With Or Without You

Chapter Two

"What are you going to tell her?" Cass asked for the tenth time as he stood beside Bella's bed.

The past few months would be the last peaceful days she would ever have, if she only knew it. She was showing increasing signs that her coma, therefore her sanity, would soon end.

He barely knew her, unlike Marcus, and he was glad of that.

How do you tell someone her entire family are gone?

"If Carlisle had just let me help them. And what the fuck was Emmett thinking, taking his wife and kids out of protective custody? At least they were alive. That's more than they are now. I just can't figure out how it happened. All three cars exploding just as they were driving on top of the cliffs at La Push beach."

"Any more bodies shown up?" Cas asked.

"I think you mean body parts. Now and then. Just...bits. Like the Quileutes said, the massive waves that crash below those rocks just pull everything out with the tide. It's a miracle we found any part of any of them. I'm glad there was no evidence left of any of the five babies. That would have been too heartbreaking."

"Well, it does figure they'd get swept away the easiest, being so small..." Cass choked and stopped. He shared his apartment with his sister and her young son, and suddenly the sleepless nights and teething seemed much more of a blessing and less of an endurance test. His nephew would at least grow past this stage and have a life.

He didn't even like looking at the photos Charlie Swan had given them, of the toddlers and laughing babies playing in the sunshine. It just seemed like a blasphemy that they'd been born at all, just to end like this.

"And you had the remains tested for DNA? They were definitely the Cullen's remains?"

"There are no Cullen family members left to compare any of them to. No point. I do have a budget to adhere to. DNA testing was pointless. We know who they were. Who else would have been driving the cars that family owned, wearing the jewellery those poor bastards wore?

I just wish we'd recovered Edward's wedding ring.

I wish I had one small token to give Bella when she wakes up.

I understand Carlisle attempting to flee with his family, but he should have let us help. Volturi's henchmen caught up with them."

"Seems such an overkill, killing the entire family. I mean, Carlisle and his wife and their youngest son and his family had nothing to do with any of it."

"Fucking Vollturi is an animal. It's a wonder he didn't wipeout the entire population of Forks."

"But he didn't gain anything by killing all these people."

"He gained revenge, and thats all that matters to bastards like him," Marcus growled.

"How did he react when you confronted him with this latest batch of killings?" Cass asked, imagining the monster had probably laughed to hear his henchmen had killed even more victims than necessary.

"He did look surprised when we told him. He must have assumed some of them would escape, alive. Or maybe he didn't think his minions were capable of doing a proper job. Yes, he was surprised, but delighted all the same. The bastard annihilated an entire family."

"Any news on Bree?"

"No. She just vanished. One minute she's on that cruise ship and the next there's no sign of her. Obviously he knew ,somehow, where she was and he had her snatched. Again. He'd done it before, remember. He denies he had anything to do with it either time but every word out of his mouth is a lie. His men got her, and killed her, and I bet we never find any remains at all. If we hadn't managed to keep Riley Biers alive, there wouldn't have been a single witness. That boy held the whole case together. Volturi and most of his palace guards will fry, thanks to that lad."

Bella moaned softly.

"You have to tell her that her father's alive," Cass stated, looking with pity at the girl in the bed..

"How can I? If I tell him she's alive, and I tell her he's alive, then you know they will want to be together, and someday soon we end up with two more bodies to scrape up off the pavement.

Nobody knows Charlie Swan was at the Res. Nobody alive, apart from the Quileutes, and you can bet your arse they'd kill anyone who went looking for him on their land after this. Those people have their own laws. Charlie's one of their tribe now, and they'll die for him, but I imagine they'd kill for him first.

Charlie and Bella are the only two left, and I'd prefer it stayed that way, even if they can't know about one another. It's for the best."

"I guess just telling her that her sweet little daughter's as dead as her husband will be hard enough."

"I remember how she reacted when Edward got shot. It was only a flesh wound but you'd think he'd barely escaped with his life. I guess his number wasn't up, at that stage.

I'm not looking forward to breaking the news to her. I wish she'd stay asleep,and keep them alive and well inside her head."

xxxx

Bella slept on, oblivious, for one more day.

