Chapter 10 - Worry

"What do you mean you haven't seen it? Alice, please? I know you have; you must've!"
After noticing Mari and her belongings were missing from her room, Edward went straight to Alice, panicking when he saw Mari was nowhere to be found. Edward had wanted to invite her on a hunting trip, but now, he was pursuing something entirely other than prey.

"I'm sorry, Edward. I don't see anything!" Alice was beside herself. She really wished she could see something. Anything.

"I don't believe you!" Edward boomed, pacing back and forth.

"Please believe me Edward. I honestly-" Alice couldn't finish her statement as Edward began to lose control.

"Alice, tell me where she's gone! I know you know something!" Edward shook her by the shoulders, seething from the inside out. His biggest fear, losing the girl he loved, was reliving itself, all over again.

Jasper, hearing raised voices, rushed to Alice's side. Behind him, Carlisle followed to see what all of the ruckus was about. .

"What the hell is going on?" Jasper immediately squared up to Edward, pushing him aggressively away from Alice and protecting her from his wrath.

"She knows something, I know she does! Why won't she tell me?" He ran his hand roughly through his wiry locks, pulling at the roots with a fist full in anger.

"Hey, what's all the shouting about? Edward, you're upsetting Alice. What's happened?" Carlisle stepped in between Jasper and Edward now to calm the situation.

"I swear, I don't know anything!" Alice sobbed. Jasper shot glances at Edward that would make a full grown man crumble.

"She's gone Carlisle and Alice won't tell me where she is!" Edward growled, as he began pacing again. So quick he was in danger of burning a hole in the wooden flooring.

"Mari?" Carlisle looked questioningly from Edward to Alice.

"Who the fuck else?!" Edward barked at his father and thrust Mari's note in his father's face. He proceeded to read it.

Edward,
I'm sorry. Please know I love you. It seems my being here is just confusing you further. I only want you to be happy. I will burden you no more.
Mari

Esme, now hearing the commotion, joined them in their sunlit lounge. "Edward! Calm down. There's no need to speak to your father in that tone." Her voice was stern, reminding Edward of his place. She now turned to Alice. "Alice? We won't be mad if Mari asked you not to reveal any knowledge of her whereabouts. But this is extremely important to your brother. If you know anything, we need to know."

Jasper snapped at her defense. "If she says she knows nothing then she knows nothing!"

Esme wasn't playing ball. Shooting him a disproving look, she barked back. "I was asking Alice, Jasper!"

In a weak wavering voice, Alice reiterated. "I've had no vision. He knows that. I don't know Edward, I'm sorry!" Alice looked towards Edward with pain etched in her eyes. She wished she could help.

"Okay! We believe you Alice. When did we all see her last?" Carlisle remained composed in difficult situations and tried to assess the problem with a level head.

"Yesterday!" Jasper spat.

"Right. And you, Alice?" Carlisle questioned with a calm voice.

"This morning. I said goodbye on my way to work. She was watching T.V." Alice pulled a tissue from the small square box that sat in the centre of the coffee table beside her.

"Esme?" Carlisle turned to his wife.

"This morning too. I asked her to remind Edward to burn that broken lounger." She shook her head; this all seemed so insignificant now.

"Okay. Well, I haven't seen her since last evening. Edward?"

"This is wasting time! I need to leave and try to find her!" He tried to walk past his father, but Carlisle was having none of it. Holding a strong arm up to Edward's chest, he stopped him in his tracks.

"No Edward! We need to stick together. We are stronger when we are as one. When did you see her last? Was she upset? Did you fight?" Carlisle's voice raised its tone and bellowed throughout the room.

Returning to pacing once more, Edward ran his icy fingers again through his tousled hair and stammered. "I ... I don't know!"

"Edward, think! This could be important." Esme's motherly tone tried to calm him.

"No, we didn't fight. The complete opposite. We had a wonderful morning. The last I saw her was in her room, when I was burning the wood, around 2:30 this afternoon? I was going to speak to her when I'd finished. The sun was just going down. I decided not to bother her and I went to my room. But I returned this evening to find her for the hunt! Why the hell didn't I go in her room before? I could have stopped her!" Edward dropped his face into his hands and flopped down disheartened onto the sofa.

