32

"Carlisle," Edward stepped out of Bella's room as he caught his father's mind heading towards them. Alice, Rose and Esme were busy trying to get Bella's opinion on the scraps of material Alice deemed suitable to wear in the heat of Brazil.

{Son?} his father sent a thought his direction, {Is everything ok with Bella?}

"I'm not sure, can we talk in your office?" he headed down the corridor. Luckily Carlisle's office was only 50 yards away in a direct line. He slumped into a chair and then laughed silently to himself. There was no difference between sitting and standing for a vampire, their muscles…or what passed for muscles in their bodies… did not tire. They were never uncomfortable and as long as their center of gravity was stable then they could stay in the same position for years without bothering to move. Only long practise at blending in with the humans gave the Cullen's and their ilk a reason to sit, lay or move at all. By now it was so ingrained in him that it was almost automatic to sit if there was a chair available. Almost, but not quite, the germ of an idea formed in the back of his mind but his musing was interrupted by the entry of his father.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"How much do you know about the mating bond?" Edward got right to the point.

"That depends, in one way we know a lot, in your case we are working rather in the dark. We know how the bond effects you but can't say about Bella, with her being human. Why?" He sat behind his desk and steepled his fingers under his chin, the light of new discovery in his eyes.

"Something is changing. I don't know why but it's getting stronger. Bella sent me to hunt yesterday and as soon as I got to the edge of the forest the pull of the bond gradually grew stronger until it was actually painful. By the time I found a herd of mule deer about 9 miles east the pain in my chest was almost as bad as when Bella threatened to leave."

"What about Bella?" he asked. "who was with her?"

"Rose was. Bella was asleep when I went and Rose said she started being restless and clutching her chest only minutes after I left. I was back within 20 minutes, you can be sure as soon as I felt it I killed the first things I came across to hurry back, I didn't wait to find tastier prey."

Theory after theory flooded Carlisle's mind, he dismissed most of them because of Edward's reaction alone. If Bella had been the only one to react he would have put it down to her being human, but as Edward was affected, and Carlisle knew that the bond had not acted that way for himself back in 1911, he could not actually say what was happening. {Fascinating,} Edward frowned as the thought crossed Carlisle's mind. Sometimes the scientist in him was predominant when it should be the father.

"I wonder what Alice felt?" Carlisle suddenly asked.

"Alice?" his father's mind was moving so fast that even Edward was having trouble following his thoughts.

"When we were telling Bella our life stories, Alice mentioned that she had had visions of Jasper for years before she ever saw him. She knew he would be her mate, but she had to wait until the right time for them to meet. Jasper was still in Maria's clutches at the time, she had to wait both until he left and Peter worked out that his depression was greatest after feeding. I am wondering, you see, if knowing you are mated and still 'seeing' your mate but not being together, has any effect. When I left Esme I was in pain, but I thought it was just me, I had been very careful not to actually touch her and strengthen the bond as soon as I recognised who she was to me. Alice had no such doubts, she knew that not only were she and Jasper mates, but that once they came together then they would never part. I just wonder if she felt the pain the way we had?"

"No." Jasper stepped into the room. "We have spoken about this and no, though the bond on her side was fully formed, I didn't even know about her. She never felt pain, maybe because we hadn't met? Maybe because it was just her? Bella is… uncomfortable." He added as an aside.

Edward got to his feet, his hands automatically went to his chest, expecting pain. But there was none, he looked at his newest brother.

"Alice has got to the underwear." He was glad he couldn't blush. The thought of Bella in some of the scraps of lace and silk that Alice had ordered was enough to make his body react. Neither of the two others made any comment, not even silently, about his condition.

"How long will you be on the isle?" Carlisle asked, changing the subject.

"I don't know, she needs rest and to be looked after for a change. I was thinking maybe a month, or two?" he looked to his sire.

"Well, she couldn't be in better hands son," his father said proudly. "though you don't have as much practical practise at medicine as I, you probably know even more than I do." Edward doubted it but he felt warm knowing his parental figure was proud of him. "Are you taking the jet?"

