Chapter 12

Edward didn't think he was supposed to smell through glass, but molecules were tricky bastards that way. At least the aroma wasn't overpowering, yet.

"I called Chief Swan on Thursday morning, to see if Bella could come in Friday. She told me she got to skip gym." Carlisle smiled and thought of a few incidents, before the girl had managed to convince everyone that yoga would be far preferable than normal physical education.

"She does yoga?"

Emmett snorted. "Yeah, Rosie made us do it with her." Huhuh, do it with her.

"Because we'd stand out too much in any other activity! Carlisle was going to write us excuses till we saw that Bella was actually helping teach the class last year."

"She was even teaching seniors?" Oddly enough, Edward almost felt proud of her. After all, witch powers indicate one's personality, and normally he'd think a mentally private person would be shy.

"She was pretty good at the lessons, but she didn't really interact with anyone she didn't already know," Emmett told him.

"The other problem is her syncope in the presence of blood." At Emmett's blank stare, he added, "Fainting."

Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie broke out into laughter.

"Oh, I was wrong, you all should be grounded," chided Esme.

"At any rate, I have it here." Carlisle reached into his black bag - the same one he had when Edward first met him, he was certain - and pulled it out.

More beautiful than a ruby - more enticing than alcohol to a drunk - Edward's own brand of heroin - tipped over into Edward's hand.

A glass specimen tube, containing a blood sample of one Ms. Bella Swan.

"Here, follow me, he doesn't need anyone to see this. Let him get comfortable alone." At Carlisle's urging, Jasper and the Cullens left, all but Rosalie.

She didn't say anything, but she didn't have to: her thoughts were enough. He withstood her mockery for a while, remembering how annoying he'd always found her, until finally he was about to say something.

And took a breath.

The next few moments were a bit of a blur, with him coming to a few seconds later, crawling and licking the shattered glass tube that he had - dropped? squeezed?

The blood on his hand was the first to go, then the remains on the glass, and finally he was literally sucking the carpet. It was over a day old, refrigerated and still not yet room temperature, but it was the blood of his singer. Nothing else mattered.

Rose's voice cut through his haze. "I mean, gross."

"Have you tried it?"

"I've never tasted human blood," she reminded him in a lofty tone.

"Sorry. Apparently my telepathy seems to have briefly shorted out."

"Again, gross. Weren't you even eating people a few weeks ago?"

"Not really? It took a week to get here from Montreal..."

"I said a few weeks, dork," Rose repeated.

He blinked. "Oh. Right. Not that often, but yes. Jasper would find criminals who got away with rape and/or murder, for when we were sick of ... rat blood..." Rats are a million miles away for Edward, and he understood why singers were so prized. He couldn't imagine something better than what he'd been sucking out of the carpet.

Oh. Dear. He'd been sucking blood out of the carpet. He stood up again. "There's a bathroom I can use to wash up?"

Rose was thinking of how he had blood all over his face. He was determined to wash it off rather than taste any more. Besides, it was probably just dried smears at this point. "Bathroom, yeah." She pictured walking to it, and he ironically bowed to her before he left.

His face was just as disgusting as Rosalie thought, to be honest. He was truly glad that no one else was present for it - and that no one else would ever read Rose's mind to replay his instinctual behavior. He was acting like, well, an animal.

Not anymore. See, he was washing his face! Like a human! He didn't need to use soap - his skin didn't produce oils like human skin - but he did anyway, because it was the human thing to do. "Rose?"

What is it?

"I think I understand why you go back to high school and college."

"To learn?" From humans.

"So you can be around humans more. I thought it was torture at first, but -"

"It can be," she grinned, and Edward's jaw dropped.

"What? I do have a sense of humor, Edward."

"Sorry. Chelsea pretty much killed any positive feelings I ever had for you," he muttered.

She walked into the bathroom. "Oh Edward. We did laugh together, before you left again. I think you'll really like Emmett, if you get to know him, that's one thing he's good at, laughing."

"Yes, I can read minds, remember. He was making crude jokes almost the entire time Carlisle was talking."

Rose smiled and took his hand into hers. That's my Em.

"Actually I might need Emmett later tonight, are you hunting?"

"We don't usually hunt more than twice a month," she said slowly. "Do you need to -?"

"I should," he said, pointing at his eyes.

"Oh! Right. I keep forgetting. I mean, it's not something we've had to worry about. Emmett's last slip, he was still practically a newborn, mid-thirties or so."

"Definitely long enough to not be thinking about it."

"That's something else that going to school makes you think about. Not killing all those people."

Edward gulped. "You have killed people, though. And the people I kill make those men look like saints." He ran a bit of water, rinsed his mouth out, and spat, as if for emphasis.

"I was a newborn, and there wasn't actually any evidence," she said, her former patience with him starting to fade with this topic. "Since, you know, after they killed me I came back as a vampire!"

"I know, Rose, I never judged you."

Rose's anger dissolved, and she hugged Edward. "Yeah, that was the other reason I put up with you."

He hugged her back, tentatively. "But you think interacting with them daily makes it easier to abstain?"

"If you have good control - and I know you do - then definitely. I don't know about Jasper, though. Carlisle tells me he went through some of those big vampire wars in the South?"

Edward nodded. "I'm amazed he has the control he does have. It might be a bad idea putting him in a high school, though. Too many missteps and accidents..." He trailed off. "Didn't Carlisle say that Bella was incredibly clumsy?"

"She is, that's why she was doing yoga, right."

"Tell Emmett and Jasper I'm going to the high school."

Rose stared at him. "You're joking, right? Please tell me you're joking."

"I'll catch a squirrel or something on the way."

"Edward, you won't be able to smell her from here! At school she has a nurse and emergency contacts. She'll be fine, and you aren't even allowed on the grounds."

He gave his most winning crooked smile. "Only if they see me." And then he twirled around and ran downstairs, then out the house, then onto the highway.

"Jasper! Emmett!"

"In the garage!" hollered Emmett, as the garage was almost a mile from the house.

Rose ran, not nearly as fast as Edward, but faster than she'd have been able to as a human.

"Hey babe, what's up? Jasper wanted to see the collection."

It was true, Jasper was inspecting each and every car in the garage. She smiled, as working on cars was one of her favorite things in the world. "Well, Mr. Masen decided that Ms. I'm-Dangerously-Clumsy needs his help to get through the day uninjured. Never mind that she was hit by a van not due to her own clumsiness, and got through that pretty much ok without Mr. Know-It-All's white knight-ery. God, that guy can piss me off."

"Oh Lord, is that what he's doing? Come on, Emmett, we'll take your Jeep to the school."