A/N: Hello all! As usual, trigger warnings: mentions of rape kit, mentions of rape/injuries.

Chapter 3 – Terror (Edward POV)

"Go faster."

The words as a sharp snarl from my mouth. Alice looks at me, her expression completely masking the terror in her thoughts. She's pressed the gas pedal down the furthest it can go. The needle of the speedometer was just beyond the highest painted tick mark, indicating the car was going over the maximum of 155 miles per hour.

Alice pushed her foot down harder, and none of us miss the groan of the metal under her foot. Even Emmett was getting frustrated in the back seat.

Alice's thoughts were a furious storm of visions. How she had missed a decision that endangered Bella's life, no one knew. But now she was searching for every remote possibility – looking years into the future – ensuring Bella survived. The results were infuriatingly unclear.

My fists squeeze tighter in my lap, my jaw tense. I could run faster than this car. But Alice had insisted I drive.

"You can't show up on foot, Edward. What will Charlie think?"

"It doesn't matter." I'd snarled in response.

"You can't see her if you're fucking dead, Edward." Emmett had grabbed my arm, physically holding me in place. "The Chief's gonna kill you unless you have an alibi."

I laughed maniacally, imagining the Chief with his gun trying to hunt me down. If only he knew. . .

"The only logical conclusion would be that you were close enough to walk. Which means you were close enough to do this to her. You need an alibi. You need to be out of town." Alice insisted. "You need to arrive when Bella is out of surgery – after her father is there, after the news has spread. We will drive."

I surrendered, knowing Alice and Emmett were entirely right. Charlie would attempt to blame the entire situation on me and arrest me on the spot if I didn't have solid proof that I was out of town.

It was decided by Alice that we had been driving to Spokane for camping. Esme met us with Emmett's jeep and then we drove. Not toward Forks Hospital, toward Spokane. We collected receipt documenting food, gas, motel reservations, and even a camp site ticket. If the police needed proof, we would have it.

"None of the timings correspond to our story." Alice had said, her mind racing as she thought of gaps in our tale. Emmett, sitting in the back, rubbed ink off, spilled coffee, and tore receipts until the corresponded with our plan.

It was massively frustrating – meeting Esme in Ellensburg, taking the car she'd brought, and slowly driving down to Forks again. Each stop at a motel or gas station, waiting as Alice refueled a nearly full car, destroyed me. But there was little I could do.

"Hurry up." I spit through ground teeth.

Alice's visions were flashing through my mind – Bella dead in her room. Bella dead in the hospital. Bella dead in the woods. Bella dead in Volterra.

"Enough!"

Alice didn't hear me. She was grappling with her visions. Why hadn't she seen Bella was in danger? Why hadn't she seen a decision made that put Bella in danger? Why was she seeing these visions now?

Bella dead in the meadow.

"Stop!"

Alice jumps at my voice, her concentration interrupted. "I don't understand. . ."

"Fifty visions of Bella . . ." I choke on the word. She wasn't dead. Carlisle said she wasn't.

"I don't understand." Alice whispers again, shaking her head.

"Believe me, it's illustrative enough." I snarl. "Emmett, call Carlisle."

Emmett pulls his phone out without a word, dialing quickly. I soak up Carlisle's voice as the two converse. Bella was fine. Her injuries were not life threatening. She was out of surgery.

Alice's vision masks mine. Bella in her bedroom, bleeding, in pain.

Someone was going to pay for her blood.

The moment I'd seen Alice's vision – Bella writhing in pain in Carlisle's ER – I'd waged war against the Mutts. I could perfectly see it in my mind, my plot constructed in a fraction of a second and executed within the hour. I would run to La Push and single handedly destroying the mutt that Bella called her friend. I would destroy anyone who got in my way, anyone who tried to protect him, and anyone who tried to stop me. They could not win when I could anticipate their every move before they did it. They could not rival my anger. The monster in me was filled with glee. Their blood didn't tempt me but killing was not against my instincts as a vampire.

The soul and heart Bella's love emanated for was not repelled. I was not a monster – I was ridding the world of monsters. Those mutts deserved it. They were accusing us of harming humans when their rap sheet was becoming as long as ours.

