A/N - Okay, finally I post another chapter (ducks head sheepishly). I will get back into the swing of things now, but the next chap may take a couple of days as it is Friday and I'm going out =) But I will be much quicker, I swear it (lol). Thank you all for being so insanely patient =) and enjoy (I hope!)

"This is just completely humiliating now." Bella moaned.

Alice grinned. "There's nothing to be embarrassed about. You hit your head."

"That's not the problem."

Luned watched the two women with narrowed eyes. Jacob had gone, citing bodily needs, giving Luned time to think. She wasn't a fool. She'd listened carefully to everyone's words on the beach, had understood immediately what they meant; that he and Bella had once been betrothed.

In the moment he had emerged from the water carrying Bella's near lifeless figure, she had been silent with shock. This time around she had not been halted by fears of avenging ghosts; her experiences, few though they had so far been, of Bella's time was that there were many people here identical in appearance to those who had been lost.

She had been set back by the possibility that she might have a second chance at happiness.

She was no fool to stand in the background dreaming that it could happen; she knew full well that if she were to experience anything akin to her previous love she would have to take it with both hands, remove any obstacles in her way herself.

She had no idea one of those obstacles might be Bella, the only person besides Jacob and her family who had meant anything to her at all.

* * * * *

"Again, Miss Swan? I would almost think you missed me."

Bella flushed. "It's not like that," she mumbled, as Edward ran his fingers gently over her head.

"Any dizziness, nausea, blurry vision?"

"Of course. I almost drowned. I must have swallowed half of the water off La Push beach."

Edward laughed, slowly allowing his hands to drift away from her face. "I think you'll be fine. Although, in my professional opinion you would be much better if you allowed me another chance at a date."

Bella rolled her eyes. "Your professional opinion, huh? Something like 'a date a day keeps the concussion at bay'?"

Edward grinned, amused. "Something like that."

"Then I guess I can agree. As long it's good one this time."

"Dinner and a movie?"

Bella tapped her finger against her bottom lip. "Hmm. What movie?"

"Something with zombies, lots of blood and guts."

Bella snickered. "You don't really need that with me around, do you?"

Edward sighed theatrically. "No, I suppose not. Maybe one of those soppy romances then, where the guy always gets his girl…"

"Don't you mean the girl always gets her guy?"

Edward grinned at Bella, the crooked smile that she had loved so much on her other Edward. She had to stop thinking like that; her other Edward was dead.

"Depends on your perspective." He said.

"Then zombies it is."

Edward chuckled again. "Zombies, huh? Are you trying to dissuade me? Because I am amazingly stubborn, you know."

"I can believe that." Bella returned the laugh.

* * * * *

"Are you sure you feel up to a date?" Jacob frowned on the way back to Bella's house.

Luned watched them both sourly, picking at imagined specks of dirt on her pants and listening intently.

"Absolutely certain."

"But you barely know him."

"Well, a date's a good way to get to know someone, Jake." Bella grinned lopsidedly. "That's how I got to know you, remember?"

"Yeah, but we were what, 13? Besides, I'd watched you from afar, I knew what I was in for."

"So did Edward." Emmett chuckled from the front of the car.

"What?" Jacob was still frowning but now he turned his face from Bella to stare at the back of Emmett's head.

"I've been friends with Edward since we were 19, and he's asked me about Bella every time I have seen him. I think they'd make a great match."

Bella reddened.

"Huh." Jacob huffed, leaning heavily into the back seat. "Well, then I guess I've been told."

Alice and Rose sniggered, and Rose peeked over Emmett's shoulder--in whose lap she was sitting--to wink in Bella's direction.

Bella turned her heated face away from her friend to stare out of the car window at the passing scenery.

"You care very much for Isabella?" Luned said quietly, her eyes locked on Jacob's face.

"Yeah," he answered her, surprised. "You never stop loving a person, even when it's over." He watched her with the same concentrated gaze she had aimed at him. "Like you. You look so much like my Leah…I can't help…" He shook his head. "This is so bizarre."

Luned nodded slightly, but said nothing.

Alice laughed nervously. "Yeah, odd, huh? Bella, where are you going tonight?"

"You know, I didn't actually ask."

Alice pulled the car up in front of Bella's house and cut the engine before twisting around in her seat to roll her eyes at Bella. "You didn't even ask? Seriously, Bells, you have a lot to learn when it comes to dating."

"Personally, I think if he wants to see her again after the other night, she's doing well so far." Rose snickered again.

Emmett joined in with her laughter, adding, "Lucky for her he's utterly determined to win her over, and he's not the type of male she's usually interested in."

Jacob raised an eyebrow. "The type?"

"Don't ask," Bella said sourly, slipping out of the car and slamming the door, leaving Jacob to scramble out after Luned from the other door.

She stalked inside, followed by the sound of her friend's laughter.

* * * * *

Edward tossed the fifth pair of pants he had tried on over his shoulder and onto the gold spread coving his wrought iron bed.

He glared at his reflection in the mirror, marveling at his desperation. Never before had he been so concerned at the impression he made on a woman, but never before had there been anyone who had counted for so much to him.

