When I arrived at the house I parked the rental near the porch. Alice burst through the door in pirouette, a smile plastered to her face. Esme came out behind her and had me in her arms the moment stepped foot out of the vehicle.
"I've missed you,"
"Me too, mom." I hugged her back and looked up to see my father, hands in his pockets, looking content.
"We've all missed you, son." I nodded at him as I was brought into a fierce hug by my creator. It was good to be with family.
"She figured it out! She left thirteen hours ago, and she spoke to me!" Alice danced around the room as we shut the door of our home in Forks.
"FINALLY!" Boomed Emmet while lifting my feet off the floor in a bearhug, I caught his double meaning. "She hasn't told us anything!"
Carlisle chuckled at the joy our family shared with being together, "She says it will decrease the potency of this exceptional event."
I received a firm handshake and a deep wave of affection from Jasper, and surprisingly, a kiss on the cheek from Rosalie, "It is truly remarkable." She smirked, then sat down again.
I looked at Alice, who shrugged and skipped to the living room. "She knows how to keep a secret." At that moment Rosalie was reciting the firing order for every engine put into every Thunderbird starting with the first in 1955.
"Alright then," I couldn't help but chuckle, "where shall we start?" We gathered in the living room. I had to remind myself to sit, being away from humans, or interaction with people in general, and I nearly forgot to stay in the habit.
"Let's start with the events prior to Bella leaving, and then voice our theories." stated Carlisle. He loved any potential new subject of research.
"Well then!" began Alice, with a slap on her hands on her knees, "We all know that Bella started something in motion with her split second decision to take a nearly ill-fated swim." I cringed at the thought, and by the looks of it, my family didn't appreciate the reminder either. "Well that night, she had a dream which I now believe was about crashing her truck." Alice certainly knew how to get the attention of a room. That little statement shocked nearly everyone.
"That truck is a rattle-trap, it don't surprise me." Jasper shook his head.
"She went to bed stressed out so I could understand having a weird dream in response. It's common with humans apparently. That morning, she mentioned Connecticut after her dream, which I thought was extraordinary, considering our plans. On Monday, she went to sleep in a stressful state of mind again after finding out about the asteroid, and was having another strange dream. She woke up wishing out loud that I would call her for real, which apparently is something I did before she woke. Of course I couldn't in reality, because then she'd insist on staying, and Victoria would find her before we did. Or, we'd be too distracted keeping her safe that we would have suffered loss of life."
She quickly skipped the details of that possibility, "Anyhoo, there she was, going about her morning, telling me to 'carpe diem' as she decided on breakfast, when she suddenly remembered her dream. She hasn't been talking much at all on any other given day, so it was out of the ordinary that she was talking out loud of insequential things, let alone voicing her dream. She stated that she dreamed about smashing her truck again, and remembered the last part of her dream. Then she saw the call trace. She had a few moments of disbelief, but then she put the whole thing together."
Alice began to tick the points off with her fingers. "She knew I saw her jump, she knew one of us had called her from an untraceable number, she knew Connecticut was significant before she saw the call trace and who knows how many times it's popped into her head before she ever saw it. But the most amazing part is that she called me out. Not only by calling me 'psychic friends network,' but by deciding that she was going to meet us, and that we'd find her."
"Am I correct in assuming that you believe Bella has a type of clairsentient ability that performs in times of stress?" Carlisle was rubbing his chin with his fingertips, staring off as he tried to understand all facets of what Alice had placed before us.
"So the way Alice sees things, Bella feels things?" asked Esme.
"Yes. I believe that she has it all the time, actually, but it works better in times of stress. That she felt the need to speak out loud today is one example. I believe her instincts were telling her that I was watching."
"She's right, I've seen evidence of this clairsentience several times. That she figured out what we are in the first place, she relied on her gut feelings for more than a small part of that puzzle."
"She knew you could read minds too," supplied Emmet, "Has anyone been able to do that before? Figure out our secrets?"
"Not that I've heard in human minds in the past, no."
"It goes beyond that." Started Rosalie, thoughtfully. "She wasn't shocked when Edward saved her from the men in Port Angeles, that's not a normal human reaction. She somehow knew it would turn out. She wasn't shaken up by Tyler's van, she was able to get away from Alice and Jasper at the airport, too."
"She's never shied away from us. Rather than being afraid of a coven of vampires, she was afraid we wouldn't like her." Said Esme with affection.
"She didn't want a birthday party." Jasper said quietly. We all looked to him as he continued, staring at the carpet as he spoke. "She knew she wouldn't like it. Our fondness fer Bella an' excitement t' celebrate a birthday with somebody who ages was great enough ta talk her into it. I'll bet she knew it wasn't gonna end well." Alice took his hand.
"That night, when I took her home, she sounded so remorseful. She blamed herself. Maybe subconsciously she believed it was her fault, for not listening to her instincts and doing what she felt was right."
"Well we're very fortunate she listened to her instincts this time," Carlisle pointed out, "otherwise Victoria could have taken her away from us. We'll have to discuss this further when Bella is with us again. Alice, what's our timeline?"
"Victoria will be here in 6 hours. She's going straight to Bella's and realizes Bella is gone once she's there. Her truck is very old and has a bit of an engine issue which makes the smell stronger and easy to trace."
