Oh God! Finally! I'm so sorry, you guys! I don't even know what to tell you. Only that I'm working extra hard to get the next chapter up before the week is out.
There's a thing at the end about Bella singing and you'll understand the meaning to it in the next chapter. Or you could be really insightful and get it before then!
The song in the chapter is Big Hands - Violent Femmes. I quite obviously do not own it. I've always loved it for some reason.
This is definitely not my favourite chapter by far, but it was kind of fun to write and gives a bit of information for a chapter that will come later on.

ANYWAYS!
Enjoy! :)

Driving Home

It was just my luck that it was raining the next morning. Packing up four campsites in the rain is not a job I'd wish upon anyone.

We'd finally gotten all the tents down and clothes packed and food in big Rubbermaid bins and coolers. Everything was packed nicely into the vehicles they needed to be in. We were all sitting in wet clothes and it was extremely irritating. Especially when you had Alice in your backseat whining about how her wet track-pants felt so gross on her legs. Plus we were all cold now. So I had the heat blasted as I looked around to make sure everyone was in a car and ready to go.

In Emmett's truck I could see him, Rose and Edward. Jacob's Rabbit had him, Embry and Quil squeezed into it. In Charlie's Astro, that I was driving, I had Mike, Jasper, Alice and most of the tents. Me and Alice's garage was Tent-Storage City during the colder months and the rest of the summer. In Tyler's Pontiac G8 there was him, Lauren, Carma and Claire, who was staying at Carma's for a week. And lastly there was Mac and Toby in Toby's old beat up Grand AM.

Everyone was in their place. I pulled out my cell phone and called Emmett's.

"We're all ready to go. Lead us out, Sergeant!"

"Whooo! I hope Forks had a nice quiet break. I can't wait to get home!" I laughed at him and then hung up. A few seconds later Emmett pulled out and we all filed out behind him. As much as I loved this camping trip I was ready to be home.

"Mike, close your eyes." Alice's voice came from the back.

"Why?" Mike was sitting up beside me.

"Cuz I'm changing into some dry clothes. Now close your eyes and don't you dare peak. I'll know if you do. And I won't hold Jasper back from hurting you." Mike gulped visibly and shut his eyes. I snickered.

"Does my pain make you laugh, Bella? I thought I meant more to you than that," Mike said. It was hard to take him seriously when his eyes were shut so tight it pulled up his top lip. It was hard to take him seriously anyway. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at his obliviousness.

"Sorry, Mike. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings." It was going to be a very long three hour ride.

The first half an hour went by pretty calmly. Alice fell asleep on Jasper and Mike had turned on the radio and was playing game after game of Bejeweled on his phone. It was easy to concentrate on the rest of our caravan and keep up with them. But then it all went crazy.

A song came on the radio and within the first few notes, Alice was up and squealing. She reached forward and turned it up as loud as the van would let it go.

When Im out walking I strut my stuff yeah Im so strung out
Im high as a kite I just might stop to check you out!

Then I realized what song it was. Immediately I had my phone in one hand and pushed Emmett's speed dial number. He picked up and I pulled the phone away from my ear so he could hear it. Alice had started singing at the very beginning.

Let me go on like I blister in the sun
Let me go on big hands I know you're the one

Body and heat I stain my sheets
I don't even know why
My girlfriend she's at the end and she is starting to cry

Let me go on like I blister in the sun
Let me go on big hands I know you're the one

When I'm out walkin' I strut my stuff
Man, I'm so strung out
I'm high as a kite and I just might stop to check you out
When I'm out walkin' I strut my stuff
Man, I'm so strung out
I'm high as a kite and I just might stop to check you out
Body and beats I stain my sheets
I don't even know why
My girlfriend she's at the end she is starting to cry
When I'm out walkin' I strut my stuff
Man, I'm so strung out
I'm high as a kite I just might stop to check you out

Let me go on like I blister in the sun
Let me go on big hands I know you're the one

Once it was over I turned down the volume so I could hear Emmett's voice.

"I love you, Duckie! It was getting so boring over here. I definitely needed that boost!" I laughed thinking of why we loved that song so much.

One autumn we'd created an addiction to the TV series My So-Called Life. It was probably about five years ago when we were twelve. There was one episode where the main character, Angela, starts dancing around in her room to that song. So one day when we were bored we did the same thing. We used my bedroom unfortunately. By the end of the song my clothes were pulled out of every drawer and the closet and flung about the room because we'd been dancing with them. We had so much fun, but the clean up afterward was brutal.

"Any time, Em! Gotta get back to driving now, though. Are we stopping in half an hour?"

"Yep, at the Wendy's."

