DISCLAIMER: The characters do not belong to me…they are all the creations of the wonderful Stephenie Meyer.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Edward deals with the thoughts of the Volturi while trying to keep his temper.
Just a Thought
Demetri appeared in the doorway with a smug look on his face. 'Hello again, little one.'
I didn't care for the way he was looking at Bella, but there was nothing I could do to stop it at this point. We couldn't be the one to provoke a fight. But if he came anywhere near my wife, I wouldn't waste time worrying about provocation.
Alice brought Bella a stack of clothing. She handed some to me and I helped her put them into the box. I was proud of how strong Bella was being.
'If she bends forward a little more, I'll see what's hiding under her shirt.' Demetri's thought caused a deep growl to rumble through my chest.
"Edward," Bella whispered, keeping her voice low enough so only I would hear her. "His thoughts don't matter. I know they are unpleasant for you, but please ignore them. For me."
She was right. The best thing I could do for her was to keep my temper and stay at her side. I nodded and kissed her cheek.
'I can't believe Aro really let him leave with her. True that he's changed her, but I still think he's an arrogant idiot. One little slip-up on his part and I'll happily take him apart.' Felix
'It wouldn't take much to get him out of the way. She'd probably even thank me for it.' Demetri
"Emmett," I hissed, too low for Bella to pick up.
"What?" Emmett answered.
"I need you to keep me from moving from this spot. I'm dealing with some very unpleasant thoughts and I don't know how long my temper will hold," I replied.
"Is it just the one or both of them?" Emmett asked.
'She does make a damn fine vampire.' Demetri
'I wonder just how tough the big one really is.' Felix
"Both," I hissed as more of their thoughts hit me.
Emmett stood up to his full height, muscles flexing. He stared hard at the demons in the doorway. "Is there something we can do for the two of you?"
"We are only observing," Demetri smirked.
"Then you can observe without sending thoughts to my brother and ogling my little sister," Emmett snarled. "Or would you prefer if we head downstairs and have a chat with Aro about this?"
'Oh, joy! I might just get to find out how tough he is after all.' Felix
I stood up next to Emmett. I was not about to let him fight alone.
"Did I hear my name?" Aro chuckled from the hallway.
Bella jumped at the sound of Aro's voice. She grabbed my hand and clung to my arm. I glanced at Jasper and he nodded the slightest bit. Bella and I were hit with a small wave of calm.
Demetri and Felix moved aside, letting Aro, Carlisle and Esme come into the room. Esme walked right up to us and took Bella's free hand.
"What seems to be the trouble?" Carlisle asked. 'Edward. Should I be worried?' I moved my eyes the slightest bit, knowing he would see. There was nothing to be worried about yet. There was nothing concrete enough to act on.
"These two are being rather rude to my brother and sister," Emmett snarled as he glared at the guards.
"Is this true?" Aro asked, turning to Demetri and Felix. 'My, my! What has them misbehaving so soon?'
"It was not intentional, Aro," Felix replied, bowing his head deeply. 'Damn mind-reader!'
"Still, apologies must be made," Aro said. "We are guests here, Demetri. Let us act as such. Are we clear, Felix?" 'Sometimes, even the good ones are idiots.'
"Yes, Aro." Felix lifted his head and his red eyes glanced over all of us. "On behalf of Demetri and myself, I sincerely apologize if we have offended you in any way. That was not our intent." 'You wouldn't even know about it if dear, little Edward wasn't gifted.'
I rolled my eyes. He obviously still didn't understand exactly how my gift worked. Bella squeezed my hand again and I started rubbing circles against her hand with my thumb. It was something that always helped to calm her.
"Children, why don't we all head downstairs?" Esme offered. 'I am not letting any of my children out of my sight again if I can help it.' "We can finish packing later since we are staying an extra day. Alice, dear, why don't you pick a movie for us all to watch?" 'You watch the movie and I'll watch our guests.'
Once Aro and his guard left the room, I turned to Bella and smiled at her, trying to calm her further. I gave her hand a little squeeze and gently pulled her along with me.
'Edward, I'm going to put on some action fluff that we've seen a million times. That way you can appear like you're watching, even though you'll be listening. And I can see we're fine through tomorrow morning. I'd tell you to relax, but I see you won't.' I heard Alice's tinkling laugh rolling through my head.
I snorted at her. Bella looked up and gave me a quizzical look. I leaned down and whispered into her ear. "Alice is just letting me know things will be fine for the night."
