Something rustled in the bushes. Bella dropped the bag she'd been pretending to search for camping supplies. She was so not in the mood to confront another angry skunk. Her favorite hoodie still smelled awful from the last time. The creature hissed and exploded out of the bushes. Bella screamed and grabbed Edward's arm. Her face turned red as a tomato when she realized the skunk wasn't a skunk. It was Midnight chasing after a moth.

Embarrassed, Bella released Edward's arm and knelt down to pet her cat. "Where have you been all night? I was worried."

Emmett joked that Midnight was Houdi reincarnated. No matter how many times Bella double-checked that the doors and windows were locked, Midnight somehow managed to slip outside. She was always back in time for breakfast, but Bella feared that wouldn't always be the case. A speeding car or a hungry coyote would someday bring an end to the fearsome feline.

"She was investigating an unfamiliar scent," Edward said, scratching behind Midnight's ear. "There was some type of large dog in the woods behind your house."

Bella was going to lose it if he suggested that her cat smelled a werewolf.

"It's gone now," Edward continued. "But Midnight thinks you should avoid going outside without her for a while."

Midnight weighed less than ten pounds. There wasn't much she could do should a dog choose to attack.

"Also," Edward said. "Midnight's mouse toy is stuck in your bed and she would like you to retrieve it."

Bella was rendered speechless. She'd found the mouse stuck between her mattress and the wall. Edward had better have a reason for knowing about the trapped toy that didn't involve being in her room while she was sleeping.

"And how do you know that," Bella asked, temper flaring "Can you read minds or something?"

"Yes"

The thought of Edward being able to read her mind was nauseating. He'd know every secret, insecurity, and time she wondered what it would be like to kiss him again. Thank goodness he was lying.

"You can't read minds," Bella said. "It isn't possible."

Bella was still torn on whether or not Edward was who he said he was. Her gut told her he was telling the truth while her mind argued people didn't just come back from the dead. Mind reading however was an entirely different beast. Her heart and head agreed it couldn't be possible.

"Yes, it is," Edward insisted, "I've been able to read minds since I was a child. I inherited my abilities from my grandfather King Ian."

Bella recalled the tales of "Insane Ian." He talked to birds and sent innocent people to the gallows. Historians believed he suffered from schizophrenia. What if Edward had inherited his grandfather's illness? Bella hoped that wasn't true. People treated Emmett like a ticking time bomb while his therapist suggested that horrible diagnosis.

Edward sighed. "I know you must think I'm crazy, but I'm telling the truth. I can read minds."

"Prove it then," Bella said, folding her arms. "What am I thinking about right now?"

Bella thought about New Moon Diner in La Push. He couldn't possibly guess a place he'd never been to before.

"It doesn't work that way," Edward said.

"I see," Bella smirked. "You can read minds but you can't read minds. That makes complete sense."

"Reading human minds is...difficult. Think of it like trying to stargaze on a cloudy night. I can only pick up occasional words and blurry images."

"Have you read any of my thoughts?"

If he had, Edward would have run for the hills by now. Bella's thoughts when he called her 'his true love' or 'beloved' were far from kind.

Edward shook his head. "I've tried, but it's empty. Like trying to read stone."

Bella didn't know if she should be insulted or relieved.

Midnight rubbed against Edward's leg. "I find animals to be much easier to read. They don't hide their true intentions or think things they don't mean."

How convenient that the only minds Edward could reliably read couldn't prove him wrong.

Bella decided to see how far he'd push this little charade.

She pointed to a sparrow chirping in a nearby tree. "What's it thinking?"

Edward concentrated on the bird. "There's a predator nearby. He's warning the others."

Two seconds later, a hawk dove out of the sky and attacked the sparrow. Bella winced at the sight of talons digging into flesh. Edward may have claimed to be a prince who could read minds, but a gruesome scene like that proved they weren't living in a Disney movie.

"You were right," Bella admitted. "But I still don't believe you can read minds."

Edward, who was pale and shaking, didn't argue.

Bella's urge to prove him wrong evaporated. "Are you okay?"

Edward looked like he was going to either throw up or pass out. "It hurt so much," he whimpered. "Her mate. He saw. He couldn't save her."

Fearing a repeat of the sandwich incident, Bella wrapped her arm around his waist and gently lowered him to the ground.

"I'll be right back," Bella said, looking at the kitchen window. "I'm going to get Emmett."

Emmett always knew what to do in these kinds of situations. He'd get Edward calmed down before Carlisle got home and sent him back to the hospital.

