A/N: I guess this is the chapter you have all been waiting for and I hope I won't disappoint you. As the chapter is so important, I found writing it especially hard and I couldn't have done it with KayMarieXW's support. Thank you so much for helping me out! I truly wouldn't know what to do without you.

I would also like to thank lynettecullen, TheLadyKT and nauticalmass, who went back and reviewed almost every chapter. That's just amazing and I appreciate it so much.

I also have to apologise. Writing this chapter, I discovered that I accidentally wrote a logic error in the chapter before last (which I actually wrote before the last chapter; complicated, I know). Esme is dismayed because she'll have to help Edward disposing of Austin as Jasper and Emmett are out of town. I don't know what I was thinking when I wrote this. Emmett is at the hospital, of course, and Jasper at school. I'm sorry for that!

Also, the next round of The Canon Tour (go to my profile for the link), the New Moon Round, is about to begin. I suggest you check it out! The entries of the Twilight Round were fantastic and I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with. As I plan to write an entry for the New Moon Round and am also going to be busy because of my thesis, there may be some delay in updating Lifelines. I hope I'll be able to finish the next chapter before the year is over, but I can't make any promises.

I know it's a bit early for that, but I still wish you a merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. 2011 has been a great year for me in many ways. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to meet so many new people and even make what I believe are going to be lifetime friends via FFN..

Enough with the rambling now! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga is property of Stephenie Meyer. I'm only borrowing.

30. RESOLVED, PART 1

EDWARD

A snowflake falls onto my cheek

As I wake up from distant sleep

I stand up dazed as I look around

What is this place that I have found?

Snowflakes by White Apple Tree

Alice beat me to the hospital. Her yellow Porsche was easy to pick out from among the fleet of more sedately coloured BMWs, Mercedeses and Audis. But even if, for some reason, I'd failed to see her car, it would have been impossible to miss Alice. She was standing beside it, wearing a coat that matched the hideous colour of her Porsche, jumping up and down excitedly. Seeing me emerge from the park behind the hospital, Alice waved and told me to hurry at the top of her lungs.

People were beginning to stare.

I sprinted the rest of the way at what just barely passed for human speed. "Finally," she huffed when I stopped beside her, pretending to pant for our audience's sake. She was acting if I'd kept her waiting for hours. "What took you so long?" she demanded.

I ignored her obviously rhetorical question and fell in beside her as she walked towards the main entrance. "I still can't believe I had a vision," she said, pushing through the glass doors. I hadn't been here since the gala and the entrance hall looked different this time, less crowded. "I wish I'd had it sooner though."

"Are you seriously complaining?" I asked, eyebrows raised. I'd expected Alice to be grateful, given how much she'd suffered because of being unable to help.

"No, of course I'm not," she said immediately, instantly indignant. "How can you even think that? I was rather fond of Carlisle's office furniture, though. They thoroughly wrecked it!"

I blinked, puzzled. "Who did?"

The receptionist waved as we walked past her. It was the same one I'd asked for directions a week ago. Only seven days, yet they felt much longer because so much had happened since then. Time passed differently for me, not just because I had so much of it at my disposal, but also because a single second could very well feel like an hour to me. So, in a sense, a small eternity had passed since I'd come to pick up Carlisle to drive to the home of the alleged rampant vampire.

"Bella and Carlisle," Alice explained, frowning. "Well, Bella mostly. Good thing I called Emmett. She was so angry and would have killed Lambert, she was so angry. I would have been tempted too, but we need that… man alive, at least for now."

"What?" I asked, completely confused now. Alice's mind offered no answers. She was going over a list of questions she wanted to ask Carlisle and Bella's boss. "Why did they wreck Carlisle's office? And what does Henry Lambert have to do with anything?" No answer, just more questions. All of them, I suddenly realised, concerned Victoria. "Alice!" I said sharply, closing my hand around her shoulder to stop her.

"What?" she asked, impatience—and annoyance—tinging her voice as she turned around reluctantly. We were halfway up to the second floor where Carlisle's office was. The staircase was empty except for Alice and me, which was exactly why we'd decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator. It was faster. I could already hear my family's minds—to my surprise the term now also included Jacob—and what I saw there was even more confusing. Perhaps Bella's mind could have given me answers, but of course it was silent, a spot of calm, of nothing, in the mental chatter of my family.

"What did you see?"

"I'm sorry," Alice said, drawing a deep breath to calm herself. "It's just that I absolutely didn't see this coming and I still haven't recovered from the shock, I guess." She gave me a fleeting, if distracted, smile, then the vision she'd had unfolded in her mind once more. In Alice's memory of the vision, I saw Bella and Carlisle walking down slowly the hallway to Carlisle's office. I didn't know what to make of Bella's expression, which was pensive and unhappy at the same time. Their conversation, if they'd had one, seemed to be over, so the vision gave me no clues as to what they'd possibly been talking about. Then again, that wasn't what the vision was about. I saw the two of them stop in front of Carlisle's office, Carlisle lifting his hand to wave Bella goodbye, when an angry voice suddenly drifted over from an office two doors down. My eyes widened although I already knew that her vision had something to do with Victoria. I recognised the voice instantly. It was Henry Lambert's, but that wasn't the cause of my surprise. It was the voice that answered him. "I don't care," the voice said, each word pronounced with ice-cold precision. "Just do as I say."

