CHAPTER THREE

During the night the world had turned into a winter wonderland of white. All of us, even Esme, delighted in the adventure and sport the snow and ice provided for us. Nighttime was often difficult to get through as there was so little to do. Unlike the hustle and bustle found in large cities such as New York or Chicago where we had lived previously, Forks provided for very little entertainment after dark. Thus, we couldn't resist the urge to slide down the slippery slopes of our yard and once again battle it out with snowballs.

Esme and Carlisle retired into the house around four, wanting to spend some time alone before his day shift at the hospital began. Alice and Rosalie went in a while later to ready themselves for the school day. Being wet with dripping snow was fine when no one but family was watching, but Rosalie always insisted on looking her best when she was around the humans.

"As if she could ever look ugly," Emmett chided once the females were out of earshot.

Jasper, Emmett, and I continued our sport well into the dawn. It wasn't until Esme called out to us that it was nearly time for school to start that we abandoned the outdoors and prepared ourselves for the day ahead.

It was a slippery drive to school, but I didn't mind. I love to drive fast, and it's even more exciting when road conditions are less than perfect. At Jasper's request, and Alice's assurance that we wouldn't get caught, I took time to spin a few doughnuts in the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. Even with the detour, we made it to school in plenty of time.

Outside in the open air of the school parking lot, I glanced around for Bella's truck, wondering if she had arrived safely. When I saw no sign of her or the antique vehicle she drove, I decided to stay and watch for her. There was absolutely no logical reasoning behind my actions. I couldn't even explain it to my brothers and sisters, opting instead to tell them I wanted to see if anyone had car trouble or would slide their way to class.

Little did I know how prophetic my reasoning would turn out to be. Had I been blessed with the gift of sight similar to Alice's abilities, I might not have been so eager to see a human in such a potentially dangerous situation. Once I realized which particular human had been destined for a nearly fatal brush with mortality, I regretted the way I anticipated the possibilities earlier. As it was, fate had pointed a cold and cruel finger at the very human I was waiting to see.

I was aware of her arrival not because I heard her mind or picked up her scent, but because the truck she drove was unmistakably identifiable. No one else drove a truck like that. She pulled in to a parking space easily and stepped out of her truck to examine the tires at the rear. I noticed the puzzled look on her face and wondered what she found so interesting about them.

It was in that moment that everything I knew, everything I had spent nearly a century working towards, changed.

Spinning on the black ice, totally out of control and with no hope of stopping, was a dark blue van. It's destination, the old, red truck. And there, standing between her vehicle and the skidding van, was none other than Bella Swan.

It was as if the air was ripped from my lungs and replaced with ice. If my chest had contained a beating heart, I know it would have stopped then and there. The only sound I heard was the bone-chilling squeal of the van's breaks. My mind went blank, unable to fully register what I was witnessing. All I knew was that in the next moment Bella Swan would be dead, and that was simply unacceptable.

Not her! my mind shouted inside my head. Take anyone else, but leave her alone!

And then I moved. I don't even remember making the conscious decision to do so, and yet I raced forward with no consideration as to who might be watching or what the consequences of my actions would be. My body slammed against hers, knocking her down behind a neighboring car and pinning her beneath my weight just as the van crashed into the back end of the truck. From the way she landed, I gathered that she must have hit her head on the pavement

But fate wasn't finished with Bella yet. The spinning van swirled around and again headed right for the human I was now protecting. I swore under my breath and instinctively held out my hands, stopping the van from even touching her. I easily pushed the van away from her and pulled her legs to the side so that it would appear she hadn't been as close to death as it seemed. The van settled back down to the earth with a loud groan before silence filled the air.

As quickly as I could, knowing that in a second every student in the parking lot would be questioning what they had seen, I leaned down to make sure Bella really was unharmed. "Bella? Are you all right?" I asked, daringly taking her in my arms and holding her against me. She was so warm…so fragrant. Her heart was beating so quickly I could feel the blood pulsing in her body even though her heavy clothes.

