward and rested her head on my shoulder, sniffling.

"Bella, if you're having second thoughts . . ."

"I'm not." Her head shot up and she let out a sigh. "I guess there isn't really one way that's better than the other from an emotional perspective. So let's try to take the emotion out of it and look at it from the most logical point of view. Can you get Alice out here? Actually maybe we should talk to everyone. Is Carlisle home?"

"You know, now might be a good time to take you to the main house. Edward won't be home for the next week or so at least, by then your scent should be dissipated and he'll have either overcame it or you'll be a vampire so it won't matter."

"Really?" I nodded and her face lit up.

"Are you up for a run?" I asked. The only time I'd ever ran with her was from the kitchen to the living room of the cabin, this was going to be a lot more fun. She'd really get a feel for the speed this time.

"I don't think I'm wearing the right shoes." She said scrunching her eyebrows together. I couldn't help but laugh.

"I'll be doing all of the running Bella, I'll carry you." I felt her anxiety as she looked towards the door.

"Uh, sure. Okay." She grabbed her coat and put on her shoes. Once we were outside, I went over what to expect.

"This may be a bit disorienting for you. Even as a newborn vampire, the speed can take a while to get used to." I scooped her up bridal style in my arms, she gasped and wrapped her arms around my neck for extra support. "Now, keep your head tucked towards my chest and don't forget to breathe. You may want to close your eyes if you get motion sickness easily." She nodded and squeezed her eyes shut tightly. I took off towards the main house, cradling Bella gently to me, trying make the ride as smooth as possible. She had been holding her breath most of the way, but thankfully, it was a short run. I came to a stop not far from the back door and watched as her lungs filled with air once she'd noticed we stopped moving. She slowly opened her eyes and took in her surroundings and I felt her relax a bit.

"Wow, that was fast!" She said as I gently set her down on the ground. She went to take a step towards the house and stumbled, but I caught her before she could fall.

"Are you okay?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, I just need a second. That was so weird, but cool at the same time. Will I really be that fast?" I nodded with a grin and led her into the house. I watched her as she looked around admiring our home.

"Alice?" I called out after a moment. Just a couple seconds later she was standing in front of us, wrapping Bella up in a hug.

"I'm so glad you finally got to make it inside!" She told Bella, who was still a bit surprised by her sudden appearance.

"Me too! It's gorgeous, even prettier than I imagined from the outside. Every time we drove by I would secretly wish that I could come in. Thanks for having me." Esme appeared a moment later with a smile on her face.

"Bella, you're too sweet. I'm so glad you like the place! Welcome to our home!" Esme told her, beaming with pride and pulling her into an embrace. "Oh, I'm so glad I finally get to do this! Come on into the living room, I'll gather the others." Before long, everyone was assembled in the living room besides Carlisle, who was still at work. I cleared my voice and took control of the room.

"So, as you guys are aware, it was Bella's idea to introduce her scent to Edward in a controlled environment, but that leaves some things up in the air and we need to be prepared for all outcomes." I ran through the most plausible scenarios and felt my family weighing the options as I went through the list.

"Alice, what do you think? Can you see anything?" Bella asked once I'd finished explaining.

"Hmm, not yet. I think Edward is still getting in the way. He's not blocking me, but he's going to be running on instincts during all of this, so I can't really tell what's going to happen." She admitted.

"What if we decide to take Edward out of the mix. Say, we just want to change Bella which escape plan gives us the best outcome? I'll focus on the decision now, see what you can come up with." Her eyes glossed over and I could feel her brain swimming through all of the possibilities. After a moment, she came back to the present and gave us all an apologetic look.

"Honestly? The explosive gas leak here at the house seems to be your best bet." She said hesitantly. Emmett groaned and I felt Rosalie's anger spike. Esme hid her disappointment as well as she could.

"Great, so now we're all going to be forced to start over somewhere else, I suppose I can't even take anything with me." Rose said, crossing her arms. Alice looked ahead again.

"We can take the important stuff. Remnants of the past, things like that. You should have time to swap out anything that's not listed on the insurance policy, but we can't just go packing up all the valuables right before a we blow the place up, if anyone were to investigate it would raise some red flags." Alice told her, still sifting through future outcomes.

"Wouldn't it be more believable if it wasn't just the two of you caught in the fire? Can we say I died too?" Emmett asked, all too eager to be involved. I looked to Alice and raised an eyebrow.

"He's not wrong. It would add to the credibility." She agreed with a shrug.

"Nice!" Emmett exclaimed, I rolled my eyes and let out a sigh. He was no doubt, thinking of all the ways we could blow the place up.

"So when should we do this?" I asked Alice.

"Well, the longer you wait, the less chance we have of keeping Edward contained with the Denali's. The only thing keeping him sane right now is his faith in this plan and our faith in him. Bella's father is going on and overnight fishing trip one week from today. I think that's probably our best bet. We can get started first thing in the morning, it'll give us the most time to work with." I felt Bella's nerves rising and reached for her hand hoping to comfort her.

"What do you think Bella?" I asked after a moment.

"I trust Alice." She said, trying to sound confident, though she began to chew on her lip.

"Well, Emmett, Alice - I guess we better get started on figuring out how to rig this place up to explode."