Disclaimer: I do not own anything Twilight/Meyer related. It bites, I know.

AN: Polished to perfection once again! Thank you, Dawning Juliet (she's fab!)

"Even miracles take time." - Cinderella

Chapter One

We Run the Night

"Just one more! One more, I swear," Lauren slurred as she dragged their friend Angela by the hand back to the bar as two other girls whose names Bella couldn't remember followed behind them.

"It's never just 'one more' with her," Bella grumbled as Alice absently nodded her head, looking around the club's dark atmosphere.

Bella and Alice remained seated on the plush purple velvet couches sectioned off in the VIP area and eyed each other, neither of them attempting to move a muscle to go join their friends. By the looks of it, not so much join them, but rather intervene and help Angela, who had been carted off against her will.

Bella closed her eyes and let the thumping beat around her carry her away.

She sighed, feeling the welcome mellowing effects of a few Cosmopolitans working their way through her system.

Enjoying the peace that came in the absence of Lauren's constant babble, her eyes closed, and everything seemed to drift away. She was no longer at some trendy club out in the Hamptons with a bunch of her friends, cousin, and a few summer locals they sporadically met. Her mind cleared a bit, and she relished in the serenity that seldom came along with it.

She imagined herself on a beach, sand beneath her toes. Her eyes were closed; the warm sunrays kissed her cheeks while a slight breeze sent a few stray locks of hair across her forehead to tickle her neck and drape over her shoulders. In the distance she could hear—

"Let's go, bitches! One more, or we ain't leavin'!" Lauren shouted over the pumping music as she made her way to the bar at the front.

Lauren's high-pitched yell sent Bella crashing back down to reality from her soothing daydream. Fuck! Thanks again, Lauren!

As if Alice had heard her thoughts, she groaned.

"How the hell does her annoying nasal voice travel that far?"

"Lauren wouldn't be Lauren if she couldn't be heard over the crowd," Bella mumbled.

Why she didn't just wave over a server was a mystery, but then again, it was the attention Lauren craved even more then the actual drink. The latter did come a close second. Vanity was Lauren's sin, and her poison, attention. She needed it, craved it, sought it out. It was like air to her and, simply put, she'd be dead without it.

"Some people are so rich, all they have is money, B. How fuckin' upsetting is that?" her friend sniffled, wiping away at a few fallen tears.

"That's just a cheap line, Laur. How about, 'Never let anyone give you the—'"

"Yeah, cheap line." Lauren sniffled, cutting her off. "Thanks for being here, Bells."

"Where else would I be?"

The girls embraced each other as they watched from the rooftop the falling snow that blanketed the streets of New York. Somewhere below in the distance, a massive crowd cheered merrily as the new year rang in.

"Happy New Year, Laur."

"Happy New Year, B."

Bella's friends, though she sometimes wondered why she even associated with them, were golden to her. Granted, they all had their quirks and flaws, but each and every one of them was a trait that awed and inspired her. She admired and cherished them. They understood, accepted one another. It made them who they were and what they were—inseparable, irreplaceable, and to her, they were the largest part of what was left of her broken heart.

Angela looked back with pleading eyes, her body jerking forward once more as Lauren pulled her through the tightly packed crowd closer to her destination or, more aptly put, her prey: a hot bartender she shamelessly flirted with all night.

"She's deplorable," Bella groaned as she watched her friend make a fool of herself. "You'd think he'd have cut her off already, or at least given her his number. Even a fake one. She is acting like a slut in plain view of the public."

"Lauren doesn't know the meaning of the word 'shame,'" Alice giggled.

"That's exactly where the shame is." Bella shook her head.

"Hey, Al, what time is it?" Bella asked, leaning onto her petite cousin for support. She had suddenly found it hard to keep her head held up. They'd been at it for hours, and Bella's mind was becoming fuzzy due to the long day, the packed club, and the large amounts of alcohol running through her bloodstream.

"No idea. One, maybe?" Alice shrugged without looking at her phone. "I have a car service coming in a few hours though, so either way, I'm royally fucked. My only options are drinking more so I stay up until I can pass out on the plane, or quitting now and downing coffee until I have to leave. If I go home and attempt to sleep, I'll never wake up. I wish my parents were home to wake me up. I'm so fucked," she groaned, her face falling into Bella's neck.

