Sorry this month's update is later than intended; I've been sick, and when I was able to work on this I ended up writing an extra scene that wasn't even planned, at least not for right here, so…yeah. This is also probably the most pivotal chapter in the whole story up to this point, so I wanted to take my time with it to make it as good as possible, and hopefully my efforts have paid off.

As Bella predicted, Charlie's mild interest in the news that Bo's significant other had arrived in Forks increased substantially when she mentioned Dyson's occupation, and he said Bo should bring him along the next time she came over for dinner, though he wasn't especially eager to set a date at the moment. The police station's computer system had just been updated, leaving him stressed and disgruntled as he tried to figure it out and help his employees do the same, and generally in no mood to entertain guests.

Bella commiserated with his technological woes, offered to send Edward down to the station to see if he could help, and assured him that she wouldn't plan another dinner party until he was up for it.

"Thanks, Bells. You know, there are times I still can't believe how much Renée and I lucked out in getting such an easygoing teenager." He very tactfully refrained from mentioning her meltdown over learning she was adopted, when she had been the polar opposite of easygoing; these days, he seemed to have decided to pretend that difficult period had never happened, though she had noticed that he made an effort to express his affection and appreciation for her more often than he had prior to the big revelation, which was both heartwarming and slightly embarrassing.

"I do my best," she muttered, wondering whether he would still think they'd lucked out if he knew the truth about her. For the most part, she was glad Charlie was trying to be more involved in her life and that, as a result, they were closer than they'd ever been, but the downside of it was that now she felt worse about keeping secrets from him than she used to.

"In the meantime, maybe you and Edward can go on a double date with them."

"Yeah, sure. Maybe," she said dubiously. It sounded like a good idea in theory, yet somehow, she just couldn't picture how such an arrangement would work out. A vampire, a wolf-shifter, and two succubi walk into a movie theater? Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.

###

When Bella arrived for her next training session, she found Dyson in the workout room with Bo, the two of them apparently brushing up on their boxing. They were so intent on their sparring that they didn't notice her entering the room, and she didn't announce her presence, content to watch them. Even to her inexpert eyes, it was obvious that they were both highly skilled, and the fluid grace with which they moved was truly inspiring to behold. More than that, they were clearly enjoying themselves, playfully trying to one-up each other while also unreservedly congratulating one another whenever one of them got in a hit, which only served to reinforce her initial impression – they really were a team, and a good one at that.

At last, as Bo dodged Dyson's latest strike, she managed to hook her foot around his ankle and yank his leg out from underneath him, sending him crashing to the mat. Before he could make a move to get up, she was on top of him, pinning him down. "Looks like I win this round."

"I don't know about that. I think you should be disqualified for hitting below the belt."

"Hits below the belt are the best kind," Bo countered, grinning as she leaned down to kiss him.

That was when Bella decided it was time to make her presence known and cleared her throat loudly just before their lips met, causing Bo's head to snap up.

"Bella!" she exclaimed, with an expression reminiscent of someone who'd been caught with their hand in a cookie jar. "You're here! How, uh, how long have you been here?"

"Long enough. You two seemed pretty focused, so I didn't want to butt in. You look good together – with the boxing, I mean," she hastily clarified while jabbing the air with her fist in a poor imitation of a boxer. "Nice technique."

"If you ever want to try branching out, I could give you some pointers," Dyson offered. "Bo tells me she's been teaching you the basics of self-defense as well as her best street fighting moves, which will probably serve you well enough for getting yourself out of a scrape, but it never hurts to expand your toolbox."

"I may take you up on that someday," Bella said slowly. She wasn't particularly interested in learning to box, but she still appreciated that he'd made the offer without prompting, that he thought she was capable of doing it and was willing to spend his time teaching her. Still, she figured it would be a good idea to manage his expectations, just in case he was comparing her to Bo without having seen her in action yet. "I mean, as long as you don't have any illusions that I'll be like Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby…"

"I hope not; the ending of that movie sucked," Bo griped. "Anyway, I'm thinking you're almost ready to start learning how to use a knife like the ones I carry; goddess knows they've saved my butt more times than I can remember. You can help with that too if you want," she added, looking at Dyson. Since he and Bella were both very important to her, she was eager to establish a good rapport between them. "I bet it'd be good for her to practice with somebody other than me."

