Disclaimer: I own nothing, especially anything related to The Twilight Saga or any of the board games mentioned in this chapter.
A/N: Here it is, the sequel to "The Long Weekend." You may want to read the original story first, or some of the references to earlier events, the time frame and my interpretation of certain things may not make too much sense. This chapter is entirely in Bella's perspective.
Chapter 1: A Night Unlike Any Other
I sat in my living room listening to my father, my best friend and my fiancé as they talked about our respective weekends. It was still slightly alarming to me, seeing how completely unsuspicious my father could be. Part of me thinks he tries to see the best in everyone—the whole innocent until proven guilty bit. The more logical side of me argues that Charlie has a keen ability to see what he wants to see, repressing what is unpleasant, adopting a "need to know only" approach. Maybe he just chooses his battles. Whatever the case, it was certainly working to my advantage as he did not make a big deal about my spending the weekend with my fiancé and his family.
Edward was the only person in question with whom Charlie had a problem. He still had not completely forgiven Edward for the Phoenix fiasco this past spring or for the plan to steal me, his only daughter, away so soon after our high school graduation, as was our current arrangement. Because of this, Charlie had developed the habit of scowling or glaring at Edward any time we made any physical contact with each other in his presence. Otherwise, he was mostly cordial.
I tried to draw my attention to the conversation, but they had started talking about baseball, of all things. Alice, bless her, tried valiantly to pull me into their conversation, to no avail. She switched topics abruptly then, with the one topic guaranteed to shut down all talk of sports—fashion. Of course I had nothing to contribute to this discussion either, but it was funny to watch Alice's tiny nose wrinkle in disgust as I announced that I would be perfectly happy in jeans for the rest of my life.
"Seriously, Bella? What about when we go dancing? You would spend the rest of your existence in such a, a," she paused as she contemplated the appropriate word to showcase her disdain for my fashion sense. "You'd be happy in that every day?" she asked as she waved her finger at me to indicate my clothes.
I looked down at my thermal shirt, zip up sweater and my favorite broken-in jeans. "Absolutely. This is perfectly comf--"
She cut me off, shouting, "DON'T SAY IT! DON'T SAY IT!"
Edward looked amused, most likely from listening to the rest of her mental tirade toward me and my clothes. Charlie flinched as she shouted.
Not discouraged by her, I finished my sentence. "Comfortable. You can move around and do anything."
"You wound me, Bella." She closed her eyes dramatically then placed her hands over her heart.
Edward, Charlie and I could not resist laughing, to which Alice responded with a heavy sigh.
"You people are hopeless."
Edward, ever the gentleman, stood up from the couch. "Our chances of getting home safely may soon be hopeless as well if we don't leave soon, Alice." I looked out the window to notice the darkening sky outside for the first time as the sun sank lower toward the horizon.
Alice and Charlie stood as well, as she said, "Yes, Esme will kill us if we don't get home soon. She worries so much." Alice glanced over at me from her place beside Charlie and winked. I had to cover my snickering with a cough, then stood and joined them as we began walking toward the door.
Edward placed one hand on the knob and opened the door, looking outside. "We'll have to hurry before the roads freeze any more than the driveway, from the looks of it." He turned to me and kissed me gently on the forehead. "See you soon, my love," he whispered in my ear.
I swear, that man doesn't know what he does to me. Heat flooded my face, and my stomach leapt. My breath hitched in my throat—"my love"—that's new. I smiled back at him, answering, "You'd better."
Charlie looked out the front door, around Edward and me, his eyes widening. "Like it or not, you two aren't going anywhere."
"What?!?" Alice, Edward and I chorused in unison.
I glanced at Alice whose unfocused eyes and slightly open mouth gave her away. I could only guess what she was seeing.
Charlie raised his eyebrows at us, as if we were the crazy ones. "I can't let you two drive with it being that icy out there—look at the road! The roads to your house will be even worse since they're shaded." Indeed, the road in front of our house was shiny and glistening with ice, where the snow had partially melted during the day and refrozen. It looked like a sheet of glass.
Edward shook his head, "We'll be fine, Charlie, really."
My father however, was insistent. "You're staying here. I'm the Chief of Police and I don't want to be responsible for letting you drive in that, then be the one to see you splattered on the road. You aren't going out in that. Shut the door, Bells."
I stood with my mouth agape; he was serious. Recovering myself, I reached behind Edward to swing the door closed. Well this is going to be interesting, I thought. I wonder if Charlie thought ahead to consider sleeping arrangements.
"Looks like you and I are sleeping in the living room tonight, Edward." Charlie was apparently a mind reader too.
"Yes, sir." My Edward, the stoic.
Alice was turning her head from side to side quickly, watching all of us. It looked as if she was trying to determine what we were going to do next, which, knowing her, was probably exactly what she was doing. Her eyes became frantic as she turned to me.
"Just what am I supposed to do, Bella?" she hissed under her breath.
I shrugged. "I guess you'll be upstairs with me, I whispered back.
"Not that. I. Don't. Have. Any. Clothes." She drew out each word with emphasis.
