A/N: Alright, this chapter is now officially up-to-date!

Edited on: 08-27-2016

Beta: SpinningBlack

Jake's POV

"Bella!" I scream and jump into the waves after the drowning girl. Where is she? I can't see her anywhere. My heart fills with panic and my mind assaults me with image after image of her broken body tangled in seaweed, lifeless eyes staring right at me. Eyes that accuse me of not being fast enough; not being strong enough–

My head hits the surface with a big splash that wipes my mind clear of any unnecessary distractions. I have to find her. I need to make sure those horrible images will remain nothing more than fragments of my imagination. Anything else is unacceptable.

One second later my head is already above the waves, and I am scanning my surroundings for her familiar brown locks. Squinting against the blinding light reflecting on the surface of the water, I try to look beneath them. Maybe she is already…?

I shake my head determinedly. I need to focus on looking for her. She has to be here somewhere, but no, I see nothing. No familiar brown doe eyes, no face glowing with innocence, no–

Or wait was that…? Yeah…a flash of brown! She's floating in the water near the rocks. It's difficult to focus through the loud sound of my pulse racing in my veins as I see the red colour surrounding her small form. I can see that her head is beneath the surface and it nearly makes my heart stop.

I swim as fast as I can to her side. Closing the last meters between us, I reach for her hand and drag her to me. In the same movement I make sure that her head breaks through the thin water barrier keeping her body from taking in the oxygen she needs to live.

She isn't reacting to me at all. What if I wasn't fast enough? What if…? My heart is filled with panic, though this time on a whole new level. Her body is limp, so, so, limp. It nearly hurt physically to even look at her.

"Bella?" I hear myself ask tentatively. I hold her closer to my body and swim to the beach as fast as I can. She is cold in my arms, so awfully, terrifyingly cold. My limbs work as fast as they can to get us to the safe haven the beach provides.

The whole time she doesn't move, not even a little bit. Not good…she has lost too much already. She can't lose her life as well. She doesn't deserve this. No one would deserve what she had to go through. I hate those leaches! Not only have they sucked her blood, they also took her happiness from her when they left. They took from her what I knew was most important to her: The love and care that came from belonging to what she felt was a true family.

As soon as my feet touch solid ground I switch Bella's position, carrying her to a safe distance from the waves. Wasting no time, I quickly lay her down and kneel beside her.

I lose my focus for a moment as I look at her prone body. She looks so terribly frail like this. Sighing heavily, I reach out for her shoulders and shake her lightly. I try to wake her like I do every time she slept at my place, but there is no reaction this time… none at all.

Feeling dread slowly creep in my already troubled heart, I close my eyes for a moment. Forcing myself to stay calm, I try to recall every last bit of information I learned in the first-aid course I took before earning my license. That was the exact moment when it hit me like lightening; something was wrong.

I couldn't hear her breathing. My heart nearly stopped again.

My fingers are trembling as I reach out and touch her throat, gently searching for a pulse. I don't dare to even breathe while I focus my whole attention on finding proof that I had heard wrong, but I feel nothing. Her heart isn't beating anymore.

For a moment I freeze completely in position as my heart and mind are unwilling to accept the information. The shock shakes me to my core and it takes all of my will power to force myself to calm down. I need to do something and fast.

That's when the recalled knowledge of the first-aid training finally kicks in. Being as swift and careful as I can, I gently lift her chin and place my lips on hers.

I hold her nose closed and blow as much oxygen in her body as I can. Then I press my hands against her chest and push. Counting the times I push before checking on her pulse again; still nothing.

I press my mouth upon hers again and repeat the procedure from before. This time when I check her pulse it is there as weak as it may be. Sighing in relief, I press my lips against hers for the last time and watch in satisfaction as she moves her head away on her own and begins to cough the water from her lungs violently.

She is alive that is all that matters for now. Thank god! She didn't die! I roll her onto her stomach and gently rub my hand up and down her spine in an effort to help her calm her coughing fit, but the coughing only worsens. Frowning, I take my hand back and look at her. Her clothes are completely soaked through and shivers shake her body wildly. With one last wary look toward the sea I stand up and take her into my arms.

Bella's POV

The first thing I realise upon waking is that I am alone. It's something my body is practically screaming at me. How I know that, however, is a complete mystery to me. It has been this way for a while.

I wake every morning with the instinctive knowledge that I am utterly alone. I felt the same even while Edward was still at my side. Sometimes, I think his presence left me feeling lonelier than I ever have before. Maybe that was why he left me? Because he knew that my mind is somehow flawed? That my instincts kept telling me things my heart didn't want to hear? That something didn't belong?

At first I thought it was due to his being a vampire, but once I met his family I knew that that wasn't the case. Being around his family made me feel welcome and decreased my loneliness instead of causing it to nearly sky-rocket like Edward's company sometimes did.

With these grim thoughts, I open my eyes to look around me. I am met with the familiar setting of my own room. Nothing is out of the ordinary, other than the glass of water and the pill lying beside it on my bedside table. For a moment I am completely confused about what they might be for and why they are there.

That's when I abruptly become aware of the aches all over my body. I feel bad, awful actually. My throat burns like crazy and I can't remember how I got into my bed. The last thing I can recall is a voice. I was talking to someone, but who did I talk to? And why does my throat feel like I tried to gulp down a grater?

