Disclaimer....I don't own Twilight...I own a shiny new copy of Twilight on DVD...pesky release date ages after the USofA...2 disc preordered goodness.

Home

BPOV

I knew his touch now. When his hands stroked down my ribs and settled on my hips before skimming round and down to my thighs I knew how it felt when he did it in reality. I knew this was a dream. I knew that reality was that much better. But still when his lips pressed down onto my flesh and my hands raked through his hair my breathing hitched, my hips bucked and in the silent room as I slept a groan echoed from deep within my throat.

My legs wrapped around his waist to pull him closer to me, his pale hard chest pushing down onto mine. The weight above me delicious as tingles spread from my toes up.

"Don't ever stop." I whispered into his ear as he pushed deep inside me making me throw my head back with the overwhelming feeling of being wanted as much as I coveted. With every thrust of his hips he brought us closer but I still clung onto him like he was going to be torn away from me at any moment. Nails dug into his back, my teeth pushed down onto his shoulder, my legs strained around his waist, clinging to keep hold of a feeling so complete.

The reservoir of orgasm that had been pooling suddenly started to splinter, sending shards through every part of my body making me tremble and struggle for breath. My lips found his and I kissed him deeply as he twitched inside me.

"I love you." I gasped. "Don't leave me."

When I awoke tears streamed down my cheeks as my body trembled with the aftershocks of intense pulsing pleasure. This was new. I'd never woken to tears before. I was an old friend to the shivers travelling down my spine but I'd never felt this desperate need to dream again as quickly as possible, just to make sure that he would be waiting for me.

My hair was damp from sweat and tears so I pulled myself from the warm cocoon of my bed to take a shower, careful to avoid the sleeping figure of Alice on the floor. There would be no way sleep would grace me with its presence again before time to get up and go to school. I couldn't shake the feeling of desperation I had felt in the dream. It was a heartbreaking devastation of need and want.

Feeling the hot water needle down onto my cold body shook me out of my reverie. Quickly washing my hair I tried to shake the hollow feeling left within me. It was going to be a long wait until I saw Edward at school. I wanted him to be beside me, to be wrapping me in his arms and whispering that he wasn't going anywhere. That I was his and he was mine and there would never be any question of it.

EPOV

Her eyes sparkled with tears as her mouth whispered words into my ear.

"Don't ever stop."

Her nails dug into my back, trying to pull me closer, her teeth sunk into my shoulder as I moved against her, her thighs clung to my hips and her ankles locked behind me. She struggled for breath as her body started to shake with the force of her climax. Kissing me deeply as I twitched deep inside her, riding through my own release I watched tears silently break out of her eyes and travel down her beautiful face.

"I love you." She gasped at me. "Don't leave me."

Waking up to the darkened room I cursed out loud. What was that about? Grumping wildly I balled up the sheets and stalked through to the shower. Apparently knowing the pleasure of being deep inside Bella in reality didn't diminish the power of the dreams.

There was desperation to her words, to my thrusts, to her kiss. It felt like there was a very real threat to our union, one that was out of sight. One that I couldn't fight.

BPOV

Charlie hovered around behind me in the kitchen as I cooked up some breakfast for us all. He wasn't usually a hoverer but we hadn't really spoken since his return yesterday and I think he was trying to make up for being away all weekend. Alice had monopolised my time with questions about Edward. It had taken her a good couple of hours to work up to asking about the dreams. When I told her he had been dreaming about me for as long as I had him she had a triumphant grin on her face.

"I told you."

"I know you did. Do you know how it could be happening?"

"Um...no." She laughed. "I'm not all knowing and all seeing Bells. I just know stuff sometimes."

"You're no help then are you?!" Laughing I rolled my eyes.

"I read one theory that when you dream of someone in particular that they will have a dream about you."

"That doesn't explain how it was him."

"Buddhists believe that dreams are a form of cognition that provides access to powerful states of consciousness."

"Like being psychic?"

"Yeah, kind of. So you could look at it like you were foretelling your future of meeting him."

"How likely is that?"

"I'm not an expert Bells." She shrugged at me. "I've read a couple of other things about it too. Like, a theory of soul mates."

"What's that?" I questioned, fascinated by the theories Alice had read up on regardless of the fact that I was unlikely to believe in any of them.

