Not even two days after school let out I was on a plane heading to Florida with Alice sitting next to me. She had been strangely silent all day, which I suspect is due to her having to be stuck with me today with no escape. "Bella," she called out softly. I turned my head to look at her. I could see her eyes wavering as she looked at me. "I'm sorry," was all she said before turning and staring at the back of the seat in front of her.

"That's all you have to say?" I asked a little upset. She didn't say much to me, and when she apologized she did it so insincerely that I couldn't be sure she meant it.

Alice turned towards me again and tried to visibly calm herself down before continuing, "I'm sorry that I have been so mean to you lately. I know you're trying to protect me, but sometimes I just wish that you would let me make my own mistakes."

"This isn't a possibly little mistake. This could be your life," I reminded her.

She blinked hard once and then rubbed her temples in a circular motion. "I know what I'm doing, and if you would just be patient you'd see that I'm going to be fine. Nothing bad will happen to me. In fact, I predict that something good will happen to you as a result of all of this," she said in a chipper voice as she ceased rubbing her temples. "Like for instance you seem to be forming a friendship with Edward."

"We are suffering through this together," I corrected her. "We're not friends, per se, but I do have to admit that it's nice not fighting with him." I leaned my head back against the headrest and remembered the last conversation I had with Edward. We were both rather relieved that Jasper was graduating and Alice was going with me out of state. He wished me a safe trip, and he smiled a genuine smile at me. I knew it was a genuine smile because his crooked smile reached his eyes.

Alice leaned forward so that she was now in my line of sight, her sheepish grin spread across her face as she commented, "It seems to me that maybe there might be more developing between the two of you."

"No," I immediately protested causing her to giggle. "I'm not interested in him like that. Sure, he's good looking, but he can be so rude."

"You are trying so hard to convince me that you don't like him that you must inevitably like him. You wouldn't be protesting so hard if that was not the case." She sat back and asked, "Wouldn't it be funny if we ended up marrying brothers? Well, foster brothers."

"It's not going to happen, Alice, so get that in that thick skull of yours." It was not meant to be malicious, and thankfully she knew me well enough to know that. The rest of the flight was spent in a comfortable silence. Sure, it was not the same between us as it was before we moved to Forks, but this was better than it had been for the past couple of months.

The first thing Renee asked about when we landed was Jasper. Unfortunately after hours of listening to Alice continuing to gush over him, she mentioned my attraction to Edward, which got Renee started on her prodding to "reel him in". And I had to listen to them both throughout the entire summer vacation.

Despite being all the way across country, Alice insisted on calling Jasper every day and talking to him for at least twenty minutes. They didn't say much, but apparently she didn't need to say much in order to know that he missed her just as much as she missed him. And sometimes I felt guilty for wanting to keep them apart until I realized how much Alice was like Renee and needed protection. From what little I knew about Jasper, he would take care of her, but I still worried about the threat of someone coming after her to get at Jasper.

When we got back to Forks a couple of days before the start of our last year of high school I was relieved to know that Jasper was already half way across the country, this time in Texas. I found it strange that they would let him go to school so far away from the rest of the family, but maybe that was part of the charade the Witness Protection Program had set up. Either way, I guess I didn't want to give much thought into it.

Instead I was rather intrigued at Alice's cold attitude towards Edward and vice versa. I had thought that Edward would now relax knowing the couple was separated, but he seemed even more tense. And if Alice was so set on getting me together with Edward, why did she act like she hated him? When he was around instead she would spend all her time trying to talk about the most random things.

And then a week after our birthday I saw them having a heated conversation outside the cafeteria after school. As I approached them I heard Alice state harshly to him, "I don't care if you don't like it because it's going to happen." He looked up at me and grunted slightly alerting Alice to my presence. She put on a fake smile and chirpy attitude as she greeted me, "Hey, Bella. Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah," I answered her unsure if I really did want to leave. What was it with these two? And what was going to happen that Edward didn't like? "I guess I am." I looked over at Edward only to see him unable to look me in the eyes.

Alice started walking towards the truck, so I slowly followed after her but not before hearing Edward call out to Alice, "Don't forget that you're not the only one here." I turned back to look at him, but he was already walking away from us.

I hurried up to catch up with Alice so that I could ask her, "What were you talking about?"

"Nothing important," Alice said a little grouchily. "Just ignore him for right now." She yanked open the door and climbed into the driver's seat before leaning over and yanking the keys out of my hands. "Hurry up. We've got to make dinner for Charlie," she scolded me before closing the door. I complied and jumped into the passenger side of the car.

I didn't pay much attention to the dinner conversation or my homework. My mind was too busy trying to figure out how I would approach Edward tomorrow and get some answers out of him. Despite Alice and I getting along again, she was still hiding too much from me, and I knew that if this concerned Alice's well-being I would be able to get something out of Edward if I played my cards right.

"I'm going to miss you," Alice said as she climbed into bed next to me.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and asked her, "What do you exactly mean by that?"

She turned towards me and since the light was on I could see tears starting to fall from her eyes. "I know we're going to be separated for awhile, but I want you to know that I still love you."

"Alice, are you going away?" I practically yelled at her. Was this what she was discussing with Edward? And if it was, how did he know but I didn't?

"Not yet, but when we go to school next year this won't be the same."

I was taken back by that. That was a whole year away! "Alice, we have nearly a year to worry about this! Don't be torturing yourself about this now!" I commanded her before she got me sappy about this also.

"It's just that something Edward said got me thinking. Well, and I've really been missing Jazz lately."

"Jazz?" I inquired wondering if this was some nickname for Jasper she had suddenly made up.

