A/N: This chapter maybe a little overly emotional for some of the characters. I blame it on their current situation.
BELLA
Edward and I were laying on his bed a few hours after Roxy and I got back from hanging out with Angela. I could tell somehting was wrong from the way he was holding me. It was like he thought someone was going to burst in and rip me away from him. After a half hour of wondering what was going on, I turned myself in his arms and looked at him.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"What makes you think there's something wrong?" he asked pushing hair out of my face.
"Just they way your holding me." I replied. "I feel like you think someone is going to try to steal me away from you."
"I can assure you, love, that there is nothing wrong." he answered.
I gave him my best don't-lie-to-me look and he sighed.
"Fine, there is something wrong." he stated. "But it isn't anything that the family can't handle. So please try no to worry about, okay?"
I nodded. I had a feeling that he was downplaying like he always did but knew I wasn't going to get anymore out of him. So instead of questioning him further, I snuggled myself further into his chest.
"So how was the day with Angela?" he asked in an effort to distract me.
I decided that it was best to just play along.
"It was nice. I realized, though, that I haven't really spent any time with her since Charlie's funeral." I stated feeling guilty about that. "I've been spending so much time with you guys and the pack that I forgot about my human friends. I feel like such a horrible person."
"Oh, honey, you are not a horrible person." Edward stated pulling me closer. "You lost your father four months ago. That's something that takes time to get over. I'm sure Angela understands. I'm also sure that she understands your relationship with us and the pack. She knows that we help keep you strong and that's what you needed in those four months. I'm sure she's just glad we helped you make it through everything."
I blushed and buried my head back in his chest. Everything he said was right, as usual. Angela probably did understand my need for space and time with my two families. Which is exactly why I think she didn't mention my four month absence. That was the thing I loved most about Angela. She understood a lot more about people than most teens her age. She knew what people needed when they needed it and didn't take offense when someone didn't need her.
"So, I'm curious, what did she say when you told her about you and I?" Edward asked.
"To tell you the truth, she wasn't all that surprised." I answered blushing a little more.
"What do you mean, she wasn't surprised."
"She said that she knew, once you came back, it was only a matter of time before I dumped Jacob for you."
He chuckled a little at that.
"She was always my favorite human at that school." he said. "So what did she say when she found out that it was Jacob who ended it?"
"Well, that was the part that shocked her."
He laughed some more then said,
"I was actually shocked myself."
"R-r-r-really?" I questioned trying, unsuccessfully, to stifle a yawn.
"Uh-oh, looks like it's naptime for the human." he stated.
"No, I'm fine." I protested.
"Bella, it's been a long week. I would feel better if you tried to get some rest."
He crawled off the bed and pulled the blankets back for me.
"Stupid overprotected vampire." I grumbled as I slid underneath them.
"I love you too." he whispered as he crawled back onto the bed.
I felt him stroke my hair as he bagan humming my lullabye. I was long gone in a matter of minutes.
EDWARD
I wasn't sure if I wanted Bella to find out about the Volturi, yet. I knew her finding out would be inevitable. I also knew it would have to be soon enough for her to prepare for it. Still though, she was just getting herself back together from Kyle, I didn't want to give her something else to worry about. Besides, I knew what her solution to the problem of not being able to fight them would be. She'd willingly turn herself over to them just so they wouldn't hurt us. I couldn't let her do that. Especially since she'd have no idea what she was walking into.
I was glad to be able to use the napping excuse to get out of letting her go to the family meeting. That way, I could talk to them and we could have something figured out before she had to find out what happened.
I laid next to her, stroking her hair for a long time after she fell asleep. I began contemplating the different ways we could save her. Somehow, though, none of them seemed right for Bella. She'd end up losing way too much in any scenerio. I wanted to get her out of this without losing anything at all. She had lost too much in this life already.
I found myself listening to my family's conversations and their thoughts as I laid next to my angel. Alice's were the only ones laced with worry. I knew she was having a very hard time sitting on this but we had to wait until Carlisle got back. He was probably the only one who would know what to do.
I waited another half hour before the front door opened and Carlisle greeted everyone in the living room. Wanting to get this conversation going, I kissed the top of Bella's head then headed quickly and quietly out of the room. I prayed she'd stay asleep until we finshed our chat.
"Where are Edward and Bella?" Carlsile asked just as I made it to the bottom of the stairs.
"Bella was a little tired so I made her take a nap." I stated.
