Twilight OC Rewrite VERSION TWO

Chapter Twenty-Four: An Impasse

Bella didn't wake up until Friday.

I heard the tapping on my window louder than it should've been. Louder than Christian meant to. Except it wasn't Christian. I'd been waiting for him to show up for a whole day with an update on my sister, but he never came.

When I heard the sound, I shot out of bed and to the window he normally comes in from, before stopping in my tracks. I would've thought she was hovering if she didn't look like a spider clinging to the outside of my window sill. I immediately began fumbling with the window, almost fighting myself to pull it open. She climbed quietly and gracefully inside the minute I stepped back.

And step back I did. When she was in the light of my room, I almost fell backwards on my bed from how far away I moved from her. Red eyes.

"..hey." She said, awkwardly. I guess becoming a vampire didn't help with being smooth.

"I thought–" I started.

"I snuck out after they told me I couldn't come see you."

I checked the time on my bedside clock. 3:48 a.m.

She held her hand out to me.

It was beautiful, for a hand. Paler than her normal skin tone, perfect nail beds and her nails without a crack. Her arm was slender, still, but smooth as stone. My eyes trailed to her face, definite perfection just like the others, but still 'other.' She didn't look right, didn't look like my sister.

Watching my hesitation, she said, "I know everything's changed, but I'm still Bella, no matter how I look. You're still my baby sister. I still love you." Her voice almost broke on the last sentence.

I took her hand. It was cold and strong, like Christian's. Like marble. She pulled me into a hug and I let my weight collapse against her. She didn't falter, didn't move even an inch.

"I see what they meant about you, Alex. You have no scent. I can hear your blood flowing, I can see it in your skin, but I don't smell you." She paused. "You're safe with me. You're probably the only one safe with me." Barely a whisper.

Wrapping my hands around her waist, I let myself cry into her shoulder. I spent almost two days mourning my sister and here she was. After everything they said and everything I knew she wanted, she came back to me. She came home, even though she can't stay here anymore.

I felt guilty for ever believing, for ever assuming, that my sister would abandon me. Of course she wouldn't. We faced this whole brutal world together, hand in hand. Even though hers was a lot colder now, that didn't mean we wouldn't still face it together.

After our hug, we sat on my bed and she recalled to me everything about when she ran away: how she evaded Alice and Jasper, her so-called fight with the tracker, Alice's visions.

Truthfully, a small part of me believed that Alice knew Bella was going to run off and knew the most likely outcome, and had let her escape, but I didn't plan on voicing that opinion to anyone. As far as my sister knew, she had no special abilities. Granted, she had only been awake again for a few hours, but she said that she didn't feel any different.

As she reminded me that she hadn't been awake even a full 24 hours yet, I reeled. "Have you eaten anything yet?"

She hesitated, looking sheepish. "No."

"Maybe you should go out into the forest and try to catch a squirrel." I teased.

"Oh, very funny," she said, punching my arm.

Except it didn't end how she expected it. A crunch echoed throughout our room and a silent scream escaped my mouth.

Bella immediately jumped up, afraid and confused, as I gingerly tried to grab my arm, anything to stop the pain.

Using her new vampiric abilities, my sister picked me up as carefully as she could, carrying me bridal style, before jumping out of our bedroom window and into the grass below. I had less than no warning before she raced into the forest.

When we arrived at the Cullen's home, Edward was less than happy. Standing at the front door already waiting for us—seems that my sister's getaway didn't go unnoticed.

"Just tell me why, Bella," Edward said impatiently as she lowered me onto a couch in one of their living rooms.

"No one was stopping me from seeing my sister." She replied curtly.

"It was too dangerous. You could've been seen. You could've killed her!"

"She doesn't smell like anything, and look at me! I'm fine."

"And now Alex isn't," Christian said, striding quickly—for a human—into the room and crouching by my side.

"Hey, now, don't blame her," I butted in. "She didn't mean to."

Carlisle walked in then, silencing everyone without a word. Coming to check on my arm, he lifted it slowly as a sharp hiss escaped between my teeth.

"Not broken.. The sound must have come from her shoulder. It's dislocated." He turned to me, his beautiful yellow eyes sharpened with wisdom and softened with empathy. "This will hurt, I'm sorry."

And then he shoved my arm back into place.

I couldn't help it, I screamed. Not very loud, and not for very long, but enough to make me feel weak and fragile in front of bodies as hard as concrete.

Bella, Christian, and Edward escorted me back home after about an hour after my shoulder was fixed. Christian to see me off, Bella because she wasn't going to be told no, and Edward because he knew she wouldn't be told no and listen.

"Carlisle said after a little rest, it won't hurt anymore." Christian said, laying me down on the covers, somehow afraid that if I did it for myself, I'd break a rib.

"I'll be sure to hide it from Dad... not like it'll be hard." I said with a little more attitude than I'd meant to.

"Speaking of," Edward started, raising his voice enough to quiet us all. "Bella will not be coming back to visit for a few more weeks at least. We need to figure out what we're going to do with her new identity and whether or not she's going to go rabid soon."

"You're not keeping me from my sister." Bella said, arms crossed as she glided closer to my bed.

"No one said that," Edward sounded exasperated. "I'm trying to protect her. Look what you already did."

"An accident!" She protested.

"Exactly."

"I refuse to be away from her." Her red eyes seemed to burn with anger and now that she knew she could take Edward in a fight, I was worried they would tear the room apart. "Christian can bring her to your house and you all can watch me from there, but if you try to stop me, I will fight my way through."

Her resolve almost made me cry.

Edward sighed heavily, pinching the bridge of his nose between two fingers. Christian stayed uncharacteristically silent, rubbing his thumb across my hand.

"An impasse, it seems. We will go home and leave it to vote." Edward said and without another word, but a short nod to me, he left through the window in which we came.

Bella rushed over to hug me, but made sure this time not to apply much pressure. "I love you." She said before following after her boyfriend.

With Christian the last to leave, I looked over to him. Something that resembled shame flashed in his eyes before it was gone and I was left wondering if I'd imagined it.

"Try to rest now, fairy." He said, kissing me on the forehead less than a second before he, too, disappeared.

Left in our—no, my—room with just my thoughts as company, I finally began to cry. A small, quiet sob that wouldn't be noticeable by morning. I cried for my arm, for my sister, and for the unforeseen future.