Forever Love?

by manictwilightfan

This is written from Alice's POV and it happens about ten years after Breaking Dawn. Enjoy :

Fan Fiction-Forever Love?

Chapter One

I turned to Jasper, his beautiful scarred face smiling at me as he held me in his arms; he kissed my forehead before sighing and turning to get out of bed. Disappointment washed across my face as I remembered that today we were starting another new school, we had moved to Alaska a few weeks ago, we were now living only a few miles from Tanya and her family. I think living this close to them was helping Jasper, he no longer felt like the weak link in the family, Garrett was now our newest vegetarian.

Frowning I rolled out of bed and found myself a cute outfit, I had to look good for my first day at a new school. I pulled out something nice for Jasper and threw it at him; he always waited for me to find him clothes, because he knew that I wouldn't approve of anything he'd choose. I danced out of the room and knocked first on Rosalie and Emmett's room and then skipped into Bella and Edward's room.

"Edward Cullen, get of that poor defenseless girl, she's only sixteen!" I giggled to myself, fifteen, I liked that age, it meant at we could stay here for a while without having to move on. I, Edward and Bella we're going to be, Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper would be seventeen. Though there were a few more changes this time, Nessie and Jacob. It had been easy enough to come up with a Nessie, she would be Bella's little sister, the same age as us; Jacob's was harder to devise. Even now, I doubted our cover story, Jacob was a boy who had lost his parents and had been given to Esme as she had a good "track record" as far as fostering had gone.

Edward grumbled and pushed me away without letting go of Bella, her head buried in his chest before he lifted her face up and kissed her passionately before turning over and jumping out of bed. "Err…Edward…some clothes could be helpful." If I could have I would have blushed but he just flashed his bright white teeth at me and asked me to pick out some clothes for him. Now that was something I could do, I ran into their huge walk-in wardrobe as Edward lay back under the sheet, I pulled out a cute top and skirt for Bella and a jumper and some jeans for Edward, they needed to look good, but not out of place. I ran out and threw the clothes at them before running back out, making sure not to catch a glimpse of what I'd seen earlier.

I slid down the banister of the huge sweeping staircase of our new house into the huge living room, this house was even bigger than the one we'd owned in Forks, well it needed to be, we had Bella, Nessie and Jacob with us this time. Jasper was waiting to catch me as I reached the bottom and I jumped straight into his arms before wriggling myself down and grabbing his hand, clutching it tight in my own. I grinned up at him and his lips curved into a small smile, I could tell he was readying himself for the tempting smell of blood after a few months of absence from it. "You'll be fine" I told him "I can see it, you're not going to do anything; I don't know why you're worrying; you're always fine with Nessie." That seemed to make him feel better as his worried smile became a full on grin and he kissed my head. I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his chest.

I wrinkled my nose as Jacob walked down the stairs, hand in hand with Nessie, his smell didn't repulse me like it used to, but it would never be pleasant. Nessie dropped his hand and ran over to me, she squeezed me tight and lifted me off the ground, already she was taller than me; then again it wasn't hard. She smiled down at me, "Good Morning Auntie Alice." I looked her up and down, scrutinizing her outfit, she was wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt; I gave her an unimpressed look, why did she have to be such a tomboy? She giggled at me; she knew I wouldn't like the outfit, which was why she'd worn it, I loved her, but she annoyed the hell out of me sometimes.

"Come on then, let's go!" Nessie was so eager to start school; she'd never been to school before and she was so excited. "Do you not want to wait for everybody else?" Jacob's gruff voice was full of humor; he wasn't looking forward to this, especially as he would have to be in the same year as Rose, Emmett and Jazz, he wanted to be with Nessie but he looked so much older that he couldn't have been the same age as us.

Emmett and Rose came down the stairs, I was glad to see that Rose had picked out something nice for them to wear; at least I could rely on her to back me up. They were quickly followed by Bella and Edward, who of course looked good; they had been dressed by me. "Can we go now?" Nessie asked, impatient as always. We all grinned and walked to the garage, we were glad that we had moved to a more wealthy area, we could now take the good cars to school. Jasper and I got in my Porsche with Nessie and Jacob and Bella and Edward got into Bella's Ferrari with Rosalie and Emmett, I turned to Bella and grinned at her, it was time for a race.

Chapter Two

I slowed as we reached the parking lot and pulled into a space near the school, Bella pulled in next to me. "Rematch tomorrow Alice!" she grinned at me, I looked into her car and saw that Emmett wasn't happy with losing, he was so competitive, I stuck my tongue out at him and turned round to take Jasper's hand. Edward and Bella appeared at my other side and we all started into the office.

Edward stepped forward to speak to the woman in the office, he flashed his white teeth at her and we all felt her heart rate go up, we all giggled slightly as she blushed deep crimson before starting. "You must be…you must be the Cullens?" Jacob grimaced slightly at being called a Cullen but he managed to keep him face straight. Edward, Emmett and I stepped forward, "we're the Cullens. My sisters are Bella and Nessie Swan, then Rosalie and Jasper Hale and finally Jacob Black." She looked confused but she nodded anyway and gave us our timetables. I glanced at mine; I had most of my classes with Edward, Bella and Nessie, I grinned round at them as we all stepped out of the office.

People were starting to arrive, they walked past us staring, I sighed, I had got used to not being stared at in Forks, but now in Alaska we were the weirdly beautiful new kids again. Bella was glaring at every girl that looked Edward's way, even as a beautiful vampire she was convinced that he could have his head turned by another girl. Edward was glaring too; I could tell he was reading all the minds of the people walking by; he hated people thinking of any of us in that way.

The bell rang, sharp and shrill, interrupting my thoughts and forcing me to start down the corridor, Biology. Bella and Edward exchanged a look as they saw which lesson we had and laughed, I didn't understand it, I'd ask them later. "You coming squirt?" Nessie threw her arm around my neck and smiled at me. "I'm still your Auntie, I deserve respect" I muttered under my breath as we followed our maps to our biology room.

We walked into the room and handed the teacher our notes, he looked us up and down, but didn't say anything to us, and we had been good and started school after the summer. I slid onto a stool next to Nessie at the back, Bella sat on the desk next to us and Edward slid in next to her.

Our first lesson went as expected, everybody filed into the room and took their seats, the last ones to be filled were the ones next to Edward, but we'd expected that, we were the strange, pale new kids. For a special welcome back treat we got to watch some old video that even I didn't watch, instead I sat and watched the futures of my family and the people in the room. Edward was sat reading minds, I could tell from the expression on his face and Nessie and Bella were sat having a hushed conversation about Wuthering Heights.

The rest of the morning went just the same, until finally it was lunch. The four of us got to the cafeteria first, grabbing something that we could look like we were eating, even Nessie, who had to eat didn't have to eat as often as human's did. We were quickly joined by the others, Jacob was the only one of us eating, so he ended up eating all the food on the table, I think he needs lots of food for his wolfy powers. We had managed to grab a table away from all the others, it was easier to hide our peculiar eating habits if we weren't near other people, and anyway here people had decided to avoid us.

When finally the day was over I couldn't wait to get out of there, even Nessie who had been so eager to go this morning was bored senseless. We almost ran to the cars to try and get out of there before the crowds started, I needed to be out of here! I didn't even bother trying to race Bella, I was just glad to be out of there.

Chapter Threeeeeeeeeeeeeee (sorry I'm in a silly mood)

Ok now let's be serious…………..

I flew through into the front room, I'd forgotten just how boring and time consuming it was to walk at human pace. Esme threw me a look that told me to calm down, I listened to her, I may be a scary vampire but I did what my mom told me. Jasper came behind me and grabbed my waist, pulling me close to him; he kissed the top of my head and calmed me, his power was incredibly handy.

At that moment I felt my eyes glaze over, the vision was one of the clearest I had ever had. I saw them outside our home, three figures with black cloaks, surrounded by four equally menacing figures with dark cloaks. The Volturi were coming to town.

I came back to reality with a start, still in Jasper's arms; he looked down at me worried when he felt how scared I was. "Alice what is it?" his hurried words were spoken softly but everyone in the room heard him and rushed to us. "The Volturi." I said it slowly, like every syllable pained me. Carlisle had obviously come down from his study as I heard his voice behind me. "Alice, we're nice and legal now, why would the Volturi want to harm us?" I nodded at Carlisle's theory but inside I knew they weren't coming for a personal call.

The days went on as usual, though my thoughts were never far from my vision, I knew the Volturi wanted something, though I didn't know what. Days turned to weeks and I began to doubt my vision, the weather in my vision didn't look much different from the weather now, but then again the weather in Alaska rarely changed.

