Prologue

I could hear the faint hum of the machines in contrast to their loud, periodic beeps. I could hear her labored, shallow breaths. I stood perfectly still in my corner and listened to them. They were so very feeble and weak. I listened to them along with the movement of the nurse as she worked around my mother's bedside. I could picture her movements in my mind, and place her location in the room. She bustled quietly enough, monitoring my mother's condition. The fabric of her clothes made soft swishing sounds with her every movement. Finally her movements floated past the door and around the corner of the hallway. I remained standing there for a long moment, simply listening. Without having to think of it, my feet carried me toward the sounds. As I came to the doorway, I heard the faint beats of her heart, slow and rhythmic.

My own heart had not beat in nearly 40 years, but it felt heavy in my chest now. And it seemed if it held any life at all, it would simply falter, and cease. Now that I was here, I wasn't so sure I wanted to see her. Carlisle was right. To see her in such a fragile state was not a way she should be remembered. And the image would stay with me, with perfect clarity, forever. But my feet kept moving toward the door to her room, as if someone else were controlling them. I didn't breathe. I didn't want to feel the sting of strong disinfectant burn down my throat; and I didn't want to risk feeling my throat burn for quite different reasons. But mostly, I didn't want to smell her.

She lay there in her bed, fast asleep. Her skin had become thin and nearly translucent. It hung off her cheek bones in a gaunt, ungodly way. And my heart fell heavier. I was wrong to have come here. I would see this forever in my mind, and I would always remember how the sickness had robbed her of life down to the very cells of her skin. I stood there and watched as her chest rose and fell with every breath, hitching now and again and faltering. Her eyes danced lazily behind her thin eyelids. She was dreaming. I smiled and let out a sharp exhale. My feet brought me forward once again, this time to her side. The moonlight came in through the window and fell on her forehead and face, exaggerating her sunken cheeks and sallow eyes. My chest felt tight, as if a great pressure were pressing upon it and I hesitantly drew in a small amount of air. I hadn't cried in four decades; I hadn't been able to. My eyes no longer produced tears, but every other action remained. A deep sob rose in my chest and my face contorted in pain as her scent enveloped me. It was sweet and warm like flowers in sunlight. I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. The warmth of it swirled around in me like a sweet embrace and I faintly remembered something from when I was a child. The memory was clouded and vague, but there none the less. Like a partial fingerprint. Whenever she had gone away for long periods of time, I would bury my face in her pillow and take in the very same scent.

I moved closer to her side and matched my breathing with hers. My hand came up to take hers in mine and I wondered if she would notice the temperature of my skin. Given her fever, I imagined even the most temperate hands felt like ice. I prayed it was so. The many consequences I had mulled and burned over in the past years ran through my mind again as I considered holding her hand in mine. What if she awoke? What if she recognized me? What if she was lucid enough to register that I had not aged? What if she noticed the difference in me? That my eyes were no longer a grayish blue? What if she noticed they were now a warm, honey colored gold?

I took my mother's frail hand gently and held it for the first time in nearly half a century. Her clear, hazel eyes opened, and looked directly into mine.

Plans

Even when cold and raining, winter in Kodiak was beautiful. I could see small droplets of water collecting on the brim of my hat as I walked to the boat. I had missed this, I had missed seeing the trees and mountains. Two months out in the Bering Sea had left that to be desired. I smiled as I watched sporadic flakes of snow floated about and swirlled in the midst of rain drops. It was a beautiful day. It was the 27th of March, exactly three months to the day since I had reported here, and nearly six since I had joined the Coast Guard. I removed my hands from my pockets as I climbed the steps to the brow and saluted the quarterdeck watchstander before turning and saluting the national ensign. It was warm and dry on the ship, I stowed my jacket and made my way to the shop to begin the day. I was glad that they had made me an engineer. I loved getting my hands dirty and getting to repair just about everything throughout the ship. It was old and required constant maintenance. Most of the boys were already there, idling around, waiting for muster and dailies to begin. I had made plans to go hiking with a few of them, but wondered if the weather would permit it.

"Yeah… I'd still go." Navage laughed as he shifted the pre-heater into place. "Just put that bolt there in the middle so it stays….there you go."

Casey Navage was a tall and stalky-built boy from Hawaii. He was the first person from my shop, and the boat, that I had met when I arrived on the island. Navie, as we affectionately referred to him, had been assigned as my sponsor before I had graduated boot camp. He had been my contact and mentor in my first few days, and like with most of the other guys in the shop, we had become fast friends. Navie was a brother to me.

"I have not been able to go hiking once since I've been here, when it warms up more I definitely want to go camping and fishing." I said as I braced the heavy, cold metal on my knee and twisted my arm to find the small hole.

"Yeah… Dorse and I went up that one trail behind the barracks before we got underway. We went when it was snowing so, we'll be fine. " he said.

"Oh I don't care if it snows… or rains. I've been here for three months and have barely seen any of the island. I wanted to come up here. It's beautiful, I want to be able to see some of it!"

" Yeah… there's a little pond back there, it's about an hour long hike." Navage said.

"Oh God, it's the end of March, you think the bears are awake?" I asked.

"Probably, I think hibernation ends in like, mid-February or something. Haha! One time Kalla and I went camping and this bear came up out of nowhere. I was like oh my God, Kalla… get back in the truck. I've never seen him run so fast. I nearly pissed myself…." He said. "I am not ashamed to admit that."

"Haha, oh! See! I heard everyone carries a gun on Kodiak because there are so many bears." I said.

" Yeah, but that was like the only one I've seen and I've gone camping like, five times since I've been here." Navage said as he placed bolts in their corresponding holes and tightened them. "You'll be fine, Brames, no bear is going to eat you."

We worked the rest of the day and made plans for the weekend. There were about five of us that wanted to go. Navie, Robbie Dorse, Greg Blume, Jamie Kalla and myself had talked about it all week. We needed to get out and see land. We had all been cooped up together for two months and desperately to be able to stretch our legs and walk out all the tension that had built within us. It was strange, we had been stuck together in 378 feet of ship in the middle of the ocean for an extended period of time, endured cabin fever, and now wanted nothing more than to spend our free time with each other. We were truly becoming a family.

