AN: Thank you every one for your reviews, I really appreciate them! They've helped me go and fill things in where I hadn't given you enough depth to cover my thinking. Feel free to criticise too; I want this story to be perfect :)

Enjoy!

* I do not own Twilight or the characters within this story, nor the songs.

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"So I'm breaking up my heart in two

Getting rid of every part of you
We are standing in a burning field of clover

I'm breaking up my heart in two
Let it wither into deja vu
I'll be hiding in the storm until it's over

Without you"

White Flag - Reimagined - Normandie

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Carlisle ✦ Fragments in Time ✦ Amnesia

After collecting myself, I had sat at her bedside through the rest of the night and into the middle of the morning; feigning sleep. I couldn't be sure that Victoria hadn't loitered to strike once more. Her vitals remained well, and she was now on IV fluids after her large transfusion. Her spine was also braced in case she woke.

The nurses came and go, checking on her half-hourly. I heard some of them whisper about how I had brought her in, how I was watching over her intently. I could however not care less. My frozen heart thawed at the knowledge that she would be okay.

At this point, it was unavoidable that our paths would cross. Cally had assigned me her file, and although I knew that I should keep my distance, I was compelled to stay by her side; ensuring her safety.

I would safeguard our world from her, but I would not leave her side.

My mind wandered to where it had all begun:

The day Edward had saved her from the van – I had tended to her then. It had been the first time I had met her; the day she truly first questioned our humanity.

The day she was introduced to the rest of our family; the baseball game in which James had first locked on to his target.

The day James lured her in and she had nearly died for the first time. I had taken her to hospital, and much like now, she'd needed a blood transfusion and intensive care.

It almost felt like déjà vu.

I felt immense pride in Edward then; he had struggled to restrain himself when siphoning the venom from her system, but he still had succeeded. With his singer, nevertheless. He had drained her more than I had hoped, but he had still resisted his urge; for her.

It saddened me to think of all that he had sacrificed. It had been true loyalty and devotion.

Which brought me to that fated day in Forks, her eighteenth birthday. The day that had caused our family to crumble into pieces.

I had been plucking glass from her arm when I'd spoken to her about my rebirth as a vampire and mused about the others. She'd asked me how I could stand to treat her; I had told her that I could barely notice the scent of blood anymore, let alone hers. And that had been true, until last night.

I sighed, losing myself in my memories.

'Did you ever think of just doing it the easy way?' she had asked me.

'No,' I had replied. 'I knew who I wanted to be; I wanted to help people. It brings me happiness. Even if I am damned regardless.'

'Damned?' She questioned, shaking her head. 'Like.. Like hell?'

She had gazed deep into the depths of my soul then and there, fluttering her eyelids. I had looked her up and down, taking in her softly astonished features.

'Carlisle, you couldn't be damned,' she shook her head once more. 'You couldn't. It's impossible.'

She glanced down at my hands.

'Thank you, Bella. You've always been very gracious about us. By all other accounts though, we are damned.'

I stopped to meet her gaze. She reached to my side, clinging to my sky-blue button-up shirt once more.

'But I hope, maybe foolishly, that we'd get some measure of credit for trying.' I had let a gentle smirk play on my lips.

'Do they all think like this?' She had asked, pressing me with furrowed brows.

'Edward… doesn't believe there is an afterlife for our kind,' I had gulped, before looking into those earthly orbs once more. 'He believes this is our afterlife, and in exchange for this… limited immortality, we've lost our souls.'

'So that's it. That's why he won't change me?'

'Imagine the situation in reverse, hmm?' I had said, gently cupping her slender jaw in my right hand and holding her fingertips in my other, calculating my next words. 'If you believed as Edward does, could you take away his soul?'

At that, I had lit alight the gauze saturated in her blood.

Realisation had struck her, and I quirked my brow in slight amusement.

'You see the problem,' I stated the obvious, meeting her earthen irises once more with my ochre gaze.

She shook her head, stubbornness seething through her form. I sighed.

