Twilight and its characters belong to Stephanie Meyer.

Even with Bella's help, I worked on homework assignments well into the night. When I woke up the next morning, the house was already empty. After a quick breakfast, I scanned the kitchen for the list of chores Esme wrote up each day and spotted it sitting in the desk nook. The list Esme was shorter than it had been in the past other days. Either she had decided to lighten up on me or was running out of things for me to do. Either way, I was grateful.

Remembering Bella's instructions, I fished some of Alice's clothes and a towel out of the clean laundry and went straight outside to meet up with her. The beach behind our house was connected to our backyard via a small, overgrown dirt path, because it was small and rocky and mostly unusable. Where it was bad for swimming, it was perfect for a mermaid to hide amongst the large rocks until her boyfriend could sneak her into the house.

"Bella?"

She popped her head out from the rocks, startling me enough to flinch. She crawled out of her hiding place already on human legs, meaning she had already been here a while, waiting and scheming. Smiling at my reaction, she quickly dashed across the shallow water. Golden scales shimmered where the water splashed up on her legs.

"Hi," she signed.

"You look pretty today."

I handed her the towel, then the clothes. Once she was dressed, she fiddled with both garments—picking at the hem, pulling at the waistband—as if she was unsure how she felt about biker's shorts and a large t-shirt replacing her usual sundresses.

"You look so pretty today," I emphasized, earning a wry smile paired with shining eyes.

Taking her hand, I led us back up to my backyard. "Esme only has me repotting her plants today, so it should be a quick day. You can just chill or borrow a book from one of my siblings, if you want."

"I'll help you," she signed, and placed her hand back in mine.

"I don't want to force you into labor."

"It'll be fine. Besides, with my help it'll get done faster, and we can move onto this," she reached up and yanked my face down to hers for a very thorough kiss. It was the greatest argument anyone had ever used. When she released me, I could feel how dopey my smile looked, but couldn't manage to wipe it away.

"You make a compelling argument, my dear."

Together, we gathered Esme's plants from around the house and brought them out to the yard. It turned out, repotting would be a bigger job than I had originally anticipated—Esme had a ton of plants. When we had them all gathered, along with the spare pots Esme had left out, we realized we had no idea what to do. In a very Bella fashion, she went inside to research. Meanwhile, I accumulated all the bags of soil and trowels from our various sheds and garages and brought them to our makeshift workspace.

When Bella came back outside, she beamed with pride of knowledge in a new topic.

"Is it safe to assume you're now a plant expert?" I asked.

She nodded absolutely. I chuckled.

Sitting down fluidly, Bella pulled one plant to herself and pushed another, slightly smaller one to me. She turned the plant sideways, holding it gently by the stems, and tapped the bottom of the pot until the plant slid out. I tried to copy her actions just as effortlessly, but needed to yank on the plant just a bit and lost a few leaves. When my plant was free, she crawled over and inspected it for me. Using her pinky, she traced around the roots growing in taught circles around the base of the plant. "Yours is root-bound. We'll have to unbind them and give them a trim."

I chuckled to myself. She really was a plant expert now.

As I did what she instructed with a small pair of clippers, Bella scooped out some of the dirt from her planter, casually tossed it in the bushes, and replaced it with fresh dirt from the bag. Digging a little hole in the center, she took my smaller plant and placed it in its new, larger planter. She fiddled with the plant until it was perfectly centered, adding more dirt here and there. When she was satisfied, she wiped her hands together twice and rose them both in the air above her, as If to say ta-da.

"Lovely," I approved.

We worked quickly, then. Well, Bella worked quickly; I lagged behind. Pausing every so often, trying to discern the particular expression she wore. She seemed pleased to be here helping me. Smiling at the plants in their new home, carefully fluffing their leaves, watering the plants—as well as the grass, mulch, and concrete around us—with the hose. We had never discussed what went down on Monday. The closest we got during our brief union was brushing over vague apologies. We spent most of the time we should have been talking making out.

In her mind, I didn't even know what had happened before I found her with James. The only reason I knew was because Rosalie told me. It troubled me more than anything else that Bella didn't readily bring it up. Rumors and mermaids and bullies we could handle. However, Bella's unwillingness to talk to me was something that would be harder to fix. There were already so many things I knew she kept from me. How many secrets and dangers were there?

Hoping to spark a conversation, I worked in a few comments or questions about school. Each time Bella would only offer short answers, either not picking up on the hints or outright ignoring them.

