A/N: I know you all want to know who Bella called, so I won't keep you long here...

Claire Bloom rocks my world! You are the BEST Beta a girl could ever ask for, honey, and I simply adore you! :)

SM owns...and graciously allows freaks like us to mess with her creation! For that, I am eternally grateful! ;)

Now, read on ladies...
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CHAPTER TEN - Pictures of You

"Pictures of you, pictures of me

Remind us all of what we could have been..."

Pictures of You, The Last Goodnight

Carlisle

"Jackie, do you have those charts ready?" I asked the nurse on duty.

"Yes, Doctor Cullen," she answered, "they're right here."

Jackie handed me a stack of metal binders with a smile, which I politely returned. Walking down the corridor towards my office, I flipped through the charts, making mental notes on the patients in my care. The ward was quiet, as it usually was this time of night, all the rooms' occupants asleep.

I entered my office and closed the door, walking to my desk and sitting in my leather chair. The furniture was slightly large for the space, but I had brought it along because it reminded me of being in my office in Forks. I missed working at the hospital there, treating the people who had accepted me and my family more than any community ever had. Sitting in the chair, working at the desk, I felt more at home. I glanced at the small silver frame sitting at the corner of my computer monitor. Smiling back at me every time I sat here, were the happy faces of my children - all six of them. Esme had insisted on taking the photo at Bella's birthday party, before everything had gone horribly wrong. I kept it with me because it was the only reminder of how close to perfect our family had once been, and because I hoped against hope that one day it would be again.

The cell phone in the pocket of my white lab coat buzzed, breaking me from my thoughts. Pulling it out, I saw Alice's name on the caller ID.

"Hello, Alice," I said, smiling. I missed my daughter, but was proud of her for going to Forks the way she did.

"It's Bella," she responded, so quietly I only heard her because of my vampire hearing.

"Bella," I breathed into the line. Her voice sounded the same as I recalled, yet different somehow. She had aged five years, so I supposed it was natural for her to sound more grown up, but there was something else I couldn't quite put my finger on.

"I need your help," she started bluntly.

"My help?" I asked.

"Well, actually, it's Alice who needs your help."

"Alice?" I inquired, my fatherly instinct, as much as vampire, piquing my concern.

"Yes," she said. "She's alright, I think, but...well, it's complicated, and I really think you need to see her yourself...Will you come?" Bella sounded nervous, her voice rising slightly when she asked.

"I'll leave tonight," I agreed. If something had happened to Alice, I needed to get to her first, and ask questions later.

"We're at the house in Forks," Bella said. "Is it, I mean, would it be...possible...for you to come alone?"

Of course Bella would worry about the entire Cullen clan descending upon her. According to Jasper, she had been fairly angry with Alice at first. Considering we had left her without an honest goodbye and had remained hidden from her for five years, I doubted she was inclined to greet the rest of us with open arms, especially Edward.

"Luckily for you," I said lightly, "I'm at the hospital now, so no one is listening."

"Good," she sighed, sounding relieved.

"I suppose I ought to bring Jasper along, though," I offered. If Alice needed help, she needed Jasper.

"Of course," Bella agreed readily.

"We'll see you tomorrow afternoon, then," I said.

"See you then."

The line went dead, and I rolled the cell phone around in my hands. I needed to call Jasper so he could prepare for our departure. I also needed to decide how the two of us would get out of town without Edward knowing. I had already told him of Alice's whereabouts, and he was waiting at home for her to arrive and give him answers. If he learned Jasper and I were heading to Forks, he would certainly try to go along. I dialed Jasper's number and waited for him to answer.

"You must have ESP or something, Dad," Jasper joked in lieu of a hello.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"I'm in the parking lot," he said. "I was on my way to the airport and thought you might like to ride along."

"Perfect," I said, "I'm coming down now." I ended the call and headed out of my office, grabbing the travel case I kept in the closet on the way.

I met Jasper in the dim parking lot near his car. Opening the back door, I tossed my bag on the seat and said, "Come on, we need to get on the next plane to Seattle."

"What's wrong?" Jasper asked, as he jumped in the car and started the engine.

"Bella called me," I said. "Something is wrong with Alice."

Jasper sped out onto the road, heading for the freeway. "What do you mean wrong?" he asked.

"She didn't say much," I said. "She did say Alice is alright, but that it was complicated and I needed to see for myself."

"She's not alright if she couldn't call you herself," he said, panicked.

I wished in that moment I had Jasper's talent so I could calm him down. Knowing his mate, his Alice, was across the country, in unexplained trouble had to be more than he could bear, yet he still remained composed.

"We'll know more when we get there, son," I said. "I'm sure whatever it is, we can remedy the situation."

We drove towards the airport in silence for a while, Jasper's face pained.

"Bella sounded...well," I said, trying to ease some tension by changing the subject.

"Alice told me something," Jasper said, glancing at me in his periphery, "and I think you should know about it before we get to Forks."

"Something about Bella?" I asked.

"Yes," Jasper answered quietly, "It seems she's...well, she's been...changed," he stammered, keeping his eyes on the road.

Had I heard him clearly?

