BELLA

I stood outside Alice's door, pacing. I was nervous and just the slightest bit scared. What if she didn't believe our story?

It was a little after midnight, only about three or four hours after Jasper and I had our talk. Even with this new development, we still managed to do what we had met to do. I didn't think that I'd be able to handle the stress of talking this out with Alice and Rosalie without that outlet. Not after everything that happened with Kari and what Edward had decided about the Bloodfeast.

I could tell, though, that Jasper didn't need it quite as much as I did. I mean, I'd seen enough of the room that afternoon to know that he didn't just talk to Alice the night before. Even with the lack of tension on his part, though, it was still on of the most passionate sessions that we'd ever had. I was very grateful to Jasper for that.

We, of course, had to cut it short, against my greater wants. We had much to discuss before we went to see Alice and Rosalie. We needed to make sure we had a straight story and had the conversation finished before the feast ended.

Our biggest problem was initiating the conversation without making Alice any more suspicious than she already was. We had to talk our way out of my knowing about his change of heart before anyone else. And him knowing my secret, even though no one else did.

We discussed it for about an hour before we decided on the truth. Or at least, parts of it. We would leave out any incriminating details as well as elaborate on any of the ones that would help us plead our case. It was pretty much lying by omission but we really didn't have much of a choice.

It would not only cut us off the hook with this, but it would also, quench Alice suspicions about the two of us having an affair. With any luck, she'd believe that we were meeting strictly on a brotherly/sisterly basis.

I stood outside the room taking deep and calming breaths, if it they weren't entirely necessary for my survival. Jasper decided that it might be best for him to go in first and ease Alice into it. We didn't want her to get defensive before we even had a chance to discuss things.

I just hoped she would believe what we had to say.

ALICE

Rosalie and I sat up in my room talking about anything and everything, except my current marital problems and what was happening two floors below. Thankfully, there was enough space between the two rooms that we were, for the most part, unable to hear the screams, even with our extra sensitive hearing. Occasionally, the boys would hurt one of the girls enough to illicit a scream loud enough for us to hear. Whenever that happened though, Rosalie and I would cover our eyes, bow our heads, and pray for the girl's suffering to end soon.

It was almost an hour before Jasper sent Kenzi to us. She was an absolute emotional mess. I could tell, though, that Jasper had been using his gift to help her through it. It was going to take a hell of a lot more than that to help her right now, though.

Rosalie and I sandwiched her between the two of us and just held her as she cried. Rosalie stroked her hair as we all whispered words of comfort. It took us nearly two hours to get her calm enough to hold a conversation.

When she was finally completely composed, Rosalie and I started to distract her with stories of our family before the whole mess with Nessie. We even went as far back as before Bella came with us. The stories were always happy ones that ended well. We made absolutely sure of that before we told them.

Eventually, Kenzi started talking to. She told us about her smart, beautiful, strong, brave and loving big sister. She told us all kinds of stories about the things that Kari had survived in the years that her father had been abusing her. She even told us the lengths that Kari went to keep Kenzi from seeing any of it, or being hurt herself. She said that Kari had taken care of her in ways only a mother could during the years after her mother's death before her kidnapping.

Whenever she got choked up, I'd place my hand on hers and remind her of everything she had just told us and told her that if anyone could handle my brother, it was Kari. I even went as far as to say that Kari might end up putting Edward in his rather than the other way around. I was surprised to hear her laugh at that point.

We were talking for a good three or four hours before Jasper made his reappearance. I could tell immediately when she walked in that something was wrong. I could see the nervousness mixed with the slightest bit of fear etched on his face. I jumped up and was at his side in an instant.

"Jazz, what's wrong?" I asked throwing my arms around him.

He hugged me back but I could feel the hesitance in it. I pulled away looking at him in shock and confusion.

"There's something that I need to tell you." he said slowly and uncertainly.

My breath hitched and I imagined that, if my heart was still beating, it be on the floor by now. Somehow, I knew that he was going to tell me that my suspicions have been correct and that he was having an affair. I just prayed it wasn't with Bella. I didn't know why, but that would hurt ten times worse than if it was with some other random vampire.

"Relax." he whispered touching my shoulder. I felt a wave of calm start to roll through me as I took a couple of breaths. "It's nothing bad. In fact, I think that it's really good."

I tried to do as he said, but I couldn't quite bring myself to relax completely. Something was telling me that there was something very wrong with this situation. I just knew in my heart that somewhere along the way, this conversation was going to rip my heart out and leave me bleeding.

