Chapter 19 (Bella POV)

"Hey Bells, what are you doing standing there with the door open?" Charlie said, snapping me back to reality. Shit. I hated lying, I sucked at it. I closed the door and took a deep breath before turning to face him.

"I was just checking to see if it really stopped raining." I told him, my cheeks burning. He headed into the kitchen.

"Oh, okay. Well, it's been a slow day at the station, I thought I'd swing by for lunch and heat up some of those leftovers from last night. I'll be heading back soon." He said, pulling a large disposable foil pan out of the fridge. I relaxed my shoulders, and stretched my neck. I hadn't realized I was so tense. I was glad Charlie wouldn't be here for long. I needed some time alone to process the morning but I didn't want him to be suspicious, so I decided to join him for lunch. I followed him into the kitchen.

"Hey dad, just set that stuff there, I'll heat it up. It'll be better in the oven. Microwaved fish is just…" I shuddered and gave him a look of disgust. He chuckled. "It'll only take like 10-15 minutes."

"Thanks Bells, I'll just go turn on the tube for a few until you're done then." he said, heading into the living room. I looked at the clock. It was only 11:30am, a little early for lunch, but I think my nerves had burned off my breakfast because I was starving. Jasper had really only been here for a couple of hours, it felt like so much longer. So much got said, it felt like there was no turning back now and I didn't want to. Despite all the danger, I just wanted more of him. I closed my eyes and thought about his lips against my skin. Even though he was freezing, it left my skin burning. I couldn't even imagine what it would be like to actually kiss him. I was startled out of my thoughts when Charlie yelled from the living room.

"Hey Bella, why is it all wet in here? There's a big damp spot on the couch and a puddle on the floor."

"Um, I spilled a glass of water earlier, but the phone rang and I must've forgot to clean it up, sorry. You know, muscle relaxers." I told him, feeling my face turn bright red as he entered the kitchen. I hadn't even taken the pills today.

"Who called?" He raised an eyebrow. It felt like my heart was going to escape my chest.

"Telemarketer." I said, trying to sound as casual as possible. I don't think it worked.

"On a Saturday?" He narrowed his eyes.

"Yes Chief Swan" I said with a bit of an edge. He raised his eye brows. "Look, I'm sorry, but really, it was just an accident." I felt insanely guilty for lying to my dad. He had a strange look on his face for a moment, but then he dropped it.

"Okay, sorry Bells, That food almost done?"

"Yeah, just a few more minutes." I was relieved when he went back in the living room. If I was going to be seeing a vampire, I was going to have to get a little better at playing it smooth. Was I seeing a vampire? Was he my boyfriend? The title sounded too juvenile to fit Jasper. I went to pull the pan out of the oven and screamed as I dropped it. The food scattered everywhere. I'd been so distracted that I forgot the oven-mitt. Great. I ran over to the sink, turned on the cold water and stuck my hand under it.

"Bella, are you okay, what happened?" Charlie asked, rushing into the kitchen, his eyes going to our lunch that was mostly on the floor now.

"Forgot the oven-mitt. Sorry about lunch." I told him, feeling stupid, this was the second meal I'd ruined this week. He picked a couple pieces of fish up that had landed on the open oven door and plopped them onto a plate that I'd set out.

"Lunch is fine, see." He gestured to the plate and I chuckled, though I could feel tears stinging my face. This had been such a stressful morning, my emotions were all over the place. "Let me look at your hand." I held it out to him. It was red, swollen and I was going to have a hell of a blister. He seemed to relax a bit after his examination.

"Well, I guess I already drug you to the ER against your will once this week, I'll give you a pass this time. I'm sure it'll be fine, we'll just keep an eye on it. There's some burn cream and gauze up in the medicine cabinet. I'll clean this up, just go relax." He said with a sigh.

I went upstairs to apply the cream and realized it wasn't going to be a simple task with my arm in the sling. I took the sling off and set it on the sink. I moved my shoulder around a bit and found that it was still a little sore but it felt a lot better. It felt good to stretch my arm out. I decided to test the waters and leave it off, hoping Charlie wouldn't push it. I slathered the burn cream on generously, happy to have the use of my arm back, the sling had been so annoying. My stomach growled as I wrapped the gauze around my hand and I sighed. I found some medical tape behind everything else in the cabinet and sealed off the bandage so it wouldn't come unraveled.

When I went back down stairs, I saw that Charlie had used the surviving pieces of fish to make us some sandwiches. I tried to swallow the knot in my throat, he really was a good dad. All the fish had been cleaned up off the floor and he was sitting at the table eating. The bread was toasted and he'd even added some pickles and mayo.

"Wow, this looks great, thank you." I told him, giving him an apologetic grin.

