27

"I messed up again!" he thumped his hands into a nearby tree and then cursed loudly when he was so distracted that he didn't have time to dodge when the fresh snow in the branches fell all over him. Carlisle suppressed a smile. Edward and Alice shared a fault, their talent gave them an inflated sense of their ability to handle trouble. And Bella was trouble.

Alice had already had a couple of rounds of vampire v human with the girl and she had lost each time. Now it was Edward's turn. He was so convinced that reading the minds of everyone around him gave him some sort of secret insight into the human condition that he wasn't considering that the mind he couldn't read was more than the average human, she was a teenage girl, that was true, she was also very bright, she was well read, she was the victim of years of neglect, but most of all, she was the bonded mate of a vampire. Edward could not win! She held all the power in her tiny fragile hands and it was driving his son crazy.

"You should have known better than to buy something so extravagant." He told the boy.

"Emmett said she loved chocolate." He protested.

"I dare say she does, but there's a difference between the snickers bar he bought her and the close on $100 that you spent."

"HE bought her chocolate?" Edward's jealousy raged, Carlisle didn't even try and suppress the grin this time. "I'm so glad I entertain you." Edward growled.

"Look, just… oh boy, how many times have we to say this… don't push her!" Visions of Emmett on his knees in front of Rosalie swamped Edward as his father shared a memory he had. It had made Carlisle laugh, watching his huge son being humbled by his daughter. Edward smiled and Carlisle sighed in relief as the tension in the clearing lessened.

"Just remember, Bella would rather you spend as little as possible. So rather than the grand gesture, spend time with her. Show her your devotion. Don't wrap her in cotton wool, don't be looking over her shoulder all the time, but just… be there for her." He wasn't sure he was getting the message across. "What happened yesterday?" he asked.

"You mean when I bought her the chocolates she wouldn't eat? Or when I asked her to marry me? Or when she cried into my shirt for hours?" Carlisle winced. No one had told him that Edward had proposed, he couldn't imagine that went down well.

"Charlie said she had some form of fit?" Edward shook his head.

"She just fainted." He told his father. "Too much stress."

Carlisle had lived through the age when ladies swooned with great regularity due to the restriction of their clothing and emotional stress, so he knew first hand that so long as it wasn't a regular occurrence she would be fine.

"She cried into your shirt?" he asked. Edward grabbed his hair, he gritted his teeth and Carlisle could feel the waves of anger as clearly as if he had Jasper's gift.

"Renée." That single word summed up the whole episode.

He blamed himself. He knew Alice had insisted that they not interfere too much in the child's life, but he wished he had ignored her. They could have 'persuaded' the authorities to allow them to look after the girl, or they could have let her move to Forks years earlier and made sure that they were in a position to look after her when her father was at work. All the trouble Edward was having now would have been avoided if he had just put his foot down.

"You're wrong." Edward broke into his thoughts. "I've seen Alice's visions. I know you are blaming yourself but things could have been worse, a LOT worse. There is nothing wrong with Bella as she is, she just needs to realise that I… that we… love her and she will be fine." When had the tables turned? He had meant to use this time to console with his son, and here he was being the one consoled.

"I have the rest of eternity to be with her, if it takes me a little time to woo her, it's only what she deserves." Edward nodded, evidently he had made a decision.

"Has she said she wants to be turned?" Carlisle asked.

"No, she hasn't made her mind up." Edward admitted.

"If she decides to be human?" he asked.

"Then I will stay with her until she dies." He said simply.

"And then?" dread filled Carlisle's heart.

"Then, if you Emmett and Jasper won't help, I will go to the Volturi." He closed his eyes in pain at the thought of losing his son forever.

"I won't live in a world where she doesn't exist, not now I know her." He nodded sadly. If anything happened to Esme he would feel the same. He put a hand on Edward's shoulder.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." They turned back to the house. It would soon be light and Edward and the others had to go to school, they had had enough time off already.

"Last one home…" he laughed as his son sped off before he even had a chance to get a head start.

"No!" he gritted his teeth again.

"Yes!" She insisted.

"No, Carlisle tell her." he turned to his father.

