Chapter 12: Alice

In some ways, pulling into the driveway of our Forks home felt like my return to Ithaca just two weeks ago. Jasper was waiting for me on the porch and he flew over to greet me when we stopped. But in Ithaca it was my return to Jasper that felt like coming home. Now, I breathed in the pine-scented air and felt a peace like I haven't felt for months seep into my bones.

Esme sighed happily when she stepped out of the car. For all that this house had some bad memories, there were hundreds of good ones. Here was where we met Bella and where we let her fill a hole in our family that we hadn't even known existed.

Ever the gentleman, Jasper retrieved both Esme's and my luggage from the trunk. The huge front windows were already open and I could see Carlisle, Emmett, and Rosalie already inside waiting for us.

The inside of the house was exactly the same as when we left it, except for a stale wet dog scent that I didn't remember from opening any other house. Jasper saw my nose wrinkle and flashed me a sympathetic grin.

"It's the Quileute pack," he explained. "Emmett recognized their scent from when the rest of the family signed the treaty. I opened the windows but there's still some of the smell left."

"And they touched absolutely everything," Rosalie complained as she entered the room.

"They certainly were thorough in their search," Jasper agreed.

"We can't be mad at them for that though," Esme said sharply. "Not if that's the reason we were able to find out about Bella." Rosalie huffed and stomped out of the room and Esme and I shared an exasperated glance. I couldn't help but be grateful that neither of us had to share a car with her on the way up.

"So what's the battle plan, Major?" I asked lightly, turning to Jasper.

"Emmett and I spent the night looking for a trail for Victoria but we came up with nothing. She's been gone for awhile. Unfortunately our best bet is just to head South and start looking there." I nodded and reached out with my gift again. Bella was rummaging through piles of clothes, muttering something about being sure she had it somewhere. Unfortunately it was early and the windows were still covered so there was no seeing any of the outside. I shook my head at Jasper.

"Before we go, we'll be meeting with at least one representative from the pack in a few minutes. We should start running," he said.

"I still don't really understand why we're going to be working this closely with the pack," Esme admitted as the group left the house. Thanks to our hearing and our lack of need for oxygen, it was relatively easy to continue the conversation while running to the border. Five of us ran as closely together as we could, given the trees, while Rosalie trailed in the back, her sour mood still disallowing her from joining in fully.

"The Quileutes are our only contact with Bella. So far Alice hasn't had much luck figuring out where Bella is through her visions. Unless that changed in the car?"

I shook my head. I had spent the entire drive searching not only Bella's and Victoria's futures. But the only thing I'd been able to see was that Bella was still in the South and on the move again and Victoria was just waiting in a place that didn't look anything like where Bella was. Hopefully the meeting with the wolves would put some of those clues together into something useful.

"I do wish Edward were with us. Not because I don't think he's caused enough trouble around here," Jasper said hurriedly as I opened my mouth to retort. "Just that it would be helpful to know what the wolves were thinking while we talk to them. I don't think they'll intentionally hide things from us, but they might think that certain things are too insignificant to mention."

"Jacob seems eager enough to help us that he isn't too self-conscious about bringing things up though," Emmett pointed out.

Jasper nodded. "His love for Bella is our biggest advantage right now."

"Love?" Esme questioned uneasily.

"Yes, love." Jasper sighed and glanced at our family running around us. "Look, I wouldn't say anything if it weren't so obvious anyway, but Jacob Black is very much in love with Bella. I don't know what their relationship was when she left, but I am confident that if she were here right now, he would be pursuing her romantically."

"Oh Edward," Esme whispered softly.

"Don't 'Oh Edward' him," I said hotly. "This is exactly what he asked for, right? For Bella to have a normal human relationship."

"I don't think dating a wolf pup was exactly Edward's idea of 'normal human relationship," Emmett chuckled. "Although, we've been gone four months and she's already got trouble following her. Maybe having a shifter for a boyfriend is her best option after all."

"I'm not sure about that," Carlisle said heavily. "After we signed the treaty, Edward explained what was inside their minds. It sounded like half their time was spent fighting to control their own tempers. I have no doubt that Jacob loves her, but even love wouldn't be enough to prevent him from losing control around her."

"Great, so she's right back in the situation we tried to prevent by leaving." I threw up my hands.

"Even so, we're silent partners here," Carlisle said firmly. "Unless Edward decides he wants to return to Bella, we have to keep her unaware of our involvement." Esme opened her mouth to protest and his eyes softened. "I know it will be hard for some of us to have her so close, yet be unable to interact with her," he said gently. "But we must. It would do her more harm than good to be reunited with us, only for us to leave again once she is safe from Victoria.

"We can continue this later, but the Quileutes are already here," Jasper called out.

I didn't need Jasper's warning. A brief gust of wind brought us the same scent that covered our house, but so potent it would have made me gag as a human. Jasper was right, there was more than one scent but when we broke through the treeline, only one boy was waiting for us on the opposite bank of the river.

The boy was heavily tanned and slightly larger than Emmett. His appearance made him look like a grown man, but his shoulders hunched and he fidgeted like a teenager who hadn't yet gained the confidence to match.

