AN: Well, this is the chapter that will answer the question that so many people have asked. Hope you enjoy. This picks up right where the last chapter ended.

Srose: read on to see the accuracy level of your predictions.

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Bella POV

"Bella?" Jared stood in the partly open doorway as the question echoed in the air. Standing behind him, my entire body seemed to contract at the sound of that voice. It can't be.

Jared moved back from the door, allowing me room to move and take his place. I wasn't sure I wanted to, but I'd never been a coward, so I took a couple steps forward and took hold of the doorknob. I moved a little to the side so I could see outside. I stood half-hidden behind the door, my hand gripping the knob, unable to believe what I was seeing. Blinking repeatedly, I shook my head, then looked again. Nope, not dreaming.

"Alice?" my voice sounded strangled. "What are you doing here?"

"Bella? You're alive?" Alice's voice skirled upward, clear evidence of her shock.

"What?" I gaped at her. "Why would you think I was dead?"

"Everything in Seattle; I was worried, couldn't see you anymore-"

"And what if I was dead, Alice? Why would you care? Why are you back?" My frustration and anger welled up and exploded outward. How dare she come back and do this to me? A whole year of nothing, and all of a sudden she comes back and expects that nothing would have changed?

"Why would I care?" Alice repeated, stunned. "Of course, I care. Bella, you're my sister. I love you, just like Edward does."

"Don't say his name to me," I rasped. "He doesn't love me, and neither do you-you left."

"Of course, he-what are you talking about, Bella? Edward loves you. That's the reason we left; he was trying to protect you."

"Like that did me any good," I laughed bitterly, but quietly, mindful of whom exactly was in my dad's living room. "Now, again, Alice, why are you here?"

She finally seemed to take a good look at me, what she could see of me anyway. "You aren't happy to see me," she realized.

"Now, why would you have expected me to be happy?"

She didn't have an answer, just kept staring at me in disbelief. Then, "What did you mean about our leaving not doing you any good?"

"Now isn't exactly a very good time for this, Alice," I hissed. It wasn't going to be long before someone came looking to see where we were. I was actually surprised it hadn't happened yet-the pack members still in the living room had to be listening to this low-voiced conversation. I guessed they might be trying to keep the element of surprise as long as possible, so long as there wasn't a threat. Tonight must be my night for shocking her, although why Alice hadn't seen this outcome was a bit puzzling. "Look," I finally decided, "we do need to talk, but this isn't the time or place."

"When and where, then?" Alice was clearly frustrated. Well, join the club.

"In an hour or so...your family's house." I knew the pack wouldn't be too happy about the location, but we would need privacy to hash all this out. I knew the Cullen's were forbidden to come onto the tribe's land, but I'd never heard of the treaty specifically prohibiting the pack from coming near the Cullen's' home. Granted, that was probably implied, but if it wasn't expressly stated...I'd take my chances. The pack and I were a package deal now; if the Cullen's wanted to speak to me, they'd do it with the pack around.

It looked like Alice had a lot more to say, but it must have been obvious from my expression that she wasn't getting anything more out of me right now. She sighed heavily, and then winced and wrinkled her face as she took in another, unnecessary breath. I remembered the wolves saying that the smell of vampires was a sickly-sweet odor that burned their noses. What do they smell like to the vampires? I wondered.

"I'll come, Alice," I promised.

"We'll be waiting," she replied.

"We?" I wanted to know exactly what I was walking into.

"Esme and Carlisle and Emmett and Rose are waiting at the house. Jasper's waiting for me right over there," she gestured in the direction of the forest. My face must have been its usual expressive self, because she continued, "He isn't with us right now." I couldn't stifle a sigh-of relief. I wasn't really sure how ready I was to face any of them, much less almost all of them-but I knew I wasn't ready for face him. I had chosen Jared as my forever, and felt only joy and no regret over that, but that didn't mean that I wanted to be face-to-face with Edward Cullen again anytime soon.

I heard the sound of footfalls behind me. "Go!" I whispered, and for once, Alice listened to me.