Enough was enough. I pushed the plant she was working to the side to get her undivided attention, "How are you, Bella? Really?"

"I'm okay," she signed far too easily.

"Rosalie told me what happened before I found you on Monday…" I started.

She sucked in a sharp breath through her nose.

"Will you tell me about it?"

"If Rosalie told you. you already know."

"I would like you to tell me."

"Why?"

The question threw me. It took me a second to put words as to why I wanted to hear it from her. "Because I love you and I want to know how you felt."

"Someone finally noticed my aversion to water. It was bound to happen."

When she pulled another plant towards her instead of elaborating, I asked her how she felt about that. She kept working like she hadn't heard me.

I signed heavily at her obstinacy. There was no other choice—I had to pull out the big guns.

Shifting over so I was sitting next to her rather than across, I tenderly stroked her jaw with my knuckles. She leaned her face into my touch for just a moment before she realized what I was doing and straightened up. But that small movement was all I needed to know that she would break easily. I slid closer kissed her exposed shoulder. Then, moved up to her neck. Finally, the soft spot right under her ear. "Bella, please," I asked in the soft voice I knew made her melt.

After taking a single, shaky breath, she turned her dark gaze to meet mine. Her chocolate eyes smoldered.

I expected her to cave right then.

But suddenly, I was the one who was dizzy. Hot, wanting, pulsating desire swept through me. She yanked my lips to hers. Tongues tangled. Sweeping and teasing. Her hand slid under my shirt, fingers dancing over my chest. Forcefully, she pushed me down onto the ground. I flinched at the wet, tickling strands of grass on my exposed skin, as I had forgotten we were outside. If I were being perfectly honest, I had forgotten everything except that thing she was just doing with her tongue.

Bella straddled me, squeezing my hips hard between her deceptively lithe thighs. Her hands were back under my shirt, exploring the coiled muscles of my stomach. Deciding to help her out, I pulled and removed the shirt entirely in one, fluid motion. That appeared to be exactly what she wanted—her eyes darkened with desire. Completely out of character of my typically shy, silly girl, she licked the muscles she had previously stroked before returning her lips to mine.

It was only when my breathing became choppy that she began to slow down. She softened her kisses, until they were merely the lightest brushes of her lips against mine. She climbed off me, running her fingers through my hair as she sat up.

"Wow," was all I could say. But she seemed to please her. She smiled hugely at my dazed expression.

Sitting up, I blinked. I looked at the potted houseplants scattered around us in the backyard, struggling to remember their purpose. "What were we doing?"

"We just finished up," Bella signed, then placed both hands on my shoulders to pull me in for another, light kiss.

That was right. Chores for Esme. Bella helped me repot the plants.

"Oh. Perfect!"

I stood, surveying the plants and recalling where each one went in the house. Bella stayed where she was on the ground, brushing mud and bracken off the front of her calves from where they were pushed in the ground. The same ground I had just been laying in, I realized. Reaching back, I felt wet grass and dirt sticking to my skin.

"Ugh," I groaned, causing Bella to whip up in my direction. "Esme would never let me in the house like this."

Bella stood and moved behind me, trying to brush off my back. But I imagined it was going to be as ineffective as when she used the same technique on her still-dirty calves. Not wanting to make a mess in Esme's house—especially since I had been the one to clean it all week—I began mentally mapping out the quickest route to a shower.

Then, the pool caught my eye, sparking an idea that should have come to me sooner. "Be right back," I said to Bella, patting her head once.

I dove into the deepest end of the pool. Once a resurfaced, I kicked my feet up and spread my arms out, floating in the cool water. It was nice to have a swim without having to think about waves, or, seaweed, or man-eating sirens. To my surprise, there was a splash to my left, and Bella popped out from under the water. She copied my position for a moment or two as more and more scales appeared on her legs, until they morphed into her tail.

It seemed that I would be doing a bit more in the pool than simply cleaning off. Not that I minded. Swimming around with a mermaid was a fantasy that would never grow old.

I showed my mermaid all the silly pool toys and how to use them. The catch-and-dive game, the plastic underwater torpedo, the inflatable tubes. For whatever reason, she got a big kick out of seeing me in Esme's pink flamingo pool float when I demonstrated that one.

As we swam, I asked a million times if the chlorine was going to hurt her, and each time she shrugged unknowingly, causing me more agitation than relief. After the fourth time she pretended to choke and struggle to breathe to mock me for my very reasonable concern, I was ready to get out of the pool. She was still laughing at my expense as I scooped her up, plopped her on a lawn chair, and threw a towel over her head.

