A/N: Yes! Finally overridden the block! Hopefully this will be a satisfactory chapter and it might direct you into where this is all going! Happy middle-of-the-week!
I waited as Alice and Edward made the necessary phone calls. Carlisle agreed to help and somehow Edward and Carlisle convinced Charlie and the school that I was seriously ill with a highly contagious disease I probably contracted in Greece.
Somehow I obtained permission to stay here as long as necessary and Charlie could come and visit me on weekends… he bought the story that due to their recent vacation in Italy, they had been inoculated before hand against this and several other common diseases in that part of Europe.
My luck fell on the fact that Charlie was not well versed in any type of medical illnesses, their causes or their treatments. Adding to that was the fact that Carlisle was the most respected doctor in the state according to Charlie and half the town.
Alice left to return the BMW and pick up the others from school. That left Edward and I with quite a bit of awkward alone time.
He sat down next to me on the couch in his room. We sat in silence for a while before he finally spoke.
"I'm sorry to do this to you Bella. When I realized what you were I should have run the other way, but coming off my binge I was out of sorts as it was." He said remorsefully.
"You don't need to apologize, Edward. It seems I'm causing you more trouble than you're causing me." I countered.
He smirked slightly. "You're no trouble." He said.
"Speak for yourself; I'm sure your family thinks otherwise." I said quietly, forgetting how well their kind could hear.
He looked at me incredulously. "I know exactly how my family feels, Bella. Don't worry; none of them think you're any trouble. I wouldn't lie to you about this."
"How could you know how they feel Edward? You're just being nice." I said, wishing he would stop the charade.
"Bella, I wasn't guessing. Did Alice tell you about her ability?" Edward said, now facing me full on.
"Yes… can you see the future, too?" I asked.
"No. I read minds." He said easily, looking out the window.
My mouth dropped open. How could I be so stupid? He knew exactly what I was thinking! No wonder he didn't want anything to do with me.
"Except, yours, of course… you have no idea how frustrating that is. I find it's easier sometimes to…" he paused.
"To what?" I asked.
"Stay away from you… the longer I'm away, the better you smell when I see you again, like right now I want nothing more than to devour you… but I find staying away from you helps to… you intrigue me when I'm near you… I want to know your thoughts so badly. That's dangerous… we should be far apart." He breathed.
I laughed cynically. "I thought you stayed away because you hated me."
He looked at me as if I had grown a second head.
"What? After that night in Greece? You think that was nothing to me?" his face fell just a bit… he was truly hurt.
"It's just that you're… so beautiful, so powerful… what could something like you want with someone like me?" I said, blushing furiously.
I felt him slide closer to me… "You really should stop doing that; it's highly distracting and… it makes you smell so much stronger… I haven't hunted in a while."
"Doing what?" I asked, wanting to scoot away and yet closer to him all at once.
"Blushing like that… the blood staining your cheeks and neck… it's very arousing." He said
I only blushed harder at his choice of words.
He stood up quickly, and crossed the room in an incomprehensible speed.
"I'll be in the house if you need anything… just call; I'll be able to hear you." He said and sped from the room.
~*~
I remained with the Cullens for several days before Charlie came to visit. Everything was well worked out and he showed no sign of suspicion.
It was three days later, of course, that I received a quite unexpected visitor; my mother.
Alice and I were in the living room, she was showing me various trinkets she had bought on her latest shopping trip when we heard something that in the Cullen house was quite foreign; a knock at the door.
Esme answered it as Edward came down the stairs, obviously surprised that he had not heard anyone new on the premises.
As the door opened my mother stepped in at Esme's invitation.
"I'm so sorry to intrude, Mrs. Cullen… when I heard Bella was sick I knew this trip would best be made without much fuss… I just wanted to tell her in person, not over the phone." She said.
"Of course, we would never think of withholding your daughter from you… we were only concerned for everyone's safety." Esme replied.
"Mrs. Cullen, I know my daughter isn't sick…. Please, could we all discuss this? There are some things I think she ought to know, as well as all of you."
Esme led my mother into the room; she hugged me tightly before sitting down on the couch opposite me. The rest of the Cullens filtered into the room quite quickly, even Rosalie, who, apart from Edward for reasons of his own, stayed almost entirely away from any part of the house I was in.
Once everyone was seated, a deafening silence seemed to fall onto the room. Carlisle was the first to break it.
"Would you mind telling us, Renee, why you don't believe that Bella is sick? I thought your ex-husband would have explained it to you." He said.
Renee just smiled kindly. "I know she isn't sick because secretly I have been waiting for a call like this one. I just hoped it would not come while she was so young."
This, of course did nothing for everyone's heightened anxiety.
"You see, I should have told Bella all of this before she left Phoenix, though I could not bring myself to do it. I hoped by keeping it to myself I could prolong her time with us." She said, her eyes filling with tears.
"Mom, you talk as if I'm dying – but you don't even believe that I'm sick." I said.
"Bella, sweetie… when I was pregnant with you, Charlie and I took a sort of second honeymoon to a place I had always wanted to visit. We went to New Orleans… I've told you about the trip many times. We saved for a long time for that silly trip." She said.
I nodded, wondering why in the world she was bringing up this old story now.
"You know while I was there, I was about seven months pregnant, and on our last day there was an old woman in one of the shops that read my palm and all that." She continued.
I nodded again wondering how any of this mattered.