"Victoria?" I whispered, stunned. "She's in contact with Henry Lambert, of all people?" I suddenly remembered the vampire—Austin—that Esme and I had killed only fifteen minutes before. I thought of how strange I'd found his presence and this entire business of his creator having given him Lambert's daughter practically gift-wrapped. "Well," I said out loud, "at least that clears that up."

"Keep watching," Alice urged. "You're missing the best part."

Again I focused on the vision still playing in her mind. Carlisle's hand had closed around Bella's, as if he was expecting her to bolt any second, and after a moment she did just that. She tried to break out of his grip, snarling viciously as she clawed at him, but Carlisle held her firm against his chest, half pushing, half dragging her into his office. There he let her go, obviously hoping that Bella would see reason and calm down. Still, he remained in front of the closed door, his stance and posture indicating that he was prepared to fight her. I didn't think Bella would actually try to get past him despite what Alice had said. She was smarter than that, would realise that we'd need Lambert alive and that would calm her down.

But she didn't seem to realise. Or if she did, she didn't care.

She spun around, her face still a twisted mask of rage. Carlisle reacted with the minimum of movement. He simply pushed her back, throwing her off balance. Bella crashed into the shelf to Carlisle's left but was back on her feet and attacking again before the remains had even hit the floor.

"Bella, you have to calm down," Carlisle said quietly, in a voice I recognised. He'd been talking to me in the same voice once when I was a newborn. "We need Lambert alive. Calm down." He repeated these two words over and over again, but Bella wasn't listening. By the expression on her face, it was hard to tell if she even heard him. The fight continued that way for a while, Bella charging and Carlisle fending her off. Then Carlisle realised that he was getting nowhere and switched from defence to offence. Bella wasn't a match for him—for any of us, really—and he'd caught her within a matter of seconds, holding her down despite her struggling to free herself once more. I expected Bella to calm down now. Surely she must know that she fight was over. But she didn't. Her eyes ablaze with determination, she slammed her elbow into Carlisle's solar plexus and caught him completely by surprise. His grip around her body slackened. Bella drove the long, thin heel of her right shoe into his instep, then wheeled around in a fluid motion. The heel of her hand connected with Carlisle's nose only the fraction of a moment later. I knew what was coming, having seen this particular self-defence technique many times—Miss Congeniality was one of Alice's favourites because she loved commenting on the choice of dresses—and grimaced. It didn't hurt, not really, but it was uncomfortable. To say the least. Carlisle gasped and he let Bella go, distracted. Bella headed straight for the door… and then the vision blurred and was gone.

"Ouch," I said, still grimacing.

"Yes, that's pretty much what I thought," Alice said, smiling slightly as she started moving again. I had to take two steps at a time to catch up with her, despite my longer legs. "Glad to see she can defend herself, though. And to be honest, I didn't think she had any fighting spirit in her."

I would have loved to object as I didn't like even the implication of an insult, but unfortunately Alice was only stating a fact. "I don't know what happened after Emmett and Jake showed up, but between the three of them they should have been able to keep Bella… under control. I don't think I've ever seen her that savage. Even when she's hunting, she's pretty constrained. Or was in that vision of her mauling the bear, anyway."

I hadn't been hunting with Bella yet. Only Esme had and she had neither spoken nor thought about it, at least not in my presence. She needed to go soon, however. This morning there'd still been a trace of gold in her eyes. In Alice's vision they had been obsidian black.

In reality, Carlisle's office looked even worse than it had in Alice's vision, even though he'd tried to clean up the worst damage while he'd been waiting. "There you are," he said as Alice and I entered and put another book on the already precariously high stack on his desk, which had somehow survived the fight. Bella was sitting on the floor, wedged in between Emmett and Jacob and looking utterly miserable. Seeing me, Emmett immediately got up and moved out of the way so that I could sit down beside her.

Jacob had put his arm around her shoulders and I wanted to do the same, to give her the comfort she so obviously needed, but I was uncertain whether she'd accept it from me and so I simply asked, "Are you alright?"

Her reaction wasn't at all what I'd expected, especially not given how dejected she looked. "Am I alright?" she hissed, fury flashing in her eyes. "That son of a bitch Henry Lambert is working for Victoria and you ask me if I'm alright?"

I gaped at her, not used to her using that kind of language.

"Bells," Jacob began placatingly, but Bella's fury dissipated as quickly as it had come and she slumped back against Carlisle's sofa, her shoulders sagging.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she whispered, brushing a strand of hair that had escaped from her ponytail out of her face. "I didn't mean to snap at you."

"You don't have to apologise," I replied softly.

She's been like this since Emmett and I came, Jacob said. His mental voice sounded tired. Then again, he hadn't caught much sleep the night before. Can't say I blame her, he continued, trying to resist the urge to rub his bloodshot eyes and failing. It has to be hard, finding out that someone you work for has been selling you out to the enemy. I know she's never liked the guy much because she hinted at it often enough in our letters… For a moment his sleep-deprived mind lost focus and Jacob fleetingly remembered the letter he'd written her only two weeks ago. Even more had changed for him since then, than it had changed for me. But, he continued eventually, back in the present, this came as a shock. Who expects something like this? So I guess she's entitled to feel whatever way she likes.

