Sorry, folks – to clarify, when I said finale I meant to the scene, not the story. Didn't mean to confuse you…must have been tired (It was about midnight when I wrapped up that last chapter)

I just had more to add to the eventful night, but I was running out of steam. This is not the end; I want this to go on at least until graduation.

So, on with the story.

EPOV

It was almost as if everything was going in slow motion – Jacob reached out and shoved Bella's shoulder with a bit too much force and she fell backwards until she came in contact with the top corner of the banister on the stairs. She screamed and the world resumed normal speed.

"Bella!" I yelled as I ran to her and took the sweatshirt off of her – there was a gash of blood already pooling in the middle of her back and I pulled out my cell phone.

"Dad! I need help, my girlfriend just fell and now she has a big gash in the middle of her back."

"What did she hit?"

"A banister."

"OK, where are you?"

"Jessica Stanley's, just down the street."

"Alright, you keep her conscious and I'll get an ambulance there."

"Thanks Dad."

I hung up and laid Bella across my knees, there were tears streaming down her cheeks as I tilted her face towards me. I caressed her hair gently.

"Bella, it's going to be OK – an ambulance will be here soon."

"Let me see her," Jacob said reaching down towards her.

I went to push him away, but found him being pulled back by another force instead. Emmett and the rest of the team had come downstairs to see what all the commotion was about.

"Stay away from her, Jacob," Emmett threatened.

Alice and Rosalie wandered downstairs and both screamed at the sight of Bella lying across my lap with blood on her shirt.

"What happened?" Alice cried as she sat beside me and stroked Bella's hair.

"She fell back against that sharp corner on the banister," I said. "I called Dad and he called an ambulance."

"Bella? How are you?"

"Fine," Bella said weakly, "But…sleepy."

"You can't fall asleep Bella, you're in shock," I said. "I need you to stay awake and talk to me OK? Don't you want to talk to me?"

"Yeah," she replied. "You called me your…"

"My what?" I whispered.

"Girlfriend."

"Oh – I did, didn't I? Um, well…do you…mind?"

Alice chuckled next to me and I shot her a dirty look.

"No…don't mind," Bella said, still fading.

Just when I was about to ask where the damn ambulance was, three EMTs walked down the stairs with a stretcher.

"Where's the girl who fell?" One of them asked.

"Right here," I said, placing my hand gently on Bella's head.

The man came over and pulled the back of Bella's shirt up. He had me lift her slightly so he could bandage the wound and wrap some gauze around her to hold it in place. Then they lifted her onto the stretcher and took her up to the ambulance.

I followed them all the way to the truck until one of them stopped me, "Sorry, sir, there's not enough room. You'll have to drive separately."

I nodded to him before glancing over his shoulder, "Don't worry, Bella! I'll be right behind the ambulance."

Emmett grabbed my arm and pulled me to his jeep. We jumped in the front while Jasper, Alice and Rosalie got in the back. We followed the truck all the way to the Forks Community Hospital and Emmett pulled up to the front door so we could go inside while he found a parking place.

We ran to emergency and I found someone I recognized, a nurse named Debra who used to work for my father.

"Hey kids," she said, "What are you doing here?"

"A friend of ours came in," I said, "She got a bad cut on her back after falling into a sharp corner – her name is Bella Swan…oh, that reminds me, did anyone call her dad?"

"I called Charlie just before the ambulance got to Jessica's," Rosalie said.

As if on cue, a man came tearing into the vicinity.

"Where is she? Where's my daughter?"

There were nurses running around, trying to calm him down, "Sir, please, you're scaring the other patients."

"I don't give a shit, where's my…" He saw Alice and Rosalie and came over, "Alice, Rose – where's Bella."

"She's getting some stitches as we speak," Debra said, looking at her chart. "She just got in, so if you'll all just sit here in the waiting room, I'll be back when the doctor's finished."

"Thanks Deb," I said.

She smiled and left as Alice and Rosalie took Bella's Dad to sit down.

"What happened?" he asked. "Rose said there was some kind of accident."

"We weren't there when it happened, Charlie," Alice replied. "She was with Edward and Jacob."

"Who's Edward?"

"That's me, Sir," I said, standing in front of him.

"What did you do to my daughter?" He asked angrily.

"We were in the basement and Jacob had been drinking – he tried to take Bella upstairs with him, but I stopped him. He got upset and pushed me and we started to fight; Bella was trying to stop us when Jacob pushed her aside to get her out of the way. He didn't mean to hurt her, but she ran into a banister with this very sharp edge and cut her back on it."

Charlie's expression calmed as I told him the story, "I can't believe Jacob would be so stupid – getting drunk like that."

We all just sat quietly until Debra came back out, "The doctor's finished with the stitches. You can go see her now."

"You go first, Charlie," Alice said.

