How It All Goes Down
Stitches
- Everyone but Carlisle and Edward leave the room with politely pinched noses.
- To keep the accident from Charlie, Bella asks Carlisle to stitch her up at the house.
- Bella is struck by Carlisle’s immunity to the smell of human blood, but he explains that it’s due to his 300 years as a physician. When Bella asks him what he likes about his job, he says he believes he can redeem himself for what he is. He believes that there might be an afterlife for good vampires.
- Carlisle tells Bella that Edward doesn’t believe vampires are granted an afterlife, which is why he refuses to change Bella: he’s afraid to take her soul. Bella also learns that Edward’s mother begged Carlisle on her deathbed to save Edward from dying, as if she knew that Carlisle was a vampire.
- Bella tries to dismiss the Jasper incident as another proof of her susceptibility to getting hurt, but Edward acts very withdrawn.
- In Bella’s room, Edward gives her a CD of songs he composed for her on the piano. They kiss and snuggle, yet Bella senses that something is wrong:
…I realized what his kiss reminded me of: last spring when he had to leave to throw James off my trail, Edward had kissed me good-bye not knowing when – or if – we would see each other again. This kiss had the same almost painful edge. … I shuddered…as if I were already having a nightmare. (2.234)