The Turning

Grunting, the woman managed to somehow unlatch the seat belt, falling into the roof of the car with a scream of pain. She was disoriented. She didn't know what was going on. All she knew was that she needed to get out of the car and away in case they - whoever they were - came back.

Slowly, she crawled across jumbled metal and crushed glass towards the gaping hole that used to be a window. Whimpering in pain, she slowly made it there and somehow pulled herself out. She was sure she had several broken bones. Maybe punctured a lung. She would worry about that later. She just needed to get away from the crash and make sure whoever was after her didn't get their hands on what was in the leather satchel still slung around her.

She tried to bite back a scream as her leg hit something, causing pain to shoot up it. But she didn't stop crawling. Through sheer willpower alone, she managed to pull herself through the trees and into a clearing. There, exhaustion and pain finally overcame her. She rolled over and looked up to the sky full of stars, gasping. It was becoming harder to breathe and every time she took a breath, there was a gurgling sound.

This was it. This is how she died. Tears began to mix with blood and dirt on her face as she continued staring. The stars seemed to become larger as the edges of her vision started going black.

Her eyes fluttered closed. All she wanted was the pain to stop.

A breeze. The smell of trees. Two voices.

"We should have just left her there."

"Look at her! We can't do nothing! She'll die!"

"People die all the time!"

"But… look at her! Those people were after her! We can't just leave her to die in the forest!"

"Why do you have to have such a bleeding heart?"

"Let's at least take her to Carlisle and see what he says."

"He's going to say no and make you put her back."

"No, he's not. Trust me."

Carlisle immediately set about to assessing the young woman's injuries as soon as Jasper and Alice brought her into the home, a worried look in Alice's eyes.

"Can you help her?" Alice pleaded. "We had just finished hunting when we found her. Someone ran her off the road. She managed to get out of the car and into a clearing before the car exploded. We brought her here immediately."

Carlisle was quiet as he looked her over, frowning.

"I'm afraid there's not much I can do… Her injuries are too difficult for me to fix. She's literally drowning in blood," he said softly, looking over at Alice. Jasper had already left the room, too overcome by the smell. Carlisle's hands were already covered in it. "Maybe if we had taken her to a hospital, they could have done something, but now it's too late."

"There is something you can do," Alice said, her voice barely above a whisper. Carlisle looked down at the woman, still frowning.

"I can't turn everyone who is dying into what we are, Alice," he said. "You know this."

"But you have to turn her," Alice said, looking down at her. "She's important." Carlisle looked over at Alice.

"What do you mean?" he asked, taking a step towards her.

"I saw her like us… I don't know what it is, but there's something more she's supposed to do," Alice said, finally meeting his eyes. Carlisle blinked and looked back over at the bloodied and broken woman on the examination table. He finally nodded and stepped over to her.

"Very well," he said softly before gently picking up her hand and biting it. A slight grimace passed over her face. "I'll try to make her as comfortable as I can." Alice breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.

"Thank you, Carlisle," she said.

"I hope you know what you saw."

As Carlisle stepped out of the room, shutting the door softly behind him, he turned to face the rest of the family, each with varying looks of concern. Though Jasper was glaring at Alice, who looked hopeful.

"Who is she?" Esme asked softly. Carlisle looked at Alice, silently asking her the same question.

"I don't know," she said. "I just… we heard the crash and went to investigate. And then I saw her in a vision… she was like us. So, I knew that I had to bring her here."

"You brought her here without knowing anything about her?" Edward said, the anger apparent in his voice. "Why would you do that? We could all be at risk."

"I know what I saw, Edward. We needed to do this," Alice said, scowling at him. "It'll be fine."

"Are you sure about that? Because in three days we're going to have a newborn on our hands. And it's not going to be like Bella," he replied. The tension in the room was clear.

"If she saw her like us… then it was supposed to happen. We save her," Bella said, placing her hand on Edward's chest as she looked up at him. "I trust Alice."

"Bella," Edward started.

"She's right," Esme said, drawing their attention. "If Alice saw her like us, then it was meant to happen. It'll be alright. We can help her." She looked at Carlisle.

"At the very least, did she have anything on her? Anything that could tell us who she is?" Emmett asked.

"She had a bag," Jasper said. "Seemed to be clinging to it pretty tightly. It must be important." Carlisle nodded as he quickly returned to the room and came back, holding a leather satchel. It was covered in dirt and some of her blood. The entire room stiffened as the smell wafted from it. He opened it and rifled through. There were several files full to the brim of papers, but finally he came to a wallet. Putting the bag down, he opened it, finding her driver's license.

"Her name is Cecily Stewart," he said. "She's from New York." He glanced up at them and continued through the wallet while Alice picked up the bag and began looking through it.

"There are several IDs in here," she said, her brow furrowed. "Cecily might not be her name." She then stopped and pulled out something. "She's a reporter." She held out a press badge with the woman's name and picture on it.

"What was she doing here? In Forks?" Rosalie asked, seeming confused. "Nothing happens here. Nothing that the humans would care about."

"I suppose we'll have to wait to ask her," Carlisle said with a sigh.

"Obviously someone wanted her dead," Jasper said. "What are the papers in her bag? Maybe that will tell us what she was working on."

The family quickly moved to the table, spreading the contents out.

"Don't you feel like we're intruding on something?" Bella asked. "Should we be looking at these before she wakes up?"

"We need to find out why someone wanted her dead. If they don't find a body, they could try to find her," Edward said. "We need to do this to protect ourselves." Bella looked at Carlisle who just nodded his silent agreement. Bella sighed and picked up a folder, starting to go through it.

"We'll need to keep Renesmee away," Edward said, looking at Bella. "It won't be safe to have her around a newborn."

"I didn't think about that," Bella said softly. The group quickly settled into shifting through the papers.

The sound of a phone vibrating broke their quiet study. They all looked towards a smashed smartphone where it sat on the table. Alice picked it up, reading the name on display.

Boss Man

"What do we do?" she asked, looking around.

"Don't answer it," Carlisle said. "For now, we need to let everyone think that she is dead." Alice nodded as she quickly turned the call off. A large amount of text messages appeared on the lock screen. She read through them, noting the increasing desperation in the tone.

What did you find?

Did you find the proof?

Answer the damn phone, Cecily!

You're starting to worry me!

WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!

CALL ME!

With a sinking feeling in her stomach, she turned the phone off and set it aside. She didn't want to chance that someone would be looking for her and trace her or the phone here through the GPS.

She then looked around the table at the many papers and files. The various items. Who was this woman? Did she have a family? Would someone besides her boss miss her? What life did she have before?

Glancing towards the shut door of the examination room that had sat mostly unused in the years since Bella was turned, she began to worry. What had they done?

Don't know what possessed me to start writing this - I haven't been a Twilight fan since somewhere around 2009 - but got the idea stuck in my head and here we are...