*EPOV*

I see her swimming. She keeps changing her mind between going home and going to the hospital where she thinks Charlie will be. I can't get a location on her because she's not coming up for air. Alice informs me as she, Carlisle and Jasper pull up in the Mercedes, parking next to my Ducati in an adjacent turnout a short distance up the road.

Carlisle hastened over to the ambulance to see if he could lend his assistance where the EMTs were looking over Charlie and the driver of the totaled SUV who'd sustained a nasty head wound.

"What the hell is the matter with you? Driving like your hair's on fire around a blind curve like that?! You got a death wish, or somethin', kid? Did you ask your friends if they wanted to die, today, too?" Charlie lambasted the driver, a young male, maybe twenty years old with earlobes stretched out with discs the width of soda cans.

"Sir, try to stay calm-" the EMT cautioned, looking worriedly at the gauge on Charlie's blood pressure cuff.

"Jasper, can you manage?" Carlisle asked at a volume too low for the humans to hear.

Jasper was keeping his distance from the bleeding humans, doing his part with damage control by keeping the other witnesses in a fog of reticence as they gave their statements to the police.

He nodded at once and sent a sedating wave of calm toward my father-in-law. To Carlisle's satisfaction and the EMT's surprise, the needle on the gauge of Charlie's blood pressure cuff receded a few notches.

I was rooting through the humans' thoughts and memories as they were being questioned. What they weren't telling the police, I heard in their minds. The driver and his three friends were under the influence of methamphetamine.

They were all so worried about the cops finding their stash that Jasper's influence was probably overkill. Regardless, none of them seemed to have any recollection or concern for a second person in the Volvo.

Since we didn't want to start a manhunt for Bella, Charlie begrudgingly went along with the story that he had been driving the Volvo alone and had somehow miraculously gotten himself out of the car before it was pushed over the edge.

The driver of the SUV had been distracted trying to change the song blasting on the stereo at the time he lost control of the vehicle. Meanwhile, the young female who had been in the passenger seat, the driver's girlfriend, had her eyes on her lap where she'd been packing marijuana into a small glass pipe.

She didn't remember anything except the airbag throwing her back against the seat. Carlisle was treating her for lacerations to her hand and chest after the explosive force of the airbag shattered the pipe she was holding, leaving shards of resin-blackened blue glass painfully embedded in her ashen skin.

Alice stood on the periphery of the scene, unnoticed, while she tried to get a fix on Bella. I stood in front of her, shielding her from view so that nobody noticed the tiny, strange onlooker who looked to be having some kind of seizure as she summoned visions of future possibilities.

Nebulous images of the inside of a hot shower, the one from our cottage, filled Alice's mind, and subsequently mine. "She's going home," Alice and I concluded at the same time when Bella's decision had been made. I exhaled in a sigh of relief and was about to jump back on my motorcycle and go after her, but hesitated, torn with indecision.

I wanted more than anything to go after Bella. To feel her safe in my arms. To comfort her after what must've been a harrowing experience. But if I knew Bella, she would want me to make sure that her father was being taken care of in her absence.

I looked back and forth between Charlie, who was adamantly refusing a ride to the hospital in the ambulance, and my Ducati, haphazardly parked in a turnout a hundred yards away.

Though it caused me discomfort acute to the point of actual pain, I turned away from my Ducati, from Bella, and loped over to Charlie's side.

When Charlie's eyes fell upon me, now droopy and glazed over with the painkillers he'd been given, he barked, "What the hell are you still doing here? Go find her! Carlisle can give me a ride."

"To the hospital? It would be my pleasure," Carlisle replied evenly, his confident tone leaving no room for other suggestions.

Charlie scowled in an expression that was identical to the one Bella had worn on the way to the hospital after her close call with Tyler Crowley's van.

I didn't need to be told twice. "I will. I'll find her, sir," I promised with a determined nod, my body already halfway turned toward my motorcycle.

"Oh, and Charlie... I'm really glad you're okay," I told him earnestly, my voice strained with emotion.

And I was. Though Charlie was surly and intolerant of me at times, I had grown to love him almost as much as I loved his daughter. How could I not when they were so clearly cut from the same cloth?

Nothing would hurt Bella as much as losing her father. And since her pain was my pain, Charlie's life had become just as precious to me as Bella's was.

