Sorry for the delay! I went on vacation and was unable to post! I want to thank everyone again from the bottom of my heart for the reviews! It honestly means the world that so many of you took time to tell me what you think!

Charlie POV

Her breathing evened out after a few minutes and what few muscles she had tensed, relaxed as she fell asleep. And it was just, sleep. Her chest still rose and fell, quickly and shallowly but she was still breathing. I couldn't believe this was happening to her, to us. How had this become my life? It felt like it had been an eternity since we left Forks. This was exacerbated by the fact that I could barely remember anything of the day of the accident, my brain was scrambled from how hard I hit it.

I just stared at my beautiful daughter as she sat completely pinned in the car. She had lost whatever colour she had had before the accident, she was pale as a sheet now. I lifted up the jacket slightly to look at where the tree had impaled her through her abdomen. Blood was flowing sluggishly out of the wound though quicker now than it had been before. I assumed the coughing fit had accelerated it. Every part of me wanted to put pressure on it, try to staunch the bleeding but I knew this was fruitless, all I would do was hurt her and prolong her suffering. And she was suffering. I couldn't stand the thought of hurting her any more. I put the jacket back down and looked her over again trying to find some way to save her. But there was none.

I knew even if I was able to extricate her from the car she would bleed out from her legs alone, I knew the car was crushed into them. As soon as that pressure was released she would bleed out in minutes. Even if we had the best medical team in the world here I don't think she would make it. Even with this knowledge I couldn't accept it. She was 18 for gods sakes. Basically a child. How could this be happening to her?

I watched her shudder and begin to shiver slightly at the cold. It was with this I realized that the sun was beginning to set again. Another night spent here in hell. With the sun going it was rapidly getting colder out. My next task was to keep Bella as warm as possible. I realized she would freeze if her door was left open over night which was unacceptable. I had to keep her as comfortable as I possibly could as this was all that I could do for her now.

I backed away from the car heavily limping now from the pain in my right thigh. Everything in my body told me I had to stop putting weight through the leg as what I guessed had started as a mild fracture had turned into a bad displaced break from me walking and falling on it. A broken leg was nothing though, nothing compared to what Bella was going through. And so I would continue to walk on it and do what I needed to do to care for her in her last minutes to hours. Whatever she had left I would be here.

I grabbed the passenger side door and tried to gently close it. There were two problems with this, the first was that the door was too smashed up to latch. The second and most important was that the door pressed into Bella's leg when fully closed and so there were a few inches left that I couldn't close the door the rest of the way. It would have to do. Mostly closed was better than not at all though I still wasn't happy about it. My stomach growled loudly then. I had been ignoring my hunger and thirst up until this point. What was the point of eating or drinking when Bella likely never would again? How could I when she couldn't?

But then that nagging promise I'd made came back to me. The promise to take care of myself. Even though it was the absolute last thing I wanted to do I reached into my pocket and took a bite of the granola bar in it then wrapped it back up and returned it, chewing woodenly, not tasting it. I began to make my way around the back of the car checking the trunk one more time for something, anything useful, there was of course, nothing. Not even a goddamn blanket. I closed the trunk gently not wanting to wake Bella when what I really wanted to do was slam the trunk shut, I wanted to break things, maim, destroy. But instead I made my way back around the back of the car and to the drivers side door.

I once again clambered up into the drivers seat with great difficulty. This time I pushed myself all the way back up into the seat and fastened my seatbelt. I pulled hard on the seatbelt so that it would lock and then I leaned into it like Bella was. It wasn't comfortable but it was the most comfortable position I could be in while staying close to Bella and keeping the cold out. I grabbed the handle and closed my door as gently as I could. I reached over and took Bella's hand then, massaging some warmth into it and some oedema out.

I knew that Bella might pass at any point and so I sat vigil for as long as I could. The sun fully set and Bella and I began shivering against the cold that was enveloping us. It felt as if the universe was trying to make things as hard as possible for us. For her.

I managed to stay awake for a few hours, watching the rapid rise and fall of Bella's chest and watched her pallor become somehow paler, though that could have been the moonlight. Bella's extremities were freezing though a fever still ravaged her body, it's futile attempt to save her. I knew if she had any liquid in her at all she would be covered in sweat. At least I figured she probably wouldn't freeze to death. I began to drift unwillingly eventually unable to keep myself awake.