Carlisle was quick to pull me from my fantasy. His call came only moments after Bella arrived – quickly urging us to return home. In a rush to get to surgery he scarcely had time to explain that Jacob Black had been to accuse me of the crime when he had brought Bella to the hospital. Carlisle hadn't told us what happened, but it was painfully clear from Alice's vision. The thought of it made me sick – a feeling I hadn't quite experienced in a century. In learning of his innocent, I could not channel my emotion onto Jacob Black's murder.

Just six hours I had been away. The thought made me more furious than I could stand. Six hours unprotected was all it took.

I wince, my hand gripping the plastic of the doorhandle so tightly it cracks.

Bella dead in her truck.

We were only miles away from town, and Alice rammed the car down to eighty miles an hour. I seethed at her, wanting to break the door off and run to the hospital. I would be there in a quarter of the time.

As if he could read my mind, Emmett puts his hand on my shoulder. "Don't even think about it." He warns, raises an eyebrow.

I shove his hand away, snarling. "Drive faster, Alice."

Alice shoots me a glare. You know I want to get to her as much as you do. But we have to maintain our image for now.

Alice's mind was a swirl of potential futures for us, but she was utterly inhibited by her concern over why she hadn't had a vision prior to Bella arriving at the hospital. She was furious with herself, and terrified. What other things had she missed?

I wondered the same question.

I could only think that Jacob Black was not as innocent as he seemed. Perhaps he was there, conveniently blocking Alice's visions. Perhaps he had been involved.

I'd hunt him down to find out. The mutt wouldn't be able to hide his thoughts when he saw me.

Alice pulls up to the small garage of the hospital, smoothly pulling into a spot close to the door. I was out of the car before she had thrown it into gear.

Decades of training to act like a human gave me enough insight not to run at full speed, but I was close to breaking every human-trained instinct of mine now. Carlisle might berate me for not acting human, but I cared little for my own welfare in this moment.

I could smell her blood. A floral essence gone bitter from seeping out of her body.

Emmett catches up to me easily, laying his large hand on my shoulder again and yanking me to slow me down. I don't shake him off this time. Even I knew I might need him to restrain me.

"Esme is in Carlisle's office. Let's wait there for now." Alice tells me as she glides over. She's more collected than we are, but only in physical form. Her eyes now reflect the panic of her thoughts. Panic that ruminates though my entire body.

I shouldn't have left. I knew better than to leave. Not with Victoria on the run still. Not weeks after narrowly escaping death by the Volturi. Not with tension from the wolves due to our return. There was too much. Too many loose ends. Too many enemies.

I shouldn't have left.

I follow stiffly after Alice, pushed along by Emmett. I could smell the lingering scent of the Mutt as we walked. He had, as Carlisle said, brought Bella here. But he did not stay.

How could he leave?

My eyes were focused on Carlisle's thoughts – watching him scribble notes from the surgery onto papers in Bella's folder.

"Vanessa, I'm assigning you to Bella's case."

"Dr. Cullen, doesn't the chief normally handle assignments?" Vanessa, a young, innocent PA, asks.

"I'll deal with him."

"Do you have her chart?"

"Document her stats in your notebook for now." Carlisle says, leaving her. Bella's folder was sealed away in his office.

"How bad?" I say under my breath. I knew he could hear me.

I'll be up in a moment. He responds.

Alice opens the door to Carlisle's office. Esme was pacing the length of it, her expression one of horror.

"Edward," she breathes, her eyes full of tears.

"How is she?" I demand. "Have you seen her yet?"

Esme shakes her head sadly. "I only just got here. Carlisle said she was awake, but he sedated her again."

My hands turn to fists at my side. Not only had she been alone when the attack happened – with no one to protect her – but she had woken up and found herself without me yet again.

"Jasper and Rosalie have gone to Bella's house. They're trying to see if they can track the scent." Esme says, spying Emmett and Alice. "You may want to go, too."

Alice shakes her head defiantly. "I need to be here. Charlie will need me."

"I'll go." Emmett stands up, his muscles bulging. "He's a dead man the second I have him within my sights."

"Make him suffer." Alice hisses. Torture him until he regrets it.

My stomach twisted in confliction, wanting to accompany Emmett and wanting to stay and see Bella.

That monster, whoever he was, hurt my mate. My Bella. I needed to be the one to destroy him.

