When I got back to the house, there was no one waiting outside for my report. Still on alert?

　　Everything's cool,I thought tiredly.

　　My eyes quickly caught a small change in the now-familiar scene. There was a stack of light-coloredfabric on the bottom step of the porch. I loped over to investigate. Holding my breath, because thevampire smell stuck to the fabric like you wouldn't believe, I nudged the stack with my nose.

　　Someone had laid out clothes. Huh. Edward must have caught my moment of irritation as I'd bolted outthe door. Well. That was... nice. And weird.

　　I took the clothes gingerly between my teeth—ugh—and carried them back to the trees. Just in case thiswas some joke by the blond psychopath and I had a bunch of girls' stuff here. Bet she'd love to see thelook on my human face as I stood there naked, holding a sundress.

　　In the cover of the trees, I dropped the stinking pile and shifted back to human. I shook the clothes out,snapping them against a tree to beat some of the smell from them. They were definitely guy's clothes—tanpants and a white button-down shirt. Neither of them long enough, but they looked like they'd fit aroundme. Must be Emmett's. I rolled the cuffs up on the shirtsleeves, but there wasn't much I could do aboutthe pants. Oh well.

　　I had to admit, I felt better with some clothes to my name, even stinky ones that didn't quite fit. It washard not being able to just jet back home and grab another pair of old sweatpants when I needed them.

　　The homeless thing again—not having anyplace to go back to. No possessions, either, which wasn'tbothering me too bad now, but would probably get annoying soon.

　　Exhausted, I walked slowly up the Cullens' porch steps in my fancy new secondhand clothes buthesitated when I got to the door. Did I knock? Stupid, when they knew I was here. I wondered why noone acknowledged that—toldme either to come in or get lost Whatever. I shrugged and let myself in.

　　More changes. The room had shifted back to normal—almost—in the last twenty minutes. The bigflat-screen was on, low volume, showing some chick flick that no one seemed to be watching. Carlisleand Esme stood by the back windows, which were open to the river again. Alice, Jasper, and Emmettwere out of sight, but I heard them murmuring upstairs. Bella was on the couch like yesterday, with justone tube still hooked into her, and an IV hanging behind the back of the sofa. She was wrapped up like aburrito in a couple of thick quilts, so at least they'd listened to me before. Rosalie was cross-legged onthe ground by her head. Edward sat at the other end of the couch with Bella's burrito'ed feet in his lap.

　　He looked up when I came in and smiled at me—just a little twitch of his mouth—like something pleasedhim.

　　Bella didn't hear me. She only glanced up when he did, and then she smiled, too. With real energy, herwhole face lighting up. I couldn't remember the last time she'd looked so excited to see me.

　　What was with her? For crying out loud, she was married] Happily married, too—there was noquestion that she was in love with her vampire past the boundaries of sanity. And hugely pregnant, to topit off.

　　So why did she have to be so damn thrilled to see me? Like I'd made her whole freakin' day by walkingthrough the door.

　　If she would just not care... Or more than that—really not want me around. It would be so much easierto stay away.

　　Edward seemed to be in agreement with my thoughts—we were on the same wavelength so much latelyit was crazy. He was frowning now, reading her face while she beamed at me.

　　"They just wanted to talk," I mumbled, my voice dragging with exhaustion. "No attack on the horizon.""Yes," Edward answered. "I heard most of it."That woke me up a little. We'd been a good three miles out. "How?"Tm hearing you more clearly—it's a matter of familiarity and concentration. Also, your thoughts areslightly easier to pick up when you're in your human form. So I caught most of what passed out there.""Oh." It bugged me a little, but for no good reason, so I shrugged it off. "Good. I hate repeating myself.""I'd tell you to go get some sleep," Bella said, "but my guess is that you're going to pass out on the floorin about six seconds, so there's probably no point."It was amazing how much better she sounded, how much stronger she looked. I smelled fresh blood andsaw that the cup was in her hands again. How much blood would it take to keep her going? At somepoint, would they start trotting in the neighbors?

　　I headed for the door, counting off the seconds for her as I walked. "One Mississippi... twoMississippi...""Where's the flood, mutt?" Rosalie muttered.

　　"You know how you drown a blonde, Rosalie?" I asked without stopping or turning to look at her. "Gluea mirror to the bottom of a pool."I heard Edward chuckle as I pulled the door shut. His mood seemed to improve in exact correlation toBella'shealth.

　　"I've already heard that one,'7Rosalie called after me.

　　I trudged down the steps, my only goal to drag myself far enough into the trees that the air would bepure again. I planned to ditch the clothes a convenient distance from the house for future use rather thantying them to my leg, so I wouldn't be smelling them, either. As I fumbled with the buttons on the newshirt, I thought randomly about how buttons would never be in style for werewolves.

　　I heard the voices while I slogged across the lawn.

　　"Where are you going?" Bella asked.

　　"There was something I forgot to say to him.""Let Jacob sleep—it can wait."Yes, please, let Jacob sleep.

　　"It will only take a moment."I turned slowly. Edward was already out the door. He had an apology in his expression as heapproached me.

　　"Jeez, what now?"Tm sorry," he said, and then he hesitated, like he didn't know how to phrase what he was thinking.

　　What's on your mind, mind reader?

