Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
"Are we there yet?" Bella yawned and stretched in the passenger seat of Emmett's jeep. She turned and opened her groggy eyes to gaze at the beautiful sight of Rosalie behind the steering wheel. Bella did not understand her girlfriend's obsession with automobiles, but she could definitely appreciate watching her tinker with a car. Why, she didn't know, but Bella could watch the blonde (and get extremely aroused doing so) working on a car for hours. And she had, in fact, done just that prior to this road trip, when Rosalie made sure the jeep could handle the terrain and the weather.
"Almost," Rosalie laughed. She reached over the console to take Bella's hand. "How can you be impatient when you've slept practically the entire way here?"
"Blame Alice," Bella yawned again as she fingered the cloth of the extremely warm (and extremely expensive) arctic-weather jacket she was wearing. While not exactly fashionable, Alice had, true to form, dragged Bella through the only northern outfitters store in Seattle in order to outfit her for the harsh environment of Northern Canada...no matter how many times Bella insisted the cold wouldn't bother her. She even demonstrated, in front of the whole family, her ability to survive comfortably inside of an industrial freezer for hours at a time. Bella's gift had its uses, that was for sure. But to no avail, Alice had bought Bella a wardrobe she'd never wear.
She felt a buzzing through her thick jacket and took a moment before she realized that it was her phone. It was a text from Alice.
'We only shopped for 6 hours! That's NOT why you're so sleepy.'
Bella chuckled and responded (:P) before gingerly running her thumb over the phone's keys again, replaying the strange conversation she had with Charlie when he gave it to her.
Knock, knock.
Bella was startled out of her slumber way too early for her liking. Ordinarily she rose with the sun (when it was even visible through Forks' ever present clouds) but it had taken a long time to fall asleep the night before. Rosalie had been with her.
There was no one but Bella inside the shed now however, and whoever was outside her door was starting to irritate her with their incessant knocking.
"It's way too early, Jasp-uh..." Bella shut her mouth when, after opening the door and ready to yell at Jasper for coming so early, she found herself instead face to face with her father.
Bella instinctively took a step back in alarm, and if her thoughts weren't distracting her so she might have noticed that Charlie had done the same thing.
Silence. Bella kept her gaze firmly on his face waiting for a hint of malevolence. Charlie didn't look like he was planning to move, much less speak.
"Hello," Bella said cautiously. The last time she saw him was in town outside the ruins of Newton's burning structure. He had pulled a gun on her in front of Alice and Rosalie, forcing her to use her gifts before he or her vampire friends did anything they'd regret. Since she'd come back the closest she'd come to seeing him was spotting his cruiser from time to time and seeing lights on in the house. Her bike and shed lights were the only things alerting him of her continued existence too, she suspected.
Charlie didn't respond. He swallowed hard and nodded briefly. Finally, after scrutinizing the ground he managed to look up into his daughter's eyes...before quickly looking down again.
"I, uh, came to give you this," he said.
He didn't budge, and Bella raised a confused eyebrow as she waited for him to continue.
"Oh, yeah. Here you go..." he mumbled as he handed her a shopping bag with a single, open box inside.
Bella really couldn't help herself-she half-wondered if Charlie was handing her a bomb or something of the sort. But her curiosity overpowered her sense of self-preservation and, cautiously she chanced a look inside.
"Er, thank you..." she said, truly taken aback that Charlie was giving her a cell phone.
"Right," he said awkwardly before abruptly turning around and heading for his cruiser.
"Oh-uh, enjoy that trip," he turned and yelled. "Bye."
"Bye..." Bella waved for a few seconds as she stared after him, wondering what in hell just happened.
A few minutes later, when she remembered she was still standing in front of her open door, Bella turned on her first cell phone. It was a plain flip phone, nothing like the fancy mini computers her friends had. She went to the contacts page so she could add each of the Cullens' numbers but to her utmost surprise, there was already an entry.
Charlie had added his own number.
A large bump on the road knocked her out of her memory.
"Where exactly is this place anyway?" She asked.
"According to Tanya's coordinates, another mile or so." Rosalie gave her a sheepish smile. "Don't expect the Ritz. She had it put up in just a few days."
"Days?" Bella exclaimed incredulously. "Did she have descendants of the Roman Army to help her?" She mumbled.
Rosalie laughed. "Nope. She's only 1000 years old. The Knights Templar could've helped though. I hear she had a small role to play in that twisted history."
Bella just shook her head, amazed at the company she now kept. "How is...how is Edward dealing with all this?"
She groaned inwardly at Rosalie's growl. "I don't give a rat's ass how he's dealing with this."
Another person would've taken the hint and backed off to avoid trouble, but Bella had strong opinions about this particular conflict of interest and not even the flash in Rosalie's eyes could silence her.
"He's your brother, Rose. He's Carlisle and Esme's son. He's-holy shit, stop the car!"
Rose slammed hard on the breaks, turning in alarm only to find Bella jumping out of the car and slamming her door shut.
"Bella! What is it?"
Bella stood still on the permafrost, outside of the car's glaring headlights. She was staring at the sky in absolute wonder.
