Going Home

Given proper clothes, Seth and Jacob were able to take Renesmee back to the hotel to rest and recover while everyone else remained within Volterra to wait out the day. The fire destroyed the tapestries and paintings on the wall, rugs on the floor, and decorative furniture and artifacts, but the stone surrounding it kept the fire contained. Most of the fight itself was also contained within that chamber, though enough of it did spread elsewhere to cause cosmetic damage. Aro, Marcus, and Caius gathered to discuss what would become of their prisoners and what their next step should be. They considered their casualties and eventually decided to allow the prisoners to join them in Volturi only if their gift would prove to be useful. Otherwise, they destroyed the outliers.

"We owe you many thanks," Aro said to Carlisle. "I hope you have found what you came for."

"I hope that my family has earned the Volturi's trust to be left alone in the future," Carlisle said.

"You most certainly have, old friend. I give you my word, so long as I am able, your family will be safe from us."

"Though I admit I am very impressed of your army. When we last met, you were intimidated enough just by Bella."

"Ah, yes. Well, we realized how much we lacked in other areas, so we have done some recruiting of our own," Aro confessed. "But I assure you, however strong or gifted your coven becomes, we will not forget what you have done for us here."

The second the Sun set, the Cullens headed back to the hotel suite, Alice immediately getting on the phone to arrange the soonest flight home after checking on her niece. Renesmee sat on the couch with Jacob close at her side. Seth was sitting on the opposite sofa, while Sage stayed in Renesmee's room. A human would not have been able to hear her soft sobs. Carlisle examined Renesmee's gash. She had healed dramatically; the bleeding stopped almost completely and it was much shallower than before. He predicted that the rest would take longer to heal since she was no longer drinking Jacob's blood, but without a lot of movement, she would be fine enough to ride on the plane. Rosalie went in to check on Sage, but her sobs only got worse at seeing her adoptive mother. Finally Rosalie decided to leave her alone, and had to nearly kick Emmett away from the room, knowing he could have no good things to say to make her feel better.

Seth sat against the door in his own room, thinking about the journey he took to get to this point. He pictured Sage's face when he attacked her and couldn't get rid of the images of her attacking Renesmee. He wondered what else Delilah must've made her do while she was captured. His thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock on the door.

"Seth," Edward said softly as Seth cracked it open. "Get some sleep. She hears you, your through." Edward handed him a bottle of Advil PM and shut the door. He looked over the bottle, wondering how much he would need to take for the pills to actually work. It couldn't be the same as a regular person. He decided to play it by ear and took 6 to start off with. He lay in bed, trying to clear his head. He wasn't ready to talk to Sage, especially when he couldn't hear her, and that killed him. Half an hour later, he was still wide awake, so popped another 2 pills. He was apparently no good at clearing his head, so he started counting sheep. At sheep number 426, he took another 4 pills.

Renesmee, Bella, and Edward had already left for their early flight before the Sun came up. Since there were so many of them, Alice couldn't change all of their flights to the same one, but she did work her magic to make going home as simple as possible for the following day. Rosalie came in to wake Sage up and helped her get cleaned up, and then Sage returned to her bed.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Rosalie asked, petting her hair. Sage wanted to give Rosalie the mother-daughter moment, but before she could even form the words her tears started spilling over and didn't stop until she cried herself to sleep again.

Seth dreamed a lot of things that night. He dreamt he was standing in the forest with Sage. She was smiling, waiting for him to come. Then he was holding her, touching her face and kissing her lips. He dreamt she was standing in front of him, her face solemn and emotionless, and he wanted to attack her. He wanted to kill her. He lunged and landed somewhere else. He was alone in the forest surrounded by blackness. He felt alone, and he was. All of a sudden men tackled him and he was being dragged. He was put in a car and try as he might, he couldn't control his lifeless body. A man holding him gave someone a ticket and then he was thrown into a chair. His arms were restrained, then he snapped.

"Aaarrrr!" Seth groaned as he regained his consciousness and control over his body. . Everyone on the plane turned to stare at him. He gave an embarrassed smile and a wave before ducking his head. Emmett was on one side of him with his arm linked with his, never looking up, playing on his Nintendo DS.

"Sleep, ok?" Emmett said. Seth rolled his eyes; obviously he didn't. He looked around, figuring out where he was and how long he was out. "How many of those pills did you take?"

"I think I ended up drinking the last of the bottle." He looked down at his arm. "You don't have to hold my arm now."

"If I move my hand now, the game will win." Seth glanced over at his game console and rolled his eyes. He stretched his legs, sincerely appreciating riding first class where his legs would actually fit.

"Where's Sage?"

"She's sitting with Rosalie behind us on the left. Jasper and Alice are a few seats in front."

"How is she?"

"She's barely stopped crying. That bitch messed her up good." Emmett gave up on the game and turned it off, leaning his head back. "Can you fix this, Seth?" Seth sighed and paused to think.

"I don't know."

"This kind of stuff isn't my thing," he said looking at Seth crossing his arms. "I never wanted to be a dad before I met her. Fix it, Seth, or I will."

Seth was sad; Sage could feel it since Jasper was on the plane, and it was her fault. She saw him replay the images of her attacking him and the callousness he saw in her. She knew he considered the terrible things she had done. She felt the human blood in her even now on the plane. She was disgusted with herself. Her family took her in with their arms wide open, but Seth barely looked at her, and when he did, she felt his guilt and sadness. She contemplated the idea of changing that emotion in him, but he needed to feel what he felt and so did she. Even Jasper knew that, so he also let them be.