"Who was it?" Jared's voice was low with repressed emotion.

"Alice," I whispered.

He stepped past me, onto the porch, and I knew he was looking to see if she was still here. I followed him out, pulling the door closed behind me.

"What did she want?" he asked after a moment.

"I'm not really sure. I'm not sure I want to know." I paused. "For some reason, she thought I was dead." That really confused me. Her visions showed the outcome of decisions made. Why would she have thought I was dead when I wasn't? Why wouldn't she have seen I was fine?

His body was trembling, but I knew it wasn't because he was about to phase. I knew he was thinking of me and our unborn baby girl. "I'm scared, too," was my quiet confession. "I know you won't want to go, but we need to know what she's seen. It might help."

"Sneaking away from your own birthday dinner?" I jumped and spun to face the now-open doorway. Sam's voice was pitched loudly enough that those in the living room would hear him. His teasing tone didn't match the serious look in his eyes.

"Can you blame us?" Jared did pretty well at matching Sam's tone.

"Not a bit," Sam said. "I'll give him a hand with these, Bella. Emily wants to ask you something."

I knew that one or both of them would be taking a look around. "Be careful," I whispered before turning to go back inside. I must have been a better actress than usual, because Charlie didn't seem to notice anything wrong. The others helped with distracting talk about the baby and the new football season. Even so, we wrapped things up as quickly as we could manage.

"Bye, dad" I gave him a hug as we started toward the door. "And thanks. This was nice."

"Glad you enjoyed it, Bells. Happy birthday, and congratulations."

Outside in the driveway, Sam gave the others a quick update.

"What's the plan?" Embry asked.

"I think Bella's right and we need to find out why they've come back. They obviously know something about Seattle, and it worries me that that psychic was so sure that—" Sam broke off without finishing his sentence, for which I was grateful.

"But, going there?" Leah questioned. Catching her tension, Daniel started kneading her shoulders.

"It is private," I offered. "I know it's probably getting up in their faces a little, but maybe that's the best way to go into this."

"Shazaam," Quil whispered to Jake.

"Amen, bro," was the reply.

"Works for me," Jared agreed.

"Okay. Then who?" Sam moved on.

"You, Jake, Jared, and Quil," I announced.

"Not that I'm arguing, but why these particular wolves?" Everyone was just as curious as Sam to see my rationale.

"The Alpha and Beta pretty much have to come—this does involve the treaty, after all. They'll recognize your surnames, too. That should make a statement in and of itself. Same thing for Quil. And Jared, because there's no way I'm going anywhere without him."

"What about the rest of us?" Leah asked, shaking off Daniel's hands to start pacing restlessly.

"Fill the others in, and stay on alert," Jake jumped in. "Stay close to the rez, but keep an ear open if we call." Sam nodded in agreement. Then,

"Emily, take the car and get Claire home. Everyone who's not going, do the same. Sue, can you let Billy and Old Quil know? Good. Jake, Quil, we'll go there as wolves. Jake and I will phase back human to talk with them; Quil, you'll stay wolf so we're linked to the rest of the pack. Everyone understand?" With nods of confirmation, everyone who was driving anywhere headed to their respective cars; Sam, Jake, and Quil glanced around before heading for the nearby woods to phase. I was sure they'd pace us on the drive out.

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"Bella, are you okay?" Jared briefly took his eyes off the road to look my way.

"I don't know. I know we need to do this, to find out why they're back, but part of me wants to run the other way. I'm not sure I'm ready for this."

His free hand reached over to clasp mine firmly. "You can do this, Bella, I know you can. You're strong, strong enough to face this. And you deserve to. You can finally get the answers you didn't have for the past year—you can look them in the eye and make them tell youwhy they left. You can let them know what they did to you." He chuckled briefly. "And if you want to rub the current reality in their faces, feel free."

"How about we take it as it comes? At least to begin with." I wasn't sure what, exactly, I would want to tell them.

"One look at you will make part of it pretty darn clear, you know."

"Not if I keep the shawl on," I countered.

"She just saw you, Bella. She's probably told them already."