"I just don't understand why he did it," Bella whispered. The desperation in her voice made me want to wring Lambert's neck and save us the trouble of interrogating him. Of course, then we'd probably never find out where Victoria was. "Why would someone willingly help Victoria?"

That was when everything suddenly clicked into place. I could be wrong, of course, because so far second-guessing Victoria hadn't worked out so far. She'd proven time and again how cunning she was. This was certainly something she could come up with. It was just the scale of things that I found slightly disturbing.

"I think I can help you with that," I said very slowly.

Bella lifted her head ever so slightly. "What?"

"And," I continued instead of answering Bella's question, "I'm beginning to think that Victoria's plan is even more elaborate than we thought. I'd written it off as coincidence when Esme told me, but what if it wasn't?"

"When Esme told you what?" Carlisle asked.

I held up my hand and dug my phone out of my pocket, dialling Esme's number. Carlisle waited obligingly. "How's the body disposal going?" I asked when she answered on the first ring.

"Body disposal?" Carlisle and Emmett whispered to Alice almost simultaneously. Even Bella seemed intrigued.

"Very well actually," Esme replied. "I had no idea that werewolves were so efficient. I'm very impressed. And Seth is quite the gentleman."

"Aren't I?" Seth asked somewhere in the background. Even over the phone I could tell he was grinning. "Must be Jake's influence. Oh, wait. On second thought I don't think it can be."

Jacob growled quietly.

Seth laughed, unimpressed. "Is he there? Anyway, to answer your question, yes, it's going well. We're almost at the car. Rose thought to bring a few shopping bags to pack the body parts in. Less conspicuous than a trash bag, you know. It is a little weird, though, walking through the city with a dismembered body. I really hope we won't get pulled over on the way home. We'd never be able to explain this mess."

"I'm sure I'll be able to talk us out of it if we are," Rosalie said confidently.

"We're a little busy here right now," Esme said. "Are you at the hospital? Is everyone alright?"

"Yes to both, although Bella is still a little shaken up. She overheard a phone call her boss was making to Victoria."

Silence. I didn't get the impression that Esme was particularly surprised, however, and maybe she wasn't. Like me, she'd been wondering whether it was a coincidence that Austin's creator had chosen Bailey as a gift. I knew now that it wasn't, and if Esme had been thinking along the same lines, she must have drawn the same conclusion that I had on learning that Henry Lambert was in league with Victoria.

"Well," Esme said eventually, "that does explain it, doesn't it?"

"It does, although I wished it wouldn't. Do you remember when you were contacted to restore Lambert's house?"

"Lambert's house?" Carlisle mouthed to Alice, but right now Alice was as clueless as he was.

"Yes, of course I do. It was the middle of August and I had just placed my ad online after Carlisle got the job at the Alaska Regional. To be honest, I didn't really expect anyone to call before next year. Winter in Alaska isn't exactly the right time to begin restoring a house, especially not when extensive outside repairs have to be made."

"Do you know why the position as Head of Surgery was vacant?" I asked Carlisle, Esme still on the line. Carlisle blinked, grappling to organise his thoughts; the apparent non sequitur had caught him by surprise.

"I do. The previous Head of Surgery," Carlisle's eyes widened, "passed away," he finished sharply. "I was told he had a heart attack. I even wrote a condolence card to his family. It didn't strike me as weird at the time because it is a stressful job, but he was only forty-three and in perfect health, according to his colleagues."

"Are you suggesting what I think you are suggesting?" Emmett asked, his eyes narrowed. "That Victoria killed off that doctor so that Carlisle would get his job and that she got that Lambert type to hire Esme? Why go through all the trouble?"

"To keep tabs on us," Alice replied thoughtfully. "It would explain how Adam knew where to leave Freya and the others. Lambert must have known Carlisle and Bella were leaving for the airport and passed that information on to Victoria. It was a long shot, yes, but chances were good Bella would end up near our home eventually."

"I don't like this," Emmett said, his voice uncharacteristically serious. "It means that she isn't just after Bella, but after all of us."

"That doesn't sound good," Seth remarked, his voice louder now so he must be standing next to Esme. "But does it change anything? I mean the plan still is to kill Victoria. It doesn't make a difference who she's after and I bet that Bella is still her prime target. She wouldn't have sent all those vampires to Forks over the years if she wasn't."

"I suppose it doesn't," I admitted. "The thought of Victoria having manipulated all of us is just very, very disturbing."

"That still doesn't explain why Lambert's working for her," Bella noted. "What did you mean when you said you didn't think he was helping her willingly?"

"The vampire Esme killed and is getting rid of now—"

"I'm trying to," Esme corrected, "but I only have two hands, you know, and there are a lot of bags… I'll call you back as soon as we're done." The line went dead.

"Esme killed a vampire?" Emmett asked, impressed. Didn't think she was capable of that!

