Hey guys! I'm so sorry about the lateness! I've just taken on a second job so I'm still getting used to my schedule and whatnot... anyhow here is Chapter 3! It's a little short but I have another on in me that I can get out in the next couple of days so it'll be a 2-bie this week! Hooray!

Thanks so much for all your support! Keep reading and reviewing, I love you all!

And please please keep reading Stripped by punkfarie, because its awesome!

Sunlight poured in through the window and I groaned, turning over and pulling the blanket over my head. Still groggy, I struggled to remember why my extra pillow was missing, as it would have served well blocking out the noise from downstairs. Slowly, the events of the previous day flitted back into my consciousness and I shot out of bed, whirling around only to find that Bella was missing from my couch. "Fuck!" I cursed, shooting a glance at my clock as I sped downstairs. It was nearly ten, and she'd been awake for god only knows how long. Where was she? Was she afraid? Was she hungry? A myriad of other questions flowed uneasily through my mind before I collided with something that made a gruff grunting noise and held me by the shoulders. "Carlisle..." I rasped out, trying to find the right excuse to give him if Bella was missing but he was just smiling at me knowingly. I sighed with relief, and felt a chill on my still-bare chest.

"She woke up at six. I was in my office and she found me. We had some lessons and now she's with Emmett watching TV," he explained and I nodded, sighing again, letting warm relief spread throughout my entire body. She was okay.

"Edward! You'll catch a death, go get dressed!" Esme chided, ushering me back towards the staircase.

"But-"

"Bella is fine," she insisted. "Alice and I are making everyone breakfast. It'll be ready in five."

I begrudgingly went back to my room and threw on whatever I could find before rushing back down only to have Carlisle stop me again.

"Sit," he commanded, and I obeyed, taking a seat at the breakfast bar. "She's learning so fast," he whispered hurriedly. "I'm not sure if she's just imitating words she hears but we'll find out soon enough. She knows 'yes' as well now and she's learning to identify each of us by name but she doesn't speak them yet," he continued, his voice full of reverie. "'No' is her favourite, I suppose because she's heard it so much from us. But I dashed to the hospital to look at her blood work when Emmett woke up and she's perfectly healthy, Edward! She's just perfect. Nothing at all wrong with her, and we have no idea who she is or why she was in the forest..." he trailed off with a sigh and a shake of his head. "We need to find these things out before we do anything else, understand?" I nodded. "She stays with us and we assimilate her and teach her until she can perhaps explain something."

"What if she can't?" I asked, and Carlisle pinched the bridge of his nose, obviously knowing already that this was a huge possibility.

"I don't know," he admitted, and we both looked over to the living room. For the first time that day, I saw her. She was curled up to Emmett, her small frame tucked nicely against his large one. "I don't understand why she changed her opinion of him so quickly," he chuckled, "but Emmett is rather enjoying her company." I looked over at the television screen and rolled my eyes. They were watching The Fifth Element, and Emmett was talking away, probably explaining why he wanted to call her Leeloo.

"Can I...?" I asked, gesturing towards them. Carlisle wordlessly stepped back and I hopped down from my stool and made my way over. Bella's hair was all I could really see of her besides her little hands, in which she clutched several pieces of paper. She held one out to Emmett; I couldn't see what was on it. He sighed and shook his head.

"No," he told her and she huffed, tapping the paper impatiently. "Not here," he told her, making some ridiculous gesture with his hands that no person could ever interpret as 'not here'. I heard Carlisle chuckle softly from close behind me. She pointed at the screen as there was a close-up of Leeloo and made an attempt to talk, but it was wordless garble. It was adorable. "Yeah, that's Leeloo!" Emmett praised, ruffling her hair like she was a baby or something. "She's like Bella. Bella and Leeloo are the same!"

"Don't tell her that," I said, frowning at Emmett's head. They both turned around and I didn't get time to register Emmett's reaction properly because Bella's face did the puppy at Christmas-time thing again and she squeaked happily, shoving the crumpled piece of paper in Emmett's face. It was a photo of me.

"Yeah, it's Edward," he replied with a roll of his eyes. "She's been asking for you all morning." But Bella was already flying into my chest, her arms wrapping around my waist, the photos forgotten. I held her to me – one hand on her waist, the other in her hair – and laughed softly as she squeezed me a little too enthusiastically.

"Okay, ouch..." I pushed her away gently and she beamed up at me, rushing to gather her photos and showing me the crumpled one. "Edward," I pointed at the photo. "Edward," I repeated, pointing at myself. She showed me Carlisle's photo and pointed at him. "Yes – it's Carlisle." Emmett was next. "Yes – it's Emmett." She pointed at Leeloo on the TV screen then at herself. Emmett roared with laughter and I scowled at him. "No," I told her. "Leeloo is not Bella and Bella is not Leeloo." Before I could explain more, we were called to breakfast.

***

"Bella would you like some eggs?" Carlisle asked, all of us seated at the table – Bella with her knees pulled up as usual.

"No!" she replied happily. Carlisle pulled her plate away. "No!" she protested, reaching for the plate.

"Would you like some eggs?" he repeated slowly. Bella considered him for a moment, her eyes darting between the plate of eggs and his eyes. She was looking a little mutinous for a second, probably thinking about snatching the eggs and scarfing them down before Carlisle could do anything. I'd be the same if someone were trying to take away my breakfast.

"Yes!" she replied this time, in the same tone her first 'no' had been. Carlisle slid the plate forward as Bella murmured "Yes, no, yes, no," her face smiling with every 'yes' and frowning with every 'no'. Esme smiled fondly at her.

