A/N: Oh my Holy Edwards! Wow. I guess I should have thrown the gauntlet down sooner. I asked for your reviews and you delivered and then some! Thank you for the heavenly response to Chapter 5, I hope you will be as ecstatic about this chapter and I do apologize in advance for the shortness of it. It had to be done.

To kanyaran, who made me a very happy writer today- thank you BB! To st8girl, who has been there from chapter 1- big smooches! To my lovely pre-readers, especially farawaymomo for working overtime to help me get this next chapter ready to update on time- thank you, thank you, thank you!

Disclaimer: The characters of Twilight are owned by Stephenie Meyer. All other entities and brands are the property of their respective owners. The original content, ideas and characters of this story are owned by Virginia May, May 2010.

Chapter 6:

"Visions and Vacillations"

Tuesday seemed as though it would never come. It might have been considered humorous that four days could feel like a lifetime to one who'd walked the earth for over a century, but it felt true enough to me. By early Saturday morning, less than twelve hours since last seeing Bella, I was pacing in my room, both counting down the minutes until I could see her again and simultaneously trying to talk myself out of getting involved in her life.

"I don't think you can do it, Edward. You won't be able to stay away from her this time," Alice said quietly from her perch on my bed where she'd been mostly silent for the better part of the last two hours.

"I know," I answered, feeling defeated. I could not reconcile what was happening with what I knew was right. I had been actively fighting it, but the pull I felt towards Bella only continued to grow in strength with each passing hour.

I watched on helplessly as Alice's visions fluctuated back and forth with my indecision.

Unfortunately, the more I'd seen Bella in Alice's mind, the more that I wanted to see her. When I would try to convince myself how wrong it was to get involved in her life, the vision would disappear and the aching hole in my chest would open wider. The burning desire to ease that ache would then rage within me, louder and stronger until I would waiver, and Alice would see me once again standing in front of Bella's smiling face.

It was pure agony, followed by supreme relief.

"Come sit." Alice patted the spot next to her on the bed.

I paced once more from the window to the door, and then gave in, sitting next to her. She put her arm around my shoulders, as much as she could when I towered over her, and pulled my head down to rest on top of hers. I could see how determined she was to comfort me, so I just accepted the gesture. A few moments passed before she let me go and looked up at me with an expression that could only be described as pleading.

"Edward, I know that it's important to your sense of integrity that you've exhausted every available possibility before giving in, but I know that you want this… and you need to know that's okay. You love her, you won't hurt her."

"It's impossible for you to know that Alice," I said, for the umpteenth time.

"I realize that I'm operating under less than ideal conditions here, but I'm not totally blind. Good old-fashioned common sense tells me that hurting her would hurt you. Sure, accidents can happen, but that's true for whomever Bella is with. I just don't think you have it in you to do anything that would end her life. It would kill you too. You need her, Edward."

Before I could protest, Alice's thoughts were filled with her earlier vision.

I pull up in the Volvo outside the service department where Bella works. Her head snaps up when she catches sight of the silver car, but she returns to her work, looking hurried, irritated even. A customer approaches her and after a brief exchange and the return of his keys, Bella walks the man outside to his car. When he has gone, I step out of my car slowly. Bella looks at me and lets out a breath, like she'd been holding it for a long time. I approach her slowly, seeing that her tense face relaxes with each step until finally, she smiles.

"See," Alice chirped. "You need that smile like the earth needs the sun. And if you ask me, it kind of looks like she needs you too."

"I'm the last thing she needs," I sighed.

"I think you're wrong," she smirked and stood. "But we'll see."

I waved her off and reclined back on the bed, staring at the ceiling. I could still recall with perfect clarity the visions that Alice had experienced when we lived in Forks. Two futures: both ending in the loss of Bella's human life, both a result of my decisions or mistakes. Now those futures were seemingly gone as far as Alice could tell, but what did that mean? Could I be with Bella without hurting her? Would she have me? Our confusing interaction yesterday told me that I would have my work cut out for me.

Bella didn't trust me. She was afraid of me.

I'd foolishly attempted to show her that I meant no harm to her. To show her with a simple touch that I had regrets, that I would tell her anything if she would just grant me the opportunity, but she'd shirked from my touch. It hurt me more than I could have imagined seeing her back away from me, her eyes downcast.

