Parallax

Chapter 5

Bella met Alice in the kitchen and made herself some breakfast. Alice didn't call her out earlier for eavesdropping on their conversation with Charlie. Oh, she knows that Alice knew she was awake but they didn't talk about it. Instead, Bella spent the rest of the day trying to ask Alice about the whereabouts of the rest of the family.

Bella had to make sure that her questions were revolved around the family and not just about Jasper. She was really trying her best to keep herself from asking where he was. How was he? Why was he not with Alice? Maybe it was just as well that Jasper was not here. It would have been an awkward situation if she saw Jasper and she would have launched herself at him, without realizing that he was not her mate in this past.

Alice shared that Carlisle was working nights at Ithaca and teaching part time in Cornell while Esme was restoring a seventeenth century house. Emmett and Rosalie had gone to a honeymoon in Europe but was already back. Jasper was studying Philosophy in Cornell while Alice was doing a personal research about her history that they accidentally learned during the fiasco with the nomads.

This was news to Bella. Apparently, the nomad that hunted Bella in this past had also hunted Alice when she was still human. This led to Alice finding out that she was from Biloxi Mississippi and her name was Mary Alice Brandon. She also had a sister who gave birth to a daughter, her niece, who was still alive.

Once she finds her way back, she was definitely sharing that information to Alice and Edward. For sure, they would do their own research about the matter.

It was spring break in Cornell now so everyone was spending their vacation in Alaska, with the Denali's except for one missing member, Edward. Alice was avoiding talking about him although, she would have preferred if Alice told her more of his whereabouts. She may not approve of him running away but he was still her brother and she cared for him still. Was he okay? Was he as miserable as Caleb was when he ran away to stay away from his mate?

Edward was an integral part of this story so she needed to be able to speak to him. Soon, she needed to be able to find a way to reach out to him.

The rest of the day, it was all about the Cullens and Bella couldn't help but compare their situation here with her own story. She was intrigued at every detail that was different from what she had known.

For one thing, their first move in Ithaca, they were together. Bella wasn't officially part of the family though because she was still human for the first part. She had stayed in a dormitory while she attended Cornell and took up Literature. When she turned twenty-one, when she was the same age as Jasper, she finally made the change and spent the rest of her new born years in Alaska while trying to master her restraint with human blood before she went back to college two years later.

When she graduated, Jasper finally proposed and they exchanged wedding vows in a simple wedding celebration back at the Cullen's Forks Mansion, where it all began. That was still too far down the road from where they were at right now in this timeline though, but Bella couldn't help but think that this Bella might have been able to get that opportunity just like she did, if only Edward didn't leave.

Charlie didn't get back until after dark, more worn out than before. He had to turn in early because he was headed back to the reservation for Harry's funeral. Bella stayed in the couch with Alice again for the night.

Bella did not want to do anything yet until after the funeral. Her father was still devastated by Harry's death and she didn't want him to see that anything was wrong if she suddenly was asking him permission to look for Edward when she was supposed to be recovering from a heartbreak after he left her. So, the next day, when Charlie left early to go to the funeral, she made herself busy by starting to clean the house which Bella was disappointed that it was being neglected by her counterpart.