[Bella]

We moved as soon as Carlisle was done treating Elizabeth's wounds and broken arm. I tried and relax against the seat of my car, but I couldn't. Again, I wished I was able to cry…

"He didn't mean those words," said Edward, at the wheel of my car. "You know that."

Yes, I knew… but what Edward didn't understand was that Jasper and I never fought. We were used to always agree with each other, and that fight took us completely unprepared. He told me I was being too selfless, that I didn't care about my own wellbeing, that I couldn't really think of going back to the people that almost killed me twenty years ago. But the truth was simple, and I told him that – shouted to, actually – loud and clear. He was still jealous of me and Edward, and he didn't trust him to stay alone with me for an undefined period of time. How could he have so little trust in me? He immediately realized the mistake, and tried to apologize, but the damage was done. I told everyone goodbye, and I left with Edward and Elizabeth in the middle of the night.

"Well, it's too late now. We've a job to do… both of us," I said, going back reading the giant pack of printed pages produced by Carlisle's printer a couple of hours earlier. God bless Eamonn and his devotion to work. After I told him what Dave had told me during his phone call, he sent me all the intel he could gather in such short time. Various supernatural events could cause the things Dave described me, and all were connected with angry, vengeful ghosts. Oh joy. Not that I never helped that kind of ghosts… just, they were stubborn. And potentially evil. The kind of risk Jasper never wanted me to take, even if they couldn't harm me in any way.

Anyway, when I talked about our jobs, I didn't miss Edward rolling his eyes and sighing. I would be really busy at the reservation, ant that implied he would have to spend all his time with Elizabeth. Something he wasn't so happy about.

"Come on, I'm sure she'll behave," I whispered, so not to wake my sleeping friend in the back seat.

"She was ready to fight even when we were waiting for Carlisle at the hospital…"

"Sounds like her. I wish I could be so strong, sometimes."

"You are. Who else could endure a life like yours? I couldn't. How can you bear to face death every day of your life?"

"I don't face death; I face life. It's a little complicated to explain, I know, but it's how I see it."

Edward didn't miss the stress in my voice, and asked me if I had resumed my search on everything related to Elissa.

"Yes, 'cause I'm stupid. That woman scares the hell out of me, now. I just hope I'll never have to fight against her. I have enough demons to fight right now… I don't need another one."

Edward put one hand on my shoulder. "I promised Jasper, Emmett and Carlisle that no one will touch you. I wasn't there when they attacked you, but from what they told me it was… Well, it won't happen again."

I touched his hand, and after a moment he took it back on the driving wheel. Edward drove even faster than me, so it didn't surprise me we were just a few miles from Forks an hour or so before sunrise. Everything was the same, but at the same time it was completely different. Or maybe it was me, after all I had changed so much in the last forty years… it was incredible to think that once, so many years before, I had been human. Edward drove past Forks High School, and I couldn't help but smile, remembering all the times I found Jasper waiting for me on the other side of the road… and the one I cherished the most, when we drove to Port Angeles and we kissed for the first time. Edward saw the memory in my head and smiled, but his eyes were sad. I didn't need to be a mind reader to know who he was thinking of. I put a hand on his shoulder.

"You sure you want to stay at my house? We could go to yours."

"Ours," Edward corrected me. "And don't worry… I can make it. Plus, there's no risk of meeting werewolves by mistake there."

"Unless they come specifically for you," I added grimly. Edward tensed, and I knew he saw in his head the night when my brother and step-brother kidnapped me.

"They won't."

"I'll try to keep this from them, but if they should discover the truth… just, be prepared. My father knew about you, God only knows how, and I'm sure his friends hate you as well. People in La Push have an uncanny ability to hold a grudge, I'm telling you."

[Edward]

I knew from Jasper and the others how Bella had been unhappy in La Push, but seeing it in my head, in her memories, was almost unbearable. How could a father do that to his child?

Again, my thoughts ran to her mother. Being in Forks again just augmented the pain in my soul, the same excruciating pain that started in Volterra, after saying goodbye to Bella forever, and never left me alone. Elizabeth moved in her sleep, and I turned to give her a brief look before going back to drive. Carlisle told us he would've given her a strong sedative for the journey, but I never thought she would've slept all the time. Good for her, though. She needed to sleep and rest if she wanted to heal.

Bella noticed, and smiled. "Someone here is worried…" she said smiling, her voice dripping with irony.

