Summary - "Bella is an average girl, struggling with her homosexuality and her life at home. Can the love of not one, but three vampires help show her that she shouldn't be afraid? A/B/R/V".
Author's Notes – Inspired by my dear friend Hollowgo.
Rating - Older Teen to Mature
By: WDG and Lash_Larue
The Garden of Four - Chapter Twelve – Knowing
It was now Monday, and Bella rolled out of bed and went about her morning ritual of showering and brushing her teeth. She felt good, strong and rested, and her injuries were nearly completely healed now. Coming back into the room wrapped in a towel, she nearly walked straight into her dresser when she saw a bright yellow note sticking to her closet door. She blushed because she knew only one person who could have left the note on her closet door without her knowing, and on bright yellow paper at that. Grabbing the note while holding her towel up, she read it... 'I hope you will wear something I helped you buy, today, there is no reason to keep wearing such tasteless clothes now that we went out and got you some nice clothes, plus, you will look great. Love, Alice.' Bella chuckled, she should have known Alice would do something like this, the girl really loved her sense of fashion.
Folding the note up, she put it in the dresser beside her bed, and reaching into another drawer she pulled out her new underwear and socks. After pulling on the bra and boxerbriefs, she dropped the towel and pulled on her socks. Walking to the closet, she smiled, noticing that Alice was right, the new underwear was a lot more comfortable then her panties had been. Shaking her head and grinning, she moved to grab a pair of her new jeans and a long sleeve shirt. She pulled them both on and looked herself over. The dark jeans and the dark red shirt worked together, but something was missing; the shirt was a little plain, looking into her closet, she smiled, and grabbed a white t-shirt with the band 'Muse' on it. She pulled it on over the long shirt and nodded.
Heading downstairs she grabbed her boots and went to the dinner table and sat down in one of the chairs, her dad was there making breakfast and said - "Say Bella, Dr. Cullen thinks he should start looking you over every so often to make sure nothing bad happens to you while you're still in the recovery phase." Bella looked up, what the heck was Charlie talking about?
Then the thought came to her - 'oh, right, well duh, Bella'. That must have been what Carlisle told her dad so that she could spend the nights of the full moon with the Cullens.
Bella looked back up at her dad and said, "Sounds like a good idea. It's the safest thing to do right now, because of all the weird stuff going on in my body. Not that that's anything new, of course," she said with a rueful grin.
"You look great, Bella," Charlie assured her, "Pretty as a picture. New outfit?"
"Yeah, Alice thought I could use a little fashion upgrade, she explained.
"Alice has good taste," Charlie said, "and I'm not just talking about the clothes." He smiled his eye-crinkling smile, and of course Bella blushed, but she was pleased with the compliment. Charlie really seemed to mean it, living with him was nothing like living with her mom.
It wasn't long after getting her last boot on and eating her breakfast that Bella waved bye to Charlie as she made her way to her truck and drove to school.
Charlie got up from the table and picked up the phone.
"Hey Billy," he said when his friend answered, "has any information turned up on who attacked Bella? I see, you know I won't let this go don't you? There is somebody dangerous out there, I mean to find them before the can hurt anybody else. Tell everybody to keep their eyes open, okay? And don't be surprised if a bunch of cops are walking around in the woods, just because we haven't found anything yet doesn't mean there's nothing to find." He hung up the phone and frowned. He really was a good cop, and he thought Billy was hiding something from him.
"Jake," Billy called to his son, "we need to find out what really happened to Bella. Do you know anything you aren't telling me?"
Of course he did, all of the La Push pack knew what had happened, they just couldn't decide what, if anything, to do about it.
"Course not, dad," he lied, "but we'll see what we can find out, okay?"
Pulling in to the school parking lot, Bella parked her truck and hopped out, and after grabbing her bag she closed her door. She slung her bag onto her shoulders, and was walking away when the sound of footsteps moving closer to her caught her attention.
Turning, she caught Alice just as the pixie jumped into her arms, "Alice…what in the world are you doing? What would have happened if I hadn't caught you?" Alice giggled and nuzzled into Bella's hair.
"Don't worry, nothing would have happened, us vampires are resilient. We're immune to pretty much everything, save for a very few specific things." Alice squeezed her legs tighter around Bella's waist as the girl held her up.
