Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga does not, in any way, shape, or form, belong to me.

A/N: Hello, everyone. This is my first story, so I decided to start off small with a simple one-shot. There are a few facts that need to be made clear in order for you to understand what's happening in this short story.

1. Edward does not exist in this story. Why? I have a severe dislike for Edward's character, and I will almost never include him in any of my stories—and certainly never in a positive light. So, I've chosen to eliminate him.

2. Alice and Bella are mates in this story. I often prefer stories in which either Alice is Bella's mate, so I made the choice to include that ideal.

3. Kate Denali is Jasper's mate. I decided that I really wanted to include Jasper in this story, but I didn't like the idea of him being alone. Not to mention, I always liked the idea of Kate and Jasper being together.

4. I'm not wildly fond of Bella's original appearance, so I've decided to alter it. For the purposes of this story, Bella has black hair and blue eyes.

5. I've also taken a few liberties with Bella's history, though it was never much defined to begin with.

The Youngest Cullen

Word Count: 4278

Edited: 3/24/2013

Carlisle and Esme exchanged a soft smile as the sounds of Bella stirring in her bed reached them. They had just recently set up a bedroom for her, on the third floor. The two of them wanted their newest child to feel welcome in their home, wanted her to feel like it was her home, too. It was something they felt extremely strongly about and always had, ever since the family realized that she was Alice's mate.

The walls were freshly painted a striking, dusky midnight blue, and the doors and trim were painted darkest black. One wall was made entirely of glass, providing a magnificent view of the surrounding forest. There were bookshelves all along one wall, filled with all types of literature—modern, classic, historical, even architectural. Along another wall were two doors—one led into the walk-in closet and the other to the large bathroom. Esme had been delighted to design the room, and Bella had been extremely touched when she revealed her project to the young woman.

Bella stretched, a yawn escaping her. She felt so relaxed whenever she slept at the Cullen house. To her, it was the safest, more peaceful place in the world. As she slipped out of bed, she couldn't help but smile wryly at the clothes she was wearing: a pair of black, silk pajama pants and a soft white, cotton tank top. It had taken forever, but she had finally convinced Alice to lighten up about the clothes thing. They had compromised – Alice picked out designer clothes that were stylish but simple, merely an enhancement of Bella's usual style.

She smiled widely, despite her lingering drowsiness. Alice, her love, her mate. Bella had never loved anyone as much as she loved the female vampire, and she had never felt as loved as when she was with the Cullens. She sighed wistfully. Alice, her brothers, and her sisters were out hunting for the weekend. They'd been gone since Saturday morning, the previous day. It was now Sunday morning, and they wouldn't be back until that evening. So, Bella had decided to stay in her room at the Cullens', until her lover and the rest of her family returned.

The girl moved sleepily down the stairs, becoming more aware with each move she made. Meanwhile, Esme and Carlisle waited patiently for her to reach the ground floor, curled together on one of the sofas in the living room. A fond smile formed on Esme's face, as she thought that until recently she would have worried for Bella as she walked sleepily down the stairs.

Thankfully, however, that was no longer necessary. During the summer, Emmett and Jasper had taken it upon themselves to train Bella in Tae-Kwan-Do, while Rosalie taught her yoga. As it turned out, the physical training both improved her conditioning and trimmed all of the remaining baby fat from her body. However, the unforeseen, most valuable effect was that it vastly improved her balance.

As she dropped off the final step, Bella looked up in surprise, noticing the two vampires that awaited her. She smiled at the sight of them as they sat there, faintly luminescent in the weak light of a morning in cloudy Forks, Washington. "Good morning Esme, Carlisle," she greeted them softly, her voice still mired in sleep.

They moved to stand before her in a blur of speed to her human eyes. "Good morning, darling," Esme said happily, her golden eyes shining as she looked upon her youngest child. Her long, black hair was tangled and her deep, blue eyes were misty with sleep, but she was just as beautiful as always.

"How would you like some scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast?" she asked eagerly. Though she may not eat, Esme always welcomed any opportunity to provide her human daughter with the nourishment that she needed. It was an instinct within her, similar to the need of a female wolf to catch prey for her young cubs.

Bella smiled and nodded in agreement. "That sounds wonderful, Esme, thank you," she said politely, watching as her vampire mother disappeared before her eyes, leaving her alone with her second father.

Carlisle draped an arm around her shoulders, as the two of them walked at a leisurely pace toward the kitchen. "How are you this morning, my daughter? Did you sleep well?" he asked kindly, automatically checking her over for any sign of discomfort. It had become an instinct, first with Esme and later with all of his children, as they each joined the family. He was the patriarch, the leader, and it was his responsibility to ensure the welfare of his family.

