A/N: Bella is in the driver's seat now. Best to buckle up! That old truck isn't as reliable as you might think!

Regarding the 2 songs in the last chapter Charlie was referring to:

"Nothing Compares to You" –Sinead O'Connor / "Against All Odds" –Phil Collins

Special thanks to **Lori** for proofing this and providing feedback.

Disclaimer: Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer, and I appreciate her allowing the fans to toy with the ideas her books have inspired. I've read some wonderful stories by the fans!

Bella's POV (Part I of II)

November 8th

Until we pulled into that driveway, I didn't think we would really find him today. I was just looking to escape my room, school, Forks, and the abyss of numbness I had allowed to swallow me since that day in the forest. If he didn't exist, then I didn't want to either, but existing, in the sense of just getting by, was all I could do. Death is easy; life was harder. Just existing was a comfortable state of nothingness somewhere between the two.

I almost hoped we could out-drive the rain. I was glad to get away from the looks of Jessica, who clearly thought I was pathetic, the hungry and impatient eyes of Mike-and he said Edward looked at me like I was something to eat-and even Angela's sympathetic pout.

Yesterday morning, while Charlie was out running errands, I had driven to their house outside of Forks and sat there waiting in the driveway, as I had done once a week since they left. My normal routine was to sit in my truck holding his "Be Safe" note like rosary beads and silently praying he would be there, but yesterday I had two notes to hold and doubled the prayers. Still, I had gotten out and knocked on the door knowing there would be no answer. They weren't there. They were never there. The house and I were the same—visible structures to the outside world but two empty shells, both of whom had been abandoned by the Cullen family.

I hadn't told my dad why I thought it was their house just now, but painted on the post of the mailbox below the house number was a symbol that looked like the Cullen crest. I wasn't sure of it, but I wanted to believe it. As I had looked out at the tree lined scene behind the house, I could see how they could live there. I envisioned Emmett and Jasper disappearing into the area to go hunt. I imagined Alice and Rosalie emerging gracefully from the greenery as if they had just been on a nature walk, rather than depleting the local wildlife. I had to hold myself back from my fantasy of leaping from the truck, running all the way up the long driveway, and then, desperate and out of breath, jumping into Edward's arms just as he emerged from the front door and was descending the porch steps.

I was nowhere near ready.

It still didn't make sense. Why would they be this close to Forks? Then again, why wouldn't they be? The Olympic Peninsula offered them more days outside than most locations they had lived so I could see how that would fit. Fit, like pieces of a puzzle. A mental jigsaw puzzle, that's how Charlie had always referred to police work and how to go about solving a case. Up until Charlie found the note, CD, and plane tickets I had no puzzle to solve, only shattered fragments of thoughts, memories, and feelings jumbled and lost in the cloud cover and drenched in the rain. Now I clung to the hope that seeing the crest at that house was another piece, and I had four corners to a picture that would be formed more clearly today.

As we pulled into a parking spot at a small 24-hour emergency care clinic, I realized what a cloudy, rainy day it was and wondered if Carlisle could actually be here. According to Charlie, because there was no working odometer in the truck, we were approximately six miles away from the driveway. I glanced around the lot inconspicuously but didn't see Carlisle's black car. It was doubtful he was here. I walked around and hesitantly met him at the driver's side door.

"Don't worry, I called earlier and asked if he would be in today," Charlie said to me as we both got out of the truck.

"Did you talk to him?" I spit out anxiously, perking up to what he had just revealed.

Charlie grinned in response. "No, I just pretended to be a patient. Sometimes lying is a big part of getting what you need, Bells. Of course, then my cell phone lost its signal mysteriously." His grin widened displaying his pride in his resourceful deception.

"He's here? Really?" I froze in unexpected conflict—to stay and see Carlisle first for myself or to find him. If Carlisle was here, in this town, then so was Edward. The thought tingled down through me, prickling even the outside of my skin.

"Well there is a Dr. Carl Cullen working here. I'm just going to find out if it's who we think it is."

