Of love and friendship

About: Bella loses something important.
Ship: Edward/Bella
Genre: Fluffy
Rating: PG-13
Author notes: This started out as a one-shot, but I realised there was too much I wanted to discuss that wouldn't really fit into one chapter. SO. This will be a multi chapter piece, though not really getting into huge numbers. It's my first go at Twilight fiction, and the first piece of writing that I've actually liked for quite a while. Comments, suggestions and general fandom stuff would be appreciated! I'd like to know if people are reading it! OH, and thanks to the wonderful Edely for giving me her opinion on this first :D
Disclaimer: I'm not Stephanie Meyer. I don't own the series. I don't want to get sued. Just a random fan-girl who likes Edward and Jacob.

Chapter One: Win-Win

"I go, and it is done; the bell invites me."

--From Macbeth

How could I have let this happen? I had destroyed one of the most important things in my life, and all I could do was stand in shock, slightly taken aback at the sight before me. My friend, who had helped me get through so much over the past few months, had been reduced to this – a complete wreck. Remorse, guilt and the overwhelming need to punch something was taking over, but I had to look on the bright side; there had to be away around this stupid, and downright unfair, accident. It was an accident, I reminded myself, and I needed to be thankful that the only real victim in it was my beloved, and supposedly indestructible, truck.

My beloved truck was wrapped around a tree, and for the first time in my life I actually understood that ridiculous saying. How on earth could a truck get 'wrapped around a tree' anyway? The scene before me answered that question. It was in pieces; the tree also looked like it was on its last limb and apparently it was one of the 'famous' landmarks in the town – way to add the guilt, officer.

"I told you, I'm alright," I said as Charlie tugged me towards his car, shooting a furtive glance at the large gash above my eye.

All I cared about was making sure my truck was alright – I couldn't survive without it. The last thing I wanted was for a big deal to be made out of this and a trip to the local hospital – the news would reach Edward a lot faster than I would have liked with a trip to Carlisle. It simply wasn't necessary!

"Dad, really," I urged, but he continued to swerve through the traffic. "The truck took most of it," I added, somewhat guiltily as I turned my attention to the green outside. At least he wasn't putting the sirens on.

I knew it wasn't all that serious when I wasn't the first one to be seen, but it didn't take Carlisle long to finish up with his previous patient. Charlie had decided to wait outside, which I appreciated, seeing as he was still tense about my involvement with Edward and the rest of the Cullens.

"I've been thinking," Carlisle said, an amused expression flicking across his bed, "that we should really consider reserving you a bed." Hilarious. Why did people – especially those of the vampire persuasion – feel the need to keep commenting on my complete lack of coordination and/or ability to attract trouble?

"It was the tree's fault," I argued feebly.

"Ah, now that makes sense," he grinned as he cleaned the wound.

"Really, I'm fine, and it's not something that needs mentioning," I hinted, though I had obviously spoken too soon.

"Where is she?"

That beautiful, musical voice .. panic-stricken. I frowned, and my cut took that as an incentive to bleed more fervently. The pain was finally kicking in, which I supposed was down to the lack of adrenaline pumping in my system, but who needed adrenaline when you had him?

The door swung open to reveal the Edward, closely followed by Emmett. I hated seeing him so worried and flustered, especially when I was the reason for it. The way he tensed slightly at the glimpse – and scent – of my blood made me feel even worse. It was first time I realised that I was actually bleeding strongly as I had been so worried about the truck, and too busy arguing with dad that I was fine, when really .. well, I wasn't. The nausea didn't take long to come over me, and as I felt my balance deciding to take a wander into someone else's conscious mind, I felt two strong hands grab me at the side and ease me backwards onto the bed.

There was faint mumblings somewhere that seemed a distant away, but I didn't want to listen to them when there was someone making the pain in my head worse. I tried to flinch and pull away, but whoever was holding me down had strength that surpassed the normal eighteen year old girl; a far from athletic girl wasn't going to be a problem. I didn't like this in the slightest; I wanted to wake up and follow that lovely voice muttering the lines of Romeo and Juliet.

" .. my truck."

There were faint chuckles around me.

