Author's Note: Thank you to BrierLynn03 for prereading this chapter!

Chapter 20 - Compromise (part 1)

Only minutes before Victoria drew her final breath, Alice sat perched on the arm of the couch in Edward and Bella's cottage, back in Forks, looking down at a sleeping Bella across the room on the floor.

It had taken the poor girl forever to go to sleep. Alice listened from the kitchen, with Esme, as her best friend sobbed like her heart was breaking, until she finally cried herself out.

And it was almost more than she could take.

Maybe Rosalie, for all her theatrics and superiority about it, was right. Maybe Alice and Edward had both crossed the line, taken things too far in their quest to keep Bella away from the wolf she considered a friend.

Bella certainly seemed to believe they had. She'd called herself their prisoner. She refused to even go near that bed Edward had bought her, and it didn't take a mindreader to understand why.

She resented it. She resented being held hostage and not allowed to leave or contact the outside world. She resented having her control taken from her — what little control she even had, after what Albert did to her.

And she resented the ones behind it, namely Alice and Edward at the moment. Maybe she even resented all of their entire family. It had certainly sounded that way.

Alice couldn't remember her human life. But in this one, she'd never had a best friend before, especially not a human. For all her enthusiasm about sleepovers and painting each other's nails and everything 'best friend', she had very little practical experience to go on. Now she had mucked it all up trying to get there through coercion, and her friend wasn't even speaking to her.

Even worse, Bella's future wasn't in any way concrete, at the moment.

Alice still had that horrible vision, every single day, of her future sister and best friend being attacked by Edward's lookalike in their meadow, as snow fell around them. But as for the girl's more immediate future, even that was hazy. Bella's decisions were as unstable as she was at the moment, and it made everything blurry.

Alice couldn't even say with certainty that Bella would ever forgive Edward. Or her.

Edward...

It was very close, now, to time for him to intercept Victoria. He would be slamming directly into her in the next few seconds, in fact.

Alice couldn't bear to check his future right then. It was too late to contact anyone in her family anyway, even if something had changed in the past thirty seconds, when she last checked all of their futures. They would all be too busy in pursuit to answer.

Edward's backup plan was risky. He would be isolated, coming at Victoria all by himself from the direction of Forks, while Carlisle and the others drove her back in his direction.

If they had missed something...if Victoria had even one member of her army out there for protection, especially that shield...

It could be disastrous for an unsuspecting Edward, isolated from the rest of the family with the enemy in between.

Like Alice's worries and alarm had seeped into the sleeping human girl in the room, Bella began to toss and turn, growing restless just as the deadline for Edward to get into position expired.

And then, suddenly, she was screaming. Bloodcurdling, heartrending shrieks of terror and pain, her arms coming up to cover her head as though she defended herself.

The same type of nightmares she'd had for months when Edward was gone, but...different, somehow. As though she was in a fight for her life.

As the Denalis burst into the room from outside to see what was happening, ready to go on the attack if needed, Bella's horrifying screams turned to words — at exactly the moment that Alice's eyes glassed over and she saw Victoria breaking free, Edward growling and swearing as he broke into pursuit...

Though agonized and sobbing, Bella's speech was clear enough to understand.

"Edward...NO! No! Don't do it! Come back!"

More visions filled Alice's mind, brief flashes. Running through the woods...Victoria in the lead...Jasper and Emmett flanking...Rosalie and Carlisle pushing...Edward bringing up the rear but quickly gaining ground, snarling and savage...

So they were back to the original plan now, though on different terrain. Victoria must have broken free of Edward after their initial skirmish. Somewhere many miles away, Edward was chasing Victoria toward an uncertain outcome. And in their cottage, in her sleep, his mate was screaming for him not to.

Alice moved to kneel at Bella's side, placed a hand on her shoulder. Then she looked up. Her eyes met Kate's, then Irina's, Carmen's — and finally Tanya's.

She found sympathy in all of them. All.

"I told you," Alice said quietly anyway. "She really is his mate."

"I'm sorry...come back. Please don't leave me," Bella sobbed.

"The poor thing," Carmen murmured as Esme sat down on Bella's other side, trying to soothe her. "Perhaps you should wake her up."

"Please don't," Bella was begging in her sleep. "Please don't go. Don't leave me. Edward!"

Esme lay down next to her, put her arm around her, shushing her and talking quietly to her. Maybe it was the cold of her touch, subconsciously feeling like Edward's. Maybe it was just heartbroken resignation, Bella's subconscious resigned to Edward leaving her yet again, as he did night after night in her tortured dreams. But some time later — at nearly the same moment that Alice gasped and cried out, "It's over! They got her!" — Bella settled back into a semi-restless sleep, with only the occasional whimper.

Alice's decision was made. Edward's presence wasn't really required for the trip into Seattle to observe Victoria's army.

It was sure as hell required there in that cottage. Bella needed him.

Alice may have failed her best friend a few different ways. But she could certainly make one phone call and get Bella's mate back for her before the sun came up.

No sooner than Edward had ignited a blazing fire, ensuring that every last piece of Victoria was safely being consumed by the flame, his phone started ringing.

When he saw the number — Alice — fresh terror shot through him.

