Bella

I was really excited to see Elizabeth that day. I was the only one in the family, but still. Edward was sighing, already fearing Elizabeth's sarcastic remarks about what happened the day before. Rose was pouting, still angry at me because I didn't want to consider her point of view. Jasper was curious about Elizabeth, just as intrigued by her spirit as I was. Emmett… well, he made Rose angry by saying aloud what he thought about Lizzie's aspect. Not the smartest move if you were married to a woman like Rosalie Hale. I was sorry for my sister, but you would have to be blind not to look at her and define her as beautiful. She had a sort of hidden fire in her… she loved to say it was the Gypsy blood in her veins.

In the little time I had known Elizabeth, I started to think that nothing could scare her. She looked so strong… but the girl in front of my eyes didn't look strong. She looked terrified. She was shaking like a leaf, and she couldn't detach her eyes from the little mountain of roses on the floor. Black roses. Before I could ask, before I could move – and that was saying something – Elizabeth turned on her heels and ran away fast like the wind. Mick didn't even try to stop her. Like her, he was gazing at the flowers with fear and rage in his eyes. And then he looked at us with a serious look. No trace of friendliness. I realized with a shiver that he knew about us. Elizabeth told him. Did I misjudge her after all?

Mick's eyes fixed on me. I felt Jasper coming closer and put one hand on my shoulder, but this didn't make him stop.

"Do you know who Gabriel is?"

"I heard this name a couple of times," I said. Then I looked straight at Jasper, "She mentions him like… like I mentioned Charlie… or Jacob. After… Well, you know."

It was the best explanation I could think of, and it did the trick. Jasper immediately linked this with the terror he had to have felt coming from Elizabeth, and like me he realized there had to be something bigger going on. Something Elizabeth was keeping hidden and that unfortunately had caught up with her.

"Elizabeth has decided to fight, to do this… thing alone, but she can't. I won't let her. And you're gonna help me."

Rosalie snickered. "Oh really? Why should we?"

I ignored her. "Mick, do you know where she could be now?"

"I have a few ideas. But if she has decided to run we don't have much time… Bella, please. She'll listen to you. She always does."

I nodded. Rosalie clutched my arm.

"Don't go, Bella. It's none of your business."

"Enough, Rose," I said with a cold tone she probably never heard coming from me. "I will go and you can't stop me. But you can come with me."

I already know Rosalie wouldn't move for her; I would deal with my sister later. God, I was tired of her behavior.

"I'm coming with you," said Jasper.

"So am I," said Edward, much to Rosalie's and my surprise.

"I improved my tracker's skills during the years," he whispered to me. "I could help."

I nodded, and we all eclipsed before the bell rang. I didn't miss Rosalie's disappointed look, but in that moment I was the one disappointed with her. She never accepted my mother, but when I met her I was a human intruder as well. What made me so special that she didn't feel the impulse to hate me or destroy me? I knew she wasn't exactly Mother Theresa, but I also know she wasn't a bad person… I sighed. My sister was really complicated at times.

We took my car. Mick was in the passenger's seat and our closeness made him look more nervous by the second. He definitely knew. And there was no point in ignoring it, so…

"Did you have a hard time when Lizzie told you about us?" I said out of the blue with a smile.

"Bella… I like you. Really. But… can we please keep this thing on a need-to-know level? Please. I'm not the one that had been raised with scary gothic legends as bedtime stories."

"As you wish. If you change your mind…"

"I won't. Lizzie already gave me the lowdown and I really don't want to know more on that subject. Sorry."

"We understand," said Edward.

Jasper didn't talk, but I knew he approved Mick's attitude. The less words spoken, the better.

Mick was sure Elizabeth was at her studio. He told us what he thought we needed to know about Gabriel, that he was an abusive boyfriend and a stalker who had already brought her friend on the verge of a nervous breakdown not long ago.

"He… Elizabeth will kill me for this, but you have to know. He's one of your kind."

"A vampire? Oh God…"

"That explains the terror. But why did she never…?"

"Notice, Jasper? Before yesterday, she had only thought of vampires as legends! And she wasn't herself in that period. But yesterday she connected the dots… and she was terribly afraid he would come back for her. And he did."

He told us how she escaped him the first time on our way to the studio and I had to say… it was impressive. Her grandmother gave her the money, Mick helped her to go to Canada. Once there, she literally disappeared for months, except when she appeared to leave fake trails.

"Lizzie's family is really one of a kind. Both Sarah and Ian were nomads in their own way. They were always on the road, even after they had Elizabeth… Ian inherited a fortune from his grandfather, but he didn't care. He administrated it, but nothing more. He loved his job, and most of all he loved his family. He would've done the impossible to protect Sarah and Elizabeth. Hell, even Helena, and she sure was a woman who didn't need a protector! That's why it's unthinkable he could've stolen all that money…"

Mick kept on talking, but I stopped listening. The names he said… they were strangely familiar.

