DISCLAIMER: The characters do not belong to me…they are all the creation of the wonderful Stephenie Meyer.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Edward, Jasper, and Emmett train Bella in fighting and in self-defense.

Training 5

EDWARD'S POV:

Jasper and I stood a safe distance away from Emmett and Bella as they fought. She had been on the offensive for most of the fight and she was leading Emmett back and forth across the clearing.

"What's she feeling?" I whispered to Jasper, slightly unnerved by the fierceness she was displaying this afternoon.

"She's extremely angry. She's also frustrated, but I don't think either of those emotions has to do with the fight in front of us," Jasper replied. 'I think it's because of the human.'

I nodded in silent agreement to my brother's thought. Yesterday, Bella had come home from school upset, her entire body shaking. Today, she had come home from school and had immediately asked for a training session. It had started out normal enough, but within a few minutes, she had gone on the offensive and had really been giving Emmett a work-out ever since.

Bella threw a fake punch at Emmett and as he tried to block it, she landed a kick to the side of his knee but before he could even recover, she punched him in the ear, knocking him a few steps back.

"Time out!" Emmett roared.

"What's the matter?" Bella snapped.

"Edward, do I have your permission to use my actual strength?" Emmett asked, never taking his eyes off of Bella. 'She's pissed and I don't trust her to be the normal Bella I know and love. And with her this angry and focused, I don't think I'll hurt her. But if I do, you can tear my arm off as long as you give it back. Rose wouldn't be happy with either of us if I had to hug her with only one arm for the rest of eternity.'

"Bella, do you want to allow Emmett to use his full strength?" I questioned her, hoping she would say 'no', but knowing she would agree.

Her eyes remained locked on Emmett's in the same way his did on hers. "Yes." Her answer was not quite a hiss, but it was a little too close for my liking.

"Go ahead, Emmett, but try not to hit her in the head if you can help it. I can deal with most of the body shots, but not the ones to her head," I warned him.

"You got it," Emmett growled, stepping back up to Bella.

He threw the first punch for a change, trying to catch her off-guard. But she recovered at the last second, blocked it, and landed her own punch to his lower abdomen. Emmett growled again, but Bella didn't back down. She answered him with her own growl and a kick to his hip.

"Jasper, I'm extremely worried about her. Do you think it's okay to let her work out her feelings in this way?" I whispered, trying not to break up the fight; I knew it would only make her more upset.

"Edward, this may be her only way of getting her aggression out right now. If her anger doesn't lessen, then I'll step in myself," Jasper told me.

Bella and Emmett were still trading punches, and she was barely flinching at the few punches Emmett was able to land on her. They were also speeding up in their movements, nearly moving at vampire speed. Emmett landed a kick to Bella's upper thigh and she whimpered loudly, but refused to stop moving. She retaliated with two punches to his chest and one to his chin.

"Alright," Emmett called. "Time for a break, Picky."

"No," Bella growled, continuing to punch and kick at Emmett.

"Bella, stop," Emmett ordered.

She ignored him again.

'Edward, I need to restrain her,' Emmett pleaded with me with his eyes.

I nodded to him, reluctantly. "Jasper, try and calm her. Emmett's going to restrain her.

Emmett launched himself forward and wrapped Bella up into his arms. She thrashed against him and tried to slip out of his arms.

"Some help over here!" Emmett yelled, sounding frustrated.

"I'm trying," Jasper fussed. "She's not letting me calm her.

"You think!" Emmett growled.

I ran over to them and wrapped my arms around Bella's waist. "Let her go, Emmett. I've got her."

He let go of her and I pulled her against my chest, already humming softly to her. I lowered us to the ground, with her sitting in my lap. She was breathing harshly, but she wasn't fighting me.

"Jasper?" I questioned.

"She's starting to let me calm her," he replied.

"What the hell was that?" Emmett asked, scratching his head.

"Not now, Emmett," Jasper cautioned. "Let's get her calm first."

Alice and Rose came running out of the trees, kneeling down in front of Bella and me.

"Edward, give her to us and take a walk with the boys," Rose commanded.

"Rosalie," I warned, trying not to get aggravated. I knew she wanted to help, but she should know by now that I was not going to leave my wife upset like this.

"Edward, listen to her, please," Alice begged. "Please trust us and take a walk."

I sighed, but nodded my head.

"Rose, put your arms around her before Edward lets go," Jasper cautioned. "Bella is still holding onto most of her anger."

