Chapter Five: The Rose Starts to Bud

A/N: Now we're getting into the actual plot of the story. If you guys notice the titles of the stories I specifically write them with meaning imbued into them. They all have to do with the relationship between Rosalie and Alice. For example, last chapter was called 'the rose reveals itself' which was because Rosalie had attempted to reveal her feelings to Alice but of course the vision got in the way, so it ended up being unsaid. Just keep an eye out on the meanings of the chapter names. Anyways, enjoy!

With a thunderous snarl Sam Uley, the leader of the wolves, threw himself at Carlisle. "Don't hurt them, just subdue them," the doctor ordered the Cullen's before he meet Sam halfway and with a sound of boulder crashing against boulder, they smashed into one another and rolled to the side, opening up the space for the other wolves to attack.

"We have to get into the open," Jasper instructed. "Get them out as soon as possible!" He roared as a brown wolf swiped at his arm. He moved it out of the way before it was ripped from his shoulder and punched the wolf right in the face with his other hand. The wolf stepped back at this, but Jasper wasn't done, hitting the beast right in the face multiple times with all he had. He was pushing it back with all he had, but there was another wolf behind the first one and it leapt over the first ones shoulders, digging its claws into Jasper's. The thin boy let out a hiss at this and fell heavily to the floor, the wolf drawing its face close to the blonde's, ready to take a bite. Emmett rushed to the rescue, using his immense strength to throw off the wolf completely, sending it crashing into the brown one. The two of them collapsed into the kitchen, knocking down the fridge. The device cracked open, spilling food like a gutted animal. They quickly scrambled up to their paws, snarling, crushing innocent vegetables in their wake, but Emmett snarled louder than them, if possible, and launched into the room with Jasper hot on his heels. "Get them outside!" the blonde hissed as the two began to tag team and push the wolves back toward the hole in the wall they had made on their entrance.

In the meantime, Esme and Edward had shot forward to help Carlisle on his front. The doctor was holding the giant wolf back, who stood up on his hind legs and tried to take a bite out of the vampires head, straining on Carlisle's hold. The doctor was stuck in a contest of trying to rationalize with Sam, while avoiding his head being bitten off, but he wasn't going to be able to keep it up for long, his legs and arms trembling from having to uphold such a heavy weight. Esme's motherly and wifely instinct to protect was stronger than all the other vampires and she brutally batted aside the gray wolf known as Embry, sending him crashing into the table. She was especially pissed because they had come into her house, and hurt Edward, and now were hurting all of them. She was going to make them pay for this.

Edward was just as livid as Esme, although not likely to truly kill the wolves. Yes, they had hurt him, but he knew Carlisle was right in just subduing the beasts and talking it out. There had to be some misunderstanding that caused this attack.

"We just want to talk!" Carlisle grunted, his feet sliding backwards as Sam shook in his arms, howling. "Stop this, this instant! We need to talk this out!" But the other Cullen's were all vamping out. Their instincts were telling them to kill, to protect their coven members lives. They were focused on survival only; not on tactics and especially not on talking with the Quiletes.

All this was happening at the same time, vampire speed quickening the process of the fights. Rosalie and Alice had been caught by the wolves that had come in through the front of the house, their fur lifted up in anger and intimidation. One of them was small, her eyes looking particularly savage. She attacked first, throwing herself at Alice. Alice was ready to deflect her when Rosalie jumped in front of her, clobbering the wolf good. The small wolf landed into the wall, plaster and paint chipping from impact. "Come at me, assholes," Rosalie said, her eyes furious, her shoulders squared up and hands claw-like. It was in moments like these that Rosalie was really in her element; all her raw anger and temperament funneled into her limbs to give her more strength and speed. And it was in these moments that Alice found herself breathless in the blonde's presence. The pure confidence and natural power she possessed made her into an unstoppable force; like a goddess ready to crush any mortal who dared try to take her for a fool.

"What are you doing?" Rosalie spat back to Alice who swiftly blinked out of her thoughts. What had she been doing daydreaming during a life or death battle? But being around the blonde tended to make her do that. "Help me fight them."

The two girls surged forward, taking on the two wolves. The smaller wolf had recovered, and joined the dark gray wolf in battle formation. They clawed, and scratched, and spat and hissed and kicked and bit and punched, all in effort to take each other down.