"Changed?" I asked, not sure my interpretation of his statement was correct.

"Yes," he confirmed. "She's given Alice no details. She won't say who changed her, or when exactly. Alice did say Bella keeps our diet, though," he smiled.

"Bella..." I sighed, "...is a vampire?" I almost laughed.

Jasper smiled and nodded, turning the car onto the freeway exit leading to the airport.

"Hm..." I mused. I could think of nothing else to say. The change I had noticed in Bella's voice was explained to me, at least. I wondered who was responsible for her transformation, why she had not sought the family out afterwards, and felt a sense of pride at her choice not to feed on human blood.

My thoughts shifted quickly to Edward. My son - my stubborn son, who had left Bella because he believed it would save her from the dangers of our world, his need to protect her never allowing him to accept that being one of us was what she'd truly been destined for - how would he react when he found out, and what if Bella's change had been her choice? As much as Edward may have protested about Bella becoming a vampire, all for the sake of her soul, I knew deep down in his own, if Bella's transformation ever came to pass, he would have wanted his to be the venom that coursed through her veins.

A sigh from Jasper brought me back to reality, "I know what you're thinking."

"Edward," I said.

"There is no predicting what his reaction will be," Jasper said. "It has been so hard keeping it from him."

"I'm sure it's been difficult, but he will have no choice but to accept it," I said. "And perhaps, with the decision taken from him, the weight of that particular responsibility lifted, he will tell Bella of his deception and his reasons for leaving her."

"I only hope she's as forgiving a vampire as she was a human," Jasper smiled.

Jasper's words went to the very core of the hope I had - if Edward and Bella could be reunited, if she would forgive him his lies and they could find their way back into each other's hearts, my family would be whole again.

Bella

"Jasper and Carlisle will be here tomorrow," I said, placing Alice's phone back in her bag.

"Good," Alice sighed. "I know that was hard for you, Bella," she said, reaching her hand out to me.

I took it and squeezed. "It was just Carlisle," I said, trying to sound as if that were true. Mentally, I was kicking myself for feeling so anxious, something the human me would have felt, but vampire me was supposed to be a kick-ass, tough as nails, shake it off kind of girl. Yet, when faced with Carlisle's voice, I had been reduced to a stammering eighteen-year-old again.

I thought about what Jacob said, about my residual human emotions being my super cool power, and perhaps he was right. But, if so, what the hell kind of power was that? The vampires I knew with preternatural abilities used them for some purpose - Jasper could defuse any tense situation, Alice could save people with her visions, and He was a walking lie detector. How could I serve any purpose by feeling the myriad of human emotions?

"Maybe," Alice smiled, breaking through my thoughts, "but you took the chance that he would be home, where everyone in the house could have heard. Thank you."

"You need help," I said, shrugging my shoulders. "Carlisle's a doctor, and he's been a vampire for, what, like a thousand years? So...," I let the attempt at nonchalance die in my throat.

"Still," Alice said.

"Okay, you're welcome," I said. "Better?"

"Yes," Alice smiled again.

I got up and paced around the living room. I had cleaned up most of the mess my earlier rage had produced, but there were still things to straighten out. Setting the upturned end tables back on their feet, I glanced at my reflection in a shattered mirror.

My hair was a tangled mess, my clothes rumpled. I looked like hell, at least to me. It seemed no matter what a vampire went through - lying on the forest floor, fighting off wolves and running halfway to Seattle and back, for instance - humans still saw perfection. However, I felt dirty and desperately wanted to wash my hair.

"Alice?" I asked, "Do you mind if I go take a shower and get cleaned up?"

"Go ahead," she said. "I'll be fine."

"Thanks, but if you need anything, just call, okay?" I ran quickly outside to my car and retrieved my duffle bag from the trunk. Back inside, I called to Alice as I passed her, "When I'm done, I think a little Bella Barbie payback is in order!" Alice had taken great pleasure when I was human in dressing me up like her own personal Barbie doll, so I figured since she couldn't see and needed cleaning up too, it was only fair to return the favor.

Alice's tinkling laughter filled the house as I headed up the stairs to her old bathroom. At the top of the second flight of stairs, I stopped and stared at the closed bedroom door in front of me. I hadn't ventured upstairs when I had been in the house earlier, and now that I was face to face with his space, I felt my chest tighten. Part of me wanted to open the door and immerse myself in whatever might have been left behind. Another part of me wanted to take an axe inside, and go for a repeat of my destruction on the lower level.

"That's definitely not a hammer I see," I heard Alice say from the living room.

"At least you're seeing something," I called back to her before turning for the door that led to her bathroom.

Inside Alice's room, I emptied the contents of my bag onto the floor. Pulling my shampoo from the pile, I accidently kicked the conditioner under the chaise lounge in the corner. Lying flat on the floor, I reached underneath and found the bottle, but when I pulled it towards me, a photograph slid out of hiding as well. I turned the glossy paper over in my hands and took in a stuttering breath as I looked at the image.

The sunlight was filtering in through the curtains, creating beautiful prisms of light on the walls. He was at the piano, and I was lying on the floor beside the bench. Heappeared to be playing, but his head was turned, watching me watching him.I wished for a moment that I could see his face clearly, so I could gauge the emotion in hisexpression.

