Hi, everyone. Happy new year!

I hope you're all have had splendid holidays. I wrote every time I found time to in my vacation. And I took my time 'cause I wanted to check every sentence to be sure the grammar is correct. So be prepared that some chapter may take longer than the other. :)

Now enjoy please! And once again tell me when you find discrepancies.

1. Home again!

I went through the doors of one of the biggest hotels in Las Vegas, named ‚Santa Barbara', and headed to the most sweetest female receptionist with black, short hair I'd ever seen.

"Hi. I'd like to see Edward Cullen."

"I'm so sorry, little one, but he's not in. You have to come back another time."

Internally I grumbled. That this woman had the guts to call me little was simply ridiculous. I didn't grow much in the recent years (5' 2'' at most) but I certainly wasn't much shorter than her. That what was awfully bothering me, was the fact that I still looked this young, and that it promptly motivated people to mothering me. On top of that, I had to take potluck with my bleached out jeans, the top that Edward bought me three years prior (ergo much too tight, now that I had bosom to fill it with), and wore a practical French braid, hanging down my back. I guess all these circumstances made them think I was some random student that wanted to sell bonbons. I mentally rolled my eyes.

Man! When I thought about that it was already three years since I last saw Edward… But in these years I was occupied with alternative (exchange) projects, and that's why I didn't come home. I had missed him like crazy.

"My Gosh! Look, what the cat dragged in. Is that really you? I can't believe it!" I spun around. And indeed…

"Jasper!"

He came to me and enfolded me gently with his arms. "Hey, Kitten. What are you doin' here? Edward didn't mention that you wanted to come? How could you actually come here? Did you simply break school?"

I rolled my eyes. "Edward doesn't know. And it was my own decision. I'm almost nineteen after all."

He looked at me baffled before he gave the thoughtful impression of recalculating. Then… "Oh my god! You're right! Eighteen years, unbelievable. So, you're here for a visit then? When do you have to go back?"

"I won't go back! At least, not to this school. It was fine for all those years but now I have enough!"

"Phew! I wouldn't like to be in your shoes, Kitten, when you tell him. But you absolutely have to tell me how it went afterwards. Most of all the look on his face."

I snickered. Oh yeah, I was curious to his reaction as well. Even if it wasn't a comforting curiosity. Edward was a little difficult when he didn't get his way or something wasn't how he envisaged it.

My father had died of heart attack a few weeks after Edward took me in, which made the guardianship a lot easier and faster than normally. But I'd had a guilty conscience and put part of the blame on me for Charles death. After all he still would be alive hadn't I moved out to be with Edward. The doctors said that he could have been saved if he were found just a few hours earlier. Edward had been angry as I'd told him and swept my bad conscience aside by saying that only his lifestyle could be blamed and that's why his heart stopped working. And after all he did to me, he didn't deserve any better. I found it a little hard but Edward was pretty sensitive to this topic.

He kept me a bit more than a year before he decided to send me away to a boarding school on the other side of the Atlantic, to Europe. First, I fought it tooth and nail since I didn't want to be so far apart from him. In the end Edward won out over me, as ever. He wanted for me to learn my 'first language' at all costs and had sent me unceremoniously to a beautiful academy in Orbetello, Italy.

"Is he here?"

"No, Kitten. He's on an exhibition in Santa Fe. But he'll be back tonight."

"Did she truly not believe me? Haven't you believed me?," the young receptionist asked towards me. She had pulled up her straight eyebrows and placed her fists akimbo.

I shrugged apologetically. "I'm really sorry, but too often people just fob me off with a pat on my head. Especially if it's about Edward."

She snickered. "Oh, nevermind."

"Can I introduce you to my fiancée? This is Alice Brandon soon to be Whitlock," Jasper sounded awfully proud.

Flabbergasted I stared at him. "Fi- what? Fiancée? Since when? When I saw you the last time, you had entirely other ideas of the future." Horrified I slapped my hand over my mouth and looked at Alice.

