Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all.
Chapter 4: Discussions
When I woke up the next morning, I thought that the whole day was a dream, though a wonderful dream it was. Then, I rolled over and saw him looking at me. I realized that it wasn't a dream at all. Edward was back, and he was here with me. I smiled at him, and he leaned over and kissed me. I put my arms around his neck, and he pulled me closer to him. I could feel the cool of his body up against mine. It felt right. He pulled away from me and said, "Bella, you need to go and get ready. I have to go and change clothes. I will see you at class. I love you."
"I love you, too. I always have, and I always will," I said getting out of the bed and walking with him to the front door. "This is going to get complicated, isn't it?"
"I don't want to complicate your life, Bella. I just want you to be happy. I'll do whatever it takes to make you happy."
"You are my world. You being back brings me back to life. You make me happy. I just don't want to hurt Jacob in the process."
"We'll take it one day at a time, then. I won't do anything to compromise your relationship with Jacob."
"We've already done that, Edward. You are back, and I've already admitted that I love you more than life itself. I've already kissed you and spent the night in your arms. I can't go back from there even if I wanted to. I don't think that Jacob will understand me sleeping with you, do you?"
"No, I don't. I'm sorry to have put you in that situation, Bella, but I've dreamed of holding you in my arms every day since I left you. I'm not sorry that I stayed. I can't lie to myself or to you and say that I would do it differently if I had the chance to change things."
"Me either, Edward. I wouldn't change a thing. I just think that we need to be more discreet in school. Several of the students know that I'm married from college, and I don't think that it would be a good idea for you and me to flaunt our relationship in front of them. I don't look forward to telling Jacob that you're back in my life, and I don't want it coming from one of them. I've told Thomas about our past, and I trust him to keep it to himself. He isn't very happy with you for leaving me, but I think that he will grow to accept you in my life when he sees how happy you make me."
"How well do you know Thomas? How did you meet him?"
"Thomas and I met during our second year of college. We basically had the same schedule in all of our classes the first year, but didn't meet. When we were in the same classes the second year, we ended up being lab partners for organic chemistry. We worked very well together, and we quickly became fast friends. We studied together frequently, and our study styles meshed. We found that we could talk about anything with each other. He came over one weekend, and he and Jake hit it off. He's been my best friend ever since."
"He was your best friend, but you never told him about me?"
"No, I never told anyone about you except my therapist. Dad made me go into therapy after you left. He thought that I was suicidal, and honestly, I was. I didn't see any life without you in it. I didn't want to go on. Between my therapist and Jacob, I was able to find a way to pretend that I was getting better and could have an existence without you in it. Honestly, it was all a sham. The only thing that kept me going was school. For some reason, I made a goal to go to medical school, and I put all of my efforts into that goal, to the exclusion of everything else. Now, here I am, and I found you again. It must have been fate!"
"It was fate, or Alice, who knows which it was! Now, Bella, you've got to go and get ready, and I've got to go. We're both going to be late, and you don't want people talking. Shoo!" He kissed me again, and he walked out of the door. I looked at my watch and realized that I was so going to be late. I raced through my shower, just putting my hair into a bun and threw on some old jeans and a too big T-shirt. I grabbed my bag, thankful again for the fact that I always packed it when I finished studying. I ran to the car and raced to school, parking as close as I could to the front of the parking garage. I grabbed my books and practically ran to the lower auditorium. I rushed in and quickly found Thomas and took my seat. It wasn't two minutes later that Edward and Alice came into the room and took two seats behind us. Thomas looked at me, and then he turned around and looked at Edward. He wasn't smiling. I looked at Alice who didn't have a hair out of place, and she grinned at me. She leaned over and said, "I knew that we wouldn't be late. Why rush?"
