What has gone before:

"What happened to them, Uncle Billy?"

"What happened to who?"

"Edward. And … and his family … You know, right? I mean, you … you know …"

"Yes, Bella, I do know."

I just look at him, all my insides shivering and hurting and scared. He looks back at me for a whole minute, maybe more.

"They're dead, Bella."

Only This, And Nothing More

"Why? Why did you kill them, why? What did they ever do to you?"

I'm on the bed in Auntie Sue's house again. I'm thrashing and yelling. I know I'm not making any sense, but it's too late for sense now. Auntie Sue is on the bed with me. She's trying to hold me up, or hold me down, I'm not really sure.

"Why? They never hurt anybody!"

"Isabella Marie Swan!" Uncle Billy's voice compels me. "Stop this foolishness right now."

I stop, just breathing in hiccups.

Auntie Sue is answering me, now that I can hear again.

"We didn't kill them, Bella. The Cullens are dead, but not by our hand."

"But … wolves, I saw the wolves." Big as grizzlies.

"And we brought you home." It's Sam, standing next to Uncle Billy's chair. "Alice was free to go, and she did."

I remember how they all growled at her; remember how my Dad said Uncle Billy wouldn't let Dr. Cullen treat him; remember what Jacob said about them being bloodsuckers. "Why do you all hate them so much?"

Uncle Billy and Sam turn away. Auntie Sue holds me.

"We don't hate them, Bella," she says. "But we know what they are. You don't bring a shark into your house. Not even one that sits and smokes with you like a man."

I think of all the Cullens, as pale as sharks. But Edward's skin is smooth, not rough and sandpapery.

"They were only ever nice to me."

"They're at war with themselves. It's a war they can never win."

"Edward saved my life."

The rims of Auntie Sue's eyes go red. "No, Bella! He put you in danger – from himself, from his family, and from the others too. Tracking an enemy with your scent all over him. Stupid, heedless boy!"

I don't understand what she's talking about.

"His jacket. Your scent was all over it. And he wore it anyway, running on an enemy's trail. Then he and his clan let their enemies leave alive. They're stupid, all of them."

She's angry. "Taking you out where no help could come, after insulting an enemy. He's a child."

How can she talk about him this way? Like he deserved to be killed because he made a mistake.

"What happened to the enemies?" I ask, as I wonder how many of them there are, and if they're still around. My mind throws up pictures of the bad deaths. Pieces of people. Thigh bones cracked open and the marrow sucked out. Just like Brendan said.

"They've been taken care of."

Auntie Sue is looking at me with big, dark eyes. Not red at the rims any more, just serious. Uncle Billy and Sam are right by the bedside again. I feel small.

Can spirit wolves 'take care of' granite people? Spirit teeth cut through what no real tooth can touch?

I suppose they must have burned the pieces.

Like the Cullens were burned.

The bottom falls out of my stomach again and I curl up on the bed. Auntie Sue puts the red and black blankets around me, until I look like a fuzzy bear caterpillar. I hear Sam's feet, and Uncle Billy's wheels, as they go out of the room.

"Shhh, baby, shhhh." She rubs my back for a long time. "It's over. You're safe. That's all that matters. You have to let it go."

My whole body is clenched up tight like a fist.

"What would Charlie do without you?"

In the end, Auntie Sue feeds me dinner at her house. My Dad, too, when he comes. He doesn't say anything. Just takes me home. When I get back to my room after washing up, the keys to my truck are on my dresser. Maybe some kids would say that I won, getting my freedom back without even a lecture. But I don't feel that way at all.

I will go down with this ship

I won't put my hands up and surrender

There will be no white flag above my door

…

The lyrics keep running through my head. I've only driven this road once before. At night. In the opposite direction. Following Edward's tail-lights. But I went to the library and found the news article about the Cullens' house burning down. It had their address – well, the name of the road they lived off of, anyway. Google maps is my friend. It's daylight. I'm counting on recognizing the way the forest looks when I get close. I can do this.

I don't believe it. I won't believe it. It's all hearsay. I won't let it be true.

There will be no white flag above my door.

I feel like I have to hurry. Like I've lost days already. Like if I don't get there in time, the fate will have gone too far in the wrong direction, they'll be really gone, and can't come back.

I don't know what I'm thinking. Don't know what I'm doing.

The truck growls unhappily on the grade up into the green, green woods. When Alice was driving me in Edward's Volvo it didn't sound like this at all. Smooth as silk that car drove. The forest looks familiar. I think. It's brighter than it was that day. It's April after all, not March any more. Life is seeping back into everything. There's green from more than just the pines and firs. All the soft, perishable things are starting to put out their shoots. The road seems to wind on forever. It wasn't this long when Alice was driving. But the drive back following Edward … did I miss their driveway?

I'm starting to cry. I won't!

