The park where I was supposed to meet Alice was deserted when I walked through the green gates that fenced it off from the surrounding urban area. It was a small splash of colour on an otherwise built-up city skyline. Nothing on Hyde Park or anything of the sort, but I often came down here when I wanted to relax, or even just to think. There was something about the seclusion offered by the trees that calmed me. Maybe it simply reminded me of home.

I had little idea of where she would be, exactly, but I knew she would find me wherever I chose to go. So I made my way over to the swings, a spot that had become a favourite of mine whenever there were few people around.

I sat on one of the swings and wrapped my arms around the chains, swinging half-heartedly. I couldn't map the exact train of thoughts that had brought me here, but all day at work her letter had haunted me, consumed my every thought, and had been pretty damn inescapable.

Maybe that was why I had found myself treading the familiar path when the time came, simply to get some relief. I doubted that was the sole reason, though – I was still desperate for answers.

I had always been curious, that curiosity getting me into trouble more often than not. My fascination with Edward and all that it had led to was proof enough of that.

I didn't want to know if there was another underlying reason that had drawn me here. Thinking like that wouldn't do any good.

The night was dark, the stars above muted by the city lights, clouds covering the sky in a thin layer. The winter air was cool and I shivered despite of the layers I was wearing, drawing my coat tighter against myself. It was quiet apart from the sound of the occasional car speeding by, music pounding from within, but in a sudden silence I heard the slight rustle in some trees behind me and whirled around, startled as I saw a shape emerge from within the shadows, unable to stop the reaction even though I knew who would be stood there.

And sure enough, when the shape stepped into the light cast by a nearby streetlight, her form was unmistakable. I didn't look at her face straight away, instead concentrating on her clothes, trying to prepare myself. She wore an unneeded coat, her hands (nervously?) stuffed inside the pockets as she came to lean against the frame of the swing that I sat heavily back down on, mentally cursing myself from jumping up so quickly before.

"You came." Her voice was quiet in the night, barely above a whisper, and her eyes watched me carefully, as though I would turn and run at any moment. I wondered what she would do if I did – would she stop me?

"I would have thought that you'd already know whether I would or not. You are psychic, after all." I wasn't really in the mood for small talk, wanting this conversation to be over as soon as possible. "What do you want, Alice? Or should I call you Alicia now?"

"Alice. I ask everyone to call me Alice. Alicia is merely my official name. You can never be too careful, after all."

"You're stalling." It wasn't a question, because I knew she was. And I knew I was right for sure when I heard her soft sigh and her eyes flickered downwards, avoiding my gaze.

"I'm here because I had a vision." Her eyes darted back up to my face, assessing my reaction, but I kept my face carefully blank, waiting for her to continue. "You remember Victoria, don't you?" At the mention of the name, I shuddered involuntarily – those few months when I had known she had been after me had been terrifying. After a while, the wolves had stopped seeing her, and then, when I'd moved, I'd left all of that behind me. And now, apparently, more of my past coming to haunt me.

"Yeah. I remember." I didn't really think that an answer was required, given my reaction, but I figured my silence must have been why she wasn't carrying on with her story.

"Well… I wasn't spying on you or anything Bella, I swear. But the first few months, after we left, I kept getting visions of Victoria, of her coming for you. I wanted to come back, knew that she'd kill you because you were defenceless against her without us there to protect you, but Edward wouldn't let me interfere."

Her mouth twisted as she said his name, and I was immediately curious as to what the reason for her expression was. Did that mean they weren't talking? Was she annoyed with him?

But I forced myself to stay silent, to let her carry on, biting my tongue to stop the flood of questions – I could ask her when she was done, if she didn't answer them herself, without any prompting from me.

"So I just had to console myself with my visions of you. And then you… You disappeared. I was convinced that you were dead, because really, what other explanation could there be? Laurent came after you, and then there was… nothing. I couldn't see anything. Then afterwards, I saw you again. How did you get away from him?"