I twitch as Emmett leaves, desperately wanting to follow him out of the hospital. Esme grabs my hand, her fingers wrapping around mine.

"She needs you, Edward." She whispers, her voice thick with emotion. I tried in vain to ignore Esme's thoughts – the memories of the abuse she faced at the hands of her first husband. She needs you here.

"I need to kill him." I steel, unable to control myself enough to prevent the way I hiss the words at my mother.

Esme shakes her head, not disagreeing. "There's time for that. They'll call when they find something. But Bella is here now, and she was asking for you."

My dead heart wrenches in my chest – the closest it had come to beating in over a century. I swallow thickly, my throat burning as I inhale the thick scent of blood. I hadn't hunted.

The door swings open and Carlisle walks in, bringing in the heavy perfume of Bella's blood. His expression was a mix of so many things I had never seen from him before – anger, exhaustion, grief.

"I didn't see." Alice whispers to him, breaking the silence that followed his wake. "Not until she was here. Carlisle, what happened to her?"

"You know as well as I do." He mutters, cringing.

I could hear jealousy in his thoughts. It was a surprisingly potent emotion against his normally calm, tamed ones.

All the doctors who had treated Bella upon her arriving were planning to go home, get absolutely wasted and forget about today's patient. Carlisle, who had been at peace with his being for centuries, yearned to be human now. He yearned to join them and distance himself from the patient he was presented with today. He yearned to incapacitate himself and blur his memories, so very similar and different to the way Bella's had been blurred.

I swallow thickly, turning away from him as if it would tune out his mental voice.

I very much wanted it too. I wanted to forget this, even for a few depressing hours. I wanted my memories of this to be forever altered in an alcohol-induced daze. A few shots of hard liquor on a mostly empty stomach would be satisfactory. But I would never be able to haze these moments and memories.

"Have the police been informed?" Esme asks. "They'll want information for her. . . From you." Esme covers her mouth, shaking her head. I cringe, wishing I didn't have her fearful tenor of her thoughts invading my mind.

Carlisle shakes his head. "I persuaded them against it . . . To wait for Charlie to come." He sits down on the couch, dropping his head into his hands. Esme moves to his side, sitting next to him. They didn't do the rape exam, yet. She was barely conscious when she came in . . . It would have been a clear violation of her body and mind.

Another one. I think furiously.

Carlisle's thoughts were sharp in my head. I could see Bella in his memories. Her body on the gurney, twisting in pain. Her speech disjointed and slurred. Her brown eyes open, clouded and unfocused. The first indication that she was intoxicated. Then Carlisle smelled the drug in her blood and he knew what had happened.

I could see how Bella reacted to him touching her. How, in an effort to treat her injuries, they striped her of the clothes Jacob must have thrown on her. She didn't even notice.

I can see, in his memories, the hand-shaped marks developing on her skin. The shadow of bruises on her jaw and neck. The confusion, fear, and pain in her eyes. The hoarse way her words slipped out from the effort she'd extended before.

I swear loudly, my hand slamming onto Carlisle's solid wood desk. A piece of it splinters, dropping to the floor.

Carlisle's eyes snap to mine, realizing at once what he had inadvertently shared. He quickly pushes his memories away, grimacing. Esme looks at me with pitiful eyes, but I pay her no attention.

I needed to get out of here. I needed to hunt. I needed to kill him.

I take a shaky breath, trying to steady myself. Trying to force the monster away, to resolve my anger. I needed to stay. I needed to take care of Bella.

"Edward, she'll be okay." Carlisle tells me, his voice strong with conviction. "Her injuries are not life threatening. The surgery was minor."

Alice's visions flash through my mind. Bella dead in her kitchen. Bella dead in my arms. Bella dead at school.

I scoff, seeing red. "Physically. Mentally is another field, you know that."

I turn away from him, bringing my fists to my eyes as if that would block out the world. I forced myself to ignore Carlisle – his thoughts spoken and unspoken. Alice's mind was just as loud as Carlisle and in blocking him, I saw hers.

She was searching, again. But every vision was muddled and uncertain, constantly changing and shifting. But nothing was clear. Nothing made sense. No person was concrete, no scene was specific. The visions of Bella dead slipped in and out – sometimes present, sometimes nothing but a difficult memory. It was making her anxious. She was never unsure about the future, not like this.

