3. Phenomenon

It had been snowing through the night, dusting the ground with a light layer of white. The clouds had lifted the fog and the day was brighter, it was as though the sun shone down, but it didn't, something Rosalie was ecstatic about.

"We can actually be normal!" she had sung as we got into the car that morning. We all nodded, to used to this behavior to make an effort to join in with her enthusiasm.

"What is wrong with all you people?" she almost hissed, as though our normal, indifferent faces were ruining her day.

"It's nothing Rose," Emmett consoled, "I'm just a bit bummed because we're going to have to try and fit in around the ice and stuff, I just want to go skating."

What Emmett said about the ice was true, and a bit of a pain, where as we had no trouble finding the grip –no grip ice the humans were going to be slipping all over the place and to at least seem a little normal we were going to have to hold unnecessarily onto the side of cars and walls all day.

I drove to school a bit slower today, allowing for the ice that remained from yesterday's rain, and got to school just before Bella did in her ancient truck. I got out of the car to see her pull in, driving exceptionally slowly even for the humans. As she stepped out she looked back to her tires, where her snow chains were. Bella's forehead creased and she walked over to them, holding her truck for support the entire way. The girl stood there for a few seconds, as though she was examining the tires, but her face had smoothed into some other emotion, love? Pain? I didn't know and I wanted to.

"No!" Alice breathed, and I saw it, a blue van skidding across the ice wrong, hitting Bella's truck, in the way was the small fragile girl whom was still standing looking down.

Not her!

But I was frozen, and then the tires started squealing a second and a half after Alice's vision, Bella looked up, her jaw seemed to drop just as it had yesterday, she met my gaze for a fraction of a second and her panicked startled eyes gave me the drive to set things going.

Bella.

She needed me, that's the only thing I could think about, and I moved to her like I shouldn't have, too fast, too many witnesses, but I didn't care because Bella wasn't going to die, not now.

Grabbing Bella's waist, I felt her subtle curves against my body just as I had wanted to that first day in the cafeteria. Fate was mocking me. I held my breath, knowing now that I was too close, and in the same motion of me knocking her to the ground I knew I had been too fast, she hit her head against the icy tarmac and for that second I forgot that the van existed, I forgot I might have exposed us. I forgot everything in that second because I thought that I myself might have hurt Bella Swan.

Before I had a chance to see anything though my hearing forced me back into action, I heard the van, it was still coming. It was curling around the end of Bella's truck, which I noticed randomly had done an amazing job at deflecting it, but the blue van was now heading toward Bella. An oath slipped through my gritted teeth, something that I've never before said in the presence of a lady, I did the only thing I could in the second I had left before the van was upon us, bracing my shoulders against the tan car behind us, and putting my hands out in front of me.

As I thought it was over the van rocked backward, and then was about to fall forward, onto her legs, Oh for the love of all things – would this never end? I grabbed the underside of the van before it could fall on her, and then gripping her waist, I swung her legs out from under it, hoping that she wasn't seeing this, hoping she was alive. I let go of the van at a reasonable height, faintly aware of the panicked driver inside, his thoughts incoherent. His van was totaled, he couldn't control it, Bella's Chevy had made mincemeat out of it.

As the van hit the tarmac the glass popped and I rolled slightly to protect Bella. I listened to the glass tinkling onto the was silence for a second, and then everyone started shouting, but I needed Bella to hear me, to answer me.

"Bella? Are you alright?" I said as close to her ear as possible without trying to breathe in.

"I'm fine." She answered, though she sounded confused, and she tried to sit up, should I let her? She'd hit her head, she might be dizzy. She could do damage to her neck, and her back. I wished I could contact Carlisle. I had read a lot of books on medical issues but it was nothing on the centuries of Carlisle's hands-on medical experience.

"Be careful." I warned, deciding to compromise and let her make the decision, she seemed pretty sensible; she would make the right choice. "I think you hit your head pretty hard."

