Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and the Twilight Saga belong to Stephenie Meyer.

A/N: I am from Australia, so please be understanding if I use spelling variations or words/descriptions/phrases that may not be familiar to North American readers. I am using the US dictionary and spell check but sometimes I might slip up.

Chapter 2 – Dinner Time Conversation

I was in the Cullen's massive state-of-the-art kitchen cooking dinner when Esme came home with Alice and Rosalie in tow. She flashed me a genuine smile and kissed my forehead as she passed me on her way to the freezer emerging ten seconds later with a bottle of vodka and a bag of frozen lime wedges.

She mixed herself a drink, adding soda from the bottle on the counter, kicked off her shoes and collapsed onto one of the breakfast bar stools with a sigh of relief. She slurped an enormous mouthful of her drink before she even said hello.

"What a day."

"Busy?" I asked her.

"And then some! My client is a harridan who has no taste whatsoever. She vetoed all of my design suggestions and insisted on papering her sun room in acid green striped wall paper because the color matched the feathers of her pet parrot, Peter."

"Um, why not fire her … as a client I mean?" I asked shyly and bit my lip.

"What a good idea, I might just do that, Bella," Esme said with a big smile and a salute of her glass. Esme sighed and said, "Unfortunately, she's very rich and very big in Port Angeles, in more ways that one if you get my drift."

Alice Cullen glided into the kitchen, followed by Rosalie Hale, another Cullen foster child and Emmett's girlfriend.

"Yes she is," agreed Alice in her sing-song voice. "She's the matriarch of Port Angeles society and you don't get accepted into the upper echelons of that town no matter how much money you might have, unless you get the nod of approval from her. She also weighs about 300 pounds which she squeezes into a girdle that is three sizes too small. The rolls of fat on that woman make the Good-Year blimp look small," she finished with a shudder.

"Alice, that's unkind," reproofed Esme, but shuddered in agreement.

I grinned at Alice. Rosalie snickered.

Both girls had spent the day shopping and getting their hair done, while Esme played nice-nice with her fat-cat client. Alice was wearing a different outfit to the one she left in this morning, so I assumed she was wearing whatever she'd bought. I'd seen Alice in no less that twenty-seven different outfits, counting sleepwear since I'd met her three days ago. I wondered if her closet was bigger than her bedroom because I was pretty certain that Alice had enough clothes to change morning, noon and night and not do any laundry for a year.

Rosalie's hair looked a million dollars. It was a long, straight, perfectly golden shimmer of silk hanging down her back to her waist. I almost hated her. She caught me staring at her and glared back at me before striding like a super-model to the fridge for a coke.

"You want one?" she asked Alice showing her the red can.

"Yeah."

"Rosalie, perhaps Bella might like one as well," Esme reproved. Esme was a stickler for manners.

Rosalie's mouth tightened, but she looked at me expectantly waiting for me to answer a question she hadn't asked and had no intentions of doing so.

"Ahem!" Unless she was forced to by Esme, that is.

I interjected, before Rosalie had a reason to hate me more than she already did.

"That's okay, Rosalie, thanks, but I don't really like coke. I'm more of an orange juice fan."

Rosalie reached into the fridge and pulled out the bottle of orange juice and got me a glass. She threw Esme an 'are you happy now' expression and plopped down onto the last vacant breakfast bar stool. The other one was occupied by Alice who was madly texting on her iPhone. It kept pinging every twenty seconds or so with a new message.

I stirred the gravy I was making and asked quietly, "Who's she texting?"

"Jasper," snickered Rose.

"But he's in the basement playing some X-Box game with Emmett."

"Alice has been banned from the basement during X-Box tournaments because she distracts Jasper and she chatters incessantly," explained Esme with a smile, "but, my Alice, she found a loop-hole."

I cocked a brow at Esme in query.

"Jasper never said she couldn't text him when they were playing X-Box."

"Does Jasper ever win, if he's always replying to Alice?"

