A/N: And the chapter you've all been waiting for, meet my Bella! I know you aren't reading my note here, so carry on. More at the bottom.

Chapter 6: The Move

Bella

I stared out the window of the airplane, frustrated with myself once again. I had made the right decision, I knew that. But watching the rain slide off the airplane window was working against my resolve. I had spent enough time in Forks, Washington when I was younger to know that the sun just didn't exist there the way it did almost anywhere else. Charlie seemed OK to come see me in Phoenix, so I insisted on that for many years.

I exited the plane, pulling my jacket on. I knew I would need it when I landed, though I hadn't when I left home. Home. What was that, anyway? Guess it wasn't Phoenix anymore. I sighed. Maybe this was a bad idea.

Charlie met me at the baggage claim. He half hugged me and welcomed me to Washington. I choked a little, hugging him back.

"How's Phil doing?" he asked, looking out over the carousel, waiting for my bags.

"Good, I think. He was watching baseball on the couch when Mom took me to the airport this morning."

"Well, that's good." Charlie never was much of a talker.

Phil was my step-dad, and a minor league baseball player. A couple months ago he had been injured during a practice game that had effectively ended his career. Or, at least, that's what all the doctors kept saying. I had been there that night, and could still remember watching the massive stadium light falling. My mother had been in hysterics, so I had to calm her down. Honestly, I thought he was dead. I couldn't see how he could have survived. Fortunately, the light had crashed on his leg. Any further up, and he wouldn't have made it. I could still remember the screams from the audience, the players running and surrounding him so we couldn't see what was going on, and the sobbing from mom as we watched helplessly, unable to get on the field. It was a horrible evening.

The on-site doctor had called 911 and Phil was rushed into surgery to try and save the leg. They had succeeded, but only barely. The nerve endings had been severed, so he partially lost feeling in that leg. He would be able to walk again, but would have to use a cane.

The investigation into the cause had everyone reeling. The stadium was severely behind in restoration efforts, and the foundation of the light had simply failed. Phoenix didn't get much rain, but we had a normal flash thunderstorm the night before. It weakened the already iffy structure that was well overdue to be replaced, and the ground hadn't held it for long. Phil was in the cross-hairs.

He spent a couple weeks in the hospital, needing several surgeries in that time. Mom stayed with him most of the time, but she had to come home and take care of me. By the time he was released, she was exhausted. That was why I had made the decision to come stay with Charlie; Phil needed mom and I didn't want her to have to choose between us.

Because of his surgeries, he wasn't able to start physical therapy for a few more months. I figured that I could head back to Phoenix for college, that would give them enough time together and him time to heal. Plus, I'd be more on my own by then and Mom wouldn't have felt like she had to take care of me as much. Seemed like the best idea at the time. So, moving to Washington was temporary; I tried to remember that as we walked out into the cold and rainy day.

Charlie didn't say much on the drive to Forks. It took us a few hours to get there, but I was fine with the silence. It helped me to get used to the sound of the rain hitting the car. A sound I wasn't used to, but knew I would need to be in order to survive in this alien environment.

By the time we got to Charlie's house, I was drained. The flight and all the emotions in me had started to feel overwhelming. I had totally missed the truck in the driveway when we pulled up.

"What do you think, Bells?" Charlie asked, as we got out of his cruiser. I hadn't been surprised when he showed up in that thing; it was the only vehicle that he owned. He was the police chief of this tiny town, so it would have been more surprising if he had come in anything else.

"Of what?"

"The truck. Got it as a loaner for you. I figured you'd want your own car here, so I asked Billy down at the rez to loan me his truck for a bit. Jake isn't old enough to drive it anyway, so I figured you could use it in the meantime."

I stared at him. That was probably the most I'd ever heard Charlie say at once. I blinked, and followed his eyes to the truck parked in the driveway. It was painfully old, maybe 50s? 60s? It didn't matter, it gave me some kind of freedom and I was grateful for it.

"Oh my gosh, Char-Dad, this is great! Thank you! And thank Billy and Jake for me, too!" I knew who Billy was, but I couldn't place Jake. The name sounded familiar, but that was all. "I'll find a job soon and save up for my own car," I promised.

Dad shrugged. "Jake's only 15, so we have a year to do that. Glad you like it."

We walked in the house with my bags, me still slightly stunned about the truck. It would definitely make life easier.

