Note: After being gently reprimanded by a few people for yesterday's cliffie, :) I thought I'd get this chapter out as quickly as possible, by way of apology for my persistent cliffhanger abuse. As an added bonus, it doesn't end in yet another cliffhanger. It was difficult, but I made a supreme effort.

Bella:

It seemed like providence, that's all I can say. It was the only vehicle to be seen, and it was a pick-up. The only people besides Edward and I were the two men just leaving the check-out counter, so it must be theirs, and they were getting ready to leave. And most serendipitous of all, Edward wasn't paying attention to me.

I didn't even think. I slipped out of the car, keeping low to the ground and climbed into the bed of the pick-up at an angle that kept me hidden from the entrance. I had just enough time to drag a tarp over most of my body, when I heard the two men approaching, speaking in a mixture of Spanish and English. I nearly screamed when I felt something settle on my foot; one of the men had put his twelve-pack of beer into the bed, right on it. He appeared to notice nothing amiss, and I felt the dip of the truck as they climbed in to the cab.

I inhaled noisily in relief when we drove off, not realizing that I had been holding my breath. The truck accelerated rapidly, and for once I was glad that the driver of a vehicle I was in was speeding. It made an immediate right turn, and then kept going straight for a while. As the adrenaline wore off, I congratulated myself on my masterful escape. I, clumsy Isabella Swan, had pulled it off quickly, quietly, and without tripping. James Bond would be proud.

Of course I didn't believe for a moment that I would actually succeed in escaping Edward. I didn't even want to. If I was lucky, it would only be a matter of an hour at most before he caught up with me, and that was fine. I wanted to be caught. After I had spoken to Alice. All I needed was to get away long enough to find a phone, and actually have the time to use it for a change.

The longer we drove, the more time I had to think about my escape plan, and the more I thought about my escape plan, the more it looked like my escape might have been a really stupid move on my part. We were, after all, pretty far from civilization. During the last hour of our trip, Edward and I had passed exactly one car, and driven through two towns, if they could even be called that, both no more than a mile long each, at most. And aside from the gas station I had just left, nothing we had driven by had been open. I had no idea where I would end up, or if there would even be a phone I could use at the other end. I hadn't even grabbed my backpack. I had started keeping change for the phone in my pocket, just in case an opportunity to sneak a call arose, but it wouldn't help me if I ended up at someone's residence in the middle of nowhere in the middle of the night. Wouldn't that be a treat to explain, me without even an ID on me. Not to mention that I knew nothing about these two men I had so recklessly gotten into the truck with. I had no guarantees that they would help me, and they might even harm me.

It was possible that I had just placed myself in the middle of some serious trouble.

The truck turned right again, drove a few more minutes, slowed, and then came to a stop. I felt the bed shift, and two doors slammed. I had pulled my foot out from beneath the twelve-pack and pulled it in toward me, but apparently it was still sticking out from under the tarp.

"Mira, hombre…it looks like we have a stowaway," one of the men said.

I stiffened, and then let out a shriek when a hand fastened around my ankle. I lunged out from underneath the tarp, scaring both guys into taking a step back. "I'm sorry," I stammered, my voice high with fright. "Uh…I'm sorry I hitched a ride without asking…I didn't have time…I…can I borrow a phone, please?" I was stumbling over my words.

Both guys looked at me, startled. "Are you OK, mija?" The older one said with a look of concern on his face.

"Yes, I am fine," I replied, trying to sound calm and failing. "Please, I'll explain later if you want, just let me borrow a phone." I was starting to sound a little frantic.

The older guy turned to the house. "Yolanda!" he yelled. "Could you bring out the phone? Yolanda!" The front door opened, and the sounds of revelry spilled out into the darkened yard. A short woman with long black hair and a thick waist walked out onto the porch.

"Stop yelling, pendejo, you'll wake the neighbors," she called out good-naturedly. This was evidently a joke, since as far as I could tell, there were no neighbors. "Who is that?" she asked, finally noticing me.

"She wants to borrow a phone pretty bad, vieja, could you bring it?"

"I have it right here," she said reaching into her pocket and starting toward me.

She never made it to the bottom of the steps, brought to a stop by the roaring approach of a car going far too fast. We all heard it at the same time, and turned in unison. For a moment we were all illuminated by the headlights, and then the car slewed to the side in a spray of dirt, and came to a stop. It sat there for a moment, idling.

The passenger door swung open.

No lights came on inside the car, and it was too dark to see in. I didn't need to see inside the car, though, or even recognize it; I knew it was Edward. So much for having an hour. It didn't feel like more than twenty minutes had passed since I had left him at the gas station.

The four of us stood frozen, staring toward the open car door. I finally turned to the woman. "Never mind…I won't need that phone after all," I said, sounding so defeated that the younger man finally moved. Coming toward me, he kept his eyes on the Volvo.

"Is everything ok?" he asked kindly, looking at me. "Do you need help?"

A deep, low growl rumbled through the night. The two men and the woman, joined by two more people on the porch curious as to what was going on outside, looked out into the darkness beyond the car with trepidation, confused as to what the sound was, and where it was coming from.

I knew exactly where it was coming from, and needed to get it the hell out of here before things went horribly wrong. "No, I don't," I said, trying to sound reassuring, and backing toward the Volvo. "I don't need help. Thank you for asking, though, I truly appreciate it. I am so sorry for the inconvenience." With that, I ducked into the car, and slammed the door. I was about to turn toward Edward and speak when I stopped, something in the car having caught my eye, briefly illuminated by the porch light as we drove by.