"It would be best Bella…" Carlisle started to say.

"I don't care." She actually stamped her foot in temper. Edward almost smiled, she was so cute when she was angry, then he remembered what she was angry about.

"Charlie." He appealed to a higher power, but Bella turned her glare on her own father and he held his hands up and stepped back, some help he was.

"If Bella says…" he started to say.

"I'm going." She slung her bag on her shoulder, unbalancing herself. He put a hand out to steady her without thinking. She glared and shrugged the hand off. She stormed out of the Cullen's house. Edward spun and pointed his attack at his sister.

"Why did you get her things for her?" he snapped.

"She asked for them." Alice told him with a shrug.

"You could have said no." He gestured out of the window where Bella was struggling to put snow chains on her tyres. Rose exited the garage and helped her. They were all trying to drive him insane! Bella thanked Rose and got into the cab of her truck.

"Bring my things with you." He ordered his siblings as he sped out of the house. Even before she had the death trap in gear he was sat in the passenger seat.

"Not a word." She ordered as she put the vehicle into drive, pumping the clutch twice, once out of gear and then again to put it in gear like they used to do back in the day, she accelerated and moved off. He doubted many people now remembered having to declutch before engaging the gears, what the hell was happening to him? He didn't seem able to hold a thought for any time, his mind was flying off in all directions.

She turned up the heating, and the radio. He watched with trepidation as she manoeuvred down the narrow driveway through the trees in the big vehicle, wincing every time she allowed a branch to scrape against the paintwork, which was often.

"Is Alice bringing your things?" she asked.

"Yes, why?" he wanted to know.

"You will look strange arriving at school without a coat or sweater in this weather." He groaned, what was it about her that drove everything from his mind? It was in the region of 30 degrees out, and that was without the high winds being taken into account. As they approached town he could see people walking on the street bundled up in layer after layer. He looked at Bella, she was shivering slightly even with the heat on.

"Are you cold?" he asked, then cursed himself for asking such a stupid question. He could see she was!

"I'll manage." She told him, he could still read Alice's thoughts, he hoped she got his message to bring a heavy sweater for Bella and was pleased when she told him that she had already packed one for her.

It may not be the height of fashion anywhere else, but the arctic cold weather gear that he visualised would keep Bella warm, which was more important than looking fashionable. However Alice assured him that the sweater she brought and the parka she had would be sufficient, but she warned him to bring the subject up with his mate rather than just expect her to meekly accept the clothes.

"Would you mind if I asked Alice to bring you a warm sweater?" he asked, she looked at him for a full 10 seconds before replying, making him very nervous as she never slowed the truck.

"Yeah, that would be great." He was relieved when she turned her eyes back to the road. Though he knew he would easily walk away from any accident she had in this tin can, he doubted she would be as lucky. "Thanks." If he hadn't have had superior hearing he would have missed the word under the roar of the engine.

"Do you want me to see Mrs. Cope about swapping some of my subjects?" he asked, unwilling to do it but knowing that it was up to Bella.

She sighed and shrugged her shoulder. "It's up to you." She said resignedly.

"If you don't mind, I want to be with you in every class… but it is totally up to you, if you want Alice and Jasper back to sit next to I can try and arrange it." She shook her head and sighed.

"Never mind, it would just look even stranger to everyone if you went about re-arranging things at this stage. It isn't that I object to sitting next to you, it's that you came along and just re-arranged my life without even asking me… you didn't like it when Alice did it to you, did you?" She had a point and he nodded in agreement, she looked at him again and smiled a small smile. His insides warmed at this sign of her acceptance of him. "Besides, I don't mind your company, as long as you behave."

"Behave? Moi?" he put on a wounded look and she laughed at him. He felt 100 feet tall, how pathetic was he?

They pulled into the school car park. He wasn't surprised to notice they were the first there.

She turned the engine off, in seconds the bad seals on the vehicle meant the temperature was only warmer than outside because of the lack of wind chill. She started to shiver immediately.

"Turn the engine on." He told her, she looked at him but made no move to turn the key. "Bella, you could easily freeze to death in here, please, turn the heating back on until the others get here or the school opens."