The rest of the night was quiet. Charlie had turned on a game, so I set out to unpack everything. It took surprisingly little time. I really didn't have much, mostly just clothes. By the time I was done, it was close to dinner time. Charlie ordered us pizza and we ate it in front of the tv. If this was how life was going to be now, I would need more books to distract me. I couldn't see myself just sitting around watching sports every night.

I didn't sleep well that night. Stupid rain. I kept tossing and turning hoping that it would stop, but it didn't. By the time I finally got out of bed, Charlie was already gone for the day. He left a note telling me to have a good day at school. Yeah, right. New school in the middle of the year? Great.

The high school was frighteningly small. I wasn't used to anything like that, truthfully, but I ignored my unease and made it to the office to get my schedule. The woman behind the counter, Mrs. Cope, was pleasant enough, but I really just wanted to get out and go about my day. English, American History, Trig, Biology and PE. The classes were what I had expected.

The day crawled by. I kept my head down and tried not to trip over anything, making small talk here and there. The kids seemed friendly, for the most part, but I really didn't want to get attached to any of them. At lunch, I sat by myself at a small table toward the back. A curly-haired girl had asked me to join her table, but I shook my head and took out my Trig book, stating I needed to study as I was further behind than the class was. This was a lie, of course, but I really didn't want to start making any friends.

I noticed them in my haze of avoiding others. There were five of them, all walking in the cafeteria almost at the same time. They stood out among everyone because of simply how beautiful they were. A tall blonde, who had to be a model, holding hands with a guy who could give the Rock a run for his money. A shorter blond, who looked very uncomfortable, with his arm around a girl who would make me feel tall. Followed by the most beautiful man I'd ever seen in my life, with copper colored hair and a crooked grin aimed at one of the others.

I almost asked the curly-haired girl – Jessica? – about them, but I didn't want to walk over to her table just to do that. I shrugged and went back to my book. It didn't really matter anyway. If I was cautious, I could manage the year and a half year with ease, and without making any attachments, so I could go back to the sun.

When the bell rang, I gathered my trash and deposited it in the garbage can by the door. I walked into Biology a minute late, having gotten lost on my way there. I handed the teacher the paper Mrs. Cope had given me for all of my classes, and walked to the lab table that the teacher indicated. When I sat down, I looked up into the face of the beautiful copper haired man I'd noticed earlier.

The glare on his face startled me. I wasn't expecting it, as I really didn't know him at all. Hell, I didn't even know his name. But his black eyes – yes, they were black! – glared at me as though I had just killed his cat or something. I looked away and kept my head down the entire class period. Making an attachment with him wouldn't be hard to avoid, since he clearly hated me already.

Edward

I couldn't hold my breath when Mr. Molina asked me a question. But if I took in a deep gulp of air, my throat would burn like a thousand branding irons were going in at once. Never in my life as a vampire had I smelled anything so appealing. I was used to the normal burn from humans, but this one was a hundred times more powerful.

My brain was circling. Whatever possessed me to come in today? Why did she even exist? As a torment to ruin my life even more than it already was? What if I just had a little taste? I scoffed under my breath, there's no way I could keep it at just a taste. I knew fully that if I tasted her blood, given the way it called out to me, I would drain her as fast as possible.

Edward! I heard Alice shout in my head. Stop! Get out of there if you can, but do not do anything to harm this girl.

I couldn't talk back to her, as she was a floor away and wouldn't hear me. So, I held my breath and tried to think of a reason to leave the classroom. If Alice was giving me instruction that meant Mother was in on it; I had to trust them both.

Finally, I raised my hand and Mr. Molina called on me. "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm not feeling well. Is it OK if I go see the nurse?" That used up all my air. The teacher waived me off, so I grabbed my things and took off as fast as I could at a human pace to get away from her. I dropped my bag in my car, along with my keys - I knew Alice would find them – and I slipped into the forest beside the school.

Once I was running, I felt the shame of what I had almost done hit me like a ton of bricks. I had seriously considered killing a human in front of others! I could have ruined everything that we had built in Forks the last couple years...and so easily, too. Suddenly, I smelled someone getting closer and I realized it was my mother. I stopped running, already miles away from the school, just as she burst through the trees.

"So, you met her?" she asked, sitting down on a nearby tree stump.

"Is this what you were warning me about last week?" I asked, not answering the question that she already held the answer to.

She nodded. "As soon as Charlie made a decision about getting her a truck, Alice saw Bella moving here."

