Runaway by Kibibe

Duke it all out

"Please don't." She whispered embracing her. They didn't hate her. They blamed themselves. Bella finally realised. She should have known. They were those kinds of people. The ones who carried the weight of the world on their shoulders. "This wasn't you. It was me. My decision." She clarified but Alice resisted the embrace shaking her head.

She looked dead serious now. "No. If it wasn't for us you wouldn't have been all alone and you wouldn't have needed the money. It's all our fault. I can't tell you how sorry I am. We can never think of making that up to you." Bella rolled her eyes. This was getting nowhere. Everyone blaming themselves. It didn't change anything. "Alice please stop playing 'what if'. It is how it is. I can't change it and neither can you. So what's the point?"

Alice stared at her in disbelieve. How could she say that? How could she be so calm? They had ruined her life. She should be running wild screaming 'bloody murder' or something along those lines. Yet here she was comforting her. Emmett was right. She really did do the strangest things. "How can you say that? How can you not hate us?"

Bella reached out her hand to brush Alice's cheek. "Hate you?" She wondered baffled. "How could I ever hate you? You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." Alice laughed humorlessly. "Seriously Bella. I think you need to get your head checked. There is something terribly wrong with it." Bella smirked. "Maybe I like it wrong." She pouted. Before they both burst out laughing.

The tension was gone. It was OK. For now. They let themselves fall back on the bed gazing at each other. "So …" Alice started. „Soooooooo?" Bella countered. "Lux. Annabell. You're the girl with the thousand names now, huh? Any other pseudonyms I should know about?" She grinned. Bella pretended to think about it putting her finger to her lips. "Well when I first started at the strip club in Vegas my stage name was Chastity."

Alice smirked. "Isn't your stripper name supposed to be your first pet's name plus your mother's maiden name? I read that somewhere." Bella cracked a smile. Alice had read about stripper names? Now that was some juicy information. "Well that would make my stripper name Piggy Higginbotham. Not so sexy." They both burst out laughing again. "Piggy?" Alice managed to get out between giggles. "What was it?" "A guinea pig. Very creative. I know. I was only five."

After the giggles had died down again Bella had to ask. "So what would yours be?" Alice shrugged. "Dunno. Never had a pet that I know of and I don't know my mother's maiden name." Bella's face fell. How could she have been so insensitive? She wanted to slap herself. "I'm sorry. I … That was thoughtless." "Don't worry about it." Alice shrugged.

"So how did you come up with all those names than?" Alice changed the subject. Bella shrugged. "Well with Annabell I got to kind of keep my nickname. Bell. Though Roxie likes to call me Annie or even Tinker Bell sometimes." She smiled absentmindedly. "Chastity was my friend's idea and the owner of the club I was working for in New York came up with Lux. I like the sound of it so I kept it."

"Well now you won't need it anymore." Bella looked puzzled so Alice elaborated. "… because now you don't have to do IT anymore … We have the money. You don't have to worry about that anymore." Bella was fuming. The nerve of them. To walk in and out of her life and try to rule everything. "No Alice. I won't let you do this. I can take care of myself. I don't wanna be your charity case." Alice just stared at her bewildered.

"What are you talking about. You're not a charity case. You're family. You don't have to do this anymore. It's over." Alice reasoned. Bella was boiling with anger. "What is over, Alice?!" She screamed. "My life? My right to have a free will? Huh? I'm not your family. I'm not your freakin' responsibility!" That stung. Alice was at a loss of words. What was going on? Why didn't she want their help? Was selling her body less demeaning than accepting their help? Was this what it came down to?

"What … I don't understand." Alice whispered finally. Bella took a deep breath trying to control her temper. "That is just the thing. You don't understand. You come and go. You think you know what's best for me. But you really don't. I can't make myself so dependent on you again."

There was a knock on the door then and Carlisle stepped in. Bella instantly blushed crimson as she realised that he must have heard everything she had just told Alice. This was so embarrassing. Where was the hole she could sink into?

"May I talk to Bella for a moment?" He asked and Alice send Bella an encouraging look as she quickly skipped out of the room. Closing the door behind her.

