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━━━━━━━━☆★☆━━━━━━━━
Shelley is currently leaning into a table, watching Bella, who sits in a chair opposite to Carlisle, who mops up her blood as he removes glass shards from her arm. He drops one into a bowl, plink. She tries not to look at the blood.
"That was a scary experience." The blonde sighs, rubbing her forehead where she can feel a light headache rising.
"I sure can kill a party." Bella comments.
"It's not your fault. Jasper hasn't been away from human blood as long as the rest of us." Carlisle states.
"Seems like you're the only one it doesn't affect." Shelley remarks.
"Centuries of practice." Carlisle answers.
"Did you ever think of… living differently?" Bella asks.
"I enjoy my work too much. Helping people, saving lives. I'm hoping there's a point to my existence, even if I am damned." Carlisle points out.
"Damned? You're not damned." Bella says.
"Then you and I agree. But Edward doesn't believe there's an afterlife for our kind." He says looking at the brunette. "He thinks we've lost our souls."
Shelley raises an eyebrow as she continues to listen to their conversation. Realising, Bella speaks. "That's why he won't… He thinks he'd be damning me."
"If either of you believed as he did, would you risk it? Off Bella, no, not ever…" Carlisle says.
With the promise of being back in the late-night, Esdras let Edward drive both the Swan twins home.
Shelley looks at the large red bow hanging from the new stereo in the dashboard as Edward drives in silence.
Bella studies him. "Say something."
"What do you want me to say?"
"That I'm a klutz. That I should have been more careful." Bella says, making her sister roll her eyes and look out of the window. Of course, Bella blames herself for it.
"You got a paper cut. Normal people get paper cuts. And a normal boyfriend wouldn't have flung you into a stack of plates. A normal boyfriend wouldn't have had to fight the urge to kill you."
"Stop. I don't want normal, I want you."
Edward doesn't respond, just pulls the truck into the Swan residence driveway and stops it.
"You can't protect me from everything, something's going to separate us. Accidents, illness, old age… as long as I'm human…"
Appalled by Bella's ramble, Edward speaks. "That's your solution? Me ending your life?"