I needed to make a run to the store, my fridge was still empty from before we had gotten underway and I could get supplies for the trip. The walk from the boat back to the barracks and commissary was only about fifteen minutes, but I could use the exercise. Working out in twenty foot swells is not easy, and cardio suffers greatly. There were a lot of families out today. A little girl completely bundled in a down jacket and beanie ran in front of her mother trying to hitch a ride on the shopping cart. She couldn't have been more than four years old, and there was an even younger boy in the child seat of the cart. A third child, maybe seven years old, was hunched between the mother and the cart, trying to push it as his mother looked over her receipt and yelled at the girl to get down from the side of the cart.

Wow, three kids? I had to laugh, the girl was so cute. She argued with her mother in a small chipmunk voice, wanting to ride in the cart. The baby simply sat in his seat and quietly took in everything around him. I smiled at him when he looked at me and felt a small pang of envy as I watched them go. I knew I wanted kids some day, but I didn't want to have them while in the military. I didn't want to have to leave them for months at a time or have to move them around every few years. And I knew it would break my heart to miss any moment of them growing up. I wasn't even a parent yet, and already it ripped me to pieces to think of my kids growing up without me, not being as close with them as I was with my own mother. There was plenty of time though… if I left the Coast Guard after only four years, I would be twenty-six when I got out. Not a bad age to start having kids… and I would need a husband first. I kept walking past them and into the commissary trying to remember what exactly I needed to buy.

"Hi, pumpkin!" my mother's contented voice sounded through the speaker of my phone.

"Hey, Mom. How was your day? I asked.

"Long. The trucks didn't get there until eight, so I didn't get out on the route until eleven…crappy. " she said.

My mother was, and had been, a mail carrier for twenty years. Mondays were always her busiest days. The work load would start out incredibly heavy and lessen as the week wore on. I remembered she would never get home until late early in the week. I was close with my mom. Throughout my life, my experiences had always seemed to mirror hers; which made it incredibly easy for us to discuss things and for her to give advice. Neither of us believed that a friendship should supersede the fact that she was the parent, and I was her daughter, but we had a kinship that we had seldom found in anyone else. For that, it was not unusual or infantile to me to call her almost everyday. It was relieving to ask about her day, and tell her of mine.

" I just got home, we had to stay late to punch the boilers and then I had to run to the store." I said.

There was a brief pause.

"….Oh yeah? I'm sorry, Em." She said.

It was easy to hear the slight disappointment in her pause when I said "home." For my mother, my real home was still in a small town in California, where I had grown throughout the years, with her.

"Did you see him today?" she implored with a smile in her voice.

"…Yes." I said with a stupidly coy smile growing on my face, beyond my control. " He talked to me."

His name was Marcus Cavanaugh. And he was beautiful. I didn't know much about him, it was difficult to find any time to really even talk to him. But he seemed nice, and along with myself, everyone loved him. I knew that he was from Maryland and had a brother, but beyond that, I only knew what I could observe of him. He was quiet and hardworking, and seemed to be a kind and fair man. He was just a touch taller than me, my forehead would have come up to his lips, which didn't seem bad at all. He was all muscle with full, stalky shoulders and dark wavy hair with dark blue eyes, like sapphires. He had nice smile, too. It was shy and confident all at once, and made me smile at the very thought of it.

"Oooo!" she squealed. "What'd he say?"

"Hi" I said. My smile now a full-blown 'aww shucks' grin.

"Aww, that doesn't count!" she contended.

"It's something!" I insisted. " I'm taking it slow, you can't rush these things…"

"No,haha, you can't. And I don't want you to. At all." She laughed.

"Mom… you're going to have to share me at some point…." I said.

"No I don't." she laughed. "Do you want to say hi to your Dad?

"Sure."

"Oh my God, it's such a beautiful day!" Navage said as we started out on the trail, there was still snow on the ground.

"Oh, oh God… I should have brought sunglasses…." Said Dorse.

"I know, like who would have ever thought the sun would come out in Kodiak?" said Kalla.

It was incredibly sunny for March. Several giant, water-logged clouds hovered in the sky and passed over the sun periodically, casting massive shadows against the mountains. The pines were still wet from the last rain and glistened as small droplets fell onto the snowy ground below. The trail was fairly clear, carved by the traffic of the occasional jeep or truck and wound up toward the mountain side. The air was cool, but the sun was warm where it touched my skin and warmed my clothes. It was perfect for hiking.

"Hey get a picture of me." Navage said, handing his camera to Dorse and pointing off in the distance.

"You always pose like that." Blume laughed and stood straight-backed with a small smirk on his lips as he mocked Navage, holding his arm straight out and pointing with his other hand resting on his hip.

"I do not!" Navage defended.

"Look at the pictures! Let me see that, you do it everytime!" Blume said as he took the camera from Dorse. It slipped from his hands and fell to the ground, rolling a few feet down the incline and into a patch of snow.

"Aww, oh God, oh there's blood everywhere…" Joked Dorse.

"It's okay! It's alright I saved it!" Blume shouted as he bent over and picked up the camera. "See look it still works, come here I'll show you. He does it everytime."

The view was truly breath taking. We had been climbing for about an hour and a half before we decided to stop and catch our breaths.

"Oh, only an hour he says!" Exhaled Kalla with a laugh.

"Well, that's as far as we went last time." Said Navage as he lowered himself to the ground, lying in a dry spot in the sun.

"Hey, Brames, can you get my water out of your pack and uh, hand it to me? I can't get up." Said Navage raising his arm from where he lay with his beanie pulled over his eyes.

"Yeah," I said removing the backpack from my shoulders and rummaging through the plastic grocery bags that separated our items to find his bottle. I threw it at his side, but it bounced on the hard earth and skipped into his exposed ribs.

"Oh!" I laughed, "I'm sorry!"

"Aaaahahhhh! What the hell?" he cried as he pulled a corner of his beanie from his eyes and looked around.

"Haha, I didn't mean to! It bounced!" I said.

"Haha, yeah Bramell! See Navie? That's what you get for being lazy!" laughed Kalla.

We were still laughing about it twenty minutes later while we made our way up the mountain. The trail had become narrower, changing from a jeep trail to a rocky foot path and the sky became overcast. The trees were gorgeous and the smell of pine and earth mixed beautifully with the fresh salt air. It was difficult to be able to look at all of it while watching your footing and slowed me down. The guys were about five feet in front of me as we moved into a steeper portion of the mountain. I looked up from my feet to see them moving further ahead. It felt so good to finally be hiking again, to be outside. I had missed this. Looking around, I couldn't wait to start camping and began making plans in my head for future trips with the guys. Dorse was the closest to me, about seven feet in front of me now. I watched where I placed my feet and looked up to see him disappear behind a mass of rock that jutted out from the mountain side. For a brief second, they were gone from my sight, and I was gone from theirs.

