30. Under Siege

Bella woke suddenly and pushed herself out of my arms, clutching at her chest and gasping for breath.

Alarmed, my argument with Rosalie instantly forgotten, I asked, "Bella?"

She spoke through her panting breaths. "No... I'm fine. It was... it was just... I was dreaming."

Carlisle had heard the change in Bella's heart at the same time as I did. I thought it was more than a bad dream that had awoken her. He must have agreed with me, because he was kneeling in front of her before she had finished speaking. His stethoscope was already in place so he could better hear her heart and lungs. I slid off the couch to get out of the way of his examination.

I didn't think she could have anything left in her stomach, but Bella gasped out Rosalie's name and turned toward her beseechingly. Despite her determination to see Bella through the pregnancy and her willingness to do whatever that meant, Rose's nose wrinkled just slightly as my sister grabbed the large bowl which had been brought to the living room for Bella to get sick into.

When she was done, Bella fell back into the couch cushions. Her forehead was creased, and her lovely eyes were closed. The circles under them were as dark as a thirsty vampire's, but no vampire had ever had her thrumming pulse. I could see it through the pale skin of her throat: the rapid flow of blood through her circulatory system created light fluctuations at her pulse points as her heart beat irregularly. Bella clutched at the couch, and I wondered if she was in pain and trying to hide it.

"Bella, please, allow me to - "

"That's enough, Carlisle! You need to stop - "

"I am not going to suggest anything untoward, Rosalie," he interrupted. My father's eyes flashed with rarely seen anger before he turned back to the girl I loved. "Bella, please, allow me to help you. If you want your baby to live, then you must live also. You agreed to allow the ultrasound and the x-ray."

"Yeah, but they didn't work."

"True, but I would like to try another approach. There is no reason why I should not be able to monitor your heart, even if I cannot see the fetus's. I want to go to the hospital to get an electrocardiograph. I would also like to give you a sedative."

Bella's eyes widened, and she shook her head.

"You have got to be kidding me," Rose growled.

He ignored her. "When was the last time you really slept?"

"I was asleep just now."

"A nap that lasted, what? Twenty minutes?"

Bella twisted her lips to the side and shrugged.

"I mean a real sleep. One long enough and deep enough to do you some good."

She bit her lip and admitted, "I'm not sure."

"You are exhausted, Bella. A pregnant woman's body works hard enough creating a normal child, and the rate the one within you is growing is draining your reserves. Rosalie has nearly as much medical training as Edward and certainly enough for her to assure you that, aside from the sedative, I am not giving you anything other than medications to strengthen your heart, ease your pain, and try to combat your nausea so that you can sleep. She will be with you the entire time you are under its affects. I assure you, nothing will happen to which you do not agree."

My sister eyed him for a moment through narrowed lids before exchanging a glance with Bella. They both nodded their assent to his request, and he disappeared, returning a second later with several medications in his hands. He passed them to Rosalie to examine as he tore the wrappers off a needle and syringe. Rosalie gave them back wordlessly, but nodded to Bella as he prepared the very medications she had refused the day before.

After injecting it, he called to Esme, prepared to leave for the hospital without delay. When she appeared in the room with us, he said, "Esme, dearest, I would like for you to join me, please. We do not have time to go through proper channels, and I may need you to distract the staff while I steal what I need."

Esme nodded her willingness, and they took off on foot. Running was faster than driving would have been, and he was more concerned with her arrhythmia than he was willing to say out loud. No one within the hospital would notice if this one time his car was not among the rest of the staff's.

A ripple flowed across Bella's stomach from the creature inside her, and she bit her lip as she pressed her hand against the thing's movements. I stared at it, horrified by the way I could see it stretching her skin. I wondered if the thing wanted its freedom from the cage of Bella's body already, but it only seemed to be adjusting itself. Bella laid back down, panting and shivering. Her shirt was pulled off to one side, exposing a new bruise which blossomed along the path of the creature's movement.