"You're right, but I think I'll just watch today, see where she's at."

"Fine with me. Bella?"

Bella gulped nervously at the prospect of being actively observed – except for a few instances in which Kenzi or Emmett had briefly stuck their heads in for a quick peek, nobody had ever watched her training sessions – but nodded her assent.

"Don't worry, he's not a harsh critic," Bo assured her as she warmed up. "Just pretend he's not here."

This was surprisingly easy to do since Dyson kept quiet for the most part. When he did speak up, his advice was helpful and constructively worded, so that she soon got comfortable with the idea of having him as a second instructor even if his participation was fairly limited at the moment. As they wrapped up, he complimented Bo on how much she'd already taught Bella on her own, which pleased her enough that she invited him to join her for a quick shower before they changed back into their regular attire. Tempting as the offer was, he knew that if they showered together it was almost certainly not going to be quick, so he regretfully declined and decided to shower after her instead.

While he awaited his turn in the hallway outside the guestroom he was now sharing with Bo (he'd learned that being in the room when she got out of the shower was also not a good idea, since her towels had a strange tendency to fall off the moment he looked at her), he met Kenzi coming out of her room, which was directly across from Bo's.

"Hey, D-man. So did you and Bobo get in some quality Cobra Kai time with the mini succ?"

"We did. Missed you, though. Feels like we haven't really had a chance to catch up since I got here."

"Well, you've been kinda busy 'catching up' with Bo, haven't you?" Kenzi teased, smirking and arching her eyebrows suggestively.

"Just because Bo and I are together now, that doesn't mean I've forgotten about my favorite human."

"Aw shucks, you're gonna make me blush. Wanna see my room?"

He followed her into what had become her private space within the Cullens' home, which was an odd juxtaposition of order and chaos; thanks to Esme's flair for interior design, the room was very well put together, but the bed was unmade, and Kenzi's possessions were haphazardly scattered everywhere.

"Nice," Dyson remarked with a slight grin, impressed at her ability to leave her own unique mark on any space she inhabited, even in a house owned by a bunch of neat freak vampires.

"It's a lot swankier than my room back at the Clubhouse, that's for sure. Plus, you know, solid walls." Kenzi rapped her knuckles on one of said walls to illustrate her point. "I haven't felt any tremors even with you and Bo right across the hall, so that's gotta be some top-notch construction here…if only it wasn't in the ass crack of nowhere."

"Not a huge fan of Forks, are you?" Dyson asked sympathetically. Kenzi had always seemed to thrive on the opportunities for fun and socialization (and getting away with her dubiously legal pastimes) life in a big city provided, so he wasn't surprised that she wasn't relishing her sojourn in a small town where most people were probably in bed by nine o'clock and tolerance for unconventional behavior was either sharply limited or nonexistent.

"Nah, it's great…if you like the whole 'Stepford meets Pleasantville' vibe. I mean, I get why Bella feels right at home here – it's the perfect place for a girl whose idea of getting wild and crazy is checking out five library books instead of just two and maybe keeping one an extra day…"

"Sounds like Forks isn't the only thing you're not a huge fan of," Dyson observed.

"I beg your pardon?" Kenzi put on her best innocent look, which quickly crumbled under the wolf's steady, penetrating stare. "Okay, okay, stop with the third degree already! Geez! I know I shouldn't have a problem with Bella, okay – sure, my first impression of her was that she has all the personality of wallpaper even if she does manage to toss out the occasional surprisingly witty zinger, and don't even get me started on her fashion sense, but she is Bo's sister…and I can tell that deep down, underneath all the boring outfits, she's good people. It's only when I have to actually be in the same room with her that she gets on my nerves."

This statement earned a raised eyebrow from Dyson. "Only then, huh? Is that why you haven't been showing her your best moves with Geraldine?"

The mention of her trusty katana brought a brief grin to Kenzi's face, before she sighed and said, "I have kinda dropped the ball on helping Bo train her, haven't I? I guess I just didn't want to get in the middle of it in case, I don't know, I ended up showing her up or getting in one too many digs at her, you know? She might not be a Bo-level badass, but I guess she deserves some points for at least trying to be less of a wimp. Or worse, if I didn't show her up…well, who wants to be the human punching bag even a rank amateur fae can take down for easy practice?"