"It was necessary. He was Victoria's watchdog, I guess. It's possible that at first Lambert didn't mind passing along information, but at some point she must have started questioning his loyalty. The vampire Esme and I met while we were at the Lambert's house pretended to date his daughter, Bailey. That's all it would take to keep Lambert in check. He loves his daughter."

"After what I've heard today I'm disinclined to believe in coincidence," Carlisle said, "but I still have to ask. How do you know he was one of Victoria's vampires?"

"I don't," I admitted, "because the vampire clearly didn't know her. It was his creator, a vampire named Craig, who pointed Bailey out to him. However, it makes sense that he was there to keep an eye on Lambert and remind him that Victoria had the upper hand."

"Besides," Jacob pointed out, "this city seems to be crawling with vampires right now. I'm hardly an expert, but I got the impression you guys normally prefer to travel alone or in pairs. I'm getting pretty tired of all this guesswork. Why don't we just ask the guy? That's why we're here, isn't it?"

"It's not that simple," Bella said sharply.

Jacob wisely refrained from replying, at least out loud. Jesus… he thought glumly. I'm sorry, he said then, directed at me. I'm not good company today and Bella doesn't deserve me snapping at her. She has every right to be pissed. I'm used to working on very little sleep, but I may have pushed my luck.

"He has a point," I said, coming to his aid. "That's exactly why we're here. Where is Jasper, by the way?"

"At school," Alice replied. "I'm still not sure whether this will end in a bloodbath or not." She stated that last part very matter-of-factly without even looking at Bella, but Bella still shifted uncomfortably. Just so you know it, if she decides to kill him, I'll be right behind her, Alice said to me. I know Carlisle doesn't approve, but in my opinion it would be entirely justified. "Anyway," she continued briskly. "Jake, I'm sorry, but you have to leave. I need to see and you're in the way, so to speak."

"You can crash on the sofa in my office," Bella offered quietly. "Danielle won't mind if you tell her I gave you permission."

See what I mean? Jacob asked, with an almost inaudible sigh. One second she's biting someone's head off, the next she's like that. "Good luck with Lambert," he said as he picked himself up from the floor, yawning widely. "I'll be downstairs. Thanks for the offer, Bells." He gave Bella's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Keep an eye on her, he told me before he left.

"How do we want to play this?" Emmett asked. "Beat it out of him?" He glanced at Bella as he said this, gauging her reaction. Bella just met his gaze levelly, although all of us—including me, the image of Bella fighting Carlisle to go after Lambert fresh on my mind—expected her to agree. Jacob was right. Her actions were impossible to predict, even more so than usual.

"Let's try asking nicely first," Carlisle suggested dryly. "We can't afford to scare him."

"We also can't allow him to call Victoria again," Bella said suddenly. She pushed herself off the floor, running her fingers through her hair in a futile effort to disentangle it. "If we do, she'll run." She didn't actually say it, but all of us heard it anyway. And she may kill Liv out of pure spite.

If her friend wasn't already dead, that was, and I highly doubted Victoria had left her alive this long. Olivia had outlived her purpose the second Bella and I had boarded the plane to Chicago. I'd promised Bella to help her find Olivia—a promise I would keep—but I was realist enough to at least consider the very likely possibility that she was already gone. I was certain we'd find her eventually, but I was also certain that we'd be too late to rescue her. While part of me admired Bella for her loyalty, for her love for a woman she hadn't seen in two years, another part was scared because if Bella kept convincing herself that Olivia was still alive, it would be so much harder for her in the end when all that we found were her remains.

I realised it was my own overly pessimistic view of the world that caused me to assume that Olivia had already been killed and disposed of, but in this case it struck me as a sensible approach, even if it made me appear cold-hearted. I also realised, however, that Bella probably didn't see it that way, that for her accepting the fact that her friend was gone equalled abandoning her. And what if she was still alive? What if she died only because Bella had stopped searching?

I could only guess what was going on inside her mind. I wished she'd talk to me about it, but we'd all made it clear that focusing on Olivia's rescue was a waste of time and energy because there probably was nothing to rescue. I suddenly understood that we'd failed her, that we'd let her carry the burden of worrying about her friend all alone. That wasn't what families did. That wasn't what we did.

I was an idiot.

It wasn't the first time I'd called myself a fool. I had, many times in fact, whenever I'd questioned my past decisions, thought about the mistakes I'd made. But it was only now that I realised the enormity of my mistakes. I had almost destroyed the woman I loved, the woman that was my life. I had almost torn my family apart. I'd realised both, had tried to change the way I acted, had tried to change myself. Yet I had failed. If I had changed, difficult though change was for a vampire, I would have supported her in everything she did, unconditionally, like Alice always supported Jasper in his fight for control, like Emmett almost always took Rosalie's side even when everyone else was mad at her, like Esme and Carlisle were always there for each other, no matter what. I was suddenly aware that I'd never regarded Bella as my equal, still didn't on some level, because there was a part of me that still saw the vulnerable, fragile human that needed to be wrapped in cotton.