It was late next month that our fate changed…

It was a day just like any other, Edward was sat at the Piano with Bella on his lap, he was playing her lullaby. Rosalie and Emmett were sat on the sofa arguing about what was on the TV, Jacob and Nessie were in La Push visiting Billy. Carlisle was at the hospital and Esme was decorating (again). Edward suddenly stopped playing and his mouth dropped open as the doorbell rang and we all froze in place.

We started towards the door, Jasper looking towards Bella to make sure he shield was over before opening the door. He pulled it open and I saw the dark cloaked figures from my vision, the tall block cloaked man in the middle stepped forward and pulled down his hood. "Hello Jasper." Aro began; he looked round to us all and nodded at us all in turn, stopping especially long on Bella's face. "No Renesmee?" he asked us, but he didn't wait for an answer. He turned round to the rest of the cloaked figures around him and nodded at them. I glanced around the faces; Marcus (looking bored as usual) and Caius were stood next to their brother. Surrounded by Demetri, Felix, Jane and…Chelsea. I wasn't expecting the last one.

Chelsea stepped forward and flashed her bright white teeth at us. "So I finally get to properly meet the famous Cullens," she said, her mouth curved into an evil smile. Jasper pushed me backwards with one arm, telling me to stand behind Edward. He stepped forward to shake Chelsea's hand; by the time his hand left hers he was too late.

He looked up at her with a look of true devotion and I knew at that moment what she had done. A sob escaped from my throat as he took his place next to Chelsea, that monster, she had stolen my Jasper, my love, my reason for being. Edward dropped Bella and held me in his arms, comforting me and restraining me at the same time, she was going to pay; that bitch was going to pay!

Emmett growled and dived at Chelsea, but not before Jane got there and sent him writhing in pain on the floor. Bella was on the floor muttering to herself it's all my fault, it's all my fault, but my shield, I thought it would save him… she kept muttering to herself. I wanted to turn to her and tell her that she couldn't have done anything, I wanted to comfort her but I couldn't do anything.

The Volturi turned and left without another word, Jasper with them. My Jasper, my Jasper…

Chapter Four

Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months……..

What does it matter?

Life, death……..

Love, hate……..

Day, night…………

Good, bad………..

Life goes on……….

Even if you don't want it to.

Chapter Five

My life went through the motions, day after day, each second painfully ticked by, time seemed even longer now. Nights were the worst, during the day I had things to distract me; at night I had nothing. Bella tried her best, even taking me shopping, but nothing brought me out of my waking coma. It didn't even bother me what I wore now, there was nobody there to impress; so what was the point?

I dropped out of school; I needed some time on my own. I ran for weeks, not knowing where I was, or where I was going, hunting when I needed, staying as far from civilisation as I could. I thought about nothing but my feet hitting the floor, following my instincts, falling back into nature. It turns out that nature is harder to fall back into than it seems, after a few weeks fighting myself I gave up and let my conscious lead.

I began to watch my family, in my sight; it comforted me to see them, though it was both a blessing and a curse, it helped to see that my family were fine, but it pained me to know that I wouldn't be able to go back, there were too many memories with them. After a while I became a nomad, living for myself, on myself, totally alone, always, the way it had to be now. The way it should have been from the very start, the Cullens were just a lucky opportunity I'd had, no matter how much we had all thought we were a family, I didn't belong there, they were all linked, I was a spare part.

I had been running for about a year when I met Sarah. Sarah was the leader of a small coven of nomads, consisting of her, her mate Tristan and a female called Zarina. They were a small but very civilised group, they weren't "vegetarian" but they never attacked innocent people. They performed what they called revenge kills, they would only kill people who deserved it, if anyone deserved death, they killed murderers and rapists, much like Edward had done.

Staying with this small coven was easier than I'd thought it would be, I didn't agree with their views and I fed as I would usually when I was living with them. But other than our different eating habits we really weren't so different. We moved from town to town, living an average nomadic life, though sometimes I longed for the comfort of the huge house in Alaska I never needed it enough to return. They never bothered me with questions about where Id' come from, though I could tell that my chosen diet confused them, they new better than to ask me questions like that, I had been messed up bad and it was hard to miss that.

After a year in their presence I was beginning to think of myself as part of this little makeshift coven, nobody here had been "born" into this coven we were all thrown together and I liked that about us. It was at about this time that I saw him again…

I was hunting in the woods nearby when I heard them; I saw the three black cloaked figures again, surrounded by four more with lighter cloaks, though one of them, a reasonably tall figure had a cloak that was almost as black as the three centre men. They were moving swiftly through the woods, I had to run as fast as I could to keep up with them. They reached what they were looking for incredibly fast, my camp, where Sarah and Tristan sat oblivious.

The middle black cloaked figure stepped forward to Tristan, Aro pulled down his cloak as he spoke to him, as did the other figures. I moved quietly round to see the faces of the other figures, Caius was on the right hand side of his brother, and Marcus was on the left, next to Marcus was Jane, Chelsea behind her, and Felix next to her. But there, on Marcus' right hand side, in the darkest cloak of the guard was Jasper, my Jasper. I stared at Chelsea and I knew what was coming now, I tried to jump in and stop her, but she had hold of Tristan's hand before I could move a muscle.

Tristan looked to Chelsea with the same look Jasper had held, I saw him flinch and I cried, he loved her, and it pained me so much. I glanced at Sarah but I couldn't hold my eyes on her for long, it was painful to watch the expression on her face that mirrored what I had looked like exactly. Instead I ran, I ran from my problems, just like I had in Alaska, just like I would have to keep on doing.

As I ran I thought, I thought about leaving Sarah in this state, the state that I had been in only two years ago, my family tried to help me out, I was her family now, I had to help her. I turned around and ran back, back to my new family, my new sister, she needed me, and I needed her, we could try and get through this together.

She was unresponsive for weeks after it happened, just like I had been, having your mate ripped from you like that was one of the worst things that could ever happen to you. Zarina did her best to help but seeing Sarah like this just made me think of what I had lost. We continued in the same depression until it was time to hunt, I was about to take off into the forest until Sarah asked me to come with them, I couldn't turn her down, not in the state she was in. I agreed to go, but I wouldn't hunt.

When we returned I went on my own hunt; that was how it went on as Sarah gradually got more and more depressed. Then one day it changed, one day I lost my self control.

It was our sixth hunting trip; I never knew that my self control could waver, even for a second. But when I smelt his blood, my instincts took control. I chased him down a dark alley, his blood was pumping in his ears, I could hear his heart thudding, pushing through his beautiful smelling blood through his body, and it was just too tempting; I attacked. My lips found his neck and I bit down hard, draining his blood from his body, it tasted so good, after years of animal blood this was heaven, but it would send me to hell.

He dropped to the floor lifeless and I realized what I had done, I had killed and innocent man in cold blood. I left his body on the floor and I fled, I ran and ran and I didn't look back, I was a coward but I couldn't face seeing them after what I'd done. I didn't think about where I was running but my mind guided me, I came home, to Forks, to the huge abandoned house we had lived in.

I ripped the door open and ran inside, it was empty, but I had expected that, I ran over to the huge wall of glass and looked out over the woods. Gasping, I caught my reflection in the glass, my blood red eyes looked back at me and I broke down. Silent sobs erupted from my chest and I ran up to my room, our room, I laid on the floor and hugged my legs to my chest, I stayed like that for weeks, the thirst built up and built up, but I never wanted to drink again, I never wanted to feel the taste of blood on my lips.

The weeks dragged by until one day. I heard the front door rip open but I didn't move, maybe if I stayed still they wouldn't come looking for me. Somebody flew up the stairs and my door flew open "Carlisle!" Bella yelled down the stairs "we need you here. Now!"

Chapter Six

"Carlisle?" Bella's voice was sharp and urgent as she stared at me on the floor, too in shock to do anything but call for help. It was Edward who arrived at the door first, reaching out for Bella and holding her in his arms. Carlisle was less than a second later, he rushed to my side and tried to help me up; I neither helped nor stopped him. I was lifeless, I didn't deserve a life.

"Alice don't you ever say that!" Edward was now by my side, I had almost forgotten about his annoying mind reading abilities. I didn't answer, I just did what I had learnt to do; I ran. I was on my feet so quickly that neither Edward nor Carlisle could do anything to stop me, I had gotten faster; even Edward couldn't have caught me at this speed.

Though I was fast, I was weak; I couldn't keep up this pace for much longer, so I stopped, better to surrender than be caught. I stopped in a small clearing and sat on a fallen tree to await my family. I didn't have long to wait, within a second Edward was in front of me, Bella just behind him.

"Alice, please talk to me. Please, I need you to talk to me, I'm your sister and I love you! Let me help you!" Her voice was pained, it upset me too. Had I really upset her that much? Edward nodded next to her and I knew he was answering my question, I had done that to her.

