Chapter 6

It didn't occur to me until I got off the phone with my mother that there was an even bigger problem than getting Bella into clothes and a car, then around hundreds of people. If Edward got into the backseat and Bella shifted forms, I was pretty sure people would notice, not to mention either she, or my car, or both would be damaged with the change.

So even though I took her out for another night in the woods, much to her delight, we came back earlier than planned. I plopped her in front of the television with as many home movies of Edward as possible in hopes of familiarizing her with him. I had also been planning several other distractions to help lower the risk of her shifting.

My last big effort would be today. We were leaving in an hour to pick up my brother. The trip would take quite a while even with my driving. I didn't understand why Edward didn't fly into Port Angeles or even the small airport by Forks. Driving all the way to Seattle required nearly two hours of driving including two ferries! It was bad enough keeping Bella locked up in what I'm sure would feel like a sardine can to her, but being trapped on a boat with so many other people…twice. Bad news. I thought about leaving Bella at home, or even dropping her off on the outskirts of the city and picking her up on the way home, but I didn't like the idea of her getting lonely. And what if some nomads did come across her. Truthfully, I'm surprised she'd survived as long as she did without any fighting skills. Sure, she could sufficiently fend off normal animals and probably human hunters, but I couldn't see her coming across any dangerous nomads or other shifters, if they were aggressive, and surviving. In the end, my overly protective nature won out and I had to take Bella with me.

That being said, I was fully prepared to make the trip as stress-free and entertaining as possible for her. Beside the front door was a bag containing several tins of fruit, a jar of peanut butter, plastic spoons, picture books, a portable DVD player and movies, and her drawing pad. I'd also packed a pillow in case she wanted to nap, as our trip would cover the time she normally slept in the afternoon. Esme said Bella slept more than a normal human. I wouldn't know, but I suppose she does take quite a few naps during the day. Carlisle said it probably has to do with her being a cat. I guess cats sleep a lot.

"Bella! Don't be such a baby!" I said impatiently, forcing the shirt over her head. She had to look somewhat presentable. Fully tinted windows weren't legal in Washington, so people would be able to see her. It would look strange if she was dressed like a five dollar hooker.

"No, no, no." She muttered, ripping the neckline of the shirt down across her chest. Sighing, I pulled the ruined garment off of her and grabbed another from the pile. The spaghetti strap green tank top not only stayed on, but also matched her eyes, and I mentally patted myself on the back. The pants were always the easier task. She'd taken a liking to the light cotton sleep shorts I'd gotten her, the problem was that without panties, they weren't exactly modest, especially with her affinity for sitting with her legs apart. For that reason I had found a slightly thicker pair with a bit more length. They were still fairly short, but long enough that the shadow would give her more modesty. Regardless, if I caught anyone looking up her shorts anyway, they'd better have some fast legs and a resilient body.

"Okay, Bella. Look here." I said, once she was finally dressed to my liking. We still hadn't crossed the bridge of shoes yet, but since she wasn't getting out of the car anyway, I didn't see how it mattered. I giggled thinking how my family would react if they heard me say shoes didn't matter.

Bella sat on the bed, her legs bowed and her hands set in front of her so she was leaning forward a bit, ever attentive. I smiled, holding up the drawing I had made of her cat form. Pointing to it, I shook my head.

"No cat today." I said, watching her closely for understanding. She frowned, almost pouting as she looked from the picture to me and back again. "Just for today Bella. No cat." She scrunched her nose, looking away non-committally and I sighed. Walking forward I took her chin in my hand, staring hard into her green eyes. "No cat, Bella. Yes?" I asked, looking for a confirmation. A low growl built in her chest, but my raised eyebrow quieted her displeasure. She stared at me for a long time as she always does when she wants to challenge me. I took it as a good sign. At least she knew what I was asking if she was reacting this way. "Please Bella." I begged, giving her my best pout. I saw the struggle in her eyes, but she finally relented, with a tiny, yes. "That's my good girl." I said softly, smiling and placing a quick kiss to her lips. I let my fingers run through her dark hair, watching amusedly as she tried to stop the automatic purr my scalp massage caused.

I crawled up onto the bed with her and she laid back, allowing me to wrap her up in my arms and relaxing as I continued to stroke her hair. We had taken a long run this morning to stretch our legs, but I decided I'd use the rest of our time to relax before we had to leave. Unfortunately, that time was far too short and only twenty minutes later I was forced to pull a languid Bella out of bed and down to the car, grabbing my bag along the way.

