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As always, huge thanks go to my pre-reader/cheerleader team Gredelina1 and IamTheAlleyCat. Also to Snarkymuch for beta'ing this chapter and listening to all my bitching when the words wouldn't flow. I love you all.

Good news, here is a new chapter. Bad news, there won't be another till the new year. The holidays are coming up and my beta and pre-readers have busy lives to attend to. Enjoy this chapter and I will see you all in the new year.

~ Chapter Twenty-Three — Company ~

Edward POV

I knew I wouldn't be able to sit on the sand in silence with Bella forever, but it seemed a blissful notion. Reality intervened, as it always did, in the form of a text message from Alice, telling me they were leaving the mainland.

"Bella, love, Alice and Jasper are going to be coming here soon." I spoke in the gentlest tone I could manage.

She looked uncertain, even a little scared. "The good Jasper?"

This was a tricky area. I didn't want to feed her delusion of the good Jasper and the bad Jasper, but if I told her there was only one, she might become scared or, worse, confrontational.

I tried for the middle ground. "Jasper is coming, and I promise he won't hurt you."

"And he is bringing Alice?"

"He is bringing Alice," I confirmed.

The mention of Alice seemed to appease her somewhat. I wondered what place Alice had in Bella's delusion. She believed her dead, like she did me, but she allowed Alice to talk to her in the jungle, and she trusted her enough to allow her to bring her here. I had so many questions, but no answers.

Bella settled against my chest again and returned her attention to the ocean foaming at our feet. She seemed content, and I allowed myself to relax and enjoy the moment.

xXx

Alice and Jasper's thoughts reached me before the sound of the boat's engine. Alice was excited to be with Bella again, but Jasper took a more somber view of events. He understood why I had called him back, and he had spent the time since my call reviewing his knowledge of trauma patient case studies and therapy tools.

They pulled the boat up at the jetty, and Jasper jumped onto the dock to tie off the boat. Alice stood and waved energetically at us.

Much to my surprise, Bella waved back, though not as energetically. "Alice is here."

I waited with bated breath for her reaction to Jasper, but she didn't seem to note his presence next to Alice.

Alice darted across the sand towards Bella and me, coming to a stop a foot in front of us.

"Did you miss me?" she asked in her usual bright tones.

"I did." Bella's tone made it sound like she was confessing to a crime.

Alice beamed and opened her arms hopefully. I knew from her thoughts that she hadn't been able to touch Bella thus far.

Bella stared at her open arms for a moment then stepped forwards exceptionally slowly and reached a hand out to touch Alice's hand. Making contact, she started, as if expecting to be struck. When nothing else happened, she stepped into Alice's embrace and wrapped her arms around her.

"I missed you, Bella." Alice sighed. I knew she wasn't just talking about the few days she had been apart; she was referring to the last two years.

Jasper made his way towards us at a more sedate pace. He was tracking Bella's emotions carefully and searching for any hint of fear in her. She was fine until she caught his eyes and he smiled at her. Her fear spiked at the smile.

"Hello, Bella," he said in his softest tone. "How have you been?"

"F—fine," she stammered.

"Bella, I asked Jasper and Alice to come back to help us," I said.

She turned from Alice's embrace to look at me. "What did I do? Is it because I was angry?"

I hated that she thought she was in trouble. "No, my love. You haven't done anything wrong. I called them here because they can help us."

"I'm broken." She wasn't asking a question; she was stating a fact.

I hated to hear her speak of herself like this, but I did appreciate the fact she was aware she was not whole and healed. It would help us in working with her.

"Not broken," Jasper argued. "You've just been through a lot."

A flash of images broke through Bella's mind. They came swiftly and disappeared so fast I barely had a chance to see them. One of the images was Aro's face. Another was a jungle scene I imagined to be part of the camp she had lived in. The final image was my face, but not as I was now, it was an image of me well fed and satisfied.

"A lot." She sighed.

Jasper locked eyes with me. I need to talk to you alone. There are things that need to be discussed.

I nodded covertly. "Bella, Jasper and I are going into the house for a moment. Will you be okay here with Alice?"

She looked at me with concern. Hurt him? The thought was not directed to me—as far as I knew, she hadn't realized I could read her thoughts yet—she was wondering to herself whether I would be safe.

"Jasper won't hurt me, love. We are just going to talk and give you some alone time with Alice."

She looked uncertain but nodded. I was pleased that she trusted me with this. She could just as easily have turned on Jasper like she had on Carlisle.

Leaving Alice and Bella together, Jasper and I made our way into the house. Jasper flung himself down on one of the couches and run his hands through his hair.

"Can she hear us?" he asked in a whisper.

I concentrated on Bella's thoughts for a moment, but she gave no sign that she could hear us. She seemed absorbed by Alice's tales of life on the mainland.

I shook my head.

"Okay. I've been thinking, and the thing I keep coming back to is Bella's human delusion. I know it's not happening anymore because her vampire side is dominant, and that's good, but it doesn't mean it is gone forever."

"You think she could return to it?" I asked, a trace of fear in my voice.

"I think so. I have a theory, and if I am right, it would explain the reasons for the delusion in the first place. I was thinking while we were on the mainland. What benefit would it have for the Volturi to convince Bella that she was human?"

I had no answer to give him. I had been wondering the same thing myself.

"It doesn't," he continued. "They would want her to know who and what she was to increase the torment further. I think Bella did this to herself."

"But why? Why would she choose to torment herself like that?"

"It's a defense mechanism. When she was human, she was weak and unable to defend anyone. As a vampire… Well, you saw what she did to Carlisle."

