A flash of light illuminates a deserted warehouse and from the light emerges Buffy; still in a fighting stance. A stance that she drops once she realizes she's alone.

"Angel?" She calls out then the realization sets in. "Oh God," she whispers.

If i'm here, then that means Angel is fighting Spike alone. I have to call the others! She thinks and pulls out her cell phone to try and call Willow. However, just as she starts to dial her number, Buffy's hand stays. If she tells the Scoobs to be on the look out for Spike, there's a good chance they might find out about Angel. Then again, if the fight between them goes sideways, Angel might try to warn her friends anyway.

Oh for crap's sake, Buffy thinks and just prays that whatever is going on in the real world, she'll be able to do damage control when she gets back. Buffy starts to put her phone away, but notices she has a few messages from Xander.

These messages weren't there earlier…wait, Buffy thinks and then looks out the window to see it's no longer daytime like it was when she was teleported out of the hex, but nighttime. Buffy quickly listens to Xander's messages about how Bella hasn't seen her and how he's wondering where she's been all day. Buffy sighs to herself as this new wrinkle in the Hex has reared its head. Now it's dropping her and Xander off at different time intervals? What could possibly happen next?

Don't tempt fate, Buffy, she thinks then plays the message Bella has also left her. Deciding that there's nothing she can do about Spike and Angel, Buffy hides her ax in a section of the warehouse and then goes to meet up with Bella at the bookstore. Continuing to hope for Angel's safety as she does so.

"Edward, what was that?" Bella asks both frightened and seriously intrigued once they get on the road and are away from Spike.

"Look, what you thought you saw," Edward begins.

"I know what I saw."

"It's complicated, Bella. Just…talk to me about something else. Anything, before I go back and rip that thing's head off."

"Uh, are you injured?" She decides to ask.

"What?" Edward asks back; almost as he's never been asked if he's been hurt before.

"I saw how far that man threw you. You gotta give me some answers."

"Bella's, it's…"

"Please don't tell me it's complicated again," she says. Edward momentarily locks eyes with Bella and the sincere look in her eyes manages to pierce through the wall he's built up over the years. Not only that, but the burning rage he felt when he saw Bella in danger subsides as well.

"Alright," he says.

"Ok, just how did you know where I was? Have you been following me?"

"More like watching you," he says.

"So basically yes. Why?"

"Because of Buffy. There's something about her that I don't like."

"Not to be rude, but doesn't that describe how you feel regarding everyone?"

Despite not intending for that to be a joke, it actually generates a genuine laugh from Edward. Bella gives a small one back in response. It's the first time she and Edward have ever shared anything close to normal since meeting one another.

"Let's just say I have a certain intuition about people. They're easy to read if you know how."

"Like mind reading," Bella guesses.

She notices the look of hesitancy on Edward's face when she asks this. She had her suspicions about Edward since the day he saved her from getting hit by Tyler's van and they've only just increased in the past few minutes. Edward sighs after a moment of contemplation and glances at Bella.

"Ok, Bella. You see."

"Look out!" Bella shouts. Edward slams on his car's breaks and skids to a stop at a red light he was about to blow through. Bella can feel her heart racing a mile a minute and has a death grip on her seat as she looks through the windshield at the person in the middle of the crosswalk who Edward almost hit.

"Oh my God. Buffy," she realizes. Buffy stands like a deer caught in the headlights in front of Edward's car then sees Bella is right beside him. "Let me go to her," Bella requests. Edward only stares forward intensely at Buffy. "Edward," she calls to him again and this time he looks at her. "Please." A few more seconds pass before he begrudgingly nods and unlocks Bella's door.

"Don't tell her about anything you've just seen," he requests of her and this time Bella is the one that looks uneasy. "Please. Do it for me."

"Alright," she agrees; the sincerity in his voice having gotten to her. She starts to leave, but stops and looks back at Edward. "Thanks for saving me. Again."

"Again?"

"Don't pretend you don't know," she says referring to the incident with Tyler's van. When Edward doesn't reply, Bella leaves his vehicle and runs over to Buffy.

"Bella, hi-woah!" Buffy says in surprise as Bella hugs her. "If that's because I went MIA for a few hours, I'm really sorry about that."

"It's alright," Bella says and lets go. "I've just had a really messed up past few minutes."

"What happened?" Buffy asks, noticing Edward hasn't pulled away even as the cars behind him start honking their horns. She's certain he's watching her and keeps her thoughts vague.

"I just…some guy tried to mug me, but Edward managed to scare him off. He was just giving me a lift back to where I parked my truck," she partially lies. Upon her saying this, Edward's car tires screech and he speeds away from the two of them.

"Or at least he was," Buffy acknowledges.

"It's ok, I wanted to talk with you actually. I was wondering if I could ask you something."

"Sure. What's up?"

"Forgive me if I'm making assumptions, but you can fight, right?"

"Yes. Why?"

"I wanted to know if you could teach me to defend myself. Just in case anyone else tries mugging me."

Buffy gives Bella a warm smile. "Of course. I'd be happy to do that for you. If you're free tomorrow after school, we can start then."

"Thanks, Buffy. By the way, just where had you been for the past few hours?"

"I was, uh, in the woods and I lost my signal while I was there," she quickly fibs. "Guess I really lost track of time."

"Seriously. Even after that business with the wolf?"

"Let's just say I have a habit of looking for trouble."

