Thanks to everyone that added my story to their Favorite list. I was doing the Alice dance! (Dancing from foot to foot, clapping and saying YAY!). I have uploaded more chapters and I hope you like em'!

Of course Stephanie owns Twilight! I am just dipping my spoon in her teacup!

Bella

We walked across the courtyard, perpendicular to Edward's original path. He reached over and put his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to his side. My heart leapt at his touch and I knew he could hear it, though he did not say anything. I wrapped my arm around his waist and leaned into him as we walked. I was practically bursting with emotion. Hope that I might actually get what I wanted-Edward back in my life. Trepidation because I was not sure how he would react to my story. Edward had always been prone to overreaction and I was not sure what the outcome of this discussion would be. Terror that maybe he might decide once and for all that he did not want to be with me. I still didn't know what the reasons that Alice had mentioned were. Joy that for now, even if it did not last, that I was with him again.

My hotel was only a few blocks from the courtyard. The hotel was small, only four stories and was rather old, though I thought it had character. It was a warm limestone color and had a large maroon awning over the door. We walked through the lobby and past the desk clerk to the stairs. There was no elevator. I led him up to the second floor.

We walked to the end of the hall where my room was and I fished the key out of the pocket of the dress I was wearing. Even though I had cursed Alice for buying and packing it for me, seeing the way Edward's eyes seemed to glow when he looked at me made the torture of wearing it bearable. Not that I had much choice in wardrobe. Alice had somehow managed to take all my clothes out of my suitcase before we left Forks and substitute what she thought was appropriate attire. The only thing in my bags that I recognized was my bag of toiletries. She had even bought me new underwear, something that had made me blush crimson when I had realized it. Everything she packed was so girly and frilly it had been difficult to find anything that was not scary-looking. My lovely sister and I were going to have a long talk.

He followed me inside and I could saw him looking over the room, disapproval marring his smooth brow. I liked it though. The walls were painted a soothing caramel color and the bed was ivory. The dresser and the nightstand were in a dark wood that I did not recognize. The whole room felt comfortable, lived in. There was a largish ivory armchair with an ottoman and a small desk with a wooden chair. A television too but it looked as old as Charlie and I had been afraid to turn it on. The room was clean and the people here were very nice, deciphering my rudimentary Spanish and my hand signals when I needed to communicate with them.

Well, I thought wryly, it's not the Ritz-Carlton but I didn't need a fancy hotel room. Alice had bought me my plane ticket and had given me cash and a rather scary looking black credit card to take care of expenses but that didn't mean that I had to waste money on unnecessary things. I had promised to pay her back, though I was sure that would take a decade, but she had cut off my protests.

"If you bring Edward back," she had said, "then you can call us even." I had mentally scoffed at that. Bringing Edward back had seemed so impossible then. Of course it was only slightly less impossible now. I still had no idea what he really thought about me being here.

I pulled him over to the armchair and pushed him into it. I wasn't ready to sit beside him on the bed yet. It brought back too many memories of all the nights he had laid next to me and sung me to sleep. The chair seemed a safer place to me at the moment. I was not ready to break contact with him though. He sat down and put his feet on the ottoman. I climbed up onto his lap. I leaned into the arm of the chair and hung my legs over the opposite side. He wrapped his cold hard arm around my back and rested his hand on my waist. Then he laid his other hand casually on my leg. His skin was just as cool as I remembered and my skin tingled where he had placed it on my knee. My heart beat faster at his touch. I took a deep breath to calm down and laid my head on his shoulder.

We sat there for a moment but Edward's curiosity could not be contained for long.

"So, are you going to tell me the story now?" I heard curiosity warring with impatience in his voice.

"I am not sure where exactly to begin," I said, biting my lip.

"Well, maybe start with what made you decide to come find me in the first place."

Of course that would make sense, if I wasn't terrified of his reaction.

"Well, just please don't freak out, okay?" I said hopefully.

I felt him tense instantly.

