Emmett Pov

He caught up to her easily enough, and Alice was just sitting on a log waiting. "I need you to do something for me Emmett." Alice spoke as soon as he came to a stop in front of her. "I need you to decide to tell Bella the truth, in spite of the vote, behind everyone's back, I need you to be willing to tell her what we are."

Emmett couldn't help but think about the consequences of that action. The family would be so upset, Rosalie would be so upset.

"You need to mean it Emmett, you need to plan out how you'd tell her." Alice spoke softer. "You need to know that if we don't tell her that Edward will always have something he can use to make us leave her behind. She loves us, and she doesn't trust easily. I can tell you that if we really left, it would not make her life better. She'd be unprotected, like I was, and I don't want that for her. She's afraid to tell people what she knows, what she can do, because she thinks what happened to me can happen to her. James, she warned me a vampire was coming, but if we aren't here does she just take over what was supposed to be my death? You have a nose, if someone was going to hunt anyone in this town, who would it be?" Emmett growled quietly at the thought, because he knew Bella smelled a hell of a lot better than Jessica or Lauren. "You need to decide to save her from that, you need to decide to tell her what we are so that it can't be used against us."

"I'm supposed to drive her into town on Wednesday so she can apply at the little shops." Emmett started to plan, hoping that Alice's words were just incentive and not really true. They did work though, because he couldn't let anything like that happen to Bella Bear, he couldn't risk it. Bella was strong enough to take the truth. "When we get back to her place I could just sit her down on her bed and tell her I'm a vampire."

Alice went quiet, and he could see her start to frown. "She laughs at you, she doesn't believe you. She tells you that you'd make a better superhero for Halloween."

"I could take her into the woods and smash a boulder in half to show her I'm a vampire." He rethought the plan.

"She thinks you somehow rigged the boulder, she doesn't believe you. She claims to be cold and wants to get home." Alice said slowly. "Try something else really obvious."

"I could lift up the front of my jeep." He was struggling with how to prove himself now.

"She says they have that trick in Universal Studios and she wants you to stop messing with her, you'd make a better Hulk than a vampire anyhow." Alice told him and this time Emmett was getting a little irritated with his Bella bear.

"I could drive us back towards school after she applies everywhere, and walk her up the hill and into the woods, to the place where there is a good view for a couple of miles and I could have her watch me run." Emmett thought he had it this time.

"She won't hike up that hill with you." Alice seemed to be having a very long vision after Emmett just decided to pick her up and run her up that hill. Emmett couldn't believe how hard this was. "It won't work." Alice stared up at him. "Not if you do it."

"So you don't want me to tell her?" Emmett had been starting to look forward to being able to show Bella the cool things he could do.

"I don't understand what's wrong, all your ideas should have worked, but none of them did." Alice sounded just a little irritated herself. "It's like she doesn't want to see, doesn't want to," Alice's words trailed off and she looked at him with a strange expression on her face.

"Alice?" He asked when she was quiet for a little too long.

"It doesn't work if you do it. We'll need to scrap that idea." Alice spoke slowly, but he could tell she was distracted.

"Is that all we needed to do?" Emmett felt like this was one of the lamest meetings he ever had, they didn't decide on anything really.

"Don't let Rosalie dwell on how she thinks Bella's life should be, make her realize what Bella would turn that life into without us. It's when Rosalie starts to romanticize being human that she makes her worst mistakes in my visions." Alice told him and he knew he had the harder task, no matter what Alice set for herself. Rosalie was a bit too attached to what she thought was the 'human life'. "Don't push her too fast, even though it's important, we can't risk having her stick her heels in. You know she can get stubborn at times." Alice sighed. "Have Bella help you. She doesn't need to know why to help you."

"I think I need to have a little talk with Bella." Alice said while shaking her head lightly from side to side.

"You're going to do it?" Emmett asked slowly, stunned that telling was still an option. "Why does she listen to you and not me?" He couldn't help asking the question, a little hurt.

"I'm not going to tell her anything, I'm going to be asking." Alice said firmly and Emmett didn't understand at all what Alice meant. Alice stood up. "I still need to hunt."

"Did you want company?" Emmett asked her, suddenly seeing how fragile she started to look. It had been a hard night for Alice.

