Chapter Three
Emmett
I knew Rose was really upset about Edward and Bella becoming an item and I understood why but there was nothing we could do about it except watch and wait. The incident on the baseball field was unfortunate, even more James decision to track Bella down. The whole family rallied together to keep Bella safe although Rose made it abundantly clear that she did so only under sufferance, she really hated Bella, for her human life and the way she was throwing it away on Edward. When Alice volunteered herself and Jasper to run Bella South to keep her safe there was more than one eyebrow raised. Our best chance at finding James and destroying him lay in Jasper, the only one of us with any kind of tracking and fighting skills but Carlisle agreed so off went Bella with possibly the most dangerous to her of us as a bodyguard. As expected the rest of us made a hash of it and James headed south after Bella leaving us chasing our tails. Then Bella gives Alice the slip although how Alice didn't see Bella's intentions was a mystery to all of us. Jasper blamed himself for her getting away but all he knew was she was upset and frightened, only to be expected with what was going on. Luckily we got there in time to save Bella and although she was pretty beat up the only thing Edward was worried about was the fact that James had bitten her. She had asked Edward to change her already which sent Rose through the roof. A girl who had a great life ahead of her with all its possibilities, the life in fact that Rose coveted and she was willing to throw it all away over Edward. Anyway he sucked the venom out and she survived, he had my admiration for that, I couldn't have done it, especially not to a singer. So back in Forks Edward and Bella were much closer although Charlie now hated his guts for Bella's accident. They made up some crazy story about Edward going and Bella following to get him back and falling through a window at the hotel or some such rubbish. Bella was becoming a part of the family slowly and I saw Rose becoming more bitter the closer Bella got to us all. I tried talking her round but the sentence containing freezes, over, and hell, comes to mind. Bella never understood why Rose hated her and I wasn't going to get involved, I liked Bella, she made me laugh.
Rose
Emmett was as smitten with Bella as the rest although I thought her a reckless fool. She made Edward happy which pleased Carlisle and Esme so there was nothing I could do except bitch to Alice who had fallen head over heels for her new best friend. Jasper kept his distance although whether because he felt guilty at losing her in Phoenix or because he was worried he might drain her I didn't know. Then came the fateful night of the birthday party, that was a total disaster but with a good outcome, at least in my opinion. Again why Alice didn't see what was coming was beyond me, but then her actions that day were strange to say the least. She insisted on a cake and champagne although Bella was the only one who would be eating and drinking and she splashed out on crystal plates and champagne flutes, Esme and I both thought she was crazy and when Jasper questioned it all she nearly bit his head off. He spent the rest of the day keeping out of her way and I didn't blame him, even Emmett avoided her, she was in so weird a mood. Of course we all had to buy her a present although Alice got mine for me and even wrapped it in expensive wrapping paper. She did all the presents up with a smile singing to herself and by evening she was her usual bouncy self again while the rest of us were now nervous wrecks.
Bella looked about as pleased with the party set up as I felt, she hated a fuss but with Alice you just gritted your teeth and let her get on with it. Emmett and Jaspers present of the radio for her truck went down well mainly because Emmett had already installed it by the time she opened the box. My necklace which I hadn't even seen because Alice had wrapped it without showing it to me turned out to be a locket which she didn't open but I guess it would have a photo of Edward in it if Alice had anything to do with it. The disaster came with the plane tickets, the gift from Carlisle and Esme. Why Alice had stuck it down with tape I had no idea, it was an envelope for Gods sake! Of course Bella who could make the simplest task into a dramatic performance sliced her finger as she tried to open it. Great, a bleeding human in a room full of vampires. We all reacted but Jasper most violently, or it seemed that way at the time. Emmett and I grabbed him and with Alice got the hell out before we all attacked, while Carlisle stitched Bella's arm up. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that Edward in his guise as white knight threw her away from Jasper and straight into the table full of crystal. It couldn't have been more disastrous if he'd planned it!
The upshot was that Bella went home and Edward returned fuming and hurt. The next thing we knew he'd demanded we all leave Forks immediately to keep Bella safe. No goodbyes, nothing, which suited me but upset Emmett who wanted to see her one more time and Jasper who wanted to apologise. Alice came down on Edward's side and as usual he got his way and we moved up to Denali for a while. Edward went off on his own to sulk or whatever the great tragic actors do, while we marked time before deciding where to go next. Alice was now acting very strangely and Jasper was being given the cold shoulder by everyone except Carlisle and myself. I didn't give a toss that he'd attacked Bella, couldn't have happened to a nicer girl and Carlisle always saw the good in everyone. Jasper had been trying really hard and although he'd slipped up there had been no nasty consequences. Emmett and Esme who missed Bella most weren't so sanguine about his actions and he was left in no doubt how they viewed him.
When Alice decided she had to rush to Forks she only told me she'd seen Bella throw herself off a cliff. I asked her what the point was of going if Bella were dead but she just looked at me a little sadly and walked out. She hadn't told Jasper where she was going and he was confused like me as to what she thought she could do, we were vampires true, but we couldn't raise the dead! Edward rang after Alice had left so I told him the bad news and I think he crushed the phone or at least it made a tortured squeal before going dead. He'd left the girl so why was he so upset? I didn't understand him sometimes, no make that all the time. Anyway, the upshot of it all was that he went all dramatic on us and ran to Italy to ask the Volturi to end his miserable existence and Alice went after him along with Bella. She saved him from death but now they knew about her so she had a short time to become one of us, great she'd be in my life constantly then, I couldn't wait!
Things didn't go so smoothly though, Alice was very distant when she got back with Edward and Bella hardly acknowledging me and distancing herself from Jasper who was beside himself with relief when he saw her. I thought our "interesting times" might be getting closer. Maybe Bella was the catalyst for it all, I did ask Alice but she just avoided answering. James mate Victoria had raised her ugly head in the meantime ready to kill Bella in revenge for James death and we ended up putting ourselves in danger to save her hide, fighting alongside the wolves! Jasper really came into his own now, after all he was the warrior amongst us although Emmett liked to think he was almost as good and I wasn't going to burst his bubble. Victoria was killed but the mess was only just beginning.