Disclaimer: I don't own the 'Twilight' series, or any of the characters contained therein. I didn't write the 'Twilight' series, but if I had done, it would have gone a little bit more like this:

I woke a couple of times that night. The first time I woke, I couldn't remember where I was. I reached out for Edward and found that he wasn't there. I didn't recognise the billowing shapes that I could see surrounding me. I sat up abruptly, to try and get my bearings.

Then I saw Edward, he was standing by the side of the bed, with his fists clenched tightly by his sides, looking at me in surprise.

"You see," I heard someone hiss from the foot of the bed, I turned to see Rosalie, sat in one of the suede chairs, smirking at Edward, "now you've woken her up. Go back to sleep, Bella," she crooned, "you have school tomorrow."

"What's happening?" I asked, was there someone else here? Was Victoria here? Why was Edward standing like that? Why wasn't Rosalie worried about whatever it was that was making Edward so cross?

Rosalie laughed, "Edward leapt out of bed," she said, "and that woke you. Everything's fine. There's no danger. Go back to sleep."

Edward growled at his sister, but he sat on the edge of the bed and rearranged pillows and lay me back down. "Everything's fine, my Bella," he said softly, stroking my cheek with his light, cold fingers.

"Why is Rosalie here?" I asked. If everything was fine, I wouldn't need two vampires to guard me.

"I'm keeping Edward company while you sleep,"she said. That made sense. It must be very boring for him to lie there watching me all night long. No wonder he leapt out of bed, poor guy, he must have been out of his mind with boredom.

"I wish you could sleep too," I told him, and fell asleep contented once again.

The next time I awoke, I felt Edward's cool body next to mine. I looked for Rosalie, but she wasn't at the foot of the bed anymore. I glanced around the room and saw Alice instead, calmly leaning against the bedpost nearest my head.

"Good morning, Bella" she said cheerfully.

"No Rosalie this morning?" I asked.

"She's gone to get ready for school. It's my shift now. So I get to help you dress" Alice cheerfully danced over to the wardrobe and began flicking through the array of outfits.

"Don't you already know what I'm going to wear?" I teased her and Alice laughed back at me.

"I'm just admiring your selection," she told me, "you're going to wear what's already laid out for you." I followed her gaze and saw that she'd laid out a skirt and a sweater combination on the chair that Rosalie had sat in during the night.

"Oh, thank you," I said. It felt awkward: lying next to Edward in bed and chatting to his sister. I turned my head to see why Edward hadn't spoken yet this morning.

"He's sulking," Alice told me happily, as if she thought that this was extremely cute of Edward and I ought to be pleased, "last night, well, in the early hours of this morning really, you kept telling him to shut up. He didn't like it and now he isn't going to speak until he's spoken to."

I pulled myself up onto my elbow, so that I could see Edward's face. He didn't look like he was sulking. His eyes were closed and he had a serene expression. He looked as though he were sleeping. I reached out and stroked his cheek gently. "I'm sorry I told you to shut up," I said, "I wasn't really talking to you. I was just talking in my sleep. It doesn't mean anything."

"You said: 'Jacob, Jacob, Jacob, shut up, Edward'," Alice told me, "I think that you'll have to offer him a bit more than 'it doesn't mean anything'. Maybe you should have a shower and some breakfast first, get your strength up before you try to handle a moody Edward."

"I was only thinking about how much I hate it when you won't use his name," I told Edward, who was still doing his sleeping impression. "I wish that you would call him 'Jacob'. I only want you to shut up when you say unpleasant things."

He opened his eyes and looked at me. "You used to say nice things to me while you slept," he said, "I used to think that it was the closest that I got to reading your mind. I don't like it that you were dreaming about telling me to shut up. I don't want to annoy you."

I laughed at him, "Edward, dreams don't mean anything. It doesn't matter what I dream about. Aren't you more interested in what I say when I'm awake? When I'm awake I don't tell you to stop talking to me."

