*EPOV*

Think. Think. Bella's birthday was coming up, the first one since we'd been married, and the last birthday didn't exactly go so well. It had to be perfect.

A piano composition wasn't exactly special when she had stacks of CDs of my music that I'd dedicated to her.

I could fly out Charlie or Renee, or fly her to see them, but Bella seemed like she was in the process of trying to detach from her parents and that might do more harm than good.

Emmett had it so easy. He got to buy Rosalie a new car or some diamonds and he was a hero for it.

What did I get the woman who..didn't want anything? I would need to give this some serious thought.

I quickly closed my laptop as I heard the sounds of Bella padding this way and went back to tinkering with a chord progression for a composition assignment for class.

Moments later, Bella drifted into sight.

She leaned casually against the doorframe in a tank top and pajama pants, her hip jutted out just so and her legs crossed below the knee. Her shiny brown hair was tied back into a messy ponytail.

It was such a simple, everyday moment, Bella brightening my doorway.

Though, after walking the earth, partnerless, for nearly a century never expecting to have someone to "grow old" with...that I got to look forward to Bella wearing the paint off of my doorway every day for the rest of eternity never ceased to take my breath away.

"How's that Shakespeare paper coming along?" I asked with polite interest. I was told earlier that morning that under no uncertain terms was I to distract her until she had it completed.

"Fine, I think. It's a comparative analysis of Romeo and Juliet and Antony and Cleopatra, which I could talk about for days, but Professor Chaney is a stickler for citations. Think you could take a look at it when it's done?"

"It would be my very great pleasure," I smiled.

"How's your new piece coming along?" Bella asked, sauntering into the room and sliding in next to me on my piano bench. I scooted over making room for her, breath stolen once again.

"Well it's no Tchaikovsky but it's at least as good as Wagner," I said with no amount of false modesty.

She snorted "That Wagner. What a hack," she teased.

As if playing of their own accord, my hands drifted back the keys and played a hopeful, whimsical melody that reflected my mood as of lately.

I didn't need to consciously think about the notes when I did this. It was sort of like...talking in my sleep.

Missing nothing, Bella smiled and leaned her head on my shoulder. "Somebody's in a good mood," she mused. Always far more observant than I gave her credit for.

Kissing her hair, I murmured, "Just another day in paradise."

She sighed, lazily. "Edward, tell me a story."

My eyebrows raised in mild surprise; that was a new request. I smiled, charmed. "What kind of story would you like to hear?"

"About you, of course. Tell me about the first time you enrolled in school as a vampire. What was that like for you?"

I barked out a laugh. "Oh jeez, I haven't thought about that in a long time." By design.

As I launched into the story, my fingers on the keys played a soft accompaniment, a melancholy tune from that era.

"It was just Carlisle and me in the beginning, as you know. We spent those first few years living as nomads until I could control my thirst.

"Esme joined us in 1921. It was just the three of us for a while. Esme is such a gentle soul it didn't take her as long to adjust. However, those weren't easy years.

"She had a very hard life, and being turned into a vampire doesn't...fix the parts of you that are broken on the inside. She and Carlisle did that work together...Let's just say, it was for the best that Jasper didn't join the family until much later.

"When it was just the three of us, it was easy enough to avoid speculation. But then Rosalie joined us, and soon after Emmett in '35.

"As you can imagine, the five of us together with Rosalie being so...Rosalie," I said with a scowl, still immensely put out with her meddling, "and Emmett being such a giant, we were starting to generate some attention.

"School was Carlisle's idea. We were growing weary of the nomadic life, and he thought hiding in plain sight was the most feasible course of action if we wanted to stay in one place for any amount of time. It was nota popular suggestion, but nobody had any better ideas.

"So as soon as Emmett had his thirst under control, we were enrolled at Ithaca High School," I said making a face.

"Wow, what a face! That's your 'werewolf stink face.' Now I have to know what happened," Bella interjected, her eyes alight with intrigue.

"It was a comedy of errors, through and through," I laughed once, cringing.

The melody I was playing morphed into the slapstick-style I used to play live, screen-side, at the Charlie Chaplin silent films to earn spending money, long before Alice's talents made us wealthy.

"Rosalie and I barely tolerated each other-"

"So not much as changed," Bella quipped.

"You think she's abrasive now? You'd be amazed how much seventy some-odd years can mellow a person out," I said with exaggeratedly horror-struck eyes.

