When we got back to the house, we called Jacob's home phone. Alice couldn't see anything at Jacob's home, so she knew he had to be home. "Black residence," he answered the phone.
Alice and I were on speaker phone. "Hey, Jake," Alice squealed happily into the phone.
It sounded like he dropped the phone and a long period of silence passed before he asked, "Alice?" And then frantically he asked, "Is Bella with you?" I was hopeful that this meant he and the rest of the tribe knew what had happened to me.
"I'm here, Jake," I assured him.
He let out a sigh before stating, "When I heard that Bella went missing, I assumed that the vampires had finally gotten to you." He sounded angry and bitter. Considering our last encounter, it shouldn't have been a surprise that he was cross. It was obvious he wished to keep me human and all his own, but I had different plans, and he knew it.
"How's Charlie doing?" I asked changing the topic.
Instead of answering me, he lectured me, "Do you understand what you two have put him through? You left him completely alone and without any answers. How would you have liked it if he had done that to you? No, don't answer that. You two only thought of yourselves." I had to wonder when he suddenly grew up.
"Cut the chatter," Alice said firmly. It worked and he shut up. "We just wanted to know how Charlie's doing, and all you had to say was that he's torn up or something like that."
"Thankfully for the both of you, he's got my dad and Sue Clearwater to comfort him."
"Sue Clearwater, as in Seth and Leah Clearwater's mother?" I asked remembering the name. Harry Clearwater had been one of Charlie's good friends up until the heart attack he had after seeing Leah transform into a werewolf the first time. Charlie had been left out of the loop about the circumstances behind Harry's heart attack.
"Yeah, the same one."
"This is good. Maybe they can tell Charlie about vampires and werewolves," Alice suggested happily. "Then when he knows and Bella can hold in her cravings, we can come visit."
"Woah, no way. We're not telling Charlie about this. Too many people already know. Besides, none of the Cullens can ever step foot back in the area again. All of you have now twice broken the treaty."
"Jacob, please," I begged him. "We just want to see Charlie once and explain everything to him. We owe him that much."
"And what about your mother?"
"She has Phil. Not to mention the fact that we agree that Charlie would handle this better than Renee would."
There was a long pause of silence on the other end of the phone before we heard Jacob's muffled voice explaining to Billy everything he had discussed with us. Then, instead of Jacob answering us, Billy took the phone. "Girls?"
"Yes," Alice answered for both of us.
"Give me some time to explain things to Charlie. And then we'll discuss the prospect of you coming to visit him." I let out a breath even though I didn't need to. At least something was working out right now.
"Thanks, Billy," I said before wrapping up the call.
The entire household, minus Tanya and Edward, were waiting for us in the living room. I knew they heard our entire conversation. I was afraid they would be opposed to Charlie knowing, but Carlisle put my mind to rest by stating, "We wanted to let the both of you know that we are in support of letting you visit Charlie when you're ready to. I can't imagine how difficult it has been for him to lose both of his daughters, and, considering how he close he is to the werewolves, he deserves to know what's happening around him." For the second time today I let out a sigh of relief. At least something was going right in my life right now besides my reunion with Alice.
"Since everyone is here," Kate started. "I think now would be a good time to start training Bella on how to extend her shield onto others. Who wants to help?"
Rosalie made a face before announcing, "I don't care to get shocked today." She left with Emmett following behind reluctantly. He just shrugged his shoulders in apology before leaving.
Esme and Carlisle both apologized stating they had other tasks to work on, as did Carmen and Eleazer. Irina and Laurant asked if they could help out later when more people were needed, which left only Kate, Garrett, Alice, and Jasper.
Garrett volunteered first to be the test subject. "He seems to like being shocked," Kate teased him.
"I am a risk taker, and I wanted to see what you had," he replied back to her.
I must have had a confused look on my face because Kate gave a light laugh before explaining, "When Garrett decided to stay and try our way of life, my sisters told him about how I could shock him so hard that I could bring him to his knees. Being the dare devil he is, he insisted I bring him to his knees, and that's just what I did."
"And from that day I knew I had to make her my wife," Garrett said with such sentiment it made my dead heart ache for the same thing. Where was the man who was willing to be brought to his knees for me? Instead I fell in love with Edward, who would have nothing to do with me.
So Kate asked me to attempt to throw my shield onto Garrett, whom she shocked with a very low voltage. "Don't worry, it should just feel like a tingle to him," Kate promised when I stated how worried I would be about Garrett getting hurt. But, even after a couple of hours and no results, Garrett needed a break.
