A/N: Oh Jeez, I didn't realize untill someone pointed out in their review that I haven't updated in a month. I'm so sorry about that. My original plan was to have 1 update every 2 weeks, but it's getting more and more impossible to stick to that schedule. But don't worry people, I would never abandon this fic, it's my baby. It will see the light at the end of the tunnel.

This fic is Beta'd by the awesome Le Crepuscule, who is just so wonderful at everything she does, including making me feel better about myself.

Declaimer: I don't own Twilight or any of it's characters, no way, no how.

Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.

-Oscar Wilde

Chapter 3

Carlisle opened the door to the examination room and cringed slightly at the state of the flame haired young woman sitting on the examination table, snivelling slightly. He could feel the bile rising to his throat,

What kind of monster would do such a thing?

Her lip was cut and swollen, a trickle of blood leading down all the way to her button-down shirt, there was bruising all over her face, and one of her eyes was almost swollen shut. Tears had drenched her make-up and left streaks of it all over her pale cheeks.

Carlisle approached her slowly, so as to not startle the girl, who resembled a frightened and lost child. She is just a child anyway. God she's hardly any older than Bella.

"Hello Miss Vaughan," Carlisle said in his most calm and level voice. "I'm Dr. Cullen. Would it be okay for me to examine your injuries?"

The girl looked at Carlisle for a second, as though trying to judge his intentions, before nodding slowly. Carlisle lifted his gloved hand towards her and noticed that her breathing accelerated and she flinched and gulped audibly right before he touched her bruised eye. Someone really did a number on her.

Bella was sitting in a clearing, almost resembling a meadow, surrounded by trees. She heard a chirp, and found a Song Sparrow sitting on a nearby branch, tweeting away. She looked around and saw herself surrounded by tall grass and sweet smelling wildflowers, with warm sunlight streaming through the leaves.

"Princess!"

Bella turned her head and found her dad standing at one edge of the clearing, sunlight streaming through him. He stood looking at her blankly, gesturing that she better go over and leave with him.

"It's time to go home sweetheart."

No! She didn't want to leave this beautiful place. She felt relaxed and at ease here.

"Isabella"

Bella turned her head to see a figure hiding in the shadows at the other end of the clearing from her father. Though she couldn't see the person's face, the profile, the build, and the voice made it obvious to whom it belonged. Edward. Beautiful Edward who made me smile.

Bella stood up and looked between the two men. To who was she supposed to go? Carlisle wanted her to go home, but Edward never stated his intention, he just called out to her. She turned to look at her father and noticed that he was frowning in Edward's direction.

Bella turned around curiously and saw that Edward was still in the same position, hiding in the darkness of the shadows. Why is dad not happy to see him?

She decided to go ask her dad why he was so visibly disturbed by Edward and started walking towards Carlisle, when she heard rustling behind her. She turned and saw that Edward had raised his hand, as though to ask her to stop, but remained quiet and in the shadows.

Bella hesitated for a second before she started heading in Edward's direction. She saw his head lift slightly and she could picture a smile spreading across his handsome face.

"Princess." Bella halted in her tracks when her father spoke again. "Come back here so we can leave," Carlisle urged her in an authoritative voice, as though speaking to a child.

Bella hesitated again for a second. Her dad always seemed to be telling her to do. She wanted to be with Edward right now, to go over and speak to him. She continued towards him, despite her father's obvious protests and demands of returning to his side. She stopped at the tree line, and gazed at his green eyes, which gazed just as intently back into hers.

Edward unexpectedly reached out into the sunlight and pulled her into the shadows, against his body. Bella felt herself melt immediately against him.

Why is his chest soft? And cold?

Bella's eyes snapped open and she saw that she was tangled up in her bed sheets, hugging a soft pillow. She sat up and looked around. It was 4AM, and she had obviously had a really peculiar dream.

I wonder if it actually meant something. Was Edward trying to pull her into his darkness, was it a warning? Was it a sign that she had already entered the obscurity?

However, after a few minutes of trying to sift through her semi-conscious thoughts, she decided that it was just a dream, and turned over and went back to sleep.

In the morning, Bella didn't even remember the details.

Edward leant against the railing just off the Morrison Bridge, gazing at the calm waters of the Willamette River. He lit a cigarette and blew the smoke into the air before taking in a deep breath.

This was his favourite spot in Portland; the air always seemed clean, fresh, and crisp, the park was always busy with people, and he like to people-watch. He enjoyed watching how different people interacted with each other or reacted to certain things.