"Shall I get you some breakfast while you have your shower?" he asked. When I nodded, he leapt off the bed and disappeared downstairs. I briefly wondered when he'd got up to dress, because he was wearing slacks and a shirt now, not the pyjamas that he'd been wearing last time I saw him.

"Did I say anything else?" I asked Alice.

She shook her head. Then she reached into her pocket and produced a small ring-bound notebook. She gestured at me to open it, so I turned to the first page and read 'Everyone can hear everything that you say wherever they are in the house. If you want to talk to people without being overheard, you need to write things down.'

So I wrote 'is that all I said last night?'

Alice wrote back 'it's all you said about Edward. You said a lot of stuff about Jacob. You said that you were sorry and that you wanted to see him. You said that a lot and then you went back to telling Edward to shut up. He's pretty upset.'

I sighed. It wasn't at all fair for Edward to be upset because of something that I said while I was asleep. He would just have to get over it. I wasn't going to spend the whole day apologising for talking in my sleep.

Alice took the pad and began writing again. 'If you go with your current plan, he'll sulk all day, you'll have a huge row at lunchtime and he'll get into a fight with Carlisle when he tries to stop him coming round to your house tonight.'

I glared at Alice, which wasn't really fair, so I wrote, 'Sorry, Alice. I know that it's not your fault. I appreciate you helping me.'

'You're cross with Edward, because he's being silly. But he has a hard time working out what you're thinking, and he thinks that your sleep talking gives him a window into your thoughts.'

If Edward was worried about what I was really thinking, then ignoring the problem would just make it worse. I'd have to talk to him and make him understand how I really felt about him and about Jacob.

'Much better," Alice wrote, and she underlined it three times. 'You should keep the book' she wrote, then she ripped out the page that we'd been using, gave me back the remainder of the book and dashed out of the room.

I picked up my stuff and went to get my shower.

Once I was dressed, I went downstairs, and found Edward in the kitchen, laying orange juice, milk and cereal out on the table.

"You need a better way of finding out what I'm thinking," I told him, reaching a bowl down from the cupboard.

"Better than what? I never know what you're thinking. Would you like orange juice?"

"Yes, thanks. Better than listening to what I say in my sleep and trying to guess what I'm dreaming about." I found a spoon in the drawer and walked over to the table.

He put my cereal down on the table and pulled out my chair for me, "I already know what you were dreaming about. You were dreaming about Jacob," he very pointedly said the name and not some variation on the theme of a dog, he poured milk over my cereal for me, whilst saying "that doesn't take any guesswork."

I took a bite of my breakfast while I tried to work out how to reply. "Mmm, this is really good," I told him, eating a bit more, just to make my point.

Edward stopped scowling at me and laughed. "I'm glad that you're enjoying it," he said.

"Yeah, people don't usually make my breakfast for me," I told him, "well, I don't really want Charlie to make my breakfast for me. I like being spoiled by you."

He grinned, "I like spoiling you. I would spoil you a lot more, if you would permit me."

"Don't get ahead of yourself. Let's just enjoy this moment. Look, a lot of our problems stem from us not understanding where each other's coming from. So, here's my idea: if you want to know what I think about something, ask me and I will tell you. If I want to know what you're thinking about something, I'll ask and you'll tell me. If we can both agree to tell the truth to one another, I think that we'll be a lot happier. Agreed?"

"You'll always answer me truthfully and not spare my feelings?" he checked carefully.

"Well, yes. But you have to agree to do the same."

"You already know everything about me," he said, "all I ever think about is you. I agree. Can I ask you some questions now?"

I pulled the notebook out of my pocket and slid it across the table to him. "Let's keep a few things between you and me," I said, "I'm not entering into the full-disclosure agreement with your entire family."

'I should have thought of this' Edward wrote in his quick and beautiful handwriting, 'I do understand that you don't want my whole family to know everything about you. I forget that you're accustomed to a greater degree of privacy in your life. Thank you for offering to be open with me. Please will you tell me, without sparing my feelings, what exactly is your relationship with Jacob Black?'