Our relationship had been off balance from the start. For a very long time I'd believed this was because I was a vampire and she wasn't, because I had to protect her as she couldn't protect herself. I'd been wrong. Our relationship had been what it was because of the decisions I'd made, because of what I'd believed. I'd always considered myself a danger to Bella. In a sense I had been, but seeing how the vampire Esme and I had killed today had played with Bailey, all the while knowing he'd kill her in the end, had finally made me realise that I'd never been the monster I had always thought I was. Bella had never needed protecting, not from the dangers the world held in store, not from me.

All of this didn't matter anymore, yet in my mind I still saw myself as Bella's protector. Alice would have given Jasper a piece of her mind in a heartbeat if he ever so much as implied that she was incapable of looking after herself, as would Rosalie. They were partners, equals. That's what Bella and I had to become if our relationship was to work, assuming, of course, that Bella decided to give me a second chance. But how could Bella forgive me if I kept repeating the same mistake over and over again?

Following a sudden impulse, I reached for Bella's hand. She glanced at me, surprised, as I gently closed my fingers around hers. For the fraction of a second our eyes met, hers black, my own only marginally less so. I expected her to step back, to withdraw and once more raise the wall that had been between us since we met again. She didn't. Instead, she firmly grasped my hand, ever so slightly pulling me closer to her side.

The others hadn't missed the affectionate gesture, but instead of commenting on it they delved into a heated discussion about how to proceed. "Bella should confront him," Alice suggested. "No, I haven't lost my mind," she added when Emmett looked pointedly at the damage Bella had caused. I could see where Alice was coming from and she had a point. Unfortunately, so did Emmett.

"I'm with Alice on this one," I said.

Alice smiled smugly. Emmett shook his head, questioning my sanity. Carlisle sighed, thinking this wasn't the right time to be bickering. It was Bella's reaction I was focusing on, however. The surprise flashing in her dark eyes made me instantly feel guilty because it told me that she hadn't really expected me to support her. That she hadn't thought I'd have faith in her and her self-control.

"It's Bella he's been spying on longest," I continued. "From what I've seen so far, he sees her as a meek employee he can trample over whenever he chooses. If you show him that you're not, it may take him by surprise. Besides, we've killed the vampire that threatened his daughter. That should make us the good guys in his eyes, at least for now."

Bella nodded slowly, frowning. "I think I can do that." Then she suddenly smiled. "To be honest, I've been wanting to do that for a very long time."

"It's settled then." Alice rubbed her hands. "The rest of us will wait outside his office, just in case." As I said, Alice added, I don't mind her killing Lambert. I'd just like to get all of my questions answered first. "Come on, let's fix your hair now."

Bella's hands instantly travelled to her head. "What's wrong my with hair?"

Alice eyed the remains of what had once been a neat ponytail. "You look like a scarecrow."

Bella blinked. "Alice," she said then, her smile growing even wider, "you sure know how to boost a girl's self-esteem."

xxx

"I'm not sure I can do this," Bella confessed, her voice but a whisper. "I'm so mad at him. I don't like him and I certainly don't trust him and it still feels like betrayal. I've never wanted to kill someone intentionally, but I want to hurt him so badly… I'm a horrible person."

"You are not a horrible person," I replied softly. "Just very, very human. Yes, I am aware of the irony of that, thank you very much, Emmett."

"Just saying," Emmett muttered.

"I believe they are having a private conversation," Carlisle chided gently. "Here, help me with that."

Emmett reluctantly stepped back into Carlisle's office where he was handed a broom. Emmett eyed it as if he had no clue what to do with it, even though I knew for a fact that he did. Esme had made him sweep the floor so often, usually in the aftermath of some prank gone wrong, that he'd become quite good at it.

"That suits you," Alice smirked, looking up from the pile of family pictures she was sorting through. Then she quickly ducked out of the way with an undignified squeal as the broom sailed her way. It clanked against the window before it dropped, knocking over the Chinese vase that sat in the corner. Carlisle lunged forward to save it.

"Emmett," he breathed exasperated as he righted the vase, "sit down somewhere and don't move!"

"What I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," I continued, "is that you have every right to be angry. Nobody will hold it against you if you kill him. As a matter of fact, I have it on good authority that Alice would lend you a hand. I'm sure so would Emmett."

"You bet!" The enthusiasm in Emmett's voice made Bella's lips curve into a hesitant smile.

Carlisle sighed. "Please remember that he has a family and people who love him."

I thought of his wife, who was trapped in a marriage she couldn't escape from without losing what she loved more than anything, and of his daughter, who rarely saw her father because he was never there when she needed him and always when she didn't. They would miss him, perhaps even mourn him, but I was certain that in the end they'd be relieved to be rid of the burden that he was, and neither his life nor his death would have meant anything.

I was aware I was travelling down a dangerous path. I was not my place to decide who lived or died; I'd learned that a very long time ago. Carlisle was convinced that Lambert could be trusted not to expose us. Privately, I had my doubts. However, this wasn't about me, about what I wanted, and it wasn't about what Carlisle wanted either. This was about Bella. It was her decision and we'd support her either way, even Carlisle.

"Thank you," Bella whispered. Drawing a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and tucked a strand of hair that had escaped Alice's elaborate braid behind her ear. "You are aware that I'm a terrible actress, aren't you?" she asked, smiling.

