Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight....I do own a Momji Clever Clogs doll though....so I don't mind

Aftermath

EPOV

Emmett looked pretty pissed with me when he finally arrived home with Carlisle, having had to wait for him to finish his shift to get a lift. I disappeared to my room quickly after an almost entirely silent dinner. Carlisle had looked at me with a renewed interest but didn't seem able to form the question he wanted to ask. I knew what was going on in his head, he tried to be unreadable but I could read him like a book after ten years of being his son. He wanted to ask about Bella. I glowered at him as soon as I realised, and the questions in his eyes left.

I ran my fingers along the spines of my CDs. They were redundant now that I had an IPhone, but feeling them under my fingertips brought a fog of calm to my over active mind. I needed to dust.

BPOV

There was an overwhelming sense of sadness when we turned up at school the next day. Rain through the night had removed any traces of blood, but the parking lot was still taped off, making us park on the street outside school. Alice had barely spoken, her eyes restless with the thoughts dancing around in her head. Even when Jasper opened the truck door and took her in his arms she didn't spring into life.

He whispered into her ear and she smiled weakly, looking up into his eyes, refusing to look away. I averted my own gaze, suddenly feeling like I was intruding on a very private moment. Suddenly I felt very lonely. The patch of grass Cullen had flung us both down on wouldn't leave my field of vision. My eyes were drawn back there and it didn't matter where I looked I would end up gazing back at it, biting my lip I remembered the feeling of the adrenaline coursing through my body as I realise not only how close I had been to being broken in two by a van, but also how close I had been to those taunting eyes and wicked mouth.

"Morning Bella." Emmett called to me, walking over and slinging his arm around my shoulders. "Having flashbacks?"

"Something like that." I mumbled, catching sight of Cullen lurking behind us. We stared at each other coldly for a second before Emmett distracted me again.

"Close call. You'll be ok though." He said it softly and no one else caught it, but I was thankful that this hulking giant cared enough to reassure me. Suddenly I didn't feel so alone.

EPOV

Emmett was yammering away in the car when I parked it but I wasn't paying attention. Bella was standing a few feet away from Jasper and Alice, who looked like they were in the middle of some intense non verbal conversation, the corners of her mouth pulled down and staring at the spot where she could have been killed. Staring at the spot where I had held her in my arms and she had fainted dead away, making my heart stop.

"Edward. Please pay attention. I listen to your bullshit; please just listen to my plan to snare Rosalie."

"I'm finding it difficult to care." I told him bluntly, still unable to stop staring at Bella and the sadness that was radiating from her very soul.

"You care about some stuff." He said quirking an eyebrow at me.

"I don't. There's no point." I pulled myself out of the car and locked it, still watching Bella. She bit her lip and my stomach churned. Emmett had started to walk away and I pulled on his arm making him stop. "Do me a favour? Tell Bella that it will be ok....that she will be ok."

"Only if you actively listen to talk about Rosalie in the car on the way home." He bargained, but I knew he would do it anyway because he looked over at her and his face softened when he saw how forlorn she seemed.

"Deal."

BPOV

Lunch was a miss by epic proportions. Jasper had to almost physically remove Newton's hands from my hips and Cullen was, for lack of a better phrase, a complete dick. I had resolved to be just as cold to him as he had been with me, we obviously weren't destined to be friends, why force it? So, I brought a book, determined to read it and ignore him.

"To Kill a Mockingbird?" His eyebrow had quirked at me when I cracked the book open and he had been unable to just leave me the hell alone.

"Yes." I answered him tersely, not taking my eyes from the familiar and worn pages.

"Didn't think that would be your kind of thing. Though you probably think you identify with Scout." What? I was confused as to why he was even talking to me.

"No."

"Dill?"

"No." I was becoming irritated immensely as everyone picked at the food Alice dropped onto the table. Snaring himself an apple Cullen continued needling me.

"Don't tell me, Atticus!" He seemed delighted at figuring me out.

"No. Radley, actually."

"The murderer?"

"What?" Burst out of my mouth before my brain could stop it, looking up at him with a sneer.

"Come on, he was a murderer. He stabbed the guy at the end."

"The guy who abused his own daughter and framed a man for it?"

"So you are saying that he deserved it?"

"He was going to kill Scout and Jem."

"So, in your eyes, he deserved it?"

"He fell on his own knife." I said tersely "I'm going for a walk." I told Alice as I closed my book and left the table, eager to get away from Cullen and his desperate attempt to ruin my favourite book.

EPOV

What a dick. I was being a dick and I had broken the most important rule, thou shalt not talk to Bella Swan. But she had turned up at lunch and yet again had to be saved. There had yet to be a day when she didn't need a fucking saviour. This time Jasper had to scare Newton away before rage had consumed me and I did what I fantasised about doing to him every time he was within a foot of Bella. Then she had cracked open my favourite book in an obvious plan to ignore the hell out of me.

She was making me unhinged, so I had to bug her a bit. Had to needle her about who she identified with. Everyone says Scout, but she said no and I was intrigued. Damn her. Negative to Dill and the eponymous hero Atticus Finch. Then she said it, simply and without warning, Radley. She identified with Radley, the shut in, the man who lived in the dark basement of his family home, unable to interact with the world in the way he wanted to. Fuck. So did I. Maybe I should go after her. Maybe you should go after her, take her in your arms and kiss her until it feels like your lips are going to fall off, a little voice in my head said that sounded suspiciously like Alice.

"What the hell Edward?" Jasper glared at me.

"I didn't mean to upset her; I was just asking her a few questions." Shrugging my shoulders I finished my apple.

"Do you dream Edward?" Alice asked me out of nowhere, staring at me as I tried to control my facial expressions.

"Doesn't everyone?" I replied, trying to sound casual.

"Some more than others. What do you dream about?" The table fell silent as I tried to concoct a convincing lie and Emmett watched me slyly with a barely disguised smirk on his face.

"What are you getting at Alice?" Jasper asked her.

"I was just wondering. I've started a little project, about dreams, and how they connect us to not only our world but our subconscious and each other." She stated, refusing to stop her eyes dancing from my hair to my eyes.

"I'll tell you about my dreams, Alice." Emmett suddenly interrupted. "But Jasper wouldn't like them." He grinned without embarrassment and Alice laughed her laugh that sounded like bells in the wind for the first time that day.

"I think I'll need a bigger notebook." She snorted, fingering Jaspers hair as he looked at his lunch with disgust and pushed it away, no longer hungry.

A/N: Read...Review...hopefully enjoy.

Another update should be up shortly, and then it'll be about a week before another one, just to keep you in the know.

Thanks again to everyone who is reading and reviewing and enjoying....it makes me feel all warm inside.