She had never missed an important decision, not since Bella jumped off the cliff. Alice had been watching her. Alice hadn't missed anything.

I needed to be away from her – away from her failure that inhibited Bella's safety.

"She's sedated now." Carlisle breaks the silence that was growing thick with tension. "Charlie is with her now."

He was resisting his thoughts, trying to block out his encounter with Bella when he had woken up in her room. I catch small glimpses of it, still. A painful ball forms in my stomach as I see signs of her remembering what had happened.

I take a deep breath, trying to control my rage. If only Jasper was here. I steal the thought away. No – Jasper had to be with Emmett and Rosalie. They needed to hunt. Jasper was the most skilled fighter amongst us. He needed to be there.

"I need to see her." I insist.

"Charlie is with her, Edward." Esme responds gently. "Give him a moment."

I hiss, shaking my head. "I left her for six hours, and now our reunion is here. Alice will talk to Charlie."

"Actually, I will." Carlisle stands up, running a hand through his hair. "I want to talk to him about bringing her home. She won't do well here." And I don't want her forced into consenting to unncessary exams and tests.

His thought was not for me, it was for himself. His grief, over watching Bella tormented in the ER by his hands was more than he could take.

Esme stands, too. "I'll come and see if I can talk with him. I'm not sure he'll be open to the idea of it at all. Perhaps you should come too, Edward?"

I look to Alice, wondering if she thought it would be wise. She simply shrugs, looking petulantly into the future in search of something.

I follow my parents from the office to Bella's room several floors above us.

Prepare yourself, Edward. Carlisle instructs as we walk. She likely won't wake for a few more hours. Either way, it will be difficult for you.

I don't respond. Difficult for me? I was enraged. I wanted to tear apart the man – the monster – that did this to her. Difficult wasn't the word I would call it. It certainly wasn't a word I would use for both Bella and I in this moment.

Carlisle shoots me a look, reminding me to stay calm. Charlie needs to be convinced of your innocence before anything else.

Bella's room was dark – a few monitors and a small lamp illuminating it. I was unsurprised to find Charlie sitting in a vinyl chair, his eyes rimmed red. His thoughts are buried in a report that was dropped off at his desk for the fourth time in the past two months.

Riley Biers, 19, it read. The college student had gone missing in Seattle weeks ago.

Charlie's thoughts were full of gratitude – gratitude it had not been his daughter, even now as she lay sedated in the bed. He was thankful he didn't need to send out a search party – grateful that, even if she was hurt, he at least knew where she was. At least he was certain she wasn't dead.

"Charlie," Esme starts, her voice gentle, motherly. "We came as soon as we heard."

He stands up, surprised by our presence. His eyes dart around, spying me behind my parents, and his expression turns mutinous. "Get. Out!" He roars, his hand twitching to the gun on his belt. His heart was pounding rapidly.

His thoughts were muddled, racing. He was trying to figure out whether to shoot me or handcuff me and slam my face into the tiled floor.

I freeze. In my haste to get here, to get to Bella and to ensure her safety, I'd forgotten Alice's warning. In my own thoughts and rage, I barely heard Charlie's. Charlie stalks closer to me, his heart pounding furiously in his chest with stress. He was seething – nearly spitting at me in fury.

Charlie hated me for what I'd put Bella through. Of course he would try to put this on me.

If the situation weren't so serious, I might have laughed. He had nothing on me. He'd never be able to get to me. And if he did, his handcuffs and gun would hardly make this easier for him. He knew this, though. His thoughts as he glared at me, and my parents, were apprehensive. He knew he couldn't take us on, even if he didn't know why.

I applauded him for wanting to defend her, for knowing his was outnumbered and ill-equipped and still taking a stand. Though, his desire to protect the sedated girl in the bed barely rivalled mine, despite the parental connection. My connection with her would always be stronger than his. His emotions paled in comparison to mine – heightened by my being a vampire. If he truly knew my feelings for her, he might not be fantasizing about murdering me himself. I wanted to think his usefulness was nothing compared to mine, but Bella had been attacked under the protection of us both.

