Bella looked up at me as I closed my bedroom door behind us. "Will they be able to hear us if we talk?" she whispered.

I shook my head. "The house is fairly well soundproofed. We'd drive each other crazy if it wasn't."

"Good." Bella sighed, visibly sagging.

I took her hand and led her over to my couch, pulling her down on my lap. She snuggled easily into my chest. "Did I do a good job?"

I kissed her forehead. "You did a wonderful job."

Bella was silent a moment. "I... I don't know, I thought you had told them."

Of course that was still on her mind. "I've been trying to protect your privacy as much as possible. If it didn't seem necessary, I didn't say it."

"I guess... at least Rosalie wasn't thinking those things on purpose, for me to hear them."

I sighed. "You should have told me, I could have -"

"No." Bella's voice was suddenly firm. "I want to know what she thinks of me."

I pulled back, eyeing her in surprise. "Why?"

Bella stared down at her hands. "Even without her power, she has a point. You said she was mad at you for keeping things from her - and wasn't your whole family mad, when they first found out that you'd been keeping me a secret? It's not... a surprise, I guess, that at least one member of your family would still be angry. And if that's the case, isn't it better that I know?"

I stared at her while she stared at her hands, my mind whirling. "You're so..." words failed me, and I pulled her close, hugging her as tightly as I dared. "What did I do to deserve you?"

Bella hummed a little in her throat. "What do you mean?"

Could she really have no idea? I pulled back, cupping her cheeks in my hands, and she stared seriously back at me. "Let me in," I said softly. "Just for a moment."

Her mind opened to mine, the confusion on her face echoed by the confusion in her mind. So I remembered.

I remembered how happy we'd both been to see each other that morning. How beautiful she was when she came down the stairs, all dressed up to meet my family. How excited I was when she'd made it clear she enjoyed kissing me as much as I enjoyed kissing her. How proud I had been when she'd said hello to my family. My pleased surprise, and the reactions I'd read in my family members, as she addressed each of them. And finally, how much I loved her now, as she tried to understand and sympathize with Rosalie, who had shown her nothing but anger and contempt.

We sat together in companionable quiet. My arms were around her again, and I was enjoying her warmth, her closeness, and her trust as she left her mind open to me. And she, as she read my mind, was calming down, her heart rate decreasing and her breathing slowing as my memories and thoughts reassured her.

I heard Jasper and Alice coming before Alice knocked on the door. I forgot to tell you.

"Come in," I said, as Bella's mind snapped shut again.

Alice entered, smiling as she saw us on the couch. Jasper hung back in the doorway, debating coming in, but decided instead on a wave before he continued down the hallway to his and Alice's room. He was doing better than he would have expected, being close to Bella, but he didn't want to push too far - didn't want to take chances. I had to agree.

"There's going to be a storm tonight," Alice said, dropping gracefully to the floor, sprawling out on my carpet as if she intended to stay. "The boys want to play baseball." I got a vision of three nomadic vampires, no one we've met, visiting the area sometime in the next 24 hours. You should keep an eye on Bella.

I gave Alice a short nod, letting her know I'd heard and understood. "What do you think?" I asked, looking down at Bella.

"About what?"

I smiled at her puzzled expression. "About baseball."

She looked alarmed now. "I'm not expected to play, right?"

Alice laughed, amused at the thought. "Our baseball is a little more extreme than what humans play."

"Oh, it's not that," Bella said. Alice was momentarily shocked. "I'm just clumsy, especially with sports. If you guys wanted to race I'd be down."

"Really?" Alice looked to me for confirmation.

I nodded. "We raced yesterday. She nearly beat me."

"Huh. Wow. I didn't know - but we hardly know anything about you, after all."

"Sorry," Bella said.

"Don't be. We'll get to know you." Alice sighed. "I suppose you want me to leave now." You're both looking remarkably... cozy.

I rolled my eyes. Sometimes she could be as bad as Emmett. "Only if you want to give Bella a breather."

"Oh! Right!" A little chagrined now, Alice jumped to her feet, twirling toward the door. "See you tonight!" I'll leave you alone for now, but you'd better bring her tonight! You can't just keep her all to yourself!

Bella sighed as the door closed behind Alice. "There's so many people in this house."

"It's also a pretty large house," I said. "There's room for all of us."

"That's good, I guess." But Bella didn't look convinced.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know." Bella huddled a little closer to me. "I guess I've been getting used to living in that little house with just Charlie. This is reminding me a little of where I lived in Arizona." She lifted up her head and looked around my room. "Though you're right, this place is huge. Maybe it's okay."

