Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.

Previously: Edward arrived at the institution and found that Bella was still alive. Edward removed Bella from her cell and they were reunited. Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper searched Forks for survivors and told the wolves that Bella was dead.

Chapter 4 (Edward's point of view)

I sigh and loll my head back against the walls of the padded cell, reveling in the feeling of being alone with my love. After Bella had fallen asleep in my arms, I had taken her back into her former prison with enough water to last a few more days and some food. As soon as we were sealed away, Emmett, Rosalie, and Jasper had left. That was several hours ago; I estimate that it would be past nightfall by now, and I wonder what has been taking them so long. Not that I mind.

Bella stirs gently in my arms, and I hum her lullaby softly to her to calm her down. Just as she has all the other times she has threatened to break into the conscious world, it is highly effective. Her breathing patterns and pulse rate return to their normal sleep pattern. I inhale her scent gluttonously, the monster within me as quiet as it was the day before I was changed. The very idea that Bella had succumbed to the disease while I wallowed in an attic somewhere in South America was close to unbearable; the only thing that kept me going was the small sliver of hope that she was still alive. Luckily, the odds were on my side and I found her still breathing.

At least my leaving achieved one thing, I think tiredly, The pain I caused by leaving Bella actually saved her life; if I hadn't left, we might not have been able to find a safe place to put her before the disease spread to Washington.

I am broken out of my reverie by the intrusion of Emmett's loud thoughts. Alerted by his louder voice, I listen closer and make out Rosalie and Jasper too. The news in their thoughts astounds me. Emmett and Rosalie are mostly focused on each other, but Jasper is entirely focused on a certain revelation. Wolves?

Of course, I remember the werewolves we'd met several decades ago. However, my mind is suddenly burning with questions. Ephraim and his pack are long dead; how are there wolves now? How are they still alive after the whole town was killed by the disease? These questions are the first to come to my mind. Glancing down at Bella's peaceful face, even more frightening ones spring to mind. What if they try to fight us? Are they a danger to Bella?

Jasper's aggravated thoughts are reassuring. Don't worry so much, Edward, he soothes me, I can feel your stress from out here. Rose smoothed everything over.

I breathe a sigh of relief, but I am unable to quash my fears completely. I listen closely as Jasper relays the tale of their meeting. Meanwhile, I do my best to bar Rosalie's and Emmett's thoughts from my mind; they won't be returning to the building for a while. Once Jasper has told me all about their encounter through his thoughts, he begins cleaning up the mental institution and the immediate area around it. When it is safe for Bella to leave these rooms, I certainly do not want her to be greeted by the dead. She will already be grieving for Charlie and her human friends without seeing the carnage first hand, not to mention her worry for her mother.

Several times I have run through how I will tell Bella about what has happened in my head. Apart from telling her that I had to leave back in December, this could very well be the hardest conversation of my life. Most likely, when she wakes up, she'll ask me a question like what I've been doing the past few months or why I've brought her back into her cell. Then I'll begin my story. But, where to begin?

I become so absorbed in my thoughts that I do not notice as Bella stirs. "Edward?" she mumbles tiredly, reaching up to touch my face.

Immediately reverting all of my attention to her, I respond calmly, "I'm here."

She smiles softly, yawning quietly and adjusting herself into a sitting position on my lap. After a moment of silence, she speaks again, "So, what've you been up to while you were, er, away?"

I stiffen at her words, beginning to panic. I am unprepared to start this conversation just yet, but I don't think it would be fair to keep this from her much longer. Stalling, I inquire, "Are you thirsty? Hungry?"

She nods eagerly, her eyes honing in on the pack of water on the floor beside us. As quickly as vampiricly possible, I open it and am holding out a bottle of water to my beloved. She swipes it from me swiftly, bringing it to her lips and sucking the water out like a thirsty vampire, spilling some on her dirty tank top. When she stops to take a breath, she smiles apologetically at me. "Sorry," she apologizes as she wipes some drops of water from her chin, "It's j-just been a while, y'know?"