"The… The wolves saved me."

"Wolves?"

"On the Reservation. Werewolves. They fight vampires. Jacob's one. Jacob Black. He and the others saved me. Kept Victoria at bay as well."

"Of course. That explains everything…" She cut off and started pacing around the swings, muttering to herself. She got her phone out of her pocket and looked like she was going to make a call before her eyes met mine again. She dropped the phone back into her pocket and came to sit beside me this time, her eyes gaining intensity as she carried on speaking. They were so similar to his, so, so similar, and yet completely different. The same golden hue, a colour that at one point, I could have happily drowned in. But even now, I couldn't look away, captivated as I was by her gaze – regardless of the fact that I didn't want to be.

"Well, I panicked, obviously, when you disappeared. At least now I know why you did… When it kept happening, I still worried, but then you'd reappear again and it would be alright. But that's not why I'm here, Not exactly…

"Victoria stopped attacking, after a few months, and she went somewhere else – I'm not sure where – before she went back to Forks. By that time, you'd already moved here, so I wasn't too concerned. She didn't realise that you'd gone, because she couldn't get close enough. So she started building an army.

"Newborn vampires are volatile, uncontrollable, and violent. The amount of deaths in Seattle were appalling. After a few months of this, the Volturi – did Edward mention them to you, ever?"

The name tickled the back of my memory, but that was all. My repression of those days had eradicated almost every memory tainted by him, and I wasn't willing to dig any deeper than I had to.

"I don't remember." I muttered, tersely, and she nodded as though she had expected the answer. Then again, she probably had.

"Well, they're a… government, of sorts. For vampires. They protect us from being discovered. Now, obviously, a mass killing spree in Seattle is going to attract their attention, because it's glaring obvious, after a while, that no human could be doing so much damage. And they're aware of the signs of a newborn army, after there were wars across the World a couple of hundred years ago.

"Anyway, the Volturi went to Seattle, and Victoria fled. She's been on the run ever since, and they haven't managed to catch her. It's only because of this that she hasn't managed to find you – she's been laying low.

"But about a month ago, I had a vision – of Victoria being found by the Volturi and having her mind read before she was killed. It hasn't happened yet, I think it's in like, a week or something, but that's not the point. The Volturi only uphold one rule – don't tell humans that we exist. And when they read her mind, they're going to find out about you, about how much you know, and about the fact that you were involved with one of us. And then they'll come for you."

"What… What do you mean, they'll come for me?" I had listened fairly calmly from the start of her story, but the final part made me panic slightly. I didn't like the thought of a vampire government coming anywhere near me, and from the tone of Alice's voice, I knew it wasn't a good thing.

"They'll come to find you, and they'll kill you. They can't condone humans knowing of our existence."

"So why are you here?"

"Seriously? You think I could just stand by, knowing what was going to happen to you and not care? Do you honestly think that I'm that much of a monster? That I could just watch you die? Know about it, even, know in order to try and save you, and do nothing?" Her voice cracked and her eyes flashed with an emotion that was unidentifiable. But I couldn't comprehend what she was saying, not really.

"But you… You left. You didn't come back. You… If you cared, you wouldn't have gone."

"I would have stayed." She glanced away, staring at something in the distance and the silence stretched between us as I waited for her to speak once again. "I wanted to stay. But Edward… My brother is an idiot. The biggest fucking idiot to walk the earth." I'd never heard her curse before, and hearing her do so in a derogatory manner to him made me smile in spite of myself.

"What, he forbade you to come back?"

"Something like that."

"So, why are you here now? If he didn't want you coming back when Victoria would kill me, then…"

"Before, I had loyalties at home. My whole family wanted to stand by his wishes. Jasper… Jasper didn't want me to interfere, either." Once again, her voice twisted when she said the name, but this was more a grimace of pain rather than disgust. I wondered whether it was my place to ask her what had happened, and decided that no, it wasn't. And anyway, I shouldn't want to know. I just wanted to hear what she had to say before sending her on her way.

