Author's note: please, leave me some reviews! I will be wrapping this short story up in the next chapter or so - I'd love to know what has been good/sucked in this story and if it was worth writing.

Chapter 10

He felt the warm blood flow down his throat as he drained the lion's carcass dry. He felt the last drop pass by his teeth, and he pulled away, pushing the limp body away. His thirst sated, he knew that the next time he saw his reflection, bright golden eyes would be staring back at him. Mid-sigh, the strong scent of honey and chamomile caught his attention and his eyes flickered to the right where Jasper was standing with his arms folded.

"You done, Edward?" he asked, striding over to his adoptive brother's side.

"Yeah," he nodded, shifting the dead animal out of the way where nature would intervene. He frowned. "What do you want to talk about?"

"There's no hiding anything from you," Jasper grumbled. Edward rolled his eyes but nevertheless, followed Jasper over to a fallen tree, which they leapt onto. "Have you told Bella what happened in the hospital?" Edward stared at him in surprise. "Alice told me," Jasper enlightened him.

"I only told Carlisle," Edward told him. Jasper pulled a face in exasperation. "I guess you're right. There's no keeping anything from Alice."

"So, you haven't told her," Jasper concluded, quite rightly.

"Bella is…" Edward hesitated, choosing his words carefully, "a private person. She's always had a wall." He sighed, raking his fingers through his bronze hair. "If anything, I made it worse after we left Forks."

"That wasn't your fault," Jasper murmured.

It was fleeting, but Edward heard it anyway. "It wasn't yours either," he countered, "as I've told you before."

A moment of silence passed between them before Jasper cut in.

"Why haven't you said anything?"

"I know that she's always liked that I couldn't hear her thoughts," Edward revealed. "That day…" Jasper frowned at the swirling vortex of despair and pain that briefly pulled Edward up short. He patted him on the shoulder a few times in comfort and Edward started again. "Carlisle tried his best to hide it from me, but I caught it. That day, she briefly slipped away, and the wall came down. I could hear her inside my head. It was so faint at first, like a whisper. Then it got stronger and I knew. She wasn't with me anymore."

"But she started to respond to treatment," Jasper pondered.

"True," Edward nodded. "But her voice is still in my head."

Jasper's head slowly turned 90 degrees, a frown of concern and confusion etched into his features. "Excuse me?"

"It never went away," Edward said flatly, his face blank. "She doesn't need to tell me that she feels I'm distant with her. I just can't bring myself to tell her. It hurts to see through her eyes what those months alone were like for her. It haunts her." Edward sighed, glancing Jasper's way. "We never talk about it, but I know it's always on her mind. My intention to never bring her any pain was exactly what gave her pain."

Jasper found himself speechless. He had no words of comfort to offer, nor any words of brutal honesty to bring light to the situation. Jasper had always felt everyone else's pain for so long that he wasn't ever sure if the pain he felt was his own. Alice brought the light into his life where there no longer was any. She was the one thing that brought him hope. She was the one place he drew comfort when the world left him spent. He frowned at the sight of Edward, so torn, so guilty, so sad, that he knew that words weren't enough. They continued to sit in companionable silence as they felt the world pass them by second by second.

The sun beat down on Bella. She breathed in lungful's of air, smiling at the heat that warmed her skin. That was the one thing she missed in Forks. She opened her chocolate brown eyes to look upon her gran's face, whose eyes mirrored her own. Marie considered her a moment.

"What is it, Bel?" she asked, putting her hand atop of Bella's.

"I'm just thinking about how good it feels to be in the heat," she replied. "It's peaceful here."

"Yes," Gran mused. "I wondered why you'd brought me here."

Bella's face shot around to look at Marie. Gran only replied with a smile. Suddenly she was aware they hadn't met in the meadow like they usually did, but she couldn't place where they were just yet.

"Why?" Bella echoed in question.

"Oh, my beautiful girl," she said fondly, "I wish your heart wasn't filled with the ache of living."

"Wha-" Bella started, as she watched in horror as Marie started to cough up water. From some distance behind her gran, she could make out three dark figures, but she was unable to decipher any features. She took her gran by the shoulders and called her name over and over. She looked around for help and realised she was sat on the fountain side in the middle of the desolate main square of the city of Volterra.

