Sometimes you gotta bleed to know

That you're alive and have a soul

But it takes someone to come around

And show you how

"Tori, move!" Bella barks and digs her heels into the wooden floor, bracing herself back against the door. "I said get out!"

The little redhead frowns, holds up her finger. "No fair! I made the mark!"

"Exactly why we're running in the first place." She skids forward, the door handle digging into her back. "You're not a thief!"

"Yes, I am!"

"Not a good one!" she growls and throws her shoulder into the door. "Hood up!" She steps back away from it, her revolver clicking and pressed against the man's forehead as he comes barging in. Effectively halting him in place. "I think you've got the wrong room, mate."

"That urchin stole my-"

Tori leans forward on the chair she's taken as a perch, pointing a dirty finger his way. "Ain't an urchin, I'm fourteen, you old git!"

The fire in his eyes blaze and Bella presses the barrel of her gun into his forehead harder. "The theft is neither here nor there. She stole from you but I'm holding the gun. You want your money or your life?"

"You better kill me," he snarls and jabs at her shoulder. "That scarf can't save you from me, I'll find you. Both of you."

"I don't think you understand how okay I am with killing you," Bella warns calmly. She holds one hand behind her back, bringing the gun up under his chin to step nice and close. "Do I look afraid to you?"

It takes a moment for common sense to catch up to him. He glares between the two of them, chest heaving with furious breaths. He works his jaw a few times before tugging at his nice vest. "This isn't over."

"I think it is. Say bye-bye, Sue."

Tori perks up. "Bye-bye!"

As soon as the door closes, Bella's holstering her gun and shoving Tori back against the wall in one motion. Her back meets it with a thud and she blinks up into her friend's angry face. "That was stupid!" Bella growls again and Tori, not for the first time, wonders just what kind of company Bella keeps to come back more and more like some kind of wild animal. She considers begging Bella again to bring her along.

"Anne is tired, Bella. And sick, she can't keep dancing," Tori explains weakly. "She deserves better and so do I! Why should you get to come and go, pockets full of coin, while we scrape by, starving and cold?"

Incredulous, Bella turns to pace the room. "Do I not bring you money?" she asks. "Do I not leave you infinitely richer than how I find you each and every time?"

"Enough to pay off debts!" Tori shouts. "That's nothing! Bring me with you and I can earn my own way."

"Stop breaking the law and you wouldn't owe anybody anything!" Bella shoots back.

The young teenager rolls her eyes and yanks down her hood. "Whatever," she scoffs and makes for the window on the other side of the room. "Not all of us get to run away from our problems, Bella. Antony owns this city and everybody in it, maybe if you stuck around more than a couple days at a time, you'd know that. There's no such thing as living free without debt."

She's gone by the time Bella looks back at her, the window left open. Bella sighs and picks up the chair that was knocked over by their rushed entrance. "You're not my fucking responsibility," she mutters.

The inn's a little more quiet than she's used to when she finally makes it down the stairs. Alphonse stands behind the bar, cleaning mugs and glasses, and lifts a brow when he catches sight of her. "Ah, that makes more sense now." He sets down the glass, leaning forward against the bar. "There was a very disgruntled man who doesn't seem the type to let things go that left just before you came down."

"Yeah, what else is new."

He waits a moment while Bella slumps against the bar, looking towards the stairs. "Where's Freckle?"

"Who knows."

"Little Fist…"

She holds up a finger. "I told you to stop calling me that."

"Ah, but it is a form of endearment! And Bella is so, so… common," he explains with a grin. It slowly dims and he sighs, setting down his hand towel. "Okay, what's wrong? You're more broody than usual and it's almost unfathomable that Freckle isn't trying to attach herself to your hip."

Bella shrugs. "Maybe she's getting wiser with age."

"Better at hiding, at least," he agrees.