Carl? Maybe it wasn't the Cullen crest on the post. My nerves dipped and the numbness of the last month crept in to hold me securely in place.

"Look Bells, I was thinking…I'll go in and investigate. If it's him, then I'll try to have a talk with Dr. Cullen while you head back to the house. It may take a little while, after all, I'm just kind of waltzing into his place of work unannounced. Don't worry about me, though. I've got my phone. Take as much time as you need and call me when you're done."

I nodded in silent acknowledgment.

"Remember what we talked about, okay? No matter what happens, I love you kid and I need you to get better. It's killed me to watch you go through this and not know what to do for you." He choked out the last words and hugged me so securely it was like he was trying to give me strength through osmosis. The resurfacing numbness was forced back.

"I know Dad. I'm sorry. It just felt like I was drowning and I knew your hand was outstretched trying to rescue me but I couldn't reach it, not until last week."

"When I found your stuff under the floorboards?" he asked as he released me from the embrace but kept his hands on my shoulders to meet my eyes.

"Well that, and when you told me you wanted to find them. I had been hoping so much that he would come back for me that I never thought about trying to find them. Dad, that day, it was like for a perfect moment the sun was shining in Forks as bright as it does in Florida, and I could see to reach out and grab your hand and let you bring me to the surface."

"Oh, here." I released from his shoulder grip and reached back into my bag in the truck and pulled out a thank you note I had written to Carlisle and Esme for the tickets. "Umm, can you give this to Dr. Cullen, if you find him, for me…in case I don't see him."

Charlie smiled at me, and I knew it was because he was pleased that I was coherent enough to take the time to write a note. I stood there torn for a minute. I wanted to go in and see Carlisle, too. Maybe seeing him first before seeing him would make more sense. Or maybe he would let Edward know I was here and alert him, making him run off? Maybe Edward would be close enough to read Carlisle's mind and take off.

"Here, take this," Charlie said handing me yet another can of pepper spray, "and call me if there is any problem. I don't care if I have to flash my badge and commandeer a car or run all 6 miles, I'll get to you. And if there is any sign of trouble you get back in your truck and turn around without giving it a second thought." I nodded in agreement. Pepper spray. Well at least I knew who that wouldn't work on this time.

I climbed back into the truck and headed back to the new Cullen house, to see him again.

If it was them, I still was not ready.

At each stop light, my heart raced and eased with the flow of the traffic. And as much as I was concentrating on finding my way back to that house and seeing Edward, there was something nagging at me-my mother's journal.

She wrote that she would leave to protect me. Isn't that what Edward had told me on more than one occasion? That he would leave me if it meant protecting me? Or that he wanted me to go to Jacksonville to keep me from harm's way after James tried to kill me? Is that what everyone's motives were-leaving and going for my protection no matter who got hurt in the process? Wasn't Charlie hurt when Renee left? He was obviously hurt when I walked out on him, but at the time, I had to. How else could I have protected him from James and Victoria? That was the only way. Could it have been so with Edward? Did he feel this was necessary to do? Was my hurting and suffering these past weeks necessary?

The thoughts swirled around in my mind and suddenly I felt filled with intensity of anger and anticipation. It felt…good! Finding Edward's CD and the note caused such a feeling of surprise but those feelings had simmered. The findings were a beacon glimmering hope out toward my lost heart but a beacon that was off in the distance, shadowed by the murkiness of the fog. I liked feeling this now—anger trimmed with determination. But just as I turned into the long drive, my engine cut out, and with it, my heart lulled. As I turned the key, I heard the roar of the truck and the thump of my heart simultaneously, jolting me like a scared cat and banishing my anger.

I would be face to face with him soon. I felt almost ready.

I pulled my note out of my pocket. He wrote "Love Edward" but left the note in a place where I was sure not to find it. Ugh, why did he always have to be so cryptic and paradoxical? Why did he have to leave? Edward, why did you do this to us?

Stall again.

"Crap!" What is going on with my truck? I turned the key again and gave it some gas. The engine raced in unison with my heart. I put the truck in drive and made my way about three-quarters of the way up the driveway deciding that walking up the remainder of the drive would give me time to get my heart and breathing under control.

