A/N Once again, thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed so far. I also wanted to let everyone know that Bella is awake in this chapter. I won't try to trick anyone like last chapter again. I'm sorry that time seems to move really fast in this chapter.

Chapter 10 Resuming

I fought to keep my voice sound as sick and weak as I could. "Hey mom," I said through the phone after Carlisle had finished explaining my fabricated disease to Renee. He had explained my illness perfectly to my mother, using complicated medical terms, describing my symptoms, and telling her I was making a great recovery so there was no need to worry. Of course she still did worry, which was why she had insisted that I talk to her. Carlisle had handed me the phone, then left me alone with Edward.

"Bella! I'm so glad you don't sound as bad as I thought you would," she exclaimed.

Had I sounded convincing enough? I wanted to sound sick, but I didn't want to sound so bad that my mother would rush to an airport to see me. I kept my voice the same, "I feel much better today." This was the truth, my fever had broke, and I felt much better in every way. I was just still a bit tired and had some remnants of the sick feeling. My arm still hurt a lot, but the pain was bearable as long as I didn't touch it.

"I'm really glad to hear that," she said. "Can you remember last week at all?"

"Not really," I started through one of my rehearsed lies carefully. "I can only remember feeling really tired, and for some reason I thought somebody wanted to kill you. I thought if you came home you would be murdered."

"I guess you must have been very sick to be that confused," she said sadly. "I knew I should have come home, something just didn't seem right."

"I am alright now," I told her. "I really am recovering fast, and I'm sorry I had you worried about me"

"Don't apologize, it's not your fault you got sick."

Her words made me feel guilty. Most of what Carlisle and I had told her had been lies. I felt bad to have her worry about my health when there was almost nothing wrong with it.

"Are you sure you don't want me to come over and see you?" she asked again.

That was how the conversation continued. Renee asked me several times if I was really fine, and I tried to convince her several times that I was. Finally she decided to believe me and told me she would relax as long as I promised to call her as soon as I could tomorrow.

After the repetitive conversation finally ended, I looked at Edward. He had been sitting next to me the entire time, holding my free hand. "Can I go home now and see Charlie?" I asked him.

"After you've had something to eat," he made his voice sound stern, but I saw I smile playing on the corners of his mouth.

"Will you at least let me walk to the kitchen," I said smiling.

"Hmmm, no. I still don't think you are strong enough," he teased back.

I tried my best to glare at him, but as soon as I looked at him I couldn't make my face look angry. Instead I just looked away, got up, and started to walk downstairs. But before I had moved two steps I could tell Edward was coming up behind me. "No, Edward," I squealed between giggles. Edward gently and swiftly scooped me up and flew down the stairs, and set me down on a chair in the kitchen.

"You know, you are still awfully pushy," I tried unsuccessfully to make my voice sound angry.

Edward's mouth twitched as he fought a smile, but he ignored my remark. "Do you have any preferences of what you want to eat? We happen to have a lot of food in our house"

"Not really, just something simple."

Edward was able to make me perfect fluffy pancakes in five minutes. I wondered how he was able to cook so well, when he couldn't test the food, or smell it the way a person could. I pushed the curiosity out of my mind. He was able to do anything. It seemed so unfair that someone could be so good at everything. But I also realized how lucky I was that this perfect being was mine.

After I finished eating, Carlisle called Charlie to explain my "encephalitis" to him, and tell him Edward was bringing me home. He explained to Charlie the disease had caused a high fever, and the fever had caused my emotions to become chaotic. He said that was why I had become so angry at Edward for no reason. He was describing how he and Edward had found me after I had left when Edward and I walked out of the house to get my truck.

My truck was still waiting where I had left it, parked in the Cullen's garage. I had to let Edward drive my truck, for Charlie's benefit. We couldn't get there as fast as we might have if we were in Edward's volvo, since my truck could only go up to sixty. The drive lasted long enough for me to become nervous. The entire ride was spent in silence. Edward seemed be in deep thought, and I was worried Charlie wouldn't believe Carlisle's story. I was becoming more anxious just to get home and resume my life.

We finally pulled into my driveway and I saw the curtains shake. It looked like Charlie had been watching for us. I took a deep breath and mentally prepared myself to lie to Charlie again. I couldn't stop myself from remembering last time I had been home. I had to prepare myself to lie to him then too, and it had not been one of my favorite times with my father.

"You've been awfully quiet, are you nervous about talking to Charlie?" Edward gently asked.

I nodded stiffly.

"It's not going to be bad," he assured me. "Charlie just sounds like he missed you, and he's mostly relieved you are home again and alright. I can hear he truly believes you were very sick and it caused you to act hostile and upset."

