Chapter-by-Chapter: Twilight, Chapter 24

After a brief hiatus (owing to my trip to Wales) I am ready to get on with wrapping this book up. Technically I could have finished it once and for all today, but after slogging through this chapter I just couldn't face another page of it, so I've decided to hold off on the Epilogue until next week.
In the last chapter, which we read a couple of weeks ago now, Bella was found badly injured and Edward had to suck out the venom from a vampire bite inflicted by the tracker. It was a very short chapter which was clearly just building up to this much longer one.

On with Chapter 24: An Impasse.

What Happens?

Bella comes round in hospital to find Edward there. Her parents have been fed a line about a nasty accident and Renee has even come to see her. The tracker has been disposed of, Renee and Phil are moving to Florida and Bella announces her plans to stay in Forks. She has an argument with Edward about whether or not he'll turn her into a vampire though in the end they agree to disagree on this one.

Thoughts as I read:

I've heard things about the next book and about Edward not being in it for a fair bit (which is a plus point for several readers) so I'm guessing something will happen in this last chapter which means he has to go. Perhaps sucking out another vampire's venom has done something to him. Or perhaps the tracker isn't actually dead yet and there's some sort of stalemate going on; perhaps he's agreed to leave Bella alone if he gets Alice back or something.

It wouldn't be a proper chapter of Twilight if it didn't begin with Bella coming round:

My eyes opened to a bright, white light. I was in an unfamiliar room, a white room. The wall beside me was covered in long vertical blinds; over my head, the glaring lights blinded me. I was propped up on a hard, uneven bed – a bed with rails. The pillows were flat and lumpy. There was an annoying beeping sound somewhere close by. I hoped that meant I was still alive. Death shouldn't be this uncomfortable.

Did you get that? It's bright. And white. And there are lights. Did we mention it was bright?

She's clearly in hospital. And Edward's there. Do her parents even know what's happened to her yet?

Over the page Edward answers my question. Alice called Renee and Charlie. Of the two of them, Renee came. Does that mean Charlie's not yet forgiven Bella for the way she stormed out? I can't wait to hear how they explain just how Bella came to be lying in a hospital bed with a broken leg and minus several pints of blood.

"You fell down two flights of stairs and through a window." He paused. "You have to admit, it could happen."

Hehe, he does have a point.

Bella, at least, is on the mend now. Despite the blood transfusions that made her smell wrong to Edward. That's a nice touch actually because I suppose if it's the smell of someone's blood that you're attracted to, a transfusion would make them smell wrong. I want more stuff like that in these books. I wonder if that would mean vampires could be like sniffer dogs for things like leukaemia and diabetes.

Bella doesn't find any of this fascinating. She wants to know how Edward did 'it'. I guess she means, how did he not get carried away when he was sucking on her hand. Well, he claims it was 'impossible' and yet he managed it, so clearly now as impossible as all that then.

There's an awkward moment because despite being happy Bella is now conscious and not dead or anything, Edward's kind of peeved that she tried to well and truly leave him by getting all dead and eaten. This doesn't last long because then Bella changes the subject to ask what happened to James, who is the tracker who they've avoided calling by name for something like the last eight chapters!

"After I pulled him off you, Emmett and Jasper took care of him." There was a fierce note of regret in his voice.
This confused me. "I didn't see Emmett and Jasper there."
"They had to leave the room… there was a lot of blood."

Ugh. We're getting answers without any real information. It's all. 'I fixed you', 'we got rid of him' without any of the hows or whys. That's so frustrating. We also find out that Alice knows James created her, but we don't get any of the reaction to that either. I actually wouldn't have minded the book being longer if that could've been included here. I really hope we see more of Alice's story in the future books, though I seriously doubt that we will.

After this Edward mocks Bella for not liking to have a needle in her hand but feeling fine about facing certain death in the form of a vampire who wants to eat her. He does have kind of a point, though when I was in hospital for my egg retrieval I wasn't all that nervous about the actual op, but getting the needle in my hand before it freaked me out, so I can't really comment.

Changing the subject slightly, Bella quizzes Edward on what she's supposed to say to her Mum. It sounds about as plausible as you'd expect:

"I came to Phoenix to talk some sense into you, to convince you to come back to Forks." His wide eyes were so earnest and sincere, I almost believed him myself. "You agreed to see me, and you drove me out to the hotel where I was staying with Carlisle and Alice – of course I was here with parental supervision," he inserted virtuously, "but you tripped on the stairs on the way to my room and… well, you know the rest. You don't need to remember any details, though; you have a good excuse to be a little muddled about the finer points."

