I woke up, still cuddling up with Edward.

It was Saturday and Charlie had left early to go fishing. There was no risk of getting caught with Edward in my bed. Waking up next to him was glorious.

If only I hadn't been human. I could have stayed there holding him all day.

But, then, if I hadn't been human he would never have left me.

With a groan, I wriggled to free myself.

Edward's arm didn't move.

"Er, I need a human moment," I said.

"What's that?" he seemed bemused, then understanding dawned and he sat up, letting me go. "I'm sorry, Bella, I didn't realise that I was holding you so tightly. I'm a little out of practice with humans."

"You haven't been around humans since you left?" I asked.

"No," he said.

That was strange, I had imagined him carrying on pretty much as usual. But, I suppose it made a sort of sense. He had told me, after all, that he was fed up with pretending to be human. I suppose he must have been somewhere where he didn't have to hide his abilities.

In the bathroom, I checked my phone, wondering if Edward's family knew he was back. He'd told me that he hadn't seen them yet, but that didn't mean that Alice hadn't seen him.

Sure enough, I had a text from Alice.

'So, Edward's back,' it said, 'I know this won't persuade you, but you really ought to tell him yourself.'

I scowled at the phone and deleted the message.

I had absolutely no desire to ruin Edward's return even a second before it was necessary.

My phone beeped again.

'Fine,' Alice texted, 'but, don't say I didn't warn you. You can expect fireworks this evening.'

While I took a quick shower, I wondered what it would be like. Apart from that brief moment in Port Angeles, Edward had never been really angry with me. Would he forget that I was human again?

But, when I left the bathroom and found him sitting in my rocking chair, looking at me with eyes thst looked so painfully like the adoring gaze of old, I couldn't be afraid of him.

"Your dad isn't here," he reminded me, "I could stay."

I shook my head. Maybe it was somehow understandable that I hadn't told him last night. But, if I spent a whole day with him and never mentioned the whole surrogacy thing, then I would be as good as lying. He had to know.

"You should see your family," I said, "they were worried about you."

That, at least, was true. Jasper had been close to panic when he saw that purple smoke.

Edward nodded.

"You're right, of course. Will you accompany me?"

"No!" I said, then, realising how abrupt that must have sounded, I added, "you need to talk to them alone and I have an English essay to write."

"If I offer to help with your essay, will you say that I'm avoiding facing them?"

"Yes," I grinned at him.

He grinned back, "Will you let me stay anyway?"

"I don't think you should be avoiding your family. Why would you even want to?"

"Because I made an idiot of myself and they all told me leaving would be a disaster and I should have listened. I'm not eager to have six people reminding me that they told me so."

"I didn't want you to leave either," I said.

"You have been kind enough not to gloat about it."

"I don't think anyone will be gloating."

"Maybe not aloud. But, I can hear all the things that they choose not to say." He grimaced slightly, I wondered what thoughts he was recalling overhearing. It must be hard to get on with people when you can hear their every thought. No wonder he was so drawn to me.

"Is that it?" I asked, "are you back here because you crave the silence of my mind? Is that what you meant all along?"

"What?" He looked confused again, "no! What are you asking me? Do you really believe that I am I more in love with silence than I am with you?"

He'd got his tenses confused in his surprise. I waited for him to correct himself, to say that he wasn't in love with me now, but he had been once.

He didn't say anything.

"Edward," I prompted.

Still no retraction.

"Are you still in love with me?"

"Of course! What did you think was going to happen? I'm incapable of ever falling out of love with you, even if I wanted to, which I don't. Falling in love with you has been the highpoint of my existence. Even now that you've moved on . . ."

"I haven't."

Edward stared at me. "I left you," he said, "I told you that I didn't love you, that I had never loved you. Then I ran away and stayed away for months."

"I remember all that very clearly, thank you."

He grimaced at the realisation of how much he must have hurt me. "But, you didn't move on?"

I shook my head.

"Oh." He sat very still, thinking. Then he looked straight at me and said, "Bella, may I kiss you?"

