Completed Fic of the Week: 8/1/11-8/7/11

Red Shift by latessitrice

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6437358/1/Red_Shift

Review by AnonymouslySuffereingFromOCD

Rating: T
Genre: Drama/Supernatural, AU
Characters: Bella

Summary: Fearing for the wolves and Charlie, Bella realises she can't wait for Victoria to attack the people she loves. Diverges from New Moon at the end of chapter 14.

Red Shift is a quick five chapters that are completely worth the read. Set at the end of Chapter 14 in New Moon, Bella realizes that if she doesn’t do something Victoria will hurt the people she loves. So she does the only thing she can think of; she seeks out the easiest Cullen to find.

After finding Carlisle on the Internet at a clinic in Ithaca, she sends a message hoping for help.

Sleep didn't come again easy, but I did eventually succumb, and with my dreams came a solution. I dreamed of the sterile, white walls of a hospital — not the clinic in Forks, one I didn't recognize at all, a generic representation of one. I was all alone, free to roam the bleached hallways. Down one of those corridors, I came face to face with a brass name plate on an office door.

Dr. Carlisle Cullen

I was awake once more, the beginnings of a plan stirring. There was one Cullen who would be easier to trace than all the others, because wherever he was, he'd be practicing his calling. If he knew that Victoria was placing the people of Forks in danger, he'd do what he could to help, no matter what Ed — his feelings towards me were.

Carlisle receives a message for help and immediately leaves for Forks, putting Esme in charge of rounding up the rest of the family, as they have all scattered across the globe. Of course Carlisle, being the most rational one in the family, helps Bella understand that not only did Edward lie to her when he left but also about why he left.

"Because he's stubborn, too stubborn to listen to the advice of those of us who know what it is to be parted from our mates. For all his years of life, in the end he's only a seventeen-year-old boy, and sometimes fear takes him back to the emotional maturity and clarity any human boy has. He feared for you. He feared what could happen to you, at his hand, at ours, and although he never voiced it aloud, I think he feared that eventually you would wear his arguments down and convince him to change you."

After a conversation with Alice, Carlisle decides that in order to avoid a confrontation with Victoria on his own with Bella in tow, that he and Bella will need to leave Forks and head to their property in Canada. Along the way Bella takes her future into her own hands and has a conversation with Carlisle about what she wants, and why she wants it.

"I agree with everything you've said and I understand it. The bond you feel for Edward runs deep, and it runs both ways. You are vulnerable, especially if we have conflict ahead of us, and if something were to happen to you, it would destroy him. I don't want to lose either of you, and I certainly won't lose both. I know you understand the consequences of this choice. If you want me to change you, I will."

"Thank you," I said in an exhale. If I could have hugged him, I would, but the safety harness kept me in my seat.

This story is listed as a Bella story, and it really truly is, she interacts the most with Carlisle but it is all canon pairings. Each member of the family comes back and helps her train and she is allowed the ability to face her enemy on her own. Edward returns as well and sees that she isn’t a fragile human that needs him to protect her all of the time, but in fact a powerful vampire that can take matters into her own hands when necessary.

Again, this one is a quick five chapters about thirty thousand words. LaTessitrice gives a stronger, more confident Bella and I love the fact that Edward doesn’t return right away. It gives Bella time to grow as a vampire on her own for a bit, and while the story of course has a HEA it gives us a unique perspective into what Bella could have become had Edward believed in her a little bit more from the beginning. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

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