I wondered if Esme at least would be happy to see me or maybe Alice would welcome me, even if he didn't. Would they be my allies? If they had left to protect me then I didn't need to give them forgiveness, just understanding.

Edward I'm here. Edward I'm here. Edward I'm here. I slowly chanted in my head somehow hoping he could read my thoughts here outside the thick veil of Forks' fog. What if he did hear me and left to avoid me?

I shook his name out of my head and tried to focus on a happy reunion with Alice. I would tell her that I miss her at school. I'd tell her she could take me shopping or let her dress me up, anything to spend time with her.

Wait! I panicked and stopped in my tracks. What if she saw me coming? Would she have had a vision and given me away to him? Would she have even told him? Would he have already left to avoid me?

I carefully got out of the truck, tried to shut the door quietly, and made my way up to the house. It was not as big as their house outside of Forks and much more modern looking with slanting roof lines, wall height windows on the first floor, and slate gray siding that coordinated with the colored paver walkway that led me to the front porch steps.

I stumbled as I reached the top step but regained my balance as my hand made contact with the railing and hesitantly knocked on the door, holding my breath. I felt my heart flutter, echoing the knock.

Please be Alice or Esme if it's not him…or let it be Emmett or Jasper, anyone but...

"Rosalie!" I gasped as the door opened.

Despite the coldness she expressed on her face, I could feel myself smile widely. I had found them, my extended family for all intents and purposes, and I wanted to wrap my arms around her and breathe her in to make sure she was real…that they did exist.

Just as I automatically took a step forward, pulled in by two intermingling forces-the same curiosity I had seeing them in the cafeteria my first day of school and an underlying familial connection I had toward her, the door slammed in my face.

"Go away," she yelled out, "you've done your damage to my family."

I felt the whoosh of air hit me from the door closing. I couldn't breathe and dropped my hands down to my knees trying to reclaim some air. This must be what it feels like to be punched in the stomach. It was them. They were here. I was here. He was here. My heart thudded vehemently, stung by disbelief and overwhelmingly jolted by the realization.

"Please…please, I need to see him," I choked out, pleading. It would have barely been audible to a human standing next to me let alone through a closed door.

"He's not here. Happy now? You can leave." Her voice was as cold and hard as I knew a vampire's skin to be.

"Alice?" I begged.

"Not here either—you took both of them out in one shot. If you stick around you're sure to desecrate the rest of us."

"What do you mean?" I cried out desperate to understand her words.

"I mean that Edward took off and Alice went to live in Denali. You've broken up my entire family. Now go away before I break my fifty-plus-year clean track record because trust me Bella Swan, you are so not worth it."

How could I trust Rosalie?

"Esme?" I pressed.

"Human misfit, are you getting this? They. Are. Not. Here!"

"Rosalie, please. I…I just want to talk to Edward. You're right. I am a human misfit because I've been part of your world and I've been lost without him…without all of you. If you could just tell him I want to see him."

Hopeful silence.

"If you could just...please just tell him that I found my note. His note." My voice cracked. Our note.

Fragile silence.

"Please," I tried again. "Please tell everyone I miss them, including you Rosalie."

Patient silence.

Then I remembered something I needed to tell Rosalie-something I needed to say now. I took a deep breath and remembered Charlie's words. Ironically, he didn't know he had even more to be thankful for regarding the Cullen's. I did.

"Thank you, Rosalie…for protecting Charlie last year from Victoria when I ran off to Phoenix. I'm sorry if I didn't say so sooner. And thank you for the necklace for my birthday." I stopped, suddenly realizing that it had not been with my group of gifts my Dad had found. I never got a chance to open the box and see what it looked like even.

Melancholic silence.

I took my hand up to the door and pounded my fist once out of frustration and grunted.

"EDWARD! Are you in there? Please talk to me. Please, please, please! I'll HURT MYSELF! I'll shed blood everywhere! You'll have to come out! You won't be able to stop yourself!"

Desperate silence.