"Nope," confirmed Rosalie, "which is why, I suspect Emmett doesn't discourage her. My Emmett is very competitive and he likes to win ... in any way that he can."

We all laughed when joyful whoops sounded up from the basement. Emmett had clearly won. I could hear Jasper mumbling under his breath as he stomped up the basement stairs to the kitchen. He glared at Alice for about three seconds, but his eyes softened when she danced over to him and kissed him right there in the middle of the kitchen in front of her Mom.

Esme just smiled and shook her head.

"What are you doing, Bella?"

"I thought I'd make dinner for us all. I know that you were away all day and there was a joint of beef in the fridge so … um … I hope that's okay?" I bit my lip, I was afraid that I may have overstepped my mark. This was Esme's home and Esme's kitchen and she might not want me intruding this way. I bent my head, allowing my hair to fall forward and bit my lip while I stirred the gravy. It was nearly ready.

Esme leaned across the kitchen island, lifted my chin gently with her soft warm hand and smiled at me. "It's more than okay, Bella. This is your home now for as long as you want it and need it. You can cook if you want to. I just don't want you to feel as though you have to."

"Oh no, not at all. I love cooking. I used to cook for Charlie and then my Mom and Phil all the time. Dad couldn't make anything more than eggs on toast and burnt steak and Renee could only make spaghetti sauce. If I didn't cook, I didn't eat," I explained with a grin.

"Well as long as it's something you want to do, then that's okay. What are we having, anyway?"

"Hmm, Standing rib roast beef, popovers (Yorkshire puddings), roast potatoes and butternut squash (butternut pumpkin) and baby peas sauteed with pearl onions. I … um … also made an apple and blackberry pie for dessert. I used the apples you had in the fridge – they were going a little soft. I hope, that's okay?"

"That's fine, Bella and it smells delicious. I'm glad you found a use for the apples. I bought them hoping my ungrateful children would eat something healthy for a change, but I don't know why I bothered. If their food doesn't arrive frozen from a box to the microwave, they think it's poison."

"Nah, Esme, it's not that," said Rosalie, "you just can't cook and neither can we."

"Very funny," said Esme with a smile and a gentle tap to Rosalie's nose.

"Why is Edward whimpering in the laundry?" chirped Alice from Jasper's arms. They'd come up for air from their welcome home kiss.

"He's … um … trying to remove old gum from his leather jacket," I whispered so he wouldn't hear. "I don't think it's going well."

"Ah," said Esme as she went to the freezer for the makings of another drink.

"Did he go ballistic?" snickered Rosalie as she turned on her stool to wrap her arms around Emmett who'd entered the kitchen with his nose in the air, sniffing out the smell of cooking food.

"I thought I might have had to call 911 because he almost hyperventilated," I shared. Everyone laughed.

"FUCK. YOU. ALL!" yelled Edward from the laundry, before appearing in the doorway between the adjoining rooms. He blinked when he saw Esme. "Not you, Mom," he retracted hurriedly."

"Thank you, Dear and don't swear," she reproved as she backed away from the freezer with the vodka bottle, a chilled glass and a piece of frozen lime caught between her teeth. She blinked at Edward and her mouth fell open in utter astonishment.

"Good Lord, Edward. What on earth are you wearing?" she asked him.

Edward was dressed in one of Esme's pinafore aprons decorated with dark red cherries, pink rubber gloves up to his elbows and a floral plastic shower cap over his head. He held the offending leather jacket in one hand and a handful of gray and brown tinged ice-cubes in the other. His dark blue boxer shorts peeked out from under the hem of the apron but otherwise he was naked.

I bit my lip and tried not to laugh. The rest of the Cullen's weren't so kind.

"FUCK. YOU. ALL!" snarled Edward, "Again, not you Mother," his voiced softened as he stomped over to the sink to fling in the ice cubes and strip off the gloves.

