Ah! I'm so pleased by the reviews from the last chapter! I loved that chapter. I thought it was hilarious how they were basically having a conversation/communicating through yelling. I thought it was just so delightfully gay. They're both just SO stubborn! So I'm glad you guys liked it too! Thank you for loving this story!

Rosalie was still angry as she roared up to the garage, punching the button on the automatic door so hard that the remote crumpled broke.

"GUAHH!" She screamed at it, slamming on the breaks just in time to stop the car from running smack into Emmett leaning against the far wall. She threw the car into park, turned off the engine and glared out of the windshield at him.

She wasn't happy to see him there, not at all. She was even less happy to see his usually playful face serious, his arms crossed, the air of expectancy coming off of him.

With another angry cry, she got out and slammed the car door, only just pulling her strength at the last second so she didn't crumple the car entirely. The effort only made her yell at the car. "Why does everything have to be so fragile?" She didn't want to be gentle. She wanted to slam things like any normal person would be able to do to vent their fury.

Emmett didn't respond as she turned on him, snarling and spitting. She looked at his serious face and the anger, so often created to defend the most tender parts of herself, faded into its original form. Hurt. Sadness.

She looked at him, pushing her hair out of her face and felt her bottom lip tremble. "Alice?" She asked, shame and embarrassment coloring her tone.

"Nah." He shook her head, straightening from his lean. "I just had a feeling."

"Now what does that fucking mean?" She snapped at him. There she went being a bitch again, damn it.

Bella didn't want to see her. It hadn't even been a right now, it had been a not at all. Bella didn't want to see her at all. She could still smell Bella's misty wonderful scent on her own skin from being in her home for a matter of minutes. She could still feel that never-ending desire to mate with Bella emotionally pulling at her, begging her to do exactly that.

Ahhh, she rubbed at her chest. It hurt. The fact that she couldn't bond with Bella emotionally. The fact that Bella didn't want her. It hurt. It all hurt.

Rosalie knew that Emmett saw all of this as he watched her face. She hated it. Turning a little, she tried to get her emotions under control enough not to slip by her. His arms opened, an invitation and though Rosalie would rather pick a fight, would rather yell some more, she let herself slump into them.

They closed around her, wrapping her up so tightly that her feet left the floor. Habitually, she curled her legs up and Emmett caught them, cradling her to his chest.

"Do you think it's possible that she doesn't feel the bond like I do?" Her words were muffled into his chest, but Emmett seemed to catch them anyway.

"I dunno, Rose. I don't get how any of this works. But who couldn't love you?"

Despite her mood, that made her chuckle. "Most people, Emm."

"What?" He scoffed. "No way."

Her smile faded, not that it had ever fully developed. "No," she sighed. "She didn't want to see me, Emmett. Not at all." She took a deep breath and wailed. "And she didn't like my soup!"

"Awww, she didn't?"

"She gagged!"

Emmett made a strange choking noise that Rose knew was a hidden laugh. "It's not funny!"

"No, it's not," he soothed. "I'm sorry. It's not funny." His arms held her a little tighter and so she closed her eyes, resting her head against him, taking the comfort he offered.

"Rose, do you think there's any chance that you're not, err, totally seeing that she's going through right now?"

The anger snapped back into place, giving her whiplash. Her teeth bared and she shoved him away, landing on her feet. "Of course I see!" She yelled. "If anyone doesn't see, it's you! And her! Gah! She's supposed to understand that things are about to get better for her! If she would let them! She'll never have to worry about love again! I will love her!" She shouted, jabbing herself hard in the center of her chest. "She's supposed to feel this! She's supposed to know! She's not supposed to be sitting there crying over Edward! Fuck Edward!" As she ranted, she paced, Emmett's eyes following her, nodding along. "I see perfectly! I see what she's not seeing! I see what you're not seeing! I- I – I see it!" She grit her teeth against the pain that flared. Bella… didn't see it. How was it possible that Bella didn't see it? How was it possible… that it could hurt so much that Bella didn't understand? She let out a gasp, clutching at her chest, unable to breathe through the pain of it.