"Good." Bella groans, setting her glasses aside to let her face thunk against the bar. "I can't find Jaaaaaaames, Alph! How has nobody ever seen this dude? How old is he? I've been searching for six months and haven't caught a whiff of his scent. He's a ghost, he has to be a ghost. That's it. I'm chasing a ghost. Great."

A big warm hand rests atop her own, silencing her rambling. She lifts her face enough to squint up at Alphonse. "Breathe, child. Today's worries won't seem so bad with a full belly. Let's go back to the kitchen."

"You're too good at that," Bella complains softly. She sighs, long and tired, and grabs her glasses to slump off the stool…

.

.

.

"Oop!" she gasps, and just past the pins and needles does she feel the chair digging into her back before she slides right out from it, to the floor. Alphonse's voice rings in her ear, echoing in and out, and she sits up to get her bearings. The table jumps above her when she smacks her forehead. "Fuck!"

"Bella! Bella, oh honey. I found her!" Esme gasps and kicks the table aside. It skitters across the kitchen floor, dragging the chairs with a screech, and she kneels beside Bella to flit her hands over her. "You're okay, you're okay. Oh, Bella, I was so worried. She's gone, you're safe."

Between the ringing, the jump, and the ache in her forehead from time travelling and bashing her damn face on the table, Bella's dizzy eyes struggle to focus on Esme. She reaches up, hand over the woman's face, confused and disoriented. "How?"

Esme pulls her hand away gently, tilting Bella's face up. "Bella, how many fingers am I holding up?" Her glasses are placed on her face, and the blurry world makes a little more sense.

"Four," Bella says confidently. And then blinks a few more times. "No, two. Definitely two."

She shivers violently and Esme pulls her chilly hands back, more or less holding Bella on her lap. "Carlisle?" she calls out.

In a second, the room is much more full. Carlisle's face is there, his kind golden eyes scanning over Bella to check for injuries. He pulls out the penlight from his pocket, lifting Bella's glasses to shine it in her eyes. "Bella, can you count to ten for me?"

"One. No. Why?" She squeezes her eyes shut to blink open wide as if that will clear the mess in her head. "What year is it?"

He smiles slightly. "That answers my next question. Bella, you may have a concussion, I need you to just lay there for a moment and stop struggling."

It's only then that she realizes she's been trying to sit up and flops back against Esme. "Sure."

"I don't understand," Esme says and looks up at the others in the room. "I don't understand anything that's happened since we left. Victoria came to the house, she wasn't in the woods."

Alice ducks her head. "She somehow knew where to go to avoid us and dodged my visions. I'm sorry, Bella," she whispers.

When Bella blinks, brilliant blue eyes stare back at her sadly. She blinks again and they're golden. Esme cradles her close. "Victoria got in here, in our home, and the boys fought her off until Alice made it back."

"She's - I couldn't." Jasper's words falter and his shoulders strain, rigid in their posture. Very much a disciplined soldier. "She must have some kind of ability. I couldn't grab her, she's not as fast or strong as a newborn, but she's wildly elusive. It was like sparring with Alice or Edward, she knew exactly where I would be."

Esme nods. "Alice arrived before the rest of us, where you confronted her."

On the other side of Bella, Alice kneels down. She reaches out to brush Bella's hair back behind her ear, smiling sadly at the dazed girl. "I thought I could get her out of the house, to the rest of you, at least. Maybe into town where Victoria couldn't follow. She knew, though. I don't know how. I - couldn't touch her, either."

"Could you see her?"

"Yes - I mean, sort of. I can see her, but she's constantly changing her mind. Every time I anticipate her, it's like she knows, and decides on something else. I see dozens of paths for one decision, and I see her take them all, but I don't know which one she will choose at the last second."

Emmett, rubbing his cracked shoulder, looks at Edward. "That's not good, dude."

"Clearly," he agrees. Looks at Emmett's shoulder and is gone in a flash, back with a warm cloth that he puts over it.

Alice shakes her head. "What I don't understand is how Victoria managed to pounce on Bella and yet Bella was not there when they landed on the floor. She was just - gone. I was in the doorway, she couldn't have made it out."

