Here's the fourth chapter. If I'm lucky I might be able to put the fifth one up.
Warning: cliff hanger

Disclaimer: The original characters and plot are the property of the author, Stephanie Meyer.

Bella's POV

I woke up the next morning and my first thought was "Where is Edward?" I sat up in my bed looking around the room. My heart fell in disappointment, then a thought emerged, Oh my god, what happened yesterday, was that real or not, I hope not. Just then Edward climbed through my window and walked towards me.

"Good morning," he said. He did not sound like his usual self, he was not happy at all and his tone held a certain amount of sadness in it. I did not understand this. "How are you feeling, love?" he asked.

I replied, "Er, I em, I don't know really. Is it a good morning?" I questioned.

He looked at me quizzically then said, "I'm going to take you to my house today, okay?" What! Go to his house? I can't do that. I couldn't look at Esme and pretend it wasn't my fault.

"Edward, I—I can't go. I…I…c..can't look at her."I dropped my head to my knees and closed my eyes as all the emotions from last night came flooding back.

"Which is why I'm taking you, Bella, you have to come, you need to see Esme, speak to her. Now, if you get dressed we can leave quickly."

Reluctantly, I got off the bed and went to the bathroom to have a shower. Charlie had already left for work so Edward went downstairs while I dressed. Once I was ready I came down and we left together to head for Edward's house.

As I reached the Volvo, Edward was waiting with the passenger door open. We got to the house within less than five minutes. Edward must be really desperate for me to spend some time with Esme. I got out of the car and headed toward the door. Again, Edward was already standing by with the door open and showed me inside.

"Where is everyone?" I asked. There was no one to be seen and the house was deadly quiet.

"Carlisle had to go to the hospital for a couple of hours, Emmett and Rosalie are out hunting, and Alice and Jasper are upstairs with Esme."

"Oh," was all I could say.

Edward started to lead me up the stairs, right to Esme and Carlisle's room. He opened the door and I walked in. Alice and Jasper were sitting on the love seat by the window. Esme was lying in the bed, dressed in a night gown, her back towards me. She rolled over to look at me when I entered the room.

Edward nodded toward Alice and Jasper and they got up and left. Then Edward kissed the top of my head and was gone before I realized it.

"Bella," Esme called softly, "come here." I walked over to the bed. "Sit down, dear." I sat down on the edge of the bed, but kept my head down.

Esme sat up and rested against the mound of pillows at her back. "Bella dear, what is wrong, tell me please?"

I didn't say anything. What would I say? Esme, I'm sorry that it is my fault that you almost got killed? No, of course not! "I—I feel terrible," I said instead.

"Why? Why on earth do you feel terrible, dear?" She looked at me, studying my face with varying expressions.

"It—" Oh, I couldn't bring myself to say it. "It was my fault you were almost killed, Esme," I said quickly, still not looking up. There, it was out. I had said it, now she would be angry with me for causing all of this.

Esme sighed. "Bella, why do you think that it is your fault?"

The words rushed out of my mouth as though I could not say them quick enough. "Because if it wasn't for me you wouldn't have had to fight those other vampires, if it wasn't for me there wouldn't have been a crazy vampire, thirsty for revenge after you all. If it wasn't for me then you would not have gotten hurt, you would not be lying here in pain and your family would be happy. It's all my faul….."

Esme stopped me before I could go on. "Really, Bella, you are just like Carlisle. He blames himself for it because he was not with me and could not protect me; you blame yourself because we were trying to protect you from sadistic vampires. Really, Bella, you need to understand us, we are stronger and more robust than you realize, and you are only human remember, so we need to protect you." I just looked at her aghast. She does not blame me after all, and how can Carlisle blame himself for this? Now, that is kind of silly! "Carlisle was not with me because he was helping Rosalie. He didn't know that this would happen so it wasn't his fault. If it was anyone's fault it was my own for not being more vigilant!"

"So now you're thinking that it was your fault because Victoria was after you, yes?" she continued, and I nodded. "Now, didn't we tell you we wanted to help, Bella? We care about you, we care about Edward. If he lost you, his life would be miserable forever, he would have nothing left to live for. You saw the way he reacted earlier this year when he thought that you had jumped off that cliff and died. That's why we fought, for the two of you. It was our decision and our decision alone. That's what families do for one another, they fight when they need to so it had nothing to do with you and it's not your fault."

I looked up to her face and it all started to sink in. She didn't hate me, I wasn't to blame. I looked into her gentle, darkening ochre eyes. They were pleading with me to believe her, and I did, but it looked like she was crying.

Wait! That's not possible. Vampires can't cry!

"Um, ah, Esme, what's wrong?" She just looked at me, confused. "Your eyes they're—they look like—"

"What is it, Bella?"

"You're crying."

Alice and Jasper ran into the room. Alice rushed over to the bed. "Esme, what's going on?"

"I don't know." She put her hand up to her face and felt a wetness there. "It's not tears, it doesn't smell salty." She licked her finger. "It doesn't taste salty, either."

Alice took out her cell phone. "I'll call Carlisle. We need to know what's happening."

"Can't you see her future, Alice?" Jasper asked, coming to stand behind her, resting his hand on her small shoulders.

"No, it's blurry for some reason."

"Maybe the tears have something to do with it."

"Yes, maybe. Oh, hi, Carlisle," Alice said into her phone. "You need to come home quickly. Esme seems to be crying tears, but not really tears if you know what I mean." "What, yes, we don't really know." "Yes, all right, okay, bye for now." We could only hear Alice's side of the conversation and once Alice ended the call she looked at us and said, "He will be here in five minutes."

Edward had just entered the room and I looked at him when he spoke. "What is going on?"

Edward was speaking to Alice in the hope that she had got a vision about this but she only replied, "I don't know" and shook her head slowly, uncertainly. "I just don't know."