"No," Edward cried, breathing like he'd just run back to back marathons. "Stay."

Midnight pressed against Edward's leg and started purring.

Following her cat's lead, Bella sat down on Edward's other side and squeezed his hand. "You're okay. Just breathe."

They stayed like that for the next twenty minutes. While Bella didn't love having her hand squeezed like a tube of toothpaste, she had to admit the feeling of Edward's head resting on her shoulder wasn't the worst thing in the world.

"Are you okay?" Bella asked once Edward's breathing had stabilized.

Edward nodded. "I'm sorry you had to witness that." He let go of Bella's hand and leaned back against the shed. "Things like that, when an animal is scared or in pain, I feel it too."

Bella didn't know what to make of Edward's statement. It sounded like something Jasper would say. Life wasn't easy for a person whose empathy meter seemed to be stuck at ten. He had to go home early when one of the freshmen broke up with her boyfriend. He ran out of the theater when Tony Stark died in Endgame. Attending his grandmother's funeral left him bedridden for a week. What some people called "being in touch with his emotions" Jasper called a curse. He'd rather be drugged into a stupor than feel a tidal wave of over people's feelings.

Something dripped on Bella's face. She looked up at the sky. "We should get inside. It's going to start raining soon."

By the look of the sky, they were in for another dreary day. Why people chose to settle in Forks Bella would never know.

Edward shook his head. "No."

Knowing Alice would never forgive her if her precious shoes got ruined, Bella stood up and closed the shed. "You'll get soak if you stay out here."

Knowing her luck, they'd end up getting struck by lighting.

"I don't care," Edward stood up and brushed the dead grass off his clothes. "I need to get Emmett and leave."

Bella looked at Edward's bandages and swollen eyes. He needed to be tucked in bed with a warm mug of tea not outside in the rain.

"And go where?" Bella asked. "What destination could be worth risking your life running around during a thunderstorm?"

He'd end up back in the hospital with Nurse Victoria if he wasn't careful.

"The castle," Edward said. " I need to see if my family is there."

Bella swallowed the lump forming in her throat. "A lot of time has passed. The castle wouldn't be the same place you remember."

"I know, but I need to check if there's even a small chance my family is there."

Bella knew his pain. During her first night in the Cullen house, all she wanted was to go home.

Her new bed was too big and too soft. She missed the lumps and stains of the twin mattress she'd had since toddlerhood. The air smelled like cleaner and freshly cut flowers instead of stale pizza and chimney smoke. Worst of all, she couldn't hear the comforting sound of her father snoring down the hall.

Giving up on sleep, Bella grabbed her crutches and limped over to the window. She looked at the trees surrounding the house and wondered if there was anyone out there still looking for her father. It had been over two weeks since that awful day and no one had found him yet. Bella was beginning to lose hope that she'd ever see her dad again.

Bella was about to go back to bed when something moved at the edge of the woods. His skin was pale and he'd lost his 'spare tire' but Bella was certain it was her father. He was alive and had come to take her home.

Ignoring the pain in her mangled limb, Bella rushed outside. "Dad!"

She searched the yard, but her father was nowhere to be found. Maybe he saw the dark house and went back home to wait for morning.

The next morning, a neighbor found Bella curled up on the front porch of her father's house. She had a nasty fever and had bled through the bandage on her leg. Bella told the paramedics about seeing her dad but they brushed it off as a fever dream. Three weeks later, a hiker found Charlie's bloody clothes near the den of a cougar.

Bella remembered her desperation that night. Nothing short of a nuclear bomb going off could have prevented her from going to look for her father.

"While I don't agree, I understand why you want to go to the castle," Bella said to Edward. "If we leave now, we can make it there and back before breakfast."

And before Carlisle came home from work.

"You don't need to go with me," Edward said. "Emmett has agreed to accompany me in your place."

Emmett was vibrating with excitement when Edward told Rose about his quest. He was probably thrilled to death to have a sibling who didn't have to be bribed into going camping. He'd gladly spend the day running around in the woods not caring one bit about the rain or what would happen when Carlisle found out he'd left the house at five am prepared to fight mythical creatures.

"I want to go," Bella said. "I didn't before, but I do now."

Bella was the responsible one. She didn't get in trouble at school or complain about doing chores. She'd only snuck out once and had never come home drunk. If accompanying Edward on his quest resulted in a punishment for Bella, it would be nothing compared to what would happen to Emmett who'd already had a dozen second chances.

Edward smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. If my mother is there, she'll want to meet you right away."