Bizet

Timeline: 1953, making Bella five.

We'll be covering a lot of information in this chapter, which is why it was so difficult to write and hence the delay in uploading. The story will start to take a more serious note from here. Prepare to meet Bella the troubled teen.

This chapter is now called Bizet. It used to have a different title, but then I decided to make up this little challenge. The two titles are connected. Virtual hugs for anyone who can tell me, from this information alone, what it was originally called. Its really not that hard.

Disclaimer: If you aren't aware of the real owner of twilight, I'd be very interested to know what rock you've been living under for the last few years. I'd like to send my little brother to live under it.

EPOV

The next time I visited Bella, I was alone.

The threat to Alice and Jasper had diminished, so they had stayed with Tanya and her family in Denali while I remained on standby to burn Esme's flowers. Sulpica didn't like Bella interacting with my parents and so Carlisle and Esme were kept away wherever possible. Carlisle had examined Bella when we first arrived back, but I doubted he would see her again till we left. Emmet and Rosalie had decided they could wait until the next opportunity to see Bella. Currently they were a little too...distracted by...well...each other. So I would be alone.

As usual, Chelsea escorted me to the courtyard. What I was not expecting was to see that Bella was not alone. She sat in the shade by a female vampire who would have been approximately 20 when she was changed, Cottontail hopped happily around yard. The two were speaking quietly to each other and both were smiling. Bella's companion wore a pale grey cloak, the very lowest rank of the guard and seemed genuinely interested in my friend.

They both turned as I entered. The woman smiled.

Ahhh, this must be Edward.

I sighed. I'd hoped Bella's crush might have dissolved during my latest absence. Seemingly not.

Bella waited until Chelsea left to jump up and fling her arms around me, but the woman made no move at all.

It seemed we were not to be left alone.

"Oh Edward! I missed you so much!" she squealed, squeezing me tight. Someone had started learning habits from Alice. She lead me over to where the remaining guard sat, questioning me about the whereabouts of my siblings. I'd already prepared my answer.

"Alice and Jasper are visiting friends, " it was a fairly truthful statement, the Denalis were friends and we certainly had no intention of staying there forever – or at least I hoped not. Bella had no idea about the mysteriouse threat to out family, she had her own problems to deal with. "And as for Emmet and Rose...." I continued with a smile, "they're here, but we were traveling for a quite while. They're.....enjoying some quality time together"

"Oh, " was all Bella could manage through her blush.

Bella sat, but I remained standing, my eyes on the stranger. Bella realized she had failed to introduce us and her blush deepened.

"Sorry, this is Carmen, my own personal governess, friend, babysitter, chaperon and spy. Carmen, Edward."

The woman looked down and sighed. I wish she wouldn't think of it that way, I can't help her father monitoring my thoughts...

The tenderness of said thoughts clearly indicated how much Carmen cared for Bella, her charge however, seemed to have become irritated at her own introduction.

"Padre decided that since he couldn't hear my thoughts he'd have Carmen here tail me constantly. She's better at figuring me out than anyone else here, which might have something to do with the fact that she's actually a decent person. At any rate, apparently its the next best thing to being able to read me, which is - '

Bella broke off her rant, finally seeming to realize that she was making Carmen uncomfortable. To my surprise, she flung her arms around the woman's waist. "Oh Carmen! You know I'm not angry with you! You've been a wonderful friend to me and I appreciate it, I really do, I just wish that Padre didn't have ulterior motives to absolutely everything he does!"

"And you're not worried about him hearing that?" I asked incredulously.

She huffed. "Its nothing he hasn't heard before. Besides, I'm apparently meant to be fifteen. I'm supposed to vent and rage about parents."

Carmen smiled and rubbed Bella's back fondly as the 'teen' cooled off. For some reason, this relatively innocent gesture ignited a wave of hostility in me, which I struggled to repress. I didn't understand it, it was both unwarranted and unexpected. I had wished many times in the past that Bella had someone to care for her when we were not around. She had her parents, but each of them saw her purely as an object. An overly sized doll of sorts. The loved her, but they didn't see her. Her Uncle Caius and Aunt Athenodora openly loathed her as unnatural, and Chelsea only cared for her through obligation. It seemed that the only person in the castle who had ever loved her for her own person was Marcus, but he could hardly be considered a comfort.

