Author's note: I wanted to make this chapter a bit longer as I may not be able to update tomorrow due to funky work schedule and family stuff. Still, I give you this chapter to enjoy!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Her head was pounding, her mouth was dry, and as near as she could tell by the way her stomach felt, she'd swallowed a porcupine. And yet, whenever she opened her eyes and saw the concern, the love in his glowing golden ones, nothing else mattered.

"Edward," she whispered, and saw his face light up before becoming closed once more. ~My god. What have I done?~

"Bella," he replied, evenly and without inflection, almost as though he was unsure who he was greeting. "How do you feel?"

"Like shit," she replied honestly. "Better, though, since you're here. I bet I look just as horrid, though," she chuckled quietly. Smiling at her for the first time since she awoke, he kissed the tip of her nose.

"Bella, you could never look anything but lovely." His words warmed her, and she snuggled closer into his arms.

"Yeah, but you're biased," she murmured, feeling - of all things - sleepy.

"Doesn't make the statement any less true." She tried to yawn discreetly, but he saw it anyway. "Get some sleep, love. You need to recover."

"But I've been sleeping forever!" Another yawn and her eyes began to drift shut of their own accord.

"That was different. That was catatonia. This is rest, a healing sleep."

"Edward?"

"Hmm?"

"Will you stay here, with me? I think I'll sleep better with you." He smiled happily, and though she couldn't see it he knew she heard it in his voice.

"Bella, I will be here forever for you. Now rest." A few seconds later and she was settled against him, her loving guardian ready to keep watch against the shadows of the night.

Her last thought before she slipped into a peaceful slumber was that there was something missing.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

In the room upstairs, a similar vigil was being held. Esme was stretched out alongside her husband, taking what comfort she could in the fact that Caralla said whatever she had done had worked. She'd sent the others away hours ago, wanting to be alone with him for a while. She tangled her fingers in his soft hair, loving the way the strands felt against her fingers. She found herself thinking about the events that had shaped these last months, and try though she might she couldn't find it in herself to be angry at...well, anyone, really. She supposed she could be angry at Bella. Or at Carlisle. Or even herself. But when it boiled right down to it...it wasn't worth the hassle of being upset. Things would work out. She pressed her lips to Carlisle's cheek, offering comfort to him as much as herself.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too." His near inaudible response had her sitting up in shock, then launching herself into his still weakened embrace with a happy squeal.

"Carlisle! How are you feeling? Are you okay?"

"Well, I've got a huge headache. Haven't had one of those in so long I forgot what it feels like." He chuckled. "And to think there were times I missed being human." He pulled her against his chest, burying his face in her hair.

"Whatever Caralla did must have worked then!" she said joyfully. He looked at her, completely confused.

"Caralla...she's here? What did she do?" Esme sat up and met her man's gaze.

"Honestly, I don't know. None of us do, really. What do you remember?" He thought for a moment.

"I remember kissing you goodbye when you headed out to hunt, and walking back into the livingroom to watch a movie with Edward and Alice and Bella." He seemed a bit pensive when he continued. "After that it's all a bit fuzzy. Like something tickling my mind that I should see but am blind to."

"So you don't remember anything that happened afterward?" She hated to push, but she needed to know what he knew. If he didn't recall it, then she wouldn't bring it up. Not until they'd all talked to Caralla later.

"No. Not until a few moments ago when I woke up with the most beautiful woman in the world in my arms. Though," he added, a smile on his lips, "if that's the treat I get for waking up I must really try and find out how to go to sleep more often." She laughed with him, kissing him solidly before laying back down beside him, her head on his arm.

"So why is Caralla here? Not that I mind having her visit, but...is something wrong?" He felt her tense slightly, but she shook it off with ease.

"Nothing's wrong anymore. Yes, Caralla's here. We'll be going down to talk to her later. Right now, though," she said, rolling over to place a hand on his chest, "I'd like to simply lay here with you for a while. If that's okay with you, that is," she added with a grin.

"I can't think of a better day," he murmured, holding her close and enjoying the peacefulness of just doing nothing. Nothing, that is, except wondering why he had an empty spot in his mind where, he got the feeling, something important was once stored.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXx

Bella awoke to Edward's gentle voice.