'It's my choice,' she had said defiantly.

'It's his too,' I had abruptly held up my hand as soon as I noticed those gentle lips part. 'Whether he is responsible for doing that to you.'

'He's not the only one able to do it.' She had eyed me speculatively.

I laughed, abruptly lightening the mood. 'Oh, no! You're going to have to work this out with him.'

But then I sighed. 'That's the one part I can never be sure of. I think, in most other ways, that I've done the best I could with what I had to work with. But was it right to doom the others to this life? I can't decide.'

And the same had held true now.

Feeling that I was alone in Bella's presence, I opened my eyes and allowed myself to peer at the young woman. How she had changed, matured since that day. I swore that she had only become more beautiful.

How so much had changed since that day.

I shuffled my chair closer to her bedside, noting that I had been 'asleep' for a good eight hours now. Good. I reached out, cupping her closest hand in both of my own.

Edward had told us that we needed to leave, that we only brought her risk. He'd told us that she had understood. Most of us agreed, however, it hadn't been a unanimous consensus; Alice had been furious. She had grown very attached to Bella. She only submitted in the end because Jasper had needed time to deal with what he had caused. My opinion had differed, as well. By then, I had fully accepted Bella as part of our family. I had a sense of protection over her; something I could not oversee once we had left for Ithica.

But, I had wanted to respect his endeavours to keep her safe. By arrangement with the wolves, we had them watch over her in case Victoria or Laurent had planned to seek revenge.

Alice and I had sat down with Billy, who very uncomfortably agreed to hear of updates if Alice were to have seen anything affecting Bella's safety, and agreed that the wolves would protect her. He had been more than pleased with the notion of our departure.

Alice had phoned Billy to let him know she had envisioned Laurent planning to go there and find Bella. He had told us that they succeeded in scaring him off.

We informed the Denalis; Irina was devastated, knowing that she had been used. Broken-hearted, she still to this day has struggled to deal with his betrayal. Laurent had been her mate.

And now he was gone. I had taken him away from the world.

Unfortunately, many of Alice's visions involving Bella in the time between us leaving Forks and Bella's graduation had been blurred. She could not see the wolves, we had eventually discovered, and Bella had been spending quite a lot of time with the young wolves.

She had discreetly disclosed to me that Bella had not been coping well at all with our disappearance. Edward of course had been aware; often he had been in the room when she received her visions. He would leave the room, jaw clenched tight, eyes darkened, and hunt. Soon enough, he left us as well, spending a fair amount of time in South America.

Unfortunately, one day Alice had a horrifying vision of Bella. She saw her jump from a tall cliff, plunging into the ocean's swirling depths below. She had not seen Jacob there with her, pulling her out. She had told Rosalie.

Alice had quietly gone to visit Charlie, thinking that she had taken her own life, but much to her relief, her and Bella met.

While the young wolf had been with Bella, Rosalie had told Edward of Alice's vision. Edward had foolishly impersonated me and called Charlie to confirm the news, and Jacob had told him that he was at a funeral. It had been Harry Clearwater's funeral, but Edward had assumed the worst.

He had stormed to Volterra in order to end his life.

Alice and Bella had rushed to save them, of course they would have.

They had gotten to him just in time, but Caius had been furious; It was prohibited for humans to know of our world.

He had wanted Bella dead.

Alice had tried to plead with them, saying she would soon be turned, but Caius had refused to listen.

Aro had instead struck a deal with Edward; his eternal servitude for Bella's life lived out as a human. He had long prized Edward's ability, being similar to his but ranged and current, and he had a chance to have him within his grasp. Edward would be his Beacon.

Edward had readily agreed in order to save her life.

Our entire coven had been forbidden from interacting with her ever again.

She was to forget our world. She was to forget the wolves and the unnatural.

She was to forget us.

Aro had recently procured a new recruit, Jepson, with a curious ability; one that could rearrange and modify memories.

I had heard that he'd had trouble working through Bella's memories, but eventually, we were all eradicated from her life; her past rewritten.

