A/N: Apparently, I'm just going to use this up here to clear up things that you guys asked about.

The most common question was about Carlisle and the medical records. Carlisle does know that Bella is deaf now but as of that point in the story, Bella isn't supposed to be anything special to Edward besides having especially desirable blood. He wouldn't normally share information on patients with Edward and Edward doesn't look out of courtesy. So, Carlisle had no viable reason to share that bit of info with Edward at the moment.

Later, as Bella begins to mean something besides blood, it won't be on Carlisle's mind to suddenly tell Edward about it after all that time. Also, if Bella hasn't told him, then Carlisle figures that it isn't right to go around her back because she is special to Edward and by consequence, to him. He'll leave that secret for Bella to spill.

Disclaimer: I am not Stephanie Meyers. I own nothing.

An Ode to Silence

I was standing in the halls of my old school in Phoenix by my locker. There were all the familiar faces of my classmates around me as I stood but soon the dream moved of its own accord. I no longer had control of my body. It was one of the memories that I'd tried to suppress of that place in hopes of being able to take returning day after day.

There was a new boy due in school that day, not an uncommon thing though he would receive some attention for a couple periods. His locker happened to be next to mine so I met him there for the first time as he dealt with his new locker at the end of the day. I turned to him and felt my mouth moving and forming words.

"Hello, my name is Bella," I introduced myself with a smile. I was hoping he'd be the friend I'd wanted. There were some kids I'd spoken to albeit briefly but there existed no companionship or loyalty even to sit with me at lunch among them. He looked slightly surprised from the unusual cadence of my voice but quickly recovered.

"I'm Fredrick," he replied. From there, we settled into a casual conversation until one of my classmates came up to us. She glanced at me and frowned.

This was one of the girls who just didn't understand. While others were indifferent, she was prone to say that I did not belong here and should go back to the school for the deaf. I hated just being around her. I could only be glad no one who knew about her really listened to her.

"Oh, you met Bella. She's deaf," she said matter-of-factly. Instantly, a he examined me with new eyes. These weren't the eyes of a potential friend but what he might use on an interesting subject matter.

This is looked to be just as ignorant as the girl feeding him information. They would make a wonderful couple one day, I could see it now. But, maybe there was still hope. If he would listen to me once more, I could educate him. All it would take is for him to say a word directed at me and not me as an experiment.

Then my hopes were shattered when pity and resignation entered his expression and he turned to my classmate who had said the comment that had suddenly changed his way of viewing me. He obviously didn't think I'd catch his words though I'd be willing to be he wouldn't say it in front of a hearing person. My deafness changed everything.

I was about to open my mouth and give him the spiel I'd been saving for someone who gave me the pity eyes anyway. He deserved that much for a couple minutes of empty conversation and a few frantic seconds of hollow hope.

Before I could say even that though, my eyes caught his words that silenced everything I would've said.

"Poor thing."

I flew into the seated position, gasping from my dream. Instinctively, I glanced at the window immediately and to my surprise, I saw a blur of white-bronze so brief that I wasn't sure if it was there at all. It was the same blur I had seen at the accident yesterday. The one I had associated with Edward. Edward. Was he watching me?

Shaking it off, I recalled my dream. I remembered that day. I was so angry that I think I slapped him across the face. I couldn't be sure because I wanted to slap him so bad that it's possible I just edited that into my memory in place of the actual event. I hope I did slap him though.

I could still remember the shock on his face as he stared at me wild-eyed. I could still feel the smug look dance across my face as I took in the red mark on his face. I could also remember the bitter aftertaste when he turned to the girl again, acting like he didn't know what made me blow my top. If he didn't, then he's even more stupid and ignorant then I thought.

It was all in the past though, an offense long out of mind. I had known that it wouldn't be easy to try and fit in at a regular school after the time I had spent in a school for the deaf learning sign language, lip reading, and getting voice therapy along with the other basic school subjects but I was determined. I would have to find my place in the world anyway. I might as well start in high school.

Pinching the space between my eyebrows, I looked at my alarm clock beside me on the bed. It was five am. It was too early to get out of bed, too late to go back to bed. I went with the lesser evil and reluctantly crawled out of bed as my thoughts involuntarily returned to Edward and the white-bronze blur.

He didn't seem human. Not to me. But that thought didn't strike any terror in me that it probably should have. It was more of a curiosity. He was the reason I was still griping to my thread of life that should've already been snipped. If anything happened to me because of him, I'd still lived a little longer because of him. I wasn't sure how to state what my feelings about that were.

I pictured life as a person hanging on to a thread over a cliff. Death was the land below. The younger one is, the longer and harder the fall because the death of someone young is extremely hard to deal with for those who knew them. As one gets older, their string gets longer and closer to death so the fall isn't as long or hard. When one dies of old age, they just step off the thread because it's almost expected and inevitable. They've lived long lives.

