Bella Pov

Soft, that was the first thought she registered, and then the smell, oh, that was nice. Bella slowly opened her eyes to see the room was dark, but there was just enough light coming in from under the door for her to tell which room she was in. She hadn't needed the hint, Rosalie's scent was different than Alice's, both nice, but Rose was just a bit more flowery, ironically enough.

Her mouth felt like it was glued shut and Bella groaned a little as she struggled to grasp the edge of the sheet to pull it off. "What do you need?" A soft voice spoke slowly and Bella gasped and widened her eyes to try and see in the dark.

"Alice?" It wasn't Alice's room, so it was a little odd she was here.

"Yes, what do you want?" Alice sounded strange, too calm, too intense, all at the same time, and it sounded like she was in the corner chair, but why would she just sit in here, in the dark, all night?

"I'm a little thirsty." Bella admitted quietly, her voice softer, younger, as she wondered why she was suddenly nervous around Alice.

"I have a glass of water." Alice sounded like she was moving easily around the room. The light in the walk in closet went on. "I thought the overhead light my blind you." Alice explained as she moved around to the side of the bed and sat down beside Bella. Bella tried to reach out for the glass Alice held out for her, but her arms weren't under her control, she bumped Alice in the elbow when she tried to take the glass. "Oh, here," Alice set the glass down on the night table and then Bella was easily pulled up into a sitting position. "I'll help you." And Alice did, she helped Bella sit up and helped her bring her shaky hands to her mouth once she had managed to wrap her hands around the glass. "You've been having a strange reaction to the sleeping pill."

Bella slowed her frantic swallowing, as the water became less urgent and frowned as she lowered the glass to see Alice staring at her. "What?"
"Yes, it seems the sleeping pill makes you clairvoyant." Alice spoke slowly and stared into Bella's eyes. "Please Bella, I've been waiting for hours for you to wake up enough to talk. Where am I from?" It sounded like Alice could cry any moment and Bella stared at her stunned. What the hell happened? She remembered watching the others play with the board and she thought she might remember Emmett carrying her, but this was a huge red sign that she'd forgotten some of the night. She struggled and slowly she remembered Esme almost picking her up, and she remembered Rosalie pulling her pants down. Bella blushed at that memory, but then she remembered her pain and her guilt and her wishing she could just tell Alice what Alice wanted to know. "I said something." Bella whispered as she believed she had only thought it.

"It's okay that you have powers Bella, you aren't the only one. I have visions, I can see the future, but I don't know my past. I need you to know my past." Alice whispered her plea and Bella froze, completely confused and it didn't help that her mind was still fuzzy. "I'm Mary Alice Branden and I'm from," Alice spoke slowly.

Bella felt helpless, but the pain in Alice's expression was all she could think about, "Biloxi Mississippi." She whispered as quietly as she could.

"And I lost my memory because," Alice pushed and Bella felt tears well up in her eyes again. How could she tell Alice this, but Alice was pleading, she looked like if she could make tears she'd be crying. Would Alice even say she was a vampire to get her answers, she'd already admitted to too much. Could Bella pretend not to remember anything that happened over the night? Could she even remember it, she felt disconnected and her body wasn't really listening or moving like she wanted it too. She was clearly still drugged. The pills were helping, she wasn't having nightmares, but she wasn't sure this was an improvement.

"Please, Bella, try. Mary Alice lost her memory because," Alice's voice caught as she said that.

Bella loved her, Alice was sweet and kind and never angry or upset and this was all wrong. If Bella didn't give it to her, then she'd have to hear it from James. That idea was horrifying, she didn't want Alice near the monster that tried to hunt her bubbly friend when she was human. "A dark room and shock therapy." She couldn't elaborate much. "Your visions scared your family and you were sent to an asylum."

"Oh God." Alice slumped and the glass became shaky in just Bella's hands, without Alice helping. "Do you know anything else?"

