AN: Just a short one this time, bit of a filler to keep you going while I re-do my chapter plans. Just because it's short doesn't mean it's irrelevant though! I do love a good foreshadow!

Disclaimer: Still not mine. If only, eh? Oh, and credit to Ffi for one of Bella's lines. Thanks BFF. ILU. xxxx


Chapter 10 – Probability


Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

- Sod's Law


Bella flopped onto the deceptively uncomfortable coffee house sofa, exhausted and aching from head to toe. She tried to shimmy her too-tight pencil skirt down to a decent length, failing shamefully. From the seat opposite Alice looked her up and down and winked her approval.

"Why are we here, Alice?" she moaned, slipping a heel off and rubbing her foot, "We have coffee in our apartments which are right across the street."

Alice rolled her eyes.

"This is Seattle, Bella, and we're young, hip professionals. Embrace the cliché! Plus," she lowered her voice, "don't you want people to see you looking cute?"

Bella grimaced, and fussed further with the hem of the skirt that Alice had pressed on her; the bow on the neckline of her blue blouse felt like it was choking her. Sure, on Alice the outfit would have looked awesome, but Bella felt overdressed and ridiculous. Alice should have kept it for herself instead of foisting it on her.

"I look like a sausage and my feet are more blister than flesh."

"Pain is beauty," said Alice, sitting back with a smirk, "and I've never seen Edward look at a pork product the way he was looking at you this weekend."

She beamed; Bella blushed furiously.

Their boat trip had been mostly uneventful, a pleasant afternoon out on the lake with friends, and the company of Carlisle and the Hale boys had prevented too much humiliating discussion of the night before. Bella had actually spent most of the trip sunbathing with Alice during the brief breaks in the cloud cover whilst the boys, the fully grown ones in particular, attempted a spot of fishing.

When Nicolas, the younger Hale boy, snuck off to beg a story from Bella and Alice they found themselves constantly having to shout down the abusive tirades Jasper, Edward and Emmett were directing at each other and their elusive prey. Bella was sure she'd never understand the compulsion to slaughter wildlife that boys seemed to possess.

So she'd told Nicolas stories that she recalled from her own childhood, Alice had occasionally joined in with a shocked comment on fairytale morals or a costume suggestion that she insisted would improve the story immensely, and in the midst of that her mind never really stopped dwelling on Edward's closeness back in the garden and the absolute certainty she'd felt that he'd been about to kiss her. She'd have let him.

Oh, who was she kidding? It was only the spectre of old Bella, hovering around her sub-conscious and cramping her style, that had stopped her jumping him and dragging him under his mother's rhododendron bushes.

Occasionally, when Nicolas was being entertained by Alice and the boys sounded immersed in wrestling with the creatures of the deep, she'd watch Edward from behind the curtain of her hair. She'd paid attention to the way his arms moved and the damp patch on the back of his shirt that she really ought to have found repulsive but actually found quite the opposite. She'd once told Jacob that he was sort of beautiful, but Edward; Edward was a different league.

He'd caught he looking once, and before she could hide her blush back behind the safety of her hair he'd sent her a grin so warm, so inviting, that she'd felt a glow right down to her toes.

That smile and the memory of his closeness had sustained her till this wet, miserable Monday afternoon, but sitting in an overpriced coffee shop, dressed like a secretary in a porno, overtired and faced with Alice's Cheshire Cat grin, even her Edward induced glow was fading.

"Oh cheer up," Alice said, noting her sour expression, "so you didn't get to make out with my brother. Just give it time – timing's everything! You have to get it right."

She nodded sagely, wrongly assuming that Bella had the faintest clue what she was going on about.

"Don't talk to me about it, please. It's creepy. He's your brother." Bella's eyes narrowed, a sudden, dreadful idea having occurred to her, "Hang on, when the timing's right? What exactly have you seen, Alice?"

"Oh relax," she scoffed, "I won't peek. Much. Plus he's not my real brother you know."

She wriggled her eyebrows in a manner she must have learnt from Emmett. Bella struggled to keep her face impassive.

