A/N - Again I would like to thank everyone for reading and adding this story to their alerts/favs. Much appreciated.

I'm having a great time writting this story and I am actually already quite a few chapters ahead of this one. It's taking all my willpower to not post them all!

One note I would like to make before you read this chapter - MIKE IS JUST A FRIEND! I had let a friend read this chapter first and she freaked out thinking I was setting up a Mike/Bella love story. I assure you this is not the case.

Feedback is appreciated (hint hint)

stressedasalways

Previously in Chapter 2 - A New Day

"Let's hit the road!" I said with excitement as I got in the back seat.

I smiled as we passed the Forks city limits. For two days I had the chance to leave the memories and paranoia all behind.

"Are we there yet?" I whined

"No" Mike said firmly

"How about now?" I asked again

"Nope"

"Now?" I asked with a smile.

Mike just shook his head.

I was extremely tempted to ask again, but I knew Mike was starting to get a little frustrated. There had been some sort of accident on the highway. By time we got to where it was, it had cleared, but it added a lot more time to our drive.

I couldn't help myself though, I had to entertain myself. Besides, it's not a road trip if it's not asked repeatedly.

"Are we th…." I was cut off by Mike.

"Don't even think of asking what your about to ask or I swear I will turn this car right around!" Mike said trying his hardest to hold in his laughter. It didn't work and we were all soon in hysterics.

--+--

A little while later we had finally arrived in Seattle. Mike was now trying to navigate his way to our hotel.

"I think this chick is wrong!" he exclaimed to Angela pointing at the GPS.

"The GPS cannot be wrong" she replied

"I swear we are driving in circles"

"Um." I interrupted "I think we just went past our hotel"

"That's not possible!" Angela exclaimed while playing with buttons on the GPS.

"I knew it!" Mike laughed smugly.

After a bought of Angela beating the poor GPS unit that kept telling us to turn when we could see the hotel, we finally arrived.

The room was fairly basic, but it was clean, and much cleaner then the hotel Mike would have had us staying in.

"We have a few hours to kill" Mike said as he sat on the sofa.

"We should go to the pool, it's heated! Come on, we won't have a chance to go swimming again for months." Angela suggested.

I shrugged, "Sounds like a plan"

We each had to take turns changing in the bathroom. Mike went first and then Angela. By time she had gotten dressed though Mike was itching to go to the pool.

"You guys go ahead, Mike's gonna loose it, I'll be down there in under 10 minutes"

"Are you sure?" Angela asked.

"Of course"

"Race you!" Mike screamed as he was out the door, Angela laughed and followed him quickly.

I got ready pretty quickly, and decided I should grab some drinks for everyone on my way. I got to the vending machine at the end of the hallway and started to get 3 cokes. Unfortunately I decided not to break any of my big bills, so I was doing it with quarters. On the second coke, I heard someone behind me.

"Just one more, then it's all yours" I said cheerily to the person behind me. I heard a faint 'hmm' in return and continued popping quarters. Once I had the last one I turned around and said, "All yours"

But no one was there. I stuck my head out to look down the hall, and again there was no one there. I small shiver ran down my spine as I walked as fast as I could to the pool.

"You read my mind" Mike said as I got to the pool with cokes in hand.

I looked around and there was no one else in the pool but Mike and Angela.

"Wow, we got the pool to ourselves. Nice"

We goofed around in the pool for a good half hour, but then both me and Angela got tired of Mike pushing us under. So we decided to sit on the edge with our legs in the water.

"It's been a good week" Angela said, slightly as a question.

"Yeah it has"

"All good?"

I looked to see what Mike was doing but he was at the other side of the pool playing with the water basketball.

"Yes and no" I admitted quietly. "It's no where near as bad as it was. But I seem to remember him at the strangest times."

"Like?"

"Well the other day when I was gathering laundry in my room I looked at my rocking chair, and suddenly he was there. And I was re-living a convo I had with him"

"A good conversation or a bad one?" she asked with some concern

I wasn't about to tell her the details of that conversation. That it was the conversation we had after the first night he slept over, well that I knowingly knew he slept over.

"It was a good conversation…Definitely a good conversation" I said with a small smile.

"Well that's okay." She said relieved. Then some realization dawned on her. "But you said yes and no? Remembering good things are yes, so what's the no?"

