Edward POV

Edward woke up with a splitting headache. While he'd never tasted alcohol, he had read the minds of numerous alcoholics. He'd never understood how such foul-smelling liquid could be worth the ice-pick to the brain pain of a hangover. Edward rolled over to ask Bella. Both of her parents had been known to overindulge after a long day.

"Bella, why do humans-"

Edward bolted upright. Figuring out the appeal of liquor could wait until later. Bella wasn't next to him.

"Bella!" Edward shouted, "Where are you!"

He took a few steps forward legs unsteady as a newborn foal. "Bella!"

Memories came drifting back as he searched for his wife. Jasper kissing Bella. Arguing. Fighting. The smell of lighter fluid. Trees splintering. His arm ripping away from his body. Bella coming outside. Yelling. Darkness.

A dark thought entered Edward's mind. What if Bella had confronted Jasper? His sweet, innocent wife was no match for the Major. What if he'd taken her somewhere? What if he'd hurt her? What if he'd… No, Edward couldn't think that way. His Bella was alive until proven otherwise.

Alice stirred a few feet away.

"Alice," Edward cried. "Where is Bella?"

"How am I supposed to know?" Alice snapped. "I'm not Bella's…"

Alice trailed off mid-sentence with a blank expression on her face. It was a vision. A horrifying event that would end Edward's life as he knew it.

Edward fell to his knees. It was all his fault. He knew what Jasper was. He knew what he was capable of. He should have taken Bella and ran while he still had the chance.

"It's not over yet!" Alice exclaimed, gesturing to the sky. "We can still stop him!""

Edward looked up at the sky. Alice was right. They still had a few minutes until the sun slipped below the horizon. They'd stopped Jasper before. Maybe it wasn't too late to stop him again.

Bella POV

During her time in Chicago, Bella had experienced a wide array of emotions. Anger when they rescued those kids from the warehouse. Fear when Nessie asked to join the Silver Bullets. Arousal when Jasper did that…thing she liked. Pride when she finally beat Rose in Mario Kart. Joy when Nahuel asked for her blessing to marry Nessie. On that day, Bella felt something she hadn't experienced in years. Loneliness.

Bella glanced over at Jasper. He hadn't said a word since they left the house. She should have done something. Said something. Anything to stop Edward. Now it was too late. Jasper probably hated her. Through her inaction she'd lost the greatest love she'd ever known.

When they arrived at the outskirts of town, Bella felt a brief pulse of pain from Jasper. It reminded her of the day she told Jacob they were taking Nessie and leaving Washington. It was almost too much to bear.

Bella looked over at Jasper. "Are you okay?"

Jasper's pain turned to fear. Was he worried about Aro? Even without Alice's gift, Bella knew how things would end. They'd handled much worse than a psychotic vampire with a god complex.

"You know we're going to win, right?" Bella said. "Aro is nothing we can't handle."

Jasper nodded.

"Is there something else bothering you?" Bella asked.

Instead of answering, Jasper added a hint of betrayal to the growing wave of anxiety. Playing charades could wait until they were safe at home. Easy or not, they had a mission to finish.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Bella asked.

Bella was going to find out whether or not vampires could throw up if Jasper didn't stop the kaleidoscope of emotions.

"Edward." Jasper rasped.

Bella's guilt increased tenfold. Edward must have crushed Jasper's windpipe.

"My..fault," Jasper coughed. "Sorry."

Jasper's scars were more than just physical. He always blamed himself when things went wrong, even when it clearly wasn't his fault.

"You know I don't blame you for the fight, right?" Bella asked. "I don't know what caused you two to come to blows, but I know Edward was probably the one to start it."

Bella wondered what finally set Edward off. It could have been anything. A perceived slight. A stray thought. A touch that lasted a second too long for comfort. To tell the truth, she was surprised he'd kept his cool for as long as did. Feeling out of control had always been a major trigger for Edward's temper.

"Edward's…house." Jasper rasped.

"What about Edward's house?" Bella asked.

Out of all the times for Jasper to be without a voice why did it have to be now? She needed to get to the bottom of Jasper's strange feelings before they faced Aro.

"Our… house," Jasper said. "Edward's..house."

Bella clenched her fists. She shouldn't have been surprised. Of course Edward would try to put Jasper in his place. While he may not have been the oldest, Edward thought of himself as the leader of his siblings. If Edward was going to stay he needed to learn that his way wasn't always the best way. Being a mind reader didn't make him any better than the rest of them.

"Things aren't going back to the way they were before," Bella said.

While the last five years had been in more ways than she could count, there was a silver lining. She was a braver, stronger vampire. She would no longer tolerate being pushed around. It was far past time to follow Jasper's lead and stand up to Edward.

"I'm an adult capable of making rational decisions and protecting myself," Bella continued. "If that pisses off my ex-husband then that's just too bad. Edward can feel free to go brood in the woods."

Ex-husband. She'd just called Edward her ex-husband. She hadn't thought of him that way before, but somehow it felt right.

"Do you know what Edward did while I was making Nessie her breakfast this morning?" Bella asked.

Jasper shook his head.

"He was all 'Be careful, Bella. I don't want you hurting yourself.' Bella said. "All I was doing was buttering toast! I couldn't have hurt myself if I tried!"

When Bella was a human, she saw Edward's overprotective tendencies as charming. It was cute how he watched her sleep and drove her to school every day. Not even her own parents had ever shown that much concern for her well-being. She was lucky to have a boyfriend who loved her so much. Now that she was older, Bella saw Edward for what he was; a controlling narcissist.

Bella's temper flared as she thought of what happened next.

"It gets worse," Bella said." After he was done butchering the toast, he leaned over and tried to kiss me. It was like me being mad at him was a joke."

It took every ounce of Bella's patience not to introduce Edward to her lucky dagger. Unlike a butter knife, that wicked blade could slice through vampire flesh like warm butter.

Bella was grateful when Jasper mirrored her anger. Her normal meter had always been out of whack when it came to Edward. She'd been starting to wonder if pushing Edward off her was an overreaction.

"I'm glad Nessie wasn't around to see that," Bella said. "The way Edward acts. The way he treats me. That isn't love."

Bella was glad Nessie had found a man who treated her with respect. It would have been excruciating to watch her daughter repeat her stupid teenage mistakes.

Jasper took a shaky breath. "What..is…love?".

Bella took his hand. "This."

"Us?"

A partner who treated her as an equal. Someone who made her laugh. Someone who encouraged her to be the best version of herself rather than his ideal wife. That was love.

"Forever?" Jasper asked. "Us?"

Before Bella could answer, the smell of old books and blood filled her nose.

"Well well well," Aro said. "What do we have here? The shield and the empath? I never thought I'd see the day."