While Edward hunted some unknown distance from her, Bella slept. When she woke, Lauren brought her water to sip. Afterward, at the nurse's insistence, Bella took a painful walk a few dozen yards down the hall. Lauren walked by her side, supporting Bella under her elbow and dragging the IV pole. Bella had just gotten back into bed, sweating and shaking, when Edward returned.

"I'm going to get your meds," Lauren said when Bella was settled. "Pills this time, so we can see if we can keep you comfortable that way. They won't make you as sleepy as the shots, and they'll last longer."

"Okay, sure." Bella fumbled for the cup of melting ice on her bedside table. Edward hurried to help her, and she was too exhausted to do anything but open her mouth and let him feed her a slushy spoonful. "Thanks," she said as she swallowed.

When Lauren had gone, Edward pulled a chair up beside the bed.

"Is it okay that I'm here?" he asked after a moment. "I'll go if you want me to, but you need to tell me."

Bella didn't answer, but she reached for his hand and gripped it tightly in hers. He leaned closer to her and stroked her hair.

Lauren returned with Bella's medication, and Edward helped her sit up and swallow them. The nurse took Bella's vital signs, scribbled the information onto a scrap of paper, and stuck it into the pocket of her scrubs.

"How do they look?" Edward asked, watching Lauren's face. She smiled at him, but he didn't return the smile. Her voice stayed cheerful when she answered him.

"They're okay, but I'd like to see her heart rate a little lower. I'm going to give Dr. Cullen a heads-up. Nothing to worry about, though."

"What is it?" Bella asked when she'd gone.

Edward hesitated.

"She's worried," he said. "Your heart rate is too high, and your blood pressure is a little low. She thinks you might need another unit of blood."

"How do you know all that?"

He paused for a beat before answering her.

"I can hear her thinking it."

For a moment, Bella thought she hadn't heard him right, or that he was kidding. But his face was serious. If she weren't feeling so weak, if her shoulder and side and belly weren't throbbing so terribly, she would have felt an embarrassment bordering on horror. As it was, she could only think of one thing to say.

"Well, shit."

She closed her eyes, feeling more naked than she had that night in the bathtub, or even when she was laid out on the gurney in front of Carlisle and half the staff of Forks Community.

What have I been thinking about around him? Stuff about him, his family, sex, suicide, money, Jacob... He can hear me right now. This. Right now. Oh god...

"I can't hear yours," he added quickly. "If that's what's upsetting you."

She looked at him. "Really?"

"Really."

Her relief was immense.

"Why not?"

"I have no idea. I've never been able to, not even on that first day in your school. You're actually the first human being I haven't been able to hear."

"Huh," she said. She shifted in the bed and winced.

"Are you hurting?" he asked, his expression reflecting the pain in hers.

"Yeah, but it's okay for now. I have faith in Lauren's pills; she doesn't mess around. Just keep talking to me. It helps." He squeezed her hand and smiled like she'd just given him a gift. "So, vampires can all hear people's thoughts? How does that work?"

"Not all vampires, just me. Perhaps some others; I've heard stories. Nonetheless, it's a rare thing. And I hear vampires' thoughts as well as humans'."

"That's why your family can't lie to each other," she guessed.

"That's part of it. It certainly does make it very difficult for the others to lie to me. But there's more to it than that."

"Like what?" This was just the sort of thing that she needed to know.

"Vampires have very keen senses. Everyone, human or vampire, gives themselves away when they lie, in one way or another. Vampires hide it better, but it's not so easy with others of our kind. The smallest flicker of expression, the slightest movement - vampires notice such things."

"Alice told me that - that you don't lie. She said you don't break promises to each other, either."

"Did she?" Edward said with a wry expression.

"Yeah," Bella said. "Why do you say it like that?"

Edward shook his head.

"If there's any vampire living that can lie to me, or at least hide information from me, it's Mary Alice. She also has an uncanny way of finding her way around promises when she finds it necessary. I think it's interesting that she was the one to tell you how we feel about promises."

"Is the thing about promises the same as the thing about lying?"

"No, not at all. Vampires don't lie to each other because it's mostly useless. Cullens don't break promises to each other because..." He paused, searching for the words. "We just weren't raised that way. Once it was clear to Carlisle that we were becoming a full coven, and a large one at that, he set some rules and enforced them steadfastly. He'd come in contact with many other covens in his lifetime, and he'd seen them fall apart. He'd seen the members turn on each other, destroy each other. The kinds of emotions vampires have are similar to those of humans, but vampires experience them much more deeply. When that depth of feeling is added to our strength and speed, the results can be awful. Carlisle didn't want us to become that. He set out for us to become and remain a family, and he knew that, for that to happen, we needed to be able to trust each other. So, yes, promises are a very big deal, but that's a Carlisle thing, not a vampire thing. It's his way of protecting those who are his, even from themselves."

Bella was quiet for a moment as she thought about his words.

