A/N: OK, here it is...the original Chapter 8 (Now Chapter 9) - Some fluff, hopefully likable!

Note: The chapters *might* start coming a little slower, hopefully at least once a week, but now that school has started back and I'm taking English Comp and Rhet. and the professor says it is writing intensive, so I might be too pooped to type afterward...but fear not!: I will not forget this story; it's my favorite to write so far!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my imagination; all characters, etc. belong to Twilight, which belongs to Stephenie Meyer!

BPOV

One month from the great shopping day I was lying in my bed day dreaming about Edward. He had left my room already to run a few 'errands' - his explanation had puzzled me; he had never gone out to run errands before. But I accepted that perhaps this was a good sign. He was comfortable enough with my recovery that he felt safe leaving for a little while to do mundane things.

I ate breakfast as quickly as I could and went up to my room where Alice was waiting on me.

"I bought this for you yesterday while I was out." She said holding up a bag from one of the many boutiques we had visited on our trip.

"Alice…you shouldn't have, really…" I started; she'd bought so many things as it was. I knew it was just her way of trying to integrate me into the family, but I still felt she was really doing too much.

"Well are you going to open it?" she exclaimed, hopping up and down on her toes.

I walked over to her taking the bag and peering inside.

I pulled out the item because I simply couldn't identify the mass of threads while they were in the bag. I dropped the bag on my bed as I turned the item that I desperately hoped was not an article of clothing over in my hands.

"Um, Alice…what is it?" I asked quietly, partially from embarrassment for not knowing what I had been gifted, secondly because I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to know the answer.

Her laughter sounded like the tinkling of little silver bells. "It's a bathing suit, Bella."

I looked down at the teal green mass of shredded spandex.

"It looks…broken." I stuttered. More tinkling bells came from the space beside me. "Besides, the pool isn't…." I looked up quickly, hoping this meant what I thought it meant. Alice was bobbing her head excitedly up and down. "It's finished, Bella! And today's weather is sunny and very warm!"

Was it June already?

I couldn't wait; hurriedly I tried to figure out my bathing suit, but soon gave up. "Alice, I'm afraid I'm going to need some help with this."

"It's one of Victoria's Secret Very Sexy line swimsuits*!" She explained. "I got you a one piece because I thought it might make you more comfortable around the boys!" She said as she helped me into my contraption. She brushed out my hair and pulled me over to the full length mirror that was next to my closet. Come to think of it I'd never used the thing before now.

I gasped at the sight before me. "One piece? Alice this barely covers me at all! How in the world did you think this would make me feel more comfortable!?" I exclaimed. I gazed in the mirror. The teal green accentuated my pale skin, but it certainly showed off quite a good bit of it! The neckline plunged, but it did help accentuate that particular area. The middle of it converged into a single piece that would have ended and made it into a bikini but for a gold ring that attached it to a low riding bottom piece. I have to admit it was a flattering cut, but it was more mortifying than flattering in my eyes.

"Oh, come on and let's go swimming…you'll feel much better when you see mine and Esme's suits; yours has the most fabric!" Alice said pulling me toward the door and down to her room. She disappeared into her bathroom and came out just as quickly. Alice's suit was a black very tiny bandeau bikini * studded with little jewels, the darkness of it accentuated her pale skin. I was certainly glad she had not chosen a similar one for me. We headed down to the kitchen where Esme was waiting. Her suit* was also black and similar in fashion to my own, but Alice was right…mine definitely had the most fabric!

"Where are the… guys?" I asked, not really directing my question at anyone in particular.

Alice smiled deviously. Esme smiled as well before answering me. "Well we usually save this tradition for the beach or the lake, but now that we have a pool, we decided that today would be quite fitting for the big reveal." My puzzled look spurred her to refine her answer to one such as me…an outsider.

"Every year we girls get new bathing suits…often more than one but we choose our most dazzling one of the season and make the guys wait to see it on us. They are out at the pool and waiting; they often get very excited about this part." she explained.

"Well,' Alice said, 'Except Edward, of course. But I think this year he will finally understand what Carlisle, Emmett and Jasper have been ranting about all these years." she said to me. "We began this tradition in 1928, so we're coming up on an anniversary soon; those years we have to be especially daring!"

My eyes widened…what on earth could be more daring than the tiny loin cloths we were wearing right now? Wait…maybe I didn't want to know.

Esme brought me out of my terror-filled reverie. "Ok, let's go girls..." Alice grabbed my hand; she was going to force me out there against my will if necessary. We walked out the back door, the men folk had their backs turned, but I could see that their stance had stiffened a bit; vampire hearing was very acute indeed. "I just wish Rose and Emmett were here." Alice said beside me as we walked. They were vacationing on the Galapagos Islands for summer break.

