House Call

As he pulled his father's car into the driveway, Jacob Black felt like something was not quite right. The house was dark but she had told him she would be waiting there to talk to him. He did not see the police cruiser in the driveway, either. Oh well, he thought, he was early. Jacob got out of the car and walked tentatively towards the house.

He was glad she had agreed to meet with him. While he was on the phone with her earlier it occurred to him that she might just blow off anything he has to say. If she really was friends with them, she had probably told them about the stories that were going around the reservation. He tried to make sure she knew that he didn't believe them, it was all so ridiculous, but he couldn't shake the feeling she was taking him seriously. He shouldn't have told her that Billy and Sam were upset because she was hanging out with the Cullens. He was worried that, after the phone call his father had made to hers earlier that day and the stories he had told her the day before, she wouldn't want anything to do with him. But she had agreed to see him, so that was better than nothing.

The creaking sound the first step made when his foot hit it made Jacob jump. Then he laughed. Sure, he thought, everything that had been going on lately with Paul and Sam and his father was a little weird, but not enough to make him this jittery. It was just a house dark house on a dark night. He was suddenly glad he had decided to come alone. Quil and Embry would never have let him live that down.

He reached the porch and decided to try knocking on the door on the off chance that she actually was there, waiting for him in the dark. His hand was about to make contact with the wood when a noise behind him made him stop. It was the same creaking that had just made him nearly jump out of his skin.

He turned around hoping to see that it was Bella but he was wrong. This was a woman he had never seen before. He was about to ask what she was doing there but she spoke first. Her voice and her eyes were mesmerizing.

"Your scent does not belong to this place, boy, but perhaps you can tell me where to find the ones who do?"

Jacob just stared at her, unsure of how to respond. His instincts told him this woman was dangerous but his other senses could not agree.

She was very attractive, one of the most beautiful women he had ever encountered but was dressed in some of the strangest clothing he had ever seen on a person. She was fair, her skin pale white and her hair was bright, almost flaming, red.

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She was nervous to greet them, suddenly worried that his family might be furious with her for intruding on their secrecy. She walked into the living room hesitantly and was met with six pairs of eyes staring at her. Even if they weren't… in their presence she couldn't bring herself to use the word, even in her head, but even if they weren't what they were, the experience would have been unnerving. They looked just as uneasy as she felt.

She tried to smile. "Hi."

They paused for a second, as if unsure how they should respond. She couldn't help but feel that they were trying not to frighten her. Dr. Cullen then walked towards her, returning her smile.

"Hello Bella, nice to see you again."

He moved his hand up as if to shake hers then hesitated and dropped it back down to his side. She was determined to make sure they knew she was okay with this, with whatever this was, so she extended her own hand and stood there until he took it. His skin was just as cold and hard as Edward's.

He looked to the woman standing next to him, the one Bella had not seen before and had not paid attention to before this moment. She was stunning, like they all were, and there was a warmth in her eyes when she smiled that made Bella feel instantly comfortable around her. She, too, extended her hand.

"I'm Esme. It's so lovely to finally meet you, Bella."

Bella took it with pleasure but let out a gasp when she found herself being pulled from Edward's side and embraced instead by his adopted mother. She, much like her father, was not one of those people who made a habit of hugging people but she couldn't help but be touched by the friendly reception she was getting. She hadn't realized it until that moment, but Bella had been nervous that Edward's family wouldn't like her.

When Esme pulled away and returned to the other side of the room to stand next to her husband, Edward reintroduced her to Alice and Jasper. Alice was as bubbly as ever, quite the contrast to everyone else in the room, and Jasper smiled silently and nodded his head. He then introduced her to Rosalie and Emmett, the only two of his siblings she hadn't spoken to before. Emmett flashed her a big smile, making her a little nervous, and Rosalie smiled at her as well. Bella felt like the smile looked a little forced, but tried to convince herself that it was nothing.

Nobody spoke and she realized they were all looking at Edward. Edward was looking at Dr. Cullen.

"You'll have to ask her that." There was bitterness in his voice. Again, Bella felt a wave of sadness sweep over her. She wondered what could possibly be torturing this beautiful soul. She looked up at him standing next to her and returned her arm to the place it had formerly held around his waist.

"What's going on, Edward?"

He was still staring at the doctor. "My father thinks it would be more appropriate for you and I to speak by ourselves… but he wants to make sure you're comfortable with being left alone with me before they go."

Bella looked around the room at everyone looking anxiously at her before her eyes rested back on the boy she still had her arm around. "Why wouldn't I be?"

He finally turned to look at her, the tortured expression intensifying in his eyes. He was about to speak when his sister cut him off.

"It's all my fault, Bella, don't blame him," Alice said from across the room as she jumped up.

