After an hour of working with my gift, and not getting very far, I finally gave up for the day. I opened my eyes to find Victoria sitting in front of me, staring at me expectantly.

"It's about time," she grumbled. "I've been calling your name for about five minutes."

"I didn't even hear you," I told her truthfully. "I guess it's a good thing that you stayed with me."

"Any luck?" she asked hopefully. I shook my head, and her hopeful expression fell.

"I'm sorry," I told her. "I'm trying as hard as I can."

"It's okay," she told me in a subdued tone. "Even if you could, we wouldn't be able to rely on you all the time. I know how exhausting it can be to constantly try to use a gift, and never have any breaks. I wouldn't wish that on anyone I care about."

"I just wish I could do something," I told her. "I feel so helpless. I could see the message, I can see Luella, but I can't do anything about it."

"You think you feel helpless?" Victoria questioned as we stood up. "Think about how I feel. I know that Luella is out there, I know that I'm probably the reason why she's out there, and yet I can't see her, I can't see any messages she leaves, I can't piece any clues together that she might be careless enough to leave… " she trailed off, and then shook her head. "I think I feel even more helpless that you do." She started walking towards the house.

"At least I know why no one believes me," I said. "Thank you for telling me."

"Do you know how hard it is to keep Edward from believing you?" Victoria asked with a wry grin. "It's practically impossible to keep him in check the entire time."

"I'm sorry," I told her, looking down. If I could have blushed, I would have.

"It's not your fault the man is head over heels for you," Victoria teased me. "I'm just telling you, he wants to believe you, but I won't let him."

"I'll tell him that I realize I was just seeing things," I offered. "Will that help?"

"If he believes you," Victoria said. "Can you tell the whole family that you know you were just seeing things? That might help me out. If I'm not trying to keep everyone from believing you, then I might be able to look for things that Luella may have forgotten to hide that you wouldn't catch onto."

"I'll tell them when we get back," I agreed.

"Shall we run then?" Victoria asked.

"We shall," I told her, and then added with a laugh, "Race you!"

As Victoria and I entered the house, laughing, everyone turned to look at us in amazement. They were all downstairs, putting things away, and so they were all there for our grand entrance.

"She's laughing!" I heard Emmett exclaim in a whisper to Edward. Edward looked at me cautiously, trying to gage if he was forgiven or not.

"Yes, Emmett, I'm laughing," I told him. I walked over to Edward, poking Emmett in the side on my way past, and gave my husband a kiss. He pulled me closer immediately.

"Hey, save that for later," Jasper complained, but I could tell that he was happy to see me not quite as upset. He was bound to notice that I was still worried, but my overall mood had considerably brightened once I realized that my family really does support me, and that they would believe me if they could.

"I haven't even touched my wife in a week and you tell me to save kissing her for later?" Edward questioned as we pulled apart.

"What did you do to her?" Alice asked Victoria. "Whatever it is, I'm impressed."

"She just talked with me," I said with a shrug as I turned to face everyone. Edward shifted so he was directly behind me with his arms around my waist. "She pointed a few things out, hit me over the head with a metaphorical two-by-four, and helped me realize that I probably had been seeing things. I'm not worried about it anymore. If something does happen, well, we're a family, and as long as we're a united family then nothing can happen to us." I turned my head and smiled up at Edward. "And the best news for you is that I forgive you." He squeezed me a little tighter and kissed the top of my head. I broadened my smile and turned back to the rest of the family. They were all, minus Victoria, watching me with wary expressions. I sighed and wiped the smile off my face.

"I forgive all of you," I said, making eye contact with each one before ending on Victoria. "Can you all forgive me? My behavior for this past week has been inexcusable."

"Of course," Esme answered immediately. "What good are we as a family if we don't forgive you?" She came over to give me a hug, and Edward reluctantly released me to his mother's grasp.

"Thank you," I told her as I returned the hug. "Thank you to all of you for putting up with my horrid mood."

"I'm glad you're back, Bella," Alice said sincerely. She also came to give me a hug, and I was glad to see that she wasn't her overly bubbly self at the moment. That would have been a little too much. She smiled as she pulled away and danced off to go finish putting things away.

"If you'll excuse me, I'm stealing my wife and we're going to go move all of her things back to our room," Edward said as he picked me up and started carrying me away.

"You have to come help us put stuff away down here once your room is back in order!" Emmett called. "We don't want you two getting distracted until after the house is completely ready!"

"Shut up, Emmett," Edward commanded. Emmett laughed, and, once again, I found myself happy that I could no longer blush.

"I am sorry Edward," I told him as he carried me to the guest bedroom. "I overreacted about something that I just imagined. I wish I had just listened to everyone so that I could have spent this past week in a better mood. I know I was really stupid, and I'm sorry."

"Just don't ever do it again," Edward told me as he set me down. He turned me so I was facing him, and gave me an uninterrupted kiss.

"Thank you," I murmured once we had pulled away. "That was more than I deserved."

"Let's move your stuff back to our room," Edward said. "The sooner we do that the better I'll feel."

"What, are you afraid that I'm going to go back to the depressed, always angry Bella and that I'll want to come back in here?" I asked teasingly, but the look on Edward's face told me everything that I needed to know.

Yes, yes he did. He was afraid that my happy mood would wear off and that I'd wouldn't be so pleasant. So I sighed, gave him a kiss, and used my powers to bring all the boxes with me to our room.

"I'm sorry," Edward apologized, "but I am worried that you'll go back to being depressed. I'm not sure if one conversation with Victoria is enough to make you really believe that you were seeing things."

"You think she used her gift to confuse me into thinking that I was wrong," I stated. It wasn't a question.

"Yes," he admitted.

"Her gift doesn't affect me," I reminded him.

"Why else would you be in a better mood?" Edward asked.

"She pointed out that I was hurting my family," I said. "All my talk about how families support each other was rather hypocritical if I wouldn't let you guys help me. So I decided to listen to what everyone was saying."

"Are you sure that's what happened?" Edward asked as he helped me hang up my clothes.

"You're just sore that it was Victoria who put me in a better mood," I teased him, and he grinned.

"You're right," he agreed. "I do wish it had been me."

"But you're the only one who can keep me in a good mood," I told him with a wink. He pulled me close to him, and our lips were just about to touch when…

"DON'T GET DISTRACTED!!!!" Emmett hollered from downstairs. Edward and I both growled as we pulled away from each other.

"EMMETT!!!!" We yelled together.

"Ouch!" Emmett exclaimed as one of the stray bricks from the fireplace that we hadn't taken out to the truck yet flew past him and just happened to hit him in the head. Edward laughed, I was assuming at the picture in our sibling's minds.

"Nice one, Bella!" Rosalie called.

"Et tu, Brute?" Emmett dramatically asked Rosalie.

"I'm not Brutus," Rosalie snorted. "And yes, you deserved that. How would you feel if our brother stopped you from kissing me after I hadn't allowed you to touch me for a week?"

"Well, I… but…" Emmett struggled for words.

"Now do you see why you're being a prude?" Rosalie asked.

"I was just trying to be funny," Emmett protested.

"No touching me for a week," Rosalie told him, much to the amusement of the rest of the family. Whistles and whoops sounded throughout the house.

"But Rose," Emmett whined.

"Live with it!" I called downstairs before turning back to kiss Edward. Even my extra-sensitive vampire hearing didn't help me hear Emmett's comment as I lost myself in Edward's kisses.

That was one enjoyable night.

For everyone except Emmett, that is.

I'm not sure if he's learned his lesson or not.