"I'm fine," she muttered and tried to sit up.

"Be careful," I warned as I tried to hold her still. "I think you hit your head pretty hard." Thankfully, my senses told me that she wasn't bleeding. I couldn't begin to imagine what I might do to her if her blood was readily accessible.

"Ow," she muttered, touching her head.

I smiled in gratitude that her only injury was the bump on her head. "That's what I thought."

"How in the…" Her eyes, full of questions, looked up into mine. "How did you get over here so fast?"

She noticed. She saw. And she remembered.

It wouldn't do to have her know of my abilities. That was against the law. The one truth that every vampire is forced to live regardless of their nature to drink from humans or abstain - exposure is not allowed. I would have to convince her that what she thought she saw simply wasn't the truth.

"I was standing right next to you, Bella," I said pointedly.

She went to sit up and I was suddenly overcome with the scent of her. I released her and moved away, still eyeing her closely in case she tried to stand up. One day at medical school had taught me enough about human physiology to know that no one would be secure on their feet after what Bella just went though. It was best for her to stay still for a while.

Suddenly, a swarm of people huddled around us asking questions and shouting for someone to get Tyler out of the van. Tyler. One of Bella's male admirers. I didn't care for him much, but I certainly didn't want to see him injured. I hadn't been careful about the van when I shoved it away from Bella, and I hoped that the boy inside was fine.

My attention was concentrated so fully on Bella to give me time to worry for very long over the boy, though. As I assumed, she tried to stand up. I gently placed a hand on her shoulder to hold her down. "Just stay put for now," I instructed.

"But it's cold," she complained, which I found highly ironic given the heat I could feel radiating off of her body under my touch.

Then abruptly, she gaped at me and said, "You were over there. You were by your car."

I was almost pleased that she wasn't so easily convinced as I had presumed. "No, I wasn't."

"I saw you."

In the midst of all the chaos around us, I could tell she wasn't going to back down from this. It was time to turn on the charm. I looked her directly in the eyes and willed her to believe my words. "Bella, I was standing with you, and I pulled you out of the way."

Her jaw clenched, but she couldn't look away. "No."

Not being able to read her mind had apparently put a damper on my powers of persuasion as well. I resorted to begging. "Please, Bella."

"Why?"

"Trust me," I softly pleaded

In the distance, a siren sounded, yet her eyes were still locked with mine. "Will you promise to explain everything to me later?"

I growled in frustration and gave in. Time was short and I had run out of options. "Fine."

"Fine," she echoed.

Before long, the ambulance had arrived and everyone involved was being treated…including me. I scolded myself for not thinking the whole thing through. Not only did I put my family's secret in jeopardy of being exposed by showcasing my strength in front of a human, but now there were also half a dozen EMT's wanting to take my vital signs…which I knew for a fact would be a literal dead give away that I wasn't exactly normal. Luckily, I was able to use my medical knowledge to convince them that I was fine and that their main focus should be on Bella.

She fought with them over having to wear the neck brace. She even fought with them about being on the stretcher, but I informed the medical personnel that she could possibly have a head injury and that pretty much sealed the deal on her care. When they loaded her into the ambulance, I insisted that I be allowed to ride with her. Not only was I anxious to make sure she really was fine, but I also needed to stay close to her until I had successfully convinced her about what happened.

Before I climbed into the front of the ambulance, I scanned the growing crowd of on lookers knowing that my family would certainly have come out to see what was wrong. I found them at the far end of the parking lot glaring at me. Well, Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper were glaring. Alice simply looked worried.

What did you do? Rosalie's mind screamed at me. What did you do, Edward?

You should not have interfered. Jasper scolded.

This was a mistake. Emmett sneered.

Carlisle…take her to Carlisle. Alice repeated over and over. He will help.

