Thank you so much IamTheAlleyCat for beta'ing and Ncsupnatfan for pre-reading. Thank you all for reading and reviewing. I can't overstate how much it means to me to hear from you all xxx


Chapter Four

Carlisle

Bella was still relatively new to the department—apparently, they had just recently stopped calling her rookie—so she didn't get her pick of working hours. Unless there was a need for her to switch, she worked the first watch, starting in the early hours of the morning and finishing around noon. That meant an adjustment for our meetings when she returned to regular shifts as there was less time available for us between her other friends and duties. She made time for me though, even if it was just to come by the hospital during my night shifts and have a coffee in my office before reporting for duty. We had engineered a day though, in late May, that we could spend together without interruption, at least as much as a doctor and cop could be sure of no interruptions.

The day was Bella's to arrange. She had been secretive with me about what we were to do. I just knew that I had to drive to her house, and she would take care of it from there.

I was intrigued, and I found it hard to settle to anything to distract me during the night. Ultimately, I stopped trying and drove to the forest to hunt. After taking down two deer, I felt as sated as it was possible for me to be. When I returned to the car, I saw my eyes were light gold again and my cheeks were very slightly colored. I looked as human as a vampire could.

Happy, I drove back to my home just outside the city and changed for the day into Bella's instructed outfit—old, weekend clothes and comfortable shoes. She knew that comfortable footwear wasn't something that I needed to concern myself with, so I assumed wherever we were going would be around other people. I dressed in jeans, a sweater, and a pair of walking boots I had purchased at Newton's Outfitters a long time ago but had never worn.

Time aligned so that when I was dressed and ready, it was time to leave. The drive to Bella's house was short, even driving at city safe speeds, and soon I was climbing out and making my way along her path. I knocked lightly and heard her call, "Coming."

There was the sound of uneven footsteps, and then the door opened. The reason for the uneven footsteps was explained by the fact Bella was wearing one hiking boot, and the other was still in her hand.

"Hi," she said, stepping back and looking me up and down with a frown.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked, looking down at myself.

Her frown turned into a smile and she shook her head. "No. You look fine. I should have been more specific about what we were doing today. That's all. We're hiking, not modeling hiking clothes."

"Should I change?" I asked, though what I would change into, I didn't know, as these were the most 'weekend' looking clothes I owned, and they were definitely the oldest. They had been worn a few times already.

She laughed and tugged my arm to bring me into the house. "No. It's fine. You can't help the model thing, and as for the clothes… Well, I get the feeling you're already risking Alice's wrath if she was to catch sight of you in that."

"You may be right," I said.

She sat on the bottom step of her staircase and put on her other boot. "So," she said as she tied her laces, "when you said you'd only seen a little of the area, did you mean it?"

I nodded. "I have seen as much of the town as you have taken me to and the hospital. I usually hunt in Tillamook forest if I stay local, and you know where I live."

"Great," she said. "I have a surprise, and I don't want it spoiled."

Curiously, I held out a hand to help her to her feet again and said, "Now I am intrigued."

"Good," she said simply. She took her USO hooded sweater from a hook on the wall and picked up a blanket from the side table. "Let's get going."

I well remembered Edward complaining about Bella's aversion to what he called 'reasonable driving speeds'. That had evidently changed as well. Though she kept to the speed limit, she drove faster than he had ever mentioned.

It was a short drive, too, before we came to the stone and wood sign that welcomed us to the Fort Stevens State Park. I hadn't been there before, though I had heard of the place. A thrill of anticipation crept through me. This was an unexpected but wonderful surprise.

She glanced to the side to look at me and returned my smile. "Good choice?"

"Absolutely," I said enthusiastically. "I love history."

"Thought you might," she said. "Since, in a way, you are part of it." She grinned at me. "Ready to step back in time, Carlisle?"

I laughed and nodded. "More than ready, Bella. More than ready."