"Would you mind horribly if I don't? I just need some time to think about everything." She looked up at him and he nodded. He'd just head back to the house, but he wasn't going to rush. He needed a little time to think as well.

…

Esme Pov

Esme stopped at the partially opened door. She'd heard Rosalie go in several minutes ago and she wasn't leaving. It was strange how her daughters just took turns sitting in the dark with Bella, but then Esme would have been in there already if Rose hadn't beat her to it.

"You can come in." Rosalie spoke softly, too softly to ever disturb Bella's sleep. Esme pushed the door open just a little and slipped inside. Standing just inside the room she could see Rosalie sitting on her bed, lightly playing with Bella's hair. The girl was asleep, but she was still gripping the shirt sleeve of the arm Rosalie was leaning on, as if keeping Rosalie there.

"She doesn't seem to want to let you go." Esme spoke softly and smiled.

Rosalie gave a weak smile and then gently moved some hair out of Bella's face, tucking it behind an ear. "She didn't wake up, but she whispered my name. She knows its me." Esme thought that was even better, Rose looked like she needed that. "I love her Esme." Rosalie spoke so softly it was a strain to hear it and Esme stepped further into the room.

"I think most of us do." She told Rose, while smiling at the way Bella's fingers moved just a little, but they wouldn't let go. "In a way I feel like she completes our family."

"How can we even think of telling her that the world is so much scarier than she knows?" Rose asked, her hand tracing Bella's ear so lightly that it seemed too intimate a moment to watch and Esme felt slightly uncomfortable. "I don't like that she might come to fear us, I think it would break my heart." Esme understood that feeling all too well. "But it isn't just enough to vote no, because she has something inside her that tells her things we can't control."

The word 'control' struck a cord in Esme and she paused as she considered it. "We can't control what she learns, or how she reacts. All we can really do is show her we love her so that if or when she gets over the shock she might come back."

"So you would stay." Rosalie spoke without even looking at her and Esme watched Rosalie just stare at Bella.

"Bella needs us, there is no question in my mind that I'll stay. I hate to say it, I hate to even think it, but Bella does not belong in their world." Esme managed not to take a step back when Rosalie tore her eyes off Bella and glared at her.

"You think she belongs in ours?" Rosalie had a bit of a growl to her words.

"I think, sad as it is, that Alice was right. Bella has no world." Esme spoke softly, her words paining her and from the look on Rosalie's face, it pained her as well. Esme studied the human girl's peaceful face, unhappy with the realization that this was usually not how Bella slept. Did her nights consist of visions that scared her? "We don't know the extent of her powers, or what exactly they are, but we do know that there are far more vampires that have to learn how to deal with gifts than humans. Alice, apparently, was an anomaly, but so is Bella. They don't use shock therapy anymore," Esme felt something dark and angry in her rise up when she thought of Alice living the life Bella said she had, "but they do use drugs they don't understand on anything they don't understand. Humans will dope her up to the point she can barely feel anything rather than let her continue to be different. Because of that, part of me wants to claim her into our world." Esme admitted softly. "But the other part of me worries she wouldn't fit here either, that it would be too much for her."

"The drugs have already started." Rosalie reminded her and Esme sighed heavily, while watching Bella sleep.

"She won't talk. Carlisle said that would be better, but now I think her fear of psychologists make more sense." Esme moved forward enough to rest a hand on Bella's blanket covered foot. She pretended not to notice how Rosalie stared at that contact immediately, as if debating allowing it. Her daughters were both too tense, instincts were a little too close to the surface. It was interesting to see that in those moments, Bella was in less danger than ever around them all. "Hopefully this night will at least give Bella someone to talk about what's happening to her. It can't have been easy, keeping it a secret. In some ways her secret is as huge to her as ours is to us."

They stayed in silence for a while, and when Esme thought perhaps she should go, Rosalie spoke softly again. "I just want what's best for Bella, but I don't know what that is."

"I know, I do to." Esme moved her hand to rest it on Rosalie's shoulder, as she looked into her troubled eyes. "If we could ask her, it would be so much simpler, but there is no way to ask without already causing the damage. I think that's part of why I voted the way I did, that and I don't want to see the look of fear on her face." Esme patted Rosalie's shoulder and turned to leave the room.

"Thank you." She heard as she closed the door.

