Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.

A/N: 100 REVIEWS? You guys are spectacular! (I'm trying to use new adjectives to show what you mean to me.) But, really, thank you all SO MUCH for reading this story and sticking with it for 14 chapters. I know there have been some slow parts and we've only just now gotten to the start of Edward and Bella's relationship, but I really appreciate you all giving it a chance. In my plans (but they seriously are subject to change), the story will pick up a bit.

On another note, I heard from some newcomers with this last chapter, but nearly as many as I'd hoped. There are so many more alerts sent out than people reviewing. I want to know why you all like this story so much that you want to be alerted the second I update. So for this chapter, I want you all to tell me your favorite part. I'd love to hear from every single person, but I realize that's a highly unlikely goal, so I'll really hope for just 5 new reviewers. That's a tiny, tiny fraction of the amount who are supposedly reading the story. So who wants to help a girl reach her dreams?

Enjoy…

-perfectshadeofdarkblue

Best Definition of Good Intentions

15 – Have No Fear for Giving In

After a long, warm shower to ease the chill of the rain out of her bones, Bella returned downstairs where the rest of her surrogate was waiting. Carlisle, who'd returned from work during Bella's shower, was seated on a couch in the living room, surrounded by Alice, Emmett and Edward. Making her way down the stairs, while pulling her still damp hair into a pony tail, Bella heard random shouts from them.

"Van Gough!" Emmett's voice boomed.

"Picasso!" Alice's voice was tinkered several octaves higher.

Bella heard a laughter she was unfamiliar with. Was there someone else with them? The musical notes of verbal happiness made her yearn to be in on the joke – to know what had caused such beauty to escape a person's lips.

"Rembrandt." Carlisle's voice was smooth and sure, projected at a much lower volume than the others.

Rounding the corner, Bella made it into the room just in time to see the blue screen on the television disappear only to be replaced by Alex Trebek's face.

She laughed to herself, watching the anticipation take over the room.

All eyes were glued to the screen as the contestant answered, "Who is Rembrandt?"

"Correct," Trebek judged. "And now we'll take a break. When we return, Charlotte will have control of the board."

Alice and Emmett groaned as Carlisle smiled smugly at them. The same musical laughter reached Bella's ears again and she turned her head to see from whom it was coming. Surprised, she smiled to herself when she saw Edward's head tilted back with laughter his priority.

"You're killing me, Dad," Emmett complained, throwing a pillow across the room. His father caught it adeptly in his hands before it struck its target, his face.

"Maybe this will inspire you to take an art history class come fall," Carlisle suggested.

This only elicited another groan from Emmett.

Musical laughter swarmed again, but this time it was accompanied by the chime of Alice's.

Shaking her head, Bella walked into the kitchen where Esme was finishing the final preparations for dinner.

"Can I help with anything?" Bella offered, admiring Esme's busy hands moving across the granite countertops.

"Bella, honey!" Esme exclaimed, turning around. "How was your shower? Are you feeling better now?"

"I'm feeling fine," Bella brushed off the older woman's concern.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it. But if you start feeling the least bit unwell, you let Carlisle know so he can make sure it's nothing serious. Heaven forbid something like this from happening again, but, just in case, please remember to bring your cell phone with you from now on."

"Don't worry, Esme, I'm fine. There's nothing to be concerned about." Bella knew those words would have no affect on Esme's demeanor, so she brought up the more pressing matter, to her at least. "Esme…"

"Yes, Bella?"

"I want to apologize for before," Bella started looking down.

"You have nothing to be sorry about," Esme unconditionally forgave, grabbing Bella's hands.

Looking up, Bella said, "Yes, I do. I know you and Alice are only trying to help me. You have been nothing but kind to me and have helped me tremendously lately, and I was extremely disrespectful before. I'm so sorry I lost my temper."

The words came out in a rush. Silence hung in the air and blush crept over Bella's cheeks. She looked up at Esme, waiting for a response only to see that her eyes were glistening. Quickly, Esme pulled the shocked Bella into a hug.

"Only you, Bella, would be concerned about offending another person in a time like this. Your selflessness makes me happy I consider you a true part of my family." Pulling away from the hug now, she said with finality, "Consider it forgiven and forgotten, dear."

"Thank you," Bella whispered as the red stain remained on her cheeks.

"Now, have you thought any more about what I said?" Esme spoke gently. "About talking to Charlie?"

"Actually, I thought maybe I'd stop by my house tomorrow to talk to him. I thought we could have dinner together."

