A/N: No I didn't abandon this story either, I've just been really busy and haven't had much chance to do much writing. So I decided to go on a writing retreat this week and it's worked so far, I wrote this entire chapter in a little over four hours of writing, I expected to put this one and a couple of others up when I got back home, but it turns out this place as WIFI, so you get to read it early. I'm sorry for taking four months to update this story, expect another update within the week from me, either on this or on Ministry of Lost Souls. I'll be working on that one next.

Together

The engine of the old Chevy truck lumbered all the way back to the siren's home, as it had done nearly every day she'd lived in Washington, but this ride was filled with a little more tension then they normally were, she could feel the unease in Alice break against her like waves did upon the rocks that morning. Alice's unease, of course, feed Bella's in a big way; since she'd found out about her nearly empathic ability it seemed to come on stronger than it had before, but that could always be because she was growing stronger as a siren and nothing to do with a preternatural placebo effect.

Alice, while remaining silent nearly the entire ride, never once took her eyes off of Bella's profile, tracing over every minute detail in her mind: the arch of her eyebrow, her clumpy eyelashes, the curve of her nose, the fullness of her lips, the gentle angle of her cheek and jaw bones, her slender neck, lastly the swell of her breast. Reflexively she found her lips tugging up into a gentle smile. "I'm sorry," she said reaching over the vacant middle seat and placing her hand over the one Bella rested on the gear shift.

"What are you sorry for?" Bella asked, briefly taking her eyes off the road to face her girlfriend (before a pointed scowl from Alice forced her eyes back on the road).

"For snapping at you the other night, I shouldn't have done that; and for that I am sorry, please forgive me." The smaller girl said, gingerly stroking the back of the siren's hand.

A small giggle escaped the brunette's lips at Alice's formal language, "Of course I forgive you; and I'm sorry too; for pressing you, even after you asked me to stop, it wasn't right of me, please forgive me as well." Bella said poorly, but sincerely, imitating Alice.

Alice arched a brow, turning to face her, "Bella, Bella, Bella…you can't fake turn of the century language, sorry sweetie but you just weren't there. You don't have to try for me; I just want you to know that." Between the shifting of gears she gently picked up the siren's hand and kissed the back of it, "Of course I forgive you too." As she finished they pulled in front of the siren's house.

Bella quickly turned it off, feeling the engine shudder beneath her as it sputtered one last time before finally dying, "So, I was thinking…"she started.

"That never goes anywhere good," Alice said, playfully jabbing her in the ribs, gently of course.

"Hey!" Bella countered sending an ill though jab into the vampire's stony side, scowling (playfully) she grabbed her elbow and continued talking, "Anyway, I was thinking that we might want to go someplace more neutral…maybe that waterfall you took me too, the day we had our first real kiss."

"You know," Alice said dramatically tapping her chin, "That's not a bad idea at all, what about your dad though?"

"I'll just write him a note telling him that you and I went for a walk so we could talk; it's not an outright lie." Bella said opening the door to the pickup, before jumping out. Alice followed her out the driver door instead of opening hers.

The vampire pulled her into a tight hug, whispering: "Go get changed and I'll race you there," Into Bella's ear. She pulled away and went to sit on the front porch, tapping her foot against the bottom step to show her mock impatience with the slower girl.

Bella just laughed as she pulled her backpack from the truck, taking a moment to look Alice over the way she'd done on the ride home. She went to an art gallery once on a vacation in San Francisco, and there was a picture titled Vu Jede, the opposite of déjà vu, seeing something familiar but feeling like it's the first time; in that moment, where her eyes scanned over the shimmering black spikes of her hair, the elfin face, the delicate ears, the sharp jaw line, the delicate cheekbones, and tiny frame. It was in that moment where she felt like she was seeing Alice for the first time again, the way it should have happened, not in a freak accident in the town's one supermarket.

"Do I have something on my face?" The vampire asked in jest touching one cheek and then the other.

"No, of course not, just staring." Bella replied running up the double step of the porch and in to the house, smiling the entire way. Once inside the house she ran to the kitchen and scribbled a small note and stuck it to the fridge with some life insurance magnet; afterward she took the stairs two at a time (tripping twice but catching herself each time) and went to her room, hurrying to put on her flying leathers. Once she zipped up her jacket she snuggled into it inhaling Alice's scent deeply, before returning to the porch.

"Geeze, it took you long enough!" Alice scoffed as she stood up from the porch steps, admiring what a great job she'd done on making those for her Bella. Yes, her Bella, it has a nice ring to it, she decided.

"Well I'm ready now, so get over it." Bella teased back. "So…are you ready?"

"I was turned ready," The vampire said, making a joke out of something she wouldn't have joked about a week ago. "So are you going to count off, or do you want me to…never mind I will."

"On your mark!" Alice adopted a sprinters position, her fingertips gently touching the damp ground below.

"Get set!" Bella cut in, unfurling her wings in a now familiar motion, feeling the goose bumps creep up and down her spine.

