Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight

Rosalie found Jasper on a treetop between Bella's shed and her father's house. One look at him and she knew something was off. Jasper's face was...vindictive. Rosalie knew deep down that Jasper would never consciously harm Bella, but her protective feelings for the girl took over anyway.

"What are you doing?" She hissed at him.

Jasper shook his head. "Nothing to Bella," he said. "Her father on the other hand..."

He growled, pointing at the house. Through the living room windows Rosalie could see Chief Swan doubled over, sobbing.

"He needed an attitude adjustment," Jasper replied to Rosalie's quizzical stare. "I'm providing it."

Rosalie raised an eyebrow at that. Jasper rarely used his gift so actively. She sometimes forgot that he could do far more to someone than calm them down. She glanced again in Chief Swan's direction and winced at the tortured expression on his face.

"Don't worry," he said. "He won't turn suicidal. Just repentant."

"What did he do?" Rosalie asked slowly.

Jasper paused and braced himself. He might have to restrain Rosalie.

"He looked like he was going to shoot Bella," he said.

"WHAT?!"

As he predicted, Rosalie immediately lunged towards the house and he had to knock her to the ground before she could murder the man.

"Stop it! Bella will hear," he hissed. "I said it looked like it. He didn't actually do anything. When I got here, Bella was in her shed and Charlie was where he is now, staring out the window."

Rosalie struggled some more, then finally relaxed. "All right! Get off of me. I'm fine," she insisted.

He released her and watched her carefully as she dusted herself off, glaring at him. Jasper stared back blankly, still linked to the man inside.

"What exactly happened" She asked reluctantly.

"It wasn't anything he actually did. It was the way he felt," he said. "He was full of anger, hatred, fear... He loathes Bella. And then I sensed a determination coming from him. And a resolve. I had already made sure Bella was ok, so I got a little closer to the house to see what was going on. And that's when I saw...Charlie's hand on his gun. He was holding his gun, while feeling all those things, and he was thinking about Bella."

Jasper was shaking now as he recounted what had led him to his intervention. Inside the house, Charlie fell to the floor and sobbed louder.

"That's when I stepped in," he said and finally looked up at Rosalie's face, and recoiled.

If Rosalie was the empath instead of him, he doubted she would have felt any remorse as she forced Charlie through the most sadistic torture imaginable. Be that it may, her natural ruthlessness began to affect him, and through him the suffering man in the house, and Jasper knew he had to stop before he lost control. Charlie was indeed fortunate that Rosalie lacked his gift, he thought.

They stood like that for a few minutes. Inside, Charlie's sniveling winded down at last.

"How is she?" Rosalie asked, her eyes finally a dark honey instead of the pitch black they were before.

"I'm...not sure," Jasper's shoulder slumped. Sustaining the power it took to bring down a poised man like Charlie had taken a toll on him, but his look of defeat now had nothing to do with the exhaustion setting in. "Her emotions keep changing...but no matter what she feels, be it guilt or remorse, she's hurting something awful. It's...it's too painful for me to bear," he said, guiltily.

Jasper could feel Rosalie's heart break, and he winced at the intensity of her feelings of helplessness. He put an arm around her shoulders and tried to take away some of her pain.

"I know," he said, sadly. "I feel it too. I don't know what's happening to her, or why she was out in the woods today, but please find a way to make her see how much she means to all of us...how much we all love her."

Rosalie nodded, and gave him a tight hug. He felt the waves of gratitude and love for him, which he returned in kind. That was another effect Bella seemed to have on them. He didn't know how she did it, but their mutual love for her had somehow strengthened their bonds with each other. Jasper felt it everyday...whenever Rosalie or Emmett glanced at Esme as she mentored Bella in her craft...When Carlisle walked past Alice's room as she impatiently taught the girl how to use an eyelash curler...when he himself shed his inhibitions and joined Emmett and Bella on the roof...it was like each of them loved one another more...simply for loving and caring for Bella.

Edward better get his act together, he mused.

With a final nod, Rosalie made her way to the shed. Jasper knew he needed to go hunting soon, and he turned to run back to his wife. Before he could race off though, he felt an outburst of joy and love. He looked back and smiled-Bella was at the door.

