Disclaimer: You know S.M. pimps the rights to dis shiznit.
A/N: Sooo... You guys can thank Beetlebum101 for giving me the push this time... So, this chappy goes out to him/her... read the story "When Everything Else Is Gone", by aforesaid person, if you haven't already. It's a WONDERFUL tale...
and thanks to my beta Hollowgo for making sure its all pretty.
To the usual suspects: WildImagination28, Villemo79, and Shabbacabba... Much love to y'all, too.
Special Shout Out: Lynettecullen, for going and reading my Alice/OC fic and reviewing every chapter :) ... if you haven't read it, maaaaybe you should check it out! *ends self plug*
The rest of you beautiful people... I cannot put into words what the reviews and the love you guys leave means to me. Thank you all. Enjoy :)
Alice wouldn't hear of me going back to my apartment to stay the night, and she booked a room at a local hotel for me for the week. I was not happy about it, but she wasn't listening to me, not at all. I could see the protective nature she held, and I didn't know how I felt about it. I was very used to taking care of myself, because I had grown up very independent. My father was never one to dote on me, and Renee definitely wasn't a doting mother. I was always better left to my own devices.
"That gives me plenty of time to talk to Mom and Dad, and to get a moving company in there to pack your things and load the truck," she explained to me in her car as we left Rosalie's that Sunday afternoon, while I pouted in the passenger's seat with my arms crossed over my chest. I didn't like the fact that she had booked the room on her own debit card, but I knew I wouldn't have been able to afford it and pay my bills at the same time. "This is killing your pride, isn't it?" she added, noting my posture and my silence.
"Yes," I said, not hesitating. "It's not that I'm not appreciative, lord knows I am, but you're blowing money on me for no reason. I don't think he would be back that soon, Alice."
She looked at me out of the corner of her eye, and her lips pursed into a tight line. "So, you're telling me that you could sleep in your apartment without worrying about him coming in again?"
I didn't answer. I knew I wouldn't sleep, that I would be on edge every night with a butcher knife stashed beneath my pillow, a butcher knife I would probably cut myself with before I could even use it to defend myself.
"That's what I thought," Alice said in a smug tone, and I sighed deeply.
"I'm never going to win with you, am I?" I asked her, looking over at her perfect face, which was grinning.
"Of course not," she answered, and I couldn't help but smile back. Her confidence was uber sexy to me. "I'm not trying to baby you, Bella... I am trying to keep you safe. I know you're not in position to spend your money on something like this, but I am, and it's worth it. Keeping you safe is my main priority here."
"It's not down to you to do this," I disagreed, shaking my head. "I don't understand why you have made this your personal responsibility."
A sudden jerking of the car and squealing tires made me gasp and grab for the oh-shit handle above the door, but then I realized we were stopped and Alice was looking at me with a blazing fire in her navy eyes. "Really, Bella? You don't understand why?" Why was she taking off her seatbelt, slinging it behind her?
"I– I–"
She cut off my stuttering reply with a furious kiss, coming over the partition between the two front seats, straddling my lap and grasping my chin so hard it hurt... in a very good way. The kiss was hard, bruising, and she made my head reel. I could feel my pulse in my lips when she wrenched her mouth away from mine, both of us panting heavily. "That's why," she panted, swallowing hard. "I just found you... I'm not going to lose you, Bella."
My heart swelled with a warmth that I had come to associate with Alice, and Alice alone. "Okay," I whispered, nodding. "I get it."
"Good," she huffed, locking lips with me once more before climbing back beneath the wheel. "Don't forget it," she added firmly, giving me a warning look.
It didn't take long in my apartment, as I was only packing a suitcase for a week, and grabbing the essentials such as my guitar, my CD case, and my laptop. While I bustled around looking for things, Alice inspected the few pictures I had framed around the living room. "This is your family?" she asked me as I crossed through the living room from the laundry room, sniffing dirty t-shirts to gauge the severity of stench.
The picture she was holding was one that was taken on a day trip to First Beach, near the Quileute reservation north of Forks. I remembered the day well: Leah and I were sixteen, and Seth was merely a baby at eleven, and the three of us were standing with Dad and Sue, cheesing like hell. Jacob had taken the picture. I took it from her and gazed down at the unending smiles in the photo.
"Yeah. That's my dad, his wife, and her two kids with me."
Alice nodded slowly, and she pointed at Leah. "Your ex, then?"
"As much of an ex that I have, yes. That would be Leah."
"Were you... together in this picture?"
