NOTE: I took liberties with Carmen Denali's vampiric power to fit my story. It is not cannon.

TW: Descriptions of death.

Four - Out of Reach From Me

March 2006

Present Day

As there were no options without connecting flights, the trip from Rio to Ithaca was a grueling 17 hours that steadily chipped away at his already fragile sanity. Edward would have worn a hole in the floor of the plane had anxious pacing been allowed but as it was not, he was relegated to constantly tapping his foot and running his hands through his already messy hair until it was in even worse disarray than usual. It wasn't unusual for him to receive multiple calls, texts, and emails from his family lately since they still wanted him to return from his self-imposed exile, but Rosalie's call was different. Red flags were everywhere.

She never called him. Ever. Not once since phones were invented.

She never asked him for anything, let alone asking nicely.

She never sounded so… shaken.

Rosalie said it was an emergency and just from her voice, he knew it was urgent. Edward had booked the first flight out from Rio and now, as the plane brought him closer and closer to his family, he was filled with both relief and dread. Relief because he was finally coming home, coming ever closer and closer to his lovely Bella and he looked forward to the day, very soon, when he would return to Forks to beg for her forgiveness for being so shortsighted and heavy-handed after her birthday. Dread because something serious enough had happened for his most distant sibling to nearly plead for him to come home. It almost felt like she was the only one brave enough to reach out.

He forced himself to take a few deep, calming breaths and think through the possibilities rationally – silently thanking Carlisle's well-ingrained lectures for giving him the presence of mind to hunt before shutting himself in a tin can with so many humans. No matter what had happened, he was certain that everyone in the Cullen family would be fine and they could work through anything together. Since there were no whispers of the Volturi moving in on a coven, it was safe to assume that no one had exposed themselves to humans and really, what could be worse than facing punishment for something like that? The Volturi were notorious for their ruthless, 'suffer-no-fools' attitude and they had a taste for medieval, tortuous retribution that would haunt vampires' nightmares if they could sleep at all. But surely, if it were something like that, Rosalie would have warned him.

Edward checked his watch and leaned his head back against the seat, closing his eyes in an attempt to center himself. Four more hours. Four more hours until he saw them and then, once he was assured everyone was alright, he would be on the earliest flight to Washington.

Six months was long enough. If Bella didn't hate him, if she would still have him – and those were two very big 'ifs' but he was deciding to be uncharacteristically optimistic – he was prepared to do whatever it took to win her back. During his time away from her, Edward realized that Rosalie had been right after all. Fighting fate, trying to be sickeningly noble and making rash decisions for them both, had been a mistake that he was more than ready to rectify. Each day away from Bella felt like he was dying, their separation exponentially more painful than his human death and vampire transformation with every passing hour – it was honestly a wonder that he could still even function at all with the near crippling, burning ache constantly ripping through his chest.

If the torment of their separation was almost paralyzing to him, he didn't dare consider what it might be like for her lest truly go mad from the regret already threatening to choke him. Not only was she probably hurting from the distance between them, but when considering the horrible, unforgivable things he said to break her sweet, trusting heart…

No. No, now was not the time to go there. Edward knew he fucked up, monumentally, but he had a plan to put it right and that was all that mattered.

First, his family. Then, he was going home to Bella.

x-x-x

Esme's restored, cottage-style chateau in Ithaca was still just as regal and overdramatic as he remembered – the high arches and rugged stone giving it the look of a lovingly refurbished castle set against the dense forest with only the wildlife and nearby stream to break the peaceful silence of relative wilderness. And while it looked exactly the same as before, something was not quite right. It took a moment for Edward to understand what he sensed was off; it was the very atmosphere surrounding the house.

Charged, like the static energy before a storm on his tongue.

Everyone was home, seemingly in the same room, and all their thoughts were carefully blocked except for the acknowledgement of his exiting the rented car but no one came outside. The knot of anxiety around his middle tightened.

It wasn't until Edward appeared in Esme's favored entertainment space – which was really just a fancy way of saying 'enormous living room that she knocked down a multitude of walls for' – that true fear, insidious and poisonous, took up residence in his veins. Not a single person looked relieved at his return… if anything, they each wore varying expressions of distress, rage, or something in between. His parents came rushing over, minds strategically blank, to pull him into a tight embrace full of barely restrained emotion.

"Oh sweetheart," Esme choked into his neck. "I have missed you so much."

Carlisle was right there with her, burying himself into Edward's other shoulder, "It is so good to finally see you, my son."

