Hope you all enjoy, chapter 4 is underway. Thank you for reading.

Chapter 3

Bella did attend the bonfire on Saturday, the La Push gang seemed to be present as well, one of them had his girlfriend with him, she had some bad scars on one side of her face. Billy tried again to convince her to not live in the woods, something the La Push gang seemed to support. He then proceeded to tell old Quileute legends, how they had been spirit warriors, then they became men who turned into wolves and he topped it with the legends of the cold ones. After Billy was finished multiple smaller conversations got started. Billy threw a hissy fit when Bella mentioned the Cullens to Jake. All eyes were on Bella now.

"You should stay away from the Cullens Bella, they are dangerous." Billy finally warned.

"They don't seem dangerous to me and I got a talent for spotting danger." Bella replied coldly.

"Bella how well do you know them?"

"I ain't doing this, bub. Have a good evening, I'm going home." Bella said as she got up.

"Think of the legends when you get home!" Billy shouted to Bella as she walked away.

Bella got to her truck, Jake having caught up with her before she could get in.

"Don't pay any attention to him Bella, he's a superstitious old man. They all are around here."

"It's ok Jake, it's just I don't need this in my life right now. I don't have the time or patience, I'm sorry." Bella said making Jake look sad.

"Does that mean we cant hang out together anymore?" Jake asked with puppy eyes.

"You're good, just call me before you come down. Ok?" Bella answered.

They said their goodbyes and shook hands.

"Jake you should go home you're burning up." Bella said.

"I feel fine." Jake said unconvincingly.

"Don't lie to me Jake, go home and rest, I'll see you soon." Bella said and got in her truck.

Bella started driving home, going over the legends again during her drive. When she got home she started on her homework to keep herself busy, she had quickly turned dismissive of the legends. As strange as you could call her, people turning into dogs or actual vampires are just too crazy. Let alone that the Cullens would be dangerous, a little annoying maybe, especially Alice who had a tendency to get in your head and make your world revolve around her. By Sunday evening she had the solar panels mounted in the clearing and the basic plumbing finished inside the cabin. She demolished the existing bed, choosing to replace it along with most of the interior furniture.

After school on Monday she went to the cabin and loaded up her truck to make several trips to the dump. Alice had crept back into her mind, making her wonder if it wouldn't be just better to pack up and leave town. Being so unusually well preserved despite her age made it impossible to strike up long term friendships, let alone relationships and Alice seemed a little too interested, from the conversations they've been having. But she had started living for those conversations in a way, those brief moments of being with Alice made a lot of pain go away. She wondered most of the week how cruel it would be to strike up an actual friendship with the girl and why that girl was able to tear down all the barriers she had in place. Thursday morning she arrived a little early at school, it was a very rainy day, more rainy that usual. She sat in her truck for a while, not wanting to get out just yet. when she got out and turned around to lock her truck, she heard a skidding noise, she turned around to see Tyler Crowley's van skid towards her fast. As soon as she realized what was happening she felt her left arm being pulled hard. She looked over to see Alice desperately trying to pull her out of the way. There wasn't any time left to do anything that wouldn't expose her.

"Not her, not her." Bella thought.

She grabbed Alice and threw her out of the way hard enough that she flew far enough to clear her truck, braced herself and let the van come close enough to push it to a stop. Her steel hands connected with the van, twisting and denting the metal, she felt her left arm going through the thin sheet metal, shredding her left sleeve and tearing her flesh with her healing repairing the torn flesh immediately. Her feet were being pushed backwards towards her truck as she kept bracing against the van to force it to a stop. The van ended up stopping making a slight contact with her trucks rear fender and a small opening in the front of her truck. She pulled her left arm free, tearing it again but it instantly healed again, she quickly slipped through the opening left in the front and walked around her truck and headed towards Alice, who was in shock.

"Alice. Alice look at me." She said as she took a hold of the shocked Pixie.

"Bella? You're alive?"

"I'm here. Are you ok? I think you're in shock, you should probably go to the hospital, I pushed you out of the way pretty hard you probably hit your head."

"Bella the van. You? How?"

