A/N: Well, gee. Thirty-one reviews for one chapter… I'm in my happy zone, leave me alone. This chapter is in Edward's POV. It seemed fitting after she dropped such a big bomb on him without warning last time.

Disclaimer: I am not Stephanie Meyers. The only thing I can claim ownership of is the blood in my veins.

An Ode to Silence

I drove back to the school in a daze. Bella knew. She knew and didn't run away. She even asked if I would be in school tomorrow! No, she didn't just know, she knew much more than she'd said in that conversation. Every sentence that left her mouth hinted agonizingly at knowledge she wasn't supposed to have - things she was never supposed to realize.

I didn't understand.

It was all wrong. She was supposed to cringe away from me like any normal human would've because of their basic instincts that they didn't even realize. How was it that she could not only completely ignore her instincts but even know that I could easily kill her and yet still be able to calmly sit in the car with me?

Was she suicidal or mentally ill? How long was the 'while' she mentioned that she knew I wasn't human? Even throughout this, I was still confused by one particular phrase she'd said. "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." What was her problem?

I wondered if she'd ever feel the urge to explain that to me. Sometimes, I'd catch her doing something just a little bit off. Her reactions, voice, laugh, and most everything she did was somehow slightly wrong. It was as if she was always pretending and was very good at it but the small differences and the larger ones were going to slowly drive me to the brink of insanity.

Finally, there was the irresistible attraction she posed to me. I inhaled her devilishly sweet scent and sighed. I didn't believe that I actually loved her yet, but she was exactly what I wanted most and could never have. I wanted to hold her without any danger to her. I wanted to protect her from everything and even herself.

I wasn't sure about what all entailed keeping her safe from herself but the number one thing was her clumsiness. Her dangerous instincts and maybe her questionable mental stability could be added on too though. This was all beside the point, however. I couldn't even trust myself to remain in control around her. I was terrified that I would someday find my eyes glowing red with the precious blood that used to light her cheeks.

Such a terrible fear didn't change my distinct desire to touch her though. I wondered if she could possibly feel the same way. What was I to her? What did I want to be to her? No. That wasn't the right question. What should I want to be to her? I didn't have any idea what sort of feelings were behind her heart.

When I pulled up to the curb of the school, my siblings were waiting. Rosalie was drenched with an expression similar to what I would expect on an angel of death, Emmett was hanging his head guiltily while glaring at me, and Jasper was alternately quietly steaming and curious as to why Alice was practically vibrating in place with a smile so wide it seemed her face would crack

They piled in immediately. Jasper and gorgeously furious Rosalie were in back and Emmett took shotgun. Jasper stiffened with he caught a whiff of Bella's gloriously tantalizing scent. He couldn't understand why I was doing this either. He only threatened that he would do whatever was necessary to keep Alice safe regardless.

Emmett looked at me curiously when he smelled the leftover scent left particularly potent in that seat.

What happened with Bella that you are late and we're postponing the hunting trip?

"You'll have to find out tomorrow. I'd like to stay in one piece as long as possible," I muttered just in the range of his hearing only.

Ouch kid. That bad, huh?

In response I only grimaced slightly. He let out a low whistle, raising his eyebrows.

Rose is going to be ticked. Jasper won't exactly be a ray of sunshine either about whatever it is that causing this. I trust you worked our hunting trip like this to avoid the line of fire and give them a chance to cool down?

I nodded, letting him know that he was right about everything he'd thought. He looked pretty taken aback but he relaxed quickly. Emmett had gotten to know me very well over the many decades - almost as well as Alice. He may be almost naive in his thoughts at times but he was smart and definitely knew better than to say anything even as he glanced at Rosalie and Jasper nervously.

Alice pranced around to my side and held out her hand expectantly. I knew she still longed to be allowed to speak to Bella and from her thoughts, she knew that Bella really did know about us being vampires too. I could also see the resignation to wait until I said it would be fine but that didn't mean she was happy about it. She already loved Isabella Swan.

With a wry smile, I dropped the keys into her palm and the instant they touched her ice cold skin, she disappeared and was running toward Bella's truck. I winced as she turned the key in the ignition and the ancient thing roared to life. I couldn't see how Bella could completely ignore the racket. It was like she didn't even hear it. I supposed she'd just gotten used to it.

With speed, we dropped off her truck in her driveway and turned towards home. Bella hadn't looked out her window in response to the noise that had triumphed over the rain. Maybe she wasn't there or was busy. I wished I could just hear her thoughts to find out but quickly rebuked myself for such thoughts about her. Maybe Emmett and Jasper were right. I could very well be getting obsessed with her.

When we arrived, we immediately dispersed without a word. We all had our pastimes that we'd gotten to be magnificently good at since we'd been doing them for so long. We didn't even sleep to cease our mindless acts of ridding ourselves of an eternity of free time.

For the first day in a long time though, I felt drawn to my shiny black piano. I pulled out the bench smoothly and uncovered the pearly white keys. I pushed down a D chord with my pale fingers. Instantly, my family perked up and their minds were tuned to my piano. Esme's held particular joy. It was a fact that shamed me. I'd left the piano for too long.

Carefully, I began to play a tune and what began as a simple plunking of keys into a basic pattern, soon began to weave itself into a much more complex song with harmonies and raw beauty. Esme came up to stand behind me. Watching my fingers dance across the keys, pulling music from it. It was compelling, demanding to be finished and completed.

