Chapter Six

Authors Note: Just so you know I am writing this now immediately after finishing the last chapter. I'll just sit on the next one too, unless you all review!

I just finished writing. This is nearly DOUBLE the size of any of my last few chapters. Maybe double reviews for such a big and speedy update?

Disclaimer: Don't own.

BPOV

I felt tired. I felt déjà vu. I felt tired of déjà vu. I was someplace incredibly soft, and I felt both parts warm and yet also quite cool. It was an amazingly soothing feeling. Like being in air conditioning on a hot day or waking up in winter with twelve sheets and flannel pajamas on. I sighed in contentment. I felt a dull pain in my body, not so much a pain: more an ache. But I felt so heavy and groggy that I could ignore it. I started humming in contentment, my head definitely buried in a fluffy, soft pillow. Or six. Definitely not at Charlie's. I began moving my feet around under the covers to feel the cold and warm areas around me as I felt two solid and familiar arms wrap themselves tighter around me.

Hmm.

The arms that always held me when I woke up in the mornings were never this tight. It wasn't painful, and it was entirely welcome, but it baffled me. I puffed out a breath of air as the events of tonight – last night? - came back to me. With it came greater consciousness, and greater awareness of my pain. Then I remembered Edwards pain. I could feel his slow, even breathing behind me, feel his chest expand and shrink pressed flush against my back as he was. I shifted my head slowly and found one of his hands close enough for me to kiss. I lingered as he had last night, and he hummed in appreciation, moving his arms up and down my arm, and in wide circles on my stomach. He sucked in a greater volume of air, bent his knees, and moved mine up with his, until we were entirely flush against each other on our sides. I think Renee called this spooning once when we were watching one of her trashy soaps together, but this seemed entirely innocent. We both needed as much connection and contact as possible. He shuddered almost imperceptibly, and began nuzzling my hair at my neck. He seemed so utterly, completely content.

"Hello, you," he whispered into my hair. "You know it's really rather impressive to give a vampire a heart attack the way you did last night. But you were always full of surprises." He seemed so much better now. As though his joy at seeing me better and mending was greater than his fear of what could have been. He was terrified then, but now he was just plain cute in his gratefulness. I saw the sun in the sky outside. It was morning.

Charlie!!

"Shhhh..." he shushed me again. It was embarrassing how much that always actually soothed me when coming from him. I always had to obey. "Alice sorted it out. Just rest, sweetheart." He pulled my closer back into his chest. I think I could feel him kissing my hair now? He had an excuse, and it kind of boosted my ego, so I just smiled wider. It hurt a little, though.

"Carlisle's got you on some hard drugs, so you shouldn't feel a thing." He cooed in my ear.

Hard drugs? I mean to ask, but it came out as an "Nph?" sounding sigh.

"He wanted to give you strong over the counter medicine," he hissed, accusingly. "I went and got the morphine for you myself from his office. I think he was a little... worried about me, so he begged me to hand it over for him to do it. As if I'd make a mistake!" He scoffed. I was secretly grateful. "Just shhh, now, angel. Get more sleep. We gave you sedatives as well, but they might be wearing off. Shh, shh.." Jeese, I was hating my body to how it responded to that. I couldn't really begin to find out what happened last night if I was a pile of goo.

Focus!!

I couldn't tell what time of day it was, because I had no idea what area of the house I was in, so I could not even determine morning from afternoon by the sun's position. I frowned. I'd never been in this room before. I hadn't been in every room in the Cullen home, but I was pretty sure I would be able to work out which floor I was on, at least. I tried to shift my head to look around, which was no easy task given the small, but still persistent pain in my body and my neck when I twisted it, and because Edward was so close behind me, his nose buried in my mahogany locks, still.

Wow.

The room was beautiful. It had the prettiest powder blue walls, with white painted wardrobe and front doors. The carpet looked rich and white, and there were expensive looking blue rugs on the floors. There were chests of drawers, a bedside table, a beautiful antique desk and a full length mirror which looked about the same age. All were white with silver (coloured, hopefully) hardware on them, and the mirror that looked about as old as Edward was also silver, with lots of intertwining bits of metal like a bed headboard. I had a feeling it matched the very bed I lay on. I smiled as I snuggled into the soft queen-sized mattress, covered in a matching powder blue bedspread, white sheets, and an assortment of white, silver, and various shades of blue pillows. I had an abstract memory from one of my visits here. I think I remembered this room, desperately running around to find a bathroom away from Edward's acute hearing. I did not remember it like this.

