A/N: I'mmmm back! Sorry for the wait, but exams were hell. You can't believe how many times I was tempted to drop the books and escape into the world of fan fiction. My last exam I wrote Friday and I have all of this week off, so I will try my best for faster updates. Especially since next semester I have all the easy subjects.

TO ALL THOSE WHO TOLD ME I SHOULD WATCH THE NICKELBACK VIDEO, "SAVIN ME": I already wrote my response to that video in the A/N at the bottom of chapter 2. If you are one of the people who have mentioned it before chapter 2, skip this rant:

I try to be polite and cheerful, but it annoys me to no end when I put something in an author's note, AND YOU DON'T READ IT! Then, you make yourself look less than competent by asking me a question that I already put the answer to, in my A/N. I write author's notes for a reason guys. Do you have any idea how incredibly annoying it is to have already written my response to the Nickelback video in the author's note, and then have reviewers go, "Omg, this reminds me of the Nickelback video! You should totally watch it!" I hate being mad at you guys, but it's so frustrating.

Piece of advice: If there's an A/N, READ IT!

Okay, rant over. On with Chapter FOUR!!!!

Disclaimer: If you don't know by now, I am worried about you. I am not Stephenie Meyer.

To my surprise, he started talking.

"So, this was certainly an odd situation to have met each other, properly, in." He paused, as if debating with himself if he should continue. And he did.

"I believe last week I didn't get a chance to introduce myself. I'm Edward Cullen."

Chapter 4: Stop and Stare

He was talking to me.

Yes, I know that had already been established, but he was talking to me conversationally. He didn't look hostile at all. Just like earlier, when he saved me from the van, he looked perfectly calm. Amazing how people can just do a 180 on you.

His gaze turned a little concerned and I wondered why.

Oh right. I hadn't answered him yet. I was just staring like the idiot I was. He probably thought I was mentally handicapped. Feeling insanely stupid, I said, "Um, hi. I'm Bella Swan."

Oh God. Insert head-desk action right here. Could I have said anything more moronic?

Edward smirked. "I know."

I shifted uncomfortably and blushed.

"How's your head?" he asked, actually sounding a little worried. I shrugged nonchalantly. It didn't hurt that bad anymore. I was too preoccupied with other thoughts than to pay attention to the pain.

"It's fine," I said. There were so many questions bubbling at my lips, but I was a little afraid of scaring him off. I mean, technically I just met the guy; weren't there some kind of adequate rules? I bit my lip, wondering if I should just go ahead and ask him how the hell he saved me.

Instead I decided to make polite conversation. You know; ease my way into the interrogation. Okay, that sounded weird.

I started walking and he followed, easily falling into step beside me. I didn't really know where I was walking, but it made it less awkward than just standing around, doing nothing.

"So, how are you liking Forks so far?" he asked. It was such a generic question that I had been asked so many times since I arrived a week ago. I went with the answer I gave everyone, even though it wasn't entirely true.

"It's okay." I peeked up at him and he looked back at me, his eyes digging as if trying to see if there was anything more to my answer. He looked as if he didn't believe me. Well, I may not have been entirely truthful, but honestly. What did he expect me to say? That I hated it? That it was the worst damn town in the continental U.S.? That I wanted nothing more than to go back to sweet sunny Phoenix?

"You're from Phoenix, right?" he asked. Somehow I just felt like he was talking to me so as not to appear rude.

I nodded.

"Phoenix is very different from here." Great observation, Sherlock.

"Yeah," I said, nodding again. And then I mumbled under my breath, "Unfortunately…"

Edward somehow heard. "Why is that?" he asked, seeming genuinely curious. I looked away from his face and paid attention to the hallway we were walking down.

The honest answer was because this town had weirdoes like him and his other Cullen cohorts crawling around. His numberless head was enough to give me a headache. In fact, it was. We were the only ones in the hallway and once again I thought: was this how it was like for ordinary people? To look at another person and not see any floating digits? Bizarre. I rubbed forehead with my hand and remembered he was still waiting for answer.

