A/N- As promised… there's a bit of Edward and Bella fluff in here. Not a lot, mind you. Read my one shots if you want fluff.

But I didn't want you to forget that Bella and Edward are life mates. Remember though, that they still have stuff to get through in their relationships. ;)

As usual, I don't own Twilight, New Moon and Eclipse. Just the plot of this story.

Shafts of sunlight threaded their way through the large trees outside my window, laying beams across Bella's sleeping form.

So beautiful. I smiled at her sleeping face, glad that I could watch her. It had been months since I had been offered that pleasure. She had often wondered aloud what was so fascinating that kept me watching her every night. I dared not express it in words myself. It was just soothing to see her so at peace. Especially since her little tirade downstairs when she had looked so troubled.

"Edward, stop watching me." Bella mumbled. I chuckled when she turned her head away from me. In a flash I balanced myself on the top of the couch, with my back hugging the wall.

"Don't turn away. It was just getting interesting. Your drool was about to drown you." I tried to keep a straight face.

"EDWARD!" Bella abruptly sat up, making me hold even tighter to the back of the couch so I wouldn't fall on her, "That was evil." She glared at me.

"Come on, Bella. We don't have any spit to choke on," I maneuvered myself around her so I could sit down.

"I think that is by far the meanest thing you've ever done to me," her eyes were slits.

"Is that so?" I asked, a plan forming in my mind. It must have showed on my face.

"Edward," she slid away from me and almost hugged the arm of the couch, "Don't even think about—"

I was too fast for her words. In one millisecond I had her pinned on the floor and was tickling her mercilessly.

"No!" she cried through her laughter. It was cleansing, hearing her loud giggles. But I was so distracted by them that I barely registered her counter movement until she used her own strength and pinned me.

"Are you ticklish, love?" she smirked.

"I don't know." I contemplated for a moment, trying to remember, "Emmett's roughhousing doesn't branch out into tickling. I have no other memory of such an act."

"Afraid for me to try?" she asked. I had a feeling I was not ticklish, but I let her have her fun.

"No." I answered indignantly. Bella then attacked my sides. Her expression was befuddled when I barely twitched.

"NO FAIR!" she shouted, "Why am I ticklish when you aren't?"

"I may not have been ticklish as a human. Ever think about that?" I arched an eyebrow in her direction. She suddenly smiled down on me. It was a lovely sight, "What are you thinking?" I asked.

"That I have you pinned, for once." Her grin widened, "And I have the upper hand, for once." She bent down.

"You have always had the upper hand," I confessed, "I only made you think you didn't."

"There are a couple of times you pushed me away last year that makes me think not." Her face was inches from mine.

"Mmm… that was necessity. You didn't want me to kill you now? Did you?" I played along, reaching up to push her curtain of hair onto her back.

"I suppose not." She frowned, thinking for a moment, "But I do have the upper hand right now. What shall I do with you?"

"I don't know." I was being coy. It was maddening having her so close, teasing me. She flashed one last grin before she bent down and our lips connected. I immediately reached up to pull her closer—as close as I could get to her. I breathed in her scent, sweet as ever. I had reveled in being able to be so close and not feeling that monster inside me, begging me to taste her. This was heaven. I was sure of it. There could be nothing better.

Yes there could, I suddenly acknowledged. I sighed within myself as I pushed Bella away from me and got up, making swift movements to put about twenty feet between us. What was it that humans did to ward off these types of feelings? Think cold? I had been cold for almost a hundred years. It didn't help.

"Apparently, I still don't have the upper hand." She sighed.

"I'm sorry." I apologized lamely, leaning against the window, facing away from her. I felt her presence behind me, approaching carefully.

"We're in love, Edward. What is—why are you so against—this step in our relationship?" She stammered.

"Bella, I'm still a gentleman from the Victorian era." I turned to look at her. To stop her from coming closer.

"Oh," she blushed heavily. "It's a marriage thing, isn't it?"

"That would be the issue." I nodded, trying not to stare at her pink tinged cheeks.