But today, his mind was elsewhere. Specifically on a brown-haired beauty he had the fortune of coming across recently. It was Sunday morning, and she had been doing nothing but plaguing his thoughts since Friday night. He had to greatly restrain himself from going over to her house.

There was no way he could justify that behaviour. Edward always did things that made sense, things he could rationalize and defend, though in this instance he could neither rationalize nor defend sneaking into her house in the middle of the night.

He did, however, drive by her house Saturday morning, but Edward saw her father getting home just then, and he decided that it may not be a good idea to just show up at her house and get her into trouble unnecessarily.

He heard a soft giggle behind him and turned around to observe a young couple, picnicking in the park. Their food was laid out, but the girl was in the boy's lap and both were making out. He was softly digging into her side making her titter from time to time, while she had a hard grip of his long hair.

They were behaving like a new couple, who couldn't get enough of each other, probably on one of their initial dates.

Edward wondered when he and Bella would be at this juncture, the honeymoon stage, where they wouldn't be able to get enough of each other physically.

Not that he could ever get enough of her. He would constantly text her, send her flowers, bring her coffee after class, and steal kisses here and there, some innocent, some passionate.

Does she even want to be with you like that?

Edward was trying to push this thought away, but it kept coming back to him. The way Bella had reacted to him told him that she was definitely interested, but what if his erratic behaviour scared her away? He had kinks, some which were more obvious than others, and it was near impossible for him to change, would she accept him the way he was? He would try to mould himself into the type of man Isabella wanted, but what if he didn't succeed?

He knew he was getting a little ahead of himself here. First he needed to visit Bella again and spend more time with her, and give her a chance to back out initially, before they got in too deep.

With these thoughts he threw the bud to the ground and stomped on it put it out and headed towards his Harley.

As Edward was driving up Southwest Morrison Street he saw a Borders Bookstore, and after a moment of thought, pulled over.

On Monday morning, Bella found herself bored in her least favourite course; The Early English Novel. The course included discussion of how novels became popular in the 18th century in Britain, and though they discussed various authors and their works from time to time, the course basically entailed discussing the social and political changes of the time. The professor, also, liked to drone on, rather than engage the class in interesting discussion or debate.

Bella sighed and took another sip of her Venti non-fat Latte, but the caffeine was not helping her stay awake today. The aroma of the warm coffee however was making her feel even more relaxed and drowsy. It was cruelty that this class was at 9 am on a Monday morning and lasted for 3 hours. At least three people in the back rows were asleep, while others were starting to nod off. Some people were clearly playing card games or video games on their laptops or cell phones. One girl up front even had buds in her ear, listening to music.

She looked down at her open notebook page, which had nothing but the date at the top and a series of elaborate doodles in the margins. I should have brought my laptop.

Bella felt someone drop into the seat beside her and inconspicuously checked her watch to see how late the person was. It was 10:47. Way to be on time my friend. She turned and smiled at her new partner briefly and looked back down at her notebook, before doing a double take.

It was Edward!

She looked over to him smiling cheekily at her, looked around self-consciously before whispering, "What are you doing here Edward?"

"It's been 2 days since I've seen you Bella, I missed you."

"How did you even know where to find me?"

"I saw your schedule in that folder on Friday. You know you really should store personal information like that in a more secure place."

Edward added the last sentence with a frown, as though he was concerned about her safety and privacy, though he yet again stalked her here. She must have been looking disbelievingly at him because the cheeky smile was back.

"Oh, I have a present for you!" Edward reached into his leather jacket and pulled out a package wrapped in a shimmery pink paper and placed in on the notebook in front of her.

Bella looked down at the package with an eyebrow raised. "What is it?"

"You'll just have to open it and see. If I were to tell you, it wouldn't remain a surprise, now would it?"

"Well maybe I don't like surprises Edward."

"Please just open it Bella."

Bella looked down sceptically at the package. She wasn't kidding; she really did dislike surprises or anyone spending money on her. She liked to be independent and obligation free. Spending money could sometimes call for awkward situations.

"You know Bella, whatever's inside is not going to jump out and bite you, and I promise that it's harmless." Edward was smiling sweetly, looking at her expectantly.

She sighed and tried as noiselessly as possible; to rip the wrapping paper off the package, but the tape was used very.... enthusiastically and made it hard to open without a struggle.