I next woke and the sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon, I woke with a start forgetting where I was for a moment and wondering why my head and leg were in so much pain. It took me a second of sitting through the throbbing pains in my body before I realized where I was and what was going on "Bella!" I said out loud and looked over to her. Unlike when I last saw her, her breathing was barely noticeable. What was noticeable though was the constant drip of blood falling from her open mouth and nose. I undid my seatbelt and got out of the car as quickly as I could, my leg was in so much pain and so weak that it once again crumpled underneath me.

I yelled out despite myself and clawed my way back up into standing. I wasn't staying here on the ground. I finally pulled myself up and could barely put any weight through my leg but I didn't care, I hobbled my way as fast as I could around to the passenger side of the vehicle. I got to her side of the car and opened her door, she didn't respond to the noise, the jostling of the car as the door opened or the sudden influx of cold air. She was still but for the slow and shallow rise and fall of her chest, it was so shallow it was almost imperceptible. Where she was blazing hot before I had fallen asleep, now she was cold. I knew it was because her body didn't have the energy to keep her temperature up to kill the infection any more. It was failing. She was dying.

A sob broke forth from me suddenly without realizing it was going to happen. I squashed any further such lamentations and put all of my energy into Bella. I wiped the blood from her nose, mouth and chin and swept her hair from her face and tucked it behind her ears. I got as close to her as I could then gently pulled her head towards me to I could kiss her forehead. I held her head and pressed her temple to my forehead.

"I love you Bells. So much. You're the strongest person I've ever met. But you don't have to be anymore. I will keep my promise. I swear to you. It might take me a while but I will be okay, I will keep working to help others. I will do my best to make sure no one else shares your fate. I'm sorry I couldn't save you sweetheart. You didn't deserve this." I stopped talking for a moment to work up the strength to say what I had to say.

"You can let go, Bella. You can go. You don't need to be in pain anymore. I will see you again, I promise." Tears were flowing freely now but I couldn't stop them.

It wasn't like it is in the movies. She didn't just go after this, drift off peacefully. I stood next to her ignoring my pain, hunger, thirst and cold. I held her to me as her breaths got further apart. I tried to hold her, to keep her warm. I spoke to her, a constant stream of words, mostly meaningless. I told her how much she was loved by so many. I told her how much she would be missed and how she would never be forgotten.

The sun was high in the sky when the agonal gasps started. I had heard these once or twice in my time as an officer to know what this meant. I held her close and tight hoping that she was beyond pain now. I knew that this was it, this was the end. My left cheek was pressed into the top of her head and my tears fell into her hair as she lightly shuddered with her body's final attempts to live. I stood holding her for another twenty minutes. By the time her body had stilled it took me a while to notice as my body was now wracked with sobs. I held her impossibly tight to me. I knew that had she still been alive this would have hurt her, but I couldn't let her go. Some stupid part of my brain told me that I could keep her safe if only I held her close to me like I did when she was a little girl.

It came to a point where I could no longer stand, the last bit of energy my body had hung onto I was actively sobbing out. I knew if I just dropped I would disturb her so I gently eased away from her and then collapsed onto the forest floor barely noticing the pain in my leg. The pain was a dull ache now compared to the agony in my chest. She was gone. Fucking, gone. How could this happen? She still had her entire life ahead of her and yet she hung limply behind me. She would never get married, never have children. I would never be a grandfather. I outlived my daughter, that never should have happened.

I sat on the ground and sobbed for what felt like an eternity until my tears dried up and my addled brain started thinking again. I realized I could not spend another night here, I could not get back in that truck with the shell of my daughter. The thought of leaving her here alone though was also suffocatingly painful. Leaving her here, alone in the place that she experienced the worst pain of her life, the biggest nightmare, the place that she died. I knew she wasn't here anymore but that didn't make it any easier. In the end I realized that I needed to leave, I needed to fulfill my promise to her and spending more time here wasn't going to help me do this.

