The next morning, Bella knocked on Rachel's door before she poked her head inside. Rachel sat down at her vanity and braided her hair, glancing at her sister through the reflection.

"Everything okay?"

"Yeah, Mr. B got an emergency call from work and had to leave. He might not be home until late."

"Late is code for we probably will not see him until sometime tomorrow night," she said, smiling. "His emergencies usually last longer than a few hours."

"No biggie. I'm used to it with Charlie, who says hi by the way. He said Portland's treating him well, and he's eating salads now. Willingly."

"Sounds to me like you lost your junk food partner," Rachel said, laughing. "When did you talk to him?"

"This morning before he went in. I wanted to hear his voice."

"Aw, that is so sweet."

"Jump off a cliff, please."

Rachel grinned and finished her hair. Bella was still half-hiding behind the door, and Rachel scrunched her face.

"You can come in, you know? I have seen you in much worse than whatever I am sure you have on."

"Like what?" Bella scoffed.

"You wore suits for a month because if Rosalie came back, you wanted to look nice for her."

"I wore them because I wanted to look nice."

"Right, and I am specifically wearing this uncomfortably tight shirt and low-ride jeans for the aesthetic." At Bella's look, Rachel clarified, "Santana and Quinn made several comments about my outfit choice yesterday, and I admit they made me feel good. Wanted."

"Gross."

"Shut up, and come inside. You look weird hovering like that."

Bella chuckled and finally pushed open the door, revealing her outfit, and Rachel knew immediately what kind of morning it had been. Bella's hands tugged and pulled at Charlie's old police jacket, and she was practically drowning in a shirt Rachel was ninety percent positive came from Jacob. Bella leaned on the wall, and Rachel got up, crossing the room and pulling her sister into her arms. There were rare moments where Bella got caught up in her head, stuck in the past when Edward was a stranger at school, and Bella was an honorary member of the Black family. When she lost that, Rachel knew Bella lost part of herself in the process.

"Want to stop and grab a donut before school?" she asked.

"Please," Bella muttered.

"Of course. Let me grab the rest of my stuff, and we can go."

"You know I can see them today with that shirt on, right?" Bella asked, gently tracing Rachel's scars.

"Hiding them is more trouble than it is showing them," Rachel sighed. "Plus, I kind of like them now."

"Progress." Rachel grunted and ducked off into her closet, and she heard Bella ask, "How are you, by the way? All jokes aside, I know Emma caught you off guard with all of that last night."

"I have no problem with Emma and Sue knowing that I love Santana and Quinn. It was awkward, but their support helped. I get the impression that they are going to be around a lot, I think. And Dad already knew. Polyamory, apparently, is not that uncommon in his family, and he said he would welcome them with open arms whenever I got the nerves to invite them. Outside of you and Mike, their opinion admittedly meant a lot to me. Now that I have it? I honestly care very little about everyone else," she said.

"Good." Bella coughed and shuffled side to side. "There's something else, Rae," she said.

"What have you done now?"

"Me? Nothing," Bella sighed. "Someone else? Well, everything, it sounds like."

Rachel came out with her shoes and a bag, and Bella reached into her jacket pocket, showing a wrinkled and half-torn envelope with Bella's name written on the front in almost perfect handwriting.

"Mr. B checked the mail from last night before he left, and he said this letter was in there for me. It's part of why I called Charlie. I wanted to make sure…" Bella trailed off and shook her head. "We told no one but him where we were going. Not even Angela and the others know where we are right now, so my paranoia wouldn't let me go another second without knowing for sure."

"Being sure about what?" Rachel asked, reaching for the letter.

"That he was safe."

Rachel frowned but unfolded the letter.

Hello Bella,

I know I'm probably the last person you want to hear from. I have no idea if this letter will even reach you, or if you will find it and burn it. Don't worry, Charlie has no idea Jasper and I were in Portland. We were not stalking him, I swear to you, but we overheard him telling a coworker about his daughter in Lima. The rest was fairly easy to put together with a little research. I promise no one else knows. Only Jasper and I. The others…well, let's just say Jasper and I have been on our own for quite some time now.

And I hate that I might ruin this new happiness of yours, this new life, but I have to apologize on behalf of my family. We ruined your life, but none more so than me. If I had never had that vision of you, then I like to think that we could've avoided everything. You would've lived a happy, normal human life. You wouldn't have met James, and you wouldn't have gotten hurt at the party. But there is no point in wishing for something impossible to change.

