A/N: Everyone please join me in welcoming and thanking my new beta StarChild23! I'm really excited to be working with her to better the story and myself as a writer. So I hope you enjoy this latest installment! And don't forget to review!

Edward went into this long story of how he thought he was protecting me by leaving. I scoffed at him when he called me stupid for finding a pack of werewolves to become my friends.

"I thought you were asking me for forgiveness. Calling me stupid isn't exactly winning you any favor."

"Bella, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to call you stupid. It is not my intention, it's just I don't understand how one person can stumble across two supernatural beings that shouldn't exist."

"It doesn't matter if you can understand it or not. It happened and you and your family need to deal with it. Anything and everything that happened, that I chose, while you were gone, you don't have the right to comment or criticize, and I don't want to hear it. And furthermore, Jacob and his pack are as much a family to each other as your family and you are. So don't extend an apology unless you absolutely, resolutely accept all of the consequences of you leaving me." I couldn't help narrowing my eyes at Edward who only stared at me blankly. That was something else I suppose he would have to learn to deal with. I wasn't the same 'Bella' that he left all those months ago.

"If that is the only way you will forgive me of my transgressions, then yes. I apologize." Edward's golden eyes looked down on me as he swiftly moved closer to me. His cool hand cupped my face and I couldn't help but lean into it. I closed my eyes at the ecstasy of his touch remembering how everything used to be.

"Edward. I'm sorry, my forgiveness is yours, but I am not."

"But Bella, -."

I held out my hand to hush him. "Edward, listen to me. I've kept your secret as best as I could. Even when it caused me great pain, physically and emotionally. I had no one to talk to because there was no one that could understand. And I've had all this time to sort most of it out, on my own." I felt myself closing my eyes again as I continued, "But you being here, I mean physically here, not some apparition that only I can see and hear, is messing with me. I need the time that you were so desperate for me to have."

I opened my eyes to see what I hoped wasn't pain, but Edward was gone. I listened for the door but I didn't hear Charlie coming up the steps. I creaked it open but I didn't find Charlie at the door like I have come to expect. Edward really left, again. I knew it was what I wanted, at least for the moment, but that was just rude. At least the last time he said goodbye, and that was when he broke my heart.

T~T

I barely registered my father's warning as I rushed out the door this morning, "Try not to walk out of class again honey!" He yelled after me as I shut the front door. I stuffed the key in the ignition of my truck and practically slammed my head into the steering wheel when it would not turn over.

"Are you kidding me?"

I looked up at the front door just as my dad was about to come out to take a look at it, and decided I should just gather my things and catch a ride with him. But when I got out of my car, Charlie stood frozen at the door, looking past me. I turned around to see what caught his attention, and focused on a silver Volvo at the end of the driveway.

I grunted as I walked to the passenger side of the Volvo and slid into the seat that was already warm for me. I put my seatbelt on and Edward started driving. "I was in the area and I was hoping that you would talk with me this morning." Edward tried to assure me but I could hear the hint of amusement in his voice.

"Yeah well thanks for understanding my need for time," I mumbled. I looked down at my hands and began fidgeting with them.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked, still amused.

"It means, I know you did something to my car. You're never just 'in the area' unless it's for me." I stared into his eyes even though he should have been concentrating on the road. "So what's missing from the truck?"

"What makes you think something is missing?" Edward asked insolently, and I continued my stare-down with him. He only broke the hold a few times to glance at the road before holding my gaze once again before he finally reached into his coat pocket and pulled out some metal thing that I could only assume belonged in my truck somewhere.

"I don't do Car & Driver, I have no idea what this is."

"It's your alternator. I'll replace it after school, I just wanted more time to speak with you." I felt my heart skip a few beats as I looked into his deeply golden eyes. I also scowled knowing that he could hear the same thing that I felt.

"I said I needed more time."

"But that's what I don't get!" He said as he turned his eyes back to the road. We were only a few seconds out from the school since he was purposely driving slow to prolong the moments he could share with me. "I've been away for how many months now and all this time, I wanted to be with you. And I know you feel the same way, I can see it in your eyes. I'm telling you, begging you, I want to be with you. And I need your forgiveness. How much time could you possibly need to decide if you want to be with me when I know you do?" Edward parked the car a few spots from where I saw Tyler parked, who unsubtly pointed me and Edward out to Jessica and the others.

My eyes closed as I felt myself stop breathing entirely, but his one touch that traced my jawbone revived me. In a near whisper I cried out, "It's not that I don't know if I want to be with you. You're right, I do. My heart died when you left and it's having a hard time believing that it won't ever feel that way again. Only you can cause it that amount of pain, and I'm not sure it's worth it."

I grabbed my books and bag and let myself out of his car. Walking as fast as I could without tripping to the building. I could hear running footsteps behind me and I knew it was Edward. I was only glad that he was allowing me to hear his footfalls so I wasn't completely startled when he caught up to me.

"I would never leave you again. You are every part of me, and it hurt me too much to leave you. I was about to abandon everything just to come back for you."

"I highly doubt you were hurting. You had your distractions after all." I retorted cynically to him.

