Hi you guys!

Thanks for the awesome feedback on the last chapter! I really hadn't expected any. Here's the next part. Another will be out either tonight or early morning tomorrow. It took so long I had to make amends for leaving you hanging. Sorry about that…there are renovations happening all around me so everything is a little hectic and I was displaced for a while. I hope you enjoy it!

-Dilana

Remember Me

Ten Years Later…

Alice

I sat in my desk twiddling my thumbs, observing the dress form perched in a corner of my office. Its clothing never changed. In fact, it was one of the few things in my life that remained the same. Upon the dress form was a simple dress and jacket combo. It was the same ensemble that put my name on the map and made me somewhat of an overnight success, not that I was complaining. Tasteful, elegant, and tailored it spoke to my love of old world charm and sophistication.

Along the walls were newspaper clipping and magazine tidbits in which I had been the highlight. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd be running a fashion design house and a highly praised fashion line with my name embossed on the tag. It's one thing to dream. But it's another thing to watch it happen, even when you wake up to the reality every day. Parsons was certainly proud and I returned from time to time for seminars or to guest lecture. Despite feeling as if I could never get enough sleep, I'd done it. I finally had my dream career.

I was startled as my phone rang, but smiled when I saw the face on my screen.

"Hey Edward!"

"Hey Allie. How's New York?"

"The city is just as busy and wonderful as always. What's up?"

"Nothing, I was just calling to confirm that you are actually coming on Thursday."

"Yep. I'll be there bright and early."

"Great, because if the rest of us have to suffer through being in Forks for five days then so do you."

"I don't understand why you're not happy. It's the holidays. You know, great love stories, family togetherness, and all that other Hallmark crap."

"Yeah well other people aren't separated from their love ones by an ocean or have a toddler to raise. I think I've earned the right to be a little put out."

"Speaking of, how is Leah?"

"She was fine when we spoke on Saturday. She misses us all, even you."

"Oh haha. I miss her too. Her tour won't be too much longer though. Then, you guys can all come party in the city with me. I will never understand the military life. Who volunteers to sweat like that?"

"See, it's those comments that make you seem snobby. Leave my wife alone. She's not afraid to get dirty."

"Oh, I bet she isn't! I'm not snobby. But, if I'm going to wear something on the cutting edge of fashion, I'd rather not worry about yellowing pit stains or smelling like a barrel of onions..duh Edward!"

"You're a rare one, Alice Brandon. Gianna's awake; I have to go or she'll be a holy terror. I'll see you on Thursday?"

"Yep yep. Kiss the little princess for me. Tell her Aunt Allie will see her soon. Take care of yourself Ed."

"Bye Alice."

"Love ya!"

I replaced the phone on its cradle and grabbed a bottle of water from my mini fridge. Throwing open the doors of my office, I went off the check on the seamstresses and the rest of my workers. If I was going to be gone for two weeks there was no way I was leaving here without at least a month's work done. I could not afford to fall behind and miss the deadline for fashion week. Style may be eternal but in the world of fashion, one needed to remain relevant to be iconic, and if you weren't iconic…who were you really?

Thursday came and I walked through SeaTac to find my friends all awaiting me at the gate. What a lovely reception it was! Rosalie, who had become a great accountant/financial advisor and, as such, oversaw most financial aspects for my company, was encapsulated by my big behemoth of a friend, Emmett. He winded up with a lucrative career in professional football, but an injury called it quits and he was now an attorney at a firm in Hanover. Jasper, our resident historian, was holding hands with his girlfriend Maria. But my primary focus was on the green eyed little munchkin perched in her daddy's arms. Edward looked overwhelmed, but completely content to stand there holding her all day.

"Gianna! Oh how I have missed you! Look how big you've gotten!" I said tickling her sides as she squirmed and giggled.

"Allie! Top! Top Allie, top!"

"So what about the rest of us? What are we? Chopped liver?" Rose teased, rolling her eyes at my antics.

"Always the drama queen. She's a toddler. Look at those cheeks. How can you resist the adorableness?"

"It's adorable when it's not waking you up at five in the morning for grapes." Emmett whined and I couldn't help but laugh. I suspected his issue was more with the lack of sleep more so than the early wake up call. Emmett loved getting up early with Gianna whenever they were together. They'd spend hours watching cartoon reruns on Boomerang, like two big kids.