I laughed and turned back around in my seat. I got my paper out and got ready to take notes. The professor had entered the room, and had started the sign in sheet circulating. He had also started circulating a handout. Then he went to the front of the room and started his lecture. He prefaced it with the news that Friday would be our first exam. It would cover all of the calculations that they were covering during the first four days of class. I looked at each of my three friends in turn. Of the three of us, Alice seemed to be the least affected. Of course, I thought, she already knew. Oh how I was going to ream her a good one for not sharing that little tidbit of information. Edward looked like he was having that same little conversation with her at the present. His lips were moving, but there was no sound coming out. I knew that they were having one of their private discussions. I could only hope that it was about the upcoming exam and not about our night together. I wasn't really ready for Alice to be that involved in our private lives.
I turned back around and started taking notes. The information was again straight forward. I took good notes and ignored my cell which was on vibrate. I knew that Thomas was texting me, and I chose to ignore him during class. I didn't feel like talking about Edward and me at this time, and I felt sure that the topic of the texts would involve just that. At the end of the first hour, we got a five minute break to stretch while the professor changed out the slide carousel in the media booth. I took the time to pull out my cell phone and look at the text messages. They were all from Thomas, just as I suspected. The first one said, "B, what exactly is going on with you and Edward?" The second one said, "Come on, B, talk to me," and the third one said, "You can't ignore me forever."
I turned to Thomas and said, "Thomas, this is something that I'm not comfortable discussing with you. Not here anyway. Please, respect my privacy."
He looked at me, and then he looked down like I'd slapped him in the face. I hadn't meant to hurt him, but I was having a hard enough time dealing with the fact that Edward was back in my life and the fact that I was so in love with him that I was having a hard time breathing, much less keeping my hands off of him. If Jasper would have been here, I know that he would have been all over the place with the emotions that I was giving off at the present time. I was ecstatic, hopeful, lustful, that was a huge one, worried, scared, fearful, sorrow, and also hurt. Add into that the nervousness at being in medical school, and I was one fucked up girl.
When the lecture resumed, I began taking notes again, trying to distract myself from both Edward and Thomas by paying attention to the professor. Out of my peripheral vision, I noticed that Thomas was making no effort to keep up. I reached over and patted him on the arm, trying to tell him that I wasn't mad at him. He looked up at me and grimaced. I smiled at him, and then I turned back to the lecture. When the lecture was over and the professor had left the room, a woman went down to the podium and asked for us all to stay for a few extra minutes. She introduced herself as Mary Adams and said that she was interested in running for class president. She had put a tentative schedule for the note taking service in our mailboxes on the day before. If we were interested in participating in the note taking service, we needed to get our fee to her by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. She already had someone to do the taping, and she would do the courier service for the first semester. The people on the list for the lectures yesterday and this morning needed to pick up their tapes and get the lectures transcribed since we have a test on Friday. If we were interested in running for class officer, we needed to contact her to put our names on a ballot. Elections would be Monday morning after Biochem if that was okay with everyone. She then opened the floor to anyone else having any announcements. There weren't any, so we all stood up to leave.
Thomas stood up and looked at me. He seemed to have something on his mind, but he was just standing there. I looked at him and said, "Okay Thomas, spill."
"Bella, are we still going to study together? Or are you going to study with …,"
I looked at Thomas. Then I turned and looked at Edward and Alice. I said, "I was hoping that we could all study together like we did last night. Thomas, I would never leave you stranded. You have been my study partner for the past three years. I don't intend to stop that now. If you give Edward and Alice a chance, I think that you'll see that they are very valuable study partners. Edward will have a very valuable grasp on the information, and Alice is very instinctive about what information is usually on tests. I've known them since high school, and they are very good people to have in a study group."
"Of course, Bella. What ever you want. Let's go to the library then. We need to claim a study room," Thomas said, glancing at Edward and Alice as he spoke.
"So, Bella, what exactly is that you are wearing? I foresee a shopping trip in your near future," Alice said as we walked down the corridor towards the library.
"No, Alice. I don't want to go shopping. I just got up late this morning and didn't have time to dress appropriately. I went for comfortably casual today."
"You didn't go for comfortably casual. You went for at home and depressed, eating a gallon of ice cream. From what Jazz said, you are definitely not putting off depressed."
