Chapter 35:

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.

A/N: I have been meddling around on another story, so I may be posting it in a few months if all goes well. Just keep an eye out.

I sighed as I stepped under the spray of the shower half an hour later; letting the warm water soothe my muscles. While I hated to admit it, the physical activity it took to battle Kate was tiring on my muscles, and they were currently sore from the moves I had to make.

I stood under the water for a minute for it wet my body and sooth my muscles before I grabbed the shampoo and began to wash out my hair. The soap made my hair feel heavy, and yet somehow clean at the same time while I washed away the day's grime—not to mention—every trace of vampire scent that still remained on me.

Seriously, if I passed any vampire on the street, I would smell like a perfume store with how many times I was marked by a vampire at the Denali house it was so bad. I didn't doubt that I had even more of their scents on me than I realized, or cared to admit, from any other kind of chance they got to apply their scent and I didn't notice.

Oh geez, if scents rubbed off from material I had to be covered in Alice's.

I shivered at the thought and then removed the shampoo from my hair. The foam slipped between my fingers, down my neck and between my shoulder blades as the water rinsed it from my body. I tilted my head back, letting the sound of the water fill my ears completely and force me to close my eyes as I rid the rest of the shampoo away from my hair.

That was most likely why I never heard or saw the door open.

As I instinctively wiped my eyes for any soap that happened to slip into them, I heard a soft, "Psst."

At first, I thought I had just imagined it; not stopping from my routine as I opened my eyes and started to go for the soap to wash my body. I was opening the bottle when I heard the sound again, this time louder with, "Bella!"

I froze.

There was no way I imagined that.

Slowly, I turned my attention to the shower curtain and yelped. I dropped the bottle with a loud clunk when I saw the shape outlined against the bathroom lights. I stumbled back, leaning my back on the wall and clutched my heart as it raced it my chest.

"Bella!" they hissed again.

I took in deep breaths until I recognized the voice and growled. Yanking back the shower curtain, I stuck my head out—still hiding my body—and glared daggers at Rosalie. "Are you kidding me? In my bathroom? Really? You scared the shit out me," I whisper-yelled.

She shrugged. "I didn't mean to." Liar. "Besides, I needed to talk to you, and I thought it would be the best time."

"While I'm naked in the shower?"

"I'm not picky when it's for needed discussions."

I huffed, rolling my eyes. Of course she wasn't. She was Rosalie Fucking Hale, after all. I pointed towards the bathroom door. "Get out," I growled.

She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "Can I at least wait for you to finish?" she pouted. Whoa. Wait…Pouted?

I frowned. "No," I growled.

"Why? I'm already here."

"In my bathroom."

"So?"

I forced myself not to face-palm. "Can you please just—?"

"Bells?" Charlie's voice called up the stairs. I could hear his feet on the wooden steps ascending the stairs towards the bathroom door. It wasn't a slow pace…uh-oh, please no.

Rosalie turned towards the door as he reached the top step…and kept coming. Shit. He wasn't going to stop like he usually would.

"Get in," I hissed.

Her attention snapped to me. "Huh?"

"Get in."

"Bella?" he called again. He was maybe five feet from the door and closing fast. I swore he had vampire speed in this very moment just to discover Rosalie in the bathroom with me.

On impulse, I shot my hand forward, grabbed Rosalie and yanked her into the shower. She yelped in surprise, making him quicken his steps. I yanked the curtain shut, shoving her against the wall behind me just as the door opened.

"Bells?" he asked worriedly.

I glanced at Rosalie, just barely poking my head around the curtain to make sure she was hidden. "Yeah?" I asked as innocently as possible.

He stepped forward awkwardly. "Are you okay?" he asked.

I nodded, smiling. "Of course," I said. "Why wouldn't I be?" It wasn't like I was hiding a Cullen behind the shower curtain in the shower with me after all.

He shrugged. "I thought I heard a bang, and then you talking to someone. When you weren't answering…I got concerned," he explained carefully.

I smiled. "Sorry, I just dropped the soap and started cursing myself out." I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly and smiled shyly. "It's probably a good thing you didn't hear what I was saying."

He nodded. "Ah, I see…" He awkwardly shuffled in place and backed up a step. "I'll just…let you continue then."

"I'd appreciate that."

"Right…" He fled from the bathroom and shut the door behind him like death incarnate was after him. His footsteps rapidly walked away from the awkward exchange.

Giving a sigh of relief, I closed the curtain, and looked over my shoulder at Rosalie. Turning around, I folded my arms across my chest as goosebumps jumped across my skin from the cold of her skin mixing with the warm air and lack of warm water. "Happy now?"

She shrugged and looked down. She was dry from mid-thigh up, but everything from there down was soaked. "Well…I would be if I could borrow some of your pants."

So, ten minutes after I put Rosalie outside of the shower to sit on the toilet lid to wait, I finally walked into my room with my towel wrapped around me and a pants-less Rosalie trudging behind me. Her ruined jeans hung over her arm and her shoes dangled from her fingers as they dripped a path of water behind us.

