I could hear a beat, was it a heartbeat? I was sure it wasn't mine, I hadn't heard that for years now. I couldn't see anything, but the beat that I was hearing seemed to be growing louder, and clearer. I realized it was music, I heard the drums. I realized there was light growing before me. It was dark blue at first, I couldn't see anything, the shade of it lightened, changed, pulsated. I could see it something moving with the beat.

I had to move forward and figure out what it was. There was a silhouette, it was a body, a female body. She was moving to the beat of the music. She swung her hips, twisting her upper body to follow them a moment after as she slowly lowered herself down towards the floor. She began to move back up again, still swinging herself in the same beautiful way, as I reached her. When she stood to her full height her scant clothing became visible. She wore a backless halter top, nothing but a single tie crossing beautiful pale skin. Her hair was pulled up here and there, yet leaving several strands of long wavy dark colored hair gliding back and forth across her shoulders. There was a metal bar surrounding her, and she put a steadying hand on it as she swung around. Her hips turned first, her hand slid across the side of her face and slid down her throat, over her halter top and came to rest with her fingers just inside the low waist of her pants.

I was watching her hand and suddenly realized her whole body had stopped moving. I rolled my eyes over the light-dappled skin of her stomach and chest, and stopped when I came eye to eye with Bella's chocolate colored eyes.

The beat of the music began to speed up, and became the sound of Bella's heartbeat. She leaned over the bar, her head coming to just below my chin, and lifted her face to me. She raised a hand up to me, and placing her hand on my chest she slid it up over my neck and onto my cheek, she rubbed her thumb across my bottom lip and then slid it into my mouth...

"Emmett, what are you doing?" I looked around behind me to see Edward questioning me as I stood in front of his bedroom door. I blinked and looked around at my surroundings.

I answered Edward. "I have no idea?" What was I doing? How had I gotten here? I realized I'd been reaching for the door handle and straightened myself. As I began to turn around toward Edward the door to his room opened. I snapped my head around to see Jasper standing there looking defiantly at Edward. Edward looked back at Jasper and his eyes were tight and black.

I could feel something that made me feel like I'd just been challenged coming off of Jasper, and figured that must be exaclty what he'd just done. I turned around and grabbed Jasper around the throat, pinning him to the door jam. I opened my mouth to say something when I felt a tiny hand on my arm.

I looked at the arm and found Alice's eyes looking back into mine. "Don't Emmett, I've got him." she said.

I released Jasper, and then I heard it again, the music I'd been hearing. It was coming from inside Edward's room. What was wrong with me lately? I'd just stood there wide awake and hallucinated! I was looking into the bedroom, and I couldn't see Bella. I pushed the door open wider and found her in front of Edward's stereo adjusting the volume.

As the door swung in Bella looked at me. We locked eyes for just a moment. I wondered what she was listening to. Bella must have wondered something about me too by the look on her face, and the way her hand came off the volume control for just a moment. Bella's head turned back to the radio and she reached for the dial again. The music went up and Edward cleared his throat behind me. "Let it go Emmett," he said. "While you're at it, let me pass." I stepped aside and walked out as Edward closed the door behind me.

I looked down the hall to our room, I knew Rose was in there, but I realized I needed to move. Sitting still and thinking too much about this would only drive me crazy. It was time to hunt. I turned to my left and headed down the stairs to go outside. I hit the first floor running already, Carlisle was coming in and I shot past his questioning look.

I ran off, around the house, back over the river and deep into the forest, following the terrain in any direction that took me up. I wanted to go high, to get a different perspective on things.

Usually, if I was confused, keeping myself surrounded by the natural state of things helped me. I didn't get this frustrated often, but today was a special.

I ran, letting my speed take over and enjoying the feeling of the wind. It always tried to slow me down, but it couldn't win against me.

Edward and I had travelled to the mid-west once to see if I was right about that, I ran out into the funnel of a category four tornado. I'd lived, but if Edward hadn't been there to put me back together again, I'd have been in serious trouble. Especially if someone had come across a talking torso. Edward thought that was funny, and made a lot of jokes at my expense, his nickname for me for awhile was "Emmett the talking stump." When he first walked up and found me, he was holding one of my arms, it was really uncomfortable to be lying there so vulnerable, and leave it to my brother to make the most of it. He walked up with my arm, waving it out away from him like a sword of some grisly kind.

I glared at him, "Think you can give that back to me? I'd like the rest of my body too." Edward grinned crookedly and replied, "What? It isn't as though you'd notice the difference." Making a comment about a head without a body. "Nice one little brother, now give me my arm so I can punch you with it."

"Not so fast Emmett, maybe I need a hand in getting the rest of your body together." he'd said, shaking with laughter. That was it, I was done with being stuck, "EDWARD!!" I'd yelled. He'd laughed more loudly if that was possible and then put my arm on,...taking great care to jump out of my reach as I worked it back and forth.

I kept running, smiling to myself remembering that time. Edward was always a good brother, even when he was being a smart ass. Jasper too, although Jasper was so wrapped up in Alice. His attitude lately was just crazy. I couldn't keep it all straight. It was driving me nuts, something was going on with the Cullen's and it seemed like I was the one being left out of the loop.

I hunted for the rest of the afternoon. By the time I got back to the house, Esme was at the back of the Mercedes, unloading groceries. She had at least forty bags. She'd never come home with that much food before. "Did you get all of this for Bella, or are we having a party I'm not aware of?" I asked.

She frowned at me, "I want Bella to be comfortable here, I want her to have everything she needs."

I laughed as I picked up a few bags. One of them fell to pieces as I picked it up. Several bags of frozen fruits, a couple boxes of frozen pizza and a box of popsicles fell to the ground. I looked down, and then at Esme, "Are you serious?"

Her face got very tense, and she said, "The fruits are in case she wants smoothies, the pizza is for when she's on limited time, and the popsicles are in case it gets hot. You know next week is the first week of Summer."

I looked at her wide-eyed. "Mom, I hate to remind you of obvious facts, but it's Forks. Forks, Washington. Remember, rain....near constant cloud cover. It doesn't get hot here."

She looked at me sternly, her eyes wincing, inhaled deeply and said, "Emmett, take the groceries in the house. Now!" I didn't need to be told twice.

However...I was wrong. It does occasionally get hot in Forks, and I'm not just talking about the weather.