"Well, Rosie, she can't understand, right? There are whole chunks about this that you haven't told her."

She glared at him, feeling irrationally betrayed by his words.

"She just doesn't know, Rose."

The sound that ripped from Rose was unfairly harsh. "She doesn't need to know to feel."

Emmett's eyebrows rose and she didn't need him to point out that what she had said had sounded very much like something Edward might say. Rubbing at her chest, she snarled a little under her breath. "I might have gotten overly excited."

"You pushed."

"I pushed," she admitted in defeat.

She let him pull her back under his arm.

"You push sometimes. It's just who you are, Rose. You wanted to see her. That makes sense. But I think you need to give her space."

Space. It sounded like the worst thing she could do.

But she agreed.

And she did it.

Her thoughts might have been on Bella constantly over the next few weeks, but she didn't call, she didn't go by her house. Bella didn't show up at school, but Rosalie hadn't expected her to. Edward didn't return, but she also hadn't expected that.

It made Rosalie uncomfortable how quickly and easily life went back to how it had been before Bella had entered her life and turned it upside down. She went to school during the day. She read books. She watched TV with her family, movies on her own or with Emmett. She worked on Emmett's car at night. Only, before Bella, Rose had been happy doing those things, or at least as happy as she thought she was capable of being.

Now, living this routine that she knew so well she was miserable. She felt empty, alone. She went through activities that she had always enjoyed with a glum mental fog, barely aware of what she was doing.

She took the separation well, despite the depression. She respected Emmett's opinion as well as Bella's wishes for about two weeks. By the third, her worry was beginning to feel like a nagging ache in the back of her mind. Alice and Carlisle promised her that Bella was healing well, promised her that there would be no real lasting damage except for perhaps some stiffness when it was damp; to which Rosalie had responded by reminding Carlisle that it was always damp in Forks.

By week three her desire to see Bella for herself was beginning to feel stronger than she was. Bella had been moved from a cast and into a large boot, at least that's what Carlisle had told her, and the bruises had faded away. Rosalie took the updates as stoically as she could, swallowing down the desire that felt more like a burn.

She wasn't in a bad mood that morning. She hadn't been in a specifically bad or a specifically good mood for weeks. She had dressed, pleased that the short stint of snow had already turned back into their usual rain.

"Car time tonight?" Emmett asked as they pulled themselves from the car in the school parking lot. His Camaro had come along very nicely in the last month since Rosalie hadn't faced any distractions. Under the hood was a systematic mess of gleaming steel and chrome, impressive logos in red and blue and yellow everywhere. It was a gearhead's dream. Turning the engine over created a purr that Rosalie could have almost enjoy sexually. It was beautifully done, if she did say so herself. The dashboard had been assembled, with a few updated tweaks, however, the covering still needed some work, as did the seats. The seat of the driver's side wouldn't move forward and she was sure she was going to have to replace the original backseat she had found because sitting in it felt like sitting on exposed coils, and she was still waiting on a custom steering wheel to show up. The frame itself still gleamed a dull grey with patches of black here and there where it had been filled.

"Sure." She shrugged, pulling her backpack on over her trendy Zena coat.

The two started in together, side by side but not touching as they usually would have. She was halfway across the parking lot when the scent hit her. She paused mid-step, her eyes closing as she breathed in deeply. Her body convulsed, making her gasp. "Bella!"

Without thought, she turned in the direction of the trail, self-control momentarily forgotten.

Bella was back! Bella was there!

"Whoa there, happy." Emmett chuckled as he hooked Rosalie's arm with his own.

She looked up at him, uncomprehending.

"Space."

"Oh." Her mood which had spiked, suddenly fell making her feel sick. "Right." She frowned, hating it. "Space."

"And why are you giving her space?" Emmett quizzed as he had so often over the past weeks.

"Because she asked me to."

"Right. Come on. I'll walk you to class."

It was hard not to be distracted that day. Her classroom had been amazingly and horribly Bella-scent free and sitting in it again felt like a caressing attack. For the first time in years when she was called on for a solution, Rosalie didn't have it. Of course, she would have known it if she had heard it, but for once her vampire brain, so able to do so many things at once, had been too focused on other things to remember she was in school.