After a minute Bella pried her loose and sat her back down on her feet, and asked, "Well, what are those few things?"
Alice hooked her arm through Bella's and began to walk with her to class. "Hmmm, lets see, fire, and having our heads torn off, and I think that about covers it." Bella opened the door and they both walked into the school.
Bella noticed the stares right away, "Why are they looking at us like that?" mumbled Bella to Alice. The pixie vampire looked around and smiled.
"They're jealous, and don't give me that look. I know what I am talking about. Some are jealous that you are hanging with me, and others are jealous that I am hanging with you" Alice grinned and leaned closer to Bella. "Also nice choice in clothes, does this mean you saw my note?" Bella nodded and pulled the girl closer.
"Yes, I found your note, bright yellow paper and all." Alice just giggled and smiled.
Bella had to part with Alice for first period classes, and after giving the vampire a soft kiss to the cheek, she went into her room. Once she had handed the teacher all of her make up work she made her way to her seat beside Mike. "Hey Bells, saw you and Alice earlier in the parking lot…so what's going on there, you sly dog, you?" Mike asked as he leaned in closer. Bella groaned and wanted to slam her head on her desk, but she settled for just hiding her face in her hands. She should have known that someone had seen them. Mike grinned and poked Bella in the side, "Come on now, you don't have to hide anything from me, Bells, after all I am going to be the bestest buddy you have ever seen, so come on and tell Mike all your secrets." Bella couldn't help but grin, this guy had a way with words, didn't he?
Lifting her head, should couldn't help but ask, "Mike…are you gay?" Mike had a hurt look on his face for a moment before saying, "You mean you figured that out? Girl, please, I know I hit on ya the first day, because, well, I didn't want anyone knowing. But you just now figured out I was gay, and I haven't even told anyone yet… damn girl, what are you, psychic?" Bella looked at the boy and just laughed until the teacher shot them both a look that made Bella stop.
Turning to face Mike once more ,she patted him on the arm, "You know what, Mike, I think I like you better when you're being honest, and just so you know, it doesn't matter to me that you're gay, Mike." Bella then went back to her work. Mike smiled and grinned, he just knew that Bella would make the bestest friend he had ever had, maybe she could even help find him the perfect man. Turning to his own work Mike planned on spending more bonding time with Bella. After all, birds of a feather should flock together.
It was second period, and Bella was sitting down, once again her head was on her arms when there came a soft tap on her shoulder. Looking up, she feared the worst; Eric was on one side of her while Angela was on her other, and both of them had shit eating grins on their faces. "So Bella," started Eric, "we saw a certain Cullen jumping all over you this morning, care to explain that?" Eric leaned in and poked her in the side, "I mean, come on, what's up with you two, are you dating, or what?"
Bella blushed and fiddled with her shirt. "Well you know, uh, see the thing is…yes, yes we are dating." Eric looked shocked, while Angela just nodded her head.
"Wow, really?" asked Eric. "Can I come watch you guys make out? " he asked as an afterthought.
"EWWWW! No, Eric!" Both Angela and Bella said, at the same time pushing him back and moving away to have their own talk without the pervert boy, who seemed to be in his own personal la-la land.
Angela grinned and looked at Bella, "I thought you said you two were just good friends when I talked to you about it before you went missing all that school while you were in the hospital."
Bella blushed, "Well, she was just a friend, then."
Angela nodded, "So what happened to change the friendship into a relationship, then?"
Bella blushed and tried to think up a good way to word it, without giving a lot away. "Well, while I was in the hospital we both kind of realized we liked each other, so, ummm, well, here we are now."
It was later on at lunch, Bella sat down with Alice at the Cullen table, and she sighed and relaxed. "I don't think I have ever had to answer so many questions in my life."
Emmett laughed and patted her on the back. "Hey, no worries Bells, at least now they know you're taken."
Bella glared at Emmett. "You are so not helping." Emmett just laughed harder.
Alice grinned and ran her hand over Bella's thigh. "It's alright Bella, just ignore the big one over there, he tends to think everything his says is hilarious."
Emmett grinned and said, "That's because it is, shorty."
Alice glared, "Is not, and stop calling me shorty!"