Not again. He couldn't go through this twice in one night. He couldn't. If Bella had somehow taken off again...if he ended up having to kidnap her again and make her hate him all the more...

"What's wrong?" he answered, not bothering with a hello. "Please...please just tell me you still have her."

"She's fine," replied a subdued Alice, not really sounding like everything was so fine. "Sleeping. But Edward, I...I think she needs you. I think she really needs you to come home. Tonight."

"What happened?" he demanded, his muscles tightening with the renewed urge to run home as fast as possible. His high-speed pursuit of Victoria seemed to have finally expelled the last of Kate's residual power from his muscles. His body was his own again. "Alice, please..."

"Nightmare," Alice filled him in with just one word, and his guts twisted. He'd been afraid of that. It was one of the many reasons he hadn't wanted to leave Bella alone at her house to start with. "It happened just as you were fighting Victoria. It was like...almost like she was there with you. When Victoria broke free, she was begging you not to go, to come back and stay with her. And I think you should, right now. She said things to us tonight, Edward. Some really upsetting things."

He gripped the phone so tightly he nearly broke it. "What kinds of things?"

"Like believing she's a prisoner here. Or hating all of us when you were in Brazil, for not just telling her the truth about why you left. And she meant every word. She feels like it's our fault that Albert hurt her. All of us. She blames us all for what he did to her."

His sister sounded so utterly dejected about fighting with her best friend, that he didn't have the heart to point out that it was their fault — all of them, though mostly his own. He'd done enough damage to those he loved for one night, including Alice. He hadn't exactly been kind, the first time she called him that night, about her decision to wait hours to inform him when Bella went missing.

"I'm on my way."

"Good," Alice sighed with relief. He could hear Bella whimpering in her sleep in the background, a sound that damn near broke his heart. "Hurry," Alice pled.

There was little chance he would do anything else, after hearing that sound. He quickly filled Carlisle, Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie in. They all agreed his place was at Bella's side and that they could handle things in Seattle without him.

And then, for the second time that night, he was running back for Forks with all possible speed.

Before he was even close to the little cottage, the thoughts of the Denalis, outside keeping watch, clued Edward in to just how bad things had been there that night.

But perhaps at least some good had come out of it. Their earlier attitude toward Bella had taken a dramatic shift, especially Tanya's. Earlier, his extended family had gone so far as to question his belief that Bella even was his mate — right up until the moment that she started screaming in her sleep just as he engaged in battle.

That had left little doubt in anyone's mind that the two of them were inextricably linked. They all now felt some sympathy for the human girl trying her best to fit into their world, as well as for the obvious trauma she'd endured at the hands of Victoria and especially Albert.

Edward could never be glad for Bella having cried herself hopelessly to sleep, or screaming out for him in horrific night terrors. But without it, she might have been facing an uphill battle for acceptance with her new extended family, after their terrible first impression of her.

When he left her under their care, they had all believed her guilty, in effect, of cheating on him by defying his protective orders, especially to sneak off and visit a rival suitor with whom he had expressly forbidden contact. The fact that Bella would even want to defy such orders all but proved her infidelity, in their eyes. Why would a mated female want to spend hours alone with another male against her mate's wishes, anyway? It made no sense to them.

Edward didn't want to see it that way himself — as infidelity. He made a concerted effort not to, if only because he knew such thoughts would drive him to madness. But the Denalis' very strong opinions that his mate had been unfaithful made it very difficult to keep his head on straight, especially when she returned smelling so strongly of another man. She doesn't understand, he'd reminded himself continually as he ran alone through the woods after he left her that night, reminding himself again every time those feelings crept in.

And he knew she really didn't understand, at least not fully. Although it seemed at times that Bella developed more near-vampiric instincts by the day, there were still gaps in her understanding. She was still very much human — and of a more modern mindset than himself or any of his family. She felt loyalty to Jacob, and so she saw what she had done as being there for a loyal friend, regardless of that friend's feelings for her. It probably never occurred to her how a century-old vampire might see it.

As he finally neared home for the last time that night, determined to do absolutely anything it took to repair the damage he'd done to his mateship — even relax his stance regarding Jacob Black, if it came down to it — he picked bits and pieces of the night's events from the Denalis' minds while Eleazar was testing his identity.

But it was Alice he went to for the whole story.

"Show me," were his first, hushed words as he crossed the doorstep and came face-to-face with his sister inside.

But even before she could give him the replay, he faltered when his eyes found Bella — not in the bed he'd given her, but instead curled up in a tiny ball on the hard floor, in front of a roaring fire. Her face was tear-streaked and miserable, even in sleep.

"Jesus," he breathed. Alice certainly hadn't mentioned that on the phone. "Alice, what the hell happened here?"

She played it back for him in her mind — every single agonizing word, from Bella's harsh reaction to the bed, to her meltdown when Alice defended him about it, to her almost ridiculously absurd concerns about him and Tanya, and finally her nightmare and begging for him in her sleep.

God...if not for the nightmare, if not for the words she'd said in her sleep, pleading for him to stay, he would believe with all his heart that she hated him now. He would think the best thing he could do for her was turn around and walk back out that door.

Maybe I would just be normal and not jump out of my skin every time somebody touches me, even Edward! Especially Edward. Maybe I wouldn't have nightmares, and panic attacks, and...and fucking flashbacks with his face in them, because maybe none of this would have ever happened to me at all!

