BPOV

I am unaware of how much time passes as I sit rocking on the cold hard floor just inches away from the now dead Jacob Black. My hands are in my hair, tangling themselves as I rotate between yanking roughly to the point of pain and massaging my scalp to soothe myself. I killed him. I killed him. I keep my eyes trained on his body just in case something even more supernatural decides to happen like rising from the dead and not as a vampire.

Even if I were in the right state of mind, I am sure I would have never heard the two sets of footsteps walking into the office room. I continue rocking on the cold floor and I begin to become aware of myself mumbling. I killed him.

"Sugar," I hear in the background somewhere.

"Darlin', please look at us," another voice in the background whispers. "I'll go deal with the body," I hear the voice say a few moments later.

I'm not exactly sure what happens in between the voices trying to bring me back and my incomprehensible mumblings but eventually I realize the voices I am hearing are Jasper and Peter. Snapping back to reality, I slowly release my tangled hair and stop rocking completely.

"There you are," Peter smiles a sad smile as my eyes lock onto his.

Tears well up in my eyes and spill over quickly as I launch myself the short distance into Peters cautious arms. "Peter," I cry.

JPOV

As I am making my way back to my mates from disposing of the filth outside, I hear Bella crying and now for the most part, completely aware of her surroundings. Entering quickly back into the room where we found Bella, I kneel down next to the two of them and speak lowly to Peter who has wrapped her up in one of the old blankets. She clings to Peter like he's her lifeline, as if she lets go that he'll disappear into thin air. I know she hasn't noticed my presence which is probably for the best as I know I look intimidating and deadly at the moment.

"We need to get her out of this hell hole and back home," I say lowly for only Peter to hear.

Nodding he carefully stands up, situating Bella so that he can run without difficulty. It took us almost three days to find where Jacob had taken her, he had created multiple false trails to give him more time to get away. It'll take about five hours to get back home since we know where we are. I'll never forgive myself for leaving her unprotected as I had, I knew better than that. However, I didn't think he'd go into her work with a gun and shoot the owner to get to Bella.

"We should have brought clothes with us," Peter says as I grab the only other blanket to cover Bella's whole body up so she is protected from the elements.

"I think that is the least of our problems right now," I reply before we take off towards home.

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Pushing ourselves as hard and as fast as we possibly can, we get home within only three hours' time. It's nearly nightfall when we enter the house and make our way up to the bedroom where Peter gently lays our mate down in the center of the bed. She is in a deep sleep- one that I put her in so that she could be peaceful and comfortable for the run home. Peter strips the blankets away to reveal Bella to us and for the first time take her in completely.

Dark purple bruises litter every inch of her exposed skin… the only regular color on her is her face- barely. Around her neck is the worst of it all in my opinion as you can clearly make out the mutts handprints along with deep scratches along the side of her neck from her ear and down to almost her collar bone. My heart breaks a thousand times over for my mate. This should have never happened. This could have been prevented if only we had been able to track him sooner… if we just killed him right off the bat. Anger wells up inside of my chest, but it gets shut down quickly by Peter's growl.

"You're projecting, knock it off," Peter informs me angrily. "Don't make her upset. She doesn't need to see that side of you right now," he continues in a softer tone of voice.

"I'll go get her some food prepared," I state before turning to leave just to be blocked by Peter standing in my way.

"I'll go work on that. You make sure she's okay," He argues. "Bella needs you too, so knock the projecting off and get it together, Major."

Before I can say anything in response, he is gone and down into the kitchen where I hear him getting out pots and pans. Taking a deep breath, I walk over and lay on the left side of the bed, moving the hair out of Bella's face. A half hour later Bella's heartbeat begins to speed up just a bit, signaling she is about to wake up and no sooner does she open her eyes, she is screaming bloody murder and backing away from me quickly before falling off the bed.

Both Peter and I are in front of her trying to calm her down with our voices which takes almost ten minutes before she becomes more aware of where she is. As Bella calms down a bit, we try to coax her into letting one of us help her up except she refuses to move from her spot on the floor.

"Do you need or want to go to the hospital, darlin'?" I ask her softly as the three of us sit on the floor.

"No," she rasps out.

"Tell us what you need Jasper and I to do, sug. We want to be able to help you," Peter pleads with her.

Bella looks around frightened as her emotions are still going haywire through her system making her go into overdrive. Crowded. Suffocated. Scared. Standing up, I pull Peter back enough to try to ease her emotions which seem to help as she doesn't look as if she is deciding whether or not to fight or flight. Peter tries to take a step towards her once more but halts as she once again shrinks away. I can see the pain inflicted in his eyes as he looks to me trying to figure out what to do.

"I'm going to draw you up a bath while Peter goes to finish what he was making for you," I say as softly as possible.