"I imagine that works both ways," Bella stuck an elbow in my ribs in a playful accusation.

"I imagine it does," I agreed. "Do you want to hear this or not?" I teased.

Bella pantomimed locking her lips shut.

"So Rosalie and I were at each other's throats, while Emmett was constantly trying to referee. But he wasn't having an easy time of it either.

A boy of his size was expected to be athletic, which he is...But it took Emmett longer to control his strength than it did to control his thirst. Let's just say, classmates were hospitalized in the process of Emmett learning to perfect his role."

"Luckily, Americans weren't quite so litigious back then," I chuckled. "We wouldn't have had a penny left to our name if we'd been sued for every kid he accidentally put in a coma. You'd be amazed by the damage you can do with a basketball," I cringed again, remembering the destruction.

Bella looked appropriately horrified.

"Wow. And I thought I hated gym class," she muttered wryly. I made a wide-eyed expression as if to say 'You have no idea.'

"So there we were, struggling with the speed and the strength and the thirst, and our human classmates were enamored with us. With students, we learned pretty quickly that if you're rude enough from the get-go, people tend to leave you alone.

"But we couldn't be rude to teachers and the like, so with adults, we were endlessly polite, and as you say, dazzled our way through the rest."

Bella nodded her head slowly, chewing on the information. "The Cullen Facade."

Nodding once, I extended my palm toward her in a gesture of agreement, "The Cullen Facade."

Bella's eyes lit up in the excitement of new information. "This is juicy stuff. The insider details!"

"You're an insider now, Mrs. Cullen."

"Okay, but what about you. There had to be more to it than squabbling with Rose. And why did she get to you so much, anyway? You have so much compassion for Esme, but Rose went through a terrible trauma too, and you don't seem to extend her the same grace."

Say it again, sister snorted my sister's thoughts from the main house.

Clenching my jaw, I said this next bit a little louder. "I did-do-have compassion for Rosalie, but she wanted me to love her even though she had no intention of loving me back. I suppose you could say I found that offensive."

I sighed. "As for your other question, I struggled with my gift, too. I have to pay much more attention in class than my siblings do because if I'm not watching someone's face, I start answering their thoughts."

Introspective now, I mused, "I suppose that might have a little something to do with why it makes me so uncomfortable to not be able to see your face when you talk. I rely on your eyes since I can't hear your thoughts, and when I can't see your eyes...I'm flying blind, " I laughed once with a self-deprecating shrug.

"Makes sense. Like a deaf person reading lips," Bella astutely inferred.

"Exactly like a deaf person reading lips," I agreed.

Bella's expression turned contemplative. "That will be so weird going back to high school with you all when I'm in control of myself. I'm just getting used to the whole 'Mrs. Cullen,' thing, and then I'll have to go back to being your girlfriend," she said, furrowing her brow.

Then panic flashed across her face. "I won't have to take my ring off, will I?" She held her left hand clenched protectively against her chest.

My dead heart swelled in my chest at seeing how repellant this idea was to her.

The corner of my mouth lifted into a smirk. "First I couldn't get it on you, and now you won't take it off," I gently pried her hand away from her chest and kissed her ring. "But not to worry, it's such a dated style that no one will suspect it's a wedding ring.

"It's funny, I was just talking to Carlisle about how strange that will be. And distracting," I laughed without humor, trying not to think about the events of the previous night.

"How would you feel about going to an all girl's school?" I asked, only half-joking.

Bella's face twisted into one of outrage. "Not unless you're going to put on a dress and come, too!" she shouted.

I blanched. If Emmett thought I was whipped now… I backpedaled, "On second thought, maybe by then I'll have time to get desensitized to hearing improper thoughts about my wife," I rolled my eyes. Un-bloody-likely.

"Speaking of distractions," I said, changing the subject, "aren't I breaking the rules right now? I'm not supposed to be distracting you."

"Not the kind of distraction I was talking about, Mr. Dazzle-Your-Pants-Right-Off," she teased, her brown eyes scorching.

"Now that's rich coming from you, Mrs. "Please, Edward, please!" I batted my lashes at her in a playful imitation.

Bella glared at me and puffed up her chest. "Fair point, well made. I'm going to go finish my paper now."

I chuckled at her retreating back. "I will look forward to reading it. If you need me, I'll just be up at the house visiting with everybody."

