Whispers of Fate: The Girl That Never Was

A/N: It's been forever again and I can only offer the explanation that I write when time and my muse allow. I'm sorry but on the upside this is not abandoned! Also this chapter just fucked up my plot outline a tad. Emmett inserted himself and now well… who knows. This as you may note is not all of chapter three in the book which is abnormal for me. But I feel we learn a lot about Ray and her inner thoughts and feelings on this whole thing - showcasing how it is for her in less controlled moments and I liked the natural ending it came to. Hopefully though this will mean another update soon. Because I did not want to stop writing. Just this chapter. No promises however!

Chapter 3: It was an accident, (almost)!

Don't be afraid to see what you see. - Ronald Reagan

"Fuuuuck!" The expletive exploded from Ray's mouth as she was rudely shoved back into consciousness by hitting the floor of the truck as Bella slammed on the breaks.

"Ray! Oh my God! I'm so sorry I-" Bella fell silent as Ray held up one pale hand, to stop the onslaught of sound as she allowed herself time to adjust to the situation she'd awoken in.

Slowly she found herself becoming aware of the rough carpet scratching at her face, her limbs a tangled mess and a large part of her weight pressing heavily down on her shoulders and chest making breathing difficult. As her left hand which was currently stuck between the seat and her thighs began to go numb Ray summoned the energy to roll over onto her back. Haphazardly knocking her head against the dash in the process, a sharp sting in her pounding head punished her for her careless treatment of her own body as she finally righted herself.

With a frustrated huff which blew a few blonde tresses upward for a moment before they flopped annoyingly back down into her blue eyes, Ray, giving her head a quick shake, as if that will help, she thought as she finally clambered back onto the seats in the truck. Quickly fastening her seatbelt with a click that seemed to reverberate in the silent cab. No accidental floor meetings for me thanks!

One deep breath allowing her muddled mind a last chance at catching up, Ray turned to Bella, "Firstly, it's okay, I'm fine." She made a show of dusting off her top with a wry grin as she addressed her cousin. "Secondly, and I really do stress this Bella, What," she paused for dramtic effect, "the fuck?!"

Bella seemingly also a mixture of frustration and embarrassment if her red cheeks and dangerously glinting eyes were enough to give her away, stuttered slightly before she found her rhythm, "I-I-I-" She took a deep breath, steadying herself and then, "I nearly hit a stupid tiny Toyota and Edward Cullen is laughing at me, and he was nice today as if he wasn't a massive jerk before and now he's laughing and you fell off the seat and I just ugh!" With a light growl Bella smacked her hand on the steering wheel.

Ray turned her head, unable to sort through her thoughts enough to truly remember what Bella's day was supposed to have been like without her hissy fit in the middle, and sought out Edward Cullen, who was in fact, laughing as he stared in their direction whilst presumably waiting for his family.

"Screw Cullen." Ray mumbled, unable to stop her eyes drifting to the much larger form of Emmett who turned his head as if she'd called him and made eye contact for a fraction of a second. "Let's just chuck this day in the fuck it bucket, drive home, eat our weight in ice cream, sip hot chocolate and watch some shitty TV until Uncle C arrives. We can even order pizza for dinner."

Bella clearly had no better plan than this for after remaining focused through the entirety of her cousin's suggestion, she finally resorted to staring straight ahead and her only acknowledgement was to slowly join the line of cars waiting to leave the school grounds.

As much frustration as the girls were able to relieve by eating pizza and watching terrible television, the pounding in Ray's head would not stop. She was dying for an early night and a good rest. It was time to fully accept that for the here and now she was, in fact, here and now. The why and how of it would have to come later. Right now she needed to ensure there was a Ray to get back to whatever world she came from or to wake up from whatever coma she was in. The easiest way to do that was a decent night's rest and fortunately Bella seemed to be of the same mind. After a short conversation with Charlie explaining why he might get a call from the school and apologising, apparently unnecessarily if his puffed up, angered response to her essay, calmly provided by Bella with a general air of outrage was to go by, Ray was off to bed.