Think? I knew she hit her head, but I had to act unsure, unconvinced of the facts, as though everything happened incredibly fast for me too.

She seemed to be confused again, think for a second, and then;

"Ow." Her surprised expression mixed with not knowing that she had hit her head, I tried to bite back my laughter.

"That's what I thought." Despite my efforts I think some of laughter showed through as her eyes narrowed.

"How in the…" she trailed off, and I knew this was where my acting skills would come into play. "How did you get over here so fast?"

"I was standing right next to you, Bella."

I knew that if I kept my voice even and low, she would believe me, I couldn't look away first either, that was a mistake only incompetent liars made. I was also out of air and still sitting incredibly close to her. She turned to sit up, as though aware of the danger. I let her this time, now that I knew she was capable of forming sentences and trying to figure out how I managed to save her in unbelievable circumstances. People were suddenly looking upon us, tears and shock filling their features, the incoherent thoughts in my head making it hard for me to concentrate. Then they started shouting at each other, and shouting at us.

"Don't move," Mike Newton shouted to Bella and almost immediately Bella tried to stand, I felt a certain amount of pleasure by the fact she ignored him, but then she never paid any attention to me either.

"Get Tyler out of the van!" a girl named Lauren shouted, more concerned for him than Bella, I put my hand on Bella's shoulder, pushing down lightly knowing that she shouldn't be standing yet.

"Just stay put for now." I ordered. She pouted, her bottom lip jutting out.

"But it's cold." She complained, and I couldn't help laughing a tiny bit, she had almost died twice, and been crippled by a van, and so she was concerned about the general temperature. It was as though this happened frequently.

"You were over there," she said suddenly bringing my laughter up short, "You were by your car."

"No I wasn't." My expression was maybe a little harder than it should have been as I saw it in the reflection of her eyes.

"I saw you." She continued stubbornly, and this was true, it was the moment that our eyes met that had saved her life. Her determined face stared at me, what should I do?

"Bella," I said, liking the way her name rolled off of my tongue, "I was standing with you, and I pulled you out of the way." My eyes felt like they were burning in the persuasiveness of trying to get her to admit I was right and she wasn't. The adults were now discussing how to move the van; I needed this conversation over and done with.

"No." she said, and I almost hit something, my anger bubbling inside of me.

"Please Bella."

"Why" she demanded, child-like and adult-like all at the same time, it confused me, I hadn't seen anything like it.

"Trust me," I pleaded, keeping my voice soft, as though I knew something, and the fact I did was beside the point.

Bella's eyes flickered in the direction of the sirens, could she only just hear them?

"Will you promise to explain everything to me later?"

This was the one thing I couldn't promise yet it was going to be the best deal I could get.

"Fine." I snapped, angry it hadn't gone better.

"Fine." She replied, matching my tone.

It took six EMTs and two male teachers to maneuver the truck enough to get to me and Bella, I considered helping so they could get to Bella quicker, but with her watchful eyes and Rosalie's threats from a distance. I waited impatiently, sitting across the space from Bella, making regulated breathing motions.

When they got to us I told them Bella had hit her head, they would put her in a neck brace, sure she would be angry but it would restrict her head movement, when they had her I put my heel on the tan car to take out the impression out that my shoulders had left.

We'll get anything you missed. Alice thought directly at me, as I slipped into the front seat of the ambulance that Bella was getting loaded in. I nodded slightly, enough for her to see that I was grateful.

Just as I closed the door Chief Swan pulled up, he recognized Bella on the stretcher and was sent into a paternal panic.

"Bella!" immediately I saw what Alice had meant. This girl was Charlie Swan's only child, his only family. To lose her would mean he would lose everything. Even now he was in such a panicked state I could hardly understand his thoughts. I watched the scene from the side mirror.

"I'm completely fine Char- Dad," she sighed, half raising an arm and then letting it slump back as though exhausted. "There's nothing wrong with me."