Those words she'd shouted at Alice, damning him for not telling her the truth about why he left from the very beginning, were going to linger in his mind for quite some time. He would find it very, very difficult to forget them.

Because she was right. Damn it all, despite every single effort he'd made to protect her and shelter her from the harsh realities of his world, concealing the truth from her had backfired on him at every single turn. She was right. He'd demanded nothing less than full transparency and truth from his mate — but he'd not offered the same.

"I just talked to Carlisle," Alice broke him from his self-castigation. "They're in Seattle. They have eyes on both Riley and Thomas, along with the rest of the army. None of them have realized yet that Victoria's not going to make it for her inspection. No sign of Albert anywhere, but if you'd like some time alone with Bella, it should be safe for tonight. We know the shield is nowhere around, so you would hear Albert coming in plenty of time to call us. We can all go to the main house and give you two some privacy, if you want."

The answer to that offer was yes. God, yes. He and Bella hadn't spent any time truly alone since the night Albert dumped Lacey's body in the cabin and they learned of the existence of the shield, making any measure of privacy dangerous. The constant hovering around them, while necessary, had only added more pressure to an already explosive situation.

"Thank you, Alice. For everything."

But she hesitated to leave. "What will you do now? About her and Jacob, I mean."

He shook his head, wincing. "I don't know yet. But it can't be more of this. Rosalie and Emmett were right. And so was Jasper, incidentally. I'm going to lose her respect completely if I keep this up. If I haven't already."

Alice reached out, squeezed his forearm. "I meant what I told her. You are trying. She knows it too, Edward. She'll forgive you. She'll forgive all of us. Won't she?"

He didn't have any answers for his worried sister. Alice could read the future, after all. If she didn't know the answer herself, how was he supposed to?

But when Alice, Esme, and the Denalis quietly vacated the premises, Edward was still considering that question.

"I hope so," he whispered to himself finally, long after they were gone, his eyes focused longingly on his sleeping mate.

Half an hour of relative silence passed, aside from the sound of Bella's occasional whimper. Edward now leaned against the door, observing her from a distance. He had already made up his mind three separate times to approach her, to wake her, to let her know he was back — and then promptly lost his nerve, every single time.

He really didn't have the heart to wake her up right then. Or the guts either, for that matter.

Her harsh words to Alice about him played back through his mind — "Make what easy for me? Being a prisoner?"..."What he thinks is best"..."You don't think I doubted it when he left me for seven months, without explanation?"

But right behind those memories, he saw her in his mind's eye, panicking in her sleep, begging for him to stay with her.

Which was he to believe? The conscious Bella that resented and maybe even feared him now, after his angry, aggressive behavior in her bedroom? Or the subconscious Bella who desperately craved his presence?

Was it maybe a little of both? Was that even possible?

He sighed, gave it up. He'd spent the better part of a century trying to reconcile his own juxtaposition of man versus monster, mostly without success. His qualifications to solve the riddle of Bella's duality were questionable at best.

He tilted his head, looking at the warm, comfortable bed across the room, and then back at Bella sleeping on the floor.

And finally, what it all boiled down to was that he just couldn't take it anymore. She could be mad at him in comfort just as easily as she could be mad at him on the cold, hard floor — soft rug or not.

Decision made, he moved immediately to her side and bent to scoop her up into his arms. But at the last moment, he thought better of it. He knelt and put a hand lightly on her shoulder, instead.

"I'm home," he spoke gently, and those words clenched his heart in a vise. For likely the first time in his second life, that phrase really meant something. "I'm just going to put you to bed, okay?"

Her lips turned up slightly, a tiny smile fluttering across her face in her sleep. She gave a quiet hum of contentment, her expression settling into a far more peaceful one than she'd worn since he arrived. And why? Just because she heard his voice.

His guts clenched. Jesus, if this woman really understood the hold she held on his heart...if she had any idea what it did to him when she did things like that...

"Come here, Bella," he whispered. His arms slid beneath her back and knees, lifting her up and cradling her against his chest.

She shifted, her head lolling onto his shoulder, her body recognizing him and immediately curling into him — like she recognized his scent. That welcome warmed him from the inside out, starting up an immediate purr in his chest. Maybe she was angry with him, and he definitely deserved it. But she still loved him.

But her conscious mind had a much different reaction than her subconscious one. When he was halfway from the fireplace to the bed, walking slowly to savor the feel of his mate in his arms again, safe and soft and so warm, her eyes slowly opened as she awakened.

It almost seemed to happen in slow motion. She slowly focused on his face, and confusion knit her brows together. Her sleepy eyes looked around enough to realize she was up in his grasp, being carried — and where she was being carried to.

"Shhhh, Bella, go back to sleep," he murmured. "I've got you."

And that was the exact moment that all hell broke loose.

Her eyes widened in sudden terror, her body stiffening. She tried to throw herself right out of his arms, swinging and kicking, and it was a damn good thing he had superhuman strength or he wouldn't have been able to hold onto her.

Worst were her screams as she fought. She was terrified.

She thought he was Albert, he realized with horror. He had told her he wouldn't be back for at least another day — and then she woke to find herself in the grip of a man identical to the monster who'd attacked her.