"Okay, see you soon!" we hung up and I turned to see Mike nearly cowering again his door. I laughed at him and Alice and Jasper joined in as well. "You don't even want to know," I told him. He relaxed but still shot an odd look my way. I just stuck my tongue out at him and kept driving.

"I spy with my little eye, something that it green."

"Mike's shorts."

"How'd you know?"

"You've said the same thing five times in a row now, Alice"

"Well, sorry. I'm lying down and that's all I can see without straining." There was a mutual sigh around the van. Our stop at Wendy's was uneventful. Everyone went to the bathroom. No one got food because we wanted to get home quicker. We only had an hour left to drive, but it felt like we still had a day. Mike was driving now.

My cell phone rang so I picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Ciao, Bella!" Rosalie's perfectly pitched voice sang into my ear.

"Hey, Rose. What's up, babe?"

"Just thought I'd call and tell you that Edward is being mood."

"Oh? And why does this concern me?"

"Because he's being moody that you're not here." There was a scuffling noise in the background and a disagreeing grunt. My eyes got wide.

"And how have you come to that conclusion?"

"He won't stop asking about you, Bella! 'How long have you known Bella? Does Bella have any pets? Does she like popcorn?' God, no offense, but it's getting annoying!" I laughed at that. Rose can be self centered, but that's just Rose and we love her for it.

"No offense taken, of course! Put him on."

"Thanks a million, kid!" I heard the phone passed around and then I heard his voice. It was like water for a person in the desert.

"Bella?"

"Hey, I heard you were asking about me," I said in an inquiring voice.

"It's hardly anything. They're exaggerating."

"Uh huh. Do you want your questions answered anyway?"

"Yes, actually. I'd like that very much."

"Okay. I've known Emmett for thirteen years. We've always been best friends. I don't have any pets. I tried to keep goldfish at one point but the two I bought died within a week of being in my ownership. So I gave up on the whole pet thing, and I love popcorn. Smothered in butter with just a sprinkle of salt. Is that all?"

"For now." I could hear the smirk in his voice.

"My turn!" I piped in.

"What?"

"You got three answers, I want three answers. Same three questions. Go!"

"Okay, okay. I've had more pets than I can count. Including a parrot and a snake once. I've known Emmett my entire life. That was a waste of a question, by the way. We are cousins after all." Shoot. Hadn't thought of that. "Popcorn is okay, not fantastic. It can only have a bit of butter on it, though. No salt."

"That's great to know. It's not every day you can get someone to give away their popcorn preferences."

"No, definitely not." we laughed together for a few seconds. Then I saw Mike shooting me an angry glance. Ugh! I hate when he acts like he owns me. I decided I'd get off the phone so I could give him a piece of my mind.

"I'm going to go now. Will you be alright without me for another forty-five minutes?" he sighed and it almost didn't sound sarcastic or exaggerated.

"I'll try to behave myself." Now that was completely full of sarcasm.

"Good boy, see you later. Bye!" I didn't wait for a reply. Mike's glances we starting to get more annoying by the second. I shut the phone and put it back on the dashboard.

Jasper and Alice were both asleep now. It was a good thing, too! I was sick of Alice's "I Spy" tactics and Jasper singing old 80's songs. He didn't exactly have the best voice ever. Those two being asleep was perfect right now. They didn't need to let Mike know they could hear our conversation.

"So, who was on the phone?" Three guesses who, Mike… Sometime he can be denser than should be allowed.

"Edward." My voice was harsh. I hated to hear it, but I didn't know how else to make him stop.

"Why would you be talking to him?" he sounded so disgusted. Like I'd just told him I liked to eat frog eyes and goat hooves for dinner instead of that I'd been talking with Edward. It's hard for me to deal with immaturity like this.

"Why shouldn't I, Mike. It's a free country; I may speak to whom I'd like."

"What if I don't want you to talk to him?" Excuse me?

"Then that would be too damn bad, because I wouldn't care." I didn't sound like myself. Why couldn't he just understand that I didn't like him? This was tearing me up. I wasn't good at being malicious. He threw a blinking look my way. I sighed. "Mike, look, I don't like you as anything more than a friend. You seem to think that I do. I'm not sure why, but that's the vibe you're giving off. You don't own me, Mike. I can talk to anyone I want and flirt and date and marry. Do you understand?"

He looked over at me bewilderment clear in his eyes. The van started to serve off to the side.

"Whoa, Mike, eyes on the road! You're going to kill us!" his eyes flew back to the road and he straightened out the van. It was quiet for a few minutes.

"I don't get it, Bella. For the last two years I've been picking up the pieces from Cory and putting you back together. How could you lead me on and then say something like that?" I'm sure I must have looked like I'd just been slapped.

"What are you talking about?!" he was completely delusional.