"I didn't do this, Chief Swan." I tell him, trying to keep my voice level and calm. There was no need to be defensive – that would only spite him further. If anything, though, his thoughts became even more seditious at my words.

He bares his teeth. "I don't believe you for a second, kid."

"He didn't do this, Charlie." Carlisle repeats calmly. His voice was level, his eyes sincere. His mind simultaneously frustrated that we'd forgotten to appease Charlie to my innocent while also trying to find a way to placate him now. Our minds were busy with other thoughts.

Charlie abandons the thought of attacking me or shooting me – both would land him in prison and possibly grant me an easier sentence due to excessive force during arrest.

Charlie's thoughts were somewhat amusing as he imagined calling his deputies to demand a warrant for my arrest me. He was torn – he wanted to do it himself, having imagined arresting me ever since I left Bella and Forks months ago. But he wanted to stay by her side.

I related to him on that level. Both of us desperate to be the one to catch the offender, but unable to leave the girl we loved. My eyes float beyond Charlie, staring at the girl in the bed for the first time since I'd entered the room.

"Oh, god." My voice is a strangled whisper.

The room was small, and yet she looked miniscule in comparison. Her normally pale skin completely lacked color. Her complexion was on par with mine. A deep purple bruise was forming along her cheekbone, and a number of them were already shadowing her jaw and neck just as I'd seen in Carlisle's memories. The previous exposure to her facial injuries did little to reduce the fury I felt.

My thoughts shoot to Jacob then. How had he done it? How had he dropped her off at the hospital and disappeared? How did he leave her in the hands of his sworn enemy and run away from the girl he loved?

My teeth clamped together at the thought. He didn't love her. Not like I did. He lusted her. Like so many others.

"Don't defend him!" Charlie seethes, his voice loud. I wince at the hatred in his voice. My eyes shoot to Bella, worried that she'll wake. Some assault victims grew fearful of loud noises, but Bella remained perfectly still. She was still sedated. Not even slightly disturbed by Charlie's outburst. The scent of morphine was strong in the room and in her veins.

"Charlie," Carlisle starts, looking slightly exasperated. Carlisle was always calm, collected, patient. I had rarely seen him lose his temper in the decades I'd known him. But now he was tired – his mood strangely parallel to how he felt upon finding Rosalie in the street.

Carlisle's unusual frustration, and Alice's rare uncertainty, were making me anxious.

"How can you be so calm? He hurt my daughter." I knew it was a bad idea when they started going out. Charlie rambles, his face red with anger. "This is my daughter!" He's going to prison. Forever. Even longer if I can help it.

Charlie's hands ball into fists as he debates throwing a few punches, bruising me up the way he thought I'd bruised Bella. I retreat a step back, knowing full well that if things turned physical, I would not be able to control myself. I had too much anger coursing through me. I'd have to rely on Carlisle to defuse this situation. Charlie would be in very real danger if he came after me now.

"Somehow I'm delusional to think that five foster kids would be anything but destruction in this town. And my delusions meant my daughter got harmed."

Seething words fill my head – not ones spoken aloud. Charlie pauses, his breathing rapid, before opening his mouth to continue.

Esme beats him to it. "Watch your words around me, Chief." Esme's eyes flash angrily as she speaks. Charlie stutters into silence, shocked by her outburst. Esme had the ability to command a room, though few had seen it. "Not one of my children have ever given you reason to distrust them."

Charlie hesitates, unsure of Esme's anger and how to proceed.

"Edward loves Bella more than you know." Esme continues, furious. "So do the rest of my kids."

Carlisle puts his hand on Esme's arm, trying to calm her, but she shakes him off.

"Don't you ever accuse my children of anything like that again." Esme threatens.

"Charlie, most of our kids were camping this weekend, including Edward." Carlisle explains quietly. I'm not sure when he had come up with this story – or whether he knew Alice had receipts to back it up. With Carlisle needing to be in surgery, we never communicated the plan. "They had been on the road since this morning – well before Bella was attacked."

The ease at which Charlie's mind shifted to accommodate this new information indicated how weakly he believed that I was to blame. Shock courses through me as I realize just how little I understood Charlie's mind. His anger, his thoughts – they were a deep pool I barely tapped into.

Charlie was fuming, still, unable to determine who to blame. But his anger was dissipating, leaving him exhausted and miserable without anger to mask it.

