A/N: We're getting closer to the end. I hope you all enjoy this one.


BPOV

"You're right." Rosalie's words startled me out of my rage.

My eyes flew to hers. "What?"

She met my gaze with a calm I rarely saw from her. "You're right. You forced your way into our world, but we didn't protect you from it the way we should have. I thought Edward's idea was for the best and encouraged him. I believed you would get over him in time, live a human life, and our family would remain safe. I didn't consider other threats to you caused by our involvement in your life, willing or not. I'm sorry."

She stepped forward, hand outstretched. I stared at her beautiful features, trying to find some hint of insincerity. I found none. I brushed her fingers with mine, unsure if I should do more, but her grip tightened. She smiled down at me, a true smile for once, and she shook my hand with purpose.

Our hands dropped, and I looked away. The next person I saw was Esme. I cringed, shame at the damage I created seeping in. "I'm sorry about the wall. I didn't mean—"

"No more. It's just a wall. You'll help fix it, as any of us do when we let our emotions get the better of our strength." She offered me a slight smile tinged with regret. "I apologize as well, sweetheart. I should have stayed to say goodbye, but I've never been good at those when it comes to my children."

She opened her arms again, and this time I fell into them. How could I remain angry with her, knowing what I did of her past and her lost child? I couldn't judge her for her weakness when my own inability to face Edward's plan was the catalyst for my capture and torture by Victoria, as well as my eventual death at her hands. Her arms folded around me, my anger drained away, and the despair and grief I held back flooded in. I cried without tears into her shoulder, my eyes stinging with venom.

"You left! You left me!" I choked on the words, tried to hold them back, but it was useless.

"I know. Never again, Bella. I promise." She held me close, and I drank in the reassurance of the only mother I could be close to anymore.

Two sets of small hands ran up and down my arms and back, offering what little comfort they could until my sobs finally quieted. Alice and Rosalie moved back as I pulled away from Esme, gently this time, and I tried to express my gratitude without words. For the first time, I felt like my mother and sisters stood beside me. Our inequality and personality conflicts from my human time with them fell away.

The men stood on the other side of the room, even Edward, looking unsure of how to handle the situation. The sight of them provoked an unexpected reaction from me. I giggled. The other women followed my gaze and began to laugh, too. I felt the remaining tension dissipate with our amusement.

"Scared of a few tears, boys?" Rosalie mocked them.

Emmett puffed his chest out. "Of course not. Do I get a hug next, Little Sis? Now that you aren't so breakable anymore?" His eyes twinkled at me, although he restrained the grin I was so used to seeing.

I nodded, and the next thing I knew he lifted me up and spun me around. I rolled my eyes and laughed again, squeezing him back. He put me down next to Jasper.

I looked up at the tall blond man who would be my brother from now on. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that earlier."

He shook his head. "No, you're right. I didn't stay to apologize. At the time, I was afraid I would kill you if I didn't put distance between us."

"You didn't come back, not even once Carlisle stitched me up."

"No." He looked down at his feet, his mouth pinched against any other words.

"I never blamed you. You couldn't exactly help feeling the hunger of all the others on top of your own. It doesn't surprise me one bit that you're the one with the most 'accidents.' Actually, I'm amazed you manage to stick to the animal diet around other vampires at all, especially now that I am one," I told him. As he stared at me, I offered a hand. "You're probably the strongest vampire I know. Will you help me learn to resist? Even when I fed on those deer, I knew in the back of my mind that there was something more appealing out there. I want to be able to resist it."

He took my hand, looking dazed. "I would be honored. No one has ever pointed that out before, you know." His eyes sharpened. "But you know, you're one of the strangest newborns I've ever encountered. Your control over your emotions amazes me in turn, even if I can't feel it. I can see the results."

I frowned, unsure of what he meant. My eyes moved to the wall I had partially demolished minutes earlier. He laughed, and I looked back at him.

"Trust me, I've seen much, much worse." With that, he squeezed my hand, let go, and moved to stand with Alice.

As Edward came up beside me, I looked at Carlisle. "What's next?"

He sighed. "As expected, the Port Angeles police found your truck at the Greyhound station. You are a presumed runaway at this point, especially because Alice was able to persuade the lost and found at the Seattle police station near the diner where you were taken that you were her sister. They gave her your backpack and wallet."

He cleared his throat. "Edward and I have spoken with your father twice, both times over the phone. He believes that you and Edward had an argument about our move at school which caused you to run rather than face it, and he thinks that Edward wasn't willing to tell him about the fight when he saw him that night. Unfortunately, your 'stunt' this past spring has exacerbated his belief that you may yet return or contact your mother once you calm down. Eventually, we would like you to email him. What you say will be up to you, although you can't tell him the truth. We can help you come up with a plausible story, if you like."

He looked at Edward and then back at me. "Meanwhile, the wisest course for all of us is to alter our plans and head to Alaska. Our Denali cousins will be there to help keep humans away, and the ratio of human to animal life is optimal for the situation. There will be far less temptation for you if we stay away from populated areas."

"But how will you continue working as a doctor if you're not near a town? And what about the rest of you? Are you going to sit around and do nothing?"

Alice laughed. "No, silly Bella! We do take breaks from playing human sometimes, and this is the perfect reason to do so. A year of catching up on our interests and hobbies sounds refreshing. Even Carlisle will find something to do, probably pouring over medical research or taking trips to conferences. We won't be bored."