Dyson absorbed all this in thoughtful silence, then: "I don't think you'll ever have to worry about that, Kenzi. You might not have the physical advantages that come with being fae, but no one who isn't completely blind is ever going to think you're weak. The way you haven't just survived in our world, but made a place for yourself in it even though it's not the world you were born for – you're the strongest person I know."

"Thanks, D."

He thought he heard a tiny sniffle as Kenzi threw herself at him and hugged him tightly, but tactfully refrained from commenting on it. Instead, he simply returned the embrace, patting her on the back with one hand. When she pulled away, very discreetly swiping at her eyes, he asked, "Does this mean we're okay? I know you were disappointed in how I handled the situation with Aife…"

"Yeah, yeah, we're good. It was Bo's family drama, so if she can forgive you, which she clearly has, it's not really my place to hold a grudge, is it?"

"Bo's a very forgiving person. In fact, I'd say she forgives people for hurting her more easily than you do," Dyson said astutely.

"You're right, Bobo's a sweetheart – which means she needs someone to watch her back, make sure she doesn't go all Dumbledore with trying to see the good in everybody and leaving herself open to people who'll backstab her again," Kenzi replied in an equally shrewd, no-nonsense tone. "Now, I know your heart's in the right place – I can tell you really lurve Bo and I think you can be really good for her – but fair warning: if you hurt her again, even if it's in a misguidedly protective way, I swear on a stack of pizzas that I will ship you off to an obedience school that uses high voltage shock collars."

###

While Kenzi was showing Dyson her room and laying out what she expected of him now that he was with Bo in an official capacity, Bella headed to the opposite end of the house, to a room that was much neater than Kenzi's. Its owner was busy rifling through his impressive music collection, but he paused in the middle of reaching for another CD when she crept through the half-open door, listening intently for a second before turning around.

"You're getting stealthier," Edward observed. "I almost didn't hear you over the music."

"One of these days I'll be able to sneak up on you," Bella replied with a brief pout at her thwarted attempt as she crossed the remaining distance between them and slipped her arms around his neck.

"And what will you do then?" he asked, smiling in amusement at her playful antics. "Should I brace myself for a surprise attack?"

"I haven't decided yet," she said thoughtfully, as if giving the matter serious consideration. "I could do this…" She leaned in to brush her lips over his neck. "…Or this…" The tip of her nose skimmed over his skin as the focus of her attention moved lower, her fingers already working at the top button of his dark blue shirt.

"Are you all right? Do you need healing?" He hadn't noticed any bruises on her when she came in, and she didn't appear to be sore, but he couldn't help worrying.

"Nope, Bo didn't work me too hard today. I'm still allowed to kiss you without it being about healing or feeding, aren't I? Even if it does make for a convenient excuse…" Then she reluctantly refastened the buttons she had undone. "Still, I probably shouldn't take too much when I don't really need to, especially since I might not get off so easy tomorrow. Bo wants me to start training with Dyson too, and considering that he was able to hold his own against Emmett even without using his wolf, I have a feeling that… What's the matter?" Edward's arms had gone rigid around her, and he'd stopped breathing.

"Bella," he began carefully, then stopped to take a steadying breath before continuing. "I don't think it's a good idea for you to fight him."

"It won't be a real fight. I saw him and Bo boxing together when I first walked in, and it looked perfectly safe."

"Bo is his mate," Edward pointed out. "Hurting her would go against the very essence of his makeup, but you don't have that protection. I know it's unfair to judge Dyson by the behavior I've witnessed in others of his kind when every other wolf-shifter I've met has been significantly less mature, but age can't erase the fact that his species is naturally aggressive…and he's seen a great deal of violence in all those centuries. Even if he hasn't been involved in active combat in a long time, a warrior's instincts never truly go away."

Bella was silent for a moment as she pondered that, then: "I appreciate your concern, but so far it doesn't look like Dyson's the type to have some battlefield flashback or lose control in the heat of the moment; he seemed perfectly focused while he arm-wrestled with Emmett and sparred with Bo. Besides, Bo trusts him, and I trust her judgment."

