I wrote the entire chapter and then lost it all, so this is pretty much a shadow of the original, and no longer includes Emmett because I lost that whole chapter-length section as well. Honestly cried my eyes out.

Chapter 25

"Why don't you go first, Edward?" Carys suggested with a deceptive smile. "I'm very interested to hear what you'd like us to hang on for. Incredibly so."

Bella was too busy glaring at Edward to notice the fire burning behind Carys' eyes. Edward did not make the same mistake. He gulped, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"I had something to add before we voted," he said.

His nervousness alerted Bella to what the rest of the family already knew.

Carlisle slid his chair a little closer to Carys'. "I find myself equally interested, Edward," he told him. "Please, do go on."

"About the danger Bella's referring to," Edward hesitantly began. "I don't think we need to be overly anxious."

"How so?"

"You see, there was more than one reason why I didn't want to shake Aro's hand at the end," he explained, glancing around the table, his hesitance giving way to a small grin. "There's something they didn't think of, and I didn't want to clue them in."

"Which was?" asked Alice, sitting up in her chair, a crinkle in her forehead belying her skepticism.

"Well, the Volturi are overconfident - and with good reason for the most part. When they decide to find someone, it's never really a problem for them. Do you remember Demetri?" He asked, glancing down at Bella, who shuddered.

"Demetri?" Carys asked.

Unlike the others, Carys had only heard the name that day, and no real explanation of his ability had been given. Though she expected what Edward said next from what he'd said already, she wanted confirmation just in case she was wrong.

Edward met her eye. "He finds people," he said, proving Carys' summation correct. "That's his talent - it's why they keep him."

Carys nodded, and he continued, "Now, the whole time we were there, I was picking their brains for anything that might save us, getting as much information as possible. So, I saw how Demetri's talent works. He's a tracker," he said, becoming more animated as he went on, as his excitement grew, under the faint flicker of nervousness.

"A tracker a thousand times more gifted than James was. His ability is loosely related to what I do, or what Aro does. He catches the..., flavour? I don't know how to describe it..., the tenor...? of someone's mind, and then he follows that. It works over immense distances.

"But after Aro's little experiments, well..." Edward shrugged, his confidence regained.

"You don't think he'll able to find me," Bella intoned, unsatisfied by his suggestion.

Edward nodded, his smugness in his conviction increasing. "I'm sure of it. He relies totally on that other sense. When it doesn't work with you, they'll all be blind."

"And how does that solve anything?"

"Quite obviously, Alice will be able to tell when they're planning a visit, and I'll hide you-" he broke off, eyes widening as if coming to a sudden realisation.

When he glanced over to her again, Carys started to laugh. She couldn't help it. It had to be the funniest thing she'd heard in months.

Emmett hesitantly joined in for a moment, looking around the table before he fell silent.

Slapping her palm to the table over and over, she bent low, swiping at her eyes with her free hand. Bella tried to speak a couple of times over the next few minutes, but thought better of it each time, causing Carys' hysterical laughter to renew.

Glancing up at Carlisle, who, by the point she had her laughter under control had his arms wrapped around her, she grinned. He was smiling a little, as if on the verge of chuckling himself. He, at least, understood how she was feeling. He, at least, understood the source of her humour.

Carys straightened and sobered a little more. With an, "Ah, I'm not sure there are words for what an utter piece of shit you are, Edward," she wiped the moisture that had gathered beneath her eyes.

"I'll take this one?" Carlisle asked.

Carys nodded, struck by the difference between Carlisle now and the night Bella and she had been injured, when he'd asked her not to swear about his son, and he turned back to face Edward.

"No," he said simply, with a firmness that that refused to be countered. "I'm still trying to work out exactly what the punishment for your actions will be, Edward, but you have made your position on your own life, along with your disregard for Carys' and the rest of our family's all too clear to be ignored.

"You have chosen not to live without Bella, and in taking yourself to Volterra to enact your suicide mission, you removed any choice in the matter from us all; in doing so, you shaved perhaps as much as five years from Carys' human life.

"To provoke the Volturi when it could lead to the destruction of this family, and when your plan only extends as far as your mate is one display of selfishness too far."

Edward's jaw worked, but he made no sound. Carys was sure he was searching their minds, listening for a weakness in Carlisle's argument.

