A/N: I hope this answers a couple of questions. I'm hoping to get one more chapter out this weekend.

I'm pretty sure there's some mistakes somewhere along the way. They're all mine.

ENJOY!

03/09/2024

Rear-view Town

Chapter 14

Alice tried her hardest to relax, but dammit if she was restless because of Edward. She was scarcely worried about her friend. A human friend that she had considered family for the last few years. She had warned Edward the first vision she had, and he waved it off like it was nothing. After that, she barely saw anything where Edward was concerned. "He has to know that this isn't going to turn out in his favor."

"I would like to say he's smart enough to know the difference, but his actions lately are making me think otherwise." Jasper took his wife's hand to send some calming waves her way. "We'll get Bella home where she belongs."

Alice closed her eyes and laid her head against her headrest. "I hope so." She gave her head a little shake. "I honestly don't know what he's thinking. What the hell does he have to prove by taking Bella and Charlie?"

"Are you thinking we should've stayed in Forks?" Jasper kept his eyes on his wife.

"I don't know." Alice sighed. "We left to get away from his whiny bullshit. We needed to get away to shut ourselves off from worrying about everyone else. It was time we care about us. We've lived long enough to know that if we don't get away once in a while, we'll go nuts, and I think Edward lost his mind completely."

Jasper knew what Alice was talking about. They normally went off for a couple of years, on their own. Rosalie and Emmett were number one fans of going out on their own. They loved to renew their wedding vows and made sure to go overboard every single time.

"Maybe he has a chemical imbalance that we're unaware of. Can that happen to us?" Jasper asked seriously just as Alice looked at him and started to laugh. "What? I'm serious."

Alice smiled at her husband. "I can always count on you to make me smile." She leaned over and kissed him. "Put your seatbelt on; we're about to land."

As bad as Alice wanted to run from the SeaTac airport, she knew they needed to stay within the human crowd and rent a car, so she rented the most expensive one. "This doesn't stand out at all," Jasper says jokingly. "Was yellow the only color they had?"

"Of this make and model, yes. This sucker is fully loaded and my very own Bumblebee." They climbed into the newest model of a Chevrolet Camero. "Let's see what she can do."

As soon as they cruised through the city limits of Seattle, Alice pressed her foot to the gas pedal and realized she would be buying herself a new car as soon as she could. She was way past feeling like she was having a midlife crisis, and Jasper would ride a horse everywhere he went if he could. "She's got a lot of horses below the hood."

"I know it's not the kind of horses you like." Alice patted the dashboard. "But she flies like a bullet train."

Jasper chuckled. "Darlin', she ain't nowhere near a bullet train."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Alice says just as she pressed her foot down harder on the gas pedal.

Due to Alice's lead foot, they made it to LaPush in half the time. Jasper had texted Rosalie to let her know that they were very close to arriving. They were stopped by a couple of wolves in their human form. "Alice and Jasper to see the Blacks."

They were ushered through because they were expected. "First left then the third right. You can't miss their house. It's the biggest one on the street at the end."

"Thank you," Alice and Jasper said together as Alice drove them to their destination.

Paul wasn't sure what to expect as he ended his call with Embry. He had called ahead to let them know that the expected vampires had arrived. "Alice and Jasper are here." Paul chugged the last of his coffee before handing Ember to Cora. Everyone had stayed at his house taking up every room and any area that could be slept in. "I'm gonna go meet them outside."

Ember smacked her hands on the table as Paul turned to kiss the forehead of his other two babies. As bad as they didn't want to, they had tried the babies on formula, but they just spit it out. Carlisle had suggested trying them on Vitamin D cow's milk and they loved it. It wasn't their mother, but they needed to eat. Their growth seemed to have doubled in the last week or so. Malia and Ember were spitting images of their mother with dark hair and their dark brown eyes. As for Creed, he was going to be just as handsome has his father. He had dark hair and dark eyes, as well, but he held more of Paul's features the more they grew.

