Esme pov

Edward looked so lost and Esme sat on the boulder in the backyard just watching him. They'd left the house, but promised not to leave the yard. They could still hear the other four who had stayed at the table.

It was harder than she'd expected, Esme thought. Half of the family was disabled by grief and shock and she was a part of that half. What her son had lost was beyond measure, and what he'd done was beyond stupid. Esme struggled to push those thoughts out of her mind, for his sake, as he sat there staring out into the woods blankly.

"You don't think she's the same Bella." Edward asked quietly after a long silence.

"No, she's not. This is Bella Maria Swan, and she's been reincarnated into that younger body." Esme told him as gently as she could. She loved their Bella, she felt torn though, because while she wanted their Bella to be a part of the family, part of her wished that other Bella existed too, just for Edward's sake. Even though Edward and that Bella in the story sounded like a horrible mess of a relationship, it was the first time Edward had shown any interest in any one.

"She basically said she'd rather be with anyone else but me, and everyone else is married. She'd rather be a bit on the side than be with me." Edward spoke slowly. "Or a stranger, she'd pick a stranger over me, even one that kills humans."

"This isn't the Bella in the stories Edward, you've never really even talked to this Bella before." Esme didn't add that he'd never met the other one. "She didn't mean to say that to you Edward." Esme told him, but she knew, they both knew, that it was how she really felt. The story painted a bad Edward, and Esme got the sense that after Alice told Bella to not concentrate on Edward's part of it so much more was left out. "You do need to know that women of this time are different than what you grew up with. Even we have changed, but you, you still think the man is supposed to do all the thinking and the woman is to be cared for like a child. That irritated even the women a hundred years ago." Was it too soon to tell him that he needed to work on himself, if he hadn't found a mate yet it would be a woman of this time or later and his old fashioned attitude would drive love away from him.

"I know I'm horrible. I endangered everyone in that story, and it's more than a story isn't it. It was the future as it would have been." Edward sighed. "It hardly seems fair that in the story that Rosalie was horrible to her and yet Bella cried for her and didn't even think twice about my pain."

"Oh Edward." Esme felt lost, unsure how to reassure him.

"I don't want to stay, but I made a promise and I'm going to show her I can keep my word. She apparently has no confidence in my ability to do so. So I'll stay and I'll listen to however else I managed to hurt my family, whatever other huge blunders I made with the best of intentions and how it likely got Irina killed. I can't very well go to Alaska now, anyway, not after this."

…..

Tanya Pov

Tanya took a deep breath and then looked around the living room at the others. "Eleazer, I believe this story, but have you ever heard of anything like this child they are talking about?"

"No, somehow I've never even heard legends, but based on how the human maid acted there are legends somewhere." He told her and she nodded distractedly. She was well aware that two of the Cullen women would be disappointed today, and Tanya was just glad she had no maternal instincts of her own that would be scarred to know that the men of their kind could and they couldn't.

"She really doesn't care for Edward much, does she?" Kate asked and a bit of humor was in her voice. Tanya smiled just a little as she looked up at her sister. The time period he came from was incredibly dull and restrictive about sex. Tanya had taken to acting infatuated with him just to make him uncomfortable when he was around. She liked the rest of Carlisle's family, and for the most part Edward was alright, but the condemnation or pity in Edward's eyes whenever a thought or word came out about their monthly need to sate other desires grew old fast.

"I don't think he'll be marrying that Bella anytime soon." Tanya spoke up, before looking over at Irina. "Are you okay?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm in the next part of this story." Irina spoke softly. "Based on what's happening now, I'm afraid of what I may have done before I died."

"Bella called us to make sure you were warned, so whatever you did wasn't unforgivable." Tanya told her sister. The thought that Irina could have died was horrifying. They'd been together so long that Tanya could not even imagine life without her sister. It was unusual for any vampires not mated to stay together for any huge length of time, but Tanya and her sisters may hold the record for the longest time a coven stayed together, other than the Volturi, and may have held that record five hundred years ago.

"Do you think she's cute?" Kate asked while moving to lay on the couch. Poor Irina now had feet in her lap. "Bella?"

"How are we supposed to tell that from a voice?" Tanya shook her head in some amusement at Kate turning this break into a chance to gossip.

