…………………..
I pushed open her bedroom window, flinching at the sound of a loudly passing car in the distance. The very last thing either of us needed was for her to find me in this bedroom again, uninvited. I was back in her good graces, yes, but there was no need to test our newfound ease.
I inhaled deeply, smiling at the way her scent scalded my throat though I had been with her only hours ago. I had come to love the way I burned whenever I was with her. It was a blatant reminder of not only my limitations, but a subtle punishment to offset the ease of being with her. And it was exactly that:
Easy.
She made it that way. She never pried too hard or dug too deep, she pretended not to notice when I answered a question monosyllabically. She smiled easily and laughed often, touched me when she felt like it, blushed and looked away innocently when I touched her.
Too Easy.
I stood at her bedside, inhaling again, ignoring the urges that pulled at my insides as she rolled onto her back, throwing her arms above her head, murmuring the entire time. Her fingers fanned out on the pillow, her usually silken hair wild and unruly as it tangled all around her. She grumbled in irritation suddenly, pushing an errant lock from her face where is danced over her lips, her deep breaths causing the movement. I watched in a trance as she trailed a hand down her neck to the hollow of her throat; it came to rest somewhere over her heart. I swallowed thickly, silently reprimanding her with the words that might never have reason to leave my lips.
In her sleep she was her most sensual, and I wanted to be disgusted with myself for thinking of her that way, but I found justification in the fact that I would never act on the temptation. Yet now, with the melodies of her breathy half-words and the sight of her roaming hands, she did not look the part of the blushing virgin that I imagined her to be. She looked maddened… consumed… even slightly crazed.
And tt drove me mad, it consumed me, it made me slightly crazed.
I leaned forward to touch her lips, but immediately, I flung myself away, as if scalded by thin air. I forced my lusting hands into my pockets in the most schoolboyish manner. It was ridiculous really. A schoolboy was the farthest thing from what I was.
I pulled the blanket that had gathered around her knees up over her chest. I turned, ready to take my usual seat, but stopped myself. I grabbed the ends of the blanket, trying to ignore the way she writhed and sighed between the sheets, pulling them all the way to her chin. I took one last glace from such close proximity and forced myself backward to take the chair in the corner.
I pulled the worn journal from inside of my jacket, and began to write, the even rhythm of her breaths playing my inspiration song… The words flowed easily, the way they did every night…She was all the muse I would ever need.
. . .
"So where was home before here?" she asked, tossing a flat stone into the water, frowning slightly when it sank straight to the bottom of the ocean floor.
"Chicago, originally, depending on what you consider home," I answered, smiling at her smugly when my own rock skipped easily over the water's surface. I was glad that for once she seemed to be satisfied with simply sitting still at the beach, rather than tempting fate and her fragile relationship with balance.
I forced myself a few inches to the left, grimacing as I attempted to put more space between us. She was always so close, her teenage hormones always superseding her body's natural instinct for self-preservation. I was always the responsible one.
"Originally, huh?" she frowned, digging through the sand beside her, unconsciously shifting to her left as well, compensating for the distance I just placed between us, "What does that mean?"
I shrugged, picking up a jagged stone, out of her line of vision. I squeezed it tightly between my fingers and my palm, smoothing over the rough edges.
I handed it to her, "Try that one."
She took it greedily from my outstretched hand, marveling at its perfection, her warm fingers brushing against the iciness of mine without the slightest hesitation.
"It means," I said, stopping for a moment to gape at her as her tenth attempt with my perfect specimen of a rock fell short of the water's edge, "that the simple fact that I was born there, doesn't make it home. Are you trying to do so poorly?"
"No," she said, her words muffled as she continued to dig in the sand, looking" It's the rocks."
I gave her a sidelong glance, smoothing over another stone in my hand, " It's not the rocks."
"What makes home then?" she asked, pretending to be more intrigued in her archaeological excavation than the content of my response.
