Bella's arm was strong, but Carlisle wondered if she would be able to hold him up…or hold him back…should something terrible happen to his Esme. He had always prided himself on keeping a cool, sensible demeanor and a level head that got him through the worst of situations. But now, with his wife's existence being put to the test…no, he just had to put his faith in Emmett. If he didn't, he was liable to do something drastic in the coming seconds.

Emmett reached down to Esme's mouth, opening her jaw wider before slipping the syringe in. He slowly eased the solution down her throat, massaging her neck to coax it down. A small thrum of physician-based pride went through Carlisle as he watched his son perform so well, but it quickly flickered out and was replaced by that steady pulse of fear and worry.

They waited a minute. Then two. Then ten. Yet nothing happened.

"She…?" Edward's voice was questioning, worrisome, and Emmett could only shrug his shoulders as he stood from the bed, letting Carlisle sit down beside his wife once again.

"If Jasper were here…" Rosalie trailed off sadly.

"What do we do now?" asked Bella.

"Wait," Carlisle said simply. "No one touches Alice until we give the antidote time to process. If there's…." His voice broke, and he had to swallow a few times before going on. "If there's no change in a day's time, we'll try again."

Emmett nodded. "We'll be downstairs." He reached for Rosalie's waist, tucking her body close to his for a moment, then left the room with her, Edward and Bella soon following.

Carlisle was left alone with his wife, and he sat on the bed by her side, holding one of her small pale hands in both of his. He wasn't sure what he had expected to happen. The doctor in him knew some miraculous change was unlikely. She would not sit up and talk and throw her arms around him in a moment's time after being in a comatose state for weeks. Yet some part of him, the foolish part of him, thought perhaps just hoping would be enough. That she might pull a Snow White and open her eyes with a smile and be whole, be his again.

He rose from the bed, falling into doctor-mode when his hopes had failed. He checked for an unnecessary heartbeat, breaths that didn't come, blood pressure that didn't exist. Her vitals were nonexistent, the same as they had been for the last hundred years, and they worried him now more than ever before.

What would he do without her? What would he be? His life before her had been fine, but commonplace. Ordinary. And she had made it extraordinary with her very existence, even before she had been his. No, she was not his. He was hers, entirely. His heart, every fiber of his being, belonged to Esme. How could he function without his soul? In a swift movement, he knelt beside the bed and began to pray.

God, he begged silently, if it is Your will, bring her back to me. Our family is not complete without her. I am not complete without her. And…and if she should…if it is Your will to bring her to Your kingdom…keep her safe until I come to join her.

He squeezed Esme's hand tightly, as if he could touch the hand of God through the angel he had before him. Still, she did not stir. And still, he waited.


Bella had settled on the loveseat next to Edward while Rose sat in one of the armchairs and Emmett sprawled at her feet. Someone had turned the TV on low, and the gentle hum and flicker of light was a comforting distraction from their fear.

"It has to work," Emmett said aloud and yet to himself. "I wouldn't have tried it if it wasn't going to work."

"How do we even know that was the real formula to start with?" Rosalie asked glumly. "Maria might do anything."

"Jasper knew," Bella volunteered. "He wouldn't have done what he did if it wasn't real. He wouldn't hurt them like that."

The silent that settled was an accepting one, the thought ringing true in each person. If Jasper had given up his freedom, surely it had been for something he knew would help his wife and mother. Though whether or not it would really help remained to be seen.

Bella's phone went off in her pocket, an electronic peal that made everyone in the room jump a little. She pulled it out and looked at the screen; a text message from her daughter, asking if everyone was okay. Bella glanced up at her husband, unsure what to say.

Edward pondered the thought for a minute before sighing. "Tell her we're waiting to see. That's all we can do."

She texted the girl back and returned the phone back to her pocket after she silenced it. The family couldn't handle any more jarring noises now, not when…

Good Lord…

The most intoxicating scent she'd had in a long time filled her nose, nearly lifting her up and off her chair with its sweet intensity. Even without thinking, Bella found herself rising to her feet, her eyes half-closed as she took a step forward.

"Bella?" Edward asked as he came beside her.

