A/N: R&R if you so desire.
I do not own Twilight, I just play with the characters.
BELLA
"What do you think you are doing?" Jen looks at me like I am slightly crazy.
"Um, getting some sleep?" I answer, but it sounds more like a question.
"Try again darlin'. We have stuff to do," Jen shakes her head.
"Okaaay…" I drop the sleeping bag that I was holding.
We have stuff to do? I can't think of anything. Well, we don't really have a plan and we have not meditated since we got here. Oh, well there is that. Normally we don't have to meditate very often, but we want to be in absolute control of all our magic in case we run into any problems. Violet flames fly from Jen's fingertips and catch fire to logs that appear in the cooking pit. Foil packets materialize in the fire.
"There's just something about cooking the food that makes it taste better," Jen sighs as she watches the flames.
"That's true, even though that really should not be the truth," I agree with my friend.
"The feeling of accomplishment makes everything better," Jen says in her fake serious tone before she sticks her tongue out at me.
We eat and joke like we used to do when we still did regular missions as Hunters. Who knows, maybe we will end up doing more when this thing is over. I once more start to head for bed when Jen cocks an eyebrow at me. Hmm…meditation, right. I don't know where my head is tonight. I guess I miss Edward more than what I thought I would. Come on, Bella. Keep your head or someone might get hurt…if not worse. I want to keep things the way they are. Can you even imagine how awful the witch rule would be?
"It would be fairly awful," Jen responds to my thoughts. Well, she is not really responding to my thoughts. Witches can't read other witches' minds. However, sometimes I suspect that Jen can read people's minds sometimes.
"How do you do that?" I feign annoyance at that ability.
"I was just thinking. I didn't even realize that I had said anything out loud," Jen dismisses my try at teasing.
"Oh, I was considering what another rule of witches would be like," I hope that she will share her own ponderings as well.
"I was thinking what it would be like for my mom if she never met my dad," Jen fulfills my hope by saying.
"Why would that be awful? She would not know the difference," I query.
"No, but then she would have been pressured to marry another witch, preferably of an affluent family. My grandparents can be very cruel in their attempts to 'do what's best for you.' Well, that's not true. They want to ensure what happens is best for the family line regardless of what it means for individuals," Jen informs me.
"But they are in love, right?" my curiosity makes me ask.
"They are, and they are happy. But, their own marriage was what was best for the family line. What matters to magical family lines is power and nothing else. There are very few members of the old lines that think about anything else, even to this day. My mother's family line is the worst offender in the quest for power. Not a single member other than mom and me will hesitate to make a match that will further the hunt for more power," Jen explains patiently.
We lapse into silence for awhile before we both start to meditate. This is where time becomes somewhat irrelevant. I ignore its ebb and flow. I can feel the magic coursing through my body. The ribbons of power flow stronger and faster with my attention on them. I make the effort to slow them to a leisurely pace. One cannot achieve inner peace with a torrent of power raging within. The flow of power is still strong, but the flow is easy. I concentrate on every turn and every stretch, retracing the path that I learned to love when I first learned to meditate. I focus and the ribbons grow more and then think out to almost nonexistent. This control allows for the aura of magic to fade for those who know to look for or can even see such things. I go through the familiar paces. I can change the patterns and the flow to concentrate the power in particular parts of my body. I can make the magic fill my entire being and have only the undercurrents that the deep sea has.
"It is almost time, I'm afraid," Grim's apology and statement break through my meditative trance. I open my eyes to find that Jen is standing up.
"Then we must leave," I answer him.
"There is no need to apologize," Jen assures him with a grin.
Grim has this goofy grin on his face. I wish Jen would just tell me what the deal is there. But I guess I can understand her point too. If it does not concern her, then she really does not talk about it. That is a good quality for a friend, no matter how annoying I find it at this time. We head off with Grim in the lead. It does not take long for Jen to look at him expectantly.
"Did things go well?" she asks when he refuses to even look her way. Grim blushes a bit.
"Yes, things went very well. But then, you already knew that the evening would progress the way that it did," he mumbles as his blush gets deeper. That is an interesting reaction.
"I'm lost," I huff.
"Oh, you should just let it go, darlin'," Jen laughs.
"You didn't tell her," Grim says that like a statement because apparently he never really questioned it.
"Of course I did not tell her. I figured that you would tell her if you wanted her to know anything," Jen rolls her eyes.
"You two are doing this on purpose," I accuse them.
"Bella, you need to relax," Jen sighs.
"Do you really and truly want to know?" Grim asks me.
"Of course I really and truly want to know," my glare shifts between them both.
"Then I will tell you. Last night was an anniversary in my relationship with the oracle," Grim says that like it is obvious. Wait, what? He's seeing Mary Beth?