The third leader of the Volturi had been depressed and detached since his wife's death millenia ago. Chelsea was the only thing keeping him alive, binding him with loyalty to his brothers. After our last discussion concerning the woman who was apparently most powerful of all the guard, Bella had informed me that Didyme was killed a mere century after Chelsea joined the guard. I tried not think of what she was obviously implying. At any rate, Marcus had been a wraith ever since. He would give an opinion when his role demanded it, or when he encountered something particularly surprising, but he never interacted socially with anyone again. Until Bella.

No matter the shallowness of her mother, Bella could make Sulpicia smile simply by entering the room. She reminded Marcus of his beloved and was the only person who could convince him to engage in a conversation simply because he wanted to. Bella had told me of how he would sit her on his knee and whisper stories of the Aunt she would never know. Yet even so, he was incurably depressed. Bella engaged his interest, but she could not heal his heart. Marcus might care for her, but he would never make good company.

So I ought to be glad that Bella had Carmen, I ought to be over the moon that Bella finally had a friend to keep her company who was not a rabbit. I should be jumping with joy, but no. Instead I felt only rage and loss that my family and I were no longer the sole point of light within Bella's life. These feelings were completely unwanted, unwarranted, so I concentrated on keeping my face straight as I sat down next to Bella. Cottontail came up to sniff my ankle and I picked her up, concentrating on stroking the rabbit to calm myself.

Even so, Bella managed to notice that something was wrong. Fortunately however, she misinterpreted my expression.

"Please don't be angry with Carmen, Edward. Its not her fault, it really isn't, I'm just angry with Padre. Besides, she's the victim here as much as I am."

"What?" asked Carmen, clearly shocked. It seemed that this particular point hadn't come up in discussion before.

Bella rolled her eyes, "Padre was perfectly fine with having Chelsea spy on me before you and Eleazar fell for each other. You wanted to go away together - " Bella then turned to me, "Carmen isn't comfortable with violence, you see. Speaking of which, maybe you two should have a talk sometime" she added, staring pointedly at my eyes. "Anyway, Padre obviously didn't want to lose Eleazar, so what does he do? Find Carmen a role with a distinct lack of violence. Simple."

I watched and listened as Carmen processed this. She didn't like it, but it wasn't overly concerning to her. She loved Bella like a little sister. Besides, she figured that she and Eleazar could always leave later if things became more troublesome. I hoped that was true.

I could only wonder at Bella's thoughts. She had proven to me time and time again that she noticed far more than she was expected to and it was clear that she understood things in a very adult manner. She was far more mature than she let on. I didn't blame Aro for trying to find a new method of insight into her thoughts.

******************************

One week later, it was haling. Emmet, Rosalie, Bella, Carmen and I sat under the tiny shelter which had been erected in Bella's courtyard. Hail stones might not be a problem for vampires, but they're not exactly pleasant.

Rosalie was not exactly happy about being outside in the weather. "Remind me why we're out her again" she grumbled.

Bella blushed "I'm sorry, Mamma and Padre decided that I'm now a young lady and it would be inappropriate for me to have visitors in there any more. Now, aside from Carmen and Carlisle, they're the only ones allowed in there"

"Tough break kid" grinned Emmett.

"They are determined to control every facet of my existence" she agreed.

Carmen placed a comforting hand on Bella's shoulder. Again, the monster in me rebelled and longed to rip the woman's arm off. It hated that anyone else could be so close to Bella. But I was in control, and the monster remained restrained, my face impassive. It was fortunate that Jasper was not here. No one need ever know of my current insanity. I was determined to figure out what was going on with this and put a stop to it. Fast.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to re-emphasize Jasper's recitation of Plato's Republic in the previous chapter. Make of that what you will.

There's one more chapter between this and the two next chapters I had pre-written. So hopefully after the next update I'll be able to get ahead again. I'm sorry if this chapter is a written a little awkwardly, but I wanted to update it now or I would probably never update again, I'd just keep trying to make this one work. I might come back to it later.