I slowly and painfully pulled myself into standing. I turned back towards the car and took her head in my hands, I kissed her forehead and realized it was already too cold. Another sob wracked my chest but I held back any further ones. I untied the strap that held her head up and gently lowered her head back to her chest then said "I love you Bella." I had so much more I wanted to say but I knew if I started I wouldn't stop and so I made my way again around to the drivers side where my meagre water and food rations were. I shoved what little I had into a plastic grocery bag and took one last look at my beautiful daughter. She still looked beautiful even through all of this. "We'll come back for you, Bella." I knew I wouldn't make it back here but I would send someone else to find her. "I love you." I said again as I closed the door as much as I could to protect her from the elements. I then turned and limped away.

I did not allow myself to turn back, I had to get out of here, I had to try to get myself to safety. The only thing I had going for me was that my path back was outlined perfectly by the trail of destruction that the car took down the hill. Nothing else was in my favour though. The hill, or cliff it seemed to actually be, got progressively steeper the longer I climbed. I found a stick that I was able to fashion into a makeshift crutch to aid in climbing back up and out of this hell hole. I made very slow progress. I was starved, dehydrated, severely concussed and with a badly broken leg. I also didn't have much of anything to keep my mind off of the fact that my daughter was dead in my police cruiser behind me.

Every now and again a fresh sob would rip from my chest and fresh tears would fall but still I trekked on. I tried to stop as little as I could as I knew if I rested for too long I might get stuck down in this ravine and never get out again. I walked for hours, it shouldn't have taken me as long as it did but I was in a bad way. The sun was just starting to set as I reached the end of my journey. Not because I had gotten out, but because the last part of the path was almost completely vertical. It was gradual enough that we had rolled down it but far too steep for me to be able to climb out with my leg the way it was. I knew that the road was only 50 or so feet above me and that made it all the more frustrating. Getting mad and yelling wouldn't help anything though and so I calmly looked about me.

I surveyed the area around me and found that to the left and right it may have actually been steeper, I could not find a way for me to get myself up. I did the only thing I could do then and sat down. I drank some water and ate a couple bites of granola bar then settled in to wait. I figured I could hear the road from here. The only plan left to me was to listen for cars and call for help. I wrapped my arms around myself in an attempt to gain more warmth, I wished briefly that I still had my coat but then changed my mind knowing I couldn't have taken it off of her, and settled in to wait.

Edward POV:

"It's impossible." She'd whispered in disbelief stopping in her tracks. And I'd seen it, I'd seen every single possible way that this could have ended. None of them, not one way out of thousands involved her surviving human. Nor did any way show anyone in my family getting there to save her, to turn her.

None.

But that didn't matter. I wasn't giving up. And so I searched. I searched and dragged my family with me the whole way. Maybe one of them would be able to find her before I could. By Alice's visions I knew they couldn't but I could do nothing else. And so we searched. We searched this blasted forest for days, it should have taken us no time at all and yet here we were more than two days later still with no sign of Bella, Charlie or the car. From what Alice had seen and from the message Charlie had managed to get through on his radio I knew that they went over the side of a ravine and rolled down it for a long time. The problem was that we didn't know the route that they took and there were too many variables. The main one was that we didn't know where they were headed exactly, not to mention they were too many roads, too much hilly terrain. Neither Bella nor Charlie were able to give exact details due to their injured states. And so we searched. And searched.

Alice stayed with me so that any visions she had I could get right away, Jasper was with us as well, he was a superior tracker to me. Emmett and Rosalie were searching on their own as were Carlisle and Esme. And so were a lot of cops. The fact that it was a police officer missing meant that cops showed up from all over to help search. Some were on foot, some were in their vehicles and some in helicopters, lots of people were calling out and searching for them. We had left our vehicles in a parking lot for people who were searching on foot so we were a known part of the search party. I knew that if they weren't found soon the search was sure to be called off.

I didn't know how I was still functioning, I knew, as much as I couldn't admit it to myself that I wasn't going to see Bella alive again. Any other time I would probably have been on my way to the Volturi to expose myself to the sun in front of humans and force them to kill me. But Bella, that blasted dear girl had spoken aloud knowing that Alice would hear it and begged me not to do just this. She begged me to stay alive, to stay with my family. Even with everything, I was angry at her for this. How could she expect this of me? She was my entire world, my only reason to keep living. Without her I couldn't see how I could continue.