The next morning Ray found herself waking slowly, her limbs heavy as if they could drag her back into unconsciousness by sheer force themselves. The deep sleep she'd been rewarded with the previous night had finally refreshed her haggard mind and body and Aurelia felt as if she could finally, blissfully, relax. Nothing about this day stood out to her, she'd woken after Bella for the first time since the girls arrival and she felt completely peaceful as she drifted through her morning routine, albeit, slightly later than she might have liked.

"Morrrning!" She chirped as she jumped the last few stairs to land with a thud. "Ready to-"

"Ray finally!" Bella, brown hair freshly washed and dried, giving off a faint smell of strawberries as she rushed to her cousin and dragged her unceremoniously into the kitchen, cut her off mid greeting. "Are you ready to go? I'm ready to go. I think the earlier we get going the better, it's all icy and you know I'm a disaster with ice so I just think-"

"Woah, Cuz, chill. Where's the fire?" Fixing Bella with an unimpressed and rather withering look Ray, childishly, kicked a chair out from the table and sat. "We're not going anywhere until you explain all," she waved a hand in Bella's general direction. "Whatever this is you have going for you right now. Why the rush?"

The brunette took a breath which was audible even to Ray in the still dawn of the tiny kitchen. "I just want to get to school. I need to see if Edward-"

"This is about Cullen? Again?" Ray rubbed at her temples as she raised her eyebrows at Bella.

She'd promised herself she'd stay out of this. She refused to change anything, Bella and Edward could Bella and Edward themselves into a ballet for all she cared and yet, living in it, it was harder to remain completely unbiased and unaffected as she was trying to be. Unfortunately for Edward, and by extension Bella, what Ray had seen of Edward in this strange reality she did not like. It was all on character, she should have expected him to act exactly as he had and whether because of the rush of protective familial feeling she got from looking at Bells, or the genuine fondness she found herself feeling for Bella in their quiet bonding moments which would have been too boring for Stephanie Meyer to write about, (it being Bella alone in the books), Ray came to the conclusion she just did not like Edward, currently. Not with all foreknowledge of their story and his reasoning behind his actions. Right now he was reduced to the dick her cousin was obsessed with who meanly pulled her pigtails in the playground and then handed her the handkerchief to wipe her eyes with.

Seeing the argument about to explode from Bella, and feeling she would need to ruminate on her light-bulb moment of 'I don't like Edward' later, Ray decided to continue her non-involvement as much as possible whilst still behaving in a way everyone would expect a caring cousin to react.

"Listen Bells, it's fine if the dude makes you curious, but all I've heard so far is that he made you feel like you smelt so?" She shrugged her shoulders, her bright purple T-shirt making her eyes hurt as she caught a glimpse of it in her peripheral vision.

"He was kind yesterday, and funny, and interested in what I had to say I think." Bella sat down on the chair opposite with a huff. "I mean I'm pretty sure his eyes changed colour and he lied about it, why lie about that?"

Trying, and somewhat failing, to keep up with Bella's thought process Ray answered, "My eyes change colour Bells. Sometimes they're more blue, sometimes they're kinda green…"

"No from a deep black to a rich butterscotch." Bella said, shouldering her bag and offering Ray her own, which Ray took, allowing herself to be chivvied into beginning their journey to school, Bella had explained something after all. Although truth be told Ray was rather hoping she'd be able to avoid the colour changing eye conversation because now Bella would expect her to look and what the fuck was she supposed to say when she did see his eyes a different colour? Oh no Bella don't worry that black is actually like a deep shiny gold we just can't see it from this distance? Somehow she didn't think that would fly, Bella was much too observant.

After watching Bella navigate the ice on the path to the truck with the sort of concentration Ray thought people reserved for bomb diffusion she couldn't help but comment further on the Edward situation as they pulled into the school parking lot.