"No! No! Edward, help!" she screamed, and his heart broke. Her first impulse was to scream his name for help, even knowing he couldn't possibly be close enough to hear. "Alice! Alice! He's here! No! Put me down, you asshole!"

"Bella, it's me! It's me!"

He'd never seen Bella fight like that. Her arms flailed wildly, hitting at him blindly. He couldn't read her mind, so he was at something of a disadvantage in keeping his rock-hard face out of the way of her fragile hands.

He missed one of her swings coming at him. That would never have happened with anyone else on the planet, mortal or immortal, but he couldn't know what she was about to do and he just had too much going on at one time — mostly trying to hang onto his mate and somehow allay her utter terror at the same time.

"It's me!" He was telling her desperately, over and over. "It's me! Baby, it's me!"

He heard the sickening crack of bone before he registered the barely-there feel of her swinging hand making contact with his chin. It was closely followed by a shrill cry of pain, though she didn't stop trying to fight him for even an instant.

He put her legs down, holding her standing up with her back against his chest, so that he could get hold of her wrists with his arms around her body and keep her from doing any more damage to herself. He didn't even know yet what she'd broken.

But his restraining her only made her scream louder and start swinging her legs. Her tender foot crashing into his hard shins was only going to hurt her more, and she wasn't hearing his desperate pleas. She was too busy fighting for her life, convinced that Albert had finally come for her in her sleep.

"Edward! Help me! Alice!" She still screamed for him first. And it was destroying him.

"Bella, it's just me!" he pled into her ear. "I'm not going to hurt you. Please..."

Her legs kicked wildly, and he only narrowly managed to dodge her swinging heel as it flew back toward his shin.

He went down backwards and took them both to the floor in a sitting position, her between his legs, absorbing the impact himself. He wrapped his legs around hers as soon as he landed, immobilizing them so that she couldn't break her foot the way she'd already broken something in her hand. He kept careful hold of her wrists so that she couldn't bump the injured limb into anything.

And once he had her contained physically, he put everything he had into breaking her free of the horror that held her in its grip.

"It's only me, Bella. Shhhh...easy. I've got you. Come on, sweetheart, it's just me." His forehead dropped to her shoulder, eyes squeezed shut, praying to any god that might hear him that he would find the right combination of words and that she would just stop and listen. "I won't hurt you. Please, Bella, stop. It's me."

"Alice, help me!" Bella was still screaming over him, struggling hard in his gentle but iron grip. "Edward...Alice...help!"

The door slammed open and Alice appeared out of nowhere, coming up in front of Bella and kneeling straddled across both of their legs, so that Bella's body was sandwiched between her and Edward. She took Bella's face in her tiny but strong hands and got close.

"Bella, look at me," Alice commanded. Bella had her eyes squeezed shut with terror as she fought. "Look at me. It's only Edward. He came back early. I promise, Bella, it's him. Calm down. It's only Edward."

Her arms still struggled against Edward's grip, but Bella opened her eyes. She startled when she saw Alice directly in her face. She instinctively jerked backward, but came up against the barrier of Edward's hard chest behind her.

"Alice?" she asked breathlessly, eyes looking around wildly, like she almost couldn't believe she was safe. Then her whole body shuddered, her wrists trying to pull away again. "Alice, it was him! He's here." Her voice was full of horror.

"No, he isn't," Alice soothed. "Edward's here. He picked you up off the floor. He's the one holding you. I promise you, it's only Edward. I asked him to come home, and Eleazar tested him when he got here. It's him, Bella."

All the fight went out of Bella as abruptly as it started. Her body went almost completely limp, in fact, with relief. Edward relaxed his arms around her with equal relief, letting go of her uninjured hand. But he didn't let go of her left wrist — the hand on which he could very clearly see that her pinky finger was injured, from where it had slammed hard into his face.

Alice let her go too, and Bella used her newfound freedom to twist and look back over her shoulder, right into Edward's guilty eyes, searching his face for herself.

"It's me," he confirmed quietly. He hated himself way too much at the moment to say more.

Bella exhaled, slow and shaky, eyes darting once again to Alice — who rose to her feet, allowing Edward to release his hold on Bella's legs.

Bella's gaze quickly returned to Edward, over her shoulder. "You're home early," she stated shakily, almost like that was a good thing. She took a closer look at him, and worry filled her eyes at what she saw there. "I didn't know it was you," she apologized, still shaky. She sounded horrified. "You weren't supposed to be here. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Edward."

If the fact that he had just terrorized his mate and broken her finger wasn't enough to drive him over the edge, her apologizing to him for it was going to finish the job.

"You're hurt," was his reply, his voice like gravel. He came out from behind her, moving to kneel at her side, never releasing her wrist. His other hand carefully examined her pinky, gently probing. When she winced, he did too. "This is broken," he pointed out flatly. Needlessly. The immediate bruising and swelling made the break pretty damn obvious to anyone, even without the near useless medical degrees he'd only ever used to patch up damage to his mate, usually damage she'd suffered because of him.

He gently wrapped his hand around her fingers, using his icy temperature like a cold-pack and holding her hand up above the level of her heart to keep the swelling down. "Alice, I have a first-aid kit in the library closet. Could you bring it, please?"

