A/n: Thanks so much for all the reviews! :D I'm ecstatic!

Chapter 6: An Important Call

Someone, sometime, somewhere said: "Not moving forward is standing still, and standing still is going backwards." The idea is planted in the human mind that it needs to rush through life, living every millisecond of it, for in death, all things end.

Whether this saying was wise or true, I'd never found out. I hadn't been one to preoccupy myself with the search for truth, or whatever it was what philosophers did. I was inclined to say that each person has his or her own perception of the world and of what is to be expected of life, what is the goal. I never thought there was a rule for how it should be lived.

In my new state of existence, this phrase suddenly came to me. It seemed to relate to the changes I'd gone through. For me, and my new family, there was no need to rush through things any longer. We had all the time in the world. We could live many lives, over and over. Each time we finished one, we had to get back to the start. In that aspect we were effectively standing still, never able to cross that last boundary.

But we were moving forward in our lives too. I was aware I had now the possibility to read every existing book, or learn how to play every existing instrument, try out every hobby, see every country and city, and still have time left over. Who knew when the end would come for me?

Unless of course, I wasn't so safe from death as I thought. Carlisle didn't know what would happen if I couldn't find a way to sustain my body. In theory though, even a vampire can starve to death. In practice, a vampire's instincts would take over before it got that far and it would attack anything in sight to find blood. Instincts which, I was pretty sure, I had not (or not entirely) inherited.

I sighed. It was so much to think about. Maybe I could become a philosopher. Maybe that would be a useful way to spend eternity.

I frowned. I realized I was staring at a cell-phone, which lay in my hand. The strange thing was, I could not remember what it was I was doing, standing in the Cullen living room with this silver cell-phone in my hand.

"Bella?" Carlisle spoke to me. My head snapped up to look at him. Jasper, Alice and Edward were there too. "Are you having doubts?" Carlisle asked, looking concernedly at my features.

Oh! I remembered then: I was supposed to call Charlie. How the hell I'd been able to wander off to philosophic musings in the few seconds I'd been holding the phone was a mystery to me. I concluded that I still had to learn to deal with my overactive mind.

"No, I'm fine." I answered automatically.

But… it was Charlie though. I had to call him, talk to him. The plan was that I would tell him I'd been keeping up with school through correspondence, studying on my own in Phoenix at mom's empty house, because I was still too distressed by my big ugly fight with Edward to come back to Forks and face the entire Cullen family.

If all the Cullens played along, and if I sent a few mails to Angela and other classmates to ask for some notes or help, there was no reason why Charlie wouldn't believe it. Oh …. Yeah… my abysmal lying skills could in fact be reason enough.

It's all right. I told myself and inhaled automatically to try to relax. Charlie isn't a polygraph, he can't know I'm lying through the phone…can he?

I looked up at Alice once more with a questioning look. She patiently told me for the third time already that it would go fine. Charlie would be disappointed and sad, but he wouldn't let it show. He would certainly not suspect his daughter was lying. I had no apparent motive for doing so.

It took me about a second to dial the number and had to remember to slowly put the phone to my ear, so as not to crush it against my stony skull.

"Chief Swan." I heard him mumble. The other Cullens around me tensed as they heard his voice. He didn't seem to be in a good mood.

For about a second I was distracted again. Talking on the phone was so confusing. I could hear every sound in the room where Charlie was, which considering the many voices in the background had to be his office. I heard a woman and a young man talking about a recent string of sightings of unusually large animals in the forest, apparently unidentified.

"Hey dad." I said as roughly as possible, to try and make my soft musical voice sound more like my old one. I bit my lip as I waited an impossibly long time for an answer. Edward pressed his fingers to my lips to stop me from biting through my own flesh.

"Wai…wh…Bella?" He sounded very hesitant, but I was happier than I'd expected that he at least recognized me.

"Yes, dad, it's me." I stood perfectly still as I calmly exchanged some basic greetings, then fed him my story. I added some unimportant details to colour it in. I hated that he accepted it so quickly.

"All right, Bells. But know you can come back whenever you want, Don't worry about school, I'll make sure you can jump right back in. I've heard from Mrs. Newton her son has been complaining about your absence."

I cringed and glanced at Edward. His eyes narrowed infinitesimally, but he kept his gaze steady and never wavered. I turned away from all of them and faced the window. It was easier to focus on Charlie like this.

"Thanks dad. Really, it means a lot to me." I liked that I had good control of my voice. I felt a wave of emotion unfurl in me and the last thing I wanted was my voice to break.

There was a somewhat longer pause. My show of emotion had probably startled him.

