It felt like Alice had been in there forever．
Bella tilted her head around, looking at the rest of the family．
Carlisle was leaning against the wall about a meter away from herself and Edward, Esme resting against his side, her head pillowed on his shoulder. They were still and serene and if Bella didn't know better she would have thought that they had fallen asleep standing up. Emmett and Rose were sitting on the floor. Rose was nestled between Emmett's legs, her head resting on his chest. Bella had heard murmurs from them, but they were speaking too softly for her to understand what they were saying. And they too, seemed completely at ease. Jasper was leaning against the wall beside the door to his room, with his head resting against the wall and his eyes closed. Ｈe was still, and on the surface seemed calm, but Bella swore that there was a tension in his body that wasn't in the others. And, beside her, Edward was still and silent, his chest rising and falling steadily as he glanced over at her every few seconds．
They all looked so composed．
It was infuriating．
Bella lifted her hand, checking her watch again．
She wasn't a century old, she didn't have their endless reserves of patience and the waiting was starting to get to her. She wanted to see Alice. She wanted to see if she was okay. She wanted …
The door to Alice and Jasper's room creaked open．
Bella stared for a second and then jerked forward, trying to launch herself towards it. Edward's hand reached out, clutching her shoulder lightly, restraining her movement. Bella made a frustrated sound in her throat and twisted, her lips parting to demand that he let her go when Alice's voice drifted through the open door．
"Esme?”
Bella blinked, her head turning to the side to watch as Esme disentangled herself from Carlisle and began to make her way towards the door．
"She's still weak," Edward said softly, the feel of his breath against her ear making Bella shiver. "Esme will help get her cleaned up.”
Bella stopped struggling in his grasp, her body relaxing under his hand．
Jasper had told her that it would take about half an hour for Alice to be her old self again after feeding. She was prepared for that, but when he had revealed this to her Bella had assumed that she would be there to help Alice, that she would be there to look after her while she finished recovering．
But, as she leaned back against the wall she realized that it was silly of her to think that. In Port Angeles Alice had told her how monstrous feeding made her feel and she should have known that Alice wouldn't have wanted her to see her that way．
That being true, she was surprised – but not displeased – that Alice hadn't called for Jasper to take care of her．
Ｈowever, when she thought about it more it made sense that Alice had requested Esme come in. Bella had spent most of her life looking after her mother, but when she was sick, Renee was still the first person she thought of, the person she wanted beside her, holding her hand. When she had been in the hospital in Phoenix after James at attacked her, she had longed so much for her mother and when Renee had finally arrived, she hadn't let go of her hand for hours．
Esme was the only mother that Alice could remember, and it made sense to Bella that Alice would want her around at a time like this. A mother's love was absolute, it was warm, and comforting and when you felt badly it was one of the only things in the world that could make you feel safe．
Thinking about it, Bella realized that Esme was the only person Alice wouldn't be ashamed to let see her that way．
Bella watched Esme disappear into the bedroom, her heart swelling with affection for the woman, loving her for being herself and for taking such wonderful care of her children, no matter how old they were. It made her happy to know that Alice would be in such wonderful and capable hands．
All was quiet for a few minutes after Esme entered the bedroom. They others stayed in the exact position they were in before, the only one that had moved being Carlisle who'd had to shift to release Esme．
Bella sighed, wondering what was going on inside the bedroom, her ears just picking up the sound of a door closing as she did. Ｈer brows furrowed at the sound, but she realized a second later that Alice and Esme must have gone into the adjoining bathroom and that it was that door that she heard close．
"I have to help Emmett," Edward said dully, looking over at Bella before he pushed away from the wall．
Bella looked up at him curiously, but then she detected movement to the side and turned her head to see Emmett disentangling himself from Rosalie before he stood up as well. Emmett looked towards the bedroom, and Edward nodded, and then they started towards it, disappearing inside a few seconds later．
"You may not want to look.”
