Chapter 4 - Falling on Deaf Ears

January 21st, 2003

Rosalie's POV

"We're wasting time," Bella muttered to us, too quietly for Charlie to hear as we walked into the diner. "I'm fine. Regardless of what that doctor says, I don't need bed rest."

"You could have died, Bella!" I tried not to snap. "Taking it easy isn't wasting time—you told us that."

She blinked at me, surprised by my anger, and I expected her to make a joke of it, but she frowned and pulled me in for a side hug. "Sorry. I didn't mean to upset you."

I leaned into her, despite being a few inches taller, and Alice did the same on her side. Bella pressed a kiss to both our cheeks. "I'm sorry for scaring you both."

"Not your fault," I muttered as we sat down at our table. "We do need to figure out a plan about the treaty though."

"What treaty's that then?" Charlie asked suddenly, sitting down, his eyebrow raised. "You girls had better not be talking about school work."

"It's just an assignment, Dad." Bella tried to brush it aside, but Charlie was already shaking his head.

"No schoolwork tonight, Bells. You could have died." He looked through the menu like he hadn't already memorised his order. "You need to rest—Doctor's orders." He looked up at Alice and I. "And that goes for you two as well. Don't think I didn't notice what time you three were up until last night. You could all use today to get some rest."

"Dad—" Bella started, but Charlie cut her off with a firm look and she sighed. "Bed rest it is."

Charlie set his menu down with a sigh. "I'm not trying to be a nag, Bells. I'm just worried about you girls. That's all."

A strange expression passed over Bella's face so quickly I was sure I'd imagined it. She smiled softly. "Okay."

As we ordered our lunches, I glanced at Bella. The treaty was obviously a problem. If we couldn't fight them, and we couldn't expose them, then our original plan was completely out the window. I pouted a little; I'd been looking forward to that plan—particularly the cactus part.

I shook my head a little. There was no point worrying about it now. The old plan might have been fun, but if I knew my older sister, she was going to find an easy way out of all of this for us—she always did. It was one of my favourite things about Bella—no matter what, we could always rely on her.

In our first life, I could remember going to her upset that I didn't have anything to wear to one of the village assemblies, and she'd taken her best dress, cut it down size and made sure I'd had the best time. One of the village boys—Vincent—had been determined to court me (even going as far as to ask Bella for her blessing), and Bella had known I'd wanted to look my best for him.

It was little things like that that made my sister so amazing. She was always doing things like that for me and Alice, ever since our mother had died. Always the one to take care of us and to give us everything we could have ever wanted.

Like when I'd begged my sisters to help me cure that poor child—Bella hadn't even stopped to argue. And even though it had ended with our deaths—I couldn't bring myself to regret it. We had given that child a new chance at life, and there had been no better reward than seeing his beautiful brown eyes open again.

The only part of our first life that I truly regretted, was that I hadn't gotten the chance to pay back all of my fiance's kindness before I died. Vincent had proposed to me the week before we were killed, but the day of our burning, he had treated me like I was the dirt beneath his shoes.

I looked down at my food and found the thought of him had turned my stomach. Great. Another thing he's ruined.

The bell above the door rang and I glanced up reflexively to see who had entered. I frowned when I saw Jasper Cullen walk in, followed by who I assumed was his 'mother'—Esme. What was even more annoying was that they were making a beeline right for us.

I glanced at my sisters; Bella's lips were pinched in a thin line of irritation while Alice's eyes were narrowed in dark contemplation. I couldn't help but note this wasn't going to end well. Bella was many amazing things, but polite to her enemies was not one of them. And Alice, well she always did love to play with her food.

When they reached our table, Charlie looked up from his meal with a look of cheerful surprise. "Good afternoon, Mrs Cullen. How may I be of service to you and your son?"

Esme smiled sunnily at Charlie. "Well actually, Chief Swan, I would like to speak with your daughters for a moment, if that's possible?"

He sat up a little straighter. "Can I ask what this is about?"

Esme faltered for a second, and Bella took that moment to strike. "Oh, it's probably about Emmett. He was a bit of a jerk the other day. I–I didn't want to say anything, or make a big deal out of it. I mean everyone's been so nice to us lately, I didn't want to trouble anyone." She blushed a little, ducking her head. "And then Edward saved my life this morning."

I bit my lip to keep from snorting. She was the perfect picture of a sweet, innocent daughter trying to keep everyone happy, but I knew she was delighting in every minute of this. Bella could charm the birds onto the dinner table if she put her mind to it.

"Don't be so nice, Bells—just because his mother's here." I sniffed, bringing tears to my eyes as I reached for my sister's hand. "He was particularly nasty to Ali."

On cue, Alice curled in on herself and looked down at the tabletop. And just as I expected, Charlie scowled. It was a poorly hidden secret that Alice, as the youngest in this life, was the ultimate baby in Charlie's eyes. He was protective of all three of us, but Alice didn't even have to cry and he was ready to shoot anyone who so much as made her pout.

He turned to us. "If anyone bothers you, you come straight to me and I'll deal with them myself. I don't care who it is." Charlie turned to Esme with a stern look and a side-eye at Jasper. "I don't have to have a talk with your boys, now do I, Mrs Cullen?"