"Phoenix is sunny and warm. It's all cold and wet here," I answered honestly. It was quite wet and cool here, and the constantly overcast skies never did anything good for my mood. But it wasn't the real reason I didn't really like living in Forks all that much.

Edward kept staring at me like he was trying to dig around my brain, search for clues and secrets to unlock my innermost thoughts. My God, was he usually such a nosy parker? But then again, with what I wanted to ask him, I wasn't that much better. Just… his gaze was nerve wracking.

I wanted him to quit staring at me like that. "So… you've been away from school for a while," I said. I wanted to know if it was because of me. If it was, I swear it would piss me off more than PMS.

"Yes, I was sick," he replied smoothly. I did get him to stop staring at me as if he wanted to dissect me, but now he was looking persuasive. With the look on his face, I could almost imagine him swinging that gold hypnotic thing in front of my face and saying, 'You shall believe me… Thou shall not question me further…'

Sick. He was sick. Ill. Unwell. Under the weather. A common answer. A believable one. Yet when applied to the all mysterious Edward Cullen, it made me skeptical.

"So you're feeling better now?" I asked innocently.

"I am, thank you." He was keeping his answers to a minimum. I didn't like that.

"Well, that's good," I continued. "Good timing too, otherwise you wouldn't have been able to save me today." I looked back up at him to see his face. It was guarded again.

"Yes, I suppose so." Still short answers. His voice was still unbelievably smooth and velvety, but there was an undertone of tenseness to it. My intuition flared: something was up.

""It was really noble of you to save me," I kept going.

"I didn't do anything anyone else wouldn't have done," he said, looking away. His face was calm, but I saw the twitch in his jaw.

"Yeah, but no one else was there. Just you. In fact, I don't remember you being anywhere close to me. Weren't you right next to the school doors?" I knew I was walking on eggshells here, but I knew what I saw. I may not have been normal, but I certainly wasn't crazy.

"What are you talking about, Bella?" Edward asked, still walking with me. He sounded nonchalant, but I knew there was something else to his voice. Again, it held a sense of finality in it, like he was begging me to drop the subject. No can do, buddy.

"I'm saying you were pretty far from me when the van was headed for me. How did you get to me so fast?"

"I was standing right next to you."

"No you weren't." Okay, time to drop the whole 'easing into interrogation' thing I had going on. "I'm not an idiot. You weren't anywhere close to me. It is humanly impossible to have reached me so fast like you did."

One corner of his mouth twitched up for a second, like he was enjoying some kind of joke. That just made me more irritated. This was no joke.

"Bella, you are absolutely delusional. You hit your head; you're imagining things."

"I'm not insane if that's what you're implying," I hissed through my teeth, stopping and turning to him. He stopped as well and turned to look at me.

"Well, what you're implying is on the brink of insanity." Stupid, stupid, stupid…

"I'm not implying anything," I said, crossing my arms. "I know what I saw, and that was you getting to me faster than I could blink and pushing away the van with. Your. Hands."

Edward's eyes widened the tiniest bit for half a second before he made his face calm again. "And you came to me to get your facts straight so you would have something cool to tell everyone tomorrow at school?"

"No," I rolled my eyes. "Don't take me for a gossip girl. I'm not going to tell anyone; it brings more attention onto me, which I don't want. I, however, do want to know the truth. Who better to tell me than the do-gooder himself?"

Edward snorted at that and started walking again. Oh no, he wasn't going to blow me off. I deserved an explanation. "Why won't you tell me?" I demanded, still annoyed.

"There is nothing to tell."

I glared at him and he glared right back.

We stopped again, but this time we stopped in a ward. Our feet just wondered here on their own accord. We were standing and glaring at each other right outside the door of an occupied room. All of the sudden, the door opened and I stumbled back from it. Edward caught my arm quickly with his hand, steadying me.

A nurse came out of the room and narrowed her eyes in annoyance at us. "No standing right outside of patients' rooms," she said sternly, she then turned to Edward. "Not even you, Mr. Cullen."