I relaxed and nodded again. I felt better after Edward said this. It was definitely encouraging to hear. But I still couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

"I think I'm ready to see Charlie now," I said. We both got out of the truck and went into my house. I was sure Edward could hear my pounding heart, and he took my hand and squeezed it gently.

A few hours later, Charlie, Edward, and I were sitting in the living room watching a movie. We were in good spirits, It was hard not to be when to much happiness was flowing from my father. Just as Edward had predicted, the conversation with Charlie had gone smoothly and easily. Charlie completely forgave me, and was more than happy to have me home again. He was not mad at Edward either, because Edward truly had not done anything wrong to make me angry, either in my story or reality. After the initial emotional greeting had passed, we all agreed to put on a movie.

My life seemed like its was well on its way to being normal again. I glanced at Edward, and once again it felt like my heart had stopped. His perfect body and face still seemed too impossible to be real. Well, I guess my life was becoming as normal as my life can be, since I was in love with a vampire.

Three months later

I held my breath as I opened my report card. Final reports had just arrived in the mail, and Edward and I were in my house with the mail. I exhaled in relief when I noticed all my grades were great. I guessed that missed week of school hadn't impacted me much. Edward had helped me, he had taken these classes so many times he could teach the material better than the teachers could.

"So, how did you do?" Edward asked me smugly.

"As if you hadn't already guessed from my reaction," I said as I handed it to him.

"Didn't I tell you your grades would be excellent?"

"Yes, you have," I admitted. In fact he had probably told me a hundred times, but I just was not confident enough in my work to believe him.

Now that it was summer vacation, Edward and I were able to spend even more time together. This of course included visiting with the rest of the Cullens almost every day. I felt like my life couldn't be anymore perfect.

We spent the rest of the day at my house. I had to get dinner ready for Charlie anyway. By eleven-o-clock Edward had to "leave". As much as Charlie seemed to like having Edward around these days, he would not be happy with Edward spending every night at our house. Edward would spend an hour outside, before he jumped in my window after Charlie was sleeping.

After Edward was gone, I headed up to my room to wait for Charlie to go to sleep. The late June night was warm outside, so I opened my window to let some fresh air in. I had almost forgotten about James and the problems he had caused. But I had not been able to forget about Victoria, especially after I had learned she was planning revenge. My fears about her were always somewhere in my mind.

I went to my bed, laid down, and put my headphones on with some quiet music. I closed my eyes and imagined what an eternity with Edward would be like. This had become my strongest desire, to be like Edward, and have the ability to spend the rest of time with him. Edward had refused to agree to my plan, so all I could do was dream about it right now. But I would not give up, I hoped eventually Edward would give in and turn me.

It felt like I wasn't alone anymore. Edward had probably just arrived. But when I opened my eyes, it was not what I expected. The first thing I saw was the familiar flaming red hair. I started to scream, but Victoria clamped her hand over my mouth before I could make a sound.

She roughly grabbed me with one arm and held me against her chest, while still keeping her other hand over my mouth. I struggled uselessly against her hold, and continued to attempt to scream for help against her hand.

In a fraction of a second we were out my window and running away from my house. I felt frantic, and I tried think. How did this happen? Where had Victoria come from? Why hadn't Alice seen this?

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the only thing that could possibly give me any hope in this situation. Edward was right behind us. He snarled viciously, his face was more furious and paniced than I had ever seen it. He was gaining on us, and it would be only seconds before he caught up to us. I tried to free my mouth to scream, and I continued to struggle against the restraining arm, but of course my attempts to get loose were to no avail.

I heard Victoria laugh excitedly. I glanced at her face, my eyes filled with pure terror. Her eyes only showed pleasure and excitement. I couldn't bare to look at them any longer, so I searched for Edward again.

I couldn't see him! I redoubled my efforts against Victoria to scream. I suddenly remembered she had some ability for evasion. I searched around frantically for Edward, but all I could see was a blur of moving trees. I couldn't believe this had happened so suddenly. My last hope was gone, and now Victoria had me. I didn't want to think about what she would do to me, or what she could do to me.

I didn't know how long I had been struggling, and how long we'd been running. I only knew I was desperate. Desperate for this to be another dream, or desperate for Edward to find us. But I was in too much physical pain from Victoria's crushing arm around my body, her hand against my mouth was so tight I was begining to taste blood, and I was far too tired from struggling for this all to be a dream. I began to feel myself black out. This was too much stress on my body again. The last thought that crossed my mind before I completely lost consciousness was, "I'm going to die. I can't belive it's over, I am really going to die."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . TO BE CONTINUED?