Phew, well at least Bella's home at last, but as you can imagine, this story has loads more chapters to go till the end, so please bear with me.

I know I don't often use the disclaimer but I'm only playing with Ms Meyer's characters and the plot line and mistakes are mine.

Please R&R, this poorly writer has been pretty much house bound with labrynthitis for the last three weeks so it would be nice to know there are actual people outside of this house! Just knowing there are people reading and getting involved in this story and its characters would really make me smile.

Anyway, without further ado...

o0o0o0o0o

Charlie sat down slowly, thoughtfully, on one of the two chairs nestled round the table of his small kitchen. He'd just come off the phone with the guys at Forks PD and began toying with the paper napkin holder at the centre of the table as he processed the conversation.

Earlier in the day Alice had helped get Bella up the stairs and the two had obviously talked for a long while, but she'd left at the same time as Esme. Good job too, Charlie thought as his hands moved idly from the napkins to the cruet set. He was having problems being nice to the girl even though, heart of hearts he knew he was being unfair and that she was not to blame.

Waylon had just given him more food for thought, thanks to his recent update on the meeting with the tracker Jacob Black, and he knew that 'Riley' had seen Bella at some point and that his abducting her had not been a random act, but somehow…

…somehow he felt that Alice should have known and that she should never have gone off with that Whitlock kid.

He sighed and looked down at the pale blue napkin that now lay shredded on the table in front of him knowing that these kind of thoughts of what happened at the prom were not really helpful.

Sitting opposite him, Carlisle waited patiently for his friend to enlarge on the one-sided conversation he'd just heard but as he could see Charlie was deep in thought he got up and helped himself to a cup of coffee. He filled both of their mugs up at the same time before returning the jug to the warming plate and sitting back down. Clasping his hands round his drink he re-commenced his silent vigil.

Acknowledging his friend's action with a grunt Charlie thanked him with his eyes for so much more than the steaming brew now in front of him. He thanked him for once again taking on the support role in this current tragedy and for the unexpected but welcome sentry duty he and his family had decided to provide.

The Cullen's had stepped up to the plate, again.

For him and for Bella.

Just like they had when Renee had died and once again their instinctive support had again blown him away and humbled him at the same time. How could he ever begin to thank them? After all, it had not been long after Alice and Esme had left that afternoon that Carlisle had pitched up like a well-choreographed dance to replace them.

Like he figured, a version of grown up baby sitting duty. Just that there was no sense of duty, only love and concern.

"So, what did Waylon have to say?" Carlisle eventually asked as he watched Charlie absentmindedly play with the shredded paper mess he'd made, obviously still thinking about the phone call.

"Hmmm? Oh he reckons Jacob is onto something. He said that the tracker thinks Riley had targeted Bella specifically."

Carlisle furrowed his brows with concern. "Really?" he questioned slowly, trying to keep his cool as his knuckles whitened round his mug.

"Yeah. Seems she matched a pattern. Slightly shy and socially awkward, bit of a loner, conservative dresser type that on the night in question blossomed from an ugly duckling… well you get the idea. He also said that the kid reckons that his attacks were not random – once he'd set his sights he'd rock up to wherever his target was headed, show them lots of attention and win them over before taking off with them to do whatever he did to each of them. Waylon added that the bastard's gaining in confidence and taking greater and greater chances. But Bella's injuries were far more… brutal… at an intimate level than anything before. Most of his victims were sexually abused, but not anally, and none were beaten as badly."

"Really?!" Carlisle added pushing himself back against the faux leather seat pad at the back of his chair and caressing the table before standing up to begin pacing.

"And there's more." Charlie added sadly. "He also reckons that Jacob was holding something back. A thought that even he didn't want to voice."

"?"

"He thinks Jacob believes Riley knows or knew Bella from the past."

"So what you're saying is that Bella could be the key…"

"Yeah, and this Riley guy is likely to come back and have another go…"

o0o0o0o0o

"Can I come in?" Alice asked timidly as she knocked on her brother's door.

"Hey, Ali, how's tricks?" came the warm reply as she entered his room. Edward looked up from the college work he'd been attempting to study and frowned as he took in her agitated state.

"S'up, Sis?" he asked with a frown as she flopped down on the edge of his huge bed with a sigh and began nervously picking at invisible threads on the soft orange comforter.

"What really happened? At the warehouse, I mean. Emmett talks to you about… stuff. What did he tell you? Please… I have to know." She pleaded, raising her guilt laden eyes to his.

"What's this really all about?"

"I went to Bella's house to welcome her home and she looked so so…broken. Physically I mean and mentally, well let's not even go there. I felt so guilty! It's all my fault!" She added softly as she wrung her hands together desperately in her lap.