Emmett stood too. "Don't you smell that?" he asked, a hungry look on his face.

Edward closed his eyes and took a deep inhale. "It's…"

"It's human," Rosalie finished, her voice teetering between strict denial and wanting to give in. "We should ignore it."

"But what human comes here?" Edward asked. "We're in the middle of nowhere."

"Hikers?" Emmett suggested.

Bella shook her head. "No…it's coming from inside the house." She left the room on a whim, knowing it was dangerous, but knowing also that she had to find out what that scent was. It was so different, so appealing…even if she wouldn't allow herself to taste it, she had to at least see where it was coming from.

The trail of fragrance led her up the stairs, a short way down the main hall and into –

"Oh, my God…" Bella halted in the doorway of Carlisle and Esme's room, realizing just what, just who was so very tantalizing…and with it came the realization that something was very, very wrong.

Carlisle was kneeling beside the bed, his forehead pressed against the edge of the mattress, his hands folded and pressed tightly to his lips as if in prayer. Esme lay on the bed in the same position as she had been for weeks…yet a change had still occurred. Her thick caramel hair had lost its luster, her skin had darkened from alabaster to a creamy beige, and, had she been able to open her eyes, Bella was sure they wouldn't be the normal honey color they always were. Something in that antidote had changed her – saved her, it seemed, with the way her chest rose and fell shallowly and her heart weakly beat, but it had changed her all the same. Esme was human.

"Carlisle," Edward said, loud enough to startle the man from his genuflections. Carlisle looked over to the door where the foursome stood, all of them tense and hungry, their eyes black and darting towards the living, breathing, blood-pumping figure on the bed.

It took a minute for him to understand, but then Carlisle looked towards the bed again too, even his steely composure cracking as his lips trembled and he leaned towards his wife's human form, taking her scent deep in his lungs.

"Is…is this the cure?" he asked lowly, looking to Emmett.

He swallowed, his eyes nervous. "I didn't think she…it must be the antivenom. It woke her but…"

"She's human," Rosalie whispered, her eyes wide, shocked, almost calculating.

Edward stepped forward, his breath still in his lungs so he might not be tempted, though the stiffness in his gait showed how very hard it was for him. Esme, the kind, the caring, smelled just as sweet as a human as she was in her immortal life. Taking care to not inhale, Edward pressed his hands to her throat, feeling her pulse for a few seconds…thirty…a minute, before he looked round wildly.

"She's dying," he said to Carlisle, serious and urgent. "She's just like she was all those years ago. Human, but dying. Carlisle, you have to save her. Her pulse is thready. She'll be gone in a few minutes."

"Dying?" Carlisle repeated hoarsely.

Edward grabbed his father under the arms, pulling him to his feet and facing him. "It's now or you lose her, Carlisle. What are we going to do?"

Carlisle was frozen for a moment, his eyes on his wife, watching as her breath got slower and slower, her heartbeat an audible sound in the room, the pauses between each thump getting longer every moment. The tension, bloodlust, and fear in the room was nearly at the breaking point.

And then, with a swift, sudden movement, Carlisle leaned towards the bed, snapping his jaws around Esme's neck with a ferocity so unlike him. It was something nearly all of them had experienced, Carlisle feeding at their vein, but they had never remembered it. And now it was there, so plainly in front of them, so base and animalistic and almost erotic. But it was saving her; Esme was shivering underneath Carlisle, letting out painful little moans that only grew in intensity as he sat back, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"Go," he muttered, his voice harsh as he resumed his vigil next to the bed, holding her now-trembling hand in his. Esme was back, cured of the poison that had frozen her body, going through the change once more that would bring her back to the woman they knew, the mother and wife they loved.

"Carlisle, perhaps we should stay," Edward offered. "What if she –"

"Please." Carlisle's plea was harsh and plaintive.

"What about Alice?" Rosalie asked.

He hung his head. "Later. I can't…again…"

"Later," Emmett agreed and opened the door wide, ushering the others out. As a group, they went downstairs, finding respite in being together as they settled in the living room again.