He nodded numbly and walked down the hallway to Bella's room. When he left, Alice and Rosalie both gave me amused grins.

"What?"

"Girlfriend, huh? Don't suppose you just mean friend who's a girl, right?" Alice asked.

"No, I don't," I replied simply. "But, I think I should probably wait until Bella's feeling better to make that official."

"Uh-huh," Rosalie said.

I sighed and sat down between them. We waited for a few more minutes until Charlie came back out. He seemed a bit perturbed still.

"She wants to see you three," he said. "She's still kinda out of it, though."

We stood and walked to the room. I pushed the door open and they had Bella lying on her stomach with her face to the side. Much to my surprise, my dad was there next to her.

"What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Well, when you called and said your friend was hurt at a party that I assumed wasn't chaperoned," he paused and waited for confirmation from me – I shook my head, "I decided to come do some damage control. I figured Bella's parents would be upset about the whole ordeal."

Alice rushed to her side. "How you feeling, Bells?"

"Fine," she slurred. "Just want to go."

"Well, I'm sure Charlie will have you out in a bit."

"I'm sleeping at your house," Bella said raising her head to look at Alice, "Remember?"

"But, I don't think Charlie will want you to…"

"I already talked to him – it's fine."

"She did," Dad said, "He wasn't too thrilled about it, either."

"OK, if you want to," Alice said.

I tried not to smile too big as I heard Bella would be staying over tonight. I walked over and got eye-level with her.

"Hey, how's my girl?"

"Girlfriend," she corrected.

I kissed her on her forehead, "And don't you forget it."

We got her back to the house and up into Alice's room. I could hear the girls talking while I sat in my room thinking of Bella. After about an hour, when I was sure my parents had gone to sleep, I made my way to Alice's room.

"Hey," I said, peeking my head in, "Can I talk to Bella alone for a second?"

Alice and Rose gave me those same grins they had before and walked out of the room. Bella was on Alice's bed with her head propped up onto some pillows. She turned her face towards me and I stretched out on the bed next to her.

"Your back's not hurting, is it?"

"No," she replied.

She lifted her left hand and placed it on my chest. She started massaging gently, moving down towards my stomach. I gasped as her hand dipped even lower.

"Bella…we can't do that right now," I said.

"Why not, we'll be quiet."

"I don't want to hurt you anymore tonight."

"But I want to continue what we started in the closet," she said as her hand slipped under my boxers.

I froze as that soft, little hand brushed over my erection. My hips jerked up involuntarily and that seemed to encourage her.

"Mmmm, I've never been able to make a boy do that before."

"Somehow, I highly doubt that," I replied, finally regaining my composure and pulling her hand out of my pants.

She then managed to move herself closer and attacked my lips with hers. She moaned as our lips slanted against each other over and over again. Then she pulled away and gave a sort of inebriated giggle. She must be pretty hopped up on pain killers right now.

"Bells, what did they give you for the pain?"

"I don't know," she said sleepily, "Started with a 'P,' I think."

Percocet…great – I hoped that at least a little bit of this brazen behavior was actually Bella, and not just the drug-induced haze, but I wasn't going to hold my breath.

"Go to sleep, love," I said, kissing her lips one last time, "I'll see you in the morning."

She tried to reach up and protest my leaving, but she was just too tired now. I smiled at her as she quickly dozed off and then turned off the light and left.

BPOV

I woke up feeling groggier than I ever have in my life. My head was so hazy it felt like it was in a fishbowl. I started looking around and noticed that Rosalie and Alice were sleeping on the floor next to me. That's when I remembered what happened last night – Jacob pushed me, I cut my back on something sharp and then I wound up here at Alice's again.

Then something else came to me – Edward lying next to me. He was so sweet and he smelled so good. Then I remembered what I did. I actually stuck my hand down his pants and touched him.

Oh my god! I'm a tramp! I groaned and Alice immediately jumped up to check on me.

"Does your back hurt?" She asked. "Do you need some more Percocet?"

"No," I said, "I was just remembering something."

"Thinking about what happened last night? It wasn't your fault, Bells."

"Not that – I'm talking about when Edward came in here last night."

"What happened? Did he hurt you? Did he say something stupid? If he did, I swear to god, I'll kill him."

"He was perfect – it was me."

"Why? What did you do?"

"I…stuck my hand down his pants."

"Bella!" Alice laughed. "You got to second base with my brother while you were in my bed, you hussy?"

"Yeah," I said quietly, I felt a tear slip down my cheek.

"I was just kidding, Bells," she said, sitting down next to me, "You're not really a hussy."

"Yes I am, what other kind of girl tries to make a move on a boy when I'm supposed to be resting from an injury."

"Bells, you were on a lot of pain killers; I'm sure Edward understands – hell, he probably enjoyed that immensely."

"Well," I mused, "He was rather…excited."

