A/N: Oh my lord, hey guys. I had the first of my English Lit exam today, did anyone else? Urgh, it was painful... I hope I got the A I need. Bright side, NEVER have to to study Of Mice and Men EVER AGAIN. YES.
With me luck for the second half on Thursday... URGH.
I love you guys... Review to make my week? Please?

PEACE AND LOVE,
x x x STARSWalkBACKWARD x x x

God Bless The Broken Road

"Hey Mr. Pinochet,
You've sown a bitter crop.
It's foreign money that supports you
One day the money's going to stop.
No wages for your torturers.
No budget for your guns.
Can you think of your own mother,
Dancin' with her invisible son?
They're dancing with the missing,
They're dancing with the dead.
They dance with the invisible ones,
They're anguish is unsaid.
They're dancing with their fathers,
They're dancing with their sons,
They're dancing with their husbands,
They dance alone,
They dance alone."

––'They Dance Alone' - Sting, 1987.

(For the Cold War victims of Argentina and Chile.)

––– Part VII –––

That night, and the next few that followed, despite all the relief and happiness I felt after finally seeing Edward again, the night-terrors began. They had no particular substance, but were more just distorted memories of the torture I had endured. The torturer's dark eyes filled my mind, followed soon after by the sharp hot agony of the electricity coursing through me from my most sensitive areas. It was too much, and I couldn't bring myself to stand it, so I found myself lashing out and screaming. Suddenly, my arms and legs were free, and there was no gag on my mouth, and so as dark-eyed torturer neared me, sneering, I took full advantage. I had never thought of myself as a violent person, but as I saw him nearing me I was trembling with adrenaline. I kicked and hit and screamed 'Please, get away from me,' 'Please no more.' Then I heard Jane's spine-chilling voice through the smoky surroundings, laughing at me. 'Just wait until we get to Edward. It'll be too late for both of you...' That panicked me, and I kicked my assaulter harder. After what felt like years of fighting, the body of my torturer was suddenly hard as stone, and ice cold. He was suddenly too strong, and he held my wrists and pinned me down. No. No, please. Don't do it. Please don't rape me... Terror made me tremble as I screamed and yelled, my torturer only getting stronger and stronger...
"Bella!" a voice exclaimed, a kind voice mixed in so many others. Where was it coming from?
Edward, I tried to yell for him, but I had suddenly lost my voice. There were screams drowning out my attempts at yelling.

"Bella! Bella, wake up! Bella, it's just a nightmare! Bella!"
Suddenly, I was aware of where I was, and that the screams were mine. An icy statue of a man was pinning my limbs as gently as possible to the bed as I tried to lash out still. My eyes snapped open, and the image of my evil-eyed torturer was gone, replaced with the darkness of my room, and nothing else. No torturer. Nothing.

"Oh, Bella," Edward's voice came from the dark. He was trying desperately to hold my already injured body to the bed. It must have been him I was lashing out at while I was dreaming, as I could feel the pain of deep bruises already forming on my arms and legs where I'd kicked out at his marble body. I was gasping for breath, the movement so painful on my broken ribs that I became all the more breathless. I didn't realise I was shaking and sobbing until he let go of my arms and let himself fall onto the bed beside me. I buried my face into his fresh, crisp shirt, loving the cool feel of it.

"He...you...I...Jane...and...he was goin-g...to..r-rape..."

"Shh," Edward soothed, though sounding pained, interrupting my incoherent ramblings, rubbing my back and hair with large, increasingly gentle, icy hands. "It was just a dream. No one is ever going to hurt you. Never again. I promise you. Hush..." He paused, his voice small. "Go back to sleep."

It had all just been a dream.

I was shaking so violently my voice shook. I was still terrified from the dream. I daren't close my eyes. This was the third night running.

"Hey, hey, shh, Bella. It's alright now. You're alright."

"I love you, Edward," I mumbled in between whimpers as I clung to his shirt like an infant would. I spoke the words almost as though I was sure he was about to disappear.

"I know," he soothed in a small voice. "And you know I love you just as much––more in fact."

"Did I hurt you?" I asked, rather stupidly.