I'd seen him earlier of course. He'd stopped briefly to glare at me as he flung his jacket on the island counter and opened the fridge/freezer for ice-cubes and soda water. He didn't say a word to me; he just lifted his chin and strode into the laundry leaving me with a birds-eye view of his shapely rear end and powerful thighs covered in soft bronze hair. The muscles in his back and shoulders rippled as he moved. He wasn't as built as Emmett, but there was nothing wrong and absolutely everything right with that boys body. Yum!

Edward hit the foot pedal on the bin and shoved the leather jacket on top of the vegetable peelings before letting the lid close with a thump. Apparently, Edward had no intentions of wearing the offending jacket again. What a waste! It must be nice to have so much money that you can throw away a thousand dollar piece of clothing because of a little gum and a water stain. Before any one could say anything else to him, he turned on his heel and stalked from the room.

Carlisle entered the kitchen a few seconds later and laid his briefcase on the kitchen table. He kissed Esme who was still standing in shock with the bottle of vodka clutched in her hand.

"Why is Edward dressed like an insane washer woman who escaped from the asylum?"

The entire room erupted into raucous peels of laughter again.

"FUCK. YOU. ALL!" screamed Edward from the third floor landing. "Again, not you, Mother," he clarified, before his bedroom door closed with a deafening slam.

"I think I'll go upstairs and have a bubble bath," declared Esme as she poured herself the second drink. "What time's dinner?"

"About seven."

"I'll be here," she said as she left the room with her drink in one hand and her shoes swinging from the other.

Carlisle cocked a questioning brow to anyone in the room who cared to explain.

I bit my lip and stuttered out, "Um … g..gum on his ja … jacket. My houses fa … fault. I...it wo ...won't come out."

"Why are you stuttering, sweetheart? It's not your fault."

"Jus …. just nerves, I gue … guess, Carlisle. Ed …. Edward was pre … pretty pissed off!"

"Don't worry about it, Bella. You'll get used to Edward's ways soon enough. He's … complex."

"Yeah, right," hissed Rosalie, "we all have to tip-toe around Edward because he has issues," she said signing quote marks around the word 'issues' as she said it.

"Rosalie," cautioned Carlisle. "You've all had your own issues to overcome. Edward's are just a little more difficult for him to resolve."

"Yeah, sorry," she said shamefaced.

Carlisle poured himself a scotch and water from the wet bar in the corner and said he was joining his wife.

"Eww, Dad. TMI," said Emmett, rubbing at his ears as though they hurt.

Carlisle grinned cheekily and left the room. The rest of the kids sauntered into the den to watch television and left me to myself to finish cooking dinner which was more than okay with me. I felt a bit tired and my shoulder ached. I could also feel the beginnings of a headache forming behind my left eye, an unfortunate reminder of my most recent and thus far, most serious head injury.

I turned off the heat under the gravy that was more than ready and checked the roasting beef and vegetables. The popover batter was resting on the counter by the stove and I would pour them into molds and bake them in the oven when I removed the beef to rest. The pie I'd made was keeping warm in the warming oven.

It was while I was wiping down the kitchen counter that I noticed the jacket sticking out of the kitchen bin. I walked over and looked down at it for a long minute, chewing on my lip in indecision.

I finally pulled it out, folded it up and placed it in the laundry to take care of later. I decided to set the dining room table and then rest for an hour when I felt my feet slide out from under me. My left knee twisted sending lightening rods of pain shooting up my leg and into my spine. I banged against the corner of the island and I think I might have passed out from the intense pain for a few seconds. When I came to, my left leg was bent beneath me and I was flat on my back in a small puddle of mushy water. There was a defrosted piece of squished lime under my hand.

FUCK. MY. LIFE!

My knee was throbbing and I panted shallowly through the pain until I felt able to scoot back on my hands and roll to my right side using a drawer handle and the counter top to pull myself up. It never once occurred to me to call out for help. I stood on one leg and held on to the counter top waiting for the pain to subside enough for me to get some ice for my knee.