Bella chuckled under her breath, but Alice caught it and lifted an eyebrow in challenge.

"What? I just think it's funny," Bella snickered out loud this time, having already outed herself. She might as well be honest about Alice's pity party for one.

"That's your own fault there, sweet cheeks," she said, patting the top of Alice's head.

"Bitch," Alice grumbled in a muffled voice.

"Honestly though, this entire thing is hysterical. I mean, half the family is already over in Europe right now, and the papers are talking about how they are all beginning to set up for the wedding of the year. The real kicker? The fiancé is none other than your brother. I mean, Emmett? Really?" Bella couldn't even finish her thoughts because there were just no words to describe this paradox.

Alice laughed and bobbed her head in agreement.

"I still can't deal. And his fiancée, princess, lady, whatever? Major bitch. How? He's so carefree and…" Bella let her words trail off. It didn't make any sense.

In a week's time, she'd be joining her cousin on the other side of the world—England, to be exact—to attend her cousin's ritzy, lavish, proper, royal wedding.

Alice's older brother, her cousin Emmett, was the farthest thing from royal there was. He was loud, crude, and although obnoxiously funny, she couldn't see him fitting in with the likes of his fiancée, or her family.

When they'd heard about their upcoming nuptials, everyone had some comment to make. Throw that in with his choice to make England his primary residence, and it was all anyone could talk about while they secretly Googled the words "royal" and "England" on their smartphones, hoping to catch up with what was what over there.

Bella had been the only one not to do it, so she had no idea what to expect when she got over there.

Bella hated tea. The irony of it was not lost on her, as Emmett hated it, too.

It wasn't that she had anything against any of the royals, even if her only frame of reference had come in the form of her cousin's fiancée, who acted as a purebred bitch. She had a feeling that it was just simply not her and was still left none the wiser.

Bella acknowledged she was uneducated in their culture and ways, and if she were being upfront about it—not that she would ever admit it out loud—she might have even been a bit jealous of Rosalie.

Romance was far from Bella's mind at this point in her life and the last thing she wanted or needed, but to know where she was headed, to have an idea, would have been something she'd have welcomed.

From the moment Bella had met Rosalie at her aunt and uncle's estate, she seemed to have life figured out for her and her future husband, Emmett. The picture she'd painted to everyone sounded so ridiculously perfect, Bella had to forcibly hold down the brunch they were served in fear of it ending up all over her aunt's cherished rose garden.

Royals.

Bella couldn't help but feel jaded at the ripe age of twenty-two, on the road to nowhere and going there fast, by the opinions of some. She could almost guarantee no one was breathing down a royal's neck. Why would they have had to, when everything was mapped out with pristine clarity from day one? And then fed with a golden spoon.

"The royal penis is clean, your highness," Bella leaned over and whispered to Alice, both of them bursting into a fit of laughter at the table as all eyes—some glaring—fastened upon them.

She didn't need any other family members on the outs with her. There had been an epic argument recently in the Swan household that had put Bella on edge with her parents, her brother Seth and sister-in-law Emily included.

It had also been the final straw that pushed her decision to join Alice in England a week earlier than originally planned when her family would be joining them for their nephew's wedding.

Anyone who knew Bella Swan was aware of her quick, acidic tongue. Paired with what had been the start of a fabulous hangover on that dreadful morning, tempers flared, voices raised, and she had given it to Charles Swan what her better, sober judgment wouldn't have allowed otherwise.

Things were said she knew could never be taken back, and although she acted as if they hadn't affected her, the truth was that deep down, they did. Heartbreakingly so.

Her father, Judge Charles Swan Sr., had quickly become a jury of one and Bella's personal executioner. If her mother hadn't intervened, Bella would not be going to London, period—family wedding or not. She owed Renee one.

"I never said I understood it," Alice clarified, sitting up. "If this is what he wants in life, and this path makes him happy, regardless of the fact that he is marrying a complete bitch, then I'm happy for him."

"Maybe that's our problem," Bella sighed, her stomach twisting from the memories her conscience had decided needed surfacing.

