Author's Note: Ok, so I have good news and bad news. The good news is, this is the longest chapter I have ever written! The bad news is, I'm going on vacation. Well, I think it's good news, but I am not going to be able to write while I am gone. You see, I am headed up to Vancouver, BC on a ski trip. I probably won't be updating for about ten days. So sorry. On the plus side, I'm staying with an old friend in Sequim after our ski trip and we're totally going to Twilight out! (Sequim is about 15 miles from Port Angeles.) We're going to Forks, Port Angeles and La Push (say it with me "La Push baby!"). I will come back thoroughly inspired and able to accurately describe locations. So read on and enjoy this meaty chapter, I was even merciful and didn't leave you with a cliff hanger! Lots of love to you (yes you, the one reading this) thanks for your reviews!
Lessons
I did finally fall asleep, unfortunately Angela got up around seven. "Urgh," she mumbled disturbing my light sleep, "gosh my head is pounding." She looked disoriented and confused.
"Hey Ange," I got out of bed and walked over to her. "Do you remember what happened?" I asked her.
"Stupid vampire bit me," she mumbled as she threw her covers back.
"Stupid and now dead vampire," I corrected. "Carlisle got you all stitched up and put you on some nice pain killers, that's probably why you have a headache, maybe a little hung over from the drugs. You want me to find you some Tylenol?"
"No, I just want to take a shower," she replied as she got out of bed. She reached for her neck as her fingers ran over the gauze that was still taped to her, "how bad?"
"Ten stitches," I answered, "Carlisle says there shouldn't be much scaring, let me go get him, I don't know if you're supposed to shower with stitches." She nodded to me and I grabbed a bath robe and wrapped it around myself over my jammies before heading out of the room.
I walked down to the study and glanced inside, but it was empty. I wandered around the second floor but still didn't find anyone. Then I heard the faint piano music coming from below and treaded down the stairs. I followed my ears until I found Edward sitting at the piano.
"Good morning love," he greeted as he continued lightly tapping the keys in the most beautiful melody.
"Good morning handsome," I greeted back as I walked over to him I leaned down and met him with a kiss. "Is Carlisle around?"
"No, he left for work about an hour ago after checking on Angela. What's wrong?" he stopped playing and stood up.
"Nothing, Angela wants to take a shower and I didn't know with the stitches?"
"They can probably come out with how fast you two heal, why don't I go take a look?"
"Ok," Edward took my hand and we walked up the stairs together. It was nice to see that he wasn't treating me any differently knowing the new information. Holding Edward's hand was always a contradicting sensation of sorts, his hands were colder than mine but his touch always made me flush and feel a few degrees warmer.
Edward left me to grab some supplies in the exam room and I knocked on my door as I walked back in. Angela was going through her luggage finding her toiletries and a fresh outfit to wear. "Carlisle is gone to work but Edward said he'll take out the stitches for you," Angela looked doubtfully at me. "He has several medical degrees," I explained.
"We matriculate allot," came his sexy voice from the door way.
"Come on in," I invited. Edward switched on the lights and opened up the blinds to let the hazy sun light in.
"Ok Angela why don't you have a seat back on the bed," he instructed. I sat down on my bed across the way and watched. Angela complied and Edward sat down beside her as he set out some tools on the night stand. He reached up his hands to remove the gauze and Angel flinched away. "Gee I wonder where you got that habit from," he grinned as he lowered his hands and looked at me raising his eyebrows.
"Sorry," Angela and I both said in unison. "Jinx!" we yelled together again. Edward laughed at us as he reached up to Angela's neck again. She held still for him this time as he peeled off the gauze. I could see the little pieces of string sticking out of her neck and cringed away hiding my expression.
"What!" Angela exclaimed in response to my cringe. I couldn't look back over to her so I watched Edward instead.
"Angela," he reassured moving a hand to her shoulder, "it's fine, Bella's just a little squeamish."
"I'm a little squeamish to; this isn't going to hurt is it? 'Cause I'm not good with pain- very low threshold" she rattled off nervously.
"This coming from the girl who took on a vampire with nothing but her blood as a weapon," he commented as he picked up sterile scissors. "No sweetie, it's not going to hurt. You and your sister are quite alike when it comes to this stuff. Just relax and tilt your head away from me." Angela obliged and closed her eyes trying to zone out. I watched Edward's face as he worked. His eyes were focused but confident as his hands moved smoothly.
After a few moments he blotted her neck with a cotton ball and patted her on the back, "all done." He got up and walked across the room to the bathroom and reemerged with a mirror.
Angela took a close look at her reflection and seemed satisfied. I walked over and took a look to, the wound had closed and the scar was faint. I could see were the stitches were but it looked pretty good.
"Thanks!" she said to Edward as he started packing up.
