Edward didn't move.
His mind was in turmoil. Had Rosalie known he sat outside Bella's window? That he'd done so since the first night she'd arrived in town, fresh off a red-eye flight, still reeking of recycled airplane oxygen as she fell into the beat-up old bed, her father remaining downstairs to watch television?
He had not been pleased to see Rose in his tree - on his favored branch, even - but the lure of Bella's proximity had not permitted him to turn around and leave before Rose noticed him.
Her blood sang to him, igniting a furious thirst that no amount of elk or mountain lion could quench, and yet there was something else about her, too.
She smelled divine, and it wasn't some fake flowery, perfumed shit like most other girls her age. No, what smelled so good was her - her skin, her very essence.
He wanted to bury his nose in the shadowed curve of her throat, underneath the long wave of her hair, and inhale.
Except, he knew, if he did so, he wouldn't be able to stop. Who was she, this little slip of a dark-haired girl, to turn his whole world upside down and shake it until he didn't know down from up anymore?
He was an ageless vampire, an immortal creature, and yet when he was around her his thoughts and feelings whirled through him like the contents of an upset snow globe. It wasn't right.
Part of him wanted very much to resent her - to hate her, even, for this. But every time he tried to give in to that desire, an image rose in his mind's eye of the first time she'd looked at him.
Their eyes had met as she stood at the front of the biology lab, waiting to be recognized by the teacher. He'd never seen any eyes so deep, so shadowed, like warm dark velvet.
He'd thought he could probably stare into those big, pretty eyes for eternity and never find the bottom.
Alice's conviction that they were somehow made for each other didn't help matters any. Edward railed against any notion of fate; he wanted so desperately to believe that he was master of his own destiny.
That was why he'd left Carlisle and ultimately why he'd returned - he refused to believe that anything, not Carlisle and not his own vampiric nature - could control his actions.
And just what had Rosalie meant, when she asked him whether he'd still be here outside Bella's bedroom window if Alice hadn't told him about her vision? It was an unfortunate question, tactless and to the point, the kind of question Rose excelled at.
She was so marvelously good at asking the sort of uncomfortable questions that Edward couldn't get out of his head for weeks afterward. Would he still be here, without Alice's vision?
Edward had to admit that, yes, probably he would. He just wouldn't be feeling quite so conflicted about it. Probably. Maybe.
Bella stirred again, and his attention snapped back to the slightly-open window.
The hissing sound of her body moving against her sheets was electrifying, and though he couldn't see inside from this angle, his mind already knew precisely what she looked like asleep in her bed, her hair either caught up with elastic or spread against her pillow in a dark halo.
She mumbled a little; he caught what he thought might be her father's name, Charlie, but nothing else was distinguishable as actual words.
Rosalie's worry about Bella's safety threw him into even greater conflict; he couldn't read Bella's mind, so it was impossible to settle either Rosalie's worry or his own on that score.
He wouldn't have put two and two together as Esme and Rose had, but now that it was pointed out to him, he did see what they meant about warning signs.
He'd seen nothing while watching the house, but then, he admitted, he only dared keep his vigil for a few hours each night, from around three in the morning when Bella would already be fully asleep until six or so, when dawn broke along the damp, forested streets of the town.
He'd never seen an interaction between Bella and her father, or anyone else, really, for that matter, unless answering a question now and then in biology counted. He shook his head, muttering curses under his breath.
His mind literally would not let him contemplate the possibility of Bella being hurt by someone, and he had no idea why. Certainly he loathed the awful violence of domestic abuse, but this feeling went beyond that.
He refused to believe it had anything to do with Alice's vision, though. There had to be another explanation, and he'd figure it out eventually. In the meantime, he'd join Rose's monitoring of the situation.
The sooner they got an answer, the sooner she would leave Bella alone and he could return to watching her in peace.
...
"You ready, babe?"
Rosalie caught Emmett's eye in the mirror as he poked his head around her bathroom door. "Almost." She set down her mascara and contemplated her reflection.
"You're gorgeous, girl," Emmett said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and kissing the side of her head.
She fought back a smile at his display as she threw a few things into a purse and then left the bathroom, grabbing her schoolbag on their way out of the house.
Edward, Alice, and Jasper had already left in Edward's car. Emmett veered toward his ridiculous Jeep, but Rose grabbed his shirt and hauled him in the direction of her car.
"Not today, monkey man," she said, slipping into the driver's seat and chucking her things behind her.
"Any particular reason you want to drive today?"
