Hello! This is a brand new story so if you were looking for A New Light, it's been on hiatus, but I'm working on finishing it. I have a horrible habit of only writing when I'm bored or down and now I'm very good and can focus on some writing. I want this to be a brand new take on how I've been seeing Twilight, even though it does take place right after the beginning of New Moon and Edward has left. I want some input because the ending hasn't been drawn out yet, but the rest has. I'm excited to have it more interactive, so comments will be viewed all the time as I am writing the following chapters. The more input I get, the better the story may be to those who really read it.

If you have read A New Light, I am thankful for your continued love for it. The end will be up soon and I am so apologetic towards those who have been reading it. Right now, this story is flowing and I have several chapters already written and being edited. I can't wait for you guys to enjoy this summer with me.

Stephanie Meyers owns all things except this weird plot I've tried to create. Enjoy.

The Art of Healing. Chapter One. Promises.

I didn't know that time moved so slowly until I sat and watched it. In those happy moments, the ones that blind us from knowing that there is anything called time, there never seems to be enough of it to go around. I've assumed that life would always be a fight between those moments. There would always be the good that came with the bad, but now I know that there is something so much worse than that.

There's barely existing.

It's been three months and five days since breathing was easy. I wish I could go back, just for a moment, and remember what it was like to actually take a deep breath that wasn't painful. I am something I never thought I would be. It's in these moments, hands to my chest, voice crying out to wake my father in the dead of the night that I wish I were different. I wish I was sane. I wish I was the girl that everyone assumed I would be before him.

Edward left. It's a phrase I'm slowly working up saying. I don't know how to answer people when they ask why I can't move on like a normal breakup. I want to blame it all on the fact that he was so different than anything most humans would ever know. He was something otherworldly, yet temporarily mine. I let myself believe that he was mine. I should have known that I was his most temporary moment, one that he may forget now that the world is back into his hands. His only enemy was the sun. He could have anything else he ever wanted.

I made it the best way that I could. I functioned. I went to school and did the things that I had always done. I made dinner, cleaned up after the house, and even still did laundry on saturdays. In the back of my head, I knew that I would have to get a job soon so that I would have some purpose to get out of bed once high school came to an end, but I wasn't ready. Charlie didn't push too much, but I could see it in the way that he sometimes tapped his chin while watching me after he got home from work. He was trying to figure me out, or what he could do until I figured myself out. I was a mystery to the both of us. And I didn't know how to help.

Renee kept her distance, only really checking in on occasion. Growing up, her pining over men had become something that I was used to. Phil had been the only real concrete man in her life since my dad and I left when they really got rolling. She didn't know what to say when the faults that were appearing in me were not from Charlie like they used to be, but from her. Charlie knew this too but didn't have the heart to vocalize it. When the nights were too bad or things were getting rough, he would mutter about me coming to live with him sooner or more often. I can't say that would have changed anything. With two parents happily together, Edward leaving would have shot a hole clear through my chest. None of us had a thing to do with it.

Today was the last day of school before winter break. I knew that without the habit of homework after school that things would start being more strained in the house. Charlie would start looking at me funny as I tried to drown myself in blankets or books to keep from reality. I had always been consumed by books, but lately, I stayed on the same page for a week trying to have the willpower to just move the page over. I didn't want to read the ending of anything. Acknowledging that all events and stories end made it hard for me to concentrate. Everything led back to him even if I didn't mean for it to. I was becoming lost in my own mind.

As the final bell rang for school to be let out, I slowly made my way to the parking lot. It had snowed the entire week but today and the layers of snow made the world look like a white wonderland. Everyone was laughing or having a good time, but I just couldn't bring myself to join in. I was never all that good at jumping into things, but now I felt like my body was not even my own. The few friends that I had managed to have over the time that I had been there now faded away. They didn't want to be around someone like me and I didn't blame them. I didn't want to be around me.