"But she wasn't a vampire at the time of the fight; she was still human and defenseless. Unless…"

"Unless she became confused on the timeline." He nodded. "We've seen already how confused her mind is. If she became confused, she could have easily blamed herself for not being able to protect Esme. This way, the human act makes perfect sense. If she's human, she's not to blame."

"Argh, this is all so wrong!" I got to my feet and began to pace. "How are we supposed to help her when her own mind is doing this to her?"

"Calm down, Edward. You're going to upset Bella." He enforced his words with a steady stream of calm.

Bella was watching me cautiously through the window. I forced myself to stop my pacing and smiled at her. She returned the smile uncertainly.

"That's better," he said approvingly. "Now if my theory is correct, and I have no reason to doubt it, we need to get Bella talking. If she realizes there is nothing for her to blame herself for, we might be able to break the delusion. Now, how much has she told you already?"

"Not much. She had something of a breakdown yesterday in which she called me a dead thing, but other than that, she's barely talking."

"Yeah, Alice told me about that. I understand that must have upset you, but you should think of it as a breakthrough not a breakdown. She's trying to articulate what she's feeling. We need to encourage that."

"We need to encourage her anger?" I was bemused. I didn't understand the benefit of her becoming upset. It hurt her and me.

"We need to encourage her to share whatever she is feeling. As this progresses, she is going to have to deal with a variety of emotions. We need to show her that it's a good thing to feel."

I nodded. That made sense. Anything I could do to help her, I would.

"So what's the plan?" I asked cautiously. He was concealing his thoughts so I didn't know what he was plotting.

"I want to try some regression therapy to find out exactly what happened to her. If we know exactly what they did to her, we can work to fix the damage."

"I tried talking to her about it, but it was like there was a steel shutter around her mind hiding the memories of everything after Victoria." I paused. "Yesterday she mentioned Carlisle telling her I died. That would have come after."

"I figured as much. The memories aren't gone; they're just concealed. It's like her mind is protecting her again. Anything that doesn't tally with the human delusion is blocked."

"I wish Carlisle was here," I said plaintively.

"So do I, but he can't be here yet. We need to break through the delusion before it will be safe for him to be around her. Besides, he's busy at the moment."

"What could possibly be more important that helping Bella?"

"Protecting her. The rest of the family are making their way around the world, sharing the story of what happened to Bella. If and when the Volturi come for her again, we are going to need allies."

I was brought up short by his words. I couldn't believe they were doing this for Bella. It was a huge risk to take. "Are they planning to fight?"

"Not directly. We are looking for help should they come for her. Carlisle is hoping a show of witnesses will shame them into leaving us in peace."

"You don't agree with him."

Jasper gave a small nod. "I think it will take more than shame for them to stop. What we are really doing is creating an army."

A shudder swept through me. There was nothing I wouldn't do to help Bella, but the thought of forming an army to go against the Volturi was a daunting prospect. We couldn't all make it out alive. People were going to be lost. My family could be lost.

I looked out of the window to the girl sitting on the shore. She was worth it. For her, I would risk everything.

xXx

We spent the day together peacefully. Bella and Alice fell into comfortable conversation—or rather Alice spoke while Bella listened. All the while, Bella watched Jasper cautiously, alert for any sign of impending attack.

Leaving Alice and Jasper at the house, Bella and I returned to the waterfall in the evening. Bella seemed more comfortable there than at the house, so we arranged to meet back there the next morning for Jasper's first therapy session.

Bella seemed almost lighter as we walked back to the falls. She wasn't speaking, but her thoughts were focused on the time she had spent with Alice. I learned that she had missed her friend almost as much as she had missed me. I had questioned how she saw Alice and me since in her mind she believed us dead. From listening to her musings as we walked towards the waterfall, I learned that she thought we were apparitions created by her own mind, that we had somehow found our way back to her. It made sense in her mind that it was us who were with her and not Esme, as she loved us above all others.

When we got to the waterfall, Bella demonstrated her uncanny ability to catch me off guard by suggesting we swam in the lake. She sensed that I was tense and wanted me to relax. It astounded me how perceptive she was. I was still on edge as I was thinking over what Jasper and I had discussed. We had agreed that we would not attempt regression therapy straight away. We would work with the memories she already retained before delving deeper.

I was fearful of regression therapy. Subjects were known to lose themselves in the memories. Jasper argued that her vampiric mind made this an impossibility, but I was not so sure. Bella had defied fate and come back to me when I believed her dead. The thought of losing her to herself was too much to bear.

Alice had sent us back with piles of clothing, but Bella shunned them in favor of swimming naked. I was not about to argue; instead, I shunned my own clothes and join her in the water. Despite the lateness of the hour, the lake still retained the heat of the day. It felt heavenly against my skin, almost as good as Bella's touch. She was not touching now, though; she was diving in and out of the water with the grace of a dolphin. I was content to tread water and watch her as she enjoyed herself.

Eventually the water lost its allure to her, and she swam under the falls and into our cavern. She guided me to a lying position and curled up on the rocky floor of the cave beside me, leaning her head on my chest.

"I love you, Edward," she said with a soft sigh.

My heart warmed at her words. It was the first time she said this to me since I found her again. Unfortunately, the good feeling couldn't last; her next words broke my heart.

"I'm going to miss you when you go away again."

"I'm not leaving you ever again, Bella. I swear it."

She lifted her head to look at me. "You may not have a choice."

It was an ominous statement that shortly after came to fruition.

Thanks for reading. As always, if you would like a teaser of the next chapter, let me know in a review or a PM.

Simaril x