{The Lives We Touch}

"Hey Bells!"

Bella shot up from the couch and whipped around, flying into her dad's welcoming arms.

"You're back," she sighed into his chest, her voice muffled.

"I told you I would be, didn't I?" he joked, but she could hear the underlying relief in his voice.

"Did you guys discover anything?" Bella asked. She pulled away and scanned his features.

Her dad shook his head. "No. All the leads we found turned into dead ends until there was no longer anything new to investigate. The department of Anchorage will continue the search, but we were sent back. We couldn't leave our own land unprotected, of course."

Bella snorted when her dad winked at her and she turned around to go into the kitchen. "Sure. Want some coffee?"

He followed along and sat down at the small kitchen table, shrugging out of his jacket and hang it across the chair. "That would be great!" He froze. "Wait, shouldn't you be in school?"

"No, the teachers have a bunch of meetings today," Bella said, filing through the cabinets above the counter and grabbing two mismatched mugs. Putting them down next to the coffee maker, she started fiddling with the buttons until the ancient machine started grumbling. Leaving the coffee to brew, she sat down in the chair opposite of her dad.

He raised a brow. "Didn't you want to stay with Tanya's family today?"

"I kind of felt like going home," Bella mumbled, rubbing her head. "Besides, I still had some chores to finish up here. I'll probably call them later today to see how the trip went."

Her dad smiled. "You do that."

Once the coffee was ready, they drank it in a comfortable silence, both caught up in their own thoughts. Neither of them felt the need to fill the emptiness with unnecessary conversation, a trait that ran on her dad's side of the family apparently. Hanging around others who talked non-stop could be tiring at times.

"I'll be upstairs," Bella said, standing up as she gulped down the last of her coffee. "Are you cooking tonight?"

Her dad nodded. "Go and relax a bit. You look like you need it."

He was spot on with that remark, Bella thought, making her way upstairs. In her room, she fell down onto the neatly made bed and let out a deep sigh. These past few days had been a rush; it was so much fun to have Alice around. However, it had also been overwhelming and she was not sure which emotion outweighed the other.

Touch.

It had become such a foreign concept to her, yet it had felt freeing to be able to touch Alice without having to worry about headaches or comas. Sure, she hugged her friends and her dad, but around them she always had to be on guard. Even subconsciously she was constantly preoccupied checking where she touched others, where they touched her, if her skin was covered and many other details that had seemed insignificant during her younger years

With Alice, she could let those walls down. She would be lying if she said that it did not scare her. There was so much that could go wrong and the temptation to let her worries take over and retreat into herself was strong. Despite all of the overthinking, something in her stopped her from shutting the world out. Now that she had had a taste, she craved the contact, the touch, like a man in the desert craved a glass of water. She could not get enough and at the same time it was almost too much to handle.

Take it one step at the time, Bella told herself. It was the only way she could see herself coping with these changes, though with every passing minute it became more tempting to just say 'fuck it' and throw herself into it with everything she was. She had not even known that she had missed true, bare touch like this, and now she did not want to go back.

She lay like that, deep in thought, for God knows how long. Listening to the dull sound of the clock in the hallway ticked the seconds, minutes, hours away. Finally, she willed herself to get back up and started to absentmindedly tidy her room. The freshly folded laundry went into the closet, the papers from her desk were put away, the books on her shelves got rearranged. Bella had just dusted off the last book when her dad called up. Checking her hair in the mirror, Bella made her way downstairs, where she was immediately attacked by two little creatures upon jumping from the last step.

"Bella!"

A smile lit her face and she kneeled to properly hug the two identical boys. "Hey Isaac, Josh, how are you guys doing?"

As the twins loudly updated her on everything that had (supposedly) happened in the past year, Bella looked up to see a grinning Angela standing in the doorway. Her own smile grew even wider, noticing how Angela's eyes glinted just that much brighter than usual. She slowly straightened up, putting her hands on the twin's backs. "Why don't we move this into the kitchen?"

"Actually," Angela spoke up. "We were wondering if you'd join us in the park? My parents are catching up with Aunt Karen and Uncle John, they'll be busy for hours."

"I'd love to come," Bella said, still smiling. "Let me get my phone. And maybe we have some cookies in the cupboard to take along as well…"

Angela sent her a mock glare as Isaac and Joshua cheered. "They're going to be on a sugar high all afternoon if you don't watch out!

"Not my problem," Bella said with a laugh, climbing up the stairs. In no time she had gathered everything she needed, as well as an extra bag of candy. With the twins strapped into their car seats, they were on their way.

The drive to the park was short, luckily, and once they had arrived the twins ran off to play, leaving Bella and Angela sitting on a bench with a good view of their antics.

"When did they arrive?

Angela did not move her eyes off the running boys as she answered. "Early this morning. Uncle John picked them up from the airport."

"How are things with your parents?" Bella asked.

"It's… tense," Angela said, pulling a face. "It's been worse, but it's in no way comfortable. I just wish they would at least try to have a genuine conversation with me. But they've pretty much been avoiding me all morning and the twins are starting to notice."

"They're quite smart," Bella remarked.

"Yup," Angela nodded. "Now that they're five, they understand a lot more. Or, at least they want to know a lot more. It's been driving Mike crazy, they trailed him for nearly an hour, asking questions about everything he did.

Bella laughed.

"Aaaangela!"

One of the twins (Isaac?) was waving frantically at her to come over and Angela stood up. "Duty calls!"

It was not long after Angela had disappeared into the playhouse to go down the slide, that the other half of the twins found his way to her side. Her eyes were pulled to the tag hanging out of his beanie that read 'Joshua' and she made a mental note to try and get a hang of which kid was which.

Joshua pulled himself up onto the bench and let out a deep, heavy sigh that made Bella want to laugh.