I looked to Alice who had a knowing smile on her face.
"So you wanna do it now when she can't hear?" she thought.
I nodded. She turned her attention to Carlisle.
"Carlisle," she said. "Edward and I need a family meeting."
"Okay," Carlisle answered as everyone headed to the dining room. "But shouldn't we wait for Bella?"
"This is something that I don't want her to hear yet." I stated. He shout me a confused look. "You'll understand in a minute."
He nodded. Once we were all in our usual spots, Carlisle gave us the floor.
"I had a vision just before Kyle kidnapped Bella." Alice began. "I didn't say anything to anyone then because I wanted to get one crisis out of the way before we had to stress out about another one. But I'm afraid I can't wait any longer. Aro has sent Jane, Alec, Demetri and Felix to come get Bella and take her back to him in Volterra. I've been trying to find out what he wants with her but, because he knows how my visions work, he hasn't made an official decision on it, yet. I assume though, that it will be bad because it's Aro."
He explanation was met with shocked silence. My family's thoughts were screaming shock, fear, sadness, and anger. I squeezed my eyes shut trying to puush out all of their thoughts because it was getting too much for me. I looked to Jasper for a little help. I felt a wonderful calm spread over the room. The thoughts didn't go away but the weren't as loud.
"Thanks." I said to him. He simply nodded.
"How long?" Carlisle sighed.
"Less than seventy two hours. Closer to forty eight, I think." Alice answered.
"Damn it!" Carlisle yelled and hit the table. I don't think I've ever seen him upset like this. "That's not even enough time to change her!"
"I don't think that's a good idea anyway." Alice stated.
"Why not?" I questioned. I knew that I was the one who was adamant about her not being changed. However, if it was the only way to save her, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
"Because, if he wanted her changed, he wouldn't have her brought all the way to Volterra." she explained. "He'd probably just send someone to make sure that it got done. No, he wants something else from her. Besides, I have a horrible feeling that it would only make things worse if we did that."
"How could it make things worse?" I yelled. "It would save her from them!"
"I don't think it will." Alice stated.
I was about to respond but Carlisle held up his hand. I stopped at looked at him.
"I agree with Alice." he stated. "I don't think changing her would be a good idea."
"Why not?" I asked again. Why were they insisting that this wasn't the best way to handle the situation.
"First of all, because she wouldn't be completely done with the transformation by the time they got here." he answered. "That would leave her completely vulnerable to them if they got past us. And secondly, if she does make it all the way, it's possible that Aro will still want her after she's changed."
"But at least then she'd be able to defend herself better as a vampire." I denoted.
"But think about Edward, if we do it now and Aro takes her anyway, she'd only be a few hours old when she got there. She'd be a naive newborn with irrational emotions. Do you know how much damage they could do? He'd have her on his side within a week. Do you really want her to become one of them?"
I thought about it for a minute. The things he was telling me made a lot of sense. It seemed like something Aro would do just to get back at us. We take away his fun so he'd take her away from us. I couldn't live with myself if she turned into the kind of monster he was.
"No." I answered. "I really don't want that to happen."
"Okay, so changing her is out." Roxy stated. "Does anyone else have any other ideas?"
It was silent for a moment. I could hear everyone trying to come with something that could work. Emmett was the first to speak what was on his mind. Unfortuanately, it did nothing but express how he felt.
"We need to think of something because there no way in hell that I'm letting those fucking bastards get their hands on my baby sister." he nearly yelled.
"Shh!" I hissed. I really didn't need Bella waking up and hearing this.
"We could hide her." Rosalie suggested.
"No." I stated.
"Why not?" Rose questioned.
"Because I thought about it already." I stated. "When Aro wants something, he'll do everything in his power to get it. If we were to hide Bella, he'd just send the guard hunting for her. He'd make sure they did everything in their power to find her. He'd even go as far as hurting and killing her loved ones. Everyone from Renee and Phil, to the pack. Hell, he'd even go after Angela and her other human firends. Bella's already lost too much in this life, I won't let her lose anymore."
"So what do we do?" Esme questioned.
Jasper looked down at the table. I knew what he was thinking. I had known all along that it would come down to that. I just hoped that we had a chance.
"We fight." Jasper finally stated looking at everyone in the room. "We fight for that inoccent girl upstairs. We fight even if it means losing our lives. Because she doesn't deserve to lose hers."
"NO!" A choked cry came from behind me.