"It's just there's something that I haven't been completely honest with you about." he continued. Great, he thinks that lying to me is a really good thing. That sure said something about what he was about to tell me. "I think that you should sit down for it, though."

Wow, this just kept getting better and better. I walked over to the mattress laying on the floor and sat down, leaving Kenzi and Rosalie sitting on the couch that was now being held up by a stack of books. A quick fix until I could go furniture shopping. Jasper had the nerve to come over and sit next to me. He even put his arm around me. I was too worried and hurt by what he was about to tell me to really be able to move away from him, even though, I really wanted to.

He took a few deep breaths trying to compose himself.

"I've been secretly seeing Bella these last four years." he told me.

Hurt and anger washed over me in waves. I didn't know why I was this upset about it. I mean I had known that he was having an affair for years and was suspecting it was with Bella for hours. Yet, somehow, knowing it was true made it ten times worse. I felt Jasper try to push more calm into me, but I pushed it away. He was going to take this away from me.

"Please, Alice," he almost pleaded. "Calm down. It's not what you think?"

Anger suddenly dominated the hurt at those words. I couldn't believe he was trying to use the most clichéd lines on me. Please?

"Well then, what is it, Jasper Hale?" I nearly yelled. "And the next words out of your mouth better not be she means nothing to me."

Jasper sighed and rubbed his temples.

"She does mean something to me, Al." he replied. "But not what you think that she does." I got the feeling that he wasn't being entirely honest, but I let it slide, knowing worse was coming. "See, the thing is, she's been having a hard time dealing with stuff over the past few years and I've been helping her."

"What do you mean "dealing with things"?" I spat.

"Well, she'd like to be the one to explain." Jasper told me. "And she's standing right outside, waiting for me to tell her its okay. Will you please hear her out before you make any kind of judgment?"

I wasn't quite sure exactly what he was talking about or why Bella would want to talk to us in the first place. Especially since she's been avoiding us for years.

Sensing my confusion Jasper said,

"She hasn't been completely honest about things either. In fact, if you listened to her, you'll find out that nothing you've been led to believe these past four or five years is true. And to be frank, she just wants her sisters back, that's all. Could you try to give her that?"

I thought about his words and how much I missed Bella. I still wasn't completely sure what he was talking about, but somehow I knew that I wasn't going to find out if I didn't listen to her. What was more? She had expressed a desire to have get Rosalie and I back and that's something that we've been hoping for years.

I still wasn't entirely convinced that nothing was going on between her and Jasper, but putting this family back together took precedent over my marital problems. I put the anger and suspicion aside for the sake of the family and nodded to Jasper.

"It's okay, Bella." he said as if she was standing right next to him. "You can some in, now."

Bella walked in the door less than a second later. I was shocked to see that her face wasn't the same blank and emotionless mask that it had been over the last few years. Instead, there was nervousness, pain, sadness, and fear written all over it. I wondered what was about to happen that would cause so many emotions from a girl who rarely felt anything anymore.

I flashed her a sad, but friendly smiled and gestured for her to sit down. She moved over to the mattress and sat at Jasper's feet. Something didn't feel right about that, however, I just passed it off as Bella wanting to be close to Jasper for his comfort.

"Kenzi, sweetheart?" Jasper questioned once Bella was seated. Kenzi looked at Jasper with a small blush, still not used to being address that way by Jasper. "This is a conversation that shouldn't be overheard. I doubt we have anything to worry about, because the feast is still going strong, however, could you go be our lookout, just in case? It could be really bad for all of us if any of this gets back to Master Edward."

"Yes, Mas..." Kenzi started to answer but Jasper gave her an admonishing smile and raised his eyebrow. "I mean, yes, sir." she finished and slid off the couch. She walked out the door and shut it tightly behind her.

"So what's going on?" I asked getting a little irritated with the dramatic build up.

"Hang on." Jasper said and went over to the radio.

He switched it on and turned it up to where other vampires couldn't hear us over it, but we could hear each other. The song that was on at the time was one of Nessie's favorites when she was growing up. It was Taylor Swift's Love Story. She used to say that it reminded her of her relationship with Jake. We all stared at each other in an awkward and sad silence for a moment, before Jasper flipped the dial. He found a Goth Rock- the only kind of music the Nessie disliked- station, then walked back to the bed and sat down beside me.

"Are we done insuring our safety now?" I asked growing impatient. "Can we please get to the reason why we're here?"

