A/N: Eww. My homework decided to eat me alive the moment I returned. I finally managed to hold it off long enough to write this one though so I hope you like it. Now, I have a project due next Monday so enjoy it and I'll try to get everything done so I can write up a new one.

Disclaimer: I am not Stephanie Meyers. I own nothing except my squeaky ducky named Fred.

An Ode to Silence

I sat panicking as I watched Edward drive. Trying to distract myself a little bit, I glanced around the car. The little numbers on the stereo showed he was playing some kind of music. (I could feel the little vibrations of rhythm in my nose.) I could feel the steady motion of the car. Rain pelted against the windshield and streaked past the car windows on the sides. Everywhere I looked stood another example of how my ears didn't work.

I'd never been so hypersensitive about it before and it was terrible. Being trapped in a car with Mike or Jessica driving would be much worse for keeping my secret and I was going to be caught in that this weekend but if only for Edward I wanted to just tell them all. Let them bite their tongues off in surprise. I beat the hearing world at their own game. I slipped into their midst without their knowledge and even managed to handle being pretty popular.

For all this time of carefully hiding my deafness, my mind was panicking about it now three times as much as the first day. Calm down, Bella. Breathe. I thought to myself. I couldn't overreact like an idiot. This was a one time thing with Edward and the others wouldn't see it unless I spelled it out at this point. I turned to watch Edward again and watched as his expression grew slightly troubled for some reason.

"You said that 'this change needed to happen,' what did you mean by that?" he said with his head turned my way just enough for me to understand. Relief so sudden it was very nearly painful settled over me. This was doable. No big deal. It would be just like school. I had wanted to speak to him anyways since his presence somehow always managed to lift my spirits.

"My mother got remarried last September," I stated. I didn't wish to bore him with what was certain to be a story like any he's heard before. Lots of kids had separated parents.

"And you don't like him," Edward guessed with a knowing glint in his eye. I might've been wrong but I thought he seemed slightly surprised too. How odd.

"No, no. Phil is a good guy. Too young maybe, but we get along just fine."

"So, why didn't you stay with them?" his lips formed the words slightly slower than usual as if he were asking the question of himself as well as me. Stranger still was the fact that it seemed a little late in the year to be asking why I came here but I allowed myself to be enraptured by his eyes and the movements of his lips.

"Phil travels a lot. Because of his career, he has to hop from city to city regularly and sometimes it takes a while before he can come back home."

"And your mother sent you here so that she could travel with him," he assumed.

"She stayed with me at first, but she missed him. It made her unhappy… so I decided it was time to spend some quality time with Dad," I finished. I remembered that I despised this place at first. Now, it seemed that I wouldn't jump at the chance to go back to Phoenix after all. He paused, watching me with an expression of pure confusion. Then suddenly, something clicked in his eyes as comprehension and… awe entered into the equation.

"Do you approve of her choice in Phil?" he asked, regaining his composure.

"It doesn't matter. I want her to be happy. As long as he's not doing anything illegal or hurting her in any way, I don't believe I have the right to dictate who she should marry."

"That's very generous… I wonder if she would extend the same courtesy to you," he said with his lips moving a little less than normal. That meant he was speaking quieter but it also meant it was almost undecipherable.

"I don't know. The situation is totally different. She has always worried and watched over me, fighting so I could have every opportunity available to me. She sacrificed so much for me and likely would've kept trying desperately to do so if I hadn't begun pushing her to pick up some of her old hobbies. I encouraged her to date again so she could find a special person one more time and stay happy.

So, for me, I don't know if she'd be overjoyed that I found someone I'd like to spend my time on earth with, or terribly frightened that she's going to have to give her baby away," I tried to explain the situation to him as best I could for a reason I couldn't name. I remembered the time I'd come home crying after school and she went into a frenzy of uncertainty of what to do.

"No one too scary then," he teased, a smirk pulling up the corners of his mouth.

"What do you mean by scary?" I asked, thinking of Edward himself, "A big ol' biker with extensive tattoos saying everything from 'rose' to various vulgar words?"

"That's one definition, I suppose."

"What definition did you have in mind?" My mind wandered as I asked this, leaping to images of a more vampire-like Edward; images that quickly got overwritten with the memory of him thrusting out his hands to protect me from Tyler's van and him picking me up and taking me to infirmary earlier in the day.

"Do you think I could be scary?" He raised one eyebrow. I watched as he took on the appearance of a harmless boy trying to see if he could be frightening but it rang false both because of my knowledge about him and that it seemed like he really wanted to know my answer to that question and not just for his ego.

"Yes. I have no doubt you could frightening if you chose to do so," I said with my eyes directed to my lap. I figured the truth would be better. Even though I was fantastic at lying, it seemed in poor taste to resort to it frequently. My eyes flickered back to him and I noted the troubled look had returned in all seriousness.

"Are you scared of me now?"