"Don't worry about that thing," Edward said, relief coating his tone. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"The tree .. stupid tree .." I mumbled. "All green .. and tall …"

"And historical?" Emmett grinned, though it sounded as if he had received a quick jab in the side off someone.

" .. and in the way," I concluded.

"She needs some rest," Carlisle instructed. "You can all see her in a few hours, when the painkillers have kicked in and she's a little more coherent."

I was coherent! At least in my head – it wasn't my fault my mouth had decided to go all funny on me. The hand that was gripping my softly did not move, though. Instead I heard the scraping on the floor as he pulled the chair closer, placing a kiss to my palm as he took the seat.

"I'm really alright," I said to him, opening my eyes slowly as if to get my bearing.

"Because people faint when they're fine?"

"I'm just a little blood .."

"Phobic?" he offered, and there was certainly evidence of a grin on those perfect lips of his. It had vanished as soon as it had arrived, and he fixed me with a look of concern as his gaze wandered from the bandage and the rest of my body.

"Are you sure you're not in any pain? I saw the truck," he said, and for first time I saw him show some concern for my reliable buddy.

"You're lucky, you know. The tree on the other hand." He sighed. "What happened?"

Ergh. Did I really have to go through this now? Couldn't I just blame the tree and be done with it? Apparently not, at least from Edward's questioning eyes.

"I was driving," I began, which caused him to quirk his brow sarcastically. "Obviously," I corrected. "It was raining – which I'm aware, it does a lot and I don't need the sarcasm. There was something – someone – on the road. I swerved to miss them and managed to wreck an indestructible truck."

"A feat only you could manage," he smiled, though it faded as he continued. "The police didn't mention anything about someone on the road."

"Well .." Could I lie? To those eyes? Not a chance in hell.

"I didn't mention it to them," I said, tearing my gaze away from his. It was a lot easier to think clearly when I wasn't looking at him.

"Because?"

"It was more of an animal," I explained, vaguely. "At the time, at least."

That seemed to work because he went quiet, and I risked looking back to him.

"Let me get this straight," Edward said, confusion and – if I wasn't mistaken, which I rarely was when it came to Edward – some anger. "You're in hospital; your truck is in a state of disrepair, because you swerved to avoid a werewolf?"

"Maybe," I said, thumping my head softly into my pillow and looking to the ceiling.

"Bella, that is the most .. honestly!"

And I was supposed to be the incoherent one?

"You really think your truck could have done much damage to one of them? Instead, you decided to risk your own life to save an animal."

Yeah, he was definitely angry, but so was I.

"It wasn't an animal! It could have been Jacob!" I argued.

"It's the same thing," he said, his tone somewhat bitter as I began to sit up. I wasn't in the mood to listen to his protests at how I needed to rest; instead I tugged my hand from his grasp and pushed myself up on the bed. It wasn't the best idea; my head was having its own personal party at the rest of my body's convenience.

"You can't talk about him like that, Edward," I said, though I knew that in another environment he wouldn't let such words fall from his lips. I had scared him, I knew that; I would have been the same if I'd seen his car 'wrapped around a tree' – even there would have been little to worry about with his healing techniques.

"Bella, I saw your truck and ..," he reached for my hand and I didn't protest. "I suppose I should have put more faith in the old girl, right?" and he forced a smile. At least he was trying to put the disagreement to the back of his mind.

"I'm alright - promise," I said, for what seemed to be for the hundredth time but I didn't let that show in my voice. He was here, I was still breathing and that was all that mattered. If I thought of it that way, and not the way that involved going to see my poor, shattered baby on the side of the road, I could just manage to think positively.

"Look," I said, and to prove my point I stretched my arms out either side of me, lifted my legs as far as the bed linen would allow and then touched my nose – it seemed like the right thing to do, seeing as all those cop dramas ask the drunks to do that. To the onlooker I looked a tad ridiculous; I probably looked ridiculous to Edward, but he just grinned and managed to catch me, again, as I began to fall a little further to the left than I had planned.

"I believe you," he said, though I knew he was only trying to appease me and probably save me the pain of falling out of the bed.

