Wow, guys. This story has gotten more alerts/favorites than anything I've ever written on the net. You guys make a girl like me proud. I've also gotten seven reviews, from jadesabre75, wierdocaitlin, pac1025, and MeggyandHaku. You guys keep me going. ^_^ I'm also glad you think Bella's not a total washout; I kind of realized that she is almost never able to do anything when her daughter's in danger. Kind of sad, but she has saved Riley from some things (I've thought out their entire history, because I'm an evil person who loves angst stuff). Well, without further ado… here's Chapter 5. Enjoy!

Chapter Song: The Things We Don't, By: Watertown

Chapter 5: Never Do That Again

X-x-X

Riley

Mom had officially lost her mind. Edward came in after both of us had entered, and I shut the door behind him. Aunt Alice was going to flip when I told her that my mom practically kidnapped Alice's brother for dinner. Even though they weren't going out or anything like that, Alice was still going to freak out (she tended to do that a lot when it came to my mom). Uncle Jasper, too, probably. Uncle Jazz was overbearingly protective about that sort of thing.

"Uh… I didn't really plan on this, so, um… I'm going to have to make dinner," Bella confessed, and I rolled my eyes. 'Wasn't planning on this' was a bit of an understatement.

"That's fine," Edward assured her. He smiled at me, and I frowned slightly in disdain. "I'm sure there are things I can do to pass the time." My mom blushed at that, muttered a quick 'sorry', and walked to the kitchen. Edward turned to me, and by then I had folded my arms and was staring at him with a smirk on my face.

"Er… so how are you?" he asked me.

"Really? You're making small talk?" I asked back with a grin. "C'mon, you can come in the living room. I'm not going to bite… unless your presence infects me with rabies. Which I really hope it doesn't." I turned away from him and led him into our small living room. There was couch and an armchair in there, all centered around my mom's flat-screen T.V. And sitting beside that was my Wii – Uncle Emmett had gotten it for me for Christmas last year.

"You play?" I asked him as I switched the T.V on and began plugging in the plugs required. I might as well pass the time with Edward in some kind of non-boring way.

"Play what?" he replied, raising his eyebrows.

I tossed him a remote. "The Nintendo Wii. Uncle Emmett got it for me last year. You've ever played one of these things before?" It wasn't exactly hard to be completely casual with him. If my mother had the guts to ask him out tonight, surely he'd be around some more. So he might as well get used to being somewhat of a friend to me. After all, there was no way he was going to date my mother without my approval first. Not this time around. I wasn't going to let my mom get hurt like that again. I didn't care how hot Edward was for a middle-aged man - he wasn't getting to her without going through me first.

"A few times back in California," Edward answered, catching on to my casual tone. "Are you skilled with it?"

"You kidding? I even beat Uncle Emmett at it last week, and he's the bomb with this system. He kind of got mad at me and almost threw me across the room. It was awesome – everyone was over, too," I told him. I could still see my uncle's outraged face in my head. I grinned.

"Then I suppose I don't stand a chance with you," Edward told me with a chuckle. "What games do you have?"

"Mario Kart, Wii Play, Wii Sports, Guitar Hero… you name the multiplayer game, and I've got it," I replied, telling the downright truth. I wasn't going to lie – my family downright spoiled me when it came to video games. Especially Uncle Emmett, who was practically obsessed with this kind of stuff. "You play any of those?"

"Guitar Hero," Edward responded almost automatically. I grinned at him.

"That a challenge?" I asked him with a smirk.

"If you take it that way," Edward answered smoothly. "I hope you've practiced recently, because I'll have you know that I'm a natural musician."

I laughed. I liked the way this Edward guy was playing his game. It was funny for an adult like him. "Even the guitar gods can't stop me," I told him with a grin. "So if you think you've got some natural talent, I hope you step it up. Because there's no way that you're going to beat me with some raw skill on your hands."

Edward laughed in return. This was fun. My mother never wanted to play Guitar Hero with me, because she liked to say that it wasn't something she could play. "Raw skill? I think that's what I'd call you," he taunted.