"Mick…" I said with a strange voice. "By any chance… are we talking about Ian St. John and Sarah Kotlyary here?"

By the look on his face, I was right. Oh God. Sarah. My former roommate at Dartmouth. And Ian, the boyfriend I never met and with whom she was planning to have a road trip across the States, during the last summer of my mortal life. Sarah and Ian were Elizabeth's parents…

"Yes. You read the newspaper?"

"No… they were both Dartmouth alumni… and so was I. Sort of."

Mick gave me a pained look and then he touched his temples, like he was having a big headache. He sighed deeply, trying to reconcile my aspect of eternal teenager with my age. It wasn't easy. Sometimes I had that problem myself when I looked at my reflection in the mirror.

A few moments after, Mick told me to stop the car near an old building, and we all went inside, running with Mick at his human speed. We waited the few seconds he needed to open the door, and then we entered the place I couldn't help but consider Elizabeth's studio as a sanctuary from the world. A place where she could hide… the place where she had stored what she needed in case of a rushed escape. My eyes flashed to the duffel bag on the table, the money, and what looked like forged documents. But Elizabeth… I couldn't see her, even if I could feel the presence in her room. Mick stepped forward and knelt in a hidden corner, behind the couch. I couldn't see much, but I heard Elizabeth moving from her crouched position to Mick's arms, and her friend stroking her hair and whispering soothing words in her ear. Her heartbeat was racing... but what hurt me the most in that moment was the little scene playing in front of me. It reminded me so much of what I had with Dave, when I was alive, and it hurt so much that it was like someone had stabbed me in the heart with a blade. It was so easy to forget sometimes that I had had a past, a life, before waking up as a vampire in Jasper's arms, all those years before. A past called Dave, Charlie and Jacob.

He never called me. Never. Once, I had been this close to jumping on a plane and going to La Push, just to see if he was alive and happy, with Julie Ateara and their child. Or children. I wondered also how things were for him in the pack. Was he in a leading position? Did my father and brother give him a hard time? I always said I didn't care about reservation gossips, but that was when I could actually choose if listened to them or not. Damn it. When the ocean was between me and them, things were easier. Now I had to remind myself the reasons why I could never go home again.

Mick managed to make Elizabeth stand up, and only then she noticed our presence in the room. She shot us a hostile glare.

"Why did you have to tell them? I told you…"

"Yeah, I know what you told me. But they're our best option, why can't you see it?"

"I don't want other people to get hurt because of me, why can't you see it?"

"Lizzie," I said, taking a step forward, "We won't get hurt. We can't. You should know it."

At the moment, though, Elizabeth was too confused to think straight. A quick glance at Jasper, and he moved to her side, taking in her fear and pain. Elizabeth sat on the couch, with her head on her hands. Mick sat beside her, with his hand on her shoulders.

"Better?"

Elizabeth nodded without raising her head. Her heartbeat slowed down; she was taking slow, deep breaths. Good.

Edward was looking at the things on the table. He had her fake passport in his hand.

"This is good work. She must be very well connected," he mumbled to himself.

"She has a name, and she's right here," I heard Elizabeth say, raising her head.

"I'm just wondering how you got your hands on these. They're not the average documents teenagers usually find."

"Just because I'm not centuries old doesn't mean I don't know where to find what I need," she replied, annoyed.

"Still, Elizabeth, it doesn't seem like something you should know."

Elizabeth stood up and walked to Edward. Uh-oh. I didn't know if he did it on purpose or not (but I was inclined to think the latter), but he was making her angry. Anger wasn't good, but it was a strong emotion, and at the moment it was better than nothing… or fear.

"I'm sorry. A vampire is teaching me morals now? 'Cause I have some problems believing you used your real documents to enroll at school, Edward."

Edward rolled his eyes, and Jasper and I exchanged a relieved look with Mick. If Elizabeth and Edward were bitching at each other, things were back to normal. Almost.

We let them fight (we were used to it, by now) and I started looking at the pictures on the wall. There were lots of random people that Elizabeth judged worthy to be captured by one of her pictures. Some beautiful sunrises and even more beautiful sunsets. Two adorable little girls. The girls with Elizabeth's adoptive parents. An elderly woman with sparkling green eyes, surrounded by roses. Sarah and Ian. I felt a lump in my throat looking at that picture. Sarah and I had connected almost instantly over our similar heritage. We could've been really good friends… but it wasn't meant to be, because I had to become friends with her daughter. What a strange case. Near that picture, I found mine, and many others. I was quite her favorite subject… most of the pictures showed me with Jasper. Hugs, a kiss on the forehead from my husband, lots of smiles. And then I had to put one hand on my mouth not to scream. Or laugh. Or a combination of both.