"That sounds like an excellent idea, Bella." Esme motioned for Bella to follow her over to the refrigerator. Opening the door, she continued, "In fact, I know just what you should eat."

On a shelf inside the refrigerator, Bella could see the lasagna that Esme had been making earlier in the day for Charlie. In disbelief, she looked up at Esme who responded with a wink and sly smile.

"Even though, I'm going to see Charlie tomorrow, I'd still like to stay here. I don't think I'm ready to be alone in my house yet – if that's alright with you," Bella added to the conversation, seriously.

"Of course that's alright with me. You are welcome to stay here as long as you would like. However, I think it would be best to talk to your father about that. We both know he'll agree to letting you stay here, but he might appreciate hearing you ask permission for it." Bella nodded, acquiescing and grabbed the dish Esme was handing her. Esme called out, "Alright, everyone! Dinner time!"

Commotion broke out in the living room as Emmett, Edward and Alice hurriedly followed Carlisle to the table. Without drawing too much attention to himself, Emmett dragged the extra chair away from the table. After arriving home from the beach, he had explained to Esme that he had brought Rosalie home so that they could enjoy a private family dinner. He promised to have Rosalie come over another night that week to make up for it. In order to keep up his tough guy appearance, he'd already taken care of the extra place his mother had set, but he'd forgotten the chair.

Emmett flashed Esme a big, appreciative smile when he realized she'd cooked his favorite meal for dinner. He really was going to miss his family when he left for college at the end of the summer. Looking around the table to memorize every minute detail of the loved ones that surrounded him, Emmett almost wished that he was sharing this night with Rosalie – he considered her family after all. But selfishness won out as he realized it meant he wouldn't have the share the attention around the table with Rosalie, who never was very good at sharing attention.

Once everyone's plates were piled high with food, Carlisle spoke. "How's your ankle, Bella? Edward said you took quite a tumble in the rain earlier."

Bella grimaced at the attention that now flooded her. She turned to glare at Edward before answering. "It's fine, really. It wasn't nearly as bad as Edward makes it sound. I've certainly fallen much worse before."

At the sight of Bella's scowl, Edward tried to suppress the laughter, but didn't succeed as the sound escaped his lips.

The only person to actually notice was Bella because the rest of the table was erupting in laughter.

Surprisingly, Emmett was the first person to regain a regular breathing pattern. "Oh, Bella! Remember that time you tripped going down the stairs in the movie theater and ended up rolling all the way down the aisle?"

Another round of laughter ensued as Bella hid her crimson face behind her hands.

Dinner continued in much the same fashion with embarrassing stories being shared around the table. Eventually the meal came to a quiet close as everyone's stomachs were full and sore from laughing. Soon the table was clear and the dishes were washed and Carlisle and Esme left the kids to themselves while they greeted friends returning from vacation.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Alice made a mad dash from the room, followed close behind by Emmett. Edward and Bella were left in their dust confused. It wasn't until they heard the yells that they were able to move.

"Come on, Alice. It's my turn this time!" Emmett bellowed.

"No way!" Alice chimed back.

On the couch, Alice was curled into a ball while Emmett was reaching over the back of the couch trying to pull her arms out from underneath her.

"Alice!"

"No way, Emmett!" she repeated. "You know the rules! First to the remote gets to pick the movie!"

She turned her head and lightly bit the exposed skin at Emmett's wrist. He pulled his arms away quickly and Alice took the opportunity to escape. She darted around the other side of the coffee table, putting as much furniture between her brother and her.

"But you're going to pick some lame chick flick!" Emmett tried to argue.

"So? You'd pick some dumb action movie if you had your way!"

While Alice recounted all the bad movie choices Emmett had picked over the last few months, he stealthily made his way around the couch and sneaked up on Alice. At the last second, she caught on to his plan and started running away, shrieking. Emmett tackled her onto the couch and tried flipping her over to steal the remote away. Despite his massive strength, Alice actually managed to hold her own in the wrestling match.

"I think this is going to be a better show that the movie," Edward said, turning to Bella. He motioned to the love seat. "Shall we take our front row seats?"

Bella smiled in response, with a small laugh, and sat down, curling her legs underneath her. Edward took the seat next to each other, but after a few minutes of observing the match, the two became bored.

"Come on, Emmett. She's a fifth of your size – steal the remote already!" Edward urged on.

"You think I'm not trying to do that?!" Emmett shouted back, breathlessly.

Alice, hardly winded, just laughed. "Here, Bella! Catch!"

