18

After they had eaten the dinner and she had washed up, she headed up to her bedroom. As soon as she opened the door she knew Alice had been there again. On her bed was a suit bag with a note attached. 'You will need this' it said. Bella grimaced; she unzipped the bag and found a rather smart set of clothes (of course). They were obviously for an interview or something, but if she was going to have an interview wouldn't she be better off with a trouser suit and not a skirt?

She hung the bag in the almost empty wardrobe and shut the door on it. She turned to her computer and powered it up. She opened her email and found a forward from Alice, an advert from the school website asking if anyone needed part time employment at the camping store. She grinned and silently thanked Alice for finding it. She had felt guilty about the money Charlie had lost, and everything he was paying out for her now she was staying with him, she would offer to contribute from her savings, but at the moment she still could not access them, she had to wait for her money to be transferred to a local bank to get it, she cursed the fact that she had put her money into a 30 day notice account so Renée couldn't demand she draw it out. However as soon as the notice was up and the money transferred she could help with the household bills, and feel like she was truly contributing… but a part time job? That was a huge drop in wages from what she was used to, depending on the hourly rate, which would probably be minimum wage as they asked for a student to work for them. She would have to be careful that she didn't cut too deep into her savings.

She looked towards the wardrobe and the bag hanging from the rail and shook her head; there was no way she was going into a store in that suit. She noticed another email appear on her screen, she refused to even open it. She smiled and visualised going to the shop in her raggy sweats that she slept in. Another email arrived. She grinned.

She heard the front door open and got up to look who it was. Jacob and his father had arrived to watch the late showing of a football match that had been played that afternoon down south somewhere.

As she had no interest in the sport at all (or any sport come to that) she returned to her bedroom and the computer. She looked up some websites and took a small notebook from her schoolbag. She wrote down the cost of the clothes the Cullen's had so far given her and winced at the total. If she got the job she would pay them back first!

Sunday arrived in style, snow.

At least 4 inches had fallen overnight and the forecast predicted another four to six inches before the storm passed. Charlie had been called out at 2 am and was not home when Bella eventually struggled out of bed at 8.

She wasn't expecting any visitors, though she knew the snow wouldn't impede the Cullen's. They had a lot of catching up to do and she very much doubted they would even give her a thought.

Charlie came home just before lunch. He advised her that the main road was now clear and if she needed anything from the shops she better go before the storm front hit later that evening, luckily she didn't need anything that she could think of and she wrapped herself up with a book, glad not to have to go out in the freezing cold. She never remembered being this cold in her life, which wasn't surprising as she had never been in Forks in the winter before, at least not one she remembered. Charlie just had time for a coffee before he was called back out again. A timber lorry had jack-knifed and shed its load just north of town. He sighed and got his jacket back on. Bella made him wait and filled a pair of flasks, one with coffee and the other with microwaved soup. He smiled at her and gave her an awkward one armed hug in thanks, as he left through the door.

Five minutes later a knock on the door made her jump, but the key rattled and Alice let herself into the house before Bella could do or say anything.

"Newton's want you to go tonight, at 5 for an interview; they will ring in an hour to tell you." Alice said dancing past her and up the stairs.

"I'm not wearing the suit!" Bella stated following her friend. Alice paused a fraction of a second but then smiled.

"What else would you wear? Remember I know what is in your wardrobe!"

"I'll wear my jeans and a t-shirt with the plaid shirt over the top." Alice looked at her in horror.

"Over my dead body!" she stated, Bella laughed at the accuracy of the statement.

"I'm not kidding Alice." She told her friend. "Honestly a suit? For a camping shop?"

"There is nothing wrong with looking smart, Bella!"

"There is when it's a suit like that!"

"What is wrong with the suit?" Alice got it from the bag and examined it critically. "It's very smart."

"It was also over $600!" Bella said.

Alice frowned. "How did you know that?" she asked.

"I looked it up yesterday." Bella told her. Alice frowned.

"I never saw you look it up." She said accusingly. Bella shrugged. It wasn't her fault Alice hadn't been looking.

"This is what I am wearing." She told her friend and got her clothes out of the drawers. Alice looked in horror at her.

"You can't wear THAT for a job interview! I thought you were kidding."

