Author's Note: Thank you all that have reviewed the story so far. I appreciate it. We have a bit more conversations coming in next two chapters, but I hope to get them all actively moving again shortly.

It was some time before I realized I was in a bed, crying into a pillow. My tears had run their course and I felt numb. Sitting up, I looked around. The décor was common dull beige. The room had two double sized beds, two dressers, one holding a small television. There were two bedside tables, one with a phone and another chair in the corner. I could see a door at the end of the room which likely led to a bathroom. Even though I had never been there before, there was no doubt that this was a motel room.

"Hey. You with me now?"

I turned my face towards the one who spoke, standing in the corner of the room near the window. The window's curtains were fully drawn except for a small slit that Peter was staring through, watching outside.

"Sorry. Where are we?"

"Same place you parked at. I only got us a room; I didn't take off. Major's orders."

I nodded. That must have been why he got out of the vehicle. Not to give me privacy for talking to my dad, but to get a room for us to hole up in.

"So, you want to talk about it?"

He didn't look at me, yet that was comforting to me. I knew he could hear, smell, and see me quite fine as a vampire. But without the direct attention, it allowed me to feel a small sense of privacy. Privacy to experience my emotions.

"It was my fault. Victoria killed Angela, and it was all my fault." My voice faltered at the end. My eyes and nose burned, but no more tears came.

"Bullshit."

"What?" My mouth dropped open and I whirled towards him. "You think that I'm lying?"

He turned towards me. "No." He held my gaze before rolling his eyes. "Did you drain her?"

"No!"

"Did you tell Victoria to get Angela?"

"Of course not!"

"Did you hold Angela still while Victoria sank her teeth deep into Angela's neck?"

"No vampire would need a human to hold anyone still and I would never do that."

"So, it is not your fault Angela is dead. At no point are you the one responsible for a vampire choosing to kill anybody. And you should just get that thought out of your pretty little head."

I blasted to my feet, fists at my side and my teeth clenched as I seethed out. "If it wasn't for Victoria looking for me, looking to hurt me. Angela would never have died in that fashion. Forks is a protected region. Random vampire deaths do not simply happen."

He raised his eyebrows at me and dipped his chin some, effectively looking at me from the top of his eyes, as if peering above glasses he wasn't even wearing. "No matter how protected you feel that area is because of the guardians, vampires can and have killed in this region. She also could have died by one in Port Angeles or any other town she may have visited. I presume she didn't stay her entire life in Forks. She did travel, if for no other reason than to shop for a few hours."

"But it didn't happen in Port Angeles or somewhere else. It happened in Forks. Because I ran and Victoria couldn't get to me earlier."

He shook his head and turned his gaze back to watching outside. "No wonder he has taken you on as a charge to protect. You two – well, you are both very much a like."

"Who?"

"Major – or, sorry, as you refer to him as, Jasper. You both are self-deprecating."

"Whatever." I stomped my way into the bathroom. Angry more at myself. If only I had given myself up to Victoria, this could have ended.

Or perhaps it would have started a massacre in Forks.

I growled to myself. The inner voice held truth, even though I wanted to dismiss it entirely. But it was right. Who was to say that my death would have stopped her.

Frustrated, I shed my clothes off and stepped into the shower, setting it as hot as it could go. I allowed the water to flow over me, scalding my back and shoulders. The heat and pain filled my brain, unable to focus on anything else. But sooner than I wanted, the water ran cold.

Shivering I stepped out and dried myself with the towel before putting my dirty clothes back on. Looking into the mirror, my puffy, red eyes stared back at me, and they matched the red skin of my back and shoulders. Perhaps the water was too hot as my clothes now pained me to wear. But I deserve pain. Angela is dead.

I sighed and stepped out of the bathroom into the main motel room. I gasped. There on the one bed sat Rosalie, arms crossed as she glared at Peter. Emmett was standing at the other side of the window with a slit of his own, mirroring Peter.

Peter's fists were gripped tight at his side. That was the only indication of his frustration.

"What's going on?"

Surprisingly, it was Rosalie who turned to me, uncrossing her arms and patting the bed. A small smile pulled at her lips. I gulped but sat down anyways.

"Peter doesn't trust us with you alone. As if you are more likely to get hurt with us than with him. How are you holding up?"

"Huh?" Am I in the Twilight Zone here?

Peter turned his gaze to Rosalie as he answered. "Ya damn right, chicky. I don't trust you alone with her. I wouldn't trust any of you bunny munchers near any human. All that temptation and nothing to truly sate yourself. And the Major gave me an order and I will follow it." He turned back to the window.

Rosalie sighed next to me, and Emmett let out a small chuckle. "I guess when you put it that way. Jasper directed you to stay with her, well, it is hard not to follow the order without a damn good reason." Emmett then turned his attention to me, smile dropping as he continued. "We heard – about Angela."

I dropped my gaze, lips trembling and the familiar burn in my eyes and nose return. Cold arms wrapped around me and pulled me into a hug. I was so lost in my grief, that it took a few seconds before I realized it was Rosalie who held me. I wasn't sure how I felt about that but accepted the solace anyways.

When she did let go, I sat back and looked at her before asking, "Don't you hate me?"