As we approached the river, our family fell into the standard formation. Carlisle was at the front with Jasper on his right and Emmett on his left. The rest of us fell in behind them. This time, the display of force was habitual but unneeded. Even if the werewolf was our enemy, our numbers compared to the lone wolf would have been intimidating enough.

"Jacob Black," called Jasper. "Are you here alone?" We all knew he wasn't – that there was at least one other wolf in the vicinity – but this was a good way to test how forthcoming with his own information our unlikely ally would be.

"It's myself and Embry here. He's hanging out in the forest as a wolf so the others can see what's happening." Well, that answered that. We heard a whine coming from the forest to the west. Apparently, Embry was less inclined to reveal his presence than Jacob had been.

"I gave my family the brief overview you told me last time we met. Would you mind clarifying how Bella knew Victoria was after her?"

"There was another lee- vampire hanging around town. Bella ran into him while hiking and they seemed to know each other so we didn't get involved right away. He told her that Victoria was looking for her." I wrinkled my nose. Bella was hiking? The Bella we left here wouldn't have been caught dead marching around a remote forest.

Part of me wondered if Jacob was being all the way truthful here. I reached forward and tapped Jasper's elbow twice. It was the family code any of us could ask of both him and Edward, 'Is what was said just now the truth?' Jasper immediately reached up to scratch his nose. It is.

"What did this other vampire look like?" Carlisle asked.

"Dark-skinned with dreadlocks. He had a bit of a French accent. Do you know him?"

Carlisle nodded. "He was visiting our cousins up north while he gave our diet a try." Jacob barked a laugh.

"I'm afraid you'll have to tell your cousins that he fell off the wagon. Despite his eye color we gave him the benefit of the doubt, but once he told Bella he was going to use her as a snack, we killed him."

"And we're so glad you did," Carlisle said firmly. Jacob seemed slightly surprised at the sentiment but said nothing else on the subject.

The rest of the meeting was spent talking about things we could do to try and find Bella. I talked about my visions and we came up with a list of places to go and try to pick up her scent. We decided that Jacob should stay in Washington until we found her for a few reasons. The first reason was simply practicality. Not only would Jacob be a slower traveler due to needing to stop for food and sleep, but we also discovered quickly that the presence of the shifters was the reason behind the holes in my vision.

"But that doesn't explain why I couldn't see the Denalis the other week," I pointed out.

"Actually, it might," Jake admitted. "There was a half-hourish period about a week and a half ago where I decided to run to Alaska to find your cousins and see if they knew how to get a hold of you."

"Oh." I blinked owlishly. "How did you know our cousins were in Alaska?"

"Edward mentioned it to Charlie, who mentioned it to my dad in front of me. I think Charlie almost has half a mind to go up there himself by the way. He's getting pretty desperate to find her too."

"Poor Charlie," I said sadly. Jacob's eyes on me grew more intense for a brief moment and then bounced back to Jasper, who had begun talking.

There was something odd going on in this conversation. Jacob was paying close attention to Jasper and Carlisle – and doing plenty of explaining himself – but every thirty seconds he would look at me with an inscrutable expression in his eyes. It was honestly starting to weird me out a little bit.

"So if Bella is due to call again tomorrow, we'll leave in the morning. If she tells you where she is, we'll go to her and watch over her until you arrive. Once you've brought her safely back to Forks, we can focus on eliminating the threat."

"Shouldn't you leave now?" Jacob asked. "What if Victoria is already there?"

"Obviously I can't be sure," I said. "I can't see Victoria well, but the landscape around Victoria and the landscape around Bella seem to be very different. And now that I'm watching, I should be able to see any decision that brings her close to Bella."

"Well then, let's hope she talks to us this time then." Jacob stifled a yawn and Esme frowned.

"Did we start too early for you, Jacob?" she said, speaking for the first time since we arrived.

"Uh, no," Jacob said, his face coloring slightly. "I was on patrol last night so I just haven't slept yet. I was going to grab a quick nap between our meeting and the next patrol."

"So you haven't slept since yesterday morning?" Esme fretted. She turned to Carlisle. "We can be done here, can't we?" Carlisle nodded.

"I think so. We'll call you at Billy's if we find anything important on our end. Do you have a number to reach us at?" Jacob nodded.

"Jasper gave me his number on the phone when he let me know to meet you here. But before you go, I'd like to talk to Alice real quick." I could feel the rest of the family's eyes on me, but I didn't look around. Instead, I kept my gaze on Jacob.

He was looking at me properly now. The careful, furtive glances from earlier. Now he was watching; waiting for my reaction.

As I stepped forward, Jasper grabbed my wrist. When I glanced up at him, his eyes were wary. As much as he was grateful to Jacob for helping us find Bella, he still didn't trust him with me.

"It'll be fine, Jazz," I whispered.

"You can't know that." I looked back at Jacob. He seemed tense but not angry.

"Do you sense anything from him?" When he didn't respond I addressed Jacob. "Are you comfortable if I come over?"

"Yeah," he said, stepping back to give me room to jump over the river. I did and noticed Jacob flinch slightly as I landed.