A smile crossed her pixie-like face that seemed to light up. "Yeah, Jazz," she sighed as if it was the most sacred word in the world. "He likes it since I made it up."

"Get some sleep, Alice," I commanded her softly.

"Night, Bella," she yawned out before falling silent.

But everything changed the next morning. I felt someone shaking me violently in their frantic attempt to wake me up. "Bella, wake up," Charlie's deep voice got through the thick fog of sleep.

I opened my eyes to see him looking frazzled, which was unlike him. "Is something wrong?" I asked him now feeling alarmed.

"It's Alice."

I bolted up in the bed and noticed that Alice was not laying next to me anymore. "What's wrong with Alice?" I asked now frantic with worry? Had someone gotten to her last night? With me laying next to her in bed?

"She left, Bells," Charlie stated. "I found a letter downstairs explaining that she ran away with that Cullen boy." He started pacing as he asked, "Did she give you any indication that she was going to do this?"

"She was being all sentimental about going to college, but at first I thought she was talking about leaving earlier than that. Oh, and at school she was arguing with Edward Masen Cullen about something."

He scratched the back of his head with his restless fingers. "I've got to get down to the station. Your mother's on the first flight she can get here. She's going to kill me." He walked out calling behind him, "When you're dressed come down to the station so I can get some written statements."

The police station was busy when I got there. Dr. Cullen was there with a beautiful woman about his age. She might not have been as beautiful as Rosalie, but she certainly rivaled all the other women I knew. I could tell that she was on the verge of tears, so I assumed this was Mrs. Cullen.

Edward was sitting in front of Charlie's office sounding completely exasperated as he explained, "All I knew was that she was planning on eloping with him after graduation, so I told her that it was a bad idea. She wouldn't listen, and then Bella interrupted us."

"You knew she was going to elope but you didn't tell me?" I asked him startling Charlie. Edward didn't even turn around to look at me, which made me angry because that pretty much said to me that he wasn't. "She's my sister!" I protested.

He finally turned to look at me and stated, "And you would have over reacted."

"You certainly didn't do a good job of convincing her. Instead you encouraged her to do it sooner!" I fired back at him. "Now she may not finish high school."

"You're being absurd," he said under his breath, but I was able to clearly hear it. He looked back at Charlie and asked politely, "Are we finished?"

"Sure, but I might need you for some more questioning," Charlie informed him before turning to me and stating, "Your mother is going to be here some time this evening, so one of us will need to pick her up in Port Angles. She's not happy."

"I can imagine she's rather frantic right now," I grumbled before flopping down in the chair.

Carlisle and the woman came and sat down in the two empty chairs and Carlisle introduced the woman to me, "Bella, this is my wife, Esme. Esme, this is Bella."

Esme shook my hand commenting, "It's an honor to finally meet you. Alice talks so much about you." She got very quiet before she practically whispered, "I'm sorry Jasper took her away from you."

"I highly doubt it was his idea," I corrected her. "This has Alice written all over it." With that I stood up abruptly and walked out the doors. I needed fresh air and some time to put everything together.

"I know you don't want to hear this, but I doubt that you'll ever see Alice again," Edward said from behind me completely startling me. I turned to look at him only to see his eyes black again.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked curiously. "She'll probably come back when all of the commotion has died down."

Edward ran a hand through his messy bronze hair before commenting, "You have no idea what she's gotten herself into. Trust me, there's no turning back from it if she even survives." He leaned in closer to me, and I swear I stopped breathing for several seconds. Everything about his at that moment had me mesmerized from his eyes to his heavenly scent.

"Get away from her, Cullen," a teenage male voice commanded him from behind. Edward leaned back again and I could see Jacob standing behind him with Billy sitting in his wheelchair nearby watching us carefully. A second glance at Jacob showed that he had grown considerably taller and more muscular from the last time I saw him at the La Push beach. "You already have one Swan girl. Isn't that enough?"

Edward turned to the side and glared at Jacob before warning him, "Watch your words, dog." He walked off getting into his car and peeled out of the parking lot leaving me alone with the Black's.

"I'm going inside," Billy said before wheeling himself up the ramp and inside the building.

Jacob stepped towards me with his head down watching me carefully with every step. "I'm really sorry, Bells," he told me softly. "I never thought that she would go this far."

"Did you know about this too?" I asked in irritation.

"I didn't know she was going to run away with one of them."

"Then what are you apologizing for?"

"For telling her the truth about them," he clarified.

Then it dawned on me that it was rather strange that Jacob knew about their secret. "How did you find out they were in the Witness Protection Program?" I asked curiously.

He furrowed his eyebrows in confusion and asked me, "Witness Protection Program?"

"Yeah. She said that they were in the..."

He cut me off before I could say anything more. "I never said that."

"Then what did you tell her?"

"I shouldn't say," he said dodging the question.

When he started to walk away I grabbed onto his arm and got his attention back on me. I knew Alice had told me in the past that she thought Jacob had a crush on me, so I thought that maybe I could butter him up enough to get him to tell me everything. I smiled sweetly at him and then ran my hand up and down his arm. The actions felt strange, but I could see that I had his rapt attention. "Jacob," I said in the sweetest most sickening tone. "What did you tell Alice about the Cullen's?"

Jacob sighed heavily and looked over at the door to the station before turning back to me and whispering, "The Cullen's are vampires."

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A/N: To celebrate the fact that I finally got a court date to make my divorce final, I am posting really early this week. Let's see if I can keep this up. Thanks to everyone adding me to their lists and everyone who has been reviewing!