But Jasper just laughed. "Yes, Bella, my principles have changed pretty rapidly. I had no other choice, to be true. You know what they say about cavemen? They see a woman, whack her over the head with a bludgeon and pull her on her hair in the cave. Well, it was exactly like this… only vice versa. She came, saw and conquered." He laughed out loud when she jumped at him, grasped him tightly around his neck and demanded, "Take that back, pronto!"

I had to laugh at this sight. I was incredibly delighted for him.

"I go upstairs, Jasper. Is Emmett there?"

"Indeed, he is! And it'll wow him when he sees you. Let him cook you something nice!"

I swung my small traveling bag over my shoulder and run off. I was so looking forward to see him again. Edward had hired him for me back then. Quasi as chief cook and bottle washer, he definitions himself as the 'general drudge'. Well, first he should just play the bodyguard, but as soon as we figured out that he makes ambrosia instead of simple food, he moved right in. Then he turned into the nanny, taxi driver, cook and escort in one. I loved him dearly. He always treated me like his little sister… he wanted one for life, and now I was it. He was my big teddy bear.

I stormed in the apartment and chucked my bag to the floor. „Emmett!" I run through the vestibule. „Emmett!" Passing the dining room and… There I saw his head that peeped from the kitchen door.

I jerked to a halt.

"That can't be… honeypie?" I run to him as soon as he spread his arms and throw me into them. Tears, I couldn't hold back, were running down my cheeks. And my lip shivered!

"I missed you so much," I sobbed.

"So did I, honeypie." I didn't know why, but men kinda had the urge to give me names when they were with me longer than a few minutes. Something really small and/or cute. In Emmett's case something yummy.

I stepped back and scrutinized him. His hair had become even more shorter. If anything, then there were only 0.1 inches visibly on his head, at most.

"You changed," I said, my gaze still on his head.

"Much prettier, aren't I?"

I giggled. But he had a point. He was one of the raw but handsome kind. He was big, even slightly bigger than Edward. But I guessed he still would seem bigger even if it weren't the case, because of his stature. With the width he simply had more mass.

I snuggled into his chest. It was nice to be home again.

"So tell me, honeypie, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you still hit the books in a classroom for at least a few years?"

I groaned and pushed me away from him. "I am eighteen!," I said, maybe a little too expressive. And I got a feeling of déjà-vu as Emmett laid his head to one side and stared contemplatively into space.

"Gee, you're right!"

Irony was dropping from my mouth. "Am I? What a fluke. And I just wanted to make fun of you." I folded my arms and pouted.

"And how did you get here?"

"By the use of a donkey," I told him deadly serious, took a grape from the fruit bowl and put it in my mouth. "But as soon as I reached the sea," I continued talkative. "…it got tricky. To my luck, Flipper…"

"Bella," Emmett grumbled. "That is not funny. And you know what I mean."

I let my hands fall to the side and sighed. "Oh Emmett. I'm so tired from the journey. Can't we just let it go for now? And I'm sooo hungry…"

His face got immediately soft. I knew it!

"Damn, hon, excuse me. Sit down here!" He guided me to the dining room and pressed me down on a chair. He then disappeared into the kitchen. Not long and I heard him clatter with pots and dishware.

I stood up and followed him, then I sat down on a bar stool and watched him.

"Do you know when Edward is coming back?"

Startled, Emmett spun around and laid a hand over his heart. I had to laugh when I saw that he had put an apron on.

"That's cute. You look so housewifely. It seems that you and Edward complete one another just fine by now, eh?!"

Emmett growled. "How can you manage to be so quiet in spite of your clumsiness? Has to be your feather weight class. And those jeans are from Armani. They really don't have to be polished by tomato sauce." He turned back.

I snickered silently. And waited.

Futile! "And?"

"And what?" Emmett moved on with the cooking, unimpressed.

"Edward. Home. When?"