Jasper and Bella both cringed at my tone and I instantly felt horrible. The ward had made me very impatient, though. Especially for something this important.

"Sorry." Jasper whispered putting his arm around me. "Some of the things that Bella's about to tell you are very incriminating for her. We need to be sure that Edward doesn't get wind of it."

I nodded and smile my apology.

So Bella, what's this all about?" Rosalie asked in a kind, but slightly cold voice.

Bella took a couple of deep, calming and altogether unnecessary breaths, and then looked between Rosalie and me.

"This is about where I stand on the human issue." she explained. I furrowed my brow in confusion. Hadn't she already made her position known? She didn't give a damn, we all knew that. "Contrary to what I've led everyone to believe, I don't like it. I think that it's immoral and wrong. It goes against everything that Carlisle had ever taught us and makes us no better than the Volturi. It disgusts me to know that Edward does it to these girls. It disgusts me even more when Edward makes me watch him do it. I don't know why he does it, but I hate it. It hurts a lot to see that he finds more pleasure in hurting and raping these poor girls than in having a conversation with his own wife. And I think that it makes him look like a hypocrite because of all the time and energy he and the rest of you, put into making sure none of this shit ever happened to me. Bottom line, I hate it and I want it to stop."

I found myself extremely angered by her explanation. While I had no idea that she cared so much, I couldn't believe that she hadn't done anything about it.

"If you hated it so much, why the hell do you just sit there and let them get away with it?" I questioned trying to control my anger. "Why didn't you fight with us? Or against your husband at the very least? Do you know how many girls you could've saved?"

"Yes." Bella answered sounding upset. "I am aware of how many girls died because I didn't fight. But do you have any idea how many girls in the last six years that I've helped because everyone thought that I didn't care?"

I was extremely thrown off by her question. How could she have possibly helped girls by making everyone think that she didn't care? It didn't make any sense.

"Explain." Rosalie stated before I had a chance.

"This is where it gets complicated." she sighed. "You two our very outspoken in your fight against Edward and that's good. Except for the fact that it prevents you from helping his girls. He won't even allow you to be alone with the girls because he knows what you'll do and say. He doesn't want to give you the chance to undermine his authority. However, because even though I disagree, I keep it to myself and pretend it doesn't bother me. That way, Edward had no reason to want to keep me away from his girls. I can get in and out taking care of them without Edward being any the wiser. He, along with everyone else, just thinks that I'm going in to have my fun. I figured since the two of you were handling the outside jobs, then I get behind enemy lines. I didn't tell any of you, because I couldn't risk Edward catching me, then the girls would definitely be screwed. If I told you guys, there was always going to be the chance that Edward would read it in your heads. I had to keep it a secret."

I understood exactly what she had done and I was absolutely amazed she came up with the idea. It was definitely something that I wouldn't have been able to come up with. What I didn't understand, though, was the connection with Jasper.

"Okay, but what does any of that have to do with Jasper?" I asked.

"Well, I'm sure the two of you know how difficult it is to try and protect this girls from whatever horrors are about to befall them. It takes an emotional toll on you. It wasn't as bad for the two of you, because you had each other to lean on, but me, I didn't have anyone. I had to do this job and see Edward's girls go through some of the worst possible tortures and pretend like it didn't bother me. There was no one I could talk to without the fear of being caught. Well, you could only imagine the emotional strain that can cause someone."

Rosalie and I nodded out agreement. I was slightly amazed. I mean, I knew Bella was strong, but I had no idea that she was that strong.

"Well, one night I got into a huge fight with Edward. This was the point when he told me that he would rather rape innocent and helpless little girls, than make love to his adoring wife. There was just too much at that point and I finally snapped. I went to the first room on the fourth floor with every intention of screaming all of my pain and anger out and sobbing until there was nothing left. I did worse than that, though. I destroyed the whole room in my rage before collapsing to the floor in a sobbing heap." Bella explained.

"That was the first time you and I ever fought about my decision to keep a slave." Jasper continued looking at me. "I was angry too and looking for an outlet. I felt Bella's anger and pain. I hadn't felt feelings like that since the night..." he trailed off but we all knew what night he was talking about. "So I went to her to see if there was anything I could do. She sobbed for a long time. When she calmed we talked."

"I told him about everything that I was feeling and about pretending it didn't bother me. I, of course, left out the stuff about helping Edward's girls. He was still on Edward's side, after all. I didn't want to give him something to hold over me. Anyway, it was nice to finally talk to someone about it, and I felt so much better when I was done. I, in turn, allowed him to talk about what was bothering him." Bella went on.

