Fic: The Edge (Twilight, Alice/Bella 22/?)

[fembuck]

Title: The Edge
Author: Janine
Fandom: Twilight
Pairing: Alice/Bella
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Stephanie Meyer. I’m just borrowing them.
Summary: Now that Victoria has made a move against them, the Cullen’s must decide what they are going to do about her; Rose and Bella have a serious chat.

Previous chapters here

---

Bella’s head turned from side to side, her gaze jumping from Cullen to Cullen or Hale to Cullen or Hale to Hale as they talked over each other and responded to each other, and occasionally even yelled at each other.

It was chaos, utter chaos.

Bella could just barely make out the interweaving threads of the multiple conversations happening.

Her head began to throb.

“You can’t do it alone,” Bella said leaning forward.

Her comment was swallowed up by the other voices in the room, drowned out before it had even registered with any of them. Around her the Cullen’s continued on as they had been before.

“You can’t do it alone,” Bella said again, her voice a little louder though it still didn’t make a dent in their consciousness.

Bella sighed.

Even Alice who was sitting beside didn’t seem to register what she was saying. Alice’s eyes were on Emmett and she was glaring at him, yelling something at him in Spanish – which Bella only knew because she knew a few swear words in Spanish and swear words seemed to be all that Alice was using.

“YOU CAN’T DO IT ALONE!” Bella bellowed at the top of her lungs, her eyes squeezing shut as she concentrated on focusing every ounce of her energy into her vocal cords.

The voices around the room immediately died down, and when Bella opened her eyes she saw that everyone in the room was staring at her.

Bella tugged at her shirt, straightening it, trying to buy herself a few seconds to gather her thoughts as the Cullen’s turned to stare at her curiously.

“What exactly do you mean, ‘we can’t do it alone’?” Carlisle asked finally.

“Well,” Bella began straightening her back.

“No,” Alice said shaking her head from side to side, knowing exactly what Bella was about to propose. “Bella, no,” she repeated turning to look at her lover. “No,” she said more emphatically, shaking her head when Bella glared at her.

“Oh yes,” Bella said finally meeting Alice’s gaze. “It can work,” she continued when Alice went on shaking her head back and forth. Alice looked like a stubborn four year old as she shook her head, hair flip flopping this way and that, and usually Bella would have been charmed by the adorable display, but she would not be swayed this time. “You two were civil to each other this afternoon,” Bella continued looking at Alice pointedly.

“We were fifty yards away from each other,” Alice responded exasperated. “Besides, he was just one … the others will never agree,” she continued trying to appeal to Bella’s logic.

Bella’s eyes narrowed at Alice’s response.

“Do you know that? Or are you just guessing?” Bella asked watching her lover closely.

Alice’s eyes narrowed at her, but she didn’t say anything and Bella knew that she was right her lover was just guessing. Alice hadn’t had any visions about how the wolves would react to the proposal, she couldn’t have any.

“That’s what I thought,” Bella said turning away from Alice who glared at her for a second and then crossed her arms over her chest, and slumped against the back of the sofa.

“If it’s not too much trouble,” Esme interjected in the momentary silence. “What are you two talking about?” she asked, drawing Bella’s eyes over to her.

“I think that you should work with the werewolves to trap Victoria,” Bella responded holding Esme’s gaze, her eyes serious and her tone sober.

Everyone was silent for a second, and then Emmett let out a loud burst of laughter, his head actually tipping back with the hilarity of it all. He looked over at Bella, shaking his finger at her, ready to congratulate her on the good joke when he got a look at her face and realized that she was serious.

“Seriously?” he asked, looking over at Alice, a horrified look spreading across his features.

“Seriously,” Alice confirmed, in a displeased monotone.

“That’s stupid,” Emmett said looking at Bella.

Bella glared at him, then turned to glare at Alice, then looked back over at Emmett and glared at him again.

“It’s not stupid,” she insisted turning her gaze to look at Carlisle and Esme. “It can work. Really. All I have to do is call Jake. The two of us can act as intermediaries, we can co-ordinate everyone’s movements. Theoretically, none of you would even need to see one of the werewolves, let alone talk to any of them,” Bella explained.