Alice was regrettably not at her best, but she blamed it on Rosalie. The blonde's movements were exquisite, her fighting almost an art form in itself, and the feral expression on her face sent shivers down the young vampires back. The pixie couldn't help but stare at the other, admiring the carefulness of the placement of her strokes and the skill in which she dodged, each motion giving Alice an incredible reminder of how nice the blonde's body really was. Alice would tear her gaze away repeatedly when she caught herself staring, but once she delayed too long and found herself thrown into the wall. She landed into the other room, coughing in shock as she sat up and tried to collect her thoughts. The dark gray wolf jumped after her and he would have snapped her face with his jaws had something not stopped him mid-lunge. Rosalie had caught him by the tail and pulled back so quickly he hit the wall as she directed the flow of his mass into it. The wall crumbled over him, taking down a precious painting with him. Oh, Esme is so gonna be mad about that one, Alice winced, only to grimace a second later as Rosalie scolded her.

"What were you doing? Get your head in the game!" the blonde screamed, punching the small wolf as it ran at her. The wolf was flung back into another wall, its backside lodged in tightly.

Alice pursed her lips. It's not like she didn't want to have her head in the game. It's just that a certain someone was making it hard for her to do so. Alice wasn't going to say this out loud, however, so she just took a deep breath and tried to forget about Rosalie's presence which was way harder said than done. Like way hard. Super hard.

She turned on Paul, the dark wolves name coming into Alice's mind as she finally recognized which one of the tribe he was. She let her senses go, allowed them to take over her and Alice could feel the beast in her roaring to life with each additional strike she gave out. It had been so long since she had fought and it felt good, vampires being naturally aggressive. She could pour out all of her pent up frustrations caused by Rosalie on these animals before her. She grabbed the fore-paw of the dark gray wolf and tried to flip him over, but in her new enthusiasm she had overestimated her physique and he was able to grasp the back of her neck in his jaws. He jerked her upwards and she felt her diamond tough skin rip like paper under the daggers he called teeth. She growled in pain, hands scrabbling to free her neck from his grip. She was yet again saved by Rosalie who slammed into Paul, sending Alice flying with it. Paul opened his jaws in surprise and let Alice go, who with the grace of a cat, landed back on her feet.

"Will you fucking pay attention!?" Rosalie asked in exasperation. "He almost got you!"

"Mind your own damn business," Alice muttered, agitated that Rosalie yet again had rescued her.

"If I had, you would have died!" Rosalie shot back, hands curling on her hips.

"Whatever, not that it would have hurt you. Would've done you a big favor." Alice mumbled darkly, making to push past the blonde, but the taller girl just blocked her. "What are you saying? That I want you dead?"

Alice rolled her eyes, not willing to let Rosalie drag her into an argument. She looked for an out of it and found one when her ears meet silence where moments ago there had been sounds of battle permeating the air. "The fighting stopped, we should check it out." Rosalie sniffed, unable to dispute that point and both vampires went back into the living room, or at least what remained of it. As soon as she entered the room she was blasted with the smell of wet dog and such rage that it threatened to sizzle the skin off of her, intermingled with the smell of her coven, their inner vampires still shimmering just under the surface.

Sam Uley had changed back into a human and was sitting cross legged on the floor, hands on lap. He was clothed now, wearing Carlisle's doctor coat. The doctor himself sat in front of Sam, posture mirroring the Quilete's. The other wolves, which Alice recognized untransformed, where Quil, Embry, Jared, and Seth. They were sitting behind their leader, although not clothed. The Cullen's were also sitting behind Carlisle, with torn clothes and half healed wounds. Both sides looked tense, ready to spring into action should the need arise. Emmett had his fists balled by his side, Jasper's whole body radiated tightly coiled control, Edward was death glaring his opponents and Esme was the least composed of them all. She was still snarling, a deep rumble arising from her throat. Only Carlisle looked truly put together, years of emergency situations at hospitals leaving him capable of handling high tension situations.

"Jasper, why don't you alleviate the bitter feelings in the air," Carlisle said, his eyes never moving off of Sam. Jasper nodded his head reluctantly, and immediately Alice could feel the stress from her shoulders start to melt away and she was able to relax more. "Alice and Rosalie come join us. You too, Leah and Paul."