I was knocked sideways. The trees, cloudy sky, dirt, snow, pine needles, and rocks became a jumbled blur as a tumbled and fell down the side of the mountain. My back slammed against a slab of rock as I rolled violently and uncontrollably, knocking the wind out of me in a sharp gust. My knees and elbows knocked into the hard earth and snow and my leg caught the trunk of a small pine. I felt it break at the knee and wrap around the tree in a way it shouldn't. The catch spun my body and propelled me in another direction, still down the mountain. Then, I was floating.

I felt warmth run down my eyebrow to the inner corner of my eye as I opened them. The sun slowly crept from behind a dark grey cloud and streamed through the tops of the trees. Then it glowed red as the warmth trailed into my eye and blurred my vision. Someone was carrying me. Someone was screaming? The loud cry seemed distant, far away. But it came closer. Coming in ebbing waves, it grew louder. It was right above me. It sounded… agonized?

I wasn't floating anymore. I fell to the ground limply with a hard thud that jarred my body. I couldn't breathe. I tried to roll to my stomach and stand. The sound was moving. It was a growl. It was a bear. I was being mauled. I looked at my hand as I tried to roll myself over and saw that most of the skin on my knuckles was missing and was covered in dirt and blood. I sucked in what small amount of air I could manage and attempted to swing my leg in order to help shift my weight. It swung wildly and loosely at the knee as a sickening and blinding pain washed over me. The air I had managed to breathe in left my lungs in a gargled scream. The agonized growl moved in front of me. I twisted my head against the ground to look at it, to see where it was. But it wasn't a bear. It wasn't even an animal. There stood before me a man with long dark hair gathered in the back and tied with a strip of leather. He was tall and pale and handsome. And maybe it was because I had hit my head, maybe because I was being eaten alive by a bear and he was the only person around to rescue me, but could have sworn he was glowing. He looked angelic, beautiful and glittering in the sunlight as if his skin were made of millions of small diamonds.

"Help…. me." I grunted out slowly.

His face contorted in pain and he turned away from me as he screamed in agony. Growled in agony.

It didn't make sense to me. Why wouldn't he help me? He had made the same noise as the bear had. And why was he so upset? Why did he seem so troubled? I needed him to help me. I didn't understand why he wouldn't help….

"….please…" I whispered.

He had turned so quickly, I had to blink to wash the blood from my eye. His eyes were wild and his face was no longer in pain, but looked greedy. He stood perfectly still and viewed me with wide, eager eyes… red eyes.

I didn't see him move. I had looked him in his strange red eyes and then everything went black. My body was on fire. I was falling again, through flames I could not see. I felt my mouth open to scream, but nothing came out. The immense pain constricted my throat and strangled any noise. The intensity of the fire grew and my heart raced. I was burning alive, I was dying. I wanted to scream. I wanted for someone to hear me, to find me and put out the fire. I wanted the guys to hear me. I wanted to cry out for my mother to come and save me, to make it stop. I wanted it to be over. I wanted to die. My heart pounded in my chest as the heat grew in intensity and felt as though it were vibrating. I couldn't breathe. My body was too riddled with pain to function, paralyzed by it. My heart beat violently and raced beyond what I could have thought possible. It raced faster and more wildly as the fire burned around it.

And then, just like that, it shuddered and stopped.

What Alice Saw

It was quiet here, peaceful. Death was beautiful and simple, and I lay comfortably in the cool dark as a soft breeze wove through my hair and brushed gently over my skin. There was a soft plinking sound on the ground around me, and a thousand separate, small ruffling sounds swirling in the air above me. There was no need to breathe, I felt no burning urge to draw air into my lungs. No natural yearn for oxygen. But it felt as though I should, purely out of habit. My chest expanded and air cascaded down my throat, flooding my lungs. It was thick with the taste of pine and earth and water and stone. There was the faint scent of decomposing leaves and pine needles that splashed up from the ground in correspondence to the soft plinking. How curious it all was. I floated there for a long time, simply existing, and listening and tasting. But my bemused curiosity soon compelled me to know the source of the soft plinking, to understand what caused it. I wanted to know where it came from. But I couldn't see its source, it was too dark here. My eyes were closed. Without having to think of it, they snapped open.

It was night, and the dark trees stretched above me reaching toward the bright, brilliant stars. It must have a full moon tonight, because it was so very bright. I could see every detail of the landscape around me with perfect clarity as if in sunlight. Was this Heaven? It certainly was beautiful …and so rich with sensory. Snow swirled and danced in the wind with a soft rustling and a quaint plink as it touched the ground….

Oh! There it is!

I moved to place my face closer to the ground and listened intently as I focused on one snow flake and watched it fall gracefully to the ground where it landed with a soft whisper of a plink. I watched with rapture as another particularly beautiful and detailed flake drifted and settled not two feet away from the first. This must have been Heaven. It was all too hyper-real to be life, and I had died. I thought back to the fire. It seemed so long ago now, but the burning had happened, and when it ceased, when it had finally died away, my heart failed.

But why the fire? Why the burning? Why was I alone throughout the pain? Why was I alone now? I stood and looked around me. There were so many loved ones I wanted to see again, so much I had to tell them. Excitement rose in me and I began to run searching and calling out for them. My feet carried me so far so quickly, like flying…. The air rushed in my ears and pulled at my clothes as a pushed further into the woods. I ran and never tired, I must have covered more than several miles, but my breath came in steady and slow as if I were strolling leisurely. In fact, I had no need of breathing. It was exhilarating.

The winds grew strong as I slowed to look around me. It swirled and changed direction. The thick scent of salt air and earth transformed. The gusts carried a new, intriguing taste. It was magnetic. I was completely distracted by it and lured to move closer to its source. I followed it as it shifted on the winds, catching faint echoes of it. I ran toward the south where it grew more distinct. Then I was running directly into the wind and the strangely appealing taste came on in its entirety. I was hit by it as if I had run directly into a wall, and with it, the fire returned. It burned unforgivingly in my throat and chest and wormed its way through my brain, consuming me. It was agonizing, it was maddening. My mouth baked as I staggered forward into a small stream. But the water was oddly unappealing when my throat was so dry and starved. The scent poured down my lungs like liquid fire, but beckoned me closer still. There in a small clearing, something heavy plodded along lazily. Its heavy, padded feet smashed and crinkled grass as it shifted its weight. Loud torrents of air pushed from its mouth as it softly snorted and slowly breathed…. and there was another sound. A soft, yet powerful wooshing followed by a rhythmic, pulsating thud. I followed it.

