Chapter II
It Doesn't Pay to Make Predictions

"Even when you're feeling warm

The temperature could drop away

Like four seasons in one day"

-Crowded House


I was at the top of the stairs when I heard Alice's voice. "Edward, I have something I have to tell you. It's about Bella."

I could hear the fear in her voice, and felt certain Edward could as well. "What about Bella?" He asked, his voice colored with dark trepidation.

"Let's go outside Edward, I think...you'll want to hear this privately." Alice said in hardly more than a whisper. Her voice was husky and concerned.

"Alice, are you trying to drive me insane? I'm not one for managing my emotions well, and frankly, you're frightening me." I heard Edward's voice as they walked through the front door.

I stepped down the rest of the stairs and watched my children speak through the window. Alice pulled Edward across the meadow of the front yard and only when they'd moved far enough away that the sound would be blocked, did she begin speaking. She spoke quickly, her brows furrowed, her hands wringing before her. Edward stood stiff and stoic. As I watched them Edward's posture slowly bent forward, but his head remained defiantly lifted, his hands curled into fists. Alice pressed on, and suddenly Edward's anger was recognizable in his entire posture. He reached a hand before him and swept it across his front, heatedly yelling at Alice who attempted to reach forward and place a hand on his arm, as she made her argument. Edward suddenly pointed up towards the house, in the approximate direction of Jasper and Alice's bedroom and I heard a shifting of footsteps and an oath from their room. I heard their bedroom door open and close and Jasper came down the steps behind me.

He stepped beside me and we both watched Edward and Alice arguing out front. Abruptly at just that moment, Edward stepped right into Alice's face and screamed at her, this one sentence made it through the glass, "Damn it Alice, it hasn't ever been me that's been left behind. I REFUSE!" and he turned and fled. I turned to look at my son, allowing my expression to ask the question I wasn't certain I wanted to know the answer to.

Jasper turned to me and then his head dropped in shame, "I'm sorry Dad. Alice had a vision. This one was about Bella, and me. It's always been Alice and Edward taking the strange turns. Edward's not very happy about this."

"Is there nothing we can do? Can we not deny Alice's vision, disallow it." I asked, somewhat hopelessly.

"Not once a decision has been made." Jasper replied.

"So Bella..." I began, but Jasper cut me off.

"No Dad, I've accepted it. I never disbelieve Alice. Someone has to tell Bella though. She's completely unaware of the history of this. Perhaps you?" Jasper asked, leaving the question hanging in the air between us.

"Jasper! I can't speak to her about these things, she'd be mortified, and I can't deny I'd be extremely chagrined myself." I couldn't imagine having such a conversation with my newest daughter. Yes she'd been with our family for many years now, but her appreciation for things among us was still relatively new.

"Dad, she trusts you implicitly, and she'll believe it immediately coming from you. She'll have no choice but to accept it." Jasper begged.

"I'm not entirely certain I want her to accept it Jasper. I don't see what good can come from it." he said.

"Well, the only good I've been able to find in it myself is that it'll finally allow Bella and I to have a chance to become closer. Beyond that, I'm as at a loss as you are. I guess I'll talk to her, and hope she doesn't slaughter me for making such a rash decision." He turned away and began walking back up the stairs as Alice finally turned and walked towards the house.

"Alright son, I'll talk to her. I'm still mystified by what to say to her, but I'll do my best." I said.

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"Alice please, I cannot possibly do this alone. She's going to feel so betrayed, I feel betrayed. I won't have the strength to make it through this without someone to draw strength from. I've had to leave her once before, and it nearly destroyed us both. I can't do this again. Only the fact that I know she won't be alone this time makes this possible. Please Alice, I'm begging you." Edward held my hands, trapping them and not allowing me to turn away.

I inwardly cursed my ability. Why should I be forced to have to put them through this. Essentially, I was singularly responsible for splitting my family up. I'd done it before, but it had always been agreed upon by everyone involved. This time it was against everyone's will. Well, no one wanted it to happen, but for Edward, it was by his will. He'd argued and refused until I'd said that in my vision, Bella had been blissfully happy. Bella's happiness haunted Edward's every consideration, and informed every decision he made. Since it was my fault, I didn't feel like I could refuse him. "Alright Edward, but she's going to resent my presence in such a private moment." I answered.