Edward. She took pictures of Edward. Lots of beautiful pictures taken, like in my case, without his knowledge. Elizabeth could go work for the CIA, if even a vampire didn't notice her hanging around with a camera…

I couldn't wrap my head around it, because it didn't add up with what she kept on telling me, or her behavior. But I also remembered her embarrassment when she had confessed me sometimes she took more than one picture of something if she considered the subject real beautiful…

I gave a look at the fighting couple, and I almost succumbed to a silent giggling fit. Edward and Elizabeth engaged in something different than fighting? Impossible. Unthinkable. The Apocalypse and Godot would come sooner, and they would take the Mad Hatter and the March Hare with them. Mick was entertaining himself watching their fight, but Jasper came to me with an amused smile. He took me in his arms, and I let his power calm me down.

"Thanks, it would be so embarrassing if they saw me…"

"What's so funny, love?"

I pointed at the pictures. Jasper gave a curious look at them, and then at Elizabeth and Edward and then back at the pictures. He was confused.

"What?"

"It's… complicated to read them, he said. "I can read their feelings well when they're separated, but when they're together… too many feelings, all mixed up. It's confusing. It gives me a headache."

"Good complicated or bad complicated?"

Jasper shrugged. Since when did my empathic husband have no idea of what was going on inside of a person?

In the meantime, Elizabeth and Edward stopped fighting. God knew how, they ended up fighting over music and their favorite composers. Edward might have been more than a century older than her, but Elizabeth was stubborn like a mule, and definitely not used to leaving the last word in a discussion to someone else. Judging from the pained expression on Edward's face, he clearly had surrendered to Elizabeth. And Elizabeth was smiling again. Good. If that was what it took to keep her mind from thinking of Gabriel, she could chew my brother for as long as she wanted.

Elizabeth looked at me, and she noticed I was near my photographs… and Edward's. Her eyes widened for a second.

"You… you saw the pictures?"

"All of them. Nice work. Fascinating," I said, with a slight teasing tone. She took a deep breath, and she came closer to me. She gave a look to my favorite photo there – Jasper was hugging me from behind in the courtyard, his arms wrapped around my waist and his mouth close to my ear, whispering something that was making me smile, and both totally oblivious to the world around us – and she detached it from the wall.

"I was planning to give you this one for your birthday anyway," she said. "With a nice frame and all, but I think you have nicer and more expensive frames in your house... you can have the others as well, if you like them."

Jasper and I were so intent in looking at the pictures that we didn't notice Mick and Edward coming closer. But when I heard Edward's short intake of breath I realized he saw his pictures on the wall. Oh my.

Elizabeth gave Edward a half amused, half surprised look. "What? I take pictures of what I like… and you happen to be probably the most gorgeous boy I've ever seen. Pity that every time you open the mouth I feel the desire to kill you."

Edward's face in that moment was priceless. He was angry, surprised, nervous, outraged and a million of other things. And if he could have, he would have blushed. Big time.

"Don't… don't objectify me," he replied, with all the dignity he could.

Elizabeth gave him a look from head to toe and smiled, as if to say 'too late for that, sweetheart'. And she probably thought it too, judging by Edward's outraged reaction.

Keeping a straight face was so difficult in that moment, but in my head I was laughing madly. And he knew it, judging by the glare he threw at me on our way out. Now that she was a little calmer and we made her – obliged her to, according to Elizabeth – accept our help, we decided to take her home. A phone call to Carlisle provided her with a good alibi that involved the ER, food poisoning and a gastric lavage, and we left her in her bedroom, with her best martyred face,

while Grace looked after her and fed her tea and crackers. We also caught a glimpse of Lily and Rachel, Elizabeth's adoptive sisters. The little one, Lily, snuggled against Elizabeth's body like a kitten and refused to leave her. Mick didn't want to leave her alone either, but we didn't have any plausible excuse to hang out there during school hours. I gave Esme a phone call, though, asking her if she could keep an eye on Elizabeth while we were at school, and being the saint that she was, Esme said yes.

We took advantage of Elizabeth's alibi as well (we were the friends that took her immediately to the ER) and we returned to school. The roses were still there, and we did our best to ignore them on our way to the mess hall. I sat at our usual table, and watched Mark and Georgina laughing with their friends… and watching at us. I couldn't understand… but when Mick joined us, I distinctly heard – and Mick as well – Georgina laugh about how she avenged her boyfriend and how funny it was to see the unbreakable Elizabeth shaking like a leaf like last time she saw those roses…

I started growling under my breath. Jasper clutched my arm and tried to calm me down, but he didn't notice Mick getting up, the picture of rage. But Emmett and Edward did. Before Mick could do something to Mark or Georgina, or both, Edward clutched his arms and took him back to the table.