No one was able to speak much in the moments that followed. The silence was a shocked one as each took in what had just happened. Bella, the newest of the flock, was feeling it the worst, the scent of Esme's newfound and fading humanity filling her nose and making her mouth water venomously. Edward seemed to cling to her tighter, knowing that as much as the desire was for him, it was twofold for his wife.

"Will she be alright?" Rosalie murmured aloud, voicing their shared and unspoken thought. Though Esme was seemingly cured of the poison that had wracked her system, the change that was happening right now was a dangerous one. One she might not survive.

"She will," Emmett replied, holding her hand, putting their doubts to rest with the firmness of his voice. "She went through this before. We all did. Carlisle won't let anything happen to her now."

The cries came louder from upstairs, moans of pain as Esme's now-human body was subjected to the torture of the change once more. Bella winced and paced across the room, opening two of the floor-to-ceiling windows to let in the cool air. It barely helped, but she stayed at the sill, inhaling deeply.

"What of Alice?" she asked, not turning from the window.

"I suppose once Esme's come through it, we'll administer the antidote and Carlisle will change her again too," Edward replied.

"So three days until then, and then three days after until she's well. Six days until we're back to normal," Emmett said with a little sigh.

Rosalie shook her head. "No. One hundred years."

Jasper's absence was a palpable thing, something just as painful as the holes left by the sleeping women upstairs. For even though Esme and Alice were missing, they would soon return. It would not be the case with their brother.

"We'll make it," Emmett said encouragingly. "And so will he."

"But you don't know that," countered Rosalie. "The Volturi are awful, they might –"

"Stop," Edward commanded suddenly, and the tone of his voice was one to obey. Bella wondered if perhaps he couldn't stand the thought of them losing the brother who had sacrificed so much…but then he rose to his feet with such a look of purpose in his eyes that she knew it was not just that. Had something happened to Esme, something they couldn't feel?

"Edward?" she asked, coming to his side. Edward took a step forward, shielding her with his body as if he felt danger approaching.

She heard it then; the footsteps coming towards the house. Footsteps thundering so loud, only those of their kind could make them. Before any of them could race out the door, it flew open, the unseen vampire stopping short in the front hall.

"Jasper?" Rosalie gasped.

It was him – or a vision of him, looking wide-eyed and bedraggled, the hunter green button-up he wore nearly ripped to shreds. Somehow, someway, he had gotten free from Maria's clutches and had returned home, a blessed yet worrisome sight to them all.

"Where is she? Is she well? Is she cured?" he asked in a rush of air, his eyes darting around like a wild animal.

Everyone replied in a rush.

"What are you doing here?"

"She'll be fine."

"I thought you were with Maria!"

He held up his hands. "Enough," he murmured, looking weary. "Just…where is she?"

"I'll take you," Bella volunteered, stepping forward from the agape group and taking his elbow to lead him upstairs. She was quite aware they were being followed by the others, but she did not stop, to ask them to remain behind or otherwise. The trembles running through her brother made her continue on. She could see Jasper's chest tighten and his breath halt as they passed the room where Esme lay. Her thick human scent was near-pulsating through the air, a temptation to them all that they fought hard to ignore.

And while Esme was going through the change that would end but ultimately save her life, Alice was lying in her bed, the same as always, dressed in the nightgown Rosalie had changed her into yesterday. Jasper froze in the doorway the moment he saw her…then rushed to her side in a nanosecond, kneeling next to the bed and poring over her face with his fingertips.

"She is still…isn't she?" Rosalie asked from the doorway they all still stood in, just to make sure.

Jasper leaned close to his silent, sleeping wife, closed his eyes…and nodded.

"Yes," he replied. "She lives. But…the cure?"

"We think we have it," Emmett replied.

"Is that what you gave Esme?"

"Yes."

"And will Alice…"

"The antidote cured her of everything. Even what we are," Emmett went on.

"Is that what you want, Jasper?" Edward asked his brother.

"Is there really any other choice?" Jasper hoarsely countered.

The siblings stood silent again, each pondering the question. Was there any way out? Could a cure be found that wouldn't cause such pain for Esme and Alice? Not to mention the rest, those who had to stand by and watch, listening to their screams of pain, smelling their sweet changing blood in the air. They didn't even truly know if Esme would be alright. Could they subject Alice to the same torture?