She finally managed to get the shimmery pink paper off to find that the package was further wrapped in a plain brown paper. This was easier to remove and she was left with a brand new copy of Wuthering Heights lying over her notebook.

Bella looked up at Edward with surprise - that was the last thing she had expected him to get her – and saw him eye her sheepishly, a little embarrassed.

"It's my fault that your copy of the novel got drenched in the rain and ruined. Please accept this as an apology for my behaviour."

Bella continued to look at him as though he had suddenly sprouted an extra head. That was an extremely sweet gesture and she didn't know how to reply.

Edward's face fell slightly at her reaction, or lack thereof. "Do you not like it? Umm, I can return it and get you something else or...."

"No." Bella interrupted. "I love it. Thank you. This is really sweet of you."

Edward lifted Bella's hand and placed a gentle kiss on her knuckles."You're welcome beautiful Bella."

"Miss Cullen!" Both Bella and Edward jumped, startled, and looked to the front, where Professor Winters was glaring at the pair. "If your conversation is more important, then the both of you are free to leave my class and continue elsewhere."

Bella immediately flushed and looked back down at her notebook, while the professor huffed in approval and turned around to continue with his lecture. She felt Edward vibrating beside her and looked over to see him visibly shaking in anger. He looked almost murderous, his eyes narrowed into slits and his hands balled into fists, while he glared at Professor Winters. He looked like he was making up his mind about something.

Her hand resting gently over his bare fore-arm caused his head to snap immediately in her direction. Bella's heart jumped into her throat. He's scary when he's this angry. Edward gazed into her eyes for a few moments before his own features relaxed and his gaze softened.

"A-Are you okay?" The question she asked was tentative.

"He disrespected you Bella. That was an unfair call."

Bella glanced briefly at the professor to make sure he hadn't noticed them again, before turning back. "It's okay Edward; we were being loud, and maybe disrupting the class."

"That's no reason to be rude. That was uncalled for. He needs to be approached about it."

"Please Edward, just let it go. It's okay."

Edward locked eyes with Bella once more, and after a few moments, nodded his assent. For the rest of the class, Edward sat silently beside Bella.

"Well that was incredibly boring."

"I know, but this class is a requirement. I would never take it if it were an elective."

"Are you done for the day?"

"Yes. I don't have any more classes, but I was thinking of stopping by the library for a while, I have some time to kill."

"Why do you need to kill time?"

"Umm... well my dad drove me here this morning, so he's also my ride home. I need to wait for him." Even to her, this explanation sounded completely ridiculous, but her dad had, yet again, insisted upon giving her a ride to college in the morning, and she had, yet again, succumbed.

"I can give you a ride home if you like Bella."

"No Edward, please don't bother. I don't mind waiting for my dad."

"It's no bother at all. It will give me an excuse to spend more time with you." Edward winked at her, causing her heart to skip a few beats. How is it that this amazingly handsome man wants to spend time with me?

Edward's happy expression faltered slightly. "Unless you don't want to."

"I would love a ride home, just as long as it's not too much out of the way for you."

Edward dismissed her statement with a wave of his hand and started leading her towards his bike.

He abruptly halted and turned to face her, as though contemplating something important, his head cocked slightly to the side. She too stopped and watched him curiously, but before she could voice her concerns, Edward spoke. "Bella, would like to go on a date with me?"

Bella spluttered slightly, choking on her own saliva in the process of swallowing while her eyes bugged out of her head. What? He wants me to go on a date with him? Why? Is he being serious? Or just pulling my leg? I've never been on a date before. I don't even know what to do! Do I want to go out with him? Bella thought this over for a second, but the immediate reply was, Yes!

Bella looked up at his beautiful face and noticed that, while she was having an internal monologue, he was waiting for her reply.

"Uhhm, yes. I would like that a lot."

Edward's face broke out into a huge grin, making her smile in return. He's so handsome! She felt her cheeks pool with colour at the thought.

"Okay," Edward said before he laced his fingers with hers. "Let's go."

"Wait, you mean right now?"

"Yeah." He wants to go on a date right this minute? "Is there a problem Bella?"

Bella smiled at him sweetly and replied, "Not at all Edward. Let's go."

A/N: Love it? Hate it? Do leave me some feedback. Review = teaser

I know this chapter is a little shorter than the others, but I found the perfect place to stop. Eventually you all will hate me because I'm called the queen of cliffhangers.

You can also follow me on Twitter http://twitter(dot)com/queenyuks

I keep posting teasers on there as well.