I came up with that one day at my Grandma's funeral. I'd already attended a funeral of a ten year old girl and they were crying much harder at the younger girl's funeral. Maybe that's morbid, childish, or silly but that's what I thought.

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School that morning was nightmarish. I realize that everyone was just freaked, curious, and eager but I didn't want to deal with all of them. I couldn't. When I saw several people already beginning to converge on me when I arrived at school, I acted like I didn't see them and made my escape, melding into the small crowd of students on the sidewalk.

It was slightly cruel but it was all I could do to avoid the trauma of dealing with multiple people talking to me at once. Lunch was one thing when I could just stuff food in my mouth and nod but this would be quite another. In the end, I somehow managed to deal with them separately in the different classes I had with them. Jessica was by far the most adamant as I expected but by lunchtime, I almost decided to hide out in the library.

Unfortunately, if I wanted to prod just a little about the Cullens then this was my best opportunity. I would have to be subtle because it could get around to him or something. I would have to word everything as if he was sitting within hearing range. Oh dear, I sounded like a paranoid crazy person. If I was then I'd keep it quiet and find out a little anyway.

At lunch, Mike, Eric, and Jessica herded me toward their table in a heartbeat and demanded to hear my first hand account. I didn't like lying but I had no real trouble being convincing. I wove a hair-raising tale about me inspecting my snow chains when I heard the car behind me (impossible), being paralyzed with fear when I realized that the car would hit me and the back corner of my truck, and the finale of my awed gratitude about Edward being right next to me and pulling me out of the way (also wrong).

From the way they looked at me afterwards with wide eyes, they believed every word of it but they commented that they didn't see Edward there till afterwards. What's that? Further proof of what I thought. Edward was that white-bronze blur I saw because he was four cars away and then suddenly he was pulling me out of the way and then it was outside my bedroom window.

I was growing more and more convinced that something was off but I was missing some vital detail. The only other thing I noted in the cafeteria was that neither Edward nor his siblings spared me a single glance. They all remained as beautiful statues, unmovable and unchangeable.

Finally, Biology came and when I walked into the classroom Edward was already settled in his seat at our table, staring off somewhere like he had at lunch. I was relieved and joyous to see him there. I wanted to thank him before the time passed without mention. I hadn't said much to him yesterday and I was hoping to amend that.

Quickly, I moved down the isle and sat down next to him. Turning to face him, I spoke, "Thanks, Edward. About yesterday when you got me out of the way…" I said gratefully, though my words were laced with awkwardness. Finally, he directed his gaze toward me with no particular expression on his face.

"You're welcome," he replied cordially. And that was it. After that, I observed him sometimes over the days, unable to help myself. I watched his perfect gold eyes get increasingly darker by the day till nearly black then suddenly lighten up to a smooth, liquid honey. He appeared less tolerant on the days when his eyes were dark but generally acted as if I didn't exist.

Unbeknown to me, Edward was also watching me with mounting fascination. He saw the way I moved, the way I spoke, the way I denied what I knew in my heart to be true. He didn't know that I really did know that I was lying about the parking lot incident. He knew that something was off about me but he was trying not to be committed enough to find out. Truth was though; he was dying to figure me out. I was his puzzle, his source of frustration and he always came to watch me sleep because the day simply was not enough.

He never made much headway into discovering my secrets since he always just saw me at school with my guard up and when I was sleeping when there was nothing to discover except that I sleep on my side. He missed observing calls I made to Renee with Charlie and later, it would seem like such a head-slapper. How could he not see it when it was right in front of him? He didn't want to see it. He wanted to search till he found a more pleasant answer.

Still, as time continued its steady rhythm, we began saying a few words to each other. The key word there is, 'few'. We were like passing ships in the night with acknowledgment of the other but nothing remotely classified as friendship, or even being acquaintances. He was always just a bit cold to me like he would prefer I was anywhere else but around him. I'd put my hopes up there about piecing the puzzle that was Edward together but he shut me out. I wasn't angry about that though. It was his right and his family's right to protect themselves from strangers.

After six weeks, the next few days would change more between us then I imagined could change.

A/N: I tried something a little different for this chapter to accomplish my goals. It may be a little odd but I couldn't figure out how else to word what I wanted to say. Tell me if you liked it this way or the way I had it before because I'm still trying to figure things out. Finally though, I have a direction that I want to head in.

The question I'm posing to you guys is do you want Edward to find out that Bella is deaf first or Bella to find out that Edward is a vampire? This actually will make a difference in how things go. Chapter ten will be a large chapter just because it's well… ten. Review please.