I banged on the door again and looked back down toward the truck and called my own bluff. How could I do that to Charlie after he's done so much to try to help me get here? But how was I going to walk away not knowing if he is in there? How could I possibly trust that Rosalie—the one Cullen who never liked me at all-would tell me the truth? After all, it is part of their makeup to know how to lie, how to use deceit to prey on their victims. Edward told me so in the meadow. How long could I stand out here waiting? With a heavy stomp, I turned and headed to the truck, crushed and frazzled.

Defeated silence.

If there was an absolute opposite to his dazzling, then that is how I felt-undazzled and defeated.

When the damn truck didn't start up, I began cursing out of more frustration. "DAMN IT!" I got out, slamming the door sending rust specks flying through the air, and kicked the tires. "GOD DAMN, NO GOOD, STUPID PIECE OF QUILEUTE RUST!" I yelled. Just as I was ready to throw myself on the ground and cry, Rosalie appeared mid rant.

"Here, let me take a look at it," she demanded shrilly but in her harmonious voice, reminiscent of the voice I missed most. I gasped, taken by surprise with her sudden presence.

"WHAT? You want to help me now? Why?" I snapped, still enraged and disgusted by the situation.

"Because your truck obviously isn't starting and the sooner I can get it fixed, the sooner I'll be rid of you!" she snapped back at me, breaking my angst.

"Oh, right." Since she put it that way.

Rosalie popped the hood and started to tinker. I stood there watching her in awe, trying to study her face, taking in the pale skin, amber eyes, and hint of sparkle where a single, narrow ray of sun was now slightly shining through, hitting the wrist of her outstretched arm.

"The carburetor was stuck. Go turn the key," she directed me.

The truck started and she motioned to me to come toward the front of the car. She pulled a clip out of her hair and showed me a small flap that sat in a small black cylinder.

"See this flap? It needs to be up. Next time your truck doesn't start, use this to clip the flap to this outside rim here, like this, and then turn the key. It should work every time." She smiled faintly in response, amused with her own satisfaction in fixing my car.

"Thank you, Rosalie. And, I'm sorry." I could feel the tears streaming down my face as again I stood there taking her in and realizing the truth, that it had been real—everything with Edward, with the Cullen's, with the love I felt. I couldn't help it. I wrapped my arms around her to prove to myself that my eyes weren't lying to me.

She flinched and then carefully pried me off of her almost immediately. "Okay Bella, why don't you turn the truck off and come inside, if you would like, just no more talk about spilling your blood. Esme would be terribly disappointed in me right now, and if I can't do right by her, then I have even less of my family left than I thought."

I looked up at her incredulously then felt myself floating back over to the ignition to pull the key. She, of course, beat me up the driveway but waited at the top of the paver walkway for me. I followed her into the house, taking in the strange familiarity of the inside—white walls, large screen TV, and a large open staircase. She motioned me toward the couch in the living room, where she stood as I sat.

I opened my mouth again to ask about Edward as I looked around but she realized before I could ask.

"I assure you, no one else is here right now," she said almost politely. I nodded in response and then let my eyes drop from her gaze.

Bella, I'm not going to stand here and grovel, but I guess I do sort of owe you an apology. And Edward, I suppose. In the beginning I was jealous of Edward's admiration of you because he never extended a bit to me. In fact, I wasn't sure he was even capable of admiring anyone or anything, but Esme helped me get past that when it came to you. Then I think I just spent so much time worrying that if things ended badly between you and Edward how it would all affect me and my family. Until things happened that night with Jasper, I never really thought about how everything affected you."

My head shot up. "How which part affected me? Because if you're talking about you guys leaving, well then, take a look Rosalie…things ended badly and I've just been drifting like a ship lost at sea up until last week."

"Well no, I meant the fact that while you two were together, how much you were in danger from us and what a risk it was for you to be part of our world."

"And you didn't realize any of that until the night of the party? Hello, do you not remember James? Here's a little reminder!" I pulled up my sleeve and shoved my arm out exposing the double crescent-shaped scar.