Which was why I'd been surprised that she insisted I bring my Volvo back to her.

For some reason, she seemed to want me to return. She could have just let me pay for the part and been done with me, but she didn't. Esme was of the opinion that Bella had pushed repairing the Volvo at the dealership because she wanted to see me again. Perhaps my mother was right. Bella had complimented my taste in automobiles, going out of her way to say something kind to me. But then, I'd known from my time in high school with her that Bella was kind. She was kind to Esme, even separated by a window she clearly couldn't see through. Her kindness didn't mean anything significant.

Did her smile? When she'd said my name she'd smiled. According to Alice, she would smile for me again. Did that mean something?

I heard my family moving about in their various activities. They were, as usual, in pairs. Alice and Jasper were being typical Alice and Jasper, having some wordless, frozen-in-time moment that I felt slightly embarrassed to be sharing with them. Emmett laughed quietly at something Rose whispered in his ear about the last time they were in Niagara Falls, causing them both to think about it and make me cringe. Esme and Carlisle were reading together in bed, the one place they routinely occupied during the hours just before dawn.

Rolling over on the empty bed in my own room, I wished not for the first time that I could sleep. I would gladly slumber through the next four days, but as I could not, it appeared to be a very good time to go for another run. I abruptly dashed through the open balcony door and leapt the thirty feet to the ground before taking off in a full sprint towards the darkened woods. I ran as I always did when I was alone or troubled, pushing myself to extremes and testing my own limits.

When I found myself entering an area of human habitation, I finally slowed to look around. I was facing west, just shy of a waterfront. From the thoughts I could hear around me, I realized that I had ventured farther into a residential community than I'd meant to. Decades of experience should have taught me to be far more careful about running without restraint while I was preoccupied. Even my vampire mind was capable of making mistakes.

Given the cause of my current preoccupation, I couldn't afford mistakes. Bella had a history of noticing every misstep I'd ever made around her. Little seemed to escape her attention.

To that end, something she'd said yesterday continued to linger heavily in my mind.

"There's no way that it was just ripped off, or bent..."

"It's just not humanly possible."

I'd seen the challenge flash in her eyes when she'd spoken those words. It was almost as if she was baiting me. Could she have known the truth lying beneath them? If so, how could she have possibly figured it out?

I knew of course that she was aware that I was not exactly normal, seeing as how I'd exposed part of my nature to her in the parking lot of Forks High School five years ago. But did she have actual knowledge of our secret? What exactly had Emmett said to her about the way the Volvo was damaged?

It occurred to me that in all likelihood I was just being paranoid. Yes, Bella was intelligent and unquestionably observant. But even if she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I wasn't human, it didn't mean that she knew what I was. An inexplicable rescue and a mysteriously broken fuel door hardly pointed to the word vampire. There were hundreds of other possibilities for her to have imagined. The odds that she would guess, and guess correctly, were astronomical. The stars would have to have been aligned against me, if I believed in such things.

Looking up at those very stars from a small park on the shore of what I now realized must be Lake Washington, I was only minutes away from Bella and the mysteries guarded inside her silent mind. I wondered again just how much that anomaly drew me to her. Surely it went beyond mere curiosity by now. There was something more appealing to me about her mental silence than what could be explained by curiosity alone. Silence was a difficult thing for me to come by unless I was completely isolated, and I'd spent enough time alone to last several lifetimes. I desired company as much as the rest of my family, but it always came at a cost. Even sitting here in the early morning house, I was not alone. Most nearby residents were still sleeping on this early Saturday morning, but their minds were still at work in some way or another, audible to me even in their sleep.

Bella was likely sleeping right now not far from where I stood. Could the mysteries of her mind avail themselves to me in her dreams? Would whatever thing that kept me from knowing her thoughts function while she was unconscious? Considering her cryptic words from yesterday, I pondered if it was worth the risk to find out.

Running silently once more through the sparse brush surrounding the lake, it didn't really require a conscious decision to begin moving towards Bella. I had to know if my theories about her held any merit. No risk seemed too great for a chance to hear and see inside Bella's mind. I would give almost anything to know the musings hidden within. To know how she saw the world, even if only in her dreams, would be an incredible gift.