"It's either this or the holey sweats, Alice." She threatened. Alice narrowed her eyes, but Bella set her stance. She wasn't moving.

Eventually Alice sighed and nodded. "Want me to come with?" she asked.

"Why… will I need you?" Bella asked.

"No, you will do fine on your own." Alice admitted.

"Even in jeans?" Bella prodded. Her friend nodded her head conceding that maybe for once Bella was right. She grinned and almost hugged her, but at the last minute her aversion to being 'touchy feely' kicked in and she stopped before she made contact.

At 5:01 she and her truck, sans Alice, trundled to Newton's Outfitters and Bella found herself employed once more. The hours were great for a pupil (of course) Fridays after school for 2 hours, Saturday four hours and Sunday four hours. It was a shame more hours weren't on offer and the owner, a Mrs. Newton insisted that this was because they knew kids her age needed a social life. No matter what she said the woman wouldn't move so Bella was stuck with just 10 hours. 10 hours at $7 per hour. It would take her 18 weeks to pay back the Cullens (if she gave them every penny), less than 10 if she allowed for the fact that Alice took the suit back, but she wouldn't allow for that. The suit wouldn't fit any of the others… actually she had no idea how much the clothing in Edwards closet came to either. She groaned, it may take her forever to pay them back; thank God Esme had at last made Alice take back the phone!

Monday morning Bella woke ready to go to school, but one look out the window convinced her that there wasn't going to be any school that day. The snow was almost half way up her tyres and the drifts at the side of the house were over head high to her. She could see the car in the garden of the house opposite and the snow was almost to the driver's window. She thanked her father in her thoughts once more for buying her the truck rather than one of those tiny cars with the low profile tyres that were all the rage with the popular kids back in Arizona.

The telephone rang as she was making her breakfast, but she ignored it. The answer phone kicked in and a man's voice left a short message by the time she got into the room and was able to hear what the man was saying he was reading out a phone number. She didn't bother playing the message back.

Charlie arrived just after she finished breakfast. Coming in through the back door that was clearer of snow because of the way it had drifted. He had shovelled the driveway from his cruiser to the rear door before coming inside, to give him access if he needed to go back out. She handed him a strong cup of coffee when he asked for it. Even though he had been on call for over 24 hours, there just weren't enough officers that he could take the day off. She told him someone had called and he went to play the message. It was a firm of lawyers from Chicago. He erased the message after taking down the number. Bella watched him numbly, uncertain what she was supposed to feel and uneasy that she felt nothing but confusion.

"I'll… I'll just go call him." Charlie said. He moved up to his bedroom and closed the door.

Bella shrugged and decided to make Charlie pancakes and bacon, her timing could not have been better, he used the phone and then the bathroom. He was freshly showered and shaved in perfect time to eat the hot food and he was just clearing his plate when another call came in. He gave a resigned shrug and put his gunbelt and jacket back on.

"You'll be ok on your own?" he asked.

"Of course." She told him.

"It's a shame Alice lives so far out of town, I'd feel better if you had someone with you but the roads out there are dangerous, I wouldn't like to think of her trying to drive here." He chewed his moustache and Bella sighed.

"I will be fine on my own." She insisted. "It's not like…" she stopped and he clenched his jaw. The radio squawked again and he jumped.

"I gotta go Bells," he reluctantly turned to the door just as Alice knocked on it, he smiled hugely. "Hey Alice! How did you get here?" he asked. Bella sighed; she actually missed having time to herself.

"The boys are going sledging and I made them pull me here first." She smiled smugly past Charlie at Bella.

"Who is this?" Charlie asked. Bella tried to look past him to see who he was talking about.

"You may know Jasper and Emmett, and this is Edward, Carlisle's other nephew, he's come to live with us." She said in a solemn voice. "His parents were killed in an accident," she whispered.

"Good to meet you Edward, I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thank you, Chief Swan, I appreciate that." Edward shook hands with him.

"You need a pair of gloves, son, your hands are freezing, you can easily get frost bite in this weather up here…" he was probably about to start a lecture on the dangers of cold but his radio once again interrupted and he rushed to the cruiser. The snow-chain-covered wheels spun a few times before digging in and he moved off carefully.

"Come on in, it's getting cold in here." Bella said, less than graciously.

"Hey! Don't blame us; Charlie was going to go mental all day if you were here alone." Alice told her. Edward entered the house but stood right by the door.