"Not in the least. You don't want to hurt me. You could've easily killed me the very first day I arrived and made it so you would never be so much as considered…" It all came out at once without me so much as thinking about them. I was as surprised at the words I felt my mouth and vocal chords forming as he was.

Actually, as I looked at the expression of utter shock and astonishment he wore, he was much more taken aback than I was. Finally, a sort of depressed defeat flooded over his eyes and I noticed the car wasn't moving anymore. We were stopped outside of my house but I felt that it wouldn't be good to stop without fully explaining myself now that I'd unwittingly dived in. It was dangerous. What had I done?

"What are you talking about? Don't tell me I strike you as murderous." His face was light and humorous but his jaw was just a little bit too tight, his body was rigid as a board and he was clenching the steering wheel a mite bit too hard. He was scared, some instinct told me. I glanced at his upset eyes and immediately felt worse about it than I already felt.

"I'm sorry, Edward. I shouldn't have said anything. It's dangerous right? I don't know much about vampire rules and politics." He flinched at my words but as I went on, a look of pure horror danced across his face. Maybe that idea hadn't occurred to him yet. What had I done? Anguish made itself apparent in the lines of his face but I couldn't look away.

I started to become scared too but not of him, heavens no. I was scared for him. What if he was punished because I figured out his race's secret and they saw it as his fault? If it's bad, I should take responsibility, it began with that van incident after all… My mind whirled around in circles.

"How long… How long have you known?"

"I only figured it out recently," I bit my lip at telling him just how recently. That would probably be counterproductive. "I've known about your speed, strength, and not being human for a while though." Guilt. Pure guilt wound itself around my throat as I watched him, his eyes growing wilder.

"If you knew, why did you get into the car with me?..."

"Well reason 'A' is that you practically dragged me over," I replied with an amused look on my face. Then suddenly, I realized how that must've sounded to him and backpedaled over that misstep, "You wouldn't have had to drag me over if it wasn't for my own problem though. Totally unrelated to you. Not your fault." Very eloquent, Bella.

Confusion and concern lit his eyes for a minute before he shook it off and tried a different approach.

"What convinced you?"

"For a while, all I had were a bunch of observations without any theory to tack them to but then the idea of blood came in and a lot of things fit suddenly but…"

"What?" he demanded impatiently.

"It didn't matter. Not really." Surprise so pure it was comical froze on his face for a good half minute before he turned his face away, contemplating. The car was utterly still and I felt powerless to break that stillness until suddenly, his head whipped around toward me again.

"It didn't matter?" Pleading anger was evident to the core of him. Had he wanted me to be scared and run away as soon as I knew? If I could be friends with him when he thought that I thought he was human, why couldn't I be friends with him now when he knew that I knew? Oh yeah, the danger that wasn't just from him I'd assumed. Now probably wouldn't be the best time to bring that up.

"No. It doesn't matter to me what you are. Why should it?" I held firm and looked him in the eye.

"You don't care if I'm a monster? If I'm not human?"

"No," I repeated. He rubbed his face and forehead, seeming to be disgusted with me. I sighed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything." Even though I knew something like this might happen if I said anything, it was still difficult.

"No," the movement of his lips startled me, "I'd rather know what you're thinking -even if what you're thinking is insane."

"But wasn't I right? How is that insane?" I asked, knowingly putting confusion into my voice, tired as it was from speaking so much. I hadn't had such a long conversation in a while. It felt weird be getting so used to using speech instead of my hands.

"That's not what I was referring to. 'It doesn't matter'!" he quoted, obviously questioning my sanity.

"I am right," I mused, dodging his comment. It probably irritated him a little bit but that was okay. It wasn't good to steam so much.

"Does it matter?" Ah, he was still steaming. Divert, divert!

"Not really… but I am curious." I paused. "And don't give me that 'curiosity killed the cat' bit, okay?" He was suddenly resigned and sighed. It didn't seem right to leave it at this but if I began asking my questions and he actually answered them, we'd be here till nightfall and I didn't wish to have to explain to Dad about why Edward was here and where my truck was. "Will you be at school tomorrow?" I asked, suddenly timid.

His jaw tightened but he relaxed it almost instantly and dialed a number on his phone. Whoever he was calling picked up immediately… and Edward had to hold the phone away from his ear.

"Emmett, could we postpone the trip a day?" He glanced at me briefly. "Something just came up." He held the phone away from his ear again with a pained expression. "Yes, I know. I'll be there soon." He wrinkled his nose and hung up. "I'll see you tomorrow then," he said with a slight smile on his face.

"Promise?" I asked. I still had no way of knowing I hadn't just seriously messed everything up and felt the need to even just a little bit of reassurance.

"I promise." And that was that. His eyes were still troubled as he drove away but I felt like things would get better now nonetheless.


A/N: Whew. That took forever. It was probably the most challenging chapter I've ever written and it wasn't all that great either. =p Still, I hope you are satisfied. Penny for your thoughts?