"You sicken me, Cullen."

"You're no fun at all, Swan."

Alice looked about her, her hands running nervously up and down her coffee cup.

"Where's Jasper? He's meant to be here by now."

Now it was Bella's turn to roll her eyes.

"He's on the bus. It takes forever, trust me. Anyway, I thought you knew everything. Shouldn't you be able to pin-point his whereabouts through the power of your mind?"

Alice scowled.

"I'm a psychic, not a sat-nav. Besides, I can't see everything you know," she frowned, "half the time I'm not even sure what I am seeing, to be honest."

As quickly as it had appeared Alice's frown was replaced by another sunny smile.

"I totally knew you'd love the truck though."

Bella bit her lip to keep from smiling too widely. If she wa being honest she loved her truck. It was a bright red, brand new Chevy with every mod-con she could think of and a few she was sure Alice and Emmett must have just made up for the hell of it. She still thought, no, she knew, it was too much – it must have cost Alice the equivalent of Bella's yearly salary even with Emmett's connections and eye for a bargain – but she was also trying to be mindful of what Leonora McCarty had told her. She could be gracious. She was twenty four years old; it was about time she learnt to accept gifts without figuratively throwing them out of her pram.

She did wish that Alice had tried to teach her that lesson with jewellery, or maybe a hamster, because she was at a loss as to how she was going to explain the shiny new truck to her dad on her next visit. He'd think she was dealing drugs or running a vice ring or something, and 'My slightly psychic neighbour-cum-friend-cum-occasional-co-worker brought it for me to say thanks for introducing her to a boy' would only convince Charlie that Alice was her pimp.

Bella shook that mental picture out of her head quickly, and returned her attention to a curious looking Alice.

"Alright, spill it. You've been mooning over something or other ever since we got here. What's up?"

"Bella doesn't moon," Jasper approached the table with a smile for Bella and a full on grin for Alice, "she analyses. I'm surprised she hasn't blown a circuit with all the over-thinking she does."

Alice leapt from her seat to kiss him thoroughly. Bella grunted into her coffee.

"Thanks for that ringing endorsement of my faculties, Whitlock."

"Anytime," said Jasper graciously as he sat beside Alice and flung an arm over her shoulder, "so carry on. What's been going on?"

"She fancies my brother," Alice said proudly.

"She is sat right here," Bella slammed her coffee down on the table and sighed, "I do need to talk to you about something though: Something that has nothing at all to do with Edward."

Alice looked unconvinced, but Jasper nodded expectantly.

"So?"

Bella picked at her hem, and told them.

Bella had known from the moment she'd walked in that morning that this day wasn't going to pan out quite like the previous ten.

Heidi had been right inside the door as Bella entered, stalking up and down like a starved lion awaiting an unwary gazelle.

"Well if it isn't Bella Swan, life and soul of the party!" she'd crowed, "You were looking very cosy in 'Pressure' Friday night."

"Was I?" Bella tried manoeuvring past her to reach her desk, but Heidi neatly blocked her escape attempts.

"You looked it to me. You were all over Edward Cullen like a bad rash." Heidi savoured every word, and Bella could feel the heat rising into her cheeks.

"Not that it's any of your business, Heidi, but we're just friends. He was helping me prop up the bar, that's all." Bella was irrationally angry with her self for the sting to her heart when she said 'just friends'. She really was becoming pathetic.

"From what I saw," Heidi said, "he was the one propping you up in the end." She gave Bella an exaggerated wink.

Bella cringed.

Drunken stupidity was one thing when your friends witnessed it, but barely civil snotty-nosed co-worked from hell? It was a scenario from her worst nightmares.

She managed to slip away from Heidi and over to her desk. James's was mercifully empty, but Laurent was watching her over his monitor with cautious eyes.

"Edward Cullen's bad news, Bella. You should be careful."

Laurent spoke kindly enough but Bella had, frankly, had it up to her eyebrows with the cryptic warnings against her friends. She slammed her hand down on the desk so hard that even Marcus twitched.

