Because so many of you asked for it: EPOV. After this chapter, it goes back to BPOV. Sorry Chantal – next one I uber-promise!

I was watching thorough a human's blurry eyes, at a vague memory. It took me but a moment to realise that I was watching Bella's memories.

She was running somewhere, the air felt thick and hot. She glanced upward and I saw glass. A greenhouse of some sort? I could hear running water and the vision looked to a river filled with Panaque nigrolineatus, or Royal Pleco, a type of catfish. I could what I supposed were bird songs. Humans were so limited in their capabilities – half of the song was lost. A butterfly landed on her then, and I assumed that this was a butterfly observatory.

"Bella, get down from there! I don't want you falling! The nearest hospital is miles away." An unfamiliar voice called. As Bella turned I saw a woman, one who must've been her mother – the similarity was striking and uncanny.

I had seen through Bella's eyes. I turned to her, about to ask, when I saw the pained expression on her face. Her mother. Bella had remembered her mother. The mask of calm and happiness cracked and suddenly I could see the onslaught of pain that ripped through her. Her eyes were so filled with agony that it cut through me sharper than a needle through the eyeball.

Jasper didn't mean to, but he mentally cursed at the onslaught of anguish. She began shaking and closed her eyes. I wanted to comfort her, I wanted to tell her everything was alright , but who was I to do that? I had done nothing but murder her, stolen her life from her. Pain and remorse whipped through me also and I, being the coward and monster I am, ran.

"Stop it, please. Make me happy again."

I heard her shaky voice pleading with Jasper. My breathing was beyond sporadic and strained. I slammed the door to my room, locking it and resting against the back of it. I shut my eyes and clamped my hands over my ears childishly, hoping that everyone would simply leave me alone. No such luck.

Edward!

Get out there! You should be the one comforting her!

"Jasper can understand what she's going through." I snapped back. I was the worst candidate for the position of comforter. I was manipulative, of people's thoughts and mindsets, not so with Bella.

Edward, you don't have to lock yourself away. I listened to Carlisle, my father, simply because I still had that longing for comfort myself. You and she are in an extremely unique position. You can heal each other.

"It's just Stockholm." I muttered. The captor and captive falling in love, supposedly.

You doubt your own feelings for her? Has she not made it clear how much she loves you? Rectify your mistake, if you feel the need to do so. Do not run from your errors. I thought I had taught you better than that.

Jasper interrupted then. It'll take time, but she needed to get this all out. Edward, get your ass down here!

I shut them all out, delving into the confines of my own mind. I was such an animal, so brutal and cruel. It was hours before I expanded my gift to include everyone again.

... take responsibility. You're still not listening are you?

Oh, Edward! She's our baby sis! Go help her!

I won't tell you what to do anymore Edward. It is ultimately your decision, and only you have the right to make it.

Jasper reported that Bella was calmer. My eyes flickered to the clock. It had taken nearly five hours. I barely felt like any time had passed at all.

"See? That wasn't so hard." I heard from downstairs.

"For you maybe. Alice is very lucky to have such a caring husband Jasper. Thank you." That was a stab at me. I wasn't caring enough to be around her. That was how she perceived me. I was immediately disgusted with myself. I loved her, so much that it almost hurt. Seeing her in anguish, and worse, being the source of it, was so destroying, so evil, that I couldn't possibly be near her. She needed to get away from me, that I would not hurt her, that I could not hurt her.

Edward, she's coming up the stairs. I suggest you at least try to explain why you ran, why you left her defenceless and scared.

Another stab at me and my cowardice. I deserved it.

"Break down the door if you have to; I haven't been able to get an actual response for hours." Carlisle walked off, going to Esme, to comfort her also. Another person I'd hurt.

"Edward?" Bella asked. I turned slowly, thinking about my sadistic tendencies before I unlatched the door and stepped quietly to the side. I stared out at the sunset, at the landscape as she came in, trying to convince myself not to run as far away as I could.

"Edward?" She asked again.

Damnit, he's in worse pain than before. Stop feeling fuckin' sorry fer yerself!

I ignored Jasper and looked at Bella. She reached out to touch me and I inched away. Why couldn't they all just let me be?

Well that wasn't childish at all. The voice was Bella's. Her pain was no longer evident and I wondered how hard she was hiding it now. I smashed my head back, angry at everything I had done recently. I had deluded myself into believing everything was fine.

"I don't know to make this better."

"You shouldn't have to make this better." I yelled, not thinking. She was always trying to put the blame on herself. "You shouldn't be here."

A strangled sob fell from her lips and I retraced. She had thought I didn't want her here.

"Not like that Bella!" I pleaded. "You should be human, with your family. You should be attending school, going out on dates with human boys, getting angry at your parents for setting unreasonable curfews..." I could see my speech was in vain as she began to look angrier. She should not have been so troubled. She should have been leading her blissfully ignorant human life, with no worries and no vampires.

"I am studying, a grade level higher than my own. I never, and I mean n-e-v-e-r got asked on dates, and I never went anywhere, so I had no reason to argue about curfew."

"Semantics." She was arguing semantics. How very like me. "Don't be pedantic."

Hypocrite!

That's hypocritical.

Remind you of anyone?

Where would she get that?

Hypocrisy is a bitch.

Up yours Eddie boy.

Wonderful. My family was in agreement. I was a hypocrite and Bella was still angry.

