Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. No copyright infringement intended.

Chapter 2- Reality Bites

Alice POV

All hell broke loose. Emmett slammed his fist into the wall behind him, smashing not only through the drywall, but the studs and the outer wall. Esme grabbed a hold of Carlisle, and he kept her from falling over. Rosalie sat up straighter and stopped fidgeting. Jasper grabbed my shoulders and spun me around. "Are you sure?" I was only able to nod. My soul was cracking, and I felt more despondent than ever. I let go and felt myself go limp in his arms.

Everyone turned to look at Carlisle. We all knew his decision would be the deciding factor in how we interfered, if we interfered. The room was silent for longer than it should have been. I couldn't stand it any longer.

"We have to save her. She's been lost for so long." I laid my head on Jasper's chest, his strong arms holding me tightly, and wished that I could just cry.

"We should call Charlie." That was Esme's suggestion, but before I could interject. Carlisle spoke up.

"Charlie is dead, Esme. I read about it online. He was hit by a car at a traffic stop eleven months ago." She, too, looked like she wanted to cry.

That was the catalyst that set Bella on this track. I'd rarely caught glances of Bella during her last year of school or her first years at college. For some reason I didn't have any visions of her future. I thought it was because once her future was no longer held by Edward I had no reason to see it. The only glimpse I'd had of her was of her in an ER, not the Forks ER, but a large, busy one. Her arm was in a splint. At the time, I'd laughed at the vision. Obviously Bella hadn't become graceful in the years since we'd left.

It was around the time Charlie died that my visions of Bella's came back. Just small bits at first, but they were there. I saw her the first time she tried drugs, in a dorm room with faces I didn't recognize. Her need for an escape from reality stronger than her knowledge of what drugs could do to her. I saw her as she sold her truck, not for money, but cocaine. That should have been the most heartbreaking vision, but it wasn't. The vision of her rocking back and forth crying, screaming Edward's name, begging to die was the hardest one to take. I saw her fall asleep that night just repeating the word "why?" over and over again.

I was thankfully pulled from my memories by Jasper. His analytical mind was what I needed. I needed a solution. I'd already made up my mind to go and get her, but I knew that, in truth, only Carlisle could save her. Bella needed a doctor. If we could make it to her in time, that was.

"How much time do we have to get to her?" The look of concern on Jasper's face was poignant. All this time, he had blamed himself for Edward leaving. His loss of control still haunted him. He probably saw this as a way to redeem himself.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the vision. I scanned the surroundings for a better grasp on what day my vision was showing. The newspaper stand was on the corner, surrounded by loose papers and trash. My mind's eye squinted into the cloudy vision. It took a moment, but I saw it.

I swallowed hard and looked directly at Carlisle. My anxiety was mounting. "Today—it's today."

Our home in the mountains of New Hampshire was three hundred fifty miles away from New York City and with the sun sitting high in the sky we had only about eight hours at the most to find her.

Esme squeezed his hand; her voice was small and uncertain. "Should we call Edward?" She said this to the room, and no one said anything.

Emmett stalked out of the room. He was apparently done with the conversation. Emmett was still angry at Edward's decisions and hadn't forgiven him. I just looked down.

Rosalie chose that moment to pipe in. "He doesn't want to know. He already bit Alice's head off the last time she mentioned Bella's name. I say we just keep him out of it." I disagreed with her.

Time meant different things to each of us. Rosalie tended to live in the moment. The passage of time meant nothing to her. I marked each sunrise and sunset. I felt the passing of each day with equal measures of happiness and regret. It had been three years since that conversation with Edward had occurred, and it was about nothing of this magnitude. I thought he should be called immediately. He should know. He would want to know.

Carlisle saved me from having to disagree out loud, but had a different opinion. His decision was made, and I was relieved. "We need to get to Bella before we call Edward. We need to see what we're going to face first." He stood, ready to go. "Alice, do you know where we are going?"

I wasn't completely sure, but I had a general idea in my mind where she would be. I just nodded.

We decided Esme and Rosalie would stay behind and prepare for Bella. The surroundings of our home in New Hampshire were much like our home in Washington. The isolation of the woods kept us safe from the prying eyes of curious neighbors. Esme had a thing for architecture, and this home was beautiful.

The three-story home was a log cabin. The rich red of the wood stood out in the green forest. The large windows in the great room overlooked a beautiful flat lawn that ran up to the rocky shore of the river. The inside was a mixture of rustic pieces and antiques. The rich, red, green, and gold accents were a departure from the paleness of the color scheme of our home in Forks. Esme had a talent for making a house into a home, and our home was warm and inviting. It was smaller, too, and was by far my favorite home we had ever lived in.

