A/N: I do not own anything
Chapter 4:
Ugh my head was killing me. I tried to open my eyes but they felt so heavy. I must still be tired and this headache was killing me. I must need a little more sleep. I rolled over and that's when I realized I was not in my bed. I sat up suddenly and instantly regretted it. My head hurt so bad I actually thought I might throw up.
"Glad to see you are awake finally." I hard voice say. I had come to recognize that voice as Mr. Grouch's. I was instantly on alert and everything that had happened instantly came flooding back to me. I look up and sure enough in the corner of the room sat Mr. Grouch looking rather pissed off. I tried to scoot back in the bed I was on with the hopes that I could get a little more space between the two of us.
"Do you remember what happened?" He asked and I just nodded slowly.
"Where am I?"
"You are at my house." He said not offering any extra information.
"Why am I here?"
" You have been asleep for 2 days."
"What? Really?"
"Yes. I would suggest you never do something like that again." He sounded really pissed now. My jaw had dropped.
"Like I had any control over it. Who the hell are you and why am I here and not in the hospital?"
"Yeah, like we would take you to a hospital. They are about as corrupt as the policy department."
"What are you talking about?"
"Look, it's not safe for you to be anywhere else, so for now you are going to be staying here." He got up and headed out the door.
I looked around and noticed a bathroom. I got up, took care of business and then got back into the bed. I doze off and on for a few hours before I got up the courage to get up and look around. I was starving and in desperate need of something to eat and drink. I opened the bedroom door peaked out into the hall way. I really wasn't sure what I was going to find, but there was no one out there. I could see some stairs and headed down them. I started to hear some voices and decided I would try to seek them out. It didn't take long to find where everyone was. They were in the kitchen. I slowly walked in not really sure what I should be doing. I could see Emmett and another guy with blond hair sitting at a table. There were also two women in the kitchen. One was tall with blond hair, who was standing at the stove stirring something in a pot and the other one was short with black hair. She was leaning on the counter and the first one to notice me.
"Oh thank the lord above you are awake." She said as she was coming over to me and gave me a big huge.
"Back up Alice, she doesn't know who you are." I could hear Emmett say.
"Shut up Emmett. Bella and I are going to be great friends."
"That might be Alice, but now you are not so back up." He said coming up to me and giving me a little hug. "Come sit down at the table and I'll introduce you to everyone." I just nodded and let him pull me over to the table. He had me sit in the spot he was in. I noticed everyone was looking at me and started to get a bit uncomfortable. "Right, so this guy here is Jasper. You just met his wife Alice, and this is my wife Rosalie. Guys this is Bella."
They all said a polite hello before a very awkward silence entered the room. I was still very confused to why I was here and what was going on. My whole body felt tense as I tried to stay on guard.
"Are you hungry?" Rosalie asked.
"Actually I am starving."
Rosalie put a bowl of soup in front of me and I felt like I had wont the lottery. I had two bowls of soup down in probably less than 5 minutes. Everyone carried on small chit-chat while I just busied myself with my soup. I was starting to feel a bit better after eating, sure my head was still killing me but it felt good to have food in my stomach again. Just then the door bell rang.
"Crap they are early." Emmett said as he jumped up and ran to the door.
"Who's early?" I asked everyone else.
"Edwards parents." Jasper said.
"Who's Edward?" I asked which just caused Alice and Rosalie to break out in a full belly laugh.
"What's so funny in here girls?" I turned to see a very handsome older man standing in the door way with sandy blond hair. A very pretty woman was standing behind him with dark brown hair. It seemed like she couldn't take her eyes from me. Instantly Jasper was up and walking over to greet the man while the girls went over to say hello to the women.
"Carlisle, Esme let me introduce you to Bella Swan. Bella, this is Carlisle and Esme Cullen Edwards's parents." Jasper said. It wasn't missed by me that when Jasper said my name both Carlisle and Esme's eyes doubled in size.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Bella." Esme said.
"Yes, it is. I sure hope my boy has treated you well." Carlisle said.
"It's nice to meet you both, and as soon as I find out who Edward is, I'll let you know if has treated me right." I had pretty much figured out that Mr. Grouch must have been this Edward guy but I didn't really appreciate all the secrecy that was going on. It was actually a bit comical that Rosalie, Alice, Jasper, and Emmett's face all pale at the same time. I look over at Carlisle to see his face shift to a hard mask but Esme's face had a smirk on it. I have a feeling she knew I knew who Edward was.
Before anyone could say anything we heard the front door open and shut and what do you know, in walked Edward. The second he had turned the corner into the kitchen and saw everyone standing there he froze and looked at everyone. You could tell he was trying to asses what was going on, then his eyes locked with mine and it seemed like he relaxed just a bit.
"Edward, son, do you want to explain to me why Bella here has been at your house for over 3 days know does not know your name?" Carlisle asked. I could see his fingers twitching like he was fighting to keep them at his side.