I still didn't answer her. "I know what you're going through." She said it quietly, liked it pained her to say this. "You left me. When I was human, you left me." Edward stiffened next to her. "I thought you were never going to come back." Her voice became stronger as she spoke. "I spent months in a waking coma, I was like a zombie; my life was over the day you left. I was left with a hole, Jacob had to put me back together, I had hideous vicious nightmares, nightmares that returned when you left, even for a few days, nightmares of abandonment."

Edward dropped to his knees in front of her, he looked physically in pain; he had never learnt how much pain she had been in when we left, the same pain that I was feeling now. A sob escaped from my throat, seeing her pain mirroring my own made me see how selfish I was. She had been hurt so much, but never once had she held it over us, or done something as evil as I had done, she was selfless.

I walked over to her and she wrapped her arms around me, whispering into my hair, calming me, soothing me. I sobbed into her hard marble chest, she held me close to her for hours while I cried.

When I stopped crying I pulled my head away from her, to see Edward still on his knees at her feet, his head lifted as my sobs stopped, his face was pained, he was still hurting on Bella's words; he would never forgive himself for leaving her, and hearing what she had gone through made his guilt even worse.

Bella didn't look down at Edward, she grabbed hold of my hand and ran, taking me with her, and we ran back to the house. Carlisle was waiting for us inside, he seemed shocked to see that Edward wasn't with us; he obviously hadn't heard what had happened in the clearing. Bella handed me over to him and gave me an apologetic look before running back to the clearing, back to Edward.

Carlisle looked at me with a look of such love that I didn't deserve, I didn't deserve love; I was a murderer, I had murdered that poor innocent man. I gazed up at him, willing him to see the red in my eyes, though I doubted their colour, I hadn't eaten for so long they must have been as black as coal. Bella returned seconds later with Edward, he looked hideous, but his hand was clasped tightly around hers, which must have meant something. She looked down at me and gave me a smile. "Alice, I know it may hurt you to talk about this, so maybe you could just think it?"

Nodding I thought back to the night of the murder, I couldn't think of it as anything but that, I had murdered that man. Edward flinched as he saw what I was thinking, as he smelt that man's blood, the blood that had smelt so potent to me; the blood that had made me attack. I remembered all the emotions I had felt, the intense need, then the hate I felt for myself, I remembered running back here and I remembered seeing my eyes and lying on the floor. His face never moved; his emotions were already too strong.

He told Bella and Carlisle what he had seen, Carlisle's expression never changed but Bella looked too understanding. It wasn't right, she should hate me for what I had done; she shouldn't accept it. She moved away from the two men and came to sit down next to me, she didn't touch me but she was comforting me with just her presence. We sat there for hours; Bella was just looking at me sympathetically.

Carlisle was the first to speak "I think we should hunt Alice, starving yourself isn't good for you." I shook my head violently, no way was I going out there, I could easily end up hurting somebody else, I'd done it before, what was to say I wouldn't do it again? Bella wasn't going to take no for an answer though, she pulled me to my feet, willing me to come with them. "You need to feed Alice, please for me, please feed." She took my hand again, but this time I willingly followed, she was right, I needed to feed, I had never been so thirsty, my thirst pained me.

I hurriedly took down a few deer, for once the taste was amazing, after weeks of thirst I was finally feeding and it felt amazing. Even after being thirsty for so long I was full quickly and I was back at the house before the others. I took a long look at myself in the glass and I was thrilled to see my eyes had become a golden topaz again, I was me again, I was Alice Cullen, I was vegetarian and I had a family that loved me.

Chapter Seven (Two and a half pages on Microsoft Word at Ellie's demand)

I didn't hear Bella behind me, she reached around my shoulders and hugged me to her; I didn't know she had stopped hunting. "I wondered where you'd gone" her lips curved into a smile as she spoke to me, I smiled back at my sister, a sister I loved so much, who I'd loved since before I'd even met her, or since before Edward had let me meet her. As I looked into her eyes I realised how much I had missed her without even realising I had, I realised how much I had missed my whole family.

"I want to go back, back to Alaska." Bella looked at me unsure. "Are you sure that you want to go back, there are a lot of bad memories there." I nodded, I agreed with what she was saying, but there were a lot of good memories here and I didn't know which ones I preferred. She let go of me and slid her hand into mine, grinning at me. "Come with me, there's something I want to see." I wasn't one to argue, especially with Bella, it was no secret that she was my favourite sister.

She led me across the woods and down to the little cottage that Esme had designed for Bella and Edward as a wedding present. Bella pulled open the door, it had never had a lock, what was the point, nobody would look for a cottage out here, and even if they did we didn't fear people who were stopped by locks on doors.

Stopping in the doorway, she looked around, I could tell she was overcome by the memories that this room held for her. Her hand clutched tighter around mine as she looked through the house, memories flooding back to her in with every step, vampires never forgot, but being where the memories were made them even clearer. She looked through every room slowly, laughing when I looked in her wardrobe and was very unimpressed by the clothes she had left behind. She spent the most time in Nessie's room, sitting in the middle of the floor and grinning to herself, I couldn't see what she was thinking, but I had never seen anyone love another person as much as Bella loved Nessie, she was her whole world.

Her head turned to me suddenly, a grin spreading across her face and a plan forming in her head. I saw what she was planning and I shook my head ferociously, no way, we were not going to see Charlie, not after what I had done, I couldn't bear it if I hurt him, a relapse in my control, even for a second, could do just that. Bella gave me a look of such trust that I didn't deserve, she shouldn't feel this comfortable with me and her father, I could slip at any moment, I already had.

Edward appeared at the door "I heard we were going to see the in-laws" he chuckled from the doorway, Bella smiled at him, her eyes bright from the idea, she really wanted to go see Charlie, and why shouldn't she, he was her dad. "I can't go Bella, I can't hurt him" her face fell, she had really been counting on me coming with them. "I trust you, and Charlie would be really hurt if he learnt you had been here, he really likes you Alice. I won't let you hurt him." I nodded reluctantly, Bella was right; he would be really hurt if I didn't go; Bella jumped to her feet and started to pull me up from the floor.

We took Bella's Ferrari, it was the only car they had brought with them, and drove down to Forks, the rain bouncing off the roof, I smiled at that sound, it meant I was home; Forks would always be my real home, no matter how much we moved around. I put my head out of the window, feeling the rain fall on my face, it had been so long since I'd felt that and it felt so good. Edward laughed at me, I must have looked stupid but I didn't care, the rain was making me feel better.

The Ferrari pulled up outside Charlie's house in record time, Bella was obviously very anxious to see her father again. She was out of the car and knocking at the door at inhuman speed, Charlie was slower to answer, she was impatient, she looked ready to rip the door of its hinges by the time Charlie finally came to the door. But it wasn't Charlie who answered the door it was Sue. Bella peered around her stepmother into the living room, hoping to see Charlie sitting on the sofa watching a game of some variety. But he wasn't there.

Bella's face fell "where is he?" she asked, her eyes scanning the room, desperate for a glance of her father. She turned to her stepmother, whose face looked worn and tired, waiting for an answer. "Bella, honey, your dad's not too well, he's in the hospital." Bella slid to the ground, her head between her knees; I was by her side without even noticing I had moved, pulling her off the ground and taking her to the car before going back to see Sue.

"How is he?" I asked, though I could tell by the look on her face that it wasn't good. She sniveled and fell into my arms, her cheek resting on the top of my head, she had been through a lot in the last few days I could tell, and she was going to through a lot more, I could see it in my head, two possible outcomes. I heard Edward next to me before he spoke "Charlie can't die, tell me he's going to be ok, it would break Bella and Nessie's hearts, please Alice" he spoke quickly under his breath, Sue couldn't even tell he'd said anything. I shook my head I see two outcomes I told him in my mind one, Charlie is fine, he gets out of hospital with nothing more than a few tablets to take every day. The second outcome is hazier, which usually makes it more unlikely, in which Charlie doesn't come out of hospital.

Edward was back in the car before I even turned to him, I could see his face through the windscreen and his face looked optimistic, he was a very good actor. I sighed and turned to Sue "I have to go…" I said, unsure "will you be ok?" she nodded solemnly so I left her and got into the back seat of the car behind Bella. "Well I guess we're going to the hospital then?" Bella nodded without moving her eyes from the car window and we set off. It wasn't until we were half way there that I really thought where we were going, we were going to a hospital; there was blood in a hospital. If I could have I would have started in a cold sweat there, my control lapse had left me so conscious of my self control, at any moment I could turn into a monster, and I could do that in front of Charlie. But I couldn't leave Bella to go and see him without me being there, I had a dilemma.