Right?

"You still haven't answered my question. Not really."

"I don't want you to die, Bella. So I'm here to help you. If you'll let me."

"And how, exactly, do you propose that you help me?"

"You haven't told anyone about our existence so far, the Volturi will see that. The only explanation that they'll accept for that would be if you were destined to be one of us one day." I bit my lip as the reminder of what I could have had was trust in front of me once more. Immortality mightn't have been a blessing for Edward, but I had honestly wanted to spend the rest of eternity with him. Now, of course, I would take the chance to become a vampire purely so that I could wipe him from the face of the earth permanently after what he'd done, but even so, Alice's words stung slightly.

"And how is that going to happen?"

"I'll have a vision, and Aro – the mind reader and their leader – will see it and presume it to definitely come true."

"They won't believe that. Who's going to change me? He'll know that you don't intend to stay, and that Edward doesn't want anything to do with me. They'll see straight through it."

"Not if we make it believable."

"How?" She looked away again, her teeth ensnaring her bottom lip tightly. "Alice?" I asked, after she'd been silent for a good few minutes. She turned to face me again, indecision raging clearly in her eyes. And I, for some God unknown reason, wanted to reassure her, wanted to take that indecision away, and that thought shook me to the core, because I hadn't wanted to feel anything other than mild annoyance towards her for intruding on my life.

And yet, she was trying to help me. I didn't doubt her story, not for a second. She had no reason to lie to me, no ulterior motive unless she wanted to hurt me more. But I didn't believe that. Didn't believe that she was capable of it - had seen, from the few times that she'd given emotions away, that she felt little loyalty towards her brother.

But that didn't help me. Not at all. Because I was getting drawn in, I could feel it already. Annoyance had already given way to compassion, and I couldn't risk going anything further than that. Friendship, even, could be getting into dangerous territory. Vampires, I knew, were dangerous. Dangerous and seductive. And yet, I knew I couldn't turn her away.

And I also know that I would curse the fact that I had agreed to meet with her for a long, long time after this night was done.

"If," she finally said, taking a deep breath, "If they thought that I would change you, if they saw in a vision me changing you, then they wouldn't doubt us."

"But… That can't be faked, can it?"

"It can if they thought we were together." Another moment of silence as I let her words sink into my brain, let myself process what she'd said. Because surely, surely, I must have misheard. She must have been joking.

Mustn't she?

"I… What?" Call me stupid for barely even being able to string two words together, but she'd left me completely disarmed. I'd come her expecting to yell at her, and now she was saying that in order to save my life, an ancient group of vampires would have to believe that we were in a relationship.

Looked like my bad luck was coming back full-force.

"I know that you don't like me very much right now. Hell, if I were you I wouldn't like me very much right now. But I can't let them hurt you. I won't, even if it kills me. It's my fault that this all happened, and I can't be responsible for your death like that.

"So let me do this for you. Let me help you, let me stop you from dying ridiculously young. You deserve so much more. Let me undo what my brother started all that time ago. What I helped him do all that time ago. And when they've gone, I'll leave. I don't doubt that that's what you want me to do. I know you probably already want me gone, but please, Bella. Just this one thing. Let me do this one thing."

She'd started pacing again, and her eyes were fierce when they locked with mine once again… God, she had to stop with those eyes.

"I… I don't know what to say. Honestly. I mean… Obviously, I'm not suicidal, but this seems like a huge risk – for you as well as me. I don't suppose that running swiftly away is a good enough plan?"

"Sadly not." I couldn't help but feel a slight burst of pride at the brief smile that flashed across her face, and then immediately cursed myself for exactly the same thing. Concentrate, Bella. Jesus.

"Worth a shot though, right? Um, so, how do we go about making this 'believable'?" A mysterious smile graced her lips then, one that I didn't like the look of much at all.