He was very close at the moment, though, so I didn't really care whether or not he thought I was fair; important things tended to disappear from my mind when I was this close to him. I was fine when I was with him, a fact that was well publicised after he came back. Of course, we still had our disagreements. We had still been bickering over what was going to happen at my graduation - whether or not he'd be willing to turn me, or whether Carlisle had to do it. There was also the topic which I had banned from any conversation, which started with an 'M' and ended with 'arriage'. It was a moot point between us, or at least that's how Edward would describe it – I would have said it was more like we were between a rock and a hard place, though he made that a bearable existence simply with his presence.

That stuff didn't really matter at the moment, because he was gently tracing his fingers down the side of my face. It really was an awkward position – half my body in the bed and the rest of it falling against his hard chest, but it didn't matter. I was comfortable like this; the coolness of his body was much appreciated. I was more concerned about whether my recent 'blood spill' had made it more difficult for him, but he seemed relatively controlled. His eyes were that light shade of amber from his most recent hunt, and I supposed the disinfectant in the wound masked that scent – I know I couldn't smell the blood anymore, even if he said that blood didn't have a scent to the regular human.

His fingers lingered on the side of my face, passed tentatively down the side of my cheek and traced my bottom lip lightly. At this point I was pretty useless; one arm remained jammed between my body and his, and the other was across my stomach. I didn't mind this extra bit of attention – who wouldn't? Instead I closed my eyes, for the briefest of moments, and then I felt his lips pressed lightly to mine; his hand pressed lightly to my neck, picking up the increased rate of my pulse. I could tell he was trying to be careful, more than usual, just in case I was keeping back some fatal injury from him. As I kissed him back, he seemed to realise that perhaps I was telling the truth, as he grinned into the kiss. Of course, there was the inevitable moment of me getting 'too' into the kiss; my formerly useless arm seemed to gather some life and wrapped itself around his neck. Edward, being the more self-controlled, pulled away, much to my dismay.

"Can't you behave yourself?" he chuckled softly.

"Really, what's the worse that could happen?" I joked, still slightly dazed.

"Hmm, let's think that through," he said, slightly sarcastic though in good humour.

"You lose it a bit and bite me - that's win-win," I grinned. "It wouldn't be planned, and I'd be all shiny and immortal." Even though I knew I was on thin ice when it came to joking about such things, I knew I could possibly get away with the comments from a hospital bed – you couldn't get angry at a supposed ill person.

I was right, of course. He simply rolled his eyes at me and decided to turn the conversation around; he was getting pretty good at doing that, though most of the time I could see what he was doing and decided to play along with it for the fun of it.

"You know, that's just reminded me of something," he said, a smug look of satisfaction on his face. "You don't have a car – one that's capable to run, that is."

"Are you trying to rub it in?" I said while quirking a brow.

"I now have the incentive to buy you a new car, and you can't really argue with it. You need a car, especially if you're off to college next year," he explained, though spoke quickly as if he saw my interruption about college entering the conversation. "A nice little car – a modern car, with a decent stereo and mileage. Now that's what you call 'win-win'."

I didn't want a new car; I wanted my truck, in one piece … all red and stable. There was no way I was cheating on my truck with a new model, not when I wasn't positive there wasn't anything that could be done to it. It was in a bit of a mess – a lot of a mess, actually – but surely something could be done to it? He seemed to read my mind, and if I knew most definitely that he couldn't, I would have accused him of such a thing.

"Bella, you can not drive that truck," Edward said, as if the answer was so obvious and I had missed it. "Your dad is sending it off for scraps from the sounds of it. Will you just let me buy you a car?"

"No!"

How could Charlie just send my car off, without my say so? The poor thing was going to be torn apart even more!

"I want my truck. It can't have been that bad, surely," I argued, but he didn't seem to pay all that much attention – I didn't expect him to, he could never understand my love for the thing when he changed his car whenever a new fancy came onto the market. This was about loyalty and friendship, and there was no way I was cashing in and having a Volvo! I wasn't going to be a stupid, shiny Volvo owner, thank you very much.

"There's nothing that can be done," Edward said, a little exasperated. "You know most people in their right mind would jump at the chance to have a new car?"

"Well, I'm either not like most people or not in my right mind," I answered.

"No, you're definitely not," he said, smiling softly. "On both accounts."