Forget red flags, alarm bells were blaring now. They continued to quietly thank a long list of deities he didn't believe in for bringing him home but Edward was too busy analyzing his siblings to really respond. All four were situated at different points throughout the room but each of them looked vastly different. Emmett was pacing like a caged animal near the cold fireplace behind the couches; Alice stood nearby while tapping her foot at inhuman speed and biting her nails literally to the quick. Jasper stared listlessly into the distance, his typical internal monologue a void of numb, empty oblivion – almost as if he wasn't present in the same reality as everyone else but rather a dark, impenetrable parallel one and Edward immediately recognized it as his coping mechanism for guilt. Then stood Rosalie… proud, unshakable Rosalie glaring at him as she flexed and unflexed her fists, visibly vibrating with waves of rage and resentment pouring off of her like curls of noxious smoke.

"What happened?" Edward demanded. If someone didn't say something soon he was going to die from the foreboding currently gripping his insides. "Is everyone alright?"

Emmett looked ready to dart across the room and pummel him in the floor until Alice touched his arm. Jasper sank further into himself on the couch. His parents just looked at each other in silence.

Rosalie was the only one to answer, "The family is fine. Everyone here is okay."

"You said it was an emergency. If no one is hurt or in trouble–"

"It's not us," she hissed with blatant disgust at him. She was all too happy to let those thoughts slip through her barrier. "It's Bella. She acted impulsively and didn't survive it."

No one confirmed or denied her assertion and suddenly, Edward remembered exactly why it was that he couldn't fucking stand his oldest sister. He scoffed with disgust and if he were human, there would be bile in his throat, "That's low, even for you. Do you truly hate her that much that you would lie about something like that just to make me feel worse? I know I made a mistake, but do you really have that little regard for me?"

"Don't be such a self-righteous moron. Neither of you have ever been my favorite, but I would never do that."

Alice leaned into the now stilled Emmett as she wrung her hands, "She's telling the truth. I saw it but… it was a snap decision and we were too late to do anything. I'm so sorry."

Alice, too? If there was anyone in his family that he always trusted to be honest, to love him like a blood-sibling might, it was her. How could she do this to him? After everything they'd been through, after all the decades where they had each other's backs in any number of situations, she was no better than his venomous viper of an older sister. Carlisle and Esme weren't even chastising them! What the hell was wrong with everyone? "You are all unbelievable. You lure me home with something so ridiculous and don't even have the decency for such complete and utter bullshit to weigh on your conscience? All because I won't answer your phone calls or emails? You should all be ashamed of yourselves!"

Esme stifled a sob behind her hand with only Carlisle to keep her standing. Her voice was little more than a whisper, "I can't imagine what you must feel, hearing this from us but… our darling Bella jumped from a cliff. It wasn't… the same as my situation but she jumped, honey."

Rosalie, still vibrating with rage and now holding Alice as the tiniest vampire trembled like a leaf being shaken off a tree, spat her words through clenched teeth, "She drowned. Apparently, doing stupid shit was the only way she could hear your voice in her head so she jumped and the tide was too strong for her to swim against."

None of this made any sense. Rosalie, he could see lying. Even Alice sometimes fibbed about the context of her visions to manipulate a situation in her favor, but his mother had a heart almost too big for her own chest and would never, ever make up such a heinous story. Edward took a moment to breathe in an attempt to get his chaotic thoughts in order and make sense of what he was hearing. Bella… his beautiful, clumsy little Isabella? Jumping off a cliff? No. There had to be a mistake because there was simply no way she would ever do something like that. He loved her and would never change a single thing about her personality, but Bella wasn't even remotely dauntless enough for it to be recreation and she was far-too pragmatic for it to be intentional.

Apparently, Edward had voiced those latter thoughts out loud because his father pulled him into the crushing circle of his arms, "They're telling the truth, son. I confirmed it myself with a boy from the Reservation who had been a close friend of hers. He said he had planned to jump with her, for sport, but for some reason she didn't wait for him."

"No…" Was the room tilting? Edward could feel that deadly, toxic resignation threatening to creep in and reduce him to a mass of wailing marble on the floor. Bella couldn't have. It was not possible. "No."

"Show him," Rosalie snapped. "Alice, show him what you saw."

Like a tidal wave, Alice looked up from her sister's shirt and her thoughts were no longer blocked from his gift. What he saw, what his little sister was now practically hurling at his mind, was enough to bring him to his knees right there before his father.

