I do not own Twilight.

Emmett

I crash down on the couch next to Alice.

"Emmett be careful. I don't want to have to buy another couch yet." Esme scolds from somewhere in the house.

"Sorry," he mutters. "So, spill."

"Spill what," Alice snaps.

"Well, the clothes for one." I gesture down her body. It is something I knew that others had noticed too. Jasper was incredibly worried but doesn't want to upset her by mentioning it. So, I had decided to bite the bullet for the family.

"What's wrong with my clothes?" Again, she is snapping. Can we not just have a normal conversation?

"Want the list or the cliff notes?" At her sharp glare I realise that my comedic questioning is no appreciated. I am better off just getting on with it. Damn, I'm no good at seriousness. "Fine. You wore them the other day."

She looked down at herself, considering my words. Apparently, she hadn't noticed. Weird!

"And they don't really go very well. Even I dress better than that."

"Jeez, well thanks for the comments." She moves to stand up, hurt by what she clearly took as an insult.

"No, don't go, just stay and talk for a bit. The others are all out so they can't hear us. I wasn't saying it to upset you. We are just worried about why it's changed. We sort of miss the old Alice."

I follow the expression on her face as it moves through irritation to resignation. She slumps back against the pillows.

Great, it's going well, she didn't run off. "So… What's going on?"

She pauses for a few moments, torn between confessing to me or just giving me a lie. She knows me well enough to know I'll notice the difference, so she sighs and says, "Does she hate me?"

Well that wasn't what I expected her to say! Who hate her? I didn't realise anyone was being nasty to Alice, surely even such a tiny vampire was able to stand up for herself. I'd seen her do it enough to get her own way. Was it someone in the family? Rose? Esme? Someone at school?

She answers my questioning face just as I come to the same conclusion, "Bella." It is barely a whisper.

"What! Why would she hate you? I didn't think you'd actually had a conversation with her." I'm confused. Maybe I wasn't the best person for this after all. Too late to back out now though.

"Exactly. I'm her best friend, she hasn't tried to contact me and is avoiding me in school. I tried talking to her so many times in the hallway, but she runs away before I can even get a word out. Rose won't give me her number, apparently, she doesn't need the harassment in her home time too. Like I'd harass her." I have to stifle giggles at that. My sister is incredible, but she doesn't realise how overbearing she can be at times. "How am I meant to find out what's wrong to fix it if she won't talk to me. She makes no decisions in a day, runs purely on instinct by the seems of it. Other than a few flashes, I just can't see her." Her voice goes quiet. "I just want her back like you guys have."

I had to stop and think about that for a moment. She had clearly misjudged the situation, big time. None of us had her back, she was nothing like the old Bella and unless she was at the end of her tether, she avoided us like the plague. I wasn't sure the best way to respond. Again, I shouldn't have tried to help this.

"We don't have her back either Ali."

She scoffs at me, "'Course you do. Going out with her at the weekend, she called Esme, met with Carlisle. Erugh, I don't want to talk about this. And don't call me Ali."

"We really don't." I put my hand on her shoulder to stop her bolting. "Yes, she met with them briefly and she agreed to come with me this weekend, but it doesn't mean we are friends again. You should see the look of terror hidden just beneath the surface whenever we speak to her."

"I wouldn't know, she won't stay long enough for me to find out."

"Maybe you're scaring her," I say hesitantly.

She looks at me horrified, "How could I be scaring her?!"

"Well, I don't mean you exactly, but the idea of you. You used to be her best friend and you, I mean all of us, up and left without a word. Maybe she is scared to risk getting close again."

I watch as she thinks through this information. Her face occasionally goes distant, showing me that she is checking the future for possible outcomes.

"Nope, I've tried the possible actions, but I can't find a response that will go in our favour."

"Are you seeing an actual response?"

"Well, no." She mutters after skimming back through the choices. "I can't see anything about her clearly. It's like looking through a fogged-up mirror."

"You've been told many times you rely too much on your visions, maybe this is your chance to practice doing it like a normal person," I smirk. Really, it always bugged me the way she got through everything so easily due to her visions. I refuse to play games with her anymore, same with Edward.

Thinking of Edward, I started to wonder what was going on with him. I knew that Carlisle and Jasper had tried to get messages out to him since finding Bella, but nothing came back. Either he wasn't getting them, or he was ignoring us. I was just glad I didn't have to be around him. Could I ever forgive him for what he put Bella through?