The three of us were deep in the forest searching for anything, a tire track, a scent- anything, when Alice suddenly froze.

Charlie stood in the open passenger side door, arms wrapped tightly around Bella, sobs wracking his frame. She was gone. There was no other path, this was it, the final one. The true future. She was gone. I did nothing to help her, she died cold and in an unfathomable amount of pain and discomfort. I fell to my knees and wailed in sorrow, hands coming up to clench my hair. "Call Carlisle." I heard Alice's quiet voice say before I heard a sob break free from her chest too and she collapsed next to me. The two of us cried our silent tears knowing that it was over, Bella's life, my life. All of it. Over.

It took a few minutes for Carlisle and Esme to get it to us. Esme went to Alice and Carlisle came to me and wrapped his arms around me. I had never in my life experienced such soul crushing sorrow. "I'm so sorry." He said to me quietly. "Edward I'm so sorry." A short time later Emmett and Rosalie got to us and the seven of us were together in our grief. I was reminded then that it was supposed to be eight of us, it had been seven for so long, it was supposed to be eight! Another fresh sob wracked me and Carlisle held me tighter. I could hear the sounds of my families sorrow, the sound of tears that would never come, dry sobs wracked multiple sets of lungs.

Another vision hit Alice then as we all wallowed in grief. Charlie was limping his way through the forest on a very injured leg, he reached the bottom of a ravine that was impossible for him to climb, he was stuck, he needed help. I had a wish to fulfil from my sweet Bella. I will do everything I can to honour her final wishes.

I rose then, surprising Carlisle. We still didn't know where they were, we had to start searching now otherwise Charlie would die soon too. "We have to find him." I said, my voice hoarse.

Alice sniffed "He's about 50 feet below a road right now, he's stuck." None of my family questioned us but followed us back up to the road. We split up again and began searching, this time though Jasper went with Esme and Carlisle stayed with me to make sure I didn't run off to the Volturi, I could sense his extreme worry about me mixed with his devastation over Bella's… death. I couldn't even think about her being dead.

We took up the usual call of "Charlie! Bella!" Even though we knew only one of those two would answer us. I was on autopilot. I couldn't let myself think otherwise I would shut down completely. I had to keep moving. If Charlie could do it so could I. I had to find him, I promised her.

Where there were no humans around we ran at inhuman speed searching and listening, around other searchers we walked at infuriatingly human speeds all the while calling their names. The sun was starting to set and I was losing hope again. I had to find him. I had to find her body. I knew from Alice's visions that Charlie didn't have the semi protection of the car over night and with Bella still wearing his jacket he would likely freeze. Of fucking course temperatures had been unbelievably unseasonably low. I could feel anger creeping in to replace my terror. Anger and unbearable sorrow. I couldn't think about it then though otherwise it would overtake me.

The sun had disappeared behind the horizon and we were bathed in twilight. We were between search parties and running at our true speed when I heard a rustling of what sounded like a plastic bag and we stopped.

"Charlie?" I called out then quickly caught myself "Bella?" I added and there was a silence. I heard what I thought was a breathy "Here!" Then I heard a throat clear and a louder "Here!" My heart leaped in my chest and we made our way at a human speed to the edge of the ravine and looked down. Charlie was huddled with his back against a tree looking up at us.

"Charlie!" Carlisle called. "Are you okay?"

"It's Bella… she's…" he said sounding choked up, he couldn't find the words.

"We're coming Charlie, we just need the police to bring the rescue equipment." Carlisle called again. There was no way we could get him up here safely and not give ourselves away. While Carlisle worked on getting the police to us and Alice spoke to Charlie giving him encouraging words I surveyed the scene. We had been down this road once before. When I looked closely I could see the slightly disturbed vegetation and if I looked very closely I could see the tire tracks veering off but multiple cars and footsteps had passed here between when their car went off and when we got to here. I could see how we missed it but I couldn't forgive myself. I was mad. We were here, we were here when Bella was still alive. I could have saved her but I didn't.

