A/N *** Please please, pretty please leave me a review! I crave them! I'm addicted to them!

Chapter Four

In Dreams

There was no hospital bed in the lab, although Bella wouldn't have been shocked if there had been. Edward led her to a burgundy overstuffed chair and helped ease her into the plush cushions.

"Comfy?' he asked, his voice tinged with genuine concern.

"Quite. But seriously Edward, I'm not going to shatter into a million pieces. Not yet anyway."

Carlisle entered the room with his trademark self-assured and comforting manner.

"Good morning Bella, dear."

"Hello Carlisle."

"So, you've decided to try the treatment. I want you to know that this is solely your decision to make. I would hate to think that anyone else might have influenced your decision." The look of derision that Carlisle shot Edward did not go unnoticed.

"Carlisle, Edward has made his wishes clear but I can assure you that this is my decision."

"Very well. Edward, get the vial."

Bella's nerves started to get the best of her when Carlisle began to roll up her sleeve and search for a suitable injection sight.

"So, there have been no human trials at all?"

Carlisle looked deeply into her eyes and whispered to her.

"Bella, you can always change your mind. Don't worry about Edward."

She glanced to the end of the long room at the figure of her first love. She felt something within her stir, something she hadn't felt in a very long time.

"No, this is what I want."

Edward made his way back to the two of them carry a small vial of a clear liquid.

"Who's venom was used to make this?" Bella questioned as Carlisle began to draw the serum into a syringe.

"It's mine." Edward answered softly.

"Perfect." was all Bella could think to say.

"Now Bella," Carlise began ominously "we can't tell you what to expect as far as pain. We only know the reaction of the mice we tested on and to be honest, there wasn't much of a reaction at all. They seemed to go to sleep while the process took place. For them the transformation took no more than thirty minutes. For a human, who can say?"

"Are you ready, love?" Edward stared at her with hopeful eyes. She could also see tension, concern and love in his gaze.

"Yes, I do believe I am. Take me back in time."

The needle prick was painless, she barely felt it at all. The serum was thick as it went into her vein, it seemed to have the consistency of honey.

"Well that didn't hurt a bi..."

The blackness overtook her before she could finish her sentence and she fell into a deep abyss of nothingness.

The first thing that Bella saw when she came around was Edwards face. He was crying without tears, his face contorted and his body wracked with sobs.

"Oh Edward, it didn't work. I'm so sorry! Please don't cry..."

"No Bella, you don't understand. It did work. Look!"

He handed her a small hand mirror and she hesitantly raised it to her face. She gasped at the reflection that stared back at her. She looked twenty something again. She turned her face from side to side, peering intently, looking for the slightest wrinkle or freckle. There was none. She looked for the gray that had salted her hair and found only the deep chestnut brown of her younger days.

She did an internal inventory, looking for the pain that she had become accustomed to due to the cancer that had ravaged her body. She felt only her tight abdominal muscles, her lungs that breathed in deeply and without the painful hitch that had become a regularity. She looked at her hands and marveled at the supple, unmarked skin. She was young again, she was healthy again.

"Oh my," was all she could think to say. Then her stomach spoke for her with a loud grumbling roar.

"Come Bella, lets get you some breakfast."

Edward held out his hand to her and she too it. Immediately she noticed that he didn't feel cold to her.

She heard him gasp and he withdrew his hand from hers.

"What's wrong, Edward?"

"I... I heard your thoughts. You wondered why my hand didn't feel cold to you anymore."

"You heard me?"

"More like I felt what you were thinking. It wasn't the same as when I hear the thoughts of other people."

"I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. But why don't you feel cold to me anymore?"

"It's a part of the serum's effect. Your body temperature drops considerably while under the influence of the treatment. There may be other things as well. We'll discuss them when and if needed."

She wanted to press his further but her stomach growled it's discontent again. Edward laughed and blurred to the door to open it for her.

"Shall we, my lady?"

Being pain free was something that took her a little bit to get used to. That and having a houseful of vampires watching her devour enough food for three people.

Alice had kidnapped her after breakfast to find her some more age appropriate clothes from her own closet. They had always been close in size and the feel of designer jeans on Bella's newly firm again butt was a little piece of heaven.

"There, that's much better!"

Alice took a step back and eyed Bella approvingly.

"Thanks Alice. Once again, as always, you're a lifesaver."

Bella headed for the door but Alice called her back to the bed before she could exit the room.

"Bella, there are things you should know. Things that Edward is trying to keep Kallie from telling you. I can't tell you, it's not my place to."

"Why is Edward trying to keep things from me?"

"He's only trying to protect you. You know how he is, high handed, moody and overprotective. Kallie feels you need to know. I agree with her. Edward wants you to make a decision about becoming one of us before you find out. He thinks if you find out now it might influence your decision."

"Can she really talk to the dead?" Bella asked quietly.

"Yes. That's her gift. She helped me find out more about my human life by talking to my grandmother."

"So she could talk to Charlie or Renee? She could talk to anyone who has passed on?"

"I'm not sure how her talent works, if she can just summon people or of they come to her on their own. I've never asked her for information, she's just come to me and the others with certain things."

"I know it's something about Jacob. She was trying to tell me this morning when Edward came in."

"It's something that is going to be very..."

"Alice! That's enough!"

Edward was standing in the doorway with a sour look on his face and his arms folded.

"She needs to know, Edward! It might help her..."

"I said that's enough!"

Alice sat back on the bed with her mouth in a pout. She glared at Edward as he came into the room and took Bella by the elbow.

Bella looked up into his face, her jaw jutting out stubbornly.

"Take me to Kallie now!"

"She's gone hunting with Jasper and Aaron." Edward said, more than a little smugly.

"Edward, I'm sure you think that you're protecting me from something but I will NOT be controlled. If there is something I should know about Jacob then someone better damn well tell me."

"Bella, the past is the past and there is nothing you can do to change it. Why dig things up that are..."

his voice trailed off and he looked at the floor.

"Things that are what? Things that are WHAT Edward?" Her voice was getting louder with each word.

"Hurtful."