Charlie stared at me for a moment; his eyes unreadable. Then he lowered his fork, and leant forward on the table to rest his face in his hands.

"I've never felt so hopeless," he murmured, in such a soft, cracked voice it was only due to my vampire-enhanced hearing that I could make out the words. "I didn't know what to do. That first week…I thought I was going to have to hospitalize her. She wouldn't eat or drink, she wouldn't move – Doctor Gerandy was throwing around words like catatonic, but I didn't let him up to see her…"

He drew his face out of his hands to gaze at me with helpless, almost pleading eyes. "I didn't want to scare her," he explained, as gently as though it was his own daughter he was explaining this to.

"She snapped out of it though?"

She must have done, I thought silently. I was watching her, at the beginning, at least.

Charlie shrugged slightly, his eyes gazing down at his half-eaten breakfast again. "I had Renee come to take her to Florida. I just didn't want to be the one…if she had to go to a hospital or something. I hoped being with her mother would help. But when we started packing her clothes…"

He bit his lip, eyes closing again, as though remembering something he really didn't want to remember.

"She woke up with a vengeance. I've never seen Bella throw a fit like that – she never was one for the tantrums, but boy, did she fly into a fury. She threw her clothes everywhere and screamed that we couldn't make her leave – and then she finally started crying. I thought that would be the turning point. I didn't argue when she insisted on staying here…and she did seem to get better…at first…"

I leant further forward across the table.

"But…?" I prompted him.

This was what I needed to hear about; the parts after Ihad stopped watching. After I'd stopped…promised Edward…sworn to him I wouldn't go interfering…

And just look at me now…

"She went back to school and work," Charlie was saying, his eyes opened but unfocussed and far away as he remembered, like me having one of my visions. "She ate and slept and did her homework. She answered when someone asked her a direct question. But she was…empty. Her eyes were blank. There were lots of little things – she wouldn't listen to music anymore. I found a bunch of CDs broken in the trash. She didn't read. She wouldn't be in the same room when the TV was on, not that she watched it so much before…"

Next door, Bella shifted slightly on the sofa. Opposite me, Charlie turned his hopeless eyes up to meet mine. "I finally figured it out," he admitted quietly. "She was avoiding everything that might remind her of…him."

I stayed still and silent, watching Charlie's dark hazel eyes drift closed; so similar to his daughter's.

"We could hardly talk," he murmured. "I was so worried about saying something that would upset her – the littlest things would make her flinch – and she never volunteered anything. She would just answer if I asked her something. She was alone all the time. She didn't call her friends back, and after a while, they stopped calling…"

He trailed off – and his voice dropped to almost a whisper as he spoke his next words.

"It was night of the living dead around here. I still hear her…screaming…in her sleep."

He shuddered. So did I.

Charlie fiddled with the edge of the tablecloth, shaking his head listlessly from side to side at the memories. I reached towards him before I could stop myself, touching his arm again gently with mine.

"I'm so sorry, Charlie." I didn't know what else to say.

Charlie shook himself slightly, sitting up a little straighter and trying to smile ruefully. "It's not your fault," he pointed out – making it perfectly clear in his accusing tone who he held responsible, and how prepared he was to challenge that person should he come anywhere hear his daughter again. "You were always a good friend to her."

I brightened a bit at that.

"She seems better now, though?"

"Yeah," Charlie said, also brightening a little. "Every since she started hanging out with Jacob Black, I've noticed a real improvement. She has some colour in her cheeks when she comes home, some light in her eyes. She's happier. He's a year or so younger than her, and I know she used to think of him as a friend, but…I think maybe it's something more now, or headed in that direction anyway." His eyes narrowed slightly as he gazed at me, his tone meaningful. I looked quickly away, shamefaced; but reluctantly acknowledging the warning.

"Jake's old for his years," Charlie went on pointedly. "He's taken care of his father physically the way Bella took care of her mother emotionally. It matured him. He's a good looking kid too – takes after his mom's side. He's good for Bella, you know."

As opposed to your brother, who most certainly was not…

The words weren't said out loud, but they hung heavy in the air between us; supporting and reassuring Charlie – glowering at me. Challenging the vampire sister's reply to their statement.

I clenched my fists, unable to stop myself defending my brother just a bit. That matured, good looking, something-more-than-friends Jacob Black was nothing, nothing, nothing on Edward, and never could be – and exploding into a stinking werewolf every five minutes couldn't be what any decent father would dare to call safe, if only Charlie knew the truth…!

…but he didn't. And there was no way I could tell him.

I clamped my teeth together, lifted my chin, and somehow forced out the very last words I wanted to say.

"Then it is good that she has him."

It was almost painful for my ears to have to listen to my lie – but it reassured Charlie. His face relaxed, and he heaved a huge sigh that could have been of relief. A satisfied smile twitched his lips as he gazed down at me with kinder eyes.

"Ok," he admitted. "So I guess that's overstating things a bit. I don't know…even with Jacob, now and then I see something in her eyes, and I wonder if I've ever really grasped how much pain she's really in. It's not normal, Alice, and it frightens me. Not normal at all. Not like someone left her…but like someone…died."

His voice cracked. The word hung in the air; died, died, died…and I suppressed a shudder again, thinking of Edward's dead, died face, our dead conversations, dead household, dead family, dead everything…dead life. Living…but not living. Existing for his family's sake only, for a pretence none of us could keep up for very long. A pretence Edward had abandoned very quickly; left us to lead his own dead, unliving life alone, all alone…

"I don't know if she's going to get over it," Charlie was murmuring, half to himself. "I'm not sure if it's in her nature to heal from something like this. She's always been such a constant little thing. She doesn't get past things, change her mind."