"It's where the point of your life is to find the person you are meant to be with. Your sub conscious is leading you to make decisions to find them. Then when that life is over then your next life is the same thing. The more lives that you've had before means you make the right decisions quicker and you join with your soul mate sooner."

"Do you believe in any of those Alice?" Sincerely interested in the answer.

"I believe in Jasper."

Pancakes started to burn as I got lost in my head. Flipping it over I reached a decision.

I didn't care.

I didn't care for a reason. I wasn't desperate for an explanation. I wanted Edward and I have him. There was no need to find some sort of logic to this entirely illogical situation.

A weight lifted off my shoulders and I felt relief as I placed a plate of breakfast in front of Charlie and Alice. For years I had always needed a logical explanation for everything that was happening in my life. But I was beginning to realise that love isn't logical, and when it came to Edward I lost all need for justification.

"You look happy this morning Bella." Charlie commented, his fork spearing into the pancakes from a great height.

"Do I?" Grinning at him I popped some food into my mouth as Alice raised an eyebrow at me from across the table.

"Yes, you do." His eyes flicked from my face to Alice and back again. Damn. I sometimes forget that he isn't just my taciturn father; he is actually a Police Chief with more experience reading people than I thought. It wasn't that I wanted to hide the fact that I was experiencing something new and beautiful with Edward. I would just rather he didn't have to think about Edward as some sort of predator after his daughter's maidenhood.

He would slap a chastity belt on me quicker than I could blink.

"It's almost Thanksgiving Charlie and you know what that means." Distracted Alice.

"I know what it means to most folks Alice, but to you I'm guessing shopping." He laughed, forgetting his suspicions. I could have kissed Alice with gratitude.

"Bingo." She laughed.

"Right girls, have a good day." He pushed his chair back from the table and stood up to leave.

"Good luck protecting the good citizens of Forks today Charlie, be careful." Alice called out to him as he left the house.

"Always am." Was the mumbled reply, the door closing softly behind him.

He was gone little more than five minutes before there was a loud thumping on the door that made us both jump. Frowning I opened the door just as a hand was about to crash back down onto it. The sun reflected off Alice's car making me temporarily blind and I squinted up into the face before me.

"Good morning." I saw his mouth first. The mouth that belonged to me now. His smooth voice caressed my face just before his hand did.

"Good morning to you." With a step towards me he rested his chin on the top of my head.

"I missed you last night." He told me before kissing down the side of my face, making the hollow feeling in my stomach disappear as suddenly as it had appeared.

"Stop it you two, it's making me nauseous." Alice threw my bag at me with a laugh before nudging me further out the door and closing it behind us.

"Hello Alice." Edward grumbled.

"Thought I was meeting you at school?"

"I wanted to pick you up." That was that then. I knew he hated me driving my truck but I wasn't going to complain that he was here, just grumble a little that he doesn't trust my innate skill with the death trap.

"You have an issue with my truck." I told him.

"I'm surprised your father doesn't have an issue with the fucking thing either." He replied before catching my mouth with his own and opening the passenger door for me. Alice threw us a wave and climbed into her car, gunning it a little and screeching in the direction of Jasper's house.

EPOV

Her hand sat in mine the entire ride to school. Her little thumb stroking across my skin making it tingle with anticipation. Any time her skin touched mine it made me vibrate with emotion. There was a compulsion within me to touch some part of her at all times.

I kept my eyes on the road but could see her watch my face from my peripheral vision. Her eyes were locked on me like I was going to suddenly disappear in a puff of smoke. When she bit down on her bottom lip I almost parked the car in the nearest secluded spot to have my wicked way with her. If she had been wearing a skirt I would have. I could feel my jeans getting a little tighter just thinking about it.

"Esme wants you to come to dinner tonight." I told her in a desperate bid to distract my mind and force the blood back up into my head.

"Why?"

"Don't look so worried." I laughed at the expression on her face. My hand took on a life of its own and stroked down her face, glancing across her shoulder and cupping her breast as I ran my thumb across her erect nipple.

"Don't do that." She admonished me with shock, batting my hand away from her.

"Why?"

"Because we just arrived at school." Laughing I pulled to a stop beside Alice's car. Neither of us made any move to leave the security of the car. We were still grasping hands but her grip had become tighter all of a sudden. "Everyone's looking."