"It'd be better if I'm not speaking to you at all."

"Awww, biggie growler." Standing up I slowly walked around the counter to him. When I stood right before him I looked at him soothingly. "You know, I was just talking rubbish. The apron looks terrific on you! Now please tell me when Edward will be back, 'kay?"

"Someone really should spank you. That is quite long overdue."

I frowned. "Odd. That very same thing said Edward also a few times. And?"

"So there has to be something true about it… At about eight." He applied himself back to the food.

"Thanks. I take a quick shower before dinner," I said, kissed him briefly on the cheek and disappeared into my room.

~#~#~#~

It was exactly like I left it. Even the same plant stood in the same corner. The predominant color in the room was lilac. This shade I liked the most and it didn't change until now. Edward and I painted my room together. We picked the paint… well, okay, I picked the paint, then spend about a whole hour to convince him that it would look alright on a wall. -Bachelors, who're used to live alone, apparently have incredible difficulty to get involved with girly stuff.- After that we furnished all cooperatively. It was a real mess with lots of cursing on his part, and I had so much fun to annoy him every now and then. I never just couldn't leave it alone.

I smiled dreamily. Sometimes Edward really could be a sourpuss. But I loved him nonetheless. I shook my head. I had to get rid of this idea already. While the years passed and I went home during break, I more and more realized what Edwards woman-type was.

Long, slim but curvaceous, and blonde. And yes, an impressive bust size was highly welcome.

He never was very discreetly with his liaisons. And each one was hurtful for me and like a stab in my heart.

Aggrieved I posed before the mirror and looked me over. I squared my shoulders, sucked in my stomach, hold my breath, and stood sideways. I stuck out my breasts some more.

Uh-hu, so they were considerable. You should put a wide plank before my back though, so you can't see my hollow back. I exhaled with a gush.

Edward now was twenty-eight. He probably found me too young and inexperienced anyway. Busty or not, he always treated me like… no, he didn't act like a brother to me. For that he was just too distanced and stiff. It was more a guardian/ward-relationship. But then, that was the case.

I sighed and pulled the by now too tight top -that surely three years prior should have been a short white t-shirt- over my head and got out of my bleached out jeans. I didn't even want to envision Edward's reaction when he heard what I did with the rest of my clothes.

After I showered I once again had to pull on the same garments weather I liked it or not. But I truly couldn't bring myself to redress me in the old undies. So I went crimson red back to the kitchen.

"What's the matter?" Emmett asked as he got aware of my cheeks.

I only shook my head and looked somewhere on the floor. For sure I wouldn't tell him THAT.

"Mmmmh, is that Bolognese?"

"Yes. It's what I manage fairly fast and I know you like it." He put a plate before me.

"That's great. Thank you!" I ate away on it for a while, while Emmett cleaned the room. At some point my thoughts got me anew and I began halfheartedly picking at my spaghetti.

"Emmett?"

"Hmmm?"

"Do you think Edward likes me?"

"What you're talking about? Of course he likes you! What let you think otherwise?"

"But I don't mean this overprotective, patronizing kind of love. I don't mean the sense of responsibility he has for me, but…" I shrugged. "Could he possibly sometime lo…" I stopped before I finished the word and saved me with a simple: „like me?"

Puzzled Emmett looked at me, but then his facial expression said that it had made click.

"Ohhh, damn, Bella." He shook the head and leant onto the counter. Ashamed I turned my eyes down. After a minute he said sighing, "Follow me!"

I looked up as Emmett hold his hand out. I took it and jumped from the stool. He led me in Edward's private rooms and in his own small living room where the beautiful white grand piano stood. And that's exactly where Emmett took me to.

„Look at this!"

Quizzically I looked at him. He pointed with a finger to the sheets that were standing in the music lyre. I took the small and worn out booklet in my hand and leafed through it. New it had been writeable music-sheets. Now it was almost fully written with Edward's outrageous neat handwriting. It wasn't something new for me. Edward composed nearly solely. I loved to hear his pieces and in the past I always asked him to play some for me.