"You have got to be kidding me," Edward scoffed.

Bella didn't see her move but suddenly Alice was standing right in front of her holding her free hand. Words began to pour out of her mouth at an alarming speed.

"It is. It's all my fault. I thought that what I saw was him losing control but it wasn't, he would never have hurt you if I hadn't startled him that night we were in your room. If you're going to be upset with someone be upset with me. He could never hurt you, Bella, you have to believe me, he loves you too much."

Bella couldn't move, couldn't breathe. The room was starting to spin around her as her overloaded mind tried to process everything she had just heard packed into those few, run together sentences. The beautiful faces of the people who had gathered around her began to fade. She thought she heard Edward's voice calling out to her but it sounded far away. Then all the faces and the voices faded into nothing and there was only blackness.

…

Edward was able to catch her before she hit the ground and lay her gently on the couch before he turned to face his sister. He had never, in nearly 40 years, been this upset with Alice, in fact the two of them had always been very close. Had she thought about those words at all before they came spilling out of her mouth, he would have stopped her but she didn't. She spoke without thinking and now Bella was unconscious.

The day was never going to go well. Bella knew what he was and had come over to accuse him of it to his face. It was never going to be a nice, pleasant Sunday afternoon at home. But… when she embraced him on the porch and left her arm around his waist he had allowed himself to hope, selfishly hope that maybe she would be able to see something inside him worthy of her affection.

Not anymore, thanks to Alice. Not only had she blurted out that they had been creeping around in her room at night but also that he loved her. She had only just discovered that they were vampires and now she learned they were peeping toms as well. This was so out of character for Alice, she was usually much more controlled and guarded than this.

Jasper moved to place himself in front of his wife, feeling the anger that was rolling off of Edward. The mood was tense and nobody spoke. That, of course, didn't mean Edward couldn't hear them.

Back off, Edward, she thought she was helping you. I'm not kidding, you need to calm down.

I am so sorry Edward, I just had to let her know the truth. It really was all my fault. I know you don't think that but it was.

Oh this is not getting off to a great start.

Carlisle expressed his thoughts out loud in an attempt to break the tension. "Edward she just got overwhelmed and forgot to breathe. Look, she's already moving and will probably come out of it soon. I think the rest of us should be out of the room when she wakes up."

Hearing his father's diagnosis broke him out of his trance and he turned his attention back to the girl on the couch. One by one his family left to go upstairs to their rooms. They were getting out of the room, not out of the house, just in case, but he was happy for them to be as far gone as they could be. He tried to block out their silent reassurances and focus on Bella.

As he reached a finger out to move her hair out of her face, he watched her eyes flutter open. She had been out less than 30 seconds, so he knew she would be fine but that didn't make him feel any better about the whole situation. They both smiled tentatively when their eyes met.

"How are you feeling?"

She gasped and sat up. "What happened?"

"You fainted."

As soon as he said it, something miraculous happened. She buried her face in her hands but not before he saw the blood that started rushing to her cheeks. She was blushing. If possible, it made her more beautiful than she already was and undoubtedly sweetened her already potent scent. He was about to apologize for Alice's outburst and explain what she meant but he couldn't find the words.

"Oh no… that is so embarrassing," she groaned.

He had been expecting her to be angry or horrified when she woke up, not embarrassed.

"Bella, you have nothing to be ashamed of."

She still had her hands over her eyes but she moved her fingers to the side slightly so she could see him.

"In front of your whole family?"

He couldn't help but smile. She never reacted the way he expected her to. On this of all days, she was worried she had embarrassed herself by fainting in front of his family.

She took both his smile and his silence as an affirmation. She groaned and hid her eyes again. As he sat down on the couch next to her, he had to laugh.

"It's not funny." Edward tried to stop laughing but it wasn't working.

"Stop laughing." The whining added to the pouting sent him over the edge.

"I'm sorry but it's hilarious, you pouting like that. It looks a teenage temper tantrum one would see on a bad network sitcom."

Her hands and her jaw dropped simultaneously as she stared at him wide eyed. At first he was worried he had offended her but then he could see the sides of her mouth pulling up into a smile.

"You even stuck your bottom lip out." He laughed again, even harder.

That was it. She lost it. Edward was completely enchanted by everything about her when she was laughing. The way her eyes squeezed shut, the wrinkles it made on her forehead, the left hand she pushed into her torso, it all captivated him.

As the laughter faded into chuckles their eyes met. She bit her bottom lip and he could tell that it was time to start the conversation she had come here to have.

"How did you figure it out?"

"Well… I didn't guess on my own." Rosalie was right, he thought. From upstairs, he heard his family stop what they were doing and sit very still. They were listening, too.

