A/N: I've edited as much as my cold medicine will allow me to focus on. We're really hitting up the next arc of the story, starting here, and I hope you guys enjoy what's to come as much as I do.

Rosalie's fingers traced over the binder thick with paper and its own notebook. While worn, it had definitely been cared for, considering her guess at its age. She wasn't entirely sure how old it was, but the quick glimpse inside showed various sticky notes of all colors, random stickers, scribbles, and doodles that assured her it was at least two years old. She picked up something else before leaving her room.

Her knuckles stalled about an inch from the door to Esme's office. She swallowed, remembered to keep from squeezing the items behind her back to pieces, and knocked three times.

It wasn't immediate, the opening of the door. That was only when she couldn't find it in herself to actually knock. This time it took a bit of time. A few lingering clicks of a keyboard reached her ears. The quick shuffle of paper. Wood scraping wood as Esme scooted her chair back to stand. Even footsteps to the door.

By the time it opened, Rosalie had mostly gathered what she wanted to say. Still her eyes only met Esme's in glances, even as she sat across the desk from her. Some blonde hair slipped across her cheek before she tucked it back, staring down at the photo album covering the binder in her lap.

Only waiting, Esme outright stared at her, a patient smile on her face.

Rosalie's lips moved to talk about how she'd been thinking on Esme's question. If Bella was the same as her. If she struggled to be better than the things possible inside of her soul. If she was a predator who felt the inclinations of a monster.

If Rosalie hoped for or against it.

A hum left her. She noticed how Esme's hands were folded atop the desk, ease written in her fingers and a stark contrast to Rosalie herself. She was gripping the items in her lap.

Her gaze finally found Esme's face and a line formed between her brows. "I love you."

The selfless energy Esme created and shared vanished as her expression shattered. She jerked back, eyes blinking a mile a minute, and her hands rose and fell in some endless cycle of wanting to most likely squeeze Rosalie to death but barely keeping from it. She failed at saying something, anything. One hand flattened against the desk while she reached up to rub her eyes.

It...hurt, all of a sudden. Deep in Rosalie's chest.

Rosalie had to actually think about the last time she'd said the words to Esme, let alone anyone else. And Esme deserved better. She deserved more.

The binder and photo album bounced from how she slammed them onto the desk and Esme didn't have time to form a syllable before Rosalie was around the desk and pulling her into a hug. A hug that might've been too tight or too sudden for Esme to reciprocate. The smell of Esme's hair flooded her nose and she barely processed the sound of the chair breaking between them.

"I love you," she repeated. Promised. Apologized.

Esme's fingers dug into her back like she was reaching for her, or trying to get her to stay, and, for the first time, Rosalie held her mother through a fit of crying.

"I think it's almost ready to crank up!"

Bella's eyes moved from the motorcycle that still looked like salvage to Jacob's smile. She took a sip from her cup to cover up the doubt shaping her lips. "How far away is almost, bud?"

There was a twitch in his face when she used that word, and it was reassuring. Hopefully this thing he had for her would die soon. His smile returned as he tied his hair back into a ponytail and turned to walk across the garage to it. "I don't know, man." Jacob squatted beside it and ran his hand along the exhaust pipe. "I'm still missing some major parts. The worst thing is I think I'll have to order them instead of find them. Which costs so much money."

Bella hummed, coming to stand next to him. She drank some of her juice. "Like two years of your side gigs with repair and allowances?"

"Yes!"

Seeing the distress on Jacob's face made her mouth twist. "Don't jump the gun yet. How about I ask Rosalie if she knows some good sites?"

"What?" Some deep lines took to his brow and he finally stood up. "Alice's Barbie sister? What does she know about cars?"

Bella's jaw was so tight she couldn't begin to consider speaking. Her heartbeat felt so harsh, so hot. But she couldn't jump down Jacob's throat, she'd known him too long. However. "What do you mean?"

"Well, you know."

"I absolutely do not."

Jacob swallowed, hand rubbing the back of his neck. "Don't be like that."

"I'm just trying to be on the same page. Say what you mean."

"You don't have to defend Alice's sister like that." He sighed and his shoulders drooped. "I didn't mean it in a sexist way. I just mean that I saw her once at a store. She doesn't look like she gets within ten feet of dirt."

"Because she's pretty?"

"...I guess I was being sexist."

Before Bella could say that yes, he had been and it was good of him to realize it, she heard her name. She turned in time to see Leah sprint past the garage.

"What the fuck?"

She blinked at the dust cloud kicked up by her friend. "I have to go."

"Again? Seriously?"

It felt shitty, but she shoved her cup at him with a mumbled apology and took off. She didn't have the time or energy to explain that this was clearly different. And, honestly, if he couldn't pick up on that on his own, he was way too jealous and too into her. Feet beating along the road after her friend, Bella noted that she should really, truly talk to him. Not talking about it was bringing out the worst in each of them.