"Do you, all of you... Do you think of me as one of you?"

"Yes."

She was surprised by how quickly he answered.

"But, what if I don't want to be Changed?" she asked. "Or what if... What if I don't stay with you?"

His flinch was miniscule, and she would have missed it if she hadn't been watching him closely. When he answered her, though, his voice didn't betray any distress.

"Then you don't Change. You don't stay. You go where you choose. You live as you wish."

"But, to all of you, I would still be one of you?"

"Yes, Bella. Although it would make a great deal of difference to me, your location, your mortality - they make no difference to who you are to us."

The pills were starting to work. The throbbing in her body had quieted. She closed her eyes and sighed with relief as the pain receded.

"Better?" he guessed.

"Yes, getting there," she said. She looked at him seriously. "I must seem really ungrateful to you, to your family."

"Why do you think that?"

"You've been good to me. The bad things, the scary things, you couldn't help that. All of you, you've saved my life, twice. And the money..." She laughed at his expression, then winced at the answering pain in her side. "Maybe vampires are good liars, Edward, but you're not. Charlie's estate - that's you guys, right?"

He answered with reluctance. "Not all of it."

"Did he even have a will?"

"Not... as such. But we were careful to speak with him on multiple occasions, learn how he would have written it, should he have conceived of such a need."

"Wait. Are you telling me you knew he was going to die?"

"Yes."

"How?"

"Alice," Edward said. "She can see the future. Not all of it, and she's not always right, but she's quite often right."

"Well?" Bella asked, her voice rising. "Why the hell didn't you try to stop it? He was barely over fifty, Edward!"

"Of course we tried to stop it, Bella, but it's almost never possible to prevent a death from natural causes. It wasn't in this case. Alice tried for a long time, and Carlisle even tried to get your father to check into the hospital the night before it happened. Charlie refused, and even if he had agreed, Alice didn't believe it would have changed what happened. So we did what we could to make the aftermath easier for you. It was all we could do."

She was quiet again as she thought about this new information. Seeing the future... Yes, that made sense. How else could they have known so much? Been so many places at just the right time...

"And David?" she asked. "It wasn't possible to save him either?"

Edward looked sad and thoughtful as he answered her. "Actually, we thought that it might have been possible. That's why Carlisle was there. Alice saw-" He broke off and fell silent.

"What? What did she see?"

"She thought that he would live. She was wrong. You cannot imagine Carlisle's regret at his inability to save him."

"He could have Changed him, though. Right?" The thought made Bella feel strange, but she couldn't stop herself from asking.

"Physically, yes. But it would have been no kindness. We do not make vampires from children."

She stroked his hand absently as she imagined what David would look like, so tiny, so pale... He'd been barely six pounds when he'd been born. She could see the rightness in what Edward said about making a child, a baby, into a vampire, but she couldn't stop herself from wishing for it, just for a moment.

There was a knock on the door, that soft tap-tap-tap that told her who it was even before he entered. A flicker of surprise registered on Carlisle's face when he saw Bella holding Edward's hand. Carlisle's smile showed for an instant before he hid it.

"How are you feeling, Bella?" he asked.

"Okay," she said. "I mean, by current definitions of 'okay.' I'm tired, and I hurt, but it's better than it was."

"Any dizziness?" he asked.

"Some."

He glanced at Edward.

"Well, I'm overall pleased with how you're coming along, but I looked at your labs from this morning, and your vitals from earlier. I think you need another unit of blood. You might get by without it, but you'll recover much more easily if your body isn't working so hard to restore itself."

"Okay," she said. "I guess that's fine."

"Mind if I check your bandages while I'm here?" he asked.

"No," she said. Edward released her hand and started to stand. She felt a surprising jolt of panic. "You don't need to go, Edward," she said, trying to keep her voice even.

Carlisle glanced at him. "I'm afraid he does, Bella."

"Why? I mean, I'm sorry to say so, but everyone in this room has already seen me naked."

Carlisle laughed, and Edward smiled and scratched at the back of his neck. Such a human-looking movement. Bella felt that melting sensation again, the one that told her that no amount of yearbook messages or philosophical musings about free will would change the course of this thing between the two of them.

"I am sorry, Bella," Edward said. "But it's the blood. I've worked very hard for the control necessary to be near you, but it does have its limits."

"Oh, of course. I suppose that makes sense." She wondered for the first time just how difficult it was for him to be around her.

Edward bent and kissed the top of her head before leaving. Carlisle smiled as he pulled the curtain around her bed.

"Why doesn't this bother you? The blood, I mean?" Bella asked as he lifted the hem of her gown and pulled back the dressing over her hip.

"I suppose it's my gift," he said. "It's what lets me do what I do, practice medicine. It let me Change my family without killing them."

"You don't want... I mean, human blood..."

"Oh, I want it," he said, chuckling. "And 'want' isn't really the right word. Perhaps one day you'll understand that. But I've always been able to stop myself. I've actually never taken human life in that way."