"Of course." His sister disappeared and reappeared almost instantly. She was eyeing him with almost as much concern as Bella was.

Bella's scrutiny, at least, was drawn away by the massive suitcase Alice set down beside her. "That's your first-aid kit?" she asked, as he opened it with one hand. Her voice was still shaking. "Edward, where did you get all this?"

He knew she was worried about his reaction to her being hurt, that she was desperately trying to act normal, to pretend everything was fine and calm him down. He just wasn't in the mood to be let off the hook, not when Bella's entire body was still shaking from the absolute terror he'd just put her through. Not when the only reason she even knew that first-aid kit existed to question him about it in the first place was that he had managed to injure her yet again.

It wasn't so much a first-aid kit, anyway, as it was a portable Bella hospital. It was the very first personal item he had sent to the cottage, right in the very beginning when they began working. He couldn't have known how she would be hurt. The only certainty in his life seemed to be that so long as Bella was near him, she would be hurt. Over and over.

He found a small case of finger splints in the neatly organized collection of supplies, selected the appropriate size.

"I had Carlisle put it together for me," he finally answered her quietly, keeping his eyes on what he was doing. "I gave him a list. Alice, could you bring her some water, please?"

Alice was putting a glass of water in Bella's uninjured hand only a few seconds later.

"Here," Edward offered, handing her a couple of painkillers to swallow, after choosing one of many little bottles in the suitcase. She accepted the offered pills without so much as questioning him what they were, quickly swallowing them. That show of obvious trust only cut deeper into his heart.

At the same time, even her good hand still shook so hard that Alice had to steady the glass for her.

"I have to splint this," he told her, tonelessly. He could scarcely bear to look at her. "I can give you an anesthetic injection, if you'd like."

"No, I'll be okay." Bella was watching him intently. "Edward, listen..." she tried.

But he cut her off abruptly. "Let me take care of your finger first." He needed all his mental faculties about himself. Causing Bella even the slightest amount of pain made him feel almost sick to his stomach, regardless of the physical impossibility of such a feeling for him. But Carlisle wasn't back yet, and Edward was the only other one medically qualified to do it, so he was just going to have to vampire up and do it himself.

As though he would have let anyone else touch her at the moment anyway, including Carlisle. This was his mate that was hurt. He would have been a snarling, growling mess.

He got her finger straightened out and immobilized in a splint, hyperaware of Bella's most minute reaction. She clenched her teeth and stubbornly suppressed even the slightest sound, refusing to gasp or cry out despite the pain she surely felt in the process. She was barely daring to breathe.

That didn't really help. It only made him feel worse that she felt the need to hide her pain from him.

It meant that she knew, just like he did, exactly who was to blame.

"Are you okay?" she tentatively asked him when he was done, as he was painstakingly double-checking that everything was secure and not cutting off her circulation. He already knew it was perfect. It just gave him a good excuse to avoid her eyes for a little longer.

He grit his teeth, because one, it should be him asking her that question; and two, no, he really wasn't okay. This was fucking killing him. He had broken one of her bones.

"I'm not the one who's hurt, Bella." He'd rather that hadn't come out with a growl, but there wasn't much use hiding it. She clearly already knew he was upset.

But it was the wrong thing to say — the way wrong thing to say. Her face went white, her lips parting on a panicked gasp. Her good hand shot out and gripped his forearm. "Oh, no. No. No. Edward, who? Your dad? Emmett? Oh my God, this is all my fault."

Jesus Christ, was he ever going to stop making things worse?

He caught her wrist and held up her splinted hand in illustration, not as gently as he should have. "I meant you. You're hurt. Again. And it's all my fault. Again. The rest of us are fine. It went off without a hitch, just like I told you it would."

Bella's eyes squeezed shut, her head briefly dropping in relief. She didn't let go of his arm. "So you're all okay? Did you...did you find her?"

He relented, gave her more details than he'd planned. She seemed to want them. He trained his eyes carefully on her splinted finger, a visual reminder of every single fuck-up he'd made since he met her. He pretended to still be adjusting it, though he barely touched it. She didn't notice, her attention intently fixed on his face.

"We had to change the plan after your visit to La Push. Things didn't quite go according to the new plan. Victoria got away from me at first, and she led us on a chase nearly to Canada. But there were just too many of us for even her skills at evasion. Jasper and Emmett were able to flank her and push her in the direction we wanted. Carlisle and Rose ran alongside and cut her off every time she tried to veer off. She still could have outrun the rest of them, eventually, but not me."

He forced himself to look up, to meet his mate's eyes for the most important part. She didn't have to know how dangerous it had really been.

"Victoria's dead, Bella. She'll never hurt you or anyone else again. We have a possible location on Albert, but we're not taking any chances. I'm going after the shield first, then Victoria's second-in-command Riley, and then Albert last, when we know he won't have any backup. The army should fall apart on its own once its leaders are gone, but we'll intervene if we have to. If we don't, the Volturi might. And I don't want them within a hundred miles of you. I've endangered you enough as it is."

She was inching closer to him, and part of him wanted to pull away. How could she possibly want him to touch her? But comforting her was too ingrained. She still gripped his forearm with her good hand, with all of her might. Her knuckles were going white. So he flipped his hand over, slid his arm down through her fingers until their palms met, and threaded their fingers together tightly.