" I suppose, " I stalled, pretending to ponder," that it is, as they say, where the heart is."
"And where is that?" she said innocently, reaching forward to take another stone from my hand.
I wound my fingers through hers before she could pull away, taking the back of her hand to my lips.
"Here," I said, brushing a chaste kiss over her knuckles, "with you."
She blushed and looked away, obviously thrilled at my rare show of physical affection, so I gave her back her hand begrudgingly.
"But you knew that didn't you, "I teased subtlety, distracting her line of questioning," You just wanted the affirmation? You want me to remind you constantly of my feelings for you?"
Her head whipped up to glare at me, her eyes wide, "No! I was not!"
"Of course, Isabella," I goaded her, leaning over to grab the pile of rocks she had collected on her other side, "You know you only have to ask but once and I will say the words."
She forced out a disgruntled growl beneath me, the way she always did when my playful banter was at her expense, but pressed a quick kiss on the side of my neck as I was pulling away. I wanted to laugh at her for thinking that she needed to steal my affection when I was so ready to give her whatever she wanted, but she was already recovering from her embarrassment. I didn't want to be merciless, I teased her often enough.
"What do you do when you're not with me?" she said absentmindedly, rolling a pebble between both of her palms, the red flush of her cheeks fading to pink.
"Read…Write…" I said, copying her actions, smoothing another rock for her to practice with.
"I know that part," she admitted, pulling her arm behind her head and lobbing the pebble as hard as she could.
"You're doing it wrong," I told her, fighting the urge to smile at her frustration, "It's not about power… It's about technique, it's about control…"
"Hmm?" she questioned, facing me, turning another rock over in her open palm.
"You have to throw it this way," I said, showing her the how I held the stone in my hand, "And you have to… flick it, control the movement in your wrist, keep the rock level with the water."
I flicked my wrist easily, taking great care not to follow through the motion with much power; I had no desire to pique her interest any more than I already had. She copied my movement almost identically and the rock skipped happily over the still grey water.
"HA!" she said triumphantly, laughing at herself, "I did it!"
She turned to me then, putting her hands in her lap, all of her intention focused on me, her characteristically rapid mood-change only slightly unnerving now that I had grown accustomed to it.
"What else? When you're not meeting me at my truck after school or taking me to the diner or teaching me how to skip rocks… What are you doing then? What do you do at night, for instance?"
"At night?" I asked, assuming the innuendo in the question," Oh you know…"
"No, Edward. You have to answer. I've let you get away with enough today."
I cocked an eyebrow at her, liking the way her demeanor changed rapidly again, this time she was taking charge.
"Well…, " I said slowly, grinding a rock into sand in my palm," I guess you could say I'm working on my control."
She quirked an eyebrow at me, but rather than ask me to explain, she just shrugged, picking up another rock.
Easy.
…………………………………
The meetings with The Cullens had been unceremoniously moved to the evenings. And I was grateful. Not grateful that they were willing to appease me, for the relationship between the Cullens and myself was still tenuous at best, but I was grateful for the simple fact that the change was an easy one.
It was with this complacent acceptance that I strode, perhaps too cavalierly, to the Cullen residence. Alice was the only one waiting for me on the porch, which was troubling enough…
"Edward," she said as soon as I was within a reasonable distance, "I saw something…"
It wasn't panic that caused the venom to flood my mouth. It was the calm. It was that same calm that preceded my mission orders in Volterra- and there had been dozens. It was one of the very few familiar feelings I had had since I came to this strange town in Washington. It was a familiar feeling and yet, at the same time, it felt foreign to be feeling it here.
"Aro?" I questioned too easily, "Who has he sent?"
"Not The Volturi, Edward."
I felt the most disgusting sensation of nausea pass through me. Her panicking thoughts could only mean one other thing.
"Then what?"
Still pictures flashed through Alice's mind between the cracks in her failed attempt to keep me out.