"Come on, Sleeping Beauty, time to wake up. They're all waiting on us." She sat up, stretching, feeling more alert than she had earlier.

"Sleeping Beauty? Well, weren't you supposed to wake me with a kiss?"

"I tried," he said in feigned insult, "but you slept right through it." She just laughed, leaning over to kiss him easily. After a moment they broke apart.

"Honestly, though, everyone's waiting for us in the livingroom. Come on." He stood and held out his hand, waiting for her to swing her legs off the side of the bed and stand. She'd taken one step before she all but collapsed.

"Aaagh! God, that hurts! What the hell happened to my hip?" She looked at him for an explanation, and he thought quickly.

"It was an accident earlier. You'll hear all about it in a little while, I'm sure." ~No need to tell her that it got dislocated while she was having wild sex in the rain with Carlisle and I was in the other room enjoying the feeling of Alice riding me like a bronco.~ He scooped her up in his arms, dropping to the floor lightly. She just laughed.

"Am I the only person who ever plans to use those stairs?" He kissed her again briefly.

"Of course. Why do you think we built them?" Carrying her out the hall, he walked into the living room and was shocked again at Bella's response.

"Hi, everyone. Don't know what's up with my napping all of a - Caralla? When did you get in? Why didn't anyone tell me?" The raven-tressed beauty was just as breathtaking in the Cullen living room as she had been in Greece, and Bella smiled at her as she stood and walked over.

"Darling Bella, I couldn't bear to have them wake you." Edward set Bella on the couch carefully before taking a seat himself. The entire room radiated with tension as Bella and Carlisle locked gazes.

"Hey there," she whispered. He just smiled.

"Hey there yourself." Suddenly his eyes widened in shock, snapping to the visiting vampire.

"Caralla! What the hell is going on? What did you do?" The Cullen clan all suddenly had something to look at that was more important than the shocked and marginally upset head of the family, but Caralla just looked at him calmly. On the couch, Bella gasped in abject realization.

"Carlisle, what do you mean?" It wasn't a question of evasion, it was a request for an honest answer. And she got it, in stereo as Carlisle and Bella realized what they'd been missing.

"The bond is gone!" Bella cried, her body shaking with anger and anguish. Carlisle's voice wasn't very different.

"Caralla, what the HELL did you do to our BOND?" He was standing, more furious than anyone in the room had seen him in a very long time. In two steps he'd crossed to stand between Caralla and Bella, staring daggers at the elegant elder. She, in turn, simply stared back, her voice calm when she did decide to speak.

"I separated it for the time being."

"You what? Why would you sever our bond?" came Bella's quiet cry from behind Carlisle.

"I didn't sever it. To do that would have killed you, and probably driven Carlisle mad. I simply separated it, so that it can be rejoined the proper way."

"And what way would that be?" Carlisle spat.

"A way that would avoid the otherwise definite death of this human we all find so precious. Relax, Carlisle. I would never break your bond. It's something that will become very necessary in days and years to come. But if it had continued the way it was going..." She didn't finish her sentence, causing Bella to prompt her.

"What would have happened?" With a casual motion Caralla took one step to the side so she could see both Bella and Carlisle while still remaining visible to the rest of the family - who had decided it owuld be prudent to stay silent, as no one had any idea what was going to happen. Her eyes stayed on Bella, but it wasn't the human she addressed.

"Edward, I will need your help for this. I'm going to project something, and while I can send it to Bella I haven't regained all of my strength yet. I'd like you to read it from my mind and communicate it to the others."

"Of course," he said with more certainty than he felt.

"Good. Then let's begin." In a brief moment, the entire roomful of people felt themselves drawn into what was obviously both vision and memories.

