I'm back from my vacation, so, hopefully, the updates will be a bit more regularly from now on.

The weekend seemed to speed by and, strangely enough, at the same moment time seemed to crawl at an agonizing slowness I didn't remember ever experiencing.

Saturday morning I followed Carlisle around at the hospital as usual as he made his rounds. But my thoughts were mostly on Bella, what she was doing right now, where she was. I really hoped she was alright. I had noticed before that she tended to stumble and fall easily – I had heard a few horror stories about her from Gym – and the thought of her on a rocky beach with a million things to fall over made me feel a bit anxious. I just had to hope she didn't fall into the ocean or break a leg while trying to climb a rock, or something similar to this.

At least, if something should happen to her, and she would need to be brought to the hospital I would find out about it fairly quickly.

In the afternoon I went to see Mrs. Jackson again. Her condition had taken a turn to the worse and I knew her days were numbered. She was now on some heavy pain medications to ease her passing and she spent a lot of her time sleeping, but she was awake when I came in.

"Hello, Mrs. Jackson," I greeted her as I entered her room. I went over to her bed.

"Edward?" she asked, sounding a little confused. Her tired eyes were searching my face.

I smiled for her, even though it pained me to see her in this condition. The last few times I had been here, I had been fairly miserable myself and I don't think my visits had helped her like they should. I hoped to be able to cheer her up a little bit better this time.

"Yes, it's me."

She looked at me for a long time, then a small smile formed on her lips.

"So, how is your lovely Bella today?" she asked. Even though her voice sounded weak, I could hear how pleased she was.

I should have known that Mrs. Jackson would instantly pick up on my much improved mood compared to the last few times I'd been here. It had been visible to everybody else I had met today. I should also have known that she would make the connection that this change in my mood was due to Bella. She had asked me about her every time I'd been here, but as I hadn't wanted to talk about her, I never had answered this question.

"She is doing fine," I said, confirming her conclusion. "We are friends."

If not for the IV drip to the back of her hand, I was sure she would have clapped her hands excitedly like a little girl.

"Tell me everything."

I proceeded to tell her of how Bella had nearly fainted in class the other day and how I had brought her to the nurse's station. I, of course, didn't mention why I had stayed away from her to begin with and what my family's reaction had been, but other than than I was pretty honest to her. She listened intently to everything I said.

"And next Saturday we're going to drive together to Seattle," I concluded my story.

"Edward, I never understood why you did this to yourself. This Bella of yours, she sounds like a really nice girl and I know you're crazy about her. These last couple of weeks, they had been simply wrong. If you ever do something as stupid as this again, I'm going to find a way to haunt you as a ghost, if that's the only way to beat any sense into your thick skull."

I knew she would.

"Thank you," I said sincerely.

"So, what are you planning for this trip to Seattle?" she now asked.

I actually hadn't thought about it so far. I had been too happy she had agreed, I hadn't started any planning. I was sure Bella had her own plans; that's why she had wanted to get to Seattle to begin with. She had mentioned books and I wouldn't mind driving her to every book store in town and watch her pick out what she was looking for. I was pretty sure I would enjoy it. And of course there was the drive itself. It was a three and a half hour ride one way, and that meant I would be spending seven hours in total with her in the car. There would be plenty of time to talk, to learn everything I wanted about her.

"Bella mentioned she wanted to look for some books," I explained to Mrs. Jackson.

The old lady looked like she was about to roll her eyes.

"Edward, what am I going to do with you?" she asked rhetorically. "Here's your chance to make right for that girl and all you want to do is to get her to do some book shopping."

I was about to ask her what else I could do. After all, it was Bella who wanted to look at books. But she held up her hand and stopped me before I could say a word.

"Listen, Edward, I know you like her, and I would think she likes you too, so what you need to do is take her out to lunch to a nice place, show her that you care about her. Nothing too fancy, though, you don't want to scare her away, right?"

That I most certainly didn't want to do. I nodded.

"All right, then. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Women do like attention, but we don't like to be smothered with it. Ask her what she wants to do, offer her some options and then accept her choice."

I nodded again. I already had figured out that much. I knew what I wanted, which was to spend as much time as possible with Bella, but I also knew I needed to give her space to decide for herself if she wanted to spend time with me. I didn't want to scare her away.

