Disclaimer: This story is based off of the characters written by Stephanie Meyer in the Twilight Saga. I do not own any of these characters.

Bella

I spent most of the day exploring the house and the area immediately surrounding the house. I thought that I would get bored quickly once I'd discovered there wasn't much in the way of activities the Cullen's had left behind. But as I wandered through the doors of the home I'd never had the opportunity to explore before, I finally understood what Edward had meant about distractions.

Any new sound or smell peaked my interest and all my attention turned to the new experience. Many smells in particular where interesting, most of the family had left behind clothes, and when I went looking for something I could change into I became overwhelmingly distracted with the scent of each fabric. I managed to find a comfortable outfit -in Rosalie's closet of all places - and slid into it. I found their washing machine and placed my own clothes in it, grateful to be able to clean the mess of hunting from them.

Clothes may have remained, but the family seemed to have taken much of their own their belongings with them, I was surprised when I came across certain items they'd left behind. I began to come up with possible stories in my head about how they'd obtained certain things in the house, and why these items weren't worthy of traveling with them wherever they went.

I was content with these distractions, more than I enjoyed them. Any moment I sat still I sunk deep into my feelings of grief and anger. It was true that I was the most comfortable in this body when I was still, but my mind refused to allow me to stay that way. Any lapse of movement made me want to run far into the forest and leave my thoughts behind me. So I moved the entire day, flittering around the property, staying busy.

The sun began to set after a while, and the lavender tone crept through the air. Padded feet raced through the trees and came to an abrupt halt. The sound of a wolf phasing to human rang through the evening and soon after, Embry bounced through the trees.

"Hey, Bella!" He said with a smile as I crossed form the front door to the lawn to meet him. "I'm not here for a long visit, just wanted to let you know that the search parties are done for the night and - uh, I wanted to know if you needed anything?" Embry continued to smile, but his tone suggested he was worried about something.

"I don't need anything, Embry, but it seems like you do. Is everything okay?"

He looked at his feet and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "Uh, actually I have a few things on my mind and I was wondering if you had a second?" I stared blankly at him for a fraction of a second and then snorted, and he gave me a puzzled look.

"Sorry, that's probably not very funny to you." I paused and then shrugged, "I just literally have all the time in the world." He gave me a lopsided grin and I motioned for him to come inside.

Once we were both sitting I asked, "What's on your mind?"

He sucked in a deep breath and looked at me, "So, the first thing is just that I wanted to keep you updated on things with Charlie. I know Jake is usually the one to do it but he's been sleeping since pretty much the meeting was over. He's under a lot of stress so I figured I'd just do it-" He paused and looked at me a little apologetically, "Charlie looked real bad today when he came to Jake's, things hit a little extra hard today because he finally talked to Renee." He paused again and pressed his lips together.

"He just now talked to Renee?" I asked, a little startled.

"Well, yes - and no. There were some complications with phones and getting ahold of her. He finally reached her today, and she told Charlie she would be coming here within the next couple days." Embry cut off long enough for me to go through all of the reasons this was good, and all of the reasons it was bad. There were so many things that could happen with Renee here, and I hoped thinking I'd run off to find Edward wouldn't be on the forefront of her mind. I had plenty of questions already prepared for Embry before he continued,

"But Bella, she gave him a deadline. She told Charlie that if we couldn't find you by the end of the week we needed to call off the search parties." I stared at Embry blinking several times. Of all the things I'd come up with, my mom setting a deadline was not one of them. What was even more surprising is that she'd set one for the end of this week when she wasn't even in Forks yet. A million more possibilities as to why swarmed through my mind and I realized I didn't even know how far away the deadline was.

"What day is it?" I asked, I wasn't sure anymore.

"It's uhh, Wednesday. I think Renee meant by Sunday we'd stop the search parties." He shrugged.

My brows knit together, this didn't make any sense to me. My mom was not the level headed one. I'd thought she'd have just as much trouble accepting this as Charlie had. I thought she'd prolong it more than Charlie and I'd be hiding for months before they gave up. I tried to shake off the confusion and ignored the feeling of betrayal. This was for the best, it was a good thing that there was a timeframe, and that she and Charlie would be unable to drive themselves to madness searching for me.

"Thank you for letting me know," I said. He took a while to say anything, just watching my face. "Was there more?" I prompted.

