Bella's mouth dropped open as she watched Edward played. We all chuckled, darting upstairs to give them some privacy. Once safely in our rooms with our respective significant others, we all started discussing random things. I tuned out Alice and Jasper's hushed murmurs, concentrating only on my own whisper to Carlisle.

"What do you think of her?" he asked me, cautiously, it seemed. I still wished that Edward hadn't left to Denali without telling me, but Bella seemed like a nice girl.

"Well, she seems nice" I replied. "She seems in love with him...judging on the audible reaction from her heart whenever he touches her...and he's so much happier. She's polite, and Alice's vision..." I trailed off. We all tried not to think about Alice's vision of the lovely girl becoming a vampire in the future. Al least it meant that she and Edward were going to be girlfriend/boyfriend, if nothing else.

"Do you like it?" Edward asked Bella downstairs, still playing the music.

"You wrote this?" Bella asked, sounding like she was going to go into shock. Edward didn't reply verbally at first.

"It's Esme's favorite." he told her, probably after nodding. "What's wrong?" he asked after a pause.

"I'm feeling extremely insignificant." she told him. Edward started playing the piece that he'd been composing, the one that sounded like a lullaby.

"You inspired this one" he told her softly. She didn't respond. Knowing her personality, she probably was unable to speak yet.

"They like you, you know" Edward told Bella conversationally. "Esme especially." Yes, yes, yes she was perfect for him!!!!

"Where did they go?" Bella's tone was confused.

"Very subtly giving us some privacy, I suppose." Hah! I suppose. As though he didn't know our intentions as soon as we even considered leaving!

Bella sighed. "They like me. But Rosalie and Emmett..." Bella trailed off.

"Don't worry about Rosalie. She'll come around." Edward was nearly begging.

"Emmett?"

"Well, he thinks I'm a lunatic, it's true, but he doesn't have a problem with you. He's trying to reason with Rosalie." So that was what Emmett was doing.

"What is it that upsets her?" Bella asked, and Edward sighed.

"Rosalie struggles most with...with what we are. It's hard for her to have someone on the outside know the truth. And she's a little jealous."

"Rosalie is jealous of me?" Bella's tone was shocked, as my face probably was. Bella didn't see herself clearly at all, of course, she was very pretty, modest, and nice. But why would Rosalie be jealous? I listened harder, laying on the bed with Carlisle at my side. My hands were above my head in an image of relaxation, and Carlisle in the same pose beside me, although we were both listening hard.

"You're human." I could practically hear Edward's shrug as he said this."She wishes that she were, too." Rose wanted to be human?!?!?

"Oh" Bella muttered, obviously stunned. "Even Jasper, though..."

"That's really my fault" Edward confessed. "I told you that he was the most recent to try our way of life. I warned him to keep his distance." Bella said nothing in response, presumably because she was fighting a shudder.

"Carlisle and Esme...?" she asked quickly, seeming to hide something from him.

"Are happy to see me happy. Actually, Esme wouldn't care if you had a third eye and webbed feet. All this time, she's been worried about me, afraid that htere was something wrong with me essential makeup, that I was too young when Carlisle changed me...she's ecstatic. Every time I touch you, she just about chokes with satisfaction."

"Alice seems very...enthusiastic." That was one way of putting it.

"Alice has her own way of looking at things." Edward said through his teeth, it sounded like. Well there's another was of putting it. Alice saw things differently...literally.

"And you're not going to explain that, are you?" Bella accused. I was startled. Edward didn't explain to her what Alice saw? She knew our secret, but didn't know that she was going to be one of us?!?!?!

"Better than scaring her" muttered Edward quietly. Even Bella, sitting beside him, probably couldn't hear him.

"So what was Carlisle telling you before?" Bella interrupted the silence that had settled. I chuckled once. Observant.

"You noticed that, did you?" Edward voiced my thoughts.

"Of course." Bella said. Was Carlisle's communication really that obvious to a human? And I could have sworn that she was staring at the piano...

"He wanted to tell me some news...he didn't know if it was something I'd share with you." Edward told her after a pause. News? I glanced at Carlisle.

"The visitors" he muttered to me, too quiet for even Aice and Jasper, in the next room, to hear.

"Will you?" Bella asked in reply to Edward's statement. I turned the majority of my attention back to their conversation downstairs.

" I have to, because I' going to be a little...over-bearingly preotective over the next few days-or weeks-and I wouldn't want you to think that I'm natrually a tyrant."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, exactly. Alice just sees some visitors coming soon. They know we're here, and they're curious."

"Visitors?"

"Yes...well, they aren't like us, of course-in their hunting habits, I mean. They probably won't come into town at all, but I'm certainly not going to let you out of my sight until they're gone." There was a silence.

"Finally, I rational response!" Edward murmured. Bella probably shuddered. "I was beginning to think you have no sense of self-preservaton at all!" There was another silence.

"Not what you expected, is it?" Edward asked her, his voice smug. He was still playing the piano as he spoke.

"No" she confessed.

"No coffins, no skulls piled inthe coners; I don't think we even have cobwebs...what a dissappointment this must be for you," Edward continued slyly. Automatically, I glanced into the corner. Edward, you're WRONG! I thought. There was a tiny spiderweb in the corner. Ha!