Creatures of Habit

Chapter 2


"You realize that now that you're married you don't actually have to do all this stuff for him right?" Alice asked.

I had just finished organizing Edward's notes in the office upstairs. Alice was following me down the stairwell and back into our bedroom. There were two large baskets of folded laundry on the bed.

"Like this," she said, flopping on the bed with enough force that the baskets shook. I leap forward to keep it from toppling over. "Why are you doing this? You don't work for him anymore. You're his wife!"

I turned my back to her and began placing socks in the drawers. "I don't mind."

"He can do it himself."

I had no idea why she was picking this fight today of all days. I hadn't seen her in months. She and Jasper arrived the before dusk and he and Edward immediately left again. Edward was hoping his brother could find something he had missed. We had missed.

"I know he can Alice, and he does, but right now things are really tense and I'm doing everything I can to make it a little easier on him. These abductions and murders consuming him."

I disappeared into the dressing room and hung the rest of his clothing. Nothing had changed about this room, other than the location and some updated pieces sent by Alice. I straightened his ties and adjusted his shoes the way he liked them before going back to the other room.

Alice was still propped on the bed, studying me as I stacked the baskets. "What?" I asked, getting annoyed by her attitude.

"Nothing." She lied. Alice swung her short legs over the edge of the bed and hopped off. I watched as she picked up the baskets and followed her this time downstairs, to the main floor. She deposited them in the laundry room off the kitchen.

I was walking into the kitchen when she started yelling. "I just feel like you should be doing something with your life! You have every opportunity in the world, yet you still live it as though you're human!"

"I have a job, Alice. I help Edward. With everything. We're partners. We hunt and track together. We research together, collecting data and other information. This is our job. Both of ours." I clenched my teeth as I said this. I knew she meant well, but sometimes she needed to keep her nose to herself. "What about you? What do you do that's so important?"

She sat at the small wooden kitchen table. It, like many other pieces of furniture in the house, had been pulled from storage and restored when we moved back into his family home. This table hadn't seen a speck of food in a hundred years. "I do a lot of things. I go to school, or travel in my current area of interest. Right now its architecture. I start classes in the fall."

"You help Jasper though, around your house, right?"

Alice snorted and giggled wildly. "Not a chance. We keep away from each others things. We always have our own rooms. So does everyone else. Only you and Edward live so...humanly."

She said the word as though it was unpleasant on her tongue. I never thought it was bad to try to live like humans. I thought this was what the Cullen's reached for.

"I mean, why do you have a kitchen table?" she asked, her tone challenging.

"Because it's a kitchen. And his mother's." She rolled her eyes. "You know Alice, I see what you are saying but at the same time we spend a great deal of time in the human world. We try to fit in and Edward has always wanted to make me comfortable."

We both heard the back door open and the sounds of Edward and Jasper's voices as they entered the house. Alice lowered her voice so that it was hard for even me to hear. "I just think that after six years of following Edward around and living in his house, with his things, working at his job you may want to consider what you want to do for a change."

The men swept in the room, and Edward ducked down to graze my neck with his lips and he whispered, "I missed you." When I turned to see his face though, his eyes were firmly locked with Alice's having read her thoughts. I didn't want them to fight about this. Not about me.

Standing I slipped my arm around his waist and motioned everyone into the living room, eager to hear what they had found. I pretended the conversation never happened. That my interest wasn't piqued. Instead I lead the family to our immaculate living room, surrounded by artwork and books and continued on as usual.

Xxx

When the sun was high in the sky, and Alice and Jasper left for the day, Edward and I retreated to our bed. When we moved in we redesigned the back wall of our room with large windows near the ceiling. These homes were built close together—row like—so we did not have the privacy for a full wall of windows like Edward's room in Forks. But I wanted light, and he wanted to please me so now, as we laid in bed, tangled in one another, I watched the light reflect off my shoulder and onto his chest.

"I'll never get used to this," I said, looking at the prisms of light scatter over his smooth, white skin.

He ran his hand down my arm. "Used to what?"

"Your skin. My skin." I pressed my lips to his bicep. "You."

He laughed. "You spoil me."

I recoiled a little at his words, feeling the sting from my conversation with Alice. Barely, but enough for him to notice. Edward propped on his elbow and tugged me closer. "What?"