"Yes," I agree softly, stroking her hair lovingly, "I definitely know what it feels like to be thirsty."

"I guess you would know that, wouldn't you?" she chuckles. Her pale fingers rub the skin beneath my eyes, and she frowns. "You need to hunt," she observes reluctantly.

"I'm afraid I can't do that right now," I half-whisper.

A crease forms in between her eyebrows. "Why not?" she asks, not completely disappointed.

I sigh, deciding hesitatingly that she deserves to know what's going on. "Bella," I address her strongly, "Something terrible happened while you were in here. It was completely and utterly out of anyone's control. We couldn't stop it; no one could have stopped it. It came on so quickly that we were all caught unaware. It was a freak thing; Alice didn't even see it coming until it was too late. I was still wallowing in self pity when I caught wind of the catastrophe." The level of animosity that the last thought brings me forces me to take a moment to recover myself before continuing. Bella already looks distressed; my deepest instincts are begging to just placate her, to tell her everything is wonderful and then whisk her away to a "private" vacation somewhere where we wouldn't see any humans on a normal day. The intelligent part of me, however, knows that lying to her will not do anyone any good. I'm lucky enough to have earned Bella's favor back as it is; she would never forgive me if I lied to her about something as important as this.

"Go on," she prompts me, her brown doe eyes wide.

I take a deep breath and decide to start from the beginning. "I was in South America when I got the news. I had just entered an airport, trying to decide where to go next, when I saw it. No planes were to go in or out of the country because of it, and the stories were on all of the televisions and newspapers. As soon as I figured out what was going on, I started running back here to find you. I just had to save you from it, I just had to… The very idea of failure was unacceptable, but the odds seemed to be stacked against me once again. You don't know the-the ecstasy I felt when I found you here still alive."

She strokes my hair gently, even more bewildered than before. I realize that I am crying, or doing the vampire equivalent to crying at the very least. I struggle to compose myself again, unable to bring myself to say the words. The prospect of having to tell Bella—still so fragile from her days of deprivation—that basically the entire human race has died seems like an insurmountable task.

"What happened, Edward?" she asks anxiously, "Why did you think I wouldn't be alive when you found me?" Her eyes reveal the thoughts swirling around in her mind as she strives to figure out the meaning behind my words.

I reach up to touch her hair and look her straight in the eye when I tell her what has happened. "There was a disease, a terrible plague. We think it started in the Eastern Hemisphere, but we're not sure. It came on violently. Hospitals were flooded with the ill, but there was nothing the doctors could do. Even Carlisle couldn't find anything that could save its victims. It seemed to spread through the air itself, claiming some small countries in just a few hours. When I heard of it, everyone was panicking. I ran straight here; the fear that I had already lost you to the virus was wretched."

Bella's POV

Edward watches me anxiously as I digest the new information. His black eyes are wide in fear and his mouth is twisted in a grimace. His shoulders are hunched anxiously. He pulls his hand out of my hair at vampire speed the moment I tilt my head downward. The information just doesn't seem to sink in to my brain. He spoke very clearly, and I intellectually understand everything he said, but my emotions seem to be a little far behind.

"What?" I ask blatantly, utterly stunned by the news.

Edward sighs and looks down. "I'm sorry," he apologizes faintly, his melodious voice barely audible.

The information sinking in a little further, I am able to respond. "No," I blurt, shaking my head, "That kind of thing only happens in movies. There's no way that could have happened. Not in the real world."

"I'm sorry," he apologizes again, "But I'm afraid it did really happen. I saw it myself, and it's nothing I'd want you or anyone to see."

Heat rushes to my cheeks, and I feel my skin become moist with perspiration. "No," I proclaim shakily, "I won't believe it. Not until I see it for myself."

