Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: This chapter will probably be shorter, since it wasn't supposed to be updated until later (and should have been hanging out with the family, my bad) … ok perhaps I'll throw you all for a curve too

Chapter 13

"What do you mean me?" I balked after waiting for the information to sink in.

"Well," Dean shrugged, running his hand through his silken brown hair, "you've changed him. Dean's so much better with you around. How can you not see that?"

I shook my head. I didn't comprehend how he was better with me around than how he was before me.

"Explain," I stated. Pacing back and forth in front of Sam and the pink covered bed with bows of pink on the windows, at least there was a spider climbing down from the window that made it less cutesy. If this place didn't make me throw up it certainly would make Dean. Why couldn't we simply have a room with skulls and crossbones? As long as the bones didn't keep a spirit from crossing over I couldn't see the difference. This room only seemed to have one shade of pink anyway. The bubble gum easily lost its flavor, pink. Great, just what I needed.

I began wearing a path into the (yet again) pink carpet, waiting for Sam's response.

Exasperated, Sam caught me by the shoulders on my last turn in front of him. "You've haven't been around for months Bella. When you left the first time, I didn't notice it as much. He was a bit quieter, he didn't laugh as much, joke with me, or smile, but he still had a spark. Then my curse began to get worse, and he became more serious, taking the burden of helping me upon himself. With you," he paused, wiping his face in frustration, "with you, he's smiling more. He's a human being again with you around. And I've noticed. I've watched how you two are together, and don't get me on the whole catching you guys in more awkward positions, because that is sure true as hell." He sat down, looking up at me with his deep hazel eyes, saying, "Bella, he loves you. He hasn't been with a woman in months. Sure," he murmured, "he's flirted with a girl at the passing bar, but he's never taken her back to the hotel, he's never kicked me out of the room over a girl. He's been waiting I think, waiting on something to happen.

"Perhaps for me to die. Perhaps for something to bring you two together, I'm not sure. I just know how he looks at you when you're not looking, how his face changes when you're in the room. He's never held a girl's hand before, or tried to in anyone's presence. Don't you see?"

I guessed I did, but then again, what if we were both wrong? What if I was just a play thing for him for now, and later when the time was up and the hunt was over, would he actually still want me around?

"No," I said, shaking my head furiously, my hair hitting my eyes, bringing tears up. "I can't believe." I wouldn't let myself. Not when I had believed it once before, thought our love invincible. I had thought my love with Edward had been enough, but I had been fooled.

Changing the subject I asked, "How long was I out?" It still made me curious that I would pass out after seeing Edward's face. You would think I'd have simply dropped my jaw, screamed, something to that effect, but instead I fainted over a lost love.

After growing up and fighting supernatural entities for the past two years you would have thought I'd have lost some of those extremely feminine qualities. Nope. I've been crying more recently than usual, fainting over a vampire, and my heart is getting flustered over another man.

"Only a few minutes," Sam answered while I went through my own inner turmoil. "You would have been on the couch faster if those two hadn't been arguing over you. The vamp was faster at getting to you, but since you fainted almost on top of Dean he got to hold you.

"Bella, why didn't you tell us about the Cullen's abilities?"

I blanched, sitting down in the over cushioned chair by the bed. "I'm not sure, to be honest. I'm really not. I was hoping to never deal with them again for one. Two, they shouldn't have used their abilities to be honest. Jasper only uses his in dire situations, or when utterly necessary for his sanity. Alice, it's not so bad with hers, you can ask her not to pay attention of course, and sometimes she even listens," I gushed, my blood pressure rising as I continued this line of thinking. "Edward's, you just can't have him control his. He's unable to really stop the voices, our thoughts. The only person he can't hear is me. And we've never been able to figure out why. I was what they call, his 'singer'. I'm really sorry, I guess I should have told both you and Dean this before, but I figured the story of girl falling in love with a vampire was enough for you to understand me and their crazy family. I never thought-" I streamed, my eyes tearing at all the false steps I had taken.

"No, I guess you didn't." Sam's face grew serious. Closing my eyes I tried to slow down my heart rate, just breath evenly. Why did I have to be such an idiot?

We sat in silence for a few minutes. Each of us in our own worlds, contemplating the actions we had both taken to get us here.

"He still loves you, you know." Sam finally said, turning to look at me, his head in between his hands.