Edward's sighed in relief, "Thank you Alice." and he leaned forward and kissed my forehead.

I turned and ran for the house, I decided if I was going to go in with him, I should go in before him. "I'll go in first, then you come in and start packing. I'll try to keep Bella sidetracked as long as possible, but she will question you Edward. I have no doubt she will get very emotional. Judging by what Charlie said about when you left her last time, she will go to pieces. She's considerably older now though, so hopefully she'll somehow manage it."

Edward's shoulders sagged as we re-entered the house. No one was there except for Bella, so we knew that Carlisle had spoken with her already. Edward walked up the stairs like a man making his way to his own execution. The defeat in his posture was more awful than anything I could imagine. I stepped beside him and laid a hand on his arm gently, "It will end Edward. I told you, I only saw eight seasons. Bella was joyful during the last four. Only the ending is changeable. It's still too far way to be anything but shapeless images.

"Thank you Alice, I wish I could take comfort from your words, but honestly, I'm not sure which hurts worse, the first four months of Bella's lack of happiness, or the last four filled with joy." Edward looked somberly at me, his eyes tight in the corners, with the pain that shrouded his reason.

I ran upstairs, and found Bella in Edward's room, pacing. When I opened the door, she nearly exploded out of her skin until she realized it was me, then halted. "Where's Edward?" she asked frantically, trying to look past me.

"He's coming Bella, but you and I have a few things we need to go over first. Let's go into the next room and talk." I put my hand on her shoulder, but Bella shrugged out from under it.

"No, if he's going to be here, then so will I. We need to talk." Bella could be very stubborn when she wanted to be, and I could tell she was in a very stubborn mood.

"Fine Bella, but really, Edward doesn't want to be questioned, he just wants to pack, and go." I said, my concern for Edward making me sound a little more tense than was strictly necessary.

Bella stopped trying to see past me and looked me directly in the face then, "So he seriously believes that I'm just going to let him go without any questions about this...this...insanity?"

"Yes." I said simply, knowing that my answer wasn't something she was going to accept.

"Tough!" she blurted at me, "I'm going to ask questions, and I have a few things I've got to say to him, too. I'm long past 18, and I'm nowhere near as naive as I was the last time he....when...before." she ended weakly.

"I know that Bella, but try and remember what it cost him last time." I begged her.

"Cost him! What it cost him? It cost him nothing but a couple of days of discomfort from believing he'd caused me to kill myself! It cost him nothing Alice. It cost me everything, my innocence, my trust, my sanity....he lost nothing." She was down to a whisper by the end, though she'd begun with yelling. She was leaning forward now, clutching herself around the middle in a posture I'd been told of frequently by Charlie, even Jacob, but never witnessed firsthand.

Still, I had been on Edward's side of the events as they happened, I knew the truth about Edward's pain the day he said goodbye, and the subsequent guilt and torture he put himself through for every day following. The worst part had been his acceptance of responsibility. Yes, it had been a self-imposed sentence, and no one was to blame but him, but he assumed it was his debt owed to the fact that he was arrogant enough to try and make the relationship work. He spent every day at Bella's feet because he believed he didn't deserve her by any standard in existence. Knowing how he'd tortured himself then, and how he still continued to now, that he'd never have agreed to this if he didn't still secretly, deep down believe that he was unworthy of the gift of loving her, I got angry.

"Bella, I was there, I witnessed both your pain, and his. Don't you try to devalue what that time did to him. You may believe you know what effect it had on him, but I assure you that anything you've imagined doesn't compare to the reality of Edward's anguish and pain during that period of time. He believed he was getting what he deserved. All that he could hope to deserve every minute of your months apart and I will not stand here and listen to you knock that down in a tirade of pained selfishness." I yelled at her. Bella's face was horribly disfigured by the time I finished, and I felt somewhat sorry that the tears, which should have accompanied such an expression of grief, couldn't come. Seeing her horror at my anger I caved. I reached forward and pulled her to my shoulder, hugging her tightly.