Bella. Jesus Christ, six long, arduous months and he hardly recognized her.

She sat in the driver's seat of her ancient truck as it idled loudly on the narrow shoulder of the cliff's only road which was now at a dead-end. Her long dark hair was pulled into a haphazard ponytail at the nape of her neck, the once lustrous locks now a dull shadow of the sun-kissed caramel it used to be and her clothes were nearly hanging from her skeletal frame. Her skin was pale and waxen and there were harsh purple circles painted beneath her somber eyes. Bella tapped her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel as her gaze darted to the clock on the dash.

"You're late," she murmured to no one. Her movements were jerky and tense, like a drug addict anticipating their next fix. Bella wrapped her arms around her abdomen, as if keeping herself from falling to pieces, and rested her temple against the window. "Come on, Jake. Where the fuck are you?"

A few seconds passed and it was clear that she was getting more anxious as she waited. She bit her lip, looking from the clock to the cliff's edge a few times before throwing open the door and stepping out of the truck. Bella toyed with a cell phone for a moment, then tossed it back onto the seat. The darkening clouds swirled ominously overhead and it was clear that a serious storm was just on the horizon but if she noticed, she didn't care. Bella slipped out of the now-oversized gray sweater and took off what little jewelry she had on – just a bracelet and a pair of small, stud earrings. Her scuffed shoes quickly followed. After everything was relegated to the front seat of her truck, she moved to the jagged edge of the cliff and crouched to touch a rough carving in the stone with a soft smile; it was a simple heart with words etched right in the middle:

Sam & Emily

'Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same'

Her eyes sparkled with tears that she wiped at in anger. Bella stood and looked over the cliff to the furious water below, completely oblivious to the wind whipping around her with increased viciousness. Her hands were shaking. She was waiting for something and whatever it was, she wanted it desperately.

"Come on," she muttered to herself, almost bouncing on her heels. "Come on, you bossy vampire. Where the hell are you when I need you?"

One step closer to the edge and Bella halted, eyes wide. Her head whipped to the left and those tears were back with a vengeance, along with one heartbreakingly broken word, "Edward."

There was no other sound than the wind howling around her but she responded to a seemingly one-sided conversation, "How could you just leave me here? How could you just throw me away so easily?"

No answer.

Bella scoffed at whatever it was she heard, "Bullshit. Do you even think of me? Or are you too busy with your pretty little 'distractions'?"

There was no answer, only the faint sound of her cell phone vibrating on the seat with an incoming phone call.

"How dare you," she hissed to the air. "How dare you alter the fabric of my life and then just up and disappear?"

Her phone stopped, then started vibrating again.

Bella ripped the tie from her hair and wound it into a messy knot atop her head before snapping the band back in place, "Fuck you and the high horse you rode in on, Edward. You want me to be human? I'll show you being fucking human."

Without an ounce of hesitation, she backed up to the truck before taking off at a sprint and jumping off the cliff with an impressive leap for someone so uncoordinated. Bella's face was exultant as she fell through the air towards the ocean like Icarus after flying too close to the sun, a triumphant scream bubbling past her lips until it was cut off by her plunge deep into the icy water. The tide was immediately too strong for her to fight against, though she tried valiantly anyway with flailing limbs and gasping breaths until a particularly merciless wave crashed over her head and sent her reeling under the water. She was pulled, to and fro, until another angry pull of the tide knocked the back of her head into a craggy rock jutting from the side of the cliff. Bella went limp and floated peacefully under the waves, only conscious long enough to turn her head and reach for something.

Her lips mouthed 'Edward' and then…

Nothing.

A large, tanned hand grabbed Bella's arm and dragged her forcefully from the water. Everything was a blur until a tall, burly boy with long black hair and a Quileute tattoo on his bicep started pounding on her chest with a rough interpretation of CPR.

"Damn it, Bella! What the hell were you thinking?" He yelled in panic between providing breaths for her. The boy gave her chest compressions and pressed his lips to hers, breathing into her mouth a few more times before Bella's eyes fluttered open slightly.

"J…"

"Don't talk, stupid!" He pounded on her back, trying to get her to cough up water without success. "Why wouldn't you wait for me? Were you trying to get yourself killed?!"

"No…" She croaked weakly. Ambulance sirens drew closer and closer. "J…"

The boy rocked her as the paramedic ran across the sand, his voice thick with tears, "Why didn't you wait for me, Bella? I could have kept you safe. Why?"