“Theoretically, the idea is fine,” Rosalie said calmly. “But this isn’t a philosophical debate. The wolves hate us. They’ll never agree to work with us. They’ll never trust us enough for that.”

“That’s not necessarily true,” Bella said allowing a small smile to come to her face. “At least one wolf doesn’t think you’re all bad. Jacob likes Alice,” she continued, glancing over at her lover. “He’ll vouch for her,” she continued happily, almost completely positive that it was true.

Everyone turned to look at Alice, their eyes disbelieving.

Alice shifted uncomfortably.

“It’s not … I mean … Bella is severely overstating the case,” Alice said sighing deeply. “Jacob and I just managed to talk to each other for a few minutes without trying to kill each other.”

“You were joking with each other,” Bella said looking over at Alice, before glancing around the room to make sure everyone else had heard her.

“No we …” Alice began before seeing the look Bella was giving her. “One joke, no plural,” she said looking around the room. “And, it wasn’t even that funny,” she added though she wasn’t sure why that was particularly relevant.

“Whatever,” Bella sighed. “As you said, I don’t expect you all to sit around playing Jenga and braiding each others hair. All I’m suggesting is that you run a co-coordinated search for Victoria. The wolves will stay in La Push territory, and you’ll all take the rest of town. The treaty won’t be broken, and you probably won’t even run into each other,” she continued a little frustration entering her tone as looked around the room. “I mean, you’ve been trying to catch her for weeks now and it hasn’t been working, right? So, maybe it’s time to try something new.”

The room descended into silence after that. The members of the family were sharing looks with each other, and Bella could occasionally make out their lips moving and knew that they were talking to each other too softly and rapidly for her to make out what they were saying.

“Okay,” Carlisle said running a hand through his hair. “I know … I know that we all have our reservations about Bella’s plan, but it’s true that the measures we’ve taken so far have been unsuccessful and that a change in strategy might be called for,” he continued looking around at the rest of his family. “We should allow Bella to speak to her friend, at least put the offer to the wolves. If they refuse then we’ll handle the matter on our own, but if they agree to help … it could be very advantageous.”

Emmett growled but said nothing, and then rest of the family looked displeased but didn’t put up an argument.

“It’s agreed then,” Carlisle said turning to face Bella. “You’ll talk to Jacob, and depending on the answer he gives you, we’ll plan from there.”

---

An Hour Later

Bella gazed out of the window of the Mercedes, feeling tense and uncomfortable. She had never gotten the impression that Rosalie was a big fan of hers, and it made her nervous that the blonde had volunteered to drive her home. She would have preferred Alice take her, but Carlisle wanted to examine Alice and make sure that everything was okay, and she really didn’t want to be alone with Edward, so she had quickly accepted when Rosalie offered taking away the chance for Edward to volunteer for the task.

“I know you’re trying to be nice,” Rosalie began, drawing Bella’s eyes hesitantly over to her. “But you should tell him the truth. In the long run, it’ll be kinder.”

Bella stared at her, her eyebrows furrowing together as she ran Rosalie’s words through her head again and again trying to determine exactly what the blonde was talking about.

“I thought telling him would put Charlie in danger,” Bella responded sounding absolutely bewildered.

Rosalie more than any of them seemed to believe in the code of silence. Half the time Bella was certain that Rose would have been absolutely delighted if the earth opened up and she was sucked into a deep, never-ending chasm, which made it difficult for her to fathom why Rosalie would be telling her to tell her father about all of them.

“I wasn’t talking about Charlie,” Rose said a moment later, looking over at Bella suspiciously, as if she thought the brunette was being purposefully dim.

“Then who were you talking about?” Bella asked curiously.

As far as she knew the Cullen’s were the ones with all of the secrets, not her. She of course kept theirs for them, but if Rose wasn’t talking about keeping a large chunk of her life a secret from Charlie then she had no idea what she was talking about.

“Edward,” Rose responded, turning her head to stare at Bella levelly before she turned her eyes back the road.

She was driving at a snail’s pace, almost as slow as Bella’s truck usually went, and Bella knew that she was doing it on purpose, that she wanted the ride to her house to take as long as possible so that they could have this conversation.

