Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it.

Bublichka is the best Beta. Ever.

Chapter 9

BPOV

The following morning dawned gray. The sunny spring weather we had been blessed with over the past several days had dissolved into a light drizzle and thunder rolled in the distance announcing a coming storm. I exited our cabin and stood just off the porch with my face upturned into the descending rain. The water pooled on my forehead and dripped down my nose. I felt slightly less grimy but it still wasn't enough. I vowed that after breakfast I would finally brave the unknown of well water and homemade soap if it would further the feeling that the impromptu rain shower had begun.

I lowered my face and shivered as several rivulets made their way down my back.

The rain began to pick up as the thunder grew louder in it's intensity. The pin-prick droplets of the slight mist had become fatter and began to fall faster. Edward grabbed my hand as he ran past from our cabin towards the main hall and began to pull me along. I squeaked in surprise and struggled to keep up as the rain fell faster. We reached the door of the main hall and I laughed as he shook the wet hair from his eyes. We stood, facing each other, dripping wet and breathing hard from our mad dash across the yard separating the cabins. His eyes held mine and I noticed, for the first time, that his eyes were a brilliant green and even in his relaxed state they were intense in their focus. His tongue peaked out to remove the water remaining on his lips.

"I'm an asshole," he blurted out and I laughed again.

"The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem." I recited jokingly. His eyes remained locked with mine and I shivered.

"You're cold," he stated and reached to open the door even as I shook my head no.

We entered the hall amid wide eyes and gaping mouths and I remembered we were still holding hands. My face burned with embarrassment as I jerked my hand away in an attempt to disentangle our fingers. Edward ran his now free hand through his hair and we broke apart to sit at different ends of the table.

The storm died down as we ate, but the rain continued to fall, so we decided to stay together in the hall gathered around the fire Jasper had built this morning.

"Oh!" I exclaimed during a lull in conversation, "I think I found some boxes marked 'games' when I was cleaning out the clinic."

I brought the boxes over and began to empty them onto the table as I listed off the names to the group.

"Checkers, of course. Battleship. Oh goodness," I stopped and looked at Carlisle "Operation," I groaned.

"It's no fun without batteries." he said smirking at me knowingly. He knew my absolute hatred of the game as I'd shared with him the anxiety it caused me when I touched the metal sides making the game shake and emit the grating noise.

I opened the box and tentatively touched the metal tweezers to the side of the funny bone hole. Nothing. I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Is it ON?" Emmett asked coming up beside me.

I located the switch and turned the game on. I grabbed the tweezers again and made the slow process of testing the game once again. Just as I got near the metal tab, Emmett grabbed my sides and screeched in my ear causing me to scream loudly and cover my face with shaking hands. The game fell to the floor and the room erupted into laughter.

"Jerk!" I screamed while playfully swatting at Emmett.

"Oh, you wanna fight?" He asked a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Bring it Betty." I said with a determined scowl.

We circled each other, fists raised in defensive positions. He took a light swing towards me and I blocked it and swerved to the left, jabbing him in the ribs.

"Hey!" He yelped in surprise.

I took advantage of his distraction and made a hard sweep along the back of his knees. In true David and Goliath fashion, Emmett fell forward as his knees bent involuntarily and he hit the ground on all fours.

He was still for several moments and I began to wonder if he had been hurt by the fall. His head lifted and his face held an exaggerated pout. He got up gracefully despite his size and sulked over to sit by Rosalie. She soothed him mockingly and once again the room erupted into laughter.

A heated tournament of battleship helped the men pass the time and Alice and Rosalie got into the box of arts and crafts. The girls and I spent the rest of our time inside coloring pictures out of a "My first time at camp" coloring book and making feather laden dream catchers while laughing over the absurdity until tears came to our eyes.

Esme and I busied ourselves in the the kitchen in preparation for dinner. We carefully marked off the supplies used as we removed them from the pantry. We'd found a sealed bag of elbow macaroni while we emptied the arts and crafts box and were looking forward to something different for dinner. We found a large can of pasta sauce and added several slices of chopped up beef jerky to the sauce as it heated on the wood burning stove. It wasn't five star, but it was close enough to spaghetti for us.

We proudly brought our offering to the hungry group sitting around the long table. It was a post apocalyptic Norman Rockwell if I ever saw one.

We sat around chatting while we ate. I began to notice that when we spoke of our current situation we all avoided discussion of long term plans. No one could be sure what lay before us but we weren't speaking of it either.

I cleared my throat loudly to catch everyone's attention. "I know it's only April," I started "but I'm worried about this winter. How are we going to make this work?" I asked emotion creeping through my calm facade making my voice waver.

"We will become self sufficient." Jasper promised. "It will take a little time and a lot of work, but I've been thinking about this as well."

"What are you thinking?" Emmett asked

"Ten miles from here is a small town." Jasper began. "I would like to go tomorrow and check out the local shops and small hardware store. There's also a clinic and schools. But I think our main focus, right now, should be on food. We'll gather what we can in town but then our main focus will be to see what we can grow."

"We should decide who goes and who stays." Carlisle suggested

"We can draw names." I said nodding my head vigorously in agreement with Carlisle.

"Is everyone OK with that?" Jasper asked looking around.

