disclaimer - all rights and privileges of the Twilight Saga belong to SM and not me or anyone else on this website for that matter although I'm sure we all wish we wrote it, it's unfortunate that we don't
"Bella?"
I was sitting up on the rooftop garden. Edward was somewhere inside the castle - probably with his family. I could only imagine what was happening there.
I turned to find my dad. It was a bit unusual to see him around lately. He had little free time. I unfortunately knew why.
"Hey Dad." He sat beside me. "What's up?"
He smiled. "What? I can't hang out with my own daughter?"
I laughed, but didn't answer his rhetorical question. I didn't want to ruin a somewhat peaceful moment.
"Do you remember when Felix first showed you this place?"
I shook my head. I really didn't remember much anymore, but with the mention of Felix I wished I did.
"It was your first week here. You warmed up to most of us pretty fast. But once Felix showed this to you, you couldn't stay away. But one day you got a little too curious. You found a way to get outside the wall and no one had any idea. We looked all around the castle and finally decided to look out into the woods. Demetri couldn't find you – freaked us all out. Something you can still do, actually.
"You had everyone wrapped around your finger, even after only a week. You know since you got here, Chelsea hardly has a job anymore. We eventually– actually, I eventually found you. You were scared to death; all huddled up by a tree."
It was amazing to watch him tell this story. He had such an amazing memory of something I didn't remember.
"I had no idea what to do," his voice dropped low. "But hearing you cry like that… you were still scared of me, but once I picked you up you clung on to me. Two weeks later you called me Daddy for the first time."
The story left me speechless, but one thing bothered me. "I was scared of you?"
He laughed. "I said you warmed up to most of us. I guess I just had to prove myself. You have Edward now, but I'll still protect you in every way I can."
My eyes stung. "Thanks Dad."
His arms wrapped around my shoulders and I blew out a hard breath to keep myself from getting too emotional.
My dad. The only Dad I remember. I knew that he wasn't always the most kind, but you can't be when you put yourself in a position on the Volturi.
But the invasion coming–
"I know you know," Dad interrupted my train of thought.
I pulled away from him; worried I accidentally let him through. "How?" I asked hesitantly.
"You didn't let me through, I just know. I'm your father - of course I know."
We sat in silence as I looked out into the forest before it came out, "I'm scared."
His lips turned down for a second and then went back to normal. "I'm not. You can take care of yourself."
"I'm not worried about my own safety." I turned to look at him and smirked.
He matched my smirk. "Of course you're not. You can't protect everyone, Bella. It doesn't matter how much you want to. I know it's your instinct with your shield, but you can't blame yourself if something happens."
"You and everyone else here are always protecting me."
"Because it's necessary."
"What am I supposed to do if something ever happens to you?"
"You're not worried about Edward?" I could tell he was trying to change the subject, but I wanted to know why he said that everything was taken care of if something happened to him.
"Dad. What do I do if something ever happens to you?"
"You do what your head tells you to do."
I laughed. "Right. My head." I stood then. "So, what do we do?"
He knew what I meant this time. "Wait. And be prepared without freaking everyone out."
"How do we do that?"
He cracked a bit of a smile. "Have fun doing it. Invite everyone to the throne room for some conditioning. Two weeks is basically up."
I didn't reply. I just smiled widely and ran back into the castle to tell everyone.
Fighting in the throne room was my favourite. It was family bonding time. And Dad was right that we should have fun preparing ourselves. Even if I was still scared of what was to come it was nice to find some kind of excitement in it.
I ran to find Edward first and ran into Alec on the way.
"Oh, hey Alec!"
"What are you so chipper about?" he asked.
'Well I was just on my way to tell Edward, but I guess you can help round everyone else up. Dad wants us to 'condition' today." I threw air quotes around the words condition. We all found the expression pretty funny.
He looked surprise. "Sure, yeah. I'll get everyone there. Heidi and Demetri are on duty right now…"
"It's okay. Grab them too."
"Alright then," he said walking away.
I was fixed to keep going towards where Edward would be when Alec called my name. "There was some yelling going on down there. Just a warning."