"Why?" she couldn't help but ask. I could see it in her face.

Truth be told, there was only one reason that I could think of that would keep me a virgin my hundred and so years. I believe it was because of the only memory that I held of my mother. No matter what I told anyone, I had one memory of her and it was vivid. She was telling me that women wanted one thing above the rest: respect. And the best way to show that would be to respect her body. If I respected her body, I would be respecting her mind and her heart as well. It seemed to have ingrained itself into my very being, a shred of humanity, left over from my short life.

"It was just the way I was raised." I sighed. I tried not to keep things from Bella. If she pressed me, I would tell her, but it was the one thing I had kept from everyone—even Carlisle. The one thing that I could hold on to from my life before that dreaded flu. It was selfish, I know. And I could tell Bella anything. It was habit that kept me from sharing the story.

"You looked a million miles away just then," Bella came closer, reaching out a hand to clasp mine.

"I think this ordeal is getting to everyone." It was a cop out. I knew it, but I hedged away from thoughts of my mother as quickly as I came upon them. It didn't seem as difficult that way.

"Well, at least we had a few moments of normalcy," Bella chuckled, "How about we get ready and go over to Charlie's house? I think getting that place in order will make me feel better."

"Really? I thought it would be difficult for you." I sighed, pulling her against me.

"It will be," she nodded, "But as soon as that's done we can start helping with the hunt. If we get the house done today, then we might be allowed to go to Seattle with them tonight."

"You have a one track mind." I shook my head. But we got dressed and headed towards Charlie's with Alice in tow.

"You know what I just thought?" Bella asked as we drove towards the house. There was a secretive smile plastered on her face.

"What?" I asked, mildly frightened at what might come out of her mind at this point.

"I will have my truck back." She grinned.

"Oh no." Alice grumbled from the back, "Anything but that truck. Bella, let us buy you a new vehicle. Something shiny and fast. We could get you a truck, if that's what you want. A Cadillac Escalade!" My sister's voice was pleading.

"No way! I have to keep it! That's a good truck." Bella's continued to beam, watching out the window.

"It's a good truck for a grandmother." I muttered.

"Hey, you're OLDER than my grandmother." She pointed out, "So I wouldn't be talking."

To our dismay, Bella jumped out of the Volvo as soon as I had stopped the car and hugged her truck's front fender. I would never understand her preoccupation with that rust bucket.

There was only one worry I had about the house: Charlie's room. He had been asleep when the vampire had attacked him. The room had been a crime scene, but it had been abandoned since the police had taken documenting pictures and searched over every inch. I could only imagine what it looked like.

My worries dissipated when I went to take the first look around. Charlie's room was completely in order. Nothing out of place. The bed had even been made. My imagination ran away with me. If everything was in order, the room must have been a war zone. I was suddenly thankful to whoever had thought to clean up.

"Bella, are you going to keep the house?" I asked as I walked slowly down the stairs. I thought she might, but I wanted to be sure.

"Yes." She said decidedly, "But I have a feeling once business is done here, we'll be moving on. I want everything to be closed up and stored so that future teenagers won't get any funny ideas."

"Where do you want to start?" Alice asked.

"How about the living room? We can just pack up everything in there." Bella shrugged. Unfortunately, there were several photo albums Bella had never seen. She and Alice sat looking through them, stalling all packing efforts. I didn't mind. It probably bought us more time out of the search. I busied myself cleaning up the kitchen and bagging up all the food. We could donate it to a homeless shelter.

Night came quicker than we had expected. Jasper materialized on the front door to pick up Alice. Bella and I watched from the front step as they loaded into Emmett's Jeep and drove away.

"So much for going tonight," Bella sighed. I wrapped my arms around her.

"You know, I'm still not sure how safe it is for either of us to be out there." I commented, trying to gauge her reaction. She tensed up as soon as I spoke.