Edward smiled charmingly at her. "Sorry, Caroline." Caroline?! Oh right. His dad was Dr. Cullen so he was probably around here a lot, therefore he probably knew the names of a lot of the staff.

As Caroline the Nurse walked away, I peeked inside the room as the door swung closed. I only got a glimpse of the patient inside; a small girl who looked very sickly and was asleep. I continued to look at her in sadness through the door window and suddenly got a vision of her death. Jeez, two in one day, but this vision wasn't as dramatic as Connor's.

It was sometime in the morning. The girl looked very much as she had when I first saw her; pale, sickly, and asleep. Except this time something was very different. A doctor and nurse were inside the room, along with a couple who I assumed were the girl's parents. The doctor was speaking in a hushed tone to the couple and the woman was crying. The man hardly looked better.

I heard a small bit of what the doctor was saying, but it was enough. They had cut off her life support 14 hours before and her heartbeats were slowing down, becoming far and few between. Finally, the last beat gave itself out, and the line on the heart monitor became flat, a "beeeeeeeeeep" sound coming from it.

The couple was crying together while the nurse murmured quietly, "Melissa Hart. Time of death: 6:04."

I blinked a few times, then turned to look sadly at the little girl lying in the room. I didn't cry. No, I was far too used to this kind of thing, being in hospitals so often. Can't you see why I hate hospitals? Especially now. A little girl. It would've been a little less sad if it were a senior. I mean, death is sad for anyone, but a least an older person had lived their life. They had, at least, done some of the things they had wanted to, if not most. A little kid had barely tasted life and now she was leaving it.

"She won't make it past another day," I whispered very quietly to myself.

"Bella?" a musical voice said quietly.

Oh right. Edward. I had almost forgotten about him. He had been standing beside me this whole time. He probably took my vision-state as just me spacing out. I looked up at him, trying to cover the sadness in my eyes, but he looked as if he could see right through me. His own eyes were blazing with curiousity.

He took in my sudden change in mood and looked a little concerned. "Are you alright?" he asked softly.

I nodded and looked back in the room. She was only five years old. "Do you know what's wrong with her?" I asked Edward.

Edward furrowed his eyebrows, probably trying to figure out where my sudden curiousity came from. He looked incredibly frustrated and disgruntled. I most likely seemed bipolar to him. Hey, if he knew the truth behind my mood, he would understand.

But he didn't know, and he never would.

Edward reached into a flip down shelf next to the door and pulled out the little girl's medical chart. His eyes scanned whatever was on it and said, "Her name is Melissa Hart. Five years old and in a coma. She suffered from severe head trauma, which caused the coma." When he looked back to me, his gaze was softer with sympathy.

I nodded. That made sense. She had probably been a coma for a long time, thus why the doctor suggested taking her off life support, and the parents agreed. According to my vision, they would be taking her off at four in the afternoon. Her heart would finally stop beating a six the next morning. Fourteen agonizing hours of waiting the parents would have to go through. Waiting for her to die.

I shook my head, trying to rid it of the sad thoughts, and started walking again. Edward followed, silence coming from both of us. The heat of our previous argument gone. I wasn't talking because I didn't really feel like it. Edward wasn't talking because… I didn't really know why. It's not like he saw what I did.

I looked at Edward beside me and he looked deep in concentration. What was he thinking?

He noticed my staring and met my eyes with his own. They were still so curious and frustrated. He wanted to ask me something; I could tell. I just wouldn't tell him the truth. You're not the only one allowed to keep secrets, super-speedy-van-stopper guy.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked. I shrugged.

"I'm fine."

"You were very upset over that little girl back there."

"Who wouldn't be? She's in a coma."

"Yes, but you were different…" he trailed off, frowning. "There was something else in the look you gave her." He truly looked torn on whether or not he should say anything more.

"You're being ridiculous," I said, it coming out harsher than I intended.

"Am I?" Edward said, raising a perfect eyebrow. "You looked like…"

"Like…?" Whatever he was going to say, I was going to shoot down.