As if he had always been walking, Billy came bounding into the kitchen wearing only a pair of shorts like the rest of the pack. "Good morning to my beautiful family." He kissed Cora then the babies. "Did I hear you say that Alice is here?"

"I'm on my way out. You coming?" Paul poured more coffee for himself before he headed to the garage to exit the house. Alice and Jasper had just pulled up to the front of the house as Paul opened the garage door.

"Wait," Jasper said just as Alice reached for the door. "Have you realized who Paul is yet?"

"Bella's imprint and husband." She gave Jasper a strange look.

"I wasn't sure until now, but Paul is the baby to the woman we helped leave the reservation all those years ago. Remember Malia?" Alice raised her brows in question. "The very one."

"Wow," Alice reacted sincerely surprised. "I hope he doesn't hold that against us."

"I guess we're about to find out."

Billy walked out behind his son and recognized Alice and Jasper immediately. He knew what they had done, but he couldn't hold that against them. They were only trying to help someone who had expressed lies to them. It's only one person's fault and she's no longer with them to explain her actions. "Alice, Jasper." Billy extended his hand to them. "Good to see you."

"I'm Paul." He threw his thumb over his shoulder. "His oldest."

"I hate that we're meeting this way, and hope that we eventually would." Alice folded her hands together in front of her. "Is there any news since we last spoke?"

"No," Paul said as he looked to the ground and tried to stave off more tears. "Please tell me there's something you can do. I don't know where to look or who to call. There's no trail anywhere."

Jasper nodded. "He's learned over the years. We have a lot of time on our hands if you're like us."

Alice watched as Paul wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. She felt bad and wanted to hug him so badly, but she kept that thought to herself and planned to use it at a different time. "First things first." She stepped closer so she could whisper. She wasn't sure if Edward had put up a camera outside their house or not. "There's camera's up around your house. At Carlisle and Esme's, as well. I'm not sure about anywhere else, but I'm sure they're around."

Paul blood pressure began to rise. "Are you kidding me?" He roared then looked around. "He's been watching us this whole time?"

Alice wasn't sure where they could talk without being overheard except down by the water. "Can we all meet on the beach? I don't think we can be overheard down there."

"I can't believe this," Billy said. "I wonder if he put one in our house, too."

Thirty minutes later, the entire pack, minus the ones patrolling or guarding the front entrance, had met near a pile of whitewashed driftwood. "Rosalie and the others will be here shortly. We told them about the cameras, so they're going through the house just to locate them. We're not taking them down right now because we don't want Edward to know that we know." Alice looked around at all the sad faces. "I'm sorry this happened. The one time we think of ourselves instead of others, this happens. I really am sorry. I feel like we could have prevented this somehow."

"It's not your fault, Alice," Jake said just as he stepped closer to his brother. "It was something that none of us could control."

Jasper took a couple of steps into the center. "As some of you may know, Alice is clairvoyant. Her visions aren't always set in stone especially if someone changes their mind. Edward has learned how to block her. He can dance around her visions like it's a puzzle or even a board game. Most of all, Edward can read minds. If he's near us, he'll know what we're thinking. Except Bella, and we don't know why. He's never been able to see into her mind like everyone else."

"How do we keep our thoughts to ourselves?" Sam asked. He needed his pack protected at all costs.

"Sing in your mind. Think of video games or a movie you just watched. Anything you can as long it has nothing to do with how we're going to get him or what we've even talked about."

"The moment we take those cameras down, he'll know that we know. We have someone coming along that will be able to trace stuff like that. There's an IP address where he is, and we're hoping he's stupid enough to know he can be found like that." Alice shook her. "He's not stupid, though. He'll be one step ahead of us. That's why we need to be extremely careful with what we do."

"We found her car by third beach. We're pretty sure he left a car parked there then ran here. Bastard knows how to cover his scent, too." Paul had a slideshow of images of Bella running through his mind. Things they've said to each other; the first time they met; the first time they made love. There wasn't a second of the day that he didn't think about her. "I need my wife home. It's killing me. I can feel her pain and heartache."