"Where did you live before, exactly?" I asked. "You told me it was a 'big house with other young shifters,' but could you be more specific?"

Bella chewed on her lip a moment, sighing when I retaliated by caressing her lip with my thumb. "I guess, it's kinda like how dorms are for college students," she said. "Just a big house, with room after room after room. We all had our own rooms, but bathrooms were shared between four of us."

"That does sound like a dorm," I said, "though at least you didn't have to share a room. Still, you didn't like it?"

Bella shook her head. "The rooms were so small, and I was always afraid of being in the bathroom too long in case someone else needed to use it. And of course we got checked on all the time."

"Checked on? By who?"

"Sort of... substitute parents. Since none of us had parents, groups of the same age got assigned one person to check on them and get what they needed."

"Sounds rather clinical," I said. I held her a little tighter, resting my cheek on her head. "I can see why someone wouldn't flourish in that environment."

Bella shrugged.

We sat in silence another moment before I spoke, worried that Bella was sinking too far into her own thoughts - and not good ones. "Would you like to see the rest of the house? Well, most of it. I won't show you everyone else's bedrooms."

"Sure," Bella said, sounding a little more chipper - though whether that was sincere or forced for my benefit, I wasn't sure.

We started at the top floor of the house, winding our way down as I pointed things out to her - artifacts we'd collected; paintings that included Carlisle, the oldest of us; knickknacks that Esme was particularly proud of. Bella giggled when she saw a crucifix predominantly displayed, one that had belonged to Carlisle's father. "Humans get things really wrong sometimes, don't they?" she said.

We ended up on the ground floor, which everyone had vacated by now, and I led Bella to my piano.

"You can play?" Bella asked, eyeing the instrument with wonder.

"Would you like to hear me?"

She nodded enthusiastically, and I sat down.

I knew immediately what to play - the piece I'd composed the first day we'd really spent time together, the first day I'd been in her house and helped her with her homework. The day we sat outside together and she admitted she struggled to read and write. I'd toyed with it several times since then, adding new themes, making the harmonies more complex, and by now it was something I was rather proud of.

I looked up at Bella as a finished playing. She was leaning against the piano, her eyes closed, a peaceful expression on her face. She slowly opened her eyes as the last notes lingered in the room, and smiled at me.

"Did you like it?" I asked.

She nodded. "It was beautiful. But how do you play without music?"

I smirked a little. "Well, I wrote it."

"Wow. You're amazing."

She looked back down at the piano, reaching out to touch the smooth wood. She looked almost sad. I spoke again. "Actually, you were my inspiration for it."

She looked up at me with a start. "What?"

"I wrote this after the first time we went to your house," I explained. "The first time I helped you with your homework. I wrote this after I got home." I smiled at her. "You could say... I wrote it for you."

Bella blushed, of course. "Oh." She bit her lip. I tapped it and she let go, giving me a small smile. "I guess... I kinda did the same thing."

"What do you mean?"

Her blush was stronger. "Want to see my room?"

Full of curiosity, I stood up from the bench. "We should go back anyway - we need to get lunch and a nap in before we go play baseball, don't we?"

"Oh." Bella looked down as if considering. "I suppose you're right."

"Then let's head back to your house."

I waited until we were in the car to ask her a question. "Now that you've calmed down some... what did you think of my family?"

"Hmm." Bella leaned back in her seat, looking at the ceiling. "They were kinder then I had expected."

"Really? I tried to assure you that they were looking forward to meeting you."

Bella shrugged. "Honestly, I didn't know what that would look like."

"And you say that despite Rosalie?"

"Rosalie has her reasons," Bella said. "She's disliked me for a long time, so we're not going to suddenly get along just because of one meeting."

"You're taking this better than I expected," I admitted.

Bella shot me a shy smile. "I feel like I could do anything for you."

I took her hand, squeezing it gently. "I feel the same way."

We spent the rest of the drive in companionable quiet. Once at her house, she decided to eat lunch first. I waited, eager but patient, for her to prepare food, eat, and clean up. Then she turned to me with another shy smile. "Ready?" she asked.

I nodded. "I've been waiting."

I followed her up the stairs. Bella stopped before a closed door, looked back at me, then opened the door and went into the room.

Her walls were covered with sheets of paper.

