Life settled down into a routine after that. Due to being grounded I no longer saw Angela or any of my other friends outside of school but I did see Carlisle on a night. He tried to avoid night shifts where possible and crept into my room after Charlie had settled down and gone to sleep. We kissed and talked in hushed voices but there was no more sex. But if that was the price I had to pay for having Carlisle in my life, then it was a price I was willing to pay.
Christmas was a quiet affair. Charlie was still mad at me, though we had made amends somewhat. To be honest, it would never have been a big affair. We had no family in Forks other than each other, but the quiet suited us.
New Year passed in much the same way. Billy and Jacob came over on New Year and it was nice to spend time with a friend. Jacob had grown since I had last seen him and was now taller, over 6 foot and more muscular than I remembered even though it had only been a couple of months.
On Christmas night Carlisle crawled into my room just before midnight. He laid with me and as we held each other and kissed he presented me with a gift. It was a simple silver chain with a little silver heart on it. It was beautiful and perfect.
"Cold and hard just like my own heart, but just like my own heart it too is all yours," he has said the trace of a sad smile at the corner of his mouth.
"Carlisle it's beautiful," I had breathed tracing the dainty heart. That night I had put it on and it had never left my neck. Charlie had asked once, I shrugged it off saying Renee had sent it to me. I knew he wouldn't check.
It made the present I had got Carlisle week inadequate. I had gifted him cufflinks with our initials carved into them and a map of the stars the night we had first kissed. I had used some of my savings for them and had gotten them the one time Charlie had allowed me out, to Port Angeles to Christmas shop around a week before the big day. He knew I had to send Renee something and he had benefited too with a new fishing rod and holder for his bait.
We had not heard from Edward since the event. That was how I thought if it now. The event. He had checked in with Esme and ignored her when she had tried to reason with him. He said he needed time to think and had taken off again, living the life of a nomad.
Carlisle assured me that Edward could come around he just needed time and that tended to pass differently for vampires. Years could pass for them before they even noticed how long had passed.
I had thought my guilt would assuage when Edward knew but instead my guilt just took on a different form. I wished I could sit him down and explain though I knew it would make little difference.
Carlisle had said he would try and talk to Charlie but the opportunity had not presented itself and I was worried it may make things worse. Whilst I wasn't exactly enjoying sneaking around with Carlisle it was better than him being chased out of town by the Chief of Police.
As the weeks wore on Charlie's grip became somewhat less tight. I was allowed to spent time with my friends, only after Charlie had spoken to their parents to confirm I was going there. He wouldn't have me running off the Cullen's again.
I relished the slight taste of freedom the first Friday I got to go to Angela's house to stay over. Her parents were away and her grandparents had her younger brothers so were having a girls night. Pizza, movies and a break from the craziness that was my real life, not that Angela knew about that.
Angela wasn't one to probe naturally but it was a natural question as we laid on her carpeted living room floor half watching 10 Things I hate About You for the thousandth time.
"So how come your dad grounded you?" I groaned inwardly at the question. I didn't have a convincing lie, everyone else had just accepted my grounding at face value, I wasn't exactly an outgoing person before.
"Erm it's complicated," I hedged around the question.
"I only ask because everything seemed fine and normal and then you were grounded out of nowhere," she continued, not in a forceful way she sounded genuinely caring and concerned for me.
"I was seeing someone and Charlie didn't approve. They were older," I explained being careful in the details I gave.
Angela's mouth fell open in shock.
"How much older?" she asked,
"10 or so years," or 300 I thought in my head.
She was silent for a long time and I began to panic, thinking I had said too much.
"Wow, Bella, I had no idea," she was shocked. Understandable I guess, I had been very secretive but for good reason.
"Yeah," I said lamely. "Well, Charlie found and put a stop to it so now I'm just coming out of the punishment."
"You weren't.. you know…" she paused, "Taken advantage of?"
My hand flew to my mouth in a shock, a pained giggle escaped from lips.
"No, God no. I pursued him." She sighed her shoulders visibly falling with relief.
"Oh Good. I was worried there for a moment." We were silent for a moment before she asked, "Now what?"