We had the beach almost to ourselves. The overcast weather that made the area perfect for me to live meant that May wasn't beach weather

Bella had spread the blanket down on the sand and was currently lying back staring at the sky while I sat beside her.

We had spent the morning exploring the fort and, now it was afternoon, we had made our way along the hiking trails to the beach and the Peter Iredale shipwreck.

It was a hulking skeleton of what would once have been a beauty of craftsmanship. It fascinated me, and I had spent a good amount of time circling it and looking at the smaller details while Bella read aloud from the tour book I'd bought at the visitors' center.

"You know," I said, breaking the comfortable silence, "Jasper would really like to visit this place, too."

Her gaze moved from the sky to my face. "He would? Is he a fan of shipwrecks?"

"Not shipwrecks," I said, "but the fort. Jasper has a fascination with the Civil War."

"Huh," she said, sitting up. "I can actually see that. Jasper, more than anyone but you, has that feel of history about him. The Civil War is pretty fascinating, too."

I smiled. "Jasper does have a history about him. He fought in the Civil War."

Her eyes widened. "Seriously?"

I chuckled. "Seriously. He has perhaps the most colorful history of us all. You should ask him about it sometime."

I quickly realized what I had said. The last time Bella had seen Jasper, he had been baying for her blood. I was sure she felt no grudging toward him for that, but perhaps a discussion about his history wasn't something she'd feel comfortable with.

Naturally, she surprised me. "I'd really like that. Edward barely told me anything about Jasper, and I was always curious. I know something about everyone else, but not him."

"I imagine he thought he was protecting you," I said. "As I said, Jasper's history is colorful. It's not a story Edward would have wanted you to hear."

She rolled her eyes. "Imagine that. Never mind. I'll get the skinny some other time."

Though we had spoken about the rest of my family on occasion, Bella hadn't mentioned seeing any of them, and it had led me to question whether she actually wanted to. But this casual reference to talking to Jasper made me wonder.

She shook her head. "It's a lot like La Push here, you know. I mean here we've got a shipwreck and there we've got a driftwood tree, but other than that, they're similar."

There was fondness in her tone as she spoke of the place. It was strange. There were entire areas of the world that I had not yet visited, but the fact I couldn't visit the small reservation near Forks made me want to all the more.

"I've seen pictures, of course," I said, "but I have never been able to visit."

"No, you wouldn't," she said with a wry smile. "The treaty."

"Exactly. Obviously, there is no danger to us now, but we maintain the boundary lines out of respect for the tribe."

"No danger?" she said, sounding amused. "I don't think they'd be pleased to hear that."

I merely frowned at her, feeling that I was missing something important.

"The pack," she said, as if it was obvious. "You do know, don't you?" She frowned. "How can you not know?"

"Know what?" I asked, though an inkling of suspicion was creeping through me.

"The wolves aren't gone, Carlisle. Well, your wolves are gone, but there's a new pack." She turned her whole body to look at me. "I thought Edward was just protecting me, but you really didn't know?"

I shook my head mutely.

"Okay," she said slowly. "Sam Uley, the alpha of the pack, was phasing for about a year before you left, I think. Paul and Jared followed before I knew them, and then after we were friends, Jake started phasing. There's a big pack now, Carlisle. Ten of them running, though there haven't been any new ones since the danger passed. That's what makes them phase, you know?"

My mind was capable of taking in massive amounts of information at a time, but it seemed stuck on the 'there's a big pack now' part of her explanation. Ten of them! They had been a pack of four when we had met them, and we'd thought that was a threat. How had we not known what was happening mere miles from us?

I shook my head and rallied my thoughts. "You were friends with the werewolves?"

"I am friends with the werewolves," she corrected. "Hell, they're family. Seth and Leah have been phasing since I was eighteen. Seth was just a kid, only fourteen, and Collin and Brady were even younger."