When Cass arrived the next lunchtime, she was laying there looking confused. He was glad Marcus had insisted he would be the one to break everything to her, because he sure didn't want to. He felt like he'd come to know her somehow, over all these weeks while she'd done her Sleeping Beauty impression.

"Hello, I'm Cass Faraday. I work with Marcus."

Bella licked her dry lips and touched her own face with one shackled hand, looking around the room, confused.

He picked up the glass of water on her bedside cabinet and offered the straw to her.

She drank gratefully, and coughed, waving the glass away again.

" I'm Bella Swan, you probably know that, right?" she replied. He almost corrected her, then held his tongue as Marcus appeared at the door.

"Bella, finally you have returned to the land of the living," Marcus said, moving to her bedside and sitting down.

"Marcus. What happened? What did I do now?"

"What do you remember?" he asked, delaying the inevitable.

"Edward," she said suddenly.

"What about him?"

"He came to the castle and rescued us. Bought us," she replied, frowning in concentration.

"Anything else?" Marcus asked.

"Sure," she shrugged. "He left me. He hates what I did. He said I risked everything."

"And since then?"

"Nothing. A few texts and phone calls but we always end up fighting so we agreed to give one another space. I'm not confident that I can get him back," she sighed, biting her lower lip. "I'm going to see him at Alice's wedding. Maybe we will talk, or maybe he'll just tell me it's over."

"Nothing else?" Marcus pushed.

Bella looked intently into his eyes.

"He's decided, hasn't he? He's gone. He's not coming back."

"No Bella, he's not coming back."

She blinked her eyes rapidly, looking at the blank wall, and Marcus felt useless. He patted her knee awkwardly.

Bella wiped her eyes impatiently, then rallied,

" I guess I don't deserve a second chance. Fuck him then. I can live without him," she said bravely. "I do have a life without him. I have that assignment to start, in the share house."

"Oh, that's all off. We caught the dealer."

"So, what now? And why am I tethered to this bed?"

"For your own safety. I'll untie you if you promise to rest."

He undid the wrist and ankle restraints. Bella sat up cautiously, rubbing her wrists.

"There was an accident, Bella. Aro Volturi blew up a house. Your father's house. You don't remember?"

"Fuck. Charlie's dead? Does Renee know?" Bella cried out in distress.

"Renee and Phil were killed in a plane accident."

Bella shook her head.

"Coming over for Charlie's funeral?"

"No, they died first."

"That just seems unfair. Both my parents are dead?"

"I'm afraid so. Look, that's enough shocks for you today, I'll be back tomorrow and we can talk some more."

"You aren't going to sack me, right? I know I overstepped my duties going into that castle..."

"Bella, there will always be a place for you at work. You will have to heal first and we'll have to promote you to a desk job, but don't worry, your job is safe."

Marcus signalled the nurse, and she stepped into the room and took Bella's wrist, waving them out as the girl collapsed into heart rendering sobbing.

Cass watched on, incredulously.

He stayed mute until they reached the car, then he couldn't help himself.

"That was just fucked up. Why didn't you tell her everything?"

"She's got to digest the news her parents are dead, and she knows Edward's left her. Surely that's enough for now. In time she may remember the missing parts and then I swear, I'll tell her everything. I don't want to be responsible for sending her right back into a coma."

xxxx

BPOV

The counsellor type woman encouraged me to talk, even though I didn't want to. Strangely I was almost at peace with the news Renee and Phil were dead; it was almost as if it happened a while ago and I knew already. Maybe I did and I'd just forgotten. Charlie's death was a raw, open wound.

Obviously I'd been in denial.

The doc explained it was natural to mourn the parent who had raised me a lot more than the one who dumped me when I was a newborn, so maybe that's all it was. I dare say she knew her job.

At the moment my Father's death eclipsed the news that Edward had made his decision and wasn't coming back.

At least he was alive.

It just didn't seem like him, though, to stay away now, when he must know how devastated I am over losing Charlie. I'd thought him a bigger man.

I'd have expected him to be here, when I woke up, even if just as a friend.

We'd had one another's backs for so many years, it just seemed out of character for him to put his pride ahead of my welfare.