Bella yawned widely, her eyes still drooping with drowsiness as she watched me prepare the car. I slid the passenger seat back, reclining it some before putting the pillow in the back and tucking my bag of goodies right behind the center console. As much as I'd like to, we weren't taking my Porsche today. It was far too small for Bella to be comfortable in, not to mention it was only a two-seater. Instead we were taking my white range rover, a gift from Rosalie and Emmett two years ago for Christmas.

Once everything was set, I turned to look at the sleepy kitten and wanted to coo at the expression on her face. "Okay Bella. In you go." I said, gesturing to the car. She took one last look at the machine in front of her before apparently deciding it didn't matter and climbing in. It didn't hit her that she would be trapped inside until the door closed behind her. I saw her eyes immediately widen through the window and sped around to my side, jumping in.

"Liss!" She squeaked in her panic, clawing at the door for a way to get out. I had placed the child locks on, but I was afraid she'd break the window and quickly pulled her into a hug.

"Shh, Bella. It's okay." I whispered into her ear turning on the engine at the same time. I wanted to get all the startling stuff out of the way while I was comforting her. Reaching behind me I put down both our windows, hoping it would help ease the claustrophobia. Her body relaxed just slightly when she felt the breeze on her back, but she continued to whimper and I felt like crying at how upset I'd made her. "Bella, honey, you're okay. I'm here. I promise it's okay." I soothed, as the car continued to rumble around us. When I felt the shock had worn off, I reached back into my bag and removed one of the containers of fruit. Taking off the cover I leaned back, offering it to a frowning Bella. Her expression didn't change, but she did start eating the cubed watermelon, staring out the window both fearful and curious as I began pulling out of our driveway.

"This is a car, Bella. Car." I reminded her. I had already taught her the word, but she'd never done more than see one from the outside. Now she could understand how it operated.

Five minutes into the drive, any shock or fear had worn off to be replaced with curiosity. Unfortunately this included the touching of every button in my car. She seemed particularly fond of turning my hazard lights on since it made a repetitive clicking sound. Her curiosity lasted approximately fifteen minutes into the drive and then she became bored, staring out the window, chin in hand.

"Bella, here. Want to draw?" I asked, pulling out her notebook. She waved her hand, in what I determined to be a negative fashion. "How about a movie?" I offered, trying to find the dvd player that had apparently fallen out of the bag while I was fumbling for her charcoal. I didn't matter because she waved off this option as well and I started to become worried. I'd only thought to bring so many activities. Honestly, I was hoping she would sleep most of the trip, but that didn't seem likely now.

"Umm, okay. How about a game?" I suggested desperately searching for something to distract her. I hated seeing her so listless. She turned back to look at me, her arms hanging out of the window as we drove, hand catching the breeze.

"Gim?" She asked. One problem with her picking up words so quickly now was that she wasn't giving much thought to sounding them out anymore. It seemed like she was happy if I understood her, regardless if the pronunciation was correct. That was something we'd have to work on I suppose, but it didn't really bother me as much as it should. I'm sure Esme and Carlisle would take to the task when they got home. As long as I understood her and she me, it wasn't a high priority for me. I figured she'd just get better over time.

"Yup, a game. Okay, let's see…" I thought out loud. It had to be something she'd understand and enjoy. Rosalie and I usually played 'name the designer and season' on car trips, but Bella wasn't quite to that stage in her fashion knowledge…yet. Emmett and Edward sometimes played something with license plates or road signs, but there weren't many of either one of those on this road. Snapping my fingers, I smiled. "I got it. We'll play I spy!" I pronounced. In actuality, it wasn't exactly I-Spy, it was more like, name the thing. It took almost twenty minutes for me to actually get Bella to understand the concept, but eventually she caught on to what I wanted. "Okay, ready?" I chuckled at her eager expression. She was smiling widely after having gotten the last one correct. "It's brown." I paused, watching her concentrate on my description. "Soft. Yummy. Gooood." I elongated the last word so that it was almost a moan and Bella's eyes lit up.

"Nutter!" She exclaimed excitedly and I grinned.

"Good Bella!"

"Bella." She said, patting her chest. I was surprised, but let her have a chance. If she wanted to try, who was I to stop her. She thought hard for a moment, the tip of her tongue peeking out of her lips just a bit. "Bloo." She finally said, and I nodded my understanding. I'm sure I was grinning like an idiot, but I was proud of her. I couldn't help it. After another minute of thought she added, "Up." At this point I was fairly certain I knew what it was. After all, she only knew so many words and I taught her most of them. Despite that, I let her continue, wanting to give her a chance to use more of her knowledge. Plus I was curious as to how she'd describe it. She frowned when she couldn't think of the word she wanted. Instead she decided to show me. Making a wooshing sound, she waved her hands in front of her.