Rosalie gasped lightly and looked away. I guess with her vanity, the scar was too much to handle, but it wasn't enough for her to back down.

She snapped back at me, "Well guess what Bella apparently I was right to be worried about my family because things ended badly and now the people I love the most in this world are paying for it one way or another."

I pulled my arm back and fixed my sleeve. "It's not my fault. I told him to change me! I wanted it! I wanted to be with him forever. Rosalie, you have to know that I love him. I would have gladly died for him. Did you not see the video recording? Please, I just need to talk to him. Please help me talk to him."

She stood quietly, eyeing me up and down with skepticism.

"Bella, did you really want to give up being human to be with him?" she said more softly now.

I nodded yes and thought back to the prom. Do they all just think I'm a stupid teenager with a crush?

"I'd give up all this pain I feel not being with him. I'd give up the…UGH…the agony I feel not knowing where he is and if he's safe." I said as I threw my hands up in the air.

"Bella we feel pain and agony, too. To be one of our kind does not spare you from feelings—you don't go numb. In fact, you feel everything with more intensity and precision."

"Rosalie, you know what I mean. And if he's out there and in pain and agony the way I am, then I need to find him, to save him…just like he saved me from James when I took off on him. That is, I guess, if he is in pain."

Rosalie stared me down with blackened rage-filled eyes. Her face was so hard she looked less than the 100% beautiful creature she was, but I didn't back down. I stared right back at her and didn't move my stare from hers.

"You know I don't have to blink, right? You can't beat me at a staring contest."

I blinked but continued to try to hold her gaze steadily.

"What makes you think he's out there in agony or pain?" she asked me snidely as she crossed her arms.

"I don't know. I just don't know! Geez, he might be. He might not be. He might be too distracted to think about me." I winced at the thought and felt the pain of those words he spoke to me but then I remembered my note and inhaled deeply. "It's just that last week, my dad found some things under the floorboard in my room that I'm sure Edward put there, including this."

I unzippered my coat pocket and retrieved the two notes I now carried around with me, handing her the one he left under the floorboards and carefully returning the other to my pocket.

Rosalie read the note carefully. Then she closed her eyes, took a long dramatic, and unnecessary, deep breath like she was mimicking me, reached down into her pocket and pulled out her phone. I felt my eyes brighten with hope involuntarily as I watched her dial.

"Edward, it's Rose. I need to talk to you. I need to…apologize, and you know I don't do that often, so be sure to call me back as soon as you get this."

She looked over at me, her eyes softer now, shifting to twinkling, like gold and diamonds do under fluorescent lighting. "I didn't think I should tell him you were here with me. Is that okay?"

"Yeah. Sure. It's fine." I could feel the air rushing onto my pupils then blinked twice in disbelief of what she just did…for me.

"I don't know if he'll call back. We've tried calling him before and not heard back from him once. He told us all not to contact you, but Bella, I can see now that you have been hurting as much as our family. I'm sorry it took me so long to even consider that might be the case, to realize this."

"Well I'm sorry it took me this long to realize I needed to come find Edward but since he left I've been, well…I haven't been myself," I said softly.

"What made you decide to?"

"Ummm…a bunch of stuff all at once, I guess…but mostly my dad. He's over talking to Carlisle right now."

"The chief's here? Really?" Rosalie moved over to the couch and sat beside me, crossing her legs and fingering her long pale hair.

"What happened with Alice? Is she okay? I miss her, terribly. A lot more than that, actually." I asked interrupting Rosalie.

"Are you sure you want to know?" she asked, all pretenses aside.

I nodded for her to continue.

"After your atrocious birthday party, Alice was really upset with herself that she hadn't been able to predict Jasper's….indiscretion. She blamed herself that you got hurt and she blamed Jasper. When Edward wanted us to leave, she completely became beside herself and shut down. She's cut herself off from Jasper and decided to go stay with some others like us up in Denali. Esme is there checking on her now."

"What? Nuh-, Nuh-, NO! But how could she do that? I mean, she and Jasper belong together. Why would she cut herself off from him like that?" I was horrified and felt sick over what I had caused.

