AN:/ Bella's in the house.

Chapter 36.

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-=[ Isabella Swan, the past]=-

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Edward's pov

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Contrary to what Edward had told his brother, he wasn't particularly looking forward to having Bella in close proximity again.

If he had felt sucker-punched when he'd first seen her that morning, it was nothing compared to the kick to the gut he got as he caught a brief glimpse of her as she was whisked through the front door and into the kitchen.

He told himself it was nothing though… Just his guilty conscience making itself known. He recognized that he'd been an immature ass to her the night before. Okay, if he was honest with himself, his brother's words still kind of nagged at the back of his mind. Obviously, there was no truth to them. Pfft, like he would care about anyone other than himself. He did not— repeat, did not—do relationships and feelings.

He could feel both Emmett and Rosalie side-eyeing him at the moment, but he made sure to keep his facial expression blank, his cool intact, and his mouth shut. Try as he might, however, he couldn't quite keep his eyes from darting back to the open doorway.

The conversation in the kitchen, from what he could overhear of it without being too conspicuous, seemed to revolve around fluids. His dad was urging Bella to drink some sort of rehydration mixture to replace fluids and minerals lost from being sick. Carlisle could be heard half threatening to take Bella to the ER, if she didn't comply. Bella didn't argue with him, but her hand trembled so badly she could hardly hold the glass without spilling the liquid it all over the floor. And when she finally managed to put the glass to her lips, her sips were so small that she barely swallowed anything at all. So emptying the glass was going to be a slow affair.

In the meanwhile, his mom was fluttering about, getting one of the downstairs guest rooms ready for Bella to use. Usually, whenever Swan stayed over, she would sleep in a room across the hall from Alice's bedroom - not counting the many nights she'd spent in Edward's room, of course. However, his mother argued it made sense to isolate Bella on a separate floor from the rest of the family. She wanted Bella to get a full night of uninterrupted sleep, but she also said it was a preventative measure to keep any potential germs contained to one limited space, should it turn out this wasn't a case of food poisoning, after all.

Edward didn't want to think about germs and germ exposure right now. He wasn't going to touch anything that could get him sick…. He wasn't going to speak to Swan, or go anywhere near her. And forget about eating, there would be no Pizza for him tonight, he decided shoving his hands firmly into the pockets of his jeans.

Once again, Edward's eyes darted towards the kitchen. From what he could tell, Bella definitely looked worse now than she had done last time he'd seen her. Her skin was, if possible even paler and her eyes seemed hazed over like she couldn't quite focus on anything around her.

The only visible improvement he could detect was that she seemed to have showered – the matted, tangled mess of hair he remembered from that morning, had been washed, combed, and braided.

The tremors were new though. She attempted to hide her shaking hands by making sweater paws, but Edward still saw them. In fact, the oversized sweater she wore, only served to make her appear smaller and more fragile than she really was.

WTF, she was no smaller today than she'd been a day or two ago… that was just ridiculous. Again, Edward cursed his brother for putting strange ideas in his head.

There were only two reasonable explanations here and neither were his fault. Bella had either contracted some kid of nasty stomach bug, or some sort of substance abuse had to be involved. And even if it would turn out to be the later, it wasn't his problem. SHE wasn't his problem. All he'd ever done was to smoke some weed with her … Well, that AND having loads of sex with her…

Before his thoughts went any further, Alice elbowed him in the ribs, saying something about how it was rude to stare.

He quickly adverted his eyes, but not before catching his brother's knowing look.

Edward was saved from having to come up with a sharp response though when their mother called on their attention. She insisted she needed their help with something , but it quickly became apparent that she was just making up excuses to get them out of the way for a bit.

Well, he supposed it made sense if Swan didn't want them around to witness this epic meltdown. She certainly didn't like being the center of everybody's attention like this. In fact, he knew she truly hated being fussed over, in any way, shape or form.

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Knowing Swan (and her potentially nasty germs) was just a stone's throw away, made for a long, drawn out dinner. Since Edward wasn't planning on eating anything anyway, he argued he should be excused from the table (he cited headache as his excuse), but 'nope', his parents would have none of that. He wasn't even lying about the headache bit, but they were being unreasonable… or, well… he had a pretty good idea what their reasons were.