I could tell she had not fallen back to sleep. Her breathing was too uneven, and her fingers continued to clutch the cushions of the couch. As the long minutes ticked by, I watched as the crease alternately formed and faded between her eyes. The familiar curiosity plagued me, but I refrained from asking for her thoughts. Even if she wasn't sleeping, simply laying still and quiet was more restful than trying to answer my questions would have been. Instead, I listened to her heart continue its fast, uneven rhythm and waited for Carlisle to return from the hospital.

Impatient, I stretched my thoughts to the edge of my range, listening for the return of my parents. Earlier than I expected, I saw two images of the forest surrounding our home. The trees were flying by, and I sighed in relief that they had returned so quickly. My relief was short-lived as I became aware that the minds I was seeing were not those of Carlisle and Esme.

"Emmett! Jasper!" I gasped. They appeared in the living room almost instantly.

...hear us yet?

...should be thinking something like, "We come in peace."

Go for it...

Feeling my alarm turn to irritation, Jasper moved to Bella's side. "What is it? Bella seems no different."

Edward? Edward, you there? Okay, now I feel kinda stupid.

...sound stupid, too.

"No, no. It's not her."

Bella cracked her eyes open. "What?"

"It's nothing you need to worry about, love," I said as I grabbed my brothers' arms and dragged them outside with me. When the door closed behind I us, I explained, "It's the wolves."

"Wolves, plural? As in not Jacob this time?"

"Not just Jacob," I corrected.

...think he can hear us?

...think so. Hey, Edward. If you can hear me - circle the wagons, bloodsucker. You've got a problem.

We've got a problem.

Jacob and Seth broke through the trees, and their eyes fixed on us before they backed up a few paces, breathing out through their noses with little snorts as they flicked their tongues against our smell.

"Jacob? Seth? What's going on?"

Rather than answer my question directly, Jacob and Seth vividly remembered their pack of wolves gathered together. I could see their agitation as they paced in circles around Sam, Jacob, and Seth before the rusty colored wolf who was standing in front of me now tore away from the rest. A moment later, the thin, gangly one took off after him.

But before that, Jacob had said to Sam, "I will stand between you and the Cullens," which had apparently been in response to Sam's accusing, "Do you belong to a coven, now?"

Jacob seemed to be relating the events which had brought him back to us in reverse order, showing me that he'd left his pack. Left! I could see the truth not just in his memories, but in the very absence of the other wolves' minds. Despite distant howls which I could just hear floating on the wind, Jacob's and Seth's were the only two wolf minds I could detect. If they were still part of the pack's mind link, I would have heard the others' thoughts no matter the distance.

They had fought - not physically, but argued - over Sam's position as leader; there could only be one Alpha. I could hear in their memory the distinctive power of the Alpha timbre as Jacob had spoken to Sam. It had been Ephriam Black and not Levi Uley who had been the pack's leader seventy years ago. Leadership of the pack - and by extension, the tribe - was Jacob's by rights. It looked like he had finally taken that position upon himself.

I watched the backwards confrontation in confusion. What could have convinced Jacob to chose us over his pack?

"I'm not telling you to step aside."

"Then what's your plan? I'm not stepping aside so that you can protect the vampire spawn at the tribe's expense."

What the hell? Jacob wanted to protect the demon within Bella now? Jacob?

"I know what you've decided, Sam. But you don't decide for me, not anymore."

"We have to protect our families!"

"Maybe you're right. But you're going to destroy the pack over her, Sam. No matter how many of them survive tonight, they will always have murder on their hands."

"This isn't about them. This is about Bella. She has never been the one for you, she has never chosen you, but you continue to destroy your life for her!"

"They aren't our enemies. They never have been. Until I really thought about destroying them, thought it through, I didn't see that."

My mouth dropped open. Jacob didn't consider me his enemy anymore?

For the first time since my newborn days, I struggled to keep up with the flowing mental pictures which were bombarding me. They gave me no time to react or try to reason through what they were showing me. In their distress and worry over what they had done, and what the pack had decided, Jacob and Seth poured their memories into my mind, knowing that I would see and hear.

I witnessed Jacob's memory of his assumption of the status of Alpha, how Sam had commanded him to stand against us, and how he had refused.