With a grimace of pain, I look at the clock and notice that it's already noon. I still had some time before I would have to prepare dinner for Charlie. I close my eyes again and try to remember what happened to me.

There was a voice echoing in my memory. Someone had called me, it was… Suddenly my phone rings.

With a sigh I stand up to receive the call. I regret the decision not even a second later as I nearly fall back on my bed. I stay in my half fallen position for a moment trying to catch my bearings before attempting to go to the phone again. My body nearly gives out on me as I stumble my way over to the insistently ringing device. My voice is trembling with the strength it costs me to keep standing as I answer the call.

"Hello?" I ask, trying and failing to keep my voice from shaking.

The familiar voice that answers me nearly makes my already trembling legs give out on me completely. "Bella?!"

For a moment my mind is completely blank before overloading with all the questions bombarding my mind. I can only breath out a confused, "Alice? Why are you–"

"You are alive?! We thought you were dead after we saw you fall from that cliff! "

Cliff? Which cliff?

"Edward thought you were dead too! We tried to hide it from him, at least until we could have verified ourselves that that was not the case, but Rose didn't control herself and he read it in her thoughts. He went to Italy! Oh Bella, I am so sorry. I am so, so, sorry," she started to sob violently into the phone. "I couldn't stop him! I tried! Really, I did!"

My throat hurt with every word I spoke and the emotions caused it to constrict even more, but I managed to force a few words to pass my dry lips, "What …Italy? Why would he…?"

Italy...there was something special about it. Edward told me something. I think it was something about a vampire family; a ruling family or something of that sort. A picture of three royal looking men – no, vampires – suddenly popped into my mind, though their faces were blurry. But why would Edward want to…?

"Oh damn it…he doesn't want to expose himself, does he?!" I exclaim, unmindful of the agony that every word caused to shoot through my throat.

"You have to save him! You are the only one who can! Please Bella!"

"But how can I– "

"Don't worry about that, I will be there in five minutes!"

"But– "

"Sorry, I have to hang up! See you in four minutes and thirty seconds!"

"Wai–" I try to argue, but am only met with the beeping signalling her having hung up on me. Damn!

I look at the phone with a half-confused half-angry look and go into the bathroom to brush my teeth as fast as I can. Doing my very best to ignore the weakness of my body and the soreness of my throat, I sent one longing gaze over my shoulder. Maybe I could swallow down the pill – which was obviously pain medicine – and still manage to look half-way presentable when Alice arrives….

Deciding that I would not be of use with the way I was currently, I finish brushing my teeth and hurriedly stumble my way back into my room and to the table. Putting the pill in my mouth, I swallow it down with some water and then slowly – mindful of my throat – empty the rest of the glass before sighing in relief. The water was really doing wonders for my sore throat.

Taking a swift moment to enjoy the lessened pain, I take in a deep breath nearly coughing as I realise that I probably should avoid that until the grate in my throat was completely gone.

My clothes are still damp and I need to change, so I go to my closet and take some clothes with me to the bathroom.

Putting my clothes on proves to be more difficult than I first thought it would be. My body aches in places I wasn't aware could ache and more than once I have to wait out a wave of agony as I made a wrong movement. Seeing my upper-body unclothed, I am shocked to say the least. My body is covered in bruises, scratches and bigger cuts all over. I pull out the first-aid kit and quickly begin to take care of the worst wounds.

As I put the first-aid kit back, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. If I was shocked at my appearance before I am dumbfounded now. There is a huge bandage on my head. That, at least, explains why I can't remember what happened before I woke up in my room. Working around the bandage, I untangle my knotted hair as fast – and painless – as possible as I mentally count down the minutes until Alice arrives. I need to hurry.

I don't have much time to think more about how I'd gotten the head wound before there was a knock on the door. Deciding that shouting an answer wouldn't help my throat at all, I go down to the living room – with the help of the railing – to open the door for Alice.

At least that is what I intended to do. As soon as I enter the living room I am tackled by Alice and hugged so tightly I am afraid my ribs won't be able to take it.

"I missed you so much Bella! I am so sorry that I left you! Please, forgive me!" The words are practically shouted in my ear in-between her hysterical sobbing into my shoulder.

But can I forgive her so easily?

"Alice, I missed you too, but I can't answer that right away. I need some time to think about it. Let's just focus on how to save Edward for now."

"Right, Edward! We have to save him and fast! If we go after him now, we can still stop him from exposing himself. But we don't have much time left, so we have to hurry."

"Okay. I'll just write Charlie a note."

I use a torn off piece of newspaper to tell Charlie that I met Alice and decided to spend the weekend with her and that I wouldn't be back until Monday at the earliest. In this moment I am very happy that school is out next week. Charlie wouldn't mind my absence as much, and would probably be euphoric that I was going out to do something with a friend for longer than a few hours. Well, with anyone other than Jake that is. He has been very worried for me these last few months.

I leave the note in a place I'm sure he'll notice, and with a last look back I go out of the house and lock the door behind me.

I hope I will really be back on Monday. Whatever happens I hope I won't have to give Charlie another reason to worry….