My eyes raked over the landscape franticly seeking the place the pulsating sound emanated from. And it was there on the edge of the meadow, a large bear pawed at rooted at the base of a tree. I stopped. The wooshing and pulsating thuds boomed in my ears and my throat twinged in a painful ache. I wanted it to stop. Steam rose off of the large bear's back as its heat clashed with the cool night air. The steam twisted and swayed in the wind. A maddening need overtook me and consumed my every thought. I could cross the clearing in no time at all, it would be so quick, it wouldn't even notice me. My mouth made to close around its throat. The urge to gnaw, chew and cut through to the hot liquid pulsing beneath the fur and skin gripped me. Again, before I could make the conscious effort, my legs propelled me toward the animal.

My hands were already grasping fistfuls of its fur.

I stood very still. The wind whipped and tore around me as more snow began to fall. It no longer floated gracefully on the wind, but shot through the air with a force that pelted the ground. The wisps of fur that stuck to me whipped lifelessly in the wind, where they were loose and not matted down with blood. The pulsing thuds had stopped and all that could be heard was the wind as it moved through the pines and grass and the trickle of a nearby stream. My throat no longer burned. It was quiet and satisfied now, it no longer demanded the thick liquid that had now cooled and covered my hands, face and torso. I stood very still, and recounted the events that had just occurred. What was, at the time, an impatient blur of mindlessness, came back with perfect recall. This was not Heaven. If it were, I would not be alone. I would not be left to burn with a fire that consumed my very being. I would not have felt the greediness that now felt selfishly satisfied. Those things had no place in Heaven. The beauty that surrounded me served only as a cruel mockery and the hyper-sensitivity to those surroundings served only to torture me. I would not find lost loved ones here, I would not find God. I was in Hell.

I ran. I ran as far as I could without tiring, without craving water or feeling my chest tighten as I would have before. I ran until I came to a road. It was made of well-worn asphalt and stretched into the falling snow and coming morning. Off to the right, covered in ice, stood a sign, with an arrow pointing down the road and horror flooded me. It was an impossibility. But surely, such horrible things could indeed exist in Hell. The sign pointed to the Kodiak Airport, 3 miles in the direction the arrow indicated. I could not go back. I could not gamble the chance of them being there, alive and well. I could imagine all of their faces. I could see my boys, my brothers. I could see Marc, and I could see my parents… but I could not see myself returning to their lives when mine no longer was. I was dead. I had no life to include them in. I turned to face the small stretch of ocean that separated the island of Kodiak from the state of Alaska. I had no need to breathe, my body would not go into hypothermia in the forty-eight degree water. I swam to the other shore and did not stop. I ran into the oncoming morning light. I ran to where there was no feable glow of house lights or street lamps. I ran to where there wouldn't be a living soul.

I heard her call my name before I heard her soft footfalls behind me. My back tensed and I spun around to face her, cutting deep ruts into the earth as I came to a halt. Every muscle was coiled and tight, bracing for any sign of an attack.

"Emma?" she whispered cautiously.

I didn't answer her. I didn't move from my defensive stance. I didn't blink or breathe. I stood very still and watched her every miniscule movement.

"Emma Sophia Bramell, " she breathed with a small smile and held out her hand, palm facing up. "My name is Alice, and it 's very nice to finally meet you."

Invitations

ALICE

Rosalie sat cross-legged on the floor of the living room as she painted Renesmee's toe nails a vibrant magenta. They giggled and gushed while Jacob furrowed his brow at the deep purple Renesmee was now painting on his fingernails. When she had finished one hand, he blew on them forcefully before smiling and surrendering the other. The morning news channel droned quietly as Jazz and Emmett constructed an elaborate house out of playing cards and Esme hummed and busied herself in the garden. Edward, Carlilse and Bella had left late in the night for a hunting trip in the south-western region of Montana and weren't expected to return until the following day.

On the dining room table lay invitations to the wedding of Kate and William, one of the Denali sisters and the tall revolutionary war nomad that had come here as a witness for us against the Volturi a few years ago. The only surprising part of the invitations was that it had taken so long for them to be sent. It was no shocking matter that they were getting hitched after all, and it meant a celebration, which meant shopping. Though maddening, it was quite understandable for Kate not to allow anyone, myself included, to plan the wedding. She wanted only for a small, quiet gathering at their home in Denali. Undoubtedly, having a joyous celebration so soon after losing Irina must have been difficult enough without extravagance. So I kept my mouth shut, and planned only what to wear . For the entire Cullen family. I was in the middle of discussing the details of Renesmee's bronze, silk wrap with Claude, my designer in Paris; and sketching a charcoal colored, tailored suit for Jacob wondering if it should have a tie that matched Nessie's dress.

The anchorman on the news discussed the results of last night's final four college basketball game while Emmett added a balcony and lounge chair to the 17th floor of the house of cards.

"Mercy beaucoup, Claude!" I trilled and slid closed the tiny black cell phone Jasper had gotten me.

"Aww, come on!" Emmett shouted as Jazz out did him with complete patio furniture set made of face cards.

And moving on now to our reporter in the field, Cindy Marcom, who is covering the continued search for a missing Coast Guardsman in Kodiak, Alaska. Cindy?

Renesmee and Jacob began discussing whether or not to use glitter or paint poka-dots on his toe nails when it happened. It was brief, but vivid and very solid. My eyes no longer focused on the sketch of Esme's low cut, black dress, but on a face that shone somewhere behind my eyes. Her eyes were a deep, grayish blue, and her face flashed in my mind before images of pines and snow capped mountains flickered and swirled with sounds I couldn't distinguish. Then her eyes turned. They morphed and shifted from blue to red to a light amber… she was walking now, through a sunny meadow with Rosalie, and her skin shone and glittered in the bright light of day.

"Alice?" Jasper asked again. He stood in front of me with his hands on my shoulders. "Are you alright?"

"Yes," I said smiling at him assuringly. "I'm perfectly fine."

Tom, I'm here in Kodiak, Alaska where the United States Coast Guard continues to search for one of their own. It's been three days s since Fireman Emma Brammell disappeared while hiking with several of her…..

