A/N: Hey folks! Here's the next lil chapter for you all. Lots of twists and turns that even I didn't expect, which is what I love about writing. I get to figure this thing out right along with everyone else. Hope you like where my poor little mind seems to be taking us.

Chapter 7

She never would have imagined that this would be so fun. Because if Alice would have known that getting Edward and Bella together would be this enjoyable she would have insisted on doing so years ago. Had she known then perhaps instead of hauling Bella off to Cancun for spring break their junior year, they might have been taking a road trip to visit Edward.
She knew that her brother valued his privacy far too much, but this type of interruption to his life would have been more than worth it.

Within a matter of moments she had deemed movie night a resounding success.
Just watching Bella sit down so carefully in her favorite chair, which was situated by the far end of the sofa where Edward just so happened to be seated, was absolutely priceless.
Alice, ever the quick thinker, had strategically placed herself on the other end of the sofa before anyone else could dictate the seating arrangements. This vantage point not only allowed her a good view of both the TV and her companions for the evening, but it also forced Edward and Bella to sit much closer to one another than they would have had to in any other circumstance.

They smiled a lot, giggled a little and coughed occasionally, but neither was willing to laugh outright and the ridiculous comedy they'd watched, what Alice figured was likely a couple hundred times between the two of them.
All in all it was very amusing.
Even better though, was getting to watch the subtle interactions that they both subconsciously took part in; such as, passing the popcorn bowl back and forth, or Edward refilling Bella's wineglass when he noticed it was empty. There was no hesitation or awkward fumbling. It was surprisingly normal—it was nice.

Alice was pretending to watch the movie even though she knew there was little hope that she could fool anyone tonight; instead of paying attention to the silly parody that Bella and Edward were so impressed by she was busy thinking and observing.

She didn't want to admit that her plan to get these two together was rushed or possibly an ill-conceived idea, but she hadn't taken into consideration just how easy this was going to be. She had assumed that she would have time, figuring that there would be a lot of resistance and probably a little bit of whining too.

She was hoping for them to talk, get to know one another, develop a friendship, but this was shaping up to be even more.
The furtive glances and the shy little grins seemed to give away a far greater level of interest. Interest was good and a romance between the two of them wouldn't be unwanted—in fact it would be fantastic, but Alice knew that neither of them were even remotely prepared for what that would involve.

She'd learned a lot over the past few hours and she was now convinced that it was best to let things happen between Bella and Edward of their own accord. The idea of just sitting by and watching this take shape without having to work for and encourage it every step of the way was quite appealing after all, but Alice knew that she still had a job to do.

She'd known Edward her entire life and though she knew that he was a good man—a gentleman at heart, she knew that his shyness had never allowed him to pursue something as complicated a relationship with a woman. She had to assume that he would need a bit of guidance, if he were to be successful.
Bella on the other hand had other issues. Shy as she was, Alice knew that she could overcome that obstacle with relative ease if the situation called for it. What she worried about instead was the complicated nature of her past, one event in particular—the secret that so few knew about, which could easily destroy Edward's chances before he ever got the opportunity to show her what he might really be capable of.

There was a silent understanding between Alice and Bella that her issues were open for discussion. Talking about it seemed to make things easier for her, plus Bella wasn't the type to dwell on a situation, but Alice still felt uncomfortable bringing it up unnecessarily. Though Bella insisted that it was over long before it ever got anywhere, and that the counseling she'd received had rid her of any residual fears, Alice still worried that Bella wasn't operating at one hundred percent; her shy, often-reclusive nature was a testament to that very fact.

If she were to sit back and watch Edward and Bella become friends, possibly more, she would hate to withhold information that might be crucial to the success or failure of said relationship. Instead she would prefer to make sure that they both understood how difficult this journey would be and why.
She didn't want to interfere unnecessarily but for two people already into their twenties, her brother and her best friend were woefully inexperienced. So, if she might be able to save them some amount of heartache due to basic misunderstanding or lack of communication, then she'd gladly stick her nose right in the middle of their business if she needed to.

Having made that decision, Alice determined that she would begin by gathering information; then with that information, she would decide how much needed to be said to whom and at what point.
For now though, she only wanted to sit back and relax. Seeing Edward smile so much was the biggest treat and having a good idea that Bella was the reason made it even better.

"So can I ask you something?" Alice hedged a little bit later, as Edward walked past her into the apartment.

"Sure." He muttered, while having a quick look around.

It was late by now and she'd finally decided it was time for her to go back to the apartment for the night. She and Bella had shared most of the wine, so Edward being the overprotective type had insisted that he'd take her home, just to be safe.
It was only three blocks over from the house and it wasn't like they lived in the big bad city, but he still refused to accept the idea of her walking home unescorted.