"What I never told you was that before I left her little shop, she placed her hand on my belly… on you, and put my hand over hers. She told me that she was a messenger of fate and that you held both fortune and sorrow." She said, seeming to have trouble finding the right words.
I frowned as did the rest of her audience.
"I left that day thinking nothing else of it; we were to leave the next day and I thought what she told me I could leave behind in the swamps of the old city… I didn't believe in that sort of thing."
"But, mom, I thought you always said what she foretold came true; your divorce, your leaving Forks, all of that." I countered.
"It did; what I didn't tell you was that before we left, I told Charlie I had one small errand to run, that I'd be back in less than half an hour. I went off alone to the old woman's house… I wanted to know more about you, but what I found out I have been dreading since the day I left Forks and her prophecy filled my mind." She looked as if she were really struggling now.
"Mom, its okay… just… it was ages ago." I tried to comfort her, but she would not hear it.
"Bella, she told me your fortune; that you would never suffer sickness, or heartache, that you would find your true love in a much unexpected place. She told me so much about it all… about him, about the future of the two of you… but she also told me of your sorrow…" she said, the tears now beginning to fall.
"She told me that you would…" she whimpered, she could not go on.
I went over to her, putting my arm around her shoulders. "It's okay, mom, I can handle it."
"She said you would pass into the next life, dying without death; that you would become one of them."
"Them? What them, mom?" I asked, wondering just how much she knew.
"The undead… the Voodoo priests call them Loogaroo… one who remained animate in the world of the living after their physical death." She said, the tears flowing down her face.
"What?" I asked, I could not believe what I was hearing! "Mom, that's ridiculous."
"Renee,' Carlisle said, 'I understand your fear, your apprehension… but it really isn't as bad as it's made out to be; many of the myths out there are just that, myths."
Renee nodded her head, still unable to stem the flow of tears.
"You're encouraging this?!" I asked incredulously. Just days ago they were considering killing me for my knowledge and now they were 'coming out' to my mom?
"Bella, your mother came here, knowing our secret… you have no idea of the sheer terror I felt radiating from her when she walked through the door… I thought it must be from your supposed illness, but when I saw that it didn't subside once she realized you weren't sick… I knew she must know what we are." Jasper intervened.
I turned to my mother. "You knew all this and you never told me?" I asked.
"Bella, what would you have thought? I've always been a bit flighty, I know… but you would have thought me truly crazy." She sobbed.
"Mom, please, stop crying… I'm not going to die anytime soon." I said trying to comfort her.
Carlisle cleared his throat. I looked at him.
"Actually, Bella, the sooner we can change you the better; Aro sensed Edward's… discomfort as he fled, and has invited us all back to Volterra to attempt to make amends. Of course, it's all for show, but when Volterra sends an invitation, it's only as a courtesy… we have been summoned. We have no choice."
"So go see them and I'll be waiting when you get back." I said, wondering what the problem was.
"Bella,' Alice began, 'remember how Edward and I have gifts? Aro has one as well… he will see you in Edward's thoughts and memories, he will see that you have not been killed or changed; they will kill you and possibly Edward… if we don't change you first."
I hung my head… how had I gotten into a situation like this? What could I do? Would my mother be better off knowing I was technically alive and forever condemned to live the life of a parasite feeding on what used to me my own kind? Would she feel better knowing that my short life had ended to keep her and others safe if I consented to let one of the Cullens kill me?
I looked over at her. "What should I do mom?" I asked.
"Honey, I want you to do whatever is in your heart to do. If you choose to live with the Cullens, honey I support that… even though it means I'll never see you again… at least I will know your alive… and hopefully, happy." She said tearfully.
"Renee,' Carlisle said, 'I think you will be quite able to see your daughter after the first year or so… you see, though we are what you believe us to be, my family and I, as well as a few others throughout our society, live not on human blood, but on that of animals. Once Bella is over her newborn bloodlust, I see no problem with you being able to visit her occasionally."
My mother looked hopeful… "Really?"
Carlisle, along with the rest of the Cullens, nodded.
She breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
"Come, now, 'Carlisle said to the others, 'let's leave them alone to say their temporary goodbyes."
With that all of the Cullens departed the room. I knew they could hear every word we said, but thankfully my mom didn't know that… I knew that would make her more comfortable.
She dried her eyes as she spoke.
"So, which one of them is him?" she asked.
I laughed. "The bronze haired one… the one who stays farthest away from me."
She frowned. "Why would he stay so far from you if he was the one?"
"It's complicated, mom. I make him… hungry." I said bashfully.
"Oh… well that shouldn't be a problem soon, right?" she asked.
"Yeah, soon. So, see you next year?" I asked, lightly.
She laughed. "Yeah… next year."
She pulled me into a tight hug. We stayed that way for a while, talking a bit afterward.
As the sun was setting she rose and headed for the door, we hugged and cried, promising each other that a year would come and go before we knew it. As she got in her car and pulled away I yelled to her.
"Does Charlie know?"
She shook her head. "No, sweetie… he doesn't... not that he'd believe it if we told him. It will kill him to think you're dead… but it looks like the only way."
And with that she drove away. It hurt me to think that Charlie would have to think me dead… but I knew I would have Renee's help in convincing him.
I had a long road ahead of me… might as well face it and get it over with.
A/N: Please, please, please review! It helps me determine whether or not I'm on the right track or if I should switch direction.