Carlisle came into the room then, looking tense and harried. "Rosalie, could you go sit with Esme?" he asked as his glazed-over eyes scanned the room…then widened when he saw Jasper kneeling by the bed. His mouth opened and shut, unable to form words for a moment. "How…what…you're home."

"I am," Jasper answered simply.

"But…Maria…"

"She's…taken care of."

He said nothing more, no one pressed, and Rosalie slipped out the door to take care of Esme. The rest resumed business.

"When can we cure her?" Jasper asked in a tone that was at once determined and slightly fearful.

"We should wait," Emmett and Carlisle said in unison at the same time Edward and Bella chorused, "Now."

Exasperated, Jasper huffed out, "Well, which is it?"

"We should wait to see what happens to Esme," Carlisle suggested. "If…if she is hurt…"

"She won't be," Emmett insisted. "But maybe we can calibrate a second antidote."

"A second antidote?" Edward repeated. "The one we have is fine. It cured her. I can hear her thoughts again, painful as they are. She'll be back soon."

"After she has to suffer the change again," Carlisle muttered, half to himself.

"What if that's the only way?" Bella asked. "Or what if something happens to Alice before we find another cure. If the Volturi decide to come after her, what then? She –"

"Enough!" Jasper commanded once more, the second time in the space of a few minutes. "The antidote, Emmett. Please."

"Jasper, really," Carlisle pleaded.

Listening well, Edward spoke up for his brother's silence. "It's his wife, Carlisle. Did you not just do the same thing to save yours?"

"But this is also our daughter, your sister –"

"Just as Esme is our mother." Edward placed a hand on the man's shoulder, staring into his dark, anxious eyes. "Let him choose."

Carlisle was quiet, gathering himself, stepping away from the worried, frail man his family's illness caused him to be and becoming the clearheaded doctor once more. That was what they needed him to be right now, and so he would.

"Emmett," he said quietly, "go get the antidote. And my bag."


Emmett didn't move as quickly as he should have. Maybe if they gave him time, Jasper would change his mind. Truth was, Emmett was feeling the weight of what had happened. It was his antidote that had nearly killed Esme. It had been a cure, yes, but a curse too. And it was all his fault.

If he only could have a little more time. Maybe if he reduced the levels of antivenom within the compound. Yes, just enough to cure what they had been given but not enough to…no, that wouldn't work. He'd have to raise the prednisone then, and that would mess up every other calibration. She'd go into shock, or worse. Emmett growled angrily to himself as he walked down the hall.

Rosalie's head popped out of the door he was trying to get to, her expression worried.

"Something wrong?"

He shrugged. "Nothing I can fix." It was true. This seemed to be the only cure he could come up with and it was causing more harm than good at the moment. Jasper refused to be talked out of it, and Alice would be in such pain, all because of him. Jasper would be furious, even though he was the one consenting, and Emmett would have to bear the brunt of it.

Rosalie opened the door wider and let him in, and as he entered the bedroom, he quickly averted his eyes. Esme was writhing on the bed, her pained movements punctuated by bitten back groans and strains of her scent wafting over to him, pure and mouth-watering. He shook his head to clear it and stalked over quickly to grab Carlisle's well-worn leather satchel near the bedside table.

"Emmett?"

He stopped with his hand on the doorknob and looked back. Rosalie was sitting in Esme's chair near the window, her hands folded tightly. Too tightly, he could tell. She was upset, stressed, the same as they all were. He went to her and smoothed a hand down her cheek, sighing a little at the familiar feeling. It had been so long…okay, not so long, considering his lifespan, but he was achingly glad to have her back nevertheless.

"Is Alice going to change too?" she asked, leaning a bit into his hand.

He nodded. "I think so." If Jasper had his way.

"And…you're upset about that?"

She was insightful, even without a gift. He had forgotten that. "I don't want to cause her that pain. The way Esme is…if I can fix that, I ought to."

Rosalie pursed her lips. "But you can't, can you? I mean, the way you've made it is the only way it will work."

"Yeah, I know."

"So, it's either going through this, or waiting for something else to happen. And that isn't going to get us anywhere, is it?"