"I don't know why. Why did Edward leave you? None of it makes any sense, but sometimes when it comes to blame and love, we all think irrationally. And when situations feel like they've gotten out of control, we make a choice to do something that makes us feel like we have some sense of control, even if it's a false sense of control. Esme says that usually the choices made under duress are the ones that end up hurting us the most, or even worse, hurting the ones we love the most."

As I sat there listening to her words, I actually felt like Rosalie Hale was trying to console me.

"Alice hasn't had any visions, as far as I know, and she feels like she is walking through this life blind all over again."

"I wish I could talk to her, to tell her this isn't her fault. Rosalie, you have to know I didn't blame any of you. I wasn't even upset. It was just Edward….I think he didn't know how to handle it or, I don't know, he just didn't realize…"

"Bella, why are you here?" she cut me off sharply, though without sounding frustrated with me like earlier.

"I just…I think that maybe, I mean, I at least hoped that I could talk to Edward because I think when he left he caught me so off guard…I just need to tell him how I feel about him because I don't think I was clear enough the day he left," I said, trying to take everything on myself.

"I see. Hmmm, Bella, I'd like to share my story with you regarding how I became a part of this life. Would that be okay?"

"Of course Rosalie, if you'd like."

"Good, but in return, I'd like you to tell me what Edward told you and what led you here today. Oh, and I want you to call me Rose, that's what I let my friends call me, not that I have many of them," she smiled and winked at me.

"Fine," I answered and then we both heard my stomach rumble. "I could really use a cup of coffee and a snack…I don't suppose." I trailed off looking around for the kitchen.

"I'll drive us into town. It is a rainy, cloudy day, after all. Come on, follow me."

Rosalie led me to the garage. I heard myself gasp at the sight of his Volvo parked next to her BMW. My heart started pounding and my mind was racing trying to sort through details of that conversation during our ride home from the restaurant in Port Angeles, remembering how it felt to see his car in my driveway the next morning, and flashing to the day over the summer that Edward had taken me to a secluded dirt road outside of Forks and encouraged me to drive his car fast. I felt the thrill of getting the car up to 100 miles per hour, and I remember how Edward's half smile easily morphed into a full blown smirk at me in satisfaction.

"WOW! That was unbelievable!" I exclaimed. Edward leaned over to kiss me lightly on the lips from the passenger seat.

"How do you feel?" he asked with hopeful eyes.

"It's definitely an adrenaline rush." I said with excitement.

"From the speed or my kiss?" He was teasing me again. "I knew you would like driving fast. It's a requirement to being one of the eternally damned, you know."

"So I guess I'll check that off my list then," I replied taking the opportunity. He frowned.

"Bella, the only list you need right now is one to keep track of your college prospects."

I scowled. He scowled back and then leaned over to kiss me sweetly on my shoulder.

"C'mon speed racer, give it another go."

I hadn't let myself think back to that day until now. I had him! I had him that day! He was considering it—he was considering the possibility of me being with him as a vampire. Why had I not realized that until now?

Obviously, Rose heard my heart's reaction. "I swear to you he's not here. He just left this car with us. He should have left the Aston."

"Oh." I replied still lost to my memories.

"I have his key. Do you want me to drive you in it?" she asked. I nodded to say yes. As I got into the passenger seat, I felt closer to him, further proof that he did exist. I allowed my hands to smooth the leather and take in the heady scent of Edward that lingered in the car. I put my head back and sighed, feeling a new ache in my heart. I miss him. I don't just want to see him. I long to be with him.

"I know. I can smell him in it, too." Rosalie looked at me sympathetically but then attempted to cheer me up. "I will say this about my brother, as far as vampires go, Edward's scent has always been fairly appealing, sweet even."

"Really? What does he smell like?" I whispered.

"Umm, it is like a mixture of honey, lilacs, and something else I can't quite describe but like being outside on a warm spring day. It's much sweeter than Emmett's rugged outdoorsy scent."

"Sunshine." I replied softly.

"Where?" she asked holding her left hand up and examining it.