He'd imagined attacking Emmett, the strongest, and Jasper, a lightning strike, power and speed and death all rolled into one, as he had been commanded to do by his leader, and had balked. I saw the minds of the others in his memory, so like Emmett's in that they were eager for a fight not out of a desire to kill, but due to a fierce competitiveness, a need to prove themselves, and an ingrained duty to protect their loved ones. But Jacob knew this fight would end in death - ours and theirs.

Why now? I didn't understand. Jacob would have told them Bella wasn't dead, nor was she a vampire. Dying, yes, but still alive, thus far. They had no reason to turn on us, yet.

Sam gave the Alpha command for Jacob to attack my brothers, and I witnessed Jacob's impression of being Sam's puppet. The command had left him without the ability to follow his own will until he asserted his right to take over leadership of the pack - a right he'd refused time and again in deference to Sam, and a right which he still rejected now. Instead of winning leadership over the pack, he'd won leadership over himself.

Seth, who had been under the same compulsion, had chosen to follow the new Alpha. He could not have stopped Sam, nor come to us on his own, but when Jacob had made his stand, Seth had been free to stand beside him.

Along with all of Jacob's rational reasons, which the younger wolf agreed with, I saw that Seth had another one which had prompted him to abandon his pack. He hadn't been willing to betray me, his friend.

If my eyes could have filled with tears, they would have. Seth, little Seth, had left his family because of his friendship with me. Without him, Victoria would have killed Bella and myself. He'd saved Bella's life on the mountain when he'd fought against Riley, leaving me free to deal with Victoria, and now he stood behind Jacob to protect us again, this time, from his own pack.

"Your reasons were wrong then. But now we have a duty to fulfill."

"I was wrong today, Sam."

Jacob remembered imagining the death of my father, and he knew that it would not be because Carlisle was unable to defend himself, but rather because he would have been unwilling. I could see Jacob's realization that killing him would be murder, just as if he were to callously stroll into a human's house to kill them. Just as it would be when they killed Bella.

What? My breath escaped me in a furious hiss as I leapt off the porch, my teeth bared.

Sam was planning on fighting me. Of course he was; hadn't I killed Victoria? They'd watched our training sessions, and believed even Jasper had failed to defeat me. Sam would attack me as the greatest threat, and would leave Jasper for Jacob as the second greatest. He thought my mind reading made me the stronger fighter, but he hoped my emotions would distract me. Sam believed it was their duty to kill Bella. No, not her. The fetus. The monster. The demon child. The abomination. But to kill it, they would kill her.

"They want to kill Bella?"

Emmett and Jasper were beside me instantly.

Oh, I don't think so!

Not on my watch, they won't!

Mangy mutts!

...hey, now! Seth backed up a few steps, his alarm obvious in his lowered head and tail, and his flattened ears.

Jacob didn't move, but he bared his teeth and growled in protest.

"Em, Jazz - not them! The others. The pack is coming."

Oh. "What's their problem?" Emmett demanded while Jasper carefully sampled the wolves' emotions.

"The same one as mine, but they have their own plan to handle it. Get the others. Call Carlisle! He and Esme have to get back here now." I felt an icy shaft of fear shoot down my spine. Forks was no longer neutral territory. If the pack caught my parents out and unprotected, they wouldn't hesitate to thin our numbers.

Jacob whined. ...they're separated!

"They aren't far," I assured him.

I'm going to go take a look, Seth volunteered. Run the western perimeter.

"Will you be in danger, Seth?" It was bad enough he had left his family to protect mine, I didn't want him hurt or killed by his own brothers.

He and Jacob glanced at each other.

...don't think so.

...but maybe I should go, just in case...

...less likely to challenge me. I'm just a kid to them.

...just a kid to me, kid.

...outta here. You need to coordinate with the Cullens. The young wolf spun and bolted into the woods in the direction of Forks.

"Carlisle! Where are you?"

"Still at the hospital. What is it, Emmett? Is it Bella? Is she...?"

"No, no. Well, yeah, I mean, it's about Bella, but it's not the baby. Well, I guess it is, but..."