"Oh, you'll do fine," Alice said casually. According to her latest vision, Lambert would cooperate—then again, he wouldn't have much choice in the matter. His survival, however, was still up in the air as it entirely depended on his behaviour towards Bella and on whether she'd be able to hang on to her temper.

"Wish me luck," Bella said, allowing herself a last anxious smile, before she turned to knock on Lambert's door, her expression calm and professional.

"Always," I replied with a smile of my own, then stepped back so that Lambert wouldn't accidentally see me through the open door. Nervous as he was, he was bound to believe that he'd been discovered and while that was, of course, exactly what had happened, we didn't want to scare him. Yet.

"Isabella," Lambert said, surprised and startled, even though he was able to hide the latter very well. "What can I do for you today?" Could it be a coincidence that Bella showed up just as he was thinking about her? Besides, she never visited him. She disliked him too much for that. Lambert, contrary to what many of his employees seemed to believe, wasn't an idiot. He knew he wasn't very popular, but that was hardly his fault, was it? If women failed to see what a great guy he was, he had to make them see it.

I couldn't decide whether I found his attitude disgusting or amusing. The man was clearly delusional. How could he even think about sex in a situation like this? A minute ago he'd worried that Bella was on to him, now he was calculating his chances of getting her to agree to sleep with him.

"Unbelievable," I muttered.

"What is?" Emmett asked curiously as he sauntered over and leaned against the wall beside me. Carlisle had released him, afraid he would break something if he kept him in his office longer than necessary.

"That man honestly believes he's God's greatest gift to women," I explained. "I know I'm not an expert, but I can't imagine any woman in her right mind being attracted to him. He's not even that handsome."

"No, he definitely isn't," Alice agreed as she joined us in the hallway. "That belly pouch is quite unbecoming. For a cardiac-thoracic surgeon he seems to pay very little attention to his health."

As I couldn't read Bella's mind, I was forced to watch the scene from Lambert's. I saw her enter and close the door from where he was sitting, his back to the windows facing the park. I wasn't surprised when he didn't stand to greet her. He firmly believed that employees needed to be put in their place on a regular basis, especially the female part of his staff that, like Bella, showed no interest in sleeping with him.

I gagged.

"That bad?" Emmett asked sympathetically.

"Worse," I assured him. It was quite unfortunate that vampires were incapable of suppressing memories. I so didn't want to remember what I'd seen in Lambert's mind so far.

"What can I do for you?" Lambert asked as he let his eyes wander over his body appreciatively, wondering what kind of underwear she was wearing. Lace, he thought. A pretty girl like her would wear pretty underwear. Did she prefer black or red? Her skin was so pale, so delicate. Either colour would look breath-taking on her, he was sure.

Emmett's hand suddenly dropped onto my shoulder. Seeing my rather murderous expression in his mind, I decided that it was probably a good idea if he held on to me. Just in case. It was hard to tolerate his fantasising about women in general, but seeing him thinking about Bella that way was almost unbearable to watch.

No wonder his wife wanted to file for divorce.

Bella must have known what was going on inside his mind, given that she'd worked with him for so long now, but she didn't let on. Instead, she demurely sat down in the chair in front of his desk, crossing her legs so that her black skirt slid up an inch, and smiled. "I was hoping I could have a moment of your time, sir."

Lambert smiled broadly. Had she finally come around? He knew she would eventually. She was a smart girl after all. "Yes, of course," he replied generously. "Anything for you, Isabella."

"I'm worried," Bella confessed, her fingers playing with the hem of her shirt. She needn't have worried about her acting skills. Lambert went for it hook, line and sinker. It wasn't often that he got to play protector and when he did, like with his daughter, he usually ended up being the bad guy. How she'd shouted at him when he'd wanted to forbid her to see her 'boyfriend'! It didn't occur to him even once how strange it was that a woman who usually went out of her way to avoid him was now asking for his help, which only confirmed my original assessment of him.

He was definitely delusional.

"Do you know about the women who've been murdered lately?" Bella asked hopefully.

Lambert was jolted out of the 'rescue of a damsel in distress' fantasy he'd been entertaining and shifted uncomfortably in his chair. Of course, he knew about them. Who didn't? The entire city seemed to be talking of nothing else. Lambert had his suspicions about who was responsible for the murders. He wasn't blind. He'd seen pictures of those women and knew who they remembered him of. He'd never said a word about that to her, of course. That wouldn't have been very healthy and she had already sent someone to keep an eye on Bailey and to guarantee his continued cooperation.

I noticed that he didn't appear to like to think about Victoria. He shoved the memory back down almost as quickly as it had surfaced. He was aware of how dangerous she was. Why did I ever agree to help her? he wondered desperately. Does Isabella suspect anything? I hope not. She will kill me if I blow it, and Bailey too.

"I read about it in the newspaper," he managed to say, his expression appropriately sympathetic. I saw Bella drew a deep breath, her nostrils flaring ever so slightly, and knew that she must have smelled the adrenalin that was coursing through his body. A moment later we all smelled it. He was scared. Very scared.

But he wasn't scared of Bella. Not yet.

"It's a very sad business," he added.