"I was almost completely hidden behind the door, remember. She only saw my head and shoulder." My wife was just the slightest bit smug at the moment.

"I thought you said she was psychic. What's to say she hasn't Seen it that way?"

"Her visions could change. Besides, she got it wrong earlier about me; she might not pick this up either." I was betting that she wouldn't—if she'd Seen I was pregnant before appearing on my dad's porch, I couldn't believe that she wouldn't have said something.

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Jared POV

"Their hearing's probably good enough to hear the heartbeat." I recognized that I was grasping at straws now.

"There will be five others to hear beside the baby's, and I doubt they spent enough time around the last pack to really know what's usual for wolves. I'm not saying it'll last long, but hopefully long enough for us to start figuring some things out before we have to reveal anything." Her tone was certain and confident.

As we passed the city limits of Forks, Bella reached toward the dash and hit the power button for the radio. The radio station started playing a song I'd never heard before.

All the lives, always tempted to trade,
Will they hate me for all the choices I made?
Will they stop when they see me again?
I can't stop now I know who I am.

Now I'm all yours, I'm not afraid,
And you're all mine, say what they may.
And all your love I'll take to a grave,
And all my life starts now.

"How do you think they'll react to everything?" I wondered aloud.

"I have no idea," she admitted. "But no matter how they respond it won't change anything. We belong to each other and we're making our future together. I chose you, and I don't regret that and never will." There really wasn't anything I could say to that, besides being sappy and agreeing with her.

I used my cell to call Emily, asking her to pass on Bella's ideas to Sam and the others. I wasn't convinced we'd be able to keep the secret for long, but if the psychic was telling the truth about the mind-reader not being here, then maybe Bella was right that we could manage it for a little while.

As I turned the car off the main road, as directed by Bella, and onto a winding driveway, I saw the others briefly through the trees, before the split off from our path to approach from another direction. Eventually the driveway broke into a wide clearing, at the center of which was a large white farmhouse. By the time I brought the car to a stop, the porch went from being empty to being occupied by a half-dozen vampires.

"Here we go," I muttered under my breath.

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Leah POV

Everyone gathered at Sam and Emily's, just like always. The other members of the pack were restless, nervous that so many of our dominants were walking straight into a vampire den. The imprints were just as tense, wondering what might happen before tonight was over. Most of us were in the kitchen and living room; Embry and Paul were already in wolf-form outside, keeping tabs on what was going on.

For myself, I was thinking about Bella, what she must be thinking and feeling. She'd felt herself luckier than me, in not being faced everyday with the ones who'd hurt her, the way I had; the flip side was that unlike me she hadn't gotten answers about why they'd done it.

The silence in the cabin was broken by Jared's call. Afterward, Daniel seemed to decide that we'd done enough of doing nothing. "So, the vampires they're going to see are ones who used to live here? Good guys?"

"That's debatable," I snorted. "But, yeah, they're the ones who were here until a year ago. The ones who left Bella a broken shell when they vanished. The ones who made the pack return."

"For vampires, I guess you could say they are good," my little brother chose to give Daniel more of an answer. "Our ancestors made the treaty with them because they showed that they were different from the rest of their kind, the ones we hunt. They don't kill humans; they drink the blood of animals. It's how we can tell them apart—human-killers have red eyes, the Cullen's have gold. Or so I've heard—never met them personally."

Twin growls from outside brought every wolf inside to our feet. As soon as Paul called "Move out, now," we were in a mad dash for the door. Clothes were shredded without thought as we phased during our jumps down from the porch.

What's going on? I demanded of Quil as my legs stretched out into a full-fledged run.

He's back.

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AN: Well, here it is, the reason why I decided to write this story. I hope this answers everyone's question about our favorite vampire family.

I know this is a little shorter than usual, but this was a good stopping point for this chapter. This daily updating won't last—I've got to do lots of planning to get everything that's going into the next few chapters into proper order, but this one just came out and I couldn't wait to give it to you all (hope I haven't overloaded you with too many new chapters so close together).