She doubted he would find what he was looking for. For as much as Edward and Jasper's eyes had lit when the suggestion of a fight was made, the glimmer of excitement had been extinguished quickly.

Rosalie, Esme, and Alice had been faintly horrified at best. He would have no support there.

Bella shifted in her seat and raised her voice. "I still say we have a vote."

"Why?" Esme asked, reaching for Carys' hand beneath the table, showing her she had another ally beside her.

Bella was thrown by the question. "Why have a vote?" she asked. Esme nodded, and she continued, "Because I would be joining this family or going back to Italy. I want to know if you want me or not."

"You do know if you join the Volturi, you will be-"

"I wouldn't be joining them," Bella cut across, leaning forward with a genuine smile. "They would change me, that's all. I've already said I won't-"

"Someone needs to explain the Volturi to you," Carys sighed, rubbing at her temple with her free hand. "I mean, not just power structures and leadership and whatnot. Do you really think they'll just let you leave when they offered to change you because they appreciated the strength of your power? What would you do if they did let you go? If they didn't?"

"Volterra isn't an option unless you're happy with their particular brand o' immortality," Jasper commented, lending his smooth, grave voice to the argument. "Alice doesn't seem t'think you are."

Carys spared him a smile. She hadn't expected he would speak to in the way he did, and she was all the more grateful for it. Bella seemed to mull his words over more than hers.

"Well... As I said, I'd still like to put my mortality to a vote... Carlisle?"

Bella looked at Carlisle as if she expected him to begin the vote, or at least to have changed his mind a little.

Carlisle shook his head, staring Edward down. "If your request is to know who of us will accept you as part of this family, you may ask. Your mortality is no longer a question, Bella, not when you wish so much to be changed and the only other alternative is that you and Edward die.

"The nature and timing of your change is for you both to discuss-"

"No," Edward growled, his face contorted, his lip curled above his teeth.

"-but unless Edward is willing to accept both of your death sentences," he went on, ignoring his son's outburst, "it will happen."

"Alright, then," Bella said, coolly dissatisfied by the response. It was as if she'd expected to keep the power in the conversation throughout. "Let's vote." She looked to Edward first. "Do you want me to join your family?"

Carys just about held back from rolling her eyes and sighing.

"Not that way," Edward ground out between clenched teeth, his tone as hard as his eyes. "Only as a human."

"Idiot," Carys muttered.

Esme squeezed her hand and shifted in her seat. The comment seemed to have had amused her.

Bella nodded, not having heard the quiet response following Edward's. "Alice?"

"Yes."

"Jasper?"

"Yes," he said, just as gravely as before.

"Rosalie?"

Rosalie hesitated, staring at her hands before lifting her gaze to Bella's face. "I don't have any aversion to you as a sister. On that part, my answer is yes," she said slowly, darting a glance at Carlisle before her gaze returned to Bella.

"It's just that... This is not the life I would have chosen for myself, and I wish there had been someone there to vote no for me. You wanted this to be about your mortality; that would have been my answer."

"Bella has made her choice already," Esme reminded Rosalie kindly, reaching her spare hand across the table in her direction. "There are no votes for or against the change, not now. Not anymore."

"I... Then, yes."

Bella gaped, Edward roared, and Esme calmly took over. "Emmett?" she asked.

"Hell, yes!" he exclaimed with a grin, his excitement resurfacing. "We can find some other way to pick a fight with this Demetri."

Esme, the next in line, looked at Bella. "I already think of you as part of my family," she told her gently, "my answer is a yes."

"Thank you, Esme," Bella murmured, turning to Carys.

"I think we both know my answer," Carys said in a tired voice that left no hint as to her thoughts.

Bella stared at her for a few moments, trying to work out what she'd just said. Carys kept her face as neutral as she could, looking at the side of Carlisle's face. She didn't like the thought of a vote at all - whether it be on the basis of mortality or joining the family.

In asking, she felt Bella was fishing for something. Yes, it was an eternity they would spend together on and off, but not every member of a family - and the Cullens were no different - got on.

Bella was putting her in-laws on the spot, referring to herself as something they could choose to "keep" or abandon. Carys doubted she would view any of them the same way, even in fifty years time, if they'd given her an outright no.

There was something infinitely strange and self-serving about it. Carys wondered how anyone could want to ask people whether they liked them or not, not in a setting like that.