I know that most of the rest of the family feels the same. Only Esme and Carlisle have any interest in ensuring his safety. Jasper had only helped because he hoped that locating him would mean we can avoid him.

"I just don't understand why I can't see her. What changed?" Oh no, she has that hurt, puppy dog expression on her face she has when she wants you to do something you desperately don't want to do. "Would you talk to her?"

"I'm meeting up with her in a few hours, of course I am going to be talking with her." Damn pixie, what planet is she on?

"I mean, can you ask her what I did wrong, or get her to talk to me, or bring her back for a while, or just anything." There is was. Did I really want to get involved in the middle of this?

I made the mistake of looking at her face. Who could refuse such a pout, "I'll see if it comes up."

"Yay, thank you Emmett." She throws her arms around my neck and then dances away. I'm beginning to wonder if she had seen this conversation in advance and I had been played the whole way. I wouldn't put it past her.

Pulling out my phone, I send off a quick text.

Will leave in 2 hours. Em

Hopefully she wouldn't cancel on me. I'd made all the arrangements just like I'd promised. She'd requested I pick her up at a pace a short way from the house. I didn't understand it, but I'd respect it all the same. She said she wasn't going to bring anyone as she would rather it just be the two of us.

"Hop in," I say pulling up where I see her waiting. She was perched on the bus bench. "You all set?" I asked when she is buckled in. She just nods. Oh dear, I hope she is at least going to talk to me today.

"Rosie has gone to a car show," I say brightly trying to break the ice. "Something or other with lots of cars."

"You could have gone with her." Bella murmurs.

Damn, said the wrong thing, she think's I don't want to be here with her. "Nope, I'm pleased to get out of it. I can tolerate it to a level, but Rose is too obsessed with cars for my liking. Not to mention the men swooning all over her. I always feel like a spare wheel."

She giggles softly, "I can't imagine you ever being anyone's spare."

"You haven't seen her at these things. She is more than happy to walk into a group of burly men chatting up their fancy car specs. Damn, the way she looks them in the face and corrects all their facts is hot. She's well known at these things. Don't find many pretty lasses who know their way around an engine."

"I can imagine her scaring the pants off a few of them." Her tone was off, and I couldn't work out why.

"Ye, well, don't tell her I said this, she'd have my balls, she's a big softie." Bella glances at me, stunned. I worry I'm making her uncomfortable so change the subject quickly. "So, what have you been doing this fine morning?"

She pales at the sudden attention.

"Not much," it is barely a whisper. "Had a bit of a lay in, caught up on some work, you know. The usual. I don't have as long as you in the morning, some of us have to sleep."

"Yup, humans have to do the sleeping thing. We prefer to fill our nights with much more meaningful activities," I say wagging my eyebrows.

"Eww, don't go there. I do not want to know." She's blushing furiously and I take that as a win. "How far away is this place?"

"Not much further, I could have got their quicker, but I know how much you hate the speed." She flashes me a grateful smile.

We lapse into a slightly awkward silence.

I think about different ways I can bring the conversation back, but I know they won't be well received. I don't want to bring the family back up, that clearly made her too uncomfortable. I definably don't want to talk about Edward. Maybe we could talk about school? That's a safe topic, right?

"Umm, so, how's school going?" I ask awkwardly.

There isn't a reply, but she starts staring at her hands. This really isn't going well.

It's only a few minuets before we pull up at the lot. It's fairly quiet. I come up with an idea which will hopefully help her relax. "Are you ready for a daring quest madame?"

She looks at me, confusion clear on her face. "I thought we were just going on the paddle boats?"

"Ah, you do indeed know of our adventure," I laugh. She finally catches onto my game with a smile. "Let us depart."

We both clamber out and make our way to the ticket office.

"Mind your footing, you never know what could be hiding within the rocks. A deadly rock creature could be waiting to pummel you to death!"

She laughs lightly and I notice her shoulders relax ever so slightly. Well if this helped, I could keep it up forever.

We are assigned out boat, it's yellow and a bit grubby, but it'll do. I climb into the boat and then offer my hand to help her. "Careful of the water, don't want the sea horses to catch you."

"There aren't any sea horses in the lake Emmett," she laughs shaking her head.

"Not normal sea horses no, but these ones are massive, they wait until humans touch the water and then they snatch them and hide them away forever." I move my hands mysteriously in front of my face, adding to the illusion. "I'd rather not have to explain why you've gone missing to everyone."