The teacher, Mr. Jefferies, had seemed genuinely shocked.

"Rosalie, are you feeling all right?"

She had sniffed and nodded once.

If she could shake from nerves then she would have been as she stepped into the cafeteria. She didn't allow herself to look around, able to smell that Bella had not yet entered the room. She gathered some food blindly, paid, and went to her seat.

She sat there, playing with the food, and trying hard to distract herself with her book, but it was impossible. She couldn't concentrate. The voices of the student around her were too loud. There were too many scents, too many things pulling on her attention.

She couldn't think.

Finally, long after she would have usually entered, the door opened with a struggle and Bella hobbled in.

The book in her hands fell back, resting on the table as Rosalie looked, feeling all at once better and worse.

She looked better, Carlisle and Alice had been right about that. The swelling in various parts of her body had disappeared, the bruising had indeed also gone. She looked surer of herself on her crutches, her unbroken leg far more stable. The brace also seemed as though it could handle a little bit of weight without causing her pain, which had to help.

The door, however, was causing her grief. It was a heavy one that closed quickly behind you. Bella managed to get the broken leg in first, then her upper body, then her other leg, her cheeks flaming red when she finally was through. She straightened on her crutches, and her eyes drifted under their lashes toward the place where the Cullens always sat.

A tight grip on her arm made her look away, offended. Who the fuck was – she stopped, frowning deeply with surprise. She hadn't realized she had stood, not until Emmett had grabbed her, at least.

"Oh."

With a look of understanding, he gave her arm a gentle pull and she sat back down, heartsick.

A little embarrassed, it took Rosalie a moment before she was able to look up again. When she did, she saw that Bella's eyes were still on her, a strange look on her face. She held Bella's gaze from across the room for a long, deep moment before Bella finally looked away, shuffling toward the lunch line.

Rose sniffed, taking her book back up.

"I'm fine," she squeaked when Emmett put a hand on her arm.

She had thought that denying the bond was the most painful thing she could do. She had been wrong. Having Bella refuse it, refuse to be near her, that was so much worse. That hurt in her heart, her stomach, and her mind.

Across the room, Bella picked up a sick-yellow plastic tray and tried to figure out how she was going to carry it and walk with her crutches at the same time. She tried to hobble and instead wobbled dangerously.

Rose twitched, again caught by Emmett before she could rise. She glanced back at him, desperate to help. "What if she falls?"

"She won't. Look. There goes Mike."

"Who?"

She turned back to see a very eager looking boy leap up from a nearby table and approach.

"Hey, Bella," he said, his voice clear over the babble of the crowd... perhaps, Rose thought, because she was listening too intently. "Can I help you?"

Bella's already warm face blushed deeper. "Err, thanks, Mike."

She didn't like it. She didn't like it at all. Rose watched Mike move down the line of food, picking out what Bella asked him to with a low growl in her throat. She didn't like him. It wasn't jealousy. It wasn't possessiveness. It was... she didn't know, but she didn't like him. He looked stupid, and his hair was ridiculous. The way he smiled at Bella... she didn't like him. She didn't like him at all.

And it continued in that way. The next day Rosalie still tried to stand when Bella entered the cafeteria, even though this time she was accompanied by Mike and by the girl who regularly chattered at her about how stupid the school was and boys in one of her classes. She was sure this girl thought that the two of them had a friendship, but Rosalie had always spent those conversations giving the minimal amount of 'hmmm's and 'uh-huh's she needed to while picturing interesting ways the girl could disappear.

The day after that, Rosalie didn't rise when Bella walked in, surrounded by people. And that was how it was. She saw Bella t lunch, and only at lunch. She sat in her classroom filled with Bella's scent, which had grown strong and debilitating with their separation again. She did not approach her and Bella seemed to notice her presence less and less.