Because I did have that vision. And now, when faced with the weight of my guilt and shame, I have to tell you the truth, even though it is far too late. The truth is, Bella, that my vision never had Edward as your future. But his pride and arrogance refused to accept that he would remain alone. So he went to Carlisle and told him about you, and things were set into motion before I could intervene. Carlisle is a lot like Sam in that way. When it comes to the coven, he is the Alpha, and his words are law. So no matter how much I wanted to pull you out of Edward's orbit, to put you on the path that I saw made you happy, I was forbidden.

We all were.

But I should have fought for you and the person that loved you the moment she saw you. It is a guilt that I have carried since that day, and I am so, so sorry, Bella. I wish I could see that you would forgive me one day, but your future has gone dark for me. Everywhere I look, you are nowhere to be found, and I find myself realizing you were never just a human girl. Were you? You were - are - something special, and I helped destroy you. I can only hope and trust that someone out there helped build you up again.

For once, I curse my gift. It has left me with nothing but pain and the absence of someone I had truly come to love as my sister. Because that is what you would have been. But you are not my family. Not anymore. And I will never see you again. My heart aches for you, but also her. You were her everything, and I helped take you away from her. Wherever you are, Jazz and I hope you are at peace.

It is the only mercy I will have in this lifetime.

Mary Alice

Rachel re-read it, still stuck on how easy it was to track Bella down through Rachel and her father, and she was tempted to crumple the letter. But she knew why Bella held onto it. There was confirmation there she'd been searching for ever since she first laid eyes on the Cullens. Rachel folded it and placed it on her dresser, arms already opening. Bella sniffed and fell forward, and her shoulders began shaking.

"I thought she hated me," she cried. "But she couldn't even talk to me. This whole time, I thought –

Bella's words were lost to her tears, and Rachel held the back of her head. She had no clue what her sister was going through. It was one thing to love someone you thought you could never have, but it was another to love someone you could've had and was never allowed to. Rachel walked them backward to the bed so she could grab her phone, and she sent Mike a text message, asking him to tell Sue that they would be late. Then she put her phone down and glanced at the letter. If Alice discovered where they lived from a throwaway comment by Charlie, how long before someone else put the pieces together?

How long before their safe haven became a hunting ground?

Rachel stopped at her locker and tried, again, to push that morning out of her mind. She and Bella missed the first two classes- one, so Bella could redo her makeup, and two, because they still went and grabbed donuts. But discovering that Alice Cullen knew where they were made them both jumpy. Where Alice went, Jasper followed, and where Jasper followed, so did the rest of them. No matter how far apart they were from one another, they were a coven, and covens always found their way back together. They were like packs, almost. Rachel yanked her locker so hard it warped, and she winced at the sound of the metal rubbing together.

"Bad day?"

Rachel nearly jumped out of her skin. She learned at lunch that her wolf refused to acknowledge Quinn or Santana as threats, so Rachel never sensed them until they were right next to her. She ground her teeth and contemplated walking away, but that would be counterproductive. Quinn had a bad habit of following. She wasn't like Santana, who demanded Rachel's attention when she wanted it. Quinn was subtle, patient, and honestly, that was much worse.

It started the moment she finally arrived with Bella. Santana had been in the parking lot with Mike, neither of them giving too much of an answer on why they were out there, but Rachel could tell Santana was nervous. She couldn't look Rachel in the eyes, and Rachel, despite her lingering frustration, didn't want to go throughout the day with Santana walking on eggshells. She grabbed Santana's chin and lifted her head, saying hello. Santana said hello back, more relaxed than she had been, and she moved closer. Her hands tangled into Rachel's shirt, clenching and unclenching, and it was clear she had something more to say. As did Rachel, but they never did. Santana sighed and gently pulled her face out of Rachel's grip. She gave Bella a slight nod and Mike's shoulder a squeeze before she went back into the school.

"What was that about?" Mike had asked.

"Two steps," Rachel had said. "And ten back. Come on."

Mike and Bella never pushed for clarification, and Rachel was grateful, because she had no idea how to fix whatever was broken between them. But by the time lunch rolled around, it was as if it never happened. Santana was her usual self, and Rachel was all too happy to pretend. Until Rachel got too comfortable and asked Sam to shove two of her favorite clothing items into their lockers, unwilling to admit that them having something of hers satisfied some baser part of her instincts. She hadn't seen them since, as she'd been steadily avoiding them, and she figured it was bound to happen at some point.

She just wished it wasn't in the hallway between classes, when Rachel had been skipping gym, and was wholly unprepared for it.

"Earth to Rachel?" Quinn said, poking Rachel in the side. "Are you ignoring me now?"