Edward had never lived here, but his piano was here in a lonely corner of the living room, waiting for him; it was a sad and rather large reminder that he wasn't a part of our lives. Esme kept it tuned and spotless, but it was never played.

He visited for a short three days the first year we lived here, but it was too painful for him to be around us. Something was missing. Bella was missing, and he chose to isolate himself from us. I think he thought he was sparing us having to live with his misery. Edward truly loved Bella, and that love had changed him implicitly. He would forever mourn their relationship. I, in a way, still felt responsible for not seeing that day, Bella's birthday party. If I had seen Jasper's loss of control I could have warned him. It was just as much my fault as it was his.

There was a second master suite on the first floor that we all thought of as Edward's room. His leather couch and music collection were in the room, but nothing else of a personal nature to make it his. His belongings were in packed boxes in the basement. His room was the most likely place to put Bella. The only other available rooms were on the lower level and didn't have an attached bathroom. I knew Esme would make it a lovely place for her.

I searched my mind for the outcome of the day. I was hoping for a new vision, one changed by our decision to go to her, but my mind was quiet for the first time in months. I should've been relieved, but the absence of her future didn't give me any relief. I wouldn't allow my mind to go to a place where I thought of the negative aspect of Bella's situation. I knew she'd been taking the drugs for months and how that would have affected her. Her addiction had seemed to spiral out of control quickly and knowing what she'd lost, I could imagine her mental state. It had to be fragile, but it was her physical state that worried me most.

My visions of Bella showed her in deep despair and horrible condition. I was honestly scared, and when I came down the stairs with a bag of clothes for her, I took a deep breath and braced myself for the day to come.

After a brief discussion, we decided that Carlisle and I would fly to New York. The sun was hidden behind thick clouds, so we would be safe in the remaining daylight. Jasper and Emmett would drive the Mercedes SUV that Carlisle had just purchased. If Bella was unable to fly we would have to drive her home.

We drove my car to Hanover and took a quick flight to Boston. Luckily, our layover was very short, and we were quickly on our way to JFK. Our flight was smooth and in the hour and a half that we were in the air, Carlisle filled me in on what we would possibly find when we got to Bella. It was our hope we would make it to her before she injected herself that last time, but the visions of her convulsing on the floor were becoming stronger and clearer.

"Will she survive?" My fear came through clearly in my question to Carlisle. He clasped my hand in his. A small chuckle broke through his stoic demeanor.

"You would know that better than I, Dear." I felt panic well up in my chest before he interrupted me. "You can't expect more of your powers than what they are. You know that, Alice. Searching for something you can't see does you no good."

He knew me so well and never allowed me to dwell on what I missed.

"I do know this; she's going to be in bad shape. You think it was heroin. It is very rare to overdose on heroin." The doctor in him came out, and I could see him searching his vast brain for information. "She must have been doing other drugs before hand, or the heroin had something cut into it. That's, unfortunately, quite common on the streets. It will be hard to know exactly what we are dealing with until we are in the moment. I'm hoping that I'll be able to smell the drugs on her. In the ER, that's what most often helps me with a diagnosis and in choosing the correct course of treatment."

I stayed quiet for a moment. The weight of indecision was on my shoulders. "We should call Edward."

Carlisle sighed and ran his hand down his face. He seemed to handle the pressure of the trip better than I, but truly I think he was just better at hiding it. "I'm not sure of that. Seeing Edward could make things worse. Knowing Bella, she would be mortified at being forced back into his life."

Carlisle was right, of course. Bella hadn't thought she deserved Edward and would never want him in the position of having to face her devastation. If I could see anything in my visions clearer than her devastation, I couldn't tell what it was.

Losing Charlie was the straw that broke her. I knew she would have stayed strong for him in the aftermath of their break-up, but once he was gone, Bella had no reason to keep it together. She always was a danger magnet, and you couldn't get more dangerous than walking in Brownsville at night, shooting up drugs given by an unknown man who expected sexual favors as payment. The Bella I knew was gone, and I was devastated by that thought.

I had a pretty clear idea of where Bella was. The street signs were visible in my vision, and I was sure I could find the door that she used. Unfortunately, when we picked up the rental car the GPS wouldn't pick up a signal. I pulled out an old map from the glove box, but I was unable to find the cross street in my panic. The more panicked I became, the more undefined my visions were. Carlisle was unable to calm me. Jasper and Emmett had the street names as well, and thankfully, found the place about ten seconds before we pulled up. The occupants of the building were filing out.