He looked sideways at me, chuckling. "As much as I am honoured for your concern, you are yet again worrying about the wrong person. Of course you didn't hurt me. I'll think you'll find that you on the other hand may have acquired a few more bruises by the morning. Just as you did yesterday, and the morning before that..." He expression is pained as he refers to my nightmares. He slowly ran his cold, icy fingers over the bruises appearing on my knees and fists.

I rolled my eyes at my actions and his words, slightly tired of his self-blaming nature. "I suppose it serves me right for lashing out at a vampire in my sleep."

He didn't seem to be able to manage any more than a smirk.

"What happens now?" I asked, out of the blue.

"What do you mean?"

"Well... What about us? What are we?"

Edward smiled. "Well, the term 'boyfriend' seems to belittle what I feel for you."

I smiled back at him. "That's exactly how I feel too."

"Well then, maybe we don't need a word to describe what we are."

I nodded, agreeing with him. "I don't think there is a word."

"Unique, perhaps?"

I looked up past his jaw and saw his eyes sparkling with humour.

It may have just been a joke, but suddenly it hit me. "No, wait, you're right. There's exactly it." I suddenly winced as my enthusiasm caused me to move too fast. My ribs burned in protest.

"Alright," he said, moving his face to look down at me. "You," he grinned. "Time for bed. Those ribs aren't going to mend themselves."

"It's not just my ribs that need mending," I said, though at first I wasn't sure why.

"I know, but ribs are bones, and in the grand scheme of things, bones mend quicker than anything. You'll see."

I relaxed against him, suddenly conscious of how much I believed in every word he said, even if he didn't. I was sure he was speaking about something much deeper than simply broken bones.

"Edward?" I asked, closing my eyes so I couldn't see his face. I felt almost like a child who had stayed up past bed time.

"Yes, my Bella?" he asked in a low, serene voice, perfectly patient as always.

I swallowed, hardly believing I was about to ask such a question, but I knew it couldn't be ignored. "Th... The burns," I swallowed again. "They'll scar, won't they?"

I felt his body almost turn to stone under me; a motionless statue. I hated to speak of it just as much as he hated to hear it, but I could hardly ignore it.

"Mostly likely," he clears his throat. "Though there's always hope," he said, his voice suddenly rough again. "The degree of the burns was too great... I'm so devastatingly sorry, Bella. We couldn't get treatment to you fast enough..."

"––No," I said, starting to move to over his mouth. "Don't you dare do this again; do not blame it on yourself! This is no ones fault alright? Especially not yours."

He was silent then, and for a moment or two I was sure maybe he'd turned to stone under me.

"I will never forgive myself," he said simply, "But I apologise if it upsets you..."

"Alright," I said, accepting, and equally apologetic, deciding to let it go as I ran a hand down his face. "I'm sorry too. It rattles us both... Sorry. I won't speak of it again."

–––ℬ&ℰ–––

When I woke the day of my classmates return from Argentina, Edward wasn't with me. My body still aching desperately, I was still strapped up, and I hadn't left the bed at all since I came round three days ago, other than to go to the toilet. Today though, I was determined to get up. I pulled the covers that were heavy on top of me to one side, and slightly, painfully, sat up, my strapped up torso making everything difficult. I swiveled slowly as my feet slowly touched the floor. The light off-white wooden floorboards were cold on my bare feet, and so it took me a few moments to be able to put weight them. I stood, slightly stumbling, and looked out into the beautiful view of the Washington woodland on the other side of the great floor to ceiling glass. The room in the Cullen house I had been hospitalised in was open, white and spacious, with a floor to ceiling glass window, and modern hospital equipment around the bed. I was no longer hooked up to an IV line, since Carlisle had disconnected it the night before. I still have bandages around my head to protect my stitches, and my ribs felt exactly as they had before, like they haven't healed one bit. It was almost like I was permanently winded.

I made my way out the room and into the corridor painfully slowly, concentrating on accurately placing one foot in front of the other, in no position to trust my balance. I reached the stairs, and eyed a large piece of art created with graduation caps of all hues and colours, ranging from reds and yellows, to deep blues and purples. Strange. The glass railings along the edge were thankfully there to prevent my near constant stumbling. I made it to the top of the stairs, and then tightly grasped with banister with all my strength, silently stepping down one step at a time. The stairs where white––the whole house was white––spacious, open and light. There were giant pains of floor to ceiling glass at every turn. It was exactly the opposite of what I had expected the Cullen household to be. No bats. No coffins. No dungeons.

