BPOV

I hadn't wept long. The pain in my face and arm was back, and I got up, wiping my face on my other sleeve. I took a quick shower, doing my best to keep the hot water from touching the sore areas, and ten minutes later, I was climbing into bed after applying the aloe lotion again. I had no intention of talking to Charlie when he got home from the station; I still had no clue what to say to him, and by this time I was fuming with anger. I tried to be mad at Charlie, but I really couldn't. He was doing his best to look out for me, and I could understand how he had jumped to the conclusion he did. No, I was angry with myself, and my stupid ability for getting into these situations. How many girls managed to burn themselves on their boyfriend's skin? If Edward ever did agree to change me, I already knew what my "talent" was going to be: getting myself into trouble. Except in that case, it would be supernatural trouble, and I would no doubt cause some sort of stupid war.

But right now, my biggest problem was convincing Charlie that I was asleep; I could already hear him coming up the stairs, and I snapped the light off just in time. I heard my door creak open, and I did my best to snore. It was a stretch, pretending to be asleep at three p.m., but maybe he would believe I had cried myself to sleep. I had purposely left my wet bath towel on the floor, so that he would see I had already gotten ready for bed. Charlie must have stood there five whole minutes, and I hoped against hope that Edward was hiding just outside the house, listening. As soon as Charlie left, he would slip in window, and tell me everything was going to be all right. He would explain that Charlie had decided it was all a misunderstanding. We would laugh about it, and I would fall asleep in his arms, all being right with the world.

Only Edward didn't slip in the window, and all wasn't right with the world. The last three nights I had fallen asleep alone, and it hadn't been so bad, knowing that he would be back tonight. But tonight it was different; my room felt empty and cold without his presence, and when I finally drifted off, my dreams were dark.

.

.

.

I awoke to someone whispering my name. The room was dark, and there was a wonderful, cold numbness covering my burned face and elbow. It felt like I was leaning against a cold wall of marble.

"Edward!" My eyes snapped open and I found him already lying beside me, carefully keeping each of his hands on my burns, like ice packs. "I was so worried when you didn't come back! What happened? What is Charlie thinking about? He went to the police station-"

"You were having a nightmare," he interrupted coldly. It wasn't a question.

I scooted myself to a sitting position, and Edward sat up as well. "Why didn't you come back?"

Edward just stared at his hands for a moment before answering. "I did come back, but not into the house. I had to leave immediately because Charlie was sending a squad car out to my house, and I had to be there when they arrived. I came here soon after that, but I waited outside with Jasper for a while. Charlie stayed up late tonight, and he came to check on you several times."

"Jasper was here? And why were the police at your house?"

Edward winced. "Not so loud. Charlie's been tossing and turning all night."

"Why were the police at your house?"

"Because Charlie issued a restraining order against me," he said quietly.

"He didn't!"

He just nodded, and ran his fingers back through his hair. "Listen, Bella. Charlie doesn't just think I hurt you yesterday. He thinks it's been going on since the beginning- since your injuries in Phoenix," he added meaningfully.

My head started spinning, and I must have actually tilted, because Edward was suddenly holding my shoulders still where I sat. "Why would…. wait, how could he think that? Carlisle was the one that told him the whole story about me falling in the stairwell, not you!"

"He's planning on calling Carlisle in the morning, to go through the story again. He suspects that I met you alone in the stairwell, and that I…" He shook his head slowly, and continued. "Anyway, he thinks that after you… got hurt, that I went to get Carlisle, and told him that I had already found you unconscious."

"Well, Carlisle can just tell him that he found me first, or something like that. Anyway, Charlie will believe him. He adores Carlisle, ever since it happened."

"Let's hope that adoration sticks," Edward muttered.

"Okay, so that takes care of the Phoenix thing. What else did you and Jasper pick up from Charlie while I sleeping?

"Jasper picked up a lot of anger, of course. And love," he added softly. "Charlie's determined to save you from me. He feels terrible that he didn't see the abuse earlier, and he's angry at himself for being the Chief of Police, and yet missing this."

"That's because there was nothing to miss!" I said angrily.

"You have to admit, his conclusion is a reasonable one. And we have been lying to him pretty often. Ever since Phoenix, he's had a feeling that something wasn't right about me, and this answer fits all the questions."

I couldn't argue with that. "Anything else?" I asked miserably.

"One good thing, possibly. When Charlie was getting ready for bed, Jasper started picking up some uncertainty. It grew as Charlie laid in bed for a while, and I could hear him wondering if your curling iron story could have been true."

"Well, that's good. I guess my boiling water story wasn't as foolproof as I thought."

"No, Charlie's seen a lot of injuries in his career. He knows that a splash burn wouldn't have such a distinct border, and it wouldn't be contained to one spot. Bella, why didn't you tell me you were planning on lying to Charlie about your face?"

