I resisted the urge to laugh outright at Rosalie, not because of the thought of someone referring to Edward as a Lothario, but because the thought of me as Edward's mate was something that seemed so utterly outrageous to me.

"Nice try Rosalie, but I know I'm not his mate."

Rose shook her head at me, "Yes Bella, you are. If the fact that my brother is ridiculously crazy about you wasn't enough, then your mental and physical reactions to your separation would be."

"Edward isn't crazy about me Rosalie, he doesn't love me. I was just a distraction to him."

"Oh Bella," she said her voice full of pity, "that simply isn't true. You're his mate, he is designed at his most basic level to love and protect you. Unfortunately he's also stubborn and from a time when what the man said was what went, and he thought he knew what was best for you, so he left."

"No," I started to protest, but Rose cut me off.

"I know you're not going to believe what I'm telling you, I know that this is a lot for you to take in right now, so just let me explain what happened to you from a scientific point of view and then if you want, I'll let you scream yourself hoarse with denial, alright?"

I nodded slowly.

"Excellent. The first time my brother saw you, by all rights he should have torn out your throat and drained you. But something in him would not allow him to do that."

"Yeah his loyalty to Carlisle," I interrupted.

Rose glared at me, "Carlisle had nothing to do with it, did you know Emmett has had two singers?"

I shook my head.

"Well he has, and they both lasted about thirteen seconds before he killed them, and I don't think that anyone would ever say that Emmett isn't loyal, he may be the most loyal out of all of us, but we're not talking about Emmett right now, we're talking about Edward. The sheer fact that Edward was able to leave you with your heart beating was the first indicator that you would be something more to him, although at the time I'll admit that we all thought it was more about his practiced control. He ran away to Alaska, but he couldn't even make it a week there before something in him needed to be back in Forks, again, we all chose to see it as his stubbornness about letting a human force him away from his family. Then he tried to warn you to stay away from him, but you couldn't do that, and when push came to shove he couldn't stay away from you either and you started to date. But the thing is Bella, that dating to a human and dating to a vampire are two very different things.

"When a vampire meets his or her mate, the mate is almost always already a vampire. If not, they're turned almost immediately, present company excluded, from the instant a mated pair lays eyes on each other, their bond begins to form, and I don't just mean in a Hallmark card kind of way. Carlisle has done studies and found that the very DNA in those affected begins to change. Tell me, when you and Edward touched, did you ever feel some sort of physical sensation?"

I turned away from her piercing stare, unwilling to admit to the sensations I felt whenever Edward touched me.

"I thought so," she continued on without waiting for my answer, "that was the bond making itself known. The thing is, the longer a mated pair is together, the stronger it grows, and the harder it gets for the mates to be apart from each other for an extended period of time. What's more, the longer the relationship is left unconsummated, the stronger the urge to give in to those physical desires grows, I'm sure when you were with Edward you wanted to take your relationship to the next level physically, and I know that being the prude he is, Edward didn't let it go that far, but I can guarantee that he wanted to take your relationship there."

I scoffed, "I can guarantee that he didn't."

"You didn't live in the same house as him at the time, trust me, he wanted you, but we aren't debating that right now," She fixed me with a cold stare, "Of course one of the biggest issues with your mating bond was that you were human, so Edward was afraid of hurting you if you became intimate, but by denying the part of himself that needed that connection with you, he actually put you in even more danger from physical intimacy.

"At first he was able to deny himself because you had only just begun dating, and you were a virgin, and everything in him is genetically coded to shy away from harming you, not that he'll believe any of us when we tell him that. So the fact that you weren't ready at that point to have sex meant that he could curb his own desires. But later in your relationship the draw became stronger, and before he left you were trying to get more physical with him, which weakened his resolve. I truly believe that at the end of our time in Forks, the only thing holding him back was his ethical code that told him he needed to put a ring on your finger before going to bed with you."

I wanted to tell Rose that she was crazy. To scream out that I knew he didn't see me that way, but I knew that there would be no way to deter her from her current path.

"In any case, I'm getting a bit off track. It's up to you and my brother to deal with all of his intimacy issues, I'm only supposed to make you realize that you are actually his mate. How familiar are you with drug addiction Bella?"

"I only know the basics that they cover in health class. Why?"

"Are you familiar with withdrawal symptoms?"

"A bit."

"Good. Essentially when Edward left you, you went through a kind of withdrawal from him. You're brain and body were altered by his presence to emit a chemical that made you feel safe, secure, and happy. There is something of an equivalent for vampire brains, but our brains work differently from yours so it is not entirely the same. Because of the extended amount of time that you and Edward spent together, your body became used to that chemical and you began to rely on it to function. When Edward left, you were no longer able to produce that chemical, and your body suffered without it, much like a person who is addicted to anti-depressants."

I didn't know what to say to that. From a scientific perspective it all made sense. But there were still so many holes in her theory. The most glaringly obvious one being that Edward didn't love me.

"I'm thoroughly convinced at this point that while some of your nightmares are the product of PTSD from incidents like what happened in Phoenix, I'm fairly certain that some of them are the result of your mating bond trying to tell you something, specifically the ones when you're in the forest running. Tell me, what happens in those dreams?"

I took a deep breath. I didn't want to think about those dreams, but I knew I had to tell Rose about them, something I had been dreading since she first asked me about my nightmares.

"They usually start out with mw standing alone in the forest. It's quiet, but then I hear a sound or see a flicker of movement, and for some reason I have to go towards it, but as I try to find the source of the disturbance, it keeps moving farther and farther away. I want to stop looking for it, I want to turn back, but my legs won't stop running. I just keep chasing something, but I don't know what it is I'm looking for, only that it's incredibly important that I find it. I try to speed up, but whatever it is just keeps moving faster and faster. Eventually I wake up screaming."

Rosalie nods, "So you never actually see the thing that you're chasing?"

"No."

"And you don't know what it is?"

"No."

She studies me for a moment as if she doesn't believe my answer.

"Do you mean that you don't know what it is when you're asleep?"

"Yes."

"What about when you're awake? Do you think you know what you're chasing now?"

"Yes."

"What?"

I laugh without humor, "Isn't it obvious? It's Edward."

"Why do you think it's Edward?"

"Because, that's what happened when he left me. I chased him through the woods for hours, even though I knew that he was gone. I couldn't stop chasing him, until my legs gave out. Charlie had to call out a search party for me."

Rose nodded, considering this. "Bella, when was the last time you had this nightmare? I mean before you woke up with Edward in your room."

I thought about it. It had been quite some time since I'd had that particular dream. "I'm not sure, a while I guess."

"Was it before or after Edward came back?"

"Before, I think."

"That's what I thought," Rose said, "it goes along perfectly with my theories about your dreams."

"And what would theories be exactly?"

Rose just smirked, "I can't tell you that, because I want to try something, and if I tell you what I'm thinking, then it might affect the results. If I'm wrong, there's a very simple way to disprove my theory, and if I'm right, then it can all be proven just as simply."

I groaned, "And how long will I have to wait for this grand experiment to happen."

Rose chuckled, "Not long at all, in fact we can do it today if you want, but I need to ask you something first."

"What's that?"

"How do you feel about hypnosis?"

A/N : Hey guys, sorry for the longish time between updates, but it's been crazy stressful around here for the last couple of months, but hopefully now that my thesis is in and I have my degree (in physics what!?) things will be a bit less busy and I'll be able to update more frequently. Thanks for reading as always, and if you are so inclined, reviews are always appreciated.