First, Bella crouched protectively over a body on a street I did not recognize. Blood flowed from a wound I could not see. Police cars with Port Angeles' insignia with blazing red lights illuminated the scene… People stood in a half-circle around her; one of them was on the verge of tears.
Next, her face, so contorted with horror and grief that I almost did not recognize her. The blood was still everywhere, it stained her cheek and ran down her neck, it soaked through her shirt and gathered between the creases in her hands.
Then, I saw myself. And it was the picture that shocked me the most for I, too, was covered in blood. And there was no doubt in my mind that it was the same blood. She was there with me, the two of us standing on the same street, a body being zipped into a bag in the background.
Lastly, the vision of she and I in my temporary home at the forest's edge, still in the same clothes, but now I could see her injuries as her hands pushed at my chest, trying to escape me. Her posture was tensed as if ready to run and her eyes were still red and swollen from crying. Her knuckles were bloodied and bruised. My experience told me that the way they were rubbed raw was the result of repeated impact against something hard and yet flawlessly smooth.
"Bella?" I said in barely a whisper as Alice's mind faded back into black.
She nodded once, her tightly pursed lips with their lack of words a more worrying sight than anything she could have said.
"Tell me," I demanded as I tried to penetrate the thoughts she was so diligently attempting to keep from me, "Tell me now, Alice. Now! What did I do?"
"S-she finds out, Edward. I don't know how, but I know that it has to do with me… And I d-don't know."
"You don't know, Alice? What do you mean you don't know?"
"I-I don't know, Edward! I can't see..."
"Does this power of yours ever work correctly? Can you Cullens ever actually do anything right?!"
"Edward… My visions change…"
"But you tell her? She finds out the truth?"
"I don't know, Edward! I can't see it all…"
"You meddle and you meddle and YOU MEDDLE! And the one time that you can actually be of any help… You're useless!"
"That's not fair, Edward! I don't even know if you're the one that's responsible for --"
"--Fair! What do you know of fair? You live here tucked away in your own world, away from our reality and somehow you believe that makes you superior! That you can control our nature! You think that because you don't feed on the humans, it's enough! You think that a few decades of discipline means that you can change our fate! Well, you've seen it for yourself, Alice! We cannot deny what we are! It may take ten years or it may take a century… But eventually we will all break!"
"What exactly are you trying to say?!" she demanded breathlessly, my accusations repeating in her head.
"Oh please," I gritted out, waving a hand at her dismissively, "Surely you don't think I am that stupid."
Her careful attempt to shield me from her thoughts weakened and I saw her shock, but it did nothing to deter me. I was desperate to blame anyone for anything, so long as I didn't have to blame myself for what I saw in her mind.
"I see what you are trying to do, Alice. The way you keep trying to make me one of you. You think that's what I want, Alice? You think I expect to have this life of artificial domesticity that you Cullens have? You think I want to pretend that I'm human…I'm not human, Alice! And neither are you! No matter what your diet is! No matter whom I fall in love with!"
"Edward!"
"--Maybe the life I had in Volterra is the best that I can hope for. Why keep entertaining these false hopes, Alice? What am I doing here? What am I doing with her? She's not like us. What kind of life am I expecting with her? She would be better off had she never known me!"
Her tiny hands balled into fists and her eyes flared wildly for the first time and I could not fathom why it was that comment that provoked her rage.
"Us, Edward? There IS no us! There is Edward and then there are The Cullens! And you make it that way! So don't you dare tell me that we belong in your world more than you belong in ours! And don't you dare blame me for something that hasn't happened! I'm just trying to help you! You can still change this!"
"Help me?!" I demanded, laughing maniacally, talking steps backward, "You think you are helping me?"
"Edward! I d-don't know how… But you can still change this!"
"How, Alice? Tell me!" I gritted my teeth to keep from choking on the words, "By telling Bella what I am? By taking away the one thing…"
The panic stifled the words on my lips.