"Slow down, Emmett. You are not making any sense."

He took a deep breath and began again. "The werewolves have ended the truce. You and Esme need to get back here, like, now."

"They - Why would they... Oh. Jacob told them about Bella's pregnancy."

"Yep. They're after Bella. I'm not sure of the details, but Jacob and another wolf came here to tell us. The others wanna kill Bella, and I guess that means it's open season on vampires." ...which means it's open season on wolves, too! ...'bout time; that grey one has it coming!

"We are on our way. We will be there in twenty minutes at most. Emmett, do not go looking for them! Or us. Stay there, and protect our family."

"If you insist," he muttered.

At any other time, I would have laughed at his disappointment. Our father knew his children so well.

Alice came outside to see what was taking us so long to return. The creature within Bella had effectively blinded Alice to what was going on around her since our return. Add in the wolves' involvement, and she had no way to see any of us. After studying our arrangement on the lawn, Emmett and Jasper's scrutiny of the forest and my proximity to Jacob, she flitted to her mate's side, determined to stand with him against whatever was apparently threatening us.

I glanced at Jacob, relieved that Carlisle and Esme would be home shortly. If it weren't for the wolf staring at me with narrowed eyes, the entire pack would have attacked us tonight. Ten werewolves against the seven of us; there was no way we would have survived.

Especially not since their aim was to kill the one whom - by all rights - they should have been trying to protect!

Bunch of hypocrites! How dare they call themselves protectors when they were willing to murder the sweetest, gentlest, most fragile human I'd ever met?

Esme's suggestion for Bella and I to live together for a time before changing her had been the right one. Despite everyone's beliefs, I hadn't killed Bella on our honeymoon! We would have come home and lived together as husband and wife in our very own house, visiting Charlie and proving to the stupid mutts that Bella was alive and well.

If I had not gotten Bella pregnant, and had instead returned home with her as a vampire, would they have attacked and killed us all, not even caring that it had been her choice?

Her choice...

Ah, God, Rosalie was right, too. I'd always known choices mattered.

Killing by accident and choosing to kill were two very different things. It had been my choice to kill Esme's ex-husband which had first changed me into a monster. It was that choice which made me different from my family. Turning Bella against her will would have been wrong, just as Carlisle had told me, and the wolves would have been right to exact their vengeance upon me. However, granting her request to spend eternity with me as an animal drinker would have hurt no one, and they would have been wrong to punish us for her choice.

Well, it would have hurt Charlie and Renee to lose their daughter, but what parent had any assurance they would never lose their child? I was immortal, but not even my father had that assurance. If Jacob had not acted, Carlisle and Esme would have lost all their children today. And yet, by acting, Jacob had lost his family.

"This isn't the first time I've owed you my gratitude, Jacob. I would never have asked this of you," I murmured.

Jacob pictured my face as I begged him to offer to get Bella pregnant. Yeah, you would've. ...comes to Bella, there's no lines he won't cross.

I blinked in surprise. Jacob knew me about as well as he knew Bella. "I suppose you're right about that."

Well, this isn't the first time that I didn't do it for you.

"Right."

It certainly wasn't for me, but neither was it just Bella whom he was saving, nor my family. Had the pack attacked and killed us, they would never have recovered. Seth wasn't the youngest member of the pack, but he was just a boy. For Sam to make the others murderers - regardless of their age - would have irreparably damaged them. They might not have felt the effects immediately, but someday, the knowledge that they had killed or helped to kill an innocent, helpless girl whom they knew and cared about would have destroyed them. Jacob may have lost his family today, but he had saved them, too.

Sorry I didn't do any good today. Told you she wouldn't listen to me.

"I know. I never really believed that she would. But..."

You had to try. I get it.

I nodded. He did get it.

She any better?

I could see the worried look in his eyes, and the memory of his last sight of Bella's fragile face was clear in his mind. I forced myself to answer him, though the word tore at my throat. "Worse."

His eyes widened as though it had hurt him to hear as much as it hurt me to say.

I hate being blind! I see why Em is always complaining when Edward and I use each other's gifts to communicate. It's awful being left out of the loop!

