A/N - I know, I know, you all hate me for the delay in posting the next chapter, but what can I say, life got in the way and then I suffered a long bout of writers block. It affected all of my stories! I hate writers block!

Well, without further ado, I give you chapter 24. Enjoy!

Chapter Twenty Four

BPOV

There was a certain amount of…solace to be found in the blackness that surrounded me. Here I could simply be; simply exist. In this new reality all I could feel and hear was my Edward. It felt so real; so tangible, almost as if he really were here; holding me, caressing me, whispering that he loved me and needed me to stay with him. It was nice and I never wanted to leave here, not if it meant going back to the harsh reality of my life that was imprisoned by an unhinged ex and a psycho woman from my past. Why would I want to leave the comforting embrace of my only love's voice and arms to return there?

I didn't.

So I stayed and wrapped myself tighter against his warmth.

I never wanted to leave yet something was off. The ever present electricity that I felt whenever he was near me was nowhere to be found. The buzz was weak; telling me that he was around somewhere but that he was not in the near vicinity.

And yet, I still didn't want to leave.

So I stayed and buried myself further into his velvet voice.

EPOV

I sped down the highway following behind Twain and Mac's flashing cruiser; my thoughts on one rolling loop: Please let her be ok, please let her be there.

Charlie sat beside me in the passenger seat, silent as the light faded, bringing about the darkness of the night. I had never been so thankful for his silence as I was right now. I wasn't sure that I could carry a conversation let alone listen to him speak. My mind was too crowded already. The rain had started just as we joined onto the highway and had not let up since. My wipers swished across the windscreen in a vain attempt to wipe away the rapidly falling raindrops as I stared blearily out.

The silence didn't last long.

"Edward, I need you to listen to me or the detectives when we get there. You'll be no good to her if you get hurt. She would never forgive me if I let you get hurt." Charlie spoke quietly but firmly.

I glanced over to him to see him staring straight ahead out of the windscreen.

"I don't matter, Charlie. All that matters is that she is ok." I muttered back as my hands gripped the steering wheel tightly with the images of her being hurt assaulting my mind.

"You matter to her." Charlie countered.

"All that matters is that she is ok." I repeated.

Charlie chose not to reply but huffed instead in annoyance. I ignored him. I was still trying to remove the images of my Bella hurt from my head. It was no easy task and the images did nothing to quell the fear in my heart that something was wrong; that she wasn't all that ok.

I slowed my car down to match the speed that Twain was driving as we pulled off of the highway onto a winding side road. I could see Twain speaking on his radio and I assumed that he was calling for backup.

It wasn't long after we pulled onto the side road that it turned into a dirt track surrounded by trees and foliage. I swept my eyes from side to side; taking in the surroundings as we slowed to a crawl. Twain rolled to a stop just as the trees thinned to reveal a large log cabin. It was very secluded and rustic looking but looked as if it had been cared for meticulously. To the left there was a lake with a long wooden pier leading to it. A dingy boat was tied to the post and sat bobbing on the gentle waves. To the right of the cabin there was nothing but trees and bushes; the perfect place to hide.

I stopped my car beside the cruiser and stepped out as soon I killed the engine. Twain and Mac were standing studying the area; presumably looking for signs of life or movement. It was at that moment we heard a gunshot. I surged forward; not stopping when I heard the voices of the three men behind me shouting at me to stop and wait. I just ran. The pulse inside me was telling me that my Kitten was here. I could feel her. The dread in my gut was telling me that she was hurt and it was all I needed to run to her.

I crashed through the front door and stopped. The room was large and expensively furnished. On my right there were large bay windows with a window seat. Beside it was a fireplace and in front of the fire place was an overstuffed brown L shaped sofa. I gazed around, trying to decipher where I needed to go next. I didn't need to wait too long for my answer. I heard sounds coming from behind one of the closed door on my left. I crept over to it and pressed my ear up against it.

"Tsk, Tsk, Bella. Why fight? It would be so much easier if you just died like you are supposed to."

Tanya.

I felt another emotion unfurling beside the fear; anger. Rage. Pure unadulterated rage against another human being. Against Tanya.