Still uncomprehending I looked up to Emmett. „What…?"

„Look at the title!"

I closed the book and turned it. On the front on the free position was written in beautiful writing 'Für Bella'.

"He had written all those songs as you didn't come home for the last three years. He likes you, believe me!" He hesitated. It looked like he wanted to add something, but then he looked away.

I smiled happily and stroked tenderly over the letters. I put the sheet-book back to its place but stared at it for another minute.

I turned around and said, "It is…" I paused. Where was Emmett?

"Emmett?" I called softly.

Outside I heard voices and draw closer to the living room door.

"…supposed to mean she's here?"

I beamed and run. "Edward," I cried and raced around a corner. At the second one I did not have so much luck and bounced off it. Luckily I managed to catch me so I didn't fall. Unfortunately I stumbled with my knee first against the commode and the vase that was standing on it fell to the ground and broke. I rubbed the maltreated spot and eyed all the shards in consternation. Hopefully it hadn't been an overly precious one.

"Bella?" I looked up and instantly didn't mind the pain anymore.

My lower lip quivered. "Edward?" Shyly I remained where I was and waited… yeah, for what? When it came to him I always was so unsure and self-conscious and didn't know what to say. Well, at least sometimes I didn't know what to say.

The corners of his mouth twitched. "What're you waiting for? Go ahead!"

I won't let him tell me this a second time and so I sprinted on into his warm hug.

Again the tears took a walk. Finally I saw him, smelled him, felt him again. I clung to his shirt, used it as a tissue. At least it looked like it when Edward grabbed my shoulders and shoved me softly away. He bent his knees slightly and stared me intensively in the face.

"Isabella. What are you doing here?" He emphasized every word.

„I'm eighteen," I pronounced, the last two astonished faces still in my mind.

He gaped at me confused. "I know this, Bella, but it doesn't answer my question." In the background I heard Emmett chuckling.

"Yeah well, I'm eighteen and I decided to not going back to the boarding school anymore. It's time to learn standing on my own feet."

"What a …" Edward broke off in mid-sentence as his eyes wandered down and got caught by my décolleté.

"What an ordinary shred is that?"

My cheeks promptly heated until they glowed as I grabbed the fabric and pulled it up. When the top then showed too much belly and Edward's disapproving glare shot there, I hastily pulled it down again. This went a few times back and forth until Edward clutched my wrists and hissed, "You make it even worse!"

"Tcha, honeypie is grown up, isn't she?"

Edward straightened up and snapped, "Mind your own business, Emmett!"

"Okay, okay. Man!" I heard how Emmett scuffled off and murmured something that sounded like '…should once learn to keep his temper…'.

"Why the hell are you wearing such… clothing? When you can call it that. And you're hopefully not traveled in it. How did you come here, by the way?" Judging by his tone, he simply assumed that I wouldn't dare to use this as travel clothing.

Oh dear. I swallowed.

"Uhm, well, I kind of sold my clothing to the other students to get together the money for the flight."

"WHAT?" I cringed as he raised the voice. „YOU DID WHAT?"

„The clothes were snapped up rater rapidly. Especially the phone. I even have some left-over, look?" (Okay, there wasn't enough for the taxi anymore, but…) I straightly wanted to rummage around my pocket when Edward once again grabbed my hands to ask the question I had hoped he was too distracted from the 'clothing-sold'-thing to notice.

I really should know better.

"And how got you to the airport? There is far and wide nothing near the school."

"Tramped," I mumbled almost noiselessly.

"What did you say? I couldn't hear you," Edward growled. Judging by his facial expression, he actually did.

Thus I had to speak a little louder and tell him again. You probably would call it screaming. "I TRAMPED!"

There it went!