Jasper grinned, and he let the glow of Bella's and Rosalie's love for one another fuel his return home.

"Hello!" Rosalie exclaimed with a smile before Bella could say anything.

Bella just stood there, dumbfounded, and tried very hard not to do what everything in her body was screaming at her to do, which was to reach up and kiss her.

She's Emmett's girlfriend. She's Emmett's girlfriend, she screamed back at her body.

"Hi," Bella responded, and with a questioning glance at the beauty (gulp) in front of her asked, "what's up?"

Rosalie cocked her head and half-smiled, making Bella swoon even more. "Are you going to invite me in?"

"Oh, yeah. Of course," Bella stumbled, and for the first time wished she had a nicer home to show her guest.

Rosalie's eyes didn't linger on any particular area of her sparse home, and Bella wondered about that until she realized Rosalie had been here before. With a blush she recalled that it was Rosalie who helped her out of her dress before putting her to bed last night. Oh god, she silently moaned.

Pull yourself together! She mentally slapped herself. It was lucky she was so drained from her earlier explosion. She was terrified to think of the damage her rocky emotions could've done right now otherwise.

Rosalie suddenly looked very concerned, and Bella's heart pounded in her chest when she felt cool hands caressing her cheeks, Rosalie's eyes wandering over the scratches that criss-crossed her face.

"What happened?" Rosalie asked.

"Huh," Bella tried to remember how to speak. All she could comprehend at the moment were the hands touching her skin and the golden eyes in front of her.

"Uh," she finally managed to say, "I was running...in the woods. Got a little careless with the trees."

Rosalie suddenly furrowed her eyebrows. "You were out there today? You saw the fire then?"

Bella's thundering heart skipped a beat. How did she...?

"Alice and Jasper were in the woods near the area," Rosalie answered her silent question. "They told us about the fire."

Alice and Jasper...Alice and Jasper...they were there...Bella felt the terror coursing through her. Alice and Jasper were there. They could've been killed. She...she could've killed two of her best friends today. She was unable to completely mask her emotions from Rosalie.

"They're alright!" Rosalie added. "Really, they weren't close enough to be in any danger. You on the other hand..." She quieted, looking at the numerous shallow cuts on her face and neck. "You must have been really close to run that hard. Bella, what were you doing out there by yourself? You could've been killed."

Bella taught herself how to breathe all over again. She obviously couldn't tell Rosalie the truth-that fire never had, and never could hurt her-but she didn't want to lie too much to her either. There had been a few outright lies that were unavoidable in her relationship with the Cullens (her living with an aunt for the last seven years being the most glaring fib), but when she could, Bella tried hard to be as honest as possible with them. It was the least she could do, after all they did open their lives and home to her.

So Bella tried to come up with a way to be truthful, but not so truthful that she would expose herself.

She sighed and sat down on her gnarly couch. "I went out there to blow off some steam," she said, trying to think of how she could elaborate on that one.

Rosalie did not look satisfied. "You walked ten miles into wild country...without telling anyone, without a cellphone...so you could blow off some steam?"

Rosalie sat down uncomfortably close next to her and reached for her hand. Bella closed her eyes, enjoying the cool touch before she snapped out of it (she's Emmett's girlfriend!).

"Bella," she said softly. "What happened?"

Bella could look into her eyes forever, she thought to herself. She had already memorized the differences between each of the Cullens' eyes, and she found herself following each fleck, each nuance of Rosalie's golden irises.

She blinked. "Charlie..."

She thought she saw a hard glint in Rosalie's eyes, but she reverted to her previous soft look and Bella dismissed the thought.

Bella prayed she could get through this. She couldn't think of anything that would explain a ten mile trek, so she could only hope Rosalie would be satisfied with her brief explanation.

She continued, "We got into an argument. I was upset so...I took a walk."

Were it Emmett or Alice, that explanation would've been met with countless questions. But Rosalie had a knack for knowing how far to push Bella, and she thankfully didn't ask her for any further elaboration.

Rosalie sighed. "You know, someday I'm probably going to snap and punch your father."

