A/N: Here is the last regular chapter. I will do all the thanking stuff in the next chapter because you don't care what I have to say now. Disclaimer, seatbelts, off you go!

When I die, I'll die with my mercy And when she cries, I'll cry with her And in my life, see I've loved an angel My mercy eternal to me We are love, we are made of many We are two, we are made of few You've taken my life and left me to blame You will never understand the shame I will die for my mercy can't you see, eternally- My Mercy by Coal Chamber

Alice POV

I watched as Bella rushed off the stage and headed towards the bathroom. When I stood up to follow her, Rose stopped me with a hand firmly gripping my arm.

"Give her a minute, Ali."

"What was that all about?" Emmett asked. He was on edge because he hated seeing Bella upset.

"It was about Riley, Em. That much was obvious." Rose smiled at him.

We were mostly quiet while we waited for Bella to come back. After some time had passed, Edward finally brought up the obvious. "It's been too long. She's been gone twenty minutes."

Rose and I went to the women's bathroom, and Bella was nowhere to be seen. On the way back to our table, we passed the fire exit and saw that the door was cracked open. We looked at each other, and I pushed the door all the way open.

I took a few tentative steps into the dark alley, and the first thing I saw was Riley sprawled on the ground in a heap. Blood ran from several cuts on his face, and his body was absolutely still. My stomach dropped into my knees as I crept past his prone form, and I knew what was coming before I actually witnessed it with my own eyes. Bella was also motionless on the hard ground.

"Bella!" I yelled. "Go get the guys and call an ambulance." I flung back at Rose.

She ran back inside, and I knelt down by my friend. I felt for a pulse with shaking fingers, thankful when I finally found one. Bella had a bloody lip, nose, and a black eye. Her wrist looked like it was bent at an awkward angle. I tensed when I heard footsteps rushing towards me. Jazz pulled me into his arms, and I lost it.

"Holy shit!" I heard Emmett say from somewhere behind me.

"Bella?" I knew that was Edward's voice, and he was crying. Edward knew that this scenario was possible, but it didn't hurt any less by seeing it come true.

"Ambulance is on its way," Rose said as tears spilled down her cheeks. "Is she alive?"

I turned around to look back at my broken best friend. Edward was kneeling next to her.

"She's alive. Her wrist is broken and she probably has a fractured cheekbone, but she could have more injuries." He stroked her hair and whispered to her.

Rose and I looked at each other; the worried expression on my face was mirrored in hers.

"At least the scumbag wasn't able to get away before the police show up. He's finally been caught," she hissed.

"Finally."

Two ambulances arrived and the paramedics quickly moved Riley and Bella onto stretchers. It was a matter of minutes before they were loaded into their ambulances and transported to the hospital. We all followed them in complete silence and huddled in the emergency room waiting area to hear from the doctor. Luckily it didn't take long. Rose had called Charlie and told him to wait until the morning to come to the hospital because it was a long drive. He had refused at first, but she promised to call him with any news from the doctor and as soon as Bella woke up.

"Is anyone immediate family?"

"No, her dad is in Forks."

"I'm her fiancée," Edward said.

"Okay, can we sit?" We all followed the doctor to the chairs and sat down.

"Is she alright?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"She's stable, but she has quite a few injuries. Her wrist is broken, her right cheekbone is fractured. She has a lot of bruises and some broken ribs. She is still unconscious. Does anyone know what happened?"

"We found her and Riley in the alley passed out. They were in a physical altercation, I think," I told the doctor.

"That's good to know. The police are here and have been guarding his room, so we'll make sure to keep him away from her."

"Thank you."

"Well, she'll have some healing to do, but she will be fine. She'll pull through."

"Can we see her?"

"Yes, but we can only do two at time." We all looked around at each other, silently trying to decide who would pair up and go first.

Edward was the first to speak. "Ali, you and Jazz can go. Then Em and Rose, I'll go last by myself." We all nodded, and Jazz and I followed the doctor back to Bella's room.

Edward POV

I wanted to go back and see Bella first, but she was still unconscious. I could gauge how bad it was by Ali and Jazz's expressions when they came back from her room. Ali and I had known something was going to happen, but I never imagined it would be this bad. I was so glad that Riley was caught this time. He was on probation and being at a bar was illegal. Not to mention the fact that he'd assaulted Bella again.

Rose was talking to Charlie on the cell phone, letting him know how Bella was. In an earlier conversation with Charlie, he told us that he had found out the terms of Riley's probation. Rose ended the current phone call.

"That never gets any easier. He's coming down first thing in the morning," she advised me.

"Hopefully she's awake by then."

Ali and Jazz came out to the waiting room, and Rose and Em were ushered back to Bella's room.

Ali's eyes were red and puffy. "It looks worse than it actually is, just so you know," Ali said while looking right at me.

I gave her a brotherly hug and held her for a minute. During my time with Bella, Alice and I had become really good friends. I let her go and Jazz sat down with her, holding her hand. I resumed my pacing.

"Edward, please come sit down. She really is going to be okay. Riley can't touch her now."

I sat next to Jazz "Charlie told us the terms of Riley's probation. He's going back to jail," I announced.