Bella was caught off guard as the remote went sailing through the air towards her. Edward watched as the "deer in headlights" expression registered on her face. She made no move to catch the remote aimed at her forehead, so swiftly, he pulled it out of the air with inches to spare. He handed it over to Bella, who mumbled her thanks.

"Seriously, Edward? You really just handed over the remote? We could have picked the movie!" Emmett was frustrated beyond belief.

"Come on, Emmett. You didn't really think it'd be fair for Bella to get injured twice in one day, did you?" Edward defended.

"Wouldn't be the first time," Emmett mumbled, signaling defeat.

"I heard that! You should be nice to me because I usually don't pick chick flicks, but if you want to keep up that attitude I'm sure I could find How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days around here," Bella started to move toward the DVD collection.

"No!" Edward and Emmett shouted together.

Edward jumped to his feet. "Let me help pick out a movie."

Together they compiled a series of choices to present to Alice and Emmett.

"Okay, your options are…" Bella started, holding a stack of movies behind her back.

Edward grabbed the first off the top of the stack. "The Notebook."

Alice clapped her hands and Emmett made a gagging noise.

"Next, we have…"

"…Fight Club."

This time the reaction was reversed. And so it continued until finally, everyone settled on one movie – National Treasure.

While Edward readied the DVD, Bella took her usual place on the love seat. She leaned against one of the arm rests and stretched her legs across the other while pulling a blanket over her. Alice and Emmett also fell into their places on the couch.

Once the DVD was ready, Edward turned down the lights and went to sit on the floor, leaning against the love seat.

"Edward, why are you sitting on the floor?" Bella asked, curiously.

"Where else would you like me to sit?" he asked, turning around.

It took a second for Bella to realize what he was saying. "Oh, sorry! I'm forgot we had an extra person. Here."

Bella slid over so she was only taking up half of the loveseat, letting Edward have the other.

"Thanks,"

"You're welcome," Bella said, shifting as she tried to get comfortable.

Throughout the first few minutes of the movie, Bella continued to fidget, trying to ease herself into the couch as comfortably as possible.

"Are you alright?" Edward asked quietly, concerned as to why she couldn't sit still.

"Yea – I'm just trying to get comfortable. Sorry," she mumbled back.

"Do you want to spread your legs out? You can put them over me if you want. I don't mind. Or I can go back to the floor," Edward offered.

"No, no. I'm fine," Bella insisted.

"Okay. Well, if you change your mind, my offer stands."

Bella smiled in response and finally settled back to enjoy the movie.

When the movie was finally over, Emmett carried a sleeping Alice upstairs to her room. He laid her on her bed before gently shaking her awake and telling her to change out of her jeans and go to sleep. They whispered their goodnights before he returned downstairs to take Bella to bed and wake Edward.

Half way down the stairs, he was met by Edward, who was carrying Bella in his arms.

"Want me to get her?" Emmett offered.

"No, I'm alright. Besides, she hardly weighs anything." Edward turned sideways to pass Edward on the stairs.

"Well, somebody's been working out!" Emmett teased, punching Edward lightly in the shoulder. "Take her the guest room; I already put Alice in her room."

Edward nodded his head and wished Emmett a pleasant before ducking into the guest bedroom to put Bella to bed.

She stirred quietly as he arms loosened around her. Tossing and shaking her head, she mumbled, "No…no. No."

"Bella?" Edward nudged her shoulder, but she remained asleep.

As he backed out of the room, Bella awoke frantically calling his name. "Edward!"

Rushing back to her side, Edward sat next to her. "Bella, what's wrong?"

Bella took a deep breath and sat up. "Nothing. I was having a nightmare again. I'm fine."

"Again?"

Sheepishly, she admitted, "Yea. They're pretty common now."

"Do you want me to stay with you for awhile?" He offered, not wanting to leave her alone with her nightmares.

"You don't need to. I'm pretty tired anyway – too much excitement today," she said with a laugh. "I'm just going to go to bed now. Night, Edward."

Edward was hesitant to leave at her words. She may have been right saying he didn't need to stay, but that didn't mean he didn't want to. He wanted to make sure she was okay, and if she wasn't, he wanted to help. He debated staying, anyway, but noticed how tired she really was when she yawned. He settled on a compromise, "Feel free to come upstairs if you have another nightmare. Chances are I'll be awake, too – they're pretty common for me, too, lately."

Crawling under the covers, it again took Bella several minutes to try to find comfort. She tossed and turned before giving up on sleep, deciding she should take Edward up on his offer. She just hoped he wouldn't be asleep yet.

A/N: I had meant to post this over the weekend, but time got away from me in my excitement for football season. YAY! Anyone want to share their favorite teams?