"No, I'm not. Jazz always could read my moods so well, couldn't he," I said, glancing at Thomas. We walked the rest of the way in silence. We found an empty room and Thomas entered the room.
Edward put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Bella, Alice and I are going to hang out here for a little bit. You need to go and talk to Thomas. He has a lot of questions that he needs to ask you. You hurt his feelings earlier. We'll come back when things are better between the two of you."
"Edward, it's none of his business. I hope that you haven't told the whole family about everything. I don't even know what I'm feeling now. I'm not ready to discuss our lives with everyone, yet. We still have a lot of talking to do."
"I know, love. I know. We'll be right out here. I'll be able to hear you, so if you need me, just say so."
"Yeah, how would I explain that. My boyfriend has supersonic hearing. I'm sure that'll make him accept you so much sooner."
"I'll be here if you need me. In fact, I'll go in with you if you want me to. Alice too. We'll stand by you."
"Yes, Edward, I want you there. Alice, too."
"Okay, we'll come with you." He and Alice walked into the room with me. Thomas was sitting at the table with his books already out. He looked frustrated that we had talked outside before coming into the room.
Edward, Alice, and I took our seats. I looked at Thomas and said, "Okay, Thomas. I'm ready to answer your questions. You have been my closest friend for the past three years, and you've trusted me with your secrets and your heartaches. It isn't fair for me to be in the middle of my biggest heartache and to keep you locked out."
"Okay, Edward spent the night at your place last night?"
"Yes, he did."
"Did you sleep together?"
"Well, yes, I slept with him, but besides kissing, that's all that we did. We did not make love. We've never made love. Edward and I have never been together that way."
"You expect me to believe that the one man that you profess you undying love for, the one man that you can not live without, the only man that you've ever let into your heart, has never been with you sexually?"
"Yes, that's the truth. As a matter of fact, we've never even touched each other in a sexual manner. The only thing that we've ever done in all of our history together is kissed."
"Alice, Edward is your brother. You've known him all of your life. Do you believe that?"
"Yes, I do. Edward has very strong morals. His beliefs are those of someone who may as well have been born at the turn of the twentieth century. Edward is still a virgin," Alice said.
"Do you have to announce that to the whole world, Alice?" Edward asked, shaking his head. He got up from his seat and moved over to stand behind mine. He put his hands on my shoulders and leaned over to kiss my head. "Thomas, I love Bella with all of my heart, but I will not take advantage of her and her confusion. She is married to Jacob, and though I can't stand him, I will not let her break her marriage vows. I did kiss her, and for that I may burn in hell, but I will not advance my intentions towards her. I am not willing to let my friendship with her go now that I've found her again, and if she chooses to leave Jacob, I'll be right here waiting for her. I want to be a part of her life again. I do not want to take your place in her life, though. I have my own place in her heart, just as you have your own place in her heart. I hope that you can accept Alice and me into your life."
"Edward, I find it hard to believe that you don't have untoward intentions in regards to Bella. You have phenomenal good looks, and Bella is totally infatuated with you. You come into her life when she is physically separated from her husband. You left her telling her that she wasn't enough for you and your family, and now, you're back for one day, and you are all of a sudden spending the night at her place. It just all smells rotten to me."
"Thomas, Edward has always been the one to put on the brakes in our relationship. Even when we were in high school, I would have taken things farther many times if Edward hadn't stopped us. He truly has my best interest at heart. I'm not saying that I would have taken things farther last night, but I'm sure that if I would have tried, he would have stopped me. Edward has this very old fashioned idea that you should be married before you make love with someone. You could trust him with your sister."
"I don't know,
Bella. There just seems to be something strange about him and Alice.
I can't put my finger on it, but they just make me nervous,"
Thomas said. "No offense."
"None taken," Alice said.
"Now, let's get to work. This morning's lectures were pretty
straight forward. Did either of you have a problem with any of the
problems?"