"Nuh uh, Bella. What's it called." I demanded, watching her forehead wrinkle in thought as she continued to frown. I knew when she remembered the word because her eyes lit up again joyfully.

"Win."

"Wind." I corrected, trying not to laugh when Bella rolled her eyes, repeating the word with extra emphasis on the d. "Good, and the answer is sky." I said, smiling when Bella grinned at me. I didn't bother telling her that wind didn't really describe sky. Even if she did understand, it would just make her sad. Instead, I leaned over to give her a kiss for her accomplishment. "My turn." I sang, trying to think of another word she knew.

Somehow we managed to keep the game up until we reached the first ferry. Bella was getting tired again, as evidenced by her drooping eye lids. I think that was the only reason she wasn't freaking out about us parking and people around us getting out of their cars. Never the less, I didn't want to take the chance of her being alerted to their presence and pulled her into the back seat with me. Urging her to lie down, her head in my lap, it was easy to soothe her into a deep sleep. The hard part was pulling myself away when I had to continue driving. Bella ended up sleeping straight through until we reached the airport and I decided to let her continue to doze. Just in case she did shift, it would be better if it didn't happen in view of hundreds of humans.

Leaving my sleeping girl in the backseat, I slipped from the car when I saw Edward waiting on the curb.

"Hey Alice." He greeted, moving to put his suitcase in the trunk, when I pulled on his arm, stopping him.

"Bella's sleeping in the backseat. Be very quiet. I don't want her waking up until we're outside the airport and the city limits preferably. He nodded his head, eyes widening at the knowledge that Bella had come with me. Apparently, our parents hadn't mentioned that.

"Is she…"

"She's human." I confirmed, swiftly moving to place his bag in the trunk and shutting the door as quietly as possible. Bella was a deep sleeper, but she wasn't completely dead to the world. Loud sounds would still startle her awake.

Once Edward and I were both in the car, my younger brother immediately turned to the back seat, taking in Bella's sleeping human form. I had to repress my urge to growl at his wandering eyes.

"Cool." He stated simply, smiling at me before putting his headphones in place as I eased back into the airport traffic.

It appeared luck was on our side and Bella didn't wake up until we were about thirty minutes from home, but when she did, she was severely startled to see Edward sitting in the front seat. When he turned around to look at her, she snarled more out of fear than aggression, and tucked herself as much into the corner behind my seat as possible. Despite her unhappy reaction, she didn't shift. That wasn't to say she wasn't tense though. I finally decided to pull the car over and allow Edward to drive so I could sit in the back with Bella. Technically Edward was fourteen, but he knew how to drive, and Carlisle allowed him to get a fake license, much to Esme's displeasure. In this case, it came in handy. Even with my presence and a spoon of peanut butter hanging out of her mouth, Bella still regarded Edward wearily, watching him like a hawk all the way home. However, she relaxed significantly once we were out of such close quarters. She even greeted him with a quiet 'Eddie,' much to both mine and my brother's surprise. He didn't particularly care for that nickname, but I explained Bella had trouble with his full name and he thankfully acquiesced, especially when I related to him what she called Carlisle.

"So how are the cousins?" I asked conversationally, once we were inside. Bella had darted off into the woods once we arrived, but I wasn't concerned. She was most likely in need of the bathroom after such a long journey. I proved to be correct when she arrived back at the house with soiled shorts just as Edward began explaining about Kate's new mate.

"Bellaaaa." I sighed. Motioning to where she pulled on the wet cloth. Edward snickered from his place at the piano and I shot him a glare. Turning back to my bashful girl, I couldn't be mad at her. She was looking up at me through her lashes in that adorable fashion that melts my frozen heart. So with a sigh, I just dragged her upstairs to the bathroom for a shower. One of these days I was going to get her to understand the need of taking off her clothes before relieving herself. Obviously, all my attempts so far had been failures. How can she be so logical in other things and not realize…GAH!

"Perhaps, she could wear skirts?" Edward offered from downstairs as I started stripping Bella down for the shower.

"Are you reading my thoughts again, Eddie?" I growled.

"No, actually. It just seemed to make sense." I couldn't fault his logic there, but skirts would definitely pose a problem for keeping Bella's modesty intact. My brow furrowed as I considered the idea while easing Bella out of the now wet shorts. I suppose the real problem was that she wasn't completely able to dress herself alone yet. Perhaps once that obstacle was overcome, we could work on this one.