“Honestly, Rose,” Bella began a bit wearily. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Edward already knows everything about me.”

“Were you paying any attention to him at all tonight?” Rose asked looking over at Bella inquisitively. “Did it register with you that he barely said two words? That you proposed meeting with Jacob and all of us working with the wolves and Edward barely had a reaction?” she asked.

Bella frowned, turning her head to the side to look out the window for a second.

“I noticed,” she admitted grudgingly. “But everyone was pretty quiet until Alice and Esme came downstairs, and afterwards … I thought he was just unhappy with the plan. Edward sometimes goes really quiet when he’s not happy,” Bella continued knowing that it was something more than that even as she spoke.

Edward’s silence that night had been different. She had been too distracted over her worry about Alice to consider it too much at the time, but now that Rose had brought it up she realized how strange it was. There was something almost … apathetic about Edward’s silence, and when it came to her and wolves, apathetic was usually the last thing Edward was.

Rose sighed and shook her head. “You really have no idea what you’re like when you’re around her do you?”

“Who? Alice?” Bella asked turning to look at Rose, surprised by the comment.

“Yes, Alice,” Rose said shaking her head again.

“What am I like when I’m around her?” Bella asked curiosity and dread warring in her tone. She wasn’t sure whether she was in for more of Rose’s teasing about their sex life or not, though she suspected she wasn’t. Rose seemed to be in a fairly serious mood, and Bella was kind of curious to see what she had to say.

“Smitten,” Rose said finally. “Deeply smitten,” she continued, her lips curving up slightly. “You look at her like she’s the greatest thing in the world. If I walked into a room one day and saw you curled up at her feet I wouldn’t even blink,” Rose went on. “You act like you’re completely and utterly in love with her.”

“I am,” Bella said, her tone was fierce, as if she believed that Rose was calling her feelings into question.

“Oh, I believe you,” Rose said. “I’m slightly bewildered by the whole thing, but I believe you,” she continued in an offhand manner. “But that brings me back to what I was saying before. You owe it to Edward to tell him that.”

“Edward knows about my relationship with Alice,” Bella said looking over at Rose confusedly. They all knew about her relationship with Alice, they had found out the night they got back from Italy. Bella didn’t understand why Rose was now acting like it was some sort of huge secret she was keeping.

“Sure, but he doesn’t know that he doesn’t stand a chance?” Rose responded. “Actually, after tonight I’m beginning to suspect that he’s starting to figure it out, but it would still be decent of you to handle the situation like an adult.”

“Doesn’t stand a … I have no idea what you’re talking about!” Bella declared her voice full of frustration as she turned to glare at Rosalie.

“You’re leading him on,” Rose said bluntly, realizing that subtly wouldn’t work with Bella. “You’ve already made up your mind … or your heart, or whatever. You haven’t been in love with Edward for a while, have you?” she continued looking over at Bella knowingly. “You’re making him think that things can work between the two of you. But you don’t have the same relationship Alice and Jasper do,” she went on, her voice gentling a little. “At least Jasper knows that she still loves him. When she looks at him her eyes still light up. When you’re around Edward I can practically hear a funeral dirge playing in the background.”

“That’s not … that’s not true,” Bella said shaking her head from side to side. But her voice was weak, and her chest was tight because the more she thought about what Rose was saying the more she began to suspect that it was true. “I love him. I do,” she insisted.

“No. You feel obligated to him,” Rose replied without a hint of doubt in her voice. “You know he loves you. He tried to kill himself because of you. That’s a lot of pressure, a lot of expectation, and you think you have to be with him, that you should be with him, because he wants you so much. But you don’t feel it anymore, do you? You like him, you still care about him, but whenever you’re with him you wish you were with her instead.”

Bella squeezed her eyes shut and angled her head away from Rosalie, willing the tears that she could feel burning in her eyes to say there. She wanted to deny what Rosalie was saying. She wanted to curse at her, and tell her to go to hell. She wanted to stick her fingers in her ears and chant ‘la la la’ until the horrible words went away. But she had heard them, and there was nothing she could do to erase that.

Worst of all, she felt the truth of them, and the pain and shame that they made her feel would not be ignored.

