A/N: Thanks for the reviews, please keep them coming. Please don't hate me for this chapter - what I am doing is necessary for this story, so please just trust me - I repeat, it's necessary. Keep in mind that this will eventually include my ending to the series, and it's very necessary to portray Victoria a certain way, so again, hang in there with me, ok?

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer.

(Previously):

EPOV

It was about three o'clock in the morning when I heard it. Alice. She screamed at the top of her lungs, her voice full of pain, accompanied by a crashing sound. Esme was sitting with Bella and me at the time, so I ran down the hall to see what had happened, practically colliding into Emmett, Rosalie, and Carlisle. We flew into her room, only to be hit with massive waves of anxiety coming from Jasper. Alice was thrashing around on the floor, grasping her head in her hands, and Jasper was trying to hold her, as the breeze from her broken window swept through the room, which had become victim to her outburst.

Chapter 8: Timing

EPOV

"What's going on?" Carlisle asked urgently, trying to remain calm.

Jasper was the one to respond. "I don't know - she was just sitting here, as quiet as she has been. Then she began to have a vision of some sort, and after it had passed, she was trembling. Before I could do anything, she started screaming and threw the lamp through the window. She just collapsed onto the floor after that, and I can't seem to calm her down. It's like she's in pain - I don't know what to do," he finished brokenly, gripping his wife's hand. He was lost, and the helplessness he felt washed over each of us.

Cautiously, but deliberately, I stepped forward, and knelt down on the ground next to them. "Alice - Alice, tell me what is wrong." She seemed to hear me, and the flailing and kicking ceased. She looked up at me desperately, but couldn't seem to find the words. Her eyes wide with panic, she looked directly into mine, and for the briefest moment the wall was let down. The images of the vision she'd just had hit me in full force. Shocked, I stumbled backwards. Then fury took over. I grabbed the closest thing I could find - Alice's prized dressing mirror - and hurled it against the wall, smashing it into a million pieces. Now I was the one screaming the string of profanities.

My family members were all silently demanding to know what was happening.

I turned to Emmett and Jasper. "I can't leave Bella now. Get the car and head to the airport. Get to Florida as fast as you can...I don't care what you have to do. That bitch is going after Renee. She's ahead of you; she just decided to board a plane, and she's closer to Florida than us. Jasper, we will take care of Alice. Go!"

Without hesitation, they flew into action. I didn't know if they'd make it in time; I could only hope for a miracle. How on earth would I tell Bella that she had lost her mother, too? I couldn't. They had to make it. The rest of my family stood in Alice's room, shocked into silence.

I turned my attention to Carlisle. "Please, start calling Renee's house. I don't care what you tell her, I'm sure you'll think of something - just somehow get her out of that house. We'll deal with the consequences later," I pleaded desperately, before focusing on Alice again. Carlisle nodded gravely in response before disappearing.

Alice had curled up into a ball on the floor, quiet again. Leaning over, I picked her up and set her on her bed. "Alice, thank you for letting me in enough to see that. I promise they will try their hardest to save her. Rosalie, will you stay here with her?"

"Of course, Edward. Go check on Bella," Rosalie replied softly. Even she could see the scale of the tragedy at stake here.

When I reached my room, Esme was sitting on the edge of the bed, stroking Bella's hair. She had heard what I'd said in Alice's room, and if she were able to cry, there would have been tears streaming down her face. She understood the horror Bella would endure if she lost her mother.

"Will they make it in time, Edward?" Esme asked.

"I'm not sure," I answered darkly. "Unless Alice has another vision, and willingly lets me see it, we won't know until either Carlisle reaches her, or until Jasper and Emmett call."

Carlisle tried relentlessly, dialing every few minutes, but he could not reach anyone, not even an answering machine. It made me recall how Bella had always spoke of her mother as being 'technologically challenged,' and wondered if Renee had simply switched the machine off by mistake. What a horrible mistake it could end up being...

Five hours later we had an answer. Rosalie quietly entered my room. "Edward, I think you should go to Alice - something has changed with her. I'll sit with Bella."

Within seconds, I reached Alice's room, and when I entered, Alice was rocking back and forth in a highly agitated state. I walked to her bed and sat down next to her.

"Alice?" She leaned over and rested her head against my chest. Momentarily, the walls lowered again, and as Alice silently communicated her message, I covered my face with my hands. Carlisle and Esme were expectantly standing at the edge of the room, waiting to hear the news.

"Renee and Phil are dead. She got there first, and waited for them to return home," I reported icily.

My parents gasped in horror, and Rosalie cursed under her breath from my room. This was an absolute nightmare.

My eyes flashed angrily as I met my parents' gaze, my expression fierce. "She has taken everything from my Bella. She has taken her father, her mother, and her stepfather. I do not know how or when, but I will end this. I will make her wish that she had as easy a death as Riley did." At my words, the resolve formed in my parents' thoughts. They would be right at my side when the time came. No one does something like this to our family. No one.

As if to confirm my thoughts, my father nodded, silently conveying one message to me. "We protect our family. Bella is a part of that family."

This is how we started the third day of Bella's transformation, the day we expected her to wake up: with the knowledge that we would have to inform her of the deaths of the rest of her family.

The day went on...we were all quiet since Alice's last vision, most of us lost in our emotions. I waited, and waited some more. Nothing happened. Bella lay as still and quiet as ever.

I had called Emmett earlier and told him the news, but asked them to continue on to Renee's house and get whatever they could from it that might mean something to Bella - photos, things of that nature. We also had to make sure that Victoria had disposed of the bodies, but I didn't voice that aloud - Emmett and Jasper knew as much.

It was late afternoon, and I was beginning to get beyond anxious waiting for Bella to wake. I sat next to her, pleading. "Bella, love, please wake up. Please, Bella. I have to know that you're all right. Please, love." Nothing.

How much more of this I could I take? My mind began to race with horrifying thoughts. I briefly wondered if a head scan would work on someone changing, and contemplated ways to sneak Bella into the hospital so I could check for brain activity. Carlisle would never allow it, though. Perhaps I would just purchase the equipment myself. Ludicrous ideas along these lines began to occupy much of my thinking. If I had to wait much longer, I feared I would lose my mind.

Esme came up for a while, and tried to convince me to take a break, maybe go hunting. I refused adamantly, saying I wouldn't leave Bella's side, so she stayed with me. Carlisle checked in many times as well, but there was nothing to report. Eventually dawn came, signaling the beginning of day four, and as Bella remained unconscious, my despair deepened.