Did anyone get the connection between Mr Banner and Mr Flag?

No one? Well, I must say I'm rather upset…I thought I was being clever. *sniff* oh well. If you look at my Broken Doll story there is buckets of hidden meaning in that. I needed the poem at the beginning of this chapter, that's where the title comes from. Personally, I love poetry: dead serious because my mother has been forcing it down my throat since I was…well, since before I was born. And frankly, I'm glad she did.

Anyway. Hope you enjoy this chapter, I thought I should give you an EPOV for some reason. I feel so evil with the cliff-hanger I left you last time and even more with what I shall do in this chapter…Ha. It's extra, extra, EXTRA long. There's lots of apologies in it too. I'll do a BPOV afterwards to show what the hell is going on inside her brain.

This chapter is also dedicated to Saturday's Dawn. Her review made me smile so much when I read it and I hope she smiles at my dedication too.

Enjoy,

Xoxo

T de la B

Chapter 23. Some say in Ice…

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

- Fire and Ice, Robert Frost

Edward's POV

Did you know that there are over a million ways you can die? Strangulation, internal bleeding, external bleeding, drowning, electrocution, stabbing, poison, gassing, collision, guns, knives, baseball bats…there are thousands of ways to part your soul with your body.

For vampires, of course, the choices are far more limited but you can still destroy an immortal. Dismemberment and burning are the only foolproof, practical ways. But I wasn't thinking practically.

I was busy thinking about all the ways I could murder this Chen character if he was human. An interesting way to pass time, to say the least.

Mr Flag passed out mundane sheets of paper I'd completed for many years and his thoughts were slow, unattractive and revolving around some strange woman named Sheila. I wonder if it was the hair…yes, probably. I knew I should've gotten the plugs…

Alice's however, were gloating. She was in English at the moment, barely listening to the teacher as he described William Blake's Tyger. She's back! She's back, my sister! There were wordless shrieks of pleasure and then: Edward, I know you're listening. You need to make up with Bella. She's my sister again and I will not have you messing it up. Again!

I jerked a little from the conviction in her thoughts and watched as Mr Flag spoke about meiosis. It was torture. Not due to the boredom but the fact that a mere night ago I had Bella in my arms, confessing my love and today…she was conspicuously with him.

I hated him. Usually, my reasons were justified. Faces could speak a dozen lies but thoughts gave you away. I could separate the awful from the kind, the guilty from the innocent. But Bella, she had shown this morning, had her own gifts at play…

Bella looks like she's about to-

Bella's partner, Chen, was walking off with a smirk on his face when his thoughts turned to static. I frowned, listening harder. Nothing erupted from him as his mind and its television static noise walked away. This wasn't the silence I was used to from Bella; this was like a mask, spreading over his thoughts and translating them into nonsensical static.

I looked at Jasper and he was studying Bella from across the corridor. I knew that look. He gave it to people he deemed a threat. The pieces clicked and I turned to Bella, amazed. She was doing this. All of this. Alice pouted after a second. Her thoughts, at least, I could read.

She's blocking me. Alice whined inside her head. I saw her try to press through the static. She got small, irrelevant glimpses of Bella and her coven…their decisions were masked in the block however and Alice growled.

I listened to Jasper's thoughts and almost growled too. He couldn't think like that about my Bella.

Wait, no. Not my Bella. Never my Bella. Not anymore…

Now, she was blocking me again, Chen and her remained safely blocked under the static. So my reasons for hating this despicable creature were probably not justified. I couldn't be sure. My reason was simple enough.

He was holding her hand under the table.

And it was driving me insane.

Bella wasn't looking at me although I begged her to. Internally of course. I couldn't -wouldn't- ruin her happiness, not again. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. From the side however, I could see her perfect profile; the long, dark lashes, straight nose, soft, unbelievably tempting lips…I noticed the tiny difference between them, something that had stuck with her since her humanity when I'd first seen and marvelled at it. The top one was slightly out of balance with the lower, slightly too full to match.

Did he notice?

She had a tiny freckle on the underside of her earlobe that hadn't faded completely.