In Edward's handwriting, Jacob's name looked beautiful. I wondered if that annoyed him.

'He's a friend,' I wrote, 'a very good friend. He was there for me when you weren't.' Edward was reading what I wrote, as I wrote it, so I gave him a small smile and patted his hand when I wrote that bit, I didn't want him to start beating himself up over leaving me again. 'Now I feel' I stopped, crossed out 'feel' and wrote 'think that I ought to be there for him. He's having a hard time, what with turning into a werewolf and everything.'

Edward frowned and reached for the pen, but I shook my head and kept writing.

'When you weren't here, Jacob took care of me and he was the only person who made me feel as though I was alive. I can't abandon him now.'

Then I released the pen to Edward's eager hand. 'The fact is that he could kill you. I'm sorry that I left and I probably deserve to lose you again, but don't let it happen like this. Please don't let yourself get hurt in order to punish me.'

'He's not going to hurt me. You don't know him, so you don't know what you're talking about. Read what I just wrote! He kept me safe while you were gone. He protected me from Laurent, and he's been protecting me from Victoria. I'm not seeing Jacob because I'm punishing you (that's a stupid idea). I want to see him because he's my FRIEND.'

Edward was shaking his head again. 'He wants more than friendship,' he wrote, 'do you believe that he is happy to be just your friend? Seeing another man – even if he is a werewolf – is a way of punishing me, and I wish that you would chose something less dangerous to you. Can't you shout at me or stop talking to me for a while? You have lots of other ways in which you could make me suffer. Would you find it helpful if I made you a list?'

'Idiot!' Edward looked at me in surprise. So I scribbled it out and wrote, 'sorry. You don't seem to be listening to me,' I frowned and tried again, 'you're not reading me properly. My friendship with Jacob has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU. It's all about him needing me as a friend. He knows that I don't think of him in any other way and he understands that we're never going to be more than friends.'

'You were already aware that he wanted to be more than just friends, before I told you? Have you been continuing to see him even though you knew that he wanted more than friendship from you?'

I didn't need to write a nod, so I just nodded. Edward frowned and wrote again, 'Jacob Black wants to steal you away from me and you are perfectly happy with this situation and intend to continue seeing him, even though I have begged you not to do so. You won't let me try to persuade you to stop seeing him on grounds of your safety, because you tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about. Now you won't let me try to persuade you not to see him in order to preserve my own happiness, because you say that it is nothing to do with me. I can't persuade you to change your mind. I give up.'

He pushed this last paragraph over for me to read and then he got up from his seat. "Do you want anything else to eat or drink?" he asked me in a falsely cheerful voice.

I shook my head, "I'm going to wash up and then I'll go and brush my teeth," I said.

"Let me handle the dishes," he offered, sweeping them away from me.

I shrugged. I picked up the little book and wondered about ripping out the page that we had been using. Then I decided that I might want to look at it again later, when I was feeling a bit calmer. I closed the book and ran back upstairs.

I brushed my teeth quickly, found my book bag in Edward's room and got back downstairs without seeing any of the Cullens. They must have known that I was arguing with Edward and decided to avoid me. They could probably hear the sound of angry writing! Stupid super vampire hearing.

When I got back to the hallway, I saw that Edward, Alice and Jasper were all ready to go and waiting for me. Alice put her arm round my shoulder and dragged me out of the house, prattling on about how exciting it was to be nearly at the end of school and how great it would be when we'd all graduated, and how fun it was that Jasper had a job at school.

Outside the house was an amazing blue Mustang. Jasper opened the back door for me and Alice to climb in and then walked around to the driver's seat. Edward shrugged and sat in the front passenger seat, not looking at me at all. He was probably still angry.

"Jasper," I asked, "is this your car? I've never seen it before."

Jasper grinned, "I needed something to take us all to school, while the Volvo is having a rest. Do you like it?"

I laughed, "it's very you," I told him.