"I'm sorry Bella, I shouldn't have yelled." As I said this, the bedroom door opened. Edward was looking at me thunderously, taking in Bella's choking sobs.

I glared back at him. I know Edward, but you can't expect me to listen to her deluding herself and not set her straight! I thought defensively.

He gave me a particularly pointed expression, shook his head and sighing, moved towards the closet.

Bella was lost in her uncontrolled crying, and as she struggled, Edward managed to pack everything he wanted.

He stopped as he finished, his face a mask of torture as he looked at Bella's back, which still convulsed as she tried to control herself. He lifted his head and sighed deeply, then headed towards the door.

Bella's voice spoke from the folds of my blouse, her voice muffled by the material and my shoulder. "Edward." she said softly.

He stopped, but didn't look at her.

"Yes Bella." he said, his shoulders tense.

"You left and broke your promise once before" her voice was still shaky and weak sounding, "if you do this again, I will hold you responsible. If you make this choice, I will have to make my own." she still kept her head buried in my shoulder.

Edward stood there, struggling. I couldn't see his face, but I knew that he was losing control of his carefully guarded emotions. I wanted to go to him, help him, but knew I couldn't step away from Bella when I was about to leave her behind every bit as much as Edward was.

"I realize that." he said stiffly, and he reached for the door. He pulled it open, stopped and spoke just once more. "I...it's not worth much, I-I know, in the face of this...situation," he stumbled through the words, "but I love you Isabella." and he stepped through the doorway, pulling the door closed behind him, but not before he heard Bella.

"I don't believe you." she said softly. He paused, barely, but I knew that pulling the door the rest of the way closed behind him was the hardest thing he'd ever done.

I had a vision just then, I saw Edward, in a flowered meadow, their meadow, bag thrown carelessly down and curled in a fetal position on the ground. Yes, it cost Edward a great deal, more than she would ever understand.

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Usually, when Edward and I had taken our flights of fancy, there was a certain level of intimacy. It wasn't anything like the connection I had with Jasper, but I loved Edward best of all my adopted siblings, and it brought out tenderness in me. Also, I couldn't help seeking ways to stop the constant battering of himself he did.

I'd left Bella and found Edward in their meadow just as I'd seen in my vision. I stood over him with my hands on my hips for awhile, considering the idea of forcing him to stand up. I'd driven his Volvo out to the end of the road, and left it, knowing Edward would never have the strength to leave the house if he had to return again. I debated just picking him up and carrying him to the car, but I decided he'd suffered enough indignity at my hand. Instead I laid down beside him and curled myself around him. I wrapped my arms around Edward and pulled him against me. We stayed there in that position until twilight. I dared to speak as the darkness came, "Edward, if we stay here, we may see Bella." I knew she'd come here, not because of visions, but because I knew Bella.

"I'd like to go to the Highlands." he said softly.

I shuddered slightly, remembering the house there. It was too big and too much out in the open. Privacy was afforded by the fact that it was an island, and storms more often than not swirled the shores around us. Still, it was a cold, unfeeling place and always had a dismal effect on me. I could see why it would appeal to Edward in his current state of mind.

"Anywhere Edward, wherever you choose. I'll stay with you, whether you want me along or not. I won't let you be alone."

We'd left then, really left. Carlisle had called many times and letting Edward know that Bella and Jasper had moved away, attempted to convince Edward to return to the house. I knew from my visions, though I didn't share this fact with him, that Bella refused to be in the Forks house without him. At the moment, I worried for Jasper, we'd agreed not to talk on the phone during this period, knowing it would only make those we were with suffer, but occasionally I'd receive a text from him. Usually just simple things, a few words, 'Bearing it sadly Alice. Love J.' once it was poetry of his, 'Weakness wanders cold, and distant warmth eludes. Strength softens in the absence of support. Can distant questions sustain hope?' My poor Jasper, Bella was tearing him to pieces. After six months of odd and scattered texts he sent me one which came on the heels of a vision and was worrying in what the outcome meant, as I saw it. 'I am the last face she ever wants to see again. I'm finished with this, I respect your visions, but this is beyond even my loyalty.' I'd quickly left the house, and texted him back to ask what had happened, but the incessant storms of the northwest coast of Scotland disrupted my service and left me frustrated with the vision of Bella alone in the house she'd shared with Jasper, broken and preparing to give in to any desire for human blood which might find her.