I ignored her. "Of course I am. I remember what can happen when a hunter…"

"And that's the reason why I asked you to come. When my mother's life was at stake because of James, you were there… you saved her. You know what to expect in case Gabriel shows up here."

"Let's hope he won't," I replied, driving into the road that led to Chief Swan's old house. Bella sighed at my side, her head filled with memories of Charlie Swan, her beloved grandfather. She was trying not to think of her kidnapping, but the memory was still there, just underneath.

I sadly smiled. I was using her memories not to think of mine. I never thought I would come back there, and I didn't know what to expect from myself once I would step inside that house. Bella and I felt Elizabeth stirring behind us, and Bella turned her head with a smile, asking her how she felt.

"Horrible, thanks for asking," she muttered, combing her hair with the fingers of the sane hand. "Are we already there?"

"Yep. You slept all the time."

"Carlisle has really nice pills at his disposal, I have to say…"

I stopped the car in front of the house, and Bella got out to help Elizabeth. I tensed, looking at Elizabeth's face. Under the weak light of dawn, I could see her bruises even better. She had been very lucky to get out of her studio alive, and it was what she was thinking as well in that moment. She was scared to death, even if she kept wearing her mask of bravery and sarcasm in front of me and Bella. But she couldn't fool me, not anymore… Living together in that house was bound to be very interesting.

[Elizabeth]

Edward gave me a very strange look, and at first I didn't realize why. It took me a couple of seconds to remember Edward was a mind reader, and that he knew exactly what was in my head at the moment. It was different… before, when my words mirrored my thoughts. But now…

I glared at Edward with all the venom I could muster. I hated to feel so vulnerable, especially in front of him.

'STAY OUT OF MY HEAD!' I mentally shouted, and it sort of did the trick. He almost jumped, and he shot me one of the resentful glares I grew used to in the previous months. I relaxed. I could deal with Edward only if our relationship remained on the same terms of when it had started – hate and annoyance towards one another, that is. I couldn't bear if he suddenly started treating me nice. It would be too weird.

Anyway, the moment we got inside Bella's house I realized something was definitely wrong with him. He was… sad. Why?

Bella noticed it as well, and got closer to him. She hugged him tightly, and asked him if he was fine.

"I'm good. Don't worry about me."

"Her room… if you want to see it… Grandpa never moved a thing, and neither did I."

Edward smiled. He was trying to act normally, but he wasn't fine… I looked at him disappearing upstairs, and then I gave Bella a questioning look.

"What were you talking about?"

"This was my grandfather's house. My mother came here to live with him when she was seventeen, and she met and fell in love with Edward a few months later. But shortly after her eighteenth birthday, Edward and his family left, leaving my mother distraught. Then she met Jacob, my father… and you know the rest."

"Why did the Cullens leave?"

"Jasper… my husband… his self-control wasn't good at the time. Bella cut herself with wrapping paper, and Jasper attacked her. She never blamed him for the accident, though."

"Okay, I get it, but why leaving?"

"He thought he was doing the best thing for her."

"Am I wrong or when she died he went to the Volturi asking to die… and they imprisoned him for nineteen years until you went saving him?"

What a stupid idea, I thought, and I didn't care if he could hear me or not. If I had been Bella, I would've hunted him down just to inflict him the pain he had inflicted me. But from what I had gathered upon Bella Swan, she wasn't vindictive. She wasn't many things that I was… we were so different we would've probably hated each other with a passion.

"I'm not saying he did good, but if he had done things differently you would be talking to my mother now, not to me. I wouldn't even exist. Now, do you want to see your bedroom?"

I nodded, and Bella took my bags from the ground. She made a quick trip to the bedroom with them, and then came back to help me. I refused to be taken upstairs in her arms, even if I knew how strong she was, so she limited to support me with an arm around my back while I climbed the stairs. I was hurting, but I didn't care. It meant I was alive... and I was determined to stay that way. We both gave a quick look at the locked door in front of my bedroom, and at the shadow we could see moving from under the door, and then we entered my bedroom. Something told me a, Edward wanted to stay alone and b, we wouldn't see him anytime soon.

[Edward]

Bella's thoughts were all for me, all silent offerings of comfort and support. I smiled sadly, and sat on the bed. My Bella's bed. The same bed we shared for oh so many nights, until I decided to end our story. I could still smell her scent on the clothes she left in the wardrobe… like I could ever forget it.