It felt wrong.

Bella gave up and turned to Carlisle.

"You already know my answer," Carlisle sighed.

Edward threw his chair back, making Carys jump out of her skin, and stormed around the corner, away from the dining room section of the floor. An almighty crash came from the living room a second later.

That best belong to you, Edward! Carys shouted after him.

"Thanks," Bella mumbled. Her hair had escaped its confines, and she tucked it back behind her ear, pulling her sleeves down as she talked. "That's all I needed. Thank you. For wanting to keep me. I feel exactly the same way about all of you, too."

Her voice was laced with emotion by the end, and Esme was at her side in a flash, her arms wrapped around her.

"Dearest Bella," she breathed, just loud enough for Carys to hear.

Bella gave into the embrace, hugging her back as tightly as she could manage.

"Well, Alice," she said when they broke apart, squaring her shoulders. "Where do you want to do this?"

Alice's large eyes widened with terror. The entire family stilled in varying degrees of shock or outright horror.

Carys realised she was speaking when in her shock, she breathed, "What the fuck, Bella!?"

"No! No! NO!" Edward roared, returning in an instant to bend over Bella, crowding her, making her cringe down and away, covering her ears as he shouted, "Are you insane? Have you utterly lost your mind?"

Carys and Carlisle rose from their chairs, as did Jasper, all seeing the threat of his behaviour. Carys knew she wasn't alone in her readiness to step in, and was glad of it - she, a human, had a lot less to offer than the two vampires.

"Um, Bella," Alice anxiously interjected, wringing her small hands. If it had been possible for her to pale, she would have. "I don't think I'm ready for that. I'll need to prepare..."

Bella glared at her from under Edward's arm. "You promised," she argued.

"I know, but... Seriously, Bella!" Alice whimpered, "I don't have any idea how to do it without killing you."

"You can do it," encouraged Bella, attempting a placating tone. "I trust you."

Edward snarled. Alice, panicking with the realisation of what Bella had expected from her, and no doubt the visions her adamance conjured, was shaking her head, gazing up at them all in appeal.

Bella turned to look at Carlisle and asked him, instead. "Carlisle?"

Carys' blood boiled. She took one step forward - then Edward grabbed Bella's face in his hand, holding her jaw tightly, forcing her to look at him. He held his other palm toward Carlisle.

Esme gasped, recoiling from the scene, her eyes rounded and shimmering. Rosalie was by her side in a flash, gently coaxing her into her arms.

"Let her go," Carys yelled, surprising Edward enough that for a fraction of a second, his hand flexed, releasing Bella just enough that Carlisle could grab his arms and force them behind his back.

Though Carlisle spoke too quickly and quietly for either of the humans to hear the whole of it, Carys was close enough to the pair to hear the words "not how we treat" and "after Esme!?".

Edward was hanging his head and had given up attempting to wrestle himself from Carlisle's hold long before he finished.

"I'm able to do it," Carlisle said finally, lifting his voice enough for Bella to hear as he pulled Edward's lax form further away from her. "You would be in no danger of me losing control."

Bella nodded. "Sounds good."

"Hold on," Edward said, raising his head, his eyes glued to Bella's resolute face. "It doesn't have to be now," he begged.

"There's no reason for it not to be now," argued Bella.

"I can think of a few."

"I think we can all think of a few," Carys said as calmly as she could, turning to Bella. "Firstly, Charlie. I mean, what the hell? You're just going to leave him in the middle of the night? Secondly, the entire town knows everyone's back by now, or at least a couple of them are - what'll it look like to them when Alice and Carlisle return, then you disappear for three days, and when you get back again, we all disappear?

"Think about it for a second, would you? Thirdly, Jacob. You probably weren't going to treat him well in the end, but really Bella, you're going to disappear on him without a word? You're going to do worse to him than Edward did to you? Not to mention, there's the treaty to think about - and in that respect, the Pack. Surely you haven't forgotten that.

"Forth, you have a hell of a lot of growing up to do - both of you," she added, hands on hips, looking between them. "It might be too late for Edward over here, but if you're making plans for eternity, that's got to factor in. Not sure how you plan to be this immature for the rest of time. Fifth-fifth-"

"Fifth," Esme and Carlisle said together.

Releasing Edward, Carlisle nodded for Esme to speak first.