Carlisle sat down on the edge of the bed. He didn't smile. He looked sober. He looked like a doctor. Bella was rigid. He was going to have a talk with her. A doctor talk. She gulped. "No need to be afraid. I won't bite." He smiled. Great. Inside joke to lighten the mood. Now she just knew that she wouldn't like it.

"Bella before you say anything please hear me out. I know you probably think I'm gonna barge in here and make judgements. That is not what I'm doing. But I'm not gonna condone this either. I'm concerned for you." He was picking up where Alice had left off. This was really strenuous. Why did everything have to be so damn hard with them nowadays? So tiring. Why couldn't they just understand and let her live her life.

"You see in my years of practice I have seen things." He continued. "Things that weren't pretty. What I'm saying is my experience tells me this isn't gonna end well. We want you to stop doing this to yourself. We can be there for you. We can pay for college. We can make you safe. It's the least we can do." Make her safe. How ironic this sounded coming from a vampire.

"I dont want your pity money!" She threw her hands in the air. "I don't need you to play doctor on me. You're not my doctor. And you don't get to tell me what to do because you're not my father either." She argued. Putting him in his place.

"I know I'm not. But I know I am something. You're here. We love you. We Love you, Bella. And I'd like to think that you kind of love us too. So we have to be something. And I am concerned for you. We are all concerned for you." He tried to make her see reason. "We don't wanna boss you around. We just want to protect you."

Bella shook her head. "I appreciate your concern. But I got to do this for me. And I'd really like you to all give me a break now, please." She pleaded. She had had enough and he could see that. So he was gonna let her be for now. "OK. I can see that we're not getting anywhere right now. Perhaps we should all calm down and think this through before we discuss this any further." He stood up and went for the door. "Esme is making you dinner. Please do her the favor and eat something."

He left the room and Alice came back in. She leaned her back against the door eying Bella closely. She didn't say anything. She just looked. "What is it?" Bella finally asked. Feeling unsure. "You know Edward will come around eventually, right?" Alice stated.

This send Bella off the track. Why the sudden change of topic? Where was she going with this. "What do you mean." Alice sighed. "What I mean is that Edward doesn't hate you. He is just shocked and angry with himself and he'd really like to kill those guys who touched you. But he still loves you. That's why he got so upset in the first place." This was hard to believe. Bella couldn't think he'd ever even look at her again.

"You should go and talk to him later." Alice stated smiling mysteriously. Okay, this was kind of creepy. Bella eyed her suspiciously. "Did you just have a vision or something?" Alice only shrugged smiling smugly. "Just go to him later. Now you're gonna eat something. Come on." She held out her hand to help Bella up.

Meanwhile down in the living room Emmett's fantasy was running wild. "Wow, Bella … I would have never thought. I mean can you imagine her in a dirty little outfit going down and doing the … dirty …" He smirked his eyes shining with excitement.

Jasper groaned. This was definitely one of those days he wished he couldn't feel all of their emotions. "Would you stop that already? You're getting me all worked up." He grumpled.

"I can't I've got all those images branded into my brain ... You think I could convince Rose to play …" He started but was cut off by Rosalie yelling from up stairs. "DEFINITELY NOT!"

Jasper stared at him in disbelieve. "Man, seriously I can't believe you're wife is already mad at you and you're still going on about this."

Emmett grinned wickedly at him and whispered: "Just a little advice between the two of us?" He leaned in wriggling his eyebrows meaningfully for dramatic emphasis. "The angrier she gets, the better the Make-up-sex will be. You should try it some time."

"OK now stop it! Think of something to turn you off or get a cold shower, because you're making me all … whoa … and if you haven't noticed my wife is busy comforting Bella upstairs."

"Oooooh wow! Now that is great stuff! Alice and Bella getting it on …" Jasper groaned frustrated again. This was hopeless.

A/N: Higginbotham. It sounds strange. But I researched that. And it supposedly is in fact Renee's maiden name. I made the pet up though. Because as far as I know something like that was never mentioned in the books. If I'm wrong and Bella's first pet is mentioned please feel free to enlighten me.