She stood up, feeling the need to replenish her empty glass with something stronger than what she had been drinking. Nothing helped to squash memories of bitter words better than a tall glass of something with a bite to it.

Turning around, she took Alice's outstretched hand and let it pull her to her feet, and they made their way towards the bar where their friends had fled earlier.

A shot girl walked past them, holding a tray of something that looked promising in helping her forget her troubles. Bella smiled, held up two fingers, and slipped a bill from her bra onto the waiting tray, reaching for the small crystal glasses the waitress had pushed forward.

Shot one went down smooth and quick as Alice looked on with a bemused expression.

I've had enough. Enough of this club, enough sweet fruity drinks, enough of this life. I'm done with it.

Bella quickly threw down the second shot, only it seemed to have gotten stuck half way down her throat as her emotions started to wreak havoc on her already alcohol-addled mind.

Almost numb enough, Bella. Good job.

Pushing her way through the crowd, Alice hot on her heels, she felt the effects of her latest consumption almost immediately. She was already sporting a killer buzz from drinking on an empty stomach, so this was just what she needed to push herself over that invisible line she knew she'd come to regret in the morning.

Tonight, she didn't care.

She looked over and noticed Alice's expression that had gone from slightly amused to one of concern.

"Don't sweat it, Alice!" she shouted over the beat, wiggling her eyebrows at her cousin as dancers mingled around her, groping one another. One caught her eye and tried to grind up against her hip. Bella tipped her head back and laughed, a devilish sound.

It wasn't like nothing hurt anymore when she felt like this—she still felt the ache in her chest—but it was a welcome reprieve when her senses became dull and her emotions anesthetized so that the pain in her heart became a more tolerable throb.

Fucking conscience.

She could feel the heat and weight of Alice's stare burning a hole in the back of her head. Why couldn't she just let loose and let it all go?

"Fuck it," she bellowed out, bending her body low into the stranger's awaiting groin as he found purchase with his hands on her hips. Bella laughed bitterly as she began to let her mind and body go with renewed purpose.

"Bella, com—"

"No. They want happy? Well, fuck, look at me! I'm completely happy!" she yelled to no one in particular, wishing her parents could hear and see her right now. She threw her arms over the stranger's shoulders and leaned into his chest.

"Not this again," Alice groaned, stepping up to grab her cousin's arm and pull her from the horny bastard's grip. "C'mon, let's go. You're acting like Lauren, and to be honest, I'm exhausted, and I don't have time for this tonight."

Bella smirked at the guy's fallen expression, patted his cheek and winked in thanks for the dance as Alice dragged her off the floor and away from his evil clutches.

"Well, Alice, since you brought it up, according to Judge Swan, that is exactly what I'm doing these days. Fuck, I mean, if you can't beat'em—"

"Listen!" Alice cut her off harshly, whirling around to stop her cousin's verbal vomit. "For starters, no one is bringing anything up with you—everyone is too chicken shit to do it. Personally, I don't find it comfortable trying to walk around on broken glass! Secondly, don't let what happened with uncle Charlie get to you, but realize that he's a parent, and that's what parents do. They care."

Alice took a deep breath and brought her voice down a notch as a few bystanders turned to stare.

"Shit, B, I didn't want to do this now, tonight of all nights, when I'm leaving in a few hours. Look, we all know you're going through a rough time right now, and we all get it. You lost someone—"

Bella put her hand up to stop Alice and slammed her eyes shut. She didn't want to hear it. She didn't want to even think about it. It was too fresh, too raw.

"Stop. Right. There. Alice," Bella spit out through clenched teeth.

"Okay, fine, I get it. It just slipped out. I'm sorry. Like I said, I didn't mean to bring anything up tonight." Alice raised her hands in defense as if she were standing in front of a cornered animal.

"Everything will all work out. Life will make sense again. Just do me a favor? In the mean time, can you please just slow down a bit? And next time you decide to go all hot and heavy on someone, have a little respect for yourself. That guy was disgusting, B." Alice laughed nervously, trying to lighten the conversation.

Bella shook her head and stared blankly towards a dark section of the club where some couple looked like they were having sex on the dance floor while still trying to remain vertical. She kept her eyes away from Alice and forced them not to tear up.

Truth was, Alice was right.