"I thought about it, but Bella doesn't know about it yet, you know how uncomfortable she is with such things, I thought we would go commercial, First Class, of course!" the other two chuckled.

"Actually she does know, Rose mentioned it once." Jasper said, "But I agree, it would probably be better if you went commercial this time."

His phone buzzed, he looked at the screen, Bella: 'HELP! How did she get these things so fast?'

He laughed and sent her a message back 'What do you mean fast, these are the things that were in my closet, the ones she ordered yesterday haven't arrived yet.' All three men laughed as they heard the loud groan from Bella's room.

"He's gone." Emmett jumped into the hospital room through the window and Alice closed it again quickly before the biting temperature outside disturbed the sleeping girl. He immediately walked over to his wife and touched her hand. A subtle tension left them both as their bond was reinforced by proximity. If Edward had not been watching for it he doubted he would have seen it.

Emmett had been assigned to follow the lawyer and make sure he did not try and get any more information on the Cullen/Hale/Swan families, but the man had seemed eager to leave and forget everything. When he had been at the police station with Renée, Jasper had broken into his hotel room and infected his laptop with a worm programme, if their names ever touched the system the whole thing would go into meltdown. He had even sent an infected email to the law firm in Chicago embedding the same worm there. If anyone started digging then the Cullens would be notified immediately and the systems would irretrievably crash.

"Any trouble?" Jasper asked, he had had a few chosen words with Jenks in Seattle about loyalty and pain, reinforcing the man's terror and ensuring his silence. His reaction had made the lawyer suspicious, he should have acted normal and pretended to do the search and just not found anything instead of almost screaming in fear at the mention of their names.

"No, none. He stayed in the airport hotel overnight and caught the first flight out this morning. He seemed very happy to be returning home and he never even tried to contact Jenks." Jasper nodded, he knew that.

Edward looked around the room. Jasper and Alice were stood side by side near the window. Their bodies were touching from her shoulder to hip. Rose was sat in the armchair and Emmett was now crouched beside it, his hand resting on hers as it sat on the arm. Carlisle was stood beside the head of Bella's bed, as she slept on oblivious, Esme stood right in front of him leaning back into her spouse's body. His mind flickered through thousands of days, millions of memories of such contacts. He looked down, rather shocked to see that his hand, which had been resting on the counterpane was now under it holding Bella's hand.

There was something unconscious and necessary about touching your mate, it was probably the only thing a vampire did that was instinctive unless he was hunting.

Carlisle's hand came forward and drifted lightly over Esme's arm, Alice leant into Jasper one thirty-second of an inch more and Emmett's fingers intertwined with Rose's, Bella moved their hands onto her warm stomach and brought her other hand across in her sleep so both hands were holding his. He remembered back at the start of all this when she would cuddle around his arm as she lay down. He had thought that she must be uncomfortable, what with him being made out of a granite-like substance, but now he realised that she had just been acting on the bond, needing as much contact as she could get to soothe her body's craving.

"Don't let the pig eat the book," everyone in the room swapped bemused smiles at her sleep-talking. Why was it that the one person who's mind he WANTED to read, he was barred from?

"Why Bella?" Emmett said before Rose nudged him and shut him up.

"Because, it's blue." She answered in a tone that suggested that it was obvious, she turned onto her side, dragging Edward's hand even further under the covers as she curled around it.

{Hey Bro, where's your hand?} Emmett asked, waggling his eyebrows.

"I'll tell you where it will be if you don't shut up." He hissed under his breath.

{It's a long time since we did some proper wrestling and I've been training with Jasper, you won't find me so easy now.} Emmett's thoughts sounded cocky.

A vision from Alice forced its way onto the screen on the back of his eyes, Bella and Emmett stood either side of the huge rock at the side of the house, arm wrestling. Bella was obviously newborn in the vision as Emmett strained mightily but was not an irresistible force to her immovable object. Bella gave an exaggerated yawn and inspected the nails on her left hand, the wedding ring looked rather dull compared to the way her skin glittered in the sun's rays. Suddenly Bella moved, the huge boulder split. A chunk about 1/4 of a ton slid off and landed on Emmett's foot as his hand crashed down onto the surface, propelled there by Bella's. Rose and Alice ran to congratulate her as Emmett sulked, flexing his fingers as if they were bruised.