"No problem, I'll go start some breakfast," he offered as he left the room. Angela and I both took turns in the shower and getting ready. I pulled on jeans and a scoop neck purple blouse, but left my shoes upstairs to go barefoot. We moseyed down stairs about forty minutes later.
I saw Edward pulling biscuits out of the oven as he placed them on the stove top. He poured the contents of a pot into a gravy boat. "Biscuits and gravy?" I enquired.
"Yep, you both like breakfast food," he stated.
"Ya know, I bet it's nice having a boyfriend that can read your mind" Angela commented to me.
I flushed red catching her secret meaning, "you have no idea," I raised my eyebrow and winked at her suggestively. That one caught her off guard and she just started at me blank faced as I walked over to Edward and he caught me up in his strong arms. He lifted me up to where just the tips of my bare toes grazed the tile floor and brought down those cool lips to meet mine. He kept it brief and modest in front of Angela as our audience.
Edward put me back on my feet and ushered us over to the table that was already set. Angela and I disposed of the entire dozen biscuits and the boat full of gravy. Edward poured us each tall glasses of orange juice to wash it all down. He sat down beside as we chatted.
There was a soft melody that rang through the house and Edward rose from the table, "Your mom is here to pick you up Angela, Carlisle called them last night and let them know what happened," he said.
"You told my mom?" Angela asked annoyed.
"Yes, but we told her everything was fine and that the attackers had been eliminated," he assured as we walked towards the front door.
Angela looked at me with a pitiful face, "she's not gonna let me out of her sight for weeks" she whined.
"No," I agreed sympathetically, "she's not" I ruffled my hand in her hair.
Edward opened the door, "Renee, welcome to our home."
"And a lovely house it is," my mom greeted politely reaching out and shaking Edward's hand.
Angela peeked out from behind Edward and my mom quickly side steeped to meet her and wrap her arms around her. "Ohh honey, are you alright?" mom asked as she pushed Angela away taking a good look at her.
"Yes mom, I'm fine," Angela replied monotone. "I need to go upstairs and pack my stuff."
"Why don't I show you around the house while Angela is packing her things," I suggested.
"I would love to see Esme's work," my mom admitted.
Edward led the now familiar way around the Cullen mansion. We walked through the kitchen, living room, and then went upstairs to the study. We swung by my room and Edward picked up Angela's luggage and toted it down the stairs like it was no heavier than two pounds.
As we approached the front door my mom turned back and gave me a hug, "take care honey, we'll see you over the weekend."
"Stay out of trouble Angela," I playfully scolded my sister as I gave her a hug goodbye.
Edward stood by me and placed his hand over my shoulder as they left. He closed and locked the door once their car was out of sight. "Do we have this whole house to ourselves?"
"In fact we do, that is until the hunting party gets back, so we have the rest of the morning. I was thinking we could go hiking or climbing again if you want?"
"You gotta be kidding me," I laughed as Edward looked at me perplexed. "You have literally run me ragged over the past week; can't we just stay in?" I almost begged.
Edward let out a laugh, "Sorry love, what do you want to do?"
"Actually I should probably catch up on some homework. I bet you could help me out, I'm having a hard time with AP Biology," I said.
"Alright, I'm sure I can help, though I don't know if I'm a very good teacher," he said timidly.
We walked upstairs hand in hand and I ducked into my room quickly to grab my book bag. Then we made our way to the study. Edward quickly cleared off Carlisle's desk; not that there was much on it, and I took out my biology and opened it to the chapter on human anatomy we were working on.
"See why I wanted your help?" I asked.
"It is one of my better subjects," he admitted.
I sat myself down in Carlisle's chair and pulled out the several papers with human skeletons on them and all the blank spots for the names of the bones. I took the first sheet and copied the bone names onto the worksheet from the book as Edward watched on. "Mid-terms are around the corner and I know this is going to be on it, I need to memorize them," I explained.
Once I had completed the chart, I closed the book and pulled out a fresh worksheet and tried to see how many of them I could remember. After five minutes of staring at the sheet I only managed to label the cranium, vertebrae, and the sternum.
"Do you remember which one is the tibia?" Edward encouraged me.
I moved my pencil up to one of the lower arm bones and Edward shook his head. I drifted the pencil to the second bone and Edward's looked at me doubtfully. I moved my pencil up to the top arm bone.
Edward laughed at me, "Bella, it's not in the arm," he was obviously amused by this but I was just frustrated by it. Give me an algebra problem any day- I was really good at math but I sucked at this. I tossed my pencil down and brought my hands up to my head. Why am I so dense when it comes to science?
"Bella, you are not dense. Hmm, I have an idea," Edward paused with an intriguing look on his face, "do you trust me?" he asked me genuinely.
