I Face My Monsters

Chapter 17: Still out there...

Vale's mind went blank for a split second as she stared, blank-faced, at Alice, then it started whirring.

"What the fudge?! Okay, so that explains why he looks at me like a lost puppy all the time... and that also means that he is going through SOME sort of high-intensity-vampire-hormonal-mating-drive. Judas Priest, what did I get myself into-Wait, DID I JUST LET MYSELF GET KIDNAPPED AGAIN?!"

"WE DID NOT KIDNAP YOU!" Edward yelled from downstairs. Alice's eyes widened when she realized what Vale was thinking. "Oh no, no, no gosh no. We didn't-" Vale held up her hand and cut her off. "I need to think about this, Alice. This has been an incredibly illogical 24 hours for me. I think I'll take that shower now..."

Alice nodded meekly and retreated downstairs to meet the others, with the exception of Carlisle, who had already left for work (The Lord was incredibly ticked...) . 

"Are you sure now was the time to tell her that?" he asked. "Positive. We would have lost her otherwise." "Lost her?" asked Jasper, startled. The thought of loosing his Mama clearly disturbed him. 

"Mom is... complicated. It is better to present her all the facts at once so that she can think through them and make her own decision about the situation. If we hadn't have told her, she would have figured out we were hiding something from her and were lying to her." "She can't trust a liar." Edward confirmed, directing his gaze up the stairs. "Her mind is solid about that."

Jasper followed his gaze. "She's conflicted, but not in the way I would have expected... She is trying to make sense of all this. Everything impossible has just become possible, and she doesn't quite know how to organize that emotionally. She is afraid..." he paused, and the others looked at him. "She's afraid of her feelings. She doesn't let them control her decisions, which is a good thing, but she is afraid to love... She doesn't know what that feels like..." "Remember that article? Kidnapped for 10 years? Can you blame her for being cautious?" Edward asked. 

No one answered. "Whatever happened to her kidnapper?" Rosalie asked curiously. Edward sighed, "Nothing. She had no poof or evidence enough to convict him. As far as the law was concerned, she just disappeared and re-appeared out of thin air. The kidnapper was a clever man..." "Damn..." muttered Emmett. 

"Keep it to yourselves," said Edward, seriously, "I wouldn't like to think about what Carlisle would do if he found out that his is still out there..."

Rosalie shuddered. Her feelings about her currently-human mother had been up-in-the-air until now. To still have that nightmare exist as a potential threat... 

She would not let that go unpunished...