"A good point but I'm more alarmed about the woman who showed up after us?" Rosalie says suddenly. "Are we going to ignore the Amazon that dragged Victoria out of the house just because she happened to help us in the moment?"

Carlisle hums. "She's not part of the Amazonian coven."

"Not an actual Amazon," Rosalie sighs, the bridge of her nose pinched in frustration. "She didn't stick around to kill Victoria, they can't be enemies, which means they could be allies."

He considers this, head tilting. "Do you think she was here to punish Victoria or save her?"

"They didn't look like friends," Jasper says. "She was… angry. Enraged, almost, and Victoria was surprised. Yet Victoria still lives."

Slowly, the echoing in Bella's ears begins to fade. She huffs sadly, forcing her eyes to stay open. God. When did she sleep last?

"Time travel," Rosalie says declares. The others look at her, confused and doubtful. "She keeps disappearing and doesn't know what year it is when she returns," she points out and literally points down at Bella with a toss of her hand. "Look at her cuff, there's ink there. She didn't have a tattoo this morning, the scar on her chin is completely healed. Hell, look at her, you're not blind. She's aged."

"Time travel is preposterous," Carlisle tells her… and yet, he stares long and hard at an older Bella than he had seen this morning. "No. But? No. Bella?"

Another shiver rips through her and Esme looks on helplessly, unable to decide if her cold lap or the floor is better for Bella. "That's not possible," she says, more to herself than anyone else.

"Any better ideas?" Rosalie sighs and hoists herself up onto the kitchen counter.

Edward shakes his head. "She's human, Rosalie. She's only human. That's just not possible, it doesn't make any sense."

"Why don't we ask her?" Emmett asks. Again, the room looks at him and he shrugs his massive shoulders, wincing against the stiff pain. "Boo."

She jerks her chin up. "Hm?"

"Can you time travel?"

"Uhhhh yeah. Yup," she agrees and rubs at her eyes.

Carlisle hums. "She's concussed."

"Are you sure she's not drugged?"

Bella frowns. "Hey, listen. I'm… up," she grunts as she pushes herself up to her feet, only swaying a little. "I'm a little hungover, a little beat to shit, and reeling off a four hundred-sixty year jump, okay? Let's see you do better, princess."

A scoff and Rosalie hops off the counter, leaving the kitchen. "She's alive, I'm done playing nice. I'll be in what's left of my room."

"Bell-"

She shoulders past Edward and Emmett, jogging across the room to empty her stomach in the sink. "Uuggh…" she moans groggily and lays her head against the counter, reaching to turn on the tap. "I don't feel-huurlgh!"

"Just get it all out, honey," Esme murmurs and gently rubs Bella's back, holding her hair up out of her face. "You're okay. You'll be okay."

Bella shivers into the sink. "Sometimes I think my first mistake was being born," she mutters into the drain.

Beside her, Edward lifts the revolver from her belt, pinching it between two fingers to place in a bowl up in the cupboard. He helps Esme pull the coat off her, wrinkling his nose at the smell of old cigars, saltwater, and alcohol. "She smells like a dockworker."

She rears her head up, turning to look at him. "There's nothing wrong with an honest living working down at the docks, okay?"

He uses the dish towel to wipe her chin, his pointer finger pressing against her cheek to turn her face back towards the sink. "Bella, you make my soul sing but I cannot handle the whole vomit aspect of… this."

"You literally rip throats out of living creatures to drink their blood and this is where you draw the line?" she scoffs. "It's not even that b-huurlgh!"

Edward dry-heaves and turns his head away. "I c-hrgurrk! No! Esme, I can't!" he whines and heaves again. "I have to leave. I have, I need fresh air," he says and opens the large window Alice likes using to get to her tree.

Watching him fling himself outside, Emmett shakes his head. "Rookie." He claps his hands, rubbing them together, and turns back to the rest of the room. "So. Time travel? That's exciting."

"And still impossible," Jasper reminds him. "There has to be another explanation."