"We'll see, then, won't we?" I asked as I put the game in and turned the system on.

It was for about fifteen minutes that the pair of us 'rocked out' on Guitar Hero. He beat me four out of seven times, which was a bit humiliating considering, as I had beaten Uncle Emmett at this game a million times over. It frustrated me. Where had he learned to play this game? And to play it so well? It kind of bothered me. After the seventh time we played, and my mother called us into the kitchen for dinner, Edward grinned at me. He knew he had won. I glared at him, hands on my hips as I attempted to stare him down.

"Where'd you learn how to do that?" I demanded.

Edward laughed and wriggled his fingers. "Piano player by heart, Miss Riley," he answered with a playful smile. "Oh, and might I mention I didn't learn from an amateur like Emmett."

I laughed at that and followed him into the kitchen.

"Have fun, you two?" Bella asked when she saw our grins. She was distributing spaghetti onto our plates and eyed each of us in that stern sort of way like she did with me whenever I was a little kid caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar.

"Riley Renee Swan, is that chocolate I see smudged on your lips?" Bella asked.

I was four, and living with my mom in a small apartment in downtown Chicago. We had a tiny kitchen and a tiny living room and a tiny bedroom, where she'd always keep me safe and warm at night in her own arms. I liked it. I smiled up at my mother and grinned proudly.

"Nope," I answered.

"You're a rotten liar, and you know it," she warned me. "Now tell me or I'll tickle it out of you."

I shrieked in delight and ran back to the couch. My mother caught me before I reached it and swung me around in the air until she cuddled me in her arms like she always did. She smiled at me and kissed my cheek gently before setting me on the counter and looking me in the eye. I giggled.

"Where is that cookie, missy?" she asked playfully.

"I eated it," I boasted, puffing my chest out proudly.

"You ate it, sweetie?" she asked again.

I nodded cheerfully. Without warning she began tickling me, and I shrieked with laughter. We were a happy family. Even though I didn't have a daddy, I had a mommy who loved me very much and a very special uncle who also loved me very much. That's what my mommy told me every night before we went to bed. That she loved me, that Uncle Jasper loved me, and that Grandpa Charlie loved me.

"You bet we did," I replied brightly. "Edward here is like a god at Guitar Hero."

Edward laughed. "I wouldn't say that," he said modestly.

"Dude, you totally rocked," I told him, like he was trying to lie to my mom. "You were awesome. Mom, if you ever played, he would beat your butt."

"That's great, Riley," Mom told me with an absent-minded kind of voice. "Go clean up. You know I don't like you eating without washing your hands. Off you go." When I hesitated, she rolled her eyes with a smile. "Come on, honey. Edward isn't going to disappear out of thin air, I promise. Now go get washed up."

Reluctantly, I obeyed. My mom normally didn't remind me to wash my hands, but I figured since Edward was here, everything was going to be completely out of whack. Considering, as my mom's brain had seemed to completely fry in the past hour. I smiled brightly nonetheless as I scrubbed my hands with soap. When I came back out to the kitchen, Mom and Edward were already seated at the table. It looked like they had been waiting for me.

I rushed and sat down by my mother, and looked at the pair of them.

"Dig in," my mother announced, and I didn't need a second reminder. I took a forkful and shoved it in my mouth. I loved Mom's cooking, especially whenever it was pasta. Spaghetti wasn't my favorite dish, but it certainly was on the top ten of my list.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Edward eat a few bites and gaze at my mother intently as if he were seeing a new woman. I smirked to myself and hid it by stuffing some more spaghetti in my mouth. This was really awkward, and the silence stretched on for a few moments until Edward finally cleared his throat and both my mother and I looked at him at the same time.

"This is very good. Where did you learn to cook like this?" he asked.

I glanced at my mom. She blushed slightly as she chewed on her bite and swallowed. "I've always cooked like this. Most of my recipes are from my grandmother. But taking care of Riley… having a child tends to hone your cooking skills a bit," she answered. "I'm not naturally this good."