Bella smiled at that, enjoying the image. Rosalie smiled back, then sat back a little more on the couch. Bella noticed her distaste and felt terrible knowing how uncomfortable the thing was if you weren't used to it.

"Sorry," she apologized, "Even I hardly ever sit here. The bed's much more comfortable."

Bella realized what she'd said the second she finished saying it. Oh god, she groaned. Did she just invite Rosalie (Emmett's girlfriend, she reminded herself) to her bed? Don't blush! It was an innocent remark! Blush and she'll know what you're thinking!

Rosalie just smiled softly. "All right, you're the boss."

Say what? Before she could dwell on it, Bella led her upstairs. By the time Rosalie landed on the floor, Bella thought her blush had diminished enough so she could face her. They quickly tidied the unmade bed and, facing the window, sat together against Bella's headboard with their feet out. So comfortable, she thought. The bed was more pleasant, certainly, than the lumpy couch, but Bella's current tranquility had more to do with Rosalie's body squished next to her than with any mattress or soft pillow. Bella silently thanked Charlie for the twin bed.

They sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes, and Bella marveled that she could enjoy someone's company so much that even words were unnecessary.

"Where did you learn to play?" Rosalie asked, referring to the piano.

Bella smiled. "I had lessons when I was little. In Pennsylvania, there were a lot of libraries where I lived and I liked to bike to different ones. Most of them had a piano somewhere."

"Bella, you do realize how amazing you were last night, don't you?" Rosalie said. "You could be a master pianist in any symphony in the world."

She blushed at that. She knew she was good, but hearing Rosalie say so made her feel a little light-headed.

"Tell me more about your childhood. About growing up," Rosalie said.

Bella paused, not sure how go about this. Be as honest as you can, she reminded herself.

So Bella talked about what she could remember from her early years. She told her about her mother and her antics. She talked about how her father had tried and failed to instill in her a love for sports, and had insisted on taking her to numerous games and teaching her to play. She loved the attention and spending time with him, but she failed to develop his crazy obsession for moving balls and sweaty players. She told her that it was her mother who encouraged her to take piano lessons, and had been the one to support her passion for it. Renée was artsy and creative, while Charlie was always a serious man of few words.

Bella went on, and Rosalie listened. She told her about her biking through the East coast when she was younger (stretching the truth a little of course-she had biked and walked up and down the coast, just not for a summer adventure as she told her) and the small towns where she'd stopped. She told her about the journey to Forks, mentally calculating a normal amount of time that it would've presumably taken her to get from PA to Washington.

They talked for hours. Little by little Bella felt herself get physically closer to the blonde, so that not just their shoulders and arms, but their hips and legs were touching too. By the time Bella started to get drowsy she had grown comfortable enough with the close proximity that she no longer blushed every time she felt Rosalie move. It didn't stop her body from tingling from her touch, she mentally noted. The last thought that went through her head before she drifted to sleep was how much she would love if Rosalie stayed with her through the night...

Rosalie felt her nodding off and held still the way only a vampire can. She was thankful that she'd gone hunting with Emmett that morning, otherwise she never would've been able to stand being this close to Bella for so long. Bella was...alluring, she thought as she gently inhaled her intoxicating scent. Before she had gotten close to the girl, her scent made her angry. As they became better friends, she was weary at first, then gradually learned to ignore the scent the closer they got. Now that she had finally acknowledged her romantic feelings, Bella's scent drove her wild...not a bloodthirsty gotta-bite-her wild like Edward...it was a wild that made her want to do far more to the girl.

Rosalie slowly stretched one arm and encircled Bella as they both plunged lower into the bed. She relaxed and basked in Bella's warmth, her face in the crook of her neck. Bella sleepily snuggled further into her side, and it was Rosalie's turn to tingle in excitement when she felt her arm and leg drape over her. Bella fit there perfectly...She closed her eyes in contentment. This was heaven.

For the first time in her life, Rosalie was grateful she was a vampire. She never would have found Bella otherwise.

Author's note: Things will pick up starting next chapter, O impatient readers. In the meantime, talk to me!