Everything was fast - much too fast - and suddenly it was all arriving upon us and I had not even the faintest inkling of what I should do. I had always been too far ahead. This experience was too foreign, this territory too unknown. I had always been beyond the obstacles, always smarter, always better, always prepared, always sure - I had always been the fastest. But not now. Not today. Today, I wasn't smarter, I wasn't better, I wasn't prepared - I wasn't even fast enough. No. Not fast enough to escape my past, not even fast enough to escape her… For every time I was just on the precipice of finding the resolve to do what was best, to do what was right… It was her voice and her smile and her scent and the possibility of her love that kept me weak, that kept me from doing my duty… A century of rigid obedience and now I was only duty-bound to her.
It was laughable.
I had not known fatigue before her and yet now, standing on the porch of the Cullen's house in the middle of the idyllic life they had created her, I was exhausted. Years upon years of the hunt- of the chase- and suddenly, all that I wanted… All that I felt I needed in this vast lifetime of eternity was just a single moment of rest.
It was ironic.
Everything that I had become had been a reaction to the change. I had become a collaborator in the worst kind of crime against humanity. The stolen moments were expired now. But I promised her and I was weak. So I would give myself one day with her. One last touch, one last vision, one last time to feel what I had spent a lifetime searching for. One last moment to know humanity … One last breath of her… And then I would say goodbye.
And now that I knew humanity, I felt like a fool to have chased it for so long. Because in all of the human thoughts I had heard, I never heard this, I never heard the truth. Now that I knew humanity … I knew this too…
It was cruel.
………………….
"Edward!" she screeched, running to me with the most brilliant smile as I paced nervously next to her truck, "Guess what!"
"—Isabella," I tried to interrupt, taking her bag from her automatically though my thoughts were lifetimes away.
"Wait!" she said breathlessly, her hopeful grin breaking my heart, "Me first!"
I nodded once, hoping she couldn't see the anguish that was so clearly in my every movement.
"My Dad is going to Port Angeles on Saturday to help out with the police force down there. I guess they're short-staffed or something?" she waved off the question as she rushed through her breath, though the words began to turn the cogs in my head, "So I was thinking we could do something? Maybe go to the --- Edward? Edward are you okay?"
I gathered her in my arms almost instantaneously, not caring if the action was untoward, crushing her to my chest tightly, wanting to sob with relief. Maybe it wasn't me, I told myself too generously. The police cars, her father, Port Angeles, the witnesses, the body bag…It all explained her grief. It could not have been me, I would never be so careless…She wasn't trying to escape me in that last vision, she was not fighting me, I was comforting her. No, I exclaimed in my head over and over, burying my face into her hair, I know it wasn't me.
"What? Edward?" she said, trying to push out of my embrace, "What is going on? Are you okay...?"
I could only pull her closer, running my hands up her sides and down her arms, calming myself with every pass over her skin. I didn't have to give her up just yet… I had a few more stolen moments, I rejoiced at the thought. She gave up trying to understand, her body going limp in my arms as she surrendered herself to my advances. She sighed in satisfaction and when my own body stiffened with her wordless admission, I pried myself from her. This was not the time to get carried away. I would cherish her now, the time for restraint was over.
She laughed as I took a step back sheepishly, "Not that I mind, of course, but can you tell me what that was about?"
I smiled at her, teeth and all, noticing that I was trembling everywhere. I was truly a lovesick fool.
"I-I-I…"I stuttered, not knowing how to express such relief.
She pushed me playfully in the shoulder, still laughing, "What's wrong with you right now? You're acting so weird!"
What was wrong? It was still wrong though, wasn't it? Alice! I had to see Alice! If I could change any of this, if I could prevent whatever it was that Alice saw! If I could keep her from that pain, I would do…anything.
"Bella… I am sorry. I truly am, but I have to leave. I need to speak to Alice. Right away!"
She quirked an eyebrow at me and I stared back at her awkwardly.
"Are you going to tell me why?" she asked, dragging out the words.
