A/N: So far, so good! I'm keeping up with my promise. It helps that I am on Thanksgiving break and am trying to keep myself occupied in an 8 hour drive back to long island with my brother and his friend.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my own ideas and mistakes.

Witchy Woman

Just An Ordinary Day

The next morning, with Charlie already at work, Bella was able to get ready without anyone watching and allowed herself the novelty of using magic to speed up the process. Walking outside, she noticed that the snow and rain from the day before had frozen into ice everywhere. Today would be a problem she could tell.

Trudging along slowly down the road, Bella had little problem with the black ice on the road, and this struck her as odd. Arriving at the school she saw why. On her tires were magically reinforced snow chains. Crouching near the tires she examined them and started to tear up. No one had ever taken care of her before; she was used to taking care of everyone else.

An odd screeching noise sounded to her right and she looked up. The first thing she saw was Edward Cullen's face frozen in a look of horror over by his Volvo. The next thing she saw was Tyler's huge van hurtling toward her out of control.

Bella was frozen with fear. Somewhere in her fear she realized she should try to do some magic, but she was unable to tap into it for the first time since she got here. How ironic, she had had to control herself from not using magic all the time she had been here, yet the one time she desperately needed it, she couldn't use it. Realizing the situation she was in, she closed her eyes and awaited the impact.

A moment later, she was hit, but not from the direction she thought it would come. She hit the ice and was aware of an arm around her pinning her to the ground. Completely confused she was about to open her eyes when she heard a low "Fuck" in her ear and was swung around on the ice like a rag doll. She noticed a pain radiating from her ankle and opened her eyes to see Edward Cullen bracing himself against her truck and lifting up Tyler's car with one arm and carefully moving her feet; one of which she noticed was sticking out at an odd angle.

"Bella, are you alright?" She heard his worried voice in her ear after he had let the van down.

The pain from her ankle was blinding, all she could think about was stopping the pain. She reached down and twisted her ankle, setting it with her magic. Bella let out a sigh once the pain had stopped and sat up. Edward was looking at her completely confused and indignant.

"What did you just do?" Edward asked in a hushed and angry voice. He grabbed her ankle roughly and felt it. "It was broken, Bella, how is your ankle healed?"

"How did you get here so fast and stop the car?" Bella answered his accusation with one of her own. Bella glared at him just as harshly as he glared at her.

Edward opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. Bella looked around and noticed all the people running over and realized they would have to finish the conversation somewhere more private.

As people started pushing their way through Bella attempted to get up. Edward pushed her back down and held her their firmly. His arms were cold, even through all her layers of clothes she could feel it; colder than the ice beneath her. Bella looked up at him in surprise.

"Stay still, you might be hurt, wait for the ambulance."

Bella groaned in exasperation, "I'm fine, I can … wait," Bella paused for a second and looked around horrified. "Ambulance?" she squeaked out. "I really don't need an ambulance, I'm perfectly fine." She struggled against Edwards arms, but it was useless, it was like an iron band; unmoving, unyielding; keeping her firmly on the ice with no effort at all.

Bella was about to argue some more when she heard the ambulance and sighed in resignation. Edward would pay for this later.

Arriving at the hospital, Bella was thoroughly examined by some residents and then subject to many x-rays. She ended up on a hospital bed right next to Tyler who was much worse off than she was.

"I'm so sorry Bella," he kept pleading with her. "I hit the ice wrong and the car spun out of control, I didn't mean to – "

"It's okay Tyler." She said for almost the hundredth time. "I know it was an accident, I don't blame you. Besides I'm not even hurt." Bella tried to smile reassuringly but she knew it probably conveyed more annoyance than anything. Not that Tyler would take that hint.

Unable to take anymore of Tyler's apology, Bella pretended to sleep, which seemed to shut him up for awhile.

"Is she sleeping?" A musical voice drifted through the hospital room. Bella internally groaned; she did not want to talk to him. Plus the way he sounded amused meant he knew she was awake. She wasn't a good actor apparently.

Bella opened her eyes and stared at Edward. "What's the verdict?" he asked thoroughly amused with something.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with me, like I said." Bella answered grumpily. "But they won't let me leave."