Rose lovingly wrapped my wife up with her stone arms and nodded at me. I reluctantly let go and pulled away from Bella.

Emmett and Jasper came to my side and the three of us took off into the woods. I would go for now, but I would stay close enough to hear Rose the second she was ready for us to come back.

BELLA'S POV:

I could hear Emmett telling me to stop and I could feel Jasper trying to calm me, but I didn't want to listen to either of them. They didn't understand. They didn't know that this was the only way to get out even a little of what I was feeling. I couldn't say it with words, or arrange my thoughts for Edward, and I couldn't cry it out because I had no tears. This was all I had to keep it from ripping me apart.

I felt Edward's arms around me as he hummed my lullaby, but even that didn't work. And then my sisters were there, right in front of me, but I wasn't really seeing them. I was too busy trying to see past the pain, and the anger, and the sense of loss I felt. Rosalie hugged me and Edward let me go. His scent was fading and I knew he had left me, but I couldn't make myself call him back.

"Bella," Rose said softly, speaking right next to my ear. "It's okay. Edward went for a walk with Jasper and Emmett. He's not far. I promise you."

"Bella, we're here for you," Alice whispered, leaning her head against mine.

"I know what it's like, Bella," Rose said. "I know how it feels to have that anger eating at you, ripping up your insides. You want to lash out at anything and everything, trying to push it out of you. And as out of control as you are, you still know what you're doing, so there's guilt there, too. And the pain…it suffocates you, even if you don't technically need to breathe. I know what it's like, Bella. I know our situations are different, but the emotions are the same. He wanted you dead, he hurt Edward and all of us by making us fear for you, and he took away your inherit belief that the humans are the good guys. It's okay to be angry about those things, and to feel hurt because of them." Rose pushed my hair away from my face, looking directly into my eyes. "But Bella, it gets better over time – easier to deal with. And even though we don't have tears, we can sob and it does help. So just let go. It's only Alice and me here with you, so you can let go and not worry about Edward seeing it."

"He'll still hear it," I whispered.

Alice pulled out her cell phone. "Jasper, you need to take Edward for a drive. I don't care how you do it or where you take him, but get him away from the house for at least two hours. Bella needs this." Alice closed her phone and ran a hand across my hair. "Jasper and Emmett are going to get him away from the house in just a few minutes."

I nodded my head weakly, wondering if our brothers were really going to be able to convince him to go. The three of us sat quietly, waiting to see what would happen. About five minutes later, Alice smiled sweetly at me.

"They are taking a ride in Emmett's Jeep and are far enough away that Edward can't hear you in any way," she assured me.

Then, she wrapped her arms around me, right below Rose's arms and the two of them held tightly to me as the sobs wracked my body and threatened to tear me from their stone embraces. I still couldn't form any words to explain my feelings, but Rose seemed to be able to say them all for me as she softly whispered to me.

"It's not fair that you were picked out of all the people in that classroom. It's not right for anyone to want to harm someone in such a sick and cruel way. It's horrible that you value life so much, but others want to take yours away so easily. It's not fair that Edward was forced to imagine a life without you, again. And it royally sucks that there's such a huge chance you might go through all of this again when the summer comes. But you are Isabella Cullen! You will learn from this. You will take strength and courage from this. You will heal your pain, and then Edward's. And you will do all you can to never let anyone make you feel this way again, vampire, or human, or any other creature that may walk this Earth with us. Your innocence was stolen, but you never let go of your humanity. I wish I could explain to you how rare and wonderful that is, Bella. I certainly wasn't able to do that. While I have never tasted human blood, I have been satisfied by the sounds of dying men. You are so much stronger than any of us, yet you are the youngest. You have more fight than Emmett, more willpower than Edward, more cunning than Alice, more sympathy than Jasper, and much, much more beauty than me. While mine is superficial, your magnificence shines from the inside out."

Never had Rose spoken so much or so sweetly to me and it only caused me to sob harder. They tightened their holds and sobbed with me. Three sisters, huddled in the middle of a field, sharing a pain that no creature should have to endure…And as awful as it was, it was also beautiful and wonderful, and filled with a tender love. It's easy to stand side by side in the good times, but altogether different to pull together in the dark ones. But here they were, my sisters – especially Rose – holding tightly to me and keeping me from completely falling apart in one of my darkest hours.

I had no real sense of time as we sat there; it could have been minutes or hours. I only knew that my sobbing had stopped and my sisters were slowly pulling away from me. I looked at both of them, questioning them with my eyes.