Alice, feeling every ounce of his pain, sat next to him and wrapped an arm supportively around his shoulders. Glancing around at everyone she gave a grim face. It wasn't looking good.

.

Emmett's Jeep skidded to a halt outside. He and Rosalie returned from work and entered the depressing room with confusion.

"What the hell is going on in here? Who died?" Emmett scoffed half joking, unable to gauge the seriousness of the situation.

Alice shot Rosalie a warning glance, which made Rosalie grabbed Emmett's arm and shake her head vigorously. This wasn't a good time for jokes.

"Mari's left. We don't know where and Alice hasn't seen any visions." Carlisle explained.

"Nothing?" Rosalie asked Alice with concern.

Alice sadly shook her head from side to side.

"We gather neither of you have seen nor heard from Mari this afternoon?" Esme asked them in hope.

Emmett and Rosalie answered "no" with quiet, saddened voices.

"Okay. We'll start by tracking. Edward, you start by trying Renesmee's!" Carlisle set out the plan. "We'll all meet back here in four hours."

With plans set, they set off in various directions.

Edward jumped into his car and left a plume of dust as the wheels spun. He set off to Renesmee's house in a hurry.

.

.

"No, I haven't seen her Dad. Come in!" Renesmee ushered her broken father inside.

"What did I do? Why would she leave?" Edward tried to find reasoning for Mari's sudden actions; reasoning where there was none to find.

"Have you tracked around the area? How long has she been gone?" Renesmee wanted to help ... somehow.

"The rest are doing that now. I last saw her about 2:30." He stood and paced Renesmee's room, it seemed that was the best he could do right now. His eyes flashed wide as he bit the skin down the side his thumb.

Checking her clock, she confirmed "That's four hours ago roughly. Dad, please stay calm. They'll find her, I'm sure of it. She couldn't have got far in that time." Not with vampires on her trail anyway.

"Alice said she hasn't seen anything. That's not normal. Why didn't I hear her thoughts? Why didn't I know she was planning this?"

"Maybe Aunt Alice hasn't seen anything because Mari didn't plan it? Maybe nothing has happened. We can hope, right?"

"Why couldn't I stop her?" Edward began to fall apart all over again. He sat down on a rickety chair at her kitchen table and placed his arms over his head, burying it in the deepest of despair.

"You both left here last night just fine. Did you have a fight?" Renesmee tried to make sense of it all in order to help her father.

"No," he whimpered.

"Well, what happened last night? This morning? What did you talk about?" Renesmee flooded Edward with questions he was too flustered to answer clearly.

"I … We..." He stood again and walked from side to side, cracking his knuckles in frustration.

"Dad, you're scaring me. Calm down. Think!"

"We had a lovely morning chatting. I was burning some wood earlier this morning, in the garden. She was in her room! I saw her in the window!" He was getting angry explaining the same story over and over. He slowed down his words so he wouldn't snap.

"Did you speak? Did she join you in the garden?"

"No! I saw ... um…" Edward paused, knowing his next words were going to sound ridiculous, even though he knew they were true.

"Saw what?" Renesmee placed a calming hand on her father's arm to stop him from pacing.

"It sounds stupid!"

"Try me?" It never crossed her mind what he said next.

Edward swallowed and whispered, "Your mom."

"Mom?" The look on her face confirmed to Edward she'd thought he'd finally gone mad.

"Yes," he said, nodding. "Listen, I know. I know I'm insane. But she came to me as a vision. Or at least that's I suppose it was."

"You are not insane. You're still grieving the loss of your wife! How many more times do I have to tell you that Dad?"

"Just feels stupid saying it out loud, that's all!"

"Yes, well, we've all been saying the same things that Mom said for a while now anyway." Renesmee read her father's mind on what her mother had said. "You said Mari was at the window, right? So did you go to her after you left the garden?"

"No. I thought I'd leave her in her peace, so I didn't go in. Not until I knocked on her door this evening to go hunting. She was gone!"

"Oh Dad!" Renesmee gently wrapped her arms around his middle, lending him her strength.

Just then Renesmee's front door burst open.

