Ebb and Flow (Twilight x Reader)

We made our flight with seconds to spare.

The plane sat idle on the tarmac while the flight attendants strolled up and down the aisle, patting the bags in the overhead compartments to make sure everything fit. The pilots leaned out of the cockpit, chatting with them as they passed.

My hand was hard on Bella's shoulder, holding her in her seat while she bounced anxiously up and down.

"It's faster than running," Alice reminded in a low voice.

Bella just nodded in time with her bouncing.

Soon the plane rolled lazily from the gate, building speed with a gradual steadiness.

I expected for Bella to feel some sort of relief when we achieved liftoff, but her frenzied impatience didn't lessen. Alice lifted the phone on the back of the seat in front of her before we'd stopped climbing, turning her back on the stewardess who eyed her with disapproval.

Alice was murmuring to Jasper, "I can't be sure, I keep seeing him do different things, he keeps changing his mind....A killing spree through the city, attacking the guard, lifting a car over his head in the main square...mostly things that would expose them—he knows that's the fastest way to force a reaction....

"No, you can't." Alice's voice dropped till it was nearly inaudible, though I was sitting inches from her. Contrarily, I listened harder. "Tell Emmett no....Well, go after Emmett and Rosalie and bring them back....Think about it, Jasper. If he sees any of us, what do you think he will do?" She nodded. "Exactly. I think Bella is the only chance—if there is a chance....I'll do everything that can be done, but prepare Carlisle; the odds aren't good." She laughed then, and there was a catch in her voice. "I've thought of that....Yes, I promise." Her voice became pleading. "Don't follow me. I promise, Jasper. One way or another, I'll get out....And I love you."

She hung up, and leaned back in her seat with her eyes closed. "I hate lying to him."

"Tell me everything, Alice," Bella begged. "I don't understand. Why did you tell Jasper to stop Emmett, why can't they come help us?"

"Two reasons," she whispered, her eyes still closed. "The first I told him. We could try to stop Edward ourselves—if Emmett could get his hands on him, we might be able to stop him long enough to convince him you're alive. But we can't sneak up on Edward. And if he sees us coming for him, he'll just act that much faster. He'll throw a Buick through a wall or something, and the Volturi will take him down.

"That's the second reason of course, the reason I couldn't say to Jasper. Because if they're there and the Volturi kill Edward, they'll fight them. Bella." She opened her eyes and stared at Bella, beseeching. "If there were any chance we could win...if there were a way that the four of us could save my brother by fighting for him, maybe it would be different. But we can't, and, Bella, I can't lose Jasper like that."

I realized why her eyes begged for Bella's understanding. She was protecting Jasper, at our expense, and maybe at Edward's, too. I understood, and I did not think badly of her. I nodded, and Bella did the same.

"Couldn't Edward hear you, though?" I asked. "Wouldn't he know, as soon as he heard your thoughts, that Bella was alive, that there was no point to this?"

Not that there was any justification, either way. I still couldn't believe that he was capable of reacting like this—how dramatic could someone be?

This only fueled what I felt for him. If somehow, because of him, something happened to Bella in Italy. . .

I would bring him back from the dead and kill him myself.

"If he were listening," Alice was explaining. "But believe it or not, it's possible to lie with your thoughts. Bella, if you had died, I would still try to stop him. And I would be thinking 'she's alive, she's alive' as hard as I could. He knows that."