Throughout the entire journey to the hospital I was arguing the two points in my head, it wasn't until we got there that I finally made a decision. I had to go in there, I had to see Charlie; I had been in hospitals lost of times before, why would it effect me now? That was what I would keep telling myself. The hospital was chaotic, apparently there had been a bus crash, I kept forgetting just how fragile humans were, and how badly they drove.

Bella approached the desk and asked to see Charlie Swan, she told her that she was her daughter and she had been out of town for a while, she had just learnt that he was ill. The woman on the desk just nodded Bella through, I doubted she had been listening to her very much; she seemed to keep stealing glances at the man holding her hand before her face flushed red. Edward and Bella exchanged a look before laughing, it seemed that Bella had finally got over her aversion towards women finding Edward attractive while I had been gone, I wondered how much I had missed while I'd been away but I left my questions until later.

The last door on the left of the corridor lead to Charlie's ward, he was laying in a bed close to the door, he looked so ill, it brought a lump to my throat, Charlie had always been so strong, well strong for a human, but now he looked so breakable. He smiled weakly as we walked through the door, his eyes sparkled as he took us in, but it looked like the small weak smile was all he could manage in his present state. If it was hurting me this much I couldn't imagine what it was doing to poor Bella. I tried asking Edward if he could get in her head, he had been working on her shield but he shook his head. That short conversation reminded me of one similar we had had the day Bella had entered our lives, though that time we had been thinking of somebody else, somebody whose name it pained me to say.

Bella spoke to Charlie for almost an hour, but I wasn't really listening to what they had to say, I was looking around the ward. How easy must it be for a human, so easy to just give up, not having to live with what had happened for the rest of eternity. They were all so intrigued by us, I can imagine some fantasizing, but they would never know how dangerous we could be, they would live their lives in ignorant bliss, how I sometimes wished to be human. I couldn't remember my human life, and in some ways that was a blessing, I had reason to believe that my life wasn't pleasant, but sometimes I'd love to know how it felt to be human, how it felt to know that you only have a limited time.

Edward nudged me "morbid much?" he asked me under his breath, Bella was too busy fussing over Charlie to hear him. "Sorry." I mumbled, but I kept thinking the same thing, he sighed and turned back to Bella, taking her hand in his as she sat back down. I can't have been very good company for however many hours we sat there "catching up" with Charlie, but I couldn't concentrate on conversation, my mind was all over the place. I didn't notice anything around me until I was snapped from my thoughts by a sudden alarm coming from the machines next to Charlie.

Chapter Eight

Bella went to visit her father every day after the scare in the hospital; she couldn't bear to miss one second with him, she would only leave when the nurses forced her out. This, of course, meant that our stay in Forks was longer than we had originally suspected, we couldn't leave her. Bella, Edward and Nessie had recently graduated, yet another thing I had missed, Nessie's first graduation, so Nessie joined us in Forks every now and again.

It was one of the rare weekends when Nessie didn't join us, I was stood looking out of the huge glass wall out into the woods, letting my mind wander when a smell overcame me, I wasn't used to it like I used to be. I whirled round to see Seth Clearwater stood at the door, my face brightened, of all the wolves that could have turned up I was glad it was Seth, I hadn't seen him in such a long time, and it wasn't a secret that he was my favourite Quileute. He looked different, he looked older, and it took me a second to work out why.

"Seth." I managed to gasp "You've aged, you're not…a wolf?" He grinned at me, he was still tall but he was so much more muscular, he looked so handsome, not like a little boy anymore, he looked like a man, Seth was a man now. "I met her" he said slowly "my imprint". A pang of pain went through my heart, the love of Seth's life, he had just met his, and I had lost mine. I forced a smile onto my face; I must have looked convincing because he looked overjoyed. "She's in the car." He said slowly, watching my face, I smiled and nodded, I wanted to see the girl who had made Seth so happy.

He ran out the door to fetch her, she was a pretty girl, reasonably tall with medium dark hair and deep green eyes, name was Ellie, she was shy at first, though she livened as the conversation picked up, I liked her, and if she made Seth happy then she was a good person. I searched their future; she had her heart set on a white wedding, she was imagining bridesmaids in simple blue dresses, I admired her taste, it was simple but very fashionable, I would get on well with this girl. Though I admired her taste, it pained me to look into her future and see so much love and devotion, she deserved it though, I couldn't see any bad in her, she was a good person; I could see that in her.

"So what's happening in La Push?" I enquired, I wanted to know what was happening to Jacob's old pack; they still intrigued me. "Where do we start?" he asked me "You've been gone a long time vampy." I grinned at his nick name "From the beginning." I answered "I want to know everything."

"Well, a few months after you left Sam and Emily got married, it was simple, but nice, Emily looked stunning in the dress, even with her scars. Leah lived up to her word, she was maid of honor, and she looked amazing as well, it was a great day, and the food was amazing." I looked at Ellie and we both rolled our eyes as he talked about the food, trust a guy to scan over the important bits and get straight onto the food. He must have caught our unimpressed expressions because he stopped talking quickly, he looked embarrassed, and Ellie and I shared a giggle, I was beginning to like this girl more and more.

"Go on" I tried to keep my face straight as I talked to him, I wanted to know what was happening, but Seth's brief overview of everything was just funny. "Leah imprinted." He said it quickly, proudly; I felt my mouth drop open. "Leah…I didn't know she could." He nodded, "neither did we, but she did." I wanted to know more "what's he like?" "He's ok, I suppose, tall dark and handsome, or so Leah thinks; then again, she thinks the sun shines from his rear end." He broke of to laugh, I could tell Leah's total devotion to this man wasn't impressing Seth and, to be brutally honest, it wasn't making me feel to great either, more love, La Push may as well be full of cherubs instead of werewolves at the moment.

"They're getting married," he continued, "in the summer. My mom's really getting into the whole wedding organising thing, she can't wait until I pop the question." As he said this Ellie gave me a look that said it all, when he popped the question it seemed like Seth was taking a while to build up courage to ask the poor girl to marry him. "Emily's going to be maid of honor, return the favour, she's so glad that Leah's finally found somebody, and so am I to be honest, she was getting damn annoying with her total hate of everything." I could agree with that, Leah had never been my most favourite person.

"Any more love stories you want to tell me about?" I asked; I never realised that imprinting was such a big deal. He shook his head, and I was secretly glad, I don't think I could have coped with any more love. "Oh…" he said quickly "Some guys came looking for you, vamps, really pale guys, even for you, and they sounded like Dracula, I didn't know if they were joking or not, they were weird." I laughed; the Romanian coven Stefan and Vladimir, they had come to our aid against the Volturi, and they fitted Seth's description perfectly, I suppose they must have looked a bit like Dracula's doddery old uncles.

I didn't have time to think about what the Romanian's would have wanted us for because Bella and Edward arrived home, it must have been kicking out time at the hospital. Seth grinned at his stepsister and Bella actually smiled back, it was the first time I'd seen her smile in weeks, even more so when she saw Seth's hand in Ellie's. Seth repeated all his stories to Bella, watching her smile at the love that had almost made me cringe.

"So what's been going on in Alaska?" Seth asked and I started to pay attention to the conversation, I wanted to hear what I had missed about my family. "I don't know how to build up to this, so I guess I'll just say it straight out, Rosalie…adopted." I froze, adopted, what did that mean? "Emmett found her by the side of the road, she'd been raped and dumped, just like Rose, but she was only a girl, she was only fourteen." I tensed, that poor girl, what she had been through, she was so young. Bella continued, "Emmett took her home, she was lifeless in his arms barely breathing, Rosalie saw her and decided she had to do something to help her, so she turned her. Carlisle and Esme were out hunting, they came home and Hayley was sat on the sofa, cuddling into Rosalie, her eyes bright crimson."

Rose had a daughter, ok biologically she wasn't her daughter and the right age to be her sister, but I had still missed that, Hayley, Bella had said her name was, I didn't even know she had existed, my sister, my niece, what was she? I realised then that I had to go home, back to Alaska, I had to see my family, my new sister, I had already missed so much, and I couldn't miss any more.

Seth stayed for hours, until Ellie was practically falling asleep across his chest. "I think we better get going," Seth said, nudging Ellie awake and half carrying her to the car. When he was gone I told my siblings what I was thinking and they agreed with me, I needed to go home, I needed to see them. I left that night, I never was very good at goodbyes, and it would be easier to drive at night.

The roads were pretty much deserted, it was late at night and any sane human was wrapped up tightly in bed. I drove faster than I usually did, desperate to get to my family, desperate to see them after all this time, even Carlisle, who I'd only seen a few months ago. I pulled up outside the house to be greeted by my family, Edward must have already called ahead to tell them I was coming.