Soon afterwards thankfully, Jasper must have changed his mind, because I got a distorted vision of Bella reading to Jasper, her head in his lap. He absentmindedly ran his fingers through her hair, on a sunny afternoon inside. It was a peaceful scene and made me smile. It also gave me a pang of jealousy. For inside the cave like walls of the Island house, Edward brooded. There was no reading, no sunny afternoons spent sharing the warmth together. Edward played, constantly, and angrily. Never relieving himself or me with a melody of beauty. Instead he banged on the keys and punished them as he punished himself.

We did have times of solitude, and moderate peace. During these, Edward would stand before the fireplace which was lit only for the sake of the light, not that we needed that either. I preferred it to perpetual gloom though, and Edward did it for my sake.

A year in he began to pace, physically and mentally. His mind going back and forth, what would he do? How would he resolve this? What was Bella's choice going to be? I know Edward thought these things, because he spoke them aloud to me, often enough to become repetitive. After a year and a half he began to lose cohesion and couldn't ask questions any longer, he could only bemoan the state he found himself in.

"I'd rather die than live through this knowledge another day. I cannot go on without Bella, Alice, my life makes no sense without her. Why did I agree to this?" His voice was agonized, and grating.

I rolled my eyes from the cushioned bench I was reclined on. "First off Edward, you are dead. You've lived on for a year and a half so far, I think you can make it another six months, and..you agreed to it because I told you I saw Bella happy. You claimed that hers was more important to you than your own. Has that changed now?"

My words earned me solitude. Edward snorted loudly and disappeared. He didn't like when I threw his own words in his face on a normal day, during this time it robbed him of his usual level of dramatics.

At three months to go, he began to plan. I heard him reciting things he'd say to Bella when we returned. He kept up a continual litany of reassurances, promises and self-deprecation. I wanted to be annoyed with him, but I couldn't blame him. I kept quiet, but the visions I'd had of Jasper and Bella's time together worried me greatly. There was such happiness, and joy. My first visions before all this chaos hadn't come close to showing me just how beautiful their time together would be. I knew Jasper loved me, but I could see it in his eyes, his love was no longer mine alone. His heart was divided. His pain was clear too, he didn't like the situation. He'd stopped texting me some months ago, so I had no idea what he might be thinking beyond what I saw in the wispy and insubstantial visions I got of him.

With only two weeks to go, Edward finally lost his patience, he couldn't wait any longer. He made the travel arrangements and within two days, due to sudden decisions, delayed flights, and too many layovers, we arrived at SeaTac. It was the first time Jasper wasn't waiting for me, first in line before even Esme. I felt his absence greatly, and my breathing stopped as I wondered if this might foreshadow times to come.

Carlisle and Esme were a welcome sight, their embraces indicative of the length of time we'd been gone. When Edward turned to Emmett, who stood with Rosalie behind Carlisle and Esme, Emmett reached out with one arm, grabbed Edward's extended hand and dragged him into an Emmett-special bear hug. "Forks really blows without you around to pick on bro!" They clapped each other manfully on the back and stepped away from each other as I hugged Emmett and got a kiss on the cheek. Rosalie hugged Edward too, "I'm not sure I can be as eloquent as my husband Edward, but I think home will be home again much more now that you're back."

We all turned to head out of the airport, but Emmett reached out and grabbed my arm and held me back, "So Al, are Jasper and Bella, I mean, are they really...?" he lifted his eyebrows twice in a significant way, and grinned like a Cheshire cat before Rosalie hit him so hard he actually flipped once, landing on his feet. "I love you Emmett, but you are a perfect ass sometimes." she said.