How could anyone refuse such a request?

But, I didn't deserve to kiss him. Not without telling him what I'd been doing.

"After you've spoken to your family," I said.

Edward closed his eyes and groaned."

"So, you are angry with me," he said thoughtfully, "don't deny it," he added, before I had a chance to deny anything, "I know you a little now, and you wouldn't refuse to kiss me unless you were trully annoyed. However much you want me to talk to the others - which I will do, I promise. But, I can't leave without apologising for what I put you through."

"You don't owe me any apologies."

"Oh, but I do. I underestimated you. I believed that your love was a weak attachment that could easily be broken, and I hurt you. I was trying to protect you, and I thought that I was the only one who would be hurt, but I hurt you."

Not as much as I might have hurt him.

"Yet, there's still hope," he said softly, not precisely to me, more as though he was musing aloud, "there's a chance that you might take me back, after all."

Well, only if he could accept what I have done.

"There's a chance," I agreed.

Edward's eyes, though they were still as black as ever, seemed to sparkle again. His lips quirked in that familiar half smile. He looked almost like his old self again.

Enough like his old self, in fact, for me to notice his outfit.

"Is that what you were wearing when you left?"

He shifted in his seat, looking embarrassed, "I wasn't staying anywhere where I was required to dress for dinner," he answered sheepishly.

"Which explains why you're not in a tux. But, the same clothes for . . ." I added the days and tried to work out where we were, "three months? Where were you staying?"

Edward's teeth flashed, and for a split second I thought I might have angered him, but then I realised that he was biting his lip, a gesture that I had never expected to see from him. He was embarrassed.

"Well, I suppose the sooner I go, the sooner I can return. You did say that I could come back here as soon as I'd spoken to my family, right?"

"As soon as you've settled things with them," I clarified, "and gone for a hunt. I've never seen your eyes so dark. When did you last eat?"

"Alright," he replied, standing up and hopping up onto the window sill, "I'm going. I will be back as soon as inhumanly possible."

He didn't want to tell me when he last fed, or where he'd been. That was probably not a good sign. What exactly had Edward been up to while he'd been away?

The English essay hadn't only been an excuse. I really did have to write it.

I ate oatmeal, because people who deliberately conceal things so that they can carry on hugging gorgeous vampires deserve oatmeal for breakfast.

Then I tried to distract myself with my essay. But my mind kept going back to Edward.

I didn't want to doubt him, but I couldn't help wondering. Had he been acting like a true vampire? Had he fed on humans while he was away?

And, if he had, what was I going to do about it?

I knew he'd fed on humans before. But, that had seemed far away. It all happened before I was even born. His victims had been cloudy figures that I couldn't really imagine: long dead criminals, it was easy to pretend they weren't real.

But, now, it all felt different. There was no veil of time between me and them. If there were more victims, then they were real people. I couldn't fool myself anymore. If he'd been away killing people . . . Really, how did it matter what sort of people they were? Killing people is wrong. It's . . . I hated to even think such a word in conjunction with a man I loved, but, killing people is evil.

He's no soldier, no executioner. He's a vampire, and strength doesn't carry with it the right to do whatever you want.

Could I still love a man who had spent the past three months stalking people and sucking their blood? If I could, what on earth did that say about me?

I wasn't very successful, either in distracting myself or in writing a decent essay.

But, I did, at least, get something written. I checked to see if any stray comments on the morality of vampires had crept in, but it looked like I was safe.

I was just considering breaking for lunch when I received yet another text from Alice.

'Fireworks coming your way in five minutes. Brace yourself.'

I sighed. At least I'd had last night.

Edward knocked on the front door this time.

He'd showered, changed and, from the looks of his golden eyes, fed since he'd left.

"Hi," I said, trying to read his expression to see how furious he was, but his face was eerily calm.

"I fed and spoke to my family," he said, "it doesn't look like you followed your own advice, however. Have you eaten?"

"I had breakfast."

"It's two o'clock, have you had lunch yet?"