As soon as I was in my room, I chucked a pair of gym shorts at her. "Put these on," I said, not turning around as I pulled out sweats and a t-shirt for me and gathered my undies from the drawer.

She snorted. "These don't go with my shirt."

"Do you really want to argue with me right after I just hauled your ass into my shower?"

Wisely, the blonde didn't argue and slipped on the gym shorts. I dropped my towel and started to put on my undies. As I did, I could hear Rosalie sit on my bed behind my back. "You seem to have lost your modest and prude side," she observed.

I shrugged, releasing the elastic band of my panties and moved to the bra. I slipped the straps up my arms and turned, fastening it behind my back. "Yeah, well, after you have to go through exams and shit for years you kind of lose it."

I lowered my arms and looked up to find her staring at my port from the foot of my bed. I furrowed my brow, grabbed my t-shirt, and pulled it over my head to cover the port; making her look back up to me. I pulled on the sweatpants looking away from her.

"I forget that you have cancer, sometimes." She looked me up and down. "Or that you have changed so much."

I straightened, crossing my arms over my chest. "Change is needed," I responded. "And it was a change that I desperately had to see through if I wanted to live."

Rosalie's brows furrowed, and her lips pulled into a frown. "What do you mean by that?" she asked.

Involuntarily, I bit my bottom lip at my slip. What happened to me after they left was not something I wanted to jump into. They had only been here for two days for crying out loud, and I still needed to figure out exactly how this was going to be handled. Having them realize just how hurt I was when they left wasn't far up on my list, if you got what I meant.

So, I gave the best half-truth there was. "Cancer is something you need a positive attitude with," I explained. "Negative gets you nowhere, and you don't live—you don't fight it."

The blonde cocked her head from my bed worriedly, haltingly. "Were you…depressed?" she asked after a moment's pause.

I nodded, moving towards the bed. I sat at the headboard, keeping distance between the two of us. I adjusted myself until I was comfortable. "Yes," I said, "but so are many people with cancer." There was no reason to hide that one.

The blonde turned to face me, crossing her legs, and scooted closer. She reached out her hand worriedly touching my knee. "Was it bad? Did you ever…did you ever try to commit suicide?"

My brows shot up for a moment, but then lowered back down. I had been suicidal, sure, but I never went through with my thoughts. I never went past staring out my window thinking about how I could do it, but would never actually do it. It frightened me, committing suicide, and that fear was the only thing that kept me hanging on by the fingertips to sanity.

I shook my head firmly. "No," I said. "I never tried."

Rosalie nodded while her shoulders and body relaxed in relief and pulled her hand away. "Good," she nodded. "Good." Her fingers laced together in her lap.

I nodded, awkwardly shifting on the bed and looked down. "Why are you here, Rosalie?" I asked. I glanced up. "And, more importantly, why couldn't you wait in my room to talk?"

The blonde gave me a small, cocky smile. "I will admit," she said, "going into the bathroom was for my personal amusement. I wanted to see if you would be as prudish as you were when we lived in Forks."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No," she shook her head. Her head lulled to the side thoughtfully. "I rather found your blushes cute and amusing. I was a little disappointed when you didn't earlier."

My eyebrows, again, rose in surprise. She liked seeing me blush? I couldn't even remember seeing Rosalie around enough to see me blush in front of the others. Sure, I was shy and a prude back then, so I blushed a lot, but I never remembered her seeing me blush.

She avoided me like a plague back in Forks.

The blonde huffed and rolled her eyes. "Please don't be so surprised, Bella. I never hated you," she said. "If I did, I would be sitting in the living room annoyed with everyone arguing."

My brows furrowed. "Arguing?"

She nodded. "It started not long after Tanya returned. It's been off and on for a while, and during one of them I decided to slip out and come see you. I thought it was a good opportunity to talk."

My frowned deepened. "I still don't know why you are here to talk. There is really nothing for you and I to discuss that couldn't wait until the next time I was over."

She scowled. "And, as you said, that would be a while with Charlie."

I waved my hand dismissively. "Please," I huffed, "Charlie doesn't like you, but he wouldn't keep me away from Tanya and the Denalis after everything they've done for me up here. He's started to become pretty grateful for—"

"I really do not want to hear about them," she growled suddenly; startling me. I jumped when her eyes darkened and her lip curled upwards into a snarl at the mention of the Denalis.

Holy shit...if she was acting this way to just their name and what they did to help me, I couldn't imagine what the arguments at the house were like. I blinked and cautiously studied her to make sure she wouldn't go on a rampage and destroy everything in my room.

As if reading my mind, the blonde closed her eyes and took in a breath. She held it for several long seconds until she released it and opened her eyes. Her head ducked apologetically. "I'm sorry," she muttered, "but I'm afraid I have difficulty controlling myself."

I went back to being her lap hostage. "As I've seen."

Rosalie nodded and moved a little closer. "You again have my apologies for that as well, even though I am not entirely sorry for it," she said.

"Excuse me?"

She stretched her hand forward and took mine in hers, playing with my fingers. "It's what I wanted to discuss with you," she explained. "I'm sure the Denalis have told you about it, but I don't think it will entirely explain everything."

