Note: Sorry for the long wait. Please enjoy this very med school-like chapter!

GRAVITATION
by Yih

"Love—is anterior to Life—
Posterior—to Death—
Initial of Creation, and
The Exponent of Earth—"
- Emily Dickinson

11. Partners

Seattle 2008

Edward POV

Formaldehyde – the overwhelming stench hit my nose and made my stomach remember the hollow sensation of nausea even though it was impossible for a vampire to vomit. I grimaced and glanced at Bella, who was also wrinkling her nose in distaste. It was cute on her, the wrinkle. I wanted to see more expressions like that from her, I wanted to see her when she laughed, when she smiled, even when she cried just so I could hold her and tell her that everything was going to be okay.

"Please say its worse for us because…" her voice trailed off before she could finished what she was saying.

I guessed she realized that we weren't alone anymore and even if we did talk softly the humans could still hear us if we weren't careful. I smiled at her, hopefully in a warm and charming manner, but I didn't really know what that smile would look like. I had never tried to charm anyone before and I wished I had, if only for the experience. I didn't like this feeling of not knowing what to do, doubly so since I couldn't hear her thoughts and know exactly what was coming. All I could do was rely on my intuition.

"It's probably worse," I agreed not to agree, but because it was true we did have heightened senses and in this particularly case it wasn't a positive thing. I would rather not be able to smell anything, if I could forgo the smell of formaldehyde preserved cadavers. "What tank are we again?"

"6," Bella said.

I looked down the rows of tanks and finally saw 6 in the far left corner where there I saw two boys and two girls gathered. Those must be the rest of our tankmates and grimaced when I heard the shallow thoughts of one of the girls. She was hoping one of the boys would be hot so she could hit on him. So far that girl was disappointed and I really hoped that I would not be to her liking.

I was not overly conceited, at least I didn't think so, and I dreaded the probability that she would find me attractive. As long as she wasn't in 6A, as long as she wasn't… I tried to think of the name of the other girl that was grouped with us… as long as she wasn't Angela Weber! Then I would be okay. I quickly sifted through the other minds, satisfied that they were decent enough. The other girl had extremely kind thoughts and if she turned out to be part of our dissecting team, it would be a blessing.

"It must be something," Bella whispered, "to know so much about everyone."

She must have noticed my distraction. She could read me very well, especially for someone who had just met me. It had to mean something, didn't it? I felt lost on the other hand because I wasn't used to having to read anyone. I just knew everything about them in the moment they were in. It was boring, but what I wouldn't give to hear her thoughts for just one second.

"Anything you would like to divulge?" she asked softly, her eyes bright with curiosity and a little mischief.

I shook my head just before we arrived at our tank. I purposely tried not to hear their thoughts, concentrating on my own and on Bella's. It was easier, having her nearby, a mind I could not penetrate where I could focus my attentions. I could hear nothing except peace and quiet. It was a nice change.

"I'm Jessica!" the dark blond girl, the one with the shallow thoughts, introduced herself with an overly bright smile.

I could feel her eyes assessing me and I didn't have to hear her thoughts to know what she was thinking. I definitely met her qualifications as a hot guy. If only I could meet Bella's qualifications, then I would be content.

"Angela," the girl with brown hair and glasses said softly and kindly. "And this is Ben," she continued, gesturing at the shorter, Asian boy next to her.

Ben lifted his hand to greet us, but otherwise kept quiet.

The other boy, the only one who hadn't introduced himself yet, was nerdy looking with glasses and not much taller than Ben either. He waved at us and I noticed him staring at Bella in wonder, which irritated me far more than I would like to admit. Did he not see us walking together? She was mine.

"I'm Eric. And you?" he asked Bella.

"Bella," she answered in her musical voice, which no mere human ear could appreciate, but I could and her voice was beautiful even more a vampire. "Nice to meet you all. And this is Edward," she introduced me, much to my surprise and delight.

It was like she was marking me as hers, at least that's the way I wanted to think about it.

"You're both in group A," Jessica said with the barest trace of disappointment and bitterness. Her outward demeanor looked friendly, but I could feel the animosity in her mind when she looked at Bella. I didn't need to take a peek into her mind to confirm it.

"I'm in group A too," Angela said, looking at us with her bright and friendly eyes. "I guess we're going first." She glanced down at the silver metal tank. "Have any of you ever seen a cadaver?"

Everyone shook their head except me. I nodded and they all turned their attention to me. I shrugged. "I've had anatomy lab before." I didn't say when or why. I just left it at that.

I didn't need to turn to Bella to know she was looking at me. It was like my body was attuned to her every movement. I glanced over at her briefly and saw a question in her eyes. She probably wanted to ask me when I had taken anatomy lab before… why I hadn't told her before.

"Lucky," Ben remarked with a gentle smile aimed at Angela, "you guys have someone experienced."

Angela opened her mouth to say something when on the overhead speakers, the Lab Professor began to speak, "I am Professor Chang and I will be assisting you along with Professors Jensen and Hardwick. Each group of 4 tanks is assigned one pedagogue and for every 8 tanks, there will be one professor. Please listen carefully as your pedagogue instructs you how to lift your cadavers out of their tanks. You definitely don't want an accident to occur. You won't smell very good afterwards."

I grimaced at the thought of formaldehyde staining my clothes. I wasn't an OCD neat freak, but I did like to remain clean. I already knew how to raise a cadaver from the tank, although when I looked down to study the mechanism. I didn't quite see how they were going to lock the arms that we would use to lift the cadaver out of the tank.

"Hi, I'm Mike and I'll be your pedagogue," the guy said. He was the All-American type and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes when I saw Jessica fasten her eyes on the pedagogue.