Having only consumed one glass of the wine himself, Edward volunteered to drive Alice and her car back to the apartment, he would then walk back once he'd made sure she was inside, safe and sound.
She tried to protest but there was no way to win that argument. She tried to be concerned for his safety, but he'd merely pointed out that there were hardly any mountain lions prowling the streets of Port Angeles. A fact that did not go unnoticed by Bella, who was busy picking up the empty bowls and wineglasses from around the living room at the time.
Alice was dying to tell that story, but she thought it could wait a few days—with any luck perhaps her friend's curiosity would get the better of her and she'd ask Edward to explain that one himself.

"Was it your idea or Bella's for the two of you to ride over to the recycle center today?"

"A little of both I guess." Edward answered, avoiding the real information Alice was trying to pull from him.

"How's that work?" Alice insisted, going over to have a seat on the sofa, while Edward walked though the apartment checking for lord knows what.

"Bella decided that the boxes needed to go there. I didn't like the idea of her having to unload all that stuff on her own so I asked if I could go with." He finally confessed with an audible huff of annoyance.

"Well jeez, don't get your knickers in a twist. I was just curious." She chuckled.

She appeared to take the news rather easily, but inside she was bubbling over with joy. This was even better than she'd hoped for. It was exciting enough to know that Edward was trying, but to know that he was actually initiating some of their interaction was far beyond her expectations.
She almost couldn't wait for him to leave now so that she could get on the phone with Bella, no wait—her mother! They needed to go over all of these wonderful possibilities. Then, after she'd been able to jump up and down for a while celebrating, she'd call Bella and interrogate her for a bit—see if she could pull any further insights out of her dear friend.

Edward came back then from his quick tour about the place and stopped in front of her, shoving his hands into his coat pockets.

"Look, I know this is all terribly exciting for you, but I'm a little freaked out by all of the questions; and those looks you kept giving me half the night were about to drive me nuts." He explained.

Alice was happy that Edward was being honest with her. She knew that her enjoyment of the situation was poorly concealed, but her intention was never to make either of them feel any more uncomfortable than they were already. Besides, she wanted Edward to want this and she knew that he'd need help and encouragement along the way—a job she was pleased as punch to accept.

Bella already knew just how sensitive Edward was, thanks to that little early morning chat they'd had, but Alice hadn't really found a good opportunity to have a similar discussion with her brother. Truth be told, she didn't want to frighten him away by talking up Bella, like she was expecting anything. He was an incredibly bright and perceptive man—listing her friend's best attributes like some type of advertisement would only make it seem all the more obvious in his eyes.
But, if she could make him understand that Bella was indeed just as shy and reluctant as he was in many ways, maybe she could boost his confidence just a little. Make him understand that he didn't need to be so nervous around her, that maybe Bella needed someone like him just as much as he needed someone like her. Which in all honesty was the truth and then some.

"Really Edward, I didn't mean anything by it and I'll try to behave from now on. It's just that I'm so excited to have you and Bella getting along so well. It's been so long since I've had you around and to think that you might actually be able to get on with someone as dear to me as Bella, it just makes me uncontrollably happy."
Alice looked a little sheepish for a moment and Edward couldn't help but wonder what was on her mind.

"Can I tell you a little something about Bella? I don't think she'd mind me saying anything and I just feel like, since you're living in the same house for the time being, that it might help you understand her a bit better."

Edward never really wanted to know much about people in general, therefore when he'd first arrived and he and Alice had gotten some time alone, the only thing Alice had said on the subject of Bella was that she was a wonderful friend and roommate. She'd assured him that she was accommodating and very understanding—he would have no need to worry that his visit might disturb or aggravate her in any way. Then as time went on, Alice would drop in little facts here or there, such as her job details or her family situation.

He knew that the reason he'd never met her before was that Bella had attended school in Phoenix, where she'd lived with her mother until she was thirteen. Once she'd moved to Washington to be with her father, she'd gone to school over in Forks, while Alice and Edward had always attended school in Port Angeles; since their parent's home was situated exactly halfway between there and Forks, they'd had a choice as to which school district they would make use of, and with Carlisle working primarily at the hospital in Port Angeles, it was decided upon mostly out of convince. That being said, there was little chance of them ever running into Bella—that is until she was transferred at the beginning of her sophomore year, which was well after Edward had already left town in favor of studying in Chicago.

Edward gave his sister a look that encouraged her to continue without having to say anything as he took a seat beside her on the sofa. He wasn't sure if he should be gathering information about Bella like this, but if he trusted anyone in this world it would be Alice. He figured that if she thought he ought to know whatever this was it must be important.
And Alice did feel that this was important. She still didn't know exactly what Edward's intentions were, but she had a sneaking suspicion that he saw a lot of potential in Bella. The level of interest she'd seen him employ whenever she'd spoken tonight, or the amount of concern that was present when he believed her to be upset was far beyond that of a mere acquaintance looking for a friend. If her feelings and observations were correct Edward needed to know a bit about Bella, and sooner was better than later given their combination of issues.