She didn’t love Edward anymore. She hadn’t been happy with him for a long time, not since he had returned to Forks, and she had been trying very, very had not to think about that fact.

They fought regularly now, and often spent hours in silence not knowing what to say to each other, fearing that they would just upset the other. When Edward had stopped during the one time they had almost made love, she had been relieved, almost grateful that he had ended it. When she saw him, her heart no longer thudded in her chest. It was Alice’s eyes, and arms, and mouth, and scent that she dreamed of, never his. And Rose was right, she was right. On Edward’s nights, when he stayed, when they were tucked away in her room together as she shifted against him trying to fall asleep, all she could think about was how much she wished Alice was there with her instead of Edward.

“I know you’re trying to be nice,” Rosalie said, breaking the silence. “But you should tell him the truth,” she continued mirroring her earlier words. “In the long run, it really will be kinder.”

“It’ll devastate him,” Bella murmured softly, her hands fidgeting in her lap.

“It already is,” Rose replied turning to look at Bella. “I know Italy, what he tried to do is weighing heavily on you,” she continued sighing, “but ultimately, Edward is responsible for Edward. It is up to him how he handles life’s disappointments. Just because someone loves you, it doesn’t mean that they own you,” she went on, her voice hardening as she looked away from Bella. “You don’t have to give yourself to him out of a feeling of guilt or obligation.”

Her tone became less fierce again, and Bella looked at her curiously, wondering at the strength of emotion that had just gripped Rosalie.

“Right now you still care about him, and if you’re honest with him, one day you two might even be able to be friends,” Rose continued softly. “But if you stay with him, if you rip his heart to shreds bit by bit, lying to him day in and out, you’ll end up hating each other.”

Bella stared at Rosalie for a second and then turned away, curling away from her in her seat, resting her head against the back of it as she directed her gaze outside of the window, a horrible weight settling over her as she realized that Rosalie was right.

---

The Next Day

Bella watched as Jacob approached her truck. He was walking slowly, almost tentatively, but his face was calm, and she thought that she could just detect the hint of a smile on his face.

“I wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth,” Jacob said, leaning his muscular arms in the open window of Bella’s truck. “She’s not hiding in the tree line is she?” he asked, but his voice was light, and Bella knew that he was joking more than anything.

“No,” she said smiling. “Alice is at home. Though I am to call her immediately, immediately, as soon as I’m off of the reservation,” she went on rolling her eyes a bit.

“I don’t know what they think we’re going to do to you,” Jacob muttered stepping back as Bella reached for the door handle of her truck.

“I don’t think she’s really worried about me being hurt,” Bella said stepping out of the truck and closing the door behind her. “I told you about Alice’s visions,” she continued, moving over towards Jacob, a happy laugh escaping her when he enveloped her in a big hug. “She can’t see werewolves,” Bella continued when he pulled back from her, “and it makes her nervous that she wouldn’t have any advanced warning of impending doom if something were to happen while I was around one of you.”

Jacob made an unkind sound in his throat but didn’t say anything, and Bella was glad that he had bit his tongue. She knew that it made him uneasy that there were vampires out there who had extra abilities, and especially that three of the vampires in Forks had some. However, there was nothing that he could do about it, and she didn’t want to get into a fight over it with him.

“Feel like going for a walk?” Jacob asked, shoving his hands into his pockets, kicking at the dirt with his large feet. Despite is hulking figure, he looked like a little kid at that moment, the boy that Bella had first met all though years ago, and she smiled widely at him, overcome with affection.

“The beach?” she asked. It had been one of her favorite stomping grounds when she had been spending her days at La Push with him in the last month of the Cullen’s self-imposed exile.

“Sure,” Jacob said, smiling at her as well.

---

“So,” Jacob drawled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked over at Bella curiously. “What’s been going on with you?” he asked struggling for nonchalance. He hadn’t had a chance to really talk to Bella in a long time, and the last time they had seen each other, her life had seemed to be … fairly complicated to say the least.

“Start with something easy, why don’t ‘cha?” Bella said laughing darkly, before she lifted her hand to her face and scrubbed her fingers over her eyes wearily. “Things are … good, and bad, and complicated, and incredibly simple, and sweet and bitter, and … my life is a soap opera,” Bella moaned. “One of those nighttime ones, on pay channels … with the warnings before them,” she sighed covering her face with her hands.

