[Disclaimer] Everything Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer

[A/N] Welcome back, my darling readers. I'm happy some of you enjoy reading the story. It's a fun project for me to work on. Thanks for your support.

FAQ's

How's Emmett related to the Cullens?

Emmett's mother Siobhan and Esme are sisters.

Will Rosalie make an appearance?

Yes, Rose is in this fic too. She's going to show up in a couple of chapters.

**7**

As soon as forever is through, I'll be over you

(Toto)

It was nice to be home again in Seattle. In a way it was a bit like suddenly being a child again. Both of my parents fussed around me and especially Mom was starting to get almost a bit too clingy. She suggested that I could move into the guestroom underneath the roof because it was bigger than my old room in the house. They had stored all kind of crap inside of it and I needed a bit more space for my clothes.

"Or you could just move in with Bella." My mother suggested, looking up from a folder in her lap. We had gone over to my best friend's place after breakfast to help her with the kids and paper stuff. I didn't have the patience to deal with filling out these bureaucratic forms. Instead I was watching fascinated how Bella managed to feed both twins at the same time.

"Cheese," Julie demanded, throwing her feeding cup from the table. "Cheese!"

Bella sighed and handed the girl a little cube of yellow Cheddar. Instead of stuffing it in her own mouth, Julie lowered her hand. Within a flash the dog was next to her high chair.

I felt like fainting when I saw her tiny fist coming close to the monster's snout.

"Don't give Jake, cheese." Bella told her. "It's cheese for Julie."

"Jake, cheese." Julie chuckled. Her brother started whining in his own seat. A moment later he burst out into a loud tantrum.

"Em. J., cheese." His sister said and as soon as Bella placed another cube of cheese in her son's hand he got still again. Like his sister before him he didn't eat any of the cheese himself. The dog swallowed it with thick strings of slobber running down his snout. It was so gross that my stomach heaved.

"The dog is gross." I told Bella, wiping my fingers on a napkin. "Why did you get such a huge one?"

"Are you still scared of him?" she asked back, instead of answering my question. "He's not going to bite you. "

"Alice has always been scared of dogs." Mom stated. "Jake is the biggest dog I've ever seen."

"Big dogs have big hearts." Bella said. "That's what Emmett told me when he came home with him one night. Jake was supposed to be a present for me."

"Nice present." I mumbled. I would have gotten you flowers or some jewelry. A dog? They were smelly and messy and a bunch of other nasty things.

"Your mother is right."

"About what? That I'm scared of dogs?"

"Not that, but the part she said about you moving in here with me. Our guestroom is bigger than that in your parents' house."

I swallowed a mouthful of salvia. Staying under one roof with Bella? How was I going to survive that?

Both, her and Mom looked at me expectantly and I didn't know what kind of excuse to use for not staying at Bella's place. I would be here every day anyway to help her with the twins.

"It would be the best solution, I guess."

Inside my head I cursed myself. I was an awful person. Bella had just lost her husband and the only thing I could worry about was how spending time around her would affect my own emotions.

"Great, darling." Mom stated. "Edward can bring your suitcase and all your other stuff here later."

"Yes, Mom." I whispered, standing up from the table. Silently I rinsed my plate under the faucet before I started putting all the dishes from the table into the dishwasher.

"I'll help you do some laundry." I told Bella, desperate for a way to get away from her for a while. "Mom, I see you later."

With that, I grabbed a few stained dishtowels and walked downstairs to the basement. After I turned on the radio in the laundry room, I sorted the clothes by colors.

The kids actually had some cute stuff to wear. Bella loved to dress them up as a little couple. My fingertips moved over a little panda bear print on a purple dress. The next time I went shopping, I would remember to buy something nice for them as well.

As for Bella's own clothes, they were horrible. My best friend never had been a Fashionista but now her entire wardrobe seemed to consist of baggy shirts and Mom Jeans. I mean, seriously, Mom Jeans? Those ugly things would turn the nicest figure into a muffin topped disaster.

I stuffed the clothes into the washing machine and turned on the machine.

"Hey," Bella said when I walked up to the living room again. The kids were playing on the floor with some plastic tower that played a melody when you put your hand against the colorful buttons. "You rushed off so quickly. Is everything okay?"

"Yes, sure, I'm fine. Why are you asking?"

She made a fish face and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. It's just a feeling. Do you want to go to the park with me later? The kids get more tired when they spend time outside."

"Why not?" I said. "We can go after lunch."

I noticed a photo album on the table and sat down next to Bella to take a closer look at it.

"I found this while I was looking for some of documents." Bella said. She placed the photo album on my lap and flipped it open. "Isn't that amazing?"

The entire thing was filled with pictures of me and her. Before his stroke Bella's father Charlie had loved to take pictures as often as possible.

There we were; two six-year-olds in front a pink birthday cake. I and Bella sunbathing in red-dotted bikinis with ribbons or even one with us dressed out in long white silk dresses for our First Communion. Somehow we looked a bit like two little brides next to each other.

