Author's Note: Well, this is just rolling along in my head now, quite nicely. EPBs are back on board. I've had my infusion of chocolate and coffee. And so I give you the start of the next Book. Enjoy!
Nothing in her recent days made Bella as happy as walking in her own front door.
"Really, Dad, do you think Carlisle would dare release me from the hospital if I wasn't okay?" She raised an eyebrow at her father, who was doing his best to hover without seeming to, and he lifted his hands up in surrender.
"I know. Give me a break – there's been too much weird stuff lately." He trailed off, turning around to hang up his hat.
"Don't I know it," she murmured under her breath. ~If he only knew...he'd never let me out of the house again, probably.~
"What?" he asked distractedly, placing his gun belt on the hook with his hat.
"Nothing," she said. "I'm gonna head upstairs and take a shower. I smell like hospital. Again." His chuckle accompanied her up the stairs and into her bedroom, where she grabbed her robe and towels and headed into the bathroom. The hot water felt like heaven, and though it wasn't as decadent as the accommodations at Chateau Cullen, it was perfect. Her soap – a gift from Esme, something sinfully decadent, obviously imported, outrageously yummy-scented, and probably costing more than she could spend in a month – was like a balm, a soothing caress, washing away the smell of antiseptic and the feel of surgical tape. For a long while she simply stood under the spray, enjoying the percussive rhythm of the water as it rinsed over her. She refused to think of anything but how good it felt. All of the crap in the outside world would still be there when she was done – it was not allowed to intrude on her right now. Still, though she finished her washing and shaving fairly quickly, she didn't bother to turn off the water until it had gone cold, choosing instead to enjoy the chilly droplets as they traced paths on her skin. Eventually, though, she had to get out and face everything that was awaiting her. Tonight, that was Charlie, and his offhanded remark earlier about 'maybe you should stay closer to home for a while, just until things calm down a bit.'
She'd wrapped her hair in a towel and bundled up in her fluffy robe – another gift – and stepped out in the hallway, intending to go straight to her room to get dressed, but voices from downstairs stopped her. Without even thinking about it, she started down the steps, sure she couldn't be hearing what she thought she was, only to have herself proven wrong as she walked into the main room and found Caralla sitting in her father's reading chair, looking completely at home with herself, while Charlie sat – a bemused expression on his face – a few feet away on the couch.
"Bella – you look so much more alive, my dear," the stunning vampire said, relief in her voice.
"Caralla – what brings you here?" She couldn't think of a single reason for the Ancient One to be in her livingroom, chatting with her father and...wait, was she drinking a beer? Sure enough, Caralla drained the last few swallows in the bottle before standing up to greet Bella with a hug. Out of the corner of her eye, Bella saw her father watching, looking slightly dazzled and very confused.
"I came to make sure you were okay – I didn't have much of a chance to catch up with you while you were in the hospital. That blasted obnoxious physician of yours set such strict visiting hours."
"Doctor Cullen is an amazing doctor," Charlie spoke up from behind them, offering with a gesture to throw away the vampiress' empty bottle, earning him a smile and a soft 'thank you'. "We're lucky to have him around." Caralla laughed gently at the obvious rebuke, and Bella chuckled as well.
"It's okay, Dad. Caralla is an...old friend of Carlisle's," Bella explained, hoping he didn't catch her pause.
"Really?" he asked, coming back into the room to stand by the wall, obviously trying to mask his cop's questioning nature with a nonchalant attitude. Bella struggled not to roll her eyes. Caralla apparently took pity on him, answering easily.
"Actually, Esme and I go back farther – we met in London when she was visiting friends, and I was going to school. We hit it off immediately, became the best of friends, and when she got married I was her maid of honor. In fact, it was at my soiree that she and Carlisle met...he was the friend of a guest, and they just clicked. I couldn't have been happier for them. I've known them for years...such a wonderful couple."
"London? You don't have a British accent. I can't place your accent, actually," he said, not quite at ease but obviously wanting to believe her. Bella knew somehow without a doubt that when her father checked up on Caralla's story – as he was certain to do, because that's just how her father worked – it would verify perfectly.
"I guess I have an accent from everywhere. I love to travel, and I go wherever the wind takes me. Recently it's been Greece – I have a cousin that has a villa there, and I've been staying with her for a few months."
"So how do you know my Bella?" The gloves were off, Bella could sense, and though she had no doubt about the woman's ability to spin a story, this part needed to come from her...mostly so she could be sure of the details she was agreeing to.
"Caralla and her cousin were in Long Beach when I went with the Cullens. We met them at this cute little restaurant and we all spent the day shopping." She rolled her eyes blatantly. "Which was a nightmare."
