3rd Person POV:
Embry and Bellamy are lying in bed cuddled up together at the hotel room Carlisle booked for them.
Bellamy had been quiet since telling her sister and the other Cullen's the only way she found that might bring Rosalie back.
"You did your best to help, this situation isn't down to you," Embry tells her,
Bellamy rubs his arms and snuggles deeper into him, "Thank you."
He kisses her head and the two drift off to sleep together.
Back at the Cullen's
No one had said much to each other, they knew it wasn't fair to ask Bella to become human again for Rosalie. It would mean she would die leaving Edward all alone, and he had barely survived being parted from her for less than a year he couldn't go through it again.
Emmett sat and stared at his son, wondering what he would tell him one day when he was old enough and asked about his mom.
"I'm sorry little dude, she would have loved you beyond anything..." He had to stop talking getting a little choked up.
Bella had left the house needing to get away from everyone she ended up out back where Rosalie was still lying.
"Hey," she said to her knowing this would be a one-sided conversation but needing to have it anyways.
"I can't do what everyone wants me to do but is too polite to ask me to... hell even Edward probably wants me human again, he'd probably be happy to off himself after I croaked, he'd probably spread rose petals and romanticize the whole thing."
"I know I'm supposed to be working on being this better person but I just can't, plus its not like you want to be a vampire again anyways." Bella pauses a beat before continuing,
"I just I wish you could at least meet Eric once, he's a beautiful little boy and I know how much you wanted him... it's not fair you can't be a mom to him after everything we both went through. I really thought my sister would be able to fix this, I guess not."
Bella spotted the tea Bellamy had brewed earlier resting cold over the fire that had gone out and got an idea.
Sure she had no idea what she was doing and it probably wouldn't work but it was worth a shot, right?
She drank what was left and went over to lie next to Rose, she tried closing her eyes, praying, calling out to Grandma Swan, but nothing.
Suddenly she had another idea, she still had the dark magic grimoire... she wasn't technically a witch the first time she used it maybe it could work again even though she was now a vampire.
She snuck back to the house and lifted the book hurrying back to Rose.
She searched for anything that might work but still couldn't make sense of much without the ghost of Grandma Swan to guide her like last time.
Still, she was desperate to try everything she could before giving up and luckily had one more idea, Alice.
She had heard Bellamy admit that Alice had once been a witch, maybe if the both of them tried they could figure something out.
She took her phone out and went to text Alice but she was already behind her,
"I saw you about to ask me here." She said cheerfully causing Bella to smile.
"I know Bellamy said the only way was for me to become human again but I just can't accept that, can you look at this and try to help, tap into whatever witch juju might be left in you?"
"I'll give it a go, but I only learned about said juju a few hours ago." Alice shrugged but joined Bella on Rose's bed.
Alice was flipping through the book when a strong wind came and turned the pages spookily disappearing once a certain page was shown.
"Think someone's trying to help?" Alice asked optimistically,
"I don't know, what does it say?" Bella asks warily,
"Uh my Latin is a little rusty but I think I get the gist, okay let's try it close your eyes and repeat after me," She instructed and reached out to hold Bella's hand in one and take Rose's in another.
Bella copied her and the three women became connected.
Alice tried mimicking what Bellamy had done when she chanted and something in the air seemed to shift.
Slowly Alice and Bella opened their eyes and around them, they saw women from different times in history all gathered looking at them angrily.
"Um.. hi?" Alice said trying to be friendly
Collectively the women raised their hands and started chanting, it was too low for Bella to hear and Alice looked just as confused, suddenly a pulse went through them knocking them off the bed and they were returned to their own plane.
They looked around checking to see if the witches were truly all gone and sighed relieved when they saw no-one.
"Let's never do that again," Alice said but Bella looked confused.
"Bella?" Alice asked, now Bella looked frightened,
"Bella what? What is it?"
"I can't hear you... I can't hear anything!"
Elsewhere at the hotel...
Bellamy POV:
Embry and I were making slow gentle love, he knew exactly what to do to make me feel loved and taken care of. I loved him so much it hurt.
Unfortunately, we were interrupted by the shrill ringing of the hotel phone, Embry leans over and rips the pug from the wall putting his focus back on me,
I run my fingers through his hair and pull him closer, he's never close enough.
I tilt my hips back pulling him deeper in me as I wrap my legs around him resting my feet on his ass but again we are interrupted by both our cell phones going off.
We look at each other concerned something might be wrong if someone is trying this hard to reach us and we both dive for our phones.
"Hello?" I ask answering my phone.
"Bellamy this is Carlisle I'm afraid we need your help again..."
He went on to tell me Bella had tried to commune as I did last night and now had lost the ability to hear and was panicking.
