Disclaimer – I don't own Twilight or the characters, but I do own a pair of Heeley's!

A/N – Once again, I want to apologise for the delay in getting this chapter posted. No excuses other than the usual real life trials and tribulations. I would like to thank TwiFic Promotions who are featuring this story on their blog (go check it out at http:/(.)twi-ficpromotions(.)blogspot(.)com) I would like to thank Kekahj for her wonderful review!

Chapter 12 – Truth BPOV

"He's starting to realise the consequence of his actions. Be gentle with him. I'll speak to you later." Carlisle said quietly as he passed me to leave the room. I slowly made my way over to where Edward was sitting.

"Another?" I picked up his cup. He nodded, never looking away from the sheets of music in front of him. To give him a few moments to himself, I busied myself with making our drinks; I even managed to fish out a packet of biscuits that were still in date. As I waited for the kettle to boil, I glanced over at Edward. He was sat with his head down, his hands pulling at that gorgeous hair of his. Where the hell did that come from? I shook my head to clear any kind of inappropriate thoughts and finished making the drinks before heading over to him.

"How long were you stood in the doorway?" His voice sounded as if her were struggling not to cry.

"Not that long really, I heard a bit though. Sounds to me as if you truly want to let go of the troubled Edward and return to who you were." I watched as he took a sip of his scalding hot tea, my eyes found themselves looking at his full lips as they moulded themselves to the white mug. I really needed to stop myself thinking like that. Not only was his youth worker (albeit in training) but I was going back home at the end of the semester which was only three months away. I dragged my eyes up to his. Big mistake, I seemed to drown in their deep emerald colour which made me think of a finely cut gemstone.

"I am. You helped me start to realise that, then I went to see my mum. Just seeing the hurt radiating from her every pore when she looked at me. I never want to be the cause of that again. I don't want to be my dad." He looked away from me, almost in shame, and once again looked at the sheet music.

"Edward. From what I've seen of you, I don't think you could hurt someone as absolutely as you dad did to you and your mother. You have too many good people around you to slap you silly if you did." I managed to bring a smile to his smooth, boyishly beautiful face. Bella! Stop, now! I gave myself an internal bitch slap. Edward looked at me as I stood and pulled my cigarettes out of my bag. I needed to do something that distracted me from looking at him. He shoved the music back into the envelope and stood up to follow me out. I'd forgotten how tall he was, seeing him look down at me with that half smile on his face almost took my breath away. I headed out to the garden, in desperate need of nicotine.

"Bella. I want to thank you." Edward's smooth voice broke the silence. I opened my mouth to respond, but he stopped me by holding up his hand. "Let me finish please. If you hadn't made me angry when you went to see my mum, I think I would have carried on the way I was, and we all know where that was headed." I smiled at him. "That seemed to give me the boot up the backside needed for me to start addressing why I was doing the things I was. I never took any notice of my friends when they tried to talk about it, but you managed. Thank you." He shocked me by wrapping his arms around me in a tight hug. A shock of electricity ran through my whole body making me shudder in his arms. Edward jumped back with a strange look on his face which told me he'd felt it too.

"Erm… I need to go and …er…get some paperwork done. I'll speak to you later." Like the coward that I am, I threw my cigarette butt in the ashtray and hightailed it back into the hostel.

Carlisle gave me a strange look when I joined him in the cramped office. I could feel the heat in my face as I sat at the other desk and pulled out Edward's file.

"Are you OK Bella?" His warm voice helped calm me down a bit.

"I'm fine Carlisle." I couldn't look at him until I was sure the blush had completely left my face.

"Are you sure? I mean, you had a funny look on your face earlier when you joined Edward and myself." Damn. Please don't carry on with that train of thought. "Are you able to carry on with Edward's case?" No flies on him.

"Of course I can." I finally turned to look at him. There was a look on his face that made me think of my dad. "It's fine Carlisle. I promise."

"I just sense a slight change in things."

"Like what?" Why was I continuing with this?