Our coven was torn in two.

She was returned to Forks.

Edward remained in Italy, working for the Vulturi.

Alice had returned to us in Ithica, stricken.

We interfered in Bella's life no more, apart from one time we anonymously gave her a plane ticket to visit her mother when Alice had seen Victoria planning yet another attack. I had told Billy, and the pack had maimed her before she managed to escape.

She had graduated soon after and left Forks, and with Victoria not being a tracker, we could finally breathe easily. Alice had kept tabs on her all these years.

Which lead me to think… Why hadn't she seen them?

Perhaps they were not here because of Bella, I realised.

Perhaps they were merely staying near us, hoping that they could catch one of us unawares. Perhaps they thought that we would lead them to her.

My stomach twisted at the thought.

Our presence had possibly led her to this.

I would have to have words with Alice later; although I was displeased that she had kept Bella's close proximity from me, I knew that she would be blaming herself for the last night's events.

I sighed, tightening my grip on Bella's fingertips.

I knew that they may have been even more angered if I had chosen to let her turn. She would have needed guidance. They would have eventually found out. They would have seen it as defiance. There would have been no happy ending.

At least this way, we might be able to evade an ill-fate. Aro had read my mind before, and he would have very little interest in doing so again. I doubted he would of anyone else in our coven other than Alice, who had her own measures of evasion. We, of course, wouldn't be able to speak of this to Edward. The others would have to be mostly kept in the dark, too. Alice would be my refuge.

I would have to be careful; the Volturi could not find out about my interference.

I would keep my distance once she woke and was safe.

But, I also knew that I would not be able to let Bella leave my sight.

Not until, at the very least, we had rid the world of the viper that was Victoria.

To Bella, I would just be another doctor. Another person passing by in her otherwise unaware world.

But to us, to me, she was one of us. We would make sure that she was safe. We would make sure that she would live.

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Extended AN: Drumroolllll…. Backstory! Yup. There you go. I hope it didn't come across as too narrated and monotonous. No doubt I will edit this chapter later, but the series of events will be the same. I will delve into the backstory more in-depth in future chapters, but everything so far should be relatively clear now – I hope.

So - my major turning points from canon and where everything roots from are:
- Laurent isn't killed by the wolves, only scared off to regroup with Victoria. Irina found out and was broken-hearted, obviously, and left him for using her.
- Instead of Edward taking Bella to Renee's to escape Alice's vision of Victoria, she was sent an anonymous solo plane ticket.
- The Volturi sees Edward as an asset and only want one outcome; for him to work for them.
- I added a Volturi member with a very strong and peculiar ability. I will explain exactly how and why his ability worked on Bella, but not Edward's, in the future. Don't fret :)

*The following quotes are from the movie, New Moon. I'm not sure if they're all in the final release, these are from the extended scene. Go watch it on YT. Like now. Omg. Squee. *internal screaming*

'Did you ever think of just doing it the easy way?'

'No. I knew who I wanted to be; I wanted to help people. It brings me happiness. Even if I am damned regardless.'

'Damned? Like.. Like hell?'

'Carlisle, you couldn't be damned. You couldn't. It's impossible.'

'Thank you, Bella. You've always been very gracious about us. By all other accounts though, we are damned. But I hope, maybe foolishly, that we get some measure of credit for trying.

'Do they all think like this?'

'Edward… doesn't believe there is an afterlife for our kind. He believes this is our afterlife, and in exchange for this… limited immortality, we've lost our souls.'

'So that's it. That's why he won't change me?'

'Imagine the situation in reverse, hmm? If you believed as Edward does, could you take away his soul?'

*The following quotes are from the book, New Moon by S. Meyer.

'You see the problem.'

'It's my choice.'

'It's his too. Whether he is responsible for doing that to you.'

'He's not the only one able to do it.'

Oh, no! You're going to have to work this out with him.'

'That's the one part I can never be sure of. I think, in most other ways, that I've done the best I could with what I had to work with. But was it right to doom the others to this life? I can't decide.'