I dived out of the car into Esme's waiting arms, wrapping my arms around her waist. Carlisle was the next to greet me as he laid his hand on my shoulder when I pulled away from Esme. Nessie dived at me and ended up knocking me to the ground, Jacob hung back, waving at me from the doorway, I looked around, everybody was here, Emmet waving at me with a huge grin on his face, except Rosalie.

I was about to question where she was when my question was answered by Rose flowing down the stairs, hand in hand with a small girl I didn't recognize, Hayley. She was small and pretty, her hair was pencil straight and bright red, she was wearing a t-shirt bearing the symbol of some indie rock band, she was a little rock chick, but it looked good on her. She smiled at me, she had a beautiful smile; it made her eyes twinkle, she ran down the stairs and grabbed me tight, yes I was going to like her.

Chapter Nine

A quiet knock on my door brought me back to reality after a night spent staring out of the huge window in my room. I had been sat on the large luxurious sofa in my room; there was no need for a bed anymore. I called out for my visitor to come in and Hayley came and sat next to me on the sofa, she didn't say anything, just leant her head on my chest a I listened to her steady breathing. Though I hadn't known her for very long, I felt that I was closest to her than anybody in this house, she was my rock, she was suffering, as I was suffering.

I pulled her close to me and stroked her bright red hair, kissing her head, I felt protective over her, as protective over her as I had been with Nessie, but Nessie had grown up now, and Hayley had filled her place as the baby of the family. Nessie enjoyed her new status, she enjoyed having Hayley as the baby; she could act as the big sister, she had never had that opportunity.

"Hayley?" Rosalie's voice flowed into the room and Hayley turned to roll her eyes at me, I loved the relationship we had, I didn't want to be a mother, but I loved being an Auntie, I could be a best friend at the same time. I nodded to her, motioning for her to go see Rose, it was strange to think of my sister as a mother, her dreams had finally come true; though it was about time, and she was more bearable as a mother. Emmett wasn't settling into fatherhood quite like Rosalie was settling into motherhood, he would never be a father to her, he would be more of a big brother than anything, he was a big brother to us all.

She pulled me after her, if she had to go see her mother I had to go with her, I laughed at her, she felt more secure around me than she did with her "mother" who she had known for longer, and who had, I later found out, actually been the one to turn her. "Oh there you are," Rosalie started, glancing at me and giving me a brief smile, I could tell that sometimes my attachment to her daughter sometimes annoyed and confused her. "Emmett and I have decided that it's time we got married again, you know, make it seem as normal as possible. The wedding's on Saturday, we're having it here, at the house."

I grinned at her, weddings, that was my forte, I would organize the biggest most lavish wedding, even if there were only us in attendance, I hoped Bella and Edward would come from Forks, even if just for the day, I would have to find a show stopping dress for Rosalie, not that she would look anything but painfully beautiful in whatever she wore. My mind was full of ideas; I was designing dresses and outfits already. Hayley coughed loudly, pulling me back into the real world, in which Rosalie was looking at me with a look that showed me she knew what I had been thinking about. She rolled her eyes and shook her head before nodding to me and giving me a quick smile. I squealed, "You won't regret this," I said before pulling Hayley upstairs with me.

I pulled my phone out from my pocket and dialed Edward's number; it rang twice before he answered it. I hurriedly told him what was happening and asked him if he was coming, he said of course, how could he not, he just had to convince Bella to leave her dad for a day. Grinning I flipped my phone shut and turned to Hayley, "fancy a shopping trip?" She smiled back at me, and went to put on her black converse, comfortable, sensible shopping shoes, prefect for walking around all day, this was going to be fun.

We hurried down the stairs and split off at the bottom to go find Rosalie, Nessie and Esme, they couldn't miss out on a wedding shopping trip, we had to make sure their dresses were perfect, luckily I still had Bella's measurements from her wedding, she was just going to have to wear the dress I picked for her, I knew what suited her better than she did herself anyway. Quickly we were all in my Porsche, speeding down the highway to the only city in miles, the only place where we could find dresses like the ones we needed.

The first shop we found was a designer one, stocking every designer you could think of, it stocked wedding dressed but not bridesmaid dresses so we concentrated on Rosalie, we wanted something simple but still beautiful, not that it would really make an impact on my sister's incredible beauty. A pretty blond sale assistant was only too willing to help; it must be rare that she had somebody as stunningly beautiful as Rose asking her opinion on a dress. Rose tried on dress after dress, all of them were beautiful, but I never felt that any of them suited her, she needed something simple, something that would show off her beauty, not hide it under a dress.

Finally, we found the perfect dress, hidden under some more vulgar pieces, at the back of the shop. It was elegant and it showed of Rosalie's amazing figure perfectly, it was beautiful, much nicer than the frilly pieces the sales woman had been shoving under our noses. She tried it on and it fitted perfectly, almost like it was meant for her, even tomboy Nessie was taken aback by just how insanely wonderful Rosalie looked, she looked like a fairytale princess.

After than phenomenal success, good luck seemed to follow us all day. In the next shop we found two brilliant dresses for Nessie and Hayley. We decided to go on an ice blue colour scheme for the bridesmaids; Hayley's was youthful, strapless, cut just below her knees, it looked amazing on her, she could pull almost any outfit of though, I didn't know why she insisted on wearing band t-shirts and jeans. Nessie's dress was slightly darker in colour, though still a light blue, it was cut the same way as Hayley's but made from silk. Though she opposed to wearing it she agreed that she did look pretty good in it.

Bella and Esme's dresses were both exceptionally elegant. Esme's was deep purple in colour, long and flowing, it made her look older, more sophisticated. Bella's dress was hind-picked by me. It was floor length and followed the blue scheme, it was beautiful, I loved it from the moment I saw it, it was such a shame that Bella wasn't there; I wanted so much to see her in it.

My dress was the last to find, it was cut the same way as the girls', but it was striking, different, just like me. It was silk underneath with net over it; it was so me it was unbelievable, I had to have it. I took less time to find shoes; we had all decided in the car that we would have simple white sandals, mainly because Nessie hated heals, typical Nessie.

We pulled up outside the house with our dresses just before sunset, not that there was really enough sun to notice around here thankfully. Nessie and Haley went in first, to distract Emmett, Jacob and Carlisle, Emmett was not allowed to see the dress under any circumstances, it wasn't a traditional wedding, but I was keeping some traditions, our bad luck was usually worse than other peoples. The dresses were stored in the back of my closet where Emmett wouldn't dare to look, not if he wanted to live.

Wedding preparations went into full swing, I was in the centre of it, picking out flowers and other decorations; this would be their best wedding yet. I threw myself into organising every little detail, it kept my mind occupied, I never had to stop to dwell on Jasper, it didn't even bother me that I was organising a wedding, an event that I would never experience for myself again.

The night before the wedding came quickly, Edward had managed to convince Bella that Charlie would be fine if she left him for a few days, he was doing well in the hospital. Nessie was excited that her parents were coming back, if only for a few days, it had been a while since she had seen them, and it was obvious she was missing them. Hayley didn't seem to sure, she didn't know them well enough; she had only been around for about a month before they had to leave to find me.

They seemed excited by the wedding and Edward was glad to leave the hospital, I got the impression that the hours in the hospital weren't the best way Edward felt he could spend his time. The dress fitted Bella perfectly, just like I knew it would, my visions were very helpful with things like this.

Hayley knocked quietly on my door and entered, "Hey, do you mind if I come in?" I nodded and patted the sofa next to me; she sat down and turned to face me. "How did you cope?" she asked me quietly. I looked at her confused, what did she mean? "How did you cope with the change?" I understood then. "I can't remember my human life," I told her truthfully, "It's never bothered me; I've never known anything different." She nodded her eyes deep and sad. "Would you like to tell me?" I asked her, "Tell me about you, the human you."

She smiled at me and started her story. "I was fourteen, I was cocky and arrogant, I wanted to be different, I never wanted to fit in, I wanted to stand out…I guess I've got what I always wanted now, I'll never be the same as anybody else now." She paused, she looked unsure, I reached over to hold her hand, to comfort her, show her I was there for her. "I joined this online cult; I suppose you'd probably call it, though I never thought of it that way before. I started to neglect my friends, my real friends who had been there for me since I was small, for this cult." She paused again. "What was…what was this cult about?" She laughed without humour.

"Vampires. We believed in Vampires, and other things, ghosts, witches, but mostly Vampires. I was right though, they do exist we exist." I looked at her shocked, she would have been considered stupid, a freak, to think we were real, but she was right, we had existed all this time and the humans knew nothing about it. "I was on the website every night when I got home, more than often I skipped school to discuss with my online friends, it became my reason for being; it drew me in, before brutally spitting me out."