Unlike previous times when visions of Bella being immortal had made him determined to keep her human, the sheer brilliance of her as a vampire made him pause. The thought that she was tougher than Emmett and so not prone to accident or disease finally, totally sunk in. He had thought that he had considered it before, but the sight of her so vital and alive, even though dead, was just the push he needed to truly consider it.

{It's about time!} Alice thought. {I wondered what it would take to get through your thick skull!} she gave him a smug look and several other visions that she had been holding back came to him. Bella dancing in what looked like a nightclub, the men around all looking at him with envy as he held her in his arms. Bella and he snowboarding in Alaska, skiing in Aspen, cliff diving from the La Quebrada cliffs, and running through what looked like a local forest, barefoot and hunting.

The more he saw the more he wanted it. That future with her, by his side in everything without fear of death or pain.

{When?} he asked.

{I'm not entirely certain, but within a couple of years at the most, if you let it happen.} She told him.

Bella rolled back onto her back and winced in her sleep as her still tender scalp scraped against the pillow.

{If she wants it, I will turn her.} he promised. Alice beamed.

"The nurse is coming." He said. Alice, Rose, Emmett and Jasper jumped out of the window as they had all been seen leaving earlier. Esme moved to sit in the armchair and Carlisle followed her. Edward didn't move.

"Oh, sorry Dr. Cullen, I didn't realise you were still here." The nurse looked at them and then at the sleeping girl and frowned. Edward could see that she had come in with the sole object of making him leave, but couldn't with Carlisle there.

"It's ok, Mary." Carlisle said. "I did her obs about 5 minutes ago." She retreated nodding her head in thanks and moved onto Charlie's room.

{We are all going to hunt.} Alice told Edward, he relayed it to his parents and Esme kissed her husband on the lips and slipped out through the window to join them. Carlisle had hunted that morning so felt no need to go again.

While Bella slept on oblivious Edward shared his observations with Carlisle. The older man agreed that even now, he felt a pull towards the east where his mate was hunting, not a compulsion to follow, or pain at separation, but he guessed that if he needed to he could find her just by following that instinct. Edward asked if he had any more ideas about why his and Bella's bond was… tightening… for lack of a better phrase, but he hadn't formed any theory as yet that met all the facts.

In the next room Charlie groaned in his sleep. The nurse had been checking his vitals and had knocked into the bed. Carlisle slipped out of Bella's room and to her father's to ensure that he wasn't any worse off for the bump.

"Edward," Bella pulled his hand more, trying to wrap herself around his arm as she had done several times before, "please, Edward." He scanned the minds in the hospital and noting that no one was planning on disturbing them for a couple of hours, he slipped off his shoes and jacket and joined her on the bed. As soon as he lay down Bella wrapped herself around his upper body like a tortilla, her temperature and heartbeat rose as she touched him.

Kicking the bedclothes until her leg was free she threw it over his body. Only her right arm and leg were on the bed, the rest was covering him. His body reacted as her aroused scent thickened the air, she moved against him, what Emmett would have crudely described as 'dry humping' but there was nothing dry about her, he could almost feel the liquid her body produced to lubricate her passage as she moved faster and faster against his hard leg, his name floated on a breathy sigh and a moan of pleasure burst from her as she neared climax.

Oh God she was killing him! He held her left leg to his aching member as she moved, the friction wasn't quite enough but it was close, he felt a tightening in his groin that spread to his stomach and back, and as Bella tipped herself over the precipice the smell and sounds of her pushed him over too.

He had never in his life felt anything approaching how he felt at that moment. If asked to describe it he wouldn't have been able to. His body felt out of his control as a strange lassitude flooded him, but at the same time he had never felt so wired. Awe, gratitude to the beauty laid on top of him, relief from the sexual tension that had been slowly building for weeks, and an eagerness to feel it again all mixed with the uncomfortable feeling of his sticky venomous excretion and embarrassment that he had acted like a human teenage boy without control. He knew that his father at least would know what had happened in the room, and Alice too. Thank God Emmett wasn't around!

