[Disclaimer] I own a 12 $ copy of Alice's necklace but unfortunately not the copyright of the Original Twilight Saga.

[A/N] Thanks and hugs to everyone who reviewed the first chapter and/or put me on their alerts. It really means a lot to me to hear your thoughts. Please keep them coming, they are so encouraging. Also if you have any suggestions or wishes, feel free to pm me.

# Special thanks to TheDragonflyLover and Multicolouredeyes from PTB for being my betas in this chapter. I really appreciate all your help, and sent you a virtual box of your favorite candy. #

**About Unintended Patience**

The unfamiliar sound of an electric alarm clock woke me up much too early in the morning. It took me a few moments to remember where I was, when I finally managed to open my eyelids.

The room I was staying in had no proper rolling shutter, and so the flashing light of the morning sun blinded my tired eyes. I stood up and nearly tripped over a box again.

This room was an awful setup for possible accidents for uncoordinated people like me.

My eyes caught the small pile of letters that were widespread all over the floor next to my bed. Somehow, I longed for reading them again, but I knew that this had to wait until I come back from school. School. I cringed at the thought of the joyful event of being the new girl - again.

I stuffed the envelopes underneath the pillows before I grabbed some clean clothes and my bathroom necessities and stumbled towards the pink nightmare that was called Aunt Maureen's bathroom. It was like an oversized Barbie house. The towels were pink, as were all the items within from the toothbrush to the toilet paper and from the hairspray to the brushes. It was a place that would be loved by a bunch of five-year-olds that still wore tiaras on sleepovers.

I stepped inside the shower - pink curtain, of course - and turned on the water. Unfortunately, it had one of those old fashioned mixing faucets that left you with the two options of either freezing yourself to death or boiling your skin til you got blisters.

After a few unsuccessful attempts to regulate the temperature, I just gave up, and decided to shower with cold water. My scalp prickled when the icy drops touched it, and my teeth were chattering loudly as I stepped out five minutes later with dripping hair. I had no time to blow dry it before I had to leave with Aunt Maureen, so I just towel-dried it and twisted it into a loose knot at the back of my head. Then I put on some jeans and a brown sweatshirt that made my pale skin look even paler, almost unhealthy.

Aunt Maureen was working in the kitchen when I came down the stairs.

"Good morning, honey-bee!" She greeted me cheerfully before she turned around, whistling as she stirred something in a copper pan.

Oh geez – she was a morning person; how great.

"Morning, Aunt Maureen." I forced my face into a grimace that was meant to look like a smile, and sat down on one of the wooden kitchen chairs. Pouring myself a cup of freshly brewed coffee I added some milk and started sipping on it.

"You should eat something, too, honey-bee." I shook my head and felt my stomach cringe at the thought of food. Aunt Maureen filled her plate with scrambled eggs and bacon while she looked at me from head to toe.

"You're much too skinny, honey-bee. You look unhealthy. I mean, I know that there's barely any sun in Washington, but your skin is white as a ghost, and there's no color in your entire face, apart from the bags underneath your eyes."

I cringed and forced myself to eat a piece of dry toast, while my stomach felt as if I was about to throw up.

"I've always been pale," I mumbled with a full mouth, hoping that she would give up on the subject soon. I knew I looked bad; it wasn't like I hadn't looked into a mirror during the last months. How was I supposed to look pleasant on the outside, when everything inside me was nothing but a dry desert of emotional wasteland?

After brushing my teeth with some awful pink colored toothpaste that tasted like bubblegum, I applied a thin layer of concealer underneath my eyes to hide the dark circles and a hint of blush on my cheeks. It didn't help me look prettier, but it wasn't meant to. All I wanted to do was to avoid people in my new school staring at me with pity for the sick, pale new girl; I just couldn't have that.

Aunt Maureen drove me to the school before she had to start working her shift at the hospital. She was a nurse. Well, she used to be a nurse, but now she's more of a secretary or receptionist instead - Typing letters for the doctors on her station, ordering all the drugs and the other stuff for the hospital. She started working about 11:00 A.M. and came home about 9:00 P.M. which meant that she wouldn't be home at dinner time, but that was okay with me. I suggested that I could cook for myself, like I had done back home with Charlie. She seemed to be pretty fine with that, but told me she was skipping dinner anyway, as she was on a special diet aka cancelling dinner for a few glasses of her favorite orange liquid. I didn't actually know how many calories peach liqueur had, but I guessed it contained a little more than the actual fruit itself. Not quite a smart way of trying to lose weight…but who cares?

She parked her car in front of the grey building of the Biloxi high school and turned off the engine.

"Ready to go, honey-bee?" She asked me encouragingly while we made our way to the school office.

"Yeah…sure. I can't wait," I murmured, and avoided looking at any of the other waiting students that were walking towards the main entrance of the school.

The secretary was a thin-lipped woman, who introduced herself as Mrs. Mitchell. After Aunt Maureen filled out the necessary forms, I became an official student and was handed my schedule. I glared at the blue paper in front of me and tried to memorize everything. Two hours of English Literature, followed by….

"Oh, Isabella?"

"Bella," I corrected automatically.

"You won't need that schedule today, as we're having a Health Day today. No regular class – just sports."

Sports? The entire day? Alright, I hate this school!

I glared at Aunt Maureen with a desperate expression on my face that made her cringe slightly.

"Is everything alright, Bella?" She asked, worried, and touched my cheek with her fingertips.

My brain tried to come up with a proper excuse as to why I couldn't attend the torture of six hours of sports on one single day of school. I hated lying and I knew that I sucked at it, but this was an emergency situation. Six freaking hours!