Rachel snorted and said, "If only that were," she turned and choked on the last word, "possible."

Quinn leaned against the locker with a soft smile, her arms folded, and Rachel regretted ever letting Bella convince her that it was a good idea to put them in her clothing. Baser instincts be damned. How was Rachel supposed to concentrate in Spanish, an already challenging endeavor, when Quinn looked like that? She had on Rachel's old crewneck from a crap road trip she and Bella took to Vancouver, and it faded in some places because of how often Rachel had to wash it, but it fit Quinn in ways it never fit Rachel.

"Is there a problem?" Quinn asked.

Rachel rubbed at her eyes and snatched her Spanish notebook out of her locker. She slammed it shut and rested her forehead on the cool metal. "You and Santana are going to be charged as co-conspirators when they inevitably find my body," she said.

"What are we being charged with?"

"Murder. Death by attraction," she muttered.

Quinn did a half-snort, half-laugh thing, and she covered her mouth. Rachel side-eyed her, smiling, and she tugged her closer by her belt loop. Quinn stumbled a little, putting out her hands on Rachel's arms to steady herself, and Rachel was *seriously* happy she put on a few inches. There was something satisfying about their height difference.

"Can I help you?" Quinn asked.

"I wanted to tell you that you looked nice in my clothes. Way better than I ever did."

"Oh, so this is yours?"

"You knew that."

"Not at first. I thought Sam was hiding his shit in our lockers again. But when I saw your name written on the tag, I had no choice but to put it on. Especially if it gets this reaction out of you." Quinn hummed and wrapped her arms around Rachel's neck. "May I ask why you gave us these in the first place?" she asked.

Rachel pulled Quinn in by the hips, making a dangerous situation even more dangerous, and said, "I already told you. You two are mine."

"Possessive much?"

"Territorial," Rachel corrected.

Quinn chewed on her bottom lip, eyes dropping to Rachel's mouth, and she said, "I want to kiss you right now."

"Not yet, and definitely not here."

"When?"

Rachel brushed her lips across Quinn's forehead and whispered, "Soon."

"Fine." Quinn's smile became suspiciously coy, and she placed her hand on Rachel's stomach, putting distance between them. "But if you think I look good enough to spill all your secrets to, wait until you see my girlfriend," she said. "Unless you two are still fighting."

"We are not fighting. It is very -

"Complicated? Yeah, Santana said the same thing. Except with her, I know that means she's feeling guilty and embarrassed."

"So that is what you two fought about. "

"I knew something happened between you two, but she never told me details until last night."

Rachel did not want to have that conversation, but she did say, "I do not want to come between you two."

"Hardly," Quinn scoffed. "Santana isn't - you have no idea what Sam and I have gone through this last year or so. She's not completely settled yet, and despite the fact she's present now, doesn't mean she won't go backward. It took her weeks to feel comfortable kissing me in public. So, this has nothing to do with you or what we want with you. It has everything to do with her."

"What -

"Don't ask me that," Quinn interrupted. "Because there are things that I'll tell you without question, but that? That's all on her."

"I was only going to ask what I can do to make things easier for her," Rachel said dryly.

"Don't. I sure as hell won't. I'm not waiting for her to catch up."

"What do you mean?"

Quinn slid her hand up Rachel's chest to the back of her neck and used that to pull herself upright, kissing the corner of her mouth and whispering, "What do you think?"

Rachel groaned and threw her head back.

"Too much?" Quinn asked.

"No," Rachel said. "But this is all new to me."

"Having two equally hot girlfriends?"

"Yes," Rachel said, laughing. "But I have never wanted someone as much as I want you. Well, not including your girlfriend."

"Oh? And how much do you want me?"

Rachel lifted her head and looked Quinn in the eyes, and Quinn's breath caught in her throat. Rachel didn't need to see a mirror to know her eyes were blazing..

"Can you not tell, Quinn?" she murmured. "Can you not see that I want nothing more than to pin you to these lockers and fuck you until you are screaming my name?"

Rachel heard the first strike of the bell right as it rang, and she left Quinn by her lockers as she disappeared into the masses.

"Fuck!"

Rachel smirked when she heard Quinn's voice , and she was dreading and looking forward to her final class.

"So, you know class starts in like five minutes, right? Why are we here so early?" Bella asked.

"I need to talk to Santana," Rachel said.

"And you think doing it now will help?"

"I want to start before the others get here."