If only because it scared the shit out of me.

"Well, we've got around a month to figure that out."

x-x-x

"You're going to have to figure out a story, you know." Alice's voice startled me out of the reverie I'd found myself in as we were walking back to my apartment. She'd asked if she could walk me there, and I'd agreed, still a little stunned to say no.

"What?"

"For your friends. About why we're suddenly talking. Well, friend. That one that you brought to work with you today. The… over-friendly one." She made a face, as though mentioning Nikki was some sort of chore, and I couldn't help grinning in response. So she'd noticed. And I couldn't help worming in a little teasing – after all, she'd told me that I could be dead in a month. It was the least I could do.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were jealous." I smirked as I came to a stop outside the door of my building, leaning my back against the wall so I could see her expression.

"Oh, please," she scoffed, but I couldn't help noticing that she didn't deny it. "You still need a story, though."

"I'll think of something. As long as she knows I'm alright, then she won't mind. She's just a little over-protective."

"I'm sure."

"Thanks for taking care of me last night, by the way. I, um, apologise for being so out of it."

"It's the least I could do, after everything."

"It's not your fault, you know. It's not your fault he's such a dick." She raised in eyebrow in surprise – had she not expected me to harbour as much hatred as I did for her brother?

"Maybe not, but I still left with the others. If I'd have known where I'd be in four years, then I would have stayed."

"What? Why?"

"I… Now's not the time. Let's just say that things have changed within our family since we left you behind. I presume that there's no love lost between you and Edward, then?"

"No. I could rattle off a list of insults in regards to him, but I won't. He's your brother, after all. Besides, I wouldn't want to scare you off. You might not want to save me."

"I don't think that's likely to happen anytime soon." I couldn't believe how easy it was for me to talk to her, but at the same time, I did resent it, just a little. Was it really just that easy for me to forget everything?

Apparently.

"Anyway, please don't call him my brother again." That got my attention, and she must have seen my shock because she gave me a wry smile. "I told you, now's not the time. I'll explain all though, I promise. Someday."

"Ok," I murmured after a moment of hesitation. I was reluctant to let the matter drop, fearing, irrationally (or maybe not, all things considered), that she would disappear after today and I'd never find out the things that I so desperately wanted to know. "But tell me this – even if the Volturi buy this thing, aren't they going to check up on me a few years down the line?"

"Look, Bella, I don't want you to worry about this too much. Please. We've got time. Just… try not to think about it too much. Or are you still as much of a worrier as you always have been?"

"Of course I am. Once a worrier, always a worrier." She smiled softly, but there was something else in her expression – regret? Or was that just me being silly? Well, whatever it was, it was something that she didn't want me to see, because her expression was blank when I next looked at her. Then her eyes glazed over and she was silent. I stood there for a second, wondering if I should panic or not, having not been around her when she had a vision in so long, but I forced myself to stay put. It could, after all, be something relating to me.

"I should go," she said when she came to, her voice rushed as she glanced over her shoulder before taking a few steps backwards.

"Wait, why? What did you see?" She looked torn but she didn't move, instead she sighed and held up a hand when I began to speak again.

"Bella? Hey, I was looking for you. What are you doing out – what is she doing here?" It was Nikki, approaching from the left side of the building, fury tainting her voice when she saw Alice standing near me. She came to a stop at my side, her hands clenched into fists as she glared at my companion.

"That," was all Alice said before she winked at me and turned on her heel, walking away into the night. I stared after her until she'd disappeared, before reluctantly turning to face my friend.

"What the fuck, Bella?"

A/N:

So, there you go. Information overload. I wasn't sure what direction to go in regarding Alice's appearance in Bella's life, but this is the one I decided to go with. Good or bad? Tell me if you want to. I'll give you virtual cookies. :)

And everyone who reviewed, as always, you are all awesome. Extremely awesome. :D