"Will you either tell me what's so bad about the Cullen or leave the subject alone? I don't like having to spend my days trying to figure out every bizarre titbit you guys throw my way. It's like trying to finish the world's most convoluted crossword puzzle."

Laurent looked rather surprised.

"You really are from the back end of nowhere. Everybody knows about what Edward Cullen did."

"They do?" Bella's stomach seized up, though she couldn't explain why. Edward was moody and over-sensitive, sure, but he wasn't bad. Was he?

Heidi seemed to sense Bella's discomfort and leant in for the kill, her voice dripping poison.

"Well it really started about twelve years back, but some people think he always had it in him, even before he came here. Carlisle Cullen…"

Crash.

The glass in the office door rattled in its frame as it flew open to reveal Aro, his arms outstretched flamboyantly as if he was having to physically restrain himself from embracing them all.

Heidi fell back in her seat and plastered a false smile onto her face as Aro smiled at each of them in turn. James snuck in under one of his arms, but Aro paid his late, dishevelled appearance no mind whatsoever.

"How are you my dears? How is young Bella settling in? Wonderful, wonderful!" he clapped his hands with great enthusiasm as he answered his own questions, or at least pretended to hear the answers he wanted.

Nobody in the room seemed to know what to say or how to behave. Even James, whose tie was askew and his shirt un-tucked, had replaced his normal foul expression with one of bemusement. Evidently visits from the Editor-in-Chief were few and far between.

Marcus heaved himself to his feet in the far corner.

"What can I do for you?" he asked, in the same surprisingly strong voice Bella had heard once before.

Aro turned his watery eyes on Marcus.

"I shall have a new role available in the next few weeks in the main editing suite. Would you be so kind as to select a candidate from your superb team here?"

Aro fluttered his fingers in their direction as he spoke. Bella swallowed a snigger. The junior copy-editing team at the Seattle Times were less a team, superlative or no, than they were a disparate group of ex-English majors with borderline personality disorders.

James caught Bella looking at him and sneered as he fixed his tie. Maybe borderline wasn't quite a strong enough term for him.

"I need a team player, somebody who I can trust to be loyal to the business," Aro turned his toothy smile back on to them, "are you ready to impress me?"

Bella caught Laurent's eye. He looked like he'd stopped listening some point fairly soon after Aro had entered the room, but Heidi, and surprisingly enough James, were gazing at their boss, their faces displaying rapt attention.

"Well, I'll let you get on then," Aro cooed, making his way to the door, "deadlines to meet, children! Deadlines to meet!"

He slammed the door again on his way out.

Heidi's attention was immediately back on Bella.

"So, where was I?"

Bella frowned.

"You were about to tell me what your problem is with Edward Cullen."

"Oh darling, I don't have a problem with him! I've never even met him properly! It's what you hear about; that's what's so interesting." Heidi flicked her eyes left and right, lowered her voice and leant in closer, "It's too juicy a story for work hours anyway. Come out for a drink with us tomorrow night and I'll tell you things that will make your hair curl."

Bella wrinkled her nose in distaste. It was bad enough listening to Heidi's particular brand of poison during works hours, and she balked at the prospect of having to listen to it without the comforting prospect of a paycheque to look forward to, but curiosity had always been her greatest vice though (well, after emo-pop and too many sneaky shots from her dad's liquor cabinet at least) and this time it really had got the better of her.

"Yeah, alright. One drink."

Admittedly, the version of her day that she regaled Alice and Jasper with left out any references to Edward – partially because she'd insisted her odd mood had nothing to do with him, and mostly because she was already feeling guilty about going behind his and Alice's backs to find out some less-than-salubrious gossip – but without the benefit of Bella's stalkerish tendencies to put Heidi's offer into context Jasper and Alice seemed lost.

"So she just asked you to go out with them? Just like that?" Jasper shook his head, "I don't get it."

