Book 3: Alice

I sat down on my bed and sighed.

"She'll be fine," Jasper said as he sat next to me. He put his arm around me and I leaned into him.

"I sure hope so," I said. "She has been gone for a while and I can't see her because she is in wolf form."

"I know how you feel. Trust me."

I looked up at him. He was smiling. It was the kind of smile a person would wear when someone didn't catch onto a joke.

I chuckled a little. "Very funny, Jasper. Your a comic genius."

"It's a talent," he said. We laughed weakly.

Edward walked in and I looked at him. He was in a pretty good mood it seemed.

"Yes I am because Carlisle wanted to know if you wanted to catch a ball game. There is a thunderstorm coming, right?" He asked the question like he already knew the answer.

I quickly checked. "Yep. In about ten minutes actually."

"Cool. You guys playing?"

I looked at Jasper. "Want to?"

"Sure."

I turned back to Edward. "Okay, we'll come. But before we leave there is something I want to do."

"Alice. She'll be fine. You don't need to go out looking for her," Edward said, already anticipating what my thoughts confirmed.

"Oh shut up, I know this already. I can't help it," I said. "And I'm going to find her." I looked to my husband. "Jasper, you want to come with me?"

"I think I would feel better if I did come," he said.

"Okay, we won't leave until you guys get back. Don't be out too long," Edward said.

"We won't. C'mon Jazz," I said as I grabbed Jasper's arm. We walked out of the room and down the hall, down the stairs and out the door, down the outside stairs and into the yard.

Jasper took a deep breath as we ran. "I can even tell it's going to rain. You can smell the rain."

I sniffed the air. "You're right."

We ran along the path that Alicia had taken out of the house. We found her scent easy enough. She had crossed the river and came out on the other side. She was sure easy to track. It started to rain.

We had been running about seven minutes and we came across a cream and gray wolf. Alicia was laying under a tree, eyes closed. We skidded to a silent stop.

Alicia opened her eyes and stood up simultaneously. A growl came up from her chest and cut off when she realized who it was. She laid back down and whimpered with her eyes shut.

"Alicia, will you talk to me?" I asked.

Sure. What do you want to talk about? she asked me in my head.

"I meant in person, not telepathically."

Fine. Hold on.

She began to shimmer. Suddenly on the ground, instead of the large wolf there was the 17 year old looking girl that was Alicia. She was laying on the ground, crying.

I walked over to her and bent beside her. "It's okay, honey."

Jasper was crouched beside me. "Yeah, you're okay."

She got up with tears rolling down her face. "But how can it be okay? I'm alone. Everyone has someone."

"You'll find someone," I said.

"I've been around almost as long as Jasper and I haven't found anyone. When is it going to be my turn? When does my depression end?"

"What's causing this all of a sudden. You didn't start doing this until Tiffany-" Jasper cut off and I looked up at him with confusion. His eyes were wide. Something had clicked.

"Until Tiffany what?" I asked.

"Until Tiffany got her ring."

It his me too. I looked at Alicia with as much sympathy as I had in me and said, "I'm sorry."

She launched herself at us and wrapped her arms around us. She was crying hard.

Jasper and I hugged her back.

"It'll be okay," I said.

"Calm down," Jasper soothed.

We sat there with her for about ten minutes telling her it would be okay. I felt so bad for her. Occasionally I would look over to Jasper and he would look at me. He felt as bad for her as I did.

When she stopped crying, we let go of her and she smiled weakly at us.

"I'm sorry," she said while wiping her eyes.

"Don't be sorry," I said.

"It's okay to let that kind of emotion out so that other people can feel it besides me and you," Jasper said, trying to make her laugh.

It worked. She chuckled a little. "Yeah."

"So besides to bring you back, there was another reason we came out here to find you. There is, obviously, a thunder storm." A clap of thunder proved my statement true. "So we want to know if you would want to come to the clearing with us to play some baseball."

"Sounds fun. I would love to," she said.

"Great," Jasper said.

We all smiled at each other.

"I'm glad everyone is alright," Esme said. She looked at Alicia and thought about this again. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I've been better but I'll be okay," Alicia said quietly.

"Are we ready to go yet?" Emmett asked impatiently.

I looked at Jasper and Alicia with an eyebrow raised. They nodded. Alicia closed her eyes and put her head down.

Simultaneously, her eyes opened and her head snapped up. I followed her icy gaze and found myself looking at Maria.

Alicia growled and Maria backed up a step.

"Hey, I just came to tell you I'm going hunting," Maria said. "Away from here."

Why was Alicia growling? Did she know something we didn't?

"Good question," Edward said from behind me.

Everyone looked at him confused.

"Skip it," he said.

"Well, I'm off. I'll be back later," Maria said. And she disappeared into the forest.

Alicia slipped deeper into her crouch.

"Alicia, what's wrong?" I asked.

She calmed herself and straightened up. She smiled peacefully. "Nothing. Just forget I did anything." The smile didn't touch her eyes at all. But I dropped it.

"Ready to go now?" Emmett asked again.

"Yeah," Edward said, obviously bugged about what bothered Alicia.

"You're absolutely right, Jasper," Edward said, replying to Jasper's thoughts.

"About?" Jasper said.

"Something's up with Maria. No one knows what she plans to do, but I guess we'll find out soon enough. C'mon, let's have some fun."

We all bounded off the our new clearing.

I tried to follow as the teams were set up.

Alicia, Jasper, Emmett, Seth, Esme, and I were on one team. Tiffany, Rosalie, Edward, Bella, and Carlisle were on another. Jacob sat with Renesmee on the sidelines.

Edward's team bat first so I picked up the ball and walked to the pitcher's mound. Edward started swinging the bat for practice. Bella was standing nearest Jacob. The rest of Edward's team was standing around chatting.

Jasper and Emmett had outfield. Jasper was stretching his arms. Emmett was just punching away at an imaginary target. Idiot.

Edward chuckled under his breath and put the top of the bat on the ground like a cane.

Alicia was on first base, Seth on second, and Esme on third. Bella was going to be nice and be the catcher. Of course I was pitching.

After the baseball game, Alicia and Tiffany went hunting. I was laying with Jasper on top of our bed. He had his arm around my shoulder and I was on my side, arm of her chest.

The baseball game was interesting. My team had won. We won 19 to 16. The whole thing had been pretty hard to do considering Alicia was still upset with Tiffany. But we all had fun.

I frowned and Jasper's arm tightened around me. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. I just feel bad for Alicia. She is the only one around here that's alone," I said.

He sighed. "It'll be fine." He sounded wary.

"I'm sorry. I'll stop worrying about it. I don't want to make you unhappy."

"It's fine. It just feels like she'll come out of this soon. Until then..." He moved me so that I was laying on top of him and kissed me softly. I kissed him back with interest. After a few minutes, my hands had wandered down to the top of his pants. I began fiddling with the button and Jasper chuckled against my lips.

He grabbed my hands and pinned them to the bed, causing my head to rest on his chest.

"Not now," he said.

I sighed. "Alright."

"Stop pouting."

"I'm not."

"Look at that lip. Someone could sit on it."

I giggled. "Alright. I'll leave your pants alone, but this," I pulled on his white tank, "has to go."

He smiled. "Yes, ma'am."

He pulled his shirt off and threw it. The silver chain he was wearing made a pleasing tinkling sound against his skin. I smiled as I looked over his glorious body.

"I love you," I said.

"I love you, too," he said. "Now come here."

He pulled my face up to his and kissed me.