Title: Middle of Nowhere Squared

Author: Roguie

Fandom: Twilight

Pairings: Edward/ Bella, plus canon sets.

Rating: M for language and potential future sexy times.

Summary: Fate dealt a Bella a bad hand. Armed only with her best friend, she left Forks in search of her destiny. Three years later, she's waiting tables in the middle of Nowhere, Nevada – Alice has found her home, will Bella's time come finally in the form of a certain green eyed stranger? Or will the secrets they choose to keep hidden be the final nail in a coffin Bella's long sensed coming? AU/AH

Disclaimer: Twilight obviously doesn't belong to me, Stephanie Meyer gets that right. Me? I just borrow her characters and mutate their inner voices for a bit of fun. Please don't sue: my house is small, my car is useless and my dogs are pains in the arse, but they're all I have.

A/N: Taking a small break from TVD – the writing is doing nothing for my muse this season so instead I'm going to put my efforts into this all human Twilight fiction before I get back to writing Confessions of a Baby Vampire. Y'all have canon Delena right now anyway, so you don't need me spicing them up for the moment. I can't guarantee the speed of updates on this as I get very little writing time in my day, but my muse seems very excited with what she's started here, so let's see where she takes it. As with all my fics, I only ask that you drop me a line and let me know that you're either enjoying my work or if not, what I can do to improve what I'm writing. I'm a big girl, I can take constructive criticism where warranted. This, however, is the first time I've ever dabbled in the AU/AH world of fiction, not to mention the first time I've ever stepped in the Twilight fan pool. Here's hoping for a warm welcome.

~~VV~~

Prologue: Nowhere In My Dreams

~~VV~~

Life doesn't always take the path one expects. I'd spent twenty two years following the rules. School is more important than boys, homework over parties, work now so you don't have to work twice as hard in the future, listen to your parents and they'll never steer you wrong. So that's what I did. I worked my ass off in school, bringing home straight As with never so much as a stutter in their dependency. I didn't join any teams or extra curricular activities, but I did work shifts at the local sporting goods store to help supplement my college fund. I went to a party here and there, but since I had no real time for dating, drinking and dancing didn't hold the appeal it did for my incredibly small group of friends. I was every parent's dream child, until the dream shattered in a brilliant explosion and left me alone, picking the traces of shrapnel out of my decimated life.

I'd always wanted to write. There was a time I'd not be caught dead without a pen and pad somewhere on my person. I guess things haven't changed that much, only now I was scribbling half hearted disjointed lines on paper napkins on my breaks.

Yep, you've got it right. That's me, Isabella Swan, Forks High's brightest, voted most likely to succeed, taking orders at an all night diner fifty miles outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, on a desert road that led somewhere, I'm sure, but I've never bothered driving far enough down it to find out where.

There's not really a town around me, more like a few clusters of trailers every few miles, sometimes a house, more often than not there's absolutely nothing.

After everything went down with my dad, I high tailed it out of town faster than you could say debt consolidation. I forfeited my first semester's tuition and never returned to WSU, hopping into my sixty year old truck and leaving my dreams behind in the dust between me and the entire state of Washington. I picked up a stray just before passing the 'Now Leaving Forks" sign on the only road out of town: my best friend, Alice Brandon, her bags packed and stacked beneath her as she sat waiting for me, sticking her thumb out for my attention only when it seemed I had no intention of stopping to let her in. It only took seconds for the little homunculus to toss her shit into the box before climbing into the cab and clapping her fingers together, tipping her designer sunglasses down over her eyes and kicking her feet up to rest on the dashboard.

"I vote we go south," she'd said, checking her nails calmly, her voice matter of fact as if she had any say in which direction I'd make my escape.

Still, I couldn't stop myself from asking, "What's south?"

"Sun, warmth, tans, boys, tanned boys warming themselves in the sun, preferably shirtless, slowly drinking an ice cold beer…"

I'd laughed as she carried on in her typical Alice manner. Since I had no real direction in mind and it really didn't matter where we ended up, I turned south to thank her for my first real laugh in weeks.

Turned out, I probably should have rented a car or something, since the third day we were on the road, having finally managed to drag Alice out of the bright lights and dripping sin offered by the streets of Las Vegas, the desert heat proved to be too much for my old truck and it choked and died less than two hundred feet from where I now call home.

The locals called it Hale's Everything, since the space housed Hale's Diner, Hales Auto and Tow, Hales Video and Convenience, and Hales Gas Bar. You'd think the Hale family would be pretty proud of what they built, and they were, but not too proud to take me in when I finally had no where else to go, and no means to get there even if I had.

Bill Hale took both Alice and I under his wing, giving us a trailer in the small row he had built behind his tiny empire. He gave Alice a job at the convenience store and set me to work waiting tables at the diner. He told us we could work to pay our rent until we got back on our feet, after that, if we wanted to stay on with his family, the double wide was ours, as were our jobs. He wouldn't see two little girls put out on the streets when he had the power to change that.

So we stayed.

Yeah, I break a few too many dishes and I've spilled more plates than I think they've counted, but I'm a pretty good waitress overall. And Alice? God, what do I say about Alice? Turned out Mr. Hale has twins our age, Jasper and Rosalie. Rose ran the gas and auto side of the business while Jazz controlled the video and convenience store. We weren't living there three months before Alice had Jasper wrapped around her little finger and I had the double wide trailer all to myself. I doubt if I ever actually wanted to leave Hale's Everything that she'd come with me again. Alice found her forever home here in the middle of nowhere squared.

Me?

Yeah, well I'm still looking.

~~ TBC ~~