Emmett grinned even wider. "But you are the shortest one here, Ali-cat, it's only fair that you get called shorty."
Bella grabbed Alice before she could jump over the table to get Emmett, "Hey, its okay, I like the way you look," Bella said as she pulled Alice back down into her seat, and taking her hand, she held it. Alice looked at Emmett and scowled, before turning her eyes back to Bella and smiling.
When gym came rolling around Bella played some basketball with Alice, and both girls were doing pretty well, although of course that was to be expected for Alice. Bella was surprised halfway through the game when she realized that she hadn't hurt herself or anyone else, yet. They made it through the whole game, and no one was hurt, not even Bella. Maybe some good was going to come from all this after all.
After school let out for the day, Bella was walking over to her truck when Alice appeared by her side. Smiling, she reached out for Alice's hand and laced their fingers together.
"So, you wanna go on a date tonight?" asked Alice out of the blue when they reached Bella's truck.
"Really? Out in public and all?" asked Bella, just to be sure.
"You bet, I'm proud to be your girlfriend, and I want everyone to know it. What do you say?"
"Well sure, I'd love to, but it's a school night..." Bella pointed out.
"So we'll do our homework real fast and then go get an early dinner, right?" encouraged Alice. She was actually bouncing with excitement, and Bella just had to giggle a bit at the sight.
"Right! Let's go," she agreed happily, and they piled into Bella's truck and roared out of the parking lot.
Bella knew the way to the Cullen's house well, now, and she found herself for the first time being impatient with the leisurely progress her old truck made.
"Has this thing always been this slow?" she asked Alice.
"Yep, I've been telling you that all along."
It really wasn't very long before they arrived, however, and Bella had her door open when Alice arrived to kiss her as she stepped out of the truck. Bella threw her arms around the tiny girl and was all in favor of just standing there and kissing for a while, but Alice tugged free.
"Homework first, you have to learn how to prioritize if you're going to be part of our world, okay?" Alice explained.
"Right, let's go." In a matter of minutes they were seated at the large table, books and papers neatly spread out and pencils busily scratching away.
"How can Alice stand to just sit there with her like that?" Rosalie whispered to Victoria. The two girls were at the top of the stairs, and they could see Bella working, her dark hair obscuring her face. "I can smell her from here, and if you weren't here to hold me back I'd be all over that girl. I want her, Victoria."
"So do I, but we promised Esme to let Alice have her for now. As for how Alice does it, she just loves her too much to do anything that Bella might not be ready for. You need to get hold of yourself, Rosie. We might have to wait a while, and there is no guarantee that Bella is going to feel like we do."
"Bull, you can tell how attracted she is to us just as well as I can. You can hear her heart, see her eyes, smell the change in her scent when she's close to us," Rose insisted.
"Yeah, okay, I can. But we still promised, and just because she's attracted to us doesn't mean she's ready to crawl into bed with us. You're just going to have to make do with me for a while. Now come on, Bella's scent isn't calming me down much either, let's go do something about that."
The couple went to their bedroom.
"What was that sound?" Bella asked a little later.
"Rose and Vic," Alice answered with a shrug. Bella blushed yet again, and got back to work. Alice had told her about Rosalie and Victoria, and Bella worked very hard trying not to picture what was going on between them.
Alice of course finished first; she wrote absurdly fast, and in any case she had done these assignments many times before.
"Need help with your math?" Alice asked.
"Finished it," Bella answered absently as she concentrated on her biology report. She was so absorbed that she didn't notice the surprise on Alice's face.
"I'll just check it, then," Alice said as she took Bella's math paper and looked it over. "Bella," she called out, and Bella finished up her paper and looked at her.
"What?"
"Your math homework, it's all correct," Alice told her.
"Oh, it was easy, I just got lucky I guess," she shrugged.
"Bella, this is Trig, and no offense, but you kind of suck at Trig. At least you used to," Alice corrected.
"I don't know what to say," Bella told her, "the stuff the teacher said today just made sense for a change."
"Change is the key word, Bella," Carlisle told her as he joined them in the dining room, "I did mention this would happen to accommodate your keener senses, but I'm very pleased that it's coming so naturally to you. That's a sign that you are adapting well."