Alice slipped into the room silently and left him a clean change of clothes and left again, the whole visit taking no more than 3 seconds, and he was grateful to note that she didn't even look at him as he rested on the bed.

He slipped out from beneath Bella, she groaned and tried to grab him in her sleep, stopping him from moving.

"I'll be right back, love," he promised. Her face still had the frown upon it when he returned to the room less than a minute later. He made a resolution not to join her in bed again while ever they were in the hospital. He did sit as close to the bed as physically possible and allowed her once again to cuddle herself around his arm, the smell of her arousal slowly dissipated and he managed to force his mind into thinking of something other than what had happened.

He still had not told her about their wedding present from the family. Though he had not visited the cottage since it was finished, he had seen it in their minds. He couldn't wait to lay beside Bella in the wrought iron four poster bed. He groaned as he felt himself growing aroused again at the thought. Esme jumped in through the window, her eyes much lighter and her thoughts satisfied with the hunt. He could see that Rose and Emmett had decided on other post hunt activities and hadn't even made it back to the house before allowing their base natures to act, reinforcing their bond and allowing them a closeness they had denied themselves since the accident.

Alice and Jasper had at least waited until they got to the house. Esme didn't mention Alice's side trip to bring him fresh clothes, and if she bothered to notice that he had changed, she was kind enough not to even think it.

Carlisle entered the room and crossed to stand by his mate, immediately touching her. The three of them stood silent vigil for four hours until the nursing staff started waking patients ready for breakfast.

"I don't think we should leave just yet." Bella didn't want to look Edward in the eye when she said it, but it had to be said.

Edward had revealed that he had booked flights for them both to Brazil flying out the evening after. As she had just been told that she could be discharged in the morning, if everything kept on the way it was, so he thought that she could not really object to it. But, and in her mind it was a big BUT, Charlie had developed a chest infection which meant he would have an extended stay. The pain he caused himself every time he coughed was tremendous, even though he tried to hide it.

Esme and Carlisle had assured her that they would look after him when she was away, but until he was out of hospital and she saw him safely installed in the Cullen house, she didn't want to leave.

"You should go, you look pale." Charlie gasped, trying not to sneeze as the cannula sprayed oxygen up his nose.

"I always look pale," she pointed out.

"I will be fine." Charlie tried again. "You two go and enjoy yourselves, have some fun!" he tried to sit up and Carlisle helped to lift him as easily as if he was a baby. Charlie grunted in pain as he settled back against the pillows.

"Charlie will be out on Friday anyway," Alice added, "You will only just have reached the island by the time he is discharged, he will be fine, I promise."

"Please?" she looked at her husband, trying hard not to think of WHY he may want them to be alone together. Though she had married him she wasn't sure she was really ready for the next step in intimacy, but the bond she felt fastening her to him was making things move along at a frightening pace. The longer she could delay consummating the marriage, the better prepared she thought she would be.

Edward sighed but got his phone out of his pocket and changed the date. "We can fly out Saturday." He told her, she smiled, relieved, she had four more days.

"Thank you." She squeezed his free hand. She had noticed of late that she didn't feel right unless she was touching him in some manner. Not necessarily lots of contact, just their fingers brushing was enough to alleviate the ache. She guessed that he was feeling something similar as he reached for her just as fast as she reached for him if they were separated for any time.

When you added it all up though, she and Edward had only known each other for just over two weeks. Two weeks and they were already married! She could only imagine the rumours that were doing the rounds of the small town. It wasn't even enough time to get pregnant!

She had never thought that she would be the type of person to get married young, in fact to be totally honest, she had doubted she ever would marry. She wasn't exactly good at making friends; she hadn't tried to make any since Alice. At her schools in Phoenix she had been seen as the weird girl, the popular crowd had ignored her or bullied her, the unpopular ones had been just as bad when their overtures of friendship had been rebuffed. She had been alone for her whole life.