He was distantly aware of Alice quietly slipping out the front door to give them privacy now that the crisis was over, shielding her thoughts. He wanted to yell for her to come back, to help protect Bella...from himself and all the misery he continually caused her.

"You're the one who killed her?" Bella was asking him, concern etched into her features.

"Without a single reservation," he assured her, because he saw the apology already forming in her eyes that he'd had to kill for her yet again, and he wasn't going to let her make that apology. Especially not when he'd enjoyed eliminating one of the many threats against his mate. He'd found it absolutely exhilarating, to be perfectly truthful — the only good thing that had happened to him all night.

"And you're not hurt?" Bella verified again, eyes running all over him, checking him for injury.

Her concern was like a knife stabbing in his heart.

"Bella, would you please stop worrying about me? I'm fine. You're justifiably furious with me, remember? For kidnapping you and having my family hold you hostage?" It was a ridiculous thing to say. But he'd feel a lot better if she would just tear into him and let him have it for at least some of his sins against her, even if she'd never admit her broken finger was his fault.

But her lip started trembling. Her adrenaline was wearing off, and she looked ready to crash. "Can I be mad at you tomorrow?" she asked, voice breaking on the last word and tears starting to brim in her eyes. "I think...I think I need to work up to it."

And that was all it took to get over himself.

Hadn't he promised her they were both done running from each other? That applied to him, too, not just to her. His mate, his responsibility. So long as she wanted him close, that's what she would have.

If she could save her anger for later, he could hate himself later too.

"Come here." He let go of her hand, only to curl his arm around her waist and pull her firmly into his lap. She immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face in his shoulder with a whimper. He could feel the metal of her splint resting against his shoulder-blade, and it caused another twinge of guilt as he gently put his arms around her. "Forgive me, Bella, please," he spoke quietly, hating the way his voice shook. "For...pretty much everything."

She didn't answer, at least verbally. She did hold him more tightly, snuggle into him a little deeper, nodding her reply into his neck in a way that made him melt.

It wasn't very long until Bella's breathing started to even out, her body relaxing, and Edward decided she'd been on the floor long enough for one night.

"Where are you going?" she asked, startled, when he made a move to stand up with her. Her arms clutched his neck nervously, like she feared he was leaving her again. He tightened his grip as much as he dared, reassuringly.

"Nowhere, without you. I'm just going to get you off the floor," he promised as he pushed up easily to his feet, clutching her to his chest. "You need to get some more rest, and you're not doing it on the ground this time. I'm putting you to bed."

He expected an argument, despite the hint of authority in his tone, especially given her earlier angry reaction to the bed he'd bought her.

He didn't get one.

"Okay." She still had her face buried in the junction of his neck and shoulder, pressed up against his neck. It sent a shiver down his spine when her lips moved against him sensually as she spoke, her arms still clinging to him. "As long as you come with me."

His step faltered, though not so noticeably that it would be perceptible to Bella's senses.

Getting in with her really wasn't the plan, nor was it probably a good idea. He felt a little too needy for her, a little too desperate for her touch, to be sharing a bed with her at the moment. All he'd wanted all night — desperately — was her, safe in his arms. But now that he had her there, it still wasn't enough. He only wanted more.

He wanted things he shouldn't want. Things that would reassure him Bella was his and his alone, that their bond was whole and intact.

Things that were impossible for them, especially now, after what that godforsaken monster had done to her — a point that had been driven home pretty clearly only a few minutes earlier, when he tried to pick her up in her sleep.

When he bought that bed he was carrying her toward, he truly intended it only for her, only for sleeping, and only when he was gone. He hadn't missed the transparent nervousness she'd shown about the master bedroom when he brought her there to give her the deed to the cottage. He'd painfully understood exactly what she feared might be on the other side of that door, and he'd seen her relief when it wasn't there. He fully intended to be very respectful of those fears.

It was the whole reason the new bed was in the living room to start with. He had wanted to minimize the chances of upsetting her with it, as much as he possibly could. And he'd meant his promise that the bedroom was for her alone, to furnish as she pleased.

So despite her invitation, he set her down gently on top of the bed and prepared to back away. He allowed himself a small kiss to her forehead as he let go, determined to keep his hands and his lips to himself, otherwise.

"I'll be right here watching over you," he promised against her skin. "Sleep."

But Bella had other plans. If he ever wrote a memoir about his life as a vampire helplessly in love with a stubborn human, that would likely be the title.

"No," she gasped. "Stay with me." She held on tightly, foiling his attempt to swiftly extricate himself and stop towering over her in the bed. Her heart raced with panic, but he knew it had nothing to do with his presence. She just didn't want him to leave her there alone.

He sighed, quickly considering his options. In the past, he might have tried to expound upon the moral differences between them sharing a bed in either of their parents' occupied houses, as opposed to one in their future home, alone. But he really didn't feel like it, at the moment. No one from this century was probably going to see things his way anyway, especially not Bella.

His mate needed him, and that was all that mattered.

So he gave up on trying to pry himself loose. Instead, he just picked her right back up, moved himself to the middle of the bed, and sat down crosslegged, with her in his lap again. She practically melted into him, relaxing into his embrace, and he knew he had made the right decision.

