*** trigger warning. Mention of Rape, assault, loss of choice, suicide, and other awful things that unfortunately happen in this world. The fact that these things were only mentioned but never resolved in multiple occasions throughout the story angers me. ***
Lily followed silently behind Rosalie as she traveled down the stairs and into the garage. Neither spoke a word as they flicked the lights on and Rose gravitated toward Emmett's Jeep. She shimmied under it quickly without comment.
Lily decided to go grab some of the tools she figured Rose would want as well as a few useless ones to pass to Rose to piss her off. She knew her friend needed space and comfort that Lily didn't know how to provide.
She thought to herself how she could even begin to support her friend after having had such an awful event happen to her. It wasn't just the rape, it was so much more.
Rosalie had lost the life she had. Her hopes, family, and dreams were forever taken from her by someone she had trusted in the worst imaginable way. Then, to be left like yesterday's garbage in a back alley to bleed to death from the trauma she had endured… Lily couldn't imagine how strong her best friend had to grow to overcome something as hideous as this.
She knew that Rosalie loved her family fiercely. It was evident in every action she took and every word she didn't speak. She hated the fact that Edward was endangering their family with someone like Bella. Someone who was not only so distinctly opposite of Rose in every way, but someone who more importantly disregarded others at a whim.
After the fiasco in Italy Rose seemed to have closed herself off towards her brother and his girlfriend. She wanted no part of the couple. The chasm that had formed didn't seem to bother Bella, but it was evident to anyone else who observed the family in their home.
Rose wouldn't acknowledge Bella or go out of her way to interact with her. Emmett would on occasion provide comic relief when tension built to an uncomfortable degree in the room, but left it at that. Jasper followed where is "twin" went, but Lily suspected that was because Rose was his favorite sibling and he was tired of all the emotions and blood lust surrounding Bella from Edward.
Alice was firmly on Bella and Edwards's side, but Lily felt that it was more self-serving than friendship. Sure, Alice loved Bella. But Lily felt that Alice wanted another sister that she could spend time with through the centuries. Then again, maybe Alice had seem something in Bella that none of them were privy to.
Poor Esme and Carlisle had to deal with their family being split emotionally with as much grace as they could manage. Lily wasn't sure about the dynamics of the family on a vampiric level, but they seemed much more like a democracy than anything else. She wondered on occasion if they changed who led the family after a number of decades.
The clank of a tool being dropped brought Lily would of her musings. She slid her hand daftly under the Jeep where an "old" piece had been removed and took it to give Rose space to work. She passed an oil pail and a few rags underneath the vehicle so she could continue with what appeared to be an oil change.
They worked in a comfortable silence as the older oil dripped into the pan. It wasn't until Lily started passing Rose odd bits and bobs that had no business near the Jeep that Rose came out from under the car, an annoyed look on her face.
"Really?" Rose asked.
"I'm just a silly human girl, what do I know about these dang contraptions?" Lily said back playfully.
"I'm fine, I promise. It happened so long ago."
"If you say you're fine, then I believe you. But don't let that negate from the fact that you were a dramatic bad ass woman who saved so many others from who knows what fate getting your revenge."
Rose's face lost the annoyance for several moments before a soft smile appeared on her face.
"You know, nobody ever put it like that. Usually they just tell me I was being dramatic and taking my anger out in a misplaced way."
"Misplaced? Who the fuck said that?"
"It doesn't matter"
"No, it does matter because they are wrong. What those monsters did earned every ounce of pain, fear, and agony that you brought back onto them."
"Edward says I should have let things go. It made for a huge investigation afterwards that caused our family to relocate."
"Edward has and continues to show just how dumb and inflated his ego is. You would have had to move anyway because you were a baby vamp. But you were the one who ensured that no other woman could get hurt from any of their hands. The dress was an excellent touch by the way."
Rose smiled again at the way her friend was defending her actions.
"I do have one question though, what ever happened to the ring?"
Rose looked baffled for a moment before answering. "I kept it. It's in my jewelry box in a bank locked away. I keep it as a reminder of my life and past actions."