I shook my head slowly and gingerly, barely upsetting my wounds.

"What happened?" I entreated, my voice wavering. Edward did not speak for several long moments, and I wondered if he was hoping I'd forget my question in my drugged and sleepy haze. I squirmed a little, hoping he'd understand I was waiting. He spoke quietly into my hair, ineffectively removing pain from his voice for my benefit.

"I came home late. I didn't think you'd mind, as Alice had predicted I would earlier, and said that she would look after you till I arrived. I saw you there. You were broken. Bella," he took a shuddering breathe, "there was so much blood. You're face was gray. I have never been that scared in a century."

"But how-"

"Shhh... I could barely concentrate on what was happening. Seeing you, seeing everyone, seeing her, the blood, and hearing everyones thoughts was overwhelming even for a vampire's mind. I read Alice's thoughts. I read her thoughts some time after. After you left your truck," he said this contemptuously and not without accusation, "your scent was detected by... a human blood drinking vampire." He began trembling behind me, and although I had so many questions to ask about this I just focused on his uneven chilly breath on my neck, soothing my wound. "They came here to seek us out-"

"They wish to follow Carlisle's way of life? To follow you di-"

"Bella, please!" His velvet voice was suddenly shattered glass. "She is here for... other matters. She... Finding you was a coincidence. She couldn't believe that a small girl, young and weak for a human who smelled so delectable could be roaming the woods at night alone. As if you were you were an offering from fate." I tried to turn to face him, but he held me tightly. Whether he didn't want to look me in the eye or didn't want me meeting his I did not know. "She was going to kill you. Those were going to be your last moments, Bella. Your last breaths, your last heartbeats before a predator devoured you, miles from home on the filthy earth, all alone. And I would be miles away." I could barely hear his soft tones. I finally faced him after he relented to my squirming, and gracefully shifted over to my other side. He was far more composed, but I could still see the crippling pain across his sharp features. I made to speak, but he chose to continue and leave this matter in the dust. "She was going to murder you, even though you told her of our connect with you," this brightened his tone considerably.

Evidence of a functioning self-preservation system always seems to do it for him.

"She believed you, but thought we were just keeping you as a pet. She didn't... She didn't understand. You're..." Edward, lost for words? "Well, it would be scorned and viewed with derision by modern human standards, but, Bella... My scent is all over you. To vampires that means one thing. You're taken. You've been spoken for. You're mine. You are my mate and no-one else's." He was avoiding my gaze, and rushing through this, seeming flustered beyond all precedence. I felt awkward, like I couldn't meet his eyes at this revelation either, and felt a strange tingling feeling consume me. I nodded for him to continue. He seemed relieved and eager to get past this, also.

"Even if she didn't know that you are my mate, and that I – I need you," he swallowed in an oddly human gesture, "my scent all over you would still strongly suggest that... aah." He grimaced, and looked back to me, searching my face to predict my reaction. He pursed his soft-looking red lips together in apology, "Well, that would still mean that you're mine. That I'm keeping you for... other reasons." This baffled me. For what other reasons would a vampire keep a human alive? Edward seemed heart-achingly uncomfortable and guilty for revealing this, but I couldn't quite understand. I decided to let it go and focus on the story.

"But she chose to devour you anyway." He seemed torn. Torn? How can he be torn? He incontrovertibly seemed devastated that I could have died, but he had mixed emotions across his face. I thought I could determine betrayal, confusion, doubt, and a myriad of other unexpected feelings in his now bright butterscotch eyes. They always seemed bigger, more boyish and youthful when they were bright. "But she decided to toy with you. She was determined to continue... Until she asked of your name." At this, his bright eyes absolutely flamed. I saw mirth, humour, love, and incandescent joy in his golden orbs as his face moved closer to mine, giving me a pointed look. I saw the crooked smile that I love so much, even more animated on his face as it teased. My heart sunk.

Oh, God. I didn't say it, I didn't say it, I didn't say it!