"Edward, I used to tell him he smells like sunshine." I admitted quietly for fear she was going to make fun of my assessment.

"Wow! That's it! I never would have thought to call it that because brooding doesn't exactly scream sunshine." Rose laughed at her own joke and then smoothly pulled out of the garage and proceeded to tell me about the events leading up to Carlisle finding her and changing her. I was horrified at the tale of how her own fiancé, Royce King, unexpectedly allowed his friends to attack her one week prior to their wedding. "I couldn't fight them off, but I tried to reason with them, appeal to some sense of practical human decency, but they were drunk. When it was over, they left me for dead in the street." She even admitted to going back and killing them and how she saved Royce for last so he knew she was coming for him and dramatically showed up in a wedding gown to avenge her attack. Rosalie's record was not spotless the way I had once assumed it was. In return, and as promised, I told her about the breakup in the forest.

"My God, he really is an idiot. And in the forest of all places? That makes absolutely no sense at all. He knows the dangers the forest cloaks. God what was that S-M thinking?"

"S? M?"

"Yeah, that brother of mine is a sadomasochist."

A "sick, masochistic lion" were his exact spoken words.

My heart fluttered at the memory, and though he was not here, I felt closer to him than I had in weeks, and it made me feel…alive. I sat silent for a moment before answering her, "My dad was furious over the fact that they needed a search party to find me."

"How did they find you?"

"One of the guys from the Quileute tribe."

"Hmmm. That can't be good. Do me a favor, Bella. Don't you ever let them make you think you owe them something in return, do you hear me?"

"Yes, but I don't understand."

"Trust me, they are shifty and they will shape things their way or turn things around on you so fast you won't know what hit you. If they ever try to hold it over your head, you call me right away, day or night. I want you to program my number into your phone. Do it now."

I smiled entering Rose's number into my phone as she rattled it off a little too fast for me to keep up. I had to ask her to repeat it, to which she sighed. Then I grinned with satisfaction to myself—further proof.

"What are you grinning about over there?" she asked.

"It's nothing," I replied.

"It's certainly something!" she retorted.

"It is just, that day in the forest, Edward told me that he would leave and it would be as if he never existed and for a while I almost convinced myself that none of it was real…so this, your number, the note, all helps to remind me that I wasn't going crazy or something. I don't know."

"He said that to you? You are marred for life with a vampire's bite mark on your arm and you are supposed to tell yourself we never existed?" she roared angrily at this connotation.

"I know," I said, lightly tugging at my sleeve, with satisfaction and solace in her reaction.

"How were you supposed to convince yourself? Tell yourself you were bitten by a dog?" She laughed but was obviously still infuriated.

Rose pulled into a small coffee shop, spewing out profanities at her brother. As she turned the car off, I looked at her and had the courage to ask, "Do you think he still loves me?"

Rose snickered lightly, "Bella, only love could make Edward act like such an idiot. He was actually quite practical and rational prior to meeting you. Do you think Alice still loves Jasper?"

"Of course!" I replied right away.

Rosalie raised an eyebrow and looked over at me as if to say, Well, there's your answer then, but maybe that was just my own hopefulness.

With that, she opened her car door and escorted me inside, though I told her it wasn't necessary. On the walk through the parking lot, I misjudged the step up onto the sidewalk and landed on my knee. Rose extended her hand to me.

"Are you okay?" she asked out of what seemed like genuine concern. I nodded as I got to my feet and let her hold the door for me.

"Emmett is going to be sorry he missed seeing that!" Laughter erupted from deep within her core.

***Extra special thanks to Alitriona who was all too willing to let curiosity kill the cAT and take a sneak peek of my story in order to share her insight and give me tips.***

Now see…Rosalie's not so bad, once you get to know her a little better. I'd want her as a friend. I bet she has like 80 years' worth of cute Edward stories and secrets to share. Not to mention she sounds like a good person to have around when you want to…oh you'll find out in Part II.

Edward called and asked that you take the time to leave a few words in the reviews to let him know what you thought of this chapter. Don't disappoint Edward, please.