A/N: All characters are Steph's, personalities are mine! Again, thanks to you guys are keeping up with the story. And if you're just joining us, welcome!

Also, big love to gryffindor-golden girl, she's a superstar as well as my beta. You all should check out her story, A Hero's Burden - its magical.

Onward with the story! Hope you all like it, see you at the bottom. ;)

7: Impressions

We sat in our normal aisle we usually did. We had been spending a lot of time here, more than normal it seemed. I believed it was because Alice and I could easily vision Emmett sitting next to us, laughing and cracking sarcastic comments. I could feel is laughter and his voice radiating through the aisles.

We would sometimes sit in the aisle and just sit. There would be no conversation, because there would be no need for it. Sometimes I would walk down it, on my way to the Common, and see Alice sitting with her arms wrapped around her knees, with her head in between them. I would stop, and just look at her, taking in the sight.

Alice wasn't the same.

Slowly, very slowly, she began to sink into a shell that was a hollow copy of who she used to be. She was Alice, but she wasn't at the same time. The light that had begun to come back in her eyes was out again and remained out since Masen arrived. I think she truly believed Emmett wasn't coming back. I think the two fellows, who were no more pleasant than Masen himself, signified the nail in the coffin for her.

I didn't know what kind of affect it had on me, however. I think I settled myself into such a routine—get up, rounds, chart, busy work, emergency Assessment, sit in the aisle, and go to bed—that I sort of became numb to the whole experience. People would talk, but I wouldn't hear them. I would talk, but I couldn't understand what I was saying. I went through the motions, motions that I shouldn't be just going through, but I seemed to not care anymore.

I don't know who was worse: Alice or me.

I guess one could dignify that we were becoming the same person—a hollow shell of who we once were. Someone who became everything this place detested. Someone who doesn't belong here.

But are you even a person when you become this? Are you even someone that's alive? Or do you just exist? Were Alice and I just coexisting somewhere we didn't belong?

It's now that I realize Emmett was the life in our lives. He was the one who kept the positivity going; the laughs and the smiles all belonged to him. Our humanity belonged to him; who we used to be belonged to him. He was our rock, someone we could go to when things were tough—which was all the time. He was the brother we both never had. He was the one person who knew things about Alice and I that we didn't know about each other.

And he needs to come back.

I still haven't had the pleasure of having a one-on-one with Masen yet. I saw him work from afar at the makeshift desk. I would stand there, logging in numbers and symptoms, trying to cover up the resident who made mistakes before me, and every so often I would peek up at him as he went through an Assessment.

Some weeks have gone by since he and the blonde babes arrived here, and in those weeks I noticed the little things one would notice if they had created a friendship with him—how he ran his right hand through his hair whenever he was frustrated or tired, which was weird considering he was left handed. Or how when he was slightly pissed of at someone, you knew because he had an angry smile on his face, which sort of resembled a tight line across his mouth with a slight curve. How after whenever he was done with an Assessment he would do a deep sigh at the desk. How he would tap his foot whenever listening to someone talk to him, no matter what ranking they were.

How, when he was happy, his smile lit up the common. His teeth were so white I wondered where the hell this guy came from. How I wondered how he could be such an ass to everyone around him, and still look as beautiful as he did.

The world wasn't a fair place. Bad things happen to good people, and the world goes on.

I was standing at the desk in the middle of the Common, charting number and symptoms as usual. I hadn't seen Alice in two days, and I hoped she was okay. I hadn't seen her on an Assessment during that time either. I chalked—and hoped—it up that I was just never lucky in being where she was at the right time.

Lost in my thoughts and inner rants, I didn't hear someone walk up next to me, until I turned to walk to put the chart back and ran smack into the person.

"Sor—" I began. I stopped when I looked up and saw that the person I ran into was Masen.

He stood almost a two heads taller than I did. I slowly raised my eyes to meet his vivid emerald orbs staring down at me. He was wearing his signature smirk, and was leaning with one arm in the desk and his ankles crossed. His black scrubs fitting to perfection as usual, and not a hair out of place. His five-o-clock shadow was leering at me—mocking me, begging to be touched.