"I don't care." I told her and it was the truth. I didn't care that half the school was staring at us, that Mike Newton was hovering by the door being kept away by the invisible force field of Jasper and Emmett's glares of hatred. Her smile brightened the entire world when she unleashed it upon me.

"Me neither." Her teeth sank into her bottom lip and I couldn't help but lean over and kiss her softly. She was mine and soon everyone would know it. I rushed out of the car and went to open her door but she was already closing it by the time I was round there.

"So, you are coming to dinner?" My hand snaked around to sit on her hip.

"Any excuse to spend time with you." She smiled up at me shyly.

"I love you."

There was never a moment when I didn't think of Bella throughout the day. Waiting for her to come out of gym after school was the longest wait. I knew she had the class with Newton, as did Jasper and Emmett. We three stood staring at the door, awaiting her and Alice's exit, with our arms crossed.

It was ridiculous, thinking that there was some sort of danger in the safety of the school, but still we patiently waited in a macho display of pointlessness.

They bundled out of the door arm in arm talking and laughing with a scowling Newton behind them. Now was the time to ask him if he was the fucktard who left flowers in my girlfriend's truck. His face was swollen and bruised; the imprint of my fist still evident just like his was across my abdomen. He was scowling intently at the back of Bella's head and that just wasn't cricket.

"Newton!" I hissed his name, breaking his concentration. Immediately his eyes started darting about looking for escape once he clocked the three of us standing before him. Bella glanced behind her and rolled her eyes, tightening her grip on Alice's arm and picking up the pace to reach us.

"What do you want Cullen?" He stopped cautiously a few feet away from us. Jasper wrapped his arms around Alice when she reached him and placed a loving kiss on the top of her head. They mumbled something to each other before turning back to face Newton.

"Did you leave Bella flowers?" I took a couple of steps towards him, aware of Emmett stepping behind me. The look of confusion on his face was genuine.

"No." I didn't have to be a mind reader to know he was telling the truth. "Can I go now?" The contempt was dripping from his words and I had an overwhelming urge to punch him again, especially when he glanced at Bella standing behind me and winked. I didn't have the chance to move before Emmett growled from behind and stepped forward, causing Newton to bolt.

"Will you just forget about the stupid fucking flowers?" Bella all but yelled at me when I turned round.

"I can't."

"Why not?" Alice and Jasper edged away from us and Emmett walked casually to his jeep.

"It annoyed me." That was partly the truth, it had annoyed the fuck out of me but it was more than that.

"Please." Her body pushed into mine. She was a perfect fit. The feeling of her in my arms made me forget almost everything.

Except.

"Let's go."

"It's a beautiful night so Carlisle thought he would barbecue on the deck." Esme told us when we arrived. It seemed like a good idea to me and Emmett was pretty impressed too. There was nothing he liked more than a steak barely cooked on a barbecue. The man was a beast for almost raw red meat.

Bella, Emmett and I played games in the entertainment room until Esme finally called us up for dinner. Emmett tried his best to diffuse the slight tension still surrounding Bella and me but it wouldn't dissipate. I knew that the only way it was going to disappear would be to tell Bella the whole truth about why the flowers really creeped me out. It was a difficult conversation and just the thought of it was making me tense. There was only one option and it was complete honesty, just like I had told her yesterday.

After she had left yesterday Esme and Carlisle had started with the questions, the main one being why I had a gash above my eyebrow. That was not a fun conversation but they listened without judging to both Emmett and I as we explained the situation. Instead of being angry they had merely nodded, telling me to watch my temper in future and involve the police instead. Then Esme had requested that I invite Bella to dinner so that they could get to know her better. I had conceded with a roll of my eyes but I would use any excuse to have Bella around now.

Things had most definitely changed from only a week ago when I was trying my hardest to avoid all contact with her. This weekend had broken that already weak resolve into so many tiny matchsticks that even Rain man wouldn't be able to count them in a single glance.

"Have you considered what colleges to apply for yet Bella?" Carlisle asked as we sat around the table on the back deck. The night had cooled considerably and even though Emmett had turned on the towering heater there were still goose bumps all over Bella's exposed arms.

