CHAPTER 7 - EXPLANATIONS EPOV

I knew Nessie would not be happy that I was only giving her part of the information, but she didn't need to know the exact details of all of this.

We were both silent for quite a while. I also knew that she would notice that things were really odd. I hadn't been away from Bella for over a week, and Nessie was just as observant as her mother.

"What's up, daddy?" Nessie finally broke the silence by getting right to the point.

"There is a lot going on. What do you know about all of this?" I wanted to see how far she had gotten with all of this before I gave her the information I knew that she was waiting for.

"Nothing, except everyone is keeping something important from me. And it's got me really frustrated." So like Bella.

"The reason that everyone is keeping something from you is because they think that you can't deal with it. Alice and I disagree. So she kept everyone busy, and I snuck off to pick you up from school."

"So, you're going to explain everything to me?" She sounded extremely hopeful that she would finally be figuring this entire thing out.

"Parts of it." I could see her face fall a little.

After a few minutes, I finally started to explain things.

"You should already know that Rachael's scent causes Bella a lot of pain. Rachael's smell is about as strong as your mother's used to be for me. So we have been keeping her away. And as an added precaution, we haven't been letting you have your friend over."

"That's not that big of a problem. Why couldn't we just go to the park or something?"

She seems to catch way too much.

"Well, honey, we were worried that your senses would become like your mom's, since you two are related. We wanted to keep you in the public eye while you were with her so that there would be less of a chance for you to hurt her if this becomes the case."

This wasn't the exact problem, but it worked.

The actual problem was that she would come home smelling like Rachael, and this would be a problem for Bella. But I didn't want Nessie to feel any guiltier than she already is going to for having her friend smell good to her mother. Another way she is like her mother, I thought.

Before Ness could comment on what I had just said, my phone rang.

I didn't even answer it before Alice started talking.

"Edward, get home now! If you don't they will figure it out. I take that back, they already have. Just hurry home. I can't take care of this on my own. They don't even know that I am a part of this."

And then she hung up. Alice is a strange one, I thought.

"Let me guess, Aunt Ali?"

"Who else would start talking before I even say 'hello?'"

"What did she say?"

"That we are going to be in big trouble for our little detour today. Everyone figured out what we were up to. Not a good thing."

"Are we going to be in trouble?"

"You won't. I will have to listen to why you aren't old enough to know this information, but don't worry about it at all."

The last thing I needed was for her to feel guiltier about all of this.

"Why, Edward? Why would you tell her all of this?" Bella was already very far into her rant. I was just letting her get it out of her system. "And Alice, why would you help him? What good is it to worry Nessie about all of this? Ugh!"

Alice looked at me questioningly. I gave her a slight nod to let her know that she could tell what she knew.

"Bella," Alice started, quite softly, "Nessie was going to figure it out on her own. The only difference between how she got told now and how she would have figured it out later was that if she figured it out on her own later, she would have no one to turn to. So she would have gone to Rachael. And there was a good chance that our secret would have gotten out. Edward just stopped that from happening. And you really need to calm down before Nessie and Jake get back."

I had Jake take Nessie out hunting when we got back so that Bella could get the frustration out of her system. However, from what I could tell from Alice's thoughts, she should be back in 5…4…3…2…1…

"Hey guys, what's up?"

Ha, I've still got it, Alice told me.

"Hello, honey. Are you okay?" Bella seemed to be over her fit.

"Yeah. I'm perfectly fine. Why?"

"I was just wondering how you were handling the news your father gave you." Bella now seemed to be overly worried about Nessie's reactions to all of this.

"Mom, I'm glad daddy told me all of this. I was getting annoyed that everyone was keeping something from me. I hated it. Now I know why I can't have Rachael over, and why I need to be careful what I do. Everything is okay."

It's really scary. I don't know how to deal with this. My first friend ever causes my family a lot of trouble. What am I going to do?"

"Nessie, everything is going to be just fine," I reassured her.

"Thanks, daddy."

"Anytime."

I should have known Bella wasn't done.

We were in our room that night, and Bella started the second the door was closed. I knew it was going to be a long time before she would calm down, so I was lying down on the bed watching her pace.

"She can't know about all of this. She's not old enough to deal with all of this. Why, oh, why did you tell her? No, don't tell me. You thought she could handle all of this."

"Actually, I didn't think that she could handle all of this, I knew she could. I had Alice check to see what would happen. She checked every possible way that Nessie could take this news, and none of them turned out to cause any major problems. So, there was nothing to worry about."

"What happens if there is some path that Alice didn't see? Then what are we supposed to do? No one is going to be happy with me if we have to move."

"Bella, you really need to calm down. No one will be angry with you if we have to move. It happens. All vampires end up going through this at some point in their existence. Every one in our family has gone through this at least once. Even Carlisle. You'll come out of this perfectly fine. Don't worry."

"Fine."

She's still way to mad. I know without a doubt that none of my family is going to let anything happen to Rachael. Nessie likes her too much for something bad to happen. I just have to get Bella to see that.

"I know you're still mad. But everything will work out just fine. Alice and I know what we're doing. This isn't the first time the two of us have had to do something like this. It probably won't be the last time, either. Don't worry. You'll just have to trust us."

"Okay. I guess you're right. I'm just overly worried about what is going to happen to me, and more importantly, Nessie, if something bad happens."

"Nothing bad is going to happen."

I knew that much for sure. Everything else was still a mystery in this whole thing.

CHAPTER END


A/N: Hey peoples! Decided to be extra nice and put in another new chapter.
*Loves* you all much! Especially my reviewers!