As we neared the boys I prepared to cringe as they turned around. When we were about fifty feet from the pool's edge where they were standing, glistening in the sunlight watching the cool blue water, Alice pulled me to a stop. Esme stopped on the other side of me. No one said a word, but the males knew when we stopped walking that it must be their cue to turn around. My stomach flopped inside me. I wasn't sure I was ready for Edward to see me in something so….Alice.

EPOV

I'm not sure what I expected to see when I turned around to face them, but it certainly was not what I did see. Esme and Alice were shining like the stars in their new bathing suits, the sunlight glistening off their vampire skins, but other than the gleam of their jewel-like skin I barely noticed that they were present. Between them was the most exquisite goddess I had ever had the fortune to behold. Her ivory skin, while not sparkling like a diamond as the two vampires beside her, was even more stunning; her skin absolutely glowed in the sunlight seeming to have a luminescence all its own. Her whole body reminded me of the moon, reflecting the light of the sun in a soft pearlescent glow. Her long brown hair glistened while the sun picked out strands of red and brought out a shine that even the most desired supermodel would envy. Her large chocolate brown eyes were deep and wide, the white around the beautiful brown orbs only enhanced the saturation of the color of them. Her pale lips, soft and light as the palest pink petals, pouted, calling me to them. But I could not move; her body…where do I begin? I feared for her in that moment; I knew any minute Aphrodite herself would descend from the heavens to murder this human, her only rival. Gone was the frailness of her mal-nutritioned frame. She was slender and lithe as a young willow, but much, much more beautiful. I could not imagine a creature, human or vampire, more beautiful than the vision that stood before me in that moment.

I felt a cold hand on my jaw pushing it shut. It was Jasper, I glanced at him, his own mouth open slightly, but not at the sight of his own wife; he was staring at Bella. I let out a growl so low only he and Carlisle would be able to hear it. I knew he was not lusting after Bella in that way, but the sight of her did cause a physical reaction that none of us expected, but all of us immediately acquired. I could hear the involuntary thoughts in his unguarded mind…"I never thought I'd ever be physically attracted to a human…but…HOT!"

At the sound of my growl he immediately regained his composure.

Carlisle's mind was much too practiced at guarding his thoughts from me all the time, but I was sure he felt nothing for Bella but fatherly pride…at least that's what I was going to choose to believe.

I found my feet and began to move toward her…Esme and Alice's thoughts were running wild but it was as if they were insignificant background music. "You look magnificent." I stated, my voice caught in my throat on the last word. She smiled bashfully as Alice proceeded to push me slightly to the right.

"Not to interrupt your lust-fest, but we did come out here for a reason other than to tantalize your eyes." She said the laughter in her voice unable to hide itself. Alice knew when she had done a good job of rendering me nearly speechless, even if she had seen it coming.

"I think since the whole reason we even have this awesome new pool is because of Bella, she should be the first to get in…and the fact that it is technically hers is also a good reason." Alice said.

I nodded dumbly as I took her hand leading her toward the steps. The pool truly was an incredible construction; Alice and Esme had really outdone themselves this time; the pool didn't really look like a pool at all. It was more of a man-made lagoon for lack of a better term.

It was integrated beautifully into Esme's garden and looked like it had always been there. There were no steps at all, it sloped down into the water from the side closest to the back of the house. It was made from the stone and rock taken from the mountainsides near the house; the contractors had actually excavated rock from cliffs and quarries within a ten mile radius to get the most natural feel possible. The borders were edged in the same type of rock in a very natural pattern. There were two trees that provided shade for one side of the irregularly shaped water structure. Two extremely large willows, some of their branches dipping into the water giving a sort of curtained effect to that side. On the farthest side was a small waterfall-like structure made from different sized flattened boulders with the water pouring over them in beautiful natural patterns. Esme's garden surrounded the entire pool to its very edges on all sides except for the side that provided entrance. The first time I leaned over to peer into the clear water I half expected to see fish and other forms of marine life swimming around. There were lights around in the garden, but none in the actual water to give it a more natural feel at night.

I watched Bella's expression as she took it all in as did Esme and Alice. Bella remained silent for so long Esme decided to pipe up, "Bella, we hope you like it but if you don't, dear, we'll be happy to change it to suit your tastes." Bella turned to face Esme with tears in her eyes.

