Disclaimer: please note this is fanfiction. I am in no way associated with the owners of the 'Twilight' franchise.

Author's Note: next chapter, the fight! I'm so excited!

Edward, meanwhile, had his own preparation plans.

"If I begged you to do something for me, would you do it?"

We were sat in the lounge of the Cullen house, pretending to be alone. We weren't really alone, of course, so we couldn't talk about real secrets, like our engagement. But, his family were pretending not to hear us, and Edward was pretending not to hear them. I really couldn't hear any other Cullens and had no idea where they were.

I had a pretty good guess at what the others were doing, however, because Edward was kissing me rather more eagerly than usual, and letting his hands wander a lot more than usual. I very much doubted that he was being driven wild by my jeans and sweater combo, nor by my rather creaky attempts at seduction. Thoughts, and possibly emotions, being broadcast from the far reaches of the house were probably influencing his behaviour. Not that I was complaining.

Now he was offering to beg for something. I wondered if he was going to finally produce that first script from his back pocket. He certainly wouldn't need to beg for that, well, not unless he wanted to . . .

"Possibly," I wished that I could just say 'yes', but I wasn't sure that Edward was about to ask me for something sensible. Was this good stuff or was it going to be another 'never see Jacob Black again' moment? Warily I asked him, "What would that something be?"

"Hide. Don't put yourself in harm's way tomorrow."

"Oh, Edward." My heart was dragged down to my liver. I felt sick. I hated denying him anything at all. I wanted to do nothing but make Edward happy forever. "I can't do that."

"Not even for me?"

"Can't you ask me for something else?"

"Not something else that I really want. Please, please don't do this."

"Edward, if I asked you to sit it out: to leave your family to face this threat without you, would you do it?"

His shoulders slumped, "I don't know. I think I would, for you."

I didn't believe him. Edward would never sit out a fight. He would let me beg him and yell at him and he would ignore me, safe in the knowledge that I would forgive him later. There is no way that he would abandon his family and leave them to fight without him. And, there was no way that I would ask him to do so. Neither of us were that selfish.

"Would you hide? Would you force someone else, someone who could be useful, to come with you and guard you?"

"I want you to be safe."

"I know. And I want you to be safe. But, perhaps sometimes it isn't possible to guarantee safety. Perhaps, sometimes, the best that we can do is be together. If something awful happens tomorrow, I would rather we were all there to face it together."

"I thought that you'd say something like that." He looked resigned. At least he was beginning to accept that I had my own mind, even if he still wanted to persuade me, he was allowing me to have opinions. "I had to ask, you understand. I had to beg."

"I know, sweetie. I have to say this: if something happens to me, you will keep your promise, won't you?"

He didn't need me to remind him what he'd promised. He groaned, "I will keep my word to you."

"Edward, if you try to hurt yourself, or to force anyone else to hurt you, then you will be desecrating our love. If you attempt to kill yourself it will be like saying that our love never meant anything to you at all."

Edward winced. "I'll never be able to forget you saying that. Would it work if I told you that coming to the clearing tomorrow would be . . ."

"No." I interrupted him. "You don't want to say that to me." If he told me that being present at the fight would be a sign that I didn't love him, that would leave a bitter feeling between us for ages. If the worst did happen, I didn't want it to leave us angry with one another on top of everything else.

He seemed to understand how much he could ultimately regret such a statement, because he didn't try to dissuade me any more. Instead we sat in silence for a while. For my part, at least, just enjoying being together.

"Fire!" Edward shouted suddenly.

I looked around, "where? I can't smell anything."

"No, sorry," Edward ruffled up his hair, slightly embarrassed at blurting out one word like that. He preferred to be a lot suaver!

"I didn't mean that. I mean that we could use fire to protect you. Do you remember the night that my idiotic siblings were showing off their juggling skills?"

"If you're that bitter about it, perhaps you should learn to juggle."

Edward scowled at me. That wasn't what he was thinking about right now. It was not the right moment to tease him about juggling. "Remember when Alice and Rose were juggling and they forced you to join them. You stood there, surrounded by fire, and you were completely unharmed."

"Not quite how I remember it," I remember being asked to join them, choosing to do so, and really enjoying myself. It wasn't the time to argue about who forces humans to do what, however. Edward wanted to get something off his chest. "But ok."

"That's what we can do tomorrow. We can surround you with fire. No vampire will be able to get anywhere near you. Jasper! Why aren't you in here? What are you doing? Don't you like the idea?"

Jasper strolled into the room, buttoning up his shirt with one hand and smoothing his hair back into place with the other. "I think that we'll just skip over the first half of that question and go straight to the second, shall we? It might be possible. Tell me what you're thinking."

"Not sure yet. Obviously, I'm not suggesting that anyone throws fiery clubs. Maybe a ring of fire on the ground. Where's Alice?"

Jasper smirked, "she'll need a few moments." Suddenly, there was a pile of A4 paper in front of him and his hand was darted over it sketching. "This is the plan at the moment, you see where Bella is positioned, giving her two lines of defence in every direction. If we put in a fire-wall around Bella we would have to consider whether we'd be moving Rose and Esme a little further forward."

Edward bent over the diagram, screwing his face up in concentration.

"Why am I so far from Bella?"

Jasper frowned, "don't make me say it, Edward."

I raised my eyebrows, trying to give one of those quizzical looks that Jasper was always giving me. Edward could hear what he was thinking, I was the only one who needed to actually hear Jasper speak out loud.

He sighed, "fine. You're too useful not to be at the front, alright? I've never said that you weren't good in a tight spot, just that you're annoying."

It was Edward's turn to smirk, "fine," he said, "I've never said that you weren't the best person to arrange our defences, just that . . ." he stopped as Alice walked into the room. "Alice! What can you see?"

Alice sighed, "nothing yet, only the two of you talking. Let's make some decisions and see what happens."