~ Thank you for all the reviews ~

Hazy

Reading minds was difficult. They were hard to decipher.

I felt like I knew a language that I could never teach anyone. I'd forever be the interpreter.

Memories, they had a distinct pitch to them, distant somehow.

Daydreams, they were where clouded with a haze, not quite solidified.

But our thoughts, the things we were considering, or planning? What we're feeling right now? They were louder.

Fuller.

So, I knew without any doubt, what Carlisle wanted from me. I could hear it loud and clear. His thoughts were so thick and intelligible that they filled the room.

Especially since the people he was surrounded by, were daydreaming. Plotting.

Planning.

"You'll start a war. The treaty will be nullified. And it won't just be Jacob we have to deal with." He said sternly, directing his words to all of us.

Bella sat beside me on the couch, silently. Appearing to be completely void of any emotion.

That was how she appeared at least.

Emmett sat on a turned chair, his arms hanging over the backrest, with Rosalie standing beside him, arms crossed tightly.

"We started nothing. He did." I protested calmly.

"Where would it end Edward?" He questioned; his concern etched in his eyes.

"So, what are the options? Cause I for one, would love to hear them." Emmett asked in an exasperated tone.

"I just don't want to go down a road that will end with us killing innocent people. It's not who we are." He urged.

I sat with his words for a moment and looked to Bella. She deserved justice. She deserved some kind of retribution for what had been done to her. It wasn't just the injury. He'd taken something from her that could never be returned.

"I'm not interested in killing innocent people. Just Jacob." I explained coldly.

"We can't get to him, anyway. They're protecting him. They circle him like hawks." Rosalie said, thinking out aloud. Not considering her words.

We all looked to her with questioning eyes.

"I imagine." She added.

"You been following him?" Carlisle asked.

Her gaze went from Carlisle to Bella. Their starred at each other, Bella's head tilting to the side slightly.

It was just a moment, but something had been exchanged between them.

She looked back to Carlisle, unashamedly. "He's dangerous. I'm patrolling."

Carlisle's eyes fell on Emmett.

"Hey. Don't look at me. I'm just the sidekick." He laughed, raising his hands.

Carlisle sighed, dropping his head briefly.

"All I ask is that no one starts anything until we've thought this through. We can't be reckless."

He left. Only taking the time to say goodbye to Bella, before heading home to Esme, to continue with his research. Though I had long lost hope they would find an answer for Bella.

We sat in silence. Those hazy thoughts filling the space.

Planning and plotting, still.

"What are the other options?" Bella whispered curiously. The first words I'd heard her speak since this morning.

Once again no one had answers for Bella. Not real ones anyway.

"We could call the police." Rosalie said with a smug smile. "Thompson has been digging around. Could be interesting."

"Yeah right. Then I end up in court. Sounds like a midday movie, no one wants to see." Bella mumbled.

"I mean. You could win. Thompson is eager." Rosalie pointed out with amusement.

Bella raised her brow. "Yeah. Then we'd have a ware-wolf in prison."

"Now there's your movie". Emmett announced with a laugh and a clap of his hands.

Bella smiled and shook her head.

"Jokes aside?" I asked, looking around.

The room grew quiet. Hopeless.

"Carlisle doesn't want us to do anything Edward." Emmett said flatly with a shrug.

Rosalie, blocking me from her thoughts, only took note of how tired Bella looked and decided that was her cue to leave.

"We should go." Rosalie said, eyeing Bella once more as she walked past. Her anger growing each time she looked at Bella.

Emmett, only offering Bella a nod, left silently behind Rosalie.

The door closed and sat for a few minutes in silence. Both of us in a quiet deliberation.

Nothing would be solved tonight and Rose had been right. She looked tired.

"It's late. We should go to bed." I said, rubbing her knee before standing to go to the kitchen. "I'll get your medications".

I had only taken a few steps when I was stopped.

"You can't do anything Edward." She said quietly. The words barely breathed out. If I'd been human, I would have missed them.

I turned to look at her. The drained expression that she wore as often as she'd once wore contentment.

"Carlisle's right." Even saying those two words seemed to exhaust her more.

I shook my head stiffly. "No. No he's not."

She dropped her eyes to the floor. I saw the anger in her. I knew it was there. She couldn't hide it from me.

She tried anyway.

"I'm asking you. Not to do anything." She said firmly and slowly. Dragging out each word to enforce them.

I growled without meaning to, her eyes snapped up to mine again. "Why. Tell me why." I asked as I approached her slowly, kneeling down in front of her.

Her brow furrowed. Looking at me as though I'd gone crazy.

Maybe I had.

"Because I don't want anyone to get hurt." She told me dryly.

I nodded, my jaw clenching. I couldn't help but cringe. Why was this her responsibility?

What they decided to do after I killed Jacob should be on their shoulders, not hers. But apparently Bella would have to carry that too. Once again, her choices had been taken from her.But still I conspired. I couldn't seem to stop myself.

"If I could assure you no one else would?" I asked sincerely.

"You can't assure that." She said, lowering her voice once more.

"Humour me." I asked, flatly.

She stayed silent. Her hard eyes focusing in on mine.

"Forget about fights breaking out. Forget treaties. Forget about Carlisle."

I could see the answer there. Her lower lip shook as though it could barely hold it in.

"Say it." I asked, encouraging her to the same thing that I had been asking of her for months.

Speak.

Tell me what you're thinking.

Tell me how it feels.

But nothing.

I took her hand in mine, resting our intertwined fingers on her lap.

"It wouldn't make you a monster if you wanted him gone." I promised her.

There was something she desperately wanted to say. She could hardly contain it.

But she did.

"I wanna go to bed. I'm tired." She whispered, pulling her hand from mine.

I helped her up.

She surprised me then, rising to her feet. Curling her right arm around me and resting her face against my chest.

"I love you." She told me, a sadness in her voice that made my heart ache.

I leaned down and planted a kiss in her hair, my lips lingering and eyes closing.

Paused in that moment with her for a second. Nothing else but us.

"I love you too. Always."