I assumed at a text from Alice, Jasper had returned and he put a hand on me sensing my mental state. Carlisle was over in a flash when he saw this putting a hand on me as well. "You couldn't have known, Edward. We did our best. You can't even smell her from here. We aren't infallible, I'm so sorry son."

He was right, I realized. I couldn't smell her from here. I looked out over the forest and told them "I'm not going anywhere." Neither of them relinquished their hold "I promise." I added and they slowly loosened their holds. "I need to go and find her, before the cops do." I told them keeping my voice steady with great effort.

"You have to be back before we get Charlie up here." Carlisle told me and I nodded. "I'm sorry Edward, it's going to be hard but you have to pretend that you don't know Bella is dead. You will have to react to the news all over again."

"Won't be hard." I whispered and took off. I expected Alice at least to follow me but she stayed behind to reassure Charlie that help was coming. I gave him a wide berth so he wouldn't hear me then began following the trail of destruction that the car followed as it careened down the ravine. The smell of her blood came up on me gradually. The car was a surprising distance in the forest, no wonder we hadn't heard anything from the road. If they had fallen off the road anywhere else they would have hit a tree way sooner and likely Bella would still be with us. The car was as I had seen it in Alice's visions, back end higher than front as it would still have been rolling down the ravine had it not crashed into a fallen tree.

I came to a stop when the car came into view. Not only did the sight of it bring me pause but the smell of her blood hit me like a brick wall. I felt paralyzed, I knew as soon as I saw her it would be 100% real. My life would be over. I stood in the silence of the twilight and listened, straining my ears to their fullest capabilities and heard… nothing. I should be able to clearly hear the most important sound in the world, the rhythmic thump thump of her heart. The only sounds that greeted me were the gentle breeze through the trees and a single cricket.

I began walking toward the police cruiser slowly, forcing myself to move, I knew I didn't have as much time as I would need. I followed the source of the scent and it brought me to the passenger side of the car. The door was partially shut but I could still see her hair as it dangled in front of her.

"Bella." My strangled voice rasped out without me intending to speak. I stumbled the last few steps and caught myself on the frame of the car. I slowly opened the door and the sight in front of me was unlike anything I'd ever seen in my life. I have murdered people, I have seen people murdered. I've seen people eviscerated and barely blinked an eye. This was not at all the same thing.

The sight before me absolutely destroyed me. Bella. My Bella. Cold, pale, lifeless. She was both impaled through her torso and her legs were crushed. Her blood was everywhere, it even dripped onto the forest floor beneath the car. Bella was suspended forward partially with her hair and arms dangling into the empty space in front of her. A huge tree limb impaled her through her stomach, it was unbelievable to me that she survived for as long as she did. There was no way she could have survived this human, I still could have saved her though. I could have changed her. She could be transitioning right now. Possibly even done transitioning if I had gotten to her when this first happened.

"Bella." I said again, agony clear in my voice. "I'm so sorry." I took her head in my hands and flinched that her temperature matched mine. We were both dead but by some cruel twist of fate I was living while she wasn't. I kissed the top of her head and held her close to me, as Charlie had done in the vision. "I'm sorry Bella, I'm so sorry. I should have found you, I should have saved you." If I could cry I would never stop, tearless sobs wracked my chest as I held her cold body.

After what felt like an endless amount of time I pulled away from her and took in everything about her. Her hands were swollen, her lips were crusted with dried blood, there was dried blood all over her chest and lap from both coughing up blood and the horrific wound in her stomach. There was the massive tree sprouted from her stomach and her legs that were a mangled and crushed mess.

I couldn't imagine this. The pain alone must have been unbearable, but the pain along with the awful uncomfortable position she was forced into for multiple days… I couldn't imagine. I relived all of Alice's visions as I looked at her. I imagined her holding it together for Charlie, her struggling to breath, choking on her own blood, crying out in pain… dying.

She didn't deserve this. The worst criminals don't deserve this and yet it was the fate that my sweet girl suffered. She was innocent, pure. I wanted to rage. I wanted to get her out of this car and rip it to pieces along with the downed tree that they crashed into. But I couldn't. I couldn't protect her anymore, but I could protect my family. I wouldn't reveal us like that. The only emotion that was stronger than the rage was the sorrow, the despair, the hopelessness. I wanted nothing more right now than to go to the Volturi, have them end it, end me.