I turn to Embry, "Who's that?" I ask wondering who's calling him.
"Edward, no idea how he got my phone number but he's promising me millions if I get you back over there... what do you want to do?" He asks.
I think for a moment and then give an honest answer, "continue to make love to you for hours and decide this later, you?"
"Your plan sounds pretty damn good," He stalks towards me and reverently tucks a strand of my hair behind my ear, "I love you." He tells me.
"I love you too."
3rd Person POV:
Of course, Bellamy and Embry ended up going back to the Cullen's.
Bellamy let Embry wait outside knowing how hard it was for him to be near them in enclosed spaces.
"I'll try to make this quick."
Going inside they are all lined up to greet her like a demented version of the Von Trapp family.
Knowing it was going to be hard to communicate with her sister she went up to Alice,
"What the hell were you thinking," Jasper growled not liking her tone towards his wife but Bellamy was in no mood and with a wave of her hand put him to sleep, he slumped down on the ground like he had been knocked out.
"What are you thinking? Jasper!"
Bellamy rolled her eyes at Alice's hysterics, "He'll be fine."
"What about Bella?" Edward asked concerned, "Is this permanent?"
"Depends," Bellamy replied,
"Depends on what?" He asked
"On if she stays a vampire." She explains.
Edward pulls Bella over into a corner and starts writing on a pad to explain to her the situation.
"When will he wake up?" Alice asks and Bellamy looks at her confused for a moment before realization comes over her and she gets a little smirk on her face,
"You don't know? You haven't felt the difference?" She asks Alice.
"What are you talking about?" Alice asks.
"The ancestors didn't just take Bella's hearing, they took your sight."
"I can see fine," Alice protests
"Not that sight," Bellamy tells her and it finally hits Alice what Bellamy had meant,
She looked down at Jasper and couldn't see into the future to know when he would wake up,
"No... no, how do I get it back?" She asked desperately.
"You don't, you messed with something you weren't supposed to and now you have to live with the consequences," Bellamy told her showing no signs of sympathy.
"Would you be able to turn both of them human again?" Carlisle asked.
"No I can only reverse the original exchange between Rosalie and Bella which should undo the curse put on Bella's vampire form, the loss of Alice's sight is permanent. What did you think it meant when I told you once a witch is a vampire she can NEVER be a witch again? That it varied on a case by case basis?"
"Are you sure there isn't anything you can do for them?" Esme asks.
"Yes! And I am getting tired of getting called in to clean up your messes only for you idiots to go ahead and make bigger ones! I'll be outside, Embry and I aren't missing our flight so if Bella wants to do the exchange she has 15 minutes to decide then I'm out of here."
She stormed out and left the Cullen's all looking at each other not knowing what to do.
Bella POV:
No, no no no no no! This can't be happening, I don't want to be deaf but I really don't want to be human, it's an impossible decision. This isn't fair and my sister doesn't even seem to care, I don't know why she has to be such a bitch sometimes, she acts like she's so much better than everyone it drives me crazy.
15 minutes, Edward wrote. How can I possibly decide this in 15 minutes?
I stormed out after Bellamy angrier then I'd ever been,
Embry saw me coming a shoved her behind him.
"How can you stand there like this just some big inconvenience to you, I'm supposed to be your sister!" I scream at her, at least I think I do, it's strange talking without being able to hear your own voice.
She spoke but I couldn't follow. Edward moved closer catching up to me and she placed a hand over his head and then grabbed me.
Suddenly I was able to hear, "You fixed it!" I exclaimed happily,
"No, I am borrowing Edward's gift so we can talk," She tells me.
"What are you saying?" I ask.
"I'm saying this conversation is happening in your head." all the hope that had just filled me leaves and I am left feeling frightened and desperate again,
"Please Bellamy, I didn't mean for this to happen I just wanted to see if I could find another way to help Rosalie."
"A way where you wouldn't have to sacrifice anything, I told you it was all I could do that should have been enough for you, why couldn't you just for once in your life trust me?"
"I should have, your right but... I thought that maybe there was something I could do that you couldn't"
"What?" She asks confused,
"Grandma Swan came to me, showed me her grimoire, I was the one who did the original spell, I-"
She cut me off, "You thought you were special." She says like she understands but I know she's being condescending.
"Maybe, is that so bad?" I ask.
"Actions have consequence, and when those actions involve magic the consequences can be severe, it was never something you should have dabbled in. You got lucky once and got exactly what you wanted, beginner's luck maybe but that's it. You aren't special, you are cocky and overconfident and think the rules don't apply to you. Well they do! I can't keep doing this, allowing you to suck me in like this, it's so emotionally draining, this is it Bella after this, I can't... we can't have a relationship going forward it's too hard."
