A/N: Ok, this is my celebratory chapter... I finished my paper on time (YAY)... thanks to Missy for being my beta... and this chapter was mostly put into the story so Carlisle could meet Edward before the big boom... boy do I have some twists for you guys coming up... lol.... Read. Enjoy. Review...

Chapter Twelve: Party

"Ok," said Alice, handing me an outfit Saturday night as we stood in my room, we were getting ready for Kyle's party, "You wear this one, and I'll wear this one."

"Is this the final wardrobe change?" I asked as I took it from her, "Carlisle and Jasper have been waiting downstairs for like an hour."

"Yes, now go change," said Alice and I rolled my eyes.

It was a good twenty minutes of Alice scrutinizing our outfits before I finally gave up and left her in my room and headed towards the stairs. I raced down them and almost tripped over one of Jimmy's trucks at the bottom before heading into the TV room where Jasper and Carlisle were sitting on the couch with Emmett and dad sat in the chair while mom played Candy Land with Jimmy on the floor. Carlisle let out a low whistle as I walked in and smiled as his eyes focused in on me. Carlisle's response earned him a glare from dad, and Emmett, which made him remember his present company.

"You look beautiful," He said, blushing slightly and I smiled as I went and sat between him and Jasper, "Where's Alice?"

"Coming," I said, leaning over and kissing him quickly, "I hope."

"Me too," said Jasper as Carlisle casually wrapped an arm around me.

We sat there in awkward silence, and I occupied my mind by watching Jimmy and mom play a few rounds of Candy Land. Mom, being the mom, normally let Jimmy win, though, she seemed to be winning more and more as he got older. The life lessons you can learn from Candy Land are numerous. After a little while I joined their game, causing Carlisle and Jasper to too. So, when Alice finally did come down, she came down to us all playing Candy Land on the floor.

"Bella! Off the ground! Oh the wrinkles!" She said and I laughed as we all stood up and I took Carlisle's hand.

"You ready to go?" Jasper asked and she nodded.

"Good," He said trying not to sound too relieved, "Whose car are we taking?"

"I'll drive," Carlisle volunteered and we all said good bye to my family and headed to the door.

The party was already in full swing when Carlisle pulled up, parking in the grass in line with everyone else. We got out and within a few seconds Carlisle was right at my side, grasping my hand as we headed toward the house.

"May I just express how truly breathtaking you look this evening?" Carlisle whispered under his breath as he stopped in the middle of the front yard.

"I believe you can," I replied innocently, turning around to look at him.

The second I was facing him he brought me close and kissed me. His hands rested halfway up my back and down low on the small of my back as he deepened it. I put my hands on the sides of his face and pulled away.

"Shouldn't you be saving some for later?" I said and he smirked, pulling me a little tighter.

"Should I be?" He asked smugly and I shrugged.

"C'mon you guys!" Alice called from over in a group of our classmates, where she was undoubtedly flaunting Jasper.

Carlisle chuckled before letting go of me and I grabbed his arm as we headed over to join the group. Kyle was joking around, a little to Katelynn's dismay and he got himself in trouble a few times in the first few minutes we were standing there. I laughed along with the rest of the group at a tongue tied Kyle trying to dig himself out of trouble with his long-time girlfriend, but actually digging himself into some deeper trouble. Jasper, not even knowing them was howling with laughter, and I could hear Carlisle chuckling in my ear as I leaned against him. All was good and normal until I stopped hearing Carlisle's chuckles.

I looked up at him and frowned as I realized that he was glaring across the yard. I followed his gaze over to Edward, who was surrounded by his own friends in a chattering circle, but I noticed that he was clearly staring over in our-specifically my- direction. Apparently Carlisle had noticed too, he noticed that I had caught on and gave me a questioning look, when I sighed heavily and rolled my eyes he smiled. Then I rounded on Kyle.

"You invited Edward?!" I almost screamed at him and his hands shot up in defense.