"Well, I was just wondering what type of female Edward goes for. It's the same body as the Bella he married, aren't you curious?" Kate smirked as she pulled her arms around behind her to rest her head on. "I mean, I can bet she's not blonde. He doesn't look at any of us or Rosalie."

"I know, I'm surprised she's a female actually, I was sure he was a repressed homosexual." Tanya spoke with a wicked grin.

"No, no, that lad isn't gay, just regularly repressed." Eleazer added.

"Eleazer." Carmen scolded him with just one word, but the rest of them were grinning.

"It must be hard for him, living with Rosalie." Tanya grinned as she said it. Rosalie had the sex drive of a succubus, without the need of the energy. It was always Tanya's secret thought that if Rosalie had been turned by Tanya or one of her sisters, she would have been a succubus. Given how Rosalie was abused though, perhaps it was better not to be a full succubus, those first few years would have been too hard for her. She might have allowed herself to starve, rather than lay with anyone.

"I'm concerned about the Volturi." Eleazer spoke up and the teasing air faded. "Now that Bella pointed it out, it makes horrible sense how the Volturi have so many gifted members. I wanted to believe the best of them, so did Carlisle I assume. Based on what Bella has said I'm amazed I was allowed to leave."

Tanya gritted her teeth rather than speak up. Her family had had poor dealings with the Volturi in the past, but a crime had been committed and they'd not blamed the royal family for enacting punishment. They'd been horrified by the immortal child as well, but the loss of Sasha was a hard loss to take. Now they find that if they'd had powers deemed useful they might have been taken away, that they could have taken Kate away, that was hard to stomach. "We will have to do all we can to avoid them. Bella gave us knowledge I'm sure Aro would not like us having."

"Oh god, I think that's what I did." Irina gasped and Tanya turned her eyes to her sister in concern.

"What?" Tanya asked.

"I was bitter in that story, angry." Irina spoke with some pain and Kate was up from her laying position and sitting beside her in a blink. "If I'm right, then Bella's definition of forgivable is much kinder than my own."

Tanya was confused, but before she could ask the phone rang. "I guess it's time." Tanya muttered and pushed the button for the speaker. Kate was holding Irina's hand for support, while Tanya took the lead on the phone. "Hello again."

….

Emmett pov

Emmett felt helpless and he hated to feel that, especially when it was about Rose, or now Bella. They were hurting, both hurting and nothing could be done about it. He had learned how to be silently supportive in his early years with this family. Rose had been so damaged, and so distraught over what she'd lost, and he'd been her rock.

Rose concerned him the most at this time, because this was so hard for her and also if she was okay, Bella would be okay. This was hard for Rose, so hard he was amazed that she'd been able to pull away and comfort Bella. Rose now held Bella's hand, and she sat up straight, but in the corners of her eyes, in the tilt of her lip, Emmett knew it was taking everything Rose had to be able to do that. She was going to collapse at some point tonight, and she was just determined that Bella wouldn't see it.

Emmett remembered hard nights when he'd done that for Rose, been stronger than he really was. There were so many nights where he tried to be as strong as he could for her, nights where it felt like his heart was being ripped apart by her pain, and he remembered getting through the episode, the crying, the screaming, and then just managing to get far enough away so he could scream himself for her pain and the way it hurt him to be so helpless to do more than listen.

Emmett took a breath and focused on Alice, who had set the phone down. His eyes asking a question he hoped she caught. "We're almost done, and then we can go lick our wounds." Alice answered too quiet for Bella to hear.

"Hey Tanya." Bella answered the greeting that had been given them. "Is everyone there?"

"Oh we weren't going to leave now." Tanya spoke and it was easy to hear the resignation in her voice.

"Alright then." Bella took a deep breath and was staring at those notes again. Emmett had taken a peak at those notes, but they made little sense, and Rose hadn't let him look long during that break.

"The baby kept growing fast, and she was unnaturally attached to Jake's presence so even though Bella wasn't really comfortable with the imprint she couldn't really deny them time together." Bella started and there was an extra tension in her voice that vampire ears could hear easily. The baby had a weird form of telepathy to communicate and was strangely smart and perceptive. Her mind was growing faster than her body and her body was growing so fast Bella was afraid her baby would die of old age in a year."