"After that, we agreed that we'd continue meeting and talking to each other whenever we needed it. We never offered advice or tried to sway the other to our side of things. That wasn't what or meetings were about. We were just there to offer the other a comforting shoulder and a listening ear. I had been considering changing my ways for a long time, and Bella talked me through it last night and I did the same for her tonight."

I nodded unsure about how I felt that Jasper felt he had to go to my sister with his problems. I suppose though I hadn't made it easy for him to come to me. I was always downing everything that he did. I'm sure Bella was a welcome relief for him. She would listen to what he had to say. Maybe do a little more than listen.

No, I hadn't accepted that there wasn't more to their little meetings than just talking. I knew the situation and there were a few holes in their story, however, I knew that putting this family back together was more important than their affair. We could deal with that later.

"Why now, though, Bella?" Rosalie asked. She wasn't being mistrusting or even nasty. She was just trying to understand.

"Well, I've been missing you guys, a lot over the years. You're my sisters and I love you very much. It hurt to have you guys shunning and disliking me because of what I had to do. However, I knew that taking care of the girls was more important than anything. I could deal with the sadness, pain, and loneliness that came along with my role, as long as I was helping those poor girls. Then Kari came along and complicated everything."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I'm not sure. I want to help her, yes, but I wanna fight for her too. One's not enough for me. I know, though, that it had to be one or the other. I asked Jasper to meet tonight after you guys talked to Edward so I knew what happened with the decision on the feast. He told me that it wasn't good and Kari could get really hurt. I flipped thinking that she might die, then Jasper told me about your vision and it made me sad to know that you now felt you couldn't come to me with it. You used to be able to tell me everything. It bothered me that the facade has torn us apart so much. I told Jasper why I was upset and he told me it didn't have to be that way. He explained how there are some people in the house who don't agree with Edward but can't afford to speak against him. They're working behind the scenes for you guys. He also told me that you had assigned Ben to Kari. And while I don't know him that well, I know his gift and I trust your judgment. If you think that Kari is going to be safe with him, then I agree. That's why I'm here tonight. I think that it's time we put this family back together and we all have to be on the same page. And the only way we can do that is if we can trust each other. And I want you guys to trust me and allow me to help where I can. Kari is in good hands and you need me more than she does now anyway. So please, take me back and let me help. I promise I won't let you down again."

I was shocked to see that she was actually begging. It was hard to see so much emotion on a face that was usually devoid of any. I wanted to take her back into my arms and call her sister again just because of the look on her face. However, I hadn't forgotten that she had spent years lying to Rosalie and me, not only about her feelings on humans, but also about her secret meetings with Jasper. Which I had just realized they hadn't specified why they kept these meeting secret. I'd question Jasper about it later. The point was though, I wasn't sure how well we could trust her at this point and it didn't help that I was questioning Jasper's motives as well.

I looked at Rosalie and she simply nodded at me.

"I understand everything that you've had to deal with over the last few years and accept that it hasn't been easy. I understand why you did what you did and probably would've done the same thing in your place. However, you lied to us, about a lot of things, that kind of betrayal can't be easily forgotten. You are a sister, though, regardless of anything that's happened over the years, and we love very much and we too have missed you. We're happy to have you, but it's going to take a lot to gain back our trust. It's definitely something that we can't simply hand out to anyone who wants it. It's too dangerous right now."

"I understand." Bella replied looking only a little upset. "All I want is my family back and if I have to work to get it back then I will. This family has been falling apart for far too long and we need to put it back together or none of us will make it. I just want us to be like we used to be and I don't care how long it takes."

"That's all any of us wants." Rosalie stated. "Even Emmett and Edward, do on some level. However, they only way were going to get it, is if we stick together and be honest with each other. We can't worry about being unsure whether or not someone is telling the truth. We have to always know for sure. So from now on no more secrets, no more lies."

She thrust her fist in front of her. We all knew that doing this wasn't binding or anything, however, making a pact seemed like a good idea at the time. I knew I'd feel a whole lot better about things if I thought that Bella and Jasper had stopped lying to me.

"No more secrets, no more lies." I said and put my hand around Rosalie's fist.

I didn't miss the second hesitation and the uncomfortable glance that flashed that Bella and Jasper shared before putting their hands on time of mine and saying, together,

"No more secrets, no more lies."