Bella rolled her eyes and opened the door, and Rachel followed her inside. As soon as she turned her head, spotting Santana easily in the back, she felt a massive twitch take over the left side of her face. Santana sat on the desk, legs crossed and leaning back on her hands, and she had her head turned toward Quinn.

"Well, so much for having that chat," Bella muttered.

"That is not what she was wearing earlier."

"Sam said she left shortly after she found your gift."

"You knew?"

"I suspected, yes."

"Traitor."

"Oh, please. I need all the amusement I can get today."

Rachel pushed past her to get to her seat. That time, none of the Glee members already there looked her way, and she hoped that meant they got the hint. But she decided halfway there that she was going to wait until after class. Or maybe when she wasn't so distracted. Before she could sit down, she was stopped by a leg, specifically a boot-covered leg with a heel that dug slightly into her hip, and Rachel followed it up a black skirt, a smooth stomach, and a shirt that had been cut into a crop top. A shirt that looked suspiciously like what Rachel won at a charity function with the words 'FORKS PRIDE' written along the top in bold, rainbow lettering. Eventually, Rachel met Santana's eyes, and she stomped hard on the butterflies in her stomach and ground her teeth.

"Good afternoon," Rachel gritted out.

"Doing okay?"

"Peachy."

Santana dragged her heel down Rachel's hip and thigh before letting it fall, and Rachel was so glad it was the opposite side of her scars not her scarred side. Still, she was off-balance when she sat down. The seating arrangement had changed because Rachel was ninety-nine percent sure that Quinn was on the opposite side during the last class. Her new placement in front of Rachel, with Santana right beside her, and the wall on the other side, spelled trouble.

Rachel groaned under her breath when Santana swung her legs to the side. She bounced her knee under the table, praying her eyes didn't go any lower than Santana's neck or any higher than her ankles. But her willpower was non-existent, and she was struggling. Santana was taking great pleasure in watching her struggle, and Rachel knew it was less of a power play, and more of an experiment. Rachel cocked her head, studying Santana, and Santana studied her back. When she saw what she was hoping to see, Rachel sat back in her chair and let her eyes roam as much as they wanted. Santana's answering grin, and Quinn's affectionate eye-roll, told Rachel she guessed right.

Santana needed to know Rachel still wanted her, no matter how complicated their relationship might be at that moment. Rachel, before she could talk herself out of it, turned sideways and stretched out her legs.

"Come here."

Santana hesitated, and Rachel rolled her eyes, reaching forward and grabbing Santana by the waist. She dropped her in her lap and wrapped an arm around her. Quinn cooed and snapped a quick picture, and Santana ducked her head.

"You okay?"

Santana nodded and tucked her hair behind her ear. She stuck her tongue out at Quinn, who propped her head on the table and smiled.

"Are you busy this weekend?" she asked.

"For?" Rachel asked.

"We do this thing every first Saturday of the month with a few people. It's a cookout, you know, with movies and games. We thought you and your sister would like to come to the complex."

"Free food?" Bella jumped in, sliding into the seat next to where Santana was sitting in. "I'm down."

"I thought we were going to Columbus this weekend," Rachel said.

"We can wait until next weekend. Plus, again, free food and whatnot."

Rachel rolled her eyes at her sister, who looked the picture of innocence, and Santana finally lost her remaining tension and curled into Rachel's chest. Quinn winked at Rachel, whose hand fell on Santana's exposed thigh.

Their positioning was suggestive even for the most oblivious, and Rachel felt Artie and Tina glancing back at them several times. Quinn started a conversation with Bella, and Rachel moved her hand off Santana's thigh to run her fingers through Quinn's hair.

"I bet you are having the time of your life right now, aren't you?" Santana asked.

"You have no idea," Rachel said, smiling at her. Then she pulled Santana closer to add in a whisper, "We need to talk later. Okay?"

Santana sighed and nodded, shifting down to hide her face in Rachel's neck.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there. Let's keep it PG, ladies," Sam said, walking into the room with Mike.

"Or not," Mike said. "Whichever works."

"Grow up, Chang," Rachel scoffed.

"I'm just saying, but also, I'd love to see -

Mike stopped when the door opened again, and Finn came in with Brittany and Kurt. Rachel squeezed Santana's waist when she felt her moving, and Santana relaxed, staying in place. Quinn shot Rachel a grateful look, and Rachel figured the first step in fixing things between them was making sure Santana knew that Rachel wasn't planning on hiding a damn thing.

Brittany faltered when she saw their positions, and it was almost comical how long it took for Finn to notice. Kurt just huffed and sat next to Tina, and Brittany remained in the front of the room, eyes narrowed on Santana being in Rachel's arms, and Rachel saw the exact moment the blonde lost her composure.