I rolled my eyes. My mother could underestimate herself sometimes. It wasn't irritating, but I sometimes wished that she wouldn't think of herself in such a negative light. I loved her too much to see her suffer like that. She suffered enough from rotten males, and had taken too much of their crap to take her own too. That was why I didn't complain to her so much. I knew that she'd gone through a lot, and I'd gone through it with her. After everything we had been through, I just wanted to see her happy. "She's lying," I told Edward with a small smile. "She's always been this good."

"Riley…" Mom looked at me like she was going to contradict me and I looked right back.

Edward chuckled. "Well, I think this is delicious," he complimented again. "Alice couldn't cook like this, even if she tried."

My mother laughed to that. I loved it when she laughed – it made her seem like a younger, carefree person that I'm sure that she once was. "Don't say that in front of her," she warned him. "She'll rip you a new mouth with a carving knife."

Edward and I both laughed, because we knew it was true. Aunt Alice definitely wasn't the type to take that kind of comparison nicely; since it would be coming from her older brother, it wouldn't have gone over well anyway. I loved my Aunt Alice to death of course, but I did value my life in a way that restrained me from saying stuff like that to her face.

"So, Edward…" By the look on my mom's face, she really wanted to start a conversation. That confused me. Normally, she was quite comfortable with silence at the dinner table. "What was California like?"

Edward poked at his food thoughtfully for a moment with his fork. "Well, it was warm every day. It hardly ever rained… and there were plenty of rich people. In a single day, I swear that you would meet people from at least six different countries that spoke dozens of languages. It was bizarre, like being in an international airport every day of your life. It wasn't bad of course, but here at least I have family," he said.

I painted the picture in my head as he explained it. I'd never been anywhere out of Chicago except for in Forks with my Grandpa Charlie. Mom never had time (or the money for that manner), to take me to California. The picture was beautiful, and I wished that I could go there.

That expression must have shown on my face, because Edward said,

"I'd be honored to take you there one day, Riley. I think you would love their theater department," he remarked with a kind smile.

I laughed. "Only because Hollywood and all those famous actors are there," I giggled. But I looked to my mother with excitement on my face. "Mom, do you think I could go there sometime?"

My mother observed me for a few seconds before answering that question. "Maybe," was the answer I got. "If Edward can put up with you for that long." She didn't need to say the rest out loud – she didn't trust him yet. With our past, I could find that easy to believe that she was having trouble imagining me being off by myself with someone like Edward. But my instincts told me that she would learn to trust him, and they'd be working closely for the next few months and I was sure that somehow they'd become close.

I could only fantasize about how close.

The rest was up to them, of course. Like yesterday, when I'd noticed something spark between the two of them, I couldn't help but be hopeful. My mother needed someone she could depend on that wasn't half her age. I needed a father, if I was being honest with myself. I wonder if Mom was having any of those kind of thoughts about Edward yet. Of course, I wasn't sure if Edward was going to be that special father, but I hoped that whoever it was going to be, my mother would find him soon.

We both needed a man to take care of us.

"I'm sure I'll manage to cope," Edward chuckled in response to that, winking across the table at me. I winked back with a grin on my face.

"Now Riley." He turned the subject to more serious matter. "Do you think you'll be able to handle the role of Anastasia? There's going to be a lot of work and effort that you're going to need to put into it. I want the best damn show I can possibly have."

I frowned. "I can do it," I said plainly. "My Aunt Alice helped me this far, and she can help me make your show the best damn show you can possibly have."

Edward smiled and nodded, pleased with my answer. "That's all I needed to hear. Now, Isabella…"

"Bella," my mother corrected him. "Just Bella. I can't stand it when someone calls me Isabella."

And I knew exactly why.

"Isabella!" came the voice of Jacob as he prowled around the house. I was pretty sure that he had some kind of weapon with him, but I wasn't sure what. I just hoped it wasn't a gun.

Mom and I were crouched in her own apartment closet, clothes around us to shield our bodies in case Jacob decided to search here. We weren't stupid, and we knew he was angry. Probably lost at gambling again with his buddies Quil and Sam. They always went to a casino on Sundays (ironically), and Jacob almost always came back empty-handed… with anger management issues that scared my mother and me silly.