Maybe she just needed him close too, just like he needed her. Maybe he could do this, stay just as long as he was welcome, and then remove himself. She didn't have to know the sheer desperation he felt to kiss her, touch her, just assure himself she was still his. That would be his burden to bear. Silently.

He ran his fingers up and down the length of her back, trying to soothe her. "I wasn't expecting this type of welcome home," he remarked. "Although I'm certainly not complaining." He gave in to the longing, pulled her a little closer. "I'd happily give up the ability to read every mind on this earth, if I could only read yours."

He wasn't really expecting her to actually volunteer her thoughts. Nor was he prepared for them.

"I was wondering if you're still mad at me," she offered, timidly, as though she almost hoped he didn't hear it.

His arms restricted around her automatically, and he had to make a conscious effort to keep from squeezing her as fiercely as he wanted — which would be utterly disastrous.

"God, sweetheart, no." A harsh exhalation shot out of him, one of disbelief and wonderment. "No, I'm not still mad at you. I never should have been in the first place. To be perfectly honest, I can scarcely believe you're even letting me touch you right now."

So it had been even worse than he knew. When he left her there at their cottage, essentially as a captive, he'd done so with her fully believing that he was mad at her. He had made an effort to make things right before he left, but really, what was she supposed to believe after the way he'd spoken to her in her room? Remorse filled him. God, how he could have done that to her, knowing, as he did, her abandonment fears with him? What if something had happened to him before he got the chance to really make things right?

A chance he now had.

He held her close as he searched for the right words, pressing his nose into her hair and inhaling her sweet scent.

The scent of pure, lovely Bella was stronger now, the stink of dog having somewhat dissipated as she tossed and turned through the night. The urge to replace the last traces of it with his own scent once again welled up within him. He ignored it, took another deep breath and just filled his lungs with Bella.

But when he breathed her in the second time, she noticed it. And she sat bolt upright in his lap, clutching at his shirt, her face distressed as she pulled back to look at him.

"It's just his coat," she blurted out, confusingly, because she was definitely not wearing a coat. She still had on the same clothes she'd worn to La Push. There had been nothing in her bathroom to change into, and he hadn't given her the chance to change in her room before he kidnapped her.

"What?" he asked, the picture of confusion.

Her eyes searched his, full of worry. "Jacob. I wanted to tell you earlier, but I didn't figure it out until after you left. You could smell him on me tonight, right?"

And still could. All over her. Her entire torso, front and back, at least on her clothes. Her hair. Her face and neck...

The implication of that slammed into him all over again, with no less force than the first time. Edward frowned, pressed his lips together, didn't confirm or deny anything. But that scent on her got there somehow, through some type of contact with it. Extended contact. He wouldn't let her see how much that hurt, both now and when he first discovered it.

He simply wasn't going to do this. He wasn't going to interrogate his mate like a criminal, regardless of how that smell got there. The details didn't matter. She was here with him now, and she obviously wanted to be. Why give her reason not to, by pursuing something that might only hurt them both — especially when he wasn't sure he really wanted to know anyway?

One thing he did know: he was done trying to forbid all contact with Jacob, starting at that moment. Or at least, he was done forbidding contact that fell within the bounds of a few safety precautions. Any restrictions he placed on her, from that moment forward, would be motivated by her safety only; not by his jealousy. To take it farther than that would only cause her to rebel, drive her closer to Jacob and farther away from himself, just as it had done that night.

"You don't owe me explanations, Bella," he forced himself to reply — some of the most difficult words he'd said in his existence. "I've only managed to drive a wedge between us in trying to keep you away from him, and I'm not going to let that happen anymore. I refuse to lose you over this, or anything else, for that matter. So anything that happened tonight, I'll hold myself responsible for driving you to it."

She only huffed, frustrated. "No! Will you just listen to me? That's what I'm trying to tell you. Nothing happened. My coat was locked in Charlie's cruiser when Jacob and I decided to walk down to the beach to talk, so he went to his room and got his for me. He told me to just keep it. He doesn't get cold anymore or something, apparently. I don't know. But it wasn't from...I mean, Jacob didn't, like, touch me or anything. I wouldn't have let him. I mean, he hugged me when I left. But Charlie was standing right there, and that was it. I swear."

Whether he would have demanded an explanation or not, Edward couldn't hide his relief at the one she gave him.

She had been wrapped in Jacob's coat all evening, not his arms. That alone was immeasurably reassuring, if still somewhat revolting.

It also ignited a flare of annoyance in him, though not with her. Jacob had known exactly what he was doing.

For the smell to be that potent, he'd worn the coat recently — very recently. No doubt the dog had either put it on or rubbed it all over himself just before he gave it to her, re-saturating it in his stink. He'd probably breathed all over her as he hugged her goodbye, too, to get his stench in her hair and on her face, her neck. And there was no question he'd done all of that solely to mess with Edward's head, knowing he would be able to smell him on her.

Even worse, it had worked. Edward had fallen for it, nearly losing his damn mind in the process, and crossing so many lines...

And in the process, Bella had been put in the position of vehemently defending Jacob, driving even more of a wedge between them.