Bella sashayed out of the room. "Don't be too terrible to Rose," she called from the hall. "She said some really nice things about you too, you know," she said as her voice drifted farther away.

My eyebrows rose halfway to my hairline. Now that came as a surprise.

"What did she say?" I asked, loud enough for Bella to hear me in the hallway, but she just laughed and kept walking.

*BPOV*

I had just put the finishing touches on my paper when I got a notification that my mom had emailed. I cringed guiltily.

I had meant to get back to her days ago but hadn't gotten around to it, what with all the amazing sex I couldn't seem to stop having. I smirked, considering her reaction if I told her that. She'd probably be thrilled for me.

Hey Mom,

Sorry for the holdup. I've just been super busy with getting settled in and homework. Who would've thought there'd be so much of it in the Ivy League? Haha.

Glad to hear Phil's new coaching job is working out. I hope you're not getting too stir-crazy being in one place for so long. Roots are nice, too, when you grow them with the right person. :)

School is great! Hard. But it's nice that people in my classes are there because they want to be. That's a nice change from high school.

Oh, and guess what? I got to go shopping in New York City with Alice and Rose! You'd faint if you knew how much money those two could spend in one afternoon. It was a lot of fun. Expect a souvenir coming your way soon!

Edward says hi! That's it for now. Talk soon!

Love,

Bella

I hit send and leaned back in my desk chair feeling pretty good about my productivity for the morning. I looked around the library, determined to keep up my streak.

Setting my sights on a new shipment of books that needed to be sorted and shelved, I dragged the heavy box over toward the newly-installed rolling ladder.

I couldn't help but feel giddy every time I looked at it. There was just something about rolling ladders.

Somehow, during Edward's litany of getting-to-know-you questions, he'd missed asking me about my favorite childhood movie. If he'd asked me, I would have told him Beauty and the Beast.

I guess you could say I related to the slightly odd, brunette girl named Belle who took care of her hair-brained parent and whose nose was always stuck in a book. And I suppose you could also draw comparisons about our taste in men, I snorted to myself.

But every time I looked at my rolling ladder, I couldn't help but be reminded of the iconic scene where Belle goes to the bookshop singing about her provincial life and exuberantly rides the ladder to the end of the rail while regaling the bookseller about her favorite book.

For my inner five-year-old self, there wasn't much more I wanted out of life.

I'd badly wanted to take the ladder for a spin, but felt more than a little silly with Edward hanging around. But since he was out of the house...

Standing in my socks, I made a running start of three long strides and then threw myself onto the first rung of the ladder, letting my momentum carry me to the end of the line. Well, that's what was supposed to happen anyway, but instead the ladder sort of petered out halfway across.

"Well that was anticlimactic," I muttered to myself, glad that nobody had been there to witness my ridiculousness.

I rolled my eyes at myself before kneeling down on the floor to get back to the business of putting the books away. I stacked them into smaller piles sorted by genre and then alphabetized them by the author's name.

This took longer than it needed to because I kept flipping through the books and getting drawn into them. But eventually, I only had one pile left to put away. I tucked the tidy stack of books under my arm and mounted the ladder.

I was one step away from the top rung when the books shifted under my arm and clattered to the floor. I cursed under my breath and started to reverse back down the ladder to retrieve them.

Tractionless in my socks, my foot slipped out from under me on the lacquered wooden rung. My stomach lurched into my throat as I felt the floor rushing toward me.

*EPOV*

"Hey bro, I hope you're not gonna try to welch out of our deal because Rose went off all half-cocked. I held up my end of things," Emmett said, never taking his eyes off of the video game he was playing.

"No, Em, a deal is a deal," I sighed. "Though, now that the cat is out of the bag on that, I hope you'll use a little gentlemanly discretion on what you tease her about, as a courtesy to me," I asked in my most persuasive voice.

He chuckled darkly. "Have you even met me?"

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. It would seem Bella was on her own. Though let him say something over the line, and favorite brother or not, I'd still crack him in half.

"Rose is in the garage if you're looking for her," he said unnecessarily. "Don't make me turn the hose on you two," he smirked.

"I don't have anything to say to Rose," I snapped.

Emmett gave me a withering look then turned back to his game. "Where's my little sister? You can't hide her in your sex shack forever," he guffawed.

That was my cue to find Alice. No sooner had I thought it did I hear her thoughts beckoning me from her and Jasper's room.

"So a new kind of currency will emerge that only exists on the internet?" Jasper asked raptly.