"What the fuck, Santana?" she exclaimed.

The air was sucked out of the room, and Quinn sighed. That time, Rachel let Santana move away, if only because she was slipping off her lap and standing up.

"What do you mean, what the fuck?" Santana asked.

"Oh, don't play stupid! First, Quinn, and now, Rachel? You're a fucking liar!"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You spent so long telling me I had nothing to worry about with Quinn, and then you show up one day with her in your arms. And after I asked you if you still liked Rachel, you said it was in the past. Now you're practically draped all over her! What am I supposed to think?"

"That it's none of your fucking business, that's what," Santana snapped. "When you asked me how I felt about Quinn and Rachel, I was with you. So why the hell would I be interested or focused on anyone else? You were my girlfriend, not them."

"So what changed in a matter of months, huh?"

"I stopped being scared." Santana winced and dug her nails into her palms, but she never looked away from Brittany. "I stopped - I stopped caring what someone would think, or I'm trying to. I'm trying to not be afraid of getting hurt or - or being rejected. I'm trying to heal and be a better person so I don't lose the people I love and care about. And you can't stand there and question me on this when you slept with someone for almost our entire relationship. You can't demand me to explain myself when I owe you nothing. I moved on, and I'm trying to be better than I was. But not for you. Never for you."

Brittany's lip quivered, and she stormed out of the room, almost knocking Mr. Schue over. Santana dropped down into her seat, hands shaking, and Rachel knew that touching her was a bad idea. Sam switched seats with Bella, and Bella moved to the desk in front of Santana. Mike quickly sat behind her, and they formed a little wall while she got herself together.

"Um," Mr. Schue started, "is everything okay?"

"Yep," Tina said, cutting off Finn. "Brittany wasn't feeling well."

"Oh, well, I hope she feels better." Mr. Schue put his things down on the desk and clapped his hands together. "Let's do a quick quiz to see where we all stand with the basics, and we'll go over the answers together," he said. "Everyone go ahead and get out a sheet of paper and a pen."

Santana, while tearing a page out of her notebook, knocked her pen to the floor. Rachel bent down and picked it up, putting it on her desk. As she was pulling her hand back, Santana grabbed it, and Rachel looked up. Santana wasn't looking her in the eyes, but she was present. She intertwined their fingers and stared at their hands. Rachel bent over and kissed the back of Santana's knuckles, and Santana finally looked up.

"I'm sorry," she whispered.

"Later."

Rachel squeezed her hand and let go, and Quinn gave Rachel a slight nod. They weren't okay, but they would be. It'd been hard enough denying her attraction to Quinn the first time around, but adding Santana to the mix made things almost impossible. Rachel spent a long time trying to forget how the other girl tasted and sounded. She had far too many nights where she muffled her moans as she got off to the memory of Santana coming undone.

Rachel hated what Santana did. She loathed how easily Santana ignored that night while Rachel was stuck dreaming of it for years to come. But no matter how angry Rachel got, she never stopped loving her. Santana was like a fire that burned under Rachel's skin, destroying everything it touched but making way for something new to blossom. And that something new was Quinn.

Where Santana burned and raged, Quinn soothed and restored.

And Rachel knew she was running out of time. Santana and Quinn had set themselves in her life, even if they knew nothing of what Rachel was and had become. They would learn of Rachel's violence. They were going to learn about the blood on her hands and the ghosts lurking over her shoulder. They were going to know everything, and Rachel was terrified.

Rachel was broken from her thoughts when her phone vibrated in her pocket, and she glanced up at Mr. Schue before taking it out. She opened the message, finding a half-downloaded picture from an unknown number. When it finished, Rachel clicked on it. It was a snapshot of Santana and Quinn at the park. Quinn was mid-laugh with her head thrown back, and Santana was smiling at her. But what caught her attention was the necklace Santana had on. Rachel zoomed in, and her heart almost burst from her chest. There was a message attached, and Rachel had to read it twice to understand what it was saying.

I was never with her without you. - S

Her head snapped up to Santana, who was playing with the same necklace that'd been hiding under her shirt, and she had her phone resting on the desk. Rachel's smile was so wide it started to hurt, and Santana's lip twitched, but she never looked up. She kissed the necklace and let it fall against her chest, and Rachel ducked her head, trying and failing to keep her emotions in check.

The rest of the class passed without incident, but Rachel's restlessness still itched under her skin. Santana and Quinn planned to stay, and while Rachel was an Alpha, she was not prepared for either of them.