Alice laughed with me and Jasper nodded appreciatively. He obviously thought that was a compliment to both him and the car. I suppose that I did mean it as a compliment. The car had a kind of rugged grace that I associated with Jasper. It wasn't a brand new car, it obviously had a lot of mileage on the clock, but it was clean and fresh inside; tidy and unfussy. It was a very Jasper-car. I only wondered how he'd persuaded Alice to let him buy something second-hand.

"She's a good girl," he said stroking his hand lovingly over the dash, "my Sally."

"You named her Sally?" I asked him.

"Sure," Jasper said, "a good car needs a lady's name. This one is a sweet Sally-Ann."

We got to school pretty fast, Sally was obviously a quick mover.

Jasper opened my door and Edward opened Alice's so that we got out on opposite sides. "I'll see you kids later," Jasper said with a wink at Alice. "Have a good day, and behave yourselves."

"Yes, Mr Hale," Alice said in a little-girl voice that I hadn't heard before.

Edward rolled his eyes and offered me his arm. He tucked my books and Alice's books under his free arm and carried them for us until we got to our lockers, where Alice left us with a promise that we would see her at lunch.

"Does the full-disclosure agreement still stand?" Edward asked me, once we were alone.

"I guess so," I said, "but I don't think that we ought to talk about it anymore. We weren't really getting anywhere."

He sighed, "actually, I wanted to ask you about something else. If you don't think that our first attempt at honesty was such a failure that you want to stop talking to me about anything."

"I like talking to you. But, I think that you owe me an answer now. I'll answer your question first, but then I expect you to answer two questions for me. What do you want to know?"

"Does my age bother you?" I was surprised that he had asked me a question like that – one that was so intimately tied up with his vampiric nature – while we were at school. But, on second thoughts, where else could he ask it? If he asked me at home, his entire family would be listening to every word we spoke and every change in my heart rate or my breathing.

He looked genuinely nervous about my answer, as if he thought that I might push him away from me and call him a dirty old man. Of course, in a sense I would be absolutely right: he was an old man. But, he was an old man in the same sense in which I was a necrophiliac He just didn't seem like an old man to me. "No," I said simply, "your age doesn't bother me. Do you think that you're too old for me or too young?"

"I suppose that I was wondering if it bothered you that that was a sensible question. Does it bother you that I am both too old and too young for you?"

"I don't think of you as either. Why, does my age bother you?"

He shook his head, "I don't think about it very much," he admitted, "sometimes I forget that you're not exactly the same age as me, and I expect you to reminisce about things that happened in the sixties."

I laughed. While we'd been talking, we'd reached our first class, so I didn't get to ask my question until the bell rang again.

"My turn," I reminded him.

Edward held out his hands in supplication, "go easy on me," he said.

"I think that this is easy," I said, "when your family, um talk to you and I can't hear them," I looked at him pointedly, hoping that he would get it.

He grinned and nodded at me, "you mean when I hear their voices on the phone," he said, offering something that wouldn't sound absurd if we were overheard.

"That's right; do they ever shout at you?"

He was surprised, this obviously wasn't the kind of question that he'd expected me to ask. I wondered if it was too private, if he was going to object to discussing his relationship with his family with me. "Yes," he said, "it's like when I hear them face to face. Sometimes they talk to me in normal voices and sometimes they yell at me. Why are you asking me about that?"

"I get one more question," I told him, "you'll have to be patient. I'll ask you after Biology."

The lesson went reasonably fast. I was mulling over what I had learned from Edward and trying to work out the perfect phrasing of my next question, so that I didn't waste it. It was hard to do, so I eventually decided that I would just ask Edward not to be all legalistic. There was specific information that I wanted, and he was going to have to let me ask as many questions as it took for me to get there.

"You have one more question for me," he said, as soon as class was dismissed.

I shook my head, "I'm having trouble working out how to phrase it, you have to bear with me and let me ask a few questions until I get what I want to know."

"If we do that, then how will we know when it's my turn to ask a question again?" He frowned, "you might decide that it will take months to find out what you want to know."

