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Chapter 14: Carlisle's pov

3 weeks, 4 days, 7 hours, 33 minutes, 14 seconds.

I watched the second hand tick by counting towards another minute since I'd last seen Alice.

We had yet to hear anymore from Jasper and as the days passed I watched helplessly as everyone's hope faded.

Even Emmett and Jacob, who had thrown themselves into planning defences in case the Volturi came for us, seemed to have been affected by the blanket of despair that had fallen over our house.

Each day followed the same monotonous cycle and as much as I loved my family I found it difficult spending time with them when they kept looking to me for reassurance.

I had always believed our family could weather any storm yet everyone was trying to deal with this on their own and it seemed to be dividing us more.

Bella had thrown herself into collage and all her free time was spent with Renesmee, Edward was following Bella around like a shadow looking more and more desperate as he tried to figure out what was going on inside her head.

Emmett was becoming very frustrated at being stuck at home and I was worried he would end up following Jasper and just taking off. At the moment Rosalie seemed to be keeping him here.

As usual Rosalie kept everything hidden behind her mask, but even her cool demeanour was cracking as the days past with no word.

Esme amazed me with her strength as she held it together for the family and me, although she still broke down occasionally when we were alone.

Jacob seemed unsure what to do with himself, he was feeling guilty for some reason and was running himself into the ground patrolling, whenever I tried to talk to him he refused to tell me what was bothering him.

Renesmee was another amazing pillar of strength for the family. Her belief in Jasper's last words to us was stronger even than mine.

Anytime someone was feeling particularly low she'd wander over and replay his words to them.

"I'll bring her home. I promise."

It seemed we couldn't find anything to talk about when we were together. Whenever we did try to talk about something else Alice and Jasper's absence seemed to hang over us like an ominous rain cloud refusing to be ignored. Yet talking about it only made everyone more upset.

Which is why I found myself, once more, hiding up in my office.

My family needed me to stay strong for them right now and I couldn't be.

I missed them, I wanted them back. It was worse than when they'd left before because this time there was a niggling fear that I would never get my daughter back.

The pen I had been writing with shattered as my hand closed tightly around it.

This is why I spent so many hours hidden up here alone, I couldn't let my family see me break down, but sometimes I needed to.

I understood Jasper's concerns, his first loyalty was Alice and if she didn't want to come home he shouldn't force her.

But I wanted them home, I needed to know they were safe.

My eyes wandered over the wall in my office covered in the pictures of my life before coming back to my desk where our family photo stood.

Alice was beaming up at me from the photo Jasper smiling softly, though his eyes were on Alice rather than the camera.

My eyes burned.

I wanted them home, I wanted my little girl back.

I broke away from the photo looking desperately around my office for anything to take my mind off things.

Instead they fell to the large portrait of me in Volterra, not the best thing to distract myself.

I growled loudly at Aro's likeness.

Very little could make me angry but Aro's obsession with claiming Alice was defiantly at the top of the list of things that could.

Having had enough of wallowing. I stood leaving my office deciding I'd had enough wasting time I could be spending with the rest of my family.

Bella's loud gasp of surprise caught my attention as I reached the top of the stairs.

"Alice!" she squealed.

I froze, had she just said?

I couldn't quite bring myself to hope.

A babble of noise confused me. In my dazed state of mind I couldn't quite distinguish what was being said.

My body seemed to be mocking me as it moved torturously slowly down the stairs.

Everyone was gathered in the living room, as I moved further in Emmett shifted giving me a clear view of spiky black hair.

Golden eyes locked with mine and I blinked hard several times wondering whether I was hallucinating.

"Hi daddy." she whispered.

I blinked again.

"Alice." I chocked out still unable to believe she was here before me.

Walking towards me slowly she wrapped her arms around my waist, burying her head in my chest, my arms came up to hold her close.

"You're back."

She pulled back grinning up at me "I told you, I'll always find my way home."

She looked down and shuffled her feet nervously.

"I'm sorry I was so mean." she whispered.

I hugged her tighter shaking my head "It wasn't you." I told her.

I let her go with a smile allowing Esme to take my place and moved towards Jasper.

"Thank you." I whispered my voice raw with emotion.

He looked a little alarmed and I felt a calm feeling drop over me, soothing the mix of emotions I couldn't decipher.

"I wasn't sure it would work." he admitted quietly.

"What made her remember?" I asked curiously.

Bella's head perked up and she moved closer to listen.

Jasper smiled softly "Philadelphia, which was a surprise cause it looks nothing like it did when we first met." he sighed and shook his head "It was my last chance." his voice shook a little "If that hadn't worked I don't know what I'd have done."

I squeezed his shoulder "It did though." I reminded him my eyes going back to Alice who was now, rather surprisingly, receiving a hug from Jacob.

"This isn't going to be the end though is it." Bella said sadly "I mean Aro's not going to give up is he."

Jasper shook his head a dark look coming over his face "And neither am I." he growled quietly, I barely caught it.

"Jasper." I warned "She's home safe, it's not worth taking unnecessary risks to get revenge."

He sighed and didn't respond, instead he changed the subject.