"Oh, come on, honey, it wasn't that bad, was it?" Bella turned her eyes to the gorgeous woman beside her, snorting with exasperation.
"Between you and Alice...I don't know how I get dragged to these things. I should have hung out with the guys and gone to the movies, but no, 'girl's day out' was what I got roped into." She turned to her father, seeing that he was trusting her story. "You've heard my tales of Alice and her shopping sprees? Imagine two of her." His wince and head shake was all she needed to release a breath she didn't know she was holding.
"Anyway, I came in to town to have Esme look over the designs for a wonderful little cottage I've bought in Montana. I'm trying to talk her into visiting me for a couple weeks and helping me decorate it, since I have the color sense of a blind squirrel." Bella laughed, knowing nothing could be further from the truth, but it made a good reason for her to be here.
"Yeah, I don't think you'll have many problems convincing her. Getting her to let you have any say at all might be a little more difficult." The two laughed together, and Bella saw the last of Charlie's tension drain away as he realized that this amazingly jaw-dropping woman truly did care about his daughter and about the Cullens.
"Would you like another beer?" he asked, and Bella was going to make an excuse for her, but once more the immortal surprised her.
"I'd love one, actually. Esme doesn't like to allow alcohol in the house except on special occasions, and that's usually just champagne. Sometimes though, nothing hits the spot like a nice cold beer." Agreeing with a nod, he disappeared into the kitchen again, shouting over his shoulder that she should make herself at home. Bella just stared, causing Caralla to chuckle.
"Go get dressed, honey. Remember, I'm supposedly here to catch up with you." A gentle push had Bella heading up the stairs before she even really realized she was going, and she was in her bedroom before she wondered if that had been her unconscious doing or Caralla's influence. Still, she jumped into a comfy pair of sweats and a baggy t-shirt, slipped on some thick socks, and wandered back downstairs, grabbing a glass of milk from the kitchen before heading in to plop down on the couch. This time, her father was in his chair, so she was sitting right beside Caralla, who wasted no time in leaning over and scrutinizing Bella's still-purple forehead.
"Very colorful, my dear," she said wryly. "But hasn't anyone told you that it's better to get out of the path of large objects flying at your skull?" From his chair, Charlie snorted.
"Bella is a little...accident-prone," he muttered, taking a drink.
"So I've heard," Caralla drawled, swallowing a swig of her own beer. Bella bristled playfully at the apparent commiseration between the two adults.
"I'm sitting right here, y'know," she muttered, causing them both to laugh.
"Seriously, though, Bella, I've heard there's been a lot of things happening lately. How are you doing, really?" Charlie apparently forgotten for the moment, Caralla turned her attention fully towards the girl beside her, who shrugged, keeping up appearances.
"It's been crazy, really. I spent a lot of time with Edward and the rest of them this summer, and then before I knew it school had started again. This explosion...it scared everyone."
"I can imagine. Alice mentioned a new girl in school – said she's really nice but kind of shy."
"Yeah, her name is Lili. She's pretty, but quiet. Then again, Jess kind of dragged her to eat with all of us and, well..." Caralla chuckled, understanding.
"I can imagine how that went, with Alice chattering a mile a minute and Edward and Jasper being...well, themselves, all quiet and mysterious," she said with a smile.
"It's not so bad. The guys have lightened up a lot now that they don't have to be the balance for Emmett's exuberance. In fact, last week they staged a mock sporkfight in the cafeteria. It was quite entertaining."
"A sporkfight?" Charlie chimed in. Bella nodded.
"We were talking about chivalry or honor or something – I forget what now – and the next thing any of us knew, those two clowns were fencing, one with a spork and one with a pencil. They had the whole cafeteria in stitches. And then they just sat back down and started talking again like nothing had happened." Bella shook her head, Charlie and Caralla both chuckling.
"That had to be something to see, what with Jasper having taken all those fencing classes when he was younger." Bella looked over at their guest, eyes wide. "Oh, they never told you that?"
"No, not really," Bella said, catching the little twinkle in Caralla's eye and understanding her plan, that she was fabricating a past for the family that would make it that much more obvious to Charlie that she really was who she said she was. ~She's good,~ Bella thought as Caralla explained.