"You promised to be open with me, so it shouldn't be hard. I want to know about your, um . . . 'phone calls' with your family. I can imagine that Carlisle would get annoyed sometimes, that sounds fair and I think it would make sense for Esme to shout at you over the phone, from time to time. But, sometimes I see your face when you're on the phone with your siblings and I think that you look really upset. I think that your whole family make loud phone calls to you and I think that they do it quite a lot. Of course, I never talk to your family on the phone and I don't ring you up either, because I just can't, so it's hard for me to be sure how it sounds to you. That's what I want to know. How different are your family on the phone to how they are face-to-face?"

"That was a very long question," he said, "I suppose that you won't accept a short answer. It does sound very similar to how it sounds when they talk to me face-to-face and my family all know how to shout at me over the phone. I'm surprised that you say you've noticed my expression changing when I'm getting shouted at over the phone. I didn't realise that I was so easy to read."

He frowned a bit, and I guessed that he was thinking through the implications of being 'easy to read'. If he hadn't thought that I would notice his expression, then he probably hadn't expected his family to notice either. "You're sort of right in saying that Carlisle and Esme shout at me, they do, but not as much as Jasper or Rosalie. I'm not sure how different they are on the phone. I don't hear them as much face-to-face. It's easier for them just to phone me when they want to say something and sometimes they'll phone me even though we're in the same room and they're already talking to me face-to-face. I guess nobody feels the same need to censure themselves on the phone as they do when talking, because there's no risk of being overheard."

"We'll have to finish this conversation later," he said, "class is about to start."

This time, when the bell rang, Edward didn't seem eager to resume talking to me. He got into a conversation with Ben Cheney about some film that I didn't think Edward had even seen. I don't think that he wanted to keep talking about his family yelling at him in their minds. I understood that it was a personal thing, but we had agreed to be more open with one another, and I wanted to understand this important aspect of Edward's life.

He hadn't been expecting me to want to talk about this, though, so I thought that I'd give him a bit of a break. Sometimes I wished that Edward could read my mind. Then I could tell him that he didn't need to hide behind a human shield. If he needed a break from serious conversation, he could talk to me about something else.

Ben was looking a bit uncomfortable now, so I figured that they'd both be pleased if I interrupted. So I grabbed Edward's arm, ignoring the resigned sigh that he gave, thinking I was going to force him back into a discussion that he wasn't ready to have, and said "how do you suppose Jasper is enjoying his first day in his new job?"

Edward regarded me quizzically for a second, and I saw Ben use the moment to wave goodbye and escape, then Edward realised that I was letting him off the hook and he smiled at me gratefully, "I expect that he's having a great time," he said, "Alice has somehow managed to persuade all her teachers that she needs to spend a few hours a day 'researching' and she's got Jasper 'helping' her to find books. I don't know if she's really going to make it down to eat lunch with us."

"You were scaring Ben," I told him.

He grimaced, "Ben has a very natural reaction to me," he said, "unlike some people. I was being as nice as I know how to be."

"You were hiding from me," I accused, "whatever happened to full disclosure? You should have said that you weren't in the mood to talk about your family right now."

"Can I get away with that? I thought that would be dodging the question."

"I am going to make you answer eventually," I admitted, I wasn't nice enough to let him off altogether, "but it doesn't have to be right now. You can try and convince me to hate Wuthering Heights, if you need a bit of light relief."

"I'm not sure that would count as light relief. I might end up in serious trouble. Can I suggest alternative reading matter instead? Maybe if I can persuade you to take an interest in a different book, you'll let me give it to you. You said that you were going to let me buy you some small gifts sometimes."

"That doesn't sound very clear of me. Who defines small and how often is sometimes?"

"Small is less expensive than a car," he said, "and sometimes is less often than Emmett buys a gift for Rose."

"Definitely not. I know the sorts of cars that you would use as the upper bounds. You may as well say that you're allowed to buy me anything less than a house."