Neatly folded, and precisely placed in the middle of the dashboard in front of me, lay the tie Edward had used to bind my wrists with two nights ago. The threat implied by this gesture was crystal clear: I was one wrong move away from being restrained again.

I knew from experience that it was better not to speak until Edward was ready, and that he would let me know he was ready by giving me the mother of all tongue-lashings. We drove in an uncomfortable silence for what seemed like ages before he finally spoke, his voice unsteady.

"You will never, ever do anything like that again."

Knowing he was only getting warmed up and didn't expect an answer from me yet, I kept quiet, staring straight ahead at the road stretching into the darkness beyond our headlights.

"Is that clear?" he ground out.

Oh. I was expected to give an answer. "Crystal," I said evenly, noticing with some surprise how calm I sounded. And felt. It seemed that regular exposure to Edward's ire had a desensitizing effect. I was only a little frightened, and I managed to hide it quite well, or so I thought.

He drew in an unsteady breath and pulled off to the side of the road. Uh-oh. That was a bad sign. Edward didn't usually have problems with driving a straight line while reading me the riot act. He could multi-task like whoa. He could keep his eyes off the road - and fastened on me - much longer than anyone I had ever met, and he could do it without swerving so much as an inch. Edward could probably read a whole book while driving and get to his destination without a scratch on his car. If he needed to pull off the road to chew me out, he must be closer to the edge than I thought. I must be in absolutely epic trouble.

Ok, a little more frightened now, I thought nervously. I turned to him, resigned, preparing for a most unpleasant fifteen minutes of monologue about my irresponsibility. I glanced quickly at the clock on the dash, determined to time him this time, and then looked at his face.

To my utter surprise, he didn't look angry at all, which didn't mean he wasn't of course, but still…I had expected him to reach unsurpassed heights of fury over my most recent escapade. Instead, he took my hand in his own, and spoke to me gently, like a parent lecturing a child.

"Bella, you must promise me not to do something like that again. What you did was extremely dangerous, and I don't just mean to you. We were all extremely lucky, all of us. Those people were very kind, and concerned about you, and it is the only reason they are still alive. Remember Port Angeles? I barely resisted killing those men, and that was then. I am not the same person anymore. When I saw you were missing, I…I went feral. Fortunately there was no one around, and I caught your scent quickly. Bella, if someone had crossed my path while I was in that state…" He was pleading now. "Promise me, not just for your sake or mine, but for the sake of any innocent bystanders, that you won't do something like that again."

I was angry now. How dare he lay this on my doorstep? It wasn't my fault he had control issues.

"Edward, that is not fair," I said with quiet outrage. "You know I can't promise you that. You have no right to keep me from speaking to whomever I want. Don't make me responsible for the safety of others. If you are so worried about hurting them if I run away, then let me call Alice. Problem solved. I am already coming with you freely, Edward. I love you, and I want to be with you, wherever you take me. But I am also going to speak to Alice, whether you like it or not."

He stared at me appraisingly for so long, I thought he wasn't going to say anything. And then he surprised the hell out of me. Again.

"Ok," he sighed. "Promise me you won't try to escape again, and I will let you call Alice when we get to my place. That's the deal. Take it, or…" he nodded meaningfully toward the tie, still lying on the dash.

"Deal," I said quickly, before he could change his mind. It felt like too easy a victory, but I would worry about that later. At least I got to make the rest of the trip with my hands free. I snatched the offending tie off the dash, and stuffed it back into the glove compartment while Edward pulled back onto the road.

"Edward?" I said after a few moments of silence. "What were those people thinking when we were leaving?"

"Before or after the growl?" he asked, shooting me a sideways glance and a lopsided grin.

I returned his smile. "Let's start with before."

He turned serious, and looked away again. "Well, to varying degrees, they all wondered if I was abusing you in some way, and you were trying to run, and were too afraid of me to stand up to me."

That hurt me. It hurt me deeply that anyone would think that of Edward. It shouldn't matter what complete strangers thought, but it did. I thought about Charlie too, and what he wasn't seeing about our relationship. Edward went to great lengths to keep me safe, he would die for me, and most important in a father's book, he refused to do more than kiss me. Charlie should thank his lucky stars, and yet there he was, full of atta-boys and back slaps for Jacob, who, and I had to say this as much as I loved him, had come far closer to crossing the line than Edward ever would, by forcing himself on me repeatedly, even if it was just to kiss me against my will. There was no justice for vampires in this world.

"I hate it when they do that," I said without thinking. I stiffened, realizing I had just implied that I knew of such a misunderstanding occurring before.

"I know," he said quietly.

I turned to him, startled, realizing his words were not in reference to my remark. "What do you mean? What do you know?"

"The woman who gave you the card, back at the gas station that first night. She was watching us, and she was wondering too."

I can't imagine why, but it had never occurred to me that Edward could hear her, and while she was watching, too. It must have hurt him deeply, to be witness to such speculation about himself.

"I'm sorry, Edward. I don't know exactly what you heard, but I am sorry. It can't have been pleasant. But you know it isn't true, right? You understand that they are judging us by standards that don't apply."

"I do, Bella," he sighed. "It took some soul searching, but on some level, I understand that. It is just too easy to forget, sometimes."

"Well, then I am just going to have to keep reminding you," I said fiercely, reaching for his arm and hugging it, pressing my cheek into his shoulder. He took his hand off the steering wheel, freed his arm and put it around my shoulders, hugging me to himself.

"You do that, Bella," he murmured, kissing me softly on the temple. "You just keep doing that."

To be continued…