"Hey, now!" Edward said as he scooted over and quickly sat down beside her, grabbing her hands between his own before they did any damage.

"How Emmett found her and what happened on the way to the hospital are irrelevant. They got her to safety, that's all that matters. But you are not to blame.

"At all."

"I know Mom is mad right now, but not in the way you think. She's more upset at you sneaking off with Jasper without telling her where you were really going. She knows how much Jasper and you mean to each other and she's just finding it a big deal that you're no longer… her… innocent little girl. If Bella hadn't been attacked she'd still be cross with you for lying to her… and you know she would have found out. You betrayed her trust in you, it just seems worse because of what happened to Bella. Talk to her, please?"

Alice looked up at her brother and nodded. "Thank you." She added.

"How was she?" Edward asked, looking intensely into her still teary eyes.

"Oh Edward. Part of me is glad that she can't remember anything because then it can't hurt her! But part of me… part of me wants it all to come back so that she can remember all the good times we've had and how beautiful she looked before the prom…"

"I know what you mean." Edward added. "I think we all have the same mixed feelings about her memory loss. But she needs to remember otherwise she'll never really come to terms with Renee's death and she'll spend her life wondering what other significant things she's forgotten."

"Like that God-awful corsage Newton gave her?"

"Precisely!" Edward snorted with a chuckle before sobering slightly "We need to be there for her when she does remember though. Dad says it won't be pretty and she'll need all of us to support her when her memory does come back."

Alice nodded and took a deep breath before looking into her brother's eyes. "You're right, of course… but first I need to go speak to Mom and apologise for breaking her trust. Then after that I need to stop thinking about myself and be strong for Bella."

Edward nodded "Yeah, I think you and Mom need to clear the air." He added, patting her hand. "But don't feel you have to support Bella on your own. We're all here to help with that, besides, if you stop thinking about yourself, you won't be you." He continued with a smirk.

"Smartass!" Alice giggled.

"Thatta girl. You need to be you and be your usual meddlesome, slightly selfish, always happy, pixie self."

"Meddlesome?! Selfish?!"

"Yeah! How many times have you interfered in my life? Or that of my wardrobe… and gone on and on about how it will impact on you if I don't wear the outfit you've chosen…"

Alice chuckled and grabbed her brother into a big hug. "Thank you. One day you'll make someone very happy." To herself she substituted 'Bella' for 'someone'.

Edward returned her hug, silently hoping that one day it would be Bella who'd be his someone.

o0o0o0o0o

"Chief? Jacob Black here. Is it ok to talk?"

Charlie nodded and Carlisle gave him a questioning look. "Yeah, Bel's upstairs getting ready for bed. We're good. I've got Carlisle Cullen here so I'm going to put this on speaker, k?"

"Sure, go ahead. I won't beat around the bush, Charlie, I think we need to put surveillance on your house. I think Bella's in danger."

"Yeah, guessed you say that. Waylon seemed to think there was more to Bella's attack than all the others."

"Do you really think he knew her from before at some point?" Carlisle added.

"It's a distinct possibility. Riley seems to have selected the other girls based on how they acted and what they looked like, knowing that they would be nervous about standing out by wearing something a bit more glamorous than the norm. It looks like he played up to their insecurities every time, and going back over the cases, the Seattle boys realised that I was on to something… but, but with Bella… there's more. The way he abused her was far more personal, as if he had a grudge against her. As if her rough treatment was payback."

Charlie tightened his grip on his coffee cup and Carlisle gripped his shoulder to steady both of them.

"Are you also saying that if the potential victims didn't transform the way he expected them to that perhaps he didn't always attack?"

"Fuck! I hadn't even thought of that!" Jacob added with a snort. "But I do believe that the way he behaved with Bella not his normal MO and that it was most definitely personal. Can you arrange to have people watch your house?"

"I'll see what I can do." Charlie said quietly before adding a quick thanks and ending the call.

Charlie dropped his head down on the table with a soft thud as he whistled out a soft "shit!"

"It'll be OK, Charlie. There'll be plenty of volunteers. Emmett and Edward would help if I asked them, probably Jasper too." Carlisle said, scratching his jaw as he thought out loud. The five of us could take it in shifts."

"Doesn't Edward need to get back to school?"

"No, he's arranged to take his exam here in Forks and take the rest of the term off."

"Won't that affect his grades?"

"No, I've spoken to his professor and although he has one piece of work to hand in, he's so far ahead of the rest of the class Dr Banner has no major concerns."

"Well. That's good." Added Charlie stoically.