Charlie moved forward so that he was standing between Alice and Edward and clapped them both on their shoulders. "I'm pretty sure Bella's clothes will fit you, Alice, even if they are a bit long. You can borrow some clothes too, Edward." I thanked heaven for small miracles that Charlie couldn't see the identical expressions of horror on their faces. This was definitely going to be interesting.
****
A few hours later, we were sitting in the living room talking while Charlie was upstairs. Alice was still complaining about my lack of "appropriate attire" which was now even more personally offensive to her as she was wearing a sweatshirt and sweatpants of mine. She would not sit still, constantly fidgeting and twisting about.
"I can't believe this! It's unconscionable! I've never worn sweats in my life! This isn't even a natural fiber, Bella. Remind me to introduce you to natural fibers."
I couldn't resist. "It's cotton, Alice."
"It's a cotton blend," she snapped.
Edward, who had remained silent throughout this exchange, tapped his long fingers together. He looked equally uncomfortable in one of Charlie's t-shirts and flannel sleep pants. "So how are we going to pass the night, exactly?"
"Oh, I'm sure we can find something to do," Alice began, a twinkle in her eye. Apparently Edward's distraction had done the trick, driving away her irritation.
Just then, Charlie joined us in the living room, clearly ready to crash for the night, and not very pleased to find three wide awake teenagers. He stood in the doorway, two pillows and a stack of blankets in his hands. "Aren't you the least bit tired?"
"Not really, Dad. I'm pretty keyed up actually." This was not a lie in the least—I was nervous beyond words about how this would turn out.
He looked at Alice and Edward who both nodded. It was Alice who spoke up.
"We should turn this into a slumber party! C'mon, Charlie, can we?" She turned out her pouting expression, guaranteed to persuade anyone.
Charlie shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then adjusted the pile of blankets he held. "But what about…" he nodded at Edward and me.
I couldn't believe he was considering this.
"You don't have to worry about them, I'll be here the whole time, and seriously, would they do anything with me in the room? Ew, that's just wrong." She was channeling her inner teenager perfectly.
He seemed convinced, or at least close to it. He put the pile of blankets and pillows on an empty couch cushion and pointed a finger at Edward. "You aren't married yet, Edward." He turned to Alice as he added, "I'm counting on you, Alice, and you too, Bells." His head whipped toward me. "I'm trusting you on this."
I nodded. "Absolutely, Dad. Nothing will happen." Just like every other night, I silently added. My extremely moral vampire was one guy my dad didn't have to worry about.
"You have my word sir, just like Bella said, nothing will happen." Edward's voice was so full of sincerity, it was impossible to doubt him.
"Good. Goodnight, Bells."
"Night, Dad." I looked up at him from my seat on the couch and smiled.
He turned to Edward and Alice then, only a hint of doubt left on his face. "See you in the morning, you two. There are some more blankets and stuff in the closet."
"Goodnight, Charlie," they returned.
He left the room, shaking his head slightly, and went upstairs.
Edward crossed the room to sit next to me on the couch. "Well this is unexpected," he said, turning to Alice.
"Hey, don't look at me, I didn't know about this until he looked out the front door, or this," she said, touching my sweatshirt with two fingers, "until Charlie mentioned it."
Edward threw his arm around my shoulders and kissed my temple. "I'm not complaining about being invited to stay, I was just making a comment." He gave my shoulder a squeeze and pulled me closer to him. I snuggled closer, pulling my feet up onto the couch. "Forgive her, she's a bit touchy," he whispered to me.
"I'm complaining," Alice whined. "No offense, Bella, you know I love you, but I don't want to stay for an undetermined amount of time without Jasper. It doesn't pay to be the chaperoning adult, you know."
I threw a pillow at her.
"Hey! Somebody has to keep an eye on you two snuggle bunnies." She grinned impishly. "I'm helping you out more than you know. Charlie was planning on staying awake all night, cleaning his gun and everything."
I felt a surge of affection for my father at his protectiveness, as Edward chuckled.
"So what are we going to do?" I asked, as the pillow came back at me, smacking me in the chest.
****
We ended up playing board games, of all things, and more than once during our game of Scrabble, I heard the stairs creaking as Charlie checked on us. I made a killing during the game by using compound words whenever possible. Edward rolled his eyes as I got a triple word score by adding "stand" to his word "under."
It was after midnight when I heard the stairs creak for the last time and Charlie begin to snore heavily about ten minutes later. Our game night was still going strong as we switched gears to play Scattergories, then Trivial Pursuit.
By two a.m. my eyelids felt like they were weighted with lead. We had pushed the coffee table out from its usual position in front of the couch and moved it beside the recliner so that the majority of the floor space was open. The sleeping bags we had brought from the closet upstairs were scattered on the floor as we tried out various configurations to see which would be the most comfortable and the least objectionable.
When all was said and done, I was curled up in a down-filled sleeping bag in my favorite place—safely encircled in Edward's strong arms. I lay on my side, my head resting on my pillow, one of Edward's arms draped over me, holding me close, his other hand softly brushing my hair away from my face.
From behind me I heard Alice softly muttering something about skis.
"What?" I rasped groggily.
"Don't worry about it," Edward answered. "Sweet dreams, my love." He kissed my forehead, then the soft spot of my neck, just below my ear.
So very sweet, indeed.