I heard the click of a gun and realised that she had been the shooter. Without another thought I shouldered the door and stumbled into the room. The sight before me tore through me, fuelling the rage. My Kitten was sprawled out on the floor, unconscious with blood seeping out from the wound on her arm and Tanya was standing over her with the gun pointed directly at her chest; directly onto her heart, my heart. I growled. Loudly. Tanya spun round and I watched as her eyes first widened in disbelief and then glinted in maniacal joy.

"Eddie! Baby! You're here! Good, let me just finish off here and I'll be with you in a sec, kay?" she trilled.

I shook my head in anger in disbelief. She looked positively insane. She had to be.

"Tanya, step away from my girlfriend or so help me, I will kill you." I snarled.

"But, Eddie, baby, I'm doing this for us; for you, so that you can finally be free from her and we can be together like we are meant to be." Tanya simpered.

My eyebrows shot up in shock. God, she really was insane.

"Tanya, I will never and I do mean never be yours. I am hers. Completely. And if you choose to shoot her, I will kill you first and then myself." I paused, "That is, if I allow you to even shoot her in the first place." I warned.

"But, Eddie-" Tanya started.

"But nothing! Step away from her before I do something I may regret." I roared.

"No! She has to go. I have to do this! Don't you see that she has poisoned you? You are mine! You always have been!" Tanya shouted back.

I shook my head, "I have always been hers, I just never knew it." I whispered.

"No! No, no, no! You. Are. Mine!" Tanya screamed.

She spun back towards Bella's inert form and cocked the gun again, unlocking the safety once again. Again, I didn't think; I lunged and threw myself on top of my love just as another shot rang through the air. I felt the burn in my shoulder blade and knew that I had been shot. I lifted my head and looked at Bella's pale face. The black spots started to cloud my vision. I trailed my eyes down Bella's body and froze. I had taken the bullet, but it had shot clean through me and into Bella. The bullet had penetrated her at the base of her neck where her collarbone was.

"Oh God, no. Bella, no! Baby, please…" I whispered in horror.

The blackness was threatening to pull me under just as I heard Twain's voice.

"Freeze! Police! Drop the gun and put your hands up!"

"Baby, please wake up. Please Kitten, don't leave me. I need you, baby, please!" I moaned into Bella's neck before I lost my fight.

The last thing I heard before I lost my fight was Charlie's voice telling me to hang on as he gently moved me to the floor beside my Bella. My response was simple.

"Save her. She's all that matters."

CPOV (Charlie)

I crouched down beside my daughter and her boyfriend. I assessed the situation quickly. Edward was lying draped over her, covering her with his body protectively. I saw one gunshot wound in Bella's arm and one in Edward's shoulder. I gently lifted him off of her and onto the floor beside her and only then did I notice a second gunshot wound in her neck. I froze.

"Edward? Edward, stay with me son, help is on the way." I whispered urgently to Edward. I could see that he was fast about to lose consciousness.

"Save her. She's all that matters." He replied weakly before his eyes slid closed.

I felt tears prickle my eyelids as I whipped off my flannel shirt and pressed it down onto the wound in his shoulder as I used my other hand to apply pressure on the wound in Bella's neck. Edward's last words rolled through my head. I couldn't allow this to happen. They both had to be okay. They both mattered.

"Twain! Mac! Get the EMT's in here quick! I'm losing them!" I screamed over my shoulder.

I could feel Bella's heartbeat slow down to an alarming rate and Edward's was not that much better. Somehow in their unconscious state they had reached out for each other and clasped hands. I glanced down in surprise as I watched their fingers flex around each other's hands. I really should not have been surprised. They always had orbited around one another.

After what seemed like an age, four EMT's came rushing into the room and crouched down beside me.

"Sir, can you release them please, we need to get them stabilised before we can move them."

I nodded numbly and slowly retracted my hands, which were now covered in blood. I scooted back a little to allow them room to work on them. I watched as they quickly and efficiently applied gauze to the gunshot wounds to stop the flow of blood and hooked them up to IV's.

They had to be ok. They just had to be. I could not lose my daughter. I could not allow us to lose Edward either as the loss of him would result in the loss of her too, no matter if she recovered from the wounds. She would never recover from losing him and nor he her.

