The clarity was burning her from the inside out. Worse than when James' venom had wormed it's way through her veins. Her breaths came in gasps and gulps. Her eyes remained fixed on the being she had once loved. Still loved.

His hand reached out to her, stroking a path from her eyebrows, down to her chin. Over and over. Gentle. Firm.

The fingers warmed as the friction heated them. The other hand raised and held her head in place, supporting her neck muscles that atrophied from disuse. Her eyelids fought to stay open, in spite of being encased in the darkness for so long. The bitter irony was that she had longed to gaze upon him for what felt like an eternity and now, in fleeting moments, her own body was betraying her and pulling her away.

Tears began to spill slowly from the corners of her eyes, but she didn't have the strength to wipe at them. He seemed to read her mind, caressing her cheek to remove the offensive wetness.

"Shhh...it's okay. I'm here. I'm here."

Would he be there when she woke? Would he leave her again? She couldn't take that chance, so she fought tooth and nail to stay awake. Her eyelids grew heavy by the second, like lead weights being drawn down by a powerful magnet, and she fought to keep them open.

No, keep fighting!

Her eyelids drooped and shut for far too long. Petal soft kisses could be felt against them.

"It's okay. You can sleep. I'll still be here when you wake," his voice whispered, as if giving permission for slumber. Could she trust that voice anymore?

Her body shuddered as weak sobs overtook her. She loved him and craved his body twined around her own, yet she simultaneously hated him for leaving her and yearned to lash out and beat her fists against his marble chest and scream at him for everything she'd lost-the time, the friendships, family.

But that wasn't his fault. The leaving was his fault. The wallowing and breakdown was hers and only hers to claim. Why did he make her so weak?

The thoughts dissipated as her consciousness lost the battle and sleep pulled her deep into it's undertow. Her lingering thoughts tickled her brain as she faded into the darkness. Hadn't she slept so long already?

Time passed without her realization and she awoke to the cool, stillness of her room. Her human eyes attempted to adjust to the trickling of light that began to filter through the blinds. The seat was empty where Edward had sat. The disappointment crept up and the catatonia threatened to claim her once more, her eyes fixing as she began to drift...

"Stay with me, darling."

The words were so convincing that she felt herself pulling from the darkness that had enveloped her in it's soothing embrace.

Arms encircled her. Not metaphoric arms. REAL arms. Granite, tight, persistent arms.

"You need to stay. I'm still here. You need to stay."

She obeyed, wishing with all her might that she could muster the physical strength to turn toward him in this intimate hold and...kiss him? Curse him? It didn't much matter, so long as those arms held tight and never let her go.

"I couldn't stay away from you."

Was he talking to the darkness of the room, or to her?

"I tried. I didn't have the strength."

Oh, so this was confession time.

"I thought I'd returned in time, but I was too late."

Too late? What did he mean? Too late?

"The dogs. They saved you. I should have saved you, Bella."

Dogs? Was this some weird hallucinogenic dream?

"I saved you."

Huh?

"In my mind," he continued, "I saved you. Every single night."

O...kay.

"I left you in that forest, more vulnerable than you'd ever been. You'd have been safer being attacked by Jasper."

Now that made the kind of sense she'd always known to be true.

"At least then, someone could have saved you. Changed you. Before it was too late."

Too late? There were those words again. Too late for what?

"I broke you. Left you for broken. Let you break, over and over again."

If he had only known that the shattering pain of her breaking heart had only led to blissful numbness and a mental suspended animation, perhaps he would have left her like that.

"Laurent, Victoria, they have continued searching for you."

Why would they care about her?

"I should have made you safe. Safe from them, safe from those dogs, safe from pain and heartbreak and loss. What have I done?" His sobbing voice lamented to the silent room.

She really didn't want to hear it. She could wallow enough for only one person.