Edward speeds into his home's driveway and rubs his head trying to process everything he just witnessed. He had scanned Spike's thoughts during their fight and none of them made sense. He thought he was a vampire, but he didn't smell anything like one. But the strength he possessed and the way his face changed definitely indicated he wasn't human. Then there was Buffy. It was faint, but he detected traces of her scent around that thing. If they were the same creature, then what if she went after Bella. No. He wouldn't let that happen, but he also knew Bella wouldn't forgive him if he attacked Buffy without provocation. He needed more information and would find out what she's hiding, one way or another.

"The prodigal son returns. Again," Emmett says upon Edward entering the living room.

"Where's Alice?" Edward asks.

"Her room. Why?" Emmett asks. Edward ignores him and heads for the stairs.

"Hey!" Rosalie shouts and runs in front of Edward. "I don't care if you're going gaga for someone for the first time in who knows how long. That doesn't give you the right to be rude."

"This isn't about Bella."

"Then who?" Rosalie asks. Edward instead calmly moves her aside and continues on his way.

"Alice," Edward says entering her room.

"Heard Rosalie shouting. What did you do?" Alice asks him.

"Not important. I need to know if you've had any visions lately."

"No. What's this about?"

"There's this girl that's been hanging around Bella. Her name is Buffy. When I first saw her, her thoughts seemed to indicate that she knew I was a vampire. Since then, her thoughts have sounded like she's deliberately trying to not think of anything I might find suspicious. I had Emmett tail her, but she somehow vanished into thin air and when she did Emmett completely lost trace of her scent."

"That shouldn't be possible."

"I know, but I can back him up on this. I hadn't noticed myself at first, but I lost track of her scent too. At best I could smell traces of her around town, but when I saw her again a few minutes ago it was like I was truly smelling her for the first time. But the thing that really has me concerned is that I just fought some type of creature that attacked Bella. I don't know what he was, but I could detect traces of Buffy's scent all around him. Not just that, but there was something weirdly foreign about his smell that matched Buffy's. I need to figure out if she's dangerous so I can get her away from Bella."

Once he finishes explaining himself, Alice can tell that Edward looks like he's moments away from throwing something and places a hand on his shoulder.

"We'll figure this out, ok. You have my word. But you need to relax. You aren't good to anyone angry."

"…you're right, Alice."

"Of course I am," she laughs.

It takes some effort, but Edward manages to let everything from this night go. When the next day came, Edward kept his distance from Bella at school. He knew she'd have plenty of questions for him that he wasn't ready to answer; not yet at least. Much to his relief, he saw no sign of Buffy with Bella throughout the day. That is until school got out and he saw her pull into the school's parking in Bella's truck to pick her up.

I could read her now. She doesn't know I'm watching. I can finally find out what her real thoughts are, Edward thinks. But as much as he wanted to, he kept himself out of Buffy's head. He remembered what Alice said about him needing to stay calm and if he read anything dangerous towards Bella, he wasn't sure he'd have the self control to not act right then and there.

Unaware of Edward watching her, Buffy waits in the parking lot for Bella to come out of the school. Her thoughts occupied with both Angel's fate along with the hex dropping her and Xander into Forks at different times. Xander was just a clueless as Buffy was when she spoke to him about this earlier that morning. They attempted to call Willow for answers, but neither of their phones worked. They speculated that only Willow could call them and not the other way around. As such, all they could do for now was continue to play their roles in the story.

"Hey Buffy," Bella calls out to her.

"Hi Bella. So, you ready for your first lesson."

"I guess. Where exactly are we going for this?" She asks.

"Hey Bella!" They hear someone else shout out. The two of them turn and Bella smiles at sight of the new arrival.

"Buffy, this is an old childhood friend of mine, Jacob Black."

Or the one that's also a jerk, but still liked by Bella as Xander would say, Buffy thinks and shakes Jacob's hand.

"Nice to see you again, Bella," he greets her and Buffy notices how Bella surprisingly doesn't look awkward to be in his presence.

"You too. Is there something I can do for you?" She asks.

"Actually…ok this is gonna sound weird, but I wanted to talk to your friend."

"Me? Why?" Buffy asks.

"It's my dad. He's a good friend of Bella's father and they talked about how you fought a wolf."

I'm really starting to wish I hadn't told people that, Buffy thinks.

"According to him, the wolves around these parts don't usually attack people."

"Must've been something about me that the wolf didn't like."

"Well, he wanted to know if there was anything specific about the wolf that you remember."

"Not that I'm aware of."

"What are you getting at, Jacob?" Bella asks.

"I'm not getting at anything. I'm just the messenger."

"Consider the message received," Buffy says.

"Considered," Jacob says then looks back at Bella. "Again, it was really good to see you. We should hang out for real one of these days. Maybe make some more of our famous mud pies like when we were kids."

Bella gives Jacob another genuine smile. "Yeah. I'd like that."

"I'm holding you to that," he half jokes then gives Buffy a passing nod before leaving the two girls to their business.

"So, what was that?" Buffy asks her.

"It probably has something to do with Jacob's tribe supposedly being descended from wolves," Bella explains.

"Um…wow. Ok, gonna definitely come back to that, but what I meant was did I pick up some vibes between you two?" Buffy asks.

"What? No. Jacob's just a friendly person is all."

"Mhm."

"Really, there's nothing going on between us."

"Because a certain brooding pretty face has your eye, I'm guessing."

"It's nothing like that. C-can we just go get to my self defense lesson?"

"Sure." They both get into Bella's truck and drive off.

To Be Continued…