"She's so cute!" Alice cried, forgetting her own breakfast as Bella continued her little murmurs.

"She's awesome," Emmett agreed, his mouth full of food. "I just want to hug her all the time!"

Bella tried to dig into her omelette with her hands but Carlisle stopped her, pulling the plate away again. "Bella..." he warned when she growled at him.

"No," she muttered, clearly not happy with the food-stealing situation.

"Show her how you do it, Edward," he instructed and I tapped Bella on the shoulder.

"Like this, see?" I held up my fork for her to see, dipped it into my omelette and ate off it. Hesitantly, she held her fork the wrong way as Carlisle replaced her plate. I positioned her hand properly, dipped, and then moved it up to her mouth. She greedily accepted the food, but bit down on the fork. I tried to gently remove it and she seemed to understand because she let me. Then I moved my hand from hers. "Bella's turn," I announced, nodding encouragingly when she looked confused. "Go on..." She was still shaky with her fork by the end of the meal, but it was progress so no one really cared how long it took her to eat.

***

The rest of the day proved that Bella was simply an eating and hugging machine. Carlisle and Esme both had to work late so lunch was simple. She really loved the sandwiches we had, probably because she could eat with her hands. She had four PB&J sandwiches, and then proceeded to eat peanut butter out of the jar with me while we watched TV. By the end of the jar, she was a pro with the spoon. Her reward was gummi bears.

Bath-time was different. She was actually afraid of the bubble-bath that Rosalie drew for her, and screamed like a maniac when being encouraged to step in. We all gathered in the bathroom again and argued while Bella stood there in a robe shivering with cold. I argued that we should just turn on the goddamn shower and forget the bath – Jasper and Alice agreed with me. But the others thought that there was no better time to get her over her fears than right now, while she was still learning things. "Besides," Emmett argued. "I know she's gonna love the bubbles once she's in there."

"She's been learning well by example...?" Rosalie suggested, looking at Alice.

"Why are you looking at me? I'm not the one who wants her in the bath!" she squawked, backing up as though Rosalie were about to tackle her, strip her down and throw her in the bath.

"Well I'm not doing it! She kinda creeps me out."

"Babe, she's harmless!"

"She's already staring at me!"

"Christ!" I interrupted. "Everybody out, I'm doing it." Every set of eyes was on me and there were three jaws on the floor. "Seriously, I just want to prove that she's going to be scared either way and this seems to be the quickest way of getting her in the fucking shower so everyone out unless you all want to see my dick." Without further warning, I took off my shirt and the others scurried out, closing the door behind them. "Okay Bella, turn around," I said softly, making a turning motion with my hand. She did an adorable little twirl and giggled. I sighed and physically turned her until she faced the wall. "Stay." She huffed a little but we both knew she understood that word so she didn't move at all. I stripped down and headed over to the bath, tentatively stepping in before realising that she'd need to watch in order to really get it. "Fuck," I breathed, before saying her name. She turned around and was confused to see me standing there covering my dick with my hands. She aped the position, standing opposite me with her hands covering between her legs even though she had a robe on. "Uh, Bella you've gotta... the robe has to... you need to take..." I sighed, resigning myself to the fact that she'd have to see me completely naked in order for this to work. Why did I put myself in this position? With a deep breath, I uncovered myself and pretended not to feel her curious eyes on me as I headed over and disrobed her. "Okay, like this," I said, showing her how to get into the bath. She watched carefully as I lifted one leg in, then the other. I halted there, even though I just wanted to lower myself the fuck into the water fully so she couldn't see me, but I had to be ready to help her in properly. Instead of following, she pointed at my dick, then at her...dear god... "Yes, it's different," I mumbled hurriedly. "Come on..." she pointed at my chest, then at her breasts. "Different," I repeated. "Come on, Bella," I urged. She frowned but followed, using my hands as support to lift herself into the bath.

When we were both sitting, she discovered the joys of bubbles and I was once again awed by how amazing everything was through her eyes. The hot and cold taps for the bath were amazing, the bubbles were amazing, the way my hair flattened when it was wet was amazing, when the bubbles were gone the water was amazing, my dick was amazing – she even tried to poke it and was met with a firm 'no'. If she could ask why it was different, I bet she would have. She also learned that hugging while naked was a big fat 'no' as well.

***

Bed time came with haste and we were both sleepy having consumed massive amounts of pizza, ice-cream and more gummi bears. We were sloshy, slovenly and perfectly content to retire to my bedroom, where she fell asleep as I read her more fairytales.

In the morning, I woke to find a rather happy face right in front of mine. I don't know how long she'd been sitting beside my bed grinning, but I didn't really care because she was happy to do it. When she saw I was awake, she giggled with all her bubbles and chimes and shoved my photo in my face like she always did when I came back to her from going somewhere. "Morning, Bella," I laughed, lifting her off the ground and into my bed. She snuggled up to me, making her little gurgling noise that meant she was happy, and we read some more. She fell asleep on my chest, snoring softly and I placed the book down on at my other side. She looked as innocent as ever in sleep, her little lips slightly puffed out into a pout, her head bobbing up and down as I breathed, her wild hair seemingly tame as it fanned out around her. Carlisle had found nothing more in the other tests he'd done – she was officially perfectly healthy – she just had some learning to do. I couldn't help but wonder, as I stared down at her, why she'd been thrust into our lives like this. What was she here to teach us? I'm not a religious guy, but I do believe things happen for a reason. What would her presence mean to us? There was still so much left unanswered.