"Yeah. It's as if he read our minds and knew he needed to stay."

At that moment, Charlie heard a shriek and after giving Carlisle a scared look rushed upstairs to find Bella flailing about in her bed, screaming, obviously in the middle of a nightmare.

"Shit! Fuck, Carlisle! What do I do?!" he whispered loudly as he stood frozen in the doorway, powerless to move in case he startled her.

"Well normally you let the sleeper work through their nightmare as often they don't realise they've had one when they wake up, but in this case…" came the quiet reply.

"Right." Said Charlie with a nod, realising what his best friend was not saying as he rushed over and sat on the bed, pulling a very violent Bella into his arms.

"Shhh, S'ok Bels. I'm here." He began stroking her hair as she collapsed into him.

"Da Dad? Who's Riley?" he eventually heard her whisper through her sobs.

o0o0o0o0o

Edward gave up pretending to study the nerves, tendons and muscles that make up the human hand and closed his text book with a sigh.

Putting broken hands back together was a time consuming and highly complex business, especially if the damage was severe, but in the end it involved tried and tested procedures that led to reasonably predictable outcomes. Unlike the brain.

And specifically, Bella's brain.

Closing his eyes he knitted his brows. What if his Angel never remembered? What if she spent the rest of her life trying to piece back the broken fragments of the last three years? What if she couldn't return to being the girl he was fairly certain he loved?

Could he love her anyway a little voice inside his head questioned.

He closed his eyes angrily. Of course he could!

Of course he would!

Are you so sure? It whispered again, mocking him.

Look here! He growled out loudly as he rolled his eyes. Wasn't talking to yourself the first sign of madness?! He wondered as he chuckled mirthlessly, before returning to his self-castigation.

She's a good person, a beautiful and caring person and, despite recent events, innocent in so many ways, yet grown up and other worldly in so many others. A complete paradox. He pointed out to himself.

She forces me to look at the world from a different angle - her snarky, brilliant brain testing even as she rolls her eyes. He added, shaking his head and almost smirking that he was having a two way argument with his subconscious mind.

Lying back in his chair and looking up at the ceiling, he ignored the subtle jibes that were still going on in his head as he looked as all the reasons why he'd slowly, but inexorably, fallen for her.

He remembered that she took no prisoners, and over the years whenever Alice had told him about the myriad subtle ways she'd put down the vacuous idiots in her class he'd silently punched the air and whooped with joy. Even as he'd slapped on a superior yet amused mask.

He remembered her fleeting attempts when she was 11 to master yoga and ballet in order to impress the cheerleading team and how she'd broken her leg doing so. Even when healed, she'd never made the team.

He remembered the wonderful cookies she baked for him and Emmett which been given as a thank you the next summer for the 'help' they'd all given her to build a den. The same wonky wooden structure that had fallen down by Thanksgiving.

He remembered how fragile she looked at her Mother's graveside as she held her Dad's hand. How she took a deep breath and seemed to straighten her spine as she threw a single rose onto the wooden lid as the coffin was lowered into the ground.

He remembered two years ago when she tentatively started to venture out of the cocoon she'd wrapped herself in to protect her heart and her sanity. Her first Bambi-like steps into the real world again.

He remembered hearing her snort with muffled laughter on the many sleepovers she'd had since then as he lay in bed wondering what on earth his kid sister and her best friend were up to, his heart soaring at the joyful sounds his Angel had been making on the other side of the wall.

He remembered the shock at seeing her perfect little body when they'd all gone swimming in the lake last summer and how he'd had to hide his reaction to the tiny white 2-piece costume that taunted him as it barely hid her changing shape.

He remembered how later that night when they'd all flopped down in the cinema room she'd been snuggled up on the bean bag next to his own. Her perfume softly beckoning, calling him… and the innocent yet puzzled smile that danced over her lips when she turned to silently question him as he played with the ends of her hair.

Yeah, he loved her, was in love with her. He always had been.

Always would be.

Ok, then go her, but don't hurt her the voice inside his head softly warned, obviously pleased at he finished his concluding statement.

Looking over at the flowers which he'd inexplicably swapped out that morning and acting on impulse, he stood up and grabbed them before heading down the stairs and out the door. If she couldn't remember her previous life then he'd make damn certain he'd fill the gaps with colour and beauty until she did. His lips set, his mind determined, he pressed the fob in his hand and opened the door to his silver Volvo before sliding behind the wheel and speeding off towards the Swan residence. The flowers, wedged into the cup holder of the centre console, danced with excitement at every twist and turn, their silent ballet urging him forward.

