"So she didn't want to eat lunch with us?" Rosalie asked Emmett when he sat down at the Cullens' lunch table. Emmett was supposed to ask Bella to sit with them at lunch but as Rosalie watched Bella take her lunch outside to the picnic tables she figured Bella said no. Rosalie had hoped that her brother would have better luck at getting through to Bella but it seemed he hadn't made any progress either. The closest any of them had gotten to Bella was Alice and that was just because Bella had fallen asleep on her.
"No and when I asked her she looked at me like she thought I had two heads." Emmett told them.
"How are we supposed to get her to talk to us?" Rosalie wasn't sure how they were going to get Bella to even have a conversation with her let alone tell them about her gift.
"I don't know." Alice said frustrated. "Every time I see us making a decision to talk to her something gets in the way and it never ends with anyone having a conversation with her. It's like she is purposely avoiding our family in particular."
"Do you think she knows we are different?" Emmett asked.
"I don't think so. I think she is just cautious. Humans are naturally wary of us. It could be her natural instincts keeping her away from us." Alice told them.
"Yeah but what about the mate bond. Shouldn't that overcome some of her fear of us." Rosalie was sure that Bella felt the mate bond in some way. Maybe not as strongly as she did but she had to feel at least a fondness for Rosalie.
"We don't know how humans react to the mate bond." Alice reminded her.
Rosalie sighed. "I know. I just want to get close to my mate."
"Where are Jasper and Edward?" Emmett hadn't seen his brothers since that morning and usually they met them in the cafeteria.
"Edward said he didn't want to listen to us go on about Bella all period so he and Jasper went to the library." Alice was happy Edward wasn't there. He had been nothing but a pain since Bella came into their lives.
"Did she use her gift around you Emmett?" Rosalie asked him.
Emmett shook his head. "Nope. I did try to talk to her a couple of times but she only responded with short answers. It was obvious that she didn't want to talk to me."
"I want to know what the threat she was talking about was." Rosalie was almost to the point of confronting Bella about everything. There was no way to protect her mate if she didn't know what the threat against her was.
"How did she sound when she was talking about it? Was she scared?" Alice asked.
Rosalie shook her head. "I wouldn't say she was scared. It was almost like she was annoyed."
"Just like when she talked to the voice when we were in class together." Alice wondered why Bella seemed to dislike the voice she heard so much. "Do you think the voice is annoying or do you think she is just annoyed with her gift all together?"
"I'm not sure. They were talking about drawing a picture and Bella mentioned that the voice shouldn't be asking a 17 yr old girl if she thought it looked good naked." Rosalie didn't mention the fact that Bella talked about seeing her naked as well. It wasn't something she thought her siblings should know.
"Do you think she might actually be talking to a real person?" Emmett asked.
"What do you mean?" Alice had some suspicions as well and wanted to know if her mate was thinking the same thing.
"It's just think about it. You have said in all your visions of her when she is using her gift that she is talking to someone. It seems she talking to a different voice each time she talks about a different case right?" Alice nodded making Emmett think that he was on the right track. "What if she is actually speaking to different people that are involved with each case?"
"What do you mean? Like dead people?" Rosalie wasn't sure if that was the case but she did have to admit that it had some merit. "How would that explain the kidnap victim though?"
"Actually that would make sense. I'm not sure if I believe it though."Alice wasn't a spiritual person and hadn't really thought of what happened when you die but wasn't sold on the idea of spirits hanging around after you die.
"We are really considering that my mate talks to ghosts?" Rosalie asked.
"Yeah I mean even with the kidnap victim it works. No one even knew the kid was missing and Bella already had the name of the people who took him and the address where he was being held. From what Alice said she even gave the police the number of weapons and what kind they were. If there was a ghost attached to the boy it would make sense they would go to the only person who could see them for help." Emmett said.
"I hate that this makes sense." Rosalie grumbled. "I don't know how to help my mate if she has a gift that allows her to interact with ghosts."
"This is out of my wheelhouse as well. I think that the best thing to do is call Eleazar and ask him about it. I doubt he has ever come across this kind of gift but if anyone could help us it would be him." Alice had hoped that she would have been able to help Bella control and use her gift better but now she was sure that wasn't going to happen. She didn't have the first clue how to help someone who communed with the dead.
"Do you think the threat against Bella has to do with other spirits putting her in danger?" Rosalie asked.
"What exactly did she say when she mentioned the danger?" Emmett figured if they knew exactly what was said that with the new information they had that they could figure it out.
"She didn't actually say she was in danger she asked whoever she was talking to how did the others found out about her and said something about not believing that they were doing it out of the goodness of their heart." Rosalie tried to think what else was said but didn't think anything else was important.
"Maybe she actually isn't in danger then. Maybe other ghost have found out about her." Alice said.
Rosalie felt that they were on the right track. "Have you ever heard her ask anything about how the voices found her in your visions?"
"I don't know. I was always so focused on getting all the information for the cases she was working that I didn't really pay that much attention to things that didn't make sense. She could have said it though." Alice thought over her visions of Bella. There were many and they really didn't have the time for her to piece together each one right at that moment.
"So putting all the pieces to this puzzle together we think that Bella talks to dead people and that the ghosts have figured out Bella has a way of helping them and that they are going to be bugging her a lot more." Emmett summarized.
"It sounds crazy when you put it all together like that doesn't it?" Rosalie knew if they were told this about anyone else they would have the person checked out by a professional but with all the clues it added up to her mate being able to talk to dead people.
"I like the fact that instead of ignoring them that she actually helps them." Alice didn't know if she was a human if she would do the same thing.
"Yeah but the one she is helping now is involved with a hitman." Emmett said.
"True but we have the address to the building they put his body." Rosalie was already putting a plan in place. "I want to stay near my mate but how do one of you feel about stealing a burner phone and contacting the police with the information?"
"I'll do it." Emmett volunteered quickly. This was what he hoped would happen when he learned Bella had moved to Forks. He wanted to help out with her missions and solve crimes.
"Good then get it done before school is over because she mentioned having to steal one herself." Rosalie said.
"I'll get it done don't worry." Emmett said.
The bell ringing signaled the end of their conversation. Rosalie had class with Bella next and with the new information they had about the girl she was going to keep an even closer eye on her mate. If Bella could really speak to ghosts then Rosalie may not be able to keep her safe from them but she could keep Bella safe from whatever the situations they put Bella in. At least now she knew why Bella had been digging up a box in the middle of the night.