"Now I get into college I suppose," that lightened the mood. Enough of the heavy we began discussing where we had applied, where we hoped to get into most of all, our finance plans for college given neither of us came from particularly wealthy families.
Angela was hoping to get into Washington State with Ben but had also filed applications at the University of Washington and Alaska. I told her I had applied to the University of Pennsylvania and Brown and Washington State.
It was nice to reconnect. I had gotten caught up in Carlisle and started neglecting our Friday evenings and then with being grounded it had been weeks since I had spent any real-time with a friend. I had to remind myself it wasn't normal to spend all my time running with vampires, sometimes I needed to nurture the human in me.
When I was leaving the next morning she pulled me in for a hug and said, "you can always trust me, Bella. I'm always here for you."
I hugged her closer and said, "I know, Ang, love you." Angela truly had become such a good friend to me whilst I had been in Forks. We were kindred spirits and I felt a pang of pain knowing that in only a few short months I would be saying goodbye for the last time.
Tensions at home had eased though when I arrived home on Saturday morning Charlie still looked at me with the air of suspicion.
"How was Angela?" he asked tentatively, testing me.
"Good. We talked about college a lot. She's hoping to go with her boyfriend Ben but she has also applied to Alaska," I said deliberately giving too much information. If I overshared he couldn't think I was lying and sneaked out to see Carlisle.
"That's far," he commented.
"Only about the same as the east coast," I reminded him. He gave a little 'hmpf' at that. I knew he was proud of me but he wished I would stay closer for college. But didn't every parent wish that?
The rest of the day passed rather uneventfully. I did laundry and cleaned the house. Given that it was the kind of bright winters day where the sun shone giving the impression of warmth only to find when you stepped outside it was freezing. The kind of winters day Forks didn't often have. The winters in Forks were usually dark and dreary with rain and black ice. Not bright and sunny and filled with the promise of spring. I took advantage of the dry fresh air and opened my window slightly to let the air circulate.
I found myself rather happy. I plugged my headphones in and sung quietly to myself as I gave the house once over. That gained me quite a few amused looks from Charlie. I didn't let myself feel embarrassed, I just smiled back and carried on with my cleaning.
Once the house was done; the kitchen and bathroom cleaned, floors tidy and hoovered, my bed made and room clean I felt very at peace. The light shining in just made the house gleam even more. I was proud of my handiwork.
My next task was refilling the scant fridge. We had eaten through the store-bought food and had been living off of the fish Charlie caught and kept in the chest freezer.
I popped my head around the living room door.
"Dad is it ok if I go to the supermarket? We don't have a lot of food left," I explained. I had gone shopping in my time since being grounded but I wanted to stay in Charlie's good books so it seemed appropriate to ask first.
"Yeah sure, the money is in the jar," his eyes flicking off the sports game on the screen for just a moment.
I grabbed the cash from the jar and my jacket and headed out. I breathed in the first, cold air enjoying the feeling of it in my lungs.
The supermarket was uneventful as supermarkets often are but I managed to get a good week's supply of food, possibly more if Charlie wanted to go to the diner which was likely given it was Charlie after all.
As I climbed back into the cab of my truck my arm filled with produce my phone buzzed with a message from Carlisle. It was instructions to meet him at the start of a trail not 15 minutes past the Thriftway. I knew it must be urgent otherwise Carlisle would never ask to meet me in the day, not at the moment he knew it was too risky.
I drove as fast I could pushing my old truck to her 50 mph limit. The anxiety knotted itself in my stomach as I chewed on my lip till I could taste the disgusting familiar metallic taste of blood. I grimaced to myself.
The entirety of the short drive my mind pondered on the most awful circumstances. Someone had died, the Volturi were coming and they knew about me. I knew for Carlisle to ask to meet in the middle of the day it must be bad.
When I arrived at the edge of the wooded path there was no other car there. Not Carlisle's black Mercedes or even perhaps an off-road vehicle like Emmett had. I was kind of expecting something like that. I killed the engine and sat in the eery quiet waiting for him. My leg tapped nervously and I picked unconsciously at the skin around my nails. An old habit I had had for years that only showed itself when I was most anxious.