I reached the middle of the staircase, and held tightly onto the banister. I could hear voices from somewhere down below. Beautiful, symphonic voices. Carlisle and Edward.

"What do we say?"

"...that we collected her in Eleazar's helicopter."

"It takes much less time..."

"When are they expecting her home?"

"Sometime this evening...I think. I spoke to Chief Swan this morning..."

There was a pause, and I found myself holding my breath tightly in my lungs. It hurt, so I let it out silently. I felt like I was sneaking around and overhearing something I shouldn't. Having said that, it didn't stop me. I slowly made my way to the base of the stairs.

There was silence between the two of them. I froze, waiting.

"The burns, Carlisle," came Edward's voice. My breathing increased. Oh god. "She asked me if they'd scar." He sounded completely dejected.

I clasped my eyes shut.

No, Edward. I'm sorry for asking. I'm so sorry. I'll never say it again. This isn't your fault. Please stop.

"And what did you tell her?" Carlisle asked, his doctor tone set in.

"That the chances of scaring is high, because of the degree of the burns." There was a pause.

"Well, that's the truth. You did right to tell her."

There was a very brief, tense pause. "But if only I'd gotten to her sooner, Carlisle... If only I had! Then her fragile human frame wouldn't be forever scarred by this...monstrosity of an event; she wouldn't have to look in the mirror every day for the rest of her life and be reminded––" He huffed, stopping himself. "This is my fault, Carlisle! Mine. Why didn't I realise? If I had sensed Jane sooner...If I hadn't left––"

"Edward, stop this!"

I had never heard such a tone coming from Carlisle before. He was suddenly authoritative; momentarily vexed and flustered.

"You are not helping her this way. This will do no good, for either of you. Bella needs your support, not your self-abhorrence. She herself has told you so, I have told you so, alright? Do you understand me, Edward? There is no more you can have done. I know you love her, and you find your soul is bound to her with a connection beyond your control, but you are making her suffer, as well as yourself. You may be trying to distance yourself for your own self-inflicted punishment, but you don't seem to fathom that you are upsetting her in the process, and will continue to do so..." There was a pause, and just like that, soft Dr. Carlisle could be heard again. It was almost as though he had never left. "Enough." The word was enphasised, yet simple and easy. As always with Carlisle's methods, it was effective. "I love you, my son," spoke Carlisle, his voice so warm all of a sudden that I felt it's heat and devotion right in the depths of my heart and soul. Edward was right. He really was the king of compassion.

I decided now was my time to make enough noise for them to hear me. I moved down the rest of the stairs just as slow as I had been before, only this time letting my bare feet slap a little against the stairs.

There was silence, the murmuring seised, so I knew they must have heard me. I walked to the doorway of what I could see was the lounge, with a great filled bookcase filling one whole wall. Edward turned from his position at one of the large windows, and his eyes connected with mine across the space. I had half of my hospital-gown clad body hidden behind the doorframe, weary, and almost afraid, to step over the threshold; completely unsure of how he's react to seeing me out of bed.

"Bella?" he enquired, surprised. "What are you doing out of bed?" He sounded far too concerned. "You should have called for me. Are you alright? "

"I..." I tried to speak, but my voice was suddenly lost. "I know, I'm sorry... I just really need a shower."

"What if you had fallen?" he asked, rather rhetorically, as a frown, yet again, set into his beautiful features. I gave a small, helpless shrug, not wanting to admit out loud that I was just desperate to see him and wouldn't have cared much if I had fallen on the way.

"A shower's a no-can-do, I'm afraid," Edward said softly, walking across the room to meet me. Carlisle was suddenly on the other side of the room, smiling at me, his arm around Esme, Edward's mother. They turned to each other, discussing something. "A bath on the other hand, should be feasible." Edward slowly made his way to me. "Bella," he shook his head, suddenly disapproving again. "You're shivering."

I looked down at myself, my bare arms and legs, and suddenly realised he was right.