There was a note of finality in her voice that made it clear arguing with her on that point would be futile, so Edward wisely dropped the subject. Nevertheless, he decided that the next time Bella trained with Bo and Dyson, he would be there…just in case.

###

His chance came two days later. Hearing Bo tell Bella that Dyson would meet them in the training room as she went off to change into her workout clothes, Edward asked in a deliberately casual tone, "Mind if I join you as well?"

Bella whirled around, her whole face lighting up with excitement. "Really? You want to?"

"Yes, if it's all right with you."

"Of course – it's more than all right. I can't wait to show you what I can do now!" Maybe then, she thought hopefully, it would actually start to sink in that she wasn't quite the useless klutz he used to have to save from tripping over her own feet anymore. She hurried upstairs to get dressed, practically skipping.

"I'm glad you're finally taking an interest in her training." Bo's fond smile at her sister's enthusiasm faded as she turned to face Edward, her voice taking on a slight edge. "She hasn't said anything, but I think it kinda hurt her feelings that you never wanted to be involved."

"I suppose I didn't see a need to when she had one of her own kind to teach her how your species' particular talents can best be adapted for self-defense. Besides, I didn't want to impinge on your time together. I know it must be hard, trying to establish the connection you should have had since childhood now, when you're already an adult and Bella is on the cusp of becoming one, and I trusted that you wouldn't encourage her to do anything too risky." Until you brought in a wolf-shifter as her new sparring partner.

"Thanks for that, I think. You're right, I do feel like I'm still playing catch-up on the sisterly bonding front, and I think this has really helped us get closer…but I also think you're the main reason she wanted to do it in the first place."

Edward's jaw tightened, and his eyes took on a closed off look, their molten gold hue hardening into something impenetrable. "Because I failed to protect her from James, you mean."

"No, because… You know what, I'm not the person you should be having this conversation with. You should talk to Bella."

"I do talk to her, every day in fact."

Bo peered thoughtfully at him, her head tilting slightly to the side, before speaking again. "I know you do…but maybe you're not talking about the right stuff."

Then she walked away, leaving him to reflect on how inconvenient it was that unreadable minds were apparently a genetic trait in hers and Bella's family.

###

Edward stayed on the sidelines while Bella warmed up and went through a basic practice routine with Bo, and although he spent the first fifteen minutes hiding his clenched fists behind his back, he gradually relaxed as he saw that what they were doing wasn't as bad as he'd feared; there were no hard kicks, fists to the face, chokeholds, or anything else that could lead to serious injury. In fact, once he got past his initial misgivings, he had to admit that he was impressed – Bella's physical dexterity had greatly improved under Bo's tutelage, which had obviously done wonders for her confidence as well. That was good, he thought; maybe she was finally making some progress toward remedying her mystifyingly low self-esteem.

He tensed up again when Bo announced that it was time to get the knives out, then relaxed when she produced a pair of daggers with fake rubber blades. She and Dyson spent several minutes simply instructing Bella on the proper way to hold her weapon in order to wield it with maximum force while preventing an opponent from twisting it out of her grip, and Edward took comfort in their conscientiousness. Maybe I truly was worried over nothing. They're clearly very committed to ensuring her safety, and Dyson is…much less aggressive than I would have imagined one of his kind to be capable of. Perhaps they're not such uncontrollably volatile beasts after all, he told himself as he watched the wolf patiently reposition her fingers on the hilt of her ersatz dagger.

Just as he got his breathing evened out, Bo and Dyson moved on to coaching Bella on how to actually use her knife in a fight. It wasn't too nerve-wracking to watch at first, when she was just mimicking the maneuvers they showed her while trying to do as they said and think of the blade as an extension of her arm, especially since the 'blade' she was currently using wasn't real. If she had been waving around a genuine piece of sharpened steel in such a way that she could easily poke an eye out or puncture a vital organ if she happened to trip and fall on it, Edward admitted to himself that he would have been a lot more nervous.

"That's good, Bella," Bo praised the younger girl after watching her take a few practice swings at an imaginary enemy. "Ready to take it up a notch?"

Bella nodded, her eyes alight with the exhilaration of mastering a new skill and discovering, to her surprise, that it came easier than she ever would have dreamed. "Bring it on."