"It's not possible," Alice stated with palpable conviction, "Heidi is incapable of pulling her head out of her ass long enough to notice that other people exist, she certainly doesn't go about asking them to socialise with her. And what possessed you to agree to it? She's a stuck-up, snotty bitch. She probably only asked you because she's going to try and do you in. Get rid of the promotion competition."

Jasper stroked Alice's shoulder soothingly.

"She could well be right there, Bella. I thought you hated her?"

Bella grimaced. The small yet vocal part of her that was desperate for more information, good or bad, on Edward Cullen was beginning to be drowned out by dread and shame.

"I think it's fair to say that it's a pretty unlikely friendship, yes. But I do have to work with them. It can't help to be social."

"Can't it?" asked Alice darkly. She continued to glare balefully at Bella, and Bella shuffled in her seat under the intensity of it.

"Yeah, can't say I've ever been on a work night out that ended well myself," said Jasper, cottoning on to the change in atmosphere and speaking in an almost obnoxiously loud and cheerful voice, "Oh! I've got an invite for you too, Bells. You're going to love this one!"

"You so are!" agreed Alice, her move improving in line with Jaspers.

Bella raised an eyebrow.

"This doesn't involve any more bizarrely out of proportion thank you gifts does it? Because if it does I will put in a request for a pony now."

"Better than a pony, Bella," Jasper began waving his coffee cup around with wild abandon, "I am offering you, and the lovely Alice of course, exclusive access to the annual Washington state re-enactment extravaganza!"

Bella looked at him blankly.

"The what?"

"Re-enactment," Alice said, keeping her face remarkably straight, "you know, thousands of grown men getting into fancy dress and pointing wooden rifles at each other?"

"I know what it is. Why am I invited?"

Jasper's delight dimmed slightly. Alice, as was quickly becoming her duty, leapt to his defence.

"Jasper's the youngest Major in the Washington confederates, Bella! He needs our support!"

Jasper fluttered his eyelashes. Bella raised one eyebrow.

"Ah, so the truth about why you chose Washington comes out. Less competition was there?"

"Give me some credit," Jasper huffed, "I'm really very good."

"Oh alright, I'll be there."

Jasper nodded gratefully; Alice clapped her hands and squealed.

"It's going to be so much fun! I'm going to help Jasper with his uniform and everything!"

"A man in uniform eh Alice? Every girls dream. Shame he's the enemy though."

"Oi!" snapped Jasper.

Alice shrugged.

"Not necessarily. I'm a Mississippi girl by birth you know."

Bella received a very pointed glare from Jasper, and snorted into her coffee.

"You two really are the perfect pair, aren't you? What do I get to be at this thing then? Your prisoner of war?"

Alice winked flirtatiously.

"Oh thanks Alice," Bella cringed, "you really do spend too much time with Emmett. I have images in my mind that would make weaker people vomit."

"Charming!" Jasper sniffed.

Alice folded her hands in her lap and looked down at them guiltily.

"Did Edward tell you? About Emmett, I mean."

"That for some reason he's gone gaga over that Rosalie bitch? Yeah, it came up."

"I didn't know," Alice looked up at Bella, her face crumpled, "I didn't see that she'd be there, and in her wedding dress as well…"

Jasper pulled her to his chest and stroked her hair.

"You're not omnipotent. You can't catch everything."

Bella nodded.

"It's not your fault Alice, and anyway it seems to me that he's better of out of it, surely?"

"You can't help who you fall in love with," Alice sighed, and snuggled closer to Jasper.

Bella thought of Edward. She thought of his bizarre moodswings, attitude problem, and the apparently hair-curling nature of his reputation. She thought of the way he'd looked at her on Esme and Carlisle's lawn, and of the electricity that shot up her spine every time they touched.

"You know what Alice?" she downed the cold dregs of her coffee and pushed the mug away as she stood up, "I think you might be right."

Okay, so next time on Counterpoint: Bella makes some decisions she regrets, somebody gets a snog, and somebody gets their heart broken. Till then, enjoy the Counterpoint playlist! It may give you clue to future events… or it may not! See my profile for the link!