"What were the terms?" Alice looked hesitant.

"Well, he's not supposed to be at a bar, so he's screwed right there. He assaulted Bella, again. More interesting though, is that he is not even supposed to be in Seattle or within one hundred feet of her, or even have any contact with her."

"Looks like he broke every single rule. God, he used to be so normal. He was actually a pretty nice guy at one time. They were friends for three years; she met him right after she tried to live with her mom, which was junior year," Alice advised me.

"People change, I guess. Maybe he snapped when he was in jail." Jazz finally contributed to the conversation, and Alice just nodded at this. We sat in silence until Em and Rose came out of Bella's hospital room.

"She's awake, and she's asking for you, Edward," Rose said through obvious tears.

I followed the nurse to Bella's room. I almost cried out when I saw her lying in the bed. She had bruises all over her body and her wrist was in a cast. She was hooked to a few machines that monitored her vital signs and she also had an IV attached to her arm. Alice was right, it looked bad.

Bella saw me in the doorway and gave me a small smile. "Guess I lost."

"Bella…"

"Edward, don't. I can make a joke. It's my way of dealing."

"This isn't a joke though, Bella. You're in the hospital."

"Did he get away?"

"No, he's here too." I saw the fear in her eyes. "He's being monitored by the police, he's in big trouble. Don't worry, love." She nodded. "Your dad is coming in the morning."

"Oh, God, who told him?"

"Rose. She had to because he missed a call from the Seattle hospital. After he couldn't get a hold of you or Ali, he was frantic and called her."

She sighed and covered her eyes with her hand and started to cry. I was by her side and gathered her in a gentle hug almost immediately.

"Bella?"

"I could have died, he wanted to kill me! He saw my ring and he just lost it. I was so scared, Edward. I still am."

"Bella, love, it's okay now. He's going back to jail. That is why the cops are standing guard outside his room. Part of his parole was he wasn't allowed to be in Seattle, and he was not permitted to contact you in any way. He will be put away for a long time. It's over, Bella. What happened tonight, love?"

"It's a story I only want to tell one time, and I've already learned my lesson by keeping things from my friends. I'll tell you all at once when I'm out of here."

"I'll hold you to that, but I'm good with you resting and healing." I gave her a kiss and she giggled.

"I love you."

"I love you, too."

Bella POV- one week later

The past week was weird but good. I had to give the police a full rundown of the whole Riley debacle from start to finish, two days after I was admitted to the hospital. I was released on the third day, one day after Riley got out. He was now rotting in jail. I said that I would testify by camera or something, but I refused to be in the same room or anywhere near him. Having someone try to kill you makes you wacky like that. They agreed because they may not need me anyways. Riley had given a full confession. He also admitted that he had broken into both Edward's and my house to plant cameras. He had been watching us the whole time. All the questions we had over the last few months had been answered and we were trying to move on.

We were currently in the living room at me and Ali's house and my friends were now expecting an explanation of what happened that night. I was kind of worried about telling them just because it still seemed so surreal to me. I kept worrying I would wake up and it would be a dream it was over.

"So, you guys remember the song I sang that night?" They nodded. "Well, when I was done I ran to the bathroom. As I was coming out I ran into Riley. He said that he would basically force me to be with him. Then he saw the ring on my finger and freaked out. He said that if he couldn't have me, then no one could, so he dragged me outside into the alley. I stood up to him pretty good at first, but my skills were elemental. Eventually, he was able to get inside my block. He tried to take my ring and wound up breaking my wrist. I landed a few good punches and a kick that I was sure would take him out, but he got in a really good punch and knocked my ass out. He must have gone down right after I did," I said, guessing at this point. "I held my own for a while. You would have been proud of me, Em." He bumped fists with me.

"Hell yeah, I would of, little Bells."

I smiled at him. Rose spoke up next. "We're just glad that you're okay, and that the whole Riley thing is behind us now."

"It really is. Life is going to be boring now," Ali added.

"I can deal with boring. Too much excitement sucks!" I exclaimed.

Everyone laughed and I joined in. Right after I got out of the hospital, everyone was concerned that I was going to go back to zombie Bella again. And though there was some scary stuff to do in the future, I knew I'd be fine. Part of it was because I knew Riley would be in jail for a long time, and the other part was because of Edward. I knew I had someone who loved me unconditionally and was there just to hold my hand or hug me if I needed it. And that meant more to me than anything.

Edward had done very well too. He was more worried about me than anything else, but he was not controlling and playing the victim. He just made sure that I took it easy, and we spent a lot of time together. Today was just a day for me and my friends to hang out and celebrate the end of the nightmare. I looked at each one of them and knew that, even though I had brought the whole mess to them, not one of them blamed me. I could count on every single one of them to be there for me. I had learned a lot from this mess, and that was to not only stop pushing people away but to lean on my loved ones from time to time. That made a world of difference and it made me look forward to the future, ready to close the door on my damaged past.

A/N: So, there you go. Riley's is done, like burnt toast. Bella is putting the pieces back together, and she has learned some things. Our girl is all grown up. The epilogue is set 6 months in the future, and will probably go up this weekend. Thank you all and love ya!