"I figured as much." He tried to keep his voice soft, though the thought of the Quileute trying to warn her away made him less than enthusiastic about how much truth there was in the information she received.

She hesitated, as if she didn't want to continue.

"Were the Quileute trying to warn you to stay away from us?"

She tilted her head to the side, her eyes full of confusion. "What? No."

"But they were the ones who told you?"

"Well, I mean, Jacob told me."

Edward, and the rest of his family were now the ones who were confused.

"Jacob is an old family friend. I used to go spend time with them in the summer when I came here to visit Charlie. He and Jake's dad, Billy, are really close."

Edward felt a knot in his stomach. "Billy Black?"

"Yeah, do you know him?"

"We're acquainted." He knew it came out sounding surly but he couldn't help it. Billy Black had been on the 'welcome' committee the tribe sent to them upon their return to Forks. Being able to hear inside his head, Edward knew his sentiments were as far away from welcoming as one could get.

At first, she looked at him as if she wanted to ask more questions but then she appeared to change her mind. She had apparently noticed his reaction to the name.

"Anyway, so I was asking Jacob why the tribe doesn't like your family and he told me it goes back to these old stories about…" She trailed off and looked back at the floor.

She couldn't say the word. He could hardly blame her, he couldn't bring himself to use it most of the time.

"About… vampires?" He decided to help her finish the thought.

They looked at each other, each trying to gauge the other's reaction. She nodded. So did he.

"So they're true, the stories Jacob told me?"

"I don't know what he told you." Edward could hear Carlisle's disapproval at his questioning of the integrity of the Quileute. Carlisle preferred to trust that people typically told the truth until there was evidence that they didn't. Though Edward usually sided with his father, he preferred to take the side of Emmett this time around, who was thinking that you can't trust treaty breaking werewolves to tell the truth about vampires.

"Just what you were, how you were their enemies and that they made a treaty with your dad because you're not supposed to be dangerous to humans."

He was surprised, they all were, by the accuracy of the information she received.

"So they mentioned the treaty?"

"Yeah Jacob joked that he broke it by telling me… Oh but he doesn't believe it, though." Edward started to wonder if she, too, could read minds because they all had been thinking the same exact thing. The Quileute broke the treaty.

"What?"

"Jacob, he doesn't believe any of the stuff he told me. He thinks it's all a bunch of tribal legend. I hope you're not upset with him." Edward thought about it for a second and decided to side with Carlisle this time. Of course the young ones wouldn't believe in the old stories, especially if the wolves were gone from the tribe. He actually thought he might owe the boy a favor. Bella finding out on her own spared him the horror of watching her hear him confess it himself.

"I'm sure he meant no harm."

Bella seemed relieved. She settled back more comfortably into the couch. "So tell me everything I didn't learn on the internet this morning."

He could hear Emmett and Jasper laughing upstairs at the blunt request. Once again, he couldn't help but smile himself. This was not the way he had foreseen this conversation going. She seemed almost perfectly at ease with the idea and with being around his family. Most people felt a natural aversion to their presence, their bodies sensing a danger their minds were unable to perceive. Bella had no such alarm and it was surprisingly refreshing. Her comfort began to rub off on him.

He started to talk about all the things the myths got right and the things they got wrong. They talked about the reason why he can't go out in the sun, about his special gift, its newfound limitations and about how they came to be in Forks this time around. They even had the uncomfortable conversation about the Cullen diet, a conversation Bella absorbed as if it were a no different from a Biology lecture. She was attentive and asked questions any time she wanted more information. From time to time he could hear her heart rate start to pick up and he was worried that he had finally said something that would scare her off but she never showed anxiety in her face.

He had never spoken so candidly about his nature before with a human, with anyone who wasn't a member of his family. At first he was nervous, those nerves being fed by the anxious thoughts of his parents and sibling listening and reacting to the answers he gave to her questions. But after awhile all seven of them began to ease up and appreciate the eager curiosity of their guest.

Bella was fascinated with what she was learning. It all made sense, she thought, if she would have ever taken time to think about before now. As he talked about his indestructible immortality, his 'vegetarian' diet and his mind reading ability she tried her best to make sure her reactions showed him that she was accepting of it all. She honestly wasn't horrified by anything she heard, although the idea of sitting next to a mind reader made her nervous (she felt better after he assured her he couldn't read her mind), but she still was consciously trying to keep her reactions under control.

There were two reasons for this. The first was that Bella knew that a more uncomfortable conversation was ahead of them, one that would probably kill the nonchalant, easy going mood she had been trying to create with him. But she knew it was a conversation they needed to have. She wanted to find out two things today and, at this point, she was only halfway through her list.