"I haven't given it much thought to be honest. It feels like I have all the time in the world to make that decision." She replied as she cut into her steak, peering through the darkness at the bloody juices seeping out of it. I pulled off my sweater in a swift motion before handing it over; she shrugged it over her head and down her body with a grateful smile and sweep of her hand across my arm.

"I haven't decided either." Emmett informed us, pulling the conversation away from Bella. I was equal parts annoyed and impressed that he knew her well enough to deflect attention away from her when she wasn't comfortable. All she had done was shift slightly in her chair and look down at her plate a little too intently but he had picked it up.

"Emmett, you have to make that decision soon." Esme admonished.

"I thought I knew where I wanted to be, but suddenly I'm not too sure." He had been set on Columbia. He loved New York when we lived there for a time. New York to him was what Chicago was to me. I knew his reasoning without even asking. Wherever Rosalie chose to grace with her presence would also be in receipt of Emmett's athletic prowess.

"When are you trying out for any teams?" I didn't know what sort of sports Forks offered, it wasn't high on my list of things to know, but when it came to new schools Emmett would try out for all teams. More often than not he would be accepted onto all of them and he would make his decision dependent on what sport he especially loved.

"I've spoken to the football coach and I'm joining practice in Monday, I'm looking forward to kicking some ass on the field." He grinned at me and I guessed Newton was on the football team.

"What schools have you thought about Edward?" Bella asked me softly.

"I've considered most of the Ivy Leagues, Brown, Cornell, Columbia, Yale and Dartmouth, plus Chicago State and Stanford. I haven't made a choice yet." I told her honestly. "But it's over a year away, lots of time for decision making."

"I'm guessing you don't have to rely on a scholarship."

"No. Have you considered anywhere?"

"I'll probably end up in Seattle." She smiled. "Where did you study Carlisle?"

"I studied in Scotland before enrolling in Harvard's medical school."

"Where in Scotland?"

"St Andrews. It was an excellent experience, and I would recommend it to both Emmett and Edward." He smiled fondly, remembering his days as a carousing student in Scotland. When we had lived in Edinburgh he had basically regressed when he met up with his old university friends. Esme was mightily unimpressed when he would be carried home and left on the door step. That's quite possibly the reason we didn't stay there for long.

Bella looked impressed and slightly awe struck by Carlisle and his academic past. We were all used to women fawning over him and being impressed by his looks, his compassion and patience. Not his academic prowess.

"And you Esme?" Her eyes lit up when Bella addressed her, I was beginning to see a distinct affection growing within Esme for Bella, which surprised me considering she had only met her twice and barely spent any time with her.

"I went to Ohio State, not quite as lofty as Carlisle." She laughed and stroked her hand down the length of his arm with affection. "But I loved it all the same."

The conversation continued along in the same vein until I excuse both Bella and myself. We walked in silence up to my room. There was one thing I really wanted to do as soon as we got into the privacy of my bedroom and there was one thing I was loath to do but knew she would prefer answers over major kissage. Taking a chance I kicked the door shut with my foot as I twirled her round pushing her back up against it. My mouth descended, her lips meeting mine matching my ferocity. There was no feeling on earth better than this.

I broke our kiss after she had pushed off the door and started walking me towards the bed. The backs of my knees hitting against the mattress sending me down with her on top of me. Her knees straddled either side of my torso as her lips kissed along my jaw, down my neck, across my cheek bones. If I didn't stop it then we would be taking it too far. There was a very real risk of one of the other three people in the house walking in on us.

"Why are you always the one to pull away? You're making me feel like a deviant." She sighed against my neck, the hot breath sending shivers through me testing my resolve.

"Did you dream last night?"

"Yes."

"And?"

"I woke up crying."

"You were crying in my dream."

"I told you to never stop in mine."

"Same."

"Well." She struggled to find another way to vocalise her thoughts on the issue.

"Yup." As did I.

BPOV

Neither of us spoke for a while. Silence swam through the room and I lay in his arms taking in the realisation that we dreamt the same fricking dreams. How is that even possible? My resolve from this morning about not needing answers was rapidly slipping away. I wanted answers now.

I wanted to know how we could ever have even imagined each other. The perfect detail of him in my dreams was not imagined. I had drawn my tongue languidly across the scar that was slashed across his back in reality as well as in my dreams.

I hadn't even asked him how that happened.