Being back in Forks improved Edward's mood in some ways, but made him all the more unbearable in others. He stopped his monologues, but he withdrew now, often disappearing for hours at a time. I knew he was in his meadow again. But I left him to it. He'd had me as bad and irritable company for two years and I figured he deserved a break from me, as much as I was enjoying mine from him.

After a week and a half, Edward had waited as long as he was going to. He argued with Carlisle for an hour before Carlisle finally gave up and said it was his decision, Rosalie added that it was entirely in keeping with Edward's character that he would make a rash and bad decision. They glared at each other, each daring the other to confirm the other's opinion. Finally, Edward reached over to Carlisle's pocket, who turned and protested, and pulled out his cell phone. He pressed Bella's cell phone number. It rang, we could all hear it.

The line clicked, we could hear stifled chuckles, and Bella's voice rang out over the phone, sounding amused and almost, relieved, "Carlisle?" she said.

"Hello Bella." was all Edward said.

On the other end of the line it went completely silent. Even her breathing had stopped. "E-Edward!" she gasped out.

Edward's face underwent the most radical evolution of emotion I have ever seen in the entirety of my known existence. It was a riot of opposites and it took him a beat or two to get himself under enough control to inelegantly stutter out, "I-I'm, we actually, we are ready for you two to...for this to...Bella, do you want to come home to me?" His voice was stone by the end of it.

There was more silence on the other end, and my mind twisted around the ramifications of possibilities if Bella said no. Thankfully, she whispered, "I th-think s-so." then there was the sound of the phone being handled, and whispered sympathies on the other end, then I heard my Jasper's fierce voice, "Edward? Alice." his voice was thick with emotion, and mine was only barely controlled as I yanked the phone away from Edward who was standing stunned.

"Jasper. I have no words." I gasped out, trying to fight the urge to cry in happiness.

"Neither do I my little one, neither do I." he said.

I smiled as I thought back to that moment, the emotions that tied my tongue, and froze my mind for the minutes we remained on the phone. I stood looking out the front window, Carlisle had watched Edward and I speak through two years ago. Two years in vampire years was not much time relatively speaking, but it seemed like eternity stretched out between our spectres who stood arguing on the edge of the property then, and the reality of our presences here on the other side of the glass now. Bella and Jasper walked up slowly from the garage, a rented car behind them. Edward looked at me, and gave me a steely gaze.

"What if she chooses Jasper?" he asked me, almost begged. I couldn't speak, because I'd been thinking the same thing. Could my life go on without Jasper? I knew him well enough to know he'd never betray any promise he made.

Instead of answering, which I knew I couldn't do, I put and hand on his arm, "We'll deal with whatever comes Edward. I haven't had any visions, which means Bella hasn't been able to make a decision either. And without hers, Jasper won't make his. Let's go." I was so overwhelmed with emotion as we stepped out onto the porch, that I decided to hang back and let Jasper and Edward have their moment of confrontation.

Edward immediately, and unremarkably, walked right to Bella's side and took the hand Jasper wasn't holding. They stood face to face and used their abilities against each other, it was like a battle of will. Edward's will said, "I know your mind, and I see its plan." and Jasper's said, "And I know your heart, and what it can't handle."

As they sized each other up, Bella looked back and forth between them. She looked small, beautiful, nearly ethereal in her changed beauty, but small still. She looked deep into both of their faces.

Edward spoke first, responding to some thought Jasper had, "You can't know, and neither do I, but you don't have to worry about that any longer."

Jasper's eyebrows shot up in a defiant expression, "You'd like to feel that, wouldn't you." he said.

Bella frowned, still looking back and forth between them. Finally she stepped back, releasing their hands and they both looked at her in surprise.

"You two seem to think you're allowed to make this decision for me again, don't you? Well, guess what, I get to make my own choice this time, and until I do you two are going to have to wait." she said cuttingly. She then walked up on the porch, looked at me, an apology in her eyes, and then into the house.

I looked back at Jasper and Edward and they were both standing with expressions on their faces like someone had slapped them with a paddle.

I looked at them, turned around and headed for the door. I turned my head over my shoulder just before I walked through, "That went well, didn't it?" I snickered.