So Charlie doesn't want Bella staying home alone for a week so he takes her along for his meeting thingy and gets her her own room. The problem is that she doesn't seem to be at complete ease. this is set after New Moon.

"Be careful," Edward said for about the thousandth time as I packed.

"I will be," I muttered.

Charlie had some sort of meeting that he had to go to in Montana and he would have to stay there for five days. He didn't want to leave me alone in the house with nothing to do and so he had decided that he would keep me in a hotel room with nothing to do instead.

"I know, but you always seem to get into trouble even in the safest situations," he said, knowing it was perfectly true. He grinned, but something serious was in his eyes. "I just hope that you can try not to break anything while you're with Charlie."

I rolled my eyes at him. I was trying to hide the fact that I desperately wanted to be with him. I finally get him back and Charlie drags me off so that I can't do just that. I felt my heart wrench at the thought of the five days away from him.

"Bella?" Edward had his arms around me, pulling me back down to reality.

"Yes?" I asked, trying to act like what had just gone through my mind and what must have played across my face had never been there. It didn't work. My voice broke almost inaudibly. Almost.

His arms tightened. "It won't be long."

"I know, but I don't want to loose you again," I whispered into his shirtfront.

And then somehow, his lips were over mine. Comforting and frantic to reassure me, completely unrestricted.

My heart beat against my ribcage until I was almost sure it was going to pop out. Edward pulled back from the kiss, smiling slightly. "Bella. I swear you will come back to find me here. There is absolutely no chance of my leaving. Only if you ask me to."

"That's not going to happen," I reminded him. "I need you with me. I love you."

He kissed the tip of my nose. "I won't leave. I love you, too, Bella. Don't ever forget that."

I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him as tightly as I could manage. "I won't."

He relaxed a little and set me onto the bed. "Are you finished packing?"

"Yes."

"And Charlie does have all of your class work."

"I think that's all."

He nodded. "I think it's time for you to sleep, Bella. You're going to be on the road all day tomorrow with the way Charlie drives."

I put my suitcase on the floor and turned off the light before crawling into bed. Edward lay down and wrapped me in his cold arms before I fell asleep.

"Bella!"

I awoke with a start and practically fell out of bed. "I'm up!"

"Get ready, Bells," Charlie called. "We need to leave soon. It's almost eleven."

Edward had caught me before I could fall and so I stood carefully, avoiding the suitcase that lay on the floor. He slipped out the window and I dressed quickly.

"I'm finished," I said.

His golden eyes were adjacent to my chocolate ones in an instant. "I'll miss you," he murmured.

"It's mutual," I whispered back.

He kissed me and held me to himself for a moment before pulling away. "Charlie is getting anxious. You should probably go."

I smiled. "I'll see you soon."

He grinned back his crooked grin and slipped out the window again.

I hurried down the stairs with my suitcase and Charlie sighed. "Morning, Bella."

"Morning, Dad," I said.

He took my suitcase and took it to his cruiser.

We left right away and Edward was right. It did take almost all day to get to the hotel.

I still couldn't quite see why it wasn't in Washington, but oh, well. I guess it doesn't really matter. It was for all of the police chiefs in Washington and clearly it was set up by someone who wanted to get out of Washington for a while.

When I saw the hotel, I felt my jaw drop. It was old-fashioned and painted a creamy off-white. It had four stories. The ground level had a pianist, a ritzy bar, a restaurant, and of course a lounging area. We walked across the black marble floor to the reception desk.

Charlie took care of checking us in and thanked the woman before going back to the cruiser.

A bell hop carried our things for us and led us to our rooms.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Bella," Charlie said before slipping into his room.

"Right this way, ma'am," the bell boy said. When we stopped in front of the room he opened the door and handed me a key before setting my things inside. "Enjoy your stay."

"Thanks," I said and shut the door behind him. I moved my things to the closet and put them up before exploring further.

The room wasn't like the commercial hotels you see. It was large with a kitchen, bathroom complete with a Jacuzzi style bathtub, and one extraordinarily large bed. The entire room had the theme of black and white stripes. It had a high ceiling and the radio had a CD player built in. I was glad I had my CDs. I took them and put one in at random. I turned on some of the lights and kicked off my shoes. I grabbed my things for bed and headed to the bathroom, leaving the door open slightly so that the music could drift in.

I forwent the Jacuzzi and went over to the glass walled shower and stripped down to my skin. I stepped into the shower and turned the water on as hot as I could without feeling like I would burn myself and picked up the soap. It was flowery smelling and definitely not commercial for hotels. I started to sing parts of the song, Talk Dirty to Me. I relaxed in the spray of water and closed my eyes, turning my face up to the showerhead.