"Do you have one?" Alice asks. "I see the future, can she really not travel to the past?"

He shakes his head. "But you don't travel to the future, your physical body remains in the present."

"I look through a window, she walks through the door."

"That's putting it rather simply," he says with a slight frown. "Time travel is-"

"A bitch," Bella groans.

Ever the patient man, Carlisle hums and checks on Bella. "I'm not sure how you keep getting frostbite, Bella, but I suggest staying out of the cold whenever possible." He takes her hands, inspecting her fingers as the bowl in the sink fills with warm water, and ever so carefully dips them in. "As long as we're pointing things out, she didn't say past, Alice."

"Pardon?" the pixie questions with a tilt of her head.

Esme's eyebrows jump and she looks at her daughter with intrigue. "That's true. You said past, so certainly, but she didn't mention from when she… jumped, I believe she put it?"

"Oh, I…" Alice shakes her head, very suddenly confused. "I'm not sure why I thought the past. I just assumed, I guess."

"Are you sure you can't see her? There didn't seem to be much doubt, even with fifty-fifty chances."

"I've never been able to see her properly, no."

Bella sighs, wiggling her sore fingers in the bowl of water. "Not entirely true."

"Bella?"

They wait a moment, two, and when Bella doesn't continue, they give up on relying on her for any actual information. For the moment. Jasper, instead, pulls his hand out of her pockets to stare down at the coins he finds. And blinks. Twice. His mind scrambles for logic and comes back with nothing. "A guess or not, you are correct, Alice. These coins are quite outdated."

"What?" Everyone but Esme huddles around Jasper and Bella's coat, leaning in to look. "This is a total breach of privacy," Emmett says and looks around them. "Just so we're all on the same guilt-page here. It's cool, I don't think we should stop, but it's definitely not a nice thing to do to someone who doesn't trust us anymore."

Alice pinches one of the coat pockets shut just before Jasper can stick his hand back in. "We shouldn't look, then. We're trying to gain her trust back, this is the absolutely wrong way to go about it."

"Don't you want to know what she knows?" he asks. "Alice, you, in particular, have more reason than most to go poking through a time traveller's things, especially one who travels to the past. A past that you cannot remember."

Holding the coat close, Alice simply stares at him. Such excellent points he makes, but that doesn't make them right. That doesn't give her any rights over anyone else. Not over Bella, not over her best friend that she hurt so deeply the girl doesn't even look at her anymore. "Then I better hope she's forthcoming with her answers when I ask questions because I refuse to go through her things. I also refuse to let you."

"Alice," he says with a concerned frown. "I didn't mean to offend." A moment passes between them and his shoulders slump. He looks over at the girl with her head in the sink and sighs. "You're right, of course. I should not have even found these coins. Bella, I'm sorry," he says to her, blurring over to lean down beside her. "I took these coins from your pocket."

"They're Tori's, actually," Bella mutters and grabs them in her fist, shoving them into her back pocket. "I should go-"

Esme easily catches her when Bella's knees give out, holding her close. "I know you're upset with us, Bella, but I must insist you let us take care of you. You're not well."

"I'm fine!"

"When did you last sleep?"

"Dunno. A day or two, I don't - I'm fine!"

Esme smiles softly down at the young girl, bringing the blanket up to her chin. "Honey, you fell asleep in my arms. You're up in Edward's room already."

"Oh." She cracks open an eye, looking around the fuzzy but admittedly familiar bedroom. A distorted memory of going with Edward to buy this stupid bed plays in the back of her mind. "Well, okay. But I'm leaving when I wake up."

"Of course. Just rest, Bella."

The light is flicked off, Esme pulling the door closed behind her and sparing only one last look. Bella sinks back into a pillow bigger than Charlie's couch. "...'m sick of hurting 'cause of you."

In her hand, the doorknob warps and Esme squeezes her eyes shut until she can bring herself to close the door gently. She rests her forehead against it. "I'm sorry, Bella."