My grasp tightened as she stared to speak again. "My parents had given up on me, I was failing and bunking off, and I had joined a cult for god's sake! They weren't the best parents though I suppose, but I wasn't exactly the perfect daughter they had brought back from the hospital. Anyway, I signed into the computer one day and I had a message, there was going to be a gathering of the cult, not two miles from my front door. I had to go." She stopped and looked at her knees, she looked ashamed, but she continued.

"When I think back, I was stupid, you always hear it on the news, some girl had met a man on the internet and run off to mean him, but I still went. It was in a huge field in the middle of the night, we were to be there by exactly midnight, I arrived earlier, around eleven, but I wasn't the first there, there must have been at least one hundred people there when I turned up, around three hundred at midnight. I had never realised how many people actually believed."

She stood up and walked to the other end of the room and back, her face in her hands, she paced for about ten minutes before she sat down and continued. "They arrived at exactly midnight, the beautiful men with the blood red eyes, the vampires. We were entranced by them, we had never met them but we felt that we loved them. They walked through the crowd, each one of them picking one of us; my heart was thudding in my chest when one of them picked me. He reached his hand out to me and I took it eagerly, this beautiful, powerful man wanted me. He led me out into the forest by the field, where they had just emerged from, all of the chosen ones went in; only I came out."

She was so strong telling me this; her voice was calm throughout the entire speech, almost like she had detached herself from what had happened to her. "I was thrilled walking hand in hand with this beautiful man, my heart was almost thudding out of my chest. I was being childish and imagining my future with this strange man when he turned and looked at me, his eyes looked dark and evil. Suddenly my childish thoughts were pulled from me as he pushed me against a tree and…well you know what happened next."

I looked at her shocked; she had been raped by a vampire? It made no sense, if he was evil enough to rape a poor defenseless young girl, why had he not finished the job and killed her? "I bet you're wondering why he didn't kill me?" she asked me, I nodded before she spoke again. "I escaped. When his back was turned I ran, he must not have seen me as an issue, he never chased after me, I mean who would believe me if I told them I'd been attacked by a vampire?" I ran and ran for miles until I saw the road, I collapsed and fell my life sliding away, I had been so brutally beaten; I was dying."

"The next thing I knew I was in excruciating pain and Rosalie was by my side explaining what was happening to me, I thought I had gone crazy, I was turning into a vampire?" I looked deeply into her eyes as she finished, her life had been so hard, and her death was just as bad, this poor girl had been through so much in such a short life.

"I'll leave you to whatever you were doing." She said nervously as she stood to leave the room. "Don't go." I pleaded, "Please, come sit down, I'll do your hair, curl it, make it look nice for tomorrow." She smiled at me and came to sit down on the floor in front of me. I slowly curled her hair, thinking all the time about what she had just told me, I had just finished her hair as the sun came up.

Chapter Ten

The sunlight was weak, nothing to worry about, but it marked the ending of the night and the coming of another day, another day of distractions, another day of trying to make my life as full as I could, another day of loneliness buried deep within me. I pushed my emotion further into me, this was Rosalie and Emmett's day, I wouldn't ruin it for them, my own happiness wasn't important today. Hayley turned to me, her eyes were pained, full of the heartbreaking memories we had just shared, I realised that my problems were nothing compared to what she had encountered in her fourteen short years. I kissed the top of her head, being careful to watch the elegant curls of her hair.

She smiled at me, though her expression still seemed somewhat pained through her toothy grin. "Come on then," she said "time to get to work." I smiled back as she pulled me to my feet; we had work to do, at least today would keep my mind busy.

Bella appeared at my door, "Hayley said I had to come and have my hair done," she sighed, "come on then, guinea pig Barbie at you service." I laughed and motioned for her to come in and sit down, I had missed Bella in the months I had spent without her, my favourite sister, my best friend, the house didn't seem right without her.

"Come on then sit in my chair of wonder and I will transform you." She laughed and sat down in front of me, pulling her hair out of a loose ponytail. "How's Charlie?" I asked her, I wanted to know what I had missed by leaving my sister in Forks.

"He's getting better," she started "hopefully he'll be out of the hospital soon; it's driving him mad in there. He can't go fishing." I laughed; Charlie would be more bothered about the fish he could have missed than how ill he was.

"So how are we having it?" I asked her, "Up, down, straight, curly?" She laughed and turned to me.

"Why don't you decide?" she asked me. I smiled, that was exactly what I had wanted to hear, Bella had no idea what suited her, it really was a good job I was there for her.

I slowly started to pull Bella's long brown hair into an elegant bun on the top of here head, her hair looked better up, it showed off her face. We sat in silence for most of the time, but it wasn't an awkward silence like I had expected, Bella had never been much of a talker and I had lost the appeal of attention while I was on my own. When I'd finished I pulled Bella into the back of my closet to find her dress, she slid into it and thanked me before leaving quickly, she was never bothered by all the girly things I had tried to do with her, it was a trait her daughter had inherited.

Renesmee was the next in my room, forced in by Hayley, she refused to help me but she never stopped me, she owed that much to her Auntie. I didn't try to do anything extravagant for Nessie; her curls were already beautiful; I didn't need to do anything extravagant. I dragged her into her dress, warning her not to dare spill anything on it or she would have me to answer to, I already had too much to do without having to sort out her dress.

"Knock, knock," Esme appeared at my door smiling, "your lovely assistant told me I was next." I laughed, Hayley seemed to be taking this a little too seriously, but I was glad that she could continue after what she had told me last night. I was about to start work when my mind clouded over and I became motionless, I was having another vision. I saw Tanya and her family downstairs at the wedding, of course they'd come, but I saw something else, something shocking. I saw Ellie and Seth, I saw Ellie trip, I saw the blood, and I saw Garrett; he lunged for the poor defenseless girl, and I saw her death.

I gasped and came sharply back to reality; I had to do something to stop it, I couldn't watch her die, but I couldn't stop either of them from being in that room together, I didn't know what to do. I turned to Esme, "do you mind just waiting here for two minutes, and I'll be back as soon as I can." I didn't wait for her to answer, I was already half way down the stairs; I ran to Edward, he would be my only chance. "Edward," I gasped, "I need…I need your help."

He laughed, "Anything you say sis." I replayed in my mind what I had just seen and his joking face turned severe. "We can't let him in." he said sternly, "I am not letting him hurt that girl in any way." I nodded, I agreed with him in a way.

"But he's practically family now, we can't forbid him." He tried to intercede but I continued quickly, "That's why I need you; I need you to stay with her, look after her, check she doesn't trip up over anything."

He looked doubtful, "are you sure this is going to work?" he asked me.

"It has to." He nodded and tried to force a smile onto his face before I flew up the stairs back to Esme.

The rest of the morning happened in a blur, I was too busy thinking about what I had seen to pay attention to what was happening around me. I was drifting around arranging the flowers when the scent of a human drifted my way, Ellie and Seth had arrived. I ran over to see them, plastering a fake smile on my face, I was happy to see them, just not happy about what the outcome of their visit could be. "I thought I'd crash the wedding," Seth said, "after all Jake crashed the last Cullen wedding; I feel a Quileute tradition coming." I laughed and told them I had already seen them coming. "Damn! I forgot you could see my now, there goes my surprise." Jacob and Nessie appeared on the steps a second later, I was grateful; I didn't like keeping secrets from my friends.

Tanya and her family were the last to arrive, not that we'd invited many guests, I sat them as far from Ellie and Seth as I could manage but there was still a very small gap between them, I put Edward at Bella next to them, if anything happened Edward would have to stop Garrett.

The service went according to plan, Rosalie and Emmet said their vows, but to Carlisle, which took the authenticity away slightly, but it's not like we were expecting a normal wedding. Everything was fine until after the service, Edward and Bella had gone to talk to Emmett when two things happened simultaneously, Ellie tripped and grazed her knee on the corner of the carpet, and Garrett lunged forward after her.

A second past before anyone registered what was going on, and by that point Garrett had bitten down on Ellie's arm. His sharp venomous teeth ripped through her flesh and her blood flowed into his mouth. Emmett dived at him, his huge body knocking Garrett from his unmoving prey and a growl erupting from his chest, Edward was next to act pulling Garrett's arms behind his body and dodging his snapping teeth, between them they managed to get them out of the house, but it looked like it was too late.

Seth grabbed her and held her in his arms, "Her heart's still beating," he whispered, leave her; let her change." He stepped forward and laid her on the table, Carlisle appeared seconds later with a needle, and he plunged it into her heart.

