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Alice sat on our comfortable, but unnecessary bed, holding her head. I kneeled in front of her, holding her hands in mine.

'What's happening, Alice?'

'I- Hang on, I can't… My head is full of them.'

'Full of what? Alice, talk to me!' As much as I wanted to know what was going I hated seeing my wife in distress.

'Visions from Edward. They're flashing from dark to light like a, well, like a strobe light.'

'What's he doing?' Alice said nothing, but put her head in her hands. I got up and sat next to her on the bed, gently pulling her close to me.

'I don't know,' she whispered, looking genuinely scared for the first time since… actually, what I felt was the emotions from everybody I'd killed working for Maria in my much-regrettable past. 'I really don't know what he'll do.'

Six days passed before my somewhat masochistic brother returned; he'd been hiding in the empty wilderness in Denali apparently, because obviously that was the preferable option to talking the 'issue' through with Carlisle. We sat in the living room (ironic really) watching television like nothing had happened. The atmosphere was awkward but somehow it felt wrong for me to change it.

'Tanya came on to you?'

'Alice! Do you have to do that?' Edward groaned. Esme looked at her adopted son questioningly. 'I turned her down,' he said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

'You turned her down?' Emmett asked in utter disbelief. 'As in Tanya? As in-' he proceeded to make curvy motions with his hands. 'That Tanya?'

'Emmet!' Rose shouted disapprovingly from the doorframe.

'What? She's hot!' he shrugged, defending himself in a way that only Emmett could. His chosen form of defence was met with a rather expensive vase. To his head. Rosalie stormed out and Emmett turned back to the television, only to be elbowed by Alice.

'What?'

'Go after her Emmett.' He groaned, evidently not seeing why he should bother. 'Before she smashes up your car, maybe?' she added.

'Shit,' he muttered, practically flying after her. 'Rose! Rose baby, come on I didn't…'

Alice, Edward and I walked into the cafeteria for our non-existent lunch the next day to find Rose and Emmett already sat at our table, snuggled up to each other like a pair of pathetic love-stricken teenagers.

'Because it isn't enough that they spent all night loudly 'making up',' I mumbled to Alice. It appears Emmett heard because he snickered in our direction, winking at me as he annoyingly did so. However, Alice wasn't listening; her eyes had become unfocused and it was clear that she needed help standing up. I put one hand lightly under her elbow and guided her forward to the table. Emmett immediately took on his 'bodyguard' form, checking out for any humans listening in or watching and while Rose looked wary too, it was more irritated than protected. Typical Rosalie.

As it turned out, she wasn't having a vision, only worried about Edward's reaction to Bella Swan.

'It's going to be okay,' she mumbled.

'Of course it is,' Edward grumbled back. I felt he was annoyed with us; we probably deserved it mind, after Emmett and I throwing constant streams of slush balls at him this morning until we got bored with his lack of response. Out shift from normal, playful even, to what he viewed as 'overdone vigilance' was irritating him greatly.

Alice finally came back to normal focus and agreed with Edward that everything would be okay. I felt a sudden sense of sympathy waft my way from Edward; sympathy for me. He was remembering all the times they'd been over protective of me. I met his glance and briefly grinned. Annoying, isn't it? He grimaced at me. Edward zoned out of our small talk and began scanning the room, listening for any thoughts about us strange Cullens.

'Anything new?' I asked him.

'Nothing. She … must not have said anything.' We all raised our eyebrows at this news.

'Maybe you're not as scary as you think you are,' Emmet chuckled. 'I bet I could have frightened her better than that.' Edward rolled his eyes. 'Wonder why…?' He continued puzzling over my revelation about the girl's unique silence; Edward could not hear her thoughts.

'We've been over that. I don't know.' Edward clearly did not want to continue with this topic of conversation. Alas he had no choice.

'She's coming in, try to look human,' Alice murmured.

'Human, you say?' Emmet asked. He had his infamous mischievous look on his face and held up his fist to reveal a still frozen block of ice; we all knew where this was going.

He had his eyes on me but hurled the ice at Alice who flicked it away with a casual flutter of her fingers. The ice ricocheted across the cafeteria and shattered with a sharp crack against the wall. The brick cracked too. Alice had flicked the ice far too fast for human eyes to notice and so although everyone turned to look at the damaged wall, no one looked in our direction.

'Very human, Emmett,' Rosalie said scathingly. 'Why don't you punch through the wall while you're at it?'

'It would look more impressive if you did it, baby.' Rose scoffed and turned to engage Alice and I in what was bound to be more intelligent conversation, leaving Edward to stare at the Swan girl and Emmett thinking about his next inappropriate move.

Alice elbowed Edward, corresponding with him mentally. He visibly clenched his teeth.

'Ease up, Edward,' Emmett said. 'Honestly. So you kill one human. That's hardly the end of the world.'

'You would know,' he murmured.

Emmett laughed. 'You've got to learn to get over things. Like I do. Eternity is a long time to wallow in guilt.'

Alice cleverly responded by hurling a piece of ice she'd been keeping into Emmett's unsuspecting face. He blinked surprised, then grinned.

'You've asked for it,' he said, leaning across the table and shook his ice-encrusted hair in her direction.

'Ew,' Rose complained as melted ice flew everywhere. Alice held up her tray as a shield but I realised that Bella Swan must be staring at us, something which would definitely not help Edward's situation so I expelled waves of calm towards them. They all scowled at me but I didn't respond; it was for the best.

When the lunch period ended, we stayed in our seats, unsure of our next move. Bella and Jessica had been talking, not very quietly, about us, or Edward at least, so it was probably best if we let them leave first.

'I… think it's okay,' Alice said, hesitant. 'Your mind is set; I think you'll make it through the hour.'

'Why push it Edward?' I interjected. Although I didn't want to feel smug that my brother was weaker than me now I couldn't help it. 'Go home, take it slow.' My family started up an argument with Emmett who didn't see what the big deal was. I sat out of this one, letting Rose handle it. She was making her views on moving quite clear. Edward took a deep breath, not that he needed to, and strode away from us, heading to class.

Alice's face was scrunched up with worry.

'He'll be fine,' I said rubbing her back soothingly.

'Come on Emmett,' Rose picked up her way-too-expensive handbag, put it gracefully over her shoulder and took Emmett's hand to drag him to their next lesson, leaving us alone. I can't say I'm proud of my next move, but I'm only a guy after all.

'You know, there's nobody home,' I started suggestively. Alice looked at me curiously but I just shrugged. When she didn't say anything I smiled at her, knowing she couldn't resist my smile.

'Typical!' she huffed. My smile widened. 'Fine.' she gave in, shouldering me in the chest - she couldn't reach my shoulder - and made off towards the car. I didn't need any encouragement to follow.

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A/N That wonderful chapter comes from Emily and the previous author's note comes from her lovely cat…Crystal (I hope that's how you spell it?) Please R&R guys?