"This is so weird," he muttered. "Look, I just wanted to say thanks. I know we're natural enemies and all that but I saw what you left for her. Even if she never knew about it, thanks for trying to help her. Then and now."

"You don't need to thank us. We're just undoing our own mistakes here." Jacob frowned.

"What mistakes?"

"Do you know why Victoria is after her?"

"Not really, but I'm guessing it has something to do with her injury in Phoenix last year?" I nodded.

"The vampire that was after her was Victoria's mate. We killed him and we think she's trying to go after Bella for revenge. We had originally left because we thought she would be safer if she wasn't being exposed to other vampires anymore."

"Jasper mentioned that Edward-" he growled out my brother's name. "-was supposed to have been tracking her down."

"Yeah I don't know what happened there, but after all this is over he'll definitely be answering some questions." Jacob looked down at the ground and bit his lip. It was such a Bella-like gesture that I couldn't help but smile. He was clearly trying to work himself up to asking a question and I didn't push him.

"Did Edward tell you what happened the day he left her?"

"I don't see how that's any of your business," I snapped, anger sharpening my tone.

"Your brother made it my business when he told her he didn't love her anymore and ran off, leaving me to try to put her back together. He left her in the middle of the forest dammit." My heart turned to ice.

"That can't be right. He wouldn't leave her in the middle of the forest," I whispered, horror-struck. I heard several thuds behind me as my family landed on our side of the riverbank, apparently giving up the pretense of privacy. I glanced behind me and took in the expressions of shock and horror on their faces. And fury. Rosalie's fury.

During the first part of the meeting, Rosalie had held herself with aloofness. It was no secret that she didn't particularly care about Bella. She was only here because Emmett asked her to be. But now her fists were balled at her sides and her expression was thunderous. I didn't have to be an empath to feel the rage radiating out of every pore. But her glare was directed at the ground so I couldn't tell who her ire was with.

"Well he did," Jacob said roughly. "It was already past midnight when Sam found her collapsed on the ground and freezing. The doctor said she'd probably been out there for several hours." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jasper scratch his nose. Esme's face fell. So whatever had really happened out there, at least Jacob firmly believed it to be the truth.

"That makes no sense," Carlisle said, stepping up beside me. "Edward called and told me about the conversation with her and he said that while she disagreed vehemently with our plan, she understood why we had to leave."

"Then he was lying," Jacob said bluntly. "Whatever he told Bells convinced her that he no longer loved her and it broke her. She barely ate or spoke to anyone for weeks after. If she slept she woke up screaming from nightmares. She only snapped out of it because Charlie threatened to send her to a psychiatric hospital in Florida."

Psychiatric Hospital. Insane Asylum.

I felt like I couldn't breathe. Our leaving had caused my sweet human sister to come apart so thoroughly that she had very nearly been sentenced to the same fate that ended my human life.

It's not the same, a small voice whispered in my mind. Of course it wasn't. Treatments have come a long way since I had been committed for my fledgling gift. She likely wouldn't have been kept isolated in a dirty cell with barely enough food to keep her alive. But still the parallels between Bella's almost-story and my newly discovered history were enough to turn my stomach.

"Is she okay?" I heard Jacob ask as a soothing calm started to pick at the edges of my horror.

"She's fine. I think this was probably just a shock. We'd better go now but we'll keep in touch."

"We did this to her, Jasper," I said softly. He rubbed my shoulders soothingly.

"I know, Darlin', but we'll fix this."

"How? If we can't talk to her, there's no way we can properly apologize. We can protect her for the rest of her life and make sure she wants for nothing, but without the words from us, she'll never be able to recognize it as our attempts to make it right."

"We'll cross that bridge when we find her," Carlisle said firmly. I nodded out of habit, but something had changed inside me. Now that I had a better picture of what Bella was going through, there was no going back. Carlisle wanted to support Edward the way Edward had been the first one to come alongside him and Jasper was afraid of hurting Bella again. But I didn't care anymore. When we found Bella, I would do the right thing. I just wasn't sure if I was ready to tell the rest of the family yet. Not when they had finally agreed to help me find her.

"Are you okay, Rose?" I heard Emmett say softly as we began the run back to the house.

"Of course I'm not okay. Edward was doing a good thing by letting Bella have a normal human life, but if he lied to her and left her in the forest then he's really just another son of a bitch who took away a woman's choice and left her to die."

"That's a bit harsh, Rose,"

"It's really not, Emmett. Even if his intentions were good, the effect was the same. Except instead of being physically brutalized, Bella was emotionally tortured. It's the curse of this family's women." Ahead of us, Carlisle swung Esme into his arms so he was carrying her and Jasper's hand tightened around mine. Over Carlisle's shoulder, Esme met my eyes and I couldn't help the soft smile that spread across my face in response to hers.

It seemed like Rosalie had drawn parallels of her own. Despite the nightmare that was unfolding around us, something magical had happened. Whether she realized it or not, Rosalie had included Bella as family.

A/N – Well this week kicked my butt. I very nearly spent tonight bingeing a new show and eating Cheetos. But I'm nice so I edited another chapter instead. I hope you like it! Thanks as always to my beta, oihdsfx!