A/N Well, I'm taking a break from everyone else for the moment. Here's some Bella/Edward interaction (because I just love how protective he is of her). Enjoy and please tell me what you think. :o) If you write a long review, you can have the Cullen male of your choice. :o)

This chapter is dedicated to Lil'Dinky, who has been one of my best and most faithful reviewers. Lil'Dinky, thank you so much for your encouragement. I read your profile, and I understand that you're probably very, very busy as a young mother. It makes the fact that you write such detailed and wonderful reviews that much more special to me. Thank you. :o)

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

Chapter 6: My Only Sunshine

As they trooped in from school he found Bella curled up on the sofa in the living room reading Wuthering Heights … for about the sixth time in a row. He honestly didn't understand why she liked that book so much …

"Hello Bella!" he called softly. She smiled shyly at him, and put her book down.

At that moment, he had the best idea.

"Hey Bella," he said excitedly. "Do you want to play a game with me?"

She looked worried for a moment, but then she nodded her head.

"Okay, here's how to play," he said. "I'm going to ask you questions, and you have to figure out how to answer them in as short a time as possible … without writing the answer," he finished grandly.

She grinned and nodded enthusiastically.

Esme had thoughtfully purchased a tablet for her when it became clear to everyone that she wouldn't be talking anytime soon. Bella still preferred to communicate non-verbally, but when she felt it was absolutely necessary, she condescended to write her thoughts.

She had such messy handwriting though that Emmett liked to tease her and purposefully misread what she had written. It was one of the only times she laughed her silent laugh. The first time it happened, Emmett was on cloud nine for a week.

"Okay," Edward began. "What's your favorite color?"

She thought for a moment and then held up two fingers.

"You have two favorite colors?" he asked.

She nodded and then took off running through the house. He followed her until she got upstairs to the room she shared with Rosalie and Alice. She touched the blue coverlet on her bed.

"Okay … blue, got it!" he said. "And the other?"

Bella wrinkled her forehead and then touched the coffee colored fur of the teddy bear on her bed.

"Brown?" he asked, confused. "Why do you like brown?"

Bella pursed her lips and thought long about that one, and then motioned for him to go downstairs with her again.

She went into Carlisle's study and pulled the big globe from where it rested on a bookcase beside his desk. She spun it around and then pointed her finger. He leaned down to see that she had placed her finger on top of the state of Arizona.

"So Arizona … did you once live in Arizona?" he asked. She nodded.

"I don't understand. What does Arizona have to do with liking brown?" he asked.

Her forehead wrinkled. Then she motioned for him to follow her again.

Carlisle and Esme were sitting in the living room talking. They looked up when Bella motioned towards them.

"Esme and Carlisle?" he asked.

She shook her head violently and motioned towards them again.

His eyes widened. "Your mother and father?" he asked.

She smiled and nodded.

"So … you lived in Arizona with your mom and dad … before everything happened," he finished, trying to sidestep her painful memories.

She nodded again.

Then she motioned him to walk to the window.

Esme and Carlisle were watching quietly.

She pointed outside and he saw the overcast sky and the green moss that seemed to grow over everything in Forks.

"Oh," he said suddenly. "You miss the desert. That's why you like brown. It reminds you of the desert."

She nodded and clapped her hands.

Then she ran to her tablet and wrote, "Next question."

Edward exchanged a quick glance with Carlisle.

"Okay," he said. "If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?"

Bella never stopped to think.

She went running back into Carlisle's study. Edward followed her and saw that she was pointing to another spot on the globe.

"Italy," he breathed. "Why Italy?"

Her forehead wrinkled again. She took the globe in her hands again and pointed at the Mediterranean Sea.

"You want to see the Mediterranean Sea?" he asked.

She shrugged her shoulders, and then pointed to the Atlantic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea – all in quick succession.

"Oh ... okay ," he said. "You like the ocean. That seems kind of odd since you like the desert so much," he teased gently.

Her pale face flushed slightly.

Then she pointed at the Mediterranean Sea again and moved her arms outward in an expansive motion.

Here Edward needed no interpretation.

She felt free on the ocean.

He remembered the day they had picked her up at Mrs. Cope's office, and how she seemed to shrink from the suffocating fog outside. She wanted … loved … perhaps needed the sense of security that endless space brought.

And he realized something else about Bella. Bella didn't need to speak out loud to tell what she thought.

She had said more clearly than anyone else in his family had, "I need to be free."

"I understand," he whispered.

Next she pointed at Arizona and Italy, and then at the overcast sky that showed in Carlisle's study window.

"You miss the sunshine too?" he guessed softly.

She nodded and bit her lip.

He patted her back gently and was surprised when she leaned her head against his chest. She still didn't like to be touched normally. He wrapped his arms around her and she stayed perfectly still.

Of course, Edward himself didn't usually reach out and touch others. He always placed himself on the edge of conversations and family meetings, as if needing a quick escape. He was rarely physically affectionate towards anyone, in a reserved, almost old-fashioned respect for personal space, ironic given his desperate desire for those around him to speak.

"You're my sunshine," he whispered to her softly. "And I don't need to go to Italy to see it."

She pulled out of his arms and studied him carefully. Then she stoked his check, barely running her finger over his skin.

He thought for a moment she was going to smile, but she picked her tablet up off Carlisle's desk, where it had been thrown in all the excitement of our game, and pointed at her sentence again.

"Next question."

______________________________________________________________________________

And in the naked light I saw

Ten thousand people, maybe more…

___________________________________________________________________________