A/N: I'm not sure what is so enthralling about this particular story of mine, but you lovely readers never fail to bug me about updating it! Your guys' kind words and patience is very appreciated! Love you all! Review. (P.S this is your early Easter gift. No thanks needed).

It was on the fourth day of my newfound recovery that Rosalie Hale pulled the wool shilling from my eyes by just an inch- one tiny measurement, a mere fraction of the full thing. But it was enough, at least for me.

"…Cora doesn't even begin to understand my motivations for staying here on the countryside, she has no real family responsi- Bella!" I nearly jumped out of my skin when she called out angrily. She took my attention away from the plain ceiling, where I was doing some of my best life contemplation. "Are you paying any attention at all?" Her face was flushed an angry red, which by Rosalie standards did not mean anything good. I couldn't help myself, I was just wasn't all there lately- my mind seemed to wander off to other places. I opened my mouth to retort, but she raised a hand in my direction. "I put my entire life, my career, my livelihood on hold- for what?" Her voice was hoarse, but her eyes were engulfed by that infamous Hale temper. "I've been here for nearly two weeks now, and I have done everything to be here for you! I've given my business partner full reigns over everything just so that I could be here with you… and what progress have you made, really Bella?"

Her harsh, blunt words were like buckets of ice water being tossed over a rooftop, falling over me like a cascade of bitter truth. I had a nasty comment or two to cut her back with but they just never left my lips. "Cora has taken on every last burden of mine, and here I am with you, talking to a painting instead of the woman that used to be my cousin!" Rose was pacing, a foul scowl on her plump lips. "Is it Edward? Or is it Aunt Rene and your father? Or, better yet, is it your looming 'eternal damnation' that ties you in knots?"

I flicked the bed sheet off of my body and sat up, pointing a rude finger her way. "Don't go there, Rosalie!"

Rosa scoffed into the wind, her head tilted to the side in a challenging manner. "No, I will go there." She seemed to stop herself from saying something, but gave a face that said 'to hell with it' and walked near me, so near that I could smell the strong scent of her perfume spritzer. "Allow me to put your greatest fears to rest, dear cousin." Her tone was both mocking and solemnly tense, and it was like talking to my mother all over again. She had that tone, one that female Hales seemed to have, the kind that made your skin crawl and your ears perk. "Edward, for one, loves you in such a destructive manner that it could never work out in the real world. Not that it stops the both of you from clashing and crashing over and over again, and I doubt it will ever stop until either one of you drops dead." Rosalie held up a finger to signify that this was just the beginning of her speech.

"Secondly, Aunt Rene and your dad are assholes- that's it. They left you, yes, and they aren't coming home anytime soon." She put up a second finger. "As for your eternal damnation- who in the fuck cares, Isabella? You have done nothing but use your 'God' as a crutch; I will only allow you to be a helpless victim of sin for so long, and then you just have to grow up and own your mistakes! It's 1945, we're all going to hell, Isabella."

Part of me wanted to fight about my religion, but damn was she right. God was the only way I could make sense of things, or at least that's what my parents had instilled in me. He did this, he did that, and all I thought of myself was a hopeless puppet to do his liking. But Rose was right, I made these decisions that brought me to this very moment in time. I stayed with Edward, I drank too much, I partied in an out-of-character manner, I overdosed… I ruined things on my own, no God out there had anything to do with it.

"I'm sorry." I muttered so low, I was sure she hadn't heard it. That was all I could do, though I was mature enough to know apologizing almost never did anything to help an already muddled situation.

"I'm not the one you should seek forgiveness from." Rosa looked almost melancholy as she spoke. "You need to learn how to forgive yourself. For everything you're responsible, and for everything you had no control over at all."

I threw myself back onto the bed and blinked in futile measures to make the tears go away. "Where do I even start?" I had wasted a year of my life, and in that frame of time I had ruined so many things. Most important, my resolve. It was as if I had lost my mind, and I was just walking around with an empty head on my over-privileged shoulders. "I've been so selfish… I was so worried about dying young or losing myself that it's exactly what I did." I put a hand over my face and tried to keep it together in front of her, hoping to reestablish some sort of dignity. Some meddlesome nurse was bound to butt in at any moment, shoving pain medication down my throat or rewire the tubes coming out of my arms. "I made it none easy for Edward the entire time, and now I'm putting the same burden on you!" It was heart-wrenching to admit things like this. I liked being demure, pure, sweet, lady-like, debonair, as close to perfection as possible. It wasn't easy to admit being the flawed one. "And I know you're going around with Emmett, so I understand you want you're own time-" I knew I was sort of babbling, but we as cousins hadn't ever had such a deep conversation before.

"Wait! What are you saying?" Rosa scowled.