"I guess that's good, right?" she questioned.
"Absolutely! Now then, I have a meeting set up on neutral ground with the Quileute pack this Saturday morning at ten to discuss what Leah and her cohorts caused to happen to you, Bella. You should really be there too," he said seriously.
"Can't we just forget it? What's done is done, I don't want to stir up any trouble," Bella pleaded.
"They're the ones who stirred up the trouble," Alice said shortly, "and if the pack doesn't do something about it, I will." Alice's eyes flared angrily, the golden color darkening.
"This really does have to be addressed, Bella," Carlisle insisted gently, "it's a miracle that you weren't killed, and while it was not Leah's fangs that injured you, she is responsible. There is no way that you could have known what was out there that night, but Leah most certainly did. This is quite a serious matter."
"I guess; Charlie hasn't forgotten it either. Maybe if we have this meeting we can keep him from getting hurt trying to find out what happened to me," Bella agreed with a huge sigh.
"That's settled then," Alice declared. "You all finished your homework, Bells?" Bella looked in surprise at the neat pile of papers in front of her.
"I guess I am," she decided.
"Great, go call Charlie, we can bring something back for him so you don't have to feel guilty about not fixing supper for him. Scoot, I want to work on your hair before we go," Alice told her. Smiling at her girlfriend's enthusiasm, Bella went into the kitchen to use the phone.
"Do you think the pack will punish Leah?" Alice asked Carlisle quietly.
"I think they have to, she violated their most important rule, she not only didn't try and protect Bella, who was truly human at the time, she acted to endanger her," he explained in an equally quiet voice. Bella, however, heard them clearly, but resolved not to mention it. Her talk with Charlie was brief, and resulted in permission to go to dinner with Alice, along with the expected reminder that it was a school night.
"All set," Bella announced when she rejoined them.
"Have a nice time girls," Carlisle told them, "next time you're here, Bella, we'll talk about what we'll need to do during the moon times. But that's a couple weeks off. Don't worry too much; we'll take good care of you."
"I know you will, Carlisle," Bella said as she hugged him. "You and Esme and everybody always take care of me. It's like you're my family."
"We are your family," he confirmed. Alice took her hand and dragged her up the stairs, Bella was pleased that she could almost keep up with her, even though she knew that Alice was intentionally slowing down.
"Sit," Alice commanded, pointing to the chair in front of her dressing table.
"Nothing fancy, Alice," Bella cautioned, "I'm still me."
"Yes you are, thank God," agreed Alice, "and we aren't going anyplace fancy, just a little Italian place in Port Jackson," she explained as she pulled a brush through Bella's thick hair. Bella wished that she could purr, because it felt so good.
"We could just stay here and do this," she suggested hopefully, "I can throw any old thing together for Charlie, he's not picky."
"Nope. I am going to take my girl out and show her off a little tonight," Alice said firmly, "there, you're perfect." Bella looked into the mirror.
"A ponytail? All of this for a ponytail? Not that I'm complaining, you sure couldn't call this fancy, but what for, Alice?"
"Two reasons, first, I just really like playing with your hair," Alice confessed, and Bella felt a little reaction south of her waist, she really liked it too, "and second, you always hide behind your hair, and tonight I want to be able to see that beautiful face of yours." Of course Bella blushed. "Oh, and third, I really like it when you blush, it's cute." Bella mumbled something, but Alice let it pass.
"Wait a minute," Bella said suddenly, "Port Jackson? That's like an hour away!"
"Not the way I do it," Alice promised, "come on."
Before she knew it, Bella was in the garage, and Alice was holding open the door of a Porsche turbo.
"We don't drive the fancy stuff around Forks, but a quick trip to PJ won't hurt anything. Buckle up." Bella buckled up, and an instant later she was glad that she had when the car rocketed from the garage. The long driveway was behind them in a blink, and the twilight scenery flashed by so rapidly that even Bella's improved senses couldn't really keep up. She decided to close her eyes and trust Alice.
"We're here," Alice said in an impossibly short time. This time Bella let Alice open her door for her, and was grateful for her help in exiting the low-slung car. Bella's knees were a little rubbery. "You'll get used to it," Alice promised her, and she put her arm around Bella's waist and escorted her into the restaurant.