Bella nodded her head, but I could see in her eyes that she didn't really believe it. I sighed, knowing this would be a long night for my wife.
I sat right next to Emmett and pulled Bella onto my lap. Same as before with Demetri, I would keep her as close to the two of us as possible. Anyone foolish enough to challenge my brother and me would be in for a very nasty surprise.
"Edward," Bella whispered.
Alice tapped Bella's shoulder before she could say more. She held Bella's blanket out to her. "I knew you would want this."
Bella kissed Alice's spiky hair. "Thank you."
"It's what I do," Alice chuckled as she danced over and climbed into Jasper's lap on the far end of the sofa. She hit the play button and the 300 started. 'What do you think, brother? A good metaphor for what will happen if these idiots try to pull anything against us?'
I bit my tongue to keep in the laugh that wanted to spill out of me. I glanced over at Alice and she winked at me.
Bella wrapped her blanket around us and sighed as she snuggled against my chest. I reached under her shirt and rubbed circles into her side and hip to keep her calm. She and Emmett talked about the special effects of the movie in low whispers.
'I can picture Emmett in one of those outfits. Yummy!' Rose
"Rosalie, please," I chuckled. "Give me a break here. It's enough with the negative thoughts floating around."
"So be glad for positive ones. Picture Bella in that little toga number," Rose said with a wink.
"Or Alice," I chuckled. "She'd probably trip over herself with the length though."
"I heard that, Edward," Alice giggled. "You're just jealous because you would be the one-eyed bard!"
"Right," I laughed.
"I do have to say, Leonidas moves like Edward," Jasper commented.
"Tonight, we dine in Hell!" Emmett chuckled. "Bet it's gonna be a hot night for those boys."
"Em, that's so lame," Bella giggled.
"I know! But it made you laugh, Squirt. That was the intent," Emmett said as he ruffled her hair.
Bella rested her head against Emmett's shoulder for a moment. "Thank you, Em."
Rose ruffled Bella's hair and kissed her forehead. "You doing okay?"
Bella smiled and nodded. She moved back against my chest and turned so that she was completely curled up in my lap, with her head tucked under my chin. She had her arms wrapped around me. I moved my hand to her back and rubbed back and forth across her skin.
I was amazed at how relaxed she was. I don't think she even realized she was softly purring. It wasn't very loud, but I heard it since I was so in-tune with every breath she took and every sound she made.
'Are they behaving with their thoughts?' Jasper. I looked up and down with only my eyes. 'Good.'
It was excellent. Between my temper and Emmett's itch to get his hands on Felix and Demetri, it was best that they all keep their thoughts to themselves.
'How does she block me? No one has ever managed that? How does she not feel the pain? At least he can feel the pain. I'll just have to content myself with that.' Jane
I sighed at her small thoughts. It didn't matter if she could affect me as long as she couldn't touch Bella. Carlisle would never allow her to use her power on us without provocation and we were all smart enough to stay away from her.
'The way she clings to him, even when she's already sitting on him. How strange! Marcus truly will have a wonderful time discovering the depth of their bond.' Aro
'I wonder if I'll see her powers if I get close enough to touch her.' Alec
I chuckled to myself, low enough so that Bella wouldn't hear. First of all, he would never get close enough to touch my wife. Secondly, he would see nothing. I was sure of that. If Jane couldn't inflict pain and Demetri couldn't find her, then Alec certainly wouldn't be able to know her powers. And to be perfectly honest, Bella was still learning about her powers.
She was learning how to control her block better so I could hear some voices and not others. She was also learning how to slowly put up the block and remove it so the return of the voices wouldn't be such a loud rush to me. She had also started leaving her mind open to me during the nights when we cuddled. She was closed to me tonight, but it was because she was being cautious. I smiled, placing a soft kiss against her silky hair. Once again, I was swelling with pride at how well she was handling everything.
'Wonder what he's doing to her under that blanket.' Demetri
I sighed. I knew he was just doing it to provoke me, but I was really getting annoyed with this line of thinking. Couldn't he pick something else to try and infuriate me with?
"What's up, Edward?" Emmett whispered.
I waved my hand at him.
'Demetri again?'
I nodded.
'Piece of filth! Hang in there, Edward. He's just trying to rile you.'
I nodded again.
"Edward," Bella whispered as she lifted her head and looked up at me.
I leaned down to her ear. "Yes, love?"
"Everything okay?"
"It's fine. I promise. Are you enjoying the movie?"
"It's a little gory, but fine. That Xerxes guy is ridiculous."
"Yes, he is," I chuckled.