"Must I?" I blurted out before I could control myself.
"Well, no," she said quickly, "but it would be nice if you wanted to."
"I don't," I said quickly, cursing myself for my sudden inability to lie.
I saw her jaw set as she turned away from me, "Fine, I guess."
I looked from the woods to her retreating form, then back to the woods again.
I took off running toward the trees, knowing that even if she was angry with me, there would be time to rectify the situation later…
Time, I thought exuberantly running at full speed without even the slightest bit of caution, I had time…
……………………………
I ran straight to the front door of the Cullen's house, not bothering to knock before I forced it open.
I stood in the foyer and called out to her at an unnecessary volume, "Alice! Alice!"
She's not here… Quantus tremor est futurus.
I heard Rosalie's thoughts echo to me from another room, they came out quickly in between her mental recitation of Medieval Latin poetry. It was an ominous sign.
Quando judex est venturus…She saw you coming back and bolted.
"Is she coming back anytime soon?" I said out loud.
Not if she sees you're still here… Cuncta stricte discussurus…
"I need to talk to her."
Tuba mirum spargens sonum…She knows that, she didn't want you to be able to find her.
"Then?"
I know how to find her though… Per sepulchra regionum…
"Can you tell me," I ground out, "Please?"
Coget omnes ante thronum…Are you going to apologize to her?
She asked the question officiously, with the most patronizing tone.I could feel her distaste for me seeping though every word.
"If that's what it takes, then yes. It was never my intention to upset her," I said honestly.
And what was your intention, then?... Mors stupebit et natura.
"It was a moment of panic, Rosalie," I admitted, "Generally, I ... don't mind, Alice."
Liber scriptus proferetur…Wow, what an excellent apology.
"Rosalie…."
No, really, Edward. That's great… In quo totum continetur…
"What would be great, Rosalie, is if you told me where I could find her."
You really hurt her feelings you know.
"I'll try not to do it again."
Unde mundus judicetur…Are you apologizing because you mean it, or because of Bella?
"Everything is for Isabella…"
I heard her choking cough echo through the adjacent room.
Sorry, she apologized a moment later, I think I just vomited a little in my mouth.
"Rosalie…" I warned again, "Tell me where she is. I need to speak to her."
She's sensitive, Edward. You have to be nicer to her. You have to let her meddle sometimes. It's her thing. If you're going to be a part of….
She stopped herself abruptly, shifting from Latin to The Odyssey in its original Homeric Greek. But it was too late. I already saw the end of her thought. Even she anticipated my assimilation into their family. But there would be time to deal with that later. What I needed now was to find Alice.
"Yes, Rosalie. I'll try harder. I swear it. Now, will you tell me where I can find her?"
There was a pause, I imagine it was to roll her eyes and flip her hair with a disaffected sigh.
"I don't know where she is, Edward." Rosalie said out loud, walking into the room," But Jasper does."
I suppressed the urge to reach out and yank down on that curtain of blond hair as she passed. Yet I knew that it would get me absolutely nowhere and I had no good grace to pitter away needlessly.
"And where is he?"
She shrugged her shoulders, flipping her hair behind her back, not knowing how close she was to losing it. She walked up the stairs with swaying hips and it was my turn to gag now.
"He'll be back soon," she sighed, "You can wait here."
She stopped, just before disappearing behind a heavy set of double-doors. She turned to me, her mind suddenly clear and what I heard surprised me.
"Tell her, Edward, tell her about us. If it'll keep her safe and keep her yours… Then you have to tell her."
I nearly said thank you, but Rosalie did always know how to spoil the moment.
"Besides… I'm getting so sick and tired of all of this be-nice-to-Edward, be-more-understanding, don't-be-such-a-Bitch-Rosalie business… Maybe if you get some action and stop acting so emotionally retarded, things can go back to normal around here…"
She slammed the doors behind her with an unnecessary force that shook the walls.