"Whenever you're at work you talk to me and we go out to the movies all the time."

"Everyone goes to those movies and I talk to you because we happen to work the same shifts! It doesn't mean I like you or that I'm leading you on! And how dare you bring up Cory! I can't – I can't believe you…" I was starting to sob. I pulled my cell phone over to me once again. Emmett's number was pushed and the phone was ringing.

"Hello?" Rose said.

"Tell Emmett to pull over. Toby knows how to get home. Tyler can follow him." She didn't ask any questions and I was beyond grateful for that. I heard her whisper something to Emmett and then his truck started to pull off onto the shoulder. "Pull over," I told Mike quickly. He did, but only because I was bawling now and it scared the crap out of him.

The van stopped right behind the truck. I jumped out, slammed the door and got in the back seat of the truck. It took mere seconds for a pair of arms to be around me holding me together. I didn't see who they were attached to, but from the sound of the voice whispering in my ear I gathered it was Edward.

"Bella, what's wrong? I can't help you if you don't tell me what's wrong." His voice was quiet so that no one else in the truck could hear him. I couldn't tell him though because all my attention and energy was being used to get Cory's smile out form behind my eyelids. His smiles were always small. But they were so powerful. No matter how horrible my day had been one glace at his smile and everything making me angry seemed petty. It was the warmest smile too. When I was broken up over my biological dad leaving he would sit with me and talk to me and I always asked him to smile because it made hope flame inside of me again.

It was so contagious. He could have saved lives with that smile. And he was going to. Before the accident he'd started to talk about how he wanted to get into counseling. It was his passion to help people in any way he could. The thought of that made me cry even harder.

"He was going to be a counselor!" I wailed. I'd completely forgotten that Edward had no idea what I was talking about.

"Duckie, tell me what happened. Whose ass do I have to kick?" Emmett's voice from the front seat made me calm down a little bit. Even though Edward's arms and voice made me feel safe, anything familiar was the only thing that could calm me down. That's why I liked to be around Jacob. Nothing was more familiar than him.

"Would you mind bruising Mike a bit?" Edward's grip tightened around me at the mention of Mike's name.

"What the hell did that idiot do?" Emmett nearly yelled.

"He was being possessive, so I told him that I didn't like him as more than a friend and he went all ballistic, saying he was 'putting me back together'. Actually his exact words were, 'I've been picking up the pieces from Cory and putting you back together'." Rose turned around in her seat and started to rub my back. Emmett's face in the rearview mirror was menacing.

Usually I would have told Emmett to calm down and not do anything rash, but I couldn't have cared less right then. I was so sick of Mike disregarding everything I've said to him about not liking him as more than a friend. It's ridiculous. I bet I could tell Edward right now to stop touching me and he would. Because he would listen to me. Because he would understand. And even if he didn't, he'd do it anyways. But I didn't want him to let go. In fact I needed him closer. The hole in my chest that Cory's name created wasn't closing up completely.

I snuggled as close as my seatbelt would let me to Edward. He moved as much as his seatbelt would let. Rose had turned back around and was trying to calm down Emmett so that he wouldn't get a speeding ticket.

"The parrot I had was taught to say the most horrible things." Was he trying to distract me? No one had tried to do that since the very beginning. But back then my counselor had said that letting me talk every thing through was a good idea. I'd talked as much as I could. Now I was just dwelling. Being distracted couldn't hurt anything now. It might even be a good idea.

"Yeah, what kind of things?" my voice was scratchy from crying. I had to be loud in order to get anything out. It startled Emmett. He jumped along with Rosalie. His face was hilarious. He was so shocked at both the abrupt noise and the sound of my voice. I didn't usually talk this quickly after an episode. I ignored him in order to pay attention to Edward. He was kind of smiling. It was only a ghost of a smile.

"Well, his favourite line was, 'Shut up, bitch.' Every five minutes he'd say it. I'm still not sure who taught him that. Then there was one other phrase that he said a on regular bases, which was, 'Your mom's fat.' The rest are things I would never dare repeat in front of any kind of civilized people. He was repulsive. It was a good thing I didn't have to be around him too long." What did he mean by that? I gave him a puzzled look.

"Did you get rid of the bird because of what it said?" his tiny smiled vanished all together.

"No, you'll understand tomorrow when we caring out our deal." Oh. I just nodded. I noticed, faintly, that his voice had closed up the hole completely. I noticed a lot more how the hole started to prickle again as a silence settled over the truck. I almost winced.

"Have you had a smoke today?" I whispered to Edward.

"No, I haven't. I can already feel the affects, too. I'm starting to get irritable. It's becoming a struggle." I knew quitting was hard but when I heard him talking about it, it sounded even harder. I wanted more than anything to make it easier for him.