I guess it answered the question I'd been asking myself ever since he stopped saying 'I love you'.

At the end of every phone call, even if we'd shouted at one another and been angry, my heart had still stopped beating while I waited to hear those three precious words, but they had never come.

He'd really left me.

Forever.

Once Edward made up his mind about anything this important, that was it.

The end.

xxxx

I sat there looking out the window.

It seemed wrong to be fretting over a man who was alive and breathing instead of spending every moment recalling every happy memory I had of Charlie.

My brain just laid my father to rest, maybe because anything else was far too painful.

He was gone from my life, but not from his own choosing. And that could never change.

Charlie was dead.

I hoped there was a Heaven.

I hoped he and Renee finally had a better relationship than the one they'd had here on Earth.

I didn't really care about Phil, but I never have.

The sun sent it's rays my way and I felt the warmth through the glass, on my skin.

I didn't recognise this area of Boston, but it stood to reason it must be the hospital I'd been to, visiting Edward when he got shot.

It was just that at that time, I hadn't noticed all these trees surrounding it. I'd had other things on my mind.

And this wing must be a newer addition. The room was larger, and the bathroom fittings grander, and more modern than they'd been in Edward's room.

It did disturb me greatly that he'd called time on our relationship, but it wasn't wholly unexpected. I'd really taken the whole engagement so half-heartedly, and been unsure what I wanted.

Then when I had decided I did indeed want the future he'd offered, I'd fucked up. Royally.

He'd left to save himself.

He just didn't trust me any more and he'd decided I wasn't good for him. He'd told me all this himself.

I guess I'd just arrogantly thought I'd be able to get him back, despite my behaviour.

"Well, Bella, you were wrong. A man can only take so much, then he leaves. He walks away. You should know that by now. Does Riley Biers ring a bell? He walked away from you first. Oh wait,Jake walked before him. Seeing a pattern here? Notice the common denominator? Yes, it's you. Bella Swan. Or maybe you could change your name to Taylor Swift. Write some sad songs about them all."

I looked around the room.

My only flowers came with a card from Marcus.

It seemed the entire Cullen clan had deserted me.

"I guess they all went on to Edward's side," I sighed as I dropped the card back into the flowers. "Even Rose and Alice. Not that I blame them. They are Cullen's now, or as good as, and I'm the outsider."

It did puzzle me why Jake hadn't sent flowers. There's no way he'd choose Edward over me.

Maybe he assumed I was in one of those comas that lasted for years and he didn't want to waste his money on a flower arrangement that could be dried up and dead before I woke up.

Money didn't grow on trees, for most of us.

I had no idea how long I had been asleep. Nobody was telling me anything, apart from 'don't worry about anything yet. Just get some rest and try to relax.' Like that was an option. The drugs helped.

But I wanted contact with someone who knew me.

If not Edward, if even calling to hear I was still alive was too much trouble for him, then I'd settle for Jake.

I should call him. He would be worried.

I walked to the door and turned the handle.

What the fuck?

I was locked in?

That was unacceptable.

"Hey. Unlock the door. Let me out," I shouted. I was pretty sure it was against the law or against human rights to lock someone up in a hospital.

Unless...

I went back to the window and looked outside again.

Noticed the window bars.

Fuck me, I did recognise this place but it wasn't the hospital Edward had been in. It was the Mental Health Clinic; the Rest Home; whatever they called looney bins in these politically correct times. I'd driven past this place on my way to work for years.

Why would I be here?

Did my parents deaths cause me to have a breakdown?

I'd assumed my injuries were all physical, not mental. Did mental conditions send you into a coma? Or had I done something to cause the coma myself?

An overdose?

The door opened and two people entered. A doctor, minus the usual white coat but still instantly identifiable by his manner.

And a nurse.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

"Fine. I just need a phone. I have to call my friend."

"I'm afraid that's not possible. Marcus left strict orders that you are not ready to call anyone yet. In time, when you start to feel stronger,I 'm sure he will relent and let you talk to anyone you want to. It's for your own good."

"Keeping me here, isolated, unable to even speak to a friend is for my own good? I need to talk to someone. I'll go insane, locked in here alone with only strangers."