It's not as if she actually needs that hair…
……………………………
I paced through the foyer, running through the still pictures of Alice's vision in my mind. It could be undone. It didn't have to happen this way… I grew more anxious with every hollow step that reverberated through the meticulously kept room. The house was completely empty, save for Rosalie's thoughts, preening and admiring from the bedroom behind the heavy doors. I was growing so impatient that I nearly bounded up the stairs, if only to have a distraction from the possibilities that afflicted me from within my own head, but suddenly far-off thoughts begin to materialize in my mind.
It was Jasper first. He wasn't happy with me. I could tell from the steady stream of expletives he ticked off in his mind. I saw a vision of a forlorn Alice sitting perfectly still, tucked into his side.
I frowned, I really didn't like upsetting her needlessly.
Emmett was with him, still in good spirits, his mind replayed scenes of the hunt that they had just finished.
Who I heard next surprised me. It was Alice, trailing behind them. She was hesitant as she followed them, but in her mind I saw that she had seen what had transpired almost as soon as I had left.
"It doesn't mean I'm not mad at you," she said out loud, still distant on the peripheries of the property.
"I know," I responded, knowing she could hear me too.
I walked onto the porch to wait for them, but they were running fast, they were visible a moment later.
Emmett bounded up the steps first, giving me a shrug as he passed, calling out for Rosalie. Jasper and Alice has slowed down considerably, still making their way through the vast thicket of trees after Emmett was long gone. She was trying to keep me out, though not very well, while Jasper continued to recite the same accusing profanities in my head. Her head was down as she approached, her steps unusually heavy, trying to hide from me in Jasper's width and height.
I let her take her time, listening to the way that Jasper attempted to calm himself after Alice tugged insistently at the hem on his shirt. He glared at me one last time and began to play visions of he and Alice hunting on a sunny day in his mind.
"Are you sure you don't want me to stay?" he asked her out loud, knowing that I would be able to hear him anyway.
She nodded once and he went to drop a kiss on her forehead before racing past me, but not before murmuring a warning into my general direction.
"You better apologize. Grovel if you have to."
I waved him off, taking my time to approach Alice. She looked more timid than I had ever seen her. Without her usual ebullient air, she was nearly unrecognizable.
"Alice…I'm sorry."
"Hm!" she sniffed, turning away from me," You're just saying that so I'll tell you what happens next…"
"I'm not, Alice. You know I would never say something just to placate you."
She turned away in another quarter-circle, her back to me completely. I saw her bottom lip poking out sullenly in her profile.
"You're visions aren't useless."
"No," she said resolutely to the open air in front of her, "they're not. Sometimes they just take some… time to solidify."
"Of course they do," I agreed, rolling my eyes.
"I saw that," she said almost immediately.
I groaned, "You know I mean what I say. You know I don't like upsetting you."
She turned toward me, just barely, toeing at the ground, "Go on…"
"I'm sorry," I said soothingly, "You know you've always been my favorite."
"You're just saying that…."she hedged, but I could see her resolve weakening in the way she stopped herself from turning toward me completely.
"Alice…" I said frustrated, yet knowing that she had already forgiven me, "Do you want Bella to be upset if her Dad gets hurt? She likes you too, you know…"
She made another quarter turn, facing me completely now, but looking away, "…And how do you know that?"
I chanced a small smile at her, "She told me…"
She kicked at the grass again, still refusing to look at me, "What'd she say?"
"She said you're fun… And pretty."
"Pretty?" Alice chirped, looking at me excitedly, but quickly trying to pretend she wasn't interested, "Well... What else?"
"She said that we should all..." I sighed, knowing if I admitted this to her, she would never let it pass.
"Well?" Alice said, her hands on her hips, her stance defiant. It was her last stand.
I rolled my eyes again, choosing to quote Bella's exact words, "She said we should all 'hang out'.