Personally it sounds like a cover up, perhaps for something like Edward flipping out and throwing her down the stairs when she refused to get back together with him.

Bella meanwhile is distracted by the lack of corroborating evidence, but no fear, Alice has handled all that.

When Edward touches Bella it makes her heart monitor change. That's kind of a fun game to play next time you're hooked up to one of those monitors; picture different things (I'm talking relaxing scenes, people, not getting felt up by a vampire, but y'know, whatever floats your boat) and then see how it makes your heart monitor change. Personally I've never imagined making out with a vampire. Just as well really because one kiss from Edward seems to stop Bella's heart!

Then he hears Renee coming, so pretends to have a nap. Bella has to reassure he mum everything's okay, because that's how the parent-child relationship should work when you're a teenager. Bella's been out of it for a while which has given Renee ample time to get to know Alice and Carlisle.

Renee has some news for Bella; Phil's been signed for whatever sport it is he plays (is it golf?) so they'll be moving to Florida. Of course Bella now has no plans to move anywhere, she's going to be staying in Forks.

Unsurprisingly Renee is shocked by this news. After all, Bella hates Forks, she said as much to Charlie right before she left. But now she's got Edward back and he's changed her mind. There's a discussion about how Bella loves Edward and he obviously loves her. Renee makes out that she's all worried about her daughter, but then hurries off because Phil's due to call soon. So worried about her daughter, but husband gets top priority. Fair enough.

Before she goes Renee does mention that she's not too keen to go home because there's been an increase in crime in the area; like the dance studio that was burned down. Aha! I was right!

With Renee gone, Edward and Bella can chat again. Edward seems to have changed his tune all of a sudden. Bella tells him he couldn't have gone to Florida because of the whole sparkling in the sunlight thing, but Edward says he'd have stayed away so he couldn't hurt her any more.

Bella makes Edward promise he won't leave, which he does, calms her down and then points out that he's kind of the reason she's in hospital. This is sort of true, though by the same token, what's to say that the tracker wouldn't have found Bella when he came to Forks anyway, and that would've put her in a worse situation because she wouldn't have known anything about vampires. Instead Bella just reasons that he's the reason she's alive, but he's also the reason she needed saving in the first place.

Seriously Edweird, what's with this mood swing? A minute ago he seemed happy and was smiling about Bella coming back to Forks and now he's got his panties in a knot. Part of the problem appears to have been the whole 'sucking Bella's blood to save her life' thing; he wanted to keep going. And that's set off another mood swing.

I have no idea how all of this has escalated. They do keep talking though, presumably because neither of them are in a position to storm off and leave right now.

Bella starts on about why Edward didn't just let her turn into a vampire. There's something here about how they need to save each other. Edward's always saving Bella but he claims Bella has saved him. He's also pissed that Alice actually told Bella so much about how vampires are made.

This is all because Bella has decided that she actually wants to be turned into a vampire so she and Edward can truly be together forever. Needy girlfriend much? I think I sense a break up coming on. She claims that she could handle the pain and fobs Edward off with something about how her parents would deal with it. He's still refusing. Stick to your guns, man! If you turn her, you'll be stuck with her FOR-E-V-E-R!

Now Bella is annoyed because she's getting older. Edward is annoyed because he's not.

Time to try a new approach; Alice might do it for Bella. This just makes Edward angrier. Apparently one of the visions Alice saw was vampire!Bella. Of course it doesn't necessarily mean anything because she also saw dead!Bella and these things can change. Alice's visions have a touch of the Mirror of Galadriel about them, don't they?

And so we come to the title. The pair of them are at an impasse. And just like that the argument is over and Edward is ordering Bella more pain relief. At least they have finally stopped the arguing and despite the earlier conversation, Edward's promising to stay. Still, Bella gets one more dig in before she passes out:

"I'm betting on Alice," I mumbled.
And then the night closed over me.

I'm really disappointed that we didn't get more fall out from the tracker thing, especially with Alice. Unless that comes up in another book, I think Stephenie Meyer missed a real opportunity there.

And also, why do Bella and Edward have to argue about every damn thing?!

And now for today's questions:

• Do Bella's parents know what's happened to her? Yes, or rather, they know a made up Cullen version of what happened.
• Has Charlie forgiven Bella for what she said before she left?
• If vampires can smell changes in a person's blood, could they be used in the diagnosis of cancers and illnesses like diabetes?
• Just how did the vampires get rid of James?
• How did Alice react when she found out what James did to her?
• What sport does Phil play again?
• Why all the arguing between Bella and Edward?