He hesitated, "You didn't - call any of he Cullen's did you?" He asked, lifting his chin slightly.

I shook my head slowly, "I wouldn't even know how to reach them," I frowned, "Why?"

He seemed to relax a little, but was still hesitant with his next words. "We caught the scent of a pair of vampires just east of the northern treaty lines. We were going to follow them, but Sam recognized the scent so we turned around. I thought I'd check things out here before we made any decisions." He stopped for a second, "I haven't told Jacob yet."

I had frozen, even for a vampire I was more than still. Shock refused to allow me to move, and I was trapped in a swirl of emotions. For a moment I was thrilled thinking of the family that I had almost been a part of, that I may still be able to be a part of. I thought of Esme's warm smile and wished more than anything I could be the recipient of one of her welcoming motherly hugs. But those kind thoughts were quickly soured as I thought of Edward and Alice who had wounded me so badly.

I didn't want some swooning reunion with people who had pushed me to the side so easily. They clearly cared little for me. Fury rumbled through me, I wanted more than anything to be surrounded by people who loved me as much as I loved them, and I would not be there person who fell for their lies again. If I were to see any of them, I wanted it to be on my terms, not theirs. How dare they come back, and how dare they wait until I was already transformed at that.

They'd left me in the dark for months letting me suffer through the loss of their world being torn from mine. Taking all proof that they'd ever existed, leaving me no one to talk about anything to. Not returning any emails or giving me so much as a call. After all that, they allowed me to be bitten anyway, and instead of coming to help, they let me go through that pain alone. Not until after I teach myself to hunt, they come back to what? Make amends? How dare they?

Embry looked on edge and I realized my fury must have been reflected in my face, I did what I could to rearrange my expression, "You said a pair?" I asked, keeping my voice calm. He just nodded.

"I'll let you know if I receive any visitors." I smiled at him and he gave me a weird look.

After a moment he got up and walked to the door, he turned back to look at me like he wanted to say something else, but instead walked out the door.

I waited for the sound of his paws to fade through a trees and I took off in a sprint in a diagonal north toward the reservation. I didn't know exactly where the reservation lines were so I focused on staying north so I didn't step on anyone's toes. I didn't need the wolves attacking me for crossing invisible boundaries.

I ran for a while shifting directions slightly trying my best to get close to where the lines may have been, it was a lot harder to tell knowing that the wolves had been all over the area for search parties, I inhaled the scent of humans around the scent of the wolves. They smelled delicious, but the wolf smell definitely helped keep me focused. It didn't take me very long however to come across the new scent Embry had been talking about.

I recognized the scent of vampires fairly easily. I thought Edward and his family had smelled wonderful while I was human. And though it was easy to tell that's what this smell was, there was so much more to it now that my nose was stronger. The scent was sweet, but not in a dessert sort of way, like humans. Instead it was just pleasant, and relaxing. Embry had been right about there being a pair of them, a softer scent - waterlily and fresh rain, and a muskier smell like cedar-wood and cardamom. Together the scents swirled into a beautiful aroma.

I took an even deeper breath and followed the trail their scents made. It didn't take me long to catch a third scent mixed in - my scent. They were following the trail I'd made from my hunt last night. They'd stopped at the place where I'd laid after finishing the final deer, I could tell because the scent was the strongest there. I paused too, looking around and expanding my hearing to see if I could catch if they were still in the area.

Disappointed I continued to follow the trail back to the river's edge where it disappeared, I leapt across the river and was surprised to find that the trail didn't pick up directly on the other side. I ran a few miles up and down the river and couldn't catch where the scent picked up, frustrated, I found a large rock on the house-side of the river and sat down.

I watched the water for a moment letting my emotions engulf me. I was still angry that whichever two Cullen's were here, had decided to come. But I was more upset that I hadn't been able to find them. I expanded my hearing again as I sat there, and heard an out of place rustling in the trees. I glanced up and scanned the treetops in the direction of the noise, until I caught a glimpse of blonde hair. I frowned and stood up, squinting harder.

"Jasper?" I whispered, just as the figure leapt from his perch landing fifty feet from me.

*

Jasper and I stood motionless for several seconds, staring at each other from a far. I had recognized him in the trees, but as he stood in front of me he looked like a completely different being than I remembered. Jasper had always been in the background when I'd visited the Cullen's, but even with not spending much time with him I'd thought I knew that he looked like.