Billy walked over and wrapped his arms around his son. "We'll find her. He's only had her a couple of days."

"A couple of days too many." Paul pulled away from their hug then looked over to Jasper and Alice. "Anything any of you can do, let's do it."

Edward hadn't tasted Bella's blood yet and Charlie's was beginning to smell because he had an infection. He knew he would grow septic in the next day or so if he didn't do anything about it. He hated the man and wanted to see him die, but he also knew that killing Charlie wouldn't allow Bella to ever forgive him. She would hate him to his core.

As he walked down the hallway to where he was keeping Bella, he could hear Charlie moaning from his pain. He had just given him more crackers and a bottle of water and was taking more nutritious food to the love of his life. "Lunch time," he says as he enters her room with a tray. He had actually cooked a steak for her and made her spinach salad. "All the good blood pumping food."

"Fuck off. You're a sick bastard." Bella couldn't look at him anymore. The sight of him was causing her to be nauseous. She would puke her brains out if she knew she wouldn't get it all over herself. "I don't know what I ever saw in you."

"You were meant to be with me. That's why you were drawn to me." Edward placed her tray of food on a roll-a-way table sitting next to the bed. "You're my singer and that's like me imprinting on you."

"What the fuck ever. Keep telling yourself that. You're so full of shit that it's petrified your fucking brain." If Bella could get her hands loose, she would rip his head off if she got the chance. She looked over at the food which made her stomach growl from hunger. "Where's my dad?"

Edward rolled his eyes. "Stop worrying about him." He rolled the table towards her. "You should know that your babies are doing wonderfully. They're drinking regular milk. It's like they don't even know that you're gone."

"FUCK YOU!" Bella screamed then screamed again when she yanked on her binding's. "LET ME GO!"

"You weren't this bossy when you were little," Edward says snidely. "I should have taken you then."

"What the fuck are you talking about now?" Bella huffed and rolled her eyes. "You're so stupid." She knew he hated that word and planned to use it every chance she got. "Stupid, stupid, stupid. Stupid, dumb fucking vampire that has petrified shit for brains."

Edward took a deep breath that he didn't need and closed his eyes. Bella was acting like a five-year-old. "We're both adults here. We can do without the name calling."

"You're so chicken shit, too. I'm so thankful that I never had sex with you." Bella was trying her hardest to hit him where she knew it would hurt. "I probably would've felt like I was being fucked by a popsicle." Then she laughed. "Oh my God, can you imagine." She laughed more. "I can't believe that this is actually my life."

He wanted to punch a hole in the wall; he wanted to punch her. Instead, he pushed her roll table closer. "Eat your damn food." He had cut up her steak and loosened her right hand just enough for her to raise her hand to her mouth. "All of it." He needed to get away from her before he did something he would regret.

Edward was flaming mad. He couldn't let her see, though. She would taunt him more than he could handle, so he rushed outside and into the woods where he screamed at the top of his lungs. She had pissed him off yet again.

Alice and the other three vampires had excused themselves and went to hunt before they congregated back at Carlisle's house. They needed to talk over everything that has happened and figure out how they were going to come to terms that Edward had betrayed them. He was no longer a part of their family, and they were all hurt by his actions. He had used them for years, but most of all, Carlisle felt like he was to blame. He had changed him. He was his maker and there wasn't a thought in his mind that could get Edward to stop what he was doing. It was a moment like the one they were dealing with that Jane from the Volturi was wished for.

"We have to do this on our own. With the help of the wolves, of course. We can't have the Volturi showing up here. They were reluctant when we informed them that Bella was no longer a part of our family, that she had been imprinted on by a wolf shifter."

"Aro wanted her. None of them could hurt her, so he wanted her." Alice said matter of factually. She had been there when Aro discovered that Bella couldn't be harmed by Jane, and he couldn't read into her mind. It stumped him and he wanted to know more, but he couldn't take her without breaking a rule or two along the way.