Bella's eye's watch as Peter makes his way towards the bedroom door and then shifts to me as I stand in the same spot. She barely blinks as she stares at me, so unsure as what to do I decide to make my own way to the bathroom. Her eye's don't leave me the whole time and even as I am inside the bathroom I can sense her waiting for my next move. Filling up the tub with nice hot water with bubbles I grab everything she will need and put it within her reach before grabbing a couple of towels and placing them on the sink along with everything she needs for after. Walking out of the bathroom, I go towards the closet where I grab one of my t-shirts as well as a pair of Peter's basketball shorts before grabbing a pair of comfortable looking underwear from Bella's stack of clothes. Placing the clothes next to her towels in the bathroom, I walk back out and stand next to the door.

Fight or flight have left her body for the most part, so I send her a small dose of calm and love. This seems to clear the haze she blinks rapidly, tears beginning to form in her eyes, not letting them spill over. I desperately want to walk over and wrap her up into my arms, but I know that isn't the best idea at this point in time.

"I'm going to go downstairs with Peter, when you're ready come on down," I tell her gently before walking out and closing the door behind me.

Rushing down to Peter I see he is leaning down on the counter with his head on his forearms. Walking up right behind him, I wrap my arms around his waist as my head lays between his shoulder blades. We stay like this for a few minutes before Peter shifts his position so that we face one another.

"What do we do, Pete?" I question as I bury my face in the crook of his neck, tightening my hold on him.

"Everything that we can, Jay," Peter responds by mimicking my own position.

From all of our emotions combined, I feel completely emotionally drained and my control over my power loses its will to be kept in, so I project to him. I project everything that Bella has felt since waking up earlier and everything that I've felt since she had tried to get a hold of us the other day. Peter lifts my head up and forces me to look at him.

"It's not your fault," Peter states with a look of determination.

"But if – "

"Do you think it's my fault?" He interjects.

"What? No. Of course not," I shake my head.

"Then how can you try to blame yourself? The only one who is to blame is currently rotting in the ground," Peter says with a determined look.

BPOV

I don't allow myself to look at the mirror as I slowly strip the disgusting t-shirt off of my body and let it fall to the floor before stepping into the bathtub. Sinking down deep into the bubbles I release a deep breath as I close my eyes. I feel badly that I freaked out so bad earlier. My reaction couldn't be stopped as I woke up from the nightmare I had and to be so close to Jasper… well I guess my mind made up that he was a threat.

I know I scared Jasper and Peter both, it was like I was in a haze that I couldn't shake. As if I was still in a stage of sleep and when they tried to get close… when they tried to touch me… fight or flight tried to kick in and suddenly I felt as if I was being crushed. Luckily, Jasper had gotten Peter up and away from me enough to come into my senses. I know that they wouldn't hurt me but with everything that had happened and the dream… it morphed into them.

I'm not comfortable to keep in the bath for long as my emotions seem to be still on the edge. Pulling the plug, I begin the shower up and begin to clean everything away. Except I don't stop scrubbing at my skin. Suddenly his hands are all over my body and I can't get them off. I scrub harder and harder as my panic sets in. I can hear knocking at the bathroom door however I can't hear what is said over the water and the flashes of everything else in my head. I make my bruises worse as I scrub vigorously over them to get his touch off my skin and out of my memory.

Jasper and Peter must have forced their way into the locked bathroom door because I am quickly pulled out of the shower and wrapped tightly into a towel. This time I don't flinch or freak out at their touch nor proximity to me.

"Please let me help you," Jasper pleads- his eyes filled with pain.

I nod and he eases everything up gradually until I can breathe once again. I'm placed snugly in Jasper's arms on his lap as Peter kneels beside us.

"You've opened some cuts," Peter says frowning before quickly going to the bathroom closet and pulling out a box and coming back over.

"I can still feel him," I whisper, barely audible making Peter pause.

Jasper pulls me slightly away from his body so that he can look at me however I refuse to look away from my hands in my lap. "Bella you don't have to worry about him ever again," Jasper says softly, cupping my face gently as he strokes my cheek.

I shake my head, "But I can feel him."

Logically I know it's not possible and I know that it doesn't make sense. But unfortunately, my brain won't allow me any reprieve from everything that has happened. I know he's dead. I know I killed him. I know he can't hurt me anymore.

"I think I have an idea to help, sugar," Peter says.

I look over towards him. "You do?" I question, my voice cracking a bit.

He nods in confirmation. "First we should clean up your wounds. Can I do that?"

A/N: Sorry ya'll. My laptop is starting to take a crap on me and with life getting in the way it has been a bit difficult to do things I would like. Hope you enjoy these next two chapters.

-bellacullen166