"Have you any idea how much gas this thing goes through?" she asked, he pinched the bridge of his nose and clenched his teeth to stop himself pointing out that he didn't care how much it cost, her health was worth every penny. "I know," she admitted when he said nothing. "Ok, I'll turn it on." She did so and heat blasted out from the running engine, filling the small cab quickly.

{Well done!} Alice congratulated him. {you see she isn't unreasonable when you aren't ordering her about.} He had to concede that he was surprised when she turned on the truck, but happy.

It was less than a minute later that Alice backed into the space next to theirs.

"Would you like to move to the Volvo?" Edward asked her. "The heating is more efficient and everyone can fit in it." She smiled at his obvious effort to include her in decisions,

"Sure, sure," she agreed, realising she had used Jacob's phrase, she smiled again.

She turned off her engine and he ran around to open her door before she could. She grinned at him through the window and shuffled over to the passenger side and got out the same door as he had and straight into the other car, he shook his head and grinned back as he moved back around the truck and joined her as she got in, Alice had turned the heating on as soon as she had set off, not something the Cullen's ever thought of doing usually, of course. So the interior of the vehicle was toasty warm. Rose was already sitting on Emmett's knee and Bella immediately took off her coat as she shuffled over to the middle of the back seat, Edward got in next to her.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"Taking off my coat," she told him, evidently surprised he would ask.

"I can see that, but why? I thought you were cold."

She gave a rather sad smile. "To feel the benefit." The phrase rang bells in his mind, but he could not recall where from. His face must have shown his confusion because she explained. "It's what Mrs. Middleton used to say, it means if I keep the coat on in here, in the warm, when I go out it will feel colder than if I don't have it on here and put it on out there." He wasn't sure it made sense but Alice, Emmett and Rose nodded in agreement. He probed their minds to find they all knew the phrase and agreed with it. He shrugged. She was biting her lip again, he groaned softly as he watched her. Jasper was shouting in his mind for Edward to calm down before he accidently 'echoed' and they ended up with a car full of teenage lust. He turned his attention to the other students who were just arriving.

The boy with the filthy mind fixated on Bella pulled in on the other side of her truck, deliberately parking so close that Bella wouldn't be able to get in the driver's door until he moved. His mind was fantasising on making her get on her knees to 'service' him with her mouth in payment for him allowing her access to her own vehicle. Edward growled and glared at the boy. Bella seemed to sense something wrong because she put a calming hand on his arm.

He was distracted immediately as it was so rare that she initiated contact. He remembered the first time they had touched she had put her hand on him in just the same way as he was locked in Alice's mind sifting through visions.

"What's wrong?" she whispered. The other four in the car pretended they could not hear her.

"That boy." He indicated with his head, "What is his name?"

"Mike Newton." Alice supplied.

"He has a filthy mind." Edward said, his voice laced with disgust.

"He's a teenage boy." Rose said dismissively. "They all have filthy minds in this day and age."

"True." Emmett agreed. "Not like back in our day." Rose laughed derisively, and Alice and Jasper joined in.

"The difference being his mind is fixated on Bella!" he heard her gasp, and sure enough when he looked around she was blushing profusely.

"I… I never…" she stuttered.

"I know." He took her hand and rubbed his thumb over the back of it to calm her. "He seems to think that you two will be alone together this weekend, he's planning something…" he was going to warn her about the fantasies the boy had but at the last second realised how inappropriate it would be to tell such a thing to any female never mind the woman he loved.

"Well…" she blushed again, "I will be working in his parents shop." She admitted.

"Alice?" For the first time ever Edward demanded that she use her gift for him. If there was any chance, any chance at all that the boy would try and impose on her the way his thoughts seemed to indicate the Newton's may find themselves without a son.

A quick glimpse of a vision passed by, Bella pressed up against a wall in a small room full of boxes, she sharply brought her knee up and the boy collapsed onto the floor, the vision faded.

"He will try, but Bella is strong enough to stop him." He was horrified. She should not have to defend herself.

Another vision appeared, instead of the stock room they were by the tills, the boy asked Bella to go out with him, she said no, he asked her to go into the stock room with him, because she had been warned she said no again and the prior vision never happened.