“Yeah,” Jacob said hesitantly, looking over at her as she dropped her hands from her face. “Like, what exactly is going on with your love life?” he asked.

The last time he saw Bella she had seemed to be pretty ‘close’ with Alice, but he had been checking on her from a distance occasionally, and he had seen that Edward was still about quite a bit which was pretty confusing, since Bella was dating his sister.

“Oh god, I wish I knew,” Bella said looking over at Jake speculatively. “If you don’t want to know, you don’t have to be polite and ask,” she continued. “I get that it’s kind of weird you know, and if you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine,” she went on, both hoping that he would want to drop it, and dreading that he would want to drop it. She actually kind of wanted to talk about it with him, he was a great listener and even though he was younger than her, he usually gave really good advice. But, if he was uncomfortable talking about who she was seeing after refusing to date him, she would respect his wishes.

“It’s alright,” Jake said looking away, knowing that she was referring to his ill-fated attempts to woo her. “We’re friends, and you know, if stuff is going on, then I wanna know about it. I’m a pretty good listener,” he continued, knowing that it wouldn’t exactly be pleasant, but he did really want to be there for her.

“I don’t even know where to start,” Bella said, her mind whirling with all of the possibilities.

“Definitely start with Alice,” Jacob said looking over at her. “Cause … when did you start to like girls?” he asked throwing his hands up in the air. “I mean she’s pretty good looking and everything, for a bloodsucker. And she seems alright, for a bloodsucker. But … she’s … a girl!”

“Yeah,” Bella said looking over at him. She looked a little bewildered herself. “The thing is I don’t even know,” she continued honestly. “Renee said I was a late bloomer,” Bella continued rolling her eyes, “but I … like, you’d think I would have had some idea right?” she asked shaking her head. “I just … I had kind of always noticed girls, but I just thought it was like a regular kind of way. But with Alice …” Bella trailed off, realizing that she was about to sigh dreamily.

“So you just like woke up one day, and it was like ‘whoa I want her body’?” Jacob asked, smiling a little as Bella looked over at him and frowned.

“Not really,” she said. “I mean, for a while I wasn’t even aware of the attraction. But Alice is like … really touchy feely,” she continued smiling a little. “The first time we really met she hugged me and kissed me on the cheek, and after that, we always seemed to be touching. And then it was like, I kind of missed it when she wasn’t touching me. And then … well, you know,” Bella said, not wanting to say ‘I wanted her to start touching a lot more of me’ out loud.

“Wow,” Jacob said, opening his eyes wide as he looked at her. “So,” he drawled again a second later.

“What?” Bella asked wearily, beginning to realize that Jacob’s ‘so’s’ were precursor’s to private questions he wasn’t sure she would want to answer.

“How was it?” he asked kicking a pebble casually.

“How was what?” Bella asked although she was starting to get a bad feeling about how he was going to respond.

“You know,” Jacob said waving his hand in the air. “The sex,” he continued struggling for nonchalance.

“No,” Bella said shaking her head. “No, no, no,” she continued stopping in her tracks to wave her finger at him. “We’re not talking about that. No way. Never. That is … no,” she said shaking her head again.

“Oh, come on,” Jacob whined. “I’m your best friend, you’re supposed to tell me this stuff,” he continued, however Bella just went on shaking her head. “I’m a guy!” he said finally. “It’s just mean not to tell me. It’s … you’re both …”

“It’s … we’re both … what, Jake?” Bella asked, her eyes narrowing at him.

“Hot girls who touch each other,” Jacob muttered kicking at the dirt again. “You’ve gotta tell me something.”

“Ew, no,” Bella said again. “I don’t want you thinking about that,” she went on shuddering a little. “Listen, all you need to know is that it was fine. That’s all I’m ever going to say about it,” she continued. “You can use the internet to indulge in your girl-on-girl fantasies like the rest of the world,” she went on. “Ew,” she added for good measure shaking her head once more.

“Fine, fine,” Jacob said even though he sounded a bit upset. “What’s going on with Edward?” he asked, spitting out Edward’s name distastefully.