I flung myself out of the car before Carlisle had stopped it and flew up the stairs, pushing a crack whore out of my way. She fell to the ground searching for what hit her, seeing nothing with her glazed over eyes. I found the room in a fraction of a second to see Jasper flipping Bella over on her side. Emmett's large hands cradling her head in his lap.

My hand flew to my throat. Bella looked horrible. She was convulsing, her lips were blue. Her eyes rolled back in her head. Carlisle came in behind me and immediately set to work. Bella convulsed one more time. Her entire body stiffened and her head, in Emmett's lap, jerked back so hard I was afraid her neck would break, and then she went limp.

Carlisle was a blur of movement. I could hear that Bella's heart wasn't beating. Emmett set her on the ground, and he and Jasper began CPR. I was frozen in the doorway. Carlisle ripped the front of her shirt open to get to her chest, and the sight was horrifying. Bella's ribs and sternum were jutting out. She was skin and bones. She was as pale as me, and the blue veins showed through the thin surface of her skin. Edward always talked of her softness when he held her, but there was no evidence of that girl. This girl was emaciated.

Carlisle cleaned her chest with a swab of golden liquid and slammed a huge needle into her chest, directly into her heart. Epinephrine, I assumed. Bella's heart jumped and immediately began beating again. Bella jumped into a sitting position, an unearthly scream breaking free from her lips, her eyes wide but unseeing. She slumped back down onto the floor, limp but breathing. Carlisle took his time to make sure her heart would stay beating. He listened to her pulse and went to clean her face.

She was almost unrecognizable. Under her eyes were dark bruises, and her lips had begun to bleed. I was shocked that Jasper handled the blood when he was doing CPR. I knew he tasted it because there was blood below his lip from when he breathed for her. Bella's cheeks were sunken in, and she was incredibly pale. I found a bottle of water in the pocket on the outside of her backpack. Emmett propped her up, so I could give her a sip. She wouldn't swallow.

Carlisle washed her face gently and also cleaned up her arm, throwing the syringe that was stuck there across the room so hard that it stuck in the wall and vibrated back and forth, like a dart does when it hits the board. He shook his head, disbelieving, at the number of puncture points, and then nodded to Emmett while he gathered his stuff back into his medical bag. Emmett picked her up like she was a china doll; she hung limply in his arms. He wrapped her clothes around her and carried her to the SUV. I was sure she weighed no more than a piece of paper. I looked around the dismal room littered with the remnants of what I considered the dregs of society and spit on the floor in disgust as I followed them out.

Carlisle climbed in the backseat and moved all the way over. Emmett then slid Bella in, and Carlisle cradled her head on his lap. He held her gently and smoothed her hair away from her face. She pushed her head into the familiar icy contact of his hand like a cat. I crawled in the front seat and hung over the headrest looking into the back seat at the best friend I'd ever had, struggling to stay alive. She was breathing, but it was labored and shallow. We had to get her to a safe place and fast.

Jasper followed us in the car we had rented at the airport, and I was glad to see he had grabbed her backpack. I recognized it as the same one she'd carried in Forks. I remembered the last day I saw her, and the smile on her face as she'd waved goodbye. If I had known I might never see her again I would have grabbed her and never let go, but that was another vision I had missed.

The backpack wasn't full, but what was inside may be all that Bella had in the world. I briefly thought of Renee but brushed all thoughts of contacting her out of my mind. Bella was with us. She was a lost piece of our family, and I wasn't letting her out of my sight. We would fix her. An errant thought passed through my head… or we would finish the destruction she had started.

I looked at her face again; The calmI had no words, but Carlisle did. He continued gently brushing her hair away from her gaunt, bruised face and leaned down to kiss her forehead. "You're safe, Sweetie. We'll take care of you." Bella moaned and jerked in his arms. I was afraid she was going to begin seizing again. He rolled her to her side a half a second before she vomited on his shoes.

Emmett pulled up to hotel valet stand. I hadn't noticed where we'd traveled to, but it was obviously a very nice hotel. He and Jasper went to check us in and asked the valet to wait. When they came back to the car, Emmett let us know he'd notified the manager that Bella had the flu. I was glad he'd thought to give an excuse for her condition. Bella was unable to walk, and she looked ghastly. Jasper handed both sets of car keys to the valet and grabbed our bags out of the car. Carlisle handed Bella to Emmett, and he held her tight to his chest again. I was close enough to Bella to see the goose bumps form on her skin from the coolness of Emmett's body. She curled tighter into his chest, unconsciously moving toward the cold.