"Isabella! Riley!" Jacob called again, throwing my name into the mix. In response, my mother crushed me tighter against her chest, kissing my hair lightly as I whimpered quietly. I was scared of Jacob now – even though I was ten and probably should have been a brave girl. I wanted to be like someone brave in the books I read or the movies I watched. But fear froze everything.

"Come out, you two," Jacob growled, his patience dissipating quickly.

My mother refused to move, and we both stopped breathing as the closet door opened. The clothes hanging around us restricted our sight, but we could see Jacob's tennis shoes practically touching my bare foot. He didn't seem to notice and slammed the closet door on us.

"I know you're in here somewhere," Jacob snapped under his breath. "So help me G-d, I'll find you, damn it."

Those words still haunted me to this day, even if their owner was long gone.

"Alright." Edward didn't sound confused in the least, and just continued. "Now, I know we already have your daughter on contract, but are you personally going to be able to handle her doing this?"

I saw my mother nod, and smile slightly. "I sort of knew this day would come, actually," she confessed with a proud glance in my direction. I grinned back smugly. "I always knew Riley was going to amount to something great. I guess I just never knew she'd be a star in theater. I'll have to deal with it now or never deal with it ever. I take the first option."

Edward smiled as he finished the last of his spaghetti. "Do you have any more of this?" he asked politely, gesturing to his plate. "This is quite delicious, and I'd like to have some more before I go."

"Riley, could you get him some more, please?" Mom asked.

I nodded – what else could I do? I got up from my place, took his plate, and took it to the pasta pan on the stove. As I shoveled some onto his plate, I heard my mother ask,

"So are you glad to be back in Chicago?"

I turned around and went to deliver his plate back. My mother had turned her head away to take another bite of her spaghetti, so I was the only one who saw Edward stare at her intently as he contemplated his answer. "Yes," was what he said softly, his green eyes on my mother as she looked back at him. I put his plate down in front of him and tried to hide my expression. I wasn't sure what I looked like right now.

Edward thanked me as I sat back down and began eating his food again. I glanced at Mom, and she hadn't noticed anything. That was a complete relief on its own. But the way he looked at me… I knew he knew that I had noticed him looking at her like that. But I didn't comment as I sat down back at my plate and finished off my spaghetti. I wasn't hungry anymore. So I just sat there and fiddled with my fork. Typically, I'd tell my mother that I was done and rush off to play Wii or read a book. Tonight, however, I was interested in finding out what else was going to happen in between them.

"But why did you come back?" Mom asked now, curious. She leaned in towards him slightly.

Edward didn't notice this and shoveled a mouthful of spaghetti into his mouth. He thought about it as he chewed and swallowed. "I'm not really sure," he confessed when his mouth was empty. "I missed Alice and Emmett like crazy, and every time Alice and I were on the phone she'd gush about you and your daughter. Curiosity got the best of me – that's another way to put it."

My mom looked shocked by his answer. "You came back because of Riley and I?"

"Er… not exactly," Edward replied. He looked uncomfortable with this subject, though I didn't necessarily know why. "But you would want to come see a beautiful woman and her genius child too if your little sister talked about them constantly. Wouldn't you?"

Suddenly, Mom looked uneasy. She squirmed in her seat. I noticed that only half of her food was gone, while Edward and I were completely done. "Oh," she said quietly.

Edward stood. "Well, that was a very appealing dinner, Bella," he said with a reassuring smile. "And that was fun, Riley. We'll have to rock out again some time. I must go now – I'm quite sure Alice is having some sort of fit by now. Thank you for inviting me tonight."

Mom rushed to her feet and nearly tripped herself in the process. She told me that once when she was a teenager, she was exceedingly clumsy. It was a trait that I hadn't inherited. "Oh, well, I'm glad you came Edward. I'll, um, get your coat." She stumbled off, tripping over herself on the way to the closet as I walked Edward out into the hallway. This was fun tonight – I had to agree with him.

"You should come over again sometime," I told him confidently. "When we meet again, I'll be a master and you won't stand a chance."

Edward winked. "We'll see about that," he taunted as my mother returned.