Bella barely had a chance to crouch down herself before Alice shouted: "Go!"

At that word Alice took off into woods taking an early lead on the girl, who had to get air born before she could start toward the finish line. It took Bella three good flaps to get herself in the air and flying, the trees seemed to part for her as she barreled though the canopy of leaves, completely unconcerned of potential witnesses. The siren topped out at close to a thousand feet up in the air, at that altitude the air was thin enough that she could go a bit faster and use less energy than at ground level.

Alice looked back twice but by that time she couldn't see any shapes through the tree tops, but that didn't matter, she was hands down faster, and even if she had to cover uneven ground she was going to beat Bella, there was just no down about it. She broke a few branches that got in her way, and jumped over a few deadfalls. She looked up again when she first heard the roar of the waterfall, another minute, maybe two and she'd be able to gloat for quite a while.

After that first instant Bella lost complete sight of Alice and never found her again, of course flying took most of her concentration so even if she wanted to look it would have been a bad idea to do so, she just had to hope that the extra speed and not having to deal with any kind of terrain would be to her advantage. In the distance she could make out what looked like a cloud of mist billowing off the forest floor in what looked like a large clearing. Ha! She had the race in the bag, and for a change would be able to rub something in Alice's face. She aimed for the clearing and folded her wings and began a gradual descent, letting gravity work for her to increase her speed.

Alice broke into the clearing, coming to a complete and instant stop. She looked around and didn't see anything right away; then the back of her neck prickled; the vampire spun around and came face to face with a slightly winded Bella, her wings stretched on either side, looking exactly like an angel…wearing leather. "I win!"

"Nope, I was up there for easily five seconds before you showed up," Bella replied pointing her finger up in the air and twirling it in a circle once.

"Yeah, I was the first one in the clearing, you were the first one over it. So I win." Alice continued to gloat, showing her fierce competitive streak to Bella for the first time.

Bella gently patted the vampire's head, "Sure, keep telling yourself that." She said, strolling off toward a couple of large boulders, her wings shaking gently behind her as she went. Taking a seat on the tallest one, the siren let the mist wash over and cool her. As Alice came over to her, she couldn't help the smile that spread across her lips; they'd apologized and were still together, and were able to have fun with each other. Everything else right now seemed, Bella searched her mind for the right word, trivial.

Alice jumped up next to her, immediately resting her head on the taller girl's shoulder; smiling as Bella's downy wing wrapped snuggly around her shoulders. "So, I suppose this is the time where we actually talk." Alice said staring at the waterfall.

"Yeah, I think we do." Bella said looking at Alice's eyes, waiting for her to make eye contact before she said anything more. When Alice pried her eyes away from the rushing water and stared into Bella's brown ones, Bella continued, "I was kinda thinking that we've moved kinda fast; I mean we haven't been together all that long and you're already spending the night…and I know we haven't done that, but it still seems kinda, sorta fast. Sorry, I'm babbling."

"Don't worry about babbling," Alice said kissing her cheek softly, "I think it's really cute. But you're right, and I think that's because I've known you, more or less, three months longer than you've known me. I don't mean that to sound some sort of stalker, it's just the way it was, all I could ever see was you, and I'm not complaining or bragging; I'm just stating a fact. I guess I just got over excited have you around here so that I could talk to you, and cuddle with you, and kiss you – especially the last one. I got carried away, and I'm sorry for that too." She looked away from Bella, and blinked away a few tears before the siren could see them in her eyes.

"Alice, I don't blame you, I mean: if I were in your position I'm sure I would have done the same thing. But it's not like I'm some unwilling party to all of this, I did invite you to stay over, and I did freak out when you weren't around. I actually don't know what my point was with that last one…" The siren trailed off after that, completely losing her train of thought.

"Eh, don't worry about it; I got your main point." Alice said, once again resting her head on Bella's shoulders, "So how do you want to go from here, I'm assuming my spending the night is out for a while."

"Yeah, that would be a good idea; I mean we do have plenty of time to do all of that in the future." Bella said, leaning her head on Alice's. "But otherwise, I'm not so sure."

"I hear that when two people in a relationship, not unlike our own, they will go to places together; such as restaurants, movie theaters, sunset walks along the beach. I believe they call them dates," Alice brought one hand out from under Bella's wing and put air quotes around 'date.' "The objective being to get to know one another better and to bring both parties closer." Alice finished in her very clinical voice, "So how about we try it and go on a real one?"

"If you're asking me out, the answer is yes." Bella said wrapping her arms around the vampire's waist.

"Great, than it's settled, I'll pick you up Friday night and we'll go out. How about dinner and a movie in Aberdeen?" Alice asked hugging the siren tightly.

"Why Aberdeen, everyone in school normally talks about going up to Port Angeles."