"Uh-huh. Cryptocurrency. One in particular, coin, is going to be huge. It will be extremely volatile, and lots of people will lose money. But if we time it right, and I always time it right, we'll be able to cash out big," Alice smiled winningly.

"Oh, and a video game retailer will cause a big kerfuffle on the stock market in 2021. That'll be a big boon, too."

"We have more money than we know what to do with, but it's never enough is it?" I teased Alice, as I bumped fists with Jasper in greeting and sat down next to him on their couch.

Turning away from her brokerage account portfolio on her massive PC monitor, she looked at me sourly. "Well if you're going to keep turning $1400 dresses into dust rags, then somebody's gotta keep making the bacon."

My look of amusement morphed into annoyance. I opened my mouth to say something when I felt the tendrils of calm creep over me. Jasper gave me a pointed look.

"Oh, save it, Edward," Alice huffed impatiently. "I tried to stop her. And I defended you to the last when Rose ratted you out. Bella makes her own choices, so I don't know what you expected me to do..."

"I was going to say you could have at least fed her lunch," my eyebrows rose in accusation, but my expression was otherwise bored.

Alice grimaced and cursed under her breath. "I wish the girl would learn to speak up," she rolled her eyes.

"You and me, both!" I smirked.

Then my brow furrowed in concentration as my focus was pulled toward unfamiliar sounds coming from the house I shared with Bella.

It sounded like she was dragging something heavy across the carpet. Was she moving furniture? And then it sounded like she was running. What was she doing? Not writing a paper, that's for sure.

Alice broke out into giggles and I saw what she was laughing about and the source of the noise.

In her vision, Bella took a running leap at the rolling ladder and skated just a few feet before running out of momentum. She had the most comically dejected look on her face when it crawled to a stop. I pursed my lips to keep from laughing, but it was a losing battle.

"So, Bella's birthday is Wednesday," I began, laughter still in my voice.

"Get her a can of WD-40 for the casters," Alice's cheeky smile turned into a full-on laugh, joined by my own.

"You two are insufferable sometimes," Jasper muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Sorry, Jazzy," Alice trilled, her face contrite. "I'll explain later."

"So about her birthday. Can we agree, no parties?" I said through my teeth.

"Now there's something I can agree to," Jasper replied, relief coloring his thoughts.

Alice's eyes widened. "I don't think she'll be in any mood for a party."

I didn't think much of Alice's assertion at first because Bella was never in the mood for a party. But then I heard with my own ears what Alice was seeing with her eyes.

Bella falling from the ladder and the sickening crunch of bone.

I was off the couch and halfway to the house before I had time to curse.

I nearly yanked the front door right off its hinges getting to her.

"Bella!" I called, my voice was strangled with panic as I flew to her side on the floor of the library.

"I'm fine! I'm fine," she croaked from a heap on the floor surrounded by books strewn haphazardly around her.

"Where does it hurt?" I asked anxiously, crouching down beside her without yet moving her in case of a spinal injury. She was laying on her back and cradling her left arm to her side. Her shoulder was obviously out of joint, but I was relieved to see (and smell) that there weren't any blood or compound fractures.

"I landed on my shoulder and cracked my head pretty good, but nothing too terrible, I don't think," she diagnosed herself, but the obvious strain in her voice didn't do much to quell my concerns.

"Can you feel all of our extremities? Nothing feels numb?" I asked, ascertaining whether I could take her to Carlisle at the hospital myself or if she would need an ambulance.

"I'm fine, Edward. Just a jammed shoulder. Can you help me up?" She started to sit up.

As gingerly as I could, I picked her up into my arms.

"I'm taking you to Carlisle," I insisted, already hastening toward the car. "You need your shoulder popped back into place and a head x-ray."

Agonized, I looked at her face, tear-stained and screwed up in pain. I had been to medical school twice. In theory, I could pop it back in myself. It was a straightforward enough procedure, but it would cause her a terrible amount of pain before the relief came, and I wasn't sure I could bring myself to hurt her.

But then again, she was already in pain, and that pain would just be prolonged the longer her shoulder remained dislocated.

I sighed anxiously and just decided to ask her. "Bella, keeping in mind that you're going to the hospital either way to get your head checked out, do you want me to pop your shoulder back in now, or would you rather Carlisle did it at the hospital?"