The thought was probably blasphemic and I quickly tried to shove it aside.

"Those are cute, aren't they?"

"Yes, they are. I can't believe you kept this old stuff for such a long time."

"Why would I throw them away? Those are memories and some of my favorite ones on top of it."

Her lips curled up into a smile before they sank into a slight frown. "I missed you."

"I missed you too."

She nodded her head and put the photo album back on the table. "But you wouldn't have come here if this…if Emmett hadn't... You are just here because he died."

"Yes," I whispered. "Probably, but I would have home for Christmas this year anyway." Mom and Dad had insisted on this and as December was still half a year away I hadn't bothered with coming up with an excuse yet.

"You know I always spend Christmas in Florida with Renee. The only time you consider coming home and you choose an opportunity where I'm not in Seattle. It's just fucking great."

"It's Christmas."

"Yeah, whatever, it doesn't matter anyway." She said quickly. "Someone from the bank is going to come here in the afternoon. If they make me sell the house, I don't know what to do."

"Didn't you and Emmett have a credit? They can't just cancel that."

"Oh Alice, they can and they probably will. I need to start working again soon to make some money but how am I supposed to do that with the kids? They need me."

"A lot of mothers work and the kids manage to survive that pretty good in most of the cases. Why don't you try to get a place for them in a daycare center?"

She nodded and kneeled down next to the kids on the ground. Julie had just taken a red plastic car from her brother who was trying to get it back by kicking her against her arm with his tiny fists.

"Ouch! Mom-my!"

"Little monsters. Julie, give Em. J.'s car back."

The girl frowned and threw the car against the living room table. "Julie, car!"

"Julie Alison, I warn you." Bella mumbled.

I lifted Em. J. up on the couch and rocked him up and down on my knee until he squeaked.

"Julie, up. Julie, up."

"Your sister is pretty persistent, Em. J." I told him. "Tell her it's your turn now."

xxxx

The day went by quickly. It was amazing how two little kids could keep two adults running around the entire day. Bella had called several kindergarten and day care centers but it seemed to be difficult to find a place that was willing to take both kids.

My brother came and brought my suitcase. He too was happy that I was going to stay in Seattle now. That's what he told me when he placed the heavy suitcase on the bed in Bella's guestroom.

"Are the two of you getting along?" Edward asked, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"Why are you asking?"

"I'm asking, because you and Bella haven't spoken one word to each other since her wedding."

"That's none your business." I snarled. I opened my suitcase and started putting my dresses into the closet. Most of them were too summery for the shitty weather. Maybe I could wear them with a nice cardigan on top of it? That would make for an interesting article. How to—winterproof your summer wardrobe. I made a mental note to do some research on that.

Edward handed me a pile of tops. "I know that it's not my business. But unlike you, I've been here these past three years. Bella was unhappy that you didn't speak to her."

She was unhappy? I was the one who was fucking miserable. In the first time after my sudden move to Australia I felt like crawling under a rock and die.

"I had my reasons for not speaking to her." I stated, crossing my arms in front of my chest like a sullen child. "But it doesn't matter right now."

"If you say so, Alice, it's probably true."

"Don't you have anything else to do? Speak some prayers or prepare your next sermon for example?"

He smirked, the right side of his mouth turning into a crooked grin. "My next sermon is already written. It's going to be about the lost son."

Was this supposed to be a reference to me? I was glad there wasn't any lost sister in the bible as far as I remembered.

Edward left and for a few minutes I sat still on the bed, caressing the new duvet cover Bella had brought me earlier. She had decided to take a little nap with the twins. Julie and Em.J. had both snuggled close to her while she had read them from a fairytale book. It was so adorable. Bella was great with the kids.

I tiptoed along the corridor, shrugging back when I heard a low whimper coming from the bathroom. Some suppressed sobs reached my ear through the closed door when I pressed it against the wood.

"Bella?" I asked, knocking against the door. "Are you okay in there?"

She didn't answer but after a few endless seconds the handle of the door moved down to open the door.

"I can't do this." she cried. "I can't do this all by myself."

"It's okay." I told her, pulling her into a tight hug. My shoe got caught in the carpet and we lost our balance, barely managing to get it back before she landed on the floor.

"Sit down on the stairs before we get hurt." I stated. "Why were you crying in the bathroom?"

"Because I didn't want the kids to see it," she whispered, wiping her face at the sleeve of her shirt. "It would scare them."

"You are being so brave. Your situation is difficult and you're doing so great. Em would be proud of you."

She shrugged her shoulders. "He and I were fighting so much in the last time. Now, all of it seems so silly to me."

I dropped my arm from her shoulder and stuffed my hands into the pockets of my jeans. She loved him. She had loved Emmett in a way that I had wished for her to love me back since my freshman year of Highschool. It wasn't going to happen. Not back then and not in the next thousand years. All I could do was trying my best to be the friend she needed right now, before I would return to my new life on the other side of the world.