"No!" Edward exclaims fearfully, raising his hands as if to restrain me if I tried to run. His ebony eyes widen with panic and his gaze fixes on my startled face. Then, recovering himself, he lowers his guard again, suddenly seeming to find the back of his hand intriguing. "I'm sorry; that was out of line. What I mean to say is that that cannot be. The disease is still contagious, you see, even though it has claimed the majority of its victims."

"Victims?" I squeak, the reality of the situation gaining clarity in my mind.

He sighs again, evidently uncomfortable. "Yes," he responds shyly, "There were many, many victims."

"And Charlie?" I squeak, "What about Charlie? And Renee and Jacob? Angela, Mike..."

He is shaking his head before I even finish. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." His voice burns lowly with the weight of his sorrow. His eyelids, tinged a deep violet from his thirst, squint shut as he shakes his head.

Thoughts whirl around inside my head like tribal dancers, chanting in foreign languages and moving with such grace and foreboding passion that I feel as if I must step back. This whole idea just seems so outrageous, so out there, that there's no way it could be real. I begin shaking my head slowly as these thoughts come with increased ferocity. Still shaking my head in disbelief, I mouth the word, "No." I look up at the now wide, black eyes of my vampire, and, for the thousandth time in the past few months, legitimately question my own sanity. Let's look at this from an outsider's point of view, the snarky part of my mind suggests condescendingly, just as many psychiatrists had during my time here, Your vampire ex-boyfriend has returned and is now telling you that the whole wide world is basically dead. Hmmm…

"No," I murmur, shaking my head even more vigorously now, "No. This isn't happening. I'm a psychotic lunatic, and…"

"No," Edward asserts vehemently, "Don't belittle yourself that way, Bella. You are neither psychotic nor a lunatic."

"But," I moan tiredly, "I shouldn't even be talking to you. You're probably just some figment of my imagin…"

In a manner so perfect that it is almost cliché, Edward breaks off my rant with a kiss. The phenomenon of his lips on mine acts like the flipping of a switch. The lights inside of me come on, and the fog I hadn't realized I was in is lifted. The colors in the room are so vivid, from the beautiful bronze of Edward's hair to the white of the padded walls. The weight on my chest disintegrates, leaving no shards or debris in my temporarily perfect world.

"I thought we'd already confirmed that this was real?" he whispers against my lips.

At that moment, I am too incoherent to respond. It is only after he pulls away and looks into my eyes again that I remember the reason I questioned him. My mind naturally reaches out desperately for an excuse, some sort of cliff to grab on to before I fall. "You're lying," I blurt out without really thinking about it, "You must be!"

"No, Bella," he responds mournfully, "I'm not lying. Not this time."

Enraged by his denial at my final excuse, I lash out at him scathingly. "Well, you don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to telling the truth!"

He sucks in a deep breath, thinking carefully and critically before saying anything. My eyes fill with tears when I realize what I'd said and see the sincerity in his eyes, but there is no taking back my statement now. "I don't know how I'll ever make it up to you, Bella, and I wish I were lying to you right now. For this atrocity to be all one sick joke would be lovely, and I hate having to tell you all of this, but it's true. I saw the news and I saw what the disease did; there is no doubt within me now that any part of this is a falsehood."

The tears in my eyes spill over. The enormity of the situation grows within me like a weed, sprouting in my stomach and binding my limbs with its rotten tendrils. The weed's black, infected thorns inflate in my throat, choking me. Edward's eyes, though solidly black, convey a myriad of sentiments that break through the very barriers of my soul. He pulls me close to his chest and strokes my hair as I cry. "A-are you absolutely s-sure?" I sniffle.

"Deplorably sure," he whispers, "It's a wretched fact, but we will survive. It isn't all over. I'm here, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to keep you safe."

Author's note: Thank you SO much for all of your reviews. It was amazing to find them all in my inbox, and I hope this chapter gets the same reception.

Review prompt: Who is excited for BREAKING DAWN PART TWO?