"They're not worth your rage, Mick," he was whispering to his ear. "Calm down."

But that guy, Mark, clearly didn't know where to stop.

"She had it coming, Gardiner. She can only blame herself."

Have you ever seen a human break free from a vampire's grasp? I sure never had. And neither had Edward or the others. But I couldn't help but feel pleased when I saw Mark Gallmann on the floor with blood pouring from his nose; but not enough to cause us distress, thank God. A teacher arrived immediately to take Mark to the infirmary, and Mick to have a nice chat with the principal, but I felt satisfied, like the one crying curled up in a corner a couple hours earlier had been me.

At that point, Rose and Emmett asked to be updated on the situation, and I told them everything about Gabriel, Elizabeth's reaction and what we had done till our return to school. Rosalie – who else? – was her usual insensitive self. She simply didn't care. Maybe Jasper and I watched reality through empathy-deformed lenses, but I could've never watched someone suffer without trying to do something about it. And if I added to the equation the stress levels caused by my night job, and those damn two shadows always at the corner of my eye that didn't want to be seen by me… well, I felt like a nuke on the verge of explosion. Thank God I was close to Jasper, that eased some of my anger and frustration and prevented me from saying things I knew I would eventually regret. But Edward knew what was inside of my head, and he took the first occasion he had to talk to me.

"Rose feels very protective towards you. Since Jasper brought you in our house in Forks, I'll say, judging from her thoughts. And Emmett's."

"I know she does. But I'm not a little girl! And I don't think there's anything left in this world to scare me. Not after that ghost in Ballycotton."

"Your concept of scary things is very debatable, Bella," he sighed, almost hiding a smile. But he resumed his serious expression when he went back on topic. "Rosalie is afraid to lose you again. She's just… not used to expressing said feelings."

"You think I'm too naïve and that I'm making a mistake in letting humans in my life. But with my gift, how could I do otherwise? I need to have human friends because I can't forget how it feels like to be human. I would be pretty much useless if I let my vampire nature take over."

"Ok, this I understand. But… Elizabeth?"

His expression made me laugh. "You really don't like her, huh?"

"I'm sorry for what she has been through, but that's it. Sorry, Bella."

"Why you can be sorry for her and Rosalie can't?"

"Cause Rose is Rose. Sensitivity is not her stronger virtue."

"I suppose."

That was why I gave Edward the task of telling Rose that I couldn't go shopping with her because I wanted to stop at Elizabeth's and tell her what happened in the mess hall, since Mick had to stay in detention after school. I definitely didn't want to fight.

I knocked on the open door and entered Elizabeth's room.

"Hi… I just passed to see how you are feeling."

"Do you seriously have to ask?"

"Sorry. Well, I've got something to tell you…" and I closed the door, just in case.

"Well?"

"Well… your problem is solved. It wasn't even a problem to begin with. Just a joke… Georgina and Mark's idea of revenge."

Elizabeth silently clutched her fists, and inhaled sharply a couple of times. She was angry, and she was right to be.

"How could they know, Liz?"

"When he was stalking me, he sent roses wherever I went. They knew I would get upset. Clever. I'm so gonna kill them for this."

"I might even want to help you with them," I said, sitting on her bed. "So, how's your food poisoning going?"

Elizabeth sighed. "If Grace obliges me to drink another cup of her herbal tea, I swear I'm gonna confess everything to her."

"That bad, huh?" I said, laughing.

"Be grateful you can't taste human food and drink anymore."

"Be grateful you can. My human memories are a little confused, but I do remember what French Fries tasted like… I used to like them a lot."

"What now, Bella?" She asked. "With your family and I, I mean."

"Jasper and Esme like you. You're my friend. Carlisle wants to know you better. Four against three. Well, against two, Emmett didn't pick a side even if officially he's with Edward and Rosalie. Speaking of Edward…"

"I knew you would use this against me. I so knew it!" she said, hiding her face in her pillow.

"If you don't want people to know, maybe you should take the pictures of your crush off the walls."

"Ok, now don't make me sound like some lovesick schoolgirl. I'm not in love with him! I just… like to watch him. I could change subject and watch Jasper and Emmett instead, but I don't think you or Rosalie would like it…"

"Hey, keep your hands off my husband!"

"Husband? Really?"

"We married just before leaving Ireland…"

"Ireland?"

I decided to tell her the true story. Or at least, I told her mine, of how I met Jasper and what happened when Edward came back. We spent hours talking, and then watching her pictures. When she invited me to meet her grandmother Saturday, I immediately accepted.

Truth was, I was really curious to meet that woman, and to hear Elizabeth play.

And both my wishes would be granted the following day.