Bella grudgingly accepted Alice's gift, but she was much more sporting than I had expected. Alice had worked so hard to find the right gift, and Esme had been fretting for weeks that our choice would be rejected, or worse, coolly received. Catching Esme's eye, I winked. Bella would accept our gift, too, I was sure of it. My lovely wife smiled warmly in answer.

"Shoot!" Bella's exclamation pulled my attention away from Esme. I looked over to see a single drop of blood on her finger.

Before any of us could react, Edward threw himself at her, smashing them both into the table. Jasper collided with him, the thunderous crash pulling me out of my shock.

Bella was bleeding.

Emmett captured Jasper and held him firmly, but his attention was on Bella, laying in a growing pool of blood. Edward whirled, his expression almost feral. His eyes darted about wildly, reacting to the thirsty thoughts swirling through the room.

"Emmett, Rose, get Jasper outside."

Esme opened the door for them, her hand forcing her jaw closed. "I'm so sorry, Bella," she all but sobbed, ashamed of her thirst and of Bella's injury.

Alice dashed from the room. It was just me and Edward now. Never had I been more grateful that I was a doctor. He eyed me warily, appraising the threat I posed to both the protector and the predator in him. "Let me by, Edward."

His eyes searched mine, and I smiled wanly. How many years had I been a physician? I'd performed surgery. I wasn't going to compare her blood to all those years experience, because it wasn't her blood I was interested in. I was interested in healing her.

Edward nodded slowly and leaned away, his expression softening a little.

I dropped to my knees and looked carefully at the damage to her arm. The artery was nicked once, the glass still embedded in the muscle, but I couldn't see any damage to the tendons. Thank heaven for small favors. In the back of my mind, I noticed that Jasper wasn't snarling anymore.

I heard footsteps behind me, and Alice said, "Here, Carlisle."

A towel. How utterly insufficient. I shook my head. "Too much glass in the wound." No time, no time! Her pulse was weakening with each beat. I ripped off part of the tablecloth and made a tourniquet of it. She had lost quite a bit of blood, but I didn't think it was enough to require a transfusion. Still, I didn't want her to feel like we were protecting our secret at her expense. "Bella, do you want me to drive you to the hospital, or would you like me to take care of it here?"

"Here please," she answered.

Such trust. No wonder Edward loved her.

"I'll get your bag," Alice blurted out, rushing from the room again. I felt a sudden warmth, pleased with her for thinking of both the towel and the bag. Even more amazing, she had the strength to return to Bella's side — twice.

Voices carried from the back yard — arguing — but I couldn't worry about that just yet.

To Edward, I said, "Let's get her to the kitchen table." And away from all this blood.

Her heart skipped a beat as Edward gathered her into his arms. That was worrisome. "How are you doing, Bella?"

"I'm fine," she answered calmly, and I almost smiled. It was Edward's touch, not trauma, that made her pulse react. She was going to be fine.

Edward gently set her in a chair and glanced toward the back door. He heard the escalating argument, too. I would deal with that when the time came. Bella rested her arm on the table and I returned to the task at hand. Alice already had my bag open and, bless her soul, my reading lamp trained on Bella's wound. I quickly retrieved a hypodermic needle and lidocaine to numb her arm. In the silence, I could hear Jasper berating himself, convincing himself he wasn't worthy to be part of our family.

"Just go, Edward," Bella said, with impatience and a hint of compassion in her voice.

"I can handle it," he said through gritted teeth. Once he had fled from her mere presence, now he was stubbornly staying near her fresh blood. How he had grown!

"You don't need to be a hero," Bella added, sounding like Esme. "Carlisle can fix me up without your help. Get some fresh air."

Edward might have left then, but I injected Bella with the anesthetic, and she winced. "I'll stay," he insisted.

"Stay," Esme pleaded of Jasper.

"I can't," I heard Jasper say, too distant for Bella to hear.

"Why are you so masochistic?" Bella demanded, and I wondered the same thing.

Bella's crisis was past, but the crisis in the backyard had grown out of control. "Edward, you may as well go find Jasper before he gets too far. I'm sure he's upset with himself, and I doubt he'll listen to anyone but you right now." Besides, no one else could out-pace him.

Bella jumped on that. "Yes, go find Jasper."

"You might as well do something useful," Alice added, and after a pause, he left.

The sound of her pulse seemed to grow louder, and I focused more intently on Bella. I had to do this right. I couldn't leave any glass to cut her up further. I had to take care of my daughter.

Alice left.

A part of me relaxed with relief. All of them had walked away. All of them felt so profound a love for Bella they had walked away. They made the choice I felt was right because they believed it to be right, as well. Even Jasper. He hadn't a choice when he attacked her — the instincts were too strong — but he did choose to stay outside when his reason returned. My heart swelled with joy at the thought — my one comfort on this suddenly-terrible night.

"Well, that's everyone. I can clear a room, at least," Bella said, and I was surprised to see her blushing. She was embarrassed? Jasper almost killed her, Edward came close, and Esme was thirsty, too. Was she horror-struck? Terrified? Traumatized? Not Bella — she was embarrassed.

I chuckled. "It's not your fault. It could happen to anyone."

"Could," she griped, "but it usually just happens to me."

Despite myself, despite the horror of Jasper's attack, despite her injury, I found myself laughing. Only Bella.