"I jumped away in time." Bella lied to the best of her ability.

Most of the student body came over to join them expecting a lot of carnage. Teachers were running out of the school towards the accident site. Some shouted to check on Tyler. Others were on the phone with 911, Alice's family had a strange look of shock and worry on their faces. Bella kept talking to the shocked Alice. Soon several ambulances arrived. Several of the EMT's approached Alice and Bella. Fortunately the heavy rain had washed off the blood on her left arm, which had been minimal.

"I don't need any help! I think she's in shock, take her to the hospital immediately." Bella shouted when the paramedics wanted to help her.

"Miss Swan, you're a minor involved in an accident on school property, you need to go with the ambulance to the hospital." She heard a voice say.

She looked up and saw the biology teacher Mr banner.

"Don't argue, it's school policy due to our insurance, you have to go." Mr Banner said.

The EMT's kept trying to pull her onto a stretcher.

"Fine I'll ride with Alice's ambulance, but I'm walking because I'm fine." Bella snarled at both the EMT's and Mr Banner.

She quickly got up and walked to the ambulance.

"Please miss Swan, you might be experiencing an adrenaline rush, you really should get on a stretcher and wear a neck brace." One of the EMT's said while grabbing her arm

"Stay calm, don't let your claws come out. You can handle this idiot." Bella thought.

She grabbed the EMT's hand and removed it from her arm with some force.

"Get her on a stretcher and put her in the ambulance now or I'll do it myself." She said to the EMT viciously.

Seeing there was no point to it, they put Alice on the stretcher and loaded her in the back. Bella couldn't help herself and comforted Alice the entire time they were on the way to the hospital, it seemed to help, Alice was starting to come out of it. Soon they arrived at the hospital, she walked out of the ambulance while they unloaded Alice. A pale looking doctor came running up to them.

"Alice are you ok?" he asked as he grabbed her head with both his hands.

It seemed enough to snap Alice out of her state of shock.

"I'm fine, Bella-"

"I pushed her out of the way pretty hard, she may have a concussion." Bella interrupted Alice.

"I should look you both over nevertheless." He replied.

He led them to the ER pushing Alice's stretcher himself. Alice was quickly transferred to a bed, the EMT's took the stretcher away.

"You injured your arm, I'll have you taken to radiology to have a few x rays taken." The doctor said to Bella referring to her torn sleeve.

"I'm fine, I only came because they kept nagging, I got out of the way." Bella quickly lied.

"Can I take a quick look at least?" he asked with a pleading tone.

"Fine take a peek but then you have to take care of Alice." Bella hissed at the doctor.

"I'm Carlisle Cullen, Alice's father." He said as he looked over Bella's perfectly intact arm, trying to make it budge or twist, probably something that would hurt somebody with micro fractures in their bones.

"Aren't you going to look at Alice? I'm fine." Bella said with conviction.

His hands though were cold, colder than Alice's hands. He let go of her arm and pulled out a penlight, doing a few quick tests.

"I'll look at her as soon as I'm done with you, I'd do it the other way around but since you insist on not being treated I have to assume you might be worse off than you let on. Now follow my finger with your eyes please." Dr Cullen said.

"Fine." Bella hissed following his finger with her eyes waiting for him to be done.

"Well it doesn't seem like you have a break or a concussion, it's against my better judgment but you're free to go as soon as one of your parents get here. I'll excuse you from school for today, But you have to promise that you'll come back here if you feel anything wrong" He said with a sigh while writing some things down and handing Bella a note.

"My parents are dead. I'm legally an adult. Take care of Alice please. And I'm completely fine, trust me I've been through far worse." Bella said before turning back to Alice.

"You'll be ok, I'll see you in school." Bella said to Alice while stroking her cheek.