They landed and waited for their baggage. Sage had nothing, so she stood with Rosalie. Seth kept his eyes on the carousel for his bag. Sage looked up at him. She missed his face, his smile, his voice. She soaked in what she could of him before Emmett too easily pulled off the last of Rosalie's 6 bagsbags and nudged her to follow. It was assumed that Seth would get his own cab home. The Hales and Cullens barely had time to make it home before the Sun rose. Sage walked into her room, a flood of memories hitting her like a wave, turning on the waterworks. She crawled under her covers and lay still, trying to remember the last time she was happy.

Seth only came home to drop off the bag he packed for Italy, but he might as well also take a shower. He walked in on Leah and Avery playing chess and barely said hello before heading to his room.

"Hey Seth," Leah called after him. "How was Italy? Did you find her?"

"Yeah," Seth muttered behind him. He threw his bag in the corner and threw himself on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Leah opened his door.

"So, what happened?" she asked quietly with concern.

"You'll find out later," he replied. Without anymore to say, Leah rejoined Avery in their game. He turned his head and saw the wolf doll that Sage had made for him. He picked it up and tapped its nose before setting it back. He closed his eyes. She must've been so scared, he thought to himself. She was dragged around without any memory of it, then watched herself hurt people she loved. And there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. He thought about how much he let her down. He shook his head and rolled over. When she looked at him now, he could see only sadness and disappointment.

Sage stared at Seth through his window. He was still in his clothes face down on his bed. She didn't know why she was here. But she knew she missed him and it hurt so much to know he was hurting. She put him through so much, what right did she have to be close to him? So she stayed silent at the window, wanting to be there to make him feel better, but knowing that wasn't possible.

Emmett was waiting for her when she got back to the house.

"Hey Princess," he greeted her. He gave her a side hug and walked her in the house. "You thirsty?" Sage smiled at him and shook her head. "Too bad. Edward and I are going hunting next week. I wanted to know if you wanted to come. I'll take you to get some hibernating grizzlies."

"Dad, it's summer."

"Don't worry about that," he said proudly pounding his chest. Sage gave him a thoroughly confused look and then chuckled. "Ha, a smile! I did that, didn't I?" He gave a full on hug and kissed her forehead before Sage headed upstairs to her room. She looked around her room and decided to call Renesmee to see how she was. Nessie had refused to drink more of Jacob's blood, but she was recovering fine, though Carlisle wanted her to keep from moving too much for a few days until the cut could no longer be considered open. She looked around her desk, wondering where her phone was. She found it and speed dialed Renesmee and held it to her ear.

Behind her, Sage heard the tree rustle and turned around to see Seth, half naked, straightening up after crawling through her window.

"Hello?" Renesmee answered. Sage froze for a second before she realized what she was doing.

"Ness, I have to call you back," she said.

"Didn't you just call me?"

"No, you called me. I'll call you back." She hung up the phone, still staring at Seth.

"I was going to knock, but I figured since I was coming to see you, to just go the faster route," he said, not knowing what to say. Sage pushed all guilt and sadness that tried to overwhelm her aside and ran to Seth, wrapping her arms around his neck and sobbing into his bare chest. He quickly picked her up and held her waist and back, holding her tighter. Sage pulled back slightly only to kiss Seth on the lips, combing his hair with fingers. Seth lifted her so that her legs wrapped around his waist, stepped backwards and sat down on her bed so that she was straddling him, one hand pressed her back into him, the other resting on her thigh. He moved his hand from her back to her neck, kissing the opposite side of it and moving his lips downwards to her collarbone. Sage inhaled his smell and began to kiss and nibble his ear. Seth broke away laughing at the feeling and kissed her mouth again.

"You came," Sage said when they finally pulled away from each other. Her eyes were closed, facing down. Seth lifted her chin with his finger, and she opened her eyes to see him.

"Of course, I came," he said. "I'm sorry about before. I was just being stupid. Maybe it was selfish of me, but I couldn't stay away from you."

"Selfish of you?" He nodded.

"You were in the worst kind of danger, and I couldn't do anything about it. That thing made you do and see things you should have never experienced."

"But I left you," Sage argued. "I put you through so much. I hurt you." She winced at the memory. She shook her head. "You're so much better than me. I shouldn't be allowed to have you."

"You saw me attack you."

"I saw me attack you too." Seth sighed and put his forehead to hers.

"Can we say that we're even?" he said. Sage smiled and nodded her head. "I love you."

"I love you, Seth." Their lips started to meet again.

"Welcome back, Seth!" Emmett cried as he barged into the room. "Good to see you again, man! And you're doing that all wrong, man. It won't work with your clothes on!" -___________-

"Thank you, Dad, for that." Sage said hiding her face in Seth's chest.

"What a weird thing for a father to say," he chuckled.

"He turns it on and off."

"Oh, I have something for you," Seth said, picking up Sage off of him and setting her down beside him on the bed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the dream catcher necklace she had left behind. Her face lit up when she saw it. She pulled her hair forward so Seth could put it on her settling the necklace on her chest. Seth smiled.

"I've made such a mess of things, haven't I?" Sage asked, looking down to the side. Seth lifted her chin with his finger and shook his head. "You don't have to do that, you know."

"Do what?"

"Act like I didn't almost destroy you."

"Then I'm afraid, my dear, that you will have to live with the repercussions of your actions," he said decidedly.

"And are they, may I ask?"

"See, your first mistake was, you left me." Sage winced but Seth continued. "So I think it's safe to conclude that leaving me leads to no good. Hence, you are never allowed to leave me." Sage crossed her legs without moving her face from Seth's.

"Well, I guess I have little choice then, do I?" Seth shook his head.

"You always have a choice." Sage brought her face a little closer to Seth's, inches from his lips so that she could feel his hot breath on her lips.

"I'm glad I get to choose." She closed the space between them and gave him a most hungry and passionate kiss.