A/N: So I'm on Spring Break this week, which means one of two things. Either you all will get a new chapter some time in the middle of the week as a bonus, or I'll be missing until the weekend. After all, I have a PS3 at home that is missing at college, and 3 Mass Effect games that need to be played...

I still don't own Twilight

Alice led me into the woods, neither of us speaking for a while, but I did notice she would keep glancing in my direction as if she expected something.

"What?" I asked when it started to get obnoxious.

"You're not tripping." She answered with a frown.

"Huh?" I asked as I stepped over a fallen trunk.

"See! You used to be a klutz, and now you can just sidestep everything without even trying."

"Personally I enjoy not falling on flat surfaces anymore." I smirked as I continued to walk, still unsure where we were going.

"It's just a bit strange is all." She murmured, and I wasn't sure if she looked frustrated or dejected.

"Right. So is there a particular place we're going, or…?" I prompted.

"Not really, I was just making sure we went the opposite way Edward went." She said with a shrug. "We should be far enough away by now."

"Alright." I found a relatively clean log and sat down. Alice opted to lean against a tree and fixed me with a stare. I guess she was expecting me to start. "Why did you all come back?"

"That's what you want to start with?" She asked with a short laugh.

"It's that or 'why did you leave without so much as a goodbye?'." She flinched at that one. "Your choice which one is first."

"I didn't want to leave you. I just want you to know that."

"But you did." I stated.

"To be honest, I didn't know what was going to happen when I left with Jasper." It was my turn to flinch slightly, the thought of her and Jasper stirring some unwanted feeling in my chest. "I thought we'd be away for a short time, then we would come back. Then all of the sudden the future shifted. Edward made up his mind, and the visions all came rushing at me." Her voice sounded strained, and I felt a little bad for starting with this, but we had to. I had issues, I needed to move on from them, and that was only going to happen if she gave me some reasons. I needed to understand.

"And you didn't think to try and change his mind. Or even say goodbye for Goddess's sake!" I bit out.

"Goddess?" She asked. "That's not the first time I've heard you say that."

"Oh, right." I stuttered, knowing she wouldn't have any idea about shifter lore. "I kind of picked it up from the others. Condensed version, according to shifter stories there was a great mother that gave her people the ability to shapeshift. She became a goddess figure to all shifters, so we use 'Goddess' instead of 'God'." I explained. "But that's besides the point."

"Right, sorry. By the time I knew for certain Edward was going to leave you it was too late. I couldn't come back to say goodbye only to leave again. I considered it, but I saw it tearing you apart. And I couldn't call, that would have been even worse. As much as I didn't want to leave, a clean break was the way that you'd suffer the least." She finished.

"The way I would have suffered the least was none of you leaving in the first place." I growled, thumping my fist into the bark I was sitting on.

"I know." She affirmed with her head hung in shame. "But that wasn't my call."

"So why did you come back. Not exactly a 'clean break' if you all suddenly reappear."

"A few things made us come back. For one, your future completely disappeared. That set me off, and I've been insisting we find out why for the past three months." She explained.

"So you can't see the shifters?" I asked. I knew that mental powers didn't work on our species, but this was news.

"I guess not. At first Edward tried to reason that it was just distance, and that it was a good thing. That way I couldn't watch you and try to interfere with your life." She scoffed, clearly not in agreement. "But I would focus everything I had on seeing you and nothing happened. I could see Charlie, and all your friends from school, but not you. It scared me." She admitted.

"And the other reasons?" I asked, trying not to dwell on the swelling warmth that wanted to blossom as a result of her panicking over not being able to see me. Sure, it meant she cared for me, but I was still mad, though I found myself having to remind myself that that was the case more and more around her.

"I guess there's really only one other main reason. Recently I've been having these visions that I can't make any sense of. But they're always the same, without fail."

"What's going on in the visions?"

"That's just it, I have no idea. All I've figured out is that there's some sort of fighting going on in a clearing. After about five visions my family figured out that the clearing is at the base of the mountains here." I perked up at that. "But there's all these dark spots and blurry pieces. There's also one person I can make out, that I'm sure is the same every time, but I can't make out any of his features."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"I don't know. It means that as of now, the fight is going to happen, but maybe how it goes on is unsure. Or maybe it involves shifters, now that I know I can't see your kind." She huffed out in exasperation. "All I know is that I wasn't going to let it happen and not know if you were safe or not.

"So I decided to come back. Emmett was also pissed that we left; he really likes you, so he said he was coming back too. That meant Rose was coming back. Marina wanted to meet the 'infamous Bella'," Alice used air quotes and cracked a smile, "so she said she was coming with us, which meant so was Jasper. At that point all the kids other than Edward had decided to come back, so Carlisle and Esme were coming with us, so Edward finally caved and decided to come too."

"So what's Marina's story anyway?" I asked, unable to keep the curiosity at bay anymore.

"We found her in England trying to starve herself." Alice said with a grimace.

"Why?"