"Why don't you let me step in for a second," Alice suggested. "It might help if you were shocking someone Bella really cares about."
Jasper's cheeks puffed out for a second before he stepped up and authoritatively stated, "I'll be the next one. Alice, I won't allow you to help until Bella's more accomplished."
"Jasper, I don't care," Alice started to protest, but we could all see that Jasper would not back down. Under Alice's breath she muttered, "Overprotective fool," but it did nothing to deter Jasper.
Several hours later I had only managed to cover Jasper a few times with my shield for only seconds at a time before it snapped back onto me. And all I felt was defeat and the energy draining out of me. Still I persisted on trying again and again until I couldn't handle it anymore. "I don't feel so good," I said before I dropped to the floor.
"Bella!" Alice shouted in worry as she ran to my side.
The noise brought Carlisle and Esme downstairs in a hurry. "What happened?" Esme asked in concern for my well-being.
Jasper picked me up and laid me on the couch. My limbs were so tired I could barely move them. I felt so tired, but I knew I couldn't sleep anymore since I am a vampire. My mind was in a panic as everyone gathered around me. "She over exerted herself," Carlisle explained as he examined me. "Some rest will allow her to gain back her energy. Starting tomorrow, Bella shouldn't be training for so long." He had such an air of authority I knew I shouldn't argue with him, not that I could at that moment.
Alice insisted on moving me upstairs to her bedroom, and I laid down on the bed with her next to me. Jasper left us alone, Alice laid next to me like we used to do when we shared a bed in Charlie's house. I was not sure how long we laid there before Alice giggled, "Do you remember the time that Renee went through that prose phase and we had to all write poetry and share it with each other?"
I had to search back through my fuzzy human memories. Alice told me once over the phone that if you went through your human memories after changing the easier it was to remember them. Considering how fuzzy they were, I can easily image it would be easy to forget them if I didn't dwell over them.
"I think I remember your first written poem being something along the lines of how much you hated her idea," I said once I remembered that particular memory. "And Renee got so angry at you that she insisted you write another poem."
"And when I wrote another poem about the same thing she banned me from writing my own poems." She giggled again and held my hand. "That was one of the few times I didn't go along with her silly plans."
"I never told you this," I said in all seriousness. "But sometimes I wished I was more…carefree and spontaneous like you."
Alice turned towards me and said in all seriousness, "Renee and I always needed your practicality to keep us grounded. You kind of balanced us all out. Besides, I finally did learn to be more practical when I ran away with Jasper. I'm sure you don't believe me, but some day you will."
The most logical part of my mind wanted to doubt her. She believed so stubbornly that someday Edward and I would be together, but everything that had happened since prom promised we would never be what I had hoped for us to be. That was back when I was being stupid and spontaneous.
"You were spontaneous enough to trust me when I gave you those silly instructions in Phoenix, and we didn't give you time to think about turning into a vampire."
"I had already made that decision beforehand."
"True, but you probably didn't expect it right then and in that way." I didn't know how to respond to that, so we sat in silence for another several minutes before she spoke again, "Bella, you have to promise me that you'll be more spontaneous where Edward is concerned. The both of you are too stuck in your ways and for the rest of your lives you'll never give each other a chance. The least you two could do is learn to get along."
"It's not that easy. Edward…"
"You don't know exactly what Edward is going through. If you did, you'd stop insulting him," she snapped at me effectively silencing me. She seemed to almost instantly calm down as she explained, "If you two can't get along, Jasper and I will have to leave with you, and I can't ask Jasper to leave his family again. Besides, I've really gotten rather attached to them. You're my sister, and I don't want to have to choose between you and Jasper."
And the guilt seeped into me. All this time I had been thinking only of me and not of Alice and what this was doing to her. Granted, in some way, I felt like she owed me for leaving suddenly without any explanation and alone with our parents and their blame games. But then my more spontaneous side told me that if she hadn't suddenly run away she wouldn't be happy with Jasper, and I had to admit that she did know more about the future than I did.
"Fine, I'll try to get along with Edward," I conceded.
She nodded her head just once before laying on her back again. Another several minutes, again she giggled again before stating, "Oh, and I need you to promise me that from now on you'll dress better."
I gathered what little strength I had left and tossed my pillow on her face, to which she only giggled further. I couldn't help but smile knowing that if anything, at least I still had my sister back.