Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight; it is the property of Stephenie Meyer. The original characters and plot are mine. I am in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

Thanks to my lovely Beta Biddy429 !!!

Chapter 13

The Accident

Sometime during my breakdown I had fallen asleep and Charlie had carried me to my bed. I woke early the next morning, fully clothed. Charlie must have removed my shoes but I felt quite grubby having slept in my clothes all night. I lay there for a while thinking of everything that had happened recently. Going to high school, making friends and drawing again. All of it was so much more than I had done in the past few years. It was new and old, comforting and yet disconcerting but somehow it also felt wrong. For some strange reason I got it into my head that if I moved forward and forgot the past as I had been trying to do since the night I had called Charlie, I would lose. I mused, Phil was still my father and even while I hated him I loved him too. There was so much of my life that I had nearly lost because of what had happened and so much I was not going to let myself lose for the same reason.

"I will not forget, not that I could have, but I will remember them, and him. I will live for them and think of them and hold them in my heart always." I vowed to my empty bedroom. An ache that had become a part of me faded and I knew that this was the right choice and that I had been in pain for so long and so blind that night. I managed to stand up and walked to my window, strangely enough without hurting myself or causing myself any discomfort whatsoever. I opened my window and sat on the ledge and felt the stillness of the early morning and was at peace.

I leaned my head against the cool window frame and thought of my childhood and the things and people I missed. Tears ran down my cheeks but I made no move to rid myself of them. They were gone but I was still alive I would live on for them. Clara would have loved Alice and Jasper. Edward, well she would have pushed him towards me. She always knew who I liked even when it was inconvenient and embarrassing. At times she knew me better than I knew myself! I did miss that!

As I thought of her, I made her a promise "I'll find out Clara, I'll ask him all those silly things you would have asked him. Maybe just maybe I'll tell him" I whispered to her and could almost see her giggle at me. "I wonder what Edward would have made of you" I smiled at that knowing everyone loved Clara, it was her innocence and understanding that brought out the truth in the people around her. Finally I moved back to bed to sleep the two hours before I had to ready myself for school.

I dreamt of my angel and this time and for the first time in ages I didn't wake with unbearable sadness.

I had watched her play with those I had newly met and I longed for her but with a smile.

Charlie hugged before leaving for work saying that this weekend he had a surprise for me. I wanted to frown at him and tell him no, but he had a grin on his face that told me this surprise had taken a bit of planning and that I wasn't going to get out of it. Not that I wanted too, the weekends were long and maybe this would pass the time better.

Looking at the calendar I noted that it was April 23rd, time sure goes slowly. I had only been here for a little over a month and it already felt like half a year. It was nowhere near as painful any more to get dressed, I could do all those things without any help now so I pulled on one of my loose comfy skirts in black and noticed my 'I really dig vampires' shirt and decided for some reason that I absolutely had to wear that shirt today and paired it with a long sleeved grey shirt underneath. I probably looked 12 but I really didn't care.

Realising It might be cold I carefully pulled on a pair of light grey stockings. With a quick look in the mirror I shrugged and headed downstairs and had a bowl of coco puffs. As I ate all I could think of was count Chocula in those stupid commercials it had me grinning to myself for a few minutes before I put my UGGs on and my coat and headed for school. It was cold out and I noticed the slick icy roads and was not happy. Nia and I would have fun driving to school today.

I was still ten minutes early when I arrived even with my really slow pace. I hung out by my car not really wanting to go into English too early. I listened to my IPod and leaned against my car while I waited for the time to pass, my mind still on count Chocula and last nights revelations. Nearly everyone was at school as I turned off the music and put my IPod in my bag.

I looked up and noticed Edward staring at me, his face a mask of horror as his eyes flicked away from me. Turning I saw a battered black van sliding towards me fast. There was no time to move and I braced myself and shut my eyes. Something slammed into me but not at all from the angle I expected. I put my arms out to brace myself but before I knew it I was somehow pushed to the ground, my arms now flailing in the air and my body hit something hard. All I remember thinking was that it should have hurt but somehow it didn't hurt at all and I seen a hand reach out and hold the van back from me, wait, how could that be. I was then moved out of the way but someone and it was then that my eyes met with my saviour.

I stared at my saviour and realised just who he was, my saviour was Edward Cullen! He had simply pushed the car back from me, his hand making an indent in the metal. He looked down at me with deep concern in his eyes. Although it all happened so quickly I still managed to marvel at how he had managed to get to me so quickly and save my life in such a short space of time. Then I was aware of his cold but strong arms around me and because of my stupid thoughts of Count Chocula this morning all I could think of was that maybe Edward was a vampire!!!