"No, I thought they were fine," I said. "How about you, Thomas? I noticed that you weren't paying complete attention. Did you want us to go over any of the questions?"
"Yeah, I guess so. I wasn't listening very closely," Thomas said.
"Okay," Edward said, standing up at the dry erase board. Alice tossed him a dry erase marker, and he began going over all of the types of problems from this morning, making up new examples as he went. It wasn't long before Thomas was paying attention to Edward's explanations. It seemed that he forgot that he was questioning Edward's integrity only an hour ago. While Edward was making up problems, Alice seemed to become dazed for a little while, then she took out a piece of paper and started writing on it. She slipped me the piece of paper, and I looked at it. She had written several problems on it, about ten to twelve. I folded the piece of paper and put it into my backpack to put with the other paper that she had given me last night. I knew that she was having premonitions of our exam and was writing the exam questions down as she saw them. I also knew that we couldn't share these with Thomas. We would never be able to explain to him that Alice could see the future. All that we could do was to make sure that he could do a similar problem. At some point I wasn't sure how I felt about using Alice's premonitions to study by. After all, I knew that these problems wouldn't be examples to study by. I knew that they were the actual problems on the test. I knew that this was as good as cheating. I would have to think about this one.
"Wow Edward. Bella was right. You do seem to grasp the information quickly. What? Do you have a photographic memory or something?" Thomas asked after an hour and a half of studying.
"Or something," Edward laughed. "It is 11:30. We have an hour and a half until Anatomy. I know that Bella is going to have to go to get something to eat, so we really only have about 30 minutes left. What do you want to do now?"
"Bella, are you going to sign up for the note taking service?" Thomas asked.
"Edward? Alice? Do we need it?" I asked looking at them.
"No, love, you don't. We'll cover your backs," Edward said. "Between Alice and me, you'll have all of the information that you two will need to do well."
"Cocky son of a bitch, aren't you?" Thomas asked.
"No, just confident," Edward answered.
"Join us for lunch?" I asked Edward and Alice.
"Um, you know that we'd love to, but I think not," Alice said, turning up her nose at the thought. "I don't think that Edward and I will eat until tonight. We promised Carlisle and Esme that we'd go out with them later tonight."
"Oh, okay then. I guess that Thomas and I will go and try to beat the crowd. We'll meet you two in the lecture hall." I gathered my notebook and papers, and Thomas followed me out of the library. We made our way to the cafeteria and got our lunch. We quickly found a table and sat down. Most of the tables were taken up by students, some at every level of training. I was lost in thought when I heard a voice out of my past. I slowly turned to my right, and at the next table was a group of white coated students with their attending physician. They were going over patients while eating. The voice that I recognized belonged to the attending physician. I felt myself moving, not aware that I was doing so. I stood and walked over to the table. I stood there, just staring. Thomas made a move to stand, but just then, the attending looked up.
"Bella, is that you?" he said, standing up from the table. His students just looked shocked at his response.
"Carlisle! Oh my God! It is you!" I said, reaching up to hug his neck and give him a kiss on the cheek. "I've missed you so much! It's so good to see you! I never thought that I'd see you again!" The tears had started falling again.
He reached up and wiped the tears from my eyes. "Bella, daughter, I thought that we'd lost you forever. When Edward and Alice told me that you were in their class, I felt my world open up again. Esme is dying to see you. When will you come over? You know that you are a part of the family, now and hopefully forever, as soon as we can convince Edward, and assuming that you still want it."
"We discussed that last night. I'm ready now, but he still wants to wait. Carlisle, I can't wait to see you all again. Maybe this weekend? Maybe on Saturday? I'll have to ask Edward."
"No, you don't. Consider yourself invited. I'll let Esme know. And Emmett. I'll tell Rosalie to be on her best behavior. I know that you saw Jasper last night. We had a talk about your conversation. It was good of you to let him off of the hook about the accident. He has been blaming himself for everything for the past five years. None of us has been able to convince him that he wasn't at fault. You did a good thing last night, Bella."
