CHAPTER 12: NOT LEAVING
Alice POV
I was still fuming. Did he understand what he was doing? How he was going to hurt her? Hadn't he seen what was to come right along with me?
I couldn't have planned this better if I had written it. Edward and Bella were perfect together. Every time they looked at each other it was like fireworks. Emmett had taken to her like fish to water and even Jasper wasn't as wary around her. Granted he didn't sit next to her or talk that often but that was more for her protection. He could feel how much Edward loved her and he didn't want to hurt him by hurting Bella. So he kept a distance but it wasn't a harsh distance and if she asked him any question then he responded easily and with care.
Esme and Carlisle would be so happy if they were here; Esme especially. I knew that she had worried for so long about Edward ever finding someone to make this existence worth it. She would be beside herself with joy watching the two of them and would do just about anything for Bella if she asked. Carlisle would be a little more cautious, Bella being human and all, but he too would be ecstatic to see Edward so happy.
The only person that would hold any kind of grudge was Rosalie. I sighed to myself. I loved Rose but sometimes she could grade the nerves. She wouldn't take it well that someone outside the family knew about us. As it was she had called just about every minute of the three days that Emmett had been gone to ask when we were coming back and I could tell that she blamed our absence on Bella when it had really been her. If Edward hadn't been sure that she would act out against Bella he would have never kidnapped her. But then again, if Edward hadn't kidnapped Bella then they probably wouldn't be like this now. So maybe we should be thanking Rose.
Yes, Rose was a downside but she was nothing compared to Edward. We only had a few more days until Bella's mom would be in Florida. A few more days until she would be expecting Bella home and Edward hadn't budged. I was all game for dropping her off for a visit and exploring Florida, granted more so at night and then heading back home with Bella in tow. It wasn't like she would be behind. Thanks to all the faxed in homework and a wonderfully written report on seeing American History all about Mount Rushmore she was actually ahead of the class. I didn't think Chief Swan would have a problem with his daughter coming back but since the decision hadn't been made then I couldn't tell for sure. I knew that Bella would be safe from us even if Rosalie was still on the warpath. And that she would be part of the family soon so there wouldn't be any concerns if it wasn't for Edward.
Since deciding that he loved Bella and finding out that she loved him too he had become obsessed with making sure that she was protected and to him the best way to make sure was to leave her in Florida with her mom. He was convinced that she would not be a part of our family. That it was best for her if we left her in Florida to live out a nice normal human life. What a load of crap.
Bella had really become a sister to me. True she had this weird aversion to shopping that I completely didn't understand but other than that she was everything I would want in a best friend. She was funny and understanding. She accepted us without judgments or fear and best of all she loved my brother. The last thing I wanted was to leave her thousands of miles away where I had seen that she would be miserable. I had seen the pain that his decision would cause her and I had seen his response to the need to be with her and so had he and he still wouldn't listen.
I had been serious when I told him that I would take her to Carlisle and have him change her. There was no way that I was going to sit back and watch as their lives fell apart. And I would have to watch. There would be no stopping the visions. They hadn't stopped yet. Now that he was as decided as I was there were new vision every few hours. Him running with her, him trying to hide her, me finding them again, her mother worried sick about her, Chief Swan calling the FBI, search parties looking for all of us. They never ended well.
Unfortunately, Edward and police searches weren't the only problems. There was also the simple rule that governed all vampires; keep the secret. No human was supposed to know that we existed let alone be traveling cross country with us without forfeiting their lives. If word got out that Bella knew about us, and it would if FBI was called in, the Volturi, the vampire ruling family in Italy, would snatch her up and kill her before we had a chance to try to save her. They took their laws very seriously and we would not go unpunished for this action.
I had tried that approach while we walked along the streets of Memphis. It wasn't the best place to get into any kind of serious conversation but I didn't trust myself to be alone with him right now. As it was Emmett was the one riding with them and he hated those low ride seats. I had showed him the vision of police tracking us and the Volturi coming for Bella but he would hear none of it. He kept insisting that she would be safe once we were out of her life. Then he had run from me faster than he should have considering we were walking down Beale Street in Memphis. I would have broached the subject with Bella herself but she just found out about us. It was a little too early to talk about changes.
So where did that leave us. With Edward determined to leave her and me determined to save her. I didn't want to do it that way because I knew that although he wouldn't hate me for eternity it would be a long time before he really forgave me and I hated that option. There had to be another way.