I got to my truck and started it. As I felt the old rumble of the heaping piece of metal, I started out into the icy parking lot. I could remember the moment when the ice had gotten the best out of another car, coming towards me before I would even have time to react. And then he was there. Even after all the times that he told me that saving me was the best decision that he could have made, I couldn't help but wonder if he felt the same way now. Miles away, or even planets away for all I knew, but I couldn't imagine he would appear if a car came sliding towards me now. The thought triggered the very few thoughts that slipped into my head when the night got too dark or the dreams felt too real. I shook the thought away, trying to bring myself back to where I was.

A sudden knock on my window made me jump back into life. Looking out my driver's window was Charlie, standing there with the same worried face that I had seen so many times before. I glanced around, realizing that my moment remembering turned into a larger span of time as every car was gone but a few teachers and Charlie's. I sighed, rolling down my window.

"Alright, Bell. We really need to talk," He crossed his arms over his chest and raised his eyebrow at me.

I tried to respond but my throat was dry from lack of talking and I coughed over the few words I was about to say. He nodded and pointed to his car, "Follow me home."

I did, watching his eyes flash back and forth to make sure I was behind him the whole time. As much as I understood the concern, I had never run away before except the one time with him to get myself to safety. Even then I had told him I was leaving, though in a horrible way. The memory made me wince and I felt the weight of everything that I had done to him. I really was a terrible daughter.

The one thing about Charlie and I was that we were never the best at conversation. We both stuttered around the basic points that would cause tension and ended up making a situation last way longer than needed. When we got home, I began working on dinner and he sat at the table to watch me. He then stood up and began pacing. I could almost hear the wheels of his brain turning, about to say whatever it was that he wanted to say. I could guess what they were. I wasn't stupid.

"Bella, I think that we should consider you moving back home with your mother," He blurted out, causing me to drop the pasta noodles onto the floor, "Oh, damn Bells, I'm sorry."

I turned to face him, ignoring the mess on the ground, "You want me to move to Florida?"

"Well, no," He rubbed his forehead, groaning, "Bells, you know I don't want you to go back. I love having you here but this behavior. I mean, you stared into space for more than an hour after school ended. You didn't notice anyone trying to catch your attention until I went and banged on the door. I'm just concerned for you. This isn't healthy."

"Dad, I'm working on it. I'm going to be fine," I turned back to grab a towel and a back to pick up the garbage pasta, "But I'm not moving back to Florida. Renee wouldn't have a clue what to do for me."

"Bells, you are hardly the girl that I knew a few months ago. Now, I've been patient but I need to see something of improvement here,"

"It's only been three months,"

"And you're eighteen! You should be living and doing things that are exciting. You'll be graduating in a few months and I haven't heard you talk about college at all since he left,"

"My plans have changed,"

"You're going to college,"

I turned around and yelled, "I just need time. I don't know what I'm doing, Charlie. I wish I wasn't like this but this is what's happening. So, I am sorry that what I am doing is worrying you, but I'm just as lost in my own body as you are with me in the house. There is a lot of things that I don't know how to do and this is one of them. I just need time."

He watched me for a moment before slowly taking a seat at the table. He looked older and I felt the blame. I must have aged him in all of my troubles, "Bells, that's the most emotion other than sadness that I've seen out of you in three months."

I stayed silent, unsure of what to say.

"Bella, I'll let you stay. But it'll be a compromise that I am not willing to argue about," Charlie's face had never looked so serious.

"What is it?"

"For starters," He cleared his throat and leaned back, "I want you to see a therapist. I know that there is a stigma with that sort of stuff but I think you really need to get some of this out. You can't keep screaming in that pillow or staring into space. I need to see you start living again. And secondly, I need you to start being alive with your friends. Call up Angie or whatever her name is and invite her over. Or go see Jacob. I just need to see you doing something. We'll work in school and college as we get closer to the big graduation day but I am calling to set up your appointment Monday. This needs to get moving."