"Look at that, he turned just as pale as you four. Oh, this is going to be a fun night." Esme said as she started to walk over to the table and sit down. I decided to follow her because it really was a bit amusing to see them all react the same way. It was obvious Carlisle here was still the head of this household.
"You know if you guys get much paler you are all going to be mistaken for vampires." I added which made Esme laugh.
"Well, Bella it seems I will have to step up and explain a few things as it seems my son here has yet to learn how to be a gentleman." He said while coming over to sit at the table as well. No one else seemed to move. "Edward here has become a bit enamored by you and in turn is feeling a bit protective of you."
"Wait, we are talking about the same person right? This guy right here?" I asked pointing to Edward.
"Well yeah, I'm a bit surprised this seems like a shock to you."
"Yeah, I'm shocked. I don't mean to say you are lying or anything Carlisle but I have only known your son for a little over a week. Each day he comes in to the restaurant that I work at, orders lunch, which he wants in a hurry. Say's short and at times rude comments either to me or under his breath. You must be confused; there is no way this guy is enamored by me."
"Uh, Bella, can I speak to your for a moment in private?" Edward asked.
"Nope. You can talk to me right here now. You show up out of the blue and all of a sudden strange things start happening to me. Like that my apartment was broken into and destroyed, then there was the fake cop who was trying to kill me and now I'm in this strange house with these strange people, one of which is saying you like me? I think you can talk to me here."
"I must say Edward. I kind of agree with her." Esme said next to me.
"Fine! I had business down by the restaurant you work at. When I was done with my meeting I was walking back to my car and I saw you in the window. The sight of you took my breath away. I just had to meet you, talk to you, and spend a little time with you. Shit, I wasn't even hungry. The meeting I had was a lunch meeting. I was pissed that day, because I had so many other things I needed to be doing but I just had to meet you. I figured after I met you the feelings would go away and I could go about my days like normal. It just didn't work that way though. Every day I felt this pull to go and see you. Just to make sure everything was ok with you. These feelings started to grow. I really can't explain it, but I just couldn't let you go. It made me angry that I couldn't get you out of my mind. Yes I was short and rude to you in the beginning but that's just because I was so upset I couldn't get you out of my mind and I was starting to think you put a spell on me.
"The meeting I had that first day did not go well. By the next Monday one of the guys I had met with walked by and saw me eating. He knew there should be no reason for me to be eating lunch there. It was then I started getting threats about you. The guy at the meeting thought he could try and intimidate me to bend to his will if he threatened you. He knew I had taking a liking to you. Every day I wanted to talk to you. Tell you how I felt, ask you out. I just couldn't I was terrified of what could happen to you if I actually did act on my feelings. I couldn't walk away from you but I also couldn't act on anything either. It was killing me to not be able to talk to you. Which made me upset. I must apologize to you for how I talked to you. It was uncalled for. I just didn't know what to do. I didn't want to risk your life by pulling into mine. Apparently the guy from the meeting had enough and we are pretty sure he is the one who trashed your place, that's how he was able to have Black show up and try and get you away. Jasper had heard the call come in to 911 and recognized your address. That's when Emmett and I showed up. I could have killed Black for what he had done. It killed me to see you so helpless and hurt. I really didn't know if you were going to be ok. It really shook me up. Here I was afraid to pull you into my life, afraid you would be hurt and yet, you still got hurt but I didn't have the opportunity to even talk to you properly, or tell you how I felt."
By this point, he was right in front of me on his knees holding both my hands in his. I could see the tears in his eyes, just waiting to fall. I could see the sincerity and the truth he spoke in those very same eyes.
"Well, I must say. That's got to be the worst way to hit on someone that I have ever heard. You know it probably would have saved you a lot of time and heart ache if you had just introduced yourself and asked for my number that first day." I said laughing at the shocked look on his face.
"Do you think you could forgive me for how I was treating you before?" He pleaded.
"Honestly, I don't really know. You really did treat me like shit and then somehow I am pulled into this crazy thing where strangers are after me and I really don't know why." I was honest. I still don't really understand what is going on and I'm not sure where we can go from here.
"I can understand that, but please give me a chance to make things right. I will explain everything to you and I will never treat you like I had again. I am not willing to lose you over being stupid."
"I guess we can start small and see where it goes from there?" Looking at his face made me smile. His face just lit up.
"You won't regret it at all."
"Let's hope for your sake you don't let her regret it son." Carlisle said which caused everyone to laugh.
"I won't. Bella, I am hoping you will stay here at my house until we can make sure you are safe to go back to your apartment. I have plenty of extra rooms, plus Rose and Emmett are actually living here as well now."
"I guess that would be ok. I really don't want to go back to my apartment at the moment."
"How about we order some Chinese food for dinner and we can all get to know Bella and Bella can get to know us." Esme asked.
I thought it was a great idea. I still feel like there is more to everything going on around me and I'd like to know what it's all about.
A/N: Please review