"Distractions? Bella the only distraction that kept me going, was knowing that I was tracking Victoria and I wanted to kill her in order to keep you safe. If I didn't have that going for me, I would have shut down completely and gone to the Volturi." His words were already hushed so that the gossiping eyes and ears were only able to imagine what we were talking about. But it was definitely harder to hear what he was saying.

"That's what Alice said before. But I didn't entirely believe her." I thought back to the brief moment in the kitchen when it was just Esme, Alice and Jasper I had to deal with. "You were really trying to track her? I didn't know you were a tracker too." I remembered my brief encounter with James, Edward and his family had made it seem as though tracking was a special ability.

"I was but I failed miserably, as I'm sure you noticed. I wasn't even on the same continent as her and she was here terrorizing you. Bella, you can never know how sorry I am that I failed you in so many ways." I could see the sincerity in his eyes, and there wasn't a doubt in my mind that he was telling me the truth. It was in that moment that I wanted to kiss him.

My head tilted forward towards him, my lips were slightly parted. I could see him close his eyes with anticipation but I knew I wanted this more than he did.

"Bella! Guess what? I got my schedule changed so it matches yours." Alice popped up beside us, a knowing and devious smile spread across her face.

"Mrs. Copes wouldn't do it for me, how is it possible that she did it for you?" Edward asked in complete disgust for his sister. I almost laughed at the expression on his face since it was so obvious he was cursing out the annoying pixie by our side.

"Well, today she found me simply more adorable than you, big brother, and she did it for me." Alice tried poking him in the face with her finger and I was in awe at how normally human they could seem when they interacted with each other. Aside from them being gorgeous, from afar, you wouldn't be able to tell that they were anything other than human. Of course, I was in the know.

Alice then quickly dragged me into the building and practically rushed me through the hallway. "I know what you were about to do, and you're going completely off grid." Alice flashed a side glare in my direction and for a moment I was scared of my best friend.

"I thought you wanted me and Edward back together?"

"Not on his terms! He has to learn a lesson, and he hasn't learned it yet." Alice started rambling incoherently about the wrongs that Edward committed, but I knew first hand of the consequences, and so did he. Why was there a need to learn any more lessons.

"Alice, with all due respect, I love you but stop it. I'm not working this misguided plan of yours to torture Edward and dangle my love and forgiveness in front of his face. He is my boyfriend and I am his girlfriend; there is nothing that is ever going to change that." I barely even whispered, knowing she was the only one in the classroom that would be able to hear it.

"Okay. Good, now that's settled. Are we going shopping today after school?" Alice smiled and chirped her normal usual self, while I sat there staring at her as if she was bipolar. She practically gave me the death glare when I thought of being back with Edward, and now one minute later, everything was great that I claimed him.

"How about we don't and we say we did?"

"Oh, please Bella? Rose hasn't gotten back yet and I really want to go shopping with you." Alice was begging in the chair next to me and it was slightly amusing at how pathetic she looked.

"No, but I'll tell you what, how about I'll let you buy whatever you want to buy me, and I won't complain?" I looked at her hoping and praying that she took the deal. She was at least thinking about it. I stuck my hand out in order to let her know I was truly okay with this arrangement.

She finally came around and shook my hand. "And you promise you won't complain?"

"I promise." I said blindly, only remembering that it was dangerous to promise something so open-endedly to a vampire. "Wait, Alice-."

"Nope, you promised and agreed to the terms specified, and I will do my best to stick to those terms. I expect you should too." I saw a flash of something fierce in Alice's eyes, and I knew I was in trouble. I could only imagine what ridiculous outfits Alice was going to purchase me.

I made a mental note to call Angela when I got home from school, since she was absent today. It was completely not like her to be out from school, so I wanted to check up on her.

The rest of the day was uneventful as usual, and no one seemed surprised that I was back with Edward. Even Mike Newton seemed cool with our lunch table arrangement. He still stayed in the neutral zone along with Tyler and Eric, leaving room for the Cullens, myself, and Ben. Ben was absorbed in his comic book, only poking into the conversation when something shocked him back to reality.

Edward replaced the alternator in my car and kissed me goodbye. I could see he needed to hunt, and we didn't want to push Charlie over the edge with him being in the house before Charlie got home. It was best to let Charlie warm up to the idea that Edward was a permanent fixture in my life.

I ran upstairs, changed into some sweats, and called my dad's office to see if he could pick up a pizza. I wasn't in the mood to cook and I wanted to get a head start on my paper. As soon as I hung up with him, the phone rang.

"Bella, it's Angela."

"Ang! How are you feeling? I was worried that you weren't in school today."

"You were? I'm fine. I'm not sick or anything. I just thought I'd stay home cause I figured you'd be spending the day with Edward and Alice, and I didn't think you'd have time for me. I just didn't want to make your first day back with them uncomfortable."

"Ang, what are you talking about? I wouldn't have been uncomfortable with you there, don't be silly. I know I wasn't the greatest friend in the world the first time around while I was with Edward, but when the Cullens left, I got over that real quick. I'm not going to abandon my friends ever again. Especially for a boy." I felt awful that Angela even thought I'd ignore her, but I also knew that I didn't give her much faith to go on from the first time.