Bella couldn't even think of a way to clean this up. "A serial killer was hunting you and you knew it but no one would listen and a doctor with weird eyes saved you and got you out of there."

Alice turned to her and started to pull Bella closer, but the glass fell from her hands. Alice moved so fast to catch it in the air and she set it down, before moving toward Bella again, her arms helping to hold her up. "Thank you Bella."

"I don't want to be locked up." Bella found herself saying, her mind thinking about her own secrets. It was then that she realized that her mental filter really was down. Perhaps she hadn't really made any decisions about talking.

"No, no, never you. I'll never let anyone lock you up." Alice whispered and held her so tight it might actually leave bruises. "Oh God, Bella, thank you. Thank you." Alice muttered into Bella's neck and Bella managed to wrap her arms around Alice as well.

Her body was held still, very firmly, by Alice, but Bella could feel an overwhelming dizzy tiredness that told her she wasn't going to stay up much longer. She only had one more shot at saying things she shouldn't know. "Don't trust James, he tried to kill you. He killed your doctor. I don't want him near you."

"Bella, do you know anything about James? How does he kill people?" Alice asked, and Bella decided to surrender to the black spots filling her vision at that moment. It was much safer to stop answering questions now.

…

Esme Pov

"Bella." Alice called again and Esme started to enter Rosalie's room, to see Alice holding an unconscious Bella in her arms. They'd all heard Bella wake up, and Bella managed to shock them all again with her power.

"I'm sorry Alice, but she took a full pill. Perhaps she should have only had half, but she isn't going to be able to answer all your questions." Esme spoke softly, gently, to Alice. They'd never seen her as lost, and as desperate as she'd been once she realized that Bella knew something and wasn't able to be woken up to make her tell it. Alice hadn't left the room since she'd gone in there to try and wake Bella up earlier, and when that didn't work she just stayed, for hours, in the dark, waiting.

"She knew, she knew who I was." Alice stared up at Esme, Bella still held tightly in her arms. Esme stepped closer to help Alice settle Bella back onto the bed. It was actually hard to get Alice to let her go. "She said James was a serial killer, I think he was a vampire."

"Are you doing okay Alice, this is, well, this is a bit of a shock." Esme studied Alice to see she did look a bit messier, her hair had clearly been tugged on a bit, and her expression was so stunned, and so confused, it hurt to see.

"Jasper is helping me." Alice admitted, but then again, Jasper had to stay out of this room because of how Alice was so possessive of Bella. It was affecting him if he got too close. Alice had almost been ready to fight them if they'd tried to get her to leave Bella's side tonight, she was sure Bella would say more, and so they'd let her stay, but they were monitoring her carefully.

"Are you ready to come out now?" Esme risked asking.

"She shouldn't be alone. She can't control her body very well." Alice spoke slowly and Esme noticed that Alice started petting Bella's hair distractedly.

"Emmett or Rosalie could watch out for her." Esme offered, because she really didn't think leaving Alice alone in the dark was a good move after what Bella just revealed. "But you know you don't need to actually be in here to watch out for her, and we all were able to hear when she woke up. She doesn't need someone right here for us to make sure she's okay."

"I'd be happy to watch out for Bella Bear." Emmett offered up from the main room. It was sweet of him, but from the look on Alice's face she wasn't ready to leave the human girl just yet.

"We do need to talk about this." Esme told Alice gently. "I really think you need to be with us for that meeting." Esme also didn't say it out loud, but they were going to have to decide what to do about Edward as well.

"I just," Alice stared down at Bella, and the hand she had on the girl. "I just need a few more minutes." Alice sounded shaky, and Esme nodded, before moving for the door. When she turned to look back into the room she could see Alice moving to lie down beside Bella, holding the girl in her arms.

"She's afraid and when she was awake, even when she was telling me everything I wanted to know, she was debating about pretending she didn't know." Alice whispered as she spooned the girl from behind. "She must feel like she's risked so much for me, but she decided to trust me."

