A Resolution

Saturday 11-16-11/8:07 a.m.

Rosalie's Pov.

(While Carlisle is still in Bella's room)

I should hate her. I hadn't been this jealous of anybody on a really long time. This girl was everything I wanted. Everybody was only talking about her anymore. She was so perfect. She was the most beautiful human I had ever seen, and she was intelligent, friendly, musical and it seemed like her family was pretty affluent, as she had been going to an outrageously expensive private school in Switzerland. And it wasn't just that. What I envied her for most was her humanity-she could have children, which is something I wanted more than anything else, but would never have. All of those things were reasons why I should hate her. The problem was just that I couldn't. It seemed like she was too perfect.

Hating people wasn't usually something I struggled with. I had plenty of aversion for most people and I was positive that I didn't come across as an extraordinarily nice person usually. That didn't really bother me most of the time. I didn't see much of a point in establishing relationships with humans, when they would never be completely honest and we never really stayed in a place for many years, so it seemed like a pretty big waste of time. Bella was different though and I wasn't sure why that was.

I was convinced that behind the hard shell, there was a girl who was not doing well at all. She might be though on the outside, but I trusted Jasper when he said that she was struggling. I wouldn't want to trade my life with hers. As I had already mentioned, there were a lot of things I envied her for, but it wasn't like any of them were up to her. She had been fortunate enough to be raised in a wealthy environment and I was sure that she had received the best education money could buy. Whether I wanted it or not-and I most definitely did not-I somehow couldn't help feeling bad for her.

Carlisle was in Bella's room at the moment, to bring her some food. Gluten-free, of course. It looked pretty disgusting and the smell was terrible. Yikes... I was just glad that I didn't have to eat any of it. Well, each to their own, even though I just couldn't imagine that the stuff actually tasted good. The apples and bananas weren't so bad, but the bread and crackers Esme had picked up at the grocery store earlier just smelled awful.

All of a sudden, the living room door was opened and a very stressed out looking Carlisle stepped in. Why did he look so harried? He usually was an extremely calm person and it took a lot to actually stress him out. I took a closer look. He was holding something in his arms-no, not something, it was someone... Now I heard the heartbeat and recognized the smell. It was Bella and she definitely did not look healthy in any way, to put it mildly. She was motionless and was feebly hanging in his arms, but her face still looked incredibly tense. What had he done to her? I gave him a bewildered look.

"Carlisle! What happened?" Esme asked. He sighed and laid Bella down on the sofa. "Um... I wanted to bring her the food, so she could eat something for breakfast," he started. He then went on to explain how he had spotted a scar on her forehead and wanted to know why it was there. Once, I heard Jasper mutter something along the lines of "it was only a matter of time", but other than that we were all completely silent, waiting for an explanation. Carlisle finished his description of what had happened in the guest room a few minutes earlier. For a few seconds, nobody said a word.

"I am a little worried about her heart," Carlisle said suddenly. I listened to the steady beat more closely. I technically was a doctor too, I had just never practiced. My profound knowledge about how the human body worked prove advantageous now. Or maybe not-Bella's heart really didn't sound very healthy. It sounded rather weak and the beat was quite irregular, which clearly wasn't a good thing. I gave my father a worried look.

Suddenly, a strange feeling came over me. It did most definitely did not feel good. It was like Bella reminded me or something or someone, but I just couldn't figure out what or whom it was. She didn't seem to be much like anyone I knew, so I was surprised that I even felt that way. Then, all of a sudden it hit me. It was almost painful, how obvious it was. Bella reminded me of myself. Well, at least of the girl I was several decades ago. The 30s and 40s were a really hard time for me and even though Bella in no way acted the way I did, there were parallels. But what made her feel this way?

What if the same type of event had caused all of this? I didn't even want to think about it. She was only 16 after all... It certainly wasn't anything you would want anyone to experience, not even your worst enemies. I tried to force myself to think about something else-it wasn't even like we had any definite proof. But the harder I tried to ban the thought, the worse it got. It felt like this was 1933 all over again. I was suffering through all the pain once more. I couldn't think clearly anymore.

Carlisle said something, but I couldn't understand a single word. I just saw how his lips were moving, but the sound never arrived. I grabbed Emmett's arm and held it in a tight grip because all of a sudden, it didn't feel like my legs could support my weight, which was ridiculous, considering that I was a vampire and we were probably the strongest species on this entire planet. Emmett gave me a confused look. Then he must have spotted the expression on my face-I was sure that I did not look very relaxed at the moment-because he immediately looked worried. Very carefully, he loosened my firm grip so I wouldn't tear his shirt and put his arm around me. I could feel how Jasper was staring at me.

It felt like someone had just turned off my brain. I couldn't think that there was chaos inside me. Emmett gently stroked my back. He was familiar with this type of situation and knew that it was sometimes better not to ask me about it, although I was sure that we would talk about it later. Slowly, I managed to calm down a little bit.