Children. Worse than that, for Bella at least, was the fact they had been first phasing when she had known them. That was amazingly dangerous for a human. Edward had seen it all in their minds when we had met them; how volatile they were when they first changed; how they had to learn to control their tempers in order to control their phasing. Bella had been friends with these people? Her immersion in the supernatural hadn't ended with our presence after all. Edward would be distraught.

"What's with the face?" Bella asked.

"What face?"

"That face," she said, waving a hand at me. "You look like Edward when he would freak out about something."

I drew a deep breath. "Bella, were you ever hurt by the wolves?"

She looked confused. "Hurt?"

"Physically, I mean?"

She shook her head jerkily. "No, Carlisle, never. The wolves were the ones that saved me."

"From what?"

She looked sad. "From myself. From Laurent. And from Victoria."

"Victoria!" I gasped.

"Didn't Alice see?"

I shook my head. "Alice saw nothing."

"Oh," she breathed. "That explains a lot. Well, Victoria came back for me. Mate for a mate, you know. She didn't realize that was wrong. She thought I'd be the one to hurt him if I died, so she came after me."

"Because of us," I said desolately.

She shook her head. "Because of Edward." She sighed. "Victoria got it wrong."


Bella ~ Five Years Ago

It had been months of being targeted, near-misses and almost-killings, before it finally came to a head. I had spent so much time in La Push, under the protection of the wolves, that the reservation was more home to me now than the little town of Forks was.

I had no words to express my gratitude to the pack and Billy for not only keeping me safe, but for protecting Charlie, too. Billy lured Charlie to the reservation with baseball and football, and I did my bit by cooking in the kitchen of the little red house on the edge of the forest every night instead of at home. Things were as good as they could be in the circumstances, seeing as there was a target on my back and a deranged vampire coming for me.

Sometimes, I wished I could talk to her long enough to explain she was wrong. I wasn't Edward's mate. He wouldn't care that I was dead. But that would redirect the target to his back, and I couldn't bear that. Selfishly, I preferred the wolves to protect me than he protect himself. I truly was a monster.

But it was coming to a head now. For good or bad, we were laying our trap. If Victoria slipped through the wolves' protection and I died, at least I would know I had done all I could have to fight it with the help of my friends.

The idea for the blood trail had been mine. I had been thinking of the curse of my blood, how it had tortured Edward, how it had tempted Jasper, and how it had been the reason James first took notice of me. It was that blood that Victoria thirsted for now. My damned blood. I wished I could be rid of it, which gave me the idea.

Victoria was apparently making regular trips into the area in the hopes of finding a way through the wolves' defenses to me. She had no luck. There were too many of them, and they were clever enough to not spread themselves too thin. My idea was that we let her through and draw her out to a place where we, they, could attack. My blood was potent enough to draw any vampire, but one with the specific urge to shed it in the most painful way had to be tempted easily.

She always seemed to come from the ocean to me, so we started the trail there. Leaving drops of blood on leaves, trees, and ferns.

We made camp in the vast field in which the Cullens had once played baseball. Charlie believed Jacob and I were in Ashland, checking out the campus I would be studying on in two months. Billy promised to keep him on the reservation as much as he could while I was gone, and the rest of the time, Collin and Brady would guard him.

Jacob and I were there for three days, subsisting on campfire meals, while the rest of them lay in wait, eating from the land. Occasionally, Jacob would transform into the giant russet wolf to communicate with the pack, but most of the time he was human. We spoke about everything and nothing. My plans for the future, his plans, and hopes and dreams for us both. At the time, it all seemed impossible. What kind of future could I have with a rabid vampire coming for me?

But then she had come, and all hopes and dreams left my mind as they were replaced by the sheer instinct to survive.

We were sitting outside the tent when a howl rent the air. Jacob leaped to his feet and shoved me bodily toward the tent. "Get in there," he ordered.

Why? What good would canvas do when faced with a vampire?

I did as I was told though, rushing inside and curling into a ball on the air mattress. The only thing that gave me a clue of what was happening outside the tent were the sounds I could hear, and I knew at once that there was more than Victoria alone to face. The wolves were snarling and growling, and there were other voices, more than one, in response. Unable to resist, I crept to the door of the tent and looked outside. The most horrific sight met me.

