AN: After that cliff, we thought it was only fair to give the next chapter immediately. Chapter 8 also marks the beginning of all new content. For those of you reading from the Babies at the Border compilation...your wait is over. Once again, thank you to Alex and our team. None of this would possible without them! Enjoy!

Chapter 8

SPOV

The thing I was looking forward to most upon my return to the tower from DC was checking in on Bella. While we hadn't left things in a secure place, I knew without a doubt that I just wanted to be with her.

I didn't care about her secret.

That wasn't entirely true; I cared but I could overlook it. Bella had her convictions, and even if I didn't agree with the fact that the Cullens deserved her confidence, she was bound and determined to give it.

This had been a long forty-eight hours training with the new strike team, and all I wanted was to see my girl and relax.

When I reached the tower, I was met with silence, as it seemed everyone was out. Even JARVIS appeared to be offline.

I made my way to my quarters, and when I let myself in, I was disappointed when I realized that Bella wasn't there waiting for me. I had been holding out hope that she would be.

I dropped my bag and went to the fridge to grab a bottle of water when I saw the note taped to the door.

Steve,

I'm sorry about how we left things. I don't want to fight with you, and I don't want to hide things from you. I wish my feelings could change, but they haven't. I found out some information tonight, and I believe it's connected to the Cullens. If I don't find out what's going on … I don't know, Steve. I have to know. I miss you, and I'm ready for you to be home.

Yours,

Bella

"Jarvis? Where is Bella?" The note is clenched in my fist, and there's a lead weight in the pit of my stomach.

"I'm sorry, Captain Rogers. Bella Swan left the tower last night and hasn't returned," JARVIS's voice echoes in the silence of my quarters. "Mr. Stark and Thor went to Staten Island to retrieve her."

"Retrieve her? Jarvis, did Tony take the new suit he made her?" I drop Bella's note onto the table and walk out the door. The AI's voice follows me as I make my way back down to the garage.

"Yes, sir."

"Find them, Jarvis. Send me their location." When I reach my bike and strap on my helmet, I hear my phone ding just as I'm about to climb on.

I head out on the road and soon make it onto the 87 and headed north to find Bella. With guidance from Jarvis, I find myself maneuvering down a gravel road toward a sprawling log cabin.

When I park and climb off my bike, I notice how quiet my surroundings are—no birds chirping in the woods that surround the cabin, no breeze rustling the leaves, and no sign of human life.

Starting up the small set of stairs to what looks like a wraparound porch, I'm taken aback as Thor steps outside.

"My Captain," his voice is hesitant, but his smile is genuine. His posture looks relaxed, but he's clearly guarding the doorway that he just exited.

"Where is she?" I have no patience for pleasantries. "I want to see her … now."

"Captain, Steve … she isn't, well she isn't herself. She isn't well." Thor moves to me with his hands up in mock surrender. "I think it would be best if you came back at a later time."

She isn't well?

"Thor, I don't know what's going on, but I'm not leaving without speaking to Bella." I take a definitive step toward him. "She can tell me whether she wants me to leave or not."

"Well, that might be a bit difficult for her at this exact moment." Tony steps out onto the porch with his arms crossed over his chest. "She's, ah, unconscious, for lack of a better term."

I rush both of them, but they push me back away from the door. "I want to see her! What happened?"

I can feel the fear rising in me, and all I can think is that her ex-boyfriend made good on his unspoken threat to hurt her. That he somehow tracked her down and did something to her, and I wasn't here to protect her.

"Cap, I get it." Tony's got one hand clapped on my shoulder, and he's looking straight at me. "I just don't think it's safe for either of you right now."

"What do you mean?" I'm trying desperately to look past him into the house, to garner any sign of Bella. "Tony, I love her. I—"

"Yeah, I told you I get it." Tony guides me past Thor and pushes me into a deck chair. "Bella is my goddaughter. I'm responsible for her. My rules."

I stare up at him incredulously, "Are you serious right now? I know you know we've been dating for the past three months or so. Are you really going to deny me seeing her? At least, tell me what happened, please?"

I'm not opposed to begging at this point. If she's unconscious then she's been hurt, and I just want to help.

"Her worst fear … my worst fear. I can't tell you specifically, but you should know that eventually, she'll be better than she ever was." Tony's face is contorted as he explains nothing to me.

He's keeping secrets too.

"So, you won't tell me either? Whatever this big secret is, whatever caused her to be hurt, and you won't tell me? Even now?" I scoff. Tony and I had never seen eye to eye, but we were developing a friendship. At this point, he could be the stranger he was when I came out of the ice.

"Stark, tell him." Thor has come up behind Tony. "I'll go sit with her. When you're done, send him in. He deserves to see her."

Maybe someone was on my side.