When I felt stable enough to hobble to the freezer, I pulled it open and removed the first frozen item in a bag that I could find – a packet of peas. It was the only green frozen vegetable in the kitchen and there were another six packets on the shelf. I wondered bizarrely whether Esme had gotten them on sale or whether the Cullen's only ate peas?

After hobbling to the kitchen table, I eased myself onto a chair and covered my knee with the bag of frozen peas. I felt instant relief as the coldness seeped into the heat of my swelling joint. After about twenty minutes, Alice came into the kitchen for another drink to find me resting at the table with my head on folded arms and the bag of peas on my leg.

"Bella," she asked quietly and touched my shoulder. I startled and lifted my head from my folded arms. "Are you okay?"

"Um, yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well you're really pale and you've got a packet of peas on your knee. Is it bothering you?"

"Oh, yeah. Um, I must have used it too much today. It's a bit achy but it'll be fine once I've rested it." I really didn't want Esme to know that I slipped on the piece of lime she dropped when she saw Edward in his manic dry-cleaning attire.

Alice stared at me skeptically.

"Really, Alice, it's fine. The doctors and my physical therapist told me, I'd have residual pain for awhile until my leg healed completely. I'm used to it, really," I tried to reassure her.

"Well okay, Bella. If you say so, but you should stay off your feet for the rest of the night."

"I will."

"Alice, do you think you could set the dining room table for me?"

"Sure, Bella. Let me just take some cold drinks into the boys first. Rose has gone upstairs to have a shower."

Alice skipped over to the fridge to get two cokes. She paused for a few seconds gazing at the floor. Her dark spiky hair disappear briefly as she bent down and then I heard the bin lid open and close. Shit, had she seen the squished lime quarter?

"I'll be back in just a minute," she trilled as she ran lightly from the room.

Alice came back after a couple of minutes, and I wondered what had kept her so long. I hoped she hadn't said anything about my knee. Alice reached into cupboards and drawers for plates, glasses and silverware and placed them all on the island bench. She leaned against it, seemingly lost in thought.

"You know, Bella, you really should tell Carlisle about your knee. I know that you slipped on the lime wedge and hurt it somehow, and I won't say anything to Esme, but it might be really damaged. You probably should have it X-Rayed and get an anti-inflammatory drug of some sort."

"It'll be fine, Alice. I just need to rest it and keep it iced for a while. Could you hand me another packet of frozen peas, this one's thawed?"

Alice brought me the peas and sat down at the table. She took one of my cold hands in her warm ones and stroked the back of it gently. She took a deep breath as though to fortify herself and said, "Bella, if you don't tell Carlisle yourself … then I will."

Treacherous bitch! I pulled my hand from hers and curled it against my waist.

"I told you its fine, Alice," I hissed in exasperation.

"It's not fine and you know it. You're really really pale, you keep gulping like you're trying not to vomit and you've broken out in a cold sweat."

I swiped my hand across my forehead to remove the perspiration and felt some stray drops seep into the corners of my eyes. The salt made my eyes sting and I started to sob quietly, both in reaction to the sting of sweat and delayed reaction to the pain.

"Alice, I don't want to be a bother and I don't want Esme to blame herself either. It was an accident and I wasn't looking where I was going. You should know, that injuries are not a new phenomena for me. My middle name is Klutz, not Marie."

Alice giggled and wiped at my face with a clean facial tissue she pulled from her jeans pocket.

"Nevertheless, telling Carlisle is the right thing to do and the sensible thing to do. He is a doctor you know. He treats these types of injuries all of the time especially during football and baseball season. He's the team doctor, so he's at all of the home games. I can't tell you the number of knee, ankle, elbow and shoulder injuries my Dad's treated during the five years we've lived in Forks and that's not including the people who come to the hospital with non-sporting injuries."

I sniffed and took the second facial tissue offered to me by Alice to wipe my eyes. My shoulders slumped and I gave in.