"Every time!" she signed, still amazed that I had fallen for her prank four times in a row.

"Yeah, yeah."

"I like that you're a big, old worrywart." She bent her tail where her knees would have been so she could fold her arms and rest her chin on her hands. Her smile was one of endearment, not mocking.

I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my hands, "Is that why you give me so much to worry about?"

When I looked back at her, the smile was gone and there was a small crease between her eyebrows. I realized my comment was unwarranted.

"Do I cause you to worry?"

She did. All the damn time. About almost everything. But even with everything going on, it wasn't her fault. Not really. I regretted bringing it up. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that."

She noticed that I didn't actually answer the question and pressed the subject, "Do I?"

"Well, Bella, you have disappeared into the ocean without an explanation twice in as many weeks."

She got up from her lounge chair and crawled up mine until she was on top of me. "You knew I would be okay."

She leaned in to kiss me again, but I stopped her by placing a hand on her cheek to hold her back.

I tenderly stroked her bottom lip with my thumb as I spoke. "No, I didn't. You never tell me anything, Bella. You didn't even tell me how quickly you can heal." I traced the spot where she had once been cut. "And now that I know that, it brings up so many more concerns. How often do you get hurt? How many times have I seen you freshly healed after an accident in the ocean?"

She pursed her lips.

"A lot?" I pressed.

She held up her thumb and forefinger a small distance from each other. A little.

I covered my eyes with my free hand. A little was still too much.

Bella removed my hands from both of our faces. "There's no reason for you to worry. My sisters will only be in this part of the ocean for a little bit, and I rarely encounter sharks or anything like that."

I felt the blatant horror clear as day on my face. "But you encounter them?"

Again, she held up her thumb and forefinger. But they were slightly further apart than they were the first time.

"Oh my god!"

"I've only been bitten a few times."

"Great," I muttered to myself, adding literal sharks to the things I had to worry about. "So now, if I don't see you at school, if someone hasn't discovered you and taken you from me, or if you haven't decided enough was enough and left me to stay in the water, or haven't been assaulted by Douchebag Ponytail or your own sisters, it could be because you were the victim a literal shark attack."

Bella took my face in her hands. She wore the strangest expression—she almost looked guilty. But what she had to look guilty for, I wasn't sure. She stroked my cheekbones with her thumbs.

I squeezed my eyes shut, embarrassed that I released all my fears in a single breath. I wasn't even sure where that all came from. "Still like that I'm a worrywart?"

She lightly kissed my eyelid before she went right back to stroking my cheekbones.

"This is my first experience with any kind of permanence, Bella. I'm kinda freaked by it." I received another kiss on my other eyelid. Then, she pushed it up with her pinky, asking me to look at her.

"I can swim faster than any shark. If one manages to get me, I can punch it in the eyes or the gills. It will release me, and I can swim away."

"And that really works?"

She ran a calming hand through my hair as she nodded.

"You've really punched a shark?"

She confirmed with another nod, and I marveled at the hand still tangled in my hair. "I really wish we could tell that to people." Impress Emmett. Scare off James. Intimidate Lauren. The options were endless.

She untangled her fingers to say, "What happened on Monday was terrible. In the past, the furthest people had gone had been their cruel words, but even then, they usually only talked behind my back. It was the first time they ever did anything to me directly. I had never felt that combination of shame, fear, and hopelessness in my life."

My heart clenched. I had no idea what made her bring this up, but I was glad she did. I had wanted to talk about it with her for days now and we hadn't had the chance, yet. "Oh, Bella…"

"I could hear the people in class laughing and daring one another to go through with it all morning. Then, on our way to fourth period, one of them finally gained the courage. He pretended to stumble in the hall, knocking into me so my bag fell on the floor. He retrieved it, only so he could discreetly touch my shoulder when he held me still to push it back into place. His touch left a big glob of goo on my shoulder blade. Then, the rest followed. Each with a gimmick to touch me discreetly. No one laughed. Or said anything. I felt everyone watching me, waiting for me to react. But, I did nothing."

"Why?" The question slipped out of my lips before I could stop it.

She quirked her head to the side. Strands of wet hair clung to the side of her face. "Why what?"

Like before, it all came spilling out of me. "Why would you do nothing? Why wouldn't you slap their hands away? I know you have the strength to push anyone away. Or punch them like you would punch a shark? Or… or try to wash anything off? I get why you wouldn't let Rosalie help you, but why wouldn't you let her try to find me, Bella?"

