A New Day

The sun was already high in the sky before Bella stirred from her slumber. I carefully removed my arms from around her, but was afraid if I attempted to remove hers from me that she would completely awake. Would she remember that she begged me to stay with her last night after her nightmare? Or would she think I was trying to take advantage of her?

My questions were answered when she pulled away and stretched before opening her eyes. She blushed bright red and said, "Thank you, Edward, I had no more scary dreams. I'm sorry I woke you last night." She hurriedly climbed off the bed and nearly fell when her feet hit the floor.

Her back was to me so she didn't see my quick movement to reach her before she actually hit the floor.

"Are you alright?" I pulled her back to sit on the edge of the bed.

"I'm fine, my legs are really, really sore from all the running I did yesterday. I'm definitely not used to that. And I'm just a little dizzy, not not as bad as last night." She moaned and started to rub her calf muscles.

"Perhaps another hot soak in the Jacuzzi will help work that out." I suggested.

She got a dreamy look on her face and sighed, "That sounds wonderful."

I laughed at her before I crawled off the bed to stand before her. "But first I need to take you to my mothers room so you can pick out some clothes."

She blushed again and replied. "Oh no, I don't want to do that without her permission, I can just wear what I had on yesterday."

"I'm afraid that's not possible, your dress and sweater were torn and filthy, quite beyond repair. I threw them out. I'm sorry." Actually I burned them. Both the dress and the sweater were stained with her blood. I can't have Jasper or Emmett getting a whiff of her sweet blood, or myself for that matter. But I couldn't tell her that.

"Oh." she replied, just a little miffed. "That's okay, I really don't like dresses much anyway, I'm a jeans and t-shirt kind of girl."

I reached for her arm to assist her. "Can you walk?"

"Oh sure, I'm fine, just a little sore." She stood to her feet and stumbled, she grabbed my shirt to prevent another fall.

I lifted her into my arms, "You can try to walk after you have had that soak in the tub. I'll carry you for now. We can't have anymore accidents."

Again her face flushed that wonderful red color. I couldn't help but to take a small breath to inhale her essence, the sweet blood I still craved along with the pomegranate and her natural freesia bouquet. This girl's life was still in danger. But I swore I would do my best to protect her.

I left my room and headed for the stairs. Carlisle and Esme's room was located on the second floor. We were on the second floor landing when my I heard the sharp intake of breath from both Jasper and Emmett on the floor below.

They both looked up at me. Emmett's first though was that I carried her lifeless body. I gave them both a look that cautioned them to not say a word. The look on Jasper's face would have terrified Bella. Thankfully she was facing the other direction.

I quickly entered the room and into Esme's huge closet. "Will you be alright if I left you here for a moment?"

"Yes, I'll be fine. But I really hate going through your mothers closet."

"She won't mind, she'll bring a whole new wardrobe when she comes home and most of these will be sent to the thrift store. Take what you need. I'll be right back, when you get what you want have a seat, don't attempt to leave this room on your own. I'll return to help you back up the stairs."

I could tell she wasn't comfortable with the task, but replied. "Okay, if you're sure."

I smiled in reassurance and left her. I shut the bedroom door and rushed down the stairs to confront my brothers. They were right where I left them. Emmett with a smirk and Jasper had a pained look on his face.

"Let's go outside for a moment." I said as I lead the way but watched to make sure they followed. I growled when I saw Jasper stop and turn to look up the stairs. He turned back to me and gave me a defiant and challenging look. Emmett grabbed his arm and forced him out the door ahead of me.

When I closed the door behind us, Jasper pulled away from Emmett and faced me. "What is the meaning of this Edward. Why did you take her into Carlisle and Esme's room?"

"I took her to get some clothes. I don't have much time. I'll be back down in a few minutes and we can discuss this further, for now just stay outside." Before they could protest I added, "Please?"

Jasper's thought, five minutes and you better get your butt back down here.

"I promise." I rushed back into the house and up to Bella.

"Did you find what you needed?"

"Yes." She held a pair of jeans and t-shirt in her hands.

I reached for her and pulled her back into my arms, "Come then, I'll take you back upstairs." I resisted the urge to run with her back up the stairs. I went as fast as a normal human would have and left her in the bathroom. "Take as long as you like, and when you are finished we'll go into town and get you something to eat." I turned and shut the door behind me before she could reply.

I return to my brothers and we walked a short distance into the woods.

"This is far enough!" Jasper shouted and turned to face me. "What do you think you are doing?"

"If you calm down I will explain and together we will decide what to do."

"First, why did you bring her here?" Jasper wanted to know.

"I'm sorry I didn't get to finish explaining this to you last night."

"Yeah, you were anxious to stay with your new toy." Emmett started.

I glared at him and turned back to Jasper. "What did you expect me to do? Take her back to the vampire that was hunting her down? Or maybe just leave her in the forest for a bear or some other wild animal? I didn't have any other choice. She doesn't have a family or anyone. Just a couple a friends back in that girls home." I wasn't going to tell them Bella was expecting us to rescue them yet. I wanted to gage their reaction to Bella first.

"So you want us to let you keep her here until you lose whatever control you currently possess and kill her? Sounds like the girl has a lot of wonderful options." Jasper said sarcastically. "We need to call Carlisle and discuss this with him."

Okay, this is not going so good. "Please Jasper, give me one more day to find a place for her before we call Carlisle."

"What are you afraid of Edward?" Jasper asked, "That he'll find out you fed on a human or that you brought her home and spent the night with her?"

"Woo hoo, little brother, its about time. How was it?"

"Emmett, nothing happened and you know it. I'm sick of your filthy mind. You're not helping us figure out what to do with her."

"I vote that we share her, no one will miss her. We'll enjoy her blood and get rid of your little problem all at the same time. I won't tell Carlisle anything, I promise." Emmett replied.

I attacked Emmett and knocked him to the ground. "I'm not going to kill her and I'll tear you apart if you touch her." I threatened.

"Gee, I was just kidding. Are you in love, little brother? It sure sounds like it. This complicates everything. You can bet you'll never live this down. I promise I won't touch her, I was just offering a solution to your little problem." Emmett pushed me off of him and into a tree.

Jasper came between us once again. "Enough you two. This is not solving anything. Edward I'll give you 24 hours to deal with this and then I'm calling Carlisle. No more discussion."

"Thank you Jasper. Perhaps you two should hunt again since she'll be here another night. I'm going to take her into town and get her some food. Maybe I can find a shelter or something. If not I'll take her into Seattle tomorrow."

"I'll not stay here. I don't know which is more painful, her blood or your emotions. I'm going to hang out at the cabin. Emmett are you coming with me?"

We had bought a couple cabins in the area and were putting up a fence to surround our entire property. Our land was surrounded on two sides by public forest, one side the road and the forth side privately owned but not occupied. One day we hoped to purchase that lot. We didn't want anyone stumbling into our private domain.

"No I think I'll hang around here. I haven't had so much fun in years." Emmett laughed.

"I won't kick you out of the house, but you better not touch her."

"Relax little brother, I'll be hospitable to our guest and make sure you don't kill her." He said with a wink. "See you later, I'm going hunting." He ran off and out of sight in a matter of seconds, his laughter echoed through the trees.

"If anything changes you can call me on my cell." Jasper walked off thoroughly disgusted with me. He stopped and turned back, "I'll call Carlisle first thing tomorrow if that girl isn't out of here."

I have no intentions of just abandoning her. I can't, James will kill her if I leave her alone. I don't know what I will do, but I just got 24 hours from Jasper to figure it out, more than I was expecting from him.