"They'd adopted Edward and Alice first, when they were very young, not much more than toddlers, really. Emmett was next, and then Rosie and Jasper, but those two were a little older, with Rosie being about ten or so. I guess they'd come from some really bad circumstances – I never brought it up. At any rate, Rosie seemed determined that no one would see her as a girlie-girl – went out of her way to play with the boys and took an immediate liking to tinkering with cars. Jasper, on the other hand, was so painfully shy and introverted, he wouldn't talk to anyone except Rosie, Carlisle, and Esme. In an effort to get him acclimatized to people, they offered to enroll him in an extracurricular activity of his choice, within reason. He chose fencing...as far as I know he didn't have a reason, but it was his choice. He was good, too – damn near made regional champion. But then he broke his wrist, and never really got back into it. I remember watching him, though, practicing with his foil in their backyard – such a serious look on suck a little boy. I often thought it was a true shame he dropped it, but by that time they were moving again, and...well, such is life." Bella, so caught up in the story, forgot for a moment that it was fabricated.
"How did he break his wrist?" Caralla laughed out loud.
"He and Emmett and Rosie were climbing a tree, pretending to be wild animals after the Fearless Archaeologist Alice, and he slipped and fell. It wasn't a bad break, and Carlisle set it then and there, but he still backed out of the competition." A yawn from the chair caught Bella's attention, and she looked over at Charlie.
"Dad, you're beat. Why don't you get some sleep? I can show Caralla out when she's ready to leave."
"Are you sure?" he asked, stifling another yawn. Bella stood up and took the empty bottle from him, pulling him to his feet with her other hand.
"Go. You've been working too hard lately. You need some rest." A gentle push had him heading for the stairs. He stopped and looked at Caralla.
"I apologize for this -" She stopped him with a wave of her hand.
"It's perfectly fine. Carlisle mentions how diligent you are at your job – you should do as your daughter says and get some sleep. It's been very nice talking with you tonight." Bella heard the hint of a purr entering Caralla's voice and discreetly elbowed the woman in the side. Charlie blinked a couple of times, that tiny burst of Caralla's power enough to throw the tired man for a spin, but Bella walked up and gave him a hug.
"Get to bed, Dad. You've got to be at the station early tomorrow, remember?" He yawned again and nodded.
"It's been very nice to meet you, Caralla...you know, I never did get your last name?"
"Vasiliou," she murmured.
"Pretty. Unusual, though." Bella could tell he was half asleep already – he was never this talkative around women.
"An old name, from an old family," Caralla responded. "Sleep well." He nodded and climbed the stairs, leaving the two females standing below. Bella waited for the telltale click of his door, and knew he'd be asleep in seconds.
"Do you want to sit back down?" she asked. Caralla smiled and wrapped one arm around her shoulders.
"Let's sit outside. It's a beautiful night. And I'd rather not bring up these subjects inside your home. You need a place to escape to sometimes." Bella nodded, not really understanding, but following anyway. They each grabbed a kitchen chair and wandered out to sit under the overhand, silently watching the rain fall for a few moments. Bella suddenly giggled.
"Something funny?" her companion murmured. Bella shook her head and replied.
"Just thinking that as bad as that beer tasted going down, it's going to taste even worse coming back up." Caralla just grinned.
"Now, why would it do that? I didn't drink it just to waste it." Bella stopped laughing, gobsmacked.
"But...Edward and...they said you guys can't actually ingest food and drink..?" The enigmatic beauty beside her kept smiling.
"They can't. But then, I'm not exactly like most of our kind." Bella just stared, and Caralla sighed. "I think it's about time I tell you more about myself, yourself, the Cullens, the Celestials, everything – but regardless of how alert you think you are, you're going to be getting tired in a few minutes and you need to be fully functioning mentally when I start my explanations. Now, since Charlie will likely be more protective of you for a while, might I suggest coming straight home after school? Bring Edward, or your other friends, if you want company, but if he sees you taking his caution to heart for the next few days he'll be more likely to permit you to stay the weekend at the Cullen's house. Saturday, you and I will sit down and have our chat, and then Sunday you can invite Angela and Jessica and Jacob over, and we will all talk." Bella listened to all this with a slight dazed agreement that she knew was nothing of the vampire's doing, but rather her own exhaustion. Without another word, Caralla pulled her to her feet and helped to take the chairs inside. But when Bella made as though to walk her to the door, Caralla stopped her with a gentle touch on her arm. Puzzled, Bella looked at the immortal, who simply raised an eyebrow, her smile comforting.
"I've heard you're accustomed to a cold pillow these days. I thought I'd stay with you until Edward gets here in a few hours."
"I...okay," Bella said, deciding not to argue. As odd as it seemed to have the vampiress offer - kind of like having a goddess offer to wash your laundry, she thought with a disjointed chuckle - truth be told she really didn't know if she could get any rest if she fell asleep alone. A few moments later and the two of them were laying in her bed, one sleeping like the dead and the other watching over her, guarding her sleep from the things that most definitely were capable of going bump in the night.