A/N: Alright, so I know I have another story going but I hit a case of writers block. In the process this idea came out at me and I figured I'd run with it until I find my focus again on my other story. As always I own nothing and the characters belong to Stephanie Meyers…and I know all my stories start at the same place, but I think its the part of the series where we all started to see the possibilities for our beloved characters...enjoy
Summary: Edward left Bella after her birthday, Jake and the pack didn't get to her in time when Laurent found her and she was changed. What happens thirty years later when the Cullen's return to Forks and find Bella a vampire?
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"How dare you?" Bella screamed as she threw Edward into the trees, keeping him away from the ceremony. "You have no right here, none of you do." She screeched and he just stared at her in shock.
"Your.." he started and she shook her head.
"A vampire?" She said and he nodded as she started to laugh. "For thirty years now." She said and watched as he did the math in his head, figuring out when she was changed, when she became like him. "I see you still can't read my mind." She said and he shook his head.
"Nothing," he said and went to step forward but Alice came running through and stopped him.
"Don't, there are too many people close by." She said and turned to Bella. "Its good to see you," she said and went over to her, but cautiously.
"Leave, I want all of you to leave. You have no business being here, interrupting this service." She said and started back to the cemetery. Alice went to grab her arm but she threw her towards Edward. "Don't, you brought me into this world, you showed me this all existed and then you left me there. So don't you dare try to come back now and make it right." She said and fixed herself before heading back to the ceremony, pulling down her dark glasses as she looked at the service. There stood her best friend Jake and next to him was Billy who was aging quickly in his wheel chair as they looked down at Charlie being lowered into his grave.
"You ok Bella?" Jake asked and Bella nodded.
"I'm just going to miss him." She said, unable to shed tears anymore. Jake pulled her into his side and hugged her, trying to hold her to him.
"It will be ok Bells, we will get through this." He said and she nodded. "Come on, lets get you home."
"I just need a minute, I'll meet you there." She said and he nodded, heading over to his motorcycle and taking off. Bella watched him leave and knelt down to the grave. "I'm going to miss you, how can I go on without you? I know you have known something was off, with me and Jake. I would have told you, but you wouldn't have believed us anyway. It doesn't matter now, just know that you were a great father and I could never have asked for anyone better." She stood up and straighten her clothes before heading back to her car when she seen them. On the edge of the woods staring, was the entire Cullen clan. She shook her head and unlocked her door, as she got in she seen them approaching and ignored them. She had more important things to deal with then them. She started the car and Edward moved to stand in her path.
"We need to talk." He said evenly and she smirked.
"You did your talking thirty years ago, its your fault things were left unsaid." She said and flipped into reverse and took off, leaving them all surprised at her coordination with driving, and her new found love for speed. As she took off she headed home, she needed to check on Billy and Jake, and still get things together for the wake the next day. She would give Charlie that, a perfect send off to her father.
As she walked in, she seen Billy and Jake in the living room with the game on, and promised to get their dinner together in a minute, she just wanted to change. She may have become more graceful, but she still wasn't thrill with fancy clothes and spent most of her time in sweats. She went up to her room only to find Alice and Jasper standing there and immediately growled at them.
"I told you already, get away from me." She said and went to grab clothes from her drawer. "I'm going to change, don't be here when I return." She seethed and headed to the bathroom.
Alice and Jasper just looked at one another, neither recognizing Bella anymore.
"She's so angry." She said and Jasper shook his head.
"She's beyond angry, I haven't felt furry like that in a very long time. She is furious with us, all of us." He said and Alice nodded, as they made their way out the window and back to the Cullen household. Edward was pacing in the living room waiting when they finally came in.
"How is she? Wait, why isn't she with you?"
"She's not human anymore, we can't force her to come with us." Jasper said, while Alice went and sat in the corner, trying to concentrate see a way to get Bella to come back to them.
"How bad is it?" Carlisle asked and Edward went to sit with Alice in the corner, Jasper's thoughts were enough for him.
"She pretty much would like us all to leave her alone, she wouldn't even hear us out. Just insisted we be gone by the time she got back. I haven't felt anger like that in a long time, whatever happened to her in the last thirty years, it wasn't good."
"She was changed right after we left," Esme said and Carlisle put his head in his hands, figuring it out.
"We abandoned her, she was right, we brought her into our world and then abandoned her. She was changed and then was left alone, she had to figure it all out on her own." He said and everyone looked at him. "Think about it, she did this alone, we weren't there to help her, explain how to do things, how to be near people and not kill them. How to act normal and pretend nothing is wrong, lie about anything and everything. She was alone, you all had someone to be yourself around and she never got that. Of course she's furious, I was when I was first changed." He said and walked away from everyone and stared out the window.
