Sorry it's been a lot longer for me to update this time, and it's quite short, at least it feels like that, but I've been so busy lately and i will be for a while, so expect updates less regularly but i will as often as I can. Again I want to thank bkmode for helping me out with grammar and how i word stuff, she's noticed a lot more than i ever would have

Disclaimer: not Stephanie Meyer ect

Chapter 18: Bella POV

I wasn't paying attention as I ran back to the house, I was only barely aware of the trees I was darting through, or the wind flying through my already messed hair. But I didn't care about anything right now, except for the fact that I didn't have any secrets kept from Edward anymore. Well apart from Alice, Jasper and Carlisle being vampires...but that wasn't my secret so...

I entered the house as quietly as possible, but with extra hearing that was impossible. Before I knew anything, my body was slammed into by Alice. Her flowery scent overpowered me for a moment before I started to attempt to pry myself from her strong grip. I finally freed myself and saw that Alice had a wide grin across her face and that her eyes were sparkling with excitement.

"I knew it would work out!" she said loudly.

"Alice?" I hadn't any idea what she was going on about.

"I saw it in a vision...earlier today but I couldn't get to you because someone" she threw a dark look at Jasper "Kept me from being within hearing distance until now"

"But Alice, the future isn't definite. You said so yourself; how do you know that what you saw actually came true?"

"I know that you told Edward and he was fine about it after the one time he freaked out because you haven't stopped smiling since you came through the door. I haven't once seen you smile like that ever...and Jasper says you're really happy and only Edward can do that for you"

I hadn't realized I was smiling, because although nothing was perfect- hell, it was nowhere near perfect - I was finally happy to some extent. Alice was right; only Edward could do that. She must have taken my silent thought as a confirmation and hugged me again. I rolled my eyes and stepped back.

"Alice, it hasn't worked out...not really. He's still human and I'm a mythical creature that's going to live for eternity. Of course it hasn't worked out"

"Bella, you have to take this one step at a time; he knows who you are and that you aren't human. The next step is to get back together and then, only then will we worry about anything like that..." She fixed me with a stern gaze and I nodded.

She clapped her hands together in excitement and said, "Rosalie will you help me get Bella to look amazing for tomorrow?"

My head turned towards Rosalie and gave her a pleading look but she just smiled and said "Of course Alice...I would like nothing more right now"

"But we still have about 15 hours till school, you don't need that long" I said hopelessly.

"No, we will later, I didn't mean now Bella" I sighed, there was no way I would get out of this. Unless...

My eyes caught Jasper and I motioned with a slight nod of my head for him to go upstairs with me, I then did the same to Emmett. I sped upstairs with them on my tail and we they barred the door for me against Alice's attempts at entry. I didn't bother any longer with secrecy from Alice; I had made my decision and she had probably already seen a vision of it.

I started to explain to Emmett and Jasper whilst in the process of walking into my wardrobe, "I'm going to speak to Edward, I have a lot to sort out with him" I called out.

"Bella are you sure?" asked Emmett in his deep but caring voice.

"Yep" I held out my loose light grey top with elbow length sleeves and my tight fitting short sleeved dark purple top to decide which one, I ended up deciding on the latter.

"But he must need some time to think...I mean he's just been told that the one person he loves isn't dead and is back from the dead" he replied.

That made me think but I shook my head to myself, "No Emmett I have to go, anyway he has been able to think a little" I replied, I then grabbed some light grey skinny's to wear. A pair of dark purple heels caught my eye and I grabbed them with a free hand and took the small makeup bag from the table back in the main part of my room. I looked at Emmett and Jasper waiting for them to say anything else.

"Bella, I really don't think this is a good idea" said Jasper, his eyes were almost begging me to stay.

"Why not Jasper? Why shouldn't I sort everything out as soon as possible?"

He now spoke really quietly and I had t strain to hear even with multiplied senses, "Bella, you can't rush this, if you do it is much more likely to go wrong. If it goes wrong you won't ever be happy and no one in this house wants you to have that. So please, listen to us for once. We can stop Alice and Rosalie from giving you a makeover if that's all you want to leave this house for" I heard Alice huff in the hall, "But if you actually want to risk your relationship with Edward then we will stop you at least until tomorrow. Be patient and give him some time" he said.

I looked between the two faces of the people in front of me and dropped everything I was holding and nodded. Emmett walked to me in two strides and engulfed me into one of his bear hugs, when I was finally free Jasper was waiting and pulled me into a much more comfortable hug. I was glad; I needed some comfort.

Alice had gained entrance and was holding straighteners and curling iron in her hand and a makeup bag in the other. Jasper took her waist and pulled her from the room, "Thank you" I called out.

That left me and Emmett in the room together, "You won't run off if I leave will you?" he asked cautiously.

I chuckled, "No, I promise I won't Emmett" and smiled at him reassuringly.

"Good, I want to go see Rosie...alone" he said and left the room.

I looked absentmindedly around the room, trying to think of something to occupy the night with. I decided on going to speak to Carlisle; he was just as lonely as I was. His office was empty when I reached it so I started to look at the numerous titles of books he had. In here they were all medical, not something I was really interested in. Carlisle came in as I was looking at the paintings he had hung up.

"Bella is there something I can help you with?" he asked curiously.

"No I just needed some company and I didn't think that you would be busy"

"Oh well sit down if you want" Carlisle gestured towards the leather sofa against the wall.

"What are these paintings of?" I asked.

Carlisle walked over to me and looked at them in silent thought for a moment, "My past; I wanted to show other vampires about what it was like"

I saw one of Carlisle between three other vampires on a balcony, it looked old so I asked about that.

"That is me with Marcus, Caius and Aro. They lead the Volturi which are basically our government in effect, they persecute you if you break the rules...which is simply to keep our existence a secret"

"Are there more of them?"

"Yes, the Volturi is made up of lots of vampires, usually with a special gift like Alice's and Jasper's. If you break the rules you die is what they think. I stayed with them for around a decade once"

He then explained the rest of his history up until where I met him; this took up quite a few hours and I had only one until school started so I wore the clothing I had picked up earlier and got ready. Alice seemed to approve of my outfit for once and said, "Well maybe you don't need to always rely on me"

We all drove to school early and waited around the car chatting just as any teenagers would. As soon as Edward's car entered the parking lot and he stepped out of his car our eyes connected and I motioned for him to come over to me. Edward stopped when he was around a foot before me and I looked straight into the emerald green orbs he had for eyes and stood there speechless. I had known what I was going to say but it was now eradicated from my memory. Standing there at a loss of anything to say Alice whispered to me so quietly and quickly so that Edward wouldn't hear or notice, "Introduce the rest of us"

I flashed her a small relieved smile and went on to say, "Edward this is Alice", I motioned towards her and she smiled happily and waved her hand, "Jasper" he nodded his head in obvious discomfort at being so close to Edward, he would have to get used to it eventually, "Rosalie and Emmett" they said a quiet hello and went back to talking to each other quietly, probably about stuff I was glad not to hear.

Until the bell rang we all stood around the car in silence, it wasn't awkward, but comfortable. Had I wanted to say anything to break it I could've easily launched us into a conversation. But I wanted to take advantage of the fact that I had been waiting for something like this to happen since I breathed my final breath as a human.

So theres chapter 18, hope it was alright

Please review

Sarah