Did he notice that either?

I scowled, unintentionally and I saw the two boys at the desk over cringe. I smoothed it out instantly. Mr Flag droned on as I continued to stare unabashed at Bella's face. She didn't look at me. Just straight forward. It hurt more than I was willing to admit because it wasn't even as if she were glaring at me…the indifference and the way she was studiously ignoring me was killing my already stone dead self.

"Mr Cullen, could you describe the difference between death and life?" Mr Flag suddenly asked. My attention was diverted momentarily as I processed the question in his head.

Death and Life…was there really such a difference? Death was merely another life was it not? A different life, perhaps, a life in which you did not breathe or speak. But how were we to know there was not more after death? I, of course would never know, but they would. These mortals would, one day, unless some were unlucky enough to cross our kind's paths again.

But as to the question, it was wrong to ask me the answer. Death did not have the same connotations to me as it did to him. Death was fearful, a swooping doom that would one day tear him from his family, friends, loved ones…to me, it was merely a choice. I could choose to live or die at whatever time I pleased. I felt my lips twitch at Abraham Christian Flag's question. Perhaps he could read minds. How did you know to ask me? I wanted to ask him but I didn't.

I knew he wanted to know it within a biological standard so I answered accordingly.

He nodded, satisfied and waddled away, scribbling notes on the whiteboard. I took a perfect copy almost instinctively. Then I stared at Bella more.

Within a few minutes of my staring, Bella's partner looked up at me. His face was perfect: although he had Asian heritage, his skin was perfect white and his eyes were topaz. Handsome, I suppose…the less gentlemanly part of me questioned what Bella saw in him.

Retreating to a shallow pool of vanity (probably collected during my stays inside Rosalie's head), I mulled it over. He hadn't seemed friendly or kind when I'd met him, his thoughts were vicious on the contrary. Protective in a way I hadn't studied at the time, a way that I wished I could investigate now.

But the static was still there. Bella was still shielding him. I wanted to see if he was as genuine as she obviously thought him. She deserved nothing less. Was he as selfless as her? I wondered. Was he as giving and good as her? I doubted it, no one would ever match Bella.

A very small part of me whimpered as I thought of the next suggestion: was he…physically more attractive? As a vampire? I shook the thought away, annoyed. Bella was not that shallow. She wouldn't settle for anyone who wasn't as beautiful on the inside as they were externally. How dare I think low of her?

The partner, Chen, was still looking at me. He glanced once at the hand he held, then at its partner taking notes and finally mine, which was unknowingly itching toward Bella. Then he smirked.

I'd never had to swallow the urge to kill someone as much as I had to then.

Mind off topic Edward, off topic…I can't sense her. Or him. It's not working. Bella's powers must be stronger than I'd originally planned. Jasper's thoughts were from his Sport class, in the gymnasium. The male and female, Vee and Andrew, were joining himself, Alice and Rosalie in a game of basketball but he was distracted. His mind broke off into scenarios of fighting, the thoughts of an army soldier.

I growled, softly at one of them. I'd have to talk to him about that later.

"I want one person from each table to come up here, grab the equipment and then get on with experiment, no complaints or we'll go over it again!" Mr Flag called out and it gathered a few chuckles from the crowd. Chen stood immediately.

"I'll get it love, you stay here." he whispered, kissing the side of her head in a swift, quick movement before walking to the front of the class. Even through the static, I could still read Bella's wondrous eyes. For a split-second, there was shock, humour, and anger before it settled back into the unusually deep topaz.

I filed that way for further use as I moved my notes to the side of the bench. Should I speak? He was gone now. Nothing stopping me. Except Bella's wishes. Bella retrieved the safety mat and glasses from the bench's cupboards, distracting herself, I could tell. Did she want to speak to me? Our last conversation hadn't ended well or on particularly…friendly terms.

"Bella-" I began at the exact moment she started with "Edward-"

Our eyes locked, topaz to topaz and then avoided. I smiled, wryly. Like a dance, I supposed. And weren't we dancing? Forever dancing around the subject, as we had previously danced around her safety. In the end, the dance had ended with her transformation. How would this one end?