"Butterscotch? I mean really. Just how gone on this kid are you Bells?"

Bella gave Ray a look which clearly translated to 'shut your face' and a quick slap to the arm as she parked the truck. Unable to hide a grin Ray unclipped her seatbelt and hopped down from the cab. Snorting in a very unladylike manner as her door slammed shut behind her, she watched Bella for a second as she clung to the truck bed as if it was the only thing keeping her grounded. Opening her mouth to offer her assistance to Bella's general clumsiness, Ray was promptly diverted by the clearing of a throat somewhere behind her. Turning in surprise Ray spotted Emmett Cullen, casually stopped a few steps away, holding some papers and clearly wanting her attention.

"Ray can I get a minute?"

Sweet Jesus. Ray thought, taking a second to glance at Bella's small progress and then back to Emmett. The reaction this vampire brings out in me should be fully illegal. It wasn't likely that Bella, who had barely made it to the middle of the truck bed, would have any objection to Ray taking a second with Emmett, except that it would leave her struggling a little longer.

"Uh-" Ray's eyes flickered from Bella to Emmett again before a pulse in her gut unlike anything she had felt before, but definitely a gut feeling seemed to press her towards Emmett. "Sure." She said, deciding to listen to that feeling.

Ray tucked a strand of white blonde hair behind her ear, sniffing slightly, cheeks feeling raw from the wind. She shivered, Bella had made her forget her coat. She took a few steps towards Emmett and stopped just shy of having to crane her neck to look at him.

"Is everything alright?"

Emmett's smile was blinding. There were no words Ray could possibly put on paper to describe just how his smile made her feel. Warmth seemed to spread throughout her entire being and butterflies released in her stomach as her breath caught in her throat.

Once again she began to angrily compose a letter to Stephanie Meyer in her head. Dear Stephanie Meyer, Can I please ask why the fuck you failed to mention how drop dead gorgeous Emmett is? It's left me completely open to being fucked up with some sort of weird needy, attraction every time I am near him and I think it's all your fault. Sincerely, Aurelia DeWolfe, person now totally susceptible to Emmett's looks.

"I should be asking you that." Emmett's grin widened until his dimples made an appearance. He coughed in a nervous gesture that made Ray acutely aware that for some reason she made the vampire nervous. How strange. "But you seem better today, although yanno Berty is a dick and you should totally appeal that grade, anyway I um- I thought you might want these." Emmett's nervous babble ended as he swiped a hand quickly through his curly brown hair and shoved a couple of papers towards Ray who instinctively reached out and took them, her hand brushing Emmett's cold fingers, sending a shiver up her arm and down the length of her spine.

"English notes." She mumbled as she thumbed through the pages of beautiful handwriting on Romeo and Juliet, vaguely aware of Emmett unhooking something from his brown messenger bag and holding it towards her.

Tilting her head to see what she was being offered now, Ray's jaw dropped open of its own accord. She was doing a terrible job of staying as far out of this story as possible, because Emmett Cullen was stood in the middle of the school car park holding out a light grey, pullover, thick looking hoodie towards her, with a look on his face that said he was concerned she might slap him for it.

"You look cold," he offered with another awkward shrug, running the hand not holding his hoodie out to her through his hair again. "It's spare. I have this one." He meekly gestured to the coat he was wearing not knowing Ray was fully aware that he didn't need it.

The meek look on Emmett's face almost cracked Ray's calm veneer. Had she gone about this all wrong? Was not interacting with the Cullens more suspicious than if she did interact the way Alice and the others had clearly been expecting for reasons as yet unknown? Was she hurting these people with her actions. Well obviously yes, she was. It was clear to Ray that even with the best intentions for herself and the world around her she was directly hurting the people in the world by being so stand-offish for absolutely no reason. That had to stop because surely no matter what was happening or why she was here, a look that morose could not belong on such a beautiful face. Feeling as if she might be damning herself by doing so, Ray swung her bag from her shoulder, unzipped it, put the English notes inside, rezipped the bag and dropped it to the floor.