"Who the hell did this?" He demands weakly, his eyes shifting between me and Carlisle.

"I'm not sure either of us can answer that." Carlisle responds. "I don't think she does, either."

"Let me assure you, that in your search for her attacker, my children are innocent." Esme points a firm finger in Charlie's direction, clearly still livid. Carlisle touches Esme's back gently, reminding her that Charlie was not an enemy. He was a father, just as she was a mother.

Carlisle sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Esme," he murmurs under his breath. "I think he understands."

"Good." Esme snaps. If he even attempts. . . I swear I'll stop him myself. I'll stop any investigation myself.

"Did she say anything?"

Carlisle shakes his head, grimacing. "We had to sedate her early on. She was scared and disoriented – we weren't able to treat her. . . Charlie, she was given Rohypnol."

Charlie pales at the mention of the drug he had heard of so often. Sexual assault was a rare occurrence in Forks. In fact, most crime Charlie had dealt with was petty – break-ins or vandalism by high school delinquents and the occasional domestic dispute or speeding ticket. Even still, he understood the severity of Carlisle's words.

This had been planned. She had been picked. The attacker – the rapist – had gone to her home.

"I'm sorry." Charlie mumbles, collapsing into his chair. "I shouldn't have thrown around that accusation." Even if he did leave Bella comatose and cause her to run off to California with no more than a note.

"We all want to lay the blame on someone." I respond quietly. Esme nods, obviously seeing the benefit in peace.

"Jacob Black brought her here, Charlie." Carlisle says. "Did you know that?"

Charlie looks up, shock masking his thoughts. "No." Wonder why he didn't tell me. . . He hasn't even called. He pales suddenly, stuttering. "He didn't . . . He – He didn't do this?"

"No, no." Carlisle says, shaking his head. "He thought it was Edward."

"Oh." Charlie's relief is apparently in his expression.

"Charlie, can Esme and I talk with you in the hall?" Carlisle asks, gesturing to the hall. "It's important – about Bella's care."

Charlie looks from Carlisle to Esme, then to me. His eyes narrow at me.

Just wants some time alone with Bella. He huffs, finally nodding. He follows them out into the hall.

I breathe a sigh of relief, grateful that Charlie wasn't pressed about my involvement in this. He had been relatively easy to talk down, suggesting he really didn't believe it was me.

My legs carry me to the bed, and I stiffly sit besides her legs.

"I'm so sorry, Bella." I whisper, my fingers tracing the blurred edges of the bruise on her cheekbone. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to protect you."

My mind swirls back to the woods. Alice, mid-hunt, freezing as her vision clouds her instincts. The gasp of horror that escaped her mouth, pulling my attention to her thoughts. And then the ringing of her phone – incessantly. Emmett had yanked it from her pockets while she and I were trapped, watching the vision over and over again.

Bella crying, pleading, thrashing against hands that held her back. And Carlisle, his eyes darting from one injury to the next, realizing what had happened with a pure fury I had never seen him possess.

It was difficult to picture that Bella – screaming and panicking – when I was looking at this one – silent, still, and asleep. I couldn't imagine the immense pain she was in, and the additional pain she inadvertently put herself through by moving and jostling her injuries.

I touch her hand, covered in a thick cast. I don't know what bones she had broken in her hand. But the thought infuriated me. He had broken her bones. He had bruised her face. He had done the unimaginable.

I take another deep breath, eager to quell my anger with her scent. But I'm met with something entirely different. Her efflorescent aroma mixed with the scents of so many others. It was clear she had been given at least one blood transfusion, likely during surgery. Jacob Black's scent was present, too, though not as potent. Carlisle was right – Jacob had not done this. Despite my dislike for him, I felt a surprising sense of gratitude that Bella still had her friend.

But beneath that and the strong antiseptics, I could smell the scent of her attacker. The scent made my body pulse with rage. The scent was potent. It clung to her. Whoever had done this had succeeded in what they wanted with her.

I took a deep breath – memorizing this new scent instead of refreshing my memory of Bella's. I would never forget it, and, if I had to, I would spend the rest of my miserable existence finding the owner of it. From experience, I knew I was a dreadful tracker. But this demon harmed my mate, and they were going to suffer.

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