This wasn't her.

There would have been a time not too long ago when Bella would have beaten the shit out of herself for acting the way she had been recently. Usually that was Lauren's job, and where she'd fall into step to try to help out her friend with her constant uphill and downhill spirals, she found herself stuck in Lauren's shoes.

Think of something else. Anyone else. Not here, and not right now. Don't you dare crack.

"I'm leaving in a few hours, and I don't want to get on a plane thinking things between us are all fucked up."

"Don't sweat it," Bella mumbled bitterly, rolling her eyes and heading back towards the bar, an angry stride to her step.

"Clearly, I'm all out of fucks to give for the night, and I'm doing just fine, before you ask. If you want to cart that little bit of info off to the others, go right ahead."

"For the record, I'm not carting anything off to anyone, so don't even start with that." Alice sighed, looking for her friends that had once again disappeared while she and Bella stopped to talk.

Talking with Bella lately was like trying to attempt something that was finished before it even started; it was fighting a losing battle. Alice had understood—everyone had—but she had also grown tired of her cousin's outlook on life as of late.

She knew Bella would come around; she just hoped it would be sooner rather than later.

"What can I get you two lovely ladies? Another round of Cosmos?" the bartender drawled, flashing his Colgate-bright white teeth in a huge smile as he leaned further than necessary over the bar and closer to her cousin.

"Yeah, that should do it," Bella said as she returned his smile with a fake one of her own.

Everything seemed to be a show with Bella these past few months, and quite frankly, Alice was only one of many who had been tired of tiptoeing around her. Everyone was waiting for her to finally crack.

Alice knew it was coming and only hoped she'd be enough to help her cousin when it did.

Raising her refilled glass, missing friends forgotten, Bella turned to Alice.

"Here's to a summer abroad, to not giving a fuck, and to what will most certainly be a raging hangover tomorrow morning."

Alice struggled to lighten up despite her falling mood. She thought of Europe, and what it could hold in store for them—her brother's wedding and future, her cousin's hopeful restoration of sanity, and these prospects put a small smile on her face. They gave her hope.

Her spirits slightly renewed, she lifted her own glass to clink against Bella's.

"Bella, we are going to have an amazing summer. I toast to everything that happens on the other side of the pond. That being said, let the fucks fly!"

A loud, boisterous laugh came from Bella's mouth at Alice's declaration, and she prayed her drink didn't decide to come shooting out of her nose. She wasn't expecting that from little Alice.

"What?"

"And here I thought you'd be all logical with your toast. 'Here's to everything eventually falling into place,' and all that bullshit you usually spew," Bella laughed at her failed impression of Alice.

Alice smirked and sighed, pulling her cousin into a one-armed hug.

"It will," she whispered, although it came out sounding more like a promise she wasn't sure she could keep. "Just don't sweat it, or second guess it. If something happens, just accept it and roll with it." Her voice tightened in her throat as though she had been fighting back tears. Hope was a dangerous thing, but it was all she had, and she had to have enough of it for the both of them.

"We have to make it through that stuffy, boring, hellish wedding first." Bella laughed in an attempt to lighten their already dampened mood.

"If it doesn't kil—" Alice suddenly stopped talking.

"See you in a week?" Bella raised an eyebrow with a smirk in an attempt to let her cousin know her slip was okay.

Alice smiled. "Absolutely!"

"Okay, then." Bella nodded as she scanned the crowd. "Let's go find Lauren and Angie and grab a cab. My feet are officially numb, and I'm beyond past my limit for the night."

"I'm the one who has a plane to catch in a few hours. I don't want to hear you complain."

"Your problem, not mine." Bella grinned.

AN: I'm not the "I'll post a teaser if you review" type. When I feel my chapter is good enough to send over to DJ and she goes about her awesomeness, a chapter will post shortly after.

Playlist: Always listening to Pandora (Imogen Heap station)

So Lo - Kate Havnevik

Starry Eyed - Ellie Gould

Gravity - Sarah Bareilles

Steppin' Out - Kaskade (The Chill Out Mix) - I honestly feel I can write out a complete full chapter off of this song alone. And I probably will if it doesn't mellow me out enough to fall asleep. The wine might do the trick before hand though if I'm being honest.