It was Dyson who brought it on, however, stepping forward into a combat-ready stance and gesturing for her to begin. She swung her toy knife in a wide arc that would have sliced open his midsection if it had been real, forcing him back, then attempted to press her advantage by lunging forward and slashing at his bicep. He sidestepped her attack and grabbed her extended arm, spinning her around and pulling her in while bringing his other arm up to hook around her chest.

Thanks to her previous sessions with Bo, Bella knew exactly what to do – grip the powerful forearm wrapped around her collarbone for leverage, brace her feet and bend over, using her attacker's greater weight to flip him over her shoulder, then chi-suck him into submission once she had him on his back – but before she could execute the move that was practically programmed into her by now, the arm she was about to seize disappeared, and she no longer felt Dyson's presence at her back.

Looking around in bewilderment, since she was fairly certain teleportation was not a standard wolf-shifter ability, she found him all the way across the room, on the floor with Edward crouched over him, snarling. For a fraction of a second, Dyson seemed taken aback, but he recovered almost instantly and reacted to the unexpected assault; his wolf face appeared, and he shoved Edward off with a snarl of his own.

Vampire and wolf both sprang to their feet and stood facing each other, venomous teeth and fangs bared, low growls issuing from deep in their throats as each waited to see what the other would do – until Bo stormed over and pushed her way between them, effectively breaking their standoff. "What the hell just happened here?!"

Her intervention seemed to hit them both like a splash of cold water, snapping them out of the feral mindsets they'd slipped into and making them retract their claws – literally, in Dyson's case. "Looks like someone's a little overprotective of their mate. Maybe I shouldn't have gotten into this, but you know I would never hurt her, don't you?"

"I do," Edward acknowledged with appropriate contrition. "I'm sorry; I thought I could handle it, but seeing you put your hands on Bella that way, even knowing you didn't mean her any harm, was…harder than I anticipated. If you'd like to continue, I'll go-"

"No." Everyone turned around at the sound of Bella's voice, which had the taut quality of a rubber band stretched to its breaking point, and when they looked at her, they found that her pallid face appeared equally strained, presumably from holding in the torrent of emotions that were clearly simmering under her outwardly controlled façade. "I don't feel like training any more today."

"Bella…" Bo moved toward her, hands outstretched in a vague gesture of concern, but ultimately she couldn't think of anything to do or say except to ask, "Are you okay?" – although, since Bella was very obviously not okay, she felt foolish even as the words left her lips.

Bella seemed to appreciate her asking nonetheless, mustering a genuinely grateful, albeit brittle smile for her sister's benefit. "I'm fine; I just need to have a talk with Edward." She then turned to him and asked stiffly, "Will you take me home?"

Of course he agreed immediately, and they walked out together, leaving Bo and Dyson staring apprehensively after them. If the talk Bella wanted to have required such absolute privacy that they had to go all the way to her house to remove any possibility of unintentional eavesdropping by family members with supernaturally enhanced senses, it must be serious, and after seeing her livid expression, they suspected that Edward was in very hot water.

###

Charlie hadn't come home yet, but Bella still insisted on taking Edward upstairs; this wasn't the kind of discussion she wanted to risk her dad walking in on if he returned before they were finished talking. As soon as they were safely in her room, she said, "I can't believe you did that – jumping in like I needed you to save me? How could you embarrass me in front of Bo and Dyson like that?"

Edward looked taken aback at the accusation of embarrassing her, but he recovered quickly. "I assure you that wasn't my intention-"

"I was perfectly capable of breaking that hold he had me in – which you would've known if you'd been helping Bo train me!"

"I'm sorry, Bella. I know I overreacted, and I'm not proud of it. This is precisely why I haven't gotten involved, because I didn't know if I could handle watching someone go through the motions of attacking you, even knowing it wasn't real; still, I failed to anticipate just how unbearable it would be until it actually happened. The entire time I was telling myself that the exercises Bo put you through weren't nearly as dangerous as I had imagined, that Dyson's self-control is vastly superior to that of the younger wolves my family has interacted with, that there was no threat to you…yet in that moment, all I could think of was how miserably I failed at protecting you from James, and how I couldn't fail you again."