Alice shifted her head to notice that Leah and Paul, the two wolves they had been fighting, had shifted back and were walking behind them naked like all the others. Leah snarled as she caught Alice's eye and before Alice could roar back, Carlisle called the attention of everyone in the room to him.

"Sam I would like to know why you came onto my territory and assaulted my coven without warning. I believe we had an agreement. That we would not cross on your land, and drink from humans or attack them, and in return you would let us live in peace and not step onto our land."

"Yes, that was our treaty," Sam started, his mouth rearranging weirdly around each word as he tried to get used to speaking again. Alice sat next to Edward, noticing that his arms were still recovering from the hits he had taken, and Leah and Paul sat down on their side. Rosalie refused to sit, even when Emmett hissed at her to do so, saying she was blocking his view. "But then you broke it." Hisses of agreement came from the werewolves which Sam did nothing to stop and all the Cullen's tensed, but Carlisle put up a hand to calm them down.

"What proof do you have for this?" Carlisle asked, remaining professional in such a situation, when the stupid wolves were clearly in the wrong. When had they broken the treaty? Never! Alice felt fresh anger course through her veins at this accusation. Those wolves were lying right through their teeth and if they didn't stop she would knock them out!

"Simple. Bella." Sam smirked as if this explained anything. Edward must have gotten what he meant because he leapt to his feet, hands in fists. "That wasn't us. We would never hurt her! She's like one of us!" Embry and Leah jumped to their feet in preparation that he would attack, but Jasper already had a hand on the bronze haired boys shoulder and was coaxing him to sit down. But Edward's eyes never left the two wolves, as they slowly sat down too.

"I can see what caused this confusion. I can assure you it wasn't us with confidence now." Sam opened his mouth to say something but Carlisle stopped him. "I'm afraid we have a new vampire coven in Forks, and they seem intent on hurting Bella. She was attacked by them and we have no idea why they would want to harm her, except that they see this as a game."

"A new coven..." Sam rubbed his chin and closed his eyes. He looked like a chieftain at this moment despite his young age and the lab coat on his shoulders. He was acting much older for his age, with the responsibly of the pack on his conscious and it weighed him down. Alice felt a stab of pity for him. It must have been very difficult dealing with such temperamental beings all the time especially since he had no one to guide him in his young age. He let out a huge sigh and opened his eyes. "Your sure that these vampires are not friends of yours?"

Carlisle nodded his head. "Yes, they are not friends of ours, merely rogues who have infested our land and chosen to play games with someone we value greatly."

"So are they the vampires we scented last week?" Paul asked, his brows furrowed in consideration. "We scented some vampires close to our territory but figured they must have been visiting you guys." He clarified when Carlisle sent him a quizzical look.

Sam nodded his head slowly at this as Carlisle spoke again. "We didn't break any treaty. We are just as up in arms about these new vampires as you. We are horrified that such a thing was done to Bella and have sent members of our coven occasionally to watch over her and to protect her from this threat until we can catch them. You on the other hand," at this Carlisle paused and spread his hands in a gesture meant to encapsulate the room and the damage done to it, "have broken the treaty, as well as our house." Sam grimaced at this, whereas all the other wolves tried to shape their emotions into ones of apology. Leah was the exception, a smug grin on her face saying 'I'm glad I trashed this place.' Alice sent a glare at her for this, but the one Rosalie sent must have been more insulting because Leah focused her resentment filled gaze on the blonde. They stayed like that, locked in a silent battle and unmoving as the conversation moved forward.

"Yes, about that," Sam started. "I do apologize for doing this. The pack and I were very infuriated by the breach in contract, as well as preoccupied with the concept that you had brought more vampires to this land and were trying to amass an army against us. We hadn't considered that you would in fact be on our side for this issue."

Carlisle nodded his head. "If you could help us track down these vampires, we would greatly appreciate this. Joining forces would ensure we could catch these vampires quicker and that Bella would be safe. We will tell you all we know about them so far, if you will tell us what you know about them. An exchange of information."

Sam extended his hand to shake on it, when Leah surged forward and made for Rosalie. She grabbed the blonde by the front of her shirt and pulled up, lifting the blonde off the ground. Immediately everyone was on their feet, ready for retaliation.

