And now adbide faith, hope and love; but the greatest of these is love.

Hope

Alice helped me into a robe and got me to the shower. I took my time, washing my hair twice and leaving in the fancy conditioner for the full three minutes. The towels were amazingly soft and fluffy; everything in this house was extravagant. I put on the robe and found my way back to my room.

The bed was made and much of the medical paraphernalia was cleared out. It looked like a regular room except for the fact there was still a hospital type bed. I noticed the closet doors were left open and inside were several outfits as promised. Folded on a shelf were the necessities that I needed and quickly put on.

Then I started sorting though the outfits. The first thing that caught my eye was a long cocktail type dress. I admit, I liked to dress up upon occasion, but what was the occasion? The dress was lovely, a deep shade of blue trimmed with silver lace, and yes it was a mermaid fit. Was that supposed to be a joke? Did anybody over a size four look good in those? I quickly pushed that one aside, besides I wasn't wearing heels again for a while.

There was another dress: this one was a bit more strappy and shorter than the other. I didn't pay much attention, I wasn't wearing a dress- there must be another option.

Finally I found a pair of what appeared to be designer black jeans, a dark blue, crisp, button down top and a black fitted vest with just a slight weave of silver in the hems. She had the color scheme of my fin down. I put on the outfit and was pleasantly surprised at how nice it looked.

I ran a brush through my hair and left it to dry naturally. I found a pair of cute tennies to and made my way down stairs. I could instantly smell those muffins, they smelled delicious.

Alice was at the base of the stairs waiting for me, she had a pout on her face. "Why not the dress, it was perfect!" she proclaimed.

I smiled at her in response, "I don't think the good doctor would let me wear heels yet, so I thought this would be the best option."

"Well it looks nice to, I suppose. Come on, I'll take you to the kitchen. We have to hurry or that werewolf will eat everything!"

I laughed a little, it was good that Jacob got a head start otherwise I might have eaten everything. When we got to the kitchen I could see the all the food: there were huge muffins the size of my head, and a variety of fresh fruit including grapes, oranges, strawberries and pineapples. I wondered where they found such produce this time of the year, pineapple was my favorite.

Edward was just pulling out a new batch of muffins from the oven, I cringed as I noticed he was not using any sort of glove. He gave me the typical smile as I made my way over to the counter and pulled up a chair next to Jake.

"Hey sleepy head," I greeted him as I sat down.

"Hey gimpy," he greeted in return.

"Not so much anymore, did you sleep alright?" I asked.

"Like a rock, and you?"

"Good, you want to pass me a muffin?" Jacob did and Edward brought over a huge platter of fruit and placed it between us.

"This fruit is amazing!" I complimented as I stuffed a large strawberry in my mouth.

"Glad you like," Edward replied.

"You've given us reason to use the kitchen," Carlisle explained from the sink where he was cleaning some dishes.

After almost thirty minutes of eating straight, Jacob and I were almost able to conquer the entire spread but stopped one muffin short.

"Last one's yours Jake" I surrendered.

"No way! I have no idea where I would put it, you eat it!"

"Jake I'm going to explode as it is, now be a gentleman and eat the muffin!" I demanded.

"How about I wrap it up and you can take it with you?" Edward offered as he grabbed the last muffin and found some foil. The kitchen was clean now as we made out way into the living room. Carlisle, Esme and Alice were already there waiting for us as Edward followed behind.

"I suppose it's time we get going. Thank you doesn't seem to cover it, but thank you anyways" I addressed them all, Carlisle in particular.

"We'll see you soon, Bella" Carlisle said as he walked slowly towards me and gave me a gentle hug and walked away. Esme followed out Carlisle, but Alice pranced up behind and gave me a hug to.

"I'll keep those dresses here for now since you're coming back, don't think you've gotten out of wearing them!" she exclaimed as she pranced up the stairs.

"Thanks for taking care of crazy Bella," Jacob said to Edward as I elbowed him in the side. "I'll go start the car" he offered.

That just left me and Edward in the room. "When do you think you'll be back?" he asked sadly.

As soon as mermaidly possible, "Friday, probably. I wish you could come with me."

"I would come."

"No, you can't, not yet at least. I need time to get this straightened out with the elders. I'll be back, I promise."

"I worry about you. Take care of yourself."

"You to," I don't know if I have ever been so conflicted: I wanted to go home but wanted to stay with Edward to. The way I felt about him didn't make sense, it was unfamiliar and disorienting. Yet it was also exciting and made me feel more alive then I ever had before.

He walked up and stood a few inches from me. My heart skipped a few beats at the sheer closeness. He reached down for my hand and brought the back of it gently to his lips. He kissed ever so softly but then lingered with his hand still holding mine. I was lost in his eyes again as he leaned down ever so slowly, giving me ample opportunity to withdraw. Instead I stood up on my toes and met him half way with my lips. It was only a peck; short, sweet and innocent, but it changed everything in that moment. My whole universe shifted and anchored to this one man in an instant, he brought me something I had long ago lost. He brought me hope. He gave me hope at life again.

Author's note: As always, I love reviews, keep them coming. We'll get to see Bella in mermaid form soon, I can't wait to tell you what she looks like ;).