"Bella…" He said with the same voice he used whenever he was frowning at something that bothered him. "You sound different, sweety… Is everything all right?"

I made sure not to answer too quickly. Edward had told me it was a sign of untruthfulness if one was too hasty.

"I'm fine, dad. Don't worry. I'm focusing on studying, far away from my worries. I'm much better now." I couldn't hold back a slight smile as I added, "Though your diet without me worries me."

Charlie scoffed over the phone. "I'm a grown man, Bella. Besides, Harry and I have caught more fish than we can eat. I know how to prepare fish. I can take care of myself."

"Good." I nodded both at him and at myself, though he couldn't see it of course. "I'll keep in touch, okay?"

"See you, Isabella." He finished, using my full name, and then the line disconnected after I'd heard another voice in the background complain about an enormous bear he'd seen east of first beach.

The silence of the Cullen mansion was complete, compared to the commotion at the police station I'd just been exposed to. I handed the phone back to Carlisle, who seemed pleased that he would no longer have to endure any questions from my father. He nodded approvingly.

"See, it wasn't so bad, was it?" Alice chimed. She flashed me her sparkly white teeth in a reassuring smile. I nodded, relieved that it was over, but with a knot in my stomach.

The knot would never go away though. From now on, I would have to lie every single day of my life. Another thing I would have to get used to.

Despite that prospect, I felt a little lighter now that this worry was behind me…for now. I turned my attention to Edward. The piece of my mind that had been fretting over the Charlie issue was now invaded by a wave of silent admiration. Sometimes, it hit me as unexpectedly as a piano falling out of the sky: Edward's mesmerizing, godly beauty. The mystery that had hung around him while I still had no idea what he was had thinned considerably, but his personality still kept him shrouded in some invisible veil.

I found that in that particular moment, any other thought and problem disappeared from my conscious mind and I moved by his side, never losing sight of his golden eyes. They were cold and filled with worry, but once they caught sight of my own passion, they responded by warming up, melting slightly. His eyes smiled at me, bored into me, and at the same time, let me in.

I came to stand in front of him, so close that he just had to raise his arms to touch my elbow. But before we could get any deeper into each other, Carlisle cleared his throat, making it clear he needed our attention just a little longer.

I snapped out of my trance-like state, but stayed close to Edward. From the corner of my eye, I saw the glimmer of a smile around his lips when I slid my fingers in between his. He gripped them tightly in response.

"I heard something over the phone that worries me." Carlisle began, addressing Jasper, Edward and Alice in particular. I did not yet know much about vampire life, and I was often left out of conversations. I understood why though, and paid close attention to learn as much as I could. "Those conversations about big animals hanging around the reservation…" He trailed off with a significant look in his eyes.

I felt Edward react to Carlisle's unspoken thoughts. His fingers tensed up, but he was careful not to crush my hand. Even though he could do little damage now.

"That was a long time ago." Edward said gravely. Clearly he was not happy with what Carlisle was implying.

"But the descriptions and the place." Carlisle insisted. "What else could it be?"

"Hikers tend to exaggerate about their adventures." I jumped in. I didn't know what they were talking about, but I felt like I needed to say something, to not fade away into the background.

"Wait," Alice interrupted, "What do you mean, Carlisle?" She asked. Not being used to not knowing, she was ten times more annoyed than me when excluded.

"I mean that we could have the same problem we had the last time we were in Forks, when you and Jasper hadn't joined us yet."

Jasper frowned at this, not like he was confused, but like he was concerned and unhappy. He'd understood. And from Alice's expression, she too had understood and showed the same emotions.

"What?" I finally asked. "Why would you care about the animals? Has it to do with hunting?" Were they concerned that they were disturbing the ecosystem in some way. Bu what connection was there with a bunch of large unidentified animals, or possibly bears.

Edward was the one who turned to me. "I didn't tell you this part yet, because I didn't think it was important, and I didn't want to overwhelm you with too many new things." He began apologetically. "Do you remember when you told me about the story that your…friend… from the reservation told you?" There was a ghost of an amused smile as he remembered my bizarre attempt at flirting with Jacob Black, that day at the beach with my classmates. A very simple outing, so impossibly long ago.

"Yes." I answered, feeling a pang of nostalgia. I began to understand what the Cullens meant, every time they talked about missing 'human moments'.

"Do you remember other things he said? Did he talk about other legends, besides the one about us?" Edward continued, leading me somewhere I didn't know.

I had to think for a while, rewind into the more blurry parts which had been recorded with human senses. Jacob's voice sounded unclear as he told me again of the cold ones, of the flood and the canoes, about his people.