Rose gritted her teeth and Bella gripped Rose's hand harder, hard enough for Emmett to see white knuckles. "The baby needed to hunt, she could eat human food, but she preferred blood. Bella, Jake and the baby went out on a hunting trip." Bella's eyes moved to the phone and talked right to it. "Irina was visiting and saw them from a distance, too much of a distance to hear the beating heart. She just saw a wolf, and she hated those, and a small vampire, with Bella. Assumptions were made and she was gone before Bella could even think to follow her. Bella should have chased her down."

Irina muttered in Russian and Emmett grimaced. Shit was so right.

"I know there were a lot of reasons she came to the conclusion she did and anger and fear would have pushed her to do what she did." Bella stammered a little.

"You don't need to sugar coat it. I betrayed my family." Irina spoke up, her accent, which had been gone for years was a little thicker at the moment.

Bella paused, and they could all hear her teeth grind for a moment. "Irina called the Volturi." She just put it out there fast, perhaps that band aid that Alice kept talking about. "Alice saw the Volturi were going to come in force and destroy the Cullens. Alice also had some other ideas, but with Aro coming she couldn't tell anyone what she was doing. The Cullens were shocked when Alice and Jasper ran, leaving them behind." Bella's eyes moved to Alice. "They weren't running away, they were trying a last ditch effort to save everyone, but no one knew that for a while."

"Vampires started arriving at the house. Alice and Jasper were sending them. Soon Carlisle was calling more. They told them they weren't expected to fight, but to witness what the Volturi were doing. The Volturi's habit of stealing the gifted was figured out, and the fake trials. Alice was setting them up to be unable to hide what they did here, but it was just part of her plan. She was desperately looking for another half breed child, and it was hard, because she couldn't have visions of those."

"While there were those that were at the house just to witness, those that expected they'd have to fight were training. Bella was training her gift to learn how to protect others with it. The Volturi's main guards relied on mind powers and Bella was needed to protect everyone from those. The Denali's, other than Irina, were training as well. They formally announced that they were part of the Cullen coven when it came time, with Irina standing by the Volturi, confused and scared."

"It wasn't looking good, and then Alice showed up with a young man, another half breed. His father was a bit of an evil scientist and he was going around impregnating women, and leaving them to die giving birth, to see what half breeds were capable of. It was a messed up story, but they were able to show that half breeds were not a huge threat to the secrets and laws. Aro was pissed, so was Caius, but with witnesses they could just attack for no reason."

Bella paused, tears in her eyes and trailing down her face. "I'm so sorry." She whispered, and her voice cracked. She took a shaky breath and Emmett watched her helplessly. "The Volturi, once they realized that it wasn't an immortal child still wanted to fight. They killed Irina in punishment for the false report, they were trying to get her sisters to attack first. They had to be held back when it happened."

"Thank you for telling me." Irina spoke stiffly, and Emmett thought he could hear a sob over the phone from someone. "I had expected it might be something like this."

"I'm sorry." Bella spoke softly.

"You are merely the bearer of bad news Bella, and you've saved me from that." Irina sounded like she was moving closer to the phone.

Tanya spoke up, her voice tight and tense. "We appreciate being witness to this story, but is it over now?"

"Yes." Bella whispered and Emmett felt relief that it was done.

"We look forward to meeting you, but I find we really must be going. Thank you Bella, really, thank you." The phone cut off and Alice reached out to turn it off on their end. They all sat in silence for a moment.

"That was a little rougher than I thought it would be." Emmett admitted after too much silence.

"That's why I didn't want to do this." Bella admitted in a whisper.

"You've saved us from a half a dozen dangers just with this story alone Bella." Jasper spoke up. "It was necessary, at least we can say it was necessary to know this."

"You did the right thing Bella." Rosalie whispered, and Emmett could see her mask starting to crack. "I'll talk to you later, but I really need to hunt, very badly." Emmett watched Bella look into Rose's golden eyes and just nod. His Bella bear knew enough to know Rose didn't need to hunt, and so did he.

"I could use a bite myself." He lied openly and no one debated it as he followed Rose out of the house.

…