"Alright, Alice. I'll tell him, but after dinner, okay. I don't want dinner to be spoiled."

Alice nodded hesitantly in agreement.

"Can you pass me Edward's jacket; I left it in the laundry. I'll also need some ice and a plastic bag, a clean white rag, some detergent diluted with a little water and some leather cleaner. Can you get me those things?"

"Sure I can. You rest right here and I'll be right back."

Alice came back with the requested cleaning supplies and Edward's jacket then went to set the dining room table. I pressed the bagged ice against the gum Edward had spread rather than remove, so that I could freeze it and then pick most of it off with my fingernails. Once I'd removed all but the most stubborn adhesion's, I collected them up by rubbing the picked-off lump of gum over the leather like removing Blu-Tak from a wall.

Alice flitted back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room while I inspected the rest of the jacket for more of the dreaded gum. She came back into the kitchen as I was rubbing the gum residue with some diluted detergent and a soft white rag. I finished it off with some leather cleaner and hey presto, it was as good as new and the water marks were barely noticeable.

"Is there a coat hanger in the laundry, Alice?"

"I'll check," she said leaving her station behind the kitchen island. She came back quickly with a padded hanger in her hand.

"Here," she said holding out her hand for the jacket, "let me."

I handed her the jacket and while she went to hang the jacket in the laundry, I tried to stand up to check on the roast. My knee gave out and I groaned.

"What are you doing?" screeched, Alice.

"I need to move around, otherwise it will get stiff; and I need to check on dinner."

"Oh no you don't! You sit right there and you can tell me what I need to do to finish dinner. Are we clear?" she humphed at me.

"Yes," I whimpered. Alice could be scary for being such a small little thing.

I was kind of relieved actually that Alice insisted I remained where I was. I really didn't feel well at all and my head was pounding. I probably should take something for it and the pain in my knee but I was afraid to because I didn't know what other drugs Carlisle might want to give to me later on. I rubbed at my temples as Alice cleared away the cleaning supplies I'd used and then positioned herself in the kitchen behind the island.

"Okay, I'm ready," she declared with a deep breath.

I chuckled as Alice presented herself covered with another one of Esme's pinafore aprons and two enormous oven gloves protecting her hands. Alice proved herself most proficient in taking instructions and managed to remove the beef and vegetables from the oven without burning herself, and slide in the popovers after pouring a third of the batter all over the floor. Once the floor was cleaned, the gravy poured, the peas scooped into a bowl and the beef and vegetables placed on two large platters, the popovers were ready to come out of the oven.

"Just lift them out with the edge of a spoon or a butter knife, Alice and place them on the platter by the beef. Will you help me into the dining room before everyone else comes in for dinner?"

"Sure, Bella. How's the knee?" she asked as she helped me to my feet and lifted my arm over her shoulder to shuffle me into the dining room.

"Hmm, it's pretty sore, actually. I'm kinda glad you're making me tell your Dad."

She smirked. Bitch! She was more like Edward than I first realized. Another Cullen that liked to be proven right.

Alice helped me to my seat and went back into the kitchen for the food. Once it was on the table, she poked her head out of the dining room into the cavernous foyer and yelled, "Dinners ready. Come and get it!"

Thunderous pounding could be heard coming down the limestone tiled hallway from the den, as both Emmett and Jasper raced to get to the dining room first. Rosalie swanned in looking like a movie star and Carlisle and Esme joined us a minute later, holding hands and wearing smiles from ear to ear. Someone or two had gotten lucky. They were sweet in their affection for each other and I hoped that my marriage would one day be as great as theirs appeared to be. Everyone took their seats and started to serve themselves, when Esme commented on Edward's absence.

"Has anyone seen, Edward?"

"Not since earlier," mumbled Emmett as he piled food onto his plate in between shoveling steaming roast potatoes into his mouth. He didn't even look up to address his mother.