"You're welcome Bells, it's no big deal. I didn't survive this long as a bachelor without being able to slap some meat on bread." He said with a chuckle. I only made it a few bites into the sandwich before Charlie noticed my sling was gone. "Your shoulder feeling better?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, I mean it's not 100%, but I couldn't stand the stupid sling anymore. I think I just need to move it around and work out the soreness."

"Well, if it starts hurtin' again you put it back on, okay?" He said, shoving the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth. He got up and took his plate to the sink.

"Got it."

"Alright, I'm gonna head back in for a few hours. See you tonight. I'll grab some takeout, don't need you burnin' yourself again."

"Bye dad, be safe."

"Always am." He said before shutting the door on his way out.

I set my dish in the sink and went up to my room. I couldn't help but be pulled to the window that over looked the backyard. The woods seemed almost magical to me now. It seemed like Jasper could appear from them and disappear into them whenever he wanted. Though, I felt a shiver down my spine when I thought of what else could be hiding out there. Who else. I trusted Jasper, and he trusted Edward. So why did my gut tell me that Jasper was safe, but Edward was not?

Jasper had acted like my dreams were important. I'd never really thought about them before. I've always dreamed vividly, but never felt like they were trying to warn or enlighten me. I dug through my book bag for a moment and pulled out a brand new notebook that I hadn't ended up needing for school. I decided to write down my last two dreams in as much detail as I could remember, leaving out the word vampire and using only initials instead of names. I decided that I was going to start keeping a dream journal. If my dreams really were intuitive, maybe I'd be able to see a better pattern once I started keeping track of them. I stuffed the journal under my pillow and looked around my room. It was a bit messy since I'd been neglecting it due to my injury. It was hard to do things with one arm so a lot of clothes had just ended up on the floor and I hadn't bothered to make my bed in a few days. I wondered for a moment what it would be like to have Jasper in my room, I felt my cheeks grow red at the thought and the butterflies in my stomach took flight. I immediately stripped off my bedding and threw it in the washer, then I went and picked up the rest of my room.

While I cleaned, my mind went to Jasper's scars. I wanted to know what had hurt him. How had he survived something like that? I'd felt heartbroken for him when I could see how he felt about them, he'd looked at them with disgust. I thought they made him even more beautiful, they were apart of him, and there wasn't a thing about him that I didn't find beautiful. Even the fact that he was a vampire, I didn't care. He worked extremely hard every day to fight the urge to do what comes naturally, all because he wanted to be good. I'd never felt afraid of him. The only thing I was afraid of was losing him, it felt like he could just disappear at any moment.

When the laundry was done I made my bed and spared one last longing glance over to the window. The alarm clock on my nightstand said it was 4:15pm. Charlie would be leaving the station within the next half hour or so, then he'd have to stop and get dinner. I had probably an hour before he would be home and I was feeling extremely exhausted. I yawned and headed downstairs, I didn't want to mess up my bed after I'd just made it. I laid on the couch, turned on the TV and fell asleep until Charlie came home with dinner. Thankfully, I didn't dream anything that I could remember. The catnap was the perfect refresher.

"Hey Bells, I just grabbed some burgers from the diner to go, that sound good?" He asked, coming to sit the styrofoam containers on the coffee table. I yawned and stretched my limbs. I felt a small ache in my shoulder, but it still felt good to stretch it. I could tell it was healing.

"Yeah that's great, thanks dad." He gave me a nod and went to take off his coat and put up his gun.

"There's a Seattle Kraken game on, we can just eat in here if you want." He went up to change and I flipped through the channels until I found the hockey game. Charlie and I didn't talk while we ate, the burgers were too good. I cleaned up the empty food containers and grinned while he yelled at the TV. I decided to stay downstairs and hang out with Charlie for a while, I needed to keep myself busy until tonight. Surprisingly I had a good time, though I still thought hockey was pretty boring. Charlie had a couple of beers and we kept the conversation light. At around 10:00pm he yawned and I could tell he was struggling to keep his eyes open. I took the beer bottles in the kitchen and threw them away and when I got back in the living room, Charlie was getting up to head to bed.

"Thanks for watching the game with me kiddo, but I'm beat. Think I'm gonna head up, night Bells."

"Night dad." I went up to my room once Charlie was out of the bathroom and in bed for the night. I glanced around and double checked that everything was in place, and tried to find something cute but comfortable to wear to bed. The best I could do was a t-shirt and a pair of sweats that didn't have any holes in them. I brushed my hair and spritzed on an old bottle of perfume I've had since I was like twelve. My mom had got it for my birthday and I never really used it, but the bottle was pretty and I saved it for special occasions. By the time I was done fidgeting with everything, it was almost 11:00pm. Jasper usually showed up around 11:30pm. I took a deep breath and walked over to my window to open it, hoping that he would understand and accept my invitation.