Bella slowly nodded. "It is," she agreed. "But that isn't what I came to talk to you about. I performed the autopsy on one of the victims and my assistant, Ms Grey, noticed how very much like me the woman looked. In fact, all of the victims resemble me." Her voice trembled slightly. "That isn't all, though. Last week I had two little girls on my table. Dr Lambert," the edge of feigned desperation on her voice made Emmett's jaw drop in awe of the fact that she was manipulating him successfully, "both girls shared part of my name! I'm scared."

Lambert stared at her, his mind numb with shock. Children? I knew that woman was a lunatic, but children? Who does something like that? He thought of his daughter, remembering the time when she'd been but a toddler. The thought of someone deliberately hurting an innocent child made him feel sick to his stomach.

"Have you talked to the police about it?" he asked slowly. It took a conscious effort to keep the fear out of his voice. He wondered only absently why Bella had chosen today of all days to talk to him about that, when he'd had her on the phone just half an hour minutes ago. He didn't make the connection. His mind was still in a state of shock.

"No." Bella shook her head, frowning. "I'm not sure they'll believe me. I mean," she smiled icily and this time there was no trace of anxiety or fear in her smile, "who would ever believe me that it was the doing of a single woman?"

Lambert froze. He didn't even dare to breathe as he met her dark, cold eyes. She's guessing, he thought wildly. His mind was suddenly working again, at twice the speed it had before. Fear tended to have that effect on the human mind. She's only guessing. She can't know about my connection to her. She must be guessing!

"So you already suspect who might be behind it?" he asked, proud of how calm and firm his voice was. He'd deny everything. Bella had no way of knowing he was lying.

"I do," Bella confirmed icily. "I would just like to know why you, a doctor who is supposed to save people, is working for a mass murderess."

She knows, Lambert realised with a sinking feeling. If not everything, then certainly the gist of it. But how? He'd been so careful! He'd never even thought about her in Bella's presence, afraid he'd give himself away. Oh God, he thought, horrified. Bailey… He'll kill her!

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, just as coldly. Deny it, he told himself over and over again. Deny it! What's the worst she can do? It's not as if she can go to the police! As she said, nobody would believe her.

He obviously has a death wish, Alice thought, disgusted. If he keeps it up, she'll kill him. She showed me the vision she'd had. Lambert lay amidst the remains of his desk, his spine broken in several places, judging by the way his body was twisted.

"I think you do," Bella retorted. "In fact, I know you do. Please answer my question."

Alice was right, I decided. Lambert did have a death wish. Frightened as he was, he still managed to mistake Bella's overly polite tone as a sign of uncertainty. Maybe I was wrong, he thought, allowing himself to feel a sliver of hope. Maybe she doesn't know and was only guessing before. Isabella obviously knows her, but then, I suspected as much anyway.

Why is this woman so important to you? he'd asked her only thirty minutes earlier. It was a question he'd asked before and never received an answer for, so he'd been surprised when she'd replied, She took something away from me. And I want to make her and this coven of hers pay for it!

"Who do you think you are?" Lambert demanded, pushing to his feet at last. He was leaning over his desk towards her, towering over her in an attempt to intimidate her. Fury flashed in her eyes.

Alice gasped.

"You almost have him," I said soothingly. "You're almost there. Just stay calm."

Bella nodded ever so slightly and relaxed visibly.

Alice breathed a sigh of relief. "That was close," she mouthed.

"How dare you accuse me of complicity to murder?" Lambert thundered. He didn't realise that he was very close to crossing a dangerous line. "Get out! Get out of my office this very minute or I will fire you, so help me God!"

Bella stood, her body rigid. It wasn't very hard to guess what was going on inside her mind. She'd almost reached the end of her patience. "Believe me, I don't intend to stay a minute longer in your presence than I absolutely have to."

It was the contempt in her voice that sent Lambert over the edge. He stepped around the desk, ready to grab Bella's arm and drag her outside.

"Uh-uh," Alice said as yet another vision unfolded in front of her psychic eye.

I didn't remember consciously deciding to move. I'd pushed open the door to Lambert's office and closed my arms around Bella's waist in less than a heartbeat. If Lambert had touched her, she would have ended him.

Bella snarled and I tightened my grip around her waist even though Alice didn't see her trying to escape my hold. Flinching, Lambert stepped back. However, he still wasn't afraid of Bella or even me. His fear of Victoria was too strong and Bella had been the meek employee too long for him to grasp now that she was just as dangerous as Victoria. His initial alarm at the possibility of having been discovered dissolved into rage.

The human capacity for stupidity was truly amazing!

"Stop," I said and cut off his rant before it had even begun. "We know you work for Victoria. We also know that you have been spying on Dr Swan and Dr Cullen. I suggest you answer Dr Swan's questions as truthfully as possible because I will know when you are lying." I smiled humourlessly. "And trust me when I say that it wouldn't be a good idea to even try."

Lambert swallowed visibly. I can't tell them. If I do, she'll kill my daughter.

"Bailey's safety is no longer an issue," I informed him. "Austin is gone and won't come back."

His eyes widened. How does he know I was thinking about Bailey? And how does he know about that creepy kid?