Bella was silent for a moment as she digested this, and when she finally spoke, her voice was much softer. "It's not your job to protect me, Edward."

He frowned at her as if she'd said something completely irrational. "Of course it is."

"No, it isn't! That's not what I want – I want a partner, not a bodyguard. I understand why you felt like you had to look out for me when we first met, when you thought I was just a fragile little human and, let's face it, I was so clumsy that I was a hazard to myself, and I… Maybe this is my fault."

She paused, running a hand through her hair in frustration and pulling it out of its ponytail in the process, while he waited for her to gather her thoughts. At last she went on, "I've told you before how Renée was…not exactly the most responsible person, how most of the time I felt like I was the parent, not her. I made sure the bills got paid, I kept her phone charged, I bought groceries and learned to cook so we wouldn't end up living on cereal and frozen dinners all the time…and I was good at it. By the time I was ten, I could've lived on my own if not for the fact that I'm still a minor, and I guess that was kind of a point of pride for me, because how many kids that age could basically run their own household?"

"Not many, I'm sure. In my day it wasn't unusual for girls to begin preparing for such responsibilities at a young age, but the expectations placed on children and teenagers have declined significantly in the last several decades," Edward said with a faint grin.

"Yeah, none of the other kids had to do all the stuff I did," Bella agreed. "Their parents were happy if they'd just clean their room once a week, while I was the one telling my mother to clean her room. I never resented her for it, but I have to admit there were times I wished someone else would take over and I could just relax, you know?"

"Understandable."

"Then you came along, and you were all old-fashioned about taking charge and wanting to do stuff for me, and maybe there was a part of me that liked that…and you were so much stronger than me, and I was so overwhelmed by my feelings for you, that for the first time in a long time I actually felt like I needed to be taken care of, or at least that I needed you. Before I knew it, all that independence and self-sufficiency I used to be so proud of just slipped away. Maybe if I had paid more attention, if I'd stood up for myself more at the beginning of our relationship…we wouldn't have ended up here."

"And where are we, exactly?" When she didn't answer, the worry that had gnawed at him throughout the silent ride to her house intensified exponentially, becoming nearly intolerable. "Please, Bella, talk to me. Whatever this is-" Because there was clearly a bigger issue here than the events of a single afternoon, even if the training incident was what had brought it all to a head "-we can work it out. I love you."

"I know you do. I can see it in your aura, remember?" Bella reminded him with a melancholy smile. "But you don't respect me. Even now that we're both fae, you don't really see me as your equal."

"I wouldn't say that; I've always valued your intelligence, intellect, and insight, it's just that on a physical level… Well, succubi aren't designed to be particularly fierce predators, not in the way vampires are."

"That doesn't matter to Dyson. Wolves are predators too, but that hasn't stopped him from recognizing that Bo can handle herself in a fight. He doesn't treat her like she's weaker."

Edward wanted desperately to refute this point, but found that there was nothing he could say, because the truth was that he was very aware of the same difference between Dyson's permissive attitude toward Bo's lifestyle and his own protectiveness over Bella that was so glaringly apparent to her.

For her part, she wanted him to argue, to convince her that he didn't really believe she was some feeble, inferior thing in need of his protection, but as the silence stretched on, an achingly cold feeling of disillusionment slowly settled in her stomach, as if something she'd eaten had solidified into a hard, curdled mass. "Well," she said at last, in a voice that held only the tiniest hint of a tremor, "if that's what you think of me, then I don't know how this is going to work."

"What are you talking about? What isn't working? Bella…what are you saying?" He felt like he was sliding closer to some great precipice, frantically grasping at anything that might slow his descent, but if he was hoping for her to throw him a lifeline, he was sorely disappointed. Instead, her next words pushed him right over the edge.

"I'm saying… God, I can't believe I'm saying this… I think we need to take a break." Her eyes closed of their own accord as she spoke, like she was bracing for an incoming blow that she fully expected to knock her flat, though in this case the wound was self-inflicted. When they opened again, she caught a fleeting glimpse of agony in his face before he smoothed it away, schooling his features into an expressionless mask.

