I started for the clearing again, pressing my palm against everything in my path. "I'll bet this really gets them going."

Edward sighed.

"Hold your breath," I told him.

"I'm fine. I just think you're going overboard."

"This is all I get to do. I want to do a good job."

"Hm...I suppose I understand her point there," Edward sighed.

"But you don't get to do anything either," Emmett pointed out, smirking.

We broke through the last of the trees as I spoke. I let my injured hand graze across the ferns.

"Well, you have," Edward assured me. "The newborns will be frantic, and Jasper will be very impressed with your dedication. Now let me treat your hand - you've gotten the cut dirty."

"Let me do it, please."

He took my hand and smiled as he examined it. "This doesn't bother me anymore."

"Do you think it really doesn't?" Edward asked. He had obviously be looking to see any signs that she thought it was bothering his book self, but there really didn't seem to be anything there.

"It doesn't look like it," Carlisle said. "I wonder why that is."

I watched him carefully as he cleaned the gash, looking for some sign of distress. He continued to breathe evenly in and out, the same small smile on his lips.

"Why not?" I finally asked as he smoothed a bandage across my palm.

He shrugged. "I got over it."

"Got over it?" Edward frowned. "Is that something that you can 'get over'?"

"No one would know the answer to that, Edward," Carlisle said, leaving out the part where humans in close proximity to vampires rarely lived long enough for anyone to find out. "But somehow I wouldn't think that was possible."

"You . . .got over it ? When? How?" I tried to remember the last time he'd held his breath around me. All I could think of was my wretched birthday party last September.

Again, Edward and Jasper flinched.

"Hm...this might explain why you've been more frisky this book," Emmett laughed and Edward's glare was more ridiculous than it was threatening because he was embarrassed too. "What? You've been all over her in this book."

"He does have a point," Alice chimed in. "You have been the one to start things more often in this book."

"Shut up!" Edward hissed at them.

Edward pursed his lips, seeming to search for the words. "I lived through an entire twenty-four hours thinking that you were dead, Bella. That changed the way I look at a lot of things."

Edward frowned at this.

"Did it change the way I smell to you?"

"Not at all. But . . . having experienced the way it feels to think I've lost you . . . my reactions have changed. My entire being shies away from any course that could inspire that kind of pain again."

"Is that something that I have to live through?" Edward sighed, his head down and eyebrows furrowed.

"I don't know, Son," Carlisle said. "Your mind seems to already know that you could need her... that you could never hurt her like that, but your body...I guess we'll see when we meet her."

"I'm going to want to kill her when I first meet her," Edward said, his eyes going wide at the realization.

"No," Esme said. "You're stronger than that Edward. You didn't hurt Bella when she was just another girl in class and you're not going to hurt her this time around when you know that she's your other half."

"But... I'm still going to want to..." Edward cringed; the idea was very repulsive to him.

"Edward," Jasper said. "It's going to be difficult, and you can't change who you are, but you can control yourself if you put your mind to it."

Carlisle smiled at him, it was something that he reminded Jasper of many times. Jasper knew it would be best coming from him because he was the one that struggled the most. "Jasper is right, Edward...and you have been through a lot in these books. I sure that you must have learned some of the control necessary to deal with this."

"Right," Edward sighed.

I didn't know what to say to that.

He smiled at my expression. "I guess that you could call it a very educational experience."

The wind tore through the clearing then, lashing my hair around my face and making me shiver.

"All right," he said, reaching into his pack again. "You've done your part." He pulled out my heavy winter jacket and held it out for me to slide my arms in. "Now it's out of our hands. Let's go camping!"

I laughed at the mock enthusiasm in his voice.

He took my bandaged hand - the other was in worse shape, still in the brace - and started toward the other side of the clearing.

"Where are we meeting Jacob?" I asked.

"Right here." He gestured to the trees in front of us just as Jacob stepped warily from their shadows.

It shouldn't have surprised me to see him human. I wasn't sure why I'd been looking for the big red-brown wolf.

"Because you like him better that way," Emmett laughed.

"Yeah, he can't make any of his retarded comments that way," Rosalie hissed.

Jacob seemed bigger again - no doubt a product of my expectations; I must have unconsciously been hoping to see the smaller Jacob from my memory, the easygoing friend who hadn't made everything so difficult. He had his arms folded across his bare chest, a jacket clutched in one fist. His face was expressionless as he watched us.

Edward's lips pulled down at the corners. "There had to have been a better way to do this."

Edward smiled at that.

"Thinking the same thing, eh Eddy?" Emmett laughed.

(Hmm.. I think it would be better if he frowns first, and then when Bella says "Too late now", he'll smile. He isn't happy that Jake will have to carry her, but at least she doesn't want to either)

"Too late now," I muttered glumly.

He sighed.

"Hey, Jake," I greeted him when we got closer.

"Hi, Bella."

"Hello, Jacob," Edward said.

Jacob ignored the pleasantry, all business. "Where do I take her?"

Edward pulled a map from a side pocket on the pack and offered it to him. Jacob unfolded it.

"We're here now," Edward said, reaching over to touch the right spot. Jacob recoiled from his hand automatically, and then steadied himself. Edward pretended not to notice.

"And you're taking her up here," Edward continued, tracing a serpentine pattern around the elevation lines on the paper. "Roughly nine miles."

Jacob nodded once.

"When you're about a mile away, you should cross my path. That will lead you in. Do you need the map?"

"No, thanks. I know this area pretty well. I think I know where I'm going."

Jacob seemed to have to work harder than Edward to keep the tone polite.

"I'm surprised he's even trying," Emmett said.

"I'll take a longer route," Edward said. "And I'll see you in a few hours."

Edward stared at me unhappily. He didn't like this part of the plan.

"No, I most certainly do not," Edward said.

"I bet it was bad enough just to leave her side, but with the pup...that must really get to you," Emmett chuckled.

"See you," I murmured.

Edward faded into the trees, heading in the opposite direction.

As soon as he was gone, Jacob turned cheerful.

"What's up, Bella?" he asked with a big grin.