"Thanks Emmett." She smiled brightly taking the hoodie and quickly throwing it on. It was warm, and cosy although she now looked like she was wearing a short baggy dress. "Bella rushed me out the house this morning and I kind of overslept and yeah actually, both these things are great. Just exactly what I need right now actually."

Emmett's blinding smile, dimples showing and relaxing posture was all the reward Ray needed, she knew then she'd done the right thing, even if doing so was dancing with danger. Emmett seemed to brighten as she let him in on the tiniest tidbits of her life. Ray bent down and grabbed her bag, swinging it back onto her shoulder.

"I'm normally awake before Bella but yesterday I was so tired and then-" A high-pitched shriek cut Ray's sentence off and she whipped around. "Bella." Her cousin's name fell from her lips in a horrified whisper as she moved to take a step towards Bella, who was about to be hit by Tyler's sliding van. "No not today, how did I forget this is today." Ray muttered as time, which oddly had seemed to slow for a second, sped back up.

Aurelia tried to take a step towards her cousin, only to find herself with her back suddenly pressed tightly against a hard, cool chest, with arms the size of small train sleepers wrapped around her front preventing her from moving. Emmett who had clearly noticed her moment of insanity as she tried to step towards the danger, had pulled her back into his chest and curled himself over her so fast she wasn't actually aware of the movement itself.

Ray knew vampires were fast. Emmett had just unwittingly proved so, and yet standing and staring horrified at her cousin who was in between the back of her truck and the dark blue van skidding, tires squealing and brakes locked towards her, Ray thought she could feel her heart stop for a second. Edward would never make it in time. Not with all these people watching.

Ray didn't actually see him move, that she had to give him. It was more that one minute Bella was facing certain metallic death alone and the next second a loud thud, crashing glass and she was safe, or so Ray assumed from the lack of blood and screaming, and Edward was definitely there. The cacophony of sound was almost too much for Ray. She had a low tolerance for noise, her senses often became too sensitive and the sudden onslaught of shouting had her pulling herself back into Emmett for a second rather than towards her cousin.

"Get Tyler out of the van!"

"Don't move!"

It was all too much, she was supposed to know this was coming, be prepared for it, be ready for Edward to save Bella, be prepared to put on a show of worry. She wasn't supposed to be actually worried, frozen with Emmett Cullen wrapped around her, basically the only thing holding her up as she struggled to get her breathing under control. Her eyes watered, her chest heaved and yet she stood frozen. The sounds were too much, they were all closing in on her, she could feel the vibrations in her head and then nothing. It was as if someone had dropped a calming blanket on her. Ray's breathing began to even out, her heart stopped running the sprint race in her chest, and although the noises still made her flinch she was fairly certain as she watched the six EMT's (whenever they'd arrived), Coach Clapp and Mr Varner shift the van far enough to get stretchers in, that she could breathe normally again. Edward popped out a moment later and Ray's eyes remained fixed on the spot until Bella, strapped to a stretcher but looking more irate than hurt, was carried out.

Ray realised then that she'd missed a lot during her mini-meltdown and yet another was coming. With all the best will in the world, all the calm pushing at her, now feeling much more stifling than comforting, like a blanket she couldn't quite lift, Ray did the only thing that she could to gain comfort and control in this moment. She turned in Emmett's hold, barely sparing a glance at Jasper who had, at some point, arrived at Emmett's side, and wrapped her arms as far around Emmett's wide waist as she could, burying her face in his chest.

General noise and hubbub alerted Ray to the going on around her, as she struggled to control her breathing, hanging on to Emmett for dear life. There was a noise which quite literally sounded like a vibration to her left and every now and again she'd feel Emmett nod against her head where he'd rested his chin but she focused on breathing in and out, calming her heart rate and tried to ignore all the sounds around her.