"Oh, Esme, no…it's just, I've never seen anything so incredible in my life. I've never seen a swimming pool that looked so enchanting! I half expect to see little fairies and water nymphs all around it!" She exclaimed, the tears unable to be held back any longer flowed silently from her beautiful eyes.

"Thank you, Alice, Esme, everyone! It's so much more than I ever could have imagined!" It made my heart swell to see her so happy. I knew it was not the pool that held her enchantment and awe, but the people who went out of their way to create it for her.

I took her hand again and led her slowly into the warm water. The pool was heated year round and I had suspicions that Alice and Esme were already making plans to convert it into a hot spring fed source for winter-time swimming.

Bella stepped tentatively into the pool. Letting go of my hand as she waded further in. When she reached the level that covered her waistline she turned to face us. "I don't have to swim alone, I hope." Her smile absolutely radiant.

Alice joined her at vampire speed…the rest of us went at a more human pace. Much fun was had, Alice, Jasper, Esme and Carlisle played water games like Marco Polo and Chicken fight. Bella and I were content to just swim around and watch or talk quietly beneath the willow curtain. After a while the others left and we were alone. We continued our talking; every now and then we would joke around and splash a little water playfully at each other. I was surprised that Bella could indeed swim. She explained that her mother had taken her to lessons ever summer since she was two in Port Angeles when she was little. I suppose it's like riding a bike; you never forget how.

After several hours Bella lifted her hand, examining it as if it were the first time she'd seen it. She laughed. "I'd forgotten that this is what happens after staying in water too long." She turned her palm to me and showed me her waterlogged skin. I chuckled lightly. "I guess this is what I'll look like when I get old." she said. At that moment if my heart had been beating it would have stopped. I'd come to think of her as one of us in the past months. I had always known she was human, but the fact that she would one day grow old and die had not really registered to me until she made the comment about aging. My angel, my goddess would soon surpass me in age (well physical characteristics anyway) and die. Even without James' help, she would die and I would once again be alone. Not just go back to how I was before, but having known what it was like to have a companion, to laugh with and love. Having loved, but ultimately lost it. In that moment my heart began a war with my brain. My heart wanted to change her, to keep her by my side always, but my brain told me it was a fool's plan; why should I doom this innocent creature to an eternity of walking the earth lusting for the blood of what used to be your own kind? The urge to kill always on your mind, the burn in your throat quenched only by the life blood of another living creature.

No. I couldn't allow that. Not to this innocent, pure, delicate being before me. She was too close to an angel; I could not damn her to the life of a devil. A monster.

But that meant I would lose her in a few short years. My dead heart ached as if she were dying already. She was dying already. Every beat of her heart was rushing her short life headlong into the grave. Each beat was numbered and drew her closer to deaths door. How could I allow such a perfect creature to die? The one creature in this world who actually loved me, a beast, beyond any reason.

I leaned in to kiss her, surprising her surely, but I could not stand one more minute of not holding her in my arms. My minutes with her were numbered, and I would not waste a single one of them.

At first it was bliss, her warm soft lips molding around my own, but her body went rigid, she gasped for breath as she tried to push me away, her heart hammered in her chest. Her mind opened up revealing what she saw. Her eyes did not see me, but James. I heard her scream in her mind and as quickly as it had opened it was gone. She fainted clean away into my arms, her head falling under the water.

I pulled her up immediately and carried her into the house. "Carlisle!" I bellowed. I knew I need not speak so loudly but I didn't care, I had caused this. My carelessness had once again hurt the one person who I loved more than my own existence.

Carlisle came running at vampire speed down the stairs. "What's wrong Edward?" he said half expecting it to be about Bella.

"I don't know, I just kissed her…I didn't mean to surprise her, but it did. Her mind opened up for a moment and I was able to see what she was seeing for a moment. She thought I was James, she fainted."

I knew my words sounded like ravings of a madman, but I was mad. Mad with worry, mad at myself. How could I be so stupid? She trusted me above all the others and for the second time I had caused her to regress out of my own selfish and thoughtless actions.

Carlisle evaluated her and assured me she would likely soon wake. I handed her to Alice to take her to her room to change her into some warm clothes as I went to do the same. When I had finished I went to her room. Alice had her changed and lying on her bed looking as if she were sleeping. She looked so peaceful, but I knew better. She wasn't dreaming; she wasn't asleep, her mind had shut down temporarily to deal with what she thought she saw. The shock sent her brain into panic mode. This was all my fault.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please, please review...just let me know if it still has your attention...

* To see Bella's swim suit as well as Alice and Esme's, please go see the links on my profile!