Note: Re-edited on 3/18/2009

GRAVITATION
by Yih

"Love—is anterior to Life—
Posterior—to Death—
Initial of Creation, and
The Exponent of Earth—"
- Emily Dickinson

5. Visions

Forks 2008

Alice POV

"I love you…"

I turned my head instinctively to look around me, except that there was no one there. I had known that though. Everyone in the family was off doing their own thing, Emmett and Rosalie were living as a newly married couple in San Francisco while Esme and Carlisle were on another one of their numerous honeymoons. Only Jasper and I were left at the house and he was currently hunting.

We would soon have to leave Forks and move somewhere else. Maybe Esme would want to move to Seattle to be closer to Edward? I wouldn't mind being in a city again. I missed the activity of a metropolitan area, and yet I worried about Jasper and his ability to control himself. I trusted him more than anyone else in the world, but at the same time I knew his limitations. It had to be hard to change your diet after all those years…

Maybe it wouldn't even be necessary for us to move to Seattle. Edward had almost not finished medical school the first time. I didn't understand why he wanted to go through that hell again – the tedious hours and the pervasive smell of human blood – when he had already proven he could do it. It would have been too much for any of us other than Carlisle and perhaps Rosalie. Neither of them had ever tasted human blood.

We could always go to Alaska. It wasn't exactly the best place to dabble in my hobby of fashion, but it was a vast space for us to just be ourselves without the concern that humans invariably brought. To be that free again, it would be marvelous! Jasper would be more at ease as well and it would be lovely to see his face smile without a worry.

If only I could see Edward's future and know that possibility was in the cards, I could convince him to come with us and give up on this ridiculous waste of time. His future had been aggravating me for the last few hours because try as I might I could not see it. I could not see him at all. I had called him out of alarm and frustration. I did not understand how my gift could fail. I had never not been able to see something if I truly wanted to see it.

And yet now, I was blind.

"I love you too."

Again there was a voice and it was not a voice I recognized. Suddenly I felt like I was falling, being propelled forward. Where before I could not have seen Edward's future with all my furious determination, now I could not stop the visions…

They were dancing underneath the moonlight and Edward was smiling radiantly down at someone. Her face was covered by the shadows and her dark brown hair swaying as they twirled in the forest together. They fit into each other's arms perfectly and she was exuding joy.

Suddenly they stopped dancing and the girl laughed, her voice a sweet musical sound. Edward joined her, laughing as if they were nothing but a young couple in the throes of a first love. It was a beautiful picture, to see them holding hands. Edward brought her hand up to his lips and he kissed it.

It was so proper and so like him.

I was ripped from that vision and thrust into another…

Edward was alone here, sitting in his room, crouched into a huddle on the bed. The bedroom was a mess. Clothes were strung around everywhere . He looked downright awful. His hair was twisted and unkempt and he was staring blankly at the wall. His eyes were a pitch black and yet his body wasn't tense with the need to feed; instead his shoulders were slumped forward in defeat.

"Bella," he said. "Bella."

Before I could grasp the situation, I was thrown out again.

Edward was in a florist shop, breathing in the sweet scent of flowers. He wandered around the entire selection, stopping occasionally to smell different kinds of flowers, lingering the longest at some freesias. He brought the freesias to his nose and took the deepest breath. He smiled and took the bouquet out of its holder gently.

He wasn't done, though. He browsed through the other flowers, looking at their names and their meanings, all written in a neat calligraphy. Edward stopped when he came to a small bundle of flowers tied together. They were pretty in a plain way, hints of pink on mostly white petals arranged in a star-like configuration with its five petals. He picked them up and turned the card to read the tag tied to it.

"Trailing Arbutus, Thee only do I Love."

He smiled and bent his head to smell the flowers. His smile grew even wider and he turned around when the shopkeeper came up to him and asked him if he needed any help. He told her that he was done and that he would take both of these flowers. The shopkeeper had a faint blush on her face as she checked him out and after he was done paying, she told him to have a good day and to come back soon.

He looked over his shoulder and said, "Thank you."

This time I wasn't surprised when I was pulled away.

They were walking hand-in-hand and it should have been permeating with happiness, but the mood was somber. The atmosphere was grey, covered as they were by the trees from the sunlight. Edward's expression was reserved and his lips were pressed together in that way that meant something was not right. The girl beside him was the same one from before, the one he had called Bella. Again her face was obscured and it was like she wasn't really there with him even though she was.

She said something to him that I couldn't make out and then the shadows that shrouded their figures disappeared. They stepped out of the forest and I gasped. It was beautiful – a vibrant green meadow of flowers – was this Edward's special place? One of his many hideaways where he went to be free from the thoughts that infiltrated his mind? And for him to show her this…

"I don't care," he said fervently. "I will go to the ends of the earth with you."

She was saying something and—

I screamed with frustration when I resurfaced unwillingly from my vision of them – Edward and Bella. She must be the one for him and the one he was with earlier when I called. Already she was important to him if he was willing to drop my call and promise to call me back. The question was… is she the reason I couldn't see him? I definitely couldn't see her in my visions of him. What was going on?

