Bella:

On Tuesday, after the siblings had gone to school, Carlisle offered to take me hunting. He sort of just threw the offer out blasé, expecting me to refuse him as I always did.

"Sure," I said, still determined to give Edward some time off.

"Oh," he responded, surprised. "Yes, alright. One moment." He ran upstairs to put away some papers he'd been holding, then rejoined me in the living room. He smiled at me and opened one of the back doors, and I forced a smile in return.

Hunting with Carlisle wasn't anything like hunting with Edward. Being with Carlisle wasn't anything like being with Edward. I was self-conscious the entire time, and I kept feeling like I should strike up a conversation, but I wasn't sure what to say. I wished I had waited for Edward to come home, but I remembered that I was trying to give Edward a break. I was going to get him some free time whether I wanted to or not.

But then again, maybe it I could go hunting with him tomorrow. He was going to be gone for four days, would it kill him to spend one afternoon out with me? No, that wasn't the point. I was trying to do something nice for Edward, and I had to stick with it.

Carlisle, thankfully, didn't say much while we were out. The silence was awkward, but talking would have been more awkward. We were only gone for a little while, sticking close to home, and Carlisle didn't drink anything himself. Back at home, he smiled when he left me in the living room.

"Thank you!" I called after him as he went up the stairs. He stopped and looked at me, surprised but smiling.

"You're very welcome," he responded. Then he continued up the stairs.

I tried to read, but I couldn't focus. I hated it when I couldn't focus. I kept thinking about last night with my sisters. I had sisters. All this time, I had thought that Rosalie hated me, and that Alice tolerated me at best, but now I wasn't sure. Last night, they smiled at me, excitedly talked to me– if only about clothes. Hell, they even teased me about how nervous I was. It bristled at first, but I realized that was what sisters and friends did.

Maybe I could go hunting with one of them tomorrow. No, no. No need to impose on them. They were my family, now, but not my caretakers. It was bad enough that I'd cornered Edward into the position he was in, and I wasn't going to fix that by starting over with Alice or Rose.

Not to mention, I didn't think Rose would want to go out with me, and I didn't think Jasper would like Alice being too alone with me for too long. I thought he'd lightened up about me after our big hunting trip, but he still didn't completely trust me. I couldn't find it in myself to disagree with him. Memories of throwing Edward into a wall and through a window still hung over me. If I lost control, tiny little Alice would not be able to stop me.

I decided there was only one option. I wouldn't lose control again. The rest of the family could do it, and so could I.

I turned my attention back to my book, forcing myself to focus on it. This was where discipline started.

Edward:

Every day of school was worse than the last, and Tuesday was killing me. I was so angry that Carlisle was trying to deprive me of the weekend with Bella again, and I was determined to get it back. So far, my plan was to just participate in the Thursday and Friday hunt, and go home early. I could tell the family that I was worried about how Carlisle was coping with the newborn all alone. It would be true. I didn't want to leave Carlisle home alone with Bella. She would be uncomfortable and in turn he would feel intrusive and they would probably pass the four days in awkward silence and by the time we got back home, Bella would be responding to everything in head nods or shakes again.

I didn't want to wait for my siblings to get to the car. I didn't want to drive the car. I could get home faster running, and they could take the car home. The only thing that stopped me was the worry that someone would notice that only fours Cullens leaving school, when five had come.

By the time my siblings had joined me, I felt my head was going to explode. Jasper tried to calm me, and I tried to let him. It worked some, but I still drove home faster than I should have.

"You okay?" Emmett asked.

"Yeah, fine," I lied. He didn't believe me, so I threw in a detail to make it more believable. "I just feel like I'm going to start banging my head into my desk if I have to hear one more of Mr. Molina's lectures on how the mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell."

Emmett laughed. "I hear that. Mr Berty mispronounced nearly half of the words in a Shakespeare sonnet today. I mean, seriously, if I have to learn scansion sixteen times, our English teacher could at least bother to learn it once."

I laughed along with Emmett, but it was a little too forced. By bad mood only started going away when I got out of the car. Every step was putting me closer to leaving with Bella. I would probably get a deer for myself on our hunt today. The blood would probably undo some of my nerves.

Who was I kidding? The run with Bella would undo my nerves.

I entered the house and my eyes found her immediately. She was reading on her spot on the sofa. She smiled at me, and I smiled back, just like every other day. But unlike every other day, she didn't put her book down and get up. I walked over to her, and she looked up at me again from her book, but made no indication that she was going to move.

"Aren't we going hunting?" I asked her.

"Oh, no. I went with Carlisle earlier," she said. She smiled at me like she'd just said the most pleasant thing in the world. She didn't know that those words had just ruined my already horrible day.

"Oh," I responded lamely. "Okay." I sat down next to her and pulled up a book, but I couldn't focus on it. Emmett and Jasper started playing a video game again, and after a few minutes, I joined them instead.

Why hadn't she waited for me? She went hunting with me every day. I thought she enjoyed it. I thought she enjoyed our time together as much as I did. Was I wrong? Had I misread this about her, too? I wished for the millionth time I could read her mind. I wished I could ask her why she had gone with Carlisle and have her tell me the truth. I wished I could just grab her by the hand and take her hunting with me now anyway. It wouldn't kill her to go hunting twice in one day.

Jasper's thoughts interrupted mine. Having an existential crisis there, Edward? He teased.

"No," I told him curtly.

Are you sure you're not preoccupied? You've lost six games in a row.

"Don't worry about it, Jazz," I said. I turned my focus to the game, and to Jasper's mind. I was determined to beat him this time, and I was determined to stop obsessing over Bella hunting without me.

Poor Edward. Everything is keeping him away from Bella, even Bella...