She smiled at him, patting Rosalie's arm, who remained in a protective stance, as if ready to shield her from her brother if the need arose. "Fifth, you haven't finished high school," she said.

"I was going to say all that-"

The three of them rounded on Edward as one.

"Shut it, the adults are talking now," snapped Carys.

"You lost your right to speak around two minutes ago," argued Esme, "if not before."

"It's my turn to speak," said Carlisle. When the gasps from around the room died down, he continued, "Sixth, this is not only about you, Bella, and it is not simply about Edward either.

"You're asking my daughter to change you - with no notice, when she's clearly terrified and doesn't have the level of control I do. I ask you not to put her in that position."

"And," Esme agreed, "even if she were able, there's the matter of the police, of which your father is the head, and," she added, sparing Carys a brief smile before turning back to Bella, "two of whom are close friends of Carys'."

"But I will be changed?" Bella cried.

"You have my word, one day, when you and Edward have agreed, as," Carlisle continued on over their differing protests, raising his eyebrows, "I doubt either of you would be happy to begin an eternity together at odds? Right, well, regardless of what you decide, it will not be before mid-summer."

Bella's mouth opened and closed as she thought over their points for a few minutes, giving her the appearance of a fish floundering for air, then she pursed her lips.

"I'll consider it."

Edward's jaw unclenched, and Carys thought it was a wonder he hadn't broken any of his teeth with the force by which he was clenching and unclenching it.

"I should probably take you home," he said, "just in case Charlie wakes up early."

Bella gazed at Carlisle, surprising Carys. Apparently, she had meant she would consider it immediately. "Mid-summer?" she asked, nodding. "After graduation then?"

She waited, chin raised, for confirmation.

Carlisle began to shake his head, and was about to speak when Carys spoke up, losing all control. Her anger had finally won out completely; she saw red.

"Am I utterly invisible to you, Bella?" she asked, narrowing her eyes. "I've wondered it before, aloud, even, but my god, you two really are just as self-absorbed as each other, aren't you. After graduation? June? That's too soon."

"Why?"

"Well, for one, when you've been changed, we have to leave," she growled. "All of us. If I'm not changed when you are, Carlisle and I will have to either separate from each other again or from the family until you're under control, or I'm changed as well."

Bella rolled her eyes. "I'm talking about-"

"I don't think I was anywhere near finished," Carys snapped, her vision tunneling to the point that she forgot the others in the room, forgot that Bella was real and not part of her imagination which she could rail at.

"Have you even thought about what you're missing? What you're going to miss?" she asked, shaking her head as she looked down on the teen. "You're throwing your life away for an eternal boy - because, I mean," she added dryly, "let's face it, no one's going to be mistaking Edward for a man anytime soon - so you best have thought about it.

"If you're wanting to be changed now, or in June, that suggests you haven't. Let me tell you what you'll be missing. You'll be missing a normal relationship, where the person you're with doesn't grab your jaw like that because you've made a decision he doesn't agree with.

"You're missing having a life at all - drinking, going to parties, having fun - because no matter what you think now, in a century you might wonder what going to a bloody party was like, if only so you knew you weren't missing anything. If you're anything like me, you're giving up the chance to have children, all your family, your friends, food, drink in any form but blood.

"But, of course, you're not like me, are you? You're like Edward, so the only people you seem to think about are yourself and him. You treated your friends like crap, you treated me like crap - and not only when you were heartbroken, but for them and Charlie, before. All of us, after you started to get better.

"You'll miss so much more than you can imagine, Bella!

"You. Are. Not. Juliet. He. Is. Not. Romeo!" Carys told her, her voice rising continuously, gesturing as she enunciated each and every word and reached the crux. "I mean, he's sure as hell made me understand Mercutio on a new level, but it's like you forget the very last scene of the play! Your actions affect other people! Your choices do!

"How up yourself do you need to be that you don't seem to find anything wrong with what you've said or done!?" she shouted. "I mean, look at yourself! Do you even give a shit about Charlie?! Have you even bothered to properly think about what he went through!? He was terrified! But instead of thinking about spending whatever time you have left with him, you come here in the middle of the night and demand we vote on your life!?

"On who accepts you!? Who likes you!? What about you, Bella!? Are you going to say who you want and don't want in the family? No. You're just gonna make some empty threat about going to bloody Volterra! It's one or the other, Bella. You can have the vegetarian life, the Cullens, and Edward, or you have the Volturi. You can't have both!