Hours I had spent memorising the lines of his body, every freckle and scar was etched into my memory forever. There was so much to learn about this exquisite specimen of man lying next to me. Unconsciously my fingers stroked across his jaw feeling the rough stubble on the pads of my fingers. Whenever I touched him my stomach lurched with an indescribable mixture of lust, love and pure unadulterated need.

It was going to be impossible to find a definitive answer to the dreams. Alice's theory of soul mates was beginning to sound more and more plausible to my cynical self. He shifted under me as he stretched over to pick up a remote control, after pressing a couple of buttons he threw it down to the bottom of the bed.

"About the flowers." I tensed in his arms.

Not the fucking flowers again. I was sick of hearing about them. He hadn't mentioned them at all this morning, but since lunch it seemed like every second sentence was about those goddamn flowers.

Beyond caring was my state of mind about them. Most of everyone at school knew what had happened at the party, so if I wasn't at home then it wouldn't have taken a rocket scientist to find me.

They were just flowers.

"Edward can we please just forget about them? Please?" I was at the point of begging now. I didn't want this to be a bone of contention between us.

"Bella, you have to realise that I'm going to be annoyed about this."

"You have to realise that I'm yours." My hands cupped his face forcing him to look at me.

"I know you are." Hot breath hit my face gently when he sighed this sentence out, his face not giving anything away. "There are things that you don't know Bella, and when you do then I think you'll understand."

"Tell me." It was more of a command than a question, one that he followed implicitly.

Words stuttered in his throat as he tried to find a way to start. Anticipation churned within me, mixing with the slight tinge of dread that I was beginning to feel. Knowing what little I did about Edward's past prepared me for a story that did not involve kittens and rainbows.

"I don't know where to start." Edward looked at me plaintively. Suddenly my heart began to ache for him, for his lost childhood, for his lost parents. His wide eyes searched mine for the answer to how to start this conversation that was causing him so much pain. I felt like an awful human being. I was fundamentally commanding him to divulge memories that he had obviously fought to forget for so long.

Those stupid flowers had stirred something up in him that had long lain dormant.

"Start whenever you are ready." Tears glassed both of our eyes when I hugged into his side tighter, fingers bit into the flesh on my upper arm but I didn't care. He was holding on so tight and it made me feel safe.

"I've seen flowers like that before, that many, that arrangement, that exact type of rose." His voice was barely audible when he began. "At the funeral of my parent's."

"Edward, they must have triggered some awful memories for you, but they didn't mean anything." I felt his head shake above me, sucking in a deep breath he continued.

"They were exact Bella." This wasn't getting us any further forward.

"How did you parents die?" It was a blunt question, one that made him tense under me, but I had to know. It must have been an accident of some kind for them to have both died, leaving their only son behind.

"They didn't just die, Bella, they were murdered."

Shit.

I didn't even contemplate that.

"I'm sorry." My voice cracked and I found myself spilling quiet tears in rivers down my face. Not for myself, but for Edward and his pain. Fingers brushed against my cheeks to catch the falling tears. Sounds from outside filtered through one of the many opened windows lending the room a soothed atmosphere that clashed violently against the tension bubble surrounding us.

"My father was an accountant, in Chicago. It sounds so cliché to even throw organised criminals into the mix, but they were there. He didn't know what he was getting into, my father that is. He trusted so implicitly that when they told him they were just business men looking for someone to look after their books he took it at face value."

Again he paused, trying to remember the detail. He must have researched the demise of his parents, he couldn't have known this at the time. I prayed that he had been shielded from the detail during his formative years. After the silence I was jolted by the music that suddenly filled the room, that must have been the remote control he was playing with.

I wish I were with you, I couldn't stay
Every direction leads me away
Pray for tomorrow, but for today
All I want is to be home

"He found some...inconsistencies...and reported them. What they did next was pure revenge. I don't know how they found out about it but they did. I was at school that day." Swallowing thickly he tried to continue, his chest heaving with the effort of getting enough air to combat the sickness he was patently feeling. My fingers worked quickly through his hair, across his scalp and down the side of his face to calm him and to reassure him that I was there by his side. That he wasn't alone.

"You don't have to finish." I mumbled at him, distraught that I had managed to get him this upset with a couple of questions and a flippant disregard of the flowers he so clearly wigged out about.