"I'm surprised he hadn't come here yet, he wouldn't come after Alice because she'd see. After we escaped I'd have expected some sort of retaliation."

I thought about that for a second, we had thought that too, that's why Emmett and Jacob had been planning defences.

"He obviously knew we weren't motivation for Alice. There was no point risking coming after us if it didn't help his overall goal."

Jasper's jaw tensed "Which means he's going to be coming now."

His eyes flickered to Alice who was currently half hidden in Emmett's embrace.

"This may have all been for nothing." he growled lowly.

Bella shook her head "No, we have the advantage now. We know they're coming."

"But we still don't know how he changed her memories." Jasper scowled angrily "What if he does it to all of us this time, makes us all forget."

Bella frowned "Whatever it was it was a mental attack right, so I should be able to shield against it."

"We can but hope." Jasper muttered before moving off towards Alice.

Bella glanced at me and I tried to smile reassuringly "He's just worried, none of us want to go through that again."

"Exactly why it's at least worth a try."

I knew Bella wasn't exactly looking for my permission but I nodded my consent anyway.

I was just wondering how long a respite we'd get before Aro made his move when Alice's eyes suddenly glazed over.

I sighed heavily, I should know better than to tempt fate.

Aro's pov

I was grinding my teeth again, something I had been doing a lot in the past 3 weeks after Demetri had returned empty handed to tell me Alice and Jasper had managed to escape him again.

He was very lucky to still be alive! And now I was stuck, Alice would see any plan I devised to get her and the distance meant she could easily avoid capture.

It had taken me years to carefully plot a way around her visions before, using what I had careful gathered from Edward during our meetings to shield my plans from her it required her to be with either a half-breed or werewolf whom provided blind spots and even then it couldn't be rushed. All decisions had to be made slowly and precisely.

I had time, that wasn't really the issue, my main concern was Alice remembering her old life.

I wasn't sure what would happen if she did. I growled lowly and the few members of the guard gathered winced in preparation for the unpredictable tempest of anger I had been unleashing upon them for the past few weeks.

I clenched my teeth trying, for once, to keep it under control.

"Bring Chloe here." I demanded to the room at large knowing someone would follow my order.

I needed some answers.

Minutes later the doors opened and a thickset curly blonde female vampire entered, her large red eyes dominating her face.

"What went wrong?" I growled.

"Nothing." she replied in a slow voice "I did as you asked and implanted the false memories in Alice's mind, but I can't erase memories Aro I simply repress them. I warned you, with the right trigger she could remember everything."

I mulled that over "She didn't remember."

Chloe smiled "I'm good at what I do."

"Not good enough." I hissed angrily.

She scowled a little "When I agreed for you to change me I warned you then my ability had limitations, I can't just undo the bond between a mated pair. Even Chelsea can't do that. It's too strong to destroy."

My head perked up "But if we got rid of her mate and you replanted the memories, would that work?"

She sighed a little annoyed and my eyes narrowed, when she had done my bidding and Alice was in my control I'd have to remind Chloe of her place.

"Something else could trigger recall."

"Not her family." Demetri spoke up nervously "All of them were present when I went to retrieve her and she didn't recognise any of them."

I nodded thoughtfully wishing I hadn't listened to Caius and just had Jasper killed the first chance I got.

"Leave us." Caius suddenly demanded.

The guard hastily retreated from the room.

"Aro this has gone too far." he said turning to face me.

I looked at him incredulously "To have the power of foresight in our control…" I began.

He held up his hand to cut me off.

"I've heard your arguments many times before and yes I agree it would be a great help to us, but your plan has failed, and I fear where this path may lead."

I kept my calm, it was unlike Caius to be so rational, and I knew exactly how to persuade him to my way of thinking.

"With Jasper dead and Alice in our control Carlisle and his coven will be virtually defenceless against us. We can reap our revenge on them swiftly." I smiled as I saw the idea take hold of Caius, like a tempting treat I was dangling before him I went on saying the words I knew he wouldn't resist.

"Do you think any of them will be willing to attack if they see their precious psychic on our side? She has more than one use Caius.

Chloe's ability worked, Alice believed she was part of the guard and with Jasper dead she will be ours."

I felt Marcus shift beside me, the only indicator he had been listening to our exchange.

"You plan to kill her mate?" he asked a slight frown marring his usual blank face.

I knew this was a delicate subject with Marcus so chose my words carefully.

"It is for the greater good brother. Jasper will seek his revenge one day and we cannot risk that, besides think of how many people we can help with Alice's gift."

I tried not to let my mind run away with me as I remembered how it had felt to see into the future.

We truly would be gods!

Marcus nodded once, hid face smoothed out as he seemed to loose interest in the conversation again.

"You still need to figure out how to catch her." Caius reminded me.

I smiled darkly as I thought about it, a trap was the only way and all good traps needed bait.

"I think it's time we visited our old friend Carlisle. Don't you."

Caius's smile matched mine as I rose to ensemble the guard.

Alice would be mine.

A.N. So it was a vampire. Yes it's a bit lame but the original idea for this story came to me after watching 'Push' with the idea of someone being able to implant false memories and it just sort of grew from there.

Told you I'd tell you how it happened eventually!