Since he had first seen her when he was a senior at Forks High School and she had just started there, he had been infatuated. Something about her pale heart face, her huge chocolate eyes, her dark hair framing her vulnerable features…his heart, which had never before even flickered at the sight of a girl had stuttered to life and thumped crazily every time he had seen her since.

Even now, when he was well past the age of teenage crushes and the most beautiful women threw themselves at him almost daily, he only saw her, only compared every face to hers.

And changed his clothes like a girl.

"Still hunting?" A soft feminine voice floated in through his open bedroom door. He sighed and nodded, and Esme entered the room slowly, shaking her head.

His mother was a beauty in the style of the silent movie goddesses, with soft caramel colored hair, a petite slim figure, and enormous brown eyes. She crossed the room to her son on light feet and stood on her tiptoes beside him.

"It doesn't matter what you wear, Edward."

He let out his breath in a slow sigh. "I know, really. I just…"

"You just want to make sure you impress her, I understand. But clothes won't matter, not really. It's you she'll want to see."

Edward snorted. "I think she might have seen enough of the real me the other night."

Esme frowned at her son's reflection. "I'm sure she'll understand that you were nervous."

"Or she'll hold onto her belief that I am truly an ass of epic proportions."

"She wouldn't have said yes again if she truly thought that."

"Or, given her track record with men, she might, and that might be what she wants."

Esme's eyes narrowed in the mirror. "And how precisely would you know of her track record? I thought you'd just met her."

Edward looked slightly abashed. "Well, yeah, but…I've admired her for a long time."

"Admired? Or stalked?"

"Well, I haven't followed her around, if that's what you mean. I might have asked Emmett what was happening in her life."

Esme sighed, letting her hands fall to her sides. "Emmett. Of course. Sometimes I wonder what you have in common with that boy."

Edward's mouth twitched. "I'm sure you do."

"Don't get me wrong!" Esme amended. "He's a lovely young man, but…you two are so different."

"But yet, somehow very alike. He's a good person, not much else really matters."

"I much prefer your friend Jasper."

"That's because Jasper is the quiet type." Edward frowned at his reflection. "Sometimes that's not the best thing to be."

Esme raised an eyebrow.

'But that's neither here nor there. I have to pick Bella up in one hour, and I can't decide what to wear, let alone where to take her." Edward sighed.

With one final pat on her son's back, Esme exited the room.

Edward eventually returned to the first pair of jeans he had tried on, and his first foolish thought of where to eat.

* * * * *

"McDonald's? Really?" Bella gaped open mouthed at the golden arches while Edward draped his leather jacket across her shoulders.

"Are you disappointed?" He murmured, leaning close to her ear.

Bella chuckled. "Not at all. Truthfully, this is a much better choice than Italian." Much more comfortable and relaxed, she thought to herself.

Edward let out a sigh of relief. "Shall we eat then, my lady?"

Bella winced at the comment, but she stepped towards the glass doors resolutely. Above all, she was not about to admit anything about her medieval lover, not to this man, no matter what.

An hour later, Edward and Bella walked slowly along the darkened Port Angeles street towards the movie theatre.

Bella's fingers tingled, and it was as though she were a teenager again, her thoughts concentrated fully on the hand of the man beside her and how close it was to her own.

She could hear Edward talking, but couldn't make out a single word he was saying, just allowing his voice to flow over her like a gentle warm breeze, warming her heart.

"Bella?"

"Hmm?"

"I said, are you sure you want to see zombies?"

Bella blushed, particularly thankful for the darkness surrounding them, completely embarrassed at being caught out.

"Yeah. I told you, I love the blood and guts."

Edward paused and in the darkness Bella could just make out the raising of a bronze eyebrow and the curve of his mouth.

"You are…unfailingly intriguing, Bella."

Bella blushed again, turning her face from his as they moved into the light flooding out of the movie theatre. She hid her face in her purse to buy time for her heated cheeks to cool, digging out her money for the movie.

Edwards hand covered hers.

"You're not looking for money, are you? What kind of man do you take me for?" When she looked up he was frowning slightly, as though her anticipation of them going dutch was the biggest insult anyone had ever given him.

"Ah…"

"Bella, am I not Sir Edward?" He bowed to her with a flourish. "Would you expect such an extraordinary example of knighthood to leave his lady to her own protection and welfare?"

Bella giggled. "Well, when you put it that way…I guess you should be paying for it all, huh?"

He nodded stiffly. "Now, my lady, you are understanding me perfectly. Allow me to hunt out tickets and refreshments, then I shall give you a personal escort into the abhorrence that is our movie."

Bella giggled again. "Thank you, Sir Edward." He swept her another bow, and hurried off. She stared after him, watching the bonze head move through the people and smiled to herself. Maybe there was more to her own time then she had ever before noticed.

"Bella, isn't it?" Bella spun round at the man's voice behind her.

Her mouth fell open.

"Yes, I thought so, Luned's friend. Do you remember me?"

Definitely.