Alice's eyes brightened instantaneously and she was back to her old self, bouncing around, exuding excitement, visions of her and Bella shopping flittering through her head. I wasn't sure if it was wishful thinking or an actual vision, but I decided it might be better for my own sanity if I didn't know for sure.
She clapped her hands together, flying around me her feet barely touching the ground, " I knew she and I were going to be friends…"
"Alice…." I said, pulling her back into reality, "She's not going to be very much fun if she's mourning the loss of her Father…"
She frowned mid-bounce, "True."
Her eyes glazed over a moment later, before a few seconds of rapid blinking. She closed her eyes tightly, but just as quickly opened them again.
"Easy," she shrugged, "Just make sure Bella doesn't cancel her plans with her Dad to hang out with you. Tell her you're busy…"
"That's it?" I asked, disbelieving, "That's all I have to do?"
She glared at me for a second, irritated that I was already back to doubting her visions, "Yes, Edward. That's all."
I let the tension gather in my haunches, preparing to run, elated that everything that had only just seemed catastrophic was so easily resolved, but Alice's final words dampened my mood as the trees bordering the Cullen residence washed into a blur.
"You're still going to have to tell her, Edward" she called after me, "It may not be tonight, but it'll be soon…!"
Just a few more stolen moments…
……………………..
I knocked on her door, relieved that her Father wouldn't be home for a few more hours. I was tired of explaining myself, tired of all of the incessant words…
"Wow," she deadpanned, "You're actually using the door."
I smirked at her and it was a failed attempt at being charming, she grimaced in response.
"Did you get to have your super-secret talk with, Alice?" she asked dryly, folding her arms protectively over her chest.
Oh, that. She was still irritated about that. Teenage girls were exhausting.
"I'm sorry about earlier, Bella. I, uh, wanted to confirm our plans for Saturday."
"Saturday?" Bella asked, her icy demeanor melting just slightly.
"Yes," I admitted, "While I would love to spend Saturday with you, I had already made plans with, Alice."
Deciding that I needed to the extra leverage, I half-lied a little more," Of course I would much rather spend time with you, but Alice is adamant that I keep my plans with her. You understand, don't you?"
"Of course!" she agreed quickly, "If you would have just told me that… I wouldn't have…I had plans with my Dad anyway… He just gave me the option to cancel them and I thought that maybe…"
"Don't cancel on him…" I cut in, "I'm sure he'd be heartbroken if you did."
"Yeah, but I guess they really need the extra help in Port Angeles… I'm sure I can find something to occupy my Saturday…"
"No!" I said a little too forcefully, leaving no room for dissent, "Make sure he doesn't go to Port Angeles."
"But… Why?" she ask timidly, "It's not like a particularly dangerous city, Edward."
I reached forward, cupping her cheek in my hand, forcing her to look into my eyes so that she might see the gravity of my insistence, "Do not, under any circumstances, let your Father go to Port Angeles this weekend, do you understand me?"
She gave me a worried look, her pulse beating in double-time against my wrist, but agreed, "Okay. Yes. I'll make sure he doesn't go."
"Okay," I said, breathing an audible sigh of relief, dropping my hand from her cheek.
She nodded to herself, eyeing me suspiciously, but shrugged it off again, the way she always did.
She bit her lip and looked up at me shyly, "Do you want to come inside?"
A/N:
Yes, I know this chapter sucks. It was hard to write. It took a week and several failed attempts to complete. My brain doesn't work on Spring Break. Btw, I'm behind in responding to reviews on Twilighted (and working on starting at FFdotnet), but I'll catch up! I heart you guys.
The ladies over at Temptation: A Twilight Fanfiction Podcast were lovely enough to mention this little fic a week ago. Go check it out on itunes or at their blog. Sample funny quote, "You can't copyright awesome." Or, "Can I just say that America Online is not popular in Canada?"
In context, those quotes are hilarity.
I also want to apologize to Christine30974 who has to deal with this: "AHHHHH!" on pretty much on a daily basis.