"Well, Carlisle, it wasn't his fault. I was the careless one. If any fault was to lay, it should have been with me. Jasper was in no way to blame," I said.
"Yeah, that's what I tried to tell him for years, but he wouldn't listen to me," Carlisle said.
"Or me, for that matter," Alice said, walking up to us. "I see you found our Bella, Dad."
"No, actually, she found me," Carlisle admitted.
"And she's coming over Saturday for the day. How did you talk her into that?" Edward asked.
"Just a Dad's persuasion. I told her that Esme missed her. No one can say no to Esme," Carlisle said.
"Dad, we'd better go. We're going to be late for Anatomy," Edward said.
"Okay, you guys get going. Bella, it's been great seeing you again. Our house, on Saturday, right? Don't disappoint Esme. I love you daughter," Carlisle said.
I reached up and gave him another hug and a kiss on the cheek. If he could have blushed, he would have. He went back to his table and continued to go over patients with his students. We walked out of the cafeteria and towards the lower auditorium.
"I guess that was Edward and Alice's father," Thomas said.
"Yes, that was Dr. Carlisle Cullen. He's a second father to me. He's a great guy," I said.
"What did he mean a part of the family? What did you mean that you and Edward discussed it last night and that Edward still wanted to wait?" Thomas asked.
"Edward and I talked about marriage last night. That's all. Okay. Carlisle and the others have been ready for me to be a part of the family for years, but Edward is holding off. Even if I were to divorce Jacob, he would still want to wait."
We went into the lower auditorium. The four of us took our seats. I got my paper ready to take notes, and I looked up at Edward. He had some paper out as well. Our first lecture was concerning nerve types, specifically looking at receptor types. I did my best to take notes, but there were things that I knew that I was missing. The lecture was just too fast, and the slides were just too complicated to copy them in their entirety. At the end of the lecture, I reached up and pulled Edward's notes down to look at them. It was just as I remembered from high school. They were perfect. I looked up at him and grinned. He grinned back at me and leaned over and whispered, "I told you that I have you covered."
I whispered back to him, "Yeah, but what happens on sunny days?"
"I don't know, yet. We may just stay the night, or we may just skip. We haven't decided, yet. Regardless, you know that you can count on Alice."
"Yeah, about that. I don't know how comfortable I am with that."
"Why not? You will still be studying the information. You'll just be streamlining your studying. Trust me. You'll learn enough to be successful." I followed him to the anatomy lab. I stored my books in my locker and got my lab coat, lab manual, and dissection kit out of the locker. Alice came up to me with a lock for the locker.
"I knew that you'd need one, so when I picked up one for Edward and me, I got one for you, too," she said.
"Thanks, Alice. I appreciate it," I said while I memorized the combination. I walked into the lab and met my partners at my lab station. We opened the vat and pulled out our cadaver. We picked up the dissection where we left off the day before. When we got to the serratus posterior superior and the serratus posterior inferior, we had trouble identifying the blood supply. We reread the lab manual. We looked at the atlas. We searched again for the arteries that we were looking for. We just couldn't find them. I walked over to Edward's table and asked him to show me what he had, and he did. They were right there, where they were supposed to be. I asked Edward to come to our table and to see if he could find ours. He located the intercostal arteries almost at once. He showed us how they left the area between the ribs and traveled to the muscles. I thanked him, and he went back to his table. Eric was impressed with his knowledge.
"How do you know him?" Eric asked me.
"He was my boyfriend in high school. He has always been super smart," I told Eric as we started looking for the next set of muscles.
"His lab partner is so lucky. No offense, but it would be great to work with someone who knows so much," Eric said.
"No offense taken. His lab partner is Alice, his sister. She is a great person. She has been my best friend since we were juniors in high school.
"How old are they? They both look so young."
"Edward would be..." I quickly turned to look at Edward, and he walked over to our table.