…

Bella Pov

She could hear the river, and Bella frowned as that odd sound registered in her mind. Her eyes opened and she stretched slowly, as the night started to come back to her. Her eyes darted to the chair and while she could see the window had been opened, making it possible to hear the river, no one else was with her. She sat up and noticed that the sun was just starting to come up, so it was probably about time to wake up.

Waking up wasn't the problem for once, and the lingering drugs in her system might be the only reason she didn't consider at least checking to see if she could make it out the window, rather than deal with the confusion of last night. God, Alice thought Bella was a clairvoyant, probably they all did by now. It wasn't true, but Bella didn't have a better story to tell in its place. She didn't want to go from simply not talking about it to lying, but what the hell could she even say? It sounded insane.

Bella regretted coming over, and the sleeping pill was very stupid on top of it all, but the look on Alice's face, Bella had no idea what to think about it. Alice was grateful to hear her human life had been hell, just to know. If James didn't exist, and Bella were actually fully awake, maybe she could have made up a better story, a less painful one. Maybe she could have at least broken it to her more gently. Bella took a shaky breath, and tried to keep herself from tearing up.

Bella took a few deep breaths and got herself under control, because she had a decision to make. She could pretend to have forgotten it all, it might be safer. Let them think she didn't even know she knew things.

"Morning sunshine." A voice called out even as the door opened and Bella looked up to see Alice coming in with her normal happy smile. "I know you didn't forget I told you I see the future, so stop trying to plan how to tell me you remember nothing."

"What?" Bella stared for a moment, a bit stunned Alice just blurted that out.

"Yes, first you were planning to apologize for not being more gentle about the news you gave me and then I saw you telling me you slept really well and didn't remember even getting to the bed." Alice tugged the sheet and blanket down off of her, and the cool air was a bit startling. "You were drugged, I'm just grateful you answered my questions, and I don't think you were harsh at all." Alice caressed Bella's cheek as Bella just sat on the bed staring. "And as for pretending you forgot it all, no taking it back. I told you one of my secrets, that's just as big as yours and we're going to be okay." Alice tapped her head. "I know we will."

"You're okay?" Bella whispered, a little disarmed by Alice's attitude. Alice just smiled at her, something gentle and tender in her yellow eyes.

"Yes, I am." The little vampire told her. "You missed breakfast, but Esme saved you some." Alice was still using that 'we already ate excuse' and Bella was almost amused that things seemed almost the same, but Alice was watching her much more carefully.

Once she was dressed and following Alice downstairs, Rosalie stood up from the couch. "Are you okay Bella?" She looked like she'd been waiting to ask and Bella gave her a weak smile.

"Thanks for, well, you know." Bella blushed, remembering Rosalie saw her in her underwear and probably nothing else. Thank god the underwear was new. Alice finished moving into the kitchen.

"It's no problem. The pill hit you harder than we thought." Rosalie moved closer and was studying her eyes. "You still look a little off."

"Yeah, I feel a little off, but I feel better than I did." Bella told her, but the smell surrounding her made her want to lean into Rosalie a little more. It was a little new, her lack of control and Bella struggled to not do something else stupid. She could see concern and Rosalie was moving closer to stare into her eyes again.

"You do know you can trust me right?" Rosalie spoke softly and Bella was surprised. She knew you couldn't talk to one vampire in this house and not have all the others hear it, but perhaps since she wasn't telling them specifically, it made them insecure.

"I do."

"You know, it's okay that you're clairvoyant. I mean, I don't have anything special like that, but we're used to Alice." Rosalie spoke and Bella felt a choking of guilt.

"I'm not." She admitted and saw Rosalie frown. She could see the blonde vampire taking it the wrong way. "It's complicated, but I'm not. It's," Bella sighed heavily and felt nearly a year of staying quiet holding her back. "I can't." She stared at Rosalie helplessly.

"You trust Alice?" Rosalie asked, her voice just a bit cold.

"It's not about trust, I just," Bella felt frustrated that she didn't have even an ability to explain. "I only know what I know, I don't get new info." And that sounded stupid and vague.

"You don't?" Rosalie asked and there was more than a hint of interest, and a small smile. "How does that work?"

"Yes, how does that work?" Alice stood in the doorway staring at her, looking confused. Bella wondered how many vampires were just out of sight listening to this, or why they had all left this to Rosalie and Alice. She also wondered if they were going to school at all today, because it would take forever to get herself out of this.