Unfortunately, the sun was rising and I was quickly running out of time to get to her before daylight. I hadn't pre-planned this little trip and had no foreknowledge of the day's weather or even my cell phone to call Alice.

Great. Very responsible, Cullen.

I could only hope that I wasn't about to end up in some situation from which Alice would inevitably have to bail me out. Of course at the same time, I realized given I was on my way to Bella's, I couldn't even be certain that Alice would see me. I stopped running near two large lakefront homes and sought out any nearby thoughts. I hoped to find someone awake and checking on the weather this time of morning, but found none who were. Instead, I lifted a newspaper from a driveway and checked the weather page, groaning when I saw the forecast: 61 degrees, Mostly Sunny.

My memory instantly recalled that Alice had mentioned Saturday might be sunny when she'd had her first vision of Bella. "It's not for a few days at least. The sun was shining, so I think Saturday maybe..."

Alice's visions were never exact, but between her prediction and the meteorologists at the Seattle Times, I thought better than to push my luck. As it was, the run home was going to be tricky enough as the sun continued to rise over the mountains to the east and the cloud cover above me disappeared. So long as I remained in such close proximity to human households there was the danger of being seen, even if all anyone saw was a blazing streak of light running through the forest.

Edward…

He doesn't deserve to be bailed out. Foolish… Irrational…Unprepared…

Both my sister and brother's mental voices caught my attention. Alice had come to get me with a very unhappy Jasper in tow. She'd seen me after all and decided to intervene before I became stranded or worse. I changed course, moving towards the direction I knew they were approaching from.

Alright brother dear. You're about to come to the road. I'll be waiting at the tree line for you.

I watched through Alice's mind, using her eyes to get my bearings. I found the road with ease and Carlisle's Mercedes rolled to a stop just as I came to the tree line. I only hoped that I could manage to get into the car without being seen in the light of day. I knew it would prove to be a bit of a gamble with the burgeoning sunshine and growing number of human drivers nearby. I opened the car door and got in the back seat just as the sunlight broke through the last of the clouds.

"Thank you, Alice. Jasper."

Jasper grabbed something off the dash and threw it at me. I caught it a millisecond before it could hit me square between the eyes.

"Keep your phone with you. You acted irresponsibly and put yourself, and by extension, the rest of us, at risk."

I nodded in acknowledgment of Jasper's warning, while mulling over the rest of his thoughts and my own. My pride wanted to argue that I wouldn't have been exposed. I'd been on my own for the majority of the last five years and not needed Alice to keep me out of the sun. But I knew I'd be lying if I claimed that I'd been using the full capacity of my reasoning skills lately. The draw to be near Bella, the need to keep her safe, the emotions waging war within my soul, it was a dangerous cocktail that made me do impulsive things.

The all too brief glimpse of warmth and sunshine that day afforded my family some entertainment and made for a welcome distraction. As we were fortunate to have access to a large lake in a portion of the National Forest that was closed off for reforestation, we took advantage of the privacy for a little fun. Water polo was not a sport we had opportunity to indulge in frequently, and it was even less often that we could get away with it on a sunny day.

Emmett and I finally took the time to talk before the family regrouped for our third match of the day. An overzealous volley had led to the destruction of a large stone we used in place of a ball. While the others sought out an acceptable replacement, Emmett approached me. I felt a moderate amount of guilt that his apologies led to Rosalie huffing off for home. She was far more upset by his decision to interfere in my life than I was, and for vastly different reasons. She'd even gone so far as to disassemble his 4x4 Range Rover and leave it in unrecognizable pieces on the front lawn. Apparently she had no intentions of forgiving him anytime soon.

In contrast, as uncharacteristic of me as it was to just let something go, I was having a hard time holding an unnecessary grudge against my well-meaning brother. It took all of about three seconds for me to see that Emmett had thought it through and his logic wasn't entirely asinine, he just had underestimated the stakes in his gamble. Only time would tell whether or not the risk he took was worth the wager.

After a few more rounds of water polo and a ridiculous attempt at Sharks and Minnows, I spent the last sun soaked hour of the day lying on a large rock, thinking of Bella and our brief reunion.

