Post-Epilogue Vignette - Chapter 2: Friend

"Alice?!" I sputtered as I threw the car into park and turned around in my seat to get a better look.

"Hi, Bella." Alice's voice was tentative as she raised her hand in an uncomfortable wave. "I guess it's been a while, huh?"

I could only stare at her in shock. The only thought that my brain seemed to be able to process was the fact that Alice looked exactly the same as the last time we had seen each other. Ten years and she hadn't changed a bit. Even though I knew that the Cullens would never age, it was surreal to actually see it. I felt my hand automatically going to my face as I thought about the creases that sometimes appeared now between my eyebrows when I frowned or the laugh lines that didn't always go away. I wondered if my now 28-year old self would look very different to her.

"This is weird, isn't it?" Alice said softly with a wistful smile.

"No!" I insisted gamely before I realized there was no point in pretending. And so I nodded awkwardly, "Yeah, it's a little weird. You look … the same."

"Thanks!" she chuckled as her golden eyes lit up. "That's just what any woman wants to hear."

I laughed too. And then suddenly, the initial weirdness passed and it was just Alice - an old friend who I hadn't seen in far too long. "What are you doing here?! I haven't seen you in years!"

"What's a decade or two when you're immortal?" Alice teased as she leaned in to take a closer look at me. She smiled approvingly at my new clothes and new haircut courtesy of the spa day earlier. "I must say, I love this new grown-up Bella look. Thank God, you stopped wearing all those hoodies!"

"I still have them," I grinned as I gestured to the front seat where a UW hoodie was balled up.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose. As the French would say. Here, let me move to the front so we can talk." She nimbly climbed into the passenger seat. As she brushed by me, the air was suddenly filled with the intoxicatingly delicious scent of her skin. I closed my eyes as the heady scent flooded my brain triggering memories that I had long forgotten about.

We stared at each other for a few moments just taking each other in, before Alice suddenly reached over to pull me into a bear hug. "I've missed you, Bella!"

"Ah, too strong!" I choked out as her cool arms crushed me to her tiny but unbelievably hard body.

"Oh yes, that's right," Alice said with a frown as she pulled back. "It's been a while since I've hung out with humans. So … how are you? Ready for the big day? I love your dress – it's perfect for you!"

"I … how did you? … oh, duh," I stammered as I realized the answer to my own question. I had forgotten that Alice's ability to see the future applied to my future as well.

"I would have gone for a more traditional gown, but yours is perfect for a beach wedding. Practical yet elegant. Very good taste," Alice continued matter-of-factly. "I'm going to take some credit for helping to shape your fashion sense."

I laughed. I couldn't help it. It was either that or shake my head at the strangeness of the situation. "What exactly did you see about my future?" I asked out of curiosity.

She flushed. Or at least it looked like she did, since I knew that vampires couldn't actually blush.

"I wasn't snooping," she insisted. "I just try to see you every now and then, to make sure you're okay. And I saw a vision of your wedding on the beach. You looked really beautiful." She paused before she continued as she reached over to squeeze my hand gently. "And you looked really really happy."

I watched her closely and I could see just the barest hint of sadness in her eyes. The last time we had seen each other, she had been pretty upset at me for choosing Jake over Edward. But now, her eyes were mostly filled with happiness for me and I squeezed her cold hand back in response.

"I thought you couldn't see Jake because of the whole werewolf thing?" I asked as my brain finally processed the implications of what she had just shared.

"I couldn't for a long time," Alice admitted. "But somehow in the last few years, I could start seeing you and him again. I'm not sure why that happened actually…"

"I do," I admitted as I explained to her that a few years ago, Jake had stopped phasing on a daily basis because of the lack of vampire sightings in the area. The pack had pretty much dispersed for the most part. Most of the guys had moved away from La Push for school or work, but they returned a few times a year to practice and run drills. Jake joked that it was like being in the Army Reserve. I chuckled, expecting Alice to chuckle as well, but instead her eyes were wide in disbelief.

"Are you saying that the pack isn't in La Push right now?" Alice asked in strangely hollow voice.

"No, they are." I replied slowly with a confused look. "Well, they aren't normally here. But because of the wedding and the holiday weekend, most of them happen to be in town…"

My voice trailed off as I saw the undeniable look of relief flitter across Alice's face. The strangeness of the situation suddenly caught up to me. This wasn't a social visit. I hadn't seen or heard from the Cullens in a decade. And now, Alice was here out of the blue. This couldn't be a good thing. Something had to be wrong.

"What's going on, Alice?" I finally brought myself to ask when I saw that she wasn't going to say anything. "Why are you here?"

Alice didn't answer me. She turned her head to stare out the passenger-side window as my mind raced through the possibilities.

Suddenly, something occurred to me, "Alice, did something happen to … Edward?"

My voice dropped. It was so strange to say his name. In all the years since, as a student, as a teacher, or as a counselor, I still hadn't encountered another person named Edward. And so the name still meant him.

"No, no," she responded quickly as she turned back to look at me. "He's fine. We're all fine. It's actually you that I'm here about."

I raised an eyebrow. "You're going to have to give me a little more info than that."

"Let me drive you home and I'll tell you the story on the way," she replied as she sat up and squared her shoulders.

"Home? You're going back to Forks?!" I sputtered. More surprises. As far I knew, they hadn't been back since the last time I saw them. "I should tell Jacob."

"He'll know soon enough," she said with a shrug as she opened the passenger-side door. "Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper are headed there already to open up the house. I just stopped off here to pick you up."

I sat in stunned silence as Alice got out, walked around the front of the car, and opened my door.

"What's going on, Alice?" I looked up at her from the driver-side seat. A million and one frightening possibilities were racing through my mind.

