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Well its Wednesday...

Ch. 10
Small Improvements

Not broken.

I shook my head at the results Billy had handed me. I had taken my suspicions to him to get his professional opinion. He'd agreed with me and we'd sent Edward back to the doctor. But the doctor swore up and down that it wasn't broken, but thankfully did prescribe something stronger than just the regular NSAIDS. But, I had been wrong.

It was a huge blow to my ego, especially since I had been so sure. I closed the file and placed the folder into the filing cabinet. I huffed angrily once the door was safely locked.

"Don't sweat it Bells," Billy said. "I think you made the right decision. It's better to be safe than sorry." Billy nodded at me from the other side of the training office. "You can't expect to always be right. We aren't infallible."

I nodded. "I know. I just felt so certain." Not to mention the fact that I was worried Edward would be angry and think I was just like Tanya.

"I know, and that's okay. You're gut told you to double check and that's exactly what you did. Nothin' wrong with that." Billy fixed some heel and lace pads and tossed them in a jar. "You know Bells," Billy started.

"Yeah?"

"You know that if you ever need to talk, I'm here right?" Billy dropped a dollop of Vaseline on the pad.

"Thanks, Bills." I acknowledged. The possibilities of telling him about Edward and the last few days raced through my mind. About the very first encounter. The water down my shirt. But what good would it really do? Sure it would give me a bit of satisfaction to make Edward actually pay for his rudeness, but at the end of the day it wouldn't change Edward's attitude. Only he could do that, but I was hoping maybe I could help him find his way.

Telling Billy made me think about my father and how outraged he would've been if I'd told him about Edward throwing water at my shirt. I knew he would've thrown words out like sexual assault and 'boys are only after one thing' and all of that.

But to be honest, I didn't really see him as a threat. Sure he'd made me uncomfortable, but Edward was really nothing more than an immature teenage boy. He needed to man up.

"Bella?" Billy's voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "You sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." I gave Billy a smile to reassure him, but he still looked skeptical.

At first, I'd seen Edward as almost predatory, but now it seemed so stupid. He was nothing more than a coward who was scared of getting hurt. Billy studied me carefully, but I smiled and reassured him.

"Really Billy, I'm great."

The next two weeks passed without incident with Edward. Everyday Edward came in for treatments. He didn't make any rude comments or speak much in general. Just followed my instructions. He was surprisingly attentive, too. And despite his improved attitude I still kept my guard up just in case.

It was unnecessary though.

Every passing day I found myself slowly truly forgiving him for the first few days. Of course, like I'd told him I wasn't forgetting, but I could forgive...

"How's your leg feeling today?"

"Pretty good." Edward gave me a small smile. This was standard conversation by now.

"Good. Heat first," I said, pointing to the steaming hydroculator. Edward nodded and proceeded over to the heating station. Edward had gotten off the crutches a week ago and now he just had a brace that kept his knee in place.

Edward situated himself on a table. Normally he would just stare at something or fiddle with his phone, but I wasn't going to have that today.

"So, how were your classes today?" I said.

Edward raised an eyebrow. "Fine. Yours?"

"Bad. I had French history, though." I crinkled my nose. "It's always really boring." Edward furrowed both his brows and moved the heat pad a bit on his knee.

"The one with Mr. Banner? I think my sister's in that class. You might know her. Alice?" The name did sound familiar.

"Oh, is she short with a cute pixie cut?" I laughed, the pieces falling into place. That had been the girl I had mistaken as Edward's girlfriend in Subway when I'd first started. I hadn't realized that there were three of them attending college here.

"Yep, that's the one. She can be a handful sometimes, but we love her anyways," he chuckled. This was probably the most alive I'd seen Edward since the day he had poured water on me. It was nice not to deal with Zombieward for a change.

"I think maybe all family is like that." I confirmed.

"Ha. Probably. Do you have any siblings?"

"Nope, I'm an only child. But I grew up with Jake, so he's probably the closet thing I have to a brother." I admitted.

"Jakes as in Billy's son?"

"Yeah, he's on the soccer team."

"Yeah, he seems like a pretty cool guy."

"Yeah." I didn't know what to say, but I didn't want the conversation to end. The timer for his heat went off and I walked over and did some test on it before I let him do exercises. Usually when I did this, Edward would close his eyes and pretty much act dead. But today, he watched me with the full force of his emerald eyes, holding my gaze more than once.

When I looked into his eyes, I swore for the first time that I saw hope in them.

"Tanya, she meant a lot to you?" I said, out of the blue. I wasn't sure what had spurred me to ask this question, especially now that I'd actually started a conversation with him.

He frowned.

Well, there went that...

"She did," he said, simply.

Extremely vague...

"She meant a lot to the whole team. She was one of us. Just another one of the boys..." he trailed off. Well, at least we were getting somewhere.

"Hmm." I wasn't sure what more to say, because I didn't want to say something that could cause him to be all subdued and such.

"But I am very quickly learning that you aren't anything like Tanya." Edward's voice was soft when he spoke.

He didn't say anything more, but he got up to do his routine stretches. I retreated to my normal seat on a table and watched his exercises. I was glad by the quick progress he was making. He'd be back out in no time, I was sure of it. And maybe, just maybe I could help him find his way too.

Hey guys! Soooo what are your thoughts? I'm hoping this cleared up some things about Bella and what's going on in her mind!

So next chapter...is going to be in Edward's POV. so get ready for that. We shall see what's going on in his mind.

and talking about minds...dont forget to let me know what's going on in yours too ;)

Ill see ya next Wednesday!
-marie