It was nine hours ago that we found Edward standing next to the car shaking with mirth. When we asked him what was so funny… he sobered up real quick. Shock flashed through him, washed over his features, and then uncertainty settled in as the dominant emotion. I felt his hesitation as he told us he wasn't sure. Edward climbed in the car then, and without another word, started the engine.

It wasn't as if Edward had never laughed before. He's over a hundred years old. Of course he has laughed. But I still can't get the sound out of my head. It sounded so different from what I was used to hearing… It was… consuming. Yes, that was the word I wanted, the sound of his laughter consumed. And the way he felt… The amusement was so genuine.

"That's checkmate Jasper. Want to play again?" Alice called my attention back to our game.

I almost always beat Emmett, Esme, Carlisle, and Rosalie at chess. Chess was all about strategy; I was good at strategy. In what felt like another life entirely, my survival once depended on my ability to strategize well. Now strategizing was as natural as a heartbeat on a human. I always lost to Edward and Alice. To much thinking was involved in chess, that's why Edward had the advantage. Alice, well there was no use asking her to shut the visions off and play fairly, because they wouldn't shut off. Not when the visions could only benefit their owner. She didn't look but she could still see.

However, Esme was busy with her blueprints and I could hear Carlisle in his study filling out paperwork. Emmett and Rosalie were… well they were currently pursuing one of their favorite hobbies. I never really understood the concept of playing oneself, so…

"Sure Alice." I answered.

That beautiful toothy grin stretched across her face as she eagerly reset the board.

"You're a glutton for punishment aren't you?" Edward spoke from where he sat at his piano.

He had spent over two hours assembling and reassembling notes, becoming more and more displeased with each reassembly. As inspiration continued elude him his frustration grew. Truth be told though, it wasn't just tonight that inspiration eluded him. Edward hadn't composed anything real in awhile now.

"You're one to talk," I replied.

I don't know what made me say that out loud but I knew immediately that I shouldn't have. But I couldn't stop my thoughts from leaping to the Chief's daughter, and how Edward's throat must flame when he sits next to her… I know how bad my thirst feels on a good day, and this girl's smell was more intense than that of a normal human (to Edward at least). Sitting in a warm little room next to that smell, resisting the most basic need… There was no way Edward had an easy time of it today. I could feel the lie in his emotions as he tried to abate Esme and Carlisle's angst this afternoon

Edward hissed as he heard the avenue my thoughts had taken and the accusation in them. I heard the piano bench tip over as he stood up too quickly. He didn't stop to fix it. He just breezed up to his room and turned on his stereo.

"Was that really necessary?"

I glanced at Alice's frowning face.

"Maybe it was," I added honestly.

Alice laughed and stuck her tongue out at Emmett. He had tried to surprise her with a snowball; tried and failed. He chuckled and tried to sidestep her return, but she had foreseen this action too, and a second snowball was on its way before his movement was complete. The first snowball went wide while the second hit him square in the forehead. How very human this behavior would seem, if Alice hadn't moved so fast to get the second ball airborne. She probably foresaw that no one would see her do it.

Rosalie rolled her eyes at the two of them and headed to our first class. I stayed behind to watch Alice enjoy herself, her movement slowing down now. Someone must have spotted us. Edward was behind me, shuffling his feet an inch at a time, like an old man trying not to break a hip on the ice. What an odd thing for him to do. He was moving so slowly and yet he felt so… eager.

"Alright, enough," Emmett laughed. "Rose! Wait up!"

Alice loped back to my side and hooked her arm through mine. I started to move with her, but my feet froze as I caught Edward's emotion. Fascination. His feet froze too. I turned around to look at him and Alice slid gracefully over the slick blacktop as I pulled her with me. Edward was looking across the parking lot toward Bella Swan.

In spite of myself, I looked too. Bella was staring at her truck's back tires. I wondered why, so I extended myself, focusing on her emotions, looking for insight. She was feeling love, loved, and overwhelming gratitude. And that's when it all went out the window. Tyler Crowley's out of control van caught my peripheral vision, and the sound of squealing tires ripped through the chill morning air. Everybody in the parking lot turned to look then. Including Bella.

