[Disclaimer] Everything Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer

[A/N] Thanks for being such incredibly supportive readers. I appreciate having you by my side.

**26**

Alice was still incredibly tired when her alarm woke her up in the morning. With a sigh she pressed her face against Bella's pillow, trying to absorb the faint scent of strawberry shampoo as deeply as possible. She had cried herself to sleep last night. The awful conversation with her father had tugged painfully on her heart. Only two more weeks and then I'll be off here, she thought bitterly.

A knock on the door made her sit up straight in the bed. Carlisle walked in, fisting his hands nervously through his damp hair.

"You're up. That's good. Did you sleep well?"

"Not really."

"So, have I." he whispered. "Look, I'm sorry about yesterday. I was too harsh on you."

"You and Renee sent Bella away. How could you do this to us? That was heartless."

"Alice, can't you see that I'm trying to protect you? What do you think would happen, if your stepsister finds out about your….ahm little secret?"

Alice pressed her lips together. She felt very tempted to shove it into Carlisle's face, that Bella didn't have a problem with her secret whatsoever. No one in her life had ever been so easily accepting about her. Bella truly loved her.

"Alice?"

"Maybe it wouldn't matter to her." she mumbled. "Is there anything more you need from me? I need to shower before I go to school."

"Okay, but we'll talk about it again when you come back home. Can you drop off your brother at his kindergarten for me?"

Half an hour later when Alice turned off the engine of the car, the unpleasant tightness in her chest still wasn't gone.

"When are Mommy and Bella coming back?" Eddie asked her from the backseat.

Alice sighed. She could feel her eyes starting to fill with tears again. Don't cry in front of the little one, she tried to compose herself.

"Renee comes back on Sunday." she whispered, unclasping his seatbelt. He jumped from his seat, grabbing his little backpack.

"And Bella?"

"I don't know."

"Why?

"Eddie, you need to go inside now. I don't want to be late for school."

She leaned down and kissed his forehead. Usually he whined and protested when you kissed him, but this time he remained perfectly still.

"Will you pick me up again?"

"Dad is picking you up. Be a good boy and don't fight with anyone, okay?"

Meanwhile Carlisle had arrived at the hospital. His bad conscious was nagging on him. Alice was too much like Irina, she didn't take it well when someone was getting a bit hard on her. What the hell had she been thinking, starting a relationship with her stepsister?

Stepping inside the elevator, he cringed when he saw Esme's delicate frame standing in its corner.

"Morning," he mumbled, not really looking at her. He needed to avoid looking at this woman. It only made him want her more.

"Good Morning," she whispered. "You're here early for your shift."

"I need to finish some paperwork." Carlisle told her, pressing the key to the sixth floor. Then he cleared his throat and sighed deeply. "I want to apologize for the kiss. That was completely inappropriate."

Esme nodded her head. Her heart cramped painfully in her chest. Inappropriate? That was all he had to say about that kiss? Oh, how much she wanted it to mean something to him. She knew it was wrong to crush on a married man. It was stupid on too many levels, but she still couldn't stop it. Every night she would toss around in her bed, imagining his face above hers while he kissed her softly and made love to her. God, she was so pathetic.

"Esme?"

"It didn't mean anything. Have you told your wife about it?"

"No," he croaked. "Should I?"

"It's kind of weird that you're asking me for advice on this. I'd rather not have her know about it. She most likely would take back her offer to let me see my boy."

They stepped outside the elevator and Carlisle barely managed to keep her from tumbling over some box on the ground. "Be careful. We don't want you to break another limp."

"Thanks," she whispered. "Do you think we could set up a meeting on Saturday? I really want to see Eddie."

"My wife is in Washington until Sunday."

"I see. But maybe you could handle this. I know Saturday is your day off."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why do you know so much about my shifts? Are you stalking me?"

"You're an idiot. I still don't know how you managed to make it through med school. Your parents probably paid for your diploma."

Carlisle chuckled. "They have, but not in the way you think they did. You have a scholarship, right?"

"I do. My parents wouldn't invest a single dime into my education. They still hate me for divorcing my husband."

"They should be glad you left this man. He didn't treat you the way, you deserve it."

Esme's mouth twitched. The memory of Charles was hovering above her like a dark ghost. Yesterday, she had almost dropped a pile with soup cans down in the supermarket because she thought she had seen him standing behind it. That was impossible though wasn't it? Charles had no clue where she was living now. Her lawyer had helped her to cover her tracks.

xxxx

Bella's mood was getting worse with every second she spent with her parents in the principal's office. Forks High was a small place. They didn't even offer several of the courses she had been taking back home. Staying here would throw her back so much in her education.

"Renee, you should take her back with you to Florida." Charlie stated when they walked outside again. "It would be better for the girl."

"I can't take her home with me. Carlisle wants us to keep the girls apart."

"Your husband is pretty dumb for someone who's been to university for such a long time. Keep them apart? They're not twelve. Bella will be eighteen in September. You need to start letting her make her own decisions."