"When I met Bella, I was literally drawn to her. I couldn't figure it out right away, but I just felt like I was supposed to go up and say hi—introduce myself. Only after I did, was I able to realize why I felt so connected to her." Alice smirked a bit, trying to keep her smile hidden for now.
"She was so shy. In fact, she still has a lot of trouble talking with people until she really gets to know them. It was once I noticed this about her that I knew we'd become great friends. It was because she's so much like you, Edward.

"It was kind of weird really, I always knew just what to say to make her comfortable and help her relax, because I knew how to be around you." She did smile a little now, because she just couldn't help it.
She loved her brother and she'd always been grateful that she had him to unknowingly teach her what she'd needed to know in order to help Bella way back then.

"I'd thought that Bella looked like she could use a friend that first day, and I suppose I was right to a degree, but what I didn't know was that she needed a lot more than just a happy face and a sensitive ear." Alice's face became serious then.
She hadn't allowed herself to think of the events that Bella had shared with her in a long time. She didn't like to think about her friend being so frightened or what might have happened had her father not arrived in time, but Alice had never been more proud of anyone in her life as she was of Bella that night—hearing her confess something so horrible, tears in her eyes, yet a determination ever present, to overcome the hurt that someone so thoughtless had sought to inflict.
She wanted to tell Edward about this to save Bella the stress of doing so later, so she pressed on after taking a deep breath.

"One difference between you and Bella is that she's not always be so shy. She tells me that she was when she was a little kid, but that she'd managed to grow out of it a little by the time she was in middle school—kinda like Mom and Dad thought that you would eventually.
She claims that she was doing pretty well socially by the time she got to high school; she had some friends and it didn't really bother her, the whole concept of meeting people and stuff.

"Her mom got remarried though, during her freshman year and she felt like it would be for the best if she went to stay with her dad for a while; that's why she moved here."

Edward nodded his head following along, the information striking him as useful but relatively mundane so far. The only thing that concerned him was that there was obviously something that Alice wasn't saying, something she was just hinting at without getting to the point and he couldn't help but think that it was something of importance.

"When she got to Forks she was the new kid at school and it was the middle of the year at that; she seemed to be getting a lot more attention than I think she initially anticipated because of this. So she sort of shutdown a little; she described it as being a bit of a preservation tactic, since there were apparently a bunch of girls that were already making fun of her—just stupid jokes from what it sounded like, speculating why she'd come to Forks after all of these years, at such a random time in her life. But it was the amount of attention she was getting from the boys that really seemed to unnerve her.
As a result, she eventually reverted back to the quiet, shy Bella that she said hadn't really been a part of who she was over the past few years as a way to avoid people. She didn't talk to anyone, she sat by herself at lunch and often hid in the library during any free time she had to kill."

Alice took another deep breath and looked at her brother before continuing—she hoped that he would take this information and put it to good use, not go flying off the handle and do something foolish instead.
Edward was very loyal and protective—wonderful traits ordinarily, but describing this incident that involved someone that was possibly becoming important to him was a bit nerve wracking as a result.

"It didn't really help though, because there was this boy named James that had taken a liking to her, and no matter what she did to avoid him he always seemed to be following her around.
This went on for a few months where she just tried her best to deal with it and ignore him, but one day he decided to follow her home after school. She said that he was nice enough, but there was always something a bit creepy about him that she couldn't really figure out. When he turned up at her door a few minutes after she'd gone inside, he didn't look at all nice or friendly, so she knew that her instincts had been right.
He was way bigger than her so he forced himself inside and managed to catch her before she could get to a phone or yell for help."
Alice hadn't realized she was crying until she felt Edward put his arm around her and gently brush her tears aside.

"He didn't get any further than that, thank god.
See, Bella's dad is the police chief in Forks, and he had fortunately been driving by the house as he was headed some place else. When he noticed another car parked out front he thought he'd stop in to just say hi and meet whoever was there visiting with Bella. When he walked in he saw that James had Bella pinned to the floor while she was trying to fight him off."

She heard a muffled popping noise as Edward ground his teeth together and she felt that his grip around her shoulders had tightened.
Details were no longer needed, so she decided to get to the point and be done with it before either of them could get any more upset.

"The only thing I can say for Chief Swan is he's one hell of a policeman. Once James got out of the hospital, he was put on trial as an adult, since he was a few years older than Bella, and he was sentenced to fifteen years—breaking an entering, aggravated assault, attempted rape, resisting arrest…you name it. Who knows what all he was really guilty of, but Charlie threw the book at him. There's no chance of parole and he'll be on probation for a long while whenever he finally gets out."