"Why would I "freak out?" T

There was suspicion in his voice.

"You have been known to in the past and I don't want it to happen now. There are parts of the story that you may not like and I am worried about your reaction. Just try and listen in an objective way, alright?" Even as I said it I knew it was impossible but I had to try.

"I will do my best." His body relaxed but it seemed a deliberate action. Not real relaxation but the appearance of it.

"Well, I had thought about coming to find you anyway, but I guess the accident is what finally decided it for me." I felt him go perfectly still beneath me. Not a good sign.

"Accident?" he said, his voice flat. "What happened?"

"About two months ago, I was in a car accident." I tried to say it as matter-of-fact as possible but I was still tense about his reaction.

"How bad was it?" His voice was strained now.

"Pretty bad."

I heard his sharp intake of breath. He knew my habit of downplaying everything. He knew that if I said it was bad it had to be really bad.

"Tell me exactly what happened." I could not even hear the sound of his breath now he was so still.

"Alright," I took a deep breath and plunged on. "Well, I was driving Angela's car because my truck was in the shop being repaired." I waited half a beat for him to say something disparaging about my truck, but he was silent. "I was going through a green light when a log truck ran the red and hit me on the passenger side. Which was a very good bit of luck they tell me." I would have been killed if it had hit me on the driver's side.

"And how badly were you hurt?" I had known he would ask that one, though it was the one question I really did not want to answer.

"I came out pretty well all things considered." I stopped, hoping that would be enough but knowing of course it was not.

"Bella, tell me exactly what your injuries were." His voice was firm and brooked no argument.

"The usual compliment of bruises of course," I smiled ruefully. "I had some scratches from the glass and some pretty bad gashes on my arms and one on my head. They say I lost a lot of blood." I heard him gasp. Might as well get it over with. "I had four broken ribs and my lung collapsed where the log hit me in the side."

"Log? What log?" his velvet voice was soft.

"A log came loose from the load when the truck hit me. It came in through the passenger side window and hit me." I could still remember the pain of the impact. My ribs still twinged me sometimes.

Suddenly I was pulled up tightly to his chest. He wrapped his arms around me and buried his face in the crook of my neck. I could feel his cool breath on my collarbone as he whispered "Oh my God" over and over. I stroked his hair and crooned "its okay, I'm okay" until he raised his head and looked at me. His eyes were agonized. I put my hands on both sides of his face.

"No freaking out, remember? I'm perfectly fine now, okay?" He nodded then his eyes caught sight of the scars on my arms and he froze.

Gingerly, so gingerly I could barely feel his touch, he pulled my hands from his face and held out my arms for inspection. It had taken a lot of stitches for the nearly nine inch gashes and the skin, though healing and closed, was still pink and slightly indented. He took both my hands in one of his and softly traced the scars with his fingertip. I could not read the expression on his face.

"Hey," I said softly, "I'm okay, still here and whole."

He looked up at me and smiled sadly. "I can't stand the thought of you being in pain."

"Well, I was unconscious for most of it. I didn't really know the true extent of my injuries until I came out of the coma." I cringed when I heard him draw in another sharp breath. Damn, I thought. I meant to tell him about the coma more gently than that.

"Coma? You were in a coma?" The words sounded choked. "For how long?"

"Only three days. Not long at all." I echoed Alice's words. "I'm pretty sure it was Alice's voice that brought me out of it."

"Alice was there?" He sounded angry now. I was doing a terrible job telling this story. Everything was coming out wrong, coming out in a way guaranteed to send him into a full fledged freak out.

"Yes, she came when she "saw" me have the accident. She was worried because she could not see what the outcome was, what my condition was." I hoped that he would not be too angry at Alice; she had been my lifeline through all this.

I could see him considering everything I had told him and I stared down at his beautiful hands, still holding both of mine. "You said your accident was two months ago?" he sounded thoughtful.

"Yes, give or take a few days." I wasn't sure what the time frame meant to him but since he seemed a little calmer I wasn't going to push it.