Then, after endless minutes, Bella opened her eyes. She still looked terrible. On one side, she was still stunning, but looked dead in a way. Her skin was white as a sheet, almost gray, her heart was still beating in a very irregular rhythm and even her hair somehow looked lifeless, though I wasn't even sure how that was possible. It had lost all of the shine and dully fell over shoulders and back. Her eyes were lacking any type of expression. They were empty. It almost hurt to see her like this.

Her skin was slowly losing the grayish tone and now she was just white as chalk, maybe even as pale as I was. It was incredible how much she reminded me of myself. Her small frame was shaking. Bella claimed that she was fine, but none of us believed her. It was very obvious that that was not the case. When Carlisle took a step in her direction, she flinched and tried to hide behind mom. I heard a quiet whimper escape her lips.

That wasn't good for me. I tried to keep myself under control, but I just couldn't anymore. I clung to Emmett as if I was drowning and that's what it felt like. I couldn't breathe. Emmett held me in his arms and tried to calm me down, but it wasn't working. I clenched my teeth and tried not to have a complete break-down, as that would most definitely not improve the current situation. Emmett grew increasingly worried. Jasper had fled the room a while ago, so I at least didn't have to worry about him and it looked like Alice had left to look for him.

Bella had more in common with me than I had thought (or hoped maybe?). Much more.

I could feel how my entire perspective changed. There was absolutely no way I could hate her now and I didn't even want to anymore. Instead, I could feel an urge to support her and help her in any way I possibly could. Suddenly, she didn't seem like an enemy I had to fight anymore. I knew that I had not treated her well so far and that was not okay. A sense of overwhelming guilt came over me.

At that moment, I swore to myself, that I would never treat her this badly anymore. Bella had just involuntarily shown me what an ignorant, self-centered Idiot I was. She had changed me-Carlisle always said that finding a mate was the only thing that could fundamentally change an vampire's way of thinking, but it seemed like he had been wrong all along. Or maybe it just wasn't finding a mate that changed a vampire, maybe it was love. Of course, Emmett would always be the only man in my life and I didn't see Bella that way, but I did feel something like love for her. The longer I thought about it, the clearer it became. They say it's a fine line between love and hate, and my dislike for Bella had disappeared.

Suddenly, I could understand how my family had taken Bella into their hearts so quickly. Until now, it had always seemed ridiculous to me, how they could care so much about a virtual stranger, but now it seemed obvious. Bella was endearing. She deserved to be loved. It was unequivocal. I would definitely have to thank her for making me understand this someday. I owed her.

I was still holding on to Emmett's arm very tightly when I noticed that Carlisle was staring at me worriedly. He kept looking back and forth between Bella and me. It looked like he had drawn the same conclusions. He had also seen the parallels between the two of us. He furrowed his brow and turned to Alice, who had returned by now. He asked her to talk to Bella, keeping his voice low enough so she wouldn't hear a single word. Slowly, my sister approached Bella. It didn't seem to bother her.

Dad quietly left the room. "How are you feeling?" I asked her, trying to make my voice sound calm. I felt incredibly guilty for the way I had treated her yesterday. Why had I been so rude? She had never done anything to upset me... "Better," she replied. "I am sorry for wasting so much of your time. I shouldn't have overreacted. I shouldn't have let it get out of control." Her voice sounded so guilty-it was almost ridiculous because obviously, none of this was her fault. She definitely didn't have to apologize, but she did anyway. The girl had manners!

"You look very tense, Rosalie. Is everything alright?" she asked me and sounded sincerely concerned. "I'm fine. You gave us a real scare there for a minute. We were all worried about you and it also definitely reminded me of something that I'd rather not think about," explained, figuring that lies wouldn't get me very far with Bella. She nodded. "Oh, I know Rosalie," she said and her voice sounded sad. That was odd-there was no way that she knew what had happened. Was I missing something? What did she know? How much did she know? I knew that she was very observant, but that there was no way that she could figure out a significant amount of things in such a short time.

Would she be a danger to our family? Maybe-if we kept spending time with her, it wouldn't take her long to get behind our secrets. Was that a problem? Well, definitely. Would that stop me from trying to support her? No, not at all. I'd try to have her back no matter what happened and I was sure that my family felt the same way

Bella carefully sat up and pulled her naked feet closer to her body. I could tell just from her feet that she was a dancer. She had calluses and her feet were slightly deformed. They weren't exactly pretty, but what she with them was beautiful. I was sure that she put a lot of time and effort into dancing. It made me curious-I'd definitely have to ask her to dance for me someday.

Hello everyone! Thank you very much for reading and thank you to those of you who added the story to your favorites! I really appreciate it!

Just FYI: I'll be on a school trip all of next week, so it might take a while until I find some time to continue writing. This school year is slowly coming to an end and everything is more than stressful at the moment (anyone want to write a 20-page term paper on communism in literature for me?). So sorry for the delays!