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Chapter Five

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When I got back to the house I went straight to my bedroom to change and dispose of my highly scent-infected clothes. Anything residual on my skin wouldn't be worthy of concern, but the whole back half of my clothes smelling like Jacob's car was far too suspicious.

Once I'd picked out something new and fixed my hair, I bundled up about three hundred dollars of clothes I could no longer keep and put them in the very bottom of the bag for goodwill.

Jasper came into the bedroom right as I turned back out of the closet. "Alice, you disappeared before."

I walked over to meet up with him as he came towards me, smiling warmly. "Yeah. I got sick of being locked up in this house." I placed my hands on his chest. "Went for a walk."

His lips pressed against my hairline and his arms gently looped around me. I slid mine around his waist and looked to his chest as we held one and other. "It won't be too much longer before we move, and then all the rogues won't know where to find us and we can stop being paranoid about Nessie constantly." He kissed my head again and then pulled me closer for a few seconds.

"Hopefully," I murmured. "I just wish I could see."

"You're getting used to her," he said. "Eventually you'll be able to see her too."

"And then we just have to worry about the wolves," I replied, pursing my lips regretfully.

"Well." He shrugged. "Some things are unavoidable."

I pulled myself free and moved back a step. "When is this going to stop? All the fighting and attacks and . . ." I shook my head. "It's ridiculous."

Jasper nodded. "I know. I keep expecting to look out the window one day and see Maria there with an army of newborns. I want you to know I do see how distracted I've been by it, and I'm sorry if you're feeling like I've put other things before you."

I bit my bottom lip gently and smiled, bobbing my head just barely. A storm of guilt was swirling around inside me and it was all I could do to keep it from effecting my outward emotions. If that happened, he'd know in an instant. Instead, I turned it into sadness and crossed my arms over my chest to follow it up.

"It won't last forever," I mumbled, totally unconvinced.

"It won't," Jasper vowed. "Now I'm about to negate all of that by telling you I have to leave again, but know that it's true, okay?"

"Where are you going this time?" I asked without looking to his face this time.

"I'm not sure. Wherever we need to to find where the scout came from. They wouldn't be far off."

I nodded silently.

Jasper lingered for a few seconds before turning and walking out.

And I was alone. Again.

It was times like these that I wished desperately that I was human, or at least capable of sleeping if nothing else. Spending every hour of every day one hundred percent conscious was the biggest struggle when you knew you'd live forever.

Although I knew it wouldn't achieve anything, I went to our big king sized bed and dropped down on it with my face buried in the pillows. My consciousness wouldn't leave, but I could close my eyes and try to block out the world around me.

It was quite a while from what I could tell before I came back out of my day dreams and focused on the real world. The disruption seemed to have been Nessie scrambling up onto the bed since when I rolled over she was on her hands and knees staring at me curiously with a curtain of bronze hair swaying around her shoulders.

"Aunt Alice, you can't sleep," she stated, tilting her head to the side.

I sat up, prompting her to sit back too. "No, I can't. I was just thinking." I explained as I smoothed down my hair.

"Why were you laying with your face in the pillows?"

"I don't need to breathe, remember?" I smiled weakly at her, hoping that would be the end of the questions for now.

"Oh, right. Kind of a weird way to think." She crawled up closer until she was kneeling by my hip and then sat down again. "Daddy and Uncle Emmett and Uncle Jasper are gone again. They took all the wolves too."

I wondered briefly if that meant that Jacob had gone too, but quickly shook off the thought and nodded to her. "I know."

"I don't know why all these people don't like me." Her voice was still totally calm, but I could tell from the furrow in her brow that it did bother her in some way.

I spoke in a gentle, and hopefully soothing, tone. "They can't dislike you personally, sweetheart. They don't know you. And some of them don't want to hurt you, they want to take you because of how special you are. That's why we're all protecting you. I promise, no one will be able to get past all of us."

Nessie's face tightened even more. "I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me."

"The only people that will get hurt are the ones that want to do you harm when you have done nothing to them." My words seemed to be doing very little to placate her, so I decided to try a distraction instead. "How would you like to go to Seattle? We can all go shopping and have some fun and no one will be here if someone tries to find us, so we'll be safe. Does that sound good?"

She nodded instantly and her frown smoothed. "Yeah. Can we go to the movies, too?"

"Yeah! Of course!" I beamed at her in an attempt to get some excitement in air. "Go get dressed. I'll look up what movies are on and we can finally do something fun!"

Nessie slipped off the bed, much less enthusiastic than I would have liked, and walked out of my room to Edward's old one across the hall where all the things she kept here were.

I got off the bed too after a few seconds spent listening to her moving about and started getting myself ready. Once I'd picked out a pair of shoes and sprayed a little perfume on, I checked the movie times and was just finishing when Nessie returned looking like she'd stepped off a Dior runway-making me oh-so-proud of course.

"Thank god fashion sense isn't hereditary." I smiled, getting an eye roll from her.

"You bought every piece of clothing I own," she said. "I don't think I could disappoint you."

I lead her downstairs without any further comment to the living room where Bella, Rosalie and Esme were already waiting for us after no doubt overhearing the plan.

"Everything's going to be fine," Bella said as we came into view and reached out to pull Renesmee to her side. "If we were worried then we all would have gone. We certainly wouldn't be going shopping."

The seven year old seemed less than convinced, but didn't argue. Instead she just leaned tighter into Bella as the five of us headed down to the garage and piled into Bella's car.

The drive to Seattle became more and more relaxed as the miles slipped behind us and the troubles seemed to stay back with them. By the time we reached the outskirts of the city the car was full of laughter at Rosalie's narration of our history prior to both Bella and Nessie joining us.

The PG version of course . . . Not the one that detailed the sheer amount of nudity throughout the sixties or The Great Bitch Fight of '77 in which hair was pulled and wardrobes were destroyed.

Everything was actually going great, until Bella looked back while driving to comment on something Rose had said. That in itself wouldn't have been a big deal if any of us had have been watching to tell her about the man who walked out into the middle of the road.

Alas, by the time Esme turned back around and saw the figure, it was too late for the car to stop regardless of the fact that Bella instantly slammed on the brakes while Rose and I curled around Nessie without a millisecond of hesitation.

The car skidded down the road, collected the man with a sickening thud, and then threw him off over the roof like a trash can rather than a person.

So much for no one getting hurt.