AN: SM owns twilight. I own my mistakes and all of these crazy plot twists.


Chapter seven.

I drove straight home from the Cullen's place and found Rufus curled up, fast asleep in his bed. I had wondered if he was going to pine away for me, but it looked like he didn't panic at all, and happily got settled himself down, enjoying his bed and sleeping the morning away.

Either that, or he was still getting over the trauma of losing his mother and nearly dying on my doorstep.

Most cats managed to sleep between 18 to 20 hours a day, the lazy old things! And Rufus seemed to be following in the great sleeping pattern that cats had enjoyed for eons, the whole world over.

I picked him up and held him to my chest; he woke up and started purring loudly, licking my fingers and kneading my boobs with his front paws.

"Sorry Rufus, there's no milk in there; let's get you some more to drink in your bowl." I poured out the last of his milk supply, into his dish which he leapt on enthusiastically, lapping it up like crazy thing.

"Man, you're starving! At least you have a good appetite, I wonder how big you're going to grow if you keep eating like that?"

I was excited about the i Pad Carlisle had given me. I still needed to upgrade my modem, WiFi and printer so I could be fully set-up to do the work Prof. Aro promised. I rang my phone company and got set up with a great unlimited, broadband deal, starting tomorrow.

Well, that part was easy!

I also needed to buy Rufus a carry cage for our road journey down to Monterey in my truck, and some more cat food supplies.

"Want to try coming in my truck for a trip to Port Angeles, little man?"

"It might be good to get you used to travelling in Bertha. If I start you off young, it will seem completely normal, hanging out in a noisy, old truck travelling along on the open road. There'll be nothing to get scared about when you're older, will there?"

He purred and crawled his way out of my hands, and up to my shoulder perching himself right up there, balancing and purring loudly in my ear. He settled into my hair, enjoying the view from up high.

I laughed. He and I were going to get on fine.

I looked around and saw the old drapes in the living room, I'm sure those things must be as old as the house, and packed full of dust and cobwebs.

I'm pretty sure, that if I tried to take them down and wash them, they would disintegrate in the washing machine.

I thought about finding something nice, to put up in their place. Maybe some of those nice, light, pleated blinds that insulate the glass and still look nice and neat, might do the trick.

I would love to get rid of those filthy, drab, old curtains.

And the beige paint in the living-room, was looking the worse for wear, it was in great need of a fresh coat in a nice warm colour.

Dad's many stacks of fishing magazines and dusty fishing trophies piled up around the room, could be stored somewhere else. As well as, his hundreds of old video tapes, cassette tapes and vinyl LP records. Dad wasn't much for upgrading his sound system or movie watching.

I was sick of that dusty, prize-winning fish sitting open mouthed and stuffed, in its ornate, gold frame right over the fireplace, in pride of place.

I was even sicker of all of my faded school photos, each one looking sadder than the last. I was a homely looking kid, skinny, freckle-faced, with thin, lanky hair and big brown eyes.

Not to mention the photos Dad still displayed of his wedding day with Renee! The poor guy never got over her, and even insisted on wearing his wedding ring, long after the divorce. He was faithful to the last, having been buried with it on.

I huffed not much has changed with me and my face either, especially my general awkwardness. I still have similar features to my school photos, including the heavily freckled face, pale skin, and lank hair.

Not much I wanted to do about my looks. I'm sure it would just feel like pushing a boulder up a hill, if I ever started worrying about 'looking good and fitting in', nothing would ever stay in place, and I'd be forever fighting my natural, plain face and hair. Just like fighting gravity.

Looking at the stained carpet, I thought how nice this room could look with some new carpet or some other floor covering instead. New floor coverings would really cheer this place up, as the old carpet was so full of dirt and dust.

The crappy old vacuum cleaner was much, much older than I was. Knowing Charlie, it was probably second hand when he first got it, just after he and Renee moved in here. It so needs replacing...

I started a list of things that really needed doing, around the house.