Sunday came and went, ushering in the return of thick cloud cover and rain. As the light of day drew to a close and twilight fell on the house, Alice and Jasper disappeared into the pouring rain for a private swim. Not thinking too much on the reasons why, I smiled to myself knowing how happy they were, or perhaps because of how happy they were. Jasper rarely held back from sharing that emotion. It was a relatively new thing to him in his long existence.

Several hours later their return was markedly somber, which caught my attention as soon as I was able to hear their thoughts. Carlisle noticed me lower my book as I concentrated on both of them.

What is it? Carlisle looked to the windows of his study as soon as we could hear their footfalls squish along over the wet ground. "Jasper and Alice," he guessed.

"Yes. Something happened while they were out. Alice is trying not to think about it. She wants to talk to both of us," I answered, feeling uneasy.

"Hmm," he said nodding, and continued to scan the article he was working on. Carlisle was nothing if not patient. I, on the other hand, was ready to get up and meet Alice on the lawn.

My brother and sister entered the house through their room and changed into dry clothes before descending the steps to the study. They came in without knocking and Alice was speaking before she even entered the room.

"We're going to have company. She's going to be a problem." A flash of bright red-hair and crimson eyes took over Alice's mind for a brief instant.

"What makes you say so, Alice? I assume we are talking about a visitor of the vampire kind?" Carlisle sat forward.

"Yes, a nomad that we've met before. She was with her coven last time. Two males, James and Laurent, and the female was called Victoria."

Carlisle nodded. "Yes, of course. Their hunting activities were drawing attention, but they left when we asked them to desist. What is your concern with her now, Alice?"

My father's mind was open to me as he spoke to Alice. The coven in question had come after I left Forks, killing somewhat injudiciously on and around the Olympic Peninsula. They'd heard the crack of a bat while my family was out playing baseball one afternoon and came to investigate. Carlisle had been kind to them and encouraged their curiosity regarding our lifestyle, but when he found that it was insincere, they left soon after at his request.

Alice continued talking while I put to memory everything Carlisle has seen or thought of these strangers.

"She's alone now, without her coven. I…" She shook her head, trying not to think of the actual vision while she spoke. "I saw her changing a boy in Seattle."

"What?" I asked, standing from my seat. The images of my own making filled my mind; the idea of a ravenous newborn vampire loose in the city where Bella lived was horrifying.

Carlisle took a deep breath and leaned back in his desk chair. "You're sure?"

"Yes." Alice locked eyes with me, flashes of her vision coming through. "She will try tonight, but she'll fail. Then again tomorrow. She'll feed first to try and control herself, but it won't work. She will kill several others. One…"

My eyes were filled again with scenes from Alice's vision. This time a mangled female body bent and broken over Victoria's knee, pale pink skin made paler still in death, long brown hair matted with blood, a University of Washington Huskies tee shirt torn from slender shoulders in the attacker's rage.

"No!" I screamed, staggering back and nearly falling over a chair.

Jasper caught my arm and tried to calm me while Carlisle came around the desk in a lightning fast movement. I was vaguely aware that the rest of the family had made their way towards the room and were watching on with varying degrees of concern.

Putting a hand on my shoulder, Carlisle asked the only question that mattered.

"Bella Swan?"

Esme gasped, and Rosalie's teeth ground together.

Alice shook her head, her words rushed and nearly choked by her own fear. "I can't see her face. I just know it's going to be a girl with long brown hair and a U Dubb tee shirt. Victoria won't be able to stop, Carlisle. The girl in my vision will die, and then Victoria will find another. That boy… he'll be changed. He wakes up on Friday."

My mind calculated the time table and desperately sought confirmation that I was wrong. "Alice! Can you see Bella after Tuesday?" I shouted.

"It's all fuzzy, Edward. I don't..."

I was through the front door before Alice even finished her words. I had to get to Bella. I could no longer wait until Tuesday. Tuesday could be too late. Already, there was a rogue vampire loose somewhere in Seattle. Already, events were in motion that would result in the death of a brown haired university student, and I would be damned again if I let it be Bella.

End Note:

So... Unless I need to be constructing a bunker, (I hear this is a popular thing for many authors to have at times like these), the next chapter will be posted on time. (Sunday or Monday at the latest.)

Please review. :-) Ginnie