"It's running rich, which means too much fuel is being injected into the intake ports,0causing a stronger smell and a drip from the exhaust." explained our personal Wrench. Emmet looked at her and thought "She's hot when she talks like that." I couldn't agree with him, however I noticed how helpful she was acting. I'd have to ask Alice for the details of that later.
"So Victoria notices the smell and follows the truck. She'd catch up with her around the South Dakota state line if it wasn't for us. We'll intercept her a few miles outside of Forks. She's going to be running in the woods along the road concentrating on the truck's scent with a few newborns following behind."
"Which means we got time for a quick hunt and a run through o' the drills I taught y'all yesterday. Edward ya need t' hunt before this fight since Ali sees you takin' down Victoria. Carlisle, mayhap y' could accompany him an' call the Quilutes an' let em' know: we're in town to take down a vampire we got dealin's with, an' then we're leavin'. As much as I don't like them knowin' about our goin's on, I sure as sheeit don't want them mistakin us for common rabble."
We got our orders from Major Whitlock and set about to prepare ourselves for our battle. As it turns out, we didn't have to contact the Wolves, they were patrolling on their side of the treaty line as we ran up stream, so we hailed them and explained the situation. They were very unhappy to see us, particularly me. Apparently several of them have met Bella, and know that she had been having a hard time since I left. Word had gotten around that Bella left and were relieved to know that we weren't together. I didn't supply that I could read minds, or that we'd be meeting up within hours. We let them know that a vampire was a threat in the area, and that we had a plan to dispose of her. They knew of a vampire with red hair in the area recently, and had chased her into the sound last Saturday. They had lost her in the waves. We explained that we were expecting her to be around in a few hours, and we wouldn't mind if they'd like to hang around the area to block her party from escape. They were only too happy to stand guard on their side on the line and at certain intervals along the highway. Apparently, their feelings for us had changed once we had provided them with an opportunity to kill vampires. Carlisle didn't appreciate their cavalier attitude towards killing in general. It seemed a bit hypocritical to me as well. Protectors of life indeed.
Afterward we ran quickly toward a small herd of elk and each took one for ourselves. Running back Carlisle was thinking about what he'd learned in his research of the separation of Mates. He was careful not to share what he's been looking into with the family, though he suspected Alice was privy, as she usually was. He thought about the self-harming behavior that was common amongst separated mates. Oftentimes the individual wasn't aware that they were harming themselves. He wondered if Bella was displaying this behavior when she stepped from the cliff.
"She's human, shouldn't that be an exemption from that behavior?"
"I disagree. Bella has displayed many behaviors since bonding with you that would suggest she might suffer from the side effects of a vampire mate separation."
"Her capacity for change, growth, her ability to forget, shouldn't that factor in?"
"You would think so, but then why is she presenting with such extraordinary symptoms of melancholia? After seven months she should have shown some improvement. Her lack of appetite, socialization, interest in things that she used to find enjoyable, and distractibility suggests a level of permanency not seen in human to human bonds. Furthermore, through her unfortunate experience at the beach, she displayed another sign of a severed bond; unplanned and unconscious suicidal behavior."
"Carlisle, I never displayed suicidal behavior."
"Edward, may I ask. Did you, while you were away, hunt regularly?"
"Not as regularly as I would have at home, I suppose, but as soon as I felt I couldn't wait another day safely, I would." I looked to him and saw he was watching me, waiting for me to catch on. I realized that my behavior was suicidal. There were few Vampires in Brazil. Those who were there, I'm sure, would have contacted the Volturi if I became a danger. One in particular, a male with dark shoulder length hair kept his distance, but eyed me warily. Had he not taken me out himself, if I exposed the secret, I'm sure he would have contacted someone else. "I see your point."
"I'm telling you this because you need to know that you are vital to each other's existence. If one of you ceases to exist, the symptoms of a broken bond are much more severe. Victoria's behavior is a direct result of a broken bond. Hypothetically, had she been able to complete her revenge, she would seek death quickly. When Bella became your mate, she became beloved to all of us. We don't want to lose our daughter, or your siblings, their sister. I think you should seriously consider making her a more permanent member of our family."
The request from my father, creator, coven leader, was unexpected, albeit shocking. The man who valued human life above us all was suggesting I take Bella's. However he didn't see it that way, he saw it as pulling his loved ones closer. Of ensuring he wouldn't lose both of us, which by consequence, would cause the entire family immeasurable pain. He cares for us all, as a father should. The depth of feeling Carlisle had for his family shouldn' t have taken me aback after all these years, but it always did.
I was unable to respond as we came up to our family engaged in a quick practice session. I took everything in, and listened to Jasper as he ran through the techniques he'd gone over with the others in his mind. He recalled points in time when he battled in the Southern wars, showed me how to engage with more experienced fighters, and what I might encounter today. Soon it was time to take our positions, so we ran to the Highway headed east southeast, and waited for Victoria. She would face her fate today.
This was a fun chapter to write. We see a bit of each of our characters' dominant personality traits. As you may have noticed, I don't like the wolves, but they are a part of this world, and they will be making appearances in the future. We get into meat and potatoes of Bella's character arc here as well. I can't believe SM didn't build on this, it would have made sense.Music is The Beginning of the End, NIN obviously, because it is the beginning of the end, and because Reznor is top fkn notch.