Charlie Swan turned immediately to the closest EMT for a second opinion, not trusting his daughter's opinion on her health, I couldn't say I blamed him. Bella Swan seemed to be the type of person who suffered silently, who wouldn't tell you if she hurt. That much I guessed from our first conversation.

I watched as Bella looked at my family, she seemed to realize something, a little flicker of light passed in her eyes. I looked to my family also, and saw their faces ranging from disapproval to downright fury. Charlie Swan's thoughts still banged around inside my head and I saw what Bella had seen, my family had no concern for my safety. There was of course no need to be concerned, the van could do little if any damage to me; however Bella Swan didn't know this and Bella Swan knew that something was wrong.

As we drove I listened all the while for something that could tell me that Bella was in need of my assistance, and I could hear Chief Swan in the cruiser on the phone to whom I could only guess to be Bella's mother. I could hear his part of the conversation through my natural hearing, and her replies through my 'unnatural' hearing. It was an odd compromise as I was still listening for the EMT's verdict.

"Hi Renee." Charlie grumbled, he seemed to feel awkward, and then I realized that this was his wife for a short time and he had never been with anyone else.

"Charlie!" Renee answered in surprise, I wished that they were actually having a face to face conversation, that way I could try to unravel Bella's secret mind through her mother.

"Renee I'm on the way to the hospital." Charlie said, he was a quiet man I thought, he kept things short, yet he kept saying her name, as though he liked it, like I liked Bella's.

"What's happened this time?" Bella's mother sighed. Ah so this wasn't the first time.

"Car accident." Charlie mumbled, almost as though he was embarrassed that this had happened when his daughter was with him for such a short time, she could have been with him for shorter, he was lucky. Concentrate.

There was silence on the other end of the line. What does this mean? Was this the worse? Argh for the silence!

"How bad?" she asked suddenly, there was the faint sound of walking if I concentrated.

"They need to X-Ray and things… she's conscious… I'm not exactly sure what happened… but Renee, she could have died… the other kid's van was totaled, she wasn't in her Chevy."

There was a sigh from the other end. The person sounded twenty years older than when they first answered.

"Well I've always said I didn't agree with the age of getting a license, I wouldn't have let Bella get one if she didn't need it."

"I know," Chief Swan replied, and we were just about to pull into the hospital now. "Look I'm going to have to go, we're at the hospital."

"Make sure she calls me, and thanks." Renee ordered and then hung up. Charlie held the phone to his ear for a few seconds and then let it drop to the passenger seat.

I waited by the front of the ambulance as they unloaded her, she was a deep shade of scarlet, such a tempting color. Concentrate. I searched through the hospital, ignoring the pain from the humans, ignoring the confused thoughts of those waking from anesthesia. Before Bella had a chance to confront me I walked off, through the automatic doors and towards the person I needed to see. Carlisle. He was in his office, near the right side of the building of level three. I took the stairs three at a time, three being a reasonable number, and I was too impatient to take them at two at a time.

I strode off, ignoring those who stared at me, I was used to it. But being in a hospital, it made it more… awkward somehow. Maybe it was because it was in a hospital that I was changed, I didn't know. Maybe it was because being the creature I was I couldn't be sent to a hospital, I couldn't feel normal pain. Maybe it was just like this because.

Come in Edward.

I went straight through to Carlisle's office, not stopping to speak to the secretary, I didn't know what my face looked like, but she didn't stop me. I shut the door behind me and turned to see Carlisle sitting in his seat. He was smiling pleasantly, as though I was a recovering cancer patient not someone who had almost just exposed his family and everything he had worked to build for us here.

He took in my features, the hard expression, the tense atmosphere, his face became troubled.

Edward, you didn't… he trailed off, not voicing what I didn't want to be voiced.

"Of course not." I whispered, and Carlisle relaxed.

Of course, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have thought such things of you.