I stood thinking of the face of the young girl that had left my mind just as abrubtly as it had arrived and thought of all I had seen. Who was she? And why, why would she ever be walking with Rosalie? I turned my attention to the news woman as she stood on the pier next to a large ship and spoke of a missing girl in Alaska. A picture of the young woman flashed up on the screen, she must have been in her early twenties. Her hair was short and dark brown and she had deep, clear gray-blue eyes. I froze. Her name was Emma. She was twenty-two and the daughter of Dennis and Maureen Brammel. She had gone missing two weeks ago in the pines and snow capped mountains, and sometime from now, she was going to be a part of this family.

"Jasper, honey, we're going to Alaska early."

I didn't know who she was. I had never seen her face before. I had never heard her voice. But she stood about a hundred yards ahead of me, with her hand held out invitingly. She was small, with short pixie like hair. She was beautiful. Her skin glittered in the morning light as it peeked over the eastern mountain range, just as I had seen once before. It was the same shimmering, diamond-like glow that the man with red eyes had….

But her eyes were not red, now that I focused on them, I saw that they were actually quite different. They were a warm, honey colored hue. And the way the light hit them, made them shine brightly and clear to see. And her face was not greedy or pained or hungry, it was calm and sweet. There was something comforting and reassuring about it, something honest.

"Emma, do you understand what has happened to you? Has anyone explained?" She asked.

I stayed very still and did not answer her. I watched her. I took in a small amount of air into my lungs. I could taste the frost and moss on the trees and ground around me and the ice that floated on the slight breeze. I could smell her. She was sweet and floral with a light scent of something else….

"Chanel." She said smiling. "And these," she said pointing to her fashionable calf-high boots "are Gucci." She smiled brightly again and laughed. It was like music.

I simply gawked at her.

Her smile faded slightly as she regarded me again and became more serious.

"Not far from here, my family is waiting." she said. "Emma, I know you have absolutely no basis for trusting me, but I would love for you to come with us."

I continued to watch her. I breathed in her soft flowery scent and Chanel. Without my permission, or even knowing why, my shoulders began to loosen and relax.

"I know you're scared." She said with a very genuine, caring voice. "I know you are confused and frightened, I've been where you are now. But you don't have to be alone in this like I was."

She took a step forward. And I took one back.

"Like I said, you have no reason to trust me, I'm a stranger to you now." She breathed, "But Emma, believe me, I would never hurt you." She took another step forward. "And you would never hurt me, I trust that. I know that."

"You don't know that." I countered.

"I do." She affirmed, again her voice rang with honesty.

Her warm golden eyes looked directly into mine and she smiled softly as her arm raised slowly from her side and she held her hand out once again, palm facing up.

Without thinking, my feet carried me forward. I had no reason at all for trusting her. I knew nothing about her, other than her name, if it really was her name. I had no obligation to believe her words or feel safe. I had no reason to walk closer to her, take her hand and to follow her. I had no reason to trust in the honesty her eyes held. But I did. My feet brought me to her and she beamed. I looked at her outstretched invitation and raised my hand to place it in hers. For the first time, I saw how the sunlight caught my skin. It glittered brightly in the fresh morning light as hers did, as the man in the woods had. As I placed my hand in hers, she gave it a gentle squeeze and visibly bounced with excitement.

"Yay!" she squealed. " Let's go home and get you cleaned up, because… oh sweetheart you are filthy."

Ties

The United States Coast Guard conducted one of the largest searches for a single person in its history. For three weeks they combed through trees, past well-worn trails, over rocks, across mountains and looked down from the sky to find me. It made national news for one solid week, and again two weeks later when the SAR mission had been called off. Through media reports I learned that my parents had moved to Alaska. They had become part of the ground crews that searched for me. And when it ended, they searched on their own. I had seen them on the news once. My father was briefly interviewed. There wasn't much that he could say and he began repeating himself, as he often did. His voice shook and sounded strangled. His grey hair was longer than the last time I had seen him and his eyes looked tired. They didn't have a light in them as they usually did. They were the same grayish-blue, but somehow darkened.

I stood at the western wall on the second floor of the house, it was made completely of glass. I looked out on the sheets of rain as they drifted and fell, one right after the other. Months had passed. There was no more news that concerned me. My connection to my parents through the media and been severed. The image of my father's face stayed behind my eyes. It lingered there. I would imagine it, and see the deep creases in his forehead when he concentrated on his words. I would see the darker grey that remained in his mustache, mixed in with the lighter, nearly white hair and remembered when it held some of the original dark brown. It had been so long ago. I recalled, somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind an old memory. I was five and it was sunny. I stood on an old tree stump in the front of our house. I was upset about something that I had heard in school. A teacher had told us of the dangerous and deadly effects of tobacco and alcohol. Like most fathers, mine drank beer and chewed tobacco. I was crying because I didn't want him to die.

Hey! I'm not going anywhere… I remembered him saying. I will never, ever leave you… I'm your father, I'm not going anywhere….

I could see the concern in his eyes. The sadness that came when I had started to cry and the sincerity in them as he spoke. I could clearly see the very same gray-blue eyes that I had inherited and once had. I stared past my reflection in the window, seeing past it and focusing on the rain as it fell over Washington. I didn't want to see the difference in the eyes my father had given me. I wanted to remember them as they were. I wanted to keep that image forever, and keep that connection to my father, I wanted to hold on to anything that tied me to him, to my mother, my family. But through the rain and glass, dark burgundy eyes stared back at me.

"Just once! That's all, I promise. Just one time and I won't ask ever again." Emmett pleaded enthusiastically.

I turned my head to look at him fully, incredulousness brutally evident in my raised eyebrows.

"Really?" I asked. "Haha! Emmett, I somehow doubt you would only ask once."

"I would." He defended, and I laughed out loud.

I stood from the sofa and began putting away the State of Idaho maps that had been sprawled out on the coffee table. Emmett, Edward, Alice and myself were due for a hunting trip and had decided on a land reserve in northern Idaho. It was far enough from home that we did not exhaust the resources around us, but close enough to be back at a moment's notice. Edward did not feel comfortable being too far from his wife and child.

"No." I said.

"Oh, c'mon!" He whined. "You're just scared I'll beat you."

He smiled smugly and folded his large arms across his chest, forcing the thick bands of muscle in his forearms to bulge.

"Bella told me." I said teasingly as a grin spread slowly across my face. "Well, so did Jasper and Edward…. And Jacob.

He balked and dropped his arms, letting them swing.

"They exaggerate." He said.