We continued to look at each other, with my eyes wide as saucers, and his slightly narrowed—not menacing, but more like a playful way. I kept as stiff as a board as I stared at him, with the chart clutched to my chest.

He spoke, his smirk growing and his eyes zeroing in on the chart, "Patient four-fifteen," he said, eyes climbing back up to meet mine.

I, still silent and completely embarrassing myself by continuing to stare, nodded sharply once.

"Hmmm," he hummed, clasping his other hand onto the arm resting on the table. "done?" he finished, still looking at me.

Again, I nodded once, still stiff as a board like someone rammed a pipe up my spine.

He held out his hand, and I stared at it. Looking at the crisp lines where the fingers normally bend. The more I stared, the more I wanted to touch it.

"Swan," he barked, the playfulness gone from his eyes, his eyes narrowing like they did when he was irritated. My eyes snapped up to meet his, "the chart."

I, quickly and fumbling, handed him the chart. I continued to stand there, looking at the chart that he was touching. It was pathetic.

"Looks like we're dealing with a clot," he mused, more to himself than me, I'm sure. He looked up at me, slamming the chart shut and throwing it on the desk, making it slide back next to me, stopping perfectly in my reach. I stared at the chart.

"Do you speak?" he asked me, the playfulness back in his voice. My head, again, snapped up to meet his orbs. His smirk was back, and I knew he was beginning to play with me. "Well, Swan?"

I gave him a confused look, silently asking him how he knew my name.

Answering my unasked question, he raised his eyes to look behind me staring at something behind me. "I know everyone here, Swan," he began, "you're not special."

I nodded, wishing this would end, and unconsciously wishing it wouldn't. My eyes had lowered to the ground, where I looked at his black converse. Laces still pristine. How does he do this?

My head slowly made its way back to looking at his face. I saw he was back to staring at me, all trace of smile gone, and the smirk back in place. "Are you usually this mute?" He asked me, his eyes narrowing again, looking playful. He stood up straight, pushing himself off the desk and untangling his ankles. He leaned close to me, his face inches away from mine. "Does my presence make you nervous?"

I just continued to stare.

He chuckled, and stood up, "Learn to find your voice, Swan. Silence isn't your forte. It's irritating."

He walked through me, making me turn sideways to let him to let him by.

It was funny, the whole thing. He thought I was scared of him, when I couldn't decide if I was scared or amazed by him.

The world isn't a fair place.

I stared after the man, who I didn't know irritated me to no end or made me want to cripple at knees. I continued to stare after him, still keeping a watch on my surroundings. I was tired of everyone sneaking up on me.

So, naturally, I heard Alice's light footsteps as she walked closer towards me. She smiled, though the smile didn't reach her eyes. She leaned next to me on the desk, her eyes in the same direction as mine, towards the door. "Masen?" she said.

I sighed, "Yeah," and joined her position against the desk, leaning with her. I laid my head on her shoulder and hummed to myself.

She barked out a sarcastic laugh. She laid her head on mine, making a pile of heads on her shoulder. "How'd that go?"

I pulled my head up, opened the chart and began going over my work, hoping all was correct when Masen got ahold of it. "Ha, no comment,"

"The bad?" she said, looking at me.

I looked over at her, a deadpan look on my face. "You don't want to know." I flipped the chart closed, making a snap sound ring out in the Common. "Fuck," I whispered, leaning my elbows on the desk and covering my face with my hands.

"What?"

"Masen."

"What about him?"

I ran both hands through my hair, and took a deep breath. Clasping my hands together I lowered them onto the desk and looked at her. She was looking at me expectantly. "He's…he's infuriating. I can't stand the man."

"Okay," she mused. "And?"

"I cant get him out of my head." I confessed. "Whenever I'm near him, I find myself looking at him like a love-struck pubescent teenager." I looked towards the ceiling and laughed. "But when he opens his mouth…oh, God, I want to strangle him with my bare hands."

"Eh," she said, smiling at me. "Men," she finished.

I looked at her, wondering how she thought that could help me out in any way.

