The Long Way Home: As One Life Ends a New One Begins

Carlisle's POV –

~Flashback~

'I've changed others, during the war. I can change Bella," Jasper offered.
'NO!' Edward snarled. 'Alice is wrong. She's had the same vision before and it didn't happen then; it's not going to happen now.'
'Things were different that time. Bella was about to become one of us but that didn't happen because you chose it not to,' Jasper said. 'If you make that same choice now, Bella's going to die.'
'NO!' Edward's voice held less conviction as the true gravity of the situation was beginning to sink in.
'Son,' I said tentatively resting my hand on Edward's shoulder.
'I can't lose her,' he said answering my silent question.
'Then what choice do we have?'
'What if I can't stop?'
'You were able to before and that was before you had a taste of what a life without Bella was like. I have no doubt that you can handle this.' I watched Edward look over his shoulder at Bella lying so perfectly still on the bed behind us. 'If you can't manage,' I paused not wanting to say it aloud even though I knew he could read my thoughts.
'No,' he stopped me. 'It has to be me. I'll do it.'
'Edward, wait," I said quickly when he turned around to face Bella. 'Son, wait, you can't change Bella here. Not with Charlie standing right outside. You and Jasper will have to get Bella back to the house. '
'How?' Jasper piped up.
'Take the back stairs down to the garage. Take my car the dark windows will let you leave without anyone noticing who's in the car.'
'What about the others?' Jasper continued.
'I'll handle them. You both need to go. Bella doesn't have much more time. Every second counts now.'

Pausing for a moment, I looked on as my sons slipped around the corner, Edward carrying a limp Bella in his arms. Running my hands over my face, I prepared myself for what I was about to do. I was about to walk out and tell Charlie Swan that his daughter was dead – I was about to lie.

Solemnly walking toward the waiting area I saw my family on one side of the room – Charlie, Sam and Emily on the other both waiting anxiously for news. The instant Charlie saw me he jumped to his feet with Sam and Emily close at his heels.

"How is she?" He asked me apprehensively.

Almost instantly I hung my head fearing that my gaze would give away my lies. "Carlisle?" Esme's voice called to me forcing my head up. My eyes met the disbelieving ones of my family.

"She's not?" Charlie began but couldn't finish his question.

"I'm sorry."

"What?" Sam questioned as Emily softly sobbed at his side.

"We did all that we could for her. The damage was just far too great."

"NO! NO!" Charlie shouted. "I just got her back – after all those years! She can't be gone..dead," he whispered the word that held such finality.

Sam reached to steady Charlie's shaking frame all the while cradling Emily against his side. I could see the unshed tears pooling in his dark eyes. It was hard for me to stand there knowing what I knew. That Bella was not dead – at least not in the true sense of the word. Soon she would be like the rest of my family. My family – that's when I turned and looked at them all staring back at me in various stages of disbelief.

Rosalie had her head buried in Emmett's broad chest as he stood there stroking her corn silk colored hair. The storm brewing behind his amber eyes was in stark contrast to the gentle way he held the woman that he loved.

Alice was pacing from one side of the room to the other clenching and unclenching her tiny white fists as she went. "That's not what I saw. That's not what I saw. I didn't see Bella's death! Bella wasn't supposed to die!" Alice's tone was angry.

"Oh Carlisle," Esme's small hand reached for my larger one. "She's really gone?" My wife's voice caught in her throat. "Oh my…Edward," she gasped. "Carlisle, Edward – he won't survive this!"

Pulling Esme close, I did my best to comfort her. I hated lying to her even if it was only for a short time and for good reason, I still hated it.

Edward's POV –

The world just outside the car window whizzed by and for just one moment I thought how much Bella would dislike going at this speed. I even almost asked Jasper to slow down but there wasn't time. Even though I didn't think it possible, her breathing seemed even more shallow than it have been when Jasper sped away from the hospital garage.

"Oh my love," I whispered lips barely touching her colorless cheek. Again I was taken aback by the coldness of her skin. It nearly matched my own. I would miss how her cheeks would blush with embarrassment. I would miss how the beat of her heart would quicken when she was excited. I would miss the heat that radiated from her skin.

"How's she doing?" Jasper asked turning his head quickly from her to me.

"Not well," I answered and instantly Jasper pressed the accelerator deeper into the floor boards.

The time it took to bring Bella from the car up to my room was only minutes but for me it felt like hours as my mind skipped through frame by frame from the first time I saw Bella until finding her lying bleeding in the home she shared with Jacob.

Gently laying Bella on the large black sofa in the middle of my room, her chocolate tresses made a fan behind her. Taking a deep breath, I stared at her trying to capture one last picture of her as a human before doing what I knew had to be done.

"Edward," Jasper's unusually anxious voice startled me. "What are you doing? Carlisle said she had very little time. If you've changed your mind – if you can't," he paused and while I didn't need him to say the next thought aloud. I let him. "I can do it for you."

"No," I replied with more of a calmness in my tone than I expected.

Kneeling next to her I once more thought about my promise to be with her forever. I gave her my word that we would be together yet when I had told her that I never once thought she would be standing at death's door at the tender age of eighteen. I shook that thought from my head.

Bella had made her intentions quite clear. She wanted to be one of us. Not only had she told me that but my family as well. How could I deny her that, especially now given the circumstances? At prom when she offered me her slender neck, telling me that she was ready to become like me, I couldn't end her life. A life that I had thought was to be full of so many things. Eyes scanning her beaten body, that wasn't meant to be. The life that I had wanted for Bella was no more.

"Edward, for god sakes she's dying!" Jasper growled at me.

Taking a deep, unnecessary breath, I brought my razor sharp teeth to the base of Bella's throat where once her pulse beat strongly – now it was so difficult to find – and sunk my teeth into her cool flesh. Instantly the sweet bouquet of her blood flowed passed my lips and onto my tongue.

The sensation I got this time was far different from that day in the ballet studio when I was struggling to save Bella from becoming like me and my family. I didn't know if I could stop that day. Bella's blood was so sweet and fragrant and I had wanted so desperately to taste it for so long. Yet at this moment all I could think about was losing Bella forever. Her dying versus becoming a vampire – that was no contest for me anymore. I knew that I couldn't live in a world that didn't include Bella as a part of it – human or vampire.

Carlisle's POV –

Thankfully for me Charlie was in a state of shock long enough for me to figure out how to handle his next obvious question. He wanted to see his daughter, to say good-bye. I knew that there was a real possibility that Bella was going to die and knowing that I wasn't about to allow that to happen I had already put into place a back-up plan just in case.

I shuddered at the thought of how calculated I had been, yet I knew that my family, Edward, couldn't lose Bella. That alone pushed me forward to a less than ethical place. The body shrouded in the white sheet, face covered, just a few tufts of dark brown hair peeking out from underneath was all Charlie was able to handle. He stood at the door sobbing, back pressed against the wall repeating the word 'no' over and over until Sam Uley guided him out of the room. Then it was over – but really it was just beginning.