"You know how this is going to turn out, you're going to lose and throw a fit about it. You're going to ask again and again until you win." I said.

The smugness returned to his face.

"That sounds like a yes." He grinned.

" I am not going to arm wrestle you, Emmett." I said as matter of factly as I could. "Besides, I wouldn't want to hurt you." I added. A small smile pulled at the corner of my lips, ruining the dry humor I had been trying for.

"Ha!" he scoffed.

Alice was storming around on the third level of the house, speaking very quickly in French to a man on the phone. She was upset that one of the Denali sister's wedding had been postponed and arrangements she had made in Paris had to be cancelled.

"How am I supposed to know what season I'm dealing with if they can't set a date and stick with it?" she asked irritated as a loud click sounded from the closing of a cell phone. She flitted down the stairs pulling on a puffy winter coat for our trip, keeping up appearances, shaking her head.

"Ready?" She asked, letting out a heavy sigh.

" 'Bout time! I'm starving!" Emmett whined.

"I'm sure you'll manage" she replied.

We set out east, not taking very much time at all to reach the Idaho/Washington boarder. Emmett's jeep sloshed through mud and crushed through small saplings as we headed off an old dirt road, farther into a more secluded portion of the forest. We left it hidden in a thicket of brush and began roaming on foot, letting the surroundings seep into our senses and began searching. Emmett and Edward horsed around as we walked, punching each other in the shoulder periodically as they talked. Alice and I walked together as we made our way through a steep valley between mountains. Emmett's booming laughter cracked through the air and shivered nearby trees as he and Edward joked. I looked back at them and smiled before returning my attention to Alice's latest musings of giving me a makeover.

"You know," she said, eyeing me and calculating, "you've got the perfect shape for this cocktail dress Versaci has in her collection, you have a sort of athletic build…"

"Ha! When would I require a cocktail dress?" I laughed and looked at her quizzically.

"Well, there's always an occasion, Emma!" she smiled. "And you'd totally look hot."

"Ah, well there's no one to impress, really." I said, my eyes downcast, watching my feet as we walked.

"There's always someone to impress." She said in a quieter tone, playfully nudging me in the ribs.

The wide smile I had worn moments before quieted into a small twist in my lips and images of Marc formed behind my eyes. They swam around in a fluid motion, each fading into the next. His deep eyes melted in a slow swirl, replaced by an image of his lips as they pulled up at the corners into a small, shy smile. I could remember standing next to him in a large group of people as he talked, scrunched up inches away from his side while we stood in the small space. I could remember the warmth of his arm next to mine, and feeling his breath wisp against my face and neck as he spoke… he had a lovely, light and refreshing scent. I remembered being surprised at how wonderful he smelled, and wanting to close the inches between us to breathe it in…. There would be no need for a cocktail dress. He was no longer someone I could hope to impress. I idly wondered where he was and what he would be doing at that moment.

A wry and bitter pang of disappointment washed through me. It didn't matter where he was, or what he was doing at that moment. Whatever he was up to, did not, and would not ever include me. He had a whole life before him, a wide space to fill with a lifetime of memories, of connections with loved ones. Whatever connection had been budding between us, whatever possible future with him that once existed, no longer was. Whatever tie I may have or could possibly have made with him was no longer a possibility. Time would pass, and he would age. He would make a rich, full life with a family that he loved and that loved him. Time would carry him with it as it passed by me, and take him where I could not follow.

Emmett paused, standing stalk still as the evening breeze brought a faint taste that lingered in my senses and caused my throat to twinge with a slight burn. I closed my eyes and breathed it in. I listened in the quiet that surrounded us for the soft, padded trudging that plodded over granite to the northeast. My eyes clicked open and flashed to Emmett's enthusiastic grin. His eyes met mine, bright with the promise of a challenge.

"Race ya…" he murmured and bolted forward.

I left Alice and Edward with a parting smile and tore after him. Emmett was fast, but I could keep up. I could see him ahead of me, I was closing the distance between us. A look over his shoulder told him I was gaining ground. Then a vicious crack sounded and reverberated off of the rocks as a large tree shuddered under Emmett's fist and came crashing down in my path. His laughter boomed.

" Come on, you move like a grandmother!" he shouted over his shoulder.

I leapt over the fallen tree rather than losing time going around it, "You're going to spook it!" I whispered, knowing he would hear me. A large boulder shot my way, and I dived below it, rolling back up from the ground, into my run. "Cheater." I breathed and I could hear a mischievous peal of laughter.

I was close, covering the ground between us in a few short bounds. In his stride, Emmett wrapped his large hand around the base of a small tree, ripping it from its roots as he went. He spun around and swung it like a baseball bat, aiming squarely for my torso. I fell back, collapsing my legs beneath me and slid under it as he swung, earth and flora shot up from the ground around me. I pushed myself forward increasing the gap created by his losing momentum. A roar of defeat ripped through his chest and he raced after me.

"You move like my grandmother!" I teased, looking over my shoulder. His eyes were focused and alight with competiveness. He launched himself at me. Large, strong arms wrapped themselves around my waist as we collided, pulling me down. The ground shuddered as we came crashing into it, tumbling with our forward momentum. Splinters and chunks of wood sent flying as we knocked through trees and crashed into the boulders that made up the talice at the base of the mountain. His laughter sounded next my ear as we came to a halt. It was met with the hurried trampling of padded feet that moved away from us. We both lay still, listening to it, exacting its location. I followed the sound with my eyes up the mountain to where the bear quickly climbed upwards, its heart rate increased. I looked back to Emmett who mostly lay on top of me, pinning me to the ground. For one moment, without the evening sun to shine off his skin, his dark, wavy hair lay in contrast to his pale skin with a familiarity. Something about it appeared so human. With his eyes now focused on the retreating bear, a small smile began to pull at the corner of his lips. And the small echo of something familiar grew to recognize his smile. His dark, wavy hair. For just a moment, it reminded me of someone else.

"Guess I did spook it." He said, the quaint smile now growing to a grin and his eyes met mine. "I call dibs." And he was gone. He raced up the mountain, his powerful legs carrying him faster than the bear. I lay stunned for a second, before the fog of thoughts that clouded my head lifted enough for me to come back to the present and I followed after him.

Mirrors

The late autumn sun hung over the ridge to the west, sending light bursting through the pines that lined the peaks. Fresh tilled earth gave beneath my feet as I stood in the garden on the western side of the house. One after the other, I handed Esme bulbs to be planted. We talked of things that floated through our minds, and she educated me on perennial and seasonal flowers. It was relaxing here, conversation flowed easily and the light, crisp breeze that gently rustled the falling leaves, swirled and wafted the smell of the earth into my lungs.