Whenever they would insist on his attendance for dinner, it usually meant they had some sort of announcement to make and/or that they were planning on holding a family meeting. This particular evening it was both, it seemed.

And, no, his brother didn't manage to get himself excused from said family meeting either. Emmett, being the Momma's boy that he was, couldn't lie to his mother when she was right in front of him. So when asked if he really did have an Sociology assignment he'd forgotten about, he'd cracked under pressure and admitted that while the assignment was real, it wasn't actually due for another week. Ha, and so back into the basement the overnight bags went. There would be no fleeing the scene for Em and Ro. The original plan of staying one more night was quickly reinstated.

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The dinner that followed had been a hoot, the family meeting afterwards even more so…

Edward was bored as his parents droned on forever.

So far they'd announced his mother's decision to return to work and their intention to resume their plans to adopt the deaf kid.

Bree-her name was Bree, Edward corrected himself.

Honestly, he had nothing against the girl. She seemed like a smart kid, deserving of a good home. He recognized, of course, that his parents were a good fit for her.

He just found it a bit transparent that they would choose now of all times to welcome another child into their home. With one kid already gone for college and the other two just starting their last year of high school, it sort of came across as though they were going through great lengths to postpone having to deal with an 'empty nest'. For two highly educated, civilized individuals, they seemed terribly afraid of having no one, but each other to talk to.

Given the Bree's disability and tender age (she was eight, going on nine, if memory served him correctly) she would undoubtedly keep his parents busy chauffeuring her around for many years to come.

But hey, if this meant their focus would shift a bit, then he was all for it. He didn't need having them dissecting his life more closely than they already were. If a new sister was what it took to get his parents off his back, then so be it.

Edward was only half-listened to his mom and dad, as they went on and on about the importance of boundaries and limits and having house rules.

Going forward with the adoption process meant a social worker would be making a house visit and BAM!- suddenly there was a whole set of new rules to abide too. The biggest change perhaps was that they were no longer allowed to bring guests into the house without asking permission first.

"This goes or you too, Edward," his father made sure to point out, fixing him with a stern look. "No unauthorized late night visits, am I making myself clear?!"

"Hey, why are you singling me out for, when everybody else does it too?" Edward objected because… well, because he could. "Frankly, I'm sick and tired of seeing this certain blonde dude, climbing up the gutter and through a certain window on the second floor. Just saying-…"

Two things happened at once. Alice made a noise resembling a hiss and kicked Edward in the shin so hard he jumped up from his chair. At the same time there was a loud crash heard, it came from the kitchen, along with colorful cursing.

Jasper… he'd been so quiet they'd almost forgotten he was there, waiting for them in the next room.

Having obviously been warned by Alice to be on his best behavior, Jasper had showed up ahead of time for his little chat (read; safe-sex-lecture slash Spanish Inquisition) with Carlisle.

Not only did he come with flowers in hand, he was also uncharacteristically well-dressed and clean-shaven. Heck, he'd even found a comb somewhere and managed to sort out his long, flowing blonde hair, styling it in a neat, off-the-face man bun. Not a flattering look, but whatever.

Anyway, they'd been mid-dinner when he'd arrived and naturally, he'd immediately been offered to grab a plate and some food and join them at the table. Too nervous to eat anything though, the poor guy had declined the invitation, opting to wait in the living room instead.

Of course, Alice being Alice had immediately seen an opportunity to score some easy points by swiftly volunteering Jasper to keep an eye on the door to Bella's room. Bella had gone to bed little over an hour ago and no one expected to see her up and about again at this point, but it didn't hurt to have someone close by in case she would poke her head out and ask for a glass of water, or something.

Perhaps Jasper had grown bored of waiting and ventured into the kitchen to get himself something to drink. Or maybe he'd simply set out to eavesdrop… either way, his interruption was God-sent, allowing Edward to finally slip away from the table and escape to the safety of his own room.

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