A/N:
We're almost at the end! :O
Title: Origins: Living in my Future
Author: MarieCarro
Beta: Alice's White Rabbit
Pre-reader: BitterHarpy and brierlynn03
Genre: Supernatural/Mystery
Rating: NC-17
Summary: Mary Alice Brandon had always been different. She seemed to know things that had yet to happen, and the people in town avoided her at all costs. But the cries of 'Witch' or whispers of 'Changeling' wasn't her biggest concern. Someone much closer to her than the townsfolk couldn't accept her differences, and it put her in life-threatening danger.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
CHAPTER 33
MONDAY, DECEMBER 1st 1969 – SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 13th 1987
"Jasper, do you really think this is wise?" Carlisle asked. "How can we be positive he won't expose us?"
"Who would believe him? And what exactly would he say; my richest clients are a family of immortal beings who never age? His reputation would never survive somethin' like that," Jasper said, then sighed when Carlisle remained hesitant. "It's the only way to keep you from bein' drafted without leavin' the country again. The rest of us are safe because we can claim our birthdays are after '50. You can't and you're a doctor."
Carlisle grimaced, unenthusiastic about the prospect of bringing an outsider, a human, into our secret, even though telling the attorney the whole truth wasn't part of Jasper's plan.
"A greedy enough attorney could solve all minor problems for us," Edward said as he thoroughly considered it. "Diplomas, certificates, school grades, passports … everything would be taken care of and would never be questioned again." He shrugged. "I could live with that."
Before Carlisle could even open his mouth to debate why he didn't like it, Esme stopped him with a gentle hand on his arm. "It wouldn't hurt to try it. Even just once."
With those nine words, Carlisle yielded with a defeated sigh. "Will you be meeting with him personally? To guarantee he won't expose us?"
"No," I said, immediately having been brought a vision with our leader's surrender. "No personal meetings. I only see us having an indirect professional relationship with him, but the money we can offer will make us high priority clients. Never meeting us will mean very little."
"What's his name?" Edward asked.
"It's a Seattle-based lawyer named Hugh Stephens," I said and focused really hard on our shared futures. "He won't ask any questions at all as long as we keep everything strictly professional."
"That won't be a problem," Jasper said with a smug and slightly chilling smile. "How should he be approached?" he asked and turned to me.
I closed my eyes again and searched. "He'll be easily convinced. He's very careful to keep the illegal side of his business a secret, but he's got a new curious intern, a Jason Scott, at the official firm. The boy's too nosy for his own good."
Jasper grinned. "Perfect. With a few well-placed threats and a messenger, we'll have Mr. Stephens eating out of our hands in no time."
{=LMF=}
Edward alone; leaving the family; a dead girl at his feet; red eyes glowing with fresh blood.
I was, admittedly, very worried about my lonely brother. For as long as I had known of him, he'd been a person with a natural disposition toward melancholy. It was an attitude we all associated with him and accepted was simply who he was, but over the past decade, my visions about him had grown concerning.
Wandering. Always wandering. Away from us. Away from those who loved him.
He was never quite convinced he wasn't ruining everyone's lives with his depression despite the numerous times we'd reassured him—verbally and non-verbally alike—that we wanted him around. He was family. He was a brother to us. A son to Esme and Carlisle. He could never ruin our lives.
I knew what it was he was missing, but he never wanted to speak of it even though he was well aware there was an active discussion about it among the rest of us.
He needed a mate.
Not necessarily a romantic or sexual partner if that wasn't what he wanted, but he needed someone to love in a way that wasn't strictly familial. And he needed someone to love him back in the same way.
Of course, even knowing that, it didn't mean the solution was easy. Even as someone who could see the future, I'd had no visions of Edward finding the sort of companion who'd complete him, no matter how hard I'd actually tried to see it.
But my lack of visions meant little in what the future could eventually hold for him. Both Jasper and I, as well as Esme and Carlisle, were perfect examples of how your other half could be born decades and even centuries apart from yourselves. It could very well be the same for Edward.
For all we knew, his perfect match wasn't even born yet.
Still, if he just listened and accepted that he wasn't different from the rest of us and that he needed intimate connection too, hopefully, that would lead to him feeling less left out.
But alas, Edward was the most stubborn person I'd ever known.
I looked up as he came out of the kitchen and rounded the corner. When he met my eyes, he already knew I'd seen something, but he still waited for me to say it first.
In order to not alert the rest of the family and incite their worry, I only spoke to him in my thoughts.
"I just saw you sitting by your piano for hours without playing. Is something wrong?"
He raised one brow in amusement, silently pointing out the irony of a psychic not already knowing the answer to a question, and I rolled my eyes at his cheekiness.
"I'm not Jasper, but even I can sense how depressed you are. And if you can't even play, then it must be serious." He tried to wave me away, but I wasn't having it. Not this time. "Don't do that. There's something going on with you, Edward, and I want to be there for you. You know you can tell me anything."
He knew I knew what it was like to be alone and searching and feeling the weight of the world press down on your shoulders. We had that in common, he and I, as well as our extraordinary gifts that connected us.
"It's nothing new, Alice. Just my own bitterness swallowing me sometimes," he said, but his blasé attitude painfully grabbed my insides.