Two hours later, I found myself pacing the lino floor in the trauma waiting room as I waited on word from the doctor's who were working on Bella and Edward. The door to the room swung open and in rushed Emmett, Alice, Rosalie, Jasper, Carlisle and Esme. They all surrounded me as each asked questions.

"Charlie, how are they?"

"Where are they?"

"What have they said?"

"What happened?"

I shook my head, unable to speak. Esme gently guided me over to the plastic seats and sat me down, dropping into the chair beside me. I recounted the whole night to them. The kids and Carlisle stood around me and Esme in a half circle as they listened quietly. There was a long silence once I finished before Emmett finally spoke up.

"They have to be ok. They will be. I can't lose them. I can't lose my brother again."

His voice was a pained whisper. I craned my neck up to look at him. His face; normally so alight with humour was a mask of pain and fear. I stood shakily and pulled him into a hug. He had gone through so much with Edward when Bella left and I knew that he was the reason why Edward was still here today but this was the last thing he needed.

CPOV (Carlisle)

As a doctor, you see a lot of tragedy and pain along with happiness and joy but when it comes to your own children, you never want to see any hint of pain. When the call had come from NYPD that Edward and Bella had been shot and taken to Manhattan Memorial you can imagine how surreal the situation felt to me.

My son and who I considered to be my daughter were currently in surgery and from what I had heard of their injuries I knew they would be ok. Hopefully. But the parent in me was in turmoil. My child was in surgery all because of one woman's insane infatuation with him. Had my son not lived through enough pain already? For eight years I watched him coast through life like a zombie. The worst time had been when Emmett came to us and told us about his drug and drinking problems.

Sure, we had gotten him back on track, but he was never the same after he got sober. The son I had watched grow up had gone. Without Bella, Edward was a shell of the person he used to be when she was still a part of his life. Gone was the carefree, fun loving Edward and in his place we got a quiet, withdrawn one. Lord only knows how many times I had prayed for our Edward to return to us.

The day we called him and he told us that he had seen Bella we noticed a difference in his voice. It was lighter; happier. It was the voice of the Edward that I remembered from his childhood. All it had taken was for him to gain his best friend back. The best friend that also happened to be his soul mate. It was a joyous day for his mother and I too.

Now. Now I had to pray again. I prayed for the safe return of both my son and my daughter.

EmPOV

The waiting room was silent as we each sat lost in our thoughts. My thoughts? Mine were full of the image of Edward on the bathroom floor covered in blood. That image had haunted me for years. No amount of therapy had erased that image from my mind. Sure, we had gotten our old Edward back, but that still didn't stop the images from cropping up at the worst times and scaring the shit out of me. This was one of those times.

I had seen way too much of my brother's blood than I cared to see and now to add to those images from four years ago, I had a total new set. Floating through my mind were images of Edward and Bella lying in coffins with their hands crossed over their chests. Their pale, lifeless images were messing with my mind and I was slowly going insane with worry that those images may just come true.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to shout. I wanted to kill. I wanted to kill Tanya. And Jacob. And Jared. And the doctor too if they didn't hurry and come and tell us something soon.

CPOV (Charlie)

The door swung open once again and we all looked up to see the doctor standing in the doorway. I didn't like the look on his face. It was sympathetic and compassionate. Isn't that how all doctors look when they are about to deliver bad news? Do they teach them how to perfect that look in med school or some shit?

I stood shakily from my seat and faced him head on. I watched as he took slow measured steps into the room and came to stand before us; clasping his hands together in front of him.

"I'm sorry…"

That was all I heard before a scream of 'No' rent through the air. It didn't take me long to realise that the shout had come from my mouth.

"No, it can't be…" I whispered as I sank down onto the chair.

The world; my world was over. My daughter was gone. I couldn't listen to anymore. I couldn't stay here.

I abruptly stood from my chair and stormed out of the room, not stopping to hear what the people behind me had to say. I couldn't stop. I didn't want to, so I left.

A/N: Okay people, another short chappie, but I'm expecting a lot of flak for this one so I decided to leave it here. Let me know what you think. Be brutal.

I know that you will all be upset by the turn of events; especially since it took me so long to update, but trust me, for where I want to take this story, it had to be this way. Sorry, folks!