"I was just going to eat when you showed up, actually."

He smirked at me, that delicious crooked smile that I missed so much. "Don't let me keep you from your food," he said, "let me in, we can talk while you eat."

While I made myself a sandwich, Edward leaned against the counter, grinning at me.

"You look happy."

"I guess I am," he said, "being able to see you again, it's . . ."

"Like coming back to life?"

"Yes," he looked surprised, "exactly like that. How did you know?"

I didn't answer.

Edward looked at his feet, "ah," he said, "it's like that for you too. So, while I was gone . . ."

"Tell me where you went."

"Why do you want to talk about that? It's not pleasant."

"I thought about you all the time. I wondered where you were, what you were doing. You could picture me in your mind all that time. You knew where I was. I want the same."

"That's fair," he said. "I was trying to find Victoria, at first. I wanted to end her, to remove any lasting threats to you. But, I failed. I lost her completely and had no idea where to look. Then I . . ."

He trailed off.

"Edward, please. I need to know." Had he been with other women? Had he hunted humans again? I hated to think it if him, but he was so coy. It must be something awful.

"I understand that," he said, "it's just, hard to remember it. Do you think - could I hold you while we talk? I want to know that you're really here, with me, that it really isn't happening again."

"Of course!" As if I would ever refuse to let him hold me.

We went upstairs towards my room.

Edward tensed.

"Bella, wait here," he said, "darting into my room alone, leaving me on the landing.

What was happening? Was this some kind of flashback?

It had sounded as though reliving the last three months was painful for him, had it triggered some dark and scary memories? What scared a vampire, anyway?

And what on earth could I do to help?

But, Edward returned.

"I don't want to alarm you, but, there's a scent in your room that wasn't there this morning. Bella, someone's been in your room, another vampire."

"What do you mean? Was it Alice? Has she done something to my clothes?"

He didn't smile, "none of my family," he said, "I know their scents."

For a moment, I decided to put aside this image of Edward sniffing his family. The idea of another vampire lurking in my room was far from funny.

"Victoria?"

He shook his head, "no, I would recognise her scent too, easily. This is someone else, someone I don't know."

"But, how could they have been in the house today, I've been here all day."

"A vampire could easily escape detection by a human, not a problem for my kind. The real question is not how, but why?"

"Alright then, why would a strange vampire be in my house and not do anything to me?"

Edward scowled, despite the question being his suggestion , "now that I don't know," he said, "and I don't like not knowing. We're going to have to talk to my family."

"You don't look very pleased about that."

He gave a sort of half laugh, "I might not have left the house on the very best if terms with everyone," he admitted, "but, I think we will have to put that matter to one side for the time being."

He lifted his silver phone to his ear, "Alice," he said, relief and resignation battling for control of his voice, "did you see anyone? . . . I realise that, and I was asking rather than accusing . . . Thank you. We'll be there in . . . If Jasper wouldn't mind calming things a little . . . Yes, of course, part of the awkwardness is of my own making, but. . . I don't think that 'hypocrite' is entirely fair, this is slightly different . . . Goodbye, Alice."

He returned his phone to his pocket and smiled at me, a tight, nervous smile. "Well, everyone will be there and Jasper agreed to keep things calm, since emotions are running a little high."

"Did you fight with your family?"

"No," he said, slowly , "there wasn't a fight. It was an animated discussion with, well, where Alice, Jasper and I are all involved, a lot of feelings, thoughts and half-formed plans fly around the place. Interestingly, from a human point of view, quite often nothing actually happens at all."

"Fine. Did you and your family have a weird supernatural disagreement that left you all cross with each other?"

"Yes."

"I'm sorry. I don't want you to argue - however weirdly you do it - about me."

He sighed. "Firstly, this isn't your fault. Secondly, we really don't have time to talk about this right now. We have to deal with the immediate threat first, and I won't be able to do that effectively, if you and I are arguing. So, please, can we postpone this discussion, just until we work out who your uninvited guest was?"