Mom handed him his coat and smiled slightly. Only I could notice that it was her nervous smile – the kind she wore whenever she didn't know what else to say or do. "Here's your coat, Edward," she told him. "Thank you for bringing my notes to me, and it was great having you over."

Edward dipped his head and opened the door for himself and stepped outside. A gust of chilly night air blew in and I shivered, holding my arms as if to protect myself from the icy blast. "I'll see you both tomorrow. Good night." He shut the door behind himself and was gone. Mom and I both stood by the door, waiting for a moment until we heard the purr of his Volvo and listened to it fade into the distance.

"Well, that was eventful," I chirped as I skipped into the living room with my mother following me. "When are we going to have him over again, Mom?"

My mother just shook her head, sank onto the couch, and buried her face in her hands. "Riley, honey, we're not going to have him over again. That was too much," she told me softly, as if she were confessing a deep, dark secret. I stared at her in shock.

"But… but Mom…."

"No, Riley," she said, with more determination behind her words this time. "I jumped into that too quickly. You know how I do that. That's how I ended up with Jacob and Laurent, honey. You know that's exactly how it happened. I am not going to do that again. I will never do that again. Not to you and not to myself."

I had been taking care of the T.V, and paused. I looked at my mother, who was sitting with her head in her hands and was practically falling apart. I went to her and sat down next to her, wrapping my arms around her frame like a clingy child.

"Mom, you know we're going to be okay," I murmured. "No more Jacob and Laurent. Jacob moved far away with that Leah chick and Laurent's in jail for another five years for…" I couldn't bring myself to say what he had done. The bottom half of my body practically throbbed in pain at the thought of it. "Look, the point is that we're both still here. Edward Cullen isn't going to change that. No matter how you feel about him."

"But that's the problem, honey," Mom replied quietly, kissing the side of my head affectionately. "I don't think I like Edward in that way. I've only known him for a day – how could I?"

"When it's meant to be, that's the way it is," I reminded her.

My mother just laughed. "I suppose either Alice or Jasper told you that. Or maybe even Rosalie. Riley, honey, we're not like them. Everyone is different, and so are relationships. I'm not implying Edward and I do or ever will have a relationship, but you know what I'm saying. For instance, that Seth Clearwater boy today at auditions…"

"Don't change the subject, Mom," I cut her off rather fiercely, not wanting to discuss Seth with my mother right now. That was a bit of an awkward subject. "But will you even consider the possibility?"

"No." That was the final, throat-slitting answer. My mother fixed me in a stern look. "Riley, I know you want me to be happy, but you can't merely throw me at Edward. He's going to be my brother-in-law, for goodness sakes! Don't you realize how wrong that sounds?"

"Mom, that's like saying it's wrong to love me because I'm your daughter," I pointed out.

Mother glared at me. "That's completely besides the point, and no, it is not like saying that. Riley, please. Let's just not talk about this, alright? I've made myself clear, and I don't want to do so again. Get upstairs, get ready for bed, and get to sleep. If you have any nightmares, the door to my room is always unlocked." She turned away from me, out of my arms, and flicked on the T.V. I glared at her pointedly for a second before getting up and heading to the stairs.

"This isn't over," I muttered to myself as I marched right up the stairs into my bedroom. At least, I most certainly hoped that this wasn't over. I was going to make my mother happy either way, whether it was going to be with Edward or not. I was going to do this – for both of us.

EOC: Whew! I think it's been a while since I updated, but I can't remember. Anyways, I'm thinking about starting a third FanFic off to the side, about my version of post BD events. What do you guys think? The poll is up on my profile for any of you who are interested in that. Also, Twilight the DVD is coming out on March 21st, and I am so reserving my copy of the three-disc special edition (ten COMPLETE deleted scenes and movie commentary from Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart *dies*, and the entire ComiCon without crappy filming and screaming fan girls in every clip). Anyway, out of the newsflash. Thanks, all you guys, for reading, and please review. More reviews, and more chapters are going to start going up quicker. XD From now on, I'll try to respond to all reviews. Until I update next, my friends… – Dark and Wild