All things Twilight belong to Awesome Stephenie Meyer

Songs for thought:

Outside - Staind, Crashed - Daughtry, Come Alive - Foo Fighters

Chapter Seventeen - Forks

I floored the car through the empty roads of Alaska, there were very few people on the road this time of the year, especially after a fresh snowfall, I was on my phone securing my seat on the plane. I knew that Jasper hated that I was butting in on this but I couldn't ease my conscience. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to tell Edward news like this when I had no concrete evidence. He'd suffered enough without a heinous mistake of telling him his soul mate she was dead when there was a chance, albeit a slim one, but a chance that I had it wrong.

I was reprimanding myself for my terrible judgement, she was the one person that I hadn't checked on, and it wasn't even as though I'd just accidentally looked over her, I'd thought her name and put it to the side thinking she would never reach me when I was this far away. I was attuned to her, but even so I normally had to search for her future, she was human after all. I should have thought of this as a cry for help, her soul was probably calling out to anybody, any one of us.

I made myself a promise there and then, I would always listen to my intuition. I was too scared at what I'd find to check on her. It would probably be the biggest mistake I'd ever made.

I looked at the clock on the dash, I only had an hour before my flight and the airport was thirty minutes away, even though that was driving at regular human rates. I knew I'd make it on time but I pushed the gas pedal further down to make a point of getting there early.

The airport was emptier than I'd thought it would be. I didn't care I just wanted to get where I was going. I had a hard time sitting still , and it was made all the worse for not having Jasper close by. I was always a mess when I was away from him. I sat down and tried to see Bella, really see her. I knew that she would have jumped already and I knew that if there was a chance she survived I might be able to see her. There was nothingness, it was a blurred empty space. I shuddered as I thought about what she'd gone through, I had to check on Charlie and see how he was doing. I sat quietly and concentrated my efforts on Charlie. That was when I saw him in the hospital holding a woman, I wasn't sure who she was, but he was crying, he looked so tired and upset.

My heart felt empty, like even the cold empty space where the organ sat dead had been pulled from my chest. What had we done. In trying to save her we'd effectively killed her. I couldn't fathom it. I kept my thoughts far from Edward because I found myself blaming him. It wasn't his fault, he thought he was doing the best thing for her, I told him it wouldn't work.

As they called my flight I ran to the gate, it took everything in me to keep to human speeds, I needed to be there, I wasn't sure how Charlie would take to seeing me because I knew how hard it had been when we left. I never had a chance to say goodbye. It was such a mess.

The plane ride felt longer because of the impatience I felt. My foot tapped nervously and I kept checking the clock on my phone. I was sure that the flight staff thought I had OCD, but that really wasn't my concern right now, they could think what the hell they wanted to.

I was ready to run through the doors as we started to descend into Seattle, I had taken my bag on as hand luggage because I didn't want to be hindered any more than I already was. I needed to get to the Mercedes and head towards forks as soon as possible, I knew even pushing the Mercedes to the limit it would take just under an hour to get there. As soon as the doors open I bolted. I was starting to get thirsty due to the lack of hunt this morning, I was glad I hunted yesterday, it would tide me over a little longer but the stress that I was enduring and the ways I was pushing myself had used up the stores that would normally hold me over for a week. I had been careless and wasted my resources.

I jumped into the Mercedes and let the engine purr to life, I pulled out of the parking spot and threw it into drive. The wheels span mercilessly as I pushed the car to the top of the speedometer before I had even left the parking structure. I pulled out into traffic without looking and wove around the swerving cars. I was speeding down the freeway before anyone had time to get out of their car. I had been blessed with a heavily overcast day and the afternoon was wearing on. It was almost five and at this time of the year the sun would disappear into the horizon soon.

The car cruised steadily at one-hundred and twenty all the way to Forks, I opened the window and let the air breeze through the car, I needed the fresh air to clear my head, I had to be strong for Charlie. The familiar surroundings of the Forks town limits came into view. I was going to stop at the house and clean up before I headed to the Swan house but I couldn't stop I kept driving. I didn't stop until I was outside of the small dark house that had become so familiar to me over the last year. My entire mind felt the need to shut down but I couldn't do it, I couldn't let myself go. It would have been too selfish. I pulled to the curb and parked and got out quietly. I headed towards the house. Charlie himself had told me where the key was in case I ever needed it so I reached above the door and pulled down the key, I replaced it after unlocking the door. I stepped in and pulled the door closed behind me. The light had almost gone completely so I headed into the living room and sat on the couch to wait. I didn't turn a light on, I didn't think I could stand seeing the familiarity of everything and the pictures of Bella that covered the mantle. Not that I needed a light of course, but the darkness made it more bearable. I sat quietly with my thoughts, I was here, and for the first time I could truly feel myself breaking apart. There was nothing to rush for, nothing to panic about, the only thing I had to do was wait.