There was a long moment where neither one of them said anything but finally Edward cleared his throat, needing to know more.

"Is she…Is Bella okay now?" Edward asked softly, a hard edge to his voice that Alice recognized as emotion.
She patted her brother's chest fondly and smiled through her tears.

"According to her she's never gotten back to where she was before moving to Forks, but ever since the chief made the decision to have her transferred to Port Angeles, so that she wouldn't have to deal with any backlash from the incident, she's been slowly making progress. Over the years I've learned how to take baby steps with her, get her to try new things and meet some new people, but it's still difficult for her to push forward on her own. She wants to but it's hard."

Alice leaned away for his embrace slightly and looked into his eyes wanting the point of all this to really hit home.

"It's a trust thing for her, Edward."

"Just like it's a mental thing for me," He added with an understanding nod of his head after thinking about it for a moment, "and it's all rooted in fear."

"I have to be honest with you Edward." Alice was very serious all of a sudden. She needed him to understand not only where Bella was coming from with any shyness or skittish behavior he might witness, but she also wanted him to understand what she was thinking. "I didn't know what to expect really, but when the idea of you and Bella becoming friends entered my mind a few days ago I just couldn't stand the thought of you both running scared before you ever gave it a chance. I've never been more excited than I was tonight when I realized that you were both really trying, that you both seemed interested in getting to know one another.
I feel like Bella probably trusts you already because you are my brother, but for her to be really trying is something huge no matter the circumstances."
She took hold of her brother's hand with both of her considerably smaller ones and smiled brightly.

"I promise that I'm not going to interfere in any sort of friendship that you two might be able to build from here on out, but I want you to know that I'm here for you if you have questions or you need someone to talk to. But I'm also going to be available to Bella, just so you know, because she needs me too."

Edward's brow was furrowed and his mouth was pulled down into a frown. He took a moment to clear his throat again and Alice watched as he rubbed his free hand back and forth across his thigh.

"I…" he took a deep breath before trying again. "Alice, I want to uhh…does she…? God why is this so hard?" He sighed, not knowing how to ask his sister what he really wanted to know.

"It's just me, Silly. You know you can ask me anything." Alice encouraged.

"I want to be able to talk to her." He managed to say finally. "I just…it's really…I don't know how. And now this…why tell me all of this?"

Alice watched him hang his head in defeat. But she did not consider this discouraging; this was indeed something she could handle. She looked deep within herself and summoned the motivator, the coach—the freakin' pep squad; Alice was a first class cheerleader and she would pour every last bit of her enthusiasm into making Edward, and Bella for that matter, see that this was really quite easy because it was right. They'd already taken the biggest step without her help after all; all she had to do now was keep them pointed in the right direction and cheer them on.

"It's something that you needed to know, Edward, and not something that Bella was likely to just come right out and tell you. Neither of you have a lot of experience making friends, so when this subject might have come up later, I fear that neither one of you would really handle that conversation very well. Lack of knowledge shouldn't be the deal breaker here, when you two already have so many other issues to overcome."

"What have you told Bella about me?" Edward sighed.
If she was talking to him like this he had to assume that she had or would be speaking to Bella in a similar manner.

"Very little aside from the fact that you are very shy." Alice responded, though she knew that she wasn't fooling him at all.

"And?" he prompted.

"Just the basics from our childhood. That you went to school in Chicago, you live in Colorado now; I hinted a little at your fascination with nature and she knows you make computer programs. Really that's it." Alice folded her arms defensively but with a smile on her face. "She might sorta know your IQ is like twice that of any normal human as well." She added quietly, after a brief moment of indecision.

"Fine. So what else can you tell me that will be helpful?" Edward conceded.

"Bella loves old movies—comedies especially, classic novels, she likes hiking, if she has someone to go along, so that she doesn't trip over every last root in the forest. Her favorite food is anything Italian and I'm going to leave the rest up to you to figure out." Alice giggled.

"How is any of that supposed to make talking to her easier for me?" Edward grumbled.

"Come on genius! I just gave you like four key topics of conversation, not to mention major date ideas."

"Dates?" Edward visibly paled.

"Ok, not dates—opportunities to make talking easier within a neutral environment that makes the potential topics of conversation obvious." Alice corrected, already enjoying her position as coach way too much.

Edward shook his head as he got to his feet, hugging his sister to him in the process.

"I'm never going to be able to sleep tonight at this rate, but I'd better let you get to bed anyway." He told her, making his way towards the door.

"It'll get easier Edward, I promise." she grinned.

"We'll see." He couldn't help but smile back.

"Hey, Edward," she caught him just before he managed to open the door. She was fiddling with her hands in a gesture much like Edward would usually employ when nervous.
"I just need you to know, that I love Bella the way that I love you. There is no one else in the world I would ever deem worthy of either of you but each other."