I knew this wasn't the end of it, but for now I turned away from them and hopped into the front seat. A police car escorted us the short distance to the hospital, which was no surprise considering the man driving the car was Bella's father. His thoughts were a jumbled mess of concern and relief and regret that he hadn't been successful in keeping her safe in the short time she had lived with him. I gathered from my brief conversation with Bella that he tried too hard, teetering between being over protective and not protective enough.

We pulled into the emergency docking bay and Bella was taken right in for her examination. One of the nurses approached me, ready to assess the damage she assumed was done to my body. I could hear her mind going through the usual checklist of procedures and knew that the first thing she was interested in was taking my pulse. I held my hands behind my back and insisted that I was fine and in no need of an examination. She protested, but fortunately Carlisle stepped in and dismissed her.

"What happened?" he asked, pulling me down a quiet hallway.

"Bella was nearly hit by a car."

He winced. "Oh, no."

"She's fine. She might have a concussion, though."

"And where were you during all of this? I was specifically called down here because one of the EMT recognized you as my son and alerted the staff. You have no idea how perplexing it is to be told that your son, who you know can not be easily injured, will be arriving at the hospital in an ambulance."

"Yes, well you should have seen me attempting to avoid the nurse who wanted to take my pulse."

Carlisle stared at me darkly. "What happened?"

"I told you. Bella was very nearly crushed by a car."

"Then why are you here?"

"I…helped her. I was there."

"You were there." He shifted on his feet and pursed his lips in annoyance. "Edward, not everyone has your gift for mind reading. So, why don't we just avoid the argument and skip right to the facts. Tell me exactly what happened, because I know there is more to this than what you are telling me."

He finished by giving me that look that I dread. It's a look I've seen many times in the last eighty years or so. That look that makes me feel all of ten years old; that parental look that cuts right to the core of my being and pulls a confession out of me. How Carlisle did it, I doubted I would ever know. Esme could do it, too. In fact, she was even better at it. I suppose it was something they learned in their adult mortal lives that they were able to carry along with them through the change. Even though I had long ago left childhood behind me, I still found myself giving into Carlisle's demands whenever he looked at me like that.

"I saved her," I admitted.

"How?"

"I pushed her out of the way before the car could hit her."

"And that's it?" Carlisle still had that look etched onto his face.

"Yes… no…"

"Edward?

"All right. It was icy. I saw the car heading right for her and I…crossed the parking lot and pushed her down — pinned her down, covering her body with mine so that I would take the brunt of any hit that might occur."

"Crossed the parking lot?"

"Yes."

"You weren't standing next to her?"

"No."

He grimaced and I heard his mind perfectly. That was stupid, Edward. You know better.

"And then what? After you pinned her down the ambulance came?"

"Well…the car was still spinning so I had no choice but to…" I faltered on my words as I held my hands out in front of me demonstrating what I had done.

"You stopped it?"

I nodded.

"With your hands?"

"I didn't have a choice, Carlisle. It was going to crush us."

"No, it would have crushed her — not you, and you did have a choice."

I gaped at him. "What was I supposed to do? Let the car hit her?"

Carlisle closed his eyes, his shoulders slumping slightly as he thought it through. Compassion. I'm always encouraging them to show compassion for the humans. And now when he does, he places us all in danger. How can I make him see the error of his choice without stifling the efforts he is making to be more considerate?

I spoke before he had a chance. "I realize it was a bad choice. I really do. But I couldn't let that car hit her. I just couldn't. She's too…special."

His eyes met mine. Special? Compassion is one thing, but to have him label her in such a way is rather unexpected.

"I can't explain it," I said quietly. "I've been trying to figure it out…figure her out and I just…" My gaze lowered to the floor as a combination of guilt and frustration filled my chest.

There was a long silence before Carlisle spoke again. "Did she see you?"

I nodded, and the guilt deepened.

Oh, Edward. The rules. You broke the rules. What have you done?