"Me too, kid. Me too," he sighed exhaustedly and then winced from the sharp pain caused just by breathing.

*BPOV*

When I smelled the blood, just a few feet away, then saw it with my own eyes as it trickled from the wound over my father's eye, I felt the shift. I could feel the monster taking control of my sensibilities, the numb blackness starting to pervade.

I froze, afraid of what I'd do if I so much as moved a muscle. I wanted to scream for him to run, to get away from me, but I knew it was no use. As if he could outrun me...

I could see the fear in my father's eyes as he registered the change in me. It startled me out of the blood-crazed stupor just long enough for me to recognize with horror what I'd been about to do.

While Charlie was distracted by the screaming humans trapped inside the Suburban, I launched myself over the side of the cliff, diving into the safety of the water before I could change my mind.

It was a long way down. Longer than any of the cliffs I'd jumped off of before, as a human or otherwise. Or maybe it just felt that way because time seemed to move so much more slowly as my sleek, stone body sliced through the air and through the surface of the water below.

As I fled the scene of the accident, I started to worry for the first time about who had seen what. What sort of trouble had I just caused my family with that little stunt back there? Would we have to leave now, I wondered with no small amount of anxiety.

I desperately hoped Charlie was ok. What must he think of me now? I could feel my eyes prick with phantom tears that would never fall. Edward and my family had placed their trust in me to pick up my father from the airport without putting him in danger or risking exposure, and I had done both of those things.

I waffled between heading south for home or north toward the hospital. I badly wanted to make sure that I hadn't injured my father too terribly in my scramble to get us out of the car. But I doubted it was safe for me to be anywhere near a hospital and other bleeding humans.

I was reminded of Alice's words from another lifetime. Play your role first, Bella, and then you can do what you want second. Part of being a Cullen is being meticulously responsible.

If I went home, I could clean up and get a grip on myself before I had to face him again. Though I thought it might kill me to do it, I turned and headed south.

I ultimately decided that I'd already made a big enough mess of things for one day without drawing even more attention to myself by showing up at the hospital soaked to the skin. Charlie would just have to wait.

I could only hope that once Rosalie got wind of what I'd done, she'd be more forgiving toward me than she'd been toward Edward when he risked exposure to save my life.

Rosalie and Jasper had wanted to kill me then, to eliminate me as a possible liability. Would they want to kill the people I saved from going over the cliff?

I groaned to myself as I rocketed through the water. What had I done?

*EPOV*

With traffic in both directions at a complete standstill due to the accident, it took longer than expected to get to San Gregorio State Beach. It was the one closest to our home and where I anticipated Bella would emerge from the water.

I cursed as I found a single pair of fresh footprints in the sand exiting the water and Bella's scent fading from the air. It would seem she had beaten me here and had already left. I cursed again and hopped back on my bike and high-tailed it back home, more anxious than ever to get to her.

*BPOV*

Though I wasn't cold, I wouldn't call it particularly comfortable to run with my wet hair and clothes plastered to my body. So it was a relief when I spotted our home through a clearing in the trees.

However, it was a surprise when it wasn't Edward who was there waiting for me on the front porch of our little cottage but instead Emmett. He didn't even lift one bushy eyebrow at my water-logged appearance.

"Rough day, Squirt?"

I made a sound that was something between a laugh and a sob and collapsed into his wide-open arms. In a gesture that was surprisingly tender, his giant hand gently and consolingly patted me on the back.

"There now, I'm sure it's not as bad as all that," Emmett's deep voice murmured close to my ear. "Let's get you inside and into some dry clothes and you can tell your big bro who needs to die," he chuckled softly.

*EPOV*

Oh, for the love of all that's holy, I bellowed after the gas light on the dashboard blinked on. I was going to have words with my sister about borrowing my motorcycle without my permission and then returning it with less than a quarter tank. Who does that, I fumed.

I would have to stop to fill up or risk running out of fuel before getting home, and that was a hassle I didn't need. I pulled into a Chevron station on the edge of town, tapping my foot impatiently as the gasoline pumped too slowly into the tank.

I cursed myself for the hundredth time that day for rushing out of the house without my cellphone. Would the catastrophes never end?

When the tank was topped off, I hung up the nozzle and replaced the gas cap, wasting no time in getting back on the road. I soon passed a bright yellow sign that read "Motorcycles use extreme caution." Ongoing road work had left the pavement grooved and uneven. Lovely.