There was a head on the ground just outside the door. Its red eyes, so much brighter than any of James' coven had been, fixed on me.

I looked away, swallowing bile, and took in the rest of the field within view. Things were moving too fast for me to see clearly, but there were other vampires there than Victoria and the head on the ground.

I covered my mouth with my hand.

The air was thick with screams of pain and the sound of tearing metal that I had heard once in my life before. The wolves, my friends, were locked in battle, and I was terrified for them. I was a coward. I shuffled backwards into the tent, covered my ears with my hands, and squeezed my eyes shut. I waited for it to be over.

I lost myself and time, and I didn't know how long had passed when I felt hot hands grip my wrists and pull them down.

"Bella, Bella," Jacob was saying. "It's over. You're okay."

I opened my eyes and stared into his face. "It's over?"

He nodded and grinned in the way only my Jacob could. His smile gave me hope.

"Is everyone okay?"

"Bit battered and bruised. Sam got the worst of it. He was trying to fight and protect us all at the same time. The others are helping him home now."

"No one died?" I asked.

"The vamps died," he said cheerfully. "We're all good though."

"And Victoria?" I asked.

He shook his head, looking amused. "Would you believe she tried to run? She came through with six others, weird ones, really bright red eyes, strong and kinda deranged, and when she saw us, she turned tail and took off." He looked smug. "I brought her back. In pieces."

I exhaled a shaky breath. "She's dead?"

"Yep. Ashes to ashes and all that. They're all smoldering away nicely. We're thinking s'mores. You hungry?"

I smiled at him, feeling the wetness streaking down my cheeks as I did. I swiped it away and tried to find calm, but when I spoke, my voice was shaky. "Thank you, Jake."

He shrugged. "It's was fun. In fact, any time you want to piss off another vampire, go ahead."

A sob bubbled up my throat and escaped me. I felt overwhelmed and exhausted, as if I was the one that had been fighting. The scent of incense in the air that I was sure was the scent of burning vampires made me feel sick, and the image of that head on the ground fixed in my mind.

Jacob wrapped me in his arms, and I started to cry in earnest. It was shock, relief, and sadness all combined.

It was over.


Carlisle

My mind was reeling. Bella had been there, with newborn vampires mere feet from her, and she'd survived because of the wolves I had worried would hurt her.

How had we not known?

Alice had promised to not look for Bella when we left, but something like this, Bella's life in danger, would surely have triggered something with her automatically. And Victoria. Alice had been watching her. Why hadn't she, even once, seen Victoria in Forks being chased by giant wolves? It wasn't that she lived in her visions, she hadn't seen Bella's return to my life after all, but something like this, something life and death… It made no sense.

And we hadn't been there. Bella was fine, safe and uninjured, sitting on the blanket beside me, but my heart still ached for the danger she had been in without us. What made it worse was that I knew what I felt would be magnified hundredfold in Edward. He would be devastated that this had happened and that we hadn't been there.

We had failed her where the wolves had succeeded. That was a debt we owed them that we could never repay.

"Bella," I began, "I am so sorry."

She frowned. "For what?"

"For not being there. I swear, had we known Victoria would target you, we would never have left."

She smiled slightly. "I appreciate that, but we both know that wouldn't have been fair. He left for a reason after all. Just because Victoria was after me, it didn't make me any more interesting."

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Edward. Leaving. It's okay, Carlisle. You don't need to pretend. He made sure I knew why he was going."

My eyes darkened and she pulled back ever so slightly. "What did he tell you?" I asked. "Why did he leave?"

Her voice was soft as she said, "Because he didn't want me anymore."


So… That's the Victoria part dealt with. I didn't want this story to be focused on her and her vendetta. There will be a battle-type situation later, but that's a new threat.

Until next time…

Simaril xxx