The hairs on the back of my neck rose up and I looked over my shoulder at the door. Nothing was wrong.

I missed Edward was all. I groaned. Like I needed to remind myself that.

I got out of the shower, dried, and dressed, then made my way to bed. It was already dark out and Charlie and I had both already eaten before we made it to the hotel, so I switched off the lights and fell to sleep with a little difficulty.

When I woke up, I realized that Charlie had been knocking on my door and hurried over. I checked the peep hole just in case, but it was him.

I opened the door and he smiled. "I just wanted to let you know I won't be out today until 5. They're serving lunch. You can order room service if you like."

"Thanks, Dad," I said sleepily. "I'll see you later."

"Oh, and I brought your work," he handed me the books and sheets of paper with instructions. "There's a pool, if you feel like going swimming later."

"Thanks," I said again.

He nodded and checked his watch. "I need to go. I'll see you soon."

I closed the door behind him and rubbed my eyes before checking the clock. It was eight in the morning. No use in going back to bed, really. I set the heavy books on a desk table and then got dressed.

I ended up calling down for breakfast and then working on my homework all morning. I finished before lunch. I decided to go downstairs and visit the souvenir shop. I suddenly wished I had brought some of my books from home. I picked up a couple of the paperback romance novels they had and paid for them, only to return to my room again. I set them aside and turned on the television, flipping channels until I reached the food network.

When Charlie came by to check on me after his meeting I was immensely happy.

"So, do you have any idea where you want to eat?" he asked.

"Anywhere is fine with me," I said, happy to be talking to someone. It kept my mind off of Edward, still in Forks and attending school without me.

"Okay," he said.

We went to a diner down the street and ate hamburgers and French fries and talked about nothing. When I returned to my room I went straight for the shower, not even bothering with lights or clothes.

I shed everything and stepped into the hot stream of water, relaxing again. It had been a long day of nothingness.

I wished Edward were here with me to keep me company during the boring days that I knew would come.

The prickly feeling at the back of my neck came again as I dried off and I wrapped it around myself, not having clothes with me at the moment. I walked out of the bathroom and heard a small noise. I looked around the room, stopping where it was slightly darker in a corner down low. The shadows were lighter above it and nothing was there to cause the shadow. It was already dark outside and so I had to wait a second as my eyes adjusted to the dark. I wished I hadn't turned off the bathroom light. I might have seen what it was that bothered me.

Then the shadow moved ever so slightly.

I felt my heart jump and then steady. I glared at whoever was there. "I'm not afraid of you, whoever you are."

The figure stood and went out the window at a jump.

"No!" I called, running to the window to look out.

Nothing was there. No sickening thud of a body hitting the ground or anything. I must have imagined the whole thing. I hoped.

I closed the window and got into the bed, turning on the light. I picked up one of the romance novels and began to read. At least it was a mystery.

The guy was thinking about corny things like strange ways to describe the color of the woman's eyes and things that had nothing to do with the case. It was kind of stupid how fast they fell for each other, but it hadn't taken long for me and Edward to fall for each other. On a much more PG13 level, anyway. I tried to skip the sex parts, but they were too tied into the story. I ended up laughing at the situation when the book ended. I had been hooked into the story. I had felt everything they had and all of that. It was one thirty by the time I was finished with it.

I was ready to read the next book, but I was also too tired for it.

I missed Edward a lot. I couldn't help but think maybe he had gone while I was away. The thought caused me to cry myself to sleep that night.

My dreams were surprisingly not nightmares. Only Edward and me in our meadow.

When I woke up I realized that it was already twelve thirty. Charlie must have had lunch at his meeting again.

I ordered up a sandwich and then picked up the other book.

This one had a prince and an American woman. I couldn't put this one down just like I hadn't been able to put down the other one.

Great. An addiction. You leave one at home and end up buying a new one.

I wished I could see Edward. I was feeling torn, not being able to see him.

I ate with Charlie around six and returned to the room at about eight because we went to look for new fishing supplies for Charlie. I walked into the bathroom and began my shower, having set my things in there before leaving.

Chills went down my spine.

What was going on with me?

I dried and dressed in record time without making any noise and walked into the darkened room. I looked around, finding a shadow beside the large cabinet that held the television. I pretended to ignore it and walked over to the window, shutting it. I turned, walking over like I was going back to the bathroom…

And lunged for the person I knew was hiding from me.