He sighed again, shaking his head. "No. You're right."

She put her fingers around his wrist and squeezed gently. "We're starting over again, you and I. Just like they have to start over again. It'll be a new thing for all of us, and I think it'll be good."

Emmett bent down and pressed his lips to hers, savoring the feeling for a moment before drawing back.

"You're pretty amazing, you know that?" he asked with a slight smile.

She grinned. "Yes, I know."

He rolled his eyes at her vanity; it was something to be expected, and he had almost missed the habit.


When Emmett returned to the room, Jasper hardly noticed. He had blocked nearly every sight and sound around him and could do nothing but focus on the small, still body on the bed. He was back home with his Alice, and soon she would be back with him entirely. Even if they had to go through the horrors Esme was enduring, they could do it. They had been through much more. He clasped the little hand beneath his tighter and pressed it to his lips, just as a palm settled against his shoulder.

Carlisle stood behind him, a needle-less syringe full of red liquid in his hand – the antidote, no doubt.

"It's time," he said softly. Jasper nodded and shifted, sideways, refusing to let go of his wife's hand. Whatever it was that needed to be done to her, he would be there at her side. And when it came time to change her, he would do it. She had resurrected him from his old life. He would bring her back just the same.

Carlisle eased in on the other side of the bed, parting Alice's red lips and injecting the serum down her throat. The doctor's hands massaged the column of her neck, easing the solution down, helping it to course through her. Jasper held on to the girl's hand ever tighter, watching, waiting to see if something, anything would happen.

The moments passed. And nothing occurred.

"It isn't working," he spat angrily, feeling his heart shrink and grow cold at the thought of life without her.

"It was this way with Esme," Bella spoke up from where she stood. "Give it time."

Time. Time…he had waited so very long. Didn't he deserve her back now? He had gone through life as a human, life with Maria, life on his own, before coming to her. She had been the one bright light in his life, and she had been cruelly snatched from him. He wanted her back now, simple as that. He deserved her back now and –

He growled low in his throat as hands approached Alice's body, a territorial beast protecting what was his.

"Jasper, calm yourself," Carlisle ordered, showing him the stethoscope he held in his hands. "I only want to check her."

Jasper swallowed and nodded, feeling more than slightly ashamed. "Go ahead."

Carlisle leaned close, pressing the stethoscope to Alice's chest.

"Anything?" Emmett asked anxiously.

The doctor held up a finger, signaling for silence, and Jasper felt his entire world come to a sudden, blazing halt. Would she…was she…

"Do you hear that?" Carlisle asked, looking up.

"Hear…?" Jasper repeated, straining to listen.

"It's the same as Esme," he explained. "She's human."

Jasper looked over his pale, fragile wife, trying to see if…yes, she was different. Her skin was a sallow, grayish color, not her usually creamy white, and her hair was lank and dull. She looked as if she had been kept far away from the sun for many years…which was exactly how she had spent her last remaining days as a human. It made all the sense in the world. But…was she still his Alice? Underneath this changed exterior, was she the same woman he had fallen in love with? The same woman who…please, God…loved him?

"Listen," Edward murmured. "Her heart."

Jasper quieted his thoughts for a moment to listen, wondering if it could all really be true. If she had been cured, then all he had to do was change her. It was as simple as that. As simple as the soft, thudding beats echoing in the air, the ones that signaled that she truly was there, truly was well. Life had come back to Alice; her heart was beating, her veins were pulsating, blood was coursing –

It came upon him in a second. The bloodlust was like nothing he had ever felt before. Every human he had ever met had been a temptation to withstand, but not like this. Never like this. The scent of the humanly body calling to him was without a doubt the best thing he had ever been near, and he…he just couldn't…couldn't stop himself…

His jaws were clamped around her neck in a moment, sucking down that sweet, pure liquid that put the fire in his belly to rest. Dear God, she was good. The best thing he had ever tasted. He needed more. More.

"Jasper, you have to stop now."

No, no, he didn't have to stop. He needed her. Needed it. Needed to keep drinking.

"Jasper. Stop. Stop."

No.

"You're killing her, Jasper! Stop!"