"We just need to figure out where Edward is." Emmett stood up from where he had been sitting. "I hate this, man. He's been our brother all these years. Do we have to kill him?"

At that moment, Alice stumbled back into the wall. She appeared to be frozen as she looked straight in front of her. "She sees something." Jasper was next to her in a split second and placed his hands on her shoulders. He knew he couldn't interfere with her vision, or she might miss vital information.

Alice was locked in her vision for two very long minutes. "I saw him," she finally said. "He was surrounded by trees, and he was screaming." Alice shook her head. "I couldn't see where he was, but he was pissed at something."

"Was he just screaming or was he saying something?" Carlisle had stepped closer as his interest peaked.

"Just screaming. I could tell he was mad." Alice rubbed her hands over her face. "I think he's starting to lose control of his plan."

"He's gonna slip up," Rosalie stated firmly. "If something is pissing him off that bad, he'll slip, and we need to make sure we're there to catch him when he does."

Paul needed to hold his babies as much as he could. He felt closer to Bella each time he wrapped them in his arms. His heart hurt for his wife and their kids. He missed her so much that he could tear the entire world apart just to find her, but he knew the triplets needed him just as much as they need their mother. "I know, buddy." He was pacing the floor in the nursery as he held Creed. "I miss her, too."

Cora was making food for anyone who would eat it and Paul knew he needed to eat, but his stomach was rejecting anything he thought about eating. He was lucky to get a few cups of coffee into his gullet. "Mom, he's not eating," Jake tells Cora before shoving a slice of bacon into his mouth. "Dad tried talking to him last night, but he's not listening."

Rachel and Rebecca enter the kitchen. They have Ember and Malia with them and take them straight to their highchairs. Malia wasn't happy and only wanted to be held. "Can you take her please?" Becca asked Jake. "I don't think she feels good."

"They know something's wrong," Rachel says as she takes a seat at the table. "Babies know these things."

"They do," Cora agreed. "You kids knew when your dad was hurt."

"Who's hurt?" Paul asked when he entered the kitchen. He took Creed to his highchair and strapped him in.

Cora walked over to him. "No one, sweetie. We were talking about how well babies can sense when something's wrong." She wrapped her arms around him. "How are you this morning?"

"As well as any man would be whose wife was kidnapped with her dad." He laid his cheek against the top of Cora's head. "She hasn't opened her mind to me since yesterday afternoon. What if something happened and she couldn't tell me? I keep trying and it's like she's not there."

Cora looked up to him. "I hate to say it, sweetie, but he might be keeping her drugged."

Paul wanted to cry. For him to even think about Bella being drugged and drained of her blood made him sick. "I don't know how much more of this I can handle."

"Honey," Cora patted his chest. "We'll get through this. We'll find her."

"I hate just sitting here. There has to be something we can do." Paul poured himself some coffee. "I mean, are we just waiting around for Alice to have a vision?" He screwed the lid on to his cup. He knew that was a rhetorical question. "I need to go take a walk for a bit. I need to see if she'll answer me."

"All right, sweetie. We can keep an eye on the babies." Cora kissed his cheek. "Make sure you have your phone with you."

Paul nodded and headed to the garage door. If it was cold out, he didn't notice. He wasn't feeling much of anything lately. He felt numb without his wife. "Angel?" He started walking towards the beach. "Angel, baby, please answer me."

"Paul?" In Paul's mind, Bella sounded groggy as if she just woke up. "I'm here."

"Thank God. We haven't talked since yesterday. Have you found out anything new?"

"No," Bella replied. "I made him really mad, though. He had to leave the room."

Paul closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Angel, you need to be careful. He's a loose cannon."

"I know." Bella was quiet for a minute. Paul could tell she was crying. "I just wanna come home. I miss you and the babies so much."

"We miss you, too, Angel. Alice and Jasper got here yesterday. They told us that Edward, somehow, hid cameras in our home."

"He's been telling me things about the babies. I never thought to ask him how he knew." Bella cried more. "I need to get home."

"We need you home, too, Angel."

Thank you!

RTB