He walked over to Eric and held out his hand. "Hi, I'm sorry. I didn't introduce myself a moment ago. I'm Edward Cullen. I'm a friend of Bella's from a while back. I heard you ask her how old I am. I get that question a lot. I guess that I look young. My sister and I are both twenty."
"How do you know so much about the dissection? I studied the lab manual, and I can tell that Bella has, too, but neither one of us could see where the arteries were," Eric asked Edward.
"Well, I guess that I'm a little bit more aggressive with the dissections. My dad is a surgeon, and I guess he has rubbed off on me," Edward said. "It is good to meet you, Eric."
"Yeah, good to meet you, too. Thanks for your help, Edward," Eric said. We managed to complete the assignment by the end of the class period. Eric left early, but Thomas and I stayed and Edward quizzed Alice and us on the lab information. We used his cadaver. When lab was over, we washed our equipment, and lowered our cadavers back into their vats.
We gathered at our lockers and decided to gather at my apartment. Edward and Alice told us that they would catch up with us in about an hour because they were meeting with Carlisle and Esme to eat. I told them that Thomas and I would eat a bite as well. When we got to my apartment, I made us some spaghetti and we ate. We sat down on the couch as we ate, and we talked about the day. I told Thomas that he had a good day. After all, Amanda and Grace hadn't caught up with him today. He laughed and said that it was a sad day when he measured whether a day was good or bad by whether a girl was chasing him or not. I laughed, too. I almost jumped out of my skin when my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller and saw that it was Jake.
I took a deep breath, and then I answered the phone. "Hi, Jake. How are things at the res?"
"Good, I guess. Seth thought that he picked up a leach odor the other day. He followed it, but it just played out. I don't know if it was just his wishful thinking, or if he was actually on the trail of something. None of the rest of us have caught a whiff, but it has been raining pretty steadily."
"Is that right? Where did Seth pick it up?"
"Over near the old Cullen house." There was a knock on the door, and I went to answer it, putting a finger to my mouth as Edward and Alice came inside.
"Jake, isn't that out of bounds? Doesn't that violate the treaty boundaries? Wasn't Seth on the wrong side of the treaty line to be that close to the house?" Edward's head turned to listen closely to our conversation.
"Bella, those leaches are long gone. They've been gone for over five years. As long as they aren't in possession of the house, we're going to patrol the entire area. We can't have any leaches in the area feel safe just because they think that we can't go into the Cullen's backyard because of the treaty. If they come back, then we'll put the treaty back in force, but until then, we'll patrol the entire area. If Seth was right and there was a leach in the area, we need to know who it was. If one of those leaches is back, then we need to know it so that we can put the treaty back into effect."
"Jake, what if one of you gets caught on the other side of the treaty line? What will happen if they catch you?"
"Do you know something? Are they back?"
"No, Jake. I don't know about any of them being back in Forks. Besides, the way that everything played out, I'm sure that I would be the last one they would tell that they're back. I'm just worried about one of the others coming back. I don't want anyone to get hurt, especially Seth."
"Well, I didn't mean to hurt you. How is school going?"
"It is hard.
Biochem is okay for now, but Anatomy is hard as hell. Thomas is over
and we're just about to start to study again. I've gotta go. Please
tell Seth to be careful for me. Be careful. I'll talk to you later,
Jake. Bye."
"I'll tell him. Bye Bella." I hung up the
phone and looked at Edward. He was trying to avoid my eyes.
"Did one of you go back to the house? Was it one of you, or was it someone else that I need to worry about?" I asked Edward in a low voice with my back to Thomas.
"It was Emmett. He went to the house to see how it was holding up. Esme wants to open it up for this weekend so we can go back there and have a nice, quiet time," Edward told me, also talking with his back to Thomas.
"Edward, I am married to one of the pack leaders. Don't you think that he will pick up my smell at your house? Don't you think that he will figure out that you are back if we go to the Cullen house? What is Esme thinking? I can't go back to Forks with you. Now that Seth has picked up on Emmett's trail, they will pick up the patrols around your house."