He would be there for his Angel, in any way she would have him, he silently promised as he drove as fast as he could to her house.

o0o0o0o0o

Alice took a deep breath before entering the kitchen.

Knowing that her mother was preparing dinner made her both nervous (after all she'd be wielding a knife and much as she'd only ever seen her wave it round for emphasis, there was always a first time…) and relieved as she wouldn't have to look her in the eye for most of the conversation she was about to start.

"Mom? You got a minute?" she asked anxiously as she looked at the back of Esme's head before heading to the kitchen table where she quickly sat down.

"Of course, Alice, mind if I continue to make dinner?" her mother's back answered, almost too calmly.

Alice could hear the sounds of chopping, which seemed measured yet somehow softly angry.

Swallowing hard and wringing her hands together on the warm wooden surface, she began. "Mom. Look… I'm really sorry. Sorry for letting Bella down. For going off with Jasper. But most of all for lying to you."

"Mhmm." Came the tight reply and the sound of ardent stirring as something began to sizzle in the skillet.

"I know what I did was wrong and that I should have told you first, but how would you have reacted if I'd told you I was going off with Jasper so that I could sleep with him? You'd have grounded me, Mom and he's so important to me…"

Esme closed her eyes then took a deep breath before turning the heat off under the pan, the noise from which immediately began to fade.

"How old are you, Mary Alice?" she asked as she turned round and headed over, sitting down opposite her daughter and giving her an assessing stare.

"17 and a half."

"And what is the legal age for having sex in this state?" She asked, cocking her head slightly to one side and raising an eyebrow.

"16?"

"Yes. Six-teen. Which means I've been expecting you to bring up this topic with me for nearly two years."

Alice looked confused as Esme began to smile softly even as she reached across the table and lightly touched the back of her daughter's hand in a gentle and reassuring caress.

"I think we both know that most teenagers start experimenting, for the want of a better word, from tenth or even ninth grade and I'm not that much into double standards that I didn't know that one of your brothers was buying condoms from just before he'd hit his Senior year. Am I that much of an island that you couldn't have talked to me how you've been feeling? About taking the next step?"

Alice looked shocked. One of her brothers had been buying condoms… eeewwww!

"Baby, I'd be more worried if you weren't thinking about the physical side of your relationship with Jasper, after all you seem so wrapped up in him and he in you. Having sex with him was only ever a matter of time. What hurts though is that you felt you had to sneak around behind my back and lie to me about where you were going that night. You told me you were going back to Bella's and clearly that wasn't what you had planned. Current situation aside, what if I'd needed to get hold of you? What if, God forbid, you'd been in an accident? Or… Grampy had had a fatal heart attack this time? I'm not your jailer but I do expect you to be where you say you're going to be."

Alice hung her head as tears welled up again.

Esme continued softly, almost to herself "The prom is so clichéd and I suppose I should have anticipated it really…"

"Mom, I'm so sorry…" Alice started, but was interrupted

"Please, next time you decide to do something that will have an effect on the rest of your life, just talk to me, ok?"

Alice nodded.

"Shh, Baby." Esme said as she patted the back of her hand again. "I don't want any details, but he did treat you right, didn't he?"

"Yeah. He was as nervous as I was. It was his first time too." She smiled as she replayed parts of the night in her mind. "Yeah, Mom. He treated me right." She added with a dreamy smile in her eye that tugged at the edges of her lips.

Esme nodded. "Just promise me you won't ever lie to me again, please? I need to know that you're safe... when you're a parent... you'll understand." She added softly as she stood up and ran her hands down the front of the plain, dark blue butcher's apron she was wearing.

"Now, Mary Alice. Is there anything else you want to come clean about, young lady?" She asked as she gave her daughter a penetrating look and a knowing smile, trying to bring levity to their conversation.

"Well, there was the time I wrote on the walls in Kindergarten and blamed it on the new girl Ashley Green, and then the time when I ate all the chocolate brownies and said I'd dropped them in the yard and that a huge wolf ate them…"

Esme smiled "Have I told you how much I love you?" She said as Alice stood and moved round the table, into her Mom's now open her arms.

"Not in the last week or so." Alice replied as she slipped into her mother's embrace. Everything was alright in her world again as she inhaled her mother's comforting perfume. All she needed now was to put her best friend back together and she knew where she had to start.

"Mom? Will you be Bella's Mom too?" she whispered softly.

"I'd be honoured to stand in for Renee." Esme said, stroking her daughter's hair. "If she'll let me."

o0o0o0o0o

More on Monday, enjoy your weekend. I'll be lying on a coach telling everyone to keep the noise down :-(

Mwah

xxx