“Are you going to ask me about sex with him, too?” Bella asked peevishly.

“You had sex with him?” Jacob asked as his body began to shake.

His voice was so loud that Bella immediately pushed up onto her tiptoes and lifted her hand, putting it against his mouth to stop his words. They were on the beach, but there were still people milling about in the distance, and nothing grabbed people’s attention more than anything that had to do with sex. People could be talking about national secrets without anyone around the paying attention, but the moment someone heard a word like ‘nipple’ you had their full attention.

“Ssh,” Bella whispered, finally taking her hand away from his mouth. “No, okay … so calm down,” Bella said looking around them.

Luckily Jacob’s little outburst hadn’t attracted any attention.

“Well, good,” Jacob said, his tone harder than it had been all afternoon. His body was still tense, and he was squeezing and releasing one of his hands compulsively at his side.

Bella looked over at him curiously. She didn’t understand why he was so angry. Before, she would have assumed it was because he was jealous of her relationship with Edward, but he had handled the news about Alice so well. She didn’t understand how the possibility of her sleeping with Edward bothered Jacob so much, when she actually was sleeping with Alice.

“Jake,” Bella said reaching out for him, stroking his arm lightly.

“Sorry,” Jacob said breathing in and out deeply, trying to control his temper. “I just … I don’t like that guy,” he continued, his body relaxing a bit. “I really don’t like that guy,” he went on shaking his head. “Are you still seeing him?” he asked, glowering at Bella.

“Kind of,” Bella responded, her conversation with Rosalie from the night before coming back to her.

Jacob growled softly, but took a few deep breaths and calmed down again. “You should just … stick with the girl,” he said looking over at Bella. “I’d prefer you dated someone with a pulse. I mean, I don’t understand what’s wrong with humans,” he continued emphasizing the last word. “But Alice is a much, much better choice than … Edward,” he said, the name falling hatefully from his lips once more.

“I don’t … disagree,” Bella said softly.

She had been up all night thinking about what Rosalie had said to her in the car, and the more she thought about the more she realized how right the blonde had been. She did still care about Edward, he had been her first love, and her feelings for him were still very deep. But she was positive now that she was no longer in love with him.

“I mean just think about it,” Jacob continued, Bella’s words not fully registering with him. “He … wait,” Jacob said pausing mid-sentence, “what?”

“I said I don’t disagree with you,” Bella said knowing that she had his attention now. “Obviously, I like Edward far more than you do, and I think that you’ve been unnecessarily harsh on him,” she continued ignoring Jacob’s offended look. “But … I don’t think that I’m in love with him,” she continued sighing. “What I feel for Alice is just so much … more.”

Jacob’s shoulders slumped and when he looked over at her, he was much calmer than he had been before.

“You feel badly about it,” he said watching her carefully, “about not being in love with him anymore.”

“Yes,” Bella breathed out. She felt like the worst person in the world.

“Well, you shouldn’t feel too bad,” Jacob said, and Bella could tell that he was trying to keep his voice gentle. “You can’t control who you love,” he went on softly, his eyes darting over to her quickly before they skittered away again. “And … even though you’ll probably slap me for saying this … she treats you better than he did.”

“That’s not … Edward never …” Bella began, but she remembered complaining to Alice not twenty-fours before about how controlling Edward was, and how he didn’t respect her opinions and her ability to make decisions for herself. Alice worried about her too, and she certainly had her own feelings about issues that affected Bella, but Alice didn’t try to micromanage her. She let her feelings be known, but when Bella made a decision she accepted it and tried to be as supportive as possible.

“Right,” Jacob drawled rolling his eyes. “Very convincing,” he continued. “If Edward had his way we’d never see each other or talk to each other again. You’d never get to see Sam, or Emily, or Dad or Quil or anyone from around here,” he went on. “Shortie may not like it, but she accepts it.”

“Shortie?” Bella asked smiling a little.

“I was thinking of trying that one out next time I see her across town,” Jacob said smirking.

“You know you’re in for some Lassie and Rin Tin Tin jokes if you do, right?” Bella asked.

“Rin Tin Tin?” Jacob asked completely confused.