I sat in the dark for almost an hour before I heard it, the sound was unmistakable, I'd heard it a dozen times before, it was almost the sound of home. It was Bella's truck. It stopped in front of the house. I didn't get up, I'd thought someone was probably being kind and returning it to where it truly belonged.

I heard the door open but slammed shut with a definitive slam, and then the motor roared to life again and sped of down the street. I paused and listened intently. I heard the truck pull to a halt at the end of the street and there were two voices, it sounded like they were arguing and one of them sounded very familiar.

I heard the truck start up again and pull back down the street to the front of the house. This time my curiosity got the better of me, I looked out the crack of the curtains and my breath left me in a whoosh as it exited my lungs. There stood in front of me as clear as day was Bella Swan. She was alive. I stood frozen to the spot. I couldn't move. Bella moved slowly towards the door, she looked nervous. I heard her reach for the key and unlock the door, she pushed the door open and I got the first smell of her, she smelled terrible. I stood frozen to the spot. I could hear her moving her hand along the wall looking for the switch. I moved slowly toward the wall she was feeling, I was being as quiet as I could be, I didn't want to scare her. She froze staring past me into the darkness. Her entire body froze, she looked frightened and I knew it was time to let her know I was here. I flicked on the light and waited for her reaction.

I was stood in the middle of the hall, my thirst was clawing at me now that the panic was unfounded. We were stood motionless staring at one another. Before I could say a word Bella wobbled then threw herself at me, she hit hard and the words she had been crying came out with a gush of air. "Alice, oh, Alice!"

"Bella?" I could hear the mixture of emotions in my voice but I tried to keep myself composed. As good as it was to see her, she was alive. I couldn't quite understand how, but here she was. Her arms locked around me and the sobbing began, I hadn't noticed how distraught and gaunt she looked. Her hair was a mess and she had dark rings under her eyes where she had obviously not been sleeping. I stood still resting one arm around her waist. I tried not to breath, I was so thirsty.

Bella's sobs became uncontrollable and I pulled her gently to the couch in the living room. I pulled her into my lap and let her cry. I was so shocked at the look of her, I knew that she wouldn't recover. Why didn't he listen to me. I rubbed her back gently and waited. She had to get this out of her system before I could get any sense from her.

"I'm . . . sorry," Bella mumbled between tears. "I'm just . . . so happy . . . to see you!"

'It's okay, Bella. Everything's okay." I said trying to comfort the trembling girl that clung to me like her life depended on it. It was hard to see her like this.

"Yes." as her head was still nestled into my shoulder I smiled to myself. Only Bella could be so positive when she was bawling into my shoulder. Unfortunately her blood was still highly tempting and she was exceedingly close to me. Each one of her veins flowed loudly beneath her skin as her heart loudly pumped the fluid through her system.

I sighed trying to stop that thought process before it got to far. "I'd forgotten how exuberant you are," I was pulling further away from her each second and I was trying to not breath.

Bella looked up at me with tear flooded eyes, her delicate features recognizing the signs that I was a thirsty vampire and she was curled up on my lap.

"Oh," Bella whispered as she climbed away from me, but staying close. "Sorry."

"It's my own fault. It's been too long since I hunted. I shouldn't let myself get so thirsty. But I was in a hurry today." I could feel my eyes narrow in my frustration as I spoke the next words, I was so confused. "Speaking of which, would you like to explain to me how you're alive?"

I knew it sounded cold but I was trying to figure out exactly where I went wrong. How I hadn't seen her get out alive. More importantly, how had she gotten out alive, the currents that had been swirling below her had been deadly. I watched her carefully as she processed my words. Her sobbing stopped immediately. She swallowed, never taking her eyes from me.

"You saw me fall."

"No," I could feel my eyes narrowing again, I was glad she was okay but this was like getting blood from a stone. "I saw you jump."

Bella once again processed my answer and pursed her lips. I knew she was aware of what I'd seen. I just wasn't sure how much longer she was going to deny me an answer. She'd tried to kill herself because she thought life without him had been too much. How blind could he be?