"Too many fucking superhuman people in my life," she muttered. "Hey!"

Leah looked over her shoulder but didn't slow down. "Hurry up!"

She was going to regret it, but she pushed herself. Heart and lungs and legs all working and burning together. The distance between her and Leah began to shorten, but it still wasn't a lot of progress as they passed house after house. House after house after shop after house until they thinned out and spread farther apart and Bella felt like her legs would give out and demand rest.

Leah came to a stop at the treeline, breath hard and fast. Eyes wild, yelling at Bella to hurry as she ran a hand through her hair and fisted it.

Stopping was hard for her legs to understand, so Bella mostly crashed into Leah hard enough to make them both stumble. Bella gasped for air and clutched at her for dear life, unable to articulate her questions.

Thankfully Leah either understood or didn't need Bella to speak as she steadied her. "Emily's phone died while she was on the phone with me. She's lost in the woods."

"Not life-threatening." Bella sucked in a breath and held it under the glare being shot at her. She exhaled slowly, hand on her chest like it could calm her heart. "We could call her from my phone?"

The glare vanished as Leah's eyes jumped away, toward the trees. Her fist shook at her side. "I never bothered to learn her new number. Also, it's dead, how would we call it?"

"Okay," Bella gasped, running both literally and figuratively from the plethora of emotional issues there and her stupidity. "You go wolf left and I go human right?"

"Can't! Don't have any extra clothes."

"Oh, yeah, I wouldn't want to see you naked unless it was to save someone's life."

"Wow, thanks!" Leah called from somewhere ahead of her, to the left.

Then, silence. As silent as woods and forest can get, which is not too much. There was always something to hear, to perceive, to look for. She'd lost track of Leah and just kept on going. At worst, she herself would get lost, but she could just turn around and go back in the direction she came. Bella did not have the same gifts as Leah, so she couldn't really afford to turn here or there.

A tree root surprised her. And it cost all of her footing as she tried to both slow down and regain her balance. Her arm met some rough bark. Shaking it off, she opted to ignore the stinging and the instinct to curse by calling out for Emily.

No answer.

She slowed to a stop and listened until her ears started to ring. Nothing. Not even Leah, assuming that she was also yelling. Bella sighed. She began again, this time at a gentle trot. With aching legs and burning lungs, she cupped her hands around her mouth. "Emily!"

It was ten or fifteen minutes before she swore she saw something else moving. She called out again, but she saw something to her right. Her heartbeat jumped in memory.

Teeth locked together and hand over her own mouth, Bella dropped down against a tree. She focused on evening out her breathing as her eyes moved from tree to tree to branch to tree and back. A branch swaying made the muscles in her leg twitch.

Regardless of guise, an animal recognizes their predator. They might not be able to locate the threat,

Far left in her peripherals. She took off without looking.

but the anxiousness sets in, especially at close proximity.

But Charlie didn't raise a fool.

So while it would be easy, far too easy, to listen to the little voices in her head saying she was imagining things. Nothing else was here. It would be just uncanny for that same something from her childhood on the other side of Forks to be here, now, all these years later. Her anxiety was getting the best of her.

So while it would be easy to listen to the little voices in her head, Charlie Swan's daughter was in a relationship with a vampire and best friends with a another one and a shapeshifter.

A high pitched "Bells!" came from the right and she banked left. She didn't slow enough to go around a tree, somewhat crashing into it and pushing off. Tears pricked her eyes.

Renèe was states away.

But at least that meant it hadn't heard Leah or Emily calling for her.

Unless it was messing with her. Playing with its food?

God, wasn't it enough she was trying to be friends with someone who literally daydreamed about killing her on instinct? Wasn't it enough that most of her favorite people could kill her on absolute fucking accident?

The tree next to her shook and she screamed over the sound of her own name as she fell to the side.

It twisted and changed, the pitches different, like three people speaking at once. "Bells! Emily!" The same tree shook with each name. "Emily! Bells!"

She tripped over her own feet as she pushed herself up.

A low-hanging branch cut into her cheek.

Straight running was dangerous in the underbrush. But damn, stumble-running was faster than jogging.

From in front of her, so far she could almost hear it. Her own voice calling out Emily's name.

Maybe the density of the trees was messing with her hearing, but it sounded a bit to the right.

However, behind her, in the space she'd been in not five seconds ago, something shook the ground enough to make her have to catch herself. Quietly, like one does to yell at someone next to them in a library, "Emily!" It thudded along to her very footsteps even as she refused to look back. "Emily! Emily!"

Just as Bella opened her mouth to teach it a new, vulgar word, it stopped matching her pace. Off it went, toward the right and back. Now it used Renèe's voice again, "Where are you?" Farther. "I don't see you!"