Bella turned her head sharply to the side, surprised to hear a voice so close to her. Blinking, she registered Rosalie standing beside her, and released the breath she had taken when she heard the voice. She hadn't even detected a hint of movement from where Rosalie had been sitting the last time she saw her．
"I don't know what you mea …" Bella began to say, but before she could finish the sentence Edward and Emmett emerged from the bedroom with the deer carcass in their arms, and Bella gasped, her stomach rolling as she got a good look at it．
The deer's neck had been broken the first time she saw it, but other than that it had been spotless. Now, the chest and neck were covered in blood, and the head flopped, looking almost in danger of falling off. The skin around the neck had been savaged and hung in tatters around a large gaping wound in the middle of the throat. It looked like the deer had been attacked by some large predator, a bear or a mountain lion maybe, and Bella couldn't quite get her mind to grasp the fact that Alice had done that．
Bella turned her head to the side and pressed herself against the wall, unable to look at the animal anymore．
Rose sighed beside her. "I told you," she said, but her voice wasn't gloating or smug. She sounded sad more than anything else, and Bella suspected that it was because Rose knew how she would feel seeing the damage and had been trying to spare her. "It wouldn't usually be like that," Rose said softly as Bella turned to watch the boys head down the stairs. "It's only because she was so weak," Rose continued, and Bella realized that she was right and Rose really was trying to make her feel better．
"We should wait downstairs," Carlisle said, moving over to where Rosalie and Bella were standing．
Ｈe put his arm around Bella's shoulder, and began to lead her towards the stairs, Rosalie falling instep with them as they moved．
"I'll be down in a moment," Jasper said, and Bella turned around to look at him．
Ｈe was standing in front of the linen closet and had a few towels in his hands. Bella looked down at the floor and saw a trail of blood leading towards the stairs where Edward and Emmett had gone, and she realized that the floor in the bedroom was likely covered in blood．
"I'll help," Bella said impulsively, realizing that Jasper was intending to clean up the mess before Alice came back into the room．
"No," Jasper said. Ｈis voice was harder than Bella had ever heard it and she noticed that his eyes, which had been a rich golden colour the last time she had looked, were now black. "It's not a good idea for you to be in there with me," he explained．
Bella nodded, realizing that the scent of blood in the air was affecting him. Jasper was far more sensitive than the rest of them, and thinking about it she guessed that he had probably been keeping very tight control of himself around her for most of the night, and that he didn't want to test himself even more with blood in the air．
"Okay," she said softly, stepping back so that she was beside Rose once more．
It seemed she did have some sense of preservation after all．
Bella turned and looked over at Carlisle. Ｈe smiled reassuringly at her, and squeezed her shoulder. Then they started for the stairs once more．
The living room was quiet when Esme and Alice finally descended the stairs to join the others twenty minutes later．
Esme looked the same as she had the last time Bella had seen her, but Alice's transformation was stunning. Ｈer dark hair was wet and slicked back off of her face, and her skin had been scrubbed clean of the dirt and dried blood that had been clinging to it the last time Bella had seen her. She was wearing a clean white tank top and pair of baby blue shorts, and her skin was flawless, every bruise and cut that had marred it before completely gone．
As well, when they entered the room, Bella saw that Alice's walk was silken and feline, heartbreakingly graceful once again, and she felt her heart swell．
Alice was okay. She was really okay．
Bella jittered, trying to fight the urge to jump to her feet and fling herself into Alice's arms. She breathed in deeply and then released it, forcing herself to repeat the pattern again and again and until she felt marginally calmer. While she busied herself with that, Jasper shifted on the couch, sliding to the side to create an opening beside himself and Bella．
Alice smiled faintly at the occupants of the room, and then moved over to sit between Bella and Jasper as Esme branched away and moved over beside Carlisle．
Unable to help herself, Bella reached out and took Alice's hand, holding it tightly in her own. Alice looked over at her and smiled, the expression actually reflecting in her eyes for a moment, as an awkward silence continued to reign over the room．
"Okay, I'll be the asshole and ask," Emmett said drawing everyone attention over to him. "What happened?" he asked incredulously, his eyes focused on Alice. "Ｈow the hell did she get the drop on you?" he continued emphasizing the last word, and Bella knew that he was referring to Alice's visions．
Alice sighed deeply, her head tilting back tiredly before she forced herself to look around the room．
"I don't think she was planning on attacking," Alice began, her gaze skittering around the different sets of eyes staring at her. "She was probably observing you from a distance, and when she saw you leave," she continued glancing at Emmett, "she probably came in for a closer look. When she saw me and realized that I wasn't aware of her presence, she probably made a snap decision to attack, figuring that she wouldn't get a better opportunity to make a play for Bella." She sighed. "You might not have noticed, but I'm not exactly the most physically intimidating of us all.”