"This entire vote was a joke! Who the hell rocks up and demands a vote on who likes them and who doesn't!? And to ask Alice to change you tonight?" she asked, her voice dropping as, wide-eyed, she shook her head. "My god."

Carys closed her eyes as the strength of her ire left her. At some point over the course of her tirade, Carlisle had moved beside her, one arm wrapped around her waist, his other hand gripping her hip.

She was met with silence so complete that the thumping of her heart against her ribs was the loudest sound in the room, above even her or Bella's laboured breath.

"Believe me," she whispered slowly shaking her head, "that was a fraction of what you'll be getting, Edward. You, I'm probably going to lose my voice from screaming at. You act as if you know it all, but you chose to go to the one place that would hurt Carlisle, the one place that, equally, would lead to my early change. You fucked us all, and you act as if you have a right to speak? You don't. Your time is over."

When she opened her eyes, Bella stood before her, hands curled into fists at her sides, reacting to the onslaught she'd borne. "Why don't you ask them about their votes?" Bella cried. "Why do you think it took so long for Carlisle to-."

Edward darted to Bella's side when she broke off, his eyes wide as he slowly shook his head. Carlisle's hand tightened on Carys' hip, and he pressed his lips to her hair.

"You think I don't know that?" asked Carys softly, having easily filled in the end of Bella's sentence. "You think Carlisle and I haven't talked about the vote which was conducted the day he met me? Before any of the family knew me? I know all about it, Bella, and I understand why they had it.

"I understand," she went on, placing her hands over Carlisle's, "knowing them as I do, why they didn't want to risk their family, and I understand why Carlisle didn't want to risk them, or me, when none of them knew anything about me. He waited as long as he could, and he was well on his way to me before Edward met you. We didn't jump straight into an obsession as you two did," she finished, including both of them in her slow, unblinking stare.

"God you need to grow up," she finished. "If you don't stop thinking about yourselves the way you do, only caring about yourselves and acting like everyone else is here for you, then one day you're going to look around and that's all you'll have left."

Turning to Carlisle, noting the way in which the rest of the family seemed frozen, rooted to the spot, she pushed his hands away. His gaze flickered from the other couple to Carys.

"I'm going home," she whispered, her voice devoid of emotion. He told her he'd come with her, and she shook her head. "I think I need to go on my own."

"Then I'll join you once I'm done here," he said, dropping a kiss to her forehead.

Carys shook her head and patted his hand. "Tomorrow," she said, hopping onto her tiptoes to give him a quick peck, "after work."

By the time she reached the living room and collected her shoes, voices had sprung up behind her. She hardly had to ignore them; she couldn't hear a word past the sound of her heartbeat pulsing in her ears. She was blind to whatever Edward had broken. She no longer cared.

It had only been a matter of time before she snapped. The little she could remember of her speech, she stood by.

Carlisle had left his car in the same way he always did when parking it in the garage - unlocked, with the keys on the dashboard.

Weary, tired beyond belief, she drove back to her house and fell into a dead sleep.

A/N: Still super upset hours later over losing the chapter and having to slide on over this pile of crap in its stead. Sorry that we'll have to wait until tomorrow to read about Emmett, but by the time I finished rewriting this section, I honestly didn't have it in me to finish off the next part (of which I lost as well). Replying to your amazing reviews definitely lifted my spirits, I have to say - I'm glad we're all in the same boat!

Thanks to: pigs103, BMBMDooDoo- Doo- Doo- Doo (Yes!), vancabreuniter, Guest (they deserve so much more than Carys has the energy to give them!), Ella (Eclipse is going to be very different! And I know how a couple of them will change your mind about being blase about it - Jasper and Rosalie's stories are coming up soon! I completely agree! All of what you mentioned Bella saying is canon to the book (edited a bit to fit talking etc as I write them) and I felt that way too - Alice deserves better - she only showed them to save Bella (and Carys in this), and because Bella begged her or Edward to...), GuestMG, souverian, chellekathrynnn, derniermom, Anita Simons, eeeeaud, ReadLikeHermione, jhaenox, jigglypuffs, Bimbumel2, Backlinedeyes, Ghostwriter71, and Love. Fiction. 2020 for your reviews!