All Twilight characters belong to Stephenie Meyer

This amazing chapter is brought to you by Dollybigmomma, as she knew I had been struggling with updating, and we had spoken extensively about what should happen in the story. FYI, if you ever get stranded on a deserted island, she's the one you want with you. She freaking rocks the survival ideas! So without further adieux, I'll let you read her chapter!

Chapter 23 – Waste Not, Want Not

EDWARD

Bella and I worked hard side by side to get the cave converted into home sweet home. The first thing I did was build a screen of woven saplings to block off the passage of the cave that led back to the water and jammed it into place, securing it with several large rocks. I also built one for the cave entrance to keep out any unwelcomed "visitors."

I finished clearing and smoothing the cave floors, while Bella finished the new mattress casing for Jacob's bed and then spent the rest of the afternoon collecting, beating and drying moss to stuff it. Her fine feathered ladies-in-waiting made quick work of the bugs, including Polly, who had picked up on the sounds the chickens made, clucking and squawking along with them as they chased their latest easy meal.

I collected a nice big basket of worms as I cleared and leveled the caved-in dirt. Those would come in handy for fishing later. Alice had said there would be a huge run of large fish available this week just off the beach and to use the big fishing hooks and heavier line in my trunk to do some saltwater fishing. She also explained to me how to make salt dehydrating trays out of tree bark, so we could have enough salt to preserve what we caught and gathered for later use during the short season. I was beginning to believe we would be here a while.

One of the things about being stuck at the mental hospital that had annoyed the shit out of me at the time was the gardening and crafts they encouraged us to do. I never particularly excelled in basket weaving, but I showed Bella what little bit I remembered. She was a natural at it, picking it up quickly. She said it was kind of like macramé, which she loved doing courtesy of her grandmother. We had an abundance of materials to work with, given the amount of damaged plants and foliage lying around, so she planned on making woven mats to cover the cave floor.

I missed Alice suddenly. She had insisted we take the classes together, and she used to sit with me and we would "talk" silently while we worked, making it easier for me to block out the offensive thoughts of the over-painted older woman teaching the classes. I still shuddered at the memory of her creepy fantasies involving some of the mental patients, especially me.

As soon as we finished getting the cave settled, Bella wanted to get back to looking for the goats and exploring the island. I wanted to put Jacob down for a nap and test the cave acoustics, but she insisted we needed to survey the island for anything exposed or damaged by the storm, so that we could use it or preserve it before it either spoiled or was consumed by animals, or washed back out to sea.

I had gone on several short expeditions trying to find the goats with no luck. However, I never wandered too far from the cave. I still didn't know where the rest of the big cats on the island were, and I was wary of either of us going off alone. I knew if I didn't appease her, Bella would eventually set off exploring on her own, so I made preparations for us to go together and gather what we could find.

I was thankful for the hand tools Alice had included in my trunk, as I built a pull cart to take with us, fashioning a set of wheels from two slabs of wood cut from a fallen tree. I used the hammer, chisels, and the wood rasp file to carve the holes for the axle, which I carved from a strong sapling. I built an X-sided frame out of more saplings that sat over the axle, and then I lashed small branches together for the bottom and strips of tree bark for the sides, before lining it with banana leaves, creating a basket. The cart ended up being about three feet long and a couple of feet deep, big enough to hold lots of stuff. When Bella saw it, she jumped into my arms and kissed me silly.

"It's wonderful, Edward! How did you know how to make that," she asked excitedly.

"Alice," was all I needed to say. My letter had a hand-drawn diagram, and I'd just followed her instructions. I would have to remember to make something wonderful for Alice when we were rescued.

After a night of attempting to get Jacob to sleep in his own new bed, Bella finally gave up, bringing him back to bed with us, when he wouldn't stop crying. He was teething still and fussy, and no doubt a little spoiled at having her snuggled up to him at night. I was determined, however, that he was going to sleep in his own bed, between Oliver and Sam if necessary. I desperately wanted to be able to have a night alone with Bella, and I was pretty sure she wanted it, too, and nothing was going to happen as long as Jacob was in the bed with us.

BELLA

As soon as the morning sunlight filtered into the roof opening of the cave, we were up and eating a quick breakfast. I cooked on my new metal cooking surface before heading out. Edward had built a nice new stone fire pit and used a few rocks to elevate one of the smaller sheets of metal over the flame. It worked great!

We had actually only traversed a small part of the island, being wary of predators, but I was determined to explore the island further. We packed up gear for foraging and set out on our adventure.