"Alice" Jasper was right next to me. He had stayed close since my fight with Edward. Jasper loved his brother but he loved me more and he didn't like the way that Edward had been looking at me. "Are you alright?" He must have felt my frustration. We were hanging out in our room waiting for the sun to go down so that we could hit the road. We weren't that far from Chattanooga, Emmett's hometown, and we wanted to get there before dark.
"I'm fine" I told him. "Just worried about Edward and Bella."
"Do you see something happening?" Jasper was using his special talent to calm me. Any other time it would have worked but tonight I was too wound up.
"Other than our abandoning her in Jacksonville?" I practically screeched. "Or Edward hating me for having Carlisle change her?"
"Alice" I could hear the dark humor in his voice.
"What Jazz?" I knew that I shouldn't be angry with him but he happened to understand Edward point of view and thought that maybe it might be too dangerous for Bella to become part of our lives. "That is what we would be doing and Edward is too stubborn for his own good." I thought back over the almost two weeks we had spent together. It wasn't right.
"We uprooted her from her home and drug her across country, made memories together, told her all about the supernatural, and oh yeah, got her to fall in love and now we are just going to what" I asked. "Pull up; tell her it was a lot of laughs? Have Edward kiss her goodbye and remind her to keep in touch?"
"And think about it." I continued. Now that I was on a roll there might be no stopping me. "She's going to have all this information and no one to talk to about it. We'll be all the way on the other side of the world."
"Plus what happens when she comes back to visit her father thinking that she might have a chance of seeing us and we've already moved on?" I didn't want to think about her pain. "She's gonna feel like we never cared about her at all." I pouted.
"It won't be like that." Jasper tried to comfort me.
"Yes it will Jazz" I paced around the room. "I've seen it; Edward's seen it; he's just to set in his stupid ways to acknowledge it." I stopped in front of him. "She's not going to be able to handle this and neither his he."
"So what are you suggesting Alice?" Jasper's patient voice didn't falter. "That we bring her back to Forks? That Edward stays with her and resists her every day? That the rest of us would be able to promise that we would never hurt her?" He lifted my face to look into my eyes. "That's not very realistic."
"There are other ways." I voiced my thoughts to the only one that would listen. "He could change her. He should change her."
"And how is that far." Jasper asked. "Instead of having to say goodbye to us, who she's known for all of a couple of weeks, she would have to say goodbye to her family, who she's known all of her live."
"But we would be her family." I protested. "She's already a sister to me. Emmett thinks of her as a sister too and you seem to like her."
"I do but Alice" He smiled tightly at me. "That's a lot to ask someone to give up. That's a lot to ask Edward to take away from her."
"Still if he really loves her…."
"He would do what he's doing." Jasper finished for me although not with what I was going to say. "He's trying to protect her. He's trying to give her everything. I'm not sure that he is going to be able to do it but I commend him for trying."
"That seems a little backwards if you ask me." I stuck my lip out.
"Think about it Alice, if Bella stayed with Edward, whether he changed her or not, she would be giving up her parents, having a family of her own, growing old." He shrugged. "What could he give her that would make that sacrifice worth it?"
"He could give her himself." I shared. "He could give her his love and devotion. He could give her a family that would never leave her and would do anything to protect her. He could give her the world and an eternity to see it. He could give her forever with someone that cherishes her and would put her above everything else." I smiled at him thinking of all he had given me in the years that I had been fortunate enough to have him. "Sometimes those things are enough. Sometimes those things are all you want."
His eyes had softened as I spoke and he pulled me closer. "That's true but it's still not your decision to make."
"That changes nothing. Especially when I've seen it." I pushed away from him. "I've seen Bella as one of us. Even when I take myself out of the equation the vision is still there. Sometimes I still she her sitting in that room depressed but for the most part I see her with us. So whatever decision needs to be made it's already happened."
"You think Edward won't be able to not change her?"
"I think that it is a strong possibility." I looked back at him. "You said it yourself. Mated vampires need to be together and they are mated."
"Maybe it's different for them because Bella is human." He shrugged. "Maybe Edward can resist."
"He couldn't resist enough to stay gone after that first day and he couldn't resist talking to her or saving her even though he knew that it might expose us." I recounted Edward's pull to Bella. "I don't think he will be able to resist her now either."
"Then why are you pushing so hard?" He questioned.
"Because we don't have that much time." Was I the only person that remembered Bella was supposed to be in Florida by the time her mother got there? "If he doesn't make a decision before we get to her mother I'm afraid that he is going to leave her and he's going to hate himself for it."