"Carlisle," I mumbled, "There's been an accident, Alice saw it coming a second before, I couldn't do anything but really run across the lot and save… Bella." I choked out the last word, it was vital that Carlisle know first, that Carlisle help me understand how I could be like this, love the thing I was designed to kill.

"Edward, you did the right thing." He spoke to me aloud, standing and walking to me at a human pace, as though a human father would a son.

"But Carlisle," he didn't understand, "She saw, she saw everything, how I disappeared to her side, how I stopped the van… three times… from crushing her. She saw it all, I'm sure she did! I've exposed us!" I exclaimed, trying to understand why he wasn't understanding this, all I could read from him was pride.

"Edward, that means nothing, we can go and hide if we must; you saved the girl. Something that a week ago you were tempted to do the opposite of, I'm proud of you for that. And three times? Was it attached to her?" he asked, laughing.

I shook my head, still baffled. "It seemed like that. Could you go and see her Carlisle, please. I'm scared that when I knocked her out of the way she hit her head too hard."

I wouldn't disrespect any of Carlisle's colleagues, but I knew they couldn't hold up against his centuries of experience. He nodded and I almost sighed with relief. I would need to see her, to sort things out.

I turned and walked to the door, and Carlisle started packing his things away.

Be careful.

I nodded, and made my way down to the ER. I walked in and took in the scene, Bella was lying on the bed, the neck brace discarded under it, and I rolled my eyes slightly, Tyler Crowley was in the bed next to her mumbling slightly. Bella had her eyes closed, feigning being asleep, she didn't fool anyone, but I thought I would ask anyway.

"Is she sleeping?"

Her eyes flew open, and narrowed as they spotted me, then widened slightly.

"Hey, Edward, I'm really sorry-" Tyler started, but I couldn't be done with his apologizing. Raising a hand I stopped him,

"No blood, no foul." I said, smiling again, trying not to show too many teeth with laughing at my private joke. If there had been blood, Bella's blood, then it would have been foul. Because now, even as I sat on the edge of Tyler's bed with his fresh blood still in the air, I realized that if you concentrated hard enough, it was easy to overcome the need. I knew it wouldn't be that simple with Bella's blood.

"So what's the verdict?" I asked in a friendly way.

"There's nothing wrong with me at all, but they won't let me go," she complained, her lip jutting out again, "How come you aren't strapped to a gurney like the rest of us?"

"It's all about who you know," I replied, thinking about how hard it would be if someone actually did try to strap me down to one of these flimsy things, "But don't worry," I continued as I heard Carlisle's footstep's "I came to spring you."

I watched Bella's reaction as Carlisle came round the corner, would she see the link? The connections? Yes, I realized as her eyes lit in that special way, yes she could.

"So Miss Swan," Carlisle asked, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine," she said, with an edge of exasperation.

Carlisle went to the lightboard that was placed above Bella's head, and I wished so much I could be as close to Bella as he was now and taking the free breathes that he was now, not these pitiful little breathing motions I did whenever I wasn't expected to talk.

"Your X-Rays look good," Carlisle went on, But look at all these scars! How many times has she hit her head? "Does your head hurt? Edward said you hit it pretty hard."

"It's fine." She repeated, throwing a scowl in my direction.

Carlisle examined her head lightly with his fingers, I wish I could touch her without the fear of killing her, why was I so different?

She winced and Carlisle noticed, "Tender?" he asked her, so I had hurt her.

"Not really." She replied.

It's nothing to worry about Edward, just a little bump compared to what could have happened.

I laughed slightly at her bravery; she hated people knowing that she was suffering. It was silly really, people needed to know.

She looked over and I smiled, but I could see it was patronizing, and her eyes narrowed.

"Well your father is in the waiting room – you can go home with him now. But come back if you feel dizzy or have trouble with your eyesight at all."

Bella seemed to half-nod, and by the sounds of the conversation I had heard earlier she would know that drill off-by-heart.