Alice had made reservations, and they were soon seated.
"Do you mind if I order for us?" Alice asked. Bella didn't, the menu she was looking at was in Italian, and while her name sounded Italian, she didn't read it or speak it. "I guess we can't have wine," Alice sad sadly. "I actually kind of like wine every now and then, especially the red." She smiled at Bella and the candlelight glittered from her sparkling teeth. Bella laughed, she supposed that it would have been scary to some people, maybe most of them, but this was her Alice. It was just funny to her.
"Are you really going to eat?" Bella asked.
"No, I'm going to pretend to, and sneak food onto your plate. You need it, and no one will notice. They are going to be too busy looking at how beautiful you are to pay attention to what you're eating. The familiar heat flooded Bella's face. "You really are beautiful, Bella," Alice said quietly, reaching across the table to take her hand, "and I really do love you."
"I love you too, Alice," Bella answered. The sound of a throat being cleared broke their reverie, and their smiling waitress asked if they were ready to order. Alice chattered rapidly in Italian, and the smile on the server's face got wider.
They got a few disapproving looks during dinner, but a glare from Alice took care of that quickly enough. Tiny as she was, she managed to convey the idea that messing with her would be a bad idea quite clearly. Bella never noticed, she could not take her eyes off of Alice, and she ate the excellent meal without really noticing what she was eating.
It was over too soon, and they were flying through the night towards home, Alice driving surely with one hand as she held one of Bella's with the other, Charlie's dinner tucked away behind the leather seats. Too soon they were at Bella's house, and she was surprised to see her truck parked there.
"Rose and Vic brought it over to save time," Alice explained, "we don't want to upset Charlie by being late. He's being really great about us."
"He sure is," Bella agreed. "I guess a girl could have a worse dad than Charlie."
"Lots of them do," agreed Alice, "now if you don't mind I'm going to give you the kind of kiss that Charlie wouldn't be too comfortable with before we get out of the car, okay?"
"Okay," Bella answered, her voice suddenly hoarse.
Alice's graceful fingers loosened Bella's hair, running through it and spreading it down her back before slipping into it, cradling her head, and pulling Bella gently towards her. Bella whimpered as the cool lips touched hers, and her lips parted to allow Alice's small tongue into her mouth, and her head swam with the scent and the taste of this pixie that had captured her heart.
"Wow..." Bella whispered as the kiss ended, and Alice rested her forehead against Bella's.
"Wow is right," Alice agreed.
"I might need a minute here," Bella said as she shifted in her seat. Alice giggled, but let her go and sat back in her seat. "It's not funny," Bella muttered.
"It is a little, admit it," Alice disagreed, "and one day we won't have to worry about that, we'll be able to do something about it," she promised.
"That's not helping much, Alice," Bella muttered.
"Sorry," Alice told her, but it didn't sound like she meant it. Alice did put the windows down though, and the cool night air did help, and in a couple minutes Alice was walking her to the door.
"Come on in and say hi to Charlie," Bella suggested as she opened the door.
"HI girls, have fun?" Charlie called from the living room.
"Sure did, here's your dinner, dad. We brought you lasagna and salad, and some really good bread. Do you want a beer with it?"
"Sounds great, Bells." Charlie joined them in the kitchen a moment later. "I think I'll eat in the living room, there's a good game on tonight. Thanks for feeding me, kids," he said.
"You're welcome Charlie," Alice returned, "and thanks for letting Bella go out on a school night."
"No problem Alice, not as long as her grades stay as good as they've been. Thanks for getting her back on time, saves me from worrying too much."
"She's safe with me, I promise," Alice told him, and somehow Charlie knew that she was. And then he surprised everybody, including himself, when he leaned over and kissed Alice on the cheek.
"You're good for her," Charlie said quietly, his eyes shining, "I know you are." He picked up his tray and went into the living room.
As far as first dates go, this one was right up at the top.
End of Chapter Twelve
So here is the latest update, forgive me and my partner if there seems to be any errors in are writing. We looked over it as much as we could. Anyway The furry people we be making an appearance once more in the next chapter or so. After all No one gets Bella hurt and walks away from it...Anyway still waiting to see if Bella will have a power. If not thats okay too.