"May I?" he grinned, "that's fine. Anything less than a house is permitted. It's a bit of a shame though, I did see a very nice house in Dartmouth, when I was looking at possible college locations. Perhaps it would be acceptable if I restricted myself to just one house? After all, you have to live somewhere when you go to college. A flat is smaller than a house," he mused, "and you could say that buying land is less expensive than buying a house. So, building a new house ought to be allowable. I'd love to build you a house."

"No house," I told him firmly, "people live in dorms when they go away to college."

He sighed, "Emmett and Rose never live in dorms," he said, "they have a very nice house in Seattle. I could promise that your house would be more modest than theirs, if that would make you any happier."

"If you get to define what's small, then I'll define 'sometimes'. You can buy me gifts whenever I give you express permission. That will happen sometimes."

"No deal," he shook his head seriously, "you defined 'small', you suggested 'less than a house' and I accepted. That means that I get to define 'sometimes' and I think that it means less frequently than hourly. So I can buy you anything smaller than a house, provided I buy less than one gift an hour." He was quite proud of himself. "My first gift will be the collected works of Thomas Hardy. I think that you'll like him. I'm very fond of 'Far from the Madding Crowd'. Then I'm going to buy you some jewellery I'd like to see you draped in diamonds, I know how you like the way that they sparkle in the sun. And I think that you need a new car, or even two new cars: one for everyday and one for special occasions. It's going to be fun sticking to the new rules. As long as I can restrict myself to one gift an hour. Does a necklace and bracelet set count as one gift, do you think? Can I get away with calling a full jewellery box just one gift?"

I frowned at him, he mustn't be allowed to think that he had genuinely convinced me to agree to such a ridiculous joke of limits. "That won't work, Edward," I said, "you can buy me one book. That's an acceptable gift. But you won't be buying me anything else for the rest of the month, or else."

He smirked wickedly, "or else what, Miss Swan? What would be the consequences of my buying gifts for my beautiful girlfriend?"

I wondered what on earth I could do to Edward that he wouldn't like. I could tell him that I wouldn't see him if he showered me with gifts. But then I would have a lot of stuff that I didn't want and I wouldn't be able to see my Edward. I suspected that I would suffer more than he did through an enforced absence.

It wasn't fair, money meant nothing to him. How on earth was I going to make him see how much money meant to me? If only he knew what it was like to have a real budget, then he wouldn't tease me about 'modest' gifts of houses and cars. Suddenly I knew exactly what to say.

"Every penny that you spend on me, without my express permission," I said coolly, "will result in me spending exactly the same amount on you. You'll have to watch me throw my college savings away on flowers that you don't appreciate and dinners that you never eat. If you try and give me money, then I will give it right back. If you buy me a car, I will put myself into debt buying an equally expensive one for you."

His grin disappeared as he realised quite how little I could afford to give him back the expensive gifts that he imagined lavishing on me. I could see him trying to work out a way around this new idea of mine. Of course, once I'd run out of money and I couldn't borrow any more, then I would have to stop. But it would be too late by then, I would be in serious debt. Obviously he couldn't force me into debt. Nor could he deny me my right to buy him gifts. If he claimed that gifts were a way of expressing love, then he couldn't argue that he was allowed to buy me gifts but I wasn't allowed to buy them in return.

Finally, he gave up, "so, I can buy you a gift if you give me prior approval," he clarified, "and you won't feel obliged to retaliate. But if I buy you a surprise gift, or buy you something that you have refused to approve, you will buy me the same thing. Is that the deal?"

I nodded, "it's all about our being equals," I said, "anything you can do, I can do too." It was a silly thing to say really, since the whole point of my threat was that I couldn't afford to do what he could do.

"I think that I understand," he said, "you want me to work within your budget, because you can't work to mine. You don't like me spending more than you can afford. That does make sense. I should have been more perceptive and more sensitive to your feelings. But, you did give me permission to buy you one book, and I can request permission to buy you something else tomorrow."

"You can certainly ask, Edward."