Rosalie followed her gaze, then shook her head and smiled. Of course. Her lover had never seen the northern lights. She took in Bella's awed expression and forced herself to look up and see the aurora borealis through new eyes, smiling widely as she did.
Bella felt Rosalie's arms snake around her from behind. And though she thoroughly enjoyed the soft kisses to her hair, Bella couldn't be distracted from what she really wanted to do right now.
A resigned sigh behind her told her Rosalie had caught her drift. "Just let me lock up the car," the blonde said.
A minute later they stood together once more, Bella beside herself with anticipation, before taking off.
She should've been used to it by now. Bella loved to fly and Rosalie knew she shouldn't panic so much when the girl got the chance to, ah, spread her wings so to speak. But Rosalie did panic, and it was all she could do to keep it off of her face for Bella's sake. Bella was so...human. She truly feared that her gifts made Bella far too nonchalant about her mortality. Bella went about her days without a second thought to her own life. The time she had foolishly stuck her neck out to save her the night they met...her attitude about living next door to a man who had tried to kill her twice...and now she was zooming across the sky, extremely fast, and with nary a thought for the very solid ground hundreds of feet below. So yes, Rosalie was panicking a bit.
"Lighten up, Rose!" Bella yelled as she spun them both into a spiral heading straight up. After what seemed like an eternity they finally met high in the sky, much too high for Rosalie's liking.
"Please stay close to me," Rosalie whispered and grabbed her as tightly as she would allow herself around the waist. She had no intention of letting go until they were both firmly on the ground.
"Ok," Bella whispered back and, still feeling the rush of the impromptu flight, wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck and pulled her in for a long, deep kiss.
Within seconds Rosalie forgot all about the altitude...she practically forgot her own name.
Kissing Rosalie had become Bella's favorite activity of late. Her heart never failed to pound wildly in her chest when Rosalie's lips found their way to hers, and tonight was no exception.
"Wouldn't you rather..." Rosalie murmured in between kisses, "do this somewhere else?" She sighed contentedly as Bella pressed herself even closer inside her arms. "Like inside? In a bed?"
Bella giggled into the kiss. "Is the vampire too scared of heights-hey!"
Rosalie wiggled her finger, the one she had just used to poke her in the belly, in front of Bella's face. "No, but the human should be."
"I do wish you'd have a little more faith in this one," Bella sighed. "It's harmless...easy as blinking for me."
"I know," Rosalie responded, and stroked the younger girl's cheek as she spoke. "I'm trying. It's just...I picture you falling sometimes...and it's the scariest feeling I've ever..."
Bella interrupted her with a gentle kiss. "Shall we descend then?"
"Not if you want to keep flying," Rosalie stated reluctantly but with a small smile. "Just keep me close."
Bella looked at her a for a few moments, aware of the betraying blush appearing on her cheeks.
"Ok I really want to know what you're thinking right now," Rosalie smiled.
"Uh, just that...well, that I'd rather kiss you some more than fly," Bella said quickly, looking down.
If Bella would only look up the sight she'd be greeted with would have melted her heart. Rosalie was looking at her with such a burning determination that it was a wonder Bella didn't feel the heat. Bella was also oblivious to the battle raging within Rosalie at this moment. The blonde's restraint around the delectable human had improved dramatically with all the time the two spent together over the summer. But the desire to feel Bella's body in the closest way possible was sending Rosalie close to the edge once again. Rosalie's imagination was running wild...and so was her lust for Bella's blood.
She focused her gaze onto the girl's hair and away from the curve of her neck. A few moments later she felt safe enough to breathe and savored Bella's scent as she did.
"Look at me," she said. Bella did so, noting in the back of her mind Rosalie's urgent tone...the one she used when she was about to say something of significance.
"You'll always be able to kiss me," Rosalie whispered. "You'll always have me."
It wasn't spoken, but Bella knew that the "forever" was silently implied. Rosalie had never uttered the word out loud in her presence, but the hints Emmett and Alice had given her over the weeks helped her understand how difficult that word was for her girlfriend. Nevertheless, whenever Rosalie spoke to her like this...whenever she looked at her like this, Bella understood perfectly well what Rosalie wanted but could not bring herself to say.
Not one to decline such an enticing invitation, Bella responded to Rosalie's declaration with the wildest, most passionate kiss her body could produce. Completely in control of the wind that kept them afloat, Bella brought their bodies as close together as was physically possible. Her hands...her hands always seemed to have a mind of their own whenever they got this frisky...they were grabbing at Rosalie's shirt with a fervor that might have torn it if Bella was a little physically stronger.
"Mmmm," Rosalie shuddered-Bella's hands were squeezing her ass and running up and down her thighs which were pressed tight around the younger girl's waist.
"Where the hell is this cabin?" Bella grunted impatiently before nipping at Rosalie's lower lip.
Her chuckle reverberated through Bella's body-god, she loved it when they were this physically close to each other-as she tore her tongue and lips away from Bella's mouth.
"This way."
Author's note: Put down those pitchforks! There's another chapter...yes another chapter uploaded at the same time. Do you love me again?!
Curious to hear what you're thinking about Charlie...
Oh, and in case you're wondering ... they're going north to be away from people in case Bella goes kaboom.
Please review!