But this damn girl who god forsake, this love of my life begged me not to. She couldn't have understood that living without her was far worse for myself and everyone else around me. I would never recover from this. I would never live even a semblance of a good life after this. I doubted I'd even have a single happy moment again after this.

But maybe this is what I deserve. Because living without her is the worst punishment I could ever concoct for myself.

My pocket vibrated and I ignored it. It vibrated again and again and I pulled it out in frustration. It was Alice.

You need to come up.

I know you're going to ignore me, I'm sorry you have to come back.

Please Edward.

I sighed softly and put my face to the top of Bella's hair. Her hair still smelled like her, despite everything, despite how wrong her body smelled and how pungent her blood was, her hair was still hers. I looked around suddenly and grabbed a small set of scissors I found on the forest floor, likely from a first aid kit, I then went to the underside of her scalp and cut off a chunk of her hair. It was in a spot that no one would notice and I assumed that she would be okay with it. I twisted it so that I wouldn't lose any strands and gently tucked it safely away into my pocket. I lifted her head gently and kissed her forehead and her cheek. I gently rested her head back down and told her "I'll be back in a few minutes." I closed the door back to where it had been closed before and ran away as fast as I could before I could second guess myself.

I managed to enmesh myself with the crowd that had gathered to help Charlie so no one saw I arrived, they just assumed I'd been among them all along. The fire department was working on rigging up a pulley system with someone tied into a harness, this person had another harness in their hands I assumed to put Charlie into. Alice found me in the crowd and gently slipped her hand into mine.

"He hasn't said much." She whispered "He hasn't said anything about Bella's condition yet, it's a long way for a human to yell- especially an injured and exhausted one." I didn't respond, just stared at the rescue workers as they worked. "I'm so sorry." She whispered gently squeezing my hand, I felt catatonic. I had to hold it together a little bit longer, had to pretend I still had hope until Charlie got to the top and told us the news. I squeezed Alice's hand back gently then walked towards the edge to wait.

By the time Charlie appeared over the edge it was fully dark. This didn't even come close to stopping me from seeing what a mess his face was, it was not only black and blue in places but also bloodstained. He was grimacing and appeared to be putting all of his concentration into staying in the harness. When they lowered him to the ground his legs were unable to hold him up any longer and he collapsed to the dirt road. This was it, if I hadn't known about Bella's fate yet I would pounce on him as soon as he got to the top and so I did just that. I summoned all of my acting skills and whatever energy I had left and walked up to him.

"Charlie, where is Bella? Is she okay?" I put as much worry and fear into my voice as I could. The farce made me feel sick.

He looked up at me then and I could see evidence of the head injury in the way that he looked at me, dazed, slightly confused, disbelief at what he had seen. His eyes welled with tears then and he shook his head. There was a bustle of activity around him but he just looked at me. "I'm sorry Edward." He told me through tears "I couldn't save her." The tears fell onto his shirt and I backed up with a look of shock and horror on my face. I got out of the rescuers way and then collapsed to the floor. I could hear Alice and Esme's quiet sobs mixed in with the flurry of activity. It was clear this wasn't acting but the sorrow they had been suppressing all along.

Carlisle attended to Charlie while the rest of my family gathered around me. Alice had sat next to me, her hand in mine with her head on my shoulder. Esme on my other side in a twin position. I remained within their touch for their sake, it made me feel ill. I didn't deserve their comfort. I deserved their scorn for letting her die. I deserved to be ripped limb from limb by the Volturi and set on fire. Jasper came close then, standing behind me and Alice as he read my emotions which right now was as good as reading my thoughts. Alice squeezed my hand in response to this and I just remained still, not even trying to move slightly to hide my unnatural stillness.

After a while Charlie was taken off in the ambulance and the first responders began looking for an easier way to get down the ravine to Bella. I continued to sit there with my family until I heard the faint call of "Over here!" A police officer who had followed the road downwards must have found an easier path to the bottom. I rose then and silently walked towards the sound of his calls. Alice hung onto my hand, afraid that if she let go that I would take off. It took about 20 minutes of walking at human speed to reach where the officer had called out, it was still a fairly steep climb down but it was traversable on foot unlike where they had fallen down. When I got there I saw the myriad of flashlights spread out widely searching for the car.

