The Edge

A Fortunate Confluence of Events

The Next Evening

Alice turned off the car and removed the keys from the ignition. They were warm against her palm, and she closed her fingers around them, trapping and simultaneously killing the warmth as she leaned heavily against the seatback.

Forcing her eyes open, Alice gazed in front of her at the Swan residence and tried to will her limbs into motion.

Inside the house she could hear Charlie clomping around. He was removing his shoes and gun holster, and she realized that he must have arrived home not long before she showed up in the driveway. Upstairs, she could hear music playing faintly, but no other sounds which meant that Bella was likely immobile, sitting on the floor as she sometimes did or lying on her bed.

Alice closed her eyes and focused her senses. Listening carefully she was able to determine that Bella was listening to the Swinging 60s playlist she had compiled for her on her second day back in Forks. Alice smiled despite the feelings of anxiety she was battling. She couldn't believe that at one-hundred and seven years of age she had made what was essentially a 'mix tape' for someone.

Alice shook her head, still smiling softly. She had it bad, but despite Nina Simone's words to the contrary, it was good. It was very good. And, with that thought in her mind, Alice reached for the car door and made her way to the Swan's front porch.

"I was beginning to think you were planning on sleeping out there," was Charlie's greeting to Alice when he opened the front door.

He didn't sound pleased to see her and she didn't expect him to be. She hadn't spoken to Charlie since the morning of Harry Clearwater's funeral, but she knew that he blamed her for Bella taking off with no advanced notice, leaving only a hastily scribbled note behind on the table to explain her absence.

"No," Alice said, smiling ruefully. "Just trying to gather my courage," she continued, meeting Charlie's eyes and holding them. "I know I'm not your favorite person in the world right now, but I really need to speak to Bella."

Charlie stared at Alice for a long moment, his much larger frame blocking the doorway.

"You promised to look out for her," he said, his eyes holding Alice's unwaveringly.

He sounded tired, and broken, and Alice knew that the events of the past week (not to mention worrying about Bella for the past five months) had worn him down. Charlie was running on empty, and had been for a while. He didn't need Bella disappearing for over a day added to his plate as well. And, Alice was certain that the situation took even more out of Charlie this time because she was to blame.

She had been, for a brief period of time, the one person Charlie really trusted to look after Bella. But, now, after her long disappearance and absconding with Bella – in what had to seem to him to have been an act of casually cruel caprice – Alice was sure that she was only one rung higher on Charlie's shit list than Edward was ... if that.

"I did," Alice murmured softly. "Nothing happened to her," she said, forcing herself to hold his gaze as she spoke.

While it was true that Bella had not been hurt physically, Alice knew that many things had happened on the trip that had affected Bella emotionally and she hoped that the lie didn't show in her eyes.

"You took her to him," Charlie said, his eyes flashing with anger.

"It was the result of an ... unfortunate confluence of events," Alice said beginning to spin her tale.

She had been paying attention, keeping her figurative antennae up for any visions that related to what Bella was going to tell Charlie about their time away. She had picked up nothing and knew that Bella hadn't told Charlie anything yet. She had probably still been asleep with he had left for work, and now, she had interrupted him before he'd had a chance to speak with her.