"Emmett! Put the platter down and some of that food back. There are seven other people eating at this table and our newest family member should be served first, particularly as she cooked it." Esme smiled at me and then returned to glaring at her eldest son.

Emmett looked at his mother with a wretched expression on his face and tried to stare his mother down.

Esme won.

Emmett put the platter down with a plonk and scraped half the food on his plate onto Edward's beside him. He snickered. He was such a guy!

I had witnessed enough of Edward's OCD tendencies today, to know that it would drive him nuts if he knew that the food on his plate had been on Emmett's plate first.

Esme growled. Emmett wiped the smirk of his face and placed his hands in his lap.

Esme looked down the table to address Carlisle who was carving the beef. "Carlisle, darling, will you please go upstairs and get Edward? He will be eating dinner with us this evening whether he likes it or not!"

Carlisle glanced at Esme and nodded, then scowled at the disappearance of Esme's happy face. He looked around the table at his children; his gaze narrowing and zeroing in on Emmett who cringed and shrank back into his seat if that was even possible.

"What? I didn't do anything."

Carlisle's mouth tightened but he pushed himself up from the table and went to get Edward from his room on the third floor, flicking the back of his hand at Emmett's head as he strode past him.

"You may all serve yourselves while we wait for your father and Edward. Bella, please take a portion before everyone else. Emmett you may not take anymore of the food until every single family member has been served. Am I clear?"

"Yes, Ma," he said sulkily. Rosalie smirked at him.

I took a small portion of food, because as appetizing as it looked and smelled, I was now afraid that I wouldn't be able to keep any of it down. I felt nauseated from the headache and the pain in my knee and I had broken out in another cold sweat. I surreptitiously wiped my brow with my sleeve and prayed that none of them noticed. I figured, I'd pass it off as being hot from cooking dinner if anyone said anything.

Carlisle came back with a scowling Edward after about five minutes and he flung himself into the seat opposite me and to the right of Esme. He stared at the food on his plate but he didn't say a word; he simply glared at Emmett accusingly. I'm sure he could feel me sneaking peeks at him but he refused to look at me. I, however, could feel Alice's bright blue eyes boring into me as though she knew I wasn't going to make it all the way through dinner before collapsing.

She opened her mouth to address Carlisle, when I interrupted her.

"Let's eat everyone, before the food gets cold."

"Yeah!" said Emmett as he reached over and forked a huge piece of rib beef still attached to the bone from the joint his father was carving. Esme groaned in embarrassment and closed her eyes. I smiled at Emmett; he was like a little kid who had never eaten a meal before. He doused his entire plate in gravy and didn't speak for the next ten minutes other than to moan appreciatively.

The rest of the family dug in as well and it was the quietest dinner conversation I'd every witnessed. I felt kinda proud that it was my cooking that had done it. I gave myself a metaphorical pat on the back and a high-five.

'I was a shit-hot cook!'

Even Edward ate heartily, apparently choosing not to dwell on how food came to be on his plate which he'd not served himself. Not one syllable was uttered until every morsel was eaten. Emmett wiped out the gravy boat with his popover and then he belched, to Esme's utter horror and disgust.

"Bella, that was the best meal I've ever eaten … no offense, Mom. Can you cook every night?" he asked hopefully.

"No she can't," said Esme, "not unless your table manners improve. I can't believe your behavior at my table tonight. I've a good mind to send you to bed like a naughty little boy, without dessert!"

"There's dessert?" he asked eagerly.

"Um, yeah. Apple and blackberry pie with ice-cream," I informed Emmett. Edward looked up sharply and stared at me. I knew it was his favorite because it was written on the recipe card I'd found when was looking for something inspirational to make. It was an olive branch of sorts. I hoped that he accepted it. His mouth curved up in a small smile. It seemed that he would.

Alice stood up from the table and began clearing plates and serving bowls. I made a move to stand up but she told me to stay where I was; that Rosalie would help her. The girls finished clearing and came back with a tub of vanilla ice-cream and the warm pie which Esme cut into eight equal pieces. I picked at mine and offered the majority of it to Edward who had almost inhaled his own portion. Surprisingly, he accepted it with a tentative smile, much to Emmett's dismay.