"I told him this would happen, but he didn't believe me." I went into Edward impersonation mode without thinking about it, "Bella promised, don't be looking for her future, either. We've done enough damage." I closed my eyes I was angry now. "Just because I don't look doesn't mean I don't see. I wasn't keeping tabs on you, I swear, Bella." I took a breath and looked down at my hands. "It's just that, I'm already attuned to you . . . when I saw you jumping. I didn't think, I just got on a plane. I knew I would be too late, but I couldn't do nothing. And then I get here, thinking maybe I could help Charlie somehow, and you drive up." I shook my head and looked up at her, I knew the confusion was written on my face but I had to understand. The memory of the vision entered my mind and I could feel my voice struggling to put into words how I felt.

"I saw you go into the water and I waited and waited for you to come up, but you didn't. What Happened? And how could you do that to Charlie? Did you stop to think what this would do to him? And my brother? Do you have any idea what Edward—"

"Alice, I wasn't committing suicide." Bella said cutting me off mid sentence, something told me it was Edward's name that motivated her to speak, but I couldn't believe that she would have jumped of a cliff that high for any other reason than to kill herself.

"Are you saying you didn't jump off a cliff?" I asked, knowing that what I had seen had been all to real to have not happened.

"No but . . ."Bella's face scrunched up into a grimace. "It was for recreational purposes."

Recreational purposes, risking your life for fun. I had never really thought of Bella as the extreme sports type, in fact Bella and sport didn't really mix. She should have known this before being so reckless.

"I'd seen some of Jacob's friends cliff diving, it looked like . . . fun, and I was bored . . ."

Fun, diving from a cliff, fun. I didn't believe it.

"I didn't think about how the storm would affect the currents. Actually, I didn't think about the water much at all."

How could she really expect me to believe this, I knew Bella too well to think she would jump into a water from a goodness knows how high cliff into stormed waters . . . for fun of all things.

"So if you saw me go in, why didn't you see Jacob?" she asked.

I tipped my head trying to recollect the vision I had seen. It was so clear to me, she went under and never came up, then it blurred again. There was no one else there.

"It's true that I probably would have drowned if Jacob hadn't jumped in after me. Well, okay, there's no probably about it. But he did, and he pulled me out, and I guess he towed me back to shore, though I was kind of out of it for that part. It couldn't have been more than a minute that I was under before he grabbed me. How come you didn't see that?"

"Someone pulled you out?" I was staring at her in disbelief, there had been no one else there in the vision. I couldn't figure it out for the life of me. There had been no one there, no matter how many times I played it in my memory.

"Yes. Jacob saved me."

Who was this Jacob? and why hadn't I seen him pull her out? where did he get the strength to pull her out? I saw those waters, and what the hell was that smell? I leaned in closer to Bella and sniffed. She smelt very strongly of. . . Bella froze, silly girl.

"Don't be ridiculous," I said continuing to smell, I was trying to place that smell, I wasn't sure if I'd smelt it before. I knew that it was repulsive whatever it was.

"What are you doing?" Bella had relaxed again and her curiosity was getting the better of her.

"Who was with you out there just now? It sounded like you were arguing."

"Jacob Black. He's . . . sort of my best friend. I guess. At least, he was . . ."

Okay so this boy was a Quileute. I recognized the name instantly. I was hoping I was wrong about the rest though.

"What?" Bella asked breaking my train of thought completely.

"I don't know, I'm not sure what this means."

"Well, I'm not dead at least."

I rolled my eyes, Edward was the biggest ass I had ever come across. We all knew how accident prone poor Bella was, yet he insisted she would be fine. He was an ass and I would be happy to tell him so. "He was a fool to think you could survive alone. I've never seen anyone so prone to life threatening idiocy."

"I survived." she pointed out, I could only half agree, she was a mess. She looked like she had struggled rather than lived and no one deserved to live that way.

"So," I let my mind wander back to what Bella had been saying earlier. Something that had caught me attention and held it. "If the currents were too much for you, how did this Jacob manage?"

"Jacob is . . . strong."

I raised my eyebrows, I could hear in the tone of her voice that there was something she was hiding from me. She'd forgotten how well I knew her, she'd forgotten that Vampires have photographic memories. I would always know when she was lying. I looked at her and watched as she gnawed on her lip and contemplated telling me what she was hiding. She looked at me again before speaking.

"See, well, he's . . . sort of a werewolf." she said quickly. "The Quileutes turn into wolves when there are vampires around. They know Carlisle from a long time ago. Where you with Carlisle back then?"