Esme walked over to Edward and put her hand on his shoulder, trying to reassure him, make him relax and listen to them, but she knew he was already on an emotional overload.
"She just needs time, she just buried her father." She tried but Edward shook his head.
"No, I broke her, I left her and she was attacked. That isn't going to change any time soon and that also means she will never forgive me or any of us." He said and stopped when Alice froze. "Where did that come from?" He said and jumped up, Emmet immediately grabbing him. "Where did that come from?"
"I don't know, she's just so angry. She's going to do something bad, I know it." Alice said and Edward took off, "where are you going?"
"To make her talk to me, I need to know what happened." He called back and Alice jumped up but Jasper grabbed her.
"They need to do this on their own, you know that."
"She's going to hurt him," she said and Jasper grabbed her tighter.
"He can take care of himself." Jasper said but Alice shook her head.
"He won't, no matter what she does he's not going to lay a hand on her, you know that." She said and Carlisle came over to them.
"He needs to do this, they need to do this and then who knows what will happen. At least they are both able to survive it." He said and then everyone turned as they heard a tree fall in the distance. "Hopefully the woods can as well." He said and Emmet shook his head.
"Who would have thought Bella would turn out to have so much strength, I mean she threw him like he was nothing." He said and then looked at Alice and tried to lighten the mood. "I mean we all can throw Alice around, but Edward is bigger." He said and Rosalie just shook her head.
"She is going to kick his ass, and part of me can't blame her." She said and everyone turned to her. "Come on, we all know she isn't my favorite person, but what he did was wrong. He brought her into this world, and then threw her away like it was nothing. Sorry but that is wrong and you all know it, from the moment we left years ago we knew it was wrong. He certainly wasn't happy and she clearly wasn't safe, so they are both angry. Seems only fitting that after years of beating himself up, someone does it for him." She said and everyone continued to stare, "What? Its not like no one else thought the same thing."
With that Rosalie and Emmet took off to hunt, Jasper tried to take Alice but she refused. Instead she went up to their old room and tried to think, but she couldn't get a read on Bella. She knew something was blocking it, but couldn't figure out what it was. All she could see was Edward and none of it was good.
Bella returned to her room and found it empty and sighed in relief, as she started to walk out she seen Jake who immediately hugged her.
"No matter how much cologne you use, you do still smell." She said and he laughed.
"You're not much better there leech." He said and she laughed. "Which one of them came?"
"Alice and Jasper, they wanted to talk." She said as they went down and she started dinner for Billy and Jake. "I told them both to go, I told them all at the cemetery, but it seems Alice wasn't taking no for an answer."
"I'm half surprised you didn't talk to her, I know you two were close."
"She abandoned me, just like him -- they all did. I can't forgive them, especially not right now." She said and he nodded.
"That sucks, because one of them is outside." He said and she immediately turned and started to growl. "Oh, apparently its not anyone, it's the one. That would be your beloved." He said and took a bite of his steak as Bella threw the towel at him.
"Shut up," she said and he laughed. As much as Jake loved her, he knew they'd never be more then friends. A werewolf and a vampire? It just wouldn't work, friendship was hard enough at times, but they needed each other and they were there for one another. As much as he hated to admit it at times, he knew there was no one Bella would ever love then Edward, even though he abandoned her, Jake knew he would forever have her heart.
Bella stepped outside and spotted him leaning against a tree. He looked at mess, but she shook that thought off. She wasn't going to care, she wasn't going to give him anymore of herself then she already had, it wasn't fair. He broke her, turned her world upside down and then abandoned her in the mess.
"I said I didn't want to see any of you."
"And I said I'm not leaving until I get some answers." He said and took a step towards her.
"Hmm, let me think about that." She said and stood there for a moment and then laughed. "Nope don't think that's going to happen. I mean, I didn't get that choice." She said with the sweetest smile and watched his face drop.
"Bella, please." He said and took another step towards her, which made her move back. His scent surrounding her, and she needed to get away. She continued backwards as he went forward until she was backed against a tree. She could have pulled it from the roots, pushed him across the woods but she couldn't. Something was pulling her to him, stronger then ever, something she never knew existed.
"Edward I have to take care of Billy and Jake, they need me."
"They are fine, Billy is occupied with the game and Jake is eating. Don't worry you have some time." He said and tried to trap her with this arms. He reached up to run his hand down her cheek. Feeling the now cold skin that was there where her warm blush use to be. Not hearing the pounding of her heart he loved as he stood close to her. "Just please tell me we can talk. If you want to scream at me, throw me through a million trees fine. Just tell me what happened." He said and she closed her eyes and leaned against the tree, trying to take in the sent of the woods, anything that wasn't Edward.