"She's one of a kind," I agreed dryly, hoping very much that Bella was listening from the next room. Charlie gave me sideways glance, seeming to hesitate over something.

"And Alice…now, you know how fond I am of you, and I can tell that she's happy to see you, but…" He bit his lip again. "I'm a little worried about what your visit will do to her."

"So am I, Charlie," I said, nodding in understanding at his awkward expression. "So am I. I wouldn't have come if I'd had any idea. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, honey," he mumbled, gruff all of a sudden. "Who knows? Maybe it will be good for her."

"I hope your right," I murmured – but inside, I wasn't so sure. Bella was fine now…but what about tomorrow? What about later today when I would have to call my family? What about when they insisted I had to come home?

And what about the days after that, when Charlie was out arranging all that needed to be done for his poor lost friend and their family? Bella would be alone. All alone all over again. Charlie had said so himself yesterday how good it would be for Bella to have someone with her whilst he would be out and busy so often, but if Carlisle insisted on me returning now, today, before Edward found out…

My thoughts continued to battle each other as Charlie turned back to his food and began to chomp on cold egg and toast, the teaspoon making scraping little squeaks against the china of the plate. Then he suddenly looked up again.

"Alice – I have to ask you something."

"Go ahead," I nodded reassuringly – already suspecting the question he was going to pose. Charlie frowned at his plate for a few seconds, his spoon scooping out the remains of his egg so violently it flew off the plate and plunged to its messy end on the tiled floor. He sighed, put down his spoon – and then leant forward across the table towards me.

"He's not coming back to visit too, is he -?"

"He doesn't even know I'm here," I said quietly, but firmly. "The last time I spoke with him, he was in South America."

From next door, Bella's heartbeat stuttered and thumped with shock. I sighed inwardly as Charlie, suppressing a snort, turned back to his food.

"That's something, at last," he muttered. "Well…I hope he's enjoying himself."

My hands clenched into fists again at the utter absurdity of the assumption.

"I wouldn't count on it, Charlie," I said, sharper than I'd meant to, my abruptly steel-edged tone causing him to glance up in surprise.

"Hm," he mumbled. His spoon scooped up the final remains of egg – before pulling back his chair, and standing up to take his plate to the sink.

I heard Bella turn over in her bed, making such a racket of yawning, creaking and bouncing up and down that I had to hide my smile. How had she managed to lie to her father for all these months with acting skills like that?

"Alice…?" she rasped out in a decent attempt at a tired voice, fake-yawning for the fourth time in less than a minute.

"I'm in the kitchen, Bella," I called out, forcing back giggles. I heard more springs creak, the then the soft patter of footsteps as Bella crossed the room and opened the kitchen door.

"Morning, Bells," Charlie said over his shoulder from the sink. "You all right? Sleep ok?"

"Great, Dad," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes with both hands and dragging her feet as she staggered over to the table and flopped down opposite me, taking Charlie's place. I covered my mouth with one hand to hide my grin. Bella frowned at me in confusion.

"What?" she mouthed, annoyed. I shook my head.

"Nothing," I mouthed back, still battling against giggles. She scowled, folding her arms and leaning back in her seat as Charlie finished cleaning up his plate, and turned to his slumped daughter.

"You ok, Bells?"

"Fine," she said through clenched teeth, still glowering over at me. I grinned widely back, eyes wide and innocent as Charlie turned suspiciously to look at me.

"You two going to be ok here whilst I head over to the reservation? I said I'd help Sue, I don't really know what time I can get back by…"

"We'll be fine, Dad," Bella reassured him quickly. "You go help the Clearwaters. Alice will look after me."

The day that followed was one of the best I'd had in a long, long time.

Bella was still exhausted from her near-death experience of the day before, and as I was happy to do whatever she wanted, we ended up spending the morning and most of the afternoon on the sofa-bed – talking.

Bella's questions were never ending. She asked, whilst I answered – and by the end of the day, I had filled her in on almost every detail of what every member of my family and I had been up to for the last half of a year – all except one.

The subject of Edward was like a taboo. Unmentionable. Neither of us wanted to go anywhere near it – Bella, for the past it brought back, and me for the future of Edward's reaction to my broken promise – so both of us kept the conversation on lighter topics, for nearly the whole of the surprisingly short day we spent together.

I knew – I knew – that I should call them. My family. Jasper. Edward. I knew, even as Bella questioned me about Carlisle's new job, asked about what it was like at Cornell, what we were studying, what Esme had been up to – I knew I was pushing the time I should be spending here in Forks to the limit.

I should have called. I should have let them speak with me, question me, and let them talk me into coming home that very day…

But I didn't.

I told myself exactly why I shouldn't, why I hadn't. I told myself it was all down to Charlie. Down to the fact Bella needed company – Charlie was expecting it, and with him out for so much of the day helping this Sue lady…I couldn't just abandon Bella, not now, not when she needed me most. I couldn't. I wouldn't.

I told myself it was down to the werewolves. After all – where was the point in ringing up my brother just to tell him I knew Bella had got more than was safely attached to some Quileute named Jacob? I needed to find out more – more about these Quileutes, these wolves – just how exactly Bella had found out all that she had about them, whether they saw her as a friend, or even an ally…

I told myself it was down to Bella. All of it down to my friend so obviously needing me by her side that day. I couldn't leave her now, not when she was looking so much brighter and happier – so alive, even from yesterday. My being here was doing her good, I told myself. It was so obvious. She never spoke of me leaving, not once, throughout the whole day…so neither did I.

Bella needed me. My friend needed me. I could not leave her now – not again. Not after all these months.

I wouldn't. I wouldn't.

So I didn't.