“The Volturi.” I reminded him. “They will be after us for what we…..for what I did.”

“Even if that is true, they have rules working for us. No member of the Volturi can attack another vampire unless its in self defense, for starters. Jane clearly attacked all of us first. Add blackmail and threats to that and I would say that we have a pretty decent case against her. It’s also pretty suspicious that she came here without any company or protection at all. Something is going on..” He frowned, deep in thought. “We should be fine.”

“Should.” I muttered pointedly.

“Hey,” He said sternly as he lifted my chin to catch my eyes.” What you did today was very brave.”

“And stupid….”

“No, Bella. Do you even understand how many lives you saved today? I don’t just mean Charlie. I mean me, and Alice, everyone here in this house is still here because of your bravery. Jacob too.”

“And its also due to my bravery that we are going to be in huge trouble with the Volturi.”

“Don’t worry about them, Bella you did what was necessary to save us.”

“And I was too stupid to find a way with less consequence.”

“There was no lesser consequence, Bella. Jane lied to you. She wasn’t going to let any of us leave that house alive, including you. You never had a choice, she saw us as dead in her mind the moment we walked through the door. She knew that with the proper concentration she could have killed us with her mind alone. If you hadn’t broken her concentration – we would have been dead in less than a minute.”

I felt my eyes drop in embarrassment, and even without the tell-tale flush in my cheeks he could tell.

“Bella you have nothing to regret or be sorry for here. You are the heroine.”

I rolled my eyes. “Not to Jacob I’m not. I’m pretty sure Charlie thinks I’m a heartless savage monster now too.”

“No he doesn’t. He is proud of you. Almost as proud as me. You can go talk to him as soon as he wakes up.”

“Not without you please?” I let my panic slip into my voice. “I need you there. All today I have managed to resist focusing on the smell of blood because I have had so much else to focus on….. I don’t want-”