This all came out so blase that I didn't have time to compose myself and my reactions, I could feel myself blinking rapidly when I finally composed myself. Werewolves? How could this one relatively small human girl attract so much trouble. Then it all clicked into place, the smell, it smelled like wet dog but worse. It was foul.

"Well, I guess that explains the smell, but does it explain what I couldn't see?" I could feel the frown forming, I needed to speak to Carlisle but I knew that he would call me as soon as he got back to the house so there was no hope in trying to call him right now. I would have to wait for him to call me.

"The smell?" Bella asked curiously.

"You smell awful," I said, and it was true she reeked terribly of wet dog. "A werewolf? Are you sure about that?"

"Very sure," the look on her face told me that she had at one point seen them phase. "I guess you weren't with Carlisle the last time there were werewolves here in Forks?"

"No, I hadn't found him yet." I answered absentmindedly. Werewolves, could it be possible that I couldn't see them, it would certainly explain the blurs of vision I had been seeing, in fact it would explain the blur that had occurred after Bella had been in the water for a while. Was it possible that they were able to escape being in my visions? So Bella was best friends with this boy, she was. . . "Your best friend is a werewolf?"

Bella nodded sheepishly, but I could tell that she had no idea how dangerous it was for her to be in any kind of close proximity to a werewolf.

"How long has this been going on?" I asked expecting her to explain to me how long the two of them had been friends, but her answer shocked me more than I had been prepared for.

"Not long, he's only been a werewolf for just a few weeks." she was a little defensive of her friend and that concerned me. Young wolves were the most dangerous but I checked briefly into the future and was surprised that I could, however, since I had been stood here in her presence, I could once again see her transformation into a vampire, but I didn't have time to dwell on that just yet. If I'd been looking I'm sure I'd have seen it all along but now was not the time for this. She had been putting herself in danger everyday since she had become friends with this boy and had no idea. I couldn't stop myself from glowering at her.

"A young werewolf? Even Worse! Edward was right — you're a magnet for danger. Weren't you supposed to be staying out of trouble?" I asked this on a spur of the moment, Edward had told me that she had promised not to be reckless once we left. I could understand him asking this of her but I could understand why she hadn't stayed true to her word, where was he to make sure she stuck to it, what was the reason for sticking to it? But I couldn't let myself sympathize with her at the moment, she had to understand what kind of danger she'd put herself in.

"There's nothing wrong with werewolves," she seemed a little deflated from my last comment but I had no time or patience to be gentle right now. My best friend had been spending her time with a pack of young werewolves, they were notorious for being unable to control their rage.

"Until they lose their tempers." I shook my head. "Leave it to you, Bella. Anyone else would be better off when the vampires left town. But you had to start hanging out with the first monsters you can find." The words almost sounded comical in my head. I sat looking at Bella waiting for one of her witty retorts, but none came. She sat trembling at the other end of the couch in what seemed to be elation. But her face was almost pleading with me to understand.

"No, Alice, the vampires didn't really leave — not all of them, anyway. That's the whole trouble. If it weren't for the werewolves, Victoria would have gotten me by now. Well, if it weren't for Jake and his friends, Laurent would have gotten before she could, I guess, so—"

"Victoria?" I could hear the words escaping me as a hiss, I hadn't intended this to happen because I hadn't wanted to scare her, but it all seemed to make a little bit more sense. I couldn't see Victoria anymore because she was so close to Bella she was acting on pure instinct, and. . . "Laurent?"

Bella nodded, I realized that my blackened eyes were more than likely manipulated into a death stare brought on by the names of the two people I hadn't expected to hear uttered from Bella's mouth again.

Bella pointed at her chest. "Danger magnet, remember?"

I shook my head, I couldn't believe this poor girls luck, I was just glad, in a small way this happened. We were the only ones who could keep her truly safe, she had been lucky so far with the wolves, but I couldn't expect them to keep it together much longer.

"Tell me everything—" I said sighing. "Start at the beginning."

A/N: Bella's back . . . which means Edward will soon follow. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Thanks to the Reviewers and Alerts and Faves N stuff you all ROCK, YES YOU ROCK LIKE slash on guitar hero (oops showing my age much!!)

Thank you seriously, your words are kind and very motivational (3 Chapters in One day :) See Spoiling you again)

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65 Days until breaking Dawn :) and 3 days till SE Eclipse. Oh and don't forget MTV has a scene from the movie playing before the MTV movie awards. Not sure of the exact time!!