She was smiling too, barely. "Edward, I wanted to apologise for last night." She said, not looking at me. My eyes widened. What on god's green earth did she have to apologise for?

"For what?"

"For my behaviour. I- I didn't…mean to- to yell and…" she sighed, trailing off. She looked frustrated. I smiled, weakly.

"I know. I didn't meant to either. And I'm glad that you," I hid a wince. "moved on. It was what I had intended from the beginning. You deserve it." The words were only half true. The other half were bitterly dark with their lies. Bella looked down. Don't do that, I whispered in my mind. Let me see your face, please, please…

She looked up again and I rejoiced at being able to see her eyes again. They had always been the best indicators. My greatest allies as it were. Right now they were flickering, the way blades flicker in a sword battle. What did that mean precisely? "Thankyou then Edward." She whispered.

I swallowed down every disgusting sentiment of love and adoration and nodded at her. "And I you."

Chen arrived back, appearing as though it were scripted and the experiment was conducted with silent determination. What would happen now? I asked Bella. Are you going to leave with her? I asked Chen. So many questions and so little answers.

A reoccurring pattern.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

When class ended, I waited for Bella outside the room. School was over, our first proper day done. I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I wasn't sure if I would ever know what to do. The only thing I was certain of was that I would regret it if I did not speak to her now. Bella walked out of the room, her hand entwined with her partner's, I noticed, painfully.

"Bella, may I speak with you?" Best to start off polite…

Edward, what are you doing…Alice's thoughts were vague as she watched us. Now that my fate was involved with Bella's, the static mask she protected herself with was lifted slightly. Bella looked wary but nodded. Something about that made my throat burn. She was cautious of me, because of how I hurt her.

The partner, to my regret, did not leave. He merely stood there, looking smug. I raised an eyebrow. "Alone?"

She whispered something faintly in Chen's ear and he kissed her cheek before strutting off in the opposite direction, down the hall with the rest of the students. I narrowed my eyes when he turned back for a moment and smiled a big, conceited grin at me. Arrogant, cowardly-

"If you're done glaring at Chen…" Bella said a tiny hint of amusement in her lovely voice.

"I would be if he weren't so damn obnoxious…" I murmured, faintly. I forgot that her hearing was much better than when she was human and she glowered at me.

"Chen isn't obnoxious, he's a good person." She defended. Ah. Finally, a tiny insight into what Bella sees in him. He's a good person.

"Of course, forgive me." I apologised immediately before an odd sensation of nerves tingled up my spine. I hadn't felt it in a very long time but it was definitely human. I remembered feeling the day Bella had touched my hand and not cringed away in revulsion. "Bella, I wanted to speak to you about something."

"I gathered that." She said, amusedly. There was a hint of mirrored nerves beneath her sarcasm. I smiled, realising I was not the only one treading on eggshells and then frowned. She shouldn't have to tread on eggshells, I reminded myself. "What did you want?"

You.

"I wanted to apologise for my family's actions before. I'm sure you heard of the meeting by now?" I asked, hesitantly.

She sighed, irritated. "If by meeting you mean the reluctant, secret, unorthodox, mutiny my family committed then yes, I have. I need to apologise too, Jenna and Max are very young, they still haven't mastered the complete art of…subtlety." Bella said, with a wry smile.

I grinned back. "Completely forgiven. Although something Jenna showed me in her mind disturbed me slightly." Slowly Edward, slow. The images I had from the young blonde's memory were more than disturbing. They were downright punishable. Bella looked away and I had a feeling she'd blush if she could.

"I am more than sorry about that." She whispered as we began moving out of the school. We moved just a few fractions slower than everyone else, almost unconsciously. Personally, I didn't want the time to end. "Jenna was angry-"

"Bella, please." I cut in. She shouldn't be apologising about that. Least of all that. "I simply wanted to tell you that-" the words stopped for a second. How to frame this most delicate of statements…I want you to be free but I wish you'd still love me. I want you to want other people but I'll always want you…

"What Edward?" she probed, watching me, studying me. She sighed, smiling slightly as though my silence pained her. "I thought we were past all the evasiveness." I smiled, wryly. Of course she would remember that.