His grin just grew as he saw my recognition.

"I thought I was going to die!" I hissed defensively. "I wasn't thinking, I would have said anything to stay alive!" He did not stop grinning. I suddenly thought of the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. He seemed to enjoy this a little too much.

"Certainly, Mrs. Edward Anthony, whatever you say," how could that grin get any bigger?! I hit him. Hard in the arm. He probably didn't even feel it, but it just added to my growing arsenal of maladies. He kissed my knuckles softly, never breaking his intense gaze. Never stopping with the stupid dopey smile. At least he was no longer brooding or awkward. "Well that through her for a loop," he continued, "she paused for a moment then, but then just kept going. She really was too far gone by then. You already had open wounds across your body," he ran a feather-light caress down my side and arm. "As you were running away from her, which I was surprised to discover by the way, you fell hard on the ground and slid. You skinned the whole side of your face, a lot of your arm, and you bruised a lot of your body. Carlisle thinks you might have a broken rib. You definitely have a superficial fracture to your ulna, and you sprained your wrist and an ankle. You never half do things, do you?" He didn't look to be joking. "There was not a lot of blood from your face and arm - as you skinned it you also got dirt and mud in the wounds, which was a nightmare for me to clean out for you, but might have masked the scent from her better." He tried to sound clinical and professional like Carlisle, but he could never mask that paranoid, terrified, overprotective boyfriend timbre.

"What stopped her?" Genuinely curious. It has been nagging me desperately since I woke up.

"Your ring." Soft, would-be casual. Huh.

"My ring?"

"Yes."

"Huh. Why? That seems really strange – there's something you're not telling me. Who is she? Why is she still here, why was she still in the room when I woke up last night? I'd have expected you guys to be all over her!"

"But it didn't stop her nearly soon enough," he shook his head vigorously, his beautifully messy hair flopping around on his head and the soft pillow. "She still penetrated your neck with her teeth. She hadn't started... sucking... blood out yet, but she removed what venom she had deposited. We have that to be thankful for." I looked down at my feet under the piles of soft sheets and blankets. I frowned. The sheets stopped at my hips, revealing an altogether too shear white cotton night gown. It was loose, and soft, and I could feel that it fell to my ankles. The bust had baby blue and white embroidery, and lace. The sleeve cuffs were much the same. I felt like Elizabeth Bennet. Who changed me into this? This definitely didn't belong to Alice, Rosalie, or even Esme! I frowned harder. This was wrong, but I had more pressing matters to attend to.

I went to sit up in bed. I needed to be upright in this conversation. Edward immediately shifted with inhuman poise, sitting up himself to lean over me, cradling me with his arms and body to keep me lying down. This didn't work out right. At all. Now he was looking down at me while I was still curled up under the sheets. I felt my authority and power in the conversation plummet even further. He seemed to think I was just trying to get more comfortable, so he began fussing over my pillows and fixing my sheets and blankets for me, then running the backs of his long, pianist fingers across my cheek in a repetitive motion making me altogether too relaxed. I need to be alert for this! I now understood the pains down my whole side, my arm, my face and my neck, but I didn't understand her, and I didn't understand her intentions. I didn't understand her purpose in dreary Forks which was occupied by a clan of seven formidable vampires, and I didn't understand how she could attack me, nearly kill me, and suddenly stop, and most of all I couldn't understand how they could let it slide.

"Edward, who is she? What is she doing here, why did she stop killing me, why did she bother sucking her venom out, and why do none of you care that she hurt me!?"

"Of course I care!" He nearly shouted, his sunshine eyes flashing dangerously. That torn expression adorned his handsome face once more. I was close.

"Then why are you letting a predator who tried to kill me walk around like she owns this plac-"

"She's my mother!" He hissed, even his face now betraying his pain. My mind was blank. I couldn't reconcile what I'd been badgering him for, and his response. I thought of Esme, who I vaguely remembered nursing me last night. Confused, I thought of what Edward once told me of his human mother. She had contracted the Spanish Influenza before he, and she had died a human, trying to nurse him back to health. Carlisle granted her dying wish of ensuring Edward's unconditional survival. Still confused, I met Edward's intense orbs for clarification.