"She had been tortured and turned by a psychopath vampire, and once she was a vampire she went off on him. She ripped him apart and burned the building he was in, ultimately killing him. But she hated what he had made her, so she went into hiding. I guess some people found her after she hadn't fed in a while, and she killed them all. That only made her hate herself more. When we found her she was locked in a cellar. She hadn't fed in three months, and was almost insane."

"And how did the whole Jasper thing happen?" I asked tentatively.

"He saw her and just knew. It happens that way sometimes, a vampire just knows. Eventually we got her calmed down and explained that she could survive off of animal blood instead of human blood. She agreed to stay with us and work on her control." She answered.

"I'm sorry about the whole Jasper thing." I said, a bit uncomfortable with the whole situation.

"Why? He found his mate and I apparently found mine." She said with a grin. "Besides, we knew we weren't true mates. We just got along so well that it was confortable."

"That's good I guess." I laughed a bit awkwardly.

"So that's why I left and why we came back. Now it's my turn." She told me with a serious face causing me to gulp. "What have you been doing since we left?"

"In all honesty, for the first four months I did nothing. I went around like a zombie for four months, then I managed to pull it together somewhat and do the bare minimum. I graduated, but I didn't apply to any schools, so I'm taking the year off of school. Then you know what happened once the pride found me." I said, internally cringing at how pathetic that sounded.

"Alrighty then." She said slowly, clearly disappointed at how barren my past almost year had been. "So what do we do now?"

"Honestly? I'm still angry Alice. I'm not going to lie and tell you that all my issues are behind me. You all left and that hurt a hell of a lot." I confessed, hating the pain that flashed across her features. "In reality most of that anger is reserved for Edward, but there is some for the rest of you, and I hate that I still hold that against you. I can't help it though. So no one is going to be jumping into each other's arms and running off into the sunset in the near future."

"I understand. But I want to try and make that anger go away. I know that the pain we inflicted can't be reversed, but I want to try anyway." She told me earnestly. But there was one more thing I had to be sure of, so I just went for it.

"So you're okay with being with a woman?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" She asked, her brows scrunching together in an adorable way.

Stop that! Not adorable, you are focusing on issues right now, not on how adorable she looks when she's confused or flustered, or… Damn it! I mentally yelled at myself, making me consider for a moment that I was actually going insane.

"Some people do have issues." I mumbled after a moment, trying to get out of my own thoughts.

"Well I'm not that closed minded. Also, if I'm being honest," she paused and drew in a deep breath, "I've always had feeling for you. Like I told you when we met, I knew we were going to be great friends. I guess I underestimated how strong those feelings were though. But you chose Edward, and I respected that choice. I never wanted to get between anyone, I knew that would be wrong and would only cause pain. So I accepted that we were going to be great friends, and I attempted to burry any other feelings."

"That makes it kind of easy then, doesn't it?" I laughed.

"So are you willing to let me try and make some of the anger go away?" She asked, sounding incredibly vulnerable. This time I didn't fight the urges I felt, I got up and wrapped my arms around her in a tight hug.

"If you're willing to be patient and help me move past all the crap in the past." She nodded, tightening her grip.

It was then that I noticed a vibrating in my back pocket that even had Alice giggling.

"I think your phone's ringing." She informed me as she pulled away.

"That it is." I pulled the phone out, and upon seeing that it was Charlie calling I quickly picked up. "Hey dad, what's up?"

"Bella, Jacob was just here, and he seemed really upset about something. I was just calling to warn you, he's on his way over to your home now." Charlie sounded incredibly concerned.

"He's going to my house?" I asked, fear gripping me.

"Yes, he didn't even know you had moved out, but he said he really needed to speak with you." Charlie explained.

Dread gripped my heart, without knowing it Charlie sent a pack member right into the home of my pride. My home, which reeked of our scent. The very scent that the wolves deemed a threat.

"Bella?"

"Yeah Dad?" I managed to get out.

"Jacob wasn't completely coherent, but I swore I heard him say something about the Cullens. Do you have any ideas what that was about?" Charlie sounded like he really didn't want to ask, but managed anyway.

"They're back." I answered curtly.

"Oh. Are you okay?" He asked.

"I'm fine. Listen Dad, I really need to go, Danni just dropped a vase and there's glass everywhere. I gotta help her clean it up." I came up with some excuse to get off the phone as quickly as possible, starting to run even before he answered.

"O-okay. Will I see you one last time before you head out?"

"Yeah Dad. Love you." I answered, noticing Alice was running right next to me, concern apparent on her face.

"What was that about? You don't live with Charlie anymore? And you're leaving?" Alice was rattling off questions as we ran.

"I live with the pride, and we were going to leave because of the pack, but we're obviously not going anywhere now. But right now I have to get back because there's a wolf heading straight into my pride's home." I elaborated.

"And that would be bad?"

"They don't know who we are as humans, but if Jacob goes to my house he's going to be able to put two and two together. I mean, four girls living in a house reeking of the unknown scent? Not really too hard." I told her.

Then I heard the growling, prompting me to push myself even harder. Surprise flashed across Alice's face as she upped her speed to match mine again, but I didn't even take a second to feel smug, I had to know my family was okay.