"I see," he said in an unbelievably calm voice. "If you want to end our relationship-"

"No! I don't… Damn it, Edward, how can you just stand there and be so…so serene and unflappable and-"

"I'm just trying not to make this difficult for you," he said evenly. "As I was saying, if you want to end our relationship, I won't contest your decision."

"Difficult? Don't you think this is already difficult for me?!" Bella shouted. She wished she could be as composed and dignified as he was, but she didn't have his decades of practice at controlling her emotions. "I love you! From the moment we met, all I wanted was to be with you…but I can't. No matter how much I want to, I can't be in a relationship with someone who doesn't truly respect me, even though it's probably at least partially my own fault that you don't because I haven't respected me for a while now, I never thought I was good enough for you… So I think we both need some time apart, for me to figure out who I am now and hopefully get back the parts of myself I used to like, and you to figure out if who I am now is someone you still want to be with. Don't think I haven't noticed how uncomfortable it's made you every time Bo's taught me something about being a succubus – not just the fighting, but…how to use our abilities…"

"If you're referring to our excursion at that bar in Port Angeles…you do have a point. I understood the need for you to learn how to control your nascent powers, but watching it was much harder than I let on at the time. To be perfectly honest, all of this has been harder than I've wanted to admit, even to myself. I've been trying to tell myself that everything would be fine, that being a succubus wouldn't change who you are, but the truth is that you've been changing right before my eyes, little by little, since Bo arrived. You emulate her to the point where you're actually starting to walk the same way she does, you look more like her every day, and I've tried to be happy for you…but I can't deny that it hurts. So perhaps you're right," he concluded with a forlorn look. "Even though it's the last thing I want to do, maybe it would be helpful for both of us to take some time apart, to…reflect."

Bella swallowed hard, unsure whether to feel relieved or upset that he wasn't arguing with her, because even though she was convinced that she was doing the right thing yet knew with equal certainty that it would be infuriatingly easy for him to talk her out of it (which would only make her feel worse about herself in the long run), part of her wanted him to try anyway, to fight for her.

Before she could get too distraught over his instant surrender, however, he asked, "Do you have any notion of how much time you'll need? I want to give you your space, but I don't know how long I can go without seeing you."

"Um, a week or two, maybe? I don't really know how this is supposed to work, but that seems like it should be long enough. Anyway, we'll still see each other at school. You'll still come to school, right?"

"If you want me to."

"Yeah – can't have you compromising your family's cover just to avoid me. Besides, I don't need so much space that we can't be in the same building." Like Edward, she didn't think she could handle having no contact whatsoever, even if they were (sort of) not together anymore.

"Then I'll see you around, Bella."

He disappeared through the window while she stayed frozen in place, every muscle locked as she fought the urge to run across the room, stick her head out the window, and beg him to come back. Oh God… What did I just do?!

In the time they'd been together, Edward Cullen had basically become the focal point of her entire existence (But that's a big part of the problem, isn't it?) and she had just sent him away, put their relationship on hold, told him she couldn't be with him. She had good reasons for doing it, and it was that knowledge that enabled her to stay where she was and hold her tongue, but it did nothing to lessen the feeling that she had just plunged a knife into herself and cut out something vital, something she had no idea how to live without.

At last, when she was positive he had gone far enough that she couldn't call him back, she allowed herself to move again, though all she could manage to do was stagger over to her bed on shaky legs and collapse onto it. She wished Bo was there to reassure her that everything would be all right, bolster her conviction that she'd done the right thing, tell her she didn't need Edward, but it was getting late – the last remnants of afternoon light that had still lingered when she and Edward arrived at her house were gone now, filling the room with shadows – and Bo was probably eating dinner, or spending time with Kenzi, or doing things Bella preferred not to think about with Dyson. In any case, the phone was too far away for her to reach, and she couldn't muster the energy to go get it, so she just curled into a ball, hugged her knees to her chest, and buried her face in her pillow as the tears started.

Oof, that was hard to write. If I've done my job right, the break shouldn't feel like it came completely out of the blue, but it still wasn't fun – I know that up till now I've paired both Bella and Edward with other people in my previous Twilight crossovers, but they really are one of my favorite ships, honest! Still, true love is always better when it has to be fought for, right? Or at least it makes for more dramatic storytelling.