The fake calls for Emily drifted in the same direction.

The feeling of being watched stopped all at once.

But her anxiousness didn't. It was slow to leave, and in pieces.

Even minutes later, some of it sat in each beat of her heart. She said nothing. She hardly breathed through her mouth, even, and the act was not easy through her nose. It was too sharp, too cold, not nearly enough air.

Slowing down meant stopping entirely. She was certain of it. So she kept tripping her way through the forest as fast as she could on shaky legs that wanted to rest what felt like years ago. Someone was calling out Leah's name. The voice was hoarse, and sad. Hopeless.

But nothing crawled up Bella's spine.

An argument shot back and forth in her head. Were her instincts really any good? She was a shield. True. She could flip her shield on others. Also true. However, none of that meant she had a goddamned, built-in danger detector.

Before she could really get anywhere on a decision, Bella barely processed a shriek.

She hit something soft. And loud. Finding support in a tree as they gained their footing, Bella didn't let go of her arm and clapped her free hand over the woman's mouth. She and Leah had the same eyes. Soft. "I'm with your cousin."

Hands falling to her sides, Bella looked and listened. Looked and listened. Determining anything through her anxiety was hard because she could hear echoes of those fake calls when she tried hard enough. But she didn't feel watched. More like a watcher, in fact.

"What on earth happened to you?" Emily whispered, starting to search for whatever Bella kept an eye out for.

"Anxiety attack." She didn't blink at her own lie.

The very same...thing that had chased her as a child had chased her once more. It had been at her heels.

Being grabbed once she started backing up made Emily's eyes go big.

Bella crouched, only having to pull on Emily's arm once to make her comply. She licked her lips and cupped one side of her mouth. A weak whistle left her, high but quiet. She tried again. "Fuck."

Emily sucked in a large breath. "L—"

Bella's hand was on her mouth again, and her eyes started darting around. "No names."

Before Emily could begin to question her sanity, Bella brought both hands to her own mouth and tossed her head back, howling.

A few heartbeats later, another one answered her. Genuine, loud, and hurried.

Emily opened her mouth...and promptly shut it when Bella glared at her.

They crouched there. Silent. Waiting. Emily opted to sit.

Bella ignored the glances being thrown her way every minute or so. She was too busy watching. Listening.

Another howl preceded large footfalls thundering toward them.

Contact made Bella jump. She stared at Emily with wide eyes before lowering her fist.

Still, Emily's fingers gripped her torn sleeve. "Is she one too?"

Bella cocked her head. Then her gaze snapped to the direction opposite of their tree. Something was tearing through the forest.

Weaving through trees, the grey of Leah skidded to a stop between them and it. A growl ripped through her chest.

"My god," Emily whispered, left hand going to cover her mouth.

It absolutely escaped Bella as to why Emily held onto her like she an anchor. So she moved on to more important things. Like wondering if Leah could sense those things better than her because she did not feel watched. No. No, no. It sounded...wild. Her eyes roved over Leah's hackles.

It...sounded like Leah had. If she had been out of control.

Glimpses tied in to other clues and it clicked in Bella's mind just before a black wolf bigger than Leah broke part of a tree.

Leah jumped forward, head down. Sam crashed into her and the sound of it made Bella curse. And then Emily's fingers tightened on her sleeve. Bella grabbed her and pulled her tight to her side as the anxiety at last found a place to go. Her legs. It was a thing of little control and all strength, the way she launched them to the side.

The wolves came to a stop, finally free from Sam's momentum.

Bella sat up and nearly fainted at the sight of Leah's back leg being where they were. Or close to it. Too close either way.

Leah's teeth came dangerously close to Sam's nose before he yanked his head to the side.

They stared at each other, Sam quiet and Leah snarling.

"Please." One of Emily's tears landed on Bella's shirt as she stood up. "Hasn't there been enough fighting?"

Both wolves looked to the side, away from her, as she came around them. They took a step away and she took one closer. "Hasn't there?"

When Sam started to look at Emily, Leah snapped at the air near his face.

"I agree." Bella stood up. She wiped off her cheek and raised an eyebrow at the blood on her fingertips. "With the chomping part, Leah, don't even glare at me right now. Can I hitch a ride on Sam and Emily gets one on you? So we can get the entire fuck out of here?"

Leah cut off any input Sam had by lowering herself near Emily.

It was...a while before Bella tuned back into the world around. She blinked down at the black of Sam's fur like it wasn't really there. Everyone was so quiet.

"You are not as soft as Leah."

Leah snorted, head higher than before.

It made Emily giggle. Her hand ran through her cousin's fur. "You are quite soft."

Sam huffed.

When Bella tuned in again, it was because Emily tapped her shoulder. She looked up—From her chair? In a kitchen?—and blinked at the tired smile offered to her. Then she processed the wet cloth being offered to her. She accepted it without a word and just held it in her lap. Gripped it. Squeezed it. Water seeped out her fist and onto the thigh of her jeans.