I clenched my fist when I realized that Mike's eyes were focusing on Bella. I wanted to put my arm around her and claim her as mine, which would be overly possessive and barbaric. I barely managed to keep my arm off of Bella. At least, checking quickly with a sideways glance, she didn't seem as intrigued by our pedagogue as Jessica was.

"It's pretty easy to get your cadaver out," Mike remarked. "You lift the metal doors to open the tank then you push down on these metal arms." He put his hands on the bars. "The key is that you need two people to push down carefully at the same time to prevent the body from sliding or sloshing too much around. It's possible for one person to do it, but the body will slid down to the other end and make the other side harder to lift and lock the arm into place. You must remember to lock the arm into place or you're going to get a—"

"FUCK!" one of the guys down a few tanks yelled rather loudly as the cadaver dropped back into the tank and proceeded to splash anyone standing within three feet of the tank. The guy who had cursed was drenched.

"Or that will happen," Mike finished. "Any questions?"

"How do you lock the arms into place?" I asked, not wanting what had just happen to occur to our tank.

"This," Mike said, holding up a silver bolt, "you push the arm down and then stick this into the hole and it'll lock the arm down and prevent it from swinging back and causing the… splash."

"Thanks, Mike," Bella said graciously.

It was hard to hide my frown when Mike grinned at her. "Any more questions?"

"I have one," Jessica said, causing Mike's attention to shift toward her to my relief and her appeasement. I took a quick peek into her mind and then quickly shut the connection. Her thoughts were even uglier and even more unpleasant. I almost felt sorry for Mike until I looked into his mind and caught his horny thoughts about Bella. "What does group B do? I thought group A and B dissect on different days."

"You do," Mike confirmed. "Today is just a quick orientation to get you to meet your fellow tankmates and show you your cadavers and then group B will be dismissed."

"Oh," she said.

"So why don't you guys get your cadaver out?" he suggested. "I need to move on to the other tanks."

Jessica obviously didn't want him to leave, but when she looked away from him and fastened her eyes on me… she didn't seem to be too disappointed. I groaned as her eyes stared at me. I didn't want Jessica to be interested in me. I was only interested in Bella.

"Well," Bella remarked, "why don't we lift our cadaver out of the tank?"

I nodded and quickly went to one side of the tank and Ben positioned himself on the other side. Angela and Bella both opened up the tank, letting us glimpse into our tank of formaldehyde and cadaver. You couldn't see anything yet except the liquid preservative, but we all had universal faces of apprehension.

"Ready?" I said.

Ben nodded.

We both pushed down on the arms at about the same speed, slowly lifting the cadaver out of the tank and to my surprise, Bella was crouched down next to me, pushing the metal bolt into the hole that would lock the arms down. "Thanks," I said and she smiled at me.

That smile was enough to knock the air out of me if I did need oxygen to breathe, luckily I didn't. I smiled back and I swear her eyes got this sparkle in them that made me hope that we were possible. I was being sickeningly romantic and sweet, just like in those movies Alice made me watch when Jasper wasn't around to watch them with her. This was what first love was. This feeling that was sugary good.

"Gross," Jessica said as she stared at our cadaver.

This time it was impossible to stop my eyes from rolling at her behavior. What did she expect a cadaver to look like? All in all, as I studied our cadaver, we had a pretty decent body. It was a man and he was a little pudgy around the middle, but he wasn't that old and he wasn't fat. The last time I had dissected on a cadaver it had been a woman and she had been obese and getting all that fat out of her so that we could actually see the nerves, muscle, and vasculature had been a pain in the ass.

"Should we take off the towel?" Angela asked, gesturing to the towel that was covering the face of the cadaver. "I mean we could wait…" her voice trailed off when she saw the look on Jessica's face.

It would have been rather impolite to laugh at Jessica's nauseated expression, but her thoughts had been as unpleasant to me as the cadaver obviously was to her.

"Now that you have all seen your cadavers," Professor Chang said through the overhead speakers, "and met your tankmates, group B may leave after I finish telling you how gross lab will work. Group A will stay and dissect today the first section of the lab manual and during the next lab session, they will teach what they have dissected to group B. That is how this lab will work. So we expect you to learn the structures that are bolded on the list well so that you will be able to show your tankmates all that you have learned during your dissecting session. Don't hesitate to ask your pedagogue or any of the professors here if you need help locating a structure. Now group B is dismissed and group A, please begin your dissection!"

Jessica quickly left with a short wave of goodbye, Eric following soon after her with Ben lingering behind. "I'll be in the LRC," he said softly, only meaning for Angela to hear, but with my keen vampire enhanced hearing it was all too clear. "Just come find me after."

Angela nodded, her cheeks a little pink. "I will."

Ben didn't kiss her, but he did give her a meaningful look before he left the gross lab. I took a quick peek into his mind and saw that his thoughts were sweet and very gentlemanly toward Angela. I couldn't tell if they were dating yet, but if they weren't they were awfully close to crossing that line. I gazed at Bella with pure longingly and hopefulness as she bent over with Angela to carefully look at what must be our outline for the dissection today.

When would we reach that point of no return?

Would we ever?

To be continued…


A/N: I'm sorry that it's taken so long to release this chapter. My muse got stuck, but I think I've got her ready to finish this 'fic soon enough. Thank you for all the support and I really hope that you enjoy this chapter even though there isn't quite that much Edward/Bella action as there usually is! Also you can check my profile for updates on how the chapter is progressing. I list the word count I've written of each chapter and these chapters are usually around 2k to 3k long!

Also how many readers would be interested in a Dark!Vampire Edward story (i.e. a brand new story)?

Please keep reviewing, it is what inspires and goads the muse!

Released: 5/30/2009