"I think that Carlisle is going to speak with Sam and tell him that they are back. I think that he is going to tell him that I haven't returned. That should protect you. If Carlisle forces them to keep to the treaty's boundary lines, and I don't run around and stick to the car, they should never know that I've been there. You should also be safe there. We can keep you under the dashboard while in Forks, and once you are within our boundary lines, you will be safe. You know that they can't break the boundary line without provoking an all out war. They don't want that."
Alice walked up to us and said, "This weekend will be fine. We'll go to the house, and Jake will not find out about it. I've seen it. We'll be just like we used to be."
"Who am I to fight Alice? Just make sure to call Carlisle," I said. I turned to Thomas who was patiently waiting for us to rejoin him. Edward went to the kitchen to call Carlisle. He returned in five minutes and joined me on the floor, taking me into his arms.
"I guess that no one is going to share that conversation with me. I can tell now. This arrangement is going to get on my nerves. I hate being the fourth wheel, in this case. I feel like you three would like it better if I weren't here at all. You could have your conversations without me interfering. I think that I'm going to go now," Thomas said.
"Thomas, no. Please don't go. I'm sorry that we were so rude. I apologize that we have been rude. There are just so many things going on that you wouldn't understand and that we really aren't at liberty to discuss with you," I said, taking his hand and holding it, preventing him from packing up his books.
"Try me! Bella, don't you trust me? We have always trusted each other. What is it about your life that has gotten so complicated that you can't trust me with it? Are you in some kind of trouble? Is there something about Edward's family that puts you in danger? Is his family in trouble with the law? Bella, trust me," Thomas said.
Edward looked at Alice who was appearing blank. "Okay, we'll trust you with out secrets," Edward said.
"No, Edward! What about the Volturi! You can't! They'll kill him! It's not worth it. Please Edward!" I begged.
"No, Bella. I've seen it. He will understand. He will keep the secret, and we'll be able to keep his knowledge from the Volturi. In fact, it isn't for certain, but he may change in the future."
"No! That's not fair. You can't! He isn't made for your world," I said.
"That's what I've been saying about you, love. It's taken being away from you for 5 years to change my mind," Edward said. "Thomas, are you sure that you want to know our tale? Once you know it, you can't go back. If you try to let our secret out, you will be hunted down and killed."
"Yeah, right. Some joke. Yeah, I'm sure," Thomas said.
"Thomas, they aren't joking. If anyone besides us finds out that you know our secret, then a group known as the Volturi will hunt you down, and they will kill you. Be sure that you want to know what is going on before they continue," I said.
"I'm sure. What are you involved in, Bella?"
"Well," I said leaning back into Edward's arms, "I guess that the place to start is to tell you that Edward and Alice, as well as the rest of their family are vampires."
"Okay, sure, jokes over. Ha, ha. Really funny. You all had me going. I'm leaving now," Thomas said.
"I'm telling the truth. Edward was born in 1901. He was changed by Carlisle in 1918 during the Spanish Flu epidemic in which his mother and father perished. He was 17 years old. He will never be older than 17 years old. Alice was changed in the early 1900's. She joined the Cullens several decades after she was changed. She is married to Jasper, the one who you met yesterday."
"You really expect me to believe this story?" Thomas asked.
"You really think that I look younger than 17? And yes, Alice is very happily married. She and Jasper have been together for about 40 years now....No, Jacob isn't a vampire, he is a werewolf, our sworn enemy... Yes, Bella knew that before she married him....Yes, he actually turns into a wolf....I don't know, I can't read Bella's mind. Hers is the only mind that I cannot read. Bella, Thomas wants to know if you and Jake have ever had sex when he was a dog?"
"Edward, first, no, I wouldn't ever do him when he is a wolf, and second, I asked you to not call him 'dog.'" I said.
"I didn't hear you telling him not to call us leaches." Edward said.
"Well, would you have had me say, 'Jake, Edward and Alice are standing here, and I wouldn't let them call you dog, so you can't call them leach?'"
"No, I guess not. Are you going to tell him that I'm back?" Edward asked.