Sam, fully clothed and face stony, came in from a side room and sat across the table from her. He folded his hands on the table.

Rushed footsteps on the stairs gave a breath's warning before Leah was in the doorway. "You fucking idiot!"

Emily caught her shoulder, but it was a show of Leah's control that she stopped on her path to probably punching Sam in the face. "I want this to be a conversation!"

"What is there to conversate about? Fuck everything else. He left you how deep in the forest? Alone? With—With that thing!" Emily's hand fell away from her when she spun around to stare down at Bella. "Did you see it? Hear it?"

Bella's fingers hurt from her death grip on the towel.

Leah more so slapped her shoulder than patted it. "Bella! Are you listening?"

"You're not thinking clearly, Leah."

"It feels very clear!"

Emily grabbed her shoulders, soft brown eyes unfazed by their angrier version. "You have to calm yourself. Whatever thing you're talking about, I think it's obvious Bella met it. Look at her. She's—God, should we call her father? What will we tell him?"

Leah rubbed her hands across her face and screamed into them. "Okay. Okay, okay."

"I wouldn't have left you alone if I knew that type of thing existed."

"So you'll just leave her alone in the fucking forest?"

"Leah."

"Right! Calm. I'm calm. Ice. I'm so fucking cool."

Bella watched Emily watch Leah rub her face. The woman sighed. "Sam, I need you to go."

"I can't leave you—"

She held up a hand. "I'm not going anywhere and even then, I have Leah. Right now we need to take care of Bella. And you're not helpful. So go."

After he left, after Emily and Leah started debating whether to call her father, Alice, or Rosalie, Bella interrupted, "I just want to be home. Alone."

The next time she tuned in was in the shower. Tilting her head, she turned down the water. There it was again. A single tap against the door. "Rose?"

Another tap.

"You can come in." She fixed the water as the door opened and closed. She sounded so damn empty. So tired. With hot water easing some of the tension in her shoulders, she sighed.

It was when she was applying conditioner that the silence really clicked with Bella. She peeked around the curtain.

Sure enough, Rosalie was there. Sitting on the counter, hands on either side of her and stone-faced as she stared down at her knees.

"Hey." Bella watched her blink. No more, no less. "I'm almost done, okay? Check out the top right side of the dresser and get in bed."

Before Rosalie could decide to look at her, she retreated back behind the curtain where she could pretend her heart wasn't beating faster. It was entirely possible the fact Bella converted some of her dresser and closet to spare clothes for the vampire would be taken as offensive instead of thoughtful. Totally dependent on her mood. Regardless, she really appreciated Alice's help with it.

She skipped the clothes she had on the counter and wrapped herself in the towel before going into her room. A glance at Rosalie said she wasn't angry, at least. But the vampire made her heart heavy. This time she was staring at her hands in her lap as she sat on the side of the bed with one leg tucked under herself, hair making half a veil for her face.

Biting back a sigh, Bella grabbed some comfy clothes and ducked back into the bathroom. She lightly slapped her own cheeks and took a deep breath before going back out.

"I said to get in bed, not get on it." Bella tsk-ed her while going over. She gave a gentle push on Rosalie's shoulder to no avail. "Come on."

Still nothing.

"I know you're probably doubting even being here, and that's okay. And it might only be like two in the afternoon, but time is bullshit and I've had a rough day too. So don't make me tackle you and, like, dislocate my shoulder or something. I'll do it. You know I will."

With that, Bella gave her a moment to reevaluate herself by hopping onto the bed and getting under the blanket. She bit back a yawn, set a couple alarms on her phone. Very nearly saved the device from sliding off the nightstand when she set it down too hard.

Fingertips on Rosalie's shoulder, she gave the slightest pull before tugging on the blanket she was still sitting on. The vampire scooted back to let Bella flip it over her legs but didn't do much else.

A yawn interrupted Bella's attempt at speech as she laid back. Hand on Rosalie's fist, she tapped her knuckles. "Zero listening skills, I don't know what Alice is talking about." Rosalie's hand relaxed and Bella squeezed it. "Come on. I don't bite yet."

With Bella poking and pulling on her, all the while so gentle that each one was a question of consent, Rosalie started lying down. She paused, Bella's arm around her shoulders, and furrowed her eyebrows even though she still wasn't really looking at anything.

Half asleep, Bella murmured, "Relax, Venus."

Rosalie's reluctance faded then. She laid her head on Bella's chest. Slowly, and only after Bella's heart took to a sleepy beat, Rosalie curled up against her girlfriend. "I will with you, my Virgil."

A/N: World hard, titty soft.

We finally have Rosalie's one (1) nickname for Bella. And I love it.

Some good stuff to come, see ya'll soon.