Of course, once she found out my family is made up mostly of vampires, she would be plenty scared. Who in his right mind wouldn't be? Even though they were vegetarians, as they liked to call themselves, it was a fact that they all could be extremely dangerous.

Mrs. Jackson grew tired and she asked me to read something to her. I picked up a book from her night stand and for the next ten minutes I read to her until she fell asleep.

Though it had been sunny in the morning, the clouds had pulled in during the day and Carlisle and I drove home through the rain in silence. My thoughts were again on Bella and what she was doing right now. Was she still at the beach, caught in the rain? Or was she already back home, safe and sound and dry? At least she hadn't shown up at the hospital, so it was reasonable to assume she had managed not to injure herself seriously. I missed her, though.

I had known I was attracted to her from the moment I had first seen her. I still wasn't sure what it was that drew me to her like this. At first I just thought her to be merely pretty, but later I realized that in fact she was beautiful. I had found that I could easily talk to her. She wasn't, or rather tried not to be, a damsel in distress. She could stand her ground – that was when she didn't trip over it. I wanted to protect her. We did share the love for classical music.

There were many little things and all added to one, undeniable fact.

I was in love with her.

I had stayed away in order to save her, but that hadn't worked out so well. Now I would stay close to her to protect her in any way I could.

Because I simply couldn't image a life without her in it any longer.

At home I found my way to the grand piano in the living room. I was the only one really playing it regularly, though Esme did so once in a while, but nobody had really touched it for the last couple of weeks. I opened the lid for the keys and tested the quality of the instrument by playing a short melody I had memorized for just that purpose. It was just a little bit out of tune, due to the long time of neglect, but acceptable for now. I would need to ask Esme if she could help me with tuning it again later.

I stretched my fingers and started to play.

I had learned to play the piano when I had been very small. We always had an instrument in the house and I sort of remember watching Esme with awe whenever she was playing. Soon I was sitting on her lap, hitting the keys with my stubby fingers, surprised and pleased that every time I did hit a different key I would get a different sound. First Esme had taught me, but later I had also gone to a couple of professional teachers, who all accorded me some real talent. I did perform in various school concerts and for a while I was torn between my wish to become a professional concert pianist or to become a doctor. In the end the desire to heal people turned out to be the bigger one, and so I only ever played for myself and my family any more. The CD I had given Bella had been a recording I originally had made with the help of Alice and Jasper for Esme for Christmas last year.

First I played some of my favorites: Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and eventually Debussy. Playing Claire the Lune naturally brought my thoughts back to Bella, and when I was finished, I moved over to a melody I had had in my head for a little while now. Soft and gentle, it reminded me of her and even though it was unfinished still, I thought it fitted her somehow. I played around with some variations, changing tempo and pitch, but didn't quite get what I wanted. Maybe this was as it should be, for I still didn't quite know where I was standing with her, and was still searching my way to her.

When I looked up I saw Carlisle and Esme standing in the opening between the living room and the kitchen. Carlisle had his arms wrapped around his wife, resting his chin on the top of her head. He had a content expression on his face and when he saw me looking at him, he smiled at me. I had no idea how long they had been standing there, but I had the feeling it had been a while.

"This was very beautiful, Edward," Esme said as she disengaged herself from Carlisle's arms and came over to sit next to me on the bench.

"It's not quite finished yet," I admitted. My fingers rested on the keys, but I didn't put any pressure on them. For now, I would let the melody go. I knew in time I would be able to work out what my problem with it is.

"Is this for Bella?" she asked softly.

I nodded.

"It had been a mistake of us to have you stay away from her. You two, you are meant to be together. If I had had any doubts about it, this here would have taken them away. It has been far too long since you have played. I have missed it."

"You all wanted her to be safe and that's what I want, too," I reminded her. It had been a decision by everybody and I had been willing to try to live with it. That was, until it had become too much for me.

"We should have found another way right from the beginning," she said.

"It's okay." I didn't really want to talk about it any more. What was done was done, and now I had a second chance with Bella and it was up to me to use that chance. I knew my family was a hundred percent behind me and that meant a lot to me.

So I went back to playing, a lively piece for four hands and the moment Esme picked up what I was doing, she joined me.