Disclaimer: All recognizable characters and dialogue belong to Stephenie Meyer. Thank you.

A/N: Hello readers! I know I said I wanted 10 reviews before I updated again, and although I did not receive 10, only 3 I did finish the chapter and I didn't want to keep you guys waiting because I heart you all… So thank you mg1990, onceuponanovember, and flamingheart1974, for your reviews I really appreciate it!! Additionally, I'd like to thank Lilygreen, riotgirlfreak1487, and DuckyFreeman, for their reviews as well!

Chapter Four:

Research

Previously:

Where to begin? I remembered that Charlie had told me that Carlisle had taken a position at a hospital in L.A., but I knew that was lie. So, my first task would be to figure out where they might have gone.

I opened up a new word document on my computer and started typing out, the things I knew for certain. This included everything I could remember about any of them, of course, Edward's list was the longest. This proved to be very helpful, as I remembered important details, like how Emmett's change was necessary after a bear attack, I also found I was able to remember more small insignificant things, like Emmett's unnatural fear of bees. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that none of these memories hurt. Over the past few months, I had purposefully refused to consciously think of the Cullens, knowing that it would cause me pain; but now I was able to smile and laugh as I reminisced over the lives of my former family.

When my document reached six pages in length, and I had run out of details to add to the lists, I skipped a few lines and started to type the information I thought would be most helpful in my search.

First, Carlisle was a doctor. I knew that over the years before the family was so big, Carlisle and Edward even practiced together, but that was during a time when the medical profession was a lot less strict on its practitioners and when people were thankful for any kind of medical attention they could get. I knew that because of Carlisle's control and love of helping people, he would never give up being a doctor. And furthermore, if he and Esme continued to use the cover of being adoptive parents, then he would need a profession that proved to any outsiders that he was able to support a family of seven. Taking all of this into consideration, I decided that wherever they were, there would be a hospital nearby.

Second, Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper had just graduated from high school, which meant that they could attend college somewhere… but then again, they could decided to start high school all over again to give them more time wherever they were. I don't know why, but I didn't think they would return to high school, Rosalie had been too happy to be finished. So, maybe they were somewhere near a college or university. Although, maybe they got tired of school and decided to take some time off, it's not like it was their first time or anything. There really was no way of knowing which they would decide to do.

Third and most important, they were somewhere that had lots of cloudy days. I figured this would probably be the best place to begin.

Being a girl in the twenty-first century, I had the whole world available at my fingertips, so I did what any other teenager would do, I logged on to the internet. From there, I opened up a search browser, and typed in "cloudiest cities in U.S." Over thirteen thousand results popped up, so I clicked on the first link, waited while the page loaded, and the copied and pasted the top twenty cloudiest cities from the web page onto my word document. Unfortunately because my computer was so ancient and I was using a dial up connection, the entire process was taking much longer than I would have liked. By the time I was finished with the first ten result websites, two hours had already passed and it was already five o'clock. I went to the next ten website results, I figured that some sites would use different means to determine which city was cloudiest, and I wanted to make sure that I had a well rounded list before I began my search. I figured that I could get all of the results now, save them in the word document, and go over them later tonight. I knew I would be up late tonight since my sleeping schedule was affected by my oversleeping this morning.

Once I had about two hundred results, I cleared my browsing history, disconnected the internet, and saved the word document under the title "Possible Colleges" to my computer. Although I was not expecting him too, I figured that if Charlie were to snoop, he wouldn't find that title particularly interesting, and would hopefully skip over it, but as I thought about what was in the document, the truth about the Cullens, I decided to hide the file deep within numerous files and make it password protected. I created a password that I knew I would never forget and that no one could ever know or be able to guess: EAMC06201901.

Satisfied with my afternoon activities, I headed downstairs to begin dinner. I really wasn't in the mood to do anything overly elaborate like I might have done when I was in need of distractions, now my only goal was to find Edward, and everything else was a distraction. So I pulled out some chicken to fry and some lettuce to make a salad, simple enough.

Just as the chicken had finished frying, I heard Charlie's cruiser pull up. I began to set the table when I heard him open then shut the door. "Hey Bells" he called when he spied me from the living room, while turning on the television.