A sound she could not ignore however, was her name. "Aurelia! Where the hell are you kid?" Came the gruff voice of her Uncle. Her Uncle who, Ray realised, she wanted nothing more than a hug and reassurance from right now. What a hell of a day this was turning into.

"I-I'm here Uncle Charlie." She sounded as messed up as she felt which, blithely she realised may be good cover but wasn't good when it was her actual feelings also, she knew this was coming, she was supposed to be in control. Her worry was meant to be an act!

"Oh thank God!" She saw her Uncle was ignoring Emmett completely as his deep brown eyes met her watery blue ones. Jasper was nowhere to be seen, Ray noted, her head turned to the left still resting on Emmett's chest. "Bella's fine kid, maybe a concussion. I'm going to follow them to the hospital, meet you there?" He asked, sounding panicked himself.

"I can't- the keys and-" Ray gave a light nod towards the three car wreck centre.

Emmett decided to intervene in the conversation at this stage thankfully, the rumblings of his chest as he spoke oddly soothing to the distraught British girl in his arms. "I'll bring her to the hospital Chief Swan. I drove the jeep today." Emmett nodded towards something that Ray couldn't see but assumed to be the car.

This brought out the Uncle and Father in Charlie once again, "You're one of the Cullen kids aren't you?" Charlie's moustache seemed to bristle and he held himself taller as he took in Emmett's full size, which easily dwarfed the tiny blonde in his arms.

"I'm Emmett Cullen." Emmett introduced himself, the picture of politeness or he would have been, had he not refused to let go of Ray to offer a hand to shake.

"Emmett was lending me English notes from yesterday and a hoodie and then-" Ray felt her breathing speeding up once more as her eyes teared up again, the frustration she felt at not being able to control the reactions only adding to her distraught state as she struggled internally with everything she couldn't voice out loud. "It was so fast Uncle Charlie. And I tried to move towards her but Emmett wouldn't let me and then- and I-" At this point Ray felt herself lose all control of her breathing once again.

She turned her head back into Emmett's chest and began to sob. Tightening her grip on him as much as possible. Why she was sobbing she wasn't sure. Bella was fine, she knew Bella was fine, had known since she arrived that this would happen and Bella would be fine but her reaction to it was so far out of the realm of anything she expected and that was surely bad. Was it? Was it bad to be getting emotionally invested here? Yes? No? The indecision made everything worse in her brain and she felt like she might explode.

Slowly and carefully Emmett had tightened his grip on the small girl until they were completely pressed together, he ran one hand soothingly through her long blonde hair as he made shushing noises where his mouth rested against the top of her head. Ray calmed in what seemed to be tiny increments. When she finally had control of herself again she was slightly surprised to note she didn't want to pull out of the hug with Emmett. Steeling herself for being responsible for her own ability to stay on her feet again, Ray pulled back.

She sniffed once, and wiped her eyes against the sleeve of the hoodie Emmett had lent her, curling a fist around the material until her hand was completely swamped by it, the action somehow made her feel better. "I'm sorry." She mumbled. "I don't know what-"

Her words died on her tongue as Emmett, with one cold finger under her chin, tilted her eyes up to meet his own and gave her a sad sort of grin which she returned with one of her own, watery as it may be.

"It's fine shortstuff don't worry. Let's go see your cousin?" He held a hand out to Ray, giving her the choice of taking it which she didn't realise she needed until it was presented.

With a deep breath, preparing herself for diving into the story much more actively than she had planned, Ray took it. If she had the odd errant thought about how nicely her hand fit in Emmett's or how easily he made her laugh on the short trip to the hospital with bad jokes and (probably) de-vamped, funny family stories, then that wasn't anyone's business but hers and Ray decided right now wasn't exactly the time to touch that.

SO...?

Hope you enjoyed it!

Rue :)