No more. He was done being played. This was certainly no game to him, but it obviously was to Jacob — a game that had Edward's entire eternity riding on it.

If he was going to be forced to play, it was going to be by his own rules. And he was going to win.

But Bella wasn't his opponent, he would remember from that moment forward, nor was she some prize. No, his opponent was Jacob, and there were no holds barred. If he had to fight for his Bella, he had no qualms about fighting dirty.

Bella, he well knew, would come to the defense of whoever she believed to be the aggrieved party — especially if that party was himself. He just wouldn't give her any reason to defend Jacob anymore.

Jacob, on the other hand, while he might be smart and cunning, didn't have Edward's patience for the slow game. Given enough rope, the mutt would eventually hang himself, show his true colors and disparage Edward and the entire Cullen family in his frustration. And Bella would come to her mate's defense, with every bit of the passion she'd originally come to Jacob's.

Game on, manipulative pup. Starting now.

"I believe you, Bella. In fact, I want to talk to you about this. I'd like to propose a compromise, of sorts."

"A compromise?" she repeated, obviously surprised at that turn of events. "What kind of compromise?"

She fidgeted in his lap nervously, and it was more than a little distracting. Perhaps it was a bit primal and feral of him, but he was a vampire, after all. The prospect of doing battle for possession of his mate — a battle he fully intended to win — had him a little keyed up. All of him. Especially when Bella was unknowingly providing friction in exactly the right places.

Yeah, even if she noticed, he wasn't attempting to explain that one. Honesty and transparency could only go so far. Bella would think him a barbarian if he explained it truthfully, and she wouldn't be far off track.

"Just hear me out," he warned, as his compromise continued to form in his mind. "First, you should know that Alice can't see you when you're with the wolves. They blind her vision completely. I suppose you understand how that might make me unbearably anxious, when your future disappears? As it did tonight, for several hours, I might add."

Her hands tightened on the nape of his neck. "I didn't know that." Tears filled up her eyes — guilty tears. "So that's why you tried so hard to come get me. Oh, Edward, I'm so sorry. I thought Alice would be able to see I was fine and tell you when I was coming back."

He bent his head, softly kissed her lips. Then he gentled his tone. "This is not about assigning blame, love. I simply want you to have all the facts, something I should have done a long time ago."

He bit back a groan when she adjusted her weight again, trying to get comfortable.

"Okay. I'm listening."

While being perfectly still, he sincerely hoped.

"Myself and my family are not allowed in La Push, as you know. Even if Albert approached you there, I would be breaking the treaty if I set one foot across that border to rescue you. Which I would, without a moment's hesitation. But the wolves themselves, whether you believe this or not, do represent a threat to your safety as well. One of them alone — Jacob, for example — might be a relatively small risk. But their numbers in La Push are multiplying rapidly, and the younger they are, the less control they have."

Bella was frowning now. "I'm not really hearing a compromise in there." She sounded a little defensive and wary already, so he rushed to clarify.

"You talk to Jacob over the phone, as much and as often as you wish, and I won't say a word. If you really must visit him, he can come to this side of the line, without the other wolves present. As long as either myself or one of my family can remain close enough to verify that you're safe — from a distance and out of sight, of course — and so long as we're able to reach you quickly if you need help, I can bear it. I might not like it, Bella, but I can bear it."

She nodded slowly. "And in return? What am I giving up?"

"You don't go into La Push again. Not one foot into La Push." She opened her mouth to say something, and he quickly amended. "At least until I take Albert out. And then we can...renegotiate."

He sincerely hoped that not long after that happened and she was out of danger, Bella's emotional healing would begin rapidly progressing to the point he felt comfortable changing her, making any relationship with Jacob Black a moot point. But he wasn't about to point out that this deal had a time expiry on it.

Bella's bottom lip disappeared between her teeth, worrying it back and forth as she considered his offer. "So I'd still be forbidden to go to La Push?" she challenged, and he winced at the acid in her tone.

If he was to be perfectly honest, the answer to that question was yes — because he would do literally anything to prevent it, regardless of any deal they struck or didn't strike. But that word 'forbid' was clearly a major sticking point for her, something it would behoove him to remember in the future.

There were more diplomatic ways to get what he wanted, with the same effect.

"I would really rather you didn't," he said carefully. "Of course, I'd much rather you not see him at all, and I'm perfectly capable of enforcing that if I so chose. But I suppose that's why they call it compromise. We each give up something that we want, to achieve peace."

Bella's mood softened noticeably, pacified by his response. "So you'd really let me talk to Jacob whenever I want? And you wouldn't complain about it, or...or call him names?"

Jeez, when did he agree to all of that? He sighed longsufferingly. Any type of deal with Bella had the tendency to multiply exponentially, and not in his favor. This was hardly new information.

"I don't recall negotiating that final term, but if you'll agree to stay out of La Push for the foreseeable future? Then yes. Do we have a deal?"

Whatever gnawing, foreboding feeling he felt in the pit of his gut at freely allowing his mate to spend time with another man — a goddamn wolf — it was almost worth it for the adoring way Bella looked up at him.

Almost.

"Deal," she whispered, her gaze dropping to his mouth.

It was worth it, when she grabbed his face between her hands, splint and all, and desperately pulled his mouth to hers.

TO BE CONTINUED...