"I don't think I feel physically well enough to do sport Aunt Maureen's," I whispered with a faint voice and looked down at the floor to avoid eye contact with her.

A low moan, that sounded ridiculously fake to my ears, escaped my throat. Aunt Maureen placed an arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to her.

"See, honey-bee. That comes from you being too thin. Maybe you really should go home and rest before you faint or anything like that." Then she turned towards Mrs. Mitchell.

"Would it be alright if my niece started school tomorrow? It's not like she's going to miss a lot today, anyway," she stated and smiled at her.

The secretary nodded her head and returned the smile. Then she started rubbing her chin nervously as if she was hesitating to ask Aunt Maureen something.

"Have you talked to Mrs. Meade over the last few days? We're all dying to hear how she's doing."

"You know that I'm not supposed to say anything about our patients," she declared.

"Yes I know but she is…ahm, I mean, she was a colleague," she insisted.

"That doesn't change the fact that she is now a patient in our hospital, and we have to respect her privacy."

Mrs. Mitchell's cheeks flushed a delicate red and she seemed to be a little embarrassed.

She tried to look busy sorting several sheets of paper into a ring binder and we quickly said goodbye to her before leaving the building.

"Stupid old witch," Aunt Maureen snarled when we were outside. I cringed and gave her a confused look.

"She's always sticking her nose in things that aren't her business at all," she explained.

"I actually think that it was pretty nice of her to ask about her sick colleague," I answered.

She shook her head and opened the passenger's door for me.

"Bella, it's not like that woman broke her leg or anything like that. Patients that end up in the Psychiatric Unit of the hospital have serious mental problems. People have a lot of prejudices about our work that are mainly based on awful movies. All they want to hear are some scary stories about rubber cells and Electro-shock-therapy."

I winced at the thought of that and put my seat belt on. Deep inside of me I felt the strange urge to ask her more about her work, and that surprised me somehow. I feared shrinks more than anything. Charlie had once – just once - suggested that I could talk to someone professional about my break up. Fortunately, he was quite skeptical about stuff like that himself, so it was easy to convince him to let go of that idea.

Aunt Maureen dropped me of at her house and drove off to work. I nearly stumbled over the cat that was rubbing himself against my shin and purred.

I took him on my shoulder and stroked his velvety fur with my fingertips for a few moments until he started to flounder around.

Putting the cat down, I sat down and forced myself to do some algebra functions. When I was ditching school – well, technically I was only ditching sports, and that didn't count - I should at least try to study a little at home. After a while, my head started to hurt and the small numbers vanished before my eyes. I even considered doing the impossible; putting on my glasses, which were stuffed down in the deepest corner of my school bag.

Knowing that I wouldn't be able to continue without them, I gave in and rummaged around in my bag for them.

XXX

It was already pitch black outside when I looked up from my books again. My stomach growled, and I realized that I had forgotten to eat anything all day.

I put some water into a pot and waited for it to boil.

As the water started bubbling, I opened the cupboard and pulled out a package of instant chicken soup. It wasn't really my favorite, but I felt hungry and I knew that I should eat something warm.

The soup was hot and too salty, but I managed to swallow down two bowls. Wiping my mouth on my sleeve, I rinsed the dishes under the kitchen faucet.

When I returned to my new room, I sat down on the bed with my legs crossed, and pulled out the letters from underneath my pillow.

They had kept me up last night, and I had to admit that they fascinated me somehow. The girl, who wrote them, Mary Alice, had kept writing them over several months, although they all returned with that ugly reddish note on it.

Delivery refused

As I opened one of the envelopes and started reading again, I wondered why she didn't just give up on it.

New Orleans, 20 September 1920

My beloved Angel,

Only a few days have passed since my last letter to you; I hope that they let you read it and don't forbid you to send an answer to me. Father visited today and brought my new medicine with him. I feel bad for causing my parents such enormous costs with my condition. They love me, and are trying anything to make me feel better. I didn't want to take the small yellow pills before I went to bed, but he made me swallow them with a glass of lemonade. The last ones that Dr. O'Hara prescribed me made me sick for an entire week, when I started taking them. Sometimes I tried to cheat and hid the little green drops under my tongue, until they left my room again, but then Cynthia found them under my pillow, and asked Mother what they were. My father was furious with me again for being so unreasonable about my health. I apologized halfheartedly, and left the room to sit on the porch swing, until the sky turned into a lilac-grey. It was amazing, I wished I could sit there with you and hold your hand in mine.

Today, I told my aunt about you, and how much I'm missing you. She was very friendly and understanding - she offered to take my letter to the post office for me. Isn't that nice of her? I wished I could tell her more. I wished I could tell her how important you are to me, and how I really feel about you.

There are no words to tell you how much I long to hold you in my arms, eventually, and never let go. I want to bury my face into the soft curls of your chestnut hair and fall asleep on it.

I have to learn to be more patient with you, my angel. This world isn't an easy place for lovers like us to live in, and I will wait forever for you to be ready to be with me.

I'll leave a candle burning when I go to sleep tonight. You know how scared I am of the darkness, my angel. Once we are reunited again, I'm sure my fears will fade away in the end.

Until then, I'm always waiting for you,

Mary Alice

I read the letter twice before I folded the thick, cream-colored paper again and carefully stuffed it back into the small envelope. Then I searched my suitcase for my flashlight. I placed it on a huge box next to me and made it stand up right so that when I switched the light off, a small trail of yellow reflected on the ceiling. A light in the darkness.

#thanks for reading my story and please review, if you liked it and want to read more#