I had been waiting not 5 minutes when I heard the door of the cab go and felt Carlisle next to me.
I turned to face him, not saying anything but the panic and worry written on my face. I could see the concern reflected in his own eyes. So he was worried as well. Then it must be bad. His eyes softened upon meeting mine but the worry didn't go away as I might have expected it to.
"Bella," he breathed his hand reaching out to stroke my face. I closed my eyes for a moment and let myself enjoy the feel of his touch. Then the worry knotted again and reminded me of its presence.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
Carlisle let out a deep sigh.
"Victoria is back. She's been in Forks."
At that moment my heart stopped and my world went quiet. Victoria was back. For me. With everything that had happened with Carlisle and Charlie, I had forgotten about that. I mean not completely, I just hadn't worried about it. It seemed far removed from me and I focused on the more immediate stuff. That seemed silly now. Childish. How had I put of my mind a bloodthirsty vampire who wanted vengeance for her dead mate? I shook my head.
I could feel bile rising as I processed the information. Victoria was back. Victoria was back. It was an out of body experience. I could hear my breath getting shorter and shorter and yet I couldn't seem to do anything to slow it down. Victoria was back.
"Bella," it was Carlisle's voice that snapped me out of my spiral. Oh, he was still here. I shook my head trying to shake away the fog. When I look up his face was full of doctorly concern. I could see his eyes scanning mine, doing a basic once over to make sure I was ok.
"I'm fine," I breathed finding myself short of breath. "Just shocked is all."
He took my hand in his. I watched as he enveloped my smaller hand with his larger, stronger, cold one. He thumbs brushed across the sides of my fingers were I had picked the skin till it bled. Good thing he was immune to the smell of human blood,
"I wish that was all my love," he sighed. There was more. I was right. The Volturi were coming. We were all going to die. Me, Carlisle, Charlie, the rest of the Cullen's. That was it. My breathing crept up getting faster and faster until I was almost hyperventilating.
"Bella," his voice was sterner this time. Demanding I snap out of it. I looked up at him.
"Sorry," I mumbled taking a deep breath trying to control myself. "What else?" Whatever it was couldn't be worse than the news Victoria was back.
Carlisle took a deep breath this time, seemingly steadying himself.
"She's got an army."
"An army?" I questioned. "I don't follow."
"A newborn vampire army. When we are first changed we are never more physically powerful than in our first six months of this life, whilst our human blood lingers in our tissue," he started to explain.
"They used to be very common, in the south. They were used to fight over territory. They are deadly. They are seldom controlled but they are powerful. They could wipe out entire towns in one night."
I was less panicked now, more focused. So there was a newborn vampire army out to kill me. Fine. Easy. We need a plan.
"How do we know this? That Victoria is doing this?"
"Alice saw her. She was being careful but she slipped up, all it took was a second and Alice saw it and fit it all together. The murders in Seattle, the destruction is too much for a human. It all makes sense."
I had seen that in the paper. I hadn't given it much thought at the time. Charlie had gone on a rant about the dangers of cities and I had more or less tuned out. I had heard that rant before.
"So what happens now?" I asked. If Alice had seen it she must have a plan.
"The family are coming back. They want to be here to protect Forks. To protect you. I can't take them out on my own."
"Edward?" I said his name cautiously, sounding it out in my mouth as I said it.
"I think he'll come back too. He won't leave you if he knows there's a chance you could be harmed.
"So she's coming here then? To Forks?" I just realised what he has said. That the family were coming back to protect the town. If Victoria came here she could quite easily slaughter Forks, just like Carlisle had said about those vampires in the south.
"Yes," Carlisle squeezed my hand, "but that's why the family are coming back. They won't leave Forks unprotected either. This is our home."
"When will they be here?"
"Tonight."
I bit my lip, suddenly nervous about seeing them all.
"Also Bella, I think its best I talk to Charlie now. I need straighten things out with him because I don't want to let you out of my sight."
I nodded in agreement. I would have fought it but we had bigger battles. Literally.
I leaned my forehead against Carlisle's, needing to feel close to him.
He whispered to me, "you trust me don't you sweetheart?"
"Yes," I whispered back. "With my life."