"I invited Mike, Evan, and Connor," said Kyle, eyes like a deer in the head lights, "Edward just showed up, I tried to get him away by telling him he was coming. Just seemed to make him want to stay more, Sorry Bella."

"Ex-boyfriend?" Carlisle asked, not ceasing his death glare over at Edward.

"He wishes," I said and Carlisle nodded understandingly as he peeled his eyes away from Edward and wrapped me up tight in his arms, kissing the top of my head sweetly, "You know, leave it to Edward to assume he's invited to a party just because everyone else is."

The small group chuckled, everyone knowing that my statement was as true as the sky being blue. We hung around with Kyle, Katelynn, and company for a little while before heading off in a tiny group of four. Apparently Edward was still watching me because Carlisle still hadn't relaxed. It was cute, but completely unnecessary for him to feel protective of me, I was all his and he already knew that. I put my arms around his middle as we headed towards the house in search of refreshments. Jasper laughed as we walked into the house. The living room was void of furniture, Kyle and his friends always cleared it out for the party and replaced it with a huge stereo system and strobe lights. They effectively made the expansive living room into a very convincing mock club.

Carlisle lead us across the dance floor back through the door to the kitchen. It was normal in here, but the table was covered in beer, soda, chips, dip, and any other sort of food you could think of. Kyle really did go all out.

"Don't even think about it," Carlisle said under his breath, eyeing the beers, and pulling me tighter to him by my waist, "You're dad will kill me if I bring you home drunk, and when I say kill I mean he'll have me arrested. Jasper, Alice, you two either. Bella's dad's been looking for an excuse to arrest me, let's not make it easy for him, seeing as I'm the over twenty-one 'adult here."

"Awe, man," said Jasper as I chuckled, beer really had no call to me, and I don't think Alice will want to even when she is twenty-one, "I'm twenty-one in less than a week."

"So right now you're still twenty," Carlisle sighed, "I'm sorry, I know you usually do and it's no big deal, but we're going home to a cop, a cop that hates my guts."

"He doesn't hate you," I said and Carlisle scoffed, "Not anymore than he would anyone else who was dating his only daughter."

"Like I said," said Carlisle hugging around my waist playfully, "He hates my guts."

"Thank-you, Jasper," I said as he disgruntedly grabbed a soda for each of us and we turned around to head back out to the party.

"Would you like to dance, sweetheart?" Carlisle asked.

I was about to answer Carlisle when Edward stumbled into the kitchen. He looked like he had been drinking for days, not just a few hours, clearly he didn't handle alcohol well. He was stumbling back and forth until he came up to us, and he didn't seem to realize we were there until he was a few feet away from Carlisle and I. Carlisle's arms tensed around me and I couldn't fault him in the slightest, this had 'bad situation' written all over it. I leaned back into Carlisle, bracing myself for what was going to happen, noticing out of the corner of my eye how Jasper left Alice over by the table, a safe distance away before walking up to stand reassuringly behind Carlisle.

"Hey. Bella," said Edward perversely as if Carlisle wasn't standing right there, but maybe he wasn't in Edward's world, "Kyle said there were some empty rooms *Burp* upstairs. I... was... wonder-ing... if you'd like to.... head up there... with me."

"No," I said outright, he was even having trouble stringing sentences together, I felt bad for him until...

"C'mon Bella," He said, "We're meant to be, the sooner you admit to it the sooner *Burp* you can stop.... hanging around with this loser."

"I believe she told you she didn't want to," said Carlisle tersely, I thought he was going to hurt Edward, and he would have deserved it too, "Why don't you go sober up?"

"And what if I don't want to?" Edward said, "Bella wants me, and you KNOW it. It drives you nuts doesn't it? I can make her realize that we're good together, she doesn't have a choice. We belong together."

"We are never going to be together, Edward," I told him and he rolled his eyes.

"We will be together, whether you like it or not we will be, tonight," He said and I flinched back into Carlisle, afraid.