Bella walked out of the ER room to find most of the school waiting there. She hitched a ride with one of the teachers after handing her doctors note. Tyler Crowley had sustained some minor lacerations, so all in all everybody was relieved that it hadn't been too bad. Once back at the school she went to her truck, Tyler's van hadn't been moved yet, she wanted to undo some of the more noticeable dents, but surprisingly they had already been taken care off. Bella got into her truck and went home for the day, just for the sake of keeping up appearances, since she was absolutely fine. She spent the school day working on the cabin, semi grateful of what happened as it gave her the chance to get some work done. She was constantly fighting the urge to go to the hospital to check on Alice, She had thrown her pretty hard, too hard.

"Wait, where the hell did Alice come from to begin with? She was nowhere near me when I got out of the truck, I would've seen her when I turned to lock my truck. So she's fast? Too fast? She's cold to the touch, it's getting colder outside though. But her father Dr Cullen had ice cold hands, it can't be a family trait to have bad circulation Alice is adopted. But the eyes, they all have the same golden eyes that get darker and then are butterscotch gold again. What did the Quileute legends say again about the cold ones?" Bella thought.

Bella whipped out her phone and started searching for Quileute legends and legends in general about fast cold creatures. There was nothing conclusive to be found, most was about supposed vampires on the one more serious looking website she had found containing a bunch of myths and legends. There was a native book store in Port Angeles that sold a book about Quileute legends.

"Billy did warn me specifically to stay away from the Cullens, it seems the only one there not believing in it was Jake. I still got time to make it to that store before closing time. And the dangerous creatures in the woods, extraordinarily dangerous creatures with the indication that no human stands a chance against them was another thing he warned about." Bella thought.

She drove over to Port Angeles to get the book on Quileute legends, hoping to find answers.

Meanwhile at the Cullen mansion Carlisle had just come home from his job at the hospital, accompanied by his daughter Alice who was still somewhat in shock, he had signed her out to take her home. They walked from the garage into the living room together to find the entire family waiting for them, his beloved wife Esme immediately pulled the small pixie into her arms.

"Alice can you tell me exactly what happened?" Esme asked.

"Rose and Edythe are right, she's not human. The van was going to crush her, I ran over as fast as I could wanting to pull her out of the way, I couldn't move her. She told everybody that she pushed me out of the way, but she threw me, she's strong, really strong. She didn't jump out of the way, she stopped the van. She's not human. I thought she was going to die, I still can't grasp that she's alive." Alice blubbered out.

"We did our best to hide the evidence that she stopped the van in the time we had, we also collected blood that probably belongs to her, there wasn't much but it looked like her left arm went through the side of the jam. Did you notice anything when you treated her Carlisle? Perhaps you could test her blood." Edythe asked while handing Carlisle a Ziplock bag with a bloody tissue.

"I can't say I treated her, she refused treatment, I had seen her shredded sleeve and she was adamant about no x rays being taken, there were no visible injuries. I used more strength than normal when inspecting her arm, pulling and twisting, it's something that normally hurts patients with microfractures, but she was fine. In fact she was quite worried about Alice. Without her consent I feel it's wrong to conduct any tests on her blood." Carlisle said and threw the sample in the fireplace.

"Mom what am I going to do?" Alice asked sadly.

"Oh honey, no matter what she's your mate and if you learned anything today it's that she cares about you. It might be a step forward for you two." Esme comforted Alice.

"I hope she's ok." Alice sobbed.

"How about we go hunting and take a quick peek. We'll have to keep our distance though of course." Esme offered to Alice.

Alice agreed with her mother's plan and after changing into more appropriate clothes, they set off.

Bella had made it to the Native American book store before closing time. The guy working the counter had been somewhat skeptical when it came to selling her the book, the legends were sacred to his people after all. She had convinced him when she told him she had a big school project on local history and that she preferred to shine a little light on the history of the tribes in the peninsula. It was a lie of course but it had convinced him to part with the book. She drove back to the cabin picking up a pizza along the way. While eating the pizza she flipped through the book, hoping to find more details, written records often are more expansive. The legends of the cold ones were written down here more extensively, she wrote down the traits, great strength, cold skin, red eyes, extremely fast, pale skin, very good hearing, lives off blood.

"Well neither Alice or her family have red eyes, they do have the other traits it seems. I wonder if there's anything else in here." Bella thought.