I shook my head at all that my human eyes had hidden from me. Jasper was covered in crescent scars anywhere his stone skin was visible. The most localized scarring was around his jaw and neck and looking at his face it was hard at first to see beyond them. I tensed much like I had when I'd woken up to see Jacob there with me. I settled into a low crouch and my lips pulled back over my teeth, an involuntary response to the dangerous creature in front of me.

I tried to focus on seeing the face behind the scars. Tried to pull myself from my fight or flight response and remind myself that this was Jasper. As I worked to collect my emotions I became distracted with a ripple translucent waves coming at me from his direction.

Confusion and curiosity flittered though me as the waves surrounded me and I stood straight in response. The ripples slid across my skin wanting to envelop me, but seemed to have trouble seeping in. I watched the waves lapped at me, and as I looked closer I saw that there was another translucent phenomena which stretched across my skin. I lifted my arm as I examined the waves at war with my body's thin barrier.

After another moment of watching in wonder, I looked up and locked eyes with Jasper again. His brows were furrowed and he looked to be concentrating rather hard. It was then that I realized what he was doing, and though I knew he was trying to send me some emotion, I didn't feel any different.

I watched as the waves around me took on a different shape, more of a swirling like smoke, and I figured he must have been trying a new emotion. The swirls danced and licked at my barrier, I felt it each time this new emotion touched the thin layer that surrounded me, but it couldn't break through to my skin. The shape started to change one more time but before it truly could, it dissipated into the air around me.

Jasper was frowning, but his eyes showed curiosity rather than irritation. I wasn't ready to break the silence, so I went back to assessing Jasper's face. Memorizing the scars place on his skin in an attempt to normalize his alarming appearance. I didn't want to be afraid of Jasper. Though he'd been more reserved when he and his family lived here, he had been nothing but kind to me. Except for the night he tried to kill me, but that hadn't been his fault.

When I'd decided I knew his face well enough not to be quite so taken off guard the next time I saw it, I began to think of what I wanted to say to him. But just before I could speak - he did.

"How did you do that?" He asked quietly.

My lips pressed together and I shrugged. "I didn't do anything." I told him honestly.

"But you could see it couldn't you?"

"Yes." I looked at him, confused. "But I didn't consciously block it, this barrier did." I extended my arm to him and he darted toward me several paces to get a closer look while still maintaining distance. I had to fight the urge to back away.

He squinted at my arm, trying to see what I was showing him, and after a moment shook his head. "I can't see the barrier you're talking about." We both frowned.

"What's even more strange, is that I can still read your emotions just fine. I just don't seem able to influence them." I looked at him for a moment and then back down at my barrier.

"What were you trying to get me to feel?" I asked.

"Calm." I looked up at him, his expression was guarded.

After a moment of assessing I said, "Try again."

He didn't pause to ask why, instead I watched the waves take form again pushing themselves around me. I sucked in a breath and tried to remember what it felt like when Jasper had succeeded in making me feel calm during our trip to Phoenix. I closed my eyes trying to concentrate on the feel of the waves touching my barrier and the emotion they carried with them. When I opened my eyes I felt truly calm, and as I examined the waves Jasper was putting off, they were no longer surrounding me, but moving through me as though I were part of them. I smiled wide and looked back at Jasper.

He stood watching me, seemingly stunned. I ignored his expression as I welcomed his calm, allowing it to push the pain to the far most edges of my mind. I let it to consume me, grateful for an escape.

"How long have you been a vampire, Bella?" Jasper asked. His voice was soft, but there was something behind his question that I didn't understand.

"Laurent bit me on Saturday. I woke up yesterday." I told him, I was to the point where I could have started swaying with the waves of tranquility Jasper's power offered me, when suddenly the emotion was gone. Dissipated the way it had before. I looked down and my barrier was in place once more.

I looked to Jasper and he glared back at me. "You're a day old?" His tone was baffled, though his body language suggested he was angry.

"As a vampire? I suppose yes, I'm a day old." I crossed my arms over my chest, looking at him. "Why?"

It took him a moment to respond, shock still evident on his face.. "I have a lot of experience with newborn vampires. And, well - you aren't exactly acting like any newborn I've ever met."

My jaw tensed, "We already knew my brain didn't work they way normal people's do, Jasper. That's how I got to know your family remember?" My words were sour, and I suddenly felt the waves flicking at my barrier again. "I'm not interested in your calm right now. Thanks." I snapped.