"No, Edward, that is the correct one. He will ask her and she will say no."

"Of course I will say no!" Bella said indignantly, then paused and asked, "What will he ask?"

"He wants… sexual favours in the stock room." Alice supplied when it became obvious Edward wouldn't divulge what he had heard.

"I would NEVER! That's… wrong." Bella shuddered.

"Want me to take care of him?" Emmett asked. Bella looked at all the Cullen's and realised that the boy was in serious danger.

"Leave him alone." She warned them all. "I can deal with it."

"How? What will you do if, when you turn him down, he gets physical?" Asked Jasper.

"Don't worry about it." Bella told them. "I'm sure that nothing will happen anyway. I can look after myself."

He gripped the bridge of his nose with his fingers, trying his hardest not to open his mouth and put his foot in it. If he did say something it would probably lead to world war 3!

"Are you growling?" Bella asked him surprised, he expected his siblings to laugh, but reading their thoughts they were all a fraction of an inch from growling themselves, even though they could not read the sick child's mind like he could.

He felt her warm small hand on his shoulder, the heat of her penetrated his clothing no matter what he wore. He felt himself calm as if Jasper had used his talent.

"Please, trust me." She asked.

"I DO trust you, it's HIM I don't trust." He told her. {give her some details, preserving her sensibilities will only do harm if she IS accosted by the pervert.} Alice told him. He sighed, "Bella, please," he saw her jaw set and her arms fold, "let me put it like this, his 'fantasy' involves you tied up with climbing rope and forced onto your knees." Her mouth opened in shock. He hoped he hadn't gone too far, she was obviously an innocent and he didn't know which he hoped for… that she was too naïve to understand, and therefore may not take it as seriously as she should… or that she understood and was shocked he would be so vulgar as to tell her.

"The pervert!" she glared out of the car window at the boy. If looks could kill then Mike Newton would be as dead as the two nomads.

"Would you… please," he didn't do humble well but he did his best, "allow me to deal with it?"

"No killing," she told him, wagging her finger in front of his face, "and no permanently maiming," she thought about that and then sighed. "How will you deal with it?"

"I just will let him know that you are spoken for and if he touches you it will go very bad for him."

"Spoken for?" her voice rose an octave.

He felt like he was hitting his head against a brick wall while swimming against the current. He looked into her rich brown eyes, trying to convey his sincerity.

"Aren't you?" he breathed.

Her pupils dilated, her breathing increased and every one of the vampires in the car could smell her heightened arousal. Emmett, Rose, Alice and Jasper exited the vehicle quickly. He smoothed the backs of his fingers down the side of her face, from temple to chin.

"Stop it," she protested weakly. "I can't think when you do that."

"Now you know how I feel." He told her. She sighed and put her head on his shoulder.

"You confuse me." She admitted, he almost laughed, HE confused HER? He had never met anyone so confusing to him as she was. It wasn't only the fact that he couldn't read her mind, it was that she was so unlike any female he had ever known… though he admitted apart from Esme and Rose the only females he could say he knew with any level of intimacy were the succubae from Alaska.

All of her reactions were wrong. As a human she should be afraid of them, she should shy from their very presence, she should be uncomfortable every time she got close and she should find the touch of their cold dead skin repulsive. He remembered the several times she had pulled him to her side, usually when she was upset, the way she cuddled herself around his arm.

He was grateful for her skewed reactions.

"Would you mind… would it be ok… if I put my arm around your shoulder?" he asked Bella. She blushed and nodded. The bell rang to let them know school was starting in 10 minutes, he opened his door and was just about to head around to hers when she shuffled over and gave him her hand to help her out. He smiled widely and assisted her.

They both put their sweaters and coats on, and he swung both their bags onto his right shoulder and gently threw his left arm over hers. She stiffened, but it was only for a split second, he smiled at her, thrilling at the increase of her heart rate and the trust she was showing him.

"Ready to go in?" he asked, pleased to note the male child had walked off in a huff when he had seen them together.

"Yes," She nodded and they made their way to English Lit.