Jacob rushed in through the door, panting heavily. "What's happened?" He was obviously tuned well into Renesmee's thoughts and feelings now and felt her pain for her father.

"I'm okay!" She eased his mind instantly without letting go of her father.

Obviously seeing Edward's distressed state, he took a wild guess. "Mari?"

Renesmee released her father and filled Jacob in.

"...and now she's disappeared. The family are out trying to find her." She turned now back to her father.

"Oh." Jacob's sympathy came unwanted by Edward.

"Save it, wolf!" Edward spat. "Guess you got what you always wanted- me being unhappy!"

"Dad! Jake never thought that. He's never said anything of the sort!"

"Really?" Edward guffawed sarcastically. "You weren't even born then Renesmee. He was always trying to steal your mother from me! And afterwards, he loved seeing me in pain. Even at your birth when he promised to-" Edward stopped himself mid-rant. He would never forget the moment Jacob fell through on his promise to kill him when they all thought Bella was dead. The bitterness towards Jacob came seeping back in a flood of memories. Jacob had loved seeing him suffer then and he was probably just dying to gloat about Mari going missing now. Jacob was finally winning. Edward was unhappy and it hurt like hell.

"You know what? STOP IT! Both of you! I've had it with all this macho bullshit! We can't change the past! I've had it up to here with the fighting! Enough!" Thrusting her hand to her forehead, Renesmee stormed out the front door, slamming it behind her. She slowly slid down the wall on the dimly lit porch, hugging her knees. Blinded by the tears that stung her eyes.

Inside, stunned silence was only broken by Jacob's promise. He promised to find Mari.
And this time, he would follow through.

.

The pack joined in the search for Mari as they all met up again at the allotted time at the Cullen's. Mari was certainly keen to fool them from finding her as she'd left lots of trails away from the house. They all crossed over, leaving everyone just going in circles. Finally, they discovered one faint track that disappeared amongst a newborn scent deep in the Lopra Valley. Carlisle was sure she'd used the newborn scent on purpose to mask her trail-her old scent from her past maybe? But why? Why didn't she want to be found?

In the coming days, they all took shifts when not working to search for Mari. Each day they went further afield and retraced old trails, in case they had missed anything. Or in the hope she had decided to back track.

The pack still had their hunt to check out about the missing boy in Lopra on the Friday dusk. So for those hours, the Cullen's trailed alone.

As the length of time of Mari's disappearance increased, Edward just couldn't concentrate on anything, so he ended up remaining at home. Renesmee stayed for a few days to be near her father.

.

Renesmee knocked on Mari's room door, where her father now resided. Edward sat in her chair flicking through the book she had been reading.

Looking over his shoulder, he motioned for her to enter. "Come in."

She crossed the threshold, carrying a glass of nectar for him. Edward hadn't hunted now for three days and was starting to look withdrawn and even more paler than usual. She held out the glass for him, which he took after closing the book and placing it back down on Mari's small table.

"Thank you," he said, forcing a smile towards her. She was a good daughter, always looking out for him. He loved having her near right now; it was one less thing to worry about.

"You're welcome. You're beginning to look weak Dad. You need to keep your strength up, for when she comes home," she replied with her own smile, trying to lift his spirit. "You all right? Or is that a silly question from a half-breed?"

"No," he answered, choosing to ignore her worries. "It's not silly. I … I just want to find her. As do we all." He sipped his glass of nectar she had given him. Somehow it tasted sour.

"I'm sure she'll come home Dad." It was all she could say.

"The sooner the better, Beautiful. The sooner the better." Faking another smile, he lowered his head as another chunk of his heart broke away from its mass.

Renesmee stood behind him and bent down to wrap her arms around her father's neck. She squeezed him slightly in her gesture of love and rested her head against his. They both stared out at the sun which fell behind the trees beyond.

A genuine smile now crept across Edward's lips as he rubbed her forearm with his free hand. He turned his head slightly and placed a kiss on her arm.

In reply, she placed a kiss on top of his head. Renesmee was now his whole world.
She wished on everything that Mari would take her place.

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A/N: I dedicate this Chapter to ThisIsReallyHappening. My Beta up to this point.
Loves you Babes xx
DeathToBeReborn