"Really?" Alice asked, she looked at Edward then at Bella speculatively. "now that is interesting!" Bella frowned, at least when someone talked OVER her she could hear what was being said, this communication between Alice and Edward left her without a hope, and to make matters worse Alice had to be speaking out loud for her benefit.

"Are you going to tell me?" she asked, her arms folded stubbornly. Alice looked at Edward and he shrugged.

"You know Edward can read minds?" Alice asked unnecessarily. Bella nodded, "Well it seems there is an exception to the rule." She waited and eventually Alice caved. "He cannot read YOUR mind."

"Sorry?" she asked, not sure she had understood.

"For some reason I can't read your mind." Edward told her, "your father is almost the same, I have to really push hard to get anything from him other than the very surface thoughts, but you… nothing."

Bella felt almost weak at the knees with relief. She blushed and saw Edward grip his hands.

"Why are you torturing yourself?" she asked.

"You are a part of the family, I have to get used to you being around." He told her.

"It's nice of you to say so, but I know that isn't true." Bella told him as she turned and washed Charlie's breakfast dishes.

"How can you say that, Bella?" Alice asked sounding hurt.

"As far as I recollect I have a pulse, something no one in your family has." She pointed out. "and I have a family, Charlie." She reminded them.

"You're planning on going to college early." Alice said, Bella winced, she had forgotten about that speculation and the fact that Alice would see it.

"I did what you wanted!" she protested. Alice set her hands on her hips.

"How many times have we got to tell you? We didn't just look after you so Edward would return!"

"Excuse me!" Edward burst out, Alice looked abashed, she must have let something slip in her mind. "You have to be kidding me! Show me!" The two of them stood stock still; Bella noticed they weren't even breathing. It was like being in a statue gallery.

Suddenly Jasper, who she thought had left with Emmett, walked into the room and stood between the two of them.

"Hey Bella!" he said, keeping his eyes on Edward.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Not sure," he told her, "whatever it is, Edward is angry and Alice worried."

That explained why he stood between them, he was protecting Alice. Bella put a hand on Edward's arm, hoping to calm him down but she received something like a static shock. Edward must have felt the same because suddenly he broke eye contact with Alice. Edward looked at Bella speculatively, rubbing his arm where she had touched him, and then turned and left without a word.

"Well, that went well." Alice said brightly.

"Did it?" Bella asked, sceptically.

"Oh yes." Her friend bounced on her toes. "Why don't you go back and join the others Jasper, Bella and I are going to be fine."

"We are?" Bella asked again, not sure when she lost control of her life.

"We are!"

"Idiot!" Alice jumped to her feet. Edward watched as the vision replayed in her mind. Charlie Swan hurrying back to check on Bella involved in an RTA because he was tired. It wasn't too serious but it did mean a hospital stay for several days because of a severe concussion and a broken shoulder blade that would take months of recuperation before it was fully healed.

"Jasper, Emmett, Edward!" she ordered, speeding up stairs to get the props of outdoor clothing. "We have to go to Bella's!" Rose and Esme were out hunting and Carlisle had been called into the hospital because of someone being injured in a traffic accident.

Edward shrugged as he took his heavy coat. He had no objection to going to see Bella, to be honest she rather fascinated him. He wondered if her father was also unreadable, or if she got it from her mother's side, or was she just a genetic anomaly?

Alice grabbed up her purse as she exited the house and sped off towards town. Edward grinned at the thoughts going through her head, he had wondered why they had not taken a car, but Alice was one step ahead, literally it turned out. She called into Newton's and grabbed three rather nice sledges. Edward vaguely remembered sledging when he was human. The speed and thrill as he swept down a hillside still sent a shiver of joy through his body. Of course it was nothing like the speed he could run at now, but back when cars went at a top speed of 40 MPH going down a hill at 20 was FAST!

Alice jumped onto the body of one of the sledges, Edward looked at Jasper, who looked back at him, and then shrugged and grabbed the rope and dragged her along the snowy sidewalk.

They approached the Swan house and Edward could hear an occasional thought filtering from the property. It wasn't a fully functioning mind as far as he could tell and he wondered who it was.

Real voices carried through the air the way that the occupants thoughts didn't.