"It's painful to watch you like this. In the future as well."
"What have you seen?"
I had hoped, for the longest time, that I could avoid showing him any of the visions I'd had of him leaving again, but now I saw no other way than to do exactly that, wishing the knowledge would have the opposite effect.
"I've seen you. Alone. Wandering. They all begin the same, but some of them end with you losing yourself again."
He grimaced as he saw the images I'd seen and immediately began shaking his head in denial. "I don't want to go back to that life. It will never happen; I won't allow it."
"With the path you're on at the moment, it's not a certainty, but a possibility. There's something fundamental missing in your life, and we both know what it is." I gave him a pointed look, forcing him to confront that truth and fact, but he just scoffed as always and pulled his hand through his hair.
"Why does everyone keep pestering me about this? I won't find a mate just because you talk about it all the time! I'm fine, okay!"
I didn't blink as he yelled at me. "Then why are you so upset?" I asked, and he didn't have an answer. "Everyone needs love, and you're not immune against the longing for it, no matter how much you'd like to believe so."
"I don't understand why you think my solitude is so bad. I haven't even lived a century yet, and I've had a family the entire time. Carlisle lived alone for much longer than that."
"He had his work, his passion. A goal to work toward." I only told him things he already knew. "You don't seem to have that, and that's what's so painful."
Once again, he dismissed me and left the conversation altogether to seek sanctuary in his room, but only a couple minutes later, he had left the house and ran into the forest. Not to leave but to temporarily get away.
I sought out Jasper in our room and wrapped my arms around him to give myself some comfort.
"Do you want me to talk to him?" he asked.
Despite having only heard Edward's part of the conversation, Jasper knew more about it than the rest of the family. He'd sensed both of our emotional states, and that gave me an idea.
"Could you? Maybe you could make more sense of him? He's so confused and shuts us all out every time we want to help him."
"I can try, but Edward's a complicated man. There are no guarantees with him."
I sighed. "I know. But you can give him a personal perspective on this matter in a better way than anyone else."
Jasper pulled away and gave me a kiss before following our brother out into the wilderness.
Later, when both men returned, I could tell nothing had really been resolved but rather appeased. For the moment. Edward's predicament would continue, and I wasn't certain how long he'd last before he snapped.
{=LMF=}
Carelessly, I pulled every garment and piece of clothing out of the closet and tossed them in a haphazard pile on the floor. I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing because I was searching. Not for an item but for something that could explain the odd feeling in my body.
"Darlin'?" Jasper called for my attention as he entered the room, but I was too preoccupied with my search to respond.
It wasn't necessarily an unpleasant feeling. Just an intense acknowledgment that something had or would happen today that would mean a lot to our family. It was something that would change everything.
My frustration came from my complete lack of visions on it. Everything was just blank. There was nothing to see. But I still knew that this day would mark the start of something that would eventually affect everyone's future.
"Alice, are you okay?"
I finally turned to face Jasper's concerned expression. "I don't know," I said honestly.
"Your emotions are all over the place. Did you see somethin'?"
"No." I shook my head and looked back into the depth of my closet. "Not a vision. But there's something. I just don't know what."
Jasper walked up to me and placed gentle, soothing hands on my upper arms. "Has that ever happened before?"
"No, not like this. But there's a strange familiarity to it. A sense of destiny perhaps."
"In what way exactly?"
I was grateful for Jasper's support and coaxing. He had long ago learned that I sometimes needed some extra help to find the core of a certain vision or interpreting an emotion. He was an expert and always knew exactly what questions to ask so I could dig deeper until the meaning revealed itself.
"It reminds me of how I felt after my first vision of you. The absolute certainty. Whatever this is, it's already been decided. But for some reason, I can't see any visions yet." I prodded even deeper. "Almost as if it's too soon."
"Too soon? So this destiny will happen far into the future?"
"Yes. And no. It won't happen for some time, but the in-between will pass by quickly."
"Will it affect the entire family, or is it your destiny?"
I let out a long exhale as I tried to dig for more information, but it was getting more difficult. "Everyone will be affected." I turned to look out the window where Emmett and Edward were helping Esme to fell a dead apple tree in the garden. "One of us more than the others."
Jasper followed my line of sight. "Who?"
"I don't know."
I hit a wall in my searching, and I knew there was nothing more I could dig for. There were too many things that were yet to happen before I'd be allowed to see anything. But I didn't need to in order to understand something huge was looming in the distance.
The only time I ever had premonitions of the far future was when whatever it was would irrevocably and immutably change everything.
A/N:
Well, there it was!
Several of you wondered if Alice would have any visions about Reneé's and Charlie's births and later on Bella. I don't think she would see the former because there are just too many variables of futures at that point in time for there to be a guaranteed future where Bella was actually born.
While she didn't have a vision here, I definitely think, as a seer, she can sense things even without having an actual vision of it. Like, in the very beginning of the story, if you remember that, when she was human and sitting on the beach with her friend Wilson, she was inexplicably drawn to look out across the ocean in the direction of where Jasper was.
Only 3 more chapters plus the epilogue, and then, this one's finished :)
I'll see you tomorrow, and until then,
Stay Awesome!