"Edward…"

She slumped against the wet sand when the paramedic took over for the boy who was openly weeping. The woman started chest compressions but quickly realized that it was pointless when Bella, lips blue and skin mottled, didn't remotely respond. A few seconds later, she looked at her watch and somberly called the time of death.

The boy howled into the sky with tears coursing down his russet cheeks. He begged her to come back to him, to give him more time, but it was too late.

Who was screaming? It sounded vaguely like Edward but that couldn't possibly be right. Someone's hands pulled his own from where they were tearing his copper hair from the roots and another pair of hands rubbed at his back in comfort. Voices were whispering platitudes while other voices were apologizing on a loop. The room was spinning. He didn't need to breathe but suddenly, he couldn't get enough air for his lungs to expand. Gasping. Sobbing. Whimpering. Everything felt so far away, like he was in a very dark tunnel that was compressing him down to nothing more than atoms.

Bella.

Bella.

There was that screaming again.

"Edward, please!"

"Dad, I think he's in shock!"

"I guess he finally believes us."

Bella, his delicate little human. His mate. His love. Gone in some act of rebellious defiance of his overbearing tendencies.

Oh, so that was him screaming after all.

Edward was trapped in Alice's horrifying vision, seeing nothing other than the shell of the Bella he once knew and the way her heart visibly shattered when she spoke to whatever specter of himself that remained behind to torment her. He thought that there was no coming back before, but this was… this was exponentially worse than the bullshit breakup he put her through. This was so much fucking worse.

There was no living without her. It was, quite simply, impossible. Were he human, Edward would probably die of a broken heart within days of her taking her last breath. But since he was not…

Yes. Yes. A plan formed quickly in his mind. The Volturi would certainly be amenable to helping him end his miserable existence…

Alice slapped him, hard, across the face, "Don't even think about it!"

Edward blinked a few times, the slap having brought him back to reality. His family was crowded around him on the floor, each in varying degrees of distress. Jasper was forcefully projecting calm down his throat and Emmett had one of his huge paws wrapped around one of Edward's hands that was clenched into a fist. Carlisle gripped his shoulder while Rosalie held their mother. Alice had her arm cocked, prepared to hit him again if necessary.

Rational thought took a little longer to return, what with the nauseating images still replaying in his mind with perfect clarity, but as his logical brain clicked back into place, Edward became confused. That familiar warmth that was unmistakable as Isabella Swan was still sitting snugly in his chest, wrapped safely around his heart. It hurt to see what had happened to her, especially because he blamed himself for it, but none of this felt like permanent separation. "Bella can't be gone."

Every one of their faces fell.

Alice cupped his cheek, "Edward…"

"No," he gently removed her hand and sat back on his heels, "you don't understand. Bella can't be gone. It isn't possible. If she were gone, wouldn't I feel it? Wouldn't I know?"

"Of course you would," Rosalie said. "Didn't you know something was wrong when she drowned? I thought that was why you actually answered me and came home so quickly."

Edward shook his head, one hand pressing against the place where his heart should be, "I still feel her. I can still feel the pull towards her, begging me to go home and make things right. How can she be gone if I still feel it?"

They all looked perplexed. Carlisle spoke slowly, "By all accounts, you should have felt it when it happened. You should have felt the connection sever. Even so, I… I checked with the hospital records, Edward. Bella didn't make it."

Now that the shock of Alice's vision was wearing off and Jasper was nearly drowning him in tranquility, it was easier to see the truth rather than allowing the guilt and remorse to eat him alive. Edward was steadfast in the determination that he was right, "You're wrong. I don't know why, but Bella isn't dead. She's… she's calling me home."

Esme turned a thoughtful eye to her husband but kept her thoughts carefully blocked from her son, "If what Edward says is true, maybe we should call Carmen."

"Carmen and Eleazar?" He racked his brain for any useful knowledge of the old family friends but came up empty. His parents mentioned them so rarely, if ever.

Carlisle nodded thoughtfully, "They could be helpful. She should be able to see…"

"What can she see?" Alice asked with apprehension. "Can she see a way to undo this?"

He shook his head, "Carmen can see connections between people and soulmate bonds are something she has much experience with. If Edward can still feel Bella as if she's calling out to him, then maybe Carmen can tell us why the connection between them hasn't been completely broken."