"I'm surprised you kept it to be honest. Part of me expected you to leave it on his body after everything was said and done."
"Oh, I wanted to but it would have been too much of a calling card. The ring was very easily recognized."
"True, that would make it out to seem like you were the one who had done it."
The girls were quiet for a few minutes, the dripping of the oil in the background slowing down.
"They looked for me, you know?" Rose started.
"Hmm?" Lily looked over at her friend, confused by the half thought.
"The Kings and my family. They looked for me. My family refused to believe I had just run off. They knew it wasn't in my nature. When the men involved started…dying my family did more research into their affairs. My father, who had spent his entire life saving and being proud of the wealth he had accumulated and his social standing in the bank, had spent nearly his entire savings not only looking for me but into the Kings past as well."
"Wait, are you serious?"
Rose nodded her head before continuing.
"I know I shouldn't have, I doubt anyone other than Esme knows I did it, but I kept watching out for them. I'd send them clippings of stuff Royce had done in the past to other women who mysteriously disappeared or had engagements called off. I would put funds into my brother's accounts while they were still little to ensure they had enough to stand on their own feet once they were older."
Rose sighed before continuing.
"My mother didn't live for long afterwards. The doctors at the time said it was of a broken heart but it was suicide. My father found her. He eventually remarried, but it was never the same. Anyways, my father had collected enough information and banded together publically with the fathers of the other girls the King's had used and abused. It's not often in that time period women had any sort of recourse legally when something like that happens. But with enough voices, funding, and I hate to say it bodies piling up around the Kings the state was forced to intervene.
"Did you know New York State has an obscure law named after me thanks to my father and the fathers of the other women Royce hurt? It's been changed over the years as sexual assault and other crimes of that type of violent nature have been readdressed, but it's still there in the books. It's called Thorn's Law."
Lily looked at her friend before grabbing her hand within her own gently, not caring that they had grease stains covering them. Rose continued to talk without focusing on anything in particular.
"My father wanted to make sure than any other girl who was to be abused in the manor he believed me to have been would never allow the monster to get away without bleeding. They never found my body, you see? Just the remnants of the attack, the blood, and the scattered buttons.
"Anyways, the law makes it so that if there is sufficient evidence of a crime occurring against a young woman of any social standing, race, or age with a history of violence on the perpetrators file of previous events that they must be addressed in the court of law. It didn't always work, but for the time period it was very progressive.
"My parents were good people. They thought highly of themselves but most importantly they loved us. I wish I could have been a better daughter to them."
Lily squeezed her friend's hand gently, trying to convey how much she cared for her and supported her.
"Rose, they knew. You were the best daughter you could be for them. They loved you and still do, wherever it is they may be. They would be so proud of you seeing the woman you turned into."
Rose took her hand away from Lily's, anger flashing in her eyes.
"That's just it Lily. I'm not a woman. I'll never be a woman again. I'm a cold monster. I can't even have children. Did you know that? Everything stops when we turn. I'm no more a woman than a rock is a diamond."
"I didn't take self-loathing as one of the sibling traits you shared with Edward Rose" Lily snarked at her friend with a raised eyebrow.
"Excuse me?" Rose seethed.
"You heard me. You are, and will always be, one of the strongest most amazing women I or anyone will ever have the pleasure of meeting. My heart breaks for you not being able to have your own biological children. I cannot begin to imagine the pain of that. I'm only 17, I've never thought seriously into having children. But I know you have.
"You are no monster. I doubt you would ever seriously be capable of being a monster. Those men who hurt you and those other women? They were monsters. People who hurt children? Monsters. A woman who is so incredibly loved by her family, who advocates for the rights of other women, who continues to care for a family who believed her dead, who would fight to the death for her family? The same woman who carried a man bleeding out because he was dumb enough to encounter a bear for how many miles to make sure he got to Carlisle safe? You are no monster Rose."
Rosalie stared at her friend, her nostrils flaring as she took in everything Lily had said.
Several moments passed, neither woman willing to back down.
Suddenly, Rosalie closed her eyes in silent defeat and lay back under the car.
"Are you going to pass me the right tools this time?"
"Maybe" Lily replied playfully.