She paused and glanced up to me. I waited for her to continue, but without her speaking for several long seconds, I realized she was waiting for permission. I jerked my chin as a sign to continue.

With a nod she continued to fiddle with my hand. "I know that my actions towards you recently have been…surprising." I nodded there, agreeing completely with the light term. "I also know," she continued, "that I wasn't very welcoming towards you when we first met, and that gives you all the reason to be surprised by my behavior."

She bit her lip. "However, while I may not have welcomed you, I never hated you. In fact, I was…strangely fond of you." One of my brows arched in surprise and she smiled. "Hard to believe, I'm sure, but I was. Something about you was just…so hard to resist liking. I didn't like you as strongly as the rest of my family, but I did like you in a fashion; even if I never really got close to you in the beginning."

She looked down to our hands and sighed. "That's probably my biggest regret; not being friendly and getting to know you. I let my own issues get in the way of it, and I regret it." She looked up again. "Back then, I envied you. I envied the mortal life you had—the one I wanted. You could have children, a husband, grow old…I had wanted that life when I was human, and I still want it. You had it, and seeing you with Edward just seemed wrong.

"Maybe it was some instinct in me telling me that you were not his mate at the time, but all I cared about then was that Edward had brought you, a human girl, into our lives who had what I wanted. I disliked you for that reason, and I disliked you even more when I found myself becoming fond of you, because you had what I wanted." She shook her head, chuckling. "It's stupid, really, now that I look back on it. Maybe, if I had thought clearly, I wouldn't be in the messy state I am now."

I frowned and shook my head negatively. "It's not stupid," I said. "It's just…human."

She gave a small smile. "Human—maybe—but still a mistake that I'll regret." She scooted closer again squeezing my hand in both of hers. "That mistake is what made me be in the dilemma I am in now. Not allowing my fondness for you to grow didn't allow my beast to put claim on you, nor did it ever allow me to even be able to call you my sister when you really were my sister the whole time."

A scowl pulled on her lips again. "And now that you have cancer, with the chance of us not getting to connect, with Kate and Irina claiming you as theirs…" She trailed off to growl lightly in her chest and her eyes darkened. Her hands squeezed mine making me flinch even though it didn't hurt.

The flinch, however, caught her attention and she quickly shook her head to get out of the daze and loosened her grip on my hand. She took in a breath; rubbing circles of apology on the back of my hand with her thumb. "Anyway," she continued, "the point is that now I have double the competition for the right to be in your life. Not only did I never have claim on you in the first place, but my siblings did and now Kate and Irina do." She focused on me intently, trying to put meaning into her words. "And, with that said, it means that I am willing to risk a physical fight against the two for it."

I was at a loss for words.

Had I expected Rosalie to be overprotective and possessive? Yes, that was how all vampires were—apparently. Her actions stated more than enough to agree she was definitely being possessive and protective now.

Did I think she had been fond of me? Well…I didn't know. Tanya said she had been, in a way, and it made her want to be involved in my life now that there was certain competition up whom was not in her immediate family like Alice and Jasper.

Did I expect her to be so fond of me or envious of me? Hell no. The last thing I had expected on Earth was for Rosalie to be envious of me. Well, it was mostly my human life that she thought was perfect was what she was jealous of, but still. I had expected her to be sizing me up for underground fighting before that.

I, truly, was at a loss for words as my brain processed all the information. It felt ready to go into overload at any second until every file was in perfect place and organized correctly in order to be able to see through the massive mess that'd just been dropped on my plate.

Rosalie, however, took my silence as a neutral sign and cleared her throat awkwardly, gaining my attention. "And that brings me here," she concluded. "I'm here to ask you for a shot, Bella. I want to show you that I can be your sister; that I want to be your sister." Her hands squeezed mine, shoving every ounce of her plea into it. "I promise you, if you do give me a chance, I will do everything I can to earn your trust; even if I have to start from the bottom."

The sincerity and pleading behind Rosalie's words made my heart oddly swell in my chest. Her golden eyes held conviction and determination; it showed how honest she was with her intentions and what she had planned to carry out from there.

I would admit that the idea of Rosalie as my sister was very appealing. I had always wanted the blonde and me to be closer in Forks. And, according to Rosalie, she wanted us to be closer as well—sisters, in fact. She wanted that shot to be so close so horribly that she was prepared to work for it; she expected to work for it.

And, she would have to work for it. While I had least heartbreak from Rosalie leaving, she still left with the others. And, if she claimed that she had actually cared for me then, and especially now, I didn't want to risk the chance of it again.

If she wanted what I had with Kate and Irina, she would have to work for it just as they did. She would have to prove herself to me—prove that she was trustworthy of staying.

And so, giving a small nod, I said, "You have a shot, Rosalie."

The blonde grinned so big I thought her face was going to pop off. "I promise you, Bella, you won't regret it. I will make sure that I do it right and that you're not disappointed."

I nodded again. "I didn't expect anything else, Rosalie," I agreed. "However, you do have to work for the right of being my sister. Kate and Irina had to work for it, just as you will."

She furrowed her brow in resolve. "I will. I promise you, I will."