Chapter Eleven

I couldn't watch her writhe in pain before my very eyes, her screams rattled the windows and sent tremors through my body, I had only ever seen Bella change and she had been so calm, so peaceful. Ellie sounded like she was being tortured, the sound was painful to here; it was like I could fell the venom taking hold of my own body.

After only a few hours of her screams I decided I had to get out of there, I concentrated on when her screams would cease and she would wake as one of us before leaving, I didn't want to miss her awakening. I decided I could go hunting, I needed to hunt and it got me out of the house, away from the pain that I knew everybody in there felt. Especially Seth, poor Seth, it hurt me more to watch Seth's reaction to her pain than it did to watch Ellie.

My hunt didn't take me far, only a few miles into Denali land. The family themselves had decided it was time to move on after the incident with Ellie and Garret, they were currently staying at our old home in Forks before they sorted something out permanently. The forests in Denali were ripe with bears, Emmett would have been sad to have missed this trip, grizzly was his favourite.

I arrived back home after hunting only minutes before Ellie's screams stopped, the silence in the room shocked everyone except myself, it seemed to echo through the house. She lay stationary for a few minutes before she opened her eyes, looking around her in shock. Gasping, she rose quickly and fluidly and was straight at Seth's side, she wrinkled her nose. "You smell kinda funny." She said. We all laughed, he did still smell marginally of wolf, even when he was no longer one.

She looked into the light, marveling at the vivid colours, the sight was one of the most amazing things to wake up to, or so I'd heard, I couldn't remember anything but this life. Bella appeared at her side with a mirror, she gasped at what she saw, she never realised she could be so beautiful, her pale skin matched ours perfectly, but her green eyes had turned a vivid red, and she recoiled when she saw them.

Carlisle was the first to speak, "your eyes will be red at the beginning, it's because you're so full of human blood, if you want to follow our diet your eyes will turn topaz like ours, if not, then I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to go your own way." She nodded slowly, taking in the information.

A growl escaped from her chest and we all realised at once that she needed to hunt, we had never had to be so cautious with Bella. Edward grabbed her hands and pulled her out of the back door, we lived in the middle of nowhere, with a small wood behind us, and there would be some small prey in there until we managed to take her somewhere better.

The hunt went well, her eyes lightened slightly as she sampled our diet, she had accepted our way of life, I don't think she had ever known that there had been another way that we would let her live. She slowly began to adjust to life as a vampire; though her thirst never did ebb away totally she learnt how to control it slightly within her first few weeks.

It was about a month after she had been turned that we learnt that she was special….

Ellie came to sit on the sofa next to me, for once she wasn't with Seth, I wondered why, but I didn't ask, if she had fallen out I didn't want to bring it up, not like I was comfortable with talking about relationships anyway. She sat next to me and stared at some random mindless sitcom that was playing on the TV, not really paying attention to it. Turning to me she gazed at me without talking for a while before she spoke, "I can feel you; I can feel the power coming from you." I looked at her confused, what was she talking about?

"It's not just you," she continued, "Bella, Edward, Nessie, they're the same, I can feel a different...energy around you than I can with anyone else." I looked at her again, but with a different meaning this time, could she see our powers? I had never met anybody who even guessed at our powers that easily before.

"Come here, please." I reached out to her and I saw her eyes glaze over as her hand touched mine; her face looked just like mine when I was having a vision.

Abruptly her eyes opened and she stared at me in shock, "Did I just see the future?" she asked me confused, I could see her trying to work out what had just happened. I was almost as confused as she was.

"I think so." I said slowly, had she just harnessed my power like I thought she had? I had never seen a power as amazing as hers before, this was incredible, and she didn't even realise how remarkable she was.

I called for Edward and Bella and I got Edward to touch Ellie's hand like I had. This time her eyes widened before she held her hands to her head, "make them stop," she whispered, "make the voices stop." Edward stepped away shocked, like me, he had never seen anything like that before. "I can still hear them," she said slowly, "they're fading, but I can still hear them, the further you go away, the quieter they get."

Shocked by her revelation Edward stepped away and I stepped closer, again her eyes glazed over and she saw another vision. I looked at Bella and motioned for her to step closer, Edward and I moved back but Ellie's face didn't change, "nothing's happened," she said slowly.

"Bella, go touch Ellie's hand," I said to my sister.

Bella touched her hand and started talking to her. "Ok Ellie I want you to concentrate on your head, I want you to imagine a bubble in your head, a protective bubble that you can move. Can you see it?" Ellie nodded so she continued. "I want you to try and push out that bubble, I want you to try and push it out, and I want you to try and get it to cover me."

It was Bella who was next to react, she gasped at stepped away from Ellie. "I've never seen anything like it," she said, "The two shields, they covered each other and they merged, it was amazing." She looked down at Ellie, "you are unbelievable. You're so powerful, it's incredible." Ellie face broke into a smile; she looked so beautiful when she smiled.

"Carlisle," Bella called out, "Carlisle come here a minute." Our father appeared at the foot of the stairs and Bella hurriedly told him what had happened.

"Well this is interesting," Carlisle started, keeping calm as always, "this is very interesting; I'd like to see what you could do with more powers. This is the most powerful gift I think I have ever seen in all my years."

Chapter Twelve

I was laughing, watching Ellie experiment with her power, she had "borrowed" Nessie's power and they were giggling as they both projected images into the other's head. Seth appeared behind me, his tall figure watching them over my head, I heard his heart speed when he saw her, but I pretended I hadn't heard it, if I blocked it out it didn't hurt me as much. I heard him sigh and I turned to look at him, he looked tired, he hadn't been sleeping properly.

"Seth," I cautioned, "please tell me you've been sleeping properly, you're human, you need your sleep."

"Yes I know I'm flipping human," he snapped at me, his eyes fierce, "that's the problem…don't you see? I'm dying Alice, every second my death edges nearer, and the love of my life will never die." His voice stayed even but I could tell he was fighting to keep his emotion buried inside him, my poor friend; it pained him to live each day when he knew he didn't have an infinite number left.

"I've been trying to make myself angry, trying to turn; I would do anything to be a wolf again, anything to know that I would be able to spend eternity with her." I looked up at his face; he looked so deeply concerned that it pained me to think that he would have to live like this indefinitely. Ellie looked so happy out there, she didn't know the turmoil she was putting through the man she loved by just existing, I felt sorry for them both; their lives would always be tainted by death.

"I keep remembering the story of the third wife," he told me, "the story that we told Bella, the story that convinced her to almost sacrifice herself to that sick, sadistic vampire in the clearing." I must have looked confused because he smiled without humour at my facial expression. "In the story," he continued, "he manages to change back into a wolf after so many years, and I just can't do that." He slumped on the floor, his head in his hands, his body shaking as the tears flowed into his hands from his distraught eyes. "I can't do it, even for her I can't do it, I'm a failure Alice, a complete failure."

I crouched down beside him and held him in my arms, his body shook as he cried; I had never seen him so distressed by anything before, he had always been the level headed one, now his emotions ruled him. He suddenly looked up at me; hope in his eyes, "you can help me," he said slowly, "you can change me." I looked at him shocked; he couldn't expect me to do that, could he? What would happen to him anyway? Could a werewolf, ok an ex-werewolf be a vampire? It had never been done, it could kill him, and I couldn't be responsible for ending his life, not in that way anyway.

I shook my head slowly; I couldn't do that for him. He suddenly erupted with rage, snarling and advancing on me, I was so shocked my instincts failed me, instead of fighting back I curled up on the floor, my head on my knees and I rocked, and I cried.

My thick tearless sobs erupted from me, my body quivering as each one escaped from my throat, I sobbed into my knees, my gasps echoing around me. I cried for Seth and I cried for Ellie, but most of all I cried for my Jasper, I had tried to hide the hole that was eating me up where my soul should be, my soul had been ripped from me the moment he had been ripped from me. Hiding it had made it worse, the hole was revengeful, stabbing at my insides and making me gasp with physical pain every time I drew a breath. I didn't bother to fight it, before a second had passed the hole was already stronger than I was, my strength was fading every day, without my soul, without Jasper I was useless.

Seth came to sit down next to me trembling with either rage or pain, I couldn't decide which, I held him close to me, but this time for my comfort, his warm body keeping me from falling apart. It shouldn't have been Seth I was crying to, it should have been my Jasper; every beat of Seth's heart reminded me of that. His warm fingers stroked my hair out of my face as I cried into his chest, Ellie was so lucky to have him.

I struggled to pull myself together, but every time I closed my eyes I saw Jasper smiling at me, his face warm and inviting, it hurt me more than if I would've if I'd seen him angry at me, or before he left, this was the face from when he loved me, and he didn't love me anymore. I was in mourning, mourning for my Jasper, the Jasper who had died the moment Chelsea had touched him, he was dead; I was never going to see him smile down at me again.

