I took off early, long before sunrise was due. I'd gotten just a little bit of uneasy sleep leaning against the side of the sofa. Edward woke me when Bella's face was flushed, and he took my spot to cool her back down. I stretched and decided I was rested enough to get some work done.

"Thank you," Edward said quietly, seeing my plans. "If the route is clear, they'll go today."

"I'll let you know." I nodded, I decided to see Rosalie before I left. She was sitting on her bed reading some sort of book, it looked like one of the ones from Hector.

I closed the door before walking over towards her, kneeling on the ground looking up at her.

"hey"

She looked up and smiled "hello, you're going to patrol aren't you?"

"yeah, I'm going to try and clear a path so you guys can hunt." I saw her start to protest "you need it Rose; I can see it in your eyes. It's been too long since you fed, all of you"

"I'm sorry everything is so hard on you"

"it's not your fault" I placed my hand on her stomach the electrical signal was still there and thrumming, letting me know he was okay. "no matter the circumstances I am happy, i did things a little out of order, but I always said I would give you everything you wanted. I didn't know how to do it then, but I guess instincts have a funny way of doing things"

Rosalie leaned down and kissed me. I let it go further than it probably should have but I couldn't resist, and she didn't seem to be complaining.

"thank you for helping Bella" Rose said finally, her nose rubbing against mine. "I know we haven't always gotten along but I don't want her to go... it would kill Edward and I don't think I could bear that; I don't think any of us could. Besides Bella's not so bad"

I gave her one more kiss before leaving the house, disrobing before phasing. I extended my strides and began my run.

'Morning Al. How's Rosalie?' Leah asked concern lacing her voice.

'doing well, but she needs to hunt... they all do. How long's Seth been out?'

'Not out yet,' Seth thought sleepily. 'Almost there. What do you need?'

'You think you got another hour in you?'

'Sure thing. No problem.' Seth got to his feet right away, shaking out his fur.

'Let's make the deep run,' I told Leah. 'Seth, take the perimeter.'

'Gotcha.' Seth broke into an easy jog.

'Leah, let's see how fast we can run'

'I'm definitely up for that!'

Leah was on the far western rim of the perimeter. Rather than cut close to the Cullens' house, she stuck to the circle as she raced around to meet me. I sprinted off straight east, knowing that even with the head start, she'd be meeting me soon enough. I was pretty close to the same speed as her, it's what I was built for, speed.

'nose to the ground. I want to know how far they've come and how far we can go'

'you got it boss' She laughed.

We took a winding path through the eastern mountains. It was a familiar route. We'd run these mountains when the vampires had left a year ago, making it part of our patrol route to better protect the people here. Then we'd pulled back the lines when the Cullens returned. This was their treaty land.

But that fact would probably mean nothing to Sam now. The treaty was dead. The question today was how thin he was willing to spread his force. Was he looking for stray Cullens to poach on their land or not? Had Jared spoken the truth or taken advantage of the silence between us? Would Jacob go rogue? Did he take over as Alpha? I couldn't see it he would have attacked already. So what were they waiting for?

We got deeper and deeper into the mountains without finding any trace of the pack. Fading vampire trails were everywhere, but that wasn't what we were looking for. I found a heavy, somewhat recent concentration on one particular trail—all of them coming and going here except for Edward.

Leah didn't push herself past me, though she could have now. I was paying more attention to each new scent than I was to the speed contest. She kept to my right side, running with me rather than racing against me.

'We're getting pretty far out here,' she commented.

'Yeah. If Sam was hunting strays, we should have crossed his trail by now.'

'Makes more sense right now for him to bunker down in La Push,' Leah thought.

'But not Jacob. He knows we're giving the Cullen's three extra sets of eyes and legs. He's not going to be able to surprise them. This was just a precaution, really.'

'wouldn't want them to take unnecessary chances'

'nope'

'don't worry Al, Seth and I aren't going to let anything happen to Rose... I don't know how to explain it, but I feel very protective over her. Maybe its because you and I are connected and she's your mate.'

'I think its because you're probably my best friend and she's carrying my child'

'that's still strange to think about. How does that even happen?'

I closed my mind just enough so that Leah didn't see the moment I was sure it happened. I cleared my mind 'I think that might be a little to grown up to talk about'

She barked out a huff 'I'm older than you'

'let's just say good sex' I laughed.

She nudged me as we began the run back. Seth was dragging when we hit the perimeter. I told him to get some sleep; Leah and I would take over the patrol. Seth's mind faded into unconsciousness just seconds later.

'you heading back inside?' Leah asked.

'yeah, I should tell them it's all clear'

I was only about a mile from where I'd left my clothes, so I phased back to human and walked. When I got to the house there was a lot of low mumbling going on inside the house, so maybe Bella wasn't sleeping. And then I heard the machinery sound from upstairs again—the X-ray? Great. It looked like day four on the countdown was starting off with a bang.

Alice opened the door for me before I could walk in.

She nodded "hey, Al"

"hey, Alice. What's going on upstairs?" The big room was empty—all the murmurs were on the second floor.

She shrugged her pointy little shoulders. "Maybe another break." She tried to say the words casually, but I could see the flames in the very back of her eyes.

"Another rib?"

"No. Pelvis this time."

The procession came down the stairs then—Edward had Bella this time. She was gripping her cup of blood in both hands, and her face was white. I could see that, though he compensated for every tiny movement of his body to keep from jostling her, she was hurting.

I watched as Rosalie came down the stairs too, her hand cupping her stomach. I walked over to her concern on my face. "he's just moving a lot... finally decided to follow in his cousins footsteps" she gritted her teeth and I gestured her to sit down.

"just take it easy, okay"

Edward placed Bella carefully on her couch and sat on the floor by her head. I wondered briefly why they didn't leave her upstairs, and then decided at once that it must be Bella's idea. She'd want to act like things were normal, avoid the hospital setup. And he was humoring her. Naturally. Carlisle came down slowly, the last one, his face creased with worry. It made him look old enough to be a doctor for once.

"Carlisle," I said. "We went halfway to Seattle. There's no sign of the pack. You're good to go."

"Thank you, Alex. This is good timing. There's much that we need." His black eyes flickered to the cup that Bella was holding so tight.

"Honestly, I think you're safe to take more than three. I'm pretty positive that Sam is concentrating on La Push. He wants to protect the tribe... they want to wait." Wait till after the baby was born, they hoped I would alert them.

"If you think so. Alice, Esme, Jasper, and I will go. Then Alice can take Emmett, Lucia and Rosalie"

Rosalie grimaced once again "maybe you should wait and see if the pain lessens" I replied, looking at Carlisle in worry, then I glanced at Edward. "do you think if one of us brings back a deer that would help?"

Edward shook his head "it would be too dangerous with Bella so close"

"right" I sighed trying to find some sort of answer, but I kept coming up blank.

Jasper and Emmett were down the stairs in a flash, and Alice joined them by the glass back door in the same second. Esme flitted to Alice's side. Carlisle put his hand on my arm.

"Thank you," he said again, and then he darted out the door with the other four. My eyes followed them as they flew across the lawn and then disappeared before I took another breath. Their needs must have been more urgent than I'd imagined.