"Isn't Carlisle going to tell him that you're not back? Why would I go against that?"
"You're serious? You two are really vampires? Why aren't you drinking our blood?" Thomas asked.
"We're vegetarians. We only drink from animals. That is harder for some of us than others. Jasper has a harder time than the rest of us. I know that you've heard us talk about the accident on Bella's birthday. She got a paper cut on her finger while opening her present. Jasper almost attacked her before we got him under control and out of the room. That is when I decided that it was too dangerous for her to be around my family. That was when I decided that I had to leave her for her own good." Edward said.
"It wasn't Jasper's fault. He hadn't hunted for several days, and I was careless. It was my fault. I don't blame Jasper. I love Jasper as a brother," I said. "This also explains why Edward can help us so much with school. This is his fourth time through medical school. This is Alice's first time through, but Alice can see the future. She has been seeing some of the questions on the test for Friday. She writes them down as she sees them."
"This is just a little too much for me to take in. How do you come out in the daytime?" Thomas asked.
"That is just a myth. We don't come out in the sunlight because of an effect that it has on our skin, but it doesn't burn us or anything. The only thing that hurts us is fire," Alice said.
"I'm sorry that I don't really believe you. I mean that mind reading is a good parlor trick, but I think that you're pulling a good one over on me. Can you prove it?" Thomas asked.
"Well, there are too many people around for us to really show out," Alice said.
"I thought so. Bella, I can't believe that they have you going along with them. I thought that you were my friend," Thomas said.
"Well, Bella, if you had a dog around, we could prove it for him," Edward said.
"Alice, I'm tired of him calling my boys dogs. Why don't you pull his arm off?" I said.
"Bella, I was just joking," Edward said, backing away from Alice who was advancing on him.
"Alice, what have I done to you lately? You don't have to do this, you know. Come on, Alice, please. You know it takes me days before I can play right," Edward said.
"Would you rather I take your leg?" Alice asked.
"EWWW, no, you'd have to put it back. No thank you," Edward said as Alice took hold of his right hand. "Alice, the left arm, please. I write with the right." Alice switched hands. She put a leg up against his abdomen and twisted his arm and pulled at the same time. Then she jumped back. With a loud ripping sound, Edward's left arm came away in Alice's hands. Alice walked up to Thomas and handed him Edward's arm.
Thomas took Edward's arm in his hands, holding it by his fingertips. Edward walked up to me and said, "Bella, would you please help me with my T-shirt so I can reattach my arm?"
"That is so a sentence that I'm no longer used to hearing," I said reaching over to him and taking his shirt to lift it over his head. I kissed him then I went over to Thomas and said, "Would you please give me Edward's arm. He would like to have it back now." Thomas held it out like it had leprosy. I took it into my hands and held it to Edward's shoulder. Alice came over to make sure that I was holding it right. She made a small adjustment, and slowly, it began to reattach itself. Within thirty minutes, it was firmly in place. He took me in his arms and held me close to him. He kissed me again, and this time, I kissed him back, not holding back and showing him exactly how much I loved him.
"Well, I guess that was evidence. It is going to take time to wrap my mind around this. I swear that I will never tell your secret. Who would believe me if I did tell?" Thomas asked.
"The Volturi. They would kill you first, ask questions later," I said, looking at him, my face serious. "We're not kidding about them. Now how about some studying?"
We studied for the rest of the evening. We payed particular attention to the problems that Alice had seen in her visions, making sure that we could all work them. Then we turned our attention to the anatomy lesson that we'd had today. It wasn't in the textbook, so Edward made sure that we could regurgitate the important facts before we left for the night. Tomorrow was Wednesday, so we didn't have anatomy. It would be a full day of Biochem.
Thomas and Alice left about ten o'clock. Edward and I went to get ready for bed. We got into bed, and I snuggled into his chest. We kissed each other good night, and he again hummed my lullaby to put me to sleep. I again slept soundly, snuggled up to the man that I loved.