I wondered when the picture had been taken, and who'd taken it. I couldn't place the memory, but the overwhelming sense of loss I felt looking at it brought the sting of tears to my eyes. I tried to remember this day, caught in immortality on film, tried to think back on the countless times this scene must have played out. I closed my eyes and attempted to bring the notes of the song hewas playing into my ears. Intuition told me the melody was special, written just for me, and I was irritated that of all the things I could recall, these details were lost. Why did I have a perfect recollection of the horrible things he'dsaid that day in the woods, but only muddied impressions of something which was surely just as significant?

Sighing in defeat, and feeling more emotional than was acceptable, I stood up, slipped the photograph into the pocket of my duffle bag, and headed for the shower.

The hot water felt nice raining over my icy skin. I leaned my forehead against the shower wall and let the water run through my hair, over my back, and down my legs. Knowing Alice was downstairs, I held in the sobs that begged to wrack my aching chest.

For the first year of my new life, I had been angry; at my sire for changing me the way he had, angry at me for not being a 'normal' vampire, but most of all, at Him for leaving me alone to end up in this situation in the first place.

Eventually, anger had given way to indifference, and I wandered the globe, aimless and alone, thinking I was doing the only thing I could. He didn't want me then, and he'dmade it clear my transformation wasn't desired, so why would he want me now?

I had resigned myself to the fact I would never be a part of their family, as I had once dreamed, and so had become content with my fate. Once again, I cursed myself for ever keeping tabs on my parents. If I had never known of Charlie's death, I wouldn't have come back to Forks, and perhaps Alice wouldn't have seen me. Was I content now to see Alice, Jasper and Carlisle only to return to a life on my own? Could I have a small piece of the family I had loved back with me for a short time then watch them leave again? I didn't think so.

Returning to the home I had shared with Charlie, looking through mementos from my human years, seeing Alice and Jacob, knowing Carlisle and Jasper would soon arrive - it was all too much. I sank to my knees, giving in to the invisible tears, and finally grieving for all that had been taken from me.

Edward

Alice should have been home an hour ago, but the house was quiet. Jasper had left to pick her up but never returned. Carlisle was still at the hospital, Esme was gone, I didn't know where, and Rosalie and Emmett were hunting. I was still in my room on the floor, listening for the timbre of Alice's mind to arrive in the driveway.

The night before, I had pulled out the box of things I had taken from Bella's bedroom on the night I left Forks. There was an essay she had written for Mr. Wilcox on Romeo and Juliet, a few notes we had exchanged in class, and a handful of photographs. I opened the folded paper in my hand and ran my fingers over the words:

You are so going to have to help me with the homework!

If you want us to be alone, Bella, just say so.

You don't need to use homework as an excuse.

Shut up, Edward!

You love me.

I do...but I still need help with the homework.

Most of the other pages were filled with the same, seemingly mundane, thoughts, and I had each written conversation memorized. In my mind, I could see the look on her face as she wrote every word, the surprise in her eyes when I returned an answer too quickly, the smile that played on her lips whenever she read the words 'I love you' on each one.

My favorite of the photographs was one of Bella and my sisters. It had been a rare day, when Rosalie had let her normally rigid guard down and gotten into Alice's game of dress up. They had taken Bella shopping, spent what she insisted was too much money, and returned to our house to make her model every outfit they'd purchased. In the picture, Bella was wearing a beautiful, deep purple dress. Alice had fixed her hair in soft waves that hung over her shoulders, and Rosalie had applied what little make-up Bella would allow. The three of them stood in front of the mantle, arms around each other, smiling like regular teenage girls. It was my favorite because the smile on Bella's face was radiant and confident, as though she were finally feeling inside of herself what I saw in her every moment of every day.

Emmett's booming laughter filtered in through the open window. He was ribbing Rosalie about taking down a bigger moose than she had. I heard the crack as she slapped him across the back of his head and smiled. For all my posturing of annoyance at my siblings, I was jealous of what they all had with one another. Emmett and Rosalie, in spite of their violent tendencies, were loving and playful in their own way, Alice and Jasper were tender and sweet natured together, and our parents were the epitome of 'meant to be' as far as I could tell. It had been some time since I had felt these pangs in my chest, but I had pushed them down for five years, knowing I couldn't go on if I dwelled on what I had lost.

What I lost? I didn't lose her, I left her.

I knew I was to blame for not having what everyone else in the family did. It had been within my grasp, and she was willing. It was my decision which brought me to this day, lying on my floor in a heap clutching notes and a photograph to my chest.

Wondering again why Alice and Jasper weren't yet home, I pulled my phone from my pocket and sent Alice a text message:

Where are you?

Didn't she know I was here waiting for her? Couldn't she see me desperately clinging to scraps of my past, anticipating her return? Minutes passed with no reply. I could hear Emmett and Rosalie downstairs, but rather than join them for some distraction, I closed my eyes and replayed the memory of the photograph in my hands, reminding myself of what could have been.

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End Notes: Do we feel sorry for Edward yet? Hit that pretty little button down there! You know you want to! :)