Princess in Hiding Chapter 7: [The Accident]

Everything seemed to be happening at once. The kiss was short and sweet, but it felt like some unseen force was pulling us together. Amazing. Honestly, it was in the top three best moments of my life. Every nerve in my body was on fire. I was hyperaware of Edward and nothing else. Any contact caused the beginnings of a fire to be lit just underneath the top layer of my skin. It was the most extraordinary thing.

I saw a flash through my eyelids. We both pulled away too soon, as soon as we could comprehend what the flash was. Alice. She was standing in the middle of the doorway, camera still ready.

"Alice!" She bolted as I called her name and went after her. Unfortunately, the transfer from the carpeted bedroom to the hard-wood floors in the hall caused me to lose my footing an go sliding sideways, feet first, into the wall. It didn't hurt initially, of course; accidents like this rarely did.

"Ace, what did you do?" Edward sighed as he knelt down next to me.

"i don't know. But I do know one thing." I pulled myself up so I was sitting.

"What would that be?"

"Your mum does a good job polishing her floors." He chuckled at my attempted humor and moved to help me up. I took his outstretched hands and had pulled myself halfway up when a sharp pain in my ankle caused me stop and collapse back onto the floor. "Ow." I grimaced, and rubbed my ankle before hissing in pain. It was not too bad; nothing I hadn't felt before. The next thing I knew the ground had disappeared out from under me. Edward had picked me and was carrying me down the hall. I squeaked and wrapped my arms around his neck. "What are you doing?"

"Going to have Dad take a look at your ankle." Oh right, Carlisle was a doctor. Edward walking down the three flights of stairs, whilst carrying me, that was the hard part.

"That's really not necessary; it's probably just a sprain."

"Bella..." He sighed. He probably would have been pinching the bridge of his nose had his hands been free, and pacing.

Carlisle and Esme where sitting in the living room watching something on the telly. Esme looked up at us curiously and Carlisle did not seem to notice.

"Dad? Would you mind taking a look at Bella's ankle? She thinks she's sprained it."

"Sure." He heaved himself off of the couch. Edward sat me down in the chair, and sat himself on the chair's arm. "I'm guessing it's the swollen one?" He joked. He got down on the floor in front of me and took off my shoe and sock. "That is a pretty good sprain, I'll go get a brace from upstairs and you'll be just fine in a few weeks." He got up from his spot on the floor and went up the stairs.

"May I ask what happened?" Esme asked me, getting up and walking over to us. I hesitated for a second

"Um...Alice surprised me, by taking a picture. And when I chased her down the hall I slid into the wall." Esme looked surprised. And then she started laughing. "Yeah, Edward laughed too." I grumbled.

"I did not!"

"But you wanted to." He shut up then, causing Esme to laugh a little harder and Edward to join in a second later.

"What I want to know is, what did she take a picture of that made you chase after her." Carlisle said as he came down the stairs, apparently having overheard our conversation. Of course, the one question that I did not want to answer.

"I think you should ask your son." I told him while he fit the brace around my ankle. Carlisle raised his eyebrow.

"Oh really? And why is that son?" That got him to stop his laughing and look up at Edward. Alice suddenly materialized at the top of the stairs.

"It was of Edward and Bella K-I-S-S-"

"Alice!" She took off down the second story hallway while Edward raced up the stairs after her, leaving me alone with his parents. I thought that they would hate me, but when I looked over at Esme, she was beaming at me. The next thing I knew she had me in a huge hug.

"Oh, Bella, I'm so glad he's found you. He's never had a girlfriend before." Two things ran through my mind then, the first being: now, that I find hard to believe, and the second: Oh no.

Maybe I had been overreacting earlier. Maybe it wasn't as bad as I had made it out to be. On the other hand, my initial reaction was probably correct. Thats what people are always telling you, right? Not to second guess yourself.

But on another hand, I was most likely making too big a deal over the hole situation. That thought helped calm me down. No need to freak out. It wasn't like Edward was going to want to marry me anyway. I had been ridiculous even considering that. There was no way that he would consider even entering into a serious relationship with me. I was so far below him. Yes I was a princess, but I would never wish the life of royalty on anyone. Especially Edward. He was too sweet, they would eat him alive in that world.

I would have been pacing, but my ankle made that impossible so I was panicking in place, on my bed. I sighed and ran my hand threw my hair, a habit I had already picked up from Edward from just being around him these past four months. I knew that if i stayed here in here any longer that I would go insane.

Thankfully the door opened then, effectively distracting me. There wasn't anyone there though. Half a second later, Lily appeared in the crack between the door and door frame.

"Lily? Come here girl." I patted the space next to me on the foot of the bed; she ran over and jumped up. I scooped her up and headed towards Alice's room. I knocked-up and after hearing a 'come in' opened the door. She was laying on her bed flipping through a magazine. "Alice, are you missing something?" She looked up, confused.

"Lily!" She jumped up and took her from me and started stroking her. "I've been looking everywhere for you!" I picked up the magazine from her bed and looked at the cover.

"In Vogue?" She just stuck her tongue out at me and diverted her attention back to her dog. "Very mature." She turned and looked at me as if I had grown another head. "What?"

"You're accent has just really started to come out."

"Humm, I guess I hadn't noticed." I shrugged. I had been trying to hide it in an attempt to blend in more, but it was growing old and I was tired of hiding it. Might as well just stop trying. "Must be the...whatever it was painkiller your father gave me for my ankle." She still looked slightly suspicious thought.

"Oh please Bella. I know you've been trying to hide your accent from us." I just stared blankly at her for a second before I could compose myself. "I just want to know why." I opened my mouth to answer, but she continued speaking. "And don't lie to me. We all know what a horrible liar you are."

"I-I just don't like calling attention to myself. But it's gotten tiring, so I figured I might as well embrace it; divert back to my original speech." She seemed pleased with my answer and dropped the subject. "So, are you going to call-in to see Jasper later today?"

"Call-in, you mean stop by to see him?" I nodded. "Yes. We have a date tonight." She smiled, giddy at the thought. "And a little birdy told me that Edward might be planning something for you two. Sort of a first date kind of thing. Speaking of which we should probably start getting you ready now. I think that the..." I stopped listening after that as she went off on all the details of how she planned to dress me up.