I stared at him. "What was I supposed to say, that I got a sunburn from the light reflecting off my boyfriend's skin?"

He smiled weakly. "No, I mean why did you plan to say anything at all? Charlie's seen you with any number of injuries, and he's never been suspicious before."

"Well… I knew the handprint wouldn't go over too well, so that's why I wanted the sweater. Anyway, I thought that if I had a good story for the face, he wouldn't keep prying."

"He might not have, if I had known this would happen. I could have helped you fabricate a much better story. It's what we do best, after all," he added sarcastically, his eyes darkening.

I frowned. "See, this is why I didn't discuss it with you. You're getting broody again," I accused. "I was hoping it wouldn't come up at all, and so I just came up with the story as a backup. You weren't supposed to know that Charlie might be suspicious."

Edward stood up and walked to the window, leaning both his elbows on the sill as he gazed out. "You shouldn't have to do this, you know," he murmured. "You shouldn't need to have fabricated stories, or backup stories, or any kind of lies. You might as well be in an abusive relationship, for all the covering up you have to do."

I walked over to him and leaned my head on his shoulder. "You're right, of course. If I was dating Mike Newton, this would all be so much easier." He couldn't help grinning back at me, and finally leaned in to kiss me. It was too brief, of course, but for once I didn't mind; my mind was still working on the problem at hand.

"Okay, so Charlie is going to call Carlisle tomorrow, and he'll be straight on the Phoenix thing, and then he may or may not believe my curling iron story, and now we just need to think of a story for the handprint. Ideas?"

"I've got better than ideas. I've got Alice."

"Huh?"

He nodded out the window; sure enough, there was movement on the ground below. I jumped back as Alice's face suddenly appeared at the window, and as soon as Edward opened it, she landed silently on the floor between us, a hot pink purse slung over her shoulder.

"Oh, Bella! I'm so sorry this happened!" She chirped as she hugged me carefully. "But it's nothing a little makeover won't fix!" She pulled a bulky package out of her purse, and unzipped it to reveal an emergency tool kit with rows of elastic loops – but instead of tools, they held a neat row of travel-size makeup bottles, along with brushes, sponges and a dozen other torture devices. Two of the vials were empty, I noticed.

I groaned. "it's three o'clock in the morning, Alice! Do we need to do this right now?" I looked over helplessly to Edward, but he was just smirking at me. "Traitor," I hissed.

"Yes, we need to do this right now. We need to find the right blend of color for your face, and then the right blend for your elbow, so that I can mix them tonight. That way it'll be foolproof for you to put on in the morning." She held up the two empty vials, twirling them between her fingers. Seeing my frown, she set the vials back in their loops, and crossed her arms, her face sympathetic.

"You have to do it, Bella. The burns are going to look worse tomorrow, and when Charlie sees them, he's going to get more suspicious. Right now he thinks the handprint was from Edward hitting you, but if he realizes it's a burn, he'll decide the abuse was premeditated. He's going to have Edward arrested, and he's going to have Sue Clearwater stop in at the station and examine Edward to check for signs of drug use. And Edward will hear Sue thinking about using her stethoscope, and he's going to have to break out through the wall of jail to avoid the examination, and then none of us will be able to live in the U.S. or use the Cullen name for thirty years! Now sit down!"

I sat.

"Now," she said sweetly, "You already told Charlie that the face injury is a burn, so we're not going to cover that one all the way. The handprint we're going to completely cover, if we can." She went to work, and though she tried to be gentle, I couldn't help wincing every time she applied the makeup. Edward stood behind me the whole time, rubbing my shoulders gently; I was glad I couldn't see his face as he watched. It took several tries for Alice to get the colors right, and by the time she was done, the burns were throbbing in pain. "That's it," she announced finally, and Edward hurried to kneel in front of me, gently dabbing the makeup off with a cold, wet washcloth he had been holding ready. This hurt more than the makeup, but I refused to let him see that. Then he applied more of the aloe lotion, and I sighed in relief as it took the worst of the burn away.

"Bella, only use the makeup when you're going to be around Charlie… or anyone," instructed Alice. "The burn will heal more slowly if you leave the makeup on too long. Edward, you need to keep your skin against the burns all night in order to keep the inflammation down. Be sure to frequently change which areas of your skin you're using, so it'll always be cold." Edward nodded. He was already holding his hands on the burns now, and the pain was on its way to a happy numbness. Alice packed up her kit and left me with a pack of cotton balls and the two vials, now filled with liquid makeup, and labeled "arm" and "face" respectively.

"Wow, you guys really are good at this stuff," I muttered. A second later, Edward's eyes grew dark and he glared back at his sister. "That's not funny, Alice," he growled.

"Whatever. Anyway, I'm guessing from the mostly-blank future that you two still don't have a cover story for the handprint."