Bella smiled. “Alice is kind of old school sometimes,” she explained. “She’s still genuinely surprised when people don’t get her Tallulah Bankhead references,” Bella continued laughing.

“Who?” Jacob asked smiling a little, Bella’s amusement lifting his mood.

“She’s an actress from the 50s,” Bella said obviously not having a much better idea who the woman was. “Alice has sworn that one weekend she’s going to sit me down and give me a crash course on why Tallulah Bankhead is awesome and always will be.”

“If I were you, I’d say I’m busy that weekend,” Jacob responded smirking.

“Can I come and hide out here?” Bella asked grinning at him as well.

“Always,” Jacob said smiling. “I’ve still got your bike, you know!”

“Really?” Bella asked, a shiver of excitement running through her as she thought of the motorcycle Jacob had fixed up for her. She had been riding it for the wrong reasons back then, but that didn’t mean the bike itself was a bad thing, and she was kind of excited about the idea of riding it just to feel the wind against her, instead of to induce hallucinogenic voices in her head.

“Sure. If you don’t think your girlfriend will mind,” he said. His voice was still playful, but there was a challenging edge to it, and Bella knew that how Alice responded to the motorcycle would be a big factor in whether Jacob continued to think she was ‘not so bad, for a bloodsucker’ or whether he began to think of her like the rest of the Cullen’s.

“She’d probably want to ride it,” Bella said, a soft smile coming to her face as she pictured riding on the back of the bike, her arms wrapped around Alice’s waist as she buried her head in her neck. Or better yet, Alice riding with her arms wrapped around her waist. “She likes things that go fast.”

Jacob smiled, clearly impressed.

“We might actually have to try and hang out then,” Jacob said, and Bella grinned widely at him.

“You’ll get along great,” Bella said excitedly, the possibility of Jacob and Alice actually being friendly with each other excitingly her greatly.

She didn’t expect them to have sleepover parties or anything, but it would be so great if they could have like movie nights, or go out riding together or something. Not to mention that Jacob would be in heaven if he got to take a look under the hood of Alice’s Porsche.

“Speaking of which,” Bella said, forcing herself to calm down and focus on the reason that she come to see Jacob in the first place. “I kind of need to ask you for a favor,” she began looking over at him hopefully.

“Oh, yeah?” Jacob asked, knowing that whatever it was Bella didn’t think that he was going to like it.

“So, you know how Victoria is back,” Bella began. “Well, last night she kind of …” Bella continued explaining to him what happened the night before, and what her idea was for making sure that it wouldn’t happen again.

---

Later That Day

Bella’s eyes widened and she sucked in a sharp breath.

“He’s behind you!” Bella yelled pointing her finger in the direction of the enemy. “He’s behind you, Emmett!”

“I know,” Emmett growled, shooting her an irritated look before he focused on the enemy once more.

“He’s getting closer,” Bella said jittering nervously beside Emmett. “There’s something in his hand, Emmett! He’s gonna hit you with it! Or shoot you! Or hit you and then shoot you!” she rambled, her eyes getting bigger.

“No way,” Emmett responded. “This fuckers going down,” he growled.

Bella gasped, her hand shooting up to cover her mouth as Emmett’s blow connected spraying blood in their direction.

Bella wanted to look away, but her eyes wouldn’t cooperate. She stared in front of her wide-eyed, watching as Emmett delivered blow after blow, until the enemy fell to the ground, nothing but a red, bloody, pulpy mass where their face used to be.

“Over there!” Bella said pointing the side. “He’s close!”

“Yeah, close to being dead,” Emmett declared, his lips curving up slightly as he directed his attention to the threat rushing towards him.

Bella pressed her hand against her heart, her eyes still glued in front of her.

Emmett’s thumb flew over the X, square, circle and triangle buttons of his controller, his hands turning it from side to side as he manipulated the character on screen.

“He’s got a chainsaw, Emmett,” Bella pointed out, wringing her hands together. “He’s gonna cut your head off.”

“He’s not gonna cut my head off,” Emmett said shooting her a look as his thumb moved rapidly up and down. “Have a little faith in me will you!”

“I know, I know,” Bella said, still wringing her together. “He just looks mean.”

“He’s gonna look dead in a second,” Emmett responded, his thumb a blur as it moved over the key pad.