Her eyes roamed over my face. "You're upset."

I laughed cruelly at her blunt, obvious statement. Obviously, I was upset. I learned that on top of standing still while James tried to kiss her, Bella sat there at let people put crap all over her, even when she knew it was coming. I had nightmares of the events from Monday, and in every one of them, my Bella had always attempted to fight back. It was devastating to learn the truth.

I quickly composed myself as her pretty face began to drop. "No," I corrected after a moment's thought. "It's just… I am always, constantly amazed at how strong and resilient you are. You're a rock, and I love you for it. But, as much as I love it, it kills me to watch you do nothing. To know that you would let people do or say whatever they want to you."

Her mouth fell open in horror. "I cause you pain?"

I rubbed her back, wishing I could tell her she didn't, but knowing that wouldn't be true. "It's only because of how much I love you, sweetheart."

She shook her head, not understanding.

She read so many books about people falling in love, I didn't understand how she couldn't know this. Or at least, feel the same way for me. "It's just a thing that happens. When I see something that would hurt me happen to you, I hurt for you."

She tucked her perfect, bottom lip between her teeth as it began to tremble.

"It's okay," I tried to soothe.

"I don't want to hurt you."

"Then fight back," I stated simply. "Fight for me," I tacked on, remembering how viciously she fought for me among her sisters' attack. I thought maybe I could trigger the same instinct, here.

She immediately perked up. "Fight back for you?"

"Yeah," I grinned, happy that it seemed to click.

She nodded to herself, as if she was filing away this information for future use. My lovely mermaid was so odd, sometimes. A quick study on everything—from school subjects, to plants, to other relationships—but still struggled to understand the basics of ours.

Was it odd that it only besotted me to her further?

"Alright," I said, placing a light kiss on her temple, "I need to put all these plants away before Esme comes home."

Bella left right after we had the plants back in the house and all our tools away. The house was in order and I was showered and changed just as Esme arrived home. Angela stopped by later in the evening to drop off a couple of assignments since Bella was absent that day. She asked a few non-evasive questions about my week and filled me in on what people were saying about my suspension. Bella remained the victim of the story, with me, her noble hero, coming to her aid, which pleased me immensely. I could have easily seen someone twisting the tale to put Bella or myself in a negative light. It was one less thing to worry about.

The next day, my list of chores stated one thing: unpack boxes in the hall closet on the third floor. I had no idea what was going to be in those boxes, but I was already certain I would have no idea what to do with any of it. I dragged my feet all morning, putting it off. When I eventually opened the closet door upstairs, I smiled to myself. The boxes left in the closet for me to unpack contained my records and books. Esme even left a note in her elegant cursive telling me to enjoy.

Later that afternoon, Esme found me up in my room, listening to my favorite record and reading the book Bella had lent me to read before it had been taken away. "Looks like someone had a nice Friday."

I smiled broadly, "Thank you, Esme."

Leaning on the doorway, she crossed her arms in front of her, "You know, all the parenting books I read warned me about all this stubbornness and backlash I would have to handle when dealing out punishment. I had a whole speech written about what lessons you were being taught that I didn't even get to use."

"Sucks."

She hummed in agreement, "You make this whole mother-of-teenagers thing far too easy."

"You have great taste. Even in kids."

Esme smiled, thoroughly enjoying that particular praise. "Will you come downstairs and help me put away the groceries? Even though it's not a part of your grounding sentence?" she asked.

I folded down the corner of the page I was on in my book. "Yeah."

As I helped her, Esme kept glancing out the front window, like she was expecting something. She visibly perked up when she saw Alice's car pull into the driveway. When I looked askance at her, she quickly explained that she and Alice had plans to cook something together that night. That seemed in character for Esme, and I thought nothing more of it.

That was until Alice grandly stepped into the kitchen with a flourish, like she was expecting a round of applause.

"Got her!" Alice announced in a sing-song voice. Bella stepped in behind my sister, carrying a cup of coffee she wouldn't drink and a scone she wouldn't eat.

"Surprise!" Esme and Alice cheered, discordantly.

Bella flushed prettily and waved. Though we hadn't spent our entire week apart like Esme thought, the thrill of seeing Bella would never wear off. I was sure my smile was convincing enough.

Esme lightly elbowed you in the ribs, "Another thank you for being so painless. I know I originally said that you wouldn't be able to see Bella until Monday, but here you are!"

Alice held up her coffee cup, still expecting that applause. "And I was one to pick her up from school and bring her here."

