Disclaimer: Not mine

A/N: Still no Maria, but we do move forward in the story a bit. I keep trying to get these characters to move faster, but they are dragging their feet. I will try to light a fire under them!

Thank you so much for your reviews for the last chapter. We are well above 550 reviews now and I am floored by your response.

Dalloway5906 owns my ass and is holding me at the edge of my seat as I wait for her next chapter of Emmett. Seriously girl… I need me some Emmett soon!

BPOV

Jasper put his hand at the small of my back and gave me a shove, since my feet seemed to be rooted to the ground. I was propelled forward and found myself in Edward's arms. I kept my face buried in his chest, inhaling his scent before he could open his mouth and either tell me the hideous truth, or lie to my face. I was not sure which would be worse.

"Bella, we need to talk about Alice's vision and what Jasper has discovered about your shield." He said, as he tightened his arms around my body and lifted my feet off of the ground. I never raised my face from his body, thinking that maybe the old 'I can't see you, you can't see me' trick would work. When he finally lowered me back to the ground, we were standing on the porch and I could feel our family forming a circle around us. It seems like since Edward bid on me at that auction, I had become the center point of our family, and not in a good way. I hated that everyone's lives had seemed to come to a halt because when Edward brought me home, he also brought a shitload of problems as well.

"Ok sweetheart, are you ready to pull up your big girl panties and deal with this stuff?" Esme asked. My head whipped up to look at my surrogate mother, shocked that she had been so blunt. I thought Esme would be the one to coddle me and offer me milk and cookies.

"Um, I guess so. So, first of all let's deal with what Jasper figured out. I think that maybe with a little practice I might be able to get my shield to work without having to have human blood. I mean, we all agree that it would be better if I could stick to our diet, right?" I asked, avoiding Edward's eyes because I knew exactly how he felt about me and human blood. The nods around the room echoed that they were all of the same opinion, except for the lack of movement from a certain blonde.

"Rosalie?" I questioned, unable to keep my jaw from dropping to the floor as I realized that my bombshell of a sister was all for me abandoning the Cullen lifestyle and embracing my true vampire nature.

"Don't." Edward hissed as he overheard Rose's thoughts before she said them.

"No Edward, I want to hear why my wife would think it would be a good idea to turn our sister into a bloodthirsty human killing machine." Emmett said as he turned to stare at Rose.

"I'm sorry Bella, but I have to think about my family first. I know that everyone else has just accepted you with open arms, but this was my family first. We have been together since the 1950's and it is hard for me to disregard their safety. If you will be able to save us by drinking a little human blood, I am all for that." She said, earning her glares from most of the family and a snarl from Edward.

"No, she is right. If there is any chance that I could help save us from Maria, I need to take it." I said, as Edward tried to interrupt me.

"Bella, there are many other ways…" He started.

"Edward, I think she is right." Carlisle said quietly.

"No, stop it! If we were asking this of Rose or Esme or Alice, would you all be so ready to damn your wives to this fate? I don't think so. It is bad enough that Alice is having visions of Bella being coerced to go work with Maria behind all our backs, I won't allow this!" Edward bellowed. I turned to him, looking so frightening I actually felt myself tremble before I grabbed his hands in mine.

"What are you talking about me working with Maria? You know I would never do that. Edward, if we can't stop her from destroying our family, it will not matter if I am suffering from 'human blood withdrawal' or not. You have to realize that if someone in this family dies because I did not do everything I could to protect them, I will carry that with me for the rest of our lives. Do you really think I could face Esme everyday if something happened to Carlisle? As much as it disgusts and upsets me to think about, I need to accept that until we deal with Maria, I need to be on a …people only diet." I said as I watched Edward realize that he would not change my mind. He escaped from my grasp and flew into the woods, pausing only long enough to punch a hole right through the door of Rosalie's bright red BMW.

"Real mature asshole!" She screamed after him.

EPOV

Why did she have to be so reasonable? She was correct, of course. If we were not able to defend ourselves against Maria's attack it would not matter if she were still a 'vegetarian' or not. I knew that if she were to fall in the attack, I would follow her. I would not be able to spend eternity knowing I would never again feel the kind of contentment and joy I had found while lying in her arms. She brought light into what I realized had been a century of darkness.

The one thing that worried me most of all, was that I would end up losing her to the bloodlust. Carlisle had forced us to start our new lifestyles as soon as the change ended. Yes, Esme, Emmett and myself all had slips in those first few years, but being forced to abandon that primal instinct for a human's blood made it easier to abstain in the coming decades. Jasper only fed on humans for a century before he found Alice and joined our family. It seems the sooner a vampire starts to feed on humans after their change, the harder it will be to eventually stop. Jasper stills struggles around humans and he has been living on animal blood for 50 years. If Bella starts now, I have no idea how long it would take her to gain control.

I wanted our lives to be as normal for her as possible. I wanted her to be able to start classes again in the fall and continue doing the things she enjoyed. She did not choose this life. I never wanted her to resent her immortality and grow to hate me, as I knew Rosalie sometimes felt towards Carlisle. How could she possibly attend college if she wanted to drain her classmates?

I stopped running as soon as I realized someone was following me. I could hear his thoughts screaming at me to stop being such a douche and slow down. I allowed Emmett to catch up before turning and meeting his accusing gaze.

"You really hurt her you know." He said as he leaned down and grabbed a handful of stones.