She looked around the room. Charlie lay on the bed, of course, but the other seven people in the room had become as dear to her as he was. Edward, of course was more than dear, but she could honestly say that everyone she loved was in that room with her. The bonds that tied the family together now included her, and her father. She had never felt the way she did now, and she wished that it would never have to change. If she and Edward left to go to Brazil, there was no telling what might happen while they were away, and she was scared that something would change and the feeling she had now would never happen again!

"Hey," Jasper touched her shoulder, allowing his talent to penetrate whatever barrier she had, calm flooded her. "Feel better?" he asked, she gave him a wan smile and nodded.

"I just don't want to leave yet." She confessed.

"I would have thought that you would be eager to be alone!" Emmett waggled his eyebrows, but again the thought of what would happen made her uneasy. Jasper frowned, Edward looked at him and then at Alice and then at Bella. She blushed as she guessed that the thing she didn't want him to know, he now did.

"If you will excuse us?" Edward took her hands and helped her out of the chair, without really giving her an option. He led her to her room next door and closed the door behind them.

{Some use that is,} she thought, {I'm sure they can hear us just as well with the door closed as they could have if we had stayed in Charlie's room!}

"Bella, I hope…" he ran his hand through his hair and started to pace the room. Again she felt the pull towards him become stronger. Seemingly without thought his hand reached for hers and she relaxed slightly as contact was made.

He knelt next to the chair and took her other hand as well, his thumbs stroking the back of both hands as he met her gaze. "I would never make you do anything you are not comfortable with, you know that don't you?"

She blushed and lowered her eyes. "I thought…"

"You thought I was trying to get you alone so we could make love?" his voice was low and husky, she felt the muscles in her stomach tighten at the thought. "Believe me, I want to make love to you, over and over. But it isn't as simple as that."

For some reason she felt disappointed, did this mean they wouldn't…do IT? Even though she had been reluctant to do… IT… only ten minutes before suddenly she wanted to know why they couldn't.

"There are a lot of things to consider," Edward told her, raising her chin with his finger so she met his gaze again. "I'm not 100% sure that I can control my strength, all it would take would be one slip and I could kill you. Do you understand?" She was sure that if he had the ability to blush he would be bright red. She nodded.

"There hasn't been a documented successful mating between a male vampire and a female human. All Carlisle has been able to find out is that when this has happened before the human has been turned almost immediately and so it becomes a vampire/vampire mating." Eleazar from the Denali Coven had been the best source of information; he had been with the Volturi for centuries before leaving them in the early 1900's, their records on… well just about everything… were extensive.

"So you have to change me?" she asked, frowning.

"No, baby. I didn't say that. All I meant was we have to take this one step at a time. We don't know what is supposed to happen." She felt the warm feeling flood her as he used the term of endearment.

"But it would be easier if you changed me?" she pushed.

"I suppose so, but we don't know for sure. Maybe it will be easier for us if we don't change you! We don't know."

"I just think… we have only known each other for such a short time… I don't feel…"

"Shhh, don't worry. I wanted to take you to the island to REST. Not for anything else. It is beautiful and relaxing there, there is no stress, just sunshine and sandy beaches, trees, waterfalls and exotic birds, there are even pods of dolphins off the coast sometimes, as long as they don't sense me nearby you may even be able to swim with them."

"What about Charlie?" she asked. Edward frowned.

"What about him? He will be fine." He said.

"I meant, why don't we take him with us, he could probably do with the rest even more than me."

"He can't fly yet, they won't allow him until his ribs have healed." Of course. "Should I ask Alice and Jasper to come with us?" he looked hurt even as he suggested it. She had done that! She didn't mean to, it wasn't that she was frightened to be on her own with him. She was just… uncomfortable.

"No. I think we will be fine on our own." She got to her feet, but didn't drop his right hand. "I need to pack if I am leaving this place tomorrow. I can't wait to sleep in a comfortable bed again!" Edward remained on his knees for a few seconds, trying to look into her eyes, but she pulled away slightly and he got to his feet and followed her to the bed, where her backpack was sat, waiting to be filled.