She hated it. She was moody. She was jittery. Her work on Emmett's car had stopped again as she gave into long bouts of moody staring out her window again. Everyone in her family, even Emmett, had begun to give her space, her mood so vicious that it was as though they were afraid she would attack them. She couldn't do this. She just couldn't. She couldn't survive this way. She couldn't watch the blond idiot carry Bella's tray every day, staring at Bella like she was the greatest thing. Which, she was, but it wasn't his job to do that. She couldn't sit and watch as the indifference she had seen toward him from Bella slowly began to shift, as it was bound to. She couldn't watch as she began to notice her so chivalrous blondie boy-toy knight in shining armor. There was only room for one blonde in Bella's life. Or... at least, there should have been. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. She was Rosalie Hale. This didn't happen this way to her. She didn't pine. People pined for her. That was how it worked. She was physical perfection and she was highly intelligent and she would not this there and feel so unwanted by this stupid human girl.

"This is foolish, Rosalie!"

It took a lot to make Carlisle yell. He had lived through things that had taught him the virtue of patience and the art of remaining calm. But he was yelling then.

"It's a highly dramatic response to a situation that could change like the wind! I don't understand what you're thinking!"

Rosalie screamed a growl at him, sounding much like a wild Puma. She was furious. She had been ambushed! It was so unfair and had nothing to do with any of them. If Edward could go sulk in Alaska then why couldn't she go sulk in Seattle? It was a small thing she was asking of them really, and yet, she hadn't as of yet even asked!

"She – doesn't – want – me." She ground out. "What's so hard to understand about that? You all are sooo obsessed with your mates and being mated." She drawled sarcastically. "Imagine if it were you!" She stabbed a finger at Esme. "Or you!" she stabbed a finger at Alice. "Huh?" She swung back around to the other side of the small circle that had formed around her when she had stepped from her car so she was facing Carlisle again. "What if Esme hadn't wanted you? Huh? What if she had never jumped and was still human? What then? What if Carlisle hadn't wanted you, Esme? Huh?"

Carlisle's teeth ground in an uncharacteristic show of temper. Beside him, Esme flinched.

"Yeah!" she cried. "You have so many opinions and yet no real answers. You can't even hear me talk about the possibility!" Her eyes wild, she turned on Alice. "What if Jasper had told you to fuck off in that diner? What if he had thought you were a total creep and he had no interest in coming back here with you?"

"Hey now!" Jasper cried, both he and Alice's hands going up in surrender. "Leave us out of this! We see things differently than these three do." Jasper nodded his chin at the other half of the circle where Carlisle, Esme, and Emmett stood.

"Thanks, guys. Thank you so much." Esme said, dryly.

"Why should I stay?" Rosalie asked her. "She doesn't want me! I've been rejected!"

This was insane. She hadn't even been able to enter the house yet. She had just arrived home from her trip to Seattle. She hadn't told anyone she was coming back at that time, yet when she had hit the newly replaced button for the automatic garage, they had all been there, a line of indignant vampires.

Yes, okay, yes, she had spent the last two days in Seattle looking at houses with a high-end realtor there and yes, she had set up an appointment for the following weekend in Portland. That had apparently been enough because while she had been off doing her secret work, Alice, the little traitor, had seen a vision of her living alone in Seattle and this had all begun.

She had just been shopping. She wasn't even sure she was going yet. She just wanted the options.

"Oh, Rose, of course she wants you." Esme cooed in this newfound tone of voice that Rosalie was only just beginning to feel comfortable with. "She's just struggling. She thought she had found a forever love with Edward—"

"Okay, saying that is not going to help this!"

"— so she's adjusting her views. When she's ready of course she'll want you."

Emmett had thus far been silent, his face pinched as if biting into a lemon. He had finally had enough, however, and he exploded. "You can't just take off because Bella doesn't want you!"

"I can, actually, Emmett! I am my own person! Is that news to you?"

"That's not fair."

It wasn't. She knew it wasn't and told herself she would apologize later.