"I'm great, Carlisle, and I slept very well. How are you today?" she responded, as they took seats at the bar and observed Esme as she cooked. The caramel-haired woman smiled at them as they joined her.

He smiled gently. "I'm well, thank you, Bella. Actually, Esme and I were hoping that we could speak to you about something this morning, if you don't mind." He looked at his daughter hopefully. This issue had been on both his and Esme's mind for quite some time, and they were both stunned that they had waited for so long to address it with their daughter.

Bella's eyes widened slightly. "Of course," she agreed easily. "What did you want to talk to me about?" she asked. When she was younger, even a mere year previously, she would have felt nervous and awkward. Being around the Cullen family had really helped her to change for the better. Alice had changed her for the better.

Esme laughed quietly, as she placed her daughter's breakfast on the counter before her. "We were hoping that you would tell us a bit about your life before you came to Forks. All that we really know is that, before you came here, you were living with your mother in Phoenix," she admitted, a hint of sadness tainting her voice.

Bella reached up and scratched the back of her head, the corners of her lips curling downward into a slight grimace. She sighed softly, before humming quietly. "I guess that would be fine. I'm not really surprised that Alice didn't tell the family, after I told her. What do you want to know?" she asked, determination coloring her tone. As she spoke, she caught a quick flash out of the corner of her eye, and she suppressed a small smile.

The two vampires exchanged a proud glance. They had guessed that it might not be easy for Bella to share her story with them, else there seemed to be no reason that she would not have already told them about her life in Phoenix. So, they were exceptionally pleased that she was willing to open up to them.

"We're happy to hear anything that you're willing to tell us, but there was one thing, in particular, that we were wondering," Carlisle began, as his daughter watched him patiently, absentmindedly beginning to eat her breakfast.

"We'd like to know how you ended up in Forks. What caused you to come to live with your father?" Esme asked slowly, watching her girl carefully.

Bella smiled wryly. "I'm sure that you heard the rumors. Well, it wasn't the way that they assume. Renee didn't send me here against my will, or at all, actually. I was the one to suggest the move. I chose to come here," she admitted candidly, not bothering to make the effort to refer to Renee as 'Mom'. They would soon understand.

Esme's eyes narrowed a bit. She was worried by the way that Bella's tone changed when she mentioned her biological mother, as well as the fact that she mentioned her by her first name. The female vampire knew that Bella always referred to her father as such, when she was not in his presence, but it seemed odd for her to do the same with her mother. After all, she had spent nearly her entire life in the presence of her mother, as opposed to the short amount of time that she had been with her father. Clearly, there was some…tension there, if there turned out to be no outright antagonism.

Carlisle, too, was worried. Throughout his career as a doctor, he had seen many troubling—even disturbing—things. He'd seen badly injured women—hurt by the hands of their lovers, their husbands. He'd seen young men and women bloodied—the victims of their own carelessness. However…he'd also, most regrettably, seen children—any age, ranging from a few short years to near adulthood—that had been harmed, abused by their own parents, their own flesh and blood. He didn't want to think that Bella may have been harmed in such a way. She never exhibited any of the signs he'd seen in any of his patients, but he knew all too well that there were many forms of abuse: physical, emotional, verbal, and mental, each just as harmful and damaging.

"Renee and Charlie divorced when I was a year old. She grew stifled by the gloom of Forks, and Charlie refused to leave it behind. She took me with her and ran to Phoenix, where she was born. After that, she quickly fell into old habits," the human girl chuckled quietly, humorlessly. She wondered how they would take the news of what she was about to reveal to them. Bella took a deep breath and silently reached out to her love, reminding herself that her mate would be home soon enough.

"Old habits?" Esme asked hesitantly. The more that she thought about it, the more that her mind turned to the same suspicions as her mate's. Had…had her little girl, her child been abused—by her own, blood mother?

Bella didn't respond, other than to continue her tale. "She chose to leave me in the care of our neighbor, an elderly woman. Meanwhile, Renee was off reclaiming her youth," she said bitterly, having nearly forgotten Esme's and Carlisle's presences. "Despite how vehemently she would deny it, she was addicted to all of the attention. I don't know half as much as she's done, but I know more than I would ever wish to."

Carlisle gritted his teeth. The more that Bella told them, the more concerned and agitated he became. He didn't know what Renee put his daughter through, but he was increasingly glad that she had their family, had Alice, now.

"I didn't know any of this until I began to get older, but it's always stuck with me. She started drinking again, and she was never without a man on each arm. During the day, she drifted from one hobby to the next, as soon as school let out. The only thing that she was constant about was her tendency to pick up the most obscure and pathetic guys," she muttered.