Even my family knew I wanted nothing but Bella. I loved that she was considered my reward.

"Thank you," I said, my eyes only for Bella.

"You two have a nice afternoon," Esme said, dismissively. "Alice, honey, pull up that recipe you wanted to try."

Relieving her of the scone I would eat for her, I took Bella by the hand I freed up and led her into the living room. Once we were alone, Bella whipped her head to either side, placed her cup on the table, and pulled my face down to hers for a passionate kiss. The scone fell to the ground as my hands automatically cupped her neck and waist in response.

When she released me, she was practically vibrating with glee.

I chuckled. "Wow. Someone's excited today."

She took something out of her bag and tossed it at me. Despite the surprise, I managed to catch the bundle, which turned out to be a pair of old sweatpants with the school logo on them. I glanced at Bella for some sort of hint as to what this meant, but she was smiling so big, I felt like I would have already known.

I forced as much enthusiasm as I could muster. "This is great, sweetheart!"

"I fought," she signed, then grabbed my face for another forceful kiss, "I fought for you."

"Yeah?" I asked, to which she nodded emphatically, still shaking from her own uncontainable excitement. "How?"

"I wore the pants and confronted Lauren about the water!"

I didn't need to force any enthusiasm as I said, "That's amazing!" If Bella nipped the fear of water in the bud, that was one last thing we had to do.

"I walked straight up to her table, dunked my hand in her water bottle, and swished it all around." Bella demonstrated the motion for me. "Then, I dried my hand on her sleeve!" Bella looked particularly proud of that part.

"Brilliant!" I wished I could have seen the look on Lauren's face.

The excitement inside of her finally burst out and she flung herself at me. She wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist, squeezing herself so close, it knocked the breath out of me.

"Feel good to fight back?"

Bella grinned triumphantly.

"I'm so proud of you."

Up in my arms, she basked in my pride. We settled into an armchair in the corner of the room, out of the sightline of anyone who would look in through either door, and kissed to celebrate her victory. We kept kissing up Esme's voice called from the kitchen, asking if Bella was going to stay for dinner.

"Are you?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

Even though she already knew her answer as well, Bella pursed her lips as she pretended to consider. Then, shook her head.

I swung into the kitchen before we left, telling Esme Bella would not be joining us and I would be taking her back to her truck. Both Alice and Esme whined over her choice, but I led Bella out the door to the garage before either of them could coax her into something she didn't want to do.

"Do you want me to drive you to your truck at the school or to the beach?" I asked, before getting into my car.

"Beach. I want more of this." She pretended to push back an inviable sleeve and flexed her muscle, "I'm going to talk to my sisters about what they did to you."

I chuckled. "I've created a brawler."

"A protector."

I liked that. I was worried that I would have upset Bella by telling her how I felt but fighting back against her opposers seemed to please her. Empower her, even.

"I love you," I tacked on to my goodbye after I dropped her off at a convenient location for her to sneak into the ocean. I no longer hesitated or feared for her response.

Again, she swept her hands against my chest possessively, almost drawing a large heart. "I will never let anything cause you pain."

That felt close enough to love.

Dinner was uneventful. No one made any comments on the fact that the rotation for setting the table and helping Esme clean up was back in effect, after I had taken care of it all week. My siblings discussed their upcoming finals while Rosalie considered the college she wanted to attend in the fall. Esme had something negative to point out about every single school except the ones close to home, coincidentally.

After dinner, the family split up into their usual Friday night activities. Esme and Carlisle got ready to grab drinks with some of Esme's colleagues, Emmett and Rosalie were trying to set up their friends with each other, so they could all hang out together. Jasper and Alice snuck out the back door without a word to anyone else.

Bella promised she would come back later that night to tell me how it went with her sisters, so I walked back down to the beach. I brought the book I had started earlier, wondering if I would finish it by the time she arrived. It would please her. I could already picture the smile on her face as I told her the parts I enjoyed—both smug that she had guessed my preferences correctly and proud of herself for picking a good book. It was one of my favorite smiles of hers.

As the sun set, I read to the sound of the waves beating against the rocks. A slightly louder thunk pulled me from my reading—something solid hit the rocks. It was most likely garbage, but I stood anyway to retrieve whatever it was and throw it away. I waded into the lapping waves, searching around the rocks for something heavy enough to make the sound I heard. Then, sticking out between two rocks, I spotted a pale, slender arm wrapped around one of the smaller rocks, about to lose its grip.