Chapter Two

Emmett slapped a playing card down onto the table, face up. It was an ace. "Hit?" he asked Jacob.

"Nah,"Jacob said with a slight shake of his head. "Stay."

Emmett flipped over the other card, and it was a ten. "Twenty-one. Perfect."

"You're goddamn right," Jacob said.

Renesmee flicked her fingers across the screen of her tablet, simultaneously playing a puzzle game, looking at luxurious lake homes in Seattle, and fawning over wedding dresses that she would never wear anytime soon, sadly enough. Oh, woe is me, she thought bitterly.

Concentrated on her device, she didn't look at Bella when she spoke to her, which Bella was used to.

"Did you talk to Dad?" Nessie asked Bella absentmindedly.

"No," Bella said, kicking herself for it. On her way to the library earlier, she had chickened out, swallowed her pride, and decided that the minuscule details of the "cure" (she still hated that word) were none of her business. If she was supposed to know, then she would have. She shouldn't have gotten so worked up about it.

So Bella had decided to take a break. It had been a long fucking day, and tonight felt like it would last forever. Winter nights often felt like an eternity.

Edward, Carlisle, and Rosalie had been upstairs all day, and even though it shouldn't have bothered Bella, it did. The key word for the day was bothered. Bella was just so fucking bothered. Edward was the key to it all being over, but he was still upstairs.

"Why not?" Renesmee asked.

Bella struggled to find the right words to say in front of everybody else. If they didn't know much of the ordeal, then it didn't matter. It doesn't matter, Bella told herself. It really does not fucking matter.

"Walk with me to my place," Bella said.

"Sure."

Bella and Nessie stood up, and Jacob shortly did, too, once he set his cards down. "You don't have to come," Nessie quickly told him, and he didn't.

The two women made their quiet escape, and once they were out of the house and in the woods, Bella sighed and began.

"I'm worried about your father," she said.

Nessie's brown eyes widened, alarmed. "Is he in danger? Is it the Vol—?"

"No, no, it's nothing like that."

"Then what's going on?"

Bella had never been good with words, but now the words were nearly impossible to get out. Her mind was wavering, and nothing had even happened yet. Nothing is happening, she told herself.

"Mom," Renesmee said sternly. "If it's so big, then I should probably know about it."

"But it's not big," Bella said, backtracking. "It's not. I think I'm just making it into a big deal."

Renesmee bit the inside of her cheek. "Well, you're freaking me out."

I am such an idiot, Bella thought. "How are you?" she suddenly asked.

"Aside from the fact that my mother is hiding something from me and claiming whatever she's freaking out is not a big deal," Nessie replied bitingly, "then I'm fine."

"How's Jacob?"

"Quiet." Just one word. That was all there was to him now.

Bella nodded. "Mm-hm."

The woods and everything in them fell silent. The silence was interrupted occasionally only by footsteps or twigs snapping under them on the frozen ground, but other than that, the night was silent and empty. It was a cloudy January night, and not even the stars would shine.

"I'm so tired of all of it," Renesmee finally admitted. "He's been in such a bad place for years now. Something's gotta happen sometime, you know?" She didn't wait for Bella to reply. "I've been static for too long, and so has Jacob. I just don't want to wait anymore."

Bella waited for her to be finished. "What is it that you're waiting for?" she wondered.

Renesmee turned to her, not being able to see her mother's brown eyes in the dark. What she was going to say was going to come out badly, but Bella would understand. Bella always understood Renesmee and her ways, even if they were selfish and completely missing the point.

"I'm waiting for my life to start."

For the next two months, life in the Cullen residences was static as usual. Jacob was hushed. Renesmee didn't speak to him on it. Bella fell back into submissive ignorance. Edward proved from time to time again that he was definitely happy.

It was easy to be unchanging when one didn't have the choice, but now that the idea of a choice was floating around in the air (but never officially addressed), being more excited than usual was common. And it was on the last day of winter when the excitement reached fever pitch, because it was finally the time when Carlisle informed the rest of the household of the cure.

"In a collaborative effort," he announced, standing in the middle of the living room, "Edward, Rosalie, and I have developed a remedy for vampirism."

Alice spoke up first. She must have had a response brewing in her for ages. She saw it coming, after all. "I didn't know it was a sickness to begin with," she said. Bella smiled to herself. That's my girl.