"You haven't changed," she said and he looked at her confused. "You come crashing into my world and expect everything to go your way, on your terms." She said and finally got the strength to push him off her. "I just buried my father, who I have lied to for years about what and who I was. Give me time to grieve for him, to deal with that. Then, maybe we can talk. Until then, keep yourself and your family away from me." She said and we back into the house leaving him speechless.
Edward took a step towards the house and stopped when he heard Jake's thoughts.
Really wouldn't suggest that leech, she can be quite accurate with trees these days. Giver her what she asked for, give her time. Edward stood there frozen, looking at Jake through the window and noticing he hadn't changed, given he was taller, but he didn't age much and was different. He tried to figure it out, but it seemed Jake just kept singing lyrics in his head, purposely keeping him out. As he headed back to his house, he figured it out. What the smell was, the one he couldn't shake even as he got close to her, remembering all that Bella had once told him about who he was, where he was from. It all added up to one thing: Jake was a werewolf.
"Thank god you're ok." Alice said as he came through the door, immediately hugging him.
"What do you mean? Couldn't you see me?"
"Kind of, but it was very blurry. I don't like it. And now I can't see Bella at all."
"Wait, you couldn't see me, and you can't see her?" He said and she nodded and he shook his head. "Seems you can't see werewolves, its blocking your vision."
"What do you mean werewolves?" Carlisle said as he jumped up and went over to them.
"The guy that was at the funeral, the one that looked about the same age as all of us, he's Jacob Black. He's Billy Black's son, from the Quilete Tribe."
"That would explain the smell." Rosalie said and Edward shook his head.
"Ya well from the looks of things he's taken care of her, cares about her, so I can't hate him." He said and then went to the door. "What are you doing here?" He asked, but moved for Jake to come in.
"I figured if Bells is too stubborn to fix this, then it's going to be up to me." He said and everyone looked at him. "Look you aren't my favorite people, there is no doubting that. I mean my grandfather did make a treaty with you to keep us apart. However, I love Bells and I have watched her turn herself inside out for thirty years and its about time it stops."
He said and everyone looked at him, all forming their opinions of him. Whether they should trust him or not, and then finally Esme came up and hugged him.
"Why don't you have a seat." She said and he followed her.
"What happened?" Emmet said and everyone crowded around, curious of what happened in the last thirty years.
"That psycho red head, Victoria came back shortly after you skipped town. Well not her as much as Laurent, seems he had a thing for Victoria and she talked him into reacting her revenge. He was suppose to find Bella and hold her until she got there, but he got over anxious." He started and Edward leaned on the arm of the chair, refusing to look at Jake, the images in his head were more then enough. "You know, if you'd listen to the story and stop reading my mind, this would be a lot easier on both of us." He said and Edward spun around. "Ah, see you do listen." He said smugly and Alice started to laugh.
"I think I might like him, though we need to work on your cologne." She said and Jake laughed.
"Bells says the same thing, she's always throwing something on me, but its been easier over the last few years now that we are so use to one another. At first it was a nightmare. But that's not the point, after you left, Bella would wander off on her own. It scared the hell out of Charlie, so I promised to keep an eye on her. She always ended at the same couple of places: the library, here on your steps -- well until I taught her to pick the lock and this clearing in the woods." He said and watched Edward immediately look up.
"She was looking for me, she went to our meadow" he said softly but everyone heard him.
"Ya, well she'd been gone a couple hours so I headed to the clearing, figuring she probably tripped and twisted her ankle or something. But as I got closer, something was off. So I ran but when I got there, Laurent had already bit her. I fought him off, well me, Seth and Embry. We killed him, but we didn't know what to do about Bella. We couldn't stop it, and there was no way we could kill her, so we let it happen. She stayed with me in the beginning…" he said and then got a far away look in his eyes. Edward fell to his knees as he seen the images in Jake's memory, Bella going through the change, her screaming out for him. "Charlie just figured she was depressed again and thought I was helping. So he didn't ask too many questions and she dropped out of Forks and started doing all her work from 'home'. She couldn't have been at school and my dad didn't know what to really do. So he stayed with my sister while me and Seth were with her. She wasn't thrilled with me at first, but she started to come around."
"But she didn't hurt anyone?" Carlisle asked and Jake shook his head.