"Nothing."

He narrowed his eyes until they were sharp slits of gold. "Please don't let Alice bother you."

He knew. Of course he knew. Even if my mind was off limits her's was not.

I pressed my fingers between his eyes, pushing the skin flat. "I'm not. I love working with you."

"But..."

"There's no but. I love working with you."

Edward reached around me and pulled me tight to his body. His muscles were hard and tight like my own. Sleek and smooth. "Tell me...if you weren't here with me, where would you be right now? Where would you have wanted to be?"

I shook my head, "There's no where else I would want to be."

He took a deep breath, the kind he took when he was frustrated.A flash of guilt ran across his face. I wasn't trying to be but this was my life, there was nothing else. Why look back?

"I don't know if I told you but when I was seventeen I wanted to be a soldier. I compulsively thought about joining the army. I had one more year until I could join legally. I considered sneaking in, they were desperate for fighters at the time, but it would have hurt my mother for me to leave her like that."

I thought about Edward dressed in an army uniform, fighting for our country. It wasn't hard to imagine. He was still a fighter and protector.

"It's okay if you have dreams of your own. I've lived my life. A dozens of lives. I will follow you anywhere."

Sometimes Edward was so perfect that it was suffocating. I knew he would follow me anywhere and I would follow him. We were bound. There was no doubt in that. What if I had no where to lead him?

I lifted my head, "I have no idea what I want beyond what we already have and right now, we have a job to do."

"I know." He kissed me. "But think about it. Think about what you want and we'll do it. Once we catch this bastard we'll reassess."

I nodded and buried my face in his chest, cursing Alice and trying to push the nagging feelings of doubt away.

Xxx

"Alice have you seen anything?" I asked the next day. Jasper had hacked into the police files and they were looking. Always looking.

"Nothing specific. I don't know who the killer is or who their victims are so its harder for me to get an idea. Occasionally I will see Edward later, at the crime scene, but nothing helpful."

"He's so worried." I told her.

"I know." She says flipping through a five inch thick book on architecture. I refused to acknowledge the book. I knew she was trying to lure me back into our prior conversation.

"He keeps thinking about last time. With me."

She nods, "He does, even though its not the same."

"To him a failure is a failure. What James did to me, and to you, was a personal failure. He won't allow it to happen again. You know how he is."

"Stubborn? Self-involved? Entitled?" She shoots me a quick smile to let me know she's teasing.

"I heard him earlier too, on the phone with Jacob Black."

This makes Alice put down her book. "The alpha wolf?"

"Something bad is happening in Forks. I know he called Carlisle too." Edward's voice had been low when they spoke, but I heard the words through the plaster walls. Missing and dead.

Alice shut her book with a loud bang. "Well I'm useless there. You know I can't see anything with those mutts in my way."

I made a face. "Those mutts tried to save my life."

"I know," Alice sighed. "Which means Edward is indebted to them forever."

Crap. I hadn't thought of that.

"Come on," she said, pulling my arm. "Let's go find out what's happening."

We started up the stairs, side by side until Alice stopped. "I'm glad you're thinking about what I said yesterday."

"Alice," I sighed, the warning clear in my tone.

She lifted both hands and waved them between us. "Hear me out," she begged. "Before yesterday your future was pretty clear. Today it got a little murky and a variety of options opened up."

Alice's eyes flashed with excitement and I wont deny a flutter of energy rippled through my stomach. I had options. "What did you see?"

She smirked of course and shook her head. "Sorry. I can't tell you."

"What? That's not fair!"

"I don't even know the answer to that Bella. You haven't made any decisions. All i can say is things shifted. Everything is less set. I think that's a good thing."

"I guess."

She linked her arm though mine, "I won't tell Edward that you're thinking about this as long as you promise to keep an open mind."

I nudged us up the stairs, "Please don't and I will. I'll keep my mind open. But first we have a job to do."

Alice's eyes glazed over and she drifted for a moment before snapping back. "Yes, it really looks like we do."


thanks to my awesome betas: Revrag & Vanessarae.

Sorry for not updating again last week. Internet issues.

I know these chapters are shortish...its the format i decided to use-I will update again this week! PROMISE!

Thanks for reading and all the kind words…