"My birth mother. Elizabeth. She's a vampire," he said softly, his face blank but his eyes downcast. He seemed so lost and confused. I lifted my hand to touch his face. His eyes met mine.

"How?" I could think of nothing better to say.

He pursed his lips again and frowned. He gestured with his hand pointing downwards. "They've all been talking downstairs. We needed to sort you out first and foremost. You needed some stitches and a compress, which we got you down there. I don't know. With all the confusion of last night, it was so easy for everyone to just be overwhelmed by a predator," his voice cracked, "to have brought you home to us with a neck wound flowing blood, everyone but Carlisle and I was holding their breath," he shook his head with a hopeless look, "we didn't notice your other injuries until I disturbed them. Your face and side," he clarified as gave him a questioning glance. "We were so fearful of blood loss, of infection," at this comment, even with my own human ears I could hear loud groans from downstairs. Edward frowned even more. "There were so many problems just with that one wound. To see that you had broken bones, sprains, large patches of exposed, broken skin that were covered in dirt..." He shook his head slowly. "I was so scared.

"I could not even think about... her. All I saw was you. All I see is you. I love her. Loved her - I don't know. But you are my life. You are everything. You come first. Even after I had mended you to the best of my ability, I stayed here. What if you woke up in pain? What if you rolled onto an injury or had a nightmare? What if your stitches came loose or a wound was reopened?" He looked horrified. "I stayed here," he said firmly. "But I've been listening all night. Really listening," he added, tapping his temple. He looked as though he were thinking about something painful awfully hard.

"During the outbreak all those years ago, it was common for nomads and small groups of vampires to skip from town to town, village to village, taking and killing and drinking. We..." He was uncomfortable again, "We do not like to drink from the sick. It has a taste, a flavour. As you smell more appealing to me... dangerously appealing," he whispered with wide eyes, "humans with illnesses - psychological, physical, but mostly bacterial and viral taste abhorrent. You can taste the disease or infection, you see," a wan smile, "but when humans have things that don't effect the blood – losing a limb, for example, or physical deterioration, there is no discernible difference. We can sometimes taste differences to those afflicted with prion disorders..." He was even more thoughtful, now.

"So, you can understand that some vampires chose not to prey upon the ill. It is worse than drinking from the lowest of animals from what I understand from other's thoughts. But in all the confusion of the outbreak, it would be easy to prey upon the healthy, as who's to notice one more death? My... my mother, downstairs has been telling her story. We fell ill with the influenza towards the end of the line in our town, and the vampires apparently chose to feast upon the dying, as well. Dying tastes different from ill, from what I understand..." He squeezed his eyes shut painfully tight, and balled his hands into fists, clearly resentful of himself for revealing so much graphic and gruesome detail. He gave my a wry, apologetic smile.

"So my mother was removed from my side as she was as good as dead. It was thought she'd be dead before reaching the morgue. Similar to Esme, I believe, only far more sinister. They needed to clear those who were a minute from death from beds that could be occupied by those who could be helped. Two vampires were waiting, acting as what I suppose you'd call Medical Examiners. There were far too many bodies for a single morgue to suffice, so with so many patients dead, in many different rooms, it would be easy to lose track.

"My mother was bitten by those vampires. They were feeding from her in the early hours of the morning. They didn't realise the effect the sun was having on their reflective flesh, and were surprised to be disturbed so soon after the last delivery by another man with another dead body. He saw them; he saw their monsterous skin, he saw their sick act, and before they had finished with my mother they moved onto him. A healthy human, who needed to be destroyed to keep the secret. My mother lay forgotten, left alone in a morgue to change." A forlorn, pained expression adorned his inhumanely handsome feautures.

"Uuhh... S-so that happened the day before I started changing. That – that makes her older than me!" A sick, false smile tugged at his lips. He had no idea how to react to this news. My poor Edward, who had thought for nearly a hundred years that his biological family was dead, and who had wandered this earth alone, just found out his mother had been alive the whole time. And his first impression of her was her attempted murder of me.

"I think she's older anyway, Edward. Being your mother." I offered, gently. His eyes widened in understanding.

"Oh, right, right."

Silence.

"Have you spoken to her?"

"No."

"Have you been down there at all?"

"No." I bit my lip.

"Edward... What's going to happen?" I softly questioned.

"I don't know."

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