"Yeah but it's understandable when 'the boy' is Edward Cullen!" We both enjoyed a good laugh and made comments about how dating Edward was something Lauren, nor Jessica, had ever achieved and that was their main resentment towards me.

I gave her the homework assignments for the two classes we had together and caught her up on the little things that happened at school today. Once we hung up, I was glad to have spoken with Angela candidly about so many things. Everything that she told me was sort of an eye-opener of what I had done wrong while dating Edward and I was never going to abandon my friends for Edward Cullen again.

By the time Charlie came home with dinner I'd had two pages of my report done and was more than ready for a break. I grabbed a slice of cheese pizza and dug in. Charlie was about to go into his third slice when the doorbell rang and he went to go answer it.

"Oh hello Dr. Cullen. Alice. How is everything?" I heard Charlie say, and left my pizza crust on my plate to go stand behind him. Sure enough, Carlisle and Alice were on my porch, Alice with a huge grin on her face.

"Chief Swan, I hope you can forgive our intrusion at such a late hour." I stifled a laugh at Carlisle's formal greeting, especially since it wasn't even eight o'clock yet.

"Awww, it's alright. I was just about to turn on the basketball game. We have some pizza in the kitchen if you'd like to join us. Oh for Pete's sake, where are my manners? Come in."

"Oh no, thank you. My daughter and I only stopped by because there was a matter that I wanted to discuss with you and Bella." Carlisle confessed.

"Oh is this about the witness protection program that you had to endure? Bella told me about that, but I haven't said anything to anyone. I promise. I know how these law enforcement procedures work, you know." I looked at Charlie confused at why he seemed so nervous around Carlisle. He's never spoken this much to me before, and I'm his daughter.

"I appreciate that, but no, it's not that. You see, Alice here has a problem, well, more like an addiction to playing those sweepstakes and contests. She's won a few times, and I swear that if I wasn't a doctor, we might be able to live off of her winnings alone. But before I digress too much, her latest win was a new car filled with clothes." There was too much amusement on Carlisle's face and I instantly hated him for the moment. It was a temporary hate, even I knew that, but it sustained me nonetheless.

"But unfortunately, the clothes don't fit and I already have a car. So I'm giving everything to you." Alice said, jumping up and down with excitement.

My eyebrow raised, my jaw hit on the floor, and if I had been holding anything fragile, I would have dropped it. I knew I had to keep from complaining because if I said anything of the sort, Alice probably would have made sure I went with her on her next shopping excursion. I've learned my lesson on this.

"Are you sure that you want to give up the car though?" I looked around Alice and saw a blue Volvo sitting in the driveway. It was extremely pretty, I had to admit.

"Everyone in the family has their forms of transportation, and having yet another car in the family would be overkill. You wouldn't need to worry about taxes or anything of the sort. Everything is paid for. We'd just sign the title over to you Bella."

"Of course it is," I mumbled.

"What was that sweetheart?" Charlie looked back to me.

"I didn't say anything." I scowled at Carlisle and Alice, who only smiled in my direction. Which in turn only made me temporarily hate them more.

"Well, yeah. Bella's truck wouldn't start this morning for school, so maybe it is time to get a more reliable car. I tell you Dr., I was about to take her to school myself but then I saw Edward in the driveway with her. Your son is a good boy, that Edward." I rolled my eyes at Charlie's praise of the Cullens. I loved them all, but as of right now they were the enemy; joined together to get rid of my beautiful rusty monster truck, and Alice was the general. Though I couldn't believe that Esme had anything to do with this so I refused to temporarily hate her. It was the other ones I had to look out for, and two of them were on my porch.

"And it's a convertible! I will help you get the clothes to your room." Alice exclaimed.

"Bella, where are your manners?"

"Thank you Dr. Cullen and Alice. I truly appreciate it, and there is no way I could ever complain about your generosity." I plastered a fake smile and fought the urge to let Alice know that I was going to seek out revenge.

"You're welcome, Bella." Alice said as she brushed past me with several bags in her hand. I knew I was going to regret this. I ran to my new car, grabbed some more bags, and went upstairs to my room where Alice was moving the old clothes in my closet out, so there was room for the new stuff she bought me.

"A car, Alice? I meant clothes. You know I meant clothes."

"Yes, but you said anything and I complied. And don't complain."

"I wasn't complaining. Just wanted an explanation, is all."

"Okay, well, explanations are cool I guess." Charlie came up with Carlisle trailing behind him with what I hoped were the last of the bags. "It has a navigation system, a premium sound system, keyless drive and Edward added the remote start for you too. I got all of the options available and when Rose gets back she can add some more horsepower for you."

"No, I'll be fine with the horsepower that is available. Thank you for the offer though."

"Okay, I'm gonna go now. Enjoy. You should pick me up for school tomorrow."

Alice gave me a hug and I felt my resolve melt as she danced her way out of my room. She didn't mean any harm by her gesture, and even I couldn't deny that I was the one that put this whole thing in motion. I should have known by her devious smile earlier that she wasn't going to stick to just clothes.

It was my own fault, really.