Alice smiled and rubbed my shoulder. "The boys are back and Edward will be here in a few seconds."

"You're ready to talk to him now, Bella," Rose assured me. "You've done all your sobbing, so don't worry that you'll break down in front of him.

I lowered my head and nodded. "Thank you. Both of you," I whispered, staring at my hands in my lap.

"It's what sisters are for," Alice said softly, leaning her head against mine, again.

"Bella?" Edward's tone sounded worried and cautious at the same time.

"We'll leave you two alone to talk," Rose said, as Alice and she walked away.

EDWARD'S POV:

I had promised myself I wouldn't stray too far from Bella's side, but I somehow had found myself in Emmett's Jeep anyway. Emmett drove us deep into the park, closer to a section of mountain ranges. In an effort to help me work off my frustration, our brothers challenged me to race up and down the steep cliffs. The exercise did burn off some of my aggravation, but mainly, it just kept me from thinking about what Bella might be doing.

After a couple of hours had passed, I was anxious to get back to her, and I was glad when Jasper said it was time to return home. Before the Jeep had even stopped, I was out of it and racing to the clearing where I had left Bella with our sisters.

I broke through the last of the trees and saw her sitting in the same position she had been in when I left. At least she was talking this time – she was thanking our sisters for something. I cautiously called her name, wondering if I should approach her, or give her more time.

"We'll leave you two alone to talk," Rose said. 'It's okay, Edward. She's doing much better now. Go to her.'

I nodded my head to our sister and ran over to Bella, scooping her up into my arms and burying my face against her neck. We both spent a few minutes taking in each other's scents, calming ourselves with the other's closeness.

"I'm so sorry. I just…I couldn't figure out how to tell you what I needed to say, and my thoughts weren't any better, and it all felt so big and so trapped inside of me," Bella sputtered, clinging to me as tightly as she could.

"It's okay, Bella. You don't have to apologize. I'm just glad you're talking to me now."

"I wanted to talk to you before, I really did, but I just couldn't figure out what to say. And Rose…Edward, she knew exactly what I was feeling and thinking and I didn't have to say a word."

"That must have helped a great deal."

"It really did. I don't feel so alone in this anymore."

"Bella –"

She put her hand over my mouth, interrupting me. "I know I was never really alone, but when you can't explain how you feel and you don't have Jasper's gift to share how you feel, it makes you feel alone in certain ways. And now that I know what it is I want to say, and my thoughts aren't so scattered, I know you'll be able to understand, too." She took my hand into hers and smiled sweetly at me. "I want to show you, but you have to promise not to apologize or to try to take the burden for my feelings. You did not cause these emotions and if I thought for a second that you were blaming yourself, it would only make me feel worse."

"My love, I only feel guilty for not protecting you from this, but I do realize that there was no way I could this time."

"So you can teach old vampires new tricks," she chuckled.

"Yes, I suppose so," I laughed, hugging her tighter against me.

She took a deep breath and moved so that her face was pressed tightly against my neck. "Are you ready?"

"Only if you are, love," I whispered, pulling her just a little tighter against me. She would certainly have been crushed by now if she had been human, but I couldn't seem to hold her close enough.

"Okay," she sighed.

She made the connection with me and allowed me to hear her thoughts. I was amazed at how well she had been able to keep herself together over the last few days…She was so strong, and she didn't even realize it.

"I love you, Isabella."

"I love you, too, Edward." She sighed and nuzzled my neck with her nose, getting into a more comfortable position. "At the risk of sounding like a whiny kid, it's not fair."

"No, my love. It's certainly not."

Bella sighed heavily. "So is Emmett mad at me?"

"No, Bella. He's only concerned. So is Jasper."

"Maybe we shouldn't do anymore training until I have control over myself."

"I think that might be best. But I promise that we will start them again as soon as you are ready."

"Stupid vampire emotions," she muttered.

I chuckled at her, kissing her temple. "I take it that you are finally figuring out how strong they are."

She sighed, but didn't speak.

"I'm here for you, Bella. I'll always be here for you," I whispered. I prayed my words brought her some form of comfort and security. I wished, once again, that I could have protected her from all of this, but even a vampire can't do everything. I could only hope that things would get better for her soon, but with the holiday season being so close, I doubted it would happen. For now, I could only hold my angel, letting her know I was with her, and that I loved her. I hoped it would be enough.