I had no idea and it was driving me crazy. I had to find out. I always had an idea of what was going on and not knowing was going to kill me. I grabbed my cell phone and pressed the #3 speed dial. Edward was only after my voicemail and Jasper, that was how important he was to me and if this Bella made him feel that deeply – to go to the ends of the earth deeply – then it concerned me greatly.

I waited impatiently, tapping my fingers restlessly against the desk, waiting for him to pick up his phone. I knew I had a special ring and I had chosen it specifically because it was an attention grabber!

He better answer me. He obviously knew I was concerned, after all I had called him to complain about my lack of visions! Besides it had already been almost an hour after he had promised to call me back. The nerve of him sometimes… it was enough to drive any clairvoyant insane.

"Alice."

I was so relieved that I hadn't gotten his voicemail that I couldn't be annoyed it had taken him four rings to answer my call. "The one you were with earlier, is her name Bella?"

"How did you know?" he asked, sounding perplexed.

"I saw you with her, of course, well, more like I saw you and a vague impression of a girl next to you. I can't really see her clearly for some reason. Maybe it's because I've never met her? Anyway, how did you meet? What is she like?"

"What did you see?"

I made a face at the phone, sticking my tongue out for good measure, even though he couldn't see me. Edward hadn't answered my questions and he expected me to answer his? He was so incredibly frustrating.

What I wouldn't give to see his expression right now. I wondered why we Americans were so behind the rest of the world, especially Japan. They already had video calling over there. Did he look fluster? Too bad vampires didn't blush, I bet anything he would have turned crimson at the mention of Bella.

"What do you think I saw?" I teased.

"Alice…" he growled.

"Oh, how menacing!"

"Alice!" he said in exasperation.

"Well, why should I answer your questions if you don't answer mine?"

"Yes," he confirmed. "I was with Bella. Now answer mine."

"Nuh-uh, you haven't told me how you met her and what she's like."

He let out an animalistic sound that was between a grumble and grunt – something a human couldn't possible make. I hope he was in his apartment. I narrowed my eyes and concentrated on Edward. Hmmm… he was going to be boring again tonight and stay in. How typical of him. He was lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, thinking and likely thinking about her.

Knowing him, he would think of her all night and then not do anything the next day. He would probably talk himself out of everything. I wanted to tell him that he shouldn't be a little chicken shit and just go for it, but he would likely tell me all the good reasons he should deny himself. Edward was all about self-denial.

Suddenly it occurred to me that I hadn't ask a very important question. It would make a huge difference to the situation, depending on the answer. "Is she human?"

"You don't know?" Edward said, then he laughed.

"Don't laugh at me!" I shouted. "I can't see her for some fricking reason!"

"I suppose I shouldn't laugh," he murmured, sounding amused at me and himself. "I can't hear her myself."

"What!?"

"She's a shield," he said. "It's probably why you couldn't see her earlier."

"Then she's a vampire?"

"Yeah."

"Good," I said more to myself than to him. "What's she like? How did you meet her? I need details, Edward!"

"She's different," he said carefully. "Interesting."

"She fascinates you, doesn't she?"

He sighed, he always did that when he was talking to me. I didn't get it, although Jasper would tell me when he wanted to provoke me that he understood exactly why Edward did that. Sometimes, a very small part of me, wanted to trade powers with Edward just to see what it would be like to know what people were thinking. At the same time, though, I couldn't imagine not knowing the future. It was comforting to never be surprised – to know what was coming.

"As for how I met her," Edward remarked, "I met her at school."

"She's in medical school? That's certainly different."

"She is… unique."

"You can say that again," I muttered.

I didn't understand how Carlisle could hold back his blood lust in the face of all that blood that was everywhere as it was in the hospital. I had only ventured into one once and it had been a horrible experience of control. I realized then I couldn't deal with it and I had stayed away ever since.

"Now," he said in a demanding tone, "tell me what you saw."

"I saw you with her."

"I know you saw more than that."

"Isn't it more fun this way? To discover it on your own?"

He hesitated, beginning to speak only to halt a moment later. Finally, he uttered the question I knew he would ask, "Does it end well?"

Trust Edward to cut to the chase. I stared out the window, seeing Jasper burst into view from out of the forest that surrounded the house. It was like seeing the sun free itself from the clouds. He was my light in the darkness. My heart, my love, my half.

"That far I cannot see."

"But what you do see… is it mostly good or is it mostly bad?"

"There are good things and bad things," I stated. "Such is the way of life and living."

"Alice," he said, his voice desperate and pleading. "What do you think I should do?"

Edward never, ever asked me for advice.

I turned around abruptly when I heard Jasper coming into my room. The sight of him still after so many years made me sigh at how lucky I was to have found him. It would be incredibly lonely to have lived those years without him by my side.

"I think you should follow your heart."

To be continued…

A/N: I think there were an even amount of readers that wanted only Bella/Edward POV and those that wanted more POVs, so I did what I decided would make a more powerful effect, which in this case was adding Alice's POV. I decided it worked best this way and I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Thanks you for all your wonderful reviews, it certainly pushed me to finish this sooner than I otherwise would have. So many wonderful and inspiring comments, I sincerely appreciate it!

A couple quick questions: #1 Would you like to see some of Edward's past? #2 Do you mind if I change up the canon past a little? #3 What would you like to see in this story?

Released: 3/4/2009