"Look," she stated, "don't worry about it, okay? Your hormones are probably all out of wack, since, honestly, there isn't a good looking guy in this place."

I chuckled at her response.

She finished, "Just…don't worry about it, okay? So you like—"

I interrupted her, "I do no—"

"Shut up." she fired back. "It's not like we get any action here, so just embrace it. He might not be Prince Charming, but knowing him he probably has an act up; some walls. He's head of this whole bad idea now, and he has to make a badass impression." she shrugged, waving my fears off like they were nothing.

"Alice," I sighed.

"Bella, don't worry until you have to."

I stared at her for a minute and whispered, "You should take your own advice, Alice."

Her head whipped towards mine, and we stared at each other for a while, both of us contemplating what I meant when I said that. I didn't mean to say it, it just spilled out. I was a selfish person, and wanted my friend back. I wanted the light to shine in her eyes.

"Alice…" I started

I was too late, for she had already walked away, without looking back.

I hadn't seen Alice since then. I sat in the aisle wondering what even provoked me to say that in the first place. I wasn't a cruel person. I wasn't mean; I could barely turn off the life support machine without assistance. Maybe Emmett being gone was making me more agitated than I thought.

I heard someone sit next to me. But I knew it wasn't Alice. The person sitting down, was louder than she was. I sighed.

"What's up with you?" the girl—no, woman's—voiced asked.

I looked to my right to see one of the blonde babes sitting next to me. Her hair, as usual, was fishtailed to perfection. She even had a braided hair headband or whatever it was. Her eyelashes looked like they were coated in a ton of mascara, but I knew they were just thick and long. Her lips, flawless and pink, were biting into a bright red apple.

"Nothing you need to concern yourself about," I replied, looking away from her towards the dirt on the ground.

I heard her bite into her apple again. "Bella, right?"

I nodded, refusing to look at her.

"Rose," she said, introducing herself. "I heard about you,"

I barked out a loud laugh, "Yeah," I said bitterly. "I bet you did."

She chuckled quietly, and I don't know why, but it really pissed me off. She seemed to be mocking me. My face slowly turned to face her, a glare set in my eyes. I hoped it was as menacing as I thought it was. Her blue eyes looked back into mine fearless. She seemed to not be fazed by my menacing look, or just by me in general. Her eyes held humor, and her lips shifted into the signature smirk all three of them seemed to wear. They should trademark it.

"We didn't do anything wrong," she began. "We were asked to come here, you know."

I looked at her saying nothing, but silently hoping she would continue. We were informed that they reached out to us.

The silence was constraining me and I quickly spoke, "That's not what we were told."

"Well," she sighed, throwing her apple core at the opposite wall. We both watching it splatter on the wall, leaving the juice markings all over it. "You were informed wrong."

At that point, three mice came out from the wall. They went over to the apple core, sniffed it, and ran away.

"Well then what did happen?" I asked my voice lighter.

"We were told you all needed help—that this place was failing," she began, "boy were they right." She laughed to herself. "They came in about two weeks before we arrived here, saying how you all were losing more humans than saving. How you all were dropping like flies. Basically just bragged about how much you were failing."

I continued to stare, egging her on.

"So," she continued, "Edward packed us up, and shipped us here. He originally wasn't going to bring us, but then decided we were the best ones for the job—at handling you."

"We?"

"Oh," she said when she realized I didn't know who she was referring to, "Jasper, the other blonde one."

I nodded in understanding.

"Anyway," she mused, "he was in bad shape. Said he had to tell us before going to his final destination. I guess he needed to make sure you all were okay before getting there."

My head snapped up quickly.

He.

"Uhm…Rose?" I asked, afraid to. I was terrified of knowing the answer.

"Yeah?" she said looking at me. Her blue eyes boring deep into my brown ones.

"Did the man have a name?"

"Oh," she said. She then laughed to herself, as if she couldn't believe how she could forget such vital information. "Yeah, he did."

I cleared my throat, the bile quickly rising. "What was it?" I was terrified. I was horrified at the possibilities. I felt like I was going to faint. The room was spinning, my eyesight closing in on me.

"Emmett."

Oh, Emmett what did you do?

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