Well, I guess I'm just churning these out, but I am anxious to get to my favorite part of the story- and what I'm sure will be the most exciting part for all you reading out there, so that's helping me breeze through these chapters.

Enjoy!

Edward:

I was in the shower much longer than I needed to be. The hot water felt relaxing, though, and it gave me time to settle. Bella's questions about being in love shouldn't have riled me up so much, but they did. Somehow, talking about love with her had started blowing up a tiny little balloon of hope inside me, only to have it violently popped at the end.

But none of that should have been happening anyway. I knew a newborn couldn't be expected to feel anything complicated. Newborns couldn't process emotions and thoughts and feelings into anything much past thirst, fear, and safety. I should be happy at all that Bella felt safe enough around me to think of me as a friend instead of just an ally.

But no matter how reasonable I tried to force myself to be, I kept slipping up! I didn't know how Carlisle managed to keep his love under control all that time with Esme, but then again, he hadn't loved her as early as I was currently loving Bella.

Emmett woke up almost immediately in love with Rose, but even he admitted later that the first few months were just lust and instinct. He didn't really love her until later. I didn't think that would be something I would even want from Bella, if we were in the same situation. As much as the idea of Bella being attracted to me was pleasant, I wanted her to love me, not lust after me.

But then again, Bella was more present and self-possessed than any newborn I had ever known. Though I couldn't read her mind, I would confidently say it was more level than anyone in the family's, except maybe Carlisle.

I finally decided that I'd showered plenty long enough and turned off the water. The bathroom was warm and full of steam, and as I tousled my towel through my hair to dry it, I didn't look forward to leaving it for the cold hallway. Though I wasn't physically bothered by the temperature difference, there was something almost spiritually soothing about warmth.

With my towel secured around my waist, I braced myself for the clod dark hallway.

What I found was not what I had braced myself for.

Bella was standing at the end of the hallway, leaning against the wall just outside my bedroom door. She glanced up at me when I stepped out of the bathroom, and for a tiny, fraction of a second, her eyes went wide before she quickly turned her gaze back down to the floor. I walked to my door, forcing back the smile that was trying to appear on my face.

"Bella?" I asked. She was still staring hard at her feet. "Can I help you with something?" It took all the self-control I had to keep the teasing out of my voice.

She looked up at me, like she was going to say something, but it got caught in her throat. He eyes darted from my face down to my chest, off to the side, back to my face, and then up to the ceiling.

Maybe having Bella lust after me wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.

Still looking at the ceiling, she responded, "Sorry, I was just going to– but you should go get dressed." Her eyes glanced back to my face, for a second, then shot back to focusing on the ceiling.

"I'll be right out," I said, brushing past her into my room to get changed. Despite the fact that I could have put on some clothes in less than a second, I took a little time to grin like an idiot to myself and regain my composure. I briefly played with the idea of inviting her in without a shirt on still, but I knew that would be a ridiculous and petty thing to do, so I managed to put one on before reopening my door.

"So, what's going on?" I asked her, still wanting to know what she was doing waiting outside my room. The urge to teasingly imply that she had been waiting there to see me in only a towel was hard to suppress, but she had looked so surprised and flustered I knew that couldn't be the real reason, and I didn't want to make her uncomfortable.

Bella still looked a little frazzled, but she answered, "I was hoping you'd let me go through your music collection, but I obviously didn't think through the plan of waiting out here for you."

I laughed. "Of course you can, and don't worry about it." I smiled, hoping to get across that she was welcome here.

She smiled back, and I thought she'd understood. I walked back into my room, and Bella followed. I sat on the sofa in the middle of the room, and she went to the music shelves.

"I don't know where to start," she admitted after a few seconds.

I joined her, and picked up a newer CD. It was what Emmett referred to as 'emo music,' but Emmett pretty much referred to anything that wasn't classic rock as emo music, so his opinion meant little to me.

As I put the CD into the player, Bella picks up the case and laughed indulgently.

"What?" I asked, confused by her reaction.

"It's just a funny coincidence," she admitted. "Phil got me the same CD as a going away present. I never got a chance to listen to it, but I guess now I will," she finished with a smile.

For the rest of the night, Bella and I sat in my room listening to music. She picked most of the CDs, but every now and then, I would cut in and put on one I thought she would like. We talked some, mostly about music, sometimes about memories associated with certain songs or bands, but mostly, we sat in companionable silence. When changing CDs, Bella would settle down somewhere else. Sometimes she'd sit with me on the sofa, sometimes she'd stand and continue to look at the music shelves, sometimes she'd sit on the floor, sometimes she'd wander around the room and look at the things I had lying around, constantly asking permission to touch anything, no matter how many times I told her she had free reign.

It was a calming night, and though my favorite times were when she sat next to me, leaning her head on my shoulder or letting me drape my arm around her, it was also nice just having her around, gravitating like a satellite. I just liked having her in my space.

Before I knew it, it was morning again. Saturday already, and I felt like our weekend had barely started. Time had just flown by. As I watched Bella pick through some of the books I had lying around, I realized there was something off about her. She didn't seem tense, but almost antsy. It reminded me of yesterday, when we lay in the sun and she was twitching her toes. Now she was absent-mindedly running her thumbs along her other fingers. Thinking back, she had been doing all sorts of little nervous ticks all night and most of yesterday, but he had disregarded them as normal human things. Except we weren't humans, and vampires didn't need to fidget.

"Bella?" I asked, and her head snapped to me a little too quickly. "Are you okay?" I stood and walked over to her. She seemed a little confused by the question, until I stilled her hands with my own.

"Oh, I guess I just feel a little restless," she shrugged. "Is that not normal?"

It wasn't, but I didn't want to worry her. Instead, I tried to think that it could be. She'd never been nervous around me before, so I discounted myself as the cause. Maybe she's nervous because she realized her feelings for you, the traitor part of my brain suggested. But before I could even reprimand myself for thinking it, I realized something else: I had completely failed at the only job I'd had all weekend.

"Oh God, Bella, I'm so sorry," I said, realizing how stupid I'd been.

"What? Why?" she asked. "You haven't done anything."

"Exactly!" I said. "I was supposed to be taking care of you, and we haven't been hunting all weekend. When was the last time you went out? Wednesday morning with Esme?"

"Oh," Bella said, the realization dawning on her. "Yeah. Wow, I didn't really realize it, but now that I'm thinking about it, I'm really thirsty."

"I know," I said, ashamed. I couldn't believe I had let that slip by me. I couldn't believe that I had been so caught up in my stupid little romance daydreams that I had neglected the single most important thing in keeping a newborn sane and calm.

Now that I think about it… "How are you this sane right now?" I asked. It occurred to me only after that maybe it wasn't very polite of a question.

Bella's brow furrowed. "Maybe the music?" she guessed. "I realize now I was feeling a little crazy Friday morning, I don't know if you remember."

I thought back, but I didn't remember her acting strange, except maybe a little uncomfortable at how invasive I was being. But I would have put the blame for that on me, not her.

Regardless, "Okay, let's go get you something to eat."

Seriously, Edward, you had ONE JOB!

Thankfully, nothing too emotional has been going on for the lack of blood to have too big of an effect, but being antsy and nervous and having mood swings are pretty indicative of waiting too long between hunts for a newborn, and spoiler that's going to come in later in a really fun way! haha