I turned around to see Bella standing in the living room. Her face was beat red and she had tears streaming down it. I cursed myself for being so involved in the fight that I forgot to pay attention to my senses. I really didn't want her to find out about all of this like this. I wanted to be able to talk to her about it one on one. I wanted to do what I could to make her see why we were doing this.
BELLA
I woke alone to Edward and Alice yelling. I wasn't sure what it was all about. I heard something about changing me. Edward wanted too but the others didn't. That was odd. It was always the other way around. Then Carlisle joined the fight and I heard him say, Aro's name and I knew it wasn't good. As quietly as I could, I slipped out of bed and down the stairs. I prayed they were too focused on their fight to notice their senses.
I sat on the bottom step, listening as the fight continued. They had now moved to arguing about whether or not to hide me. I found myself becoming angered at the fact that it was my life they were discussing and I wasn't a part of it.
Edward blew the idea of hiding me out of the water by reminding them of everything I had to lose. He said that he wasn't going to let me lose anymore. I felt a little of my anger disappear as he said this. Then Esme whispered,
"So what do we do?"
It was silent for a moment and then Jasper said the words I was dreading,
"We fight."
I couldn't let them do that. I heard stories of the Volturi from Edward. They were not people you wanted to mess with. I couldn't let my family fight them. I didn't want any of them to die because of me. I had to convince them not to do it.
"NO!" A managed to choke out as I made my presense known.
Edward whirled around. There were some many emotions on his face that I wasn't sure which one was most dominate. I saw fear, pain, sadness, anger, and regret. I found I couldn't be angry with him any more. He looked to tortured for that.
"Bella, sweetie," he said. "I'm sorry. I didn't want you to find out about it like this. I was hoping we'd have some kind of a plan before you found out."
"Well, seeing as it is my life, shouldn't I have a say in what happens?" I replied.
"No." he replied. "Because I know what your say will be. And I will not let you hand yourself over to those sick twisted bastards just to save us."
"But Edward, like you just said, I've already lost too many people I love, don't make me lose anymore." I pleaded.
"Bella, love." He came to me and scooped me into his arms. Then he took me back to his chair and sat me on his lap. "I know you don't want to lose us but you have no idea the kinds of horrible things they could do to you. I don't even want to imagine it. I can't let you willingly walk into their hands."
"But I can't let you guys risk your lives for me." I replied.
"Bella," Carlisle called from across the table. I looked over to him. "I want you to listen to me. I know this men. I've spent a few decades with them and I know what they're capable of. And I downright refuse to allow any of my children to walk willingly into the hands of those monsters. I will do everything in my power to prevent it. You're part of this family and we take care of our family. Especially the ones who can't take care of themselves yet. We are all willing to fight them and die to protect you."
"But-I-I-I..." I began but he cut me off.
"Every single one of us at this table would rather die than see you in the hands of those monsters. That's the price we're willing to pay. Please, just let us protect you."
I couldn't believe he was saying all of this. I was a little bit blown away by how much like a father he really sounded. I had never once doubted that they considered me family but now I knew it met no bounds. I stared into his pleading fearful and loving eyes for a minute before looking at the rest of my family. They all had varying degrees of the same emotions in their eyes. I looked to Edward last. His eyes held the most of every emotion.
I knew now that I couldn't deny them this. They loved me and wanted to protect me. I hated they it would mean their lives or mine but what could I do. They were never going to let it go until I agree to let them do it. I took a deep breath and turned back to Carlisle.
"Do what you have to do." I said in a choked whisper. "Just be careful."
Then I let the tears fall. Edward gently forced my head onto his chest and stroked my hair. It was silent for a bit while Edward comforted me the best he could.
"Should we tell Sam?" Edward asked after a few minutes.
"Yes." Carlisle answered. "I know they aren't going to like it but we gonna have to do everything in our power to convince him to ignore the Volturi. We will have to be harsh and lay it all out for them. They can not go after Jane, Alec, Demitri, and Alec, they'd all be killed. Not a single one of the four will show mercy. I'll cal him and arrange a meeting tomorrow."
They continued talking out plans for when the guard showed up. I wasn't really paying attention as I continued silently sobbing into Edward's chest. Eventually, the emotional exhaustion took over and I fell into an uneasy sleep.
A/N: That's chapter two. Sorry for the length. It seemed important for this chapter. I hope you enjoyed. Please review.