"Isabella," I corrected.

Mother laughed. "You weren't paying attention, dear. She corrected everyone today. She prefers Bella."

"I didn't think I needed to. She didn't seem to pay any attention to us; never asked any questions." I frowned, thinking back to the first part of the day. "In fact, she didn't really talk much at all. It's like she was trying not to be friendly to anyone."

Mother shrugged. "She made the choice to move here and believes it to be temporary. Why make friends when you know it's temporary. Right, Edward?" She eyed me, knowing that I was the exact same way.

"That's different, Mother. They are humans. Vampires and humans aren't exactly meant to be friends." I sighed and walked over to where she was sitting, falling next to her on the ground. I leaned my head against her leg, just as I had done when I was a child and needed comforting. "Just tell me what my choices are so we can go hunt. I can't get her smell out of my head."

She ran her fingers through my hair, in a comforting reminder of what she had done when I was younger, and hummed. "Hmmm. You have so many open to you right now. The one that's the most obvious is killing her. However, if you do that Alice sees horrible things in your future; all I can see is guilt and sadness enveloping you. I don't recommend that one, dear.

"But more interestingly are the options that surround you not killing her. I don't think I should tell you them, though."

My eyes shoot up to hers and she has a smug smile. I listen to her thoughts, which are amazingly not about what we are talking about. She was thinking of last night with Carlisle, so I suppressed the urge to vomit all over her and slip out of her mind. She did that on purpose, I'm sure of it.

"I don't understand. You've always told me my choices before."

"That's not true and you know it. I have tried to steer you to the path you should take, without actually giving you all of the options." She smiles and pushes my head back to her leg. "There are always choices, dear, and some have ramifications that you can't see clearly when you are making the decision. However, I can tell you that there is only one path ahead of you that makes you happier than you ever thought possible."

I thought about this for a moment. She had never led me wrong. She was the one person in the world that I trusted the most; even the rest of my family, who had my trust, wasn't as much as her. I knew that I should just blindly follow. "But how will I know what the right path is if you won't tell me?"

"You have to have faith in me and Alice, but also in yourself. Do not harm the girl. Instead, why don't you try getting to know her?"

This made me stand up. "Mother, I cannot even breath around her without wanting to drain her," I said, disgust edging into my voice. "How in the hell am I supposed to get to know her?"

"It's about desensitizing yourself. You need to be around her more. The more you get to know her, the less likely you are to want to hurt her. It's the same thing that we have done with humans for years; it's no different."

I shook my head, pacing around the trees. "It's extremely different. Her scent is like nothing I've ever smelled before. I don't think I can hold myself back." I looked up at her, suddenly knowing what to do. "I need to get out of here. I should leave before I hurt her and ruin everything for everyone."

I watched it play out in her head. The strand that I chose and the feeling of guilt, terror, loneliness and isolation. It was disorienting, as it always was when I read her thoughts. I fell to my knees. "Mother, please. Show me what happens if I get to know her?"

She hesitated, looking into my eyes. Then, she closed her eyes and I saw it. Friendship; companionship; love beyond anything I'd ever known in my hundred and seventeen years. Passion and laughter. I closed my eyes, seeing why she was so persistent in trying to convince me to stay and go down this path. This is everything I'd wanted, and somehow this human was the cause.

"It's so beautiful," I said, reliving the feelings I had picked up from her.

She placed her hand on my cheek. "This is what I want for you, dear. What you deserve. What you have earned through a lifetime of living through the rest of us."

Opening my eyes, I asked the only question that I could think of. "How do I do this?"

A/N: Yes, Bella's story is a little different from the book. In my mind, having one more person be alive could have the butterfly affect on a lot...so, stuff changed. We already know they were made for each other right? That much was always clear; so, here's my version of it.

Is the bloodlust still here? Hell yeah, that's sort of a fundamental part of the story, right? But, in my version anyway, it's something he worked hard to overcome even faster. You'll see what I mean in the next chapter. Some key things are here still, because not everything was going to be all that different.

I've been sick the last week so I'm a little behind on my chapter writing, but this is definitely getting into the 20+ chapter range already. The story keeps getting away from me with all the things I'm trying to address (or really, fix) from the original book. It's really fun being able to take the characters out for spin, honestly. I hope you are all enjoying it!

Thanks again to my betas: My sister and my best buddy zombified419! Love you both!