"And that's unusual?"

"Extremely."

"What about the others? Alice? Edward?"

He hesitated. "I think you would need to ask them about that yourself. It's not mine to tell."

She wondered uneasily about what that meant.

"Is that why none of the others have come to see me? The blood?"

"Smart girl," Carlisle said. He replaced the bandage on her belly and moved to inspect her arm. "There is more than the usual amount of blood to be sensed in a hospital. It's also difficult for a vampire to be so close to so many wounded and weakened humans, regardless of whether or not they're bleeding."

"Because they're..." She couldn't say the word. He looked her in the eye as he said it for her.

"Prey. Yes, Bella."

This is the truth that you wanted.

He finished his exam. As he tossed his stained gloves and washed his hands at the sink, Bella watched him, summoning the courage to speak.

"I never wanted to be rescued," she finally said.

"What?" he asked turning to her, and she knew that it wasn't because he hadn't heard her, but because he didn't understand.

"I just want you to know, all of you... I'm not one of those girls that grew up dreaming of a prince to come to the rescue. I worked really hard to make sure I never needed rescue."

Carlisle looked thoughtful as he pulled up a stool and sat beside her bed.

"Bella, one thing I've learned in my lifetime is that, if you live long enough, you will need rescue, many times. Even if you're careful, and even if you're strong. There's no shame in it."

"I'm not ashamed," she said. "It's... just a terrible position to be in. People leave. People die. How terrible to need the thing you can't ever be sure of."

"Yes," he agreed, "It is terrible. But it's so much less terrible than the alternative. It's so much more terrible to walk through the world denying that need, your body living even as your soul slowly dies. I did so for more than three centuries, and I do not recommend it for anyone, particularly not you, my dear girl."

She was silent, but he was patient. After several minutes, she spoke again.

"I'm so afraid, Carlisle," she whispered. "I'm so afraid to need him, but then it feels like it's too late. It feels like I already do." A single tear escaped and glided down her cheek.

Carlisle sighed as he wiped the tear away gently with his hand. "Perhaps Alice was right. Perhaps if Edward had stayed, had tried to make you love him when you were still so young, you wouldn't have known enough to be frightened. Young girls are still imaginative enough and foolish enough to forget to be afraid, even when a monster is asking her to love him."

"Ugh, tell me that Edward didn't consider it," Bella groaned. "I was, like, twelve years old."

"You were seventeen. The same age my mother was when I was born, for whatever that's worth."

"Not much, but nice try."

"Fair enough." He laughed. "No, he didn't consider it. He saw you, correctly, as a child. The idea of approaching you then was obscene to him. He was also quite worried about killing you. It seems that his mating attraction to you extended to the scent of your blood. He very nearly lost control of himself on that first day."

Bella shivered. "Why isn't he worried about that now?"

"When Edward left Forks ten years ago, he went to stay with our sister coven in Denali. They helped him train to improve his control around human blood. He's come a long way over the last decade."

"He did this because of me?"

"Yes," he said, sounding as though this fact should have been obvious to her.

"How does that even work? Learning to resist human blood?"

"In the beginning, only physical restraint will work for most vampires. The thirst overcomes them, and they have no understanding of it, no tools to master it. Over time, if they wish to, they can learn to remember their own humanity enough to despise the suffering and death of another person. For Edward, because he wished more than just the ability to stop killing strangers, because he needed to be strong enough to be close to you without losing himself to his thirst, more was needed. I don't know everything that was involved, but I know that there was meditation, and a great deal of practice, spending time in the presence of prey without feeding on it. I understand he kept a live deer in his room for months."

"Why would he-?" She stopped. "Oh, right. Hmm. So, deer, huh?"

"Among other things." He raised an eyebrow at her. "You make that face, but I know that you yourself eat meat."

"After it's cooked," she said. "And, you know, after it's dead."

"You'll feel differently about it when the time comes."

She frowned at him.

"You keep saying 'when.' Is this my choice or isn't it?"

"It is, Bella. But I've seen you two together, and you look very much the way my other children did in their first days with their mates. I don't believe you'll choose to leave him, not in a month, and not in eighty years."

His smugness annoyed her.

"And what if you're wrong?" she asked defiantly. "What then?"

He chuckled. "Well, then, you can just think of me as an old man who believes what pleases him. It pleases me to believe that God has not forsaken my son." He stood and patted her hair, tousling it a bit.

He picked up her chart, opened it, and started writing in it as he moved toward the door. Before he left, he turned and said, almost as an afterthought, "Don't worry about me making you a vampire against your will, Bella. Perhaps it will make you feel better to know that Edward has quite sincerely promised to end my existence if I make the attempt. And, as you know, he's an abysmal liar."

A/N - You're welcome to come chat me up on Facebook. I'm Bethesda Gray there. If you twitter, I'm BethesdaGray. Thanks for so much for reading and for letting me know what you think.