Bella smiled at me and kissed my cheek before lying against me again.
'Edward.' Jasper.
I nodded for him to continue.
'She's doing really well. As long as you're holding her, she's only slightly scared.'
I smiled in thanks to him.
'Welcome.'
When the movie started to get more violent, Bella moved so that her face was buried against my neck. I could tell from the press of her lashes against my skin that her eyes were closed. Maybe this hadn't been such a good movie choice for her. I held her tightly to me and hummed her lullaby. She rested that way through the rest of the movie.
Alice turned on a small lamp to find the next thing we would watch. She picked up a few cases and turned toward us. "I'm thinking fun and light-hearted this round. Should we go with Pirates of the Caribbean? Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone? Or Shrek?"
"Harry Potter!" Rose and Bella said.
"Pirates!" Emmett called.
"Of course!" Jasper and I laughed.
"Come on, Edward and Jasper," Alice said. "We need your answers."
Bella smiled at me with hopeful eyes. I kissed her forehead. "I'll go with Harry Potter."
"You only said that because Squirt gave you the puppy eyes," Emmett said, wiggling his eyebrows.
"And?" I replied, lifting an eyebrow at him.
"Nothing," Emmett chuckled.
"Jazzy?" Alice called.
"Harry's fine. Just get back over here so I can hold you some more," Jasper replied.
Alice giggled as she changed out the DVDs. She turned the lamp back off and skipped over to Jasper. She kissed his cheek and then bounced into his lap. I shook my head at her while Bella giggled.
Bella turned in my lap, trying to get comfortable. I held her close and moved us to the floor so she could rest on top of me to watch the movie. I wished she could sleep and have peaceful dreams, forgetting the people in our house for a few hours. But then knowing Bella, she would probably have nightmares.
I had one arm under my head and the other wrapped around her waist. Her hands rested on my shoulders while her head was right in the middle of my chest. I was amazed that we could both be so content, but very glad for it. I wondered briefly if Jasper had anything to do with it, but decided it didn't matter. Anything that kept Bella relaxed was welcome.
She giggled as she always did when the Hagrid character appeared in the movie. "I'd still like to know why they couldn't give the poor guy a better coat than that. It's bad enough he has to have that beard. A flock of birds could live in there and no one would ever know."
"Bella, you goof!" Emmett chuckled. "I'm sure someone would notice the birds flying off to find worms."
"I don't know," Jasper said. "With that guy's love of animals, he'd probably put the worms in his beard to keep the birds fed."
"Can we stop talking about slimy, disgusting things?" Rose asked.
"Rose hates worms!" I whispered to Bella. "Emmett once threw one at her and it wiggled down her shirt."
"Oooh!" Bella snickered. "What did Rose do to him?"
"She made him eat it," I chuckled.
"Gross!" Bella giggled. "What's the grossest thing you've ever eaten?"
"I once had to eat escargot to keep up pretenses."
"Snail! Yuck, Edward!"
"Some cultures consider it a delicacy, love."
"And others consider it to be extremely disgusting. Was it worse going down or coming up?"
"Why would you want to know such a thing?" I laughed.
"Just curious," Bella shrugged.
I kissed the top of her head and hugged her waist a little tighter. "Surprisingly enough, going down was worse. I think it was because of the smell."
Bella moved her head so her chin rested against my chest. She touched her finger to my nose and wiggled it. "I imagine with your enhanced sense of smell it was all the more revolting."
I took her hand, kissing the palm. "It was. Now watch the movie." She smiled and then laid back down on me.
'This is completely boring. Why can't Aro just figure out her power so we can go? Why does he humor them at all? They are not worthy of his patience and time.' Jane
'I wish Jane would relax. Aro is obviously not going to do anything now. He wants them to come to Italy too much so that Marcus can see them.' Alec
'I don't understand the way they live. They are so human that it's disgusting.' Felix
'I could be home talking to Giana right now instead of stuck here. There isn't even a good view anymore.' Demetri
'Carlisle's entire way of life astounds me. Caius and Marcus will be just as thrilled to learn of this. I'm sure of it. I don't understand it at all, but that's half the fun!' Aro
Besides Aro's curiosity, Demetri was the only one I seemed to need to worry about. Hopefully, he would be stupid enough that Alice would see any decisions of his long before he realized he made them. I just hoped I would be smart enough to keep my temper. Giving Aro any reason to drag us back to Italy with him would not be good for Bella. This was going to be a long night, but as long as Bella was in my arms, I knew I would be able to control myself.