I needed to think though; did I actually want to stay here for the long term?

After the Cullen's baby finally came into the world, I would be free to stay or go.

Would I sell this place? Rent it?

Should I keep it or let it go?

So many choices!

In the mean time, I could at least buy a new vacuum cleaner. I could easily take that with me if I left here. It would be great to see just how much dirt I could shift out of these carpets with a new cleaner, maybe that's all it needed... a really thorough cleaning.

I could look into steam cleaning the carpets too and see if they came up looking any good, they might even be ok without all the stains, dust and dirt.

The paint, carpet and curtains were something Esme could advise me on. That's her specialty after all.


Rufus was as pleased as punch, to be riding in Bertha the truck. He was stuck up inside my tee-shirt again, and he purred all the way to Port Angeles.

I loved how happy he made me, just by being his furry little self.

First stop for me and Rufus, was an appliance shop going out of business with tons of heavily discounted floor stock. I picked up a fancy cyclonic vacuum, a steam floor-cleaner and a top of the range juicer, really, really cheap.

Next, I scored some good, basic computer gear and the young shop assistant offered me a new laptop, which was slightly out of date and also heavily discounted.

I'd spent far less than I thought I would need to, so I counter-offered a lower price for the laptop, and he agreed.

I was overjoyed!

I now had some great new gear, which could help me earn a nice living, as well as keep my brain firing on all cylinders, while I stayed in Forks being a surrogate.

The shop guy helped me to the truck and loaded it into the cab for me. I thanked him, and he got a strangely familiar, determined look on his face, and asked me if I wanted to have coffee with him sometime...

When I turned him down as gently as I could, and he looked rather forlorn. I showed him Rufus, who was still snuggled down in my shirt, and that seemed to cheer the shop guy up considerably.

Maybe it was seeing me pull something out of my shirt giving him a glimpse of my bare skin, which did the trick cheering him up, who knows?

I left my truck in the parking lot and went into the pet store, a few doors away from the computer place.

I found a cute, washable, carry bag, which didn't look like a prison and it was perfect for Rufus. I loaded up my shopping basket with some kitten food, milk, a brush and a nice, gold collar with a bell.

Lastly I needed more kitty litter. The little guy was going to use up the small amount of litter we had, the he was going. I should be grateful that he was really great at using his litter tray, and had not gotten confused as to where to go...when he needed to go.

I got a pooper-scooper too, handling animal scat wasn't something new to me being a biologist, but cats naturally carry parasites that can seriously harm unborn babies. I wanted to play safe when emptying his tray and not catch something like toxoplasmosis, that would be horrible and tragic.

I loaded all of Rufus' gear into the truck cab and laughed at the funny reaction he got inside the pet shop, when I revealed to the girls there, who I had hiding down, inside the front of my shirt.

They offered to engrave his name and my phone number on the tag of his collar, while I was there with him. While we waited, another girl brushed him with his new brush, and he purred and purred, charming her with his general gorgeousness. His coat puffed up to twice the size, with all the loving attention.

He now looked like a ginger, powder puff wearing a new gold collar...hilarious!

As we left, and his new friend with the brush ended up giving Rufus a catnip-stuffed toy mouse to play with. He couldn't stop licking it and purring even louder.

I placed him in his new carrier with his new toy and he happily obliged settling inside it, nice and secure, without a single complaint.

He was too easy! I was so glad I didn't have to struggle with him to get him to travel in a carrier.


After arriving home, I set my new computer gear up in Dad's old room. The room had excellent views of the neighbourhood, and the sun streamed through the windows. I looked around, determined to get his old bed and chest of drawers out of the room, on order to turn it into a proper cosy office.

I would need some help shifting the bulky furniture down the stairs. I could store it all in the garage, until I worked out what to do with it.

The curtains and carpet would need a seriously, good clean, if I was to keep them and not rip them out, and it was a great chance to try out my new steam and vacuum cleaners.