Surprise bubbled in her chest first, immediately quashed by terror. The terror she felt was paralyzing her, the poor thing couldn't even blink as she watched the end coming to claim her. Even if she could move, she would only have been able to do so at a human pace, which would not be fast enough to save her life. I felt compassion for this stranger who had caused so much trouble for my family and who would never know a family of her own.

Horror hit every student in the parking lot as they all turned to watch her die. But it was not their horror that caught my attention. It was Edward's horror. It was just so intense. I panicked too, but for a different reason. When her blood spilled… I'd be lucky if I could resist the blood that I thought was average, never mind his resisting with the way it smelled to him…

We could be exposed.

I cut off my breathing and leapt forward to wrap my arms around him, but he was gone. My arms closed around nothingness. Which was strange because the van hadn't hit her yet, her blood hadn't started to run and contaminate the air, so where was he? I saw him, when I got over my shock, running far too fast across he parking lot. His arms wrapped around the girl and he pulled her into the protection of the open space between her truck and another parked car. The van struck then, blocking both from view.

I watched as the velocity of the van affected the point of impact on the antique Chevy's sturdy frame, watched as it curled toward the empty space where I knew Edward hid with Bella. I watched as the van suddenly shuddered to a stop as it encountered something more immovable than the truck. I watched as the one side of the van lifted a foot upwards as if someone very strong had picked it up, than drop to the ground with enough force to leave the windows broken.

I, in contrast to the students around me, didn't know what emotion to display. I couldn't really believe Edward had really done what I was sure I saw him do. My ears were sharp enough to hear over the screams that broke out, even though I couldn't feel passed the fresh hysteria pulsating through the air.

"Bella?" I heard Edward call. "Are you alright?"

He sounded panicked. He should panic. What had he done?

"I'm fine," Bella answered though her small voice was barely audible.

"Be careful, I think you hit your head pretty hard."

That was what he was worried about? Her head? Was he really this stupid?

"Ow," was her only response. Ow? Was she stupid too?

"That's what I thought." He sounded happy now. Was he the Cullen with the psychological disorder then?

"How in the… How did you get over here so fast?" She asked.

If my heart had been beating her question would have stopped it. So maybe she wasn't stupid. A small voice in the back of my head broke through my emotional numbness to scream, "What did she see, what did she see, what did she see…"

"I was standing right next to you, Bella," Edward lied.

But did she believe him? Was she suspicious? Was she compliant? Was she too traumatized to care? I struggled to concentrate, to focus. I could feel Alice beside me, appalled but unsurprised. I took note of the lack of surprise. I'd come back to that later. I could feel Emmett and Rosalie, I hadn't noticed they had returned to us. I could feel Emmett's disbelief and nothing else. He was numb, too. Rosalie was outraged. I didn't blame her.

"I saw you," I heard Bella say. What did I miss? What did she see?

"Bella, I was standing with you, and I pulled you out of the way." I could feel him then, the hysteria began to subside as word spread that there were survivors, the atmosphere weakening enough to let me through. Edward felt desperate as he told the lie.

"No." Bella felt stubborn, suspicious, and worst of all, she felt certain.

She knew. She knew. We were exposed. Edward broke the rules and got caught. The rage hit me then. I could taste it on my tongue, it clouded my vision with red, and scrolled shamelessly over my face. The rage shut off all thought process, filling every corner of my spacious mind. It was paralyzing.

Chief Swan showed up after the ambulance and I could feel his panic through my rage as he watched his daughter being placed on a stretcher. As the EMTs lifted her in to the ambulance her eyes ranged outward. She spotted us watching her, I was sure of it, and I felt her suspicion grow. Our faces must have been a sight. The paramedics closed the door, cutting off our view, and we watched with intensifying emotions as Edward climbed into the ambulance too.

"We should go," Emmett muttered.

His muttering barely registered in my furious mind.

What had Edward just done?