BPOV

The pain was like nothing I had ever felt before.

Burning.

Like flames licking at every part of my body continuously. I couldn't figure out what was happening to me. The fire took over every thought—it consumed me. It was impossible to think about anything else.

I had no idea where I was. I couldn't make myself focus past the fire, to try to remember what had happened. All I could focus on was the pain in places I didn't know I could feel it.

SPOV

"I thought you were on my side, Point Break?" Tony smirks after him.

"Love changes things, Stark. Tell him." Thor disappears into the house, and Tony turns back and looks at me. Scrubbing his hands over his face, he begins.

"Let me start with the fact that I believe this because I've had the time to come to terms with everything, and I've seen all the evidence first hand." Tony takes the chair next to me and begins to tell me all about Edward Cullen and his "family".

I can barely believe what he's telling me, and after I interrupt him the first time, he stops me and just tells me to listen and save my questions for later.

He tells me everything he knows about the clan, Carlisle, and Esme, who would act as parents or guardians for Emmett and Rosalie, Alice and Jasper, and Bella's ex, Edward. All of them monsters. Each unworldly.

Vampires.

You gotta be shitting me.

I rolled the word around in my head as Tony told me things about the family.

"When Bella showed up on Staten Island, I believe she thought she would run into Edward." Tony drops his head and stares at the wood floor. "I think she thought that maybe she could talk some sense into him perhaps. What she found was Alice, who was her best friend. Alice and Jasper attacked her, and they … She was bitten, and the venom moved quickly."

"How? You said she survived before even though he sucked the venom out of her. Why did it move so quickly now?" I'm trying to stay grounded, and I want as much information as possible.

"I think her metabolism has changed as she's gotten older. I'm sure her heart was racing, and I believe there may be something, scientifically speaking, to do with the fact that she's already had venom in her. I'm postulating at this point, but it's all I've got." Tony leans back in the chair, and I can see how tired he looks.

"What do you need from me?" I'm already in defense mode. I'll do just about anything right now.

Thor and Tony have told me that she hasn't moved since they laid her down two days ago. I've been by her side the entire day I've been here, sitting vigil. They've left me alone for the most part, except for acquiring the blood sample that Tony took.

He and Bruce have a theory, but until Bella wakes up … if she wakes up, we can't do anything but hypothesize about it.

She's so still and quiet, exactly opposite of what Tony was led to believe.

I don't want Bella to feel any pain, but it would be better to have her thrashing around and screaming so we knew she was still with us.

Her pulse has grown so weak that I can't hear it anymore.

"Steve, you need to eat." Thor is standing in the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest and staring down at me as I cradle Bella's tiny hand in my own. "She'll wake soon, and you'll need your strength to keep up with her."

"I'll tell you everything, but first, you need to eat." Thor points to the table, and I drop into the seat. He begins plating food in front of me: eggs and bacon, toast, and pancakes.

"Natasha taught me," he tells me with a grin as he sits across from me and begins to eat from his own mountainous plate.

"You're worried because you can no longer hear her heartbeat, but I can." He says it so calmly, but I choke on a piece of toast. "Have some coffee." He stands to grab the pot off the burner and bring it to the table to fill my cup.

"You can still hear her? So she's all right?" I sigh, feeling so relieved at this point.

"Of course, she's not all right, Steve." Thor drops into his chair and pushes his plate away from him and steeples his fingers under his chin. "She's been bitten and is going through the change to become a vampire.

"Steve, you need to really understand that she will not be the same person she was before. She will thirst for your blood and mine. She will want to hunt after humans, and we have to convince her not to." Thor sighs and leans back in the chair. As it creaks under his weight, I turn to look over my shoulder toward the room where Bella is resting.

"How do we do that? I mean, you're saying she'll be like an animal, so how do we stop the natural instinct?" Nothing in my life had ever remotely prepared me for this. I was scared and confused, but above all else, I just wanted Bella safe.

"We just have to appeal to whatever is left of her humanity."

BPOV

Somehow, I was aware that I was still. Too still. This wasn't part of what I'd been told. This isn't what happened when I was bitten by James just a few years before. Back then, I screamed, shook, and writhed with pain but not this time. How was this possible?

I tried to open my mouth to let out a scream. A scream I so desperately needed to release. I tried to move my limbs, to be able to writhe around in the pain, because surely that would make me feel better? Nothing worked. It was like I was paralyzed, unable to move, unable to scream.

The fire just continued to burn at every single corner of my body.

SPOV

"What happens if we can't …" I trailed off, hoping Thor knew my thoughts. He was looking out across the lake in front of the cabin and sighed deeply.

"Captain … Steve, we'll have to." He finally turns to look at me. "You love her, right?"

I nod and open my mouth to speak, but he holds up a mighty hand to silence me.