"Does it have a name?" Esme breathed through a smile. She loved listening to me play.

"Not yet," was my simple reply as I toyed a note or three, trying to make them work in to the song that my fingertips beckoned.

"What is it about? Is there a story behind it?" Her eyes were shining and her face was almost glowing. Alice looked up and watched Esme's joy consumed face as her eyes greedily ran over the notes and then back to my face. With a smile, Alice returned to what she was working on.

"It's… a lullaby." Only as I said them did I realize the truth of why the song was coming to me now. It was about and for a certain girl who slept on a narrow bed in a room not so very far from where I sat with her dark hair sprawled across her pillow. Sometimes she smiled in the night. Other times she cried and her tears spilled down her delicate cheeks that were so often flushed with blood.

Once I knew that, those three notes cooperated and easily showed me what other notes needed their turn. The lullaby was alive now and my hands were only too happy to let the keys sing. The tune floated through the air, leaving to embrace that sleeping girl and tuck her in. I knew what it wanted but how it must end. She was perfect with her brown eyes twinkling and no one had the right to change her. It would be wrong.

I couldn't bear to leave her now though. No, I wanted to always, always protect her even if time passed and she no longer realized that I was around. I wanted to follow her life but knew that I could not be a part of it. Not like I really longed to be, with her as a man, but I would settle. The more I could about what I really wanted, the more I realized that I sounded like I loved her. Although she was special, I still clung to the lifeline that I was only caught up in a mix of fascination and infatuation.

"Oh! Jasper, guess what?" Alice piped up suddenly, breaking through the confusion of my thoughts.

"What, Alice?" he asked though his attention was mostly still on the complex chess board between him and Emmett.

"Peter and Charlotte are coming to visit next week! Isn't that nice?"

I tensed immediately. Her sweet blood did not appeal to only me as I'd seen through the thoughts of my brothers. I knew that visiting pair never hunted here. I knew that but I couldn't help the nonsensical worry from flooding into my mind. Those two were Jasper's brother of sorts and his lover but they hadn't chosen to hunt animals and I could not trust that Bella would be safe. Without her, I couldn't see the point of the world. She was everything I wanted most and exactly what I could never have. On an impulse, I got up and left the house.

Exactly like a crazy person. Emmett thought dryly.

He's really lost it. The thought belonged to Jasper.

I ran through the falling twilight until I came to her little two story house. There, I watched over the house as the lights within the house began turning off. I waited as I listened to the tone of Charlie's thoughts. They slowly faded into incoherency and finally, the last remaining light in turned off in Bella's room. Her house was at peace in the normalcy and the residents of the house were going to sleep and rest for another day in rainy Forks. Eventually, time enough had passed that I considered it safe that no one would see or hear of me.

I oiled the window and it slid open silently as I slipped in like a shadow of the night. A breeze drifted through the open window, rustling the papers on her desk quietly and brushing the cheek of the sleeping girl. Once inside, I glanced around her room and let my eyes rest on her. She was exactly like I pictured her at my house as I composed the lullaby. She was breathing deep and even with an expression of peace on her face. Suddenly, her eyelids snapped open and she looked at me. I froze.

"Wait," she said. I wondered if she had been waiting for me. She had not appeared surprised at any level by a person coming into her room through the window and she surely hadn't just woken up from the way her voice was and the look in her eyes. The situation was getting more and more ridiculous. Slowly, she sat up and shifted her body around toward me.

"I wondered if you would come tonight," she said and paused before elaborating a bit, "I once saw a blur of you outside my window." My eyes widened and I stared at her like a startled animal. She shouldn't have been able to see anything. For a normal human, even if they saw it, they would attribute it to sleepiness or a trick of the light.

"I admit I wasn't sure it was you but it reminded me of the blur I saw when I almost got hit by the van. Anyway, it seemed most likely to me that you would come tonight of all nights," she said sheepishly. It didn't sound as if she was very sure of her last statement either but it still disturbed me. She was certainly special all right.

She was waiting for me to respond, squinting slightly in the darkness to see me. Her heart was beating a steady thrum and her breathing was normal. She was not scared of me. She was not frightened by the idea that I'd snuck into her room in the middle of the night or that I'd possibly done it before. She was expecting it and waited for me with perfect acting of sleep and the utmost calm.

I should've noticed her heartbeat was just a little too elevated to be normal when I opened her window. No, I had noticed it. It was careless of me but she had given my no other reason to think she had not been sleeping so I'd disregarded it. While my heart decided whether or not to sing because she was not screaming and my mind wondered once more about her mental stability which was getting to be more questionable the longer I knew her, I finally spoke up with a chuckle.

"Go to sleep, Bella," I said softly and jumped down from the window onto the grass of her yard. As I looked up to her window, she was standing there was a gentle smile on her face. Then she moved away to return to her bed for the night. As I ran through the forest on the way back to my house, my thoughts were a blissful jumble.

She hadn't closed her window.

A/N: A fair length for a chapter. I was rather happy with this one actually. It seemed to flow and never did it feel like I was really forcing it to go in a direction. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I'll see if I can get a chapter up over the weekend. If not, it'll probably come on Tuesday. Feedback please?