She found an addition at the end of the book, the Quileute tribe once made a treaty with cold ones that claimed to be different, they said their yellow eyes were the proof, but the tribe didn't trust them, the chief wanted them to stay off the tribal lands.

"Yellow eyes. Gold is yellow. This can't possible be true."

She wondered about it all night, Could Alice Cullen and by extension her family be cold ones or vampires. Never in her time had she encountered vampires so she had no reference point. Not even in the program had she heard the word. Though most of the time she was kept in her cell, only coming out for training, enhancement procedures or missions. Since the pizza was finished, she lit a after dinner cigar. She was so lost in thought she hadn't noticed the 2 blurs in the distance, but she did hear the sound of them running away.

"2 separate sounds this time, one heavier than the other. What is their intention? Are they going to come for me? The Quileute legends say the wolves hard teeth manage to tear vampires apart. As hard as the vampires may be, my claws should be able to hurt them right?" Bella thought.

Not too far away from Bella's cabin Alice and Esme were running towards their home at high speed.

"She's fine honey, though she seems to have bad habits." Esme said.

Alice wanted to hiss at her mother for saying her mate had bad habits but knew better, she waited until it passed before asking her mom a question.

"Mom, should I tell her?" Alice asked.

"I don't know honey, maybe this isn't the right time, from what Carlisle said Bella showed today that she does care about you, try to capitalize on that first, get a little closer to her." Esme answered.

"I need to go to school tomorrow. I have to see her up close."

"Alice, take it slow, don't be overbearing. That might scare her off."

"I'll try to take it easy." The pixie promised her mother.

Bella's night had been restless, she had a dream and a nightmare, the dream had been a positive outcome of confronting Alice, the nightmare the opposite. She had shredded a set of sheets and her mattress with her claws, the latter had been quickly fixed with duct tape. It was somewhat disappointing; it had been a while since her claws had come out during her sleep. She ended up deciding to confront Alice. Fortunately, the lack of sleep didn't really affect her all that much. In the morning after placing an online order for a new mattress for the truck camper, she left a little early, dropping by the local coffee stand in her truck for a tall very strong latte and a couple of muffins. She enjoyed her breakfast in the schools parking lot, having parked in her usual spot, the big truck wasn't the easiest to maneuver so the far edge of the lot was always easier to park in. halfway through her second muffin the familiar Volvo arrived. She looked through her mirror to see how many got out of the car. Edythe, Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett and Alice.

"Yes she's at school!" Bella thought very enthusiastically.

Bella focused on Alice and took a good look at her from her truck.

"She looks better than yesterday." Bella thought.

She quickly munched down the remainder of her second muffin grabbed her bag and coffee cup and exited her truck. After locking it she walked over to the Cullens. There was a obvious look of relief on Alice's face. Bella had to fight the urge to pull Alice into a hug.

"Glad to see you're better than yesterday Alice." Bella said, nodded to the rest of her family and walked into the school.

Most of the day she had been questioned about the accident. Tyler Crowley was back at school as well. He spent his school day profoundly apologizing to Bella, during lunch he even walked over to the Cullen table to profoundly apologize to Alice. The simple act of walking to the Cullens table had everybody looking at him. With Bella's superior hearing she could easily overhear the conversation.

"Miss Cullen I'd like to apologize for the accident I caused yesterday, I should've been more careful. I hope you aren't hurt too bad. My parents wanted me to give you their phone number to pass to your parents in case there's problems down the line." Tyler said sheepishly while handing her a card.

"Thank you, but there's no need to apologize, I'm absolutely fine. No harm no foul." Alice replied graciously.

Tyler muttered some more apologies anyway and got several reassurances from the Cullens before hurrying back to our table. To say he had been dazzled was putting it lightly. He wanted to apologize to Bella again, but she put her hand up.

"I'm fine Tyler, I only took advantage of the day off to do some chores at home. There's no need to apologize, I'm absolutely fine. No harm no foul." Bella said.

It got her stares from the entire Cullen table, she had paraphrased Alice enough that it was noticeable. She now knew that the Cullens had superior hearing too, but it seemed she might have given away her own superior hearing. She looked away from the Cullens and went back to eating lunch. After lunch she shared biology with Edythe. She sat down at their lab table where Edythe was already waiting for her.