Esme paused as she caught on to what Alice was hinting at. "You want to trust her. You want to tell her." It felt like Esme couldn't even grasp what she was feeling in that moment. She hated lying to Bella, but she'd rather do that then not have the girl around at all. Bella might not ever tell, but that wouldn't mean she would feel safe around them ever again.

"Edward is going to use the fact she knows things about me to claim we need to leave immediately, and you know it. He's going to insist, he's going to push and push, and we can't leave her. He's going to come up with a hundred reasons we should leave, but the big argument, the one that we have no answer to is that she may find out and we don't know how she'd react to that. If we can decide to tell her, to honestly decide, I can see what will happen."

"We can't honestly make a decision like that without him." Esme spoke softly, but she also just didn't know how she'd vote on something like that. "There are laws, and I don't ever want Bella brought to the Volturi's attention. Aside from what they'd do to us, I can't even begin," Esme's voice cracked. "The risk is so great." She finished, and turned to close the door.

"I won't leave her. You know you won't either. Something needs to be decided." Alice spoke through the door and Esme took a shaky breath as she turned to head back into her office.

…..

Emmett Pov

It was two o'clock in the morning, in Forks it was last call for alcohol in the town bar. When Emmett looked around the dining room table at his family, they looked like they could use a tall glass, even though vampires couldn't drink anything but blood. Esme had a fabric sample in her hand that she was twisting a bit nervously. Carlisle was constantly sneaking glances at the chair that Edward would normally be in. Rosalie was not even trying to unclench her fists. Jasper's jaw was clenched against the feelings of the rest of them.

No one was talking, so Emmett decided to just get things started. "So Bella Bear is smarter than the average bear." He mocked the yogi bear cartoon.

"This isn't funny Emmett." Rosalie scolded him, but she went on to say more so it worked. "I heard what you said Alice, but I can't bring her into this world like that. There are laws, and it's punishable by death. Not just ours, hers as well. We don't have the right to make that decision for her. Even if we never got caught, she already barely fits in her human world, we'd be ripping that away from her."

Emmett felt disappointed at that moment, because he fully planned to support the idea that they could tell Bella anything. Part of him even thought Rosalie would be right there with him. Rose loved Bella bear at least as much as Emmett did.

"I hate to take Edward's place on the topic of Bella, but we can't ignore that if she can see Alice's past, she might, eventually, start to see other things as well." Jasper spoke up.

"Like me taking down a real bear." Emmett muttered, and wondered how confused that would make his little human friend.

"Exactly. We don't know how her powers work, but she's already in tune with Alice. I'm sure if Alice gets a bear it would be even more confusing for her to see." Jasper added and Emmett nodded, he was sure that would look stranger still to her.

"But doesn't Bella seem to mostly see the past?" Esme asked.

"She warned me about James, I don't know what her limits are." Alice spoke up. "Apparently I'm going to meet the vampire that hunted me at some point and she didn't want me to do it without being warned."

"So you don't think it was a real serial killer?" Emmett asked.

"He'd be rather too old by now to be a threat if he were Emmett." Rosalie explained and Emmett grimaced. He'd been more focused on other things, so he didn't pay attention to that little fact. "The only good thing about her comment about James is that she didn't know what to call him. If she'd seen him kill, I think she might have put it together what he was."

"With her open mindedness about the paranormal, she'll be likely to believe it when she sees it." Carlisle added the warning. "We've moved away from places for less reason than this."

"We've never had a good reason to stay before either." Esme added. "Before Bella, one place was just as good as another. I don't agree with Alice that we should tell, Bella already has so much she's dealing with, but I do agree that we can't leave." Esme looked firm in her convictions as she looked around the room. "She's already chosen to trust Rose and Alice more than she's ever probably trusted anyone. She told them both secret things she knew she shouldn't be able to know, and sure, she was under the influence at the time, but it still happened and now we have to deal with that. Who else could she trust like this? Charlie? The man is kind, he is a good father, but he is struggling with just dealing with a normal teenage girl. This would be so far out of his realm of experience he would be completely lost. Who else does she have that might even be somewhat understanding?"