"Is Angela coming back home with us this time? With the plane?

Bella looked down at him in surprise. "I don't think so, no."

"Oh," Joshua said with a frown. "I wish she would. It's not as much fun if she isn't there."

"I know, buddy," Bella said, pulling him into her side. "But Uncle John and Auntie Karen take good care of her, you know that right?"

"I do," Joshua nodded, looking up at her. "They can be nicer than Mommy and Daddy. Angela doesn't like to be called Paul, but they still do it sometimes."

"That's true," Bella said. "But I'm glad you two know she is Angela. I'm sure it makes Angela really happy, too."

"What makes me happy?" Angela asked, breathless as she came over with Isaac clamped on her back.

"Cookies," Bella grinned, taking the box out of her bag. She immediately had the attention of the twins, and after being reminded by Angela to say 'thank you' they ate their cookies in silence

"Thanks for coming along," Angela said later that afternoon when they were hugging goodbye in the driveway of her house.

"Of course," Bella smiled. "I love spending time with you and the twins."

"I'm glad. See you tomorrow!"

"See you tomorrow! And Ange?"

Angela stopped. "Yes?"

"Don't let them drag you down, alright? If things get too much, you can always message me. I'm here for you."

Angela walked back and pulled Bella into another hug. "Thanks, will do. And the other way around works too, you know."

When the car had turned around the corner of the street, Bella fished her keys out of her pocket and let herself in, toeing her shoes off in the hallway and putting her jacket back on the closet. Her gloves followed, and once her fingers were somewhat defrosted, she made her way to the kitchen, where her dad was already busy cooking dinner.

"Hey Dad!"

He turned to face her, and Bella snorted when she saw he was wearing the apron she had bought him last year for Father's Day as a joke. Her dad struck a silly pose, showing off the toned torso that was printed on the fabric.

"Looks great on you, Dad," Bella said. She walked over to the kitchen table, but as soon as she sat down something was not quite right. She looked her dad into the eyes and could see the underlying worry hidden there, unsettling her. "What's wrong?"

"No, no, nothing's wrong," her dad reassured. "It's just, well, you've got mail."

He pushed the pristine white envelope towards her. Bella frowned and picked it up, scanning the front. 'To Isabella' was all it said. She looked to her dad for an explanation.

"Mr Lagmann delivered it when you were gone," he said awkwardly. "You don't have to open it, if you don't want to, it's all your choice. He just thought you should be the one to have it, in case you decide you want to read it."

At once, Bella recognised the handwriting. She dropped the letter like it was burning hot. "Mom."

"Yeah," her dad nodded, keeping an eye on her reaction. "I told you before that she'd written a letter to you. You know, when she'd been demanding the judge would reconsider her visitation rights. Well, this is that letter."

Bella grimaced and picked it back up to inspect it. Should she open it? She was not sure what to expect. She had not seen her mother for over two years and whilst it had hurt to leave at the time, the relief of not having to live with her anymore had been overwhelming. Was she going to risk opening old wounds?

Dinner was filled with small talk, her dad asking questions about her afternoon at the park in a poorly hidden attempt to distract her. Once she had helped him to clean up in the kitchen, she disappeared into her room, letter held in her hand. Shutting the door tightly, she made her way over to the desk. The letter got a place on top of a pile of insignificant papers in the top drawer, which she slid closed with a satisfying thump.

Out of sight, out of mind. Right?

Before she could rethink her decision, her phone rang. Checking the number, she quickly picked up. "Aro?"

"Darling Isabella, my lovely niece!"

"Is everything okay?" Bella asked. She was still feeling on edge and could not help her tone from coming over as clipped.

She could practically hear Aro smile. "Yes, things are fine here. We just have a few minor inconveniences we have yet to deal with. Do you recall the scent the guards and your friends were tracking this past weekend?"

Bella let out a slight laugh. "Obviously."

"Well, we did not manage to catch the one who had been hunting and attacking those humans," Aro said. "However, the guards did find someone else. A vampire."

"Alright," Bella nodded. "And now? Is there anything I can do?"

"That is why I wanted to speak with you, young one," Aro started. "They arrived back in Volterra just now, but as it soon became apparent, his mind is a bit… messed up, I think you people would call it."

"You can't get any reliable information out of him," Bella realised.

"We would like to request your help in the matter."

A mixture of dread and anticipation filled her stomach, but Bella did not have to think too long to answer. "Alright, I'm in. When are we doing this?"

"It would be best to carry out the interrogation as soon as possible," Aro said. "Especially since we suspect the issue might be personal, this close to your residence. We would like to handle everything quickly."

"What about my dad? And school?"

"Well, as it turns out, your great-uncle has suddenly ended up in the hospital, and you are unsure whether he will make it. It is adamant that you visit him before it could be too late."

Bella found herself wanting to smile. Aro had always had a flare for the dramatic. "Alright, that should get me time off from school. But what about my dad? Surely he'll want to come along."

"Me and my brothers have been conversing," Aro said. "We think it is time your father is updated on everything that has passed since we met. Including your condition and our arrangement. His contacts at the police department could be helpful and we should confer with him about your future."

Bella's heart jumped in her chest. "Are you sure?"

"Very much so."

"Okay." She nodded resolutely. "Let's get this plan started."

"Our fingerprints don't fade from the lives we touch."

A/N: Hey people, it's been a while! Thanks for being patient with me ;) I have been busy with many other projects these past few months, and it wasn't until yesterday that I felt like writing another chapter for this story of mine. I'd love it if you left me a review to tell me what you think of this chapter! I really do appreciate it. I don't know when I'll be uploading next, but this story is still one I'd love to continue so I'm sure there'll be another chapter some day ;) Until next time,

- Laura