Carlisle had not been exaggerating.

Miserable was an apt description for how she felt.

"No," she'd told Edward, hand out, as she headed towards the bathroom again. There were limits on what she wanted him to see.

The bleeding, she'd expected, but the other bodily purgings, she'd hoped to be spared.

No such luck.

It was the tears that had been the surprise.

That she should feel something….for this thing, and its leaving her. A strange commingling of revulsion and...pity? Sadness?

She didn't prod at those emotions too much.

"Heat," Carlisle had reminded her, after she'd taken the pill he'd given her, "massage, hot baths, walking, and lots of fluids."

She'd already refused any pain medication with a quick shake of her head. "No, I want to know it's working."

Edward had looked nervously at Carlisle, who'd simply nodded, adding silently, Respect her choices. She knows what she needs.

Several hours in to the effects of the abortion, Bella was seriously reconsidering that choice.

Emerging from the bathroom again, she returned to the bed, curling up with a stifled groan as another contraction gripped her.

Edward had learned not to talk when these were happening, but put the heating pad on her back, massaging her muscles through it. He'd taken issue with Carlisle's description of what she would experience. Severe cramping was a nice way of saying a-lot-like-labour-pains, but his father's curt thoughts had stopped him from rephrasing it for her. You'll only frighten her. Focus on helping her get through it.

He could feel the pull of the muscles under his hands, and the squeezing band that was expunging the pregnancy from her body.

She was at the worst of it so far, in terms of the contractions, hands tight into the pillow, blowing out steady breaths.

He was worried that she hadn't had anything to drink, but Carlisle was reassuring him from a distance. Give her time. It's only been a few hours. She'll be turning the corner soon.

Watching her suffer through it, he had some inkling of what father's felt, seeing the women they loved hurt for their progeny.

But this was just the last of Jacob Black, being chemically stripped from her body.

He had no sympathy for the thing that had gained purchase inside her.

The latest contraction had passed, and setting the heated blanket over himself, scooped her up to rest on him. She moaned against the movement, thoroughly lost in the misery of her body.

"I love you," he said. "And I wish you weren't so miserable."

"It's not so bad," she lied.

He chuckled, the sound rocking her, setting off her own bubbling of laughter.

"So convincing," he whispered into her hair, rubbing her back.

"Totally," she mumbled. Then she surprised him by turning her face upwards, finding his lips with hers.

It was hard for him to kiss her, he was smiling so much at this easy touch—this distilled happiness.

When it ended, he let his smile blossom fully. "So diligent with your homework."

"I'm a keener," she grinned back.

Then the next contraction gripped her, and she blew out a groaning breath, hands looking for give in his marble form.

"Careful," he said, hearing her grinding her teeth.

She made an unintelligible sound, but it was enough to silence him, settling his lips into her hair again.

Safe to talk again, he ventured a quiet, "what do you want to do this week?"

"Not feel like I'm dying," she mumbled.

"OK," Edward said, forcing his face to remain neutral. He knew it was just a turn of phrase, but still. "And after that?"

She thought for a moment. "Go see Angela." She'd missed her gentle friendship.

"Together, or on your own?"

"You'd stay close by?" she asked, her grip tightening again.

"Of course," he said.

"On my own, I think," she said, "I'd like to just spend some time with her. Being normal."

Normal, he thought. Just living as a human should. How much his world had robbed that from her.

The guilt, never far, twisted in his gut.

Another pain began at her hips, and she moved away, pushing herself onto all fours, trying to arch her back through it.

By the late afternoon, the worst of the pain had passed, and she fell into a disgruntled half sleep, disrupted by the milder, but still continued discomfort.

The ringer on the house phone had been set to a low purr, enough for everyone but Bella to hear it. It sounded now, and Edward flicked his attention to Alice's mind, silent with possibilities.

"Hello?" Carlisle said, picking it up. "Hi Sam," he murmured politely, alerting the rest of the family. "Thank you for letting me know," he continued on. "She's fine," he added more tersely. "I think we're clear that she isn't your concern anymore." There was a brief moment of listening, and a patient but authoritatively dismissive, "goodbye."

"The council's approved our request. All except Billy Black," Carlisle said, his thoughts an equal mixture of miserable empathy, and anger.

"Good," Edward whispered, thinking how fitting it was to have the news today. That Jacob Black could be ended, along with his progeny.

Jasper and Emmett had been searching in the last weeks, without success, trying to follow Jacob's trail. He'd looped back on himself, his scent lost in the water off the Canadian coast, just south of Vancouver. They hadn't found where his trail emerged again.

"He could have left," Jasper'd said. "Gone somewhere by ship."

Edward had simply shaken his head. "No," remembering his thoughts that day on the mountain. "He'll come back for her. He isn't far. We just need to look slightly further afield for him."

Emmett had snorted at this. "Kinda hard, in July." The Eastern stretches of the state were closed to them outside of night, washed as they were in steady sun, rather than the sturdy cloud cover of the West.

"Then we go at night," Edward had gritted back.

"Not you, lover boy," Emmett grinned. "Go be with your wife. She needs you."

His wife, Edward thought, would be happier if he could assure her of Jacob's permanent absence from her life. He had growled as much to Emmett.

Emmett had looked at him, in all seriousness, "trust me, Edward. She needs you here. Leave the hunting to us."

But they hadn't found anything, and Edward's patience for Jacob's continued living was a thin thing indeed.

Now they could hunt with impunity.

"The outcome is what matters," Carlisle had said. "That Bella is safe. That our family is safe." There were other implications to what Jacob had done, his thoughts reminded Edward.

That he should be robbed of the visceral satisfaction of paying Jacob Black back pain for pain, every single piece he'd visited on Bella, made Edward vibrate with frustrated rage.

"That is he is ended, is the only material thing," Carlisle'd repeated.

The weight of his family's assembled thoughts, heavy with violent imaginings, would have to be enough for him. They would end him. Bella would be safe.

Bella would be happy, he told himself. Not just safe.

"Agreed," he'd finally said. It hurt to produce the word, to release the right to personally execute vengeance, but he couldn't dispute their logic. The creature was a danger to all of them. The first to have the opportunity to do so was to dispense justice.

He just hoped they would carry his enthusiasm for inflicting appropriate misery with them.