He nodded slowly, then turned to face the front, as the next class began. This whole 'being equals' thing was interesting. It seemed to work best when I was just up-front about my feelings and didn't try to trick Edward or second-guess him. Wow, I really was becoming a proper girlfriend, dealing with real relationship-issues. Maybe I could start up an advice column for people dating insanely rich, absurdly moral, mythical beings. I wonder how many people there were who would write in. Perhaps we could form a club.

Peter Parker (aka Spiderman) had a girlfriend, she could join. Did Batman have a girlfriend? I couldn't remember, comics had never really excited me. There was always Emily, of course, she was dating a mythical being. Maybe if the wolves and the vampires could get along just a little bit better, Emily and I could swap notes. It would be nice not to be the only human who knew what was going on.

I didn't follow much of the lesson, I was rather busy wondering what tips the Incredible Hulk's girlfriend might be able to give me on how to kiss someone who could easily snap you in two. I would have to ask Edward to lend me his notes later. I should probably consider just using all his notes when I was revising for finals, they were bound to be better than mine.

At lunch time, Edward had obviously decided that he was ready to talk mind-reading again, because he said, "when do you think my family were yelling at me?"

I thought back and tried to remember the last time I'd seen that tell-tale wince cross his face. "Last night, that's why you leapt out of bed," I said, "who was that?"

"Um . . . Rosalie and Jasper and Esme" he looked at his feet, "you were saying Jacob's name and I growled. They were, understandably worried and angry. I just get worked up sometimes when lots of people shout at me all at once."

"Does that happen a lot? Lots of people yelling at once?"

"Only when I'm do something really bad, or I look like I'm about to do something really bad," he said, "so, yes, lately, quite a bit. I know that it's dangerous for me to be so close to you. I don't blame my family for worrying when I get angry around you. Of course, they don't know that they're all talking at once. I'm the only one who can hear everyone at the same time. They all think that I'm only hearing their voice. So, I don't think that anyone means to overwhelm me. Plus, it wouldn't happen at all if I could just behave the way that my family expects of me all the time."

No wonder he was finding things hard at the moment. Nobody can be perfect all the time. Yet Edward was attempting, not only to keep himself in check, but to keep all of his family happy with his every action all the time.

"Last night," I said, "when everyone was arranging who would be where, what were they saying to you that I couldn't hear?"

"Do you want to read everyone's minds now?"

"No, not exactly. The way that I see it there are two kinds of um . . . talking. There's the standard talking, which you sort of overhear, even when you're not the intended hearer. Then there's the stuff that your family actually say 'at' you. I want to know what they were saying towards you last night, not what they were just 'saying' to themselves."

He nodded, "alright. Well, Jasper started by saying that I may think of myself as a mature man, but he still thought of me as a little boy and he told me that I'd better behave myself and do as I was told for once. That was when he said that he didn't need me with him last night."

"I remember, you went all stiff against me, I wondered what was wrong." Edward half-shrugged, as if it was no big deal for Jasper to call him a child. "Is that all he said?" I asked.

"Well, no, he warned me that he would make me mind him if I wouldn't do so. He is a lot older than I am," Edward explained, "and he has every right to demand my respect. He has real experience in fighting other vampires, unlike me. I know that, so I ought not to have questioned him in the way in which I did. I've never argued with him like that before and I will obey Jasper in future" he assured me, as if I might be worried that he would run around thinking for himself instead.

Edward had told me that Alice thought I would be able to defend him from his family. I wondered why she thought I was going to be able to protect him from Jasper. If Edward thought that he was too young to question Jasper, then what chance did that leave me? If Edward was a child in Jasper's eyes, then I wasn't even a baby. If Jasper's authority was based on age and experience, then I ought to respect him even more than Edward did.

Perhaps it would be easier to start somewhere else. "Was there anything else going on last night? What was everyone saying when you," I paused to work out how to phrase this, "when you were staring at Rosalie?"

He nodded, to show that he remembered the incident. "Well, Esme told me to be careful and suggested that I left the room if I couldn't be properly polite. Jasper, um, offered to help me out of the room, if I wasn't in the mood to use the door."