Edward and I looked at each other for a moment, and I shrugged. "The curling iron bounced off her arm as it fell," he said slowly. Alice just rolled her eyes.

"Okay," I said, "How about if I fell down on the trail, and my arm landed on something metal that the sun had heated, like a bear trap? It might explain the lines that look like fingers."

Alice just shook her head. "Weren't you listening to me? Charlie cannot have even have a hint that it was a burn. Thirty years in exile, remember? Next."

"Animal attack," decided Edward. "They're claw marks, and I tried to-"

"No, no, NO!" muttered Alice. "Listen, you two. You're not going like this, but Bella needs an embarrassing cover story for the handprint, which has now "faded". Since you got upset when he asked you about it before, it can't be a simple little accident; if it was, you wouldn't have gotten so upset, and you would have told him, right?" I nodded. I didn't like where this was going. "So," she continued," the obvious solution is to tell Charlie that Edward really did hit your arm."

Edward stiffened beside me. "Absolutely not!" he growled. "The whole point of this nonsense is to get Charlie away from the theory that I caused her injuries!"

Alice stood her ground. "Charlie's not an idiot, you know. He's an experienced chief of police in a small town, which means he's seen it all, especially in terms of domestic violence. You told me yourself how easily he figured out that your hand had made the mark on her arm. If you hand him a story that has nothing to do with your hand, he's never going to buy it. We know from experience that humans are more likely to believe a lie when it's as close to the truth as possible. So, all we have to do is convince him that it was an accident. Ideas?"

We spent the next two hours brainstorming, with Alice checking the future, helping us fine tune the story for "maximum believability", as she called it. As the room began to lighten with the dawn, Alice said she was satisfied, and got up to leave.

"Hold it," said Edward. "You still aren't sure about the outcome, are you?"

"I'm never sure. You know that better than anyone," answered Alice. "This depends on Bella's performance, and on Charlie's mood, which is based on any decisions anyone might make tomorrow morning. And besides that, I can only see the near future in this case. There are simply too many variables to say that Charlie will never again be suspicious after this; I can only say that I think he will drop the abuse theory. Now I've really got to go; Charlie will be waking up in ten minutes. Good luck, Bella. And for God's sake, Edward, leave your phone on." He nodded sheepishly, and she tumbled out the window silently.

"Now, time for the human to get some sleep," Edward said as soon as she was gone. "Charlie will probably come check on you as soon as he gets up, so I'm going to go out into the woods now. I'll be back after he's checked on you, for your next ice pack treatment," he said with a grin. I climbed back into bed, and he tucked the covers around me. He sat on the side of the bed for a few minutes, humming and holding one hand on the burned side of my face. I was just drifting off to sleep, when the humming stopped abruptly.

"Bella?" he whispered. "I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier, when Charlie left for the station. I wanted to be."

"I know."

He leaned close to kiss me goodbye, but I pulled away.

"Wait," I said. "I want to know something, and I want you to tell me the truth… the real truth, not the Cullen-ified fabrication." He smirked and nodded for me to continue.
"Earlier, when you were mad at Alice, and said her thoughts weren't funny, what were the not-funny thoughts?"

His smirk faded into a deep frown. "Alice was proud of herself for already having the makeup kit made before any of this happened. On the day that we had the baseball game, she prepared the kit in the morning, thinking that I was bound to hurt you eventually, either by accident or… well, you know. By accident. Like if you were to cut yourself, and the blood made me…" he trailed off, his eyes dark. "Anyway, she was bragging about the fact that we should have expected something like this to happen, and she apparently just won a bet with Emmett about how long the kit had gone unused."

"He should know better than to bet against Alice," I laughed.

"It's still not funny, Bella," he said darkly.

"You're right, I'm sorry. It just that this whole thing is so surreal, and I think someday we will be able to laugh about it. But, in all seriousness," I said, looking up at him, "Promise me something."

"Anything."

"If this should… go badly, and your family has to disappear, I want you to promise that you'll take me with you."

He just stared at me.

"Edward, I really think it will work out. I do. But if it doesn't, we may need to make some quick decisions… and I don't want your family getting into trouble because of me. I just want to disappear with you, okay?"

"Bella," he said slowly. "It's not going to go badly. It's all going to turn out fine. And I appreciate your… devotion. But if you were to disappear at the same time we did, it would lead to a massive investigation. Especially if you were still a minor. Do you understand?"

I nodded, and after a quick kiss, he slipped out the window.

Yes, I understood. I understood that, once again, Edward had avoided giving me his promise.

A/N: I need help again! I still can't think of a good alibi for the handprint, and this time I want it to be really believable. Does anyone have any ideas?

P.S. Thanks so much for all the favorite/follows/reviews. Really made my day! :)