Edward walked over to the couch and pulled a blanket off the back, before walking over to me and curling it around my body. He was tusking at me for my lack of layers, but he seemed happier. His golden eyes weren't so distant anymore, but warm and emotive. His shiny bronze hair was all over the place, but as usual, looked flawless.

I found that suddenly I had yet again lost my voice.

"Come," he beckoned, sliding an arm around my hips and another over my shoulders. "I'll run you a bath," he spoke softly. "You're going to need help getting undressed and washed with all these bandages. I'll call Alice."

We reached the base of the stairs, and Edward lifted me into his arms before I could stop him.

"Did you walk all the way down these stairs by yourself?" he asked, his tone disapproving.

I swallowed as I close my eyes against his shirt. "Don't hold my curiousity against me. I'm only human."

He thankfully realised my joke, and I felt him laugh as we reached the first floor.

Suddenly, Alice was in front of us. "Hey, Bella. How are you feeling?"

I turned my head as Edward walked into a room along the corridor, suddenly conscious of how much he'd take on my response. Alice followed us into the large, marble bathroom. "I've been better, I suppose," I said, my voice careful.

She laughed. "Don't worry, Bella, you can say how you really feel. Edward's always overprotective. Recent events have just put him on edge and made him grouchy."

Edward placed me down on the rocking chair in the corner, looking disgruntled. "Gee, Alice. Thanks so much," he said, slightly sarcastic.

"There really are," I coughed suddenly, then winced at the pain the sparked through my chest as a result, "some things that only Alice can say to you, aren't there, Edward?"

Alice winked at me, laughing to herself, and walked over to the door. Edward smiled too, and I was suddenly very conscious of his soothing fingers rubbing my packed and layers ribs. "I'll go get you some clothes," she said, with a slight comic edge to her voice. Edward walked over to the bath after a moment, which was very deep and long, and turned on the taps. His tested the temperature with his fingers as I watched silently, marveling over the look of the crisp clear water slipping over his irony skin.

Alice entered again, after merely a second, this time carrying clothes, and disrupted me from my ogling. Suddenly I was nervous, the very idea of taking off my clothes terrified me, especially if it meant having to look at my injuries and...developing scars.

Edward seemed to notice, and I felt him suddenly crouch in front of me, running a hand down the side of my face and neck. "I'll be right outside," he assured softly. I reached up and kissed him once, causing his tense expression to melt into a smile.

"Okay. I'm alright though, really I am. But thank you," I acknowledged.

I watched Edward leave and shut the door behind him, then turned to Alice, who was mixing bubble bath liquid into the running water. It smelt heavenly of vanilla.

Alice smiled, noting my nervous posture. "Are you really okay, Bella?"

I swallowed, looking up. "I am now. Your family saved me."

Alice was suddenly sat beside me, perching on the edge on the rocking chair.

"I'm so glad you're alive, Bella. I don't know what my brother would have done if you hadn't made it." I simply blinked at her, marveling over her simple, obvious beauty. "I've seen your future, Bella, and I hope we can become great friends just as I've seen."

I smiled at that, amused by the fact her mention of her psychic abilities hadn't shocked me at all.

"I'd like that too," I said. "Very much."

"Great," she squealed, hugging me tightly until I winced. "Sorry," she said, withdrawing from the embrace. "Okay, now for the more awkward part."

I had to smile at her frank attitude. "Right," I nod, understanding, "the undressing." I held out my arms, slowly standing. "Go right ahead," I said.

"You trust me to undress you?" She genuinely seemed surprised as she slowly pulled up my hospital gown.

I laughed, feeling the pain of it rip up my side. "Alice, you're a vampire and here I am, battered and ripped up, and I'm in no danger. Of course I trust you."

Alice smiled, happy. "Good, because you should know you're already like a sister to me, Bella."

I just smiled back, warming to her all the more. "And you me, Alice––truly." She smiled and giggled slightly, so I found myself doing the same. It almost felt like we were little girls whispering about something we shouldn't be like boys or kissing.

"Okay then, Miss Swan." We smiled and giggled together, her golden honey nectar eyes glinted. "Bath time."

–––ℬ&ℰ–––