I don't really care at the moment, I have bigger shit I'm worried about, but I wisely don't say this to her.
"Not that wisely, I'm still in your head." She tells me and I feel a wave of guilt briefly.
"So you heard all that?" I ask.
"Yup, look Bella there is a reason why I tried to warn you away from this magic back in Forks. Ancestral magic is complicated, relying on the power of those who have passed but still linger near this plane of existence usually means tangling with those with some major unresolved issues and grudges.
You are at their mercy, and they tend to be more in the vengeful type of mood then helpful. I tried to smooth things over but by you going behind my back... trying to take things into your own hands showed tremendous disrespect, frankly, you'll be lucky if they still allow us to go through with the exchange.
The only reason I think I can still pull it off is because it was down to one of them you got into this mess."
"Grandma Swan?" I asked.
"Yeah, your pain was so strong and palpable, being near it gave her a high, it allowed her to feel almost alive again, she wasn't trying to help you she was just looking to feel again and your pain was convenient."
"You don't know that's why she reached out," I try to argue back not wanting to believe her,
"Yeah I do, she tried it once with me. Luckily Old Quill was able to pull me back before she got me to do anything... You have 5 more minutes." She tells me before stepping away from Edward and I breaking the connection.
Fuck, I'm so screwed.
3rd Person POV:
Bella had made the hardest decision of her life and decided to be selfless... well as selfless as she was capable of being if she hadn't lost her hearing she would probably be making a different decision.
But here she was returning her immortal life to Rosalie, allowing her the chance to become a proper mother to Eric.
Bellamy completed the ceremony and was relieved it had been successful.
The sisters stood awkwardly to the side while the rest of the Cullen's were gathered around Rosalie celebrating with her and Eric.
Bella shrugged her shoulders awkwardly, "I guess this is goodbye?"
"Leaving like this, us so... disappointed in the other, it's not what I wanted," Bellamy tells her,
"Yeah well we can't always get what we want, right?" Bella replied sounding jaded.
"Right, well I procured a goodbye present for you... hopefully it helps make things a little easier."
Bella scrunched her eyebrows not understanding
"When I was communing earlier with the ancestors I asked if you made this decision freely without any swaying from me that they take away one more sense from a Cullen."
"What the hell did you do?!" Bella demanded to know alarmed at the possibilities.
"Edward no longer has the ability to smell, with his gift it shouldn't endanger him to predators it will just make it easier to be around you for as long as the two of you decide to stay together."
Edward hearing this came over, "Is that true?"
Bellamy stepped back and gestured for him to see for himself, he slowly approached Bella and inhaled near her neck... nothing.
He smiled and turned back to Bellamy and smiled, "Thank you."
She nodded and then started walking to the car with Embry.
"Wait!" Bella shouted and ran after her.
Bellamy reluctantly turned around, "What? What Bella?" she said exhausted from the ritual and also just her sister in general.
"Th- thank you, and I'm sorry for everything, I guess its not enough to just learn your lesson once apparently you need to learn it over and over again before you really can change."
Bellamy just nods not knowing what else to say.
"I hope someday I can become a person you'd be proud to call a sister but I realize that's not gonna happen overnight and you deserve your freedom so... goodbye."
Bellamy nodded, "Bye Bella."
Rosalie POV:
I always thought when I died that was it... I never really believed in heaven or hell and I certainly never got to see either. The first time I died I woke up a vampire... a blood hungry vengeful creature and the second time I just didn't wake up at all, I went to this void, a sort of purgatory I guess. I could hear everyone around me but I couldn't move or speak or feel.
I knew I had given birth to a baby boy, I'll admit I wanted a little girl but I couldn't love him anymore and I hadn't even really met him yet.
I heard all the drama that quickly unfolded around my passing too. The fighting Swan sisters and old dead witches... it was all so exhausting I was kinda happy to be in perpetual sleep.
The first time around being a vampire I had only made it through the first two stages of grief, denial and anger... damn I had anger down all right. But now with all this time just to myself and my thoughts, I began to work through the rest of what had happened to me, the loss of my life... both times. Becoming a wife, a mother, the possibility of living like this, in between for eternity, being mercy killed, or becoming a vampire yet again.
I bargained, became depressed over my helplessness, and finally, I found acceptance.
Acceptance over the crimes that had been committed against me when I was human as well as acceptance over the crimes I committed as a vampire: my selfishness, my vanity, my anger, my greed, I faced them each and with each made my peace and put them to rest.
I felt the bitterness that had plagued all my lives finally release its hold on my soul and leave my body, and my reward... my reward was getting one more chance at it all, right back to the start.
"Rosie, baby? Can you hear me?"
Yes, I can.