Idly, Bella thought that it was amazing that he hadn’t managed to crush it yet.

There was a horrible squelching noise on screen and then Emmett was rounding on Bella.

“I told you! I told you!” Emmett said jabbing his finger at Bella. “Skillz,” he declared pointing at his chest, and Bella could hear the ‘z’ at the end of it.

Rosalie sighed deeply from her spot on the couch.

“Sometimes I cannot believe I have sex with him,” she murmured tiredly, sighing once more before she went back to reading her magazine.

“I can,” Alice murmured from beside Rose. “He looks like,” she went on. Her words came out so rapidly that Bella couldn’t make them out, but whatever she said made Rosalie smile, and caused Emmett to turn around and declare, “You know it.”

“If you take a field trip to the specialty store I’m sure you can Bella could do that too,” Rose said looking up from her magazine again to grin at Alice.

“Still couldn’t, until after she’s turned,” Alice muttered, once again rapidly enough that Bella couldn’t hear her.

“Aw, poor baby,” Rose replied reaching out to pat Alice’s knee. She knew that Alice wanted to turn Bella herself and that she was probably a year or more away from being able to do it. “You better do your homework,” she added, laughing as Alice stuck her tongue out at her.

“I hope you all realize how rude you’re being,” Bella said knowing that what they were talking about involved her in some way, and was probably sexual. “It’s like speaking another language in an elevator. I know you’re talking about me.”

“She totally does that,” Emmett said looking over at Rose who glared at him. He quieted down after that and busied himself selecting some new weapons for the next level in his game.

Bella and Alice exchanged at look at that, but said nothing knowing that Emmett was already fully aware that he was completely pussy-whipped.

Bella moved over to the couch to sit beside Alice, knowing that Emmett would do quite well on the next level without her backseat driving. Rose had been reading for the most of the game, but Alice had just been sitting back watching, occasionally shaking her head and Bella knew that she was aware of what moves of Emmett’s were going to work before he tried them, but that she wasn’t going to ruin the game for him.

Edward and Jasper were in another room of the house playing chess, and so Bella rested her head on Alice’s shoulder as she sat down. As she snuggled against Alice’s side, Bella’s eyes caught Rosalie’s and she knew that the blonde was giving her a silent reminder of their talk from the night before.

Bella nodded faintly, and then look away.

“How’d it go with Charlie today?” Bella asked.

“Fine,” Alice said looking down at her. “It was kind of fun actually,” she said smiling. “Not lying to your father, but getting all made up for it,” Alice explained when Bella frowned a little. “Rose and I spent like an hour making it look like I had cuts and bruises, and,” Alice said gently disentangling herself from Bella so that she could stand up. “Look,” Alice said grinning, and then she started to limp around the room, dragging her left foot at her side as she hopped forward with her right. “It’s pretty good, right?”

“You better say it’s good,” Rose murmured still looking down at her magazine. “She was practicing all night.”

“Really?” Bella asked smiling as Alice limped back over to the couch. It was actually a pretty authentic limp.

“Not all night,” Alice said settling back down next to Bella. “Just an hour or so in the early morning,” she continued. “Anyway, the cover story is that …” Alice began, however, in the middle of her sentence Bella’s cell phone began to ring and she quieted down.

All of the eyes in the room turned to her as the phone rang, Emmett not even blinking as his character died a horrible death on screen. Bella reached for her bag, digging out the phone, and by the time she emerged with it in her hand and flipped it open, Jasper, Edward, Carlisle and Esme were in the room as well.

“Hey Jake,” Bella said putting the phone to her ear. “Um hmm,” she said nodding, trying to ignore the seven pairs of eyes staring at her. “Yeah … okay … I really, really appreciate it … this whole time … oh wow … really?” Bella asked her voice lifting hopefully. “That’s … oh my god, that’s fantastic. Yeah … yeah I will. I’ll call you soon,” Bella said, and then she hung up. “I know you all could hear him,” Bella said looking around, knowing that all of them had heard every part of her conversation.

“So, now what?” Emmett asked, not quite believing that they were now planning on working with the wolves.

Carlisle looked over at him.

“Now we plan.”

To be continued …