I stepped closer to one wall, and suddenly I realized what was happening. I'd seen her doodle in her notebook during class, and just today she'd mentioned drawing to Esme. But though maybe I could have guessed that she'd be showing me drawings of hers, I couldn't have been prepared for this.

I walked slowly, taking in as many of the drawings as I could - flowers, trees, plants, portraits of students at school, a couple drawings of Jacob, other portraits I didn't recognize, a few landscapes. She worked both with pencil and with pen, but not with color.

I was vaguely aware of Bella, as she sat on her bed watching me, but I was enthralled with these drawings. I was about halfway around the room when I stopped in my tracks.

My own face was staring back at me.

Her drawing of me was quite good, quite realistic - the same face I saw in the mirror. I glanced away from it to recognize another of me, this time my profile - as she would have seen me if she glanced my way during class in the weeks we hadn't been talking to each other. There was yet a third of me, a little farther down the wall, this time a full-body sketch that must have been of me sitting at a table during lunch.

I turned to look at Bella. She was staring down at her hands in her lap. As if noticing I was looking at her, she slowly lifted her head. "Do you... like them?"

"You're quite talented," I said. I crossed the room and sat beside her, slipping my arm around her waist. "I hadn't even realized you had time for a hobby."

Bella leaned into my side. "I've been drawing ever since I first shifted," she said. "I told you I couldn't speak, and that I didn't let them in my mind all the time. Drawing what I wanted was an allowable way of communicating.

"Those even aren't all the ones of you," Bella continued in a shy voice. She leaned over, picking up a book off her nightstand and flipping it open. It was a sketchbook, mostly filled with still life objects, but every few pages would be another sketch of me.

"I guess I got a little obsessed," Bella said softly.

I kissed her forehead. "I'm flattered."

Bella closed the book and stifled a yawn. "I guess I am tired," she said. "I could take a nap."

"Can I please stay this time?" I asked, watching as she slipped out of my embrace and sprawled back on the bed. "After all, after your nap you're coming with me."

She looked up at me curiously. "Why do you want to stay? Weren't you bored, the day I fell asleep on you?"

I shook my head, smiling at the memory. "Not at all. I enjoy being close to you, no matter what we're doing or not doing. Not to mention - " I smiled more widely - "your mind is open while you sleep."

That familiar blush flared on Bella's face. "Oh yeah," she whispered. "I haven't thought anything embarrassing, have I?"

"Not at all," I assured her. "I've only been here the one time, and you didn't sleep for long. All I could read was vague emotions. But that's why I enjoyed it. Focused on your sleeping mind, it was almost as if I too were sleeping - the closest I've gotten to the sensation since I turned."

"But, what, are you going to..." she lifted her head a little and looked around the room, "sit in my computer chair? For hours?"

"Mmmm..." I wasn't sure how she was going to take this, but... "Why don't you scoot over?"

Bella shifted in the bed, doing as I asked, but her eyebrows pulled together. "Why am I... oh," she finished, as I stretched out on the bed next to her. She turned on her side to face me, her eyes wide. "So... you want to stay here. Like, here here."

I gently brushed some hair back from her face. "Is that a problem?"

"Um." She was completely red, her heart racing. "No..."

"Are you sure? I can go sit in the chair if you'd prefer."

"Um. But... the bed's kinda small..."

"Okay, then roll over."

Again, Bella obeyed, though she still seemed confused and hesitant. Once her back was to me, I put my arm around her and slid her close, her back against my chest. "How's this?" I asked.

"Um..." Bella put one hand over her red face and whispered her next words. "Really, really nice."

"Then you'll let me stay?"

"Yeah." She made a little noise in her throat. "Though I don't know how you expect me to fall asleep like this!"

"Close your eyes," I said softly. She obeyed, relaxing a little in my arms, and I began to hum.

By the time I'd finished humming the melody to the piece I'd written for her, she was asleep in my arms, her heart slow, her breathing even, and her mind open. I sighed in contentment and snuggled closer to her. My mind focused on hers, I let my own eyes close.

Hey wonderful humans! I regretfully announce an official hiatus on this fanfic. The ending is proving difficult to wrangle, and I'd rather take a break to get things smoothed out instead of throw up some half-baked chapters. I'll also use this time to get some prep work done on both Choices (Secrets from Bella's POV) and an as-yet-unnamed sequel to Secrets. I'm hoping to get back to posting regularly by April, though I might post a couple of sneak peeks/mini chapters in between. Thanks for reading!