"I volunteer to stay." said Alice quietly "I don't want to see...." she trailed off and Jasper rubbed her back soothingly.

"I'll stay, too." Rosalie smiled empathetically at Alice.

I grabbed a piece of paper and a crayon from the craft box. I tore the paper into several strips and wrote the remaining names down. I folded the pieces and placed them into an empty mug.

"Four of us should be plenty. It gives us enough people to be efficient and still leave room for cargo. Don't you think?" Jasper asked and we nodded.

I reached in to pick the first name wishing for it to be mine.

"Jasper."

I pulled the second name and tried to hide my disappointment "Edward".

I almost swore as I pulled the third slip and revealed Emmett's name.

I grumbled as I gave the cup one last shake. I closed my eyes and crossed my fingers while openly hoping for my name. I pulled the name and had it unfolded before I opened an eye to peak.

"BELLA!" I cried out waving the small paper like a banner, excited over my chance at getting out and feeling like I was doing something.

I was still riding the high an hour later when our group broke up to prepare for the evening guard shift and trip in the morning. I had pulled Alice aside and asked after the soap she had promised and I helped her rip apart a few large sheets into various sizes to make towels and washcloths.

I made my way to the showers with my lantern, towels and soap. I held up the lantern and looked around the musty space. Although the rain had stopped long ago, the sky remained overcast hiding the moon and creating deep dark corners in the room.

I seriously considered waiting one more day to get clean but plucked up my courage and made my way hurriedly to the well.

I drew my bucket and made my way back to the showers careful not to spill one precious drop of the ice cold water.

I dipped my washcloth and braced for impact as I brought the dripping rag towards me. My body erupted into goosebumps that were borderline painful.

I let loose a loud squeal but continued on washing the days of sweat and grime from my body. The soap smelled amazing and left my skin feeling soft with a light scent of freesia. I finished cleaning my body and realized I was left with a bucket full of dirty water and I hadn't washed my hair yet. I shrugged at my inexperience and promised myself I would plan it out better next time. I bent forward and submerged my hair into the bucket and used the soap to wash my hair as well.

My teeth were chattering as I dressed in a pair of jeans and shirt that we had taken from Wal-Mart. I had also used the water to wash the only bra I had and carried it along with my makeshift towel so I could hang them to dry in our bathroom.

It felt so good to finally be clean. I found myself humming as I hung my things over the side of the farthest toilet stall keeping my bra in the corner so I didn't weird out the bachelors.

"How was it?" Rosalie asked coming up to stand beside me.

"Cold." I groaned "and I also learned we should use two buckets. One for hair and one for body."

She wrinkled her nose as I explained how I came about that particular lesson but laughed with me.

"Do you want some help getting the buckets to the shower?" I asked and she nodded.

We made our way to the showers. I carried both buckets and she carried her supplies as well as a large lantern. I'm sure it would have been better to wait until tomorrow morning to have more light but Rosalie seemed just as desperate as me to not spend one more minute carrying the physical reminder of our last several days.

"Are you all set?" I asked as I put down the buckets.

"Yeah." she said not looking at me and picking at the fringe on the makeshift towel.

"I never thought it would come to this," She whispered, and I looked over and saw her watery smile.

I grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze before I guided her over to a bench lining the wall. We sat down facing each other.

"I'm so lost, Bella." She began as the first tears began to fall. "I'm still so sad but I have moments where I feel alright....almost good. And it makes me feel bad."

I continued to hold her hands as I listened. I didn't want to cheapen her pain by saying I understood. Because I would never understand the pain and guilt of surviving yourself, after losing a child. All I could do was offer her my quiet confirmation that I would be here for her.

In another life we had lived on opposite ends of the spectrum. Our paths would have never crossed in social circles and if I had seen her I would have never thought we could be friends. Yet here we were, sitting together at an abandoned camp sharing an experience that would bond us as sisters for the rest of our lives.

"You should get to that bath before the water gets cold." I said jokingly in an attempt to cheer her up.

"Would you stay?" she asked "I mean, I don't want you to watch or anything, I just...I don't want to be alone right now."

"I know," I replied, "it's OK. I'll just be by this wall. There's a hook right there for the lantern."

"Thank you, Bella." She said

"It's what I'm here for." I replied, finally understanding the full meaning of the same words Jasper had said just two days ago.

I turned around to give Rose her privacy and watched the guys who remained around the campfire. Jasper and Emmett were showing Edward how to hold the small gun they had given him to use during his shift. His forearms flexed as he practiced unlocking and aiming. His brow was furrowed in concentration and I couldn't help but stare at his silhouette against the dancing light of the fire. Emmett said something I was too far away to hear and all three men laughed.

"I'm all set, Bella." Rose said coming up behind me and following my gaze.

I turned to help her carry her things and found her smirking at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You tell me." she retorted.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm just glad to see Edward being more involved." I said shrugging my shoulders.

"Uh-huh." she said, smiling and bumped me gently with her hip as she walked out of the door and made her way back to the cabin.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N: I want to take a moment to thank everyone for reading. Your support and rec's mean the world to me.

To my faithful reviewers, THANK YOU!! I re read reviews when I get stuck and they seriously give me a kick in the ass and make me feel loved (It's a middle child thing....).

RedVelvetHeaven....words aren't enough. *MWAH*

See ya'll next week ;)