"We're not considering it a sickness, exactly," Rosalie said. "But I had the idea a few months before the move back to Forks, and Edward was also interested, so we came to Carlisle. It was a really interesting process and I think—no, I am positive, actually—that it will work out in the end."

"Is there something else you would like to tell us?" Esme asked calmly, her attention on Carlisle.

"That's just it," he said. "With scientific breakthroughs, we have developed something that could work wonders for those who didn't have a choice and would like one now."

Rosalie was beaming. She was as happy as a little kid on Christmas morning. "It's a really wonderful thing," she said.

"Yes," Edward agreed, staying tranquil. His eyes flashed from Esme to Jasper, and then from Jasper to Alice. "We were also going to consult with Tanya so—"

"What makes you think she—or any of them—would want to try it?" Alice asked.

Yes! Bella thought. Exactly!

"Let's be positive about this, Alice," Edward said. If only he could shut her off. "There is the chance that they actually are interested," he added.

"I really cannot see how or why this is a good idea." Alice's words were as sharp as a knife.

"Just because you can't see it doesn't mean it isn't," Rosalie told Alice. "I personally think this is a really bold and innovative step for science, and—"

"It's not about science," Jasper said quietly, forcing everybody to listen. "You three"—his eyes darted between Carlisle, Rosalie, and Edward—"are not at all concerned with science." He rested his eyes on Carlisle. "Or at least Rosalie and Edward aren't. This is merely for your own personal gain, and I don't need to be a mind-reader to tell."

"Can you not see how absolutely genius this is?" Rosalie demanded. Her eyes were wide and wild. "This isn't about anybody's personal gain, Jasper. We can help people who are willing to be helped, and it's practically perfect. The cure is fully developed and ready for use. If you don't like it, then don't take it, but it's very unfair of you to minimize the magnitude of this discovery. You cannot shut the remedy down merely because you're uninterested in taking it."

"I think this calls for a survey," Carlisle said, and with that, Jasper made the room and the people who occupied it relax. Carlisle looked to Alice, and then went around the living room.

"I would not like to be 'cured,'" Alice said. "I don't remember what it was like to be human, and I wouldn't want to find out, even if the remedy is as perfect as you all make it sound."

Bella, who sat next to Alice, spoke next. "I don't wanna try it. I just don't think it would work, despite the claims of it being perfect." I also value beauty and immortality too much to give it all away.

"I'll try it," Edward said. Bella turned quickly to look at him, and he didn't bother to look back; he kept his focus on Carlisle. "If it doesn't work, then it doesn't work. But I know it will work."

"I understand your reasoning and I do believe it will work," Jasper said, "but I would not like to try it."

"Emmett?" Carlisle asked.

"I mean, I guess I'll do it," Emmett said. "Can't be that bad." He and Rosalie grinned at each other; Bella and Alice looked visibly disgusted.

"This doesn't apply to me," Renesmee said, "so pass." She was bitter as hell, but Jacob couldn't have a problem with it; none of this applied to him, either.

Esme gave a sad smile. Carlisle held her hand and gave a slight squeeze. "You don't have to if you don't want to," he murmured.

"Thank you," she mouthed.

"And you, Carlisle?" Jasper asked.

"I feel as if I cannot accomplish what I can now if I was human again," Carlisle said proudly, yet not arrogantly. "I am old, though, and I wouldn't mind leaving, but I would prefer to remain immortal."

Everybody nodded in understanding. Everybody except Bella. Her eyes stayed on Edward.

"I'm going to call Tanya," Rosalie announced as she got up from the couch. Tall and full of pride, she was going to get what she wanted. It only took almost two hundred years.

"Look at me," Bella whispered to Edward. He didn't respond. She glared at him and spoke again. "I told you to fucking look at me."

"Are you really going to start a scene right now?" Edward asked, his voice low and his topaz eyes on Bella's. Without a care in the world, he was totally unfazed.

"If you wanted to kick me in the face," Bella said, "then you should have just done it."

He knit his brow. "What do you even...?"

"It wouldn't have been even half as painful as what you just did now, Edward."

Edward closed his eyes and shook his head. "I think you're overreacting, and now is not the time."

"I think," Bella replied, "that you've just ruined everything."

"You're being kind of a problem right now, don't you think?" he asked.

"No," she answered brightly with a sly smile, "but I'm going to be."

A/N: On the real, though, I do plan on finishing this story. Thanks for the reviews, follows, and favorites. They are always appreciated.

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