Next chapter... Thanx to anyone who has reviewed by the way :-)
Disclaimer: Do not own any of these characters etc.
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Chapter 9
Dead End
"Will you please stop doing that?" Edward murmured to me. We were back at the house, and by now the sun was fully risen, all memories of baseball forgotten for the present.
"Mmm?" I replied, not really paying attention. He pulled my face up so that I was looking him straight in the eyes. "What?" I asked, slightly confused. He laughed, pulling me closer. "You're panicking again. I don't need Jasper around to tell me that." Now I was even more confused. "Why do you think I'm panicking?" I asked.
"Bella, love, your still so easy to read, but this time for different reasons. Your shield is changing again. Do you realise that?" He asked, looking at me. This time it was deliberate, although why I was doing it I was not sure.
"Erm, sort of."I sighed. "Yes, you're right. I'm panicking about Charlie again if you must know. I don't think you need to read my mind to see that."
He pulled me even closer; a feat I did not think was possible. "I have a theory, about your shield, by the way." He said conversationally. I laughed; I remembered all of my theories when I was trying to figure out what Edward really was. Then I remembered Charlie was doing exactly the same thing. That didn't help in the slightest.
"So what's your theory?" I asked, genuinely interested. He smiled briefly then kissed me. Sometime later we broke apart. "Do you want me to ask again?" I said. "I'm not as easily distracted as before."
"Fine." He muttered in defeat. "First is the most obvious one; stress. You're worried about Charlie, which is completely understandable as the rest of the family are also concerned about the situation. When a human is stressed out or anxious they can start hyperventilating. Obviously, that won't do you any good as you don't actually need to breath." He laughed. "It's as if you're using your shield as a huge paper bag!" I laughed with him this time; that was exactly what I had thought just yesterday. As they say; great minds think alike.
"What's your other theory?" I asked.
" My other theory. I've noticed that you only take it off when I'm around. I don't know if you realise," He quickly went on, seeing my confused expression. It was true I was with Edward for as much time as possible, but how could he know that I took it off ONLY when he was around? "we can all sense your shield Bella. It's not very noticeable whilst it's up, as you might say, but we can tell it is there. When it comes off it's like your aura changes slightly. After a while it becomes obvious when it is fully down."
"Really?" I asked, genuinely surprised. You learn something new every day.
"Yea." He laughed. "Anyway, my theory is that you feel more secure when I'm around." He looked uncomfortable trying to predict how I felt. He's often said that my opinions always surprised him.
"Of course I feel safe when you're around. You've saved me more times than you can imagine." He kissed me briefly.
"So anyway, the theory is that you automatically want to let me in when you're worried, and the only way to do that is to let down your shield. It's just a theory..." He trailed off as I let my shield down for his benefit. You're good at distracting me, just another talent of yours. I kissed him again before he had the chance to respond, putting my shield more securely in place this time. I knew I needed to get a better grip of my emotions or this was going to end really badly. I sighed; I'd thought I'd done so well with my emotions as a newborn, but I guess stress is a bigger problem than I could have imagined.
I took Edward by the hand and went out into the garage where I found Alice already sitting on the yellow bonnet of her Porsche, expecting me. "Hey." Alice grinned back at me. It was more of a grimace actually; evidently she guessed why I was here.
"Charlie report?" She asked. She didn't need to check with me, of course that was what I was after. I nodded to her. Edward sighed, and started playing with my hair whilst I waited. I remembered moments like this vaguely from my human life, most of the time whilst I was talking to Jacob, not Alice. I was surprised how much of my human life I had cemented into my vampire brain, but obviously there were some I'd missed out.
"Charlie hasn't really got his mind set on anything in particular. In fact he keeps changing it."
"Changing it? How? Does that mean he is debating whether he wants' to know or not?" Alice glared at me. "I'm getting there! Have some patience Bella. Firstly, no. Charlie still wants' to know, he's just changing his ways of finding out. He didn't find anything illegal with the money link, but he tried to follow the link to the Volturi. Calm, he didn't find anything. He's left that for now but we're almost certain he will go back to it. He's begun looking for the guests at the wedding." I interrupted before she could continue. "How did he get the list?"
Alice shrugged, looking unconcerned. "Guess he must have kept the guest list we gave him to approve. But there is not much chance him of finding anyone. There wasn't any contact details or anything on that list, just whether they were coming or not."
"He wants to look for similarities." I murmured. I had just vaguely recalled my first sighting of the Cullen's, and how there had been something so similar about them, some difference. Of course now I knew why, and expected that I was the same now, but if I could see it then so could Charlie.
"Didn't think of that."Alice said. "Anyway," she said, seeming a little cheerier, "there is no way he could find anyone. The only person he talked to at length was Tanya, and we can easily tell her about the situation. Don't worry Bella; Charlie is just walking into another dead end."
As I walked back into the main house with Edward I was far from complacent. How many more dead ends was Charlie going to walk into before his found a lead? What would be the price for his stupidity? I shuddered at the thought. Maybe a brief call to Tanya was not such a bad idea after all.
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I had a request to explain why Bella's shield was being a little weird, so I tried to explain this in the chapter, hope it was ok. Have to mention that that same review gave me some ideas, so big thanx for that. Same as usual, please review and I'll try and get the next chapter up as soon as I have a free moment.