"She's a baby. Get over it. Tell Rose to let you sleep and there wouldn't be a problem. You'll be home Monday and you'll miss this little cutie!" I just couldn't resist kissing her adorably chubby cheeks any longer. I appreciated the distraction but it was never far from my mind how much had really changed.

No matter how many times we'd done this, I was still very much aware that Bella was missing as she had been for years now. Every time I came home I'd make the effort to reach out and spend time with her. Each time, Bella would agree to meet up with me only to cancel later. No one else saw her much either. She didn't hang around with our families and outside of the occasional hello when she was in town, we still didn't talk to each other. Even that didn't stop me from constantly looking for her. Deep down, it killed me that we had fallen apart without really meaning to. We had grown away from one another just like everyone said we would. It was supposedly one of those things that just happened at that point in our lives. But that didn't mean it hurt any less.

In the beginning it was the time zones and conflicting schedules that relegated us to messages on each other's voicemail. Then that turned into the occasional awkward visits. We'd come home from school for breaks and she'd be pulling doubles at the diner. Eventually, we stopped talking altogether, with little more between us than memories and the customary Christmas card every year. Nothing like what we were used to.

The ride from Seattle to Forks was filled with laughs and charming little anecdotes about my friends and their daily lives, while I remained quiet only commenting when asked directly and laughing every so often to veil my disinterest. Arriving at the rundown white house that I used to call home, I unlocked the front door to be greeted by the smell of alcohol and I was instantly grateful that I thought to pack cleaning clothes. Taking my luggage from the boys, I made promises to call if I needed them before walking them to the car.

After a tearful goodbye with Gianna, I went back inside as rain began to pour down. The chill of winter was heavy in the air and for a moment I wondered if it would snow. In the living room, I met an all too familiar sight. My father, passed out in a recliner sleeping off his drunken stupor while the house lay in disarray around him. A glance at the clock told me it was just after one in the afternoon. So, without much time to pause, I went upstairs to my room and shed my more pricey clothing for the faded, stained, and holey clothes I had used many times before.

The next two hours were spent cleaning the house, scrubbing the dishes that had overrun my father's bedside table and the living room floor before I moved on to ensuring that the only smells that rent the air now were those of lemon floor polish and bleach cleaning spray. I was just starting on dinner when my younger sister came bounding through the door.

At seventeen, Cynthia looked a lot more like my twin now than our age difference gave away. She had grown beyond being the little girl who clung to my pants leg and begged me to take her everywhere I went. Now, she was practically a woman and I'd missed most of her childhood at least, in the conventional sense.

We'd skyped and I always made sure she had plenty of clothes to fill her closets. I handled the money for the groceries and bills. I even put money aside for her schooling. Just because I didn't live in the house, didn't mean I stopped caring about them. But, I still left her to deal with our father on her own and that was way too much of a burden. I'd never regret my decision to leave but she was one of the few people I wanted desperately to bring along.

"Cynthia."

"Alice. You're home?!"

"For now. I meant to call you but it slipped my mind."

"Yeah, I get it. You're busy or whatever. How long you here for?"

"Well, I was thinking that since you're on break I'd stay a few days."

"So you'll be here for Christmas?"

"Well, yeah, I was planning to."

"Okay."

"Soooo, how is everything?"

"Fine."

"And Thomas?"

"Fine."

I didn't miss the cringe at the mention of the man who was snoring up a storm in the next room, but I chose to ignore it. I had already decided that I was not going to try and talk to him like I'd done so many times before. I was just going to make this the best Christmas I could for my sister and in a few months after she graduated she could spend her holidays with me in New York. I contemplated asking her to go now, but it was her senior year and I wouldn't be the one to take her experience away from her. She deserved to be happy with her friends a little longer so I left it alone.

"Okay."

Neither of us could think of a thing to say. I didn't want to push and she wasn't sharing so instead we sat there, her working on her homework and me trying not to scorch the spaghetti sauce. I felt weird and out of place and I didn't like it. I was used to feeling happy with Cynthia but the Cynthia I remembered was not the young woman sitting in from of me. The Cynthia I knew was still that adorable idealistic, snaggle toothed little girl who'd sneak into my room at night because she was still afraid of the dark.