"I think you're preaching to the choir Esme. No one wants to leave." Emmett spoke up.

"Is that true?" Carlisle asked and Emmett looked around the room when he did. "If we're not willing to risk telling her, are we willing to risk her just finding out? With what we've seen that is a possibility."

"How do we know she doesn't already know?" Emmett asked.

Rosalie gave a humorless chuckle. "She's willing to sleep here. I think that says enough about her cluelessness so far." Rosalie seemed sure, but Emmett wasn't so convinced that Bella would be that afraid of them is she found out. She knew them now, they were all friends.

"I never sense any fear or apprehension." Jasper added quietly. "She lets some of us get so close to her. How many times have you seen her hug one of us and her neck is right there is our faces. She doesn't hesitate."

"I would never." Esme spoke up firmly, her expression horrified. Esme was the recipient of a lot of those hugs, so was Emmett and he never once was tempted to take a bite. Sure the smell was amazing, mouthwatering, but he was never tempted to actually do it. He was even proud of that, having a human best friend had improved his control a lot.

"I wasn't saying anyone would, just saying that if she knew, she would be more cautious." Jasper told them. Emmett guessed he could understand that. A human might be friends with a vampire, but neck exposure was pushing it a bit.

"We're starting to get a little off topic here." Carlisle spoke up. "I see a problem in how people are appearing to vote. Let's just get this out there and deal with it." He looked around the room. "Who wants to tell Bella that we are vampires?"

Emmett gave an apologetic look towards Rose as he raised his hand. He noticed Alice was the only other one with hers up.

"Okay, who wants to move before she finds out we are vampires?" Carlisle spoke and this time Jasper got a dark look from Alice even as he raised his hand.

"The law is clear, and I don't want to risk this." Jasper explained softly, but once the vote was done his hand was down fast.

"You didn't vote to leave." Esme made that a question and Carlisle paused before putting out another voting topic.

"I probably should have, I was tempted, but she is a human with a power and I just want to know more before deciding to leave." Carlisle admitted. Emmett didn't like the sound of that at all. If Carlisle voted that way and Jasper did, they knew Edward's vote. He wished he could count on Rosalie to stay firmly on the Bella side, but he just didn't know if she would. Edward might find a way to manipulate things to make Rosalie feel like staying would hurt Bella more and if he did then it would be four voting to leave. This was not good at all.

Emmett shared a look with Alice over the table and made the decision that they needed to talk at some point before Edward came back. Alice nodded subtly back.

"Here is where I see the problem." Carlisle spoke and Emmett turned his eyes away from Alice to pay attention. "Normally when someone is about to find out, or we suspect we might be discovered we move. There is a very real possibility we will face that decision here. If Bella looks like she might find out, or finds out, how many vote to move?"

Emmett kept his hand down firmly, and looked around the room to see Jasper and Carlisle were alone, but Rosalie's face looked too pained, her hand waivered in her lap. Carlisle spoke up, thankfully, before Rose's hand was able to betray them. "You see the problem here? We vote to not tell, but we vote to do nothing if she figures it out."

"If we could just vote to do it, to take an action, I could see what would happen." Alice growled.

"We'd have to mean it Alice, and I don't think I could." Rosalie spoke up softly. "If she finds out, she's trapped, never to be the same again."

"She isn't a normal human Rose, she's trapped regardless. She's a girl without a world. Apparently just like I was when I was human, and tonight we all heard what happened to me." Alice said and then got up. "I need to hunt."

"I don't think she should be alone right now." Esme spoke up once Alice was out of the room. Emmett looked at the pained look on his Angel's face and didn't think she should be either.

Emmett knew this was their chance to talk, Alice probably made it for them, but it was hard to volunteer when Rosalie was hurting. Still, he followed Alice's trail into the woods.