"Jacob, would you mind switching forms?" Alice finally got frustrated enough to ask. "I want to know what's going on."

"He needs to stay linked to Seth," I explained as Jacob shook his head.

"Well, then would you be so kind as to tell me what's happening?"

"The pack thinks Bella's become a problem. They foresee potential danger from the..." I tried but couldn't say the word fetus. "From what she's carrying. They feel it's their duty to remove that danger. Jacob and Seth disbanded from the pack to warn us. The rest are planning on attacking tonight."

Alice's breath hissed through her teeth in shock. Emmett and Jasper, who hadn't heard the details, glanced at each other and then turned their probing gazes to the trees that surrounded our house.

Nobody out here. All's quiet on the western front.

They may go around...

I'll make a loop...

"Carlisle and Esme are on their way. Twenty minutes, tops," Emmett reported for those without the benefit of having heard their conversation in his mind.

"We should take up a defensive position," Jasper suggested. ...too vulnerable standing around spread out like this. If it's Bella they're after, we should be where we can better protect her.

"Let's get inside," I agreed.

...gonna run perimeter with Seth. If I get too far for you to hear my head, listen for my howl.

"I will." As we retreated to the dubious safety of our house, Jacob wheeled and sprinted away to join Seth. He was quickly outside my mental range, but that would give us more warning should the pack decide to attack before night fell.

"We should close the shutters," Jasper said as he strode over to the control panel in the wall by the stairs.

"We need to be able to hear Jacob."

It's not like they are soundproof.

"Not fully, but we need all the advantage we can get."

"Hence the shutters?"

"Hence the wolves! Jacob said he'd howl if they came across anyone, but their distance would be a disadvantage if the shutters muffle their warning."

He considered for a moment, then nodded decisively. We'll put most of them down, but leave the doors unblocked.

I grunted my approval of his plan as I joined Rosalie by Bella's head.

"What's... going... on?" Bella blinked in surprise as the mechanisms hummed to life, and the shutters rolled down from within their hidden storage units to cover the wide glass walls.

Go ahead, Eddie. Lie to her again. It won't make it any better when she finds out the truth later, though. Rosalie was staring daggers at me, and I knew she was right again. Bella was perceptive and smart; hadn't I just been reminded of that fact? She would see right through my lies just as she always did.

Abruptly, I decided I was done with lying to her. I may never be worthy of her love, but I could at least attempt to deserve the trust she gave so freely.

"Jacob told the pack about the... fetus. They believe it is a threat. Sam has ordered them to kill you in order to destroy it."

Her eyes widened, and her heart's already unsteady rhythm broke into an uneven sprint. Her hand fluttered over her stomach and tears welled up to spill down her face. I knelt in front of her to wipe them away. No longer rounded, her cheek was still soft as ever, even if my frozen fingers barely registered her warmth.

"They won't hurt you."

"But what about you?" She was barely able to form the words, mouthing them more than speaking.

"Don't you dare waste your energy worrying about me. See those?" I pointed at the shutters. "They'll never get past them. And besides, they'll never even get this close. Jacob is here. And Seth. You know they would never let anyone hurt you, not even the other wolves."

"Jake? But he..." She sniffled and shook her head before continuing in a whisper, "He wants me to give him up, too."

"Not at the expense of your life. Bella, he left the pack. When Sam ordered them to kill us, he refused. He and Seth, they're circling the house, protecting you."

"Sam wouldn't hurt Jake, would he? And Embry and Quil? They're his friends."

I tried to imagine how I would feel if Carlisle were to order me to kill Jasper or Rosalie and felt a sick twisting in my gut. The bond between the pack members was very much like ours. They were family - brothers and a sister, too. There was no way he'd make them fight against their own, was there?

"We don't think so, but if the pack comes, Jacob and Seth will fall back to the house. They've lost the element of surprise now, and I'll be able to hear any plans they have should they get this far. Alice's gift may not work on the wolves, but Jasper's does, and so does mine. Please don't worry, Bella. I doubt they'll come now, anyway. We're well fortified here, and they know it."