"You know, I'm glad you're back."

"Me too, Cyn. Me too."

Bella

The darkness had descended upon Forks long before I took my exit from the interstate. In the center of town, there was an almost luminous glow from the twinkle of the lights from the big Christmas tree and the lamp posts that line Main Street. I had called two weeks ago and let my dad know I was making the trip from Missouri. Every day since he'd been calling to make sure I was really coming. I wanted to be annoyed but I knew it was only because he missed having me around. However, I hadn't missed a Christmas since my third year of college when I got trapped in the airport. That was one Christmas I would never forget. I spent the entire day with a middle aged couple who argued like there was no tomorrow over the simplest of things. It was definitely enough entertainment to keep my mind off of the fact that I hadn't been home with my dad.

Letting the windows down, I took in the smell of snow and pine trees that I had become accustomed to. I drove straight down the Main Street and took a left at the tie dye painted fire hydrant that sat right outside the home of my former art teacher, Mrs. Gamble. Five houses and a giant inflatable snowman later, I pulled in behind my dad's cruiser. I left my bags in the car since I already had pajamas here from the last time I visited. Inside, the house was quiet and dark just like I knew it would be. Dad had gone to bed hours ago after calling me to say goodnight. I promised to let him take me to breakfast and that seemed to ease his guilt for not waiting up enough that he could sleep.

Going straight up to my room, I smiled at the linens awaiting me on the bed. Quickly making the bed, I slid off my shoes and jeans, replacing them with pajama pants. I was so tired I literally could have fallen asleep where I stood. Even though I had no desire to move, I forced myself to go brush my teeth and clean off the makeup that was now more than ready to be cleaned off. Sleep wasted no time finding me after I got into bed and I fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, I awoke slowly as I surveyed my surroundings before remembering that I was not at home and I was neither late for anything nor oversleeping. Content to just spend a moment in solitude, I laid in bed, rubbing my eyes and stretching to truly wake myself from what had to have been the most fitful sleep I'd had in quite some time. Other things usually took priority when I was home, but at Dad's I could always find the rest I was desperately in need of. Picking up my phone, I noticed that I had four missed calls. I ignored the calls, simply deciding to call them when my voice was no longer thick with sleep. I had lazed around enough for the day, and I knew my dad would be waiting so I reluctantly got up from the bed.

It wasn't long after that I made my way downstairs to see my dad, sitting on the couch, reading the morning paper and drinking his coffee.

"Morning Dad!" I said sitting next to him, playfully bumping my shoulder against his.

"Bella, I see you're finally up." The inflection and tone of his voice made it seem as if he had been waiting for ages or something. In reality it was closer to an hour. I knew my dad and waking up before nine in the morning, unless it was a dire emergency was not going to happen. It took him forever to get to sleep, but once he did he slept like the dead. It wasn't a common occurrence to see Charlie with a grimace over the breakfast table growing up. The man was a bear without his sleep.

"Ahh, come on dad! It's not even ten yet."

"Seven is late for you."

"Touché."

"You ready for breakfast?"

"I need to shower and then we can head out." I had no clue what had possessed me to stay in bed this late as it was, knowing that breakfast wouldn't last all day long.

Borrowing his rain boots near the front door, I ventured out into the biting cold to retrieve my bags in a long sleeved shirt and flannel pants. Needless to say I was freezing my ass off. I practically ran back inside as I trudged the bags along, even though the ice slowed my progress some. An hour later, we were on our way to the diner. The ride was no more than five minutes, but it was five minutes of an un-interrupted, yet comfortable, silence between us that I used to really take in the town and all its little changes that I'd missed until the cloak of nightfall.

Gladys' Diner was the premier Forks eatery and served all the things you'd expect from a mom and pop diner. Good old fashion American fanfare was the name of the game. I had worked there most of my adolescent years and part of my adult life during school breaks and the like. I had the menu down pat, but I had yet to recreate the magic of Miss Gladys' banana bread to this very day. I swear she put her entire kitchen sink in the batter.