"I'm not sure. I think he told me two different stories about the origins of the Quileutes." Which one was it that Edward was talking about?

"Was there something about wolves?" He inquired.

"Yes!" I nodded, finally remembering. "He talked about ancestors who turned into wolves. He said it was still against tribal law to kill them."

"Well," Edward hesitated, as if he thought I wouldn't like to hear what he had to say, "that legend was also true, just like the one about us."

I raised a sceptic eyebrow at him, then turned to the others. No one yelled 'Gotcha!'. It would've been a strange timing for a joke anyway. But still…

"What exactly do you mean? That they descended from wolves? What about evolution?" What about some good old science? Didn't evidence and scientific data mean anything anymore?

"No, not exactly." Edward shook his head. "Whether that's true, I seriously doubt. We have no idea how it happened, but some of them carry a gene, and it allows them to mutate. We don't know when or why it happens, but it did the last time we settled here."

"You're saying that…" I imagined it first, before saying it. Somehow, I couldn't say it before believing it was true, and I couldn't decide whether it was before trying to picture it.

"They're werewolves." Jasper finished for me.

There. The word had come out.

It had taken me some time to get used to saying 'vampire', not to refer to a mythical creature, but to actual people I knew. It felt like I was getting into that process all over again with 'werewolf'.

"You can't possibly mean that Jacob is a…a…werewolf!" I hissed the last word.

The others seemed to react to the word too. They showed contempt. An immediate need to defend Jacob, defend my father's friends, flared up. It was just as unexpected as that same piano falling out of the sky, right onto my head.

"We have no way to know if he has already changed," Carlisle joined in, as if he could feel some tension in the air and wanted to smooth it out, "or if he even will change, but if there are werewolves again among the Quileutes, it is very likely he will at some point undergo the transmutation."

"Why?" I questioned. It sounded like something bad, a curse. I couldn't imagine that Jacob, the sweet and easygoing kid from the beach, deserved such thing. He liked building cars for god's sake. That wasn't something mythical monsters did!

"Because he's a descendant from Ephraim Black, who was the leader of the pack back in the day." Edward explained. He smoothed out my frozen hand in his, rubbing out the tension there.

Oh God! Werewolves exist!

I tried to shape some order into the many thoughts and questions flooding my upper chamber.

"So, what does this mean? What if there are werewolves? Why is it a problem?" I asked, seeing as they were so unhappy about the possibility.

"Because vampires and werewolves don't mix." Jasper took over. "I've fought packs several times. They're wild and beastly. They're volatile. But they're also insanely well-synchronized. They're a real danger to us." He concluded with a worried side glance at Alice. They clung together, both feeling the urge to unite against the possible threat.

A feeling of horror slowly began to creep its way into my permanently empty stomach. Enemies? Jacob? Billy in the wheelchair? Harry who went fishing with Charlie? How could they be enemies, monsters? Were they a danger to the people of Forks? Would they attack the hikers in the forest? What about Charlie? He spent a lot of time there. I couldn't let him walk right into a village filled with huge and wild wolves!

"Bella, stop!" Edward's voice called out to me from far away.

"What?" I said, confused.

"Stop worrying! Spare your energy." His hands now moved to my shoulders, rubbing them too. I began to feel crowded with 'Edwardness' again. I didn't want a backrub and an order to not worry. That was not going to solve any problems. They could not suddenly tell me that the people I had known my entire life were big dangerous monsters and expect me to take it well.

"I thought you couldn't get into my head!" I accused and pulled away. Edward's hands fell slack to his sides. His expression darkened once again, making the other part of me which wasn't busy with being annoyed and worried, feel guilty and torn for hurting him.

"I don't." He replied sombrely. "But I've gotten better at reading your body language."

There was a very short and tense silence, before Jasper hastily picked up the thread of the conversation.

"What are we going to do about this?" I could see him planning out strategies already.

"For now, nothing." Carlisle replied. "Technically, the treaty is still in force. If there is a pack forming once again on the reservation, and if they decide to cross onto our side, we'll simply have to remind them of it."

"Wait!" I interjected. I felt I was missing a major part. How could Carlisle think that doing nothing was all right? "What about the people! What about my father! If he's in danger on the reservation, we need to do something!"

A feeling of calm suddenly numbed my mind. Accompanying the feeling with words, Jasper answered my concerns. "They're technically only a danger to vampires. They want to protect their tribe. Carlisle made a treaty with Ephraim a long time ago to keep the peace and the right to stay in Forks. As long as none of us bites a human and we don't cross the line onto their lands, they will leave us alone. They have no intention of attacking humans. But as I said, they're volatile and immature." He snorted, showing his contempt again. "I know of cases where humans got hurt."