We rode the elevator up to the fourteenth floor and opened the door to a large suite with a king size bed in the bedroom. Emmett laid Bella on the bed, frowning at her appearance in the brightness of the room. The girl lying in front of us was not our Bella.

The normally smiling Emmett ran his hands through his hair and abruptly left the room, muttering under his breath. "I'm going to fuck him up."

I knew whom he was talking about. Edward. I couldn't find it in myself to blame him though. Edward could never have guessed this would happen to her. I overheard Carlisle on the phone, speaking with Esme. He glossed over her condition a bit, not being entirely honest about how bad Bella actually looked. I sat there just running my fingers over her abused arms. It was a shame. I got lost in the memories of the Bella in Forks and was a bit surprised when I felt Carlisle's hand on my shoulder.

"I am going to give her some medicine to counteract the drugs, as well as a sedative to keep her calm tonight. Hopefully it'll keep her from being uncomfortable when the withdrawal begins. Sleeping will help to heal her body."

I nodded and decided that once she was sedated I would clean her up. Her body and hair were unwashed, and her clothes were probably unsalvageable. I took her shoes off and tossed them in the trashcan. Carlisle came in with the syringe and gave her the medicine. She immediately fell into a more peaceful sleep. Her eyes stopped fluttering, and her legs stopped shaking.

I could hear Emmett and Jasper arguing in the living room. Emmett wanted to go find the guy who gave Bella the drugs and kill him, but Jasper logically told him that was impossible. Emmett just wanted to smash something. He then grabbed his cell phone determined to call Edward. I could hear them scuffling for purchase of the phone. Carlisle's eyes held just a touch of wry amusement at their antics and went to break it up, before they broke something.

I went into the bathroom and ran a warm bath. I was determined to clean Bella up. I needed to see if I could find her underneath the grime. I stripped her bare and just shook my head. Her hipbones were painfully prevalent, and her legs were as bruised as her arms, but not from track marks. The bruises on her thighs worried me the most. There were bruises that looked exactly like fingerprints. I debated for a moment to call Carlisle in to examine her but decided against it for the moment. What was done was done.

I carried her into the luxurious bathroom and set her into the oversized tub, careful not to let her limp form slip under the water. She had to weigh less than a hundred pounds. It was hard for me to judge her weight. I washed her hair twice and scrubbed the filth from her nails. The bath water was grimy. I laid her head back on the tub and reached for a fluffy white towel. I went to lift her out, and her eyes fluttered open but fell closed again.

I carried her wrapped body into the room and laid her back on the bed. Someone had thoughtfully turned down the covers and set a hotel bathrobe on the end of the bed. I dried her body, unconsciously trying to erase the bruises, wrapped her in the bathrobe to dry, and laid her down on the pillow. I went to get my hairbrush out of my bag when she grabbed my hand. Her eyes were wide open, and her voice was rough and cracking. "Alice… don't leave me." The clutching hold on my hand was surprisingly strong.

I crawled into the bed next to her and just held her tight against me. She pressed her face into my neck, and I squeezed her closer. I decided right there that I would never leave her alone again, even if it meant going against my family.

Bella slept until morning with me by her side, and when the sun started glinting in through the windows I felt a shift in her. She had become restless, and a slight shaking had begun in her hands. She started alternately chilling and sweating. When I pulled away she grasped at my shirt and started crying. Her eyes weren't open though, and the words coming out of her mouth made no sense.

Carlisle had periodically checked on us through the night and came in when he heard the noises she was making. He examined her and then gave her another dose of the sedative.

"She's stable. I think we should go ahead and take her home. I want to be somewhere safer when she earnestly begins withdrawal."

I waited for the medicine to take effect and then pulled a baggy sweatshirt that was too big for her small frame over the tank top and leggings I had dressed her in during the night. Emmett carried her to the car, and we drove her home.

I laid my head back on the seat and tried to focus on her future. For the first time in weeks I saw nothing.

xoxoxo-

My plans are to post once a week, I just couldn't wait! Again, I owe many thanks to Jessypt for her beta help.

I will add another disclaimer- I'm not a doctor. Drug overdoses should be handled in a hospital. Carlisle's treatment of Bella is an outdated technique, but I chose to go with the Pulp Fiction reference for drama.

Follow me on Twitter at RachelMFZ