"I'm sorry, Carlisle," I whispered. With a deep breath I looked back up at him. "Look, the fact remains that she hit her head. I'm guessing she has a concussion. It shouldn't be too difficult to convince her that she didn't see what she thought she saw. And even if she can't be convinced, who would believe her story anyway?" I knew I was deluding myself in thinking Bella could be persuaded that she imagined it all, but I had to at least try.

Carlisle hummed in thought. "It's possible. Let me go look at her X-rays and see how bad the damage is. I never thought I would ever hear myself saying this, but you had better hope that she does have a concussion."

Carlisle did some necessary paperwork on me, filling in all the details without ever stopping to make sure they were accurate. Heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature…it was all a lie of course, but he figured no one would believe that a doctor let his son walk away from a car accident without a thorough examination. He signed the bottom of the form and handed me the patient's copy.

"Thanks," I muttered.

He smirked at me and explained that he would be in to check on Bella once her X-rays came back. "You should go and make sure she has her story straight."

I nodded in agreement and headed for the area where Bella was being taken care of. She was still in the ER in a curtained off area that provided little to no privacy. The walk through the ER was a difficult one, but I managed it. I could smell the blood of wounded humans, the stench of sickness, and even sense the nearness of death, even though I was certain no on in my immediate vicinity was close to dying. How Carlisle maintained his sanity while surrounding himself with such powerful temptation always left me awe struck. I could never do it. Even though I had been to medical school, I had never practiced or even been a resident.

I entered the area where Bella was being administered to. Tyler, who had been driving the van, was in the bed next to her, mumbling apologies and cursing himself for his mistake. He looked a lot worse off than Bella, who had her eyes closed and her head turned away from him. She looked so peaceful and content that I would have guessed she was dead, had it not been for the slow and steady rise and fall of her chest. Not being able to hear her thoughts only added to the illusion.

"Is she sleeping?" I asked Tyler.

Bella's eyes flew open at the sound of my voice.

Tyler started in on his apologies to me. "Hey, Edward, I'm really sorry - "

I put up a hand to stop him from going any further. "No blood, no foul," I joked with a smile and took a seat on the end of his bed. "So, what's the verdict?" I asked, morbidly hoping there would be something wrong with her to stop her from questioning me about what happened. But my wish would not be granted.

"There's nothing wrong with me at all, but they won't let me go. How come you aren't strapped to a gurney like the rest of us?"

"It's all about who you know." I said, taking note that Carlisle was just outside the room. "But don't worry, I came to spring you."

He entered the room and picked up Bella's chart to look it over. I noticed that Bella's eyes went wide upon seeing him and she followed his every move. I squinted at her, wanting more than ever to know what she was thinking. If I didn't know any better, I would have guessed she found Carlisle very attractive…which didn't sit right with me in the slightest.

"So, Miss Swan. How are you feeling?" he asked in his most obvious doctor voice.

"I'm fine," Bella said, sounding as if she was growing tired of answering the question.

Carlisle turned on the light board beside Bella's bed. "Your X-rays look good." The words No concussion, Edward came across loud and clear. "Does your head hurt? Edward said you hit it pretty hard." Again I heard Let me try to find something to help you out.

"It's fine," Bella insisted, scowling at me as if it was my fault she hit her head instead of ending up crushed between two automobiles.

Carlisle probed along her skull, feeling for any tenderness. He obviously found something because Bella suddenly winced in pain.

"Tender?"

"Not really."

I couldn't help but laugh at her mad attempt to fool Carlisle. She really had no idea who she was dealing with if she thought she could get away with lying to him. If anyone could spot a lie, it was Carlisle.

To my surprise and dismay, Carlisle told her she could go home with her father. Oddly, Bella wanted to go back to school, again proving to me that she wasn't like any other teenager I'd ever encountered. What teen would chose to go to school when they had a perfectly logical excuse for taking the day off?

"Does he get to go to school?" she said, indicating me.

"Someone has to spread the news that we survived."

Carlisle started to sign her release form and said, "Actually, most of the school seems to be in the waiting room."

"Oh, no," she groaned and covered her face in the most appealing way.