I paused for a second. There was obviously something going down. Then I muttered "thanks" and sped towards the Cullens guest rooms.
Sure enough I could hear Rosalie's voice above the rest as I rounded the last corner.
I didn't even bother knocking on the door and when I got into the room I ignored all the Cullens surrounding each other and got in front of Edward. The way he was yelling at Rosalie was something I'd never heard from him before.
My hands were on his shoulders trying to push him back and I winced as he yelled at Rosalie and… Alice?
"Edward, you don't understand!"
"I understand perfectly! I'm happy here; I don't how I could be happy anywhere else! I'm not leaving!"
"You're just gonna leave us all behind?!"
"Oh, come on! You're fine without me."
I really couldn't understand what they were fighting about; it was too much for my ears to handle. My eyes were squeezed tight.
Eventually I spoke up. "Edward," I whispered. "Edward, please stop."
Suddenly his hands were around my waist as if he just noticed I was standing in front of him.
I heard him breathe out hard and felt the coolness in my hair. "I belong here now."
I let go of his shoulders and he let go of my waist. I felt the room calm down and wondered if it was Jasper's doing.
I looked at Edward and found guilt in his eyes. "Dad's gathering us in the throne room; he wants us to train now that two weeks are up." Then I handed him his cloak that I grabbed before I came to get him; he needed to start training in it. "I'll catch up to you."
He left the room and went to slam the door behind him but caught it at the last second.
I turned to the Cullens. All sitting in the same room even though they're provided with their own; I loved that.
They waited, patiently, for me to generate something to say. I didn't want to sound mad, or like I owned Edward, but I didn't want to sound too pleading either.
So I started simple. "I didn't want him to stay. I completely refused it at first." I paused to make sure they were all listening. Rosalie looked impatient and I still couldn't read Alice. "I know some of you would force him out of here against his will and I thank you that you haven't done that. You have to know, though, that without him here, I don't know how well I could socialize right now.
"I'm sorry if you feel like I've taken him from you, and there's not much else I can say to make this better. But, I can tell you how well he handles himself and that he can protect himself if it comes down to it. I owe that to you guys."
Carlisle and Esme looked sad, but I knew they accepted Edward being here.
Rosalie spoke up, "I get it, but while we're here I'm not going to pretend I like it." She looked at Emmett. "I'll be in our room."
Emmett went to follow her immediately but stopped in the door frame and turned to me with a smirk. "Thanks for making my brother happy."
"We'll go make sure they don't destroy anything," Carlisle said, and left with Esme.
Once they were gone, Alice spoke up, "There's a lot of things you're not telling us, Bella."
I wondered how this past month would've gone if I hadn't let Edward join. Alice was blaming me for something that just happened. Edward somehow found a place here and I wasn't about to take it from him. We were happy like this.
"I guess you can't trust me anymore," I told her.
"Well, I was actually going to let you guys deal with it yourselves. But what else was I supposed to do to get you to stop fighting all the time? I've never even heard Emmett and Rosalie fight like that before."
I had to stop my mouth from dropping open. "Did we really fight that much?" I asked.
"Yes you did. I didn't need Jasper's power to tell me how much tension there was between you."
"Speaking of which," Jasper chimed in. "What's going on now?"
I played stupid. "What are you talking about?"
"You know exactly what I mean. What's going on with your emotions? You're frightened. Even when you don't show it, it's still there and I can't figure out why."
Alice spoke up again before I could answer, "I just want to know what's going on, Bella."
I disconnected myself and slid on the mask. "Its guard stuff."
I left the room and tried to go back downstairs but the quietness of Rosalie and Emmett's room made me realize that Alice was right; Edward and I did fight a lot. It felt like forever ago. It felt like we'd been living together in the castle for a long time. As much as I wished that I could go back in and fix everything, I couldn't. Even Edward didn't know the things I did, and it killed me not being able to tell him.
Before I left to go down to the throne room to join my family, I heard Alice say, "I may not be on the guard, but you bet I'm going to protect my family."
A/N- this fic is about to get a whole lot more exciting, so get excited! Don't forget to follow and all that jazz!