In truth, she wasn't sure if she wanted to go anywhere at all. She wasn't sure of anything anymore. She had no idea what she wanted to do with her life how it was now. She couldn't go back to how it was before. She and Emmett... she didn't know. There had been kisses, and there had been cuddling, but there had been no sex, a first for them. Could she get that back? Would Emmett want her to? Was it right to try when he knew, just as she did, that there was someone else she had wanted? She couldn't go to Alaska, which was the only place where she knew people. Edward had ruined that for her because there was no way in hell she would go there to spend time with him. But she couldn't stay how things were now. She had thought in a somewhat directionless way of medical school. If she finished, she could begin her residency, get a night job at an ER in some big city, train herself to ignore the scent of blood and become career-oriented. Perhaps she could even go further and become a surgeon. Carlisle would be so proud of her, and she would be proud of herself. She could date. She could have a life. Or maybe instead of a doctor, she would become the hottest mechanic Seattle had to offer who only worked at night, she didn't know. She had, however, found a nice house in Seattle. It was wide with lots of windows and natural light. It was secluded, but not as secluded as their current house was. It could make a good home.

And as for Bella?

The thought sent a shiver of sick through her. She had thought on the drive back that maybe the best thing to do was to head to Alaska, to let Edward know that it was okay now, that Bella didn't want her and that he could come back. He would care for Bella, and that was all she wanted in the end.

"Rose, her future hasn't changed."

"What the hell does that mean, Alice?"

She glared at them, really not in the mood for the vague I-understand-things-that-you-don't thing.

Alice looked to Jasper and Jasper looked back, speaking to one another without words. The display was one of such obvious mate-hood that it only drove her anger higher. She pinched the bridge of her nose, growling out the question again.

Finally, Alice looked back at her and shrugged. "Bella's future changed the day you accepted the bond. That was the day I came into your room to talk when you were showering."

Rose's fist clenched. "And?" She thought that if Alice didn't get to her point she might smother her with a pillow.

"And, it hasn't changed since then."

This was crap. Alice could just tell her what she was trying to say.

"Meaning?"

"Meaning her future still shows her with us."

She looked between Alice and Jasper, then to Esme and Carlisle, and finally Emmett. "With me?" She asked, soothed by Alice's words and at the same time not soothed at all.

Alice just smiled.

"See!" Esme said, sounding like she could kiss Alice's face, which, she reached over and did exactly that. "You can't possibly leave now."

She just stared back, wanting to rage at them. What Alice had said meant nothing! There was no real reassurance there. It was just empty words.

"Oh!" Alice's eyes fogged over, looking into the distance before she gave her a gleaming smile. "Don't worry, Rose, she's coming to see you any minute now."

Rose just scoffed. "Great. I'll hold my breath then, shall I?"

Alice rolled her eyes, taking Jasper's hand in hers.

Frustrated, unable to see one more mately action, she pushed past her family and into the house, hoping for an escape. The circle of vampires instead just followed her.

"We've all separated before, Rose, and things are always better for us when we're together."

From behind her, Carlisle sighed. "We can't tell her that she can't do, Esme. She's a grown woman."

"Yes! Yes, I can!" She cried, making Rose turn on her in anger. "You put me as the matriarch of this family and so as the matriarch, I'm saying we need to stay together! I'm not allowing this to rip my family apart."

"Babe, I know it's hard, but you're not going anywhere without me."

"Then come."

Eyes narrowed, Emmett's head turned a little as he studied her, trying to figure out exactly what that meant.

"If I'm not going anywhere without you then come."

God, she wished it was that simple. Now that they knew who her mate was, there was no chance of this happening again. And she loved him.

But oh, the little ridiculing voice in the back of her mind spoke up, it could happen to Emmett. She wouldn't leave but he might.

"Whatever happens with Bella, we can face it together as a family," Carlisle promised, his voice almost making it sound reasonable.

Her head fell back in a groan. She knew he was just being his usual Carlisle self, his usual version of kind and good, but she wanted to deck him at that moment for that type of ridiculous thinking.

This wasn't a family matter, that's what they didn't understand. This wasn't about them. It was about her.

"I, ugh, I need a shower." She pushed through them and this time they allowed the circle to break. It wasn't strictly true, but out of fear that she would have to endure the downstairs talk part two with Emmett, she turned on the water and stepped in the moment it was hot. It was the only place, after all, where she could go and be alone.

This is going to be a double update week. So look for another chapter later tonight or tomorrow.