"Enough!' Carlisle just about screamed realizing what he was implicating.

In one motion Carlisle gently directed me behind him so that I was standing near Jasper and Carlisle took a few steps forward. He was right up in front of Edward, and he was boiling mad. I didn't blame him for this either, but I knew they had to be stopped. Carlisle would beat the crap out of Edward and his parents were the type to screw around trying to get someone to put in jail over Edward breaking a fingernail. Not that it mattered, clearly Edward didn't back down due to danger of personal harm, or he would backed off years ago when Emmett told him to. I watched Carlisle getting more angry by the second as he glowered down at Edward. This was bad, I racked my brain and tried to figure out how to get one of them to walk away. I had never seen Carlisle that mad before and I had no idea how to shut it off, as for Edward there wasn't much that could get him away from a fight.

"Edward," Alice said loudly, and he kept one eye on Carlisle as he looked over to Alice, "I think they're towing your Volvo out front. You may want to check it out."

Kyle would never tow anyone's car, not matter how annoying they were, but Edward's overly intoxicated brain didn't register that as fear shined across his face and he ran out the back door. Leave it to Alice to remember that the only thing that Edward loved more than a fight was his car. Carlisle turned around and we all braced ourselves. Alice and I had never seen him that boiling mad, and by the way Jasper was bracing himself too, I don't think he'd seen him that red in the face either. Which was saying something seeing as they grew up together.

"That tool is in your class?" Carlisle said, the tone he was using with Edward was gone the moment he turned to us, normal - and only a bit agitated - Carlisle had returned.

"Unfortunately," I replied and Carlisle smiled slightly, but I could tell inside he still felt like punching bunnies - or Edward.

"Dance with me?" I requested as I walked over to him and curled into his side, he wrapped an arm around me.

"Of course, Bella," He said smiling a little more authentically before leading me back out into the living room.

He brought me right out into the dance floor. We danced for a little bit. Before the fourth song came on however, we were just making out in the center of the room. We slipped off to the side to continue, my back pressed against the wall his his hands on my hips and his lips on mine. I was secretly hoping that Edward would see us and realize the obvious, but it really didn't matter, as long as I had my Carlisle at my side.

"Carlisle!" We heard from afar as Carlisle left a trail of kisses across my jaw.

"What?" Carlisle asked in a whine, sad he was interrupted as he slid his forehead onto my shoulder.

"Ready to go? Remember, we're supposed to be home by eleven so we can hang out with Emmett and Rosalie," said Jasper and Carlisle sighed heavily as he picked his head up off my shoulder.

"Does it look like I want to go hang out with Rosalie and Emmett right now?" He asked calmly and Jasper shook his head but remained were he was, Alice's hand in his, so Carlisle added dejectedly, "All right, let's go."

We walked with Alice and Jasper back out to the car, and I felt Carlisle tense when we saw Edward watching us creepily from over by the garage. I simply leaned into Carlisle, and murmured something about being cold, so he gave me his jacket. That ought to make Carlisle feel a little better, seeing me in his jacket. Carlisle drove home quickly, like he was trying to get away from Edward and the party as fast as he could. I realized as we pulled into the driveway that that wasn't an entirely untrue assessment.

We started heading up to the house and we were almost to the front door when he stopped me and pulled me into a hug. I wrapped my arms around him as his face dipped down and he caught my lips between his.

"I love you," He whispered pulling away briefly before going back to my lips.

"Would you two stop sucking face?!" Emmett yelled from up on the front step as I pulled away from Carlisle and leaned into his side.

"Poor Emmett," said Jasper as he and Alice joined Emmett up on the step.

"Leave 'em alone, Em," said Rosalie appearing in the doorway.

"I most certainly will not leave them alone," said Emmett, "She's my sister, tormenting him is my job now."

"Or you could just leave us alone," I commented and Emmett laughed as Carlisle pulled me into his side.

"You'd like that wouldn't you?" Emmett called and I rolled my eyes as we headed inside.