"It's going to sound like I'm completely out of my mind"

"No it's not. Besides if I was ever going to think that I would have thought that the last 2 months…Not now" she gave a small laugh and hit my arm

"Yeah, I guess that true" I also gave a laugh. I tried to think of how to explain it to her without making myself seem crazy or making Edward sound like some stalker, which of course would then scare her.

"Edward was always protective of me…We were very close" My mind raced to find some example, some analogy. "Like, we were so close I could feel him"

She looked at me, confusion all over her face.

"Um, I'm trying to explain, I promise. Oh! Okay. An example would be like when he and his family would go camping. I wouldn't see him for a few days. I'd be in the cafeteria with you and everyone else. He'd then enter the cafeteria, and even though I didn't see him come in, didn't know he'd be at school that day, when he entered that room I knew it. I could feel him; we had a connection where I just knew he was there, before I even saw him"

I looked at her hopping my weird ramblings had made some sort of sense to her. I wasn't sure if they made any sense to me either. She no longer looked as confused, but she still didn't understand.

"I think I know what you're saying. But I guess I don't understand how that has anything to do with the bad parts of your week"

"See that's the crazy thing. I keep sensing him. At first I dismissed it, because I know I'm still hurting. I'm not trying to pretend that this one good week has erased everything. Also, when I sensed him, I put them off to memories almost. Like I remembered that feeling while at school in the parking lot, but it made sense because that's where I would see him." I said desperately. I hadn't had time to go though my own thoughts yet, so describing them to someone else first was quite hard.

"Okay, I still follow what you're saying, but I still don't understand where you're trying to go with it"

"I don't know! I think I am losing my mind!" I put my face in my hands

"What happened?" She whispered.

"I don't even know really. I was nothing. But it was just weird" I said through my hands.

"Tell me, crazy or not it's better to get it out" she pleaded with me.

I sighed and lifted my head up again. "Well when I went to get the cokes, the vending machine is at the end of the hall, so I was down there by myself. It was taking me a while, since I was getting three and only had quarters. After the second one I felt someone stand behind me. I told them I'd be just a second, and I swear I heard them make a noise, just like a sigh for okay. A few seconds later when I was all done, I turned around and no one was there, and there was no one down the hall either."

"So your saying you felt like Edward was behind you?"

That's when I thought about it harder. No. Why was I even talking about this silly incident? I didn't think it was Edward. Not even once. This had absolutely nothing to do with anything. I instantly felt really stupid.

"No" and I laughed. "I'm such an idiot; I just spooked myself I guess. With all the other emotional crap I'm going through I just sort of lumped it in there, but it was nothing. Now I feel really stupid for even talking about it."

Angela laughed. "No worries. Look your laughing now. If you didn't talk about it, you would still be freaking yourself out for no good reason. You just needed to say it out loud to see how it wasn't anything"

"Yeah you're right Angela. I'm glad I talked about it, I still feel like an idiot though. How will I ever re-pay you for the free psychiatry you're giving me?"

"Don't worry, I'm sure I'm due for a mental breakdown at some point. Just promise to help me then"

"Deal" I laughed with her and gave her a hug.

--+--

I was surprised I actually like the band. In all of our planning of this road trip I had never once listened to them. I wasn't sure I'd buy their CD or anything, but they were good entertainment. It was all very melodic and mellow. Even there most up-tempo songs would never be played for a dance floor.

The venue was actually really nice. It was huge, yet weirdly intimate. It almost reminded me of a large Jazz type bar. Everyone sat at tables or booths, some people stood at the very back where there was a bar. We sat at a small table with a nice view of the band, without being right at the very front.

Angela kept whispering to me and pointing out the cute guys at the tables around us. I looked around, but none of them could compare to the image in my head.

During a small break two guys came up to out table.

"Ladies, can we get you a drink?" the blond one asked.

"There with me" Mike said firmly.

I was actually quite surprised. I never pictured Mike as a protector before.

"Both of them?" the other man scoffed.

"Yeah. Now if you don't mind we'd like to get back to our conversation" Mike said and stared them both directly in their eyes.

They both stood for a moment, and then walked back to where ever they came from.

"Way to go Mike" I said quite proudly. He wrapped his arm around my shoulder.

"Hey, I've gotta protect my best friends from the jerks of the world" He said and kissed my temple.