"Thank you for pushing my sister out of the way." Edythe said.

"It's nothing I didn't want her to get hurt, I probably shouldn't have shoved her that hard. I'm just glad to see she's alright. She didn't look too good afterwards and it had me worried." Bella responded

"She's grown on you, hasn't she?" Edythe asked and sat there with a big grin.

"I talk with her sometimes. But it still would be better for her if she stayed away from me. Like yesterday, if she hadn't come over to my truck I wouldn't have had to shove her." Bella said attempting to deflect.

"I think you care about her more then you're willing to admit." Edythe said.

"Maybe in another life, in this one it's best she stays far away from me." Bella responded with a sad tone.

"I don't know what happened to you, but you shouldn't close yourself off like this. Ali will try to murder me for telling you this. She's gay. I've seen the way you look at her, we all have. You don't need to be afraid of her turning you down or how people will react." Edythe whispered sympathetically while touching Bella's left arm.

"I'm not even taking that into account, it's best she stays away from me. Like I said, in another life, not in this one." Bella replied while peeling Edythe's cold hand off of her arm.

She didn't pay any more attention to Edythe and looked to the front of the class. Bella was somewhat relieved when Mr Banner started the class. It was hard for Bella to focus on the class, her thoughts were all over the place. She was heavily contemplating if it wouldn't be better to skip school for the rest of the day and skipping town came back to mind. Ultimately the strange urge to see Alice again had won out. When biology was over she quickly made her way to the history class. She quickly entered the class relieved to see Alice, she sat down next to her and laid a hand on her cold arm, touching her wrist with two fingers on Alice's jugular veins. She confirmed her suspicion, Alice had no pulse.

"You're sure that you're OK right?" Bella asked.

"I'm good, Carlisle wouldn't let me come to school otherwise. Are you ok?" Alice asked.

"I'm completely fine, everybody was overreacting about me."

"Bella, I need to te-. Uhm thank you. For pushing me out of the way I mean, you saved my life." Alice said as if something heavy weighed on her.

Bella leaned in closer and quietly whispered to Alice.

"I know what you want to tell me, I know your big secret. I know what you are Alice. Why you're cold and have no pulse" Bella whispered silently enough that only someone with superior hearing can hear it.

Alice looked in shock again once recovered she whispered back.

"And you're not afraid or freaking out?" Alice whispered when Mr Smith had already begun the class.

"No, I know why your eyes are gold and not red." Bella whispered back when Mr Smith wasn't looking.

"Bella I'm, I don't know what to say." Alice whispered.

"You should stay away from me, not because of what you are but because of me. I'm not the kind of person you need. In another life I'd gladly have you as a friend or more, in this one it's too dangerous for you." Bella whispered to a sad looking Alice.

"Bella please." Alice begged.

"No Alice, it would put you in too great a danger. I can't do that to you, you deserve better than me." Bella whispered back.

"Bella, my family and me can handle ourselves and we have certain gifts that helps as well." Alice whispered insistently.

"Alice, it's best you let it go. I'm no good for you. I'm not a fool, I've seen the way you look at me. I know it's difficult but you'll get over it in time. People have gotten hurt because of me in the past, helping me, being around me too often places you in great danger." Bella whispered back to the devastated Alice.

The remainder of the history class Alice was unable to say another word. As had often happened before Bella bolted for the door as soon as the class was over. It felt like her heart had been teared out. Regardless of what Alice was, Bella had become fond of her, fond enough to keep her at a distance, for Alice's safety. Gym had provided a good chance for some distraction, the scalding hot shower helped even more. The heart ache returned soon after. When she was dressed she went to the parking, she noticed the Volvo was already gone. Bella got in her truck and headed back to the cabin, working for a few hours before heading to the diner for steak and cobbler.

After school on the other side of forks Esme had her hands full consoling the heartbroken Alice, she had come home early in a terrible state. Esme had hoped when the other kids got home that Jasper would use his gift to calm Alice down, but he had said it was inappropriate. Her kids had all rapidly gone their separate ways.

