Rosalie growled at Edward when they first saw him with Alice and Jasper waiting for them at the airport exit.
"You idiot," she hissed. "First you drag us all to Ithaca, lying and saying that Bella was through with us, then you bail and go off to South America, and now you've ended up indirectly killing her. And not only that, but you claim to still love her. What the fuck is wrong with you?"
Edward just shook his head sadly. Alice rolled her eyes.
"As much as we all would like to berate Edward, we can do that mentally while we're running. We really don't have time to talk right now. Also, someone needs to run back to the house to get a car so we don't look suspicious," Alice commanded.
"I'll go," Carlisle offered. And with that, they were off.
~O~
Jacob, with his supernatural hearing, was of course, the first one to notice the commotion outside Bella's room.
He checked the clock. Charlie and Renee should've gotten back from dinner by now.
Suddenly, the arguing voices outside started yelling. Bella jolted, surprised. She looked worried.
Jacob decided that the worrying wasn't good for her. Neither was the surprise. Or the shock from Victoria just a half an hour ago.
"I'll go see what's going on," he told her. As he left the room, he didn't notice that he left the door slightly ajar.
The smell of leech bombarded his senses. Charlie seemed to be arguing with someone while Renee was trying to calm him down. As he came closer, he saw who it was. Alice and Edward Cullen.
He growled and stomped toward them.
"What the hell are you doing here?" he snarled. Alice stared at him, shocked. She cocked her head curiously.
She shook herself out of her confusion and answered. "Bella sent me a letter asking for me to come."
"She what?" Jacob asked, at the same time Charlie said, "Exactly. She sent you a letter. Not him."
"You knew about this?" Jacob asked Charlie.
"Yeah. It was on that stupid bucket list of hers," he replied.
"You know, this would be so much easier if you just let us through," Alice cut in.
"She wouldn't be in that hospital bed if it weren't for him!" Charlie yelled.
"My brother has every right to-" Alice started.
"If he had just stayed away from Bella, then she never would have been in any danger! From cancer or anything else!" Jacob cut her off.
"Oh, you're one to talk, mu-"
"Has anyone one thought to ask me about this?" Bella asked snarkily. The air conditioning had blown the door to her hospital room wide open. "You know, because he was my boyfriend and she was my best friend and I'm the one dying over here?"
Jacob and Charlie had the grace to look ashamed.
"Hey, Alice," Bella said softly, all her annoyance gone, along with her energy. "You know, you could come a little closer."
Alice hurried over, dragging Edward behind her. "Oh, Bella, you know we never meant for something like this to happen. Edward was just being stupid and..." she trailed off, glancing at Charlie and Jacob.
Bella made a shooing motion with her hands and they reluctantly closed the door and left her alone with the Cullens.
Alice turned to Edward. "Well, are you going to explain, or should I?"
He looked at Bella. "Bella, love." he started. But why was he calling her love? He didn't want her anymore. Right? Right?! "I never meant for this to happen. When- When Jasper attacked you it made me realize how unsafe it was for you to be around us. At any moment, one of us could snap and kill you. Do you understand how much it pained me to have you in constant danger, love? Do you know what it would have done to me to see you-" he swallowed, "dead because of one of us?" Not waiting for her answer, he continued.
"So I left you. I needed to save you from us. But I knew that you wouldn't let go so easily. So I told you I didn't want you. I thought it would take months to even sow the seed of doubt, for you to even fathom that I didn't want you. And yet it took little more than a week. Because of that, because of your quickness to go along with it, I thought for sure you had known my plan, or had already moved on. I didn't think you would have such a hard time with it and I didn't even know..." he trailed off and waved his hand at the medical machines as an explanation.
Bella stared at him. Every- literally everything- she had done in the past year was based on two simple facts.That Edward didn't want her anymore, and there would be no more supernatural interferences in her life, so she had to get it together. (Obviously, the latter didn't matter as soon as she was diagnosed, because then all she had to worry was saying goodbye and her bucket list.)
She screamed into her pillow in frustration and sadness. Her entire mindset (the new healthy one, where she didn't have urges to jump off cliffs and she forgave people for their past differences) could be summed in in one sentence. Edward didn't want you, so now you've got hustle, get it together, and make the best of your short life. The thought process had brought her so much happiness, and yet one of its core principles was wrong. And not just normal wrong, but dead opposite wrong.
Okay, new philosophy. She thought. She was not going to let these negative emotions take up one more second of her severely shortened lifespan. I'm going to die in a few short days so I am going to make the best of what I have now, including the Cullens, my family, and Jacob.
"Edward." He looked at her. "You are an idiot. I still love you, and always will for the rest of my existence." And with that Bella turned to Alice. "So what have you been doing?"
Edward gaped at her, but Alice smiled. "It's good to see you, Bella. And I've been researching my past life. Apparently, I'm from Biloxi, Mississippi, and my real name is Mary Alice Brandon. I had a little sister named Cynthia, and my niece is still alive today."
Bella smiled. It was good that Alice had gotten something out of that horrid encounter with James last year.
"Did all of you come, or just you two?" she asked. It would be understandable if Rosalie or Jasper didn't come, but she had gotten rather close to the rest of the Cullens during the summer after her Junior year, and it hurt her to think that they wouldn't want to say goodbye.
"Everyone is here except for Carlisle, and he's just getting our car so it doesn't look suspicious," Alice replied. "We just got first dibs because Edward needed to explain, and Charlie wouldn't have let him in if I didn't come up with him. We didn't want to overwhelm you."
Bella chuckled. "I may be dying, but I'm not that fragile, Alice."
Alice grimaced at her nonchalance. Suddenly, Edward sniffed the air.
"Your room is covered in-" he wrinkled his nose. "Victoria's scent?" Alice smelled the air too.
"Yes, at first the scent of mutt covered it up but... What was Victoria doing in here, Bella?" Alice asked.
"Oh, the usual. Threatening to use me as revenge for James's death. Mate for mate, was her idea, I think, but I'm already dying, so I don't think it makes any difference whether she or cancer kills me," Bella replied.
"The usual?" Edward growled. "How long has she been doing this?"
She thought for a moment. "Ever since you've left. I hung out in La Push a lot, because that seemed to keep her away. Now I know it was because of the wolves."
"You're relaxed about this," Alice stated flatly, but Bella knew it was a question.
"I've accepted my death, Alice, whether it be by Victoria, or cancer, or an earthquake. There is no way that I will survive," Bella replied. She was starting to get tired of explaining this to people. Hopefully Alice would tell the others and she wouldn't have to explain it to them too.
Alice's eyes glazed over, and Bella knew she was in a vision.
Edward in front of the Volturi, begging for death.
Upon coming out of the vision, Alice glared at him. Edward, you better not…
Thinking quickly, she grabbed Edward. "It was nice talking to you, Bella, but we don't want to take up all your time. The others still want to talk to you, so see you later!" She blurted as she dragged Edward out of the room.
A/N: Thank you all for the lovely reviews and support! I'm going to update every weekend guaranteed, and hopefully, I can update more often than that, but I do have a life so my weekend is my only free time. I'm thinking only 3 more chapters left and then an epilogue.
And finally, a big thank you to JaelSarjenka for the cover art idea!