I won't put my hands up and surrender

I keep going forward. The road twists and turns. Every turn looks like the final one that leads to their place. I wonder if I need to turn back.

It's there. The mouth of the driveway.

I see it because there are lots of tire tracks and broken bushes. My Dad said they sent every engine in Forks to try to save the blaze. But it was way too late by the time they'd gotten there.

No. No. No.

I will go down with this ship.

I turn into the drive. The emerald lawn is chewed up in places. The gardens have new flowers in them. The gazebo is there; its trellised vines wear a haze of green.

The house.

It really did burn to the ground. They said even the glass windows melted. I can see it. Blackened slag. Lumps of scorched concrete – the foundations, I guess. There's the fireplace, surrounded by the rubble from the chimney that toppled. I can see past the house, now, to the place where the running water is. I roll down the window.

I hear the water.

Tock.

Water.

A crow.

I get out. The truck's door creaks on me. Loudly. I try to close it softly.

There's yellow tape of course. I don't care.

I will go down with this ship

I hear moaning. Like the wind in an attic. Like a ghost. It's me. My face is wet. No rain today. Only me. I can't even make words.

Come back. Come back. Please come back.

Stepping from stone to stone on the walk.

But there's no door here. No parquet floor. No staircase. No cross. No salmon-colored tile, no potpourri, no candles, no Alice braiding my hair, no chicken soup.

I want to find Edward's piano. The keys are surely real ivory. That's like tooth, right? It would survive – like the forensics guys were looking for Cullen teeth in the ashes. But they won't find any teeth because they've all gone to ash. And I won't find any piano keys, because half the floors of the house are crashed into the basement.

I will go down.

The stairs to the basement must have been made of wood. There's nothing left of them.

I'm stuck here at the edge. With the glass puddles that had been windows. No more eaves for the rain to drip from.

I walk around the edges of where the house was, until it has been circled all the way around with my crying voice.

The crow chimes in again. Or maybe it's a raven. It should be a raven.

"Edward!" I call to him as loud as I can.

"Edward!"

"Alice!"

I call all of them. One by one.

I'm not proud.

I call until my throat is sore. Walking all around the house. Again.

And again.

It's not dark yet, but it will be. I need to go home. But all I want to do is lie down. I'm so tired. My throat hurts. I need to drink some water. I wonder if I could drink dew off the grass.

There are benches in the gazebo. They're very old-fashioned looking. Made of iron. No way comfortable, but I don't care. I need to lie down. Just for a little while. To rest. Not for long, because I'm thirsty, and I can't really drink dew from the grass, or even from the leaves that are unfurling on the gazebo's vines.

I lie down on the bench – the bars of its seat all hard and black metal cold. I dream of Edward's jacket folded under my head.

There's light shining through my eyelids. And someone is calling my name.

Is. A Bell. Ahhh.

I fell asleep! And now it's night. The moon has come up over the trees. It's full. Bright. First time I've ever seen the moon in Forks. Shining in my eyes. Painting the grass silver. With shadows of night.

Isabellahhh.

It's Edward. He calls me Isabella. Because he grew up in a time when people did that. Called each other by their full names. Poetic names.

I try to call back to him. Nothing comes out. I have no voice. Only a raw and aching throat.

Where are you?

I have to find him by sight, since I can't make a sound. My heart is pounding with worry. Maybe he can hear that.

I'm so sore from the rungs of the bench as I roll off it to stand up. More bruises to add onto the old ones – the ones I have not wanted to let go of now, because they are the last sign of that afternoon in the meadow.

Edward.

Isabella.

He's calling me from the forest.

I step off the edge of the gazebo.

He's there! They all are! I knew they couldn't be dead! After everything that's happened they probably have to leave Forks. They faked their deaths so no one would follow them. But they came back for me. There they are in the shadows among the pines. Pale and beautiful. Edward waves to me, and I'm running, sprinting across the grass.

"Edward!" I whisper. That's all the sound that my throat can make.

Take me with you. Take me away. I'll go. Or else promise me that you'll come back. I'll wait for you. I'll wait. I promise.

I slam into his hard body, which has hardly any give at all. His scent surrounds me. Like forest. Like incense. Like everything that my heart desires. I lock my arms around his waist, so slender, just like mine, and bury my face in his chest.

I hear him whisper to me, sending his cool breath along the side of my face and in at my collar. They all are. Whispering softly around me, in vampire language without words.

Hold me. Hold me, Edward. Hold me forever.

Somewhere in the forest, an owl calls.

A/N: Review replies: I fail. Overwhelmed and unable to figure out whom I had replied to and whom I hadn't. My deepest apologies to all. Please know that I have read and reread every one. This hiatus was too long. Difficult times in RL. Better now. Figure my first order of business is to actually post a chapter. Thank you to geo3 for beta! To each of you for reading. ~miaokuancha