Thankfully, the fruit trees had sustained the least of the damage, since they were somewhat protected by larger foliage overhead. We picked up everything we could that was on the ground and removed any fruit from the damaged branches that would die. Edward trimmed the trees, so they would stay healthy, and we brought our first haul back to the cave, before setting off again. I needed to do something to try and preserve the fruit. I hoped Alice's letter had some words of wisdom for me for doing that.

We left again, and I led the way back to the old hollow tree that had the bees in it to see how it had fared in the storm. I was saddened to find that many of the bees had been killed, but there were still a good amount of them buzzing around. The bees were smart and had sealed the tree up, preserving their precious treasure. We decided to come back later, prepared to smoke the bees and collect some honey. I figured I could use some of it with the fruit to make preserves, and we would definitely need some of the wax for candles and sealing.

We continued on through the jungle, and Edward spotted a number of edible plants I never would have considered even trying, much less know what they were.

"We had a big garden at the hospital. A bunch of us worked in it. I worked mostly in the herb garden, since it smelled the best. We grew a little of everything," he said as he pinched off some shoots from a rosemary plant. "A lot of herbs have tropical origins and wild counterparts. We'll probably be able to find lots of different things, if we pay attention."

Edward found a patch of some kind of mint growing near the edge of a small stream. He rolled some of the leaves between his fingers and held them under my nose for me to smell the crisp aroma.

"That smells amazing. I'll bet we can make some great mint tea or lemonade with it." Edward popped several leaves into his mouth and chewed them up, then gave me a searing kiss. "Wow, I definitely can see some other uses for this as well." As I looked up at him, the moment passed. I started laughing at the green bits stuck to his teeth.

By the time the sun had started to set, we had found a patch of wild onions that had a slight garlic flavor to them, a few bushes of something that smelled like oregano, some wild basil and sage, a plant with roots that smelled like fennel, and some unfortunate ginger roots that had been exposed and their tops damaged from the storm. I was excited to find some trees with vines growing on them, bearing some type of long beans on them that turned out to be vanilla beans. I picked some to dry, looking forward to having a cup of vanilla-flavored coconut milk. We gathered giant sunflowers to dry, from a large stand that had fully-formed seed heads on them, but the storm had broken most of the stems. We also gathered as many coconuts and green bananas as we could that had been blown down.

"We can use a piece of the sheet metal and lay things out on it to dry in the sun. Then we can salt them to preserve them," Edward said. "That way so much of what we gathered won't go to waste. We're going to need to preserve what we can, to make it through the winter. I'm not sure how bad the weather gets here, but we need to be prepared." We found a few small fish that had been storm-battered, but were still barely alive and floundering in the surf near beach, and we gathered some of them to bring back with us.

We decided to head back for the evening and stopped by the waterfall to wash up and get water for the night. I noticed that a lot of the brush around the falls had been blown away, exposing the banks. Edward had accidentally stepped in what he thought was mud, but as I tried to help him scrape it off his shoes, I realized it was clay.

"Edward, feel this!" I said excitedly and handed him a big wad of the pasty earth. He looked at me confused and slightly disgusted by the wad of gooey earth in his hand. "It's clay! If we can build a fire hot enough, I can work this into pots and stuff and fire it. I took a pottery class in college, and the professor taught us how to process raw clay. It's really easy, just messy."

"I think I could probably construct a fire box or something inside that rock alcove close to the cave using stones and sand to close it in. Some pots and stuff could come in handy for storing the salted stuff once we get it processed."

I was definitely ready for some rest by the time we got back to the cave. Jacob's head was nodding, so he was obviously tired, too. I stoked the fire and got the water boiling, while Edward cleaned the fish. I seasoned them with some of our newfound herbs and lay them out to cook on the sheet metal, while Edward unloaded the cart.

Jake barely stayed awake long enough to eat dinner. I changed him and handed him off to Edward. He had been having a quiet conversation with Jacob off and on all day, and when he went to lay him down, Edward took Jake over to his room in the cave and called to Sam to come and lie down with him. Ollie lay down with him as well, snuggling up to Jake's sleeping form.

I was already lying down, when Edward came in and lay down next to me.

"Well, we're finally alone," he whispered, and I hummed in agreement, as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled my back against his chest. "Are you as tired as I am?" he asked, his voice sounding like it was fading. Again, I hummed yes, barely audible this time. "You're mine in the morning," he said quietly into the back of my hair as his hand slowly rubbed my abdomen. Within seconds, he was snoring softly. I smiled to myself as I drifted off.

I was looking forward to it.

A/N: Thanks for reading and please review! I'm sure Dollybigmomma would love to hear a word from you!