　　"When you were speaking to Sam's delegates earlier," he murmured, "I was giving a play-by-play forCarlisle and Esme and the rest. They were concerned—""Look, we're not dropping our guard. You don't have to believe Sam like we do. We're keeping oureyes open regardless.""No, no, Jacob. Not about that. We trust your judgment. Rather, Esme was troubled by the hardshipsthis is putting your pack through. She asked me to speak to you privately about it."That took me off guard. "Hardships?""The homeless part, particularly. She's very upset that you are all so... bereft."I snorted. Vampire mother hen—bizarre. "We're tough. Tell her not to worry.""She'd still like to do what she can. I got the impression that Leah prefers not to eat in her wolf form?""And?" I demanded.

　　"Well, we do have normal human food here, Jacob. Keeping up appearances, and, of course, for Bella.

　　Leah is welcome to anything she'd like. All of you are.""I'll pass that along.""Leah hates us.""So?""So try to pass it along in such a way as to make her consider it, if you don't mind.""I'll do what I can.""And then there's the matter of clothes."I glanced down at the ones I was wearing. "Oh yeah. Thanks." It probably wouldn't be good manners tomention how bad they reeked.

　　He smiled, just a little. "Well, we're easily able to help out with any needs there. Alice rarely allows us towear the same thing twice. We've got piles of brand-new clothes that are destined for Goodwill, and I'dimagine that Leah is fairly close to Esme's size___""Not sure how she'll feel about bloodsucker castoffs. She's not as practical as I am.""I trust that you can present the offer in the best possible light. As well as the offer for any other physicalobject you might need, or transportation, or anything else at all. And showers, too, since you prefer tosleep outdoors. Please... don't consider yourselves without the benefits of a home."He said the last line softly—not trying to keep quiet this time, but with some kind of real emotion.

　　I stared at him for a second, blinking sleepily. "That's, er, nice of you. Tell Esme we appreciate the, uh,thought. But the perimeter cuts through the river in a few places, so we stay pretty clean, thanks.""If you would pass the offer on, regardless.""Sure, sure.""Thank you."I turned away from him, only to stop cold when I heard the low, pained cry from inside the house. Bythe time I looked back, he was already gone.

　　What now?

　　I followed after him, shuffling like a zombie. Using about the same number of brain cells, too. It didn'tfeel like I had a choice. Something was wrong. I would go see what it was. There would be nothing Icould do. And I would feel worse.

　　It seemed inevitable.

　　I let myself in again. Bella was panting, curled over the bulge in the center of her body. Rosalie held herwhile Edward, Carlisle, and Esme all hovered. A flicker of motion caught my eye; Alice was at the top ofthe stairs, staring down into the room with her hands pressed to her temples. It was weird—like she wasbarred from entering somehow.

　　"Give me a second, Carlisle," Bella panted.

　　"Bella," the doctor said anxiously, "I heard something crack. I need to take a look.""Pretty sure"—pant—"it was a rib. Ow. Yep. Right here." She pointed to her left side, careful not totouch.

　　It was breaking her bones now.

　　"I need to take an X-ray. There might be splinters. We don't want it to puncture anything."Bella took a deep breath. "Okay."Rosalie lifted Bella carefully. Edward seemed like he was going to argue, but Rosalie bared her teeth athim and growled, "I've already got her."So Bella was stronger now, but the thing was, too. You couldn't starve one without starving the other,andhealing worked just the same. No way to win.

　　Blondie carried Bella swiftly up the big staircase with Carlisle and Edward right on her heels, none ofthem taking any notice of me standing dumbstruck in the doorway.

　　So they had a blood bank and an X-ray machine? Guess the doc brought his work home with him.

　　I was too tired to follow them, too tired to move. I leaned back against the wall and then slid to theground. The door was still open, and I pointed my nose toward it, grateful for the clean breeze blowingin. I leaned my head against the jamb and listened.

　　I could hear the sound of the X-ray machinery upstairs. Or maybe I just assumed that's what it was. Andthen the lightest of footsteps coming down the stairs. I didn't look to see which vampire it was.

　　"Do you want a pillow?" Alice asked me.

　　"No," I mumbled. What was with the pushy hospitality? It was creeping me out.

　　"That doesn't look comfortable," she observed.

　　"S'not.""Why don't you move, then?""Tired. Why aren't you upstairs with the rest of them?" I shot back.

　　"Headache," she answered.

　　I rolled my head around to look at her.

　　Alice was a tiny little thing. 'Bout the size of one of my arms. She looked even smaller now, sort ofhunched in on herself. Her small face was pinched.

　　"Vampires get headaches?""Not the normal ones."I snorted. Normal vampires.

　　"So how come you're never with Bella anymore?" I asked, making the question an accusation. It hadn'toccurred to me before, because my head had been full of other crap, but it was weird that Alice wasnever around Bella, not since I'd been here. Maybe if Alice were by her side, Rosalie wouldn't be.

　　"Thought you two were like this." I twisted two of my fingers together.

　　"Like I said"—she curled up on the tile a few feet from me, wrapping her skinny arms around her skinnyknees—"headache.""Bella's giving you a headache?""Yes."I frowned. Pretty sure I was too tired for riddles. I let my head roll back around toward the fresh air andclosed my eyes.

　　"Not Bella, really," she amended. "The... fetus."Ah, someone else who felt like I did. It was pretty easy to recognize. She said the word grudgingly, theway Edward did.

　　"I can't see it," she told me, though she might have been talking to herself. For all she knew, I wasalready gone. "I can't see anything about it. Just like you."I flinched, and then my teeth ground together. I didn't like being compared to the creature.

　　"Bella gets in the way. She's all wrapped around it, so she's..............