"Can't I go back to school?" She asked, and I almost laughed again, I couldn't imagine Bella being strong enough to be a formidable enemy for anything much, and yet she always insisted on hiding her weaknesses as though they were a dark secret.

"Maybe you should take it easy today." Carlisle encouraged, alarmed also by her positive attitude to get back on track after being almost crushed.

She glanced at me, her eyes hardened, and her lips set into a determined line. "Does he get to go back to school?"

I wondered if she had meant to put the emphasis on 'he' but I decided it didn't matter, it shouldn't matter.

"Someone has to spread the good news that we survived," I said smugly, annoying her on purpose, ever so slightly with the fact I wasn't on house arrest like she was.

"Actually," Carlisle corrected, reprimanding me slightly with his eyes "most of the school seems to be in the waiting room."

"Oh no," Bella moaned, and I found another thing I could add to my list for sure, as she covered her face with her hands. She hated attention. When she first arrived I had suspected as much when everyone had been trying to claim her attention and she was sitting, her shoulder s hunched in the cafeteria. However I thought this might be a teenage girl trying not to draw attention to herself if she did something stupid.

Carlisle raised his eyebrows at her reaction, "Do you want to stay?"

"No, no!" she seemed to cry out, insistent as she dropped her legs off of the bed. As she jumped down she staggered, and Carlisle automatically caught her, I envied him so much. I could practically feel it burning off of me in waves. He looked at me concerned, and I tried to compose myself.

I'm sorry this is hard for you Edward.

"I'm fine," she assured everyone unnecessarily. Carlisle smiled again as he steadied her.

"Take some Tylenol for the pain." He suggested.

"It doesn't hurt that bad." She insisted, standing on her own two feet.

"It sounds like you were extremely lucky," Carlisle pointed out, what was he doing?

"Lucky Edward happened to be standing next to me," She corrected the story, and pointed a hard glance at me. I tried to hold back a grimace.

"Oh, well, yes," Carlisle agreed, in a preoccupied way, suddenly absorbed in some papers, but I knew that really he was trying to correct his mistake.

Sorry.

I watched as the light in her eyes flashed, she realized something else, but what was it?

"I'm afraid you'll have to stay with us just a little bit longer," he said to Tyler who had been watching the whole exchange with great interest, and now lay still while my father figure's fingers pulled back the bandage's to reveal the cuts and scrapes.

As soon as Carlisle's attention was reverted Bella was walking to me.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" She hissed under her breath, she was so close, her neck was so inviting…

Be careful. Came Carlisle's warning, it jolted me back to my senses, my jaw in acute restraint, and I took a step back to breathe in.

"Your father is waiting for you." I said through my teeth, trying to clear my head of her smell. She glanced back at Carlisle and Tyler, Carlisle appeared attentive to his patient when really he was paying more attention to me, ready to restrain me at a moment's notice.

"I'd like to speak with you alone, if you don't mind," she pressed, her wide chocolate eyes holding all the depth that I needed to see to her soul, and yet her mind remained hidden. I shouldn't speak with her now. I knew I shouldn't, I should leave, leave and not return to my family until she was gone. My family would spread the story, boarding school perhaps, visiting relatives.

I glared at her, but really I was angry at myself, why did I chose to put myself in her power of all people? I couldn't leave her without an explanation, I had promised her one, and to go back on my promise felt very… ungentlemanly. I turned my back to her and walked down the room, listening to her on the verge of a run to try and keep up.

As soon as we were in a short hallway I stopped, took a deep clean breath of air and turned to face her.

I knew this was going to be hard, I had to be harsh, angry, I had to leave her with a horrible last impression.

"What do you want?" I asked, my earlier annoyance at myself flowing freely now. I tried to keep my eyes cold, but they were gold today, and not black, it was harder this way.

Already I could see that I was intimidating her, her eyes widened and her words came out in a low tone;

"You owe me an explanation."