Esme's smile never faltered, but Jasper pounced on the opportunity like we'd handed him a golden ticket. "No, sir. Esme sat him down herself the moment he got home—she already knew all about it. He's grounded right now, and while he wanted to apologise for his actions, I thought it might be best to come here on his behalf. That way Miss Alice didn't need to see him again." He nodded at Alice who watched him with the hint of a dark smile. "And Esme wanted to apologise herself, and see how Miss Isabella was doing after the accident this morning."

This seemed to mollify Charlie, though he still grumbled about how Emmett should be apologising anyway. "Alright then. I'm going to go chat with the boys up at the counter." He glanced down at us with a smile. "Now you girls behave yourselves and listen to Mrs Cullen, alright?"

"Yes, Dad," we chorused with innocent smiles.

He nodded with a final disgruntled look at Jasper, before heading off. As soon as he was out of earshot, Bella threw up a privacy spell to keep away prying busybodies and the sounds of the diner faded away.

"What do you want?" I narrowed my eyes at them, straight to the point. They shouldn't have approached us in front of Charlie—that was their second mistake. Their first was thinking we'd go down easy.

"Let me guess," Bella cut in as Esme opened her mouth. "You came here to plead to us to leave your 'family' alone because your husband made a mistake once ?"

"Yeah, well that 'mistake' burned us alive." Alice leaned back in her seat, eyes hard. "So now we're going to return the favour. Regardless of what you have to say."

I crossed my arms over my chest. "So you can take your plea, and shove it."

Esme's face fell, but she didn't look surprised. She folded her hands in front of her and nodded to the chair Charlie had just vacated. "May I sit?"

"No." Bella put her feet up on the chair. "You won't be here long."

I could practically hear Jasper's teeth grinding and so I turned my glare to him, but his attention was solely on Alice. "May I speak with you, please? In private?"

Alice looked him up and down before slowly rising and waving sarcastically to an empty table. "Lead the way, cowboy."

Except he was frozen to his spot, and I could tell by Alice's slight grin that she was using her magic to keep him in place. After a long moment of silent snarls and challenging glares, she let him go, raising an eyebrow like she was waiting for him to argue.

They walked away and I watched as Alice raised an illusion spell around them, a slight shimmer around them that only witches could see. I couldn't help but smile as I wondered what carnage she would leave behind when she was done with the boy.

"Please, girls—just hear me out." Esme slipped into the chair Alice had just vacated, undaunted by the flat looks we sent her. "I'm not here to make light of what happened to you."

"Funny," Bella deadpanned. "That's not how it's coming across."

"I'm sorry for what happened to you in your first life," Esme continued like Bella hadn't said a thing. "I'm sorry your community turned against you when you were only trying to help. You deserved better than that. And I understand—I know what it's like to want to hurt the man who hurt you. I've been there, but please—revenge never helps. All it does is stop you from healing."

I stared at her, fury bubbling beneath my skin as I listened to her pretend to understand our pain. Did she really think she knew what we had been through?

"You're hurting—I get it," she continued, eyes earnest as she leaned forward. "But I need you to see that the man who hurt you doesn't exist anymore. He hasn't for centuries. The Carlisle I know is a caring, compassionate man who loves his family dearly. The man he is now would have never hurt you as he did when he was human."

I could feel Bella about to snap beside me, but Esme wasn't done. "Please. I'm not asking you to forgive him—I just think if we talk this out, it can end without more pain. Please. All I want is for my family to be safe."

"'Without more pain'?" Bella's face had hardened throughout Esme's plea. "That almost sounds like a threat." I could tell by the frayed edge in Bella's growl that she was getting close to snapping. "And what makes your family more important than mine?"

"I didn't—"

Bella suddenly lurched forward with a hiss. "Do you know what it's like to be burned at the stake? To watch your sisters be slammed into the dirt and be beaten like beasts? To be dragged through a hateful crowd, your only family hauled behind you, knowing you're going to die—knowing they're going to die, and there's not a damned thing in the world you can do to stop it?"

Bella's chest was heaving and her eyes were wide, staring Esme down as she trembled with the memories of our past. "You say you understand. So you know what it's like to have the people who depend on you look at you for answers that you don't fucking have? To look into the eyes of the girls you raised and have to accept that you can't save them? That you can do nothing but burn alongside them?"

I was glad for the privacy spells as Bella sat back in her chair, thankful even more so that no one had noticed Bella leaping out of her chair. But I also felt my stomach lurch. I had always known that Bella had held some level of guilt over what had happened to us, but never how much.

"You don't know a damn thing," Bella whispered, eyes glimmering. "Your husband murdered us." She shook her head. "Nothing can forgive that."

"I think you should leave," I said coldly, gripping Bella's hand under the table. "You and your family have done enough damage for one day."

Esme's eyes flickered to Bella like she was expecting a different answer, but nodded, her shoulders dropping at Bella's glare.

"I really am sorry," she said, looking us both in the eyes before she turned for the door. "For all of it."

Jasper stood fluidly, following her, and Alice came back to our table, wrapping her arms around Bella and burying her face in her hair. I glared after the Cullens as they left. Even if we couldn't kill him, Carlisle Cullen was going to pay for everything he'd done to us.