Charlie had explained to me what had happened when we had left and now I realised exactly the same as she had felt the moment we left, I'd had a delayed reaction to it, I hadn't let myself believe that he had really gone, that he had really left me, but he had he had left, he loved her now, I had seen it in his eyes, his deep blood red eyes. She had taken the love of my existence and she had warped him, she had turned him into a murderer, he had killed people to change his eyes the vivid colour they had been, but try as I might, I still couldn't make myself hate him, I still loved him, killer or no killer, he was still a part of me. But that part was missing from me.

I felt like I had been broken, Jasper had been holding me together and when he left I had shattered into a million pieces, I had tried to put all the pieces together, but now I realised I didn't have the glue to hold them there, they had all collapsed, shattering me all over again. My arms instinctively curled around me, holding my broken body together, they encased me, keeping me together, keeping me from falling apart.

Bella walked through the door and was instantly at me side, pushing way Seth and holding me closer to her, she cried with me. I knew she was crying for a different time, the time when we left, Edward's face was pulled into a frown as he remembered the horrific times he had gone through when he left her, this only made me feel worse, I knew that Jasper wouldn't be hurting for me the way that Edward had been for Bella, I doubted he even remembered my existence.

I clung onto my sister tight, scared to let go of her, scared that I would crumble to pieces again if not in her cold, strong, protective arms. She kissed the top of my head and held me tight like I could remember her doing with Nessie when she was little, I was glad of it, I needed mothering now.

Suddenly my head hurt and my eyes glazed over, the vision filled my head, blocking out any other thought than what I saw. My eyes adjusted on a huge field, filled with people, beautiful people with blood red eyes, vampires. They were all stood in orderly rows, and they were all wearing deep black capes, I wondered what they were there for until another beautiful man stood in front of them. He pulled down the hood of his cloak and there he stood, my Jasper, his voice rang out around the field, "You have been trained well," he started, his voice sounding smug, "but it is about time that you learnt what you are all here for." He stopped and looked into the shadows to his left, where I was almost positive Chelsea was stood. "You are here for a noble cause; you are here to save the vampire race, to wipe out all but the great ones. All of you have been chosen for your ability to outwit your opponent, together we can not loose the epic battle that it to come, we will fight together and together we will rid this world of all but the chosen ones."

I came back to reality with a jolt, that couldn't really happen, could it? The Volturi couldn't seriously want to wipe us all out, they were supposed to be the good guys, they were supposed to protect us not kill us. A suddenly painful memory filled my head, I can remember when we lived back in Forks and Jasper was explaining the vampire wars of the south to Bella, it was the same as what Maria had done. She had collected people who she thought would fight well, and she had made an army, the Volturi had been making an army all this time, and we hadn't had any idea.

Chapter Thirteen

My body felt numb with shock, we were all going to die, and there was nothing we could do about it; every single one of us was going to be wiped out; leaving the world to "the great ones" as Jasper had called them. I didn't know when that scene was going to happen, or even where but I knew that whenever and wherever it was, our lives would end soon after it. They would be planning to take us out separately, coven by coven, family by family, until they were the last ones left, I had never thought that somebody who considered themselves so good could be so evil.

I knew we would be the first they would try to annihilate, we had already caused too much trouble, and they would get us out of the way first, before we could interfere with any of the other plans they had. I glanced to Edward, his face mirrored mine perfectly, deep worrying concern and absolute shock, we had never expected anything like this to happen, we hadn't broken any laws, we had kept the secret.

I felt Bella move next to me, her eyes filled with curiosity and concern, "we're all going to die." I murmured and she gasped, I felt her calm deep breath become short and jiggered, but she wasn't scared for her own life.

"Nessie," she breathed, and she turned to look up at her daughter who had gathered in the front room with everybody else to see what was going on. I stepped away and let Nessie sit with her mother who began to sing quietly into her hair and lightly stroke the contours of her face.

The scene was unbearable to watch, a mother's love was one of the most beautiful things on the planet and it was being painfully ripped apart. Poor Bella, in this fight she would lose so much more than any of us would, even Rose, who now had Hayley, wouldn't feel the same pain as Bella, she had carried Nessie, it had killed her but she managed it, it was an immensely strong bond, but it was being ripped apart.

Edward pulled me away into the kitchen, away from all the people sat down looking angry and confused, unlike them he knew exactly what was going to happen, he knew how we were all going to die. "We have to fight," he said slowly, like he was thinking about his decision even as he said those words.

"We can't, if we fight, we die." I looked into his eyes; he looked scared, more scared than I had ever seen him before, he couldn't bear to loose Nessie and Bella.

"What do we do then?" his voice was sharp, angry, "We surrender, we die, we fight we have a chance of getting out of this."

I shook my head, "we run, we don't fight, we don't surrender, we run, we run as far as we can, for as long as it takes, but I am not losing you to them as well."

Bella was at my side in an instant, Nessie still curled holding onto her, "Edward, we have no choice, we have to run."

"No!" his rage erupted inside him as he yelled, "I will not run, I will not let that pathetic scum think I am scared of them, we must fight. They will hunt us down, and they will kill us all slowly and painfully if we run."

"And they will kill us slowly and painfully if we fight too." Nessie spoke quietly but her words were the ones that stopped Edward in his tracks, he turned slowly to face her, his expression tainted by fear and anger.

"We have to baby, we have to, do you not see?" his words were calm now, but I was sure if it were possible for us to cry there would be slow silent tears falling from his eyes, "we have to fight…" He sunk to the floor and banged his head against the cupboard doors, mangling them horribly out of shape with each blow. Tears sprung from Nessie's eyes, her father may not have been able to cry, but she could, the tears ran down her face, but she made no effort to stop them, she let them keep falling, they came thicker and faster but still she did nothing but stand and watch her father slowly destroy Esme's kitchen.

A deep growl came from behind me and I turned quickly to see Jacob stood in the doorway facing us. "What the hell is going on?" he growled at me as he stepped forward and wiped the tears from Nessie's face with a gentle motion that I would have thought impossible with hands the size of his. "Somebody better start talking," he growled, his arm now around Nessie, cradling her in his side.

I looked around me, Edward was still on the floor destroying the kitchen, Bella was next to him, trying to calm him down, and Nessie was sobbing deeply into Jacob's side, looked like it had to be me to tell him, and he wasn't going to like it. "I had a vision," I started, "In the vision I saw…I saw…Jasper," I managed to say his name out loud but it still tore me apart from the inside to even think about him. "He was giving a speech to a group of vampires, they had been collected just like he had, and they had been collected for a war Jacob, the Volturi want to wipe out the vampire race."

"Well we'll have to fight them then won't we; we'll have to stop them." Jacob's gruff voice held no shock as he spoke. Silence filled the room as Edward stopped and looked up at Jacob, he looked hopeful somehow, like with Jacob on his side we'd have to agree with him. "We were willing to fight for Nessie when she was born, why can't we fight those evil bloodsuckers now, isn't the risk even greater?" I stared up at him, what was he suggesting? That we all gather together and fight again? What were the odds of people believing us? Before we had Nessie's power to show everyone the truth, now we had nothing.

"We have trust." Edward said from the floor, he had been listening to my thoughts. "People already have doubt about the Volturi, Alice, people believe you, and they believe us." I shook my head firmly, I couldn't do this.

"They won't, why would they believe us over the Volturi, the people who have ruled us for centuries?"

"They'd believe Carlisle."

I stopped, Carlisle, I hadn't even thought about our adoptive father until Edward mentioned his name, he was respected more than the Volturi in some areas, especially here, some of our kind would follow him to the ends of the earth, I knew I would. "It may still not work." I said; I still had my doubts.

"But it might do." The last words were spoken by Bella, still at her husband's side, "Please Alice, I hate to say it, but they're right, we have to try."

I pulled my little silver phone out of my pocket and began punching in Carlisle's number, I needed to speak to him; we needed him to come home, his vote was final.

Carlisle was at home in minutes, he must have broken every law imaginable to get home that fast, but I didn't stop to dwell on that. He sat everybody down at the kitchen table, it was a good job it was large, there were so many of us now. We all took a vote, everybody except me voted for Jacob's idea, until it was time for Carlisle's vote. "I'm sorry Alice," he said to me before voting for the fight, "there's nothing else we can do."

I flew out of the back door and away from the house; I kept running and running for miles until I was sure Edward wouldn't be able to hear me, as I ran I didn't let myself think of anything but the ground my feet touched and the trees I avoided as I hurried onwards. When I was sure he couldn't hear me I sat down on a rock and I wept, I didn't want everybody else to know why I was so set against the fight, I didn't want to have to hurt Jasper, I would rather have died.