Hope, frantic and wild, swelled in Edward's chest and threatened to consume him. He knew it might be dangerous to place something of such importance on a stranger's shoulders but if Carmen could explain this, if she could tell him why all signs other than his long-dead heart pointed to his mate being gone from the world, he sure as hell was willing to try. "We have to call her right away! If she can find her–"

"Slow down, Edward. Carmen might be able to understand what is happening with the bond between you and Bella, but there is no guarantee that she can do anything more than that. If this doesn't work or if she sees that Bella is truly gone, are you prepared for that? Are you prepared for the possibility that what Alice saw is really true?"

"It is true," Edward acknowledged with more than a little bitterness toward himself but he could always wallow later. "Alice's vision happened but whatever happened to Bella at that beach, it wasn't final. She may not be in Forks, but she's somewhere… waiting for me. Before Rosalie called, I had already made the decision to return to Washington. I was coming back to her and Bella knew that, I would stake my life on it. She was rightfully furious with me for leaving, but she would never go somewhere I couldn't follow."

"Then it's settled," Alice nodded with determination, all traces of misery gone and vigor renewed. Her thoughts were still in turmoil, blame heavy and thick since she felt unnecessarily responsible for not being able to thwart her vision in time to save her best friend, but hope for a remedy cast brightness over the shadows of self-recrimination. "We have to find her."

Esme and Carlisle seemed to have a silent conversation before their father nodded in agreement, "Alright. Carmen and Eleazar it is."

x-x-x

Sometimes, the perks of being a vampire with access to unreleased technology and unlimited funds far outweighed the eternal damnation and this was certainly one of those times for Edward. When calling Carmen and Eleazar's house in Alaska proved fruitless, Carlisle remembered that he and his friends had attended an up-and-coming technology showcase a few months back and opted to reach out to them via the (not yet commercially available) webcam that was hooked up to his work laptop. He explained that Carmen and her husband often traveled but, while they did not believe in cell phones, they always had a laptop on them just in case.

It still took a full day to reach them as the other Denalis – Tanya, Kate, and Irina – confirmed that the two were currently on a holiday, but around noon the day after Edward returned home, the entire Cullen clan was huddled in their patriarch's study when there was finally an answer on the other end of the ringing webcam and Edward was so relieved, he nearly collapsed.

Eleazar's face appeared in the square box on the screen with a wide smile, his dark hair windswept and bronze skin glimmering, "Carlisle! My old friend, what a pleasant surprise. What's the occasion?"

"Not so pleasant, I'm afraid. We were actually looking to speak with Carmen. Is she available?"

His friend looked concerned, "Of course. Let me get her for you."

There was a brief moment where Eleazar moved out of frame and they could hear him calling for his wife. Carmen zipped in front of the computer in a flash with the sunshine bracketing her thick, wild hair like a halo. She pulled an airy shawl around her bare, sparkling shoulders. "Hello, Carlisle! It's so nice to see you again. What is it I can do for you?"

He hesitated, eyes flitting up to a pacing, disheveled Edward then back to the computer, "I apologize for interrupting your holiday, but we have an urgent need for your help. It's Bella, Edward's mate. There's been… an accident."

"Ah, yes! Your son's little human girl I have heard such lovely things about. What's happened?"

Everyone looked to Edward to explain but his voice wouldn't cooperate. He couldn't recount what he did to her again, he honestly didn't think he could bear thinking of how badly he fucked up any more. It was hard enough as it was to keep himself going – only the unwavering belief that Bella somehow survived, that Bella was waiting somewhere for him to come home, kept him from traveling straight to the Volturi and begging them to finish the job.

When no one else stepped up, Rosalie pulled the laptop towards herself, "Through a ridiculous set of circumstances, Bella and Edward broke up. She…" His oldest sister cleared her throat and if he didn't know her better – and her thoughts weren't reciting nursery rhymes in Japanese – Edward would think she was working very hard to conceal her upset. "She fell from a cliff."

The faint line between Carmen's brows deepend with her frown, "I'm sorry, I must have misheard you. Did you say they broke up? I was under the impression from Carlisle that both had accepted the bond?"

"Yes well, through my brother's fathomless idiocy and uncanny knack for thinking he knows better than everyone on the fucking planet, he left her in Forks while he went to go mope around in Rio, feeling sorry for himself."

She gasped, horrified, and Edward buried his face in his hands to hide his shame. "How long were they apart?"

"Six months."