Esme's eyes narrowed severely. She was no stranger to the fact that many women and men in the modern age, particularly the younger ones, were increasingly casual and careless about their sexual encounters, but she found it deplorable that Renee would flaunt her affairs before her young child, before Esme's child. It was nothing short of despicable for a little girl to be exposed to such age-inappropriate things, and it hurt her heart that her Bella's childhood had been tainted by such filth.

"By the time that I was two years old, I had learned to avoid her when she brought them into the house, after I got trapped in the closet once and had to wait until the next morning before she found me there. At four, I began learning to cook, because any time that she was manic enough to want to try there was a good chance that I would get food poisoning, not that any of it was edible to begin with. At six, I took over the grocery shopping completely, so that we could have anything other than takeout. At seven, I was cleaning the house, doing the dishes, taking care of the laundry, and helping Renee get ready every morning. At eight, I started to balance Renee's checkbook and oversee the finances of the house," Bella recited dispassionately. Her past was bleak and monotonous, but her future was bright. She focused on Alice and drew her strength from her mate.

Esme and Carlisle exchanged a horrified look. They had no idea that Bella had such responsibilities thrust upon her as a mere child. It was terrible and saddening to find out that she had suffered the premature loss of much of her innocence and carefree attitude so very early. They were also more and more certain that she had suffered mental abuse and emotional neglect at the hands of her mother. And that didn't even touch on the weak and distant relationship that Bella had with her father.

Bella's eyes wandered slowly, aimlessly across the room, taking on a slight glassy sheen as she was immersed in her memories. She shook her head in frustration. "Over the years, I started to genuinely believe that I was supposed to do those things, even that I enjoyed them. I couldn't count how many times I've been called selfless, but what nobody understands is that I was not born this way!" she clenched her jaw. "I was influenced to become this way out of necessity," she said bitterly. Her blue eyes, typically the color of sapphires, began to darken until they were a navy blue so dark that it was nearly the black color of a thirsty vampire, all while the two vampires in the room watched in shock.

Esme couldn't help herself as she moved swiftly to stand at her daughter's side. Her sudden fury was…daunting. She didn't know how to help her, how to calm her, and she wasn't sure that Bella would welcome her interference or assistance in that moment. So, she merely waited, allowing her girl to finish as she needed.

"It…became so bad that, for the longest time, I could find no fault in Renee for the things that she forced me to do. I was lost to it all. When she married Phil, she split her time between traveling with him and staying with me out of some semblance of guilt!" she spat, standing from her seat abruptly and whirling to face away from her vampire parents, the only true parents that she had ever known.

Carlisle stood slowly and reached out to his wife. If he still held the ability to cry, he would have. Her rage, her pain… It was unbearable to witness, and even worse to imagine. He clung to his mate, as she clung to him in return. They were both aching to comfort her, but they intuitively knew that she needed to get through her story before she could find peace once more.

"So, I decided to come here, to Forks, and allow her to go on with her life as she wished. I was…so incredibly convinced that I was meant to put everyone and anyone else's needs before my own. After all, even during the summers that I spent with Charlie, I still cooked and cleaned, and things were no different really from when I was with Renee. The only difference is that it hurt more with Renee, and I never really expected anything else, anyway. But over the years I started to realize that something was wrong with me, with the way that I saw the world."

A shiver ran down Bella's spine, and all of her anger left her in a rush. Her pupils, which had previously become dilated, began to shrink and her irises slowly lightened. She took a deep breath. Her past could have been worse, she knew—Renee could have been physically abusive, as well as emotionally abusive—but that didn't mean it wasn't bad. It was difficult for her to let it out, and she was glad that she wouldn't have to speak about it again. She just had to finish.

Esme took an automatic step forward, but Carlisle stopped her. It wasn't time, not yet. She was almost finished, they could tell, but she needed to finish without any interference from them. They were there for her, but she needed to stand on her own, as well. That was something so ingrained into her that it would take an eternity to fully dismantle her walls, but they had eternity and they were glad for the chance to help her in any way that they could.

"The more time that I was away from Renee, the longer that I was here, the more I started to realize just how bad things had gotten before. I don't think that I can even begin to describe just how much better I feel now that I'm away from her, just being here with all of you, especially Alice," she said her mate's name softly, lovingly.

The corner of Esme's lips twitched upward into a smile. She was so glad that her family was helping Bella to heal from her younger years. When she was human, Esme had been abused by her first husband, a vile man by the name of Charles Evenson. So, she knew what it was like to feel so very lost, so discarded by the people who should love you most. She never wanted any of her children to have to feel that way.

"That's why I came to Forks, but now I have so many more reasons to stay…" Bella trailed off briefly, thinking of how much she had gained while living in that rainy Washington town. "But the worst part…the worst part is that, through it all, I loved her. I loved her, almost as though I was the parent and she was the child, and I still love her. I always will, but…"

Esme gave Carlisle a look, and he released her. The moment she was free, she quickly moved toward her daughter. She stood by the human teenager's side, offering her silent support. Bella's lips curved into a small smile.