That's when the music started up and he took his arm off me and went back to watching. I felt so bad for Mike. He felt like he had failed me by not protecting me from Edward. He had told me right from the start that he didn't trust him. I wanted to tell him that he was right in the end, but there was nothing he could have done to stop me. But I thought better. Although I wanted to let Mike know none of this was his fault, I knew there was nothing I could say that would allow him to let go.

I thought back right to the beginning. Everyone had told me to stay away. The Cullen's didn't talk to anybody. They had all told me to stay away, they all felt that natural fear and aversion. I wondered why I didn't listen. Why did I ignore not only my own natural instincts, but every single person I knew? Maybe that was why everyone was so nice to me now. They all felt guilty because they all knew for some reason they should stay away from them, and somehow none of them had managed to get that through to me.

"This will be our last song, you've been an amazing crowd Seattle" the singer said from the stage.

It snapped me out of my thoughts and I was thankful to no longer be in my head.

--+--

Back at the hotel I sat on the couch with Mike eating a slice of pizza. Angela was passed out on one of the beds, so Mike and I had resorted to watching an episode of 'The Simpson's' with the closed captioning on.

"Mike, I just wanna say again how much I appreciate everything you've done." I whispered.

He scouted closer to me wrapping his arm around my shoulder. "Bella, you're my best friend. I don't even have to think about stuff like that." He whispered back.

I shifted my body into his and continued eating.

--+--

The wake up call from the hotel sounded like a siren in my head. There was no way it was time to leave already. It felt like I had just gone to bed.

I heard a collective moan from Mike and Angela. At least I knew I wasn't the only one.

The drive home was extremely uneventful. But the trips home usually are. The realization that school was tomorrow, and for me and Mike work, was enough to keep the drive home quiet. As we got closer to home we saw a light dusting of snow on the ground. Winter was officially here.

Mike dropped me off at home just before dinner. Angela was passed out in the backseat.

"See you tomorrow" he whispered and gave me a big smile.

I waved as they drove off.

"Dad? I'm home." I said as I entered the house.

"Welcome home!" Before I could respond Charlie had me in a big bear hug.

"Tell me all about it" he said as he led me to the living room.

I sat down and was about to start when I noticed the empty TV dinner tray beside his seat.

"Dad, I was gonna make dinner."

"Oh, it's OK Bella. I wasn't sure exactly when you'd be home, besides I didn't want you having to come home and get straight to cooking."

I smiled at him and started telling him about the trip. I talked about how the hotel was nice, and the pool was ours for the better part of the afternoon. He laughed when I recalled Mike's battle with the GPS.

"Did you get pictures?" he asked

"Yep. I got quite a few. I'll drop them off to get developed tomorrow on my way to work"

I watched TV with Charlie for a bit but by time 8:00pm came around I couldn't stop my yawning.

"I think I'm gonna call it a night. It was a late night last night, and I've got a busy day tomorrow"

"Of course. Night Bella, have a good first day at work"

"Thanks" I called as I headed upstairs.

I quickly grabbed my pair of sweats and a TV shirt and went to the bathroom to change and brush my teeth.

When I got back in my room I had a strange feeling. It felt like something was different, something had been moved. I surveyed my room, but to be honest I didn't have that many things in it. Everything was where it should be. I shrugged and figured it must be because I spent a night away.

I crawled into bed and instantly passed out.

--+--

I woke up a few hours later with a start again. I opened my eyes, and again saw an unexplained shadow. I turned on my light and of course nothing was there.

I was just about to turn of the light and go back to sleep when I felt a cold breeze hit my face. I looked towards the window and it was open about half in inch.

I quickly hopped out of bed and opened the window and looked out. The wind was extremely strong. I closed the window, panicking. I sat on the edge of the bed and thought how before when I talked to Angela how foolish I had felt. This is just like that I told myself.

I pretended it was morning and I was telling the story to her. She would ask if it was windy, I'd say yes. Then I'd remember how my window has always been easy to open and close. She'd then tell me that obviously the wind blew it open, and the slight chill is what woke up in the first place. It made perfect sense. Again I felt silly, I would have to tell Angela that she's so good I can have conversations with her in my head and make myself feel better. I'm sure she'd get a kick out of that.

I calmly got back into bed, turned out the light and fell right back asleep.