"It's a shame Alice lives so far out of town, I'd feel better if you had someone with you but the roads out there are dangerous, I wouldn't like to think of her trying to drive here." {I wish I didn't have to leave her alone so much, her mother did that too often and I will do anything in my power to make up for that neglect.} Charlie Swan's mental voice was strong, but at the same time strangely weak. Edward could hear that thought loud and clear, and it made him feel a little less antagonistic about the man. He really DID care very much about his daughter, however as soon as the thought appeared, it disappeared, and unlike with other people, nothing else took its place but a slight background hum. No defined thoughts on any subject.

"I will be fine on my own." Bella sounded annoyed, he wished he could read her too, but then that wasn't hard at the moment as it was obvious she was wishing he would just leave. "It's not like…" she stopped Edward wondered what she was going to say, if he had to guess (and he did) it was to do with her mother.

Charlie had no such trouble and Edward received a burst of anger directed at the brunette in Charlie's memories that matched the pictures the other Cullen's had visualised, but younger.

Suddenly a voice came over the police radio. "Chief? Can you give Mark an ETA?"

"I gotta go Bells," {Damn! I could do without this today of all days.} Charlie thought. Alice knocked on the back door and Charlie opened it, he smiled with relief to see her here. "Hey Alice! How did you get here?" he asked. {Bells looks annoyed, but I'm glad Alice is here, I feel much better leaving her with her friend.}

"The boys are going sledging and I made them pull me here first." Alice looked at Bella and smiled.

"Who is this?" Charlie asked. {I thought there were only 2 boys and 2 girls at the Cullens'?} He thought.

"You may know Jasper and Emmett, and this is Edward, Carlisle's other nephew, he's come to live with us." Alice leant forward as if to tell a secret. "His parents were killed in an accident," she whispered to the man.

{Poor lad, he looks pale.} Charlie's thought was sad, he had lost his father when he was 14 and felt deeply for any child who lost a parent young. He spared a thought for Carlisle losing both his brothers and being willing to take on the kids. {He is a brave man,} Charlie thought, {especially as this boy looks to be in his late teens… mind I have no idea how old the others were when they were adopted but you have to hand it to the Doc and his wife, they both deserve a lot of respect, even if…} His thoughts broke off there much to Edward's annoyance.

"Good to meet you Edward, I'm sorry for your loss." He held out his hand to Edward in a gesture that was sympathetic but not in a condescending way.

"Thank you, Chief Swan, I appreciate that." Edward shook hands with him, wincing as he remembered the temperature out.

"You need a pair of gloves, son, your hands are freezing, you can easily get frost bite in this weather up here…" "CHIEF? Are you on your way? Chief… Come in?" the chief tabbed his radio and said "five minutes out, had to change clothes." He nodded to the Cullen's and climbed into his vehicle and drove off. {Damn I forgot to ask Alice if she was staying all day!} he decided to call the house as soon as the call was over.

"Come on in, it's getting cold in here." Bella said, her voice curt. Jasper and Emmett were busy trying to shove each other into the huge drift under the edge of the trees behind the property.

"Hey! Don't blame us; Charlie was going to go mental all day if you were here alone." Alice neglected to tell her about the possible RTA; it would only worry her friend. Edward agreed, Bella was a carer; she would have worried all day about Charlie, just as Charlie was worrying about her. The difference being she was the child! Edward pondered that, when he had been 17 he was already considered a man. It wouldn't have been unknown for him to have a wife and be starting a family soon, and he had planned to go off to war the second he turned 18. So was Bella young? Or was it that she seemed vulnerable because of her accidents and mother?

Alice stepped right into the room but Edward decided to play it safe and stay close to the exit. He projected his observations of Charlie and his hard to read mind to Alice.

"Really?" Alice asked, {so it must be hereditary, I wonder if Renée was the same, then Bella would have inherited difficulty from both sides leading to the total blank you get from her?} she looked Bella speculatively. "now that is interesting!" Bella frowned her jaw set and her arms crossed, it was obvious that she was very annoyed about something but for the life of him he couldn't guess what. It was extremely frustrating.

"Are you going to tell me?" Bella demanded rather than asked. Alice looked at Edward and he shrugged.