I didn't want to see a therapist. I didn't want to have to try to talk about it. What was I even going to say about the man that was a vampire? They would assume that I was like any other teenage girl who thought that she had been in love with someone special. They wouldn't understand and I didn't know how to tell anyone what I was feeling. I was hardy honest with myself about what I was feeling.

However, I was not going to move to Florida. Even though I hated myself for thinking it, I knew that Edward would not be able to come easily to Florida. He may never come back and he wouldn't, but if there was the smallest chance that his family would come for a visit; I wasn't leaving. So, I looked Charlie in the eyes and nodded.

"Okay," He turned and walked towards the living room.

I gently sat down on the edge of one of the chairs, unsure where to put my thoughts or how to articulate them. What was I going to say to anyone? The thought made my skin nearly crawl but I had to hold onto something from completely losing my mind. If this made Charlie okay with me staying, then I would do it. It meant that I had to act the part, to do what I could to make people believe that I was improving even if I never truly thought I would. I would do what they told me and I would just continue until Charlie felt satisfied with what I was doing. Maybe Renee would even become comfortable. I didn't know what else to do. I felt lost.

At first, I thought that Charlie would forget about his compromise after the school semester took its break and I was home to do more things. The holidays meant that he would be busier, outworking the regular shifts plus additional ones. However, he must have pulled something because he was around more than usual. He watched me like a hawk, even when I was just reading. His eyes would follow me around, seeming to make sure I didn't vanish before my next step. I tried to ignore it, but I knew my time would be running low if I didn't try to make a movement towards being okay.

As the following week came, Charlie had a sticky note on the fridge when he went to work. I would have an appointment the next Thursday at noon. I had to stay for an hour and then the therapist would see how often they wanted me in. The thought of going regularly made me feel like a case study, but it made everyone happy. Keeping my eyes shut, I grabbed the sticky note and moved to grab another book to read to blend the hours. I decided to use the sticky note as a bookmark, but then I realized another one was attached to the back. Flipping it over, there was another one that had a reminder on it as well, "Do something with someone today. Please."

I fought back a groan. Who could I even hang out with anymore? There were certain bridges that just couldn't be repaired over the phone and would take too much energy to try and fix. Grabbing the phone that had hardly been touched over the last three months, I shifted through the contacts that I still had. I ignored the names of the people that made the hole in my chest feel like it was slicing open. Closing my eyes, I couldn't help but wince at their names still there. I took a chance and hit call on the first one that was not one of "their" names.

The phone rang before a deeper voice than I was expecting answered, "Hello?"

"Hello?" I questioned, looking back to see if I had really dialed "Jacob".

"Bella? Is that you?" He sounded surprised but instantly excited. I wasn't used to responding to such emotion for a while. Not since Alice, who was always attached to live wire.

"Yeah, it is. Hey, Jake," I leaned back, trying to remember how to actually communicate. It had been a while.

"Hey! How have you been? I haven't heard from you for a while," He sounded like he dropped something, swearing in the background which brought a small smile to my face. At least I was not the only clumsy one in a ten-mile radius.

"I've been...yeah, school and stuff. You know. But how are you? What have you been up to?" I began to pick nervously at my nail. It had been so long since I casually walking into a conversation with anyone.

"School's a drag but it's that winter bug. Can't wait for summer or at least spring. But hey, at least it's winter break and stuff so that's been sweet. Been thinking of working on some motorbikes once the good weather comes. What are you up to?" Thank goodness he was talking more than I seemed to be able to.

"I'm just hanging. Reading some stuff. I was wondering if you were doing anything today? Just wanted to have a friendly person sit next to you and read while you are doing whatever it is that you are doing?" I heard him chuckle on the other end and i felt myself redden from how stupid I started to sound.

"Actually, it is probably time to take a good look at the truck again. Why don't you bring it over and you can read while I check everything over? I promise, the garage is heated," He made it sound easy so I stood up, tucking the book under my arm.

"I'll be there soon," And so, I began to keep my promise. One step at a time.