"Edward I hurt." I knew I had done her badly, I knew I had torn her life apart and stolen everything from her, but for Bella to speak it so bluntly hurt more than she could know. "I hurt a hell of a lot. You stole the only life I had ever known, and two parents who loved me deeply."

Where is she going with this?

My brain was chastising her methods of comfort. She really was not helping right now. She then tried to rectify what I had done, listing a weak side of positives.

"Do. Not. Try. To. Make. This. Alright." I spat through a clenched jaw. "I have done nothing short of the most horrendous crime known to man. I have stolen your life, in so many ways, and condemned you to an eternity of darkness and slaughter."

"And you have given me a lover. A beacon of light in that darkness you threw me into."

"I have only taken from you, not given. I haven't done anything to deserve your love." I turned away.

"So you'd rather I be angry with you?"

She has a point.

"I suppose." Anything would be alright. She wasn't angry with me and she should've been. I had taken everything from her. She should've despised me. And that was when she snapped.

"And what fucking good would that do? Fine! I'm angry with you. I hate you for taking my humanity, for not killing me when you had the chance. I hate Alice for taking me to Carlisle, I hate Jasper for fighting you off. I hate all of you for ruining my life as I knew it! Happy? Do you feel happier now Edward? Is that what you wanted? Now I hate everyone, your family is completely guilty and sad and do you feel any better?"

I felt marginally better – that at least she had some ill-will towards me. The fact that she was swearing was a slap in the face, figuratively, also. I had never heard such violent curses flying from her mouth.

"I hate that I ever got out of that damn car. I hate that I ever moved to Forks. I hate that I was born female, I hate that my parents split up, I hate that vampires were even created in the first place. Are you better now Edward? Now that I'm full of hate? What good is it doing anyone? Does it change what happened? No. Does it change the future? Hell yes. We're all going to be fucking miserable for years to come."

As she continued it began to sound ridiculous. How could I expect her to harbour so many feelings of resentment and remorse. What good would it do? She had been right all along, to try and sweep it away.

"Bella." I interrupted, turning to her. I understood. I was feeling better already. She, however, continued to berate me, her existence and her future.

"Bella." I repeated, moving towards her. I was almost smiling now, although she hadn't taken note.

"Damn you Edward! Could you, for one second, pull yourself out of your 'well of misery' and take a look at the repercussions? You're a mind reader, for heaven's sake! You should be able to hear how this affects each and every family member. Or don't you care anymore? Are you too self-loathing that you don't care about anything except making yourself miserable?"

"Bella!" I said, a small smile on my face as I pushed my hand against her lips. She was right, 100% accurate. I was being stupid, irresponsible, self-loathing and masochistic, but I was hurting everyone else also. Where I should've been letting go, I grasped, and where I should've been grasping I let go. When she had finally calmed down, I kissed her, thanking her for every light she had shone into my dismal existence.

I hugged her firmly then and I felt her smile against me.

"Anytime."

It took a while before my family realised it was safe. Bella was still watching the sunrise, only in my arms, instead of from across the room.

Yes! That would be so cool! Could we do that? Alice yelled mentally. She swooped into my room and kissed Bella firmly on the nose before dancing off again. Could we book it online I wonder?

Why is Alice so suddenly excited?

Ooh – this means more fun crap, right Eddie boy?

It better not be another skydiving trip.

Can't we all just stay home?

That all turned around really quickly, or kind of. It only took like a full night for you to get mad at each other, then half the day before you got forgiven. You two took longer than me and Em ever did.

I sighed as I clutched at Bella and she sighed against my body. Not even an hour after Alice had disappeared, she reappeared and stuffed us all into cars. I kept a firm hold on Bella, simply needing to be near the woman who, in a two minute speech, had infused everything my family had been telling me for a century into my brain. Why was everything so much clearer when she said it?

Carlisle had frequently implied my solitude disturbed him and Esme. Jasper and Alice had complained, and Emmett and Rosalie had eventually taken to ignoring me. I ran my fingers through her silky hair and wondered what I had done before she came into my life. Read, listened to music, gone to school and hunted. Bella, had in the span of a few short weeks, changed everything about the way I did things. She had shown me a world filled with possibilities to play with, both physically and emotionally.

She saw the world in a different way to all of us. Instead of being outside the candy store, pressing her face against the glass, or inside seeing the children watching outside, she saw the shop with no glass, with everything open to everyone, and everyone as special as their counterparts. She saw me as special, and for some reason, when she looked at me... I felt special.

Until this point, I had been driving, almost blindly, simply following the car in front of me. When it suddenly turned off of the busy street we were on, I checked the time and our surroundings. We had been driving for nearly three hours – the entire time we had all kept to ourselves – and were now pulling up to what looked like a large greenhouse of some sort. It took me but a moment to figure out we were at a butterfly conservatory. I looked worriedly over to Bella, but she was smiling. Hesitantly, but smiling.

"Bella?" I asked tentatively. Surely Alice wouldn't just bring her here on a whim.

"I want to make happier memories. In the last butterfly conservatory I went to, I did end up slipping on a slime covered rock. I sprained an ankle. Also... I want to share this with you. I remember it being so beautiful..." she shrugged and opened the door. I blinked a few times. When had I parked? The others were all standing, waiting for me, so I slid out of the car, wrapping an arm around Bella. This could be interesting.