Bella closed her eyes and lay on the couch, looking drained. Just talking with me had exhausted her. Her health was declining so fast! She'd used up what little strength she had left when Jacob had visited earlier. I hoped Carlisle would return soon. Bella needed the sleep he could assure she would get. Twenty minutes had rarely seemed so long.

I stretched out with my gift again, and eventually caught two images of the forest flying by. This time, I recognized Carlisle and Esme's minds. "They're back."

A few moments later, my parents were setting the device they'd stolen down by the front door. Esme glanced toward Bella and flew up the stairs while Carlisle prepared the supplies to start a new IV.

Rosalie busied herself inspecting everything which he had appropriated. Esme came back downstairs carrying the hospital bed Carlisle which had brought home days ago.

"Emmett, Jasper, we need to clear some space. Let's get all this moved over there so we can settle her here in the center." Esme gestured at the furniture and around the room as she spoke, showing my brothers what she wanted. I gathered my sweet wife into my arms while they traded the couch for the bed.

Bella laid her head against my chest with her ear pressed against where my heart had once beat. One hand rested atop her swollen stomach, but the other slid up to twiddle with my collar.

"You know, I could fall sleep on my own, just like this."

"As tempting as that sounds, I wouldn't be able to provide you with much protection without the use of my hands." I inhaled deeply as my lips pressed against the top of her head, and my arms tightened around her, just slightly. Truly, I did not want to let her go! My shirt slid easily from her grip when I laid her down.

"Alright, Bella. I am going to give you another bag of glucose. Even though the last time it did not do much good, anything is better than nothing. I brought various vitamins I would like to run along with it. This last one is the sedative." He held up what looked like a bottle of milk.

A look of fear crossed Bella's face. "Sedative?"

"All it will do is make you sleep," he said soothingly. "You will wake in the morning, I promise."

"If anything happens with the wolves..."

"I'll wake you myself," I assured her.

"But if I'm sedated?"

"It has a very short half-life." When Bella shook her head in confusion, Carlisle clarified his statement. "The effects only last as long as the medication is being actively administered. Almost as soon as I stop giving it to you, you will start to wake."

"Please, Bella," I whispered. "You need to rest."

Bella reached for Rosalie's hand, closed her eyes, and nodded her consent.

"Er... We'll be right back. Just need to, uh, inspect the shutters," Emmett muttered. He lightly punched Jasper on the arm in invitation to join him. They left the room, not wanting to be around the blood they knew was about to be exposed. None of us believed his excuse, but neither did we blame him. After the disaster Bella's birthday party had become last year from a single drop of blood, my brothers weren't taking any chances. Alice, Esme, and Rose simply held their breaths.

Carlisle worked quickly and within minutes, Bella was asleep. Once her body relaxed, he wheeled over the device to monitor her heart, along with one to monitor her blood pressure, temperature, and breathing. I watched him skillfully place the leads on her skin, the cuff around her arm, and the lighted sensor on her finger, then waited impatiently as the machines began displaying the rhythms of her body. I could hear the fluctuations of her heart, but seeing the electrical patterns showed just how much the muscle was faltering. Carlisle watched the needle's irregular path, and I listened to him evaluating the various waves.

...not a normal sinus rhythm... certainly tachycardic, but I could already hear that much... no ischemia, but there should not be a blockage, so that makes sense... QRS is narrow here, but wide here... seems to be an occasional ectopic firing, but what is causing that remains to be seen...

"Well?" Rose demanded.

Carlisle sighed. "I am not sure, Rosalie. Her nodes are not firing in a normal rhythm, but there is no discernible pattern to the arrhythmia. My guess is that is due to her lowered levels of the vitamins and minerals which her heart needs to function properly. I cannot tell just from these what other effects the fetus may be having on her."

"Well, that's helpful. I'm sure we're all so glad you stole yet another piece of hospital equipment."

Carlisle's lips thinned with disapproval from his daughter's sarcasm. "With any luck, resuming the vitamin protocol will markedly improve - " He stopped speaking as a distinctive wolf-howl reached our ears.