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT. HOW COULD YOU COME UP WITH THIS BULLSHITTING IDEA? SHOULDN'T IT BE CLEAR WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED? DIDN'T I EXPLAIN TO YOU REPEATEDLY WHAT SHITHEADS ARE WALKING OUT THERE? WHO ARE JUST WAITING FOR THOSE OCCASIONS TO GET SUCH A DAMN YOUNG AND PRETTY THING INTO THEIR FUCKING HANDS? FUCK! YOU'RE SO DAMN NAIVE. YOU MAY UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES …" While Edward overused his vocal cords he walked to and fro before me like a tiger in cage, apparently trying to stomp a path into the floor. In the meantime I crossed my arms, made a grimace, and bowed my head, didn't dare to take my eyes from him in the process though.

But I didn't really listen to his tirade until I heard the words, "Isabella, you're immediately going back there!" That caught my intention.

"No!"

Edward stopped dead in his tracks looked at me unbelievingly.

Now I had to avert my eyes after all. But as soon as I became aware of it I squared my shoulders, raised my head, and repeated with a firm voice, "No!"

"Isabella, you know I'm right and will have my way anyway, so please let's abbreviate it," he said coldly.

"Not this time! Edward, I sponged off you for too long. I'm old enough now to stand on my own."

"Sponged off…? Let this not be over the damn money! You know that I have adequate to support you several lives. So don't talk of 'sponge off…'! And what exactly comprise your plan to 'stand on your own', how you call it so nicely?"

"Well, I thought for the beginning I could attend a writers-class, I've got somewhat talent, and in the meantime work as a secretary or waiter or something. Secretary would be best, so I could learn…" I trailed off.

Edward stared at me with a frown for a bit, then sighed and shook his head, "Bella, I believe we're both stressed out by the voyage… whereas mine wasn't nearly as dangerous as yours and…" He's about to getting all obsessed over it again, so I said reassuring, "You're so right. Maybe we should get some rest first. I assume you want to get rid of your clothes? And you should take a bath. You'll see, it makes you calm and eased." I took his hand and pulled him in the direction of his private rooms.

"You're yet again trying to sidetrack. But this discussion isn't over. I take a shower now and then get redressed. I have an appointment this evening. Tomorrow you'll going to accouter yourself completely new. Go into the mall here in the hotel and say my name. You'll get what you need. I'm at a congress till afternoon but in the evening we can dine out. I give you a call as soon as you can come down to the lobby. We've got plenty to speak about."

I felt a twinge to my heart when he used the word 'appointment'. One hundred percent there was a woman involved. I looked down to my hand to not letting my hurt show.

"Did you eat something? You're so thin. EMMETT? DID BELLA GET ANYTHING TO EAT?"

"I'm standing right before you! And yes, I did eat something." I looked up angry.

"But you didn't finish it, sweetie," came it in sing-song voice from the kitchen. My head spun around so I could stare daggers through the wall.

A sudden wish for an immature tantrum –that seemingly was expected of me- came up. (Well then, your wish is my command!) I yelled while I stomped away, "I'm no hungry anymore!" rushed to my room and slammed the door.

Then I walked slowly to my bed and wearily lowered on it. When I felt a tear rolling down my right cheek I wiped it furiously away with my arm.

Would I be a child to him forever? I loathed it! Why did I have to look like I looked? Maybe I should cut my hair and style it more trendy, like Alice.

I could appear older.

I looked down at my hair, took the braid in hand and untied it. No! Since the color wasn't something special I couldn't destroy what made them pretty.

I sighed. I had to go shopping tomorrow. Maybe I could buy some provocative drags that would make an impression on Edward. Maybe a dress and stilettoes? I shuddered. I dreaded to wear high heels. But it had the advantage of being larger. I simply had to walk very carefully. Besides I only had to withstand the walk to the restaurant. On the way I could (if need be) cling onto Edward until I sat safely on the table.
And then was the time for staying steadfast.

I put a picture for this chapter as the story image. I change it until when the next chapter-picture comes.