"Bella bad?" She asked sadly, reaching a hand up to smooth the wrinkles between my eyebrows. I sighed, forcing a smile onto my face.

"No sweetie, you're not bad. Here, shower time." I sang, gently pushing her under the spray of water and handing her a loofa I'd lathered with soap. One thing she didn't need my help with anymore was washing, unfortunately…but I still stayed in the room with her just in case… okay, mostly I just enjoyed the view and was thankful Bella didn't know enough to call me a pervert.

Once Bella was finished, I grabbed a towel from the warmer and wrapped it snuggly around her, rubbing the cloth against her skin to dry it.

I was just pulling Bella's tank top over her head when there was a knock at my bedroom door. I'd been so focused on not touching the tempting sun-kissed breasts in front of me that I hadn't heard Edward walk down the hall and jumped slightly at the noise. When I finally got the tank top pulled down, I called my brother to enter. I stepped in front of Bella, though, conscious that her nipples were visible through the shirt and not wanting Edward to see. I grabbed her arms, pulling them around me and making her step into my back. She began purring and nuzzling my neck as Edward entered, looking slightly awkward about our position.

"What's up?" I asked, drawing his attention to me, rather than the girl behind me, who had ducked down when he entered, just peeking over my shoulder. I patted her arms around my waist comfortingly.

"Oh, well I saw some flash cards downstairs and noticed Bella was learning colors. So, I thought maybe we could play Candyland." I smiled. Sometimes Edward could actually be thoughtful.

"Sure! Why don't you go set it up in the living room and Bella and I will be down in a second." I suggested. He nodded, and left, closing the door behind him.

I turned around in Bella's arms, reaching up on my toes to give her a quick kiss. "You're doing so good Bella!" I told her, grinning. I was proud of her, staying in human form even though she was uncomfortable. She gave me her patented feral smile and I chuckled. "Okay, come on." I started pulling her towards the door before remembering the reason I'd stood in front of her earlier. Peeking back at her chest I saw the girls were still very alert. Was she cold?

Bella frowned, ducking her head to catch my eyes before looking down at herself.

"Liss?" She asked, now looking from me back to herself.

Shaking my head I moved back towards her and made a vague motion towards her nipples. She scrunched up her nose, looking at me in confusion.

"No bad, Liss." She stated, looking at me incredulously.

"Yes it is bad, Bella. Those are private." I told her seriously. She huffed before waving away in a shrug and placing a hand over each breast.

"Good?" She questioned equally serious and I burst out laughing. In fact, I laughed so hard, I doubled over at the waist. Poor Bella looked at me like I'd completely lost it, but her gesture did make me realize how ridiculous I was being.

"No, Bella. It's fine. It's fine, honey. I'm sorry." I said, still giggling as I pulled her hands away from the perky mounds. Licking my lips, I shook my head again and pulled her after me out of the room. "We're going to play a new game, Bella!" I told her excitedly, as we made our way down the hall.

"Gim!" She repeated smiling back at me.

When we reached the bottom of the stairs and she saw Edward, Bella immediately moved just a bit more behind me, and I squeezed her hand in reassurance.

"It's okay Bella. That's Edward. You know him."

"Eddee." She said quietly.

"Hi Bella." My brother responded, smiling softly at her. I pulled her to a spot at the coffee table across from Edward. She immediately began taking in the pictures on the game board.

"Bloo." She whispered to me, watching Edward out of the corner of her eye. She was acting adorably shy, so I gave her a smile, nodding.

"Tell me another, Bella." I said, pointing to a red square.

"Red." She answered obediently, and I hugged her against my side happily.

"Good." I praised, giving her a kiss on the cheek. I checked over the board to make sure she knew all of the colors and realized we'd never learned purple. Pointing to one of the squares I told her, "Purple."

"Porple"

"Good Bella." Then turning to my brother, "Edward, would you mind running into the kitchen and getting Bella a spoon of peanut butter. A plastic spoon preferably." He nodded, moving at a human pace so as not to alarm Bella. Meanwhile, I turned to my girl, seeing the grin on her face. She apparently knew what was coming, so I didn't waste any time. Reaching to tangle my fingers in her hair, I pulled her in for a deep kiss as her reward. Bella was nothing short of an expert at kissing now and soon dominated my willing mouth with her tongue. Finally pulling myself away a purr escaped my lips. "Mmm, such a good girl." I whispered into Bella's ears, surprisingly causing her to shiver. When I pulled back I saw Bella looking at me with that predator stare she had after our first hug and thought I may have made a mistake. Fortunately, Edward's reentrance snapped her out of that state of mind and she leaned closer towards me. I reached across the table, grabbing the spoon from Edward and handed it to Bella, who promptly stuck it in her mouth, sucking on it like a lollipop.