"I know, but I had no idea what to say to her. She is right, I would never be able to look at you if something happened to Rose and I could have stopped it. But what happens when she is so addicted to human blood she does not want to revert back to our diet. I can't be with her is she is killing people left and right." I said quietly.

"I don't know man, but you guys have to work something out. She is a mess back there. All she is trying to do is what she knows is right. I think it is pretty cool that she loves us so much she is willing to do something that disgusts her just to make sure we survive." He said as he wrapped his hand around my throat and smashed his handful of rocks into my face, grinding them into dust against my nose.

"That is for Rose's car. You know how she feels about that thing man!" He yelled as he took off through the trees.

I dusted the grit off of my face and straightened my shirt, trying to work up the nerve to go back and make it up to Bella. If I could prove to her how much she meant to me, maybe she would understand that I was only trying to protect her. With that thought I took off into the forest in the opposite direction, hoping I made it before the bank closed.

BPOV

Emmett took off after Edward as soon as he saw the look on my face. My new big brother was my fiercest protector. I knew he would be able to talk some sense into Edward. He did not know how much his support would mean to me. It was going to be hard for me to have to accept that I would be like Victoria and Aro. When I learned about the existence of real vampires, the one thing that disturbed me the most was the blood thing. I was thrilled that the Cullens and others had managed to find a loophole and had been able to survive without killing people. Now I was going to have to do what I dreaded the most, and I needed all the support I could get.

Alice led me inside and insisted that I relax on the couch while she and Jasper worked on strategy. She had started to get some glimpses of Maria moving north. From what Carlisle had found from several nomadic vampires who had passed through the south, was that Maria had been seen outside of Reno Nevada last week. No one knew how fast she was able to travel with her army of newborns or how many covens she would be destroying along the way. Jasper knew of a coven near Redding, California that Maria would probably stop to attack before moving on to us. That left us at least a week to prepare. If I started training with my shield now, it was possible that I would only have to feed once or twice before the battle. Carlisle said he would be glad to get me blood from the hospital, but Jasper was hesitant about that.

"It would take a lot of bags to get as much as she needs Carlisle. Why don't you just let me go hunting and find Bella a good one?" Jasper drawled, making my skin crawl thinking about him luring some young girl into his car for me to snack on. Alice wacked him on the arm as she came over to sit next to me on the couch.

"You know he is just kidding right? He would never do such a thing." She said as she pushed my hair behind my ear.

"Alice, what was Edward talking about with me and Maria? Was that what your vision was of?" I asked quietly, not sure if I was ready to hear the truth or not.

"Um, yes Bella. I saw you feeding with Maria at a school. You had lied to all of us about where you were going. She must have been using some emotion control like Jasper has to keep you complacent. But as soon as Edward told you about the vision, it disappeared. Don't worry about it, your future has changed." She said as she smiled.

I was glad that whatever Alice saw was no longer going to happen, but how would Edward react to Carlisle's plans to get me donor blood from the hospital? What if I did need more than he could get? Would we have to find someone for me to drink? I was not sure I would be able to do that. Talking about it was one thing, but to have a person's throat in front of me and be expected to bite into their skin and kill them… that was something different. Thankfully I was saved from my morbid thoughts by the return of Emmett. He plopped down next to me on the couch, sandwiching me between tiny Alice and his immense frame.

"I managed to talk some sense into him Bella. I hope he can stop acting like an asshat and treat you like you deserve." Emmett said as he ruffled my hair.

"Thanks Em, you did not hurt him too much did you?" I asked.

"Nah, just a few rocks to the face." He said as he pushed up off the couch, snagging Alice's hand as he went. He pulled her out of the room, as I heard footsteps coming across the gravel driveway outside. Edward appeared in the doorway seconds later, but not before Alice managed to catch his eye and mouth the words "She knows."

He sighed dramatically as he lowered himself to his knees in front of me. He picked up my hands in one of his and bent his head over out interlinked fingers.

"It kills me to think of you in danger. I don't always react the way I should. I tend to speak first and think later. I apologize." He said in a whisper, keeping his eyes trained on our hands. I wanted nothing more than to forgive him and move on, but I knew if I did not let him know how I felt we would be having the same conversation over and over again.

"I know Edward, but you need to realize that I feel the same way about you. And in this case, I have the ability to protect all of you. I need you to support me Edward, whether it is something you approve of or not." I stated, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. He finally brought his eyes up to meet mine. I gasped at the intensity of his gaze.

"I know Bella. I think I need to prove to you how much I love and support you." He said as he reached into his pocked with his free hand. He brought up a black velvet covered box, deftly flipping up the lid with his fingers. Inside, nestled against the black satin lining was a beautiful diamond ring. The face of the ring was oval, with shimmering diamonds covering it. The band was narrow and the gold shone in the faint light of the room. I tried to pull my hands from his, but he held tight.

"Isabella Swan, since the moment I saw you my life has been in a tailspin. I never knew that something so elemental was missing from my life, until I met you. You make me a different person, a better person. I want nothing more than to be able to call you my wife for the rest of eternity. Would you do me the honor of becoming my wife?" He said, his voice thick with emotion.

"Yes Edward, yes!" I exclaimed as he released my hands so I could wrap my arms around his neck. We had already discussed the fact that we eventually wanted to get married, and I was sure Alice had already started planning, but to have his ring on my finger made it feel real. I could feel his laughter shaking his entire body and I was glad that even amidst all of the drama, we were still taking the time to prove to everyone, ourselves included, that we were meant to be together.

A/N: All together now… awwwwww. I love me some sweet Edward. Update coming on Sunday!