I owed her this, I thought to myself, I didn't owe her an explanation at all, I owed her what she was getting, it would save her. It would save her from a fate worse than… I couldn't force myself to think of the word.

"I saved your life- I don't owe you anything." I lashed out at her, angry that I couldn't tell myself what was best for the girl. I had no idea what feelings were raging inside of me, but I knew that if I could hold them back then she would have a chance at life.

She flinched back from the harsh sound of my voice and I felt terrible for causing it, my resolve wavered… This girl: or my family.

"You promised."

It sounded like a child, and I was reminded of who we were, never changing, never moving, if I chose this girl she would notice, maybe not this year, but the next, it was definitely better this way. My family.

"Bella," Ignore how I like it, ignore it! "you hit your head, you don't know what you're talking about."

I watched her face contort as her anger flared up, she glared at me again "There's nothing wrong with my head."

I glared back, glad that she was angry as well, it made it easier this way; for us both to be angry, to feed off of each other's pain.

"What do you want from me, Bella?"

"I want to know the truth," she replied, "I want to know why I'm lying for you."

She of course had every right to this information, but I couldn't let her have it.

"What do you think happened?" I snapped, this seemed the best way to know what damage had been done.

"All I know is that you weren't anywhere near me – Tyler didn't see you, either, so don't tell me I hit my head too hard. That van was going to crush us both – and it didn't, and your hands left dents in the side of it – and you left a dent in the other car, and you're not hurt at all – and the van should have smashed my legs, but you were holding it up…"

She was tearful, and I stared at her for a second, she had seen everything, absolutely everything. This was worse than I imagined.

"You think I lifted a van off you?" I asked skeptically, it felt wrong to judge her mental status like this, but I owed my family. Her eyes narrowed when I asked her. Could she see I was acting? I didn't know anymore, I was so confused, I didn't know how to feel confident. She nodded, just once, and her jaw was held tight; I guessed this was from holding back the tears, maybe she was going into shock.

"Nobody will believe that, you know." My voice sounded too desperate, I was sure she could hear it, but I wasn't used to being confused, she was making me slip up.

"I'm not going to tell anybody." She said slowly, uttering each word as though I was mentally incompetent. I couldn't help the surprise that flitted across my face.

"Then when does it matter?" I asked, my voice losing its hard edge.

"It matters to me," she insisted, "I don't like to lie – so there'd better be a good reason why I'm doing it."

"Can't you just thank me and get over it?"

"Thank you." She was waiting, still angry, and expecting a reply.

I almost sighed,

"You're not going to let it go are you?"

I could tell she wasn't, or rather, I had assumed she wouldn't, it didn't seem to be in her nature. However I was long past the days of assuming things with Bella Swan. She was an interesting girl and she never did what I expected.

"No." she said, and I was glad that I finally got it right.

"In that case… I hope you enjoy disappointment."

We scowled at each other, she was the first to speak, she looked distracted, I couldn't understand it.

"Why did you even bother?" she asked, her voice like ice. She was beautiful, her eyebrows arched as she tried to look angry, her lips set together, their fullness complimenting each other. I took a deep breath as I looked at her beauty, and suddenly it was gone, for I was a hunter and she was prey, she was a delicious color, a mouth-watering smell. I caught myself before I could go any further.

"I don't know." I whispered before I turned and walked the way I had come.

As I drove home I knew that I had an excuse, a perfectly viable one for saving Bella. If she had been killed, if her blood had been spilt, there was no doubt what so ever that I would have exposed us in a much more ghastly way than the mere parlor tricks of arriving in time, and stopping the van.

I was too cowardly to go and face my family alone however, I waited in my car on a lay-by so that I could wait for Carlisle. I hoped that Alice wouldn't rat me out.

As Carlisle drove past I followed, ready for the onslaught that would follow, and it was going to be much worse than the last one. I could sense that.