Irritation cleared my head of the wonder I'd just discovered, and I remembered that it hadn't only been Jasper's scent I'd followed through the forest.

"I see you aren't traveling alone." If my heart were still beating I knew it would have been running rampage. An influx of emotions surged through me again.

"Alice is with me," Jasper said after a moment. "She was pretty sure the scent in the woods was you, but I convinced her to let me be the first person you saw - just in case."

I had figured it would be Alice. Part of me was thrilled that I would get to see my once best friend again, but another part - a larger part - was too upset to want to see her.

I didn't seem to have an option however, because right on cue the trees above danced with the soft pressure of inhuman feet brushing along branches. After a moment Alice landed in front of me, closer than Jasper stood but still at least ten feet away. She had as soft, apologetic smile on her face and the fury took hold again.

"Alice," Jasper warned softly, and her eyes widened as she saw what he was about to tell her. Her smile faded and regret shone in her eyes.

"Bella, I'm so sorry." She whispered.

Conflicting emotions swirled through my head, and part of me longed for the calm Jasper could offer. But I would not surrender to that. I would not be manipulated into forgiving them so easily.

"Sorry for what, Alice? Are you sorry for leaving me? Sorry for ignoring emails I sent looking for someone to help me through all the pain you and your brother caused?" My words were filled with disgust, Alice stood motionless and Jasper stood as though he were waiting for me to attack.

"I-"

"I'm not done!" I interrupted before she could get words out. Her shoulders slouched and I watched Jaspers gaze flicker to her and back to me. He wanted to comfort her, but appeared to see me as too much of a threat to let his guard down. I couldn't see why, as angry as I was there was no way I would attack her. Even if I were to, wouldn't Alice see it coming?

"Are you sorry for Laurent coming to hunt me down? Or for the wolves intercepting him killing me and changing me instead? Which one are you more sorry for Alice?" I was all by screaming at this point, and the fury almost blinded me to the way her and Jasper's eyes widened as I spoke. Jasper looked to Alice again and she was shaking her head.

"Werewolves," he said quietly. "That explains the scent." Jasper spoke directly to Alice.

"Bella, I didn't see any of that. I haven't been able to see you since Saturday morning."

I was momentarily thrown off, she hadn't been able to see my encounter with Laurent? She wasn't aware I'd been changed at all. I frowned, that didn't matter. It may explain why they hadn't come back to help me, but it didn't excuse her leaving me in the first place.

"How could you claim me to be your best friend and let me go through what I did when you left?" I asked her. My tone had deadened. Her eyes shone in a way that suggested if she could she'd be crying.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I brought all the pain forward from those months after they left. My body shook as I realized that pain was now mangled with the burning of my transformation. I remembered each moment I'd thought of Edward after he'd gone, and how my body had felt like it would rip itself apart from the inside. I welcomed all the pain at once, and through the shaking my eyes opened and locked onto Alice's.

She looked at me, confused until she noticed that Jasper had sunk to his knees behind her. She leapt to him as he shook with the pain that mimicked my own. His arm clutched around his chest the way mine had once upon a time ago. His eyes were slightly unfocused but he pushed against my emotions and after a second of struggle they found mine. Fear, and guilt clouded his expression and I wanted to be sorry for having him feel this, but truly I was grateful someone finally understood.

"I didn't know!" Alice pleaded.

My head snapped back to her, "Bullshit." I seethed. Her mouth fell open, "You see the ever-loving future. There's not a doubt in my mind you didn't see what I would go through - what I went through! You knew, and you left anyway!"

"But, Edward said-"

"Edward said," I mocked, "Edward knew nothing. None of you did. You were all too focused on yourselves to give a damn about the insignificant human." I spat the words.

Alice tried to open her mouth again, pain evident in her face.

"Alice," I hissed, "If I somehow, someday decide that I want anything to do with you," I forced out a short breath, "you'll be the first to know."

Her face was frozen in some form of wounded shock. I looked at Jasper who had finally picked himself up off the ground.

"What if she can't see you anymore?" Jasper's voice was low and quick.

That wasn't something I'd considered, but it was possible being that I could block Jasper now. I didn't want to think deeply about that now though, "Leave me a phone number." I said, then I turned on my heel and ran.