Stand in the mirror, you look the same
Just looking for shelter, from the cold and the pain
Someone to cover, safe from the rain
All I want is to be home

"I was at school that day, we made oil and water art things, you know, where you have a tray of water and drip in oily paint? Put paper on top of it and pull it out and it's all swirls?" His voice took on a childish quality as he remembered the day that his world had imploded.

"I remember."

"Mom wasn't there to pick me up, which was odd. She always remembered to pick me up. So I walked home. It took forever. By the time I reached our street I was exhausted and couldn't wait to lie down on the couch with a glass of milk. I thought about how I could get Mom to make me some cookies because she would feel guilty." His voice cracked right there, when he remembered about how he was going to emotionally blackmail his mother into making him cookies.

Echoes and silence, patience and grace
All of these moments I'll never replace
Fear of my heart, absence of faith
All I want is to be home

"That doesn't make you a bad person Edward." I soothed, pre-empting his thoughts.

"I walked into the house and there was nothing. Nothing moved, nothing made a sound. It's funny, Bella, when I think about it now it seems like everything was sepia tinted."

"Was it autumn?"

"It's always autumn when I think of them." His chest began to heave again. Glancing at his face I saw his eyes screwed shut, tears seeping out of the corners, trailing down his temples and wetting his hair.

"I can't take seeing you this upset, we should stop."

He ignored me.

"I called out for her, for him too. There was no answer. I walked into the kitchen and there was a puddle of something dark and sticky on the table, I thought she had just spilled something and not cleaned it up yet. That maybe she was upstairs changing out of a stained shirt, so I went upstairs."

He paused for another deep breath, little realising that it was creating a dramatic interlude. I was terrified about what he was going to say next.

Please don't let him have found them.

Please.

"They had put her in the bath." Sobs tore through his body now and my heart broke for him. Cradling him in my arms I rocked and soothed him as best I could. "It was full to the top with water, murky with her blood. Before I dreamt of you, Bella, all I ever dreamt was that."

Jesus.

"They had left him where they had killed him. On the bathroom floor. His empty eyes staring at the bath, at Mom."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing. I closed the door, because Mom hated it when someone interrupted her when she was in the bath, and sat outside, waiting for them to come out. I didn't understand that they wouldn't."

"Who found you?"

"The cleaner, in the morning. I had slept outside the bathroom all night, waiting to be woken by my dad's arms scooping me up to take me to bed, by my mom's kiss goodnight."

"Oh Edward." There was nothing better I could say. I was devoid of forming any kind of sentence, let alone one that might help start take his pain away. With a sniff and hard clearing of his throat he continued. I wasn't sure I could take anymore, but I had to be strong for him just like he was for me.

All I want is to be home

People I've loved, I have no regrets
Some I remember, some I forget
Some of them living, some of them dead
All I want is to be home

"The police couldn't find anything to link their deaths with that family but everyone knew who had done it, it fit their MO apparently. At the funeral there was a bouquet of flowers on their coffins, both with cards expressing their condolences and how they would help catch whoever did it in whatever way possible." His voice became hard and bitter with the memory, the disgust evident in his sudden change of demeanour.

Flowers.

"What kind of flowers were they Edward?" I knew the answer before he managed to vocalise it, it would be the only explanation for his absolute hatred of them.

"Roses, Bella, a big fucking bouquet of blood red roses."

"I'm sorry. For everything, for your pain and for being flippant about your feelings regarding the roses."

"I'm not looking for an apology; I just wanted you to understand."

"Edward?"

"Bella?" His eyes locked on mine, salty water still misting the beautiful alive green orbs. Feelings rushed through me suddenly unwilling to be contained anymore, before I could even think my lips and tongue began forming the words as I finally surrendered to the inevitable.

"I love you."

A/N: Liked it? Review it!...or not...it's up to you.

With any luck you all enjoyed this one...and it's way longer than the last one....it took longer to write than any other chapter...finished it about 2 hours ago and forced my friend to read it over before posting it....my friends are awesome.

As are all of you who read this, review it, love it and add it to alerts and the likes.

Any questions feel free to PM me.

The song is by the fabulous Foo Fighters and is called Home.

Oh and I put some links up to random stuff on my profile...cars and the songs used in previous chapters.

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.