I was busy vacuuming, making good headway in the heavy dust and cobwebs, when Angela called out to me. She must have been knocking on the door and I didn't hear her over the noise I was making with my fabulous new machine.

"I'm up here Ange, come on up!" I hollered.

"Wow, look at you, you busy woman! Can I give you a hand with anything?"

"That bed frame and chest of drawers, need to go downstairs. Are you up for a little heavy lifting?" I waggled my eyebrows, joking with her.

"Yeah, no worries, we can do this lot easy. We'll just pull the bed frame all apart; smaller bits are always much easier to handle. Where do you want to put them?"

"I was going to store them in the garage."

So we did just that, Angela was surprisingly strong, and we set it down in the messy old garage.

The job of cleaning up that garage chaos, could wait another day. I guessed it would take at least a week's hard slog, to sort through it all.

Charlie's mattress could go to the dump, it was disgusting. I wasn't going to store it, that would have been ridiculous. We left it outside, propped up against the side of the house.

I had heard somewhere, that after only ten years, a mattress will have doubled its weight from all the extra skin cells, dust and mites living in it.

Charlies mattress was at least twice that old.

Gross!

I invited Angela for dinner, she agreed. It was the least I could do, to thank her helping me with moving that furniture.

I assembled a lamb and veggie curry, with some slow cooked, brown rice.

The curry turned out thick and fragrant, so delicious that we both had second helpings, it was that good!

Rufus entertained us with his mouse, dragging it around, with it's tail between his teeth and straddling it's stuffed body either side of his legs, as he awkwardly tried to walk around holding onto it. He was in love with his toy, and we laughed at his antics, licking it, rolling around with it and cuddling up to it.

Angela hugged me tightly as she left.

"You are the best cook Bella, if I had my way; I'd eat here every night!"

"Really? I'd gladly have you over every night! I love your company, it makes the evenings much less lonely and I find you easy to talk to, and we have a great laugh."

"Can I come tomorrow? I don't mind helping you pay for groceries; your food makes me feel like...like I'm all alive and energized. It's so different from eating toast or cereal for dinner"

"Yeah, I know the feeling, it's great to have you here, and maybe I could show you some simple dishes to cook, for when I'm not here. Like this coming weekend, I'll be heading down Monterey, to see old my professor and his wife for a week or so."

"I'll miss you when you're gone Bella. I'll make sure to collect your mail and check that no one breaks into the house."

"Thanks that would be great! I'll do the same for you if you ever need to go anywhere."

"Ha! I'm highly unlikely to want to go visit my missionary parents over in Tanzania, any time soon. Although, I'd really love to go to Africa sometime, and see all the amazing wildlife there."

"Maybe we could go together and help out as volunteers in a wildlife refuge for orphaned elephants, or injured, big cats? Wouldn't that be something?" I sighed.

She kissed me quickly on the lips and smiled "yeah, it totally would!"

I watched her, as she walked into the night, back home to her place. I hugged myself, thinking about travelling around the world with Angela.

I closed the door and started locking up for the night, Rufus and I headed up to bed.

I stretched out under the covers and went into a deep sleep quickly.

It was so bright and clear... almost eye-shockingly brilliant technicolor... I was eating rich, exotic African dishes, served in wide, earthenware dishes, while seated on big, elaborately embroidered cushions.

I was watching the deep desert skies become increasingly saturated with rich hues, as the stars stared coming out.

Angela sat by my side so relaxed and graceful, smiling and laughing as she fed me tasty morsels of the food. I licked and sucked her fingers, as she gave me another delicious taste of our food.

She leant in towards me and kissed me deeply, sensuously, slowly...and ever so softly. I was hot all over, wanting more, as I reached for her...

I woke up panting frantically, my vagina all slippery and clenching in waves of pleasure and the rest of me was aching with longing and drenched in sweat.

Holey heck! What the hell was that?


Ha! Hope you are enjoying the story so far, like my surprise ending to this chapter?

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