"That's not what he said," I said, "here." I pushed the notebook towards him and Edward looked at it nervously. "Full disclosure," I reminded him, before he decided to refuse.

"Alice will be here in ten minutes," he said, but he wrote a single line in the book and pushed it towards me anyway.

'Edward, get off her now, unless you want me to come up there and throw you out of the window.'

"Well, that explains why you were stood there," I said mildly, "what was Rosalie saying?"

This time he took the book and wrote without hesitation, 'Edward, if you lay one finger on her, I will tear you to pieces, starting with your hands.'

I was surprised to see that Rosalie was so protective of me, but not very surprised that she expressed herself through the medium of threats. "Then, what happened?" I prompted. We'd completely given up on limiting the number of questions now, I just wanted to understand what Edward's family were doing to him.

He grimaced, but he wrote, 'Of course, I stood up, when Jasper asked me to. I waited by the side of the bed. Rosalie informed me that it was your prerogative to chose Jacob Black over me, and that he was, at least partially human. She also suggested that he was, perhaps, physically attractive in several specific ways that I would rather not write. Jasper and Esme had a short conversation with Alice about whether she could see me harming you at all. She assured them that she couldn't see anything happening to you tonight (they spoke aloud to one another). Jasper informed me in his mind that he would be in the next room and showed me a very detailed picture of what he planned on doing to me if Alice's vision changed. Rosalie suggested that I leave the room and she thought that she might call Jacob, since you seemed to want him by your side instead of me. I'm sorry, but I groaned loudly enough to wake you up. Rosalie reminded me that I was an idiot. Then you woke up.

'Jasper warned me not to move, so I stayed where I was. You were concerned about what was happening, so Rosalie and I assured you that there wasn't any danger. Esme called up that you should be put back into bed, and she asked Rose to watch me carefully and see if I was in control. Rose told her that I seemed to be behaving calmly. When I settled you back into bed, you held on to me and tried to pull me into bed with you. Alice reminded everyone that she couldn't see me hurting you and Esme suggested that your heart slowed down – indicating that you were more relaxed – when you had my hands on you. So, they all agreed that it would be safe, so long as I didn't make any more threats. Rose reminded me, several times, that she was watching every movement that I made.'

"Rosalie joined your family after you did," I told him, carefully avoiding anything that would sound too strange to anyone who overheard us, though I was pretty sure that Edward would tell me if anyone was paying attention to our conversation, that was one of the perks of having a mind-reader for a boyfriend. "What right does she have to yell at you?"

"Alice will be here in one minute," he said, then he said quickly, "she doesn't like me invading her mind and it's only fair that there are some perks to having her thoughts so open to me. She expresses her anger at me privately, which is kinder than yelling at me for everyone else to hear." He led me over to the counter, to choose our lunch, indicating that the more private part of our chat would have to end. "Will you come over and visit this evening?"

"We have to finish our conversation," I told him, "I'll come over after dinner, but I can't stay late."

"Won't you consider having dinner with me?" He continued piling food onto a tray, as he spoke. The wastefulness of it all irked me. Every day he piled food onto his tray, sat staring at it for a while and then threw it away. Didn't his parents ever tell him about the starving children in Africa?

I took a couple of pudding cups from his tray and returned them to the shelf, "you're not going to eat all that," I told him.

He smirked at me, "I'm picking out something for Alice too," he said.

"Anyway, I don't want to come for dinner with you tonight because I don't think that it's fair to make Esme cook for me again, and I want to spend a bit of time with Charlie."

"Esme doesn't mind cooking for you. She has a houseful of teenagers, one more person for dinner won't bother her."

I laughed at him, not sure whether his comment was intended as a joke for me, or as a 'normal' remark intended for other humans to over-hear. "I'm not a vegetarian, like you lot," I said, "Esme goes to a lot of trouble cooking special meals just for me, and I know that she won't be content just to leave me eating the same as the rest of you."