"You! You just saved my life!" I said not knowing what to do in this strange situation. "How did you do that?" I asked confused and with the adrenaline still coursing through my body. "That was amazing..." I ramble and he chuckled as he moved as far from me as he could in the tight space.

"Are you alright?" he asked his voice clipped and almost angry. I nodded mutely trying to understand why he was angry.

"I...I'm fine." I finally answered as a thought struck me. "I won't say anything" I told him and this only made him stare at me, "I promise." I told him as he stared at me again. It was an unnerving look that was almost hostile and I hoped it was not completely directed at me.

"Say anything about what Bella?" he asked his voice so formulated for me to think him unaware of exactly what I meant.

"You were nowhere near me Edward and you managed to stop the van from hurting me" I said pointing lamely at the van. Turning my head I noticed that Nia was not in a drivable condition. "Crap, Nia!" I said without thinking about it and Edward looked at me oddly then.

"I think you hit your head Bella" He said and I rolled my eyes at him and reached over to pet my car. "I was standing next to you Bella" He said though it really just sounded desperate to me and I knew I was reading something that was in his voice but in my own knowledge.

"My head didn't even touch the ground Edward but nice try, Nia is my car and she has died so please pay her some consideration Edward, or would you not mourn your car's departure" I said bitingly. I had told him I wouldn't say anything but he was still defensive. I would prove that I wasn't going to tell on him anyway.

After a second or two I realised that people were calling my name so I called back to them. They were trying to get us out since the cars had formed a little mound on top of us. I was considering just asking Edward to push the cars back when they broke through and quickly got us out from our steel cocoon.

There were cheers when I stumbled out, obviously none the worse for wear and I glared at Edward daring him to say I hit my head again. Thankfully he kept it to himself but I still had to go to the hospital to check that my ribs were still okay. I didn't bother to argue when the EMT's, and complied with their requests to get into the ambulance. When Charlie arrived on the scheme he too climbed into the ambulance. I cringed when he started bothering the EMT that was helping Tyler so after a few seconds I managed to calm him down and persuaded him to drive his cruiser to the hospital.

Once we were safely ensconced in the ER and Charlie was back at my side he spoke to me with relief in his voice "I am so glad that you're okay Bells" I rolled my eyes because as far as I'm concerned, with Edward's help, I was in no danger today. Carlisle came into the ER just then with Edward at his side, Charlie got up to shake his hand in welcome, "Carlisle" Both of them eyed my shirt, I blushed and wrapped my arms over the design which only seemed to make Edward very uncomfortable.

"Bella your x-rays came back fine so there's no reason for you to stay. You are really lucky that you only sustained minor bruising on your forearms" Carlisle said as he checked my bruises and finally smiled down at me though it was less open then before.

"Yeah it was really lucky that Edward was standing next to me, he totally saved us" I said smiling at Edward who still looked a bit off. Carlisle quickly turned his attention to the sedated Tyler next to me.

"I should get you home Bells, let you rest and all after your run in with near death" Charlie said laughingly.

"Nia is gone huh?" I asked and sighed and pretended to cry as I giggled. "What a world!?" I gasped and finally fell into full laughter. Charlie rolled his eyes but chuckled with me.

"It's a good thing we insured the crap out of that car" He commented as we walked slowly out of the hospital. Nearly everyone had come to see if I was okay, most likely taking advantage of the chance to skip school. I smiled and waved to Erik, Angela and Ben.

"We're so glad that you're okay!" Angela said hugging me lightly as she spoke the boys nodded then hugged me before we parted. They were going back to school but I was going home to rest it appeared, or so Charlie thought! Charlie dropped me off at home and I went indoors and did the laundry and cleaned the house a bit until he finally came home and then we lazed about and watched random movies making comments like 'wow some boobs' and 'ab shot.' It was fun.

When I finally went to bed I thought about Edward and wondered if my first thoughts were right. Was he a vampire? If he was then his whole family was, and then there were so many things that didn't make sense. Like out during the day, Carlisle being a doctor, and stuff. I let my thoughts drift to radioactive spiders, superhero stuff, Fey and mutants.

I dreamed of Edward that night, every so often he would change into something else mythical but most of the time he was a vampire. Even as a vampire I felt a pull to him and in the end he either bit me and we turned into bats and flew off into the night together or he changed into a prince and we lived happily ever after.