I eased off the accelerator a touch and proceeded through the cone zone. A safety vested construction worker holding an orange sign instructing oncoming traffic to "SLOW" waved it rapidly back and forth as I passed him. He shouted at me to slow down and called me a rude name.

I revved my engine and lurched forward as I accelerated. I didn't have time for this. I needed to find Bella.

About a thousand feet down the road, and thankfully around a bend and out of sight of the rude construction worker, I heard a loud pop and my handlebars started to violently jerk under my hands. The front tire had blown out. I barely managed to get over to the side of the road without crashing the blasted thing.

Enraged at the string of bad luck, I growled and threw my helmet at the shredded tire, resulting in a dented front fender that only served to enrage me even further. Abandoning the motorcycle on the side of the road, I took to the woods and ran as fast as my feet could fly.

*BPOV*

"So you got in a car wreck. You saved your old man from a watery death, then kept the other car from going over a cliff before jumping off of it yourself...to keep from snacking on your dad," Emmett recapped, an amused expression on his face. "And the only casualty was Edward's car? I still don't see what the problem is."

"Emmett! I almost attacked my father! And I might've exposed us…"

Emmett shrugged, completely, maddeningly unfazed. "Life is too long to worry about almosts and might haves. If it was really bad, Carlisle would've called a code red, but it sounds like you lucked out. Don't sweat it, kid. I do dumber shit than that before breakfast most days," he chuckled.

"Do you think Rose will want to kill the humans involved?"

"And why would Rose want to kill the humans?" Emmett asked thickly.

"Because when Edward saved me from the van in front of the whole school, she and Jasper wanted to kill me?" I reminded him.

"Oh, right. Well, that was a totally different situation because it was you. We couldn't know what you were thinking or if you would squeal on us, and Rosie didn't want to just take your word for it.

"Edward will be able to find out if anybody saw anything today and if we need to take precautionary measures. But like I said, Carlisle hasn't called so that's a good sign."

I nodded, slightly mollified. "I wonder what's taking Edward so long. Knowing him, I sort of expected him to be there when I got out of the water. Or here, when I got home. Do you think that means that Charlie-" I started to ask in wide-eyed panic.

Emmett cocked his head toward the door with his hand cupped behind his ear as if listening intently for something.

And that's when I heard it, too. Lightning-fast footsteps coming from the north. Emmett smiled as intense relief settled over me.

"Ask him yourself," Emmett grinned and jumped to his feet from where his huge body had been sprawled out on our small couch.

"And while you're at it, ask him why he came back on foot. He left here on his Duc. He probably rode it over the cliff when he went looking for you, the drama queen," he guffawed.

Then, he pantomimed riding a motorcycle, his meaty right fist opening up the imaginary throttle. His deep voice imitated a revving sound. And then he threw his head back and called out "Bellaaaaa!" in an impassioned cry followed by a loud splashing sound.

I couldn't help it. I laughed. Hard.

And then the door thundered open and Edward was standing there looking like the god of war.

He looked a little staggered by the sight of me in my comfy clothes and a towel wrapped around my hair, still wet from the shower, and in a fit of giggles with Emmett in our living room.

"Charlie?" was the first word out of my mouth.

"He's okay. A little banged up, but Carlisle took him to the hospital to get checked out," Edward answered. He went quiet for a beat, his mouth opening and shutting a couple of times like he was searching for the right words.

"I went looking for you and...had to stop for gas...and my tire...Are you alright?" He asked, looking completely bewildered and sounding almost out of breath.

"I'll let you take it from here, Prince Sparkling," Emmett chuckled and clapped Edward on the shoulder.

"Thanks, Em, for being here," I said, my voice thick with gratitude just before he ducked outside the front door.

"Anytime, Squirt. I mean that. I will make fun of Edward, literally, anytime," he said, dimples on full display.

I giggled some more and Edward hissed "Yes, Em, thanks," and unceremoniously swung the door shut behind him with more force than was really necessary.

Our eyes met again and my poor Edward looked so bent out of shape that I couldn't help but bite back a smile and ask, "Rough day?"

*A/N This was a little shorter than I usually aim for, but that was just such a perfect note to end on that I left it right there. I hope you all have a pleasant weekend, lovelies. Thank you as always for reading and reviewing. Til next time!