She's finally settled into the boat. Initially she had tried to pedal with me, "I fear you are insulting my manly honour," I joke. She didn't need to know that I was worried about her pedalling and really, I was more than capable. Thankfully she understands my hint and sits back.

Part of me wonders how fast I can make this plastic contraption go. Maybe Jazz and I would need to come back at night and test it out. Would the mechanisms give out from the speed of our legs?

"Who do you think would win in a race? Me or Jazz in one of these things?"

Her hand goes to her lip and fiddles with it gently in consideration. "I don't know. I don't suggest testing it out either, you'll likely get rather wet."

"I suppose, we wouldn't want to scare off the merpeople," I say deadly seriously.

From the look on her face, I know that I was successful. She believed me.

"Well, what did you expect? You've already met vampires and shapeshifters. Surely, you've heard about true werewolves or children of the moon too. What makes you think that other creatures are myths too?"

Her face is pale, her mouth open slightly in disbelieve. "There are more?"

"Well duh. Myths are usually founded in legends. I bet I can point some out before we get home." I flash her a big grin, so she knows I am only joking.

"Cool," she's got a massive smile on her face. "In all serious though, are there others?"

"Carlisle thinks so, but we haven't met any." I drop my voice to a low whisper, "If we are subtle, maybe we'll meet some today."

I dodge her hand flying around to hit me.

"Can you see over there?" I point to a darker part of the water. Her face drops slightly, woops, I shouldn't have mentioned that. "It's probably too deep for your human eyes anyway, but there is an Undine." I make sure my tone is joking, "It's a water spirit. They have no soul until they marry a human man and bare him a child. So, you're safe, but best not bring any of your male friends here."

"You're male Emmett," she quips.

"I said human male. Duh Bells. I do need to be careful of the vampire squid which feeds off the blood of male crotches."

"You used to be human and you are still built like a human. I think we need to be more worried about your safety here than mine."

She's right! Maybe I am at risk. I stop pedalling and turn to her wondering how she could be so smart when I see the laugher on her face. She is messing with me just like I was messing with her. Damn she's good.

"At least I won't become a mermaid," I snip back at her. "All you'd need to do is fall into the wrong part and boof, never get to walk on the shore again."

"Best avoid that bit then, as you said, don't want to have to explain my disappearance. Are you susceptible to the croak of torture?"

"Not heard of that one, maybe we should test it out?"

She shakes her head quickly, "I can't go near the torture toad. Their croak could kill me."

"That's true, we could have some fun with squid ink though. I heard it makes you flash rainbow colours for a few hours after ingesting it. Up for it?"

"Sure, you find a squid in here and I will happily drink it's ink." She's caught me there! There are definitely no squids in this lake.

"I dare not go in the water, might get caught by a lantern fish. You know, follow them down into the deep depths and get eaten by whatever they serve."

She laughs at me again, "You really don't know your aquatic species by location, do you? Best avoid the clownfish too, I don't think you want to spend eternity with clown make up on."

We carried on our banter for a while. I was pleased to see that the longer we were out here the more relaxed she became. We had a while left, so when the conversation tapered so a close, I let it.

I kept the boat moving at a slow and smooth pace, letting her enjoy the feeling and fresh air.

It's a while later when she breaks the relaxed silence.

"You'd tell me before you left, again wouldn't you?" Her voice is so small and scared. I hate the way we treated her and desperately wished I could turn back the clock.

"Even wild horses couldn't drag me away; I know the family feels the same. If we ever did have to leave, I'd make sure we gave you a forwarding address though. We won't leave you again unless you ask us to."

She leans over and surprises me by wrapping her small arms around my torso. "I really want you all back, I'm just so scared."

"None of us can apologise enough for what happened and I certainly won't ask you to forgive my behaviour, but I'd like to try and make it up to you." I hesitate, should I mention my conversation from earlier? I had to; I'd promised. "Alice is desperate to talk to you."

Bella pulls back and folds in on herself slightly. "I don't know, she just has so much energy. I don't think I could keep up with her anymore."

So that is what it's about. We all know how over the top Alice can be and how she often disregards other people opinions in favour of what she knows.

"There's no pressure, just think about it." She nods once and I change the subject. "Have you heard of the Jellyfish curse? You know the one that turns your blood to jam?"

Thank you for reading, please review.

If you haven't already, do check out my new fic "Back Alleys". Due to popular demand I will be extending it past a one shot.