"Do you want to stay?" Carlisle asked.

"No, no!" Bella said and hopped off the bed so quickly that she nearly fell down. I jumped up to catch her, but Carlisle was closer.

"I'm fine," she said as if she, too, could hear Carlisle's impending question of "Are you all right?"

Instead he instructed her to take Tylenol if she had any pain, which, in typical Bella style, she brushed off. "It sounds like you were extremely lucky," he said, finishing off her paperwork with his messy signature.

"Lucky Edward happened to be standing next to me."

Carlisle's eyes darted to mine. She knows, Edward. Fix this as soon as you can. He fussed with the stack of papers he was holding and casually answered Bella by saying, "Oh, well, yes." He then turned his attention to Tyler, who would not be leaving the hospital that day.

Bella approached me and hissed under her breath, "Can I talk to you for a minute."

She smelled so sweet that I had to back away from her. "Your father is waiting for you," I said, hoping she would just let this go and move on. But that wasn't going to happen.

"I'd like to speak with you alone, if you don't mind."

I know it was rude of me, but I turned my back on her and walked to the other side of the room, turned the corner, and headed into a deserted hallway. I walked quickly, knowing very well from the sound of her shuffling feet that she was following me in spite of the trouble she was having keeping up.

"What do you want?" I asked, turning to face her.

She seemed puzzled. "You owe me an explanation."

"I saved your life — I don't owe you anything."

Her brows furrowed together, not in anger but with sadness at my cold words. "You promised."

I sighed, knowing she was right. "Bella, you hit your head, you don't know what you're talking about."

Now I could definitely see the anger in her expression. "There's nothing wrong with my head."

Damn it I swore in my mind. Why won't she give this up? "What do you want from me, Bella?"

"I want to know the truth. I want to know why I'm lying for you."

"What do you think happened?"

She spoke hurriedly, rambling on about how I was no where near her — that Tyler didn't even see me next to her. How I stopped the van with my hands. How I picked the van up and moved it off of her. By the end, tears were swelling up in her beautiful eyes. It pained me to look at her, to listen to the agony in her voice. She knew what she saw, but she was having difficultly believing it. I wished I could tell her she wasn't crazy — that I wasn't like her — that I saved her because she was special. But I couldn't. I had to make her believe my version of the story or my very existence would be in danger of exposure.

"You think I lifted a van off you?" I said purposefully.

She nodded shyly.

"Nobody will believe that, you know," I pointed out. Anyone she told would assume she was crazy or had imagined it all.

To my total surprise she said, "I'm not going to tell anybody."

Good. "Then why does it matter?"

"It matters to me. I don't like to lie — so there'd better be a good reason why I'm doing it."

Stars! She was so frustrating! "Can't you just thank me and get over it?"

"Thank you," she said with an edge to her voice.

Oh, how I wish I could hear her mind! I needed to know that she would get over this and move on. If she didn't, she would forever hold something over my head. I had foolishly given her and edge over me that put me and every single member of my family in danger. She had to let this go. But from the look on her stony face, that wasn't going to happen.

"You're not going to let it go, are you?" I voiced.

"No."

"In that case…I hope you enjoy disappointment."

Her eyes held mine in a fierce and intense stare. If I didn't know better, I would think she was looking directly into me…past me…into the core of my being. Color rose on her cheeks, so glorious and freshly pink. Her luscious mouth parted slightly as she inhaled.

"Why did you even bother?" she said grimly.

The question caught me completely off guard. How could I explain to her that she was a prize among humans? How would she react if I told her the thought of her death frightened me more than it was reasonable? The truth was, I didn't quite know why I had these feelings. I wasn't even sure what these feelings were, as I had never felt them before in my entire existence. I searched her face and gave her the only answer I could offer.

"I don't know."

I wasn't able to stay next to her for another moment. Everything about her, from her scent to the warmth of her breath, was penetrating my very soul. I walked away, desperate to clear my head and make sense of everything I was experiencing.