She seemed to scrutinize me. "I'll wait. It's a short drive, right?" I already had her in the car and her seat belt buckled by the time she finished the question.

"It's about to be," I muttered and stepped on the gas.

*BPOV*

"I guess it's a good thing you all can hear me at our house after all, otherwise who knows how long I would've been on the floor? I need a Life Alert necklace," I laughed weakly, wincing when my shoulder was jarred.

"While I can't argue with the Life Alert idea," he gave me a scathing look, "I was with Alice. We saw the whole thing. Do you mind telling me what on earth you were doing lifting stacks of heavy books to the top of a ladder? In your socks. Alone."

"Trying to be productive," I muttered. Blushing to my hairline, I asked suddenly mortified, "How much did you see exactly?"

Edward gave me a sideways glance and seemed to laugh despite himself.

Could this day get any worse? It would seem my foolishness didn't go unwitnessed after all. I gritted my teeth. Blasted mind-reading, omniscient vampires!

The good thing about hospitals was that they pretty much always had underground parking that made it easy to get in and out of a hospital in the daylight hours without getting caught in the sun.

Somebody, Alice I guessed, must have let Carlisle know that we were on our way to see him because he was waiting in the lobby just on the other side of the elevator doors as they dinged open.

Edward didn't put me down until we were in an exam room, even though I insisted my legs worked just fine.

"We have got to stop meeting like this, young lady," Carlisle chastened with his arms crossed across his chest.

"I know, I know," I looked at the floor. "I was being dumb."

"Any blurry or double vision?" He asked, checking my eyes for signs of a concussion. I shook my head no.

"Edward, hold her good hand. Bella, I'm afraid this is going to hurt for a moment, but you'll feel much better once the joint is back in place."

I nodded, but before I could say, "This isn't my first rodeo," he had already wrenched my arm back into its proper place. I let out one loud yelp at the searing pain but then felt immediate relief. It was over so fast, I didn't even have time to squeeze Edward's hand.

"Thank you," I breathed. He prodded gently around my scalp with his fingers. I winced when he found a tender spot.

"I'd say 'Anytime,' but you might take that too literally," he teased. "Now get on down to radiology. I don't think it's anything worse than a bad bump, but it never hurts to double-check. Edward, get her some anti-inflammatories for the pain from the pharmacy.

"Oh, and Bella. No...strenuous activities that would put any undue pressure on your shoulder for the next six weeks." His expression left little doubt about what strenuous activity he was referring to.

Too appalled to be embarrassed, I shouted "SIX WEEKS?!"

I couldn't be sure, but it sounded like Edward muttered "That'll teach you." under his breath.

"Take care of yourself, Bella." Then Carlisle gave Edward a meaningful look before excusing himself from the room.

"Six weeks," I whispered sorrowfully.

"I shouldn't be telling you this…I should let this be a lesson to you," he glared. "But there are plenty of things we can do without straining your shoulder," he smiled my favorite crooked smile.

While I was getting my head x-rayed, Edward picked up my pain meds and then got me home and comfortably laid up on the couch with the TV remote in my hand. Carlisle had called while we were on the way home to say that my head scans looked good.

As I was flipping through the channels, there was a knock at the door.

"It's open, Emmett," Edward said in a conversational tone.

The door swung open and in walked Emmett holding an enormous vase of flowers. His head was completely obscured by the blooms. He set the vase down on the sideboard in the foyer and pulled a teddy bear from under his enormous bicep.

"Heard you had an accident, Squirt. Just wanted to come by and say I hope you get better soon," he handed me the bear.

"Aww thanks, Em," I said, touched. "That's so sweet!" And then I noticed the bear was holding a small chalkboard. In Emmett's boyish scrawl read the message "0 Days since my last ER trip," with the number 120 crossed out next to the zero.

I geared up to throw the stuffed bear at his head but Emmett was already out the door, laughing all the way home.

"120? That seems generous," Edward chuckled.

So I threw the bear at him instead.

*A/N* 40 whole chapters without some kind of accident befalling Bella? That has to be some kind of a record! Haha. Thank you as always for your thoughtful reviews!

So I have a question for you all. How do you want to see this story progress? Do you want to see Bella get to live out the human college experience for a while longer, or do you want her to hurry TF up and get turned already? I'm champing at the bit to get to that, but I don't want to rush anything either, so I'm taking a consensus.

Thanks for your feedback! Love to hear your thoughts! 'Til next time!