APOV
As soon as Bella had fallen asleep I knew she would be fine. Her body was relaxed and a soft smile on her face made her look very peaceful. Such a contrast to the girl I had seen all day long, first at school and later at home.
The movie was another 10 minutes and after it had finished I turned of the TV and DVD player. Edward had spend countless hours every night watching her sleep. Looking at the helpless girl sitting next to me, I could understand why he did it. I
t was wonderful to see the calm and peaceful state of mind, I could only start to imagine how nice it would be to fall asleep knowing in your mind all the things you couldn't wrap your mind around yourself during the day were being taken care of for you.
Vampires never slept, all our mental conflicts we had to struggle through on our own. Also I couldn't ever remember what it was to sleep, this means I can't miss it... still watching Bella sleep. It made me long to feel that way too. For maybe 1 night lay my eyes to rest, curled up next to Jasper and fall asleep with his arms wrapped around me. The thought itself made me smile.
Bella moved over, her head tipping backwards in a crooked way, ouch that was going to hurt her all day tomorrow. Already I could see her complain about it in my vision.
Quickly I ran upstairs and checked her room, folding back the blankets on her bed and finding her PJ's. I couldn't help but frown when I picked them up, black sweats and a black tanktop. Not exactly the thing I would like to wear if I could sleep.
When I returned downstairs and got back to Bella, I found her curled up on her side with her head still tipped off the armrest. Carefully I picked her up making sure not to wake her up and brought her upstairs. After removing her shoes, jeans and warm sweater I put her in bed, feeling sure she would be ok sleeping in her T-shirt for once instead of those awful black sweats. As soon as Bella was in the bed she curled up again and I reached over to pull the blankets back over her.
As I pulled the blankets over her I couldn't help but notice a few pink long scars on the outside of her knee. Very gentle I ran my fingers over them, they felt warm to my skin and very strange. Not at all like the vampire skin I was used to touching. Was she in any pain from them? Perhaps Carlisle could prescribe a high vitamin E cream, or get Esme to make one for Bella to use to help the scarring fade away sooner. After tucking her in to make sure she wasn't cold, I returned downstairs and cleaned up the mess.
Just as I got downstairs and had gone through to the kitchen to finish cleaning the sound of a car made me pause. Charlie.
Putting my most pleasant smile on my face I turned to greet him when he entered the house. "Good evening Charlie, how was work?"
His expression was first one of surprise, then of shock. "Work was quiet. Where is Bella?" his voice sounded neutral but his eyes shot around the room looking for her. Charlie stepped forward pulling the door shut behind him but not moving forward.
"Bella fell asleep during the last movie so I woke her up and helped her get upstairs, I went down stairs to clean up." There that sounded like a good and very human explanation. As I stood there smiling at him I knew he didn't buy it, my words were empty to him because he already knew the meaning.
His eyebrows pulled up and in 1 smooth move his face made a frown at me as he firmly planted his feet slightly apart on the floor. " You are telling me, the vampire best friend of my daughter wants to clean up this house and my daughter who i've been worried for ever since you all left her.... she went to bed willingly and is now asleep?
Somehow his words shocked me, offcourse I knew that he had found out about our truth but to hear him say out loud that I'm a vampire, almost like he wanted to convince himself was a shock to me.
Knowing this was a breaking point in our relationship, not only mine with Bella but for every family member I decided to take the lead.
" I'm sure that must sound weird Charlie, but yes I did want to clean up downstairs. Bella fell asleep, I carried her upstairs and tucked her into bed. She needs some good sleep. As a favour so she could relax tomorrow I wanted to help.... helping by cleaning up, is that so bad?" Saying the last words I pouted at him and made sure my eyes were just a little bit bigger than usual, giving him the cutest look I could give without scaring him off or dazzling him by accident.
Charlie huffed at me.. and walked over to the couch grabbing some of the leftover crisps. As he sat down he waved around his hand. " By all means, bring it on.. show me how the vampires clean" He looked me in the eye and before he could blink I had started to rush around.
Picking up all the mess we had made tonight, clearing out everything else also I came across that had no purpose anymore. With vampire speed I finished in just a few seconds, throwing away all the rubbish, wiped the coffee-table and making sure the bowl of crisps was restocked for Charlie on the table again. Everything looked picture perfect.
With a triumphant smile I sat down next to Charlie, turning towards him. His eyes couldn't hide he was impressed and even though I knew what he was going to say, the words made me smile.
"It's sure great to have you back Alice Cullen" From Charlie... these words were as close as being told that I was forgiven for everything that had happened. Up to now I hadn't known, but a weight I hadn't even noticed fell of my shoulders.
Grabbing hold of Charlie's hand and squeezing it softly, figuring that my cold touch wouldn't surprise him since he already knew what I was, I turned towards him. "Thank you Charlie" He just nodded in reply and sat back to watch the sports news on TV again.
After that we just sat not knowing what to say, but a happy quiet silence filled the room. For the first time since coming home I was sure, that everything was going to be alright.
Thinking about that a vision came to my mind and I couldn't wait for it to happen. All it would take was some carefully planned match-making!