Rose smiled inwardly. She was no morning person so, though she loved cars, she did not often drive to school, preferring to either zone out or hold a cup of coffee in her cold hands, inhaling the smell deep into her lungs.
She swore that even the steam held some magic caffeinated power, energizing her for the day.
Though they didn't sleep, there was still a nighttime shift into a more quiet, reflective mode of thought, and breaking out of that early in the morning was just as unpleasant as she remembered waking up early used to be.
Now she patted Emmett's cold cheek as she pulled out of the driveway and onto the road. "Operation Save Swan is a go."
He wrinkled his nose. "Okay, two things. First, you don't even know if she needs saving. Hey!" He protested as she switched the radio station he'd just tuned to. "I'm the music guru guy!"
"My car, my music," she replied. "You know perfectly well that's always been the rule."
"And second," Emmett said, apparently deciding to drop the music argument for the moment, "can we please give this covert mission a better code name?"
"Like what?" Rosalie fought to hold back a smile. He was so juvenile, and she loved it. But damned if she was going to let him know it.
"How about..." Emmett scratched absently at his chin as he thought. It was a funny old-man gesture; Rose wondered if he'd learned it from a grandfather at some point. "How about Operation Operation? You know, like the game? Like, if we find out something's going down, then the bad guy gets buzzed for touching what he shouldn't."
"That's terrible, babe."
"I like it."
Rose knew she'd let him keep referring to the plan any way he wanted; she was just glad he was supportive of her theory and her attempt to figure out if the girl was really being abused or if she was merely surrounded by a mountain of coincidences.
It was possible, Rosalie had to admit to herself. Unlikely. Statistically improbable. But possible. She considered her assets in this offensive.
She had Emmett, Esme, and Carlisle backing her completely. Alice she didn't want to involve quite yet, because of her penchant to become overly emotional.
That meant no Jasper either, for the moment, because to have one was to have the other. Edward, god only knew. She hadn't seen him this morning, and he hadn't seemed terribly happy about her interference the night before.
Still, there was something going on between him and Bella, even if it was only one-sided at the moment. Whether it had anything to do with Alice's vision or not remained to be seen.
All Rose knew was that he was conflicted and upset, and Bella was the cause. Whether that translated into him helping her or not, she couldn't say.
But one thing was crystal clear to Rosalie as she pulled into the dingy school parking lot and engaged the emergency brake, something she always yelled at Emmett for not remembering. She was going to figure out what was going on with Bella Swan, and she was going to do it soon.
She looked around the parking lot, catching sight of Bella's beat-up red pickup truck. At least that meant she was at school.
Rosalie took a deep breath. She thought it was possible she should have considered her tactics beforehand, but not knowing the girl, it was impossible to say what might or might not make her open up.
So she decided to plow ahead and see how it went. There were plenty of Cullens to help pick up the pieces if her approach was wrong.
Rose flared her nostrils, catching Bella's alluring scent pervading her truck, then followed it without hesitation into the schoolyard.
"Hi."
Bella was sitting on a bench outside the main school doors, her delicate face buried in a dog-eared book. At the sound of Rosalie's approach her dark eyes shot up and her entire body tensed.
Rosalie tried to pretend she hadn't seen the frightened reaction that even a human would have noticed. She sat smoothly down on the bench next to Bella without being asked, but did not attempt to shake her hand or otherwise touch her.
"I'm Rosalie. You know my sister, Alice Cullen." She decided it was best not to mention Edward until she knew just what sort of contact the two had had.
"Yes." Bella's voice was low and musical. Rosalie rather liked it, though she heard the shadow of hesitation in it as well.
"How are you settling in?"
Bella's eyes crinkled as she thought before answering. Rosalie liked that, too - it was nice to meet a human who didn't open their mouth without thinking. "It could be worse."
"An optimist, are you?"
Bella shrugged, toying with a ragged corner of her book. "I don't know if I'd go that far."
Rose leaned back. "Good. I hate people who have to see the goddamn bright side of everything."
Bella exhaled a breathy little laugh. It sounded more nervous than amused.
The first warning bell sounded, and it made Bella jump. Rose's first instinct was to put a hand on the younger girl's shoulder to steady her, but she resisted the urge.
There was no telling what might set her off and make her even more afraid.
"Alice and I will see you at lunch." She made sure that it wasn't a question, wasn't the sort of invitation Bella could brush off.
With a languid wave in the dark-haired girl's direction, Rose sauntered off as if Bella were now completely gone from her mind and she had moved on to more pressing things.
Too much attention would certainly make her uncomfortable, and she didn't want Bella getting suspicious yet.