"Because Aberdeen is bigger and far more in it than Port Angeles does, not by much, but still. It would be kinda hard to go all the way to Seattle or Portland on a Friday night. Oh, hey, there's our second date." Alice practically squealed with excitement; bringing Bella to giggle at her girlfriends sheer excitement over something so mundane.

"Works for me!" Bella replied, before chewing on the inside of her lip wondering how exactly to broach the next topic, "So, uh, can I ask you a question?"

Alice arched an eyebrow, "Of course you can, and in case you were wondering, you just did, but feel free to ask another." Her voice was still lively and playful, despite noticing the unease in Bella's.

"I was just wondering what you were doing today. I can kinda tell that there was some hunting involved but, I dunno. It just seems like something else is up."

"Yeah, you're right, a few things came up, because I really did want to see you at school, just to let you know everything was okay. Remember how I told you that the only thing I've been able to get a vision of was you?" Bella nodded, cuing Alice to continue, "Well, that's over now; I had others today, a lot of them. It was like listening to all of your phone messages after having been on vacation for a week or two. It's happened a couple of times before; I can't really snap myself out of it. This time it lasted for a little over three hours; believe me it feels like three or four days. I saw a lot of things I had to talk to Carlisle about; that took up the rest of the day." Alice explained keeping her eyes focused on Bella the entire time, trying to read her face.

"So, what did you see?" The siren asked.

"A lot. Remember how I told you that my brother left the country as part of a foreign exchange program?" Bella once again nodded her assent to Alice's question, "Well that's only about half of the truth, the whole truth is that he did leave the country but it wasn't for himself; he left because you showed up. Siren's are generally considered a threat to vampires, and he thought staying and helping you was too risky…so he went to Italy."

"Why Italy?"

"He didn't go to Italy precisely, he went to the Volturi. And before you ask, the Volturi are the closes thing to a leadership that we have; they take care of any major threats to our kind and enforce our laws and punish the guilty. Law, to be specific, and a simple one at that: basically don't get caught." A brief flash of worry crossed Alice's eyes. "He's trying to get them come over here and kill you."

Bella's heart started beating so hard she could hear it in her ears and feel it in her throat, "Then shouldn't we be doing something about it? Getting ready to fight, running away, or…something?"

"It's not time to panic yet Bella," Alice said putting a reassuring hand on Bella's knee, "Carlisle knows the leader of the Volturi, Aro, and has earned their respect over the years; he's going to talk to them today to try and talk them down, at least for a while. They normally act very slowly, after a few thousand years ten days or ten years begin to seem like the same thing. But with Edward there, they're moving a lot faster. Believe me Bella, we'll get enough warning to do something about it no matter what happens, I promise. If we have to we'll run, you and I, together."

Bella began to calm down; her breathing eased, her heartbeat slowed down to safer levels, and color returned to her cheeks. "A-alright," she swallowed, "if you say there's nothing to worry about I won't worry about it. Do you know when something might happen? I need to make sure Charlie's safe, and Angela, and well everyone else. I-I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me."

"No, not yet, but the moment I know something I'll make sure you know it too. Okay?" Alice's look was stern, but not without compassion, she needed to know that Bella knew everything was alright, at least for right now; though now she was kicking herself a little for starting out with the lighter stuff, not that there could have been a gentle segue or a way to focus the siren's attention on their relationship after telling her that there were people out there ready to kill her. She felt Bella's wings tighten around her, and shiver uncontrollably.

"O-o-okay, but then you promise to tell me when it is time to panic."

"Deal!" Alice said cheerfully, easing a few (very few) of the siren's growing concerns. "There's one last thing I wanted to talk about…well not talk so much as ask you."

"Y-yeah," Bella swallowed, "So long as it's not about anyone killing me; go ahead."

"Well it's the exact opposite of that, Bella." Alice paused, "I…I want you…to sing to me; I'm tired of worrying about the possibility of killing you. I wanted to do it myself, but with everything else happening I figured you could try, it would mean a lot to me. Now you have me rambling! So, will you do it?"

The words hit Bella like Mack truck; this was one of the things, if her memory served her, that they'd fought about. But Alice was right, circumstances where different now, and she'd have to adapt to them in any way she could. And to top it off, she wasn't completely unprepared for this, there'd been a song in the back of her mind meant just for Alice; "I'd love to Alice." She unwrapped her wings from the both of them and stood up; facing the vampire who still sat cross legged on the rock. She cleared her throat for a brief moment before starting in a voice so rich and pure, anyone around them would have thought that there had been a full orchestra backing her up.

When I saw your face,

I felt the heavens sway

Now that we are together,

Separated by the light.

What I feel with you

Wishes still do come true,

Since the dawn of time I've believed

I would find you.

Alice didn't even realize there were tears in her eyes until after Bella sat down and put her arms around her again, "That was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard in my life."

"Do you feel any different?"

"Not at all, but I know it worked. Will you sing it again for me, please?" Alice asked.

"Yes," And Bella did sing it again, and again, and once more, before both decided they should leave.