"Esme," she murmured, turning to look at the female vampire, smile still curling her lips up, "you are my mother now, my real mother. I love you more than I've ever loved Renee," Bella admitted, welcoming her vampire mother's embrace when she held out her arms to her. She'd never felt such parental affection from anyone before meeting Esme and Carlisle Cullen.

Bella turned in Esme's arms to face the golden-haired, male vampire. Her smile grew a little wider. "I feel the same way about you Carlisle," she said sincerely. "Even though I haven't spent much time with him, I've never felt like Charlie loved me even half as much as I feel loved by you. I love you as my father, Carlisle, just as I love Esme as my mother."

Carlisle grinned widely, rushing to join his wife in holding their daughter close to her. He loved Bella just as much as any of his other children, despite having known her for such a short time. She was his daughter, and she would always be his daughter. He was eager for Alice to change her and execute the final step that would make her a permanent member of the family, once and for all.

"We do love you, my daughter. We love you so much. You are, without doubt, the youngest Cullen in the family, no matter what your last name is at the moment," Esme murmured happily, placing loving kisses all along the top of Bella's head. "You belong here, with all of us. We will love you for eternity, as will your brothers and sisters, and of course you know how very much Alice adores you," Carlisle said softly, his gold eyes shining with affection for the girl he held between himself and his wife.

The three of them looked up at the sound of sliding glass, the window (which was more of a door, leading into the kitchen) opening. The other five Cullens poured through the opening, smiling widely at the sight that greeted them. Alice was instantly at her parents' side, her eyes happily intent upon the sight of her mate being held between them.

Bella's blue eyes lit up at the sight of her love, and she eagerly moved into the circle of her arms, as Carlisle and Esme released her. She hummed quietly, delighted by her mate's return. "I missed you," she murmured softly, and Alice's arms tightened around her. Their black hair wove together until it was nearly impossible to tell where one ended and the other began.

"I missed you, as well, my love," the little vampire told her tenderly. "I have a confession to make, though. We've been back since this morning, and you should know that the others heard you speaking with Carlisle and Esme," she confessed, and her accomplices hung their heads in shame. Surely, Bella would be angry with them, and they hated to anger or disappoint their little sister. To everyone's surprise, however, Bella simply laughed.

"I knew that you were listening," Bella said, stepping back so that she could face her siblings, all of whom were watching her in shock. She smiled at them, as to show them that she wasn't upset that they were listening in on her conversation with the two older vampires.

"How?" Rosalie questioned hesitantly, her eyes wide. She was stunned that her little sister had been forced to endure such a life, and by her own mother no less. She now held an even deeper sense of respect and understanding for the younger girl. It shamed her to think about it, but in the beginning Rosalie had been jealous that the human girl seemed to have such an easy life. It was only a little over a month after Alice and Bella had been together that she began getting to know her new little sister.

Bella shook her head in amusement. "I caught a glimpse of Emmett out of the corner of my eye. He passed by the window, and it was slow enough that I caught it," she revealed, and her big bear of a brother grinned sheepishly. "I didn't say anything before because you all deserved to know, and I didn't want to keep it from any of you anymore." It was true, after all. They were her family, and she didn't want to keep secrets any longer.

Her vampire siblings smiled at her indulgently. They knew it wasn't easy for her to tell her story, and they were glad that she wasn't upset with them for listening in. Carlisle simply sighed in exasperation, but Esme frowned at them playfully.

"You all know better than to intentionally listen in on others' conversations without permission," she scolded them, a smile threatening to appear on her face. Esme knew they didn't mean any harm, and they probably all needed to hear it so that they could feel truly close to their little sister.

Emmett had been waiting for as long as he could, but he couldn't hold it in any longer. "So, who wants to play a game?" he yelled excitedly, running to grab a controller and reappearing with a grin on his face.

Everyone laughed and joined the overgrown bear in his fun. Each of them had a story to tell, a secret to keep, but they had each other. They were joined by the bonds of family, and soon they would permanently add the final piece to their puzzle. Alice would have her mate, and they would be joined by the latest—and the last—member of the family, the youngest Cullen.

-The End-

A/N: So, how did I do? I've just finished editing the story, partially fixing a few mistakes and partially adding a bit more detail. You should all know that I plan to eventually write a full-length, multi-chapter prequel to this story. That story will be about how they got to this point, but it won't be written for a while since I'm already working on something else which is also Bellice. My current project is called, "Whispers of Love." So, I hope you'll check it out when I get it posted, and please don't forget to review!

~Your Dark Archangel