"Damn! That's the signal Jacob told me to listen for. The pack is coming."

I strode over to the door and stared out through the glass, stretching out with my gift as I did so. Jasper and Emmett returned to the living room where they and Carlisle moved to take defensive positions around Bella, placing themselves between the bed she was in and the door where I stood. Rose, Alice, and Esme, completed the circle surrounding the sleeping human girl, and we all waited, expectantly.

I caught Jacob's mind as he raced toward us. False alarm, false alarm. Sorry. Seth is young. He forgets things. No one's attacking. False alarm.

I breathed out a sigh of relief as he broadcast his thoughts. "Relax. The wolves aren't attacking."

Jacob burst through the edge of the forest and saw me standing in front of the glass door. There's nothing out there - you got that?

I nodded in acknowledgement.

...used to being able to communicate both directions. So much easier with the pack! ...then again, probably don't wanna see what's in his head...

I glanced into the room behind me and felt a shudder ripple through my limbs as the burning pain which accompanied the knowledge that I was losing Bella tore through me again. Gesturing dismissively for the wolf to go back to his patrol, I turned back to my waiting family. "It was just a false alarm. Seth was upset about something else, and forgot we were listening for a signal. He's very young."

"Nice to have toddlers guarding the fort," Emmett muttered with a scowl.

"They have done us a great service tonight, Emmett, at great personal sacrifice," Carlisle scolded him. ...they say when the pack might show? Good that we have this advance warning, but there are eight of them against seven of us, assuming neither Rose nor Edward would be willing to leave Bella's side...

"Yeah, I know. I'm just jealous. Wish I was out there." ...hate sitting here waiting. Just like Seattle all over again.

I turned to Carlisle, who hadn't heard my reassurances to Bella. "Seth doesn't think Sam will attack now. Not with us forewarned, and them lacking two members."

"What does Jacob think?"

"He's not as optimistic," I admitted.

Glad to be doing something helpful which didn't include combing through Carlisle's vast library, my brothers took up defensive positions near the door. Carlisle, Rosalie, and I simply watched Bella's uneasy sleep.

Even with the sedative, the creature wouldn't let her rest. Her body shook lightly from its movements, and now and again her breaths would stop. We watched the print-out continue from the ECG, but the fluctuations of her heart remained uneven and unhelpful. Carlisle eyed Bella's swollen stomach, and I heard him wondering if he could pick up any readings from the fetus with the electrodes.

He reached for one with the intention of placing them around Bella's stomach, but Rosalie hissed at him. "Don't touch her! You'll wake her up."

"Rosalie - "

"Don't start with me, Carlisle. We let you have your way earlier, but that's all we're allowing."

He pressed his lips together and sighed through his nose, but turned away to study the monitors.

Bella twitched and coughed, causing a strand of her hair to flop over her beautiful face. I wanted to reach out and tuck it behind her ear, but Rose had already scolded Carlisle for disturbing her. Though I was grateful that she was finally sleeping, I hated not being able to hold her, to hear her voice, to see her eyes.

The strand of hair fluttered as Bella breathed out, and Rosalie did as I had wanted to and smoothed it away from her face.

Livid, I growled at her and clenched my fists. So the rules only applied to us? Carlisle couldn't touch her to treat her, and I didn't dare to touch my own wife, but she could?

Emmett thrust himself between me and Rosalie, holding his hands ready to grab me should I decide to act on the fury he could clearly see on my face. "Not tonight, Edward. We've got other things to worry about."

I turned away from them, fighting my needs - my need for her, my need to save her from the creature, my need to take her out of my sister's care and back into mine - and saw Jacob watching me through the glass doors. After catching my eye, he took his paw from the porch rail that he was peering over and ran on all fours back into the forest.

I understood his need to run away from the pain of watching the girl he loved die for a monster, but there was nowhere for me to go. For the rest of her life, however long that might be, my place was by Bella's side.


A/N

Hey y'all! If I don't get the chance to post again before then, I hope you all have a great holiday season, whatever you celebrate, and a safe and happy start to the new year.

~L