"Nonsense. You know Marcus, and Cass."

"I know Marcus but I can't even remember meeting Cass before last week, the day I woke up. They aren't really my friends. Marcus is my Boss."

"But you have worked with him for years, he told me."

"It's still not the same. We didn't see one another much out of the workplace. He's never even been to my new apartment."

"You have a home here in Boston?"

I nodded.

"I recently bought a new loft apartment. It's amazing. Oh, I wonder if Edward took his furniture back? That would mean I only have the piano and my bed."

"Is that likely?" the doctor asked. "I haven't been informed of anything about him, other than to help you accept he won't be visiting you here. And not to let you convince any member of staff to try and call him for you."

"I get it. I get that he doesn't want to talk to me, even though I don't understand how he could put what I did ahead of my Father's death. It's just so not Edward to be so cold. I guess I hurt him a lot more deeply than I imagined."

"Well, Bella, where's there's life, there's hope. Who knows. Maybe in time he'll come around and consider you two need closure if nothing else."

"Closure," I said with a mirthless laugh. "It's closure that got me into this mess. If only he'd listened to me and not sent me to find Riley. All this could have been avoided. I would not have found Rose, and gone into that castle. I think something bad happened to her in there. Do you know how she is? Or where she is? Has she gone back to Forks?"

"I'm sorry. All I've been told is you have suffered some very sad family losses and you are to stay here until you recover from the coma,and the shock. I'm sure once that's occurred, you will be able to catch up with all your friends and get back on with your life."

I shook my head.

"She's angry with me. Somehow I did something that's made her really upset and I don't know what. It makes sense she isn't here. I mean, if Edward can't bring himself to even look at me now, and be here when I need him, why would Rose?

And Alice is all wrapt up in Jasper.

I'm nothing to them now, am I? They've all moved on. I'll never see them again. I'll never be there to see Tommy grow up. He's such an adorable baby. I was beginning to think …."

I stopped because I knew he was looking at me with pity.

I'd lost my future but not my life.

Once I got out of here, I could return to work, and move on.

I grimaced.

If they kept me here until I was capable of moving on without Edward, I might be here for a very long time indeed.

"Is this a mental ward or a drug rehabilitation center? I've hardly ever taken drugs in my entire life. I mean, I tried a bit of pot, like most students, but I hated that feeling...you know. When it feels like you have a giant air bubble in your throat. I never used it again. But that was back in High School. Ages ago. I'm not an addict."

"We don't use labels here, Bella. This is just a safe place for people like yourself to recover and get some respite from the stress of the world outside."

"But I feel fine. When can I go home?"

"That depends on a lot of factors. Let's just wait and see how you progress over the next few weeks, then we can discuss a possible future date for your eventual release. You've been through some very stressful situations lately. There's no shame in needing some help to cope after all you've been through. And we are here to help you."

He wrote things in his little book, then the nurse offered me two small white pills and I swallowed them down.

"We are all very sorry to hear about your losses. It must be very hard," she said, patting my arm.

I shrugged.

"Those tablets. What were they for?" I asked belatedly.

"Just something mild to make you feel better. Don't worry. They won't affect the baby."

My hands flew to my abdomen.

"I'm pregnant? I'm going to have Edward's baby?"

I couldn't help but smile. Now I understood Alice more, wanting to have Tommy as a piece of James that she could keep after he left her.

My life seemed confusing and out of whack, but hey, I was having Edward Cullen's baby.

He may never want to see me again but I bet he will be back when this precious little miracle is born. He may not want me, but he'll want to see his kid.

That had to be a good thing, right?

xxxx

Cass Faraday jumped to his feet.

"But how? What happened? I was talking to him not an hour ago. Is Volturi behind it? Did he have Marcus killed?"

He swayed on his feet. Where, when, was it going to end?

"Nope,the Coroner suspects a good old fashioned heart attack. He's been under unbelievable stress, what with the Cullen family being killed on his watch. You know he's been questioning how he handled the whole thing.

Whether he should have just had Edward and Bella and Rose in Witness Protection from the start, then their families may have been spared. Not that I agree. A man like Volturi thinks nothing of wholesale slaughter. That family probably never stood a chance.