"Who does?" I asked, looking at my long thin hands. Alien hands, special, Renee used to call them. Special enough that I could kill with them. Course, she never would have guessed they had been made to take out the evil things of the world.

"Edward."

I gasped, flinching at the thought. "You're off there, Sammy. He sure as hell doesn't love me. He probably never did. I told you that before. I'm just a play thing, or at least I was." Twisting my hands I didn't expect what Sam said next.

"You are blind. He still loves you. I saw it today. Just like Dean does."

Dean's POV (OMG I hope I do this right!)

God damn it Bella! Why hadn't she told me? Here I was, thinking to myself how I couldn't wait for this damn hunt to be over. For the vampires to be dead who were plaguing Seattle and then I would take Bella out on a date or something. That was how the order was supposed to go. We'd go somewhere, take a mini vacation with Sam tagging along, and I would tell her how I truly feel. How much I wanted to hold her like I'd done for the past few nights. Instead, I hear growling from Edward. Bastard. He gave up Bella. She's not a play thing; she's a fucking human being who deserves to be loved. And God do I love her, her soft white legs, straddling me as we…

Edward almost pounced on me, causing my mind to falter. "She's not yours."

I hadn't understood what the hell he had meant, until Bella thought it perfectly all right to explain.

No wonder he was growling at me. I was having a very lucid daydream about his ex-girlfriend, who he was still very protective of. No, I thought, he's still in love with her. He wouldn't have tried to toss me down and beat the shit out of me otherwise over who was holding her when she passed out.

Walking past the school I thought of Bella going there. How cute was she when she went there. Did she carry a book bag and look nervous? Did she have any school girl fantasies needing to be fulfilled? "Gah," I gasped, pissed off at myself for thinking about the only thing I thought about besides hunting and Sam. Women. Who needed them? They were only good for one thing. Bella, my brain chanted, Bella's better than others. She can hold her own.

"Shut up," I sputtered. Looking around I checked to make sure no one else had heard me. I must appear to be loony tunes if I'm talking to myself.

Spinning around I started back to the bed and breakfast, what a really horrendous idea. Who wants a bed and breakfast anyway?

The walk had helped clear my head; it had certainly cleared my nose. Damn thing was flowing like a faucet from the cold and wet. I had to use my sleeve to stop it from dripping everywhere. How could anyone stand to live in such a crappy area for their whole lives? I couldn't even understand how Bella had suffered through it for a year. I pulled my leather jacket tighter around my chest as I continued to walk. Had I really gone that far? It had felt like only a few blocks to the bed and breakfast. Glancing behind me I expected to see Edward, the jealous ex-boyfriend every where I turned. Being snuck up on would leave me defenseless. I didn't even have my handy werewolf claw knife, dumb move, Dean.

Smiling, I thought of how dad had passed it off to me for a Christmas present. I had always known I would be a hunter, since the age of ten. Sure, it was strange that I had gotten it for a present, but it came in useful against vampires. Not much else affected them besides their own kind and werewolves.

Spotting the inn a few blocks ahead I began to hurry. Never would anyone say I was scared of being by myself, but with a pissed off vamp walking these towns, I was a tiny bit freaked and cold. Did I mention cold? Fucking freezing out here.

Besides I missed Bella, even though I wasn't going to admit it to her. She hadn't deserved me screaming at her. She'd screwed up, but who hasn't?

Rushing into the lobby area, I found a man, mid forties wearing a cardigan sweater. God knows how gay he is, Mister Rogers much?

"Hey, my brother just got us a room," I huffed out, catching my breath after the quick work out. Perhaps using the word us wasn't such a good idea, I shuddered internally at the thought of him and me-

"Your brother," the receptionist said, wiggling his eyebrows in my direction trying to emphasize what he thought our relationship constituted, "is in the little miss moppet room, straight up the stairs and the first door on your left."

I was just going to leave it alone, but- "He's my actual brother, dude," I muttered, hurrying past the idiot to find Sam and Bella.

"Hey," I said, barging through the door after running up the stairs. "What a creeper," I said, looking at Sammy.

Grinning he looked up and replied, "I know man. Thank God Bella's here, or else he'd think we're freakin' gay. Not like we haven't heard that enough times."

The smile beginning on my face stopped before it had even started. Bella was paler than usual, her breath coming out in gasps as she stepped towards me. "Dean," was all she murmured, wrapping her arms around me, and I was gone. Fucking gone.