"Wow, she really likes that stuff, huh?" Edward commented, watching Bella's half-lidded eyes as she once again took on the appearance of a blissed out feline. It was actually kind of sexy to watch, and I found myself squirming a bit as I watched her. Edward gave me a look and I quickly cleared my throat, snatching the now clean spoon from Bella's pouting mouth.

"Oh stop Bella. There wasn't any left on there." I told her, rolling my eyes as I tossed the spoon on the side table. Once that was done, I lined up the different colored people shaped pieces for Bella to choose one. Bella picked the blue person handing it to me and I noticed Edward frowning. When I gave him a questioning look he grumbled.

"I'm always blue."

"Well today Bella's blue. You can be green." I told him, trying not to laugh at the petulant look on his face. Bella nudged my arm and I turned to see her handing me another person, this one yellow.

"No, Bella. You only get one." I told her, grabbing the blue one and holding them both out in front of me. "Which one do you want. Blue? Or Yellow?" She frowned, considering my question, before grabbing the blue one.

"Good. I wanted to be yellow." I grinned, putting my newly chosen piece at the start and ignoring Edward's huff. Edward went first and Bella watched eagerly. I went next, so she could see another example before her turn. As soon as I finished moving my piece Bella grabbed at the top card on the deck. She turned over a double purple and looked to me to see how to proceed. I pointed to the first purple square and then the second. "One purple. Two purple." I told her, leaving my finger on the second purple square until she moved her person.

The game continued relatively easily. Bella seemed to be enjoying herself and becoming more comfortable around Edward. The only times she had trouble were when she got non-color cards. The first time she got one, she tried to pick again. I suppose she thought it was a mistake. We played two games before Edward and I lost interest and Bella had to watch reluctantly as I put the game back in our cupboard.

Edward had moved to sit in one of the arm chairs, his headphones, predictably, back in place. I chose a seat on the couch, grabbing a magazine for myself and a book with pictures of the national parks for Bella. About ten minutes later, I noticed Bella shifting a bit in her place next to me, and looked up to see her watching Edward. He had a book open in front of him, but was bobbing his head to whatever song was playing in his ears. Bella noticed my attention and leaned towards me, whispering.

"Whas that?" She pointed unashamed at Edward, who must have caught the motion and looked up.

"Why don't you ask Edward?" I suggested. Bella stared back at me, as if to see if I was serious before shaking her head no. "Go on, Bella. It's okay. You can ask him. Edward." I called over to my brother so he would remove an ear bud, which he did. Once we had his attention I turned back to Bella. "Go ahead Bella." I encouraged. "She wants to ask you something." I clarified for Edward. Hearing this, he removed his other earphone and sat forward in his seat.

"Yes Bella?" He asked, looking somewhat shy himself. Bella tried to turn into me, but I wouldn't let her. I wrapped my arms around her chest, holding her in front of me so she'd have to face my brother, but hopefully still felt safe with me. I heard her growl softly, wiggling in my arms briefly before sighing and lifting her head.

"Whas that?" She finally asked again, pointing to the Ipod on his lap.

"What? This?" He asked, lifting the mp3 player up and showing it to her. Bella nodded. "It's called an Ipod. It plays music." Bella tilted her head curiously. She had heard music before. I'd played it while everyone was gone on occasion, but she never requested to know what it was called then. Seeing her confusion, Edward stood and moved over to where we had a stereo dock set up. Connecting his Ipod, he quickly searched through some songs before making a selection and adjusting the volume so it would be in surround sound. Bruno Mars began playing throughout the room and Bella sat up straighter in surprise, quickly turning to look at me.

"Music." I repeated for her.

"Moosic." She mimicked automatically, standing up. As the song continued, I noticed Bella swaying slightly and grinned.

"Let's dance Bella!" I said, taking her hands innocently and standing a couple feet away. I swung my hips side to side, urging her to do the same. She watched, smiling but caught on quickly. As the music continued to play, I started to teach Bella some silly dance moves, throwing my hands in the air, or doing the shopping cart. She was having so much fun, she didn't even flinch when Edward joined our group. I laughed when I saw him trying to teach her how to do the lawn mower. Eventually, I'd have to teach her how to really move, preferably when Edward's not around, but for now, Bella and Edward were both having fun and I was happy to let them. Dance Party!

One family member down. Four to go.

A/N Ah, music bringing people together J