"You know I trust you, what do you have in mind?" I asked.
"A different method at learning; you see everybody learns differently, some people learn visually, or by hearing, others learn more by doing- hands on if you will. I'm betting that you're the later, that's why you're good at math and solving Rubik's cubes, because they're interactive."
"I don't see how that's going to help," I pointed out. Edward got up from the desk and reached out for my hand. He walked me over to a deep green leather couch, one that looked like it belonged in a psychiatrist office. I sat down on the edge and he scooted a chair up in front of me.
Edward reached down and grabbed my ankles and swung them up on the couch. "Scoot over to the center," he instructed. I suddenly realized what he meant by "hands on" and flushed red trying to rope in my nerves. I had no experience in the sex category; I'd never even been to second base! Not that I didn't want to do all those things with Edward, but I'm sure he's had so much experience and I didn't know what I was doing, "Bella, relax," he interrupted, "this is purely educational, I promise."
As if it was even possible, that just made me even more uncomfortable knowing that he had just heard all of that. Edward leaned in towards me and met my lips with his. He placed his hands on my shoulders as our kiss deepened as I took in his overwhelming scent. He pushed me back with his lips and hands until I was reclining against the back of the curved couch. He moved his hands off my shoulders and placed them on the couch on either side of my head as he continued to kiss me, suspending himself above me. He pulled away after a few moments and had a mischievous look. "Well, not purely educational" he admitted.
I laughed and crossed my arms in front of me as I lay there on the couch feeling a little high now. Edward reached out his hand and held it palm up a few inches from me, I placed my hand in his and he used his other hand to run over the skin of my wrist as he explained, "the wrist bones are called carpals, and these are the metacarpals," he continued to move down my hand towards my fingers, "and these are phalanges" he played with my fingers.
I was listening and taking in his every word. Edward pulled out my hand and turned up my palm, "there are two bones here," he ran two fingers up my arm. "The one closest to your body is the ulna," he ran one finger along the bone, "which means this one is the radius. The bone in the upper arm is the humerus."
"Alright so let me see if I got this," I reached out for his hand and started at his fingers working my way up. "These are phalanges," I fluttered his fingers, "and metacarpals, carpals." I stopped at his wrist and flipped his hand palm up to uncross the arm bones, "the ulna," I ran a finger along the inside of his arm, "and radius," Edward nodded with a smile. "This one is the humerus," I leaned up out of the bed to reach his upper arm. I noticed his body was rock hard, well maybe more like ice hard.
"See I told you it wasn't that hard," Edward pointed out. I was surprised that I had remembered all of that. Edward reached down towards my feet and continued the lesson, "more phalanges, metatarsals, tarsals," he grasped my ankle rotating it lightly. His hand continued up my shins and I could feel the cool of his fingers through my jeans. "The tibia is the large bone here and the smaller one here is the fibia." Edward knocked on my knee cap, "the patella," he explained, "and the femur," his hand ran three inches up past my knee and the he stopped and let go.
I sat up and looked at my leg as I listed off the bone names he gave me and wiggled my toes and pointed to them along the way. "Good job Bella," Edward encouraged. "Alright lean back here for me," I followed his direction. Edward reached both his hands up to my head and worked his fingers into my hair, "Cranium, and mandible," he dragged his fingers across my jaw line. Then his hands went around to the back of my neck and he lightly touched the base of my skull where my scar from that fateful day in Port Angeles was, "the atlas bone allows you to rotate your head, and you already know the vertebrae," he ran his hand down my neck.
I moved my hands behind my head, as I continued to listen. Edward was an excellent teacher and it was nice to be so comfortable around him I was able to learn. And I admit- I enjoyed him touching me. His hands moved again and dragged across my collarbone, "Not a collarbone love, clavicle," he corrected my thoughts.
"Clavicle, got it," I agreed.
He took his hand and lightly rested it between my clavicle bones, "manubrium." Edward paused and seemed to be contemplating something, then his fingers moved down between my breasts and I gasped at the sensation, "sternum," he said simply and then he took both hands and ticked my mid section. "Ribs are ticklish" he taunted as I squirmed and laughed. "And the pelvic bone," his hands wrapped around my lower waist with his thumbs pressing lightly on my hip bones through my jeans.
Ohh darn, we ran out of bones, I thought playfully to myself. Edward's hands lingered around my waist as I sat up and reached my arms around his neck pulling him into a kiss. He submitted to my pull bent over me as we continued to meld our lips together.
I don't know how long we kissed, but it was a while, and with all the adrenaline in my system, the memories of it are a bit fuzzy. It was definitely the best kiss I had ever had. The good news is once we were done I walked back over to the desk and successfully labeled all the bones on the blank chart. Edward was an excellent teacher.