I felt dazed. "All right, then. And I'll be able to contact my parents again?"

"For a little while." Carlisle held up a cautioning hand. "Eventually, you will need to cut off contact completely. Whether you do so by faking your death or simply ceasing contact will be up to you. Don't make any decisions now, though. Take some time to think about it."

I nodded and tried to swallow around the lump in my throat. I would never see my parents again, never be able to do more than follow their lives from a distance. Suddenly, too late, some of the arguments Edward once made in favor of me staying human began to make sense. Too late, I felt the grief of losing my parents wash over me.

Jasper must have sensed the overwhelming sadness invading my thoughts. He offered the perfect distraction. "Before we leave, we'd better teach you how to open doors without breaking them."

I looked around at them all. Despite the situation, every single one of them seemed to wear the same smug little smile. "Have I been that obvious?"

"Except when you're taking out holes in the walls, love, you haven't touched anything except one of us since you woke." Edward's smile was kinder, although his tone made me narrow my eyes at him.

"And you made me dress you like a doll earlier," Alice piped up.

"You like dressing me like a doll. It's practically a sport to you," I retorted. She rolled her eyes.

Twenty minutes later, I concentrated on the exact amount of pressure needed to close my hand around the doorknob, turn it, and push it away from me. I remembered Jasper's instructions and went slow, a fraction of a millimeter at a time, until my skin grazed the metal. I paused, added more pressure, paused, added more. Finally, my hand fit around the doorknob in a fair approximation of the way I thought it should. I began the agonizing process of turning it at a snail's pace so that I could stop at the exact moment when I heard the click of the mechanism. I pushed, an inch at a time, until the door opened to reveal most of the Cullens on the other side. They smiled at me.

"See, that wasn't so hard! Now that you can do that, it's just a matter of taking your time with whatever you interact with until you have a good grasp of how your new body works. Easy," Jasper told me.

Somehow, I doubted that, but Edward's hand on the small of my back distracted me. I looked over my shoulder and up into his eyes. "It will be. I promise."

I wanted to bite off a remark about his promises not holding much weight these days, but I restrained myself. Instead, I smiled, nodded, and let go of the doorknob before stepping outside to join the rest of the family.

To my surprise, a pile of luggage sat on the lawn nearby. I counted six bags. That wasn't enough for all of us, or even just Edward and the other Cullens. I didn't expect any of them to be for me.

To my surprise, Alice reached down and pulled two purple suitcases out of the stack, their shiny plastic sides proclaiming that they were much newer than the others now that I looked closely. She wheeled them over to me and stopped. Then she bit her lip and gave me a small smile.

"I couldn't save much from your room, but I figured if Charlie thought you planned to leave then he would think you took anything missing with you. Some of this is you already owned, and the rest I bought during your transition. I kept the clothes that will be good for Alaska, although you won't need to fool humans for a long while. And once you have control over your strength, I'll let you touch the books in the second one. But not before!"

"Wow. You saved a whole suitcase just for my books?" I didn't believe it.

"Well…" She shrugged. "So maybe it isn't the whole suitcase. But I got most of your favorites, I think. I went by the ones you talked about as well as the ones that looked particularly loved."

The way she went out of her way to think about what I would want brought back the sobs, and I threw my arms around her. The squeak she let out and Jasper's cleared throat reminded me to watch my strength, but she hugged me back as hard as she could. It felt wonderful to finally do that.

Once we separated, Edward's hand found my waist once more. He guided me to the Volvo waiting nearby. "Once you're in, I'll load the trunk. One of the bags is mine. The others can get their own, but I don't quite trust you with your lovely new luggage or my car yet, love," he teased me, the first joke he'd made since my birthday.

I raised my eyebrows and pretended to be haughty for a moment, and then I sighed and acquiesced. "You're right. No need to dent anything yet. I'll have plenty of time to practice."

Alice slid into the car behind me while Jasper and Edward loaded the trunk. She reached forward and squeezed my shoulder. "I'll be keeping an eye on the road as we go. When I tell you to, hold your breath and close your eyes. If you don't smell or see any humans, we should be able to make the trip just fine. I don't see any problems."

I nodded, but a sudden thought made me gasp. "Oh, Alice, I forgot all about the wall!"

Esme, of course, could still hear us. "Don't worry, dear. We'll fix it in a year or so when we come back. We've shut the house up tight enough that a few holes shouldn't hurt in that short amount of time."

"We'll come back in a year?"

"Yes, once you're able to be around humans. Obviously, you won't be able to let anyone here see you, but it won't hurt to let you see your father one last time," Edward promised me as he slid into the car. After he started the ignition, he held out his hand palm up. When I took it, he wrapped his fingers around mine and squeezed, then he let go so that he could shift gears.

"Ready?"

I looked out the car window at the large white house beside us. Was I? "Of course."

I kept the house in sight until we turned a curve in the driveway, the other cars stretched in a line behind us. In the silence of my own mind, I promised to return one day.


Well, what do you think of Rosalie's about face? I know she's supposed to be a bitch, but at the same time, I feel like that shouldn't be ALL that she's about. She's fairly protective of family, and she tends to be honest with her feelings. I think she would be the first to admit out loud that what they did was shitty when this was the result.

Just another two chapters and then the epilogue. I hope you enjoy them!