A/N: Ok, sorry for such a long wait for an update!! School has really been kicking my butt and now softball has started and I've been really caught up in the Red Eye movie section, but enough with the excuses- I'm one of those people that when I start something I need to finish it or it will bother me to death. I took some advice and went back and redid chapter two. I tried my best to make Edward's thoughts more formal, and I'm sorry if they still sound like a normal teenagers but hey that's all I am so yeah, and I also tried to explain how he knows about how Bella was after he left, so please go back and read that then read this...

Enjoy and Review!

DREADED QUESTION

It looked as though Bella was struggling to wake, or perhaps she was struggling to stay asleep. Maybe she didn't want herself to wake up either. Oh, dear God, if you really do exist please let her still love me... I was absolutely petrified. What if she told me to leave and never come back? The suspense was killing me, so to speak.

Bella sighed and then slowly pried her eyes open. "Oh!" she gasped and threw her hands over her eyes. Oh no she really wasn't happy to see me at all. Maybe this was a mistake, maybe I should have given her time to return to her "normal" self and then came back. After a split second though, she opened her eyes and looked at me. Her expression was so hard to read and a thought started to cross my mind, perhaps it wasn't that she was wasn't happy to see me, but maybe I had just scared her.

"Did I frighten you?" I asked in a low voice. I was so anxious, hoping for her to say 'yes'. If she said yes, it would give me hope, if not I would have to dig and find the reason for her reaction to seeing me upon her awakening. She used to wake up to me all the time after all...

She blinked twice, trying to shake off her sleep I hoped, and looked deep in thought. Oh how I wanted to get into that mind of hers, just one word, please, anything.

"Oh, crap," Bella said with a thick voice. What could she possibly be thinking, it was a yes or no question.

"What's wrong, Bella?" I asked, still anxious and waiting for my answer. She frowned at me and this only increased my wanting to know what was going on inside that head of hers.

"I'm dead, right?" she moaned. "I did drown. Crap, crap, crap! This is gonna kill Charlie." What on earth was she talking about? Oh, she must have thought this was a dream or something.

"You're not dead," I frowned.

"Then why am I not waking up?" she challenged. My point proven that she thought she was dreaming.

"You are awake, Bella," I told her.

"Sure, sure," she shook her head. "That's what you want me to think, And then it will be worse when I do wake up. If I wake up, which I won't because I'm dead. This is awful. Poor Charlie. And Renee and Jake..."

I had to think of something to say to ease her mind. 'I can see where you might confuse me with a nightmare." I gave her a grim smile. "But I can't imagine what you could have done to wind up in hell. Did you commit many murders while I was away?"

She grimaced at me, "Obviously not. If I was in hell, you wouldn't be with me."

I sighed. That was Bella for you, always trying to make me look like some kind of saint or something. If I died, or did whatever it is that we do, I most certainly not be in heaven as she implied I would be. My past would never allow it, I would get to the big pearly gates and God would laugh in my face, asking what I thought I was doing there.

Bella sat there for a moment, collecting her thoughts from the look of it and I couldn't help but stare at her. Her blood smelled so sweet. I watched as the color rose in her cheeks. She was beautiful when she slept, but now that I could peer into those chocolate orbs, my cold heart practically melted. She was gorgeous.

She interrupted my thoughts, which was maybe a good thing, they do after all every once in a while, go places they probably should not. "Did all of that really happen, then?"

I was glad to see that she finally seemed to be coming around to the whole 'you're awake' discussion. "That depends." Yes, you did risk your life, family, friends, everything, to fly to Italy and save me from being such an idiot. Yes, you were almost sucked dry by the some of the most powerful vampires to exist. Yes, I did leave you-but now I'm back. "If you're referring to us nearly being massacred in Italy, then, yes."

"How strange," she replied. "I really went to Italy. Did you know I'd never been farther east than Albuquerque?" I rolled my eyes. She obviously wasn't all with me, if she was just concerned about how far she had gone, she had bigger things to think about, like almost dying for example.

"Maybe you should go back to sleep. You're not coherent."

"I'm not tired anymore." She looked like she was fully awake now. "What time is it? How long have I been sleeping?"

I glanced quickly at the clock, it read 1:08 a.m. She started to stretch, I'm sure her body was aching after such a long sleep. It probably had not helped that she hadn't really moved at all during that time. "It's just after one in the morning. So, about fourteen hours."

"Charlie?" she asked.

I frowned, remembering our "conversation" from earlier that day. "Sleeping. You should probably know that I'm breaking the rules right now." I thought about that for a second, and almost chuckled. "Well, not technically, since he said I was never to walk through his door again, and I came in the window...But, still, the intent was clear."

"Charlie banned you from the house?" She asked. She looked like she did not believe it at first but then she looked almost angry. Silly, Bella. "Did you expect anything else?"

She looked really mad now. I could not hear what was going on in her mind, but I thought I had a pretty good idea of what it could possibly be. If my assumptions were correct, Charlie would be in for it next time Bella saw him.

"What's the story?" Bella suddenly asked. Hmm, I must have been wrong, that obviously hadn't been what she had been thinking.

"What do you mean?"

"What am I telling Charlie? What's my excuse for disappearing for...how long was I gone, anyway?" She appeared to be counting in her head, but I already knew the answer.

"Just three days." I smiled at her. Just three days. I made it sound like it should have been longer. In all honesty, though, I had not even hardly thought about what to tell Charlie about Bella's absence. The results had not been all that great. "Actually, I was hoping you might have a good explanation. I've got nothing."

She groaned at me. "Fabulous."

"Well, maybe Alice will come up with something," I tried. The offer seemed to comfort her. We sat in silence for a moment, while she appeared to be calculating in her head.

"So," she began, looking at me with an indecipherable look on her face. "What have you been doing, up until three days ago?"

I had been dreading this question. I knew it had been inevitable, but I had wanted to try and avoid it as long as possible. It just figures that she would bring it up almost right away. That's my Bella. Oh, God, what am I going to say?

A/N: Not the longest chapter in the world, but I felt bad for taking a month to update so I wanted to get this out ASAP. So I hoped you liked it and please review, they keep me going, no reviewno updates, so please review so I know someone out there is reading this!