"You know Edward can read minds?" Alice explained. Bella nodded, "Well it seems there is an exception to the rule." Bella raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. "He cannot read YOUR mind." Both of them watched her closely to get clues as to how she would feel about that.

"Sorry?" she asked as if she hadn't understood. Edward was getting really frustrated by his inability to read her, at least his frustration made his thirst more manageable.

"For some reason I can't read your mind." He clarified, "your father is almost the same, I have to really push hard to get anything from him other than the very surface thoughts, but you… nothing."

Bella's face lightened and then she blushed, blood rushed under the surface of her skin, her scent in the air increased minutely and his thirst roared to life in the back of his throat. Venom flooded his mouth and he stiffened his muscles to stop himself moving forward. He wondered what she had been thinking that had caused that reaction. He felt Jasper outside send calm his way.

"Why are you torturing yourself?" Bella sounded curious, she must be asking why he was staying close when it was causing him such thirst, he decided.

"You are a part of the family, I have to get used to you being around." He explained.

"It's nice of you to say so, but I know that isn't true." Bella turned away from them and busied herself washing Charlie's breakfast dishes.

"How can you say that, Bella?" Alice asked hurt. {she really believes this you know, she thinks that we used her and now that we have no more use for her she is expecting us to just forget about her. It's how her mother treated her all those years and so I suppose it's all she knows. We have to make her realise that we care for HER not just what she can do for us!}

"As far as I recollect I have a pulse, something no one in your family has." Bella pointed out calmly, Alice was right, she wasn't bitter about being used either, she was accepting of it, "and I have a family, Charlie." Even though Charlie cared, he had a job that he loved and that he had worked hard at for as long as she had been alive and more. He could not be expected to drop his career just to look after her for the short time she would be living with him.

"You are planning on going to college early." Alice said, a vision of Bella deciding to apply to colleges the day before flashed into her mind.

"I did what you wanted!" Alice set her hands on her hips.

"How many times have we got to tell you? We didn't just look after you so Edward would return!" {we did it because we knew you two were mates! SHIT!} Alice looked at Edward quickly but he had seen it before she had a chance to bury the thought.

"Excuse me!" He almost exploded at her. The day before she had hinted they should be together, (something he had rejected immediately) but he didn't think she meant MATES, that was totally another level to the one he thought she was talking about.

{I'm sorry, you weren't supposed to know!}

"You have to be kidding me! Show me!" His mind penetrated hers as visions for years past flooded them both. He saw the original visions of the two meetings, one (the one they had just had, with subtle variations on a theme) and a later one in several years time. Both led to Bella being turned and mating with Edward eventually, the earlier one being decided on as they were the same age, the older Bella became the more reluctant she would be to be with Edward, thinking herself not good enough and too old for him. The struggles they would have with the later meeting were epic, and in a tiny number of cases ended with them not being together at all (which often ended shortly thereafter in Bella's death, and then his own destruction at the hands of the Volturi!).

He was aware when Jasper walked into the room and stood between them, but he had no concentration to spare for the soldier. Visions of Bella and he running barefoot through the forest. Bella taking down an elk, Bella and him, clothing scattered around… he wrenched his mind away, refusing to see any more.

This was worse than he thought. He had thought the speculation the day before was an unlikely future, he had dismissed Alice's hints as her trying to give him a taste of what the other couples had, he had known it was doomed from the start, there was no way the two of them could be together properly while she was human and he refused to even consider changing her. It seemed he was alone in that, how dare the Cullen's bring Bella into this world just to condemn her to living as they did? It was bad enough they broke the Volturi laws; they actually intended to change her? Edward looked at the human in sympathy. The sickening thing was she would probably agree, who would not want eternal youth? Eternal health, strength, speed? The answer of course, was those who were condemned to it. Eternity was boring, and not worth the loss of one's soul.

Suddenly he felt a shock run through his body, it was unlike anything he had felt before, and it centred on his arm, he looked down and saw Bella's small hand resting where the strange sensation originated. He looked at the human, suddenly realising the lust for her blood had suddenly lessened dramatically, his feeling for her, on the other hand, had increased exponentially. She removed her hand and he ran his over the now cooling skin, he wanted her to touch him again… and never stop. NO! He would not allow this to happen! She deserved more than to be mated to one of his kind. He glared at Alice once more and then walked out of the house in disgust.

He had to see Carlisle.