"Don't worry, I know people, I'm here to spring you."

Just as Edward said this the door to their room opened and in walked a young doctor, pale with blonde hair, tired-looking, yet extremely handsome. She knew this must be Dr. Cullen, he too wasn't human. She could sense that he was different, yet something about him made him seem very trustworthy, and kind.

"So, Ms. Swan," the doctor said in a voice almost as enchanting as Edwards. "How are you feeling?"

Her earlier feelings of relief when the doctor walked in vanished and were replaced, again, with agitation. "I'm fine." She said trying to keep her annoyance under control; she could feel the room start to get warmer. Bella hopped off the bed as carefully as she could. "Can I go now?" She asked eager to get some answers from Edward.

"Well," Dr. Cullen began. "Edward said something about your ankle, but the x-rays were fine and if you can walk, I suppose we can let you go home and get some rest."

(A/N: Obviously not what a real doctor would say, or Carlisle for that matter, but I want to move this scene along a bit, sorry for the interruption.)

"I feel fine. Can't I just go back to school?" Bella asked; she really didn't want to go home to talk to Charlie.

"I really must insist you go home." Dr. Cullen said.

"Well, then," Bella paused, she wanted to get a response from him, something that would show her that they all knew what was going on. "I guess it was really lucky that Edward was there so fast." Bella waited as she left her bait dangling there.

"Was it?" Dr. Cullen murmured as he started looking intently at some papers.

And there it was. It wasn't much, sure, but he deliberately busied himself and didn't respond. It was a surefire sign that they knew something. Deciding that Dr. Cullen would not be the most forthcoming of the group she had met this far, Bella turned to Edward.

He was staring at her intently looking just as frustrated as she felt. Bella steeled herself mentally and walked up to him. "Edward, can I talk to you for a moment, alone?" She said when she was close to him.

Edward jerked away from her before she even finished speaking. Turning swiftly, he walked quickly through the door. Bella had to jog to keep up with him, then, as suddenly as he started walking, he stopped and wheeled around to glare at her. "What is it?" He said rather abruptly.

Some of the wind was taken out of her, but she proceeded anyway. "First things first, you don't tell anyone what you saw and I won't tell anyway what I saw. Can you handle that?"

"How did you heal your ankle?" He asked yet again.

"You didn't answer my question." Bella said without a second thought.

"I won't say anything, how did you heal your ankle?" He insisted.

Bella thought about telling him, she could feel herself attracted to him like a magnet. She wanted to get closer to him. But it wasn't just her secret she would be telling and, no matter how much she was attracted to him, she didn't know if she could trust him. Until she knew more about him, it wasn't safe to hand him all the cards.

Finally she came to a decision, the best way to keep them out of this circular argument. "Here's the other thing, you don't ask me about what you saw and I won't ask you about your speed and strength. Understand?"

He looked at her like she was crazy. "What do my "speed and strength" have to do with anything?"

"Don't play dumb with me." Bella hissed trying to keep her voice down, "You were across the parking lot when the van was headed towards me and you stopped it with your bare hands!"

"You hit your head to hard, you must be mistaken, I was right next to you and you still haven't answered my question."

The lights started to flicker and the air started to get warm, she could feel a storm gathering. She would laugh later, at the cliché of conjuring a storm with flickering lights when she was angry, but at that moment she needed to calm down.

"Then maybe you were mistaken about my ankle" Bella said as she moved towards the lobby. She was half afraid that Edward would stop her but, when she turned the corner she saw him right where he was before glaring at her.

Bella walked towards her father standing in the waiting area. He looked at her questioningly and she shook her head, home she mouthed. He got the hint and was silent from the moment they stepped onto the sidewalk of the hospital until they stepped over the threshold of their house.

"What happened?" Charlie said concerned.

"Tyler's van spun out of control and almost killed me; Edward ran all the way over the parking lot in few seconds and stopped the car with his bare hands!" Bella was shaking slightly. "But that's not the worst part, I couldn't use my magic when it was coming at me, and then after, my ankle was twisted badly and without thinking I healed it and he saw."