"I placed the garden on the western side of the house to catch the afternoon sun… when there is sun. " She added. "It warms the summer flowers, giving them a more potent scent."

Esme smiled easily as she talked, her eyes alight with the gentle glow of contentment. " I'll open every window and door and let the bouquet fill the house completely."

I smiled at her description, wishing the summer would stay longer.

She paused her movements momentarily before looking up at me, a strained curiosity forming on her features.

"Em, honey?" she asked gently.

"Yes?" I asked.

"What?" Emmett shouted, poking his head out of a window on the second floor.

"Oh…. Not you, Emmett." She said, waving him away. "Oh Emma, sweetheart, we are going to have to find a new nickname for you."

Her eyes were warm and kind as she considered me, a small crease forming between them as she formulated her words.

"Are you happy here?" she asked quietly. "…with us?"

I paused, staring at the bulb I had been rolling around in my hand. It wasn't something I had expected her to ask.

"I don't mean to press you, honey. It's, it's just that… well, we're so happy with you here." She added.

There was a quiet sincerity in her eyes that touched the rest of her face and radiated from her. There was something very motherly in her words as she spoke them, an unconditional and unquestionable acceptance. This was Esme. This was her way, the gift God had given her to share with the world, with her children. I had seen it in the very walls she had built to house and shelter her family, in every effort and smile she made for them. And she looked at me now with the same adoration and loving care that I had seen when she looked at Emmet and Jasper. When she held Renesmee and laughed with Bella. The same love she had for Edward and Alice and Rosalie. Even Jacob was a son to her.

Esme was not my mother, nor would she ever be. Not my real mother. But nor was she the biological mother of her six children. She had not given birth to them, they were not her blood, but that mattered little. As I had witnessed before in life, it was not tangible bonds such as DNA that made a brother. It was not shared blood that constituted a family, but rather a bond that reached deeper than physical ties, to something on the soul level. It was love that bonded them, that made them a family. I had a family of my own. Somewhere far north of where I stood, they lived and breathed, going about their daily lives. But here, nestled in the woods stood a house filled with people I considered kin. Each of them held their own place in my heart. And with every passing moment, those spaces grew.

I could feel my eyes grow soft with an emotion I had no word for as I looked into Esme's. All at once it felt as though my heart broke and swelled. It felt pulled in two different directions. As if she could read the thoughts on my face, Esme spoke.

"I could never replace your mother, dear. And I'm not trying to." She eased. "But however you think of me, I will always think of you as a daughter."

I could see it in her eyes, and feel it in every word. There was a warmth in her that radiated outwards and flooded through me. The unreserved affection that she held for me brought whispers of my own mother. I could see her face. Hear her voice faintly echo my name. I could smell her as I did when she held me close and could nearly remember how it felt to have her arms gently wrap around me. I could feel the comfort they brought. There were no words to say. There was nothing that could have been spoken that she did not see in me then. And as a mother always seems to know, Esme's gentle eyes grew with understanding, and she smiled knowingly.

Jacob and Emmett were swinging violently as they laughed and prodded each other with insults. Jacob was now on his feet as he concentrated, white controller in hand, on the tennis court that played out on the television screen. Wii sports was a revelation in their eyes. As I watched them, Edward sat at his piano, teaching Renesmee a rather complicated piece. It was one of my favorites. She was a quick study, and mirrored his movements as she watched his hands move along the keys.

"Oh! Take that! Take! That!" Jacob shouted, emphasizing every word with a jolt of the controller. His 'mini Jake' avatar swung at the tennis ball, sending it diagonally down court as Emmett smashed it back in his direction. It was indeed a genius invention. We could now play tennis without destroying countless rackets and balls with every serve.

"No way, kid. Johnny Macinroe had nothin' on me!" Emmett said, as he brought down a powerful serve.

I laughed as I watched them, listening to the beautiful tones emanating from the baby grand. Emmett smiled as he won another set, creating deep dimples on either side of his wide smile. For a such big, virile guy, he had such a baby-face grin. He brought his arm up to serve again, and his wide shoulders pulled and stretched the fabric of his shirt. His sleeve fell slightly, revealing more of his upper arm. I could see every muscle contract and extend with his movements. As he brought his arm down, I could see the detail in the muscles of his back as they moved under his shirt. My eyes trailed up along them to the nape of his neck, to his dark wavy hair. His head turned slightly as he fired an insult at Jacob and I could see the small, familiar grin pulling at the corners of his mouth- the music faltered ever so slightly.

I sat frozen on the couch. My eyes wide with shock.

"Edward?" I thought.

In my peripheral vision, I could see his head tilt ever so slightly in my direction as he continued, letting Renesmee play as he contributed bass tones.

"I would never. "I thought, pouring as much sincerity into my words as possible and wondering if he could hear the tone of thoughts.

His head inclined in a slight nod, his vision never breaking from Renesmee's hands.

"It's not him I'm thinking of." I thought and concentrated on images of Marc. Comparing them to Emmett to show the similarity. "Emmett reminds me of him sometimes. And that is all. I would never even consider it." I thought with a tone of finality.

Again his head tilted with a slight nod in my direction.

"OH! Game! Set! Match! Biyatch-" Emmett's words were cut short with a look of warning from both Edward and Jacob. Emmett's eyes flicked to Renesme.

"Oh, right. Sorry." He added sheepishly. "Let's play boxing next!" he boomed, eyes glued to the screen.

Changes

The leaves that fell in autumn were covered over with snow, and washed away by showers of rain as winter gave to spring. The old and decaying had given way to new growth, and blossoms floated on gentle breezes. Clouds drifted across the sky and obscured a sun that rose and set in a steady, never ending cycle. And Renesmee grew. In the brief year I had known her, she had grown a solid two and a half feet and seemed to develop from the age of four to ten. She went through clothes constantly, but that mattered little with endless funding coupled with Alice and Rosalie's unyielding penchant for dressing her.

"Sometimes I wonder if we're doing the right thing, hiding her away from the world." Bella mused as we walked. A small crease forming between her eyes as she regarded her daughter.

Ahead of us, Renesmee and Edward jumped from tree to tree as Jacob raced below them. His gigantic wolf form playfully nipping at her toes when she dared to venture close enough to the ground. An excited bark shot from Jacob as he danced below Renesmee. Edward dove down from the top of an old pine, quickly tagging Jake on the tail before lithely springing back into an adjacent tree; earning a musical peel of giggles from his daughter.