She made me nervous when she looked at me all assertive-like. It was like when we were kids and she wanted to know what my parents got her for Christmas- she'd grill me for hours on end and intimidate me until I finally spoiled every last surprise. "Well, I know you like to keep your personal affairs… personal." I swallowed throatily, choosing my words very carefully. She hadn't ever brought any boys around, actually. Maybe the occasional overly-friendly gal pal, but never any boys. "But I heard that you and Emmett… are sweet on one another."

"And by whom did you hear such a ridiculous thing?" Her face flushed red, which was a very uncharacteristic trait.

There was no way I would admit that Alice spoke of her brother's romantic encounters with Rosalie, not just for Alice's sake but also for mine. If Rosa even thought that I spoke of her being with a man without her there to defend it, I'd be chopped liver. "You two were more than friendly at my dinner party! I'm not blind, ya know. Also, Em speaks of you frequently." Sure, it slightly bothered that she was dating my ex-fiancé's brother, but if she was truly smitten, I could learn how to deal with it. Rosa opened and closed her mouth a few times. She shouldn't have to feel like she had to hide it from me, I was the one that set her up with him in the first place! I was a big girl, I could handle it.

Hopefully not the way you handled it before. "Rosa, I just-"

"No!" She spat, coming to my bedside with vigor. "Emmett and I shared a few odd weekends, at the most. Do you think I slept with him, Bella?" Rosalie had her arms crossed, her constricting pant suit wrinkling with every move she made. "It doesn't matter what you happen to think- and that boy is not sweet on me! And by boy, I mean boy. He was obtusely against being intimate, though I should have been the one to be so repulsed!" She was moving around the hospital room, one of those crazed looks fixed on her face.

"Why? What do you mean?" My mind was trying to scramble for an explanation. Why in the world would she be repulsed? Rosa loved danger, and she was always seen with a new boy in school. It would only make sense to cozy up to someone like Emmett Cullenciano. "Was he not pleasant enough?"

Rosa lit one of her ciggies, slowing her pace now. "Oh, cut that out, Bella! Are you truly so blind?" I could only assume he'd be the same way with someone lovely like my dear Rosalie as he was with me.

I had no clue what she meant, or what she was trying to say. Em had always been the perfect gentleman with Alice, and after said the sweetest things to her and sometimes even me. "What-"

"Cora and I are partners, you know that." Rosa took a long drawl from her ciggie, looking me dead in the eye all the while.

I sat up more, hoping to gain some sort of momentum to keep up with her direction of conversation. "What does Emmett have to do with your business partner?"

Rosalie rolled her eyes and let out a frustrated noise, her fingers twitching. "Not just in business."

My mouth ran dry. Was my cousin telling me… was Cora more than just, well, a partner? "You are sharing a bed with… a woman?" It seemed too radical to be true. Rosalie and I went to the same Mass with our parents every week, we heard the very same Father read us our optional sins and the repercussions that followed. How had she… how could she not tell me that? When Rosa said nothing in return, I had to look away from her for a few moments before the dizzying feeling left my head. I didn't resent her for such a decision, but I couldn't wrap my mind around it either. "So you are… you're a- um, you-"

"Lesbian, yes." Rosa's voice seemed to much more harsh than I thought. "Do you suppose you could put in a good word with me to your almighty God one of these days, seeing as I'll surely burn in the fiery pits of hell? I'm sure the two of you speak on a daily basis." I could take her mocking me about my life choices and religion, only because she had withstood everything I gave her without a bat of an eye. But I couldn't take her mocking her own life decisions.

"Don't joke like that Rosalie! If you are truly in love with this woman," I took a deep breath, "then God will understand and love you in return. Even if you don't believe it yourself."

She stopped in her tracks, a small smile on her rather harsh mouth line. "And do you understand and love me for my lifestyle as well, Bella?"

I blinked twice, considering an answer. Rosalie had always been there, and she had seen me in my most horrid of moments, but she never made me question whether or not I repulsed her so. Everyone just assumed Rosalie Hale it figured out, and could take anything. But I knew her better. I knew that my opinion meant just as much to her as her own acceptance did. "Do you understand and love me for mine?"

Rosa moved her head side to side, as though she were considering it. I tossed a nearby tissue box at her standing form, emitting the first laugh of the day from her lips; we were cousins, loving one another so truly and so fully, that even the most treacherous of details couldn't ever tear apart what was. "I'm still here, aren't I?"

And without doubt, I knew she always would be.

A/N: Yes, Rosalie is a lesbian. Yes, Bella is slowly getting better. Yes, Emmett's illusion of an affair has A LOT to do with the next chapter. Oh, you guys are gonna FLIP out when you read it… gosh, why don't I just upload the next chapter already?

…or I can just wait a week and let this information seep into my beautiful, brilliant readers' conspiracy theories? MUHAHA.