"Hey Dad, dinner is all set if you're ready to eat now." I wasn't entirely sure he was paying attention, since he was staring intently at some sports news recap program. After a minute with no response, I tried again but infused a little more annoyance into my voice than was absolutely necessary: "Dad, dinner is ready." That got him.

"Oh, alright, thanks Bells. I'll be there in just a second." He called back, still watching the television. I took my seat at the table and began eating without him; the sooner I finished the sooner I could get back to my research.

I was half way finished with my fried chicken when Charlie finally graced me with his presence. "Hey Bells, this looks great!"

"Thanks Dad, you may have to reheat it though, I'm not sure if it'll be hot enough for you."

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Charlie picked up his dinner plate and carried it over to the microwave, set the time, and returned his glance to me. "So, how is your paper coming?"

I smiled knowingly to myself. I knew that Charlie had been suspicious of my earlier behavior, so I had made it a point to remember one of my previous essay assignments, just in case he asked. "Oh, not too bad, I've still got a bunch to do though." I continued to give him a general overview of what the essay called for, without being too specific. I remembered that he had once told me that a police officer always suspects when a person is lying when they give too many inconsequential details. And I was quite pleased with myself for having remembered and successfully applied that little bit of knowledge.

"That sounds real interesting Bells." Charlie said as he removed his warmed up chicken from the microwave. He took his seat across from me at the table and began eating his salad. The rest of the meal passed without incident, although I did notice Charlie eyeing me on several occasions. Once I finished my dinner, I went to the sink to clean the dirty the dishes from the day. A few minutes later, Charlie got up and brought his dishes over to the sink. "Hey, why don't you let me finish those and you can go upstairs and finish your paper."

Now I was suspicious, if there was one chore Charlie hated, it was doing the dishes. I quickly ran through the consequences in my head, but finally decided that it was a risk I was willing to take. I knew that if my plans continued, I would be doing a lot of things that Charlie would find suspicious, but at this point I really didn't care, I just wanted to find Edward. "Thanks Dad, I really appreciate it." I said as I turned to head back upstairs.

I sat back down at my desk, located the document file and entered my password. When it was entirely loaded I started reading over the different results. For the most part, the websites had been fairly consistent. Cities in the Pacific Northwest were always in the first few positions. But that really wasn't helpful to my search since I was working under the assumption that the Cullens were relatively far away from here. Once they left a city, they would have to make sure that they went some place where there was a very small possibility of being recognized by old acquaintances.

Other cities to make appearances on the results included: Binghamton, NY; Buffalo, NY; Morgantown, WV; Erie, PA; Ithaca, NY; Pittsburgh, PA; Burlington, VT; Grand Rapids, MI; Wheeling, WV. For some reason I found Erie, PA to be a very humorous result; it just sounded like a place where vampires would live.

The cities in New York seemed like the most promising possibilities. There would definitely be hospitals, colleges, and high schools in New York. And lots of shopping for Alice, I thought with a smile. Perhaps they lived outside a city, in a huge house, similar to their home here. At this point, New York was the best option so far, but it was so big, how would I find seven people in a state of nineteen million? I decided that after I finished going through the results, I would start investigating the cities in New York. I knew that if it came down to it, I would call every single hospital in the state of New York and ask for Carlisle until I found him. I figured that it would probably come to that, but if I could somehow narrow my calling range to a single city, I would be very greatful.

As I continued through the results, cities in Alaska became more prominent. I figured that one of the determining factors had been based on population, and Alaska hadn't shown up before because it wasn't very populated. I was about to keep going through the rest of the results, when I remembered something from my first day at Forks High. I was sitting next to Jessica in the cafeteria, when I had seen them for the first time. She had told me the gossip that surrounded the Cullens, who were still considered the new kids after moving to Forks from… Alaska!! Then suddenly it hit me! Denali, Alaska! When Edward had been absent during my first week at school, he had told me that he had gone to Alaska to see some friends, while he decided what to do. And when we had met James, Victoria, and Laurent, Carlisle had told them that in Alaska there was another family of vampires that also abstained from human blood. I knew that there were other vegetarian vampires living in Alaska, and they were also friends with the Cullens.

I knew then what I had to do. I was going to Alaska…

A/N: Thank you for reading this chapter. I know that some of you were wondering how Bella was going to try to find the Cullens, and I hope that this was relatively believable. Again, any reviews, comments, or questions, you have would be really appreciated! Until next time…