"She adjusted to her new lifestyle, and I took her hunting with me for a while. I mean the only people around her were me and Seth, Charlie visited but not for long. He always knew something was wrong, that she was different after that day, but he didn't ask. He figured it was how she coped with you guys leaving and left it alone. After a couple months she went back to Charlie, and went back to being Bella. Or, really the new Bells."
"She's got quite the attitude." Alice joked and Jake laughed.
"I got the x-rays to prove it. She has a lot of anger in her that I never imagined she could have. She's a lot stronger then you would think. Definitely more so then I thought, but she learned to control it, not crush everything she touched. We fell into a routine, and she was ok. She wasn't happy, but she was alive, or -- you know what I mean. Everyone hated her, half blamed her for you leaving, the rest thought she was weird and avoided her, so one day she stopped trying. Her old friends dropped her, no one really liking her new personality, and the rest were too busy focusing on leaving Forks for college and starting their own lives. She spent a lot of time in the garage with me or on her motorcycle." He said and slunk back.
"You let Bella, my Bella get on a motorcycle?" Edward asked and Emmet grabbed his arm.
"Easy boy, you seen her drive, I'm sure she handled it." He said trying to calm Edward down.
"Not until after the change, before she was just allowed on mine with me. But ya she liked it, said she felt at ease so eventually she bought one. Everyone started to wonder why she didn't change, never aging as the years wore on and when the rumors started about plastic surgery Bells accepted them."
"Bella plastic surgery? Somehow that seems ridiculous." Emmet said as he laughed and Jasper tried to spread calm through the room.
"Go on," Esme said, amazed at how much they all missed, feeling sad for all the things that she wasn't there for, feeling like she ran out on a daughter.
"She worked at the diner for a while as a waitress and now is a secretary for the police. But none of that really matters." He said and stood up to look at Edward, "You broke her heart. Worse then that, you took it with you because since you left, I have never seen Bells smile. No matter what is going on around her, or what joke is told she doesn't smile, not a genuine smile. She's gotten real good at faking it, making everyone think she's ok when she isn't. She can lie with the best of you, and everyone falls for it, except me. I know her too well." He said and paused, "and as much as I would love to rip you to pieces, it would kill her." He said and stood there, running thirty years through is mind while Edward leaned against the wall for support, seeing what she went through, all of it without him. "She loves you, will always love you and its about damn time you fix this. Because see we wolves don't live forever, once the threat of vampires leave we go back into human form and start to age again. Someone needs to take care of her, someone that loves her."
"She won't even look at me, how the hell am I going to fix this?" Edward said and Jake smiled.
"You don't bruise easily do you?" He said and Alice started to laugh, knowing what he was planning.
"Jake if you didn't interfere with my visions, I'd love to have you around more." She said and he smiled.
"I had a feeling that would happen, I mean there had to be a reason you didn't know Bella was changed thirty years ago. Part of me knew that if you did, you would have come back sooner." He said and Carlisle finally spoke.
"If we'd known, we would have come back. She could have used the help, from someone that understood."
"I'm not going to lie, we made mistakes, but we were trying to figure it all out with her.." Jake said and Esme nodded.
"You did all you could, we can see that, she wouldn't have made it alone. But do you really think, she'll speak to us again?"
"She hates that you left without saying goodbye. I think that was always her weak point, that you didn't care enough to tell her you were leaving." He said and then turned to Edward. "You were just the asshole that said he didn't love her." He said and Emmet immediately hit him.
"You ass, even I wouldn't do something that stupid." He said and shook his head.
"It was the only way she'd let me go, I had to make her hate me."
"Well newsflash, it didn't work, because you still are the only person she does or will ever love." He said and started towards the door. "Look I'm not saying its going to be easy, and I'm not saying its going to be today. But she will forgive you, the balls in your court, if you put in the effort you can have her back. And maybe, I can get my best friend back too. Not that I haven't enjoyed having Bells to myself, but I'd love to see Bella again." He said and left.
Everyone stood in silence, all taking in what has been going on in Forks for the last thirty years. Trying to figure out what their next move should be. Then Alice sat down and froze, Jasper at her side immediately as she had a vision. She smiled and for the first time since they arrived in Forks -- Edward did too.
"How do you guys feel about adding another member to the family?" Alice said and Esme squealed, wanting it all to happen quickly.
"Really, you see it working out?"
"Yep, all I have to do is let her throw me threw a few trees first. Seems we'll have to donate some money to the park service, me and her are about to cause a lot of damage." He joked and they all smiled, going their separate ways to hunt, waiting for the right time to talk to Bella. They all had things to say to her, and knew they couldn't ambush her again, especially not right now, she was right, she needed some space to deal with the death of her father.