"We are," I assured her. "We are but…I wanted to tell you that I want you to be happy." My words come from my era…a phrase coined by Carlisle when we had discussions about the rapid evolution of speech in these times. It applied to most vampires. Revolutionaries used phrases, used emotions and speeches that were much different from those of the 14th Century. The Volturi were still caught using Latin occasionally and we'd met a pair of vampires, not long ago, that still used phrases from the flower power era in the sixties.

My words had always come from my era. It was a flaw in my cover, Rosalie sometimes scorned. People were not used to seeing such a gentlemanly young man wandering around using such formal language as a casual tone. I had somewhat of a way with words. Perhaps my talent of the mind had something to do with it. Perhaps that was why, staring at the most beautiful, lovely, selfless creature I've ever known…my words failed me.

"Edward?" Bella asked, so faintly I barely heard her.

"I want you to be happy. And if you're happy with Chen then I will disappear forever. I promise." I said, sincerely. I would. There would be know moping this time however. There would be no pain. I'd probably go to the Volturi in the end. They would end my life quickly and I wouldn't have to suffer the pain of a Bella that wasn't mine any longer.

Bella swallowed and looked away for a few long moments. I waited, patiently as we walked to the front of the school. Let her go Edward, I chided myself. Experimentally, I took a small step away from Bella. It hurt as if my chest knew that if I took another step and another, eventually I would be very far away indeed.

"Bella! Come on, we need to go!" called a voice and I spotted the two other partners of Bella's coven by an expensive looking car. Vee and Andrew, I believe. She looked up and shuddered, as if collecting her thoughts.

"Of course. Yes, yes, of course." She muttered to herself. My heart, what was left of it sank. She took a step forward and my hand shot out before I could stop it. Impulsiveness had never been part of my character. Bella brought it out in me I guessed, wildly as I tried to gather my thoughts.

Bella didn't look happy. She looked almost…upset? If she was, what did that mean? Did I have a chance? Was that too much to hope for? What I wouldn't give to see her mind…"Are you happy?" I blurted out, questioningly. She blinked, startled and then frowned.

"I…I don't know Edward, everything's so confusing." She whispered, brokenly. "What do you want from me?"

"What do you want me to do?" I asked, immediately. Bella looked at me, this time with hope and sadness in her eyes.

"The same thing as you. I want you to be happy."

Ah, but there was the conundrum. For me to be happy, I had to have Bella in the equation. If Bella was in the equation, she would need Chen to keep her happy…which would make me, very, very unhappy. A paradox, I mused. An unsolvable question.

What happened next was insane. Impossibly, awfully insane. Alice had a vision, the scent of wild lilies filled the air, Rosalie's car appeared, tearing down the street. And every vampire on the premises, froze.

"No," Alice hissed.

Bella looked tense and worried.

Vee and Andrew simultaneously turned to Rose's car.

Chen appeared at Bella's side.

And I saw Alice's mind.

The scene was the same. The decision had just been made. Only now. Rosalie appears, carrying two bags of shopping. But she's not alone. Out of her BMW comes three more shadowy figures. Also carrying bags, the smell of wild lilies becomes intoxicating. And familiar.

Rosalie smiles, making three boys near her almost faint. "Look who dropped in early to say hello?" she says, cheerily.

Out of the car steps-

"Tanya! What a surprise!"

Okay, now I bet you're wondering: HOW THE HELL DID ROSALIE PULL THAT ONE OFF??

Explanation: Tanya and her family were already coming to Forks, to say hello or whatever. Alice was busy watching for Bella and Edward and everyone else that she missed Rosalie when she called the Denali's to get them to speed up their visit. Make sense? If it doesn't, Review me and I'll try and answer any questions. Other than that…

SCHOOL IS OVER, LADIES AND GENTS!!! I am so insanely psyched for these holidays!!!!

R and R folks!

T de la B.