"Like you knew something." His eyes were now penetrating. Accusing. Was he trying to 'stare' me into revealing something? Brilliant tactic. You don't intimidate me Cullen and as amazingly observant you are, it doesn't change anything.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I replied. This guy was far too perceptive for his own good. Maybe I was too, but this was simply something I just couldn't tell anyone about.

Edward opened his mouth, about to say something more, but was interrupted by Charlie.

"Bella!"

I turned around to see Charlie walking towards us. Praise the Lord.

"Here you are," he said when reaching us. "I've been looking for you. Are you ready to go?"

Yes, anything to get the questioning to stop. "Yep."

"Good," he paused, seeming to have just noticed Edward. "Edward, I heard you were the one to save Bella. Thank you for that." Charlie lightly clapped Edward on the back and Edward simply smiled lightly at Charlie.

"It was nothing, Chief Swan," he said politely.

"It was everything. I can't thank you enough." Charlie turned to me. "Come on, Bells. Let's go home. Dr. Cullen said to take it easy for the rest of the day, okay?"

"Yeah, Dad," I mumbled, taking my coat from Charlie and slipping it on. I followed Charlie down the hall before I remembered I never got the answers from Edward I was looking for.

"Wait, Dad," I said. I turned back and quickly walked over to Edward, who was still standing in the same spot we left him. He was still looking extremely frustrated and deep in thought. His head snapped up towards me as I approached and I saw his jaw tighten. Maybe he really did hate me like I thought he did last week. That, or I was just really annoying.

I was going with the latter.

"What?" he asked coolly once I stopped a couple of feet away from him.

"You know, I'm not letting the van incident go. I still want to know how you did what you did."

His eyes narrowed and his jaw tightened further. Oh yeah, I was really annoying him. "And I still want to know what happened back there with that little girl."

My own jaw flexed at that. He was persistent, I would give him that, but so was I. I really didn't understand what he was going on about anyway. Yes, I had a vision and saw that girl's death, but how would he have been able to tell? Unless he was one of those spiritual believers he should have only thought I was spacing out or something. That happens all the time for normal people, right? He was being idiotic going on about something that wouldn't have looked like such a big deal to anyone else.

But he wasn't just anyone else. His non-existent numbers showed that. He was different.

And I was going to get to the bottom of why.

"Nothing happened back there," I said, trying to sound truthful.

"There's nothing for me to tell either," he responded. Jeez, he was stubborn.

But then again, I guess I was being stubborn too. We had a lot more in common than I thought. The difference though was that I deserved an explanation whereas he did not. I was in that accident, I almost died; I should have been allowed to know how the hell I was saved. He was only asking me out of intrusive curiousity. Maybe I did owe him my life, but this was my life's secret. It was something that I couldn't tell anyone. No one could ever know.

We stared at each other for an immeasurable amount of time. More glaring than staring, but whatever. I heard Charlie call my name, but I made no move to go to him. I wasn't going to back down first.

Edward sighed and ran a hand through his tousled bronze hair. "You aren't going to let this go, are you?" he asked, very annoyed.

"No."

"Well then, I hope you enjoy disappointment," he said through his teeth.

"Same goes for you," I hissed back. Charlie called my name again and with one last glare, I turned around and walked away.

Neither of us was being very fair, but he couldn't see what I see. He wouldn't understand.

A/N: Review. You know you want to.

Yeah, I know it's a little shorter than usual, but it just seemed like a good part to cutoff. For me, anyway.

In case you were under the illusion that one will die seconds after you turn off his or her life support (like it is in so many fanfics I've read here), that isn't really the case. It actually takes hours for the body to completely shut down. Two years ago, my cousin had a brain aneurism and fell into a coma. After a while, my aunt and uncle decided to have her taken off life support and it took her roughly 16 hours after she was taken off before her heart finally stopped beating. A teacher of mine told us the same thing about his mother; it took her around 18 hours before she died. The sad thing is, all this happened to my cousin only a few weeks after she had a baby.

Anyway, I know it's almost over and people on the other half of the globe are in the day after, but I'd like to wish a Happy Chinese New Year to the world's Chinese community! I wish you good fortune in the year of the ox!

Peace out.