Charlie was torn between being concerned and being angry. "I should be mad at you for exposing your magic, but he's not human either, so he's not about to tell the world. You have to be careful and act as normal as possible. This adds to what we know about them though, they are fast and strong."

"Yes, but my magic, why couldn't I use it when the van was coming at me?" Bella was desperate by now, it just didn't make sense.

Charlie sighed. "This is the other emotion that I said you would have to learn to control. Fear, it paralyzes your mind and temporarily keeps you from using magic. I can't prepare you for it; the only way for you to control fear is by conquering it. Clichéd I know, but it's the only way."

The next day Bella walked into school with a bad feeling. Sitting down in her seat for first period Bella was immediately confronted by Jessica.

"Ummm, Bella …" She paused, "you weren't thinking of asking Mike to the dance were you?"

The dance, Bella shuddered. It had escaped her mind, she always had an easy time of avoiding dances in her old school; it was so big no one would miss her. Here, however, everyone would know who was going and who wasn't. It wasn't that big a deal, she wasn't going to go no matter what anyone said, it was just awkward explaining to everyone who hadn't seen her play gym that she was better off immobile.

"No, I'm going to …. go to Seattle that weekend." Bella quickly made up an excuse. When she thought about it, it was a good idea. She wanted to get some books so if she really was going to Seattle it wouldn't be a lie.

"Oh." Jessica said sounding relieved. "Good, 'cause I was going to ask Mike and I didn't want there to be any weirdness."

Bella hmm-ed in assent and fell silent and turned to the teacher.

Between classes and answering questions about the accident Bella didn't get a chance to talk to Jessica again and when she saw her at lunch she knew something was wrong. She wasn't talking to anyone, a rare occurrence, and she sat as far away from Mike as possible; this was not good.

Mike walked with Bella to Biology rather quietly and when Bella sat down at her desk next to Edward, who she tried desperately to ignore, Mike suddenly told her, "Jessica asked me to the dance."

Bella did her best to look surprised and happy, even though the last thing she wanted to do was play matchmaker. "That's great what did you say?"

"Well…" Mike paused and shuffled his feet. "I said maybe."

"Now why would you do something like that?" Bella said disapprovingly.

"Well, I was hoping that … you would ask me … unless you are going with someone else." Mike looked pointedly at Edward.

Bella sighed and said, "I'm not going to the dance Mike, I'm going to Seattle that weekend. So you shouldn't keep Jessica waiting, it's rude." Bella finished in a motherly tone.

Mike walked off slightly sulking and Bella turned towards the front of the room belatedly noticing Edward was staring at her. She turned to give him a quizzical look and he smirked and turned away opening his notebook and taking notes. Bella shrugged it off and followed the lecture as best as she could, even though she was keenly aware of Edward next to her.

Walking back to her truck after gym Eric caught up with her. "Hey Bella I was wondering if you wanted to go to the dance with me?"

Bella bit back a groan. "I thought it was girl's choice?"

Eric looked a bit embarrassed. Bella felt a little bad, it wasn't his fault that Mike had just asked her too.

"I'm not going to be here that weekend, I'm going to Seattle." Bella said.

"Yeah Mike said something about that, I just hoped you were letting him down easy." Mike laughed uneasily.

Okay, maybe it was his fault.

Bella stomped off towards her truck all the while inwardly cursing the stupidity of boys. She angrily slammed the truck door and started it up violently. As she backed out Edward pulled into the aisle keeping her from leaving the parking lot. She sighed again and put her head down on the steering wheel.

Suddenly she heard a tapping on her window. Looking up she saw Tyler. She rolled the window down half way as she said, "I'm sorry Tyler, I can't move, Cullen is in the way."

"Oh, that's okay I just wanted to know if you wanted to go to the dance with me."

Bella shut her eyes and said, again, "I'm not going to be here that weekend, I'm going to Seattle."

"That's okay, there's always prom." He said and before Bella could think of something to say he was back at his car shutting the door.

Bella glared forward, she had known today would be bad. Unable to calm down Bella decided to do something about her anger. Making sure it made no noise she scratched some of the paint off of Edward's fender with her magic. It wasn't huge, but he would notice it.

Satisfied she watched as Edward peeled out of the parking lot unaware.