The day Bella went into that castle she started the dominos falling, and then Edward heading in afterwards on his white charger...they both sealed their own Fates."

"But there was no way Volturi could know Edward wasn't Edward Anthony Masen. There's never been a single photograph taken of the man...I mean, he didn't exist so there was nobody to identify him," Cass argued.

"Cass, don't be stupid. Go Google Edward Cullen; there's a thousand photos. It wouldn't have taken much effort to identify who Edward Masen really was. Aro may be a murderer on a grand scale but he is intelligent. He's run his world wide empire unopposed for many years.

One has to assume he has resources to find out these things. He may not have known who Edward Cullen was at the time of their transaction but eventually he'd have found out.

For God's sake, Bella has a Facebook.

People have no concept how dangerous social networking can be. Someone with her background should never have opened any sort of account that showed happy family portraits of herself and her husband with their kid. These days people use facial recognition programmes to match an image they already have of someone, to find any other photos of that person online. Aro had video footage of Edward and Bella together.

A twelve year old could have found her Facebook for him, even if she hadn't been undercover using her own name.

I think that's what bothered Marcus the most.

He didn't create a fake id for her, because he didn't think it was necessary. He had no reason to, but he still blamed himself.

Anyway, as sad as his death is, Cass, you have to takeover the Bella Swan case."

Agent Molloy passed him the thick file hard copy and the password to his former partner's computer. Then he asked Cass to sign for the box containing the little bundle of jewellery that had been recovered from various body parts of the unfortunate family.

"We are finished with them. You might want to hand them on to Bella. Maybe not yet, but someday, when she can handle having these reminders."

"I don't think I can handle this case," Cass protested. "I don't know her and all I know of her is what Marcus told me. I know she just about fell apart when Edward got a flesh wound. How the fuck do I tell her he's dead, and so is their daughter, whom she doesn't even remember existed so far? 'Hey Bella,you had a kid. Pretty little thing with big brown eyes and auburn curls , but, downside, she's dead.'. Has her Facebook been closed?"

"Of course. Marcus didn't want her seeing those images again before he'd prepared her. It's all here, on this thumb drive."

He passed the small silver stick to Cass.

Such a tiny thing, yet it held the images that would tear Bella apart and make her wish she'd died in that explosion, and yet, they'd also be the only images she would ever see of her dead daughter.

Every single thing the Cullen family had owned had been packed away and put into storage, and their houses sat there cold and empty on the family compound. Waiting for what? Cass wondered.

Would Bella ever want to go back there, and live all alone in the house where she's once lived with Edward and Kristabelle?

"The dog. Don't forget Jakey is kenneled in with the Police Dogs. She'll have to take possession of him again at some point. Poor thing nearly starved to death after they died. Lucky for him that Marcus decided to have all their personal effects put into storage or nobody would have found him."

"How do I handle this? What do I tell her? When? How fast?"

"Cass, just move at your own pace, and try and determine when it's the right time to reveal the whole truth to her. Mind you, now whether you tell her Charlie is alive is in your hands. Not everyone agreed with Marcus about that. Just work with her doctor, and if he thinks she can handle the truth at some point, then just...tell her. Good luck. You are on this case for however long it takes, and are relieved of all other duties, so don't bother coming into the office at all. Consider it a special assignment. It's what Marcus would have wanted."

Cass frowned and put the rings and thumb drive into his pocket, and the file into his briefcase, and left the office,who knows how long for? The indefinite future.

This case was not like any he had ever handled before.

They'd never bothered doing more than imparting the facts to the victim's families, giving them their condolences and shutting the file. Walking away and leaving whatever backlash happened in the hands of doctors or psychiatrists. It wasn't part of their job to worry about how the one's left behind reacted to the news.

But this was different.

Bella was one of their own.

She deserved, and would get, all the help she needed from Cass before he returned to active duty.

The Volturi case was closed, all that remained was for someone to put the needle in the arms of Aro and his men, and let the poisons finish them off. Cass couldn't help but wish it had been his job to that himself.

They'd die too easily, too gently, but still they needed to be eliminated like the filth they were.

xxxx