The lunch rush, if it could really be called that, was just starting up. Waitresses were filling coffee mugs left and right to get a head start before the real work began as the smell of bacon wafted through the air. Going to our usual corner booth, we flopped down and waited for someone to come take our orders. At this point the walk over to the table was too much of a hassle for the waitresses. We ordered the same thing every time we came in. Even with months between my visits, they all knew my order. It had been consistent since I was about twelve. I saw no need to change what worked. Two gravy biscuits, a side of scrambled eggs with cheese, and an orange juice. I half expected them to just show up with our order already in hand, and show up they did. Just fifteen minutes later, Cynthia came walking towards us with a serving tray of piping hot food.

"Good afternoon Chief, we stopped serving breakfast about ten minutes ago but I pulled some strings. How's it going Bella?" she said and Dad only nodded, digging into his omelet.

"I'm pretty good Cynthia. How's your dad?"

"Thomas is just fine. He won't be much trouble this week since Alice is home."

It was funny to me that both Alice and Cynthia called their father Thomas. I had once asked Alice about it and she said she felt something for him, a sort of familial bond, which caused her to look out for him and make sure he was okay. But in the same token, she didn't really know him the way I knew my dad and they weren't very close. He was usually more concerned with drinking until he passed out than taking care of his daughters.

I always felt that had Alice's mother still been living things wouldn't have been quite as bad for them. But, after Melissa died things went wrong. Alice was only twelve at the time and suddenly she had to run an entire household and help with Cynthia who was just a toddler at the time. Plenty of nights Alice and Cynthia would bunk over at my house or Rosalie's. Once they'd spent a month at the Cullen's in the spare bedroom. It was something no one in town talked about but we all knew Thomas wasn't capable of taking care of them. The only saving grace was that Alice flat out refused to let them separate her and Cynthia.

"Alice is in town?"

"Yeah, it was a big surprise to me too. She's staying for Christmas." The girl said excitedly and I couldn't help but smile at her. Even though we'd talked about Alice plenty of times over the years, she always adopted a nonchalant attitude like she wasn't bothered by her absence. But I knew she was secretly ecstatic that her sister had come to visit. It had been years since the last time she'd come home anyway.

"That's nice." I wasn't jumping for joy over the fact that she'd be around for however a short a time but, even I was capable of thinking more along the lines of what it meant for Cynthia. Hopefully, she'd take a few days off and enjoy a home cooked meal for once and maybe get a few nice presents for Christmas.

"Yeah, listen, I'm not supposed to invite anyone else but we're having a little movie night at the Cullen's if you want to come."

"I don't think-"

"Please, please, please! Everyone wants to see you. I know Alice would love it." she pouted and I knew she was hoping against hope that it would work, but it didn't. I wasn't going anywhere near Alice or any of the rest of them if I could help it. I did not possess that kind of patience.

Cynthia was one of the few people who knew about my crush on Alice when I was younger. She used to tease me mercilessly. At eight years old, the little hellion was convinced that we were meant to be. At one time, I might even have proclaimed to be hopelessly in love with Alice. It wasn't some epiphany that happened overnight and it took me more than a day to accept the change to what I had always believed.

Imagine my surprise when I'm sitting at home crying into my pillow because my best friend blew off a phone call with me to go to some stupid party. We argued. She said I was jealous, and in a way I was. I was jealous, but for none of the reasons she though. That essentially meant I was jealous for what I considered then to be all the wrong reasons. I was hurt that she'd rather spend time with other people almost as much as I was jealous that other people got to see her every day and I was left with nothing but memories to hold me over until the next scheduled school break. Damn right I was jealous, and it scared me shitless. But, that was a long time ago when I was far more naïve. Eventually I moved on and now that I looked back on it, I knew it was for the best.

"No, I'm sorry. I can't."

"That's okay. Maybe next time?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Great, I'm holding you to it. Well, I have to get back, looks like Jessica is about to blow her gasket over there." she whispered looking over her shoulder at the brunette waitress who stood with her hand on her hips, tapping her foot in a miserable attempt to intimidate her into doing her job.

"Oh and Bella? Miss Gladys said to give you this." she said turning to place a small paper bag containing wrapped slices of banana bread right next to me.

It most certainly did feel good to be back.