I sighed. How could I put this? "We were involved. We were never official, but neither one of us saw anyone else the entire time we were in high school. She's with her first boyfriend now, a guy I hated growing up because he used to harass me, and call me a dyke at every chance he got. I was out of the closet by the time I was thirteen, and Leah... well, she didn't feel like she needed to come out, because she never considered herself gay, or even bisexual. I was just really good at getting her off, I guess, but it still doesn't account for the fact she couldn't keep her hands off of me the moment we were behind closed doors."
"She's really pretty," Alice said softly, almost sadly.
I made a noise of agreement in my throat. Leah was beautiful. But she had shit on Alice. "Not as pretty as you are," I said just as softly, and Alice looked up at me from beneath her long eyelashes almost shyly, smiling a tiny smile that only hinted at her dimples.
"Have you told your dad about James?" she asked suddenly, watching as I put the picture in my suitcase along with my clothes.
I shook my head, thinking that he would drive to Seattle himself, and sling me in the back of his car to carry my ass back to Forks. "No, because I don't want him to overreact and come kidnap me. I don't want to go back to Forks."
"Still, I think you should tell him," she said, and I nodded, knowing she was right.
Before I could reply, her cell phone started to buzz in her purse and she excused herself to go answer it. I glanced down at the picture on top of the clothes in my suitcase once more before I closed it and zipped up the edges.
"It's Emmett," Alice told me, placing her phone to her ear. "Hey, did you find anything out?" she asked him immediately, and I ducked my head as I carried my stuff to the front door and set it down on the floor. It was my fault that they had all been dragged into this with me. He knew her name because of me... If only I had known he was tracking me, stalking me, then I would have never let her get this close to me, if only to protect her. Why did I call her that night? He never even tried my doorknob... Why couldn't I just repeat dial 911 until the call went through? Why did I panic? And why call Alice?
She is all you have here... she is the closest to family in a fifty mile radius... but that should have made me want to keep her away even more.
Lost in my thoughts, I didn't realize when Alice had gotten off the phone with Emmett until two tiny arms slid around my waist from behind as I stared out of the very window through which James had entered my home. "Emmett's going to meet us at the hotel. He has some profiles he wants you to look at," she said quietly, resting her chin on my shoulder comfortably.
"I'm sorry you are all involved in this," I whispered, closing my eyes and swallowing hard. "I hate that he knows your name... what if he came after you, if he can't get to me?"
Alice gave a dark chuckle from behind me. "I wish that son of a bitch would come after me," she grated, and I turned around in surprise at her words. "I'd make him sorry for the moment he approached you." She was so little, fragile looking. How could she even say that?
Studying the hard look in her eyes that I recognized to be the same from the night before, I slowly shook my head in amazement at the tiny girl in front of me. "Aren't you afraid of anything?" I said in an awed whisper, my hand coming up to touch her face.
She gave me a crooked grin that forcibly reminded me of her brother Edward, only it was so much sexier set in her feminine features. "Beetles, clowns, and zombies. Fuck 'em," she said in a serious tone, though her eyes were amused.
I tittered a laugh, shaking my head. "How in the hell did we cross paths?" I sighed, running my fingers across her cheekbone, and her navy eyes fluttered closed at the touch.
"Are you complaining?" she asked, giving me an impish smile, opening her eyes again.
I shook my head, smiling softly at her, leaning my face down. "Not at all," I whispered against her addictive mouth, before showing her how much I was thrilled that I had been enough to catch her attentions.
"Okay, these are the fifty profiles for guys with the first name James, or an alias of James, that resembled the guy on the surveillance tape from La Lune Bleu," Emmett was saying an hour and a half later, as he, Alice, and I sat around a table in the suite Alice had booked for me. Yes, suite. I was not happy about it, but I was quickly learning that Alice was used to getting her way.
"Fifty? Are you fucking kidding me?" I said, my eyes bulging a little in their sockets as I eyed the stack of manila folders Emmett dropped on the table.
He was still dressed in the clothes he was wearing the night before, only his badge was now clipped to his belt and he had his police issue 9mm in a shoulder strap and holster that he didn't bother to hide. He had dark circles beneath his eyes, and I noticed his hand shook a bit as he lifted th Starbucks cup he held to his lips. I shook my head again, the guilt rushing back over me.
"Consider it lucky that we have a good idea of what the creep looks like," Emmett replied, clearing his throat. "Usually we wouldn't have this advantage, and I am thankful we got the bastard on film. I wish you could remember the bitch's name that was with him that night; I'd love to track her down and have a nice chat with her."