"Alice honey, can you at least tell me what happened?" Esme asked to Alice who was still sobbing after hours of comforting.

"She turned – me down. She knows – what – we are." Alice got out in between sobs.

"The poor thing, she must be terrified." Esme said hoping to comfort the pixie, only resulting in her sobbing even harder again.

When Alice had calmed down enough again, she spoke again between sobs.

"That's not – it. She said – being with her – would put – me in danger. Said I – deserve better – than her. But – she – is perfect." Alice let out in between sobs.

Esme hoped the situation could be turned around, vampires being outright rejected by their mates rarely ended well. If things didn't turn around the once so lively Alice, always bringing happiness and joy in their never ending lives would either die or if she survived she would be a shell of herself. While comforting Alice she contemplated intervening, not necessarily believing it would be wrong if it saved her precious Alice's life.

When Bella got back from the diner she sank into a pit of misery, she cut herself over and over again to make the pain go away. She finally fell asleep in a ball of misery. Saturday started with putting some finishing touches on the cabin, by now pretty much everything worked, all the lights worked, the outlets worked, hot water came out of the kitchen sink faucet, all the basics were covered. She was waiting for Jake who was feeling good again, to go furniture shopping. Soon Jake arrived.

"Hey Bella."

"Jake what the hell happened to you? You grew, like a lot in a week."

"Uh yeah, growth spurt you know." Jake replied.

"Jake you're at least a couple inches taller, not that you were short to begin with." Bella retorted, having never heard or seen such a growth spurt.

When Bella finished her coffee, they went to get the furniture she needed, a new bed and mattress, sheets, pillows, a love seat, a tv and some random bits. On the way back from Port Angeles Jake felt the need to mention something he had noticed.

"You seem a little off today?" Jake asked.

"It's been a rough week." Bella replied.

"What happened?" Jake inquired further.

"Well, I kinda got into a car accident at school, I managed to push Alice away and jump out of the way myself just in time. After having to go to the hospital I spent the rest of the day at home, doing various jobs. Yesterday I made a hard decision regarding Alice, I have a lot of issues, it's better we don't get close, it hurts though." Bella said as honest as she could

"That does sound like a rough week. Who's this Alice?" Jake asked.

"Alice Cullen." I said causing Jake to start shaking.

"You're right, it's better you don't get close to a Cullen." Jake spat out viciously when he calmed down.

The way Jake had said it made her angry, her claws nearly came out, 3 ridges were visible on her hands causing her to be unable to bend her wrists. She focused on retracting her claws into her arms.

"Don't you start too bub, I'm not in the fucking mood for this." She spat back.

The rest of the way they rode in silence. Once back at the cabin they worked in silence unloading the truck putting all the boxes inside the cabin.

"Sorry that was a shitty way for me to react. It's just with all the stuff going around the rez about the Cullens it get's to you sometimes." Jake said lacking any real apologetic tone.

"It's a fucking shitty way to react to somebody who let out their heart to you. I came here seeking peace and quiet, between all of you I haven't gotten any. Just leave Jake." Bella snarled at Jake.

"Come on Bella."

"No! Leave me alone. Get out of here." Bella said with conviction.

Jake saw there was no point to arguing and left, hoping he hadn't completely destroyed what he thought was a barely rekindled friendship with maybe a chance of it being something more one day, cause in his mind, Bella was hot, really hot. He got in his old chevy truck and drove home.

Bella assembled everything herself with speed and ease, the work still providing a distraction. Before the evening she had everything set up. Afterwards she collapsed, she didn't find the energy for projects that she could focus on anymore, she spent the entire Saturday evening and Sunday on the loveseat curled up in a ball of misery, the pain caused by pushing away Alice had become too much to bear. It felt like she was being pulled inside out. Something inside her that she didn't knew she had, broke. In between crying all she could do was hurt herself or murmur Alice's name and that she was sorry. She was in no condition let alone any mood to attend school on Monday so with difficulty she called in sick.


Things will get better.