I looked at the wooden floor, and I wondered when Bella had discovered I had hidden all the photographs and the CD I made for her under the floorboards. Probably, it was a lucky accident. My sister didn't know it as well, but she told me how her father knew and hated that songs. Maybe her mother kept on listening to them even after she married Jacob Black?

The door slightly opened. I glanced briefly at the entrance, and I saw Bella coming in. She sat next to me, and for a while we just stood there in silence, both lost in our own mourning.

"It's time," she said. "I have to go, now."

I sighed. "I wish you didn't have to."

"Now you sound like Rosalie."

"She was definitely angry. No one was happy to let you come back here."

"Dave is a friend; I can't let him down. Plus, we have to protect Elizabeth… even if she doesn't want us to. And the most important thing of all… I need closure. I thought I had left everything behind… but there are many things left unsaid, and I'll make sure to not have any kind of unfinished business when we'll go away from Forks this time. Will you be ok?"

"Yes, for the umpteenth time. You worry too much, little sister."

"For once that I can be the one worried, let me do it, okay?" she said with a smile, getting up from the bed. "Elizabeth took another couple of pills; she is asleep, and I think she's going to sleep for another couple of hours."

"Praise the Lord."

Bella hit me in the arm. "Maybe it's not Lizzie the one that has to behave, here…"

"Just remember. At the first sign of danger, or if you just suspect something, anything… run. Jasper will have my head if I don't return you in perfect condition."

"If they try anything, first I'll bite their heads off, and then I'll run."

"You're definitely Emmett's sister."

Bella laughed. "And proud to be."

[Bella]

I was procrastinating, and I knew it. All of sudden I started doubting my reasons to come, or like Rosalie put it, my mental health. La Push was the place where I lived the unhappiest years of my life, and I was willing to ignore it because of my ability and because Dave asked me for help. Maybe I really had to learn to put myself first, for a change. But that wasn't the right moment to start acting selfish.

I ran in the woods alongside the road, pushing back memories of blood, pain and growling wolves, until I arrived near La Push's borders. No one attacked me or stopped me… maybe they weren't patrolling that part of the woods. Or maybe there hadn't been vampires around… up to now. I got out of the woods, and started walking in the streets of the town I once called home. I wondered how much time would pass until someone would smell me in the air. The answer was two minutes and twenty-five seconds. I stopped, and I saw some familiar faces mixed with younger ones slowly trapping me in a circle. I recognized some of the kids of Josh's Clearwater gang, now young adults, and other people that knew and hated me. In a second I wasn't Bella Cullen anymore, but poor Bella Black, the girl that those werewolves once almost killed…

"Someone lays a finger on her, and that someone will run on three paws!"

I didn't miss the command tone in that voice behind my shoulder. Guess he really meant it when he told me he climbed the ranks of the pack. I turned on my heels with a smile, and I removed my sunglasses.

Dave looked at me and started laughing.

"Jesus, Bells," he said, pointing at my sparkling skin. "You're a freak show!"

"Look who he's talking…" I replied, still a little shocked. Dave hadn't aged a day from the last time I saw him!

"Dave, what the hell is happening? She's a damn bloodsucker!"

"And a Quileute and my best friend, Don, so back off!"

Clearly, no one was expecting that. And here I was, thinking that my story was used to scare young werewolves during bonfire nights…

Dave took my hand, and I remembered to stop breathing. His smell was definitely not pleasant to me anymore.

"Don't mind the cubs, Bells. They still have to learn the good manners. Welcome back. I missed you," he then added in a whisper.

I gently squeezed his hand in response. One second later, I was back to be Bella Cullen… and Bella Cullen had some work to do.

"Take me to Sam. I have to talk to him."

Suddenly everyone gave me a very uncomfortable look.

"What? What did I say? Isn't Sam the pack leader anymore?"

"He… resigned. Sort of. Long story."

"Can't wait to hear it. So, who's the new Alpha? Do I have to worry?" I added with a smile. I was thinking of Quil and Embry… but I should've known better.

"Bella… the new Alpha is your father. Jacob has been our leader for the last twenty years."

Jacob. My father. Oh God.

"Bella?"

I wasn't listening. Jacob was the Alpha. There was no way I could not see him. And Charlie…

Another curve ball thrown at me by destiny, when I was finally sure destiny was done with me.

"I'm fine," I said, feigning an inner quiet I wasn't feeling at all. "Take me to him."

Before I change my mind...