"It can't be easy for her, not being able to live a normal, little girl life." Bella continued. "Having to hide who she is from the world, not getting to experience a normal childhood… She even has to hold back in front of Charlie."

Bella's father, Charlie was a man of practicality. His mind's ability to retain a firm grip on reality must have been tested extensively, given the surreal truths that surrounded him. But I had seen the way he looked at his grandchild. However inexplicable her existence was, his absolute adoration for her outweighed any shock or disbelief. I had a strong suspicion though, that if she were to leap twenty feet in the air as she did now, while he were present, he may suffer an aneurism.

"Yeah, but it's better than the alternative." I offered. "At least this way, she gets to stay here, surrounded by loved ones, rather than having to move constantly to avoid suspicion. At least here, she can be with her entire family. She can be with Charlie and Jake."

There was no real way to introduce Renesmee to a small community that would notice only too well how very quickly she matured. There was no way to linger here once they had known her. At some point only too soon, some excuse would have to be made. Some story would have to be fabricated to excuse her absence. Some public story to explain why Mr. and Mrs. Edward Cullen and their lovely daughter had to move away. But that would mean parting from Charlie. It would mean splitting a family apart. And so, for now, our beloved Nessie was privy to the finest homeschooling available. Given that her own father held several doctorates and medical degrees, and nearly everyone spoke a multitude of languages. Fluently.

Bella smiled understandingly, watching as her family made their way through the woods.

"She looks like you." I smiled.

Bella's contented smile grew and a small laugh escaped her lips. "Mmm, I think she has more Edward." She said. "She has my eyes, but mostly looks like him. Well, she has Charlie's eyes." She added.

A small pang of shock reverberated through me, leaving every nerve stunned. What air was in my lungs stuck in my throat, paused with the rest of me, and I stared silently at her.

"I had my Dad's eyes too. " I said in a small voice. I couldn't look at her now, I could only stare blindly in front of me. The shock coursed through me like ice water.

Bella's smile fell, and she regarded me with regretful eyes. It wasn't her fault, she had done nothing wrong in this casual mention. If anyone were to understand what it meant, if anyone could know how very personal it was to me then, it was her. She also had inherited her father's eyes, and she too had lost them. Traded for ones that were inherited through a second family. Mine were no longer the same gray, blue that I had seen in my Dad, but very same gold topaz hue of my sister. I looked through the eyes I had inherited from those whom I loved. From those who loved me. From those who made whatever hand I had been dealt, something worth living for. Not just simply existing. In the limbo of eternity, the Cullens were a fixed point. Life, where life no longer existed.

"You know," I said pensively. "when I was born, my eyes were violet."

I looked at Bella then, a small laugh escaping from my lips.

Nearly three quarters of a mile to the east, a small group of elk grazed on the edge of the forest. We moved forward, letting the scent overwhelm our senses, taking them completely. I moved fluidly, my legs carrying me closer to the source. Closer and closer, I moved forward with my family.

"For the love of all that is Holy!"

Alice's eyes came back to the present and her body tensed with an irritation that had reached its peak.

"What?" Emmett asked, a puzzled look on his face.

"Ask him." She spat out flatly, pointing in the direction of the highway. Carlisle's car left the pavement and turned down the narrow drive to the Cullen house. A slightly amused, but compassionate look crossed Edward's face as he watched his sister storm out the balcony door, throwing her hands in the air as she went.

Carlisle entered moments later, a knowing looking on his face as he glanced at the empty balcony.

"I received a phone call today from Tanya," he explained. "It seems that Kate and her William have parted ways."

Rosalie returned her attention to braiding Renesmee's hair, with complete indifference. But Renesmee's face fell with a slight sadness. With Jasper away hunting with Jacob and Esme, I followed the path Alice had taken. The forest was alive in the late spring weather; and as I moved by, I could hear the slight pause of a few ground squirrels before they retreated. I took a few steps before bounding over the river, and jogged easily below the massive pines. It wasn't hard to find her, her light floral scent wound like an invisible ribbon through the trees, and her irritated mumbling could be heard miles away. She was sitting on the bow of a large hemlock, picking pieces off a small river stone and letting them drop to the ground.

"I'm sorry." I said, looking up from the base of the tree.

"Why? It isn't your fault. Why be sorry?" she spat quietly.

I sighed and looked at my feet, shuffling them around and moving the litter and duff from side to side; choosing my words carefully to try and calm her down.

"I know how much thought you've put into this, and I'm just sorry it didn't come to fruition in the end." I said.

Alice sat quietly, staring out at the northern mountain range. After a moment she patted the space next to her on the large limb. I leapt to the branches below and quickly climbed to the one she occupied. I sat next to her and watched the clouds roam over the sky. She tapped her fingers against the moss that covered the top of the branch and pursed her lips. I watched her struggle to keep silent, her lips tightening as if to keep it all from bursting out. And I tried to keep myself from laughing.

"Let it out, Alice." I said.

Alice exploded.

"Okay, first of all, I realize that the woman has been through a terrible grievance, I was there, I know, but honestly if she loves the man why not marry him? Doesn't she, of all people deserve to be happy? I mean, what's more happy of an occasion than a wedding? And it's only been a few years what could possibly have happened in such a short amount of time to call off an engagement? And after all they've been through together! And I'm not trying to sound selfish, but it is not easy to come up with the perfect ensemble for ten people! Twice!" She exhaled swiftly, a small crease set between her eyes.

I nodded in silent response.

"Well," I finally said, "we'll just have to find another occasion to get all gussied up."

I smiled brightly at her when she finally looked at me, rolling her eyes.

"There is always an occasion, Emma." She said, looking at me through her lashes.

"Besides, that cocktail dress would still look good on you…" she added, her plans for a full makeover already set in stone.

"Ha! I thought that was so last season." I laughed.

"Well, quite few. But it's timeless." She said musically, almost visibly bouncing with excitement. I could see the wheels turning in her head, and it scared me.

"A cocktail dress?" I asked incredulously.

"Don't fight it, Emma. It's already happened, " she said pointing to her temple, "and guess what? You love it."

I gawked at her with a look of complete disbelief, but if I knew anything, Alice was rarely wrong.

"Emma?" Alice asked, a slightly troubled look in her eyes. "Why do I see Rosalie trying to rip your head off?

Holes