"Victoria," I blurted, surprising all of us. Where the hell had that come from? But it was right. "Her name was Victoria... When I told him that I didn't like boys, he kind of grinned and said he had a friend with him that didn't like boys, either. Her name was definitely Victoria... she was just as creepy as he was. She asked what I was doing out and about, or something like that, and I said I was trying to find a nice girl... and then she gave me this look like... I don't know, it was fucking weird. She said something about she wasn't exactly a nice girl, but that we could have some fun." I remembered it now, maybe not crystal clear, but more like I had a slight buzz from liquor, which I think by that time, I had. If only I could remember what took place after I came to in Alice's care...
Speaking of Alice, she had kind of... growled?... when I had said what Victoria had said to me about having some fun, and Emmett gave a light chuckle, patting the top of her head. "Down, tiger cub," he said placatingly, and she shot him a murderous look. "That was before... well, you guys." He gestured between us, and my face tinted pink at the inclination. But then he looked at me, all joking clear of his dark blue eyes, so much like his younger sister's. "But her name is Victoria? Are you positive?"
I nodded emphatically, and Emmett nodded back, pulling a silver ink pen from the front pocket of his white dress shirt and making a note on the yellow tablet he held, one that had dozens of blue squiggly lines already jotted across it. "Okay. I went through these, as I had seen him pretty close up that first night, and though none of these guys have a long pony-tail, there's like five of them that could be him." He fingered his way beneath the first few folders, and lifted them away from the rest of the stack, passing them over to me. "I've called Edward and asked him to meet us here, but he is busy with some sort of endorsement for Alice..." Emmett shot Alice an annoyed look, to which Alice shrugged.
"I am a very busy woman," she reasoned calmly. "Things have been crazy this week, and someone has to look after the club." Emmett opened his mouth to reply, but Alice shook her head, saying she didn't want to hear it. "If he wants partner share in La Lune Bleu, he'll get used to the business aspect, as well as flirting with every fille that wanders through the door."
Emmett looked like he was mulling her words over as I flipped open the first file and surveyed the mug shot paper-clipped in the top left hand corner of the first page. The man in the picture was clean-shaven, square-jawed with a cleft chin, so I shook my head and closed the file, setting it off to the side. Not him...
The second file was a disappointment, as was the third. By the fourth file, I was resigned to the fact that it was going to be a long process for me, and I began to sigh as I flipped open the cover of the fourth file, and my sigh turned into a squeak as my air passage constricted shut. There, smirking up at me from the page, was the guy from the club. It was that very same self-satisfied smirk that gave him away, as his hair was cropped short, and a light brown as opposed to the blonde it had been when we met. "Emmett."
Emmett turned his attention from the thoughts in his head to me, and saw my expression as I gazed down at the open file in front of me. "James Alexander Chatham," Emmett read aloud, and Alice's head snapped around and she rushed over to look over my shoulder.
I was reading his physical description, and there, in the notes on his tattoos/body modifications, I saw it. "Victoria LaShay, tattooed on his right shoulder," I read quietly, and Alice sucked in a breath that made me turn around to look at her.
"I know that name, James Chatham... he looks nothing like... Hold on, I need to call Rosalie," she said distractedly, striding over to the bed where she had dropped her purse when we walked in, rummaging around in it until she pulled her Blackberry free of the contents.
"This is great!" Emmett sighed, writing down the names on that same piece of paper. "I'll go back to the station and run these names, see if I can get a last known address on them."
I looked at him just in time to see him stifle a yawn, and shook my head. "Why don't you just turn in what you've found out and let someone else take over so you can go home and get some sleep?" I asked him as Alice paced back and forth behind us, talking quietly on the phone to Rosalie.
"Fuck that, and fuck him. This is personal. He brought up my sister."
I nodded, understanding his determination. I couldn't feel anything other than that James Chatham would indeed woe the day that he crossed Emmett Cullen. Before I could say anything else, Alice rushed back over to us and said excitedly, "I went to school with him! Jamie the Flamer! He was a chubby kid with greasy hair, he looked nothing like he does now, but Em– he was obsessed with me! He wrote me love notes, made mixed CDs and stuck them in my locker, would watch my dance team practices– this is him, I know it."
Emmett frowned, his brow creasing in heavy thought. "He tried out for the football team in his freshman year, but got caught jacking off in the shower, so he quit when everyone started calling him a fag... I remember him, barely. That was my senior year."
"Yes! He was in mine and Rose's year," Alice agreed, nodding her head eagerly, making her spiky hair swish with the movement. "So, I know for a fact that is his real name."
"What about Victoria LaShay? Does that name ring a bell, too?"
Alice's face fell, and she shook her head. "No," she answered, disappointed. "I wish it did. But if we can find him, we can find her, surely."
"You got that right, little sister," Emmett agreed grimly, standing up and closing the folder, hiding James' smirk from my vision. "I'm going to work. You two stay out of sight as much as possible... and don't worry about C.J., Alice, he's in good hands."