"Then you would do anything, whatever it takes, to ensure not only her safety but ensuring that she doesn't do anything she'd ever regret."

He was right; of course, he was. I would do anything to protect her and support her.

"I need you to leave, Steve. She'll be a danger to you when she wakes." He shrugs and offers me a weak smile. "I've got a suit that she'll tear through if she really wants to get to me, and we're fairly certain Thor won't be harmed."

I shake my head and stand up. "I'm not leaving. She's gonna be super strong and fast when she wakes? Great. Who better to help her learn how to move her body with her newfound strength and speed than someone who's been there?"

BPOV

I don't know how long it has been. Time didn't mean anything while I was burning.

Please. Please, just let me die.

Please, just let the pain stop.

SPOV

Thor's plan was to take Bella out to hunt almost immediately as soon as she woke up. Since she wouldn't have an experienced vampire to teach her to hunt, and we wanted to encourage the "vegetarian" lifestyle.

Thor made more sense to teach her, and Bruce was almost positive that he couldn't be turned if Bella attacked him.

Bruce was still doing the research, but he was confident he would have the answers we needed soon enough, and Tony would be back later today, hopefully with the results. Now, if only Bella could wake up and give me the answers I needed from her.

BPOV

It was almost like my senses started to come back to me. Time began to mean something. I still had no idea how long I had been burning. The pain didn't lessen, the fire still continuing to course its way through my body.

I still couldn't move, couldn't scream. But I began to realize that maybe this was a good thing. I was aware of someone beside me, of other people in the same place as me. So, not screaming was a good idea, at least for them.

My heartbeat was strong and fast. Too fast. Was this soon about to end?

I could hear the breaths of someone who was by my side. I could hear movement around me, a door being opened and closed. I felt pressure around my fingers. A squeeze?

"How much longer will she be like this?"

Steve.

I wanted so badly to squeeze his hand back, to tell him that I was okay, but I knew I couldn't. The pain wouldn't allow me.

"Her heart is strong. It won't be long now."

Thor.

Steve sighs from beside me and squeezes my fingers again, "Bella?" There is faint pressure on my shoulder. He whispers. "I'm sorry. I love you, Bella." He lets go of my hand and walks away.

Come back.

A different set of footsteps are walking toward us.

"No change?"

Uncle Tony.

Sounding as impatient as ever. I wish I could roll my eyes.

I'm unaware of how long it's been again. It could have been hours or days, but suddenly, the pain changes. It dims as if it's leaving my body, and I wanted to sigh in relief. But the relief was short-lived—the fire moved from my hands and feet to more inside my heart.

It was already beating too fast, but the fire drove it to a new rhythm.

"Thor?" Steve sounds anguished. He must be beside me again.

"You must leave. She will soon wake."

My heart is loud, so loud I'm sure it must be able to be heard for miles. The flames were leaving other parts of my body but moving into my chest; my heart felt like it was just going to beat its way out of me.

"You must go," Thor says once more.

Steve squeezes my hand. "I'm not leaving her. She won't hurt me."

I hear a sigh that I know instantly comes from Tony. It was probably accompanied by an epic eye roll. "You know where the suit is." His footsteps disappear from the room. "I'll leave. Call me in a couple of days."

"This is a risk, Captain."

"One I'm willing to take."

Thor sighs. "At least, stand on the other side of the room."

Steve kisses my forehead and moves to the other side of the room.

All I can concentrate on is the sound of my heart. The fire was fading; my heart was winning this final battle.

Suddenly, my heart beats once more, and then there is nothing.

I'm overwhelmed by there being no pain. No fire, no flames. It has all gone. How can this be?

I realize that I'm free of the pain, and this must mean I can move again.

I open my eyes.

SPOV

"Bella? Can you hear me?" She hasn't moved from the bed yet, but I can see her eyes darting around the room.

"I truly think you should step out and get to safety, Captain." Thor has deliberately moved between the bed where Bella still lies and myself.

I'm beginning to think that maybe he's right when Bella is in front of me in a flash and Thor is on the floor.

I look down at her small body, which I understand now is hard as stone and cold as ice; all I can see is red eyes and a curled lip.

"So," she murmurs as she runs her hands roughly up my arms. "Everything they told me was true." She inhales deeply, and her back arches slightly.

"Bella, you don't want to hurt Steve." Thor has finally regained his balance and is edging closer to the two of us. Bella's eyes go wide.

"I don't want to hurt Steve. I need to hunt … now." In another flash, she's gone, and the front door is swinging on its hinges.

"I'll go after her and guide her," Thor tells me with a clap to my shoulder. "Everything will be all right."

"I won't leave her." I stand up and walk toward the door. "When you truly love someone, you don't let go. No matter what."