"I'm not sure, but there's a softening in the boy, especially when you're around." Softening? "It's obvious that you've helped him clamber over some walls, I just don't want him to get attached."

"Attached?" I was confused.

"Bella, many people in Edward's situation become far too dependent on those who help them. I don't want that to happen with you." Neither did I, but things had been changing, just not with him. I was the one who was changing. Maybe I should hand over the case and work with someone else for the last of my time here. I could almost feel myself doing just that.

"It'll be fine Carlisle. Thank you for your concern." He simply nodded once and turned back to work. I sat back in my chair and let out a breath that I hadn't realised I'd been holding in. Was I making the right choice? Time would tell.

EPOV

I sat in the garden after Bella had practically run away from me. What had happened? I just wanted o say thank you, but no, I had to take it too far with the hug. I knew I felt something, and I was pretty sure she had too, but what was that something? I stood up and made my way back inside, the envelope of my music heavy in my hand. I had a flick look through and realised I needed to get to a music shop.

After running to my room to shove the envelope under my mattress away from prying eyes and to grab my wallet, he headed into the West End to a shop I hadn't been to in a while.

"Edward m'boy." The booming voice of James the owner filed the shop. "I thought you dropped off the face of the earth." The rotund man waddled around the counter to give me one of his legendary bear hugs.

"Hey James. Yeah, sorry. I've been a bit…indisposed for a while." I watched as he went back to his stool behind the counter and his ever present cup of tea. "I need a couple of books." His eyes lit up.

"For you Edward, always. I've kept a few of the particular ones you like in stock in the hope you'd come back. What have you got in mind this time?" Apart from my friends, James was the only person who had heard my compositions outside of my family.

"I'm not sure to be honest with you. It's been so long, I'm not sure I can do it anymore." James stopped dead in his track, two or three of my books in his hand.

"You what? Listen here, and listen good young man. You are one of the most naturally talented musicians I have ever had the joy of meeting. Take these and get going." He shoved the books into my hands. I pulled my wallet out. "Uh uh. No charge for you today. Just come and play for me when you're done."

"James, I need to pay you. I have another favour to ask."

"Shoot, but I'm still not accepting your money." I took a deep breath.

"Can I borrow a keyboard and some headphones?" He looked at me.

"Why can't you use your piano? It's not the same."

"I know it's not, but…I don't have access to the piano at the moment." The look on his face grew probing. I just hoped he didn't push me into admitting I made my mum sell it to pay the mortgage after dad left.

"Ok, take that one." He pointed to a Yamaha behind me. "You need a stand?"

"No, just a set of headphones. Thank you James. I owe you big time." I shifted the keyboard under my arm to shake his hand.

"All you owe anyone is to get composing again." He ushered me out of the shop forcefully.

As I arrived back at New Directions, Jacob came out on his way to who knows where.

"What's that?" Dear god, what did it look like?

"A keyboard." He squinted his eyes at me.

"What you want one of those for? You best not keep me up all night playing."

"That's what the headphones are for. I'll be keeping no-one up." Jacob flashed me a wide grin.

"That's what I like to hear. Catch you later, gotta head to the job centre." He clapped me on the back with his huge hand and rushed off. I made my way into the building and began to head up to my room when Bella came out of the office.

"Edward, hey." I could see the tinge of a blush appear at the base of her throat. I couldn't pull my eyes away from the pale skin with the hint of pink. "I just wanted to say sorry about weirding out earlier." I watched as the pink darkened and spread along her jawline.

"Hey, no problem. I shouldn't have hugged you; I probably crossed some kind of boundary." I wasn't sure how to continue, her chocolate eyes were distracting me.

"It was fine, just unexpected." Her eyes caught sight of the keyboard under my arm. "You playing again?" I suddenly felt like a shy schoolboy. I didn't know how to have confidence in my music anymore.

"I'm thinking about it."

"I'd like to hear something one day. I better go, see you later Edward." I felt a jolt at the sound of her saying my name. I needed to be alone; something weird was going on and seemed to get worse when Bella was around me. I watched her walk into the kitchen before heading up to my room, my head full of Bella's face.