We joined the search walking down the ravine, we made it look as though it was difficult when it was as easy as breathing. I knew exactly where I was going and so I walked straight to the wreck, a police officer passed me a spare flashlight as I walked past him. It took me another 45 minutes to walk at a human pace to where Bella's remains were. I went to her then as Emmett and Jasper called to the search party to come to us. I knew I had a few minutes before they got here and so I went to Bella. I felt the burning in my eyes and face that should signal the onslaught of tears but there was nothing. I opened the door and pulled her to me again.

I stood like this for a few minutes before relinquishing my grip and allowing the rest of my family to pay their respects, they all did in turn. Most of them were too choked up to say anything, Alice whispered her goodbyes and apologies between sobs as I had done earlier. Carlisle came to her and whispered a prayer, a prayer said at funerals to ask god to take the deceased's soul to heaven. It was an old prayer, one said in Latin. I knew it wouldn't do any good. It wouldn't do any good because god didn't exist, there's no way any god would allow this to happen.

The first cops started to arrive and I went to her and pulled her to me gently, kissing her head, her forehead, her cheek. Holding her cold hand, trying to rub some warmth into it knowing this wouldn't help at all.

"She's gone, son." An officer told me from behind. I had a momentary urge to turn and tear this man's throat out. The urge was so strong Jasper was by my side putting a firm hand on my shoulder. He disguised it as comforting but it was restraining, reminding. Don't kill this man. I could all but hear him saying he's not who you're mad with. He was right of course, I was mad with myself. I gave Bella a kiss, and extricated myself from the car. The officer put a hand on my shoulder as I passed and said "I'm so sorry for your loss." He meant it genuinely, I heard in his head then that he was concerned with how cold I felt.

The scene was soon swarmed with police officers, firefighters and EMS who thought they were there to save a life, only there was no life to save. I sat apart from the commotion and watched what was transpiring, my family all gathered close enough around me that they could spring if I were to run but weren't right on top of me, with the exception of Alice. Carlisle held Esme now but Alice was still glued to my side. She was trembling despite her being impervious to the cold. The same officer who had touched my shoulder came up to me and Alice eventually and wrapped a blanket around both of our shoulders. More time passed, it began to get quite late in the night when someone approached us, it was a high ranking police officer. She crouched down in front of us and introduced herself as Detective Tracy. She asked our relation to the deceased and this made my blood boil. "Her name is Bella." I growled, the first thing I had said in hours.

"My apologies." She said sounding sincere. "The fire department is going to extricate Bella from the car soon, I don't think that that is something that you will want to witness. I'm wondering if you want to come and say your final goodbyes and then go and get some rest. It's been a long couple of days." I knew that this would have to come but I also knew I would never be ready. I nodded and stood up, putting the blanket over Alice's shoulders as she stood to walk with me. We walked together slowly hand in hand, the first responders parted as we approached. Alice went to her first brushing her hair behind her ears revealing her face. She kissed both of her cheeks and her forehead and then whispered something too quiet even for me to hear. She backed away and pulled me towards her.

I took her beautiful face in both of my hands and kissed her one last time on the forehead. I then held her to me again, held her for the very last time. It was my turn to whisper in her ear this time. I told her I loved her. I told her I would honour her last wishes. I told her I would never forget her no matter how long I lived. I told her how sorry I was and how much she would be missed. I pulled away knowing it wouldn't get easier the longer I held on to her. "I'm sorry." I told her and I turned and walked away. Alice took my hand again and my family walked out behind me. It was the hardest thing I'd ever had to do in my life.

Sorry guys :( I know so many of you wanted Bella to live but this story was always meant to explore the grief of Bella's loved ones. I didn't show Edwards POV until now because I wanted the reader to be as in the dark as Bella was. Bella wouldn't have known what Edward was doing or where he was and so neither did you. I hope you all will stick around for the rest of the story even if I have upset you!

Please tell me what you think!