The living room was filled with anxious, worried vampires, none of which had the slightest desire to even pretend to be human at the moment. There was no need. The only human in the vicinity already knew what they were, and she was asleep in her luxurious bed, and would be for a while. Finally the sound they'd all been waiting for came, the soundless echo of footsteps. Alice rushed out into the foyer and flung the door open.

"Caralla! Thank god! We have to fix this!" She would have said more, but the elegant vampire simply placed one finger over her lips before walking into the living room to join the rest.

"Quiet, Alice. Everything will be fine. We've just got a little cleaning up to do, that's all." Edward just about exploded.

"A little cleaning up? Is that what you call it? The woman I love is drugged to the gills because she's losing her damned mind, Carlisle is somewhere in Seattle and no one's heard from him - and this is just a 'little cleaning up'? God, what would you consider a huge mess?!"

"Pompeii," she said quietly, walking right past Edward into the center of the livingroom, sinking gracefully onto the couch and glancing at everyone.

"Okay, someone needs to explain as much as you know to me - someone other than you, Edward." He looked insulted, but she continued. "Not because your input isn't valuable, but because you are too close to Bella to be able to keep your emotions out of this long enough to explain things."

"She's right, Edward," came Esme's soft voice. She stepped over and put her hands on his shoulders. "Maybe I'd better tell her what's going on."

"Actually, you are also too close to this, Esme." Everyone looked at the raven-haired one in shock. "I can feel your tension from here. You're holding yourself together for everyone else's sake right now, but it's not doing anything for your own mind. Jasper, would you mind?" She made a small gesture with her hands, encompassing the entire room and he understood immediately. A ripple of calm radiated through them all. "Thank you. Now, I'm assuming you're all on the same page here, which means that you all have the same information about this. I'm also guessing that you haven't that much to begin with. So, Emmett, what has happened?" She looked at him, and the big vampire looked frantically around the room like the boy in class that was never paying attention and suddenly gets called upon to answer the math problem. Rose reached over and grabbed his hand, squeezing lightly, and he took comfort and strength from that.

"I...um...well, Bella told us the other day that she and Carlisle had accidentally bonded to each other. We were all shocked, 'cause we though that it was a myth."

"Oh, no, it's quite real," she murmured quietly. "Continue?"

"So, I guess Edward and Carlisle had it out or whatever, and everyone was cool. But then Jazz and Esme and Rose and I went hunting, and I guess after Alice and Edward paired off, Bella and Carlisle went outside. As near as we can tell, he drank from her, but there are no bite marks or anything."

"Did anyone check her for small cuts?" Caralla said, and Alice nodded frantically.

"Yes! Yes, there is one! On her neck, right where it meets the shoulder. I didn't think about it, since Bella's always hurting herself." Caralla just nodded.

"And then what?"

"Well, Alice said she left Edward for a moment and found Carlisle in the study, and he said he'd drugged Bella. And they talked, and he decided to go away for a while until he could straighten his head. He's given Bella a sleeping pill dissolved in punch and left, and that's when Jazz felt that we needed to come home. So here we are," he finished - rather lamely, he thought. Caralla just sat in silence for a while. Finally, she stood.

"I need to see Bella." Without a word Edward led the way down the hall to his beloved's room, walking up to sit on the bed, brushing her dark hair with his fingertips. The others had followed, but only Caralla ascended the stairs. She sank to her knees beside the bed and took Bella's hand in her own, her glowing eyes meeting Edward's.

"I promise, Edward, I will do everything in my power to fix this." He laughed, the sound defeated and bruised.

"Can anyone do anything? She's fallen in love with my father, damn it!" The woman shook her head.

"No, she hasn't. I think I can explain a little, though I'll know more in a few minutes." His expression begged her to continue. "You see, bonding is - as you've all learned - not a myth. However, there are usually steps taken to ensure that this type of occurrence doesn't happen. The first time she shared her blood with him, they were making love, which means that her blood was already spiked with endorphins and hormones. That was more than enough to connect them. With Carlisle it would have felt like a gentle tugging of his mind whenever she was near. But Bella, being a human - it would have quickly escalated to an intense need to - for lack of a better word, mate. Which in turn led to this - the need to share with him once more. Only, since this second time she gave her blood again was also during intimacy, it was too much for either of them to handle."

"So how do we fix it?" he asked, sounding so much like a scared little boy Caralla couldn't resist reaching out and cupping his cheek with her hand.

"'We' do nothing. 'You' go down and join your family. 'I' need total silence here, and to be completely uninterrupted, because I will very shortly be diving into Bella's mind and that's not a safe place for either of us if anything tries to distract me." His eyes widened.

"But, Bella - I can't read her. I don't know why, but I think she's got a block. Are you sure you'll be able to get in?" Caralla just smiled gently.

"Edward, I was old before Carlisle's maker's maker's great grandparents were even thought of. And with age comes not only strength, but knowledge. I've already been in Bella's mind once, though she didn't know it at the time. However, even I am not strong enough to keep her from being damaged by the backlash if anything were to disturb my concentration." She paused, taking his hands in hers. "Understand, this is a lot like invasive surgery. I have to go in, find the issue, and repair it. Would you want to startle a surgeon while he was patching up her internal organs?" He shook his head. "Exactly. Now, I promise you, I will not let anything happen to her. I love Bella too, you see. She's special." Gently Caralla traced her fingertips over Bella's brow. "Now, go. Explain to the others what I've said. I will be out whenever it's done. Then we can call Carlisle back and I can work on him next."

"But..." He seemed at a loss for words, and Caralla sympathized. She smiled at him.

"Go." She watched as he turned, walking down the steps with heavy feet and a heavier heatr. After a moment the door shut, and there was a click as someone locked it from the outside. With a sigh Caralla stood, then lay down on the bed beside the girl, rolling onto her side and placing her fingers gently against Bella's temple.

~Okay, Sleeping Beauty, let's fix this obsession.~