"OK, this conversation just crossed over into creepy, so I'm going to go get you some breakfast."

"Thanks," I replied as I laid my head back down.

Suddenly, I felt someone stroke my hair gently, "Hey Bells, feeling OK?"

It was Rosalie.

"Yeah, sorry we woke you up."

"Oh, don't be sorry, I needed to get up, anyway, I've got to go home and help my mom do some things around the house. I'll call you later to see how you're feeling, OK?"

"OK, see ya."

She packed a few things and left, but she didn't shut the door behind her – I assumed that Alice must be back with breakfast. But, a very familiar and wonderful smell filled the room. Edward – and he had donuts.

He set them down on the bedside table and crouched down to be at eye-level with me.

"Good morning, love," he said.

I felt a warm sensation course through my body when he referred to me as love. So I hadn't ruined everything last night.

"Good morning; I don't know what I like better, seeing you or seeing a nice bag of donuts."

"Well, I should hope it's me," he chuckled.

"It is," I replied, "But the donuts are a close second – especially if you got some with sprinkles."

"As a matter of fact, I did," he said as he pulled a cake donut with vanilla frosting and pink sprinkles out of the bag.

"How did you know pink was my favorite color?"

"Just a guess," he said with a smirk, "You wear a lot of pink."

He gently got me to sit up before grabbing a cruller for himself. We ate our donuts in silence, ignoring that 900 lb. elephant in the room – otherwise known as 'what had transpired last night.'

I was about to turn to him and apologize when Alice burst in.

"Hey, I was getting Bella breakfast," she whined.

She came into view and I saw she had a plateful of scrambled eggs with toast and bacon for me. It smelled almost as good as Edward and the donuts.

"Sorry," Edward said after he swallowed the last of his cruller, "You snooze, you lose."

"I got up at 7 to make her breakfast," Alice said.

"Well I got up at 6 to go over to the coffee shop and get their first fresh batch of donuts for the day," he countered.

"Fine," Alice said, "I guess she is your 'girlfriend,' after all."

"Yeah, she is," Edward replied, taking my hand.

"Well then, you guys eat your fatty, cholesterol-filled donuts, and I'll enjoy my eggs."

"Which are also filled with cholesterol," Edward teased, "As is that fatty, disgusting bacon."

Alice stuck her tongue out at him and dug into the food. I reached for the bag of donuts, but Edward stopped me.

"No extraneous reaching for you, love," he said. "Let me get that."

He took the bag and pulled out a cherry Danish, I practically started drooling right there.

"Mmmm, I love Danish!" I said.

"Who doesn't?" Edward replied as he leaned over and pressed his lips to mine.

I expected to hear some kind of mock-disgusted complaint from Alice, but when I looked up, she was looking towards the door with wide eyes. I followed her gaze and found my dad standing there – looking upset.

"Hey Dad, we're just having some breakfast," I said quickly, "I'll be ready to go in a second."

He just stared at us – actually, stared at Edward, "So, you're name's Edward, right?"

Edward nodded.

"Mind telling me why the hell you're kissing my daughter?"

"Because…she's my girlfriend."

"Like hell she is," Dad spat viciously, "You know, you're just like your father, kid – trying to move in and sweet-talk a poor innocent girl into falling for you. Well, it didn't work for him, and it ain't going to work for you."

"Dad, stop! What are you talking about?" I cried.

"Come on, Bella, we're going home."

He tugged at my arm, but Edward stopped him, "Hey, be careful! You'll tear her stitches."

Dad pushed Edward's hands aside and picked me up, careful not to touch the bandage on my back. He carried me downstairs and put me gently in the truck. He got in the other side and we left without a word to anyone.

Once we were on the road, I turned to him, "Why did you do that? Edward helped me last night, he made sure I got to the hospital after Jacob pushed me, and you're treating him like he's the bad guy."

"He's bad news, Bells, I can feel it!"

"No he's not! I don't know what happened between you and Dr. Cullen, but Edward is wonderful and sweet…and I really like him, Dad."

"Bells," he began, giving me a sad look, "Please just trust me on this."

"I can't, Dad – you're being impossible! I haven't been happy in a very long time, and now I think I've finally found something that makes me happy and you're taking it away from me," my voice started to break – I couldn't stop the tears from coming.

"See, he's already making you cry."

"YOU'RE making me cry, Dad!"

We got into the house and I walked in and made my way up to my room, despite the pain I was in. I stopped at the top of the stairs.

"I'm going to keep on seeing Edward, Dad, whether you like it or not! I'm going to be eighteen in a couple of weeks, so there's really nothing you can do to stop me."

I turned and walked into my room, slamming the door behind me before he had a chance to reply.

Next, we'll get a peek into the pasts of Charlie, Renee, Esme and Carlisle…stay tuned…