"Ah, I am starting to understand," Carmen tapped her fingers against the table her laptop sat on. "Please don't misunderstand, but I do know much about soulmate bonds and how they work. You mentioned that she fell, but the semantics here are actually very important. Rosalie…" She looked almost sorrowful to continue but Eleazar put a hand on her shoulder. "Did she fall? Or did she jump?"

"She jumped," at the pained whimper that escaped past Edward's lips, Rosalie cut him with a spiteful glower. "Her friend from Forks assured us that they were jumping for fun, not for that. Though, he did mention–"

"Rose, please," Edward was teetering on the edge of hysteria and begging was not beneath him. "Don't."

"Every piece of the story matters. Save your remorse for someone who cares," she shook her hair out in a huff before turning back to the screen. "Her friend mentioned that Bella would hear Edward's voice in her head when she was doing something dangerous. She became an adrenaline junkie to feel closer to him."

"I am not surprised by that. Even when damaged, the soulmate bond will attempt to persevere in any way that it can. But Rosalie," Carmen sighed, "if what Bella did was intentional in any way, the link between them would be severed immediately upon her death. You know this."

Edward snatched the laptop, "I can still feel her!" His fist thrust against his sternum. "She still calls to me, like she's marking the time until I return. How can the connection between us be severed if that's the case? Alice saw her die, the paramedics called her time of death, and Carlisle confirmed with the hospital records but I'm still being pulled towards her. Bella has always felt like my own personal sun, warming me from the inside out and bringing me to life, but now I feel like I'm being burned alive as a warning to find her. I swear, Carmen, she didn't die on that beach. She didn't."

"I have never heard of a soulmate bond continuing after death, that would be quite an anomaly to what I know to be true, but Bella is the first human I have known mated to a vampire so I suppose it's not impossible. This is all speculation, of course. My power is physical so I will need to touch you to know anything for certain and we must move quickly because the fresher the bond, the more accurate I can see."

"Of course! Just tell me what you need from me and I'll do it."

Eleazar bent down behind his wife to be in frame for the webcam, "Where are you all now? We may be able to get tickets for a flight tonight."

"Ithaca," Edward felt feverish in his own icy skin. Hope – reaching Bella – was so close he could nearly taste it. "I'm sending our location in the chat box."

There was a ding! on the other end of the webcam when their laptop received the message. Eleazar scanned the address and grabbed a phone from beside the computer, "We are in Mexico but we can reach you in less than 7 hours." He turned to his wife, number diabled and phone already to his ear. "Is that soon enough?"

"That depends," Carmen said thoughtfully as her husband spoke to someone about plane tickets in the background. "How long has it been since Bella last breathed?"

The words felt like acid but he forced himself to answer, "Two days."

"There is time then," she confirmed, "and Edward, I can't make any promises but if you're right and Bella is somewhere beyond the mortal plane and has not succumbed to death, I may know someone who can help. I cannot guarantee he will assist us should we need it, but I can reach out to him just in case."

"Thank you! I will forever be in your debt for this, both of you. If there is ever anything I can do to repay you–"

"Nonsense. All of you are practically family and we are happy to help," Carmen waved away his thanks with a smile as Eleazar clicked the phone back into the receiver.

Her husband leaned into view once more, "Our flight to New York leaves at four. Take some time to hunt and refresh yourself, Edward. You look weary and my wife will need you at your strongest if she is going to be able to take hold of the threads binding you to your human mate."

Everyone said short goodbyes before Carlisle clicked to turn off the webcam.

It was collectively decided that they would all spend the next few hours preparing for the Denali's arrival by hunting and getting the house in order for guests in case Carmen and Eleazar decided to stay. Most of them remained in pairs to hunt, but Edward chose to go off on his own – needing time to gather and organize his thoughts in order to best aid Carmen in finding Bella. His smile was jubilant as he took off at a full sprint into the woods. That bleak, ever-present blanket of despair lifted just a little at the possibility that in a few hours, his suspicions about Bella could be confirmed.

No, not could – they would be. He was right. He would bet everything he owned, everything near and dear to him in the world that he was right.

Just a little longer and he would be able to tell Bella everything he'd been thinking about for the past six months; he could apologize for his stupidity, beg for her forgiveness, and finally promise her the forever she'd been looking for before his melancholic overthinking fucked everything all to Hell and back.

But there was no time to wallow in anguish for his long list of mistakes, not now. Just a little longer and Edward and Bella would be reunited.

No matter the price, no matter what it cost him, he would see her again.

He was certain of it.