"Leah!" Sam barked at the same time Carlisle said, "Rosalie!"

"What are you doing?" demanded the wolf pack leader. "Put her down right now."

But the girl was too mad, her hand that was supporting Rosalie trembling with the effort it took to not fling the blonde. Rosalie however looked smug, arms crossed over chest, as if she was chilling out instead of being a possible punching bag.

"Rosalie stop provoking her," Carlisle ordered, only making the blonde's smug smile bigger.

Leah's back began to shake as she took in deep breaths, her skin almost vibrating as she neared change. "Leah, put her down now. Your making this situation worse. Put her down." Sam was furious at his pack members out of line behavior. "I said put her down!" he said this through gritted teeth and at last the brown skinned girl did as asked, her eyes never leaving Rosalie's pretty face until her toes reached the ground.

"She wouldn't stop grilling me," Leah explained, backing away from the blonde until she was back where she was previously.

"Rosalie I need you to leave the room if your going to agitate our guests." Carlisle said and Rosalie shrugged. "Not my fault she can't handle the heat."

"I so can bitch, try me!" Leah shot back, toes curling into the floor as she tried to suppress the shivers that signaled her oncoming change.

"Leah, enough!" Sam shot her a pointed look but Leah wasn't stopping. "Can we even trust them to be telling the truth? What if their lying and covering up the fact they bit Bella and are blaming these new vampires to save their own blood sucking skin?"

"We would never do that!" Edward snarled, causing Jasper to again restrain him, this time grabbing both of his shoulders to stop him. "I love Bella." He added, more subdued as Jasper's gift came into use. Alice could feel her own agitation began to ebb with Jasper's ability and she let out a sigh she was holding. She looked at Rosalie from the corner of the eye to see that the blonde's face was neutral now, although her stance was still aggressive. Does she have to always cause more trouble? No matter what Rosalie did she always messed with people's brains. Or emotions, Alice added bitterly.

Sam was silent before he shook his head in vexation. "We will trust the Cullen's on their word. I know you all have your doubts but if there truly is another vampire coven here that hunts humans for sport than it is our responsibly to hunt them down. And if the Cullen's happen to be offering their support than we will take it." Addressing his pack, Sam then turned to the Cullen's. "If you break our trust on this, then we will exterminate you without a second of hesitation." His voice dropped low and then he switched, the lab coat ripping as his wolf shoulders burst through it. The other wolves followed suit, their transformation silent and smooth.

They all filed out of the remains of the window, Leah shooting Rosalie a heated glare before exiting last. Sam eyed the vampires as his pack left, his gaze saying 'remember', promising pain if the vampires lied, and then with a flick of his ears in goodbye, he left.

The Cullen's waited until they were certain the wolves were gone before speaking. Rosalie immediately turned on her heel and disappeared to her room while Esme threw her hands in the air in helplessness as she looked at the ruins. "Those disgusting beasts ruined my house." Carlisle placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "It's alright. It could have been worse. Let us be happy we have our children on one piece."

Edward locked his jaw, fires still blazing in his eyes. "I'm going to check on Bella first, we've left her alone for too long." And with that he left.

Emmett laced his hands behind his head, muscle bulging. "I'll never get the smell of wet dog out of my nose now," he said and wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"Are you sure it's not just you?" Jasper asked quietly and Emmett nodded his head in agreement before he realized what had been said. "Hey, you making jokes? Did the wolves knock you too hard on the head?" He asked, checking Jasper for mysterious bumps or bruises. The blonde smacked the giant's intrusive hands away as he rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I can't make jokes now?"

Alice paid half a mind to this, her thoughts on Rosalie. Was the blonde alright? Should she go check on her? Alice tried to push this thought process away; it wasn't like the blonde needed her attention. She was just being her usual prickly self. Still Alice desperately wanted to talk to the blonde and so she decided to lose herself in online shopping to forget the intense urge to rush to the blonde's side. "I'm gonna go look for new house decorations we can use to fix this," Alice informed Esme before rushing upstairs as the matriarch wrung her hands in worry.

"Don't take long Alice, we have to discuss our plans to save Bella," Carlisle reminded her as she left. That's right, I should be focused on helping Bella and not on Rosalie. But ridding her mind of the blonde was going to prove to be a next to near impossible task.