"Alice you can't force him to see it your way." I could feel the calm reaching out to me again. "It has to be his decision."
"And if he decides wrong?"
"Then you have to respect it." I started to speak but he held his finger to my lips. "It is their relationship Alice and I know you care about Bella but it isn't the same."
I could see his point. I hated to think that I could be forcing a future that wasn't meant to be but I had seen it and I hated the idea of losing Bella. "I can't just sit by and watch their lives be destroyed."
"You might not have any other choice." He hugged me again.
"I hate this."
"I know." He didn't say anything else but just stood there with me wrapped in his arms until it was time to go.
We met everyone downstairs and took off in the direction Emmett lead us. He was riding with Edward and Bella in Edward's car no doubt still complaining about the room while I was in the van with Jasper. There had been talk about leaving Edward's vehicle behind but he wasn't very happy with that idea and Jasper wasn't sure he could handle riding for hours with Bella. With that in mind we kept the van.
I watched as we swerved around corners and sped down the highway not really paying attention. As much as I wanted to see where Emmett had grown up my excitement had died down. Chattanooga was right next to Georgia and Jacksonville was right on the other side of that state. At the most I would have two maybe three more days with Bella. I could drag it out if I could convince Edward to stay in Florida longer than just seeing Bella to her door. I knew that Emmett would be in a hurry to get back to Rosalie but if Jasper was on my side then I knew we could sway Edward and that might be all that was needed.
"Jazz" I used the sweetest voice I could.
"Hmm" His hand reached out for mine.
"Would you do me a favor?"
"Anything"
"Would you help me convince Edward to stay in Florida for a few days?"
He didn't say anything but his eyes spoke volumes as he looked over at me. "Just long enough for us to make sure that she's safe and to say a proper goodbye if we have to."
"No tricks?"
"No tricks" I smiled at him. "I'm just not ready to let her go. If I could figure out a way to move the family down there I would but I know that won't be possible so I would just like a little more time."
He breathed deep and then brought my hand up to his lips. "If it will make you happy."
"It will." I leaned over and kissed him as soundly as I could while going a hundred and fifteen on the freeway. "Thank you."
"No problem"
He was the best thing that ever happened to me. Like Bella was the best thing that ever happened to Edward. I knew that he knew that but I had to get him to really understand what his life would be like without her. I had to make him understand that if he did this there would be no going back. She was part of us now and it would be like cutting off an arm for her not to be with us.
Maybe if I called Carlisle and Esme and had them meet us in Jacksonville. If he saw how well she fit in with all his family; if he saw how much Esme loved her; how happy it made her to see him so happy. Maybe that would make all the difference. I would have to invite Rosalie too and tell her to be on her best behavior. I decided to call and then searched the future to see what the outcome would be.
There was no real change. I still saw Edward kissing Bella goodbye in the front of her mother's hotel, I saw all the different futures that I had seen before with the exception of the police. I saw Bella's tear streaked face crumbling after we left. I saw her waving goodbye to me and the frantic text a few hours later begging us to come back. I saw the room with her sitting there a shadow of herself and I saw her laughing with us looking no different than the rest.
I would come up with something. It didn't matter if I had to put her in the trunk this time she was coming back with us. I wouldn't abandon her to her own grief. She was going to be part of this family and family didn't leave behind family. That was that.
Too bad that Edward could read my thoughts but I had kept him from hearing me for two hours on the way down here. Could I keep all of this to myself? Would Bella help me? He couldn't read her thoughts so it would be easy for her to plan how to stow away without him knowing. I could hide her all the way back to Forks if I wanted too and he wouldn't be the wiser. Unless I couldn't control my thoughts.
Okay so I would start on it now. I would think about anything and everything other than Bella. I wouldn't give him any reason to think that I was plotting anything. I wouldn't translate songs or anything. I could do it; for Bella. After all, that's what family was for.
AN: Welcome back for another week. These two have been so much fun to write and I know that I am so behind on responding to everyone's reviews but I was going out of town and getting prepared took so much more time than I thought. So today is respond to review day and I am going to apologize in advance if I flood anyone's mailbox.
As for my contest that I had going last week; lilmissfireball won for the first comment left to a post on my blog. This week I am making it a more even contest. Anyone that becomes a follower by Saturday will receive a preview for next week in their inbox on Monday provided that I have your review or someway to send it to you. This way everyone can get the preview if you just head over to mztspot (dot) blogspot (dot) com and don't forget to review :).