"I don't need any advice from you on how to raise my daughter, Mr. Swan. You haven't been around the last fourteen years."

"I haven't been around because you wanted it that way, Mrs. Cullen. Now, if you could get into the car. I need to be at the station in twenty minutes."

"You should have married the stupid police station. It always came first."

"Mom! Dad! Stop with this fighting. It's getting on my nerves." Bella told them, fumbling with her seat belt. "I don't want to stay in Forks. Alice and I can get a place of our own if you don't want us under your roof."

"Isabella, it's not like that. I love you. Carlisle and I are just trying to protect the two of you."

"Maybe they don't need to be protected." Charlie said, starting the engine of the cruiser. "Bella if you need money to rent a place, I'll give it to you."

"Charlie! You can't do this!"

"Oh Renee, you have no idea what I can or can't do. You're underestimating me. You always have."

Back at Charlie's place Bella locked herself in her room and cried. She hated to see her parents argue with each other. It brought up some unpleasant memories of the time they got divorced. She remembered them yelling at each other while she was sitting on the stairs, hugging her doll.

A knock on her door made her jump from the bed. She wiped the tears from her face and opened the door.

"Sweetie, can we talk about this again? I only have your best interest in mind."

"My best interest or yours, Mom? I thought, you're okay with me liking girls."

"I am, of course I am, but this thing with Alice, I don't know what to think of it. Carlisle was close to having a heart attack when we told him."

"I love Alice. There is nothing the two of you can do to keep us apart. You're too old to remember how it's like to be in love, really in love."

Renee caressed Bella's hair and stepped back. "I'm going for a run now. I need to burn off a bit of this monster steak your father served us last night. Then I'm going to call your stepfather and try to talk about things with him again."

"Yes, Mom," Bella murmured, grabbing her pillow to hug it tightly. "I'll take a nap. I'm still tired from the flight, I guess."

When Renee was gone, Bella closed her eyes and it didn't take long until she managed to drift into a restless sleep. The sound of her cell vibrating on the nightstand woke her up again.

"Hey,"

"Hi Bella," Alice's voice greeted her. "You sound tired. Did I wake you up?"

"No," Bella lied, rubbing her eyes, "I'm glad you called. God, I miss you so much."

"I miss you too. It's like everything hurts inside me because you're not with me."

"Please, don't cry again. We can make this. How is Eddie?"

"He misses you. When I dropped him off at kindergarten he asked when you'd come back home."

"I hope soon. Charlie is trying to convince Mom to take me back to Florida with her. He even offered to pay for an apartment for me."

"Your Dad sounds nice. I'd like to meet him some time."

"I'm sure we can arrange that. How was your day?"

"School sucked, but at least this weirdo Mr. Evenson wasn't there today. He's sick with some stomach flu or something like that."

"I don't like that you're so intimidated by that moron. He's a jerk who gets off on humiliating high school kids. How low can someone be?"

"I don't know. Hey, is it very cold where you are now?"

"I'm freezing. I'm snuggled under my blanket, wearing two pair of socks."

"If I was with you now, I could try to warm you up."

Bella took a deep breath. There was something about the sound of Alice's voice when she had spoken the last words that made her inside tingle.

"How would you do that?"

"I could start with kissing that spot underneath your ear. I know you like it when I kiss you there."

"Yes, I do, very much to speak the truth. God, I wished you were with me now. I want to feel you on top of me. I want to feel you getting hard against the inside of my thigh"

"Fuck, Bella, you're making me hard if you say stuff like that." Alice whispered huskily into the receiver. Bella could hear some fumbling in the background. Then Alice sighed deeply.

"I want to touch you." Bella whispered. "I want to feel you moving inside me. Alice, I need you."

"I need you, honey. When I see you again, I want to kiss every inch of your body."

Wetness pooled between Bella's thighs and with a soft moan, she pulled down the zipper of her jeans and tugged them down a bit. Her hand moved gently over the fabric of her panties.

"What are you doing right now?" Alice asked her in a hoarse voice.

"Nothing,"

"You're breathing a bit too heavy for nothing. Are you touching yourself?"

"Maybe,"

"I wish I could see you now. Oh god, baby, thinking about you playing with yourself makes me so hard."

Bella's voice trembled when she spoke the next sentence. "Touch yourself. I want you to rub yourself and imagine it's me. Can you do that for me, Alice?"

"Only if you touch yourself too, I want you to wet your fingertips and circle them over your clit. Will you do that?"

"Ye-s," Bella stuttered. Arousing heat began spreading throughout her as she started massaging her moist folds. The groans from the other side of the line excited her even more. It didn't take long until her release shuddered through her body.

She could hear Alice's suppressing a moan by pressing something against her face, a pillow maybe?

"Alice, are you still there?"

"Yes, sure. Oh shit, my hands are trembling. Just give me a second. I need to find something to clean myself."

"The box with the tissues is under my side of the bed. Was this as good for you as it was for me?"

"Bella, honey, you have no idea."