"Bel," Gran spluttered.

"No, don't," Bella replied in panic. She looked at her hands gripping her gran's shoulders and saw the light bouncing off her skin in coloured fractals. She looked across the square at the imposing clock tower and saw the unmistakable figures of Aro, Marcus and Caius. She noted the pleased smirk pulling at the mouth of Aro.

"Just let it go," Marie said in her last breath.

Bella watched helplessly as the three figureheads of the Volturi made their way over to her as she got up on her feet. She saw the glint in Caius' eye as he glanced at Marie's body.

"No!" she screamed in protest. "You can't have her!" Without hesitation, she reached down towards her gran and plunged her hand through her chest, pulling out her heart.

Bella's eyes shot open and she screamed. She was sat at the desk in Edward's room, slumped over with her head in her arms. She wasn't aware when she'd fallen asleep but only the fear that gripped her now upon her awakening alerted her to the fact she had fallen into a deep sleep. She sat upright in her chair as she heard the door fly open. Alice appeared at her side. Bella screamed again in response.

"Bella, Bella," Alice soothed, rubbing her arms. "It's okay, it's me!"

Bella worked to control her breathing and she shook her head. "Alice, I'm so sorry," she apologised breathlessly. "It must have been a nightmare."

"What about?" she asked, hopping up onto the edge of the desk, leaving her feet to swing back and forth.

"Oh, it was nothing," Bella waved the subject away.

"Yep," Alice nodded, "nothing makes me scream out, too. You've been around us far too long now to scream in response to our abrupt presence, so don't give me that. Explain away, lady."

Bella peered at her uncertainly, pushing back her long dark locks from her face. She sighed.

"Okay," she conceded, "it's just I've been dreaming about Gran a lot since the hospital and it's just been bothering me."

"Your Gran Marie?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. "The one who's been dead six, seven years?"

"The very same," Bella nodded. "She was always a very difficult woman. She didn't really get on with Renée, but she doted on me. It was… difficult when she died. She's just so vivid in my dreams that she feels so real."

"So, what made you scream out?"

"I don't really want to talk about it," Bella said, shifting uncomfortably in her seat. "It's just that death seems to be a recurring theme."

Alice pursed her lips. "You know, Bella," she started, "I don't remember anything of my human life. I know that it was a life filled with trauma, despair and pain but I can't remember that. Maybe it made immortal life easier for me because there was none of that baggage to begin with for me. I always had the ability to see possibilities and the first thing I saw upon my new beginning was Jasper. I knew that I had to wait for him for a long time and the only thing that made that long wait suck a little less was the hope I had, the reassurance that vision gave me, that one day I'd meet him. There was no question for me. And upon meeting me, there wasn't for him either. You and Edward are the same." Alice paused. "Heartbreak is what made the Cullen family."

That struck Bella. Carlisle's loneliness, the ache he had in his heart for so long that started the Cullen line. Edward losing his family and gaining a new one after he lost his own life. Esme's grief that drove her to take her own life. Rosalie's trauma that ended her life, hopes and dreams. Emmett having his life unexpectantly taken from him, leaving his family in the process. Alice's isolating life that ended in further isolation which put her on the path to find Jasper, whose life had ended abruptly and put him on the path of being lost, alone and depressed. All different stories but with a common theme: heartbreak.

"We find comfort in our family," Alice murmured gently. "Bella," she hopped off the desk and turned to her, "we, including Edward, can't tell you how sorry we are for how you must be feeling. No one just gets over abandonment. You never allowed yourself to accept that that's what happened, so it just hurt you more. You need to remember that what happened came from love."

Tears burned hot in Bella's eyes and she blinked numerous times in an attempt to keep them at bay. She tried her best to keep painful thoughts and memories at bay and generally on the whole she was successful. But it wasn't possible to keep running from pain that stays with you.

"Oh, Bella," Alice said sympathetically, throwing her arms around Bella's neck and squeezing her gently. "It's okay. Just let it out." Bella hugged her back, her head on her shoulder. "The way you needed to all along." Bella nodded, allowing the tears to fall down her cheeks. "It's time you talked to your fiancé," Alice said in her ear.

Bella's eyes opened, looking over Alice's shoulder, seeing Edward stood in the doorway with concerned eyes and a hand gestured to her in invitation.