~It started here.~ A flash of Bella and Carlisle in Greece, that fateful kiss that began the bond flaring within everyone's minds with the force of a star gone supernova. Around the room there were gasps at the intenstiy of the sensations that flooded through the mating couple. ~And it grew, in need and hunger. Born of lust and love, it quickly outpaced the latter and became almost wholly comprised of the latter.~ Random scenes of their frenzied couplings both in Greece and back in the states, no scene staying clear long enough to do more than absorb the feelings generated. ~It went to this.~ A very vivid replay of the moment that Bella drew the knife across her skin, the second that Carlisle leaned in to take what was offered so freely, the sensation blurring the lines between what was safe and what was deadly. It showed how it masked any and all of their sensations but desire and need, driving them both higher and faster than their minds could take. The moment where Bella's hip snapped out of place. The resulting fanatic climax on both parts; the way it only served to tighten the bond in a way it wasn't intended. ~And then this.~ The shattered fragments of Carlisle's mind, and of Bella's. The battle Caralla had waged, first within Bella's sleeping mind, and then within Carlisle's very much alert one. The last moment of clarity before she withdrew from Carlisle's mind, her job done.

"Enough," Caralla whispered, letting go of the images as Edward did, both of them drained by the effort it had taken. Edward wrapped his arm around Bella's shoulder, leaning his head against herneck, while Caralla sank to the floor and leaned backward against the coffee table, stretching her legs out in front of her. The room was dead silent except for the one very living being whose breathing was staggered and erratic.

"If the bond had been left to grow as it was, do either of you doubt the outcome?" Carlisle turned to look at Bella as she looked up at him. In their faces could be read a multitude of matching emotions, the most prevalent being fear. Turning to Caralla, they shook their heads.

"I...would have died." Bella sounded very small, but Caralla had to push her point.

"Not just died. You would have been torn apart in the midst of the most painful pleasure known to man, after which Carlisle would have been so guilt-ridden that he would have been racing Edward and Esme to Italy to see which of them would get obliterated by the Volturi first." She let that sink in. Silence was once more the sound of the moment, until a quiet, hesitant voice spoke from the other side of the room.

"I see now. You'll help them, won't you?" Caralla turned to Alice.

"Absolutely. I'm still here, aren't I?" she added with a smirk.

"Help us what?" asked Carlisle.

"I need to guide you through reconnecting the bond properly, beacuse if left separate too long it could cause exactly as much damage as if I had simply severed it to begin with. But I will not do this without everyone's agreement, as it is not just the fate of two lives I am affecting, but that of everyone present today." She turned to the rest of the still-quiet Cullen family. "So, I'd have your thoughts, if I may ask for them."

"It's so much clearer now. Everything will be fine." Alice's confident voice rang out before anyone else could speak. Caralla simply nodded and turned to Jasper.

"Well," he drawled slowly, "it seems to not be the bond itself, but how it was forged that caused the problems. Honestly, in the beginning, everything was so smooth for all of us that I know at least Esme mentioned wishing she'd thought of it first. I say do it."

"Go for it," said Emmett, echoed shortly by Rosalie.

"Yes. If it can be done without hurting anyone, do it. I can't stand the thought of Bella or Carlisle slowly going insane." Esme was nodding by the time Rose was finished.

"I think it would be for the best," she said gently.

"As do I," capitulated Edward, shocking everyone but Alice. Caralla, however, simply nodded as she had to everyone else before turning back to the two that had yet to be heard from.

"Well, that seems to leave just the two of you. If either of you wish this not to happen, I won't be a part of forcing it. But keep in mind, I cannot do this again. I will not. If you decide at a later date that this is something you wish you hadn't done, there will be no going back."

Carlisle turned to Bella where she sat on the couch. He took a moment to look at the rest of them - his family, his wife, his children; his friends. Seeing nothing but acceptance and agreement in their golden gazes, he sat on the couch.

"It's up to you, Bella. You know what my answer is. I already feel that something important is missing from my mind." She looked first to Edward, kissing him gently, lingeringly. Then she looked back at Carlisle. Seemingly about to speak, she stopped to regard Caralla.

"Does this mean I don't have to worry about having my joints forcibly dislocated anymore?" she asked wryly. Caralla laughed.

"Only if you ask for it, Bella love." The brunette looked back at the man beside her.

"Then yes, I accept. Let's fix this. I miss you too, Carlisle." Alice let out a cheer, and the entire room began to laugh.

"Yeah! This is going to be awesome! We get to watch a binding, a real binding, something that hasn't been done for..." she glanced at Caralla.

"A very long time," the other said noncommittally.

"Oh, Caralla, one of these days we'll find out how old you really are," Alice laughed again, the brightness of the mood dispelling the last, lingering traces of hurt and allowing them to be, once again, a family.