Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns everything in the Twiverse. I'm just playing around in New Moon with Rosalie.

Soooo... amid all the cheers and tears about the Cullens' return to Forks, many were asking how many chapters were left in this story.

(Skip this A/N if you don't want to know.)

So as not to spoil it for those who don't want to accidentally see the number, I'll answer with a little word problem. Don't worry—it's simple! Take the number of this chapter and add it to which month of the year this is, and you'll have your answer.

This isn't a spoiler because I actually gave that number at the start of the story, but I added new chapters and combined a some others and wasn't sure if that number would still hold true.

But it has. So yay me.

"BUT HOOOOOOOWWWWW?!" I hear you wondering. "What about the HEA? What about Edward? What about Victoria? What about Charlie? What about EVERYTHIIIIIIIIING?!"

(Man, y'all are dramatic, LOL!)

And I will say what I always say—TRUST ME. I know what I'm doing.

I know YOU don't know, lol, but finding out is the whole point of reading, isn't it?!

Okay, back to Rose and Alice.


What Have We Done?

Chapter 50

I stare blankly ahead at nothing, my mind a wall of white noise.

I know vampires have perfect hearing and recall, so I do not dare doubt my senses.

But something must be wrong. Because I could not have heard what I think I just heard.

"You're..." I swallow hard, finding it difficult to form words. "You're moving back to Forks?"

"Yes."

"All of you?"

"Yes! Well, all of us who are here." She snorts. "I don't know what that brother of yours is doing, so who knows where he'll end up if he doesn't manage to..."

"Alice?"

"Yeah, Rose?"

"You can't..." I choose my words carefully, not wanting to hurt her feelings. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"What?"

"I mean, I know you mean well, that the family wants to help, but I just don't think..."

"I hear you. I do. But just hear me out, okay?" She exhales gently, dropping her enthusiasm to a manageable pitch. "We will stay away from Bella—no calls, no visits, not even telling her we're back."

I rub my forehead. "But you know how fast news travels in this one-horse town."

"I do. So we'll stay completely out of sight. Carlisle won't return to the hospital, I won't go back to school, and Edward?" She sighs. "Well, I won't presume to speak for him, but I can tell you the rest of us won't go near her."

"Do you really think that would work?"

"Yes." She sounds so sure. "We'll move to another location in the forest, further away from the reservation line, and have no reason to ever leave that area. In fact, unless she decides she wants to see us, it will be as if we don't exist."

A shudder ripples through me, and I clamp my lips shut to avoid snapping at her.

There's no way she could know.

"So if the plan is to stay completely away from Bella," I say once I've regathered myself. "Why come back at all?"

"Because you're there," she says simply. "And you need us."

"What?"

"We're a family, Rose. We haven't exactly behaved like one recently, but we are stronger together, better together. And you are Bella's best friend now, maybe her best friend ever. So if you need to stay in Forks, then we need to be in Forks with you. For you."

Her words literally shut my mouth. Not only because she manages to surrender her former place in Bella's life without bitterness or jealousy, but because something much bigger is at play here.

The family has suddenly pulled up stakes for one of us before—usually for killing a human or to avoid someone from our distant past and that one time Alice had a reeeeally bad feeling about some small town in North Dakota.

Fargo, I think it was.

But we have always and only done so to escape potential danger.

So this decision to move back to Forks to just support me... just because they value me and something I am doing...

I don't know how to accept that.

"That's fair," Alice says, letting me know I have spoken that last part aloud. "I mean, I know I've given you a hard time over the years, chalking up your decisions to selfishness or just a desire to be difficult. And I'm not saying that has never been the case. That situation in Louisiana is a clear example if ever there was one."

I snort at the memory. "I will neither confirm nor deny that."

"But ever since I learned you were in Forks, I started looking back on our history, on yours to be exact. And I realized that what I have always seen as selfishness was really protectiveness. You have the heart of a lioness and want to protect what you love at all costs. And if that makes you selfish..."

"Then so be it," I hear myself say. "And I will never apologize for that."

"And you shouldn't have to. And I apologize if I've ever made you feel otherwise."

"You have," I admit without anger. "But this moment more than makes up for it."

"It does?"

"Yes. As long as you immediately change the subject."

"As you wish!" Her gleeful tone returns. "We will be leaving here tonight and will text you when we get to Forks. It will take a day or so to rebuild the house, but we'll also let you know where we'll be."

"Okay."

"So we'll see you soon, okay?"

"Okay. And Alice?"

"Yeah, Rose?"

There's too much I want to say and not enough time to say it. I thought my earlier conversation with Edward would be the strangest I'd had in the last decade, but this one might just edge it out.

Because I am actually looking forward to seeing her.

"Thank you," I finally say, hoping she understands.

"Thank yourself," she replies easily. "None of this would be happening without you, Rose. So thank yourself."

I tuck the phone in my pocket and look up at Bella's window, my heart clenching at the sound of her continued duet of laughter and tears.

I will thank myself when she's okay.


Thanks for reading—see you Saturday! XO