"As I said, it wouldn't be a very good idea to lie," I said simply. "Are you alright, love?" I asked quietly. Only when Bella turned around and raised her eyebrows at me, did I realise what I'd just called her. I let my arms drop back to my side, opening my mouth to apologise, but then she smiled and said, "I'm fine now. Alice saw me kill him, didn't she?"

"Yes, she did," I confirmed, relieved that she hadn't taken offence. I had lost the right to use that particular endearment a long time ago. What was I thinking?

Lambert had sank into the chair in front of his desk, his mind spinning. With the boy out of the picture, Victoria could no longer blackmail him, at least for the time being. It couldn't hurt to tell us at least something, could it? How was she to find out? As far as he knew, she wasn't even in Anchorage anymore. Besides, if we went after her, then we'd get her off his back.

It probably shouldn't have mattered what his motivation to help us was, but I found his pragmatic way of looking at things rather revolting.

"Fine," he said. "I'll tell you what you want to know." He made it sound like he was doing us a favour instead of the other way around.

"Well," Bella said, visibly relieved, "for starters I'd like to know where you met Victoria."

Lambert was cooperative during the following interrogation, even if he didn't exactly go out of his way to help as out. He kept withholding details he thought were too sensitive for us to know. Luckily, Victoria hadn't warned him to guard his thoughts. Apparently, Lambert had first met Victoria at a medical conference last July where she'd posed as a pharmaceutical representative. She was the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on and he'd been thrilled that she hadn't left his side even once during the conference. Bella had already been working for Lambert in July, which Victoria must have known; it wouldn't have been very difficult to find out. According to Lambert, he hadn't heard anything from Victoria until the beginning of August, shortly after the former Head of Surgery had unexpectedly passed away. Carlisle had already sent in his application by that time, which Victoria couldn't have known, but she did know that we had relatives up in Alaska and that it was the perfect place to live for a vampire. She'd asked Lambert to see if he'd got an application from a Dr Carlisle Cullen and to consider hiring him if he had.

"I would have hired him anyway," Lambert said with a shrug. "He really was the best candidate."

I found the thought of Victoria having brought us back together slightly disturbing and so did Bella, judging by the revolted look on her face.

Victoria had also asked him to pass along information concerning Bella. Lambert had complied mainly because he'd wanted to get back at Bella for rejecting him over and over again—that wasn't quite how he worded it, of course—and because he didn't think Victoria would do her any actual harm. She'd seemed like a lovely woman at the medical conference. And when he finally realised that she had an ulterior motive after all, it had been far too late. The psychopathic boy, Austin, had shown up only days after he'd told Victoria that he'd no longer do her dirty work for her.

"I don't know where she is," he admitted. "I have her phone number, though. Sometimes she answers, sometimes she doesn't. If she doesn't pick up, I'll leave her a message. She calls back only if she thinks it's important. She's been calling me a lot lately. Today she was pissed. Apparently, you weren't supposed to show up at work this week."

"It shouldn't be hard to trace her phone," Alice said thoughtfully, her voice pitched too low for Lambert to hear. "Once we know where she is, we can make a plan."

"I think we're done here," Bella said to Lambert. "You should consider yourself very lucky, Henry, that I'm in a forgiving mood today." The expression on her face told me that she wasn't, but Lambert had been as cooperative as we could have wished for. Bella didn't seem to think it was fair to kill him now.

"Wait!" he called as we turned to leave.

I froze, hoping he wasn't stupid enough to actually verbalise the idea that had just popped into his head. I turned around to glare at him, but he was looking at Bella, whose eyebrows were raised expectantly.

"Yes?" she asked politely.

"I have a suggestion," Lambert said hurriedly. "I could work for you instead, feed her false information if you want. I'm sure we could come to an agreement."

Bella seemed to have guessed what he was asking because she'd gone completely rigid, wasn't even breathing. It took every ounce of self-control that I had not to slash his throat and let him bleed to death. The fantasy now playing in his mind was repulsive. Bella on her knees in front of him, her skirt hiked up. Bella lying on his desk, naked.

"Stop it!"

For a moment I thought I had spoken. The images assaulting me had almost become unbearable and Alice was already preparing to tackle me pre-emptively before I did something I'd regret later. But it wasn't me who'd said it.

"Stop thinking about me that way!" Bella grated. I realised that somehow she had seen what I had seen, that her shield had been triggered—perhaps this time by fury instead of fear—and that she wasn't going to let it go.

I didn't even attempt to hold her back when she lunged at Lambert. She yanked him out of the chair by the collar of his shirt and he finally realised that he'd made the mistake of underestimating Bella and that she could be just as dangerous and savage as Victoria. She slammed him first onto the surface of his desk, shattering his shoulder in the process, and then against the window with enough force to break his spine in at least seven places and cause the glass to moan. Lambert gasped, then his mind went blank, simply disappeared, even as the supposedly shatterproof window broke into a million pieces. Lambert's body sailed through the air and hit the snowy ground below with a soft thud.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Bella whispered before she slumped to the ground, her arms wrapped tightly around her chest.

A/N: I would love to hear what you think! Review please! Follow me on Twitter if you want TheaJa1 !