Jasper's words…bothered me. A second ago, I had been worried about the werewolves being monsters, but I still didn't like the idea that Jacob and Billy and Harry were being criticized. (If they even were werewolves to begin with). Moreover, Jasper talked of them hurting humans, but how many had he killed? I felt guilty for thinking this, for I knew how much effort he was making and how difficult it was for him to control the instincts I didn't have. I had no right to judge him. But neither had he to judge the Quileutes, or whatever pack there may be. If they were protectors of their tribe, it was the opposite that was true: they were admirable.

Again, all of it was much to take. I needed more time to process it, to form my opinions, to get more information. I still couldn't picture the young, innocent Jacob, morphing into something so huge it could be mistaken for a bear.

More days and nights passed. Some I spent with Edward, talking endlessly about all the new things I still had to learn, or about innocent things, like his music collection. He told me a little of his family, his past, though he never went into much detail when we came upon that subject.

Some I spent alone in the guest room, which had sort of become my room. Edwards had sneaked into my old room at Charlie's to get my old and tattered compilation of Austen's works, along with some school things to keep me occupied.

It was now much easier for me to store information in my brain, and I only needed half the amount of time for the same amount of work. I quickly caught up with the other's help, and got ahead of the curriculum. I had also bought books during our shopping trip. But Jane Austen was still my favourite author, and I kept going back to her stories, smiling to myself as I remembered the last time I'd opened the book: back in Charlie's back yard on a rare sunny day. I'd been annoyed at the character's names, because they either were the same, or resembled Edward's name. It was still when I was trying to figure out what he was, what he was thinking, and why I was so obsessed with him.

Some of the time I spent with the others. I tried gardening with Esme, but even though I'd gotten more control over my body, I still managed to kill her plants.

Alice I liked to stay with very much. Even though all she wanted was to dress me and put make-up on me or organize little parties for no reason, our conversations while we did those things were always interesting. I liked hearing about her visions, about how people's decisions influenced the future. And I truly liked Alice. She managed to cheer me up most of the time.

Emmett, well, it was fun hanging out with Emmett. But Rosalie wasn't so happy with it, so I did not stay with him a lot. And Jasper, he was really good to me. He taught me more about vampire life and history than I could've imagined there was. He also helped me to keep my emotions under control, though I warned him when I wanted him to stop. I didn't like it when he numbed me too much, for it lessened my ability to think properly.

Lastly, Carlisle was more difficult. I actually only talked once to him alone in his study. He was always busy with work. Either he was at the hospital, or he was researching about patients, new medicines and technologies, and me. Yes, he'd plunged into old notes of his to try and find anything in his study of vampires that could help with my issues. But he did not have much, despite the long centuries he'd had to gather his data.

It was hard, because there was no official science of vampires. Of course, you will say, there is no such thing. But it made things very difficult. Carlisle could not know if there was anyone else, vampire or otherwise, who was researching this. He was virtually the only expert. He could not compare knowledge or exchange any thoughts. He had no regular contact with other vampires outside the Cullen family, and could not follow their physical problems. He could not do an dissection to discover the secrets of a vampire's body, for if a vampire died (was killed) it was torn into pieces and burned. As, I had been informed, had happened to James.

All this amounted to him knowing only very little about what sustained us, how we digested the blood, extracted the energy. How our tissue could regenerate endlessly without ever showing signs of age or wear. How our chemistry worked, our instincts. And so, my problems stayed a mystery, and I began to lose hope of ever finding an answer. As time went on, I needed Jasper more and more to calm my anxiety. Edward was in need of his services too. He paced around in his room when I was in the guest room. I knew, I could hear it. Everyone could.

Well, sometimes I didn't. Why? Because I was in bed in the guest room, asleep.

Yes, I was sleeping more and more, and feeling more languid too. It didn't matter whether it was day or night, but at times I felt so tired and without energy or vitality that I needed to lie down, and usually, it ended in me sleeping for at least several hours.

Each time I woke up from such naps, Edward was in a corner of the room, sitting in a chair or standing up, as still as the lifeless wall behind him. Usually he apologized for invading the space I needed from him, and told me he couldn't help but watch over me. It was as if he thought I would die in my sleep or something.

Was that even possible? Could a vampire die without being killed and burned? Could it die from natural causes, like starvation? That was what Carlisle was trying to find out, along with some way to get my body to accept blood, but he still had no answer for me.

There, finished this chapter. I wrote until late into the night to get it finished and poster ;D