"I'm sorry," I said as I lowered my eyes from his. His hand under my chin brought my eyes back up to him, though.

"For what?" he sounded like he actually didn't know.

"For making you feel obligated to quit." I tried to lower my head again, but he wouldn't let me. My eyes wandered down anyways.

"Bella," he whispered. "Bella, look at me please." His voice was laced with honey. I'd never heard it like this before. His tone spoke volumes alone. It said don't frown. It said I wasn't at fault. It said he cared what I thought. I let my eyes drift back up to his.

His green eyes pierced me. Straight through to my soul. I'm not sure he knew the power he had over me in that moment.

"Bella, I may have my life to thank you for. Please don't be sorry. There's absolutely no reason for you to be." His eyes were still pin pointed on my soul. It rendered me speechless so all I did was nod and then hug him tightly. And after that, no matter the silence, the hole stayed closed.

"Daddy, we're home!" Alice screamed into our house. My mother popped out from the kitchen instead.

"Girls, you're home!" Wow, they are definitely a match made in heaven. There is no way my mom and Alice's dad getting married was simply a coincidence of life with the way those two act. Not to mention how Charlie and I act. We're both much more mellow and quiet. We're not so good at expressing our emotions. Emmett's convinced that Alice and I are actually blood sisters and that "the divorce", as he so originally calls it, is just a conspiracy to help Charlie and Renee take over the world. Don't ask. No one is really sure how that works.

Renee shuffled over and threw an arm around each of our necks, pulling us to her and squishing any breath we had, out of us. Then she pulled back and kissed us each on the cheek.

"I missed you two so much! The house was so quiet. Charlie's at work right now, but he'll be home by six. I was just looking through the fridge for dinner –"

"Oh, that's okay, mom. You sit down I'll make some dinner." She tried to put up a fight but in the end I won the battle over the kitchen. Renee's cooking is the scariest thing in the world, only ever second to Carlisle's – Emmett's dad – impression of Brad Pitt. We were having nightmares months after the incident.

I was breading pork chops at the island in the kitchen when Alice came in. At first I didn't pay her any attention, just thought about the meat. Drip in eggs. Place in breadcrumbs. Cover with breadcrumbs. Put on baking pan. But then she sat down opposite me and cleared her throat. I arched an eyebrow.

"Yes, Alice?"

"How are you?" Gah. I had a feeling she'd do this.

"I'm fine, Alice, really. Please don't start." She sniffled and I whipped my head up from the food I was preparing to see that she was crying. I tried to wipe off my hands as best I could and went around to her side of the island. I tried to hug her without getting egg and bread on her shirt.

"Hey, why are you crying? Is something wrong? Is Jasper okay?" she calmed down a bit and then hugged me back.

"We shouldn't have fallen asleep! I should have known he'd try to pull something! I'm so sorry, Bella." I pulled back and gave her a surprised look.

"Is this about Mike?" she nodded and more tears came out. I hugged her tightly again. "It's okay, Ali. You can't protect me forever. I have to grow up some time." this didn't help the tears.

"Look, Ali, do you want to know a juicy secret?" she perked up immediately, like a dog to the word food. She quickly wiped away stray tears and stared at me intently. "When I got in Emmett's truck Edward was in the backseat so he hugged me all the way home. And he made me feel better. We talked about a parrot he had one time. It was probably the shortest recovery time I've ever needed." She looked completely flabbergasted.

"W-what? How short is short?"

"Ten minutes tops."

"Lies." I raised my eyebrows at her.

"Not a breath of one." This sobered her right up. Then she squealed and I cringed at the high-pitched-ness of it. She jumped from her stool and landed in my arms.

"This is so great! I'm so proud of you!" I think she missed the whole point of this secret. The juicy part was that Edward made me feel better. And since she was my sister I felt the need to fill her in on what she was missing,

"You've skipped the juicy part! Edward was the key element of juice! He hugged me all the way home and talked to me! He was what kept me together." I thought her eyes were going to pop out and I'd have to put them back in. Ew.

"Holy cow." I nodded my head. She looked at me like I was the one with eyes hanging out of my face. "That is so wonderful!" and the tears came again.

"Ali, stop crying. Am I going to have to call Jasper?" she shook her head.

"No, no. I'm just so happy. Can't I just be happy that you're happy?"

"Course you can. But do you think we can keep this secret between the two of us?" she gave me puppy dog eyes. I sighed. "And Jasper. I don't even know if he feels the same way back or if he just feels bad for me." she smiled at me. I was surprised that it didn't have a plan formulating behind it.

Then she seemed to forget everything we were talking about and started babbling on about a new pair of shoes she wanted. I let her talk as I put the pork chops into the oven. And for the first time in two years I started to sing to myself.