The second was that by concentrating on her reactions, she was keeping herself from processing something she had heard his sister say before she passed out. It was the thing that pushed her over the edge, that made her forget to breathe and pass out. Alice said that he couldn't have hurt her because he loved her too much. Her pulse started to race every time she thought about it which caused her to immediately attempt to put it away in her memory. It had to be a mistake, because no one this handsome and charming, whatever he was, could ever care for her the way she did for him.

As the conversation began to lull, she decided it had to be now. Any more silence and she was afraid she would blurt out something embarrassing concerning reason number two that she would regret for the rest of her life. They were still sitting next to each other on the couch. She reached for his hand and placed it in hers. She almost forgot what she wanted to say when he covered the exposed top of her hand with his free one.

"Edward?"

She looked at him and could tell that he knew what was coming. Something in his expression screamed defeat, as if an inevitable end had just been reached.

"What happened to my shoulder?"

He took a deep breath and began, his voice suddenly pained. "Despite what you may have heard to the contrary earlier this afternoon, that was my fault."

She had been expecting this. She figured the Alice outburst has something to do with what was happening to her shoulder and that Edward would blame himself, whatever it was.

"Go ahead."

"It's probably going to sound very strange." He was definitely hesitant to continue.

"Edward you just told me that you can read minds, that your sister can see the future and that your whole family doesn't ever sleep. Can it really get any stranger?"

"Well, perhaps not stranger but certainly more disturbing." Angry Edward was back, as she had predicted. She immediately regretted her decision to ask about it, but she knew he wouldn't let her drop it now.

"I think I can handle it."

"I had to see you. I was out running and I don't even remember making the decision to go there but eventually I found myself at your house. It was about midnight." Bella could feel her heartbeat quicken and knew, from what he had told her earlier, that he could hear it speed up as well.

"I…" He stopped, obviously upset at the thought of continuing.

"Go ahead, it's ok." Alice had said they were in her room, she was prepared for this.

"I climbed up to a window on the second floor to look inside and it turned out to be your window. I couldn't keep from looking in. You were asleep. I told myself it was to make sure you were okay and I was about to leave but then…"

Her breathing was starting to increase, too, though she was trying desperately to keep it under control.

"Then?"

"Then you spoke."

"Oh no." Bella was wondering how much more embarrassing this day could get for her. Her sleep talking was the reason she never spent the night at friends' houses growing up.

"I was so intrigued, listening to the things you were saying unconsciously in your dreams. You're the only person whose thoughts I have never been able to hear. It was like a way to see what you were thinking about without your edits. But… I didn't want anyone to see me hanging outside your window so I opened it up and went inside." By the time he finished his eyes were on the floor, as if he couldn't bring himself to look at her.

Bella knew she should think this was creepy. He climbed into her bedroom at night while she was sleeping to listen to her sleep talk. But she wasn't freaked out, she was flattered. She never thought herself capable of exciting the interest of someone like Edward Cullen, someone who was brilliant, gorgeous and good at everything. He seemed to be just as fascinated with her as she was with him. It was comforting, not creepy.

He was still looking at the floor.

"What happened next?" He waited a moment before continuing and returned his eyes to hers.

"You said my name. At first I thought you had woken up but you were still asleep. You were dreaming about me, you wanted me to stay with you. It wasn't even a nightmare…" She could barely hear the end of the sentence, he said it so softly. She remembered the dream.

"You couldn't make up your mind."

He looked at her, puzzled.

"In the dream, you couldn't make up your mind if we were going to be friends or not and I was trying to convince you that we could be. I didn't want you to stop talking to me and ignoring me again. I still don't." She reached for his hand again but he pulled it away.

"Perhaps you should withhold that judgment. I'm not finished yet."

"Alright, then, go on." She was pretty sure there was nothing he could add to this story that would change her mind.

"It was overwhelming, hearing that someone like you would dream about me in her sleep. I felt… a need to be near you. I…" Now it was his turn to bury his head in his hands. "I climbed into your bed to lie down next to you and kissed your shoulder."

Bella wasn't trying to control her breathing or her heartbeat anymore and both were speeding up. So were her thoughts. They were flying around her head creating an almost overwhelming buzz. She tried to block them out but it wasn't working very well.

"Go on."

"Alice had a vision of my being there and saw me lean in towards you. She thought I was about to lose control and attack you. She ran to your house, with everyone else close behind, to try and stop me. She startled me. That's when it happened."

"When what happened?"

He couldn't answer. His hands were still covering his face.

"Edward, did you bite me?" She could see he was miserable but she needed him to tell her.

He didn't say anything but the look in his eyes when he raised them from the floor told her all she needed to know. She had been bitten by a vampire.

For the second time that day, Bella felt like she could pass out.