(set about ten years after Bella's transformation)
PRE-STORY/SUM: While Nadia was on duty in a problematic area, a house caught fire. Except for that house, twenty others burned down. There were no survivors.
The traumatic experience made Nadia Forrest, one of the best female cops in the area, leave Chicago and move to Rothesay instead, the small town where she'd been born. Her parents, still living in the US, are desperate to make her come back, to make her get over the pain, but Nadia only draws away, not trusting the different doctors that are assigned to help her.
Until one day, when she's suddenly re-united with the doctor that treated her after a fall when she was only five years old. The man with a big secret…
After the rain
I could see you crying
Suffer the pain
Like a river drying
After the rain
You're hiding from the daylight
Deep in a groove
Only walls around you
Nowhere to move
The state I found you
Deep in a groove
Lonely in the cold night
You're not alone
You're not the only one who hurts
You're not alone
This is the moment of rebirth
I've seen your heartache
I feel the pain you hide inside
You're not alone
Come, let me hold you
"You're not alone" by BWO
"Nadia, please", her mother said on the phone. "You've got to do something about it. I promise you, Doctor Garland is a wonderful person, he will help you, I promise."
"No", Nadia said, shaking her head. "I won't see him."
"Nadia, I beg you."
"Mum, just leave me alone", Nadia hissed. "I do not need any of your help; you do not know what it's like…"
"Of course we understand you, dear, we…"
She hung up the phone. It didn't hurt as much as it would've done before the accident; then she would've called back in a few moments and told her parents how sorry she was. But not now. Now she didn't want anyone near, it hurt her too much.
A slight knock on the door, but she didn't look up. It was probably the milk-man or someone else she didn't really care about.
Another knock, a soft voice speaking through the wood.
"Anybody home?"
She slowly looked up from her position in the couch. She didn't recognize the voice, and it had an American accent, on top of it all. Slowly, as if she was barely able to move her legs, she rose and walked out into the hallway. Through the window in the door she could see a beautiful woman, so beautiful that she had to stop. She smiled at her, a perfect smile. Her whole face looked perfect, to tell the truth.
Nadia slowly walked the last steps to the door and opened it. The woman still smiled.
"I'm Esme Cullen", she said. "I'm your new neighbour, together with my family."
Even though she'd been there for about three months now, she had had no idea that the big house closer to the wood was for sale. Her own house and that one were the only ones standing this far from the town itself; if you were in town you couldn't even see them thanks to the hills.
"Oh", she managed to say. Esme tilted her head, sending her caramel-coloured locks to whirl around her.
"You do not look too well", she said. Nadia looked away.
"Maybe not", she said shortly.
"Oh, I'm so sorry, you look like you've been going through something terrible", Esme said comfortingly and placed the box she'd been carrying on the ground. Nadia almost growled at her; why did everyone have to be so concerned about her? It was her choice if she wanted to move on, right?
Esme surprised her by her next action.
"I will return another day instead, dear", she said. "It seems like now is not the best of times. If you need anything, feel free to come and visit us."
She smiled comfortingly, before graciously turning around and walking back to her house and her family. Nadia followed her as she walked the two hundred meters to the white, two-storey house. She noticed figures walking back and forth between the large garage and the door. She counted them to be five, except for Esme.
Great, she thought bitterly, a big family next door. With my luck, I'll end up killing them too.