Later that afternoon, Edward dropped Bella off at school to pick up her truck. She drove back home and went straight to her room.

"Bella," Charlie called up the stairs. "Would you come down here for a moment please?"

She headed for the stairs, not wanting to upset her father. "What's up, dad?"

"The school called me. You skipped today." He didn't ask. He wanted her to explain it to him.

"Edward and I had some things to talk about. We went to a little meadow out in the woods."

"Bella, you can't draw attention to yourself like that."

"Dad, please. Edward wanted to talk to me and the subjects he wanted to talk about were not something we wanted everyone else to hear about."

"He asked you about being a mutant?"

"And I talked to him. He explained a few things to me and I explained a few to him." Bella decided not to tell her dad about the kiss between the two of them. She didn't think he could handle that. Not just yet anyway.

Just then the phone rang. Bella picked it up. "Hello, Logan."

"Just checking on ya, kid. Makin' sure you made it home okay."

"I'm fine. Sometimes you're worse than a mother hen." She giggled.

"Don't laugh, kid. That guy could have put a serious hurt on you."

"We just talked. I swear it."

"Sure, kid. Just be careful around him."

"Logan, you forget my ability sometimes."

"Never, kid. I remember that one night at the mansion. When that boy slipped into your room?"

Bella cringed. She'd tried to forget that night. She'd scared the daylights out of several people, not the least of which was Wolverine. She didn't ever want to see that man scared again.

FLASHBACK

Bella had been sleeping soundly in the room in between Wolverine's and Nightcrawler's. One of the boys in the school had expressed more than a passing interest in her.

He was a bit pushy that day. Kurt and Logan had backed him down. That just made him that much more persistent in trying to get Bella alone.

He snuck into her room that night and crawled into her bed, wearing very little. When she felt his hands on her, she shrieked, waking the whole mansion.

She'd been with Siren all day and it showed. Then, she just disappeared.

When she realized where she was, she simply curled up in a corner and sat there shaking, not sure if she should just teleport back to her room or not.

She cried as she thought about the boy's hands on her body. He could have done so much to her if she hadn't woken up just then. She was terrified. Afraid of Kurt's reaction. Terrified of Logan's. She just wasn't sure what to do.

Looking around the cabin, she realized that no one had been here in a long time. No one even knew that she'd found this old place. She only had on her nightgown and it wasn't very heavy against the wind that blew through the broken window. There were no blankets around and nothing else she could put on over herself.

Curling up in the corner seemed to be the only way to stay out of the wind and make some progress in warming herself.

She must have dozed off at some point because the next thing she remembered was hearing the door of the cabin slam open.

Bolting upright, Bella tried to squeeze further into the corner before realizing that the form filling the door was Wolverine's. Fear covered her face.

He sniffed the air, calming himself when the scent of her fear reached his sensitive nose.

"Bella, come on, kid. Let's get you back to the mansion." He walked toward her slowly.

She turned to look at him. His eyes told her just how scared he'd been when they'd found the boy in her room and no sign of her.

"Wh-wh-what happened?" she asked as he approached her.

"I'll tell you later. Let's get you back to the mansion first. You went kind of far. That's why it took so long to find you. I brought a jacket." He held out his heavy coat. "Please, Bella."

She really looked at him then. It wasn't often one heard the Wolverine say please. He was frightened. Or at least he had been. Afraid of what she couldn't say but she knew that he'd been plenty scared.

Timidly, she walked toward him as if expecting to be scolded. "I ain't gonna yell at you, kid. We were all worried about you."

It had to have been bad if he was admitting to being worried.

By the time he got her back to the mansion, the boy had been reprimanded and told to stay out of the teacher's wing of the school. If he was ever caught there again, he would be sent to another school.

Of course, having to face the Wolverine every day after that wasn't easy. The boy never exactly got over what had happened. He left the mansion one night not long after. No one ever knew what had happened to him.

FLASHBACK ENDS

"I remember," Bella whispered. It had been the scariest thing she'd ever been through. Not long after that she'd gone back to her mom's house and tried to put that night behind her.

"I don't mean to scare you, kid. I promised your grandmother and your mom that I'd help keep an eye on you when I could. You never finished your lessons with the professor so you are still real vulnerable. I don't want to see you in that position again."

"I know. Please, Logan, trust my judgment. I won't let my guard down around Edward. But I do want him as a friend."

"Friend I can handle, kid. Just don't take it farther than is comfortable for you. Take this at your pace. Not his."

"I promise. I swear that I won't let anyone push me into anything I don't want."

She hung up the phone and went back upstairs to do her homework before going to bed to dream of Edward's tender kiss.