"That was truly excellent, Bella," complimented Carlisle. "I don't know when I've eaten a finer home cooked meal. I'm sorry, Darling," he cooed at Esme.

"It's okay, Carlisle. I know I'm not the best cook around, but I do try. I wouldn't mind if Bella wants to cook again," she invited with a smile on her lovely face. "Emmett, Edward, Jasper, you three boys can clean the kitchen and stack the dishwasher. The girls have done their share. Off you go and take these dessert bowls with you."

"Bella, don't you have something to confess to Carlisle?" Alice ratted me out.

Bitch! Edward paused at the door to the kitchen.

Carlisle gave me his full attention. "What is it, Bella?"

"Um … Ah, well you see …" Oh hell! I decided to come clean in full sweep and get it over with. "I kinda slipped earlier this evening and I fell over and hurt my knee. I also have a really bad headache but I didn't want to take anything for it because Alice made me promise to tell you after dinner … about my knee I mean, and I didn't know what you might give me so I didn't take anything and I don't feel very well." I got it all out in one long breath. I thought I might pass out from lack of oxygen.

Esme looked horrified that I had sat all through dinner without saying anything, but Carlisle stood up, already in doctor mode and asked Edward who was still loitering by the door to carry me into his office. Edward dropped the bowls he carried onto the table and came around to pull out my chair and scoop me up. My leg hurt with the movement, but his arms were really strong and I felt warm and safe in his embrace. He smelled really good as well and I sniffed at this neck. I couldn't help myself. Edward smiled and held me a little closer.

"Put her on the bed, Edward."

Carlisle pulled over a rolling stool to sit on and began to cut my jeans leg away. I thought about objecting because I didn't have that many clothes, but I thought better of it when I looked at Edward's furious face. I didn't understand why he was so angry.

"When exactly did you injure yourself, Bella?" asked Carlisle who was was pressing gently around my swollen red knee. I flinched and bit my lip to stop myself from crying out.

"I'm sorry, Bella. I know it hurts."

"It's okay," I said wiping a tear from my face. "I fell over not long after you went upstairs."

Carlisle looked up at me, his mouth tight. "That was over three hours ago."

"Yes," I agreed, biting my lip.

"Alice knew," hissed Edward.

I panicked. "Um, yeah, she figured it out eventually, but I made her promise not to say anything until after dinner and she agreed as long as I told Carlisle as soon as we'd finished eating."

Edward's jaw clenched and I could see the muscles spasm beside his mouth.

"I don't think you've done any permanent damage, Bella. I think you've just twisted it. But I'll want to X-Ray it tomorrow to make sure. For now, I want you to take two Ibuprofen Plus and another two in six hours or when you wake up, whichever is first. They contain a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug as well as codeine. It will help minimize the swelling and relieve some of the pain. Edward, can you get one of the cold-packs out of the freezer, please?"

Edward went to do Carlisle's bidding and came back as his father finished wrapping my knee in an Ace bandage.

"How's your headache?"

"Still there."

"Do you want something else for it?"

"Will the Ibuprofen Plus work?"

"It might. Where's the pain centered?"

"Behind my left eye."

"Any vision distortion, nausea, dizziness?"

"A little nausea but no dizziness and my vision is okay."

"Alright, it sounds more like a bad headache than a migraine, so the Ibuprofen Plus will probably work. I'll have Esme bring you some peppermint tea for the nausea; she swears by it. I'll also check on you during the night. If you need anything before that, you call out to Edward. He's a light sleeper."

"Okay. Thank you, Doctor Cullen."

"Hey, none of that. It's Carlisle. Edward you can take her upstairs, but take the elevator; it will be easier on her leg."

"Okay. Night Dad."

"Goodnight, Son, Bella."