"Edward, if they still haven't found Victoria when I'm done here, I'm going," Bella grimaced, "You don't have to go, and as I've said, I wonder about your balance. You have proved yourself, so far, but what happens if you're getting ready to attack and instinct doesn't take over because there isn't one there? I'm not sure that I have an instinct, but if I don't go—well… I'll not be fit to live with."

"I'll take your word for it," I turned the corners of my mouth down in an attempt not to smile at her grave words. They seemed too serious to be coming out of her mouth. I tried to distract myself with another line of thinking, "Bella, I meant to ask you yesterday, why do you think your mother did not come for the funeral?"

"My mother! Oh my gosh! I wonder if someone called her," she broke away from me and ran into the house. I followed her slowly, wondering where exactly she thought she was going. She reappeared before I could get the door closed.

"The phone's been disconnected." She frowned, "Do you have yours?"

"Of course." I slipped it out of my pocket and into her hand swiftly. I watched as she began dialing her mother's number from memory. I speculated how long it had been since she had last talked to her mother. Obviously, a while.

"No mom, no—I'm fine. Seriously." I wished I could hear Renee's mind through a telephone connection. It would probably serve as great entertainment.

"What did Charlie tell you?" There was pain in Bella's voice when she spoke her father's name. "No, we didn't run off and get married. NO! I'm not pregnant." Bella rolled her eyes at me. I smirked.

"We just went—" she looked at me, panicked as to what to tell her mother, "We went to Ireland." That wasn't a complete lie, I acknowledged. Bella had gone to Ireland. "Edward's father has a friend there. We got to see some of the sights and—we just needed to get away. I can't explain it. Call it our senior trip. We just waited until we graduated to take it." She paused.

"Mom—stop! Listen—I'm not calling so we can catch up on life. I'm calling because—Mom, Charlie's dead." I pulled Bella closer to me then, giving her the support I knew she would need.

"Someone—someone attacked him while he was asleep. I'm so sorry. I didn't think to call you. The funeral and everything is over." Bella leaned against me as she had during the funeral, "Edward and I are packing up the house. Dad left everything to me. I'm keeping the house for now."

She paused for a moment, listening to Renee. I was close enough that I could hear the tinny voice through the phone. Offering to come. Worried about Bella.

"I'm fine. Edward's here. His entire family is here. They'll take care of me. I'm sure of it." I nodded at her, encouragingly. She was taken care of. But if Renee wanted us to come down—now that was an idea. A way to get away from the search.

"No, mom. I really think we're going to stay here and get the house closed up. I'll call you when we decide if we're staying here or leaving Forks." I heard Renee ask about college, "I don't think I'm up for school at all this year. I think Edward is going to wait with me and we'll talk about planning for next fall."

Bella exchanged goodbyes shortly after.

"Thank you for reminding me. I had wondered if someone had called Renee, but I didn't have much time to think about it." She sighed, "I'm glad that it was me telling her, and not some stranger. Phil was there, too, so I don't have to worry about her being alone. She seemed pretty coherent."

"That's just like you, you know." I murmured, kissing her forehead, "Thinking of everyone else." She looked up at me, her own eyes mirroring the ancient quality that she said mine held. It had taken her a lot less time to acquire that feature than it had me.

"Is there somewhere we can get boxes?" she asked. Obviously, she wanted to focus on other things.

"I think Port Angeles has a packing supply store." I looked at my watch, "It's not open anymore, I suspect. Everything closes there early. We could go first thing in the morning." I offered.

"Well, would you mind if we gathered everything up down here and sat it in the floor so that we can pack it all up in the morning?" I would never say no to her.

"I wouldn't mind at all," I smiled as I leaned down to kiss her. She allowed me to linger for a moment before breaking away.

We made fast work of gathering up everything in the living room, kitchen and hallway and placing it all in neat piles on the floor. Soon we were on our way back to the house, looking forward to the comfort my couch would offer.

A/N- Woo for Bella and Edward fluff. I hope to have Chapter 7 up on Saturday now, instead of tomorrow. I'm going out of town, but I'm taking the lappy with me. So, cross your fingers.

Reviews are always welcome, especially with the fluff in this chapter.