Alice gave a bright smile. "I know that. Besides, when we move Bella in at Mom and Dad's, I plan on letting him stay there with them for about week, because school starts in the first week of August."
"There's two squad cars parked across the street from the hotel, and my buddy Greg is camping out in the room across the hall, if you need him. James won't get near you guys."
I looked at Alice, confused. "Alice... are you staying here, too?" There was only one bed in the suite.
She looked at me like I'd lost my mind. "Of course I am," she stated factually, a single nod confirming her words. "I can't exactly go home... I'm sure he knows where I live, too, now that I know who he is."
"You are probably the reason he was in La Lune Bleu that night, to begin with. He probably saw Bella, and got a woody, then you came to her rescue, and it doesn't take a physicist to figure out how you look at her... He may actually be targeting Bella to get to you, not the other way around." He sighed, shaking his head. "I have to go. Stay safe, both of you."
I looked at the door as it closed behind Emmett, at a loss for words as it meant Alice and I were alone– alone in a room that we were apparently sharing. I let Emmett's theory sink in. Could James be targeting me to get to Alice, whom it seems he has obsessed over for nearly ten years?
"Does it bother you that I am staying with you?"
A tiny, unsure voice broke into my thoughts as I stared at the closed door, and I let my gaze fall to Alice, who was standing there with her hands clasped in front of her, chewing her bottom lip nervously. I stared at her for a moment, until her eyes lifted up from her feet and looked into mine, and I saw the uncertainty and the fear there. She felt like I was rejecting her...
"No, Alice, not like that. I just– it's okay," I said, moving towards her to pull her against me. I hated that look in her eyes, it made my chest hurt.
"If I had known before hand, I would have gotten two beds," she said quietly, picking up on my unsaid concern.
I wanted to share a bed with Alice, I did. Who in their right mind wouldn't? But it's only been a week, and I wasn't sure I could trust myself with her... I was strongly attracted to her, more attracted to her than I had ever been attracted to anyone. I would lie awake at night tormenting myself into cold showers, thinking what if.
"I'll take the couch," I replied just as quietly, and she shook her head.
"I got this room for you, so I am not kicking you out of the bed. You have to work tomorrow, so you need your rest."
"Alice, come on. You know that I am not going to let you take the couch," I laughed, shaking my head at the silly girl standing before me. "I've told you: my father raised a gentleman."
She went quiet and bit her lip, looking away from me for a second, then back. "Well, it is a king-sized bed... we could share."
I laughed, pulling away from her and falling into the seat at the table I had only vacated minutes before. "Alice, I don't know about your self-control, but mine would be killing me."
Alice popped her eyebrows suggestively. "What, can't handle laying next to me, in minimal clothing, alone in the dark?" she teased me, making my face flush with heat.
I swallowed the saliva that pooled in my mouth at the thought. "I can... I just don't want to... Alice, I am extremely attracted to you. It's bad enough to deal with my body when we kiss and it gets... heated."
"Psh, like I don't have to deal with my own issues with your sexy ass," she scoffed, rolling her eyes and crossing her arms over her chest. "We're adults; we can manage sleeping in the same bed without ravishing each other, I'm sure."
I sighed. This was another of those times where Alice was going to get her way. But I couldn't complain to much, because at least she wasn't on the couch. "Fine," I relented, and she grinned a grin that made me a little apprehensive. "But don't you have to go after clothes, or something?"
"True," she sighed, glancing out of the window at the late afternoon sky. "Do you want to come, or do you want to get settled in?"
I shrugged. "I need to shower, and hop in some comfortable clothes. I'll probably play some guitar, and chill 'til you get back."
She nodded, her eyes sliding over to Love's case. "Okay, well, I shouldn't be long. Do you want something to eat while I'm out?"
I shook my head. "Nah, you've done enough for me... thank you, by the way, for everything."
"You keep on thanking me, and I'm going to beat you up," she threatened, pointing a finger at me as she hoisted the strap of her purse onto her shoulder.
I rolled my eyes. "As if. Get out of here, be careful."
She gave me a soft kiss. "I'm going to get one of Emmett's boys to follow me, so don't worry. I'll be fine."
"'Kay," I whispered, kissing her one more time before letting her leave the room.
I looked around the room, my eyes resting on the bed. "Well, Bella, this ought to be an interesting night tonight," I said to myself, shaking my head as I pulled my suitcase out.
I gave a glance back at the bed as I shut the bathroom door a minute later. "An interesting night, indeed."
A/N: Do you think they're gonna get it on? :P Leave some love, I know y'all have it!