"Let's hit the road first. It's a long story," she gestured at me. I mechanically obeyed. The night air now felt warm against my skin after being in the car with Alice. We swapped seats silently and she didn't say anything until after she had pulled onto the highway.

"So …" She dragged out the syllable as if she didn't want to continue. "Do you remember us talking about the Volturi the last time we were here?"

I frowned. The word sounded familiar but my memory of those days had been buried away for so long that I struggled to retrieve them.

Seeing my silence, she continued. "They're kind of like our police. They enforce the rules of the vampire world."

"That's right! They came that time with Victoria and the newborns." I remembered finally. Memories of that day were hazy – I couldn't remember much after Jacob had nearly been killed. "The pack had to hide so the Volturi wouldn't know about them."

"Yes, that's right. The Volturi live in Italy and we pretty much never deal with them. That is, until now," she continued with a frown. "Carlisle and Esme were celebrating their 100-year wedding anniversary with a trip to England. He's never been back since he left for the New World and he wanted to show Esme where he was born, where he had lived as a human. I told them not to go. I had a bad feeling about it."

"Did you foresee that something would happen?"

Alice frowned. "No. I wish I had. But I didn't. Because it was a chance encounter. It wasn't planned. Aro wasn't planning to meet up with them. He just happened to be in London too and ran into them."

"Aro?"

"He's the leader of the Volturi and he's got this … talent." Alice shivered as her hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly I was worried it would come off. "If he touches you, he can basically get a download of your entire brain – every experience you've had, every thought you've had – he can hear it all and see it all."

"Whoa …. that's crazy," I marveled. Even I recognized how unique that talent was among the vampire world.

"Long story short. They ran into him. And he … well, Aro manipulated Esme so he could kiss her hand. He's always wanted to keep tabs on us. He doesn't trust us. He hates the fact that we have such a tight bond …."

I breathed in sharply as I suddenly realized what Alice was about to say.

"… so Aro saw everything that's happened to us in the last hundred years. Everything. Including …"

"… including me," I finished. My voice was steadier than I felt.

Alice didn't respond, but she didn't need to. We sat in silence for a few moments. I happened to glance over at the speedometer and saw that Alice was driving at 150 mph. An intense wave of déjà vu washed over me. Though this time, instead of Edward, it was Alice, driving me home from Port Angeles, explaining to me the dangers of this fantastical supernatural world.

"It's because I'm a human and I'm not supposed to know about vampires, right?" I asked, breaking the silence, even though I already knew the answer.

"Yes," Alice's response was brief. "It's one of our laws."

"So did Aro put a death sentence on me or something?" I tried to joke. I could hardly believe any of this was happening. An hour ago, I had been at my bachelorette party. And now I was … here.

"Aro was … intrigued … about you. Mostly because of Edward. He's always had a particular interest in Edward," Alice's expression hardened. "He thinks they're alike because of their mind-reading abilities. Anyways, Aro wants to meet you."

"Meet me?" I said in disbelief. "You mean, murder me?"

Alice shook her head grimly. "He said he wanted to meet you. Carlisle called to tell us to gather in Forks. Jasper and I were up in Denali. Emmett and Rosalie were over in Montana. We all just arrived a few hours ago." She looked over and saw the expression on my face. "Don't worry, Bella. Carlisle thinks that Aro is just curious about the human that Edward fell in love with. He's not here to enforce a law."

"Three thousand miles is a long way to go for curiosity," I said weakly.

"Yes, well, Carlisle trusts him. A long time ago, before any of us were created, Carlisle used to be part of the Volturi. So he knows Aro well."

"Well that's good," I said breathing again. Carlisle was so wise. It seemed hard to imagine that he could ever be wrong about anything.

"Yes, well, I worry that Carlisle can be a little too trusting sometimes," Alice admitted. "Though he must not completely trust Aro. Otherwise he would not have told us to contact Jacob and Sam to ask if the pack would stand with us and act as witnesses for Aro's visit."

I blanched. "Act as witnesses? That doesn't sound good."

"Just in case. There's strength in numbers. So that's why it's lucky that the pack happens to be in town this weekend," Alice admitted. "Though I know the timing is awkward … "

I laughed bitterly. Talk about understatement of the year.

" …. but it's good that they're here. Aro and his guards have joined Carlisle and Esme on the redeye back to Seattle. They arrive tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?!" I shot up straight in my seat. All this time, I was expecting this all to be a dream. But they were arriving tomorrow. This was real. It was happening. My head was spinning. My fingers felt numb. At any point, I would wake up from this dream. I was sure of it.

But instead, we just continued driving into the night, the dark forest of the Olympic peninsula flying past us. The moon was strangely bright as it illuminated the road ahead. We sat in silence for probably another ten minutes before the exit sign for Forks appeared. I glanced down at my watch. It had been 30 minutes since we had left Port Angeles. Thirty minutes since my life had crumbled around me.

"Is Edward coming?" I asked suddenly. She hadn't mentioned him at all.

Alice wouldn't meet my eyes as she responded. "We haven't been in touch with him for a while. He's mostly been traveling and living on his own the last few years. I don't even know where in the world he is. I've called and left a message – we all have – but we haven't heard back." She was rambling now. "Which doesn't mean he won't be here. He may still call. He usually does within a day or two. And given the short notice, I don't know if he'd be able to get here in time. He may be on his way for all we know-"

"- so the answer is no," I interrupted cutting to the chase. It was strange. I wasn't sure if that fact made me happy or sad.

Alice just nodded but refused to meet my eyes. And so we drove through Forks in silence, there wasn't a single other car out on the streets. A few minutes later, she pulled into the driveway in front of my house and cut the engine.

Let me know what you think! Hope you enjoyed it! I'll post again next Sunday!